Our 4th Gift To Manage: Relationships -- Part 2

(I left off with Pt. 1 here)

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

1. God gave us relationships for influence.

We’re like chameleons. We become like the people we hang around. God created us in a way that we influence others and they influence us. The people we hang out with the most have the most influence on us!

Proverbs 22:24 gives us an example of this. Listen to what it says, “24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, 25 or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

If you hang around someone who gets angry easily you will too!

In the book “The Power Of Focus” one of the co-author’s, Jack Canfield, tells what his mentor taught him about this idea…

“One of the first things my mentor, W. Clement Stone, suggested I do was to make a list of my friends. Then he directed me to put the letter “N” next to each person who nourished me and encouraged me to be great – people who were positive, optimistic, solution-oriented and had a can-do attitude. Next, he asked me to pit the letter “T” beside every person who was toxic – people who were negative, whined, complained, put down other people and their dreams, and who were generally pessimistic in their outlook. Then he asked me to stop spending time with the people who had a “T” next to their names. This is one lesson you must learn – surround yourself with positive people. Mr. Stone taught me that you become like the people you hang out with. If you want to be successful, you must hang out with successful people.”

You want to do well in school? You want to be more productive at work? You want to be a better Christ-follower?

Find a friend like this!!

Think about this...

Each relationship you have has a give and receive factor. Some relationships are more one way or the other. You need both types of relationships!

If you only have relationships that you give to, you'll feel drained.
If you only have relationships that you receive from, but none that you can give to, you won't grow.

Why?

Because we grow when we give/teach someone else! If you don’t have any relationships where you can give/help/teach the other peoples, you won't feel fulfilled!

We need both of these types of friendships!

I want to encourage everybody here to: find a mentor and be a mentor.

It can be an official mentorship where you ask someone to be your mentor or you look for someone to mentor OR it could be an informal thing where you've prayed and asked God to help you pick friends that can help you grow and to show you friends who you can help grow!

This is really important spiritually, but it's also important to have people like this in any and every area of life you can!

Watch how you grow when you find someone to mentor you. Watch how you grow even more when you start mentoring someone else!

One of the commandments Jesus gave in Matthew 28 is “go into all the world and make disciples...”

Start to pray that God would give you someone to disciple and that he'd give you someone to disciple you! This is a prayer God WANTS to answer in your life!

2. God's given us relationships to protect us.

I've told you this before we ALL need someone to speak the truth to us (encouragement and warnings) and someone we can speak truth to (confess).

Here are two verses in Proverbs that show us the friend speaking truth to us part that we need...

Prov. 27:6
“Wounds from a friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.”

Prov. 27:9
“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. 10Never abandon a friend—either yours or your father's. Then in your time of need, you won't have to ask your relatives for assistance. It is better to go to a neighbor than to a relative who lives far away.”

See, the speaking truth to us part, can and should be encouragement sometimes and warnings at other times!

We need friends to speak the truth in both these ways! Encouragement keeps us going and warnings protect us!

Who’s your friend who does this for you? If you don’t have one, then pray and ask God to give you someone like this!

In the book of James, Jesus’ brother tells us about the part about needing someone to speak the truth to us. He says this in James 5:16… “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

We NEED people we can confess to so that we can heal and move on in life!

Daniel Goleman in his book “Social Intelligence” says it like this…

“Simply reviewing something painful from the past with someone who helps us see a different perspective… can gradually loosen some of the distress by recoding disturbing memories. This may be one reason for the relief that can come when client and therapist rehash troubles: the talk itself may alter the way the brain registers what’s wrong!”

These are all things I've talked to you about before, but it's good for you and me to be reminded about these things!

I want to take the rest of the time today and talk about the most important and influential relationships God has given us...

Our relationships with our families! These relationships can be some of the best and/or the worst relationships we have!

3. Our families (Parents, Sibling, Spouse, Kids) are the foundation God’s given us in life.

God gave us families for love, support, strength, encouragement, help, etc.

He cares how we treat them!

The Bible is filled with advice to obey your parents, love and respect your spouse, love your children, how to raise your kids,..

Have you ever thought of the POWER there is in a family?

· There’s no other group that knows you as intimately – the real you.

· There’s no one you can call “yours” like you can your family.

· There’s no one else you can love like your own father, mother, brother, sister or your own child.

· There’s no other person who can teach you like a parent can.

· There’s no one else you’ll probably influence as much (for bad or good) than your own kid.

· There’s no other person who can love you/hurt you like a family member can.

If you had a bad family, here’s the good news: God gives you 2 ways to make your own family!

1. God gives us the ability with a spouse you create a new family unit.
You are your family's chance to change the direction for your descendants – to redeem them!

If you had a bad family, upbringing, think about this...

What if you were given to your family as a GIFT to change the future of your family line? What if you were given to given your family line another chance at following God?

2. The other way to make a family of your own is through your friendships. Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Either way you look at, your our family (your birth family, new created family, or "family" friends) is your foundation. They’re your cheering section.

They are your future - literally. Jack, Will and Addison will be alive way after I’m gone! They are who/what I leave behind to influence this world.

We need to invest time in these relationships! We need to reinforce our foundations!

Zig Ziglar said this about relationships with our families…

"The evidence is convincing that the better our relationships are at home, the more effective we are in our careers. If we're having difficulty with a loved one, that difficulty will be translated into reduced performance on the job. In studying the millionaires in America (U.S. News and World Report), a picture of the "typical" millionaire is an individual who has worked eight to ten hours a day for thirty years and is still married to his or her high school or college sweetheart. A New York executive search firm, in a study of 1365 corporate vice presidents, discovered that 87% were still married to their one and only spouse and that 92% were raised in two-parent families. The evidence is overwhelming that the family is the strength and foundation of society. Strengthen your family ties and you'll enhance your opportunity to succeed."

Friendships and families really are God’s gifts to us!

We need to invest more time with them. We need to invest more time in talking with them, listening to them, laughing with them, encouraging them, forgiving them and praying for them.

“Success guru” Brian Tracy says this in his book “Focal Point” says it like this “Happiness in life, in large measure, comes from good relationships with other people – in your family and your personal life as well as at your work.”

Later he says… “You owe it to yourself to become a relationship expert.”

We need to invest time in our relationships.

We need to give and serve our friends and family. They’re our greatest assets. They gift us emotional strength and encouragement.

You don’t want to run the race of life and win and realize you have no one to celebrate with!

Next, we’ll look at the last gift that God has given us to manage as we finish this series.

What's Your Habit?

I'll finish posting the last parts to the 4th gift and then post the 5th gift talk here, but...

I found this blog post on "Have a Friday Habit" by Tim Sanders (author of "Love Is The Killer Ap" and "The Likeability Factor") and I thought I should tell you know about it.

It's all about measuring our goals/accomplishments in shorter time spans.

It's a good article on managing that 1st Gift God's given us to manage: Time!

Check out Tim's article here.

Our 4th Gift To Manage: Relationships -- Part 1

I want to start with a story today that Max Lucado tells in his book, In the Eye of the Storm …

Clovis Chappell, a minister from a century back, used to tell the story of two paddleboats. They left Memphis about the same time, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. As they traveled side by side, sailors from one vessel made a few remarks about the snail's pace of the other. Words were exchanged. Challenges were made. And the race began. Competition became vicious as the two boats roared through the Deep South.

One boat began falling behind. Not enough fuel. There had been plenty of coal for the trip, but not enough for a race. As the boat dropped back, an enterprising young sailor took some of the ship's cargo and tossed it into the ovens. When the sailors saw that the supplies burned as well as the coal, they fueled their boat with the material they had been assigned to transport. They ended up winning the race, but burned their cargo.

God has entrusted cargo to us, too: children, spouses, friends. Our job is to do our part in seeing that this cargo reaches its destination. Yet when the program takes priority over people, people often suffer. How much cargo do we sacrifice in order to achieve the number one slot? How many people never reach the destination because of the aggressiveness of a competitive captain?

It's so easy in the race of life to focus so much on trying to achieve and win that we forget what's really important in our lives!

Many of us don't realize the gifts that God's given us in the people he's put in our lives.

When we get to the end of our lives we're not going to wish we owned more things or had more power or fame or got more degrees!

On your deathbed, none of these things are going matter anymore!

What will matter? You're going to wish you had more relationships and that you would've treasured and invested more in the ones you had!

The fourth gift that God has given us to manage in life is relationships. We'll talk more about that in a minute, but first...

Let me let’s go over what we’re trying to do in this series.

4 Sundays ago we started our “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

We looked at this is the building block of all we do in life. I talked to you about the idea of giving your time to be with God and investing your time in ways so you’ll see payback now and in eternity.

You only have 1440 minutes given to everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes Time Management a holy thing!

The SECOND week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our Spiritual Health, but also our Mental, Emotional and Physical health.

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life.

Last Week, I talked about the third gift God has given us to manage, which is our wealth. It’s one of the only gifts that has a dangerous side to it. I told you that God is the one that gives us ability to gain wealth.

God cares how we handle our wealth. We saw in what Jesus said at the end of a parable in Luke that, in some ways, how we manage our wealth is “practice” for the TRUE riches that God wants to give us!

I showed you three ways that will help us to manage our wealth better: don’t waste it, grow it and share/give it. You can read these last three talks here on the “Life Management” Blog. Don’t forget to email your friends any posts that you think they’d like!

Today we’re going to look at this 4th gift: Relationships.

God’s given us relationships to help us. If you think about it, relationships are the real currency of life! Relationships matter to God! Think about how much of the Bible is about why/how to interact with people!

Here's just some of what God's word tells us...

"Do for others what you would like them to do for you."
Matthew 7:12

"Stop judging others, and you will not be judged."
Matthew 7:1 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own?"
Matthew 7:3 (Jesus of Nazareth)

"Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."
Luke 6:25-26 (Jesus of Nazareth)

This book teaches us to treasure people – to treasure our relationships!

It's a manual on successful human relationships!

I want you to realize something...

We were created for relationships! Daniel Goleman the author of the books “Emotional Intelligence” and “Primal Leadership” just recently came out with a book called “Social Intelligence”. I've been reading it and it reveals some pretty amazing things about the science of relationships!

One thing he says is that our minds are wired to connect! They are designed to connect with others! Listen to what he says...

“…our nervous systems are ‘constructed to be captured by the nervous systems of others, so that we can experience others as if from within their skin. At such moments we resonate with their experience, and they with ours. We can no longer… see our minds as so independent, separate and isolated, but instead we must view them as “permeable,” continually interacting as though joined by an invisible link.”

One of our core beliefs as a church is that you need two connections to succeed and reach your full potential: a connection (relationship) with God and a connection with others.

If you don't have BOTH of these connections, then you won't be able to reach your full potential!

It's obvious that without a connection to God you can't reach your full potential, but even with a connection to God, but not a connection to others you still can't become all that God created you to be!

When it was just God and Adam in the Garden of Eden, God said, “It's not good for man to be alone.” People were created for us to have relationship with, as a gift because relationships are a good thing. They’re what we need!!

Learning how to manage and grow in our relationships is one of the most important things we can do.

Dale Carnegie in his classic book “How To Win Friends And Influence People” said…

“Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are a business man. Yes, and that is also true if you are a housewife, architect, or engineer.”

A little later he gives the results from a Carnegie Institute Of Technology study that revealed..

“…even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering – to personality and the ability to lead people.”

Learning how to handle relationships with others in one of the most important skills we can have!

I want to remind us today about some of the benefits God's given us in the gift of relationships and try to inspire us all to cherish and manage this gift more!

I'll show you the first thing I want you to see about relationships when I continue tomorrow...

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 3

This is the third and last way I'm going to show us how to manage our money the right way today.

This last way is the THE major way to PROTECT and INSULATE yourself from the danger of wealth/money...

The third way to manage your money is to Give It Away/Share it!

Giving money keeps God “god” and keeps money from becoming your “god”!

John Piper in his book “What Jesus Demands From The World” says it like this…

“So the reason money is so crucial for Jesus is that across all cultures and all ages it represents the alternative to God as the treasure of our hearts, and therefore the object of our worship. It becomes the great threat to our obedience to the first and last of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3), and “You shall not covet” (Exod. 20:17). Money represents all the other material things and securities and pleasures that it can buy. Therefore, it represents the great alternative to God in our hearts. This is why what we do with our money is so crucial to Jesus.”

I want to give you some tips about giving today from what the Apostle Paul gives us in 2 Corinthians 9:6-14…

6Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. 7You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. 8And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 9As the Scriptures say, "Godly people give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will never be forgotten." F29

10For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

11Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God. 12So two good things will happen—the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanksgiving to God. 13You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. 14And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.

Let's look at some of these tips:

Giving is always to God, not a church or pastor.
V.13-14 13 says You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. "

Giving is a form of worship. It’s form of thanksgiving, a form of obedience.

You’re giving it to GOD to be used by a church or ministry. You’re NOT just giving to them.

There are two main areas the God says we should focus our giving on: poor/needy and ministry.

Give to as many ministries as you can, but you should first make sure give to God by giving to the local body of believers you are a part of!

Why?

That’s where God has planted you. It’s where you’re being fed spiritually. It will bless the church you are a part of, so it blesses the people you know. It helps your church to be able minister more effectively to the area where God’s put you!

The next giving tip is...

Giving should be planned.
V. 7 says, "You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give…”

Gene Getz said…

"When money is available because we've planned our giving, it becomes a joyful experience to share it with others. We've not only prepared our hearts for that moment, but we've prepared our hearts in a broader way ahead of time, because we've arranged our giving together with our overall financial plans. In other words, we've prepared a budget.

"Conversely, when we don't plan our giving, we usually don't have money to give. Many of us tend to allow our standard of living to rise to our present level of income. Then, when we're asked to give (either regularly to meet the ongoing needs of the ministry or through special gifts for special needs), we respond reluctantly. This is understandable, since we've already spent our excess funds on our own needs and desires or laid aside that excess for our future benefit.

"Under such circumstances, negative emotions are predictable. Often we not only have no excess to give to God's work, but we're worried that we won't even have enough money to meet what we believe are our own needs. Yet, as with the Corinthians, this problem often is not God's but ours – the result of not becoming systematic planners and givers."

That's why w should plan our giving ahead of time!

How much will you give to God to be used for your church this month? How much will you give to Missions (reaching people here and in other countries)?

Most of us don’t carry cash, so we won’t have anything to give if we don’t plan it out!

The next tip is...

Give with happiness.
Paul says in V. 7 “Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully."

Don’t give cause you have to. Give because you want to! God doesn’t want your offering if you don’t want to give it!

The next tip...

Give a Tithe.
“Tithe” means 10%. In the Old Testament under the old covenant it was required. But the New Testament doesn’t mention it, so some people think it doesn’t apply anymore. (The funny thing is that the N.T. shows examples of some who gave way more than 10%, but that’s another story!)

I give my tithe NOT because I have to but because I want to! I give my tithe out of FAITH because I believe God’s given me all I have! I give it out of WORSHIP and THANKSGIVING for what he’s given me!

I do it to remind myself and show God I believe he’s going to KEEP providing for me!

This is one of the few areas where God tells us to test him!

Malachi 3:10-12 says "10Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD Almighty, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! 11Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. F6 Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe," says the LORD Almighty. 12"Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight," says the LORD Almighty.

If you think about it the tithing is an amazing offer.

God’s saying, "I’ll give you everything, just give me back 10%." If you do, I’ll bless you even MORE!!!

It’s a SMART plan for God to create. It keeps us remembering that He’s our source. It keeps you relying on Him while at the same time it provides for the needs of the local church you’re a part of (v.10 "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple.)

Paula Davis told her story about her business making baby carriers that she started just awhile ago. She said that her sales started to dry up and she couldn't figure out why.

She realized she hadn't been tithing what she was making, so she tithed that Sunday.

That day she got 3 orders!

The sales stopped again and she tithed again and got a sale that day!

Tithing doesn't always work that fast or isn't always connected to seeing a direct blessing of money back.

Don't do it to get something back. Do it, because it's your worship, thanksgiving and faith in God for ALL he's done for you.

I have always tithed since I was a teenager. I don’t even think about it anymore. It's something on auto-pilot. I usually pay it first. It’s a habit.

If you haven’t been doing this, you might not even have the full 10% to give to God – even IF you wanted to!

If you don’t have it, but want to, then here’s my advice…

Start with what you can - maybe 5% or whatever - and make it your goal to work up to 10%.

REMEMBER:
Don’t do it to just to get back, but watch how God keeps his promise and blesses you!

You want to know something else?

This idea of tithing is talked about in a lot of secular success books as the KEY to gaining wealth! (I showed a stack of 4 books I brought.) They call it something like "a universal law of nature" or something like that!

That proves to me it’s a principle that works! Try it and see!

Here's the last tip on giving...

God will bless you when you give!
You’ll be rewarded now and in the next life. This is the way to store up treasures in heaven! Think of it as building up your Spiritual Assets column!

Jesus said it like this in Luke 6:37-38...
“Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down and overflowing… With the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

This is another thing I say a lot because I want it to lock in your and my minds…

God is looking for givers to give to! He’s looking for people to bless who will share the blessing with others and give it to be used to see God’s work that needs to be done here and around the world.

W. Graham Scroggie says something that I think we really need to think about…

“There are two ways in which a Christian may view his money--'How much of my money shall I use for God?' or 'How much of God's money shall I use for myself?'"

Money/wealth is a powerful gift.

You can use this power for good or evil. You can use it to hurt or heal. You can use it to help yourself or others.

If you have enough of it you can do amazing things that can have eternal results!

Managing your money in ways to please God is done by managing our money in the rights ways we looked at today: not wasting it, growing it and giving it!

How can you keep from loving money is by holding it loosely. Be generous to God and others. Don’t look to it for security, but only to God the provider!

When you do you’re money will grow and bless you and others in ways you wouldn’t believe!

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 2

This is continued from yesterday...

The first way to manage our money the right is...

1. Don’t waste it!

How can we do that?

Make and Keep Budget – This helps you now how much you have and where it's going. It’s obvious, but I bet you most wealthy people do this and most poor people don’t! In order to not waste our money we have to control it and track it!

Save Some Of What You Make – In Genesis 41, Joseph is released from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the dreams mean that there will be 7 years of great prosperity and then 7 years of famine – a famine so bad that the prosperity will be gone and people will forget about those 7 good years!

The Pharaoh asked Joseph what to do. Listen to Joseph’s advice in verses 33-36…

33"My suggestion is that you find the wisest man in Egypt and put him in charge of a nationwide program. 34Let Pharaoh appoint officials over the land, and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. 35Have them gather all the food and grain of these good years into the royal storehouses, and store it away so there will be food in the cities. 36That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come. Otherwise disaster will surely strike the land, and all the people will die."

Joseph told them to save some of what they brought in!

He was telling them to live out the advice God’s word gives us in Proverbs 21:20,"The wise man saves for the future but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

The Pharaoh not only took the advice, but put Joseph in charge! And look at what happened in Genesis 41:53-57…

53At last the seven years of plenty came to an end. 54Then the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had predicted. There were crop failures in all the surrounding countries, too, but in Egypt there was plenty of grain in the storehouses. 55Throughout the land of Egypt the people began to starve. They pleaded with Pharaoh for food, and he told them, "Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you." 56So with severe famine everywhere in the land, Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians. 57And people from surrounding lands also came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.

I’m not a prophet. I can’t interpret your dreams, but I can tell you this…

There are going to be times of prosperity in your life and times of famine! The one way to survive those times of famine is to do what Joseph told Pharaoh to do. Save some of everything thing you make!

Don’t Use Credit Cards If You Can ­ - If you have to use them, pay them off at the end of each month. Prov. 22:7 says, "Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender.”

When I was youth pastor in Burlingame I wasn’t getting paid enough to live in this area and we went into debt! That's one of the reasons we went back East, so we could live with my in-laws for free and recover financially.

How To Get Out Of Debt. I heard this idea from a financial planner...

1. Find an extra $50 a month you currently are wasting somewhere. Cut out Starbucks twice a week and bring lunch to school/work and you'll easily find and extra $50!

2. Take that $50 and every month add it to the payment your making on your smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your smallest bill was $1200 and you were paying $50 a month on it. Take that extra $50 and now pay $100 towards that bill!


3. When you pay that bill off take that payment you were making and add it to your next smallest credit card bill. Example: Let's say your next smallest bill was $2400 and you have been paying $100 every month on it. Take the $100 you were paying to the $1200 bill you just paid off and add it to this payment! Now you're paying $200 a month on your $2400 bill.

4. Keep repeating the process and when you pay off that bill take that amount and add it your next smallest bill then do the same with the next until you're out of debt!!

The cool thing about this idea is that you only had to find that extra $50. After that you were only taking money you were already paying towards your debt.

Do whatever you can to get out of debt, so you don’t have to waste your money on all that interest you’re paying!

Those are some ways to help you stop wasting your money, but managing our wealth is more than just not wasting our money! I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it…

Most of us know how to subtract money, but hardly any of us know how to multiply it!

Most of us have spent money we don’t have but how many of us can MAKE money without using any money to do it? How many of us have the skills to take money you’re given and GROW it?

The next step to help us manage our money the right way is...

2. Grow it!
I want you to see some charts from the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki that I think will help us to know how to grow our money more…

His definition of an asset and a liabilit...

Assets = Puts money in pocket
Liability = Takes money out of your pocket

Poor Cash Flow = Don’t own anything, so no liabilities. All money come in from job and out for expenses.

Middle Class Cash Flow = Money comes in from job and it goes to cover liabilities and expenses. He says that the Middle class has a problem. They spend money on liabilities they think are assets!

Rich Cash Flow = The rich focus on buying assets that keep putting more money in their pockets!

He shows...

Middle Class Person’s Income Statement = Income and Expense are equal. Their liabilities are more than their assets. Whenever income goes up they spend more on expenses or liabilities. That leaves them with no money to buy any Assets!

Rich Person’s Income Statement = Income is more than their expense. Their assets are more than their liabilities. They spend more money on Assets so their asset column is always growing!

If we’re going to be wise managers of what God’s given us, then we should invest more in assets! We should reproduce the money God’s given us and not just spend it!

We also need to see more of the opportunities that are all around us!

Have you ever noticed what a person who comes here from another country does? They seize the opportunities. Many of them do that by starting their own business.

We need to not only learn how to reproduce the money we have, but also how to make money from our hidden assets!

In Cracking The Millionaire Code by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen the talk about how to uncover your hidden assets...

What do you know that people would pay you to teach them? Your life experience is worth money to someone! Pg. 67
Your problems could be worth money. Find a solution to your problems and teach others to do it and you can make money! P. 68

There are ton of other ways you can read and study about on your own on how to make money.

My story:
Talk about my Recession ebook. I got 20 top business and marketing experts to write a book for ME from an idea I read in an ebook.

When you grow you’re money you’re managing it in a way that is pleasing to God!

If I gave you $1,000 to help you out and you took $300 and paid off some debt, $200 and got some things you needed (but usually couldn’t afford), and then invested the last $500 in something that paid you $100 a month for the next 2 years I’d be really happy!

I’d be way happier than if you just spent it all and wasted it on a big screen TV, going to the movies, and dinners out!

God wants you to grow the wealth he gives you!

But, here’s the key… He doesn’t want you to just have more money to keep it all to yourself!

Jesus tells a parable of a man that gained more wealth through a grain field he had and then built bigger storehouses to hold it all!

Jesus said he was foolish because he didn’t know he life was going to end that night!

The next step to help us manage our money the right way will actually help protect and insulate us from the dangers on money!

Continued tomorrow...

Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 1

I want to start today by talking about unseen dangers. These are the little-known dangers that are around us, all the time. You can look just where you live and find them!

Did you know…

• Household dryers can be dangerous? Dryers cause more than 15,000 house fires every year.
• Toothpaste is poisonous?
  If you shallow too much of it can actually kill you!

There are dangers like this from everyday items that we use all the time. I saw something funny online when I typed in “warning labels” on Google…

These are labels from the Fourth Annual M-LAW Wacky Warning Label Contest…

On Shin pads
"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

On a toilet
"Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."

MY FAVORITE label On A Jet ski
"Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."

WINNER - HEAT GUN THAT WARNS: “DO NOT USE AS HAIRDRYER”!

The scary thing to me about these is that they had to put these warnings out because someone tried to DO there things!!

The gift we’re going to look at today is another amazing gift that can do a lot of good in our lives and others lives, but there also is a major danger comes with it.

It’s a danger that most of us don’t even think about, but it’s serious! It has the power to ultimately destroy our lives!

We’ll look more at that in a second, but first…


Let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. 3 Sundays ago, we started our new “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

You only have 1440 minutes given to you everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes “Time Management” a holy thing!

LAST week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our spiritual health, but also our mental, emotional and physical health!

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life you have.

You can read these last two talks on the “Life Management” Blog (here). You can also email your friends to read any posts that you think they’d like!

Today we’re going to look at the 3rd gift. The third gift God’s given us to manage is Wealth.

This gift has one major danger.

It’s the danger that we’ll begin to seek this gift MORE than the gift giver – that we’ll love and rely on it more than God! The danger is that we’ll look to it as the source of our provision, instead of God.

Jesus warns us in Luke 16:13 - "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So, the question is…

How can we protect ourselves from the danger of this gift?

The first way is to remember that God is the ultimate source of whatever amount of wealth we have!

Some of you might think, “Wait a minute! God didn’t give me my wealth! I worked for it!” That might be partially true, but God gave you the ability to gain wealth.

In Deut. 8:18, Moses told the Israelites not to forget, after God brought them into the promised land and blessed them, that He was their ultimate source! He said in verse 18... "Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors…”

When we forget the REAL source of our wealth we forget who to thank and who we really owe!

I think I told you this story before about a conversation between a self-made millionaire and his pastor, but I want you to hear it again…

The self-made millionaire told his pastor, "I started out with nothing. My parents were broke and didn't give me a thing. I put myself through school. And from the time I was a kid till now, nobody's ever given me anything."

The pastor asked, "You did it all by yourself?" The man said, "That's right." The pastored asked, "And nobody's ever given you a thing?" The man replied, "Not a thing."

”Well, let me ask you this," said the pastor. "Who gave you life? Who gave you your marvelous brain, your talents, your natural abilities? Who changed your diapers and put food on your table as a child? Who taught you how to read and write? Who spent hours, weeks, and years educating you?"

The pastor continued, "Who gave you your first job? Who mentored you in business? Who lent you money to start your own business? Who raised a little girl and nutured her into a woman who could give you herself, her love, and your children?"

Still the pastor questioned him, "Who buys your products? Who takes care of your customers and manages your offices?" Who gave you your health? Who cleans your home, your office buildings, and the toilets?"

The pastor finished by saying, "If you can still look me in the eye and tell me you've done it all by yourself and that nobody has ever given you anything, then my last question is: Who has blinded your eyes and given you such a foolish, arrogant, and ungrateful heart?"

The self-made millionaire was silent for a few minutes. It was one of those eureka moments. Then he said, "What do I have that I haven't been given?"

This self-made millionaire started a letter writing campaign. He wrote to everyone who had influenced his life and said, "Thank you!"

This man's name is John Marks Templton and he said in his autobiography, "For more than 30 years my family sent Thanksgiving cards, rather than Christmas cards to our friends, desiring to spread our gratitude for the many gifts of life."

We need to always remember that we got where we are today because of other people’s help!

Ultimately, we owe all that we have and all that we are to God!

Remembering He’s our source and thanking him regularly is one way to protect and insulate ourselves against the dangers of wealth.

We’ll look at some more ways to protect ourselves later, but first I want you to understand that God has given you the wealth you have, and because of that, He wants you to manage it in the best way you can!

If we manage it the right way it can bless us, bless others and bring glory to God. If we don’t, it can be a curse to you and your offspring!


I want you guys to understand that God cares not just about you giving your money, but also about you growing your money and not wasting it!

If you come to be with a church you EXPECT me to warn you about the dangers of money. You expect me to talk about sharing/giving your money, which I will, but first I want to talk to you about how to grow it and not waste it!

If we’re going to use our money in ways that please God we have to know how to handle it better! Listen to how Jesus ends this parable in Luke 16:10-12…

10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

God cares about how we handle our money!

How we handle worldly wealth, is in some ways, practice for the “true riches” that come from God!

That’s why I want to show you today 3 ways that can help us manage our money the right way.

Let’s look at the first way…

Continued tomorrow...