 So Luke chapter 14, I want you to focus at the end of the chapter, look at the last verse. So I told you I was going to give you a guarantee before the, in the announcements. I told you I was going to give you a guarantee for the sermon this evening. So look at the last verse of Luke chapter 14. But the guarantee that I want to give you, it has to do with this word. If you look up this word poverty in the Bible, you'll see that the poverty comes up all over the Bible. And there's many different things. And if we did a study on the word poverty, it would probably bring us to the book of Proverbs in the Bible. And poverty, the Bible says is, you know, if we were just going to do a quick study in Proverbs 24 and Proverbs chapter 20, the Bible relates poverty to sleep. So if you love sleep, you're going to be in poverty. Okay, now if I asked for a show of hands and I took a poll of the crowd tonight and I just said, hey, who wants to be in poverty? I bet you no one would raise their hand. Okay, so the guarantee for tonight's sermon is this. And look down at the last verse of Luke chapter 14. The guarantee is this, if you listen to the sermon tonight and put it into practice in your life, you will not be in poverty. You will not end up in poverty in your life. That's a pretty bold statement, right? So pay attention at the last sentence of Luke 14. It says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. So if you have the ears tonight to hear this message and you put it in practice in your life, you will not, I'm telling you, you will not end up in poverty. Okay, that's a personal guarantee that I'm giving you. Okay, now look, we're talking about making sense. We're talking about biblical advice for your finances. We're talking about debt we talked about in the first sermon. We talked about debt. Then we talked about making a living. We talked about income, making money and how to do that. Tonight we're going to talk about balance. We're going to talk about balance tonight. Look down at your Bibles in Luke chapter 14. And we're going to read this story in this next few verses. It's a parable that Jesus is giving. Now the context here, of course, is that Jesus is talking about forsaking all to become a disciple of Christ. Okay, look down at Luke chapter 14 and let's start reading in verse number 27. We're talking about balance this evening. And the Bible says this and says, And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower? Siteth down not first and counteth the cost, whether you have enough sufficient to build to finish it. Lest happily after he had laid the foundation he is not able to finish it, all that behold, behold it begin to mock him. Saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, now he gives another example. Or what king going to make war against another king? Siteth down not first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage and desire conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakeeth not, all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. So I get the context here, okay? It's talking about forsaking all. It's talking about forsaking all your material goods, you know, everything in your life to follow Christ. I get the context. But Jesus, in this example, he uses a couple very easy to understand analogies, examples of this. You know, things that everyone gets. He's using these examples, the guy building a house, number one, and the king going to war, number two. I mean, who in the world, I mean, we've probably all seen this. I've seen this literal thing happen. Who would start building a house and not even consider whether or not they have enough money to build the house? But people do it all the time. A lot of people is the answer, okay? I mean, we actually had this literal thing happen to us. We were living in the country in North Dakota, and a neighbor who lived a couple miles away, he was building a house for years. He was building this house. And look, in North Dakota, you don't build a house for years. You build a house and you better finish house before winter comes. So he's building this house and he puts the siding and everything on and all the insulation on the outside. Winter comes and just wrecks everything. It gets rained on and ruined. And he's constantly trying to rebuild and refix this thing over the period of years. Everybody that drove by that, it was exactly like the story Jesus just told us here, everybody that drove by is just like, that is a disaster. Why is he doing that? He obviously didn't count the cost. Because that's why he didn't have the resources, the time to do it. And look, it made him look foolish. It made him look lazy, okay? So look, you better have sufficient to build the tower in North Dakota before winter comes, or you're going to look foolish. The next example Jesus uses is a king going to war. Think about this. The enemy has 20,000 soldiers. He doesn't count his own soldiers. He doesn't consider the fact that he only has 10,000 soldiers, or however many soldiers he has. And look, the Bible says if he would have considered that, then he would probably just decide to make peace instead of going to war and losing everything. So look, these are very common and easy to understand examples. However, this is a thing that happens all the time today. It happens all the time. In a literal sense, as I just explained to you, but with many other things in our lives as well. So making sense, this sermon series, the first one we talked about debt, what do we know about debt? It's bad. Right? We don't want debt. Right? It's bad. Part two, we talked about income. You have to have it. You have to have it to the point of making a living, to the point where it can support your family. And there's lots to that. Go back and listen to that sermon. But point three, part three, we are going to talk about balance. And in specific, we are going to be talking about budgeting your money. Okay? Balancing your spending and your income. Okay? Turn to Proverbs chapter 11 or just look at the front of your bulletin. Now look, I understand that this is not really the exact application of this verse, but I do believe that it fits. The Bible says in Proverbs 11 in verse number one, a false balance is abomination to the Lord. But a just weight is his delight. The Bible, I mean, this could be applied to many things. You know, being honest, not cheating people, all these types of things. But look, it could also be applied to having an out of balance financial situation. Is also going to get you in trouble. Okay? Now look, think of this series in general. Okay? Hopefully, you know, there's at least some of you who are going to write some of this down and make plans to apply this. But look, you know debt is bad. You know how to make a living now. But you need to know more. You need to know more because if you spend more than you bring in, not only will you not be able to make a living, but you will end up in debt. So you must balance this budget. You must balance this situation. You must control your spending. Okay? Not only control it, but sync it with your income. Okay? So it's something that needs to be managed. It's not going to happen on accident. What we're going to talk about this evening. Okay? So what is a budget? That's the point of this evening's sermon. What is a budget in general? First of all, the actual definition of a budget is an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time. Okay? Look, here's the bottom line. A budget is a list. A budget is a list of here's my income and here's what I spend. Here's what I make. Here's what I spend. It's a list. The king, look, the king that didn't look at his manpower budget is possibly going to end up in a lot of trouble. Right? He could meet a disastrous end and have his entire army destroyed. A man turned to Proverbs chapter 22. A man that building a tower that didn't manage his budget is, you know, people mocked him, the Bible said. Look at Proverbs chapter 21. And look at verse number 20. Proverbs chapter 21 and verse number 20. The Bible says this. It says there is treasure to be desired to be desired in oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. So the Bible says in the dwelling of the wise, there's oil. There's abundance of product of things that you need, but a foolish man spendeth it up. It means a foolish person spends it all. Okay? The Bible says if you spend all your money, you're a fool. You know, you say, now you say, what? You say, why do I have money if I'm not supposed to spend it? Okay? Well, I mean, this would imply that there's other things that you can do with your money. Look, I mean, doesn't that what the Bible says? You have to read the Bible and listen to what it's telling you. The Bible says a foolish man spendeth it up. That means a foolish man spends all his money. Okay? So you're saying, well, I'm not going to take it with me. I'm not going to have him pack my coffin with a bunch of money. What am I supposed to do with it? Well, let's look because not everything that you're supposed to do with your money is spending. And that's exactly what Proverbs chapter 21 lists for us. I mean, there must be something else. Right? There must be something else we do with our money other than spend it all. Okay? I mean, you can't take it with you. So let's look at where it can go other than spending. The first one is this. Turn to Proverbs chapter 3. So we're looking at, I'm going to give you two places that your money should go other than spending because if you spend it all, you're a fool. So there must be somewhere else we're supposed to put it. Okay? The first one is this. Look at Proverbs chapter 3. The Bible says this. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all nine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty. Now, if you have a Bible and you don't mind writing in it, underline the barns filled with plenty. Because we're going to talk about this this evening. We're going to talk about whether or not it's bad for your barns to be full. Okay? Because a lot of people will say that it's bad for your barns to be full. We're going to answer that question for you tonight. But the Bible says here that if you honor the Lord with the first fruits of all nine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty. It doesn't say your barns will be empty because you gave it all to the Lord. It says your barns will be full. And thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Look, this is a farmer who's doing well, who's got lots of produce, who's got lots of, you know, grain to fill his barns. So the first thing that you're supposed to do with your money that is not considered spending is giving to the Lord. Giving money to the Lord is not considered spending. You say why? You say, I'm not even going to talk about taxes tonight, by the way. Don't even get me started. But it's the first fruits. It's not the first fruits when Uncle Sam takes all your money. Not going to talk about taxes. So the first fruits is the first thing, is the very first person that takes money out of your paycheck. There's so many. That's it. We're just going to talk about it. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, but here's the thing. Your tithe is not considered spending. You say why? Turn to Malachi chapter 3. You say, you know, I'm writing a check. You say I'm writing a check to the church and I'm giving this money and it comes out of my checking account. It sure seems like I'm spending it. But here's why it's not considered spending. Look at Malachi chapter 3. Look at Malachi chapter 3. Look at verse number 8. Malachi chapter 3 in verse number 8. This is why it's not considered spending, to give to the Lord. The Bible says this, Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? So the Bible here is saying, who would even think about robbing God? What are you an idiot? You know, the Bible is saying, who would rob God? Yet you did, is what he's saying here. He's like, how did you rob? Well, how? How did you rob me? Well, the Bible says, in tithes and offerings. And therefore, what does that mean? Then the Bible says in verse number 9, you're cursed with a curse. That sounds good. For ye have robbed me. I mean, this is so crystal clear here. You're robbing the Lord. You can be cursed with a curse. You have robbed me, even this whole nation, bringing all the ties into the storehouse, that there be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, sayeth the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground. Neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, sayeth the Lord of hosts. And the nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, sayeth the Lord of hosts. So look, that should help you tithe right there. That should help you get over, you know, whether you should tithe or not. Because here's the thing. It's not yours. I mean, the Bible says, and I'm not going to get into how the tithe is 10%. I've preached on that before, and I don't preach a lot about money here. But look, I tithe. I tithe. I give 10% of every single penny that I make to the church, to the Lord. And I round up. Because I don't want to be owing. I don't want to be accidentally stealing from the Lord. So look, I mean, it's not yours, so it's not spending. It wasn't yours in the first place. All right, and a lot of people, they have this thing backwards, where they're like, you know, I can't tithe because I have no money. It's like, no, you have no money because you rob from God. You know, I mean, it's like, what are you thinking? And I mean, I've never, I've never, and this isn't a sermon on tithing, but I don't get this one at all. And look, if you think I'm after your money, you're crazy. Okay, because I tithe. I don't want to steal from God, period. And I have never been more blessed in my life than when I just decided, you know what, I'm tithing by faith. I don't know how. We're just going to make it work. I'm just tithing. That's it. And things just work out. All right. Because you're not robbing from God. How are you, I mean, think, I mean, think of the stories about Joseph. We talked about this morning, about Daniel, you know, about all these people in the Bible. You could just keep going through the list of all these people that just had the favor of the Lord. Look, I don't know about you, but I need the favor of the Lord. I mean, I need, you know, is it possible for you to go to work every day and nobody to recognize what you do? That is so possible. I've done that for years. I mean, is it possible for you to go and do all the right things and just have things not work out and have people not recognize that or whatever? Look, I mean, I need God behind me. I mean, that's why I want to, I want to do, I want to serve the Lord in my life. Not because, you know, I owe it. I mean, I owe it to him. I owe it to him for my salvation. I'll never be able to pay that back. I'll never be able to give that back. But look, the Bible just says that, you know, 10% is not mine. So look, I'm just going to listen to that. I mean, I need the Lord behind me. Look, you do too, even if you don't think you do. Just take my word for it here. So here's the thing. If 10% of your money is not even yours, the first fruits goes to the Lord. So that's not spending. So if you give 10%, now we're down to 90% of your income is yours. Okay? So now 90% of your income that you make is yours. So that's not spending it all up, as Proverbs says. So if you only spend 90%, you're not spending it all up. Okay? But look, here's another one. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. So giving to the Lord is the first one. I'm going to give you two. Giving to the Lord is the first one. You say, what else? We're down to 90% is what you can spend. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And look at verse number two. The Bible says, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. Of course, Paul is talking about a special offering here, but he's saying that I want you to lay some money aside in store. And then look at Proverbs 13 and verse number 22. Proverbs 13 in the center of your Bible, right after the book of Psalms, you'll find the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 13 and look at verse number 22. The Bible says this. The Bible says, a good man. You know, whenever you see that in the Bible, a good man, you should just like, okay, I'm going to do whatever comes after this. Okay? So I mean, who doesn't? I mean, raise your hand if you want to be a good man. Right? I mean, look. The Bible says a good man leaveeth an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So it's saying, look, if you leave an inheritance to your children, it's not just your children, by the way, it's your children's children that are benefiting from, you know, your inheritance. You know, the Bible says that you're a good man. That's a good man. So if you can lay in store or leave an inheritance, look, that means you didn't spend it all. That means you didn't spend it. There's a balance there. Okay? Now look, there's a balance here is what I meant to say. There's a balance with laying up in store, and we're going to talk about this for a few minutes. Okay? Turn to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Now there's a balance with most things in your life. There's really a balance here. Look at Matthew chapter 6 in verse number 19, because you could take either one of these sides of things that I'm going to lay out for you, and you could run too far in either direction with either one. So we're going to find out where we need to be according to the Bible. So look at Matthew chapter 6, look at verse number 19. The Bible says this. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where 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. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. So which is it is the question. Okay? Am I supposed to leave an inheritance that lasts for generations, which means I am obviously saving? Or am I not to lay up treasures on earth? I mean which is it? I mean turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6. Which is it? I mean the Bible, look, the Bible has to agree with itself folks. The Bible is not contradicting itself here. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 6. This is the key right here. This is the answer. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse number 10 is the answer. And the Bible says this. 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. This is the answer. So we need to be careful here. We need to be careful that as we budget and save, that our heart doesn't turn to all of our accounts and all of our material possessions in all of our land or our storehouses or whatever it is, we need to make sure that that doesn't take our heart away. Okay? But look, turn to Luke chapter 12. Because the Bible says that the love of money, it doesn't say money is the root of all evil. It says when you become to love it and your heart is there, is where the problem comes. Okay? That's how the Bible is consistent. The Bible doesn't contradict itself between the New Testament and the Old Testament. Look at Luke chapter 12. Let's look at this guy. And I've seen this verse used, or this parable used so many times in the wrong way, it's ridiculous. Okay? But look, look at Luke chapter 12 and verse 16. And he spake a parable unto them saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hath much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, thou fool. This night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then who shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Look, the storehouses weren't the problem here. I mean the Bible actually said at the beginning of the sermon in Proverbs, that your storehouses will be full. That that's a blessing that God will give you. The storehouses weren't the problem. But a lot of people will use this, Luke chapter 12, to completely justify just being a loser and not doing what you're supposed to do and not going out and trying to follow the path that the Bible has for you in your life. That's not, look, go to Genesis chapter 13. The problem was verse 19 here, where he says, and I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast made much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. The problem was he was focused on himself. He was focused on himself and he was not in verse 21. He was not rich towards God. He was all about him. That was the problem. It had nothing to do with the storehouse. He was focused on himself. Look, go to Genesis, where did I say Genesis chapter 13? Genesis chapter 13, look at verse number two. This is the story of Abram and Lot. He's not yet Abraham. It's Abram and Lot. Look what the Bible says. And Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and gold and God hated him. Look, Abraham, Abram was rich. And it wasn't just he had a lot of cows and a lot of sheep. He was rich in gold and silver and land. As a matter of fact, these two guys had so much in this chapter in the Bible that they had to actually depart ways because there wasn't enough land for all their livestock. They had to depart ways. But the interesting thing about it is is that Lot, Abram, gives Lot the choice of where do you want to go? He's like, where do you want to go? Anywhere. We have to split up. You go this way, I'll go that way. You pick. And what did Lot do? If you read through Genesis, we're not going to look at it tonight, but if you read through Genesis 13, Lot goes and he picks the best land you could find. He picks the well-watered land. He picks the best land for cattle. Why would you do that? So you can be more profitable. So you can have more animals. You can have more livestock. You can make, he took no consideration into where he was actually moving. He took no consideration that, oh, it just happens to be right in the middle of Sodom and Gomorrah. Oops. But it was all about the land. Lot. But Abram was just like, whatever. I'll just go where you want. And then what does God say to him at the end of Genesis, chapter 13? God, Abram's rich. He's got cattle. He's got gold. He's got silver. God's like, I'm going to give you all this land. He must have been standing in the west because God says, look to the north and look to the south and look to the east. He's like, I'm going to give it all to you. It's not that God is against having full storehouses. God's against you turning on him and forgetting about him and loving what's in those storehouses. That's the problem. That's the problem. Just like the guy that built the storehouses. He's like, look what I've done. I'm the greatest. Look at me. And God's like, you're dead. He's like, you're not rich towards me. You're laying up treasure for yourself. He didn't say, you know what? I'm laying this treasure up. I'm going to serve the Lord with my life now. He's going to go and he's going to eat, drink and be married. Is what he's going to do. He forgot the Lord. He wasn't rich towards God. That's the problem. So that's it. So it's not, it is biblical to not spend everything. Bringing it back to the sermon. It's biblical to not spend everything. And not spending everything means you're giving to the Lord and you're saving. You're saving money. So let's get practical. Where are we at now? I mean, we cut 10% out right away. You're like, man, how bad does it get? Here's, no, this is my opinion. And you take it for what it's worth. Here's what I think. At least. And I'm talking about an adult who has a family here. I'm not talking about you kids. It's way worse for you kids. And you, I'm sorry. I'm pointing right at them. But here's the thing. If you're an adult, you're raising a family. You should live off 80% of your income. You say, why? Well, 10% goes to the Lord right away. And then you should strive to save 10%. If you're raising a family and 10% to savings, you say, how do I do that? And you do it by making a budget. That's how you do it. So what do we need to do to make a budget? Think about this. A budget really consists of two things. First thing is your necessities. Things that you are necessary in your life. What are necessities? Rent, utilities, food. You have to eat. You have to have a place to live. You have to eat. Clothing, you know, utilities. You have to have lights. You have to have heat. Well, I mean, you probably could even get away in California without heat, but maybe not air conditioning. But the point is, these are things that you need to have. So these needs to be in your monthly budget. These are necessities. And then look, emergency. And I even laugh, like when I look at my monthly budget now, I've been doing this for so many years. My wife, we've been looking at this for so many years. That look, I laugh when I call it emergency. It shouldn't even be called emergency because something happens every single month. It shouldn't even be called emergency. And you all know that it had budgets. I mean, look, you need to have your necessities budgeted. How much are my necessities? You need to have each one listed out and how much it costs you in a list. Okay? You say, well, the necessities are more than I make. Well, you have a problem. You have a problem. We're going to talk about that, you know, a little bit later. But the first thing you need to do is list out your necessities and how much it costs you every single month. Okay? Now you're there. You can make it on 80% of your income. You've listed out your necessities. What else is in the budget? Non-essentials, non-necessities. I mean, it's really, the budget is two things, folks. It's necessities and non-essential things. You know, these are things that can be cut if necessary. Right? These are things like vacations, like restaurants. We talked about that last week. Entertainment, toys. These are all things that can be cut. They're not necessary. Look, and if you have, if you can't make it on 80% of your income, you should, this should be a short non-existent list. You should not have non-essential items if you can't make it with the necessities in the 80%. Okay? So look, you have a nice budget now. But here, here's the thing. It has to exist somewhere that's not in your head. You need to write it down. You need to have a spreadsheet. It can't be in your head. It must be written somewhere. There's the practical advice for you. It must be written down somewhere. Excel spreadsheet. Okay? Now, here's the hard part of the sermon. You have the budget now. How do you keep the budget? Here's the action on your part. This is the trick, okay? This is the tips for success rate here. And here's what we do, all right? We have, and my wife still does this, okay? We have a budget every single week. My wife has a spending budget every week. It's her spending. You say you put your wife on an allowance? Yes. I mean, are you kidding? I put myself on an allowance. I mean, look, my income is not infinity. I mean, what in the world? You know, everybody must be on an allowance. It's called a budget, okay? So you have a budget. My wife still does this. This is how good she is at this. And she has a budget of whatever it is per week, and she will actually go and pull that cash out. She just pulls that cash out, and she has her money for the week right there. And then there's other budgeting things, like, you know, groceries and food and all these different things. But like, her budget per week, she pulls out in cash. And then she knows that's how much I have every week. And when it's gone, it's gone. No more coffee or whatever, right? So look, you pull out that cash until you're trained. Eventually, you'll get yourself trained to stay under this budget, okay? Next, you've got to live on this 80%, right? You say, why 80%? Because the 10% to the Lord, 10% to savings, 80% to survive. So you say, I can't make it on 80%. So if you can't make it on 80%, you know what your budget is now, that it's necessities and non-necessities. And you say, I've cut out all the non-necessities and I still can't make it on 80%. Well, here's what you do. This means that you are living beyond your means is what this means. If you can't live on 80%, it means you're living beyond your means. What does that mean? That means some changes need to be made. That means it's time to adjust. That means you need to move into a cheaper place. Maybe you're living in a house that's too big. You need to downsize. That means you need to get rid of some payments that you have. Maybe you'll have a car payment. Maybe you need to just get rid of that car and buy yourself a cheap piece of garbage and drive that. Get rid of these payments. Shop smarter. You have to live a lifestyle that can keep you under that 80%, okay? And then here, this is once, and you better adjust quickly, by the way. You better adjust quickly or you will quickly go into debt. See first sermon. And you will quickly go into slavery if you are living beyond your means. You're like, sounds serious. Well, it is serious. I mean, it's serious. If you're living beyond your means, you're going to quickly get yourself into trouble, okay? So look, here's another trick now. Now you're at the 80%. You're at the 80%. You have 10% going to church and you need to save 10%. Here's a tip and trick for you. And thank me in 10 years, okay? Keep yourself broke. Listen to what I'm saying. You keep yourself broke. I keep myself broke. You say, how do I do that? Because I budget everything and I've got all these automatic transfers set up in my account that keep me broke every single month. You say, what do you mean? Because the transfers, I transfer away my savings automatically. I don't even think about it. It just happens. It's like a bill. Because here's the thing. Here's a trick for you. If you have 100 bucks in your wallet, are you like me where if you have 100 bucks in your wallet, that's going to last you about five seconds? That's how I am. If I'd ever put, you know, just have cash on hand, pretty soon you just don't know where it went. You know, pretty soon you're like, oh, you know, I mean, you can't really do this in California. But here's how it worked in North Dakota. You walk into a sporting goods store, oh, rifle, there goes your savings for the month. Right? You can't impulse buy rifles in California. It's like, oh, 18 weeks and I can have that, maybe. If I pay an extra 50% and then they probably still won't give it to me. But my point is this. You set up automatic transfers and you just forget about it. You get your budget set. You get your 80% set. You got 10% going to church. I want to save 10%. You just automatically transfer that 10%. And then it's always gone every single month. And you don't have the money to spend. It's that simple. I mean, I have so many auto transfers at this point. I don't even know. I think maybe I have to back them off. I mean, we're always like, I mean, I'm literally living paycheck to paycheck. But I'm not really. You see what I'm saying? But I'm keeping myself broke on purpose. So it's not there if, you know, there's things to buy that we don't need to buy. So look, if you do things in this sermon successfully, diligently, you can have something in 10 years. This 10% will turn into something in 10 years. So the question is, where to save? Where to put it? And look, I'm not a financial advisor and that's not the point of this sermon series. But look, there's another key to where you put your savings and it's an advantage to where you put your savings to. And it's from liquid savings to less liquid and less liquid savings. What do I mean by that? So you want to have some savings somewhere you can get real quick. Like a savings account that's right next to your checking account. Why? So if a car breaks, you can immediately transfer it and just fix your car. Okay, and then you, by the way, it's nice to have a thousand bucks and an account like that. So when your car breaks, look, cars break. We've talked about this all the time. They're always going to break. You can just have that money and it doesn't mess up your budget. Because you have that emergency there, right? There's always an emergency. Write that down. Something always comes up. If you've got a family and you're working and you're in the real world, something always comes up. Something breaks. You need something, whatever, a medical bill. Something always comes up. So look, then there's other things that are less liquid, which are nice. You can transfer to other accounts of, you know, we talked about, you know, appreciating assets. Right? I mean, a house is an extremely not liquid, you know, savings place. You're home, right? So you're not going to be in a sporting goods store and say, oh, I like that rifle. I'm going to sell my house and buy that. In the next five minutes, you can't do it. It's a nice protection for you to have these different places that basically it kind of locks your money away for you. For your savings away for you. Okay? So look, the recap of the steps is this. You create a budget. Your budget is 80% of your living expenses. 10% goes to the Lord. 10% goes to savings. And then you stick to the budget. But it's about, look, it's about getting your standard of living right. It's about getting this balance that the Lord wants you to have. And then you just keep yourself broke. And you'll be fine. From there, it's just about executing. And look, it takes disciplined living. It takes disciplined living. It takes, you can't have this attitude of I need everything right now. I've got to have everything right now. It takes disciplined living. It actually, it kind of gets sort of fun after a while to kind of see how much money you can save on things. And see, you know, if you can get, you know, keep to that budget. It's kind of a, once you have a budget, it becomes a goal, you see. And once you start meeting that goal every single month, I mean, it kind of becomes fun. It kind of becomes something that you're accomplishing every single month. I mean, how little can I live on? I mean, my wife will still talk about, you know, shopping. I mean, not so much anymore because no one shops anymore. But I mean, there's, I just remember my mom and her sisters and my wife and her sisters talking about how much they would always compare how much they saved on things that they bought. I mean, that's a good habit to get into. Because how much can you save? How little, how far can you stretch a buck? And look, homeschooling parents, single income parents, you'd be surprised how far you can stretch a buck if you just be smart about things. Get on a budget, stick to the budget. And as you get raises and as that income, hey, as that income goes up, increase that 10% of savings more. Just use that as a starting point. Don't be like, oh, now I can just blow all my money. Like, look, save more, save more. And if you do this and you make it a lifestyle, you know what will happen? You know what will happen? You will have something to give to your children's children. And God is not against that, you know? But here's the thing. It's a balance is what we're talking about this evening. It's a balance. And you know, the Bible says that he that will be rich, he should not want to be rich. You should not want to be rich because if you just turn this, and don't become this person that says, you know what, if I was just rich, then I could serve the Lord. Really? That is such, and I've seen people do that and fail at that. And what they do is they fall out of the Christian life. Because they're like, if I could just be rich, you know what? You could be poor and serve the Lord. There is no fee or income that you have to have to come here and serve the Lord. We'll make you a missionary now. We'll make you a missionary in this church. I mean, so many people strive for that. They're like, I just want to serve the Lord. But look, if you will be rich, that's where your heart will go. You will fall into a snare and you won't serve the Lord. If you're not serving the Lord when you're poor, you're certainly not going to do it when you're rich. But God is not against you being financially stable. I mean, God's not against it. He's actually telling you how to do it. By telling you, hey, don't spend all your money. Leave an inheritance. Don't become obsessed with it. Don't put your heart there. And it takes, look, this takes self-control to do this, what I'm talking to you about tonight. But you men, listen to me, you men, if you ever want to get married and you ever want to have a family, you had better learn to manage this type of thing. Because guess what? It's your job to manage it. It's your job to manage this type of situation. It's your job when you come into a family to say, here's our budget and here's what we're going to do. And here's what we're going to, how we're going to take care of things. And here, you know, you have to run that show. And if you mismanage it, and we talked about last week, if your wife just goes around and starts popping holes in the boat everywhere, you know you're done. You're going to be ruined. And people will think you're a fool. They'll walk by you. They'll see that your tower's falling over and they will laugh in your face. Okay, so look, it's a balance. You see what I'm saying? It's a balance. It's smart. We have to manage it. Men, you have to lead your families in this direction. If you've cut every necessity, look, look, and here's the thing. I know for a fact that in this country, in this situation that we're in today, in this country, that if you work hard and you are diligent, you can make enough income to do this 80% guaranteed. I know it. So don't tell me I just work hard and I just, I'm doing everything right and I just can't live. I don't believe you. You can do it. I know, I'm living in this country today. You can do it. It can be done. It takes self-control. It takes management. You're not supposed to spend it all and you're not supposed to be obsessed with it. Okay? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.