ALL IN | Week Three 

This is the most practical message I have ever taught!  If you are going ALL IN, then you will  immediately be presented with REAL life decisions on HOW to make it work.

Going ALL IN is going to involve REAL life decisions.  Hard decisions! Lifestyle Changes.

YOU CAN DO IT.  YOU CAN DIE. YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR FUTURE, by changing your heart and habits today!

One of the first places where going ALL IN affects you is in your finances.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOUR FINANCES WHEN YOU ARE “ALL IN WITH THE ALL IN ALL”?

MYTH:       My Money is Separate from my Faith
TRUTH:     No One can Serve Two Masters

Mammon uses money to get ahold of people’s hearts. It promises everything that only God can provide.

Matthew 6:24“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

”How many of you are the main provider in your home?” (none of you should be…)

MYTH:       I am the Provider for my Home.
TRUTH:     God Owns Everything

Genesis 2:15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

Leviticus 25:23  The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.

Psalms 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things …

Embrace your position as a steward

If you are ALL IN for the ALL in ALL, then God is the ALL in ALL.  You aren’t!

God is our provider.

MYTH:  My Raise Will Give Me Financial Margin!
TRUTH: Most Americans lose the extra within months.

Most people think that more money will be the solution to their problems. Statistics show that within 2 years you will completely destroy any bonus or raise.  If you don’t make good stewardship decisions, you will be at the same level of poverty regardless of raises and bonuses.

“Oh but that is because they aren’t that big…right?” No.

According to CBSNews:

• 78% of NFL players are bankrupt or in serious financial trouble 2 years after they retire.
• 90% of lottery winners go through their entire winnings in 5 years.

The world’s system is designed to create need.  Commercials want you to be discontented with what you own.

A number of years ago an American company opened a factory in Central America. Their reasons for setting up shop there were typical: They could pay the workers in this third-world nation much less money than workers in the U.S. This, of course, would increase their bottom line. Now even though they paid these workers much less than their counterparts in the States, they still paid them much more than any of them had ever made. After two weeks of operation, the workers were paid on Friday. On Monday, none of them showed up for work. The factory was empty. The American managers were dumbfounded. Why had none of the workers returned? They pondered the situation and soon realized that the wage they paid these workers for two weeks of labor was more than enough for them to support their families for several months at the same standard of living they had always had. So the managers came up with this ingenious plan. They distributed copies of the latest Sears catalog to everyone in the villages surrounding the factory. Before long, workers returned to the factory in droves. The managers had succeeded in making them discontent.

Determine your lifestyle – how much is enough?  If God increases your income double in the next 2 years, what will happen to the excess?

The world says that the more you have, the more you need.

Lock in your lifestyle where God has called you to serve and minister.  At some point you draw the line and figure out what is extravagant.  This is determined based on location and the people group that God has called you to.

Get to a place where margin grows and Build God’s Kingdom –where what we are making increases and what we are needing decreases.

This space is where we grow the kingdom is significant.  We could get to a 50% living to giving ratio.

MYTH: I will always have a car payment (debt)
TRUTH: You Can Become Financially Free

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender”. Proverbs 22:7

Cars are never paid off because we think we are always going to have a payment. Therefore, why not go get another one before this one is paid off.  Then, EVEN if we are upside down in the payment and owe more than it is worth, we continue to pile up more and more debt.  Many people go into purchases thinking, can I afford that monthly payment.  If you are going into a new loan payment ONLY thinking about how to make the monthly payments work (not about terms such as interest, years, etc), then you are thinking wrong!

You Can Become Financially Free – You won’t always have debt.  Eliminate debt. Debt is the number one crippling factor in freedom and peace in finances.  It starts with the desire for more and inability to maintain lifestyle.

AS long as my focus is on money (DEBT), we are unable to focus on the main objective: WHAT GOD HAS CALLED US TO.

MYTH: I know what I spend My Money on!
TRUTH: 32% of Americans Budget their Finances

Most people think they already know what they spend.  They know what their bills are, however, they don’t realize the amount on daily expenses.

Manage what you have been given – When we manage, we create margin.

Then, you are able to give consistently and not one time or our of guilt/coercion.  Many are frustrated because they have a generous heart, but they are unable to give because they are financially inept.

It is a lie to believe that if we just had enough money we would be ok.

God believes you can make it on what ever you are making (including tithes).

Philippians 4:18 At the moment I have all I need—and more (wants)! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

If you are ALL IN for Jesus and don’t have what you NEED then you could manage it differently.

Contentment comes from knowing that he has given me enough to do what I need to do and so I steward what HE has given me.

Once we get on a budget and we are unable to purchase things, we can be tempted to live in a “I can’t afford it” Mentality  If so, you are saying that God hasn’t given us enough.

Instead of saying ‘we can’t afford it.” (meaning God is not enough)  We should say, ‘we choose not to do it.”

That means that we are making good choices for future and working in union with what God has given you.

How do we turn the corner?  How do we get out of the mess/commitments we are in?

Joe Sangl and IWBNIN (I Was Broke, Now I’m Not) offers a compelling 6 week small group curriculum, free online budgeting tools, a very easy to read book, and other tools.  At PromiseLand, we offer FREE 1 on 1 financial coaching that will help you eliminate debt and establish savings based on Joe’s model.  EMAIL WILL for more info.

Dave Ramsey’s 9 week Financial Peace University is a thorough plan to get you going to freedom!  There is a fee for this course. It is offered periodically at PSM.  Email WILL  for more info.