This Is Going To Be Different - Week 4 - My Finances Are Going To Be Different - Andre Lovett & Damon Moore - June 28 2026

This is the City Place Church Podcast.

Here at City Place, we build dreams, ignite faith, and establish leaders that win the lost for God's kingdom.

From wherever you're listening, we hope that you are empowered by the message.

Next Sunday.

Next Sunday, we're still gonna be in our series, uh, This Is Gonna Be Different, but we're gonna use a little technology and some movies to help us out.

Is that all right if, if, if we do that? If you've never been here, uh, for At The Movies, we'll take a couple of movie clips and preach from them.

Uh, we're not gonna show a movie, uh, but we will, we will take a couple of clips and pull some things to, to apply to our life.

I promise you it'll be fun.

Invite a friend.

Uh, and then from time to time, we even have popcorn in church.

Come on.

Amen.

God is good.

God is good.

Well, hey, uh, welcome again to City Place.

Today, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna do a little tag team teaching.

We've been in a series called This Is Going To Be Different.

In week number one, that was the title, then Taisha preached the second week.

Last week was Father's Day.

All the men say, "Yeah."

Yeah.

I love it.

We celebrate the strength of men.

Uh, just personally, thank you Man Cave for the way you, uh, celebrated me personally, and then we celebrated some other men.

If you have your Bibles, go with me to Joshua chapter 2.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

Joshua chapter 2.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

I'm not gonna speak very long 'cause I really wanna get into today's focus.

Um, we've been talking about this is going to be different.

God really spoke to my heart that this summer he wanted to turn some things around for us, but it was gonna require us to have some, uh, action steps and to have some focal points.

And so last week we focused on the fact that my fight has to be different.

Like, I just can't sit back and watch the enemy, but I am going to go after what God has for me, and we will see God do it.

God didn't call us, us to...

call us to be passive Christians.

He calls us to be ones that move towards his promise, and we can walk boldly because he lives on the inside of us.

And so that was last Sunday.

This Sunday, I wanna read one verse to you, and then I'm gonna give you my focus thought because I'm gonna be honest with you, the verse when you read it, it just says one thing about, yes, God is going to give us the victory, but the topic is going to not reference the verse.

Y'all with me? Yeah.

So I'm gonna read the verse.

Here we go.

It says this in Joshua 2:23.

Joshua 2:23

It says, "So the men re- uh, the, for the two men returned, descended from the mountain and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and they told him all that had befallen them.

And they said to Joshua, 'Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands.

For indeed, all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us.'"

Like, they have been waiting on the promise of God to be fulfilled, and they send out two spies, and when they come back and they talk to Joshua, they tell Joshua, "Joshua, this season is different because now we actually see that the people are afraid of us.

They are ready to hand over their stuff to us.

This is gonna be different.

This is the season where we respond with a bit of confidence knowing that God has what He has for us, and what He has promised, we shall see."

Are you trending okay? Yeah.

As we have been praying throughout this summer of what our focus should be, so often when you all fill out your connection cards, one of the boxes that you check is that you wanna see God improve your finances.

And so the focus of today is that my money is gonna be different.

Oh my God.

My money is gonna be different, and helping me preach today is Mr.

Andre Lovett.

Come on up here, Mr.

Andre.

Oh, we, we, we, we...

Mr.

Andre has been-- He's got, he got some hip, uh, pain this week, and so I appreciate the push and the fight, uh, to get up here this morning.

But we're gonna have a conversation, and I told him, "I'm gonna just let you go for it."

Mr.

Andre and, uh, his wife, Lisa, married over 40 years, and, uh, he's taught our finance small group and did a workshop just a few weeks ago.

And just even in our conversation, uh, not only am I team teaching with him, but I'm a student as well.

And so I want your hearts to be, uh, prepared.

There are some things that you'll be able to write down on the paper and some things that you'll wanna catch as we speak this morning.

But lean in, because one of the things that we promised is we said that we were moving from cautious to courageous.

We said that we wanted to see God do that in every aspect of our life.

And whether you make a million dollars or you're making 10,000, this conversation is for you this morning.

And so we want your heart to be postured so that as God continues to grow us, even in the season of life that we're in, God wants this to be different- Yes in every phase of our life.

So let's pray in, and then Mr.

Andre, just give us all that the Lord gave you.

Father, in Jesus' name, we're ready.

Speak to us.

Our heart is postured.

I thank you, Lord God, that we'll embrace in your house the conversation and the scriptural teaching around money.

For so often, Lord God, when it comes to subjects like money, God, we can turn our ears and not pay attention.

But God, I pray that we will hear this morning what the Spirit is saying to your church, because we wanna be whole, we wanna be full, we wanna be courageous, and we want the different thing that you have for us in every aspect of our life.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Will y'all welcome Mr.

Andre again? All right, Mr.

Andre.

Yeah.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

Yeah.

With this strained muscle, it's, it's, it's crazy.

It hurts sitting down.

It hurts standing up.

It hurt...

But I'm gonna move back, move around.

But what I would like to say is that I, I wanna tell you right up front, I am not a financial guru.

Amen.

I am just a man who have discovered how faithful God is.

That's good.

Yes.

And I wanna take every opportunity that I can to share that- That's good with other people.

So the last time I was here, we talked about that there are really two ways of managing your finance: either God's way or our way.

Yeah.

And we've learned that a lot of times we do it our own way because we haven't really been taught about how to do it God's way.

Yes.

And so by default, we end up, ends up managing our money the way the world does.

That's right.

And so we all know that the way the world does things is totally different than the way God does.

So you look at this chart here, and it says that how the world's view on wealth is that our identity is in our wealth, you know? Normally you meet someone, the first thing we wanna know, "Hey, so what do you do?" You know? Um, but our identity is in Christ.

Yeah.

That's good.

You know, I like the way it says it in The Message Bible.

It says, "We are called children of God."

Mm.

That's who we really are.

That's good.

That's good.

Uh, money, the world says that money brings us happiness and joy.

God's view on wealth says our generosity brings happiness.

God loves a cheerful giver.

That's good.

The world says money brings security.

Well, we know according to Psalms 46:1, God is our refuge and our strength.

Psalms 46:1

That's right.

Our security comes from God.

That's good.

And He's always ready to help us, even in times of trouble.

That's good.

The world says that money brings security.

Well, didn't I just say that God is our security? It then, then talks about increasing our worldly wealth, and we all know that God's view is that we are to increase eternal wealth.

But, um, so, so we clearly see that there is a difference of, in, in, in terms of managing your finances God's way and managing it our own way or the world's way.

Now, I tell you that as soon as you decide to manage your finances God's way oh boy, that's when the challenges and the tensions are gonna come.

Yep.

Yeah.

You know, and sort of like when Paul would talked about the things that I wanna do- Yeah I don't do, the things that I don't wanna do, I do.

And so the world system is constantly pulling on us because from the time that we were born, we were taught to be consumers.

Yeah.

That's good.

And as we continue to increase in our resources, we just consume more and more and more even if we don't need it Yeah.

And, uh, in fact, uh, 70% of our US economy is based upon our spending You know, they want you to spend.

But God wants you to be more intentional, and I will talk a little bit about that in a second, in a second.

But today I wanna focus on, well, what if we decide to follow God's way? And so when you decide to follow God's way, there is a ton of tools out there with Fidelity and Vanguard and all these other different companies that will talk to you about doing that.

But what's so unique about this Navigating Your Finance God's Way that's developed by Compass Financial is that this one is spirit-led and Bible-based.

That's good.

So the, the idea is that we want you to, um, use these tools.

It gives you these tools to help you grow and help you to gui- to guide you on your journey toward financial freedom.

And so when we talk about financial freedom, we're really just talking about our ability to properly steward what God has placed in our hands so that we can live out the chosen life that He has planned for you.

That's good.

And so stewardship, we hear that word a lot in churches.

I say stewardship is more than just management.

Mm.

That's good.

It's talk- It's taking what God has given you and multiplying it.

That's good.

So we remember the, the parable of the talents- Yeah you know, where the two multiplied it, and the one that didn't multiply it was the one that's like, "Man, you know, faithful servant."

So, uh, we really want us to be faithful.

And so the scriptures, scriptures tells us that God has set us free.

He wants us to be financially free.

But when you make a decision to do it God's way, I wanna say you're not by yourself.

We talked about how, uh, when you, when, when you decide to do it God's way, all these things come against you.

Well, the good thing is, when the enemy comes in like a flood, what happens? God lifts up a standard.

He's gonna be there with you.

He's gonna guide it.

So when we talk about doing it God's way, there is really two parts that you need to ponder as you think through this.

One is there's God's part, and then there's our part.

And, and so, um, when we look at God's part, well, first off, we have to understand that God owns it all.

That's good.

He's the creator of all things, and He's given us talents, gifts, and abilities to do the things that He called us to do.

That's good.

Uh, the Bible tells us that as followers of Jesus Christ, everything that we own belongs to Him, comes from Him, that God owns it all.

That means that every aspect of our physical, spiritual, relational- Mm.

day-to-day activities are sustained by God- That's good and should be ordered by God.

That's good.

That's good.

That's real good.

Therefore, each day we, we strive to put, uh, His words and His scriptures into actions.

In fact, it says in Deuteronomy 5:33 that if we walk in obedience to do all the Lord has commanded us, that's including that over 2,300 scriptures on finances- Mm then God will cause us to live fully and to prosper.

Deuteronomy 5:33

That's good.

Oh, the second part.

So I said, uh, when we do it God's way, we have God's part.

He's gonna give you the things you need.

Our part is simply to learn the scriptures and then apply them to our everyday ordinary life.

That's good.

We're called to be faithful.

We talked about being a good steward of all that the Lord has placed us, placed in our hands to do.

The issue that most of us have is that we're not intentional.

Oh, that's good.

The goal is we want you to be intentional to know that all that God has instructed us to do and walk in it, and we know the results.

I know the results have been in my life, that I've been blessed, uh, above measure, that, uh, I have grown in my understanding and my discernment of how to handle money.

Remember, I'm not a financial guru.

I've just learned to trust in the word of the Lord.

That's good.

That's good.

Uh, I've become more committed to not only serving Christ, but to serving others as well.

Uh, I'm a military man, so service is just a part of who I am and what I do.

But above all, I've learned to be content- Mm.

-in whatever phase of life that I'm in.

And I found a scripture in, uh, in, in 1 Timothy, and it talks about how godliness with contentment, we hear-- We, we normally know, memorize that scripture as, as great gain.

Uh, and I think in The Message Bible, it talks about, um, true godliness with contentment in itself is great wealth So the tools that we're gonna talk about today are really about helping us be more intentional about implementing a spirit-led, Bible-based plan.

Um, and so, so we, we started off, we said there's two ways to manage your money: God's way or, or our way.

Amen.

And if we choose God's way, then there's two elements at work.

There's God, God's part and our part.

Yeah.

So then the question is, well, where do we start if we do it God's way? So I say that the first place we start is by seeking the Lord and asking for His guidance through prayer, through study of the scriptures, and then if you're, if you have a spouse, you're married, then you need to be doing this with your spouse.

Uh, and if, if you're not married, you, you need a, uh, a, seek godly counsel, you do that whether married or not.

And, you know, sometimes we see we need a, a money mentor or someone to help you out.

That's good.

Amen.

You know, and, um, because I, we, we, we've grown up in church, we've heard a lot about how God wants us to give 10%, but we, we don't, we never, we don't hear much about the fact that the scriptures has a lot more to say about how we spend the 90%.

Ooh, that's good.

And so when you look at the scriptures, you say there are, there are tons of scriptures out there, and I just highlighted just a few for you here.

When we talk about giving, you know, the scriptures, it says that we give and it shall be given to us, that God loves a cheerful giver.

"Honor the Lord with your first fruits" in Proverbs 3:9.

Proverbs 3:9

How we should save our money, it says in Proverbs 20, or Proverbs 21:20, "The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

Proverbs 21:20

Ooh.

That says that God doesn't want us to spend every, everything that we make.

Amen.

Uh, our spending, "Don't store up treasures on earth where moth and rust des- destroy" in Matthew 6:19.

Matthew 6:19

It tells us about investing, that steady plodding, uh, brings pro- prosperity, and then we all learned about in Genesis 41, how Joseph saved for seven years to prepare for the famine.

That's good.

Um, we know a lot of these scriptures, but the question is, have we been intentional about applying them to our lives- That's good especially to our finances? That's good.

Uh, it also talks about training up your child.

So we know talk about training up our childs in the ways they should go, but part of that is financially, 'cause at one point they're not gonna be there.

And we talk about in, in the Crown Fin- uh, Crown Financial, I'm going way back.

But, but, uh, Compass, Compass, uh, Financial, you know, talks about starting to teach your kids about money, um, when they start school.

Mm.

You know, in the three: save bucket, spend bucket, and give bucket.

Um, stewardship, of course, uh, you know, in s- 1 Corinthians 4:2 it says it's required in stewards that we be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2

And then what I learned later on is that promotions, even your promotions come from the Lord.

So imagine you are desiring a promotion.

Stand on Proverbs 75:6.

That's good.

That for promotions and power comes from nowhere on earth but only from God.

That's good.

That is so good.

So, so once you make a decision that you're gonna do it God's way, God has done His part, and you're doing your part and, and, and being intentional, intentional about it, and you've prayed about it, and so now it's time to put those scriptures into practice.

Mm.

So in James 1:22-25 in the New King James Version, it says, "But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:22–25

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was."

But he looks-- But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not forgetful hearers, but a doer of the work- Mm.

this one will be blessed in what he does.

That is so good.

So, so can I interrupt you real fast? Sure.

'Cause I got a question for you.

So for some of us in here, and maybe just even context for those you may know, some people earn a really good living, have reached a certain level of status without navigating their finances God's way.

How do we teach that person to begin to trust God with what is currently theirs? I can say for me, I've been there.

So as a-- I've, I, I've been a Christian pretty much all my life.

So 13 years old is when I gave my heart to the Lord, um, but didn't really start walking with Him until I was 23 or so.

And so when you're making the six figures and all your bills are covered and you got a little money left over, then you're thinking everything's good.

I don't have to do all these other things.

And, uh, that's fine and good until you hit this, this, hit that, that wall.

And so what happens is I s- I would say that falling behind Doesn't happen overnight.

It happens over time.

So I went on and on doing that until I got to that phase in my life where I had two sons in college, and because I was in the military, you know, we did one year separation so my son could graduate high school.

So I moved to Colorado, Lisa stayed in Florida, and then she came to join me in Florida, and I thought, you know, we typically have a three-year assignment, that I would be there for three years.

So we purchased a home, and, um, little did I know, six months later, I had orders to PCS to Washington, DC.

So, uh, here we are, just bought a house.

We knew there was no way we could sell it and make money, if we could sell it at all.

Um, but, uh, we moved into Washington, DC.

So during this time, remember, I thought I was doing good.

I'm a lieutenant colonel.

I could pay all my bills, and we had some little money left over.

Uh, I was saving for my kids' education, doing some of those things, but I wasn't doing all the things that God had directed me to do.

So I had two kids in college, tuition and fees.

They both had apartments.

They both had cars, car insurance, and Lisa and I had a house that we couldn't sell in Colorado, and we had to r-rent this very expensive townhouse in Washington, DC while I was there.

And we're like: Man, what are we gonna do? You know? I didn't have enough in savings to sort of cover those types of, uh, situations.

So the first thing that we're tempted to do is to go to the 401or the IRA and borrow.

And I knew there was a penalty, but I, but I really didn't think about it too much.

But that 10% penalty that you get when you're not 59 and half, that's a lot of money.

They take almost all of it.

So you take the money out, you're thinking you're getting, you know, $20,000.

You're only getting half of that after you do taxes and all.

But anyway, we got through that.

But the one thing that I did not stop doing in the midst of that, I continued to trust God, and I continued to give.

So at least I had one leg of my, of the, of the thing done, and I continued to give.

And that's where God showed His faithfulness because we sold the house after one year with a huge profit And I was promoted to colonel.

And so we sold the house, and I got promoted.

We had money, and then it's like, "Okay, Lord, that's it."

And that was sort of the start.

What'd you say, Lisa? No, and then the car broke down.

Oh, yeah, and our car broke down.

His wife is like, "Don't you forget that time, baby, when-" Yeah.

Yeah you talking about the struggle.

They need to know the real struggle.

Y- yeah.

So yeah, the car broke down.

Our car broke down.

Of course, we'd given our newest car to our son, you know, and the other one had a new car.

And so, so, uh, so we had all that, and we were able to purchase a new car.

And so g- so through all of that, I know that God was faithful.

Yes.

You know, there, there is one, one other story is, um When I was retiring from the Air Force.

And, and so-- 'cause see, the point in all this is that you, you may say that you're okay today, but in the environment that we live in today, we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.

We see downsizing.

We see, uh, in the military, in the, in the government, when they shut down the government.

So the month I had retired from the military, and so I was considered a, in retirement status.

So when the government shut down, I'm like the low man on the totem pole, and they get, didn't get paid.

So here I am having a house bill.

I'm in the process.

I have to move out of base housing, moving, and I didn't get paid.

But remember, a few years before that, I had decided, "You know, Lord, I'm never gonna be in this position again."

And so I started saving.

I started doing all the things that I'd learned in the scriptures to do, and I was ready.

Mm.

And so we went months without it and, and didn't miss a beat.

Um, so that, that's how- So- I know God has been faithful.

You- I know God's faithful.

M- so me and Mr.

Andre, we, we talk and we prepare, and one of the things that I told him, I was like, "You gotta say that."

He was saying that so often we think of the short term- Oh, yeah and forget about the long term.

Yeah.

When we're called as believers to think about the long term- Yeah eternity.

And he goes, "And shouldn't we therefore, since we're thinking about eternity, also play the long-term game when it comes to our life practices and disciplines as well?" Right.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah, because if you think about it, uh, at least for me, I'm 6- I, I will be 65 in November.

And so, um, we're now retired.

We've been retired for about six years now.

And, um, what you don't understand sometime is the m- the w- one, is that the money that you work so hard for every day, that money should be working just as hard for you.

Right.

You know? It's only fair that if you work hard for your money, that your money works for you.

And so you have to, to learn that process.

But, um, but yeah, mo- the, in fact, I, I think statistically they say most people don't think long term.

"Ah, we can put it off for tomorrow," even though we know the scripture says, "We don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring.

Don't say, 'I'm gonna do this tomorrow, I'm gonna do that.'"

You know? And the, and, and so when we don't think about long term, and then we have a tendency to be a bit optimistic.

"Oh, it's just gonna work out."

But you know, we have to be intentional to make it work out.

But even if you're intentional in doing some of these different types of things, you still have to have faith that God's gonna take what you have and multiply it.

So earlier I said that God wants you to take what he has and multiply it.

He's the one that does the multiplication Helping anybody? Yes.

Is this good? This good.

Awesome.

Awesome.

So, so then we do it God's way.

God does His part.

We're doing our part.

We sought Him.

We've read the scriptures.

We're gonna apply the scriptures.

We, we have this idea, so then where do we go next? The next thing is you want to start the-- uh, get on this journey or develop your plan.

And so the primary tool that we believe that will help you jumpstart your journey is to develop a spirit-led, Bible-based spending plan.

Can I interrupt you right there? Because again, conversations, right? Uh, how many of y'all have ever been afraid of the word budget? Y'all don't even wanna raise-- You don't even wanna raise your hand.

One of the things me and Mr.

Andre, we were talking, and, uh, we were talking about the phrase spirit-led, Bible-based spending plan.

That keeps God as the center of what we're planning so that He can give us the resource for what He plans.

That's right.

And I love that phrase 'cause I was like, "Mr.

Andre, we have got to continue to echo that," because I hadn't heard that.

And it's like, yeah, we have a spending plan, but also, well, what is God saying about the plan that He has for us? Jeremiah 29:11.

Jeremiah 29:11

Sorry to interrupt you.

And well, that, that's good because, you know, God wants us to be more deliberate and intentional, intentional about the way we spend.

Um, and so some of us, it just really means we need to shift our-- uh, have a mindset shift.

Uh, Romans 12:2 tells us, um, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Romans 12:2

I like the way the Me- the Message Bible says it.

It says, "Don't get so well adjusted to this world culture that you fit into it without even thinking."

Instead, fix your attention on God.

You'll be challenged inside and out.

And as a behavior analyst, I say it's gonna change-- challenge your inside behavior, your thinking, feelings, as well as your outside behavior.

Yeah.

Um, and it says, and as we said earlier, you know, we, we've been conditioned from the time we're born not to do it this way.

So it is a challenge.

But if we're to chal- to be challenged to move from ca- cautious to courageous, we have to make a decision to start now by doing that.

As I said earlier, you work hard for your money.

It's only fair that your money work hard for you.

That's good.

And the key thing is your biggest asset is your time.

Yeah.

You know, statistically this is, according to the, you know, national statistics, I'm 65 years.

My life expectancy is only 17 more years.

I think I'm gonna live longer than that, but but anyway, but that's a stat- And then so when you, when you look up, look at those things, you look at how much time do you have avail- available, you know, you have to start it as soon as you can, doing it while you're young, because the money that you earn today, guess what? It's gotta provide you the income for tomorrow.

That's good.

Now, I know you're thinking about, "Well, I got Social Security."

Trust me.

And so, you know, I always thought that, man, when I get to that age, there's not gonna be any Social Security.

Well, there's still Social Security, but they don't tell you, you gotta pay taxes on the Social Security.

I'm like, "I already pay taxes on my Social Security."

We gotta pay si-- And then I'm about to turn 65, and so once you turn 65, you have to get on Medicare.

You have to pay for Medicare.

And so, I mean, they didn't tell you all this stuff.

They're gonna give you the money, and they're gonna take it away.

It's almost like a 401in, in the early withdrawal.

It doesn't make sense.

You know? So, so once you've made a decision, so then you're gonna develop this spending plan.

So the first step in developing your suspending-- your spending plan is to know exactly how much money you make.

Yeah.

I know for me, for a long time, I just looked at the bottom line.

I didn't know what FICA meant.

I didn't know what all this other stuff meant.

But you need to know exactly what's coming in.

And so for every dollar that comes in, the second part is then determine how much of it is going out.

That's good.

And so we determine how much of it is, is going out, then you could see that every dollar that you bring in has a purpose behind it when it goes out.

And so what this does here, it, it, it tells you to...

The Crown, uh, Financial Ministries, I think we have a Q- QR code that's gonna come up at some point, but you can take a picture of that and use that.

It recommends that you break your finances out into, uh, 12 different categories.

Well, there's some people that tell you just break it out into three: essentials, non-essentials, and miscellaneous.

But I like the way they do it here because it forces you to get down to the details, to include how much money you spend once a month on a haircut or eating out or...

And, uh, and so, um, but so that's where you wanna start, is to figure out whether or not you have a surplus or whether or not you're in a deficit.

So, Mr.

Andre, let me interrupt real quick.

There's a verse in Proverbs 27, while you guys are looking at that.

It just says this in verse 23.

It says, "Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds.

For riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations."

So we have to be faithful to know what God's placed in our hands, whether it seems small or whether it seems large.

The other thing that I love is that, um, even Mis- Mr.

Andre and I were talking about the, the information that you see up there gives us a guidepost.

And, uh, it's important to deal with the tension at the beginning Vision should constrain us.

God's plan should constrain us because it's His plan.

But like Mr.

Andre said, when you get to Mr.

Andre's seasons of life, which at some point we all will, everything that we started at whatever season prior, we begin to see the faithfulness of God because we were faithful in that previous season.

And so, uh, I don't know if we have that QR code.

You can download, uh, you know, the ability to, to make sense of your spending.

Even if, 'cause we were talking about this, even if you are in a good rhythm, it's always good to know the state of your flock every month.

Every month.

And so feel free, uh, that's on, uh, it'll be on the Dropbox link.

Download that, use it at your leisure, however you choose.

Yeah, that thing showed you different percentages.

Um, that's where once you know where you're at, you will go in and adjust that to meet your specific lifestyle.

Um, because most of us can't l- can't l- maintain our household with just 28% of our budget which is what they recommend here.

It's probably more like 35%, sometimes 40% of our budget.

And so once you have done that and you've, you've, you know exactly where you're at, then you start to build your plan, and some of the key elements of your plan is your giving, your saving, your investment, and then of course paying off your debt.

And the reason you wanna pay off your debt, because if you pay off your debt, you have what? More money for giving, saving, and investing.

And so the-- I like, I also like the way this starts out is that you don't wanna start out doing everything all at once com- differ- You wanna focus on one thing that you're doing and do that well, and then you move on to the next thing.

And so it talks about different destinations.

And so the first destination, so one of the things you do, you come to church every Sunday.

Some Sundays you give into the offering, or monthly you give into the offering.

Be consistent with your giving.

And so as you're consistent with your giving, then you're ready to branch out to saving.

And so we say, well, you begin saving, uh, $1,000 as an emergency fund.

Now, I used to say, "Well, $1,000 is, is good," but you know, that's just a start because the whole idea is to make, to help you become more intentional and, and, and disciplined.

Uh, st- statistically, they say most American families can't afford a four or $500 bill, just bolt out of the blue bill.

So I used to say, "We'll start by saving $500."

And what we offered in our classes, we have what they call a 52-week challenge where you, where-- 'cause w- most of us when we say, "Well, why don't you save?" We say, "I can't afford not to save."

I say, "Well, what if I can give you a plan where you can start saving with just $1?" How you gonna do that? Well, if you start by saving $1 a week, and then the second week you save $2, and the third week you save $3, and you continue on, at the end of 52 weeks, you would have $1,378.

So Lisa and I tried this, 'cause we like, "Ah, we don't believe this.

We don't believe this is gonna work."

Well, between the two of us, we're at week 36, and we have $1,422 in our little bucket.

So it works, and so in, within the next few weeks we're gonna be at the $2,000 mark.

You know? And so that's how you can do it, but again, the key to this is being disciplined.

'Cause you can start it, and about six weeks in, you're like, "Oh, I forgot about this."

Well, no worries, just start, just play catch-up.

Just means you have to put more in.

Uh, so in addition to...

So once you start saving, then the, uh, the next step is to start paying off the credit cards, 'cause that just create, increases more money for you.

Uh, and then you increase your savings from, from $1,000 to one month's salary.

Uh, then you start to increase your savings to three months, uh, paying off your consumer debts, auto loans, student loans, reevaluate your giving.

You move to step four, uh, start saving for retirement.

I would say you could do that early on.

If your company offers a match with a 401, don't turn, turn that money away.

That's free money.

Um, do that as soon as possible.

Start saving for your children's education, and then as you get down to step five, it's, um, you're purchasing an affordable house.

You begin paying off your mortgage.

You re- reevaluate your giving.

And then when you get to that sixth step, where you've, your home mortgage is paid off, your children education is funded, and then it's real easy for you to become a courageous giver.

And you reat that, reach that final destination is financial freedom or financial faithfulness.

And I'm telling you, when you get there, you know, you get to do whatever you wanna do.

You see a need, you can fill it, and then you learn to trust God to do what you need.

You wanna take a cruise? Ah, go take a cruise.

You wanna go to France? You go to France.

Je le trois.

Je le trois.

You go to France.

Don't know what I just said there.

If it was wrong, I'm sorry.

So, so, and that's sorta the map, and if you download that app, it'll show you how to do a lot of those different types of things.

So, um, and- I think everybody's gonna be like, "Can y'all do this for two weeks?" Yeah.

Anybody else thinking that? Y'all can sign up the next time we have a workshop It's a h- it's a holy hush Yeah.

I say, so in conclusion for me- Acknowledge to the reality of where you are.

Just deal with, with the reality of where you are.

When we're talking about financial freedom, it has nothing to do with how much money you have Whether you're rich, whether you're poor, it doesn't matter.

These principles apply.

Ask God for help.

1 Peter 5, 5 and 7 said, "God oppresses the proud-- opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.

So humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you."

Develop your plan, your spending plan, a financial plan, an attack.

Uh, since God knows the plans, we should include Him in our plans for our finances.

Create a spending plan based on God's focus.

Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:11

And in Proverbs 27:12, it says, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."

Proverbs 27:12

If you know you're, uh, you're heading in the wrong direction, now's the time to, to, to turn around.

But the fi-- the bottom line is to put God first in your finances.

Proverbs 3:9 and 10, "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the best part of everything you produce.

Proverbs 3:9

Then He will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine."

And, um, I would say, and then resist fear Resist fear and do it now.

In 2 Corinthians 6:2 tells you, "Now is the time of God's favor.

2 Corinthians 6:2

Now is the day of salvation."

God bless you.

Amen.

Isn't that good? That's so good.

Anybody get anything from this morning? Listen, God's called us to be different.

This is the season where your finances can be different.

Let's all deal with the tension wherever we are, and let's see what God does.

Miss Andre, will you close us out in prayer? Holy Father, we thank and praise you for your goodness.

We thank you for your mercy.

We thank you for being so faithful to us, oh God.

God, we pray that you continue to stir in our hearts, continue to guide us, oh God, that we can be intentional about our finances, because our whole intent is to give you glory, to give you honor, and to further your kingdom.

We thank you now in Jesus' name.

Amen Thanks for joining us.

If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and you can share with your friends.

Take a screenshot post on your social media stories and tag us at City Place Church.