Josh's Stuff - Reordering Your Finances

Good evening. Tonight we are going to continue our series with Andy Stanley called Take It To The Limit. The whole idea behind this series is to see How To Get The Most Out Of Life. Last week we began a 2 week look at our finances and being able to find financial margin.

If you remember, Andy gave a definition to the word financial margin. He said that Financial Margin is: “The cash sources minus the cash uses.” Also he said that it was, “The amount of money that you have left to spend as you desire after living expenses and mandatory commitments are met.”

Now just as a reminder of what we looked at last week, we discovered that God wants to lead us to financial margin. But if you don’t have financial margin in your life, a couple of things happen. One, you rob yourself. And secondly, you rob God. And Andy told us that the problem is not our income, it is our lifestyle. As income increases, lifestyle increases as well. We spend what we make.

Well, today, is the second part of that look at financial margin. Today’s discussion is titled, Reordering Your Finances. Now before we take a look at tonight’s lesson, let me open with a question. What is the most difficult aspect of finances that you personally face? What is the hardest thing for you when it comes to your money?

Well, I will have a word of prayer, and then we will let Andy share with us tonight about finding financial margin. Let’s Pray!

(PLAY CLIP (it is about 30 minutes))

Okay, here is a little review of what Andy just shared with us. God knows that what we do with our money is an indication of our heart. We all know the scripture that tells us that, “…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I liked that comic strip that he used, the guy holding out his money when he was being baptized. Now I know that that never really happens, but a lot of time, our finances are the most difficult thing for us to hand over to God.

Go ahead and turn with met to Luke 16. Here in this passage is the story that Andy told about. It says, in Luke 16:1-13 that, “1”

Andy said that in a way, Jesus says that you cannot serve both God and your stuff. In our attempt to get the most out of life, we end up losing control. In our attempt to get the most out of our finances, we lose control there as well. As you surrender to God, He is going to lead you to a place of financial margin.

Then we learned about how to get from where you are to a place of margin financially. Andy said, that even if these steps seem too simple, we all need to begin here, so that we no longer rob ourselves or God. And so tonight, I want us to take one last look at these 4 steps to finding financial margin.

Determine Your Annual Available Income:
1. What that is, is your Annual Income, minus any Debt Payments, minus Taxes, Minus Obligations. Then that will equal your Available Income.

Set Margin Goals:
1. In order to do that, you will take your Available Income, minus your Giving Goal (the amount of money that you want to give), minus your Saving Goal (which is the amount that you want to put back and save). And that will equal your Consumable Income. That is the amount of money that you still have left.

Determine Your Monthly Consumable Income:
1. In order to do this, you will take your total Consumable Income, dive that number by 12, and that will give you your Monthly Consumable Income.

Develop A Plan:
1. Tack where your money is going.

i. Keep record, do a chart, know where your money is going. If you don’t know where it is going, you cannot create margin. Certain number coming in, and a certain number going out. Track it and know where it is going.

Give something now.

i. Start now, don’t wait. Develop the habit now. Even if it is not what your goal is, start now.

Save something now.

i. Start now, don’t wait. Develop the habit now. Even if it is not what your goal is, start now.

Develop a debt retirement plan.

i. If you want financial margin, every dollar of debt that you no longer have to use, goes to your margin.

Develop a lifestyle reduction plan.

i. Develop a plan/develop a budget.

Which of the steps outlined in this session is the most challenging for you?

From these easy steps, we learn what we actually have to spend and how we can develop margin financially. Andy said that the quickest way to develop margin is to reduce debt and lifestyle.

Now Andy mentioned a workbook that could help you when it comes to your financial life, and there are many out there. In fact, if you would like, I can let you see some of the things that I have that are devoted to helping people get a grip financially.

But as long as you put yourself first, you will never have financial margin.

I really like the way that Andy had us visualize the situation as he laid out the money on the podium. So this week, I looked up the average individual income form last year, and did some figuring. If everyone gave just there 10% from our church, each week, we would have an offering of well over $2,000.00. And that is not counting the youth, the elderly that have little income, that is based on average income and it is based on only 30-35 people actually doing that. We have that many working people in our church don’t we?

Now, before we close this evening, allow me to ask you a few discussion questions.

Discussion Questions:

What would you do if your personal money manager failed to keep accurate records of your money?
Have you ever thought of yourself as the manager of someone else’s money?
Given your unique personality, is bookkeeping effortless of laborious for you?
What step could you take this week to begin dealing with this issue?

Now, before we close this evening, does anyone have anything that they would like to add?

Well, if there is nothing else, just remember that if you put God first, and then do things the way that you should, God will lead you to a life of financial margin. What we need to realize is that we are managers of God’s money, we are not the owners.

Let’s Pray!