God's Intent for your Finances pt 2 of 3 (Specials)
Vern Peterman · Jan 30, 2010
Specials, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926153192831

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we're going to look through chapters 4, 5, and 6 here. This is dealing with giving, biblical giving. And as I talked to several of you in advance about what were you interested in, this is one chapter I think that will address something you are interested in. And because of that, I'm going to go through it in a little more detail. Biblical giving, in addressing that subject, We're going to look at some principles here.

Principle number four comes out of Romans 6.14. The sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

And then 2 Corinthians 3.5-8. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. And then moving down to verse eight, how will the ministry of the spirit fail to be even more with glory?

The principle is the law given to Israel through Moses and the manner in which God has dealt with and will deal with Israel is not the same as this manner of dealing with believers of this age. An important distinction there. We're going to come back to this principle because there are a number of Christians who have been exposed to teachings that are really law based.

There was one fellow I talked to who said that he had gotten the counsel that, well, God wants you to give 10%, and if you haven't been giving 10%, you need to give 10% plus catch up with what you didn't pay in the past. And until you do that, God won't bless you. Right? Well, that's based on what the Lord gave to the Israelites. That's not based on what the New Testament teaches. We'll go in detail into what the New Testament teaches here. This Malachi 3 through 10 passage is one that's fairly commonly given.

As a matter of fact, there's a church, I remember, up in Reno, they had giving slots, not just the, they didn't pass the plate, but they had this verse right underneath the slot, okay? Well, a man robbed God, yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. And by the way, tithing is what's typically taught, and one of the points we'll get to here is a lot of our churches will go and latch onto the tithe.

When you add up all the things the Jews were supposed to give, the figure was about 30%. Okay? The tithe was just to take care of the Levites, but that didn't handle all the other giving that they were supposed to do. So if you want to grab hold of Old Testament law, don't grab for 10%, you better go for the 30, because that's the full nine yards, right? That's the full banana. So we got some numbers that start here, number one towards the bottom of page 16, the tithe as all the law of Moses was given explicitly for Israel. See verse 9 above.

As quoted above in Romans 6.14 and 2 Corinthians 3.5-8, church age believers are not under the law of Moses. That's where one of the one of the common and principal criticisms.

I would have of like Larry Burkett's approach and in our day Dave Ramsey's approach Both of those guys latch on to the tide and it's it's not typical if they're gonna be thorough about that Then they better make sure they don't have their lobster and crab for lunch, and they'd better make sure they tell everybody 30% not 10 Okay Secondly, the promise of blessing in Malachi 3.10 is not for the Church of Christians, but for Israel, as the Lord told Israel He would bless them if they obeyed in Deuteronomy 28.1-14, which starts, Now it shall be, if ye diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, all 613 of them, 365 don'ts, The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, that is, the Gentiles, right?

All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. The rest of the chapter, which is long, over 60 verses, okay? The rest of the chapter is all the curses, if you don't obey. But it all, it has to do with the land. And I promise if you obey, you will be free of diseases and all these things, okay?

Number three, the tithe was designed to provide for the Levites under the Jewish system of temple priests who had no land in their tribe. So what they did is all the tribes had land allocations except for the Levites and they were to give 10% of everyone to support the Levites of that particular tribe.

I'm a pastor but not a Levite, okay? I don't have any of the right ethnic background, and I'm not training. I have no idea how to slaughter a bull properly according to the Mosaic law. I've slaughtered animals, but not that. So at any rate, they're supposed to give a tent that's provided for them. We have no Levites, we don't have a temple, we don't have a service, and we don't have a storehouse for the food. We just don't have any of that. Four, those who try to make the tithe applicable to church-age believers conveniently neglect the requirements of the law that are in the immediate context of the tithe passages, like the list of animal meats that are not to be eaten. Also in Deuteronomy 14, including pork, lobster, crab, and shellfish. How many forbid also eating these items, along with giving a tenth? Right? How do they separate those two? What do you mean?

Well, when they're saying that they take the tithe passage for today, but they don't mention them. It's a little bit like Wizard of Oz, don't look at the man behind the curtain, because what they'll do is they'll look at the tenth, but they will not you know, look at the passage around it.

So, again, it always comes to context, context, context. And plus they grab that one, but not the other things where money was supposed to be given. And, you know, again, the number is more like 30 percent, not 10 when you add it all up. So they just ignore it. Yeah. And they want you to as well. If you say, well, what about the food law right above that? Oh, that's not for us. Why? Well, they haven't got a good reason for that.

No passage in the New Testament, this is number five, in the New Testament epistles reminds and encourages or commands the giving of tithe to the church or to church workers. Notice the passage in Malachi speaks not only of tithes but of offerings as well. Offerings is not just another word for money you give to the church. Offerings refers to the long list of Levitical offerings which Israel was to give. The total of the offerings and tithes and alms which Israel was to give was more than two to three times the tithe, so about 30% there. If Christians were to match that, they would have to give not 10% but somewhere closer to 30% to fulfill the law of Moses. Here's an example, okay?

Jesus is born. What do Mary and Joseph do? They go to the temple 40 days after, that's where Simeon and Anna are found, right? Because they have to present Jesus at the temple and they have to, because they're poor, they have to pay for a little turtle dove offering.

Otherwise you'd pay for a lamb or something larger. So you've got that. You've got a whole system of feasts and sacrifices. If this happens, you go to the temple and you pay for that sacrifice. It gets expensive with everything. So it's about 30% of your income goes to all the stuff relating to supporting the temple and paying for the sacrifices and all that. So it's about 30%.

Next one there, number seven, the New Testament passage is given in the prior page to say that in contrast to the law, the manner in which the Lord deals with us in the church age involves grace and life and glory. Tithing as under the law does not bring grace and life and glory. All right, so if we're not required to give a tenth, what do the New Testament epistles say about giving to Christian ministries? Here's the fun part.

The primary passages on giving in the New Testament epistles are 1 Corinthians 16, which we'll get to shortly in our main service, and 2 Corinthians 39, which we'll get to a number of months from now. In both passages, Paul the Apostle is addressing collection of gifts, giving, and related issues with the church at Corinth. The passages, more than we can cover comprehensively, there are a lot of time, but it will be valuable for us to touch upon some key points that bring forth the biblical principles on giving to ministry. Okay, so we'll come up with some key principles right out of scripture here.

Here's Weis' translation of 1 Corinthians 16, 1-4. Now, concerning the collection of money which is for the saints, even as I gave orders to the local assemblies in Galatia, thus also for you, you do the same. On every first day of the week, let each one of you have the habit of putting aside at home whatever he may be prospered in, accumulating and keeping it in reserve, in order that when I come, then there may not be any collections. When I come, what? There may not be any collections. Oh boy! How's that for a surprise? Okay.

And whenever I come, whomever you will approve after having put him to the test, these I will send to carry your bounty to Jerusalem. And if the gift be sufficiently large so as to warrant me also going, they shall go with me. So notice a few different things here. Knows that the collection is for the saints. It's for benefiting other believers. See that?

It's not just to give up money because giving up money is good for you. It's for benefiting other believers and it's not just to keep a program going. It's not just so that we've got stuff happening. It's not just to pay people and just to keep a program cranked.

The next one, Paul's directions were not just some private deal with the Corinthian church. Instructions were made objectively and openly. He made references to what we do with the churches in Galatia. And that's five major cities for a start. So it's like, this is widely done. I'm not just telling you this. This is the way other churches are doing it too. So he's not just giving them a pattern that doesn't fit. There's an assurance here that yes, it does fit other Christians, right?

Paul then asked them to set aside funds for the first day of each week. We would call that Sunday. That implies a regularity and accumulation for giving. So that's the other principle. Giving should be a regular thing. He has it here. Of course, they didn't have things like we have where you may get paid every other week or once a month or, you know, when the commission check comes in or whatever. But there is a principle of regularity and he has it on a weekly basis.

The next one. Next Paul says, each one of you. This means the principle doesn't apply to some, but in fact to all. So for all the Christians, He says that they are to put aside, so they are to take the initiative to see to it that they do it first. So it's initiative, it's not an accident.

It's not, oh, Paul said, what have I got? Scrambling for the wallet. Importantly, Paul's next phrase is, whatever he may be prospered in. This has a strong idea of accumulating, forgiving, not on presumption of some future income, Okay? But in keeping with real actual income, there's also a sense of proportionality in giving, but no magical percentage.

One of the things that churches will sometimes do is have these pledge cards. Ever seen that? We're going to build the building and so everybody's got to promise something, right? It doesn't have that. Okay? Whatever he may be prospered in this what might you get? Then put some aside from that. Okay, not you know, I Think I'll have this you think I'll have that and so I you know I'll pledge the money.

There's no indication of pledging The next one here Paul did not want collection for the needs of other Saints to be a panicky affair crashed or pressured at the last minute. I We got this missionary showed up. That's the plate. You know Remember that finally Paul wanted to see that the gifts of the Corinthian Saints were escorted with adequate security in biblical times it was quite common for people to Get attacked along the roadway to see if you know, they had some money especially if somebody was by themselves And this is for example Yeah Jesus talks about the Good Samaritan You know, somebody getting attacked along some open roadway going by themselves was a pretty common hazard.

And so one of the things that they would do is have several people carrying the money so that you don't have that vulnerability. Well, one of the principles that fits with us is looking carefully and saying, you know, is this really getting to the place it's supposed to go? And so it means looking carefully at how is this money being used. And maybe even give it specifically right here because you want to make sure that the money gets where it's supposed to be. Christians have had a habit at times of just kind of throwing money at something and thinking that God's happy with that. That's not what this implies. This talks about taking care, about making sure that money is going where it's supposed to go.

Back in the 80s, there was a televangelist couple that kind of came apart at the seams. And I mean, it was just at auctions, you know, for all their stuff, and they had things like an $8,000 doghouse, you know, that they auctioned off. Wow! And just phenomenal sums of money that people were just throwing away at this ministry.

Randy was located there down in Texas, and so he kept an eye on one of the televangelists that's popular now. And Benny Hinn, you still see him. And the guy's making several hundred million dollars a year. And there's just no accounting for where it's all, there's several hundred billion dollars a year going through. Craziness.

And so there's even an organization that's been set up to monitor you know, skeptically, what those guys are doing. And it's a big enough thing that a guy actually got an office and all this kind of thing, you know, monitoring what this other ministry is doing. I think the point is, it's just whatever the Lord is leading you to do, it needs to be followed through with some sense of, you know, is this really going where it ought to go? So making wise decisions about where the money ends up is a good thing.

And Christians ought to think carefully, not just, you know, here's the check and it's out of sight, out of mind. It's not a good idea. So anyway, it's the encouragement to give, but give carefully. Give with prudence. Give with a good sense of responsibility. Make people account for things.

What were you talking about before with promising out future income? Remember this term, faith promise? Yeah. It's like, if you really have faith, then you'll promise the... Yeah, faith, promise, pledge, but the problem is you don't see that here. And, you know, you put faith on it, you know, it sounds like that's real biblical. Well, but that's not what scripture lays out, is it?

So, you won't find us doing that here, you know. No, they were eternally sane, being diligent in giving up your money and time as you are in spending money in any other area of your life. Yeah. Don't just throw it out the window. That's right. Yeah. Redeem the time, redeem the money too.

And something else, it is quite possible for Christians to look at these funds that are going out and We can put terms on them that suddenly make it sound like it's biblical. But there's an important distinction between faith and presumption. If I pledge or faith promise, I am presuming. God has not promised me that future income flow. Therefore, if I make a promise based on some income flow, it's not faith. It's faith that is faith in the facts and what God's revealed. It's presumption. And there's an important distinction between faith and presumption. So faith is believing what God says, not what... Yes, faith is believing what God says, not making a huge stab out there and saying we're going to believe God for this. That's what our friend in Uganda did. He went and told everybody, you know, the Lord's going to make, you know, build us a new church building. By this time, you know, uh-uh.

No, that's not faith. That's presumption. And in fact, he ended up essentially lying to them. Because that's, faith is believing what God has said. That's faith. But when we go and, you know, pick some target out there and say that we're going to believe God for it, God didn't say it, so that's not faith. That is presuming upon God. Well, the other thing that I've heard them stack onto that is then you believe God for those fronts that you've committed out of your faith. Yes, right.

But that comes out of what's called the Word of Faith movement. where you go and presume something and then call that faith. But you put faith in what God has revealed, not faith in what you have a hunch about. Or faith in some blind dartboard target. Or Oral Roberts, you know. If people don't give this many million dollars, God's gonna kill me. You know, this is presumptuous, you know. And this is also blackmailing everybody, you know. It's you guys' fault that God killed me. Well, he died recently, so I guess something must have gone wrong. Anyway. Okay.

Now, top of page 19. That helps, you might say, but what about how much to give? If we leave the tie one-tenth by the wayside, then what's the right amount? For starters, we have the proportionality principle, whatever he may be prospered in. So part of the question, what money has come in? So again, notice it's not faith based on presuming some amount, but it's faith in, here's the actual facts, whatever you may be prospered in. What money do you see right in front of you? So that's a part of it.

We have some additional insight from what Paul later wrote to the Corinthian church about giving, 2 Corinthians 9-7. Each one must do as he has purposed in his heart. Purposed, decided, in his heart. So give this, and this is in the context of a giving passage, each one must do or give as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly, We're under compulsion for God loves the cheerful giver.

Not giving even though I'd really like to make this a smaller amount. Not under compulsion, you know, I don't really want to give but man that guy is twisting my arm. Okay? Or I've made a faith pledge but, you know, I don't know how we're going to eat.

For God loves a cheerful giver. I heard a story once about these two boys who were in church, and it was a church where they passed the offering plate. And they sat next to this guy that they knew was a very wealthy banker. And so they'd watch as the plate would go by, and this banker dropped a dime on the offering plate. And so anyway, they both, you know. And the next week, you know, they watched the same thing. Finally, after the service, they confronted the baker.

And they said, you, we've seen that you put a dime in the offering plate for last Sunday and this Sunday. And the banker said, well the Lord loves a cheerful giver and a dime is all I can cheerfully give. But if you look at what is in this passage, it focuses on some, here in basically just one verse, some really key points. We dig into each one. Just like last time, each one. So there's not like, you know, okay, that doesn't apply to me. So each one, and it's an individual matter. It's also individual.

It's not a, you know, yeah, we're going to crank and twist their arm and, you know, browbeat you. My daughter Becky and her husband Kurt went to a church that had the name Grace in its title. But they decided not to go there after every week, after week, after week, after week. They got up and twisted arms and browbeat people just before the giving of the offering. But critically notice that Paul makes the matter of giving, takes it out of the realm of these magical percentages.

You notice, here's 1 Corinthians 16. Did he give you a percentage? Here's 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Is he a percentage? No. First, the giving is to be measured at the heart level, not by a righteous percentage. And that's what some people really struggle with. It has to do with one's relationship with the Lord. You know, if I give God a little blessing, God is going to be a little happy with it. Yeah. That's totally blessed. Yeah, it can be a positive thing. How much do I give to make God happy? Or the negative side, like I talked about before, how much do I have to pay to get God off my back? You know, it's kind of the negative cynical approach. if you can't help a dead guy? Yes. So if I can't help a dead 12, right? Yeah, yeah.

And that's the prosperity doctrine teaching. But notice it doesn't, that's not what shows up here. This is a genuinely spiritual set of principles. And notice it's not terribly complicated, but it will frustrate some people because they want a magic number. But it comes back to your relationship with the Lord. That's where The giving principle in the New Testament starts with not the magic number.

Secondly, the giving is not to be grudgingly with the internal sense of wishing they were not giving. So the grudging addresses our internal feelings about the giving. Okay? It is not to be given out of, yeah, I'm giving this amount, but I don't really want it. The next one is not to be made from some external compulsion. I made a promise.

That guy's beating me up terribly. He's telling me that if I don't give, you know, God's not gonna bless me or something. So all the brow-beating, arm-twisting, badgering that typify some so-called Christian ministries is not by God's desired intent. I've been to one church where they pass your offering plate three times.

Wow! Finally, the Lord is looking for giving to be done cheerfully. Cheerful giving will take place when the giver understands God's perspective on money and ministry, including the things we've been addressing here. Cheerful giving will take place when the handling and use of money in the ministry is worthy of the gifts.

So that's a part of it, is maybe there's a begrudging because you ought not to be giving to this ministry, or at least in this way. In other words, if there's some reason for you to question whether this money is really being used effectively, then maybe you shouldn't be giving to that ministry. Well, that brings to bear that you need to know exactly what that ministry is doing.

Yeah, what are they doing with this? You have a right to ask any missionary, what's your monthly income? What do you do with that money? How do you live? Same within the church? That's right. Or another organization that you deem worthy of truly giving to? Yeah.

There are some ministries out there where they are living high on the hog. Some of the big time televangelists out there now have private jets. They have an airport right next to their house. I have multiple limos. We're highly jeweled, you know, watches and things of that sort. Everything is, you know, top drawer, catered, full-time chef, sometimes full-time chef and staff, you know. Some of them are living way high on the hog.

And it's even got to the point where Several of them called before Congress with having this kind of thing questioned. Because having that standard of living and having some sort of tax status that gives them exemption, that's kind of crazy. So even the world doesn't believe it.

So if you look at it, these are some key principles here for giving. We've had from that 1 Corinthians 16 passage and now from the 2 Corinthians 9-7. They're concise. They're not terribly complicated. I will tell you that the wrestling point that people have with this is that giving is not superficial. It's not just, here's the right number and you're good to go.

It all comes back to relationship with the Lord. It comes back to considering carefully the ministries that you're giving to and giving some thought to it. For a husband and wife, to talk about it. And to have both of them be settled in their hearts about what they're giving to.

And and do be careful about what you give to me Very important The next part there in order to make clear what this does not mean There is no biblical basis for Christian ministries to pressure for donations by log ill badgering false promises about material awards on earth Faith pledges emotional appeals, etc Such approaches appeal to the flesh in one way or another and will therefore reap to the flesh. I I would suggest to you that churches that use these approach are giving you a strong signal that that's not the place to give. In other words, if you're saying, is this being used wisely? A part of it comes to how are they appealing for the money.

So, anyway, to simplify this in bullets here, Giving to Christian ministry should be proportional household income received, again not presuming on future income, systematic regular accumulation, and voluntary based on a relationship with the Lord, with neither an internal begrudging or an external compulsion.

Does that make sense? If you'd like to talk more about that or something or ask other questions, feel free. But I think this is worth taking the time. We've taken up a good chunk of time to go through this, but I think it's well worth taking the time because it's really valuable stuff. There is a section on taxes. I'm going to address just part of it. It's real interesting.

Remember where Jesus is challenged? should we pay taxes to Caesar? And if you look on page 21, I've got a picture of these are the coins that were available. And the bottom one was the one, should we pay taxes to Caesar? And notice, what did Jesus do? Did he pull a coin out of his own pocket? No, what did he do? He asked for them to produce the coin. Now, that was very wise on his part, and the reason is this. Look at this coin on the bottom part. It's kind of the darker coins.

And what you see on the front and on the back, those are both images of what they considered, because Meru was the emperor, a pagan deity, right? So they had an image of a pagan deity. What did the Law of Moses say? You should not have any graven images.

So by producing this coin, they had in their own pockets an image of a pagan deity on both sides of this coin. And so that was one for asking them to produce it. They were kind of fessing up, you know, we're violating the law of Moses here by holding this coin with a pagan deity on each side. And, one of the promises in Deuteronomy 28 is, if you're obedient to the Lord, you won't be subject to any other outside country. And why? Who's coining this? And that's the question he asked, right? Whose image is on the coin? It's Caesar's, right? Who's Caesar? Is Caesar Jewish? No. So by having them produce the coin, two confessions. One, is we have a graven image on this coin.

And secondly, this is a Roman coin, not a Jewish coin, and therefore we are under somebody else because it's an outright admission that because we're under somebody else, we are obviously disobedient. So by having them produce the coin, he had them make two confessions right there. And that's why he asked them to say, you know, give me the coin, you produce it, and whose image is on it. And they produced it, they made the open confession. And the answer is, give to Caesar what Caesar's, give to God what God's.

I've had the instance even here at Holly Hills of dealing with tax protesters, but I won't go into the detail here. Scripture makes it abundantly clear that paying the taxes that are due is biblical. Even if the taxes, the basis for the income tax in the United States was not properly instituted, and I believe it was not, but even on the basis of this Matthew 22 passage we show on page 22, and on Romans 13, 1 through 7, there is no reason for being a tax protester biblically. Pay them.

Okay? And one of the justifications is so that we don't offend them, even if it was a tax they didn't have to pay. Now, the one thing I can't promise you is that every time you go fishing, you'll find the taxes in the fish's mouths for you to pay. Sorry, I can't promise that. Okay.

We're going to shift over here on to page 24, living within our means. And this is the principles that is not commonly taught in the United States. But living within our means is God's ultimate intent here. We have several passages there on page 24 that point to what God intends. One of them there is Proverbs 6 through 8. Go to the ant or slugger to observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief officer or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest.

So what do you see coming out of that passage? What are some of the things that you see? Looking to the future. Okay, looking to the future and doing what? Saving. Saving for the future, right? So that the ants aren't going out trying to find somebody else who was saved to borrow from them, okay? So saving for the future from current things. What else do you see? Okay, so during the time when you have you set aside right for the time when you don't have okay, so that's one what else do you see Yeah, yeah This isn't we do this because somebody's driving us and you know forcing us, but essentially seeing a responsibility to get out there and work Okay, yeah Yeah, now strange things the way they run okay something else As you as you look in this There is a mindset of preparation a mindset of preparation, okay and looking to the future, preparing for things. That's something we'll talk about as we get farther along.

Proverbs 22.7, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower becomes the lender's slave. It's something that both Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey point to. And I think that is valid, that when we borrow, there's an implication there. We're now the slave of the one from whom we borrow. It doesn't mean it's automatically bad, but it does create a position and an obligation to borrow. Okay? So the Bible doesn't prohibit borrowing, but it gives you the wisdom of, you know, realize what you're doing. Okay? Realize what you're doing. Borrowing, why does borrowing make a person the lender-slave? You're in debt to them, okay? And how does that happen? You have to pay it back, right? And then what does that do? It dictates things in your life.

That's why they use the picture of a slave. I must do this because I have to pay this back. It also means I am not free to make other choices. So borrowing creates a position where you have an obligation to pay that back, therefore you're going to do this and this and this. If you were not borrowing, then you would be free, that's the idea of not being a slave, you would be free to make other choices, free to make other decisions.

Here's the next one that is kind of the flip side of the preparing. A prudent man sees evil and hides himself. The naive proceed and pay the penalty. If you see a hazard in the financial realm, you don't step into it. Okay? You don't step into what's a foreseeable hazard. Foreseeable risk. The next one, the ants are not a strong people but they prepare their food in the summer, similar to the Proverbs 6 reference there.

In Luke 14, and I'll rather summarize it, the Lord himself here talks about which of you wants to build the tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it. Planning ahead, looking for future preparation. Otherwise when his way to foundation is not able to finish, all who observe begin to ridicule him. This man began what he wasn't able to finish, or a king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, not first sit down, consider whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men to encounter the one coming against him with 20,000. For else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. When we see something ahead, to act prudently in view of what's ahead.

I've seen situations where people will run up the credit cards. Oh, I know how we'll pay that credit card. We'll get another one, and we'll charge that payment against this, and they go running that. And I've actually heard of situations where people have numbers upwards of 400,000 in credit card bills running in that way before the house of cards collapses.

Oh boy. 2 Corinthians 12, which we'll get to eventually in our study. Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you, for I will not seek what is yours, but you. For children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. Saving up for future needs, whatever those needs might be. James 14, 13-16. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go in such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. That as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting as you do. Making plans without figuring the Lord's, what does the Lord want from us? and perhaps the Lord may do something different than what we assume. Including the Lord in all of our plans.

That's what he's talking about. One of the things we'll talk about, and we've accommodated in the back here is, and I would say it's not necessary for everyone but it is often advisable. We have forms here for a monthly budget. Some people have complained, oh, that's the law. Well, I would protest.

Let me tell you what happened with Nancy and I. Back in 1989, I came to kind of an all-crash point with several different things in my life. And one of the things that, you know, I said, Nancy, we have $20,000 in credit card debt, which 20 years ago was even more than today. We have $20,000 in credit card debt. Our house is mostly mortgage, and we need to get that taken care of.

So we sat down and made a budget. Now, what's interesting is It's funny, every month, because I would do it and then sit down with her and talk it through and sometimes make adjustments. Every month, we end up saying, boy, I'm glad we're doing this. Boy, I'm glad we're doing this. Wow, man, am I glad we're doing this.

And we made a plan for how we're going to do it, and it's because we looked at our spending. So this budget sheet, you probably have a couple of them there right at the very back. is for making out a monthly budget. If you are interested, I can send you a spreadsheet that includes the whole year. You can go a whole year at a time if you like. We found it was a little better ourselves to do it a month at a time because then we talked about it at a regular interval. It worked out very well to do that. And then we got to the next thing that we'll talk about, and that is we set a certain budget pages out for the kids. And so for each of the kids' clothing, we had a certain budget amount.

And instead of having the previous thing, where they would come, I need, I need, I need. Of course, you don't know the difference between needs and wants. We would say, here's the amount that you get per month for clothing. You can spend it how you like, so it gives them some sense of planning responsibility. You can spend it however you like, but some of the ways to handle it are if you want to get some really expensive item, well, you wait another month in order to get enough money. Or you can go out and earn it.

And one of the things we did is we had regular chores that the kids were required to do And then we had additional chores that if they did, we would pay them for it, which we took out of another budget category, right? And so they could earn money, some money from us, and then they could also, you know, go through things like babysitting and, you know, newspaper delivery and, you know, work around the yard and things like that and earn their own money as well. But that way, they could be able to manage it.

Once we showed them that, we never got any, I need, I need, and all the whining and, you know, stuff that goes along with it. It never happened again. Because they would instead just go to their budget page. You notice there's this budget summary sheet?

That's what Nancy and I would work out. And from that, we would have the other sheet here is where we'd have, okay, here's the description. We would say, you know, monthly amount in, and we would put the amount in for whatever it was, and then the amount out was what they spent, and then the balance. And if they wanted something that required them to earn extra money, which they could put in there, Or if they wanted something that was larger than what we would have allocated for a month, then that was up to them.

It's amazing how they learned to get good deals and shop around for a good price. So it did a lot of good things for them. And I would recommend that if you've got kids that you head that direction. At any rate, we were able to pay the $20,000 off in 18 months, get it all taken care of, and then begin to nail down the mortgage quickly. And it works.

For us, it was a communication tool. that really worked out well because we could talk about what's important and doing things together. One of the problems we've had before is that by not having a budget and by having the debt, it put Nancy and I into almost a parent-child relationship where I was the parent and she was the child. I need money for the kids to do this and that. That was not a good thing. And so instead, this allowed her to be my wife, and we were together on it as a team. It was tremendous, the improvement. So anyway, I recommend it to you. Even if a person is not trying to dig out of debt, it's still highly recommendable.

It puts also money back into the realm of, it's not the problem. You've written it down. and see if both of you agreed on the plan as you proceed forward. And where's the money going? Where's the money going this month? And one of the things I'd like to introduce, I'm not aware of it being an issue here, but Bruce has an interest in helping people who have substantial debt issues to try to get out. And one of the reasons I share it and introduce his interest is because as you are involved with the body, if you encounter someone who comes up with that as, hey, I'm a credit card hell here, go see Bruce, because Bruce can help them with working out how you get out of this debt situation, how do you dig out. So anyway, an important introduction there.