Money Behaves - by Bill Hybel

This week, Bill taught an overview of God’s plan for how we are to manage our money. Despite the way we often talk or hear about money, money is actually compliant and agreeable. It will do everything we tell it to do. It never misbehaves or acts defiantly.

Early in His ministry, Jesus warned His followers about the deceitfulness of money (Mark 4:19), and we all know that money can trick us into thinking it has a mind of its own. But we should not buy into the lie that money is beyond our ability to control.

In Genesis 1:28, we read: God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God gave human beings dominion over the earth. This is still the charge God gives us today, calling us to exercise dominion over the things in our lives—our skills, gifts, relationships, and our money.

So many lives are decimated by money problems and people invariably blame money for their problems when, in reality, it is they who made poor decisions, telling their money exactly where to go—to another vacation instead of savings, to an impulse buy instead of the mortgage payment, etc.

There are three “buckets” into which we can put our earnings—spending, savings, and giving.

Each time we receive earnings, we have two decisions to make:
1. What percentage of our earnings goes where; and
2. In what order we move our money.

The average American puts 130% of their earnings into spending, 4-5% into savings, and 2-3% into giving. (The percentages don’t add up to 100% because people go into debt to make these work.) And the average American moves their money to spending first, savings second, and giving third. Any objective person looking at these percentages and priorities would think money misbehaves or the money manager has abandoned their dominion over money!

What is God’s plan for our money?
Giving, saving, spending (instead of spending, saving, giving).

1 Giving In various passages of Scripture (Exodus 20:3, Matthew 6:33, and Matthew 22:37–39), we see God’s desire to be first in all things, including our money. In the Old Testament, the people were called to honor God with their first fruits (Proverbs 3:9), not their leftovers. Thus, Scripture makes it clear that when we direct our money, we are to honor God first.

2 Savings After giving first to God, under God’s plan, we are to save next. In Proverbs 21:20, we read: “foolish people spend all they earn.” By saving money first, we are honoring our own labor and setting money aside to care for ourselves and our families.

3 Spending The last bucket in God’s plan for our money is spending. Only after we have honored God and saved money for ourselves and our families, should we spend money to take care of bills, mortgage, etc.

In addition to the order being different than what is average in the United States, the percentages are different under God’s plan.

Giving: 10%
Savings: 15%
Spending: 75%

(For Savings and Spending, these are a good suggested percentage. The higher the percentage for Savings will be much better).

Giving 10% to our home church for the work of God in the world is the threshold set out in Scripture. Of course, for many of us, we cannot begin at 10% and need to work our way up to that percentage. But we can start with three, move to five, then to seven, and eventually to ten. The Holy Spirit offers support in this—as in all things.

Saving 15% of our earnings each time we are paid allows us to save wisely. The Bible does not specifically speak to a percentage, but because we are living longer, this is a wise percentage to save.
The smartest people in finance, will automate this process of saving.

Spending 75% of our earnings is the last piece. And, this goes to pay bills, but we should also know that God enjoys giving us good gifts and we should not feel guilt or shame about enjoying what He has given us. Just as an earthly parent loves seeing their children enjoy gifts, so too does our Father in heaven. We have freedom in Christ to enjoy the fruit of our labor. Further, God has also directed us to do good to others and share with them (Hebrews 13:16).

Why do so few people get on God’s plan if it’s so simple? Most of us need a “conversion” when it comes to money. We need the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts about the way we handle money. Indeed, money management provides a transparent view into our relationship with God. Maybe today is the day for a conversion when it comes to money.

Watch the video sermon by Bill Hybel below. It's so inspiring and helpful.

Link: https://willowcreek.tv/sermons/south-barrington/2017/01/money-behaves/#top