Next week we will be sending out a broad overview of the 2010 Budget.  Your officers are ever mindful of the current economic conditions but, at the same time, desire to challenge us to faithfully serve God and advance His kingdom through our tithes and offerings. The budget is nearly $564,000, which is 8% lower than 2009’s budget.  

In this economy, people have been adjusting their spending and saving habits—cutting back where they can.  I’ve done a better job of combining errands into one trip and turning out more lights, particularly around the church during the week.  At the same time, I have sought to increase my giving to the Lord and His work.   Giving to the church is not one of my “cutback” areas.  

I want to talk about managing money this morning.  We all have different styles of handling money.  We have Neiman-Marcus shoppers in this room; but we also have Wal-Mart shoppers—and QVC shoppers.  We have cash people and credit card people.  We have big tipping people here and we have preachers in this room.  (Actually, I tip fairly.) 

We have people who carefully balance their checkbook every month down to the last penny and there are folks here who close their checking account every two years and start all over again—and you know who you are.  There are people here with stockbrokers and there are those who go broke just fine without a stockbroker. 

Whatever your money-management style, we should all be challenged from Jesus’ teaching from Luke 14:28-30.  “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down & count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation & is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build & was not able to finish.””  Today’s message may be a little bit painful.  I somewhat feel like a doctor with a hypodermic needle in his hand saying, “Bend over; this is going to hurt a bit, but it’s actually going to help you when it’s over.”

In Luke 14, Jesus is talking about those who don’t give enough attention to the management side of their wealth.  Jesus seems to be using a little humor in this parable.  Have you ever seen someone start a construction project that goes over budget and they can’t finish it?  They miscalculated costs and they get into something they can’t finish.  As a result, they have an eternal construction site.  It will never be done. 

Jesus asked, “If you want to build a tower, won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost?”  Often the answer is “no.”  We often build a foundation without estimating the costs that are out ahead of us. 

I often listen to Dave Ramsey on WGST in the afternoons.  You know Dave; he is a financial guru and a Christian.  We’ve bought his books—for well-deserving relatives.  Every day, his show is inundated with callers who are deeply in debt.  I get amazed at folks who are $100,000 in debt (excluding their mortgage), but they make over $90K a year and they can’t make “ends meet.”  I can’t imagine the anxiety and tension in their lives. 

A Gallup poll found that 64% of all couples argue over money.  Give me a show of hands.  How many of you agree with that?  (Yea, about 64% is right.)  ABC News reports that more than one quarter of all Baby Boomers have less than $1000 in savings.  The average young couple spends $1600 more a year than they make.  One report estimates that the average college student ends up with three credit cards carrying a balance of $8000.   

Stress Fractures in Our Financial Foundation: 

Where do these stress fractures in our financial foundations come from?  One could be a lack of effort.  There is a segment of our society that is infected with good, old-fashioned laziness, which causes their financial problems.  Prov. 28:19 “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.” 

Do you know folks who can’t seem to hold a job and depend on family members to support them while they are always looking for a job?   They have all kinds of excuses, but often, what is going on is a character problem.  It’s a work ethic problem.  It’s like the wife who complained to her husband, “I’m ashamed of the way we live.  My mother pays our rent; my aunt buys our groceries; my sister pays our utilities.  I’m ashamed that we can’t do better than that.” And her husband replied, “Well, you ought to be.  You have two uncles that don’t send us a dime.”  Laziness is a factor for creating stress. 

Another cause is simply our consumptive lifestyles.  Impulse buying results in unwise purchases.  Does anyone have unused exercise equipment around their home?   You see consumption on Super Bowl weekend, where guys are outside of Brandsmart trying to stuff large flat screen televisions into their cars three hours before the game.  You think any of those are impulse purchases?  Prov. 21:20 “Precious treasure & oil are in a wise man’s dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.”  The New Living Translation says, “The wise have wealth & luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.” 

A consumptive lifestyle has tempted each one of us from time to time.  The average American household is carrying more than $10,000 on their credit cards.  Thirty-two per cent of Americans have overdrawn their checking accounts in the previous 90 days.  We’re in this current economic mess, by a large, because people bought houses that they couldn’t afford.  And greedy lending institutions did creative financing to get them a loan.  And our politicians, in their infinite wisdom, are saddling our children and grandchildren with unprecedented debt in order to get our economy going.  Debt keeps you stuck in your future, paying for your past. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that another cause of stress fractures in our financial foundations is a lack of a financial plan.  According to their article, 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.  It is interesting that 25% of Americans believe that their best chance to build wealth for retirement is not through patiently saving and investing with a financial plan, but it’s the lottery.  Prov. 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.”  When you put together a simple financial plan, you can build that tower of success.   

10-10-80 Plan:

I have a simple plan for you this morning and, yes, I confess that I’m laying out this plan before you receive the church’s upcoming budget information.  Some of you already know this plan—it is simply the 10-10-80 Plan.  It’s not original with me and has been around for a good while. This plan says that the first 10% of any income that you get, any windfall you receive, or any inheritance you get—you honor God by giving the first 10% to Him.  Do you know the significance of the number 10 in Scripture?  It means “a test.”  How many plagues were there in Egypt?  Ten.  Pharaoh was tested 10 times.  How many commandments are there?  Ten.  Ten ways that our obedience is tested.  How many times did God test Israel while they were wandering in the wilderness?  How many times did God test Jacob’s heart by allowing his wages to be changed when he was working for Laban?  How many times was Daniel tested in Daniel 1?  In each case, the answer is ten.  In Matthew 25, Jesus illustrates the story of ten virgins that had their preparedness tested.  Revelation 2:10 speaks of ten days of testing.  In the Bible, the number 10 is associated with testing.  And honoring God first represents a heart test of a Christian. 

Malachi 3:10; God is speaking: “Bring in the full tithes 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 & pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” 

Every fully-surrendered Christian I know takes this passage very seriously.  They give their tithe to the local church they are a part of, acknowledging that God is the leader of that life and that they are forever grateful for the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the blood-stained cross for them.  And they give believing that God will keep His promise to be supernaturally involved in their finances as they honor Him. 

I’ve told you before, I learned tithing as a child when I would put a dime in the offering plate for every $1 I received or earned.  Throughout our marriage, including our financially lean years when I was in seminary for the second time with three kids—Rachel and I continued to give the first 10% of our income to God.  It is absolutely the truth that God gives back to you.  Much of what God gives cannot have a monetary value place on it.  Bottom line—He has taught us to care about others and care about His work in this world. 

Next in this 10-10-80 Plan is you take the next 10% and you pay yourself.  Don’t you like that concept?  Paying yourself?  Before you go to the mall or before you buy whatever it is, you set 10% of your income aside for a long-range investment fund of some kind. 

Prov. 13:11 “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”  In modern terms, that is the miracle of compound interest.  The beauty of this plan is you don’t have to make a lot of money in order to accumulate a lot of money, because when you save it little by little, it grows a lot.  I know that savings accounts and CDs aren’t paying much right now.  Savings interest is extremely low.  But listen to this.  If you are 25 years old right now and if you were to take $2.75 a day…I call that Starbuck’s money if you can buy something at Starbuck’s that cheaply…if you took that $2.75 a day and put it in a typical mutual fund, given the historic performance of mutual funds over the years, do you know how much money you would have by the time you were 65 years old?  You would have $1 million.  Little by little it grows. 

I’ve had believers tell me that they don’t save because they want to obey Jesus in Matthew 6:19 where He says, “Don’t lay up treasures for yourself on earth…”  They apparently don’t want Jesus to return and find them with any treasures.  However 1 Tim. 6:17 says, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who provides us with everything to enjoy.”  You can live joyfully when you have honored God with the first 10% of your finances and you’ve paid yourself 10% in a long-range investment fund.  As a result there is a joyful freedom that comes in learning to live on the remaining 80%.   

You may think that you could never save.  It’s unrealistic.  You have a mortgage and car payments.  You may think, “I can’t afford it.”  “It’s too late for me.”  “It’s such a mess for me.”  You can do it.  Hear these suggestions:

·         Make a decision that you are going to stop the financial bleeding right now.  I have folks tell me that they want to get out of debt but they are unwilling to change anything about their lifestyle.  They still eat out at the same restaurants and spend freely on entertainment and vacations and they buy new clothes.  They continue to borrow more money.  In order to begin to save, you have to stop spending.  Don’t go further into debt.  If you can’t pay off your credit cards when the bill comes at the end of the charging cycle, cut up the card.  You have to apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. 

·         Learn to live on less.  You start with your housing and automobile expenses and work down.  Those are typically the two biggest budget-busters.  Do you need to drive a car that is less expensive?  Do you need to share an apartment with a roommate?  Do you need to rent out a room?  Another suggestion is don’t purchase items when they aren’t on sale.  Rachel says her favorite department store ALWAYS has clothes on sale.  My sons think she should have her own personalized parking place at that store.   

Do you know how fast a $20 bill disappears after you “break it” to make a small purchase?  Try this.  Try writing down every dime that goes out of your hands during the course of one month—track it and you will find a drastic reduction in your discretionary spending.  It causes you to consider your money before you make a purchase.  Write down your spending.  Write down the next movie; write down that cup of Starbuck’s coffee; write down that clothing item; write down when you get a hair cut.  When you track it, your awareness goes up and your spending will go down.  (Willow Creek Community Church of Chicago has expense tracking forms on their website.  I put how to access them in your program.) 

Three Important Questions:

Before you can implement the 10-10-80 Plan, I encourage you to ask yourself three questions. These questions are designed for people who really want to get serious with God—who want to go deeper in their relationship with Him.   

1. Am I trusting God as the owner of my stuff?  We are so quick to say, “My stuff,” “My bling,” “My house,” My car,” or “My money.”  But we ultimately don’t own a thing—we are merely managers of it.  I could say to you, “Come over to my house; just 96 more payments to go.”  Everything I have comes from God and it belongs to God and it is distributed by God.  Ps. 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s & the fullness thereof, the world & those who dwell therein.”  The “fullness thereof” means everything is God’s.  We brought nothing into this world and we’ll take nothing out of it.

Do you remember those eight Nebraska meat packers who won the $365 Powerball Lottery three years ago?  I bet a lot of people said to themselves, ‘That’s what I need.  I need either a miracle from God or I need to win the Powerball.”  Think about that for a moment.  If that is a statement you would make, then money has become a substitute god in your life.  We don’t need a miracle from God or more money.  We NEED God in our lives, period, end of story.  That is what we need. 

After Jesus told this story about the tower builder in Luke 14, He made a challenging statement in verse 33:  “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  Is Jesus calling on us to sell everything we have and give it away?  I don’t think so.  We do see examples in the Book of Acts of people selling an asset or liquidating a property in order to meet a need, but Scripture doesn’t generally teach that.   

Jesus isn’t talking about possessing money—He is talking about what possesses you and me.  If we are to follow Him, we have to transfer the title deed of our lives and everything we have to God.  He becomes the owner and we are the managers.  And instead of holding everything close to yourself; you hold it out to God.   

Have you done this?  In the depth of your heart, are you trusting God as the owner?  And have you assumed the manager role or do you still have the attitude that “It’s all mines”?  

Show of hands.  How many of you have ever had something stolen from you?  An automobile stolen?  Hope it didn’t happen here at church.  Has your house ever been burglarized?   It can be an emotionally disturbing event when you’ve been the victim of theft. 

God speaks about an unusual theft victim in Malachi 3:8 “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me.  But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’  In your tithes & contributions.”   Q2: 

2. Am I robbing God?  In Malachi’s day people would get themselves in some kind of financial trouble and then they would reduce the tithes and offerings they were supposed to give to honor God.  They over-extended themselves at the mall or on a house remodeling project and to help meet those expenses, they would take some of their tithe money that was supposed to honor God.  And they rob God.

There could have been those, in Malachi’s day, that really hit the big leagues financially.  They sold a piece of property that had increased in value or they’d have a bumper crop  Or they got in on an IPO with a little high-tech company that had been operating in their horse barn and they would make a staggering amount of money.  And when they sat down to figure out what 10% was going to be, they would say, “I don’t care who is on the throne of heaven, I’m not writing a check that big to anybody and giving it away.  And if God has a problem, have His people call my people.”  And they rob God. 

God is asking, “Would you rob Me?  All I’ve ever done is give and give and give to you and all I’m asking you to begin by taking a tenth of all that I have blessed your life with and return it to Me consistently as a worship offering, reminding Me that I am first place in your life.”  Are you robbing God?  I’ll never understand how we can sing praise songs and hymns about everything being for the Lord and then we don’t honor God with the tithe. 

3. Will I take action right now?  I know people who truly work this 10-10-80 Plan and God has blessed them in countless ways.  But each of them had to answer this action question by saying, “The first thing I will do is honor God with the full tithe; then I’ll pay myself and build my freedom fund, and then I will pay my bills with the rest.”  These folks are towering success stories.

I have never seen anyone drift into the 10-10-80 Plan.  I used to think that people would start out with a 2-2-96 Plan and step up to an 6-6-88 Plan, but that is not how it normally happens.  I’ve had people tell me, “Bill, my saving and giving was merely ‘hit and miss’ until I made the defining decision to trust God and just do it.” 

Wouldn’t that be incredible if you got on that path today?  But it will take a commitment to say, “Today, I’ve made a commitment to stop the financial bleeding and to becoming a towering success story.”  This decision is between you and the God who loves you.  If you do this, God promises to throw open the floodgates of heaven to bless you.  Let’s pray.