[00:00:00] Well, hi everyone. Hey pastor Cal here. If you were with us last week, you know that we began a brand new series it's called in God. We trust, and we're talking about our relationship to God and our relationship to money. And I am so thrilled that you are with us this weekend, because this weekend we have a very, very special guest. Her name is Rachel Cruz. Is a number one New York times bestselling author. She is a financial expert. She's the host of her own show, the Rachel Cruze show. And I'll tell you what, for, from 2010 to now, she has worked at Ramsey solutions, doing what I love to do, uh, and that has helped people manage money so that they're actually blessed by what they have instead of curse by what they have. And she is so good at this, helping people learn how to budget, how to save, how to invest, how often handle all of that kind of stuff. She's been on a number. Prominent TV shows like good morning America. The today show a live with Kelly and Ryan. I could go on and on and on you get the idea. One last thing I want to tell you about her is that she is a wife. She's been married to her husband Winston for 12 years [00:01:00] and she has three kids and she has been willing to come out here and be with. And separate for the weekend from them. And I just don't think we should take that for granted. So, Hey church, you know how to do this? We have a special guest. You make sure Rachel feels welcomed. Let's put our hands together right now and welcome Rachel to central. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it's such an honor to be with you guys. When I first saw that intro video, I was like, not many times Matthew McConaughey shows up on a Sunday morning. Uh, but there he was on the screen. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm so thankful to be with all of you and all of you and every campus here at central church. And those of you watching online. Uh, it is always my privilege to be able to. Whether it's traveling or thank you the internet to help people. When it comes to a subject that's really difficult, you know, money is a. Topic. There's a lot of shame around money, a lot of guilt, a lot of [00:02:00] regrets. And what I find is that it's just difficult for people to engage the subjects. And then you almost kind of go into the Christian world and it's even that much. Kind of like, oh, I don't know. It's a little awkward. And so I love the fact that pastor Cal and you guys, you just dive into these topics that can be kind of difficult, something like money. And so the fact that you guys are walking through this for multiple weeks and understanding God's word when it comes to the subject, I think is so important. And so crucial. I think a lot of people will hear me or see me. And, you know, part of my story is growing up. In the Ramsey family with Dave Ramsey is my dad. And they make a lot of assumptions, kind of a thing off the bat. You know, whether that's oh, Rachel, you've probably never struggled with money. You know, you you're probably perfect when it comes to that or you probably had mutual funds, birthday parties growing up. And had budget camps every [00:03:00] summer y'all were probably just obsessed with money as the Ramsey family. And thankfully, that was not the case, but my perspective, even within my family is unique because I was born the year that mom and dad filed for bankruptcy. And so I was born in April and they filed in September of that year. So my whole life really has been watching my parents figure out gods and what we call now, grandma's ways of handling money. And the interesting thing is when you do open up scripture, a lot of what scripture talks about, because there's a lot said about money. There's actually more scripture on money than heaven and hell combined. It's a lot. And what's interesting is a lot of, is kind of just common sense. You are, you didn't know, like. I probably should do that. That sounds wise, but the hard thing is, is that we don't always do it. Right. But one thing that I have learned to accept in life that I think has helped me navigate this idea of money. And even as a believer, you know, stewarding what God has given me, but it's not even mine. It's [00:04:00] his, he has given each of us amounts to steward and to manage and what I do, like I just look at money as a. You know, it's just a, it's really a sheet of paper, right? With the president's face on it with the cash, but it's, it's not good. It's not bad. It's just money. But when you put it in the hands of a person, we dictate whether we use it for good or use it for bad. And what's also interesting is you can have a lot of this to manage and you can manage it really well. You also can manage it. Enter in the rich young ruler and mark, right. Or you could have a little bit to manage and you can manage it really well. You know, I think about the rich young ruler and mark. Well, just two chapters later. Jesus teaches about the widow's mind that she didn't have a lot, but she was faithful with what she had or you could have a little and manage it poorly. So either way though, either way we have to learn to manage money, [00:05:00] we don't get a pass. Right. Here in America, you got to have money to buy food. You go to work to make money. I mean, it's just part of our, part of our culture and our world. And so I think since we don't have an option, whether we manage it or not, let's just manage it really well. And if we're going to put a fish on the back of it, let's drive it. Right. Let's manage it as if we're managing it for God, because that's what it is. And looking through scripture and God's ways of handling money. I have found so much that personal finance. It's about 80% behavior. It's only 20% had knowledge. So your behavior and how you interact with money is a big part of how you win financially. You're going to know a lot of this stuff, but it's not more information you need. It's the behavior change that occurs, but who change is hard, isn't it it's really difficult. And you might be sitting out there thinking, okay.[00:06:00] Maybe there is some stuff I need to change. So let's just go over a few. Just, I'm gonna just throw out some examples. This may be, you may not be used totally fine, but let's just throw out a behavior that you may want to change. Let's start with debt as an example. So debt is an interesting one because it is something that we have believed in our culture that you have to have debt to survive. You can't be a student without a student loan. There's no way you can pay. You know, you, you, you, if you want a nice car, of course you have to have a car loan. There's no way you could save up and pay for a nice car in cash. You know, if you travel on an airplane or rent a car or just live life, you have to have a credit. It's a part of life. So we have, so this idea, this one subject of debt has seeped. So in, and it's become so normalized that we almost forget almost what debt is. I was speaking at a college a few years ago, and this 19 year old kid came up to the front before, as I was getting all my stuff ready. And he was like, Hey, [00:07:00] are you the one that's going to be talking about money? I was like, ah, I think that's me. And he was like, cool, cool. I just wanna tell you, I don't have any. Now, when you meet a college student that doesn't have any debt, it's like a unicorn these days. Right. And I was like, oh my gosh, tell me everything. Tell me how you're doing it. Because I love hearing stories. I mean, you, you hear these 90 18, 19 year old kids, you know, at scholarships and they're going to community college, they're making these choices that you're like, yes, it's amazing. And he was like, oh no, no, no. I have $20,000 in student. But I'm debt-free and I hate to say it though. I hear that kind of thing a lot when it comes to debt. So let's just give a definition. So we're all on the same page. Okay. Debt is owing anything to anyone for any reason. And every time debt is mentioned in scripture, [00:08:00] it's in a negative fashion. Now dad is not a sin. You can still get to heaven with Sallie Mae hanging on. You know, it's not that, but every time it's mentioned it's negative, it's this unwise thing in Proverbs that says that the borrower is slave to the lender and we go through our lives, you know, at 18 years old. So then you gotta go to college. You gotta go to college, you gotta go to college and you go to any college. You want to go to 18 year old, you get to choose your whole future. You know, in these 18 year olds, they're signing up and they're graduating now 36, it's getting bumping up to $37,000. Now an average of student loan debt, and then you get married and everyone's like, you know, you gotta buy a house, buy a house, buy a house, you gotta buy a house. Renters don't rent winters, go to hell. Don't rent. Buy house by house, by house. And you're broke, which like, well, y'all buy a house, you know? So you go get a mortgage and then you got to update your cars. Cause you're like, oh yeah, we're driving, you know, these [00:09:00] cars and you got to go get two car loans. And then you're like, you know, we gotta, we gotta go on a nice, you know, nice trip, you know, before start a family, we're going to go and we have no money, but we'll just charge it. We'll charge it. Right. And you make decisions day after day, year after year, sometimes decade over decade. And you wake up and you just can't breathe and you realize I've worked so hard. So hard. I sit in a lot of traffic. I deal with unkind people every day, and I have nothing to show for it, but payments. And there's a feeling that that borrower is slave to the lender because there's not options. There's not. There's not choices. So let me just encourage you though, because of my job and what I get to do every day [00:10:00] is I have heard of, I've heard every story. You could imagine. Every debt level, every income level, every background, every part of the country, even the world, every family dynamic. I mean, I've heard it all, but I am meeting people every day who are choosing. To do something different. And they said, I'm tired, tired of living like this. I want a level of not just financial, but probably emotional and spiritual, just freedom. I'm tired of it. And they engage in a behavior. Change of getting out of debt is powerful. You guys, when I meet these people, I mean, there is this something that they just know, I don't owe anyone. So maybe that's a behavior change you want to make, maybe you're realizing, okay. I probably need to be a little bit more diligent with the money that I do have. Right. My income comes in. I probably need to be a little bit more on top of it. And looking at scripture in the old Testament, it says, know the state of your flocks and your herds in Luke. Jesus says don't build a tower without first counting the cost that should get halfway [00:11:00] up and you're unable to finish. And all those around you begin to mock you saying this man could not complete his. Because he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't have a plan. You know, you don't build a house and just say, throw a wall up there, put a pipe key. Or why not? You know, no, you have a detailed blueprint and I, and I want you to kind of feel that weight with your money, that if we're going to manage it for God, let's do it. Well, let's be intentional with every dollar. Let's, let's be able to say, this is where it's going. I'm going to manage this. Really well now I'll say when it comes to budgeting, it's the one part of, you know, personal finance that's difficult for me because it goes everything against my natural personality. I'm a spender. You're either kind of naturally a spender or a saver. I'm just curious who the natural. Safer. It's just, you naturally, that's where you yelled. Yeah. All of you and the [00:12:00] other campuses. I see you. Okay. Who's a natural spender like me. He just loves it. Yes. We're the fun ones. Aren't we? Yeah. So I'm, I'm just a natural spender. I'm a natural free spirits. I always laugh. If I have something like this, I'm like the fact that I'm on this stage right now with you all is a miracle. I had to drive from my house to the airport, catch a plane, get a rental car, gets a hotel, be here on time. And I did it. It's great. Cause details. I can kind of mess up every now and then. So the idea of a budget, it was just like, oh, feels constricting kind of feels boring. I feel like every time someone talks about budgeting, it was like, yeah, we're not going to go out to eat. We're on a budget or I'm not going shopping. I'm on a budget. Yeah. No vacation this year for us, we're on a budget. I'm like, oh, people budgets are not fun. People. Like if that's what life is, I'm like, count me out. I want to have some fun. I'm going to enjoy [00:13:00] my life. And so. So the idea of like every single thing. And when my husband, I got married as really, when he was more like, Hey, Rachel, we really need to do we need a budget. We need to figure out, I mean, we were, we were married at 21. He was 23, we were broke. We had nothing, I was finishing a semester of school. He was working and it was, he was like, we have to do this. And I knew, I mean, growing up as Dave Ramsey's kid, I knew we should be doing it. And I was like, oh, so we started the process and I'll tell you, it took us about. To get it right. And I can tell you we're not perfect at it, but as I stand here today with you all, there is a level of freedom and peace that I have with my money. And I, and I equate it to budgeting. I really do, because you have guard rails, you have boundaries, you know, what's going on. I can go and spend and enjoy because I know I've planned. So again, a budget does not mean you can't have any fun and can enjoy life. You can you actually, I think [00:14:00] it a little bit more because you're not thinking this, okay, is this okay that I bought this? Can I, can I pay this bill? Can I, all of that's answered. And in fact, you actually get to do the things you want to do. If you want to give more budget, you'll actually probably find more money than you realize you have and you get to plan for it and say, okay, yes, we're going to put this here and budget more forgiving. And I mean, you get to actually plan out what you want to do with your money. It's a powerful. Maybe one of the behaviors you want to change is with your spouse. If you're married, maybe you're not on the same page and you're running in two different lanes. And in fact, sometimes those lanes can collide and urines up butting heads because money fights and money problems. It's a big deal. It's one of the leading causes of divorce in America today. So money is a, it's a rough subject sometimes in marriage, but I would, I would challenge. To work together as a team though, even if opposites attract all of it, work together as a team. And there's this kind of new [00:15:00] thing message out there right now. It's very toxic, but it's that you're still independent, even if you're married. So he has his money. You have your money. She pays these bills. I paid these and it's these separate lanes you got. And it's dangerous because let me tell you, people are like, well, I don't want to come by money. Cause we'll just fight all the time. Then those are the fights you need to have avoiding. It is doing nothing, engage at you all. And yes, some conflict will be there, but push through it because when you can lock arms and work together as a team, you are so much stronger and it creates a level of trust and a level of unity in your marriage. I'm telling you, there is something about it. When you say, Hey, it is our money, our money. So, if you share a bed, if you have kids and you're sharing genetics, literally right in front of you running around, you need to share a bank account. You need to be one. It's my challenge to you. I would say maybe you want to change and behave [00:16:00] when you want to change your money behaviors. Maybe it's giving, we mentioned that earlier, but maybe you say, gosh, I want to give more. 'cause scripture talks about giving so much. And when I look at Genesis and it says that we were created in the image of God, we are created in his image and he is the biggest giver of us, all that he sent Jesus so that you and I can have relationship with a perfect and a holy God. What a gift that he's given us this gift of relations. So if we are created in his image and he is a giver we were created to give, we are created to serve. So when you start to live your life more with an open hand, I'm telling you something changes and it's, you know, some can, some will leave some of your money. We'll leave because of this. But I believe that gives more opportunity for more to come back yet. And that may not be in the form of a [00:17:00] BMW sitting in your driveway. When you go home. But I think he gives you more peace, more joy than you could ever imagine, because giving is the most fun, the most fun you can have with money. And I'm not against stuff. I want you to have a great new BMW, all. I mean, that's fine. I'm not mad at stuff, but there is something when you are giving. I really think there's like this level that our soul is molded more and more like him when we open our hands and we give, so maybe that's your challenge. You just want to give. Now, if I haven't stepped on your toes already, I might on this one, but when you do your budget and you say, yeah, right. So we just don't have, I mean, we get down to the bottom and you know, we've listed out all of our bills and we just have no money to give, turn your budget upside down, start with it, make it the priority. If Comcast is getting paid and you're not giving what's your priority puts yourself. I really would. I would tell you, push yourself to give, cause you move on this spectrum of. And what's the selfish mindset, [00:18:00] right? Of just you, you, you, you to selfless, and there's something about living in our world today when you are self less. I think those people prosper in life. I think you're a better spouse. I think you're a better friends. I think you're a better parents. So I would challenge you with that. Give, give a little right now, if you have to, until you can get. But maybe that giving part is the behavior change you want, you want to be able to give more, but whatever it is, and maybe it's one of those four, maybe it's something totally different. But when you engage in behavior, I want you to remember these four principles because change can be difficult. The first principle, when it comes to behavior change, when it comes to money is you have to have the hope that you can do it. You have to have the. Scripture says that hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Hope deferred [00:19:00] makes the hearts like you when you don't believe you can. And there is no hope. It's hard, it's hard, but a longing fulfilled, even a small win getting in that right direction is a tree of life. There is a life there's hope. And it, so you have to believe you can, and God gives us free will doesn't mean we, we get, we get to wake up tomorrow, make decisions about our life, every aspect of our life, including our money. So there is hope that you have the ability to change, but change is hard. Change is really difficult for us. How many of you are sitting in the same spot? You kind of usually sit in on Sunday. How many of you drove the same way to church this morning? Yes. Yeah. We kind of have this familiar thing. That's, it's very human. You know, I think it's very normal that we like the familiar. We know it's predictable. We know what's going to happen. It feels safe. [00:20:00] But the problem is when our familiar is wrong and it's not getting us the results we want in life and we stay. So when you start to change, you're going to feel friction. I'm just warning you. So when the friction starts to happen here in about a month or two, you could be like, God, I remember that girl. So they morning talking about this. Just remember me. Cause it is it's hard. We have three kids. And when the third one came, Charles, Charles Winston Cruz, we always say, should be in England or something. He's British. I just think deep in my heart somewhere, but he was born in 2019. So when you have the third kid, the back seat of your car gets really small and not all the car seats fit. So. Once we had Charles, we were like, man, we, we need a bigger car. Like, are all the kids car seats? They literally will not buckle in. So we got to get the third row. So we kind of went and looked for, for a new car and had to get the, the three rows. And I always laugh because if you told [00:21:00] 2018 Rachel, what I'm about to tell you, I would've laughed. And I would've said no, but 2022, Rachel will tell. We bought a minivan. Yes, we did. Oh, I think one of my spiritual gifts could be a Honda salesman because I could sell anyone on a Honda Odyssey kids. It's the best car ever these vans today. I mean, it's unbelievable. So anyways, I was like, okay, I'm going to, I'm driving a minivan and I love it. And when you first get a new car, a new new car to you, you know, you want to keep it clean, you know, all this. And I had this whole thing, like you're not going to eat in the car. Okay. Yeah, whatever, uh, you know, all this stuff and I tried to keep it really clean. And that first, like two months we had it, I went in the back and there was like peanut butter and jelly sandwich unfolded and face down. I was like, geez kids, you know? And I thought, okay, I gotta clean this. So I took out all the car seats, clean the whole van. I was like, I'm going to keep it new. I want to keep it nice. Vacuums and everything. So when I put the car seats back in, I [00:22:00] switched the babies and fit car seat, and my then two and a half year old Caroline's car seat switched them on accident. So we get in the next day to go to preschool, to take the oldest and I'm getting everyone in. And the two and a half year old was like, no, mommy doesn't know my seat. I was like, Caroline, please. We got to get in the van. We're going to be late. Just get in. We'll switch it later. No, mommy, this is not my seat. And if you're a parent today, I don't know. I always just struggle between like this tension of like, tell me about your feelings, Caroline. How do you feel about being in his, the man's make you sad? I like, I don't know why I go there sometimes. And then other times I'm like, I'm the authority. You do what I say. And so BD, once, you know, and I go on this like hard line and I'm in, say, I go, I go between both all the time, but that was a morning that I was like, obedience. We were going to be like, get in the car. You're two and a half. I'm sorry, you don't have a choice. So I get her and strap her in and she's just flailing around in the whole six minutes of the drive. All I hear is this is no by [00:23:00] window. This is not the window. I look out, mommy. I can't see you. I'm right behind you. I can't see you. Oh yeah. She's going through everything. That's different. Everything looks different. And I thought, man, you know, even at two and a half, we hate change. It's in us. It is in us. So be prepared for the friction. Okay. But have the hope you can do it. Number two, remember as you're changing. Your behaviors, your past money, mistakes are not your identity. They are not who you are. And money is a difficult thing because I could stand up here and tell you, you know, that Winston and I are having like an amazing season of marriage. Like we are just connected. We feel it's just, it's great. It's so great. But there's not a number to that. You know, I can tell you that parenting has been, it's been difficult. It's been a hard. But there's not a number to that, but our money [00:24:00] there's a number. And what's happened is that our net worth has become our self-worth and what's in our bank account. What's in our investments, our debt level, even to the stuff we have an own has become who we are. And you guys, we have to separate that because it's not, it's not who you are. That is not your idea. So your past mistakes, they are not who you are. I thank God that we serve a living God who sees us through the blood of Jesus, that he loves you. He's not mad at you. He wants to hang out with you. He wants to be in relationship with you. So you are not identified by those mistakes, but you will probably have to face some of them. You know, if you start working this and you're budgeting and you're getting out of debt, you know, there's some stuff that you probably have to face and that's okay, you can do it, but it's not who you are. It's not your identity. I would also say number three, [00:25:00] when you're doing this behavior changes, don't look at everyone else, quit comparing your life to everyone else. Put the blinders on and focus on your life and your money. Because you might have a season coming up of sacrifice. You may say, Hey, we're going to sell stuff. We're not going on vacation. We're not going out to eat. We're going to do some stuff to get above water on this. And your life is not going to look like everyone else. But I know statistically 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. So keeping up with the Joneses, the Joneses are broke. They may not have the money you think they have. So remember that, okay. God created you uniquely. If you're married, he created your spouse. Uniquely. If you have kids, he created them uniquely. You have a unique story, a unique set of gifts, a unique life. So stop trying to be everyone [00:26:00] else. Put the blinders on and stop comparing. And in order to do that, I think gratitude plays. I think a level of humility plays a part. And I think contentment when scripture says godliness with contentment is great gain. Contentment will get you a long way in life when you're content, but quitting the comparisons. And then lastly, when you're changing your behavior with money, I would say invite people. No, we have more friends on Facebook and followers on Instagram, but we are the most isolated time. We are an isolated time of life. Don't be isolated. Bring people in. We are not called to do this on our own. So whether that's a spouse, hopefully yes, you and your spouse are working together, but, but I'm even talking bigger than that. A couple, maybe that you trust small group [00:27:00] friends. If you take financial peace university, maybe it's your group there. I mean, I don't care who it is, but inviting people in. And if you don't want to tell specific numbers, you don't have to, but I think the idea of sharing, yeah. Like this is hard or I'm struggling with this or shopped on J crew.com again, and I wasn't going too much. Did you know, whatever it is that you can invite people into your story because the enemy loves darkness. And when you are isolated and you think you are the only one struggling, he will be in your ear. But when you speak stuff out and you bring things into the light, it's powerful to bring people along on this journey, because if you do all of this, you guys, there's a powerful change that can occur powerful that you have the hope that you can do it. You know, your identity is not your mistakes that you, you and you bring people on to you and you stop comparing your life to everyone else. All of that creates this formula that will change your life. It really will that you'll be able to [00:28:00] say, okay, I can take what I've been doing, but I'm going to shift and make it more and more correlated and consistent with scripture and God's word. And it won't just change your life. If you're a family and you have little ones in the house, it'll change their life. Cause guess what? With kids more is caught than taught. They're watching you, when you change your life, your friends, start to notice and ask questions. Your community. It's a ripple effect when we choose this. And again, I think that's every part of our lives, but specifically today, obviously we're talking about money, but there's something there to be said. Growing up. My parents always used this analogy of a rope and parenting. So the idea of the rope is that we were tied to one end of the rope and mom and dad had the other end. So depending upon how well we made decisions in life, you know, how trustworthy we were, they would tell us, you know, at, I mean, I [00:29:00] remember this is early. Fourth grade all the way through high school. Okay. Right. So if you, if you make good decision and we can trust you and you can have more and more rope and you can make more and more of your own decision. But if you make a bad decision and you know, we lose your trust, then we're going to have to pull that rope back in a little tighter. So this whole rope thing was talked about all growing up. And when my older sister, Denise was graduating from college, or I'm sorry, graduating from high school and going to college, we had a big family dinner. The night she moved. If you've had your first one, leave home, it's a big deal. Right? So we sat in the dining room, we ate off the fancy plates that you really only eat off of for like Thanksgiving and. We had cloth napkins. Like this is the thing, right. And mom made this like fate, I think it was like six or seven courses. I mean, all our, not courses but sides and all that. I mean just the table full of food. And it was just, our family were sitting around and we're talking about Denise and the [00:30:00] things that we love about, or the things that we see in her memories, you know, we're laughing and crying. It's like she was dying or something. She wasn't just moving two and a half hours away. Uh, but towards the end of that dinner, dad pulled out this gift bag and he pulled this out of it, a rope and he said, okay, Denise, tomorrow you leave for college. And our rope does not reach from Nashville to Knoxville and your day-to-day decisions. Now they're up to. And you really are. You're becoming an adult and he tied these different ribbons around the rope, symbolizing different areas of her life. So red was for her academics. Purple was for her spiritual walk. Orange was because she was going to the university of Tennessee go Vols. White was her purity and [00:31:00] yellow was if she ever needed to come home and, you know, he had this rope and he said, okay, Denise. You're entering into adulthood and he gave her the rope and we all just cried and related to news as the rope. And it was this very sweet moment. And then, well, I'm the middle child of the Ramsey family. So the neglected and abused child. And the night before I went to college, we had. On paper plates and we're going to bed and dad just yelled through the house and he was like, Rachel, hold on. You need a rope. Don't you? True story. Went to the garage. He got me. This I'll let you decide what's child is their favorites. But I think we know, [00:32:00] but I look at this rope. As kind of my legacy of parents who were not perfect, but they were as tent intentional as they could be with using God's word in our household and every subject in life, including money. And I will tell you, I'm so thankful that they handed me this legacy versus this. And Deuteronomy. It says, I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you. That I've set before you life death, blessing and cursing. So choose life that you and your descendants may live. Thank you guys so much for having me. I so, so appreciate being with you. [00:33:00] And, and I pray that you feel a level of, uh, freedom and hope that you know, that we serve a God who wants to. And that his word is so good not to be legalistic and have a bunch of rules, but to give us life. So I'd love to pray over you guys real quick before I leave. That's okay. God, thank you so much for this church and everyone who's watching it. Every campus, including here, God, every situation I know is sitting out here, God, but I pray that you speak deeply to the hearts of these people, that they are so loved, so loved and that. Idea of money as a tool, God, that we can use it for. Good. And to build up your kingdom. So as believers, God, let us lock arms and let us do good work while we're here on earth in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. Thanks for your.