Getting Free From Debt

Current State of America:
• 22 trillion dollars in national debt
• 593 billion dollars in interest on annual debt
• 14 trillion dollars in consumer household debt
• 1.56 trillion dollars in student loan debt ($29,000 per student
average)
• 65% of graduating students have student loan debt
• 44 million students have student loan debt
• Average person carries $9,000 in credit card debt
6 Signs of Debt Disease:

1. Keep buying things on credit without lowering debt
2. Currently working to pay for purchases made over 3 months
   ago
3. No savings or investment plan
4. Use credit cards to live
5. Occasionally spend stupid money
6. Tithing and giving are optional and difficult
   Ways Debt Disease Affects Our Lives:

1. Forces us into slavery
   Proverbs 22:7 NIV
   The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
2. Makes us unfruitful for God
   Mark 4:19 AMP
   … but the worries and cares of the world [the distractions of this age
   with its worldly pleasures], and the deceitfulness [and the false
   security or glamour] of wealth [or fame], and the passionate desires
   for all the other things creep in and choke out the word, and it
   becomes unfruitful.
3. Destroys family values
4. Affects our ability to expand the gospel in the earth
   Getting Free from Debt:

1. Begin to see debt as an enemy!
2. Learn the secret of contentment.
   Philippians 4:11-13 NIV
   I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be
   content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need,
   and I know what it is to have plenty. I have LEARNED THE SECRET
   OF BEING CONTENT in any and every situation, whether well fed or
   hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through
   him who gives me strength.
   Psalm 25:13 TLB
   He shall live within God’s circle of blessing, and his children shall
   inherit the earth.
3. Develop a plan.
   Proverbs 21:5 NLT
   Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts
   lead to poverty.
   Financial Planning with God:

1. Always keep God first in your finances.
   Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV
   “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
   destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for
   yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys
   and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
   is, there your heart will be also.”
   Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV
   “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall
   we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the
   Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all
   these things. But seek FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD and HIS
   RIGHTEOUSNESS, and all these things shall be added to you.”
2. Decide to live below your means.
3. Develop a strategy to grow in wisdom.
4. Ask God to give you creative ideas.