Financial Guardrails

Guardrails – Part 2

Financial Guardrails

Guardrails are…

·       designed to keep vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limit areas.

·       purposed to direct and to protect

·       placed in SAFE ZONES, not in the actual areas of danger.

Guardrails can also be  standards of behavior.

Financial Guardrails

God doesn’t want something FROM you, he wants something FOR you.

·       There are more than 2000 references to money and possessions in the Scriptures.

·       Nearly half of Jesus’ parables dealt in some way with money and stuff.

Here are some things I know about you:

1- You are living on a percentage of your income.

2- Many of you probably don’t know what that percentage is.

3- You think if you had a little more everything would be good.

Luke 16:10–13 (ESV) ¹⁰ “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Learn to manage what you HAVE; live by .

Setting up a guardrail means to choose to live on a percentage of your income.

That means you can SAVE money. You sleep better. Your stress goes down.

¹¹ If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

¹² And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

·        Nothing we “own” on this planet is really ours. It really belongs to God.

Malachi 3:10 (NIV) ¹⁰ “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

Chose to live on a percentage of your income: % is a good recommendation.

·        Give 10% back to God.

·        Save 10%.

·        Live on the rest.

Give, Save, Live.

Deuteronomy 14:23b (TLB) The purpose of tithing is to teach you always to put God first in your lives.

Choose to trust God in this area

So you learn to trust God in all areas.

God wants us to learn to trust him by tithing because it’s a way to find out he is faithful in other areas.

 
¹³ “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

The biggest competition God has for your heart is not the Devil.

It’s .

• Jesus says you’re going to prefer one way or the other.

Give, Save, Live.

1-     The first thing to do when money comes to you is give some back to God. This invites God into your finances to prove he is faithful.

2-     The 2^nd place to put your money is in savings.

3-     Live on what is left.