Amen. Thank you so much, Brother Ken. Please take your Bible with me now this evening. Turn quickly to the book of Proverbs chapter 10. The book of Proverbs chapter 10. A great verse in the Bible when we're dealing with the matter of finances. Last week we talked about some ways that you can save money and we talked about the different methods that you can use in relationship to purchasing. You should try to use those methods because it is good stewardship of the Lord's money. And I've encouraged you to do that, and I trust that you will make every effort to do so. And I've already heard, by the way, several testimonies of folks who come to me since last Wednesday and said, Preacher, you know, I asked for a better price on something at a store, and I got it. I got a better price. I did also hear Brother Birch tried how many stores? about five, and they laughed at him. Can you imagine people laughing at Brother Bert? You've just got to try harder, Brother Bert. Don't take no for an answer. Unless they threaten to call the police. So we discussed that, and I think that's an important point. But now look at Proverbs 10, verse number 4. I want you to see a verse of Scripture. Proverbs 10, verse 4. The Bible says, He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, But the hand of the diligent maketh rich. He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. To deal with a slack hand is to be careless. One who is careless in his financial dealings will become poor. In another place, the Bible says that riches make themselves wings and they kind of flutter away. They tend to do that, don't they? Every time you think you have some extra money in your pocket, there's someone else coming with a need or with a bill or with something that you owe them. Riches are that way. And in order, the Bible teaches, to keep our money and to use it as wise stewards and to have money for what we need, not just for what we need, but to do for other people. In order to do that, we cannot afford to deal with a slack hand. We cannot afford to be careless. Every decision then, financially, that we make should be well thought through. There is a problem, however. Our society continually brainwashes us with ideas that people accept as truth, when in reality they are not. And that is particularly true in regard to finances. Proverbs 24, just two verses there. Proverbs 24, verses 3 and 4. The Bible says, Through wisdom is a house built, and by understanding it is established. And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches." You say, Preacher, what does that mean? Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. When applied to the area of your finances will bring you security. Your house will be filled with extra when you apply wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. So this is what we're trying to do in this series. We're trying to take biblical precept and common sense and put them together and say, how can we apply this to our finances so that we can save money, so that we can give more money to our church, so that we have something for our kids later on? What can we do? Well, these are some ideas. If you deal with a slack hand and you're careless, you'll end up in poverty. Pardon me. Now, tonight I want to talk about this, then, along that vein. Bargains that aren't. Bargains that aren't. And by this, we're going to talk about some truths, some ideas. They're not truths. Some ideas that people have had. Maybe you've held to some of these ideas, and you've said, preacher boy, I'll tell you, I believe this, this, this, and this. You might find out tonight that a dearly held financial belief is at least in part wrong, and possibly completely wrong. And if you'll examine it carefully, that is, not deal with a slack hand, but be diligent. If you'll be diligent, you'll understand that the Bible teaches that if we're cautious and careful, we can come to a better conclusion than just accepting some motto. Look at the introduction of the lesson, please. So-called conventional wisdom. Well, beware of conventional wisdom sometimes. It's not always based on fact. So-called conventional wisdom and clever marketing. have conspired to convince people of numerous faulty financial maxims or ideas. Some of these are so ingrained in our thinking that we act on them almost subconsciously, not realizing that they are bringing us incrementally but steadily toward financial ruin. He that dealeth with a slack hand is the one who becomes poor. Poverty will be upon those. Now, preacher, what's the key concept? Here it is. The key concept. Now, bargains that aren't. Okay, listen carefully. I wish everybody would get this concept affixed into your mind. It would save you so much time, trouble, and money, you wouldn't believe it. Here's the concept. People who want your money are not your friends. Ooh. Pretty sure that was direct. Say it again. People who want your money are not your friends. Now listen carefully. I'm not saying you can't be friends with the storekeeper. You could be. But understand something. When someone is twisting your arm so that they can ring your pocketbook, that person is not your friend. If you approach financial dealings with a little bit more suspicion and not as much willingness to believe everything that is said, you'll be a lot better off in the long run. There are certain ideas that have almost come to be universal proverbs in American thinking. dealing with financial issues. And folks, those ideas are simply false. We say, Preacher, how come everybody believes them? Because marketing schemes have pumped these ideas into the minds of people to the point where we think certain things are by default a good deal. Now what I want to do, pardon me tonight, is discuss this. I'm just calling them this, okay? The seven deadly sins of finance. That's just the name I came up with sitting in my office today. The seven deadly sins of finance. These are ideas that are not correct, but you hear them bantered about all the time. First idea, point A. Here's the idea. Use debt as a tool toward ultimate prosperity. Debt is your tool to becoming prosperous. You should use debt as a lever to leverage a business and build your business. That, in economic circles, is almost a scripture verse in their way of thinking. And you can go to colleges and universities, and you can take economics classes and business courses, and you will hear all the time about the creative use of debt, and debt structuring, and how debt is really the tool that can bring you to prosperity. Let me say this. Don't you fall for it. I don't care what kind of fancy terminology that philosophy is couched in, Debt is always dangerous. Point number one. When you use other people's money, you owe them their money plus interest. They win and you lose. It is just that simple. In business, if someone is lending you money, they're lending you money because they expect to get something back in return. It is not a good deal for you to be the person on the debtor's side. It is a great deal for you to be the person on the lender's side. That is, if you're lending to people you can trust. Pardon me. Don't fall into saying, well, I'm smart because I'm using other people's money. Point two, debt always carries considerable risk, enough to offset any perceived benefit. There is always a risk of debt. Now listen, folks, be very cautious. I understand for large items such as a home mortgage, most of us would have to go into debt for a home mortgage. I owe on my home, so I have a home mortgage. I understand that. There are some large things that you have to go into debt for if you're going to buy them over a period of time. Now you can pay those large things off far more rapidly than most people do. And sometime maybe I'll get into a method of doing that. You can pay them off far more rapidly, but there are some things that people get into debt for. It doesn't mean you get into debt for everything, and listen carefully, It doesn't mean that you get into debt for some kind of business. Oh, well, preacher, you know, debt, the world's economies are driven by debt. Uh-huh, yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. They certainly are. And last Friday afternoon, a shutter went through Wall Street. Preacher, how do you know? Because I listened to the Bloomberg report. A shutter went through Wall Street when mortgage carriers, they call them mortgage investors, were concerned that they were not going to be able to sell their properties at a profit, and there was concern that thousands of people were ready to default on loans. By the way, this is not, oh, you're talking about huge businesses. I'm talking about mortgage investors who invest in private blue-chip properties. There's a huge problem in the housing market right now. You say, what's the problem? The price is falling down, down, down. There is a glut of housing in America. One expert recently said that it could be that housing, the bottom hasn't been reached yet, and it could be that the value of housing is going to be 25% lower than it was three years ago. Now, if that's the case, don't go buying a house right now. Wait till the thing hits rock bottom. Read the financial papers. They talk about it all the time. But look at Proverbs 22, verse 7. That verse warns us that the rich will rule over the poor, and the borrower is always the servant to the lender. When you sign an indebtedness, you are agreeing to pay that person. You become that person's servant. Oh, pastor, I don't go and mow their lawn for them. No, but have you ever thought about this? Money is nothing more than time wrapped in a paper sack. Have you ever thought about that? And so when you go to work, you get paid on an hourly basis or you get a salary. You're getting a salary for a part of your life. Did you know that, folks? Yeah, they're taking your life from you. They're literally sapping you. I knew my job was sapping my life from me. They are. They're paying you to have part of your life. Once that's gone, it can never be had again. Why do we spend money so freely when we're giving away chunks of our life? That's exactly what we're doing when we're spending money. And when we say to a person, we'll pay you back, it means money is time wrapped in a paper sack. It means when we tell somebody, we're going to pay you back, what we're saying is we're going to invest enough of our time and work hard enough so that we can pay you back. You own us until the debt is paid. Does everybody follow that? It's a scriptural principle. Always be careful. Do not use debt toward prosperity. That is ridiculous. OK, the next fictitious thought. Here it goes. 90 days, same as cash. What a deal. No interest for two years. That's a smart way to use other people's money for free. Oh boy. By the way, every furniture store in town is doing this. It's crazy. The furniture stores are doing this. Well, preacher, isn't that a great deal? 90 days. I like what Dave Ramsey says. He says 90 days is not the same as cash. What did we learn last week? Cash purchasing allows you to bargain for a lower price. Credit purchases, not always, but almost always, assume the full retail price. Now, very important to understand this. If you're going to charge something or get it on credit, store credit, 90-day same as cash or two years, no interest, you know what you're saying to them? You're saying, I'm willing to pay full price in order to get this thing and pay for it over a two-year period. Why not have cash, save up for something, and say, look, I know you've got a price tag of $1,200 on that. I'll give you $1,000, and I'll take it home myself. We'll do it right now. And see if you can't get the $200 knocked off of it for cash. There's a good possibility you can. But point two, nationally, 88% of such interest-free contracts convert to debt, usually at nefarious interest rates of 24% to 38%. What do you mean by that, preacher? 88% of the people don't pay for it in 90 days. 88% of the people don't pay for it in two years. For the 12% that do, yippee for you. But the store is still making a bundle of money offering the interest-free option because they know that 88% of the people are not going to pay it off, and they're going to get their interest back. Look at point three. In addition to an outrageous interest rate that will come after the period of interest-free, quote unquote, is over with, after that expires, You are typically charged the interest you would have paid during that period. Either pay it all off before the period ends, or, your contract says, we're going to charge you for that two years of interest, and we're going to tag it right onto the loan, and then you're going to be paying interest on all of that. It is colossally foolish, and it is something that people get into all the time. But do you know what? The average person has never read that contract. And the average person doesn't even look at their billing statement. And they don't even know what their balance is to begin with. That's a shame. He says, Richard, why has it gotten that way in America? Because financially we're dealing with a slack hand. We're careless. We don't know what's going on. And we need to be careful about that. Don't fall for this. Let's go ahead and point four. Good intentions do not pay debts. Almost all people who enter into such agreements, 90 days same as cash, two years interest free, they all intend to pay the debt before the interest free period ends. The vast majority, however, do not. Note that furniture stores are becoming obsessed with such schemes. I think it was Ashley Furniture recently offering, like, three years, no payments and no interest. By the way, they don't want you to make a payment. Don't make a payment for three years. We don't want you to. Because after three years, you've forgotten about the whole thing, haven't you? And after three years, now that you've forgotten about the whole thing, we're going to swoop down and charge you all the interest for those three years plus everything you owe, and you're going to have a gigantic bill. Can I illustrate with something similar to this? My mother years ago bought a, I hate to confess, but I'll just confess her sins publicly. She bought a Toyota Japanese car. She bought a Toyota Camry. And I'm just kidding when I say it's a sin. It's probably not. She bought this car. Well, she bought with it an extended warranty plan, which is not really a good idea financially. However, the extended warranty plan said that if you came in on a precise day After this whole thing, you know, after the warranty expired, there was a precise day you could come in and you could get all the money back that you initially paid for the warranty. Now that meant Toyota company used the couple thousand, whatever it was, $1,500, they used it all that time, but you could get all the money back. However, the window for coming in was narrow. I think they had it down to like a day or two, within a day or two of the, you know, several years of the initial transaction. My mother really is a detail person. And she remembered the days she had it written on her calendar, she had it written on the refrigerator. I mean, this was years from when she bought the car, but she had it written in her will. I mean, she just knew when you have to go and get your money back. And she marched in down there and wanted her money. And you know what the person at Toyota said? We've never had anyone come back and want their money. To make a long story short, my mother had to go to the state attorney general. to get her money out of the Toyota Corporation. She had to fight all the way to the State Attorney General's office to get her money. She finally got it, but they'd never met anybody who came in to claim their money. Why? People just forget, and that's what they're banking on with these schemes. Quickly, point C. I love to talk about this. Great car leasing deals make driving a new car within everyone's reach. After all, you should rent things that go down in value. Now, don't be offended. Do not be offended if you've leased a car. A lease can look very, very attractive. Boy, they make them look good. They make them look tremendous. They're all rip-offs. All of them are rip-offs. But they make it look very good. Let's look at why they're a rip-off. Number one, lease agreements do not reveal the actual interest rate that you're paying because they do not have to. The federal government says that if you're purchasing something on a loan, that you have to know the APR. Buy your house, you've got to know the APR. Buy a car, you've got to know the APR. You don't have to know that with a lease agreement. Dave Ramsey says that the average auto lease reached the dealer an effective 14% interest rate from the consumer. That's way too high for a car, 14%. You're getting gripped up on lease. Well, I can look through my lease agreement, I don't see any figures. By design, you do not. You need to be very good with the calculator to figure out how badly you're being ripped off. Most, by the way, most car deals or purchases today, most of them are leases. Why are they so excited about, well, you just have $129 a month, drive this car, get $3,000, do it, sign it, boy, come on in and get it. Anybody can afford $129 a month, right? The car companies are excited about leases. because that is where they're making all their money. Now, they'll still sell you a car, but they'd much rather lease it to you. They're making money that way. After three years of leasing, I'm on the back page now, after three years of leasing a $22,000 car, the value has declined to around $10,000. There's been a $12,000 loss. Your payment must cover the lost value and provide a profit for the car company. In addition, you must pay for mileage over the limit and for excessive wear and tear. And when all is said and done, you don't own it. You get to turn it back in. And then they give you a bill for the wear and tear. Oh, Pastor, I've never had to pay the bill for the wear and tear because before it reaches that particular point, I turn it in on another lease. Yeah, they have you with a hook through your nose for the rest of your life. And that's exactly where they want you to be. And they don't want you to buy a car outright. They want to have a hook in your nose. So for the rest of your life, you're making automobile payment for the rest of your life. And it never stops. How many people have you known? I've known a few that tried to get out of a lease. Hard thing to get out of. Why? They want you right there. Because they know the average person will roll that lease over, roll it over again, roll it over again. Hey, they're out driving the finest cars money can buy. Sure is money that's buying them, too. Lots and lots of money. Now this comes from NADA. These are just some figures. When I talk about net dealer profit, what we're talking about here is after all the bills are paid. So it doesn't sound too dramatic, but new car purchases net the dealers about $82 in profit. That's after you pay the salesperson, after you do everything. They make a lot of their money in the shop, in the repair shop. A lot of their money in the financing. New cars financed by the dealership can net $775 in profit. Sometimes there's a kickback arrangement between the car company and the bank. But point C, a new car leased can net dealers an easy $1,300. in profit, and there's arrangements made between banks and between car dealerships, and there's a lot of money that's exchanging. And what am I saying? I'm saying this. Leasing is now the most popular way to drive. It is also by far the most expensive. You're getting ripped off in an automobile lease. That's just a simple fact of how it is. And I'd be just careful of them. And these slick salesmen, boy, someone brought me down to a car dealership a while back, Preacher, I'm looking at this car, then I found out it was a lease. Boy, I nailed the salesperson. I started asking him some hard questions. He didn't have any answers. Of course, he didn't even realize what a bad deal he was selling people. We talked about it for a while. Of course, I talked the guy out of getting it, and he went and got a used car, which was a better option for him. So, be aware of those leases. They can really be expensive. Point D, I'm hearing this all the time. Point D, the new 0% interest offers on new cars make new cars a good deal. Well, let's pause here for a moment. I've got nothing against a new car. I've never owned a brand new car, never owned one. I've got nothing against anybody owning a brand new car, because new cars come with the new car smell, don't they? They do, except there's only one thing about the new car smell. It's very expensive. It's creature-wide. Look at point number one. New cars lose about 60% of their value in the first four years. What does that 60% loss do to your 0% interest? You're just not paying interest, but you've still lost money. A $28,000 car will lose about $17,000 in the first four years. That's the same as if you threw a $100 bill out the window each week for four years while driving to work. Wow. That's a lot of money throwing it out the window. One time per week, just pitch it out the window. This is just mathematics, folks. You can go ahead and check my math if you want to, but just roll down your window and throw $100 out the window, okay? Because of the depreciation. The moment that car rolls off the lot, what happens to it? It's not worth as much as it was 10 minutes ago. It's just not worth the same amount. Why? It now becomes a used car. Purchasing a new car for the sake of the warranty. Well, pastor, I'm going to have a brand new car because I'll have a good warranty. Purchasing a new car for the sake of the warranty is like paying $17,000 for the warranty. How many new cars need their engines replaced three times in four years? Not very many. The reason they sell warranties on new cars is because new cars are built to last at least through the warranty period to a certain extent, right? Hard to get a warranty on a 100,000 mile junker, isn't it? It is because there's the potential that it'll break down. Just be aware of this. Be aware of it. It doesn't look good on the surface. Zero percent interest. Wow, that's amazing. It's never been that way before. Zero percent. GM, I think, introduced the idea. I think it was. Was it Ken GM that threw that idea out? Oh, zero percent. And you know, it was a savings of interest. But do you know what's better than that, folks? It's better to drive used cars. To buy good used cars. Cars that are two or three years old. A good used car. And do you know what the neat thing about it is? Most of your used cars out there on the lots, guess what they are? They're lease returns. And the people who leased them had to be careful with them because they would have had to pay for wear and tear. And the people who leased them had to keep them low on miles because they'd have to pay 10 to 17 cents extra per mile over the top, wouldn't they? And people who leased them would tend to maintain them because if there's a problem with the car, they're liable for the car and they need to bring that car back to the lease people so they can get their next lease. So when you go to buy a used car, much of the used car inventory today has been already leased. And leased vehicles tend to be taken better care of because those people are already paying a lot of money anyway. Just an idea to throw on. Now you don't appreciate it. I did the 0% thing. OK, well, I understand you've had the depreciation. But I'd rather not do that than drive a used car. Do you know why? Well, answer. Come on. You're driving a used car. Tell that you're not a little secret. So are you. You're driving a used car. You ever think about that? How about my new? It's not new anymore. It's used. If I bought it from you, I'd consider it a used car. So would everybody else in the world. Everyone drives a used car. So if you can get a good deal on one and avoid some of this, the money that flies out the window, I think it's a good thing to do. Point E. Here's another one. This is an interesting concept. Refinancing. Watch this. Watch this one. Refinancing my home for 125% of its value is wise. By borrowing against my home, I can consolidate my debts at a lower interest rate, and sometimes I can reap a tax advantage. Let me just say, as a preacher with years of counseling experience who has talked to many, many people, the idea of refinancing your home for more than its value is extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Point number one, barring against your home is the best way to get upside down on your house. That means to owe more money than it is worth. Now, I want everyone to pay attention. Well, if I could just warn you about this. If you get upside down on your house, you have become wed to your house. You can never move. You can never sell it. Why? Because you owe more than it is worth. When you owe more than it is worth, if you sell your house, you will be required at closing to bring the difference of what it's sold for versus what you owe on the property. Does everyone understand that? In a case recently that I personally dealt with in helping someone, I told the individual that after the real estate fees and all of the closing costs, that if you sell your home, you need to be prepared to go to the table with a check for $31,000. Because that's what you'll need to pay the bank. Because that's what you owe the bank because your house is not worth that much. How did this happen? Refinance, refinance, refinance. And with every refinance, borrow a little bit extra to clean up some of these credit card debts. And just add that to the house. Oh, but Pastor, I was told that I could deduct all of the interest. Whoopee! I now owe $165,000 on a $110,000 home. That means I'm in deep, deep trouble. Now watch this. There are thousands of people who appear to be fabulously wealthy. who are playing the refinance game. Charge up the credit cards, live real high, refinance the house, put it all on the house, and you'd never know it. But rather than bringing down their payments, they're bringing up their principal, and they get upside down on their house. Point two, if you borrow against your home, you may not be able to sell it without writing a huge check at closing. Remember, you cannot sell a home without satisfying the second mortgage. Point three, borrowing against your home exposes you to serious market risk. If housing prices drop as they currently are, you could end up owing tens of thousands of dollars should you be forced to sell your home. My twin brother is in real estate, and he called me on the phone today to sell to Clear Blue. He's also a pastor, but he's got a smaller church, and he does some real estate on the side. He called me out of the clear blue, and he said, Mark, talk to me about some investments that you're in. I said, Mike, I thought you liked to play around with real estate. He said, I do. But he said, the whole real estate market has tanked. He said, it's not worth near what it used to be. People who bought homes two or three years ago who paid premium prices, their homes have gone down dramatically, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars in value. They still owe almost what they paid for the house. but it has decreased in value. Add on top of that a second mortgage or a refinancing where you took more money beyond the value of the home and you have an incredible debt bubble that you'll never build down on that house. Sprich, what are you saying? I'm saying just when you buy a house, buy the house and nothing more. Don't keep adding stuff to it. It's just a way to build bigger and bigger debt. Be very careful about that. Then point F. Oh, this is great. I've hit on this a little bit before here, but we'll hit it again. New multi-level marketing and work-at-home plans can make anyone rich with only three hours of work per week. Now, that's the good life. How many have ever seen this work-at-home sign that hangs up on telephone? What in the world? And do something. Listen, can I tell you something? You can't accomplish anything in three hours a week. How do you like that? I'll say this, you're spiritually weak if you read your Bible only three hours a week. Ooh. Because that's pretty small. That's maybe just a half hour of devotions a day. Huh? I don't know about the math on that. You figure it out yourself. Three hours a week. Yup. I think I'll spend three hours a week with my wife. Well, that's going to build a great marriage. Maybe it's better off. I don't know. Just kidding. Three hours a week. You can't do anything on three hours a week. Someone recently tried to get me involved in an exercise machine. Listen to this. They said, Preacher, you can get all the exercise you need for an entire week in just 20 minutes a week. Baloney. I don't buy it. Why? Because nothing that is good comes that easily. You have to work at it. Now, all of these schemes are very dangerous. Point number one, all multi-level marketing schemes are a rip-off. That's really That's my wording exactly. Sometimes the products are very good. I like some of the products. I think I mentioned the Amway deodorant. It's so concentrated you only put it under one arm. It's awesome. But some of it are very good, but the prices are always high. You say, Preacher, how do you know that? Because I was in Amway. Okay. I was. I didn't really sell it to people. I bought it because I was told how it was better and blah, blah, blah. And the products were good. But they were very, very expensive. Making money, even in established schemes such as the old Amway, it's not called that anymore, requires effort beyond your wildest imagination. So it worked for them. Yeah, the guy who invented it, it worked great for him. I'm just saying, just steer clear of it. That's all I'm saying. If you want to do it, go ahead. You'll have lots of good toothpaste. Point two, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. And there's no probably about it. I didn't even mention in this, and I should have, Every internet offer that you receive regarding money is a lie and a scam and a rip-off, and there are no exceptions to what I just said. Constantly, constantly, I receive letters from the private personal esquire of the now deceased Prince Bugabuga of somewhere in Africa. And this deceased prince on his deathbed, he converted to Christianity and his final wish to his man disposing of his estate was that this man would locate a good Christian organization to which he could bequeath all of his millions. And the man writes me a letter on a regular basis and he says, we have looked the world over and we have found that you are a good Christian and Uga Buga wants to give you all of his money. I don't believe it for a second. Do you know there are people that write back to people like that? There are people like that that write back. And then after they build a little relationship, pretty soon they're giving them numbers. I've heard of people who've flown over there to try to collect at some African bank. What a dreamer. Any offer over the internet, beware. By the way, let me say this. How many get spam in your internet email file? Junk comes to you, junk. Don't you get irritated by all that junk? I do. Do you know I purpose never to buy anything from a company that spams me because they're invading my personal email box and I don't like it. So as best I can, that's not always the case, but as best I can, I try never to buy anything from those companies because it's a racket and it's a rip-off. All right. Point three, real estate schemes. This is very popular nowadays. Real estate schemes that promise you the ability to purchase with little or no money down. How many have been up late at night and seen the infomercial? Have you seen it? How about Laurel Langmyer? Ever heard of her? Laurel Langmyer and a multitude of these others that promote this idea. Purchasing real estate. Pardon me. With little or no money down, they're debt-driven. The threat of default by such mortgage investors recently sent chills down Wall Street. Dangerous, dangerous ideas. You're a preacher. What is it? First of all, Laurel is not making money in real estate. She's making money on seminars. She's selling books. She's selling tapes. That's how Laurel's making her money. But she's encouraging people to borrow money, to buy real estate. There's a phrase, it's called equity stripping. I don't want to get into what that means, but it means taking the equity out of a property on the front end rather than on the back end after you sell it. You receive the equity by buying it. It always has to do with an under-the-table deal between the buyer and the seller, a deal of which the bank is unaware. So the bank finances a full amount for a property, but the seller doesn't actually sell it for that. He sells it for less. It's a scheme. There's money traded under the table back and forth. These are rip-offs. They're horrible ideas. And people get involved because they watch an infomercial late at night and they say, aha, this is the way to financial freedom. You hear me. It is a house of cards. I don't buy it. I don't trust it. And I wouldn't promote any of it. And you be very careful about this. And then just remember this at point four, if you could get rich working only three hours per week, everyone would be doing it. They really would. The hope of your financial future is not tacked to a telephone pole, okay? And by the way, neither is your weight loss, you know? Lose weight, ask me how, okay? It's just not going to work. It's not attached to that. Anything worthwhile comes by hard work. Now, why talk about all these things? Because if you deal with a slack hand, you'll come to poverty. The hand of the diligent, that is the hardworking, shall be made rich. Don't fall for a get-rich-quick scheme. It's dangerous. And the last one, the lotto could make me rich. If I don't play, I can't win. Quit dreaming. If you do play, you're almost guaranteed to lose. And then somebody says, oh, but pastor, My second cousin twice removed, she hit the big one. For every winner, there are millions of losers. I don't know about you, but I don't like those odds. Those odds don't sound very good to me. Well, here's what you have to do. Keep your money in your pocket. Now, I was at the Murphy gas station up here at Walmart a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, I guess it is now. Purchasing gasoline. And boy, whenever I buy gasoline in there, the lady always says, asks me if I want to buy a lottery ticket. Every time. I don't know if I have the lottery look about me. I don't know. High roller, I guess. She says, sir, do you want to buy a lottery ticket? And I said to her, I said, ma'am, I don't ever buy those things. The lottery is a tax on people who are not good at math. That's exactly what it is. And people who do not have any money By those with a dim hope that they're going to find deliverance, it doesn't come that way. The hand of the diligent maketh rich. So, spiritual, what are you saying? I'm saying be cautious, be careful. Now, next Wednesday, I think I'm going to deal with the topic of insurance. People have a lot of questions about insurance, life insurance. I think that is one of a very important component of your whole financial picture. So, plan on that for next Wednesday. But be careful with what you get involved in. And before you sign on the dotted line for anything, really think it through. We used to preach, what if something sounds like just a great deal? Don't agree to it right away. Hey, if you want, run it by me. I'd just be curious to hear about your great deal. I hear about millions of them, it seems like. Run it by me, I'll tell you what I think. Oh, but preacher, they told me that if I don't buy it right now, this deal can never be mine again. Do you know that that is the line of everyone who sells vacation rental property? I'll tell you, you either sign now or the deal can never be yours again. When the man looked at me and said that, I said, then the deal will never be mine again because I would never spend $38,000 on a whim. And he informed me that one out of four people who walk into those places, one out of four, will spend $38,000 on a whim. He that dealeth with a slack hand. will come to poverty. Let's pray. Father, thank you for principles that we can apply very directly tonight. Thank you, Lord, for the guidance from the Bible. Help us to be careful not to deal with a slack hand in an area so important as is our finances. We are thy stewards, Lord. We must be careful of each thing that you entrust to us. Bless our people. Help us to be cautious. Help us to be wise. Lord, give us ability even beyond our natural understanding in these things. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.