Series: Stewardship
Category: Core Seminars, Money, Work & Vocation, Giving
Detail:
Spending
PRAYER
I. Introduction
Good morning and welcome to the Money core seminar. Today, we’ll be thinking about how to spend money in a way that glorifies God. And so to get us started, let me ask you a question.
How does following Jesus change how we should spend our money? [Get 2-3 answers]
In many ways, those answers are the goal for this morning’s class. We want to understand how our use of money should look different because of the gospel.
To do that, let’s begin by reviewing some of the principles we covered in the first two classes.
God’s Purpose for Wealth (Stewardship)
In the first week, we discussed God’s purpose for wealth. In that class, we learned that…
Everything we have—EVERYTHING—belongs to God. This is more than just our money. God gave us our wealth, our relationships, our bodies, our time, and our jobs. “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7). All is God’s.
Because everything belongs to God, we’re called to be stewards of all that He’s given us. And we’ll give an account for our stewardship. Now there are as many ways to act out this stewardship as there are Christians in the world! But we all have the same goal: to make the most of every opportunity given to us for the glory of God. Tremendous freedom but one goal.
Giving
In the second week, we discussed giving to God. In that class, we learned that…
Hoarding is spiritually damaging. God’s given us a finite amount of money. Some you need to spend. Some you should probably save for future needs, as you have opportunity. But the rest you need to give away. If we keep what we don’t need, Jesus says that we’re attempting to serve two masters: both God and money (Luke 16:13).
Our giving isn’t isolated to just our money. We’re to maximize our ability to bring glory to God with all of our lives—and we use money as a tool to support this goal. Therefore, we give in such a way so that the money we’re spending on our own needs brings God equal or greater glory than it would if we were to give it away.
Question or Comments?
II. How Much Should I Spend?
So to be faithful stewards of the wealth that God’s given us, we’re called to give some of it away. But what about the rest of it? Well, we should probably spend some on ourselves. I mean we still need to live, right? Besides that, Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians to “earn the bread [we] eat” so that “we [won’t] be a burden” to anyone.[1]
So if it’s good and right for us to spend money on ourselves, how much should we spend? All of it? Let’s say you entrusted your money with an investment manager? He invests your money and in return you reimburse him for a cut of his expenses. Then after several years, you discover that the money’s all gone; his cut was 100%! What’s your reaction? “That’s crazy! That wasn’t why I gave you that money! You were to invest it for me—not spend it all on yourself!” But how many Christians have done exactly that to God?
Reframing the Question
So it would be wrong to spend all of our money on ourselves, but how much should we spend? What does Scripture say?
Proverbs 30:8-9 says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
These verses answer the question of “How much should I spend ?” with the question “How much do I need ?” Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11) meaning “God, would you take care of my needs today.” No doubt our basic needs must be met first, such as food, clothing, and shelter, but beyond that we don’t want to just survive in life—we want to thrive and use our money to show how amazing God is, as he gives us opportunity.[2]
Unfortunately, I think our tendency is to answer the question of how much do I need at the most granular level possible. Do I need the Big Mac or the dollar menu burger? Do I really need to fly home for Christmas? What if I just take a bus? But that doesn’t provide us with much of a framework for decision-making because it makes the cost of something override all other factors that should be considered, which isn’t wise. It also limits the possible options available to us. And if you think about it, such questioning will eventually put us one step in the grave—I’m still breathing so do I really need to eat today?
So to answer the question of how much do I need, it would be better for us to look at the big picture and our various callings[3] That will then help us to establish a framework for making other decisions on spending. So let’s reframe the question again by asking, “What lifestyle has God called us to?”
By “lifestyle,” I mean the spending habits that you’ve established in light of your various callings, such as where you live, how you get around, what you wear, who you need to care for, what you eat, and so forth. What are the spending habits that you’ve established in light of your various callings? Once you understand those, then you can figure out your needs. Our lifestyle determines what our needs are. If you’re a parent and you buy a house, then you need to pay the mortgage each month. If it’s in your best interest to build into your family by taking out-of-town vacations, then you need transportation to get there. Lifestyle determines needs.
Dangerous Lifestyles
Now there are two dangers that we need to be aware of as we frame the question in terms of lifestyle. Remember that we can use money for good—good that will last until eternity. And yet, as Paul writes to Timothy, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6:10). Therefore, we must be aware of Scripture’s warnings in spending money.
Living Beyond Your Income
So the first danger is establishing our lifestyle in such a way that our needs exceed our income. Ecclesiastes 5:10 says, “Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.” This is evidenced in Jesus’ parable of the lost son, where the younger son, after requesting his share of his father’s inheritance, “set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living” (Luke 15:13).
Living beyond our income is a very American problem, isn’t it? Unless you’re in an unusual and temporary circumstance—such as a period of unemployment—God is not calling you to a lifestyle that requires an income greater than yours.[4] [Repeat ] If you can’t support your most basic obligations, he may be calling you to look for a job that pays better or find additional work, but he’s not calling you to a lifestyle that costs more than you make.
There’s a skit from Saturday Night Live that you might have heard in the Christians in the Workplace core seminar. Actor Steve Martin is in a fake ad about a revolutionary money-management book called, Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford . To Steve Martin, it’s complicated and confusing, as he asks: “Well let's say I don't have enough money to buy something. Should I buy it anyways?” The spokesman tells him: “It's in the book. It's only one page long.” “If you don't have any money, you shouldn’t buy anything.” And Steve Martin’s left scratching his head.[5]
Seems simple, doesn’t it? But it can sometimes be surprisingly difficult. One reason for this has to do with our desire to please other people.
For example, let’s say you make the same amount of money as a friend, but they live excessively, racking up credit card debt and never giving any money away. For you to make the numbers add up, you’re going to have to say “no” to a lot of things they do—going out for dinner, not traveling as much, turning down those tickets. The expectations of your family and friends can be a powerful force pushing you to spend more than you should. But when you spend more than you have, you’re saying something about yourself that isn’t true.
I know it’s counter cultural to hear, but you don’t deserve things your way. You don’t deserve a break today. You don’t deserve a little me-time, and you don’t deserve to go out for dinner tonight because you’re tired. You gave up your “so called” rights when you became a Christian. And what you did deserve, Christ bore that on the cross. God is not calling you to need more than you make. Such living will naturally lead you into debt, but we’ll discuss that next week, Lord willing.
Living Equal to Your Increasing Income
But there’s also another, more subtle danger, and that is when our needs continue to rise right along with our income. As soon as we get some extra money, we automatically upgrade our lifestyle. It’s as if our spending habits aren’t so much determined by our various callings as from the size of our income.[6] But James warns the rich of the misery they will bear for “[living] on earth in luxury and self-indulgence” (James 5:5).
According to one telling study, if you look across the American public, the group that is the most generous with charitable giving is the very wealthy. No surprise there—they have way more than they need. But the next most generous group isn’t the middle class—it’s the working poor.[7]
Apparently as one moves from poor to middle class, their perceived needs actually rise faster than their income. The difference between the poor and the middle class isn’t so much that the middle class think of themselves as more stingy and the poor as more generous. The difference is what is perceived as need. To one group, a second car is a luxury. To another, it’s a need. It’s the same with cable TV and private education.
Your lifestyle largely consists of what you consider to be necessities—but the key is to realize that what you consider “necessary” is actually highly subjective. Which makes our question so important: What lifestyle is God calling you to?
Questions or Comments?
III. How Do I Choose a Lifestyle?
So…how do we choose a lifestyle?
Occasionally, God will speak supernaturally. “Elijah, live by a ravine, drink from the brook, and the ravens will feed you. ”[8] OK. Enough said. But for most of us, his calling doesn’t come that way. For most of us, we search the Scriptures, pray for wisdom, get the counsel of others, and use the good sense he’s given us to “seek first his kingdom” (Matt. 6:33). That’s our primary goal. And so we do need to use every gift, every opportunity, every relationship, and every dollar we have to proclaim the glory of God with every minute he gives us on this earth.
The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (Eph. 5:15-17).
Five Prudential Principles
With that goal in mind, here are five prudential principles to use when choosing a lifestyle:
Lifestyle is impacted most by a few big decisions
As stated earlier, our lifestyle is made in light of our callings. Paul was called to be an apostle (Rom. 1:1) and was sent to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:7). How much money he spent on housing, food, traveling, supplies, and providing for others was determined by this calling. But while lifestyle decisions are made in light of our callings, our lifestyle is often influenced by a few big decisions.
So for example, once you’ve figured out where you’re going to live, you’ve probably defined most of your spending because with it comes your choice of house, whether you need a car or a second car, education for your kids, and so on. Joseph first lived in his father’s house as a shepherd (Gen. 37:2), then in Potiphar’s house as a slave (Gen. 39:1-2), then in jail as a prisoner (Gen. 39:20), and finally in the palace as the person in charge over all Egypt (Gen. 41:40-43). Each place Joseph lived required a radically different lifestyle from the others. So make those big decisions seriously. What are those big decisions? Most likely, they’re decisions that either cost a lot of money or require a significant amount of time, which leads us into our next principle…
Time and money are interchangeable
Two resources that God gives us to spend are time and money. So how do you take your time and turn it into money? [Work for pay; Doing work yourself instead of paying someone to do it ] How do you turn your money into time? [Hire a plumber to fix your toilet; Pay someone to cut your grass ].
Also, to a lesser extent, money and relationships are interchangeable. For example, a husband can build into his relationship with his wife by buying her flowers, or he can spend that relationship capital by making more money and working a second shift.
So when we make lifestyle spending decisions, we need to take into account the trade-offs between all three of these things: money, time, and relationships. It might be wise for a person to spend money on a housecleaner so that they can have extra time to use for building relationships. Alternatively, someone who’s retired might use their time to make handmade quilts to sell to support missions. Money can turn into time; time into money; and both can build into relationships.
Think long-term
Keep the long view in mind. A lifetime of faithfulness is our goal. Not just faithfulness in this coming year. Life is a marathon; not a sprint! Therefore, we need to make lifestyle decisions by considering how they will enable us to be more fruitful over the long-term.
This is an especially important question for husbands and wives to consider. You may be thriving on your current lifestyle, but is the rest of your family? You can spoil the future by underspending, which could lead your family to resent you or teach your family to be stingy. Or you could spoil the future by overspending, which could spoil your children or build a taste for luxury that you can’t sustain.
Consider the “weaker brother”
This isn’t one that we naturally think about when it comes to making financial decisions. Although we have tremendous freedom in spending our money for God’s kingdom, some choices we make will more likely lead others into temptation.
For example, let’s say you have a good friend who’s built up some debt due to excessive purchases of expensive clothing, and they’re trying hard to practice self-denial while paying off their debt. Would it be wise for you to take your friend to a mall and make clothing purchases for yourself with your credit card? Such purchases might make your vulnerable friend stumble.[9] It may wrongly influence them by working to legitimize such purchases they’d be tempted to make. Instead, it would be better to follow Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 8:9: “Be careful…that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” See Romans 14, if you want to think more about this.
Consider strategic opportunities
God’s blessed each of us differently. So take an inventory of what ways you can use your lifestyle the best for kingdom purposes by how God’s made you, gifted you, or blessed you.
For example, some of us are thriftier than others. God’s blessed us with good health, we’ve been able to stay out of debt and live very simply very comfortably. Because of this, we’re able to live just about anywhere and make it. We could live in an expensive city like DC laboring for the gospel, or we could live overseas in a poor city like Osh, Kyrgyzstan doing the same.
On the other hand, maybe we’re not so thrifty and have had some health issues, but God’s given us a well-paying job with a lot of responsibility. We may not be able to give a lot in time, but we can give a lot in money. After all, charity depends on industry, right? Such finances can support a needy, upstart church in Anacostia or allow for greater hospitality by having a larger home.
Questions or Comments?
IV. How Do I Manage a Lifestyle?
So you’ve determined your lifestyle. And hopefully it won’t change as your income rises over time. What’s the best way to manage to your lifestyle? Answer: Use a budget. Jesus said, “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 14:28)?
A budget is simply a financial tool to help us plan our spending. We estimate how much income we’ll receive and then we allocate that income into different spending categories, such as food or travel or medical. There’s plenty of practical instruction out there on how to create and manage a budget so we won’t get into that here.
But what I want us to notice is that a budget is more than just a financial tool. It’s also a tool to help us be content.[10] It does this by helping us restrain overspending and to ensure that our spending is based on what we need rather than rising with our income, which are the two dangerous lifestyles we discussed. Budgeting also protects us from worrying when we spend money because we can see the big financial picture of how God is providing for us. If we must pay a one-time $5,000 for furnace repair, it might cause us anxiety, but if we accounted for it in our budget, then we don’t need to worry.
One more thing a budget does is it serves as both an indicator and determinor of what we value. It’s an indicator because it helps us to exam our life and see where our money goes.[11] Are we being rich towards God and his purposes? And it’s a determinor because we actively choose where we want to use our wealth. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21).
The last thing we’ll say about budgeting is that you should have a biblical job description for each dollar God’s given you. Some of those are listed on your handout.
Now it’s true that a Christian and an unbeliever who have the same amount of income could have the same exact budget. Categories for giving, food, travel, and housing could all be the same. So does this mean that the Christian is being an unfaithful steward? That depends.
Scripture doesn’t ever speak to the morality of money, as being good or bad in itself. Instead, it speaks to our morality of how we spend money. Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices, but only one was accepted (Gen. 4:3-5). In the same way, the Christian and unbeliever could both spend money on a bike, but the motives are extremely different.[12] The Christian buys the bike to refresh himself and to enjoy what God has given him with thanksgiving. 1 Timothy 6:17 says, “God…richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” The unbeliever buys the bike with no view of God but for some selfish end, such as a means of escape from his responsibilities. James 4:3 says, “When you ask [God], you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” In the end, the difference in spending is based on the motive behind the spending. Remember that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6).
[If time, discuss the practical tips on the back on the handout. If not, point them out.]
Questions or Comments?
V. Financial Transparency
Have you noticed how complex and challenging many of these spending decisions are? Proverbs 15:22 says, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Before we end, let’s consider what it means for us to get counsel and to give counsel when it comes to spending money.
A. Getting Help
Here’s a telling question: Who in our church do you speak to about how you spend your money? It’s strange, we’re willing to be open with each other about struggles with pornography, with anger, with food, with pride—but so rarely talk about our love for money, or how much we give, or what we’re spending it on. Why would you be transparent about everything else in your life except your money—especially when money is something that Jesus taught so much about? Well, we should talk about money as a church—in discipling relationships, in our small groups, and in the preaching. It’s good and wise to bring others into our lives to see where we’re spending and giving.
B. Being a Help
But even as we need to reach out to others, we also need to be a help to others. We should be willing to have hard conversations with brothers and sisters who, we fear, are acting more out of a love for money than a love for God. Of course, there are some well-known dangers here. The biggest one is that of judging.
We’re so quick to judge the financial decisions of others, aren’t we? We’re so self-centered that we often assume that everyone else has our reasoning, our motives, and our circumstances. And so we quickly apply moral categories to things that are merely differences in preference.[13]
Let me offer two ways to help us avoid wrong judgments of others’ finances:
Don’t assume their motives. When someone does something you don’t understand, don’t opine on why they did it. You may ask them, as your relationship allows. But if it doesn’t, then just drop the matter, pray for them, and assume the best, as Paul tells us to in 1 Corinthians 13.[14]
Exam your own motives. [15] Not, “How dare they do that! I’m going to show them how wrong they are! ” But more like the attitude we see in Galatians 6:1—“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.”
Also, make sure that you’re speaking to them in humility rather than with a proud heart. Jesus says to, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them” (Matt. 6:1). His focus, of course, is not so much secrecy for the sake of secrecy, but a desire to have right motives. None of us use our money perfectly. We’re not to work to conform our brother or sister to be like us, but to be like Christ! Besides, your circumstances and stage of life are likely not the same as your friend’s. It’s not wrong to speak to your own sanctification in finances, but we must do so in a way that exalts God and not ourselves, and this starts with a humble and thankful heart. And this is how we begin to positively help someone.
We don’t need to be financial consultants to help fellow church members; we just need to know and apply God’s Word. I’d love to see mature brothers and sisters helping those who are new or weak in this area with godly counsel, and when appropriate, with loans and gifts so that lack of money would not constrain anyone’s fruitfulness for God’s kingdom. Furthermore, we should inquire and talk about our financial decisions in specifics and not vaguely with each other. And I’d love to see us be quick to confess areas of struggle and quick to encourage in this area of our lives. After all, the world loves to brand finances as merely private and personal. Let’s work for a culture of Godly transparency that can revolutionize our approach to money.
VI. Conclusion
So that’s a few thoughts on how we can spend our money to the glory of God. Let’s close in prayer.
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[2] Or even just buying a couch so that people can sit on it. It’s not a basic need, but it is useful and helpful for living.
[3] Primary calling refers to seeking Christ’s kingdom and righteousness first. Secondary calling refers to our personal response to God’s primary call on our lives (e.g. being a mother or student) and doing those unto the Lord.
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[7] Federal Tax Policy and Charitable Giving (University of Chicago Press, 1985).
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[11] “Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are.” [12] Dissimilar circumstances may dictate different responses. Luke 22:35-36 says, “Then Jesus asked [his disciples], “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals (Luke 9:3), did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. “He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
[13] A new wife grew up with parents who spent freely on groceries. A new husband grew up with parents who spent freely on music lessons. They get married, and the husband is appalled at the wife’s grocery spending; the wife is appalled at the husband’s expectations for educating their kids. Both quickly accuse the other—in their hearts at least—of being selfish and ungodly. But in reality what’s happened is that both have merely assumed their own family’s habits. Is it OK to skimp on food to fund lessons? Or to eliminate lessons to buy better food? Of course. It just shows us the danger of becoming judges in our hearts.
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