Back On Track with My Finances - Saddleback Weekend Service

♪ Oh yeah, come let us worship our King ♪ ♪ Come let us bow at His feet, He has done great things ♪ ♪ See what our Savior has done ♪ ♪ See how His love overcomes, He has done great things ♪ ♪ He has done great things, He has done great things ♪ Come on, let's sing it out. ♪ Oh, hero of heaven, you conquered the grave ♪ ♪ You free and re-captive and break and retain, oh God ♪ ♪ You have done great things, we dance in your freedom ♪ ♪ Awaken alive, oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, you have done great things, oh ♪ Come on, let's sing it together. ♪ Oh, you've been faithful through every storm ♪ ♪ You'll be faithful forevermore ♪ ♪ You have done great things ♪ ♪ And I know you will do it again ♪ ♪ For your promise is yes and amen ♪ ♪ You will do great things, you will do great things ♪ ♪ God, you do great things, yeah ♪ Come on, here we go, let's sing it. ♪ Oh, hero of heaven, you conquer the grave ♪ ♪ You free every captive and break every chain, oh God ♪ ♪ You have done great things, we dance in your freedom ♪ ♪ Awaken alive, oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, you have done great things, come on ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, God, say hallelujah, God, unshakable ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, you have done great things, that's it, come on ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, say hallelujah, God, above it all ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, God, unshakable, hallelujah ♪ ♪ You have done great things, you've done great things ♪

♪ Oh, hero of heaven, you conquer the grave ♪ ♪ You free every captive and break every chain, that's it ♪ ♪ You have done great things, we dance in your freedom ♪ ♪ Awaken alive, oh Jesus, our Savior, your name lifted high ♪ ♪ Oh God, you have done great things, oh yeah ♪ ♪ You have done great things, oh God, you do great things ♪ Come on church. If you know he's done great things, go ahead and lift your voice and give him a great big shout of praise. Amen, God is so good and he is worthy of our praise. Let's put our hands together. Come on, let's sing together. Thank you God. ♪ My praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ My praise is the shout of every circle down ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing, as long as I'm breathing ♪ ♪ I've got a reason to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, come on sing, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Come on church, let's put our hands together for Jesus. Let's praise. ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign, I'll praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, I'll praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ Come on let's sing that together. ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign, I'll praise cause you reign ♪

♪ I'll praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful, I'll praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside, I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord Let everything that has breath praise the Lord Come on church, let's give Him praise today He's worthy to be lifted up, amen He's worthy to be glorified, amen He's worthy to be lifted high today And so that's why we're here, singing His praises Come on, will you join me, let's sing this together ♪ Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine ♪ ♪ He's been my fourth man in the fire, time after time ♪ ♪ Born of His Spirit and washed in His blood ♪ ♪ And what He did for me on Calvary's more than enough ♪ Come on, let's sing it ♪ So I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail ♪ He will never fail I trust in God Come on church, let's sing ♪ I know the author of tomorrow's all of my steps ♪

Come on ♪ So this is my story, this is my song ♪ ♪ Praising my risen King and Savior ♪ Over and on Say, I trust in God My Saviour, the one Who will never fail Never fail He will never fail Say, I trust in God My Saviour, the one Who will never fail He will never fail Say, I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered That's why I trust Him I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered

I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered That's why I trust Him God, my Saviour The one who will never fail I'm a living witness He will never fail I trust in God, my Saviour The one who will never fail Church, can we sing it just one more time? Let's sing it with all our heart I sought the Lord I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered I sought the Lord And He heard, and He answered Oh, that's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him

Oh, my Savior, the one Who will never, never fail He will never fail Just one more time, let's sing it I trust Him Oh, my Savior, the one Who will never fail He will never fail Well, welcome to Saddleback. What a great time of worship it has been so far. I love getting to worship together and to bring praises to our God and declare Him as good, to know that He hears us when we call out to Him. We seek Him and we can find Him. I love that so, so much. So thank you for worshiping with us today. And if you're new to Saddleback Church, we just want to say thank you for being here. Thanks for checking out our church family. We would love to get to know you and help you to get connected. So, you can let us know it's your first time by clicking the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube, or you can download our Saddleback app, set your campus to online community, and then open the notes section. That's going to allow you to access the program where you can take next steps there. Let us know that it's your first time. That app is also a great tool and resource to follow along with the message today. Take next steps, send in prayer requests, and stay connected to our church family. So, we want to encourage you to pull out the app and to let us know that it's your first time there. And something that I love about our online community is that we are located all around the world. We have people that are part of our community from all different states, all different countries, and we would love... of the opportunity to get to know you. And so we wanna encourage you on the For You section of the Saddleback app,

there is a form that says Stay Connected. We would love to know and get to know you more. And also, if you've been part of our church family for a while now, we wanna encourage you to fill out that form as well, to give us the most current information about yourself and also so that we can know how to best keep you connected and best inform you about what's going on in the life of our church. On that form as well, there's gonna be an opportunity to let us know a prayer request that you have as we step into this new year. We wanna know how we can be praying for you specifically. And what's really cool about this form is that during our 21 days of prayer that we are about to step into in the next couple weeks as a church family, we are gonna be praying over those prayer requests that come in. And so if you wanna fill out that form and if you wanna find out more about how you can be a part of 21 days of prayer, make sure to go to the Saddleback app and you can take next steps there. Well, we're so grateful that you're worshiping with us today. Let's join Pastor Andy as we listen to this message. I wanna say welcome to our whole church family spread across all of our campuses. Those of you who are watching football online, you're with us, but not with us.

We're glad you're here as well. Today's a great day. We're in the third week of a message series called Back on Track. And we've been talking about how do we get our lives back on track in all areas? So we've been looking at some various different components of life, what the Bible says about that, and how to start the new year in the right direction. And just a moment, we're gonna talk about getting back on track with money, but I wanna share two very important things that I wanna encourage you to participate in for your own growth, for what God will do in you as a result of it. So in just over a week, we are starting what we are calling 21 Days of Prayer on January 26th here in the States, the following week internationally. But we're gonna start 21 Days of Prayer. And we are for 21 days, we're gonna gather Monday to Friday at all of our campuses at 7 a.m. We're gonna seek the heart of God. We're gonna pray. We're gonna ask God to move in our own lives. We're gonna ask God to move in the life of our church. We're gonna pray for the needs of our church. And we're believing that God's gonna use that for all of what he's gonna accomplish this year.

So I wanna invite you to be a part of that. Maybe for some of you, 7 a.m. is early. I'm gonna invite you to stretch yourself. Some of you, maybe you've got a lot going on. We're gonna start at seven. We'll be out by 7.50, so you can get on to school and work. But I wanna challenge you to come the first day, just to be here for the first day. And I believe God will use it so much in your life and the lives of those around you that you're gonna keep coming back. So I can't wait for that, starting on Monday, January 26th. And then that's gonna lead us into our return gathering, February 18th through 20th. Now, the return gathering is a sacred assembly. It's a gathering of the whole church family at Lake Forest. And when we gather together, we have one purpose. We wanna encounter the presence of God together as a church family. We wanna seek his heart for our lives, for our year, for our community. We did this last year. It was amazing. God moved in power, and we're doing it again. So I'm telling you today, because registration just opened, and we anticipate that it will be completely filled up. So I wanna encourage you to go ahead and get registered. It's all generations. It's adults, it's kids, it's students. And it's a powerful time of connection, worship,

and ultimately life change. So that's February 18th through 20th. All of that, you can get to in your app. If you just go to the app, you'll see return gathering. You'll see 21 days of prayer. And I encourage you today to sign up to be a part of that gathering. Now today, as we are in the third week of our Back on Track message series, I wanna show you just a little picture of where we've been and where we're headed. The first week, we talked about getting back on track with our faith, our relationship with God. Last week, we talked about getting back on track with our health and understanding God's design for our bodies. This week, we're gonna talk about finances. Next week, Stacey's gonna preach, and she's gonna talk about relationships. How do you get back on track and the most important relationships in your life? And I say this right now because some of you might have somebody in your life that you're not on track with. This is a great opportunity to bring them to church with you. Just be like, hey, pastor's gonna preach on something great. I don't even know what it's gonna be, but I just wanna encourage you to come to church with me.

So you can have that person with you next weekend. And then the last weekend, I'm very excited about talking about a subject that so many people struggle with, and how do I find purpose in my work? God has a vision for what happens throughout the course of the rest of your week, your vocation. So that's the last week of the message series. Now, as we begin our conversation today about money, I was reminded this week of a quote. from Ernest Hemingway, and this quote became the title of one of my favorite books from last year. So the story either is a novel or it is Ernest Hemingway actually saying it. So there's a lot of debate. So Ernest Hemingway, who is an author, went bankrupt and there was a conversation where somebody came to him and asked him a question, what happened? How did you go bankrupt? And Ernest Hemingway, after writing all these books and being very wealthy, looked at the person and said two ways, gradually, then suddenly. And I love that line, gradually, then suddenly. Can we say that together? Gradually, then suddenly. There are so many problems in our life that are gradual problems and then there's a moment where it explodes. This is true with finances.

You know, you are stretched financially, you're trying to make ends meet, maybe you're under credit card debt and then you lose your job. Gradually, then suddenly. But the same is true. God's principles work both directions. So compound interest and faithfulness works the other direction. So how do we live according to God's design so that that gradually, then suddenly is not working against us but it's working in the direction of God's best for our lives? Well, I wanted to share some statistics with you that highlight the reason why that question is so important right now in our culture. What I think is important to recognize about finance is that financial struggle is not just wealth, it's not just poor people or people don't have a lot or people who are young or old. It is like everything. It's young, it's old, it's people make a lot of money, people who don't make much money. Finances are a challenge. And I found this statistic this week. I thought it was very fascinating. Nearly half, 48% of adults over 55 have zero retirement savings. That's a little unnerving. It's quiet in this service, but there are often times

where people are looking at their future with no plan. Another one, maybe it's because there's not a lot of people over 55 in this service, I don't know. But Gen Z adults, maybe this one will hit another nerve for some of us. Gen Z adults, this is in the early 20s, on average carry about $34,000 in debt. That's a lot of money for somebody that's making $15,000 a year. And the reality is it's affecting a whole generation. 26% of households in the highest income bracket carry credit card debt that they don't pay in full every month. So there are a lot of people that make a lot of money but still are stacked under credit card bills. And when they pay that bill, it's a 20% interest. And so much of that money is going just to pay the credit card company, not to deal away with the debt. So this is a problem in our culture. Not to mention all that's happening with inflation. There are financial problems that we feel. I went shopping this weekend for the first time, grocery shopping for the first time in a long time, and I was like blown away the cost of bread from last time I went grocery shopping. It's like I could have bought four loaves of bread last time I went, this time, it's been a while. But the point being that inflation, we're all experiencing it. So what do we do about that?

How do we get back on track with our finances? And I have a few different groups of people in mind today. I have in mind some of you who are strapped financially and you're trying so hard to pay your bills and you feel like there's not enough. I have in mind those of you who are married couples and you have a lot of fights over money. Stacey and I had a season like that where we learned to work through it. I have in mind some of you who have student loans and credit card debts that you're trying to pay off. I have in mind some of you who are young and have your whole future in front of you and you're trying to figure out what do you believe about money and how do you handle money? And then finally, there are some of you that just need a tune-up. Maybe you actually excel in this area and the principles today are gonna help you tune up an area of your life where God can help you grow even more. So today, as we do all of this, we're gonna look at the Bible. I wanna invite you, if you have your notes, to pull them out. And you can also turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 19. And we're gonna look very briefly on the front end at a parable that Jesus gives to his disciples.

He's teaching and he's trying to help them understand the significance, one, of the kingdom of heaven and two, principles of money as God sees it. Now, this is important because you could watch a YouTube video on finance and get a lot of hacks of what to do with your money. But what we need more than hacks is the wisdom, the principles, the truth of God's word for our lives. So we wanna elevate our vision to understand what does God think about your paycheck? What does God think about the bills that keep coming? What does God think about the credit cards payments that show up in the mail over and over again? And how do we get back on track? So Matthew chapter 25. Chapter 25, Jesus is speaking and he says this, again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated like this. It's by the story of a man going on a long trip and he called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags, everybody say five bags, five bags of silver to one and two bags of silver, say two bags, two bags of silver to another and then one bag, let's say it together, one bag of silver to the last, so five bags, two bags and one bag and he says, then he left on his trip and the servant who had received the bag of silver, five of them began to invest them and the money and earned five more and the servant who received

two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more but the servant who received one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money and after a long time, the master returned from his trip and he called them to give an account of how they had used his money. Jesus gives us the master, the one who owns it all and based on the abilities of the five talent, the two talent and the one talent, he distributes his money to them. He goes on a trip and he comes back and when he comes back, they're gonna give an account for what they did with what he had placed in their hands and they all do something different. They all respond in a different way and in these verses, there's so much truth from God's word that can impact the way that we see our finances and the first truth I want us to see, God's truth for my finances, God generously gives as the owner of it all. So you have a view of God that is impacting how you hear this message, you have a view of God that impacts how you respond in a worship service, it impacts how you think about every area of your life but especially when it comes to finance, we've gotta ask the question, what do I think about when I think about God? What's the character of God? And what Jesus is describing is a God, a master who's generous.

He's a God that loves to give. The Bible says that he is a good father, a heavenly father that wants to bless his children. He's generous from his heart to us and as he gives generously, he gives to entrust his servants with what belongs to him so it all is his, it all belongs to him. If I live with the perspective that my money is mine, there's a weight that I carry, there's an anxiety that fills my life when my mindset is this is all mine, I have to figure it all out but when I shift my perspective to what Jesus says, let's look back one more time, verse 14, again, the kingdom can be illustrated by the story of a man on a long trip, he called together his servants and entrusted his money to them. I wanna encourage you, underline both of those, his servants, his money. If that's my perspective, when I shift, I begin to experience God's peace. When I stop seeing money as mine and I start understanding that it's all God's, that he entrusts me with some, it allows me to live with a greater level of peace and there are a lot of moments, again, for me personally, where I lose this perspective and have to get back on track with my mindset to understand, it's God's and it makes me think a lot about my kids. So I have three kids, as you've heard me say

if you've been here, as you know, they're 18, 19, 17 and 12. Well, my oldest two, they don't wanna spend as much time together now and there are like moments where Stacy and I are trying to pull everybody together and they're like, they're trying to make plans with their friends and it's always that they're planning at the last minute and we're like, you wanna hang out? And they're like, no, maybe, I don't know. And if you have teenagers, you know how this goes. So you're trying to make plans and I'm like, let's find a way to hang out. So one of the things I've noticed about my two oldest, the fastest way to get them to commit is to say, would you like to go out to eat for barbecue on dad? And it's almost always a yes. So when we go out, they know they can get the full rack of ribs, they can get the brisket, they can get the first cornbread, the second cornbread, the banana pudding, they can get all of it because dad's paying for it, that's why they know. And there's a different weight that is off of them when they know that it's dad who's in charge, it's all his money that's being spent. And there's a perspective shift when I live understanding that my heavenly father is carrying the weight. He's the one who is able to provide and help and strengthen me, it gives me a kind of peace. But there's also a level of responsibility that comes. with understanding that he entrusts me with some.

So as Psalm 24, one and two says, it says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. So the whole world belongs to God. Every nation belongs to God, every landscape, every mountain, all the seas, every city, ultimately it's God's and he entrusts us with some. So he then expects us to faithfully steward what he gives to us. And it also reminds me of a time earlier when the kids were younger, we used to have like really beat up cars. And oftentimes I would hang out with my friends who had a lot nicer cars. And I remember one time I went and hung out with one of my friends who had a really nice sports car. And so we went and we drove in his sports car and he's like, nice Honda Odyssey, bro. And I'm like, well, at least it's paid off. It's like, I don't know anything on it, but it is nasty. And so there was a moment where my friend who felt really sorry for me driving around in the minivan so much said, hey man, I wanna let you borrow my sports car for a little while, I'm going out of town. And I'm like, okay, sure, I'll borrow it for a little while, that's great. And so when he left, I'd started driving around town

and I'm like super nervous, like everywhere I go, I'm like looking at cars, I'm parking at the back of the parking lot. So there's like no cars by my car. And then there were some moments where I had to take the kids in the car. And I'm like, okay, guys, are your hands cleaned off? Is there anything sticky on your fingers? Do you have any food in your pockets? Okay, don't breathe while you were in the car. Just like, just sit there and just be still because I don't wanna mess this car up. So at the end, I give him the car back. I take it through the car wash. I'm cleaning it on the inside because I wanna give it back to him better than I received it. It's not mine, it belongs to him. So there's a perspective that shifts a stewardship of faithfulness when I live understanding that there's money that God has entrusted. There are possessions that God has given to me that ultimately are his that he calls me to take care of. So that mindset changes when I understand it's his. Now, there are two positive mindsets connected to understanding that money belongs to God. And the first one, I wanna encourage you to write these down is a management mindset. So management mindset is like, hey, I'm gonna take care of what's been given to me.

If I've got $10, I'm gonna spend those $10 wisely. And that is a part, the Bible calls that stewardship. So that's a good thing. But there's also another mindset, not just management. There is a multiplication mindset that says I'm going to grow what God has given to me. So if God has entrusted me with some, I have a responsibility. Now, this is not just your money. This is your time. This is your energy. This is your whole life that God wants you to grow and be fruitful with what he's handed to you. This is also true when it comes to finances. So the invitation from God, as we see in this passage, is to take what he's given to us, to steward it, yes, but also to grow it. So what you have in your hands is not fixed. Actually, God gives us the ability to grow what we've been handed. So if we come back to this passage, notice again, one more time, the five talent man who had five bags of silver, he began to invest the money and he earned five more. And the other servant went to work and earned two more. And the other servant buried the treasure, dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. So the second very important truth is that God not only owns it all, but he expects me to be an investor of his money.

So when God gives to me, God wants a return with what he gives to me. He wants me to invest what he's given to me in assets. Now, there are two types of ways that I can invest, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. But it's significant to recognize not everybody is equally faithful to invest what they've been handed. And what happens with investment is over time, investment grows. And there are two ways that you can invest. One, you can invest in assets here on earth. And I'm gonna tell you both of them, and then I'm gonna talk about it. One, we can invest in assets on earth. And number two, we can invest in assets for eternity. And both of them are good. Like both of them can be a part of God's divine plan for our finances. Now, let me explain with assets. If you're in finance, or you're a business owner, most of us understand the concept of assets. But assets can... It could be a house, it could be a bank account, it could be a car. It's a physical property or asset that has been built or maybe it has been acquired financially. But when I invest in that asset, it has the ability potentially to grow over the course of time.

And I think about it like this. When I was in high school, I remember one time my grandpa, he said to me, Andy, I want you to come over to my house before you go away to college. There's something I wanna give to you. So my dad had kind of set me up for this conversation. And when I get to my grandpa's, he hands me up an envelope and it's a check inside. And my grandpa says, this is just a little check I wanted to give to you, almost like a form of inheritance before you go away to school. So I opened it and it was about the money, amount of money to buy a good computer. And so I was like, ah, maybe I should buy a laptop before I go to school. So I remember having a conversation with my dad about this check my grandpa gave to me. And my dad, when I asked him, dad, what should I do with the money? My dad was like, you should just invest it. And I'm like, invest it in what? And he's like, well, find a Roth IRA and invest it in that. Well, I didn't know if I did that, that meant I couldn't touch it again until I'm 59 1⁄2. At the time, I didn't know, but I did it. So I went and I opened up a Vanguard account at like 18 years old. And I bought with the money my grandpa had given to me,

this account that I could not touch, I still have not touched it. Now today, over 25 years later, after my grandpa gave it to me, it's no longer the amount of a computer, it's the amount of a really nice car. And it's just sat there and multiplied over and over and over and over and over again. So that's the brilliance of the way an investment works. And you and I can live in such a way that we invest here wisely on planet earth, and then we leverage what God has given to us with an eternal perspective. So let me say it like this, I wanna invest in assets on earth with an eye on eternity. So if I buy a home, I wanna ask the question, how do I let God use this home that he's entrusted me with to help meet the needs of people around me? So when Stacey and I bought a home when we moved to Southern California, and we said, God, we commit this home to you, we give it back to you as you've given it to us. And we wanna ask that you would use this earthly asset to bless people. And so there have been thousands of people that have come to our home, like literally hundreds of people that have stayed in our home overnight, friends, family members.

And we said, God, we want you to use this asset to bless people, to help people in need. Now, the same is true about our Lake Forest campus and many other locations that we have that our church's physical buildings that God has given to us as a church family. The Lake Forest at one point was, campus was at one point 100 acre piece of land that our church gave generously to buy a physical piece of property. And now as a result, close to 70,000 people have gotten baptized and God's used a physical piece of property to change people's lives for all eternity. Are you guys tracking with me? So the mindset is how do I live here with earthly assets in a way that impacts eternity? So watch this. Paul says in 1 Timothy 6, tell those who are rich not to be proud and not to put their trust in money, which will soon be gone. But their pride should be in the living God who always richly gives all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given to them. And by doing this, check this out,

by doing this, they will be storing up real treasure for themselves in heaven. It's the only safe investment for eternity and they will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well. So let me explain what Paul is saying, why this is so important. Every time I invest in the kingdom of God, the work of God on planet earth, I'm impacting eternity. So I think about what God has done over the course of our year last year and the thousands of people that made decisions to follow Jesus, but individual families that were impacted for generations to come. I can think of stories of people that came to church last fall and they were about to go through a divorce and they said, because what God is doing here, our marriage is back on track and healed and God used our church to impact kids and grandkids for generations to come. I think about people that were estranged from their parents, came home to their parents and came back to God within the last year. Thousands of salvations, thousands of baptisms and every time I or you invest in the kingdom of God, invest in the work of God, it's an impact on eternity. I'm impacting eternity. So on the other side, there will be so many lives

So I think about what God has done that come up every time you've invested. over the course of our year last year This is also true when you invest in a mission work and the thousands of people that made decisions to follow Jesus, but individual families overseas or serve somebody that is taking the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. It's you investing what God's placed into your hands to make an eternal impact. So I take what God has given me temporally with an eternal perspective to invest it knowing that God can use it beyond what I can do with my own power. This is a great joy when we understand that the thrill of letting God use our hands to build and grow things and then invest in the impact in people's lives. Some of you who are listening to my voice today, you are sitting or seated in a place that is here today because somebody else had an eternal perspective. And I hope today that our hearts can be filled with the gratitude that God invites us to be his investors. And then finally, there's one last part of this that's so significant. As he invites me to invest what he's placed in my hand, he wants me to have a perspective that money ultimately is a tool and I am to leverage it. I'm to leverage money as a tool to do good here on planet earth. And this ties into what we just talked about.

But notice how God gives the master, Jesus gives the master as the one who comes back to the servants with five, two, and one, and he's going to respond to them based upon what they did with what he placed in their hands. So if you notice the first one, it says, the master was full of praise. Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. Now this joy that God describes through his word is the joy that comes with a life that's faithful, a life that takes what God places in our hands and uses it to bless and uses it to serve and uses it as a tool here on planet earth. And the contrary Jesus gives us is this other servant. And the other servant who buries his treasure when the master comes back, notice his perspective. He says, master, I knew you were a harsh man harvesting crops that you didn't plant, gathering crops you didn't cultivate. And I was what, afraid. I was fearful that I would lose your money so I hid it in the earth. Look, here's your money back. So Jesus says this guy out of his fear takes what has been given to him and he buries the talent. And then the master looks back and says to him, you wicked, lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant

or gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest back on it. Jesus is saying that there is a reward for faithfulness and consequence for a life that buries the treasure. So I wanna encourage you to write this down. God rewards those who are faithful with money. God rewards those who are faithful with what he places into their hands. Now when it comes to money, the question becomes, how do I do that? How do I build and cultivate a life of faithfulness? And some of you in our church family have been doing this for decades. And you could stand on this stage and teach exactly what I'm teaching right now. And you will say yes and amen to all these principles from God's word. But there are others that maybe you know it and you're not living in accordance with it. And then there are some of you that these next few moments will be so crucial to give some tools to your tool belt to know how do I actually do this? Well, notice in Proverbs 10, 16, an important component of our perspective on what God gives to us. It says this, the wages of the righteous lead to life and the gain of the wicked to sin. This is a very significant verse in the Bible about money.

And what Solomon is saying is that a dollar, when it comes into the hands of a person, it takes on the character trait of the person whose hands that it's in. And you might've heard this phrase before, money is the root of all evil. And maybe even you've heard somebody say, the Bible says money is the root of all evil. And the truth is the Bible does not say that. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Somebody was telling me after the last service, they were in a small group and they were talking about this verse and the guy said, well, can I just have a little bit of love of money? Because I really like it. And the truth is there is a war in our heart, love for God and love for money. So you cannot love God and love money and serve both of them with the ambition of your life. So money is not evil. And the important component is to ask the question, what happens when a dollar goes into my hand? So the Bible describes four types of people with wealth here on planet Earth. There are people who have a lot and there are people who don't have a lot. And the group that has a lot, sometimes when you see somebody that really financially is doing well, you could misinterpret their financial success

and believe that maybe somehow God is blessing them and they're doing, it must be living right because he's driving a Bentley. Like he's got something working. And the truth is that there are two types of wealthy people. There are righteous rich and there are unrighteous rich. So there are people that have a lot who are faithful and love God and are blessing the world with what God's placed in their hands. And there are some people that have a lot and man, they are stingy, they are nasty, they are selfish and they do not live a righteous life. So if you have a lot, you got to ask the question, which of those two does my life represent? Now there are also those who are righteous and poor. So you can't look at somebody that doesn't have a lot and say, well, because they don't have a lot, God's removed his hand from them. I mean, how about mother Teresa? Like she gave everything that she had to serve the poor and became poor financially as a result, but had eternal riches in heaven because of her faithfulness to God. So there is a righteous poor and an unrighteous poor. And there are some people that live in poverty, but they still love and worship money. So the goal is to live rightly before God with what he places into our hands. Thank God his word tells us what that means. And the first thing we see in God's word

is that the right way or the righteous way to use money is to use money for good. So when a dollar comes into my hands, I can use that dollar for good here on planet earth. I can take money that God places into my hands that comes after I work, and I can use it when I'm standing in line at a coffee shop to buy the person behind me a cup of coffee. I can do good that way. I can use money to bless my kids and serve them in such a way that we go on family vacations and make memories together, and that's a good use of money. I can use money to build up our family's home and create an environment where our children flourish. I can use money to serve a single mom in need. All of that is a good use of money. But I recently saw an example of a 20-year-old kid in our church, young man, who beautifully displayed what you can do with money to show honor to others and bless the heart of God. So EJ, who is 20 years old today, has his birthday today. EJ started a business a couple years ago, selling clothes out of the back of his car because he wanted to make money to help his mom who had cancer. So EJ, as he starts to make this money, is serving his family, but he learns the joy of giving and blessing other people. So EJ happens to be my oldest caveman's good friend, and they were in a small group together.

And EJ and the rest of the small group, they've journeyed together for years. And it just so happened, EJ had come home from college, and they were gonna hang out together, and they ended up hanging out at my house. And that night, EJ kind of comes in a little bit late from everybody else, and he walks in the house with this huge mound of presents like EJ Claus. It's like, it's not Santa Claus. Here is EJ Claus in the house. And he has these presents, and I'm like, okay, they're all presents, the same thing for everybody. Maybe it's like a nice, little, cool, small present. And no, EJ has a unique present for each kid, and he starts passing it out to these young men, and they open them one by one, and they're like, in my living room, going, yeah, yeah! And I want you to see a picture of why they said that. So EJ knows what each of the young men loves, and he got them jerseys. All of them are wearing a jersey of their favorite team, and thank God, no Raiders fans in that group, but he blessed them, and he knew what they loved. He used what God had placed in his hands to bless all of these friends of his. So I just, I love that example of using what God gives us for good. Can we just celebrate EJ? Just an awesome story. The other part of using money for good,

there's a righteous principle at play in Proverbs 21.5 that helps us see that good planning and hard work leads to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts leads to poverty. Good planning plus hard work leads to prosperity. And it so goes that. Money comes from work. Money, my dad used to say, money does not grow on trees. And the truth is, a lot of people look to someone else to provide them money as though it's their job. It's not the government's job to provide money for every person, and it's not the government's job to provide money for people. That is what happens oftentimes when we look at ourselves and we're like, man, we struggle. Somebody else should take care of us. And the truth is, especially for men, God gives us the responsibility to work hard for our family and to provide an income with his help to work hard and plan. So we wanna develop a mindset that money comes from work. We used to say this to our kids when they were young. Money comes from work. Sometimes money works, but money comes from, ultimately, the origination is from God, and then he uses work to distribute it. In addition to that, Solomon is saying, you should have a money plan. You should have a plan of what you're going to do with that money. So if you've been around our church for a long time,

if you've been a part of this family for decades, you know the 10-10-80 plan. How many of you have heard of the 10-10-80 plan before? So I love this concept, and it's not in the Bible, but it's a principle-based concept for a plan of what do you do with $100 or 100% of what comes into your hands, 10-10-80 plan. And I wanna break it down. So I've got some cash that somebody got me. I said, can you give me $100 on your way to church and give it to me, and then I'll try to give it back to you after church today. So I have 10-10s right here, and these 10-10s represent all the money that comes through, 100%. And if I look at this money and I say, okay, there's the Netflix bill, and then playoff time for football, there's the YouTube TV bill, and then there's the In-N-Out burger bill, and then there's the house bill. And if I just keep going, eventually I get to a place where it's all gone, and what the Bible teaches us is that actually money works out of priority and order, and the first of what God gives to me, the first I give back to Him as a tithe. So the first 10% of my income goes back to God, and this is a biblical principle. It shows up in the Bible that word tithe means the first 10, and the question becomes why. Like, why do I tithe? I had a father growing up as a kid that modeled this for me,

so I never lived my life not having an example financially of somebody ahead of me to show me how to do this, but we would sit in church and he would, every week, he'd write his check, and he would give it back to God as a tithe back to God. Now, in Deuteronomy 14, 23, it says the reason why the purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your life. So when I take the first 10th of what God entrusts to me and I give it back to God, what I'm telling my soul is that it all came from God, and I rely upon God to provide for every need that I have. Well, Malachi also describes that this is an invitation from God to blessing, and I have seen this in my own life and in the lives of thousands of people throughout the last 25 years of ministry that when we put God first, there's a blessing. So Malachi 3.10 says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, which is the local church, and it says that there might be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I don't throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. This is an invitation from God to trust Him first. Now, I wanna say a couple things here. First of all, I want you to know this is not about what I or we want from you, it's about what we want for you. And I believe that when you trust God first, you experience blessing as a result.

I also know that there are some of you that are strapped, and there are some of you that deep within your soul, and I believe this to be the case, for most followers of Jesus who are not living generously, the primary problem is not that they're stingy, the problem is that they're strapped. And so what do you do when you're strapped? Like everything, your bills are more than the amount of money that you can bring in. My encouragement to you, if that's you, to get on the journey of trusting God at a deeper level, and just start. Pick a percentage and go. Like pick a percentage and start trusting God, and watch God bless you as you trust in Him more and more. Now, in our family, every time a paycheck comes in, the first thing that we give, we give back to God. And so in that decision is to say, okay, God, I'm gonna trust you at this level, and over time, watch Him bless you. Now, I'm gonna also talk about, if you're in that position, how do you get out of that position? Because I think we also need a plan to move away from that, to live with freedom in our finances. So the second is to save. So the first 10, I give, the second 10, I save. And I put it back for the future. It might be for a need, it might be for something ahead of me,

but I'm saving it into the future and not spending all that comes through. Now, Proverbs 21 says this, verse 20, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours all that he has. And I just have this image that Solomon is like, there's a guy and everything that comes into his hands, he's like, and he eats it all and it's all gone. And that's the way a lot of people live their lives. They devour all that they have. So we want to learn and ask the question, how do I reduce my expenses to live below my means so that I'm not always strapped? But that also requires a plan for that last 80% to spend. So that's where like the house bill and the electric bill and the water bill and the bread and all the chicken for the kids and all the barbecue, all that comes into play. And that's a part of life. Like if you have a family, there are expenses and your investment in your family is also an investment in eternal things. Like those kids are gonna last for eternity and you want them to know the heart of God. So you're serving them with your provision for your family. That 80% does matter. And there are some times in life where we get to a place where we're strapped and we don't know what to do. And what I hope for you today,

I want you to look me in the eyes at all of our campuses. What I hope for you today is that you can lift your head, that you don't walk out in shame or guilt, and that you hear from God a sense of hope that there's a way forward for you. Stacey and I were in that place in the first few years of our marriage. We were broke. We struggled paycheck to paycheck. I was going to grad school. We had student loans. I was starting a church from scratch with her help, but I was the one getting paid. And it was not enough money. She was teaching and all of this had combined and she got pregnant with Cayden, our oldest. And we wanted her to stay at home and not continue to work as a teacher. And there was one day, I was walking through the halls of the church where they had an office they were letting our little fledgling church plant office out of. And I was walking through the hallway and the guy that was on staff who I knew who had kind of given us the office saw me and he's like, dude, you look messed up today. What's wrong with you? And I'm like, bro, my wife's pregnant and we're struggling financially. And I just like, I don't know what to do.

And he goes, you need to go to financial peace. It's $100. I'm like, bro, I just told you I'm broke. I can't pay $100. And he's like, I'll pay for it. I'll pay for it for you. And this guy, I still think about, he was on staff at Saddleback for a while, a guy named Clayton Coates. He said, I'll take care of it. So Stacy and I started going to this financial peace, which is a 12 week course slash small group where you get a plan. You talk through how do you budget your money? What do you do with it? How do you get rid of debt if you have it? He gives this idea of a debt snowball and it's the Dave Ramsey course. And I'm telling you, it changed our life. Like if I look back on our journey of marriage, that was a shift in our marriage that if we had not gone through that course at that time, I think we would have continued to struggle in our marriage with finances. And I say all that to say I'm very, very excited about the fact that at all of our campuses, when we roll out our small groups this semester, we're gonna be rolling out financial peace at every one of our campuses. And it is a great opportunity.

Now here, it's not 100 bucks. So get that out of your mind. Maybe you're holding on, I can't do it, man. Well, we don't want that to be a barrier. So if that's a barrier, let us know. We will help. And really, it is one of the greatest opportunities to step into community, learn and grow. And I want you to hear just a couple of stories of people who have taken that step and one leader who leads the financial peace group and let them share their story of how God's used that in their life. Let's watch together. I've been with the financial freedom ministry for about three years. I started learning about financial peace university through myself, just trying to get out of debt. I had been through a divorce, had a lot of debt and attended my first financial peace class and it started to change my life. People are coming in that are unemployed in mounds of debt, don't know how to budget, have never gotten insurance before. They're leaving with a more positive impact. act on their life from taking the class. They're changing their lifestyles, changing their being less stressed about money. So you see God working, doing his miracles, making changes in people's lives.

I had 13 credit cards that were maxed out. Now I have no credit cards that are maxed out. And my daughter too, she had a car debt, she had a credit card debt, and she had huge student loan debt. And in October of 2025, as my daughter hit the last pay student loan, my, I'm gonna cry, my daughter shouted out, mom, I'm debt free. And it was just so exciting to see that my commitment and my diligence to pay off my own debt was able to, like my daughter took it as a spend, and she was able to also pay off her own debt. Don't feel embarrassed about what you're going through. You just need a plan, a system, to help you get out of that. We could get all to like how to do a budget, debt, insurance planning, retirement planning, but like in the end, we wanna leave a legacy. Our ultimate goal is generosity, giving to impact other people, to change the world around us. I always get to learn something new every time I still teach the class, because I'm in a different stage of my life that it may not have rung a bell 10 years ago, but it rings a bell now. You will see God working, doing his work. And that's the most rewarding part in this ministry. I'd love to invite you guys

to the Financial Peace University that's starting up in February. Just come, because all the leaders are gonna welcome you. You'll get to meet some new people that you'll see around campus now, and so you'll like build friends. It's about walking into the room and knowing that you are on your way to financial peace and building relationships with others that truly understand where you are. What gets me so excited is the thing about literally thousands of families from our church that could have that exact same experience. This next 12 weeks is one of the greatest opportunities to get on track through our small groups with Financial Peace University. So I wanna share with you very briefly how you can be a part of that, how you can get into one of those small groups. If you'll pull out your phone, and if you will text to 83,000, text FPU to 83,000, you'll get a link that will come directly to your phone. And when that link comes to your phone, there's gonna be a short form that looks like this. So this is not you signing up for the rest of your life. This is not even you signing up for the group. This is you just saying, I'm interested in being a part of a financial peace group. Now you'll see when you go there,

not only is there an opportunity to be a part of a group, but there's an opportunity to lead a group. Maybe you see a lot of fruit in this area, and God's blessed you, and you can lead a group. We'd love to invite you to be a part of that team that leads out. Let's keep that up for just another moment. And then the other thing you're gonna see there is there's below that the opportunity to say, I wanna lead a group, but maybe not a financial peace small group. Now, as you're looking at this for just a moment, there are some of you that are thinking, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna think about it later. No, you won't. You will forget about it and you won't do it. You'll be watching football and your team will lose because you didn't obey God in church today and sign up for financial peace. So I wanna just ask you to do it now, just to text to 83,000FPU. Take that step to sign up, to say I'm interested, and that will be a moment that God will use powerfully. And I just think about God's journey that he took us on of how our lives were changed as a result. Those 12 weeks, you walk out with a plan, you walk out with direction, with common language. If you're married, it changes the game. That step can make generational impact in your life.

Now, I have one last blank because I don't want everybody shaking on their way home. But in your notes, the last point I wanna make today is that righteous living with money is to trust God over money. It's to trust God over the wealth of this world. And as we conclude our time together today, I wanna read this proverb over you. It says, trust in your money and down you go, but the godly will flourish like leaves in the spring. And it doesn't say anything about the amount of money you make in that verse. It says about trusting in God and flourishing in every season. So when you have a lot and when you have a little, you can live in such a way that you flourish if your trust is in God. And I wanna ask you right now in this moment to put your trust in Kim, especially with your finances. You could do that by. writing a prayer request on the back of that prayer card that you have, but also just very simply just acknowledging your trust in God. So I want to invite you, if you will, to close your eyes and bow your head for a moment. And some of you, as you do, your trusting in God today needs to be for the forgiveness of your sin. And just to say, God, I need your mercy in my life, the forgiveness of my sin. Jesus died on a cross and rose again from the dead

so that you can have the gift of eternal life, and today you can put your trust in Him. If that's you, just tell Him, I want to put my trust in you in this moment. And there are some of you right now that that decision, as you trust in Him, you right now sense God drawing you to Himself, and you can make that decision right now. And there are others of you right now with your head bowed and your eyes closed, there are some of you today that are recognizing you want to put this area of your life into God's hands. You say, I want to put my trust in God over money. And right now, just tell Him, God, I put this area of my life into your hands today. Just tell Him from the bottom of your heart, God, I'm choosing to trust in you. And I want to ask right now, Holy Spirit, that you would lift the vision of every person listening to my voice. Lift our soul today that we might walk out with a countenance of hope and joy, knowing that there is a way forward. God, thank you that you're with us and for us. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen, amen. Well, I hope that you are feeling encouraged today by that message. You know, we are going through this Back on Track series because we believe that God wants to offer

each one of us hope, whether it's in our finances or in our health or in our relationships. We know that God is good. And in the Bible, He shows us that we can trust Him with all areas of our lives. And in just a moment, we're gonna continue to worship through song. And as we do that, we want to invite you to respond to this message in two ways. The first way is by letting us know how we can be praying for you. We want to let you know that you can fill out a prayer card through the Saddleback app, and that's gonna be an opportunity where we, as a church family, are gonna take those prayer requests and pray over them during 21 days of prayer. And also, the second way that you can respond today is by giving your tithes and your offerings. If you call Saddleback Church your home and you want to trust God with the first 10% of what you earn, that tithe, that first 10%, as Pastor Andy was talking about today, we want to encourage you to do so through the Saddleback app as well. Or you can text the word GIVE to 83000 or scan the QR code that you see on the screen. But as we worship together, we want to encourage you to respond, to respond to what the Lord might be putting

on your heart in this moment. So let's worship. ♪ I love You, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, Your mercy never fails me ♪ ♪ All my days I've been held in Your hands ♪ ♪ From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ All my life You have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ So good with every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ When my life laid down, I'm surrendered now ♪ ♪ I give You everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me, oh ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me, oh ♪ ♪ All my life Your goodness is running after, it's running after me ♪ ♪ When my life laid down, I'm surrendered now ♪ ♪ I give You everything, oh ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running after, it's running after me, oh ♪ If he's been good and faithful, let's declare these words today. Of the goodness of God, I'm gonna sing All my life you have been faithful, yes you have Lord All my life you have been so, so good With every breath that I am able, oh I will sing Of the goodness of God, oh I will sing Of the goodness of God Well, church family, thank you for joining us for worship today. And hey, before you go, we want to remind you, if you want to join a Financial Peace University small group,

or maybe another small group, our spring semester of small groups is kicking off February 7th. And so we want to invite you to learn more, find a group, or maybe God is calling you to lead a group in this semester and in this season. You can do that and find out more information through the Saddleback app. And through the app, you can also take another next step, whether it's getting baptized, attending Activate, or letting us know how we can be praying for you. We love you so much and we hope that you join us again next week as we continue this Back on Track series. Back on Track