Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We're going to be in proverbs chapter number.
[00:00:03] Well, actually, we're going to be in several, several places. But you can go ahead and turn to proverbs three, as well as just take a peek at romans chapter 13. So we'll look at both of those after we pray.
[00:00:20] Proverbs three and romans 13.
[00:00:25] It. We'll spend most of our time in proverbs, obviously.
[00:00:32] So today we're going on the subject of money in the book of proverbs, money wisdom. And we do need wisdom. How many of you have felt the pain that comes from improper use or maybe ignorant use of money? I know I have, and I think everybody that deals with money deals with that problem.
[00:00:59] So we all need wisdom in this way. So let's pray together. We are going to be studying the subject of debt, debt today because it is a subject that proverbs covers to some degree. So let's pray together, and then we'll look at first in romans chapter 13.
[00:01:19] Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to meet together. Thank you for your people, and thank you, Lord, for how you're working in each one of our lives. We pray, Lord, please bless our service today.
[00:01:31] Please bless our meeting as the people of God meet together to hear the word, to give you praise, to worship you, to pray, to sing.
[00:01:43] And, Lord, everything that's done. As we fellowship with one another, we seek to encourage one another to know how and be informed as we try to pray for one another. Lord, please, we ask your blessing upon our church, upon our hearts today. As we interact with your word, we hear it and respond to it. Lord, help us.
[00:02:05] And as we look at this subject, Lord, help us to take it seriously. Help us to read your word with open hearts and to apply the wisdom you've given to us in proverbs. Help me, Lord, to say what your people need to hear and that we all might grow together.
[00:02:22] In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:25] Okay. On the subject of debt, let me just say from the start that there's basically, in the scripture, there's two basic kinds of debt, and they're actually one and the same.
[00:02:43] To be in debt, to incur debt, is. There's different ways it can be done, but I divided it into two different groups because it's two different ways that we come in contact with debt. Okay? And so the first one we see here in Romans 13, and I'll say it like this, the first kind of debt is something that is due to someone else because of some service they have rendered to us, which we have requested okay, so if you hire someone to come out to the house, like, we're going to have this place.
[00:03:23] There's a roof leak on the church. You're like another one. Yeah, another one. All right. But we're going to have that fixed, right? So if we call the roofer to come out and fix it, we have requested that he fix it. He's fixing it, trusting that we're going to pay him. All right? So until we pay him, there's a level of debt there. But that's understood as normal kind of debt. But if you decided, you know what, I don't want to pay him. Well, now you're actually in debt, and now you're subject to be sued for fraud. And so that's the first kind of debt I want to mention because it is actually mentioned in the Bible. Romans 13. Look at verse, verse number, verse number six.
[00:04:17] The Bible says, now this is the subject of authorities. The government, basically, the government or those in power. Okay? Says this, for this cause, pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers, talking about those in positions of authority. They are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their dues.
[00:04:42] Tribute to whom tribute is due. Custom to whom custom is due. Custom to whom custom, rather fear. To whom fear. Honor to whom honor. Okay, now let me just say this. While we're on the subject of government, we have to understand, and we covered this to some degree, is that previously when we were talking about Paul and his know, his dealing with being a citizen of Rome, that our government can do things that are actually unlawful now, in a setup like Rome or even further, know what the king said?
[00:05:20] That was the law. But over time, that changed. For instance, under Israel, if David said it, it was the law. The only law that superseded David's law was God's law. But really, that was kind of a novel. Know, you go back to Egypt and the pharaohs. I mean, what they said was law, period. There was nothing that bound them, right, that we know of. And then you have God's law bound the kings of Israel and Judah, right? But then you go further. The king of Persia was bound by a law, right, that he could not himself violate. And then you get into the roman period, the greek and the roman period, and now you have republics, you have people voting on the laws and having representatives. And all of that has kind of come down to what we have today. So that our law is not the supreme law of our land, is not a man, it's not a president, be it one you like or don't like it is the established law, is the Constitution. And so that's the means whereby we're governed well.
[00:06:22] And within that framework, though, we have taxes, which is what we're talking about here, that pay for those things, those servants, as we hope they are anyway, servants. And the Bible says in verse seven, to render to all their dues. Now, if something is due, it means you don't have any grounds to dispute it. You owe it. That's what the word due means. You have a duty to pay it. Now, on the subject, in the same context of rendering the dues to the government to those in power, verse eight says, owe no man anything.
[00:07:02] Now, oftentimes in the past, I've looked at this verse, and I have kind of isolated it from the context, but really in context. And I think it has benefit to all situations in life. But in context, this is actually a reference directly to owing dues to those to whom you must pay it, that is, to those in power. Because it says this, owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. So the idea is, when you have an obligation to pay someone, and you fulfill that obligation in the roof example, you fulfill that obligation. That's actually a way that you're showing love to your neighbor. You're loving him as yourself. You work, you want to get paid. He works, he wants to get paid. Right? It's the golden rule. Basically.
[00:07:55] This is, I think, primarily a reference to that situation where you owe someone by virtue of a service they have performed to you.
[00:08:07] We'll get to the other references in just a minute. Look at proverbs three, if you would.
[00:08:16] Verse number 27.
[00:08:20] The word do here is found as well. It says, withhold not good from them to whom it is due.
[00:08:29] When it is in the power of thine hand to do it, say not unto thy neighbor, go and come again, and tomorrow I will give when thou hast it by thee. In other words, when payment is due, pay it, else you owe them. Else you're in debt to them. And the Lord says, don't even give it to them tomorrow. Give it to them today. Okay, so this is the first kind of debt I know. This is not a huge deal. As far as we all understand, we have to pay our bills, right? And that's essentially what we're talking about here. Paying your bills. Paying your bills. Okay, James five four says this. Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your field, speaking to the rich men which of you is kept back by fraud? Cryeth. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the lord of Sabioth, which is to say, they hired a bunch of people to work and they didn't pay them.
[00:09:23] They're now in debt. Now, there was an understanding they'd be paid, but they haven't been paid. And once this kind of debt, although it's perfectly legitimate in the transaction of business, right, this kind of debt like this can become fraud, which is theft. And so that's why we have to pay our bills, because if you don't, it's theft.
[00:09:48] And so as a believer, that's a matter of ethics and morals, paying your bills. And I know there are times when, through circumstances fixed, I know there are times through circumstances that we get behind and things like that, and we have to deal with that in honesty. But as a general, we should pay our bills. So that's the first kind of debt. But the second kind of debt is what we want to really talk about this morning, which is debt that we have incurred by voluntarily borrowing from someone in order to make a purchase, okay? Voluntary. I call it voluntary debt. Voluntary debt. Now look at proverbs 22.
[00:10:44] Now listen, if it's in your mind right now, if you're thinking I don't know why the preacher is talking about this, preachers should be talking about Jesus, the gospel and spiritual things.
[00:11:00] Well, this is what the Bible says about it. And there is a right and a wrong way to handle money, and there is a right and a wrong concerning debt.
[00:11:13] And that's why we have to look at it.
[00:11:16] You as a believer, me as a believer, we can absolutely destroy our testimony and destroy relationships because of debt. And it's a big deal, especially when you consider the place that money has in priorities, as we've seen in other places, he that is faithful in least is faithful also in much those principles, that money represents something far greater than its own worth because of the covetous heart of man, right? And so money represents, it represents something greater about our ethics and morals and even our relationship to God. And that's why the Lord uses it so often as an example, as an example to us in the parables and many other places. Okay?
[00:12:04] Proverbs 22, verse seven. This is the go to verse on debt. The rich rule ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
[00:12:19] All of you knew that verse, I'm sure.
[00:12:21] Now hold your place here and look at one corinthians, chapter six, one corinthians, chapter 16.
[00:12:43] Now, in the context of one Corinthians, chapter six, he's talking about, in the beginning of this chapter, lawsuits between believers, which ironically deals with money, right? How much we want it, what we're willing to do to get it, what we're willing to do, the harm we're willing to bring upon the name of the Lord by going to law with another believer just for money. Right? That's what this is talking about. But then it kind of transitions into the use of the body, which eventually we'll get into things like fornication and things like that. But in verse twelve, notice what it says. And I want you to pair verse twelve with proverbs 22. In verse number seven, verse twelve says this, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. I could definitely fit debt into that category, right? All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient. Okay. All things are lawful for me. Here's the key. But I will not be brought under the power of any.
[00:13:48] Now, this is an act of the will. Paul says I might be able to do it, but I am not going to subject myself to servitude if I have a choice in the matter. And we'll get to it in a minute. But there are some times when there is little choice. But he says, if I have a choice in the matter, that's what the word will means, but I will not be brought under the power of any. If I have a choice in the matter, I am not going to subject myself to the servitude. Now, he's speaking generally here, but debt is a kind of servitude. That's what proverbs 22 seven is telling us. Debt is a kind of servitude.
[00:14:29] Now, I know we have things like bankruptcy in us law. We have things like bankruptcy that allow us to mostly escape the responsibility of paying debt. Okay, that is a thing. We'll talk about that in a second.
[00:14:48] But generally speaking, when you or I incur debt, we are therefore bound as a servant to that lender. And it's just not a good practice for a believer to be bound by anything.
[00:15:05] That's one issue with things like smoking, things like drinking, prescription medication, any kind of addiction, whether it doesn't matter what flavor of addiction it is. The idea that a child of God is brought under the power of something other than the Lord is not good. Right? Would you all agree with that? It's just not good, because when you're a servant, that means you no longer have the prerogative to make your own decisions. Another is making a decision for you. In this case, debt. The obligation you have. That's just not a good situation to be in. And as a matter of, remember, proverbs is a book of wisdom. So the Lord is trying to tell us that we need to be careful of the wisdom or lack of wisdom that comes along with debt.
[00:15:57] Now, I meditated on this idea of debt. Of course. It's something we've all dealt with our whole lives, practically adult lives anyway. And what are some motives for incurring debt? What are some motives? I'm just going to nail these and look at some verses because I know they're all true, because I've observed them. And you have, too.
[00:16:20] The primary motives for incurring debt. Number one, lack of patience or desire for instant gratification.
[00:16:31] Okay, so in this case, we're willing to work for the thing, right? We're willing to work for the thing. We're not trying to steal it, we're not trying to sin to get it, but we're willing to work for it. But we want it before we work rather than after we work. Okay? That's the key here. Look at proverbs ten.
[00:16:58] Proverbs ten, verse number 22.
[00:17:06] Proverbs ten, verse 22. It says this, the blessing of the Lord. It maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. Here's a question.
[00:17:20] If you walk into a store or, I don't know, whatever kind of place where credit might be offered, and you walk into that place and out of the desire to have instant gratification, to have that thing now rather than later, you walk in there. I walk in there and we say, okay, I want this thing.
[00:17:44] I want this thing.
[00:17:46] And so we sign the paper saying that we'll pay for it.
[00:17:50] We take the thing home.
[00:17:53] We have the thing we want, right? We have the thing we want. But what sorrow has been added to our lives as a result of the debt?
[00:18:03] Yeah.
[00:18:07] In that situation, we should be very careful, because I've heard people do this, they'll go into a situation where they incur a great amount of unnecessary debt, voluntary debt, and they walk away and say, look what the Lord provided. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, hold on.
[00:18:22] The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. In other words, when the Lord blesses someone, there is no sorrow attached to it. But there's a strong case to be made that with debt comes a certain level of sorrow, because there is a certain level of servitude.
[00:18:41] So we should be careful about that to say, well, the Lord provided. Well, why didn't he provide beforehand? Why did it require us to have a credit check to provide?
[00:18:51] Right.
[00:18:52] So I think sometimes we use the Lord's name like that a little loosely. Look at proverbs 28.
[00:19:06] Notice this. We're talking about emotives for incurring debt, such as lack of patience or the desire for instant gratification. Proverbs 28, verse number 20 says this, a faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. So the idea is not, at least in this verse. Now, I know there's a lot of other verses that deal with money in the Bible, but at least in these verses here, the idea is not that if you work and you say, that's bad, the idea is that you want to do it quickly.
[00:19:41] You want it now.
[00:19:44] It says, shall not be innocent. In other words, the desire to have those things now is actually a snare, a trap.
[00:19:54] So that's why you got to be very careful when that. Listen, I feel it just as much as you do. I feel it just as much as you do when things. The car is not working right. And you got issues at the house.
[00:20:10] Since we moved into our house, whatever, three years ago, three and a half years ago, we have bought every appliance that we have except the microwave. And we just had the privilege and honor of buying one of those appliances again because they make it long enough to exceed the warranty and then it breaks.
[00:20:29] We had to replace those things. And so I get it. I want the new appliances. And we all understand that. We all understand that.
[00:20:41] But the desire to have it now is problematic, is not consistent with wisdom. Proverbs 28, verse 22. We already hear it. Look what it says. He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye. In other words, it can even tempt you into envy and jealousy because other people have it. I want it now.
[00:20:59] And you know what? That actually leads us straight into our next motive.
[00:21:04] Peer pressure.
[00:21:06] Peer pressure. Adults have peer pressure. Oh, yeah.
[00:21:11] Sometimes when we see things that other people have, especially young married couples, young married couples want the nice, whatever, 3000 square foot house or whatever is the going thing, right? They want it now.
[00:21:25] You know as well as I do, people newly married, they don't have their career set. They don't have hardly any money in the bank. They don't have any of that set up at all. But they want what their grandparents have accrued through their whole life, right? Well, that just doesn't work.
[00:21:40] Here's the thing, though. In our day, there is a solution. You go into best buy and sign your name and walk out with it. You go to the car lot, sign your name, and drive it off the lot.
[00:21:55] That's the solution. And I'm talking about my generation and those younger than me.
[00:22:00] That's what we do. We see what other people have, and we want that, but we don't want to wait like they did.
[00:22:07] And you know what? Kudos to that generation, because they worked and then bought it, right? Rather than getting the cart before the horse.
[00:22:19] Another motive for debt that's prevalent is covetousness. We want something that we have no business of having, or we're willing to sin or in this case, be unwise in order to get it.
[00:22:35] So it's just raw covetousness. Here's the thing.
[00:22:40] In the days in which there was no easily accessible credit, you just couldn't get it. If you didn't have it, you couldn't get it. But now you can get anything even if you should not have it. Another motive is lack of contentment. We've covered this. When we talked about the last commandment on our Wednesday night study, Hebrews 13 five says, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So the principle is, you have the Lord, therefore you should be content. Now, that doesn't mean we can't desire things at times, but what it means is that ultimately, we have to be happy when we don't have those things.
[00:23:23] And that's really an issue that deals with our relationship to the Lord. So the subject of contentment is really about covetousness more and our relationship to the Lord than it is about that thing that we want.
[00:23:36] Another cause for debt is the desire to present a facade of wealth.
[00:23:44] In other words, we want to appear to others as someone of means.
[00:23:49] Never mind the fact that all the things hanging on the wall and the furnishings and all that stuff is not really ours to me. And I hope to you, if you have stuff in your house that's not yours, I certainly hope that you would not brag or boast or feel a sense of accomplishment by having a thing. That's really just the outline of the thing, and all the reality of it belongs to somebody else.
[00:24:15] Now, if you paid for it and it's yours, great.
[00:24:19] But that comes out of pride. And then lastly, one of the things that affects debt, I don't know if this is exactly a motive, is this proverbs 2027, verse one. If you can look at that, since we're already there and David quoted it, is when you incur debt. When I incurred debt, you know what we're doing? We're presuming upon tomorrow.
[00:24:42] That's what we're doing. Because what we're saying is, I will pay this. And the thing is, we don't know if we can. We don't know if our financial situation will be the same. We don't know if our health situation will allow us to do that. That's why it's so dangerous.
[00:25:01] Now, if you have worked and saved and you buy the thing outright, you work before you have the thing.
[00:25:09] That's not a danger because you've already worked. You've done the work ahead of time. There is no boasting of tomorrow. Proverbs 27, verse one says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. And what we say is that, yeah, I know. I don't know what's going to happen. But then we act like we do on the subject of debt.
[00:25:28] So these are some motives. Of course. We could look at James four.
[00:25:32] He says, what is your life? It is even a vapor, whereas ye know not, we shall be on Tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
[00:25:44] Now, while we're talking about debt, let's look at some exceptions, okay? Because I think this is important for us to cover.
[00:25:56] There are times in which debt is brought about upon us without our choice.
[00:26:05] We wouldn't call it voluntary debt. I've been here, and you've been here. Right?
[00:26:14] Sometimes you get a letter from the IRS and you've tried to be honest and upright, and your tax guy messed up, right? And the IRS sends you a letter and says, oh, by the way, you owe us $5,000 for the last three years of taxes. Did you choose to do that? Did you try to do that? Was that. No. But here you are in debt, right?
[00:26:39] I remember we were in Cambodia.
[00:26:41] My mom came to visit, and she brought my mail from her house, which is where my address was. And in the mail was, I think it was a five month old letter from the IRS.
[00:26:57] And do you know what the letter said?
[00:27:00] You owe us $53,000.
[00:27:07] I about panicked.
[00:27:11] All that had happened was, oh, and by the way, it was five months old, and it had a due date of three months from the time it was written. Of course, the IRS, I guess, figures you have $53,000 laying around, you can send them. I don't know what had happened is when I had transmitted my tax return, they had only gotten the first page.
[00:27:39] So instead of asking, because the 1040 has at least two pages, instead of just asking me, hey, we didn't get the second page. They just decided that I didn't file the second page, smart as they are.
[00:27:53] And so they sent a bill. I don't know how they got their calculation, but they sent a, you know, of course I was able to clear it up and fax them the full tax return. And of course, then I got the dream letter from the IRS, which is the same letter. It just has zeros all over it. And so I was very thankful for that. But that could have been a very bad situation. So sometimes tax issues like that bring us into a place of debt that we don't want to be. We didn't desire it, and we don't have anything to show for it either, like a 72 inch flat screen tv or whatever.
[00:28:30] Another one is medical care, especially with the cost of medical care. Look, if you're sick, go to the hospital. I don't care how much it costs, go.
[00:28:40] I don't care. Go deal with it. You can deal with that after. But this is a case where you prioritize the commandments of the Lord, right? And your health goes above that, goes above that consideration, and sometimes that's forced upon you. Another one is the necessities of life. Car accidents, necessary repairs. You have a roof leak at your house. Or as Miss Pam, like Miss Pam, had that huge issue with the leaking pipe in her house, and it just costs a whole lot of money just out of nowhere. And sometimes, look, not everybody has money slaying around to pay for it, but you have to deal with it. It is foisted upon you. And so you do. And so sometimes debt is occurred from that. But I want to give you one solution to that. These are just practical things, but I want to give you one solution to that is this, when things are going well and you don't have things piling on top of you, save money, put money aside, have an emergency fund.
[00:29:43] Now here's why that's important, and it might seem difficult at first if you don't have a lot of extra money, but here's why it's important. Because if you do that, and over time, you let that build and you don't touch it, when that thing, that unexpected thing that would normally cause you to have to go into the hole like medical care or whatever, you have a lump sum of money that allows you to avoid that situation.
[00:30:10] And again, if you're in a case like at this moment, you couldn't do that, it is something that you can at least work toward. Not only that, it eases your mind knowing that you're not going to have medical billing companies calling you forever and ever and ever because you can only pay $25 a month or whatever, that you were able to take care of it and now you can move on and rebuild.
[00:30:35] Know, of course, it's something Dave Ramsey recommends, but it's just a matter of wisdom.
[00:30:40] It's just a matter of know. By saving money and having an emergency fund, you know what it does? It allows you to avoid becoming a servant to the lender, which is a good all around, right? That's good all around.
[00:30:54] There is one other exception that I know I dealt with when I was younger was the subject of a house mortgage, because if the Lord frowns upon debt, what about your house? Are you going to rent your whole life?
[00:31:09] But a house is a unique exception to the idea of debt because in normal debt there is a risk to the lender. If the borrower doesn't pay or defaults, there's a risk like if you go get a tv, depending on the circumstance, if you go buy a tv at some best buy or whatever, they're probably not going to get the tv back. If you stop paying, it'll probably just hit your credit and then you can keep the tv. That's probably what's going to happen. Unless it's a big amount, and then they could sue you or whatever.
[00:31:41] So there's a certain, and you might say, well, there's a big company, they have plenty of money for that kind of thing. True. It's in their risk assessment. That's true. That'll mean it's ethical. Right.
[00:31:53] But in the case of a house, the house itself is the guarantee that you'll pay the loan. And if you default, the house is taken and they sell it and they make a bunch of money. They make a bunch of money, especially if you took care of your house. So it's a different situation. It's actually a contract with a guarantee. That's what a house is.
[00:32:15] And I encourage you, look, if you have a house, you have a mortgage, pay it off as quick as you can. I know there's some financial people that say you shouldn't do that, use your money elsewhere. Don't listen to them. Pay it off.
[00:32:26] Pay it off. You save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest, and then you have a situation where you have fewer bills and you have something that's firm in case life changes, like health problems or whatever. It's the wisest thing to do. Some people say, well, don't do that and invest the extra that you would. Don't do that. Don't do that because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
[00:32:52] All right, just a couple of things to mention before we get to one last subject. We'll have to do it quickly. Bankruptcy.
[00:33:01] I know bankruptcy is a legal thing, but it's not an ethical thing to just say government decree, a judge decree that I have to pay my bills. It's just not ethical thing. Now, if you've ever been through that, you just got to move on from there. But if you give your word, if I give my word that we're going to pay our bills and we have to pay them.
[00:33:23] Credit cards. Credit cards, pay them off.
[00:33:28] It's just a means. It's the same thing as a debit card. They send the bill, you pay it. Otherwise you're in debt. And I've had a balance on a credit card I like panicked because I forgot about it, and all of a sudden I got hit with like $50 in interest or something. I don't like that, but just pay it off.
[00:33:47] Pay it. Listen, here's the principle. If you don't have money for the purchase, don't buy it.
[00:33:54] That's simple, right? If you don't have money, don't buy it.
[00:33:59] And that's the principle that goes into credit cards. Then you get into payday loans, title loans and all those things. Stay away from that. Those are death traps.
[00:34:08] And then the subject, before we get to our last one is the idea of lending. So we've looked at all from the perspective of borrowing, but what about to the lender? Look, and that's a difficult thing, especially if you're someone who has saved money and your family knows that you have a little bit of money in the bank, because when they need something, they're going to come to you. Here's the rule. The rule is this, don't give it away unless you are willing to part with it forever.
[00:34:39] The relationship is more important.
[00:34:42] The lord said in Luke six, and if you lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thanks have ye for sinners also lend to sinners and receive as much again, but love ye your enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great, and you shall be the children of the highest. For he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
[00:35:05] But this is just me talking to you. Don't try to avoid getting in situations where family. You owe family money or they owe you money. It's a bad situation.
[00:35:18] The last thing I want to mention is the idea of surety. So we'll just look at one verse. I'm not going to look at proverbs 17.
[00:35:29] I don't have time to go through it all, but this is a biblical truth. Proverbs 17, verse number 18 says this, a man void of understanding striketh hands. We would say, shake hands. Right. Striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. And I could go over many other verses. There's at least six verses, five or six verses in proverbs on this subject. To be surety, it means this. A surety is a pledge, a bond or a security, a guarantee of good conduct, the fulfillment of certain duties. In the case of money, it's money or a guarantee deposited or pledged on behalf of another person.
[00:36:21] So it's not you taking the loan out. It's essentially being a co signer. Okay?
[00:36:27] The Lord says, and I know co signing is not that common. I mean, it doesn't happen all the time. But listen, you'll probably have a person in your family who's always the down and out person, who's always in need, who has a lot of vices that suck money away like a vacuum, and that person is going to constantly come to you and want you to hold them up to be a guarantee. Be very careful. Be very careful. Here's why.
[00:37:00] Because being a surety means that that person for whom you're doing it does not have the means, does not have the means to buy the thing that they want. That's why they need you to be a security. And he has no way to guarantee the payment himself. That's why he needs you to be a security.
[00:37:19] So it's actually debt for another person.
[00:37:23] That's what it is. So if the Lord says that there's great foolishness in debt and there's a lack of wisdom in debt, and it's something we should be very careful of, what about for another person, enabling them to do it?
[00:37:36] Put the brakes on. Put the brakes on. Not only that, though, becoming surety for another encourages that person to do that which is unwise and something we shouldn't even be engaging in ourselves.
[00:37:52] And sometimes. Listen, in the case I just gave you, the example I just gave you, it's always someone that's going to guilt trip you into it.
[00:37:59] Listen, learn to say no. Right. We should all learn to say politely, no, I'm sorry, I can't.
[00:38:07] Because you have bible on it. Right.
[00:38:14] By becoming surety for another, you relieve him of the full weight of responsibility for his actions. He knows there's going to be another person upon whom he can fall back.
[00:38:25] And you know what happens when someone knows that there's a fallback? You know what it does? It alters their present decisions.
[00:38:33] That's human nature. Well, I know. Well, if everything has a go, they're willing to take greater risks because they know they have a fallback. And they're willing to sacrifice that relationship in that case, which is a terrible thing. Terrible thing.
[00:38:50] So they're willing to make far looser financial decisions than if they bore the responsibility alone. In other words, in the case of guaranteeing someone else, in that case, you're not doing them a favor. It's actually harming them.
[00:39:04] It's actually harming them. If you don't do them a favor and you have the ability, let them work. That's the best thing to do. All right. All right. Let's pray together.
