 Amen. So keep your place in 2 Kings chapter 12. We'll be coming back to that story in a few minutes. So this morning we're going to have another sermon in the series of How Things Work. And this morning we're going to talk about how money works. How money works is the name of the sermon, the title of the sermon this morning. So on Wednesday night we talked about New Year's Resolutions. And I kind of skipped over. I gave you the most common New Year's resolutions in the country amongst the population today. Number one, of course, was getting healthy and having a better diet, losing some weight. Number two, I kind of skipped over. But number two, if you remember, 44%. So 50% of the people in the country wanted to lose weight, get healthier. But a very close second to that was 44% of people wanted to save more money. They wanted to save more money than they did in 2021, meaning they weren't very good at managing their money. So let's look at this this morning. What we're going to do is we're going to look at this, of course, from a biblical perspective. The Bible doesn't talk a whole lot about the topic of money itself, but I'm going to show you that actually it does when we connect it to what money actually is. So the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to look at what money is. This is not a sermon on the Federal Reserve. So if you're excited about that, I'm sorry, I can see some heads go, oh, but we'll talk about it. We'll have a separate sermon on that. That's not money, by the way. But anyway, so we're going to talk about what money actually is. And then we'll talk about should we be concerned about it? Should we be concerned about money? What does the Bible say about money? How should we feel about it? And then finally, once we know those things and we know the biblical perspective, we'll look at some philosophies. I'll give you a philosophy on how we should manage it. And that way, maybe if you were one of those 44%, hopefully in 2022 when we're celebrating New Year's, that will not be one of your resolutions for 2023. So first of all, let's look at what the Bible said. Let's look at the definition of money. What is actual money? When you think about money and the kids are probably hearing this, you think about bills and coins and basically things that you go and you spend things, you buy things with. So I'm going to give you an example of what money is this morning. I have some pens here. And I'm going to explain to you what money actually is. Basically, what money does and the reason that we have money is it increases the productivity or the efficiency of exchange. So let's say we didn't have money. So kids, let's say there was no such thing as money. And I was a person and I made pens for a living. So I make pens. And I have a lot of pens. So you can see I have several pens here because I make pens. However, I need shirts. I need shirts to wear. And Brother Matt, I'm lucky, he makes shirts. So I go to Brother Matt and I need a shirt because I make pens and I have a lot of pens. And I go to Brother Matt and I say, Brother Matt, I was like, I have a pen. Would you like a pen? I need a shirt. And he says, no, I have enough pens. He's like, you gave me some pens last week. And I said, well, I need a shirt. Now all I have is pens. And he says, well, you know, no deal. So now I have all these pens and I still need a shirt. I'm walking around with no shirt on. And I need a shirt. So I go to Brother Trevor and I say, Brother Trevor, I have all these pens. You know, I have all these pens. What do you have? And Brother Trevor says, well, what do you think Brother Trevor is going to say? Brother Trevor is going to say, well, you know, I actually need a pen. I actually need a pen. And I was like, okay, what do you have? What could you trade me for a pen? He's like, well, I got a bunch of cows. And I'm like, perfect. And I go to Brother Matt and I go to Brother Matt and I was like, do you need a cow? And Brother Matt says, yeah, I could use a cow. Yes. So I've done it. Now I go to Brother Trevor and I say, Brother Trevor, I will give you this pen for one cow. And Brother Trevor says, yeah, no deal. But then I figure out, well, this is how we come up with the price of things, by the way. But the point is, I have now made a connection where Brother Trevor needs a pen. Brother Matt has a shirt that I want. So I give Brother Trevor some amount of pens to get a cow. And then I give the cow to Brother Matt for a shirt. Okay. So I have to make all these connections. This is why we have money, because it increases the productivity of exchange. Now of course, if I went to Brother Trevor and I said, I'll give you one pen for one cow, he would laugh in my face. Because one pen is obviously worth much less than one cow. Turn to Proverbs chapter 14. This is how we come up with this idea. So we see that money is, it increases, we don't have to barter for things. It increases the productivity of exchange. Okay. Now turn to Proverbs chapter 14. Now why, why is Brother Trevor's cow worth much more than my pen? Brother Trevor's cow is worth much more than my pen because of Proverbs chapter 14. Look at verse number 23. The Bible says, in all labor there is profit. But the talk of the lips tendeth only to penery. Penery means poverty. So what this is saying is that in all labor there is profit. But guess what? If there's more labor, there's more profit. So price and what, what something is worth is dependent on how much labor goes into creating or maintaining or raising that product. Okay. So obviously raising a cow takes a lot more time, a lot more labor than, you know, making a simple pen. So that's how we get the price of things. Okay. So it can, it can rightly, biblically be said that labor is directly proportional to money. Does that make sense? Now we have a Bible connection. Now we see that, that money is used to exchange things, to increase the efficiency of exchange and how much money something costs is directly proportional to the amount of labor that it takes to create that thing. Okay. Now we have a Bible connection now. Labor and money are directly related. Okay. Now let's look at what the Bible says about this. Let's begin with labor. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. So we see if something takes more labor, it will generally, it has more profit, meaning it will go for more money. That's how we get the price of things. That's how brother Matt would price his shirt. That's how I would price my pen. And that's how brother Trevor would price his cow. And then that, of course, we now have money that can tell us how much something should be priced. Okay. Look at Exodus chapter 20. Labor is directly proportional to money. You could say, you know, labor equals money in that sense. Look at Exodus chapter 20. Right away in the Bible, in the, in the Ten Commandments, the Bible says, or not in the Ten Commandments, I'm sorry, in Exodus 20, the Bible says, six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. So the Bible here is saying that you are to work. There's seven days in a week is saying six days out of those seven, you are supposed to labor. So this must, look, this must mean that labor is pretty important. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter nine. We could go to a lot of Bible talking about labor this morning. I'll just show you a few more verses to kind of get the point across. But labor is something that the Bible talks a lot about. You are supposed to labor six out of the seven days of your life, the Bible says. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter nine. And here's how you're supposed to do it. Ecclesiastes chapter nine. Look at verse number 10. Six days shalt thou labor. Look at Ecclesiastes nine, ten. whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. So that means when you're laboring those six days, you're supposed to be laboring with your might those six days. You're supposed to be working hard, laboring hard those six days. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest. It's saying, so hey, those six days, you're supposed to work hard those six days. Six out of seven days. Now go to 1 Timothy chapter five. So labor is important. The Lord tells us to labor. And you're going to see why in 1 Timothy chapter five. Look at 1 Timothy chapter five and verse number 18. 1 Timothy chapter five and verse number 18. Well again, we'll see the connection between labor and money right here. Look at 1 Timothy chapter five and verse 18. For the scriptures say it, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. This is just, I mean just take, we know the larger context of this, but just take that last phrase and it's saying there, look, a laborer, someone that labors, this is what it's saying, is going to get money, or is going to get a reward. Look, you are going to be paid for your labor. So it's not that you just go and you labor six days out of the week and you just labor with all your might for no reason, you labor and someone is going to pay you for that. You are going to get money for that. And look back, it makes perfect sense because look back at 1 Timothy chapter five. Look at verse number eight. The Bible says, but if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the face faith and is worse than an infidel. So look, you provide for your own by laboring, by working, and then you receive money. Look, laboring hard six days, here's the bottom line I'm trying to get you to understand, laboring six days a week with all your might will give you money to provide for your own. That's what that will do. Okay, that is just something that is going to happen to you. If you follow the Bible and you labor six days a week and with all your might, someone is going to pay you something for that. Okay, you see, you see, you say, okay, this is pretty basic. Like this is pretty basic. Well then, why is it the second most common New Year's resolution with 44% of the population saying that they have no money basically is what they're saying. Okay, so stay with me here. Okay, stay with me. Look, if we follow God's direction, we will be able to obtain money. That is all I am trying to say. Okay, notice how I didn't say that if you follow God's direction in labor, you will always have money. I said if you follow God's direction, you labor six days a week with all your might, you will be able to obtain money. You will be able to obtain money. Now turn to Proverbs chapter 10. Look, it will visit you. Money will visit you. Look at Proverbs 10 and verse number four. Proverbs 10 and verse number four. It doesn't say that it will stay with you. It will come to you at some point though. Look at Proverbs 10 and verse number four. The Bible says, He becomeeth poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. Diligence is persistence over time. If you go week in and week out and work six days a week, all your might and you do it again and again and again and again. The Bible says, you will obtain money. You will get money for that. But then there's all these people and there's a lot of people like this. Now here's the disconnect right here. There's a lot of people out there and the 44% are those people where they say, you know what, I work hard. I work hard. Week in and week out and broke. I have no money. Why? Why? Now turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So that is the disconnect. We see step one. Money increases the productivity of exchange. We know what it is. If you work hard and follow the Bible's direction on labor, you will end up with this stuff coming your way. Okay? Guaranteed. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 58. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse number 58. The Bible reads, the Bible reads, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So notice here how the Bible is talking about labor, but is talking about laboring being in vain, meaning it's wasted. Meaning your labor, you know, look, you could literally be working towards the wrong things in your life. Now turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse number 9 or look at the front of your bulletin. This is where getting rich comes in. So we couldn't really have a good biblical sermon on money if we didn't address the idea of getting rich. Okay? Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 in verse number 9. So before I give you the really seriously practical advice on money, we first need to address the idea of getting rich or the idea of being rich in the Bible. Now look, look, I get it. Rich is a relative thing. You are all rich compared to anybody that's lived throughout history, compared to 99.9% of anybody that's ever lived on the face of this earth. Every single person in this room is rich, meaning the products, the services that you enjoy, the lifestyle that you have, the standard of living that you enjoy in this country, you are rich. However, we first must, so it's a concept, this idea of rich. I'm not talking about a dollar figure. I'm talking about a concept and you must not miss this concept for us to move on in this sermon. Look, 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 9 says this, but they that will be, now you need to understand those two words right there, underline those in your Bible, that they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. And of any foolish and hurtful us, which drown men in production and destruction and perdition, that doesn't talk about people that are going to be rich. That's talking about people that are willing to be rich, meaning they want to be rich. That could just as well be said this way. But those that want to be rich, that's what that statement means. 4 and then verse 10, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So look, this is the key right here. We always have to remember this. You need to have this mindset right here. While you should work hard, you do need money in your life. You are going to need money to live. You are going to need money to, for 1 Timothy 5, 8 to provide for your family. Look, and if you work hard, if you labor six days a week, if you work with all your might, the Bible says you will end up with money. But you are not to labor just for the money itself. You are not to labor, look for the money itself. Those, and let me just take a sidetrack right here, and I mean this is, this is a, laboring to be rich, folks, is a fool's errand. I'm going to show you from the Bible. I'm going to show you how stupid it is to will to be rich, to want to be rich. It's a double-edged sword because it's something where if you right now don't, I've met so many people that are like, oh, you know, I just want to get rich, and then I'm going to do all these great things. No, you already have the disease. If your goal is to be rich, you will never do any of those things because you already have that disease. Here's the double-edged sword, and here's why wanting to be rich is a fool's errand. Turn to Ecclesiastes 5. Let me just tell you how stupid it is. Let's look at it. Somebody who wants to be rich. Let's look at a person that wants to be rich. Look, I mean, there's really only two outcomes, right? They're either going to succeed or they're not going to succeed. So let's look at somebody who wants to be rich, and look, some people that want to be rich, they get rich, especially in this country. So it's possible to want to be rich, to will be rich, and then actually succeed. Many people do that. Look at Ecclesiastes 5. Look at verse number 10. But here's why it's a fool's errand right here. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 10. He that loveth silver. Look, this is the person that wants to be rich. They are working for the sake of money. They just want more money and more money. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. This is the irony of wanting to be rich, right here. Is once you get there, you won't be satisfied anyway. Because the problem wasn't that you didn't have money. The problem was that you loved the money. And then when you got it, it was no good to you because you just wanted more. This is the problem. Look, you should not want to be rich. If you want to be rich, you have a heart problem. If you are working and working and working just to get more and more money for the money itself. Look, I'm not talking about wanting to work hard to better your family. Wanting to work hard to provide a better circumstance for your children or your wife. That's not what I'm talking about. I am talking about working hard to just increase in abundance for the money's sake. I'm talking about just wanting to be rich. I mean, it's kind of the ultimate laugh out loud in the Bible. God's like, okay, you love money. I'm going to make it so once you get it, you won't even be satisfied with it. Okay, now the second outcome is this. So here you had somebody who wanted to be rich and he got there, but he wasn't satisfied once he got there. You know, you'll never know. I mean, I've met these people. They just, they're just working and working to get rich and they're, they're, I've known some people that are probably richer than probably the richest people I know and they're not there in their own mind. They're, they're not there. You know, some, you know, they're 60, 70 years old and they're not there yet. They're just more and more and more. And I'm just like, oh, it's a terrible disease. So if you become rich and you make that, you'll never know that you got there. You'll just keep it is ruin your whole life is what it'll do. Now here's the second outcome for them that will be rich. Many times, and I, I'm not going to show you this till towards the end of the sermon, but it's ironic because many times the people that want to be rich, that their goal is to be rich, they will never become rich because of the fact that they want to be rich. If you don't know, if you're, you're like, I don't really understand. I'll explain that to you towards the end of the sermon. I'll show you in more detail, but let's review. Let's review so far. Let's review so far. Money equals labor. We see that. Okay. And if you work hard, you will obtain money in your life, but you are not to love it. That is not to ever be the prize. Wanting to be rich or willing to be rich is a trap, folks. And the irony is, is it the Bible says it will cause you to waste your time and your labor. In many, in many cases, you know, your whole life could be wasted on something like that. Money is a simple tool to help you provide for your family is what that is for. And if you do love it, your labor is in vain. Your time is in vain. Turn to Psalm 127. So, labor takes time. Labor will give you money. So if you've ever heard somebody say, time is money, that's why. Because A equals, if A equals B and B equals C, A equals C. Time equals money. Okay. Look at Psalms 127. Look at verse number one. The Bible said, accept the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Accept the Lord keep the city, the watchman walk, wakeeth but in vain. So, laboring for the Lord is not in vain. Laboring for your family to support your own or for what the Lord told you to do is not in vain. It's all good, but loving money for itself is vanity and it's a complete waste. It's a complete waste. And the Bible here is saying is that time and labor you spent to get that money is just all wasted. Now, here's the funny thing. Nobody wants to waste their life. Nobody would say if you asked them directly, would you like to waste your life? Nobody would say yes. Yet people who are laboring for the wrong things, who are laboring for money itself, that's exactly what they're doing is they're just wasting their whole life. They're wasting their one life. They're wasting all their labor and ultimately they're wasting their time. And we don't have much time on this earth. Now, look, I don't like wasting time. And if you realize that if you just take this time equals money idea in your life, this is a huge little side note right here, but if you just don't waste time in your life, you would be surprised how much you can accomplish. Think about TV. Think about the seven hours or the 10 hours of screen time that people are spending every single day. If you just don't do that, people around you that are all doing that and they see that you don't do that, you know what they're going to see out of you? They're going to see that you're really productive. They're going to see that you're just getting a lot done and it's not that you're just like some superhuman person. It's just that you're not wasting time like everybody else is. It's just a huge waste of time. Go to Proverbs chapter 18. Let's talk about wasting. Now we're getting closer. Let's talk about wasting. Look at Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18. This is the problem with people is just wasting everything today. Look at Proverbs 18 and verse number nine. Proverbs 18 and verse number nine. The Bible says, he that is slothful, that means lazy, he that is slothful in his work, or you could say labor, right? This is a person that, you know, they're lazy in their labor. They're not, they're not laboring with all their might. They're lazy people. He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. Isn't that interesting? This is a super valuable connection that we can see. Look the lazy person will also be a very wasteful person. Now logically it doesn't really make any sense, right? Because the lazy person who's not laboring hard is not going to have much money. So you would think that they would want to take the money that they do have and be very careful with it, right? But that's not what the Bible says and it's not what you see in your lives either. It's not what you see around you. It's not what you see in this country. The Bible says the lazy person is going to be someone who's a very wasteful person. They're just going to waste things. I mean, I mean a person, but the other side of it makes sense. Somebody that works really hard. Somebody that labors really hard and ends up with money by laboring very hard. They highly value things because they spend a lot of time and they spend a lot of labor on those things. So they're going to, they're going to highly value those things. I used to fly, I'm going to give you an example of this. I used to fly remote control airplanes as a hobby when I was in my 20s. It is a, you know, a few engineers we'd go out and it is kind of a nerdy thing when I went back on it. But basically we'd build these planes and then we'd go out and we'd fly these planes. Well, I had this friend who built this, he built this biplane. It was like a World War I biplane. It was like this beautiful model of a plane. They had like a four-foot wingspan. He spent almost four months building it. Just building it, building it, building it. And it sat on this shelf in his house. And we used to go out to this field that one of my other friends had and we'd fly our planes, but he would never fly this biplane. And one day we harassed him, we pressured him into flying this plane finally. Like, what's the point of having it if you don't fly it? It just, you know, you sit there and you dust it and you polish it and it had this beautiful engine and everything was just great. It was all the scale. So we finally pressure. Garrett probably remembers this. Garrett was like six years old. It was the funniest thing in the world to him. But anyway, so we finally pressured my friend into flying this plane and he takes this plane off and he's like this with the controls. You can just see him. He's just shaking. He's just shaking as he's flying this plane. He's flying it around and there's a huge cottonwood tree at the corner of this field, like probably 150 feet tall. And he was bringing this plane around and we all thought, surely he sees the tree. You know, so none of us said anything and he flew this biplane right through that tree and it strained that tree. There was not a piece left of that airplane bigger than that. It was just poof out the other side of that tree. You know, he just, I mean, he was devastated. You know, he was devastated and we're all, you know, Garrett's like, that was great. I'm like, but anyway, the point is that he highly valued the thing because he spent so much time on it. You know, and I'm not saying that, you know, that, you know, it's a simple physical example that I'm giving you. But the point is, if you don't spend any time on anything, if you're lazy about everything, you're going to become a great waster. All right. But he spent so much time and labor on things and that's what the Bible says. The Bible is saying that people that spend time and labor on things, they shouldn't, you know, they won't waste things as easily as the slothful man. So while the Bible talks about wasting time and wasting labor, can we apply the same thing to money is what I'm getting at this morning? I mean, typically, I mean, you would think, right? I mean, you would think if you just ask somebody this question, if you work hard to get your money, you probably don't want to waste it because it was hard to get, right? It was hard to get. So then why? Here's the disconnect. Here's the disconnect that we're going to connect this morning. Why do 44% of Americans say that they wasted their money too much last year? You know, why is that? So many people, the point of trying to get us, there's many people that work hard. I'm sure those 44% of people, the reason that they're making that resolution is because they worked hard to get their money. And then they wasted too much of it. I'm sure if you ask somebody, do you want to waste your money? I'm sure that most people, again, would say the same answer as they would say about their time, their labor, their life. They would say, no, I don't want to do that. So look, turn to Matthew chapter 6. Let's talk about how to not waste your money. Let's talk about, you know, quite frankly, how to not be broke this morning. How to not be broke. How to, how your money works. And then in parentheses, it should say for you would be the title of the sermon, how to not waste your money. You would think that the Bible would address in more detail, you know, actually where you spend your money, then just don't be wasteful. They just don't waste up. I mean, you have to, I mean, look, here's the thing folks, we're not to love money. We're not to be obsessed over money. We're not to work for the sake of money. But the thing is, you need money. You have to have money. I mean, you are going to have to have money and you are going to have to spend money in your life. If you're this person, if you're a man today and you say, I don't care about money, and I don't care where I spend money, I feel sorry for your family. Because you're going to do a very poor job at providing for your own. Look at Matthew chapter 6. I'm going to give you a kind of a out-of-the-box theory this morning. Look at Matthew chapter 6. Look at verse 19. Matthew chapter 6 in verse number 19. The Bible says this, Jesus says, you should have just read this. If you're doing nine chapters a day, you've just read this chapter. The Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt. You can underline those two words right there. Moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Again, this is a spiritual application that Jesus is making here. Now where to spend your time? Where to spend your labor in your life? Jesus is saying, he's like, hey, don't labor just to get stuff. Don't labor just to get all these things in your life. But he's saying, he's saying basically, you could be wasting, you could be spending your resources, your labor, you know, towards spiritual things that matter in your life. And then he says in verse 21, for where your treasure is there where your heart be also. But he's saying, he's saying exactly what 1 Timothy 9.6 said where it says, you know, don't get snared, don't get caught up in this trap of worldly things is what he's saying. But look, this is clearly a spiritual application right here on how you should spend your life and how you should spend your labor. But here's the thing, if we take biblical philosophies, and here's the beauty of the Bible, let's take this biblical philosophy. You know, Jesus is saying, focus on the things that last. And his things that last is the spiritual things that last forever. Okay, so he's saying focus on things that last and not on things that don't last is what he's saying. But what if you could apply the same philosophy that Jesus was using here on where your life should be spent and where your time and labor should be spent? What if you could take that same philosophy and apply it to where you spend your money? What wonder what would happen there? Let's get out of the box a little bit this morning. Let's take a spiritual idea and apply it to the physical. Okay, what if we can apply the biblical principles of time and labor, the spiritual principles to a physical thing. And that's what I want to show you this morning. Look, because here's the thing, it's a physical thing, you need money, you have to have it, you will spend money you need to provide. You need to have money and you will have to spend money on things in your life. So here's the thing. What do moths do? What do moths do? Why does it say moth and rust? Because moths, I mean, he's talking about what moths do to clothing. They eat it. They like, they chew it up and they like make it gone. They make it gone. I mean, they literally do eat clothes. I looked it up. It's actually the larva of the moth. But I mean, the point is they eat it. They eat it. So let's apply this. What does rust do? What does rust do to things? Rust, rust doesn't, you know, make it go away, but it corrodes it. You know, scientifically speaking, it oxidizes it. You know, it's an oxidation process, meaning if you, you know, go see how the universe works, it increases, you know, the entropy of the object. It oxidizes it. It makes it, it makes it less valuable. Rust. You have something that's new and doesn't have rust on it. And all of a sudden it's got all kinds of rust on it. It probably doesn't even work anymore. You know, it's, it's less valuable. So let's apply this. I made you a chart this morning. I made you a chart this morning. Let's apply Matthew chapter six and see, you know, why 44% of Americans need this resolution to waste less money in their life? So I made, this is a, this is a Hold Fast Baptist original right here. Okay. So here's the thing. I made you a chart and this is why you're broke right here. If you're like, why do I need to save more money? This is why right here, or 44% of people, why they, because over here on this side in the red is debt and despair and servitude, as the Bible would say. I mean, the borrower is servant to the lender. Over here is freedom, is freedom and savings. Okay. So look, here's the thing. Let's look at the chart. Let's look at the chart this morning. So what does the mat do? It eats things up and there's nothing less, nothing left of these things. Right. So if you spend all your money on these things, these are things like food, restaurants. Right. These are things like vacations. These are things on this side under the moth. These are things that literally, once you spend money on them, they are gone. There is nothing left. When you go to a restaurant and you spend all kinds of money at a restaurant, it's gone. After that, after that restaurant, it's over. Right. Things like vacations, trips, you know, things that you do like that. Things like unsecured debt, like credit cards. You go out and spend a bunch of money on Cheetos and vacations and whatever, and all of a sudden you just have this debt, but you have nothing left. There's nothing to show for it. Then, moving this way, moving this way, underneath rust, I put just, this is stuff. These are things that you buy. These are things that you buy that they don't have zero value. You know, they don't have zero value, but they have depreciating value. You know, this is things like cars and clothing. I put Amazon here because that probably covers everything. But it's stuff that you go buy and it's not that it's worth zero. It's just that it's always worth less than what you paid for it in the first place. So it's not quite as bad as the moth, but the rust is, it's still not a good thing. It's still not a good thing. So here's the thing. When we look at this money arrow, you know what we're talking about? We're talking about where you should spend your money. According to Matthew chapter 6, that spiritual application into a physical application. However, let me, I'd be, you know, I'd be amiss if I didn't bring up. This is where you should spend 90% of your money. All right. So 90% of your money should go here. 10% should go to the Lord. Otherwise, you're robbing the Lord. And don't let, don't get me started on, you know, how you think your finances are going to work out if you rob from God. You know, Malachi chapter 3 and verse 8 says, well, man, rob God. Well, yes, people do. Yet you have robbed me. So don't rob God. Okay. That's the first thing. It's not a sermon on tithing, but I have to put that in there. So basically, we see that you could spend money on things that the moth eats. You could spend money on things that just, they corrode, they corrupt. All right. Or you could spend money on things that, you know, increase in value is what this chart is trying to show you. So look, all these things, all these things, I guess a cousin to this category would be, you know, student loan debt. And many people would argue that, you know, depending on what kind of, you know, what you have, many people would probably argue with me on that. But the point is, is step two is stuff that you buy, is stuff that you buy that depreciates, okay, electronics, you know, clothing, gadgets, phones, things that we like to have, right? I mean, you could sell them, but they still, you know, depreciate at a fraction of the cost. So 44% of Americans, you know, believe that they save more last, they should have saved more last year. But the point is, the reason that they think that is because by the time they're done spending money on step one, or in category one, in category two, they spent all their money. That's why 44% of Americans have that New Year's resolution, because they've spent everything. Now over in step three, now this isn't like, you know, what you should buy, okay? This is, I'm trying to, you know, give you a concept here. Over here in the third category is things like a house, or, you know, I have like gold and silver and stocks and bonds and, and land up in the corner. I mean, things like that, things like that are always going to, generally increase in value, okay? And this isn't like, you know, you should invest in this or you should invest in that. But the point is, you know, your own business would also be over in this category here. It's things that don't, you know, the moth and the rust don't corrupt, okay? Physically speaking. So in short, the more you can move to the right, the less likely you are going to have a New Year's resolution in 2022 that you need to save more money. Because the problem is, in our country especially, is that people are spending all their money in these two categories, okay? They're spending all their money in those two categories. Turn to Proverbs chapter 31. I mean, basically, the further you can get this way on this chart, and the less you can put over here, and I mean, look, you got to have a car. I get it. You got to have a car, but you can have a $2,000 car or you can have a $90,000 car. You know, look, you got to eat. You got to eat. But you can go to a restaurant, spend $150, or you can eat at home for, you know, $15 or whatever it is, or 30 probably now. But the point is, turn to Proverbs chapter 31. Now, ladies, ladies have a big effect on this chart right here. I want to show you that. Look at the Proverbs 31 woman. The Proverbs 31 woman. So it's a, it's not a, you can never do these things here. You can never do this here. But if you don't have savings, it's because you're doing everything in these two. Okay? Now, look at the Proverbs 31 woman. And this is the, this is the benefit that ladies can have on the household, on the physical household right here. Look at Proverbs 31. Look at, again, we're talking about, we're applying the spiritual to the physical here. Okay? Look at Proverbs 31. Look at verse 16. Look at verse 15. She rises also while he's yet night and giveth meat to her household. Here, she's feeding the family here. She's feeding the family and a portion to her maid, maidens. She considereth a field and byeth it. With the fruit of her hands, she planteth a vineyard. Look, she is wisely spending her household's money and she is literally growing food. She is growing food that she is using to feed her household in verse 15. She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good. Her candle goeth not out by the night. She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff. She provides food. She grows food. She makes clothing. She makes clothing. She makes a fine linen and selleth it and deliver girdles onto the merchant. She is a home business. Look, there's nothing wrong with a woman having a home business. Okay? Look, if she's neglecting and not teaching her children, that's another thing. Okay? There's first works here. All right? But this woman has a home business. She's making clothing. She's selling it. She's delivering girdles under the merchant. But the thing is she's making clothing for her children. She's providing for her children. Look, the virtuous woman today will save her household thousands, thousands. As a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, if you go up and you look at statistics of dual income households, here's how dumb it is. They're just wasting all their money because guess what would go over here? You know what else would go over here? Daycare. So not only are you ruining your children, you know, sermon for another time, but 35% of dual income households with children, that money, 35% of it goes to daycare, childcare costs. Think about this. That's 35% of the dual income. So you take 50% or let's just say you have $100,000 household income. Each one makes 50,000 and you take 35% of that 100,000. If you take 35% of 50,000, that means literally 70,000 or 70% of the woman's income is going to childcare. She's making like $6 an hour. I mean, it makes no sense. And then look, you don't even factor in that you're going to go out to eat more. That you're going to just, oh, you probably both need a really nice car now because you're commuting to work. Look, there's almost no financial benefit to it. If you look at the average numbers that are out there, why? Turn to Titus chapter 2 because they're just wasting it. They're great wasters. They have to waste it. They can't be the Proverbs 31 woman has a huge impact on the household. Huge because Titus 2 5 says this, women are to be discreet, chased. Keepers at home. Look, you say, you take that word keepers right there and you draw a line to Proverbs 31. Look, they're not to just be sitters at home, not sleepers at home. They're keeping the home. What does keeping the home mean? Proverbs 31. Keeping the home means all the things in Proverbs 31. They're providing the food. They're providing the care. They're providing Deuteronomy 6. They're providing the education. They're providing the education. Look, and while she's making clothes and doing all these things, here's the modern equivalent to that. Smart shopping. Smart shopping with the household money. She's finding deals. She's finding sales. All these types of things. You'd be surprised how far you could stretch a buck when you have a Proverbs 31 woman because she's helping to manage and not waste the resources of the household. She spends her household's money wisely, this woman. Now the flip side of that is you have some man going to work and you have some woman sitting at home just wasting all her husband's money. I have seen wives literally drive their families into poverty. Not in church, I haven't seen that, but I've seen that with people that I work with where their wives literally broke them because they're at home. They're just spending all these money. This money, some of them were gambling. Some people that are just, I mean, can you imagine? Can you imagine? Your husband goes to work every day and the wife is at home spending the money away, gambling the money away, whatever it is. I mean, you might as well just punch him in the face when he gets home. I'll be more direct. She's literally wasting her husband's labor, whereas the Proverbs 31 woman is taking her labor and her husband's labor and what? Not, I mean, because she works hard, right? She works hard and her husband is out there working hard and she does not waste that. She's not brother to the waster. Instead, she highly values that and she does what? Look, the wife and the mother is critical in making this chart a success, critical, critical. Now turn back to 2 Kings chapter 12. 2 Kings chapter 12. Turn back to where we started. 2 Kings chapter 12. 2 Kings chapter 12. Get there. Let's talk about what it takes to make this happen. 2 Kings chapter 12. Look down at 2 Kings chapter 12 and verse number four. So here we have a situation where Joe Ash is wanting to upgrade, he's wanting to repair the house of the Lord. Okay, so let's look at this and what do you need to do that? He needs money. He needs money to do that. So look at verse number four. So Joe Ash, he has this goal. He wants to repair the house of the Lord and we need money to do that. So in verse number four he says, he said to the priest, all the money of the dedicated things that is brought into the house of the Lord. He's saying all the tithes and offerings is what he's saying. Even the money of everyone that passed the account, the money that every man is set at and all the money that come into the man's heart to bring into the house of the Lord, let the priest take it to them, every man of his acquaintance, and let them repair the breeches of the house, whether so any breach shall be found. So he says, take all the tithes and offerings. Here's his first command. He goes to the priest and he says take all the tithes and offerings and fix this place. That's what he says. Now look at verse number six. Verse number six, but it was so that in the 3 and 20th year of King Joe Ash, he reigned for 40 years. The priest had not repaired the breeches of the house. It just, it wasn't happening. It wasn't happening. So what does he do? He told them to do it and they didn't do it. So what does he do? Verse number seven, then Joe Ash called for Jehoi to the priest and the other priests and sent unto them. Why repair ye not the breeches of the house? Now therefore receive no more money of your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breeches of the house. And the priest consented to receive no more money of the people near the repair of the breeches of the house. But so basically they were taking all the money just to themselves and their families is what these priests were doing. And they weren't fixing the house. Okay. Instead, he says in verse number nine, he took a chest and bore a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side of one that right side is one cometh into the house of the Lord. And the priests that kept the door put there in all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. You know what he did here? He created a method to save the money. He created a method to save the money. So they put it in this chest and it just had to stay in there. And then the point I'm trying to make here is if you want this to happen, it needs to happen on purpose. It can't just be like, I want to save more money this year. And then you do nothing. It takes, it takes, you know what, you know what you do when you're managing a situation from 30,000 feet was what Joe West did in verse number four. He's like, Hey, just fix it. What you have to do is drill down into the details and you got to have another meeting and get, you know, here's how you specifically do it. That's what he did. He's like, No, let's make a box and we'll drill a hole in the box. And every single person that walks in that door, when they give their tithes and offerings, it goes in the box. That's a lot more specific detail. And that's what it takes men as you lead your homes. This is where your budget comes in. This is where you sit down and you say, Where did we spend our money last year? If you're one of the 44%, you say, Where did I spend my money last year? What's the problem with that? Get into more detail and say, Okay, in this category, this category, this category, we're going to put more, we're going to put more this way, more this way, more this way. What are we going to do? We're going to not going to buy a $90,000 car. Maybe we're going to buy a $7,000 car. Making those types of decisions because the point is, this is not, if you leave this to default, if you leave this open, you know where you're going to spend all your money, right here. You default to the left side. That's what will happen. It takes great detail and more management to get over here. Don't forget that as you lead your homes. You have to decide. Maybe we it doesn't mean you can never go out to eat. It's just, Hey, we should only go out to eat this much or this many times a month, this many times every two months or whatever. You have to come up with a specific plan just like Joe Ash did in 2 Kings, chapter 12, because this does not happen on accident. And this is why, by the way, this is why, by the way, the guy that wants to be rich will many times never get there. You'll never tell, because guess what? The guy that wants to be rich, he wants everyone to think he's rich, too. And you know what he does? This is the guy that makes $50,000 a year that's driving a $90,000 pickup. Because he wants, oh, look at how successful I am. Look at me with the nice flashiest car and the nice flashiest everything. Look, it's the people driving the old cars that have some savings. And you'd be surprised. But the problem, that's just more irony of people that will be rich, that want to be rich. Because guess what, folks? When I've seen people over 20 years, here's the thing. One tragedy is that a man learns to work hard, that a man gets some skills, and a man learns how to actually make a decent income. And it doesn't matter if he has this wrong. If he has this wrong, he can waste it all. I don't care how much money you make, it's really easy, especially in our society, to waste it all under the moth and under the rust. Super easy. I've seen people that make much less money that have way more savings than somebody that makes way more, just because they've figured this out. They have figured out how not to waste their money, which is wasting their labor, which is wasting their time. So look, I know we applied some spiritual things to the physical this morning, but hopefully this demonstrates the depth of the Bible for you. If you read the Bible enough and you start to recognize the philosophies of God in the Bible, you'll see all kinds of places in the Bible like this, where Jesus is talking about something spiritual, and it could be applied to physical things in your life, and it will work beautifully for you. And that's what we're talking about. Look, the Bible works everywhere. That's the depth and the miracle of this book. It works everywhere. And this is how it can work for you. This is how, hopefully, as you think about this, as you plan this, as you talk about this with your families, with your wives, and hopefully, you won't be in that 44% next year. All right, let's bow our heads and have a word of