ANXIETY
Money is consistently listed as the number 1 source of anxiety for Americans.
CONFLICT
Money is consistently listed as a top reason for divorce and the number issue that couples fight about.
Book Study
Lesson 4
Bring Your Whole Heart
Money can be managed with
OR
Right now, how much dread do you feel when you think about money?
1: mostly dread...10: delighted and hopeful
Whole Heart Video
While watching the video, what stood out to you?
Money Problems
DEBT BURDEN
There are more payday loan storefronts than McDonald’s storefronts.
The average American debt balance for credit cards, auto loans, and student loans is $13,510.
NO MARGIN
Roughly 60% of Americans would not be able to pay for a $1,000 emergency with savings.
Half of American households over the age of 55 have no retirement savings.
In what way have you experienced these money problems?
The Traditional Solution
Gain wealth through personal financial planning.
This solution may create margin and eliminate debt burden, but it often does not fix anxiety and conflict issues.
Susie
“I’m scared about not having enough.”
A bus driver about to retire with a net worth of over $1 million. She gained wealth through wise personal financial planning, and, yet, was still scared.
Poverty in America, Matthew Desmond
Americans today are at an all-time low in people saying they are very happy (14%) with an all-time high in people saying they are satisfied with their family’s financial situation (80%).
Survey of 165 super-rich households (those with over $25 million)
“Most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure; for that, they say, they would require on average one-quarter more wealth than they currently possess.”
One respondent, the heir to an enormous fortune, says that what matters most to him is his Christianity, and that his greatest aspiration is “to love the Lord, my family, and my friends.” He also reports that he wouldn’t feel financially secure until he had $1 billion in the bank.
When you are anxious about money, to what degree do you believe that becoming rich will solve all of your problems?
1: 100% correct……5: I sometimes believe this……10: Not true at all
One big giving party
Let the reality of the Trinity enter your life!
Our God is a Giver:
- He gives you your income
- He gives you your time, talents, and health.
- Most importantly, He gives you:
JESUS
HOLY SPIRIT
How often do you forget that everything that you are getting and possess has been generously given to you?
2 Seas
Dead Sea
- Jordan River fills it up
- It’s dead to all life
Sea of Galilee
- Jordan River fills it up
- It’s teaming with life
Why the difference?
The Sea of Galilee gives what it receives, whereas, The Dead Sea has no outlet. It is obsessed with accumulating.
Notice that the Sea of Galilee sustainably gives – it is still a sea (actually a lake), and does not bleed out all of what has been given to it – it manages its resources.
John Stott says, “What dominated Jesus’ mind wasn’t so much the living his life but the giving of it.”
May our money lives obsess about having a generous outlet.
Visualize your life becoming more like the Sea of Galilee with a wide, generous outflow that refreshes and spills out towards your community and God’s church.
What is most exciting to you about your vision?
Activity: Authentically Give
For this exercise, we want to break any separation we may have formed between our finances and our life in Jesus Christ.
STEP (1): Share with another person a story of how the gospel of grace of Jesus Christ changed you.
STEP (2): Read the Apostle Paul’s discussion about what we should do with our money in 2 Corinthians 8-9. What stood out to you?
“Our happiness consists not in the knowing the things of the gospel, but in doing of them.” John Owen
-
- Paul says that when we give, it is an “act of grace” (2 Corinthians 8:7). This means that by giving, we get to “do the gospel” regularly.
- We should seek to become skillful managers of money so that we can do more acts of grace – more doing of the gospel.
STEP (3): Watch the following 3 stories of people who saw that giving was a way for them to “do the Gospel.”
More fun stories:
STEP (4): Brainstorm the specifics of how you would do each giving system then determine a giving system(s) that is most aligned to how God made you. Many families practice multiple systems simultaneously.
GIVING SYSTEMS:
- First-fruit % every month (e.g., 15% of monthly income).
- First-fruit dollar amount (e.g., $50 every week).
- Increasing % (e.g., increase giving rate by 1% with every pay raise).
- Giving goal (e.g., give a total of $1 million by age 67).
- Median Household Income (e.g., give any amount I earn more than my county’s median household income).
- Residual income (e.g., give 50% of anything left-over each month after lifestyle expenses and necessary savings to sustain my lifestyle have been made).
- Financial finish line (e.g., my lifestyle maximum is $90,000 and any year I earn more than this, I will give the excess away).
- Giving Circle (e.g., pooling my giving money with my Bible study in order to give collectively to translate the Bible into a new language).
STEP (5): Using the Sea of Galilee model, map out how you want to authentically “excel in the act of grace of giving” and regularly do the Gospel in your life.
- Map out your percentage of income for giving, consuming, debt, and saving today.
- Show your ideal percentages of income in 10 years. Not to earn love, but as a way to worship Jesus and dream big.
- Every person’s balance between income, savings, consumption, and giving is going to look different.
- But the heart posture should be the same: complete and utter amazement at what we have received from the Father!
“By careful management, I should be able to give at least one-quarter of my income to the poor.” William Wilberforce
