We are in the fifth and almost the final part of Guardrails. People keep saying, Was that
the end, was that the end? I’m like, No, there’s more. If you haven’t been with us, essentially
we’ve taken this thing that we’re so familiar with, the guardrail, and we’ve kind of created a
spiritual principle out of it, or maybe just a practical reminder. As most of you know, a guardrail
is simply a system that’s designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limit
areas. You’ve never seen the official definition, but if you’ve been here for this series, that may
be the only thing you remember—the official definition of a guardrail. The whole idea of a
guardrail is to keep us from dangerous or off-limit areas. We’ve said every single time in this
series that guardrails aren’t actually constructed or put in the dangerous areas; guardrails are put
several feet back or several yards back from the dangerous area to keep us from getting into
danger. A guardrail will damage your car, a guardrail can damage your body, but the whole idea
of a guardrail is to keep you from having the greater damage.
Now, we began to ask the question in the beginning, what would it look like to have
guardrails in other areas of our lives? We understand the advantage and the idea of a guardrail
when it comes to driving, but what if we had some invisible guardrails in the areas of our lives
where actually we run a greater risk of damaging our lives than simply driving on a freeway?
What if we were to identify areas like our finances and our moral life, our ethical life, our
academic pursuits, our friendships—areas where we would all agree, even though we wouldn’t
agree to the specifics, we would all agree that there are areas of life that if you cross certain lines, you hurt yourself. If you cross certain lines, you increase the potential of your future not being what you want it to be. That if you cross certain lines, it’s going to make relationships more
difficult; if you cross certain lines, it’s going to make your hopes and dreams less attainable. We
would all agree that whether it’s financially, morally, ethically, academically, professionally,
marriage, you pick it—there are things that if you do those things, there are just consequences.
These aren’t even religious things. These are just practical things.
So what would it look like if we were as individuals to create some guardrails to keep us
back from the edge of disaster? So we came up with our own definition of a guardrail. It’s a
standard of personal behavior, which means you pick your own, you make it up for yourself.
And I’ve given you some suggestions, a standard of personal behavior that becomes a matter of
conscience. The idea being there are certain things that when you do in your life you feel like,
wow, that was wrong, and you feel bad—you feel guilty, and there are consequences. What if
you stepped back, created some personal boundaries that everybody else may not agree with?
Other people may look at it and say, why won’t you go, why wouldn’t you stay, why wouldn’t
you do that? And you’ve decided these are my personal boundaries to keep me from getting to
that place where I’ll have real regret. And what if your conscience was so tied into these that
when you violated a personal standard, you felt just as bad and just as guilty as if you’d done
something really bad, and your conscience lights up and keeps you a safe place back from the
edge of disaster.
And what we said throughout this series is that the trick and the reason this is so
important is that culture, our culture—and when I say culture, I don’t mean there’s a boogie man
or there’s a group of people that are after you, I mean just the flow of life, just culture itself.
Culture baits us to the edge of disaster financially, baits us to the edge of disaster in our
marriages, baits us toward affairs, and baits us to the edge of disaster morally or academically or
professionally. Culture just kind of baits us to disaster, and then when we step over certain lines,
what does culture do? Culture chastises us. Oh, you shouldn’t have done that. Oh, that’s gross.
Or, oh, you should’ve been more careful, or oh, you should’ve had more self control. And we’re
like, wait a minute, we just went with the direction culture took us and now culture has turned its
back on us and is kind of saying, “Oh, you’re a loser, you’ll never amount to anything; oh, you
should be ashamed of yourself.” Well, this is just a reality that’s not going to change, so
consequently, whether you’re really a Christian person or a religious person or maybe it’s your
first time back in church, we need guardrails. So we’ve been talking about some specific areas.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about moral guardrails. Basically we talked about sex.
Today I want to talk about money. Sex and money—two really important topics—and here’s
why, before you kind of turn up your nose. It’s so interesting, in my world and my life, and if
you’re a counselor or a pastor, or if you’re in the academic world and counsel students, it’s so
interesting. Most of the time when people come to us and they’re in trouble, 90% of the time—
I’m just kind of making this up—90% of the time it has something to do with sex or money. It’s
just so interesting when people say, Andy, I need to talk to you. I’m in some real trouble. I’m
thinking, sex or money. Hey, could my wife and I come in? We’ve gotten ourselves into . . . sex
or money? Hey, my son needs somebody to talk to. Sex or money? Sex. I’m telling you, I’m not
making fun. It’s so somewhat predictable. In fact, don’t raise your hand. Don’t elbow, don’t cut
your eyes, and don’t give yourself away. But if I were to say, Hey, if your greatest regret in life
had something to do with sex or money, don’t turn red, most of us, most of you, most of us, you,
us, would raise our hands and go, yeah, my greatest regret . . .
But here’s the fascinating thing: As true as that is—it’s really undeniable—as true as it is,
at the same time culture totally dismisses what the Scripture has to say about sex and money. It’s
like, ah, the church just wants your money and church is against sex. Meanwhile, all of our
problems have to do with sex and money. It’s just the strangest thing. And I believe this; I think
if somebody could help me figure out statistically, I think this would be so easy to prove. Our
messages go all over the world. I don’t know much about other nations. But if just our nation and
our culture were to take the Bible seriously about what the Bible teaches about sex and money
for just six months, if everybody in the country—I know it’s not going to happen—if everybody
in the country just took a six-month vacation. They don’t have to become Christians or read the
Bible, but if everybody just took the Biblical values about sex and money and just applied them
for six months, we would have a cultural revolution in every positive sense of the word. It would
be absolutely astounding. But the interesting thing is, they’re like, the Bible, sex and money;
meanwhile, I’ve got a problem. Yeah, sex or money? It’s just almost predictable.
So, today I want to talk specifically about establishing some guardrails when it comes to
your money. Now, here is why the Bible says so much about money. In fact, Old Testament,
New Testament, the whole thing comes back to one simple thing. The reason God, in the Bible, devotion. And here’s what God knows about you, because it’s been true of humanity from the
beginning: God’s chief competition for your heart and God’s chief competition for my heart and
my devotion, and for your loyalty and for your fellowship and for your service, God’s chief
competition is not the devil, okay? You don’t sit at home going, should I worship Satan or God?
If you have that issue, different sermon; in fact, probably different church, okay? That may be a
reality, but the average person, the real internal struggle is not God or the devil; the real internal
struggle is do I surrender myself and put my dependence in God, or do I continue to place my
trust in my wealth and consumption? In fact, here’s how Jesus addresses this. Now look at the
tension in this verse. This is Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. You read these kinds of verses and you go, how did he know? Well, because he’s the Son of God. But anyway, 2,000
years ago . . . this is amazing.
Matthew 6:24
24 No one can serve two masters. [To which you and I think, well, we don’t have a
master. We’re Americans. Just hang on.] Either you will hate the one and love the other,
or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
In other words, you can’t have two masters. Now, listen to what Jesus is talking about.
You, that’s you—me, you.
Matthew 6:24
24 You cannot serve both God and Money.
You can’t serve God and money. Jesus says, Let me just help you recognize something.
There is a tension within you, and when it comes to who is going to be the master of your life,
you will tend to place your trust in (and thus be the servant of and allow to be your master,)
money, the pursuit of wealth, the pursuit of security, the pursuit of whatever that represents for
you, or God. And there’s going to be a tension, and because God loves you, because God wants
you to treat Him as your Father, because God knows what’s best for you, God wants your
undivided attention. He wants your devotion. He wants to be your master, and He knows His
chief competitor is stuff and the acquisition and the pursuit of stuff. That’s why there’s so much
in the Bible about money.
Now, here’s the deal. In talking about the guardrails, there are two ditches. There’s a
ditch on each side of the road when it comes to your finances. One has to do with consumption,
and the other has to do with hoarding—consuming and hoarding. Now, we don’t mind being
consumers; we don’t want to be hoarders. But let me tell you what this is. Consuming means that everything that comes your way, you consume. All the dollars that come in become things in
your house, they become a house; they become a car. You just consume, consume, consume, and if you just consume as if your life depends on it, then essentially you consume everything and you’re the person who has a lot of consumer debt. The other side of the road, the other ditch, is hoarding. Well, what about, what about, what about? What if I get sick? What if I want to retire? What if, what if, what if something goes bad with the economy? What if, what if? And you just hoard and you hoard and you hoard. Now, the interesting thing about consuming and hoarding is that these two people marry each other, don’t they? In marriage you don’t call it consumers and hoarders, you call it spenders and what? I’m not a hoarder, I’m a saver. And God saves, so I’m kind of godly. My husband and my wife, on the other hand, they’re consumers. They just consume, consume. So you have this tension and this friction. In fact, if you’re not married, if you think I’m more the spender than a saver, I’m more the saver than a spender—get ready. You’re going to marry the opposite, probably, unless you wait until you’re about 40 to get
married. The longer you wait to get married, the less opposite person you marry. There’s a little
marriage advice for you there.
Consuming and hoarding. Now, here’s the problem with being a consumer or a hoarder.
They both have things in common. Both are very self-centered and both leave you living as if
really, there is no God, and both, really, are fueled by the same thing, and we hate this. I’m going
to be a little hard on you today. Both of these are consumed by the G word, the word greed.
Now, greed—you’ve heard me say this before; greed is almost impossible to see in the
mirror. I’ve never met anybody who says, “Pray for me, I’m greedy.” No—“I’m careful.” “I’m a
hoarder.” “I’m a saver.” And, “I’m a good planner.” Greed is very difficult to see in the mirror.
So, Jesus did us a favor, and throughout his teaching, he teaches on greed. And if you take
everything he says and put it together, here is Jesus’ definition of greed. These are my words, but
this is what Jesus said greed is: Greed is simply the assumption that it’s all for my consumption.
That’s all greed is. You can be poor and greedy; you can be rich and greedy. Greed is simply, if
anything comes to me, it’s for me. If anything comes to me, it’s for my consumption. “My
consumption now”—that makes you a consumer, or “my consumption later”—that makes you a
saver or a hoarder. The big problem with this—it leaves you living as if there is no God.
That doesn’t mean you don’t believe in God. That means when finances and the pursuit
of things and the pursuit of wealth is your chief pursuit, in other words, you love God, you go to
church, you even have respect for the Bible, but when it comes down to big decisions, the real
thing is, where is this going to leave me financially? Am I going to be able to get what I want?
Am I going to be able to continue to leverage so that I can have more? Am I going to make sure I
have enough for the future? If that is your chief concern—in other words, if consciously or
subconsciously your ultimate dependence and reliance is upon income and finances, ultimately
that means you’re fueled by greed. And if you’re fueled by greed, that means you live as if there
is no God until there’s a problem.
Let me tell you about all you greedy people. I know this about you. When you hit a big
bump financially, who do you invite into the equation of your financial life? Who? No, not your
mama, who? God. Now, we can all raise our hands on this one? How many of you ever, ever,
ever in your life have prayed a prayer that had to do with money and you asked God to help you
in some way financially? Sell a house, sell a business? Exactly. So here’s what happens. For
most of us, and I think for most Americans, God is like the backup finance plan. He is like the
backup—like sit, stay, stay. I’m going to live my life, make my money, I’m going to go to
church. I’m even going to throw a few dollars in the plate, but stay. But central to my life is am I going to have enough? Am I going to marry well? Where am I going to live? How am I going to
manage? My future depends on my ability to save, or marry the right person, or get my parents to
leave me enough, or whatever it is. And so consequently, God’s on the periphery, and then when
there’s trouble it’s like, okay, God, I’d like to invite you into the equation. Dear heavenly Father,
day by day, by day by day, oh, Lord these three things—it’s been so long since you’ve prayed.
Hi, my name is Andy. You haven’t heard from me for a while.
So we invite God in, because somewhere in your belief system, for most of us, we think
maybe God could help us. And here’s what your heavenly Father says to you. Again, read the
New Testament. This is so consistent with Jesus. New Testament says this, God doesn’t want to
help you. God wants to be the master and ruler of your life, and His chief competitor is your
stuff. And God, the Creator, will not be the backup plan. He wants to be the master and the ruler
of your life, which means you must break the power of greed in your life. If you live as if your
ultimate dependence is on stuff, Jesus says you’re living with the assumption that it’s all for your
consumption.
One of my roles, and I don’t think I do this well—and I think sometimes I’m too sensitive
to the whole money thing—one of my roles as your pastor is to do everything I can to help you
have a great marriage, prepare for a great future, do your best, love God, and part of my
responsibility is to make sure you get the financial piece of your life right. And the key to
breaking the power of greed (which the big picture is), the key to living as if God really is your
master and not money, the key to living a life where your real dependence is God and not your
stuff, the key is so simple. It’s a habit. It’s not a prayer you pray, it’s not a simple one-time
decision you make. It’s a habit you develop, and if this is the habit of your life, you will break
and keep broken the power of greed in your life. And the great news is this: It’s not even a
financial decision. It’s a decision to allow your heavenly Father to rule your life. Because here’s
what God knows about you. If he can get your checkbook and if he can get your money, he’s
pretty much got your heart—because where your treasure is, that’s where your heart goes. That’s
what Jesus taught. And it’s not about money. It’s about your devotion, and the chief competitor
for your devotion is money.
So here’s the key. It’s very simple. It’s just three words. It’s give, save, live. This is the
key. It’s so simple. You’ve heard me say it a thousand times. I haven’t said it enough. Give,
save, live. That is, when you get paid, the first thing you do, the first check you write, you give it
away; you give a percentage away. This is saying, “God, I will not be ruled by my stuff. I will
not be owned by the things I own. My hands are open. The first percentage goes to you.” So let
me change the words: give, hoard, consume. So you still get to be a hoarder and a consumer.
Does that make you feel better? This is hoarding: Oh, because what if, what if, what if I get sick?
What if I lose my job? Let me just tell you, if you get sick and lose your job, guess what you’re
going to do? You’re going to pray. So be in a position where God goes, Oh, no problem, I’ve got
you taken care of. So, give, hoard, and then spend and consume in this order. See, if you only
have two and not three, your money is your master. This is how you make sure you are never
mastered by the things you own—mastered by your money.
Now, some of you know this one. When my kids were very young, I got each of them
three jars when they were old enough to understand this, and I labeled each of these three jars,
and they all had one in their room. I did jars so they could actually see the money in it. We
labeled them giving, saving, spending. And I put these in their room and every time they would
get money for Christmas or birthday or some kind of allowance, or if they did something around
the house and I was paying them, we tried to give them money in allotments that they could
divide up in tenths. So I taught my kids, I said, “As soon as you get paid or earn any money, ten
percent giving, ten percent saving, eighty percent living. You just need to get in the habit of
thinking, ten, ten, eighty, ten, ten, eighty, ten, ten, eighty.” So this has been a habit from the very
beginning.
Now, the reason I tell you that again, is before we look at what else Jesus says, I just want
to delve into your suspicious heart and your suspicious thoughts about why I’m teaching you
this. I think maybe this is the best way to do it. So let me ask the question this way: Why would
the pastor, why would the pastor get his kids three jars and tell them the first money you make,
take ten percent and put it in giving, and then give it to the local church. Why would the pastor
do that? Let’s think about that.
Option number one: Because he wants the church to get his kids’ money. Now, see, if I
told you to do that for your kids, but I didn’t do it for my kids, then you could say, well, you’re
just one of those churches that’s just after our money. But why would I give my kids money for
stuff and then have them take part of that money and give it to the church? Is it so the church can
get their money, their $1.70? Aha! No. Maybe, you could go with that option. Here’s another
option. Maybe the church needs that $1.70. Andrew, Garrett, Allie—you need to give that $1.70,
put it in that jar and then next we’re going to put it in an envelope and give it, because how are
we going to change the light bulbs? Our financial future of the church—it’s your $1.70 or we’re
lights out; it’s over. The church needs your money. No, here’s another option. Maybe it’s
because when my kids give their money, maybe after the service, I sneak back to the room where
we count the money and I take a big pillowcase and I just rake all the loose change and all the
cash in the pillowcase and I run out to my car and I put it into the trunk, and maybe this is how I
steal money from the church.
This is important. Why would I do this, before we ever started this church? Why would I
want my own children to give first to the church and save and then spend? I’ll tell you why.
Because you see, for all of my kids’ lives, the chief competition, the chief competitor for their
heart against God is stuff. And I want them to break it and I want them to keep it broken. I don’t
want my kids to ever be owned by what they own, and this is how you keep that from happening.
You percentage give, and as your income goes up, your percentage goes up. See, I don’t want
my kids’ wives—my daughters-in-law—to ever feel like they’re competing for my sons’ stuff,
their car, a house, golf clubs; whatever it might be. I don’t want my children to live under the
pressure, the doom and gloom of consumer debt. I don’t want it to ever happen. I want them to
be raised thinking you give first because it all belongs to God, you save for the future, and you
live on what’s left over, period. Because I know this is the key to financial independence.
You know what financial independence is? Financial independence is living independently of serving your money. That’s what financial independence is. It’s I can live my life and I am devoted ultimately to God, and money is just stuff I use. I don’t serve it; it serves me. I don’t care if you guys ever get this or not; I want my kids to get it, because I am as convinced of this as I am anything—that this is the key to breaking the power of greed and in our consumer economy, which isn’t going to go away. And I love our country and I love the mall and I love the grocery store and I love options. And I love fries, too, while we’re talking about it. I’m so for all that. But I am as susceptible as anybody listening to this message to stepping over certain lines financially, and the only way to keep from doing that is to set up guardrails. I’m telling you, this is the guardrail that changes everything. That’s why I’ve taught my kids that. That’s why I’m teaching you this. That’s why it’s been a habit of my life for many, many, many years.
Now, back to Jesus. Here’s what Jesus says about all that. I’m going to start at the
beginning and reread this verse, and then we’re going to go in. Here’s how it goes, and I’ve
highlighted a couple of words to kind of put this in context. This is Jesus teaching—Sermon on
the Mount.
Matthew 6:24
24 No one can serve two masters. [In other words, you’re serving a master. We don’t
think of it that way, but we are.] Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you
will be devoted [That’s the key word.] to the one and despise the other.
Jesus is about to say that you are either devoted to God, your Father, or you’re devoted to
your money and your stuff. And the best way to know how, and the best way to tell is to look at
what you do with your money and your stuff. Do you own it or does it own you? Does it serve
you or do you serve it? You cannot, as in can not, serve or be devoted to—these words mean the
same thing.
Matthew 6:24
24 You cannot serve both [Even though we try] God and Money.
Then, a few minutes later in the same sermon, here’s what he says.
Matthew 6:31 (TNIV)
31 So [conclusion] do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?”
or “What shall we wear?”
How will I get my kids through college? How are we ever going to afford a home? How
are we . . . why are we . . .? Don’t lie in bed at night and allow money, pieces of paper with
pictures of people you’ll never meet . . . think of how crazy this is. Think of this. It’s just absurd.
He says, I don’t want money to steal your peace. I don’t want money to steal your joy. I don’t want money to consume your thinking. I don’t want it to be front and center, because if it is,
that’s what you’re serving. So, you look at that verse and you go, okay, how do I get to a place
where I’m not worrying, and go, What do I do? How’s it going to happen? And you fight as a
family, and your kids are mad, and everybody’s, ugh, and there’s all this tension in your family,
and all this tension in your family about money. See, that just means you’re serving it. It means
its front and center. And God doesn’t need your money. He just doesn’t want you to be worried.
Listen to what He says, this next verse.
Matthew 6:32
32 For the pagans run after [That is, going back to those yellow words, serve, or devoted
to. All these mean the same thing.] all these things
Now, let me just tell you what. If you lie in bed at night and you sit around and, whether
you’re rich or poor or in between, and you’re just consumed about, “what about the future, what
about the future, what if we get sick, what about the kids, and money, money, money, money,”
Jesus says you’re living like a pagan. You’re living as if there is no God. You’re living as if God
could never intervene. You’re living as if God doesn’t know and God doesn’t care. That’s how
you’re living your life, because He is not front and center. See, it’s about heart, it’s about
devotion, it’s about focus—it’s not about money. In fact, I met with the creative team and we
were trying to come up with a title for this sermon, and I had a good idea. I said, what if we call
this sermon Pay-gan, the Hoarderian. Isn’t that great? Pay-gan, the Hoarderian. They said, Andy,
that’s not creative, that’s just a bad title.
So here’s the deal. For the pagans, he says, if your whole devotion and your life
orientation is around stuff, he says, you’re living like a pagan. A pagan is just somebody who
doesn’t believe there’s a God who intervenes in human affairs. And listen to this next part. This
is the crux of the matter.
Matthew 6:32
32 and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
That is, all those things you worry about. Now, this is so huge. You see, the reason we
worry is we’re not sure He knows and we’re not sure He’s going to do anything. In fact, one of
the big defining moment decisions you could make for your life is to decide once and for all, do
you really believe that God knows and that God cares. You see, once you decide God knows and
God cares, then you begin to change your orientation from stuff-centered with God, sit and stay
until I need you, to God-centered—to, hey, God, you’ll help me manage them. Let me ask you,
do you think God knows you need to put your kids through college? Do you think God knows
you need a place to live? Do you think God knows you need to pay the bills? Do you think God
knows that you need to be able to pay your taxes? Do you think God knows? Do you think He
cares? That’s a yes or no. If the answer is no, then factor God out, and you need to put finances
and stuff front and center. In fact, it’ll force your kids out to the periphery, your wife, your
husband out to the periphery; it’ll just consume you as some of you are consumed. But what if God knows? What if God cares? You have all prayed prayers to where you sort of seem to think
He knew and think He cared. What if you lived your life as if He knew? What if you lived your
life as if He cares? Here’s what Jesus says. Jesus says,
Matthew 6:32
32 and your heavenly Father knows . . .
what you need, what you want, what you’ve got to have. He knows about your kids. He knows.
What if you really believed that? Let me tell you what happens when you really believe that. I
know this. Here’s what happens when you really believe that. Oh, okay, then I can trust you with
all of it if I know that you know and I know that you care. If you don’t think he knows and you
don’t think he cares, it’s all about hoarding or consuming.
Then Jesus said, okay, here’s a different way, but how do we break the power? What do
we do? Look at this,
Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first
In other words, you’ve got to put something in the front of the list. You’ve got to put
something else in the front of the list. You’ve got to re-order, you’ve got to re-prioritize, you’ve
got to rearrange.
Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first
You’ve been seeking what am I going to eat, where am I going to go, what am I going to
wear, where are we going to live, and these are real needs. I’m not discounting the importance of
all those things we worry about. But if you think God knows and you believe that God cares, He
says let me tell you the next logical thing. I want you to seek something else first, since now you
know God knows and God cares. Here’s how he finishes it. Many of you know this verse.
Matthew 6:33
33 But seek firs his kingdom [That is, his purpose, his will, his deal] and his righteousness
His right way of living, His values, His understanding of right and what’s wrong, justice
and mercy, generosity,
Matthew 6:33
33 and his righteousness, and all these things [that we worry about, that we can’t control,
that we hoard for and consume for and go into debt for] will be given to you as well.
That’s Jesus’ promise. But that’s the issue right there. What’s going to come first? That’s
why I say to you—you give first, you save second, and you live on the rest. You give first, you
save second and you live on the rest. Now, here’s an interesting thing I’ve observed. Do you
know when most people learn this and apply this and go, ah, and they’re like, wow, it was a
defining moment and it was the greatest day of my life. Do you know when most people discover
this? When the bottom falls out financially. It’s amazing. Through the years, people come in and
they’re all upside down because of debt; they’re all upside down because of things they had no
control over, but they had a lot of bad habits. They were living right on the edge, and then the
edge disappeared, and they were like, Oh, what are we going to do, what are we going to do?
And so we teach them, we say, Well, we want to help you get your financial house in order, so
that means it’s not a matter of just getting out of debt; it’s a matter of reprioritizing. It’s a matter
of putting other things first, so we want you to begin giving.
Well, I can’t afford to give. Well, you couldn’t afford to give when you had a lot, either.
This isn’t about giving. This is about “God, I’m inviting you in, and it’s not just a fix-it. This
isn’t just kind of help me and then leave. This is, I’m reordering my life.” People begin to give
first, save second and live on the rest, and do you know what happens every single time?
Because this is not about money—every single time, you know what happens. You know what
happens to their saving and what happens to their spending? Their saving goes up and their
spending goes down, and as they develop these new habits and this new way of life, whether
they have no money, a little bit of money, or a lot of money, at the end of a season of time they
say, It’s amazing. I’m giving way more, I’m saving way more, and I’m more content than I’ve
ever been with what I have. The thing in me that was never enough, never enough, never enough,
never satisfied—it’s like it just kind of calmed down. It’s just easier for me to be careful. It’s like
my whole orientation toward money and wealth and stuff has completely changed, and it began
when I put the right thing first. I began to give a percentage. I began to save a percentage. And
then I just managed to live off the rest.
Folks, I want this for you so much, and most of you don’t do this. And I know there’s as
many different reasons as there are people in the room, but I’m telling you, I’ve talked to enough
people from different walks of life to where you can do this. You can do this. It is life changing.
It’s generationally changing. It’s what your kids need to see modeled. And you know the reason
you don’t, most of you, is you’re scared to death. And some of you have too much money, and
some of you don’t think you have enough. Those of you without enough, you think, Well, if I had
this much more I could start doing this. And those of you who make way too much think, Well, I
make too much money to give a percentage, because look how much money that is. That makes
no sense at all, but I’ve had those conversations.
This is really a matter of obedience. To not do this is to be disobedient. It’s to literally
say, “God—stay, I’ll call you when I need you financially.” And I’m telling you, that may work
with your dog, that may work with your children every once in a while. You might even try that
with your husband or your wife, but I’m telling you, if God is the God we sing to and God is the
God we worship, and God is the God who has sent his Son, I’m telling you, he’s not going to sit
and he’s not going to stay. But you rearrange your life this way and, my friends, Old Testament and New, it is an invitation for God to reorder your financial world, and that is the key to your
heart because of the way we’re designed.
Here’s what I want you to do. I know this is the worst time in the economy to talk about
this. For some of you it’s the worst time in your personal economy to talk about that. I know
there’s never a great time. But there’s never been a more important time for some of you to see
God work in this area of your life. You’re already praying financial prayers. The next step for
you is to reorder your financial world and to make the decision. For me, automatic deposit—as
soon as I see that thing show up, literally, the next check I write, ten percent to this congregation
like it’s been to every church I’ve ever attended. Any extra money for my family, for my kids,
it’s not just that we do it, it’s the first thing. It’s, “God, your kingdom first, my kingdom second.”
Now here’s the thing. Let me just talk from my perspective for a second. Here’s the other
thing that excites me about this. We’re a big church; we’ve got lots of stuff; we’ve got moving
lights. We’ve got a band. We’ve got all this stuff, and people say, “Oh, it’s a rich church.” No,
actually, here’s the reality. We are nowhere near where we could and should be in terms of our
giving as a church. We’re not even near it. We’re paying the bills, paying the staff—we’re
nowhere near it. Let me just tell you, this is my church fantasy. You see, if you would do this,
this is just obedience. This is just bottom line. If you would just do this as a congregation, our
cash flow would enable us to do things so extraordinary, it’s mind-boggling. Right now we’re
trying to store up some money to help some churches in Haiti, because once all the housing is
done, somebody’s got to go and rebuild churches. If we did this, we wouldn’t have to have a
fundraiser. I would never have to get up and say, Hey, we’re doing this thing for Haiti if you
want to give extra money. We could build churches.
When we do intersect projects with the Atlanta Union Mission and North Fulton
Charities or foster cares or all these things that we do stuff with, when we intersect with them
financially—without ever mentioning anything, we could pour so much money into community
needs. And my newest idea, which I think would be so cool, some of the school systems are
firing teachers and eliminating positions. We’ve got a lot of people in our church that are
teachers and coaches that are unemployed. How cool would it be to be able to say to the local
schools, especially some of the city schools in Atlanta where it’s just really difficult to say, you
know what, we’re going to pay for the teachers. We’ve got the teachers and we’ve got the
money. We’d like to give you a coach back. We’d like to give you a math teacher back. We’d
like to give you an art teacher back. We’d like to give you an administrator back. Oh, no
problem, no fundraiser. Our people, they just understand give, save, live, give, save, live, and
we’re going to cash flow it and we’re going to pay for it.
We do things overseas. I’m just telling you, our church is so big in terms of people, our
giving potential is so enormous, I believe with all my heart that we could create a cultural
revolution within churches if we would just get it right. We’re supposedly the third or fourth
largest church in America right now. Who cares, except this: people pay attention to what we do.
The day could come when we would never have to take an offering at any of our services.
You’re like, Now you’re talking, buddy . . . okay!
Here’s what I mean. Most of us give online anyway. If you just give, save, live, and it
becomes just a weekly part of your life, we could have offering-free worship services if we chose
to do that. We could do things that people would think of our church and they wouldn’t think,
They want your money. They would think, That is the most generous group of people. They must
have somebody who’s pouring millions of dollars in. And we could say, No, we don’t have
extraordinary giving. We just have obedient giving. We don’t have fundraisers. We don’t have to
do capital campaigns. We just have people who are doing what every Christian is supposed to
do. And, consequently, this is the impact financially we’re making in our city, in our community,
in our state, and in the world. And no church has ever done that that I’m aware of. Some little
tiny churches have done it, because they had so few people, it was easy. Everybody signed up to
do a pledge card. I’m just telling you our potential is huge, and to be honest, right now, our
giving is really pitiful compared to where it should be. That doesn’t mean we’re even in need or
aren’t paying the bills. I’m just telling you, I want you to have the greatest marriages. I want you
to have the greatest relationships with your kids, all those things we talk about, and I want you to
get this right.
It doesn’t affect me. I’m not going to get a raise. I don’t get a percentage. This has
nothing to do with me. I look forward to the day when maybe I don’t have to take a salary from
the church. You guys have made me famous, so I get asked to do things and write books, and it’s
just wonderful. Thank you very much. I look forward to the day where I can even be a greater
contributor to what we do here because I believe in it, and I know that you do too. But even if
you don’t buy any of that, even if you don’t like my dreams and my crazy ideas, this is just
Christian obedience. This really is 101 and it’s not about money. It’s about the undivided
attention. It’s about the undivided focus of your heart. So, if you’re a Christian, come on. It’s
time to sit down with your husband or wife or, if you’re single just sit down by yourself and say,
Okay, I’m going to get this right. God, I’m not just going to pray, “Help me sell the house and
the condo.” God, I systematically want to get this right: your kingdom first, my kingdom second.
And God will help you with your debt. God will help you with your contentment. Things will
begin to change in your heart. Because I’ve seen it happen over and over and over and over if we
will establish this guardrail, because this is the guardrail that guards us against greed and all the
things that go along with it.
For some of you, this may be the key to healing a difficult relationship, maybe healing
your marriage, maybe bringing your son or daughter back home because they felt for years they
had to compete with Dad’s stuff or Mom’s stuff. You’ve worshipped it, you’ve served it, and
you never thought of it in those terms. But the people who watch you from the outside would
say, Yeah, her master and commander is her stuff. So I know I’ve kind of chastised you a little
bit and baited you a little bit, but you know I love you and I want you to get this right. I want you
to experience that kind of freedom. And I want us as a church to reach our full potential, and I
think our full potential has a lot to do with what we do financially, because people are watching
us and what we could do is absolutely extraordinary if we will simply be obedient in this one
simple area that overflows into every other area of life. So, give, save, live—give, save, live.
Teach your children to give, save, live. Let’s teach another generation to give, to save, and to
live. Let’s pray together.
