Just a little bit… more

Introduction: The Money Tension

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Talking about money in church is a little awkward, and on top of that, what I find in the Bible is personally convicting me. Last week we talked about the idea that anything that God isn’t Lord of will become lord of us. That means that either money will rule us, or God will rule our money. I asked you to start an experiment with me: to put Jesus in charge of your finances for the next four weeks. Well, guess what happened to me this week? As we looked at our finances this week I realized that I turned in a mileage report late to the conference last month and things are a little tight as a result. So, I suppose this is a great opportunity to practice what I preach, right? Will I stress when things are tight, or will I put Jesus in charge of our finances and allow Him to give me peace?

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Today we’re going to talk about another aspect of Putting the Brakes on Being Broke: Just a little bit… more!

About once a month my wife and I have a budget conversation. Early in our marriage we realized that she is the more methodical money person, so she keeps up with the details of the budget and then we have a discussion about all the stuff: spending and business reimbursements and paying the bills and all that stuff. If you don’t have a monthly meeting like this with your spouse, this month is a great time to start. But talking about money can be difficult because money is an emotional subject. Every time we sit down to talk about money — even when things are going great — I feel stressed.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’m stressed because of the numbers, or because I forgot to breathe for 45 minutes!

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Why is money such an emotional topic?

Maybe its because our hopes and desires are often tied to money, and when we look in the bank account we realize we won’t get what we hope for… at least not this month.

Maybe its because of how our parents treated money growing up.

Maybe its because of fears of insecurity and financial calamity.

Or Maybe talking about money exposes our inner desires for others to examine and critique.

When I do premarital counseling we talk about their money styles—spender or saver—and their money fears:

Lack of influence over money decisions

Lack of security for the future

Lack of respect for their decisions and desires

Not realizing dreams and passions

Let’s talk about dreams and passions for a moment because it gets into our conversation for today about the feeling of not having enough.

Let me take you through some long-term thinking that I’ve been doing for an illustration:

My wife’s vehicle needs to be replaced in the next little while. And by little while I mean that we could probably drive it for another 5 years. But, you know, you’ve gotta think ahead.

I would really like an electric vehicle. I’ve been interested in Tesla for a while, but I need the cargo space for wood and tools, so I think I need a truck. The cybertruck is both expensive and a little strange—cool for some, but I think a little flashy for me. Plus, if I have a truck I know I’m going to want to haul things with it and hauling with an electric truck is a good way to drain the battery quickly.

dodge

So, when Dodge introduced the Ram 1500 REV last year, I was all-in.

It’s an all-electric truck with 145 miles of all-battery range, so driving around town would be 100% electric. But it also has a generator, and with a 27 gallon fuel talk, the generator could power the truck for 545 more miles. That means no range anxiety if I’m hauling something accross the country. Best of both worlds!

I want a Dodge Ram 1500 REV. It’s lodged there in my head and I find myself thinking about it now and then. Checking on when it’s going to be released (they keep delaying it) and silencing the logical questions that come to mind. Especially silencing the money questions.

A new car might be fun, but a new car loses some 30% of its value in the first two years of its life. A three year old car has already lost 40% of its value. But could I wait for another 4 years for that truck? Maybe I could find a reason we need it sooner. :-) The logical decision is wait until the last minute and then buy used. Even if you can afford something that’s new, that’s generally still a good idea. Buying used is a huge money saver because you let someone else take that first 30 or 40% hit.

There’s also the question about our personal income and monthly budget.

My dad used to tell me,

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“If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall.”

In my family we have priorities for our money. Some of our top priorities include:

Faithfulness to God — Tithe

Essentials for our family — Food, housing, transportation

Christian education — TCAS

Staying out of debt

Saving for the future

Buying a $60,000 truck doesn’t fit into our priorities. Maybe I could afford it if I didn’t want my kids to have a Christian education. I could probably afford it if I wasn’t saving for retirement. I could pretty sure I could afford it if I wasn’t paying tithe. But my priorities are firmly set, which means I can’t afford a $60,000 vehicle.

Sometimes our dreams and desires and hopes and wishes fight against what we know is best. And sometimes we take the plunge and satisfy our dreams and cut out the things we know are best.

tv

I used to sit in people’s living rooms beside their big screen TVs and their cable boxes that they paid $50 or $75 a month to maintain and invite them to buy a set of books that would give them the opportunity to spend time in the Bible with their kids in a fun story. They would often tell me “we don’t have the money for it.” I would turn to their TV and challenge them to ask themselves if they trusted that babysitter to teach their kids good morals, or if maybe they could turn that off for a few months and be able to afford spiritual things for their kids with the money they would save.

Like them, sometimes we need to stop the wheels of spending to take the time and evaluate if our spending is in line with our godly priorities our just following the whims of our desires.

Extremes

People respond to these tensions between what is best and what we desire in a few different ways and some of them are extreme.

st francis

The Ascetic, St Francis of Assisi, called money “the devil” and said it creates a false sense of self-sufficiency, directly competing with childlike dependence on God. He refused to touch money at all. He lived by asking people for handouts, and he saw dependence on others as a virtue.

Simon Stylites

Simon Stylites was even harsher. He lived on top of a pillar for decades so he could exit the economic system entirely. He said that money and land belonged to the “fallen order” of things that pulled the soul downward. His radical immobility symbolized freedom from commerce, exchange and obligation. Of course, to live, he relied on the people who admired him to bring him food and water.

These men wanted an undivided attention to God and they felt like money was the enemy of their spiritual journey.

Asceticism makes self-denial the solution for the problems that we have with money.

But the Bible tells us that philosophy is wrong:

Colossians 2:23 ESV

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

rat race

The other extreme response is materialism.

Materialism suggests that material goods, physical comfort, and economic success are central to a good and enjoyable life. This is the philosophy of nearly every marketing campaign.

Trip.com wants you to believe that get-away vacations are healing for relationships and that spending money on luxury is the best way to relax and find peace.

Gucci wants you to think that your clothing and accessories demonstrate your identity and status, and that if you wear their products, you’ll be highly regarded by those around you.

Nespresso wants you to think of them as a highly valuable part of your alert morning. A person like you deserves luxury coffee.

Apple wants you to think their products spark your creativity.

Red bull wants you to think that drinking their products gives you the wings of adventure.

just a little more

When you’re feeling down materialism says, “If I had just a little more I’d feel better.”

If your relationship is struggling materialism says, “if we lived in a better part of town or had a nicer car that didn’t break down so much or had a better job… just a little more will solve the problem.”

Materialism makes stuff the solution to our problems.

When we think “A little more will make me happy” the Bible tells us

Ecclesiastes 5:12 ESV

Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.

Jim Carrey once said,

“I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

John D Rockefeller said,

“I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness.”

We think that “a little more will be enough,” but the truth is

Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESV

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

There will never be enough. The more you have the more you want.

When my family lived in a travel trailer on the grounds of Auburn Academy I longed for a house and a yard that was all our own. When we got the house I wished for something bigger where I could have a home office and a larger yard. When I got a home office and bigger yard my kids wanted a house with stairs. And when we got the house with stairs I wanted one without stairs.

Getting more will never satisfy.

One of the more deceptive things we tell ourselves is that, “a little more will help me focus on God…” or even better, “a little more will allow me to help the world…”

Hosea 13:6 ESV

but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.

Several of my friends have talked eagerly about how they want to earn money and get rich. They argue that they want to be millionaires not because they are materialistic, but because they want to support God’s ministry more. Some of these friends were fellow literature evangelists who slept on church floors and earned less-than-amazing wages doing door to door ministry. They saw the value in the ministry but longed for more financial stability. If they had the money, they thought, they’d dump it into ministry so others didn’t have to suffer like they did.

What I’ve noticed is that my friends who have made it big seem to lose their spiritual focus, and abandon their faith.

Besides the distraction from faith, wealth doesn’t help the world. A materialistic focus promotes injustice and exploitation.

exploitation

To support our love of fashion we employ garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. Often they are paid wages that don’t meet basic living standards, have long hours and unsafe working conditions.

Worker’s bodies have become part of the supply chain.

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We convince ourselves that “a little more will help my family.”

The truth is that wealth and materialism often take a toll on the family with adults working more to support their lifestyle and spending less time with children and spouses.

God designed us for pleasure

Materialism seems to be a good solution because God designed us to desire pleasure, posessions, and power. In a perfect environment God gave Adam and Eve the entire world for a possession, to have power over the fish and the birds and the animals, and to enjoy the pleasure of all the fruit of the garden and the pleasure of each other. God designed humanity for these things.

Materialism corrupts these desires, it didn’t create them.

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Here’s the key inversion that materialism does:

“God created us to love people and use things, but materialism makes us love things and use people.”

The Path to Freedom

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Looking at materialism from this biblical context its easy to acknowledge that materialism is a problem. But later this week, I’m probably going to find myself being sucked into these myths of materialism. In the everyday push and pull of life, materialism will start pushing my buttons again.

If the pure self-denial of asceticism isn’t the solution, and if we were designed to respond to the very things that materialism has so successfully twisted to deceive and entangle us, how do we solve the love of money?

How do we learn to experience pleasure without succumbing to lust?

How do we hold possessions without becoming selfish?

How do we possess power without becoming controlling?

We took the first, big step last week when we talked about putting God on the throne of our life.

The Westminster Catechism of 1647 says,

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

When we chose to put God on the throne and give him the responsibility of directing our lives and our money, we chose to start pursuing a life that focuses on glorifying Him.

This is why at Riverview Adventist Church we say, “I follow Jesus!”

When we do this we focus on fulfilling the purpose that God has designed us for. We’re less likely to get sucked into the myths that materialism is always bombarding us with.

The second step to solving the love of money is to allow God to repair our desires.

I’m glad God created us with things like pleasure and posessions and power. I’m glad He designed me to respond to those things. I even think he loves it when we have desires. There’s nothing wrong with me wanting that electric pickup truck.

Last week I pointed out that when we put God on the throne, He says He’ll give us things that we desire:

Psalm 37:4 ESV

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

What I’m not glad about is that my responses to desires have been so corrupted by sin and sepperation from God’s original design.

It’s not easy to shift our focus when our desires are perverted and our life has been lived with those desires in the director chair of our life for so long.

But God’s plan is to help us repair our relationship to pleasure, posessions and power.

Notice how some of the practices that are built into Christian experience are designed to be God’s solutions to repair our broken desires.

Let’s start with the last category: Power.

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To deal with Power God has given us Prayer

When we pray we recognize that God is Lord, and we submit ourselves to His will and His protection and His providence.

Prayer brings power back into perspective because we are reminded that God hold all the power, and that any power we have is lent to us from Him.

When we recognize that it’s God’s power, there are unlimited possibilities without the risk of you and I getting proud or controlling. But we have to recognize that it is God’s power and not our own. Without prayer and submission to the King of kings, we become proud and corrupted by power.

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To deal with Possessions God has given us Giving

We don’t give because the church needs the money or out of guilt when we see someone who has less than we do. God calls me to give because it breaks the control that posessions have over my life.

Let it go.

Next week we’ll dig into the idea that we are stewards of our possessions, not the real owners of our stuff.

If God is the true owner then that means that my stuff really belongs to God. But, also God literally has everything in the universe, so when He is my provider I have access to unlimited resources. I only have to ask and He’ll give me all I need. Thankfully, He uses His own discretion to determine if its truly a need or if its something that would bring more corruption to my life.

Developing a habit of giving away what God has given to me helps me remember that God provides for me, and He provides through me to others.

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To deal with Pleasure God has given us Fasting

Pleasure has received such a bad reputation in Christianity. Christianity is viewed as a religion of cant’s. People think that we can’t enjoy all that life offers because God said, “no,” to pleasure. But remember, God was the one who put the nerve endings and sensors in all the different parts of your body so you can feel and taste and hear and smell. He’s the one that made beautiful people and gave Adam and Eve to each other. He’s the one that provided all the delicious and varied foods in the Garden and told them to eat whatever they wanted. He’s the one who paints the sky with colors and adorns the fields with flowers just so that we can see and smell all the beauty of the earth. He designed laughter and music and language so that we can enjoy communicating with each other and be filled with the joy of shared emotion that music brings.

He wouldn’t have designed us this way if He didn’t want us to experience pleasure.

Of course, sin perverts all these pleasures. Materialism dangles beauty and appetite and physical pleasure as solutions to our empty hearts. But pleasure can never satisfy. Like wealth, there will never be enough to satisfy your soul. The more you get, the emptier you feel.

Have you ever eaten a spoonful of ice cream and said, “Yum! I want more of that?!” But then after eating a pint of that yummy ice cream you rub your head and pat your tummy saying, “I never want to eat that again!” Fulfilling your desires to excess is harmful. Even good things turn bad when you have too much of them. But more than being bad in excess, even in moderation, pleasure can never solve our need for God in our lives. When pleasure is on the throne, God can’t be.

God’s solution is an invitation for us to fast.

Fasting reminds us that our pleasure doesn’t come from stuff or food or entertainment or relationships. It comes from God.

By removing a particular pleasure from our lives for a period of time, we refocus our attention on God and prevent that pleasure from taking the throne.

If entertainment is ruling your life—start an entertainment fast.

If food is ruling your life—start intermittent fasting. Or maybe re-arrange your pantry and take a fast from anything that is harmful.

If physical pleasure is ruling your life—put it on pause for a time and focus your attention on God, then put boundaries in place so that you can experience pleasure in healthy ways.

If a substance is ruling your life—go on a permanent fast, if possible, and replace that substance with an activity or behavior that is good for you.

As you let God repair your desires, you will sometimes find that you want to give God a break from being in charge of your life. A corrupt desire wants to take the throne again, at least for a moment. You may find the process of letting God repair your desires to be more tedious and lengthy than you hoped.

Be Patient. Be patient with yourself, and with God.

God will work on restoring His image in you little by little so long as you keep choosing Him to be on the throne of your life. And as you do, I know that God will give you the renewed desires of your heart as quickly as you are ready to receive them.

Conclusion

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All of us are on the path to being recreated. God’s image is being restored in us as we walk with Jesus. Little by little we’re growing kinder, more patient, wiser, and more loving. And the image of God effects our financial lives as well.

It’s not something that will happen overnight, but putting the Brakes on Being Broke means letting God take a close look at Pleasure, Possessions and Power in our hearts.

If you’re struggling with some or all of those P’s, I’d like to encourage you to limit your focus to just one.

Is it pleasure? join the fasting connect group in March and let God use that spiritual discipline to refocus your heart.

Is it possessions? Develop a giving plan. Start with the stuff in your closet and garage that you haven’t used in the last 6 months or a year and start giving those things away to someone who could benefit from them. Then, add a line-item in your budget for generosity and start giving regularly to people the Lord brings to mind who need your help.

Is it power? Are you anxious and afraid when you don’t feel like you have things under control? Commit to a regular schedule of prayer and surrender. Three times a day at meals is a good start. I find a morning consecration prayer to be very helpful to me. Or maybe you could set an hourly alarm during the day that will remind you to stop and pray for 30 seconds each hour.

Whatever you chose, know that God is the one who is redeeming your desires as you commit to putting him on the throne of your life.

And as He redeems your desires He plans on fulfilling them too!

Does that mean I’m going to get a Dodge Ram 1500 REV? Probably not. But what God does give me will be just what I need to provide for my family and fulfill my redeemed desires.

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