"Strapped" Week 3

In the final week of Strapped, Pastor Jake closes out the series with a practical and freeing look at biblical budgeting. This message breaks down how intentional planning isn’t about restriction — it’s about stewardship, peace, and aligning our resources with God’s purpose. If you’re ready to take real steps toward financial clarity, this week’s teaching will give you the tools to start strong.

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast, where we're all about equipping God's people to change their world. We're thankful you're here, and we're praying that this message encourages you to love God, love others, and love the world more fervently than before. Now, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Alright. How we doing today, manna? We doing good? Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, if you are new here, or if you're new online, either at our Quantico location or at Omaha or just joining us from anywhere across the world and you haven't met me yet. My name's Jake. I get the privilege of being the pastor here, and I just want to welcome you. Can we welcome our folks online too? Can you guys do that for me? Yes. Great. Well, this series, strapped. If you made it for all three weeks, congratulations, you made it to the end of this series. If you're new here, I'll tell you where this series gets its name is from this idea that most people aren't stingy when it comes to finances. I just don't believe that. They're just strapped. And so, week one, we talked about the condition of our hearts. We talked about this thought that God doesn't need our money. He doesn't. He's not waiting on you to tithe or to give your money because he needs it somehow. He wants your heart. That's what he's concerned about. And we we unpacked that with the principle of stewardship. It's the first and the foundational principle is that God is the owner of all our finances. We are simply just stewards of those finances. Then last week we got into another principle which we need to have before we can talk about the stuff this week, which is good stuff, by the way, which was the principle of first. And what I tried to do was show you from the Word of God that when we put fine, when we put God first in our finances, it will actually break a spirit of materialism and will liberate us and we'll be able to walk in more financial freedom, which is great. You know, it's the only area in the Word where God challenges us to challenge Him. It's kind of weird. And so what we did was we invited each one of you who wanna try to lean into this discipline to commit. Commit to giving the first 10% of your increase to your local church, if man is your church, for the next 90 days, from August 17th to November 17th, just to make a commitment to do that. And it's a really a simple commitment because there's no strings attached. If you do that, if you do this 90-day challenge and you decide at the end of 90 days that you don't have more liberty, more peace in your soul, if if you don't have less bondage in this area, we'll give you your money back. Just send us an email, as long as you don't give anonymously, all right? Send us an email and say, hey, didn't work, Pastor Jake. We'll just give you your money back. That's okay. If you can challenge God, then certainly you can challenge us in this area. And so um talking about money, particularly giving a giving challenge like that might feel a little bit odd because of preconceptions people have about the church when it comes to money. Um I understand why money conversations in church make people suspicious, and it's because bad ministry has actually earned that suspicion. Like we we know that. Um thing is though, avoiding good biblical teaching because other people have abused it would be like avoiding disciplining your children because there are bad parents out there, right? We would not do that. Like, man, there are some parents that really are terrible when it comes to discipline. So we're just not ever gonna do that in our house. We wouldn't do that. And so, really, this is this is one of those things that we need to talk about in church because where else are you gonna get good biblical teaching about this issue? So that's why we went there. Um, so today what we're gonna do is we're gonna shift things. We've talked the past couple weeks about how we how we love God through through our money. We talked about tithing, that's that first 10%, but it begs the question: what do we do with the other 90% of our money? Right? We hit the first 10%. So, what today I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get super practical. I'm gonna give you three simple ways to live that are gonna help you walk in liberty in this area. They're from the Bible, so you know they're good. And young people, I wanna I wanna talk to my young folks in the room right now. If you have checked out for this series, because you're young, and let's be honest, you don't have very much money, lock in for this week. Marines online. I know you guys, some of you Lance coconuts there, you don't have much cash. But this is a good, this is this is gonna be helpful for you, all right? Um, what I'm challenging you guys to do today will actually set you up to excel in the future in a way that will let your life be a blessing and will let you live free from anxiety when it comes to this area. So you're gonna be able to bless other people. I'm gonna teach you three big principles and some smaller things within those principles to apply. Sound good? Yes? You guys with me? Awesome. All right. First thing, the first thing that we're gonna talk about today, the first way to live that's gonna help you with this other 90% of the money that you have is really easy. Make a plan. Just make a plan. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna make a plan. See, if you're gonna steward your resources well, you gotta have a plan for how to do it. It seems like common sense, but if it were common sense, it would be much more common than it is. Here's what it says in Proverbs, chapter 21, verse 5. It says, the plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance. I underline surely in my notes here. But everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. So the word tells us that having and executing, the execution is important. Having and executing a plan surely leads to that end. But when you just make hasty purchases, come on, you guys know we do this, right? We go out, we see lots of things. In fact, my wife and I, we were at the mall, one of the kids, we didn't have anything to do. We're a little bit sad because our second just went to college on Wednesday, like, uh, it's hurting my soul. Um, but so we're like, we got to do something, we need to get out of this house. And one of the kids were like, let's go to the mall. And as I walked around, it was amazing how much they wanted me to spend all my money there very hastily. Right? They were just begging me to drop all my cash. That's why salespeople want you, they want to close the deal quickly. They don't want you to go home and pray about it because they know that hasty decisions are good for them. But for you, it only leads to poverty. But if you have a diligent plan, if you have a plan and you follow it diligently, the word says that that's gonna that's gonna help us, that's gonna lead to abundance. And I would also challenge you, don't just have a plan, involve God in your plan. Don't do it on your own, pray into it. Let's see what Proverbs says again. We're gonna read a lot of Proverbs today, chapter 19, verse 21. It says, Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it's the purpose of the Lord that will stand. So don't rush into big purpose purchases, don't even rush into small ones for that matter. But if God's the owner, we're gonna ask God what he wants us to do with our finances, and then we're gonna do that. We're not just gonna make quick knee-jerk decisions. So think about it this way God can do more with your surrendered resources than any of us could ever do with complete control of our money. Amen? Cool. So so we got to make a plan for our money, and some of you are gonna go, how do you make a plan for your money? First practice is this just create a budget. Just make a budget. John Maxwell, super smart leadership guy, this is what he says. A budget tells your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. A lot of us just wonder where all our money went at the end of the month. So it ties directly back to week one about the principle of stewardship. God has called us to be good stewards of that which He's entrusted to us. That includes our finances. So that that whether you have a lot or whether you have a little, just think of it this way: planners prosper. Planners prosper. The word says a good plan, a diligently executed plan will surely lead to prosperity. So create a budget. A budget is literally just a plan for your money. Some cool stats here. Um, 75 to 90 percent of Americans have a budget. This is so interesting, though. A Gallup poll found that only 32% prepare a written budget or put it in some kind of a spreadsheet. So most Americans have a budget, but very few of them actually write it down. They just have a budget up here. Don't raise your hand. Some of you are like, ooh, that's me. That's where my budget is. So um I'm talking about like we need to plan where every single one of our dollars go. Plan it. Um, this is crazy too. 83% of Americans overspend their budget. So they have a plan, and then what they do is they don't follow it. Notice the verse in Proverbs that says, the diligent are the ones who have the surety that their plans will prosper. The diligent. Right? So just making a plan doesn't really help. Just like if I download uh an exercise regimen or a diet, the download or the read of the book don't actually make me lose weight or burn calories. Doesn't help, right? I gotta actually follow the plan that I put in place. So we gotta do the work, be diligent in the execution of your budget. So, bottom line, bottom line, if you don't have a budget, make one. If you do have a budget, stick to it. Really simple. And and it it's it's there in the word. The the principles are there. So um, I'm gonna give you some some principles if you've never done a budget. Really simple, and this is not a commandment from the word, this is just wisdom and good guidance to follow. First 10%, that is kind of a commandment from the Lord. You give that to God, you give him your first and your best, 10%, then take the next 10% and use that for savings. And then with the rest of it, the 80%, live off of that. You guys have probably all heard the 10, 10, 80 rule, but I'm gonna say it again, especially for you young people in the room. 10, 10, 80. All right? And when we use wisdom and prudence, it actually pays off. Proverbs again, it says this precious treasure in oil, this is in chapter 21, verse 20, are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Foolish people don't even have all the good stuff because they're just consuming it all the time. And then they gotta go buy more. A wise man has a plan for where his increase goes. He knows where it needs to be, so that way it's there for him when he needs to use it. Foolish people use what they want when they want it. They always have more month at the end of their money. And we want it to be the other way around. Budgets in marriage, I will say this, budgets in marriage can kind of be tricky because it's not just one person, it's two people that you gotta consider, right? There's generally, this isn't always the case, there's generally in marriage one person who's a saver and one person who's a spender. I'll give you an uh a guess as to which one I am in the marriage. I'm the spender. Danielle's the saver. She's such such a good saver. Now you can be really, really successful in marriage if you have two savers. It's like, wow, you hit the jackpot. Okay? Um, you can make it work with a saver and a spender. All right, you can do that. If you have two spenders in the relationship, pray. All right? Pray. Because you're gonna need help. Um if you are like most people though, and you have a saver and a spender, this is just a recommendation from me. I would recommend you put the saver in charge of the budget. Again, it's not a rule, and I'm saying it kind of tongue in cheek, but but it's just a principle. Put the saver in charge of the budget. I'm not saying that one person controls the money and the other person just shuts up and colors in the corner. That's not the way to do it. In fact, there are some marriages that they do that. They're like, mom or dad, husband or wife, they don't let me touch the money. And that can actually, unfortunately, it can lead to some damage in relationships. It can lead to some excesses in control. That's not good. So that would be a misapplication of what I'm saying. What I'm telling you to do is put the person with the strongest financial discipline in charge of the administration of the budget, but both spouses must have buy-in to what the plan is. Okay? Both spouses provide input, and then the person with the best discipline is like, okay, I'm gonna be in charge of administrating it. All right? You guys still with me? Cool. All right, we're gonna go on to point number two, the second key to live by. And it's this live with self-control. Live below your means. Live in such a way that you can create margin. This is absolutely a discipline. We do not come from the factory when we're born with this built into us. Right? Just put a bowl of candy in front of your kids and see if they budget it. They're not gonna do that, right? They're just gonna gobble it all up. It's it's it's kind of funny. Um, Danielle and I are constantly, we work with our kids on this because they want stuff now, and we're trying to teach them delayed gratification. We're trying to help them understand self-control. We are just all of us impatient by nature. We want what we want when we want it. As your children grow, self-control should grow with them. They should get more mature. And so the problem is that by the time a lot of us become adults, we still haven't learned how to use a really simple word that is a complete sentence. No. We just haven't learned it, right? Let's all practice it right now. No. Yes, you can use that. We can use that when it comes to money. Proverbs 25 says this in verse 28. It says, a man or woman without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. When you don't know how to say no, that's what it's like. You have no guard around you. So, you know, women sometimes, I'm gonna pick on you for a second. How many, don't raise your hands, husbands, you can elbow your wives. How many of you have an Amazon list like this long and you get deliveries like every other day? Yep, come on. You get women, women can nickel and dime you to death with the Amazon, the team, the Sheen, whatever it is, like getting all kinds of orders, just coming to the door, bam, bam, bam. Men, they just kill you in one fell swoop, though. They're like, I got a boat, I got a gun, I got a grill, whatever it is, right? Yeah, yeah. So, so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna practice saying no together. All right? So, so ladies, ladies, do you need that 20th outfit for your niece, your nephew, your grandbaby? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Help me out here, help me out here. Do you need it? Ready? No, okay, guys, guys, guys, guys. Track with me, fellas, fellas. Do you need to golf two times a week? No, no, okay. So so for some of you who aren't golfers, I know we got another crew here. Do you need another gun? No, you don't need another gun. I don't care what's going on in politics. You you have 15 of them already, bro. All right, all right. Do you really need Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Netflix, and cable? No, you don't, all right? Do you need a $5 cup of coffee every morning? Do you need a $4 energy drink every morning? No, you don't need that. In fact, here's what I would tell you. Here's what I would tell you. The practice of saying no, it's a good practice for you. In fact, I would encourage you even to put just put a little marker in place. David uh Pruitt, he leads our missions. Um, he did a great job in the follow-up from our missions trip, talking to one of our students who was like, man, I just noticed how little people have on this missions trip. And I need to learn to be more grateful with what I have. And so he gave him this practice, and I want to give it to you today. Just try to say no to one thing every day. Not because, not because you can't have it, not because it wouldn't be a nice thing to have, but it's good to tell your flesh no so your spirit wins. Like that's a good thing. Just practice saying no to one thing every day. Maybe it's like I'm gonna order an appetizer with my meal. You know what? I'm just gonna tell myself no today. You know what? I'm gonna get instead of a uh a tall or a grande, I'm gonna get the venti. No, I'm not gonna like start small and just work into it. Practice saying no to yourself a little bit every day. That way you're gonna have the freedom to say yes tomorrow to even better things because you're gonna create margin in your life. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, if you're having, if you're having trouble with this, ask God for grace and I'm gonna show you what the word teaches about this. Galatians chapter 5. It says this, verse 16. But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Some of you experience this, you feel it. There's this tension when it comes to money and spending, which is why telling yourself no sometimes is really, really, really good. Most of us live this way. We we we we want to obey our spirit, but we obey the flesh instead. You need to make your flesh submit to your spirit. And I'm gonna tell you, it's not natural, it's supernatural. This is a supernatural thing that the Holy Spirit does in each one of us as he works in us, because it is a fruit of the spirit, this the fruit of self-control. It's not something that we come from the factory with. It has to be developed by the word. In fact, if I go on down to verse 22, this is what it says But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It's a fruit of the spirit in you against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus, if you're here and that's you, listen to this. They have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit. What are you saying to do in this moment, Holy Spirit? How am I supposed to spend the money that you've you've trusted me with? How am I supposed to do that? So a budget can tell you what to do, but only the spirit can transform the person that's executing the budget. Right? Only the spirit can do that. So so if you're struggling here, what I'm not saying, and what you might hear me saying is, hey, just try harder. That's that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is walk by the spirit. Just walk by the spirit. One of the ways that we teach our kids to do this, Danielle and I, is when they're little, we make them ask us before they spend any money. Before they even spend a dollar, they have to say, Mom, Dad, can I spend that? They don't just have their money, they have to request it from us. And the reason is not because I want to control them, the reason is because I want to teach them submission to the Spirit of God. Because when they get older, there's a transition point where I say, Hey, I've been the loudest voice in your life right now, up to this point. Now you need to listen to the Spirit more than you listen to me. There needs to be a transition where He guides everything that you do. Right? That's the way we walk by the Spirit. And some of us, we just weren't trained that way. I wasn't trained that way growing up, and so my kids are starting way better than where I was when I was their age. And so, because of a lack of self-control, spiritual fruit, a lot of people find themselves enslaved to a mountain of debt. Again, don't raise your hand. But some of you understand this. You feel it, you feel the mountain pressing down on you. Now, the Bible doesn't actually explicitly condemn debt. It doesn't. It does have things to say about it, and we're gonna we're gonna read through just a little bit of it. Proverbs 22, it says, the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender. So back in the day, if you didn't have money to buy something, you would put it on layaway. Anybody remember layaway? Yeah? Like you can put it on layaway, you don't get it until you've actually paid it off, but it sits there at the store and you get it. Now there's a purchase plan for everything. Like you don't have to, you don't have to actually have the money today. You can rob from tomorrow to pay for today. All the time. Today, we you know, a way to say it is we don't just have like the haves and the have nots. We have the haves, the have nots, and the have not yet paid fors. Right? It's it's kind of crazy. So um I have a whole thing we can go through that I can show you debt, but you guys understand how compound interest works, right? You understand that if you spend money on credit card debt, they're gonna charge you an exorbitant amount of interest. And uh a $30,000 credit card debt, you're gonna end up paying $50 or $60,000 to pay off. And if you took that same amount of minimum payment and you added more money to it, in the same amount of time. You would have millions of dollars in your bank account. Like it's it's so flip-flopped. I'm not gonna walk you through the math. It'll probably bore some of you, and I'll miss you for the rest of the message. So we're not gonna do that. But what I want you to know is get away from credit card debt. Credit card debt is really, really rough. Um the Bible, it doesn't forbid us when going into debt, but what it does do is it consistently warns of the dangers of debt. Like debt can be very dangerous, and what it does is it extols the virtues of not going into it. Um and the reason is because consumer debt robs our future by making tomorrow pay for yesterday. That's what it does every single time. Proverbs 22 says this, verse 26 be not one of those who gives pledges or makes commitments financially, who put up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you? This this is one of those proverbs, it's like a dad talk kind of a proverb. So essentially what he's saying is don't buy what you can't afford because if you buy what you can't afford, you risk what you can't afford to lose. Right? I'm paying for something that I don't have the money for, and then they're gonna take that away, and they're gonna take away the other stuff that I can't afford to lose. I'm putting up security for something that I can't afford to part with. So you might be like, that's great, Pastor Jake. Like, you're telling me all this stuff, I still don't know how to do any of this. Right? I actually haven't I haven't given you like some super practical stuff on how to do that. So I want you guys to do me a favor right now. I know we've been using these a lot lately, but it's good. That's why we got them there. Take out your phones. Everybody grab your phones real quick. And what I want you to do is I want you to tap the seat back in front of you that has one of the tap disks. The students kind of move them around during the week. So if you don't have one, just lean over. There'll be one close to you. Um it's gonna take you to our website. All right? And on our website, there's a resources page there. Okay? There's a bunch of them on how to build a budget. There's even a budget template that's there. There's details on how to get out of debt. There's some good videos. Um, if you haven't ever done this before, it's called the debt snowball. There's a there's a ton of good things, like practical things for you to have. We say here at church, we're not just a teaching center, we are a training center. So we want to give you things practically that are gonna help you. Um so so I'm gonna, I'm not gonna explain all of those resources today, but I will give a shameless plug. In two weeks, we have Connection Sunday. And if you've been through leaderstep, if you're someone who can lead a small group, this would be a great small group to lead people through. Something on financial peace. So if you're that person, you're like, man, I really like the Lord has blessed me in this area. I'm really disciplined in my finances and and I understand how to apply these good biblical principles, come talk to me after service. I'd love to get you set up to lead a small group during this next cycle to bring some people through because it would really bless our church. Um, also, we've got paper resources. So if you're someone who likes the analog stuff, there are some paper resources out at the connection table. Um, if you're a reader, go grab those. We have a limited amount, but take them, they're free. Don't have to give them back, just take them and use them. So, one other point I want to make on debt before I move on here. Um there are some exceptions when it comes to debt. So, not every single form of debt is equally foolish. So, a reasonable mortgage is much different from financing a lifestyle that you can't or should not afford. Okay? Some educational debt is very foolish. If the educational debt is actually gonna position you for a great, uh, a great career in the future, that's good. So, so not all educational debt is is equal, not all uh mortgages are equal. Um, you gotta determine if it justifies the expense. And I'm gonna tell you right now that if one of my family members is sick and goes into a medical situation, I'll go into debt to pay for them. Like, I'll I'll do that. I'll do what it takes to take care of my family. So just because you're in debt doesn't mean that you're wrong, and and just because you're hearing these principles and you're like, man, I'm not surviving in a season of plenty right now doesn't mean that you're bad and you've made bad decisions. Sometimes life just happens. And sometimes difficult circumstances like a tragedy or a loss of a job put you in a in a strapped position. So I'm not, I hope during the series none of you have come across, uh come across this and heard, like, man, this is all my fault. It might be, but it might not be too. The problem that we have to avoid is most of the time when we have a lot of debt, the issue is self-control and not extenuating circumstances, if we're honest with ourselves. So, debt, like I said, it robs you of your future. So, what is the alternative to debt? Proverbs again, chapter six, verse six through eight. It says, Go to the ant, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest. Great verse. Sad verse, too, because what it says is most ants are wiser than most humans. It's true. They know how to work hard and they know how to put things away now so that way they can live securely for the future. So that's another practice that we need to put into place. We need to save for the future. You just put some money away so that way you're ready for things that are happening in the future. This takes self-control. This is hard. You're gonna need to pray, some of you, for the Lord to give you self-control so you can actually spend less than what you make and then not spend what you put aside. Don't just dip into it for any reason. So saving now is a wise strategy to prepare for difficult days ahead. It's also a good way to just prepare for future expenses like cars, college, clothing, emergencies, all that stuff. So I'm gonna give you just a few things that I would recommend you do. Again, these aren't called out as commands in the Bible. These are just good practices if you're trying to get out of debt. First thing you want to do is save $1,000. This thing, this $1,000 is not necessarily for emergencies, like true emergencies, like I'm going to the hospital, I lost my job, $1,000 is not gonna go very far to do that. The problem is when most people get started uh paying down debt, they have little things like car breaks down, or they have a birthday that they need to pay for, and they're like, dad gum it. And so they they have all these little things that nickel and dime them, and so they don't have the, they don't have a little bit of money cushion that allows them to stay on the plan, right? We have to have a plan, stick to the plan. So save a thousand dollars that's there in case you absolutely need it, all right? Try not to spend it. Then what you need to do is you want to save three to six months of living expenses. This is not um not three to six months of your income, this is three to six months of your expenses. Like if the worst case scenario happens, how are you gonna survive for three to six months? Then you want to start to save for future purchases, like cars, trucks, house, whatever, college. Um I joked last week that my daughter who I sent to college, T-Bone, as we call her, um, totaled my truck, right? And so Danielle and I have been saving, like I've been driving around a 200,000 plus mile vehicle, so that way we get into a better financial position so we can buy a vehicle that's gonna be more practical. Like that's just that's just wisdom, right? Like that's a good way to do things. And then you want to have long-term saving. You want to have retirements, you want to have investments that actually provide for the extended period of time, and also to give give an inheritance to your children. We're not gonna talk about that today, though. So I do want to give you a word of warning, though. You can take this to an unhealthy level where money, again, just becomes an idol in your life. Saving can turn into an idol. So we've got to really, really watch out for the motives of your heart as you save. So the danger of saving is that you look at the savings as a source of your security. And that's never what it's meant to be. So, what you're gonna do is you're gonna build up all this savings to like, man, if something bad happens, I'm gonna be able to take care of myself. That's not what God wants. We save so we can be independent sometimes, but what we need to do with our finances is always be God dependent. We don't we don't save just so we can be independent. That's financial independence, it's kind of a misnomer. So, quick recap before we get into what I think is the single most important point of this entire series. It's kind of the landing pad where what I want you guys to get, um, and the true benefit of financial health. So we've talked about all kinds of stuff, we talked about you know um how we make a plan and budget, we talked about savings, we talked about getting out of debt, we talked about investment. Most of us, in fact, we can raise our hands on this. If you did that, if you had a budget, if you saved, if you invested, and you had all those accounts that I just said, would you feel pretty satisfied with where you were? Yes? I got a couple of you that raise your hand. Like we I would be like, I feel like I'm doing pretty good. Like I've checked all the boxes, I'm great. What is crazy is Jesus would look at us if we stopped there and he would say, You fool. He would, I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you this. It's kind of crazy. Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 16. Jesus said to them, Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions, of zeros after your bank account number. And he told them a parable. Jesus always loved to tell stories to help people understand what he was trying to communicate to them. The land of a rich man produced plentifully, lots and lots of income. He's wealthy, lots of good things happening. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. This bank is too small. I need a bigger bank. Or this investment, man, like I'm not someone who's just putting money into savings. I need money that's gonna make money now. Like I've got I've got big money, right? What do I do? And then he he goes like third rail and he talks to himself. He says, Um, I'll do this. I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you've ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Like some of us dream of that. Some of us dream of retirement where I can say, so relax, eat, drink, be merry. That would be great, right? We want that. We want to just chill and and just cruise for our twilight years. And Jesus tells us, but God said to him, fool. Wow. This night your soul is required of you, and the things you've prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. So all of this, this entire series, it all comes down to your heart. That's what it's always about for Jesus. He's not speaking against saving now for needs of the future. That's not what he's saying. What he's talking about is where our hearts should be focused on. Saving says, I need to be prepared. Hoarding says I need to have enough money that I never need to trust God. That's not good. So the problem isn't having reserves, the problem is asking reserves to do what only God can and should do for you. So we need to value the things that God values. We need to trust in his provision instead of trusting in our own wealth. And we also just need to live wisely when it comes to money. The larger point of this series is not so we manage our money well, so we get a bunch of zeros at the end of our bank account. The larger point is we need to be other oriented with what God gives us. Every single one of these practices are are to help us live in a way that we have margin in this area of our lives. And when you're strapped, you don't have any margin. You don't you feel it. The belt is tight and it can't get any tighter. There's no looseness in it. And as a result, when God has a big opportunity for you that you want to respond to, you can't actually respond. You can't do those things. You can't be obedient. It's not because you're stingy, it's because you're strapped that you can't do what God has for you, the good works that He's put in front of you. In in this parable, the man lived for the margin that he was going to create just for the margin's sake. We need to live for margin so that way we can practice the third thing that I want to teach you today. It's really simple. It's living generously. Living generously. Once we have financial freedom, we are set free to experience the joy of generosity. It is so good when you can give away the margin that God has blessed you with to bless others. Most people are not stingy when it comes to that. They want to be able to bless other people, but they're strapped. So the goal of managing our money well is not so we can live a comfortable life. The goal of managing our money well is so we can make a difference with his money he has entrusted us with. That's what the goal of managing money well does. And so when you come here and you hear about a single mom, either here or in the neighborhood, that can't afford tires, you don't have to worry. Do I have enough money to help out? You feel a prompting from the Holy Spirit, but you can't do anything because you're not stingy, you're strapped. When you hear about your other neighbor that lost their job, or a cousin, or somebody that just that they don't even have groceries, you're like, man, I would love to bless them. You're not stingy, but you're strapped. Wouldn't it be nice if you had the margin to do that? Wouldn't it be nice if you had the margin when you hear about an outreach that the church is doing, you're like, oh yeah, I want to get involved in that. I can buy backpacks for students. That's a fantastic use of some of the margin God has given me. Or when you meet a new family at church, I encourage people to do this all the time. When you meet a new family, you're like, man, they seem like they're trying to find a way to connect at church. It would be great if we could take them out to lunch. But I don't know how many kids they have. I don't know if they're okay eating at this restaurant, or I can take them to a nice restaurant. Like I want to do it, but I can't. I'm not stingy, I'm just strapped. I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen here in just about eight weeks, I think. We're gonna have something called the reach out celebration. It's gonna be awesome. If you have never been here for a reach out celebration, what you're gonna do is you're gonna hear about amazing, crazy, powerful, dangerous missions this church is participating in either directly or through our funding. And here's what's gonna happen. I I I promise you, your soul is going to want to jump in and have a piece of that and participate. And I'm not sharing this with you, so the number's really big. I'm just telling you, your soul is gonna want that because the Holy Spirit's gonna say, Man, I've got this for you. This is so good. And if you live in such a way that you're not honoring God with your finances, you're not gonna be stingy, but you're gonna be strapped. And I don't want that for you. Second Corinthians chapter 9 says this. The point is this whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Then skipping on to verse 10, it says, He, talking about God, who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. And this is the point, you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. That's why he's enriching us, that's why he's creating that margin, so we're not strapped, is so we can be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. We live generously, and then all of a sudden, what happens is Jesus gets the glory. That's why we live generously. It's so amazing. We are blessed to be a blessing. We need to steward our resources well so that way we can be generous in every single way. My value in life is not determined by how much I accumulate. My value in life is determined by what I can give away. And I'm not I'm not just talking about money, but that is that is a part of it. This is the goal. We live generous lives. So my hope is that this series has helped you understand some some principles, some foundational principles, and then today just some practical things that you can do to position you to live in such a way that it's going to honor God in every single area of your life. To be good stewards of the things that He's entrusted to each one of us. Don't let money steal your heart. It's okay to have money, it's just not okay for money to have you. Put God first in your finances. He said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So manage your money, money wisely so that way you can be generous in every way. I got one more verse for you. First Timothy chapter six says this. But on God, who richly provides for us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works. So the rich financially are to also be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. How many of us are ready to share? Right now, if somebody asks you, like, hey, would you share that with me? Are you ready to do that? Thus, storing up treasure for themselves is a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. That's what I want for every single one of you. To live in such a way that you can take hold of that which is truly life. Financial freedom, it's not having enough money to do whatever you want, it's having enough margin to do whatever God asks of you. Amen.

unknown 41:13

Let's pray.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Thank you for listening to the Mana Church Stafford Podcast. If you would like to connect with us, you can find us on the web at manastafford.church or download the Mana Church app to listen to our new episodes as they become available. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast. We would also love to meet you in person. If you are local, our services take place each Sunday at 10 a.m. We pray you have an amazing week, and we'll see you next time.