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Future Planning and Investing – Rick Littlejohn (Post-College Life 2017)

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“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” Luke 16:10-12

Motive

Our use of money is serious business. It is not our own. We are only stewards of it for the glory of God. Scripture has 1000 references to money, more than any other subject except love. Jesus talks more about money than heaven and hell combined. Dave Ramsey rightly observes that financial management is only 20% about head knowledge, but 80% about motivation. His focus on motivating people is what has made his counsel so successful in many lives. In talks like these, speakers like me generally appeal to your self-interest in trying to motivate you to save, invest and prepare for the future. Indeed, you do have a significant self-interest in learning to delay a certain amount of present gratification for a future of expanded possibilities. But self-interest is not and should not be our primary motive. Indeed, the fear of falling prey to greed prevents many Christians from being wise stewards. Our motive should be obedience to God. The main virtue which comes to mind in this area is Prudence, upheld by a measure of Fortitude. What do the scriptures say about money, future planning and investing? The verse at the top is a great key verse to guide your thinking. But what does being faithful mean? The general counsel of Scripture points to adequate self-provision with a generous portion left over to share. Genesis 1:28 – Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” NKJV One way of looking at this initial command is to produce more than you consume. Build things, don’t take life as you find it and use it up, but leave the world better than you found it. Those things aren’t necessarily or even primarily financial, but even monks who take vows of poverty spend their time doing useful work to support themselves, build a surplus from which to minister, and a surplus to plow back into greater future provision. (cp. Pr. 13:22) 1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. These are strong words. Diligence in self provision is key. 1Th 4:11-12, 2Th 3:11 The apostle Paul also points to his self-provision as an example and to not burden the churches he is forming. 2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. Furthermore, we are to produce enough to joyfully share. (Gal 2:10, 3 John 8).

Method

Proverbs 12:11 He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, But he who follows frivolity is devoid of understanding Prove rbs 12:24 The hand of the dilige nt will rule , But the lazy man will be put to forced labor. Lam 3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Your first priority for building wealth is diligence in pursuing your calling. Don’t waste this time of your life. Diligence now brings long-term rewards. No plan of savings or investing will work unless a surplus can first be earned to fund it. Wisely assess your current situation, your gifts, your interests and develop a career that will provide for you and leave you something to invest and share. Seek godly counsel, find a mentor, and apply yourself. Investing in your own ability to produce whether through education, time management, work methods, better tools, or just diligent practice will produce the highest returns.

Some form of budgeting is key. Once again, only 20% of the success is due to knowledge, 80% is due to motivation and self discipline. I use and recommend youneedabudget.com because it supports envelope budgeting in which every dollar gets a job as you earn it, downloads transactions automatically from your accounts. It currently costs $5.00 per month and will save you many times that amount if you actually use it. I have attached in the miscellaneous section some budget guides from Crown Financial Ministries. (https://www.crown.org/resources/spending-budget-guides/ and https://www.crown.org/wp- content/uploads/2017/08/EstimatedBudgetW.pdf ) They have a number of other free resources you might want to check out. Their percentage guidelines should not be treated as law, but as guidelines which may suggest areas for additional savings or permission to be less strict with yourself in other areas if you have a surplus.

Investing Your Surplus

The budgeting guides I have supplied recommend from 8% – 20% of your spendable income going toward savings and investment. In general, you should consider funds savings if they are applied to a specific near term (< 2 years) goal. These should be placed in a bank account. They include your emergency fund. Investments are for anything beyond that period. Investing is for the longer term.

Dave Ramsey’s 7 baby steps are a good guide:

1. $1000 to start an emergency fund
2. Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball
3. 3-6 months expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and tax-advantaged retirement accounts
5. (Optional) College savings for children
6. Pay off your house early
7. Build wealth and give

If your job offers a match for its retirement plan (typically a 401k), make every effort to at least put away enough to maximize that match. This represents a 50% or 100% instant return on your investment. If you are able to do more you should put as much as you can into a Roth IRA.1 Roth IRA funds enable you to both invest toward retirement and toward earning a down-payment for your first house in the same tax- advantaged type of account. You may not know when and if you will be in the housing market. Furthermore, you may be torn between saving for retirement and saving for your first home. The Roth IRA enables you to save for both now and make the decision on how to allocate funds when you are ready. Both owner occupied homes and Roth IRAs offer similar tax-free gains opportunities.2 Both have advantages. Ultimately most of us need both to have a place to live and an account that will provide spendable funds in the future. The Roth IRA allows you to withdraw contributions at any time without tax or penalty.

Furthermore, you may withdraw up to $10,000 in earnings tax free in order to help make your down-payment on your first house. There are rules regarding the timing of this withdrawal, so get professional advice or check on them at the irs.gov website before taking such a withdrawal and always keep a record of your Roth IRA contributions and save the Form 5498 that your account custodian will send you each year in the event you need to prove the source and purpose of funds in a tax audit.

The Mechanics

You can set up an online account quite easily. I recommend using a discount brokerage firm that allows commission free trading for a large number of exchange traded funds (ETFs). Four of the best known of these firms are TD Ameritrade (who we use in our business), Schwab, E*Trade, and Fidelity. Even with commission free funds, the goal is not to trade (as there are small costs related to the bid/ask spread in security prices, but to buy and hold. You should not worry about the ups and downs of this long-term money. You should view each purchase as purchasing a claim on a future stream of income, as these securities usually pay dividends on a quarterly basis that have historically grown about 2% per year faster than inflation. I can’t go into more detail in the scope of this talk, but heartily recommend that you download the free 15 page book If You Can by William Bernstein available here (https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdf ). Also feel free to reach out to me at rick@covenantinvestments.net. While most of you probably don’t need professional services at this stage of your life (as Bernstein points out), I’m happy to answer any questions free of charge – up to a point. I would add that in a Roth IRA or other account, his minimum 3 fund approach is better than simply buying a Target Retirement Fund in the event that you do need to access funds before you retire. Then you aren’t forced to sell a stock fund in a bad market. Think Stock Funds=Growth, Bond Funds=Stability.3 The bond fund is the one you’re likely to access if you use the Roth for a down-payment.

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Finding and Giving Your Gifts – Toby Sumpter (Post-College Life 2017)

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Introduction

The task of finding and using your gifts begins with understanding where gifts come from and what they are for. Paul says, “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, on God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph. 4:4-7).

The Inescapability of Fatherhood

Gifts come from fathers. And every good gift and every perfect comes from above, coming down to us from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (Js. 1: 17). In the Old Testament, the inheritance a son received from his father was specifically vocationally oriented. The double port of firstborn sons was for the purpose of carrying on the father’s household (Dt. 21:15-17). This was the point of the “birthright” and the blessing of the firstborn son in the story of Jacob and Esau (Gen. 25:29-34, 27:1-38ff). This is also demonstrated in the fact that God calls Israel his “firstborn son” and delivers him from Egypt with plunder (inheritance) in order to build the tabernacle. This general concept is seen in the parable of the sons: the younger son asks for his inheritance from his father and squanders it riotous living. The older son squanders his inheritance in pharisaical living. This parable also illustrates the fact that we live in a very broken world full of failed fathers and sons. And this is why the Old Testament closes with Malachi’s glorious promise: And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Mal. 4:6). Don’t miss the fact that the curse on the land is related to the failure of fathers to pass down gifts to their sons and the failure of sons to receive them. The gifts are for the good of the world. So this is Paul’s point in Galatians where he jumps up and down on the fact that all who have placed their faith in Christ have become sons of God and Abraham’s children (Gal. 3:25-29). And if we are Abraham’s children, we are heirs of the promise: God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4). And God gives good and perfect gifts to all of His adopted sons.

He Gave Apostles

While the Bible does speak of gifts in terms of qualities and skills (e.g. the gift of hospitality, healing – 1 Cor. 12), here Paul speaks of God giving particular people: And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists… (Eph. 4:11). Fundamentally, God gives the gift of His Spirit into our hearts: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…” (Rom. 8:15-17) So God gives the Spirit in order to give people to the Church for the blessing of the world: to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13). The word there for “ministry” is the same word for “service” or “deaconing.” It’s the same root word the apostles use in Acts 6 when they appoint six men to serve the tables for the widows. It’s also a Greek synonym for the word used in Genesis 2:5 and 2:15 to describe Adam’s job in the garden: to work/serve. In the beginning, God gave the man to the garden to serve it, to do the work of ministry in it. Adam disobeyed God and so his labor was cursed. From that point on, the work of man could either be done under the blessing of God in freedom or under the curse of sin in slavery (e.g. Exodus). The central thing to get is that in the New Covenant in Christ, God is in the process of making a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The ministry of reconciliation is as big and as broad as the world God made, and in Christ, we have been granted the resources for this mission. And those resources are principally people filled with His Spirit. The challenge of finding where you fit in the Body/World really comes down to figuring out where you can return the most praise. This is why Paul says elsewhere to Christians, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:17).

Conclusion

Finding and giving your gifts begins with knowing the Father from whom all good and perfect gifts come from. In Adam, everyone has an inheritance of death, futility, and empty striving. In Christ, God offers you the inheritance of perfect and righteous sons in His perfect and righteous Son. The center of that inheritance is His very own Spirit, the power of His endless life dwelling in you. This in turn equips you to minister that life to the world, to serve, to give, to turn every good work into praise. This is ultimate freedom, to grow up into the stature of Christ, the fullness Vof Him who fills all in all.

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Seed

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Weeds and Grains
Genesis 2:4 marks the beginning of a new section in the book of Genesis. However, to many it doesn’t just look like a new section, but it actually looks like a section that contradicts the previous section. Gen. 2:7 appears to put the creation of Adam as after the creation of plants, contradicting Gen. 1, where plants are created on the third day and man is created on the sixth day.
However, a closer read of the text shows that 2:5 is actually referring to a much more specific kind of plant. 1:11-12 refers to “grass” and “herbs yielding seed” (grain). But 2:5 refers to “plant of the field.” The Hebrew for “plant” here is not a super common noun, but one that usually refers to the wild shrubs found out in the desert (Job 21:15). This would mean that 2:4-7 is telling us that Adam was created at a moment in time before there were weeds in the ground and before grain had begun to sprout.

Before the Curse
So why is there a need to specify this particular moment? We have to look at the curse in order to understand this. Look at 3:17-19. When the ground is cursed, the result is that man will now have to work to eat from it. In chapter 2, the author of Genesis focuses on the trees that God provides to Adam for food (2:9, 16 and 3:2). But after his sin, Adam is told that now he will toil to get his food from the ground (3:17). He will have to fight weeds and he will have to sweat (v. 18).

Dust to Dust
Adam having to till the ground for grain was a consequence of his fall (3:23). After the fall, our work for food requires that we work in the dirt. You will eat from the ground (3:18), eating grain (3:18), and eating bread (3:19). God cursed the ground and made us farmers.
Why farming? Adam was made from dust (2:7). And because Adam sinned, he was going to die and return to dust (3:19 and 23).

You Are Seed
But when a farmer cuts open the earth to put the seed in, he doesn’t do so in grim defeat. He actually does so with great hope. He looks to a harvest. And Scripture carries over this hope to us. Yes, we are all going into the ground, because we are all mortal. But we go into the ground as seed (1 Cor. 15:35-37, 48-49). Grain is provides food, just like a fruit tree. But the grain must die first. It must go into the ground to die, before returning in glory. And that is what man, after the fall is. We are creatures that must die first, but will live eternally.

The Seed
But the hope in Genesis 3 is even stronger than that. We always are quick to point out that when God gave the curse, he also gave the promise of the coming Messiah to deliver us from the curse. But how was that Messiah described? The Messiah was the coming seed of the woman (3:15). In fact, all of Scripture points to this one true seed, the seed whose death and resurrection makes possible our eternal life.

No Going Back
Notice that God did not solve Adam’s sin by giving him means by which he could undo the damage that he had done. Death has not been removed, but rather conquered. Our tendency, when we see the consequences of our sin, is want to find a way back to before our sin, to undo it. But that is never an option. The cross was not a time machine. Instead, God took Adam’s sin and all its consequences and turned it into another path for walking into God’s glory.

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