Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20071007.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
IX. Overcoming Money Problems By Habitual Small Steps
(1 Corinthians 16:1-4 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) Adequate money management is a huge need today:

(a) In the last four weeks, three people in our Church have expressed concern over money issues! They were bothered about debt, or building a retirement nest egg or even just making a living.

(b) This local need is reflected at the national level: with projected problems with our federal government's Social Security fund, and national health care and rising higher education needs, Senator Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the U. S. presidency, last week suggested the federal government give $5,000 to every child born in America to be invested in the stock market to meet their future higher education costs! The idea may be appealing, but the logistics of raising the money to provide for such accounts seems quite formidable!

(2) Actually, God Himself is concerned about our financial needs. We see this from the words of the Apostle John when he wrote to a fellow Christian named Gaius in 3 John 1-2, stating in verse 2 (ESV): "Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul." Since the welfare of Gaius' soul involved his spiritual walk, what John meant by matters 'going well' for Gaius besides the welfare of his soul and health would certainly have included Gaius' financial well-being.

No, John did not promote an errant "wealth-health Gospel" like we have in our era: he did not believe Christians were to be financially rich as a signal that they were spiritual, for John noted that Gaius was already blessed spiritually, but not necessarily in the financial realm!



In the 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 passage we are set to study today, the Apostle Paul gave directions on giving to the Lord where he supplied a directive that has far-ranging, effective application both to giving as well as to handling money in general.

So, today we COMPREHENSIVELY address the question: "I wish I could give more to God's work, but I am having trouble just making a living! What would GOD suggest?!"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I wish I could give more to God's work, but I have trouble just making a living for my family! What would God suggest?!"
  1. 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 that contains Paul's words on offerings for needy Christians (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 546) directed his readers to lay aside money as they earned it each week so that no pressured giving "drive" would occur when he arrived.
  2. That directive hints at INSIGHT on HOW to MANAGE MONEY in GENERAL that ENHANCES one's ABILITY to GIVE to God:
    1. Paul implied that his readers were to budget their income, 1 Cor. 16:2:
      1. Even in Paul's time, some goods that people purchased (like togas, sandals, cooking pots, wooden carts) were not bought every week!
      2. Yet, Paul still expected his readers to know how much profit they had each week so they could weekly set some of it aside to give to needy believers, 1 Corinthians 16:2! That all required budgeting!
    2. Well, seasoned and reputable Christian financial counselor, George Bowman (How To Succeed With Your Money, Moody Press, 1974) offered the following budget formula for believers in today's era:
      1. Out of the regular income, aim to allocate 70% for living expenses, 20% for debt payments and 10% for savings and investments.
      2. [If the income is irregular, spend for each month at the level of the past year's average monthly income, saving excess income of bountiful income months for "leaner" months, cf. Gen. 41:34-36.]
      3. Then, view the 70% living expense and 20% debt segments as "fat" in need of being trimmed for addition to the 10% savings segment.
    3. Yet, many believers who thus budget still struggle to make a living.
    4. In answer, both Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:2a and Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 and in Proverbs 6:6-8 imply that effective money management in GENERAL comes by way of habitual small steps:
      1. Paul implied that saving in small portions of weekly profit avoided pressured giving for his readers once he arrived, 1 Cor. 16:2a,b.
      2. The same emphasis on habitually taking small steps is suggested by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 11:1-5, 6 regarding investing: there one must routinely invest ("sow") his money in a diversified portfolio!
      3. Also, at Proverbs 6:6-8, Solomon recalled how the tiny ant that has no leader [or investing counselor] still saves up enough food for its future by continually hauling a tiny bit of food at a time. The ant compensates for its lack of leadership and insight by self-motivated opportunism and yearlong activity applied over many tiny steps.
    5. Applied to the budget in general, we find that taking habitual small steps comprehensively works to solve our money handling problems:
      1. Re: cutting back on the 70% income for living expenses, one can habitually focus (a) on replacing "impulse" buying with a buying list, and (b) habitually set aside a small, set amount for "fun" money to allow for personal freedom without hurting his budget!
      2. Re: cutting back on the 20% income for debt payments, one can habitually (a) pay a little more than the minimum on a credit card bill, and keep paying that budgeted amount each month to pay off the debt with the lowest principal first, and then add that budgeted amount of pay to another debt account to help pay off the next smallest debt, etc. until all the interest-producing debts are paid. He can then (b) habitually try to wait to buy more items until he has the cash on hand to avoid building up debt.
      3. Re: building savings, we can take advantage of compounding in habitually setting aside an affordable amount per [day or] month to invest. [A man in our Church reports he began 13 years ago to set aside an average of $5.64 a day for investing for his retirement, putting money into Individual Retirement Accounts he set up in mutual funds. Regardless of the 2001-2002 stock market drop, his portfolio is now worth double all the money invested, and since he will continue with this investment practice, he projects can retire in 2022 and live fully (without relying on the fragile Social Security system) off of the principle with that principle STILL continuing to GROW for his heirs and God's ministries.]
  3. Now, it takes self-control habitually to take such small steps in handling money over a lifetime, but such self-control is available by a life of relying on the Holy Spirit's power, Galatians 5:16, 22-23!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior to be saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Romans 8:9b. (2) Then, may we rely upon the Holy Spirit for the self-discipline (Gal. 5:16, 22-23) (3) to heed the Bible's suggestion to focus on HABITUAL SMALL STEPS to cut costs, to shrink debt and to build up savings in making a living and giving as we want to give to God's work!

Lesson: To give as we would love to give to God's work, we can FOCUS on cutting costs, shrinking debt and building savings by way of HABITUAL SMALL STEPS, and find all the self-control we need to be ABLE to do so in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Back in the mid nineteen nineties, one of the women in our Church purchased a Money magazine as she was buying food in a grocery store while attending a family reunion in another state. In that magazine was an advertisement by a reputable mutual fund company.

Back at their residence, her husband read the magazine only to become interested in the claims of that ad, so he ordered the fund's investment material. Among the papers the company sent was a pamphlet on the savings habits of the ant, the same idea Solomon mentioned in Proverbs 6:6-8. What stunned this man was the pamphlet's claim that if someone had invested just $50 every month in the company's regular growth mutual fund beginning back in 1972, in 1992, his portfolio would have grown to $96,000! The pamphlet added that if the periodic investment had been raised to $75 a month over those years, the 1992 portfolio would have been worth $214,000 all due to the effects of compounding!

Sure, those decades involved a good bull market in stocks. However, that man knew from this pamphlet and the Proverbs 6:6-8 teaching that if he consistently invested in such amounts that he knew he himself could afford out of his current income, in time, he could build a sizeable nest egg! All he needed was the consistency to keep making the deposits, and he knew the Holy Spirit could help there!

So, in God's leading and power, this man in our body got busy habitually depositing every month what amounts of income he could put into such funds! He reports he is stunned at the bountiful results!



GOD gives us all the income we actually need, but WE are responsible in faith in Him to MANAGE it well by focusing on EACH SMALL STEP-AT-A-TIME: whether trying to cut costs, to shrink our debts or to build our savings and retirement nest egg, habitually focusing on the small steps at every move in God's power and leading makes all the difference in how much we can do in eventually giving to God!



May we heed God's Word in managing our incomes that we might make a decent living, and be blessed in giving to the Lord!