Principles, The Essential Foundation (Part 2) Series

Principles, The Essential Foundation

#moneymatters3

(much of this is based on Gary Johnson's Book, 'Too Much')

OKAY – let’s do this…

Week three in our series ‘Money Matters.’

MAN – it’s been fun so far, hasn’t it?

HEY – do you know what has been crazy and pretty surprising to me about this series on ‘Money Matters?’

THAT - I’ve gotten so many positive comments and encouragement the last few weeks, about these conversations.

AGAIN – what we are doing in this series is we are unpacking this formula that will lead us to being freed up financially…

AND REMEMBER – that to be freed up financially

= no longer being a slave to money

= no longer being a slave to… money worries, money stress, money desires, money worship, money worries…

Attitude + Principles + Practices = freed up financially

NOW - in week one we unpacked the first variable in our equation, ‘Attitude’ which led to us making 5 declarations…

THAT - for many of us is a new way of looking, of thinking about Money.

• Money is not the answer

• I am rich

• None of my money belongs to me

• It’s okay to enjoy money

• Money Can lead to real life

AND – last week we began looking at the second variable in our formula… Principles, The Essential Foundation…

AND – we hammered home the extreme importance of foundations by looking at some pretty dramatic images of buildings that collapsed because they were built on a bad or faulty foundation, like…

11 story apartment building in Shanghai

5 story department store in Ghana (9 killed)

UNDERSTAND MGCC

Gratitude is a foundational principle that God’s people must drive down deep in order to be freed up financially.

AND LISTEN – the force, the power that will drive gratitude down deeper and deeper into the bedrock of our hearts and minds… is REMEMBERING.

REMEMBER what?

REMEMBER like Moses reminded God’s people as they were about to leave the land of lack, and move into the land of plenty, the land of more….

REMEMBER

#1 that is your provider, and

#2 that God is your redeemer

QUESTION – are you grateful or are you taking for granted God’s provision and his redemption?

Could you, or should be more grateful for both?

NOW THIS MORNING – (12/3/2017… the first Sunday of the last month of 2017) we are going to look at the remaining 3 foundational principles to being freed up financially…

The first is…

Contentment

In an old black-and-white movie named Key Largo, a gangster played by Edward G. Robinson, whose life is filled with violence and deceit, holds a family hostage. Someone asks him what drives him to lead this kind of life—what he wants. His face clouds over; he is not a reflective man and doesn't know how to answer the question.

One of the hostages, played by Humphrey Bogart, suggests an answer: “I know what you want. You want more.” Robinson's face brightens. “Yeah, that's it. That's what I want. I want more.”

UNDERSRTAND B/S – this guy believes the myth of more, the myth that one day more will be enough. AND LISTEN – IF we believe this myth, we will spend our lives looking for The Next Thing.

NOW…

It might be a car, or a promotion, or the love of a beautiful woman. It might be, depending on our age, an iPod, or a BMW, or Tickle Me Elmo.

BUT REGARDLESS – of what it is here’s the deal

WE WILL - keep hoping that The Next Thing will be ‘IT.’

WILL – be what? WILL BE - the source of true satisfaction for our souls.

AND - for a few minutes, or perhaps days, we experience true soul satisfaction. BUT THEN - it wears off.

AND B/S - it always wears off.

NOW - Michael Drosnin wrote a book about a man whose name became synonymous with the hunger for more.

He wanted more wealth, so he built one of the greatest financial empires of his day.

He wanted more pleasure, so he seduced or paid for the most glamorous women money could buy.

He wanted more adventure, so he set airspeed records and designed, built, and piloted the world's most unique aircraft.

He wanted more power, so he acquired political clout that was the envy of senators.

He wanted more glamour, so he crashed Hollywood, owned studios, courted stars.

AND THEN - Drosnin tells how this man's life ended:

He was a figure of gothic horror, ready for the grave.

Emaciated, only 120 pounds stretched out over his six-foot-four-inch frame … thin scraggly beard that reached midway onto his sunken chest, hideously long nails in grotesque yellowed corkscrews….

Many of his teeth were black, rotting stumps.

A tumor was beginning to emerge from the side of his head … innumerable needle marks….