giv 2024 Week Two
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
But that forms the basis for our approach to money but the Bible also has very practical things to say about how to think about tomorrow throughout the Proverbs throughout the Scriptures there's different passages that help us see how to think about tomorrow in light of Eternity and that's important uh because a lot of times we don't think about that and there are consequences for that I heard a story recently uh about a couple that was meeting with uh Financial planner they were meeting uh to talk about retirement uh and and they're in the early ' 70s and and they you know the a lot of the the money they had saved over the years the.
The financial planner was talking with them and saying hey at some point you you know you should retire this is an ongoing conversation that was happening uh every year as they met together to talk about their plans and finally uh after many years of doing this the planner just looked and said hey like you you really should like you see what you've got your fine and then they responded by saying well we we'd like to we just want to make sure that all of our debt is paid off before to which the planner said what debt they had not ever disclosed that they had debt.
So he began to do some digging and upon further investigation looked that they had actually lots of debt that they had uh 13 credit cards with high outstanding uh uh uh uh loans on those that were gaining upwards of 35% interest that they had a uh a construction loan that had not been paid off they had an HVAC loan that had not been paid off they had a loan for a mattress a fancy bed that had not been paid off.
When all of this was pieced together it became abundantly clear that they had way too much debt and he had to say no actually you're you're right you're you're you're not going to be able to even have think about retiring until you're in your mid late '70s until all of this gets addressed and that reality set in upon them now some version of that story happens over and over and over again there's far too many people far too many Americans far too many Christians that aren't prepared.
Because they're not thinking that far ahead so we want to be a people that are financially wise and we do think about that our hope and our riches are in the life to come but that doesn't mean that that we bury our head in the sand that doesn't mean that we're not thinking about the very practical implications of what it looks like to think about tomorrow and that's what I want to do today is I want to just get very very practical.
Look at what the Scriptures have to say about this so I'm going to pull out four different principles of financial wisdom for tomorrow four different principles that we'll look at and God willing if we can begin to learn from the very practice practical teachings from the Scriptures on this we can be a people that both balance what it means to have our minds and Eternity to set our hope in riches and The Eternity that is to come with Christ while also not being foolish in how we think about our money here.
For the days that we have here on Earth so let me pray for us and then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I pray that you might help us be wise be wise in a way that changes the way that we live that changes the way that we think about money that changes the way that we plan for tomorrow but in order to do that you have to work in our hearts so we might not just be hearers of the word.
But we might also be doers of the word so we ask this in Jesus name amen so in planning for these four principles I talked to Raz Bradley he's one of our uh pastors he is actually just say hey man do you want to teach this because this is what he does he he does retirement and and life insurance he's he's a he's a lay Pastor here so he's not on staff here I said do you want to teach this and he said no I can't my job does allow me to do that.
So I lean on him a little bit and trying to put this together so his thoughts will be here scattered throughout but he won't get in trouble with uh the SEC and all the things he's got to report to so four principles of financial wisdom for tomorrow starting with the first the wisdom of savings the wisdom of savings I uh my wife and I we got married we moved to Louisville Kentucky uh where I was in seminary I worked at a coffee shop she taught dance at a studio.
So we were not uh financially killing it we were paying our bills or paying our way through Seminary uh but uh our budget was very very tight and in the first couple years I remember we had a major medical bill hit and it was like $1,000 which was like a a a lot a lot a lot a lot of money it's a lot of money anyways it was a lot a lot of money then because it was like man we we don't make anything how in the world and I panicked and I freaked out and she needed her husband in that moment to be subber minded needed to be uh uh faithful.
But was just like I don't know what we're going to do just just like and she's just like oh this isn't good and some version of that has happened like 15 times uh well not the panicking part but the some some version of a of a of a Big Bill hitting like it's all of a sudden it's a medical bill all of a sudden the car broke down all of a sudden some version this happened 15 times throughout our marriage which just keeps happening over and over again and I am no longer surprised.
Because that's life I'm I'm not surprised by anymore I've grown to be like no that that's stinks let's let's pray let's think let's strategize but we're going to be okay because it happens over and over and over again and one of the things we had to learn early on was we need to build some emergency savings that was important for when things happened that it's foolish to actually spend everything that you make Proverbs 21:20 says precious treasure in oil are in a wise man's dwelling.
But a foolish man devours it and this we see a lot Proverbs this this General proverbial teaching on it's wise to have some stuff stored in your house because if you spend everything that you get that is foolish that you will not have things for when the day of trouble comes uh when you read Proverb 6 which is the proverb about uh that Solomon uses the example of uh The Ant and how hard the ant works that's the main teaching of that is that you should work hard be like the ant.
But one of the things that that the example of the ant does is that it stores up it gathers for for when it when things are going to be difficult down the road this is an example of we should be thinking in the immediate future we should have stuff saved up because things are going to hit like I I I've I've said this I know this is a common saying but it's like man I feel like every time we get ahead something else happens and it just hits again and it's it's like we should no longer be surprised you we should not be caught off guard that.
When something finally hits and you watch your savings do this again that's life unless unless you're in a in an an exceedingly High tax bracket that's that's always going to hit and it's going to affect you you you you've got to be prepared for these things preparation is not seen as a bad thing it's seen as wise I mean goodness the whole Narrative of of Genesis 41 of Joseph and Pharaoh the main the main picture of that is God's ultimate Redemption story that's happening through Joseph preserving the life of his brothers.
But buried in that is the very wise thing that when the seven years of famine happened the Lord prepared them for that and that's very practical Proverbs 21:5 says the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance but everyone who is Hasty comes only to poverty that you get this picture of those who are diligent in their planning and their foresight well they're going to be okay but anyone who's Hasty anyone who just spends what they get anyone who makes quick decisions.
Well that's foolishness and that only results ultimately in poverty you need to plan diligently which means that you need to say no to things all the time because there's so many things things that culturally VI for your for your wallet so many things that you can spend your money on and we have to learn to say no so that we can be diligent in planning ahead and be wise otherwise poverty is at the door and it will come 44% of Americans cannot pay.
For a $1,000 bill in an emergency 44% of Americans do not have $1,000 saved up an emergency savings when a bill comes that's a problem and it's a problem that's common we should be thinking ahead we should be diligent and saving for when that comes that's why people like Dave Ramsey who Dave Ramsey is a big uh is a Christian Financial uh Guru who gives wisdom on this I don't buy into everything Dave Ramsey says but I I I think a lot of it is very very wise and he's adamant about getting your emergency savings up to $1,000 as fast as you can.
And then from there he expands it out to 3 to six months of living expenses what you should have for emergency savings and think about that 3 to six months of of your spending of your monthly spending and budget that's easily $10,000 for a lot of Americans and that is easily the price of an HVAC unit these days right it's how quickly this can come so we can't be Hasty we must must be diligent must plan we must begin to grow what it means to actually uh have savings.
For when stuff happens the Scriptures are very practical on this and the second principle I want to look at is the wisdom of counting the cost the wisdom of counting the cost Luke 14:28 Jesus is teaching and buried in his teaching he says in verse 28 for which of you you Desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the costs whether he has enough to complete it now that isn't about that that main teaching in Luke 14 is not about uh counting the cost of building a tower it's about the cost of discipleship.
Jesus simply gives an example about a builder it says surely a builder is going to count the cost before they build a tower you should also count the cost of what it means to follow me because if you follow me you're going to suffer it's going to cost you but the very practical piece of wisdom that he uses is no Builder should build a tower without counting the cost it's very similar to Proverbs 24:27 which says prepare your work outside get everything ready.
For yourself in the field and after that build your house this is IDE idea of you should count the cost you should think ahead in counting the cost before you do a thing before you make a decision it's wisdom that was important thousands of years ago it's wisdom that's important for any person that's going to build something today but it's a principle that we should expand out towards everything that we do you should consider the costs before you make any purchase.
So why we're not Hasty that's why we're slow that's why we're diligent that's why we're thoughtful you should consider consider the cost before you purchase anything that is wise one of the things that I joke regularly about is owning a Prius and it's for obvious reasons it's very low hanging fruit it's a comical car it's it's not nice especially the one that I have it's very it's older and it's yeah it it it should be made fun of but the reality is is that I'm thankful that we have it.
Because it it's very helpful practically for our budget like it's very practical one of the values I have is I want my wife to always drive something nicer than me it's not a law but I just like the idea of her serving her in that way for it has something nicer than me but the reality this this car is so low maintenance the cost of ownership is so low I'm not proud of it I was in a parking lot once drop it off my kid and a guy who drove the exact same year make model in color Prius came up to me and started geeking about his car and I was like how why are.
You not ashamed of yourself why are you talking to me I don't want to talk to you we should never ever talk about this ever again like this is not a thing that should ever come up but the cost of Shame is worth it to me it just is because we live in a time where the American dream sells you on you should have an upgrade to the new or nicer vehicle and it's just I mean the amount of car debt that we have in this country is insane and it's.
Because it's just the expectation of living here that you should have something that's newer and nicer and I don't think people count the cost that's involved in doing that I think they may at some level consider yeah okay well it's going to be about I don't know three four 500 bucks a more on a monthly payment and I'm going to you know that that that that's tight for us but you know I deserve this I've worked hard for this and then they go and purchase it and all of a sudden it's like I don't know.
If we have room in our budget it's like yeah because that wasn't the only cost I mean a lot of it's I mean people don't even think about this but it's I mean sometimes they upgrade to a bigger truck and it's like those tires cost a lot more now don't they they don't think about the fact that you that you maybe you bought something that requires more gas and that's an annual cost at the end of the day you don't think about the the premiums on your insurance just shot through the roof you went from owning a a vehicle that was like $5,000.
Now it's $30,000 and your insurance premiums now are higher your property taxes on a car are much higher now and property taxes on vehicles in the state are pretty high comparison to other places you don't think about that was all of a sudden I mean you don't think about the fact that the maintenance on that vehicle now just went through the roof because now I would know this but V cars now have like sensors in them like computers and they like think about things and you can they have a car that you know that that that tells you there's a car coming in the lane beside you.
Well that that all every single one of those is a little tiny little computer thing part now it's in the mirror and the side mirror gets hit and it's no longer a $50 fix it's a $500 fix and all of a sudden you didn't count the cost and now you're wondering why you're behind on something like that and I could take that example and expand that to how's I can expand that to so many other things we don't regularly consider the cost before we make hasty decisions and we live in a in a culture that just feeds us materialism it feeds your soul with you need this you need this you need this you need.
This and we just think I deserve this I've earned this I need this I mean some of you are like I I have counted the cost and I can afford this and it's like well but should you is the question that's the bigger question with a lot of this is that should you have the newest and nicest all the time everything is Case by case on these type of decisions I would make a blanket rule on anyone for these types of decisions.
But the reality for many of us is ultimately it's going to be a sliding scale somewhere is that if I spend more on this thing I spend less here which might be savings which might be generosity and we're making these decisions sometimes quickly and sometimes not counting the cost and we're moving this all over the place and the more that we get pulled into the American dream the more we get pulled more into materialism the more we get pulled more into I got to upgrade and and keep up with my neighbor and do all these things the less we have.
For savings generosity the things that ultimately are very important and eternally matter but a lot of these decisions are are made much worse wiser if we actually will consider and count the cost before we make decisions that's the second principle we should heed from the Scriptures is counting the cost the third is the wisdom of debt-free living the wisdom of debt-free living debt is not your friend it's not main uh teaching from the Scriptures on this is prbs 22:7 the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is the slave of the lender that.
When you take a loan from anyone any company that ultimately you owe them and you are not free now there's a lot of debate and off often sometimes heated debate on this passage and the application of it because you get some that'll say see it's foolish or even sinful to ever have debt of any kind and this will be more on the Dave Ramsey side of things has more a little more Nuance position than that but it's just this that it's always always always bad and another side is going to say no this is a little more no this is proverbial the point here is that you shouldn't uh you should be mindful about the.
Debt that you take on you should be M like listen there's there's and I'm not going to solve that debate at all uh today but make no mistake wherever you fall in this debate here it's like you need to understand that regardless when you take on a mortgage and I would argue personally taking on a mortgage is a good thing that's a good way that's one of the easiest ways to build uh long-term wealth in our country so I personally think it's.
Okay to take on some debt like that but even make no mistake the moment you sign a mortgage note you you are not free that will hang over you until it is paid off doesn't changed the wording on this at all the bar is a slave of the lender there's a claim against you until you pay it off you are not free and debt is not your friend that couple I talked about the very beginning that into their 70s they have this burden upon them and it's there and they are not free that every night.
When they lay their head on a mattress that is fancy and great to sleep on they're not free and that's the reality for many of us many of the things that we own are not free that that we're slaved to the lender that we owe something on it y'all it is almost never wise it's it's rarely I would say wise to to owe credit card debt that you can not immediately pay off it's just unwise and yet Americans are about $1.17 trillion dollar in personal credit card debt that's not even we're talking about the government debt there personal American finances over a trillion dollars right.
Now in credit card debt and y'all know the 20 25 30 35% interest on that stuff I'm I mean it's it's a noose around the neck I did B vacational I did Real Estate and pastoring for years I still have my license I don't do as much real estate anymore but one of the things that used to I just boggled my mind was in real estate uh The Lending limits uh you could borrow up to for your primary house you could borrow up to a.
Third of your gross monthly income to purchase which means that if you have um if you make $3,000 gross every month so that's not that's not net that's $3,000 before taxes so before Uncle Sam takes any money if you made $3,000 a month you could borrow money for a house that costs you $11,000 a month that's the that's the Freddy May Freddy Mac that's the lending limits that's insane that's insane that that's allowed like that makes no sense at all I mean what I mean $3,000 Uncle Sam takes it you're getting closer to $2,000.
Now you're $1,000 out of monthly payment and you got $1,000 to pay for health insurance you got $1,000 to pay for food you got $1,000 to pay for everything else that's insane y' our whole system is built on debt it's insanity and it's foolishness and we're so used to it we're so fine with it we we we we we deal in debt all all the time and the Bible says it's foolishness that you make yourself a slave to someone else you are not free.
When you make the decision over and over and over again and I would plead with you that if you are in debt right now you need to get out of it that 2025 it needs to be the year where you aggressively tackle your debt now the good news is is we're offering a financial wisdom class starting in January that Shar Atkins is going to uh teach this and it's going to be extremely practical and I would encourage you to sign up.
For this because it's gonna and and up even beyond that we have a financial care team that comes out of that that's going to help that will sit down with you that will look through your budget that'll help form a budget if you don't have one that will help you tackle an aggressive plan to be able to get out of debt so that you can be free we care about this as a Church and we want to walk alongside you but the.
First part of the problem is diagnosing that you have one and heeding this third principle fourth principle the wisdom of preparing the wisdom of preparing and specifically what I mean by preparing is for retirement the idea of retirement doesn't explicitly show up in the Scriptures and the reason it doesn't is because it was completely different time and culture that in their time you had family land and you had lots of kids which were your Social Security you had children that would take care of you.
When you were older you had the same trade the same land you worked that together and when you got older and you could not work anymore and an honor-based culture your children were absolutely going to take care of you on that same piece of land with that same family trade now that does still happen in other parts of the world today that is why in other countries they have lots of children still because that is your Social Security but we are very different very different culturally very different time all of that.
So what do you do with that because we don't live in the same time and culture as the Bible how do you defend the idea of saving large amounts of money for retirement I would argue it is the summation the summary of these three principles that we just walked through if you I I if if having when you build savings for when Trouble Comes when a uh when a major medical bill happens that's wise but if you're not building savings for.
When Trouble Comes when you are in your 70s and 80s and 90s if you're lucky if you're not building for that you're not thinking ahead head because that is a trouble that is coming that we should count the cost and what we purchase but we also should count the cost on what it takes to live in our later years and shouldn't just assume I'll be all right I have so security if you want to talk to some of our older wiser Saints in our Church it's not that simple that you should count the cost that we uh should be a people that are aggressively getting rid of debt and by the time that're older we.
Debt should be way far behind us that if we're thinking about those first three principles and then thinking about our own Culture The Logical next step is planning ahead for in the final years of our life we should be a people that are thinking like this and I'm going to give some additional on with those uh principles I'm going to give some additional Scriptures that help us think through this and how to uh think about this wisely Proverbs 1211 says whoever works his land will have plenty of bread.
But he who follows worthless Pursuits will have plenty of poverty now the very direct teaching there is is that it's good for you to just work hard at what you've been given to do and there will be abundance you'll be fine that's the general proverbial wisdom there work hard don't cut quarters and and chase after foolish Pursuits because what can happen is is is you might be in your 50s and go oh no I'm I don't think I have a month I don't think I have enough built up.
For retirement and then you might go and choose risky Endeavors to try to make up the Gap that you should have been thinking about all along no work hard prepare think ahead be diligent and put away a little bit at a time a little bit at a time another nugget of wisdom that we get from the gospels is one of these teach that Jesus has that's buried in a teaching when Jesus is teaching on the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 which is about a bigger thing that he's teaching in that he makes a very obvious example in Matthew 25: 27.
When the master responds to a man who buried his money in the ground out of fear he says then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest now again there's bigger teaching that's going on there but buried in that is the very obvious example that Jesus gives here that you you could at least instead of burying your money in the ground have put it in something that gains interest and that's where like financial advisers like Raz get really excited like they just I think they go too hard In this passage they just love it love it love it love.
It love it so if you're a Christian and you do financial planning like this is the this is it right here you PR this thing on pillows and put in your office or whatever it is they do but this is this is it like it's like it's it's just very very easy wisdom on the surface right there to be thinking about how can I actually choose wise Investments how can I think about interest and compound interest and all these things these are things you should be thinking about as you think ahead.
If you have children you should be thinking about them in this as well Proverbs 13:22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children children's children but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous and that very general proverb is just this General picture of leaving something to your children is good it'll bless their children and their children's children this is the idea of generational wealth but if you don't be laid up for other purposes that aren't good and it's like there's a whole lot of ways that can be misapplied and misunderstood you certainly can leave your kids way too much and it be be bad.
For them but it's this idea of forward thinking ahead and building something for the rest of your days now I think those principles that we talked about earlier do give the foundation for retirement I think these passages help us think wisely about that but here's the difficult thing as Christians as you take everything that we've said about building savings and all of this and you hold that against everything that we said last week which is says do not store up riches here on Earth and it's like man how do we do both how do we walk wisely in the principles the Scripture gives us to think about this.
While also not building storehouses that we talked about last week how do we do this wisely in heed 1 Timothy 6:17 which says As for the rich in this present age charge them not to be hauy nor to set their hopes on the and certainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy it's like man H how do we not love riches so much and trust God for daily provision as we think ahead how do we he what we looked at last week Luke 12:15 and he said to them take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.
For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions it's like how do I hold these principles and the wisdom here while also having the heart that says I don't want to store up riches here on Earth I I want to invest in the Kingdom that is to come that's the difficulty of Christian Living and and wisdom and I would say it is walking open handedly before the Lord in all of this that is practicing these wise things open-handed that.
If God looked at you in your later years and says I want you to give up this amount of dollars from the nest egg that you've been building the question is would you respond with yes or would you tightfisted go I don't know I I don't know if I can heard another story about a financial adviser who was meeting with this uh woman who's in retirement and they're looking at her monthly uh budget based on her retirement and and she was spending a lot and they were talking with her saying Hey.
Listen I I think that to be mindful of this because you're spending a lot but the the truth of it was she wasn't spending it on herself she was actually spending it on generosity that upwards of about 35% of her budget was was being given away in her retirement and they're trying to teach her and say tell her and said listen I you need to be careful here if if you continue this pattern you might run out of money we might need to re consider you know good thing you're being generous.
But you might need to reconsider some of this and the woman looked at them as serious as could be and said I will cease to give when I cease to live I will cease to give when I cease to live I will die before I stop being generous because that woman knew what her her life was ultimately about that's it y'all that's how we should that's that's it we should be a people that wisely handles our finances in a way that is forward-looking.
But it's so open-handed in how we look ahead that we would be so growing in generosity that at the end of our life we'd still be giving as much as we could away because we understand that ultimately the kingdom of God is more important ultimately investing in missions ultimately giving to the local Church ultimately investing in adoption care ultimately investing in Eternal things is more important that's it we should have the mindset that says yes I will walk wisely but I will cease to give.
When I cease to live I will plan for tomorrow but I will live for eternity that is how we should walk as Christians as we plan for tomorrow with our hope in eternity the band's going to come up and I want us before we take the Lord's Supper today I want us to consider this because in reality many of us have not heeded the wisdom of the Scriptures on this that there are some of us have are are continually racking up debt and and and and it's just there some of us are spending everything that we get and we're not thinking wisely some of us have saved Lots.
But it's been the danger of storehouses and it's not been entrusted to the Lord in a way that is seeking to be open-handed with our finances all of us undoubtedly have failed in this area but the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus meets us in our failure he meets us in our shortcomings here that when we take the Lord's Supper we come we take the bread and the juice and we're reminded in the night that Jesus was betrayed took bread and he broke it he said this is my body that was broken.
For you that as often as you eat and drink you so you Proclaim my death until I return so as Christians yeah sometimes we stink at this and yeah sometimes we've been foolish but Jesus pays for fools with his blood and we come receiving the Forgiveness that we have in Christ but we also come asking him to change your hearts so that we might not be fools for very long that we might be thinking about eternity and also planning for tomorrow in a way that brings him honor and Glory.
So yeah we some of us have really messed this up but that table is for messed up Sinners and we come and we come in Repentance and we come enjoy worshiping him so when you are ready as a Christian come to the table if you're not a Christian please do not take part in this this isn't for you we want you to take part in faith in Jesus so you can understand some of these teachings that we're trying to apply to us as Christians.
But when you are ready come and take the Lord's Supper there's glutenfree in that back corner over there let me pray for us heavenly father I pray that you might help us heed the wisdom of the Scriptures so that we might be a people that walk wisely about our finances that we might be people that our hearts are so firmly fixed in the eternity but we might also be wise about tomorrow and that will only come through your work in our heart.
So we pray that you would and we ask this in Jesus name amen.