Mastering What Really Matters II, the Miracle of Life Management

If you may turn there, if you'd like. The headline read, Wall Street Quakes in Japan's Wake. The story is about the potential implications of the uncertainty in the Japanese stock market, on our stock market, and thereby on our economy. And I don't know about you, but I read things like this all the time, and I ask myself the question, is my economic destiny under the control of forces way beyond my understanding? Do you ever feel that way? Do you feel like no matter what you did, someone else somewhere else is going to push a button and you're going to get it, one way or another? But economic decisions that affect all of us don't really happen, so why bother to really work at becoming a good steward? I believe it does make an enormous difference. I know in my own life, over the years, I've discovered some things that have really caused me to examine God's word on this subject. A letter I'd like to read to you from a Christian maybe underscores the importance of this subject. Of all the experiences of my life, I've yet to find one to compare to the sheer desperation of financial indebtedness. I suffered with wounds received in combat in Vietnam, and that made me deal with my own possible death, as well as the death of those around me. At the age of 16 years, my father suddenly died, and I loved him very much. There was a finality about that. I survived an auto accident that left people wondering how I could have survived. I've gone through the agony of the disintegration of a marriage and family through a divorce, but recently I've dealt with the embarrassment and humiliation of bankruptcy. Nothing compares to that. Financial bondage strips a person of the very thing that God wants us to know about ourselves, and that is that we are important to Him, that we have value. Through the abysmal pressures of debt, self-worth begins to deteriorate. Feelings of remorse and self-pity and rejection and depression soon come to be a normal part of daily existence. Family, church, and friends tend to no longer play an important role in one's life because we become totally consumed with developing plans to escape the dilemma of debt. And once the inner spirit has severely deteriorated to that condition, we become ineffective, whimpering shells, feeling sorry for ourselves and wondering, what could we have done to deserve such a fate? Ahead of me, he writes, lies the continuing battle for economic solvency. It may be that I will be plagued with the results of my poor judgments of the past for quite some time. However, I'm taking strides to identify and solve these problems, for I know it's what God would have me to do. It's a pretty heavy letter, isn't it? Now, contrast that with a letter that's described in Ron Blue's book called Master Your Money, a book that I want to recommend to you if you're interested at all in having a biblical approach to improving your understanding of God's systems of management in your life. Ron writes about meeting an 80-year-old pastor who had served all of his ministry in rural parishes and never earned more than $8,000 a year. He retired after 45 years of this ministry and he asked for an appointment with Ron, who's a financial counselor, to ask the question, would he be able to face what was coming down the road because he had to attend to his wife's needs through a full-time nursing care kind of arrangement? Of course, Ron feared the worst because he knows the statistics. Listen to this. Social security statistics tell us that 2% of Americans reach age 65 financially independent, 30% need charity to survive, 23% must continue to work somehow, and 45% depend upon relatives to see them through. How about this statistic? 85 out of 100 Americans age 65 have less than $250 in cash and savings. They've worked for nearly 50 years and all they have to show for it is $250, five bucks a year. Of course, Ron wondered, knowing these things, what this pastor was going to say. First question Ron asked was this, do you have any debt? The pastor answered, never have. Couldn't afford the interest. Ron said, well, that's something in your favor. Then he asked, do you have any savings? The pastor said, well, I have $250,000 in my name and $350,000 in my wife's name. He said, yeah, and I invested $10,000 15 years ago in a new company and it's worth a little over a million now. Ron said, wait a minute. You don't need me, I need you. That's a true story. In fact, both of them are. One's a story of hurt and agony and despair. The other's a story of inspirational victory. One's a story of bondage and the other's a story of freedom. Both of them have to do with what it means to approach life from a perspective of managing it and not being handled by it. I want to talk about life management today as it specifically applies to priorities and decisions that you'll make about your financial future. And I want to submit to you today that every single one of us, no matter what our income level, has the capacity to live a life of financial freedom. And I have a suspicion that everyone in the place would like to know how to do that. Now, I'm not talking about financial arrogance and I'm not talking about financial independence from God because neither of those two things will help you in your spiritual journey. Those attitudes are not godly, but I want you to know God has a great plan for us that transcends just our spiritual well-being. Didn't Jesus say that I've come that they might have life and have it abundantly? And I want to talk about financial freedom in terms of living within your means, in terms of how to understand growing investments for the future. I want to talk about freedom in terms of that sense that relieves the guilt that many of you live in today because you know you're not giving anywhere near what you might. Somewhat what Dennis was feeling as he examined his own life. I want to talk about freedom that God wants you to enjoy. Now, there's four foundational principles that have to be established right off the top. And I read these in Matthew 25. Let me just highlight them. Number one, you've got to believe these things or else you won't be able to really understand the plan I'm going to submit to you. Number one, recognize that Jesus is your Lord. These principles won't make any sense to you if you haven't established that fact. Matthew 25, 14 talks about a master. The second thing you have to establish in your life is that you recognize you're on a journey of growth. Some of us are way down the road in this. Others of us are just dabbling at the first step of all this understanding. Dear one, it doesn't matter where you are. The point is recognize you're on a journey. Number three, establish in your life that absolute amounts don't matter whether it's time, gifts, resources, God's not interested in the amount. He's interested in the principle. So little and lot doesn't matter to God. It's just what you do with it. And number four, recognize that your faith requires action. Recognize that your faith requires action. You've got to do something. I have to just put a pause in here. After last night's message, one nice thing about doing this three times is I tune it up every time. And I kind of left last night thinking, you know, a lot of folks can hear these words and just say, well, another message, another sermon. Maybe it was good, maybe it wasn't. God is not interested in your knowledge quotient, folks. He's interested in your obedience quotient. Recognize that to live under God's financial freedom, you have to put your faith into action, all right? And so with those four foundational pillars, I could spend a whole message on those. I want to just submit to you a simple basic plan. I believe in basic plans. A basic simple plan that anyone here, teenagers, how many of you wish you were a teenager again could start over with your financial planning? Listen up. Four foundational principles. Now, here's the three simple steps of a financial plan. A broad stroke, if you will, you can fill in the blanks as we go. Honor God, honor yourself, and then honor your creditors. Let me talk about each of those. First of all, honor God. Write them down if you're taking notes. The very first thing that a believer should do when he receives or she receives her paycheck, the very first thing is to honor God. Proverbs 3 and verse 9 in the Living Bible says, Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and He will fill your barns and overflow your vats. The Bible suggests that as a minimum, we should honor God with 10%. And I have done messages on tithing. If you want to get one in the tape library, I believe it's a minimum because of the principle that God owns everything. The very least I want to honor Him with is what the old covenant talked about. Now, right away I can see some nosebleeds starting. 10%? Let me just say two things about that. First of all, if you're wondering how all this jives with what the world is telling you, I want you to know it doesn't. You will not read about this financial plan in Money Magazine or Forbes. But neither will you read about forgiving those who wrong you or loving your enemies in those magazines. God has an entirely different operation than what the world will suggest to you, and that includes finances. Let's make some fundamental decisions today, shall we? We're either going to live God's way or the world's way, and we're not going to try to blend the two. The other thing I want to mention to you about 10% as a minimum is this. There's a whole lot more in God's Word about His faithfulness back towards you as you honor Him. There's something that makes me just kind of jump a little bit inside to think that God is looking for ways to bless me. And His Word tells us if we're faithful to honor Him, as I just read to you, He'll be faithful to honor you. He will look for ways to supernaturally involve Himself in your life. And again, I'll refer to our testimony today. Dennis didn't even touch on all the other blessings that have come upon him as a result of his honoring God through his life. Put it another way, your tithe invites the supernatural involvement of God in your personal financial situation. Would you rather just go out there and manage on your 100%, your own way, or would you rather manage on the 80% or 90% that's left, having God be at every corner? You make that choice. I want you to know for me, when I learned this principle, and it wasn't any easier for me than it was for you, it doesn't make it easier just because you're a pastor. It began to be exciting to see the ways that God would look to just jump in in a situation where God would be ready, poised at the last minute to come in and rescue me. Poised to show Himself strong. Honor Him first. Now next week I'm going to spend the whole message talking about the rewards of obeying this principle and the promises of God toward us and some of the ways that we can specifically apply it. That's next week. Number two, honor yourself. I have a question for you. Who gets your paycheck? I know your name's on it, but who gets it? Mellon Bank and First Federal and, you know, Kauffman's and on down the line, isn't it? How long does it last in your hand? How many of you have automatic deposit and you never even see it? It's gone before you see it. Who gets your paycheck? Well, as a principle, I want to submit to you, pay yourself. Someone just said their wife gets their paycheck. Well, in some households it's on the other foot nowadays. You see, we need to learn the wisdom of the fact that we should honor ourselves for our hard work. We should be willing to pay ourselves for what we're doing. The reason why 85 of 100 Americans end up with nothing to show for their 50 years of work is because they never paid themselves. And I want to submit to you, as a principle, that you should aim to pay yourself another 10%. If you don't have a plan to do this, folks, how many of you know you can get to be 30, 40, 50 and have nothing? We need a plan. This is a plan, a simple plan. You say, well, 10% to myself. You start calculating right now what that might be. One planner calls this a financial freedom fund. And if you put money in this little financial freedom fund on a regular basis, month by month or week by week, whatever it is, not overnight, but over time, you'll find that that fund will grow rapidly given today's interest rates and opportunities to invest. Now, here's where I want to say something that's going to bug a few of you. One of the reasons why we sort of steer clear of just steady-as-she-goes kinds of investments, paying ourselves, is because every one of us holds on to the dream of getting rich, take what we should be investing in some kind of a long-term savings plan and drop it into some kind of a little scheme where maybe overnight we could hit it big. Buy an oil well somewhere. Stop at the 7-Eleven every day and play the lottery. Get involved in some kind of a pyramidal marketing scheme somewhere. Borrow some money, in some cases, just to hit it big on somebody's crazy idea. And all the while, we find ourselves sinking deeper and deeper and deeper into death, chasing the fantasy that overnight, somehow, our name's going to come up. I've told you before, the odds are greater that you'll be hit by lightning than win the lottery. You know that. So go stand out in a storm sometime and see how you're doing, all right? The reason why God does not, for the most part, I don't know of anyone that's gotten rich quick ever. I've heard some stories about stories about stories about. But the reason why God does not enter us into those things is one simple reason, because God cares more about you than He does about your money. God, our God, is in the character formation business. And most of us would wish He was not. But He is. And in order to succeed in achieving some measure of financial freedom in your life, you need to understand that God is going to do it in a way that shapes your character as you go. He's going to enroll you in the graduate school of character formation. And you'll receive not an MBA, but an MCA. That's a Masters of Character Adjustment. Because God knows what we need to turn out like Jesus. And He'll let many of us go to great lengths to get that character shape. Good life management requires such characteristics as wisdom and discipline, and perseverance, and courage, and conviction. The ability to understand the lay gratification, that I say, No, I'm not going to buy that thing. No, I'm not going to buy it next year either. I'm going to wait until this year. By the way, someone said last night, I was going to buy a car. No, I don't know what to do. I'm not jumping into your decision today. Please, unless you were praying for a word, then you're getting it now. I don't want to put anyone any guilt trips here. But you see, character comes through the process of God shaping us. How many years did Moses spend in the desert? Not four. Forty. And if we'll stay in that school, some wonderful things will happen. Because you see, not only will God supply all of your needs, as we talked about last week, but God will shape you to be what He wants you to be. And I want you to know, that's far more valuable to God. And actually, it's far more valuable to you than all the money you might want to accumulate. Now, nonetheless, let me say that if you're faithful to honor yourself, you can still very easily get to the place where your financial needs are met and you are in a place of freedom. You say, well, that might have been true if I was 20 when I started. But I'm 40 now. All right? Let's just think for a second. If you're 40 years old and you could invest 10%, if you honor yourself with 10% of your income, comes out to about 30 bucks a week, over the next 25 years, at a simple 9% interest rate, you would accumulate $138,485. If you're at a little higher average income, say $40,000 a year, you invested $75, you'd have $369,000, just at 9% interest. I doubt any of us are going to hit any lotteries that are going to pay us that kind of money. It's just faithful, faithful honor, week by week. It grows quickly if we're faithful. Now, the problem is, in order to honor God and honor ourself, what do we have to do? We've got to make some choices, don't we? And here's where all of America, even Christian America, caves in. Some of you already have tuned me out, because for you to think about living on 80% of your income is absolutely incalculable. You could not imagine doing that. The problem is, not that we can't do it once, it's that what? We won't do it. In fact, you know, we just find ourselves being drawn in by every little thing that goes down the road. Some on a Friday night, you hear the call of the mall. I hear it calling, calling, calling. And off we go. And how many of you know, I don't think Jesus could have resisted that temptation. I really don't. He would have walked, he'd have got a new robe or something. Look at this place. I took Amy in the other night. I can't tell stories. But she just, there was a new store, and she said, this is my store. And I said, what does that mean? This is your store. But we had, it's so hard to resist those things, isn't it? Temptations. To spend it all. And so we creep up and start spending some of what we should be honoring ourselves with. You deserve it. You're worth it. What are we spending, folks? We're spending our future. And then, gosh, it's getting tight, honey. Well, I guess we just can't honor the Lord this month. So we spend that. And you know what most Americans end up doing? Most Christian Americans, they even spend more. Than they're making. And they slip down into that valley called debt. And debt brings with it, invariably, accumulated debt. Lots of debt brings with it despair, frustration, guilt, anxiety. Are those words that Jesus used to describe the life He promised us? What did He say? He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. That's the kind of life. Jesus talked about abundant living, full living. I want to submit to you that if we allow ourselves to be pulled into that vortex of spending and don't plan for our future, we're not going to enjoy the abundant life that God had purposed for us. God wants us to be free. Spiritually, to be sure. Relationally, yes. But financially as well, I believe that. Third, then you honor your creditors. It says in Psalm 37 that it's an abomination to not honor your debts. But with the 80% that you have left, someone came up to me last night and gave me a slip and said, now after the IRS and after this and after that I only have 50% left. Well, so we got into a long discussion about technical things. But let's just say all of your other obligations have to be covered in that 80%. There's lots of wonderful ways that you can be helped to spare some of the funds and to divert them into places and a plan that will help you to get out of some of this quagmire. A person came up to me last night and said, they were reading a book about how to get out of debt and so on. He said, if you wear pantyhose, this obviously applies to ladies, and you're trying to save some pennies here and there, and you have a tear in one leg in one pair and a tear in another leg in the other pair, put them both on. Cut the one out and you've got it. It's creative. I do that with my socks. But there's lots of ways. I really think that if we applied ourselves, most of us don't want to, but if we applied ourselves, most of us right off the top could save 20 to 25%, just by containment, just by discipline. The key is to get on the road, to make a plan. I want to come to a conclusion here, and I want to make a point about motivation. Let me ask you, in this service particularly, to turn to Luke 16. One point of application that has to... Money is easily understood. It's very clearly handled. Money is tangible. Money operates according to certain principles and you can very easily control it and you can predictably invest it and so on. And Jesus is saying this, the true test of maturity begins with the way that you handle your money. And He's saying that if I can't entrust to you something as mundane as money, how can I possibly entrust something as important as people? I want to say, if you're a leader at North Way Christian Community and you've not settled this issue, then there's no way you can go on and move in your leadership call in our church. If you're a newer person to our church and you want to serve God in an all-out manner here, then begin by honoring Him with your finances. It's the beginning point. Plus, it's so much more exciting to live that way. It's not easy. Whoever said the Christian life would be? But it is wonderful. Now, I recognize that anytime I have a message like this, there are going to be some people who are feeling already a bit discouraged and defeated. You're already in such a mess you don't know what to do. Let me say a couple of things in conclusion. Number one, we have a ministry in our church called Good Sense. That ministry is designed to help some of you who are open to being helped to lay out a plan that would work for you. Maybe some of these specific things I've said today are just a little too overwhelming for you. I want you to know I believe they are reasonable goals and objectives. But you maybe need to put a plan into order that's going to get you there. If you'll call our office and say, I'd like someone from Good Sense to contact me, we will do that. I'm working on getting a seminar on a Saturday morning. We have an excellent group of people in our church that could put on a great seminar for those of you who'd like that. If you want that, put that in the offering basket today and let us know and we'll put that together for you. But folks, let's be honest. What's going to keep most of us from doing anything about this? Pride. Pride. Who is he to tell me? Who is God to tell me? I used to think that the most intimate and closely guarded secrets about our lives were our sexual practices. I don't believe that anymore. I think it's our financial practices. We don't want anyone to know. Yet God looks right into our hearts, knows the very details of why we do what we do. And if you can just swallow your pride enough to say, I need some help, we'll be happy to do that or we can send you somewhere if you'd rather go outside the church. Because God wants you to be financially free. He wants you to manage your resources, your talents, your gifts to be financially free. To enjoy life. And best of all, to expand the kingdom. Isn't that what it's all about? I believe it is. Let's stand for prayer. Father, it's very evident today that You wanted this great congregation to come and hear Your Word and to be encouraged to believe You. And Lord, I'm thinking right now of the significant number of families and individuals that are here whose financial lives are a mess. And I thank You that there's a way out of that bondage. There's great, great hope in Your name for them. Lord, I thank You today for the many individuals and families that are here that are soaring in their businesses, Lord. They don't even know why they're so blessed. May You speak to their hearts today about the way in which You would have them to honor You beyond the ten percent here for the purposes of fulfilling their destinies. And Father, we all thank You that Your Word is a clear and a true standard for us to measure our lives. Now I pray, Father, for the grace and the strength to apply this Word to us. In Jesus' name.