Bling: Blingonomics
Bling Week Four
Blingonomics: A Plan that Works
Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor
August 17/19, 2007
I’m holding a really great gift that Christy got me, a GPS unit for traveling in the car. Our cars are too old and not fancy enough to have these, and she knows that I get lost all the time. I’m terrible about that. I start driving and talking on my cellphone, and totally forget that I am driving somewhere. I miss my exit and then have to navigate my way back. On car trips, like we took this summer, I’m terrible about getting lost. So, she got me this little GPS unit, and she became one my best buddies. I say she because her voice is a girl. On this trip, it was awesome because I always knew that I could get to where I wanted to go, because of my little GPS friend. I’m getting a little misty-eyed thinking about my little friend here. I had so much peace because of my little GPS buddy.
God wants you and me to have a GPS buddy as it relates to finances. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you are headed toward financial health and eternal gratitude toward the choices you make? Wouldn’t it be great to know that you are steering clear of trouble? That’s what we are going to talk about today. In this series called Bling, we are looking at how we can navigate this world of money and stuff, affluence, in a way that leads to a great destination in our lives, one of joy and peace and gratitude and avoid the trouble that most Americans are heading to. Last week we talked about how the average American is in money trouble, and how easy it is to join the ranks of the in-trouble.
The problem is not that we don’t make enough money to stay out of money trouble, the problem is we don’t manage our money wisely. It is not an income problem but a plan problem. We need a reliable financial GPS. A great illustration of that is a recent ABC poll that asked Americans this question, “What is the best way to build wealth?” You know what 25% of them said? Try to win the lottery. That’s why the average American spends $1100 a year on lottery tickets, more than twice what they give to charity. You don’t have to be a math genius to realize that with the odds of winning the lottery, that there might be a better plan…and of course there is.
Slide: __________________ ) Proverbs 21:5
says, The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. Without a good GPS, a good plan, you and I will drift toward trouble 100% of the time. We need a plan, and today we are going to talk about it.
Some of you today know you need to come up with a plan or evaluate the one that you have, so you are ready to go. But I also know that some of you think you don’t need one, because you have enough money coming in that you don’t really have to worry about. Money just comes in, you spend it, and you have some leftover, so why worry about it. Think of it like this, since we know that our money is not our money but God’s. Let’s say you have a money manager, someone that you send money to so that they can invest for you. You call them one day to check up on things, and they say, “Oh, hey. You want to know where your money is going? You know, I don’t really know. You have so much that I don’t really think about it. It just comes in and I spend it or invest it or do something with it. You’ve got enough that I don’t really have to worry about where it is going. I just let it fly.” It wouldn’t take long to fire the money manager. Our money is God’s money, and he has asked us to manage it. And he doesn’t just leave it up to us to let it fly. He tells us how to be wise.
We need a good GPS, so let’s look at what the Bible says to help us build a good plan that will help us reach a good destination financially. Let’s talk about a plan for good blingonomics, financial health. This plan is made up of two choices. The first is this:
Slide: __________________ )
1) To live on a percentage of my income
We are going to look at the building blocks, but first let me give you the fundamental principle undergirding God’s principles: You have to choose to live on less than you make. That is revolutionary in our culture, where we are taught to live on more than we make, but God’s plan is all about making a choice to limit my lifestyle to less than I make, so that I am free to be wise and will stay out of money trouble. You will likely never have money troubles if you live on less than you make…so instead of just spending whatever comes in as fast as it comes in, which leads to a mess, what are we to do?
The first part of the plan relates to
Slide: ________________) Giving
Planned, priority, percentage giving. This is a choice that God commands us to make with the money he gives us…to give to him right off the top before we spend anything else, to honor him with planned, priority, percentage giving.
Slide: __________________ ) Proverbs 3:9-10
says, Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. We are told to honor the Lord with the firstfruits, meaning off the top, from what we get. That’s the priority part. We choose to honor God not with the leftovers, but as Gene Getz said a few weeks ago, put God in our budget as the very first item. Most people just live and spend and give as an afterthought. God tells us to make giving our top priority.
Slide: __________________ ) 1 Corinthians 16: 1-2
tells us how to do so, “Now about the collection for God'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 his income…” (16:1-2). Notice that the way God wants us to give is planned, priority, and a percentage. He says, “Decide beforehand what you are going to give, do it regularly, and make sure it is proportional to your income. It is what the Bible elsewhere calls a tithe, which is a strange churchy word, but a Bible word that literally means “a tenth.” The general biblical benchmark on giving throughout the Bible is the tenth, the tithe, where you set aside ten percent of your income right off the top and give that to God first. You have freedom to choose more and you can choose less, but that is the benchmark.
When Christy and I were newly married and eating lots of ramen noodles and 3 for a dollar pot-pies, we joyfully wrote out a check to FBCN at that time for the first ten percent of what we made. We also gave extra money to a couple of other ministries as well. And we’ve kept that pattern going since then, and I am so incredibly thankful that we have. I’m glad we started it then, because it doesn’t get easier the more money you make. You would think it would, but it doesn’t. Studies show that the more people make the less generous they are. Forbes latest study on billionaires found that they give on average about 1.2% of their yearly income to charity. Strange but true how that works.
What happens when we give in a planned, priority, and percentage way? Over and over again God makes this promise, like we just read in Proverbs 3, (repeat verse). When we give in a God-honoring way, then we invite his enablement and his blessing into our finances. I’m not saying that means we will all get rich…but God says what he says. He waits to see what we will do with our money, and when we prioritize him, then he adds his empowerment and his blessing. That’s why my spiritual mentor always said, “You can’t outgive God.” You and I will never be more generous than him. The first part of a good plan is planned, priority, percentage giving.
The second part of a good plan is
Slide: __________________ )
2) Saving
What I mean by incremental is bit by bit over time, which ends up building wealth.
Slide: __________________ ) Proverbs 21:20
says, In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has. In biblical days the way to save for the future was to store up grain or oils or perfumes as a savings account. Today you could say, In the households of the wise are savings accounts, but the foolish man just spends everything he gets.” It is easy to spend it all as it comes in, but takes discipline to save. Just to be sure we are clear about how the Bible views saving, let me give you a definition of saving:
Slide: __________________ ) Saving Money: Going to the mall, buying something that is “50% off,” then bragging about how much money you “saved.”
Good definition? Common, but not so great. Again, the general principle is to live below you income, to set aside a percentage to give and a percentage to save for the future.
I’m sure you have heard about the power of incremental savings over time. A lot of you like Starbucks, and we serve it here. But since I don’t like coffee, I’ll pick on you Starbucks people. How much is a cup of Starbucks now? Used to be 3 bucks…now it is probably 12 bucks or something. But let’s say you spend 2.75 a day on Starbucks for a cup of coffee. If instead you chose to save it in a basic mutual fund, 2.75 a day, what would happen? If you are 25 years old, and you invest that money every day then by the time you are 65 you would have saved about a million dollars. So, enjoy your coffee! That’s the power of incremental savings.
I could keep going with those examples, but most of us have heard them before. Americans are pretty smart people. We know that saving money is good…so since we are so smart, how are we doing at actually saving the money? Not so good! Just compare us with other countries around the world.
Let’s take China. I like China…Chinese food is my favorite. Guess how the Chinese people are doing at saving money? The average wage earner there saves 40% of his or her income. How about India? I hate curry but love Indian people…they save on average 30%. How about the French—they invented French fries, the French kiss, can’t be all bad…they save on average 11.6%. Can you sense where this is heading? How about good old Americans? This is going to be ugly, so brace yourself. The average American is saving -.5%. That’s right. Negative .5. Do you remember that Starbucks calculation of how much you’d have if you saved 2 dollars a day. If you did the same calculation with saving -.5% every year, you’d save yourself into bankruptcy. We just aren’t saving anything. We spend it. We are the foolish people of Proverbs 21.
Wise people save. Again, we are talking about a choice to live on less than we make…to set aside a percentage of money to give and a percentage of money to save, and then to live on the rest. It is backwards to the way most Americans live, but it is the only reliable financial GPS on the planet…that leads me to the next component of the plan:
Slide: __________________ )
3) Living
The Bible tells us to enjoy the fruit of our labor, to provide for our families and enjoy living on the income from our employment.
Slide: __________________ ) Ecclesiastes 5:19
tells us, 19 when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. It is okay to enjoy a meal, a vacation…to buy a house and drive a car. God actually commands us to enjoy what he gives as a gift.
Slide: __________________ ) 1 Timothy 6:17
says to people like us Americans who are almost all rich by world standards, “17Command 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 with everything for our enjoyment. One of the reasons God provides us with money is to enjoy life to his glory.
But the only way you and I can really enjoy spending money is when we are wise…otherwise money becomes a huge burden. When I make the decision to live on less than I make, to be generous to God’s kingdom and to save wisely for the future, then and only then can I really experience joy and peace in the use of money. That only makes sense.
The other way to live, where we consume all we make or over-consume and dig a debt hole, gives no real joy. When you have a higher pursuit, living for God’s kingdom, and you are empowered to live wisely when it comes to finances, then you can know the joy of wisdom and not just the temporary little kick of over-consumption.
When you choose wisdom and generosity, and you are living for a higher pursuit, it is actually more enjoyable and more satisfying to choose not to consume than to just consume. What I mean is this, you see a car or some piece of furniture or something that you know you could buy. Your friends are all buying that stuff, and you could to. You know that if you bought that new car or those new drapes that for a little while you would get a kick out of it…nothing like that new car smell. But you also know how fleeting that is. New car smells don’t last long, especially if you have kids. So, you see that car or that thing and think, “I could buy that, but I have chosen not to. I am making a better choice. I choose wisdom. I choose generosity. I choose God’s kingdom.” There is a whole new level of joy and significance that comes from that. And with that mindset, we are able to enjoy the things that we do buy with much greater joy—knowing that we are living wisely and well. We aren’t digging a hole, but instead investing for eternity and saving for the future. We are then free to enjoy what we have.
So, three big components to a reliable financial GPS, a good plan: giving, saving, and spending…all based on a choice not to spend all we make, but to set aside a percentage first to give back to God, investing in eternity, and a percentage to save. To take this one step further in practicality, let me suggest a specific plan for you to consider that puts this all together. It is the
Slide: __________________ ) 10/10/80 Plan
If you have been around Chase Oaks for a while, you know the 10/10/80 plan.
You first of all decide that you are only going to live on 80% of your income, so that you can be wise and generous. The first 10% goes to God, a tithe. As I said before, the happiest check Christy and I write is the one to this church and then we do give extra to other ministries too. That is planned, priority, percentage giving. The next 10% goes to savings, which can be for retirement or just saving for the future. You may need to rachet it up higher for things like college. That leaves 80% leftover to live on and enjoy with no guilt or anxiety. You are free then to live life, knowing that you are being wise.
10/10/80 is a great basic plan, and I know people who adjust it to 20,20,60…or 10,20, 70…but the components are all there for you to make those decisions. And if you think, “I can’t live on 80%!” my guess is at some point you did. Your income was less, and you survived. Again, our money problems aren’t generally about income but about poor planning, and when you honor God you also invite his enablement and his blessing into your finances. He helps you be wise and generous.
Let’s play with this a little bit. Suppose you make 60,000 dollars a year for 20 years at your job. You never get a raise, so your income stays the same. Maybe your boss is from Alabama, and you keep making Alabama jokes, so you never get a raise. If you live the 10/10/80 plan, then over those 20 years, you would have given 120,000 dollars to expand God’s kingdom and saved with dividends and interest about 350,000 dollars. Let’s say you go another 20 years longer…then you would have given 240,000 dollars to God’s kingdom work, and you’d have 2.7 million dollars in savings. Sounds pretty wise, doesn’t it?
One more component to this plan I haven’t shared yet. It isn’t another percentage thing, since we already add up to 100%. But I do believe it is important.
The second choice we will consider is
Slide: __________________ )
4) To maintain healthy perspective
We will not be able to sustain good perspective about bling, money and stuff, without doing something about it. We live in a culture of such wealth and affluence, stuff everywhere, that there is no way we can have a healthy view of bling by living here unchallenged.
This year, as most of you know, I traveled with a small team to Ethiopia, to initiate a major Chase Oaks project there. If you heard those messages, you know that the experience there had a profound impact on my life. It knocked me for a loop, seeing the extreme poverty and how far money can go to make a huge difference. I can tell that my experience that I shared impacted you, too…because you gave a couple of hundred thousand dollars for that project…which is awesome. But you know what happens? Every time I have traveled to a developing nation, I regain that sense of perspective…but then over time I get complacent again here in this culture of bling. I lose perspective.
My brother is a cardiologist in Birmingham, and one time I asked him how long a heart attack, a serious life-threatening scare, affects a patient’s behavior…meaning how long does he or she eat better, exercise, do the things that will keep them from having another heart event. He said, “For something very serious like a heart attack, about 6 months. Then they go back to the same behavior that gave them the first heart attack and that will give them the next.” That’s just the way we are.
So, here is a suggestion. Develop a sustained awareness plan. You can do that in a variety of ways. Continue to give to Ethiopia or some other developing nation, or adopt a child through compassion and stay in contact with what is happening. Pray often. Talk about it as a family. Better yet, go on one of our mission trips. Every year we have trips that go to Cuba, Mexico, and Katrina ravaged New Orleans…the Mexico trips are family trips, which are so great to experience that disruption together. In October is the next New Orleans trip, and over thanksgiving is the next family Mexico trip. You can also engage our bridge-building opportunities right here, working with the needs in our own geographic area. All I am saying is that the only way you and I are going to sustain good perspective about stuff is to leave the Disneyland world we live in here in Collin County and experience the reality of the rest of the world. Take some of your 80%, and go on one of these trips…or find some way to stay informed and aware and to stay bothered. Don’t get comfortable and complacent in the Disneyland environment we live in.
With a good GPS, you really can get to where you want to go—and that is very true financially. Without a good plan, we will never get there…but with a good plan and then the discipline to stick with it, then we can arrive at the financial destination that God wants for us. With a sustained perspective and a good plan, we can get there.
Have you ever heard the name, Oseola McCarty? She is in heaven now. About 10 years ago, she had a moment of fame because she made a large donation to the scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi. Oseola had a 6th grade education and worked all her life as a washerwoman, washing and ironing people’s clothes. She never made more than minimum wage. However, she was taught early on the power of saving money and living on less than you make by her mother. She saved everything she could. She set aside money for her church every week, saved as much as she could, and lived on the rest. She is a great example of the 10/10/80 principle…except she lived on the 10/40/50 plan. She lived very frugally but gave a lot and saved a lot.
As she was getting older, she decided that she wanted to give the bulk of her savings away. She divided it up, 10% to her church, 10% each to three relatives, and 60% to the scholarship fund to help people like her who couldn’t afford college when they were younger. Guess how much that 60% was? 150,000 dollars. She was able to make a 150,000 dollar gift because of the discipline on living on less than she made all those years on her minimum wage job.
As a result of her gift, not only were some students able to go to college, but she also received an honorary degree from Southern Miss. President Bill Clinton awarded her a Presidential Citizenship Award Medal at a White House ceremony in her honor. In June of 1996, Harvard awarded her an honorary doctorate. All those accolades for a person who understood a very simple concept: it is wise to live on less than you make, so you can be wise and be generous. In America, that makes her a hero because it is so rare—but that should be commonplace for the rest of us as Christians. This sister in the Lord had a great GPS, and I promise you now that she is in heaven she is thankful for the decisions she made.
We have a lot to learn from her. Here’s what I am going to challenge you to do. Take the time this week to sit down by yourself or if married with your spouse and prayerfully work through a plan. Start with 10/10/80 and then play with the numbers. Pray about what God really wants you to do. Look at how you may need to adjust your spending to get it below your income so that you can give and save. For those married, let me talk to you husbands for a minute. Way too often, the way it works is that our wives are willing to be wise and generous, and we are the ones who drag our feet. God actually calls us to loving leadership, so man up and lead the discussion. My guess is your wife will faint, but do it. Take it seriously and with your wife come up with a good plan.
That’s why we gave you the graph paper, just as a starting place to begin to lay out a plan this week…to lay out current spending and then what you could adjust in order to merge onto a wise way forward, a good plan.
And if you do it, if you begin to live on less than your income so that you can give and save substantially, think about what your life will be like. You will find the freedom and joy and blessing that God wants you to live in when it comes to money and possessions. You can escape the stress and pressure and anxiety of over-consumption and know that you are making an eternal difference and you are being wise. What you do spend, you will spend with the joy and comfort knowing you are living on a wise plan. Is that worth it? You bet!
Let’s pray.