Get a Grip

* Disclaimer- I do not give my manuscripts a thorough edit- there will be many spelling and grammatical errors.


Let’s get a grip on what we actually believe about money, and what we do with money. Let’s say there are two camps of people, which in this case, there are. One camp has a firm grip on their money. The other camp, money has a grip on them. Which camp are you in? Don’t over analyze it- got with your gut. Do you have a grip on your money? Do you know how much comes in? Do you know how much goes out? Do you control where the money goes when it goes out? Do you have extra left over at the end of the month? If I said there is a family in great need in our church community because something happened and it was genuinely out of their control and this is now a genuine need, could you say hey, I have extra, I can help?

Or, does money have a grip on you? Money can grip us in many ways- we can be gripped by the love of money. We can be gripped by the lack of money. We can be gripped by fear of money. Does money have a grip on you, or do you have a grip on your money?

We are living in a season where many folks find themselves in new territory, and we find ourself losing our grip on money. Some folks never had a grip on money. They never had much money, they were never taught how to manage money, they have simply absorbed some ideas and believes and practices regarding money, but have never really taken the time to get a grip on finances. Consequently, this group of people is more likely than not in great debt. You have massive credit card bills and car payments and you probably pay rent because owning a home seems like a million miles away.

Some have lost their job and have lost their grip on making a living. Some have lost their life savings and have lost their grip on security. If you are in this position, maybe it’s now apparent to you, that you never really had a good grip on money- it was simply money in, money out. Your grip was more like an open hand and everything just ran through it. Because now you realize you had no plan. You can make it through the month, but after that, well, you have no idea what is going to happen. You can see now that you were really living hand to mouth, literally. And now that nothing is running through your hands, well, you don’t know. Credit cards seem like a good idea. Selling you car seems like a possibility, and you’re starting to think, you know, my kids 8 now, she’s old enough to go out and make it on her own. All the sudden you are interested in learning the spiritual discipline of fasting, and you’re especially interesting in teaching it to you teenage boys. Sons, we’ll only be eating on the days of the week that start with the letter A.

Some have have lost their grip and now you find you are consumed with fear, questions, anxiety. You are fighting about money with your spouse and tensions are running high. You avoid conversations about money because it always leads to a fight, and you think that by sticking your head in the sand that that it will go away, but the creditors keep calling and keep sending notices because that debt isn’t going to magically disappear. Not talking about it is only making things worse. It’s time to talk.

Because all of us want to be in this camp: we want to have a grip on our money. We want to master our money so that our money or lack of money or dream of money does not master us. This is a foundational biblical truth- if you don’t get a grip on your money, you money, by default, is going to get a grip on you. You will, by default, be gripped by money, you’ll love money, you’ll serve money. And the bible says very plainly that you cannot serve both God and money. Getting a grip on our money management is a deeply, profoundly, spiritual exercise. It has incredible, undeniable implications for our relationship and connection with God. We are going to talk about this more in this series, but I’m going to actually mix this up today.

But today I want to be super practical. I want to be practical because ultimately beign practical has profoundly spiritual implications. I want to teach you the most basic, biblical practical thing regarding your money that is going to guide us the next few weeks. If I can get to buy in early on to the practice of biblical finance, everything else that we talk about later is going to make so much more sense. The truth is that if there is anything practical that the bible teaches, it’s finance. It’s some to the most simple, applicable, life changing stuff in the bible. And if I can just plead with you, right now, for this month, buy in. Buy in for the next month. If you buy in to this stuff for the coming month, everything the bible teaches on this stuff if going to make so much sense. It’s going to have a context for you to understand it already happening in your life. You’ll get it, because you’re already doing it.

If you do this stuff I believe, because I’m living it, that you will become a better money manager, in turn you will worry less about money and be more confident about your future. If you’re in debt maybe you’ll even see light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll fight less with your spouse. You’ll feel like a more generous, more intelligent, more organized, more competent person. All of that will filter into and effect basically every part of your life. You’ll feel more connected in a relationship with God, feel better about your relationship with family friends and neighbors.

Then, at the end of the month, if this stuff does absolutely make sense to you, the just go back to your old ways. Just stop. But first, I’m inviting you, give it a month. Give it this month. Give it the next few weeks and see what God starts to do in you.

Some of you already have a sneaky suspicion that your relationship to God and your grip on finance is somehow connected. Some of you know know all too well that lack of money management has the power to wreck your life, to steal you opportunities, to re-direct you future, to actually enslave you and make you feel like a prisoner. Hey, lack of money management can make you an actual, literal prisoner. And likewise, just as poor money management has the power to do that much bad in your life, good money management has that much power to bring good into your life. That is, managing well what you have, whether that’s a lot, or a little, good money management makes all the difference.

So we want to get practical today, and it starts by getting a grip. The bible teaches this over and over and over again. Proverbs 17:1 Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?

Money is at best useless, at worst, extremely harmful, in the hands of a fool. Last week in the video Dave asked, who here has ever made a foolish decision with their money. Don’t bother answering that, because the answer is every one of us. It may have been just a little foolish- I should never have bought those tickets to fly to Mexico. Why did I buy those acid washed bell bottom blue jeans? But maybe your decision was seriously foolish. And investment with way too much risk. A personal loan to an unreliable enemy (They were your friend at the time). Money, in the hands of a fool, money, without wisdom, money, without a grip, is useless at best, and terribly destructive at its worst.

Jesus told a story about this called the parable of the talents in Luke 19. Talents were a large sum of money. In the story a rich manage gives some money to his up and coming VP’s. each gets 10. When he checks in on them later- which all good money managers do- one double the investment. And other made a 50% return. Then one comes along and says here’s you money back- I stuck in under my mattress because I was afraid. The manager is furious- you could have at least put the money in the bank and earned some interest. Now, because of inflation, that money is worth even less. Things don’t work our well for that guy.

Now some of us, we have been so foolish with our money that if could have only just stuck it in our mattress, then we’d be better off. But we have done even worse. We have practically throw money away, tossed it into the wind, flushed it down the toilet. If God things were foolish and unfaithful just for stuffing money in our mattress, then it’s time we got a much better grip on what it means to manage money God’s way.

Jesus told another story about this Luke 12. It’s a little different. It’s about a man who thought he had totally mastered money. He thought the he had a grip on all of his money, but in truth, Jesus reveals, his money had a grip on him.

This story illustrates a truth that has largely been lost on most people. Having a grip on our money has NOTHING to do with how much money we have. There are many very wealthy people who have lost their grip on money, and consequently, their money brings them little pleasure, and brings God little glory. Likewise there are very poor people who have likewise lost their grip on money, and they too get little joy of our their lack of money, and bring little glory to God. You see, getting a grip on money isn’t about quantity. Our excess of money, our lack of money, our love and hate of money can all get a grip on us. Getting a grip on money means getting past yourself and getting rich toward God.

If we are going to get rich toward God, if we are going to get this kind of a grip, then we need to know 5 simple things. We are going to use our hands and each of our five fingers and learn this in order of importance.

Earn.
Give.
Get out of Debt.
Save.
Spend.

One, earn. Biblically speaking, finances start with earning. Proverbs 10:16 “The wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.” We are called, created, to earn a living wage. We are wired to work. To find satisfaction, joy, meaning and purpose in our work. And what we can’t do is separate our financial picture from our work. Our financial picture should start by embracing the biblical fact that God wired us to work. But not just that, God has a specifically calling on your life for the work you are to do. We are to experience a profound connection with God in discovering our gifts and using them for God and earning a living. For some of us our calling will be our work and will finance our lives. This is the position I am in. I feel like I was just wired to be a pastor- to lead, to preacher, to teach, to care for, pray for and give my life for the body of Christ. I have been affirmed in this call not just because I want it, but that others have wanted it from me and for me. So here I am, earning a living from my calling.

Some are equally called to things not normally considered ministry, but since ministry just means service, they should. Some are called to ministry as teachers, as nurses, as doctors as business people, as artists, as musicians, and the list goes on. Your work is your calling is how you earn your wage.

Some will have a calling that is funded through their work. Some will have a job, hopefully something they love, but they have this real sense that their calling is almost on the side. The apostle Paul the author of some dozen books of the new testament, the man who God used to take the church to the world, was a tent maker so the he could fund his calling to plant churches for a season of his life. The point is, we are created and called to work.

Now what I really want to talk about is the final four.

The second piece of the biblical picture of fiance after earning our wage, in order to get a grip on our money, is to give some of it away. The first thing we need to do to actually get a grip on our money is to give some of it away. This is the most empowering thing you can do with your money, it it the key to mastering your money instead of letting money master you, it is the foundation of making sure God is first on your life and not money, it is essential to being the kind of people we want to be. It is the first thing we should do with our paycheck. It is how we honor God and how we obey his teaching in the bible. We give. We just give some of it away.

Now next week I’m going to get way more into the specifics of giving, but let me mention briefly why giving is so important. I’m not even talking about giving to the church. I will, but I’m just talking about giving. When we make the first thing that happens with the money we earn giving some of it away, this changes everything that is going to follow. When we give some money away, we empower ourselves to truly be the manger of our money. We say hah, money, I own you and really, in the big picture to things, you hold so little sway in my life, that I’m just going to give some of you away. It doens;t matter how much you have, or how little you have, giving some away is the key to the rest of the process because it makes you the manager, it changes the dynamic, it sets the tone of the relationship, it makes you more the person you want to be because you want to be a giving, generous person.

When the first thing you do with money is give some of it away all of the sudden you look at the rest of them money very differently. You look at the rest of that money as a manager. It really is true. If you’re a giver, you know this, you know you manage the rest of your money better. If you have never been a giver to anything, the rest of this process won’t even make much sense to you

Third, the middle finger, Get out of debt. This is the one that immediately follows giving if we are in debt. Notice I say following giving. You must still be a giver, because you must always be a giver. And this is so practical. Because, since poor money management, and more specifically, being selfish started putting you in debt, you can’t get out of debt until you do something to begin rooting out that selfishness in regard to money.

This is the one we are trying to eliminate. We are trying to cut this middle finger out. Incidentally is kind of cool in out culture that the third finger, the middle finger, is kind of an offensive sign, and that this is the one thing we are trying to remove from the financial equation. So just like it would be offensive if I raised my middle finger, we should consider begin in debt an offensive place to be. We should not want to be in this position. I’m not taking this analogy any further, you get the point, what the middle finger represents is bad. We’ll talk more about this later. The next sermon on the Dave Ramsey series is all about getting out of debt. That is his specialty. I’ll post it so you can listen if that’s where you're at.

The ring finger save. Invest. Plan for the future. We already mentioned the parable of the talents. God wants us to plan and prepare for our future and our families future through the wise management of saving and investing our money. Now the two parable together give us the proper balance- unrestrained, selfish saving and invest to amass a fortune for our own glory ultimately will lead to a broken relationship with God. But poor planning without investment is unobedient to faithful Godly living. Those two must be held in balance with one another. Save, but do so in order that you can be rich toward God.

The Pinky, spending. The little guy. The last guy. And that’s just where spending should be. Spending, which consumes so much of our time, thought and energy, is really the littlest part of the picture. The part that comes last. Spending is in NO way evil. Spending should bring us joy and should bring God glory. Spending would also have it’s own little sub-set of rules. We will have fixed and flexible expenses. Fixed expenses should cover the basic necessities of life- taxes, shelter, food and clothing, utilities, stuff like that. Flexible expenses should include such things as entertainment, vacations, hobbies, stuff like that. What you spend in both fixed and flexible expenses should be in direct proportion to what you earn AND what you need. Just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you should spend it. What that means is that our spending should just be driven by what is available to us. We should decide how much of our income we want to make available.

OK, I think this is pretty cool, and the truth be told, I'm pretty pleased at myself for figuring this out. This whole hand analogy of getting a grip on biblical finance really works. The thumb- work, earning a wage. It’s our thumbs that uniquely make humans, and a few other of God creatures, able to do the work we do. It’s our thumbs that allow us to do much of the work of our hands. We begin to get a grip when we get this wonderful, opposable thumb working. It’s unlike the other 4.

Giving. the pointer finger. Giving points the way to proper biblical finance. You want your finance picture and position in life to point the way to God, to point yourself in a good direction. Giving points us toward God.

The middle finger, debt. The one bad guy in getting a grip. I’m talking about being enslaved to debt on depreciating or non-existing stuff. Debt is bad. You should be offended by debt. You should be offended when credit card companies say they want something for you when we all know they only want something from us- our high interest payments on junk.

The ring finger. Saving. The ring finger is at once the weakest finger of the hand, the one over which we have the least control. We need to approach saving in the same way. I will make a promise, a commitment to save for the future. I will make this commitment because it’s the wise way to live. But at the same time, I will not put my faith in these savings. I will not be so wrapped up in my saving that I think here is my strength, here is my future, here is my hope. No, saving is necessary, saving is wise, but saving doesn’t have the strength to save me.

Finally, the pinky. the littlest finger. the last finger. Spending. What comes first in our lives and in our minds, for many, not all, should come last. Spending is just the last part of the puzzle.

And if we are going to get a grip we need to get on a plan. We need to get on a budget. The most basic biblical budget, that most people follow is the 10-10-80 plan. Give 10, save 10, live on 80. We’ll talk more about this, how debt should factor in, and some specific things you need to consider of you make a 6, 7 or more figure salary.

But for now, to start, the most practical thing which all this represents, and what I’m encouraging you to do starting now, is to get on a budget.

Here’s the thing- we all live on a budget. Most of us just have no idea what that budget is. All of you live on a percentage of your income, you just don;t know what that percentage is! Some of you live on 80%. Some of you life on 100%. Some of you live on 180%. Really. There are folks living at twice the level of their income. They are amassing more and more and more debt each and every month.

But if we are going to be a giver, if we are going to get out of debt if that’s where were at, if we are going to save money and live on a spending plan, we need to get on budget. It simply tells us where our money is going to go. Getting on a budget simply says- here’s the plan. Here’s where every dollar is going to go- here’s what I will give, here what I will save, here’s what I will spend.

To make a budget we need to know 2 simple things- determine our income, and determine our expenses. We write down what’s coming in. We write down where is going out. Now a third part is very vital- to actually live by the budget. But first, two simple things. Income, expense.

I know, this is so complicated and hard to understand that you need a Ph.D. in economics. You mean to say I have a certain about of money that comes in? Yes, and its very complicated to figure you. You need to look at that pay-stub. You need to figure out your annual and monthly income.

Then figure out what goes out. Start writing it down. Get a program, use quicken. Use YNAB, use a pad of paper and a pencil and write it down. the date, the thing, the cost. You’ll be amazed, AMAZED, that before the month is over, before you even the a snapshot of one month, you’ll start planning. If you run out of income by the 15th, you’ll know you are in some serious trouble, and you’ll start to work toward a budget. If ou get to the end of the month, and you just make it, then you are going to need to figure out saving. If you get to the end of the month, and there’s money left over, then wow, God has put you in a position to really do something. If you’ve never given a dime away, I encourage you today, to give to God. If you don’t trust me, if you don;t trust this church, give it to another church. Give it to a charity you trust. I just know that once you give, God is going to do something in you, and when that happens, wow. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill- it gets bigger, it gains momentum, it starts to build itself.

It’s not complicated. It’s not complicated at all. It just takes commitment. it takes a commitment to say I’m going to get a grip on my money. My money is not going to grip and master me. I will take this first step. I will get a grip, and I will see what God will then do in me. Get a grip folks, get on a budget, write down what comes in, what goes out. Because until we know that, well, we’re just being foolish with what God has put in our hands.