Formation Church - Chandler, Indiana

RelationSLIPS - 2nd Worst Enemy of Relationships

Find this message in video and text from at http://www.faithinchandler.com/second-worst-enemy-relationships/

RelationSLIPS: The #1 Enemy of Relationships is guilt!

Find video, audio, and notes for this message here:
http://www.faithinchandler.com/number-one-enemy-relationships/

Vision Sunday 2016

http://www.faithinchandler.com/vision-sunday-2016/ 

In AD 30 there was a small group of people gathering in a room, terrified that the all-powerful Romans and zealous Jewish religious leaders would attempt to arrest and kill them all…

 

Those fears would eventually come true because most of them were arrested. Many of them were killed. However, their group was resilient and whenever one of them was stricken down, two more would rise up in his or her place.

 

They never fought back. They never resisted through violence. 

They often fled danger, but they also often walked into the most dangerous of situations in broad daylight announcing on street corners in busy marketplaces that they were there…

This small group was the early church and from AD 30 on their message spread throughout all of the world and their group grew and grew and grew and grew.

 

Meanwhile, the Jews were conquered, their mighty temple was burned. Because it was overlaid with so much gold, as it burned the gold melted down in between the blocks and bricks of the building, so later every block would be separated to harvest out this gold that had melted down in between the blocks.

 

The mighty Roman empire would collapse and fall. This powerful nation which had over taken the world would not outlast the little group of people, meeting together in a room to pray.

 

 

You see, Jesus said that the church was His church and that not even the gates of hell would prevail against it. The Church that Jesus established is resilient. It lasts from generation to generation.

It his handed off to new leaders and new servants constantly and spreads quickly so military threat, natural disaster, global plague, governmental interference, and religious persecution have not threatened the church’s existence, or even it’s growth.

 

In fact, when we look back in church history, we see that the times that culture was most adverse toward the church are the times that it grew the most! 

 

You know where the church grew the fastest in the last 30 years?

Communist China.

 

You know where the church is currently growing at the fastest rate? The Middle East!

 

You see the church is like a forest.

A wind storm might blow down a large tree, but it doesn’t blow down the forest and scientists have found in large forests that when a large tree is blown down that the sunlight that now pours onto the forest floor, the fallen tree decays and makes the ground around it fertile and in the place of the fallen tree an incredible amount of bio diversity springs up in it’s place.

When walking through a forest, a place or area that is most teaming with life and a diversity of plants is most likely a place that a large tree fell.

 

When a forest fire rages and cuts deep gouges into a forest, the forest immediately begins to rebuild.

 

Did you know that what makes a pine cone open up and release it’s seeds is heat?

So when a forest fire rages through, 

it plants the seed of the next forest.

 

When church leaders are killed and imprisoned, their followers are not intimidated into silence, but rather they are inspired to rise up!

Now where there was one leader, there is now a host of leaders!

 

That’s exactly what happened to the early church…

 

Think about the logistics of the early church.

Thousands have been gathering to hear this inspiring, powerful, miracle working man named Jesus.

 

The Jews and Romans take Jesus, ridicule Him, publicly beat Him, and then execute Him in front of crowds of people during the passover which is when Jerusalem is the most full of people…

 

Jesus raises from the dead, appears to approximately 500 people over the course of 40 days, lays out a plan for this world changing organization called the church, and then He leaves!

 

What happened next was that instead of 1 inspiring leader, there were dozens. Instead of crowds gathering wherever Jesus was teaching, crowds started gathering wherever teachers were talking about Jesus.

 

The departure of  Christ gave rise to a new wave of leaders. His ascension after the resurrection wasn’t the final act, it’s the opening scene.

 

Let me point this out to you in several verses in Acts 1 and 2.

 

1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

 

This “You” is plural. If Jesus was in the south He would have said “ya’ll will receive power” If He were in the American north, He would have said “you guys will receive power.”

He was speaking to the entire group.

 

Then He said that they would be witnesses in all of these places, all over the face of the earth.

We’ve come along way with technology and even to this day we haven’t figured out how to be in more than one place at a time.

However, they were going to be spreading Jesus message in all of these places. They were going to have to do this together- they would have to set out in different directions.

But Jesus had told them to return to Jerusalem and wait.

So they return to Jerusalem.

 

13And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode (names the 11 disciples)

14These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

15….(the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

 

With the disciples and the women and even Jesus’ mom there was a gathering of 120 people.

There were thousands that listened to Jesus preach.

There were thousands who were fed from a little boys lunch.

But the core group was this band of 120 people.

Those people who had heard Jesus’ messages, and been miraculously fed, and seen Jesus heal people, they probably be a huge part would be in the group that join the church in this first wave of growth, but in that moment they weren’t in the room. They weren’t in the core group.

They were just out there somewhere, familiar with Jesus, filled with a mixture of questions and doubt and faith…

They would be a part of the movement soon, but it would start with this core group of 120 people in the room praying that God would do something huge.

 

2:1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

 

4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,

 

14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

 

Peter preached the opening message of the church, but he was not the only one. He was one of twelve that were teaching from up front that day.

And the others that were part of the 120 were also a part of this movement of the Holy Spirit because they were all filled and they all spoke in tongues so that people of all nations in Jerusalem for the feast of booths could hear in their native tongue and understand the message of the gospel…

 

But I also want you to notice what Peter preached, or rather the text that he spoke of when he preached.

 

17And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

18And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

 

God’s Spirit did not merely pour out upon the disciples.

God’s Spirit did not merely pour out upon the men.

God’s Spirit didn’t not merely pour our upon the seasoned veterans.

 

Young and Old. Male and Female. - All flesh.

 

41Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

 

Think about the logistics of baptizing 3,000 people in a day.

If just the disciples had been baptizing people, they would have each baptized 250 people.

 

If the disciples had an assembly line set up, with 12 equally long lines, this would have taken forever.

My speculation is that this was not something that just the disciples did, but the core group did and that those who were among the first baptized were then added to the group of those baptizing others…

 

What we have here is the entire group of 120 sharing the gospel, praying with people, initiating relationships that would change people’s lives…

 

Jesus was the central figure and Peter was the individual spokes person, but this entire group of 120 was neck deep in people serving, ministering, helping, praying, sharing, and changing lives.

 

Our vision for 2017 is to develop the new core group.

 

Let me tell you why.

 

Over the past 8 years our church has more than doubled in size. 

Show Graph.

If we continue on the current track we are on, 

we will have tripled in size in 10 years.

 

In 2008 we averaged just above 40 people in Sunday morning worship services. There was a particular Sunday morning that stands out in my mind in which there was only one family sitting on the left (my right) side of the sanctuary, and everyone else was sitting on this side, and the right (my left) side wasn’t really packed. 

 

We’ve made many accommodations for growth through the years.

Whenever we’ve run up against barrier to our growth, we’ve broken it down. Through the years 

we’ve added parking spaces, 

added a toddler church, 

setup an overflow room, 

moved children’s church to a larger room, 

moved the nursery to a bigger space, 

added a second service on Easter, d

oubled our number of VBS volunteers, 

and now we’ve built a foyer. 

 

But I’d say that the next barrier may be the hardest we’ve faced yet. The barrier that we next face is a shortage of leaders, volunteers, and teachers.

 

(Back to “Our vision for 2017 is to…” slide)

 

Last year on Vision Sunday and again on Anniversary Sunday I shared that it is our dream that every child in our community would know of God’s love and grace and that addiction would no longer be an ever present reality but a painful memory.

 

That’s our dream and it’s a big, audacious dream.

This past year we chased after that dream and we strategically made a few changes, for example.

 

We had dino-night and we intentionally scheduled it in between Easter and VBS to hopefully bridge the gap between those two major events and hopefully increase the amount of outsiders that participate in VBS. VBS attendance jumped over 15% this year with more new families involved than ever before and even better yet was that VBS Sunday was the largest Sunday attendance we had except for Easter of 2016.

VBS Sunday of 2016 matched the attendance of Easter Sunday in 2015!

 

In 2016 we made that strategic move and it dramatically moved us toward that dream of sharing the love and grace of Jesus with all of the children of our community.

 

In 2015 we made the strategic decision of having 2 services on Easter because we were going over capacity in past Easters and we would have gobs of guests with us that day, but we’d struggle to connect with any of them, they were parking in the grass, sitting in the overflow or in a chair in the aisle…

 

Making that change in 2015 not only led to the largest gathering we had up to that point, our regular attendance jumped because we retained more of those guests than we ever had before. 

As you can see 2015 was best year for growth that we had experienced since 2012.

 

The strategy decision for this upcoming year is based on the fact that we need more leaders, team members, teachers, and mentors.

Our vision is develop the new core group, so our strategy will be to emphasize discipleship, implement teams, and enlist volunteers.

 

Our Vision for 2017 is to develop the New Core Group.

 

Our Strategy for 2017 is to emphasize discipleship, implement teams, and enlist volunteers.

 

This passage here in Acts 2 where the church gains 3,000 people in one day is incredibly exciting.

We read here that the people are gathering for worship, sharing meals together, being generous to one another, it’s a beautiful thing. Plus, they kept growing. 

Look at verse 47

“praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

 

More and more people came to be a part of this group and the city was changed because of it, in fact verse 47 says that they had favor with all the people because of the wonderful things they were doing in the city…

 

but it wasn’t long until there was trouble.

One of the efforts that the church undertaken was caring for widows- they had seen a need and decided to meet it, but before long the church had grown to the point that the disciples were have to say, if we are going to keep doing all of this ministry stuff, we’re going to have to cut back on the amount of time we spend studying the word and praying so that we are ready to teach everyone…

 

So they elected more, new leaders in Acts 6:1-6 and then immediately verse 7 says,

 

7And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

 

They brought more people onto the team and the immediate effect was a multiplication of the disciples in Jerusalem, the presence of the Word of God increased, AND…. AND even several priests became believers…

 

Did you notice that word in verse 7?

and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

 

When I was a kid, I memorized my multiplication tables. My mom had bought flash cards and we would work through them, she helped me learn those multiplication tables.

 

Once we had learned all the multiplication tables in our 3rd grade class, our teacher started playing “Around the World.” Are you familiar with it? You would stand next to the desk of a classmate and the teacher would show a flashcard and whoever answered first won and moved to the next desk. If you won again you kept moving. The game was over when a student made their way all the way through the entire classroom back to their own desk. 

When they had “made it around the world” they won.

 

For a lot of the kids, moving from addition and subtraction to multiplication was really hard, but I loved it. I loved attempting to go around the world.

 

The Church moved from addition to multiplication when they brought new leaders into the core group.

 

When they did they set themselves up to go around the world with the message of the gospel.

 

 

Now when it came time to enlist these new leaders, the disciples didn’t get out a catalog or run down to the hardware store.

They didn’t get a quote from a contractor. They looked into the group of people that was gathering together to worship Jesus and called them to join the team, and in that moment no one expected the people who were enlisted to have years of experience serving in the church because no one did, it had only been around for a few weeks.

 

There was another reason that the disciples were comfortable with electing someone with no experience and a complete lack of what we would later determine to be ministry qualifications…

 

That’s exactly how they felt too. 

In Acts 2 Peter stands up with the other disciples and preaches this incredible message which God uses to save 3,000 people.

To completely appreciate that moment, you need to read the gospels and get a full sense of Peter’s relationship with Jesus- to fully appreciate that moment you need to watch all of the time Peter puts his foot in his mouth, fails miserably after bragging, and weeps over his own deficiencies…

We don’t have time to cover all of that this morning, so I want to point you back to the very first meeting of Peter and Jesus.

 

It’s in John 1:42 - we’ll put it on the screen

 

42And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.

 

Cephas is Aramaic, Petros is the greek version of Cephas, they both mean rock. 

 

The very first time Jesus meets Peter He gives Peter the name we know him by. He changes his name from Simon to Peter.

 

He says, I’m going to call you rock.

 

Now Peter demonstrates anything but rock-steadiness over the next 3 years, but Jesus calls him rock anyway.

 

Jesus was calling Peter what he would be.

He says to him, you shall be called Rock.

You will be called Rock.

 

There’s authority here, but also it’s a prophecy.

Peter, you’re flaky right now, but you’re going to be called rock.

 

 

God is calling us to something we’re not ready for yet.

 

 

God’s calling you to be something you’re not ready for yet.

 

But just at is was Christ’s work in Peter’s life that made him the Rock Jesus had been calling him, Jesus wishes to work in you- to make you what He’s been calling you.

 

The first time I preached I was 17 year old kid who hated to do an oral book report. I loved cutting up and making jokes in a group of friends, but standing up in front of people i didn’t know that well terrified me.

 

My first sermon was at a nursing home that our youth group would go visit and sing to… Most of the people were sweet but some of them weren’t as much as the others.

 

When I was delivering my message a guy on the front row who couldn’t hear said loudly to the person next to him, and I’m sure he thought he was whispering but everyone int he room could hear him, he said

“You think he’s almost done?!”

We are THAT Church

http://www.faithinchandler.com/new-core-group/

We RISE to celebrate Jesus

Find the video and notes from this message here:  http://www.faithinchandler.com/rise-celebrate-jesus/

We RISE Together as the Church - RISE

Find the notes and video for this message here: http://www.faithinchandler.com/rise-together-church/

We RISE through application of the gospel! - RISE

See this message in video and find all the notes here: http://www.faithinchandler.com/rise-application-gospel/

We RISE in the power of the resurrection! - RISE

The Greatest Investment - The Generous Life

Making a Living so We Can Enjoy Giving - The Generous Life

 

Making a Living so We Can Enjoy Giving 

1 Timothy 6

 

 

Last week was a great day for our church.

We had a really great crowd (166 people) here.
The parking lot was full, the sanctuary was full, the overflow was full, we ran out of tables to eat at, but we did not run out of food.

 

That's out highest anniversary sunday count, but it’s only the 3rd highest day of this year. Easter was 200 and VBS Sunday was 174.

Easter didn’t feel as packed because we did 2 services.

VBS Sunday didn’t feel as packed because we had 40 kids in Childrens church.

 

Here’s whats crazy about last week, we didn’t have a real big number of guests- and the guest we did have for the most part were not first time guests.

 

What we had last week was mainly made up of people who ought to be here every week.

Right now we have a very large crowd- a large group that is affiliated with our church, that if you were to run into them at the grocery store and invite them to church they would say, oh thanks but I go to Faith Church in Chandler…

 

We need to see more people move from the crowd to the congregation and from the congregation to the committed and eventually to the core.

 

 

 

 

Here are the steps:
Community

Crowd

Congregation

Committed

Core

 

 

Last week I invited everyone to be a part of the New Core Group.
some next steps that I'd like for everyone to consider are the following:

 

1. Believe in Jesus

Before we can talk about taking steps to be more involved we need to talk about the most important step of all, believing in Jesus.

It’s a commitment to trust Jesus with your life and follow Him.

It’s the invitation that Matthew accepted when He walked away from everything and followed Jesus.

It’s the invitation that you need to accept.

It’s the most important step of this process and it is the most important step of your life.

 

Following Jesus is not only the first step in becoming a part of our church, it is the most important step of your life.

 

2. Grow in a group

We have classes for every age at 9:30 on Sunday mornings. These classes all cover the same biblical theme so families can discuss what they learned through the week.

We have Bible Studies for every age on Wednesday nights, plus a group for those needing to take the steps of recovery.

 

 

 

3. Serve on a team.

the entry level on serving is at an event- like at Trunk or Treat, the upcoming Christmas parade, etc. These are a one time commitment and usually require little prep.

 

The next level of serving is to join a ministry team. We've got sound and media team, worship/music team, facilities and maintenance team, teaching team, kids ministry team, etc.

 

We are introducing team meetings over the next couple of months and starting in 2017 we will give one Sunday night a month to bring all teams together to spend 15 minutes on vision and strategy for everyone serving and then break into the different teams to meet for 30 minutes with their specific team, discussing ideas/issue that pertain to their particular ministry.

 

4. Give to the cause.

The next few Sundays are going to be focused on finances. There are many people who would like to give, but they find themselves in a financial situation where they are unable to give.

I hope to cover some basic money principles from God's word that will help everyone who wants to give be able to give and encourage everyone to is able to give to make the commitment to give.

 

Now, this process isn’t going to be easy.

It shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be something you can do in your sleep, it needs to be a commitment on your part.

 

The first difficulty is going to be listening to a sermon on money.

Money is a difficult subject.

 

People say it’s not polite to talk about politics and religion, however people talk about this all the time in a very personal way but few people talk about their personal finances.

You’ve probably never said, I’m rich. 

But you’ve probably said I’m broke.

 

Even at the point in your life that you had the most money or the best income, you probably didn’t consider yourself rich.

However, by most standards some of you were or are-

but even me saying that feels a little uncomfortable.

 

What you have probably said is, They’re rich. They’re loaded.

It’s easier for us to make judgment calls about other people’s finances even though we know very little about it and hard for us to make the judgments about us even though we know the most about our own…

 

You’ve probably never said about yourself, I’m a cheapskate, I’m stingy, but you’ve probably said it about other people.

“Oh man, he is soon cheap.”

“I can’t believe how stingy he is, he is clearly loaded.”

 

“Nothing confounds the human heart quite like money.” 

 

 

 

- Carey Nieuwhoff.

 

 

We see this all the time- people make statements, take stands, choose sides in politics, sports, and business and then suddenly change their stance, position, or team and we quickly find out why.

Money.

 

I remember years ago listening to sports radio and people were talking about some major changes that a team had made that didn’t seem to make any sense. They were asking why would they do this?

Why would they get rid of their best young recruits?

Why would they move to a new city?

Tony Kornheiser said, the answer to all of your questions is money, money, money.

 

Money is a great motivator, right?

Be honest, for many of you the only reason you’re going to work tomorrow is because they’re going to pay you for it.

 

Because money is so confounds and motivates our hearts, because our lives are so wrapped up with it, the other part of this Nieuwhoff quote is true.

 

“Nothing confounds the human heart quite like money.”

 

“When you trust God with your money, you’re finally trusting God.”

 - Carey Nieuwhoff.

 

 

Some of you right now you would say, oh I trust God.

But do you?

 

If you were to say to me, 

Pastor Daniel, I trust you. I’ll confide to you my deepest darkest secrets and come to your for advice.

 

What if then I said, Can I borrow $100? 

I’ll pay you back next week.

 

That’s a different feeling isn’t it…

 

Money wraps itself around our hearts and eventually it will choke out our generosity, gratitude, kindness, and joy.

 

Paul wrote to Timothy a younger pastor and encouraged him to lead his church well and he said this to him in 1 Timothy 6:9-10.

 

He was saying, Timothy money can be quite the dangerous trap.

 

Back up a few verses to 6 and read through verse 8.

 

Paul is telling Timothy- Godliness and Contentment are a wonderful combination.

When you believe in God and you trust Him to take care of you, you’re happy with what you have, it’s a beautiful thing-

 

but a love for money is evil and dangerous.

 

So how do they combat this?

Look down at verses 17-19.

 

 

Many, many years ago a guy visited the church and it just so happen that he showed up right as we started a series on money, of course. 

I met him for coffee and he said, so is the church about to start a building campaign.

No…

 

Is the church about to hire a staff member?

No…

 

Is the church trying to pay off some debt?

No… Why do you ask.

He said, well you just started this series on money so I figured there was some major expense you were trying to raise funds for…

 

I want you to know I’m not talking about money today because there is something that we want to build or buy.

 

We just had the carpet put down and when the trim goes in over it this week it will mark the completion of our foyer project and we’ve paid for it in cash as we’ve gone.

We’ve afforded this because so much of the work has been done by our volunteers.

 

I’m not talking to you about money this morning because I want something from you, I’m talking about money this morning because I want something for you.

 

I want you to be invested here. I want you to be bought in to the mission- I want you to be all in on the difference we are trying to make here in the community.

 

I want you to own it.

 

Giving to the mission of the church makes you “own it.”

 

I’m not talking about ownership in a “this is mine!” type of attitude, I’m talking about ownership in the sense that you are committed, you care….

 

Craig Groeschel told the story of a time he tried to go into a sandwich shop to buy some food for a bunch of volunteers that were working at the church.

He said, I got there at 7:55 and said I need to order 30 sandwiches.

The lady said, I’m sorry we are closing.

He said the owner would have said, 30 sandwiches! Great! A huge sale!

but the employee said, I’m getting off in 5 minutes, I’m not doing that….

 

I don’t want you to say, I just attend at Faith Church.

I want you to be all in.

 

I don’t just want you to be able to give, I want you to BE RICH.

 

Paul said in verse 18

18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute

 

BE RICH!

 

God wants you to truly be rich. Rich in good works.

Ready to distribute.

God wants you to be in a place where you have money in your pocket ready to give to a need, ready to be generous with.

 

Because I want something for you- I’m going to share with you 3 of the major financial issues that Scripture addresses again and again.

 

They are reoccurring in scripture because they’re common issues.

 

I believe that for many of you, you want to give but you’re convinced that you can’t.

 

It’s difficult to be faithful in giving when you’re struggling to make a living.

 

I want to help you this morning so that nothing hinders your giving but also so that you’re able to pay for next vacation in cash, so that when you’re car breaks down you don’t have to borrow money from your parents to fix it, so that you can watch your retirement funds grow instead of wondering where you’ll be working at age 75.

 

So let’s cover these 3 reoccurring issues.

 

1. Your eyes are bigger than your check.

 

Whenever I would put more on my plate than I could eat, my grandmother would say, “your eyes were bigger than your stomach.”

The bad news is that my stomach caught up with my eyes.

 

For many, your eyes are bigger than your check.

You want stuff that you can not afford. 

You buy stuff that you can not afford.

 

And whenever your check catches up to your eyes, your eyes just get bigger. You’ve got richer tastes than you did a last pay raise. Your extra income wasn’t extra because it just went to pay for the stuff you had already bought.

 

Ecclesiastes 5:10

10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

 

Your paycheck will never catch up with your wants and desires.

 

Right now some of you are scheming for that next pay raise or promotion because you figure when you get that, then you’ll have the money you need to get what you want, do what you want.

You’ll never be satisfied with more if you don’t learn to be content with what you have.

 

In Luke 12:15 Jesus said, 

a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

 

Now some of you are thinking, well Pastor Daniel it’s not like I just want lots and lots of stuff, I just want the basic necessities…

 

Would you consider that in a materialistic culture like ours that materialism is considered normal?

 

The average person owns a little more than 3 times as many outfits as the average person of decades ago.

 

The average size of home has increased dramatically and still we don’t have enough room for all of our stuff so

only 25% of garages have enough room for a car to be parked in them…

Storage units are being built everywhere because we don't have enough room for all our stuff in our homes or garages or sheds.

 

1. Your pockets have holes in them.

 

Some of you have never held onto money for longer than a month.

You can’t miss a day of work because you’re already out of last paychecks money.

 

I like what I read someone say online,

our family used to live paycheck to paycheck but through determination and handwork we now live direct deposit to direct deposit.

That’s right where most of you live.

You’re money is gone immediately.

 

You put it your pocket and it’s gone.

 

Proverbs 21:5

5 The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.

 

Hastiness leads to poverty.

 

Proverbs 23:5 says
for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

 

Money disappears fast enough all on its own, but some of you are helping it out. 

 

For some of you, you’re only budget is pay these 6 bills that are past due and then do what you want with what’s left.

 

Your already looking forward to getting your tax refund and it will be gone within the month.

You’ll be flush with cash for 4 to 6 weeks, maybe and then by summer you’ll be living check to check.

 

You should have budget- a plan for your money that includes saving at least 10%.

 

For some of you that might mean doing an envelope system.

For others, it might look like having a an automatic withdrawal from your checking account into a savings account the day after your get paid.

 

Now right now you’re thinking, well I really need to spend that money. We needed this or that. It has actually saved us money in the long run, I think…

 

back in the 70’s and 80’s the American car manufacturing industry was losing ground to Japanese made automobiles at an incredible rate. A few American car executives went to Japan to tour the Japanese car plants.

 

They noticed at the end of the line where the doors were put on that the worker didn’t carry a rubber mallet.

In the US the guy who put on the door always had a big rubber mallet to knock the door into place because it wouldn’t quite fit or would be snug and he’d use the mallet to push it in.

 

One of the executives asked, how does he make sure the door will go in all the way and close if he doesn’t have a mallet?

The tour guide was perplexed by this question and simply responded, we make sure the door will fit when we design it.

They had taken the time in design and development and they didn’t have to beat it in later.

 

Many times we don’t follow a financial plan, we just do what feels right or what we want, and then we break out the rubber mallet and we beat the decision into making sense.

We rationalize our hasty purchase.

 

We are experts at justifying the decision that we want to make.

 

“Well, I needed a new car to drive to work because you’ve got to have reliable transportation. yeah, I’ve barely got any money left over because I can hardly afford the payment, but you know I’ve just got to have this.”

 

“Well, this vacation was more expensive than we had planned, but we figured if we are going to do this, we want to go all out, and we won’t be taking another trip for a long time- I mean I know we said that 6 months ago, but the deal that we got on the hotel room was something we just couldn’t pass up.”

 

“Yeah this furniture was pretty expensive and a lot more than we planned on spending, but they gave us such a great deal. We saved so much money by spending more than we have on hand, but it’s no big deal because they have great financing options.”

 

 

 

1. Your back is broken by debt.

 

Have you ever seen the offices and headquarters of places that loan money. They didn’t make enough money to build those monstrosities by merely giving you money and you paying them back, they make their money on the interest.

 

Whenever you finance something, you are paying more for it.

You are giving someone money.

 

Proverbs 22:7

The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

 

Taking on debt so that we can get what we want now sounds great, until you consider just how much more you are paying to have it now.

 

Right now, many of you are so bound by your debt that you are trapped and the only way out is to make some radical changes.

 

This doesn’t sound like any fun, but it will bring you freedom.

 

I remember seeing a guy make a half court shot and winning a large sum of money and they asked, what are you going to do with the money!?

I’m going to pay off my student loans.

The announcer was like, oh…

 

His facial expression read, “Boring!”

 

But if that guy owed $50k at the standard rate for student loans and still had 10 years to go, he just saved another $10k.

His $50k half court shot became a $60k half court shot!

 

 

Next steps:

Act your wage.

Make a budget that includes giving & saving

Speak with a debt counsellor or develop a debt snowball plan