Wake Up, Look Up

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question who drove us into

debt this is based on an article I read

recently in the Wall Street Journal

about the number of Americans who have

bought a car that is now worth less than

they owe that's called negative equity

they haven't gained money they've lost

money it's also referred to as being

underwater or upside down and it goes

like this if you buy a car for

$330,000 and you take out a $30,000 loan

but then a year later while you still

owe let's say

$29,000 the car is worth 24 you have

negative equity you could sell the car

you would still owe $4 or $5,000 on the

loan that's because cars are

depreciating assets the minute you drive

them off the lot they are losing a

little bit of their value but when we

borrow money especially because of the

interest we are borrowing it at a rate

that is higher than what the car will

hold its value and this is an experience

that many many Americans have in fact

the article suggested that onethird of

Americans who borrow money to buy a car

are now upside down or underwater on

their car their car is worth less than

they owe for it they could sell their

car but they would still owe money

that's 31 million Americans who have a

car that is actually actively losing

them money in fact the average negative

equity is around

$6500 that's a lot of money for you to

have to eventually pay for a car that

you may no longer even be driving that's

a tough Financial place to be and of

course it begs the question how did we

get here how did we get to the point

where debt has become so regular for us

and and so commonplace that we will even

buy something that in a month six months

a year will be significantly worth

significantly less than we actually owe

on it when you wake up and realize you

owe $6,500 more than your car is worth

who got us here by the way the article

was looking particularly at people who

have been in the pathway of the

hurricanes and floods that have been

happening in the South because when a

hurricane comes through and totals your

car the insurance will pay out what it's

worth not what you owe so now you've

gone through a hurricane your car is

totaled and you owe

$6500 well the answer to the question

who got us here is we did we as a

society decided that our status and our

felt need of looking and feeling like

we're important or having nice things

was more important than financial

Prudence we got ourselves here and if

we're going to get out we're going to

need someone else's wisdom to take us

there and that's why one of my favorite

things to do on this podcast is to

remind you that God has been giving us

wisdom on finances for thousands of

years in the scriptures the same Bible

that will tell us that the borrower is

slave to the lender the Bible's been

telling us for a long time to be careful

with money to be careful about borrowing

it to be careful about spending it to

manage it with wisdom God wants you to

flourish financially and he knows how to

get you there we don't that's why we're

in the state we're in and so the first

step is to stop having so much

confidence in yourself and the second

step is to start gaining confidence in

God's ability to lead you out and I know

situations are complex your story is

complex it's why I'm not on here telling

you don't do this or do that I'm just

telling you seek the wisdom of God by

the way if you're thinking well I don't

know how to take the Bible and apply it

to my personal finances and budget

that's what the local church is for it's

more than likely that the church you're

a part of has a program or Ministry

designed for people like you to teach

you the principles that the Bible has

for handling money to show you how to

make wise purchases and avoid traps like

being upside down in your car listen

settle in your heart that God knows

what's best for you you don't and that

chasing status and keeping up with the

Joneses is ruining us financially let's

stop listening to all the voices out

there other than God and to start

letting him drive us out of death hey

thanks so much for watching this video

while you're here we'd love to ask you

to hit subscribe or to like so you get

future content if you listen to the

audio version too make sure you leave a

review and a comment that really helps

consider sharing it on social media and

helping us get the word out and hey

while you're here check out all the

other content that Christ Community

Chapel is putting out including the

videos that are around me right now