Home Work Pt. 6

want you guys to like, comment, share, subscribe. Yeah, check out this message. It's called Paying Forward. [Music] All right, please stay in with me if you physically can. All that extra singing got me got to do this quick. Tell somebody really quickly just to kind of relax the mood wherever you are in there. Just tell somebody I'm glad you made it to church. That's all. Just give me that favor. We're in Homework part six and if you haven't heard the first five parts don't worry about it. You will understand everything about this part without hearing the first part, first five parts. But if you want to go back and listen to them, they're available on demand on our website. You can get them on Zion Church app. You can go on the YouTube page and check them out. Today I want to shift our focus and talk about finances in our homes. Don't fight during this message. I'm saying I told you and I really want to talk about generational wealth. For that I want to turn to Psalm 112 for our focal passage today. And as we're going there, greetings to everybody joining us on the Pendo app right now. We welcome you to our service. Psalm 112 beginning in verse 1 says, "Praise the Lord, those who honor the Lord, who adore God's commandments are truly happy." Verse 2, "They are descendants." Watch this. "Will be strong throughout the land. The offspring of those who do right will be blessed." Now stop right there and go back to verse 1. Verse 1 says, "Praise the Lord, those who honor the Lord, who adore God's commandments are truly happy." And watch what happens to their descendants. Verse 2, "Their descendants will be strong throughout the land. Their offspring, the offspring of those who do right will be blessed." And here's the third part, verse 3. "And wealth and riches will be in their houses." The houses where the wealth and riches will be will be in the offspring and the descendants of those who honor the Lord. That is generational. Their righteousness stands forever. My subject for today is pay it forward. You may be seated. Chuck Swindall is a person who I've admired over the years. I believe he pastored. I want to say in Stone Mountain, Georgia. I can't remember if that was or it was somewhere in San Diego, Stone Mountain Church. But he started a church at the age of 64 in Texas and pastored that church

for 26 years and didn't retire until he was 90 years old. That's my man right there. He let me know as possible. Amen. Why quit when you're having a good time? He's now 91 years old. And recently, I don't know how recently I saw on YouTube, he shared a story about an 83-year-old person who was in a drive-through at McDonald's. And while they were at the, because in order there's three stops, you get to the place where you're supposed to make your order. And then you drive to the first window where you pay for it. And then you go to the third window where you pick it up. Well, this person is at the first stop where you make the order. And because the person behind them was getting frustrated at how slow this 83-year-old was, the person behind the 83-year-old was leaning on their horn, blowing the horn, frustrated and how slow they were moving it. And so the 83-year-old person, I don't know if it was a man or woman, drove up to the first window, paid for her food, if it's a lady, their food, and paid for the food or the car behind them. Then drove up to the second window, and while they were driving up to the second window, the person working at the first window must have told that person that, you know, this person just paid for your food. So they were happy and looking out the window saying thank you, thank you. And they must have felt bad that they had received such a kind gesture from somebody who had treated them. So the A3 year old gets up to the second window, shows the cashier both receipts and takes both orders and drives off. Now the person who had been pressing them behind has to start over, go back in the queue and start over in the line. And he said, here's the message. Be careful messing with old people. They've been around a long time. (audience applauds) Now I shared that story, not because, first of all, that's not how you pay it forward. (audience laughs) It's close, but that's not how you pay it forward.

In our context and culture, paying it forward is when someone does something kind and generous to you and instead of repaying the person who was kind or the entity that was kind and generous to you, you then return the favor, if you will, of generosity by doing something kind and generous for someone else. It can be just like it was. You can be in a drive-thru. Normally it happens in a restaurant drive-thru where you pull up and you pay for your food, your order, and then you say, hey, I'd like to also pay for the car behind me. That's paying it forward. Now the directional dichotomy of that is in the fact that it's called paying it forward, but the person you're blessing is behind you. They're not in front of you, they're behind you, but it's still called paying it forward 'cause it blesses those who are behind you. That's why I wanted to go here today because God is calling us as a church or part of our homework this week is, is make sure you are blessing those who are behind you, your children, and their children. And if you don't have children, your little, your younger siblings and your little cousins and your nieces and nephews, God wants us to be so spiritually mature

and so financially prudent that we actually pay it forward and watch this and pay for the food, if you will, of those behind it and don't take it with us. I have an aunt named Mary Louise Schuller. She lived to be 89 years old and during her lifetime, she had no biological children, but almost all of her younger siblings and a lot of her nieces and nephews would stay at her house with her husband, we call him Uncle Shaq, and they were, they were that haven you could go to when you were on hard times, when maybe you had run into financial hardship. They were that place where you could go in Northwest Washington DC and they paid it forward by taking care of children and young people who didn't belong to them. I found out when my aunt Louise passed, she was 89 years old and she had already told my cousin Mark, who's an attorney, she had already set it up with him to give every single one of her nieces and nephews thousands of dollars at her death. I was blown away that she would generationally bless those who weren't even hers to make sure she remembered us. And then I found out last night in the meeting I was in that her great nieces and nephews also got savings bonds. That's two generations from a woman who had no kids of her own, but she understood,

I've got to get my money right so that I can leave something behind for those who are connected to me. And I believe God is looking for some aunt Louise's like that and some people that would say in my family, I'm going to turn this tie, tie a generational poverty and a pattern of poverty and a pattern of buying liabilities and not having access, a pattern of not understanding how money grows and we know how to blow money, but we don't know how to grow money. And everybody's starting at the same spot, everybody restarts from where our parents left off. We don't even pick up where our parents left off 'cause they ain't leave us done, we got to start where they started. That's not of God, I'm going to show you something in the Bible because wealth matters to God. Wealth, generational wealth is important to God. Look at this passage, it doesn't come across this way as a generational wealth passage, but watch the application in it. The Apostle Paul is writing to the Church of Corinth and he says these words in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 14, he says, listen to me, he's eating this Bible. This is the third time that I'm ready to visit you and watch this, I will not ask you to give anything to me. I do not want any of your things. Instead, I want you yourselves. Now, let's stop right here. This is not talking about estate planning at all. This is actually talking about apostolic support.

any money. I don't want anything from you. All I want is a relationship with you. Now understand that if he took, if he received money from them, it would not be in error because it is, it is the responsibility of those who have taught the word to financially support those who by vocation teach you the word. So he was within his rights to receive financial support for them, but he says, I don't want to do that. I don't want it to mess up the relationship by taking anything from you. And then watch this bomb. He drops at the end of the verse. He says, you all are like my children. And he says, children should not have to supply what their parents needs. It is parents who should supply what their children need. That part. Now watch this. That is more true in a house than it is in the church. Why is that so? He is talking as a spiritual father to his spiritual children and tell them it is more important that I take care of y'all and y'all take care of me. But biblically, they are supposed to take care of him as spiritual children, as members of the congregation, they are supposed to take care of their spiritual leader. That is biblical. But it is not supposed to be that way in a natural home. Children are not supposed to financially take care of their parents. Parents are supposed to financially take care of their children. It was never supposed to be that way. At any point, what you are saying, I don't raise this child and I don't raise these children and they don't have it in return to favor, no, that is not how that works. One of your responsibilities as a parent is to keep financial pressure off of your children.

And one of their financial responsibilities is not supposed to be you. Now there are some situations where if you are a widow or you have some kind of disability, yeah, your children need to take care of you. That's a biblical need. But if you set it upright as a widow, if you set it upright, you and your spouse should have something in place that in case somebody dies, that you are still financially solid and your children don't have to step in financially. And if you are disabled, maybe you would have had disability insurance or how about long-term care insurance in place so that if something happens to you, you have the care in place so that it doesn't fall on your children. And I don't care if you got one child or 22 children, they still ain't supposed to take care of you. That's out of order. And the reason why we can't build generational wealth is because we first got to overcome that mentality that my kids are supposed to take care of me when they grow them. Listen, if you're an adult and you're taking care of your children and your parents at the same time, your money is going in too many different directions. How are you going to pay it forward when you're taking care of your parents? And I'm saying I'm not saying you never take care of your parents, there are some circumstances when that has to happen but it shouldn't be the norm. It's hard to generate generational wealth when parents are not handling their responsibility. And I'm saying as a parent, if the only thing you do in your life is take care of yourself for the rest of your life without your children having to take care of you financially, then you've at least got the ground zero. Since my children didn't have to spend any money on me to care for me, I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. I'm trying to reverse a cultural mindset of poverty amongst us that is not scriptural. God not only wants parents, but he doesn't want us to take something from our children. He wants us to be able to leave something for them. In fact, God is not even just stopping with leaving something for the children.

Check out Proverbs. Why y'all put the boy over here? Proverbs chapter, and it seems further today, Proverbs 13, 22 says, "Good people." Everybody say, "Good people." Leave their grandchildren and inheritance. That's Uno dose. That's two generations, good people leaving inheritance to their children's children. Good people. Everybody say good people. Let me ask you something. How many of y'all remember the time? I don't hear much now, but y'all remember the time when we would speak well of people, and we would say to them, "You know what? He good people. Remember I heard that he good people. He good people." Then we'd really take liberties and put an S on one person, be like, "He good peoples." I don't know how that got passed, English teaches me, "You know, she good peoples." I want you to do me a favor right now. I don't ask much of you, but I want you to do me a favor right now to make it warm and fuzzy in here and gentle and encouraging. I want you to say to one person right now, put these three words in the chat. Here it is. You good people. You good people. I want you to say it. But I want y'all to say it to one person. So what do I do yet? I want you to say it back. By faith, if you don't know them,

by facts, if you do know they're a good person, and if you know they're not a good person, speak it by faith. Just point to one person and say, you're good people. You're good people. You're good people's. Yeah. She's good people's. No, he's good people. He's a good man. (audience laughs) Now, for all of you, good people. The Bible says that good people leave their grandchildren and inheritance. How can you do that when you squander money? See, the first thing we gotta understand about generational wealth is that it starts, first of all, it's two things. You gotta have the right mentality, and it's gotta register with your spirit. I am not talking to your flesh today. I said, I am not talking to your spirit. And when you have a spirit within you, when the Holy Spirit is within you, and you catch a frequency of the Holy Spirit, God's Word coming to you, it will hit your spirit and register with your spirit. And something will leap inside of you saying,

I got to do something about this. Pastor, you're already talking to me. Who understands what I'm talking about? You already wanna change something in your family, in your finances, 'cause it's talking to your spirit. And then your mindset must change. You must have a different mentality because you can't just think about myself and my life. You have to start thinking generationally. How can I set my grandchildren up for good? How can I set up my children? Let me give you an example. Help me do this really quickly. So Vicki and I, yeah, thank you for clapping. (audience applauding) So imagine these steps to represent financial levels. I promise you that when we met and got married, we were at ground zero. 'Cause I can't think of nothing lower than that. (audience laughing) I was thinking, Earl, I said, I was at ground zero, but then I thought about you, so were you, amen. (audience laughing) Your parents had stuff, but you didn't name me. (audience laughing) So I remember your father took that credit card from me. I remember where we were, and he said, all right, Vicki. And I hurt 'cause I ain't never seen one, but he took that from me, it was over. Now, I was so poor when we were getting engaged,

and I asked her parents, could I, you know, would they allow me to marry her? I couldn't afford an engagement ring. I couldn't get any jewelry for her. Her mother says, y'all can use my ring. She had been married 25 years, got a new ring, and gave Vicki her ring that she got married with in 1962. She wore that ring. We got it fitted. I don't know if it fitted, we had to get it fitted, but she wore that ring and that wedding band for seven years in our marriage until I could find, so I could be in a position to buy her a new one. Now, I said that because some of y'all wouldn't have married a man who couldn't buy you a ring. (audience laughing) And you might be overlooking a good man, 'cause I promise you, I can buy one now. (audience applauding) I said, I bet the one she got on. (audience applauding) That didn't come from her mother. (audience applauding) You gotta get your mind, see what a man doesn't have now, he might have later. (audience applauding) Don't, don't, see, you won a $10,000 dress for the wedding. I'ma leave y'all alone and stay with us. So this is what they did, this is what their parents, so they gave me started 'cause I couldn't even get a ring,

they helped with that. And then her parents gave us money for our wedding. Now, check this out, instead of using the money on the wedding, we use probably about 85% of the money, and we put it down on a condo. So that, watch this, this is step one, that put us in the wealth game. You can't enter the wealth game as a tenant. (audience applauding) You gotta own something. You can't, you have to have a mortgage, you have to be in the owner's position, in an equity position. Amen, and some people are comfortable being tenants, all their life, building someone else's equity. But we took the money that most people would have used on an extravagant wedding, and let me tell you how much y'all went and go. I calculated, I don't think we spent this much, I said maximum 1,500. Her dress was most of it, and a lady named Laverne at the church made it. And it was nice. And then the man that sold us the condo, him and his wife, he said, "I'll video it for y'all." He wasn't even a video guy. He's a tripod shaker, but it was free. Now we may not have had a five star videographer, but we had a condo, we was in the game, we had equity. The lady who catered our wedding, Francis Mann.

Francis Mann said, "Our catered away before you "thank bless her heart." This was our wedding, we had 700 people in our wedding. This is who came, and by the way, it wasn't a destination, the destination was 6801, Sheriff Row, Landover, Maryland, the first Baptist Church of Highland Park where I was the youth minister and could get the building for free 'cause I was the minister there. That was our destination. And Miss Francis Mann was in the gospel chorus at the church, amen. And she made the food. This is what we ate. Meatballs, tuna fish, and Keebler crackers was on every plate, and we could care less. 'Cause maybe you had lobster, but we had tuna fish in meatballs, but 37 years later, we're still together. So you might wanna put that wedding money into some real estate. 'Cause we kept that condo for 30 some years and just sold it in December. For a lot more than we bought it, with six figures more than we bought it for. 'Cause we was in the game, but her parents set us up. They gave us the money for the wedding, but we watched this.

We were ewfully prudent enough to use it on something that would be an asset. Maybe you don't need a big wedding, maybe you don't need to spend $20,000 on a day that will evaporate. And a dress that you ain't, you can't fit number. You ain't wore it at once. You should have just wore your sweats. (audience laughs) Then, watch this, then, when Vicki was pregnant with Asa, I had no insurance, no health insurance, but she still had the best OB/GYN in the DMV area, and her father gave us the money to get the prenatal care and the delivery costs at Will Hospital, he's at Providence Hospital, and all that care, because they accelerated us. Now, watch this. Her parents started off pouring, and we did. They from the South South. I'm talking about the South, no cable television. They, everybody know each other a little. I'm talking about Cain Tuck, Wallace, Clinton, North Carolina. Not Charlotte, Cain Tuck, baby, where is that? (audience laughs) They just tell you where to go. You know that, where you go, Cain Tuck, go down to the fence, and make a right, and then go down to the big tree and make a left. That's it, there were no turns.

Amen, that's when she, their family grew up. Her mother decided to go to New York because she didn't want to pick cotton. That's what she told us. She was 16 years old, she said, I don't want to do this. I want better for my life. And they didn't make us start where they started. Watch this, they helped us get our second house, which means we up in now, and didn't have to sell the condo, so now we own two houses, 'cause they got us in a single family house. They were paying it for it. In fact, I'ma speed this up. She got two sisters, none of them have student loans. And because Thomas and Dale Pickford made sure their children didn't have student loans, none of our children have student loans, because we now understand, generationally, we pay for education, we plan for that. Do you understand what I'm saying? We don't want that debt on our children. They set it in motion. And now we are, watch this. Our foundation is their ceiling. So if we keep this going, let's go up here. If we keep this going and we keep a generational wealth mindset, we won't just think about us and what we can accomplish. Now our apex should be our children's ceiling. Floor, I mean their floor.

Our ceiling should be their floor. This is their foundation. Stop telling you need to go get it out the mud like I got it. You need it, we appreciate what you got and work hard with. Just 'cause you got it out the mud, don't mean they supposed to get it out the mud. I don't even think you were supposed to get it out the mud. You had to get it out the mud 'cause people didn't handle their business well enough to protect you from the mud. You could have done better if you started up higher. If you did all that out the mud, what if you had a better, y'all ain't helping me. What if you had a better scar? Please don't make your children start over. And now if our children, if this is their foundation, if our apex is their foundation, then our children's children, their foundation should be here. Don't make your, don't make your, When you keep making people start over, you actually activate a generational poverty. And when all you think about is your life and your stuff, and you don't think about how can we sew in, how can we help them get a house? How can we help them do things like that that will get them started in the right direction? Then we're not gonna pass on generational wealth. Thank you, thank you for that, huh? Now, I wanna go to this passage in Psalm 112 verses one to three.

The verse, the passage ends with generational wealth where wealth enriches is in the houses of the offspring and the descendants. By the way, when I do circles and points and letters and stuff on the board, all I'm doing is this Bible study. That's all it is. Your Bible should look like this. It should have marks and underlines and notes. Get your study by. I used to, when I first was a Christian, when I first became saved, I was scared to write in the Bible. I was like, "Oh, no, this is holy, this is holy ground." Then I started seeing all the Christians that Bible was all highlighted in notes and circles, and they would date down and say, "This is the day when the Lord did this for me." And so it's okay, it's okay. Now this passage ends with generational wealth, but it begins with honoring the Lord. - Amen. - The word honor there is yaudre, and it means to hold God in high regard. And adore God's commandments. These people are truly happy. Now, most people wanna be truly happy, want true happiness in life, but this verse teaches it's not automatic. It comes from two things. It comes from people who honor the Lord

and who love His commandments. You have to love God's commandments. Not love them. Not be intimidated by them. Not know that God's commandments are there to protect us. David said like this, it's all one. Blessed is the man who walks, not in the council of the young golly, nor stands in the way that sin is, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight, not his duty, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. You gotta get to a point where you have a shift in your mind that God's word is delightful. It is a blessing. I want your word more than my necessary meat. Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. It is good that I've been afflicted, that I may obey your statutes. Heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of your word. The grass with us and the flower face, but the word of our God shall stand forever. When you have your devotions and quiet times, it should be something that you adore. What a privilege it is to have access to the mind of God. So this verse right here is all about devotions. Well, what precedes wealth is devotion,

and it is out of this devotion that the descendants are blessed. You see this connection? The parents who honor the Lord and adore his commands, their descendants get some blessed ones, they're strong. - Thank you Lord. - Gabor, it means to be stable, stability, strength. And they will be blessed. This word blessed right here is parallel to this word happy. The word happy is the Hebrew word asher. It means to be fortunate or happy. This word blessed, watch this y'all. This word blessed is the Hebrew word barak, Obama. It's just barak. But it has a physical connotation to it. It literally means to bless someone while kneeling. It's one of the ways we can worship God like I barak you. Kneel before the great, the God our maker. But check this out, in this context, here's what the word is saying. God is saying, not only will I make the parents who honor me and adore my commandments happy and fortunate, but I will barak their children. What do you mean, Pastor? Watch this, people are supposed to kneel before me, but I'm gonna kneel before your children and bless them. - Thank you God. - Okay, I see you don't get it. Imagine a parent walking with a toddler, and they got the toddler in their hand

and toddlers holding their hand. And then God comes before them and makes the parent happy and fortunate. And then he comes before the child and kneels down and say I wanna barak you. God told me when I was preaching this, I'm not just gonna make you fortunate and happy. Somebody ought to receive that right now. God, I receive a Barak on my children. I want you to kneel. Now watch this, he gonna have to go down in some low places to get some of 'em. But God, I thank you that you got my children on your mind. And my grandchildren, I speak Barak on color. I speak Barak over my children in the name of Jesus. Now he will bless them in the city. Bless them in the field, bless them when they come, bless them when they go, bless their uprising, bless their downfall, and somebody give God a praise for what he's gonna do for your seed. Glory to God, glory to God. And he said, I'ma do that because you honor me. See this is paying it for a spiritual. Your devotional life matters. See once you have a family, you don't have a private life. 'Cause everything you do, good or bad, impacts those who are closest to you. Everything you do, good or bad. That's why when somebody says to your child, you just like your mother, or you just like your father.

You better hope they sayin' somethin' good like you. Now we all mess up, all parents make mistakes. But when you make mistakes, there is grace. Own your mistakes, but don't stay. If you fall down, don't stay down. What I love about God is he'll give you enough grace to outlive your mistakes. When somebody give God a praise on that, God will let you live a long enough to outlive your foolishness, outlive your craziness, outlive your freakiness, outlive your infidelity, outlive your drunkenness, outlive your simplest. Is there anybody that's been around long enough to say, I've been a young guy. Now I'm old, and God let me live. 'Cause I've lived my failures, and I'm here today, just because it was grace, glory to God. I'm almost done, I'm almost done. Not only can you, oh thank you Lord, not only can you bless your children and pay it forward by blessing them with strength, and being Barack, it's not just strength and stability, it's also substance. Now I understand why people don't get as happy on this, 'cause maybe you were raised in the church where they thought something was wrong with money. And maybe I got delivered from that, 'cause I grew up in church like that, multiple churches. Well I think it was my poverty that set me free. I know what it is to be broke.

Y'all know what it is, I had a friend named Dwayne Bond. He still don't know that this day what happened. He came by a house one time, came to our apartment and said, I don't know why I'm doing this, but the Lord just told me to bring y'all to his chicken. How a man looks up your houses from chicken. That's what he had chicken, I don't remember his breast or something, but I promise you, when he left, Vicki watched that chicken and cooked it, 'cause we ain't had no need. See, she can have whatever she wants now, whatever she wants, I'm gonna try to make it happen, 'cause she was down for me when I couldn't make it happen. You understand what I'm saying? I remember, I remember when, we didn't have any food and I had to go on my daughter's piggy bank and open the piggy bank up. The money people had given her, and I had to get coin wrappers from the bank. I remember going into the Bank of America and asking for penny wrappers. She had 651 pennies. I took 650 pennies and wrapped them up and went up to the Hillendale Safeway. I'm telling you the truth. I walked in there and I had to look at every package. I got a pack of chicken thighs, two cans of stream beans and a bottle of apple juice, and I stood there humble and crying because I had to pay for it with pennies.

And I remember when the cashier, she ain't had to do it all like that, taking my roll of pennies and making so much noise with it. I told my daughter, I got to pay you back that 650. She said, "Dad, it's already paid for. "You have more than paid that back." But I know what it's like to be broke and I know what it's like to not be broke and I prefer to not be broke. Now you can stay broke and holy all you want. I'm holy and I'm not broke. And the devil is a lie. You ain't taking me back. I ain't wrapping pennies no more. You can't be from it. Good job. (audience cheering) I ain't going there. He says, "Welth and riches will be in their house." You know if it's in their house, it's in mine. Now you might say, "But Pastor, "but don't forget the righteousness. "Their righteousness will stay in forever too. "Isn't the righteousness more important than the... "Hey, man, yes. "Yes." You can put all the money in the world in front of me and put Jesus next to it and say, "Who are you choosing? "I'm choosing Jesus every time. "You can have this whole world, but give me Jesus."

(audience applauding) But the verse doesn't ask me to make a choice. (audience chattering) I know the songs said silver go, silver go. I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold, but what if I don't have the Jews? If I get a choice, I'd rather have Jesus. (audience cheering) And, he didn't say he'd know he says, "This is on the menu too." The wealth and riches and the righteousness. Get your mind up to the level of his menu. His word shall never change. It ain't God ain't got a problem blessing you with riches, wealth and righteousness. (audience applauding) No, I behave better when I'm not broke. (audience chattering) Now, let me say something to you, 'cause you over y'all messing up, you over time. Come on, Spencer, you're gonna get me in trouble. (audience laughing) Now, watch this. You can be godly and still not have wealth, 'cause you can be good with God but bad with money. (audience chattering) See, generation of wealth gonna take skills, right? And because if you don't get the skills to handle the wealth, you won't be able to pass it along and your kids will pick up that.

They'll pick up financial chaos. And there's people who's just financial chaos. The money's just chaos. So this is what you're gonna need. I'm gonna get two things and we're done. First thing is, if you're married, you have to get on the same page with your spouse financially. (audience applauding) Just like you gotta be on the same page when you parent children, you gotta be on the same page as a husband and wife financially. You have to be. Y'all still with me and Fort Washington? It is essential that you be on the same page because if he got his money, she got her money. Watch this. When money is divided, it cannot be multiplied. Bars. (audience applauding) One can chase a thousand. Two will put 10,000 in flight. You gotta have some times when you get together and have family business meetings. You gotta sit down and talk about this money. What's coming in? What's going out? Hey, honey, I saw something. I think we're paying too many unnecessary fees here. And I think we can get this cheaper

and still maintain the same quality. And maybe we can cut back on this. I'll cook on Thursday so we don't do carry out. Like, work together. What are we gonna give to God? Let's make sure we honor God. What are we gonna put into our future? What are we gonna invest in? Are we prepared for what's coming up? Do we have an emergency fund? You have to do that together. That's important that you do it together. If you haven't been doing it yet, get together on it. The second thing you're gonna need is wisdom. Wisdom and the right habits. Because here's the deal. If you don't have wisdom, if you give children wealth without wisdom, they'll squander it. Look at this. Look at this. The Bible says, "The wise have wealth and luxury." Talk to 'em. - Yeah. - He threw that in there. That means luxury is beyond wealth. That stuff, you know, God will bless you with stuff. You don't even need it. - Amen. - You say, I just, I gave you that.

God, I know you like that. The wise have wealth and luxury. What must the wise be doing what the foolish are not doing, or vice versa? So, fools spend whatever they get. That means wise people don't do that. See, wise financial systems means you have a financial plan in place before you get money. You don't wait 'til you give my all man some money coming in. You gotta have a plan for that money. You gotta have a plan for the money. This is what we gonna give on it. This is what we gonna save. This is what we gonna invest. This is the debt we gonna bring down. And it takes wisdom. And part of that wisdom you have to get to your children 'cause the Bible says wisdom is the most important thing you can do and with your wisdom, develop common sense and good judgment. I'm gonna give you one more thing. Here's some wisdom and good judgment. One of the best ways you can develop generational wealth is to figure out how you can save as much money as you can. Figure out what percentage of your income you can save and save, save, save it, invest it, put it in something that's growing as much of as you can. You, it is a system. You take 10%, this is a financial system and you honor God with it.

That shows he's the ruler of your money. You take the next at least 10%, at least, minimum of 10%, and you make sure your money is growing. This is the, watch this, this is a mindset. The mindset is, let me not find out what my money can buy. Let me find out what my money can earn. Ooh, if you go from burning money to earning money with your money, you in the game, you setting yourself up, you aren't Louise, you're Tom and Bill, I'm a pig for it. How did it go from almost picking cotton to setting us up for generational wealth? I'm going to the house soon, just to thank him. I'm just gonna do his ride by. Thank you. No, but you know how I'm thanking him? I'm teaching you. If they're watching this service right now, it's gotta bring joy to their heart that their investment is paying off. For all of their children, Rod, my brother, Lord Rod, called me because he said they did it for me too, Keith. So her sister, her sister's husband said, "They got us our first house and then came in "and renovated the bathrooms, he bought his guys down "and then did the remodeling in the house "and no one didn't change the rent." That's what I'm saying. You understand what I'm saying? Are you that one?

Somebody's gotta be the one that turns us around 'cause not only, watch this, 'cause we on the opposite spectrum, we living with Mercedes Benz and braze rovers and depreciating assets and we got red bottoms and lizards and Gucci bags and then we die and they gotta do a go fund me. You don't have funeral money. Take 10% honor God with it. At least 10% make sure it's growing. The last 80%, thank God for the lady who got needed another G word. She said this is for goods and services. I'ma go with that. But the thing you have to do is make sure that this never bleeds in to either one of those. Never let your expenses compromise your honoring God. And never let your expenses smother your future 'cause this is where your, this is, watch this, this space right here, the bigger you can make this, the greater generational wealth you have. If you could reduce, if you could, maybe you need to have a $1,500 wedding. - Come on now. - I feel it, right? (audience laughing) Come on, man. $50,000? You might as well set it on fire and film it.

I know it's memories, but it has no generational power to it. Do you own the venue? What do you own at the wedding? The bill. Stand up, y'all, I gotta go. I got more, but I'ma let y'all go. If this message, go right into the song, y'all. If this message touch you, I ain't got time. I ain't going to ask you seven times. If God's talking to you, you want me to pray for your family and your finances to come on up to the front, wherever you are right now. I said, God's talking to me, and I want the skills to create wealth in my family. I wasn't taught this past. I wasn't taught this. And I'm not even mad at those who couldn't give it to me. They didn't, nobody gave it to them. Don't be mad at what you didn't get. You gotta be the one to start it. You gotta be the one to start it. Hey, y'all. And to see y'all. It's gotta start with somebody. And keep you. Make his face. And be gracious.

Lord, bless you. Yes. And keep you. Make his face shine upon. I speak this benediction over you. The Lord, his face towards you. And give me peace. Make his faith be upon you. Lift your hands. And celebrate, and family, and your children. And let children, and let children. Make his faith be upon you. And a thousand generations. Come on forth. It's on you. It's on you. Come on, angel. Somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to break it. Somebody's got to change it. Come on, y'all. I'll do it, God. I'll do it. And let children, and let children. Make his faith be upon you. And a thousand generations. And your family, and your children. And let children, and let children. One more time. Make his faith be upon you.

And a thousand generations. And your family, and your children. And let children. Oh, man, oh, man. Tell them what you wanted me to do. Oh, man. Pray for yourself. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. One more time. Oh, man. Pray for yourself. Be upon you! [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> You all are. >> He's going to breathe too. [MUSIC] >> Father, I thank you right now for your word, it's a lamp to our feet, it's a light to our path. We receive your promise right now, as we honor you and adore your commandments. We believe you for hope and health and strength for our little cousins, our nieces, nephews, children, and grandchildren, God-children, favor in the name of Jesus. Pause your blessing on us, give us witty inventions, give us creativity and ideas. Make us so financially astute that we'll be able to give strength to our children and their children. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name and everybody agrees that amen, amen, amen. You may return to your seats, Pastor Patrice Wooten, Pastor David Swan.

Return to service over to you to close out the service and pass the joy. We're going to ask you to all stand as Pastor Joy comes to close us out in prayer. >> Thank you for joining us for part six of the homework series, Paying Forward, right? >> That was about it, such a good message. I learned, if nothing else, that I'm going to be like my great aunt Louise and I am going to pay it forward so that my generations to come, my children's children's children, do not have to get it off the mud like I did. But thank you so much, Pastor Pat for that word. Make sure y'all join us next week for another part of the homework series. >> I'll see you next week. (bright music)