Dealing with Messy Money

we've all done something done with money so we're all in the same category but this morning I want to look at what God's word says about this we're going to look at the meta narrative of scripture what we're not going to do is talk to a broker we're not going to talk to your broke brother-in-law we're not going to look at some Tik Tocker or somebody on YouTube that has all this financial advice and says "Do this do this do this." We're just going to simply open up the word of God and see what God says about this really really relevant topic this morning can we do that for those that do not know me whether you're online or in the room I am Pastor Chad you're like man who is that better looking more distinguished fellow out there i get the privilege of being the executive pastor i get to oversee central support which oversees our domestic and international campuses and I just have a great time getting to go from campus to campus and check on all that God's doing inside our collective and it's amazing thing but I want to be honest with you this morning we're going to talk about something that most of you are going to be really really uncomfortable with and that is money as a culture and as churches in general finances and money instantaneously makes us uncomfortable statistically speaking so here's what we're going to do i'm going to ask for a little bit of grace but here's what it's not going to be there's not going to be any guilting shaming arm twisting this isn't to make you feel bad this is not for so we get your money i don't want to be very very upfront about that but at the same time 77% of you are concerned about this topic it is extremely relevant whether you're a senior adult you're older you're asking the question and am I going to have enough to make it to the end or maybe you've done a really really good job and you've been diligent and you've invested and you have some capital and your biggest concern is that your kids and your grandkids are going to argue and fight over it and it's going to blow your family up and it's going to make it messy because we've been in this series family less of the mess when it comes to the area of finances and money because it basically almost intersects every aspect of our life this gets really really relevant really really quickly but maybe you're not a senior adult but maybe you're like man you're in my demographic you have kids in the home and you have aging parents and your aging parents did not do finances well and they don't know how they're going to make it to the end and you got to kind of step in and help them out but then simultaneously like well I got these kids to feed and take care of and hopefully maybe they go to college or not go to college but I got to worry about both ends and you feel like you're a rock stuck in the middle or maybe you're a little bit younger than me and you're like "Inflation's through the roof interest rates are through the roof housing's through the roof am I ever going to be able to buy a home i got student loan debt up to my eyeballs and there's no way in heck I'm going to be able to pay my student loan debt and a mortgage simultaneously what do I do or maybe you're much younger and you haven't had the opportunity to make a mistake with money and the only person in the room that should be able to say that is you better be like less than five and you've never had money in your life so raise your hand if you've ever done something dumb with money okay we're all in agreement we've all done something done with money so we're all in the same category so hopefully that lightens it brings a little levity to the situation but this morning what I want to do is I want to look at what God's word says about this we're going to look at the meta narrative of scripture what we're not going to do is talk to a broker we're not going to talk to your broke brother-in-law we're not going to look at some Tik Tocker or somebody on YouTube that has all this financial advice and says "Do this do this do this." We're just going to simply open up the word of God and see what God says about this really really relevant topic this morning can we do that well the first thing I want to point out and we already prayed through Psalm 24 and Psalm 24 says the exact same thing that Deuteronomy 10:14 says and it says "The heavens indeed the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God as does earth and everything in it." The first thing I want you to see is that God owns everything i'm going to say that again god owns everything but for most of us we think it's my house my bank account my car my portfolio my stuff god's word says the exact opposite of that it says that God owns everything and if God owns everything we have a responsibility to God what we do with God's stuff it ceases to be my stuff and I have a responsibility to do what God says with his stuff genesis 1 creation in the beginning God if you can wrap your head around that everything else biblically theologically just is super simple after that but in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and in the pro process of creation he created us and everything in it so everything belongs to God in Colossians 1 Jesus takes it a step further and it says that Jesus is the creator and sustainer of everything both visible and invisible and literally Jesus is holding it all together we need to have a healthy understanding that it belongs to God it does not belong to us and I honestly believe if we could make that perspective shift finances would look so much different because it wouldn't be about what I get or what I want it's about what God wants and what God's giving and what God wants to ultimately do in and through my life and so the first thing we see is God owns everything the second thing is that God in his sovereignty has called us to be managers of God's resources we are managers of God's resources in Genesis 1 after creation God gave the original command and they were kind of two in one the first command was to be fruitful and multiply cross shirt surprise you guys are doing a phenomenal job of being biblical in this area of being fruitful and multiplying and you should do that you should enjoy that it's a beautiful amazing thing but right after that he says that we have dominion that we have authority that we have responsibility over creation and in God's sovereign design in his created order he put humanity you and me responsible for creation to manage to steward to be responsible for everything but remember it's his not ours so here's the question I have if you were God and God looked at your life as a business would he fire you for managing the things the way that you managed them okay think about that if you had an investorment broker and he managed your money the way you managed your money would you fire him or not again I do not want to be insensitive i do not want to arm twist i do not want to cause guilt and shame that is not my heart that is not my perspective we are the most prosperous nation on the planet and I lovingly say this so please hear my heart i would make an argument we're the fi most financially illiterate simultaneously that's a really really dangerous position to be in to have all of this stuff and don't have any concept of how to manage it because many of us have not looked at what God says to do with this area and so this morning let's just peel back the layers and see what God says our responsibilities as his created order has his loving children that he deeply loves and he's given us this responsibility remember he's the creator of everything god doesn't make mistakes so God sovereignly putting us in charge of his stuff was not a mistake sometimes we make mistakes in the process sometimes we don't do it the way that he would have us to do but it doesn't mean that we should not take responsibility or somehow we're insufficient so here's the hope here's the good news god loves you and trusts you enough that he sovereignly said you're in charge you're in charge of your circumstances but we collectively as humanity are sovereign not sovereign but we were sovereignly responsible for God's stuff because he has sovereignly put us in that position man that gets heavy really quickly now all of a sudden I got to ask the question what would God want me to do not what what do I want to do or how do I want to do or when do I want to do i need to be seeking God's counsel and say God what would you have me do with your stuff what would you have me to do with your finances with your relationships with your strengths and abilities that you've given me i have a huge responsibility we collectively have a responsibility to be good stewards to be good managers of that so much so that in Matthew 25 Jesus tells a parable it's called the parable of the talents this is a parable that Jesus told and I'm going to just paraphrase the parable so ultimately God is the manager god is the owner god is the one responsible and he gives three employees three guys some talents some money he says "I'm going to give you 10 grand i'm going to give you five grand and I'm going to give you one grand." And he goes "Go do great things with it." The one with 10 did a phenomenal job stewarding it managing and he basically doubled it so now he's sitting on 20 grand the guy that has five grand did a phenomenal job basically doubles it now he has 10 grand but the guy that got one talent he got scared and what he does is he goes into his backyard buries the talent buries the $1,000 and then fast forward several months when the owner comes back and goes "Okay what'd you do?" And he says "Well I was afraid you're a I don't want to disappoint you and I just buried it and I didn't do anything with it here's your thousand dollars back i didn't want to lose it in the parable you know what the owner says of that man you fifth you wicked servant now I want to be very sensitive here that I am not suggesting that every time you do something with money there's going to be a positive benefit from it okay this is not the prosperity gospel i want to be very clear about this but we have a huge responsibility that God has lovingly put us in these positions to be successful with money to invest in his kingdom to be managers of his resources but I also think there's another cultural myth that really if we're not careful lines up with this money is a great tool but it is a horrible idol i'm going to say that again money is a great tool but it is a horrible idol in Matthew 6:24 and in Hebrews 13:5 they basically say the same thing says you can't serve both God and money that you can't be a lover of money that you can't love money and God and that we are to be satisfied or content with what we have there are plenty of people in our culture that says money is evil that money is bad god does not say that god's word does not say that the reality is money is amoral money is simply a tool to be used i can use it for good or I could use it for evil my home is amoral it could be used for good it could be used for evil i could take my home and I say "You know what we're going to do we're going to convert this home and we're going to create a woman's shelter for abused women in our culture and society and help them rehabilitate and get them back on their feets and set them up for long-term success." Would that be a good thing everyone agree that would be a good thing right i could do that with my home or I could take my home and turn it into a brothel or a drug house evil bad is my home bad or good no how I use my home determines whether it's bad or good same thing with our money money is amoral now here's the challenge especially as Americans it is easy to get caught up in finances it is easy to become a lover of money it is easy allowed to money to be our God and all of a sudden when I have a certain amount then I'm going to feel secure i'm going to feel safe that my provision is no longer God it's my bank account it's my portfolio it's my investment accounts fill in the blank for you and over and over in scripture we are warned against the love of money but you could be really really rich and godly you could be really really rich and evil you could be dead broke and be greedy and evil you could be dead broke and be one of the most generous godly people on the planet it doesn't rem matter it matters how it is used and used specifically for God and God's kingdom and so money is amoral and we got to be careful but here's also the same thing is and Hebrews really points us out we should be content and satisfied where God has us philippians 4 says the exact same thing here is the reality no matter where you are in the area of finances or money if you are not content now you won't be content then if all of a sudden you have this idea well I don't have a house but once I get a house I'm going to be content or you know what if I reach a certain numerical value in my investment accounts or my bank account all of a sudden then I'm going to be content i'm not going to be worried about anything i'm going to be completely satisfied no you won't i don't know if you paid attention to the news i love uh finances i love the market i love researching studying listening to different articles um but the president of the United States Donald Trump and uh this really really rich guy named Elon Musk had this little social media beef this week and they started texting back and forth crazy thing is Elon Musk lost $ 34 billion because of a couple text messages 34 billion dollar that's with a B billion dollars now he's worth somewhere between 4 and450 so he's not hurting so no one needs to feel sad for him but here's the question most people that are very very affluent are never never satisfied where they're at there's always a next there's always a next there's always a next nothing wrong i don't know Elon Musk i'm not going to make any spiritual judgments because I don't have the ability because I don't know him he could be one of the most generous nicest people on the planet he could be the biggest gre greediest jerk on the planet i don't know i don't know him and sometimes we rush to like making these assessments because we see from afar but it doesn't matter whether we have or we don't have it's what we do with it and contentment is where all of us should be no matter where we are on the financial spectrum of ultra wealthy or very very poor and what you do with that stage determines what you're going to do with the next stage here's the thing is some people like man I will be super generous when I have something no you won't if you're not generous with what you have now like the little bit according to you you're not going to be generous later but at the same time is if you're not generous if you're ultra generous now and God blesses you you're going to be even more generous later generally speaking statistically speaking and so we need to be content we need to be satisfied we need to be comfortable where God has us and not allow money to be an idol the fourth thing we see is we need to be finan we need to financially plan and invest while avoiding debt we're going to spend a little bit of time here we as a nation are $36 trillion and it's actually north of $36 trillion now 36 trillion that's with the T and it r trillion dollar in debt we are going to at some point as a nation not be able to keep up with interest payments on our debt because we continue to run not in a surplus but in a deficit we spend more now as a nation we say we make money GDP we spend more and we keep borrowing money and borrowing money and borrowing money and borrowing money and borrowing money that is really really really dumb but let's take and not look at it from the macro standpoint let's look at it from the micro standpoint let's look at it our personal finances wherever you and your family are at i am going to read multiple scriptures from the wisdom literature some in the Psalms some in the Proverbs some in Ecclesiastes primarily in the Proverbs i would make an argument if you read the proverbs and you understood what the proverbs said when it comes to finances and money you would absolutely crush it financially and for those of you that have a broker or an investment banker or something like that I would ask the question where are they at because here's the thing if I want to get in really really good shape and I hire a personal trainer that's like 400 pounds three bills 400 pounds eating McDonald's while we're working out and the dude doesn't look like he's lift weight or ran a day in his life I'm probably not going to think that person's going to help me get where I need to go okay and so often we have people that give us these financial advice that are broke i can't it amazes me how many people listen to their broke brother-in-law or sister-in-law or family member they have absolutely nothing but man you need to get in those penny stocks you need to do this you need to do that why would you listen to that if they knew what they were doing there would be some natural results proof would be in the pudding don't we all agree and so as we read through these and we could read lots and lots we don't have enough time to read everything but first thing I want to start with is Proverbs 13:11 wealth gained hastily will dwindle but whoever gathers little by little will increase it who wants to get rich quick okay everyone that just raised their hand thank you for being honest i appreciate the honesty cuz I know there's a lot more people in here that want to get rich quick here's the problem as our culture and society we want everything instant gratification we want it yesterday we want it microwaved we have streaming services we don't have to watch commercials on anymore everything instantaneously boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom god says danger danger danger the idea of getting rich quick is not healthy it's not reality and so for all those that have these great schemes and ideas of oh my goodness tomorrow I going to take this seminar and two days from now I'm going to be a multi-millionaire drinking pin coladas in Hawaii no you're not what are you $49.99 yeah that $49.99 went to that dude's pocket or that lady's pocket and they said "Thank you for your lack of wisdom according to God." And also if we're not ready to manage large amounts of resources so for the families in the room if you're a grandparent or great-grandparent or a parent and you haven't lovingly showed your kids how to manage money if you give them lots and lots of money it will be a curse not a blessing because they are not going to know how to handle it responsibly because they don't have any idea how to do it because they've never had to do it look at people that win the lottery multi-millionaires statistically within five years they're broke because they don't know what to do they don't know how to manage it this is a new concept continuing look at Proverbs 2:15 it says "The plans of the diligent lead to profit but anyone who is reckless becomes poor." What it says is we need to have a plan and not only do we need to have a plan we need to be diligent or proactive with our plan every one of you should have a monthly budget and for some of you you're like "Oh my goodness I'm going to fall asleep this is so boring." I'm going to say it nicely you should have a cash flow plan because it makes you feel so much better because it doesn't sound so restrictive here's the irony we just said 77% of America worries about finances because they're really struggling 65 to 75% do not have $1,000 for an emergency that gets home real quick so you are concerned you're not in a financially healthy position and 25% don't plan at all no plan okay let's just do this today now I'm a military guy and this has been going on for generations and generations in the military community if you fail to plan you plan to fail if you have no plan the best thing you got to do today you there's online tools you can go Excel you can go old school analog write on a piece of paper do a monthly budget because if you don't plan if you're no not proactive with your money you're going to look back and go where'd it go median income housing prices all got wonky over the last two or three years so statistics are all over the place on this but let's just say that somewhere that the median income is about 70 to $80,000 in the Phoenix area in the valley that's pretty conservative i think that's pretty fair now obviously with stats everything can be changed so in a 10-year period you've made $800,000 if I gave you $800,000 today what would you do with it i bet you most of you would start coming up with a plan oh I could do this i could do this i could do this i could do this i could do this i could do this why are you not doing that monthly now for the couples in the room you need to do this together okay i'm speaking for a friend here but when your friend or your spouse comes to you and says they want an $1,800 Trager and I'm like "Why we have a Trager nothing's wrong with our Trager." Well it's bigger and it cleans itself nothing wrong with the Trager if your husband comes to you and says "I need another gun." Let them buy the gun they should buy the gun if you can afford the gun if your spouse comes to you and say "I need to go and get to the beauty salon i need to go to get a manicure a pedicure i need to go get my hair done." Let them do it if you have the funds here's the amazing thing when you do a monthly budget together you start getting on the same page and there's less conflict in your family there's way less of the mess but many of us do it kind of isolated and then all of a sudden we look at the credit card bill or we look at the monthly statement you spend $450 on Costco what'd you buy you went to shooters world and bought a new AR-15 we didn't talk about this oh I need to go buy that brand new car we didn't discuss this so principles here not scripture i want to be very very careful if you and your spouse are not talking budget monthly highly highly advise that that's biblical here's where the where I want to give the principle you two need to determine what is an authorized amount of money where we're going to have a discussion before we spend x amount of money now many of you probably drove by Starbucks or McDonald's or doughnut shop or this place or went to the cafe if I have to ask my wife if I can spend $1.99 on a breakfast burrito probably a little off tilter on the budget as long as it's in the budget now I decide on the way home tonight I'm going to go buy that brand new Bronco Raptor that I've been waiting a couple years for and I don't consult her at all my wife is really cool she'd probably be okay with it but she should not be okay with it not okay with it at all she keeps telling me "Go buy it." I'm like "No it's opportunity cost i can't do it i'm too cheap at the end of the day I'm just too cheap." I'm like "There's no way I'm going to do that because it's worth too much it costs too much money and I want greater returns in the market." But here's the thing i've done this for years and years both military and the civilian i can't tell you how many couples I've counseledled or walked through with this when they got on the same page with money this is what they've said over and over and over again it saved my marriage our communication is so much better i'm going to get a little racy here our private life has got even a little more steamy because now all of a sudden we are on the same page and we feel more connected we feel more part of the team need to get on a budget let's continue next proverb it says the rule the the rich rule over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender the rich rule over the poor and the borrower slave to the lender what causes a lot of messes financially with a lot of families is when we borrow money to loved ones when we take a loan out I have a 17-year-old son and a 15-year-old daughter the minute I borrow my son money or I borrow my brother-in-law money or my in-laws or a friend or a neighbor what did this do to that relationship according to scripture what did my son just become what did my mother-in-law just become what did my neighbor just become what did my best friend just become a what to me a slave see how that relationship got all out of whack i am fine all day long giving a gift you want to bless you want to be generous you want to give give give okay with that the minute there's a an assignment to it there's a a loan to it there's a borrowing component it will change your relationship dynamic imagine borrowing your sibling or a friend some money they haven't paid you back but all of a sudden you see that they're in Disneyland you have a different opinion about them being in Disneyland this week than you did last week because he owes you $400 if you can go you have $400 you don't need to go to Disneyland you need to give him my money back it changes the relationship dynamic for parents and grandparents the most loving thing you can do is to have a trust or a will tell your family where you think God wants your stuff to go aka God's stuff to go when you die don't let them negotiate and argue over it i can't tell you how many families that I know argue over grandma's butter dish you We laugh it's real they argue over grandma's butter dish because grandma said it was supposed to be for me i want it no I want it i want it and then when you got some real capital and now we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of millions of dollars a house a car a vehicle families explode and tear up and divide over that stuff every single day lovingly help them out and avoid that dynamic by setting them up for success so they know what should happen or what should not happen who gets what who doesn't get what i would also say if you're going to leave somebody out tell them why you're alive don't wait till you're dead have the cou if you genuinely don't think they're responsible they can handle it there's family dynamics and they can get very very lured quickly have the courage to tell them why they're alive because you're going to cause conflict with them and other family members after they die because you weren't honest with them upfront okay we need to invest we need to be proactive we need to love our family last thing it says "Invest in seven ventures." This is out of Ecclesiastes 11:2 invest in seven ventures yes and eight you do not know what disaster may come upon the land financial world this is diversification grandma would say don't put all your eggs in one basket i don't want you to invest in things you're not knowledgeable about there are people that won't touch the stock market because they're afraid of the stock market i think mutual funds is a great diversification way to do it but that's up to you some of you are going to get involved in real estate some of you going to get involved in other things invest is something we should all be doing when we're in a position to do it but if we're not in a position to do it we shouldn't do it before we're ready to do it but when we do it we want to be diversified in what we're doing and then Luke 14 Paul uh Jesus does another parable and he talks about this guy that's going to build a house build a tower is what he actually references in it i'm just trying to use today's terminology i'm going to go build a house i'm going to go buy a house i'm going to go buy a vehicle i'm going to go make a financial purchase we need to count the cost before we do it there's opportunity cost associated with it but then just the practical can I afford it or I cannot afford it when you're having that conversation if you can afford the monthly payment does not mean whether you can afford it or not can you afford the actual overall purchase of that thing and can you genuinely afford it we talked about as a nation 36 trillion dollars in debt consumer debt in America is bonkers most of us are up to our debts in consumer loan debt with credit cards and vehicles and mortgages and we are broke broke broke broke broke broke but I can make the monthly payment you're broke it's not what you make it's what you do with it you could be on on a $30,000 salary and and retire really really comfortably if you know what you're doing and use biblical principles at the same time you can make $300,000 a year and be absolutely broke and dumb and foolish but so often we think it's if I make this I'm going to do this or if I don't make this I can't do this scripture doesn't say that god's word doesn't say that stats don't say it the human experiment doesn't say that we need to count the cost the last thing is God loves a cheerful giver 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that God loves a cheerful giver it implies two things one that we're giving how you do that what that looks like that's between you and God but there's another component to it we are to be cheerful givers and I think sometimes we as humans have this negotiation technique with God that says "How little can I give you?" and we still be good it's not cheerful it's not joyous it's not man I get to do this it's I have Okay okay god I guess you know I had 30 bucks at Starbucks this morning but I can give you $2 today now again I said it from the beginning i'm not trying to guilt shame anybody that is not my heart that is not our perspective we're not trying to get more money but God loves a cheerful giver that is God's standard not my standard but there's a reason why God loves a cheerful giver and I think that's why it's so important to understand this so let me close with this key thought money management matters but we are never more like God than when we give i'm going to say that again money management matters but we are never more like God than when we give you know who the author of giving giving is you know who the author of generosity is you know the one that gave first was God it's really a reflection of his character of who he is and allows us to be more like him and I will tell you personally and as the person that's responsible for the finances of our collective organizationally as a church it is way way cool to be a generous giver it's way way cool to be a part of what God's doing in and through the life of families and people and seeing transformation in homes and in marriages over and over and over again i'm going to give a couple examples it was really cool to help somebody in our Bible group buy their first home for those of you that have bought a home what was that experience like when you got the keys to your first home how excited were you how passionate were you what did it do for your makeup that's a really cool thing to be a part of it's also really really cool to come along families that are struggling they don't know where their next meal is going to come from they don't know how they're going to pay the utilities this month they don't know how they're going to pay their mortgage or the rent and as a church family us generously coming alongside them to help them in that moment of need but then big picture eternal stuff VVS this week hundreds of volunteers at all of our campuses hundreds of kids at all of our campuses seeing boys and girls come to a saving knowledge of who he is priceless campus expansion right now we're building a building on the island of Kennet in the Philippines me and a couple of guys are going to go there in September what's God going to do with that building for his kingdom because of our generosity see here's the beautiful thing as part of the cross collective when you're generous and we echo and mirror who God is and what God says you're just joining people that are already doing it i'm blown away at our generosity as a as an organization as a church it is amazing but remember it's not our money it's his here's one final example sorry I didn't tell Plan Penz you sat in the front row so you're gonna get it this is functionally what it really looks like if I said I want you to sell everything you have in your personal bank account right now and you got to give it away all of it away that'd be pretty hard but if I said here you go here's a stack of cash after service i want you to just go bless anybody and everybody which is easier to do let's be honest as human beings what is easier from a human behavioral standpoint to take this one and go give it away or to look at my pocket and go "Oo hang on it's a little tight this month i don't know if I can do this." Who gave us the money who's called us to be generous see here's what happens humanly i hold on this long enough this is mine not God's it's a circle back to where we started no this is God's and he's called us to be good stewards and generous and giving with it to bless the kingdom of heaven not the kingdom of Chad or the kingdom of fill in your blank what a great opportunity we have to make Jesus known where men and women boys and girls come to a saving knowledge of who Jesus Christ is one example we're going to see a child baptized because of your generosity life transformation because of what you're doing in and through the life one child in heaven priceless [Music]