Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 19, 2019 | Turnaround Time - Money In, Money Out

Transcript

May 19, 2019 | Turnaround Time - Money In, Money Out · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how you doing, guys?
0:05
SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
0:05
SPEAKER_02: Thanks for the shit out of it.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate that.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: We're in a series, but called Turnaround Time, as you just noticed.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: But one Sunday a year, we asked the Gideons to Gideons, you know, like Gideon Bibles, you know.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, would you guys quit stealing the Bibles from the hotel rooms and leaving them here for our lost and found?
0:26
SPEAKER_02: You know?
0:27
SPEAKER_02: So um, so Jeb Graber, he's my favorite guy to talk about the Gideons, what they're doing in town and so forth.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: So we've asked Jeb to come on up and do that for a few minutes before Rodney and I get started.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Hey man.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Hey, welcome this guy, huh?
0:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: My lovely assistant will turn on the clock.
0:49
unknown: Got it.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: All right.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And uh welcome to Mulvaine Building TBC, as well as the College Avenue Building TBC people.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming uh today and hearing about the Gideons.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're here today uh as God's direction to uh support Jim and Rodney in their sermon series on money.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're all about the money in, money out.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh Gideons get the money in, and we give it out to purchase scriptures and help people come to Christ.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: So uh last Tuesday was harvester's time, and many of you were volunteering out there, and I noticed as a traffic controller there that cars were coming from about five o'clock in the morning.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: They kept coming and they kept coming.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: People kept coming for physical food.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And all over the world, people are coming.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: They keep coming and coming for spiritual food.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: And as Gideon's, we love to be there to hand them a copy of the Word of God.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: At five dollars, we'll purchase one Bible that we can place in a motel, such as happened about a hundred years ago when uh a Bible was placed in a motel in southeast Kansas, and a man by the name of Greg Childress picked it up, looked at it, and read it, and God used it to turn his life around.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And he's a Gideon in our camp today.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: He pastored for about a hundred years after he was saved, and uh, so he's uh a well-seasoned Gideon.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh also I happen to be able to present a New Test to a man named Jose in Bogota, Columbia, South America, about uh seven years ago.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: And he was a homeless man, tattered, and his dress was awful, he was filthy, but he turned his life over to Christ that day, and he is clean now inside.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we like to do as Gideons.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: 270,000 of us, volunteer missionaries around the world in 201 countries, were there to share the word of God with people.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And in the here in Topeka, I have been involved in our camp activities where we placed 123 Bibles in the uh hotel, new hotel there behind Walmart.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: That's the Hilton Garden Inn, I remember this time.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Hilton Garden Inn.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: All right, so 997 New Testaments we gave at Washburn University, 213 New Testaments at our middle schools on the public sidewalks, uh, Jardine French and Landon.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: 108 New Testaments at our nursing graduations at Washburn Tech and Washburn University.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: And I give out about 50 Bibles at the jail every month.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Gideon Bibles, as I'm a chaplain down there.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Today, we're asking you to help us, support us, allow us to give more Bibles.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll have people at the exits.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: They're all gonna be blocked.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: You can't get out unless you uh give us some cash.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: Cash or a check made out to Gideon's International, and we'll give you the give God the glory for it all.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
4:14
SPEAKER_02: So, Rodney, we're in uh week number three of five weeks, and uh and for those of you that are just visiting or this like your first week, uh I bought I I was talking with a Christian leader out on the West Coast this week, and he says, uh, and he funny follows all of our sermons online and stuff, and he says, Wow, that's really a come down.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: He says, You preached the first three months of this year in Isaiah, and now you're on some business book.
4:38
SPEAKER_02: He was teasing, but actually we are uh, in a sense, in the business book.
4:45
SPEAKER_02: Guy named Greg Brenneman is called the Turnaround Guru on the Washburn University website where he graduated from the business school years ago before he went to Harvard Business School.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: He's called the King of the Turnarounds of business literature.
5:00
SPEAKER_02: And uh Heston boy who grew up in a Mennonite home made good, but he uh after a number of years of a lot of success, he realized his life was sort of, he was stuck in in sort of a mediocre life.
5:17
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't happy.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: He took his five business principles, he moved them across to see if he could make them work for himself.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: Personally, he found that they did.
5:26
SPEAKER_02: So he wrote this book here when he was about 46, 47 years old, right away and all at once.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: His argument is that you can make a change in your life, and the best changes in corporations and in personal lives happen quickly.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: They don't happen over a span of 10 years.
5:43
SPEAKER_02: Right away, all at once.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: So his question that he asks, uh he asks you in the book, he is uh who needs a turnaround?
5:54
SPEAKER_02: His answer, both for companies and individuals, are number one, of course, people who are in critical condition need a turnaround.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: If you've got trouble in your finances, trouble in your marriage, trouble with alcohol, obviously you need a turnaround.
6:07
SPEAKER_02: Or, and that's like Continental Airlines, or you could be more like uh Burger King when he took over Burger King.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: It was doing okay, but it was underperforming.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: People doing fine, but satisfactorily underperforming.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: And Rodney, two weeks ago, you closed off the service by asking people two questions.
6:26
SPEAKER_02: Am I performing in life to my full potential?
6:29
SPEAKER_02: was your first question.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people said, Well, no, I'm not.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: Are there any areas in my life where I need to change?
6:37
SPEAKER_02: A lot of us said, Yeah, there are.
6:40
SPEAKER_02: And so we asked people the rhetorical question, then why not do a turnaround?
6:45
SPEAKER_02: We didn't require you by the book, we just said we would like to share with you the five principles.
6:50
SPEAKER_02: We'll use Greg's book, we'll use the Bible, we'll use each other's experience, we'll we'll share what Rodney and I shared with our group on Wednesday morning called Men of Success, about 30 young businessmen that we we share business books with.
7:03
SPEAKER_02: So last week then, yeah, I don't know what you were you, what you have, a root canal or uh uh whatever, but anyway.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't around here.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: He left me alone up here.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, Jim.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: So I had to do step one, and that was write a one-page go forward plan.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: Greg's argument is for whether it's no matter how large your corporation is or who you are, one sheet of paper should be all you need.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: Get a pen, get a pencil, and write down what your personal go forward plan will do or will be.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: So um You know, Jim, it's been really encouraging.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh we were meeting the other day, and he was just telling me some of the stories that uh you've heard that you've been told about people uh in the church that just said, you know what, I I looked at my life and I took inventory and I knew that I needed to change this area of my life.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: And that's been our hope.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: That through teaching some of these principles in this book, that uh you would analyze your life.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's something that we need to do regularly as Christians is just look at our lives and just say, Lord, is there any area of my life that uh that I need just I just need to grow in?
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Listen, uh none of us are perfect.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: None of us ever will be perfect.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: We're always have things that we need to grow in, uh, and that's part of the process.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: That's part of being a believer.
8:23
SPEAKER_01: We we never claim to be perfect, and I hope that you don't in your personal life.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Um but we want to spark an area of growth.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh just like Jim said last week, if there's an area, normally what happens is there's one area of your life that sparks change in every other area.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: And we would hope that you would take that journey with us.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, we all receive grace from the Lord.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: We give grace to each other, and we all are supposed to run this race that we've that the Lord has marked out for us.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: And just as Hebrews says, it says, run the race of perseverance, laying aside all those things that so easily entangle us.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: Like it's if we're honest, we get so trapped up in some things sometimes.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: So we need to look at our lives and just say, I need to let that go.
9:05
SPEAKER_01: I need to move forward, I need to do something different in this area of my life.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: So uh that's been our hope, and I hope you guys have uh have joined us on this journey.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: You guys have identified some of your blue chips and are and are taking that step, that next step.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
9:19
unknown: Yeah.
9:20
SPEAKER_02: Following Greg, we urged you to look at five areas of your life faith, fitness, family, friends, and uh finance.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: And finance is what we're gonna do today.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: And uh a number of you wrote down, I wrote down some things, and I mean it worked, it worked for me.
9:36
SPEAKER_02: Uh you know, I had the best prayer life that I've had all year long this last week.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: I lost five pounds because I did the fitness stuff I wrote down, and uh great.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: So hey, yeah, another year or two I'll I'll be down where I need to be.
9:49
SPEAKER_02: So anyway, uh and we closed last week by saying, start where you are, start now.
9:54
SPEAKER_02: Now we're gonna take that was step one, a go forward plan.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: Steps two and three both have to do with finance, all right?
10:00
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna talk about that.
10:02
SPEAKER_02: Uh our title today is Money in, Money Out, right?
10:06
SPEAKER_02: And uh would you take the lead on this uh the financial freedom step?
10:10
SPEAKER_02: This is step two.
10:11
SPEAKER_02: Choose financial freedom in your personal life.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'm excited uh that I get to be back and share this with you uh because I'm really passionate about this.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was telling my wife as I was preparing for this, if I could, if there was a top five sermons that I wanted to give, money would be number two.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's that important for us as Christians that we we analyze and look at our money, how we use our money.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh and secondly, uh the reason why I'm so passionate about it, it's what I do for a living.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: Work in public accounting, uh I'm look at balance sheets, financial statements, income statements, all that jazz.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: So kind of get giddy.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: You hear some interesting stories, right?
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, we see some interesting things.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: And uh and it's really, you know, you can tell a lot about an organization, a lot about a company by by just looking at their financial statements, what they care about.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: I think the same is true in our personal lives.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: If we were to uh log into your bank account and see where you've been spending your money and what you've been giving it to, we'd know a lot about what you care about.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so I I think you know, I hope today is uh is open and honest dialogue just about money.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: You might you'll hear some of our uh our story, and when I say our, I mean my wife and I.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh some of it's embarrassing.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: Um we've done some seasons well, and we've done some seasons not so well.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, I was I was just sitting on the couch Friday night with her, and I was I just told her, uh, babe, I'm sorry for uh the way this last year has gone.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: Because I've made some irresponsible financial decisions.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: And she just looked at me and she says, just full of grace, just it's okay.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: So you learn from them, and I guarantee you won't do them again.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: It's like and she was right, I won't.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: But there will be times when we do seasons well and times when we don't do so well.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we we gotta keep moving forward.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's it's something that we regularly need to talk about in church.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I say that is because uh sometimes we overlook this part, but we have an enemy.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: Scripture says that we have an enemy.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: 1 Peter 5 says that uh we have an enemy, he's like a roaring lion, and he's prowling around, he's looking for someone to devour.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: John 10 10 says that uh when Jesus is talking about himself, comparing himself to the thief, he said the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And if we're honest with ourselves, if we look across the landscape of uh of marriages in the United States and even Christian marriages, Satan has done his part in destroying a lot of lives, destroying a lot of marriages over this issue of money.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: We burden ourselves with it.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: We're enslaved to it.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: And so I hope today that you're challenged.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh I hope today that you uh that you would think about maybe an area of your life that you need to change finances.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: Um I was uh thinking about this earlier this week as as I was preparing.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: There's been times in my life where I I almost kind of look and judge scripture and decide what is it, what is it that I'm going to do.
13:15
SPEAKER_02: I'll do that, but not this.
13:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: I pick and choose those things in scriptures that I choose that I want to obey.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes we do that with scriptures, and God is very clear in the scriptures about how we're supposed to use our finances.
13:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh and instead of looking at God's word and sitting on judgment on it, we need to submit ourselves to what it is that He wants us to do.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, we I we have uh three little girls, our oldest one.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh oftentimes when I can tell she's getting frustrated, uh, if if I'm disciplining her, I'll pull her aside and I'll just say, hey, Annalise, uh I know that you're frustrated with me, and it may feel like I don't like you in this moment.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: It may feel like um I'm being mean and I'm being rude, but hey, I care about you and I want to set you up for success in this area of life.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not trying to be mean, I like you, I love you, I want to see you do well.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we need God to pull us aside in our finances to just tell us, hey, I I like ya, I love ya, I want the best for you.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: But some of these things need to change.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll be looking at some of Greg's principles.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: I know, some of them are pretty simple, straightforward.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Real simple.
14:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could you could go pick go to Barnes Noble today and pick up Dave Ramsey's book or any sort of book and just read some of these principles.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: So uh I hope that you guys will be able to take something from these principles, but uh at the end, I also want to uh um think about how does this apply to our lives.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh so let's go ahead and dive into his chapter is on choosing financial freedom, and his first principle, his first point is uh keep a budget and make sure you have enough cash.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: If you're in trouble financially, you just need to sit down, either just yourself, if you're single, or with your spouse, and you just got just need to make a budget.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end of the month, um just look at okay, how did we do?
14:56
SPEAKER_01: Did we stay on budget?
14:57
SPEAKER_01: Did we not stay on budget?
14:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh and there's all types of tools that are out there.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh sometimes bank bank accounts, certain banks will have tools within when you log in that you can track all of your expenses, you can set a budget.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a uh uh a website called mint.com that you can do the same thing.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it's just a good idea because uh, and I think this is wise.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: I think God talks about this.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: He says a wise man thinks ahead.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: A fool does it and even brags about it.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Um we need to be thinking about where our money is going.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh be able to know where it's actually going.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh Proverbs 23, uh 27, 23 says, be diligent to know the state of your flocks.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: You could apply this to leadership, you could apply this to anything, but apply it to your finances.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, know the state of your bank account, what you're spending money on, where you might need to cut back.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh you don't have to do it down to the penny, but um just make sure you know where your finances are going.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, make sure you have enough cash on hand.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, for you and your season of life, it might be a thousand dollars, two thousand, uh, three thousand, five, ten, fifteen.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: But make sure, as Dave Ramsey would put it, put a little buffer between you and life.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Life is gonna happen in the last shoot, three weeks.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: I feel like we've had to spend more than$500 just fixing up one of our cars, AC, battery, this, that, and the other.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: It's just like, man.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: But it's nice for us to have that but that that little buffer between us and life that we don't have to then go and do uh step number two, get ourselves into trouble uh with credit card debt.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Craig says, you know, don't have any auto, don't have any credit card debt.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh credit card debt, especially.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: If you have an issue spending money, get rid of your credit card.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not saying that you never should have a credit card.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes credit cards are great.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh you can build up points, travel, get free stuff, this, that, and the other.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: But if you have one, pay it off at the end of the month.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's no reason for us to be paying minimums and being stuck with 28% interest that we have to pay.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: That stuff just adds up and adds a burden to us.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: Let that stuff go.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then if you if you can, don't have any auto debt.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh realize that there's seasons of life where you may have to take out a loan for to get a reliable vehicle.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: But push yourself to get out of debt because uh because we can live in slave.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: This verse, uh, the rich rule over the poor, the borrower slay to the lender.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: You know, our culture is good at enticing us to go and get these things.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh watching NBA playoffs and Ford commercial pops up, and it's like, no interest, free finances, 72, 72 months.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, yeah, I start thinking about like, oh, brand new truck, no interest.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: But then I'm strapped with a$40,000 truck payment and uh my money strapped too.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: I have no freedom.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: And uh, we just need to be be careful about this area.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh the next thing he goes into is uh just limit, you know, the first uh 9 30 service.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: We had all these college graduates up here and they're talking about where they're going and this, that, and the other.
17:59
SPEAKER_01: And my only advice to give them is just hey, be mindful that the money that you take out you got to pay back at some point.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: Um and try to limit your educational debt if you can.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh know what it is that you're going to school for.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh be able to know, uh, hey, this is this is what I can expect from a job, uh, how much I can get paid, here's uh how I can move up, and but make sure you have a plan to pay that back.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: And if you can, limit of as much of that as you can.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: He endorses community colleges in in his book, just say, hey, go get the basics.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to go to the best university, but go get your education, uh, but limit the amount because it's gonna set you up for freedom later on.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: And then steps four and five, he uh he doesn't give much ink to them uh in his book.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: So uh he says limit your total housing cost to 20% of your income.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Um he would say that you know that includes uh your mortgage, utilities, upkeep, everything.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: And um he says if you're above that 20% of your gross, you're probably living above your means.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: That's just Greg's opinion.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: And um and then his next Hey, I think Dave Ramsey uses the same figure though.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Does he?
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: Um and then his number five is to save at least 10% and give at least 20%.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: Or and and give at least 10%.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: And I think the reason why you do step one, two, three, and four is you can get to step five.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh you can save at least ten percent, and you can start to give at the minimum ten percent.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: You you start to set yourself up for freedom financially, and you start to see what it is that your money can go to, what it is that your money can do, not only just for yourself, but for other people.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: And uh and then his next chapter he covers.
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so step two is really like financial freedom.
19:41
SPEAKER_02: You know, live within your income.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: You know, don't, you know, debt is bad.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: Work is good, debt is bad, saving is good, stuff like that.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but then, you know, moving into step three, his argument is you need to think money out, not money in.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: Now, he says if you're a business, it's the opposite.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: You need to think money in, not money out, because businesses are not in.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: The, you know, they're they're they need to they need to uh accumulate wealth for their investors and so forth.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: But if you're a person, you need to be thinking money out, not money in.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: That is how how can you give back?
20:15
SPEAKER_02: You've been so blessed by God.
20:17
SPEAKER_02: And one of the reasons God has blessed you with some wealth is so that you can prove by giving that you do not worship wealth, but that you worship God.
20:27
SPEAKER_02: So you give back to God and you give to other people.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: So he has this chapter on giving and generosity and so forth.
20:34
SPEAKER_02: I'd just like to grab part of this chapter, recommend that you uh grab the book at some time.
20:39
SPEAKER_02: But the longest fundraising sort of money chapter, money passage in the Bible is in 2 Corinthians 8, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, but especially verses 1 through 5 of chapter 8, which go like this.
20:50
SPEAKER_02: Paul, the apostle, saying, We want you to know, they're in Corinth, brothers and sisters, we're talking about Christians.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: We want you to know about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: Corinth is down in the south of Greece, Macedonia is up in the north.
21:06
SPEAKER_02: A number of you went there with me uh on a tour here just this last uh about eight months ago, nine months ago.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: Macedonia, the poor part, Macedonia is still in northern Greece today, still poorer than the south.
21:20
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Listen, God gave them grace up north to become givers, even though they weren't wealthy people.
21:26
SPEAKER_02: And then he says in verse 2, during a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and, get this, their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: I can testify, Paul says, that according to their ability and even beyond their ability of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the saints.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: What's he talking about?
21:50
SPEAKER_02: He's talking about the fact that as Paul went around the whole Gentile world, he passed the hat for the really poor people in the capital city of Jerusalem, down in Israel.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: So We took money back because they were just uh finances were terrible in Jerusalem, the economy had crashed, capital cities, as we know, are always the poorest city, pretty much in a state, because that's where the needy people accumulate.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: So he was collecting money, and they begged for the privilege of giving, and then he concludes that not just as we had hoped, instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: Five principles I've gathered from this.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: It's not quite what Greg has, but it's it's shorter.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: Greg has some other stuff too you want to see.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: Number one, give quietly or anonymously.
22:36
SPEAKER_02: It's really noticeable to me that Paul doesn't even name which church in Macedonia of the three or four gave specifically.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't mention any names.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: You know, today the whole thing is uh in fundraising letters.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: If you give us this much, we'll send you this, or there's gimmicks.
22:55
SPEAKER_02: There's matching funds, there's all this stuff, but no Paul's.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: Paul's all about giving quietly.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: And it's just fascinating to me what we what I was reading in the New York Times and hearing in National Public Radio earlier this year, because there was this huge flap a couple of months ago about the president, you know, releasing all his finances, and to get him to do that, the people who were urging him to do it released their finances, which turned out to really be embarrassing because these quarter million dollar a year income politicos turned out they had only given like a couple hundred dollars in charity themselves last year, even though they're all about compassion and giving and so forth.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: It was really egg on their face, so that's why the New York Times wrote an article about people who talk about compassion but don't actually do it themselves.
23:44
SPEAKER_02: National Public Radio had this thing about how the quiet people in the Midwest and in the South, on the average, the middle class people and the poor people give two and a half times as much as the wealthy people on each coast.
23:57
SPEAKER_02: Fascinating statistics.
23:59
SPEAKER_02: But I was just reminded that that's a fact of life, that poor people actually give more than wealthy people, middle class people give more than really rich rich people.
24:08
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to have a lot of money to give quietly, anonymously, and generously.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: And these people really did give generously.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: They had a severe trial in their lives, they had extreme poverty, but yet they were determined to give.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: I was reminded of the last time I was in northeastern India, went to church there.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: Such a poor community.
24:31
SPEAKER_02: Nobody has a flush toilet or a TV or a cell phone, and yet everybody's got a little bag of rice because they're just so determined to give, because they consider that to really be a part of worshiping God.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: They bring their rice, and there's this shed, and they throw their rice in the shed, and here goes the mound of rice, keeps moving up a little bit every week, and they give it to the poor.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: And I was just touched by the generosity of these poor folks.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: And they gave not only generously but sacrificially.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: I did not grow up learning that giving could be fun.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
25:25
SPEAKER_02: So I was sort of like Jack Benny, you know, in the old in the old skit where you know the homeless man's begging him and he pulls out a dollar bill, and then the homeless man wants to take it and Benny's pulling it back, and he, you know, that's sort of the way I was.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: I did not give happily.
25:43
SPEAKER_02: I gave reluctantly.
25:45
SPEAKER_02: You know.
25:45
SPEAKER_02: I remember Jack Benny, the old comedian, the guy who, you know, the you know, the robber held him up and said, Your money or your life, silence.
25:53
SPEAKER_02: I said, your money or your life, and Jack Benny goes, I'm thinking, I'm thinking.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: So I was sort of the Congens.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: Yesterday I was at McCrite with my sister Ruth visiting some folks, and somehow money came up, and I was explaining to them that Ruth and I had invented copper wire fighting over a penny.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: That's just the way our family was.
26:12
SPEAKER_02: And here, this this is such a different picture of someone who's generous and sacrificial and happy about it.
26:19
SPEAKER_02: I think I told you that uh I learned generosity as a single guy in my late teens and then early twenties, down in Dallas and then up here, living with single guys who were generous with me.
26:34
SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't believe that they would just make me a sandwich out of their own bologna, or give me their drinks, or let me drive their car, or whatever, because I didn't have one.
26:44
SPEAKER_02: And I thought, I want to be like that.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: So, anyway, giving happily, sacrificially, generously, and the Lord loves a cheerful giver, this verse from the very next chapter.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: Isn't it interesting?
26:58
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't very many times say, I love this kind of a person, but he does say, I love someone who gives with a smile on their face.
27:07
SPEAKER_02: And the final principle is give personally.
27:09
SPEAKER_02: If you only give when you get a, you know, when somebody twists your arm or you get a letter, you know, in the mail and you don't even know them, that's fine, you know, but I mean, really, why don't you get involved personally in the life of someone here in town that you're gonna be generous with, maybe in the high crest area?
27:29
SPEAKER_02: Why don't you get involved personally in the life of, say, the mission organization or the rescue mission, and then you are personally involved in that gift?
27:38
SPEAKER_01: All right?
27:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I was thinking about this um as I was preparing, and we talked about this uh on Thursday.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: I was um, you know, we don't know this about me, we lived in Memphis for six years up until last year, and we started coming to the TBC, and uh uh as I said earlier, you can tell a lot about a church about how and any organization, company by the way, that they steward their finances.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: And so it was uh fast forward about a year until this year, this February, I made it a point to come to the business meeting here because I wanted I wanted to see, I wanted to know.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: Um and I was when I opened up the packet and I started looking through the budget and and heard uh the elders, I heard you, I was blown away by the fact if you don't know this, you need to know this.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: That it for every dollar that comes into this church, uh 20% of that is going right back out the door to missionaries, to this community, uh, to spread the gospel all across the world.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: And it's mind-blowing to me that that that happens.
28:42
SPEAKER_01: And it also makes me think, why is that so hard for me in my own life?
28:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I wish I had that much it's kind of embarrassing sometimes to think about that that I can't get to that point.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: And I I think when we when we look at it, these principles and things that we've covered today are great.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: But I think in reality, most of us will walk out of the room and not really do anything, not do much about it unless we go a little bit deeper.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: And so as we round third and head home, I uh I want to go a little bit deeper with you guys today, and I hope that's okay.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: I want to come sit in your living room with you, uh, and I want to share some verses with you that the Lord has has laid upon my heart and through experiences in my life and tell you a little bit of stories that go along with these verses.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the first one is this it's uh Proverbs 12, 9.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: It says, It's better to be an ordinary person with a servant than to be self-important but have no food.
29:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the story that goes with this is uh when we were living in Memphis, my first year there, I was working in ministry, not making a whole bunch of money.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: And so I started thinking through, okay, what can I do to make a little bit extra cheese on the side, uh, you know, provide for myself.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: And uh I'd grown up cutting grass, loved cutting grass.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: My father and I would cut grass all the time and uh would cut the neighbor's yard.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: And so I prayed through that and uh met with a couple mentors, and I got the Lord just long story short, he just hooked me up.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: I got all this commercial yard equipment at no cost to me.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: And uh he just he just provided.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: And and then about like a lawnmower and a lawnmower, trimmers, blowers, like two of everything.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: Saved me about ten thousand dollars.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: And um, and I remember about six weeks later, driving around the city, and I get to a stoplight, and I'd start peeking out my windows at other people's, other yard companies' equipment, and just started to become discontent.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh gosh, like bigger mower?
30:41
SPEAKER_01: Bigger mowers, sexier mowers, like as sexy as yard equipment can get.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: Like sexy yardic current?
30:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, is that is that like zero turning radio returning?
30:49
SPEAKER_01: You're sitting down, you know, got this thing over your head that shields you from this from the sun.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: And I was just discontent and and I was ready and willing uh to go and and take out a loan, and like I wanted a new truck to uh you know, pull it around and have it.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Gotta have it, F-150.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and I was I was I was just discontent.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord was kind of working on my life, and he just goes, you know what?
31:14
SPEAKER_01: I realized at one moment, uh, I was sitting in class reading, reading this, and he says, You know what, Rodney?
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Your issue is you want to appear like you made it financially.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: You got all this nice yard equipment.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: You want to make it appear like you look rich.
31:31
SPEAKER_01: You're not.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: And he says, it's better for you to look like an ordinary person and have a servant than for you to look like you're rich or self-important and you have no food.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: I think for some of us that's our issue financially.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: That we want to look like we've made it financially.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: So we have to drive that car.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: We have to live in that house.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: We have to live in that neighborhood.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: We have to buy these clothes, we have to buy those shoes, we have to make sure our kids wear those clothes.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: We have to send our kids to private school because we have to make it look like we've made it financially.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to look like an ordinary person.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: I want to look like I'm rich.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you this.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: In some ways, do you secretly, nobody else knows this but you, do you secretly compete maybe with yourself?
32:25
SPEAKER_01: Maybe with someone you know, maybe with someone that you've heard of?
32:30
SPEAKER_01: And now you're sh you're you're competing with them and you and you're strapped financially, and you've done this all because you wanted to look rich in their eyes.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: You pull up next to the stoplight and you're rolling in your new car.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Somebody comes over to your house and they go, Oh wow, this is great.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: And it's all for their opinions, and it's all for you to look like you've got it all together.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: Is that you?
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for you, maybe this is not the issue.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, another verse that the Lord has used in my life is uh Proverbs 23:4.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't wear yourself out to get rich.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Don't trust in your own cleverness.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: Background to this story is uh it's really embarrassing.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: I'll tell it anyways.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: Um so when we were uh uh engaged, my wife and I uh engaged, uh, the guy who was doing our premarital counseling, he said, Hey, why don't you go listen to these sermon series?
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh is by this guy named Tommy Nelson down in Dallas, Texas.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: He does this uh premarital type thing in his church every uh every so often, and he has this uh sermon series.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: And so we listened to it, it was great.
33:32
SPEAKER_01: And then we got on the topic of uh of money, financing, and and child rearing.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: Now, by this point in our engagement, my my wife had told me, hey, you know, when we start having kids, I'd like to stay home with the kids.
33:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I was I was kind of like, uh I'm not making very you see, I'm cutting grass on the side, we're gonna be uh eating ramen noodles and peanut butter and jelly for breakfast, lust, and dinner.
33:54
SPEAKER_01: Like this is not a good look.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: And so um, and so I was we were just kind of working through that issue.
34:00
SPEAKER_01: And we were listening, we were probably coming back here to Kansas from Memphis, and we were listening, and this guy just he just comes straight out the gate.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, you know, a lot of times when when we're talking about finances with new with newly married couples, maybe even with people who have been seasoned, uh, a lot of times the guy wants the woman to go to work because the guy wants to have a little bit more money so he can go and buy toys.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: And I mean buy toys.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: He can go and buy his toys.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Now I immediately looked at her and I went and I turned that thing off, so we're not listening to this guy anymore.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: He's a false teacher.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: It's because I got convicted.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: False teacher.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: He's not a false teacher, by the way.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh but I got I just got convicted that I was thinking through our lives together.
34:45
SPEAKER_01: I wanted her to go to work so that we'd have a little bit more money in the bank, so I could have better and bigger toys.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: It's embarrassing, but it's true.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord's been working on that in my life ever since.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you guys this.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: Are you currently, like, are you currently exhausted?
35:11
SPEAKER_01: Are you are you just wearing yourself out?
35:15
SPEAKER_01: And it's all because you want to have a little bit more money, and it's not that you're gonna have a little bit more money so that you can give a little bit more, it's so that you can be a little bit more stingy and use it on yourself.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: And you're currently wearing your wife out, you're wearing your spouse out, you're wearing your family out, wearing your kids out.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: All to have a little bit extra cash in the bank.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: If so, you've you've probably already heard from the Lord on this.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: He's he's already probably told you what area it is that you need to change, and and you're resistant.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh I advise you to give up because he's not going to give up on you in this area.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Analyze your heart and make sure that you know that you're not doing it, you're not wearing yourself out in order for you to have a little bit extra cash.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: I'd like to close uh with this uh with a story about a guy that I know uh from Memphis.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Um there's a guy there.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh how many of you guys have heard of the name uh Kim Wilson Jr.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: Two people?
36:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you've been in the other services.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: Um that name doesn't mean much to us in Topeka, that Kim Wilson name.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: But if you go to Memphis, Tennessee and uh and hear the name Kim Wilson, whether it's junior or senior, uh ears start to perk up.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: The reason why is that Kim Wilson Jr.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: is the son of Kim Wilson Sr.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: And Kim Wilson, I know, profound, and uh uh Kim Wilson Sr.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: is the guy who started Holiday Inn.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: And so uh I got to rub shoulders with uh Kim while uh I was in Memphis for a short while.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh and Kim is in his late 60s, uh probably early 70s, and uh I was blown away by Kim's humility uh and his intentionality when it comes to money.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: He he has more money, him and his family, uh his brothers, and you know, all of his kids and grandkids have more money than they know what to do with.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: And uh I remember sitting down at a uh at a fundraiser that he he was on a on the board with, and he gets up, he takes a mic, and he's he's closing it out, and he says, you know, when I'm thinking about my finances, um, when I'm thinking about giving, I I think about it the same way I think about any of our business investments.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: I want to make sure that I see a return on my investment.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: He says, when I'm thinking about giving to organizations that are carrying out God's work, I want to make sure that the kingdom of God sees some sort of return on investment.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's interesting.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: I think Kim's heart is is in the right place.
37:58
SPEAKER_01: And I think because his heart is in the and I think I think Kim has just never really gotten over the fact that at some point in his life, I don't know when this was for him, but he was dead in his trespasses and his sins.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: He was without hope, without God in this world.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: And one day God turned the lights on for him to see Jesus.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: That that and and and Kim saw it.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: And he saw what Jesus has done for us and the emotion that Christ went through, that he would go to the cross and he would die not only for Kim's sins, but for all of our sins.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's just wrought Kim's world for the last, who knows, 50 years that it's changed the way that he's viewed his whole life, including his finances.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: And that him and his family and his foundation and their foundation has probably given away thousands upon hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars, because Kim's life and his family life has been changed by the Lord.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: And I think he, he, I really do think he's just never gotten over it.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: And he's just so overwhelmed with gratitude with what it is that the Lord's done for him, that his heart is moved by the gospel that it changes the way that he lives.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: And I can just imagine one day when Kim passes and Kim goes and meets our Savior face to face, I just think Kim is gonna be overwhelmed with emotion or gratitude that his sins were paid for.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think Kim's gonna have any sort of words to say to Jesus in that moment, but I think they're gonna meet eyes.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: I think the Lord is just gonna be overwhelmed, and he's just gonna look at Kim, and he's just gonna go, Kim, well done.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: Well done.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: You've you've taken what I've given you and you've stewarded it.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: You didn't use it for yourself and lived a lavish lifestyle.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: You took it and you used it for my glory, and you invested it in our king in the in the kingdom.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: And I would hope that that would be what it is that we would like to have said about our lives, particularly in this area of finance.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: That one day when we meet our Savior face to face, like we're all gonna stand before him.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: And I would hope that our lives in this area of finances that he would be able to look at us and go, Jim, Rodney, well done.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: You did what it is that I would want you to do.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: You didn't use these finances on yourself.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Use them for your own glory.
40:24
SPEAKER_01: You steward them, you budgeted your money.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: You were wise with your investment, you were wise with how you spent your money, you were wise in where you gave your money.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: Your ultimate goal was for to see me be glorified into or in throughout my life.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that that would be said of our lives.
40:43
SPEAKER_01: We'd look Jesus in the face, that we would have nothing but gratitudes in our hearts, and he would just look at us and go, Well done.
40:49
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
40:50
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
40:51
SPEAKER_02: Hey, let me pray for everybody, ask God to do them a favor before Jeremiah closes us in song.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: So, what I'm gonna ask God for each and everyone listening to me today is that he'll do you a favor that in the next 24 hours he'll whisper in your ear, basically, or in your mind, what your next step should be.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: For some of you, it'll be a step towards financial freedom.
41:11
SPEAKER_02: For others of you, it'll be a step toward toward generous giving.
41:14
SPEAKER_02: So let me pray for them right now.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I want to ask you, uh, this is apparently really important topic for you, and it's important to us too.
41:23
SPEAKER_02: It's important to us because we want to be involved in something that really matters forever.
41:27
SPEAKER_02: And we know our money can be involved in that.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: We want to we also need to be able to say thank you.
41:33
SPEAKER_02: And so we thank you for that opportunity.
41:35
SPEAKER_02: But I'd ask that in the next 24 hours for every single person here.
41:40
SPEAKER_02: You whisper in their head so they they have an idea of what their next step should be toward financial freedom, or may maybe a next step toward generous giving.
41:48
SPEAKER_02: Would you do that as a personal favor for Topeka Bible Church, as a favor for your son and for his kingdom?
41:55
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
41:56
SPEAKER_02: Amen.