"Managing Your Finances Without Losing Your Soul"
Part 2 of a 2-part Series
Sermon Transcript for November 21, 2004
Scripture Reading: I Timothy 6:6-10; 17
By Rev. Mike Beck
We begin this morning the sermon we began last week entitled, “Managing Your Finances Without Losing Your Soul”. So I’ll just read again those words from I Timothy, Chapter 6 in preparation for sharing the Word of God. Would you stand in reverence, as you are able. Here’s the equation we all want to know: “That Godliness with contentment is great gain.” And then a reminder to us, “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. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and traps and have many foolish and harmful desires that plunge man into ruin and destruction.” And then, verse 10 is a verse that is often misquoted. The verse does not say money is the root of all evil. Money is neutral. It is neither good nor bad; it depends upon how we use it. The verse says, “But 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 grieves.” And then skipping down to verse 17, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.” And then here is the result, “For in this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. (You may be seated).
Whenever I single out individuals, I know that I am going to miss someone. We have one lady that’s come a long way to be with us in worship today—Bob and Melissa Cunningham are new to Grace Church within the past year. They are from South Africa and before the service I had the chance to meet…Melissa it’s your mom, is that right? Hold up your hand—she’s come all the way from South Africa to be with us today. Let’s greet her. And then, over in the same general area, Jeff Nance it is good to see you in worship! Jeff has been serving our country in Iraq, stationed now, I think, back at Camp Atterbury. Let’s greet him. And as Dan reminded us so well in our prayer, continue to pray for all of our service men and women seeking to advance freedom in a part of the world that has not known that privilege that we enjoy.
Well, I’m kind of in awe this morning. You knew that I was preaching on money and yet you came back. Thank you! Now if you are a newcomer to Grace, the sermon last week and this week, you are welcome to listen in, there are things that will be helpful to you. But do know, that in messages like these, I’m kind of preaching to mature believers. I’m preaching in a sense to the choir. But I have come to realize one of the greatest gifts that I can give you is to help you understand more fully biblical principles related to the thing that you wrestle with more than probably any other area of life—that is, your finances! Whether you are wealthy or whether you are struggling just to get by, we all wrestle with this issue.
Reverend Dan handed me a cartoon for leadership. I don’t think I need to say any more, just let you look at the cartoon and what it rather truthfully says about some of us. I’m thankful for many of you that availed yourself of those books that are out there on the table related to stewardship. When you finish yours, bring it back so that someone else can grow through reading them. In this message we wanted to share six principles from scripture that can help us manage our finances without losing our soul. We got through one of them last week. If you want to take out your bulletin, there is a place there for you to write down these six principles.
We need to learn to live somewhere below our means: The first was this, and believe me it’s not easy to do with all of the pressure that Madison Avenue puts on us to have the newest and the latest thing. I reminded you that it’s kind of terrifying to think that some of the smartest minds in the country work 60 and 70 hours a week to figure out how to make us discontent with what we have. But the first principle we flushed out last week was, we need to learn to live somewhere below our means. Wesley said, “Learn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” But in this matter of saving, it brings us to principle number two.
Don’t let your savings become an obsession: Now please hear me carefully especially in this day and age in which people are living longer. It’s essential that we plan for our retirement that we practice saving that money for unexpected emergencies. But acknowledging that, we need to also acknowledge that I have buried a number of folks who never had a chance to spend one dollar of their 401K plan. One of the principles in the book, The Treasure Principle, was that you can’t take it with you but you can send it on ahead. Here is where we can mistake where our true security lies. Our ultimate security better not be found in the stock market, as valuable and important a resource the stock market is, because the stock market giveth and the stock market taketh away. Yes, you should plan ahead financially for future years. Yes, it’s nice if you can leave something behind for your children or your grandchildren. But on that note, let me point out this sad reality that I have witnessed numerous times. Leaving a big inheritance to your children is not necessarily a good thing. I have seen children who have inherited hard-earned wealth waste and squander, give away in just a few short years. I’ve also seen family members at each other’s throats because there was a large inheritance to be divided. I’ll never forget when the opportunity came for Dad and Mom to move to the United Methodist Community. They huddled us kids together because they wanted our input. And here’s what they said to us. They said to the four of us kids, “If we make this move, there will basically be nothing left for us to leave to you.” To which we replied in resounding unity, we said, “Mom and Dad, where does it say that we deserve an inheritance? You’ve already given us an inheritance. You’ve given us love; you’ve given us faith in God; you’ve given us a value system. We already got our inheritance in advance.”
In some ways, friends, I kind of like that bumper sticker you’ve perhaps seen which says, “I’m spending my children’s inheritance and enjoying every minute of it.” There is some truth in that because leaving a big inheritance is not necessarily a good thing. Now again, please hear me carefully. It’s a good thing to save and look ahead. Franklin Delano Roosevelt would roll over in his grave if he thought people believed Social Security was going to take care of all of their retirement needs. It’s good to save, especially as we live longer, but some persons obsession with saving for the future begins to get ridiculous to the point where needs of God’s Kingdom in the present moment don’t get met to where we begin to feel that the money is ours and I dare not part with any of it because I might need it which ultimately becomes a faith statement about our life and where our ultimate trust isn’t really in God but it’s rather the amount of money in my bank account. John Wesley, we studied on it back in September, vowed that when he died…he could have been a wealthy man. He published voluminously that every time John Wesley made money he put it back in to the Methodist Societies, to the building of churches. He vowed that when he died he didn’t want to have over five pounds to his name. In our day, there are some preachers out there that, well let me just acknowledge, are self-serving, rather shallow and phony in the prosperity gospel that they preach. But friends, Rick Warren who wrote the 40 Days of Purpose isn’t numbered in that group. There was an article in Time magazine recently about Rick Warren, which said that when the church had grown to a certain point, Rick gave back to the church every dollar they had paid him. Do you know Rick Warren’s salary at Saddleback Church what it is? Zero! Now, yes, he’s sold millions of copies of the Purpose Driven Life but 90 percent of the royalties of that book go into the foundation that supports mission work around the world. He lives rather modestly on ten percent of the book royalties. The rest he gives it back. Don’t let your savings become an obsession.
Your value doesn’t lie in the things you possess: If we are not careful, we’ll begin to judge our success and place in life by the vehicle that we drive, by the house that we live in, by the toys that we have accumulated in the garage and the driveway. When the fact is, some of the richest, healthiest people I know, persons who are making a real difference for God in this world, have the least when it comes to material possessions. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a person if they gain the whole world but they lose their soul?” And Jesus taught us the paradox of life. He said, “If you seek to save your life you lose it, but if you lose your life by investing it in others, you’ll find it.” Don’t let your value be measured by your possessions.
Our faith must be integrated with our finances: And that has to do with that cartoon we showed earlier in the sermon. Our faith must be integrated with our finances. Those two are to go together like hands to the clock. The fact is, we may not want to admit it, but the test of genuine faith can usually be found in opening up two little books that we all carry. If people could look at our date book, or for some of you your palm pilot, and our checkbook they would very quickly know where our priorities lie. And this principle has got greater implications than just what we give to the church. If we are a business person, this principle has to do with how we run our business and treat our customers and employees. If we are an employee, it means giving an honest days work for a days pay. This principle of integrating our faith and finances comes into play when we sit there by ourselves to fill out our tax return for the previous year. It comes into play if we sell a used care or some other item to another individual whether we’ve been totally truthful with them. In simple terms, this principle is lived out when we move from simply knowing Jesus as our Savior to coming to know Him as our Lord. When he’s our Lord our faith is integrated with our finances.
Simplify your lifestyle: This one is hard; but it is doable. For we often say, “Well, I’d like to have more for God in terms of my finances but there just isn’t much left over after I pay the bills.” Simplifying our life is hard to do, but it is possible. And here is the payoff: Those people who live simpler lives, do you know what? They have greater freedom and they have more time at their disposal than a lot of their neighbors who have a lot of stuff because the neighbors are spending all of their time taking care of their stuff. We simplify our life when we step back and we examine every expenditure and we ask, “Do I really need that?” And the answer to many of those questions will be “Yes”. We talked last week if it’s something that gives meaning, if it adds value to life; there is nothing wrong with possessions. But I am afraid that some of the stuff that we accumulate, that we just think we’ve got to have to live in 2004, the fact is maybe we could live just fine without it. We’ve had periods in life where we’ve had much and we’ve had periods in life where we’ve had very little. And you know some of the happiest times where when we had little. When God called me after ten years in school teaching and administration to go back to seminary, our income got reduced by sixty percent plus I had to figure out how I was going to pay tuition to go to school. But you know, we had great times especially on Friday nights. Friday nights cost us $1.00. And every Friday night we would get together with dear friends we’d made from Alabama—Al and Lorie Beasley. One week we’d be at our house; the next week we’d be in their apartment. We popped some popcorn, we’d by a 2-liter soda at K-Mart and we would watch the escapades of J.R., Sue Ellen, Cliff and all the friends on Dallas. And for three years, we had a ball. Every Friday night we spent $1.00 but we had fun. Simplify your life.
Develop a financial plan that honors God: And then, finally, the last principle—Develop a financial plan that honors God. It’s amazing to me how few people have a budget. And developing a budget in this day and age of computers is a very easy thing to do. A couple of years ago I called my youngest son, Adam, and I would appreciate it if I can make this sidelight, that you remember Adam and Shana especially in your prayers these next few days. November 22 was Shana’s due date. So this is a hard week for them. They have appreciated your prayers as we have. But a couple of year’s ago I called Adam to ask him about playing golf. I think it was late in the month. And he said, “Dad, I’d love to play golf, but Shana made me buy this computer finance program and we set a budget. And every time I’ve started to run over the budget for the month, a red flag comes up on the computer. He said, “In terms of my golf budget for this month, there is a red flag up. Call me after the first of the month.” And you know, when I hung up the phone I celebrated. My kids were doing a lot better job managing their finances than I have done.
And, friends, a financial plan that honors God will follow the model God laid out. That model is the tithe. And too often, I’m afraid, I’ve done my people a disservice soft-pedaling this biblical principle that clearly preaches the first fruits, the first ten percent, isn’t ours. It clearly belongs and needs to go back to God. Now, hear me carefully, we can be legalistic in this mater of the tithe and make our giving a thing of duty rather than authentic joy and love. Yes, it’s quite true that there may be some folks hearing my voice giving four percent of a very limited income who are giving far more sacrificially than someone else who’s putting $300 in the offering plate each week. Some persons, if they want to be obedient to God in terms of the tithe, may need to take two or three years as Mickey did, to move toward reaching that goal. And we have to remember that our giving doesn’t necessarily stop at ten percent. That’s why each week we invite you to worship God with God’s tithes, that’s the first ten percent, and your offerings, that’s those above that.
Hear these words from the Old Testament prophet, Malachi. He asked, “Will a man rob God and yet you rob me?” But you ask, “How do we rob you in tithes and offerings?” And then, verse 10, God makes a promise. He says, “Bring the whole tithe into the store house that there may be food in my house.” And then He makes this audacious statement, “Test me on this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.” Now hear me carefully, I’m preaching the prosperity gospel. There have been numerous times in our lives that it has not been easy to tithe. And I’m going to make what sounds like a foolish and dangerous statement. God is going to love you no matter what you give because salvation is grace. It is not what we have earned. And I want you to know this, if you will exercise faith and obedience in this matter of the tithe it will bring a sense of dignity and a sense of joy to your Christian life that you’ve never known before because, friends, I have never known a tithing Christian who wasn’t also a joyful Christian.
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