Home Work Pt. 8

Welcome to our YouTube page. I'm excited about today's message. We're in part eight of the Homework Series, and we're talking about financial homework, particularly generational wealth. Having a mindset for that. And next to me is my daughter and her daughter. And it is part of my responsibility, my right wife's responsibility to make sure that we take care of our family and our future. And I am excited about the word that God's gonna give you today. Stay tuned, we're coming right after you. And what should they do, Carson? - Like, share, comment, and subscribe. - Let's go to the sanctuary. ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ ♪ Homework, homburg, homburg, homburg, homburg ♪ - All right, if you're able to stand, please stand. If you can do it without pain, what up, Zillow? Everybody, as I am full of Washington today here at Greenbelt, do me a favor, just tell two or three people, good morning. Is it still, oh, good afternoon, I'm sorry, good afternoon. Put that in the chat for me, good afternoon, good to see you. Appreciate your presence. Amen.

Shout out, everybody, joining us on the Pando app. We welcome you to our service today. (audience applauds) This is part eight of our series, Homework, and it's about the work that we need to do within our homes to have, to be better people and to have better households, better families, and we're focusing on the financial aspect of what goes on in our homes, because you can't talk about the work that needs to be done in the home without talking about how we manage money. And so, I want to look at one verse today, read it, and then I'll let you sit down. I'm gonna tell you my title, then I'll let you sit down. Proverbs 13, verse 22, the good news translation says, "Good people will have wealth to leave their grandchildren." Think about that. Good people will have wealth to leave to their grandchildren. Do you consider yourself to be a good person? This is one of the indicators of being a good person. But the wealth of sinners will go to the righteous. Here's my subject. I'll explain the verse in a minute. My subject is a generational wealth mindset. You may be seated. God gave us this series to have better homes, better families, to live better lives. But when it comes to generational wealth, particularly, our mentality around money and wealth, in many cases, has to change to be generational wealth oriented. Because if our thinking will change, then our behavior and our systems and the way we manage money

and the choices we make financially will align with the proper thinking. So, in order to help frame our thinking, let's go back to this verse that I just read in Proverbs 13, where it says, "Good people." And I want to stop right there. Because the first two words of this verse let you know that character is not just about cash. I'm sorry, wealth is not just about cash. It's also about character. That you really have to be a good person to even care enough about your children and their children to leave them wealth. That's not something a person who's not good and kind-hearted would naturally do. In fact, if you look at this verse, it's really a comparison of two types of wealth. You have good people, and it says they have wealth, and then you have, in the B clause of the verse, the wealth of sinners. And the difference between the two wealths is not how they get it. There's no accusation in this verse that the sinners get their wealth illegally. The only distinction in this passage, this verse, about the wealth is its direction and its durability. Please pay attention to this. It says that good people have wealth that lasts so long that it gets to their grandchildren. It says that people who are sinners and it ends up in the hands of the righteous. It doesn't even make it to their children.

And it's not because they didn't have wealth, it's because of their attitude about the wealth that they had. See, when you are selfish and self-centered, everything you accumulate you think is for you. This is my money, I earned this. And I'm gonna enjoy what I earned and what I have. See, you have to have a good heart and a generous heart to think about people who are not even alive yet. Some of you want grandchildren, and they're not even here yet, but to have a plan for your children and their children takes a good, harder person. Many people who have wealth that never even makes it to their children. That person was wealthy. That person made a lot of money and their children still struggle. That's because that person didn't care about anything but themselves. When in reality, they were blessed to be a blessing. You're never just blessed to just be blessed. You're always blessed to be a vehicle through which God can use you to bless others. But if you don't have that perspective, you will always, everything will get, you won't be a river, you'll be a reservoir. Just a place where water settles and it just gets old and your children can't benefit from it. And so, one of the things that's important

is that we make sure that we're good people. That means we don't just handle money, right? But that we handle life, right? We live right to sleep. We're kind because one of the things you want to leave to the generations behind you, your children, grandchildren, your nieces, nephews, your younger siblings, your God children, whoever is under the tree that you're on, whether you wanna leave us is in addition to cash, you wanna leave character, in addition to money, morality, in addition to investments, integrity, because your name matters too. Leaving a good name behind has currency to it. Do you not know that there are people in this world who get doors of opportunity open to them because of their name? Somebody will say, you know what? Your father was a good man. And because your father was a good man, I'm gonna hire you. You understand what I'm saying? It ain't even 'cause you deserve it 'cause your grandmother was one of the kindest people I ever knew. And out of my honor and respect for her, I wanna give you this opportunity. See, being a good person matters. When your nieces and nephews, yes from now mention your name. They should be mentioned in the name of somebody

who knew their aunt that could say not only she was a good person. You understand what I'm saying? Having good people in your legacy matters. Now, this word wealth is a Hebrew word, it's not called. And it actually means intentional inheritance. It is an intentional inheritance. That means it's not flipping, it's not accidental, it's not, oh, by the way, let me leave you all something. It is an intentional, bequeathing, and dividing of resources and wealth for people who are following you in your lineage. It's intentional. It's not, oh, y'all could fight over that when I'm dead. No, no, I have a financial plan and an estate plan in place that took into consideration that you all were coming along so that you wouldn't have to fight. How many of you have been to funerals and people were fighting? Well, everybody fights and the person dying in there now who got the stuff? Well, one of the ways you can love, because we say I love you to death, I love you to death. Well, one of the ways you can say show that you love somebody to death is that when you die, something is unraveled, something is unfolded for them, and there's a transfer of wealth for them that actually helps to comfort them because you love them truly to death.

See, wealth is a mindset. It is a thought process. It thinks at three levels. First of all, it thinks about who I am, and then my responsibility to my family, media family, and then my responsibility to my future. Me, my children, my grandchildren. Me, my family, my future. Are y'all following me? It always thinks ahead. And by the way, when the Bible says good people leaving inheritance to their grandchildren, it doesn't mean they just leave it to the grandchildren and skip the children. Somebody told me that one time. I'll just leave mine to my grandchildren. No, what it means is that you thought so much about this and you practiced so intently around this that the inheritance that you gave to your children was substantial enough that it went to your children and through your children to your grandchildren. - Amen. - Are you tracking with me? Now I wanna show you a picture of how this works. It's a simple picture, but watch this. It all starts generational wealth thinking always starts I'm going to say that again. It is my responsibility to take care of me for my entire life financially so that my children and my grandchildren don't have to take care of me financially. Now for some of you that would be turning the tide in the right direction because many people listening to me right now have had to take care of your parents financially or your grandparents

financially and even though it was the right thing to do it is not how it's supposed to happen. If you don't do anything else and I've said this before is take care of yourself. Get yourself some long-term health care. Make sure all your ducks in a row so that your children don't have to take care of you. You have started in the right direction. Amen. But God says, here's the good thing about God. He says, I'm not asking you to go down four or five generations. I'm not asking you to do something for your great great great grandchildren. No, your children and your children's children. You got three generations. So take care of yourself and while taking care of yourself, leave something behind that your children can build on while still taking care of yourself. And then another level is and then I also want you to leave something behind for your grandchildren that they can build on. At the same time you did something for your children that they can build on and at the same time you're taking care of yourself for your entire life. That is the goal. Now you cannot be willy-nilly about money and accomplish that. You can't be all over the place always taking trips. Yeah, we go down there a year moat. I need to tell you some moat that that's where your generational wealth is going into these excursions where you try to live a life that you really can't afford. And if you would sacrifice something and you would stop just being frivolous, frivolous financially, you would start making different decisions because listen, I got to take care of my family and my future. I can't just take care of me. I got to take care of me, but also got to take care of my family and my future because they are my responsibility. You have to think differently. You have to think forward. Are y'all listening to me? And it starts with, it is what taking care of your future, but it also begins with taking care of yourself and your family. For example, the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8, "If anyone fails to provide," interesting word, pro-video, pro-means before, bide is where we get the word video from. It means to see. Provision means you see things before they happen. Do we, you know why the reason why we call God Jehova Jaira? The Lord is my provider is because God doesn't have to wait till you get to a need to see you did His coming. In fact, in fact, you might want to do a study on this. The Philippians 4 and 19, really, and the old King James, I know it says this way, it says, "And my God shall supply all of my need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus." That word need is not plural because He never gets behind. You don't get that fried. You don't think about that. I don't have needs because He supplies every single need because nothing surprises Him. Are you

glad you serve a God that's not surprised by what you need? He knows what's coming up. He knows what you're going to need ahead of time. And as family members, as adults, we need to be preparing ourselves for needs that we know that are coming, right? Now, now, He says, "If you fail to provide for your own, especially for your own family, his own family, he has denied the faith by disregarding his precepts, and he is worse than an unbeliever who fulfills his obligation in these matters." Man, that's a lot to unpack. Let me give you the fast version. This verse proves that providing for your family is not just a financial matter, it is a spiritual matter. God says when a man doesn't provide for his family, he is denying the faith. That means you can be the loudest man in here, run around the church with your hand up, waving your hand, put your hand down if you're not providing for your family. He says you're an unbeliever. You're acting like a unbeliever. In fact, the unbeliever is better than you because he's fulfilling his obligation. He doesn't share your faith, but he take care of his family. Who are y'all quiet in here today? This is significant because it is our responsibility to do this. Now most people will look at this and say, "Well, God is clearly talking to men." And I tend to support that. That I believe primarily it is the man's responsibility to be the financial provider for his family. But that does not mean that a woman cannot contribute to the provision for the family. It also doesn't mean that in some cases, a woman is as effective at providing for her family, or if not better at providing for her family, because of her profession, her skill sets, and her opportunities. And there's nothing wrong with a family when it's set up that way. As a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, let me show you a woman where that was the case. In Proverbs 31, beginning of verse 10, it says,

"How hard is it to find a perfect wife? She is worth far more than jewels. Her husband depends on her. He will never be poor. You'll see why in a moment. She does good for her husband all her life. She never causes him trouble. She's always gathering wool and flax and enjoys making things with her hands. She is like a ship from a faraway place. She brings home food from everywhere. Watch this. She wakes up early in the morning, cooks food for her family, and gives the service their share. She has staff in her house. Now watch this. To watch this, verse 16, she looks at land and buys it. That's a real estate deal. Then check this out. She uses the money she has earned. And plants a vineyard with the money she has earned. Y'all missed that. So first of all, she makes a real estate deal. Buys a piece of land which is an asset that is appreciating. She buys a piece of land and then uses the money she has earned to plant Martha's vineyard, talk to him somebody, which means she put an income-producing asset

on the property. She didn't just buy the land. She put a money-making operation on the land called a vineyard, which if you know what a vineyard is, that's where you make wine. So she selling wine on the property, killing it. Give her her credit. Check. She works very hard. She's strong and able to do all her work. She works late into the night to make sure her business earns a profit. Talk to me, somebody, her business. I speak to every woman right now in this room and online at Zlo at the 4th, every woman that's in business. I want to prophesy to you right now. I got a word for you. I got three words for you. Ready? Handle your business. I said handle your business. Handle your business. God gave you that business. God gave you that idea. God put you in that position of authority. Handle your business. Your children are depending on you. Your grandchildren are depending on you. You got nieces and nephews who should never have a student loan because you handled your business.

How far somebody next to you? Look at a woman in her face and say handle your business. I don't know what you do, but handle your business. Handle your business. I speak prosperity over you. I speak wealth over you. I speak new deals in your life. Better clients. People who pay on time, good God. People who don't come to play games. Handle your business. [CHEERING] Glory to God. You're going to do it. Excuse me. One lady said, girls, let's play us too. [CHUCKLING] Y'all going to have to edit that out this bit. That's that ain't supposed to be in there. Verse 19, she makes her own thread and weaves her own cloth. She always gives to the poor and helps those in need. And she's generous. I ain't finished. Stay with me. Verse 21, she does not worry about her family when it snows. I don't know where she live. Now, I don't want to live where it snows. She has given them all good, warm clothes. Look at how she's taking care, providing for her family.

While she's an entrepreneur, while she's got vineyards, while she's buying real estate, while she's making sure her business is profitable, she's still taking care of the home. You ought to thank God for any woman who's able to balance her life like that. She makes sheets and spreads for the badge. She wears clothes of fine linen. Whilst this, her husband is a respected member of the City Council, where he meets with the other leaders. Let me tell you something, when a wife is wifeing. I said when a wife is wifeing. Not only can she raise children, but if you let her, she'll raise a man that she's married to. She'll lift him up. And while she's-- he'll be in places that he wouldn't have gotten to if it wasn't for her. I'm from Fairmont Heights. I promise you I'm from Fairmont Heights. I'm at-- I ain't even from Fairmont Heights. The real town I'm from is not even a registered town. It's called Beaver Heights. But I promise you, I preach to 40,000 people every weekend You better marry the right person. I'll tell you that excuse me She makes clothes and belts she got a fashion company she got a fashion line You know how she got fashion company cuz she don't just make clothes and belts. Guess what she does? Sales them direct sales to the merchants Ooh, I the entrepreneur spirit is all on me right now, you got to know how to sell I say you got to know how to sell you got to go in there and say what I got you need When I got you can't find nowhere else and when I got ain't cheap

Don't just take anything for what you got don't sell cheap people, but you got to learn how to sell You got to be able to go in there and say I got something you need. I understand what your need is I'm not trying to give you something you don't need. I'm trying to give you something you do need Let me not get stuck there. She's a strong person people respect her She looks to the future with confidence. She speaks with wisdom that part She teaches others to be loving and kind can't teach nothing you ain't She oversees. I'm just reading she oversees the care of her house. She's never lazy Watch this her children say good things about her her husband brags about her and says there are many good women But you are the best Grace and beauty can fool you being fine can fool you 36 26 24 36 can fool you because that all them numbers gonna change one day But a woman who respects the Lord Shall be praised give her the reward she deserves praise and public but what she has done I don't just honor this woman. I honor every woman. That's doing something for their family helping their families make it financially Taking it cooking for their family making it happen at work. I honor you Now I want to go back to something because the Bible says she makes sure her business earns a profit and I'm trying to think which one She got a little fashion business going is that the one she got a vineyard You know what this is this is wealth behavior, I said this is wealth behavior get your mind up This is wealth behavior Now let me say something because somebody needs to hear this God does not have a problem with wealth In fact, there was some people in Deuteronomy chapter 8 Jeff that said we got this wealth on our own and God had to confront them. He said this dude around me eight Let me go to that verse Deuteronomy 8 17 and 18 God says if you start thinking to yourselves, I did all this all by myself. I'm rich It's all mine God said well think again remember that God your God Gave you the strength could God I can stop right there God gave you the strength Don't you sit ahead act like you a self-made man a self-made woman you ain't a self-made anything God gave you the strength God gave you the ability God kept you from getting so sick that you were able to work God gave you relationships God gave you connection. He gave you the strength to produce all this wealth

so as to confirm the covenant that he promised to your ancestors as it is this day then he here's what David said and First chronicle chapter 29 verse 12. He says this is a guy. He says God wealth and honor come from you alone You rule over everything Power might are in your hand and at your discretion people have made great and given strength It comes from God Amen And if it didn't if he didn't want us to have it he wouldn't have allowed it to come from itself now Here's what I want you to see I Came across this information from a man named Joshua sheets. I don't know him I don't don't much about him. So this is not an endorsement. I just ran across this information Where online he says that these are what he calls seven stages of financial independence And he starts with zero as a stage and he works through down through these stages of Financial independence and I thought it'd be good to share it in here I know this is not typical church preaching, but amen is helping us and he says at stage zero is what is called financial dependence. That's when you're dependent upon parents. But we should not stop there. I said we should not stop there. The next level is stage one is financial solvency. That's when you're able to support yourself with your own income. That means you pay your own bills, you pay them on time. You may have some debt that you use, a consumer debt that you have, but you pay the minimum every month and you're able to pay your bills. By the way, if you pay the minimum on a credit card, you have now, you need to cut it up because you're now using credit the wrong way. Because it's costing you more to have the credit card now, you're not just using it, it's using you now. Let me come back to that in a second. So when you're financially solvent, you just make it, you make it from paycheck to paycheck, you made it. And for some people, this is the goal of their life. A Joe, I just won't break even shorty. I just won't break even, Joe. Well, let me tell you something, Joe. God has a plan for you that can take you past just breaking even. See, you don't want one of the most important things to do in your life is to expose yourself to people who are in front of you, who are ahead of you financially, and who understand money better than you, so that that exposure will let you know what's possible. You understand, just getting around that will be helpful. The stage two is financial stability. This is when you're being current on your bills and you've added a buffer, cash reserves

or margin or a buffer account. That means you have a rainy day fund or emergency fund, and this is critical. You need to save money because saving money, when you don't save money, you miss out on opportunities. There are opportunity costs that happen when you don't have the reserves to take advantage of opportunities, to buy something of value that can profit for you, to take advantage of a business, you don't have the money. I'm telling you, not saving money, it cannot be an option, y'all. It cannot be, I don't give you a save a dollar. You're going to have to figure out how do I put God first in my money? How do I put me second and then how I live off the rest? How do I give, save, and then spend? Not saving money makes you super vulnerable, because if you don't have an emergency fund, the moment you have a bill that you can't pay, it immediately takes you backwards and you're right back up here, the financial dependence. Now you're calling the church for benevolence, or now you're calling your cousin, tell me let me hold his arm. You got there because you never saved money. Whenever you had extra, you had some shoes you was going to get with it. But you had something that wasn't, you know, that didn't think about the future. So you have to, so this is important to have a buffer account. Financial stability has margin, and when you don't have margin, that's dangerous. Debt freedom is the next stage. Debt freedom, all debt is not created equal, but bad debt is a destroyer of wealth building potential. What is bad debt? It is consumer debt that is paying for a liability or depreciating asset. Bad debt is also when you use debt to feign a lifestyle you really can't afford. So you'll charge something because of the way it makes you look. We are the best masters at looking like we got something that we don't have. When the people that really have it could care less about how they really look. I can buy you. The man that owns the mall in Dallas, I think it's called the Highland Park Mall Mall in Dallas, $171 million he boarded for. I met him on a plane one day. And the stores in this mall are similar to down in city place in DC, like Hermes, I think it's called name some of the stores down there. Tiffany's Chanel and Ferrigamo, all of them stores down there. He owns a mall with all those high-end stores, and I asked him when we went out to eat one time, I said, do you shop there? He said, ain't no way. I went by nothing off the stores. He owns the whole mall, won't shop in the store. He said, that stuff costs too much. Why would I wear all that? It's amazing. It's crazy like that. But he bought a $10 million house in Georgetown. All right, all right. Why? Because that's an appreciating asset. Georgetown property will never go down. But he won't shop. If you can buy a $10 million house that's your, he lives in Texas.

Surely you can buy some Ferragamos, but he won't. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's a mindset. I put my money in him. Yeah, I want some little made-pops on his feet. Like, like rock pours or something. It's really crazy. It's interesting. So I don't believe all debt is bad, it's not. I don't believe that debt freedom means you have no debt in your life. There's some debt you use for your advantage. With us an appreciating asset and the interest rate is not extravagant, whereas it's costing you more than you can make in saving money, then it makes sense. So be wise when it comes to debt. Financial security is the next stage. That's when you have enough money from your investments to cover your basic living expenses. So up here you have to work to cover your basic living expenses. When you have financial security, you can live off of your investments and pay your bills. And many people who can do that don't have to work, but they keep working 'cause they actually enjoy what they do. In fact, I don't believe you can reach your full potential in wealth when you're doing something you don't like. 'Cause you won't put your best in it. It's a difference between doing something you have to do and doing something you love to do.

When you, some of you get up in the morning and you don't like what you do, you get up in the morning, you don't say praise the Lord, you say, "Dang, gotta go there again." Lord, you could have took me while I was sleeping. (audience laughing) This how you go to work. (audience laughing) See, when you're doing something you love, you don't, I don't keep doing it, right? Anyway, anyway, this is financial security. Let me go to the next one. By the way, by the way, you know how risk people keep getting richer because they keep practicing risk people behavior. Do you know how poor people get poorer? It's habits. The reason why if you're poor you won't stay poor by the same habits and you get poorer is because inflation will penalize you for bad habits. It'd be nice just to stay poor. But society's money system will make you poorer because the cost of living is going up but your habits are staying bad. Ooh, this is so good, I'm about to serve, I'm about to series. Let me just say amen to myself, amen. (audience laughing) The next one is financial independence. This is when you reach a point

where your current lifestyle expenses can be met by your investment. This is different. This is not saying your basic human needs. This is when your investment income can pay for your luxuries, your lifestyle. Without working. The next level is financial freedom, which Joshua she says, when you don't have to work and you have enough money to cover your dreams out of your investment income. This is dividends, money is paying, that you're making interest off of your investments. It's paying you enough to live off your dreams. And these are financial abundance is when you have far more money than you ever need or will ever spend and have covered all your goals and dreams, that's financial abundance. Now, this is a very important document, but before I go into that, let me just say this. Money is not a God. We're not supposed to worship it. It's a tool. Let me make this straight. Money is a tool. Cleans the assets of 10, 19, the wisest man of his time and the wealthiest man of his time was Solomon. This is what he said. He says people enjoy eating and wine makes life happier.

But he says, but money solves a lot of problems. I love that money, so watch this. He says eating, not gonna solve a problem. Wine is not gonna solve a problem. It might, you drink enough of it. You might forget you have them, but when it come back down, problems still in. But this what he said, but money, it doesn't solve all your problems, but it will solve a lot of your problems. And the lack of money will create a lot of problems. And the lack of money will prevent you from solving a lot of problems. Your roof is leaking on your house and because you have a lack of money, no reserves, you can't get it fixed. So you got buckets upstairs in the house. People come here, but y'all can't go upstairs then. I don't know what goes upstairs. You gotta stay away, roll golf. I remember I had a car, my cousin Marty sold me. He still wanted to admit it, but it had a hole in the trunk and on the floorboard, but he said it wasn't on the floorboard, but I was driving it, so I didn't know. But anyway, when the car was broke down and it wouldn't start up, it was a clutch, it was a four speed. If you ever drove a clutch, who understand them? If you ever drive a clutch, you park on the heel

and I park on that heel and I put that suck in neutral, turn the engine, it won't start up, but I turn the engine on, put it in neutral, and then I'm sorry, I had to do this, put my foot out, and get that suck going down the street, then you go, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, right? Now that's the sign of somebody don't have no money to solve a problem. That's a petty way, that's a, people say, "Why you park over there?" I try and make it look like, yeah, yeah, well, I just ain't want my car to get scratched up, but I had to, oh, whenever I would get somewhere, I had to look for a heel. I had to be going the other way, I had to be going down that heel. Now imagine, I'm so glad I didn't meet my wife during that time, and we went out on a date, I said, "All right, we about to leave, but hold up." (audience laughing) Where in the world is this? Could have messed my whole game up, I'd have had to marry somebody else. (audience laughing) I'm just saying this because a lot of people, you act like, okay, some people feel like being broke is spiritual. The devil is a liar. I do not feel spiritual when I'm broke. So I ain't even the same person, I don't even want what?

(audience laughing) I like having problems solving money. What happened? They got broke down, we got money. Amen, we gonna solve that problem. Amen, 'cause we've been having financial habits that prepared us for moments like this. Are y'all understand what I'm saying? (audience applauding) Now let me go back to this chart. Let me go back to this chart. The reason why I shared this chart with you is because, or this list, is because I think all of us should figure out where we are on here. If you're single, where are you? If you're married as a couple, where can you honestly say, maybe you're between one of those? Where are you as a couple? And be honest about it because listen to this. And don't, if you get mad about where you are, don't beat yourself up, gird yourself up so you can go to the next level. (audience applauding) And hopefully some of y'all over here, like, yeah, man, I got on, I'm good, I'm good. Because here's the deal, when it comes to generational wealth, the lower stage, the lower the stage you're on financially, the less likely you're gonna ever build generational wealth.

How can you build generational wealth when you gotta think of you, your family, and your future when you're up here and all you can do is take care of you? Does this make sense to you? The higher you are on this financial independence stage, the higher the stage you are, the more likely you are to build generational wealth. And I'm saying, the reason why I know God has us in this series is because I believe with all my heart that there gonna be some people in sanctuaries today, in high school auditoriums, in prison even, people making decisions today that are gonna change the trajectory of your family financially, because you're gonna make a decision to change the way you deal with money. It won't change if you don't change. I just decided I wanna be the person that makes the right difference, not perpetuate the wrong way, amen. So think about this, I'm gonna say three more things and then we're done. Now, I obliterated these words so that we'd have, be easier to remember. But I like in financial generational wealth mindset to football. The same things you need to be successful in football, you need to be successful financially. In football, there are three phases to the game. The better you play all three phases, the more successful you've been.

And more successful you'll be. In football, you must have offense and defense, that's a little weak. And then, special teams. Okay, I'll give you a break on that one. And you must be effective in all three phases to be successful. The same is true financially. You gotta be financially, you gotta have good offense, you gotta have good defense. You gotta be good with special teams, I'll explain to you. First of all, let's start with squandering insulation. This is defense. What do I mean, squandering insulation? When you insulate squandering, it means you seal leaks in your financial life. It means you stop wasting money. [BLANK_AUDIO] and tax laws. Like, what can you be writing off? What can you take advantage of? If you take that, if you're gonna get that, if you put it under your LLC, you can write that off. Like, you cannot be lazy and build generational wealth. You gotta find out, where am I losing money? What am I spending money on? What kind of fees am I paying that are unnecessary fees for me to play? You know, I've had the same credit card for decades and sometimes I just forget to pay it.

It ain't even because we don't have the money, I just forget to pay it. And every time they hit me with a fee and I'll see the fee and I'll call them and say, "Hold up now, now look at my record." Now, how long I been with y'all? They tell me all the years I've been with them. How many times have you seen me be late? Well, not this first time in years you've been late. Well, I'm gonna respectfully, as you remove that fee, obviously something happened that I forgot. Oh, no problem, it's a battle room with it. They ain't gonna do it if you don't ask. But you don't want me to leave over this $35. You understand what I'm saying? Bank will charge you fees for not meeting the minimum balance. You got two or three accounts in the bank and they say you ain't have enough in this account where you could have slid that money for me over another guy. We don't do that. But why you ain't telling me? That's how they make money. Pay attention. How about subscriptions you have to gyms that you don't go to? You got a gold gym. You got planted fitness. You got, what are the other names of them? L.A. Wet.

One life. Okay. You got, your picture so old on your gold gym membership. They don't even, they ain't how you look no more. Still getting them 19 a month, 29 a month. 29 a month. 290. 29, 29, 58. That's 248. That's 348. $350 you throwin' away. Come on now. Get your money back. That's defense. Office. Streams of income. Not just salary and wages. How about royalties? Passive income. Residual income. I told people to all the services. I'm still making money on books I wrote. 11 years ago. And six years ago. Seven years ago. I still get a check every 90 days from both books 'cause they still sell. That's passive income. Rental income.

Like what are you doing? Listen, no football team can score enough points if they can only move the ball one way. You can't just have a passing game. You gotta have a running game. You don't run the ball. They'll just, you're easy to stop. That lady, we just looked at in Proverbs 31, multiple streams of income. She had a vineyard. She's selling clothes. She, real estate. So here's the deal. Now I gotta say this 'cause I used to teach this to my staff. I'm so entrepreneur, I was cheeses to my staff. I said, look, y'all gotta know how to make money outside of Zion, you know, do that. And they would get so gung ho about the side business. They wasn't doing their work in the church. (audience laughs) I guess it ain't gonna work. So this is what I say. I say this all the time. Never let your stream drop your river. (audience applauds) Unless your stream can replace your river. (audience chattering) Be careful. Don't be all over there doing your side hustle because most streams don't have health benefits.

(audience chattering) Or paid leave. I know you got your own business but you don't get paid to be off. (audience chattering) Be careful of this women in shallow water. (audience chattering) Your family needs stability too. Amen, somebody need to hear that. Here's the last one, this is special teams. Save is an investment in special teams 'cause special teams is both office and defense. When you're on special teams, you're actually on both. When you kick the ball in a punt, you're on offense but as soon as you kick it in, you're on defense. It's a combination. When you're saving, you're paying defense. When you're investing, you're advancing, you're playing offense. So it's a combination. Let me get these two verses and I'm done. When you invest, here's some wisdom from the word of God. This is before Wall Street. It says, but divide your investments among many places for you do not know what risk might lie ahead. So when you look at risk management in the B part of the verb, That's in the Bible. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you have a diversification of investments.

Amen. Now, it's important that we teach our children financial literacy, and it's important that we remain students of it. That's why Proverbs 15, 22 says this, it says plans go wrong for lack of advice. So many advisors bring success. That's not just true plans, general plans is true with financial plans. Having many advisors is beneficial because some people's financial advice comes in different areas. One might be a state, one might be an investment, one might be mutual funds, one might be stocks. You will balance your portfolio and balance your wisdom and understanding when you have multiple advisors. Make sure you're learning how to do this because you need to develop a generational wealth mindset. Now, I need you to stand with me. I'm going to park there. I want you to take into consideration what we'll say it today, and I want you to think about what are you going to do with what you heard. But don't just be heroes of the word, but doers. Be doers of the word. Not heroes only. Watch this deceiving your own self. You know it's possible to be in an environment where you hear truth, and you feel better about yourself because you heard truth, but you've deceived yourself because you're not obeying it. So you still where you were, you just have more information. But information with applications still leaves you at ground zero. What are you going to do with what you just heard? One thing, just one thing, Paul says, one thing I do, not five, because if you pick five that's going to overwhelm you, you ain't going to do enough. What one call are you going to make?

One meeting you're going to set up, one thing you're going to stop doing. All right, Paz, I'm going to stop gambling. I'm not going back to DC Live or what is it called, Merlin Live or Horseshoe. How do you know all these places you know? You have told me everything today. What are you going to stop doing? What are you going to start doing? What are you going to continue doing? What's your move? Tell it to somebody next to you. Just tell them, like, this is what I need to do. I need to do something, especially if you know them. That just intensifies the accountability. You don't have to do it. I know you don't do most of what I tell you to do, you just come in, make me waste my breath. I'm going to say, if you sit next to my, you know, you know what it'll do, maybe next time they say, did you do what you said you was going to do? Because there are people relying on you, it's not just you, it's your children and their children who will be impacted by your choice. What is it that you're supposed to do to take it to a different level financially? What is it? In a moment, Pastor Alicia, Minister Dilmasani, and Pastor Donna, they're going to come up and they're going to give you an opportunity to accept Jesus as your Savior. They're going to give you an opportunity to join this church. They're going to give you an opportunity to rededicate your light to the Lord. They're going to give you an opportunity if you want to sign up to be baptized. If you just say, I'm not sure if I'm saving, I want to be sure they're going to give you opportunities to do all of that. But before they do, before I turn the service over to them, I want to pray for you.

I want to pray that God will seal your decisions, your decisions. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this word that is a generational game-changer and I thank you for the men and women in this room and young people in this room who are going to start making decisions to set up a future that will be blessed by you for generations to come. And I pray that you will show us, Lord, what to do, when to do it, how to do it, who to call, who to connect with us, connect us with the right people, and not only give us the wisdom to know what to do, but give us the grace and the courage. because of it in Jesus' name and everybody at a degree said amen. Amen. All right. I hope y'all enjoyed that service. What would you think about today's message? I thought it was thought provoking and wonderful. I thought about things that I can do to save money, particularly when it comes to streaming services. Little thing. We're very good about that. Yeah. Unused gym memberships. Not that one. I'm good with that one. You're good with that one. Well, whatever you need to do to play defense, to play good offense, and to play special teams financially, make sure you do it. That's how you win. And once again, Carson, our granddaughter, what should they do? To like, share, comment, and subscribe. All right. We'll see you next time right here at Zion Church. Shh! [BLANK_AUDIO]