Is There Anything Wrong With Wealth?

In Victory Atlanta's "Godconomy" series, Johnson Bowie delivers his "Joyful Generosity" sermon.  There are two economies for the Christian.  There is the way God treats money in His economy and then there is the world's economy.  Jesus says that at the end of the day we have to choose between these economies because we can't serve both God and money.  As Christians, we want to do things God's way, right?

Johnson has had many opportunities to travel worldwide to places like Haiti, Belgium and Peru and he has an acute awareness of problems we have in America or "First World Problems" which he calls "FWPs".  These FWPs are things that we regard as a problems but the rest of the world considers them laughable. Delivering his description these FWPs, Johnson mimics Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if...", but substitutes it with "You might have a FWP if..."   We might have an FWP if you are frustrated because the thermostat is set to high in the winter; if the Imac and Iphone runs out of batteries at the same time;  If you are upset with your barista because she put to much sugar in your latte;  If you are frustrated with your spotty coverage of 4G phones or if you are upset because you can't fit your phone in your skinny jeans!!

The majority of what we consider are problems really aren't true problems.  The majority of people listening to his message aren't worried about where their kids are going to sleep or what they are going to eat.  In our world in the U.S. there is a natural drift away from God's way of thinking, but when you see the dirt floors and sheet metal roofs of poorer countries, you get perspective.  When you see the kid who works for $30  a month and this is what you spend on coffee, it adds perspective.  Three billion people in the world live on less than $2 a day.  Half of them live on less than $1 a day.  A quarter of the people alive have no electricity.  If you make more than $25,000 per year, you are in the top 10% in the world.

Last year, Johnson was watching the Wall Street protesters and he was thinking as he saw signs that said "We are the 99%" that, to the rest of the world, they were mostly all in the top 10% in the world!!  If you earn $1000 over the summer as a teen, you've just earned more than most of the globe earns in a year.  It doesn't feel this way though because we are in the wealthiest country in the world.  Even our homeless live better than half the world!  We have money.  By the world's standards, we are rich.  So, what does God have to say about this and about us and about the wealthy and about the poor and about our struggles etc.?  I Timothy 6:17 says:

"Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money.  Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and always being generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life."

Sometimes we get detached from our world and we just give to others who can do the work themselves or on our behalf. But God tells us to get our own hands dirty.  You cannot buy your way into heaven.  The price has already been paid by Jesus.  His forgiveness and our faith gets us in.  As Christians, our generosity is a good foundation.  If we know that we were once building our own kingdom before we were Christians, but now we build up His kingdom, we have the foundation for heaven.  It is good.



Generosity, though, can have conflicting meanings.  Many think, "I tithe and then I keep the rest for myself."  The other side or extreme of generosity is to give everything we have away.  The reality is that neither one of these beliefs works.  Tithing is NOT generosity; it is obedience.  The other extreme is a commitment to poverty; how miserable!  We should find Joyful Generosity somewhere in the middle.

The Coronado Bridge in San Diego has as many people jump off of it as does the Brooklyn bridge.  Why?  Because money doesn't solve our problem!  It is our response to money that can determine what is going on in our hearts.  Can you say you are a generous person?  Jesus' radical generosity serves as the model for all of us to be generous right?  If we are fully committed disciples of Christ, this is true.  II Corinthians 8:9 says;

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich....

Jesus did not die so that Christians could drive Ferraris.  Eternal life is the true riches for us.  Jesus became temporarily poor so that we could become eternally rich.

"I am so glad that Jesus didn't give 10%";  that He didn't show up, skimp on us and just tithe His blood.  He gave it all.  He poured His life out. Laws of the Old Testament told us what to do but they don't address what Jesus' New Testament deals with, the heart.

It's interesting in the Bible, how Jesus talks to different people about the kingdom of heaven and to some, He tells to give 10%, yet to others He tells to sell everything and follow Him.  Why would He do this?  It seems it sends conflicting messages to Christians.  Well, How much would you have to sell before you were giving your whole heart to God?  The heart of Jesus is to pour it all out!  For God so loved the world that He gave and we love God, so we give.

God delights in our enjoyment of his gifts.  So God says, give it all away and then He says enjoy what you have at the same time!  As a father, Johnson has never given his kids presents and then expected them to give stuff away.  In the same way God delights when we delight in His blessings.  God's not upset when we are wearing nice clothes or driving two cars.  He's a good dad.  In fact, He's the perfect dad.  To Him, it's just not about giving 10%...

"If a man begins to doubt whether he may use linen for his sheets, shirts, handkerchiefs and napkins, he will afterward be uncertain also about hemp... For he will turn over in his mind whether he can eat without napkins or go without handkerchief.  If any man should consider daintier food unlawful, in the end, he will not be at peace before God, when he eats either black bread or common food, while it occurs to him that he could sustain his body on even coarser food.  If he boggles at sweet wine, he will not with clear conscience drink even flat wine, and finally he will not dare touch water if sweeter and cleaner than other water."  John Calvin

Where, then, does it stop when someone is urged to give it all away?   There will always more.  If your family has more spoons in the house than people, should you get rid of your extra spoons?  We must first learn to delight in what God has given us.



If you see a person with a nice car and you are critical of what he is driving because it is so nice, keep in mind that what you are driving is much nicer than what the guy with the moped is driving!  See, it is hard to enjoy what God has given you when you are judgmental of others.  God is a really really good dad and He gives us what we need for our hearts.  All we have to do is honor Him.

Wealth can be a very good thing.  A lot of people can mess up when they love money.  Money is not evil but the LOVE of money is... Proverbs 6:6-8 says, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!  It has no commander, nor overseer nor ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest."  God says this is a good way to live life!

Johnson's grandfather had a good deal of wealth and he loved Jesus.  He gave generously to the church and to people.  Johnson is still blown away by the number of people who come to him and tell him how his grandfather so greatly blessed them.

Having wealth increases your ability to be generous.  Do you know why?  BECAUSE YOU HAVE MONEY!  If you are in debt, how do you help someone out?  by co-signing?  The good Samaritan had money.  Members of the early church in Acts had money!  They were gifted to give riches and they had the revelation that their wealth was not just for them.  One of the best ways to be generous is to open up a separate account to be given away. Why is it that we trust God with eternity but don't trust him with tomorrow?

Our wealth becomes an issue when we care more about our tomorrow than someone else's today.  

The bible says being in debt is like being the tail and not the head.  How much time have you spent looking at a dog's tail?  It's not a good place to be.  When we get into debt, we "go turtle" and focus more on paying off debt.  As a church, Victory Atlanta has had experiences of strategically taking on debt to dig wells, feed the hungry and to fight the slave trade.  So they manage their funds strategically and find the room to be generous too.

A few weeks ago, Johnson was working on a sermon and his father in law dashed into the room and told him that there had been an accident.  They dashed out and sped down the street to the scene where Johnson's SUV was smashed up and the airbag had been deployed.  His wife was in the front seat and he jumped out, ran to the passenger side and hugged his wife asking if she was okay.  Was his car more important at that point?  NO.  It was an important time that gave perspective of what is important.  

In the book of John, Mary is at the feet of Jesus.  She opens up a very expensive bottle of perfume (worth a year's wages) and pours it on Jesus' feet.   This seems like a one-time, random incident until you look at what happened in the previous chapter.  In John 11, Mary was weeping with with her sister Martha because their brother Lazarus had died and was buried in a tomb.  Jesus appears and raises Lazarus from the dead.  Fast forward to Mary and the perfume.  Now you understand why she is basically pouring her life savings on His feet.

It helps if we can understand that whatever we don't get here, we will get in heaven.  Let's say you never got to take your trip to the Alps.  What is the new version of the Alps going to be in heaven?

The heroes of the faith knew that this world was not permanent.  They were looking forward to the New Jerusalem.  They were looking forward to a new world.  They wanted less here so other could get there!  We can save up and work towards things, but we need to keep in mind that one day we will close our eyes here and open them in heaven.

When we join our hearts with Jesus with the understanding of what we can do, what our purpose is here and what heaven is like, we enter the world of Joyful Generosity.

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What's So Bad About Greed?

If there is anyone who can help you with your finances, it is Jesus. He is the most Generous! He gave his life on a cross for us, so how much more is He willing to give us now?! If you are in a financial prison, you did not follow Jesus there. It was greed and greed always brings about death. If you are in the middle of a life of greed, something in you is dead or dying. It could be your conscience, it could be your marriage or it could be your home, but it is not from Jesus.

In the second part his series, "Upgrade", Perry Noble's opening remarks on "Greed" begin with a recollection: "When I was in college, my freshman year at Anderson University, I never ever changed or washed my sheets all semester.  See, some of you guys are saying, "What? (What's the big deal?)".  Others of you are jaw dropped.  My thinking was, since I showered at night, that I was always clean and there was then no reason to worry about changing the sheets.  When I finally changed them, though, they stood straight up by themselves and they walked themselves to the wash!  Now, many of you approach your faith like I approach my sheets.

I gave my life to Christ in May of 1990, but there were two major areas that I did not surrender to God until 1999.  One of those areas I will cover another time, but my finances were the second area. My finances were OUT OF CONTROL.  I will tell you this; based on my experience, you show me the most out of control area of your life and I will show you the area of your life God does not control. 

I come from a pretty poor background.  When I accepted Christ, my dad and I lived at poverty level.  My dad was on Disability and received $980 a month.  I worked two jobs and basically worked from 5am to 11pm.  We lived in a trailer for $40 a week in rent.  There was one night when our utilities were cut off and we almost froze to death in our own home.  When I graduated from college, I came out of there with $35,000 in student loan debt.  Then, I discovered VISA.  Ooooohhh.  I was riding down the road with my VISA in my pocket and I saw this gun I had to have, so I bought it.  I was ready for "Red Dawn".  A few nights later, a friend invited me to OutBack.  I didn't have money, but I had VISA!  When I saw how low the minimum payments were, I couldn't help but use the card again and again and again.  I helped my father with his debt using VISA.  Embarassingly, when I went to buy furniture before my wife and I got married, my credit was not good.  So, by the time we were married, I owed well over $100,000.  It was time to pay down the debt!!"  So, Perry put a plan in place and he is now debt free. 

Now, if you want to be debt free, ask yourself three questions:

1) Is Jesus first in your life?

Genesis 2:15-16 says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden;" 

Look at this!  The first 3 words God said to man was YOU ARE FREE.  It wasn't "Stop that", "Hush" or "Worship Me".  It was "You are free".  BUT, look at what then comes in the verse:  "but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” 

He was basically saying, "If you touch what is mine, you will die."  So, God is very generous with the Garden of Eden, but asks that a small portion of the garden be His.  

To illustrate the God's generosity, Perry calls some volunteers up on the stage.  He wants a middle school kid, a high school student and a college student volunteer.  The criteria for each of them is that they need to be flat broke.  He gives the high school student $10 and asks him to give $1 to the church.  Perry asks, "Am I a generous man?"  Then he gives the middle school kid $100 and asks him to give $10.  "Am I a generous man?"  Then Perry gives a broke college student $1000 and asks her to give $100.  Then he asks, "Am I a generous man?"  During the demonstation, the college student, a young girl, says she is trying to go to Kenya (sounds like a mission trip).  Perry pauses for a moment and then says, "Newspring is going to cover that."  In an emotional moment, the entire church stands to applaud the blessing.  "Mmmmm.  I could go home now!  Get those offer baskets back out!" 

Everything the audience saw and felt is what God does.  The audience watched as three people were blessed.  Joshua 7 talks about how the Israelites were going to conquer Jericho.  It was the first city His people were going to takeover when they came out of Egypt.  But God told Moses that no one was to touch any of the belongings of that city because it was the first city he was going to let Israel conquer (presumably among many).  Well, a few days later, the Israelites went to conquer another city, but they got their butts whipped!  Moses went to God and said, "What!?!  You said we would win! What happened?"  And God told Moses that someone in the population had touched some goods from Jericho.  When Moses investigated, he found that a man named Achan had, in fact, disobeyed God and had taken some things for himself. 

Joshua 7:20-21 - Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.” So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord.

Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord bring trouble on you today.”  Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.

This passage shows us that our greed affects everyone around us.  All of them suffer the consequences as well.

1 Kings 3:4 talks about Solomon, "who went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, 'Ask for whatever you want me to give you.'"

Solomon definitely got an upgrade after he generously gave to God, wouldn't you say? 

In Luke 12:12-15, we find someone in the crowd said to (Jesus), “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ "Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

In America, the theme is "He Who Dies with the Most Toys Wins". But the Bible says, "He Who Dies with the Most Toys Dies"  God takes Greed seriously and so should we.

There is nothing wrong with us having things. The problem is when those things have us! This is especially true when it comes to robbing God.  How dare we do that!

1 Corinthians 6:9-12  Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Ephesians 5:3-5   But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Colossians 3:5-6  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

2. Is what is important to God important to me? 

"I used to play church basketball...it is rough!...My wife would come and watch me and cheer me on...but as time went on, I noticed she wasn't paying attention to me.  Are you reading a book?   He later learned that she didn't like basketball.  The only reason she went to watch was because she loved Perry.  It was important to her because it was important to Perry. 

What is the most important institution to God?  The church! Giving to the church what God asks should be a priority.  In Acts, there is a guy named Barnabus who gave and, because of his generosity was made a leader in the church. 

1 Corinthians 16:1-2   Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.  On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

In Revelation, it talks about how, when everything has passed away and everything has been destroyed, the only thing remaining will be Christ and His Bride; the Church.  That's a pretty good investment, huh? 

3. What Adjustments Do I Need to Make?

What classes do you need to take to learn about Biblical finances?  What personal adjustments do you need to make to cut back or to be able to give to God?  

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. 

C'mon...Why is Debt So Bad?

This whole thing we call life is all about God; the man Jesus. Beginning his series, "Cha-Ching", Johnson Bowie picks up on this thought in Isaiah 26:8, "Yea, in the way of (Your) judgments, O Lord, have we waited for You; the desire of our soul is to Your name, and to the remembrance of You."

It's not about us! The stars scream out His name. If we don't glorify Him, the rocks will cry out. The Bible says that the earth, the animals, the sea and the mountains are all about God. Every breath, step and direction of our being has to be about Him. If we can just start falling in line with this and begin thinking about Him, we can transform our lives to reflect His glory.

In I Chronicles 28, the writer talks about God's great power; His shining greatness and strength and how everything in heaven and earth belongs to Him. He rules over all. Power and strength are in His Hands. It is our desire that everything we do would scream out the fame of our God.

So, how can we take this amazing truth and desire and then trim the whole idea down to one thing called money? How can we spend or give our money to glorify God? We are all in this game together as Christians joining together in an effort to do something greater than ourselves. What better time is there to talk about money than when times are getting tough? Gas prices have soared, home prices are plummeting and jobs are being lost.

Jesus talked about money more than anything else. Money defines our lives. We go in to work, log our time and then we get paid for the amount of time we've worked. We trade our life and our time for our money, right? So, when we spend our money, we are spending our life!! So, if we are making poor spending decisions, we are poorly spending our life! "If you buy a cup of Starbucks and you make minimum wage, that's 30 minutes of your life you just bought!" So, if money reflects our lives and our lives are to glorify God, how does that translate to how we spend our money?

II Corinthians 5 says, "And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again." How can we live for Christ in every decision we make?

I Timothy 6:6-10 says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Contentment with a burger and a t-shirt is tough to accept, but money is NOT the root of all evil. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. It's what our heart's intention is when we go after money that counts. Money is intoxicating. It is an opiate that addicts as easily and as completely as alcohol or narcotics. It's power to change us is close to that of Jesus Christ. Men trade their lives for it. Women trade their bodies for it. Families will trade their families for it. People will trade their church for it. Nations are ruled by it and destroyed by it. Most crimes are motivated by it. Most people are brought under it's control. A person who can maste the rule of money is the person who is completely mastered by the rule of God.

Money is a great slave, but a terrible master. Money is a great thing to have under you; a horrible thing to have over you. The best way to not have money be a god in your life is to not have it. Just give it away. The other side of this truth is that we can't give money away if we don't have it. We can't bless people with IOU's!! The reason so many of us don't have money is because we are giving it to the man; the credit card man. We do this because of all the bad decisions we've made in the past.

"I was at a leadership conference last year and Dave Ramsey was there...He's the Christian financial guru...with a daily radio show...'Total Money Makeover' is in the book store...He stands up and says...'STOP PREACHING ON TITHING'...it's like he had stood the golden cow up...but then he said...Stop talking about tithing unless you are willing to talk more about getting out of debt."

How many of us would love to be able to give or contribute to people's lives, but we can't!! Wouldn't you love to pay someone's way on a mission trip or just pay for someone's gas or to pay a single mother's electricity bill for a month? But we are chained by our debt! If we could tame money in our lives, we could live for the glory of God. Maybe if we could get out of debt, we could go when God actually says, "GO".

Malachi 3 says we rob God if we aren't tithing. In not so many words, God actually says we are cursed financially if we don't tythe. Most people WANT to tithe, but simply can't. But let's move beyond tithing and focusing on debt so that we could actually tithe 20%, not 10%, if we wanted to do so.

Why do we think that if we just had more money, we could tithe? There's a reason why people who win the lottery end up broke again. Money cannot change our spending habits. Many mulitmillionairres are more stressed about money that we are. Most of us just need to get out of debt. What would our lives look like if we could? This is our goal. We could worship God so much easier if we didn't have to honor our debts.

The national debt for the U.S. is now (at the time of this message) $9,357,639,867,792!!! The national debt grows by $4.7 billion a day. If you add these numbers up, our share is $31,000 apiece. So, a family of 5 would have to pay $150,000 to pay their share of the debt! But if you gave the government more money, they would just spend more money.

We pay taxes to the government and the pays $406 billion every year in interest. The total debt of our nation, including every person and every business is $53 trillion dollars. That's $175,000 per person. The average person will make $1.4 million dollars in their lifetime. But we spend 1/2 to 2/3's of every dollar we make in our life time paying for debt. The average American family has $9,300 in debt.  The average college graduate already has $19,000 in debt. Most of them will still be paying on this debt when their kids go to college.

Every year, more people declare bankruptcy than graduate from college.

We are so messed up! Did you know they even put VISA cards on the new barbie dolls? Johnson went to UGA (University of Georgia) and the first thing most people would go to would be to the free UGA t-shirt table once you register for a VISA card. We don't think we'll use it at first or that we'll only use it for emergencies, but then, before we realize it, we've run up our debt. Johnson did some math to illustrate the really good experience of a $1,000 cruise to Cancun. Minimum payment is on $15 a month! But it takes you 15 years to pay the card off with minimum payments. That's an expensive t-shirt (to get the card in the first place)! Then, when you start dating, it really gets bad. The debt monkey starts to turn into King Kong. "I'm sick of seeing the richest generation of all time being debt ridden...Can we possibly break free from this to make the name and fame of Jesus Christ spread?"

Proverbs 22:7 says, "The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender." If we are truly servants to Jesus Christ, how can we stay in debt?  What typically happens is, we get married as DINKs (double income, no kids), we buy our cars, we buy the house, we buy the furniture and then....she gets pregnant. "How are we going to do this?" The knife in back of this generation the fact that other people raise our children because wive's have to work to pay off debt. How can we possibly be a nation that glorifies God?  We've traded off raising the next generation because we made stupid decisions in our youth.  This robs God of His glory.  Don't trade your kids and your future for the present.

Johnson read an article online called "Moms' New Battle: The Food Price Bulge."  In there is a quote from a mother who says, "We are a typical middle income family.  If we did not carry foolish debt, we would be okay.  But with our debt burden combined with paying for two children in daycare, there's nothing left over at the end of the month."  This sums up the life of so many people!  Another 20 something girl says, "It is a life which is insult to injury.  I want to get married and I want to have a family.  But what if I want to have a child and take time off while he's an infant.  Will I be able to do that with all this debt that I have to make payments on?"  Do we really want to be the guy driving a fancy car with thousands of dollars we owe on it and have to work instead of raising our kids?   Eventually, we even have to pay someone to take care of them!  Where do we draw the line?  If this whole world is about glorifying God, where do we stop?!?

Deuteronomy 28 talks about the curses listed out in the Bible if you don't do what God tells us to do.  It talks about the curse of the "foreigner" who lends to us.  The foreigner becomes the dog and we become the tail.  "If you're wise, fine.  But if you're not you will be the place where poop comes out."   How many of us feel like our life is in the tail?  Some of us are living this "tail life" because we haven't chosen to stay out of debt and to emphatically glorify the name of God.  Why is the whole debt thing bad?  It keeps you chained up to money.  Most of us have desire to give.  We want to bless people but we can't.  Be free from debt so you can live for God.  What if God called you tonight and wanted you to go to Germany for missions?  Could you go?  What about next month?  Next year?  Next ten years?  Could you? 


We have to get out of debt to go, to live and to give.  The government, right now, is outgiving the church.  This is wrong.  We are called to be the light in the darkness, not the government!  We want to be a people who can show the world that God loves them. 

Johnson is 28.  If by some miracle, he makes it to be 80 or 90, that means he has 60 or so years left.  What happens after that?  He's dead!!  "But what if I want a big TV?"  What if we started spending our lives today on things that glorify God?  How can we start making money a "God thing"?  Get out of debt to give to a kid, to take someone out to lunch to tell them about Christ, to give to the struggling mom or to bless someone.  It is not about you.  It's about God. Let's be these people.  How do we do this?  Next week, Johnson talks about this.

What Are Some Basic Biblical Financial Principles?

As a guest of Lifechurch.tv, Dave Ramsey gives a 3-part series online. After a standing ovation, Dave graciously says how amazing it is to see the changes that are being made in peoples' lives. "Money's fun...if you got some." But most people aren't doing so well. If you've made big time mistakes with money, that makes you over 12! It's easy to fall over in this money thing."

"When I went broke and had to start completely over, I thought I was the only one...I have a PhD in D-U-M-B." When Dave got married, he and his wife had little money. But he went into Real Estate and made a small fortune. "It didn't fix our problems, it just made us more of what we truly were." During a banking crisis, Dave's loans were called on him by the bank. Over the next several years, he and his wife lost everything.

The number one cause of divorce in America today is money. "Sharon would have divorced me, but she didn't have the money...we hit bottom...I was on one of these news stations and...they asked me how I bounced back...'Dude, when you fall that far, you don't bounce. It's more of a splat.'" Dave met God "on the way up" before his downfall, but he got to know God on the way down. Some guy told Dave that the Bible had a lot of things to say about money. After studying the concepts by experts on the subject, Dave found that there are really easy principles that are really hard to implement. Most of the problems with money are strictly behavorial. "The biggest problem I had with money was this guy that I shave with... the guy in the mirror."

Dave recommends 5 things to change our financial lives. "Now, it's gonna take a while." There are no instant fixes, though. It, like most great character changes, is a long process.

1. GET OUT OF DEBT. Debt=Risk. "I've found that 100% of homes in foreclosure were mortgaged." In the Bible it says that the debtor is slave to the lender. "Slaves don't have choices." When we have debt, our money goes straight out to the auto loan and mortgage. "Some students have taken so long to pay off their loans that they think it is a pet." Dave has been around thousands of families who are less than blessed with credit cards. Get plastic surgery. Get rid of all practice of debt. Get the plasectomy. "What if you didn't have a car payment? Did you know the average car payment in America is $478 over 84 months? If you take $478 and invest that in a decent growth stock mutual fund from age 30 to age 70, you'll have $5.6 million dollars. Hope you like the car!!!!"

You're trapped by buying stuff you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't really like. 
Dave Ramsey

We have to make a decision in our lives. We have to draw a line in the sand. But it turns out that if God wants you to do something, He will send you the money. Quit whining about what you want! The people we are trying to impress think you are dumb if they know what you are doing with your money. McDonald's did a study and found that we spend 47% more with a credit card than with cash!

2. ACT YOUR WAGE. "A foolish man devours all he has." This is a Biblical quote. The Bible says you are a BIBLE FOOL if you spend everything you make. We have to live within our means. This leads to another scripture; "Godliness with contentment is great gain." This is probably one of the greatest lessons in money that you can learn.

3. GET ON A BUDGET. If you managed money for a corporation called "You Inc." the way that you manage your finances, would you fire you? Those that manage well get to do more. Corporations do not promote those doing poor jobs. "When my son is 16 behind the wheel, he is incompetent!...Do you think that I am going to give him a Viper?...No, I am going to give him a '92 Chevette...because I'm a loving father."

Jesus once said, "For which of you building a tower does not first count the cost?  Does he, rather, build a tower and then find he doesn't have enough money to do so?  Would he not then be a fool?"  If God is going to give us $10 million dollars, we've got to act like we can manage it.

4. LEARN TO SAVE MONEY. You can't outearn stupidity. Save! Save! a) Save for a rainy day. Seventy eight percent of us will have an unexpected financial event in our life time. Be ready. Life is coming. "It's kind of cool when life comes up and you are ok." Murphy's law passes the wise by. b) Save for purchases with cash. If you save money, you can c) Invest money.

5. GIVE. "This is the most fun thing you can do with money!" Tything is different, but giving is a fun, fun thing. Someone who works for Dave has a ministry where she and her husband will pray and go find people that God puts before them who need money. One time, they left a $400 dollar tip for a pregnant woman in Waffle House. "Poor people can't do that."

None of these things make sense unless we do all of them. God has a plan for us and He is saying to us that, if we live this way, we can win. He wants us to live at a level we've never lived before. He's got a game plan for our money. It works every single time! Does it work without bumps in the road? No, but being a servant has bumps in the road too. Be encouraged by the poor people who discourage you.

Become an awesome, abundant giver. That is when you know you've made it. Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.