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Hi, my name is Rick Bloodworth. This is Common Sense Christian channel, and today is Friday, so we're going to be talking about financial things, and today I want to talk specifically about the idea of paying off debt by getting either a second job or Or having both spouses working at the same time. And I want to look at the pros and cons of that. Because I'm afraid that sometimes we get so enamored with the idea of getting out of debt, which is something we truly need to be doing. But sometimes we actually sacrifice our families for that, or we sacrifice relationships for that. And so I guess the, the caution that I want to really present today is to be sure and count the costs and weigh the difference between getting out of debt and maintaining a good relationship with your, with your husband or your wife and a good relationship with your children as well as taking your parental responsibility as, as far as making sure they're being raised in the way that they need to be raised. And so there's a lot of things there and I'm, I'm just going to kind of touch on, on the ideas of each one but hopefully enough to where maybe it will raise some thoughts in your mind about that will be productive enough to where you and your spouse, if you're married can be talking about whether or not this idea of getting extra jobs in order to pay down a debt is something that is both prudent and beneficial for your family situation. And so One of the reasons I bring this up, I have listened to Dave Ramsey or I started reading Dave Ramsey, I suppose, about 25 or 30 years ago right after his first book came out on financial peace. And I, I found his, his recommendations to be extremely beneficial in many, many ways. And his radio program, the same, there's a lot of just. different snippets of life that you get from the different callers many of whom are in similar situations to your own to where you can take some encouragement and you can also get some really good advice from the radio program, not just from Dave Ramsey, but now from his daughter, Rachel and some of the guests that they have. And so this is not a bashing Dave Ramsey. Video, but I do want to call into question some of the prudence that sometimes people are tempted or the prudence in a manner that some people are sometimes tempted to pay off debt. By sacrificing other things that actually may be more important than getting out of debt and specifically your relationship with God, your spouse's relationship with God, your relationship with your spouse, and your children's relationship with God, as well as your relationship with your children. And so let me just Point this out to begin with. If you are just starting out, and you're starting to figure out the things that you would like to buy the things that you really need, weighing the things you really need between the things you really like it's going to be a lot easier, because then, If you're just newly married, you can sit down and you can talk about your common values. You can talk about the determinations that you have. One of the things that I have come to a firm conclusion on by, through reading the Bible over and over for the last 40 years is this. The only thing that matters When you die and are kneeling before God on Judgment Day, is, are you saved? Is your family saved? Have you done everything you can to help others to be saved? And so the, the things before that, the, the financial decisions that you will make, the physical things that you get to do that are certainly wholesome and fun very right to take part in those are secondary. And so that even includes when we talk about getting out of debt. Now, we know that the scripture encourages us to be debt free. It commands us on a number of different occasions to be prudent with the handling of our money. And so I'm not talking for a moment about somehow now being imprudent or acting as if the commandments on money somehow conflict with the commandments on family. They do not. But your family comes first. And so, as you're Deciding whether or not you need to get a second job or maybe even a third job to get out of debt or whether or not your spouse needs to get a job and then put the kids into daycare. You really need to look at the spiritual ramifications first. Here is your duty first and foremost. You have a responsibility before God to be the best servant that you can be. That includes all the areas of life, including your finances, but money is a, is a far distant second to people. And so if your money is getting in the way of your people relationships, then obviously you have certain things that you have to do. But, but again, Make sure that as you enter into any type of a debt repayment plan that includes extra jobs, that you start taking into consideration these things. Will you be able to still worship on the first day of the week? Now some people are in, are in, in such a situation where they have a job that keeps them away from one of the worships on the first day of the week. A lot of churches have two worships on the first day of the week, and so you can usually balance that out to where you can be at least at one of the worships. And even if that's not your case, you certainly, with your family, can at least have a private devotional time on Sunday, in addition to your family that's not working, going to the worship and to the Bible classes on the first day of the week. Why is this so important? Well, in Hebrews chapter 10, 25, it commands us not to forsake the assembling together. That's talking about the church coming together and he talks about why he, he continues on in this verse that those who continue to sin are going to put themselves in such a situation where it may become at some point impossible for them to receive forgiveness. Why is that? Well, Again, as you go down in Hebrews 10, you get down to verse 29 and it talks about those who continue in their sin. And remember the context for this is not forsaking the assembly. Other things apply to this, but it's certainly talking specifically About the worshiping the meeting together to worship and in Hebrews 1029. It talks about those who do so literally trample the Son of God underfoot that they treat as an unholy thing the blood of Christ and that they actually insult the grace of God Well, if you're counting on grace for salvation as I am, as hopefully every human being that has a mind when they're looking at the scriptures are, then you'll understand that you have your part to do not to insult the grace of God. If you're counting on the blood of Christ cleansing you from your sins as we all are, hopefully, if we're Christians then you can't be trampling his body underfoot. You can't be treating as an unholy thing. the blood that he shed. And so my point of this is a lot of times we give our jobs high precedent over the first day of the week worship. And I think that we're really making a mistake when we do that. Again, do some people have jobs that keep them away from the formal worship on the first day of the week? They surely do. Do some people have such a situation as to where they can't easily replace that job that they need to keep a roof over their head and clothes on their back and food on the table unless they work on the first day of the week? And again, some people are in that very situation, but if you are in that situation, you need to at least find some time to on that first day of the week where you're gathering with your family and having some sort of a worship service that includes the things that we would see in a first day worship service if you were able to gather with the church. You can read the Bible, you can decide that, and we'll have videos on that another time. But again, if you're deciding whether or not to work a second job and that second job is going to keep you away from the worship, I would I really would because I think you're going to find that you are instead of doing something that's beneficial to your family because you're taking care of some physical obligations, that you're doing something that's very detrimental to them on a spiritual level, and you can't afford to do that. There's something else for you dads out there. That I fully understand and you moms as well. But let me talk to the dads for a moment. You do have the responsibility to provide for your family. And I know that most of you take that obligation seriously, but if you're providing just the physical things and you're not the spiritual leader that you need to be, if you're breaking commandments of the new Testament in order to take care of other obligations that you have. You probably need to rethink the situation because God has never given competing command, commandments. Are there some things that we find ourselves in a difficult situation to do both? And the answer is, of course, yes. And keeping out of debt and worshipping on the first day of the week is a prime example. But if you love God, if you're intent upon serving Him first and foremost, and you're praying to God for help, I believe He'll help you figure out this situation. So, let me get back to another, or let me go to another point, and that's just this. If your finances are under control enough to be paying the bills that you have, even though you don't have a lot left over at the end of paying the bills, and getting a second job would require you to be a second rate father or a second rate mother, then in that case, I would encourage you just to keep with the situation that you have. If you can still pay your bills and do your best to get your budget under control. For example, you may have a new car payment that's really stretching your budget, but you can still do it with just one, one income by all means do that. And then when you get out of debt on that car, either by selling it. or by paying off the debt, then don't ever get into that type of a debt situation again. Some people find themselves house poor. They have so much house that they can't afford anything else. Well, in that case, if you can, you probably need to sell your house. I know it may be your dream house, but you don't want to turn a dream house into a nightmare because you are working so hard to pay for it that you neglect your home. Your relationship with God, your relationship with your family and are not there to influence your family's relationship with God. So keep that in mind and take that into consideration. The other thing is, is this. When we look at a situation where we have both the husband and the wife working and we have children at home, so often that means paying somebody, often a stranger, to raise your children. It also stretches you to the point where you're just dead tired at the end of the day when you do have time for your children. It may, it may create other situations that where your expenses are actually greater because you're working those two jobs and you have certain expenses that go along with keeping a job, such as two good cars and two nice wardrobes and eating out more often and all the things that, that are associated with that. So, again, My encouragement is to be prudent before you get your bills out of hand, but if you're like most of us and you find yourself in a situation where your bills are out of hand, what do you do? And so again, my encouragement to you is be prudent. figure out how, first and foremost, you can be a proper servant of God, fulfilling your spiritual obligations such as worshiping on the first day of the week, such as being the type of parent that you need to be, where you're actually home with your children occasionally, so that you can be part of the family. Part of their lives. So many people get so serious. What do they call it? A gazelle intensity. And I realized that the proverb says, if you find yourself in debt, free yourself like a gazelle. But, but if, if you If you want to pervert that to the point where paying off that debt becomes tantamount to training up your children in the way they should go because you're simply never home, then you need to reconsider what you're doing on that. Get your bills under control as best as you can. Before you do that, make sure your spiritual life is right with God. Mamas and daddies, make sure that you have a proper relationship with your children, that you're giving them the proper time. I realized that some sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where our bills are so high before we even have kids that sometimes the wife feels trapped into continuing and working, and that may have to happen for a while. It may be that the only way you feel fulfilled. is to have that job and then you'll see your kids after the job. I would encourage you to think very seriously about that. It's your business. It's, it's your life, but consider very seriously. From what you know of the scriptures, what God expects you to do in that type of a situation, certainly once the kids are in school and your job is primarily during school time hours, then you and you're still able to balance your personal life, your spiritual life with your job. Then, then if that's what you want to do, by all means do it. But I would really encourage you especially you young people who have not yet have kids, figure out a way how you can live on one income, the man's income, after you start having children. If you start living on one income now, to begin with, you can be taking the second income and just putting it into savings, or if you do have bills, and paying off your bills before you have children. I know that when my wife and I first got married that That and she got pregnant she had first a dental assistant job, and then she just got a job at a donut restaurant, and, and she worked early in the morning, and, and made a little extra income, and it actually paid for our first child, and that was a wonderful thing. But once we had that first child, we were blessed to a certain to, to to an extent that we were able to Allow her to stay home and raise our own children. I realize not everybody's in that circumstance, but if you can get there, I would really encourage you to do that, and I would really encourage you to understand that your children are worth your doing that. There's something else that I feel is, is very important as we look at all this. If you have certain financial problems, they're usually just temporary. And if, if you can figure out an acceptable way first to serve God and take care of your family spiritually, then you can figure out all the ways that you need to take care of them physically. But if your priorities are right, you can do that. And especially when we have temporary bills that are eventually going to go away. a doctor bill, a student loan, a car payment. These types of things will eventually go away. And as you are paying them down, just be determined not to replace them unnecessarily with more bills. And I believe that if you will devote yourself to God first and foremost, and if you and your spouse will have that relationship between each other, that's a godly relationship. And if you will raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, Then you're going to find that things fall into place a whole lot easier. This life is still a test, and there are difficult things, and we make a lot of financial mistakes that put us sometimes behind the proverbial eight ball to where we're just kind of at a loss at what to do. And my encouragement to you in that is to first and foremost just sit down, Take pen to paper and write down your exact situation and figure out the very best way between you and God as to how you need to proceed. And then whether it's advice from me or advice from Dave Ramsey, which a whole lot more people take by the way then you'll be able to see if that advice is right for your situation. We want to go to heaven someday. It would sure be fun to go to heaven and be debt free for most of our lives, and if we can do that, we want to do that as well. But your primary consideration is your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, and your family's relationship with God. And then everything physical comes after that, not before that. Well, short video today. Again, I'm not trying to bash Dave Ramsey. I know that he has recommended for many, many years a second job as being a great way to get out of debt. And it is a great way to get out of debt. My encouragement to you is to count the costs first and make sure that those costs are not too high with your family. before you get that second job and find out that you're just not there for them anymore. So, something to think about. I hope this will help but until next time I pray that God will richly bless you as you seek to serve Him in the very best way that you can. Take care.