Simplifying Life for Authentic Financial Serenity

If you're watching online to our online audience, welcome.

My name is Steven Feith, lead pastor.

Most of you don't know this about me.

I'm really excited to share with you.

I've been thinking about this all week.

I'm a part of a very exclusive club, very exclusive club.

I shouldn't even be talking about it this morning because it's that exclusive.

Some of you are in the club with me.

You know I shouldn't be talking about it, so don't tell other people in the club today that I was talking about it.

But I'm a proud member of the Crappy Car Club, the Crappy Car Club.

I've been a member since 2004, when I bought my first car, which was a salvaged Chevy Cavalier.

Yes, the Crappy Car Club.

Actually, up until a few weeks ago, I had only ever bought used cars in my life Only ever used cars.

We actually went to Florida last month in our old Ford Escape a 2012 Ford Escape, 210,000 miles on it.

We were going, you know, taking the fam to Disney World.

In this car.

All my friends are taking bets.

You break down in Nashville, you break down in Atlanta, can you?

You know, after the car sat there for a week in Orlando, you even get off the parking lot.

We did.

We made it back, and Megan's still taking that car to work, and so it's working really good.

We did find out in Florida, though, that the air conditioning doesn't work, so that was kind of a bummer Does not work, but we did make it back, and I did mention, though, that we did.

We bought a new car for the first time in our lives last month.

We weren't looking to buy a new car, we were looking to buy a car last fall, but it didn't have to be new, and if any of you have tried to buy a car in the last like year, manufacturing is really backed up, and so, as I was looking for used cars, what I came to find was that, like they had used cars that cost the same as the new cars I was looking at, the difference was, like the used cars on the lot, so you can drive away with it today.

The new car.

You got to wait six months.

I was like I've got time, like I've got time, and so we got this new car, and I did wait six months for it, and it's really nice.

And it's really nice Not if you have a Tesla, it's not, it's all right.

If you have a Tesla in here, it's just fine.

But for being a member of the Crappy Car Club, this car is super nice.

It's a Ford Escape.

Another one about a new Ford Escape.

Dac works in it.

It's a big plus, big plus.

It's got heated seats, which are awesome.

And does anyone have heated steering wheel?

Yeah, a couple of people look.

They told me it was going to change my life and I was like get out of here.

It's not.

I'm a pastor.

I tell people things are going to change your lives.

All the time I'm in the business of changing lives.

It changed my life.

I'll never go back.

It's like zero degrees outside and your hand is just touching the warm steering.

So nice.

But it does come with costs, and I'm not just talking about the monthly payment.

There is a monthly payment, but it comes with other costs.

For example, going to the store is a lot harder now, because when I get to the store I have a hard time picking a parking spot, Not finding a parking spot.

There are lots of parking spots, but now I'm trying to find one that's acceptable for my car, that doesn't have any scratches, doesn't have any blemishes, doesn't have any dents.

So I got to find the right one and it always drives me nuts.

My blood pressure just shoots through the roof.

I'm walking out of target.

I went in, grabbed a few things and I noticed a member of my club parked right next to me.

They have the crappy car now and they're parked next to my and I'm like, oh man, I got to get out of here.

Funny enough, I never worried about where I parked in my other car.

I never worried about that and I started to think that this was some of the costs of having a new car.

It's like it's more stressful.

Now I'm worried about it.

I'm like one of those people.

I'm coming up to the roundabout where they're all yielding and I'm looking in every direction now Because I'm just like who's going to blow through this thing and just absolutely crush my new precious car, my other car I have insured as much as Liberty Mutual will let me insure it.

I've got max everything.

The day a tree branch falls off my car, off our tree, and crushes the car will be the happiest day of my life.

We got new car replacement on it and good luck trying to replace this one.

It is that old, it has so many miles.

As a matter of fact, they keep emailing me.

They're like we could save you money if you drop this new car replacement.

I'm like, I know your game, I know what you're trying to do.

You're trying to because you don't want to buy when this happens, when it inevitably happens.

The Crappy Car Club does not have many benefits, but one of them is peace of mind, never worried about that old thing at all.

And I bring all of this up because we are starting a new three-part series called Finding Financial Peace, and I got to set this up from the onset.

I know that this is one of the hardest topics that we cover about every other year at Madison Church.

It's one of the hardest topics, and here are my guesses why.

Guest number one you've probably heard talks about money and finances in church and it was not good.

It made you feel guilty, it made you feel ashamed, it made you feel manipulated.

And so you come now here and you're like, oh, it's going to be the same kind of show here.

That's probably one of the reasons that you don't like these talks.

You grew up in a home where the only time you ever heard money talked about was also negative.

It was about mom and dad fighting how are we going to pay the bills?

Where should we spend the money?

How should we split it up?

So you grew up in that kind of a household.

Money today is a source of anxiety for a lot of people.

Actually, the first thing I saw when I logged into the Instagram today was that it was like some 60% of Americans think that their personal finances are worse today than they were last year and that, because 60% of Americans feel that way, it's actually the highest it's been in 40 years, so the highest it's been in the room here.

Then there's half of you who would say my personal finances are not as good as they were last year.

So there's anxiety, there's fear, there's stress and those are all of the reasons why we do a series like this every other year.

Because, well, you may not have talked about it in your home growing up and you may not like talking about it with your family now At Madison Church, we talk about hard topics.

We talk about how you know these things are stressful, but that there is a better way, kind of like how we were singing in the beginning, like God, your ways are better and everything I just talked about.

It doesn't sound like freedom and it is possible to have financial freedom without being a millionaire.

It is possible, and so you know, my goals for this series this week, next week and the week after is to present to you what the Bible says somewhat about money, with the hopes that you draw closer to God during this time.

For a lot of us, money and finances are something that kind of keep us from connecting with God in a deeper, more meaningful way.

And then, in the process of doing all of this, I want you to have more financial peace in three weeks than you have today.

I want you to objectively say that I feel better about my financial situation because of what we've talked about at Madison Church the last three weeks, and I want you to know if you've had a bad experience at a church before talking about this topic.

I'm sorry, I can't take responsibility for them, but I can say that I am sorry that you went through that.

I can only take responsibility for me and Madison Church, and I want you to know that every time, every other year, when we do a series like this, I run it through the filter that this is something I want for you and not something that I want from you.

So when I get done writing the message and I get it all lined up.

I go through it with that filter.

I'm like is that what you really want for Lindsay, is that what you really want for Judd, or is that something you want from them?

And if it ever crosses that line of from, I just delete it.

Alright, I know I'll talk long enough to you, know, get us here till noon, but so I don't worry about it.

But I want something for you.

You may not know this, but the biblical text, the Old and New Testament, talk more about money and possessions than any other topics.

It's almost like God thousands of years ago when speaking to people and through people.

It's almost like God knew that money was going to be a source of anxiety and fear for humans everywhere, all times.

It's almost like God knew that and so he talks about it through people often.

Now maybe before I go on here, I do need to pause.

You're hearing this and you're going through a difficult time financially.

Maybe you lost your income, you're between jobs, you haven't been able to recover from an illness or situation.

I understand that that describes more people today than probably a year ago, with we were seeing layoffs and all those sort of things Sometimes.

What I want to say about that is that sometimes the pain we feel isn't because of the choices that we have made, but rather they're just from the circumstances that are beyond our control.

So if that's you today, you're going through a circumstance, a situation, a very difficult financial time.

I just want you to know that you're not struggling alone.

Not only does God see you this morning and has seen you, but we'd love to talk to you, pray with you and see how we're able to help, and if we're able to help, I'm just really glad that you're all here today.

There was an interesting study conducted by Harvard Business School.

They interviewed 400 American millionaires.

They asked them this question how much money would make you happy?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?

How much money would it take for me to be happy?

Like, when would I find financial freedom?

What's the dollar amount?

To set it up?

Each of the 400 millionaires that they talked to.

They were asked several questions.

One of them was like how much money they already had.

How much money is in your portfolio?

How much money is in the bank?

All of those questions, they said question number two, on a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you?

And then question three was how much more money would you need to move your happiness closer to 10?

So if I had $100 million in the bank, I ranked my happiness in eight.

The question then is how much money would you need to be a nine to be a 10?

If I had a million dollars in the bank and I ranked it as a four, how much would it take for you to be a five?

Here were the responses 26% was the largest response, and they said that they needed 10 times more than they had to move up at all.

These are millionaires.

They already have at least a million dollars 400 of them and a quarter of them said I need 10 times more.

So if they had $1 million, well, I need 10 million.

If they had $10 million, I said actually, you know, $100 million would do it for me.

24%, so not much of a difference.

We're going 26% to 24% said five times more.

Oh, okay, well, that's different, right?

No, not really Like.

If I had $10 million, well, $50 million would make me happier.

Only 13% of the millionaires said that they already had enough to be happy, so just over 10% said yeah, I'm good.

Now, what's interesting is that it did not matter whether the person had $100 million or $10 million.

87% said resoundingly loud, yes, more is better.

And it's not just millionaires, I'm not just picking on millionaires this morning.

We all feel like and we think that if we could just have a couple more dollars an hour, or just 10% more in the bank, or just a little bit more of a raise, that then I would cross the threshold and then I would be finally satisfied.

And this is the mindset that more is better, and it is embedded into all of our thinking that more is better.

I mean, would you rather be driving my car that has a heated steering wheel and working AC, with 500 miles on it, to Disney World, or would you take my other car, which has 210,000 miles and no air conditioning, right?

So I mean, like I know there's a clear and obvious choice.

Me too, I would rather have the other one, but it wasn't here yet.

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that wanting a better life is bad.

That's always kind of.

Maybe the trouble with doing these talks is like we're talking about like more isn't better.

You're like, oh okay, so maybe I should just, you know, stop showing up to work on time and stop working hard.

That's not at all what I'm saying here.

Do better if and when you can, but when doing better and getting ahead is the primary focus and value of your life.

You've bought into the culture the biggest filter of your life.

How you make decisions is that more is better.

But the reality is that unbridled pursuit of more it causes stress, it causes fear, it causes burnout.

God wants you to be free, and that begins by debunking the myth that more is better For many of us.

We need to grasp the greater truth that less is more, more isn't better and less is more.

You may not immediately agree with that, because who couldn't use a little bit more right Now?

I'm not talking about money and stuff.

But think about this if more is better, do you want more stress in your life?

So more isn't always better.

Do you want more striving in your life, more exhaustion, more anxiety, more worry?

Okay, so you're with me.

You're like okay, there are instances in which more is not better.

We can agree on that, but I want you to consider that having more money and possessions isn't always better.

As a matter of fact, if I were to ask you right now and just to take a poll and I said what is most important to you in your life?

I would be shocked if you raised your hand and said my bank account, like if we went through the room and I said what's most important to you?

What's most important to you, what's my 401k, my retirement, my savings account, my new escape?

That's not what we say, that's not what we would say at all.

We would say my faith.

That's a good answer in church, right?

Oh, my faith, absolutely.

We would say my friends, my family, my kids, my spouse.

We would say so many other things that are important to us and yet there's such a discrepancy then in the way that we live.

There's a discrepancy between what we say we value family, friends, faith and then how we live, and I wanna confront that discrepancy.

I want us to get on the same page that when you say that you really do value your friends more, your faith more, your family more, whatever it is that you really value, I want to help you move money and possessions out of the way, because I believe that that's keeping you from truly valuing those things more.

The first biblical truth that we find on this path to financial freedom why don't you think of financial freedom as a destination, and the first biblical truth to financial freedom is that we need less conforming and more transforming.

Paul writes in Romans, chapter 12, if you wanna follow with me here, don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Paul is inviting you and me to be less conforming and more transforming.

I love this idea.

Don't conform to the customs of this world.

Whereas the United States, or just societies in general, is saying more is better, more is better.

Get that raise, get that promotion, climb that corporate ladder, whatever it is that you want, more and more and more of.

Paul is saying no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on.

Let God be the one who dictates your values.

Conform to God's thinking for you.

Why would I wanna do that?

Well, I can learn God's will for my life, which is good, pleasing and perfect.

Well, we don't want more stress than our lives, but wouldn't we like a good life?

Well, we don't want more fatigue and exhaustion in our life, but wouldn't we like a more pleasing life?

And so Paul, right from the get go, is saying if those are the things you want, if you want freedom, we need to not think how the world thinks about these things, but rather we need to think about how God thinks about these topics.

And so what we're gonna do is we need to call out to conforming.

Call out to conforming in our lives.

Maybe today, conformity looks like doing whatever it takes to get ahead of others.

Maybe conforming looks like buying a bigger house than you need, buying a bigger house than you can afford.

Maybe conforming is the belief that if you just get enough stuff, we'll finally be worth something.

I know some of us we struggle with our self image and am I worth anything?

And we just think that if I get enough stuff, well then, like, I have a dollar amount to what I'm worth.

We need to challenge that.

You need to look at yourself today and I need to look at myself today.

We need to look at ourselves and really look at our lives and say Am I doing the things that God made me to do Like?

Am I doing the things Monday morning, friday night, wednesday afternoon, saturday midday?

Am I doing the things?

Am I becoming the person that God intended me to be.

And this isn't about guilt.

I'm not trying to guilt you into being better.

I just want you to take an honest assessment.

You don't have to get back to me on this, okay, just an honest assessment with yourself and say am I do, I think that I'm living the way God wants me to, or not?

Am I conforming to God's will for my life or am I conforming to some other greater will over here?

And then how do we get back on track?

We will experience freedom in our lives if we stop trying to live up to the pressures of the world around us and just embrace the life that God has created for us.

This type of deep spiritual work and it is work Changing your mind is hard work.

It's a process of unlearning and then relearning, but changing your mind.

If you do this, you're going to experience freedom in your lives, not just with your money and possessions, but, yes, with your money and possessions.

This leads to a second biblical truth for finding financial freedom.

The path to financial freedom less pursuits, more peace.

The endless pursuit of whatever is next, the next promotion, the next raise.

It's anxiety producing.

I can remember it too.

We would break a sales record.

I managed a Starbucks before coming full time at the church.

I remember we'd break a sales record, like and we had had to work really hard to do that, we'd six months.

We're just climbing slowly.

We broke the sales record.

You guys.

You know what I want it to do next week Break the record I just broke.

I wanted to break my own record.

And then I wanted to do it for the month.

Like we had broken a sales record for the month.

I was like, well, I want to, I want to beat my record last month.

And then it was like well, you broke a sales record for the quarter.

Well, I want to do it again.

And then, as we began, when I took over the store, we were like the hundred plus ranked Starbucks in the area and then by the time I left, we were like top 10.

But it was always something for me, it was always we.

Okay, I want to break the record.

Okay, I want to be top 50.

Okay, we're top 50.

Are you happy now?

No, it was like I want to be top 10 now.

Are you happy?

No, I'm like I'm now targeting the top three stores and I'm like Googling them, I'm looking them up.

What are they doing that.

I'm not doing so that I can be better, and it was honestly it was exhausting.

The author of Ecclesiastes writes, chapter four, verse six, is better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind.

That's the important part of this, chasing the wind.

He's not saying that having two handfuls isn't great, but he's like if you have two handfuls and it's, you're chasing the wind, well, you're carrying something heavy and you're chasing something that you're never going to get.

The author contends here that one handful, yeah, it means you have less stuff, but it's a manageable amount and it's better to have quietness and actually have something to look at and be with than the other.

There's this idea again at some point we'll have enough and then we'll rest, but we'll never have enough.

Better is one handful of stuff and sleeping well at night rather than having a lot of stuff and losing sleep at night figuring out how to pay for it all.

I know that resonates with some of you.

Better is one handful of stuff and sleeping well at night than having a lot of stuff and losing sleep at night figuring out how to pay for it all.

Another way to phrase this is would you rather have five or three really good friends or a thousand people who follow you on Facebook or Instagram?

What would you rather have?

Would you rather have the big quantity or the tight quality, which means that we're going to have to begin to cut back on our consumption If we want to.

One of the ways that we can say that less is more is by cutting back on our consumption.

We begin to live within our means.

If this is how much I get paid, then this is the maximum.

I'm going to spend stuff like that, and when I consume less, I find out that what I need less, I begin to find contentment in the things that I already have, instead of needing the next thing or the new thing.

I look around me and I enjoy what I already have.

For some of us, cutting back on consumption may mean changing how you shop.

I've noticed that's buying a house.

You see those commercials where it's like we can't stop you from becoming your parents hilarious.

I relate to them way too much, but I get bored and I'm like I don't live far from the Home Depot and I love home improvement, renovation stuff, so when I get really bored, I just drive over to the Home Depot, I'm just going to look around.

I never just look around.

There's always three things in the back of my mind I think I need.

And then, of course, I'm at Home Depot, I'm bored, I'm looking at it, I'm going to go look at some other stuff.

I come back, I look at it some more, I'm like I'll just buy it.

I can't do this next month and where am I next month?

So for cutting back for me it means, like Steven, when you're bored, you need to find a more positive outlet to do this.

Enjoy some of the tools that you have already bought and only used once.

Or maybe use some of the tools that you've bought but you've never used, because those exist.

In my house I do have some tools that I bought because I needed them and I haven't used them in 18 months since buying them.

So, cutting back and I want you to think about your own life and how you could cut back.

For some of you, that might be like going through this afternoon with a box and getting rid of some clothes that you haven't worn in 10 years.

If you haven't worn them in 10 years, you're probably not going to wear them next week.

Give them to somebody else who will wear them, like somebody else will wear them.

So give them away.

If you have a ton of books and you're never going to read or reference them again, let them bless someone else.

I mean, if the book blessed you, you kept it.

This was life changing.

Perhaps it's time to release that book and say, hey, go bless someone else.

So we cut back in our lives.

A third and final scriptural truth for us for finding financial freedom is less greed, more gratitude.

I know, if I took a straw pool in here and I said who's greedy in here, none of you would say yes, we would all say that we're very generous people.

I know that.

But Jesus warns us be on the guard of every kind of greed.

Life is not measured by how much you own.

That's in Luke 12, verse 15.

Luke 12:15

Jesus knew something that none of us want to admit.

We all have a tendency to be greedy.

We all do, I do.

If we don't want to admit it, we would never, and we're definitely not as greedy as the person next to us or the person back home.

We're never as greedy as they are.

But all of us have a great capacity for greed, and greed is embedded and revealed to us through our need for more.

This could be a sense of entitlement overspending, hoarding, walking around the Home Depot saying I really need this saw, because look at how cool that saw is.

This was once again reminding us that life is more than the stuff that you acquire, and when we allow ourselves to have less, we naturally find ourselves more thankful for what we currently possess, and so we need to clear out the clutter in our lives.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have anything, but I'm suggesting that you can't have all these goals and dreams in your life with.

The values.

Of my family is most important if my values and what I'm pursuing is more and more stuff.

So for many of us, we find our entire lives.

I mean, I look around the room and none of you are terribly old yet.

We all get there, but we're spending a lot of our lives in slaves for the need for more.

You think about how you chose the last job you took.

Was it based on salary?

That's not wrong, but I'm guessing that's what it was when you took the company that you worked for.

If you had like three companies to choose from, did you choose the one that was like well, I value my family, so this one gives me the most time with my family, or this one gives me opportunities to travel with my family.

Where did you use the one that paid better?

Or choose the one that paid better?

Or choose the one that says we have a corporate ladder, then you can really climb it up here.

And so what we need to do?

There's a longing in our hearts that can't be met by anything other than God.

That's what this is all boiling down to.

There's a longing in our hearts that can only be met by God.

It won't be met by that job title, won't be met by that annual salary, but it's God.

No number of cars or trips, dollars in your bank account will ever make you feel loved.

It won't make you feel love.

My bank account isn't right.

My, my bank says thanks for banking with us, cuz I know I'm making them money Right.

They say thank you, but it's not like my money is saying I love you, steven.

It's not like my car said he talked about me today at church oh, thank you, bud.

No, it's not gonna do that.

For us to find love, we find it in people and we find it in God.

That's what matters most, whatever your motivation is for needing more, know that the answer is not found in more.

It's not found in more, it's found in Jesus alone.

And so three challenges for you guys today.

Call out the conforming when are you conforming to the patterns of this world?

To others, where are you feeling like you just want to look like you're getting ahead or getting ahead.

Where are you trying to get approval?

Challenge to cut back on your consumption.

Are you living within your means?

That's the question here.

We need to consume less.

Clear out the clutter.

For some of you, this is the hardest thing I've told you in years.

We get rid of some of the crap that you have.

Okay, get rid of it.

It's okay.

You're actually gonna feel amazing afterwards.

Financial freedom is Absolutely possible.

For some of us in the room.

I know that the work is great.

It's gonna be hard.

You have to dig in.

I get that.

For others of us gonna take a lot of energy, a lot of time.

For others of you, it's gonna just gonna take great discipline.

You gotta practice some self-control.

But for all of us, it's acting on some of the small changes that we talked about today.

Just small changes.

You don't have to do everything I talked about.

But what if, today, you did grab a box and you cleaned out some of the clothes that you don't wear anymore?

You gave away some of the stuff that you don't use anymore?

What if you did that today?

What if, today, you took an inventory what are you grateful for in your life, who are you grateful for in your life and wrote those down.

If you're in between jobs right now you're looking for the next job, maybe, instead of saying like I'm looking for a corporate ladder to climb, I'm looking for the one that's gonna pay me the best as the best benefits, maybe say what do I really value?

I'm in between.

I have this great opportunity to get a new job.

What do I value?

And perhaps it's like I'm gonna choose this job Because it gives me that family time.

I'm gonna choose this job because it helps me spend more time with my friends.

I'm gonna do this job because I want to give back to the world and I want to contribute to the world and I don't want to just consume paycheck to paycheck, but I want to make a meaningful difference.

There's hope today for wherever you're at, whether you you are a millionaire or you have no money or you're in debt.

There's hope for all of us today.

Freedom is waiting to be claimed.

So take a step.

Financial freedom is a destination and it doesn't cost a million dollars to get there.

It just takes you taking a step today, a step toward God's plan for your life.