[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on everybody, this is Darrell Hall and I'm the pastor of the Wake Community Church, and I'm going to thank you for joining our podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're continuing our series today called Trust Issues, where we have an conversation about the church and money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've had some fun looking at what the Bible did not say, and the fact that it's deeper than numbers, and we got to be content.
[SPEAKER_00]: But today, we're going to start our conversation about what the Bible did say, and the Bible had a lot to say about money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, about bludgeoner, planner, and strategize how we spend it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So today, we're going to have that conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can follow these notes in the transcript or you can find them on the Bible at Grab your Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study guys work together.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, today, I want to continue our series and trust issues, and I want to have a conversation about what the Bible did to say about money.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the Bible did say about money, particularly as it pertains to budgeting.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were at an event yesterday with friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my friends was being installed as a senior pastor of a church, and he is succeeding his father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while we were there in the reception area, one of my friends,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just offering some to everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I look at him and say, well, usually it's the person who says, no, I'm good, who should.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't know the status of my, my breath, you Asian right now, my breath situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you offering a, I'm gonna take it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because usually, if I'm saying, I don't need it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually the one who really does need it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the truth is, is that I got two pace at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just probably could have left it in the two.
[SPEAKER_00]: You all know what I realized?
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter how many hygiene products I buy, two pace don't do me no good in the two.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a walk pass about a little ocean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got in your car, left the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at your hands and say, ah, I'm actually there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about, we got a shade butter, cocoa butter, EOS, vanilla cashmere, baby old, Vaseline, while right past it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause the issue is not that I don't have it, the issues I don't apply what I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: That same is true about God's work, particularly about this subject of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those of us who might recoil at the idea that the church would even talk about money might be the very ones who need a refresher on this whole topic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can sit here for two months and talk about what the Bible does say, what the Bible does not say, and do our level best as a community to raise our collective intelligence
[SPEAKER_00]: It will be of no use for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why Jesus said in Matthew 7, verse 24 through 27, therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise person who built their house on a wet church on a rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: the rainfield, the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the wet church rock and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built their house on the sand, the rainfield, floods came and the wind blew and slammed against that house and it failed and its collapse was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my question.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is your financial future built-in on?
[SPEAKER_00]: A rock or sand?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if talk times come, can the financial structure of your life sustain?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, it's not enough to know my word.
[SPEAKER_00]: You really only build your life on a rock when you apply my word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing it is not enough, you gotta use what you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to actually build your life on the solid foundation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Jesus is talking about salvation and everything else between salvation and money as it relates to what the Word of God shares, but that's also very true about our money.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many of us by the show of hands, we want our money built on a lot?
[SPEAKER_00]: Our money built on a rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause when the wind's coming, the storms come,
[SPEAKER_00]: I want my financial structure to keep a roof over my head and head of those.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have to apply what we learn from God's Word in every area, including this area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which means as we have this conversation about money, we need to remember a couple things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cannot spiritualize bad habits.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have bad money management habits, I don't care how spiritual you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't outspiritual bad habits.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, we cannot scripturalize financial ignorance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think scripturalize as a word, but we're gonna go with it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Which of me, Ralph, if I've not gotten an understanding about how money works and how to work it, I can't just throw the Bible at my ignorance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the practical import of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: The practical import is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you come to this altar, snort nose and crying, lower that knee to lower that knee to lower that knee to, and then you get up, then you leave this church, and you continue spending more than you bring in?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, how spiritual you thought you was in this altar?
[SPEAKER_00]: True is, Bank of America, Chase, and the credit here you're gonna be like,
[SPEAKER_00]: right and we can't script a lot for natural ignorance, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know how to manage money, you can't just say Jesus will.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible say in the beginning, God created a heavens and a year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can't throw them through a scripture in that way, ignorant.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my goal as your pastor and brother and Christ over these two months is to spend quality time having layered conversations about money so that we can increase your trust, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna increase your trust in God as your secure source.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, I'm not my own source, God provides for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just printed on my money in God, we trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's printed on my heart in God, I trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to increase your trust in yourself as a true steward.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you may pour financial decisions in the past, I don't want you to be shale-shocked by your own failures.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the point that you don't think, you can relearn and re-engage money with a higher aptitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I also want to increase your trust in the way community church as a spiritual storehouse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, I want you to understand how money works here, the scope of my authority, the limits of my office, we'll talk about that on next week, what we have done with the money you've given and what we intend to do here in the coming days so that we can increase our trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why because when it comes to money, it's deeper than numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: money is more about trust and priorities than about numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also a matter of contentment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great Kirkland stood here two weeks ago in my place and talked to us from Philippians for 13 and reminded us that the will of God for us to be a people who are content.
[SPEAKER_00]: content and that verse I could do all things through cross and strength as me is not a catch all verse for me to apply to stuff I shouldn't be trying right I can't get up on the roof of this church run today and just say I can do all the new crushers and this me I could but for Olympians for 13 and I'm going to be a parachute you understand what I'm saying
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't just apply that verse to anything I want to try.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the law of gravity is going to have some else to say about I can do all things who cried some strength in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: What that verse means is I can survive any season, financially, because Christ supplies me from the inside out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means whatever, so that was our face, I'm going to be all right until it's all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it increases my trust in God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that helps me to become savvy with my money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Saddest five in my status and secure in my identity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then last week, we had this conversation about what the Bible did not say about money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many times we cloak our financial ignorance or fear by saying things like it's Bible that is not Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I keep saying things like his Bible, that's not Bible, my brain don't know the difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm lying to myself about money and I'm thinking, this is what the Bible means.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna act out those lies and I'm gonna end up getting the fruit of the financial reality that matches with my consistent declaration.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you mean, Ralph, the Bible does not say that money is evil.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you automatically assume that just because somebody got some money, they must have did some wrong to get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's trying to spiritualize for natural ignorance, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what does the Bible don't say?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible does not say, more money, more problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was Christopher Wallace.
[SPEAKER_00]: featuring Sean Combs, Mason, Betha, and Kelly Price.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what us to the Bible don't promise?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say that because you say we all gonna be rich and healthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what us to the Bible don't say?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Kirk Franklin and the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible don't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And every time we say that, and every time we sing that song, Kirk Franklin get most silver and gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'd think he's seen a royalties from that song, he'd say, no, I had to rather have Jesus than silver and gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time he could a royalties check from that song, he cashin' that silver and gold, I can get rid of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd rather have some.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says not only that, but if we quote it, like it's Bible, we train ourselves to believe a lot financially, and then our actions match up with misinformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So my goal is to try to clarify some of the information.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my hope is to increase our trust and also improve our stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here are some of the testimonies of people who've been blessed so far by this series.
[SPEAKER_00]: One person said, I'm learning to trust God more since I relocated from another state as a single mom of two teenagers.
[SPEAKER_00]: My income is much less than before.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I live paycheck to paycheck.
[SPEAKER_00]: Often praying, my car starts for work.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I still trust God for a reliable car's own, my situation could be worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another person said, I've been learning to trust God more by surrendering my worries about how things will work out financially and focusing on being a good steward with what I already have, not being led by emotions.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see these thoughts and these testimonies,
[SPEAKER_00]: push us into this necessary conversation about budgeting.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the Bible did say, because if somebody has moved to another state with two kids, an unreliable car and living paycheck to paycheck, there are a lot of things they can't control, but the plan for that money is something they can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if somebody's learning to trust God and not be led by their emotions and being a good student or what they already have, there's no better way to be a good student or what you already have than planning what to do with it before you start doing things with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the Bible did have a lot to say about budgeting and planning.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing the Bible did say is number one, count the cost up front.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible said count the cost up front.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says in Luke chapter 14 verse 28 through 30, for which one of you, when you wanna build a tower, does not first sit down and watch church calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule.
[SPEAKER_00]: saying this person began to build and was not able to finish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, to be true, to be sure, Jesus is not talking about money primarily here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about discipleship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what Jesus is saying, he's got his whole group of fans who follow him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love him, he real popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he turns around to his group and he said, look, if you're trying to follow me for real, you better count the calls before you make the commitment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't, don't say you want to get saved today, then two years from now and realize that means you got to forgive those who offended you, and then you don't want to be saved no more.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said you better do an emotional budget now so that before you make the commitment to be my disciple, can you make good on your commitment no matter what it requires of you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing that if you count the calls so upfront, I'll give you the grace to run your race.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he's saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: But notice the metaphor he uses.
[SPEAKER_00]: He uses a common sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Money metaphor to make a point that nobody can argue with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus talks about money.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what's interesting?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus talked about money more than any of the subject.
[SPEAKER_00]: more than heaven and hell, more than sin, more than grace, more than repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He either talked about money or use money as a metaphor in his sermons, in his teachings, as an analogy to make his point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right here he said, all right, I'm gonna give you an example.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many are with Bill's son without counting your money to see if you got enough to finish it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody in the crowd, I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wouldn't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's all right, because you don't want to lay a foundation and then realize you can't put a roof on your sucker.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you're going to get in the middle and everybody's going to laugh at you, because you then count the calls up front.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes a common sense for natural point to give revelation to budgeting our faith when it comes to discipleship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the main point Jesus is making.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't start building and then try to do a budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might already pay too much for somebody else's supplies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't start building and then try to budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might have hired the wrong general contract already.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to make a budget before you start trying to build.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's common sense for an internationalist.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you may know is what I mean, count the calls before you go in the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you know what we'll do, we'll pull up to the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll think about the menu and what we want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we'll be real hungry, and you know you can't make no good decisions when you hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't even go to the grocery store with your hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and the grocery store buy Oreos and ice cream, corn, caramel, then you don't walk it through the aisle.
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta stomach it because you want to the grocery store hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: You run in a restaurant, you see the menu, and you just start ordering what you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the bell come and you be like, oh no.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, this is all my food money for the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Count the costs before you go in the restaurant.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know, you got $500 for money for food for the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't pull up the roof Chris on day one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then tell all your friends, oh, I got the bill.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who you trying to impress?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna be hungry for three more days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Better count the calls before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to take care about the eat, knowing how much I had, and let her order first so I could figure out what I can eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the play I move.
[SPEAKER_00]: Girl, keep whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get whatever you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you want a lasking crit?
[SPEAKER_00]: King crab legs?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, oh, oh, she gon' have their lasking king crab legs.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'ma have a pinnabuddin, jelly sounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
[SPEAKER_00]: because you go in there and you try to get them to work some tricky math to get you on a cool car.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you encounter calls before you get the car note, if the car note gonna stretch you out, what you think the maintenance and upkeep gonna do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't be in a $100,000 car, but you got $40,000 used tires on your $100,000 car.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tiles don't match.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a set.
[SPEAKER_00]: I stop and get one from the Jamaicans, one from the Africans, one from the African.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm laughing at my own pain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Count the cost of front.
[SPEAKER_00]: Count the cost of front, before you get to house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if what you got to pay every month is more than 25% of your monthly take home, you're gonna be house poor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Count the cost of front, before you go on Amazon.
[SPEAKER_00]: because every day that truck coming in your house.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got a pile of Iltony boxes and a pile of credit card debt to match you.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we own counter-costal front, we made bad decisions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made a few bad financial decisions in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord knows, and by far the stupidest financial decision I made.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it took my old my guy, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we, we, y'all might tell this to our girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: We, we.
[UNKNOWN]: We.
[SPEAKER_00]: y'all we bought a house right back in 2014 and y'all y'all got to understand I've been living in apartments and hood all my life I lived in my grandma house for a little bit but I ain't never really you know saying being in the house was like new for me for example we walk into our new house and it wasn't a refrigerator in there and I'm like oh, what a refrigerator at
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody, the refrigerator is at the store.
[SPEAKER_00]: You still got to go, oh, oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, we're not in this house for a month or two.
[SPEAKER_00]: I come home one day for work, and this is fast talking saleswoman in our house, and her and Eve just the best of friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I walk into, I'm like, oh, hey, how you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, oh, yeah, he got my husband, he, he, he, he go.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this girl, I mean, y'all, she was funny, cares.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddy, she and now talking,
[SPEAKER_00]: She starts showing me this machine and all the stuff it can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, it can do this and it can do this and it can do this and this and this and this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then I'm looking at her and and I'm looking like she wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: She wants the machine.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in my mind, if the machine can do this and this and this and this and then I buy for she gonna do this and this and this.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: So unlike, often impress my girl, you know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: Say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, what is this called?
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, this is a Kirby vacuum car.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, cool, cool, cool, how much is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: She said it's in 1700 if you pay cash.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm carrying the one I'm dividing, I'm like, she said, but you can finance it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you finance it, it's a $2,500 back you.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1700 if you pay in cash.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you finance it, you could pay it off over some months.
[SPEAKER_00]: I paid $3,200 for a vacuum cleaner, to try to impress my girl, and we'll only remember how to do 90% of the stuff that girl showed us how to do with that vacuum cleaner.
[SPEAKER_00]: $78 a month came out of my account for years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you may think you got it, but you won't count the cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know what you need that $80 to do next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1, $1,
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, I still got the vacuum cleaner.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anybody want to buy this $1,700 in cash, or $80 a month for the rest of your life, whoo!
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible did say counting the cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, the Bible also said,
[SPEAKER_00]: plan you're giving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says in 1st Corinthians 16, verse number 2, on the first date of every week, each of you is to put aside and save as you may prosper so that no collection needs to be made when I call.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's right into a church in one town who's going to raise an offering to help meet the knees of a church in another town.
[SPEAKER_00]: And notice as he talks about the offering, he doesn't make any empty promises.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't ask for a specific amount or everybody give the same amount.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also done lean on people with guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cut him made a promise like he didn't Philippians 4.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Philippians 4, he said, and my God, shall supply all of your needs according to his richest and glory by Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't say that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, in 1 Corinthians 9, he said, hey, I had the apostolic authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could use my spiritual authority, but I'm not going to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: because spiritual authorities not meant to be used to strong arm people financially, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: When he does say those, if each one of you puts aside a little piece of what you got and had it ready to give, when I get there, we can have worship and I don't even have to make an offering appeal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine having a church worship service and we don't even have to take up offer?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us can't imagine it because what we use to is close the doors.
[SPEAKER_00]: No!
[SPEAKER_00]: Close the doors!
[SPEAKER_00]: You can feel a pot, you can make fried, you can McClendick, you can black shit, you can Curtis, y'all come stand up for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody walk around, give your money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deacans, they're going to back in count.
[SPEAKER_00]: They come out with a little sheet of paper with a number written on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll look at that number and I'll decide if it's enough or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it's not enough, then I get authoritative.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if the authority doesn't work, then I'll start saying we just need 20 more purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more, 20 more.
[SPEAKER_00]: They singin' today, horse!
[SPEAKER_00]: All right!
[UNKNOWN]: All right!
[SPEAKER_00]: We so used to that, that we can't even imagine coming into a church, singing, praising, praying, and don't know about it even talk about the offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're so generous, we plan that what we were going to give, revved and have to ask, because my given and having to do a rev anyway, I gave according to how the Lord prospered me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I plan to give it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I came here and I wrote it in my plan, I'm gonna give a $100.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ray of, I don't care if you sweat your suit out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Greg, you can sing to you, to you, to you can't sing no mo!
[SPEAKER_00]: All you get is this $100, I wrote it in my plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to how the Lord prospered me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lower, please tell him to shut up.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm giving him is a hundred.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause that's in my plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says, playing your given.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at the same verse in the message Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, every Sunday, first correct in 162, in the message Bible, every Sunday, let's read it together on the count of three.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, two, three.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every Sunday, each of you, make an offering and put it in safekeeping, be as generous as you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I get there, you'll have it ready and I won't have to make a special opinion.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, be as generous as you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not as generous as your neighbor can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not as generous as you wish you could be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be as generous as what church you can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just have it ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you got it ready, I ain't even got to make a big appeal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can ask for once we worship by giving and we move on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the spirit in which I want to raise money in this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even now, if you all know this, I really don't emphasize offering above the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And know we're not a rich church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And next week, I'm going to show you how much we brought in for the last three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not about numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about trust and priorities.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I trust God to take care of the priorities of this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't have to use this platform to manipulate you to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe if I help and encourage and pour into and create a safe ecosystem and an organizational structure where we can all thrive and become our best, meeting practical financial needs as a byproduct of the thing that really matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Showing people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible did say, count the calls of front, the Bible did say, playing your giving, number three, the Bible did say, pay your taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're going to go to school real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you might need a mulch ring.
[SPEAKER_00]: After this, there are two passages about taxes that I'm going to read, both are about Jesus paying taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really, he used the occasion to teach a financial, he used a financial occasion to teach a spiritual revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he still paid his taxes, this is the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Matthew 17, 24 to 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, now when they came to Copernan, those who collected the two Drokma tax, came to Peter and said, the judge, teacher, not pay taxes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 25, he said, yes, and when he came into the house, Jesus said, what did you think, Simon, Simon, Peter, is the same person?
[SPEAKER_00]: From home to the kings of the earth, collect customs or poll tax.
[SPEAKER_00]: From their sons or strangers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter said, from strangers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said to him, then sons are exiled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pause right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you wish on your tax form as you can put, I'm a son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a daughter of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said, daughters are exiled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I already gonna say,
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 27, however, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea, catch a fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one that comes up, open this mouth, both of our taxes going to be in the mouth that a fish paid in taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Jesus used a miracle to pay his taxes, but the point is he paid them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he explained the Peter, the hey Peter, the only people who get tax are the people who are not like the one who taken up the tax.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the stranger.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the alien to the one who's taking up the tax ticket tax.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sons or the ones who are like the one taking up taxes, don't get taxed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, spiritually, we are exempt, but because we still live on earth, we're gonna go on and pay this taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not gonna be offensive.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Matthew chapter 22, 17, 17 through 22.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, oh no, somebody comes to Jesus says, tell us the end, what do you think?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it permissible to pay a poll tax to Caesar or not?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus perceived malice and said, why are you testing me you hypocrites?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pull out some money, show me the coin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use for the taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They brought him a Daenerys, that's one day his wage.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said to them, who's image and inscription is this?
[SPEAKER_00]: They say it, what church?
[SPEAKER_00]: Seasers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he said to them, what church?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then pay to Caesar, the things that are, and then to God, the things that are God's.
[SPEAKER_00]: He used the issue of paying taxes to draw their attention to the fact that you trippin' over money when really you got God's image so you should be given your light to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should be giving your life to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look in the mirror, you see God's reflection.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look at money, you see a dead president.
[SPEAKER_00]: That image on your money is telling you that this ain't your money.
[SPEAKER_00]: This money is a part of the common wealth of the nation you live in.
[SPEAKER_00]: So give back to Uncle Sam what came from Uncle Sam.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pay the season, what belongs to season.
[SPEAKER_00]: But pay the God what belongs to God and live in your life for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: That counts more than the taxes that you have to pay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what are you saying, Ralph?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying Jesus pay taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm also saying Jesus implies that some people may be exempt from taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: While others got to pay it, what was he talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that culture, kings would go to feet of the countries.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they did, they wouldn't just destroy the country and blow it off the map.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would make that country a vassal state,
[SPEAKER_00]: And they would say, look, we defeated y'all, but we're gonna let y'all stay here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But every year, y'all got to send us some money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every year, y'all got to pay y'all taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this, how much you owe us every year cause we're incompletely destroyed you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't run our money, we're gonna bring the army back down here and finish what we started.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when they would take over another country, a king that king would take taxes from the country that he dominated.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that strangers pay the tax, but sons are exempt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever wondered in America what the tax code is and how some people find a way to be exempt by other people can't come?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna show it to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, here's a slot in scale of taxes in America.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a single, yeah, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you, somebody said, oh God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you, get a motor in, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Give me by five more minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The headache may get worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for last year, the tax rates for a single tax pay are got this from the IRS website.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the tax scale in America for a single person who's the taxpayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you make between these amounts, that's the percentage you're gonna be paying it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you make between $0.11,600, you're gonna be paying 10% of that back to the government.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you come all the way down to 600 to 9,351 dollars an up, you're gonna be paying 37% of that back to the government.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a sliding scale.
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, the more taxable income you take home, the bigger slice of the pie, Uncle Sam is going to take.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that's for a single person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to Married Fallen, Joy and Lee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Married Fallen, Joy and Lee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Evan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who Married Fallen, Joy and Lee.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, bless his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you marry filing jointly, the percentages are the same, but the numbers are different.
[SPEAKER_00]: The span of the numbers are wider.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if a couple together makes up to 223,200, they only pay 10%.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that?
[SPEAKER_00]: If a couple together makes 731,200 or more, that couple's gonna pay 37%.
[SPEAKER_00]: Percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but this is how that slot in scale works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a picture of if you made 58,000, how the taxable portions are divided.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you pay 10% of the first 11,600.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you pay 12% of the next amount, 22% of the next amount.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like you pay 22% of the whole thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You pay the scale at each wrong of the ladder you hit in your income.
[SPEAKER_00]: the more they take.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Taxes were not a part of America when America was founded.
[SPEAKER_00]: America was founded July 4th 1776.
[SPEAKER_00]: The IRS and taxes didn't come into play until July 1st 1862.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which, I mean, for 86 years, no American's pay taxes on the income.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Abraham Lincoln, the sixth president of the United States, the Institute of Income Tax and the IRS.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for 15 presidents, there was no taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, how did Texas come to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: Robert Kersaki says in his book, I don't know if I read this in Rich Dad Poor Dad or A students' work for C students.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, the rich persuaded the poor to vote for Texas because they needed the majority vote of the poor to pass the bill.
[SPEAKER_00]: But once taxes were instituted, they changed the tax code so that the poor ended up paying more in percentage than the rich ever would.
[SPEAKER_00]: Taxes would never apart of the American weight until about a hundred years into the nation's history.
[SPEAKER_00]: And once it started, it stayed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just a matter of rich, a poor, it's a matter of who has access to information and who don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gotta hear what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, give me three more minutes, and I'm going to let you take a motor.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever wonder how some people pay more tax than others?
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the most simple way I can break it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will always pay more if you get paid, pay the government and live off the risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then if you get paid, live off some and pay the government off the risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna run that back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna always pay a higher percentage if you get paid, then you pay the government, then you live off what you got left.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna always be in a higher percentage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then if you get paid, pay yourself, then pay the government off of what's left.
[SPEAKER_00]: How you do that, Rayla?
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds like cheating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we got all got to know ethically where we are in our hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: My goal here is not to teach you to avoid taxes, is to teach you to only pay your fair share of taxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to show you how some people manipulate this to avoid their fair share.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, if I get paid, and I got a W2, that means a paying the government, I don't even see my check.
[SPEAKER_00]: until Social Security, FICO, Georgia State, Tax, just done, just done, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't hit my check over the head.
[SPEAKER_00]: My check come, stand up, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, I thought, I made it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This amount.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's gross.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm with left.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So then, I get paid, W2, the government hit my check over the head, I get what's left, and I try to use that to go get a card note and a mortgage and fee myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Blossay, Blossay, because I'm living off of what they love for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how people avoid that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They get revenue in a business construct.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use that business to buy as much of the stuff as they can that they need, but there's a business expense.
[SPEAKER_00]: After they don't spend money on business expenses, they have reduced their taxable income until the government disall I got left.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you taxed this amount.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over here, I get a check.
[SPEAKER_00]: The government say, the government beat my check-up.
[SPEAKER_00]: My check-up come home with a black eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: I take what's left and I go by a car.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over here, they get paid, they're like, hmm, this company going by me with a car.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a jet, because to the IRS, the car in the jet is the same thing, is just a mode of transportation that's a different amount.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the car day job, the company owns, the jet
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, after they bought that car and they janked, whatever's left they tell the government, now this what you can have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over here, we get paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: The government say, no, that's my money.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you got on my 40 homie?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know, keep not knowing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know, then you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: Who?
[SPEAKER_00]: D-B-O!
[SPEAKER_00]: The government rollov.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know y'all got something.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'ma stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause this is kind of, this is part of the sermon I'd be regretting.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as I get in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'ma stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, mothers, I apologize.
[SPEAKER_00]: We get paid, the government take their part.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then tell us now you can use this to go eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over here, they get paid.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they say, I'm going to take my clients out to a steak dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they spent a money on lavish food with clients and business partners.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they got receipts to show.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they tell the government, okay, now that I'm done eating my steak and flying in my jet, here's what I got left and you can have some of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying cheat the system, because Christians don't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saying understand it and pay your fair share.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all picking what I'm putting down?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, take a deep breath.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got one more point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's 11 o'clock, but you'll give me a quick minute, because I don't want these summers to run into each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number four, I'm going to be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make a plan and pay attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says, make a plan and pay attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of budget is a plan for money.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you make that budget, then you pay attention to what actually happens to know if the budget you made was a wise plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't just make the plan and let go.
[SPEAKER_00]: You make the plan, and you pay attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 215 says, the plans of the diligent certainly need to advantage.
[SPEAKER_00]: But everyone who's in a hurry certainly comes to poverty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 2723 says, what church know well the condition of your a flocks and what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pay attention to your herds.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it's talking about flocks and herds, the way wealth was counted in this day in time is about how much animals you have.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if your wealth isn't your sheep, but you don't go check on your sheep, but once a week, you don't know if a wolf got in there and tore all your sheep apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't go check on them, so you don't know how they doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't allow all this capital in the sheep because you only go out there once a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: You scared to look.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody ever been scared to look at a bank account?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I was a swiping fool, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, swiping, sw
[SPEAKER_00]: I get paid in four days, but I don't wrote $600 of bad checks.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go on to take out $225.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna let them check, go through.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's $34 each check.
[SPEAKER_00]: So remember, I get paid, I'm already $350 in the hole, but I'm gonna go on to do it anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: because you're not checking your herd.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, if you check all your money before you start spending, you may come up with a creative way not to get in that situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then go check on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm like.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you got to make a plan and pay attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does a plan do?
[SPEAKER_00]: It guides us functionally.
[SPEAKER_00]: It guards us from frivolity and gives us flexibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you make a plan for your money, it helps show decisions before you even know what decision to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I got 500 left for the week, and today's Sunday, in our own game, no more money to Friday, Monday, I can't go to roofs, Chris.
[SPEAKER_00]: Already know what I can't do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause it's Monday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if I get the Thursday, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I got 300 left, and I get paid no more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, a plan also guards us from frivolity, from frivolous spending.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, I'm, I get this trait from my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you give my mom $200 in cash and tell her to tell you in a month what she did with that, my mom am gonna go down to the penny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got that same trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I spent some cash, I can go back in my head.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, I spent $7.93 on coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I used to think because I could remember that was good.
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is not to remember what you spent after it's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is to tell your money where it's going before we leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ain't leaving in his house unless you go to the grocery store you ain't leaving in his house Then let's you buy me some coffee you not even in his house Right, I'm telling the money where to go instead of trying to remember where it went He's from fifth of the spending also it gives me flexibility a budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a straight jacket It actually lets you know what you can and can you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: So then when you got to make a decision, you probably didn't plan for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't know, oh, what's this thing I got to do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It helps your opportunity cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my 20s y'all, I live by the 1090 principle.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, this is me and Ed's life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: 10% ties, 90% pinch and survive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought if I could have lowered his 10%, I could do it I won't with the 90, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I read in the book, that we gave away the yellow book by Tim White and Jeffery Johnson is the 10101070 right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I teach my sons, all three of my sons live by the 10101070.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they get some money, they got to make a budget and they got to be 101070.
[SPEAKER_00]: 10 they give to the Lord, 10 they save, 10 they invest or pay down debt, they ain't got no debt because they got daddy and mommy.
[SPEAKER_00]: 7% you can go by chicken fingers, whatever you want to do with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: My goal is to get my personal life to look like this and get the way community church to look like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now the way community church is like 3% 30, 30, 30, 30, I'll show you next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is to get it to 10, 10, 10, 70 and the goal is to get my personal life to that level.
[SPEAKER_00]: to start as close as you can in 10, 10, 10, 70.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of y'all are right up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't live off a 70% of what I make.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about priorities.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you need a tool, I want you to use this tool on the back of the page.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my question.
[SPEAKER_00]: What tools are you using to manage your money?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you just gain pay and spend it,
[SPEAKER_00]: That is not the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us, a tool like this, is going to save our day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Others of us, you are using spreadsheets, and all kinds of stuff, let the lawyer use you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point is, make a plan, pay attention, and let the tools help you have flexibility and freedom in your money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, man, church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, man, give them all the hands up and praise if you would.