Keep it Simple: Living Life at 80% | Part 3

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

You know, uh five and a half years ago, my wife and I moved to the Bay Area from Portland, Oregon.

We moved here five and a half years ago.

And um there's so much that when coming to the Bay Area, I didn't know about myself as an Oregonian.

And you come to California and you just have some revelations, you know?

Like, I never knew that I'd never had a good taco until I moved here.

Like, we have tacos in Oregon, but then you come down here and you're like, oh, you know?

Or like an avocado.

Like we had them in Oregon.

We did.

I could have bought them.

But when I came here, I was like, oh wow, this is like a real avocado.

This is like really, really, really good.

I I also learned when I moved here five and a half years ago that um that I was a slow driver.

Like, I never knew that.

Like I come down here and I was like, whoa, what?

You know, what is and I had an organ license plate when I first came here, and I feel like you guys treated me like worse.

Like I was driving slow.

I'll admit, okay, I was driving slow.

But like people were like cutting me off, they were like, Oregon driver, you know?

And I have totally changed because like a couple weeks ago, I was back home in Oregon.

I was driving my mom, she's like, You drive like a maniac.

I was like, I live in California, mom.

Um yeah, like things totally changed.

The other thing when I moved down here was that I really learned what it meant to be rich.

I I didn't know, I thought I knew rich people in Oregon, right?

But I knew Oregon rich people.

And then I come here and I'm like, oh, this is rich.

This is like Silicon Valley stock options, like this is money money.

And Oregon rich and California rich are different.

Like, Oregon rich is like, do you drive what kind of Subaru?

That is that's the richest.

Like the richest people in Oregon, they drive the brand new Subaru, and you're like, shoot, that outback looks dope.

And it's like, yeah, it's a 2021, you know?

You're like, whoa, that's that's that's serious money, you know.

They, man, that that couple down the street, they're super rich.

They have the new Ascent.

Like, that is that is sweet.

That's a Subaru.

You don't even know Subarus, you know, in California.

You guys are driving Hondas and stuff because it doesn't snow.

So, you know, uh, yeah, and like coming down here, I'll be honest, it actually affected me seeing all this money moving down here because my wife and I, as good Oregonians, like we moved down here with two 2001 Subarus, you know?

They were like at the time 15 years old.

Like they were doing great.

They were awesome.

I loved them.

Um, but I came down here and I saw so many Teslas, I was like suddenly realizing like I found myself thinking, like, should I buy a Tesla?

Like I literally thought that one day, like driving along the road.

And I don't know if I would have ever thought that way had I not been surrounded in such an environment.

And I thought about this verse when I had moved down here and I was seeing all this money, seeing these houses that I'd never really seen before and this level of wealth I'd never seen before.

I thought of this verse that actually Ryan quoted last week in the sermon.

He quoted Luke 12, 15.

Jesus says, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

This is before he tells this really great parable in Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

And I thought about that verse because it was like, Jesus was like, watch out, be on your guard.

And he says, against all kinds of greed, like greed's gonna come in various forms.

But you know, greed, right?

Greed is the insatiable desire and belief that you consistently owe yourself something.

It's not just saying, I owe this to myself once, you know, like I owe, you know, I really am tired.

I owe myself this ice coffee one time.

That's not necessarily greed.

Greed is the consistent thought all the time.

Like Andy Stanley says, greed is defined, I owe me.

Like I owe me this thing.

Um, I deserve this.

It's the constant state of deservedness that we sit in.

That greed suddenly creeps in.

You know, Tom Haveford would say, treat yourself.

Like that's the mentality we live with all the time.

It's not wrong to treat yourself.

It's just like the consistent desire to treat yourself and that you deserve this.

Greed sneaks in.

And it sneaks in because we swim in these waters.

We've been talking through this series about the normative practice of the Silicon Valley.

And man, this is just mostly American life, too.

Like, first, the normative practice we've been saying is that you consume what you make.

Like, whatever you make, the first thing you think about is what can you buy with that thing?

That's the first thought that goes in your mind.

You know, I get this paycheck of$1,000.

How can I spend that$1,000 best?

Just consume, just spend.

Secondly, then, whatever you have left, you can save if you can.

If you have enough, you can save.

And the normative practice, the American way, the Silicon Valley way, consume, save, and then at the end, hey, if you got a little left over, like give to a nice cause or your church or something like that, right?

That's the normative practice.

But we've been discussing the simple but profound reversed order of the biblical wisdom, which is to reverse the order that I just gave you.

That we are to first, the Bible teaches, give.

First, give to God first.

Out of what you get, the first thing that goes out of what you get is to give it back to God, to give it, and then to save.

And then the last thing you should do is be in consuming or living on the rest.

And so we've said, give to God the first 10%.

This is reversing the normative practice.

Give to God the first 10%, the Bible teaches, to save appropriately the next 10%, and to live off of 80%.

And here we are, we've done week one, give, week two, live, or uh save and invest, and this week we have the impossible tall order of how do you live on 80% in the Silicon Valley?

How do you do it?

Is it even possible?

Is it possible in this area and in this space, this time in history, is it even possible to live a good life on the 80%?

How can I live a good life on 80% of my income right here in the Silicon Valley?

How can I do that?

I'm suggesting today it's going to require mindset changes and lifestyle changes.

There's going to be have to be new ways you think about the 80%, about what you live on.

And there's going to have to be things that you do differently.

If your mind changes and your lifestyle changes, you can live a full, good, joyful, peaceful life in your financial life here in the Silicon Valley.

I really believe that.

We're after in this series financial peace.

And go back to week one and listen to the message Ryan gave.

We're not talking about financial freedom, just whatever we want to do with our money.

We're talking about true peace, abiding joy, mindset changes, and lifestyle changes will lead to that.

I want to show you this proverb from the wisdom book Proverbs in your Bible, chapter 30, verse 7.

This is a wisdom saying, ancient wisdom saying from your Bible.

It says this two things, the Proverbs writer says, two things I ask of you, Lord, do not refuse me before I die.

Two things he's asking.

Look at number one, keep falsehood and lies far from me.

Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

Two things.

This is where Jesus uses this line for the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 to say, God, give us our daily bread.

Just give us what we need.

Otherwise, the Proverbs writer goes on, I may have too much and disown you and say, Who is the Lord?

Because I'll be satisfied in my riches, right?

Or I may be become poor, too poor, and steal and thus and so dishonor the name of God.

You see in this proverb, mindset and lifestyle changes in approaching a livable wage.

The mindset changes, I don't need too much or too little.

Just give me what I need, Lord.

I'm asking you to keep me away from lies and just give me what I need.

And a lifestyle change.

They're worried, this writer is worried that if I have too much, I'll do something wrong.

If I have too little, I'll do something else.

And I'm praying that God, two things I'm asking that God would give me, man, keep me in the truth and just give me what I need.

That is a different approach to living on the 80% than most of us had.

So let's have right now.

Let's look at mindset changes and some lifestyle changes.

The first four mindset changes and four lifestyle changes.

Four mindset changes.

Okay, first is this the 80% is going to take time to develop.

So take one step.

Okay, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this because we've talked about this through the series, which is that the biblical model, 10%, give 10%, save 10%, live on 80%.

It might sound to you walking in these doors like you're like, whoa, I didn't know we were talking about money today, this is crazy.

Like you're telling me I need to work to live towards 80, 80%.

I I can barely live on 100%.

What we've been saying through this series is what is the one step you can take towards that goal, okay?

Because again, we're after, and Jesus is after, your peace and your joy in your financial life.

We really believe the Bible is true in this matter, that if we can take a step towards 80, it's going to get easier each step we take.

That if you can take one step today and do 1% and 1%, great.

If you're at 3% and 3%, can you go to 4% or 5%?

Taking one step gets you further down the road and can get you to 80% before you know it.

It can get you to 80% before you know it.

How what would it look like to set some goals to get to that place?

The question is not necessarily like, are you living on 80% right now or not?

And if you're not, you know, you're outside of the Bible's wisdom and you're not living wisely.

No, no, no.

It's just saying, how can I become more disciplined in this area to lead to more joy?

How can I become a little more disciplined in this area to lead to more joy?

Because if the Bible teaches this and we really believe that God, God's heart for us is hidden in this, man, we need to take steps towards that reality.

So the 80% is gonna maybe take time for some of you to develop.

That's okay, take one step.

Second, mindset change.

These are things to just, again, in your brain, rewiring it a little bit.

Second, getting rich is not the goal.

Okay, one lie out there is like if the 80% were bigger, I'd live on the 80%, right?

So my goal, Chris, is I can't do that right now, so I'm just gonna make my 100% larger.

So my new 80 is my old 100, right?

Like I'm just gonna increase that and grow that and get rich, and then when I get rich, I'll live like the Bible tells me to live, you know?

And this is this is a lie.

For many of us, we legitimately believe if we had more, we would be more obedient.

If we had more possessions, we would be more obedient.

And I wanna question that.

I wanna question that is that the right way for us to live?

Desiring to be rich is a dangerous thing.

Being rich is not a bad thing.

But desiring to be rich and setting your heart on these riches, the Bible has stern warnings about.

In fact, the more we set our heart on our riches, the more Jesus would say, spiritually disadvantaged you become.

Because the more you're setting your heart on your riches, you're starting to grow your own like security in yourself and your well-being.

You stop relying on the Lord.

Jesus put it this way, in probably his harshest words, after a rich person uh leaves Jesus.

Jesus asks him to give away all of his possessions, and the rich man cannot do it.

He walks away and he walks away sad, by the way.

Again, Jesus' life is towards joy.

And this man leaves Jesus' way and leaves sad, and Jesus turns to his disciples.

He says, This, Matthew 19, 23, truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, Jesus' space where his will and and work is happening, Jesus says, it is going to be very difficult for you to get into my kingdom if you're building your own.

And so for us to think we need to just build our kingdom and then we will deposit our kingdom to God's kingdom once ours is built is a very dangerous thing, according to the Bible.

The Bible has stern warnings about this.

In Mark 4, 19, Jesus uses this phrase I've always found so interesting.

He calls, uh he says, there's something called the deceitfulness of wealth.

The deceitfulness of wealth.

It lies to you.

Wealth lies to you, riches lie to you.

Psalm 62, 10.

Though your riches increase, that's not a sin.

Look at what the psalmist says though.

So God gives you more, but don't set your heart on that more.

Tertullian was an African church father.

I think the slide says fourth century.

That's a typo.

He was born in 160 AD from Africa.

He was commenting on these verses and he said this.

Like that is some wisdom.

Do we believe that though?

Our mindset's going to have to change.

Getting more is not the goal.

Getting disciplined and thankful for what we have been given with what we have been given is the goal.

What has God given you, and how can you become disciplined and grateful with what God has given you so that you can live a more full life in Him.

The more we the more we have set on the more we're going to just be dissuaded by the things Jesus is calling us to do.

I love what Randy Alcorn says.

One of my favorite books on money is called Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn.

He says this God prospers me or gives me more, not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.

This man totally lives it, by the way.

He sells more books than anybody, millions and millions of dollars in royalties.

He gives it all away, everything away.

He lives on minimum wage, I think.

An incredible life.

And he wrote this great book.

And in it, he's sharing with us this wisdom.

More is not the answer.

When God prospers us, it's not to raise the standard of living and to get nice cars.

It's to raise the standard of giving.

How can I give more?

How can I be more generous?

How can I allow this 80% that God has given me, this 100% that God has given me?

And how can I give even more?

Our mindset has to change.

Riches is not the answer.

The third mindset change is this.

The 80% we're talking about, give 10, save 10, the 80%, that's still God's.

The 80% is still God's.

We shouldn't have this mindset that God just like owns 10% or something, you know, and he's like, we're giving it back to him like taxes or something like that.

That's not what's happening.

You give God 10 so you can remind yourself he owns 100.

You give God a little so that you know the rest is his.

You remember where it comes from.

You remember, you know, scripture, one of my favorite Psalms is 24, it opens this way: the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

The world and all who live in it.

In Psalm 50, another psalm, he uh the Lord is talking about the sacrificial system and people bringing animals to give to God.

And he's so frustrated because they're not giving him with their full heart and they're not giving him the full sacrifice.

And he says, you know, I own all these animals, anyways.

Like, I'm not after, like, I don't need money.

I don't need animals.

What I'm looking for is your heart.

And when we give, it trains our hearts to trust God, it trains our minds to submit to the Lord, and it reminds us who God is, how much he owns, and that informs the 80%.

I have found when you are generous with the 10 and 10, or even more than that, that actually you're reminded to live more wisely on the 80, because you're just thinking all the time about this is God's.

The lie is that God only cares about the tithe, which means the 10% of giving that we talked about uh two weeks ago.

But we think, man, after that I can just do what I want.

After that, like everything is cool, and my, you know, I can do whatever I want with this 80%.

But that's not true, and we have to do this fourth mindset change before we move to the lifestyle, which is this money decisions are spiritual decisions.

Money decisions are spiritual decisions.

And this is what I mean by this 80%.

Some some of us think, like, I I mean, I totally used to think this way.

Like, the spiritual decision is to give 10%.

That makes me spiritual.

And so the 90, if I save it or how I spend it, like it doesn't really matter what I do with that.

Because the spiritual thing I did was give the 10%.

But we have to change the way we're thinking about this because again, we give that 10 and then we look at the 90 or we save that other 10, and we look at the 80, and we go, God, how would you instruct me to spend this 80%?

And I the spiritual decision making that's involved in money is important because some of us we don't like to talk about money because you know, we get uncomfortable because of the ways it's revealing like our hearts, right?

Jesus says this, we quoted this last week, Matthew 6, 21, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The direction of your treasure, your time, your money is going to determine the direction of your character.

And we are in a process right now of discipleship with Jesus, if you're a Christian.

Discipleship is the word we use in the church to talk about following Jesus, doing what he tells us to do.

To be apprentices is another word, or a student.

Like you think about when you were a student and you were writing down the things that your teacher was saying.

Or if you've ever been an apprentice or known an apprentice, which is someone who's like training with someone who actually has practical means, like a plumber or a welder, they have apprenticeships.

Why?

Because you can't learn some of those things uh in a classroom.

You've got to like get onto the job.

My wife is a resident, they call them residents, but they use apprenticeship in in um the medical world a lot because you're walking alongside attending physicians, and you as a resident physician are practicing medicine under the authority of an attending physician who's attending to the matters that you are doing.

We in discipleship, we are those residents that are working God's will.

He's our attending, he's our our master, our Lord.

And you know, you've seen baptisms maybe at awakening before.

A baptism is a dying of the old life, laying it down, and being resurrected into a new life.

Like Paul says this, one of the writers of the New Testament, he says, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

So I don't make the decisions Chris Nye wants to make about my future or about my money.

I make the decisions because I'm living a new life.

I make the decisions Jesus wants me to make.

That's what it means to, we say this a lot in church, trust Jesus.

To trust Jesus is not to have a positive emotional temperament towards his word, like, ooh, that was nice.

But to trust Jesus is to hear what he tells you to do and to actually do it.

To practice it, to be a disciple, to walk it out.

The word disciple is used to describe the early church and the followers of Jesus 260 times in your New Testament.

The word Christian is used three times in the New Testament.

Which word speaks to the profound nature of the Christians more?

The most common descriptor was student, apprentice, disciple.

I'm saying all this to remind you that you and I do not live the financial life we want to live because that died in our baptism.

Now we're raised to a new life going, God owns everything.

What I do with my money matters.

It reveals my spiritual life before the Lord, my heart, my character.

It has something to say to my life, and God cares about it.

God cares about this because it is connected to our character.

I gotta pause right here because this is always kind of the time in the message, maybe where if I were listening to it, uh I would call it my Catholic guilt starts to kind of crop up a little bit.

Okay?

Like, I grew up around the Catholic Church and I love the Catholic Church and I have so much respect for so many, I still stay in touch with so many of my friends there, but I have this in me, and maybe you don't have this in you, so this is my therapy, okay?

But maybe you do have this in you, where you start to think, oh man, money decisions are spiritual decisions, and everything I spend on, like I need to feel bad about it if it's gonna be good.

You know?

Like, if I feel good about a purchase, God hates it, or something like that.

Now, if you're like me, okay, that's built in me.

That's like bad stuff that I was raised with or whatever.

That's not what Jesus is after here.

Jesus is after your joy, the peace that comes from God, and a free life.

God is after that.

And the strictures that he puts on our life through his commandments are given to us like a good parent would give to a child.

To live a free life and a peaceful and joyful life based off of what he's been given, uh, what he's given us.

So that's also a mindset change hidden in this here is to remember to be a disciple is not to be a sad person about your money.

To be a disciple is to joyfully receive the instructions of Jesus, knowing they're meant for your peace.

They're meant for your peace.

So with that in mind, these mindset changes can flow to a different life.

Mindset changes, now some lifestyle changes, four of them to close.

The first, lifestyle change.

With that stuff in your mind, allow that to transform your mind.

Pray through these things.

This is how it might look in your life.

Number one, is to seek wise financial counsel and do what they say.

Seeking wise financial counsel and do what they say.

The Proverbs are obsessed with this kind of thinking, not just in financial life, just in life.

Look at what Proverbs 13, 20.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.

Some of you are like, I really want to be wise.

I want to be somebody that comes to, could they come to me for advice.

Proverbs says, just get around wise people.

Years from now you'll realize you're a wise person because you've submitted yourself to wisdom.

Proverbs also says, uh, Proverbs 15, 22, without counsel plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed.

Like if you want your financial plans to go well, don't make financial plans alone.

Your financial life needs to have uh wisdom in it.

My life changed when I got wisdom in my life uh around finances.

And I got wisdom in my life because somebody really cared about me.

I was 19 at a church, uh, I was like interning, and then I was I was uh ordained and licensed as a pastor like the next year or two.

And I was so young and I knew nothing about ministry, and I definitely knew nothing about money.

I barely know stuff about money now.

I know what the Bible teaches about money, but man, I need help.

Like I'm not a financial guru, I'm not a CPA.

A lot of you are smarter at money than I am.

I needed somebody to come into my life, and somebody did.

Money Dave, call him Money Dave.

He's awesome.

Not Dave Ramsey.

I don't know Dave Ramsey, but uh I know Money Dave, and Money Dave showed up in my life, and he was like, Hey Chris, um, are you saving?

And I was like, bro, do you know this church pays me nothing?

Like, I don't make money, like I think I do, and then it's gone, you know?

Um, and he was like, Well, you want to sit down?

I can help you.

You know, I can help you kind of form a budget.

And I was like, okay.

And you know, me and Dave sat down and he really, really encouraged me, actually just told me, and I just did it.

And this is what wisdom does.

You gotta listen to it.

That's why I said, like, uh seek wise counsel and then actually do what they say.

Is like, he told me, he's like, Chris, I work with a lot of like you're uh starting your first year as a pastor.

He's like, I meet a lot of pastors on the other end of life.

They're like in their 60s or 70s and they're they're trying to retire, but they can't because they haven't saved.

They haven't been wise about this, and they stay longer at their churches than they should stay.

And they don't, right?

They don't do, they're not able, they're not free.

They're not full fulfilled because they haven't been wise.

And I was like, wow, I didn't know that.

And he's like, Yeah, I mean, pastors don't make a lot of money, so they usually just live on the 100 or they live on 120%, and they don't plan well.

And sitting with Dave, I got a budget.

I mean, it was very embarrassing, but he like made me show me his my bank statement, which at the time was a disaster.

I mean, I was 20, I was single, I was living in Portland.

He was like, Taco Bell, Taco Bell, Taco, like what?

Can you how many times do you like you know, he was so generous, he was so and Money Dave is with me to this day.

Like, he helps me and helps my wife and I.

Like, we've got student loans, right?

We've saving, we want to buy a house.

Like, he helps us with all of this, and it all started with just submitting to his wisdom.

And I literally, man, when he tells me to do something, I do it.

I trust him.

And for you, it might not be a one person, it's going to be maybe some good online resources, you know?

Maybe it's going to be a community of people, a few people.

Maybe it's a family member of yours that you really trust or something.

But seeking that counsel is really, really important and really essential for you to do.

Um, secondly, not only seek wives for financial counsel and do what they say.

If you're gonna live at the 80%, I I would say a lifestyle change is to stay in close proximity with the poor.

This is something that might surprise you, but it's a biblical truth that in my life has been super transformative.

Staying close to people who have less material items than you do and have less means to purchase material items than you do changes the way you purchase material items.

It's that simple.

When you are just friends with people of your same class, you end up probably buying above your class.

But if you know people at different socioeconomic places, it actually changes your financial living on the 80%.

Just trust me with this and look to God's word on this.

Jesus says in Matthew 25, 40, one of his most kind of crazy, I mean, this this line is should stick with us, right?

He tells this really stark parable and says, Whatever you did, he's talking past tense to people who meet him in eternity, for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.

And he is talking, do not mistake the context, he's talking about those who don't have enough to eat, don't have enough to be clothed, and those that are shut in prisons.

Whatever you do for those, brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Notice that Jesus is not saying when you are generous to the poor and you stay in close proximity to them, he's really proud of you.

He's not saying that.

He's saying you meet me there.

I'm there.

You're wondering where I am, you're looking all over this world, seeking spiritual enlightenment, looking at apps, doing mindfulness.

And you don't even know anybody who's poor.

And for us to sit in this reality, you know, Jesus isn't teaching some landmark brand new Jesus thing.

He's actually teaching Proverbs.

Proverbs 14, 31 says, Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker.

There's a connection between those who are poor and the maker.

But he who is generous to the needy honors him, honors God.

Proverbs 19, 17.

Whoever is generous to the poor, look at this, lends to the Lord.

When you give to the poor, you're lending to the Lord.

I don't know how more clearly to put it, right?

And he will repay him for his deed.

I don't know.

You won't feel super great, and I don't feel super great when I make dumb purchases when I know people who can't afford groceries.

Like it changes who your heart when you're in close proximity with the poor.

You can volunteer at this food pantry we do.

Man, last Thursday, hundreds of cars, people waiting for sometimes 30 minutes, sometimes an hour in line for groceries, right?

You think that does something to you if you sit there and you serve in that kind of manner?

Yes, man, I was there on Thursday.

It's like, man, I'm thinking about this message, just going, man, Lord, help me.

Help me see the world the way you see the world.

Help me see possessions the way you see possessions, how stupid some of the things we choose to pursue are.

And God, help me see what you see in the eyes of those who don't have that much.

You know, I think another way to do that is to um, like, there's uh a certain programs that help you send money to children that really need it.

Compassion International has like a child sponsorship program.

We've always done Africa New Life because we've known these partners in Africa for years, my wife and I, sponsoring children, and they write you letters and they give you updates on like what your money did to help that person.

And you just go, man, I didn't give that much, but it gave them so much, and I didn't realize they didn't have so, they had so little.

And you know, it's kind of like in a good way, like addictive, like you want to give more because it's changing your heart.

It's actually changing who you are to be in close proximity to those that don't have that much.

And so change your life by involving yourself in organizations.

You can, you can uh volunteer with us, you can volunteer with City Team, our partner.

They have service opportunities all the time to put you in close proximity with those who don't have that much.

I'm telling you, it has changed my life to know the names of people who cannot afford groceries.

And my wife and I are privileged in working in ministry and working in medicine as she does, to just be close to people that don't have that much.

It just changes who you are.

The third lifestyle change you could probably make here to live more wisely on the 80% is to just track your spending.

As your mind starts to change and you're involving yourself with these different, you're surrounding yourself with wise people, you're involved with the poor, just start tracking your spending.

It's so simple, you guys, but hey, this series called Keep It Simple, so I'm sticking to the name.

Just how much money do you make and where is it going?

For some of you, you don't even know where your money is going.

It's time to find out.

And I'll be honest, preparing this message, I did a little review.

And I got work to do.

I do.

Looking at where my money goes, I have found here's the deal.

When I pay more close attention to where my money is going, I live a more peaceful life.

I just do.

It's when I'm not paying attention to that 80%.

Like again, we think, oh, I gave 10, so now my spiritual stuff's over.

No, it's just kind of beginning.

What do you do with that 80%?

What do you do with that?

Track it.

Where is it going?

Um, how are you spending it?

Use something like Mint, which is like a budget and expense app.

Really good.

I've used it on and off.

And then it like links your credit cards and stuff and can it look that up on the app store.

It can help you track your expenses.

I also use my bank, Bank of America categorizes certain things.

Sometimes your bank will do a good job or not so good job, and it can categorize some things to help you just know and look at it that the month.

Maybe your first action step after this sermon is like just look through your bank and just go, oh, I didn't realize I spent all this on this.

And again, this is we're tracking our spending not to be fundamentalists, we're tracking our spending to track our heart.

Jesus says, where your money is, there your heart will be also.

I can lie to you left and right about being a generous person.

I can I can tell you, oh, I'm pretty generous, right?

You know what doesn't lie?

Math.

Okay?

And you can convince yourself in a small group, yeah, guys, like I'm really generous.

I'm really working on that, you know?

But I would encourage you, man, get onto your bank account.

This is a spiritual practice.

Like, the reason we're telling you this is we're as pastors, we're not financial advisors, but we're pastors.

We care about your life, we care about your heart, we care about your spiritual life.

And it's it it's it's time to really change who we are so that we might become more like Jesus.

I see in my own life a direct correlation between where my money goes and my devotion to the Lord.

I really do.

I really do.

When I'm not tracking it, I suddenly find myself maybe like discouraged or lacking peace and having anxiety.

Yeah, like Jesus is right.

Finally, four, make a budget based on values and reality.

Make a budget.

So track your spending and then just like look at a budget based on values and reality.

Proverbs 21, 5, I love this.

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.

So the plans, the discipline, it leads to abundance, to good life.

But everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

Making a budget based on values and reality.

Values, start with values, like what do you care about?

What does God care about?

Talk about that with a spouse, with your roommates, even.

Like kick this around.

Like, what does God care about and what do I care about?

And then match that with reality.

Like, how much do I actually make and can I do here, right?

I'll give you some examples.

Like for my wife and I, we really value hospitality.

So we actually put money towards hospitality.

Like when you come over to our house, I want to feed you.

I want to make you that drink.

Like I want to make you something in your hand.

I want you to sit down, I want you to enjoy the environment, right?

Uh we have a guest room because we want people to stay with us, right?

These are things that have changed because we value it, but the hospitality is like we value that, but it's also curbed with reality, okay?

Come over and stay at the Nye house, like you're getting Target towels.

Like, I love you, and I'm I want to be generous and hospitable, but the reality is I ain't living that pottery barn life, okay?

I'm not there yet, all right?

God has given me Target and I love Target, okay?

So you come to my house, my value is hospitality, but I don't, we don't have the nicest everything, but we do put more money towards hospitality stuff, my wife and I, than maybe some of you do, right?

Because that's a value of ours, okay?

Rest and vacation is a value of ours.

Ali, uh my wife, she has like uh blocked time off through the year through her program.

We always take that time off, we always go somewhere.

It's just a value.

Now, again, reality, that's the value.

The reality is we're not going to the Greek islands, not living the Greek island life, like God bless you guys who are, but like we're going to Carmel, right?

We're going to Tahoe or whatever.

We're driving.

That's the reality of where we're at.

But your values and your reality should be shaped in the budget.

And I would tell you this: write in pen your values, right?

Hey, this is what we're about, but write in pencil the reality, the budget.

Because it's gonna always shift and change.

Like my wife did not work in August, she was ending her uh residency, starting a fellowship.

All of August, no income.

Okay, we had to pencil and change like our spending and stuff based off of that reality.

So your money's gonna shift and change a lot.

Write in pencil your budget, but your values keep to those values.

And your reality and your and your values are going to kind of shape a really, really good budget.

Um, and again, seek the wisdom and the counsel of people that are around you.

Mint that app I mentioned, it will give you uh notifications on your limits.

It'll like buzz your phone and be like, dude, you're spending way too much money on coffee.

Like, maybe you need that.

Set that limit, set that budget.

You can Google, you can write this down, quick start budget.

It's a thing that the Dave Ramsey organization provides for free, I think, or something close to that.

The quick start budget, it just can get you going in the budget area if you need help with that.

I was thinking this morning, an old uh an old girl in my youth group who was in my youth group a while ago, uh, she has a YouTube channel called the budgeting wife.

And then I mentioned this first service.

Someone's like, I've been using the budgeting wife for two years.

She's like super YouTube famous or whatever.

But I just knew Marissa when she was in my youth group, she gives really good financial advice uh on YouTube and does a great job with that.

Maybe you need that kind of help with your budget, but get there, make those steps.

Okay, here's why.

At the end of all this, guys, discipline with money, I know it might cause anxiety.

You might be like, dude, I need work to do.

Discipline with money leads to more joy and not less.

More joy and not less.

Everything I've given you is an invitation to something Christians call repentance.

Repentance is not telling God you're sorry for your sin.

That's maybe more confession.

Repentance is as is actually a 180-degree turn.

It's about changing your life.

And the invitation to change our life through repentance, Jesus says will bring us joy.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 11, Jesus says this, these things I've spoken to you.

John 15:11

He shared his commandments, his teachings.

He goes, the things I've said to you, look at this.

I have spoken to you that my joy, the joy of Jesus, might be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Dallas Willard, the great philosopher, said this if there were a better way to live that gave you more joy, Jesus Christ would have been the first person to tell you about it.

If there were a better way to live with finances, if it really was, if really the best way to live with finances was to go into debt and live on 120%, Jesus would have been the first person to tell us about it.

But Jesus gave us commands, like a good father or mother, to put limits and strictures upon a life so that it might bring more joy, not less.

And Jesus was the one who told us about the abundant and the good and the full life, saying, I'm giving you these commands that your joy may be full.

Good life of stewardship recognizes the link between joy and discipline.

Between joy and discipline.

Want the thrill and the joy of hitting a game-winning shot, you shoot your free throws.

You want the amazing experience and the joy that comes with playing music with friends, practice your scales and chords.

Want the happiness that comes from finishing a race, you need to go for a run.

The Bible teaches a life of discipline because it recognizes the a fundamental feature of human reality that discipline leads to joy, that a level of disciplined life in our finances is here for our joy, not for our pain, and not to make life harder, but to make life more full.

And I wonder, the question is, will you step into this life that Jesus has given you?

These three weeks, as you've contemplated these messages, it's now in your court.

Ah, we can't make you do anything.

I can't make myself do anything other than I gotta take this to prayer into my wife, and we've got to repent together.

Repentance is about turning and changing and shifting.

So as a community, will we do that?

Will we live under the discipleship of Jesus as apprentices to him?

Do we trust him?

Man, this stuff is really where following Jesus becomes real.

And I can't wait to see the fruit of it.

So let me pray for you.

Jesus, um Yeah, I I am aware of God, the the difficulty of this message because having prepared it, God, man, I know where I need to repent here.

And I know where I need to change, and I and identifying that as it's hard, but Jesus, we as a community, we say we trust you.

We say your way is better.

We say, Jesus, uh, give us faith.

Holy Spirit, I pray for some in this room who I know it's gonna take courage and faith.

And so I pray courage and faith over my brothers and sisters.

God, would you grant to them the courage and the faith that needs to come with this?

I know, man, this is some of the real stuff that discipleship comes down to.

And I just I pray that you would grant to us what we need.

And um, and I pray for perspective too, Lord.

I pray that as we worship, as we come to communion, uh give us this amazing perspective of how great, majestic, and big you are, that you are able to show us the path to life.

You are our good Father, you are our Lord and our master, our God, our King, the compassionate one, the one who died, the one who rose from the dead.

As we worship, as we come to communion, pull our perspective out of our anxieties, and may we trust you, God.

Give us these graces we pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

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