THE FOUNDATION OF FINANCIAL HEALTH

Financial Fitness – Part 1

Rick Warren
Oct. 1-2, 2011

SEVEN PRINCIPLES: MATT. 25:14-30

“The Kingdom of Heaven will be like a man going on a journey. He called his three servants
together and entrusted his property to them.” Matt. 25:14

1. POSSESSON

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“To one servant he gave five talents of money, to another two talents of money, and to
another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he left on his journey.” Matt. 25:15

2. ALLOCATION

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“The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and
gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents also doubled his money. But the man
who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and just hid his master's
money.” Matt. 25:16-18

“After a long time the Master of the three servants returned to settle his accounts.”
Matt. 25:19

3. ACCOUNTABILITY

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“The man who had received five talents brought the other five he had made. „Master,‟ he
said, „you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.‟ His master replied,
„Well done, good and faithful servant!‟” Matt. 25:20-21

“Then the servant with the two talents of money also came. „Master,‟ he said, „you entrusted
me with two talents; now see that I have gained two more!‟ His master replied, „Well done,
good and faithful servant!‟” Matt.25:22-23

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. „Master,‟ he said, „I knew that you
are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not
scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is
what belongs to you.‟ His master replied, „You wicked, lazy servant!‟” Matt. 25:24-26
THE FOUNDATION OF FINANCIAL HEALTH
Financial Fitness – Part 1

“You should have at least put my money into the bank so I could make some interest!”
Matt. 25:27

4. UTILIZATION

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5. MOTIVATION
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“I was afraid and went out and hid your money in the ground.” Matt. 25:25

“Take away the money from this servant and give it to the one with ten talents. To those who
use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance! But
for those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.” Matt. 25:28-29

6. APPLICATION

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7. COMPENSATION

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“The Master replied, „Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a
few things, I will now put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master‟s
happiness!” Matt. 25:21

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 THE FOUNDATION OF FINANCIAL HEALTH
Financial Fitness – Part 1
Rick Warren
Oct. 1-2, 2011

Hello Saddleback! It‟s good to see you all this weekend. This is the first official weekend of fall
and we‟re getting ready to begin a brand new major series that I‟ve been waiting to do really all
year. I‟m very excited about this series.

Decade of Destiny is a three year emphasis of our church family. During Decade of Destiny we
have about a dozen major initiatives that we‟re doing together as a church family. One of those
major initiatives, one of the twelve in Decade of Destiny, is what we‟re calling the Get Healthy
Initiative. It is an initiative on the balanced life. During the Healthy Life Initiative, over the next
three years, we‟re looking at seven key areas of your life that you need to get healthy in, that you
need to get fit in, that you need to get strong in, so your life is balanced, less stressful and more
peaceful.

The seven key areas that we‟re going to look at: physical health; we‟re looking at spiritual
health; we‟re going to do a module on emotional health; we‟re going to do one on relational and
family health; we‟re going to do one on mental health; we‟re going to do a series on vocational
health (your career); one on financial health. We‟re doing seven key areas of life over the next
three years.

We decided to start with the physical because if you‟re out of energy you don‟t have any strength
to do all the other changes in your life. So you remember at the beginning of this year, we
started with a series on physical health and we launched what was the Daniel Plan. Over twelve
thousand of you have signed up with that and you‟re actually looking better and better every
week. I don‟t want to say that our church is shrinking but it is, because we‟ve lost about a
quarter of a million pounds. In fact, if you‟re doing the Daniel Plan, sometime during a boring
part of this sermon, pull out a little card and write down a progress report for me. We want to
add up all of the pounds lost. If you‟ve been a part of this and you‟ve lost, let us know. We‟re
actually going to make a video and we‟re going to do some before and after pictures. Kind of
like the Jenny Craig shots – before and after. (Before I was a hunk of burning love – now I‟m a
tinier hunk of burning love!)

So we‟ve done physical. Now this fall we‟re going to go into the second module beginning this
weekend with a major series on financial health.

I‟m real excited about this for a couple of reasons. First, we‟re going to study two of my favorite
books of the Bible – the book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes. They‟re in the Old
Testament and written by Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. I love these books. They are
literally filled, chock-filled, with advice on how to get out of debt, how to stay out of debt, how
to prosper, how to have financial stability, how to save, spend, invest, not waste your money,
make the most of it, have your money work for you not you work for money. A lot of principles.
We‟re going to be looking at the laws, the financial laws, that are in the Bible, in God‟s Word.
And there are twenty, thirty of these we‟re going to look at during this series.
THE FOUNDATION OF FINANCIAL HEALTH

The other reason why I‟m excited about it is because I know we need it right now. We are now
three years into a major recession. There are more people out of work right now than ever in our
lifetime. There are more people under the poverty level in America than ever in our lifetime.
More people are classified as legitimately poor right now than ever before. There are more
people right now with their home upside down. In other words, they owe more on it than it‟s
worth, than ever before. We have eleven percent of our church family out of work.

I care about you and I‟m praying about this all the time. Yet we voted a year ago as a church to
not participate in the recession. We said, we‟re just not going to be a part of that. We‟re going
to do our own personal recovery program. We‟re not going to wait on the government for it.
There are principles in God‟s Word that he says if you do these things I will bless you. I‟m very,
very excited about that.

Before we look at Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we start looking at these laws of financial freedom,
laws of financial fitness, laws of financial blessing in your life, I want us to look first at what
Jesus said about it. Jesus talked more about money than he did about heaven or hell. Did you
know that? He talked more about money than heaven or hell. Why? Because we spend more
time thinking about money than heaven or hell. We spend much of our time thinking about how
to get it, how to make it, how to save it, how to spend it, how to invest it, how to protect it, how
to insure it and all the other things. It dominates much of our lives.

So Jesus had a lot to say about money management. He also told us that money management is a
spiritual discipline. That God is actually watching how I handle my wealth to see what he can
trust me with, in true spiritual riches in heaven.

Jesus, when he told the parables, the famous stories of Jesus, over half of the parables that Jesus
told deal with material possessions. So there is a lot of material in the Bible on how to get out of
debt, how to stay out of debt, how to control money instead of having it control you.

This weekend before we begin Proverbs and Ecclesiastes I want us to look at Matthew 25.
We‟re going to look at the story that Jesus told there. This is called the Parable of the Talents.

Many people misunderstand this parable because it has the word “talent” in it. When we hear the
word “talent” we think of gifts, abilities, your shape, your personality, your spiritual gifts, your
heart, the things you love to do, what you‟re naturally good at. The English word “talent”
actually comes from this chapter in the Bible. Before Jesus told this story, the word “talent”
didn‟t exist. But a talent is actually a measurement of money. While this does have application
to your talents, your gifts, your abilities, this is actually a parable, a story about money
management. A talent was a specific weight of gold. There was a Babylonian talent, a Greek
talent, and there was a Roman talent which was a specific amount of money. So we‟re going to
look at it.

In this chapter, starting in verse 14, we have a story of a rich businessman. Jesus tells this story
of a guy who‟s very, very wealthy. You know that by what he gives his servants to take care of.
He says I‟m going to go away on a trip. I‟m going to be gone for a long time so I‟m going to put
you in charge of my property. And he divides up his wealth. In those days there weren‟t any
banks, so you didn‟t keep your money in banks. He‟s got all of his wealth at home and he
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divides his wealth up among his three servants and says I expect you guys to make the most of
this, and when I come back we‟ll see what happens. So he‟s gone for a long time and later the
businessman comes back home and says, Ok, give me an account. What did you guys do with
my money?

They tell the story. Two of the guys have a good report. One of the guys has a bad report. Then
Jesus draws some spiritual truths out of it.

Out of this story, we learn seven foundations for financial fitness. If you ever needed to take
notes, you need to take notes this weekend. These are foundations to base the stability of your
life on in order to become all God wants you to be.

In Matthew 25:14, the beginning of the story. It says this, “The Kingdom of heaven [Jesus said]
will be like a man going on a journey [this businessman] and he called his three servants
together and he entrusted his property to them.”

Circle the word “his” there in that verse. It says “He called his three servants together and
entrusted his property to them.” So when we‟re talking about money here, whose money are we
talking about? The money owned by the master or the money owned by the servants? The
master. It‟s not the servants‟ money. It‟s the master‟s money that he‟s giving to them to take
care of.

This by the way, is called stewardship. You‟ve heard this word before – steward or stewardship.
That‟s the old English word for “manager.” Any of you who are managers or involved in
management in a business are actually stewards. A steward is a manager and stewardship simply
means management. We are called to be stewards of our time – manage our time. We are called
to be stewards of our influence. We are called to be stewards of our health, of our minds, of our
relationships, of our opportunities. Everything you have you are to be steward of or a manager
of.

He says here “He entrusted his property to his servants.” This is the first law of financial
freedom. It is this.

1. The law of Possession is this: Everything I have belongs to God.

I need to just settle that one right up front. It‟s not my money. It all belongs to God.

You say, “But wait a minute! I worked for this!” Where do you think you got your body to
work for it? Where do you think you got your mind to work for it? Where do you think you got
your energy to work for it? Where do you think you got your intelligence to work for it?
Everything you have is a gift from God. So you don‟t really own anything in life. It‟s all on
loan.

Someday I‟m going to write a book and the first sentence of the book will be “What you think
you own is really on loan.” I didn‟t own anything before I was born. I didn‟t bring anything into
the world. I‟ve been there at the birth of all of my babies and grandbabies. None of them came
in bringing a satchel full of money. You didn‟t bring anything into the world and I‟ve been there
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at the other end too, at the funerals, nobody takes it out with them. You never see a hearse
driving a U-Haul.

So you only get to use it while you‟re here. It‟s God‟s money. God loaned it to somebody
before you. He‟s loaned it to you for eighty years. And he‟s going to loan it to somebody else
after you die. You don‟t own it. It‟s all under management. The master owns it all. God is the
owner.

This is really important because we tend to forget it. We forget and when we forget it, you know
what the sign is that you‟ve forgotten that it‟s God‟s and not yours? When you think it‟s yours,
you worry about it. Worry is a sign that you think it‟s all yours.

Let‟s say you had a beach house and you say, “Rick, I‟m going to go to Spain for a year. We‟re
going to let you and Kay use our beach house for a year.” So we use your beach house for a
year. You call up a year later and say, “We think we‟re going to stay. We‟re having good times
and we‟re going to stay another year in Spain. Use our beach house for another year.” On the
third year you call up again and say go ahead and use it for a third year. By this time I‟m starting
to think “This is mine.” You come home about year four and you say, “I‟m ready to move back
in.” I say, “What do you mean? You‟re not moving in here. This is my house. Possession is
nine tenths of the law! It‟s mine now.”

We tend to think because God has loaned it to us for an extended period of time that it‟s ours.
It‟s not. If you would remind yourself of this first truth every day you‟d worry a whole lot less.

The next verse, verse 15, it says, this master who loans his money out, “To one servant he gave
five talents of money. To another he gave two talents of money. To another he gave one talent of
money.”

What‟s he talking about here? A talent, a Roman talent, is seventy-one pounds of gold. Today
and yesterday, gold was sixteen hundred dollars an ounce. That means if you got a talent of gold
you got one point eight million dollars. This is not a small investment. If you got two talents,
which he gave to one guy, Jesus gave you three point six million dollars to take care of while
he‟s gone. If he‟s given you five talents, he‟s just given you nine million dollars to take care of.
This is not a small amount. He‟s really trusting.

God has made a huge investment in you. We‟ll talk about that later. But the first law, the law
that God possesses everything; it all belongs to him.

Then the second law it says, He gives five talents to one, two talents to another, one talent of
gold to another, “…each according to his ability” then he left on his journey.

2. This is the law of Allocation. It is this: God has loaned me money.

I just talked about that. You don‟t really own it. He‟s loaning it to you for thirty, forty, fifty,
sixty, eighty, ninety, at the most, a hundred years.

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You notice in this story that Jesus tells, everybody gets a different amount. It‟s obvious. We‟re
all not equally wealthy. We‟re not all equally of the same economic status. It says one guy got
one talent. Some guy gets two talents. Some guy gets five talents of gold. The point is this:
everybody gets something.

There are no, no-talent people in the world. If you‟re breathing, that is a blessing. If you are
alive, that in itself is a blessing. Everybody gets something. And they all begin to go out.
Notice verse 16, “The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to
work. [Circle the phrase “put his money to work”] and gained five more talents of gold. So the
one with two talents also doubled his money. But the man who had received the one talent went
off, dug a hole in the ground, and just hid his master‟s money.”

There are a couple things I want to point out here. The first is this: Money is a tool to be used.
You put it to work. You use money and you love people. If you get that reversed you‟re going
to be in trouble. Because if you start loving money, you will use people. People are to be loved;
money is to be used. You are to never love money. You‟re to use it. It is a tool to use.

You say, “But isn‟t money the root of all evil? Isn‟t that what the Bible says?”

That‟s not what the Bible says. The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil. It says “The
love of money is the root of all evil.” Money is totally neutral. It can be used for good or for
bad. It could be use by Hitler to bomb Europe or it could be used by churches to spread the good
news and feed the hungry. You can use it for very selfish centered purposes. Or you can use it
for very unselfish purposes. You can use it to create businesses and products that bless the entire
world. Money is a neutral thing. It‟s neither good nor bad. It‟s what you do with it.

But he says, put your money to work. One of the things we‟re going to learn in the next several
weeks together is how to put your money to work. The reason why most people are in debt and
the reason why most people never get out of debt is because they‟re always working for their
money instead of having their money work for them. You‟ve got to reverse it. It‟s a whole
different way of thinking about money.

You‟ve got to learn how to put your money to work for you instead of you working for money.
If you work for money you will always be needing more. You will always be in debt. But if you
learn how to make money work for you then money becomes your servant. Money is a
wonderful servant; it is a terrible master. You know it‟s a master when it causes stress in your
life. Then it‟s mastering you, it‟s controlling you.

It says he gives the money out to these three servants. One goes out and invests it, puts it to
work. Another goes out and puts it to work. A third goes out and hides it in the ground.

Here‟s the point: You get to choose what you do with what God gives you. You don‟t get to
choose what you‟re given. Some people are given one talent, some people are given five talents,
some people are given ten talents, some people are given two talents. There‟s just different
amounts. But you do get to choose what you do with it. And what you do with it is what God is
watching.

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When you get to heaven one day, God is not going to say, “Why weren‟t you more like your
brother? Why weren‟t you more like your dad? Why weren‟t you more like your mother?” No.
You are only responsible for the talents you‟ve been given. And I‟m talking about not just
money but your time and your abilities and all these other different things. When you get to
heaven God is never going to compare you to anybody else. You can‟t say, “You only gave me
one talent. You gave that guy five talents.” God isn‟t going to say, Who are you talking about?
God wants to know “What did you do with what you were given? Not what I gave somebody
else, but what I gave you.” So God says, You get to choose what you do with the money I gave
you.

What can you do with that money? You can waste it. And there are plenty of ways to waste it.
You can spend it. You can use it. You can invest it. You can hoard it. There‟s lots of ways and
God let‟s you choose which way you want to do it. But you will have to give an account one day
for the reasons you chose to do what you did with the money he loaned to you while you were
alive.

This is a test. One day you‟re going to have to explain it. That‟s why in verse 19 it says “After a
long time the master of the three servants returned to settle his accounts.” Circle “accounts.” It
says he returned to settle his accounts.

This is the next law, the third law. The third law is the Law of Accountability.

3. The law of Accountability is this: One day God will audit me.

One day God is going to audit me. He‟s going to come and settle accounts. There‟s going to be
a final exam on the life God gave you. It will be a life audit. Not by the IRS but by the GOD.
The difference between the IRS and the GOD is God has all the records. You don‟t have to
bring any to that audit. He‟s already got it. He‟s seen everything you‟ve ever done with your
time, with your words, with your money, with your life. The times you used it for good and the
times you just flat out blew it. But you will give an account one day. And it is foolish to go
through life thinking that I‟m not going to have an audit at the end of life. Do you think that God
would create you, put you on this planet, and then at the end say, “What did you do with your
life? I created you; I made you for a reason.” So there is going to be this audit.

God has made an investment in you. He has given you certain gifts, certain abilities, certain
opportunities. He‟s given you certain resources. He‟s given you a certain heritage. He‟s given
you certain freedoms. He‟s given you a certain amount of intellect and intelligence and energy.
He‟s going to go, “What did you do with all that stuff?” “I made a lot of money, retired, and
died.” Wrong answer! “Do you think I put you on earth to live for yourself? Really! Do you
think I put you on earth to live simply for yourself? And to stockpile a bunch of things you‟re
not going to take with you anyway when you die. Life is not the acquisition of things. You‟ve
seen that pumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” No, the sticker should say,
“He who dies with the most toys still dies.” And he wasted his life. Life is not about the
acquisition of things because you‟re not taking any of it with you. It all belongs to God. And
God has loaned it to me. He‟s watching what I do with it and one day I‟m going to give an
account of how well I used the money, the resources, the time, the energy – all the things that
God gave me.
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The Bible says this in Romans 14:12 “Each of us will give an account of himself to God.” It‟s
fun to be irresponsible. But you can‟t be irresponsible your entire life. My guess is when you
got out of high school you either a) went off and tried to get a job or b) went to college. Either
way, whether you went to college or to work, there were probably a few years in there you were
just slacking around. Thinking “I‟m out of the house; I‟m going to have some fun.” And you
were kind of irresponsible. You sleep in, you don‟t really try to get a job, you watch cartoons
and eat cocoa puffs and play video games and things like that.

But at some point you have to wake up and go, “Excuse me! I‟ve got to get a life! I can‟t be
irresponsible my entire life.” It might work for a year or two but the master‟s going to come
back and I‟m going to give an account. Irresponsibility never lasts. It always catches you in the
end.

And that‟s what happens to people when they get in debt. We are financially irresponsible and it
eventually catches up with us. And the chickens come home to roost.

Right now America is reeling in the results of decades of overspending. And how the most
blessed and the most prosperous and the most wealthy nation in the world can be on the verge of
bankruptcy is amazing. But it can happen. All you have to do is just spend trillions and trillions
and trillions of dollars and keep spending it. You cannot be irresponsible forever. At some point
you have to man up.

The law of Accountability says this: One day God‟s going to say, What did you do with what I
gave you? Notice these three guys had three different responses.

The first guy‟s got a good report. He‟s got a good ROI – Return On his Investment. In verse 20-
21 it says “The man who received five talents brought the other…[remember this was about nine
million bucks] brought the other five he had made. „Master,‟ he said „You entrusted me with five
talents. See? I‟ve gained five more.‟ His master replied, „Well done, good and faithful servant!‟
[I guess so! He got a hundred percent return. I‟d be happy for a tenth of that today, wouldn‟t
you? A hundred percent return. He doubled his investment. This guy bought Google. He got in
on the front end of Amazon or something and his stock has really soared. He doubled his
investment. A hundred percent return.

The same for the second guy. The second guy has another good return and good report to share.
Verse 22, “The servant who was given two talents of money also came and said, „Master, you
entrusted me with two talents; now see that I have gained two more!‟ [He‟s doubled his] And his
master replied „Well done, good and faithful servant.‟” A hundred percent on his investment.

The third guy does not have a good story to tell because he has not used what God gave him
wisely. He doesn‟t have a good report. Verse 24,“Then the man who had received one talent
came and said, „Master, I knew that you are a hard man [Notice he‟s turning the tables. He‟s
trying to put the blame on his boss. Master, I knew that you are a hard man] harvesting where
you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid [afraid of
losing your money] and I went out and I hid your talent in the ground. [I buried it.] Here‟s what

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belongs to you.‟ [Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What is the master‟s reply to this servant?]
„You wicked, lazy servant.‟”

Let‟s just tear this apart a minute. This story is in the Bible for a reason. This guy buries what
God has given him. He does nothing with it. He doesn‟t use his talent. Then he blames his
master for his own mismanagement, for his failure. He says, “I‟m a victim!”

We‟ve got people doing this today; they mess up their lives and they don‟t know what to do. So
they blame the government or they blame the boss or they blame their parents. They blame
everybody else. God didn‟t cause you to put all those expenses on your credit card. God didn‟t
tell you to go buy a brand new car when you couldn‟t afford it. God didn‟t tell you to go buy a
house that you couldn‟t afford. The Bible says this in Proverbs 19:3, “People ruin themselves by
their own stupid actions and then blame the Lord.” You‟ve heard me say this before: Anytime I
blame, you spell “blame” b-lame. Every time I blame you for my problems I am being lame.

Notice the master‟s response to this guy‟s whining. He says in verse 27 “You should have at
least put my money in the bank so I could make some interest.” Just put it in a passbook account.
It‟s not making anything but that‟s better than digging a hole in the ground and just burying it.
You could have at least made some money on it.

This leads us to the fourth law of financial freedom. And it is the Law of Utilization.

4. The law of Utilization is this: I must wisely use God’s money.

God expects me to use what I‟ve got. Not to hoard it, not to sit on it, not to hide it, not to bury it,
not to deny it. But money is a tool and it is meant to be used. It is not meant to be stockpiled.

Money is like manure. If you spread it all around it helps things grow – like fertilizer. But if
you pile it up it just starts stinking. Money‟s like fertilizer. You don‟t pile it up. God says
money is to be used.

God expects me to invest what he loans me. This third guy, what‟s the problem with him? He‟s
cautious, he‟s conservative. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. He just sits on it. He takes what
his master has given him and doesn‟t do anything with it.

Does this upset the master? Are you kidding? The master says, “You wicked, lazy servant.”
Doesn‟t that seem a little strong to you? I was afraid of losing it so I didn‟t do anything with it
and the master says to him, you‟re wicked.

That‟s not a word we would usually use for money mismanagement. But what he‟s saying here
is this: This is a serious sin. When we think of the word “wicked” we think of rape. We think of
murder. When I think of wicked I think of child abuse. I think of sex trafficking. I think of
forced slavery and bondage. I think of those things as wickedness.

But you know what God says? He‟s saying, “Rick, it‟s wicked any time you misuse or abuse the
resources I gave you. If you don‟t use them wisely, that‟s wicked.” This is a test. I put you on
earth to see if I could trust you. If I can‟t trust you in heaven with greater responsibilities, if I
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can‟t trust you on earth with some serious money management issues... He said, doing nothing is
inexcusable.

That‟s true with everything. Doing nothing with your talent. You just sit on it and don‟t use your
talent. Doing nothing with your money. You just sit on it, you don‟t use it. Doing nothing with
your time – you just sit on it instead of using it. You don‟t invest it. The greatest use of your life
is to invest it in that which will outlast it. He says, you should have at least put it in the bank;
you didn‟t even try. You didn‟t make any effort. You‟ve done nothing.

What did you do with it? He says, “I buried it.” What do we do when we bury something? We
bury things to forget them. I don‟t want to think about this. I don‟t want to face it. I don‟t want
to deal with the responsibility. Money is too big of a responsibility so I don‟t want to think about
it. That‟s how many people get deeply in debt; they don‟t want to think about it. “I know I‟m
not making it. I know I‟m going deeper and deeper in debt every month. So I just won‟t think
about it. I‟ll just pretend it doesn‟t exist. I‟ll bury it. I‟ll bury my financial problems and just
ignore the fact that my credit card is getting bigger and bigger every month.”

Friends, easy credit plus ignorance and being in the dark about your finances is guaranteed
disaster. One of the points we‟re going to look at, one of the laws, is knowing where your
money‟s coming from, knowing where it‟s going, knowing where you‟ve got it, and knowing
what you‟re doing with it.

What is he saying here in this story? Why does he tell us this story? He‟s saying you can‟t
please God in your life by doing nothing. You say, “Rick, are you telling me that I could do
nothing and that would be wicked?” Yes.

Because God did not put you on earth to do nothing. He put you on earth to use your time, your
money, your energy, your intelligence, your personality and all those things for good and for
God. To get to know God, to get to know others, to love others, to love God. Doing nothing
with what God has given me is inexcusable. In fact, God would rather have you try and invest
your life in something and have it totally fail than do nothing and succeed. Because God wants
you to learn to live by faith.

Before we move off of this point, let me ask you this question: Which of the three people – the
five talent person, the two talent person, or the one talent person is most likely to bury his talent?
The one talent. Why? Because when I only have one talent, I look out at all these five talent
people and say, well they don‟t need me. I‟ll just sit on the bench and watch. Because I‟m not a
superstar, I won‟t do anything.

Because you may not be a superstar does not excuse you to do nothing with your life. I don‟t
have the brains she does… I don‟t have the looks he has… I don‟t have the background he
has… I didn‟t have the head start with the family that guy did… I didn‟t become a Christian
until later in life… There may be a thousand excuses.

No, that‟s not it. God‟s not going to judge you and evaluate you and audit you according to
anybody else. When you finally got the picture what did you start doing with it? When finally
the light clicked on and it dawned on you, that I‟m here for more than just me, did you ever
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actually do anything about it? If you didn‟t develop that talent, he says that‟s not good. The one
talent person who says, I‟m not a superstar; I‟ll just sit here. Just because you can‟t be the best
doesn‟t mean you can do nothing.

The reason I‟m belaboring this point is because some of you have lost your joy. And you‟re
really just kind of going through life, going through the motions. Same place, same thing. ta-
dum, ta-dum. There‟s no joy in your life. There‟s no energy in your life. There‟s no enthusiasm
in your life. You‟re just kind of putting in the hours and punching the clock and hoping for the
weekend.

You are missing the life God intended for you to have. God meant for you to do more than just
punch a time clock or go through life little by little. No spark, no enthusiasm. The reason why
you have no spark, no enthusiasm? You‟re playing it safe. You‟re burying your talents in the
ground.

I don‟t know what they are. Maybe you don‟t even know what they are. That‟s why we have a
class called Class 301 to help you discover all the different talents in your life – your SHAPE,
your abilities, who God made you to be. But if you‟re living for yourself and you‟re not using
your talents for God‟s purpose, you‟re not going to be joyful. You‟re not going to be happy.

Why do we do this? It wasn‟t like one talent was nothing. It was one point eight million dollars.
And you buried it? He buried it? You‟ve got to be kidding me! What does that mean? Why do
we do that? Why do we hide talents? We don‟t want other people to know about it. Why don‟t
we go out on a limb with God and trust him in faith?

One reason: Fear. It‟s fear. That brings us to the next law. The fifth law of financial freedom
and financial fitness is the Law of Motivation. It is this:

5. Motivation: If I‟m going to be successful in life, I must move against my fears.

I must move against my fears. I have to do the very thing I fear the most. Because with every
talent there is a corresponding fear to keep you from using that talent. If you have a talent
singing, there will be a fear that nobody will like it. If you have a talent in business, there will be
a fear of, what if I fail? If you have a talent in any other area there will always be the what if‟s in
the back that keep you from stepping out and doing what God created you to with your life,
investing.

What keeps us from investing our lives? What keeps us from moving to financial freedom? I‟ll
tell you what it is: It is fear.

In this book there are principles that God guarantees. Not me. God guarantees that if you do
these financial principles, you will be blessed. The problem is some of them are counter culture.
It‟s the exact opposite of what you feel like doing. So then God says, We‟re going to make this a
test. Do you trust me or do you trust yourself? The reason why a lot of people never get out of
debt is because they are unwilling to trust God in the steps to getting out of debt. They are afraid
to do what the Bible says to do. Because they‟re afraid to do what the Bible says to do they just

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go from year to year constantly in debt, living from hand to mouth, barely getting by, over
spending and being over stressed.

God promises that if I follow the commands and we‟re going to look at these in the book of
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes starting next week, the laws of financial stability. God says if I do
these I will find blessing and benefit in my life. But they require faith. That means I‟m going to
have the fears coming in; going, I‟m afraid to do what God tells me to do.

This happens in lots of areas. People get afraid of doing it God‟s way. I‟m afraid if I don‟t sleep
around I‟ll never get married. I‟m afraid I‟ll never get out of debt if I do the eight, ten, twenty
principles that God says to do. And God says these fears will hold you back. He says, “I was
afraid. I was afraid and I hid your money in the ground.”

Now we‟re getting to the real issue. There are multiple kinds of fears that can hold you back.
There‟s self doubt – I could never do that. You‟ve always had a dream of starting a business – I
could never do that; I‟m not qualified. There‟s the fear of failure. How many of you, when you
were in school, had the fear that caused you to hesitate raising your hand? You still have it!
There is the fear of self doubt. There is the fear of self consciousness – what will other people
think? The Bible says, “The fear of man is a trap.” If you worry about what other people think
the rest of your life, you will never be a success. You‟ve got to not worry about what other
people think.

Then there‟s the fear of self pity. I‟ve failed in the past; I‟m never going to try again. That‟s
kind of dumb. Just cause you fail doesn‟t mean you give up. Everybody fails. It‟s the only way
you learn what works. Don‟t call it a failure; call it an experiment. Call it an education. If
failure is an education, many of us are quite educated. We know what doesn‟t work. God uses
ordinary people who just keep on going.

One of my favorite stories is the way two of the disciples handled failure. There were two guys
who followed Jesus in the twelve who denied Jesus at the cross. There were two of them. Judas
denied Jesus and Peter denied Jesus. They both committed the exact same sin. No one was
worse than the other. They both denied their Savior, Jesus Christ. What made the difference
was the way they reacted to their failure.

Judas had a pity party, went out and got depressed and took his life. He hung himself. He
committed suicide.

Peter realized what he had done was wrong. He went to God. He prayed, he asked forgiveness,
he repented. And Peter, the biggest failure among the twelve was the guy Jesus chooses that
forty days later after the resurrection, he says that‟s the guy I want to preach on Pentecost and
start the church, and three thousand people are saved the first day. Jesus looks at Peter and says,
Upon this rock, on your faith, I will build the church. He chose the biggest failure in the bunch
to build the church on.

I like that! What a God! He didn‟t choose the superstar. He chose the guy who had blown it the
most.

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So if you start saying, “I‟m having this pity party. I‟ve really messed up financially in the past.”
Ok. It doesn‟t matter where you‟ve been. What matters is the direction your feet are right now.

You‟re not going to get out of debt overnight. You didn‟t get in debt overnight. One of the
principles we‟re going to look at in the next few weeks is called the Little by Little Principle.
It‟s kind of like losing weight. I stood up in January and said, “I need to lose a bunch of weight.”
I‟ve lost about forty-five pounds now. It‟s taken me eight-nine months. I‟m not through. I‟m
going to keep on, but it‟s little by little. Why? I didn‟t gain it overnight. You‟re not going to
lose eighty pounds in a week. You didn‟t gain it that way. And you didn‟t get in debt overnight.
You‟re not going to get out of debt overnight.

I can tell you, if you‟ll stick with me the next five weeks, I can tell you how to get out of debt.
I‟m going to share my financial testimony. Because what I‟m going to share with you is not only
what‟s in the Word of God, but how I started practicing it at age seventeen. That‟s why for the
last nine years I haven‟t taken a salary from Saddleback Church. I didn‟t need to. Why?

When I was seventeen I started practicing the ten-ten-eighty principle. When I was seventeen I
started putting fifty cents a week toward my retirement – at seventeen. That‟s called the power
of compounding interest. It is the most powerful influence in the world. The power of
compounding interest, Einstein said, is the most powerful factor in the world. It is geometric and
exponential. If you start little by little it expands and expands. But you‟ve got to do it God‟s
way. What does that mean? It means you‟re thinking more long term than short term. It means
you‟re thinking about the future, not here and now. We‟re going to talk about leaving a legacy to
children and leaving a legacy to grandchildren and how do you do that. But you‟ve got to do it
God‟s way.

Fear is always attached to this desire to do it God‟s way. Satan‟s going to try to get you to not
do it.

This guy didn‟t move against his fear. So we come to the next principle. Verse 28 the master
says this, This guy didn‟t use what I gave him, the little bit I gave him, “Take away the money
from this servant [who had one talent] and give it to the one who has ten talents.‟ [You‟ve got to
be kidding me! You‟re giving it to a guy who‟s got a lot more! Yes!] To those who use well
what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance! But to those
who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.”

6. This is the law of Application: If I don’t use it, I lose it.

That is a principle of the universe that you cannot deny. If you don‟t use it, you will lose it. If
you‟re not using what you‟ve got, you don‟t get what you‟ve got. God has the right to take away
anything that I don‟t use to invest for him. Because it‟s all his in the first place.

This is a universal law – if I don‟t use it, I lose it. If I refuse to exercise, I lose muscle. If I
refuse to think, my mind goes dull. If I refuse to practice, I lose that ability in sports or music or
any other area. I lose that talent. If you don‟t use it you lose it.

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On the other hand the flip side is the good side. That is this. If I do use it wisely, God gives me
more. I am exhibit A of this principle that if you use it wisely God gives you more.

People say, “Rick, you wrote the bestselling book in American history. It brought in millions
and millions of dollars. I‟d give away millions of dollars if I had millions.” No, no! I had a
thirty-five year track record before that. Do you know why God let me write Purpose Driven
Life? Because he could trust me with the money. It‟s not because I‟m the best author because
I‟m not. But I had a thirty-five year track record of being faithful to God when I was making
two hundred dollars a week and a hundred dollars a week and three hundred dollars a week. I
was faithful in the ten-ten-eighty. And I was faithful in the principles of Proverbs and I was
faithful in saving and spending and giving and investing and all of those things. God said I can
trust that guy.

Can God trust you? Could God trust you like that? Could God just shower you with thirty, forty
million dollars, knowing you would not be blown away by it and you would use it the way he
wanted it not the way you would want to use it?

Whatever you need more of, you give it to God. If you need more time, you give God your time.
If you need more energy, you give God your energy. If you need more brains, you give God
your brain. If you need more money, you give God your money. That‟s what he blesses.
Whatever you sow, you will reap. We‟ll look at that, one of the laws is the law of the harvest.

When you sow a seed, you don‟t get one seed back. You always get exponentially,
geometrically more. If I sow one kernel of corn, plant it in my backyard, I don‟t get one kernel
of corn back. I get a stalk of corn with hundreds of kernels on it. I always get back more than I
sow. That is the law of sowing and harvesting

There‟s one more law – the Law of Compensation.

7. The law of Compensation is this: God will reward me for good money management.

God will reward me for good money management. Money is the acid test of your faithfulness.
God uses it more than any other thing in your life to test your faith. Why? Because it‟s the thing
we have the hardest time with.

Look at the rewards that God gives for wise money management.

Verse 21 he say this “The Master replied [to the guys who used their money well] „Well done
good and faithful servant! [that‟s the first reward.] You‟ve been faithful in a few things, I will
now put you in charge of many things. [that‟s the second reward.] Come and share your Master‟s
happiness!” That‟s the third reward. Affirmation, promotion, celebration.

First he says the first reward is Affirmation. God says to you, Well done good and faithful
servant. Good job! That‟s my boy! That‟s my girl! You passed the test. I was testing you to
see what you would do. Could you be trusted with what I gave you and you passed the test.
Well done good and faithful servant.

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“You have been faithful in the few things, I will put you in charge of more.” That‟s the second –
Promotion. First affirmation – good job; promotion – greater responsibility.

Did you know that what you do in heaven, your job, your responsibilities, your roles and rewards
are going to be determined by how you used what you were given here? This is a test.

Then Celebration – “Come and share God‟s happiness.” Come on in, it‟s party time in Dana
Point! Come on down. We‟re going to have a party.

Money is the acid test of how much you trust God. That‟s why we‟re going to spend some
weeks on this. Not just to get you out of debt but I want you to learn to trust God more.

Jesus said, “If you are untrustworthy with worldly wealth [That means if you don‟t manage your
money here on earth, you don‟t manage it well. You‟re always in debt. You don‟t ever have any
to give away and share with anybody else because your own needs aren‟t met.] who will trust
you with the true riches of heaven. [If I can‟t trust you with real money here on earth, how can I
trust you with heavenly money, the true riches in heaven?] And if you‟re not faithful with other
people‟s money why should you be trusted with money of your own. [This is Jesus talking] No
one can serve two masters. You‟re going to either hate the one and love the other or be devoted
to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Notice he doesn‟t say you should not serve God and money. He says you can‟t. It‟s impossible.
Nobody can serve two masters. So you‟re going to have to decide what‟s going to be number
one in my life – God or making money. You can only have one number one in your life.
Whatever‟s number one in your life is your god. Whatever‟s number one in your life is what you
love. The Bible says you cannot serve God and money. As I said earlier, money is a terrific
servant; it is a terrible master. When it masters you you‟re always under stress. It‟s always
controlling you. You‟re always worried. You‟re always uptight about it. When you are the
master of your money, when it is your servant, it serves you. When money works for you
instead of you working for your money then you have peace.

Let me just close by asking this question: If God did an audit of your life right now on your
finances, what grade would he give you? A, B, C, D? Whatever it is, my goal is to move you up
the scale in the next couple weeks. Because this issue is an eternal issue. If you are not faithful
in unrighteous mammon [money management] who will trust you with true riches of heaven? I
want you to have the good roles, the good responsibilities, the good rewards in heaven. As your
pastor I‟m praying that you‟ll learn these principles and apply them not just so you can get out of
debt. I want you out of debt. But I want you to succeed. I want you to prosper. But more than
that I want you to be what God wants you to be.

Prayer:

Would you pray this prayer in your heart? Dear God, I realize that everything I have
belongs to you. Nothing is really mine; you just loaned it to me. I realize that everything I
have is a gift from you and it comes from you and one day it will all return to you. I realize,
Lord, that one day you‟re going to do an audit of my life and you‟re going to ask me to give
an account of what I did with what I was given. I want to practice these principles. I want
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to wisely use your money. I want to learn the principles of financial fitness. Then I want to
move against my fears and do the right thing whether I feel like it or not. Lord, I didn‟t get
in the mess I‟m in overnight. But I want to learn the little by little principle. As we talk
about these areas of freedom in Decade of Destiny, I want to not just be spiritually free and
emotionally free and relationally free, but I want to be financially free. I realize that if I
don‟t use it, I‟ll lose it. But I also realize that if I use it wisely that you have promised to
reward me for good management.

With our heads still bowed… Unmanaged finances are simply a symptom of an unmanaged
life and what you need is a life manager. His name is Jesus Christ. That‟s what it means to
make Jesus the Lord of your life. It means to put your life under new management. Jesus
Christ, become the manager of my life. Say that. Jesus Christ, I want you to be the manager
of my life from this day forward. I want to follow your will and your way. In your name, I
pray. Amen.

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