Why?
SERIES – Getting on Top of Your Finances
James 4:13-17 GNV
13 Now listen to me, you that say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to a certain city, where we will stay a year and go into business and make a lot of money.”
14 You don’t even know what your life tomorrow will be! You are like a puff of smoke, which appears for a moment and then disappears.
15 What you should say is this: “If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.”
16 But now you are proud, and you boast; all such boasting is wrong.
17 So then, if we do not do the good we know we should do, we are guilty of sin.
Business is the act of trading something for something.
Levels we can do business:
- The employed
- The employed with a side hustle
- The self-employed
- The entrepreneur – job creators
The benefits of self-employment and entrepreneurship:
- It gives you greater control of your own destiny.
- It is one of four ways wealth is accumulated.
Proverbs 22:29 KJV – Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.
Ways Wealth is accumulated
- Real Estate
- Stock Market
- Inheritance
- Business
- It takes faith to start a business.
Psalm 107:23-24 KJV – 23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; 24 These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.
- The Bible teaches it takes fortitude.
Luke 5:1-5 GNV – 1 One day Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret while the people pushed their way up to him to listen to the word of God. 2 He saw two boats pulled up on the beach; the fishermen had left them and were washing the nets. 3 Jesus got into one of the boats—it belonged to Simon—and asked him to push off a little from the shore. Jesus sat in the boat and taught the crowd. 4 When he finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Push the boat out further to the deep water, and you and your partners let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon answered, “we worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
- It takes financing
- It takes freedom
(James 4:13-17)
GRAPHIC: Education is not the great equalizer
Black median wealth is $4,000
White median wealth is $140,000
Small Business Administration Data
- There are 19 million businesses
- Of them, 70.9% are White, producing 85% of the sales and 86.5% of the jobs.
- Of them, 9.5% are Black, producing 1.3% of the sales and 1.7% of the jobs.
Blacks were restricted to a one race market and that was the Black community.
Blacks were restricted by government interference from the developing markets.
SBA loans guarantee 85% of the bank loans.
Blacks got 9% of the SBA loans under George W. Bush.
Blacks got 1.7% of the SBA loans under Obama.
“The economic highway to power has few entry lanes for the Negro.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Blacks are a special category of people:
- Didn’t choose to come to America voluntarily
- Denied our humanity – 3/5 of a person (Dred Scott Decision)
- Denied the right to enjoy the fruit of our labor
- Denied the right to participate in government
- The only group denied the right to vote
- The only group denied the right to get an education
- The only people to fight in every war, whose mother country never fought against America
- We have been in America longer than 99% of all other ethnic groups
- Our free labor created America’s wealth
- The only people who were denied the right to have a business
To lift the Black Community it will take:
- Private Policy
- Personal Policy
- Public Policy
- Foolish Presumptions
The man didn’t have a prayer.
Proverbs 16:3 NIV – Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.
- Forgotten Perspective
(Jas 4:14)
- Forsaken Priorities
For the Christian, the business of business is the common good.
When you were a child, your family was the world; when you became a Christian, the world is your family.