Taming the Money Monster

Well, there is a monster on the loose in America, and that monster sucks people into a grasp and works havoc in their lives, creating great havoc in families as well. The sinister power of this monster has captured the hearts and minds, I believe, of the majority of Americans. It is the money monster, and although he is actually more fearsome than what is depicted on the screen, he is a monster that has wreaked havoc in the last 30 years on our culture and thus on our homes and marriages. It really has been a great cultural shift. His influence has been seen in the last 30 or 40 years in particular. Back in 1967, there was a poll done of college freshmen. The question was asked, what is your greatest ambition in life? To develop a meaningful philosophy of life or to get rich. And the overwhelming majority of incoming college students in the late 60s answered, I want to have a meaningful philosophy of life. By 1986, that had flipped completely. 1986, same survey, 20 years later, and 80% of incoming college students would say, my main ambition in life is to become rich. Money magazine was founded in 1972, but its subscriptions doubled between 1980 and 1987. Lifestyles of the rich and famous debuted in 1984 and ran for 12 years as one of the most popular programs on television. And so there was a shift in our culture around that time that has run unibated up to this time. A shift which still continues in our view of money and possessions. Our most familiar heroes today are not war heroes. They're not people who really deserve to be our heroes. They are the rich and famous. They are the business tycoons, the Carl icons, the Donald Trumps. In the same period of time of which I'm speaking over the past 30 years, business school applications have more than doubled. Lottery participation of skyrocketed gambling has actually gone through the roof. In 1974, legalized gambling in the United States brought in $17 billion 1974. Fast forward 20 years, 1994, $482 billion. Fast forward another 12 years, 2006, it is up to $981 billion. Three times the revenue of the top Fortune 500 company in the United States, ExxonMobile. Three times the revenue of the richest company in this country is the amount legally gambled in the United States in 2006 and I don't think it's gone down since then. Two decades ago, two states had legalized gambling today, 48 states. The money monster is on the loose. He is on a rampage. What has happened in our culture signals a huge paradigm shift, a huge earth shattering change in how we view money and possessions. And one of the casualties left in the wake of the money monster is homes and marriages. It is estimated that 48 to 50% of all marital difficulties trace themselves in some part to financial disagreements or financial problems. And there are lots of offshoots of our focus upon money in this day and age. Stress, tension, worry, working overtime, two jobs to make ends meet or to get what we feel like we want, thus no time for the family fighting discord within marriages and families. You see what some people mistake as the high cost of living is really the cost of living high. The money monster has taken a toll in our culture and left in its wake are many damaged and destroyed homes. We're nearing the end of this series on marriage and we are at the end of the seven keys to harmony, the seventh one which we'll deal with today is money or financial management or wise financial stewardship if we want to look at it from a biblical perspective. How can we tame the money monster? Certainly that's one of the keys to harmony in the home and harmony in marriages is to being able to tame the money monster. Well this morning I want us to look at two biblical principles that will help us tame the money monster. Two biblical principles, both of them foundational and they have a lot of subprincipals that we'll look at but they can be grouped in two categories. The first has to do with attitude, the second has to do with management. So let's begin where we really need to begin and that is with our attitudes, the principle of attitude. In order to understand where we have come to and where we need to go we have to start with our attitudes the way we think about money and possessions. The Bible talks about some wrong attitudes and some right attitudes and we're going to look at both. We want to invite your attention to 1 Timothy chapter 6 where Paul deals with both of those in his letter to Timothy, his first letter to Timothy chapter 6 where Paul talks about some wrong attitudes. We're going to look first at the wrong attitudes toward money and possessions. The first one is familiar to you. You've heard the phrase, if you're familiar with this passage, you know what it is. It's the love of money. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and to trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wondered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. There you can see the damage left behind by the money monster. You're familiar with the phrase the love of money. That means that our heart is set on money or possessions. Our drive is to obtain as much as we can. That's what we love and what we love is what we pursue what we live for. But there are a couple of other phrases that go along with this. You saw them in the passage, verse 9. Those that want to get rich or will to get rich have as their ambition, their motivation and life to get rich. And then the other in verse 10, some people eager for money. So there are three expressions in this passage that have to do with our attitude toward money. All of them wrong attitudes. The will, the ambition, the drive to get rich, the love of money, the eagerness for money. All of those indicate covetousness, a fixation on material possessions which is unhealthy at least, unspiritual at worst. The love of money usually covetousness begins when we look at those around us and we want the lifestyle of other people. We look at family members, we look at neighbors, we look at friends, we look at co-workers and we want to, in the proverbial expression, keep up with the Joneses. So we begin to want what everybody else has and that becomes a subtle pressure that wears away our discipline, chips away at our resolve to live under biblical constraints and restraint and really what we will see later, biblical freedom. But it slowly chips away at that. My friends have all of this, why can't I have it too? And so in order to obtain all that our friends have or in the case of many couples in order to have at the very beginning of their marriage what we grew up with, what our parents worked 30 years to obtain. In order to have all of that, we will charge to the hill, we will go into debt after all everybody does it, right? So there is that desire to keep up with others, add to that the media pressure that makes you feel like you are left behind if you don't have the newest car, the nicest home, the newest device. If you don't have that somehow you're getting left behind in the culture and you need to keep up. Add to the peer pressure and the media pressure are inherent greed for our sinful nature and you can see why the money monster has been doing such a good job on us. Creating this love, this appetite, this eagerness, this drive, the will as Paul says to Timothy for riches, the love of money, wrong attitude, second wrong attitude that Paul addresses is pride in money. Look at verse 17. And those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant will stop right there for now. Those who are rich, those who do have some degree of wealth will have a tendency to become arrogant, to become proud, self-sufficient. I don't need anyone or anything, not even God. I can handle everything myself and sometimes possessions have that tendency, have that direction on us that we become proud, arrogant, self-sufficient, wrong attitude, Paul says. The third wrong attitude is trust in money. Notice he says that there in verse 17, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us everything with everything for our enjoyment. Don't put your hope in money, Paul says. Don't put your trust in money. Don't think that the ultimate in life is having a nest egg that will securely take care of you, and that's where your confidence is. That's where your hope is. That's where your trust is. And I said, yeah, I realize money talks and all that ever says to me is goodbye. That's what Paul's saying here in verse 17. It's uncertain. It can leave quickly and we know about that, don't we? Some who have suffered through the ups and downs of the stock market, particularly in 0809, many of you lost a huge amount of your pensions or savings. We know about that in the job market in our area, don't we? It's uncertain. You cannot trust that. You cannot trust your possessions or your wealth or your income. And so trust in money is the wrong attitude to have. Let me give you an illustration. It's actually an illustration that Jesus gave of a man that we refer to as the rich fool. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells this parable, this story, this illustration. He says, the ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I will store my surplus grain. Anything really wrong with that? Not necessarily. That may be good planning. That may be providing for expansion of the business, which there's nothing wrong with that. But you get a glimpse into his heart in his next statement. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years, take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. What does that sound like? That sounds like trust in money, doesn't it? You've got a lot. It will provide for you. It will take care of you. So take it easy. Your hope, your confidence, your trust is in what you have built up. Wrong attitude. And so the story doesn't end there. Jesus says, but God said to him, you fool. This very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up for themselves and is not rich toward God. That's the reason Jesus told the story. We put our confidence in wealth, confidence in possessions. That is our love. That is what we're proud of. That is what we trust in. And the Bible says, you're a fool if you do that. Because to do that and not give thought to where your soul will be when you die, when death itself is just as uncertain as the riches you've built up. Death can come at any time. And the most important thing in life is to know for sure that you're ready to die. And if you've given much careful thought and planning to how you build your bigger barns, to store and keep and manage and invest all you have, but you've not given any thought to your soul and where it will spend eternity. I mean, you're talking about your future, your retirement for 10, 15, maybe 20 years on this earth. And you're not thinking about your eternity. Where you spend eternity? Come on. Anyone who would do that is even in business terms a fool, but certainly spiritually a fool. Because the most important thing is to know that you know Christ as your Savior, that you've trusted Him for the forgiveness of your sin and you know that you're on your way to heaven. That's the most important thing in life. Anyone who does not consider that in places all the focus on material possessions is a fool. Wrong attitudes. The Bible is very clear about those, but the Bible is also clear about the right attitudes that we should have toward money. Still, in 1 Timothy 6, there are four of them listed here. The first one is this. Money is a servant. It makes a very bad master, but it's a good servant. In other words, we are to be the master over it by God's grace and His enabling to use it in a way that glorifies Him. Look if you will at verse 17 again, command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. You notice the idea there is that God richly provides us with everything we have. So it all comes from Him and that perspective is that I am not the master over my money and it is not going to be the master over me. God is the master and I will use what He has richly entrusted me, whatever it may be, for His glory. And yes, as Paul says, He has given it to us for our enjoyment as well. Whatever He has given to you is for you to use for His glory and to enjoy. Couple of other passages speak to this and we will put them on the screen for a sake of time. The audience for seven, Paul says to the Corinthians, for who makes you different than anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? You see, everything we have, whether it is in the spiritual realm or in the material realm, is really a gift from God. God gives it to us. James says the same thing in James chapter 1 verse 17, every good and perfect gift is from above. Everything down from the Father of the heaven who lights who does not change like shifting shadows. Everything we have, even in the material physical realm, is a gift from God. It's easy to think that we got it ourselves, that we are self-made. I worked hard for it. It's mine. And in reality, it could be taken from you in a heartbeat. God has given you the mental and physical ability to work the job you do. He has given you the life opportunities. He's given you to prepare yourself and to enter that particular vocational field. All of that could have changed. It could have been very different. God has been good to you. God has provided for you. God has enabled you to do whatever you do. It is all a gift from God. Ultimately, you can trace it all back to him. That's what the Bible is teaching us. So money makes a terrible master. God is our master. Money is simply a servant. It is that which God has given us to use as a wise steward for His glory and for our enjoyment as well in this world. So money is a servant. We've got to keep that attitude straight. Second attitude that we need to cultivate is that since everything we have as a gift from God, spiritual things take priority. People things take priority. Here we're getting again at that ambition, that love, that drive, that will, that eagerness that Paul has talked about here and to eagerness the drive, the will, the ambition, the focus of our lives ought to be on spiritual things, not material things. Again, look at it back in verse 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain. What is great gain? What really provides the best profit margin in life? Godliness. Coupled with contentment as to whatever God has given us, it is at root our relationship with God that takes priority. Spiritual things take priority, must take priority. Jesus talked a lot about this in the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. Look at what Jesus said. Jesus said, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus is simply saying that the treasure that we have, that which we value, again, our ambition, our drive, our eagerness, what we will to have should be spiritual first. That's a priority. If you put your hope and trust in things that can leave you either through the past, your inner reality, if you put your hope and trust in things that can leave you either through normal deterioration or through thevery or whatever it may be, Jesus used those two examples. Then you're not putting your focus in the right place. Spiritual things come first. Notice he goes on to say in verse 24, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to one to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve both God and money. You will have to make a choice as to which altar you will bow. You can't serve both. Jesus summarizes these comments on money and possessions in verses 29 to 31 or 31 to 33. He says, so do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for the pagans run after. He says, the key thought, again, they are ambition, they are eagerness, they are drive. That is what the pagans run after, all these things. And your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. He knows that we need a certain amount of material possessions to make it in the life. He knows that. But here is his counsel, seek first, his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things will be given to you as well. In other words, where is your focus? Where is your priority? What is the first thing in your life? Spiritual things, Jesus says, must take priority. And God knows what your needs are. He will take care of those if you will put him first. You are going to bow at one of those two authors either at the feet of Christ or at the feet of the Almighty Dollar. You will typically bow at one of those two authors, but you cannot serve both. And if you know Jesus as your Savior, God is saying the right attitude to have is that spiritual things come first. We were made for relationship with God. We saw that when we went through the book of Ecclesiastes. That is the longing of the human heart that God built in us, the deepest, truest satisfaction and fulfillment in life comes from relationship with God, not from things. And that deepest longing in your heart, the empty spot in your life cannot be filled with a house or a car or whatever device or toy you may have. It cannot be filled with that. It will leave you empty and longing for more. That is how the money monster works. Now, what Paul is saying is if spiritual priorities are in order, then you can richly thank God for all the blessings He has given you and recognize He has given them to you for your enjoyment. You can enjoy them. You don't have to be ashamed of them. You don't have to be negative about what God has given you. You can enjoy those things, but you will not be possessed by them. You will not be possessed by them. Right attitude, spiritual things, take priority. Third, right attitude is that we should be willing to give to others. Look at verse 18 in 1st, 17-16. Verse 18 says, command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. The them are the folks he spoke about in verse 17, who are rich in this present world. If God has given you a degree of wealth, and obviously that is somewhat relative, but when we compare ourselves to the rest of the world, we are all wealthy in this room. Whatever degree of wealth or possessions God gives us, we should have the attitude, command them, Paul says to Timothy, to be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share. We should be willing to share with others, to give to others. That's a part of the reason God blesses us, is so that we might use it as an investment to bless others, and to share with others. Yes, to share the gospel, to share what we have that way, but also to be willing to be generous to others with the material things that we have. Right attitude, to be willing to give to others, and then the fourth right attitude is we should be content with what God gives. Be content with what God gives. Back to verse 6, but godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into this world, can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Paul's point basically is if you have the basic necessities of life, that's all that you really need to function in life, we can learn to be content with that. Whatever God gives us above that is just a gracious sign of His love, and we should be thankful for that, but we should be able to be content with the basic needs of life to be sustained. Couple of other passages that talk about that to reinforce this, look at Hebrews 13-5, keep your lives free from the love of money, interesting same phrase, and be content with what you have, because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. In the context, the idea seems to be, God can take care of you. If you focus upon contentment and keep your life free from the love of money, that pursuit, that ambition. Paul himself knew about this. He wrote to the Philippians, a thank you letter for a gift they had sent him, and he wanted to make sure they understood his heart, and in Philippians 4, as he's thinking, and he says, I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that it last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunities to show it. I'm not saying this because I'm in need for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty, Paul says. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Now, Paul wrote this from a Roman prison, a house arrest kind of situation in his first arrest, but still confined under Roman authorities. The Philippians had sent him a gift, and he's grateful for it. He said, I know what it's like to have plenty. I know what it's like to have little, to be hungry, to have need, but I've learned best of all how to be content in any of those situations, either extreme. I've learned to be content. And that's what God wants us to learn, to be content with the basic needs of life being met, whatever else he gives us is just an overflow of his blessing, and we can be thankful for that, use it for his glory, invest it wisely. We measure our wealth not by the things we have, but by the things we have for which we would not take money. God's given us very much in this life that's priceless. You can't put a price tag on. Wrong attitudes, right attitudes. The Bible's pretty clear about those, and that's where we need to begin because the money monster cannot be tamed until we renew our minds, our thinking process, to learn biblically how we should view the things that God gives us, our possessions. But we also need the principle of sound management. If indeed we are stewards of money, which is our servant, to be used for God's glory, if we are indeed to be good stewards of what God has given us, then we need a plan for using it wisely. And the Bible does not leave us in the dark about this. The Bible actually talks quite a bit about this, particularly in the book of Proverbs. Let me just read for you a few verses here. Proverbs chapter 6 and verse 6 says, Go to the ant you sluggard, in other words you can learn a lesson from this insect. Go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise. It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, nobody telling it that has to do this. Yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. And obviously the implication is it is storing ahead of time for times when it will need those provisions and will not be able to store bad weather, catastrophe, whatever. How long will you lie there you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcely like an armed man. We don't have the time to look at these other verses but let me just give them to you. Chapter 10, verse 4, chapter 28, verse 4, chapter 22, verse 3, all of those verses and Proverbs reinforce the same thing. Diligence, looking ahead, planning wisely, being good stewards of what God has given us. That's a biblical concept. And so if we're going to manage wisely what God has given us, if he's entrusted that to us as a good gift and we're responsible to him as his steward to manage it wisely we need a plan. We need to understand how to do that. That's what those verses are talking about. I want to suggest to you first of all three goals of sound management and then we'll get to the actual plan. Three goals that we should keep in mind with sound management of the resources God has given us. The first one is to handle our money as wise stewards. That ought to be our first goal. We recognize everything God gives us is his gift to us and it is a servant, not our master but a servant to be used as he would have us to. So we are wise stewards. That's the first goal. I want to be a wise steward of what God has entrusted to me. The second goal that we should have is to meet our needs in the order of priority. And that means we got to sit down and figure out what really are our needs and how will we meet those with the resources God has given us? Very, very important priority or goal. The third goal is this to live within our income. To live within our income. That's basic. That's understood in order to be a good steward of what's God has given us to be content with the necessities of life. If God gives us more to enjoy that but to be content if we are to meet our obligations. So that indicates we are to meet our obligations. We're to pay our bills. So those are the three goals. How do we carry those out? What are the priorities of sound management? Let me give you this morning in the moments we have left a threefold plan, three step plan if you will, for being wise stewards of the resources God gives us. Whatever they may be, the first thing is to give to God. You say, okay, he's a preacher. I figured he'd say something about that. Now wait a second. This is God's truth and God makes it very clear that our first responsibility is to give to him. In Proverbs chapter three, I have my Bible open to Proverbs anyway, but Proverbs three, verse nine says this, honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all your crops. Obviously Israel lived in an agrarian society. They were subsistence farmers. They lived off the land and so for them giving of their income, of their resources meant their crops. And the rule for Israel was the divine standard for Israel, the first fruits of the crops you're to give to me, to the Lord. And that's fleshed out in the mosaic law. There are certain things that they were expected to do, but the principle basically is the first part of your income belongs to God. All of it belongs to him. It's a gift to you, but the first part of it is your stewardship of praise and worship back to him. Now if that was true in Old Testament times, certainly that's still true today. The principle is universal. The very first line item in any Christian's budget ought to be what we're giving to the Lord. We give to God first. And the New Testament does talk about that. Would you look with me quickly at first Corinthians chapter 16? It's been a long, long time since I've preached on giving. I don't do that very often, probably not often enough. And we've had huge turnover in our church in the past few years. And so I'm going to take a few moments just to flesh out what the Bible teaches about giving, our giving to the Lord. In 1 Corinthians chapter 16, Paul is instructing the Corinthian church about their giving and how they are to prepare for an offering that is being received for Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The Gentile churches are being asked to give. And Paul doesn't want to wait until he arrives to take the offering to Jerusalem and just take one big love offering. He wants to teach the Corinthians to give consistently. And so this is what he says in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 1. Now about the collection for the Lord's people. Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. Paul says a lot about giving by way of principle here. First of all, he tells us how we should give. As New Testament believers, following the principle of what Paul laid down for the Corinthians, how are we to give? We are to give regularly. Notice how he said it. He said on the first day of every week. In other words, your giving is to be regular, not sporadic, not just when you hear about a need that kind of picture interest and say, oh, I kind of like to be involved in that thing. But our giving is to be regular, consistent, faithful. Obviously, if we are to give a portion of our income, as we'll see the standard is just a moment, then that needs to be a regular kind of giving. So we are to give regularly, not just sporadically. The Bible also tells us here who is to give on the first day of every week each one of you should set aside a sum of money. Everyone, not not everyone can give the same amount. Obviously, God has not all put us all in the same place and opportunity, but we can all give something. Everyone is included. Paul did not exclude anybody in the Corinthian church. And we know from what he says in second Corinthians, they were a very poor group of people. He included everybody in that church. You can give. Everybody can give something. And let me just back up a moment and say every week, the idea is regular, consistent giving. It's not necessarily every Sunday, some of you get paid twice a month or once a month, and there are those who give whenever they get paid for the entire paid time. And that's certainly legitimate. But regular, consistent giving is what Paul is teaching and every one of us can be involved. And then he says, how much? He talks about how much we're to give. Look at it in verse two. Each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income. That's interesting. In keeping with your income. In second Corinthians, he'll talk with them another time about this same gift. And he says in chapter nine, verse six, remember this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever so generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. Not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. So how much should we give between you and God, what you decide in your heart? You say, wait a second, John, I thought I was supposed to give a tithe a tenth. In the Old Testament, that was the standard under the law of Moses for Israel. In fact, they were to give two tithes every year. One tenth to meet the needs of the temple for the grain offerings and other offerings, they were put in storehouses alongside of the temple. The other tenth was for the maintenance and sustenance of the priests who lived in 48 villages all across the land of Israel. And then every third year, they gave a third tithe to the poor in the land. So tithing is very clearly laid out in the Old Testament. It is not mentioned in the New Testament except in the Gospels, where it's before the cross and Jesus is still operating under the mosaic law. And so he commends the Pharisees for tithing. But Paul never mentions tithing in the Gospels. What he does say is our giving should be proportionate to our income. Not everybody is going to be able to give the same. But it should be proportionate to our income and it should be as you decide in your heart between you and God. Now it's very easy. It would be very easy for any pastor to say, oh, it's an ex amount you should give. I'd be going beyond the scriptures if I did that. Between you and God. I certainly, and convinced my own personal conviction is that I don't want to do less than what Old Testament believers did. So a tithe is a good place to start. But grace giving, generous giving is Paul calls for. And second Corinthians 9 may go beyond that. So Paul talks about how much to give between you and God. And then he talks about where to give. Obviously in verse 2, he's saying, bring it, set it aside each week on the first day of the week. That's when the church gathers. And so the implication is that they are to use this offering through their local church. Again, I can't say that every part of your giving should come to your local church. That's again between you and God. There are lots of worthwhile ministries that deserve support. I will tell you simply what my personal conviction is. What genie and I have always practiced is that our income giving, what we give as the regular portion of our income comes to our local church. And then when God burdens us to do things above that, that's over and above. It's not a part of our regular weekly giving. That's my own personal conviction. I can't force that on anybody else. You have to decide between you and God how much you give and where it goes. I would just suggest the Bible does talk about giving to the place where you're ministered to. And that would include for sure your local church. Now a lot of folks feel like when they hear these kind of teachings on giving, they feel like, man, I'm getting kind of nervous here. This sounds like a bad debt. I'll never get out from under. And if you feel that way, my friend, you need to go back and read 2 Corinthians 9 because the Bible does not want any believer to give under compulsion or to give reluctantly. You had better not give if you give with those attitudes. The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. A giver that loves God because of all that God's given us wants to give back to him and that loves people and wants to see people saved and wants to see people growing in Christ. So it's going to give to fund those ministries that will do that. That's cheerful giving and that's the spirit that God wants us to give. Not reluctantly, not grudgingly, not under compulsion. God doesn't want that. I believe a very important part and often forgotten and lost part of our financial stewardship is that the first part of our income goes to the Lord. And that should be a regular, consistent, faithful giving to Christ to his work. But then another principle of sound management is to pay yourself, give to God, but then pay yourself so that sounds kind of selfish. Well, look at this verse in Proverbs 21-20. The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down. You see the principle there. It's the same principle he was talking about in chapter 6 when he talked about watching the ant, storing up for the future. There is nothing wrong. In fact, it is a biblical concept to set aside some funds for emergencies, for education, for retirement, for large expenditures, whatever you may choose to use it for. Most financial experts say at least 10% of our income should be set aside for those kinds of things that again is depending on what you feel you can do. Obviously, but it's a biblical concept, isn't it? Fools just gulp down everything they have. The wise keeps some of it back. And I know that's hard to do. I remember the days in our first church in the 70s and it was the 70s when we made 125 dollars a week. And I know it was difficult to set anything aside. I know that can be very difficult. Someone has said that the shortest recorded time is the time between the time I laid, put aside money for a rainy day and the unexpected arrival of rain. And that can seem awful short, I know. It's not easy, but work toward paying yourself, setting aside some for emergencies. And then obviously the third council on financial management, sound management is to pay your bills. That's just that's just being responsible before God and having a testimony of being above reproach to others. Pay your bills. We are expected to pay our bills. So here's what you do. You list all your fixed expenses. Okay, make sure you set aside whatever percentage of your income, whenever you get paid, that will cover those monthly, six months, whatever fixed expenses. And you know what they are. You know that we're talking about housing and utilities and food and insurance and all those kinds of things that you know you have to pay. Cover those things first. You know how a lot of people live, they have the stack of bills on their desk somewhere in their home or on their kitchen counter. They get paid. They pay down a few of the most urgent ones just to keep the creditors from getting after them and they've still got the stack and they've not planned for how to cover their bills. Now maybe you got too many bills coming in. You need to adjust your lifestyle. Or maybe you just need a better organized system of making sure that your bills are cared for first before you do a lot of eating out before you take an exotic vacation before you buy that new car. That your bills are cared for first. It's maybe not the most fun way to live at first but it is the most freeing way to live because what a lot of a lot of families do is they decide I want this, this, this, and this. If I don't have the money to do it, I got this little plastic card in my wallet that'll get it. Yeah, it'll get it all right and it'll get you to an uncontrolled debt has become a major problem in this country. I looked up this week the amount that Americans owe Googled it and I came up with a website called nerd wallet.com of what in the world? It's not one I've ever frequented but it did have some interesting information. As of November 2013, US household consumer debt profile. For people who have credit card debt, the average household has over $15,000 in credit card debt. For those who have a mortgage, the average mortgage debt 146,000 plus. For those who have student loans and most young people coming out of college do the average student loan debt $31,240. So many average homes in America will have over $200,000 in debt right off the bat. Did you know the total American consumers, the total that American consumers owe is over $11 trillion where that's not our government, the government's higher, but the individual debt is over $11 trillion. Almost eight trillion of that is in mortgages, over a trillion of that is in student loans and just under a trillion is in credit card debt. I'm talking about your average visa card. If you live that way, you're going to be in trouble. So somehow to save your family, to save your marriage, to keep you from fighting all the time over money, some of us need to take a step back and we need to say, okay, this is the plan. God, I'm going to begin first of all by giving myself totally to you and trusting you, not my resources. And so I'm going to start with a line item in my budget that says, this is how much I agree between you and me to give to you. I'll start there. And then I'm going to set aside a little bit for emergencies and I'm going to pay my bills. And if I have nothing left, if I have more months at the end of the money than I end of the money, then I'm going to adjust my lifestyle somehow. I'll move to a cheaper house, I'll trade cars and get something different. But I'll get the bills down. It takes a commitment to live within your means. But if you do that, my friend, you may save your marriage. You certainly will save a lot of agony in your marriage. You'll deal the money monster of fatal blow and following these principles will lead to financial freedom and marital harmony. Yes, financial freedom and marital harmony. Sounds good, doesn't it? It's pretty. Father, help us to be wise stewards of what you've given us. Help us to realize, first of all, you've given it to us. Whatever we have, little or much help us to be content and to recognize it as your good gift. I pray, Father, that when you open up other opportunities, we would not be negligent to take advantage of those and use those for your glory, a better job or promotion, whatever it may be. But I pray that you'll help us to keep our hearts in the right place. Focus upon you. Greatful to you. Trusting and you. Hoping and you. Father, I pray that for families who are in financial trouble today, you will help them to take the steps that are necessary to get the money monster under control. Become wise stewards of what you've given them. And Lord, I pray for healed marriages and families as a result. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.