show me the spending

A great sermon from Kyle to wrap up Southeast's three-week series on money. The first message was on giving (at least) 10% to the church; the second was on saving 10%; and the third was on how we spend the other 80%.

Kyle opened with a number of important table-setting comments toward the front end of the sermon:

-if you earn $30K per year, you're in the top 1% in the world

-by that standard, God has granted you an extraordinary income-- and only asks for 10% of His stuff in return...what should our response be to this? feeling like that would be a rip-off, cheating God by giving Him the scraps or nothing at all?

-God wants you to enjoy what He has given you financially-- instead of being racked with guilt (here, he drew an analogy to a parent giving money to a child for their birthday-- and enjoying when they spend the money and enjoy the fruit)

From there, he developed the text for the day: the first half of the popular Prodigal Son story in Luke 15:11-20. Typically used to illustrate God's grace powerfully, Kyle used it to depict amazingly bad stewardship and the opportunity to turn that around. Key points:

-be willing to wait (12)-- vs. "I want it now"

-discipline your desires (13)-- vs. waste and "upgrades" (here, he included references to Bling H2O and Renova TP-- literally, flushing money down the toilet!)

-reserve some of your resources (14)-- vs. spend it all (and perhaps go into debt)

-make (sometimes painful) lifestyle changes (15-16)-- hopefully before you're feeding pigs

--> if you get into trouble...
-17a's came to his senses....
-18-20a's strategic and resolute actions-- in a humble spirit