"Managing Your Finances Without Losing Your Soul"
Part 1 of a 2-part Series
Sermon Transcript for November 14, 2004
Scripture Reading: I Timothy 6:6-10; 17
By Rev. Mike Beck
This morning’s sermon is rated “R” so I’m glad our younger kids have left. The message this morning, and it will be continued next week, is for mature believers. If you are a newcomer to Grace, you are welcome to listen in. And I think you will find things that will be helpful to you. But please know, if you are relatively new to Grace Church, that today and next weekend there is a very real sense in which I am preaching these messages to the choir. As I worked on this sermon, I realized it would need to be presented over a two-week period. You don’t risk talking about money and going over your time allotment in the same combination. That could be deadly! But I am not nearly as nervous about talking to my people about money, as I was earlier in my ministry. For I have come to realize that helping you understand biblical principles on stewardship is perhaps the most important gift that I can give you. Jesus spent more time teaching on this issue of stewardship than any other single topic. But I want you to understand that my role as your pastor is not to be a fundraiser. It is to be a faith-raiser. As people’s faith is elevated somehow the money seems to come in as it is needed.
And in one of the versus that we read in our scripture this morning, there is one of the most misquoted versus in all of the scripture. How many of you have heard this verse quoted by some of your friends who will say, “Money is the root of all evil”? That is not what the verse says! Verse 10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Money in and of itself is neutral. Money can be used in incredibly positive ways. Jesus had many devout friends and followers who were wealthy individuals. It doesn’t say money is the root of all evil, it says, “The love of money is a root of all evil.” Also as we begin, it is very important that I say there is absolutely nothing wrong with possessions. Mickey and I love our home and we were able to purchase as you graciously gave us a housing allowance. I love my new Cobra XC 10 ½ degree driver. I hit the ball twenty yards farther off the tee than I did before I bought it. There is nothing wrong with possessions. In fact, in the scripture we read this morning, in Verse 17 it says, “God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” One of the versus I have my confirmation class memorize is “Every good and perfect gift is from God above”. And I ask them, “What possession do you own that you enjoy more than any other?” And then I say, “Just remember, it is a gift. For God has given it to you for your enjoyment.” There is nothing wrong with possessions. The key question though is, “Where is my heart and where do I find my identify?” If I find my identity in my stuff, then there are some problems spiritually. And then, finally, as we begin, God expects us to plan for the future. Here on earth, especially in this day and age in which people are living longer, we need to plan for those retirement years. But the key issue there is, “As I plan for the future, will I be obedient to what God teaches about how I’ve used by money?” And also, “Where does my ultimate security lie?”
Last week I mentioned the book, The Treasure Principle. I was very pleased that all sixty copies of that were taken. When you finish reading that, bring it back so that some one else can enjoy it. But in that book were these principles that I want to share with you again. The first principle was this: I can’t take it with me, but I can send it on ahead. Secondly, God owns everything; I’m just His money manager. Thirdly, my heart will always go where I put God’s money. Fourthly, heaven not earth is my true home. And in light of that, I should live not only for the moment but with eternity in mind. The next principle is that in this age of materialism, where we are encouraged to buy more and more stuff, the only antidote to that disease is giving. And then, finally, God prospers me not so much to raise my standard of living as my standard of giving.
I have ordered thirty additional copies of The Treasure Principle since we ran out last week. And when the order came in, the box didn’t contain The Treasure Principle. And I was disappointed for about two minutes. Then I realized maybe this was godly because what they sent me were two other wonderful little books related to stewardship. There are copies of these out on the table this morning. One of them is entitled, Fields of Gold, by Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley’s son. The other is by Gordon McDonald, Secrets of a Generous Life. So as we seek to help you grow in stewardship, there are now three resources available for you to take, free of charge, read them, and then just bring them back so that others can benefit from them.
In terms of the message that I am preaching today and next week, I need to acknowledge up front that in my adult life I have made a ton of mistakes when it came to managing my finances. Mickey and I have struggled with every single issue that I’m going to be addressing this week and next. But I also realize that maybe part of the reason that we made so many mistakes in managing our money is that churches do a lousy job of instructing their people in one of the most critically important area of their lives—how do I manage my finances? And I also went through college and probably half of you hearing this message lived where Mickey and I have lived most of our lives. You live paycheck to paycheck. You get your paycheck, half of it is already spent, and you hope the other half holds out until the next paycheck comes. To kind of illustrate that, when I talk to parents who now have a junior or senior in high school and they are looking at the cost of college and they are thinking, “Gosh, I don’t have much saved up for college. How in the world is Johnny or Sally going to go to school?” I always try to comfort them by saying, “Hang in there. Do you know how much money Mickey and I had saved up for Adam and Aaron when they started college? Zero! We were on the deferred payment plan.” We thank God every day for Parent Plus loans. They’ll be paid off in about the year 2015, so you don’t have to worry about your pastor retiring early! When people ask me about my investments I chuckle. Now I thank God every day for the wonderful pension program the United Methodist Church has, but beyond that I tell people, “My investments are the two-legged kind. One of them lives in California; the other investment lives in Kokomo.” And we feel like our investments are doing pretty well, but if you go trying to look for my mutual funds or 401K’s, you won’t find any.
So in terms of our finances, I guess I could say that I have learned from the school of hard knocks. I’m kind of a survivor. But maybe that puts me in even better position to share with you some of the biblical principles in this message today and next week. Several years ago, Mickey and I came of the conviction that we were not practicing the very clearly taught biblical model of tithing. And we give thanks to God that as we have sought to be obedient to that standard, which at times has been very difficult to do, but yet God has provided us with our every need and given us a sense of joy and dignity that we never knew until we allowed Jesus to be Lord of our checkbook and realized that what we did with the first ten percent wasn’t optional. You need to know that your pastor, with God’s help, is seeking to practice what he is preaching today and next week. You are very good to your Senior Pastor in terms of my salary package, which this year, when you include my housing allowance, is about $90,000. But at this point in our life, we believe that God has called us, the boys are out of the house, to go beyond the tithe in terms of investing in the work of God’s kingdom here on this earth. And so, you need to know though it always makes my wife uncomfortable when I say this, you need to know that our total giving to the General Fund, to Imagine Grace, to missions, and to some other charitable organizations we support this year will be right at $13,000. The tithe is not where you stop. The tithe is where you begin and then as you reach certain points in life you move beyond that.
With that as background, I want to share with you, we’ll do two principles today, and we’ll do the other four next week. It can be helpful to you in managing your finances without losing your soul. You’ve got a place in your bulletin to put down the first two principles as we come to them but I’d like to use this commercial, it was on TV, as a lead-in to these first two principles. Take a listen:
VIDEO
I’m Stanley Johnson. I’ve got a great family. I’ve got a 4-bedroom house in a great community. Like my car? It’s beautiful! I even belong to the local golf club. How do I do it? I’m in debt up to my eyebrows! I can barely pay my finance charges. Somebody help me! Do you need a smart way to consolidate your debt? Call lendingtree.com—banks compete and you choose the loan that’s right for you.
Now, we may laugh at that but there is a whole lot of us that could say, “Been there, done that!” That’s what life looks like to a lot of people in our society today. And my guess is that every single one of us in this sanctuary today one way or another wrestles with this issue of our finances. Lendingtree.com may be able to provide a band-aid, but they can’t provide the cure. The answer to manage your finances, according to God’s plan, goes much deeper than a bill consolidation loan as helpful as those loans sometimes can be. In fact, when you think about loans, most all of you have filled out an application for a loan. You know on one side you have to list your income; on the other side you have to list your obligations. But you know, I think in terms of our obligations, there’s a line missing. When I filled out those applications, I’ve filled out numerous ones, you know what? I’ve never seen a line that asks me to list my tithes and offerings! It isn’t there because the world does not read according to Kingdom principles. So here is principle number one.
Learn to live somewhere below your means. Now it’s not easy and don’t go to extremes. The key word, you’ve heard me say it over and over again, to the Christian is balance. I think back to the early years of our marriage. During the first year of our marriage Mickey saved all of her paycheck so we could buy a lot on the north side of New Palestine. That would be the down payment on our loan. We really wanted to build a tri-level. But instead, we built a 3-bedroom ranch. Do you want to know why? Because a tri-level payment was going to be $210 instead of $190 and we were quite sure we couldn’t afford the extra $20 a month. Bad decision! We should have built a little nicer house. We could have done it.
A husband bought his wife a very nice car as a surprise birthday present. And she was feeling kind of guilty about that car and I said to her, “Don’t feel guilty about that car. You’ve got one of the few cars sitting in the church parking lot that is appreciating in value instead of drastically decreasing in value.” I talked to families who were considering adding on a room or finishing the basement because their kids are growing. And they don’t know whether they ought to spend that money. And I say, “Can you afford it? If you can afford it, doesn’t it increase the value of your home? Someday you are going to sell that home. Is it going to add to your family? Can your kids bring their kids over to your house so you know where they are on Friday and Saturday night? Sounds like a good plan to me.” So what I am saying is, “Don’t go to extremes here.”
The key question related to our expenditure is, “Is it an investment that adds value to my life?” But having said that, the fact is most of us have got way too much stuff. In fact, lots of folks have to rent space to store the stuff that they can’t store at their house. In terms of our purchases, just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Let me repeat that: Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. The question to ask, “Does it add value to my life?”
Now society makes this first principle tough for us to do because of the influence of advertising. Some of the smartest people in this country spend hours every day making those commercials designed to make you discontent with what you’ve got. And to counter Madison Avenue, we will need to be very clear about where our identity and where our satisfaction in life comes from. Now I’ll talk to you about where our satisfaction of life comes from because a lot of people, if they’re depressed, if they are feeling real down, what do they do? They go out and shop. They go out and grab the charge card and people like me, you turn to food and it shows on my waistline. But some of the rest of us turn to shopping to give us comfort for the hurts of life. Be careful there! And we’ve got to be careful that we don’t find our identity in the fact that I’ve got a bigger boat than my neighbors got, that I’ve got the latest golf equipment, that I’ve got a nicer house than somebody else has. James Dobson wrote in the series, “Focus on Family”, I’ll never forget this quote. He says, “Families have to be careful because here is what will happen. There possessions will begin to possess them.” We think, “I’ve just got to have this.” And then six months later we’re saying, “Why don’t I have any time?” Well, the reason that you don’t have any time is I’m spending all my time maintaining that thing that I bought six months ago but maybe I rarely even use. So we have to learn to live somewhat below our means.
John Wesley had this very famous quote. He said, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” In fact, that’s where we will start next week. Go ahead and throw point two up there. I want you to write it down. And then we will stop with you writing it down. Don’t let your savings, principle #2, become an obsession. Now, I’ll be praying this week, you know I’m talking about money next week, to see I any of you are brave enough to come back. But I do think these things have great value for all of us. We’ll flush out those remaining five principles next week.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn
Copyright Grace United Methodist Church.
E-Mail: AdministratorCopyright Grace United Methodist Church.
E-Mail: Administrator