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Amen. All right, well we're there in Proverbs chapter number 24, and like we announced, we've been going through a series on Sunday mornings called Money Matters, and we've been learning some biblical principles to get a hold of your finances. And if you're a first-time guest this morning, you might feel like you're coming into the middle of a movie, because you're coming into the middle of a series where we've been kind of building this foundation. I would just encourage you, if you're able to, to go back and learn and listen to the last couple of weeks. If you remember, when we began the series, we began this series with a sermon entitled Protect Yourself Against Covetousness, and we, of course, wanted to make sure that we had the right bearing in regards to finances, that the goal is not to be rich. In fact, the Bible tells us labor not to be rich. The goal is not to love money, because the love of money is the root of all evil, and it will destroy your life, but the goal is to be good stewards of the finances that God has given us. And then last week, I preached a sermon called Prioritizing Your Giving, and we talked about the blessing connected to giving and giving regularly and giving proportionally. And then today, we're going to be learning about the subject, and the title of the sermon is Plan Your Spending, and what we're going to be talking about is biblical principles for setting up a budget. I realize that whenever you talk about budgets, people's eyes kind of glaze over, and they lose interest, but I want you to understand that this is a pivotal step in your financial maturity if you're going to succeed financially, and I'd like to give you three points in regards to planning your spending. If you're taking notes, I would encourage you to take notes. I'm going to give you a lot of practical things this morning. On the back of your course of the week sheet, there's a place for you to write some notes down, and if you'd like, you can begin by writing down the first point, which is this, the reward of a spending plan. The reward of a spending plan. Now, a budget is really a spending plan. It is a plan for your spending. It is a plan for how, what you will do with the finances that God has blessed you with, and I want to begin with talking about the reward of a spending plan. What is it that a spending plan, if you do it right, you do it consistently, will produce in your life, and again, I want to begin with that. Usually, I kind of end, I would maybe end a sermon with some sort of exhortation and kind of a reason why you would want to do this, but I want to begin this morning with that because of the fact that I realize if I start talking about budgets, people are just gonna be like, I don't care about this. It's fine. I like being broke, whatever, you know, but I want to begin with this idea of what is the reward of having a budget because hopefully, that'll help you to want to do this and want to live this way. Now, you're there in Proverbs 24. I'd like you to look at verse number four. The Bible says this, and by knowledge. That's what you're about to receive this morning, a lot of knowledge. Now, some of you have heard me preach on this before, about every three years I preach a financial series. You've heard me preach this before, and you're applying it. Praise the Lord. This will help encourage you along the way. Some of you have heard me preach this before, and you've not applied it, and you're in the same place today that you were three years ago financially because you haven't been listening, and I'm not mad at you. I'm just here to tell you. A wise person, the Bible says, through wisdom is, excuse me, verse four, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. The Bible says that if you can take knowledge and apply it in your life, God will bless you financially. Now, there are some things you need to understand, and you know this. I know you know this, but let's look at it together. There are some things you need to understand in regards to a budget or the reward that a budget will bring, and the first thing is this. The only way to build, the only way to build, and we're not talking, I'm not talking about financially right now. I'm just talking about anything. The only way to build anything, to accomplish anything in life is to plan for it. The Bible teaches this concept. You're there in Proverbs 24. Look at verse 27. Notice what the Bible says. The Bible says, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thine house, and this is a principle that God gives us in the book of Proverbs, and he's specifically talking about building a house here, but this can be applied to anything, but if you're in construction, this definitely applies to you. He says, prepare thy work without. Now, the word without means outside of the job site, so here's what he's saying for those of you that kind of work in construction or work in those in that type of field. He says, before you even get to the job site, before you even get to the place where you're supposed to build something or fix something or do something, he says, why don't you take time to prepare thy work without? Why don't you take some time to think about what you'll need, what tools you'll need, what materials you'll need, what are the things that you're going to need in order to accomplish and to build, he says, and make it fit for thyself. He said, put all the puzzles together and realize, well, if I'm gonna do this job, then I need this and I need that. I need to do this first. I need to do that later. He says, look, this will help you in the building process. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thy own house. And here's, here's the truth. People who are successful builders, they get very good at this, don't they? They get very good at looking at a job and realizing here's what we need, here's the first step, the second step, the third step, here are the tools we need, here let's put it all together. They might spend the day before getting it all together, putting it all together, preparing to be able to do that. Those of us that are amateur, you know, builders or amateur, we're gonna fix this in our house and that house, what do we end up doing? We end up going to Home Depot about six different times, right? Because we get into a job and we're like, ah, I need this, and then you go back to Home Depot and you come back, ah, now I need this, right? And you waste a bunch of time, you end up not building anything, you call a handyman to come finish the job or whatever, and here's the principle. The principle is this, if you want to build, if you want to accomplish something, you need to plan for it. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterward build thine house. Someone said this, plan your work and work your plan. Plan your work and work your plan. It's a biblical principle. Look at verse 3 in Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24 and through, and verse 3, notice what the Bible says, through wisdom is in house building and by understanding it is established. How do you build something? He says, how do you build a house? Through wisdom, through understanding, and then of course verse 4, we already read it, and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant things. Now I'd like you to keep your place there in Proverbs, we're gonna come back to Proverbs a lot, we're gonna be mainly in Proverbs this morning, but go to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 14. In the New Testament you've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke chapter 14, and do me a favor when you get to Luke, put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're gonna leave it and we're gonna come back to it at the end of the sermon. You'll know we're basically done with the sermon when we get back to Luke because it's the last place we're gonna go back to at the end of the sermon, Luke chapter 14, and I just want to show you this principle throughout the Bible, we saw it in Proverbs, I want you to notice that Jesus taught the same thing, that the only way to build, the only way to build to accomplish something is to plan for it. The only way to build, and we understand that when it comes to a building, but the truth is that this principle can be applied to anything you're trying to accomplish, whether it's your finances, whether it's your health, whether it's relationally, the only way to accomplish anything is to plan for it. Luke chapter 14, look at verse 28, Luke 14, 28, notice what Jesus said, he said, for which of you intending, the word intending means meaning to, having a desire to, he says, for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it. He says, which of you intending to build a tower doesn't just first sit down and plan out whether this is something he can accomplish. Verse 29, less happily, the word happily means by chance or perhaps, he says less happily after he had laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it began to mock him. And he says, look, if you begin to build something and you lay the foundation and then you realize, I can't do this, people are going to think you're silly, people are going to think you're foolish, people will begin to mock you. I think of this passage of scripture every time I'm driving by trucks, so who's seen that building, you know, I don't know what they're building, but across the street from In-N-Out on Truxall Road, there is a building that they've been building, it seems like, for years. And, you know, my wife and I, we have this idea that there's some sort of, there's something wrong with the foundation there, because they built, they laid the foundation, they built it, and then they actually tore it down, then they built it again, then they kind of tore it down and stripped it out a little bit, now they're building it again, but it's just taken a long time, a long time, and every time we drive by there, we kind of chuckle and say, man, this is what Jesus was talking about, you know, less happily after he had laid the foundation, is not able to finish it, and all that behold it began to mock him. Notice verse 30, saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish. You say, well, I'm not building, but notice this principle can be applied to anything, because then he gives another example in verse 31, he says, or what king, going to make war against another king, siteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand, or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage and desires conditions of peace. And here's the idea, the idea is that the only way to build, the only way to build, the only way to accomplish, is to plan for it. And here's what you need to understand, nothing happens by chance. If something happens, it happens by choice. Nothing happens by chance, it happens by choice. So when you look at someone who's doing well financially, when you look at someone who's paid off their mortgage early, when you look at someone who's living debt-free, when you're looking at someone who's prepared for their future and prepared for retirement, don't sit there and think, oh they were lucky, oh they were fortunate, oh it just kind of worked out for them in that way. No, those things, and of course we've got the, you know, we've got the examples, of course, of people who just, you know, were given a huge inheritance or whatever from their parents, but the truth matter is that that's not the average person. The average person that is financially successful, is financially successful because they planned and made a choice to do so. Nothing happens by chance, it happens by choice. And if you're going to be financially successful, and here's what I'm trying to explain to you, the only way to build financial success, financial security, to accomplish financial security in your life, is to plan for it. Please understand this, getting out of debt requires planning and preparation. Saving for major purchases requires planning and preparation. Paying off your mortgage early, think about that. What have you paid off your mortgage early? How would that free you up? How would that remove a burden off your shoulders? How would that free you up? Not to live for money, but to live for God. How, what would that do in your life if you were to pay off your mortgage early, but look, to do that it's going to require planning and preparation. To be able to have a saved up for your retirement and for the years which you can't work, that will require planning and preparation. And the idea is this, that a wise person will look ahead and say, this is what needs to be accomplished, this is what needs to be done, so I will plan and prepare in order to do it. And whether it's building a house or building financial security, you must plan and you must prepare for success. Let me say this, a spending plan, a spending plan will use your income, because you've got income. You work somewhere, your husband works or whatever, and there's income that comes into your house. A spending plan will use your income as a tool to build financial security and success. A spending plan, a budget, will use your income as a tool, because we're trying to build something, right? As a tool to build financial security and financial success. Now, keep your place there on Luke, we're gonna come back to it, but go back to Proverbs chapter 12, Proverbs chapter 12, and while you turn there let me read for you from this, just a little, a little quote from an article here. The article is entitled, how much does the average American earn in their lifetime? It's from a website called cheat sheet.com, and it's, the article is entitled, how much does the average American earn in their lifetime? And I want to read this to you, because I want you to think about something. In your working lifetime, from the moment you began to work, till the day you can no longer work, you will earn money, and there will be a certain amount of money that flows through your hands. Let me read for you from this article, it's hard to say what level of education attainment the average American has, but you can say the overall average lifetime earnings, taking education into account, will land somewhere between 1 million and 1.8 million before taxes. And, and you say, oh I don't make that much money. Understand what the article is saying. The average American in their working lifetime will have somewhere between a million and close to two million dollars passed through their hands. You will earn somewhere between a million, the average American will earn somewhere between a million and close to two million dollars in their lifetime. And how you plan to spend that money will determine your financial success and security. I mean if someone said to you, I'm gonna hand you a million dollars, spend it wisely. Wouldn't you think it'd be smart to sit down and consider the cost, and consider, well how should this be spent, and where should it be invested, and how shall it be done, and but here's the point, if you live in the United States America, you will have a million dollars passed through your hands. And the sad thing is that many people get to retirement and have nothing to show for it. They had a million or a million point eight, you know, or close to two million dollars passed through their hands, and they did no planning, they did no preparing, and they have nothing to show for it, and I'm here to tell you, and I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm just trying to encourage you in this area, that is foolish. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27, notice what the Bible says. Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 27 it says this, the slothful man roasted not that which he took in hunting. That's, that's talking about laziness, we'll talk about that another day. Why don't you notice the last part of verse 27, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. See the word diligent means a hard working man, and of course in Proverbs we're talking about people that are wise. He says the substance of a wise man, a wise man realizes that the substance that he has, the income and the increase that God has given to him, is a precious thing that must be managed well, that must be stewarded well, and you say well what, why would I want to even set up a budget? Here's why, because a spending plan will use your income as a tool to build financial security and success, a wise person will realize that you have limited resources. You're only going to be able to work for a certain amount of time in your life, you're only going to make a certain amount of income, there's only going to be a certain amount of money that the Lord allows to flow through your hands in your lifetime, and a wise person realizes that they have limited resources and we must make the most of them, and here's what I can tell you, if you decide today to plan your work, to prepare, and to plan your spending, to not just spend like Proverbs says, and we'll see some verses about it, to not just spend your money carelessly like a fool, but as a wise person, considering that there are things that must be done in life in order to prepare and to build for financial success and security, you will get to the end of your life and have much to show for it. There is a reward at the end, there is a reward through for those who plan, for those who prepare, so what I'm trying to get you to do today is to make a decision to say I will plan my spending, I will plan for the money that God allows to flow through my hands, so we talked about the reward of spending, let me give you the second point this morning, let's talk about the reason for a spending plan, what's the reason? Go, you're there in Proverbs 12, go to Proverbs 23, Proverbs 23, the reward is this, that you will build financial success and security, and please understand this, and again I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, like I'm working at this, my wife and I, we're working at this, and we budget, and we do these things, and I'm not, everything I'm teaching you is something that we're trying to apply in our lives, and we're not perfect at it, but we're doing our best with it, but I will tell you this, if you're broke, and I'm not gonna ask, I'm not gonna ask for a raise of hands, okay, but if we were to take a raise of hands, and we were to ask who is just, you know, has their finances out of control, if it was anonymously, and you wouldn't embarrass yourself or whatever, who has their finances just out of control, just not where you want to be financially, just struggling financially, and we took a raise of hands, and then we asked who's not budgeting, I promise you the same hands will go up, because what budgeting does, what financial planning does, what planning or spending does, is it brings you into control, see the reason for a spending plan, you say what's the reason, here's the reason, money has a tendency to get out of control, is that true, money has a tendency to just get out of control, the Bible says this, Proverbs 23, look at verse 5, Proverbs 23 verse 5, notice what the Bible says, wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not, and by the way this is what God is saying, I don't want you setting your eyes, and your goals, and your ambitions on money, I don't want your laboring to be rich, he says well thou set thine eyes on that which is not, the word not meaning that which isn't there, that which is gone, say what do you mean God, one knows what he says, for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle towards heaven, here's what he said, money has the tendency to get out of control, riches certainly make themselves wings, isn't that true, they make themselves wings in the in the way of a dental bill, they make themselves wings in the way of a mechanical bill, they make themselves wings in the way of a plumber's clause, they make themselves, there's just a tendency of money that when you have it for it to want to just kind of disappear, for it to want to just kind of get out of control, for it to want to just go away and fly away, for riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven, go to Proverbs 27, look at verse 24, Proverbs 27 and verse 24, the Bible says this, Proverbs 27 and verse 24 says this, for riches are not forever, and by the way this is why you don't want to put your your life's ambitions on that which is temporal, which is corruptible, you want to put your life's ambitions on that which is eternal, which is incorruptible, he says for riches are not forever and that the crown endure to every generation and here's what he's saying, riches, money, wealth has a tendency to get out of control, you say well what's the reason for a spending plan, the reason for a spending plan is this, because money has a tendency to get out of control, because you as the average American are going to have anywhere between a million and two million dollars flow through your hands in your working lifetime and that money has a tendency to want to spread wings and fly away and get out of control, what you need to do is set up a spending plan, you say why, because money needs to be forced to come under control, money has a tendency to get out of control and a spending plan is the way that you bring it back in, you bring in those reins and you force it to come on come under control, look at you're there in Proverbs 27, look at verse 23, be thou diligent, I want you to notice how this word diligent keeps coming up and the reason for that is this, if you're not budgeting, let me just go ahead and tell you, budgeting is work, it requires work, it requires you setting aside time, sitting down with a word document or a notebook and a calculator and a pen and getting to work, he says be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, the way that we would say this today is be thou diligent to know the state of thy bank accounts, thy credit card balances, right, this was how they measured wealth in those days, this was their economy, they were a cultural, agricultural economy and they had harvests and they had cattle and they had flocks, he says be thou diligent to know the state of thy flock and look well to thy hurt, see the reason for spending, for a spending plan is this, money has a tendency to get out of control and money needs to be forced to come under control, that's why I like that quote we have in the bulletin, a budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went, because the truth is this, that if you were, when you realize, oh wow, I'm broke and usually that comes by the way of, you know, your credit card statement or, you know, non-sufficient funds or whatever it is, you know, when you realize that your money has flown away, then you sit there and wonder, well I wonder what happened, I mean I just got paid, I wonder what happened with all the money, but see a spending plan, a spending plan is you telling your money I'm going to control you because you are a resource that God has given me and that resource is limited, there's only a certain amount of money that will float through my hands and God wants me to steward and to manage those resources properly, go to Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, now let me just help you out with this and, you know, where you're all adults, I think you know what a budget is and if you don't, you can look up, you know, just Google how to budget and you can get all sorts of plans and there's software and things, but let me just give you some practical tips in regards to setting up a spending plan or a budget, because what I've noticed over the last, you know, nine plus years of ministry as I've tried to help people with this is that there are a lot of common mistakes that people make with budgets and it seems like a lot, you know, there's no new thing under the sun, it seems like a lot of people make the same mistakes when it comes to budgets, their hearts in the right place, they're trying to budget, but they they make a lot of mistakes with budgeting, so let me just kind of help you with some practical tips and if you'd maybe like to write this down or whatever you can do that, but let me give you some practical tips, you're there in Proverbs 31, we're going to go to it here in a minute, but some practical tips in regards to setting up a spending plan, setting up a budget, how does this work? First of all, you need to decide to live off of a zero base budget, you need to decide to live off of a zero base budget, now a zero base budget or zero base budgeting is a financial term and a way of budgeting where your income minus your expenses equals zero, the base is zero, with a zero base budget you have to make sure your expenses match what's coming in during the month and you're giving every dollar a function, it just means your income minus all your expenses, which is your outgo, equals zero, so what you need to do is decide that you will set up a zero base budget and you say well what's the purpose for that or what's the point of that, when you have a zero base budget, what you do is you assign a place in your written budget to each dollar, I'd like to say it this way, I've heard it said this way, every dollar on paper on purpose, every dollar that comes through your hands is written down on a paper, on a Word document or whatever it might be and it has a purpose, it is given, I like how this little article says giving every dollar a function, it is zero based, meaning you have your income coming in, your outgo going out and at the end it shouldn't be a plus, it shouldn't, definitely shouldn't be a negative, it should just be a zero, now sometimes I teach this and people say well no don't you want it to be a plus, well I don't want it to be a zero, you know we're just trying to avoid it being a negative, but here's what you need to understand about a zero base budget and let me just kind of help you out with this, maybe some of you don't know about budgeting so let me just give you what a budget is, a zero base budget is this, income what you make right, your income, your increase, whatever, the money that you have coming in through your hands every week or every other week or every month or whatever it is, minus your outgo, what you spend and we want to get that to zero every month. Here's a practical tip, make a written budget on paper or a Word document on your computer or whatever, okay, not in your head, people think like oh I got a budget it's all up here, no nothing's up there, okay, that's why you're broke, you need to write a budget on paper, you need to have it somewhere on paper on a Word document, you need to write it out, I know how much I spent, no you don't, you will be shocked if you sat down and looked at how much money you actually spent at Starbucks, how much money you actually spent at the mall, how much money you actually spent, look you need to have a written budget every time you get paid and it needs to be on a paper or on a Word document and let me say this, you need to write a budget every time you get paid, every time money comes in through your hands you need to have a plan for that money, now if you get paid once a month then you should have a once a month budget, if you get paid every other week then you should have an every other week budget but you need to have a written budget every time you get paid and you need to have a budget at least once a month, maybe you have had some weird job where you get paid once a year, I've heard of situation where you know somebody gets paid once a year and whatever, okay that's great but then you need to just you don't make a budget for the whole year, you need to sit down and write a budget for every month, you make your budget, here's another practical tip, make your budget realistic, avoid extremes, a lot of times when people get in their heads that oh man I've been messing up financially, I need to get my financing orders, they go in these extremes and it's not just finances, it's anything you know, hell people realize I've gained some weight, I need to lose weight, so they go to these unhealthy extremes and they try all these extreme fad diets and extreme this and extreme that and every time and I'm not trying to hurt your feelings okay because I would say most people that tried diets here would say the same thing, you try your extreme diet then you get off of it and you gain all the weight back, why? Because it's not sustainable, because you gained the weight because of a lifestyle and if you're gonna cut the weight down, you need to cut the weight down through changing your lifestyle and if your life is a financial mess, your life is a financial mess because of a lifestyle and if you're gonna bring back the reins, you're gonna have to bring back the reins on your lifestyle, so you need to make your budget realistic, avoid extremes, here's why, because it must be sustainable or it will not work, we're not talking about something you do for a short amount of time, we're talking about a new way to spend your money for the rest of your life, a new lifestyle, a new way of seeing things, you must, here's another practical tip, you must review and redo your budget regularly, there's no such thing as a perfect budget, this was me when I, when we first started budgeting years ago and we started getting a hold of our finances, I remember I spent like two weeks just working on this perfect budget, I got it all figured out, not all these graphs and pie charts or whatever you know and got it all figured out like this is the perfect, this is gonna work and the next month it was completely destroyed and I must have messed up and you work on it, work on it, get it all done, the next month is completely destroyed and you know what you realize is this, that there's no such thing as a perfect budget because every month is different, right, so every month you have to budget for the expenses of that month, which means, you say but that's a lot of work, yeah I know, wise people are diligent about their finances, yes it's a lot of work but a wise person will say every month is different, every month needs a new plan, a different plan and of course there are some things that don't change with your budgets and they kind of stay the same but every month is different, look December is going to be different than June, you understand that and you can sit there and say oh I got December taken care of, it's called my credit card, yeah exactly, come back for next week's sermon how that is a burden, it'll bury you and a smart person, a wise person will plan their spending, will realize that every month is different, you know we've got six kids, I don't know how many I should have asked my wife but I think like four of my kids were born in September, September is like Christmas at our house you know and it's you know and September requires a different budget, September requires a different budget than August required and just different spending and different things and so review and redo your budget regularly, there's no such thing as a perfect budget, every month is different, make your budget realistic, avoid extremes, it must be sustainable or it will not last, here's another practical tip, assign a portion and this goes with making it realistic, assign a portion of your budget to fund recreational spending, this is what we're talking about making it sustainable, assign a portion of your budget to things like eating out because here's the truth, you're gonna eat out, you're gonna get coffee, you're gonna do something fun and have to spend money, that's fine, we're not telling you don't have a life, don't do anything, just you know live like a monk or something, we're not saying that, what we're saying is this, if you're going to eat out, plan to eat out, if you're going to have coffee, plan to have coffee so you're not sitting back saying wow I can't believe how much money we spent on coffee but you can say no we've allotted this much amount of money towards our coffee or towards our date nights or towards our spending or towards our whatever, so look you need to have a budget that's realistic, you need to have a budget that's sustainable and you need to assign a portion to fund things, recreational things, eating out, date nights, doing something fun, whatever, ordering a pizza with the kids every once in a while, whatever it is you're going to do, here's another practical tip, involve everyone who'll be doing any spending, involve everyone who'll be doing any spending, if you're married, you as a husband and wife, you both need to just get on board with this thing and look there's no point of having a budget if one of you is just going to spend whatever they want anyway, do you understand that? So you need to get on board and of course you men, you're supposed to be the leader of the home, you need to take charge in this area and say hey honey let's sit down and let's look at this and this is the budget and you work together and get your wife's input because you say well I don't need my wife's input, look a wise person will get counsel from their wife, you say well I'm the leader, yeah but you know what leaders don't just make decisions on their own, they get counsel from other people and you know what let me just tell you something guys, you'd be smart to get some counsel from your wife in regards to how much do we actually spend on groceries, how much do we actually spend on you know if your wife's doing all the grocery shopping, if your wife's buying all these things, she's the one that knows, get her input and so that it can be realistic so it doesn't just get destroyed after the first month. Here's another practical tip, use the cash envelope system. This was taught by a man named Larry Burkett in his book How to Manage Your Money, it's probably I think and I don't know a lot about Larry Burkett but I don't think he was a Baptist but he's probably one of the first Christians that kind of began to really teach these concepts on finances and of course other people have taken this system and used it as well. I think it's a great system, the cash envelope system, we use it in our home and you know the cash envelope system basically says this, you say because remember the point of a budget, the point of a budget is not to have something written on somewhere and then you just go do whatever you want because here's where most people mess up, well I'm only gonna spend X amount of dollars on eating out and then you get to the end of the month and you're like wow I spent like five times that, my budget didn't work, no you didn't work, okay your budget, your budget, a word document on your computer is not gonna stop you from spending the money, you say okay well what I do, here's what you do, you decide, you give a realistic number, here's what we're gonna spend on eating out, a realistic number, here's what I'm gonna spend on getting coffee, a realistic number, whatever you like to do, whatever your recreation is, you like to go shooting, here's how much I'm gonna spend on shooting or here's how I'm gonna spend on this recreation, be realistic about the things you do and of course you may need to sacrifice some things, we'll talk about that in a minute, but be realistic about what you're actually going to do, how much you're gonna spend on groceries, here's how much our family spends on groceries, here's how much we are willing to spend on maybe eating out every once in a while, here's how much we're willing to spend on this or on that and then you actually go to the bank, you say well I was gonna require work, yeah a diligent man, then you go to the bank and you pull that cash out, then you put it into an envelope, then you put it somewhere safe in your home where you and your wife have access to it, here's how this works, then you say oh you know we got out a church late, let's you know grab something to eat so honey so you don't have to cook you know at 11 45 p.m. or whatever and then we pull out our little spending envelope and we've got money in there that we've set aside for spending and we go out and we and we eat out and you say well what do you what what's the what's the benefit to a cash envelope, here's the benefits of cash envelope, there'll come a time in the month when you will go to spend whatever on groceries or whatever on this or whatever on that and you'll pull out your little envelope and you'll figure out and you'll realize there's no money in it, you've already spent everything you were going to spend on coffee, so what do I do now, you pull out your credit card, wrong, you don't go to coffee, you don't go eat out, you're done, the point of a spending plan is to control your spending and one of the best ways to do it in my opinion is using a cash envelope system because the cash envelope system limits you because once you're done, you're done, once the envelopes empty, sorry it's empty till the next time I get paid, then we'll refill it again and use a cash envelope system in order to control your spending, see a budget forces you to stop and think about what and how much you are spending, are you there in Proverbs 31, look at verse 16, now look you know Proverbs 31 is the proverb of the virtuous woman proverb right, I think we can apply this to everybody but especially you stay-at-home wives, you need to realize that you are a huge part of a family's financial success, you're a huge part of a family's financial success, notice what it says here about the virtuous woman, it says she considerth a field and buyeth it, see that word considerth, that means to think carefully about it, she considerth a field, she thinks about it, she plans it, she looks at her budget and then she buyeth it, that's what a budget does for you, it helps you slow down because most of the financial mistakes you've made have to do with impulse spending, you know that's true and again I don't want to embarrass you but if you've got credit card debt which I would say most of you in this room do, if we look at the average spending of an American, the average American has ten thousand dollars in credit card debt, you know depending on what statistics or articles or whatever you read and here's the truth, if you've got credit card debt and I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand but I want you to think about this, if you have credit card debt go ahead and raise your hand in your mind, alright, okay, now answer me this, can you tell me where you spent that ten thousand dollars, you probably can't, you don't even remember, you got you got debt on, you ate out somewhere three years ago and you're still paying that off, you went on some trip you don't even remember it, you've got a garage full of, a closet full of, a storage container full of stuff you bought, you don't use, you don't even remember where it came from but you're paying on it and we buy and we have these impulse buys and we go places and we buy this and we buy that, well I'm not even sure how much I have or how much it costs or whatever, I'll take it, I'll take two and what a spending plan does is it stops you and it says because a wise woman, a wise man, a Bible says she considerate a field and buy it, let me give you another practical tip, my wife and I have a rule in our home, we don't make a major purchase, we do not make a major purchase, our rule is whenever we're confronted with some sort of major purchase, even if we both look at the situation and say yes this is a good deal, we agree with it, it's the right thing, whatever, we just have a rule that we always sleep on it, so whenever we go somewhere, somebody confronts us with some sort of sale or whatever and because it begins to tug at you right and you're like oh man I really want to get that, whatever, I really want to go on that cruise or get that timeshare, do whatever, I really want to buy, I mean I wonder how many vehicles have been bought just off of an impulse buy, houses bought on an impulse buy, big debt accrued off of an impulse buy, if you would just have a rule that says I don't make financial, and when we walk in you know we'll have salespeople come to us or come to our door or whatever say we want to sell you this vacuum for $7,000, greatest vacuum you'll ever have, I'm like is it gonna do my laundry, good night, $7,000, you know I mean good and we just tell people hey you know I appreciate it, sounds like a great deal, we don't we don't make financial decisions without sleeping on it, oh well it's a one-time sale, my boss says you got three minutes to make a decision, well I appreciate that and if the deal is not there then it must not been meant to be because we made a commitment that we don't make major purchases without sleeping on it, you know what happens when the sales guy goes and you sleep on it and you wake up the next day, usually things just have yeah I think my $150 vacuum would be good enough, I don't think I need to buy that vehicle, I don't need to I don't think I need to get that house, I think I'll be fine and here's what I'm telling you here's what I'm telling you, a wise woman, a wise man, consider it a field, well then I'll never get to buy it, no and buys it, but they make wise purchases, it's not that you don't get to buy things, it's that you get to think about it, it's that you get to prepare for it, it's that you get to plan for it, so we talked about the reward of a spending plan, we talked about the reason for a spend plan, go to Hebrews chapter 13, towards the end of the New Testament if you start at the book of Revelation and you head backwards you'll have Hebrews chapter, you'll start of course Revelation, Jude, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, 2nd, 1st Peter, James, Hebrews, well you turn there let me let me answer this, how about business owners because business owners, I love business owners, I don't know why, we we have a ton of business owners in our church, I think last time I took account there was 10 maybe more than 10 business owners in our church and that's that's not not normal, you know, I had a pastor friend who pastored a church about the same size of our church, actually not the same size, a larger church, just a little bit larger than our church and he took account of how many business owners were in his church and there was three business owners, our church was smaller than his and we had about three times as many business owners, I don't know why that is, I don't know what that what that's about, I maybe I attract business owners, I'm not sure you know this type of preaching or whatever but we've got a lot of business owners in our in our in our church and I'm great for it and and by the way I think you know being a business owner is a great way to go in the United States of America as far as being able to make money and and and and have financial security but business owners they always like to throw this at me and I love you guys all right so let me help you, well I can't budget I'm a business owner I don't have a fixed income I don't have specific income so how I can't budget no no no look where there's a will there's a way all right and you can't you can sit there and give all reasons why you can't budget why you can't budget why you can't budget it's simply not true and I and and you say well I'm not trying to hurt your feelings I'm just telling you if you were to budget if you were to plan your spending it would help your business grow it would help your business to increase it would help your business to do better you say well how do I how do I do a budget as a business owner well here's what you need to figure out you need to figure out how much there's probably a number that you don't make less than that number every month now the way you figure that number out is you just figure out how much money you've made every month for the last 12 months and divided by 12 and you'll have an average there and you'll probably know that in your business there's not even when it's a bad month even when it's a low month you generally don't go below X amount and you say how do you know that you know that because you haven't gone below that amount over the last 12 or 24 or 36 months there's just kind of a number there that you don't go below that number so once you figure out what that number is that that number that you know unless God decides your job and he's gonna take everything away from you you know where you kind of know that this is the number that we don't go below once you have that number then you figure out what are the needed expenses what are the I can't compromise on this this must be paid we're talking about things like rent on a building like mortgage on your house groceries things like that obviously things utilities things that you have to pay you figure out what are those needed expenses that need to get paid and then you just do a zero based budget and you figure out this is how much we know will come in this is how much we know we must spend and if there's anything left over zero based budget doesn't mean you just leave it there because if you leave it there's gonna spring up wings and fly away zero based budget means you now have to decide what to do with that now this is what we do as those of us that are obviously donors we figure out okay I've got X amount of dollars once I've paid all my bills I've got this much income I've got this many bills I've got this much left over what do I do now now I decide how much of that am I going to spend on a date night how much am I that am I gonna spend on a coffee how much of that am I gonna spend on on on eating out and hopefully it's not gonna be an enormous you know amount and then whatever you have left over okay are we gonna put this towards savings are we gonna put this toward debt are we gonna put this towards paying off the mortgage early everything gets a plan a purpose in the plan on paper on purpose every dollar has a function that's zero based budgeting what you do as a business owner is you just kind of need to write out a dream sheet if I know that this is how much comes in every month because this is at least comes in every month because this is how much has came in every month for the last three months for the last six months for the last 12 months I know that these are the bills that need to get paid but here's what a good steward does a good steward says if God were to bless me with more if God were to bless me with more if we were to have a great month and 5,000 came in more 10,000 came in more 15,000 came in more what would I do with that and then you kind of have a dream sheet and you say well the first thing I do is I pay off this credit card or I pay off this car right I put it towards this and then if the what if there was more left over what would you do well then I would do put it towards savings or put it towards retirement whatever your plan is you just kind of have a dream sheet so that if God chooses to bless you financially you don't have this money sitting around that's kind of wing up spring up wings and fly away and get out of control but you've got a plan for that spending and I will tell you this if you plan out if you plan out what you would do for the glory of God if God were to bless you I bet you God would begin to bless you so plan out your spending plan out your spending we talked about the reward of a spending plan we talked about the reasons for a spending plan let me thirdly this morning give you this and we're almost done let's talk about the realization from your spending plan see for some of you who don't have a spending plan in your spending plan you may come to some realizations you may realize some things that you had not realized before because you used to have it up in your head and when you put it down on paper you're like whoa this is different than what I thought there's basically two realizations that most people make when they make a spending plan number one when you budget you may realize that you have a spending problem now I probably could have told you that but you know I'm I'm nice I'm not gonna tell you that but when you sit down and you look at how much comes in and how much goes out you may realize you have a spending problem problem here's what this means you may need to cut your spending you may need to stop spending what you're spending Hebrews 13 5 are you there it's a great verse let your conversation be without covetousness why do we spend above our means why do we spend more than we make the average American we're told the average American spends more than they make and they offset it using credit cards they offset it using their line of credit they offset it by borrowing from their brother-in-law they offset it by payday advances payday loans we didn't talk I didn't talk about this last week as I wanted to bring it up this week you know that the tithe another reason for the tithe that God gives us is because God is trying to teach us something when God tells you that 10% of our increase should go to him he's trying to teach us a principle that we are to not live to and above our our means he wants us to figure out how much money we make and then live a percentage below that he wants us to live below our means now if you tithe you have to live below your means because you get 10% of your income to God 10% of your increase to God but you know you may realize that yeah I'm tithing but I'm still living above my means well let your conversation be without covetousness because it's probably your covetousness that has you living in that house you can't afford it's probably your covetousness that has you driving that vehicle you can't afford it's probably your covetousness and look there are ways to figure it out and I'm not gonna sit here and tell you but if your mortgage is more than a quarter or a third of your monthly income you're living in a house you cannot afford you need to go live in the ghetto you need to come live in my neighborhood okay if you're driving a vehicle and your vehicle is more than 20% you know 20% 15% of your income you're driving a vehicle you cannot afford you understand what I'm saying let your covetousness Bible says let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as ye have you just need to be content with what you can afford for he had said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee I don't know why you go shopping when there's all sorts of free clothes just in that closet right down the hall I mean have you seen some of the clothes in that closet it's like nice clothes I would never wear something used okay be broke then go ahead and be broke go ahead and be average go ahead and be dead let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have for he had said see here's where our joy should come I will never leave thee nor forsake thee see no matter where I live no matter what I drive no matter what I wear if God's with me it's enough go back to Proverbs 21 Proverbs 21 you might find look I'm just I'm just warning you or you have a heart attack you might find if you actually sit down and look at how much money comes in look at how much money goes out you might find that you have a spending plan a spending problem you may need to cut your spending I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said a penny saved as a penny earned Proverbs 21 and verse 20 and somebody could email me Benjamin Franklin was a mason okay whatever it's a good quote okay Proverbs 21 verse 20 they're all masons everyone you can't mention anybody without them being a mason Proverbs 21 20 there is treasure to be desired and oil and the dwellings of the wise there is treasure to be desired and oil and the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up you know what foolish people do they spend everything they have you know what a wise person does they live below their means Proverbs 21 look at verse 17 Proverbs 21 verse 17 the Bible says he that loveth pleasure he that loveth Starbucks he that loveth McDonald's he that loveth eating out he that loveth whatever he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man look this what the Bible says he that loveth pleasure should be a poor man he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich you need to figure out and look I I'm happy to help you and you some of you know I don't look I don't treat people face to face the way I do preaching obviously okay but look if you if you need somebody to help you sit down and write down a budget or whatever I'm willing to do that with you and I'd be happy to do that but let me just warn you right now if you're gonna do that and if you got financial plans realize that you're probably not gonna like what I have to say cuz I'm trying to look at your budget say well you can cut this and you can cut this and you can this and you don't need that and you don't need this no I need that no okay be broke but there are things you can cut out of your spending if you are living above your means if you are spending more than you make you need to cut things out of your spending you're not the US government now look the US government would be wise to cut their spending their idiots but at least they get to print their own money you don't so there are things you can cut out like eating out like daily coffee like shopping do a spending fast every once in a while my wife and I will just do a spending fast for a month we'll just say no spending period we're not gonna go anywhere when I eat anything we're not gonna go you know have any I'm talking about eating out you know obviously we're eat at home you know we're only gonna go to a restaurant if somebody takes us to a restaurant or something you know I mean like you know we're just you know eating out no daily coffee no shopping you know or maybe you need to start shopping at thrift stores and and maybe you start buying use there are things that you can downsize you might need to downsize your phone you might need to downsize your car you might need to downsize your house you there are things that you need to get get rid of and look if you're broke and look I love you I'm not mad at you I'm trying to help you if you're broke and you smoke you drink you gamble you you know drink alcohol you're watching cable TV you need to knock that off I mean you knock that out period just for the glory of God but then you're going into debt for it that makes no sense realize hey there might you might come to a realization from your spending plan that when you budget you may realize you have a spending problem and you name may need to cut your spending there's another realization you may come to go to Proverbs chapter 10 because there are some people and they're usually the exception not the rule but there are some people who say don't pass it look look at my budget there's how much I make this moment I spend there's nothing there's nothing extra here I've caught what I can cut I've done everything I can there's nothing else I can do well then you might come to a different realization and is this when you budget you may realize that you have an income problem now I would say that most people have a spending problem the average person in this room if you're finance out of control you have a spending problem but some people do have an income problem and you may need to just increase your income Proverbs 10 in verse 4 he becomes poor that dealeth with a slack hand the word slack means lazy you've heard of a slacker he that he becomes poor that deals with a slack hand but the hand of the diligent maketh rich now your goal should not be to be rich but God says you know how the rich guy got there by being diligent by working hard some of you need to get a job but you know some of you need to get a better job you may need to realize that you know the job that you're working is there's no future there you've made as much as you can and that's it you may need to get a new career and look I'm trying to just help you with this you may need to learn a new skill you may need to learn new trade you you may need to take some online classes or do something get a certificate or do something but you just you you may just need a new career you just may not make enough money when you do a budget you may realize that you have a spending problem and need to cut your spending but you may realize and I would say that this is not the majority you may realize that you have a an income problem you just don't make enough say well I you know I can't I love I love being a pastor cuz everybody's telling me why they can't why they can't why they can't and I'm always just dismantling their cans you can I can makes a great man all right you know people say oh I don't have any skills I don't have any ability I'm told to get a new career I'm too I'm told to learn skill I can't take online courses I'm not with this I'm not that okay well let me tell you something the most successfully financially the most financially successful people in United States of America are not it are not very highly professionally educated business people this might be why we have ten business people in our church but you know what I would do if you say I just can't learn anything else you know what I would tell you I'll tell you start a business learn from others who started businesses read books about starting a business find the business you want to get them and look let me just tell you this don't don't go start a business and you spend a million dollars getting it started and then you do nothing with it okay but you know what I would do I'd figure out what can I do that would what service can I provide what product can I produce that would that would be valuable to someone that they would trade money with me for doing it and then I would become an expert in that business if if I was starting a business and whatever I would read everything I can about that business if I was doing sales I'd read everything I could about sales and obviously being ethical and having integrity if I you know I would read and learn and study and watch YouTube videos about that you know let me just help you with starting a business here's how you do it you start part-time you kind of start doing it on the side you build that to the point where it could maybe take care of half of or maybe a 60% of your income before you quit your job and and and go forward you start part-time and transition but you save money for that switch you save money in advance realizing that you're gonna have to transition into full-time business and you try to have some money on the side and we'll talk about that not next week but the week after that well here's what I'm telling I'm just telling you that when you sit down and do a budget you may realize you may realize that you have a spending problem you probably I should say will realize that you have a spending problem you need to cut your spending I would say that's probably most of you in this room but some of you may realize that you have an income problem and you need to do something to increase your income you need to prepare you need to plan you need to be diligent you need to work we talked about the reward of a spent for a spending plan go to Luke chapter 16 remember I told you when we went to Luke would be done Luke chapter 16 we talked about the reward of a spending plan the reward of a spending plan is that you will build financial success and security and the goal should never be to be rich the goal should never be to love money the goal should be able to live and provide for yourself and your family in a way that frees you up to serve the Lord you talk about the reasons for a spending plan what are the reasons the reasons are this money has a tendency to get out of control money has a tendency to get out of control and a spending plan is you creating a plan that will control the money that runs through your hands and then we talked about number three the realization of a spending plan the realization is this that you will probably realize that you have a spending problem and you need to cut your spending and you may realize that you have an income problem and you need to increase your income Luke chapter 16 look at verse 10 we'll finish here look check chapter 16 of verse 10 the Bible says he that is faithful we read this a couple of weeks ago but I want you to see it again he that is faithful in that which is least and by the way that's money money is the least he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much and then in verse 11 he gives us the context for the principle in verse 10 now the principle verse 10 can be applied to anything but here's the context in which he was speaking verse 11 if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon remember the word mammon means material goods material wealth riches money he says if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches and here's what it comes down to you say what's the point of the sermon the point is this you need to steward the finances that God has given you you need to become your own financial planner in your financial advisor because here's what I know about you is that in your lifetime God will allow as an average American between a million and two million dollars to flow through your hands and if you don't have a plan for that money you will not build financial success or security that's why I had to have a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you Lord for your work thank you for the Bible thank you for the fact that you speak to every area in our lives you your wisdom would help our lives be better and what I pray that everybody would leave here encouraged sometimes when you preach sermons like these people get a little sad and discouraged and thinking I've wasted time wasted money Lord help us like the Apostle Paul to just forget those things which are behind and to press toward the mark what I pray you'd help all of us to just get our financial house in order to realize that you expect us to steward the resources you've given us and that even includes the unrighteous man we love you in the matchless name of Christ we pray amen never the Mac come up