Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Family Finances for Life

Bob Benson

Elsena Benson

Foundational Principles - Part 1

Father God, we thank you so much for an opportunity to learn about finances and how to handle them according to your Word.

So guide us with your Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name.

So today, I thought about what would be an appropriate starting place.

And I thought about how Moses' message to Pharaoh was, let my people go that they might serve me.

And of course, the people that Moses was wanting to free were those who were enslaved and in bondage, and they were not able to go.

And so there had to be some work that God did to help them to get free so they could go and serve God.

And 1 of the things we discovered that Scripture talks about is that if you're a...

If the borrower is servant to the lender, the same word is slave.

So if we can get so enslaved in debt that we aren't free to go and serve God.

I know some people who they thought, you know, we would love to go and serve God, do missions and all that kind of stuff, but they had racked up a debt close to around $300, 000.

And I can tell you that when you go to do service for God, the wages are not necessarily going to sustain paying that money back.

And so they wanted to go, but they couldn't go because they were a slave.

And unless God did a miracle, and unless some priorities change in their life, they would never be able to go.

So 1 of the things we want to do, we believe that we're living in the end of time and we believe that more than just Elisha would be called from the plow of what they're presently doing in their occupation, to be doing some service for God in some capacity where they might not make a lot of money.

They might be living on a faith salary, in fact.

And we need to be able to be free to do that.

So, the quote behind me says, this is Councils and Stewardship, page 111.3, Do all church members realize that all they have is given them to be used and improved to God's glory?

God keeps a faithful account with every human being in our world, and when the day of reckoning comes the faithful steward takes no credit to himself he does not say my pound but thy pound hath gained other pounds you know it's funny because when we go through this you know each 1 of us we look at these quotes that something jumps out at me and something totally different jumps out to him.

But from this quote, what I really love is that last sentence that we don't say, my pound, because nothing that we have belongs to us.

But we say, thy power, God, it earned to you more.

So that's what impressed me, but he had something different he liked.

The first line is talking about, all they have is given them to be used and improved to God's glory.

So everything we have, you know, a lot of times we give from our excess to God and the rest of it we look at as ours, but honestly all of it is to be used to God's glory.

Some of that glory is used to provide for our needs, but some of it is to be used to advance the Kingdom of God in many different capacities.

We've got about 5 or 6, I don't even know how many different points.

So there's a quote, you didn't type that 1 in, did you?

Ken Hughes, he says, "...God can have our money and not our hearts.

But He cannot have our hearts without having our money.

God can have our money without having our hearts.

You can pass some money in the offering plate as it goes by, and your heart can be far from it.

But God cannot have your heart without having your money.

So if you give your heart to God, your heart is moved to give towards the causes.

So we're going to the principle that God owns it all.

David says, the earth is the Lord's and all of his fullness the world and all those who dwell therein." So everything belongs to God.

It's just a principle that He's a Creator and so it is all His.

Psalm 5012, If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all of its fullness.

The same principle will be seen in the following text.

So we just know that it all is owned by God.

We're simply managers of what God has given us.

You could go over and listen to Vicki Griffin talk about stewardship of your body temple, that's part of stewardship.

Cameron DeVay, you're talking about personal ministry, stewardship of truth, that's a part of stewardship.

Stewardship of talent, they're doing painting class over there I saw in the chapel, that's a stewardship of your talents, using that to glorify God as an entering wedge.

We're kind of hitting the narrow part of it.

We're dealing with finances, the stewardship of finances.

So we'll be fleshing that out a little bit more.

He was doing a series on stewardship, And I could not believe how many different areas of our life we're stewards of.

And when we think of stewardship, a lot of times that's what we think of as just money.

But he talked about stewardship of truth.

What do we do with the truth that we have?

Anyway, stewardship just covers a huge area.

And 1 of the points I want to put on God owns it all I'm just gonna put a little story in here It actually comes out of this book Got your money counts and I just love this story because it totally changes your perspective when you think God owns it all So this guy went through a money class and he learned about God's ownership of everything and he had a really nice car now I'm not a big car person but guys are so he was going along and he someone gave him a big long crease in his car and he was just furious because you know it was his car and he has his big long crease and then he just remembered what he had just learned in his financial class and he took a big breath and he stopped and he said God I don't know why you wanted a crease in your car but you got it And it just changed his perspective because it wasn't his car, and he was mad about the crease in his car.

And he said, you know, God, you allowed it?

And it just totally took all the anger and stress out of his life.

So when we can have a different perspective about our money, sorry I hope they can still hear on the tape, it's not our money, it's God's money and it just totally changes the way that we think about everything.

It should take the stress out of our life.

So there's another story of this Christian down in Dallas Fort Worth area and he had a fairly nice car but he noticed that his friends had BMWs and Mercedes Benz and he thought, Lord how come you're withholding me the better things?

How come I have all this stuff withheld from me that other people who have no relationship with you, they're prospering.

How come?" Then he went on a mission trip to Haiti.

And when he came back he said, Lord, I'm totally content with what you've given to me.

So you know, godliness with contentment is great gain.

So we have to align our thinking with scripture as we recognize God owns it all.

Both riches and honor come from you, this is 1 of my favorite texts, and you reign over all.

In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

Now therefore, our God, we thank you and praise you in your glorious name.

But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this for all the things that come from you and of your own we have given you." So what we give back to God, really, is this is anyway.

So the second principle that we're talking about is that we are stewards.

Early Years - Part 2

Father, we're thankful for this opportunity to explore what it means to be good stewards of your resources.

We just ask that you would guide us with your Spirit and with your wisdom to be an effective serving you in Jesus' name we pray.

Early years avoiding financial enslavement.

But Last time we talked a little bit about...

I didn't put down all the points, but just some of the highlights.

We need to learn to trust Him, because everything belongs to Him anyway, right?

And 1 of our responsibilities is to care for our families.

And we're gonna be talking a little bit more about that in the next few days as well.

So we're talking a little bit about the early years, relay the principle last time, foundational principles.

But in the early years, you get things that are having to be decided and you have to decide, am I gonna accept debt or am I gonna try and do it with cash?

A car, that's 1 thing that's gonna be 1 of the things that you're gonna need to make a decision about.

And some of the other ones is gonna be, you're gonna get married at some point, how are you going to finance to do that debt or finance?

So you got education, whether it's trade school or college education or some of those things all may test your mettle as to which way you're going to go.

So this morning we'll look at some of them, we'll ask ourselves how's America doing and do we want to be the average American or do we want to follow some biblical principles as we go?

So we look at cars, 1 thing's for sure a car is a depreciating asset.

In other words when you drive it off the lot, it's about 20% less value than when you bought it.

And when I looked at some reports, they said as of June of 2019, I think that's the month we're in, right?

Average new vehicle loan hit a record debt.

A average vehicle loan is around, for new, is $32, 000.

That's not the cost of the car, that's the cost of the loan.

They might have put some cash down, but just the loan itself is around 32, 000.

Average used vehicle hit a loan record high as well, $20, 000 for a used vehicle, $20, 000.

Lease averages around $430 a month, compared to new 554 and used 391.

You can see that it's quite a bit of money.

So what about some of the other things that we have?

Student loans, 2017 reports that the average student debt was $28, 650.

After coming out of school, 2 years or 4 years, that was the average debt.

So that can create a lot of problems because our goal is to come out debt-free as much as possible so that we can be free to serve God wherever He takes us.

And we'll share a little bit of why that was important in our experience.

Well, wedding costs on average, the average cost was $33, 391 as of last year, 2018.

The median cost is a little less than that, $20, 000.

So you know there's a lot of high-end weddings that have pushed that average up quite a bit.

On average, the median cost is $20, 000 for a wedding.

So this is the class I really wish we had young people because this is what you need to start thinking about before you get there.

Are you going to spend all your money on a one-day event, or can you find some ways of doing it less expensively and using some of that money towards a down payment of a house?

That's a down payment of a house right there.

So in our experience, we actually were pretty thrifty with how we got married.

You got your church family who would donate their labor and you can do a really super great wedding at a lower price.

And because we were so thrifty on that, we were able to take the other money and we were able to make a down payment on a house.

And so our house came out escrow just a day or a few days before we got married.

So we moved all of our stuff in and when we're on our honeymoon we came back to our house it was our house we were making payments on it that was a nice blessing so you have to make a choice you can have a super elaborate wedding and you might be renting a part you know house or something or it sometimes you could Sometimes you're in a position where you can make a simpler wedding, but you can make a long-term investment that will save you thousands and thousands of dollars down the course of time.

Okay, we're going to be talking a lot about children tomorrow, so that's in this phase of your life, that's something that you're going to be thinking about, but We'll deal with that tomorrow.

Insurance is something that people start thinking about.

A lot of insurances are required by law, but you have to figure out how much you want, what kind you want.

Buying a house is a decision you're going to be making.

That's the biggest investment you'll probably make.

The average house in Michigan is listed at $187, 000 as of April this year.

It sells average median price that it sold is $152, 000.

So it's usually the single largest debt that we're going to pick up if we have to pick up that debt.

A lot of times people buy the house that they're gonna want to have in 10 years instead of buying what you need now.

And you're way better off to buy what you need now, knowing that maybe you'll be moving if you need to.

But to buy for the future just puts yourself in an enormous amount of debt that you really don't need.

And you think about the sizes of a starter home now versus the size of a starter home 50 years ago.

And we, as a society, everything is supersized.

And along with that comes supersized debts.

There's 1 other thing that we have on here, and that's establishing a will.

And you don't usually think about a will on the first stage of your life and your marriage life.

But that's really something that you need to start thinking.

It was the night before that Jean was talking about in the evening meeting how you all have a will whether you know it or not.

If you die without a will, the state decides and that's your will.

So do you really want the state deciding what's going to happen with your things or with your children?

That is just not some place that you want to go.

And a lot of people say, well I don't have that much.

And if you're not, if you're not thinking ahead, it also drags it out for your family and it puts it through a lot of chaos that you just if you just make a simple will it prevents a lot of problems so even at this stage in your life which is really early on start thinking about a will.

1 little story that I heard a year or so ago was from an attorney at the conferences in Grand Rapids.

Somebody had not made a will for their children in case she should die, and what do you know, they ended up deceasing.

And they had verbalized they would like their kids to go to 1 of their Adventist relatives should they die.

But in the courts that got changed, they ended up going to homes of non-Adventists.

So non-Adventist relatives were raising their kids, and that was not in harmony with their wishes.

Financially Planning for Kids - Part 3

Father God, thank you so much for a chance again to learn about being good stewards of all of your resources you entrust to us.

So guide us with your wisdom and your spirit we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Today's day 3, Financially planning for kids, training kids and financing advanced education.

So our text is for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

So what are our responsibilities as parents to our kids as they grow up into young adulthood?

We're his stewards and everything we're supposed to be doing is to glorify him.

Yesterday we talked about getting and staying out of debt and budgeting and investing early in your marriage and your health and your savings, all that helps later on.

We talked about the beauty of compound interest and how much it means the earlier you start the better off you are.

A couple things that we kind of missed yesterday and I want to bring it back around.

When we were talking about how we did things I want you guys to all know that we had a head start over most people.

So you're not everyone's gonna be at the same place that we were.

We actually both graduated debt free and we had 2 or 3 years of working double income to get us at a really good start.

So not everybody gets that same advantage.

But just like we said the first day, if you haven't had the benefit of your parents helping you have a good solid start, you can become that for the next generation.

And that's what we're talking about today is passing it on to the next generation.

So I don't want anyone to be discouraged.

And then the other thing is somebody asked a question and I totally missed it when we were talking about budgeting yesterday.

What happens if you have a fluctuating income?

Well that's great if you get a paycheck but if you have a fluctuating income what do you do?

Well what you really have to do is you have to figure out what you make over the course of the year and divide it by 12 and use that.

Now for the first few months if you're making less than it's going to be really tight it's going to be hard but you figure out what you make over the course of the year and divide it by 12 and then every month you set aside those certain amounts for those budget categories and you don't go over it.

Now if you have a month that you get more than what you have budgeted, then you're saving it for the months where you have less.

So you have to even it out yourself over the course of a year.

And it might take a while to catch up, But too often when we have a fluctuating income, we have a month that we have a lot of income so we buy a lot of things and then we have a month that's small income and we don't know where it's coming from.

We have to be disciplined enough to say that this is how much per month and even if I have extra coming in, I'm not spending it.

I'm gonna save it for those months where we're short.

So those are the 2 things that we forgot from yesterday.

All right, today, we're gonna be talking about a Christian home environment.

There's been some really interesting quotes that we found from Ellen White while we were doing this research that just kind of blew my mind.

And I wish that I had been more aware of it or I know I read them but for some reason it went over my head when I had kids.

So this is probably 1 of the things that I wish I could go back and do over.

But we're going to read you some quotes and see what you think about this stuff.

When you have a holiday, make it a pleasant and happy day for your children, and make it also a pleasant day for the poor and the afflicted.

Do not let the day pass without bringing thanksgiving and thanksgivings to Jesus.

Let our parents and children now make earnest effort to redeem the time, and to remedy their past neglect.

Let them follow a different course of action from that which the world follows." And you know, he highlighted the redeeming of time part.

And for me, if I was highlighting it, I would talk about how we need to follow a different course of action from what the world follows.

And when you look at what the world does now, it is so totally different than what God would have us to do.

And I even think about what the world is now compared to when we had kids or even back when I was a kid.

For instance, it talks about, does it say birthday?

Parents are to train their children in habits of self-control and self-denial.

They are to educate their children that there is need of living in accordance with the simple habits of their daily life, and to avoid expensive dress, expensive diet, expensive houses, and expensive furniture." And I don't think that we as a society teach our children that.

I'm hoping that we as Christians do, but I know as a society this is so far from what we practice in our society now.

On birthday anniversaries and Christmas and Thanksgiving festivals, I'm sorry, Our birthday anniversaries and Christmas and Thanksgiving festivals are too often devoted to selfish gratification, when the mind should be directed to the mercy and loving kindness of God.

If all the money that was used extravagantly for needless things were placed in the treasury of God.

We should see men and women and youth giving themselves to Jesus and doing their part to cooperate with Christ and the angels.

The richest blessings of God would come into our churches and many souls would be converted to the truth." You know, talking about, oh, the money that goes out on holidays, you know, how soon does the store start stocking Christmas?

Oh my word, and the amount of money that goes out.

And it used to be Christmas and Thanksgiving, but now it's Halloween and Easter and St.

And I mean, all these little holidays that used to be nothing, there is an enormous outlay of money that goes into these holidays.

So some things we learned when we were with younger kids, for 1 Thanksgiving we actually were able to go to a soup kitchen.

And you know, just teaching the kids, it's not about getting and all the nice things.

And we had a decent Thanksgiving meal, don't get me wrong.

But we also wanted to have them have the privilege of serving others who didn't have something so much to be thankful for.

1 of the things we did is we made hot chocolate for the garbage truck driver coming through, for the fire department.

We made cookies and went and visited them Christmas Eve.

Just spreading around the cheer to get the focus off of what can I get out of it for me?

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Family Finances for Life

Planning for Retirement - Part 4

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Parent Series

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Recorded

Parts

Foundational Principles - Part 1

43m

Early Years - Part 2

57m

Financially Planning for Kids - Part 3

56m

Planning for Retirement - Part 4

46m

Enjoying the Rewards of Financial Faithfulness - Part 5

1h 1m

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