The Night Of The Living Debt Series

INTRO

How many remember those old B movies?

A) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

B) ___________________________

C) ___________________________

-Today I want to deal with a monster that is more real than the ones listed.

-Bringing financial death; emotional stress and marital breakdowns

-Before you get the wrong idea

-I want to say that debt is not a sin

-But if you over feed it...

...it will grow to a monstrous size that you are unable to control

-Let me list some money monsters to avoid

-Because if you get money issues resolved you will be closer to living in the Zone.

1. Plastic Piranhas

-You have them in your wallet

-I am talking about credit cards

-I am not against having credit cards

-I am against credit cards having you!

-AND when you are swimming in INTEREST INFESTED WATERS

-those plastic piranhas are coming after YOU.

-Credit cards are interesting

-They come in an array of attractive colors.

„X They can be thematic -- fishing...golf...cars

„X You can decorate your own card

„X Your name is engraved on it

„X Silver -- Gold -- Platinum levels

-The average household in America carried $8,400 in credit card debt

-If you make minimum payments

-to pay the $8,400 at 18% interest

-it will take you 25 years

-and $24,000 to pay off $8,400!

-Americans carry 736 billion collectively on credit card debt!

-That's 31% higher than 1 year ago.

-The average American receives 50 credit card offers per year

-It seems

o We're on an American Express to spending

o While we need to read the Master's Card

o So we can Discover

o A Visa to financial freedom

-Banks sell debt at 16-20% interest

-They are functioning on your dysfunction

-Citibank will spend $10 million marketing to high school students

2. Debt Dracula

-Like Count Dracula...

...Debt Dracula is sucking the life out of you

Proverbs 22:7 says: "The borrower is servant to the lender."

-This verse is not saying we should never be in debt

-Owe no man...

...means never borrow money we can't pay back

-Debt is not the problem

-It is a symptom

1. Greed

2. Self-Indulgence

3. Impatience

4. Fear

5. Poor self image

6. Lack of self worth

7. Lack of self discipline

-In the Old Testament when a borrower failed to pay back a debt, the law required that the debtor be employed by the lender to pay back. Today, we've been enslaved by debt so that

Our choices are limited

„X Family time is limited

„X Church involvement is limited

New Car $10,000

Monthly payment 12.5% $265.80

Amount paid 4 years $12,758.40

Now if you purchase another car in 4 years and again finance it and continue to do this over a working life of 40 years, you will have purchased 10 cars and paid in car payment $12,758.40 x 10 = $127,584.

The bank received $265.80 per month for 480 months and never had at risk any more than $10,000; they in turn invested that $265.80 in other loans yielding 12.5%, so that they accumulated $3,641,550 on your total payment of $127,584.

What, if instead of making car payments, you paid yourself $265.80 per month and were able to invest that payment at 12.5%, then you would have the $3,641,550, NOT the lending institution!

The true cost of driving those cars is $3,641,550, not $127,584.

3. The Mummy of Materialism

-Materialism begins where your income ends

-Think about it. Materialism begins where your income and my income ends.

-What is materialism anyway?

-Materialism is a preoccupation with things.

-Materialism, though - - and this has blown me away as I have talked about and studied it over the last several weeks - - materialism is not a tangible commodity.

-It's an intangible condition of the heart. In other words, where does materialism begin and where does it end?

-If you make $30,000 a year you don't think other people who make $30,000 a year are materialistic.

-No, no, no! You think the person who makes $60,000 a year is materialistic.

-If you make $1,000,000 a year you don't think that other people who make $1,000,000 a year are materialistic. No, you think people who make $5,000,000 a year are. You say, "They are materialistic."

-You can be materialistic at $30,000 a year and not at $100,000 a year.

-I ask you, where is the ceiling, where is the area, where is that zone that causes someone to be materialistic?

„X What size home?

„X What type of watch?

„X What kind of car?

„X What label?

„X What size portfolio?

„X What kind of vacation destination? ...CONSTITUTES MATERIALISM?

„X I don't know and you don't know

-How can I call you materialistic when I don't know your heart and your life, when I don't know your relationship between yourself and God?