Introduction:
A. The story is told of two friends who met on the street.
1. One of the men looked so sad and was almost on the verge of tears.
2. The other man asked, “Hey my friend, how come you look like the whole world has caved in?”
3. The sad fellow said, “Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me 50-thousand dollars.”
4. “That’s not all bad!” replied the friend.
5. “Hold on, I’m just getting started. Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew kicked-the-bucket and left me 95-thousand, tax-free to boot.”
6. “Well, that’s great! I’d like that.” The friend replied.
7. “Last week, my grandfather passed away. I inherited almost a million.”
8. “So why are you so glum?” asked the friend.
9. “Well, this week…nothing!”
B. Oh, the challenge of money and possessions – how much is enough? “Just a little bit more” is the mantra of generation after generation.
1. Jesus warned us about this in Luke 12, saying, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Lk. 12:15)
2. But that’s not what the advertisers tell us.
3. Everyday we are bombarded with advertising on billboards, in magazines, on radio and television, and now even on the internet.
4. All of these ads are designed to make us go buy something new.
5. New cars, new clothes, new electronic devices – and the advertisers insinuate that by buying these things we will have a better life and we will certainly be happy.
6. And we all know how that goes – the newness wears off…the car gets rusty, the clothes wear out, the batteries die, and the newer, better, faster electronics become obsolete within months.
7. And the cycle starts all over again.
C. One of the more dangerous developments in the last decade or two has been the move by the advertisers to target our kids.
1. Nathan Dungan, president of Share Save Spend, and organization that helps youth and adults “achieve financial sanity shares the following startling statistics:
a. The average child experiences as many as 3 thousand advertising impressions each day.
b. Children today spend five times more money than their parents did at the same age (and that is adjusted for inflation).
c. Young adults (aged 25-34) are one of the fastest growing age groups filing for bankruptcy.
2. He says that the list of what people believe are their “needs”, verses their “wants” has grown dramatically in recent years.
3. Dungan wonders aloud, “Is an iPod really a need?”
4. I thought the title of his recent book is catchy – “Prodigal Sons and Material Girls: How Not to Be Your Child’s ATM” (2003).
D. The truth of the matter is that we, Americans, are addicted to spending.
1. Where we are getting into the most trouble is that we are spending more than we earn.
2. How can a person spend more than they earn? You guessed it – credit cards.
3. The total consumer debt is at 1.7 trillion dollars.
4. The personal credit card debt carried by the average American is almost $9 thousand dollars per household.
5. There were 1.3 million credit card holders declaring bankruptcy last year.
6. Bankruptcies have exceeded 1 million per year every year for at least 7 years now.
E. Now that I’ve described the challenge that we are up against, let’s discuss the solution.
1. We in the second lesson of a series we are calling “Spiritual Dollars and Sense.”
2. Last week we started the series by discussing where our money comes from and the perspective we should have about money.
3. If you missed the lesson, I would encourage you to see Greg Mork and get a copy, or go to our website and listen to it online.
4. If we are going to learn some spiritual dollars and sense, then we have to understand, first of all that God owns everything – everything is His. That’s the right foundation.
5. Once we understand that, then we can proceed with the next principle, and that is that God gives us the ability to earn a living and provide for ourselves.
6. God expects us to employ our gifts and talents in order to provide for ourselves, and support the work of His Kingdom.
7. And as we earn money and invest it in spiritual ways, we have to keep it in proper perspective.
8. Money must not be allowed to take over and become our God.
F. I want to give us two words to focus on that I believe will help us reach the goal of having spiritual dollars and sense with regard to our spending.
1. The two words are CONTENTMENT and CONTAINMENT.
I. CONTENTMENT
A. Let’s take another look at a few of the verses from today’s Scripture reading.
1. “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” (1 Tim. 6:6-8)
2. These verses get down to the nitty gritty, don’t they?.
3. Life is really a pilgrimage from one moment of nakedness and poverty to another.
4. We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing from it.
5. Doesn’t that say something about the value of things?
6. Doesn’t that say something about the need to travel lightly and live simply?
7. Paul says, but if we have the simple things we need, then we will be content with that.
8. Will we really be content with that? Can we really be content with that?
B. Someone wrote, “Our enemy is not possessions, but excess. Our battle cry is not “Nothing!”, but “Enough!” (John Taylor)
1. And this is part of the challenge, it would be one thing if God said we can’t have anything, and that we should go through life with nothing.
2. Although that would be very difficult, at least it would be clear and simple. Right?
3. But we are not forbidden by God to have things. God says that we can have them, but we must not love them, amass them, put our trust in them, or be discontent with them.
4. And that is where all this gets very tricky, right?
5. We can possess things, but they must not possess us.
6. We can buy things, yet we must not be discontent.
C. The Hebrew writer, toward the end of his letter wrote, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’
So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?’” (Heb. 13:5,6)
D. A key to our contentment is our relationship with God.
1. God is our greatest hope and our greatest possession.
2. He has promised to be with us and to help us.
3. Paul took great comfort in that fact when he was in a Roman prison.
4. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil. 4:12,13)
E. So the first and the most important step in controlling our spending is contentment.
1. If we will invest ourselves fully in godliness and couple that with contentment, then money and possessions will be less of a danger for us.
2. But if we don’t focus on godliness and contentment then we are easy prey for the devil.
3. We will experience the tragic result that Paul described in 1 Timothy 6, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Tim. 6:9,10)
4. God doesn’t want any of us to end up in that state of grief and destruction.
5. Godliness and contentment are the cure and the safeguard.
II. CONTAINMENT
A. The other word I want to encourage us to concentrate on is CONTAINMENT.
1. People who exercise good spiritual dollars and sense are those who manage their money by design, not by default.
2. In other words, they have a plan for their spending.
3. They know what is coming in and what is going out, and they make conscious choices all along the way.
B. Have you ever heard people say, “I just don’t know where my money goes?”
1. Well, many people don’t know because they don’t look. And they don’t look because they don’t want to know.
2. Bringing containment to our spending requires that we assess how much we have coming in, track what we’ve spent it on, and estimate what we will have for the future.
3. Bringing containment to our money management requires that we live by a - here comes the “B” word – a budget.
4. One person described the function of a budget as “telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” (C.E. Hoover)
5. If any of us are not operating by a budget, then we are doomed to have our lives and expenses running out of control.
6. As long as we avoid a budget, then we are vulnerable to impulse spending, and over-spending.
C. For many people, the word "budget" has a negative connotation.
1. Instead of thinking of a budget as financial handcuffs, I want to encourage us tothink of it as a means to achieve financial peace and stewardship.
2. Whether we make thousands of dollars a year or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a budget is an important step towards bringing money under control, rather than being controlled by it.
3. I vividly remember the day when Diana and I sat down and figured up our first budget as a married couple with a full-time salary.
4. Now I was sure that there would be money in the budget for a newer used car.
5. At the time, we were driving my 14 year old car that I had bought in college. It had 200 thousand miles on it, and it had no air-conditioning, and we were living in a very hot and humid part of Arkansas.
6. How crushed I was initially, when we wrote down what we planned to give, what we planned to spend on housing, food, car insurance, gas, etc., and there was no money for a newer car.
7. I learned an important lesson that day about the importance of a budget.
8. All along the way in our 24 years of marriage, we have tried to honor God with our money and have tried to carefully live on a budget.
9. God has graciously provided for us, and we have never lacked what we truly need.
10. And because we are on the same page financially, and have been careful about not busting the budget, there has been little conflict in our marriage about money. Praise God!
11. I don’t say any of this to try to imply that we have been perfect in our financial management, but I say it to encourage you that it can be done, and it is a blessing.
12. It worked when we had very little money when we were first out of college.
13. And it continues to work, 24 years later, when my income is bigger than it was back then.
D. Jesus emphasized faithful stewardship in his teaching.
1. For example, in Luke 16, Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Lk. 16:10-13)
2. Budgeting is one way of exercising faithful stewardship.
E. If you are not presently working with a budget, how can you get started?
1. First of all, start by determining how much money you have to work with each month.
2. Second, add up all your present expenses each month – including, giving, housing, food, transportation, phones, subscriptions, clothing, insurance, etc.
3. Now when expenses are greater than income, then there is a problem. (You’re probably saying, “This guy is the master of the obvious, right?!”)
4. What can be done when expenses exceed income? We can either find ways to increase income, or decrease expenses, or both.
5. Tightening the belt on our expenses, may be very difficult, but it is necessary when expenses are greater than income.
F. You know, we might be surprised by how quickly we can get our finances under control by making a few small changes for a period of time.
1. For instance, simply dropping cable television and high speed internet can save a family $100 a month, or $1200 a year.
2. Getting rid of a high car payment of $300 or more a month, and getting into an inexpensive used car, can save thousands of dollars a year.
3. A daily cup of coffee can add up to $500 or more dollars a year.
4. Two packs of cigarettes a day can add up to $2500-3500 a year.
G. There are many other ways to exercise good stewardship and shave expenses.
1. We must have a place to live to keep ourselves warm and dry, and all, but should that place to live be an apartment? A rent house? Or a house we purchase?
a.. And if we are buying a house, should it be one worth $100 thousand dollars, or 200 thousand, or 400 thousand.
b. Just because we can afford a 500 thousand dollar house, doesn’t mean we have to buy one.
c. That money could be invested or used in so many other good and godly ways.
2. If we are buying a TV does it have to be the best and the biggest? 52 inch, plasma, hi def?
3. If we are buying clothing, does it have to be Macy’s, or would Target do, or how about Rescue Mission or Salvation Army? I get most of my dress clothes for $2.00 a piece at the Rescue Mission.
4. If we are buying a car should it be new or used? Can we get by with a Hyundai or Chevy, or must it be a Cadillac, BMW, Lexus or Mercedes?
5. When and if we eat out or go to the grocery store, we can use coupons or buy what is on sale.
6. See, all these different choices represent different costs.
7. Making better choices will mean living within our means, and may mean having more to share with others, more to give to save souls, and change the world.
Conclusion:
A. Materialism is a challenge for all of us, not just for the rich.
1. Even those of us who don’t have much can fall into the trap of believing that we will be happier if we had just a little bit more.
2. Contentment is the key for the rich and the poor.
3. And containment is the key for the rich and the poor and everyone in between.
4. Regardless of the income, anyone can outspend their income.
5. I remember the backlash that NBA superstar Latrell Sprewell got back in 2004, when in response to a 3 year, $21 million offer from the Timberwolves, he said: “They’re not doing anything for me. I’m at risk. I have a lot of risk here. I got my family to feed.”
6. When asked about his 1.3 million dollar yacht that was repossessed, Sprewell said, “No comment.”
B. Let’s keep Jesus’ words clearly in our minds:
1. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Lk. 12:15)
2. “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mk. 8:36)
3. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Lk. 16:10)
C. Over the triple doorway of the Cathedral of Milan are some carvings with a powerful message.
1. Over the left door, there is a wreath of roses with the words, “All that which pleases is but for a moment.” (Cuthbert Johnson in ‘Quotes and Anecdotes’)
2. Over the right door, is a cross with the words, “All that which troubles is but for a moment.”
3. Over the center door, are the words, “That only is important which is eternal.”
4. Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mt. 6:19-21)
D. As we continue this series on Spiritual Dollars and Sense, let’s keep focusing on God and the things of God.
1. With God’s help, we will continue to discover ways to arrive at contentment and containment.
2. May God help us be faithful stewards who lay up treasures in heaven. So our hearts and our treasure can be in the right place.
