biblical finances. We've been in a series, pastors has preached three weeks of that throughout, taking off Bible conference and so forth. But let's go back over some of these principles. There are 12 principles that will set us free financially. Now, I'm coming to you with considerably less experience than Pastor Sal in finances, but I would, you'd probably be surprised to know that I have just as much experience in making the wrong decisions financially as he does. I would say that I probably have just as much. Why? Because by the time he was my age, he actually was figuring some things out. So we're about even with that. I've made some bad choices. And as Americans, you don't get handed anything when you turn 16 that says, here's how you work with your finances. You just figure it out as you go along, which basically means you do a lot of stupid things until you get tired of doing stupid things. It's like the guy said, why do you keep hitting yourself in the head with a hammer? He said, because it feels so good when I stop. But you never do. As Americans in our finances, why do we keep hitting ourselves in the head with a hammer? We do it. We do it to ourselves. And if you're like me, I was raised in a good Christian home and given a lot of good things that I never would have figured out on my own, believe me. But one of the areas that I struggled with is finances. Figuring out exactly what to do. And I could come up with all kinds of reasons why. But the truth of the matter is, it's just easier to have a knee-jerk reaction to how we deal with finances. We're going to talk about that tonight. It's easier for us to just kind of pull out that old famous coat that we always wear. You know, that work shirt. And it's just who we are. It's just what we do. It's how we've always done it. And we end up getting into trouble. We end up hurting ourselves. We end up hurting our families and our family's futures because of the stupid decisions that we make. Now, aren't you glad that money is not moral? People say, well, you know, the Bible says money is the root of all evil and the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Money is a means of exchange. Money is just some way to get what I want or what I need. It's not moral. In truth, it's no different than a book. It's no different than a television that's unplugged. It's amoral. It's neither good nor bad. Anything that you imagine connected with that is something that's happened in the past. It's not happening right now. In your life with money, anything that you associate with money that's bad, that's something that happened in the past. The money itself didn't do anything. Money never took itself for a walk and went down and bought something you ended up regretting. We take the money out for a walk. We're the ones that make the wrong decisions. But at the same time, if money is immoral, that means it's neither bad nor good. If it can be used for bad purposes, it can also be used for good purposes. Hey, aren't you glad for the ability to be in a building like this on a hot July night? I am. I'll tell you how to get a good amen if we adjourned to outside. We sat outside in the sun for a while. This is what money can do. Money can purchase. This is translated directly from the labor and effort that you put in at the factory, at whatever workplace you're in. That work translates into this right here. It's a good thing. It's a wonderful thing. I'm thankful you are wearing clothes. All God's children are. Amen? And where do those come from? They came from somebody working and providing the money, the means to go and buy them. Or maybe you made them. Some of you can tell. You made those. It's very nice. I had a homemade suit once when I was about seven or eight. And my mom decided she wasn't going to go into business doing that. Even in the 70s, there were some rules and regulations when it came to clothing. Amen? And that didn't fly very far, that suit. I think she made one for dad one time, and oh my, oh my. Amen. That'll suck the joy right out of your Christian life right there. Principles that set us free. Financial principles. Can anyone tell me the first one? Number one, it all belongs to God. It's divine ownership. That's the principle. All of it. How much? 10%? 90%, right? 100%. 100% of my of my money belongs to God. What's the verse that we had? Psalm 24 1 the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein That's principle number one that God owns it all if we could get that through our thick heads that God owns all of it not just the money that I give to him and And bring to him at on the weekend when I visit him in the nursing home. Amen If I could get it through my thick head that God owns all of my money, all of it, that would make me kind of a little concerned about how I spent it. And not only that, it helps me to realize that I'm not responsible. If I follow the principles of the word of God, I'm not responsible for the consequences. I'm just responsible for following the principles. So if I do what God tells me to do and I end up not having enough money for A, B, or C, all I have to do is say, God, This is your problem. I did what you told me to do and I don't have enough money. How long has it been since you've been able to go to God without a feeling of guilt over doing something stupid when it comes to financial things? Isn't it hard to pray for God to give you more money when you know you've just wasted a whole bunch of it? It's difficult. Maybe some people don't even think about that. But realize that God gave you X amount of money. You took it and you did what with it? And now we come back around as if God is some kind of a bubble gum dispenser. Give me more, give me more. The truth is God owns it all. Number two, the principle is what? It's not just about the money. Proverbs 10 verse 22. Let's look at that real quick. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 22. It's not just about the money. We're not looking just for blessings in our bank account. One of the easiest things to do is to be happy when you don't know any better. Kids can be happier when they don't know any better. How many of you, when you look back on your life, you realized you were poor? When you look back, how many of you realized that when you were going through it? Always, always a small percentage. Why? Because we didn't know any better. And because we didn't know any better, we could actually just relax and enjoy. Proverbs 10, verse 22. The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow. What are we talking about sorrow for? He's talking about money, right? It makes us rich. Don't you realize that there's emotions connected with money? That's about all we have is connected with money sometimes. It's just emotions, how we feel. Either rage, or discouragement, or elation. You know, what we say to young people, that money was just burning a hole in his pocket. He just had to get out there and spend it. And we tell them, don't spend it all in one place, right? Don't take any wooden nickels. I don't know that they've been making those for quite a while. But we give them this advice. Why? Because we know that there are emotions connected with money. The Lord said, He can make you rich without being full of sorrow. God can give you enough to where you don't feel depressed. Some of us, we live our lives thinking, if I just had enough money, if I could just get to this point where I had X amount in the bank, I could have peace and I could have safety and I could rest at night and I wouldn't be so concerned. Well, hey, I'm, I'm going to rest a little bit easier if I have $100,000 in my, just, you know, my slush fund. Then if I have zero or even worse, if I have $1, That's even worse. But the truth of the matter is, if number one is a principle from God that God owns it all, then it shouldn't bother me if I don't have this or if I don't have that. If I know that God owns it all and I know that it's not just about the money, I can actually relax and have a good time. But again, it goes back to so many times, we think it's our money and I've got to act a certain way, feel a certain way. I've got to get more of it so I can feel differently. That's the second one. It's not just about the money. The third principle is God's presence brings hope even in extreme financial situations. Romans chapter 15. Let's look there, shall we? Romans 15 verse number 13. God's presence brings hope even in extreme financial situations. You say, well, I'm at the end. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm on the edge financially. Can I just be honest with you and tell you that you're not going to have true peace just by getting out of this difficult situation financially? That's not where true peace comes from. How do I know that? Explain to me, who has more concern? Who has more fear? Who has more fear at night about their things being taken? Rich people or poor people? Rich people. Who is more likely to have an alarm system in their house? Rich people. Why? Because they want to protect that which they own. Now, is there anything wrong with that? No, there's not. But how many of you remember back before the days when people had alarm systems in their home? Some of you can remember not locking your cars, not locking your house. I can remember that as a kid. Why? You weren't worried about it. Now where do we get this idea that somebody's going to take it away from me? Let's just say this. My wife and I sometimes argue about this. I say this, if my car is unlocked and somebody steals something out of my car, it is not my fault. I didn't steal anything. Now you can see how that goes exactly the opposite of our thinking in America. If that guy steals something from me and I didn't have a lock on it, it's my fault. No, it's not. It's his fault. He stole it from me. He is in the wrong. Now, I'm not saying I don't lock my car in my house. Yes, I don't want to be stupid. Right? But you can't tell me that I'm the one at fault for somebody stealing something from me. That is illogical. Makes no sense whatsoever. But you see how in America we've almost flipped. Now we have to go so far and have safety on every single possible thing that we have. You know, and mothers cover your ears. I tell little, you know, don't put plastic safety things on your outlets in your house. Why? It's more of an irritation for me. Now this, mothers have told you to cover your ears. You didn't do it yet. It's more of an irritation for me to have to take them on and off than for him to put his finger in one time and he learned the lesson. We have to bend over backwards. My favorite thing is the company Safety First. I love that company. They make money hand over fist. Because when you're a new parent, you have no idea what your child needs. You don't know. You're like, well, maybe they do need the roller and the crawler and the stretcher and the bouncer and the jumper. I don't know. Maybe they will be inhibited if they don't have the thing that wakes them up in the morning, sets their face out in the sun, and then puts them back in and lays them in. You've got to have it all. If you don't have it, you could be very, it could be, you never know. I mean, look how we turned out. We didn't have it. Maybe they need it. Safety, safety, safety, safety. The truth of the matter is the blessing of the Lord makes rich and he doesn't add any sorrow in the mixture. It's not part of the portfolio. Sorrow and fear and worry. God, you know, I'll tell you, you want to have a happy situation financially. ask God to get you to the point where even if all your money was taken away and you had no paycheck, you could still be happy. Now if that's not the blessing of the Lord, I don't know what it is. You're either totally just unaware of what's going on, your elevator doesn't go to the top, okay, you're intellectually inferior, or you can just learn to trust somebody who's a whole lot bigger than you are. It's a life of faith. It's a life of faith. The faith life is actually more fun than the stress life. But it takes a little while to get into the faith life. You know, you don't just jump into the faith life and say, let me try this out now. It takes a while. It's a long training program where you go through the faith life so that you can, as Brother and I talk, tell the story often about Brother Maurice LaPierre, who we visited down in Haiti, who, when it was time for us to leave the following morning to go back two, three hours, whatever it was, to drive, No transportation was available. The vehicles that we had used were not available. His bus would not make that trip back two or three hours. So here we are stuck, and he prayed about it, and we've got to make this flight. We are getting out of Haiti, I can tell you that. If I have to crawl or swim, whatever we're going to do, we're getting out of Haiti tomorrow. But we had to drive to the airport in the morning, and there's no transportation. What do we do? One of the ladies that was with us, not one from our church, We have stalwart women in our church, but one of the ladies that was kind of an attache along with us, she was physically sick that night, the night before, worrying and being concerned about it. Brother Lapierre, he said to me, he said, I was very concerned, I'm very concerned. And so I prayed, I asked the Lord, Lord, you must do something. I cannot do anything. And I go to sleep. He said he woke up early the next morning and he went down and there's two vans available for us to take. This is an unusual thing. It's completely different culture than what we're used to. And it was a miracle, but it was something that he was used to expecting from God. It was not something where he's like, you'll never believe what happened. He just says, Oh, the Lord is good. He provided for us. And you know what? The amazing thing is not that the Lord provided for us in my mind. That was amazing enough. The amazing thing was that he went to sleep not knowing how God was going to provide for him. How he went to sleep with peace in his heart. Of course, he wouldn't have to fly out either. It wasn't his flight he was going to miss, so maybe that's how he did it. But he had that ability in several different areas while we were down there. The Lord's going to take care of it. The Lord's going to provide. And that's why I say if rough times do come, Pastor preached that recently, if rough times come in America, it could be the most wonderful experience in your life. Maybe you can't stop at McDonald's every day for every meal, but imagine your faith getting stretched. Imagine you seeing God do things in your life and trusting Him and knowing that God is real and powerful in your life every day. Hey, it beats trusting your boss. It beats trusting your work to make provide for you. So God, God brings a blessing in our lives. It does not have any sorrow connected with it. So it's not just about the money that we're looking for. Number three is where, where we left off. God's presence brings hope, even in extreme financial situations. Maybe you are in Romans chapter 15, verse number 13. Maybe you are in that place tonight. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope. And we could talk about others. The situation where the Macedonians were so impoverished and how they could not even hardly subsist in the money that they had, and yet they had more joy, and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality. They had more joy when they had less stuff. And as working with missions as I do, I get an opportunity to hear from different missionaries and talk with them and study missions and so forth, and it's a great blessing. It's also very challenging to me to realize that on the average, people who have more stuff are less fulfilled and less happy than people who have more stuff, than people who have less stuff. The people who don't have are happier than those who do have. We know that, but it's difficult. It's difficult to get it through our thick heads. But I want to encourage you, maybe you're going through the valley of the shadow of death right now financially, but learn not to trust your own initiative, your own work ethic, your own job, or your own ability to provide for yourself, learn to trust God. Trust God and take every good thing that comes, not as a windfall or as finally, but take it as a gift from God. Everything that comes. When you sit down, when's the last time you thanked God that you had reached the level of the food that you ate, rather than You were irritated because you had to come down from the level that you thought you deserved. You see what I'm saying? You were more thankful because you know you didn't deserve to get up to the level of hot dog that you were. You didn't deserve that. Instead of saying, man, I should be having steak. So that's the difference. The difference is God of hope can fill you with all joy and peace and believing and recognizing that God is providing for me. He's providing for my family. So if my kids whine and complain and say, Oh, are you having this again? You could try radical therapy and say, we're not eating anything today. That's crazy. Or you could just explain to them the same thing. It's possible that you and I would be in a situation where we couldn't even afford to eat three times a day. So kids, keep that in mind as you're getting ready to complain about this burnt roast that your mom put on the table. Amen. Just keep in mind that God has blessed us to get up to the level that we're at. Having food and raiment. It doesn't say what kind of food. And it doesn't say what kind of raiment. It just said having food and raiment. Let us be there with content. I'm just kidding. It's not in there. It is in there, having food and raiment to be content. So if you have something to wear, thank God all of us do tonight, and you've had some food in your belly in the last 24 hours, then we can be content with that. If we really had to. Not that we would right now, but if we had to be content, we could. And Christian, I believe the Holy Spirit's design is to help you get to the point where you can go with food, without food, you can go with financial blessings, or with financial setbacks, with a beautiful sunny day, or with rain coming down from the sky, and just looking out. Remember those songs? When you were a child, just depressed and discouraged, right? I think God wants to be able to even that out, to make it through every day. So God's presence brings hope. Now let's move on to the next one. The next one is, we haven't gone over this, and I want to talk about this, and maybe we'll get to another one, maybe we won't, it all just depends on how bogged down we get. I want you to go to Psalm 139, Psalm 139 and verse number 14. The fourth principle that helps to bring freedom in our lives financially, This my financial tendencies good or bad must be controlled by Christ my Financial tendencies whether good or bad must be controlled by Jesus Christ psalm Where'd I tell you to go 139? Psalm 139. Let's look at verse number 14. I Will praise thee For I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well." Who created us? We know God created us. But I want you to see another verse that we're going to zero in on. John chapter 3. Very short. Very short verse. John chapter 3, verse number 30. So we know God created us, but here is our memory verse. John 3, verse 30. He must increase, but I must decrease. Now, I am not saying that I have to give more to God and less to myself, although that's not a horrible, terrible thing. That's a good thing. I think our giving to God should go up. Now, there are times when it may be impossible for you to give everything that you'd like to give to God. But most of the time, that's because of decisions we've made in our past. not because necessarily of things that happen presently. Sometimes it is. But aren't you glad that that is a movable scale, by the way, the tithe? That when you have less, God expects less. When you have more, God expects more. And he looked at that widow that threw in two mites and he said, she hath cast in all her living. And he was more impressed with that percentage rather than the amount. He's more impressed with the percentage. But I want you to see here this, this verse, he must increase, but I must decrease. That is a principle that Christian, if we could get in our lives, it would, it would change every area of our life. He must increase, but I must decrease. What does that mean? It's not just that I give more to God or that I do more for God or that I try to be more faithful or read more Bible. It's that my self-worth and my decision-making goes down. My thoughts and ideas and actions and motivations go down. His thoughts and motives and decisions go up. My own idea of how I should live my life should go down as I go further in my Christian life. Christ's idea of how his life should be lived through me should go up. Does this making sense tonight? Because if we could get that into our head, it would make us realize this. My financial tendencies may be good. They may be bad. It doesn't matter. because there's some very, very, very smart people that do smart things financially who are anti-Christ, who don't love God. The point is not, oh, find out some wonderful financial tendencies that you can use to bring glory to God. No. If you follow Jesus Christ, you will naturally be able to put good, sound financial principles into play, into your daily habits, instead of Well, I got to go over here and find out, you know, I know, I know Christians, Christians just give everything away. So I don't want that. I want to figure out what, what I should really do. And I'll be able to give more when I, no, that's not what I'm saying. No, it's finding out what Jesus Christ wants in my life and then allowing him to do more of it. But as, as we, uh, if you've been married for any length of time, you understand that, that men and women are different and, uh, financially they approach things differently. And I think it's a good thing because it helps to balance this out. But I want to go through and talk about a couple different types of personalities. When you're looking at financial tendencies, we all can roughly fall into a certain type of personality. And personalities don't excuse you, personality traits don't excuse you, but they do tell you what kind of battles you can expect to face. And they can tell you what kind of victories you should be having, and maybe the reasons why you're having these victories. They can tell you what to expect, and they can tell other people what to expect. If you're not careful, when it comes to finances in the home, it's one person's over here in this corner, and this person's over here in that corner, and you only come out to fight. The truth is, the Bible says you're one. You're supposed to be one. And let me throw you a crazy, weird way of looking at this. God didn't think you were good enough by yourself, so he gave you a spouse. And that spouse is to help you get to where God wants you to be, not where you want to be, where God wants you to be. So the fact that they're so irritating could be that God placed them there to help carve something off of you that is wrong. I can tell that thrilled the throng. Financial principles. You know what? Let's close in prayer. That's, this is not going anywhere. All right. What kind of person are you? Are you a commanding person? Decisive. I'm going to go through this, read some personality traits and you tell me where you fit in. All right. Tough minded, independent, daring, dominant, opportunistic, confident, self-reliant, bold, adventurous. That's one type of person. All right. Another kind of person. Enthusiastic, expressive, lively, fun, loving, outgoing, loud. Inspiring. Talkative. Popular. Uninhibited. Impulsive. Entertaining. That's another kind of person. Alright, now no elbows, okay? Here we go. Just breathe normally. They'll never know. Here's another type. Cordial. Caring. Kind. Peaceful. Understanding. Tolerant. Adaptable. Supportive. Patient. Gentle. Good listener. Cooperative. Accommodating. Anybody like that at all here tonight? Alright, here's another kind. Detailed. Particular. Meticulous. Following rules. High standards. Prepared. Precise. Logical. Conscientious. Analytical. Organized. Factual. Accurate. Efficient. Amen? Anybody like that? All right. So let me, let me give you, let me give you some general, general, and this is not Bible. These are just general observations about people. There's certain kinds of people that would be in that first category. We call them alpha males. They're leaders. They, they, they, they like to be an authority. They like to define their goals and like to get results. This is who we are. This is what we're doing and we're going. And, and, and, and by the way, in financial things, it's the kind of person that says, I'm going to the store to buy this. I'm not going to the store. I don't care what else is in the store. It doesn't matter to me. Why would they even offer anything else? I just need this. They go into the store. They aren't affected by ads. They're not affected by any kind of display. You could have a mannequin jump out in front of them. They don't care. They walk to the thing, push the mannequin aside, get what they need, go to the cash register, the cashier, pay for it and get in their car and go home. Check. Mission accomplished. Amen. Back to the easy chair we go. That's one kind. And then the second kind would be your salesmen. These people are influential. They're the people that like to influence. They like to sell things to people. They like to persuade people to do things. They like to convince other people just how great their idea is. And sometimes they can even make you feel stupid. They will even say that you are stupid for not buying into their idea. What kind of an idiot are you that you don't think, I am, this is a great idea. This is the ultimate idea. Oh, it's going to be so much fun. It's going to be the greatest thing that you or I have ever experienced in our lives. Come on, let's go do it. That's an influencer. Somebody who likes to, and by the way, those are the fun people. Those are the people that cause things to be fun. As long as it does not spending money, you can have a lot of fun doing those things. All right. Then there's the third kind of person. And that's kind of, that's the easy going guy. A steady person. He's very caring. She's attentive. She's responsive. She brings tenderness or support. And it can be a man just as well. But an easygoing person. Have you found any place that you might fit in a little bit? These are four things that are not written in scripture somewhere. Human beings are far, far too mysterious than that. You can't pin a human being down. just as soon as you think you know what they're going to do, they're going to do something else. People are people are people. But, when no one is looking, and we don't think we have to do a certain thing, or we just naturally do what we naturally do, then we generally fall into one of these types of categories. Alright, then you have the fourth kind. This is what I call the bean counter. This is the pencil pusher. This is the nerd. He's got a pocket protector here, and he's got every shade of ink that's ever been made in the universe. And he's got it in there, just in case. And often, he is pushing up his glasses. I don't know what the nasal thing is with the bean counter, but it's there. You can't deny it. It's there. People with this tendency, they have a strong desire to have compliance. Not to be compliant, but to make everything comply with a standard. It has to be accurate. It has to have high quality. They're great at organization. They're great at making sure there's safety. They're thinking of the details. They're making their family safe. They're concerned. They're watching out. If it's a man, it's the kind of guy who wears a belt and suspenders. You just never know. You never know. Be prepared, right? So when it comes to financial things, the alpha male, the lead dog, he sets ambitious financial goals. He is not afraid of borrowing large amounts of money. He is willing to sacrifice today, if whatever, a child, if we need to give a child away for a little while, sweetheart, for a little while. All right? He can stay with your mother. It'll save us, look how much it'll save us in food alone. You know, not counting the weight in the vehicle. He is not easily distracted from financial plans. She demands accountability for expenditures. I see you spent 97 cents. I don't remember agreeing to that in our budget. Are we just throwing that out too? That's the alpha male. Just keep laughing. They'll never know. dictator when it comes to financial stress. When you're under pressure, it's like Hitler comes out of the closet. Nein! When I was growing up, we didn't have milk either. So you can just drink water. Drink your spit. Right? Amen? Amen? Kathy, amen? Amen. They're the kind of person, they're determined to find a way. They're an entrepreneur. They're a risk taker. They will have a business going by tomorrow afternoon if they lose their job today. They will figure out how to get the job done. And hey, I'm glad for those people. And by the way, those are the kind of people that help build America. I'll just be frank and honest with you. I'm not from Toledo, but let me just throw this in here. Entrepreneurs are few and far between in Toledo. They're different kinds of people. We don't have a lot of them here. There's some, there's some good ones, there's some guys that really make it happen. But it's just not an entrepreneurial type of a town. That's all there is to it. And there's all kinds of reasons for it. But maybe you are not one of those kinds of people. But I'm just encouraging, if you are an alpha male, you're not always going to do the right thing. But hey, it's not the end of the world. It actually can be a good thing. Let me encourage you, if you lose your job, You don't have to sit at home crying. You say, it's not easy. I know it's not easy. But I'll tell you one thing, as long as they're hiring somewhere, I'm going to do my best to go and find it. I'm going to go and find it. Now, I know there's all kinds of approaches when it comes to employment and so forth, but if a man is not willing to work, he shouldn't be willing to eat. And I'm going to go beyond that and say what the scripture says. If a man is not working, he shouldn't be eating. Amen. Now that's what we call a profession, a hush over the congregation. But it's true. We're living in a lazy world. Men are lazy. Women are lazy. Kids are very lazy. Why? Because their parents never trained them otherwise. We've got to do something with our lives. We've got to actually get up and go forward and move. All right, let's keep going. Here we go. All right, now that's the alpha male. The salesman, when it comes to financial things, the salesman buys things to impress other people. He is carefree. She believes in quick, impulsive purchases. She's financially optimistic. He spends to overcome depression sometimes. He's a salesman, but when he swings over that way, he's got to get back to the sale in order to get back on top. He struggles with self-control. He likes to flash clothes and jewelry and things like that. She resists living on a budget. She spends to have fun. Sometimes he's just forgetful of financial details. How much was it? I don't even remember. I don't know. It was around $50. It was $75. But you just kind of forget, right? You live with kind of a large buffer financially in your mind. You've got a big playground to play in. You seek the approval of others. You live life in the fast lane. This is the salesman kind of person. Now we're talking about the financial tendencies that we all have. The goal, by the way, is not to be a robot and not have any financial tendencies. The goal is not to pretend like you don't have something, a way that you naturally act, or that you don't have certain personality traits. We all have them. We all have them. The point of the principle we're working on is that my financial tendencies, whether they're good or whether they're bad, need to be controlled by Christ. All of us, good or bad, financial, we do wonderful things, or we do stupid things with money, or anywhere in between, it needs to be controlled by Jesus Christ. Far too long, we have thought of our bank account as mine, and, oh, I've got to get some money out to give it to the Lord. What if on the account it said, when you went online and clicked on it, it said Jesus Christ on your bank account? You know that's the reality of it? It should say the Lord Jesus Christ, account number whatever, whatever, whatever. And then you could go down through and look at how things are being spent. That's the goal that we're trying to get to. All of our financial tendency is to be controlled by Christ. So that's the salesman. Let's look at the easygoing guy or gal. They're generally generous in helping other people. They don't mind tightening their belt. They're reluctant to make and carry out long-range plans. They're kind of in-the-moment kind of people. They like to give to help people. If somebody's suffering, boy, they're going to throw some money right that direction as soon as they can. They're very slow to make financial decisions. They live within their means. They prefer for other people to make hard financial choices. They're just kind of floating a little bit. They don't shop as a leisure activity. They're kind of laid back. And there are some that do, amen? Now, the fourth kind is the bean counter. And when it comes to finances, the bean counter is great at balancing the checkbook. Matter of fact, they prefer to do it, to relax. They may be moody sometimes. They're distant. They control the family dynamics with facts and figures. Maybe you can hear your mom. Do you know how many people have died doing that? Statistics show. That's somebody who is controlled by the details. They have great organizational skills. They're natural when it comes to budgets. They're the ones that are excited when you sit down and really talk about the finances. They're the ones that get pumped. They're kind of a geek, I guess, in that regard. They want to have financial plans. They resist urgent decisions in order to be well prepared. They're logical. They may combat fear by stashing money under the bed sometimes, just because you never know what moron over here is going to do. Of course, I will know because I have an app downloaded on my phone. Every time a purchase is made, I know. But I keep some money back just in case. They have a great appreciation for planning, and they're fearful of what the future might bring. Now, we looked at all these different kinds, and I want to just give you a couple things to remind you before we go any further. Be careful trying to pigeonhole yourself, and be even more careful in trying to pigeonhole your spouse. In fact, don't just be careful, just don't do it. Don't tell your spouse, you always do this, you always act that way. That's very dangerous. That's what's called walking through a land minefield. That's what that is. Don't do that. Because here's the truth. God knows you better than you know yourself. And He knows your spouse better than you know your spouse. The Bible says that the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to what? The dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The Lord is able to take your personality and change your personality. He knows who you are. And just because you think you have a lock on your spouse, and that's what irritates you so much when it comes to finances, just remember, God knows your spouse better than you know your spouse. Number two, remember this, when thinking about personality types, knowing the tendencies that we have as humans does not excuse sin in any way. Well, that's just who I am. That's just the kind of person I am. I just like to live large or no, I just think we need to be careful. And maybe we can't tithe right now, but God understands. He knows. And we have to be, I want, I want to have a good future for our children. Be careful with that. Your personality type does not excuse the sin in your life. Why? We must all, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Remember that? And we're going to give account of himself, it says, of ourselves individually to God for what we do. It doesn't matter if you were raised to be a skin flint. It doesn't matter if you were raised to be money bags. It doesn't matter if you can't keep a dollar in your pocket or if you never spend any money at all. It doesn't matter what tendencies you have. If they go into the realm of sin, you have no excuse whatsoever. I don't care who your grandfather was. I don't care how you were raised by your mom and by your dad. You are going to give account of yourself to God. And you're going to stand there and have to say, this is what I did financially. And the Lord will say, well, of course, I understand you did that, but we all know why you did that, right? Your favorite excuse, your mom, right? Exactly. Thank you, Lord. It's not going down like that, people. The Lord is not going to bring in witnesses for or against what you say. You and I are going to answer individually for how we have spent our money. I don't know about you, I'd just rather not even talk about that. I'd rather not even preach about that. Let's talk about joy and heaven and clouds and skipping. Let's talk about something other than the fact that God is going to hold me accountable for that money that I spent. Now, does that mean that God doesn't want me to have any fun? No. See, that's where we automatically say, I know what God wants. No, it's not that I decide what God says is good or bad. It's that I let God decide that. The Bible says he's given us all things richly to enjoy. Right? He wants you to be happy. He wants you to enjoy yourself. Let me ask you this. When's the last time you went on vacation and actually had no guilt whatsoever? You could enjoy yourself knowing that any money that you spent was already accounted for, you already had it saved, and you were good to go. That's not how we live as Americans. We live saying, I'm going to pay for it someday. I'm going to pay for it later. Why? Because I can. That's why. Because I can. But we all are going to give account of ourselves to God, no matter who we are or what kind of person we are. And let me say this, God is not interested in figuring out the mystery of who you are. You know, I think I'm an alpha male. I think I'm more dominant. Well, I'm definitely more caring than you are. There's no question about it. It's not figuring out the mystery and the wonder of my personality. It's finding out who Jesus Christ is and allowing Him to have the preeminence in my life. All things are to be brought under the preeminence of Christ. All things. That in all things, He might have the preeminence. In all things. in all things. That's a tough one, isn't it? I wish I could stand here and tell you, listen guys, the water's great, jump in. All you have to do is just surrender to the Lord and you'll enjoy a happy, carefree life like I do. No, I'm struggling with you. I'm sitting here going, Lord, have the preeminence in my life. There's areas, there's rooms, there's closets that the Lord has never opened. Why? Because I stand in front of them anytime he gets close. and say, oh no, Lord, there's nothing in here. I'm telling you there's nothing in here. The Lord says, let me see into your finances. I say, Lord, come on. I'm giving you 10% of tithe. I'm supporting missions, Lord. And remember that check I gave to that special speaker? And the Lord says, let me in there and see what you're doing. Lord, oh, look out there. What do you see, Lord? What is that? A soul needs to be saved? What? My child is rebellious? Oh, Lord, look, there's an emergency. Let's go over here and talk about that." The Lord says, we've got time. There's always some rebellious child. Let's talk about your finances. Let's let me be in charge of it. Let's sit down for a budget meeting with just you and I. Lord, I think I need to get out there and do some soul winning, Lord, right now. It's a great book, doctrinal book, Lord. It's doctrinal. Amen? I'm telling you a weird little story, right? Because the truth is, I shrink from turning my finances completely over to God. I shrink from it. Why? Because I like stuff. And I like going places, and doing things. And I don't have to always check in with God before I go and buy something, and do something, and go somewhere. I like to be able to enjoy myself. I like to be able to have a carefree existence. If I want to go get a special kind of cheese, which I love, I want to go and get it. Now, I can't help it if I like all different kinds of cheese. If there's 10 different kinds, I want to buy them all. I'm going to bring them home. Now, I know we can't even possibly eat it all, but we better not eat it all. But the truth of the matter is, I want what I want, and I want it right now. And if I can't get it, it's just not fair. And it's my spouse's fault. That's what it is. If my spouse wouldn't do what they do with their money, then we could have a happy life. The truth of the matter is, the spouse and you both better submit yourself to the preeminence of Christ and say, Lord, what do you want in our life? I can't do that because if I do that, God's going to make us eat rice and beans. He's going to make us sit without any furniture in our house. We're going to have to just give dimissions. We're going to have to go without. Our children will starve. That's what the devil tells us, doesn't he? If I surrender my finances to God, if I were to ask, just for one week, every dollar I spent, God, is this okay with you? If I were to do that, it would radically change my life, and I don't want my life radically changed, because everybody knows that Christians that really sell out are weird. They are weird. You know they're weird, and I know they're weird. No, that's not true. A Christian who sells himself out to God and says, God, whatever you want is the happiest human being on the planet. So maybe that explains why you're not happy. Maybe that explains that no matter what God does for you, you just can't work up the generator, get the generator of joy started. Well, the Bible tells us that if we have Christ in us, he will be in us a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Therefore, with joy, shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. And I'm telling you this, you cannot separate your finances from things that are spiritual. You can't do it and be happy. You can do it. A lot of Christians work very hard at that. Keeping Christ over here, spiritual, wear the right clothes, do the right thing, sing the right songs, know all the stuff, read my Bible. And then my finances are over here and I do whatever I very well please because I worked hard for it. Because God gave me that job. Oh, that's right. Because God kept my heart beating when I wasn't even thinking about it. Yes, I know you work hard. There's guys in third world countries that could work you and I under the table and make a quarter of what we make and less. So it wasn't just your hard work that got all that money. It was God that gave you the money. And if God gave you the money, he has a say in it. Amen. But don't forget that God is a father. And as a father, he gives good gifts to his children. He wants to make you happy. He wants you to have joy. Some people act like happiness is a sin. No happiness is the wrong goal. The goal is God himself. And God is the, is the great storehouse of happiness. God can give you happiness, but if you chase after happiness and forget God, you're never going to be happy. When it comes to financial things, you chased after being financially secure or financially happy or whatever the case, whatever you're looking for with money. If you chase after that and say, God, hold on just a second, just a second. I'll give you some time, just a minute. I'm going here. You can forget being happy and satisfied and secure because security comes from above. Safety is of the Lord. True joy comes from the Lord and your finances. I don't like that. You know, I don't like it. It's just because I haven't made myself surrender to God. And the times that I have said, God, whatever you want for my finances, I give it all to you. What do you want? You know what happens? I find myself not worrying about things because I realize I'm just sitting down here making sure that I'm putting the checks in the right place. He's handed me the money and I'm putting the money in the right place. I'm not the one coming up with the money. He's coming up with the money and I'm just putting it over here. It's a really hard when I'm the one that's coming up with all the money for everything. And then it looks like God's got his hand out. What? You own everything. What do you want from me? The Lord says, hello, I gave you everything you're supposed to take from me and distribute. You're not the great entrepreneurial, uh, originator of all money and finances. Everything that you have came from me. So my personality traits, whether it be a big spender, whether it be an alpha male, whether it be a person that is a party animal when it comes to money, whether I'm a person that's very careful and cautious, or whether I'm an easygoing person, whatever it is, all those personality traits, the key is this, Lord, what do you want in our finances? And if you could recognize that, yes, you may have some strengths when it comes to money, but you probably also have some weaknesses. And God gives you a spouse to help balance that out. But it's not just, well, I better let her have her say, or I guess I let him look at the checkbook every now and again. No, you both need to recognize that this money, whatever money we have, whatever possessions we have, came from our God. And our God is going to hold us accountable, but He wants us to enjoy Him first of all, and then the physical things of this world. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these what? Things. shall be added unto you." Well, I think the devil's in things. Well, hey, I don't know about that. It looks to me like God adds things to people's lives when they seek him first. I want all the things that God has for me. But you know what's scary? You ever think about the fact that God may have a room full of stuff, things that he wants to give you, but he never will give you and he can't give you until you seek his face first. You ever hear that expression? Well, I guess you're going to have to walk backwards to the boss when you get your check this week. You ever hear that expression? Basically what it means is you didn't earn your paycheck. And so you're not going to be able to look your boss in the eye. How many times have you come crawling to God backwards saying, hey God, I did it again. Help me out. Promise this is the last time. Okay, thanks God. See ya. That's not the way God wants us to live. That is not God's will for your life financially. He wants you to be able to walk up to Him and say, God, I love you. If you never give me another dollar, I'm going to serve you. If I don't have a place to live, I'm going to be happy because I have you. You say it's impossible. Paul the apostle, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I have learned how to abound and I've learned how to be abased. Christian, that's walking in high cotton right there. You think, if I could just get that next house, we could spread our arms out and, yeah, maybe, you'd be happy. But don't forget, it also comes with a higher mortgage, too. It also comes with higher real estate taxes. And it also comes with a lot more concern, because you've got a nicer thing, and now you've got to keep up with the Jones next door. So you've got to buy this, and you've got to buy that, and you've got to do a whole bunch of things so you can be at that higher level. Maybe it'd be just nicer to be in the prison cell. Maybe somebody comes by and brings you a meal, and you're happy. and you're contented. I'm not saying God wants you to be there. What I am saying is that if God is enough, He's enough. If God is not enough, no amount of stuff will be enough. When God is enough, it's fun having stuff. When God is not enough, you can never have enough stuff. Personalities need to be brought under the controlling preeminence of Jesus Christ. And then Lastly tonight, let's look at one more. Proverbs chapter 22. And I'm going to hit this with a glancing blow because this is right down where we live. The last financial principle as we close tonight is this. Financial bondage is the natural consequence of misusing the resources God has entrusted to us. Financial bondage is the natural consequence, Proverbs 22.7. the natural consequence of misusing the resources God has entrusted to us. Financial bondage. Here's our verse 22 in verse number 7. The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. Financial bondage. It's the natural consequence of misusing resources. It's the state of being captivated or overwhelmed by money matters. Now notice what I said, captivated or overwhelmed. Maybe it's a negative thing. You feel like the house is falling in on you. Maybe you are unnaturally or beyond the point of interested in your finances. You're a Scrooge, as it were. You are captivated by your financial situation, whether it be good or bad. Do you realize that both of those are bondage? That's why I said sometimes it's nicer just not knowing. But you can't be a good steward and not know what God has given you and what you're supposed to do with it. But it's almost as if you walk into the room and you look at all the financial matters and you say, okay, do that, okay, buy that over here, don't buy that, we're still saving, okay, we'll never buy that. Alright, close the door and go and have a good life. and then you have to go back the next day. Some Christians want to spend all their time in there manipulating and pulling levers and twisting dials and pulling ropes and trying to make sure everything balances out and make sure they can have a happy life and their kids can have every possible thing that was ever invented so they can sell it on eBay next year. Right? And some Christians never go in there. They're like, well, the Lord will provide. Amen? Sometimes in the form of a credit card, the Lord provides. They don't want to see what's in there because they know it's a mess and they don't want to have anything to do with it. They'd rather just be without understanding. They'd rather just be carefree, happy-go-lucky. And let me say this to you tonight. We're going to look at this just a little bit. We're going to finish out. We'll go into this, Lord willing, next time around. But financial bondage can be debt itself or it can be fascination with finances. Have you ever been to one of those extremes? Maybe you're not the kind of person that says, well, you're not going to go out and buy something and put on a credit card. If you do, you're like most Americans, most Americans, the average American family has $8,000 worth of credit card debt, $8,000 worth. You stack that up against how much they make in a year and you stack that up against how long it's going to take them to pay that off. It's not going to, it's not going to be pretty. You know, where did the government learn how to do this? We say we learned from the government. The government learned from us. The government's of the people, by the people, for the people. You get enough people saying to the government, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, you're not going to put this on a credit card. They'll stop doing it. They'll stop doing it. But no, it's just because that's how we've lived our lives. The borrower, the Bible says, is servant to the lender. Overdue bills. Where are you on a scale of 1 to 5 on these lists here? Overdue bills, investment worries, a get-rich-quick attitude, no gainful employment, deceitfulness, greediness, scale of 1 to 5, covetousness, over-commitment to work. You see, that's just as much bondage. as having too much debt is. Well, we have to work. Why? Because we've got to pay these things off. Well, why do you have to have those things? Well, I think God doesn't want us to just be paupers and monks living in a monastery somewhere. God wants us to enjoy our lives. Are you enjoying your life? You're working all the overtime they possibly give you? Are you killing yourself? Are you killing your family time? Why? So you can have nice things? Why do you have to have nice things? You know your kids are going to be out of the house in a few years. You're not going to have them anymore. And you're not going to be able to buy anymore. So sure, you have the nice things, and we've got to create the memory so we can put it on Facebook. But guys, don't you realize, I'm not trying to be mean to you, this is America, this is where we live. This is what we do. Happiness, again, is not found in, you can't buy it. You can't go out and buy it. You can buy memories, so to speak, you can buy exquisite vacations, you can buy really cool trips, and you can buy those things. Yes, you can, but they also come with a price tag. And how long are you going to have to be paying on that memory? And is it really worth so much more than that memory where you just went to the park and had a good time? I mean, that brand new car, you drove it off the lot, you know how it goes down in value, right? It takes a huge hit in value as soon as you drive it off the lot. Where are you when it comes to financial unfairness? Where are you when it comes to lack of commitment to God's work? To financial superiority? Where are you when it comes to financial resentment? And we're going to close out there tonight. We can't possibly go in there to debt. It's a huge monster. But I believe with the power of God and the Word of God and strong financial principles, we can slay that giant. I believe we can. Let me say this our church is is doing a couple things that by God's grace We're going to see a great victory in one of the things that we're working towards and pastor Sal has asked me to be involved in helping and and and try to Corral all of our horses and kind of move in the same direction is working on our church debt We have coming up next year a refinancing of the loan and one of our goals is to be able to put a large sum of money on that that loan amount and bring that down and then accelerate forward into the future when we refinance. And we're looking at all kinds of options right now. We met with one banker today, talked to him about the possibility of getting a loan with no prepayment penalty and accelerating the payment of our church mortgage. You know the reason why our church is hampered One of the reasons why is because of the great financial burdens that we have. Now God is blessed. He's given us a wonderful building and it was a great decision. It was the right decision to make at that time. But God's changed the heart of pastor. He's moved him in a different direction. He is moving us towards becoming debt free as a church. That's the direction he wants to go. And I think it's going to be a great thing. I'm excited about it myself. I fought the debt giant before and he's a mean guy. You know why he was so mean? Because He was me. I looked in the mirror and it about scared me to death. It was me. And the Lord said, do you want to kill that thing? Well, then you've got to learn to die to self. You've got to learn to be crucified with Christ, to re-reckon the fact that you are crucified with Christ. That's why our verse was, He must increase, but I must decrease. I want to encourage you, this coming fall, Lord willing, we're going to be offering a class And it's going to cost you money, but it's going to be a class for financial principles. And it's going to be very structured and organized, very helpful. I, myself, have been through the class and helped my family tremendously. We're going to start that up in the fall, Lord willing. It'll be on one of the weeknights. And I'm going to encourage you, families, think about this. Maybe set aside some money. It'll probably cost around $100, nine weeks. for the class. But if you put the principles into practice in your life, it will change your financial world. It'll make an impact, a huge impact. Now I know money is supposedly ungodly, money is wicked, horrible. No, the truth is money is amoral. What we do with it is moral one way or the other. And I tell you the truth, I look at the future of this church and I see great things. I see God doing some amazing things. And one of the examples to me is looking at Pastor Sal, and here he is at the age of 60 now. He is saying, hey, 59 actually, he is saying, we are going to attack another giant in the future. We're not just going to sit here and thank God for giving us the great church that we have. We're going to take what he's given us and we're going to turn that around and do something with it. And that excites me as a young preacher to see that God is not done with our church. He's got a lot of things that he still wants to do. And so I hope you'll pray with us about that. Let's stand tonight and we will be dismissed.