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the word of God and know that it's authoritative and God I just thank you so much for a book that has all the answers, a book that has the answer for every single area of life and Father I just pray that you would speak to our hearts through the message this morning I pray that someone will be helped by what's taught this morning and in Jesus' name I pray amen. Now not typically a Sunday morning type message for me this morning, usually I preach more of a preaching kind of a punchy kind of a sermon on Sunday mornings but this message is a little more of a teaching type message but it's such a needed subject in the day we live it's so important of a subject. I can't hardly think of something that's more important but I can't hardly think about something that I'd probably want to preach about less than preaching about this. This isn't the type of sermon that's maybe as exciting to preach but this information could change your life. This information could help you a lot and get you out of maybe a cycle that you're in and so I'm going to preach a sermon this morning on how to handle your money. Now this is not some kind of a financial seminar, this is not some kind of a thing where you get two free tickets in the mail as I got this week and $150 value I got two free tickets to go to some seminar and hear these five guys tell me how to be an automatic millionaire overnight. This isn't that, this is going to be Bible preaching from the Bible about how to handle your money. Well first of all I want to show you in the book that we were just reading in Haggai chapter one if you've got your Bibles open look if you would at verse number six the Bible says you've sown much. Let's talk about somebody working hard, I mean they're going out and they're sowing the field they're working hard and bring in little. You eat but you have not enough, you drink but you're not filled with drink, you clothe you but there is none warm and look at this last phrase and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. He says look you're going out you're working you're making a lot of money you're bringing home a lot of money but the problem is you're putting it in a bag with holes. You're wasting your money you're losing what you're bringing in. Now the first point that I want to make I have several points on this subject. The first point that I want to make is that you must have a system for spending your money. Now look in this verse here it talks about taking home money that you made at your job and putting it into a bag with holes. It's putting it into a system that you have that just wastes money where money just goes out you don't even know where it's going. It's not going toward the uses that you need. I mean he's saying look you don't even have the basic needs that you need. You don't have food or drink or clothing because you expected to have a lot of money but he says you brought it home and there just wasn't much there because you're putting it into a bag with holes. You must have a system to spend your money. Look I'm talking about having a budget. I'm talking about making a plan to spend your money. You say why is that so important because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1 therefore we ought to take the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip. See if you don't take heed to any area of your life if you don't take heed like watching it on top of it then it's going to go out the window. You can take your marriage for example. Look if you don't take heed to having a good marriage you won't just have a good marriage by accident it's going to slip. If you don't take heed to your finances believe me they will slip. And so you must have some kind of a system some kind of a plan about your finances. Now in order to create a budget this is what you have to do. You have to decide how much is going to be coming in. You look at how much you make that's what you have to work with. Then you're going to break that down into what you're going to spend that money on each month. How much you're going to spend on this how much you're going to spend on this. Now there are certain priorities that God lays out as far as what to spend your money on. Now priority number one is of course your tithe. Now a lot of people have a lot of wrong ideas about what the tithe is. Of course the word tithe means tenth. It's like about ten percent of your income. Now I preached a sermon on this several months back a long time ago when we were going through the book of Hebrews verse by verse on Wednesday nights in Hebrews chapter seven I preached on this. But let me just give you some scriptures on tithing. I'll just read this for you. Actually turn there because there are only a few books away. Pass Zechariah to the right and then you're going to get to Malachi chapter number three. Look at verse number eight of Malachi chapter three. The Bible says, will a man rob God yet you've robbed me? Wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? You're cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith sayeth the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing and there shall not be room enough to receive it. You see God says if you don't pay your tithe, if you don't give 10% of what comes to you to God, then you're robbing God. You're stealing from God. So obviously the first priority is going to be to give God the money back to him that's his. Now let me just give you, I'm just going to blow through these because I don't want to take up the message on this, but I'm going to blow through just a few points on tithing just maybe to clear up some misconceptions. Number one, the Bible says that the tithe is the Lord's. The tithe belongs to God. It's something that God puts into your hand on loan to you which belongs to him. He gives it to you to make sure that you're going to give it back to him and not rob it and steal it from him. And so the tithe is the Lord's. You're not giving when you pay your tithe. If you come to church and you take 10% of what you made and you throw it in the offering plate, you haven't given anything. You have paid your tithe. That's what the Bible uses that terminology. You say, oh, you just want money. Look, hey, I don't even take a salary from this church. Okay. And not only that, I never preach on money. I hate money. But I'll tell you something. I'm going to preach the Bible to you. And if you don't like what the Bible says, that's fine. But I'm going to preach everything in this book and it includes tithing. And the Bible says that if you don't tithe, you're stealing from God. You didn't give anything. You didn't reach into your pocket and give God something that belonged to you. You're paying a bill that you owe to God. So number one, the tithe is something that you pay. It's not something that you give. Number two, the Bible says to bring the tithe, not make the tithe. Don't send the tithe with your buddy. It says bring the tithe. Now, in order to bring the tithe, what do you have to do? You have to come to church. Okay. In order to bring your tithe, you have to be there to bring it. So you have to come to church. And you have to bring the tithe into the storehouse, which the Bible says is the house of God in the scripture we just looked at. Number three, of course, the tithe goes to the house of God. Number four, tithes of all is what God says. He says we're to give him tithes of all. That means that if we get wages that we make on a paycheck, we're supposed to tithe on that. If somebody gives us a gift, we're supposed to tithe on that, our increase. If somebody takes me out to eat, I tithe on that. And see, here's what the Bible says. If somebody gives you something that's not monetary, you're supposed to take what the value of it would be monetarily, and he says you're supposed to redeem your tithe, and you're supposed to turn it into cash and bring it. And I taught that when we were going through the book of Hebrews, but I don't have time to go through that again. And so God commands us to tithe on our income and on our increase. Now look, I'm going to skip over a lot of this because I'm running out of time, but number five, tithe on the gross. You say, what? Tithe on the gross? I don't even see that money. And I'm not talking about running a business tithing on the gross. I'm talking about tithing before taxes. Understand me when I say that. Obviously, you have to subtract business expenses if you're a businessman. But I'm talking about tithing on your paycheck, what you made before you pay taxes. You see, in all things, he must have the preeminence. I'm not going to put Uncle Sam before I put God. I'm not going to let Uncle Sam put his hand into my pocket before God has a chance to put his hand in my pocket and take what belongs to him. And so I'm going to tithe the first of the first fruits, as the Bible says, and give my tithe to God first. And number six, God only commands us to give 10%. Did you hear that? He only commands us to give 10%. I've been in churches before where preachers will get up and put people on some kind of a guilt trip if they're not just giving these big sacrificial offerings. They're saying, you must give the missions. You must put in for this building program. You must give to this. You must give your offering. Look, that's not what the Bible says. The only thing that God commands you to do is to put in your tithe. On top of that is what's called a freewill offering. And this is what the Bible says about it. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart. That's saying it's your decision. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth his here forgiver. See, God never requires you to give anything above your 10%. Now, if you want to, he's saying, if you want to show your gratitude to me, if you want to throw in an offering, hey, fine. But God never requires you to give above your 10%. That's what the Bible preaches. A lot of people might want your money and they might want to put pressure on you to give a bunch of money, but hey, God just wants you to tithe because tithing has nothing to do with God needing money. It has nothing to do with the church needing money. It has to do with obedience to God. You see, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. God does not need anything from you. Look, if you think that God needs your money, hey, God said, look, your money perish with you. You can't purchase the things that God would money. He said, I don't need your money. He said, I need you to obey me and then give me 10%. You say, well, look, I'm just going to throw in a hundred bucks and I make a bunch of money. I'm just going to throw in a hundred bucks, not 10%. Look, keep your hundred bucks. I'm serious. God would rather you didn't put anything in or else do the obedience because you're making a joke of him. Like, well, God, I know you're so hard up for money, so here, let me give you this money, God, because I know you need money. I know the church needs money, so I'll give them some money. Look, God says, I don't want your stupid money. He says, I want you to obey me. I want you to do what I said to do. And if you're not going to do it, then don't even give me any money. And that's what I believe because God said to obey is better than sacrifice. He said, it's better to obey me and give the 10% than some sacrificial gift that you think you're giving. He said, it's an abomination. He said, it says the sin of witchcraft. And so that's what the Bible says about tithing. So number one, when you're making out your budget, you want to, number one, say, hey, look, 10% of my income, first check I write is going to be to God. It's going to be for the tithe. But number two, your next priority should be paying your bills. Look, we're living in a day where people don't understand that it is a sin and it's immoral to not pay your bills on time. I don't care whether that's the norm or I don't care about the grace period. Look, this is what the Bible says. Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loved another had fulfilled the law. The Bible says don't owe people money. Now look, a lot of people might take this and say, oh, see, you should never borrow money. That's not true at all. The Bible doesn't teach that anywhere that you should never borrow money. But when it says owe money, that's talking about being delinquent on a payment. That's talking about where you were supposed to give somebody money, where you owe somebody money because it was due on the 15th and you didn't give it to them. And now you're late on that payment. Look, you must pay your bills on time. If you're ripping people off, if you're supposed to pay a bill and you don't pay that bill on time, that's stealing. And you say, well, hey, this isn't the type of sermon I expect on a Sunday morning. Hey, look, what could be more spiritual on a Sunday morning than preaching thou shalt not steal and preaching that you shouldn't owe people money that's rightfully theirs and you're not paying it to them when you said you're going to pay it by such and such a time and then you don't pay it. That's stealing. And so pay your bills on time. So when you lay out your budget, take 10% and say this is going to God. That's my bill to God. I pay that. And then number two, I'm going to pay my bills to the people that I've committed to. I'm going to pay SBC. I'm going to pay the phone bill. I'm going to pay SRP. I'm going to pay Southwest Gas Corporation. And put those down there and say I must pay my bills. This is my next order of business. Pay my bills on time. And don't pay them late. Don't pay the grace period. Don't pay the late fee. Hey, pay it on time. Have some character. You know, there was a day in this country where men had character. They said I'm going to earn my own money. I'm not going to take some handout from the government to pay my bills. I'm going to go to work. I'm going to pay my bills on time. When I sign my name, it's as good as gold because my name is my bond because I'm a man of character. That's the kind of character that this country was built on. That's the kind of character that a man of God should have. That's the kind of character that's called Christianity. And so pay your bills on time, number two. Turn, if you would, to 2 Kings, chapter four. I'm going to show you an interesting story in the Bible. Turn to 2 Kings, chapter four. 2 Kings, chapter number four, about a third of the way into the Old Testament there. 2 Kings, chapter four, look at verse number one. The Bible reads in 2 Kings 4, 1, Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead. And now knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditors come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. So here's a woman who, her husband was a preacher, and he had some debts, and her husband died, and he was a great guy, but he had these debts. He died, and now the creditors are coming after her, saying, We're going to take your kids away, and we're going to make them slaves to pay the bill. And Elisha said unto her in verse two, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thy handmaid hath not anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee, and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her, and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more, and the oil stayed. So here's what happened. Elisha, the prophet, she comes to him, and she says, I don't know what I'm going to do, these creditors are after me. And he says, Okay, well what do you have? What do you have in the house? She said, Well, all I have is just a little bit of cooking oil left, that's it. And he said, I want you to go to all your neighbors, borrow all these vessels, borrow pitchers, pots, bowls, cups, anything you can. Borrow not a few. He says, Borrow as many as you possibly can. And so they got all these pitchers and vessels, and they lined them all up, and they took the oil and just started pouring it. And it just filled all of them. I mean, the oil just kept coming. It would not stop. And she's just pouring them out, and she's like, Hey, give me another one. Keep these kind of, give me another vessel. And he said, That's it. That's all we have. And so that's what they filled up. Now look what the instructions are to her, now that she has this money. Look at verse number seven, it says, Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. Now look, remember, she has nothing in the house. I mean, she has no food in the house. She has nothing to drink in the house. And yet, look at the order there. He says, Look, when you make your money, the first thing I want you to do is to pay your debt, and then go live of the rest. So in your budget, it's important, number one, pay God. Number two, pay your bills that you've signed your name to. And number three, debt, paying off your debts will be the third priority. I mean, debt elimination should be a priority. Pay your debt, and then live of the rest. And so you must pay off your debts. That must be a priority. Now let me explain to you just practically, and again, this isn't a financial seminar, but let me just explain to you practically how you pay off debts. And a lot of this I had to learn, you know, a little bit the hard way, not really, but just because I wasn't taught a lot of this growing up and things. And a lot of times, you know, you don't learn this as a kid. But it's so important that you know this. This is how you pay off debts. Let's say you owe, and I'm just going to make up a hypothetical situation. Let's say you owe like a car payment, and you owe your house payment, and you owe, you know, medical bills, and you owe two different credit cards, and one of them's got a 15% interest, and one of them's got a lower interest, like 9% or something like that, and you owe all these bills, right? Now look, a lot of people, what they make the mistake is they send a bunch here, here, here, here, everywhere. Now the key to paying off debts is here's what you do. You've got in your budget, you've laid out, you've already got the 10% set aside to go to gov. Then the next thing you're doing is you're setting aside for your bills. You know, hey look, I know I'm going to pay SRP, I don't even want to tell you how much I paid last month. My air conditioner wasn't working right, and I paid this huge amount, $292 to SRP. Can you believe that? That's ridiculous. And you know, I've got to pay this much to the city of Tempe for the water and the trash, and so I know I'm going to pay my bills, okay, so that money's gone. Tide's gone, the bills are gone, and then you've got a certain amount of money left to work with. Now, how you do that, you know, you figure out your living expenses, food, clothing, things like that, that you need gasoline for the car, you figure all that out, but here's how you eliminate debts. Let's say I have, you know, about six different debts like I listed. Well, what you want to do is you want to just focus on paying off one at a time. You pick one and you pick the one with the highest interest, okay, the one where you're getting nailed on the interest. That credit card that's like 25% interest, yes, that's the one that you want to pay off first, okay? So, you take that and you pay as little as possible to everybody else, okay? If the minimum payment on this card is, you know, $37 a month, just pay the $37. If this medical bill, they say, well, we'll accept $20 a month, just pay them only $20 a month. Pay the minimum to everybody you can, except the one that's the worst one, okay? That's the one that you're going to attack and you want to send as much money as you can, as much as you have left in your budget. After you cut and scraped everything, you want to send it and attack that one worst debt. And then once you've paid that one off, well, now it's going to free up even more money to nail the next one that's bad. And you go from the worst one to the next one. Don't try and do them all at once. This is a biblical principle, by the way. Paul said, this one thing I do, creating those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before. Look, you've got to focus on one thing at a time. Don't try to just spread yourself so thin. Take one thing and just pay that sucker off, and then when you're done with that one, you'll have a little more to go to the next one. And then once you've paid that one off, you won't have those two minimums anymore. Now you can send even more to the third one, and so forth. And that's how you do it. You just knock them down the line. You pay them off. Don't go bankrupt. Pay your bills. Pay the bills that you incurred at stealing to go bankrupt. Pay your bills. And so you pay them one at a time. You pay the most worst one, and you go down the line. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Dead elimination. Now, that was sub points under making a budget. And then here's the fourth priority. The fourth priority is going to be food and clothing and things like that of that nature. Now those things must be in your budget. And I want to tell you this right now. Don't scrimp when it comes to food. You want to cut everything out of your budget that you can to pay off those debts. But don't cut when it comes to food. And you think I'm kidding right now. You think I'm saying a joke. I'm not kidding. Don't go to the store and buy banquet frozen dinners. Don't buy Top Ramen. Don't buy the partially hydrogenated soybean oil city. Don't buy some kind of a piece of junk food because it's Totino's frozen pizza. It's only 50 cents like this big. Don't buy that junk. Don't buy the juice that's like 1% juice and the rest is high fructose corn syrup and filtered water. Hey look, don't save on food. Save everywhere else. But don't save on food because I'm going to tell you something. You're going to pay later. Hey, you eat all that junk? You put all that junk in your body? You're going to pay when you go to the doctor. And I'll tell you something. You think it's expensive to buy the real juice? You think it's expensive to buy the whole wheat and the whole grain You think it's expensive to buy nice food? Let's see how expensive it is just one time going to the hospital with some kind of surgery. I mean one surgery would pay for a whole lifetime of eating the best food, the Cadillac of frozen dinners. But hey, you can buy whatever you wanted at the store. I mean look, and this wasn't my wife's fault. This had nothing to do with her diet but she had to go in and have surgery because it was a side effect of her several pregnancies. She had to have gall stones removed. You know how much that cost me? $13,000. Now look, just that one thing, you know it was just less than one day she was there? $13,000 like that. Now look, $13,000 will buy a lot of good food. I'll tell you that right now. $13,000 will buy a lot of nice food and so you don't want to scrimp and scrape and hurt your body and hurt your health. Look, that's a short-sighted viewpoint to say I'm just going to give myself $40 for groceries this month. Look, that's very short-sighted. Make sure that you have enough money to buy decent food for you and decent food for your family. Okay, make food a priority. Look, God talks a lot about food and God says that that's a good way to spend your money is on food and raiment. So look, spend money and look, if you want to cut, why don't you cut the cord of your stinking out of hell cable television if you want to cut costs? Huh? If you want to cut, why don't you quit drinking alcohol which costs a fortune? If you want to cut, why don't you cut out all the sin out of your life which costs a lot more than buying a 100% ground beef USDA choice or whatever? Because I'm going to tell you something, sin is expensive. You say tithing, well, it's expensive. Look, the common person in this world who's just a sinful person who is not saved, they also do not go to church, hey, I'll guarantee you that that person spends 10% of their money on sin, right? I mean, let's face it, 10% of their money is going to booze, 10% of their money is going to cigarettes, 10% of their money is going to the movie theater. How much is it for a movie ticket? Does anybody know? Who's the sinful person who can tell me? Who knows how much it is? It's got to be like over 10 bucks by now. It's got to be like 10 bucks by now. I mean, the last time I went to the movies, it was like a long time ago, and it was like 7 bucks or something, so it must be like up to 9 or 10 by now, good night. And so, look, that's a lot of money. It's a lot of money to go out to the restaurant and get your little, you know, whatever, wines and expensive liquor and stuff. Hey, that stuff's expensive. Cigarettes are expensive. What, 5 bucks a pack or something? Times that by 30 days in a month? That's 150 bucks. $150 will do a lot for a lot of things, dead elimination and so forth. And so, look, cut out the sinful garbage out of your life, and you'll have a lot more money left over. But don't cut out good food and nice things like that. And the last thing I want to say about a budget, and I'm going to move on to the next point, is be realistic when you make your budget, okay? Don't just think, this is all I need. Look, you know that you're going to spend a little extra here and there. You know that you're going to want a little bit of discretionary spending. You know that you're going to want a little bit of entertainment money or, you know, you're going to want to do something special. Hey, look, have a category called miscellaneous, okay? And just give yourself a little bit of mad money. Give yourself a little bit of money that you can spend on whatever you want. Because, look, you're going to do it anyway, and then you're just going to mess up your whole budget. So set aside that amount and just be realistic and say, hey, look, I'm going to give myself 50 bucks. This is my 50 bucks each month. And then at least then you can stick by your budget, and you can live or die by that budget. But if you make it unrealistic, I'll only need five dollars this month, you know, besides my bills. I mean, that's stupid, and you're just going to, you're going to get so depressed when you boil the whole budget, you're not even going to want to stick with it. So have that category miscellaneous. If you don't have the miscellaneous category, you're not even budgeting, because nobody can live by all the other categories and not have that extra category of just a little bit of discretionary spending. And so that's it on a budget. But let me tell you the third point. And if you would, look at Proverbs 27 for this one. Just forward a little bit in your Bible there if you were in 2 Kingsville, right after the book of Psalms, in the middle of the Bible, Proverbs 27. Proverbs chapter number 27, and look if you would at verse number 23. The Bible says, be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds. For riches are not forever, and doth the crown endure to every generation. What's he saying there in verse 23? Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks. He's saying, look, know exactly how much money you have at all times. He's saying, look, because the flock, I mean, back then, that's their money. I mean, that's what they had. Flip if you would back two books, and I'm going to show you this in a story quickly in the book of Job right before the book of Psalms. Look at Job chapter 1, and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Job chapter 1, in verse 1 the Bible says, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. This is the first verse of the book of Job. And that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. Now, later on it talks about this is the richest man at that time in the world, in the east it says. And look what it says in verse number 3, his substance also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 sheasses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. Look, do you notice how he knows exactly what he has? I mean, how would you like to count, you know, 500 sheasses and 500 yoke of oxen and 3,000 camels? Can you imagine, you know, one, two, three, four, and be careful, don't count the humps on the camels separately, that's one camel. Now you've got to sit there and count 3,000 camels? Hey, but look, God says you better know the estate of your flocks, you better know what you have, you better know what your assets are, because if you don't know what they are, he said, they have a way of just kind of leaving you. They have a way of just kind of floating away. And so know what you have. Look, that's why I do the internet banking, I get on there every couple of days. And I'm not into money, I'm not one of these money people, I mean, that's, I don't care about money. But hey, I do care about making sure I can feed my family. I do care about not paying bank fees. I do care about not wasting money. I do care about not working and spending my life that God gave me, my time that God has entrusted to me on this earth, and I spend it working by the sweat of my face, working with my hands. I don't want to take that money and put it in a bag with holes. No, I'm going to look well to the estate of my flocks. I'm going to make sure I know how much is in my flock down at Wells Fargo. I want to know how much is in my flock because I don't want it to take off on me. So I want to make sure it's there. So look, know how much you have. So the first point that I made was that, number one, you know, you need to have a plan for how you spend your money. You need to have some kind of a plan. Don't just spend it here, there, there, just see how much is left at the end of the month. No, look, make a plan of attack and say, this is how much I send to this bill, this is how much I send to this debt, I'm going to have this one paid off in five months, I'm going to have this one paid off in a year, this one's going to be paid off in five years. Look, have it nailed down. Have a plan. And if you have that kind of a plan, you can succeed, not just this haphazard, you know, throwing money around. And then number two is saying, look, know exactly how much money you have. It's the same thing. Have an idea, have a plan. Look, if you ask me right now, I can tell you how much is in my account. I can tell you how much I owe to this person, you know, not that I owe private individuals, but you know what I mean. I can tell you how much I owe on this payment, I can tell you how much I have here, I can tell you how much I owe on my house, because I know the estate of my blocks. And there's just something about, you say, how's that going to help me financially? Look, God said to do it. And if God said to do it and you do it, trust me, there's just a certain thing that helps you when you drive by Burger King and, you know, there's food waiting for you at home. If you know how much is in your account, you know how much you owe this person, you know this, you got it all in your head, Whopper's just not going to taste that good right now, okay? I'm sorry. The quarter pounder with cheese is not going to be as appealing when you remember those red numbers at home. And so just know your situation. Know your situation. Ask me how much I spend on any given thing a month. I can tell you, because I have a budget, because I know the estate of my blocks, and there's something about just knowing the information that helps you control your spending and not waste money and not put money in a bag with pools. But number three, so not only, number one, have a budget, have a plan. Number two, know how much money you have at all times. Be like Job. I mean, Job knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing financially. That's why he had so much money. And number three, spending less is better than making more. Okay, have you ever heard of a saying, a penny saved is a penny earned? That is not a good saying. It should be like a penny saved is several pennies earned. I mean, a penny saved is like a dollar earned. And let me tell you why. Because every time you make a dollar, okay, let's say you say, man, if I could just make more money, I just don't make enough of my job. If I could just get a better job, I can afford to live here. Look, not making enough money is not the answer, because I'll tell you something. Every extra dollar that you make, you know, first of all, 10% is going to God right there. So you really only made an additional 90 cents. Then the Social Security and Medicare, that's 15.6% right there, right off the top. I mean, they don't take any deductions. They don't care if you have 12 kids. They don't care. They're taking 15 point, whatever, I think it's 15.6%, right off the top. So there, a quarter of your money is already gone before you even make it. Then you're paying taxes on it. And then it's pushing you into a higher tax bracket. And so the more money you make, yes, it helps, but it doesn't help as much as you think it would. Because you get killed on these different tax brackets and everything like that. What else does it do to make more money? It gives you overconfidence. You know, you're making so much money, hey, you don't need to start blowing money. So look, making more money is not the answer. Spending less is the answer. Think about this story, and I'll just read this for you. You don't have to turn there. I'll read this for you, Matthew 16. We just studied Matthew 16 a few weeks ago. Matthew 16, 5. And when His disciples were come to the other side, they'd forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves saying, Oh, it's because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived He said unto them, Oh ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves because ye brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up, neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets ye took up? Here's what He's saying. They had forgotten to take food with them. They went out on a boat with Jesus across the sea. They forgot to bring any food. And Jesus says, Hey, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. They reasoned among themselves, they were like, Oh, we forgot food. That's what He's talking about. He says, Look, I don't care if you, you know, forgetting food's not the issue. He says, Don't you see that I can provide, I mean, I can take five loaves and feed five thousand people two chapters ago. I can take seven loaves and feed four thousand people in the previous chapter. He says, Look, I can provide your needs because God has a way of multiplying what you do have, like we saw in 2 Kings with the oil. He says, I can take what you have and I can multiply it to provide your needs. And so look, notice how God didn't say, like think about this story. Think about the feeding of the five thousand. Let's say here we are, we're in the wilderness. We got five loaves and two fishes. It's not enough to feed all these people. Well, God could have just all of a sudden, you'd never believe it, you know, this big truck just pulled up with just fish everywhere, just loaves of bread, and He could have provided more to start with. And then if He would have provided more, He would have had more to work with and He could have feed everybody. But is that the way He did it? No. And throughout the Bible you see this. He doesn't increase the provision. What He does is He takes the provision and He makes it go further. That's what He did in the feeding of the five thousand. He took what they did have and He stretched it out and spread it out. You see, if you can spend less money, if you can cut your spending, it's far better. If you can cut spending $200 from your budget, it's way better than making an additional $200 a month. Trust me. I mean, it's a lot better. Huge times better. And just trust me on that, because I'm telling you it's a lot better. And so number one, have a budget, have a plan. Number two, know where your money is at all times. Know what's going on. Know your situation. Don't just say, I don't care about money. Yeah, I know. I can tell. And trust me, I'm not some kind of a money person at all. But I know what it's like to try to survive on one income in 2006 as a man providing for my family, and so I better take some heed or else it's going to slip. And then lastly, have a buffer in your checking account. Let me explain to you what this means. Turn, if you would, to Ecclesiastes 11, just two books forward from Job, three books, I'm sorry. Ecclesiastes 11, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes number 11. And look, if you would, at verse two. And listen, this is good advice from God's Word. I mean, I learned a lot of this is from reading the Bible. It's good advice on your finances. See, don't tell me that the Bible is irrelevant. You know, I open the phone book a lot of times, and I'm just looking at churches ads, and you know what they all say? Relevant preaching. That's like the buzzword right now. I don't know if you've looked at the phone book lately. But they have little buzzwords that they go in and out of style. And it's like, relevant preaching. Relevant teaching. Look, what are you trying to say? That some of the Bible is not relevant? That's the way I, that's the way I, I mean, what, so if I preach on the blood of Jesus Christ, that's not relevant. Or what if, what if I preach on, I mean, I can't understand what I preach in the Bible that would not be relevant. Look, if it wasn't relevant, then why is it in the Bible? Why did God give it to me? But at the same time, you say, well, I don't want to preach sermons that are just relevant. Oh, he preached a great sermon. You know, wow, that was great. But I'm trying to preach a sermon that will help you, is what I mean. And so, any sermon from the Bible is going to help you because the Bible has the answers for everything you need to know about every subject. If you would understand that one great truth, the Bible has everything I need to know about every subject. It would revolutionize the way that you read the Bible. Look, don't tell me that some financial book somewhere has better answers on your finances than the Bible. And look, if your finances are all perfect this morning, then just go ahead and tune me out right now. But look, I guarantee that probably almost everybody in here struggles with this at a time or not. I mean, I don't think, I've never met anybody who never has had any kind of financial problems. And are you going to go to some counselor somewhere from the world? Are you going to go to some financial book before you go to God's Word and just see the truths that God has laid out for you in the Bible about finances? And look, if you would, at Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 2. Give a portion to seven and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. What's he saying? He's saying, look, have enough money, have enough food for about seven, eight days. You know, he's just saying, look, plan ahead a little bit. You don't know what's going to happen wrong. So, the way that I'm applying that here is saying, look, have a little extra money in your checking account. You don't know what evil's going to be upon the earth. You don't know when you're going to lose your job. You don't know when the car's going to break down. You don't know when the car accident's going to come. So, you must have a buffer. Now, here's what I would suggest you to do. And this is just something that somebody taught me and I've been doing it and it works great. Don't operate your checking account off of zero. Have a buffer built in. Okay? Let's say you have, let's say you have $927 in your checking account. Look, don't write 927 in your checkbook. Have a buffer built in and say put 627 and just know that you always have a $300 buffer in there because then you'll avoid the late fees and the overdraft fees. Look, I paid overdraft fees one time in my life because somebody wrote me a bad check. And, of course, they paid the overdraft fees for me and it was all taken care of. But I didn't like the taste in my mouth when I looked at my bank statement and it was $150 of fees. And I've known people that have spent $1,000 in fees in one year, in bank fees, overdraft fees, because it's 30 bucks, 30 bucks, 30 bucks, 30 bucks. I've known people that have spent, you know, $400 in late fees in two weeks time. Look, those late fees will kill you. The Bible says he that giveth to the rich is going to come to poverty. And look, when you're just giving your money to some rich bank, you're just giving your money to the rich, he says you're going to come to poverty. He says don't give to the rich. And so whatever you do, make sure that you never pay a bank fee. Don't ever pay $30 a pop. So how are you going to make sure you don't get a negative? But Pastor Anderson, I looked at my checkbook and it said I had $5.27 left. I don't know how it went into the negative. Look, you're not that accurate. There's $1.23 in there, I know it's good. I mean, it's crazy. You're never going to be that accurate. You've got to have some kind of a buffer. Look, I've got stuff to do other than to look at my banking every day. I've got stuff to do besides balancing my checkbook every day. And so I leave a buffer in there that way in case I get busy just, you know, serving God or working overtime, to where I just don't have to mess with it because I know at least there's a buffer in there. So that even if I don't balance the thing and check it out, you know, hey, I know it's good. I know it's good for a couple weeks or whatever. And so look, depending on your financial needs, depending on how much money goes through your hands, that buffer would be a different amount. You know, I've known some people that have a $3,000 buffer because they're having a lot more money to pay in chance. You know, some people just a $300 buffer would be enough if they have a very small in it. But hey, leave, you know, leave $1,000 just extra in your account and just consider that money that it's just not there. And that's your buffer. Look, if you've got some extra money, put it in that buffer. I'm telling you. Because you don't want to ever pay those fees because that's how the banks make their money these days. I mean, they're not making their money on interest as much as they're making on those fees. They'll kill you on those. Why do you think they give you a hundred bucks to open a checking account? They're going to get that hundred bucks back ten times by the time they're through with you if you don't do this, if you don't leave that portion for when something goes wrong. Leave a buffer in your finances. Look, here's what I do every month. I think, well, here's what it is. I have my budget, right? This much is going out. This much is coming in. And at the end of every month, you know, when it comes to, let's say, July 31st, $2,000 buffer. Okay? So it goes to July 31st. Boom. Let's say I have $2,150 in my account. Well, then what am I going to do? I'm going to send that extra 150 bucks to my debt, the one that I'm attacking. If, let's say, I have less than $2,000, then I must have messed up somewhere. I'm not following my budget, and I need to make up, I need to work some overtime or whatever to get that thing back to where it needs to be. But see, you have to have that reset button every month where you get it back to your buffer. Get it back to that set amount, and if you're not disciplined, then write it in your checkbook like it's already gone. I mean, personally, I don't write it in my checkbook like it's gone. I just know that it needs to stay above that amount. But you might want to just say, hey, look, I have $927 in there. I want a $300 buffer. I'm just going to write $627. And that way I know that's what I have to work with, and I know that the buffer is going to be there all the time, 300 bucks. This will help you out as practical stuff. Maybe I should put that in my yellow-faced ad. Practical Bible teaching and contemporary music. Come as you are. I'm trying to think of all the buzz words that they have right now. I saw one the other day. This is probably not your parents' church. Well, that's why I'm really impressed with that. I'm really impressed that your Christianity lasts one generation because it's so liberal and so goofy and off the wall that your parents wouldn't even be able to stand here. Hey, look, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hey, look, come back to this church in 50 years. If I'm still alive and I'm sick, it'll be the same. Come back here in 20 years. It'll be the same. Yes, we will be singing the old hymns. Yes, we'll be preaching out of the King James Bible. Yes, it will be the same old-time religion that it is today right now. Yes, we'll be preaching the same gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Yes, Baptists will still be on the name of the church. Yes, it will be the same because Jesus Christ is the same. I'm not impressed with the Christianity of the last one generation. But that had nothing to do with the sermon at all. But I just wanted it to feel more like a Sunday morning since it's more of a teaching. I just wanted to get that feel so that I would feel at home like I was preaching. But look at one last place and I'll be done. Look at Matthew chapter 6. First book in the New Testament, the book of Matthew. And while you're turning there, let me read this verse for you, Proverbs 23 4. Turn to Matthew 6, but the Bible says, labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Look at Matthew 6, verse number 19. The Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Now turn to Matthew 6, 33. Same chapter, just down to verse 33. Straight down to verse 33, it says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Talking about food, clothing, financial needs. Now look, I'm going to bring us back full circle where we start in the book of Haggai. Here's what the story was about in the book of Haggai. It was about the fact that the house of God was falling apart. It was broken down. They hadn't finished it. They'd started building it in the book of Ezra. Then they received a royal decree that they had to stop and they said, ah, we'll put it off. We'll work on the house of God later. Nuts to it for now. And we're just going to build our own houses. And it talks about how they built these fancy, nice houses for themselves. And they just said, you know what? Nuts to the things of God for now. And what happened? He said, look, they put their money in a bag with holes. They wasted their money. They looked for much, but it was little. Why? Because when you neglect the things of God, you know, God's not going to bless you like that. When you neglect the things of God and pursue after money, he says, look, moth and rust is going to corrupt your money. Thieves are going to break through and steal your money. You must give attention to the things of God. And he says, I'll take care of your needs. Look, God doesn't want you to be rich. God's not trying to make you rich. He says, don't labor to be rich. That's not what life is about, how much money you can have. He said a man's life consisted not in the abundance of things that he possessed. He says your life is not about money. It's not about being rich. He says, look, the best financial advice I can give you in the Bible, he's saying, is to seek first the things of God. Seek first the house of God. Hey, look, make Bible reading your priority. Before you jump on Bank of America, before you jump on Citibank website, before you jump on Wells Park, hey, get out your Bible and read it if you want your finances to be right. Hey, and I'm not talking about being rich. I'm talking about just if you want to be provided for, if you just want to provide the needs. Hey, look, why don't you make sure that your prayer life is right before you worry about how much is in the bank account? Yes, worry about how much is in there, but get the things of God in the proper place. Hey, look, instead of worrying so much about buying that expensive new dream home, why don't you worry about building the house of God? And I'm not talking about a building. Who cares about a building? Nuts to a building. Hey, I'm talking about the house of God, which is the church of the living God. And the word church means congregation. The word church means an assembly of people. And so why don't you worry about bringing people to church? Why don't you worry about winning souls to Christ? Why don't you worry about learning the things of God before you worry about money? And God says, then look, I'll take care of the money. I'll handle your money. Look, yes, obey the guidelines that I've given you in the Bible. Yes, obey some financial principles that I've laid down. Yes, if you're a man, work hard and pay your bills and take heed to your money and make sure that it's going to the right place and everything like that. But more importantly, how's church attendance doing? That's what he's saying. How's your church attendance? How's your Bible reading? How many people have you won to Christ lately? Have you ever won any one to the Lord? He says that's what's important because he says if you'll seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. He said your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. He says, well, God knows that you need food. God knows that you need to pay the bills. God knows what you need. And so he says if you'll focus on what He wants, if you'll focus on His kingdom, He says, I'll take care of those needs. So number one, focus on the things of God. And then number two, obey what God tells you to do about your finances. And you know what? Your finances can be okay. Will you be rich? Will you come to church, pull up in a Mercedes Benz, and get up and give some testimony about how God's been so good to you in your fancy suit and everything? Look, no. But you'll have the needs paid. You'll have the bills paid. And you can focus on the things of God because you won't be just in this bondage of just constantly worrying about bills and creditors on your back and working two jobs to pay these bills that you've incurred. Look, we must get our finances in order if we're going to be able to have the time and the resources to serve God, to enjoy our families, to train our children properly. And so seek first the kingdom of God, follow what God has said about finances, and God will bless you for it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, I thank you so much that I don't have to go to the world. I'm glad I don't have to go to Barnes and Noble right now and go buy some books.