Last week we looked at a passage where the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Timothy a new pastor and Paul said to Timothy, “Command all those who are rich in this present world . . .” (1 Timothy 7:17) and we camped out on the idea that rich is a moving target.

We said that you’ve never open a paycheck at 3:00 on Friday afternoon and have it say, “You’re rich!” That will never happen, because rich is a moving target. And so people who are rich never know that they are rich, so they keep trying to get rich, and never get good at being rich.

We said that a poll was taken to determine what rich was and people who made less than $30,000 said that if they made $74,000 a year or more, then they would be rich, but if you asked people who made $74,000 a year or more they would tell you that they are not rich. People who made $50,000-$75,000 a year said that if they could make $200,000 a year that they would be rich, but the pollster asked people who made $200,000 a year if they considered themselves rich and they said “No”, and then they pointed at people who made $500,000 and said “They’re rich!” And on it went. Rich, they determined, was a moving target.

So, we said that if being rich is a moving target and people never really consider themselves rich, then they would never learn how to honor God with their wealth.  Lastly, we said that if you make $37,000 or more then you are in the top 4 percent of all wage earners in the world and if you make $45,000 or more that you are in the top 1 percent of all wage earners in the world. We said last week that many of us in this room are rich because we are in the top wage earners in the world, but here’s the deal. We don’t feel rich, and since we don’t feel rich, we don’t think that we’re rich, so we keep trying to get rich and never begin to act rich.

Here’s the question we left you with last week. If you make $37,000 a year or more, you are rich. I am rich. But here’s the question, “Why don’t we feel rich?” Why don’t you feel rich?

I mean, how many of you would say that you occasionally or maybe even often have financial stress in your lives? Would you raise your hands if that’s true for you? I want you to look around and see how normal this is. This is what the world calls normal. In our culture, financial stress is completely normal. Living paycheck to paycheck in our culture is completely normal. Having monthly payments normal – debt normal, worry, anxiety, fear around money – especially in a slowed economy is normal. Having financial fights if you’re married, is very, very normal in our culture.

Sadly, in our culture, having little or no margin is normal. The reason I don’t like normal finances in America is because normal is not working. Normal doesn’t give us that (Vision Banner: Heaven on Earth).

Financial margin is the amount available beyond what is necessary. Margin is the amount available beyond what is necessary. Financial margin is a simple math problem. It’s the difference between what we have versus what we need. So let’s put it into real numbers. If I make $500 a week and my bills are $400, then I have $100 margin for that week. If you earn $3000 a month and you spend $3000 a month, then you have how much margin? Zero, Zip, Natta!

If you are like the average American in recent years, you spent more than you earned – so you have negative margin. You have debt. Most Americans think its normal to have large amounts of debt. Here’s the deal. You and I make more than most of the people in the world and for most of us that’s not enough. Instead we go into debt so that we can have more. It’s a sickness. Debt is not God’s way.

Ok, so let’s back up. What does financial margin look like in our every day lives? It is having money left over at the end of the month. It’s possible and it’s a good thing! It’s having money available to help someone who’s in need. It’s having money to give that doesn’t create financial stress, and when we are able to give out of love, it gives us great joy. Margin could provide the opportunity to do something that you enjoy.

Financial margin is necessary in order to provide freedom. It is necessary to experience peace and joy and love in our lives. Financial margin is necessary to eliminate worry and fear from our finances and to give us financial freedom to live joy filled, generous lives. There is no good that happens when there is no financial margin. Most good things happen in the margin of our lives.

But here’s the deal. Financial margin is something that most people in America do not have, and apart from financial margin, it’s very difficult for most people to experience God’s best for them.

Here’s the primary Proverb that we’re going to be focusing on today. In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil – there is more than enough, but a foolish person devours all they have. Proverbs 21:20 (NIV)

In the house of the wise, there’s margin. In the house of the wise, there’s more than enough. We could say that a foolish person lives pay check to paycheck. Foolish people use up all that they have.

Notice what the verse does not say. It does not say, “In the house of the wealthy there is margin.” It says in the house of the wise. The Bible does not say, “In the home of a two income family, there is more than enough.” The Bible says in the house of the wise there is more than enough.

There is a wise way to manage the money that God has entrusted to us and there is a foolish way to manage the money that God entrusts to us.

Look at the words of Paul to Timothy. But godliness with contentment is great gain. What kind of gain is it? This is not just a get-by sort of gain. I can hear the passion in Paul’s voice as he says this “It is Great Gain! It’s a big win! It’s a big W in the stats column! When there’s godliness and contentment it’s BIG! It’s great gain! For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

There are those families who look like they’re doing well but they’re really not. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NIV)

What are some of the many griefs that we see today? We see debt causing tremendous grief. We see financial pressure causing tremendous grief. We see people losing their homes because of foreclosure causing tremendous grief. We see mothers going back to work when they really want to stay home with their kids and it causes tremendous grief. We see financial tension in marriages causing tremendous grief. We see kids with great burdens on their shoulders because they feel the grief and tension of their parents caused by debt and poorly managed money. We see kids with deep grief because their parents are off chasing illusionary rainbows and pots of gold instead of spending time with them. We see people who cannot enjoy the blessings that they have because they are always worried about money.

So why do we live without margin? What’s the problem? Why is it that so many of us trade all the good things that come from living with margin with all the things that fill our homes and our garages and our barns?

Our culture is convincing us of a lie. Our culture is using this definition of happiness,

More than I currently have

If you had just a little more, then you’d be happy. Our culture tells us, you deserve it and if you can’t afford it, then make payments. Get it now because it’s going to make you happy. Don’t wait, you can have it today. Just do it.

We have 20 somethings trying to live at the same level as their parents. They want to live at the same lifestyle level that their parents live at, but it took their parents 20-30 years to get there. But they think they need it now. Why? Because if I have this stuff then I’ll be happy.

The crazy thing is, many of you are more blessed than you ever thought possible and yet you’re more miserable then you ever dreamed you could be. What’s happened? In our culture, most of us have lifestyled our way straight past margin. It’s not an income problem. Most of you would say “If I made a little more money, then . . .” but it is not an income problem, it is a lifestyle problem. As your income went up, your lifestyle trailed.

If we go all the way to the roots of the problem it’s not a lifestyle problem, it’s a spiritual problem. Matthew 6:19-21

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. The very thing that most of us do, Jesus says, “Don’t do that, because that will never make you happy, it will never fill you with joy, it will never give you great peace – don’t do that!” But instead store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where your money goes, there your heart follows. So what do we do? 98 percent of our money goes toward the world on average in the U.S, and we wonder why we want more of the world? 2 percent of our money goes toward God and his mission and we wonder why we are so dissatisfied with God. It’s because where are money goes, there are heart follows. Instead of honoring God with our money, instead of acknowledging God with our money we acknowledge ourselves.

But let’s just say that we want financial margin and we want to be generous, but we don’t know how. I think that happens all the time. There are two obvious answers to the question, “How do I create financial margin? The first one is to make more and the second one is to spend less. The average American income is $48,000 a year.

If you are average, that puts you in the top 1 percent of all the wage earners in the world. If you make $37,000 a year or more, that puts you in the top 4 percent of all wage earners in the world. You can ask God for more and he might help you make more money, but there’s a good chance that God’s going to say, “You already have more money than the rest of the world, so the answer’s ‘NO’”.

So the obvious answer to the question, “How do I gain financial margin?” is answered by spending less.

Now the response that most of us will come up with is, “well, that might be ok with you, because you’re rich, but if you only knew how tight things are at my house, and if you saw how big my payments are and if you could see the stingy numbers on my paycheck, then you’d know there is no way to create financial margin in my finances.

So what does this look like? First, all the principles that we talked about two weeks ago apply. We talked about a whole bunch of parables that provide wise thoughts about how to think about our finances. All of those are true and each one will help you with your finances once you get back on the field of play, but for many of you, you’re so far in the hole right now that you’re up to your chin in debt and you feel so much pressure and anxiety over your finances that you can’t even breath. So this morning I’d like to lay out a plan that has been laid out by many financial planners. Here’s how it goes.

First, Pray. Pray and tell God why you want to get out of debt. Confess how you’ve mismanaged his money and ask for his power and the presence of his Spirit to empower you to be content and to seek him first above all other things. Pray his wisdom and his truth to fill your heart and mind, so that you might do his will and experience his blessings. First, before you do anything else, pray. You cannot get financial margin apart from God.

Second, make a commitment that you’re not going to take on any more debt. I suggest cutting up your credit cards if you can’t pay the whole card off every month. If you can’t pay it off, do plastic surgery. Any pair of scissors will do and cut the card up.

Third, List all your assets on a piece of paper. List all your cars, your house if you have one, maybe motorcycles or snowmobiles, or ATV’s. You’re listing all your assets because you may need to sell one or more of these assets to find financial margin, to find financial freedom, and to begin to live as though you’re rich.

Fourth, list all your debts on a piece of paper. List the company or person  that your debt is from, the length of the loan, and the interest rate being paid. You might have debts from credit cards, rent to own companies, car loans, doctors, dentists, or hospitals, house loans, vacations, boats, snowmobiles, etc. List them all out

Next look for the shortest loan and the biggest interest rate and commit to pay those off first.

The way to get money to pay these loans off is by sacrifice. It might mean that you have to go without coffee, or beer, or pop, or cigarettes. It might mean that you don’t buy any new cloths for a while or that you shop at Goodwill more. It might mean that you don’t go out to eat for a while or that you cut back from eating out three times a week to once a week. It might mean stopping your cable TV, or your internet or your cell phone service for a time. These are not needs . . . they are all wants. Getting into debt is always easy, but getting out requires sacrifice.

Remember, The borrower is the slave of the lender. Proverbs 22:7 (NRSV)

In order to feel rich, we have to have financial margin. We have to have money left over after we pay our bills. In order to get financial freedom we have to cut the chains of our debtors so that we are no longer their slave.

To be in debt is oppressive. Debt is a heavy weight that crushes people and robs them of their peace and joy. Debt is like a parasite that sucks the life out of people. Debt is never looked upon favorably in the Bible, so do everything you can to get out of debt and quickly. It takes sacrifice now, but it offers freedom later. Remember, we’re talking about margin. Everything good happens in the margins. Margin is the difference between what we owe and what we make.

Next step for creating margin out of debt is to pay off the smallest debt or the largest interest debt first. Take the $10 or $20 or $50 that you’ve created by sacrificing – let’s just say it’s $20 and add that money to your monthly payment for that smallest load or the largest interest rate loan. Do that until you pay off the debt.

Then take the $20 that you created by sacrificing And the money that you were paying toward the first debt and put that money all towards the second debt until the debt is gone. Then take that money and apply it toward the next debt and so on until you’re completely out of debt.

Sound simple? It’s not. It’s hard work, but it really worth it, because little by little you’re creating financial margin, your creating less financial stress, and little by little you begin to think about your finances in more positive ways. But we’re not done yet.

If you’re going to have a loan, probably the best loan that you can have is your house payment. Once you’ve paid off all the other debts, you roll all the money you were spending on loans and you begin to save for the very first time. At this stage you’re about to begin creating financial margin.

70 percent of all car buyers finance their cars. What’s amazing to me is that the average time that a person will drive their car is 4 years. The average age of a car is more than 10 years. Imagine what would happen if you paid off your car and put the same amount into an account for three or 4 years, then you could pay for your car with cash. Then if you kept the car up, you could keep making your payments to yourself and putting it in the bank every month. That’s how you create margin.

Once you have all your payments paid off, take the money that you were paying towards your debts and put a couple of thousand dollars in the bank and mark it an emergency fund, so when you transmission goes out in your car it’s not a national disaster, instead, it’s ok because you prepared for the things that you couldn’t plan for.

Once you have an emergency plan, then you go on to a savings plan and once you have that, you begin to have margin.

In order to get that point, we have to sacrifice. We have to spend less than we make. When we get margin, then we