The street.
Hey, it's Thanksgiving week, but one of the things we do right around that time every year is bless folks for Christmas. And one of the ways we did that this year was Operation Shoebox. Thank you for your generosity. I'm glad to report that we collected over 1,600 shoeboxes to go out. There's the truck to kids all around the world at Christmas. It's pretty amazing what happens when they get that shoebox. Not only do they get a few things that they would never get for Christmas to play with and things that are helpful, hygiene things, but they also get to hear about Jesus. And it makes a difference.
You go to some of these countries where kids have received Operation Shoebox shoeboxes, and you go into the little one-room house that a family of seven lives in, and on the wall they have pictures that were sent to them that they got in their shoeboxes. And it's just pretty amazing. So well done. Your generosity is going to make a difference this Christmas all around the world.
Another thing that you can do if you're thinking, "Man, I missed out on it." In fact, I think I left that shoebox in my garage, and I didn't even do anything with it. There's another church in town that is a collection center, and I think you still have a couple days, not very much, but just a couple days. So if you're thinking, "Oh, I didn't get the box in," find one of us in the lobby. We'll send you the actual collection center and make that happen.
But if you didn't do that at all, and you're like, "Oh man, I should have been a part of this. I could have blessed somebody at Christmas." We have a prison ministry, and it's a pretty amazing prison ministry. We got Dale here excited about it already. I'm glad to see that. Dale and Marlene lead our prison ministry. They're here in the fourth row. And we go to four different prison yards every week. So imagine if you're in one of these yards, this is your church service every week.
So on a Friday night, for instance, we show up in Florence. We take our team in. And this is their service and this is their church. In fact, they think that so much so that I get letters sometimes. And not only is it a letter thanking Compass Christian Church for the ministry they provide, but it's like $6 in it. "Here's $5 for my tithe, pastor. And here's $1 for the dollar club." And they're doing that every week. So we are their church. They are a part of our body.
And one of the things we like to do at Christmas is give them Christmas cards. So if you've never done this and you want to participate, we need, you ready for this? 4,000 Christmas cards. I think over 1,000 have been completed. So we can pull this off, right? Last service was pretty excited about it. But here's what we need you to do. Dale and Marlene, raise your hands again, are going to be out on the patio after service. And they will give you a little sheet that will explain to you how to do the card, right? Because you can't like, "Hey, here are pictures of my kids. Here's my home address." You know, you have to do it a certain way. And you also want to bless them the right way too. So they've got some instructions for you on how to do that.
If you'd like to be a blessing to someone in our prison ministry this Christmas, see Dale and Marlene. See Dale and Marlene right after the service. And they'll help you figure out how to do that. And man, it's going to make a difference. Will it not? Yes. It's going to be amazing. So thank you for that.
We're also maybe more excited than anything I mentioned so far. Sorry, Marlene. Is Quest 52. Man, did you know that 2025 is our 100th year as a church? Like we're 100 years old in 2025. 1925 this church started. And we're going to celebrate 100 years in so many fun ways. I can't tell you about all of them right now. But one thing, one way is we want to go back to just the basics, man. And we're going to spend 52 weeks focused on the life of Jesus.
My friend Mark Moore, Bible college professor at Ozark Bible College for 20 years as a New Testament professor, has written this book. And he says it's a 52-week journey into the heart of Jesus. So the way this works is you buy one of these books. Mark gave us a super big discount. So you couldn't get this on Amazon for the price you can get it right out on the patio. Buy one for your friend. Come back next week. We're starting this series for Christmas. Because if you think about the life of Jesus, where does it start? With the birth of Jesus. Yes. Good job. You with me today?
And so next week, we're actually starting Quest 52. You don't want to miss it. Bring a friend back. And it works like this. You spend about 15 minutes a day with Jesus. Getting to know him better. Getting to know the stories. Digging into the scripture. And when you come on the weekend, we take a gospel passage. And we dig deeper. We preach a sermon on it. Study it. Get together as a church. And then you take this book to your life group.
"Pastor, I'm not in a life group." Get in a life group. Okay? And you take this to your life group. And there are study questions at the end of each chapter. And you take it even deeper. Can you imagine what's going to happen as a church when we all come around Quest 52 together and walk 52 weeks through the life of Jesus? It's going to be amazing. And we're saying it like this. Give us a year focused on Jesus. It'll change your life.
And we can say that without even blinking because we know that's true. Give us a week focused on Jesus. It'll change your life. But man, you spend a year. It's going to be an amazing thing. So I hope you'll grab one of these books. Maybe grab a second one for a friend. If you've been praying for a one and you're like, "You're the 99. You're going after the one." You've been praying for the one to get to know Jesus. This is a perfect opportunity for you to do that.
So Quest 52 starts next week. Can you believe we're starting a Christmas series next week? Now, some of you are thinking, "I wish we were starting it right now because I know what you're getting ready to talk about." You know, if the dreaded finance word and money word kind of gets to you that way, let me recommend one more thing before we jump into the sermon.
We have a class called Financial Peace University. Dave Ramsey put together this biblically based class that helps you get out of debt. We had 23 people, families, individuals that went through FPU recently. Just about a month ago, it finished up. And in the 10 weeks that they spent together in Financial Peace University, they eliminated $37,000 worth of debt. Okay, so yeah, we can clap for that. Out of bondage, right?
And if you're struggling in that way, then all you got to do is text FPU, Financial Peace University, FPU to 57321, right? You remember the number? 57321, that's Compass's texting number. If you will text FPU to 57321, we'll get you signed up for the class. It starts in January, and if you're thinking, "Well, I need some more information before I can text FPU to 57321," well, then right out on the patio next to where you're going to get your information to fill out a Christmas card, you can find out about FPU, and Tom and Julie Varland will be out there. They'd love to give you more information. You can get signed up for that class, and that'll be a blessing to you.
Well, today we are going to finish our series called Three Fatal Diseases, right? Affluenza, acute mine-itis, and credit cardiac arrest. We're going to talk about that today. And we've been saying in this series, God is interested in so much more than your money. He wants your heart, and yet he knows how close money is to our hearts. Or should I say, how much our hearts run after money. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
So we've been talking about this because Jesus talked about this, right? Over 2,000 verses in the scripture that talk about generosity and giving. If we decided not to talk about it, we would be committing ministry malpractice. And Jesus knew this, right? And he knew the idols of his day. He knew what the culture needed to hear about. Money can be a great gift, but it can also capture your heart. It can deceive us. And we care about you as a church. We don't want you to fall for the lies of the world. We want you to live into the fullness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
And so Jesus knew this. He talked about it a ton. We talk about it in November for about three weeks. Week three. Let me start with a story. Melvin Milligan lived in Passaic, New Jersey. And in early June of 2000, he was driving home from work. He decided he was going to stop at a convenience store to get a Coke. A store in Montvale, New Jersey. And he noticed the ad for the $46 million jackpot that week on the big game lottery. So he thought, "What the heck? I'll buy some tickets." He bought five $1 tickets, even though he'd never played the lottery. And even though he didn't have any favorite numbers because he just never plays. He said, "Let the computer pick them."
When he got home, he didn't even think anymore about it. He threw those tickets in a junk drawer and forgot about them. Almost a year later, on June 7th, 2001, Mr. Milligan and his wife were watching the news. And heard an interview with a state lottery official. The official said that the single winning ticket from the $46 million jackpot from the year before had never been claimed. And whoever had it had 36 hours left to claim it. Otherwise, the one-year statute of limitations would be up on that award. It would expire. And it would be declared null and void. Someone would lose $46 million.
Now, as part of the newscast, they also showed a picture of the $46 million jackpot. And they showed a picture of the little convenience store in Montvale where the winning ticket had been bought. And Mr. Milligan turned to his wife and said, "You know what? I think about a year ago, I went to that convenience store and I bought some lottery tickets." And she said, "What?" He said, "I know. I know we're not supposed to play the lottery, but I bought some." And his wife said, "Well, honey, you better find them."
So it took him a while, but he found them. He found them in the bottom of that junk drawer. He stuck them in his pocket. And he walked to the local deli there in Passaic, New Jersey, where he lives. To stick them in the computer to see if he won. Amazingly, the second ticket he stuck in the machine was the winning ticket for $46 million. Right? And he claimed that prize less than 24 hours before his ticket was going to be null and void.
Now, if you won $46 million, what would you do with it? Well, I want to make a few suggestions about what you could do. You could buy three one-minute ads at the Super Bowl. Yeah. Or you could cruise around the world 57 times, staying in the penthouse with a private veranda. Or you could feed all the animals in the National Zoo for 45 years. Well, that would be a good thing to do. Or you could buy 92 brand-new Ferraris. I'm not sure where you would put them, but you could buy 92 brand-new Ferraris.
Or... Or listen to this one. Here's a good one for you. You could pay off about .00001253% of the national debt. That's pretty scary, right? Or you could buy green seats in baseball heaven, Bush Stadium in St. Louis, for the St. Louis Cardinals, for the next 78 years. And all the Cubs fans in the room said... now no one in their right mind would do this, right? Nobody would spend $46 million that way. No, we would invest it in ways that would make a difference for many people, right? Wise money management would be the way to go.
And we would do it, would we really? Sounds so much easier than it really is. I think in all of our hearts we want to be known as wise and generous people, but the inability to manage our money and our desires brings out the worst in everybody, whether you play the lottery or not. And we see this so much in the culture, don't we? I mean, the average credit card debt being carried by an American these days is about $8,674, up 52% from 1999. The average size home mortgage has nearly quadrupled in the past 24 years. We know that here in Chandler, personal bankruptcy and foreclosures set records every single year. In fact, a few years back, are you ready for this? More people declared personal bankruptcy than graduated from college.
That's what I said. Americans gambled away $511 billion with a "b" last year. That's a crazy amount of money. That's almost five times the net worth of Bill Gates. The average American gambles away over a thousand dollars in a year. That's like lottery stuff, casino stuff, Vegas stuff. And check your pacemaker on this last one: 14% of retired workers when they retire will have less than a thousand dollars in their savings account. I mean, work in 20, 30, 40, 50 years to find out at the end of your working career when you come to retirement you're hoping that Social Security still exists. You're going to live on Social Security and have less than a thousand dollars in savings.
Now friends, that's the world we're living in, and sadly that's the world our kids are growing up in. Where are they going to learn the basics of wise money management? Where are they going to learn what it takes to be a wise, generous adult? At school? Or it's really not taught. I mean, watching television or scrolling through social media, from friends at parties or playing video games or in the shopping mall? No, friends, our children will tend to learn the principles of wise money management from their parents or perhaps at their church.
In fact, I want you to listen to these wise words from Proverbs chapter 8. It says, "Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, set your hearts on it. Listen, this is wisdom talking, for I have trustworthy things to say. I open my lips to speak what is right. My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness." Proverbs 11:25 goes on to say, "A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will themselves be refreshed."
So there is wisdom out there. It can be found in the word of God. So I want to talk to you today as we end this series on how to prevent credit cardiac arrest, okay? And I'm just going to give you a few points. So if you're taking notes, grab your note sheet. Here's point number one, and it's pretty simple. You ready? Work hard.
I mean, that seems like it's not going to work. It's a gentle thing to say, and it's a lot of common sense, but in our culture today, I think we've kind of forgotten about this: work hard. You know how the Bible refers to one's money? The Bible calls it the fruit of one's labor, right? Scripture teaches that work is a good thing. Engaging in labor sharpens our skills and grows our confidence and deepens our character and expands our intellect.
Now, when a person understands the nobility of human labor and engages in it enthusiastically, usually that mindset produces a steady growing stream of income. I learned the value and, you know, the nobility of work from my parents but also from my grandparents. Growing up, I worked at McDonald's. I worked at Sears Payment Systems to pay for a car that I drove in college. I mowed yards, I shelled beans, I picked fruit, I shucked corn, I picked up aluminum cans with my papa, I bailed hay.
You want to talk about that? I'm going to talk about that in a minute. I'm going to talk about hard work. So my cousin, who lives in the rural part of the holy land there in East Tennessee, lived near one of these farmers. And this farmer decided to get some young, strong high school guys that didn't know any better, and he said, "Hey, I'm going to give five dollars an hour to bail hay." And I was like, "Five dollars an hour?" I mean, some of you, you're not even 20 years old. Back in the day when I was working at McDonald's, you know how much I got? You know what minimum wage was? $3.35 an hour. So I was like, "$5? I'm going to do this."
So I went with my cousin. We started at sunup, right? And we went all the way till sundown. I mean, we worked at least 12 hours, right? Because I got $60 at the end of it. So that's how I know. 12 hours. And it doesn't take a math genius to figure that out, right? So we start, and I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be great." And you know you have to do it a certain way when you pick up a bale of hay. You can't just do it all back. You got to pick it up like this. You got to bend down to do that, but you don't want your back to just be dead by the end of the day. So you have to put it on your knee, right? And then you put it up onto the wagon.
And so we did that several hundred times. In fact, 2,500 bales of hay. We would load up the wagon. Sometimes it would be eight or ten high. We'd ride up on the top. This was fun. We'd go to the barn, put it in. We got to the very end of those bales of hay, and the sun was going down. And we were putting the last bale of hay on the wagon. And we were putting the last few of those in the barn and taking our $60. I was like, "Boy, I didn't know what I was getting myself into."
I'll spare you all the details of what happens when you bail hay all day. I mean, when you blow your nose, let's just leave it right there. Okay. Pretty bad stuff. But man, I like $60. And I learned what hard work was all about, right? My grandfather built his own house twice. He was all about working in the garden. He was on the house outside all the time. In my family, we valued the satisfaction that comes from a good day's work. And as a result, I grew up viewing work as a good thing and hard work as an even better thing.
And because of this, I've always had a steady stream of paychecks. Not big ones, but a steady stream anyway. And that's something to manage. So the first thing is just simple: work hard. But here's the second thing. Write this down. Establish a plan.
Establish a plan. Friends, you ask any financial expert you can find, and they will tell you the key to personal money management is the establishment and the execution of a plan. A financial formula that we've used in the church for many years that's been found helpful by a lot of people is the plan that goes like this: it's the 10-10-80 plan. 10-10-80. The basic idea is to organize the flow of your income in a way that honors the priorities of your life, right? If you're a Christian, you're going to start like this: the first 10. Obey the clear teaching of the Bible and honor God by giving at least the first 10% of your earnings to support the ministry of the church that ministers to you.
Now, friends, this is the basic expectation of how a grateful believer worships God through giving. Did you know giving is an act of worship? I mean, we thought that only singing was worship, right? No. Praying is an act of worship. When we study the word of God together? This is an act of worship. When we take communion, that's an act of worship. And friends, the Bible teaches that when we give, it is an act of worship, right?
And in the Old Testament, it was called tithing. In the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, we're given this word of encouragement by God. Here's what he says. He says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house." And then this is the only time you're going to get this in the whole Bible. So pay attention to this next line. Only time God says we can do this. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
Now, that's pretty clear. I don't really need to do a lot of explaining of that verse, but I know there's that person out there that's saying, "Well, thank you for that, pastor, but that's in the Old Testament, right? I mean, we live under grace. We don't live under the law in the Old Testament." Well, I would say two things to you. First of all, the Old Testament is in the Bible, right? And if it's in the Bible, we pay attention to it. We don't throw out the pages we don't like. We don't say we're only going to pay attention to the New Testament. We're not going to pay attention to the Old Testament.
But let me also teach you something that will hopefully help you up here as you think about the Bible. So in Jesus's day, you know what we call that? New Testament times. And the reason we call them New Testament times is that the very thing that you read about in the New Testament was the life of Jesus. So when he was walking the earth, it was going to be written down by eyewitnesses, and we were going to call that the New Testament. So in the day of Jesus, when he's living out New Testament times, what Bible did they have available at that point?
Well, they only had the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, right? And so Jesus is talking to people who, yes, are commanded by law in the Old Testament to tithe, and not just a little bit of their income, but everything, their crops. I mean, he even talks about dedicating your kids to the Lord. So they were required by the law to tithe everything they owned, okay? And Jesus, in New Testament times, says to people who are already commanded to tithe, "Be generous."
So what would it mean for a person to say to someone who's already commanded by the law to tithe to be generous? Well, certainly, at the very least, it would mean the least common denominator would be follow the law. And then to be generous would be to go beyond that and to give even more. So we don't throw out the Old Testament because, hey, we're living in a different time. In fact, the Bible itself just says that generous giving demonstrates your full devotion to God and your desire to obey him.
But here's the good news. It also teaches that it unlocks the door for his supernatural involvement in your personal finances. Did you know that each passage in the Bible where we're instructed to give generously to God's work, there's also an accompanying promise of God's full blessing and his favor on those who give? In fact, let me read to you from the New Testament, Jeff. Luke chapter 6, verse 38. Here's what Jesus had to say. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap, for with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
So the first 10% in the 10-10-80 plan goes to God's work through your church. Now, I want to stop right here for a second because I know personally, from a personal standpoint, how difficult this can be to get started, especially when you're young. I remember when we first got married, we said, "We're going to wait maybe three years before we have kids." And then we ended up waiting five years because we had two miscarriages. And I'll spare you all the details, but Marie ended up having a tumor. And praise the Lord, it was not cancerous, but she had to have one of her ovaries removed.
And at the end of the day, we had to go to this specialist who put us on a regimen of all these different supplements. I had to give her shots. Well, that was fun, right? Twelve weeks, one shot, 10 weeks, another. And I'll give you one guess how much of that was covered by the insurance. None. Yeah, you've been there, huh? Yeah, none of it. So if you're trying to have healthy kids, do you say, "Well, I'm sorry, we can't afford this?" No. What do we do? We put it on the credit card.
So we found ourselves in that time going through some debt. And those were tough financial years. It wasn't easy. But the first check we wrote every payday was to God through our church for 10% of our gross salary before taxes. "Wait, gross, not net, pastor? Do you want God to bless you on the gross or the net?" Right? Yeah, of course. This is what he's given you. So this is what, and we made a commitment to missions above and beyond that as well.
Now, friends, that means I'm advocating something my family has done, still does, and always will do. In fact, as we went through Uncharted, how many of you remember that journey through Uncharted a few years ago? Two-year generosity initiative that ran into COVID, right? We were giving more than 20%, a double tithe. Now, when we were really struggling, that wasn't easy. It was just obedience to God at the most basic level. But let me tell you, God kept his promise.
In Proverbs 3:9 and 10, it says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crops or your paycheck, and then your barns will be filled to overflowing." And as I stand before you today, I can testify, my family can testify with hundreds of other Compass Christians that when you honor God first, he honors you. He gets involved. He does supernatural things in your life and with your money.
And that's why for committed believers who want the blessing of God on their finances, the first fruits go to Jesus through your church, first check you write every pay period, or first deduction from online giving. And I want to thank you if you do online giving. I kind of needed to correct this. I said it wrong first service. So there are fees associated with texting to give. If you don't have a ticket, you don't have a ticket to give. You don't have a ticket to give. Text to give, that's okay, that's great. And there are fees associated with online giving, but if you do it like bill pay straight from your account, then there are no fees for the church on that.
So however you give, thank you. But there are ways that you can give that will make it. Some of you like it the old-fashioned way, just put it right in the kiosk as you go out, and that's fine. But symbolically, no matter how you give, it's saying in a powerful way, "God is the first priority in our lives."
Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Well, Pastor Brian, what if I don't have enough money to go around?" Right? Well, did I tell you yet that we're offering this class called Financial Peace University? You just have to text FPU to 57321, okay? That's number one. And then the second, I would say, it takes faith, but give to God first.
Now listen, let me say it like this. If you're financially stressed, what you need is the blessing of God on your finances. Call your creditors, work something out, do what you have to do to obey the Lord in this matter, because if you honor God with your finances, the Bible teaches that he will bless and honor you.
Now, notice I said bless. This is not a guarantee that you're gonna get rich quick. They're like, "If you give $5,000 this year, that God is obligated to give you $50,000." Hey, friends, we don't preach the health and wealth gospel around here, and let me tell you three reasons why. Number one, it's not a real gospel. Number two, it's not biblical. And number three, we preach that there's a cost involved in discipleship.
We preach that there's a cost involved in discipleship in following the Lord Jesus. One author said it like this, and I really like it. He said, "Don't worry about how God will bless your tithes and offerings. He might increase your income. He might lower your expenses." I like this next one. "He might sustain your household appliances," right? "He might protect your health. He might keep your car out of the shop." God blesses in his way, in his time.
But the bottom line of what we're saying is this. What this means, that if God gives you and your family $50,000 in annual household income, and you give him a tithe of $5,000, we will guarantee you that $45,000 with the blessing of God is gonna go way further than $50,000 without it. That's what we're saying. So try it, as the Bible says. Come and see how good God is.
Paul said it like this to a church in Corinth. He said, "Remember this: A farmer who only plants a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure, for God loves a person who gives, what does it say? Cheerfully."
You know what the Greek word is there? Hilarion. You know what that means? Yeah, you get it, hilarious. God loves a hilarious giver. Like Paul says, we're to give generously and cheerfully. Doesn't take a rocket scientist, does it, to understand what he's saying? He's saying here that if you plant a few seeds, you're gonna get a small harvest, but if you plant a bunch of seeds, that's what he says, you get a large harvest.
And guess what? We're expecting a large harvest in our 100th year as a church in 2025. I mean, there's so much that's gonna happen next year, I can't even tell y'all about it right now. We're gonna keep telling you about it as we go along. We'll start telling you about it next week when we start Quest 52.
But can I just tell you about one of those things right now? Man, I think it's awesome that through this giving series we started three weeks ago. Like, "Oh man, are we gonna have any decisions?" Yeah, we had six baptisms last week. I did six baptisms last service, right? And we have a, yeah, praise the Lord. We have a baptism wall, we call it. We did Jesus last year, 500 little places where you can put in a light bulb for every person that gives their life to Christ. They go in and they light up Jesus to our community.
And we had 500 slots, right? And we didn't get 500, we got 546. We had to put Christmas lights last year on the Jesus wall. And we kind of made an exclamation point out of that. Jesus, right? We're showing Jesus this week. So this year we said, "Well, somebody said, 'January, wait, do I get to put a bulb in the wall?'" We're like, "Yeah, give us a minute." So we put up the share wall. And the share wall has 586 light sockets in it.
Well, as of last service, after we put six in the last eight, there's only two left on the wall. Right? So 584 baptisms to this point. It's the most we've ever done in the history of our church. God is at work, and we get to be generous and support that kind of life change.
Now, Pastor Rick, who always makes things look good around here, has already got the lights strung for Christmas lights. So in December, it's all Christmas lights. When you step across the line of faith and give your heart to Jesus, you'll get to put a green or a red light on the share wall. And it's gonna be great.
So, yeah. So first 10% in the 10-10-80 plan goes to God's work through your church. Here's the second 10, though. Write this down. Discipline yourself to set aside 10% for a personal savings and investment fund. The idea here is to take the next percent, 10% of each and every paycheck, and route it toward a savings fund that will build consistently for the future.
But again, it requires self-discipline, doesn't it, and character to take the first 10%, give it to God's work, the second 10% right off the top before you spend anything else, right? And route it to, this is for our savings and eventually for an investment fund. Now, the savings part of the formula has been a real struggle for us over the years, but recently we've talked about this again, and Maria and I, we've got a plan, we've got a direction we're going, and I'm so glad we're having those discussions.
But friends, listen, if you commit yourself to regular intentional giving and saving, the payoff is huge. In fact, let me show you this. Let's say a couple with a combined annual earnings of about $55,000 a year. Husband earns $27,500, wife earns $27,500, and they tithe their income over a 20-year period of time. A tithe would be $5,500 a year, $106 each week. Look at what will happen. Tithing 10% of $55,000 per year for 20 years equals $110,000 of kingdom investment. Right, that's amazing.
I want to ask you a question. How are you gonna feel on the day of judgment when you experience the divine audit and you're able to say to God, "You know, we didn't have any big windfalls, didn't win the $46 million lottery. My wife and I never earned more than $55,000 a year, but over the past 20 years, we've invested $110,000 into food for the hungry, clothing for the naked, shelter for the homeless, relief of suffering, the teaching of God's principles to children, and helping churches all around the world."
How do you think you're gonna feel about that? Well, friends, let me tell you, you will feel like a wise, good, and faithful steward. Well, in addition, if that couple had taken the next 10% each pay period and invested it with a 10% rate of return over those 20 years, you know how much they would have in their little investment fund? Saving 10% of $55,000 at 10% interest for 20 years each year. You know how much they would have in their little investment fund? Equals $348,000 of personal savings growth.
Now, friends, that's the miracle of compound interest. Now, you may not be getting that rate right now, but historically, long-term investors in the stock market have earned more than 10%. Now, let's say that you're young enough and you were smart enough, wise enough to do this, and this young couple said, "You know what? We're not even gonna touch it. We're gonna let it roll for another 20 years. Just take 10% and each paycheck, we're gonna put that toward, you know, our savings for 10% interest." You know what that would grow to in the time of their retirement? $2.5 million.
This is with earnings that never exceeded $55,000 a year, and they would have had the 80% left over for all the rest of their family expenses, all the while experiencing the blessing that God sends to families that honor him with their money. Now, you probably already guessed it. The 80 in the 10-10-80 plan stands for this: wisely manage the 80% left over after the disciplines of tithing and saving. Key word, wisely, right? Wisely manage.
Robin Daniels is a credit counselor from Raleigh, North Carolina, and she tells about a couple from Colorado who had a real heart for the homeless. They would pick them up. They would house them in hotels. They would buy them food. The problem is, they charged it all, and they ended up getting $20,000 in debt. Their home went into foreclosure. They lost their car. Their generosity led to financial ruin.
Now, that couple's intentions were pure, but they gave what they didn't have, which leads us to point number three, and this is kind of where we've been going with the credit cardiac arrest. Write this down. Avoid debt. Avoid debt.
How many of you are in college? How many of you, on your first day of college, you walked up and they gave you a big welcome bag? All right, and how many of you, you opened that welcome bag, you're like, "Oh, cool, there's a sticker. It's got the logo. It's got the mascot on it, and I'll put that on my water bottle or whatever," and then you reach in, and oh, there's intramural sports, and then you reach in, and there's a Discover Card application you can fill out. Did you have one of those in yours? I did.
So I'm 18 years old. I'm walking up the first day of Bible college in East Tennessee, and I get this welcome bag, and I'm like, "Oh, Discover Card. I'm a man of the world now. I'm 18 years old. Well, I'm gonna fill this out. See what happens." So I fill it out. They send me a card. I don't have any credit, really. They're sending me this card so I can get credit, right? And so I'm thinking, "Well, this is why you get credit cards. So when you don't have the money in your account, you can just go get clothes and sporting equipment, whatever you need."
So I did that, and then I found myself at 18 years old with 18% interest, right, in debt. And as miraculous as compound interest is on the positive side of the equation, if you ever get on the negative side of compound interest, you're looking at a modern-day nightmare, like real credit cardiac arrest.
So let me show this to you. Let's say you have a credit card balance less than the national average of $7,500 at 18% interest, and you make the minimum payment of $150 faithfully every month until it's paid off. How long is it going to take you to pay that off? Go ahead, just whisper a guess to a friend. How many, how long is it going to take?
Now friends, if you said 30 years and two months, you'd be exactly right. And how much would you have to pay on that $7,500 to get rid of the $7,500 debt on your credit card making the minimum payments? Whisper that guess to a friend. How much would you have to pay?
If you said $54,300, you would be exactly right. So what is the lesson here? Thou shalt avoid debt. Avoid debt like the plague. So here's the deal. With the exception of responsible loans for appreciating items, like maybe a home mortgage or a conservative business loan, we should all honor the principle of avoiding debt. Some of the most tormented people that you and I know are those who are just, you know, their backs are breaking under the crushing load of debt.
In fact, the Bible talks about this in Proverbs 22:7. It says, "The borrower is slave to the lender." Friends, listen, Christ purchased your freedom on the cross. Don't enslave yourself to debt. Don't let your spiritual freedom and your joy be compromised by the bondage of financial indebtedness.
Now friends, if you don't understand the value of having a plan and executing it, I don't know if I've told you about this yet, but we have this class called Financial Peace University. And you can just text FPU to 57321 or go see Julie and Tom on the patio. And they will tell you that. And they will tell you that. And they will tell you that. And they will get you signed up. They'll help you get a handle on a financial plan that honors God.
All right, last thing. You ready? One more note. Write this down. If we don't want to have credit cardiac arrest, we need to distinguish between wants and needs.
Oh man, I hate this one, right? You know, when Marie and I went through those times of debt with medical expense, there were tears, right? There was anxiety. But one of the good things that came out of all that was a lesson about the difference between a want and a need. Right? We had to tighten it up. And so we made it clear that a need was something you could not live without. And pretty much everything else was just a want.
I learned this a little bit when I was a kid. You know, sometimes if my brother and I were at the store and we wanted something, "I need that." He would say, "Are you going to die without it?" Well, no. So I guess you don't need it, right? Now contrast that with kids who throw a fit in the store if you don't buy them something every time you go to the store. Friends, they're being discipled by their parents in the habit of recreational shopping, which is a form of financial insanity that can lead to a spiritually crippling materialism.
We have a duty to protect our kids from the materialistic lust of our culture and teach them the difference between a want and a need. And the more you have, the more you ought to take this responsibility seriously. First Timothy 6:17, Paul's talking to a young preacher, and he says this. He says, "When you talk to people that have money, I want you to do this: Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
Remember, we've been kind of quoting this verse that says God richly provides some of the stuff he gives us for our enjoyment. God actually enjoys seeing us enjoy material goods, even wants, as long as those wants are wise and still honor his financial plan. But when those wants take away from money that should be going to God or wise savings or reducing debt or corrupting our kids, then we have a problem.
We've got to distinguish between wants and needs and help our kids do the same thing. Again, Proverbs says, "The generous will themselves be blessed." And by the way, here's the bottom line. If you've not been listening at all because you're thinking, "I don't want to hear anything about money," listen to this one thing, because this is important. God can have your money without having your heart, but he can't have your heart without having your money.
And you know, the people that have the hardest time giving their money are people that are holding back part of their heart. And so friends, we just want to encourage you before you give anything, before you give anything at all, we want to encourage you to give your heart to the Lord. Do that first. And when your heart is his, you won't have trouble trusting him with anything and everything else.
Let me kind of end it this way. Let me ask you a question. What is your aim in life? What is your aim in life as it comes to these financial resources that God has blessed us with? How many of you remember Matt Eamons from the 2004 Olympics? Yeah, that's what I thought. Somebody's like, "That's 20 years ago, Pastor. I wasn't even born yet."
Well, he had the gold medal wrapped up in the 50-meter, three-position rifle event. You know that event that we always all watch when we're watching the Olympics, right? He was one shot away from claiming victory. He didn't even need a bullseye to win. His final shot simply needed to hit the target anywhere, and he would get the gold medal.
Well, the shot he made would have received a score of 8.1, more than enough for a gold medal, except for something described later as an extravagance. Extremely rare mistake in elite competition. Eamons fired at the wrong target. Standing in lane two, he raised his rifle, took aim, and shot the target in lane three. His score for a good shot on the wrong target? Zero.
And instead of getting the gold medal, he ended up eighth at the Olympics. Now, friends, it doesn't matter how accurate your aim is. If you're aiming at the right target, you're aiming at the wrong target. If you're aiming at the wrong target, you lose. And if you succeed at the wrong thing, you fail.
Jesus said it's foolish to store up treasures on earth and be stingy with God and others. And that's why we often end up in the holes that we have to dig our way out of, because we're aiming at the wrong target. And that's why we've kind of asked you to think about this commitment card. If you're brand new, you're thinking, "Commitment card, here we go. I don't ever want to see this. I don't want a stack of these to end up in the office." This is between you and God.
And you know, when we make commitments, sometimes when we kind of verbally make commitments, we walk away and we forget about it. But when we sign on the dotted line, we remember it. So over these three weeks, we've been making what we call giving commitments, my giving commitment. And basically it goes like this. I commit to trusting God's financial provision in my life. That's great.
Well, here are four ways you can do that. Number one, you could check this box that says, "I will trust God and begin tithing." That first 10% in the 10-10-80 plan. And if you're going to do that, if you're going to trust him in that way, be obedient in that way, I would encourage you. And I know none of you even picked it up yet. You're like, "I'm not going to do this." But when every head's bowed and every eye's closed, go ahead and pick it up. Take it home. Pray about it. But check that box. Sign on the dotted line. Date it. And then put it in your Bible, right?
Or put it on your mirror in your bathroom. Or put it in your car to remind you of the commitment you've made to God. Or maybe you check that second box. It says, "I will continue. I will continue to give a tithe of my income to the Lord." You're just reaffirming between you and God in a real way that you're just going to keep doing what you've been doing. And you're going to keep obeying him in that way.
And number three, maybe you check this box. Like one of our security guys told me on week one, he's trying to hand me the card. He said, "Hey, I want to check box three. It says, 'I will increase my generosity by going beyond the tithe.'" And I'm like, "Man, that's great. But I don't want the card. You keep it. You take it home. That's between you and the Lord. But I'm glad you're doing that."
And then the last one is, "I will commit to taking a class here at Compass to better understand how God wants me to steward what he has given me." And we've got some classes there listed for you. I mean, there's one. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. It's Financial Peace University. You can sign up by texting FPU to 57321 or you can see Tom and Julie on the patio.
But friends, at the end of the day, these commitments between us and God are important because it reminds us of a couple of things. First of all, we're going to be a part of the community. Second of all, it reminds us again that there are some fatal diseases out there when it comes to money. And we could fall for them so easily in the culture that we live in.
You know why we don't see demon possession much in America? You know why you see that a lot in foreign countries? Really? Oh, yeah. You know why it's existing mostly in foreign countries? Because Satan's already got a foothold here, man, with materialism and hedonism and our lust for more. He's like, "I don't even, I got it on autopilot over there. I'm going to spend my time over here in the villages of Africa because here's where I'm going to need to really do this kind of work."
But friends, don't be deceived into thinking that and lulled to sleep in the culture that we live in. We need to be reminded when we make commitments like this that everything we have, everything is a gift from God. And I can't think of a better week to start reminding myself of that, right? Again, it's Thanksgiving. And on Thursday, we're going to be in the culture that we live in. When we're eating turkey and pumpkin pie, maybe we'll stop for a moment and we'll just look around and be reminded how grateful we are, how thankful we are for all that God's given us, be reminded that everything is a gift from him.
The second reason we'd make a commitment like this to God is to remind us that he's the greatest giver. Now you want to be like God? Do you really want to follow Jesus? Well, God is the greatest giver. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, right? That whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
Maybe your move today is not even to fill out a card at all but to take a step across the room like six people did last service, like six people did last week, like eight people did the week before. Friends, maybe it's time for you to step up and say, "You know what? Before I do anything else, before I figure anything else out, I need to give my heart and my life to Jesus."
And if you're ready to do that, we do this thing called the invitation song. We're going to sing it in just a moment, and we're going to have prayer partners up here in the front. And all you have to do during that time is just summon your courage, ask the Lord to help you walk across the room, connect to one of us. We'll help you every step of the way.
So let me pray for us, and then we'll get ready to do that.
Father, thank you. Thank you that you love us. And Lord, you didn't just love us with words; you loved us with action. You actually gave. You gave up your Son. And Jesus, you raised your hand and said yes to that mission, that rescue mission. You came to this earth and you gave your own life on a cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins, so that we could know hope and peace in this life and have a home in heaven in the next to spend eternity with you.
Lord, we look around our lives and we're so blessed. You've given us so much. We don't want to take that for granted. We want to be good, wise stewards and use it in a way that honors you and blesses others. So Lord, give us the courage to take the steps that we need to take today to move toward you, whatever that decision might be. Give us the courage to do it, not to sit in the bleachers, not to wait another day and believe the lie, the favorite lie of Satan, "You'll do this tomorrow."
Lord, help us to act when you call us to act. Give us the courage to do it even now, we pray for you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's stand together, and we're going to sing. We've got our prayer partners up here. If you meet us right here, we'll help you every step of the way. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
on Nov 24, 2024
