All right, we're ready to pray. Let's pray. Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day. You've made it for your own glory, and we can serve you in it. We pray that today as we think about what it means to be a steward of the money that you've given to us, that we would have your glory in mind, that we would not be strictly pragmatic, but that we would be seeking to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, even when we approach something like money. We pray that You would bless us with understanding from Your Word, that You would give us an ability to stand against the wisdom of the age, that we would live seeking to glorify You instead, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright. So we're going to read together from 1 Chronicles, First Chronicles 29, verse 6 to 19. Okay, so David has decided that he's going to prepare for the temple, and he has put his own gifts into the pot. And we don't have time to kind of sort through, but the amount that he gave is astronomical. David was a very, very wealthy man. And then we're going to start reading about where the leaders of the father's houses also make offerings for the building of the temple. And we're going to hear David's response to it. It says, then the leaders of the fathers' houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king's work. And they gave for the service of the house of God 5,000 talents and 10,000 derricks of gold, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000 talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron. and whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly, and David said, Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank You, O God, and praise Your glorious name. But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you and of your own we have given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen Your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to You. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of Your people and direct their hearts toward You. Grant to Solomon, my son, a whole heart, that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which I have made provision." Okay? So, does anybody have a Bible that has notes at the bottom? What is a talent? How much? Okay, so a talent is 75 pounds. And he gave The leaders gave 5,000 talents of gold. So that's 7,500 times 5 pounds of gold. And you go on with silver and bronze and iron. So they gave a lot. And what's David's conclusion in this passage? That's all God's, so it all came from the Lord. So they, they're not giving anything from their own. It all came from the Lord. Okay, so that's going to be our background. So we live in a world, uh, today is materialistic, right? Uh, I don't want us to be in the impression that that's unique for our time. Materialism has been a problem throughout the ages, and you see that in the warnings of Scripture. In Scripture's time, there was a problem with people who were, uh, who loved money too much, and they, they were into money, uh, too much. But we can see it in our time, some of the ways you can see it through the number of stores that we have in our country, the number of flyers that you get in your mailbox every day, the ads that tell you that you need to have this, and we see them all over the place. So I don't think it's unreasonable to say that riches is one of the idols of our time and of our culture. And so what we're trying to do today is find a way that we can stand against what we would call the wisdom of the age, right? If the world is saying to you, you need this, and they're constantly telling you that you need this, there's billions of dollars being spent to convince you that you need whatever it is that the commercial is saying. We need to learn how to stand against that because when you live in that kind of culture, to some extent you will begin to believe it. You will not be, unless you're fighting against it, you will not, by nature, simply say, no, that's wrong, and I don't want anything to do with it. You will, by nature, begin to adopt some of the wisdom of this age. And so, what we want to do is remember, as David did, that when it comes to using our money, we're trying to do all for the glory and honor of God. Okay? We're not, We're not simply trying to be practical and learn how to have a good budget and how not to get into debt and all those kinds of things. We want to learn what it means to use the things that belong to God for the glory of God. So, how do we combat the idolatry of the day? Well, we begin by looking at what Scripture teaches about finances and wealth. So, we're going to look first at the biblical understanding of how we're supposed to use money, and then we're going to talk about personal budgeting a little bit. When it comes to anything that we do in this world, it doesn't matter if you're using your time, if you're using your talents, or if you're using your material resources, the assumption is that all of it has been given to you by God. It all belongs to God, and you're just taking care of it for Him. He has entrusted it to you so that you can be a steward. Why do we say that? What would be one reason why we would say that when it, let's just deal only with stuff. Why would we say that when it comes to stuff, that we would begin with the assumption that all of it belongs to God? Okay, how do you know he gave it to you? Go back to before he gave it to you. Yeah, he created it, that's exactly right. So God made everything, so it belongs to him. When you create something in your home, I don't know if you're, whatever your projects are, I'm making a headboard right now, a couple of headboards for a bed. I don't expect the nails in the headboard to begin to tell me how to use the headboard, right? That would be ludicrous. Well, it's the same thing when it comes to the stuff in the world. God made it, so he is sovereign over it. It's his. It belongs to him to disseminate it as he pleases. So now the next thing we have to do is remind ourselves what it is exactly that God made. So who can read Colossians 1.16 for us? Talking about Jesus there as the one who created. What did Jesus create? Colossians 1.16. Noel? For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. Okay. Is there anything that God didn't make through Christ? No. No. It all belongs to him. Alright? And so, that's why in Psalm 24, in verse 1, the psalmist will be able to say with great confidence, that earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So everything in the world belongs to the Lord. That's the plain teaching of Scripture. So we begin with the assumption that everything belongs to God, and that transfers to what you own as well. Of course, when you have little kids, it's an interesting discussion, right? Because you teach them about creation, and you teach them that God made all things, and then the next question is, well, did God make that car? Or did God make that house? Well, indirectly, God did make those things, but he didn't create the houses. He gave us the stuff. with which we make houses. So whatever it is that we possess, the shoes on my feet, the clothes that I'm wearing, the house that I live in, the chairs that I sit in, everything that I have, all of it comes from God. And He made all of it. So, when it says that God owns all things, that applies to us as individuals as well. So when we come to 1 Chronicles, that passage that we read in verse 14, David recognizes that. He says, he basically asks, why are we able to give so much? Who am I, and what is this people that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you. So David has a pile of gold in his palace, and when he gives it for the building of the temple, he doesn't think, wow, look at what I've done. He recognizes he's just giving back something that already belongs to God. So he's not taking credit for it. He's just saying, God, this is already yours and I'm just giving back what already belongs to you. So, in that sense, that's why we talk about David, or anybody, when it deals with their possessions, we talk of them as a steward. Now, what's a steward? Someone who takes care of someone else's possessions. Yeah. So it's an estate manager or really anything. He could manage anything. But he doesn't make decisions with that property that he's managing with his own interests in mind. Right? He doesn't take care of it for his own pleasure. He's managing, he's taking care of it for somebody else. Alright, so the scenario in personal finances is one of stewardship. So all of us are stewards with what God gives us. And since God owns it all, we manage and care for the things that God has given to us on His behalf. We do it with His goals in mind. And so we're bound to carry out His wishes. That puts limits on what you can do with your finances. Can you finance A crime ring. Why not? Because that's, you're using God's gifts to you to sin. Yeah, exactly. Can you use your finances for sexual immorality? No. No, you can't. Why not? Yeah, so you're breaking God's commandments with your money. Is that pursuing God's interest with his stuff? It's not. So you can't use money for sinful purposes. We're bound to carry out God's wishes. Alright, so, what is the way that God has given to us that we can remember that we have this money for his purposes? He's given us a tool. Something that helps us remember. Yeah, tithing. He's given us tithing to help us to remember. It's not unlike what He's given to us on the Lord's Day. So God, has God given you all your time? Does He give you something to help you remember that all your time belongs to Him? He gives you the Lord's Day. He's giving you the same kind of reminder when it comes to your money. Right? He's giving you all this money to manage, and He reminds you that it actually belongs to Him, and He does that through the principle of tithing. Alright? Tithing is a principle taught in Scripture from the Old Testament all the way through to the New Testament. Can you think of some examples in the Old Testament where tithing is at least described? There's a very famous one in Genesis. Abraham tithes to Melchizedek. Yes, Abraham tithes to Melchizedek. What does it mean that Abraham tithes? What amount does he give? Yeah, he gives a tenth. That's all it means, a tithe is a tenth. So Abraham gives a tenth to Melchizedek when he comes back from rescuing Lot. There's also a command in Scripture all throughout the kind of the Levitical laws, the holiness laws of Leviticus, where God commands his people to set aside a tenth. So one of them is Leviticus 27, 32, So every tie of the land, whether of the seed of the land, I'm in 30 now, or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. And every tithe of herds and flocks, and every tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman's staff shall be holy to the Lord." Okay? So, sometimes you have a hard time relating to the tithe of the Old Testament. They're tithing animals, they're tithing harvest, right? We don't use those as methods of exchange anymore. But the same principle is true, right? It doesn't matter if it's cattle or if it's a $20 bill. If it came from the Lord, you give a tenth of it back to the Lord. And you see Jesus also encouraging us to tithe. And he does it, it's kind of an interesting way. He does it when he criticizes the Pharisees for their hypocrisy in Luke 11. In Luke 11, The Pharisees are... Jesus is pronouncing woes over them because of their hypocrisy. And one of the things that he castigates them for is kind of a hypocritical... Yeah, legalistic view of tithing. Legalistic doesn't mean they tithe, that wouldn't necessarily be legalistic. But legalistic in the sense of, I tithe so scrupulously, look at how good I am. That kind of legalistic tithing. And it says in verse 42, Woe to you Pharisees, for you tithe mint and rue and every herb and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. So some people will say Jesus never says anything about tithing in the New Testament. He actually does. Not only does He say you should tithe, but you should pursue the heart that's behind tithing as well. And so, Old and New Testament tithe is part of the Christian walk. So, tithing is a constant reminder that we're supposed to honor God with our money. Alright? Now, what does God think when you don't tithe. Where is that found? Malachi. Look in Malachi 3, verses 8-10. It says there, Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions? You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. All right? So if you withhold your tithe, you're robbing God, and the result is curse. That's what Scripture teaches. To bring the full tithe to God means blessing. Now, some people have twisted this verse, right? And you can easily make this verse about you by saying, well, if only I give God my tithe, I'm going to be very, very rich. And that's what I want. I want to be rich, so I'm going to give God my tithe. That's not what that Scripture is saying. That Scripture is teaching, if you entrust yourself to the Lord, He will care for you abundantly. But your concern is that you're entrusting yourself to the Lord. That's the goal. The goal is to entrust yourself to the Lord, even with your money. Alright? So, it's a gift from God, tithing is, and it helps us to remember that all things belong to Him. Can God give you as much as you need? Does God give you as much as you need? Yes, He does. He promises that He does. He gives you exactly what you need. Now, That doesn't mean, just because we read it in Scripture, that we always live according to Scripture, okay? So now we want to think a little bit about kind of the two ditches on either side of the right road that can be an error, biblically, about using our money. Anything else on tithing? I thought I saw a hand go up. No? Okay. Alright. So, sinful expression when it comes to our money, comes in two ways. So we are stewards with the money that God gives us. Is the unbeliever a steward of the things he has? Yes. Everybody is a steward because all of it belongs to God. So you're going to be a steward. You're either going to be a faithful steward or you're going to be an unfaithful steward. You're going to be one of those two things. And so we're looking at what it means to be an unfaithful steward of God's possessions. And the first extreme that comes with A wrong understanding of God's money is greed. Okay? This is one area where we can fall into sin. Now, what is greed? What do you think, Ian? What does it mean to be greedy? Are you happy if you have one when you're greedy? How many do you want? Yeah, more than one, definitely. Usually when you're greedy, you want just one more. You're never happy. You just always want one more. Okay? You could have two TVs, you want three TVs. You have one house, you want a house and a vacation house. You have one car, you want two cars. You have ten pairs of shoes, you want twenty pairs of shoes. You're never satisfied with what you have. Now, in Colossians 3, greed is defined in a specific way. Alright? So, Colossians 3 verse 5, who can read that for us? It's going to be in the middle of a catalog of things we shouldn't be doing. Jeremy, go ahead. If it's in the middle of a sentence, why don't you start where the sentence begins. I'm catching up to you here. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Okay, now, that word covetousness there is the same Greek word that's translated as greed in other places. Alright? So, in the NIV, actually, it says, in greed, which is idolatry. And so, other translations will translate that word differently, but at the heart, greed is idolatry. Okay? It's failing to worship God because, in greed, you take what God has given you, and you pursue that instead of the one who gave it to you. Okay? So that's what you're doing when it comes to greed. You're always wanting more and stuff becomes your God. Alright? So in greed, we're replacing a healthy love for God with an unhealthy love for things. And that's why Paul can say in 1 Timothy 6, that very famous verse that is often also misunderstood, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It's because greed, the love of money, is idolatry at its heart. Now, of course, some people have taken that last verse that I read, love money is the root of all kinds of evil, to say that any kind of possession of money is a bad thing. That's not what that verse is saying. It's saying this. Greed, a love of money, a love for stuff. That's the root of all kinds of evil. So, okay. So, how are we greedy today? What are some ways that we act out our greed in this world? I wouldn't have any experience with that. No, I know. You're very, you're very reserved. Yes. Alright, you can be greedy by hoarding anything, but I want to specifically think about greed as it manifests itself through debt, and greed as it manifests itself through riches, which would be possessions, which is what would be food as well. Okay, so debt. What is debt? Who knows? Jackson, what's debt? When you pay, when you buy something, but you don't have all the money to buy it, and you go to debt. Yeah, so you're borrowing money for possessions, okay? We already said God gives us all the things that we need, right? So if God gives us everything that we need, He has given us a box, right? Here's my money box. Here's Pastor G in my money box. And here's something outside of my money box that I want. So I take what God has given to me, I make a little breach in there, and I go this way, outside of my money box, to get it. Okay? That's what debt can be. It's not always what debt is, but that's what debt can be. Alright? So you're getting something that you can't really afford, and you want it now, so you borrow money to get it. That, my friends, can be greed. It can be greed. Alright? To borrow money that you cannot pay back, That for sure is greed, right? And how can you see, what would be an example that you can see today where people are borrowing money that they have no way of paying back? Yes, credit cards, right? Credit cards is one way. Yeah, student loans. Now, is it always wrong to get a student loan? Is it wrong to have a credit card? No. But if you use them for greed, then it is. All right. So when we're thinking about debt, are there some good applications for borrowing money? I would say you can borrow money. For example, when you're buying a house, you're borrowing money and you have to decide whether or not, well, in my case, when I bought, not everybody has to borrow money, but I had to borrow money to buy a house. In that moment, I have to weigh with Mrs. Gleason, I have to say to myself, okay, This will cost us this amount of dollars to borrow this money, because it costs you money to borrow money, okay? I have to say, this is the money that God's given to me. Can we, within this box, borrow this money to provide for our family without exposing the person who's lending the money to risk, right? We're basically saying the house, the value of the house is gonna protect the person who lent me the money. So I will still be able to pay him back or he will get his value out of the loan. His loan will be repaid even if I fail in some way, which I haven't, but if that were to happen, What would be an example of this kind? Well, I want to go on a nice vacation, right? What happens if you borrow this money to go on a vacation and something happens to you? Is this person going to get your vacation and use it to repay their loan? To borrow the money that you borrowed? No, this is just, this is not, this is not a, this is what we call unsecured, right? You don't have anything that you can repay the loan. I'm not arguing, I'm not saying that debt is always wrong. I'm just saying that debt can be a vehicle that causes you to escape the boundaries that God's given to you. And what kind of interest rate do you pay on that vacation loan? That's right. So is it stewardship, right? Does it honor the Lord to do that? You could even say like... For two people taking out a loan to buy a 6,000-foot house, that would be bad stewardship as well. A 6,000-square-foot house, yes, because it's unnecessary, unless you really need a lot of personal space. You're very introverted. Yeah, right. I mean, that's something we really, I think, all should struggle with. And it's something I think about with us building the houses. What do you really need? What do you need? What do you want? You want space. You want a solid house. But we all live in nice houses. I mean, we didn't go minimal on our houses. So it's something that I think about. What's good stewardship? I'm doing it because I'm just aggrandizing myself or pleasing these preferences I have, earthly, worldly preferences. Yes, Mike. I like the example of if something were to happen where you couldn't pay off the house, the person who lent you the money would have the house that had appreciated a value or at least kept the value. I'm not going to say plain devil's advocate, but we see all these title loan places. I'm giving them the title to the car, so their risk is covered. Is that then also okay? Like to use a title loan? Well, I would say, and I don't know a whole lot about the title-owned business, except for that they typically seem to be in places where people are in worse financial condition than, rather than better. So it seems to me that when you're using those kinds of services, those services actually are exploiting the desperation of another person, which is immoral on their part. So. And bad stewardship. Yeah, because you're exposing yourself to more risk. Yeah. You're not just losing. what you borrowed the money for, like the house, God has entrusted you also with a car, and now you are placing that car in jeopardy along with whatever else you were going to buy. Yeah, that's right. And I think both of your points speak to the fact that we always have to be looking. We always have to be thinking about, is this a wise use of the money that God has given to me? Or is this something that I don't really need, that I could wait for? There's nothing wrong with with having to I mean, I know this is probably this was already being lost on my generation I think it's lost more on my children's generation But there's nothing wrong with waiting six months a year two years before you can buy something. That's okay It's okay to save up for something and so that you don't have to borrow the money Yeah, you know one other thing just to understand is especially with cars. I which are depreciating assets that go down in value the minute you drive them off the lot versus houses which tend to rise in value. And I have these kind of cases come before me where they do take the car back, but they sold the car for $15,000. They take the car back, what do they sell it for? $5,000? Even though it's two years later? That's all we could get when we auctioned off was $5,000. Guess who they're coming after for the $10,000 difference? Coming back after you. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Good. All right. So debt. Be careful with debt. Make sure you're not pursuing debt frivolously. One more note about student loans. I was talking to another dad, homeschool dad, and his son just got married. to a girl who had at the end of her four-year undergraduate degree, $80,000 in student loan debt for a generic degree. I mean, it was not like this is a great degree and we're going to be. So $80,000 for an experience. You're never going to be able to get that back. $80,000 is a house. $80,000 is a starter home that you can buy cash. So be careful with student loans that you're not wasteful to go to the school that you want to go to. Maybe the same program is offered in a place where you don't have to borrow that much money. Maybe you need to work for a year before you go to college. Right. Don't don't. Use a four-year degree to break out of that box with very little in return. When I got out of college, I had an English Literature degree. I spent four years, I didn't have any debt. Thank you. I got through school without debt because I lived at my parents' house and all that stuff. No debt after college. I had an English Literature degree. You know what I realized after I got out of school? I wasn't qualified for anything. That's what I realized. I had a degree that helped me with nothing. So I ended up cutting grass. That's what I ended up doing. Right? Don't be foolish with student loans. Make sure that you're pursuing a worthwhile goal that's something that honors law. Okay, let's move on from debt. Let's talk a little bit about riches. Do you envy the rich? Sometimes, okay, very honest, thank you. Do you ever dream about having millions of dollars? Right? You ever sit around going, oh, if I had, you know, if I had $180 million a year, that would be, I would be making $15 million a month. I would be making, I would be making $2.5 million a week. Man, what would I do with that? You ever do that? Stop it. Now, let's say, is it sinful to earn $180 million a year? Is that a sin? Not necessarily. Not necessarily, right? It depends on how you got it, and more importantly, it depends on how you use it. Right? Job was a very wealthy man. Abraham was a very wealthy man. How do you use the money that God gives to you? That's the more important question. What are you pursuing? So, this table, Think about what your priorities will be when you become a dad. When you become an earner, when you begin earning your money, you're going to have to choose priorities. And that table, you also have to set those priorities in your home already. So if you have the pursuit of $180 million as your goal, Your family will know it. Your children will know it. They will see who your God is. They will know it. Your children know who your God is. So if pursuing riches is your goal, your children will know it. So you guys over here, you have to be thinking already, when I get into the workplace, what do I want to accomplish? And if your goal is, I want to be rich, that may very well be a sinful goal. It's not wrong to become rich. It's not wrong to work in a field that pays you money, like engineering and medicine and all those industries, they tend to pay more if you do this part right. But you have to ask yourself, why am I getting into this? Am I getting into this so that I can be rich, or am I getting into this so that I can glorify the Lord with my talents and my abilities? So you have to think about your love for riches. Okay? So this is extreme one. We've only gotten the first extreme down. This is the first sinful expression of our stewardship. The second sinful expression of our stewardship is wastefulness. Okay? So greed is is I want one more of everything. It's loving collecting stuff. Wastefulness is not taking care of the stuff that you have. It doesn't matter what you have. It doesn't mean anything. You don't value your stuff. Now, it's not necessarily kind of the disposable culture that we live in, although that's part of it, right? We make things and if it breaks, we throw it out and we get ourselves another one instead of trying to fix it even when that's possible. But when I'm talking about wastefulness, it also includes not using things to their potential. That's when you think you always need the newest, even though if the previous level is still working fine. That's kind of wastefulness. when you think you need the 15th pair of shoes when you have 14 pairs already. That's wastefulness because God has given you so much already and you're just adding to it. I think you can see it in kind of an addiction to the development of technology. right? An addiction to the development of technology, you always need the latest gadget, the latest iPhone, all those kinds of things, right? So in stewardship, it's important to distinguish, and in curbing wastefulness, it's important to distinguish between two very important words, need and want. Okay? If everything becomes a need in your life, you're probably doing this. If everything is in need, you're probably being wasteful with things that you have. Alright? God's glorified when you care for the things that he has given to you. He's not necessarily glorified if you have the latest everything. Do you think that's important to God? That you have the latest everything? No, it's not. He wants you to have what you need. You don't need relates to everything, all right? So we have these two sinful ditches, greed on the one hand, wastefulness on the other hand. Now what's the proper path in between greed and idolatry and wastefulness? Satisfaction. Okay, contentment, very good. And there's one more that we can... So contentment kind of addresses wastefulness. Well, it addresses greed too. Who am I kidding? Contentment and generosity, those are kind of the two things that keep you on the proper path. Alright? So, what's generosity? Well, generosity... Well, let's look at 1 Timothy 6, so that we can see this principle in Scripture. 1 Timothy 6, verse 18. Who's got it? Jackson, go ahead. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. All right, so there Paul commands the wealthy in the church to be generous and ready to share. To be generous is to give easily, to give liberally, to be ready to share is not begrudging people access to your stuff, okay? So, that's the biblical virtue. Instead of greed, instead of wastefulness, we're to use our resources that God has given to us in a generous way and in a way where we're ready to share. All right? So, now we want to talk about one manifestation about generosity that will apply. Yes, sorry, Mike. As for the rich in this present age, we might be tempted to think, well, that's not to me then. But as you look around the world, that is each and every one. Now I don't know how accurate this is, but I heard a statistic that if you have a pair of shoes, you're in the top 50% of wealthy people in the world. But I don't know if that's urban legend or not, but that sounds reasonable to me. Sounds reasonable to me. Okay. Very good. So that does apply to us. We're in a very wealthy time. Now, I want us to think about one way that we established contentment and generosity in the Christian church. One of the things that I want us as husbands and fathers to be thinking about is this principle of hospitality. Hospitality is inherently this, if you're doing it with the right heart. Assuming that you're doing it with the right heart. Hospitality is taking the things that God has given to you and sharing it with the people who are in the body of Christ for the building up of the body of Christ. And that's why when it comes to hospitality, it's actually one of the qualifications that an elder must exhibit in his family to be qualified to be an elder, to be hospitable. And I think the reason for that would be that hospitality shows a proper perspective of God's possessions. Okay, so an elder should be content with the things that God has given to him so that he has the right perspective of the things of this world. He's going to love Christ more than his possessions. Contentment and generosity when it comes to being an elder in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, now. What do I want to say about hospitality? Hospitality, you have to be intentional when it comes to hospitality for most people. One person in your family will not react well to a kind of an improvised hospitality. And in our family, in my family, If we did improvised hospitality, Lisa actually would do very well with it. She would love it. People would come in and she would make it work and she would be fine with it. I would be at the end of it in a corner rocking back and forth because I was not prepared for this invasion into my house, right? So hospitality, you have to be intentional. When it comes to your hospitality, you have to plan it. And you have to also recognize that different personality types will find this easier or harder. But just because something is difficult doesn't mean it's not worth doing. So be gentle with each other when you're practicing hospitality. I remember when we were living in, before I was a pastor, when I was working at the bank and I was I was a member of a church, so I was on the other side of the pulpit. And I remember, so Lisa is very extroverted. She likes having people around all the time. And I'm pretty extroverted, but not compared to her. And so she always wanted to have people over. And for me, it was wearing me out. So we kind of had a discussion, and we said, OK, well, what if we do once a month, we're going to have somebody over after church, and we're going to plan for that? And that was a way that we grew in practicing hospitality. So now it's something that we try to do every week, but every family has to figure out a way that they can make that work. But I do think hospitality is a way that we can establish generosity and contentment and build up the body of Christ in doing so. All right, so you have to structure your life so you can be generous and willing to share and structure Sounds like a bad word often, but structure is what gives you that freedom. And so that's what we're going to talk about next. What structure do you need to put in place so that you can practice generosity, so that you can learn or so that contentment in a sense can be easier for you. And the name for that structure is budget. That's the name for that structure. All right. So we're going to do a little bit of we're going to do a little bit of a practical exercise when it comes to budgeting. But first I want to talk a little bit. to the married men of the gathering, and I think you already all know this already, but when it comes to marriage, we're in a one-flesh relationship with our wives. Sometimes when you think of budgeting, or sometimes it can be tempting in budgeting to appeal to God made me the head of the home, and you're to be submissive, and this is what we're doing. And I've made that mistake at times in my marriage. But when you're dealing with a marriage in a one-flesh relationship, you will be wise to discuss with your wife what her needs are, what she needs to be able to perform the function that you're delegating to her in the home. So that you're not decreeing, here is your budget. for this, that, or the other thing, but you're appealing, and you're saying, okay, this is what we've agreed upon, and here's the amount, and then lead in that way. Our exercise today, though, is to figure out, in general, how to structure budget properly, and it's mostly for these guys over here. We're going to assume, we have a budget, we're going to assume that you're all married and that you have two kids, alright? So you've really made progress in the last half hour, you're doing well, right? You've established yourself. You grew up so fast. College was a blur. All right. And so we want to think about how to budget properly. All right. Now I want to give you one thing to think about when it comes to planning a budget for your family. Here is something. Well, this decision that you make when it comes to budgeting will influence the rest of your family's life, okay? And this question is, how many incomes do I budget for? And I would say to you that as young men seeking to lead your families, you budget with one income in mind. and not your wife's. You budget your income in mind. You don't budget saying, OK, if my wife worked, we could afford this. You budget with the husband's income only. Why? You don't have that. I'm the head of the family. Pardon? I'm the head of the family. We're meant to provide. You're meant to provide. Okay, so it's fulfilling your role. Okay. What happens if you budget with your wife's income too? Can't forget about our two kids. Yeah, well, they would be in daycare or whatever, right? So what happens if you budget though with your wife's income? You're counting on her to do something that she's not meant to do for Okay, very good. So let's look together at Titus 2. Now what I want us to see in Titus 2 is the orientation of the wife. Where should the wife be looking? Where is her responsibility in the marriage relationship, okay? So let's read verses 3 through 5. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and their children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Okay? So, if this is the family, the wife's job in family life, more so than the dad's, the dad's role is this too, but in a less way, is to keep this together. And she does that by working in the home, okay? The husband's job is looking outward more, right? Going out and providing, like Sawyer said. If you don't have both of these working together, the family will be a disaster. You will have a family where the wife is, if you count your wife's income in your budgeting, you will have a wife whose focus is not this, her focus will be this too. So when you are setting up your budget, you set up your budget with your income in mind. Now, is it okay if sometimes, out of desperate circumstances, your wife works part-time? I think that's okay. But you want, as a leader of your home, you want to be guarding against your wife's orientation going outside the home. The orientation of the wife should be towards the home and in the home, okay? I'd also say that My experience has been that it causes a lot more stress, and I see that in other couples, young couples particularly, when they plan with both incomes in mind, and then that additional child comes along, or that first child comes along, and then the mother is at home with the child where she should be, but yet the debts are the same. and it really affects the whole family. Right. So what happens when you plan for a husband to work, maybe when you're first starting out in marriage, the husband makes $30,000 a year. That's not unreasonable. When you get further, if you use two incomes, the husbands and the wives together, this is your box, right? So what you end up doing is you fill up this box with expenses, and then baby comes along, and you have to fit all these expenses into that box. You think that's going to be an easy task? It's not. So that's why you choose one income, and the husband's income is going to be what you base your budget on. Any questions on that? All right, so now we're going to do our exercise. So we have to clear off this table. This is the bank. This here is the bank. All right, now what we're going to do is an average income in Georgia. I did some research. An average income in Georgia is $4,462.50. I have that here in this lovely fake money. Spread it out all over the table. Spread it all over the table. Okay, so this is just an average, and when it's average, it means that some of you will make more than this, and some of you will make less than this. It looks like a good deal of money, right? Now, the first thing that happens when you get your salary, so if you make $44.62 a month, you're making $53,000 a year. That's a good salary. The first thing that happens is you pay your income tax. Okay, now the average income tax, in Georgia is about 22%. And so that would be $892.50. So take $892.50 off the table. There we go. Okay, so that you don't even get to see. You don't even get to see that. Alright, so now the next thing, what's the next thing you do when you're setting your budget? Your taxes get taken up? Okay, your tithe. How much is your tithe? 10%. Which is what? It's $446.25. Okay, take it off the table. $446.25. So I have to make change. There are literally four ones in the box. So it's not 10% of what was there after income taxes? No, no, it's gross. We're tithing on gross. We're tithing on everything that God gave us. It doesn't matter what other people are taking away. All right, so everything else goes in the box. All right, so now we have left, we started at 4,400, now we're close to 3,100. Okay, so we lost a lot of money just on taxes. We were able to give the Lord his tithe. So now we have to start distinguishing between two things, okay? Need and want. So when it comes to your budgeting, you're going to set up the things that you need first. Your needs are the first thing you budget for and whatever is left over as a want, That's gravy, okay? So when you're dealing with $53,000 a year, you're married already. Guys, good job. You have two children, very beautiful children. Now you have to have a place for those people to live, right? Now, average expense for rent or mortgage plus insurance is $1,025 per month. So take that off the table. A small house. There's nothing fancy. It's average. Two bedroom, I think, apartment or house. 1,025. Not a camper. It's not a double wide either. It's like an apartment or a house. Alright. Now, you have this house. It's lovely that you have this house, but if you want to have water come out of the taps of this house, and if you want to be cool in the summer and not freezing cold in the winter, you have to pay your utilities, right? So that's $160 only. Yeah, it's very, very efficient. Okay, you got it? Taken away? Okay, now what you have is you have to get back and forth from work because you like your house, you like to live in there, so you have to pay for your car, you have to pay for insurance and gas and wear and tear repairs. So we're going to say $300 a month for car expenses. Okay? Now, all your hundreds are going away, I noticed. You've got a lot of 20s still. You've got a couple of hundreds. All right. Some 50. OK. All right. We're doing all right. OK. So now, when you travel, there is something that we have. When you travel on the road, right, and your wife wants to know where you are, and you need to be able to get in touch with people, you have to have one of these. That's a luxury item. Luxury item. This is maybe not a need, but we're going to put it in the need, because you're a traveling salesman, maybe. So you need to get a phone. And internet, so that's $115 a month by average. So you take that off. And then a five. Is a flip-top phone cheaper? It would be cheaper. How about smoke signals? Yeah, smoke signals would work too, but it takes a lot of time to build fires at the side of the road all the time. Where are you? All right, now you've got a family of... A police officer. What are you doing? I'm texting my wife. All right, so now, all right, so you have a family of four, you, your wife, and your two children. You have to get some health insurance for them. So let's say that costs you $250 a month. Now, all of these men over here, when they have made their budgets, they will be able to tell you in any given month something will come up that you haven't counted on. You can budget as carefully as you can, but something will happen that doesn't fit neatly in your category, so you're going to set aside some money, some miscellaneous money that you can use for different expenses. For repairs, for your house, let's say that. Or you want to take your wife on a special date or something like that. So let's do $100 a month for that. So take $100 away for that. You have to go to work dressed well. You can't go in shorts and flip-flops. So you have to set aside some money monthly for some clothing and your wife will help you manage that very well. If you're like me, when I look at what I used to wear and what I wear now, I'm glad that my wife has some clothing money. So $100, let's take $100 off for clothing. And then you live in this house with your lovely children, but you get hungry, you've noticed, at the end of every day. So you need to have some food. So you have to set aside some money for groceries. And for a family of four, an average cost for groceries in Georgia is $600 a month. So you take $600 a month off the table. Here's 600. Why do we have to eat? Alright, so now how much do we have left? Let's see how much we got left. Here's a 50. Do we have any more 50s? Here's a 50. Okay, we got 150. How much we got left? $20.00. Could be, could be, yeah. $200.00. $200.00. $70.00. $295.00. $300.00. And then you have $20.00, $40.00. 545 so that's 345 so far 545 okay now Mr. Cox raised another issue so you have if you're homeschooling your children you're educating them at home So, let's say you set aside, your kids are little, they don't need that much. Say set aside $100 a month for homeschooling. That's $1,200 a year. That's field trips, books, curriculum. Okay, so you're at $407. Now... Hold on. Does your wife need to go get groceries during the day? and go around and take the kids to the second car. Oh, you need the second car. Yeah. Well, we're not done yet, though. So that could be a whole other wrinkle. She could drive you off at work. I don't know how that's going to work. All right. But OK, so here we have this left now. What you're doing when you're a young man is also, which would be prudent, would be good stewardship, it would be to prepare for the years when you're not able to work. So you also have to set aside in your budget something about savings. You have to be saving some money so that when you're not able to work, you're not dependent on other people to pay for your food and groceries and living. So a good principle, if you're able to do this, is to save 10% of your income. So if you save 10% of your income every month, what's that? 446. OK, so take 446 off the table. You're going to set that aside? 400. 400. Yikes. We can't even make it. I think we're out of money. We're out. OK, so what's the lesson that I'm trying to teach you? Don't save for retirement. Be single, live in a tent. We're teaching all the wrong lessons. We're going to have kids who don't save for retirement sending their kids to public school. Are you telling them to live with their parents as long as possible? I'm definitely not saying, OK, but what am I saying? I am saying this. When it comes to your budget, don't start with your wants, because your needs will eat up most of your money. Your needs will eat up most of your money. I think all the dads here can attest to that. More common, I remember, okay, you can sit down because this is a time for confession. When I was a young man, I made a fair amount of money when I was in high school. I worked at a grocery store. They paid me $14 an hour, which at the time was very, very good. And I was making $240 a week, and I had nothing to show for it. I have nothing to show for it, because I did not heed these principles. And so, I remember when Lisa and I, when Mrs. Gleason and I started thinking seriously about marriage, when we became married, my expendable income, what I spent on warmth, went from $240 a week to $40 a week. And I thought, how am I gonna cope with life with only $40? Well, you know what my allowance is now? I make substantially more than I did then. But now, what I get to spend on me, $10 a week on average. From all the money that I earn, I get $40 a month in our budget that I can spend whichever way I want. But for the most part, I'm spending it on this stuff. I'm paying for my mortgage. I'm paying for the utilities. I'm paying for my sons who I love dearly to get ready for college. I'm paying for all sorts of stuff like that. I'm paying for phone bills. I'm paying for air conditioners that break down. I'm paying for cars who lurch to the side now when I press on the brakes. All these things come up in life. And so you end up spending much more on this category than on this. And you will be wise. If you learn to let go of this, and to let go of this, and to settle here, I'm not saying you have to settle for what I get. I'm very happy with my $10 a month, but I'm not saying that this is the norm for everybody. Because this is an average. Some of you will make more, and some of you will make less, right? So that's not necessarily the number for everybody, but recognize, when you take care of this, It's a gift from God. And it frees you up to do this. And what should your want be? Should it be to spend as much as you can on yourself? Or should it be to be generous and ready to share? Okay? So that's what I'm saying about that. One more thought about needs versus wants when you're doing your budget. Can you set up your needs in such a way that you are enslaved to your needs? What if, like, I think, sorry, you made the point, if you buy a $6,000 square, or a 6,000 square foot house with two people, right? Are you maybe setting yourself up for, so that your need category, your mortgage payment, or your rent payment is more than it needs to be, right? So you can't, not every need is a good need, right? That's what I think. All right, so yes. I want to just emphasize what you said about the setting aside. 10% of whatever you can for the future. I think that's an important principle for them to, I think you can call that the Joseph principle if you want to. I think that would be all right. That would be prosperity gospel. You set aside that grain because there's going to be lean years. And there are a lot of people, I'd say, maybe even most people, when they've got money in their pocket, what do they want to do with it, Noel? They want to spend it. They want to spend it. If paid on Friday, it's gone by Monday. And it's important to realize that I think money itself, or whatever resources you have, is an asset in and of itself. If you borrow $1,000 at 7%, that's what, $70 in interest. You earn 7% on your money, that's $70 you're earning. That's a swing of $140. the difference between debt and using your money wisely. And if you can learn that principle at your age and have a little bit of a cushion, if you're able to, it will save you a lot of trouble down the road and be good training as disciples, as good stewards of what God's giving you. Yeah, very good. All right, any other thoughts, especially from the dads, about budgeting? Anything that you want to add to what I said? Just remember every purchase, education, cars, houses, it's a tool to survive. And do you need the Mercedes or do you need the Honda? It's a tool. Very good. We had the privilege of living in some circumstances where we were counting every penny. And we joyfully continued And we never had a bill go unpaid or didn't have food in the house. God was faithful in that regard. It doesn't have to be that you're serving prime rib to everybody. We had the opportunity, again, as a young married couple, we had some wealthy influential relatives come into town, and they could have eaten anywhere. We invited them over to our place. We had probably the worst meal they'd had But having them into our home, visiting with family, they enjoyed it, and we enjoyed it. Hospitality doesn't have to break the bank. It's opening up your home and sharing. Yeah, and one more thing I didn't mention about that also you should think about when it comes to budgeting is eating out versus eating in, right? It's actually amazing how much, it amazes me to think about how much it costs me to feed a family of nine children, plus a border, a meal. It doesn't really cost all that much, like if you're smart about it. Like it could cost you like $15 to $20 for a meal. But again, if we use our scenario of eating out with a family of four, The average cost for that is about 50. I polled my daughter, Rachel, she's closer to a family of four than I am. She said she could probably do a meal for four people for about 12. So every time you eat out versus eat in, you're saving how much? $38. If you eat out once a month, or once a week, I mean, and you save $38 a week, Oh boy. My math is going to... I hope I wrote it down. Did I write it down? A month? 152? Okay, so 152 a month times 12. $1,824 a year you're spending on eating out. You're saving if you eat in. You can buy a lot of stuff for that much money. You can do a lot of good with that kind of money. So be careful about that. So you can save a lot of money just by packing a brown bagging it as they call it you know. Good. All right. Very good comments. I would suggest to you, again, I don't have any illusions that you will remember this lesson necessarily when you do actually get married and have two kids, but be thinking about the principle that we learned right at the start, okay? The things that you have, they're not yours. You're caring for them as a steward. They all belong to the Lord, and so you are seeking to use the stuff that you have in a way that the Lord, who you are serving, would want to use those monies, that funds, those funds, okay? So don't think, don't be man-centered in how you think about your money. Be God-centered in how you think about your money. All right? Good. All right, let me close this in prayer.