What is practically more important to us in this society than money and the things it can buy? Oh we might say that our family, or friendships, or health are more important, but is that what is seen in the way we live our lives day to day? Do our lives not look like they are more often devoted to work, money, things, and recreation, unless there are problems with our family, friends, and health?
Jesus taught more about money and possessions than just about anything else, and therefore we are not doing our duty unless we teach about it in church. Let’s face it, in our culture money motivates more people and causes more stress than anything else on a regular basis.
An anonymous wise man once said, “If you want to get better off financially, Quit buying things.” And Henry David Thoreau said “Just about everyone knows how to make money, but very few know how to spend it.”
Why does Jesus spend so much time teaching about this stuff? Let’s look at what he said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:19-34. You cannot serve God and money. You have to make a choice. Do you want God and eternal life, or do you want your money and your stuff. You actually can have both, many do, but if you serve money, if you live for it instead of God, you will have eventually have spiritual trouble.
The main points here are that stuff is temporary; the one who dies with the most toys is dead and it ain’t yours anymore. That if you are overly devoted to money, you cannot serve God as well, and that we shouldn’t be anxious about not having enough, because God wants to provide for our needs.
Paul reminds us in 1Timothy 3:3 not to be a lover of money, and Hebrews 13:5 tells us to keep our lives free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you”.
Nowhere in Scripture does it say we shouldn’t have money or that it’s bad, but it’s the excessive love of, and being a slave to money and possessions, that brings problems and anxiety. It’s the most common way we Christians show a lack of faith in God’s provision. The goal is to have peace about your finances because you trust God to provide what you need.
Maybe not everything you want, but everything you need. So today I hope to give us some practical wisdom about financial peace, much of which comes from Dave Ramsey’s work from financial peace university.
First we begin with general principles, starting with:
I. Discipline
Impulsiveness and immediate gratification are our biggest enemies when it comes to financial peace. We want the immediate satisfaction over the long term peace and security. Ramsey calls this “Stuffitis” and says the best way to deal with it is to create a budget and develop “power over purchase”. To not care about being rich or poor because you have God, and eternal life.
I know many people hate the word budget and see it as a chore that takes all the fun out of life, but even the Bible supports this. Hebrews 12:11, “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness by those trained by it”.
Proverbs 27:23 tells us to “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.” In our day this relates to our finances. Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty”. And Proverbs 23:4, “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist”.
There have been many times when I have walked away from an unnecessary purchase feeling much better than when I gave in and bought something I wanted but didn’t need. It can give you a good sense of freedom to walk away.
In many ways learning to be better off financially involves a complete change in our thinking from short-term to long-term. This is really what being a Christian is all about, putting more emphasis on the future, and less on the here and now, especially when it comes to our worldly desires.
How many of you get more excited about saving money than spending it? The motto of Financial Peace University is “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else!” Discipline today will make the future much more enjoyable and peaceful. And the way to this is through:
II. Saving and Investing your money.
Again let’s turn to the Bible. Proverbs 21:20, “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it”. Remember Joseph when he was leading Egypt? he said, “let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve for the land of Egypt against the seven years of famine that are coming, so that the land may not perish through the famine”.
And again the wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11:2, “Give a portion (of your bread) to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on the earth”. We live as though nothing will ever happen, until it does, then we’re not prepared and we stressfully scramble. The car repair, the new roof on the house, whatever it might be, we would rather deal with it at the time and pay the consequences than be prepared.
Here’s the wisdom Dave Ramsey gives about investing and planning for the future: give first to charity or your church, pay yourself next, then pay your bills. What? Well, here’s the 7 Baby Steps he suggests to make this unlikely strategy possible:
1. Get a $1000 emergency fund in place immediately.
2. Pay off all your debt except your mortgage. We’ll look at this in a moment.
3. Put away three to six months living expenses in accessible savings.
4. Invest 15% of your household income into a retirement savings plan.
5. Set aside some College funding if applicable.
6. Pay off your home early. He suggests getting no more than a 15 year mortgage. Get a load of this, if you have an $80,000 mortgage, and you pay it off in fifteen years instead of thirty, your monthly payments will be about $160 more but you will save almost $100,000 in interest payments. You will save more than the house is worth over the life of the mortgage and only have a slightly higher monthly payment.
7. Finally, build wealth and give it away.
Now I’m sorry, but when I look at that, my first thought is, “man you’re dreamin’”. But let’s stick with it. He also says it’s very important to diversify your investing so it isn’t all in one place. Also start saving early. Check this out, it’s the magic of compound interest. If a person saves $2000 per year from age 19-26, 7 years, and never puts any more money in that account at a rate of 12% interest, which is very good, at age 65 he will have almost 2.3 million dollars.
If the person starts at age 26, when the first person stopped, and puts $2000 away every year until age 65, he will have only 1.5 million at age 65. The first person put in $16,000 dollars total, the second put in $78,000, but because of those first seven years, the first person comes out 800,000 dollars ahead and got to spend those $2000 dollars a year for 39 years while the other was saving it. Man I wish I would have known that when I was younger.
It was said once that only people who like dog food, don’t save for retirement.
But what about having faith in the Lord’s provision and not worrying about what you will eat or what you will wear? If that’s true why save? But God doesn’t say don’t work or plan, but don’t be anxious. Seek first the Kingdom of God. In fact, one of the best ways to avoid worry is to be prepared, to plan ahead, and be disciplined.
One other important piece of advice about investing has to do with life insurance. Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.
I learned this lesson about trying to save through your life insurance the hard way. Never get a life insurance policy that is called universal or whole life, that has some kind of savings plan attached to it. You will lose almost all the money you put into it for savings if you die, and it will not come near to what you would get if you invested it elsewhere.
You can get way more insurance at a fraction of the price with a straight term insurance. Though it will expire at some point before you get old, you can invest what you save for later, and the fact is that as you get older, and your family gets older, you don’t need as much life insurance.
Now my uncle once told me that you will never be happy unless you are in debt. Well, the opposite is actually true. He meant that you will never have enough money for all the things you want unless you borrow. But getting out of debt, or avoiding debt is one of the most freeing things a person can do, and you never want to go back. So how do we:
III. Get Out of Debt
Saving should come first if possible, but getting out of debt is one of the best ways you will be able to really build income. Again in Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender”. Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.”
Let’s have a look at this cool thing called the “debt snowball”. If you commit to this method you will see your debt evaporate surprisingly fast. This strategy is simply to do minimum payments on everything except your smallest debt regardless of the interest rate. Then as you continue to pay each of the successively bigger ones off, you add that payment to the next smallest debt and keep going down the line.
Eventually you have this huge monthly payment going toward your largest debt. A person with $15,000 in non-mortgage debt could be debt free in less than three years using this method. But you have to stay committed for this to work and not spend the money once you pay off on debt. The amount you pay each month payments doesn’t change, it’s just where you focus those as each smaller debt gets paid off that does. You don’t need to make any more money than you do now.
Craig Groeschel, a well known pastor and author of the “Christian Atheist” says:
“As Christians, we can be tempted to “overdo faith.” I put that in quotes because it would be more accurate to say it’s “underdoing personal responsibility.” There’s really no way to have too much faith, assuming you understand faith the way God does. Some people think faith is doing nothing in order to let God do everything for them. For example, I have an out-of-work friend who believed that God was going to provide a new job for him.
I said, “So, have you been looking for a job?”
My friend said, “Nope.”
“Well, do you have a resume?”
“Nope.”
“Are you networking? Out trying to meet people?”
“Nope.”
“Well, uh . . . what exactly are you doing?”
“I’m trying not to freak out while I’m hoping that God will bring me a job.”
He says, I’ve known many people like this in a variety of different situations. You probably have too.
“So you’d like to get married. Have you left the house?
Talked to anyone of the opposite sex . . . ever?”
“Yes, no, and no. I’m waiting for God to bring her to my door.”
Keep on waiting, Mr. Lucky.
Some people are always broke. “Do you have a plan?”
“Yeah, a friend of mine is going to get me some lotto tickets, and God’s going to give me millions.”
Well, probably not. But God does give us responsibility, and it takes biblical faith to do those things in dependence on God. Scripture says over and over again, in as many ways as you can think to say it: do what’s wise. Proverbs 9:12 says, “If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you.”
Need a job? Put together a resume. Network. Make some phone calls. Iron a shirt for your next interview. That’s wise.
Are you single and want to get married? Shower. Brush your teeth. Use mouthwash. Put on some nice clothes. Now leave your house. Get a nice haircut. Go someplace where moral, single people of the opposite sex hang out. Smile. Be nice. Be polite. Ask friends to introduce you to people. Don’t stalk anyone. That’s wise.
Are you always broke? Stop taking advice from your broke friends. Quit spending more than you make. Cut up your credit cards. Don’t buy things you don’t need with money you don’t have. Start clawing your way out of debt.
And finally:
IV. Give it Away
Giving the best of what you have to God has always been a primary aspect of worship. Money, stuff, time, devotion. The more you have, the more you can give.”
This one never made sense to me, how can you give money away and still manage in this society that is so dependent on having money? Well, I still don’t understand it, but I know it’s true. When we were not giving, and I was making more money, we were always in deep debt and never had enough for extra things that came up. Sure we had a house, but were very house poor. We couldn’t really do anything outside of living in that house.
We thought there was no way we would survive if we gave 10% of our income away, but after we started making giving away our money our first priority, we have never been in better financial shape, now we don’t own a house anymore, but I’m also making quite a bit less money.
But more than that, we have never been so blessed with all the material things we need, and abundant love, happiness and peace. Because we give we can be joyful givers. Now I can say with confidence, that you can give it away and actually be better off. I know I am not the only one who has experienced this.
Give first, pay yourself (save), then pay others. Obviously you need to put yourself in a position where you don’t have so much to pay to others that you can’t do the other things first. It’s much easier to prevent financial problems than to dig yourself out of them, but it is possible, and you may be surprised how quickly it can go if you really want it and have a disciplined plan.
One of the greatest things you can do for your children is involve them in the family finances once they’re old enough to understand. Conflict over money is still the leading cause of divorce, and if our children learn from us how to handle our finances in a responsible, future oriented, biblical way, we will help to prevent them growing up with divorce and ending up there themselves, and we’ll give them great skills to get an early start in building their own wealth and security, while also being generous. Not only that, kids are great at keeping adults accountable.
Now as I looked over what I was going to say today, it occurred to me that nowhere is spending and enjoying the here and now mentioned. Well, I think Jesus is trying to tell us that the peace and joy that comes from setting our minds on things of the Spirit and the future, outweighs the temporary high we get from spending money on our desires and whims. How long were you happy and excited about the last thing you bought without having the money to buy it? But how long were you stressed about how long it took you to pay it off?
Treat yourself once in a while, it will be more meaningful if it’s done less often anyway. Just don’t dig yourself a big hole. Enjoy thinking about how great the future is going to be, and not being able to relate to those who will talk about their financial difficulties, and how hard they have to work just to make ends meet. How they’ll never be able to retire. It’s all about attitude and releasing our pride.
If your saying to yourself, “yeah but we don’t know if we’re going to live another day, so I better it enjoy it while I have it”, remember that if you die before you get to enjoy your money, it won’t matter to you once your gone, but it may leave some wonderful peace for those you leave behind.
I’ve given you lots of ideas today so that by the world’s standards you and your children can do well financially as long as the world economy stays like it is now (no guarantee of that). Follow them, they’re good strategies.
But as we leave today I want you to forget everything I said for a minute, and think about this (hold up a bag of coins). I have two dollars in change here and I’m giving it away to the first adult that runs up here and gets it. Hey let’s not trample each other.
The majority of the world, 53% of the world, makes this or less per day. Now there may not have been a stampede up here if I was preaching to them, but I bet there would have been some real enthusiasm to get this bag, a day’s wage. And if you’re thinking its all relative, that 2 bucks doesn’t get them much more than our 2 bucks does.
I’m guessing the average working person in this room today makes between 100 and 200 dollars a day, you may have got up here with a little more urgency if I held up a couple hundred dollar bills. People on welfare with no children will make about 30 dollars per working day for doing nothing. The point is that we are stinking rich by the world’s standards. What would you think of someone who makes 50 to 100 times more than you make?
To those people who make 2 dollars a day we look like someone who makes 2 and a half to 5 million dollars or more a year. Would you call that rich? Whatever we do people, we better not complain, we better not ask God for more. If you gave away half of what you made, you would still be 25 – 50 times richer than most of the world.
Even if you lost it all, and had to go on welfare, you would still be at least 15 times richer than most of the world, so don’t worry about money, don’t take your eyes off God to focus on your finances.
Financially we are the richest people in the world, but Spiritually we are amoung the poorest, and that’s why I don’t feel called to go minister oversees to the poor. The spiritual need right here is far greater.
Jesus, in Luke’s gospel says it’s harder for a rich person to get to heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Jesus told the rich young ruler (us) who asked what it takes to get to heaven, “sell everything you have, give it to the poor and follow me”. That guy walked away sad, his wealth was more important than the Kingdom of Heaven. Is that true for us?
But shortly after that, the short little rich man Zaccheus jumps out of a tree that he climbed just so he could see Jesus, and what does he do when Jesus welcomes him? He immediately gives away half of what he has to the poor, and anyone he ripped off as a tax collector he pays back 4 times what he defrauded them of. And Jesus says to him, “Today salvation has come to this house”. Notice he didn’t have to give it all away but his heart was different than the rich young ruler.
That is how much we should desire God over money and things, why? Because he is so much better than anything we can buy. Do we believe that?
Or are you going to say by your actions that a new car is better than God, that playstation is better than God, that Babe Ruth autographed baseball is better than God, that 2 carat diamond ring is better than God, who is going to give you everything when all that stuff is gone?
He may be blessing us with abundance simply because of where we were born, but don’t take it for granted that because we have these material blessings we are any closer to him or the kingdom of heaven than those who have nothing, the opposite is probably more true according to Jesus.
