Holy Buckets - Week 5 - Dixie Penrod

We are so glad to be together here with our church

family. I just wanted to take a moment and give

a shout out to Pastor Alicia. Thank you for listening

to this message from White House Church. She

is a credentialed minister with the Church of

God. And yesterday she was the speaker at our

State Girls Club event. And yeah, yeah, let's

just give a whoosh. Listen, I... We got a text

from our state youth director, Desmond and Keisha,

our state youth directors, and they just told

us what an incredible job that Pastor Alicia

did yesterday. So we just want to let you know

that the state is proud of you. Pastor Kip and

I are proud of you, and thank you for using your

gifts to further the kingdom. So yeah, we just

want to give a shout out to you this morning.

Well, we have been in this message series, holy

buckets. You know, I thought it was funny when

Pastor Kip said that was going to be the title

of the financial message series that we were

in. But honestly, holy buckets is a word that

we use at our house a lot. Not always referring

to this message series, but it's just kind of

a term that we use. But it's been an incredible

series. God's word gives us so much instruction

on finances. and possessions. And today we are

on message five of this series. And I am just

praying this morning that God just uses me as

his vessel to bring across his word and not my

words. I'm humbled that I have the opportunity

to be up here and to share this message this

morning. So With that being said, I'm up here

doing announcements a lot, and all of you know

that I absolutely love fall. It's amazing. This

morning was a beautiful, chilly morning. I love

fall. I love leaves. I love pumpkins. If you

ask Pastor Alyssa, she may tell you that I have

a pumpkin. problem, which I shared with her yesterday.

I gave her some pumpkins yesterday so that she

too could have a pumpkin problem in fall. But

one of the other things that I love about fall

is football. I love football. May not look like

I'm a football girl. I don't like to play football,

but I like to watch football. Not college ball.

I love to watch the NFL. So we are in week three

of the NFL, and I just am so excited that there's

something to watch on Sunday afternoons that's

worth watching. So it's just another reason that

I love fall, because football is also here and

back. Can I get an amen? Football's here, guys.

Come on. There we go. There we go, right? So

I'm going to talk a little bit about that this

morning. So how many of you out there know who

Vince Lombardi is? Yeah, here we go, right? So

he was the legendary Green Bay Packers coach.

He was a very strong advocate for the fundamentals.

He famously stated, everyone has the will to

win, but very few have the will to prepare to

win. Winning is in the plan and the preparation.

There's another pretty famous football coach

out there. I don't know how much of a fan I am,

and I'm pretty sure Brian Cardin is a fan of

him, but Bill Belichick is another famous football

coach out there. I know, keep your booze to yourself

out there, all right? But during his 24 years

with the Patriots, Bill Belichick led this team

to six Super Bowl titles, nine conference championships,

and 17 division crowns. He was known for his

detailed... opponent -specific strategies. The

New England coach emphasized exploiting the strengths

and attacking the weaknesses along with being

well -prepared to make adjustments during the

game. He would often refer to this quote from

Sun Tzu's The Art of War that every battle is

won before it's fought. This phrase highlights

Belichick's meticulous preparation. He believed

by exploiting the opponent's weaknesses and playing

to his team's strengths that the Patriots could

control the game's outcome long before kickoff.

You see, in football, a game plan is the detailed

strategy -based blueprint created by the coaching

staff to guide their team's performance in a

specific game. how they would use specific formations

and defensive styles to capitalize on strengths,

to expose the opponent's weaknesses, and to ultimately

win the game. These plans consider factors like

field position, down and distance, and the opponent's

formations to create a comprehensive approach.

See, game planning is at the heart of football

coaching. It's not just about the X's and O's.

It's about understanding the game, strategizing,

and getting the team ready for anything that

might come their way today. A solid game plan

can be the deciding factor between winning and

losing when the players hit the field. Now, can

you imagine for a minute? Today, Nick Ceriani,

who's the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, he

shows up at Lincoln Field today to play the LA

Rams, who also happens to be 2 -0. The Eagles

are 2 -0. The LA Rams are 2 -0. He looks at Jalen

Hurts and says, you know, let's just show up

today and let's just kind of do this by feel.

You know, you know a lot about football. I know

a lot about football. We've been doing this for

years. Yeah, yeah, I know. Matthew Stafford's

a pretty good quarterback. And yeah, I know that

their team is third in the NFL with sacks right

now, but let's just see what happens today. That

would never happen. I mean, maybe if you're Mike

Tomlin, you know. Just kidding. I'm a diehard

Steelers fan, but there are days. when it seems

like poor Mike has no plan. I'm just saying.

I love them all, but you know. But in all seriousness,

this week, there has been hours and hours of

watching film and looking at what the LA Rams

did this week in their first two games. The coaches

are watching it. The players are watching it,

all in preparation for a plan to win the game

today. Now, whichever team has the best game

plan with great execution is going to win the

game. And why do coaches and players do this?

Well, first of all, they make a lot of money.

But why do coaches and players do this? They

do this because without a plan, you lose before

you ever step on the field. If you don't have

a plan, you're going to lose. And you know what?

The same is true with money. If you want to win

financially, you need both a good offense and

you need a good defense. So what's the plan?

A budget. And it gets quiet in the house. A budget

is simply a game plan for your money. Winning

with money takes time, takes discipline, and

it takes self -control. Yes? I said self -control.

That's a fruit of the Spirit, in case you didn't

know. You can find it in Galatians 5, 22 and

23. And that one hurt a little bit for even me.

Self -control. So you may say it takes a plan.

The plan is a budget. What's a budget? Maybe

you don't know what a budget is. I'm here to

tell you what a budget is today. A budget is

a plan to write down... how you're going to decide

to spend your money each month. A budget shows

you how much money you make, and it shows you

how much money you spend. There's no way you're

going to win with money if you don't have a plan.

There's no way. Now listen, I know there are

reasons that people don't budget. Number one,

they're afraid what they're going to find. They

don't want to know. They don't want to know how

much they spent at Starbucks in September. They

don't want to know how much they spent at the

gas station getting energy drinks or McDonald's

getting burgers or coffee. They just don't want

to know. They'd rather stick their head in the

sand and not know what happened to their money.

Number two, people don't like to budget because

it's too restrictive. Because if they look at

the budget and it says they already spent too

much money at Starbucks, that means tomorrow

morning they're going to have to make their own

coffee. And it might not taste as good as it

did at Starbucks. You know? It's too restrictive.

Number three, sometimes your spouse isn't on

the same page with you. They don't want to budget

and it creates tension and it creates heartache.

And the number four reason why people don't budget

is because they don't know how. They don't know

how. But let me tell you something this morning.

Scripture is clear. Now, the Bible doesn't use

the word budget, but it strongly encourages financial

planning. wisdom, stewardship, which are all

core of budgeting. It requires diligence and

planning. The Bible promotes diligence and the

foresight in financial manners, emphasizing that

plans lead to abundance while hasty decisions

lead to poverty. Proverbs 21 .5 says this, the

plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely

as haste leads to poverty. And I know some of

you are cringing when I said the word diligence

and discipline. Those are words that we don't

like to hear. Those are words that we might think

that they make us feel too restrictive or we,

it's like, oh, I can't go to Starbucks or, oh,

I can't do this or, oh, I can't do that. But

diligence and discipline in your finances can

actually bring you freedom. In your finances.

Because when you have that margin and you create

that margin in your finances and your possessions,

it actually creates freedom. It doesn't constrict.

It creates that freedom. Here are some examples

of diligence. Tracking every dollar. That doesn't

sound like fun, does it? Tracking every dollar,

writing down or using an app. There are so many

apps out there today that you can track all of

your finances, every spending. They'll hook to

your checking account. You don't even have to

do it manually. It'll do it for you. Reviewing

your receipts and your statements, double checking

the bank for accuracy. How many of you still

balance your checking account? Not very many

hands because we rely on the bank to be right,

right? Yeah, surely electronically, it's all

gonna be the right way. Back in the day, I'm

gonna show how old I'm. Back in the day, you

actually got a paper bank statement and you had

your little bank register and you would cross

things off and find out if you made a mistake

here or there. Now you just go on and you rely

on the bank. Oh yeah, the bank says I have 500

bucks. Great, let's go spend that. That's what

we do today. We don't actually go back in and

check to see if there's a mistake, you know?

Sticking to categories and saying no to extra

spending when you've already maxed out that category.

If you're not tracking, you don't know. Paying

your bills on time. Regular check -ins to see

weekly or monthly if we're aligning with our

budget. Adjusting quickly if something changes,

like for all of a sudden. Gas prices skyrocket.

Our groceries, we can't stay in the $300 a month

budget. It's costing us $400. You just can't

stick your head in the sand and say, well, that's

what the prices are nowadays. You've got to adjust

your budget. Examples of planning are creating

that budget before the month begins. Assigning

every dollar a job before you spend it. It's

so quiet in here. Building an emergency fund.

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand if

you have an emergency fund, but I will tell you,

according to statistics, that less than 56 %

of people have a $1 ,000 emergency fund if an

expense comes up that they haven't planned for.

Less than 56%. So here's what happens. When you

have an emergency fund and you have an emergency,

It creates less stress in your life if you've

planned for that. That's where that freedom comes

in, where if you don't have that, it creates

more stress and more strife in your life. Now

listen, about three weeks ago, Pastor Kip and

I's refrigerator went out, the one in the house,

the one that was only seven or eight years old.

We weren't planning for it to go out. We thought

it would last at least another three, four, or

five years. For crying out loud, we have a refrigerator

in our garage that is about 40 years old that

was in the basement of the house when we bought

the house. And I didn't want it in the basement.

I wanted it in the garage. So Kip didn't want

to kill anybody with trying to get that refrigerator

out of the basement. So he literally put straps

around it and created... I don't know, planks

or something. And he drug it out of the basement

with his truck. Can't make that up. He really

did that. Yeah. Give him a hand, right? So he

drug this refrigerator. And I really think he

did it that way. I'm just going to tell him on

it. He didn't want the refrigerator in the garage

because it's taking up space in his garage. But

he didn't win that battle. I won that battle.

So I think he thought if he drug it out with

the truck, something would happen and it would

break on its way out and he wouldn't have to

have a refrigerator in his garage. But I believe

the Lord was on my side because that refrigerator

in the garage is still running. It's over 40

years old. It's been drug out of the basement

by a truck. And my refrigerator, the nice, shiny,

stainless steel one that was in my kitchen that

was only seven or eight years old, died. I don't

know the irony in that or what, but I guess the

Lord was on my side with the 40 -year -old one,

but not the seven -year -old one. I don't really

know. But because that went out, had I not had

a plan, you know, if you went to buy a refrigerator

lately, they're not cheap, you know? So if I

didn't have the emergency finder, I hadn't planned

for something like that, what would I do? I would

have to buy it on credit. I'd have to use a credit

card if I didn't have a plan. So planning is

important. Planning for things like repairs or

the replacement, holidays, vacations. Planning

is setting financial goals. Planning is prioritizing

needs over wants. Making sure that our essentials,

housing, food, transportation, utilities, are

covered before Starbucks and Hulu and Netflix

and YouTube TV and all of those things. Those

are things of planning. God's word also talks

to us about counting the cost. Jesus uses the

example of building a tower to illustrate the

need to count the cost and plan for expenses

before starting a project. Jesus says in Luke

14, 22, you know, in your Bible where you have

like the red letters, when it's the red letters,

it's Jesus talking. So this is Jesus talking

here. He says, suppose one of you builds a tower.

Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost

to see if you have enough money to complete it?

He's talking about counting the cost. How does

that work for me today? When I need to buy a

car, am I looking at the sticker price? Am I

thinking about how much the insurance might go

up? How much the gas will be, the maintenance,

the repairs, the registration? Maybe having to

detail the car because the kid pukes in the back

seat or the dog pees on the seat or all of those

things. How about buying a house? Beyond the

mortgage, do you count the taxes, the insurance,

the HOA fees, utilities, the maintenance, the

furniture? And does those payments still leave

room for saving, for giving, for emergencies?

Or are you going to be house poor because it's

so much of your income? Using credit cards, considering

interest charges if the balance isn't paid in

full. Are you really okay with that $500 purchase

if you don't get it paid off that it's really

going to cost you $650? Are you okay with that?

Saying yes to subscriptions or memberships. Planning

for the big things. Lifestyle choices. Eating

out versus daily cooking at home. Yes, it's cheaper

to cook at home, as painfully as it is for me

to say that. How much does this convenience really

cost me over a year if I've got all this money

going out to eat? It's making a plan. Scripture

also talks to us about avoiding debt. That warns

us that the borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22 .7 says the rich rule over the poor

and the borrower is a slave to the lender. Now,

some of you in here are in our Financial Peace

University class that we're doing here on Wednesday

nights. And I believe it was this week's video.

I don't know if it was this week or last week's

video, but Dave Ramsey says when you're out of

debt and you don't owe anybody money and you

go to work on Monday and like the boss is kind

of like really cranky with you and he's been

cranky in the past and you're like, yeah, I've

just, I've had it. And you just walk away. And

the boss says, where are you going? And you say.

I don't owe anybody any money, so I don't need

to stay here and put up with this. You can go

somewhere else. There's freedom if you're not

in debt. But if you owe a lot of money, you're

going to put up with whatever that boss does

because you need that paycheck to make those

payments so that you can still live in your house

and drive that car that you have. So the borrower

is slave to the lender. God calls us to be good

stewards, good stewardship. Believers are called

to be. good stewards of the resources that God's

provided, which includes managing our money responsibly.

Proverbs 21 .20 says this, the wise store up

choice food and olive oil, but the fools gulp

theirs down. If we eat our seed now, we don't

plan for the future. Just as a farmer who eats

their seed corn cannot replant it for next year's

harvest, individuals or businesses that consume

their core resources deplete their ability to

generate future wealth or future abundance or

margin. God calls us to be good stewards. He

also calls us to save and to be generous. Proverbs

11 .25 says a generous person will prosper. and

whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs

22, nine says, the generous themselves will be

blessed for they shared their food with the poor.

Now, Pastor Kip really hit savings last week.

So if you missed his message, I encourage you

to go back on YouTube and listen to it. I'm not

gonna cover that in much detail today, but God

calls us to plan. God calls us to count the cost.

God calls us to avoid debt, to save, and to give

generously. God calls us to learn to live within

our means. And you know what? Learning to live

within our means and to be generous doesn't happen

by accident. This doesn't happen without a plan.

If you don't plan to give, if you don't plan

to be generous, if you don't plan to live within

your means, it's never going to happen. It's

never going to happen. So let me just say this.

I don't want to stand up here and act like Kip

and I have always done everything right. Because

listen, we've been married 35 years. And if you've

got 10 minutes, an hour, three days, we can tell

you all the mistakes we've made over those 35

years. But let me tell you, we've been there.

Pastor Kip and I have lived paycheck to paycheck.

I can remember being a stay -at -home mom when

Alyssa was not quite two years old. I was very

pregnant with Jenna. Kip was an elevator tech

back then, and he was making, I don't know, we

were trying to think, I think he was probably

making $7 or $8 an hour back then. And we did

have a budget. We budgeted back then. And we

would deposit all of Kip's paycheck into our

checking account except for $20. That's what

was left out of our budget when we deposited

his saying that we could pay all of our bills.

Now, this was so long ago. This was before the

days of direct deposit. Like, that wasn't a thing

yet, okay? So Kip actually had to get a physical

paycheck, and he got paid every Monday. So he

would bring the paycheck home on Monday, he would

set it on the kitchen table, and then he'd go

back to work on Tuesday, and then I and Alyssa

would go to the bank, and we would deposit the

check, and I would bring the $20 home, and I

would put the $20 on the table. Kip got to carry

the $20, and I was thinking about that this week.

Why didn't I get two 10s? Why didn't he get 10

and I got 10? I don't know the answer to that.

All I know is I would put the $20 on the table

and Kip would carry it. I guess because I stayed

home with Alyssa. I don't know. I didn't have

anywhere to go or any money to do anything. So

I just didn't. But anyways, he gets home from

work that particular Tuesday evening and he says,

hey, did you go to the bank today? I said, yeah,

I went to the bank. He said, oh, well, where's

the $20? I said, well, it's on the kitchen table.

He said, no, it's not. And, you know, Kip was

notorious for not being able to find things.

And I'm like, yes, it's on the kitchen table.

No, Dixie, it's not. So I went to the kitchen

and looked on the kitchen table. And sure enough,

he was right. The $20 was not on the kitchen

table. And I realized that it had to be my almost

two -year -old that had done something with the

$20 bill. So I began to question Alyssa. Anybody

in here have a two -year -old that you've ever

tried to get information out of? It's not pleasant,

is it? You know, Alyssa, did you take the $20

on the table? I'm not even sure she knew what

a $20 bill was. Alyssa, did you take that green

little piece of paper that was on the table?

Did you put that $20 somewhere? We asked, we

asked. I searched high and low. I looked in her

room. I looked in her toys. I looked under the

table. I looked in the trash. We looked everywhere.

We could not find the $20. So that week, Not

only did I not have any money in my wallet, but

Kip didn't have any money in his wallet either

because we didn't have that $20 because it disappeared.

Now, because we had a plan, because we had a

budget, we didn't go to the bank the next day

and take another $20 out so that Kip had money.

We just didn't have $20 that week. So it took

some discipline. It took self -control. Was it

easy? There were days that it was not easy. Did

it stink sometimes? Yep, it really did stink

sometimes. Do I regret it? No. I'm grateful to

this day that we had a plan. Did we always do

it right like that? Again, I've already told

you, no, we made a lot of mistakes. But on a

side note, about five years later. We were moving

and unpacking boxes. And I was unpacking the

kids' books, because by this time I had three

kids. And lo and behold, when I picked up a book,

guess what fell out of one of those books? We

found 20 bucks. So Alyssa, thank you for helping

us save that $20 for five years, you know? We

didn't earn any interest on it, but we had our

20 bucks back after five years. Back then, we

didn't make much money, but we had a budget.

That budget... always included tithing and giving

first. No matter what our income was, we planned

for giving and generosity. It wasn't easy. There

were sacrifices. My kids, when they were little,

you can ask them, they grew up on hand -me -downs.

In fact, Alyssa and Jenna were grandchild four

and five on Kip's side of the family, and there

were three girls before them. They wore the clothes

of the number one, two, and three grandchildren.

Alyssa was four and Jenna was five. So they were

like hammy, hammy, hammy, hammy downs till my

kids got them. And that's what they grew up on.

You can ask my kids. We didn't go out to eat

when the kids were little. We did not go out

to eat. It was a very, very rare occasion that

we went to a restaurant. When we did, there was

this place, and Alyssa will remember this. If

the other two were here, they would remember

it too. There was this place in Johnstown. It

was called Meatballs. Guess what they served?

They had meatballs, right? So you could go there

on a Friday night. Spaghetti and meatballs were

$1 .99, all right? This place was a dive, all

right? It was like plastic chairs. It was not

like a high -end restaurant at all, okay? a couple

little arcade games in there like that you put

the quarter in. Our kids didn't get quarters

because we didn't have quarters. But we would

go there every once in a great while. And I'm

pretty sure that we at least made two of the

kids share $1 .99 spaghetti and meatballs while

we were there, okay? But it was a very rare occasion,

but we'd spend that 20 bucks that we had. Going

to meatballs once in a great while, all right?

So it was very rare. We used to laugh because

once we did that once in a while, then the kids

were constantly asking, hey, can we go to meatballs?

Can we go to meatballs? And Kip and I's very

parental response was, nope, we're going to pen

balls. That was our house. Pen rods, pen balls.

Yeah, I was making the spaghetti and meatballs,

all right? We drove crappy vehicles. Like, I

don't know if you can say crappy from the pulpit,

but... We drove really bad vehicles. Our vehicles,

I'm not making this up. Kip can testify to this

and so will our family. They were so bad that

we kept the title in the glove box so that if

we were somewhere far away from home, like more

than a half hour and it broke down, we could

just get rid of it like wherever we were. You

didn't have to go back and get the title, all

right? I mean, I remember one time, I mean, they

were bad. There's a lot of stories I could tell

about the really bad vehicles, but I remember

one in particular. You have to ask Kip what kind

of a car it was. All I know is it was gray and

it was ugly and the headliner wouldn't stay up.

Kip kept like fixing it, but it didn't work.

So I would drive down the road with one hand

while holding the headliner up with the other.

That's how bad the vehicles were that we drove

for a really, really, really long time. I also

remember one, the other one is that my dad drove

a Cadillac Sedan DeVille, four -door, really

cool car for a young mom, right? Four -door Cadillac

Sedan DeVille. I think it had like 160 ,000 miles

on it and he got rear -ended. And so Kip decided

it would be a great idea to buy that car from

the insurance company for a thousand dollars.

And he was gonna fix it. He sort of fixed it.

I think he put a different colored like taillight

in it. And then I think some gray primer on,

he pounded out like where he didn't, I mean,

he did fix it. We drove it, but, and we drove

that car for, I don't know, two years, two years

we drove that car. And he kept saying the engine

was gonna go on it, you know, cause they don't

really make cars back then to go that far or

that long. And our church at the time, It was

like on the middle of a hill, but it was on kind

of like the main drag between the high school

and the stadium, the football stadium. And we

were on our way to church in the morning, and

the car was making some noises that it probably

shouldn't have been making. And Kip said, man,

I don't know how much longer this is going to

make it. And so we went to church. We left church.

We get in the car, and he goes to drive up the

hill, and it starts making loud. banging sounds,

right? Yeah. And start smoking. So it's making

loud bangings, you know, in front of all of our

church family. It was great. So we're driving,

we get to the main street and he realizes that

he's not sure we're going to make it the two

miles to our house. So instead of staying on

the main street where there'll be more red lights,

he goes up one more street on the Somerset Avenue

and there is one red light on Somerset Avenue.

really small town. Anyways, we're driving through,

we almost get to the red light and the car is

smoking so bad at this point that it like people

can't see, like it's enveloping the whole street

and you get to the stop sign and you are the

red light and you couldn't even see anything

because the smoke had just enveloped everything.

Well, then he started to get worried and we had

the two girls and he says to me, all right, you

get out. And you get the two girls and walk down

to Graham Avenue. And maybe somebody from church

will see you and pick you up and take you the

rest of the way home. I'm going to try to get

the car home, but I'm not sure it might blow.

So these are the kind of cars we drove. I wasn't

kidding. They were crappy. So I walked down to

Graham Avenue with probably, Levi wasn't born

yet, so it had to be a four -year -old and a

two -year -old. And lo and behold, my sister

and brother -in -law. who were in much better

financial shape than what we were, because, yeah,

anyways. My sister says she's looking, and she's

like, Brad, Brad, that looks like my sister and

my two nieces standing on the side of the road.

So my brother and sister -in -law stopped and

picked me and the girls up, and we made it home.

And I think you did get the car the whole way

to the house, but... I don't know. It died. Those

are the kind of cars we drove. We made sacrifices,

all right? It wasn't good. It wasn't good. But

those are the sacrifices we had to make to stay

within the budget so that we could have margin,

so that we could have more freedom in our life,

all right? Now, earlier, I mentioned Dave Ramsey.

Dave Ramsey, I'm sure, is a name that most of

you have heard here. If you don't know who he

is, he is a... A very outspoken financial guru.

And he wants to get you out of debt. Which is

why we're doing Financial Peace University. But

he has a famous saying that he says. He says

that money isn't a math problem. It's a behavior

problem. More money doesn't fix poor habits.

A lot of people say, if I just made more money,

if I just got that raise, we would be in good

shape. If I just, if I got a better job or if

I did this or I got an extra job. But you know

what? A person making $40 ,000 a year and someone

making $140 ,000 a year, both can be broke if

you overspend. It's not a money problem. It's

a behavior problem. See, spending follows patterns,

not just numbers. It's not the size of the paycheck,

but it's the choices made with it. Impulse buying,

eating out, swiping that credit card without

thinking about the budget. Money in our checking

account reveals our priorities. Where does your

money go? Does it go to hobbies? Does it go to

debt? Does it go to generosity? It reflects our

habits, our values, and our discipline. A raise,

a bonus, or a big tax refund is not going to

change your life long term. It's the behavior

changes on the daily basis. Tracking, planning,

and saying that word that nobody likes, no, is

how you build wealth. Now listen. It's not about

how much money you make. It's about how you manage

it. And let me give you an example. You don't

need to earn a massive paycheck to become a millionaire.

A one -time Vermont -based janitor at a school

for 40 years and an occasional gas station attendant,

Ronald Reed demonstrated that, that you can reach

a seven -figure mark on a modest salary. That

man never made more than $25 ,000 a year. And

unbeknownst to everyone around him, he died at

the age of 92 in 2014, and he had quietly amassed

an $8 million fortune. Thanks to smart spending,

disciplined spending, and investing habits. His

family was tremendously surprised upon finding

out his hidden wealth. He was a hard worker,

but nobody had realized that he had become a

multimillionaire. Reed came from humble beginnings.

He was the first in his family to graduate from

high school. He served in World War II in North

Africa, Italy, and the Pacific. After the war,

he came home, worked as a gas station attendant

and a janitor at a Vermont school for 40 years.

He married a woman who had two children. He maintained

a frugal lifestyle, never spending money unless

he had to. His friends remember him driving a

second -hand Toyota Yaris, using safety pins

to hold his coat together, and cutting his own

firewood well into his 90s. Now listen, I'm not

standing up here this morning saying following

Jesus is about making you a millionaire. That's

not what I'm saying. What if you had enough margin

in your finances to give hundreds away or thousands

away or millions away? Do you know that Reed

donated all $8 million that he had amassed to

the library, the school, and the hospital that

was in his local town? Listen, to be able to

do that, you need a plan. You need a budget.

You need a game plan for your money, no matter

the level of your income. You need discipline

and self -control. I'm gonna take this one step

further this morning, even though it's already

very quiet in here. You need to be teaching your

children this from a young age. Man, we will

spend hours on the soccer field, the baseball

field, the football field, the cheering field,

teaching our kids to do these things. And it's

fun. I'm not knocking that at all, but I am pretty

confident. That your kiddo is not going to be

the next Jalen Hurts. The probability of an American

high school football player making it to the

NFL draft is less than .02%. But you know what?

I'm not being mean. I love your kiddos. My kid

played soccer. I loved watching Levi play soccer,

and he was good. But he wasn't that good. He

wasn't going to make a living at playing soccer.

These are good things and fun things, but they're

not the most important things. Listen, teaching

your kids to budget and be generous is something

they will use for the rest of their lives. See,

we taught our kids with the envelope system.

Alyssa can, she's the only one here, I keep picking

on her. She's sitting on the front row up here,

but you could text the other two, they would

tell you. They had the envelope system. So from

the time our kids earned any money, whether it

was their allowance, whether they had jobs, whatever

it was, they had three envelopes. They had one

that was their giving envelope that they had

to put 10 % of whatever they got went into that

envelope. And then they had a savings envelope

and 50 % of what they got had to go in the savings

envelope. And then they had a spending envelope

that they got to put 40 % of what they had in

there. And we did this from the time they were

little. We did this their whole childhood. And

we were diligent. Or they may tell you that we

were a hard case, but this is what we made them

do. Now, I can remember one time when Jenna was

a teenager, she wanted to go to Hershey Park.

She had received a season pass as a Christmas

gift. And at the time, she was working a part

-time job at the sports emporium. But now let

me tell you, when Jenna was at home with us and

she was a teenager, she definitely was our spender.

She loved to spend her spending money. And she

would spend it on others. She would spend it

on whatever. But she was definitely our spender.

Levi, not so much. He was our saver. He loved

spending our money. He even loved spending Jenna's

money, but he didn't like to spend his money.

Jenna would often say, hey, Levi, you want to

go to Chick -fil -A? And he'd say, yeah, I don't

have any money for that. And she's like, oh,

I have $5. Let's go to Chick -fil -A. All the

while Levi had 500 in his spending envelope.

He just didn't want to spend it on Chick -fil

-A. But if Jenna was willing to spend her money

on Chick -fil -A, he was willing to go and eat

it. But anyway, she wanted to go to Hershey Park

that day. And I said, listen, you can go as long

as you have spending money in your envelope to

pay for your lunch. You know, and we did it on

the honor system. I wasn't like checking their

envelopes. She's like, yeah, yeah, I'm good.

I'm good. We're going to go. But unbeknownst

to me, her spending envelope was empty. So she

decided to borrow her tithe out of her giving

envelope. It was a $20 bill. So she had full

intentions. She was going to get paid in a couple

of days. She was going to take $20 out of her

paycheck and she'd put it back and she'd pay

that tithe back in that envelope. So she got

to Hershey Park with her friends and she got

on that first ride. And when she got off the

ride, she put her hands in her pocket and realized

that her $20 had fallen out while she was on

that ride. So now she's at Hershey Park. She

has no money. She's got to mooch off of her friends

or borrow off of her friends. And she still has

to pay that $20 back. into her giving envelope.

So Jenna will tell this story. And when she would

tell us, she would came home and she told us

a story and this was what her words were. She

goes, you know, you just don't ever borrow your

tithe money because the Lord is gonna shmite

you. Now, I am not saying that the Lord is gonna

shmite you. That was her interpretation of what

happened when she was at Hershey Park. But I

will say that there is a biblical way to steward

your money. You need to have a plan. You need

to have a budget. You need to teach your kids

from little on up. Even if their tithe is a quarter,

teach them to bring that offering, that tithe

to the Lord. Teach them from little up. Then

it's not a big surprise when they're adulting.

Jenna's a great adult. We did pretty good. She's

adulting well now. She's not, you know, she's

not borrowing her money from other places. She's

doing a great job in life. But you gotta teach

your kids. You can't wait. Don't wait until they're

adults and then be like, oh, you know what? You

should probably budget. If you teach them from

little up that there's a way to steward your

money and your possessions, it's not a big knock

in the head when they become an adult. You know,

they're like, oh, adulting stinks. I don't want

to do this adulting thing. But if they're in

a practice of following God's word, of following

biblical standards, of stewarding your money

and your possessions by having a plan, it's so

much easier. But it takes work. It takes discipline.

It takes self -control. And I'm going to ask

Kip to come up this morning. I'm reminded of

a song that has been stuck in my head since the

first grade. I know that's a long time ago for

those of you who, I'm 54, so first grade was

a long time ago. But it went something like this.

It's a song like, it's a small world that gets

stuck in your head. But the song kind of went

like this, and we won't go through it yet, but

it says, There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza,

dear Liza. There's a hole in my bucket, dear

Liza, a hole. That song gets stuck in your head,

okay? So anyone else have that song in music

class? Ever heard of that song? I'm not alone,

okay? Thank you. There's like three of you out

there. All right. Great demonstration. All right.

Anyways, that song just keeps coming in my mind.

And it makes me think of this bucket that we

have here is kind of like... Henry was the guy

in the song. So Henry is the one talking to dear

Liza saying, I have a hole in my bucket. All

right. So he's complaining that he's got this

hole in his bucket. And so Liza is telling him

to fix it. So first she tells him to fix it with

a straw. And he says, well, the straw is too

long. And so she said, well, then cut the straw.

And he says that his knife's not, not. sharp

enough. And she's like, well, sharpen the knife.

Well, what do I use? Well, you use a rock. Well,

the stone's too dry. And he just got excuse after

excuse after excuse. But it made me think of

our finances. So what Kip's going to show you

is this is Henry's bucket with a hole in it.

So when we are managing our finances and we don't

have a plan, it's kind of like this. As he's

pouring that water in, there's no way to control

your funds. There's no way to control the leaking

that's happening because there's a hole. And

that's kind of how your finances are if you don't

have a plan. If you don't know where your money's

going, it's just leaking out of that hole. And

maybe you say, well, I need to earn more money

or maybe I can't do this. Maybe you're like Henry

and you're coming up with excuse after, well,

I can't do a budget because I don't make enough

or I can't save because I don't. make enough,

or I can't do a budget because, because, because,

because, because. You know what Liza says to

Henry at the end of this song? Henry, you are

just plain old lazy. You don't want to fix that

hole in your bucket. And maybe that's us with

our finances. Maybe we don't want to make a plan.

Maybe we're making excuses of why we can't do

it God's way. But let me tell you God's word.

I started at the beginning of this by saying

that God's word is very clear on money. I know

Pastor Kip has said this throughout the sermon

series that we've been doing, but the God's word

mentions our money and our possessions over 2

,300 times in his word. Why do you think he did

that? Because he knows without a plan, without

discipline, without self -control, we're not

gonna do it very well. Pastor Kip said last week

in his message, do we believe what God's word

says? Because we're only gonna do what we believe.

Do you believe that God's word instructs us on

our finances? We're only gonna do what we believe

with a plan, with discipline, generosity, and

money. becomes a tool for blessing and not a

trap. I'm going to ask if the worship team would

come. Let's not be Henry with a hole in our bucket

and make excuses of why we can't make a change,

why we can't surrender to what God says about

our finances. Let's not step onto that financial

field without a game plan. Let's not just show

up at the football game and say, you know, we're

gonna do it because I know a lot about football.

You know, I could say, I'm gonna do it with my

finances. I know a lot about spending money.

I've been doing it for 50 years. It's not gonna

work. We've gotta have a game plan. We've gotta

be diligent. We've gotta teach our kids. And

above all, we've gotta honor God with our money.

and our possessions? Are we able to surrender

our finances and our possessions to the Lord

and do finances his way? To do them biblically,

to follow biblically what he says to do? Or do

we want to keep doing things our way and get

the same results we've always got? You realize

that's the definition of insanity. Doing things

the same way and expecting different results.

Or are we going to invite the creator of the

universe, the one who owns it all, to be part

of our plan with money and possessions, knowing

that Philippians 4 .19 says that my God shall

supply all my needs according to his riches and

glory. He owns it all. Do we trust him with that?

Do we trust him? to create margin? Do we trust

him to put him first in our finances? Do we trust

him with that? Thank you for tuning in to this

message from Lifehouse Church. We pray that you

were impacted powerfully by this message. If

you have been personally affected by our ministry

and you would like to partner with us as we love

God, love people every day, visit our website

at www .lifehousecog .com.