How to Be Happy Though Broke

Tom Shrader explores the difference between being broke and finding contentment in God's provision. Drawing from Philippians 4 and Jesus' teaching in Matthew 6, he distinguishes between problems we can solve and circumstances we cannot change, warning against misplaced trust in money and encouraging believers to find joy through dependence on God's faithful provision of our needs.

“God will meet all my needs according to His riches, but my problem is I have a hard time separating my needs from my wants.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Be Happy

Recorded: December 09, 2004

Duration: 39 min

Themes: contentment, provision, trust, anxiety, worry, peace, dependence, circumstances, financial struggle, unemployed, worried parent, new believer, young adult, feeling overwhelmed, facing hardship, learning contentment

Scripture: Philippians 4:11-13, Philippians 4:19, Matthew 6:25-34, Hebrews 13:5-6, 1 Timothy 6:10, 2 Corinthians 2:17, Acts 5, Acts 8, Luke 16:14-15

Theological Themes: providence, divine provision, stewardship, biblical contentment, trusting god, sanctification, spiritual maturity, god's faithfulness

Handout Link

Full Transcript

Week three of a series titled "How to be Happy." How to be Happy Though Broke. On your outline, if you go to the bottom part where it says "Objectives of the Series," this will be the third week we've talked about it, but it's really important for me that we get this because this has applications way beyond the series.

Understanding Problems vs. Circumstances

Number one is we want to understand the differences between problems and circumstances. A problem is something you can change or do something about. Circumstance is something you're stuck with. Same illustration: my height is a circumstance. My width is a problem. So I have to understand those.

Now here's where this comes into play. This comes in constantly in your life as people are coming to you. You use it in parenting, you use it in any relationship or any incident, any issue that you're examining. So somebody comes to you, so I want to triage the situation.

My experience, which is vast, is that most people don't triage their incidents or their life very well. I'm reading years ago a Civil War story, and they're saying they used to have, at the hospital, a guy at the front, and they'd bring somebody in, he'd look at him, assess it. He'd say, take him over there, take him over there, put him back here.

The Art of Triage

There'd be one, and they'd say, take him in there. If you went in there, the guy's just going to die. May die fast, may die slow, but we can't help him. Then there would be people that they go, we can help him, and it's not urgent, so take him in there. It's a broken arm, it's a cut, it's something that we can deal with. And then they'd go, now in this room are people who are hurting in trouble, they're going to survive or look like they're going to survive, but they need some attention and they need it quickly. So he's triaging the situation.

As things come into your life, you've got to go triage. Circumstance: I can't do anything about it. Problem: I can do something about it. So here you go, if it's number two, commit yourself to fixing the problems. If it's something that by definition you can do something about, it may be something that you can do about short term, maybe something you can do about long term.

I'm driving in this morning, it's raining. I can't do anything about that. If it's a problem I can fix, it might be something like just take out the garbage really fast, or maybe something that's going to take time, but I can fix it, so get a plan.

Finding Joy in Unavoidable Circumstances

If it's a circumstance, why waste a brain cell about this? I'm flying up to San Francisco tomorrow and then flying right back on Saturday. I hate it, I'm already trying to think, I think I'm, I don't think I can make it, I'm sick. I hate it, I hate getting on that plane, I hate all these people coughing on me, I hate it. I hate standing in line, I hate all of it. But it's something I have to do.

My mind, this sounds really silly, but I've got to take my mind, because every 20 minutes, my mind will go, boy, think about that, you've got to go to—I can't do anything about it. I can't do about whether it's on time, I'm trying to get home Saturday night, so I'm not gone two nights, I can't help if it's the last flight.

This sounds really weird, number four is to try to find joy in the midst of all of that. So whether it's something I can fix, I'm in the process of fixing it, something I can't fix, in the middle of this, I want to find joy.

Paul's Secret of Contentment

Our passage of scripture that we've used as the theme is Philippians chapter four, where Paul says, "I've learned to be content." In verse 12, he says, "I've learned the secret."

Again, I'm preparing for the San Francisco thing, and there's all these young guys, they're young, primarily men, there'll be some women, I would assume, and they're young, they're on the front end of career, probably already have indicators, have achieved some level of success, so they wouldn't be invited in. So I just got the thing, because I kept saying, send me the thing, give me the itinerary. There's seven sessions that day, I have six and seven, so here they are, they're cramming seven sessions into a day. They give me the last two, after these guys have been up all night, gone all day, I got the last two.

They got this guy that's a successful CEO, and this guy that's written this book on Vanderbilt, and all of these successful people, talking about all these positive things, and then I come in, and this is exactly the reason I'm there. I am the cloud to their silver lining. That's just the way it is. I'm okay with that, I'm comfortable in that role, and I'm going to talk, so these are these young, really good, charged people. I'm going to talk about contentment and suffering.

The Profound Wisdom We Often Take for Granted

It's really interesting, Steve Jobs died, they were saying today. Steve Jobs died, he gave us the iPad, he gave us the iPod, he gave us the iPhone. He didn't give me any of them, I paid for every one of those things. He invented them, and I'm not diminishing him, but it's interesting now, they're probably, Beth Macdonald, on 99.9 is playing today, this profound words of Steve Jobs. It's his commencement address at Stanford, and he's talking about dying, and dying is great preparation for life.

You know what I thought? I thought of you when I heard that, because I thought, you people are so blessed, because you get to hear that every week. We talk about stuff in here, and my fear is, you hear this stuff so much that you go, oh, that's not that big a deal. This is big. If Steve Jobs, they're going wow for that, what do you think they'd do if they got some of the stuff we really talk about? Talk about contentment, and talk about that, and it's hard to do on the front end of life.

I acknowledge the tension. When you talk about contentment, it could be misunderstood as apathy. I don't mean apathy. I'm just saying that I do what I do, but I visualize it, see it, and evaluate it through a new grid. So I'm not saying don't be successful. I'm just saying it's not for the sake of being successful for success. If it doesn't have a greater good—in our context, for God's glory—it's not worth anything.

What Steve Jobs experienced last night, everybody's going to experience. That's just the way it is. That's not to say today doesn't matter—today matters a lot. I'm not saying don't get a bunch of money and go be successful. I would never say that. I would say, but what do you do with that? What does God say about that?

So here's the word: find a sense of satisfaction. Then on the other side, I'll even go so far as to say there should be a certain sense of discontent in you spiritually, because the more I get of God, the more I ought to want. The more I see God, the more I see myself. The more I see every step of the way what a sinful, wretched, little, circumstantially short, problem-wise wide guy that I am. So that's how I see it.

Defining "Broke"

Here are some definitions as we work our way through that. Here's how Webster defines broke: having little or no ready money. You may talk about "go broke"—become penniless. "Go for broke"—risk everything.

I apologize for talking about the San Francisco thing, but it's fresh on my mind because I'm getting ready for it. One of the things I'm going to do is interview a guy who won a national bookseller's award and a Pulitzer Prize for a biography he wrote on Cornelius Vanderbilt. So I don't know much about Vanderbilt. I know Gloria makes great jeans, but other than that, I don't know anything.

So I'm reading this book, and here's what I knew: I knew he was rich. Well, the guy will not say here's how much money he had in present 2011 dollars, but he said, let me give you a perspective. So at his peak, Bill Gates had one of every $138 in the country. Vanderbilt had one of every 20.

As you get into this biography, which I didn't think was that interesting, to be honest—I mean, it's just a lot of stuff—and then it just picked up steam. No pun intended—steamboat guy—picked up steam, picked up steam. And the last 20 pages, 40 pages were fascinating because now the crash of 1873 comes and the government comes to him and says, "You need to bail us out." They come to him and say, "Now we got these railroads across state lines. Now we gotta figure out what's the government's role, what's business role." It was fascinating once you got into it.

The Risk of Having Everything

So wherever I am in this process of money, this idea of broke is this idea of having little ready cash. So as these things are crashing, these businesses are crashing, they're coming to Vanderbilt and Vanderbilt's going, "All these guys are trying to get rich quick. I'm not going to bail you out. Let it fold," which is what we should have done to GM. Let it fold, let it die, and the best will survive. These guys were raw, laissez-faire capitalists. It was brutal. And at the end, but every once in a while, they kind of enjoyed a little government protection too. So it was all of that back and forth.

So I'm risking everything on something uncertain. I frankly have never understood it. I've never understood guys who have millions risking millions to get more, especially when it isn't going to change your life any.

A working definition of broke: not having enough money to consider yourself secure. So you have money; you just don't feel secure.

Two Stories About Security

Two stories—God's good to me. I don't get out much anymore, but I used to spend a lot of time with a lot of people and I'd get these great illustrations.

So I'm talking to a guy one day, and I said, "You gotta be thinking about retirement." He said, "I am. I don't have enough money." He said, "Here's how much money I have," because I would never ask. He said, "I have about four and a half million, something like that, and I feel like I need more," which is perfect. I don't care. And so some of you go, "Oh, hey, that's what he thinks." Well, I don't care. It doesn't matter. But he said, "I could never retire. I'm not there yet."

Two weeks later, I'm with a guy. I said, "Gosh, you look good." He said, "I'm going to retire." I said, "Cool." He said, "Let me tell you what: I got $50,000."

So here's my point: We're all starving at our own level. And that's a great illustration of that.

God's Definition of Broke

God's definition of broke is enjoying God's provision of your needs and being dependent upon Him to meet your future needs. It's understanding God—who He is. It's that contentment in Him. So it's the old idea for us of needs and wants.

Years ago, I'm flying on an America West flight. I can't remember where I was—somewhere in the Midwest. And they're trying to get a plane, obviously, back to Phoenix. So it's like a quarter filled. I sit in the back. I get on, and I had an assignment up here, but the back's empty. I said, "Is it okay if I sit back there?" because nobody's on it. And they said, "Sure."

So I'm in the back, nobody around me, nobody bothering me, happy. So I got my book, I'm minding my own business. Flight attendants do their deal. They both sit down across the aisle from me. And they start talking.

Now, I'm going to give you the conversation, because once they started, I'm writing on napkins, my leg, anything I can, because I want to capture the content of this. So they sit down and say, "I haven't been on a flight with you in a while. I haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?"

"We just bought a house."

The other gal says, "We just bought a house."

The one gal says, "We got a three-car garage. Once you have a three-car garage, you'll never go back. I know now God has given me this great blessing of whatever comes next."

The gal said, "Well, we've got this great house. It's great. We're working hard; we're trying to make money. It actually needs a lot of work."

We need to save some money, and we don't really have the money to save, so we're just gonna go ahead and borrow it to do the floors over. The next gal said, when you come into our house, there's this amazing staircase. And it, quote, makes a statement. But it needs repair. So we're gonna have to spend, her number was, about $2,600 on it.

The other gal said, that's a lot of money. And she said, I know, but we're just gonna have to do it because this makes a statement. So they have a little, I couldn't understand a little bit in the middle, plus I'm running out of napkins.

And so, the one gal, I pick up the conversation, says, I promised the kids, once we got a house, I'd get them a dog. The other gal said, well, did you get one? She said, yes, we went to the pound and rescued a boxer. The boxer had behavior problems, so we had to get a trainer for the boxer.

My Theory on Dogs

Now, here you go. Let me hit pause for a second. Here's my theory on a dog. I shouldn't know you have a dog unless I see you walking it. I shouldn't hear it. I shouldn't smell it. I shouldn't know you have a dog unless I see you walking it. Just like you shouldn't know I have a stereo unless I invite you in to dust it. That's just the way it is.

Pause button up. And she said, well, how did that work? Well, the trainer couldn't do anything with the dog, so we took it back to the pound. So apparently rescuing it wasn't as important as you thought. She said, however, the kids were so upset that we got a puppy that weighs 45 pounds. I got a horse, that's what they got.

Here's the end of the conversation. So they're talking about what they have, talking about their dogs, talking about their floors, talking about everything. And then the one said, my husband is so stressed out. And the other one says, mine is too. We feel so much pressure. And here's what I wrote on the napkin, stuck on stupid.

Life Is Tough Enough Without Making It Harder

I mean, you step back and you look at that and you go, I can fix your problem in like a second. Live with the floor, get rid of the dog. You don't have any money, save. But here's that idea. And if you talk to them, they go, here's all this stress and we don't have any money and we don't, because you're living in a way that just produces stress.

Don't complain about stress and being busy if you got a 45 pound puppy. And you're a flight attendant and he has to work. Who's taking care of that dog all day long? I'm listening to it bark, but I digress.

But you see that? That's my point. Life is tough enough without you making a bunch of decisions to make it harder. I am really empathetic with people who are hurting. I'm a soft touch. But when I listen to a story like that, I look at it and I go, you created that situation. You didn't lose a job. You didn't have something go upside down. You created that. Now live in the mess, fix it. That's what my dad would have said.

What Happens When You Consider Yourself Broke

Matthew chapter six, verse 25. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Let me read it to you, pull it apart. For this reason, I say to you, don't be anxious about your life as to what you'll eat or what you'll drink or what you'll put on your body. It's not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Now He just got done telling them they can't serve two masters, God and money.

Look at the birds of the air. They don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? If you're struggling, by the way, with the answer to that, the answer is yes, you are.

Verse 27, and which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life? Matthew 6, 28. And why are you anxious about your clothing? Observe the loaves of the field. They don't toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so raised the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow, thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

Here you go now. Do not be anxious then, saying, what do we eat or what do we drink or what should we clothe ourselves? And He asks this awesome question. Actually, He makes a statement. For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek, your heavenly Father knows you need.

The Root of Anxiety

Here's what He's saying. He's saying, the people who don't know Christ are worried about that. That's what drives them. That's what makes them anxious. 49% of people in the country can't sleep at night. One out of six have a chronic insomnia problem. Who knows why I'm reading this article. And in it, the guy says, the problem is not sleep. The problem is what we do when we're awake. I bet that was pretty good.

Verse 33, seek first His kingdom. All these things will be added to you. What things? All those needs. Verse 34, therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

When You Think You're Broke, You Worry About Stupid Things

When you think you're broke, we're gonna work our way through the outline, you worry about stupid things. You worry about not having enough to eat, Matthew 6:25. Therefore, I say to you, don't worry about your life, what you're gonna eat, what you're gonna drink.

A few years ago, a guy invited Susan and myself over to his house to have dinner. And we get a lot of those and almost always say no, just for now we don't do any of it. But there would just be a variety of reasons and whatever. So, but I felt like I needed to go, I'm not sure why.

So this is like, let's say Monday. Wednesday, His wife calls and said, I understand Bill invited you over for dinner. I thought, well, this is gonna be a great night. And I said, yeah. And he goes, I just want you to know we're having meatloaf. And I said, okay, that happens to be my favorite meal. When Susan says on my birthday, I'll bake you anything you want, I'll have a meatloaf.

You're gonna think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Susan made, just take the size of this, the size square size. Susan made me a meatloaf

That big last year for my birthday. I ate a bunch of it. She put sausage in it. She put a bunch of stuff in it I would have never thought of. And then I cut it up and I ate meatloaf for like a month. I said, well, you're having to pick my favorite food. Meatloaf is great.

And then she sounded a little sheepish. And I said, just out of curiosity, why did you call me? I didn't need to know a menu. And she said, well, we're on a budget. I just wanted you to know we're having meatloaf.

What was that all about? I'll tell you what it's all about. Fear and pride on her part. Like meatloaf is going to offend me. I'm not coming for the food. I'm coming to spend time with you. I don't care if we don't eat at all. It doesn't make any difference to me. And that's just how we get, that's just a subtlety of life. And all of a sudden we're worried about the food. Our image, our pride gets into all of that stuff.

Worrying About Death and Dying

Here you go. You're going to worry about dying before your time. Who by worry can add a single hour to his life? Again, the Steve Jobs. And I listened to it all. And I'm probably scarred a bit, but you know, they're reading this. He's battled cancer. He went to a bunch of guys. He tried. I don't get the whole fighting. You're fighting cancer. You're not fighting, whatever. You're all trying. You do the best you can.

And again, I come back to it. I had it again the other day. And I almost said something. And I thought, no, it's probably you. But somebody, I said, how you doing? And the guy, who's a Christian guy, said to me, better than the alternative. That drives me nuts. If the alternative is heaven, this is better than heaven? Are you kidding? I hope not. And I know it's not thoughtful, but it begins to communicate a message.

If you're walking through the office and there's somebody who you've shared Christ with and all this, and they say, the heck with it. And they say to you, how's your day? And you say better than the alternative. This is not better than the alternative. In this basic premise, and I get it, everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. I don't understand the fear of it. So I'm going to die whenever.

Worrying About Clothes and Image

You start to worry about having something to wear. Or you're worried about your clothes, verse 28. So I had this happen every, I'm assuming, every couple in the room has had this happen. So years ago, we're going to this party. It's more than we typically go to.

So I said to Susan, we're going to this. And she said, well, where is it? And I told her, and she goes, who's going to be there? And I told her, and she said, I have nothing to wear. So I said, I want to be absolutely clear on this. So if we go to the party, you have to be naked. Is that what you're saying to me? You don't have one thing in your entire wardrobe that you could wear to this party. All those things that are taken up all over the closet, because I thought we were going to share it 50-50 when we got it, all that stuff that's in there.

And she said, you know what I mean? And I said, no, I know what you said. You said you don't have anything to wear. But I get it, I understand it. What I just want to do is put a spotlight on how stupid our thought processes could be. I don't want to be disrespectful.

When somebody calls me and said, will you come to San Francisco? They called, they did the whole thing. I'm really, they said, what do you charge for something like this? I said, doesn't matter to me. I said, I got two issues. I got to have my own room. I don't want somebody else in there with me. I don't want them getting up in the middle of the night. I don't want them coughing. I don't want to try to figure out what towels they use. I got to have my own room, one. Two, what's the dress code? Because if I'm going to wear a coat and tie, I don't want to go to begin with. And he said, well, wear what you wear to work. I said, really? And I've had to drill enough to know, you know, can I wear jeans? Perfect. But why do we wear, I want to be respectful, but you see that, all of a sudden, and I got it. I understand the other side of this.

Don't Worry About Tomorrow

Here you go. You start to worry about what hasn't even happened yet. Verse 34, don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. It's a classic in Kindergarten Cop when Arnold Schwarzenegger said, I have a headache, you have a tumor. I'm worrying about all of those things.

I'm driving in today. It was dark when I left. It wasn't raining in the East Valley. The closer we got, all of a sudden, started to rain. I thought, oh my gosh, it's going to rain. Oh my gosh, it's going to rain all day. I'm going to be cold. It doesn't matter. I can't fix it. I already made a decision. This is what I'm going to wear.

When You Think You're Broke, You Listen to Stupid People

Number two, when you think you're broke, you listen to stupid people. Here you go. You listen to people with misplaced affections. Luke chapter 16, verse 14 and 15, Jesus is addressing a group of people and He says, the Pharisees who love money, that becomes a driving force.

So I've talked to you before about it, really ad nauseum probably, but yesterday, I got the oil changed in Susan's car. I went in. It's a guy by the church. I said, I'm going to leave the car tomorrow morning at six o'clock. I'll put the keys under the mat. Can you change the oil? He said, I'll have it done by 8:30. I didn't ask him his view on the infallibility of scripture. I didn't ask me. I want to know he can change the oil at what I perceive to be a reasonable market price.

In all of those areas, I just had a guy in because there's some plumbing issues, little issues. So I didn't ask him, do you love Jesus? I just said, do you know how to fix this thing? Because I don't think there's, my view, there's no godly way. I'm talking now about tactic to fix a toilet.

Now, when it comes to money, I do think there are principles that come from the scripture and that money's so intimate as it reveals our heart that it's important that you're dealing with somebody who has a proper perspective on money, sees it as a good tool, but

The Danger of Wrong Financial Influences

When you're struggling financially, you become vulnerable to corrupt voices. If you're around people who worship money rather than simply using it as a tool, that twisted perspective will rub off on you. If they have misplaced affections and they love money, ultimately you'll get some of that on you.

You'll also listen to people with self-serving motives. There's a great scene in Acts chapter eight where there's a guy by the name of Simon. He's a sorcerer doing all these great things. Peter comes to town and does this incredible miracle. Simon comes to Peter and says, "Can you give me that ability also? I'll buy that franchise. I want to be able to do that." Peter has been given by God the power to do this so that a miracle or sign or wonder—the same reason Jesus did them—would point us to Jesus. This guy is saying, "No, no, no. I just want to be able to do it for myself."

Corrupt Theology and False Teachers

Here's a big thing for me: you'll listen to people with corrupt theology. I'm going to read you three or four versions of 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 17. From the New American Standard: "We are not like many peddling the word of God." Another paraphrase: "At least we don't go around selling an impure word of God like many others." Another: "We do not sell the word of God for profit as many other people do." Another: "No, but at least we don't take God's word, water it down and then take it to the street and sell it cheap." The New Living Translation: "You see, we're not like those hucksters—and there are many of them—who preach just to make money."

I have to examine my own life here because that's how I make my living, so I have to be careful in that process. I notice in my teaching I get on a theme and just won't let it go. In the last three weeks on a Sunday, I've talked a lot about the health and wealth prosperity guys.

There's a guy on TV—here's what he's saying. This is a great illustration. He says, "I need 10,000 people to give me $1,000 a piece so I can get a new jet. Ten million bucks. Now, here's why I need it." You're going to tell me why you need it? "The jet I have"—so now we know he already has a jet, it's not about getting a jet—"the jet I have will not be trans-oceanic. I can't get invitations to Asia, getting invitations to Africa. My jet won't get me there. I need 10,000 of you to give me $1,000 so that I can get there."

I'm not going to make a judgment on it, but I want to go, "Hmm, you can go online, Travelocity, you can get a lot of first-class plane tickets to Africa for $10 million." Here's what drives me crazy: he'll get it. It's the same guy who says, "If you have enough faith, you'll be healed."

The Problem with Prosperity Theology

Here's my problem. They're either ignorant or crooked because there's no promise in Scripture that if you give or you have faith, they'll go this way. "If you have enough faith, you'll be healed." Really? My faith obligates God to heal me? I look at Susan—this last week she just really slowed down. Do I have faith God can heal her? Absolutely. But my faith doesn't obligate Him to. Paul has all sorts of faith, and yet he has a thorn in the flesh.

I just look at these guys and gals and go, "I don't think so." Either you have really poor interpretation of Scripture, or you're crooked.

Playing Games with God

Here's the third thing: when you're broke, you'll fall into stupid traps. You'll start playing games with God. Remember Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5? They sell a piece of property—let's say they sell for 100 bucks—they come to Peter and they say, "We want to give you everything we got for this, here's all 50 of it." They weren't obligated to do anything, and Peter doesn't put them down because they gave 50—that's pretty generous, 50% tithe. Peter's going, "But you lied about the deal."

How many times have you done this? You're driving to a meeting. The deal's on the line, and here's what you're saying: "God, You know me. You know me well. You close this deal, and I'll do this. God, You take care—You know I'm generous. You know I'm good for 10%, God. But You know, I got a special going today. You get this deal closed, 15%. But wait, there's more." You just start this whole process with God.

Then in those instances where He closed the deal, here's what I watch: "God, here's what I want You to know. I'm good for this. But You also understand I work on commission. I don't know when the next deal is. So here's 5% for now." You start playing these games with God.

Trusting Money Over God

You fall into the trap of trusting money over God. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5 and 6—you probably should write them down: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. I'll never leave you or forsake you." Can you imagine that there are guys and gals running around New York City with a key chain that on one side says "Enron" and the other side says "I'll never leave you or forsake you"?

God says, "Listen, I want you to be content. Why? Because I'm going to take care of you and I'll never leave you alone. You can count on Me." But all of a sudden, I start to trust the money, the deal, the stuff, more than I trust Him.

If I come off like I don't struggle with this, I fight this stuff all the time. I want to be prudent, I want to plan, I want to save. But at the same time, I don't want to trust it. So I look at the stock—because I got nothing—I'm in a meeting or I'm sitting around home and I'll punch in and go, "Here's what the market's doing." I don't even know where I am and all that stuff. All I know is down's not good, typically. My whole goal is to preserve capital to begin with, which I probably could put in a bag. But in that whole process, I'm just watching this and going, "Wait a minute, God's the one who gave you that. God's going to protect you. God's going to take care—why worry about that stuff?"

Looking at Susan puts life in perspective. Here's what I said to her the other night. She's laying there with her eyes closed, we're watching House Hunters or something. I said, "I got a headache that's killing me." Here's what I saw. She's like this: "I got a headache that's killing me." I didn't even say anything. She just let me complain, and I said to her, "Let me tell you something about you. You're not even any fun to complain to anymore." I look at her and she doesn't care.

Now I'm not trying to solve this. I'm just saying you feel the tension. Here you go: you're falling into the trap of wandering away from God. First Timothy 6:10 says, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil and some people eager for money have wandered from the faith."

There's a guy, one of my favorite Bible characters, his name is Demas. You meet him in the New Testament three times. Twice, Paul's saying, "Hey, Demas is one of our guys, Demas is with us." The last time you hear his name is 2 Timothy 4:10. Paul at the end of his life is writing to Timothy, saying, "Come to me quick." Here you go, key now: "Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me." Imagine that. You're walking around with Paul, you're seeing God do these things, but the bright lights of the city called. If you think you're going broke, all of a sudden you're really vulnerable in all of that process.

Five Ways to Be Happy Though Broke

So I'll give you five points. How to be happy though broke.

**Number one: clarify what God's promised to provide.** Philippians 4:19: "And my God will meet all your needs according to His riches." Really important now. God will meet all my needs. My problem is I have a hard time separating my needs from my wants. Often think of how this relates to your kids and you in the position of the authority figure with your kids and what you tell your kids.

My kids growing up would say often, "I really need this." I'd have to put them through the painful process of helping them discern between a need and a want. Even our needs, we have different definitions of those. So I really need a place to stay when I'm on the road. God said, "I'll meet that need: Motel 6." And I'm going, "God, I'm more of a Ritz guy. I mean, if you'll look at me, that concierge at Motel 6 just doesn't do it for me." I'm not saying good or bad. I'm saying He meets that need. But we want to then argue about that.

**Number two: accept what God said He expects you to do.** God has an expectation of you. Matthew 6:33: "Seek first His kingdom." I'm saved by grace. There's nothing I can do to earn God's favor, but because I'm His kid, now I act this way.

Often when there's somebody who does something sinful, we identify him as a complex person. Richard Nixon is complex. Bill Clinton is complex. They're not complex. Nixon's a paranoid. He might be this brilliant genius guy, but he's goofy. He's got a problem. He thinks they're out to get him. Clinton, I get totally. He's not complex. He wants what he wants and he's going to take it one way or the other.

They're not complex. We have these basic things that go on in our life, and we have this battle that goes on between sin. In the midst of all this, what I need to do is trust God and understand that He has an expectation of me. I wrote this down. I don't know that it's totally true: it's natural to distrust God and natural to trust ourselves. We kind of go, "Okay, I know God said that, but let me take care of this."

**Number three: eradicate what God said He wanted you to avoid.** Real simple. Keep your lives free from the love of money. Rather than clarify our view, stuff clutters our perspective. The more stuff I have, the more foggy my view.

Life Perspective and Priorities

So the idea is, Steve Jobs is going to be a perfect illustration for another week or two, but this morning they're playing that tape. My guess is you can go on YouTube or somewhere and hear this, but playing this tape: "You're going to die." Oh, that's so profound. Well, what he just told you is a healthy perspective and understanding of death will allow you to see life as it really is. So it isn't that important.

Tuesday, I have a long day. I'm trying to get this stuff together for this trip. I've got to do two talks. I've got to read this book, and I've got to do this interview, and I've got to be prepared for this guy who knows the topic I don't. So I'm grinding, grinding, grinding. The boys have a T-ball game, but it's not at five, it's at 6:30. That means it's a half hour drive down. I'm going to play this game. Be over about 7:30, quarter to eight. I'm not going to get back till 8:15. We can go to bed about eight. About 8:15, 8:30, I'm going to shower. I'll be wide awake, I'll be unhappy, I'll be grumpy.

So I text Haley, and I said, "I got a lot to do, I may not make the game." And she said, "That's all right, no problem." Well, the minute she said that, I felt so guilty. What's more important to these boys than me going to this game? It's not about whether it's good baseball, it's about me being there for the boys. So I text back, I said, "I'm going to be there," and she said, "We just got a call. There's a dust storm, they canceled the game." I said, "Oh, doggone it. That just doesn't seem right. Thank you, Jesus."

**Number four: learn what God said He wanted you to experience.** Philippians 4:12: "I know what it is to be in need, I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secrets of life. Be content." This is what He wants you to experience. Love, joy, peace, patience. That's what He wants you to experience. It's not smooth circumstances. He doesn't want you to experience smooth circumstances.

I'm telling you this: it's in the hardship that you have more of a platform. You're going to listen to Steve Jobs, who's sick and dying, before you listen to Bill Gates, though both of them are kind of in the same spot, right? When somebody...

Our Witness Through Affliction

There's something beautiful happening when we walk through difficult times with faith. I see this with Susan as she goes in and out of the doctor's office. The women there are amazed to watch Susan go through this process. She never would have that opportunity to affect those people one way or the other if there wasn't the affliction.

Exercise What God Has Given You

Number five and last: Exercise what God said He wanted you to employ. This means remembering "I can do all things" from Philippians 4:13. God says He'll give you all your needs, but then we respond with "but will You give me all I want?"

Here are three things to end with - two questions that will help you evaluate where you stand. First: Who are you trying to please? God, myself, or others? Second: Whose agenda am I pursuing? God's agenda, my own agenda, or other people's agenda? There are people out there pursuing other people's agendas instead of God's.

The Trap of Material Desire

Here's something to remember, and the whole lesson will come together: Once you have a three-car garage, you'll never go back. Once you have that level of material comfort, you can never go back to being satisfied with less.

By the way, I heard an advertisement the other day. A home builder is now building four-car garages - four-car garages! The ad says they have government-guaranteed loans and they're loaning up to 125% of assessed value. How stupid is this? But you know what? That's God's to figure out, not mine. That's a circumstance I can't change. I can look at my approach to that situation.

Next week we'll explore how to be happy though hurting. If you aren't hurting now, you will be. I can guarantee that.