THE POWER OF THE TITHE 5

THE POWER OF THE TITHE 5

“Smart Money”

Part 2

Job 36: 11 “If they listen and obey God, they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant.”

Last time we talked about SMART MONEY, or how to use your money wisely.

We saw that money is a spiritual issue. Because scripture says:

It can hinder our serving God,

Can lure us away from God,

It can even become a god itself.

Paul warned Timothy: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”—1 Tim. 6:10

He did not say, “Money is THE root of all evil.”

He said “…the LOVE of money is A ROOT or cause of many different kinds of evil.”

If a person gets his attitude toward money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life. Billy Graham

Money can bless you or curse you, make you or break you; can be spent for good or for evil, based on how you use it.

We also saw that Solomon in the book of Proverbs lays out 5 principles for SMART MONEY:

Keep good records

Plan your spending

Save for the future

Be content with what you already have

And give back at least 10% to God

Last week we talked about the first two. If you missed it, please grab the CD. It will save you some money!

Now this time let’s talk about saving for the future, and practicing contentment.

I spoke on tithing itself a few weeks ago in the message “A Conquering Church is a Tithing Church. You may want to grab it.

Save for the FUTURE

In Proverbs 6: 6-8, Solomon is talking about saving money when he advises us to,

"Take a lesson from the ants...learn from their ways and be wise! Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter."

In other words, Solomon reminds us that even bugs are smart enough to SAVE.

They don't consume all their resources.

They save some—storing it away for the future.

By the way, did you know that 85% of Americans end up with less than $250 in cash savings when they reach the age of 65?

During their working years they earned hundreds of thousands of dollars but at retirement they have little to show for it.

Why?

Because, all those years they paid everybody but themselves. I mean, they didn't "pay" anything into their savings account.

THE PROBLEM: We are a part of a "LIVE FOR TODAY" culture.

We want it all and we want it NOW.

As a result, we don’t even do what the ants do.

You might ask, Okay then, HOW MUCH should I save?

Most experts recommend that you put aside ten percent every month and if you do, it is amazing how much you will accrue!

ILLUSTRATION: Ten one dollar bills.

Let's say you earned $40,000 a year.

If you put aside ten percent—or $4,000 annually—and you do this every year for thirty years, and if you invest it in a secure fund, which will usually yield an average of 8% per year...

After 30 years you would have $498,215.95!

Now, it is VERY possible to do this but most people won't.

We’d rather buy lottery tickets than put away ten percent each week.

As long as we’re on the subject let me point out that that THIS is foolish spending because the lottery doesn't pay!

In fact you are more likely to be hit by a meteor than you are to win the lottery.

The odds are greater that you will go to the moon than win the lottery.

In fact, there's a word for people who play the lottery and it is: LOSER.

And guess what? There are millions of losers every week!

And the lottery commission knows it—they count on you losing!

Gambling casinos survive and thrive by counting on losers!

There would be no lottery if people won all the time!

And there would be no gambling casinos if gambling paid off!

So it is foolish to waste your money on things like the lottery or on impulsive purchases.

The Bible instead teaches that we should save for the future.

Then why don’t we save?

Because we aren't committed to the principle of delayed gratification.

DELAYED GRATIFICATION is the decision to endure the hardship of saving now for a pay off that will come later.

Most people have opted for IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION rather than DELAYED.

They have swallowed the American myth that they can and should have it all NOW.

And so, many young couples yield to the temptation to impulsively spend their limited extra funds on what they want to enjoy in the here and now.

TH CURSE OF THE CREDIT CARD

Part of the problem is how easy it is to use a credit card.

Did you know statistics show that when we shop with plastic we spend 23% more money than when we use cash?

This is because using a credit card doesn't FEEL like we're using real money—at least until the bills arrive and then it feels VERY real!

And Credit Card Companies intentionally make it easy!

You don’t have to go to a bank, sit down with a loan officer, and fill out a bunch of forms.

You just slide the card through the scanner and PRESTO! You’ve got what you wanted!

I get offers in the mail all the time that say things like, "Congratulations Jeff Wickwire! You are among a prestigious few who are preferred and pre-approved for a VISA platinum card with a $50,000 limit!"

One person who works for Discover Card confided that they send out millions of these things—so I'm not really all that prestigious after all!

Now, have you noticed that whenever you read one of these ads for a gold or platinum card, there's one WORD you'll never find-and it is the word "DEBT."

But that is exactly what they are selling. They are selling you DEBT.

But debt is an unpleasant word, so they don't include it in their mail outs.

Instead they tell you, "We sell freedom to buy what you want when you want it!" when what they’re really peddling is DEBT.

The dictionary gives the following definitions for debt:

"To owe, to be obligated, in deficit, in default, insolvent, in over one's head, in arrears, paupered, destitute, penniless, needy, distressed, living hand to mouth, ruined, impoverished, hard up, beaten down, bereft, unable to make ends meet, embarrassed, broke, busted."

Now if all these credit card companies told you this is what they are selling, would you fill that application out and send it in?

Of course not! But that is exactly what they are saying, "We want you to be in debt to us."

If you have a problem with credit cards here's a project for you this week.

Go home, take out all your credit cards and put them on a cookie sheet.

Heat your oven to 450 degrees. Open the door. Stick it in and watch them melt down.

After it's over, pull them out, let them cool.

Then, cut them up again and mail the pieces back to the companies that sent them to you and say,

"Please never send me one of these things again!"

Then, instead of CHARGING for the future, embrace the philosophy of DELAYED GRATIFICATION and SAVE for the future.

I guarantee, you'll sleep better at night!

Next, Solomon advises that we:

Learn to be content with what we have

In Proverbs 21:17 he observes that, "Indulging in luxuries, wine and rich food, will never make you wealthy..."

And in Ecclesiastes 6:9 he writes, "It is better to be satisfied—CONTENT—with what you have than to always be wanting something else."

But that's the problem, isn’t it? Most of us aren't content.

Instead, our YEARNINGS exceed our EARNINGS!

And this is sad because OUR earnings exceed those of the vast majority of the people on the planet!

Did you know that a stunning 1.3 billion people earn less than a dollar a day?

Charles Colson writes, "We Americans enter the twenty-first century and the new millennium as the most economically prosperous people in the history of the world. By any historical comparative, or cross-national measure, we enjoy unprecedented private affluence and enormous wealth."

And he is right, because in comparison to the rest of the world we are rich!

If you own a house you are in the top 3% of the world's population.

If you own a car, you're in the top 6%.

But we're not content with what we have—even though we have more than the rest of the world.

And it's not that we CAN'T live on what we make-we just WON'T.

We refuse to limit our expenses. We refuse to rein in our YEARNINGS.

Rather than being content to live in a smaller house, drive an older car, buy fewer clothes...we over-extend ourselves until we have nightmares wondering how we are going to pay our bills.

Dave Ramsey says, "We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like."

We see things we want but can't afford, but we buy them anyway because the salesman tells us we can own this or that in only 60 EASY payments.

I don't know about you, but I've never met an EASY payment.

Rick Warren says his family lives by the philosophy, "USE IT UP. WEAR IT OUT. MAKE IT DO, OR DO WITHOUT."

We'd be happier if we would be content to live by the two simple philosophies we’re looking at today:

Reign in your yearnings to match your earnings, and:

If you can’t afford more, be content with what you’ve got.

In summary, Solomon says that, to avoid the stress money can bring, we must

keep good records;

plan our spending by using a budget;

practice Delayed Gratification and shoot for saving ten percent

be content with what we have, and

give ten percent back to God.