Being Smart With My Money—What To Avoid
Genesis 13:5-13 and Acts 5:1-11
We are in part 2 of our series, Being Smart With My Money. Last week Pastor Toby preached “What Do I Need”. Next Week Pastor Kellie will do “What Cost Me The Most”, Pastor Toby will return with “What Should I do” and today I’m going to talk about “What Should I Avoid.”
You need to avoid the belief that by buying something you don’t need on sale is really saving you money If you do not need it, putting it on sale will not make you need it.
You need to avoid believing that you are going to get free trial samples when you use your credit card for the offer. If you do not read the fine print you will be billed for stuff you do not want and it will keep coming.
You need to avoid having a visa/master card logo on your debit card, because if you lose it, someone can use it without a pin number. It’s your responsibility to contact the bank over fraudulent withdrawals in the specified time period.
You need to avoid believing you have been selected for a free cruise with airfare and all you have to pay is the application fee of only $39 plus port charges. You need to avoid the belief that you are going to earn $40,000 a year working part time on the internet from the comfort of your home.
You need to avoid believing any e-mail informing you of someone wanting to safely put money in your bank account and sharing the money with you for your cooperation.
According to Proverbs 6, you need to avoid co-signing for anyone unless you are willing to make the payments yourself and not be upset over it.
Those are some of the obvious things to avoid. Have you ever purchased something and thought you were getting a wonderful deal, but you found out later that you were wrong and wished you had not made the deal.
I can remember when my wife and I first got married. We barely had enough money to get back to school which was part of our honey moon drive. Another couple had found us an apartment to rent. We had very little furniture other than the bed we had gotten from goodwill. We naturally had to have a beautiful apartment, so we went to the local furniture rental place. The person showed us how the payments fit into our budget and how if we rented for only two years, all of the stuff could be ours at the end of the rental period. That sounded great.
We had to put down a 2 months deposit, that we would lose if we broke the rental agreement. We were so excited about our apartment and how it was going to look. Our living room and dining room area was certainly going to impress anyone who came to our apartment.
Well the first thing I noticed was that the furniture that arrived was not the new furniture we had seen in the store. I looked much closer at the agreement we had signed, and realized that the store promised to send furniture in good shape, not necessarily new furniture. Then I realized if we paid for two years, we would be buying used furniture that was twice as expensive as a new furniture would be.
In our eagerness to have something wonderful right now, we were putting ourselves in a financial hole. We agreed to swallow our pride, lose our deposit, and have an empty looking living room and dining room until we could save the money to put something in it. We hoped we would have no visitors. We went after the furniture because it looked good, and it would give us the approval and admiration of others. We were attempting to impress them with our worldly wealth when all we had was sinking debt.
We need to know first how do we avoid things that look good today, but may not look so good tomorrow. The second thing we need to know how do we avoid the desire for the praise and the approval of others. In our Old Testament reading, Lot and Abraham were family members who had so many sheep and cattle, there was not enough farmland for them to stay together. They had to part ways. Abraham told Lot, “Look, if you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right I will got to the left.”
Lot looked to see which direction offered the best land. Lot chose that land, but the risk that came with it was that it was toward Sodom which was a very wicked land. Could Lot maintain his property and his relationship to God if he made the decision to camp out near Sodom ? Sometimes we will be tempted to make a decision that may increase our wealth, but it may erode or wither away at our relationship to God. Lot was looking so strongly at would he would gain, that he did not consider the possibility of what he might lose. He did not ask the question, “what should I avoid.” We’ll get back to him later.
In our New Testament reading, we met Ananias and Saphira. They were a married couple who wanted the admiration and approval of others in the church. At the time, believers were selling their property to help each other out. Barnabus was a believer who went and sold his field, and gave all of the money to the apostles. This generous act on Barnabus’ part caused the other believers to step back, take notice, and admire him greatly for it. Barnabus was a great encourager in the church and went on to become one of the apostles. He did not do what he did to seek the praise and approval of others. He probably was embarrassed by the big commotion that was made over the gift.
Ananias and Sapphira wanted to get a Barnabus kind of approval of others at a discount. It was good that they were willing to help the church out. Where they went wrong was to make others think, they were doing more than they really were doing. Now don’t judge them too quickly, because we are motivated in the same way with our offerings. We want others to think we give more than we do, so we talk about tithes, but we never do more than give an offering. Ananias and Sapphira wanted every one to believe they were giving all they had, when in fact they both knew they were holding back some of the money for themselves. Now if they had just given ½ of the amount, the disciples would have been thrilled, but the couple rejected that idea because they wanted a 100% level of admiration and praise from others.
Ananias and Sapphira wanted to impress others in the same way Pastor Toby and I wanted to impress others with our rental furniture that was not ours and that we could not afford to keep. There is a verse in Ecclesiastes 4:4 that says, all of our labor is due to our envy of our neighbors. This is the original phrase of keeping up with the Joneses.
We do not want to just keep up with the Joneses, we want to be able to look at the Joneses and say, “now let me see you top that.”
If we want our money to go further, we need to recognize what is important in life if we want to enjoy the short life that we have. It begins with avoiding the lie, that if you get things, you will be fulfilled. There were long lines recently of people waiting to get the apple 5 i-phone. I wonder how many of them believed that when they got the apple 4i- phone that it was going to make them fill fulfilled. Yet now, they are once again in line. It’s sad that we define our importance in the world by which phone we carry in our pocket. Jesus offers us eternal life and a life that is truly meaningful. I wonder how many of us value the i-phone with its social connections and gadgetry more than we value the real connection we can have with Jesus Christ. How many of us will pay more for our i-phone than we will give for the cause of Christ this entire year? I have an android phone that does everything I need it to do, and yet because I know someone will ask me about my phone, I have to confess that I have gone on e-bay just to see what I could get an i-phone for. Why is a part of me looking for I phone 5 status when I don’t even know what it is.
How do we avoid, going after something because it looks good or because it will instantly transform me? The worse financial decision made by Adam Eve was made because something looked good and was going to transform them. The fruit in the garden was within their grasp and it looked pleasing and it supposedly came with a lot of benefits. One drive and they would be as smart as God. The price tag was fully revealed until after the contract was signed. It cost them their home, their labor, friction in their marriage, pain in their family, and their retirement plan. It transformed them from saints to sinners. So many things that look good are far more expensive than what we think they are. Just because we can gain access to something, does not mean that we should.
Satan robs us of our money, by looking good. He comes as this fine looking brother or this foxy looking sister. Sometimes he just comes looking plain, but happened to show up at the right time in our moment of weakness. Why is it that we will pay $50,000 for an event lasting no more than 15 minutes? That’s on the low side depending on how much money we make. When God tells us how to use sex, God is not just interested in the morality of it, because God loves us, God is also trying to spare us financial and emotional ruin.
If you are the man, you will be paying child support for an event long after it is over. You may not even want to see the person anymore. If you are the woman, you will be paying money for taking care of the child and trying to locate him to get him to pay child support. You will discover just how expensive day care is going to be.
Satan offers us a beautiful home, knowing that it will keep us from being together as a family. Everything that looks like a blessing is not necessarily from God. Satan goes about as roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. His traps will sometimes look like our dreams. We not only want a beautiful home, we want one that is going to impress the other members of our family and friends. The only way we can afford it is to work two jobs. We have no time for church or bible study or for each other. God goes out of the picture. We are so tired that we become irritable with one another and, because God is not in our lives, we are not as quick to forgive and to bear with each other.
There is no money left for weekly dates or vacations so the romance starts dying a slow death. Neither person feels appreciated by the other. We have the beautiful home with the wonderful furniture that we are still paying on and we’re not speaking to each other except through as needed communication. All of sudden we are disappointed with this person and Satan is ready to send some wonderful, caring and understanding person our way. Once again we fall for the trick of what looks good and in comes more devastation.
But as I said before, its not just that we are attracted to things themselves as much as it is the status that goes with those things. Greed may tell us that we need stuff that we do not need, but more often pride is what keeps the pursuit going. Let me show you what I have. For us as Christians we even get to spiritualize it by stating, “Look how the Lord has blessed me” to which we are eager to say amen.
Have you ever noticed how when you get a new vehicle and someone comes over to see it, you want to point out the extra features in your car. Somehow, if they do not know all that you have, you have been robbed. I’m not saying that you are trying to brag, but you do want them to know all of what you have purchased. I find this in me all the time. I want you to know what all my phone can do, but why? You see on some level its important for me to know that you know what I have.
I need deliverance to avoid having to impress you with what I have. Because if you are not sufficiently impressed, I’m going to go and buy something until you are you impressed. I may even go into debt spending money that should be going to the kingdom, just to get your approval. Why does your opinion of what I have matter more to me than God’s opinion of what I have?
Let me ask you something. If Jesus were here today, and Jesus was going to buy a car, “What kind of a car do you think Jesus would go out and get?” How we answer that question will probably depend on whether or not we have a car and on what kind of car we are driving. The only thing I do know is that Jesus will not have his identity wrapped up in the car, and if the Father said, “give it away”, Jesus would do it in an instant. Could we do the same? Most of us would have to say no because we have too many payments left on the car or on the lease and it would be repossessed
Some things that we need to avoid have nothing to do with sin, but rather with risk. The bible lifts up the ant as a model for us to follow. The ant has no leader, yet in the summer it stores up food for the winter. The ant anticipates that hard times are going to come. When you buy something, not only does it have to fit into your budget, repairing it also has to fit into your budget because something is going to go wrong.
When you are broke, and you buy a car and get insurance, the temptation is to get the cheapest policy with the largest deductible on your car. People who can afford large deductibles are people with money saved in the bank who can cover it if the car is damaged or stolen. The only time you do not need coverage on your vehicle is if you can replace the vehicle yourself because you have the money to do so. You cannot count on the accident being the other person’s fault and that the other person is going to have insurance.
Keep in mind that if you have $15,000 worth of coverage and you destroy somebody’s Mercedes, you are going to be paying for their car for years. It is cheaper to pay the extra $25 a month for better coverage. Young people, if you have children, you need life insurance. The insurance is not for them simply to bury you in a nice grave, but to make sure that those children have what they need when you are gone. For less than half of your phone bill each month, you can have a $100,000 or more term life insurance policy. Those of you who are hanging at the club, or hanging in the streets, you ought to at least have an accidental policy which is even cheaper. You should not let an ant be smarter than you are. Expect things not to go your way in the future.
Why do we need to be smart with our money. Why do we need to know what to avoid? Well for one thing, God is watching us to see if we have allowed His love to penetrate our hearts. One of the scariest verses in the bible to me is in 1 John. When I read it, I’m not so sure of how well I am doing as a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s not that the verse is too hard to understand, on the contrary it is simple that none of us can miss it.
It reads in 1 John 3:16-18 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Jesus gave up everything he had in heaven, to come live, to be killed, to be buried and raised from the dead so that you and I can have life by being in a relationship with him. Have I traded that relationship for the material things of this world, to the point that I can close my heart to the needs of my sisters and brothers in order to keep things for myself. If I have, am I any different than Judas, who betrayed his master for thirty pieces of silver. Lord help us willing to avoid those things that would rob us of our love for you.
Being Smart With My Money—What To Avoid
Genesis 13:5-13 and Acts 5:1-11
We are in part 2 of our series, Being Smart With My Money. Last week Pastor Toby preached “What Do I Need”. Next Week Pastor Kellie will do “What Cost Me The Most”, Pastor Toby will return with “What Should I do” and today I’m going to talk about “What Should I Avoid.”
1. Buying On Sale, But Don’t Need It.
2. Free Trial Samples With Your Credit Card
3. Visa Master Card Logo
4. Free Cruise Vacation $39 processing fee Port Charges
5. Earn 40,000 part time at computer
6. Someone oversees needing to use your bank account
7. Co-Signing when you don’t have the money
A. ? Thought You Were Getting A Great Deal
1. Our Rental Apartment
2. Wanting To Impress The Wrong Group
3. Swallowing Our Pride
B. Know How To Avoid Things
1. Look Good Today But Not Tomorrow
2. Overcome Desire For The Approval Of Others
3. Lot & Abraham
4. Lot Future Wealth Vs Relationship to God
5. Danger Of Sodom
6. Out Temptation To Increase Our Wealth
7. New Testament Anaias & Sapphira
8. Barnabus Spirit---High Praise Given
9. Praise At A Discount
10. Temptation To Make Others Think We Give More Than We Do.
11. Don’t Seek To Impress Others
Ecclesiastes 4:4 that says, all of our labor is due to our envy of our neighbors.
C. Keeping Up With Joneses
1. In Your Face
2. What’s Important In Life
3. I Phone 5 Struggle
4. Care More For I Phone 5- Than Jesus
5. Android Man & Ebay
6. . Why is a part of me looking for I phone 5 status when I don’t even know what it is.
D. How Do Avoid because It Looks Good & Transforms
1. Adam & Eve Worse Financial Decision
2. Fruit In Reach Of The Budget
3. Cost Far higher Marriage, home, labor, family
4. Saints To Sinners
E. So many things that look good are far more expensive than what we think they are. Just because we can gain access to something, does not mean that we should.
1.Satan robs us with Good Looks
2. Looks or moment of weakness
3. Paying $50,000 for 15 minutes
4. True Cost Found Out Later
5. God’s Regulation Of Sex
6. Cost For Man Cost For Woman
F. Satan Offers Us A Beautiful Home To Destroy Us
1. Cost hours, irritability, vacation, unappreciated
2. New Opportunity With Someone Else
3. Real Cost Of A Divorce
G. Not Attracted To Goods As Much As The Status
1. Greed—more than you need
2. Pride –fuels the desire Christianize
3. Need To Show All The Features Of A Car
4. You Must Know For Me To Get The Full Value
5. I Need Deliverance From Trying To Impress You
6. What Kind Of Car Would Jesus Drive
a. Do You Have One, What Do You Have
b. Jesus Could Let It Go For Ministry
H. Some Thing We Need To Avoid Nothing To With Sin But With Risk
1. Learn From The Ant
2. Purchase Item In Budget With Repairs In Budget
3. Broke, Car Insurance, Deductible. Minimum
Coverage
4. Pay For The Extra Coverage
5. Get Some Life Insurance—Term Insurance
6. Get Some Accidental Insurance Club, Street
7. Why Be Smart—Scariest Verse in 1 John
8. Challenges My Discipleship
It reads in 1 John 3:16-18 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Jesus gave up everything he had in heaven, to come live, to be killed, to be buried and raised from the dead so that you and I can have life by being in a relationship with him. Have I traded that relationship for the material things of this world, to the point that I can close my heart to the needs of my sisters and brothers in order to keep things for myself. If I have, am I any different than Judas, who betrayed his master for thirty pieces of silver. Lord help us willing to avoid those things that would rob us of our love for you.
