In this sermon titled 'Family Money', Carlton McLeod emphasizes the importance of stewarding the resources God has given. He highlights the need to prioritize serving God over mammon, as the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. The comprehensive summary covers practical principles for handling family money, including having a proper mindset, practicing generosity, eliminating debt, living on a spending plan, saving, investing, leaving an inheritance, and increasing giving. The sermon emphasizes building a financial house on the foundation of Christ's lordship.

Matthew chapter six, and just kind of tag teaming and picking up where Kevin left off. I think he would agree with me that the money part does matter and how God's people steward what God has given them matters. And so we'll talk just briefly on family money. Subtitle would be something dear to my heart, a book I wrote in 2021 called, Building a Financial House. And so I want to just very quickly run you through just a very quick exegesis of Matthew 624, and then lay out some practical principles in the time that we have left to help you leave this conference with some, a better sense or perhaps even a plan of how to handle the things that God has given you.

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other, ye cannot serve God and mammon. Father, thank you again for the reading of the word. Help these your people to learn what you want them to learn and to adjust their lives accordingly in Jesus' name, amen. Now Jesus Christ is our master, can you say amen? He is undisputed, can you say amen?

King of kings and Lord of lords, hallelujah. Therefore he is the only one to be worshiped. Mammon, in this case a word that means riches and perhaps even treasure personified, must never be served. Why is that? Well, the apostle says it this way in 1 Timothy chapter 6, But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out and having Food and raiment let us be there with content But they that will be will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, with drowned men in destruction and perdition for the love of money, not money itself, but the love, because money is just a tool, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, all evil, which while some coveted after have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

In context of Matthew chapter six and the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught not to lay up treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal. In our view, this is a strong admonition against a couple of things. Number one, serving or worshipping money. That must never be our focus. We call that idolatry when you serve or worship anything other than God.

Temporal rather than an eternal perspective seeping into your life. We must remember that we're going somewhere with this, that our lives are we're here one day and gone tomorrow and so while we're here we extend the kingdom of God and we pass the baton down to our children. This also includes our resources and our money. Jesus commands us to lay up treasures in heaven instead. It is also an admonishment against hearts that desire money over the master because the Bible says where our treasure is our hearts will be also and this these kinds of warnings and checks and cautions are important as we're attempting to build what I term a good financial house unto the glory of God.

This passage helps us against an inordinate focus or where our eyes might be trending on money or becoming wealthy. That's really not our focus. We want to use and grow everything God has given us, but our desire is not to be rich. Our desire is to use what God has given us unto His glory. And if that means an amassing of wealth, then to whom much is given, much is required.

So it doesn't get any easier when your bank account grows because God may turn around and call for all of it. Can you say amen? All right, and so that's important because when we talk about money we want to make sure we have the kind of the right biblical world, the right foundation, lest we we find ourselves off in a corner somewhere with something foolish. And it's also a check against hoarding. There's a difference between saving and hoarding.

If you can't let it go and if you just want to see it for its sake, that's hoarding. But if you have something laid up as unto the Lord for the glory of God, saving something for your children or for the church or something that's a little bit that's a little bit different the Bible says in first Timothy chapter 6 charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches and so riches by their very nature are uncertain. The value of things goes up and down. The investment in things goes up. Those of you who are investors, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now.

But our trust is to be in the living God, in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. And so I wanted to have some of these scriptures run around your mind at the outset because I don't want you to mistake anything that I'm encouraging you to do as anything other than you know principle-based building a financial house unto the glory of God. In my personal view Biblical stewardship is like that. Biblical stewardship is simply the joyful and proper handling of the resources that God by His grace has given us. And these things are tools for the upbuilding of the kingdom of God.

And If they become anything other than tools, if you start to build your life around them or identify with them or think having something makes you any better than somebody else, then we've got a wrong mindset that's creeped in. But rather they are tools. And so we don't worship anything other than God. But if God puts a dollar in your hand the question is Lord what do you want me to do with it how can I use this until your glory so if the Lord gives you an ability to sing well you want to use that for his glory well if the Lord gives you a job that it pays you a hundred thousand dollars a year then hopefully you want to use those resources for his glory? Now what would happen in the church if by God's grace we decided to apply the Lordship of Christ in this area too.

You know in the just as previously when I was before you manhood and womanhood can be a little difficult to deal with. Well you know money's kind of in that difficult category sometimes, where it's hard to talk about and it's hard to admit when we had some failures and maybe we have some hurts in the past as it relates to money. And the country that we live in is no help and looking to the government is absolutely no help. $33 trillion in debt the last time I checked, is that right, does that sound right, Kevin? 33 trillion currently pushing 34.

Our unfunded liability, if you are in fact hoping on and waiting on social security, particularly if you're younger, is 195 trillion dollars. Now trillion is one of those words that we use, but we don't know what it means. Trillion is just a word we say, like it's so many zeros, like we really, we can barely understand billion. And so when we figure out what a trillion is, as opposed to a billion, it's really just out there, and that's our national finances. They're really just out there credit card debts a trillion dollars Student loans are pushing two trillion of one one point seven eight household debt is 17 trillion 57% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

The median savings for Americans is $5,300 with a personal savings rate of 3.4%. Now these stats go up and down, but the news isn't good. At the same time, we remain one of the wealthiest nations in the world if you think about who we are globally. Dave Ramsey said this many years ago, quote, if you're living in America and your household makes $34,000 a year, you're in the top 1% of income earners in the world. If you have an annual household income of just $11,000, you're in the top 14% of income earners in the world.

Now most of us don't feel like we're 1% or top 14% but if you look at us globally, we actually have a lot and again to whom much is given, much is required. Now I want to remind you just very quickly of some things that actually I learned from Scott many years ago. We live in a time of great usurpation jurisdictionally. God has created three primary jurisdictions, we can argue for others, but Most of us would agree that the home, the church, and the state constitute at least that. The home being responsible for teaching and modeling and self-government, instilling that heart and mindset into your children, marriage and procreation, family business and economy as Kevin taught us, support for and submission to the local church, again, as you have heard, the procreation again and training and education of children.

Those are home type responsibilities. The church, of course, being responsible for the equipping of the saints, the administration of the means of grace and the ordinances, the care of widows and orphans, again, that Kevin also mentioned, and church discipline the state with a very limited responsibility of keeping the peace and fighting our wars and well-ordering, right? And so we must build our financial houses with some understanding of what God calls the house to do with these things in mind. And this is even more critical when we remember that we're doing these things in Babylon, right? Which we're actually, you know, in other words, this is a, don't think this particular message is unimportant.

The money part really does matter. How many of you would make some different decisions right now if the money part was better? Right now where you live or some things going on with your children or how many of you would love you see mama getting older and but you don't have the means to support her just yet or things like that. Again, you were hearing what Kevin was saying about taking care of our elderly and you're thinking, you know, right now I'm just trying to pay my bills. And so it does matter.

We should endeavor to live in such a way where our discipleship choices and our ability to follow the Lord in the midst of Babylon, where we have lots of things against us, aren't limited. And we do that in many ways through prayer and through the way that we live. But again, the money part's always kind of hovering over here on the side. We don't like to talk about it, but it's kind of always there and if you're honest with yourself You'll probably admit that there are some things that I would like to be doing right now, but I might take a hit You know, I tell my church this say we're living in Babylon guys What's gonna happen when the HR department, you know passes a new this new rule that you have to put on a rainbow shirt and go down to the celebration down there. Are you, is your household ready for you to go, okay, well that's it for me.

I'd rather serve Jesus than do that. Are you ready for that financially or is the pressure building because you're not ready for that financially? And so when it comes to family money, my mindset is about preparation. It's about applying the lordship of Christ so that we are freer in the midst of Babylon to build, to dwell in those houses, to plant those gardens, to get our children married, and to not diminish but to increase even as we pray for the peace of the city. Many families who begin to understand some of these things like biblical dominion and multi-generational faithfulness develop some businesses and want different streams of income because they want to remain free to do what God has called them to do.

A strong and biblical financial house applies the Lordship of Christ to every area of money. We do not, must not, can not, will not worship mammon. However, when we give, we count that as worshiping God. Well, I'll also say when you save and when you invest and when you make a plan for your children and when you send a check to this ministry and send a check to that ministry, that's also in worship to our Lord. That's also for the glory of Christ, especially in areas of, again, gospel preaching, discipling children, taking care of our elderly, and et cetera.

So the money part really does matter, okay? Now having said that, I came up with what I call the 10 building blocks of a financial house. I'm gonna run through those in the time that we have remaining. Most of them are just suggestions. They're just things that I've worked for my wife and I and worked for some folks in our church, but you have all the liberty in the world to kind of not do them, except for the ones that are tied to the scripture.

Not do them and move some things around. But the first one is one tied to Scripture. It is just a mindset. Number one, if you want to build good family money, have a good financial house, then we pray, we work, and we live as unto the Lord. We pray and we work and we live as unto the Lord.

The Christian understands that this life is meant to be lived for the glory of God. Everything belongs to him. My pastor taught me this many years ago. He called it the stewards revelation from Psalms 24 and 1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell within.

Romans 12 11 tells us that we shouldn't be slothful in business rather fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Ecclesiastes 12 13 says let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Everything we do, we do for God's glory and that includes handling money, that includes the budget and the stewardship plan that you have. That includes how you pay your debts, that includes how you save, that includes how you invest in, what you invest in, that though all that all that matters.

Money isn't some secular part of our lives, rather because it is so important, indeed it's something we ought to pay pretty good attention to. So the first area of to build a financial house, one of the foundational pieces is to have the right mindset about who owns it all and what's it all for. It's all for him because he owns it all. Does that make sense? Okay, the second part is you kind of, as you're building, is you want to make sure that we're building with generosity.

Number two, if you're taking notes, is give 10% to the local church. Now they have different views on tithing, and our church even is maybe a little different from yours. We look at it as a model rather than an outright New Testament mandate. However, it's a really good model. And so, give 10% to the local assembly because generosity must be a part of any local, must be a part of any good financial house and it must be a part of family money.

If God's really blessed you and you don't give, then that's a problem. And so we want to be good and faithful givers. God will always test us with money. If we don't have very much, we might feel less than and that's a test. Are you going to be bitter?

Are you going to feel entitled? Are you going to be envious? But if God does, by His grace, give you a lot, then that matters too. If you make a million dollars a year and you're a tither, you know, that's $100,000 divided by 12. Just look at somebody and say, that's a pretty big check.

Right? That's a huge check. Well, that may not be easy for that person that makes 100, or makes a million dollars a year. And so the challenges don't stop wherever you are. So learn to be, learn to be a generous giver.

Number three, again, and I'm getting now into some suggestions, just some things to think about. In our book, we wrote, save 10% of one year's income as a basic savings. Most people don't have any money. And most Christians also struggle in this area. And what I mean by that, up to about $100,000 a year, I've learned this just in years of trying to help people with their money at church, that you need some money to catch the little emergencies and to be set aside for when God calls for it, when someone down the street needs their lights paid for a month or so.

And so up to about $100,000 a year, take about $10,000 and make that a basic saving. So if you make $100,000 a year, you got 10,000. If you make $50,000 a year, you got 5,000. I grew up on the Dave Ramsey School of the Baby Step One, some of you would know that language, but that's just not enough money in the days in which we live, at least in my opinion. Dave's a bad man, but that's my opinion on it.

The Bible says in Proverbs 21 and 20, there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up. And so we principally, we want to have some basic money set aside for the glory of God and to catch you know that your your your son you know broke his leg or your daughter needs braces and it would be nice not to put that on plastic. Are y'all okay? I'll get to that part. Number four, a lot 10% to insurance for critical areas.

I don't personally believe that insurance is wicked. I'm open to correction on that, particularly when you don't have the money to self-insure. And so insurance is annoying right up until you need it. Right up until you need it. It's annoying, right?

The Bible says in Proverbs 22 and 3, a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Just think about what you need. If you're the primary breadwinner and you have six beautiful children and the Lord takes you out of here early for his own glory and for reasons we won't fully understand till we're in glory, can your wife, after she cries a little bit, start receiving those checks and there's already a plan laid out on how she makes those checks work for the family going forward. And if you don't have that then why not? I want to challenge you to think about that.

Get some cheap term life insurance, get what you need and then if you die just tell a baby you know I'm right now I'm worth more dead than alive but don't party too hard just Just just just put it in a just just put it in an S&P 500 and let it go and I'll see you in glory And they just pays you every year, you know if the nation continues on we'll you know, Kev can help us with that but Number number five eliminate debt, you know, this is a toughie here No one here is saying that borrowing is wicked or sinful, but I do want to encourage you to think about killing the debt monster. The rich do ruleeth over the poor, and the borrower is in fact servant to the lender and the only one I want to call master is Jesus Christ and so I don't want I want I don't want bill collectors calling I want to get out get out of the debt monster and how it was some of you may be thinking well how do you get out of that well You need to create room in your budget to pay debt down.

That's how you, if you're waiting for the government to fix it, they're not gonna fix it. They never have and they never will. And so you gotta create room in the budget to pay the debt down while you're being content and not buying stuff. And notice that, this doesn't sound very spiritual, but it actually is. Because there are lots of things in play of you saying no to stuff and being patient and waiting.

So creating room, selling something, getting, you know, having a yard sale, maybe not having all the cable packages or different things or whatever you need to do in your particular household And be not one of them that strike his hands in a pledge, or them that are sureties for debts. Why? Because it's risky. And so I don't call it a sin, but it's certainly risky. And we wanna move in that trajectory.

Number six is we wanna live on a spending plan. I use the words spending plan because people hate the word budget. Sounds so restrictive. But good stewardship demands good accounting. It's just the way it is.

How can we manage well for God if we don't know what we're managing and we don't know where what we're managing is going? The proverb, again, proverbs is just a study in this kind of thing. Proverbs 27 and verse 23, be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds for riches are not forever and doth not the crown endure to all generations. Know where the sheep are, know where the valuable things are, know what's happening with them. Well, that's kind of what a spending plan is.

A budget or a spending plan is just a statement encompassing both knowledge and wisdom concerning money. We know what we have, and we've made prayerful decisions on where it's going. That's all it is. And so I wanna encourage you to do that. There are lots of little apps and things out there now to make it easier, but you don't need that.

If you have a yellow pad and a pencil, write down, write it all down and figure it all out. And there's some of you here today, I'm talking right to you, you thinking, how does he know what's going on in my family? And you got bills in the drawer that just sitting there and you're just waiting on the Lord to do something. Well, he's talking to you right now. Go home and pull those bills out and go ahead and take a good look at your financial life, submit everything to God, but then do what God has said.

Get on a plan and let's start knocking this stuff down and getting your family free. How many of you love to be financially free? Right, Free to do what God, that's all we're talking about, just getting freer. Number seven, disciple family and serve others as we build. We never sacrifice children for money.

And so sometimes that means that, you know, dad would want to work extra for this many months, but you know, you just too much time away from the children. And so your plan slows down a little bit so that dad can be home and we're fine with that. We never ever sacrifice children for money. Number eight, invest the surpluses. So once you're out of debt and you got a basic savings and so forth, we start investing now.

Again, that means different things to different believers That might mean your business or that might mean education or that might mean your farm or some of you may be in the markets Some of you do some other things But the bottom line is we want we want what God has given us to grow in some way or another. Again, in the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble. The parable of the talents, we don't have time to go through it, but strongly suggests that the master wants the servants to take what he's given them and cause it to grow. And when he comes to account for them, then they have something to show him. And so principally, we think that pouring your resources into things that move the kingdom along and that grow for the sake of your family are good things.

Number nine, leave an inheritance for that same family. At the end of the house here, we're built the roofs on now, we've laid the foundation, we've gotten out of debt, we've got a basic savings, we're leaving an inheritance. I actually encourage people to raise that savings up. COVID taught me that a year doesn't sound too crazy now of a salary savings, but that's another story. But number nine is leave an inheritance to family.

Every Christian should want to leave a spiritual, relational, physical, and a financial inheritance to their children. Again, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. And so do you have a plan to cause your children to have more than you did? And if something's stopping you like a car payment, it's not worth it. Reassess some things.

If you're driving a big old truck with no life insurance, reassess some things. And then number 10, increase giving. At the end of all of this, when your financial house is built, we want to be the purveyor of more generosity. We want to write bigger checks. We want to move things for the glory of God.

And we do that prayerfully. And we do that with our service. And we do that with our lives. But we can also do that with resources and with money. And so increase your giving as you get as things get a little better.

Many examples in Scripture but you might recall one of the bigger ones is that is the the problem with the Jerusalem Church and the famine and how all the different churches pulled together in the epistles part the collections were going around and these folks were poor and they were doing it. Well, if we're wealthy, we certainly ought to be doing it, right? And so we want to be able, we want to be able to give more and do more for the glory of God. So if you're interested in stuff like this at all, again, I didn't bring it with me, but my website is ccmcloud.com. There's a book on there called Building a Financial House.

Happy to share that with you and talk with you about that. Our heart here is for our homes to stabilize financially, and then once they stabilize, be used as God wants them to be used unto his glory. The key as always is to build every part of our lives on the rock of Christ and may you do that with money too. Amen? Amen.

Thank you. Thank you.