Money Matters Money is important in our earthly lives, because it is the key to our standard of commerce. Without money in today’s world, we would find it impossible to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves and our children. While money is important to us, we must be careful to avoid four basic mistakes about money. MONEY MISTAKE #1: LOVE OF MONEY “I love money. Once I make a little, I want to make a lot. I’ll save every penny I make and not spend it on anything but the bare essentials. If I start spending it on things I don’t need, I won’t have any money left. I love my money and I want more. Hey, why don’t I have any friends?” Do you know anyone like this? It is one thing to save money for a rainy day, but a miser saves his or her money for the sake of saving it – to keep it away from anyone else. "I'll keep it short and sweet," says Burns. "Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don't want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church. Or synagogue."
With an estimated net worth of $16.8 billion, it is hard to argue with his financial success, but Jesus tells us that this is not the way to live, in fact, Jesus warns us: But woe to you who are rich, Is Jesus saying that it is a sin to be rich? Hardly. What he means is that if you live your life collecting worldly treasure for yourself in this world, you will not have any treasure or comfort in Heaven. MONEY MISTAKE #2: DISREGARD FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF MONEY “Money really isn’t important to me. I really don’t pay attention to how much I make, and couldn’t care less how much I spend. Here, you go, count out what you think is a fair price and give me what’s left in change.” This may be an extreme case, but we all know people who have so little regard for money and its importance that they are often subject to cons and scams. Because they simply don’t care about money, they often make bad decisions, many of which can lead to financial ruin. In today’s information age, Identity theft is more common than you may think. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen EACH YEAR! If you have so little regard for money that you never pay attention to your account balance, credit report, and fail to protect personal information such as your Social Security Number, Birthday, Address, etc., you increase your likelihood of becoming a victim of identity theft, and you and your money will be parted even sooner than your suspected! Jesus also speaks of this fool’s disregard for money in the Parable of the Minas (Luke 19:11-27). In this Parable, a man of noble birth went abroad, and entrusted upon ten of his servants one mina each (about three months’ salary). When the man returned as king, one servant turned the mina into ten more. His reward as a “good servant” who has been trustworthy in a very small matter was to be put in charge of ten cities. But the servant who simply hid the money away and simply returned the mina to the king was judged as a wicked servant. At the very least, he should have deposited the money into a bank so it could collect interest. Because this servant’s fear of the man and his lack of respect for money, he was rebuked for not using those resources entrusted to him wisely. Money is one of many resources God entrusts us as the stewards of his kingdom on Earth. When it is time for us to meet Him in Heaven, how would you want Him to greet you: “Well done, my good servant,” or “you wicked servant”? MONEY MISTAKE #3: HATRED OF MONEY “I hate money. Money is dirty, wicked, and corrupt. Money is the root of all evil.” There are some who loathe money so much that they will do anything they can to avoid it. They feel that money is in itself corrupt and evil. They take Jesus’s warning to the rich in Luke 6:24 as a rebuke of money in general. Jesus did not preach that money was evil. In fact, nowhere in the Bible is money equated with evil. Quite the opposite, it is a resource entrusted to us as stewards to work for God’s glory (Luke 19:11-27). People often use the aphorism. “Money is the root of all evil.” This, however, is not scripturally accurate. Money itself is neither evil, nor the root of evil. According to the Apostle Paul, “the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1Timothy 6:10) There are many passages in both the Old and New Testaments warning against the dangers of a love of money, but in all cases it is our human greed / covetousness (Exodus 20:17) that is the sin, not the money itself. We’re not sure why people learn to hate money, perhaps they were once wronged by one given to intense greed, or perhaps they shun money because they feel too weak to overcome our covetous nature. God’s strength can flow through us to do His will and overcome temptation to sin if we believe and if we choose to let it. But if we shun the very resources he entrusts to our care, how can we ever do His work for His glory? MONEY MISTAKE #4: IT’S FRIDAY NIGHT, JUST GOT PAID “It’s Friday night, and I just got paid. SWEET! Now I got some money, so I’m gonna go buy some new clothes, the latest track from Soulja Boy, and hit the clubs. Man, we gonna be all up in the VIP tonight!” Impulse spending will ruin you financially. By spending most of our paycheck as soon as we get it (especially on things we don’t need), we have very little left for emergencies. Of course, when you get your paycheck, it is wise to plan for the predictable expenses: rent, car payments, insurance, food, etc., but this mistake is different. This mistake is partying all weekend burning through cash like it was nothing just for a good time. Like Jigga Man, you are “Big Pimpin’, spending the cheese,” but then Sunday comes and the hangover sets in. If we fail to plan, we will most assuredly plan to fail. If you spend the majority of your paycheck as soon as you get it, how will you be able to handle those curve balls life throws at you, such as a car problem, medical emergency, or natural disaster? As Jesus tells us, it is wise to plan for our future, rather than spend our money rashly. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? (Luke 14:18) HAVE A GOOD PLAN In 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, Paul is giving instructions to the church in Corinth, specifically, how to plan for the upcoming collection to be taken for the church in Jerusalem. Paul advises the Corinthians to PLAN AHEAD, saving for the collection before he arrives, just as he had told the church in Galatia. Paul’s advice to Corinth was in two parts: By giving to the church faithfully, regularly, significantly, and proportionally, you are giving back a portion of that which God has entrusted to you, specifically to do His work. I advise members to try and live by the 80/10/10 principle: Live on 80% of your income, save 10%, and give 10%. This allows us to tithe our 10% (as required by Leviticus 27:32), put aside 10% to save for emergencies and to take care of our children in the form of inheritance (Proverbs 13:22), and finally, pay for our living expenses. How can we learn to live on this principle? We must MAKE A PLAN! Just as we would not build a tower without first counting the cost (Luke 14:18), we must plan for our financial future and growth in the form of a budget. If you aren’t currently able to live by this principle right away, usually because you were making one or more of the money mistakes listed above, that is OK, but you must start on a path to that financial future as soon as possible. San Diego is a very expensive area, and many have trouble affording to live here on 80% of their incomes. If you find that your cost of living outpaces your ability to live by the 80/10/10 principle, there are a few things you can do to put yourself on the path: STICK TO THE PLAN Merely having a good plan is not enough; you must follow through with the plan. This is not always easy, and requires a great deal of financial discipline, especially in this Veruca Salt era of instant gratification. Paul’s advice to Corinth goes well beyond merely saving the money for the collection for the church in Jerusalem, it also involves a follow-through for the collection. Specifically, the church is to nominate representatives to deliver the collection to Jerusalem. Paul offers to write letters of introduction for the representatives, and if necessary, to accompany them (which he ultimately does). Why is this plan for follow-though so important to Paul? Paul wants to avoid event the appearance of impropriety, so he tells the church to elect its own representatives to deliver the collection. Paul knows that he is asking the Corinthians to sacrifice to aid the church in Jerusalem, which requires long-term discipline. He also knows that this sacrifice over a period of time may cause dissent in Corinth prior to his arrival. He is attempting to ease the Corinthians’ potential concern that Paul is just asking for money for his own good. GODLY MONEY MANAGEMENT What does the Bible tell us about how we should manage money? Money is one of the many resources God has entrusted to us to live our lives and perform His work for His glory. But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms the covenant which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. (Leviticus 8:18) We should thank God every day for entrusting us with all the blessings he was given us, including money. We should manage all of the resources at our disposal as a good and faithful servant, a true steward of God’s possessions, because all things truly belong to God, we are merely his tenants, his sharecroppers (Leviticus 25:23). Amen.
1 Corinthians 16:1-4
Do you have a hard time with money? Many of us do, and it’s no wonder why. Inflation drives up prices, often outpacing cost of living adjustments to salaries. This is especially true for the essentials for daily life; according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the three categories of the Consumer Price Index with the highest increase in price over the last year are Housing, Food and Beverages, and Medical Care. While gas prices are currently falling, it often felt that when we went to the pump this summer, we truly were paying an arm and a leg just to get to work!
This way of life has earned the venerable C. Montgomery Burns a Number 2 slot on Forbes Magazine’s Forbes Fictional 15 List for 2006. In an interview with Mr. Burns, he attributes his success in life to following the tenets of his personal heroes: Sun Tzu, Vlad the Impaler and Judas Iscariot. How does Burns continue to succeed?
for you have received your comfort. (Luke 6:24) 
Just as the life of a penny-pinching miser is a lonely one, a life with complete disregard for money is a foolish one. As the old adage goes, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” Or, as we learn from Gordon Gekko of the 1987 movie Wall Street, “A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.”
This popular mistake is repeated time and again in today’s consumer culture. 
Just as the last line of the NSync track says, “Yeah, I’m broke.”