#1 - Beyond the Numbers
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Opening
Opening
Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a 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 wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Perspective - HOW we look at money
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Have to have the right perspective - money is good, but must be in the right place
Financial planners will give 5 principles:
Earning
Nothing to manage if have nothing
Spending
Budgeting
Have to deal with spending
Saving
Prov 21:20 - don’t spend all that you have
Ave american spends 136% of income
Investing
Not working for your money, it is working for you.
Take a little and start setting it aside and letting it grow.
Giving
Ave american just under 3%
Ave christian about 3.8%
Beyond the Numbers
Beyond the Numbers
Spiritual creatures serving a God that has principles that make no sense to mankind.
Start with this verse:
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
What’s wrong?
Could it be there is a higher way
God principles that exceed eartly principles
Money is big deal in the bible
Can’t think on a natural level
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
God’s ways are higher
Principles that are beyond the numbers
First numbers principle - earn more
But there is a higher principle
1. Calling vs. compensation
How much you make will not fulfill you
Chase the call, not how much you can make
Secret to your life is discovering why you’re on this planet
Growth track
We don’t just need money to live on. We need something to live for.
Touching people
Paul said:
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
Spending - have to control it, but this principle supercedes:
2. Contentment vs. consumerism
We’ve lost the value of contentment
Jesus said:
Beware! Don’t always be wishing for what you don’t have. For real life and real living are not related to how rich we are.”
The happiest people are the ones with less.
Its a biblical value
Love what Paul said
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 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.
But the next line is best:
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. 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.
“Learned” the secret
Have to learn the secret
Have to realize that you’re blessed
Bro Pylant/Bro Noah
Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of what you already have.
Coming into “spending” season - don’t give in
Beyond the numbers
Third: save - need to save. One danger of having a savings account. Can begin to look to it as a source of security.
I can take care of myself.
Just make sure you’re:
3. God dependent vs. independent
Find your security in God alone
The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;
they imagine it a wall too high to scale.
Only imagination - money alone cannot make you secure
Need to live a life of trust. That’s why the poor are the most generous.
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
“Daily” - have to trust you every day
God knows if he can trust you.
I will not trust in riches but in Him who richly provides.
As believers we have something greater
But there is a way of thinking that must supercede:
4. Stewardship vs. ownership
Steward manages. Greatest princple you can learn:
God owns everything.
I am his manager.
Leverage it for eternal purposes.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
Giving:
5. Generosity vs. misery
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Acts of Kindness cards
Story of woman in fast food line
Never know what it might do
The value of my life isn’t determined by how much I achieve or accumulate but by how much of my life I give away.
Pastoral epistles - Paul wrote this to pastor Timothy:
Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
God’s way works
Pray:
At least one of these principles takes root
A spirit of generosity takes root here