"Spend Your Way To Wealth" | October 11, 2020

[Music] uh bye [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi i'm robert jefferson welcome again to worship from first baptist church dallas on our first dallas eye campus in a moment we're going to turn to the book of proverbs in the old testament and continue our series the solomon secrets by looking at another piece of uncommon sense from the wisest man who ever lived this time about how to handle your finances we're going to discover that the way to financial freedom is by controlling your spending and we're going to discover solomon's secret of spending your way to wealth but before we get to the bible let's enjoy some fantastic worship from the first dallas choir and orchestra oh good morning first baptist dallas we welcome our guests let's stand together god is here and we've come to worship him praise to the lord the almighty the king of creation [Music] oh my soul praise him [Music] join [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this morning church let's lift our [Music] voices and mercy your daily uh [Music] is [Music] gladly forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] again [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] all praise the lord this morning we bless his holy name for he is worthy to be praised he's here in this house let's worship him today let our praise be your welcome let our songs be a sign we are here for you we are here for you let your breath come from heaven come from heaven [Music] to you our hearts are our hearts over open nothing here is [Music] come on church let us [Music] that's why we come today we are here for you let your word move [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is let your fire fall down [Music] [Music] almighty [Music] oh [Music] all we thank the lord for his presence in this place [Music] take your bible we'll be reading from proverbs chapter 30 as our scripture reading today proverbs 30 and we'll read verses 7 through 9. and we'll read from the new american standard bible if you don't have that version you'll see those words on the screen we always want to honor the reading of his word so i invite you to stand with us now proverbs chapter 30 we'll begin with verse 7 and we'll conclude with verse 9. let's read together two things i asked thee do not refuse me before i die keep deception and lies far from me give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with a food that is my portion lest i be full and deny thee and say who is the lord or lest i be in want and steal and profane the name of my god may god bless the reading of his word the psalmist says bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name let's worship together of my soul oh my soul worship his holy name seem like never [Music] worship your holy name the sun comes up it's a new day dawn it's time to sing your song again whatever may pass and whatever lies before me let me sing bless the lord [Music] worship your holy name [Music] your rich in love and your soul to your name is great and your heart is [Music] 10 000 reasons for my heart [Music] worship is [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] and on that day when my strength is faith the end draws near and my time still my souls ten thousand years [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh lord we [Music] bless his name this morning church praise be to god good morning and welcome to worship on the first dallas eye campus this morning i have a couple of quick announcements for you and then i'd like to share with you some of the incredible ministries that you are helping to support when you give to mission 1a generation now through first baptist dallas first if you have not yet registered with us i hope you will do so today by going to the link provided in the chat room right now when you do we will send you a free chapter download of our pastor's timely book praying for america you'll also have the opportunity to receive daily devotionals written by dr jeffress connect directly with our ministry staff connect with other i members through our private facebook group and participate in additional online ministries over 24 000 people like you have registered as part of our icampus ministry and i hope you will become part of this fellowship of believers today now i want to thank you for your financial support of the ministry of first baptist dallas when you give to mission 1 8 generation now you are worshiping the lord and you are participating in his work and he is using you to transform the world with his word locally nationally and internationally today i want to briefly share with you about some of our church's ministry in our local community through mission 1 8 1st baptist dallas helps support lake june baptist church a local mission church that reaches a smaller but very diverse community in addition to the financial support that we provide to lake june we also provide the funding for the role of their senior pastor many of our members will partner with the pastor of lake june to fill and deliver packages of food to its families or help with projects at the church from construction projects to vacation bible school this year we also partnered with other ministries like the children's hunger fund which provides food for children all over the world and here in the dfw metroplex in a recent project with them our church provided food and financial support that will feed over 300 undernourished children in our community first dallas sent volunteers to bon-ton farms which is focused on alleviating the plight of hunger in a nearby area that's considered a food desert we served at our calling in dallas life two pair church ministries who help administer to the homeless and we partnered with the exodus ministry to minister to women who have recently been released from prison and to help them begin their new life in christ we've also seen god at work here on our campus even during the pandemic we recently completed the expansion of our family center and are looking forward to its grand opening in january additionally just last week in partnership with a local developer we completed the construction of a brand new parking garage adding 700 parking places to help facilitate our mission as we reach more people with the gospel of jesus christ so again i want to thank you for your continued support and i want to ask you to continue making all these ministries possible by giving to mission one eight generation now to give online today you may go to the link provided in the chat room or you can go directly to firstdallas.org forward slash give online now as we praise god for all he is doing and we worship him through this time of commitment let's go to him in prayer together heavenly father as the psalmist wrote we praise you for your unfailing love and we thank you for your wonderful deeds for men we thank you lord for meeting our spiritual needs we know that when we were dead in our sin and our trespasses you met that need by giving us salvation through jesus christ your one and only son and through his atoning death on the cross and his victorious resurrection you sealed us with your holy spirit and you made us your children lord we thank you that you also meet our physical and our temporal needs uh you minister to us in our time of need you are a never have present help in times of trouble lord and so we cast our anxieties upon you we lay our requests before you and we thank you lord that you comfort us and that you sustain us even during difficult times lord we praise you this morning we praise you as we commit ourselves to you and as we give to you our tithes and our offerings may we your church proclaim our love to you and our allegiance to you we thank you that you provide for us and care for us as a loving heavenly father you equip us through the power of your holy spirit and we pray that you would strengthen us as we go out as your ambassadors into the world and we pray this all in the saving and holy and powerful name of your son our savior jesus christ [Music] amen [Music] [Applause] i am the lord i'm the almighty god i am the one for whom nothing is too hard i am the shepherd and i am the door i am the good news to the bound and the poor i am [Music] i am i am [Music] abraham i am the ultimate sacrifice for sin i am your redeemer [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] am [Applause] [Music] i am your future so leave your past behind [Music] i am jesus said [Music] [Music] i [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes i am i am i [Applause] am [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] hallelujah people have always been fascinated by the subject of money i mean good and for good reason when you think about it i mean despite all the bad press that money gets from us preacher types the fact is money can do a lot of wonderful things for people when you think about it money can relieve stress a money can provide independence money can help us fulfill our dreams in life when you think about it money can do a lot of the very same things that god promises to do for us at least at first glance and i think that explains why jesus said in matthew 6 24 no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will despise the one and hold on to the other you cannot serve you cannot worship god and money and notice jesus didn't say you cannot worship god and your work or you cannot worship god and sex it's not that those other things cannot be idols for us they can but jesus understood that money has a unique ability to take our hearts affection because of all of the things it can do for us that also explains why paul said in first timothy 6 10 for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many of pain and yet most people i talk to they don't have any desire to fall in love with money they don't want to worship money instead most people's attitude about money is like one couple who talked to me recently they're facing the first year tuition bill for their child's college education they said pastor we just want to have enough we just want to have enough did you know by the way that is a biblical goal for your finances to have just enough enough to meet your current and your future needs turn over to proverbs chapter 30 if you would proverbs chapter 30 solomon was the wealthiest man of his day he understood both the benefits of money but he also understood the limitations of money after all he had a lot of it you look at solomon's writings in both proverbs and ecclesiastes solomon taught for example don't worship money because it can be easily lost in proverbs 23 verses 4 and 5 we read do not be do not weary yourself to gain wealth cease from your consideration of it when you set your eyes on money it is gone for wealth certainly makes itself wings and like an eagle that flies toward the heavens money can increase stress solomon said in ecclesiastes 5 12 he said the sleep of the working man is pleasant whether he eats little or much a person who doesn't have a lot he's able to sleep at night he's not worried about his finances and what he's going to do with all of his money but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep solomon said money can rob us of present joy in this life in ecclesiastes 5 13 he said there is a grievous evil which i've seen under the sun riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt so given the benefits of money and also the limitations of money proverbs tells us what a reasonable goal for us ought to be in our finances and it's found in proverbs 30. look at verse 8 we read this just a moment ago the writer said lord here's my prayer give me neither poverty nor riches but feed me with a food that is my portion that i not be full and deny you and say who is the lord or that i be in want and steal and profane the name of my god the writer is saying lord here's my prayer don't give me too much money because if i have too much i could be tempted to say i have no need for god how many wealthy people do you know just like that but he also said lord don't give me too little lest i be tempted to do something wrong to steal and profane your name god what i'm asking is that you give me just enough that ought to be our goal and money to have not too much not too little but have just enough the question is do you have enough do you have enough enough money enough financial resources to meet both your current and your future needs well let's take an exam right now to determine if you have enough okay i'm gonna ask you four questions they're not the only four questions i could ask but here are four questions that will help you determine the state of your financial health right now you ready for this here's question number one if you or your mate were to lose your jobs neither one of you had a job how long could you survive how many months without a paycheck question number two if you add up all of your assets that is everything you own and subtract all of your liabilities everything you owe is that number a positive or a negative number question number three for those of you with kids still at home who are facing college bills do you have enough to provide for their college education if they choose to go to college how much do you need for that i went on a website this week collegedata.com and according to this website the average cost for a four-year public education public school that's tuition and all the other expenses the average cost is one hundred thousand dollars for a private college it's 170 000 do you have enough to provide for your kids education question number four what about your retirement you know there's a day coming for everybody doesn't have to be 65 or 70 but there will be a day when you are no longer working with a steady paycheck coming in do you have enough money for retirement for when that day comes how much money should you have right now for your future retirement they're all kind of formulas that people use financial planners to determine how much you ought to have right now for your future retirement but here's a real simple formula take your age multiply it by your current salary and divide by 10 and that's the amount of money you ought to have right now your current age times your salary divided by 10. for example if you're 40 years old you make 50 000 a year multiply 40 times 50 000 divide by 10 that means right now you ought to have 200 000 you can do the math now what do those four questions reveal about your financial health do you feel pretty good about where you are are you ready to go out and slit your wrist right now now before you reach for the razor blades if it's the latter you need to understand that most americans owe more than they own have not made adequate plans for retirement and could not go more than a few weeks without a steady paycheck you see most americans believe that the way to financial security is to earn a bigger salary to win the lottery or hope aunt gertrude dies before the first kid has to go to college but as we're going to discover today solomon says the secret to financial success in life is not in earning winning or inheriting the secret to financial success that god wants all of us to experience is through spending that's right you heard me right the solomon's secret for success in your finances is to spend your way to wealth now to know exactly what i'm talking about and what solomon is talking about turn to proverbs chapter 21. proverbs chapter 21. financial consultant dave ramsey who was in our church about a year ago year and a half ago he tells about two couples that came to see him for financial advice a number of years ago and the first couple that came to him was a couple that was earning 35 000 a year and even though they were earning 35 000 a year they had accumulated 150 000 in their 401k plan they had no credit card debt and they only had uh three years worth of payments left on their seventy thousand dollar home that was couple number one couple number two that came in right after the first couple had sixty four thousand dollars in credit card debt they drove two leased cars they had a hundred and seventy five thousand dollar outstanding mortgage on their home what was their problem as compared to the first couple you might assume that this second couple that had 64 000 worth of credit card debt and 175 000 left on their home they must have earned less money than the first couple earning 35 000 no ramsey said this second cup the couple was earning 84 000 a year so how is it that one couple admittedly a few years ago could survive and thrive on 35 000 of income and yet a second couple earning twice as much money was on the brink of financial insolvency the key is the first couple had learned the solomon's secret for success in money and that is margin financial margin you see a lot of people again believe well if i just had more money if i had a bigger paycheck i'd be financially okay but solomon exposes the fallacy of that thinking in ecclesiastes 5 11. he said when good things increase those who consume them increase in other words the higher your income the higher your expenses the more you make the more you spend can i hear an amen on that i mean we all know that's true don't we and so that's why solomon said no the key to financial security is in margin it has to do with your spending what is margin right down this definition margin is that comfort zone it's the buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life margin is that buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life let me illustrate it for you this way take your outline right now hold it up so i know you're paying attention take out your outline i want you to look at the outline very carefully did you notice all the wasted space on that outline there's a lot of wasted space it's white space white space around the margins white space between the words i mean if we wanted to be more economical around here we could have filled up every inch of that outline with black type but it would have been very difficult to read wouldn't it margin it gives it ease of reading that it provides comfort to the reader it's the same thing that is true in every area of our life if we fill up our life completely if we have no buffer zone between where we are in our limits in our work in our relationships and in our finances it produces a great deal of stress dr swenson in his best-selling book margin describes what life is like without any buffer zones i bet some of you can identify with this living without margin is being 30 minutes late to the doctor's office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the hairdressers because you were 10 minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station and you forgot your purse that is life without margin the fact is when you're always pressing the limits you're gonna feel stress in life and that's true about your financial life as well people who live in their finances without any margin that is they're spending everything they have are under incredible stress perhaps you know people like this perhaps you're a person like this you live from paycheck to paycheck hoping and praying you run out of month before you run out of money and if there's anything unexpected that comes up in the month a car repair bill or a medical emergency there is no way to cover that as far as big ticket items for the future like a college education for your kids or your own retirement or caring for elderly parents why don't even think about that there's no way to plan for that and yet people do think about it and so they had this nagging fear in the back of their minds that not all is well in their finances and because of that stress they live under unbearable pressure that extends to their relationships did you know financial consultant one noted financial consultant says that 90 of divorces are precipitated by financial pressure that's the result of living without any margin and that's why solomon gave this solomon secret for success with money look at proverbs 21 verse 20. solomon said there is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man swallows it up the foolish person is the one who consumes everything he has and solomon's day was oil that was a priceless commodity the fool is the one who spends everything that he has the fool is the one who lives from paycheck to paycheck who says i can't think about tomorrow someday i'll get my finances under better control sometimes the foolish person actually wraps his apathy and laziness in a spiritual veneer that says oh i'm going to trust god for the future after all jesus said live one day at a time does god want us to have financial margin does he want us to have this buffer zone between what we spend and what we earn i need to offer a caution here about what the bible says about finances there is a difference in the bible between saving money and hoarding money the bible draws the distinction between saving and hoarding you know what saving is it's setting aside a reasonable amount of money to meet future expected and unexpected needs money saving is setting aside a reasonable amount of money to provide for future expected and unexpected needs you know what hoarding is it's stockpiling as much money as you possibly can to protect yourself from every adversity in life and of course that's impossible but a person who is a hoarder doesn't understand that he's the guy who's always running around turning off lights walter you're laughing at me right now by saying this but you know it goes around turning off lights realizing that he's probably costing more by the wear and tear on the light bulbs and the energy he's saving doing so he's the person who'll drive across town to save a nickel on a loaf of bread oblivious to the gas that he spends doing so he's the kind of person who will never take a vacation he never has quite enough money because he's always saving for a rainy day instead of enjoying the sunshine of the present day that's what a hoarder does i have found by the way in my experience that many people who went through the great depression i'm not talking about the one in 2007 i'm talking the one back in the 30s many people who went through the great depression find it very difficult to spend money they remember the horror of those four years in our nation's history and so they hoard and they hoard and they hoard instead of being reasonable in the amount of money that they set aside listen to ecclesiastes 5 13. solomon says there is a grievous evil which i have seen under the sun riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt you see the problem with hoarding money is it robs you of the joy god wants you to have in this life as well you've heard me speak before about my father my father was a wonderful christian man in fact he's the reason the rest of my family my mom and all of us became christians and i learned a lot of great lessons from my dad and one of the lessons i learned from my dad was the importance the discipline of saving money i remember when i was a little boy my dad would get paid two times a month and on those fridays he would take me with him to the bank to the hillcrest state bank across from smu and he would take me with him as he would deposit his check and then he would purchase a united states savings bond and would go downstairs to the vault and would walk in there to his safety deposit box and he would deposit that savings bond he did that twice a month religiously and and uh when my dad was a relatively young man he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer told he had just a few months to live and i never will forget sitting around the kitchen table with my dad going over his affairs he knew he was about to die i'll never forget what he said to me he said you know robert i spent my whole life setting aside this money so that i could enjoy it one day and now i have to end up leaving it to you knuckleheads you know solomon said basically the same thing in ecclesiastes 2 18 he said thus i hated all the fruit of my labor for which i labored under the sun for i must leave it to the man who will come after me and when we're talking about financial margin we're not talking about being a hoarder of money we're talking about setting aside a reasonable amount in the present to take care of future expected and unexpected needs what are the benefits of doing what solomon said of not consuming everything you make and setting some aside i want you to notice in the bible there are three benefits of having financial margin a buffer zone between your income and your expenditures number one financial margin offers freedom to do the right thing it offers us freedom to do the right thing years ago i was listening to dr laura schlesinger remember her they who gave the advice on the radio all the time everybody listened to dr laura i was driving somewhere and had it turned on to dr laura and this lady called in and she said dr laura i don't know what to do he said my father's been diagnosed with cancer he lives in another state and i would love to go visit him before he dies but i can't afford to take off work the two weeks i can't survive without two weeks of a paycheck and not only that i don't have the money for an airplane ticket without going ahead and racking it up on my overextended credit card what should i do talk about being on the horns of a dilemma she had two choices and neither one of them was good do i experience financial insolvency do i experience a lifetime of regret for not seeing my dad see that's the kind of choice you have or lack of choice when you have no financial margin financial margin gives us the freedom to do what we need to do financial margin having that buffer zone allows you to change jobs and do something you really want to do in life financial margin allows you to take that mission trip that you've been dying to take financial margin allows you to start that new business that god has placed on your heart to start all of us need financial margin in our life it is the freedom it provides the freedom to do the right thing in his book the official guide to success tom hopkins describes the benefit of financial margin he just has another name for it he calls it go to town money listen to this he says millions of people stay in jobs they hate or they settle for less than they should get because they don't have any go to town money what is that it's enough money to allow you to face change with a stout heart how much go to town money do you need whatever it takes to make you feel strong enough to risk losing what you have now in order to reach for a greater opportunity this is the executive's equivalent of a strike fund it's the salesperson's ace in the hole it's everybody's hold out money go to town money provides you with extra courage and clear-headedness to meet the surprises and alarms of life if it improves your performance under the pressure of a tough negotiation it can double or triple your rate of climb but if having go to town money makes you impossibly bull-headed putting it aside will be one of the worst mistakes you ever make when i read that last line about the wrong use of margin or go to town money i think of my friend the late dr landrum level who for many years was the president of new orleans seminary and i remember dr level telling me one time about a pastor friend of his who lived in mississippi and this pastor had one goal in life he wanted to accumulate one million dollars he was obsessed with the idea of getting one million dollars and dr level asked him one day why are you so fixated on having a million dollars he said because dr level as soon as i have that one million dollars i'll be able to tell my deacons to go to hell now that guy was mistaking go to hell money would go to town money they're different okay there's a big difference i doubt god is ever going to answer that pastor's request and prayer listen you see financial margin is the freedom not to do what's wrong but it's the freedom to do what's right i contrast that pastor to another pastor i heard dr chris will tell about years ago he's a florida minister of a presbyterian church and one day the leaders of the church came into this presbyterian minister and they said we think it's time for you to go we're tired of you it's time for you to leave but his surprise his reaction surprised the church leaders he said fine if you want me to leave i'll leave i have plenty of money to retire on but he said you know if you would like me to stay i'd be willing to stay and work for no salary because this is my calling this is my ministry well the response so startled those church leaders that suddenly their perception of their pastor changed no longer did they see him as a financial drain they saw him as an asset to the church they not only kept him they continued to pay him by the way don't get any ideas there okay but you see that's what financial margin does it gives us the freedom to do not what is wrong but to do what is right you say well we ought to do what's right whether we have financial margin or not shouldn't we now we should but there are a lot of things we should do that we don't do we're flawed human beings we're sinful human beings and god understands that and that's why god's plan for all of our lives is that we have financial margin in our life in proverbs 10 verse 15 solomon wrote the rich man's wealth is his fortress but the ruin of the poor is their poverty you see when you have no financial margin in life you're forced like that lady that called dr lara to make some very bad choices sometimes a few years ago there was a movie that came out with denzel washington called john q some of you may have seen it sorry about a man who couldn't afford health insurance for his family and his young son needed an operation and so not having health insurance he had to raise a large sum of money very quickly the only way he could do it was to start selling everything that he had he was on the street with all of his possessions from his apartment and among those possessions was a new television set that he had purchased a guy comes up and pulls out a 20 bill and offers him 20 for the television set denzel washington said well it's worth a lot more than that the guy growled and said not to me not to me and he forced was forced to sell it for twenty dollars you see when you have no financial margin you don't have the ability to make wise decisions you say well shouldn't solomon have written god is my fortress instead of wealth is my fortress you'll miss this point we're going to see this time and next time trusting in money is no substitute for trusting in god in fact there's no amount of money that can save you from a cancer cell that metastasizes in your body there's no amount of money that can protect you against the loss of a loved one no there's some things money cannot do but solomon's point is god's plan for our life is that we have some margin so that we can have the freedom to do what's right secondly financial margin provides the security for future needs financial margin provides security for future needs consuming less than you earn over a long period of time is god's way to provide for your future especially those big ticket items in your life you know most people could not pay college education college tuition bills for one or two kids in school at the same time out of their current cash flow most people young couples if they wanted to purchase a house and had to make a 30 000 down payment they couldn't say oh we'll just take that out of this week's check i mean most people can't do that most people when they think about retirement would find it very difficult to live on social security alone the fact is we all know that there are some big ticket expenditures coming into our life that we're going to have to pay for the question is how are we going to pay for those things well somebody says well i'm going to trust god i'm just going to trust god well you won't get any argument from me about the importance of trusting god but the question is not can god provide for my future needs the question is how is god going to provide for my future needs and the way god has designed to take care of our financial needs in the future is through this principle of margin spending less than you earn over a long period of time turn over to proverbs chapter 6 where you find this principle proverbs 6 beginning with verse 6. solomon wrote go to the ant o sluggard and observe her ways and be wise which having no chief officer or ruler prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest now an ant has a brain so small you can't see it under a microscope but even an ant has the common sense to know that the plentiful food that's available in the summer and the fall will not last forever the ant has the wisdom to take some of the bounty of the summer and fall and store it away for the wintertime you know the ant could say well look at all of this food it's gonna be all you can eat buffet today for me and my family we're just gonna gorge ourselves get while the getting's good not the ant the ant understands that the plentiful harvest will not last forever and so it sets aside some of the excess in the present to take care of the future you see the same principle of creating margin for future needs in the well-known story of joseph and pharaoh in genesis chapter 41. do you remember that story god sent pharaoh a troubling dream and here was the dream he said hey pharaoh and in the dream you had uh the dream of seven fat cows coming out of the nile river and then those seven fat cows were followed by seven lean skinny cows coming out of the nile river pharaoh didn't understand it he went to joseph for an interpretation and joseph said this is what god is saying to you he's saying there's gonna be seven years of plentiful harvest here in egypt we're gonna have so much grain we're not going to know what to do with it but those seven years of harvest of bounty are going to be followed by seven lean years of famine so pharaoh here's what we should do we should take some of the excess we have exactly 20 of the excess we have over the next seven years we ought to store it for our future needs and pharaoh saw the wisdom and he ordered joseph to do just that now think about this was pharaoh storing up grain for the future was that a sign of a lack of faith in god no it was actually a sign that he did believe in god he believed what god had said and he acted accordingly isn't that what faith is believing what god has said and acting accordingly he believed what god said about a future famine he believed what god said when he said right now you have more than you need but in seven years you're going to need more than you have so you better take some of the excess now to prepare for the future that was a sign of faith on pharaoh's part now follow me on this did you know god has said the same thing to you and me he has said to every one of us here every one of us watching this program he is saying to you there is a time of financial famine coming into your life every one of us is going to face it and by financial famine i'm going to mean there's going to be a time in your life when your needs are greater than your current income that time may be when your kids are going to college and maybe when you have to start caring for your elderly parents it certainly will probably be when you face retirement you're going to have greater needs than you have income so how do you prepare for that time of financial famine just like pharaoh did to go ahead right now and start setting aside some of your current income to provide for those future needs number three what does financial margin offers us offer us it gives us freedom to do what's right it offers us security in preparing for future needs just like god tells us thirdly financial margin allows us to experience the joy of supporting god's work it allows us to experience the joy of supporting god's work when i left here in 1985 to go pastor my first church in west texas the church had a few part-time staff members but no full-time staff members the pastor had been the only full-time staff position they had and so when i arrived at the church and tried to figure out what was needed i knew one of the first things we needed to do was to hire a full-time staff member an educational staff member who would oversee the growth of our sunday school i was convinced that if we hired the right educational director the church would grow and the position would be more than pay for itself well the leaders were not convinced they said pastor if you do this you are going to bankrupt the church we cannot afford to have a full-time staff member and so a friend of mine a member of the church chris ball an oil man there in the church he said pastor i agree with you we need this and so i want to help you with it he said i just discovered i owned an extra oil well i had no idea i owned this oil well wouldn't that be nice to have an extra oil well i don't i don't want to think about that too long but he said i found this extra oil well and i'm willing to give it to the church and you can use the production from that oil well to pay this new staff member's salary i was so excited i went and met with the leaders of the church the deacons and i said you know we've got this guy and he's going to give an oil well and we can pay for the staff member they looked at me and they said what if the well runs out of oil so i went back to chris and i said well they're afraid that the well is going to run out of oil and chris laughed and he said well i've got the geological surveys we'll take them and show the leaders there's more than enough oil to pay for that staff member the well will last longer than the staff member does probably and uh but that's right so we took the geological surveys to the leaders they looked at and they said still not convinced so i said okay i said to the leaders i said if the well runs out of oil i will guarantee personally the staff member's salary for a year they looked at me and they said what are you talking about pastor we don't pay you enough to do that and they were absolutely right about that but the only way i could make that offer was i had some financial margin through the years i had accumulated some excess that i had set aside where i could use for projects just like this when they heard that you know what they decided they said let's go ahead and hire the staff member and they did it without my friends oil well or without my assets either that's what financial margin allows you to do it allows you the joy of investing in god's work and by the way that is the principle that paul taught the corinthian church in first corinthians 16 verse 2. i want you to turn over to first corinthians 16 verse 2 where paul describes the relationship between financial margin and supporting god's work now many of you have heard this verse before you've probably seen it on an offering envelope before but never really understood what it's teaching first corinthians 16 verse 2 paul said to the corinthian church on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save as he may prosper that no collections be made when i come now a lot of people interpret this verse to say okay on the first day of the week you ought to give your offering to support the local church that's not what it's talking about the bible does teach we ought to give and give generously to support the ministry of the local church the local church is god's design to fulfill the great commission as we'll see next time i believe the tithe is the starting place for what we give to the local church not any other thing to the local church it's the starting place the church is god's design plan for fulfilling the great commission but that's not what this verse is talking about you know how i know that look and see again what he says on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save not put aside and give put aside and save he is talking about giving beyond the tithe he said corinthian church we've got a need in jerusalem some of the christians there are living in poverty and i'm going to come through corinth soon and i'm going to take up a special offering but when i come i want to be sure there's some money there for you to give so i want you for the next few weeks on the first day of every week set aside some money and save it so that when i come and collect the offering there'll be money for you to give to this special need in the church now we used to have this verse on our offering envelope i had it taken off because this doesn't have to do with giving our weekly gifts to the church this is about a special offering for special needs in the church and one of the things about having margin is it allows you to support those special needs those special opportunities as they come up in god's work i want you to look around this place right now it is a great worship center look at this place look at our campus that god's given us go to the chrysler center and look at that now i told our deacons recently do you realize that in the last 10 years you the members of first baptist church dallas you have given nearly 200 million dollars 200 million dollars to recreate this campus in addition to your generous support of the ministries of the church no church in history has ever done that and you did it during the greatest recession since the great depression people all over the country asked me how in the world did your church do that well we've got generous people but we also have very wise people so i want you to think about this is if every member of first baptist dallas had no margin in their finances if every one of us were simply spending everything that came in there would have been no money set aside to support this great project when we made the appeal for generations to come and new beginnings and and the commitment for the crystal center would have come up a dry hole if there hadn't been some financial margin but because you so many of you have applied this principle of not spending everything you make by setting aside some for the future not only for your future needs but for the future needs of the church god was able to bless us in such a tremendous way financial margin gives us the joy allows us to experience the joy of investing supporting god's work freedom to do what's right security for future needs the joy of supporting god's work those are the benefits of margin now i know what some of you are thinking you're thinking now pastor if i made two hundred thousand dollars a year maybe i could have some margin in my finances but you just don't understand where we are as a family it takes every penny we make just to exist there's no room for any margin in our finances if that's your reaction i hope you won't miss next week's message because next week we're going to look at four very specific ways solomon says we can create some margin in our finances no matter how much money we're earning next week specifically we're going to talk about the abcs to be financially free the bible is clear that how we handle our money is a test of our faithfulness to god but make no mistake about it there is coming a time when our money will be absolutely worthless the bible says riches profit not a person in the day of judgment when you die and stand before god all that matters is whether or not you've been forgiven of your sins by trusting in jesus as your savior salvation is not something we earn by working hard it's something we receive as a gift from god in this life to prepare us for the next life have you received god's unconditional gift of forgiveness if not i don't think it's an accident you've tuned into icampus today god offers you that gift of forgiveness if you're ready to accept it and today if you would like to know for sure your sins have been forgiven and that when you die you're going to be welcomed into god's presence i want to encourage you to pray this prayer with me to god knowing that god's listening to you right now if you can close your eyes and simply say these words to god dear god thank you for loving me i know i have failed you in so many ways and i'm truly sorry for the sins in my life but i believe what i've heard that you loved me so much you sent your son jesus to die on the cross for my sins to take the punishment from you god that i deserve to take for my sins and right now i'm trusting in what jesus did for me not in my good works but in what jesus did for me to save me from my sins thank you for forgiving me and help me to spend the rest of my life following you and i pray this in jesus name amen today if you prayed that prayer and really meant it you're a part of god's family and one day you can know for sure god will welcome you into heaven and if you did pray that prayer i'd like to know about it go into the into the chat room right now and click the link that says that you prayed the prayer with me to trust in christ as your savior and i'll be notified immediately of that decision and once you do that i'll also be able to send you some free material about what it means to live as a christian so again go into the chat room click on that link that says you prayed the prayer and let us know of this all-important decision you've made today i hope you'll plan to join us on icampus next week as we continue our series in proverbs with a study entitled the abcs to be financially free that's next time on first baptist dallas icampus [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] hmm [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] huh [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hi i'm robert jefferson welcome again to worship from first baptist church dallas on our first dallas high campus in a moment we're going to turn to the book of proverbs in the old testament and continue our series the solomon secrets by looking at another piece of uncommon sense from the wisest man who ever lived this time about how to handle your finances we're going to discover that the way to financial freedom is by controlling your spending and we're going to discover solomon's secret of spending your way to wealth but before we get to the bible let's enjoy some fantastic worship from the first dallas choir and orchestra oh good morning first baptist dallas we welcome our guests let's stand together god is here and we've come to worship him praise to the lord the almighty the kingdom creation [Music] oh my soul praised me for he is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this morning [Music] his churches and mercy your daily [Music] uh [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] adore him [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh praise the lord this morning we bless his holy name for he is worthy to be praised he's here in this house let's worship him today let our praise be your welcome let our songs be a sign we are here for you we are here for you let your breath come from heaven come from heaven fill our hearts with your [Music] to you our hearts are to you our over are open nothing here is [Music] come on church [Music] we are here for you let your word move [Applause] [Music] we are here for you [Music] fall down [Music] let your fire fall down [Music] almighty god [Music] almighty [Music] all we thank the lord for his presence in this place [Music] take your bible we'll be reading from proverbs chapter 30 as our scripture reading today proverbs 30 and we'll read verses 7 through 9. and we'll read from the new american standard bible if you don't have that version you'll see those words on the screen we always want to honor the reading of his word so i invite you to stand with us now proverbs chapter 30 we'll begin with verse 7 and we'll conclude with verse 9. let's read together two things i asked thee do not refuse me before i die keep deception and lies far from me give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with a food that is my portion lest i be full and deny thee and say who is the lord or lest i be in want and steal and profane the name of my god may god bless the reading of his word the psalmist says bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name let's worship bless together lord of my soul oh my soul worship his holy name seem like never before oh my soul worship your holy name the sun comes up it's a new day dawn it's time to sing your song again whatever may pass and whatever lies before me let me sing bless the lord [Music] worship your holy name your rich in love and your soul [Music] is [Music] 10 000 reasons for my heart [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] and on that day when my strength is faith the end draws near and my time still my soul [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh lord [Music] let's bless his name this morning church praise be to god good morning and welcome to worship on the first dallas eye campus this morning i have a couple of quick announcements for you and then i'd like to share with you some of the incredible ministries that you are helping to support when you give to mission 1a generation now through 1st baptist dallas first if you have not yet registered with us i hope you will do so today by going to the link provided in the chat room right now when you do we will send you a free chapter download of our pastor's timely book praying for america you'll also have the opportunity to receive daily devotionals written by dr jeffress connect directly with our ministry staff connect with other i members through our private facebook group and participate in additional online ministries over 24 000 people like you have registered as part of our icampus ministry and i hope you will become part of this fellowship of believers today now i want to thank you for your financial support of the ministry of first baptist dallas when you give to mission 1 8 generation now you are worshiping the lord and you are participating in his work and he is using you to transform the world with his word locally nationally and internationally today i want to briefly share with you about some of our church's ministry in our local community through mission 1 8 first baptist dallas helps support lake june baptist church a local mission church that reaches a smaller but very diverse community in addition to the financial support that we provide to lake june we also provide the funding for the role of their senior pastor many of our members will partner with the pastor of lake june to fill and deliver packages of food to its families or help with projects at the church from construction projects to vacation bible school this year we also partnered with other ministries like the children's hunger fund which provides food for children all over the world and here in the dfw metroplex in a recent project with them our church provided food and financial support that will feed over 300 undernourished children in our community first dallas sent volunteers to bon-ton farms which is focused on alleviating the plight of hunger in a nearby area that's considered a food desert we served at our calling in dallas life two pair church ministries who help and minister to the homeless and we partnered with the exodus ministry to minister to women who have recently been released from prison and to help them begin their new life in christ we've also seen god at work here on our campus even during the pandemic we recently completed the expansion of our family center and are looking forward to its grand opening in january additionally just last week in partnership with a local developer we completed the construction of a brand new parking garage adding 700 parking places to help facilitate our mission as we reach more people with the gospel of jesus christ so again i want to thank you for your continued support and i want to ask you to continue making all these ministries possible by giving to mission one eight generation now to give online today you may go to the link provided in the chat room or you can go directly to firstdallas.org forward slash give online now as we praise god for all he is doing and we worship him through this time of commitment let's go to him in prayer together heavenly father as the psalmist wrote we praise you for your unfailing love and we thank you for your wonderful deeds for men we thank you lord for meeting our spiritual needs we know that when we were dead in our sin and our trespasses you met that need by giving us salvation through jesus christ your one and only son and through his atoning death on the cross and his victorious resurrection you sealed us with your holy spirit and you made us your children lord we thank you that you also meet our physical and our temporal needs uh you minister to us in our time of need you are a never have present help in times of trouble lord and so we cast our anxieties upon you we lay our requests before you and we thank you lord that you comfort us and that you sustain us even during difficult times lord we praise you this morning we praise you as we commit ourselves to you and as we give to you our tithes and our offerings may we your church proclaim our love to you and our allegiance to you we thank you that you provide for us and care for us as a loving heavenly father you equip us through the power of your holy spirit and we pray that you would strengthen us as we go out as your ambassadors into the world and we pray this all in the saving and holy and powerful name of your son our savior jesus christ [Music] amen [Music] [Applause] i am the lord i'm the almighty god i am the one for whom nothing is too hard i am the shepherd and i am the door i am the good news to the bound and the poor i am i am [Music] abraham i am the ultimate sacrifice for sin i am your redeemer [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] so leave your [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh jesus said [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am [Applause] today i am [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes i am i am i am [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] yes is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] people have always been fascinated by the subject of money i mean good and for good reason when you think about it i mean despite all the bad press that money gets from us preacher types the fact is money can do a lot of wonderful things for people when you think about it money can relieve stress a money can provide independence money can help us fulfill our dreams in life when you think about it money can do a lot of the very same things that god promises to do for us at least at first glance and i think that explains why jesus said in matthew 6 24 no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will despise the one and hold on to the other you cannot serve you cannot worship god and money and notice jesus didn't say you cannot worship god and your work or you cannot worship god and sex it's not that those other things cannot be idols for us they can but jesus understood that money has a unique ability to take our hearts affection because of all of the things it can do for us that also explains why paul said in first timothy 6 10 for the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many a pain and yet most people i talk to they don't have any desire to fall in love with money they don't want to worship money instead most people's attitude about money is like one couple who talked to me recently they're facing the first year tuition bill for their child's college education they said pastor we just want to have enough we just want to have enough did you know by the way that is a biblical goal for your finances to have just enough enough to meet your current and your future needs turn over to proverbs chapter 30 if you would proverbs chapter 30 solomon was the wealthiest man of his day he understood both the benefits of money but he also understood the limitations of money after all he had a lot of it you look at solomon's writings in both proverbs and ecclesiastes solomon taught for example don't worship money because it can be easily lost in proverbs 23 verses 4 and 5 we read do not be do not weary yourself to gain wealth cease from your consideration of it when you set your eyes on money it is gone for wealth certainly makes itself wings and like an eagle that flies toward the heavens money can increase stress solomon said in ecclesiastes 5 12 he said the sleep of the working man is pleasant whether he eats little or much a person who doesn't have a lot he's able to sleep at night he's not worried about his finances and what he's going to do with all of his money but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep solomon said money can rob us of present joy in this life in ecclesiastes 5 13 he said there is a grievous evil which i've seen under the sun riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt so given the benefits of money and also the limitations of money proverbs tells us what a reasonable goal for us ought to be in our finances and it's found in proverbs 30 look at verse 8 we read this just a moment ago the writer said lord here's my prayer give me neither poverty nor riches but feed me with a food that is my portion that i not be full and deny you and say who is the lord or that i be in want and steal and profane the name of my god the writer is saying lord here's my prayer don't give me too much money because if i have too much i could be tempted to say i have no need for god how many wealthy people do you know just like that but he also said lord don't give me too little lest i be tempted to do something wrong to steal and profane your name god what i'm asking is that you give me just enough that ought to be our goal and money to have not too much not too little but have just enough the question is do you have enough do you have enough enough money enough financial resources to meet both your current and your future needs well let's take an exam right now to determine if you have enough okay i'm going to ask you four questions they're not the only four questions i could ask but here are four questions that will help you determine the state of your financial health right now you ready for this here's question number one if you or your mate were to lose your jobs neither one of you had a job how long could you survive how many months without a paycheck question number two if you add up all of your assets that is everything you own and subtract all of your liabilities everything you owe is that number a positive or a negative number question number three for those of you with kids still at home who are facing college bills do you have enough to provide for their college education if they choose to go to college how much do you need for that i went on a website this week collegedata.com and according to this website the average cost for a four-year public education public school that's tuition and all the other expenses the average cost is one hundred thousand dollars for a private college it's 170 000 do you have enough to provide for your kids education question number four what about your retirement you know there's a day coming for everybody doesn't have to be 65 or 70 but there will be a day when you are no longer uh working with a steady paycheck coming in do you have enough money for retirement for when that day comes how much money should you have right now for your future retirement they're all kind of formulas that people use financial planners to determine how much you ought to have right now for your future retirement but here's a real simple formula take your age multiply it by your current salary and divide by 10 and that's the amount of money you ought to have right now your current age times your salary divided by 10. for example if you're 40 years old you make 50 000 a year multiply forty times fifty thousand divide by ten that means right now you ought to have two hundred thousand dollars you can do the math now what do those four questions reveal about your financial health do you feel pretty good about where you are are you ready to go out and slit your wrist right now now before you reach for the razor blades if it's the latter you need to understand that most americans owe more than they own have not made adequate plans for retirement and could not go more than a few weeks without a steady paycheck you see most americans believe that the way to financial security is to earn a bigger salary to win the lottery or hope aunt gertrude dies before the first kid has to go to college but as we're going to discover today solomon says the secret to financial success in life is not in earning winning or inheriting the secret to financial success that god wants all of us to experience is through spending that's right you heard me right the solomon's secret for success in your finances is to spend your way to wealth now to know exactly what i'm talking about and what solomon is talking about turn to proverbs chapter 21. proverbs chapter 21 financial consultant dave ramsey who was in our church about a year ago a year and a half ago he tells about two couples that came to see him for financial advice a number of years ago and the first couple that came to him was a couple that was earning thirty five thousand dollars a year even though they were earning thirty five thousand dollars a year they had accumulated a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in their 401k plan they had no credit card debt and they only had uh three years worth of payments left on their seventy thousand dollar home that was couple number one couple number two that came in right after the first couple had sixty four thousand 000 in credit card debt they drove two leased cars they had a 175 000 outstanding mortgage on their home what was their problem as compared to the first couple you might assume that the second couple that had 64 000 worth of credit card debt and 175 thousand dollars left on their home they must have earned less money than the first couple earning 35 000 no ramsey said this second cup couple was earning 84 000 a year so how is it that one couple admittedly a few years ago could survive and thrive on 35 000 of income and yet a second couple earning twice as much money was on the brink of financial insolvency the key is the first couple had learned the solomon's secret for success in money and that is margin financial margin you see a lot of people again believe well if i just had more money if i had a bigger paycheck i'd be financially okay but solomon exposes the fallacy of that thinking in ecclesiastes 5 11. he said when good things increase those who consume them increase in other words the higher your income the higher your expenses the more you make the more you spend can i hear an amen on that i mean we all know that's true don't we and so that's why solomon said no the key to financial security is in margin it has to do with your spending what is margin right down this definition margin is that comfort zone it's the buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life margin is that buffer zone between where you are and your limits in life let me illustrate it for you this way take your outline right now hold it up so i know you're paying attention take out your outline i want you to look at the outline very carefully did you notice all the wasted space on that outline there's a lot of wasted space it's white space white space around the margins white space between the words i mean if we wanted to be more economical around here we could have filled up every inch of that outline with black type but it would have been very difficult to read wouldn't it margin it gives it ease of reading that it provides comfort to the reader it's the same thing that is true in every area of our life if we fill up our life completely if we have no buffer zone between where we are in our limits in our work in our relationships and in our finances it produces a great deal of stress dr swenson in his best-selling book margin describes what life is like without any buffer zones i bet some of you can identify with this living without margin is being 30 minutes late to the doctor's office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the hairdressers because you were 10 minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station and you forgot your purse that is life without margin the fact is when you're always pressing the limits you're going to feel stress in life and that's true about your financial life as well people who live in their finances without any margin that is their spending everything they have are under incredible stress perhaps you know people like this perhaps you're a person like this you live from paycheck to paycheck hoping and praying you run out of month before you run out of money and if there's anything unexpected that comes up in the month a car repair bill or a medical emergency there is no way to cover that as far as big ticket items for the future like a college education for your kids or your own retirement or caring for elderly parents why don't even think about that there's no way to plan for that and yet people do think about it and so they had this nagging fear in the back of their minds that not all is well in their finances and because of that stress they live under unbearable pressure that extends to their relationships did you know financial consultant one noted financial consultant says that 90 of divorces are precipitated by financial pressure that's the result of living without any margin and that's why solomon gave this solomon secret for success with money look at proverbs 21 verse 20. solomon said there is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man swallows it up the foolish person is the one who consumes everything he has and solomon's day was oil that was a priceless commodity the fool is the one who spends everything that he has the fool is the one who lives from paycheck to paycheck who says i can't think about tomorrow someday i'll get my finances under better control sometimes the foolish person actually wraps his apathy and laziness in a spiritual veneer that says oh i'm going to trust god for the future after all jesus said live one day at a time does god want us to have financial margin does he want us to have this buffer zone between what we spend and what we earn i need to offer a caution here about what the bible says about finances there is a difference in the bible between saving money and hoarding money the bible draws the distinction between saving and hoarding you know what saving is it's setting aside a reasonable amount of money to meet future expected and unexpected needs money saving is setting aside a reasonable amount of money to provide for future expected and unexpected needs you know what hoarding is it's stockpiling as much money as you possibly can to protect yourself from every adversity in life and of course that's impossible but a person who is a hoarder doesn't understand that he's the guy who's always running around turning off lights walter you're laughing at me right now by saying this but you know uh it goes around turning off lights realizing that he's probably costing more by the wear and tear on the light bulbs and the energy he's saving doing so he's the person who'll drive across town to save a nickel on a loaf of bread oblivious to the gas that he spends doing so he's the kind of person who will never take a vacation he never has quite enough money because he's always saving for a rainy day instead of enjoying the sunshine of the present day that's what a hoarder does i have found by the way in my experience that many people who went through the great depression i'm not talking about the one in 2007 i'm talking the one back in the 30s many people who went through the great depression find it very difficult to spend money they remember the horror of those four years in our nation's history and so they hoard and they hoard and they hoard instead of being reasonable in the amount of money that they set aside listen to ecclesiastes 5 13 solomon says there is a grievous evil which i have seen under the sun riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt you see the problem with hoarding money is it robs you of the joy god wants you to have in this life as well you've heard me speak before about my father my father was a wonderful christian man in fact he's the reason the rest of my family my mom and all of us became christians and uh i learned a lot of great lessons from my dad and one of the lessons i learned from my dad was the importance the discipline of saving money i remember when i was a little boy my dad would get paid uh two times a month and on those fridays he would take me with him to the bank to the hillcrest state bank across from smu and he would take me with him as he would deposit his check and then he would purchase a united states savings bond and would go downstairs to the vault and would walk in there to his safety deposit box and he would deposit that savings bond he did that twice a month religiously and and uh when my dad was a relatively young man he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer told he had just a few months to live and i never will forget sitting around the kitchen table with my dad going over his affairs he knew he was about to die i'll never forget what he said to me he said you know robert i spent my whole life setting aside this money so that i could enjoy it one day and now i have to end up leaving it to you knuckleheads you know solomon said basically the same thing in ecclesiastes 2 18 he said thus i hated all the fruit of my labor for which i labored under the sun for i must leave it to the man who will come after me and when we're talking about financial margin we're not talking about being a hoarder of money we're talking about setting aside a reasonable amount in the present to take care of future expected and unexpected needs what are the benefits of doing what solomon said of not consuming everything you make and setting some aside i want you to notice in the bible there are three benefits of having financial margin a buffer zone between your income and your expenditures number one financial margin offers freedom to do the right thing it offers us freedom to do the right thing years ago i was listening to dr laura schlesinger remember her they'd who gave the advice on the radio all the time everybody listened to dr laura i was driving somewhere and had it turned on to dr laura and this lady called in and she said dr laura i don't know what to do he said my father's been diagnosed with cancer he lives in another state and i would love to go visit him before he dies but i can't afford to take off work the two weeks i can't survive without two weeks of a paycheck and not only that i don't have the money for an airplane ticket without going ahead and racking it up on my overextended credit card what should i do talk about being on the horns of a dilemma she had two choices and neither one of them was good do i experience financial insolvency or do i experience a lifetime of regret for not seeing my dad see that's the kind of choice you have or lack of choice when you have no financial margin financial margin gives us the freedom to do what we need to do financial margin having that buffer zone allows you to change jobs and do something you really want to do in life financial margin allows you to take that mission trip that you've been dying to take financial margin allows you to start that new business that god has placed on your heart to start all of us need financial margin in our life it is the freedom that provides the freedom to do the right thing in his book the official guide to success tom hopkins describes the benefit of financial margin he just has another name for it he calls it go to town money listen to this he says millions of people stay in jobs they hate or they settle for less than they should get because they don't have any go to town money what is that it's enough money to allow you to face change with a stout heart how much go to town money do you need whatever it takes to make you feel strong enough to risk losing what you have now in order to reach for a greater opportunity this is the executive's equivalent of a strike fund it's the salesperson's ace in the hole it's everybody's hold out money go to town money provides you with extra courage and clear-headedness to meet the surprises and alarms of life if it improves your performance under the pressure of a tough negotiation it can double or triple your rate of climb but if having go to town money makes you impossibly bull headed putting it aside will be one of the worst mistakes you ever make when i read that last line about the wrong use of margin or go to town money i think of my friend the late dr landrum level who for many years was the president of new orleans seminary and i remember dr level telling me one time about a pastor friend of his who lived in mississippi and this pastor had one goal in life he wanted to accumulate one million dollars he was obsessed with the idea of getting one million dollars and dr level asked him one day why are you so fixated on having a million dollars he said because dr level as soon as i have that one million dollars i'll be able to tell my deacons to go to hell now that guy was mistaking go to hell money would go to town money they're different okay there's a big difference i doubt god is ever going to answer that pastor's request and prayer listen you see financial margin is the freedom not to do what's wrong but it's the freedom to do what's right i contrast that pastor to another pastor i heard dr chris will tell about years ago he's a florida minister of a presbyterian church and one day the leaders of the church came into this uh presbyterian minister and they said we think it's time for you to go we're tired of you it's time for you to leave but his surprise his reaction surprised the church leaders he said fine if you want me to leave i'll leave i have plenty of money to retire on but he said you know if you would like me to stay i'd be willing to stay and work for no salary because this is my calling this is my ministry well the response so startled those church leaders that suddenly their perception of their pastor changed no longer did they see him as a financial drain they saw him as an asset to the church they not only kept him they continued to pay him by the way don't get any ideas there okay but you see that's what financial margin does it gives us the freedom to do not what is wrong but to do what is right you say well we ought to do what's right whether we have financial margin or not shouldn't we now we should are there a lot of things we should do that we don't do we're flawed human beings we're sinful human beings and god understands that and that's why god's plan for all of our lives is that we have financial margin in our life in proverbs 10 verse 15 solomon wrote the rich man's wealth is his fortress but the ruin of the poor is their poverty you see when you have no financial margin in life you're forced like that lady that called dr lara to make some very bad choices sometimes a few years ago there was a movie that came out with denzel washington called john q some of you may have seen it sorry about a man who couldn't afford health insurance for his family and his young son needed an operation and so not having health insurance he had to raise a large sum of money very quickly the only way he could do it was to start selling everything that he had he was on the street with all of his possessions from his apartment and among those possessions was a new television set that he had purchased a guy comes up and pulls out a 20 bill and offers him 20 for the television set denzel washington said well it's worth a lot more than that the guy growled and said not to me not to me and he forced was forced to sell it for twenty dollars you see when you have no financial margin you don't have the ability to make wise decisions you say well shouldn't solomon have written god is my fortress instead of wealth is my fortress you'll miss this point we're going to see this time and next time trusting in money is no substitute for trusting in god in fact there's no amount of money that can save you from a cancer cell that metastasizes in your body there's no amount of money that can protect you against the loss of a loved one no there's some things money cannot do but solomon's point is god's plan for our life is that we have some margin so that we can have the freedom to do what's right secondly financial margin provides the security for future needs financial margin provides security for future needs consuming less than you earn over a long period of time is god's way to provide for your future especially those big ticket items in your life you know most people could not pay college education college tuition bills for one or two kids in school at the same time out of their current cash flow most people young couples if they wanted to purchase a house and had to make a 30 000 down payment they couldn't say oh we'll just take that out of this week's check i mean most people can't do that most people when they think about retirement would find it very difficult to live on social security alone the fact is we all know that there are some big ticket expenditures coming into our life that we're going to have to pay for the question is how are we going to pay for those things well somebody says well i'm going to trust god i'm just going to trust god well you won't get any argument from me about the importance of trusting god but the question is not can god provide for my future needs the question is how is god going to provide for my future needs and the way god has designed to take care of our financial needs in the future is through this principle of margin spending less than you earn over a long period of time turn over to proverbs chapter 6 where you find this principle proverbs 6 beginning with verse 6. solomon wrote go to the ant o sluggard and observe her ways and be wise which having no chief officer or ruler prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest now an ant has a brain so small you can't see it under a microscope but even an ant has the common sense to know that the plentiful food that's available in the summer and the fall will not last forever the ant has the wisdom to take some of the bounty of the summer and fall and stored away for the wintertime you know the ant could say well look at all of this food it's going to be all you can eat buffet today for me and my family we're just going to gorge ourselves get while the getting is good not the ant the ant understands that the plentiful harvest will not last forever and so it sets aside some of the excess in the present to take care of the future you see the same principle of creating margin for future needs in the well-known story of joseph and pharaoh in genesis chapter 41. do you remember that story god sent pharaoh a troubling dream and here was the dream he said hey pharaoh and in the dream you had uh the dream of seven fat cows coming out of the nile river and then those seven fat cows were followed by seven lean skinny cows coming out of the nile river pharaoh didn't understand it he went to joseph for an interpretation and joseph said this is what god is saying to you he's saying there's going to be seven years of plentiful harvest here in egypt we're going to have so much grain we're not going to know what to do with it but those seven years of harvest of bounty are going to be followed by seven lean years of famine so pharaoh here's what we should do we should take some of the excess we have exactly 20 of the excess we have over the next seven years we ought to store it for our future needs and pharaoh saw the wisdom and he ordered joseph to do just that now think about this was pharaoh storing up grain for the future was that a sign of a lack of faith in god no it was actually a sign that he did believe in god he believed what god had said and he acted accordingly isn't that what faith is believing what god has said and acting accordingly he believed what god said about a future famine he believed what god said when he said right now you have more than you need but in seven years you're gonna need more than you have so you better take some of the excess now to prepare for the future that was a sign of faith on pharaoh's part now follow me on this did you know god has said the same thing to you and me he has said to every one of us here every one of us watching this program he is saying to you there is a time of financial famine coming into your life every one of us is going to face it and by financial famine i'm going to mean there's going to be a time in your life when your needs are greater than your current income that time may be when your kids are going to college and maybe when you have to start caring for your elderly parents it certainly will probably be when you face retirement you're going to have greater needs than you have income so how do you prepare for that time of financial famine just like pharaoh did to go ahead right now and start setting aside some of your current income to provide for those future needs number three what does financial margin offers us offer us it gives us freedom to do what's right it offers us security in preparing for future needs just like god tells us thirdly financial margin allows us to experience the joy of supporting god's work it allows us to experience the joy of supporting god's work when i left here in 1985 to go pastor my first church in west texas uh the church uh had a few part-time staff members but no full-time staff members the pastor had been the only full-time staff position they had and so when i arrived at the church and tried to figure out what was needed i knew one of the first things we needed to do was to hire a full-time staff member an educational staff member who would oversee the growth of our sunday school i was convinced that if we hired the right educational director the church would grow and the physician would be more than pay for itself well the leaders were not convinced they said pastor if you do this you are going to bankrupt the church we cannot afford to have a full-time staff member and so a friend of mine a member of the church chris ball an oil man there in the church he said pastor i agree with you we need this and so i want to help you with it he said i just discovered i owned an extra oil well i had no idea i owned this oil well wouldn't that be nice to have an extra oil well i don't i don't even think about that too long but he said i found this extra oil well and i'm willing to give it to the church and you can use the production from that oil well to pay this new staff member's salary i was so excited i went and met with the leaders of the church the deacons and i said you know we've got this guy and he's going to give an oil well and we can pay for the staff member they looked at me and they said what if the well runs out of oil so i went back to chris and i said well they're afraid that the well is going to run out of oil and chris laughed and he said well i've got the geological surveys we'll take them and show the leaders there's more than enough oil to pay for that staff member the well will last longer than the staff member does probably and uh but that's right so we took the geological surveys to the leaders they looked at and they said still not convinced so i said okay i said to the leaders i said if the well runs out of oil i will guarantee personally the staff member's salary for a year they looked at me and they said what are you talking about pastor we don't pay you enough to do that and they were absolutely right about that but the only way i could make that offer was i had some financial margin through the years i had accumulated some excess that i had set aside where i could use for projects just like this when they heard that you know what they decided they said let's go ahead and hire the staff member and they did it without my friends oil well or without my assets either that's what financial margin allows you to do it allows you the joy of investing in god's work and by the way that is the principle that paul taught the corinthian church in first corinthians 16 verse 2. i want you to turn over to first corinthians 16 verse 2 where paul describes the relationship between financial margin and supporting god's work now many of you have heard this verse before you've probably seen it on an offering envelope before but never really understood what it's teaching first corinthians 16 verse 2 paul said to the corinthian church on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save as he may prosper that no collections be made when i come now a lot of people interpret this verse to say okay on the first day of the week you ought to give your offering to support the local church that's not what it's talking about the bible does teach we ought to give and give generously to support the ministry of the local church the local church is god's design to fulfill the great commission and we'll see next time i believe the tithe is the starting place for what we give to the local church not any other thing to the local church it's the starting place the church is god's design plan for fulfilling the great commission but that's not what this verse is talking about you know how i know that look and see again what he says on the first day of every week let each one of you put aside and save not put aside and give put aside and save he is talking about giving beyond the tithe he said corinthian church we've got a need in jerusalem some of the christians there are living in poverty and i'm going to come through corinth soon and i'm going to take up a special offering but when i come i want to be sure there's some money there for you to give so i want you for the next few weeks on the first day of every week set aside some money and save it so that when i come and collect the offering there'll be money for you to give to this special need in the church now we used to have this verse on our offering envelope i had it taken off because this doesn't have to do with giving our weekly gifts to the church this is about a special offering for special needs in the church and one of the things about having margin is it allows you to support those special needs those special opportunities as they come up in god's work i want you to look around this place right now it is a great worship center look at this place look at our campus that god's given us go to the chrysler center and look at that i told our deacons recently do you realize that in the last 10 years you the members of first baptist church dallas you have given nearly 200 million dollars 200 million dollars to recreate this campus in addition to your generous support of the ministries of the church no church in history has ever done that and you did it during the greatest recession since the great depression people all over the country asked me how in the world did your church do that well we've got generous people but we also have very wise people so i want you to think about this is if every member of first baptist dallas had no margin in their finances if every one of us were simply spending everything that came in there would have been no money set aside to support this great project when we made the appeal for generations to come and new beginnings and and the commitment for the crystal center would have come up a dry hole if there hadn't been some financial margin but because you so many of you have applied this principle of not spending everything you make by setting aside some for the future not only for your future needs but for the future needs of the church god was able to bless us in such a tremendous way financial margin gives us the joy allows us to experience the joy of investing supporting god's work freedom to do what's right security for future needs the joy of supporting god's work those are the benefits of margin now i know what some of you are thinking you're thinking now pastor if i made two hundred thousand dollars a year maybe i could have some margin in my finances but you just don't understand where we are as a family it takes every penny we make just to exist there's no room for any margin in our finances if that's your reaction i hope you won't miss next week's message because next week we're going to look at four very specific ways solomon says we can create some margin in our finances no matter how much money we're earning next week specifically we're going to talk about the abcs to be financially free the bible is clear that how we handle our money is a test of our faithfulness to god but make no mistake about it there is coming a time when our money will be absolutely worthless the bible says riches profit not a person in the day of judgment when you die and stand before god all that matters is whether or not you've been forgiven of your sins by trusting in jesus as your savior salvation is not something we earn by working hard it's something we receive as a gift from god in this life to prepare us for the next life have you received god's unconditional gift of forgiveness if not i don't think it's an accident you've tuned into icampus today god offers you that gift of forgiveness if you're ready to accept it and today if you would like to know for sure your sins have been forgiven and that when you die you're going to be welcomed into god's presence i want to encourage you to pray this prayer with me to god knowing that god's listening to you right now if you can close your eyes and simply say these words to god dear god thank you for loving me i know i have failed you in so many ways and i'm truly sorry for the sins in my life but i believe what i've heard that you loved me so much you sent your son jesus to die on the cross for my sins to take the punishment from you god that i deserve to take for my sins and right now i'm trusting in what jesus did for me not in my good works but in what jesus did for me to save me from my sins thank you for forgiving me and help me to spend the rest of my life following you and i pray this in jesus name amen today if you prayed that prayer and really meant it you're a part of god's family and one day you can know for sure god will welcome you into heaven and if you did pray that prayer i'd like to know about it go into the into the chat room right now and click the link that says that you prayed the prayer with me to trust in christ as your savior and i'll be notified immediately of that decision and once you do that i'll also be able to send you some free material about what it means to live as a christian so again go into the chat room click on that link that says you prayed the prayer and let us know of this all-important decision you've made today i hope you'll plan to join us on icampus next week as we continue our series in proverbs with a study entitled the abcs to be financially free that's next time on first baptist dallas icampus you

Channel: First Baptist Dallas

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Length: 163min 25sec (9805 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020