God's Intent for your Finances pt 3 of 3 (Specials)
Vern Peterman · Jan 30, 2010
Specials, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926153264510

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to take a look at some things in God's view of debt and take a look at that. Part of it is just looking at our own country. We saw before that household debt curve that just was going for the sky. How are you doing? Glad you could join us. The other thing we have here on page 27 is this U.S. daily bankruptcy filings. This chart, which as you can see, has just grown and grown and grown, and it just, other than some slight dips here and there, just keeps going.

More and more bankruptcy filings. By the way, most bankruptcy filings, I say most, are not from people accumulating credit card debts, although that's certainly a percentage. The greater amount is unexpected illnesses, injuries, and medical issues. That's the majority cause for people filing bankruptcy. Which tells you, you know, you need to be prepared for those kinds of things. Between putting money aside and having insurance coverage and that kind of thing.

One of the things that talks about borrowing and lending, we're going to be looking to Proverbs here. And by the way, someone might say, wait a minute, isn't that the Old Testament? How come you're drawing from that? There are principles out of the Old Testament that do apply. And a great deal of Proverbs is not specific to the Mosaic law. It is simply pieces of wisdom that apply over time. So that's an important insight here.

Proverbs 3, 27 and 28, do not withhold good From those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it, do not say to your neighbor, go and come back, and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you. In other words, if you can pay it off, pay it off. If you're able to do so, do it. Not accumulate the debt.

And we also have this other principle, the rich rules over the poor, the borrower becomes the lender's slave, which we've talked about here. I'm going to turn to page 29. What's interesting, and I'm going to the middle of that page there, the New Testament epistles do not approach the subject of borrowing and lending directly. There is a brief passage in Romans that talks about it, but in its context, the focus doesn't seem to be a prohibition on borrowing as much as it is a continuing to love one another and pay your taxes. And the context is right after a passage on paying taxes. In every case it deals with from the standpoint of where one's love is and being content with what we have. That's the passages right above there. Where is your love and being content with what you have?

That's the biblical approach. So there isn't a prohibition on borrowing, it's a discouragement of borrowing or only borrowing very carefully after great and considerate thought. So key point there, but notice that The issues are not just some external rule, like you must give this amount of money, never borrow, something like that. The issues come back to spiritual issues. Where's your love? For example, an overseer, an elder, is to be free from the love of money. It's not that he's not supposed to have any. It's not that he's not supposed to get any. It is free from the love of money. It's the heart issue.

That's why we start in this thing before we get to the how do I do this and how do I do that with the spiritual issues at stake here. become a slave to anyone. Doesn't that refer to David? Well, if you look at it, it doesn't say that. The context in 1 Corinthians is looking at, you know, you're the Lord's.

If you look at the debt situation, the context is not immediately addressing it, but it does point out that we're not free to just go out and just borrow willy-nilly. We're not free to just go out and borrow because we've got a bunch of credit card applications. We need to be very careful and very considerate about things.

Borrowing money is a presumption on future income. It presumes future income. Do you have a guarantee that you're going to have some future income? No. But borrowing is something that is discouraged or to be looked at only with very great care. Let's take a look here. Page 30 gives some principles of borrowing.

Never even consider borrowing it if that borrowing appears to be motivated from the sinful nature or from the world's myths about money. This is an instance where a temporary spiritual dependence on the world and the flesh can generate a longer term financial dependence. For borrowing to be biblical it should be from a place of dependence upon the Lord. Number two, borrow only for valid needs and for sound business investment, but not for whim, fantasy, dreams, vanity, impressing people, or fulfilling of worldly myths. People often will borrow for all sorts of wrong reasons. Borrow for what is substantial and of value, not for things that are either not sufficient collateral for the loan or a rapidly depleting or depreciating asset. Don't borrow for a vacation.

Even the assumption that the real estate will always hold its value, we've learned that that's not so good. People in Las Vegas area and some other areas are just walking away because their houses have halved in value. The markets in some parts of the country have dropped 55%. So the presumption that the real estate will always hold its value is not a valid assumption.

Therefore, don't borrow when the loan is likely to exceed the value of the collateral. Borrowing for shorter time frames is better in this regard too. 4. Do not allow borrowing to be a replacement for good planning or having the perspective that God is sovereign and all money is really His. This idea of it's God's money can be used as an excuse for being irresponsible if we're not careful. Oh it's God's money so I'll just borrow it and that's fine. No. You as a believer have a stewardship in these. Number five, have a preference for keeping the loan short and the interest rate as low as possible since borrowing is a presumption upon future income.

This is why the above counsel is given and why unnecessarily long and or expensive loans are not desirable. The counsel often is, oh, just spread it out, take as long as, let's lower the payments, make it go as long as you want. That's not the encouragement that we would give here.

6. Be careful about loans that have tricky conditions, complicated factors of unusual circumstances and origination, repayment conditions, unscrupulous lenders. Loans have elements of risk already, so you don't want to take on more risk than you bargained for or is necessary to achieve the goal. One of the things that happens, I mean, I'll have a credit card company will say, well, you know, we'll take on this thing. And for the next 12 months, we won't charge you any interest. And then if you were late one payment and it all has to be as late by an hour, all of a sudden the interest rates 25, 30%. Ah, okay.

The next one, don't take on a loan you don't intend to repay or that you can reasonably foresee might be unable to repay. Remembering that all the above caveats and cautions have come about because loans have been shown to have a number of risks. Get help in assessing these if you are not sure. You want to be careful what you are obligating yourself to, both from a legal and a moral standpoint.

It's sort of like these payday loan centers. They're extremely cheap. I need $200. I've got to have it today. You go in and you write them a hot check for $225. Well, it's only $25 on $200. It's due in one week. It's 650% interest. And then you can't pay it, so you've got to write another hot check for $250 or $260 to cover the $220.

Yeah, I have a good friend that has an acquaintance who runs one of those businesses and he said it is extremely lucrative because it falls outside the interest regulations and, boy, they can gouge you deep. And typically the people that go to those places can't afford what they pay.

All right, now, if you have debts now and see the need to pay them off or reduce them, there are some points of counsel there. Because we're running out of time, I won't go over that. But if you find that you have debts or if you are talking to somebody who does, these are some good points. There are six points from the bottom of page 30 on to the next page about counsel. deal with those debts.

I would again point people, if you've got an issue, to talk to Bruce. He's a specialist in helping people dig out. Alright, savings, page 32. We look at this, this is the ant principle, and we've looked at this verse before, Proverbs 6, 6-8. how the ant prepares her food for the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.

Here's Proverbs 10.5, He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps and harvests is a son who acts shamefully. Some of those, another example of those provisions that we point to here is Joseph's dream, and actually Joseph dealing with Pharaoh's dream, and his anticipation of future need was an example of saving up for a future anticipated need. And so because of it, Things were placed into Joseph's hand to provide for the people of Egypt and actually the rest of the then known world.

The basic saving principle, bottom of page 32, is this. It is fully biblical to see a need that is coming up in the near to longer term future and save from current income to meet that future need. The need to save may arise from an anticipated period of lower or no income or from a need that is larger than regular income flow will provide for when the need arises.

We've got lots of those things. What kinds of things on your car are predictable future needs? You know what I mean? The tires don't just magically wear out, right? Pretty much tires have an expected lifespan and you need to replace them, right? So you can budget for that, right? Regular maintenance. Just the need to change the oil. You know, it's really important to do the regular maintenance, too, or all of a sudden the expenditures go through the roof.

I talked to one fellow, and I was telling him I had a Volvo. It was an old used Volvo, but I had a Volvo. And he says, yeah, those are really good cars. We once had one, and we didn't either change or add oil for two years before the engine froze up.

So yeah, anticipating a future need. How about with a house? What kind of future needs do you have on a house? Yeah, a roof is one of those. When those come due, you really want to replace it, okay? What other needs? Painting, windows. Yeah, you need to go through painting. Plumbing, electric.

Yeah. How long does a hot water heater last? You found that out? I found it out twice by coming home to a flow of water underneath the garage door. Those need to be replaced. You have intervals of having to replace things on the house. Does it need to be a surprise? No. Basically, you can look. In fact, for free, a roofer will come and take a look at your house and tell you about how many years you have left. And how much does it cost to replace a roof? Are you going to do it yourself? Or are you going to have somebody else do it? What's the price for each? How much do I need to save every month to have that one that's there?

One of the things that surprised Nancy and I is when we started doing the budget, not only did we start paying our debt off fast, But we were amazed at the account balance in our checkbook. Because we were, for shorter term things, saving money there in the checkbook. We had some interest coming off on it. But, amazing.

Accumulating for various needs. And the reality is, a great many of those are anticipatable. Not surprised. shouldn't have to go and have some panic, pulling some money out of savings, or worse yet, putting it on the credit card. Not necessary. A great many of the future needs that we have, college, those are things that we can save for. Those are things we can anticipate. If we save every month to anticipate those future needs, no panic, and the money meanwhile can be gaining interest. instead of paying interest when you pay for the surprise meat.

So you're saying Friday night pizza is not an emergency. Yeah. Neither is the vacation. Right. Yeah. OK. Next, here are some other principles. of saving and investing. Principle. Savings and investment cannot be put on autopilot or placed without thought.

Left to themselves, savings will likely not do well and will likely not provide for future need. The person must put sufficient attention into the placement, monitoring, and management of savings and investments such that the future need will be reliably met. Only invest in what you know about. Don't invest in what you don't know about. That's not the only principle we'll have. Knowing what you're doing, thinking about it.

I think I'll invest with this guy named Madoff. He's got a really great bunch of investments I've heard. I don't know anything about him, but let's put the money there anyway. Making sure that the money is put in some place that's reliable. Making sure that you've thought through what you need. All these things are anticipatable.

Is there a place really? Because you would think that mutual funds are money markets like we have. and they weren't reliable either though. Is there anything reliable that you can invest in? Yes, but what you have to do is to check on their reliability and have something in place to manage it. A lot of people have lost money in the last two bears of this decade and the thing is what they need to have in place is at what measure will I opt out of this thing and so not to take the big hit. There needs to be something in place to monitor Where am I going to pull out of this market? How am I going to protect my savings?

When we put money in the bank, we say, okay, it's FDIC insured. When you put money in, let's say, a mutual fund, it might be a good investment. But, you know, as we talked about earlier, the problem is, well, stocks always go up. Well, we found out that's not true, right?

And so the question is, do I have something in place? Maybe it's a rule, because you can put in an order that says, if this drops below this price, sell. Something to preserve the income. It was one lady I was recently telling, not a Christian even, it was a Jewish lady. She had lost a whole bunch of money, and I said, we need to have something in place there that says, I'm not participating if it drops below this point.

And you need to have something to protect yourself in those events. And as people who just sit there and watch it, and don't have something in place, that's where they run into trouble. And it's happened a lot. It's happened a whole bunch of people. There's another half to that, though. Yes. When it comes up, it comes up fast. It can.

And so because you're on the sideline, you're not going to get your money back. And that's the other thing, is a person needs to have something in place to say, when do I get out and when do I get in? And if you don't have that, the assumption the stock market will always go up isn't going to work. And it can be a killer. When do I get out? When do I get in? And there are various kinds of systems out there. Some of them are real simple.

If it loses more than 10%, I'm out of here. People frequently will act either just in sort of shock and not do anything and not have anything in place, or they will react emotionally. You know? And so what will happen is, oh, I've lost two thirds of my money. Now I'm going to pull out. Well, you're right. That might be the time when the market's starting to go up.

They need to look carefully at having something in place. There are different indicators and systems out there, something in place that says now's the time to get in. Now's the time to get out. And protect themselves. That seems like there's no way to know if somebody's right. Timing.

Yeah, I know. There are ways of doing it. One one way is simply with the stock market to look at moving average rules or moving average rules of thumb out there that work beautifully. If you back tested, it works for the last two centuries. And so that's one. But there are indicators that you can use and you need to have something in place.

Otherwise, as we see has happened this last decade, people's portfolios can get killed. Let's take a look here. Next one, recognize that while we don't know the future, only God does, we know that there are risks and it's better to distribute one's savings into areas that are not subject to the same risks. If it happens that one area of savings is diminished, the others will likely still be in good shape.

Ecclesiastes 11.2 above that says, divide your portion into seven or even to eight, for you don't know what misfortune may occur on the earth. Somebody said, I had all my retirement in Enron. Don't! I had all my money in the world come, you know? Don't! I mean, there's a bunch of celebs that had all their money with Madoff, and he made off with it, eh? Right?

The biblical counsel here, Ecclesiastes 11.2, is divide it up.

Don't put all the eggs in one basket. Somebody who had a lot of money with Enron but only had an eighth of their money with Enron would still probably be in pretty good shape. If they had an eighth of their money with Madoff, they would still be in fairly decent shape. If the person that put all their money with Madoff and all their money with Enron and their entire savings with WorldCom, they're in deep trouble.

OK. So divide it up. Divide it up. There is risk. You need to manage the risk. But a part of the management is divided up. The next principle on top page 34, while there are many applications of this passage confirmed by other scriptures, one must recognize there is a time for every savings to be placed somewhere and to be withdrawn for use. It is eventually the savings to be called upon to use. Further, in the same way that there is a time to plant and a time to reap, there are timing elements and investments that we need to know about. Some times are good for one and some times are good for another.

There was a time when you could put your money in stocks and it would just go up and you didn't have to worry about it. In the last decade, we've found that that's not a good thing to assume. Right? Not a good thing to assume. The next one, exercise diligence in savings and investing as well as doing planning. Going for quick, easy money fix will put one's savings and one's future at risk. Money will not be safe and will not grow because of negligence.

Okay? So if you have no interest in it at all, should you just not be in it? The thing is, you cannot be apathetic about it. That's for one. I even read one investment manager say recently, people don't care about their money. How do I know? Because people are just throwing it away left and right. Very interesting observation, rather cynical. One is you have to do look at it. Do be diligent with it. Don't just blindly put it somewhere and figure it's fine. It's not.

Here are some factors in investing, and I think a really good start, and so we'll take a look at that. Safety has to do with the return of your money. It's not the return on your money, it's the return of your money. It's will I get this money back? And that can be a key thing. I mean, we see things hit the headlines, large and small. We've even had some guys here in Colorado that are really good at absconding with people's money. So first of all, how safe is the investment?

Will I be able to get the money out at all? The next is the liquidity. How easy or hard is it to get the money back out? One of the things that people are finding is that at present, it can be tougher to get your money back out of a real estate investment. There are other times when that's not the case, but you need to be looking at the time. What time is it?

Cash assets like a bank or mutual fund are typically liquid, except some are required to keep your money in for a period of time or depend upon some condition outside of your control. But liquidity is the next one. The next is volatility. Price going up and down like crazy. And one of the things we've been dealing with lately is bubbles. You know, real estate bubble and you hear various things.

Something that happened during the 1600s was the Dutch people learned that the price of tulip bulbs was starting to go up. And so a number of them began saying, I'm going to take some money and buy more tulip bulbs. And some other people said, man, the price is really going up. I'm going to take even more of my money and buy more tulip bulbs. And that drove the price up even higher. And then some people said, man, the price is going up.

And they went and they mortgaged their farms and homes to buy tulip bulbs. And finally, the price was just through the roof for tulip bulbs. Well, what finally happened is somebody said, these are just tulip bulbs, guys, you know. Oh, man. And so they start dumping them. And the price just went screaming down.

And all these people who had gone and mortgaged their farms when the price was up here, they're in a panic to sell it as fast as they can before the price goes lower. And of course that's kind of an extreme and intense case, but we've kind of had these rolling bubbles in our economy and in our society, and we're probably not done.

So a key thing, volatility can be another one. And finally, the last one has to do with return on your money. What I suggest that people do is to use what we have here as a Savings and investing pyramid. The idea of pyramid is you've got some stability at the base, right? A wide base. And to break things up this way, you need to have a conservative base focusing on the return of your money. Not so heavily concerned about the return on the money, but just a conservative base. Next, you can have an investment part of the pyramid focusing on the return on your money. Accepting and managing the risks and again something you know about, not something you don't know about.

If somebody gives you some hot tip, oh just invest in this, I don't know what it is. Today there are so many different terms and financial things available. You ever hear of an ETF, an exchange traded fund? It's a stock that you can buy that's in a particular index, whether it's a country, whether it's gold, whatever it happens to be. And there's a whole bunch of those and people can invest in things they don't even have any knowledge of. You can get derivatives, which are, what is it? Well, nobody really knows. You can invest in things that are very ephemeral and floating. And there are people who will try to sell it to you. Don't invest in anything you don't understand.

You know what a hedge fund is? Hedge funds don't hedge anything. They're a hedge fund because people have to have a million dollars or more, therefore they fall outside the usual regulatory requirements. And they don't necessarily hedge against anything. And so because they're only lightly regulated, They can do all sorts of things with them. They can be very risky.

They might be profitable, but if you don't know anything about it, whatever it is, don't invest in it. If you don't know what a viatical settlement is, don't invest in viatical settlements. Okay? Don't invest in anything you don't understand. Now, I put at the top of the pyramid speculation, focusing on a possible even higher return on your money. It's okay if people go on with the truncated pyramid. If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. Okay? Don't do it.

But even with this, you notice I've graded it conservative and then higher rate of return, maybe speculation, if you know what you're doing, and only if you know what you're doing. Even still, divide it up into seven or eight parts. That's the biblical counsel, right? So don't even have all your money in one bank. That's too much to keep track.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is the divide your portion principle. We've had banks here in Colorado go kaflooey. So it can be tough. OK. More detail here on the conservative base. I'll leave it to you to take a look at. Look at that. I'm going to go to page 37.

There's the know your flocks principle. This is an urging out of the Old Testament to know your flocks. In those days, the flocks would be a significant investment that somebody might make and the counsel of the Old Testament there is to know what's going on, look at it.

Before investing in anything, we're best off to make sure we know about what that investment safety, liquidity, volatility and rate of return are and other aspects that are impacting the investment. Since the seller of an investment may be knowledgeable but possibly lacking in objectivity, an independent assessment of these aspects of this investment may be in order.

Only invest in things you know about and understand. And by the way, only invest in things you know about and understand. While the saving and investment plan triangle shows investment and speculation categories, a person is better off not entering into those areas at all if they do not have knowledge of these areas. Don't invest in what you don't understand. Next one, divide your portion. Divide things in seven or eight parts. Don't end up being a, I had all my money in Enron. Don't be an, I had all my money in World Cup. Don't be a, I had all my money with Barney Madoff or Bernie Madoff. Plans of the diligent.

Not everyone can afford to spend lots of time studying investing and some have more aptitude than others. But each person is well advised to take a diligent approach to this area that is sustainable in fitting their own makeup, needs, and situation. If you don't feel like you have the wisdom to invest in a particular area, at least check out to know that where you're investing is with somebody sound. There are a great many scoundrels out there. who would love to take your money.

It's wise to put a priority on getting good consistent objective information so you can understand that you can understand and will help your understanding at a pace that you can maintain. So this diligence where you can keep it up. Not just, I'm going to study something for a little bit and then kind of let it all go. Pick a pace, pick an area, pick things that you can stick with at some regular diligence. That provide for one's own principle.

If a person loses sight of the fact that savings and investing is for the purpose of material provision for one's own and savings and investing can absorb time and resources out of balance with the rest of one's ministry to and responsibility for one's own. Oh, I can't spend time with the kids because I got to spend all this time on investing. So the urging there is certainly be diligent but also realize it's for providing and they need more than just money. And then the last one is that there is a time principle.

Investors realize that there are some times that are better for a type of investment than others. The idea of buying and holding doesn't work well when the value of what a person is holding is dropping like a rock. And look for, okay, how am I going to know when to get in and how am I going to know when to get out? If I don't know, maybe I better not do this. There were a lot of people who assumed from the 80s and 90s that stocks would always go up. In the last decade, they've found that they don't. What do I have in place that's going to tell me, OK, now it's time to get out? Now it's time to get out.

Page 38, spending less and having more. This chapter goes through the items in the order in which they are found on that budget page that's in the back. And I'm not going to go through that now other than to point you to that as if you're looking for particular considerations about... Here's another one that's an anticipated thing. I'm just glancing on page 46.

Gifts for Christmas. Gifts throughout the year. Gifts throughout the year are usually not quite as big a deal as the Christmas gifts, because that tends to be one lump sum, unless you're in Vern and Nancy's family, when most of the family is born in September. One of the things Nancy and I found is that people spent about the same amount for gifts throughout the year as they did for Christmas.

Just roughly about the same amount. A few exceptions, but in general that seemed to work pretty well. But going through the different categories of your expenditure and looking for ways to save, making sure things are considered properly, and also People need to be realistic in comparison to the rest of their budget. There's all kinds of flexibility.

If you're really into buying some expensive laundry soap, I guess you can do that, but you've got to learn, okay, where am I going to cut somewhere else in order to accommodate that? We were counseling with one couple and the husband insisted on having $700 a month personal entertainment expenses. And it was just real hard to make the budget balance with his insistence on that. He needed to get the real, right? So anyway, those are pointers on dealing with the budget. I'll just pass on that.

Let's go to Chapter 9, which is the things that count, what really matters most. This is a consideration of actually specific questions that people tend to have. One is when should a wife work outside the home and we have some some biblical considerations there And so I won't go into the details there to point that out, but that's available The next one I think we will spend a little time on its page 49 is Homework church and life in general. How does one balance these things? Only find a watch that had 36 hours. No Yeah And one of the things life keeps changing right just about time to get it figured out the kids have grown up a little bit you know taller and bigger and they're getting older and having different needs and For married folks, the biblical priorities look like this.

One, relationship with the Lord. Two, relationship with our spouse. And by the way, this is key. These priorities are extremely important. When Nancy and I do marriage counseling, people having these priorities out of order is a very frequent issue. Relationship with the Lord is first, relationship with our spouse is second, and notice what word do I keep using? Relationship, relationship, okay? Relationship with children at home, the ones who are at home, relationship with extended family, relationship with the church, relationship to society including government. I've seen instances where even as much as one of the kids ends up being more important than the spouse. So that can be an issue. Okay, and then for a single person, the biblical priorities look like this. Relationship with the Lord, relationship with extended family, relationship with church, and a relationship to society including government.

Now what is the value of having these priorities here? Why does that help when we're looking at finances? influence where you spend your money. Yeah, you know, for example, we've talked about giving to the church when we've given the principles, but if I'm, you know, giving money to the church, but my kids aren't fed, that's not good, right? If I'm doing something that is farther down the list, ahead of something, meeting the needs in the areas where I have primary responsibility, then that's a problem.

Here's what's interesting, even this one relationship to the Lord, a relationship with spouse, our jobs are to be actually a ministry to the family, a provision for the family, right? But it's possible for the job to get out of whack. Here's an interesting statistic. In a confidential survey, 80% of pastors admitted that they were spending more time with the church at the expense of their family than they are. Which also probably accounts for the fact that by occupation, pastors are the number three divorce rate by occupation. Kind of amazing. Having these things in place here and keeping them in priority is a time issue and it's a money issue. We need to make sure that we're meeting the needs where they need to be met. I'm in the middle of page 50 here. There's a right-pointing arrow.

It says obeying your parents, being parents, and caring for parents. It is a quick outline of the honor your parents principle. When you are under their roof, obeying them, if a person steps out of the house and is then a parent, being a parent, And then what does honoring parents, honoring your parents mean when you're an adult? A lot of us are in this spot. What does honoring our parents mean when we're an adult?

Being there for them, helping them. Okay. Yeah. In other words, at first, At first that honoring may be simply a matter of having a relationship of respect, but there may be needs for assistance, physical assistance with things, trying to help them when they can't handle certain things, and then may even come some medical situations that require more constant attention. So I think that's part of it. When we look at these priorities, there's this kind of stages of life issue.

And even at death. Both my parents are still alive. Nancy's parents were both home with the Lord. And her dad died very quickly, so that was not too much of an issue. He went from being a healthy, walking guy to all of a sudden home with the Lord. But her mom took some years, and Nancy had to spend some time caring for her, and I, in marrying her, actually signed up to support her honoring and caring for her mom.

So that's a, when we look at money issues, that's a part of what we have to look at is, what stage are we at? And what stage are the people that we have a responsibility for at? Nancy's folks are both gone, so the issue was off the table for them. My folks are both still around, so the issue was very much there. Both of them had various kinds of health challenges.

The caring for the parents becomes an issue to consider when you're looking at the finances. Next question we have is how should I start a business? How do I start a business or should I start one? We have some considerations there and it's certainly one that the Bible addresses.

Here's Jesus before he started a ministry. What was he doing? He's running a carpentry shop in this little town called Nazareth, right? And probably since Joseph was out of the picture, It seemed like the last time we saw Joseph, Jesus was 12 years old. Since Joseph was out of the picture, he was likely working until the younger kids were brought up.

Here's Paul, what did he do? You had the question earlier about, you know, Paul didn't want to be a burden to the church of Corinth. So what did he do? He made tempts, right? So, Jesus had a business. Paul had a business, right? So, even in those cases where they had ministry, they also had business. Many of the disciples were what? Fishermen, right?

So we have some outline points there to consider when a person ought to start a business or not. And then after then, when one does run the business, what are the considerations? Now something else, real important one I don't want to forget. is what documents ought to have in place in our culture. Those are key things. We brought these up in the main service before. There are these, the bottom of page 51, a health care power of attorney. Someone can make health care decisions if you cannot. I highly recommend that you have that in place. We made use of it with Nancy's mom. and it was extremely valuable to have in place.

What happened is Nancy's mom had a surgery and as she was coming out of the surgery she was not yet conscious because she was still under the anesthetic. The doctor came to Nancy and said, we've got to go back in right now. She's got a clot in her leg and if we don't do it, We have to amputate. So we can go in now or amputate later. Which one do you want?

Well, Nancy had a health care power of attorney. And the next thing she had was a third one down, a living will, in which Nancy's mom says, do not amputate. So Nancy had no question, where do I sign? She had the power to sign, and she had the direction from her mom. And here's what I do and don't want. Her mom wanted no amputations. So it was a no brainer.

It was real easy to do and Nancy signed off and they wheeled her right back in the operating room and took care of the clock. Well have things changed or before children were allowed to make decisions for parents and now you would have to have her conscious in order to let her make that decision?

No, and that's the reason for the health care power of attorney. To give someone else the power to make that decision when the person is not able to make it on their own, when they can't make their own decisions. When you don't have that document, what's the course? Then it becomes complicated because the question is who has the authority to make the decision? And then even worse, suppose the various siblings don't have agreement on what you're supposed to do. Oh, boy. I mean, because it can get to the place where it's just a big court case. But even if it isn't, it can still be a hassle.

In Nancy's case, she had the documents. She already had them. Here's copies of it and everything. And the doctor would come out, sign, and right back into the surgery room, and you're ready to go. If that had not been in place, then it's sort of, okay, do you have authorization? And some other sibling comes up, I don't want that. Boy, it's a mess. So it's a matter of having it laid out ahead of time.

Who has the power to make the decision? And the living will spells out, and if I'm not able to say so, I don't want this and I do want this. She had a no amputate and do not resuscitate on her living will. So Nancy had no question about what she wanted. But they didn't have to wait for her mom to become conscious and therefore wait until the clock was a real problem. Nancy could tell him, I have authorization and I know that she doesn't want an amputation, therefore go in and do it right now.

The other thing is the financial power of attorney. Someone else can make financial decisions and you cannot. And that was the case with Nancy's mom. So they were able to go in and make that. And the last one is a will, trust, or a pour over. A will or a trust and pour over will.

In a trust document, what they'll do is they'll have a trustee relationship, but the only thing that is in the trust are those things that are explicitly stated. Property, cars, financial assets are explicitly stated as being a part of the trust. If they're not explicitly stated, they call it funding the trust, as being a part of the trust, they're not. that is not explicitly stated as being in the trust. So you either have a will which handles everything, or the trust and then the pour-over will to handle anything else that's not explicitly stated as being a part of the trust.

You have to actually take it one step further, Bernie, that any asset that you place into that trust must be recorded as in that trust. That's right. You can't just stipulate that it is. That's right. So everything that goes in that trust, especially if there's a requirement to have a document to that effect, you better have it documented properly and all the way.

I've seen people go and put together a trust and never fund it. That's a waste of time. That's like doing nothing. You have to have the trust document and everything in it, and it's still advisable to have the pour-over will for anything that isn't explicitly stated and legally identified as being in the trust. If you don't have a will in place, then the state has one for you. You may or may not like it. But by that time, it's too late to do anything.

Those four documents are important to have in place. You can see an attorney about it. If your case is not terribly complicated, Dave Dimery is one who has helped people around the church do that. He's got some software that helps do that. You can see him to get some of that filled out. You can also get, you know, there's a will maker and different pieces of software that are out there and do it yourself. But I highly recommend that you do it.

It's one of those things where after the fact, you know, real hard to fix. And I've had to go in and try to fix it where they don't have it and it's just a nightmare. Also many doctors now they carry the power of attorney for medical, the health care power and the living will documents, doctors and hospitals will frequently have those available. Anyone that's an adult, no matter what their age is, from 18 on should have a will.

Yes. In place no matter what, because the state will. Yeah. That's the problem. The problem is the state will come in and do various things and it can just be a mess. It can be some of the legal hassles will go on for years. especially if there's anything contested or anything of the sort. Having these documents in place is a huge, huge advantage. Real easy to do. With Nancy's mom, we had these documents in place. We did them all just on home software. We never had any issue with any of it. There was no problem at all. On the other hand, when besides yourself, he has a copy of it.

Yes, and I've been through a situation while I've been here at Holly Hills where I had nightmares running, making multiple trips downtown to Denver and getting calls, you know, from the morgue and, you know, what are you going to do? And oh, just a terrible nightmare because things weren't in place.

So please get those in place. Very important. Have you ever heard of a thing called five wishes? No. Somebody came to our workplace and they had some program, Five Wishes, recognized by multiple states, and it's kind of like this. Yeah, and there's one way, I haven't heard of that one, but it's basically a similar kind of thing. There are software, there are forms.

You can go to an attorney and have them do it and pay a chunk of money. If your situation is not complicated, You probably can do it without an attorney. You don't need to pay an attorney if your situation isn't You know those long-term health care in nursing homes are giving them that five-wish program Yeah, yeah, just highly recommend it Suggest you do it And then on page 52 What is my responsibility to children and to parents as the years go by?

It would be an understatement to say that life goes through changes over time. What happens from the beginning of it to the end has many possible turns and there are some general things that can be said about our responsibilities to children and to parents as we and they go through the various stages of life. So when we come to finances, Parents have responsibilities to provide for children while they're at home and provision of daily needs for sustenance and saving to provide for future needs, including training of the child on the way that he should grow up occupationally. At this stage, it is fitting for children to honor their parents by obeying their parents. There is also a need both when children are at home and when they are gone from the home for the parents to have the above-mentioned documents in place.

Next page there. Care and needs related to their aging or disability including items covered under the financial and health care powers of attorney and living will. Dealing with end of life matters such as burial, handling of estate, etc. When Nancy's dad died One of the things we did is I sat down and went through, okay, here are your financial assets.

I recommend that you put the money here, here, and here. I gave her some recommendations for some very safe but higher than bank rate of interest in order that she'd have enough money providing for her daily needs. And it worked out very well. So in that case, that's what I could do to contribute to it, but all sorts of things need to be done. Okay, and then the final thing here is looking to the Lord in all these things.

In the end, we're not going to take any money with us. We're going to leave this earth, we won't have any money. You can put a check in a coffin if you like, but it's still not going to be worth anything. Right? We just can't take anything with us. But what we can take is everything about money that the Lord intends to use to grow us in Him. and those people around us. So that's the key. That's really what's principal here. We could give you all the mechanics, but the spiritual perspective is the most important thing. That's why we started with it and that's how I'll end it.

Okay, comments, questions, exasperations? was helpful. OK. All right. Good. Now, on any of these subjects, we have more information. I've gone over this quickly enough because I've gone over 53 pages and, you know, less than three hours. But if you can certainly read the information that's here, I can give you more information on anything here that you're asking for more help in. OK. Let's break.

Lord, as we consider this, we just ask that you would guide and lead and direct us, that you would give us insight and understanding. And we just would pray that you would work these things into our hearts and into our lives and into the people we love and care about. We pray in Jesus' name.