Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

The lyrics to a song in the musical Cabaret say this- “Money makes the world go ‘round.  A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound, a buck or a pound, a buck or a pound is all that makes the world go ‘round.  That clinking, clanking sound is what makes the world go ‘round.”  Now, I promise you it’s a snappy tune, but I’m not gonna sing it for you.  Just give you the lyrics, and you can tell by the lyrics it’s probably a snappy tune.  But the question is, is it true?  Does money really make the world go around?  You would think that by the way we talk about it, the way we labor over it, the way we run after it, the way we tune into the financial news network that talks about it for 24 hours, the way some of us are leaning into what’s happening on Wall Street, that the musical was right.  That money really makes the world go around.  You would think that by the way we’re kind of consumed by the idea of financial freedom that, yeah, money makes the world go around.  How many of you want to be financially free?  Come on now, you’re in church.  Tell the truth.  Put your hand up, every one of you, ‘cause that’s true of all of us, right?  I mean, sure we’d like to be financially free, because the opposite is to be in financial bondage.  And who wants that?  I’m here to tell you today that God is in the freedom business.  He sent His Son Jesus to free us from the bondage of sin and from the bondage of a future eternity apart from Him.

0:01:58.0

And I want to read for you just a few passages of scripture here that kind of establish this idea that God is in the freedom business and He really wants us to be free in a whole host of ways, including our financial life.  Let’s start in John 8:32.  Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  Now, that can apply to a lot of things, but let’s just apply it to our financial life.  You will know the truth about money, and that truth will set you free, financially free.  How about this?  2 Corinthians 3:17, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  How about Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Now, there are all kinds of ways that the devil wants to enslave us.  But what I’ve discovered over the years pastoring churches and being involved in local church ministry and being involved in people’s lives is perhaps the number one way that the devil likes to enslave us is financially.  And then how about this from Luke 4:18?  This was a place where Jesus inaugurated, He started His ministry.  And He quotes from an Old Testament prophecy found in book of Isaiah.  And He applies it to Himself.  And one of the things He said it, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom, freedom for the prisoners.”  And that’s good news in a whole host of areas of life, certainly first and foremost freedom from the bondage of sin and freedom to receive the free gift of eternal life.  But beyond that we can apply all these principles of freedom to our financial life as well.  So let me ask you again.  How many of you want to experience financial freedom God’s way?  Just lift up your hand.  Actually, just say the word “freedom” if you do.  (Freedom.)  All right.  Come on, say it like you mean it.  (Freedom.)  Say it like you can’t live without it.  (Freedom.)  All right.  We’re kind of ready to get started on this.

0:04:09.5

Here is where I want to go this morning.  First of all, I want to talk about a biblical definition of financial freedom.  You can go online and Google…you know, type in the words “financial freedom”, you’ll have all kinds of gurus out there—financial experts, some that are legitimately so and others that want to be—telling you what financial freedom really looks like.  I’m going to give you a biblical definition of that.  Then we’re gonna talk about why it’s important for you and me to have a financial plan.  And then I’m just gonna get real practical and real straight up with you.  And I’m gonna talk about a biblical financial plan, a divine financial plan that has governed Cathryn and I’s finances for 23 years of marriage and my personal finances, you know, for years before that as a single adult.  This financial plan, it’s simple.  I’m just gonna give you the basic architecture to it.  But it comes from the pages of scripture.  So that’s where we’re gonna go this morning.

0:05:05.8

First, a biblical definition of financial freedom.  What I’m about to share with you reminds me of a time several years ago when we were living in Washington, D.C., and I was a guest on a radio program that dealt with, you know, financial issues.  They’re locally in the D.C. area.  And I’ll never forget the guy who was interviewing me asking me about financial freedom.  And I just rattled off four things that are just kind of part of who I am and what I’ve learned over the years, this definition of biblical financial freedom.  You would have thought I just, you know, introduced sliced bread or spray starch to him for the first time.  I mean, he had never heard something like this.  And he says, “Can I use it?  Can I borrow it?”  I almost got the sense that he was gonna steal it and make it his own, but I said, “Sure, it’s not mine anyway.  It’s the Bible’s teaching.”  But here is how I would answer the question of what financial freedom is.

0:05:56.8

Four things.  First, free of debt.  Everybody starts there, right?  Free of debt.  Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave or a servant to the lender.”  You can’t be financially free and, I’m gonna suggest to you, even spiritually free completely if you’re in financial bondage.  And debt makes you a prisoner of your past.  That’s what the verse says.  “The rich rule over the poor; the borrower is a slave to the lender.”  And here is what I’ve discovered over the years.  It takes about two seconds to get into debt, as quickly as it does to swipe that credit card or to, you know, sign the debt obligation.  It takes about two seconds.  It takes years, years to dig yourself out of debtor’s prison.  So this is why the Bible…it never says debt is a sin or it’s evil, but there are all kinds of warnings about the wise person who doesn’t go into debt, especially consumer debt.  So free of debt.

0:07:11.6

Secondly, free from the love of money.  We talked about this last week.  Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and become content with what you have.”  Would you describe yourself as a content person?  Or are you driven by the consumerism of our age?  Drive by whatever Madison Avenue says, “Hey, you need to buy this.  You need to trade up.  You need to get the new thingamajig.  You’ve got the 6.0 thing?  You need the 7.0 or the 8.0.”  And Madison Avenue is always trying to sell us up and trade us up and buy us up to something new.  Are you really content with what you have?  The Bible says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money.”  We said last week money itself is not evil.  It’s the love of money, just the passion for more of it and what more we can buy with it.  You’ll never experience true financial freedom, biblical financial freedom and the way God wants you have it unless you’re free of debt and free from the love of money.

0:08:22.0

Thirdly, free to give generously.  Free to give generously.  Acts 20:35.  The apostle Paul is saying goodbye to the church at Ephesus where he served for three years.  He’s down on the shore about to set sail.  They’re weeping.  They’re sharing stories.  They’re pouring out love to the apostle Paul, who poured into their lives for all these years.  And in that scene Paul reminds them of the words of Jesus, who said, “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.”  Do you believe that?  Do you believe that?  Seriously.  Now, if I were to look into your finances, would there be evidence there to what you gave intellectual assent to?  Well that’s a whole other question, isn’t it?  See, it’s easy for us as people of faith and people who go to church to say, “Yeah, I believe this.  I believe that.  I checked the box on this.  I checked the box on that.”  But nothing gives more tangible evidence to our faith and to our proclamations than when we just take a little glimpse inside your finances and mine.  If you want to experience the blessed life—and I suspect you do or else you wouldn’t be in church today—Jesus says that’s done by giving, not receiving.  Wall Street says you build wealth by, you know, buying low and selling high, right?  And Jesus says it’s by sowing and reaping, by giving.  By giving you are blessed.

0:09:59.7

So free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously.  All right.  Here’s the last one.  Free to have fun.  And this is my favorite part.  Ecclesiastes 5:19 and following, “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions and enables him to enjoy them,” Solomon says, “it’s a gift of God.”  I said last week and I’ll say it again.  If you have a lot of money and you’re very blessed by the measure of this world, I’m never gonna make you feel guilty about that, and neither should any of us.  You know, we all have different capacities of wealth and we all have different amounts of money and all that.  If you’ve been immeasurably blessed, you don’t have to feel guilty about that.  Enjoy it.  It’s a gift from God, as long as you have everything else in its proper priority and order.

0:10:52.5

Dave Ramsey is a radio talk show host, and he’s a believer in Jesus Christ.  And he’s kind of all over this financial stuff.  He’s got a national program.  And one day a caller called in to the Dave Ramsey program and needed some guidance.  The guy wanted to buy a Harley Davidson.  Kind of a man after my own heart.  I’ve always wanted to grow my hair long, put it in a ponytail, get some leather on, and drive a Harley.  And I’m trying to get my Harley babe over here to come along with me, but she won’t, all right.  It just won’t happen.  But this guy wanted to buy a Harley.  And Dave is, you know, asking him—he doesn't know him from Adam—asking him all these diagnostic questions.  He finally just says, “Well, you know, what’s your net worth?  What’s your financial net worth?”  And the guy hem-hawed around.  He says, “I don’t know.  Somewhere around $20 million.”  And Dave said, “Dude, buy the Harley.”  You know, have fun with what God has given to you, again, as long as you have your other financial priorities in line and you’ve put God first.

0:11:57.9

So real financial freedom, friends, free of debt…and, by the way, next week we’re gonna talk about breaking free of the debt trap.  Because it’s one of the devil’s strategies and schemes to enslave us.  It takes a second to get into debt.  It takes years to get out.  I’m even gonna give you a strategy on how to accelerate getting out of that debt trap.  Free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously, free to have fun.  That’s the kind of life and financial life that I want to live.  And that’s what God wants for us.  Again, when it comes to money, you don’t have to get nervous.  You don’t have to get all, you know, worried about, you know, suspicions and all that.  God wants freedom for you, freedom from the slavery and bondage of consumerism and the love of money and all of that, and freedom to enjoy the gifts that He’s given to you and given to me.

0:12:53.5

Now, in order to do that, everybody needs a financial plan.  I told you last week my undergraduate degree was in financial planning.  And I learned a long time ago everybody needs a financial plan.  One of my professors, years ago, used to say, “If you fail to plan financially, you plan to fail financially.”  And that’s true.  And so many Americans today have planned to fail financially.  Not intentionally, but unintentionally.  And they reach a time in their life where they realize they’ve neglected planning financially for their future and for their eternal future.  We’ll talk in week three about two portfolios you need to have- an earthly portfolio and an eternal portfolio.  And both portfolios need a plan.  So if you fail to plan financially, you plan to fail financially.  I don’t know if these numbers are still true, but years ago the Wall Street said 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and they don’t have a plan for their finances.  Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”  If your financial plan is a get rich quick scheme, is a trip to Vegas, well, listen to the wisdom of Proverbs.  “The plans of the diligent,” the hardworking, “lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

0:14:28.5

I know some people who are on what I call the ostrich financial plan.  It’s where you stick your head in the sand.  And you can even spiritualize this.  “Well, you know, God will take care of me.”  Well, He’s taking care of you by giving you instruction in His Word to have a plan.  And He’ll help you plan.  He’ll help you order your finances.  But if you don’t have a plan, then don’t wake up someday and say, “Well, who is gonna help me here?  Who’s gonna help me?”  Social insecurity or somebody else?  I mean, that’s some people’s plan is Social insecurity.  No, you’ve got to have a plan, a plan that starts today.  And the sooner you begin working that plan, certainly, the better.

0:15:12.5

I believe everybody needs a short term financial plan and a long term financial plan.  A short term financial plan is called a budget.  And for some of you that’s the dreaded “B” word, and you don’t want anywhere near a budget because it feels like you put shackles on you, you know.  And you’re like Houdini trying to get out of this thing.  No, here is how you need to think of a budget.  A budget is a short term financial plan.  It’s a spending plan where you tell your money where to go before you wonder where it went.  And you don’t want to be in the place where you’ve worked hard all these years and you’ve made all this money…remember the calculation we did last week?  You just make $25,000 a year for 40 years, $1 million has passed through your hands.  And you don’t want to end up at the end of life saying, “I wonder where that went,” or to stand before God, who will hold you accountable for His wealth that He entrusted to you to manage.  And He says, “I’m wondering where that went too,” because you didn’t have a plan.  Proverbs 27:23-24, “Know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to you herds.  For riches do not last forever.  And does a crown endure to all generation?”  We don’t live in the agrarian society, perhaps, that Solomon lived in.  We don’t have flocks and herds, but we have bank accounts and portfolios and possessions.  So know well the condition of these things, the Bible says.  The wise person has a plan.  The wise person is paying attention to the inflow and the outflow of money.  He’s paying attention to how he makes, how he gives it, how he saves it, how he spends it.  He has those two portfolios in mind, and he’s got a financial plan.

0:17:05.8

Now, I want to just share with you a simple financial plan.  I believe it’s a divine financial plan.  And it’s a plan that works.  It’s a plan, at least the basic architecture, that Cathryn and I have used in 23 years of marriage.  And I believe, as I share this with you, I not only have the authority of scripture behind me on this, but I’ve got 25 to 30 years of experience to say this works.  God is faithful to His Word if we will just listen to Him and order our finances accordingly.  When Cathryn and I were engaged, I remember we got engaged at Christmas time 1993.  And she’s agreeing with that, yeah.  And we got married the following August.  And we kind of established…we had that financial conversation.  And I said, “Sweetheart, I think it’s really important for us that we manage our money well.  And I think it’s important for us to start our marriage debt free.  And except for a mortgage or, you know, things like that, we’re just not gonna do the credit card debt thing and all that.”  She had about $2500 on her credit card.  She was working.  I was in my Master’s program, so I was a poor seminary student.  What did I know about money, right?  And I just told her.  I said, “Well, over these eight months, that’d be a great time for you to pay off that $2500.”  She was working.  I wasn’t, right.  I had come out of the business world.  Yeah, I had some…but, you know.  And she did.  She, you know, took those eight months, paid it off.  We started debt free.  And I can tell you in 23 years of marriage we’ve never revolved credit on a credit card.  You know what that means?  When you get the credit card bill you just make the minimum payment?  That’s called (0:19:00.0) revolving credit.  No, we’re called deadbeats in the credit card industry.  You know what a deadbeat is?  It’s somebody who pays off his credit card bill at the end of the month.  That’s because from day one we said, “We’re not gonna do this consumer debt thing.  And we’re not gonna use a credit card unless we already have the money in the bank to pay the bill when it comes 30 days later.”  So I like the free 30-day loan.

0:19:26.6

The other thing we talked about was giving.  And I said, “You know, Sweetheart, I’ve practiced this thing called tithing and giving to God first,” which we’ll talk about in a moment.  And she said, “What’s a tithe?”  And she had grown up in the Methodist church, and they hadn’t taught that a whole lot.  And if she were here on the platform with me, she would tell you that she was a tipper back then, not a tither.  Yeah, if she had a little bit left over and the offering plate came by, you know scrambling for that ten spot of the five spot or, you know, whatever it was.  A tipper, not (0:20:00.0) a tither.  And I said, “No, I think we need to go in a different direction.”  So we had that conversation.  We got married eight months later.  And the story of what God has done financially in our lives…if Cathryn were to be here on this platform with me today, she would tell story after story of God’s faithfulness in ordering our finances the way I want to share with you right now.

0:20:22.9

Again, this is grand architecture.  There are a lot of details beneath these larger categories.  But here is what we call the 10/10/80 financial plan.  It’s a starting point in ordering your finances.  Number one, give to God first.  That’s the first 10%.  Proverbs 3:9-10, listen to this, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.”  Again, an agrarian culture, but just update the language for us.  I call this the “law of first fruits”.  There are two other laws that we’ll talk about under this first heading of “give to God first”.  But the law of first fruits in the Bible is important for us to understand.  Back in Solomon’s time, they lived in an agrarian culture.  They would plant seed in the ground.  They would nurture it and water it.  They would get ready for harvest.  And then in the economy of God’s chosen people, they would take the first fruits of the harvest and set those aside for the Lord.  They gave to God first, not last.  They put Him first in their economy, not last.  And I just want to say to you, friends, that “God is first in my life.  Oh, yes, He is,” if He’s last in your budget.  It doesn’t work that way.  You’ve given intellectual assent to a very biblical idea.  Put Jesus first.  You know, “Jesus is first in my life.”  But when we look inside your finances, if there’s not evidence for that…you may say He’s first in your life, but He’s last in your budget.  So the first fruits principle, or the first fruits law, comes to play here.

0:22:14.9

Matthew 6:33.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things you worry about will be added unto you.”  Now, that takes a huge step of faith to give to God first when you’ve got a stack of bills over here.  But here is what Cathryn and I have learned.  When it feels like I have more month than I have money, boy, that’s the time I’ve got to give to God first.  Because I want Him to be all over my finances and make it work out.  Because I don’t see a way of working it out.  So we order our finances and prioritize them with God being first.  If you were to look inside our finances and you see, you know, salary deposit or some…the next entry is our giving check to God.  We want to be that immediate with it.  We don’t wait until the end of the month or the end of the pay cycle.  But we give to Him first.

0:23:13.3

Now, you say, “Well, how much?  How much do we give?”  Well, that brings us to the next law or principle.  I call this the “law of the tenth”, or the tithe.  Malachi 3:10 says, “‘Bring the tithe,’”—and a tithe is an apportionment which means a tenth—“‘Bring the tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house.  And test me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows.’”  Again, Cathryn would tell you, way back when she was a tipper, not a tither.  And we learned together the joy, not only of giving, but of tithing and of taking that step of faith.  Now, there is a lot of discussion, you know, about tithing.  And is it an Old Testament thing or a New Testament thing?  Let me just put some of this in perspective.  When God wanted to teach His people, the chosen people of Israel, how to live generously, He gave them the law of tithing under the Mosaic Law.  But long before the law came under Moses, two guys in the Bible named Abraham and Jacob—not as a law, but as a lifestyle 400 years before the law—they pledged to give a tenth of all that God had blessed them with.  So before it was a law, it was a lifestyle.  And then we move into the pages of the New Testament—there’s not a lot of discussion about tithing—and we talk about grace-giving.  You know, let the grace of God inspire and motivate how you give and when you give and the amount you give.  Well, doesn’t it make sense that whatever grace-giving is, it should at least start where the Old Testament started?  I call tithing, or a tenth, a starting point in our giving.  It’s a floor, not a ceiling.  And I’ll be honest with you.  Cathryn and I, because we started our marriage and our finances this way and we started this way and then bought a house.  We started this way and then bought cars and all that kind of stuff.  We ordered our finances.  It’s easy for us to tithe today.  It’s easy for us to give God the first 10%.  Where He stretching us is to go beyond that, because it’s not a ceiling.  It’s a floor.  And quite frankly, depending upon how much God has blessed you with, a tithe is way too small.  I know business people I’ve met that say they’re gonna do a reverse.  “We’re gonna give 90% and live off 10%.”  If God has blessed you that way, you don’t need to feel guilty.  Just begin to soar beyond the minimum expression of generosity found in the scriptures.  There is nobody in the Bible who was considered generous that gave anything less than that basic apportionment that we know as a tithe.  If you feel legalistic or, you know, some way constrained by that, fine.  Don’t give a tithe.  Give 11% or 12% or 15%.  Free yourself up from that.  But grace-giving, at least in my mind, doesn’t go less than the basic standard.  It goes beyond that and frees us up to give generously.

0:26:18.6

The third law or principle under this first statement of giving to God first is what I call the “law of the harvest”.  Now, listen to this.  Proverbs 11:24, “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, but it results only in want.”  Again, this has the farmer in mind who has a stash of seed.  And the farmer understands that the seed doesn’t do him any good if he just keeps it locked up in his barn.  No, if he wants a harvest one day, he’s got to take the seed and scatter it out there.  Not just a little bit of seed, but a lot of seed if you want a big harvest.  So “there is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.”  Or as the old limerick goes, “There once was a man, some thought him mad.  The more he gave, the more he had.”  It’s true.  It’s the way biblical economics works.  It’s the law of the harvest, of seed time and harvest.  2 Corinthians 9:6 says it this way.  “Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.  And whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”  Again, the farmer understands this.  And he takes his bag of seed, and he scatters it out there.  It’s an act of faith, faith in the laws and principles that govern the physical, natural world in which we live.  And he knows that harvest will come.

0:27:55.0

By the way, 2 Corinthians 9:6 is found in the largest section of scripture in the New Testament that gives attention to our financial giving.  It’s where we get the principle of grace-giving, 2 Corinthians 8-9.  And so this particular verse about sowing and reaping is specifically in the context of our financial giving.  Jesus said it this way.  “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over.  The measure with which you give is the measure with which it will be returned to you.”  Now, I’m not a prosperity theologian.  I’m not saying God is a cosmic slot machine that if you, you know, put some in…you can “name it and claim it” kind of thing.  I’m not talking about that.  But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  These are biblical principles of economics that God has woven into His world.  And if we’re going to experience the financial freedom that I believe He wants us to experience—free of debt, free from the love of money, free to give generously, free to have fun—we order our finances with God as the CEO, as the CFO, we might say, the chief financial officer.  And we give to Him first.  We give as the first fruits principle, the law of the tenth, the law of the harvest, and we go on from there.  Make sense?  Say an “amen” or “oh me, oh my”.

0:29:28.1

Listen, Cathryn and I have done this for decades, in good times and in bad times.  In times when we weren’t sure whether we could make ends meet.  Yeah, there were times that we said, “Well, you know, in the natural realm here, we can’t afford to tithe.”  And that’s when we remember that the Lord said, “Test me now in this.”  It’s the only time in the Bible that the Lord says, “You put me to the test.”  You see, God’s promises are yes and amen, friends.  And He said to the ancient Israelites, “You bring that tithe into the storehouse.  You test Me in this.”  If you don’t have enough faith to trust Him in this area of your finances, then put Him to the test.  Say, “Lord, I’m gonna do this for 90 days and see if You show up.”  He says, “You test Me, and You watch Me open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you can’t contain.”  You say, “Well, I’ll believe it when I see it.”  No, you’ve got to believe it and then act upon it, and then you’ll see it.  That verse of scripture in Malachi goes on to say He will not only open up the windows of heaven, but He will rebuke the devourer.  Is Satan just eating your lunch in some area of your life?  Believe it or not, it might be tied to your giving.  And if you can’t trust Him…you know, “Lord, I believe but help my unbelief.”  Okay.  Put Him to the test, He says, “and you just watch Me work.”  And we’ve done this over and over and over again in our financial life.  We aren’t where we are today, in a place of wonderful freedom, because I made a lot of money, okay.  It’s because God has been true to His Word and He’s been faithful and He’s taken care of us.  And He keeps stretching us in this area of giving.

0:31:22.7

Give to God first.  Secondly, pay yourself second.  There is a reason why years ago the Wall Street Journal said that 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, you know, devouring everything they have.  It’s because they didn’t learn you’ve got to pay yourself.  Proverbs 21:20 says, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man [or woman] devours all he [or she] has.”  Joseph is the example in the Old Testament.  You remember Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers?  And through some hard experiences, he rose to be prime minister in Egypt.  And Joseph was in charge of Pharaoh’s stuff.  And God gave Joseph some insight on the future, that a famine was coming, a famine for seven years.  And what did Joseph do?  He stored up grain in Egypt for seven long years.  It was a savings plan.  A savings plan.  “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”  He not only lives paycheck to paycheck, but he spends more than his paycheck delivers.  That’s called credit card debt.  Years ago, the average American was spending $1.10 for every dollar they earned.  And consumer debt, I mean, it’s still…it’s crazy.  And that’s why a lot of people, even church-going people, are in financial bondage.

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I believe there are three types of savings that we need to set up.  One is an emergency fund.  Dave Ramsey says get a thousand bucks in the bank.  Some of you may be like the 41% of Americans that don’t have $500 in the bank right now.  And if something goes wrong, if life happens, if that rainy comes, if the car breaks down, if the washer and dryer break down…or like I told you last week about that very foolish decision I made to buy my first car out of college, that BMW, and I got in this accident.  And I had an auto insurance police, but I didn’t have $500 in the bank to pay the deductible to get it fixed.  I had to call my dad, who loaned me the money.  You need an emergency fund, because life happens.  Years ago the numbers were that 70%-80% of Americans will experience a significant financial setback in the amount of $10,000 or more over the next 10 years.  Are you prepared for that?  The rainy day is coming.  You need a rainy-day fund.  And that needs to be liquid.  It needs to be accessible.  It needs to be set aside.

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Secondly, our retirement savings.  Now, you need to plan for the future.  Again, you have an eternal portfolio, you have an earthly portfolio.  Now we’re talking about the earthly portfolio.  And there’s plenty in the Bible that talks about us saving and planning and storing up for the future.  The average American today, as they approach those retirement years, has less than $1000 in the bank.  The percentages are staggering.  And the only thing they have is Social insecurity and maybe a few generous friends or family members, because they didn’t have a plan or they didn’t start early enough.  Now, when it comes to retirement, you won’t find the word retirement in the Bible.  I kind of like what Ken Blanchard said, The One Minute Manager guy.  He says, “I’m not gonna retire; I’m gonna re-fire.”  All right.  And I’ve always kind of jokingly said I hope when the Lord takes me I’m doing what I’m doing right now and my jaw hits the platform and I’m gone you know.  I mean, I just can’t imagine the day when, you know, I work, I’m done, and I just go chase a ball around a goat ranch somewhere or watch Dr. Phil all day long.  I want to be engaged and productive all the days of my life.  But I know that I’ll reach a time when my maximum earning years have kind of come to an end.  And we all do, and you have to plan for that.  Americans are living longer today than they did before.  Social Security was put in place at a time when the average American didn’t live much past 65 years of age.  Now we’re living into our 70s, our 80s.  If you don’t have a plan, you are planning to fail and to run out of money.

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Does your company have a 401k plan?  If it does, you need to fill it to its max.  Give to God first, the first 10%.  The second 10%, after you establish your retirement savings, needs to go in that retirement plan.  And if there is a matching program, oh my, that’s free money.  Grab it and go.  And the way to build wealth biblically is not through “get rich quick” schemes.  The way to build wealth biblically is little by little over long period of time.  Compound interest and time is your best friend.  So, young people, you’re finishing college.  You get your first job.  I know 40 years from now seems so far away.  Start yesterday, because you build little by little over a long period of time.  Don’t ever cash out that retirement plan.  Dumbest thing you could ever do.  You’re gonna pay a penalty, plus the government is gonna take 30, 40, 50% of it, and you’re gonna be left with 50 cents on the dollar.

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Emergency savings, retirement savings.  Third one is college savings.  I don’t have time to talk about all this.  We got two kids in college right now.  Oh my.  But we are committed that our kids do not graduate with a degree in debt, and they won’t.  A lot of kids are.  And for that reason the government is telling us major purchased like your first house are being delayed in the younger generation because they have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in college loan debt.  Don’t get me started on all that, but anyway.  So those are the three categories of savings.

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Give to God first.  You pay yourself second, and then you live off the rest.  And that’s where a whole lot of categorizing of expenses comes into play, and I don’t have time to go into that.  But real simple.  You give.  You save.  You live.  That’s a divine financial plan.  I learned a long time ago I’m not the smartest guy when it comes to building wealth and finances.  I know a few things, but God knows a whole lot more than I do.  And I want to live the blessed life.  I want to be financially free.  I want to do it His way.  And as He continues to stretch our faith in the first part of this, He just continues to give back in ways and take care of us in ways that we’d never quite imagined.  John Wesley—the founder of the Methodist movement, and evangelist and a pastor—he says, “Make all you can.  Save all you can.  Give all you can.”  And some people have taken that, and they say, “Yeah, I’m gonna make all I can, can all I get, and sit on the lid.”  And I say, “How’s that working for you?”  You want God’s blessing on your finances?  Do it His way.  If you don’t have enough faith to trust Him in this, put Him to the test.  He doesn't want something from you.  He owns everything.  Remember last week?  We established that.  It’s already His.  But He wants us to take a financial step of faith to unshackle ourselves from love of money and from the slavery of consumerism and debt and all of that.

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