Amen. All right, well we're there in Proverbs chapter number 24, and like we
announced, we've been going through a series on Sunday mornings called Money
Matters, and we've been learning some biblical principles to get a hold of
your finances. And if you're a first-time guest this morning, you might feel like
you're coming into the middle of a movie, because you're coming into the middle of
a series where we've been kind of building this foundation. I would
just encourage you, if you're able to, to go back and learn and listen to the
last couple of weeks. If you remember, when we began the series, we began this
series with a sermon entitled Protect Yourself Against Covetousness, and we, of
course, wanted to make sure that we had the right bearing in regards to finances,
that the goal is not to be rich. In fact, the Bible tells us labor not to be rich.
The goal is not to love money, because the love of money is the root of all
evil, and it will destroy your life, but the goal is to be good stewards of the
finances that God has given us. And then last week, I preached a sermon called
Prioritizing Your Giving, and we talked about the blessing connected to giving
and giving regularly and giving proportionally. And then today, we're
going to be learning about the subject, and the title of the sermon is Plan
Your Spending, and what we're going to be talking about is biblical principles for
setting up a budget. I realize that whenever you talk about budgets, people's
eyes kind of glaze over, and they lose interest, but I want you to understand
that this is a pivotal step in your financial maturity if you're going to
succeed financially, and I'd like to give you three points in regards to planning
your spending. If you're taking notes, I would encourage you to take notes. I'm
going to give you a lot of practical things this morning. On the back of your
course of the week sheet, there's a place for you to write some notes down, and if
you'd like, you can begin by writing down the first point, which is this, the
reward of a spending plan. The reward of a spending plan. Now, a budget is really a
spending plan. It is a plan for your spending. It is a plan for how, what you
will do with the finances that God has blessed you with, and I want to begin
with talking about the reward of a spending plan. What is it that a spending
plan, if you do it right, you do it consistently, will produce in your life,
and again, I want to begin with that. Usually, I kind of end, I would maybe end
a sermon with some sort of exhortation and kind of a reason why you would want
to do this, but I want to begin this morning with that because of the fact
that I realize if I start talking about budgets, people are just gonna be like, I
don't care about this. It's fine. I like being broke, whatever, you know, but I
want to begin with this idea of what is the reward of having a budget because
hopefully, that'll help you to want to do this and want to live this way. Now,
you're there in Proverbs 24. I'd like you to look at verse number four. The Bible says
this, and by knowledge. That's what you're about to receive this morning, a lot of
knowledge. Now, some of you have heard me preach on this before, about every three
years I preach a financial series. You've heard me preach this before, and you're
applying it. Praise the Lord. This will help encourage you along the way. Some of
you have heard me preach this before, and you've not applied it, and you're in the
same place today that you were three years ago financially because you
haven't been listening, and I'm not mad at you. I'm just here to tell you. A wise
person, the Bible says, through wisdom is, excuse me, verse four, and by knowledge
shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. The Bible
says that if you can take knowledge and apply it in your life, God will bless you
financially. Now, there are some things you need to understand, and you know this. I
know you know this, but let's look at it together. There are some things you need
to understand in regards to a budget or the reward that a budget will bring, and
the first thing is this. The only way to build, the only way to build, and we're
not talking, I'm not talking about financially right now. I'm just talking
about anything. The only way to build anything, to accomplish anything in life
is to plan for it. The Bible teaches this concept. You're there in Proverbs 24. Look
at verse 27. Notice what the Bible says. The Bible says, prepare thy work without
and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thine house, and
this is a principle that God gives us in the book of Proverbs, and he's
specifically talking about building a house here, but this can be applied to
anything, but if you're in construction, this definitely applies to you. He says,
prepare thy work without. Now, the word without means outside of the job site, so
here's what he's saying for those of you that kind of work in construction or
work in those in that type of field. He says, before you even get to the job site,
before you even get to the place where you're supposed to build something or
fix something or do something, he says, why don't you take time to prepare thy
work without? Why don't you take some time to think about what you'll need,
what tools you'll need, what materials you'll need, what are the things that
you're going to need in order to accomplish and to build, he says, and make
it fit for thyself. He said, put all the puzzles together and realize, well, if I'm
gonna do this job, then I need this and I need that. I need to do this first. I need
to do that later. He says, look, this will help you in the building process. Prepare
thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards
build thy own house. And here's, here's the truth. People who are successful
builders, they get very good at this, don't they? They get very good at looking
at a job and realizing here's what we need, here's the first step, the second
step, the third step, here are the tools we need, here let's put it all together.
They might spend the day before getting it all together, putting it all together,
preparing to be able to do that. Those of us that are amateur, you know, builders or
amateur, we're gonna fix this in our house and that house, what do we end up
doing? We end up going to Home Depot about six different times, right? Because
we get into a job and we're like, ah, I need this, and then you go back to Home Depot and you come back, ah, now I
need this, right? And you waste a bunch of time, you end up not building anything,
you call a handyman to come finish the job or whatever, and here's the principle.
The principle is this, if you want to build, if you want to accomplish
something, you need to plan for it. Prepare thy work without and make it fit
for thyself in the field and afterward build thine house. Someone said this, plan
your work and work your plan. Plan your work and work your plan. It's a biblical
principle. Look at verse 3 in Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24 and through, and verse 3,
notice what the Bible says, through wisdom is in house building and by
understanding it is established. How do you build something? He says, how do you
build a house? Through wisdom, through understanding, and then of course verse
4, we already read it, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all
precious and pleasant things. Now I'd like you to keep your place there in
Proverbs, we're gonna come back to Proverbs a lot, we're gonna be mainly in
Proverbs this morning, but go to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 14. In the New
Testament you've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke chapter 14, and do me a favor when
you get to Luke, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because
we're gonna leave it and we're gonna come back to it at the end of the sermon.
You'll know we're basically done with the sermon when we get back to Luke
because it's the last place we're gonna go back to at the end of the sermon, Luke
chapter 14, and I just want to show you this principle throughout the Bible, we
saw it in Proverbs, I want you to notice that Jesus taught the same thing, that
the only way to build, the only way to build to accomplish something is to plan
for it. The only way to build, and we understand that when it comes to a
building, but the truth is that this principle can be applied to anything
you're trying to accomplish, whether it's your finances, whether it's your health,
whether it's relationally, the only way to accomplish anything is to plan for it.
Luke chapter 14, look at verse 28, Luke 14, 28, notice what Jesus said, he said,
for which of you intending, the word intending means meaning to, having a
desire to, he says, for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not
down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it. He says,
which of you intending to build a tower doesn't just first sit down and plan out
whether this is something he can accomplish. Verse 29, less happily, the
word happily means by chance or perhaps, he says less happily after he had laid
the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it began to mock him.
And he says, look, if you begin to build something and you lay the foundation and
then you realize, I can't do this, people are going to think you're silly, people
are going to think you're foolish, people will begin to mock you. I think of this
passage of scripture every time I'm driving by trucks, so who's seen that
building, you know, I don't know what they're building, but across the street
from In-N-Out on Truxall Road, there is a building that they've been building,
it seems like, for years. And, you know, my wife and I, we have this idea that
there's some sort of, there's something wrong with the foundation there, because
they built, they laid the foundation, they built it, and then they actually tore it
down, then they built it again, then they kind of tore it down and stripped it out
a little bit, now they're building it again, but it's just taken a long time, a
long time, and every time we drive by there, we kind of chuckle and say, man,
this is what Jesus was talking about, you know, less happily after he had laid the
foundation, is not able to finish it, and all that behold it began to mock him.
Notice verse 30, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. You
say, well, I'm not building, but notice this principle can be applied to
anything, because then he gives another example in verse 31, he says, or what
king, going to make war against another king, siteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with
twenty thousand, or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an
embassage and desires conditions of peace. And here's the idea, the idea is
that the only way to build, the only way to build, the only way to accomplish, is
to plan for it. And here's what you need to understand, nothing happens by chance.
If something happens, it happens by choice. Nothing happens by chance, it
happens by choice. So when you look at someone who's doing well financially,
when you look at someone who's paid off their mortgage early, when you look at
someone who's living debt-free, when you're looking at someone who's prepared
for their future and prepared for retirement, don't sit there and think, oh
they were lucky, oh they were fortunate, oh it just kind of worked out for them
in that way. No, those things, and of course we've got the, you know,
we've got the examples, of course, of people who just, you know, were given a
huge inheritance or whatever from their parents, but the truth matter is that
that's not the average person. The average person that is
financially successful, is financially successful because they planned and made
a choice to do so. Nothing happens by chance, it happens by choice. And if
you're going to be financially successful, and here's what I'm trying to
explain to you, the only way to build financial success, financial security, to
accomplish financial security in your life, is to plan for it. Please understand
this, getting out of debt requires planning and preparation. Saving for
major purchases requires planning and preparation. Paying off your mortgage
early, think about that. What have you paid off your mortgage early? How would
that free you up? How would that remove a burden off your shoulders? How would that
free you up? Not to live for money, but to live for God. How, what would that do in
your life if you were to pay off your mortgage early, but look, to do that it's
going to require planning and preparation. To be able to have a saved
up for your retirement and for the years which you can't work, that will require
planning and preparation. And the idea is this, that a wise person will look ahead
and say, this is what needs to be accomplished, this is what needs to be
done, so I will plan and prepare in order to do it. And whether it's building a
house or building financial security, you must plan and you must prepare for
success. Let me say this, a spending plan, a spending plan will use your income,
because you've got income. You work somewhere, your husband works or
whatever, and there's income that comes into your house. A spending plan will use
your income as a tool to build financial security and success. A
spending plan, a budget, will use your income as a tool, because we're trying to
build something, right? As a tool to build financial security and financial
success. Now, keep your place there on Luke, we're gonna come back to it, but go
back to Proverbs chapter 12, Proverbs chapter 12, and while you turn there let
me read for you from this, just a little, a little quote from an article here. The
article is entitled, how much does the average American earn in their lifetime?
It's from a website called cheat sheet.com, and it's, the article is entitled,
how much does the average American earn in their lifetime? And I want to read
this to you, because I want you to think about something. In your working lifetime,
from the moment you began to work, till the day you can no longer work, you will
earn money, and there will be a certain amount of money that flows through your
hands. Let me read for you from this article, it's hard to say what level of
education attainment the average American has, but you can say the overall
average lifetime earnings, taking education into account, will land
somewhere between 1 million and 1.8 million before taxes. And, and you say, oh
I don't make that much money. Understand what the article is saying. The average
American in their working lifetime will have somewhere between a million and
close to two million dollars passed through their hands. You will earn
somewhere between a million, the average American will earn somewhere between a
million and close to two million dollars in their lifetime. And how you
plan to spend that money will determine your financial success and security. I
mean if someone said to you, I'm gonna hand you a million dollars, spend it
wisely. Wouldn't you think it'd be smart to sit down and consider the cost, and
consider, well how should this be spent, and where should it be invested, and how
shall it be done, and but here's the point, if you live in the United States
America, you will have a million dollars passed through your hands. And the sad
thing is that many people get to retirement and have nothing to show for
it. They had a million or a million point eight, you know, or close to two million
dollars passed through their hands, and they did no planning, they did no
preparing, and they have nothing to show for it, and I'm here to tell you, and I'm
not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm just trying to encourage you in this
area, that is foolish. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27, notice what the Bible
says. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27 it says this, the slothful man roasted not
that which he took in hunting. That's, that's talking about laziness, we'll talk
about that another day. Why don't you notice the last part of verse 27, but the
substance of a diligent man is precious. See the word diligent means a hard
working man, and of course in Proverbs we're talking about people that are wise.
He says the substance of a wise man, a wise man realizes that the substance
that he has, the income and the increase that God has given to him, is a precious
thing that must be managed well, that must be stewarded well, and you say well
what, why would I want to even set up a budget? Here's why, because a spending
plan will use your income as a tool to build financial security and success, a
wise person will realize that you have limited resources. You're only going to
be able to work for a certain amount of time in your life, you're only going to
make a certain amount of income, there's only going to be a certain amount of
money that the Lord allows to flow through your hands in your lifetime, and
a wise person realizes that they have limited resources and we must make the
most of them, and here's what I can tell you, if you decide today to plan your
work, to prepare, and to plan your spending, to not just spend like Proverbs
says, and we'll see some verses about it, to not just spend your money carelessly
like a fool, but as a wise person, considering that there are things that
must be done in life in order to prepare and to build for financial success and
security, you will get to the end of your life and have much to show for it. There
is a reward at the end, there is a reward through for those who plan, for those who
prepare, so what I'm trying to get you to do today is to make a decision to say
I will plan my spending, I will plan for the money that God allows to flow
through my hands, so we talked about the reward of spending, let me give you the
second point this morning, let's talk about the reason for a spending plan,
what's the reason? Go, you're there in Proverbs 12, go to Proverbs 23, Proverbs
23, the reward is this, that you will build financial success and security, and
please understand this, and again I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, like I'm
working at this, my wife and I, we're working at this, and we budget, and we
do these things, and I'm not, everything I'm teaching you is something
that we're trying to apply in our lives, and we're not perfect at it, but we're
doing our best with it, but I will tell you this, if you're broke, and I'm
not gonna ask, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, okay, but if we were to
take a raise of hands, and we were to ask who is just, you know, has their finances
out of control, if it was anonymously, and you wouldn't embarrass yourself or
whatever, who has their finances just out of control, just not where you want to be
financially, just struggling financially, and we took a raise of hands, and then we
asked who's not budgeting, I promise you the same hands will go up, because what
budgeting does, what financial planning does, what planning or spending does, is
it brings you into control, see the reason for a spending plan, you say
what's the reason, here's the reason, money has a tendency to get out of
control, is that true, money has a tendency to just get out of control, the
Bible says this, Proverbs 23, look at verse 5, Proverbs 23 verse 5, notice what
the Bible says, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, and by the way
this is what God is saying, I don't want you setting your eyes, and your goals, and
your ambitions on money, I don't want your laboring to be rich, he says well
thou set thine eyes on that which is not, the word not meaning that which isn't
there, that which is gone, say what do you mean God, one knows what he says, for
riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven,
here's what he said, money has the tendency to get out of control, riches
certainly make themselves wings, isn't that true, they make themselves wings in
the in the way of a dental bill, they make themselves wings in the way of a
mechanical bill, they make themselves wings in the way of a plumber's clause,
they make themselves, there's just a tendency of money that when you have it
for it to want to just kind of disappear, for it to want to just kind of get out
of control, for it to want to just go away and fly away, for riches certainly
make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven, go to Proverbs
27, look at verse 24, Proverbs 27 and verse 24, the Bible says this, Proverbs 27
and verse 24 says this, for riches are not forever, and by the way this is why
you don't want to put your your life's ambitions on that which is temporal,
which is corruptible, you want to put your life's ambitions on that which is
eternal, which is incorruptible, he says for riches are not forever and that the
crown endure to every generation and here's what he's saying, riches, money,
wealth has a tendency to get out of control, you say well what's the reason
for a spending plan, the reason for a spending plan is this, because money has
a tendency to get out of control, because you as the average American are going to
have anywhere between a million and two million dollars flow through your hands
in your working lifetime and that money has a tendency to want to spread wings
and fly away and get out of control, what you need to do is set up a spending
plan, you say why, because money needs to be forced to come under control, money
has a tendency to get out of control and a spending plan is the way that you
bring it back in, you bring in those reins and you force it to come on come
under control, look at you're there in Proverbs 27, look at verse 23, be thou
diligent, I want you to notice how this word diligent keeps coming up and the
reason for that is this, if you're not budgeting, let me just go ahead and tell
you, budgeting is work, it requires work, it requires you setting aside time,
sitting down with a word document or a notebook and a calculator and a pen and
getting to work, he says be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, the way
that we would say this today is be thou diligent to know the state of thy bank
accounts, thy credit card balances, right, this was how they measured wealth in
those days, this was their economy, they were a cultural, agricultural economy and
they had harvests and they had cattle and they had flocks, he says be thou
diligent to know the state of thy flock and look well to thy hurt, see the reason
for spending, for a spending plan is this, money has a tendency to get out of
control and money needs to be forced to come under control, that's why I like
that quote we have in the bulletin, a budget is telling your money where to go
instead of wondering where it went, because the truth is this, that if you
were, when you realize, oh wow, I'm broke and usually that comes by the way of, you
know, your credit card statement or, you know, non-sufficient funds or whatever it
is, you know, when you realize that your money has flown away, then you
sit there and wonder, well I wonder what happened, I mean I just got paid, I wonder
what happened with all the money, but see a spending plan, a spending plan is you
telling your money I'm going to control you because you are a resource that God
has given me and that resource is limited, there's only a certain amount of
money that will float through my hands and God wants me to steward and to
manage those resources properly, go to Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, now let me just
help you out with this and, you know, where you're all adults, I think you know
what a budget is and if you don't, you can look up, you know, just
Google how to budget and you can get all sorts of plans and there's software and
things, but let me just give you some practical tips in regards to setting
up a spending plan or a budget, because what I've noticed over the last, you know,
nine plus years of ministry as I've tried to help people with this is that
there are a lot of common mistakes that people make with budgets and it seems
like a lot, you know, there's no new thing under the sun, it seems like a lot
of people make the same mistakes when it comes to budgets, their hearts in the
right place, they're trying to budget, but they they make a lot of mistakes with
budgeting, so let me just kind of help you with some practical tips and if you'd
maybe like to write this down or whatever you can do that, but let me give
you some practical tips, you're there in Proverbs 31, we're going to go to it here
in a minute, but some practical tips in regards to setting up a spending plan,
setting up a budget, how does this work? First of all, you need to decide to live
off of a zero base budget, you need to decide to live off of a zero base budget,
now a zero base budget or zero base budgeting is a financial term and a way
of budgeting where your income minus your expenses equals zero, the base is
zero, with a zero base budget you have to make sure your expenses match what's
coming in during the month and you're giving every dollar a function, it just
means your income minus all your expenses, which is your outgo, equals zero,
so what you need to do is decide that you will set up a zero base budget and
you say well what's the purpose for that or what's the point of that, when you
have a zero base budget, what you do is you assign a place in your written
budget to each dollar, I'd like to say it this way, I've heard it said this way,
every dollar on paper on purpose, every dollar that comes through your hands is
written down on a paper, on a Word document or whatever it might be and it
has a purpose, it is given, I like how this little article says giving every
dollar a function, it is zero based, meaning you have your income coming in,
your outgo going out and at the end it shouldn't be a plus, it shouldn't,
definitely shouldn't be a negative, it should just be a zero, now sometimes I
teach this and people say well no don't you want it to be a plus, well I don't
want it to be a zero, you know we're just trying to avoid it being a negative, but
here's what you need to understand about a zero base budget and let me just kind
of help you out with this, maybe some of you don't know about budgeting so let me
just give you what a budget is, a zero base budget is this, income what you make
right, your income, your increase, whatever, the money that you have coming in
through your hands every week or every other week or every month or whatever it
is, minus your outgo, what you spend and we want to get that to zero every month.
Here's a practical tip, make a written budget on paper or a Word document on
your computer or whatever, okay, not in your head, people think like oh I got a
budget it's all up here, no nothing's up there, okay, that's why you're broke,
you need to write a budget on paper, you need to have it somewhere on paper
on a Word document, you need to write it out, I know how much I spent, no you don't,
you will be shocked if you sat down and looked at how much money you
actually spent at Starbucks, how much money you actually spent at the mall, how
much money you actually spent, look you need to have a written budget every time
you get paid and it needs to be on a paper or on a Word document and let me
say this, you need to write a budget every time you get paid, every time money
comes in through your hands you need to have a plan for that money, now if you
get paid once a month then you should have a once a month budget, if you get
paid every other week then you should have an every other week budget but you
need to have a written budget every time you get paid and you need to have a
budget at least once a month, maybe you have had some weird job where you get
paid once a year, I've heard of situation where you know somebody gets paid once a
year and whatever, okay that's great but then you need to just you don't make a
budget for the whole year, you need to sit down and write a budget for every
month, you make your budget, here's another practical tip, make your budget
realistic, avoid extremes, a lot of times when people get in their heads that oh
man I've been messing up financially, I need to get my financing orders, they go
in these extremes and it's not just finances, it's anything you know, hell
people realize I've gained some weight, I need to lose weight, so they go to these
unhealthy extremes and they try all these extreme fad diets and extreme this
and extreme that and every time and I'm not trying to hurt your feelings okay
because I would say most people that tried diets here would say the same
thing, you try your extreme diet then you get off of it and you gain all the weight
back, why? Because it's not sustainable, because you gained the weight because of
a lifestyle and if you're gonna cut the weight down, you need to cut the
weight down through changing your lifestyle and if your life is a
financial mess, your life is a financial mess because of a lifestyle and if
you're gonna bring back the reins, you're gonna have to bring back the reins on
your lifestyle, so you need to make your budget realistic, avoid extremes, here's
why, because it must be sustainable or it will not work, we're not talking about
something you do for a short amount of time, we're talking about a new way to
spend your money for the rest of your life, a new lifestyle, a new way of seeing
things, you must, here's another practical tip, you must review and redo your budget
regularly, there's no such thing as a perfect budget, this was me when I, when
we first started budgeting years ago and we started getting a hold of our
finances, I remember I spent like two weeks just working on this perfect
budget, I got it all figured out, not all these graphs and pie charts or whatever
you know and got it all figured out like this is the perfect, this is gonna work
and the next month it was completely destroyed and I must have
messed up and you work on it, work on it, get it all done, the next month is
completely destroyed and you know what you realize is this, that there's no
such thing as a perfect budget because every month is different, right, so every
month you have to budget for the expenses of that month, which means, you
say but that's a lot of work, yeah I know, wise people are diligent about their
finances, yes it's a lot of work but a wise person will say every month is
different, every month needs a new plan, a different plan and of course there are
some things that don't change with your budgets and they kind of stay the same
but every month is different, look December is going to be different than
June, you understand that and you can sit there and say oh I got December taken
care of, it's called my credit card, yeah exactly, come back for next week's sermon
how that is a burden, it'll bury you and a smart person, a wise person will plan
their spending, will realize that every month is different, you know we've got
six kids, I don't know how many I should have asked my wife but I think like
four of my kids were born in September, September is like Christmas at our house
you know and it's you know and September requires a different budget, September
requires a different budget than August required and just different spending and
different things and so review and redo your budget regularly, there's no such
thing as a perfect budget, every month is different, make your budget realistic,
avoid extremes, it must be sustainable or it will not last, here's another
practical tip, assign a portion and this goes with making it realistic, assign a
portion of your budget to fund recreational spending, this is what we're
talking about making it sustainable, assign a portion of your budget to
things like eating out because here's the truth, you're gonna eat out, you're
gonna get coffee, you're gonna do something fun and have to spend money,
that's fine, we're not telling you don't have a life, don't do anything, just
you know live like a monk or something, we're not saying that, what we're
saying is this, if you're going to eat out, plan to eat out, if you're going to
have coffee, plan to have coffee so you're not sitting back saying wow I
can't believe how much money we spent on coffee but you can say no we've allotted
this much amount of money towards our coffee or towards our date nights or
towards our spending or towards our whatever, so look you need to have a
budget that's realistic, you need to have a budget that's sustainable and you need
to assign a portion to fund things, recreational things, eating out, date
nights, doing something fun, whatever, ordering a pizza with the kids every
once in a while, whatever it is you're going to do, here's another practical tip,
involve everyone who'll be doing any spending, involve everyone who'll be
doing any spending, if you're married, you as a husband and wife, you both need
to just get on board with this thing and look there's no point of having a
budget if one of you is just going to spend whatever they want anyway, do you
understand that? So you need to get on board and of course you men, you're
supposed to be the leader of the home, you need to take charge in this area and say
hey honey let's sit down and let's look at this and this is the budget and you
work together and get your wife's input because you say well I don't need my
wife's input, look a wise person will get counsel from their wife, you say well
I'm the leader, yeah but you know what leaders don't just make decisions on
their own, they get counsel from other people and you know what let me just
tell you something guys, you'd be smart to get some counsel from your wife in
regards to how much do we actually spend on groceries, how much do we actually
spend on you know if your wife's doing all the grocery shopping, if your wife's
buying all these things, she's the one that knows, get her input and so
that it can be realistic so it doesn't just get destroyed after the first month.
Here's another practical tip, use the cash envelope system. This was taught by
a man named Larry Burkett in his book How to Manage Your Money, it's probably I
think and I don't know a lot about Larry Burkett but I don't think he was a
Baptist but he's probably one of the first Christians that kind of began to
really teach these concepts on finances and of course other people have taken
this system and used it as well. I think it's a great system, the cash
envelope system, we use it in our home and you know the cash envelope system
basically says this, you say because remember the point of a budget, the point
of a budget is not to have something written on somewhere and then you just
go do whatever you want because here's where most people mess up, well I'm only
gonna spend X amount of dollars on eating out and then you get to the end
of the month and you're like wow I spent like five times that, my budget
didn't work, no you didn't work, okay your budget, your budget,
a word document on your computer is not gonna stop you from spending the money,
you say okay well what I do, here's what you do, you decide, you give a realistic
number, here's what we're gonna spend on eating out, a realistic number, here's
what I'm gonna spend on getting coffee, a realistic number, whatever you like to do,
whatever your recreation is, you like to go shooting, here's how much I'm gonna
spend on shooting or here's how I'm gonna spend on this recreation, be realistic
about the things you do and of course you may need to sacrifice some things,
we'll talk about that in a minute, but be realistic about what you're actually
going to do, how much you're gonna spend on groceries, here's how much our family
spends on groceries, here's how much we are willing to spend on maybe eating out
every once in a while, here's how much we're willing to spend on this or on
that and then you actually go to the bank, you say well I was gonna require work,
yeah a diligent man, then you go to the bank and you pull that cash out, then you
put it into an envelope, then you put it somewhere safe in your home where you
and your wife have access to it, here's how this works, then you say oh you know
we got out a church late, let's you know grab something to eat so honey so you
don't have to cook you know at 11 45 p.m. or whatever and then we pull out our
little spending envelope and we've got money in there that we've set aside for
spending and we go out and we and we eat out and you say well what do you
what what's the what's the benefit to a cash envelope, here's the benefits of
cash envelope, there'll come a time in the month when you will go to spend
whatever on groceries or whatever on this or whatever on that and you'll pull
out your little envelope and you'll figure out and you'll realize there's no
money in it, you've already spent everything you were going to spend on
coffee, so what do I do now, you pull out your credit card, wrong, you don't go to
coffee, you don't go eat out, you're done, the point of a spending plan is to
control your spending and one of the best ways to do it in my opinion is
using a cash envelope system because the cash envelope system limits you because
once you're done, you're done, once the envelopes empty, sorry it's empty till
the next time I get paid, then we'll refill it again and use a cash envelope
system in order to control your spending, see a budget forces you to stop
and think about what and how much you are spending, are you there in Proverbs
31, look at verse 16, now look you know Proverbs 31 is the proverb of the
virtuous woman proverb right, I think we can apply this to everybody but
especially you stay-at-home wives, you need to realize that you are a huge part
of a family's financial success, you're a huge part of a family's financial
success, notice what it says here about the virtuous woman, it says she
considerth a field and buyeth it, see that word considerth, that means to think
carefully about it, she considerth a field, she thinks about it, she plans it,
she looks at her budget and then she buyeth it, that's what a budget does for
you, it helps you slow down because most of the financial mistakes you've made
have to do with impulse spending, you know that's true and again I don't want
to embarrass you but if you've got credit card debt which I would say most
of you in this room do, if we look at the average spending of an American, the
average American has ten thousand dollars in credit card debt, you know
depending on what statistics or articles or whatever you read and here's the
truth, if you've got credit card debt and I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand
but I want you to think about this, if you have credit card debt go ahead and
raise your hand in your mind, alright, okay, now answer me this, can you tell me
where you spent that ten thousand dollars, you probably can't, you don't
even remember, you got you got debt on, you ate out somewhere three years ago
and you're still paying that off, you went on some trip you don't even remember
it, you've got a garage full of, a closet full of, a storage
container full of stuff you bought, you don't use, you don't even remember where
it came from but you're paying on it and we buy and we
have these impulse buys and we go places and we buy this and we buy that, well I'm
not even sure how much I have or how much it costs or whatever, I'll take it,
I'll take two and what a spending plan does is it stops you and it says because a wise
woman, a wise man, a Bible says she considerate a field and buy it, let me
give you another practical tip, my wife and I have a rule in our home, we don't
make a major purchase, we do not make a major purchase, our rule is whenever
we're confronted with some sort of major purchase, even if we both look at the
situation and say yes this is a good deal, we agree with it, it's the
right thing, whatever, we just have a rule that we always sleep on it, so
whenever we go somewhere, somebody confronts us with some sort of sale or
whatever and because it begins to tug at you right and you're like oh
man I really want to get that, whatever, I really want to go on that cruise or
get that timeshare, do whatever, I really want to buy, I mean I wonder how many
vehicles have been bought just off of an impulse buy, houses bought on an impulse
buy, big debt accrued off of an impulse buy, if you would just have a rule that
says I don't make financial, and when we walk in you know we'll have salespeople
come to us or come to our door or whatever say we want to sell you this
vacuum for $7,000, greatest vacuum you'll ever have, I'm like is it gonna do my
laundry, good night, $7,000, you know I mean good and we just tell people hey
you know I appreciate it, sounds like a great deal, we don't we don't make
financial decisions without sleeping on it, oh well it's a one-time sale, my boss
says you got three minutes to make a decision, well I appreciate that and if
the deal is not there then it must not been meant to be because we made a
commitment that we don't make major purchases without sleeping on it, you
know what happens when the sales guy goes and you sleep on it and you wake up
the next day, usually things just have yeah I think my $150 vacuum would be good
enough, I don't think I need to buy that vehicle, I don't need to I don't think I
need to get that house, I think I'll be fine and here's what I'm telling you
here's what I'm telling you, a wise woman, a wise man, consider it a field, well then
I'll never get to buy it, no and buys it, but they make wise purchases, it's not that
you don't get to buy things, it's that you get to think about it, it's that you get
to prepare for it, it's that you get to plan for it, so we talked about the
reward of a spending plan, we talked about the reason for a spend plan, go to
Hebrews chapter 13, towards the end of the New Testament if you start at the
book of Revelation and you head backwards you'll have Hebrews chapter,
you'll start of course Revelation, Jude, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, 2nd, 1st Peter, James,
Hebrews, well you turn there let me let me answer this, how about business owners
because business owners, I love business owners, I don't know why, we we have a ton
of business owners in our church, I think last time I took account there was 10
maybe more than 10 business owners in our church and that's that's not not
normal, you know, I had a pastor friend who
pastored a church about the same size of our church, actually not the same size, a
larger church, just a little bit larger than our church and he took account of
how many business owners were in his church and there was three business
owners, our church was smaller than his and we had about three times as many
business owners, I don't know why that is, I don't know what that what that's
about, I maybe I attract business owners, I'm not sure you know this type of
preaching or whatever but we've got a lot of business owners in our in our in
our church and I'm great for it and and by the way I think you know being a
business owner is a great way to go in the United States of America as far as
being able to make money and and and and have financial security but business
owners they always like to throw this at me and I love you guys all right so let
me help you, well I can't budget I'm a business owner I don't have a fixed
income I don't have specific income so how I can't budget no no no look where
there's a will there's a way all right and you can't you can sit there and give
all reasons why you can't budget why you can't budget why you can't budget it's
simply not true and I and and you say well I'm not trying to hurt your
feelings I'm just telling you if you were to budget if you were to plan your
spending it would help your business grow it would help your business to
increase it would help your business to do better you say well how do I how do I
do a budget as a business owner well here's what you need to figure out you
need to figure out how much there's probably a number that you don't make
less than that number every month now the way you figure that number out is
you just figure out how much money you've made every month for the last 12
months and divided by 12 and you'll have an average there and you'll probably
know that in your business there's not even when it's a bad month even when
it's a low month you generally don't go below X amount and you say how do you
know that you know that because you haven't gone below that amount over the
last 12 or 24 or 36 months there's just kind of a number there that you don't go
below that number so once you figure out what that number is that that number
that you know unless God decides your job and he's gonna take everything away
from you you know where you kind of know that this is the number that we don't go
below once you have that number then you figure out what are the needed expenses
what are the I can't compromise on this this must be paid we're talking about
things like rent on a building like mortgage on your house groceries things
like that obviously things utilities things that you have to pay you figure
out what are those needed expenses that need to get paid and then you just do a
zero based budget and you figure out this is how much we know will come in
this is how much we know we must spend and if there's anything left over zero
based budget doesn't mean you just leave it there because if you leave it there's
gonna spring up wings and fly away zero based budget means you now have to
decide what to do with that now this is what we do as those of us that are
obviously donors we figure out okay I've got X amount of dollars once I've paid
all my bills I've got this much income I've got this many bills I've got this
much left over what do I do now now I decide how much of that am I going to
spend on a date night how much am I that am I gonna spend on a coffee how much of
that am I gonna spend on on on eating out and hopefully it's not gonna be an
enormous you know amount and then whatever you have left over okay are we
gonna put this towards savings are we gonna put this toward debt are we gonna
put this towards paying off the mortgage early everything gets a plan a purpose
in the plan on paper on purpose every dollar has a function that's zero based
budgeting what you do as a business owner is you just kind of need to write
out a dream sheet if I know that this is how much comes in every month because
this is at least comes in every month because this is how much has came in
every month for the last three months for the last six months for the last 12
months I know that these are the bills that need to get paid but here's what a
good steward does a good steward says if God were to bless me with more if God
were to bless me with more if we were to have a great month and 5,000 came in
more 10,000 came in more 15,000 came in more what would I do with that and then
you kind of have a dream sheet and you say well the first thing I do is I pay
off this credit card or I pay off this car right I put it towards this and then
if the what if there was more left over what would you do well then I would do
put it towards savings or put it towards retirement whatever your plan is you
just kind of have a dream sheet so that if God chooses to bless you financially
you don't have this money sitting around that's kind of wing up spring up wings
and fly away and get out of control but you've got a plan for that spending and
I will tell you this if you plan out if you plan out what you would do for the
glory of God if God were to bless you I bet you God would begin to bless you so
plan out your spending plan out your spending we talked about the reward of
a spending plan we talked about the reasons for a spending plan let me
thirdly this morning give you this and we're almost done let's talk about the
realization from your spending plan see for some of you who don't have a
spending plan in your spending plan you may come to some realizations you may
realize some things that you had not realized before because you used to have
it up in your head and when you put it down on paper you're like whoa this is
different than what I thought there's basically two realizations that most
people make when they make a spending plan number one when you budget you may
realize that you have a spending problem now I probably could have told you that
but you know I'm I'm nice I'm not gonna tell you that but when you sit down and
you look at how much comes in and how much goes out you may realize you have a
spending problem problem here's what this means you may need to cut your
spending you may need to stop spending what you're spending Hebrews 13 5 are
you there it's a great verse let your conversation be without covetousness why
do we spend above our means why do we spend more than we make the average
American we're told the average American spends more than they make and they
offset it using credit cards they offset it using their line of credit they
offset it by borrowing from their brother-in-law they offset it by payday
advances payday loans we didn't talk I didn't talk about this last week as I
wanted to bring it up this week you know that the tithe another reason for the
tithe that God gives us is because God is trying to teach us something when God
tells you that 10% of our increase should go to him he's trying to teach us
a principle that we are to not live to and above our our means he wants us to
figure out how much money we make and then live a percentage below that he
wants us to live below our means now if you tithe you have to live below your
means because you get 10% of your income to God 10% of your increase to God but
you know you may realize that yeah I'm tithing but I'm still living above my
means well let your conversation be without covetousness because it's
probably your covetousness that has you living in that house you can't afford
it's probably your covetousness that has you driving that vehicle you can't
afford it's probably your covetousness and look there are ways to figure it out
and I'm not gonna sit here and tell you but if your mortgage is more than a
quarter or a third of your monthly income you're living in a house you
cannot afford you need to go live in the ghetto you need to come live in my
neighborhood okay if you're driving a vehicle and your vehicle is more than
20% you know 20% 15% of your income you're driving a vehicle you cannot
afford you understand what I'm saying let your covetousness Bible says let
your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such
things as ye have you just need to be content with what you can afford for he
had said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I don't know why you go
shopping when there's all sorts of free clothes just in that closet right down
the hall I mean have you seen some of the clothes in that closet it's like
nice clothes I would never wear something used okay be broke then go
ahead and be broke go ahead and be average go ahead and be dead let your
conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have
for he had said see here's where our joy should come I will never leave thee nor
forsake thee see no matter where I live no matter what I drive no matter what I
wear if God's with me it's enough go back to Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 you
might find look I'm just I'm just warning you or you have a heart attack
you might find if you actually sit down and look at how much money comes in look
at how much money goes out you might find that you have a spending plan a
spending problem you may need to cut your spending I think it was Benjamin
Franklin who said a penny saved as a penny earned Proverbs 21 and verse 20 and
somebody could email me Benjamin Franklin was a mason okay whatever it's
a good quote okay Proverbs 21 verse 20 they're all masons everyone you can't
mention anybody without them being a mason Proverbs 21 20 there is treasure
to be desired and oil and the dwellings of the wise there is treasure to be
desired and oil and the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up
you know what foolish people do they spend everything they have you know what
a wise person does they live below their means Proverbs 21 look at verse 17
Proverbs 21 verse 17 the Bible says he that loveth pleasure he that loveth
Starbucks he that loveth McDonald's he that loveth eating out he that loveth
whatever he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man look this what the Bible
says he that loveth pleasure should be a poor man he that loveth wine and oil
shall not be rich you need to figure out and look I I'm happy to help you and you
some of you know I don't look I don't treat people face to face the way I do
preaching obviously okay but look if you if you need somebody to help you sit
down and write down a budget or whatever I'm willing to do that with you and I'd
be happy to do that but let me just warn you right now if you're gonna do that
and if you got financial plans realize that you're probably not gonna like what
I have to say cuz I'm trying to look at your budget say well you can cut this
and you can cut this and you can this and you don't need that and you don't
need this no I need that no okay be broke but there are things you can cut
out of your spending if you are living above your means if you are spending
more than you make you need to cut things out of your spending you're not
the US government now look the US government would be wise to cut their
spending their idiots but at least they get to print their own money you don't
so there are things you can cut out like eating out like daily coffee like
shopping do a spending fast every once in a while my wife and I will just do a
spending fast for a month we'll just say no spending period we're not gonna go
anywhere when I eat anything we're not gonna go you know have any I'm talking
about eating out you know obviously we're eat at home you know we're only
gonna go to a restaurant if somebody takes us to a restaurant or something
you know I mean like you know we're just you know eating out no daily coffee no
shopping you know or maybe you need to start shopping at thrift stores and and
maybe you start buying use there are things that you can downsize you might
need to downsize your phone you might need to downsize your car you might need
to downsize your house you there are things that you need to get get rid of
and look if you're broke and look I love you I'm not mad at you I'm trying to
help you if you're broke and you smoke you drink you gamble you you know drink
alcohol you're watching cable TV you need to knock that off I mean you
knock that out period just for the glory of God but then you're going into debt
for it that makes no sense realize hey there might you might come to a
realization from your spending plan that when you budget you may realize you have
a spending problem and you name may need to cut your spending there's another
realization you may come to go to Proverbs chapter 10 because there are
some people and they're usually the exception not the rule but there are
some people who say don't pass it look look at my budget there's how much I
make this moment I spend there's nothing there's nothing extra here I've
caught what I can cut I've done everything I can there's nothing else I
can do well then you might come to a different realization and is this when
you budget you may realize that you have an income problem now I would say that
most people have a spending problem the average person in this room if you're
finance out of control you have a spending problem but some people do have
an income problem and you may need to just increase your income Proverbs 10 in
verse 4 he becomes poor that dealeth with a slack hand the word slack means
lazy you've heard of a slacker he that he becomes poor that deals with a slack
hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich now your goal should not be to be
rich but God says you know how the rich guy got there by being diligent by
working hard some of you need to get a job but you know some of you need to get
a better job you may need to realize that you know the job that you're
working is there's no future there you've made as much as you can and
that's it you may need to get a new career and look I'm trying to just help
you with this you may need to learn a new skill you may need to learn new
trade you you may need to take some online classes or do something get a
certificate or do something but you just you you may just need a new career you
just may not make enough money when you do a budget you may realize that you
have a spending problem and need to cut your spending but you may realize and I
would say that this is not the majority you may realize that you have a an
income problem you just don't make enough say well I you know I can't I
love I love being a pastor cuz everybody's telling me why they can't
why they can't why they can't and I'm always just dismantling their cans you
can I can makes a great man all right you know people say oh I don't have any
skills I don't have any ability I'm told to get a new career I'm too I'm told to
learn skill I can't take online courses I'm not with this I'm not that okay well
let me tell you something the most successfully financially the most
financially successful people in United States of America are not it are not
very highly professionally educated business people this might be why we
have ten business people in our church but you know what I would do if you say
I just can't learn anything else you know what I would tell you I'll tell you
start a business learn from others who started businesses read books about
starting a business find the business you want to get them and look let me
just tell you this don't don't go start a business and you spend a million
dollars getting it started and then you do nothing with it okay but you know
what I would do I'd figure out what can I do that would what service can I
provide what product can I produce that would that would be valuable to someone
that they would trade money with me for doing it and then I would become an
expert in that business if if I was starting a business and whatever I would
read everything I can about that business if I was doing sales I'd read
everything I could about sales and obviously being ethical and having
integrity if I you know I would read and learn and study and watch YouTube
videos about that you know let me just help you with starting a business here's
how you do it you start part-time you kind of start doing it on the side you
build that to the point where it could maybe take care of half of or maybe a
60% of your income before you quit your job and and and go forward you start
part-time and transition but you save money for that switch you save money in
advance realizing that you're gonna have to transition into full-time business
and you try to have some money on the side and we'll talk about that not next
week but the week after that well here's what I'm telling I'm just telling you
that when you sit down and do a budget you may realize you may realize that you
have a spending problem you probably I should say will realize that you have a
spending problem you need to cut your spending I would say that's probably
most of you in this room but some of you may realize that you have an income
problem and you need to do something to increase your income you need to prepare
you need to plan you need to be diligent you need to work we talked about the
reward of a spent for a spending plan go to Luke chapter 16 remember I told you
when we went to Luke would be done Luke chapter 16 we talked about the reward of
a spending plan the reward of a spending plan is that you will build financial
success and security and the goal should never be to be rich the goal
should never be to love money the goal should be able to live and provide for
yourself and your family in a way that frees you up to serve the Lord you talk
about the reasons for a spending plan what are the reasons the reasons are
this money has a tendency to get out of control money has a tendency to get out
of control and a spending plan is you creating a plan that will control the
money that runs through your hands and then we talked about number three the
realization of a spending plan the realization is this that you will
probably realize that you have a spending problem and you need to cut
your spending and you may realize that you have an income problem and you need
to increase your income Luke chapter 16 look at verse 10 we'll finish here look
check chapter 16 of verse 10 the Bible says he that is faithful we read this a
couple of weeks ago but I want you to see it again he that is faithful in that
which is least and by the way that's money money is the least he that is
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is
unjust in the least is unjust also in much and then in verse 11 he gives us
the context for the principle in verse 10 now the principle verse 10 can be
applied to anything but here's the context in which he was speaking verse
11 if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon
remember the word mammon means material goods material wealth riches money he
says if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who
will commit to your trust the true riches and here's what it comes down to
you say what's the point of the sermon the point is this you need to steward
the finances that God has given you you need to become your own financial
planner in your financial advisor because here's what I know about you is
that in your lifetime God will allow as an average American between a million
and two million dollars to flow through your hands and if you don't have a plan
for that money you will not build financial success or security that's
why I had to have a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you Lord for your
work thank you for the Bible thank you for the fact that you speak to every
area in our lives you your wisdom would help our lives be better and what I pray
that everybody would leave here encouraged sometimes when you preach
sermons like these people get a little sad and discouraged and thinking I've
wasted time wasted money Lord help us like the Apostle Paul to just forget
those things which are behind and to press toward the mark what I pray you'd
help all of us to just get our financial house in order to realize that you
expect us to steward the resources you've given us and that even includes
the unrighteous man we love you in the matchless name of Christ we pray amen
never the Mac come up