Yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business To guide you to your purpose. This is episode 218 should Christians want riches? Yeah, baby, that is the question of the hour today.
Should you as a Christian, you know, a believer out there Want riches, you know, and I know like most people off top is thinking of course, baby I should want riches and some of y'all like nah, Christian shouldn't be rich You feel what I'm saying? And I think look first things first my goal is to normal I realize healthy conversations about finances for Christians Why first things first because poverty is an idol that I really want to tear down as it relates to people around me connected to me My friends my family poverty is something. It's like I'm it's legitimately just an idol that I am on a mission Specifically this year my mindset is like, you know, we need to tear this idol down and for me It's like well first things first We need to actually normalize healthy conversations about money because one of the challenging things about money as a Christian is You know, I people on these extreme ends of the spectrum of like either people are just like all about getting the back And to the point where they lose sight of their biblical standards and lose sight of like, you know How to get money God's way, right? It just becomes all about money or people dare I say Have a way of romanticizing poverty.
So it's like hey, you're a believer You think you're being poor makes you humble and you know, rich people are just evil and all those type of things And one thing I've learned is people think like that because look some of us haven't had financial literacy Haven't been educated on how to talk about money or we just have had bad experiences, right? We've seen people get money and lose themselves and we are literally afraid of money now I get it on one hand that sound crazy to say and crazy to think like being scared of money I ain't scared of money But you know, they say action speak louder than words and sometimes your actions are gonna tell you, you know Where you saying in this scenario more so than your words? So today is all about answering this question should Christians want riches and I'm gonna dive deep into this topic So if you're a person out there either you got some bread, you know I'm saying you got a little money and you trying to keep your faith keep your sanity as a believer Maybe you're a business owner and you're trying to like practice godly business principles or an aspiring entrepreneur Or maybe you're poor. Maybe you come from poverty like me Maybe you are on a journey and some capacity of just at the beginning and you just like I just know I don't want to be poor but you're afraid to have money this conversation is for you So let's dive into it first things first or second thing second because that whole little intro was first things first Second thing let's first just kind of dive into this topic one by one now Let me say this at the top, you know, sometimes there will be things that I will say that will sound like on the surface that I'm contradicting myself But I just challenge and encourage you to be open in this conversation to come in a conversation and listening like this and hopefully Share your thoughts in the comments or however you want to do email me germane with some music a gmail dot-com Whatever you want to do how you want to express yourself, but let's do it in a mature way, right?
So for me, I'm gonna just be real a lot of this talking at each other trying to be right or trying to be the smartest person in the room It just doesn't work for me I really enjoy diving into topics and really thinking because my goal is to really grow and to really inspire guys people to grow as well So we don't have this conversation in a mature in a respectful way All right, first thing is for me the question I'm gonna answer the question with a question And that is what can you handle? So when you think about as a Christian and asking yourself this question and like should a Christian want riches the first question I have is what can you handle? That's right now? I know most of us think true.
I can handle 20 million I can handle this like mm. Okay, whatever you say father All right, what can you handle now again? Remember I said action speak louder than words, so you might be sitting here like oh I can handle it really easy. All right cool.
Well, it's tax season, right? If you've done your taxes some people gonna wait till the very last minute. I know again That's behavioral right there, but when you get a lump sum of money I'm just using tax season as an example. What do you do with your money?
What can you handle? Do you get money and you just lose it meaning? I tell people your money is like a bad kid Like I go to the mall sometimes I go in stores and I see y'all with your kids And I'm like yo who the mama who the parent who the parent who the child that's who the mama who the parent? I can talk people.
You know this mug. I can't talk All right, so the question is who's in control a lot of times I'm in public. I see a parent with a child and kid just Okay, maybe not that maybe the kid is dang near custom you out because they can talk They're not even crying no more. They just whining and screaming I was actually on a flight last week me and my wife were on a flight and on this flight You know it was first of all a bunch of kids on this flight But it was just one kid she was losing her mind for the first five to seven minutes on this flight in her mom and her dad was Inbearers and frustrated and it took everybody around him to just be like yo It's okay like we ain't even tripping right and they can tell it just ease their whole anxiety right?
What's my point with this your money is like a bad kid if you don't tell it what to do It's gonna do what they want to do. Yeah, that's what some of our money do You know the term burning a hole in your pocket some of us are not in control of our money Our money is in control of us and I'm gonna tell you the problem with this when your money is in control of you It's very hard for you to be living for God as a steward of your finances So one of the one of the healthy ways to think about money as a believer is to stop separating money from your relationship with God What do I mean by this like money is something that is so connected to our spiritual behavior? So if I don't have self-control when I get money that might mean God can't trust me with stuff That might mean it like yo, bro Like you can't be trusted like soon as you get something you change or not necessarily you change your exposed Because money doesn't typically change you it exposes you So some of us if we have to learn how to be real with ourselves and say what can we handle and the reason that you have to know What you can handle is because as a believer Having money is about being a good steward So who much is given much is required right? So that means that if God blesses you with a certain amount of money You are now responsible for doing the right thing with that money now I know a lot of us get a check and we don't think about God at all meaning yeah, like okay Maybe you pay your size in church see I'm talking deeper than that And this whole idea of having a healthy conversation about money as believers We have to get beyond a surface on the surface the only way you ever really hear Christians talk about money It's through the lens of tides and offering in the church.
That's great I am I am not here to dismiss the importance of giving in church. All right, so pastors don't worry about it Don't be scared. I'm not here to tell you people don't give you a church But what I am here to say is that some of us even make ties and offering an idol Remember we still on a topic of what can you handle? So some of us okay, you get you know $10,000 you give a thousand dollars to church You think you've done is great deed just because you gave a thousand dollars to church Congratulations, I think there's an applause here.
Oh, that's not it. Hold on that up there We go I got the applause button somewhere my clean is all right You give the thousand in with the nine thousand you lose your mind with the nine thousand You don't place it anywhere properly. You don't put up money to save for your kids You don't put up money for the future. You don't invest like with the nine thousand of money just controls You guess what you have not please God just because you gave him that ten percent and our relationship with Christ and our Walk with Christ we got to get deeper than a ten percent I should just see this would be happening when I got started talking to y'all it's starting me sometimes like bro With our money we give God ten percent and think we just wowed out with the 90% and he don't see that All right, let me let me kick it with you the parable of the talents Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 through 30 There's this parable in a nearby while I talked about it several times on the show wrote a song about it like here Here go, but there's a parable where this story is about these three servants, right?
And this story is so powerful because these three servants are left with three different amounts of money, right? So one has a small amount in one one gets two talents They're called talents like dollars whatever not literally equivalent to dollars, but a currency, right? So one gets two and another one gets five and what you see in this story is at the one with five and the one with two They take it and invest it and double the money And so when the master comes back then these servants have given more meaning they have been good stewards They could handle five they could handle two notice here a couple of important things Everybody got something different So one of the ways that I like to think about money in the most healthy way is that bro It ain't about how much you have necessarily so much of us get caught on that like so who cares if you got 10 million versus 8 million a million Versus 800,000 like don't get so caught up on the amount of money, you know, 800,000 versus 100,000 whatever it may be It's up to you to manage what God and trust you it. So again, when we start thinking about Should a Christian want riches?
What can you handle because here's a crazy thing in that story? The servant that was given one talent dug a hole and buried the one they were given and the servant was upset the master came back upset with them It's interesting to me. Sometimes how the one with the least thinks it's okay to do the least So this person is really reminds me of a lot of what I see in poverty in life itself Is that remember I said like some of us can make Romanticized poverty and we think to ourselves well I haven't been given much so I don't have to do nothing like I only been given this a little bit So I'm just chill and relax because I'm poor and the system is against me and amended this and we create all these excuses Based on the little we have versus focusing our mindset on Doing the right thing with a little we have and honoring God with it and then understanding that he then in turn will bless us for that That's the first part of this conversation. What can you handle?
So I think it's important for us to Sit and think about that for ourselves before we even answer this question should not not should christian's want riches It's like replace christians with your name should Jermaine want riches should you want riches the question is what can you handle? What can you be trusted with because what you don't want to happen is the last thing you want to happen is to get Chase the bag whatever getting amount of money And then because you can't handle it because you haven't developed and God is unable to trust you with it It completely separates you from Christ now. We see in the Bible sometimes this happens We'll talk about some of it later And so this is why money is such in my mind an important thing because there are instances in scripture where I see finances use as a tool and Provide access to resources you see kings right that were great kings that were followers of Christ That trusted God that lived righteously and you see the same people in those similar positions and they do the exact opposite and they're evil And so the question is not as much about the money itself But it's really like a mirror into our own souls to say what can you be trusted with? Now, I know that's a tough question to answer honestly because mostly everybody wants money, right?
Or at least most people want what money provides, right? Even if you are not necessarily chasing money yourself. Um, There's this quote. I wrote it down.
I didn't want to remember it. I mean I Can't talk people I can talk there's a reason that I put this mug right there. All right, um A determinant poor person will get more value out of life than a spoiled rich person That just hit me as I was preparing for the show a determinant poor person part person person is late I've been working all day a determinant poor person will get more value out of life than an entitled spoiled rich person Now let me unpack that because some people might disagree with that and that's cool If you disagree with it tell me about it and why but a determinant poor person starts at zero, right? Now we talk about value of life I think as a believer one of the second things we have to really think through is we have to stop equating amounts of money to value in life meaning.
Oh, this guy's a millionaire So then now everything he says is worth a million dollars if you have a guy that's a millionaire next to someone who only makes $45,000 a year it doesn't necessarily make the millionaire the expert or the right person in every aspect of life But if we're being honest, that's how we treat it a lot of times But when you talk about the value that you get out of life, um value in life to me is about how we live for God, right? It's about how do I walk in this life? To be the best servant that I can be to Christ and with that might mean can I be the best husband the best brother son whatever parent Whatever you are, it's about how do we grow to become that now? None of us are just walking around as that in its fullness.
I'm not just this great person like oh my god Inspire God's people at all times. No, I get mad when I'm driving in the car So and I look at the person next to me and almost want to say something to but the point I'm making is we think about the value That we get out of life a poor person can live for God can be good to people And can be determined. This is why I said a determined poor person They can work themselves up to having let's say this person works that you know They make $75,000 a year. They give to people they help others.
They say they invest they live a comfortable life They live a valuable life. You have a rich person that inherits it the money from their great grandparents The person is an idiot not nice to anyone selfish does everything for themselves Doesn't even think about other people in any regard in life But yet they drive a Bentley they have all this money they mistreat, you know Waitresses and waiters when they go to restaurants listen this person isn't getting a lot of value out of life And I understand that we are conditioned to think that just because people have money that they have value But I don't believe that I think this is an important piece of answering this question as a believer Because I think as a Christian when God blesses you with money his intention isn't for you to lose your faith Isn't for you to lose your biblical values now if you follow the ways of the world what will happen is you will get this money Start feeling yourself start acting a little different right start being arrogant Maybe mistreating people being entitled thinking you are better than people that's the problem right there when you think you better than people I'm a piggy would have no So as a believer getting money you don't you you can't allow yourself to get to a point where you start thinking you are more valuable than other people Right, and I think that's something if we just be honest again Even if you don't say it which are words a lot of times we say it with our actions All right Here's another thing is we think about your Christians more riches Mindset is worth more than money and we just talked about it a little bit You know with the mindset of this determined poor person But when you think about like the I call it the millionaire mindset and I say the millionaire mindset is worth more than a million Dollars and the reason I say this is because it's more important for me to think a certain way than I have some I give you an example the millionaire mindset and this is something I develop when I because I look at I read a lot of books and study the behaviors of people who have success and millions of dollars And then I've looked at those things and paralleled them with the word of God and I've seen some similarities And I've said okay these people who are getting money even if they don't believe in God They are actually exercising biblical principles the problem is Exercising biblical principles without actually believing in Jesus Christ and having faith in him is really useless in the spiritual Ram although it is valuable in the natural realm But we are trying to find the best of both of those worlds We don't want to be rich without God you get what I'm saying and we want to walk with God and find out all right Lord What are you and trusting me with what should I be a good steward of and of course we want to have a good experience? So I don't think there's nothing wrong with money I just think that if we let money control us or we are conditioned to talk about money through the lens of pop culture and Celebrities and all that none against celebrities out there But it's just the fact that like there is a way that people talk about money in the world that leaves God out right So what I try to do is try to see like where are the biblical principles there? So we're talking about mindset right now when you talk about mindset One of the things that millionaires believe in people and I'm talking about self-made millionaires if you take a person that has Going from nothing is many ragged or richer stories going from nothing to something There's a couple of things that mostly all of them have done and the very first thing is delayed gratification They understand this idea of delayed gratification and what does that mean that means that they understand that if I get $5,000 today I could go below that $5,000 But that's the poverty mindset because the poverty mindset loves things and they love the now But the millionaire mindset is about understanding the things in the future beyond today that have value that I might need to prepare for Right I think that is a very strong closely correlated biblical principle in value this idea of really denying yourself right now We're talking about the mindset the mindset of a Christian is To deny myself and follow Christ well if I'm denying myself that means that I am having delayed gratification because let's be honest in my flesh The thing that would be of the most Gratification to me instantly instantaneously is doing whatever my flesh want to do is like however my flesh want to while out And we all got a flesh so it's like yo, however your flesh my flesh want to while out like yeah, you feel those temptations We are all human I feel those temptations right but the thing about it is Can I have the mindset of a believer to have the leg ratification to understand that to focus on Christ in this short term?
We'll put me in a better place in the long term see how we talking about how you think so if you start thinking about Your relationship with God in the same way of your relationship with your money to a certain extent money is not God Don't take that as that right what I'm saying is that if you start using these principles to grow your money meaning okay You get $5,000 versus going out and blowing that money. Let's think about the things in the future that are valuable You have a child your child is gonna you know want to get their first car one day or they're gonna need money for a suit for graduation Or whatever it is your child is gonna have many things in the future that are beyond today that our needs right? So it's like you know what let me take a thousand dollars of this 5,000 and put it in the bank and my child's name in their account It's a covered air future needs all right. Here's another one.
Okay, you know what? All right, I got these bills every month that I've been living check the check on How about I put another thousand dollars aside just to help me get slightly ahead with my bills now instead of paying my phone bill two weeks Late I'm paying my phone bill two weeks early notice in these behaviors. We are developing a mindset in this mindset You are being changed well if you think about in Romans 12, I believe man now y'all gonna make me go to the Word of God You feel me? I always got to go to the Bible.
What are you doing sister? Thank you. Thank you. I always got to go to the Word of God Be transformed by renewing your mind.
That's Romans. I think that's 12 and 2 The thing the reason that I'm pointing that out is because spiritual transformation in the Bible happens in the mind Now a lot of us think that money solves money problems So what we do is we say hey, this is where the stimulus checks and things like that come in And I'm not about to get into politics, but I just want to make this quick point That's why those type of checks don't change your life in a long term because you're getting a handout without the mindset of What to do with the money? So what we keep doing is we keep applying money on top of the problem because we think money answers and solves money problems But it doesn't a new mindset solves money problems anybody out there if you have money problems I've challenged you right now to start thinking about changing your mind I just told you something simple pay your bills two weeks early versus two weeks late You will start realizing that once you get ahead now Just think about that what it does to you mentally when you are constantly behind on bills and constantly late on bills and paying late fees and overdrafting fees And I've been there so this ain't me pointing a finger. Don't take it like that This is from someone who has walked that walk live that life done it once or twice and came back with some rice Alright, anyway, I don't know what that was about.
I just needed to run. I'm a rapper at heart I needed to rhyme at the end. I've lived that life. I remember one time about I guess it was about 14 years ago now time is passing But I can remember man.
I overdraft our account like negative three hundred and thirty three dollars And I was calling a bank like bro. I'm calling a bank like it's day for you know I ain't that crazy I go out and I mismanaged the money and I called them like it's there for but I was I was hurting I was panicking bro, but the mindset of being behind does something to you psychologically You're walking through your entire life always behind settling for being behind so you think it's just about the bills and I paid Don't ever but it's a mindset that you're developing when you flip that and now you're ahead See the Bible save you to head not to tell right see we say stuff like that But then we are behavior doesn't reflect it when you start paying stuff early versus late It's a different vibe you feel different now all of a sudden you feel ahead in your life It starts pouring over into other aspects of your life Like I'm ahead and then you start believing that and now you can start walking and being ahead and not being behind right? And so again, it sounds like a my a small thing But that change of mindset with what you do with that five thousand dollars which we talked about three thousand of it But even if you took the other thousand put it use it for your daily account and maybe treat it yourself to something and invest at the last Thousand then now you have now instead of taking five thousand and done one crazy thing with it You've thought about something and you planted seeds. All right.
I'm about to say something That is definitely controversial. You gotta wait for this one. I'm about to say I wasn't planning to say this on this episode This is really controversial money does grow on trees Wow, I should just get up and walk out of the studio Money does grow on trees. I who wants to argue?
We're talking about a mindset here I thought a lot about this I actually had a whole episode that I was gonna do called money does growing trees I decided not to do it and for some reason during this conversation today I just decided to say this so now I'm gonna unpack it money does grow on trees What do I mean by this a lot of times we talk about money? You believe this without even knowing you believe it when you're in in church And you talk about giving during ties and offering. What do you say? It's C so in time Come on y'all.
So your seeds. We already know that money is a seed. All right. I Thought a lot about seeds in planting and I thought about the fact that when you take an apple seed in Planet or apple tree You know what?
Let me not try to be an expert in something I'm this one part right here on the type of seed because I don't know do you plan an apple like does an apple tree grow off? Aple seed or is an apple tree see I don't even know but I just know the concept steel makes sense. All right When you plan to see maybe we should go with something else I don't know Let's let's go with Apple and if I'm wrong you gonna have to deal with it This is controversial money does growing trees when you take an apple seed and you plant it It does not just the seed doesn't just produce one apple you give it I'm saying if you plant the seed for an apple tree Right one seed you plant it It grows a bunch of apples whoa wait a minute a tree Doesn't produce the fruit of the seed Just once just because it was one seed the seed produces Multiple of the same all right hold on wait a minute you plant the seed you water to see you nourish it It grows this means that you don't just throw it there There's a the parable of the sea sewer right so you don't just take a bunch of seeds and throw them anywhere Right because now you got a plan them in the right ground right we talking about money All right listen to me you plan them in the right ground and then and you nourish it this means it takes time This means it doesn't happen overnight. I don't believe in get rich quick schemes I don't believe in like I don't play the lottery.
Oh go play the lottery get rich I don't believe in none of that because when you get money overnight the money grew faster than your brain and now your mind your Education don't even know how to handle the money you got which is why a lot of athletes go broke Which is why the average person that wins the lottery hundreds of millions of dollars they go broke why because they money Grew faster than their brain. They don't have the mindset to even control the money. They have so they lose it You feel what I'm saying poof be gone Thank you so much male. All right.
I know alright So if you take this apple the seed for apple tree you plant this one seat you take care of it over time You nourish it you do the right thing right you water it you give it the sunlight all right Let God so let the Sun shine on you right so you take your money you planted your money in good ground You you put it in the right places at the right time you nourished it you watered it you ain't just spend it right You're not controlled by your money You can hold off on the Louis bag you can hold off on the on the J's and the Yeezy's you can hold off on all these Things in their do time you are nourishing your seed you're taking care of your seed you watering your seed And then you understand that through delay gratification over time when that seed starts growing if you put a thousand dollars in there It's not just gonna get you a thousand see when you make a good investment or you you know You could put your money in a CD in a bank and get 5% interest these days over a nine to 12 month period That means it's giving you 5% more than you put in there that means that it's not just giving you back what you put in That's how seeds work. All right. So now that we understand whatever nay Not that you understand this concept that if money is a seed if it's properly planted properly nourished over time Let the Sun shine on it water it take care of it It's not just going produce one dollar because you put one dollar there now I got to go back to Matthew for tap chapter 25 versus 14 through 30 to parable of the talents when the person with the five talents When it invested their money they doubled the money to 10 because money is a seed that does not just produce whatever you put it Double it it didn't just get you one. All right cool.
Now. We're not done. We're not done if money can be Leveraged like a seed Then if I take care of it that also means that not all seeds seeds planted in the wrong ground don't produce good fruit So that means there's bad money, too. Oh, there's bad money.
Oh, money ain't good money fam See some of us love money so much that we'll do anything to get it I don't believe we should operate like that as believers I don't believe that money should be the main thing I'm going after see in this conversation of trying to have a healthy way to talk about money I want to talk about the value of money the pros of money how to leverage and use money But I don't want to talk about money in a way that it controls us I don't want to talk about money in a way that if you don't have it you are less than or you can't get it Especially if you're operating in the mindset of a believer in the principles This is more so about a lot of us are only broke not because we ain't never made money We broke because we ain't never properly stewarded money a lot of us more money has gone through your hands Then anything else all right think about it a person that makes $50,000 a year over 10 years I hate to put it so you you have just made $500,000 somehow right you ain't even thought about it that way you made $50,000 the last five years well Guess what you touched $250,000 one way or another you stewarded $250,000 or did it steward you you feel what I'm saying? Do you feel what I'm saying what up fam? Thank you so much? So here's the other part to the money growing on trees This is why I love it you do the wrong thing with that seat just like a parable of the sewer You can you can sew in background and that money you played a lottery all these years You went to the casino one two thousand dollars is gone Just like that money is gone money gone you had it is gone But here's the other beautiful thing about understanding that money grows on trees When you see a tree this is dope to me when you see a tree Let's say you drive it on a freeway and you see a tree It all usually just be one tree Ain't too many times in life that you see a tree And you just see one see this is the beauty of planting seeds When you plant multiple seeds in multiple places over multiple years When a group of trees come together at some point it's at least a park right at some point It's a park you keep going it might be it might be a force at some point you see a group of trees It's the jungle.
I was in Honduras last week. I'm looking out like my wife was like that's the jungle I'm like that's the jungle whole bunch of trees, bro. What is the point I'm making the point? I'm making is a lot of us you didn't just get your taxes this year That's one seed you got a bonus from your job.
Yeah, some of y'all won a case some of y'all got a stimulus check You got a PPP these are all seeds every time you get a check every time you get a lump some money These are seeds that you are planting somewhere and what most of us are not realizing is that we got a whole forest in our hand By the end of the year because money does grow on trees. What does that mean? That means that I believe that you can plant over here. All right cool Get the right thing with this money cool Did the right thing with this money gave something to some people that needed something help the church Like you can plant seeds over time And then just let them grow the problem with us is this is what we're doing with our money We getting our checks we put in the ground.
We pull it out. It ain't a tree yet It's not a tree yet, bro. You up rooting that money and just you got all these seeds all these trees in your hand But you won't let it be a tree You won't even let the month some of us can't you can't save $250 because you just looking at it in a bank every day like oh Well, you know I need some of us our needs increase the money we get money like bro calm down act like you've been somewhere before I ask people all the time like I simple questions. What would you do with $25,000?
Most people tell me how they would spend $25,000. I'm like that's not a plan for $25,000. That's a plan to spend $25,000 But how can you grow it start thinking about your money as a seed that grows Extra money that grows into a tree that has money on it when you start thinking about your money as growing on trees Then you'll do better things which I'll see you see some of us look at something look at money as something that scares like oh my god I gotta hurry up and spend it because this is the last time I'm listen if it's that scarce if it's the end of the world They don't have value anyway stop letting your money control you take control Whop your money. I know we don't whip kids.
No, no cool. I'm not telling you to whip your kids But I'm telling you to beat your money beat your Beat your money because your money is running you some of us getting rammed by this money You feel me Renee look we guilty as ever all right money does growing trees I'll talk about that more later but if you do the right thing with money time and time again look get your taxes this year and figure out the right way to do things because You keep complaining that you don't have money and you keep telling your kids that money don't grow on trees So when you tell yourself that money doesn't grow on trees that means you don't treat money like a seed because there's no way You could you could call money a seed like there's no way that you could call money a seed and then tell yourself that money Don't grow on trees because seeds produce fruit of their kind If money is a seed then it grows into a tree that produces fruit of its kind All right again if you I feel it I know you can't rock with that I got you but it's a mindset when you think about this idea There's this concept pay yourself first right this is talked about Robert Kiyosaki talks about it in rich dad poor dad Which is one of my favorite books the richest man in Babylon gives this concept Which I think Robert probably got it from that book is like over a hundred years old and the richest man in Babylon talks about it Robert Kiyosaki Kiyosaki talk about it You'll hear a lot of wealthy people use this term to pay yourself first now again on the surface right it doesn't make sense Because you're thinking I got bills like I got like I don't got time to be like what are you talking about pay myself first? Well once you have a mindset where you are responsible when you're in control of your money pay yourself first is a great thing Because you're trusting and paying a responsible person. Here's the point when you look at all your bills Most of us think about money through millions of bills, right?
I need enough money to cover these bills what you do that is important But what happens is that's not money that is ever grown into a seed that's that's not a seed that's growing That ain't really great ground You just don't know you throwing those seeds off to the side those are just recurring bills that you need to pay But they're not growing into anything if you live a life This is the problem with living check to check or live in a life where you just have liabilities meaning you live and check the check And then when you do get a couple extra dollars you're going by something that doesn't grow like it's not you're not planning You're a money seed in good ground right you're buying something that you want and you feel good about it because you don't understand Delay gratification yet, but then over time you look up and that money was gone and you can't even remember everything that you did with it, right? The idea of paying yourself first is once you start becoming financially literate and understanding the value of money Then you could say well, yes, I need to pay these bills But be like I need to always have some portion of my money going into good ground that's gonna grow and produce fruit of its kind There should always be some portion of my money when I get any money some portion of it That means things like learning how to invest now. I'm not advising you financial I'm not a financial advisor I'm not telling you to run and go invest money if you don't understand what invest it is or how it works I'm urging you and challenging you to go out and study investing learn how to invest we study everything else We study like some of us spent hours on social media and we can't spend 15 minutes a day reading a book about finances yet We all want any money, right? Investing is a powerful tool and whether that be real estate whether that be the stock market whether that be crypto A lot of investing is about understanding how to invest but or hey saving in a in a savings account interest bearing account They do exist these days you have online banks.
All you got to do is look at deposit accounts calm That's how you can look at all the banks in the country and see what their interest rates are and hey Go and put your money somewhere where we're gains four or five percent these days Interest rates are so high when interest rates and inflation happens what people don't know is like the bank The banks also have to give more as well not really your standard brick and mortar banks, you know, the everyday banks You're not gonna get a lot of value But if you go and find certain banks you will get four to five percent on savings and things like that Maybe you pay yourself first to put twenty five dollars in a savings account Remember this is a seed that you're planning and you're grooming over time. This is an important thing that I'm about to say We have to stop thinking about money as something that needs to happen quickly Look you've been broke for 20 years That didn't happen quick being broke don't even happen quick you've been cooking like being broke is like a mirror a chicken just Marinating for years you just we get used to it. We get comfort I was broke for years you get comfortable being broke being broke sometimes it's a superpower like how did I even make that money last? I remember one time me and my wife went to Vegas are one-year anniversary went to Las Vegas Man, I think we had like three hundred and some dollars over like four or five days How many days it was the hundreds we didn't have a hundred dollars per day in Las Vegas, okay?
Just take that into consideration. This was a while ago though But we came back I think I had I don't remember if it was six dollars or nine dollars I remember we went to breakfast at last day to this restaurant It was called like the American something restaurant in the New York, New York Hotel That restaurant isn't there no more they had some really good breakfast the pancake was like the size of a plate and I remember I think that breakfast was like thirty six dollars or something I had about forty five dollars and I was like whoa we barely made that like we barely came home with dollars But I'm like yo, that's that's pretty good on one hand I exercise a superpower because I made that money stretch on the other hand what I didn't tell y'all that I just thought about that was my rent money I was late on my rent they charged me a late fee I was mad and I got so mad when my lease was up I moved from that place simply because I was like a day late on the rent and they still charged me and I was just mad anyway That that's the story all right. Let's keep it moving should Christians want riches. I got a couple more things three more things to say Find a purpose greater than you notice I'm not really answering a question for you This is a question that you should be thinking about and I'm giving you things to think about as you answer the question for yourself Find a purpose greater than you one thing that I don't believe I actually think a lot of non-believers with money understand this But poor people enrich people think about money differently How do I know this because I've been poor and I've read a bunch of books and listen to a bunch of podcasts about how rich people think right?
So it's like being poor. I thought about money a particular way, right? You really think about money from a very selfish standpoint This is why poverty is such an idol to me that I want to tear down because poverty makes you selfish Because you feel like all I can do is think about me because I don't have nothing I can't do that like it's just about me right or Or you enable others to be like that because people in poverty are also enablers They're like one of the one of the key aspects of poverty is that no one wants you to learn for yourself Right we want to give everyone handouts and we want to think we can save everyone from poverty by giving them handouts Which you can't do that doesn't mean don't do charity. Excuse me.
You could give you could do charity Let me take a sip of mine what I got here apple juice apple juice in here today Look charity has its place, but charity ain't gonna change your life charity a change your moment I mean if I go and stand in the line on a soup kitchen tonight That's necessary I get soup tonight, but I don't get soup for the rest of my life Right and so charity has a very particular a specific purpose, but we have to understand a handouts answer in immediate needs Sometimes that's great, but they don't answer the overall need nobody overcomes poverty by handouts, right? You can again you can get you can pay one bill you can get something that night, but then two weeks later your poor again You're still poor so poverty It just it does something where it makes us think that we can just Make someone else get out when I believe that you a person has to be educated out of poverty I think financial literacy and healthy conversations about money and changing the way they think about money and they have to decide to not want to think like poverty And poverty has such a stronghold on people that literally some people with a poverty mindset Will hear some of the things I'm saying today and literally argue me into their balloon of face But these people don't have money and so one of the things that's interesting to me It's like a sick person arguing with a with a doctor who has given you know a remedy to someone or whatever that that Heal them as I you still sick and you telling me why everyone has to be sick But these people over here are healed and you just haven't accepted the healer right? This is how we are with Jesus is like we just haven't accepted them And so it's a mindset a stubborn mindset to want to stay in sin That's how poverty is some people actually want to stay poor because it actually Reinforces their mindset victim mentality blaming others creating excuses poverty helps you keep that fire brewing and going right as long as I have a poverty mindset You know I can think like that LFG a isn't the best way to manage money is to stay on a written budget Yes, I think that's a great way to manage money. I really do Here's how I feel about that Because people have different perspectives about budgets the general answer to that question from my opinion is yes I think one of the best things you could do is first right down your all of your expenses people frame this up as what it Cost to be you we've talked about that on the show before I understand what it costs to be you start there and then you know like budget how you're gonna afford to be you right?
So yes, and then stay within that budget that that represents disciplines and things like that Now I do believe that as you grow your your both your education and your finances some people choose to stay in a written budget I don't necessarily personally think it's as important to stay to the dollar within a written budget But I'm more so stay within the philosophy right so it may not be to the dollar for me But the ideology of this money goes over here this money goes over here this money again What I do is I look at how many grounds do I have right? This is how I plant my money seeds? It's like All right, we have my future over here. That's one ground and I want to plant seeds in it We have my immediate today.
I call it today tomorrow forever So we have forever I want to plant seeds in a forever bucket that might mean my retirement account or IRA or thinking about you know The older me alright great. We want to plant seeds today for him and his wife like alright me and my wife We plant no seeds today. We want to we want to take care of the today Right, we want to plant those season and stay within that and then tomorrow tomorrow may be a vacation in six months, right? tomorrow may be having an emergency fund for the Just in case the water heater goes out right?
So I look at it through the lens of today tomorrow forever and then when I get money I plant seeds in each of those grounds and the more seeds I can plant in each of those grounds they grow over time And so then it becomes less important for me with my specific strategy and philosophy to necessarily budget down to the dollar But like let's say if I got a thousand dollars today I will potentially decide alright How do I want to plant this thousand dollars already know the grounds and I do think that's the importance of like a budget and writing things down Is that you need like most people are freestyling with money? That's how we operate in poverty That's how I operate when I operate in the poverty I just got money and thought of what I was gonna do in the moment and then you look up in the money is gone literally You didn't even plan but I think a plan is important because it's like alright I got a thousand dollars alright are we gonna split this up? We got we know we got three grounds to plant in which are we gonna plant a thousand in one of them five hundred and two of them Or three thirty three a piece and all of them. That's how I look at it whenever I get something So again, it's not I guess in a way I'm still splitting the money But it's less about that and more just about like if I can keep planting seeds in each of these grounds And here is the important part and this is also the challenging part for people The challenging part is remain in discipline to those grounds And I'm gonna give you the example because what will happen is once you start planting in your grounds You have to exercise discipline not to touch the money in this ground to like you don't pull trees Early that's how I look at it like I planted these seeds.
I'm watering these seeds. They need to grow. I can't start pulling Premature trees out of the ground and haven't fully grown and developed to take care of something over here to the left Right, so meaning you know, I'm not taking money out of my retirement account because Because my auntie need to pay her phone bill, right? So it might be like well, I love you auntie But your phone bill is not life or death number one.
I just watched you by the new Yeezys for two fifty three weeks ago And then now you're coming to me because you you hurt me on my podcast talk about the money trees So now you thinking you got some great, but you ain't understanding that no, I'm just operating in certain disciplines I might not even have that much money I just have a philosophy of how I'm spending my money So this is where I love it because it's not even about how much money I have who cares how much money I have Whether it's a lot or a little I know that if I keep operating in this philosophy over time Lord willing by the grace of God I will have what I need for each of those buckets as they come up But I don't pull from each of them just to make other people happy look. This is a part This is a part where people Really struggle with when they give money and I'm gonna answer the question. I see the the question in here What do I mean not not down to the dollar? Give me one second.
I got you. I got you This is a part that's tough because what happens and this is a challenging thing about money is that? When people think you have money you might not change but people definitely change it's a it's a weird thing in life but people will change and You have to have some level of discipline you have to know when it's something that you got to be led This is why God needs to be in a picture because you need to be led by God to know or when do I need to step in and do something? And when do I need to hold true to my values because you don't want to be an enabler and it's one of the one of the tough things in life is When you can enable somebody especially somebody you love a lot of us enable those we love What do I mean by being an enabler?
I mean? All right? I see my auntie over here She refuses to manage her money properly to pay her phone deal I feel bad that her phone bill is out and I know I got the money But I'm watching you every month auntie if I keep paying this phone bill for you You're never gonna learn the values in the principles of God remember what I said earlier a poor determined person will Gain more value out of life than a rich entitled person So I'm not saying no to you auntie to be me I'm saying no because that ain't gonna solve your problem You just gonna come back to me next month after you miss manage your money What I would rather do is give you this free game and teach you exactly what I'm doing And it's a choice for you to do it as well And if you want to grow money trees you can go plant in your own ground and now you don't have to come to me And you feel better about yourself because now you are the head and not the tail about you are the lender not the borrower We talk about those things we talk about being a lender not the borrower But we then we got a borrower mentality we only operate as the borrower But we say that all the time now. What do I mean about not down to the dollar to answer your question?
What I mean by that to be specific is like some people Write down a budget and I know successful people that do this as well So I'm not this isn't about me saying don't write down to the dollar Well, I'm saying some people will get money and they will write down exactly like all right I got two hundred dollars for food. I got one fifty for this I do think that's really good to do in the beginning. I just have a different personality I'm more of a macro person So I look at the big picture and on a big picture I know that I'm gonna try to split this money three ways when we're another right now Maybe that mean I spent four hundred dollars over here and 350 over here whatever for me. It's more about Planning in each of the grounds then saying oh my god I said I was gonna spend two hundred dollars on entertainment this month and I spent four hundred dollars over No, I like for me.
It's not it's not like that I'm not but again I want to be clear that when I wonder the first things I said is what can you handle in the beginning of this conversation? We have to know ourselves. I know myself. I know that I'm a fairly disciplined person when it comes to finances.
I know that Also, no, I'm a big spender. So I just am in certain moments So what I mean by that is like I will operate in delayed gratification. I will you know not spend money for months I don't waste money. I don't look at it as like I have money to waste But then I'll go to dinner with some friends and just decide in a moment.
I'm paying for everybody like so for me It's like it's like I will overspend in a moment that I see is valuable right? I try to again like I I love experiences and moments and so again there are moments that that I will just maybe over extend in a particular moment But because I saved or like had so much discipline for so long It was less about in that moment spending a hundred dollars versus three hundred dollars and more just about operating these disciplines to give myself a little Leadway to be able to color outside our lines. So, okay, you said that make a lot of sense cool So I wanted to make sure I answered your question or that was a great question But I think it's about knowing ourselves and really knowing what you can handle and again like being real with yourself and I'm gonna say this as we talk about should a Christian want riches I think you know, I say I find a purpose greater than you one of the things we got to realize is the why is very important Why do you want money? Is very easy to want money just to show it to other people.
Let's just call a spade a spade like let's just be real right? There is a part of us that wants people well, especially people in your past. You definitely want them to know you successful And then people in your present a lot of time you want to compare so maybe they're successful when you want to prove You're just as successful as them. Maybe they're not successful when you want to show that you are successful, right?
So I think one of the things is a believer that we have to do is fight our flesh, right? And this is something that I try my best to do. I'm not saying I do it perfectly whatever I think it's something we should strive to do Social media is probably the easiest way that most of us do it. I get example that I see the absolute most Person gets a new car.
They got a dance. It's like they post 25 pictures of this car and it's like I want to thank God For blessing me this person got a Porsche. Thank God for blessing me with this Porsche person gets a huge house The post is like isn't God good and it's like I'm not judging you for that, right? So this ain't I've seen this a million times I'm saying about nobody in particular But what I always look at it as I'm like, yo, if we just be real with ourself, you kind of just wanted to show your house Let's let's be real like you kind of just want to show the house It's kind of like you ever see a guy talking in a video And you could tell when he just got a cut he like turning I'm like why is my man like turning his head?
It's like oh, he got a fresh cut this video is just about his haircut I see it all the time like this video means nothing you didn't want to say this yesterday before you got the crispy cut But I get it you got a haircut you want people to see it to a certain extent That's understandable, right? But I think as believers we have to be careful of why do we want money It shouldn't be the stunt on people and this is that like the reason I'm saying this is because some of us want to just show off designer Brands and big houses and fancy cars and jewelry and things and what we're doing is we're perpetuating a mentality with people to be Excessive and the Bible talks about you know all things are cool and moderation, right? It's like hey, maybe it's cool You got you know you got a chain here a jacket here this and that whatever it is But when you present fashion and things that are expensive at the forefront Without ever actually talking to people about like why that's good. Why is bad?
We don't give any context you just keep showing me Louis Vuitton every week now. You're influencing me. You're an influencer, right? Christian influencer you're influencing me now.
I want to be like you now. I'm going to waste all my money to look like you You're this preacher. I watch on TV all the time. You're this person I see this singer I see on TV all the time and I want to be like you and again you can you can say like that's my fault But the Bible talks about not being a stumbling block under others We should provide context to people to let them know like hey, man I you don't got to go out and spend no money to prove nothing to me and like don't waste no money You need that in your retirement fund fam like that's gonna have way more value in the retirement fund than on Instagram You showing me that you got a certain car or something first of all Can you really afford that car because I'm beyond as like cars was expensive the last couple years and they took incentives away They just brought incentives back like literally in January February this year But the interest rates are higher so even on leases and things like you have to this is like the value of being financially Literary is also understanding the time horizon so then you start understanding not just the right thing to do But when is the right time to do it right?
Let's see we got another question over here Why do you think Kristen is especially Villainize money and make it seem like it's bad to be rich. We're nowhere in about yeah Like I talked a little bit about that at the beginning of this where I think it's just that we don't have healthy ways of talking about money And people get turned off sometimes by what seems quote unquote evil or negative I give you an example right some of that is actually the church has fought to me you have a pastor You see these famous pastors and this is no shade like I'm not here to like bash people and stuff But I believe in context right like so if I was walking around with a private jet like And I was a public figure whether publicly or privately the people around me They would know the context of like why I got the jet always tell people I'll tell you how I got it because I think how you got something is important as well So you will have like pastors as an example famous pastor. They got a private jet well They're not really telling us what money they using to get it So what ends up happening is you know, well, we're just looking in the summer like well You ride around a private jet and you still asking all these poor people for offering and ties and stuff you using the church money Dada. Well, maybe that pastor let's say if that pastor was a real estate mogul Before he was even a pastor or while he was a pastor and he has his real estate money again That's one tree one ground He plant maybe he don't even take a salary from the church and the church is literally his service unto the Lord Well, if you are a real estate agent or entrepreneur You may jump on money by all means get a jet a portion a big house in all of that But if we understand that contextually then now we're understanding money in a healthy way and we understand the saints are given in the church Is going towards the church you're transparent about your your balance sheet and what you're doing in your budget But what you end up having a lot of time in church is you have these pastors and leaders who are showing the material things without context And so you have poor members sitting in a congregation of a church watching a person has perceived to be wealthy Without the context of how they gain their wealth or what's happening with this money in a pastor may not be doing nothing bad So I'm not here to say you doing nothing shady I'm just saying what it looks like and so as believers a lot of times That's why you hear people talk about pastors in a certain light.
Where's like, bro? I don't just talk about it Why don't we just have a platform in a space to actually discuss money and then why don't we also teach and educate members on how to take Care of their families and maybe they're not going to be a millionaire like you because the reality is maybe they don't have a million dollar Idea, but I think as believers We just have to find ways to talk about money in a healthy way and then we will be able to get beyond some of those unhealthy ways In my sense about money you feel what I'm saying appreciate it fam. Definitely appreciate it Look here's an important thing we need to learn from the Bible I wrote a couple things down the prodigal son I wrote down three three stories in the Bible that I think we can learn from and this is where I'm gonna end this episode at The first one is the prodigal son We always look at the prodigal son through the lens of the prodigal son coming back home and being forgiven and welcome back in And that's a very important aspect of the story But I think what we can really learn from as well, especially financially is how did the prodigal son end up out there lost with nothing in the first place The prodigal son took his inheritance early he uprooted a tree That wasn't ready to be uprooted. It had not fully developed So he had to see right that his father this inheritance that he had that was a money tree that was gonna grow in the right time And then what he could do in the meantime is stay in his father's home Right where he had access to his father's resources and money taking care of things Let that tree develop and then in the in due time you take that tree once it's matured Again the mindset of the prodigal son was that I wanted now he didn't understand the lay gratification now about a grace of God Just like me.
I've been broke You might have been broke you might be richer than me and had way more money than me now Like you might have it off at the end of the day though It's not about the amounts of money It's about the mindset and it's about the fact that yes God does forgive us He gives us a second opportunity and that's a huge part of this is that you don't have to feel like no matter where you are in your journey Don't feel like you can't overcome it. That's my real message Don't feel like you can't overcome it to get what God has for you But also understand how you got there you got there because of some of your decisions I overdraft in my account because of decisions I made I was laid on my rent because of decisions I made I'm not blaming anyone else and that's the mindset that we have to have we have to stop blaming everyone for everything in our lives And then you'll stop expecting somebody to come and save you and rescue you from problems you created and that you have the power to overcome Now I'm not talking about like oh you're sitting here starving You know somebody a family of starving tonight and you're not gonna feed them because you're talking about hey Where's your money tree? That's not what I'm talking about We should help people in their true times of need but we shouldn't be enablers I don't believe in being an enabler But I think the prodigal son teaches us hey don't grab don't approach a money tree too early like have some discipline some patience Control yourself be able to see money some of us say we want to be millionaires But every time we get five hundred dollars in a bank We spend it because we can't control ourselves. How could you ever be a millionaire if you can't be a 500 here be a 500 here Be a thousand here first some of us want to just bless me with a million God No, I'm gonna bless you with a thousand and see if you can just look at that for 30 days without spending it Some of us can't look at money without spending it and say we want to be a millionaire.
You will lose that overnight All right, so that yeah that victim mentality Whoo, that's not a guy I said at all secondly story of Joseph This is a different concept that we can learn about money in a power in the mindset to give to others and to save I talk about the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis a lot and it's one of my favorite stories in the Bible I've made my most popular YouTube video actually is like 15,000 views and it's a one-minute video of me talking about This strategy that I'm about to share with you right now Which is this 20% saving strategy that I took right from the book of Genesis it's a financial strategy and this is where Joseph God gave him the interpretation of Pharaoh's dream in this interpretation He gave Joseph the exact plan of how to save during the famine save during the good times to be prepared for the famine Right, so again, it's this delayed gratification mindset, but what was most important was when the famine came Y'all got to hear me out people may look at you like you crazy. They may laugh at you I've been laughed at I've been laughed at for saving laughed at for making a good financial decisions in a particular moment But then when the famine comes when the time comes understanding the time horizon the time horizon I explain is like, you know today's situation and circumstance isn't always reflective of tomorrow's and that's why I have the today tomorrow forever Because I'm understanding the time horizon of how time passes and situations change You don't want to just waste all your money in today and I have nothing for tomorrow forever Which also though the most amazing thing was when he Operated in this savings plan that God had led him to save 20% of their week in their resources for seven years of good times To be prepared for seven years of famine when the famine came everyone was coming to their land Everyone was coming there for resources his own family who sold him away in slavery found themselves coming back to Joseph without knowing it was him for resources And one of the most powerful things in the Bible to me is that Joseph although he cried and whipped he took care of his family and They sold him into slavery when he shared the dream and the idea of them bowing to them him and then later on they bowed to him and He was able to use the resources he saved in their greatest time I need a lot of times people close to you want to take from your tree too early without knowing that they're taking from the tree That's being planted to save them in their time and eat I love that think there's a lot that we can get from that and understanding that part of being a good steward and having these conversations about money is Growing in maturity financially. Let's just be honest some of us are immature financially We don't know how to talk about money properly We don't actually know how to have a discussion around how to be a good steward because we're not looking at the word of God to guide us in our finances Lastly the rich young ruler With everything that I've said today. I want you to understand That the rich young ruler was a young man whose money became such an idol to him that he chose his money over God over following Jesus Christ Don't matter how much money you get it.
No matter how successful you become No matter how many money trees and all the stuff I just said you have It should never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever come before Jesus Christ And then maybe a time that you got to sacrifice all your money your money may lose its value But your life didn't lose its value if you the Lord give it the Lord take it away If you lost everything you had today and had to start over you still have something worth living for because you're a follower of Jesus Christ If you if you've accepted him as your Lord and Savior and so my point there what we can learn from the rich young ruler is that part of this ability to have a mature Conversation and thought process and development around finances is to understand where they belong on your priority list Excuse me. They're not your number one priority Finances don't come before God and if you ever find yourself in a situation in life where you got to choose money over God Always always choose God. Listen. I've enjoyed this episode and kicking it with you This has been inspire guys people episode 218 if you enjoy this, please do like share comment subscribe on youtube at inspire guys people Um, yeah, man.
I love doing this. This is something I'm passionate about this podcast I have my ups and downs with it. If you want me to be honest, um, just A lot of it is just, you know, what do I want to be doing at this point in my life? These are the type of conversations I really want to have on podcast and I know that people are really into spicy while content a lot of people don't really want to Kind of have these type of conversations and so I'm challenging myself to continue to present them in the best way possible because I do enjoy them Um And I love inspire guys people, but I'm busy I got all kind of things going on in my life and I'm really working on prioritizing where everything stands You know what I'm saying?
Like where does inspire guys people fit versus where? You know, my corporate career fits versus ministry versus music and you know look the beautiful thing about life is like Life has different seasons and times and I try to be aware of what I should be doing in a particular moment But I enjoy this and I appreciate everybody that listens to this. Thank you so much lfga Appreciate it. Um, but yeah subscribe on youtube.
I got an interview next week. I think we got next monday I got an interview coming up. Um, I'm looking forward to that with an entrepreneur out of the trade area She's doing amazing things I've been watching and following her for a long time and these are I would have had these conversations and highlight people in the Body of Christ man and I believe will inspire you and help you become genuinely a better person Um in your walk with Christ. So that's what this is all about much love to y'all Man y'all having amazing amazing amazing day.
This has been real