How would you feel, if, through some devious means, I had managed to get your
current financial situation and put up the numbers on these screens today? So we’d
just go name, and then address, then mug-shot. You know, your driver's license
picture would be fine. How‘d you feel if we did that?
You’d be horrified! Right? You're thinking, that would be a terrible violation of my
privacy! Money is very personal matter! But why is it so personal? I agree with you, it
is, but why? Is it not because you can tell A LOT about a person by the way they
handle their money – and maybe too much! Think about it:
- If we see a few hundred in greens fees and 450 dollars to Nevada Bob’s Golf
Emporium and $150 for bad debts over golf bets, we'd say, here's a serious
golfer... a pretty BAD golfer, but a serious one.
- And we'd see how you feel about your family, and your spouse, what proportion
of money is spent on providing for them, spending time with them, dates,
vacations, gifts...
- We’d see your phone plan and how much you enjoy texting. Of course if you
have teenage girls it throws the whole thing out of whack.
- We could see how disciplined you are for the future, and how disciplined you are
with your present obligations.
- We could see what charities you support or don’t support, or if you give
generously and consistently to the work of the local church, or not. It'd all show
up right there.
We’d know a lot about you! Jesus had an interesting way of putting this phenomena.
He said,
Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And vice
versa.
So where your money is, is an indication of what your heart is engaged in. Which
means if we had access into your financial records, we'd be able to tell what really
matters to you because there'd be a money trail. What your heart loves, your money
follows. So if this whole topic makes you squirm a little, then let me just ask this
question:
what is it about your financial management that is a little embarrassing or that
frustrates you?
Allow God today to deal with the heart stuff that’s behind the money stuff. Because
many of us do not live free and we do not therefore live the simple life and it’s all about
money anxiety and worry and indebtedness.
So while you’re letting God mess in your kitchen, let’s review again the freeing
principles of money management from God’s Word. We could hang it all one key
Scripture:
Proverbs 21:20: In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil,
but a foolish man devours all he has.
In other words,
- a wise man or woman has a financial plan and
o a foolish person doesn't.
- A wise man or woman saves and thinks about the future,
o but a fool lives only for the here and now.
- A wise man or woman has a strategy, develops a nest egg, a cushion, they've
got a plan.
o But the foolish person has no plan, no strategy and so, when some
unexpected problem comes, an unscheduled setback, there's panic,
anxiety and frustration.
IE, NOT the simple life.
So TODAY, if we want more of the freedom and joy Jesus had, we need to be wise
financial stewards. What percentage of your regular chaos and anxiety and conflict is
driven by being financially out of control? So here’s three biblical principles to help you
to the simple life.
PAY GOD, PAY YOURSELF, PAY THE BILLS.
PAYING GOD
So you need to look at your financial life through the lenses of three entities that need to
be paid. Lock this in: these three will always be paid and you’ll never miss. The first
is God. This shouldn’t be controversial with Christians, but it is and we all know why.
It’s because of this guy,
Doctor, Reverend, Pastor, Brother Bill. Who’d like to welcome you to big time
religion tabernacle, where you’re a stranger only once. Cause then we get your
name, and then we get your phone number, and then we follow you around a
little bit and find out where you do you banking, because we WANT YOUR
MONEY! Because I need an air conditioned doghouse for Rover, PTL!
Now, that guy’s never going to show up at AC3 - except maybe in a funny skit or in tar
and feathers.
HOWEVER, despite the fact that we avoid this stereotype and we acknowledge it’s
damaging results, we can’t miss something AC3: No one who studies the Bible
faithfully can exclude the importance and benefits Scripture puts on PAYING GOD 10 %
off the top: Tithing.
Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in
my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw
open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not
have room enough for it.
Some say, “whoa Rick! Tithing is an old testament concept!” Not under law but grace.
I agree. But do you think grace brings more generosity, or less? (NT expansion of
moral law.) In fact, Jesus explicitly encouraged people to continue to honor it. He said:
Woe to you, teachers of the law…You give a tenth…But you have neglected the
more important matters-- justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have
practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. Matt 23:23
You know, if I could relax this expectation, I wouldn’t, you know why? Because through
practice I’ve discovered that giving is all about faith. I want bigger faith, don’t you?
That’s giving’s primary purpose. It’s not God’s way of raising cash, it’s his way of
raising children. Which is why Moses says:
Deut 14:23 “The purpose of tithing is to teach you always put God first.”
- So all over the Bible you read the simple instruction. Every month, the first bill
you pay, is you honor God with the first fruits of your harvest. First check you
write – to God. Why? As an act of worship and gratitude for God’s amazing
grace. To teach you to always put God first. Work into it.
- And then God says, alright, I’ll honor you back. I will become supernaturally
involved in your financial affairs. If you give God the first part of the pie, he's
promised to become involved in the whole.
PAYING YOURSELF
But now, let’s move to the second part of the plan, the second entity that gets a
cut from every paycheck, the entity that never misses, the one that's paid joyfully, IS
YOU. You pay YOU.
Did you know, our society is in negative savings growth for the first time since 1933.
That means every household spends on average 1% more than we take in. Jesus put
this part of the plan this way:
Luke 10:7 –the worker deserves his wages.
This was a reference to the biblical principle that people who work full time spreading
the Gospel ought to get paid from the tithes and donations of those who benefit from
their work. Paul repeats the principle in
1 Tim 5:17-19 - Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well,
especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says,
“You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in
another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!”
But the principle sound for all of us. If you work, you deserve wages. You OUGHT to
get paid. So pay yourself by saving for your needs and even your wants.
Prov 6:6-8 Go to the ant , you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no
commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and
gathers its food at harvest.
How much should you store? It depends, but the experts I've read and heard suggest
10%. Some can be rainy day fund, some for contingencies, but most of this ought to be
for retirement.
By all counts, the gov’t won’t have enough money in 30 years to pay your retirement.
The assumption we have is that the gov’t is taking your Social Security deduction and
saving it for you to give back with interest. In fact, the gov’t is so overleveraged that it is
paying current retirees straight from the taxes they take from you. And it’s sheer good
faith that makes us believe they’ll have money for you when you retire in 20 or 30 years.
If you can opt out of social security you should do it.
Some of you who are retirees may not like that advice for young people, and I wish that
the experiment in socialism could work forever for everyone. But it looks like it’s not
going to. And we have to ask ourselves what in the world ailed us to cede this kind of
control to our rulers in the first place?
Think about what messages were implied in a system that discourages the Biblical
command to save. That took saving out of your control. The message was:
- You’re too stupid, too negligent, too poor, too undisciplined to save your own
money for your own rainy day or old age.
- You’re too insensitive, selfish and miserly to assist your parents when they reach
retirement age.
- So we’re just going to take those savings from most of you by force, at the point
of a gun if you resist, and we’re going to give it back to you when we say you can
take it, with a really terrible rate of return.
We though this was a good plan! When did we agree to it? In the great depression.
Friends, be mindful of the control you give up when you’re in a crisis. What did Israel
do? In crisis they went down to Egypt. Isaiah says:
31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust
in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but
do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD.
In crisis, they ceded control to human saviors and what did that get them? Broken
treaties, heavier taxes, subjugation for their children’s children.
The American gov’t these days is like a drunk man at a bar who keeps ordering his
friends another round of drinks. “Every-bodies! Drinks on me!” And we’re a fool to trust
him, but we keep on drinking and trying to ignore the hefty tab he keeps running up,
hoping the bar tender won’t start to hit us up to pay for his enormous bill.
Now people say, where will I save this money Rick? In the market? The market’s gone
to Pot in the last year. True, it has. This is a very good reason to check out Dave
Ramsey Financial Peace University we’re offering. You’re going to get great advice
about the best places to build and hold onto savings in today’s crazy financial world.
But let’s now imagine a person who today starts working this plan, who pays God 10
and pays themselves 10. That person is free! They’re living the simple life!
- They first of all have a freedom of spirit knowing they were generous with God’s
work and God will be generous with them (church hope of world).
- And second, they’ve got this nest egg. Put it together and there’s very little need
for anxiety in their financial picture. Friends, that person is free.
- But… you say: “What about all the bills!” Inflation!
3 PAYING THE BILLS
Alright, so you PAY GOD, you PAY YOURSELF, they you pay everybody else, the
butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker - UNCLE SAM. The first two entities get your
first CUT and then you see what you have left for housing, food and clothes and
transportation and vacation, recreations, and debt reduction.
Now, you know that's backwards from what most people do. You pay the bills and
THEN if they have excess you think about giving some away or maybe tucking some in
a mattress. Is it because we can't live on 80%? Or is that simply that we won't?
Is our heart in the right place? Remember what Jesus said:
Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Maybe there’s a broken spending gauge – in your heart. Dan used to have this 71
Impala that he loved – but it left him stranded more than once. One time, he ran out of
gas twice in one week because the gas gauge didn’t work. His wife was stranded in the
thing for an hour before he got to her and put a gallon in the tank. Then he forgot that
he had only put in a gallon in and ran out of gas again the next day!
If you think that’s nuts, think of how many people try to operate their personal finances
plans with a broken spending gauge. We spend
1. Impulsively.
2. Compulsively.
3. To Feel Good
4. To Alleviate Boredom
5. To Increase Status
Friends, that’s not a problem with discipline, that’s a heart issue. So if your TRUE
treasure and purpose and joy is really in things, it feeds your need to have more and
more things. And what has that gotten you? Debt. A boat load of debt. And what did
debt get you? Slavery. As God’s Word says:
Prov 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.
Friend, you can only get off the treadmill through delayed gratification and changing
where your treasure is! And that’s really not so much about discipline, that’s about your
spiritual life. IE. Where are you FINDING it?
CONCLUSION
God made you for freedom. When Jesus was on earth he loved to talk about freedom.
He’d say, I can set you truly free. And what he was talking about was spiritual freedom.
It’s God’s plan whereby guilty, moral failures, those of us who know we’ve stacked up
huge amounts of moral debt in the face of a holy God, go free.
But Jesus says to us,
“all you moral debtors, you go free for eternity, based on my death on the cross.”
That’s the kind of freedom you were born live in. So once you’re spiritually free, I think
God might ask you,
“why would you want to give any of that freedom back that was won for you on
the cross? Why become a slave again to financial bondage?”
