WEBVTT - Stepping Into Financial Freedom (Dave Ramsey) 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.760 Come on, let's thank God for all our locations. Help 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:11.879 me Valentine Epham around the world. Where's my Etham. I'm 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:14.520 on elevation Hirch YouTube. If you want to give me 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:16.439 a quick shout out to let me know your name 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.239 and your state or country. I would love to know 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.520 where you're joining us from. Of course, all of our 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:28.560 local locations Elevation, Riverwalk Elevation, Uptown Elevation, Gaston. How many 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:35.360 of y'all traveled to be in church today? So you 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.800 you did a good thing. Even if it was seventeen 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:43.680 dollars a gallon, it will be worth it, I promise you. 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.600 All right, y'all, here they come. They're joining us today 0:00:48.680 --> 0:01:01.600 from Guyana, Jamaica, South Africa, Philippines, India, Georgia, Indonesia, Virginia, No, 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:09.399 that's her name, Virginia from California. That was confusing, Louisiana, Michigan, 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:12.880 New Jersey. Hey, we're coming to New Jersey. You gotta 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:18.360 come to New Jersey. Elevation Nights is five weeks away. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:21.480 Listen everywhere we're coming. If you have any cousins in 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.440 these cities, all right, because this begins very soon and 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.479 I don't want you I don't want you to miss out. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:38.360 We're gonna be in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Washington, DC, Redding, Pennsylvania, Newark, 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:44.040 New Jersey, like I said, and Boston, Massachusetts. Elevation Nights 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.160 dot Com. Some of y'all want to get a ticket 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.160 and be a groupie and just come with us on 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.520 the road. It gets crazy, doesn't it. It's crazy on 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.080 the road, isn't it. Lj am I lying to the 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:02.320 people of God absolutely saying we're excited. We're excited so 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:06.080 many good things. You saw the outreach updates, and I 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:07.720 don't know, look at somebody and say, I don't know 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:14.399 what you did right, But today you get to hear 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:26.720 Dave Ramsey. Well, I mean, who could help us more 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.320 at a time like this than Dave Ramsey. Dave, We're 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.960 honored you're here. Man. I already told you this, but 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.400 so they can know. My oldest son came to me 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.680 the other day he said, I found this guy dad 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:44.720 on YouTube named Dave Ramsey. He thought he discovered Dave Ramsey. No, no, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:46.639 but he had been watching him and he was like, 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.600 I'm gonna do this all this stuff on the budget. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:50.320 Why didn't you teach me all this? Da And I said, 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.280 I taught you all this. This is what I do. 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.760 And I was like, I actually know Dave and he 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.560 was like really, I'm like, yeah, I'm kind of cool. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.359 I have some cool friends. And you know, the other day, 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.880 I was praying about it and who would God bring 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:07.680 to help us at a time like this, with so 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:11.160 much transition, And I feel responsibility to put people in 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.080 front of you who cannot only inspire you for a 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.959 few moments, but can really help you in a way 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.120 that you'll be talking about. My barber was cutting up 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.679 my hair today and he was like, tell Dave, you 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:26.880 change my life for me. Just tell him. Man. I 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:28.120 know you pray to hear that a lot, but on 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.760 behalf of all the people that you've helped and all 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.360 of the people who have been set free through what 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.400 God has given you. We honor you and thank you 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:40.240 for being a pioneer. He and his wife Sharon are here. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.800 I said, Sharon, do you always travel with Dave? She 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:50.200 said no, I just wanted to come to elevation. She said. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.560 The whole team is jealous back home that we're here, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.880 so let's don't waste any time. I told him, you 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.920 had all day, come on around the world, come best 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:21.720 selling author Man of God, Dave recing goodness gracious, y'all. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:29.840 I feel like a weaner in a steakhouse. So y'all 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.920 know Pastor Craig Rochelle, Pastor Stephen's friend of friend of mine. 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.440 I'm speaking for him next weekend, and I thought I 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.679 must be the oopa lumpa on the ripped pastor tour. 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:51.600 So Pastor Stephen he he and I started swapping texts 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.520 a few years ago. Sometimes when some of the fire 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:57.839 is flying, we'll just encourage each other. And sometimes when 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.039 his adrenaline goes down Sunday after noon after preaching bout 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.240 Sunday night, the texts start flying at my house. And 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:06.320 a few weeks ago I get a text and he says, uh, 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:11.760 you believe in free speech? I said yeah. He said, good, 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:21.200 I want you to give one on March twentieth. That 0:05:21.240 --> 0:05:26.360 didn't happen, but it's a great job. So he's overly generous, 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.800 y'all know that. But God told me on Sundays I'm 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.760 not supposed to collect. I collect Monday through Friday, and 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.120 so life's pretty good for me. I'm doing all right, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:54.360 I got financial peace, So all right, let's pray all God. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:59.000 You know I can do these talks by myself and 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:04.080 sure are better when you Holy Spirit, this is your 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:15.120 time in Jesus' name. Amen, y'all have a seat. So 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.760 my wife and I will be married this coming summer 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:26.840 for forty years. Yeah. I told her if she leaves, 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:33.200 I'm going with her. When we got married, I don't 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:38.040 know about y'all, but we were stupid. We had no sense. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.520 We didn't have anything like pre marriage counseling. We just 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:49.520 got hitched. We just got married, and nobody told us 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.760 to watch out for this or that, and they were 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:55.480 just happy to get rid of me and whatever. And 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.400 her dad is scared I was showing up and we 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:04.880 just got married. So I was a beer drinking, hell 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:11.480 raising hillbilly. And we've been married about two weeks. We 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.960 moved to Nashville and got our first little apartment. And 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:20.000 my wife wakes up on Sunday morning and remembers that 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:26.280 she's a Baptist. This is something she hadn't mentioned before. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.360 We've been dating for a while. We hadn't talked about it, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.320 this Jesus stuff. We certainly hadn't talked about her being 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:37.640 a Baptist, and she said, is Sunday morning? We're going 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.520 to church? And I said, no, we're not. You don't 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:45.400 go to church on Sunday. You drink beer and watch football. 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.640 What is wrong with you? Well she's real serious about this, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.360 and of course we're in Nashville, y'all. It's the buckle 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.200 of the Bible belt, right, I mean there's more Baptists 0:07:56.200 --> 0:08:02.120 there than people. And so we have a big fight 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.920 and she's crying and she storms out the door. Well 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.080 it didn't take her long to find her tribe, and 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.440 she starts attending this little Baptist church and these little 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:20.360 Baptist people praying for her heathen husband. Well this goes 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.080 on every Sunday for about six months, y'all. Be honest 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.920 with you, it wasn't going well. Every Sunday. We had 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.400 big fights. She storms out, crying, and I'm going, what 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.280 did I sign up for? Nobody told me about this? 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.160 And I got in one of these. I was twenty 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:36.520 two years old and I got in one of these 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.000 multi level things, you know, a thing where you make 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:44.120 all your friends mad. And one of my beer drinking 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:45.640 buddies on me, and there's a lot of beer in 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.240 this story. But we got in this thing, and we 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.800 were so dumb, y'all. We would go to happy Hour 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:54.640 and then go make sales calls and couldn't figure out 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.400 why we couldn't make a sale. This is how dumb 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:01.440 we were. And oh God, here on his other brother, Darryl. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.360 And so we we're gonna get a yacht and we're 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.360 gonna be rich, and we're gonna do all this stuff. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.000 And you know, we're living there twenty two years old. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.040 We're gonna live the dream and all this, and and uh, 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:14.680 we were doing pretty good. But we decided to go 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.240 to one of their rallies, one of their sessions down 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.320 in Birmingham, Alabama, which is about two hours south of Nashville. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:21.560 So we got in the car and drove to the 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:26.920 Alabama Theater in downtown Birmingham, which in my mind held 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:29.920 ten thousand people. I did an event there a while back. 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:33.080 It holds eight hundred. But you know how when you 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:39.720 grow up, things shrink. But and so you ever go 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.000 back to your grade school, how it gets smaller. Y'all 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.240 know what I'm talking about, right, And so, oh my gosh, 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.880 So the uh, anyway, we're up in the top row 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.880 of the very back balcony, me and him, and we're 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:53.360 taking notes all day long. These speakers are up there 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:55.240 charging us up of how we're gonna get rich and 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.439 all this stuff and get you a yacht. And there 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.200 was one guy at the end of the day who 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:00.920 was the dog. He was the one making like four 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:02.960 hundred thousand dollars a minute or whatever, you know, and 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.559 we wanted to be like him. And so we're kind 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.600 of waiting for the you know, the the apex of 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.880 the day, the crescendo of the day, right, And so 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.880 finally this guy gets up there, and we had written 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.280 down five or six questions that thought if we could 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.040 get the answer to these questions, we'd have a breakthrough. 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.760 Our little business would go boom we go, you know. 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.840 And so he gets up there and it says if 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:31.360 this guy had our questions as his outline, and we 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.480 already wanted to be him. But by the time he 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.880 finished reading our mail for an hour and we got 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:40.800 all of our questions answered, if he had told us 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.679 to eat a bag of dirt, we would have he 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:45.920 owned us, you all know what I'm saying. And he 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.760 was a good speaker too, and he gets to the end. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.640 He goes, and there's one more thing, and we're like, no, 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.520 there isn't We got our five. He goes, if you 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:58.160 don't know this man named Jesus, you're going to struggle 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:04.840 in business because business people who are takers struggle. Business 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:14.680 people who add value in her givers always win. And 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.360 he said Jesus. He said, Jesus will teach you how 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:20.320 to do relationships. And if you're gonna be in business, 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.880 you have to learn how to do relationships. And I'm 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:24.600 looking at my buddy and we're going I have no 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.560 idea what he's talking about. And I asked my buddy, 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.960 I said, you think he's been talking to my wife. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.040 And so we go back to the little holiday inn 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:34.800 or whatever it was, and in the night stand we 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.800 find a Bible and it's a Gideon's Bible, right old 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:44.880 King James, Yeah, Shakespeare and Jesus. The chances of these 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:50.440 two rednecks figuring this out is zero. We closed it 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:52.800 blind leading the blind. But we went home. I told 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:54.440 my wife, I said we're going to church, and she said, 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:55.840 who are you? And what have you done? My husband? 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.480 And so we went to some of the churches around 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:05.679 and these folk, they're not having fun. The place looks 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.199 like it was weaned on a pickle. Y'all know what 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:13.480 I'm talking about. It's just it's awful. And but we 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.199 went in the back of this little church about three 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.640 four hundred people. It ended up growing to eight thousand 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:23.319 people later. And you know how you do when you're 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.600 visiting a church. You sit on the back row in 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.360 case it gets weird. You can hit a jack right, 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:29.480 y'all know what I'm talking about. And so we were 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.960 on the back row. And this is a long time ago, 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.040 y'all mean, it's almost thirty five years ago. And back 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.560 then people didn't raise their hands except in weird churches, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.320 you know. And we're in there and this woman in 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.280 the choir pops her hand up like she knows the 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.000 answer to some question, and then another one, and then 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.680 they start doing this. I told sheeron, I said, if 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:54.600 they get snakes out, I'm out of here. And that 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:58.000 pastor was a man's man. I thought Christians were whishes 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.760 and he was a man, and he stood up. He 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.160 would say stuff like and this is what the Bible says. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:05.319 And if you don't agree with that, you're what's known 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:11.480 is wrong. I like this guy. And this was old 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.160 school church. As I said, there was only about three 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.400 hundred folks in that church when we started there. And 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.040 they'd stand at the back door and you'd go out 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.400 in the line, and the pastor would shake everybody's hand. 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:23.560 And his wife was a big, squishy woman. She'd give 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:27.800 you a big grandma hug, you know. And that woman's 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.200 grace flowed off of her when she hugged you and 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.440 looked at you and she said, I love you. Made 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.800 you believe she really did love you, because she did. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:41.960 And his strength and grace and mercy led me the Lord, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:45.000 and I got baptizem met God there. It changed my 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:58.040 whole life. I do everything backwards. I left that little 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.240 multi level thing real quickly in the middle. I was 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:01.920 just in there for about twenty minutes, it feel like. 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.160 And I started buying and selling real estate, and I 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.240 got rich, at least by a kid from antiox standards. 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.120 I started with nothing, and by the time I was 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.040 twenty six, I had a a little over four million 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:13.600 dollars worth of real estate, a little over a million 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:15.599 dollar net worth, and I was making two hundred and 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.640 fifty thousand dollars a year twenty thousand dollars a month 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.120 in nineteen eighty two. I don't know where you come from, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:22.960 but we called that rich where I grew up. And 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:29.160 I gotta tell y'all, it was fun. It was really fun. 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:33.000 I mean sharing what she got. Likes those little sparkly things. 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:34.600 So we got her some and they weren't big enough, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.880 and so we got her some more. And y'all, we 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:45.720 went to Hawaii Rednecks in Hawaii. Oh my, it was 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:51.600 so nice, y'all. We went back and I had that 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:53.960 car always wanted. You had that car you always wanted, 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.720 like someday, right, So I got me a Jaguar Man 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.200 because nobody in my ol neighborhood cold spell Jaguar much 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.280 less had one, right, So I got me a Jaguar Man. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.480 About ninety days, I was a Jaguar, right. You know, 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:14.600 it's like right, I mean, it's like, oh man, we 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:19.920 were having fun, y'all. Now, I am not shallow enough 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:26.560 or theologically deprived enough to think that money is going 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.600 to make you happy. As a matter of fact, I'm 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:35.160 positive at won't. After teaching God's ways of handling money 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:40.040 for thirty plus years, now, I do know that money 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.840 will make you more of what you already are. If 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.120 you are depressed and you get money, it's not gonna 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.960 go well if you don't deal with the depression. If 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.480 you got a drug problem and you get money, you 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.440 got a drug problem. I mean, if you got a 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:04.960 temper and you get money, who tyrant on parade? You 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:09.800 got a big, gentle, compassionate heart and you get money, 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:19.800 you can change the world. Whatever you are, and you 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.440 get money, it's going to magnify it. So beware of that. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.640 It's not going to solve your problems. There's all kinds 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:31.240 of data points all throughout our culture that prove that. 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:34.680 You can see people who didn't have it and they 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:39.200 got money and it messed up their lives. Money makes 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.960 you more of what you already are. And by the way, 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.280 if it makes your people around you more what they 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.120 are too, Like people in your family, like the crazy ones, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:57.240 they get crazy, and everybody's got crazy in their family. 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.240 And if you don't think you got crazy in your family, 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:09.280 that means it's you. So we're cruising along doing really 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.240 good things. Life is good. We're in our twenties. We 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.080 meet Jesus on the way up. I do everything backwards 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.400 and man life. You know, we've got babies and oh 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:23.199 my goodness, things are good. And I had done some 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:28.200 stupid things. How many y'all ever done something stupid with money? 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:29.879 How many of you didn't raise your hand to have 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:34.600 a problem with lying? We all have, darling. If you've 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:39.600 made mistakes with money, that makes you over twelve. Only 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:41.439 I did it was zeros on the end. As I 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.520 told you, I borrowed a ton of money. We had 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:46.000 a million dollar net worth, but we had three million 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.920 dollars in debt, and we were doing flip this house 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.040 before Chip and Joanna were born. Okay, so for cable 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:53.800 TV was there to tell you how to do it right. 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:55.959 And so we were doing flip this house. I had 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:57.640 a lot of short term notes and the bank got 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.840 sold to another bank, and a guy in another city 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.159 down said, there's a kid twenty six years old. I was, 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.680 that's a million dollars million two to be exact, let's 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:11.359 limit this relationship, which is banker talk for ruin his life. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.280 And then they called our notes. And the short version 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.320 of the story is another lender heard we were in trouble, 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.480 because we were in trouble after that, and they called 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:21.399 our notes and we had two million dollars due in 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.919 one hundred and twenty days, all tied up in real estate. 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.080 That started a crash that took two and a half 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.359 years to unfold. That no matter what I did, I 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.919 couldn't stop it. I was always taught, if you have 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:38.440 a problem, just work harder. Doesn't matter if you dug 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:40.560 that dig a hole. When you got that level of stupid, 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.520 working harder won't fix it. It was coming down around 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.199 my head. The jangle blocks were crashing. It was a mess. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.920 I had built a house of cards because I was stupid. 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:52.760 I didn't know I was stupid. I thought I was smart, 0:18:52.800 --> 0:19:01.520 but I was stupid. Changed my life. I remember standing 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:04.480 in the shower with it sahat. I could just barely 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.359 stand there, and I would just stand there and cry. 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:16.840 I was so scared I couldn't breathe. I have a 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.480 toddler and a brand new baby. My marriage is hanging 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:25.000 on by a thread. Sharing's from the hills Ofpes, Tennessee. 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:42.679 Y'all frying pan throwing there is an Olympic event. And 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:49.119 finally we hit bottom file bankruptcy. So I met God 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.960 on the way up. But Church, I'm here to tell 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:55.400 you I got to know him on the way down. 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:05.439 I had already been saved, i'd already been baptized, but 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.919 I had an eye surrender all moment. And I'm not 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:12.960 talking about a Baptist alter call. I'm talking about ever 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:15.440 been completely on your face and you say I quit, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:21.879 I give I surrender. You are now the Lord, you 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:32.120 are now in charge. I apparently got nothing. I hope 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.399 you never have to get beat up that hard to 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.119 get to that point, because that's a heart decision, and 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:41.720 you could just make that decision. But I started deciding, Okay, 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:43.919 if it's in here, it's real, and the rest of 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.639 the stuff I'm not listening to because I listened to 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.760 my finance professor in college who taught me to borrow money, 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:56.040 and he was broke. What's wrong with that picture? I mean, 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:00.640 that's like a shop teacher with missing fingers, right, broke 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:09.680 finance professor. So I'm gonna learn how to live because 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:11.359 I didn't know how to be a husband. I didn't 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:12.600 know how to be a daddy. I didn't know how 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.840 to be a man. And so I'm you know, marriage, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:24.280 so submit yourselves one to another. Oh crud. That means 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:31.520 I gotta dry dishes. That means I'm gonna serve my 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.520 wife who can find a virtuous wife, for her worth 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.720 is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:45.520 trusts her, and he will have no lack of game. 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.399 My kids are like, Dad, what's this rod stuff? And 0:21:53.440 --> 0:22:01.040 I'm like, come, everybody, I'll show you only five hundred 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:06.000 scriptures dealing with money and possessions. Proverbs alone will give 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:11.240 you a master's degree in finance. It'll show you everything 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:13.359 you need to know. And it's not just a Bible thumper. 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:16.080 You can study that with your intellect as well as 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.959 with your spirit, and you'll see it. It's there. So 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.000 we hit bottom and we have the opportunity to start 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:29.360 again God's ways and we decided, Okay, we're gonna start 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:38.720 handling money, marriage, leadership, business kids. If I can find 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:40.400 it in here, this is the way we're doing it. 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:43.520 I can't always find it. Insurance isn't in here. I 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:47.640 can't find it, but I still buy insurance. So it's 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:49.960 not everything's in there, But I'm gonna do it if 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.520 I can. And you know what, that's thirty five years ago, y'all, 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:56.400 And thirty years ago we went broke and it's worked out. 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:05.440 Oh my goodness. As it worked out, Oh my goodness. 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:10.280 It turns out that God's ways of doing things work. Hello, 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:16.560 they work. So I got a bunch of I got 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:18.639 we got yesterday. I looked at our thing. We've got 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:21.240 eleven hundred and sixty two I'm sorry, one thousand and 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.120 sixty two people working on our team right now as 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:26.359 a Friday, or as of Monday morning. We got thirteen 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.840 more starting Monday morning. And Ramsey Solutions have turned into 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.160 this thing. And it's a process over these years teaching 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.080 people how to handle money. Now, fifty thousand churches have 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.719 taught almost ten million people financial Peace University alone. I mean, 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:43.639 it blows my mind what God has chosen to do, 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:45.280 he says. I says in the Bible will speak to 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:52.959 a donkey apparently, so we're in. I'm in. This is good. So, 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:54.680 so I got a bunch of youngsters on the team. 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.200 And I love our youngsters. They're brilliant. The average agent 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.000 our team's about twenty seven. People hate this millennial generation. 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.760 I gotta tell you, millennials are amazing. I love the 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:09.440 millennial generation because there's only two kinds. Awesome and sucks. 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:15.560 I mean, it's just they either will missional driven bright, 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:17.960 will charge the gates of Hell with a water pistol, 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:20.480 or they're living in their mother's basement. They ain't leaving. 0:24:20.520 --> 0:24:24.200 You know. It's one of the two. So we we 0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:26.840 got them on our team that are missional driven, smarter 0:24:26.960 --> 0:24:29.680 than me, say words and meetings, I have to stop 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:31.920 them and go, I'm sorry, but I'm pretty comfortable with 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:33.640 my own skin on the place, would you just say? 0:24:34.000 --> 0:24:39.560 And so, I mean, they're smart, but sometimes Papa Dave, 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:41.399 I have to I have to lead. And I was 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:43.480 coming by one of them and he was doing the 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:46.560 stuff he was supposed to be doing wrong, and I 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:49.200 was like, hey, that's not don't do it. Do it 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:51.280 this way. That's that's not how we do it here 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:53.600 at Ramsey. This is this is the thing. It's an 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:56.720 excellence thing. You gotta do it right. And he's like okay. 0:24:56.920 --> 0:24:58.600 And I come back about a week later and he's 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:04.359 doing it wrong again. I'm like, hey, hey, nah, we 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:05.840 do it here, we do it this way. We have 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:07.479 talked about this. Yeah, I know, I know, I know. 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:11.359 I come back a week later, he's doing it wrong again, 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:14.879 and I'm like, hey, we're gonna set you free in 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.520 Jesus name. Okay, I mean there's one I'm telling you 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:21.679 how to do this. And he looks at me and 0:25:21.680 --> 0:25:32.000 he says, I'm not like you. And I said, okay, change. 0:25:32.800 --> 0:25:35.480 You don't have to be like me, but you gotta 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:40.000 do it like I do it. This is the right way, 0:25:40.280 --> 0:25:44.640 do it, this way. Change. And you know God does 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:47.000 that with us. There's the thing in Christianity. If we're 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:52.679 going the wrong way on something, God says stop. This 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:56.600 is called sin going this way or stupid going this way. 0:25:57.280 --> 0:26:00.240 And sometimes they're the same thing. And we're going this way, 0:26:00.280 --> 0:26:06.320 and then God says stop, and we turn change and 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:08.920 we go the other way. It's called repentance in Christianity, 0:26:09.000 --> 0:26:11.800 isn't it I was going the wrong way, I repent, 0:26:11.880 --> 0:26:16.040 I stop, I change direction. This isn't working. Continuing to 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:18.560 do the same thing over and over again and expecting 0:26:18.560 --> 0:26:25.719 a different result is the definition of insanity. Stop and change. 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:31.360 And you know what, He gives us the dignity and 0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:37.360