Wrap Up on Mad Money

Wednesday, January 23rd

We just completed our three week series called Mad Money. We called it that because when people live by God’s principles in their finances, people INITIALLY think they are crazy. It was a play off of the passage in 1 Corinthians 4:10 where the apostles called themselves “Fools for Christ.”

Doing life God’s way can seem foolish, at least initially, especially in the area of our finances. But over time, as people continue down the path of American greed and we continue down the path of frugality and generosity, people will begin to realize, “Maybe these guys aren’t so crazy after all!” As Christian financial counselor Dave Ramsey says, “If we live like no-one else now, we can live like no-one else later.”

In the sermon series I challenged everyone to make three commitments. Each week’s sermon was focused on teaching one commitment…

1. I COMMIT TO LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS AND AVOID CONSUMER DEBT

2. I COMMIT TO TITHE AN AMOUNT THAT EQUALS 10% OF MY INCOME TO GOD THROUGH CCV

3. I COMMIT TO CULTIVATE AN APPROACH TO LIVING THAT CONSISTENTLY BUILDS WEALTH INSTEAD OF DEPLETING IT.

Since the series was only three weeks, I left out the fourth commitment that I would have loved to have put in there to round it out...

4. I COMMIT TO ALLOW GOD TO USE THE WEALTH HE HAS ENTRUSTED TO ME TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Yesterday a new guy to CCV emailed me and shared with me his story. I thought it was pretty inspiring. Here it is...

Brian,

I scheduled myself off today from everything to spend time walking and riding my bike in the cold with my family today. After some hot chocolate, I listened to all three Mad Money sermons via the website. Yes, the cold did not short circuit any brain synapses. I actually wanted to listen once again to the hope that these messages will give people if they only apply them.

You see, Karis and I just started attending church here for about a month now. We have 2 great young boys, Dominic and Gabriel and we had a home church back in the State College area that was fantastic. We have been purposely "Living like no one else now in order to live like no-one else tomorrow" for many years now. Four to be exact. We have tithed every bit of 10%+ to our local church and we have never gone without anything. We have no consumer debt at all and our cars were paid for in cash. We moved from a near 3000 sq.ft house with land to a small modest townhouse that is almost half the square footage of our last home. We made it a goal not to forgo the most precious gift I can give my family -- my undivided attention to my God, wife and children.

In the beginning when I decided that "enough was enough" we found it to be very difficult to cut back since it was our habits that lead to many financial decisions that could have been better handled if we had proper thinking. We found it difficult to say no to friends when they asked us to go out to the movies, dinner or ball games. We shamefully said "no" since we didn't have enough in our budget that month to do the things we thought we were entitled to do. My wife started cutting my hair. My personal spending, clothing allowance and sport entertainment was severely cut in order to meet our financial goals. My wife made some drastic sacrifices as well. Our bad habits outweighed our duel professional and business incomes.

Today, we are in an area of greater influence. Karis is home with the boys and is not concerned about tomorrow’s bills. I am doing what I love to do and we continue to live well below our means. At my current age of 40, we have a written goal for me to retire from daily work at 46, but this will not by any means help me to retire from my mission.

John Maxwell shares. "Let me spend a day with you and I will tell you where you will be in 5 years.” My habits and thinking got me to where I was then and where I am today.

I humbly write this to let you know that it was someone like you that shared this information and it set us free. I pray that other families vigorously apply what God placed on your heart and mind to share.

Mario