Rick Warren - The Habits of Financial Health—Part One

Hey everybody, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we're

talking about your money. That's right, we're continuing a powerful

series called Financial Fit. Rick is opening God's Word and

showing us how to manage what we've been given with wisdom, faith,

and purpose. And I know if you apply these biblical principles,

you'll start to experience true financial freedom and lasting peace. Well,

we're getting off to a great start with part one

of a message called The Habits of Financial Health.

If I want to be healthy in any area of

my life, I have to develop healthy habits in that area.

If I wanna be physically healthy, I have to develop

the physical habits of eating right, exercise, sleep, lower stress.

If I wanna have a healthy marriage, I have to

develop the healthy habits of relationships, the way I talk

to people, the way I listen to people, the way

I respond to problems. These are habits that I have

to develop. And if I wanna develop healthy finances, to

be financially fit, there are certain financial habits I have

to develop in my life. God loves to do financial miracles,

and he does them all the time. I've seen many, many, many.

But he says first, you gotta get your act together.

You gotta do it the way that I said to

do it. Now in this series, we've been in on

financial fitness for a few weeks. We looked first at

the fundamental laws of money that God talks about in

his word, in the Bible, in the book of Proverbs

and in the book of Ecclesiastes. Today we're gonna take

a little turn and this week and next week we're

gonna look at some practical areas. Next week we're gonna

look at the five ways to make money work for you.

The five best ways to use your money on this planet.

And that's a good message I'm excited to share. But

this week we're gonna look at the eight habits for

getting out of the hole. Eight habits for getting financially free.

And they're all in God's word. If you have your Bible,

open to the book of Proverbs. If you don't, if

you'll pull out your message notes, and we're gonna look

at these verses from the book of Proverbs. Now, each

of these habits is in order. In other words, the

first habit is the most important one. The second habit

is the second most important. The third is the third

most important. I've listed these in their order of how

you do them. Let's get right into it. Number one.

The Bible teaches that the first thing I have to

do if I'm gonna get myself financially fit is this.

Remember that God is my source. That's the starting point.

I remember that God is the source of all my supply.

My source is not my supply. Salary, my source, is

not the economy. My source is not my savings. My

source and my security is in God. Now the reason

why this is important is you must put your security

in something that can never be taken from you. If

what you put your security in can be taken from you,

then you're gonna be insecure the rest of your life.

If you put your security in your salary, you can

lose your salary. If you put your security in your job,

you can lose your job. If you put your security

in your savings, you can lose your savings. If you

put your security in your spouse or your health, you

can lose those things. You must put your security in

something that cannot be taken from you, and that is

your relationship to God. God is the source of my supply,

not my salary, not my savings. And if a job

dries up, if a water faucet gets turned off, God

can turn on a faucet over here. And if one

door closes, God can open another door. And if that

door closes, God can open a window. So I have

to remember, first off, that God is the source of

my security, not how much money I make in life.

Now the Bible says this in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse 18,

there on your outline. Always remember the Lord, your God,

for it is he who gives you The ability to

produce wealth. God gives you the ability to produce wealth.

Circle the word produce. I want you to notice that

the Bible says obviously God owns it all and he

loans it to us. We talked about this a few

weeks ago that you don't really own anything on this planet.

It's just loaned to you while you're here. It wasn't

yours before you were born. It won't be yours after

you die. You just get to use it for 80, 90,

100 years. But it all belongs to God and after

you die, he's gonna loan it to somebody else. So

you don't take it with you, you didn't bring it

with you. But he says here, God gives you the

ability to produce wealth. Now, every economy, including America's, has

wealth makers and it has wealth takers. It has wealth

producers and it has wealth users. It has wealth contributors

and it has wealth consumers. The economies get turned upside

down when there are more consumers than there are contributors.

When there are more people taking out of the economy

than putting in it. And that's what's happening right now

in America. 60% of Americans take more out of the

economy than they are putting in it. We have more

consumers than we have contributors. And yet God says, I

made you, I designed you to create wealth, to produce wealth.

I designed you to be a productive person. God wants

you to be productive. And his plan for your life,

part of it includes wealth production or wealth creation. Not

wealth redistribution, but wealth creation. Now let me explain the

difference here between communism, capitalism, and Christianity. Capitalism says what's

mine is mine and I'm gonna keep it. And if

you don't make it, well tough luck, too bad for you.

What's mine is mine and I'm gonna keep it. Communism

says what's yours is mine and I have a right

to take it. That's called redistribution of wealth. I can

take yours and give it to somebody else. That's communism.

Christianity says what's mine is really God's and I'm willing

to share it. You see the difference? That's the difference. Capitalism,

what's mine is mine, I'm gonna keep it. Communism, what's

yours is mine and I can take it. Christianity, what's

mine is God's and I'm willing to share it. You see,

when somebody taxes you to help the poor, you don't

get any credit for it. But when you voluntarily are

generous and you help the poor on your own, that

builds your character. It helps you, it helps you grow,

it helps you become more like Christ, becoming more productive

and more generous. One of the reasons our economy has

collapsed is because for the last many, many years, we

have had enormous numbers of people, particularly like in Wall

Street and other places, who were creating or making outrageous salaries,

making outrageous amounts of money without really creating anything. They

create no services, they create no benefits, they create no products,

they create no jobs. They're simply making money on money.

That's all they're doing. And that is not what God

wants to do. God wants us to provide benefits, services, protection,

help to other people and in that it creates prosperity.

There's nothing wrong with prosperity. There's nothing wrong with prospering.

There's nothing wrong with a profit if You don't make

it your number one God, and if you do it

in the right way. And that leads us to the

second habit. The second habit, if I want God's blessing

on my finances, is I must make money honestly. I

remember that God is my source, and then I make

money honestly, because God does not bless cheaters. God does

not bless crooks. God does not bless deceptive people or

people who steal. Now let's look at just some verses

from the book of Proverbs on this. Proverbs 15, 27

says this. Dishonest money brings grief to the whole family.

In other words, I can go out and make a

bunch of money, but if I make it dishonestly, it's

actually bringing grief. It's bringing like a curse. It's bringing

a problem to my family. Emotional problems and all kinds

of other problems. You say, well, that verse isn't for

me because I'm not out robbing banks. No, you're not.

But are you honest in every area? Let me give

you a few ways you may be dishonest. Not giving

a full day's work. Now if you got an employer

who's paying you for a full day's work, you come late,

you leave early, you take an extra long lunch break,

and you waste time at work, you are robbing your employer.

Maybe you've never thought of that, but it's deceptive. They

are paying you for a certain amount of work and

you are expected to give that certain amount of work.

And it is dishonest to be paid for work that

I'm not doing. That's called dishonest. And God's not gonna

bless dishonesty. Christians, of all people, should be known for

rock-ribbed integrity, that we get there on time or early,

or stay to the last bell or stay late, and

that we are the hardest workers in society, and that

we have the most integrity and honesty. Padding an expense

account is dishonest. income. Misusing resources at the office is dishonest.

It's a waste. Fudging on your taxes is is a

dishonest way to make money. God says, I don't bless

that kind of stuff. It brings grief to the whole family.

Now look at some of the other ways. Proverbs 16,

Proverbs 16:11

verse 11. The Lord demands fairness in every business deal.

He sets the standard. What does that mean? It means

that when I'm dealing with you and we're making a negotiation,

I don't lie to you. I don't cheat you. I

don't tell you that the car I'm selling you is

better than it really is. I don't tell you that

the house that I'm selling you is in perfect condition

when you know the pipes are broken and electricity doesn't

work or whatever. When I misrepresent something in a deal,

I'm being dishonest and God said, don't expect me to

bless that. If you're hiding it, I'm not gonna bless that.

God blesses integrity. Let me show you some other areas.

Look at this one, this will surprise you. Proverbs 28 two,

the Bible says, if you make money by charging high

interest rates, you will lose it all to someone who

cares for the poor. Did you know that verse was

in the Bible? If you make money by charging higher

interest rates, you'll lose it all to somebody who cares

for the poor. Now, God is not against making interest.

You say, how do you know that? Because Jesus tells

parables in the New Testament where guys double their money

by making 100% profit. One guy gets 100% return on

his money. He says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Another guy doubles his five talents. He says, well done.

If it's okay to make interest, it's okay to pay interest.

So he's not saying interest is bad. He's talking about

what the Bible calls here usury. Usury means excessive, exorbitant,

exorbitantly high interest rates. It's what loan sharks do. It's

when they prey on people who are down and out,

people who are hard up on their luck, people who

can't get a normal standard loan from somewhere, and so

they go and borrow from somebody at two and three

and four times the interest rate. These loan sharks are

calling usury. It is excessive. It is cheating people. Now,

in America, we have usury laws in every state because

of this verse in the Bible. Because the Bible says

it is wrong to charge excessively high interest and take

advantage of people who can't pay. So he's talking about slumlords,

and he's talking about loan sharks and things like that.

One other one, look at this verse, Proverbs 13 verse 11.

Proverbs 13:11

Let's read it aloud together. Wealth from get rich quick

schemes quickly disappears, but wealth from hard work grows. Now

I told you a couple weeks ago that Warren Buffet's

number one law of finance is you don't lose what

you already have made. He said that's more important than

even making money on your money. You don't lose what

you've already made. So many people are in debt because

they've made a lot of money but they've lost it.

And the number one way, the most common way people

lose their money today is in get rich quick schemes.

And the Bible says you should never ever get involved

in a get rich quick scheme. You're setting yourself up

to be duped, you're setting yourself up to be scammed.

Most people or more people have lost money through this

way than any other way. Now every get rich quick

scheme Sounds great, it sounds terrific. You're gonna make high

profit in a little amount of time and low risk.

And they put all this thing together and it all

sounds so great and people invest their money in this

and all of that and they think they're gonna beat

the normal ways of making money by getting rich quick

and then they get duped. Now the Bible warns against

this over and over, and as your pastor, because I

care about you, I want to give you five principles.

Write these down wherever you can on your outline on

how to not get duped by a scam. These are

biblical principles. I don't have time to go into all

the verses, but let me just give them to you.

Number one, stick with what you know when you're investing.

Just write it down there on your outline somewhere. You see,

greed makes people gullible. And when we are greedy and

we're trying to get rich quick, we fall for scams

and we're easily duped. Stick with what you know. If

you don't understand an investment, don't ever put your money

in it. If you can't explain it, don't ever put

your money in it. Stick with what you know. Now,

the common denominator of every get rich quick scheme is

they claim to have a secret. I have a secret

way of making money that you don't know, or I

have a secret product that other people haven't got yet,

or I have a secret tip and all this. Listen,

the moment you hear that word secret, run like the Dickens. Friends,

I'm telling you right now, there are no secrets to

making wealth. They're all widely known. And there are hundreds

and thousands and maybe tens of thousands of books written

on how to increase your income, your net worth, and

things like that. There are no secrets. And anybody claims

that he has a secret is setting you up for

a get rich quick scheme. And the Bible says avoid that.

So never, you know, get involved in that. Stick with

what you know. Number two, never invest on emotion. Never

make a decision, a financial decision, on emotion. Get rich

quick schemes, scam artists love to play on your emotion.

And they grab your emotion, and before you've thought it through,

you've invested money that you're going to lose right away. Now,

what they do is they start pressuring you to decide quickly.

By the way, isn't it interesting, all of these infomercials

on TV that says, buy now, buy now, operator's standing,

and if you do it in the next two minutes,

then you're going to get this extra project. Three years later,

that thing's still on TV, saying in the next two minutes.

Have you noticed that? Okay, it's just a con. It's

just a con. In fact, pressure is never God's will

in finances. If you ever feel pressure, in fact, the

Bible says that about giving. Over in the book of Corinthians,

the Bible says if you ever feel pressured to give, don't.

And I'm telling you as your pastor who loves you,

if you ever feel pressured by a church, a charity,

or anybody else pressured to give, you should not give

because God clearly says in the Bible, never give under

pressure or under compulsion because you don't get any credit

for it. God wants your attitude, not the amount. He

says only give when you are giving enough. willingly, cheerfully, gladly. Now,

that's not just true in giving, it's also true in investing.

You should never invest, you should never make a financial

decision under pressure to decide now basing on emotion. A

third suggestion on this, never risk borrowed money. I don't

have time to go into all the verses on these,

but the Bible teaches you should never risk borrowed money.

Now you've got extra money that's just laying around and

you've got money to burn. Probably ought to give it

away instead. But that's okay if you want to invest that.

But don't you ever borrow money to invest in a

get rich quick scheme. The Bible says don't, don't do it.

A fourth suggestion. Always test the idea with other people.

And I'm talking about people who are not emotionally involved.

Because emotionally involved people who have a stake in the

game are going to be as excited as you are.

But people who aren't emotionally involved in the investment can

smell a rat. They can spot the flaws. And you

need to get counsel. In fact, if you have a

business deal and you're afraid to talk to your wife

or a friend or somebody uninvolved about it, it's a

dead giveaway. You're already... Saying, I don't want other people

to know about this because they're going to say no, no,

you need to check it out. Let me give you

one more. Doubt the guy who's always got a big deal.

He's always going after, he's always chasing the big deal,

but he never seems to reel it in. Now I'm

not talking about serial entrepreneurs who build a company, sell

it off, then build another company, sell it off, build

a company, sell it off. They have a legitimate business

and a legitimate profit. I'm talking about people who are

always waiting for their ship to come in, but it

never seems to come in, but the ship seems to

get bigger and bigger and bigger with each dream. And

while they're not able to pay their bills, they're out

there trying to think on this deal that's gonna make

one trillion dollars. And the more zeros, the more out

of touch they are with reality.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

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