Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2007

Grace Church of Burlington July 15, 2007  “Money talks but things have been reeeeeal quiet around our house lately.”             With gasoline prices hovering around the $3 mark, if you’re like me, you find that money is a little tighter. Someone suggested that in times like these, we need to teach our children the value of a packet of ketchup. It seems that there was a student who wanted to know how many ketchup packets it would take to fill up a 14-ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup which normally sold for $1.69. This young man collected 100 ketchup packets and began the arduous process of cutting the corners and squirting them one by one into an empty ketchup bottle. The results of his experiment? It takes 50 packages to fill one 14-ounce bottle. Do you want a brilliant idea on how to teach your children the value of – value?             How many times does the average family eat at a fast-food restaurant in a week? Let’s say that a family of four ate out four times a week, and every family member was responsible for saving and bringing home one leftover ketchup packet. If you did that for one month, you would have 64 packets. If you did that for one year, you would have 768 packets. That would be equivalent to 15.4 bottles of ketchup. At $1.69 per bottle, that means you would have saved $25.96 a year on your grocery bill by saving ketchup packets. If you did that for 20 years, you would save $519.20!             Now if you put this money in an interest-bearing account, you would end up with a nice-sized nest egg. If you did the same thing with mustard, hot sauce, salad dressing, barbeque sauce, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, sweet and sour sauce, toothpicks, napkins, mints and threw in complimentary sets of soap and shampoo from motels, you could cut your family budget immensely.             But don’t stop there! If you take your family to the grocery store to eat the free food samples before each meal (Saturday is the best day), it will reduce your family's appetite, and they will eat less of the food you actually had to pay for. If you take them to Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream to sample each of the 31 flavors for dessert, you can cut your food bill down to almost nothing! Now that’s being frugal, extremely frugal.             Hopefully, you know that I’m joking but in some ways I’m not. It seems this generation has forgotten the “little” concept. I grew up hearing, “A penny earned is a penny saved” and other wholesome nuggets of wisdom concerning finances.             I learned early in my Christian walk that money was not mine but an entrustment to me by a Holy God and that the first fruits of my earnings were to be given back to Him as  an act of  worship.  That is why we need to get back to teaching our children to handle the “little” things first.             Most children do not understand the value of money. You’ll hear them say, “It is only a dollar!” They just can’t understand why we should feel responsible to God for every penny. The world knows how to pry God's money out of your hands. Just look at the number of credit card offers in your mailbox every day. Just consider these facts:             • The average American household carries an average unpaid balance of $8,900 on bank and store credit cards.             • The average American household has an average of 10 bank, store and debit cards.             • The average interest rate of all these cards is around 12%.              And then we wonder where God's money goes? God tests us with His possessions. If we are faithful with the little, He will entrust us with much (Luke 16:10). To you, it might just be a packet of ketchup, but to God, it’s a lot more...it’s a test of stewardship. So let me give you an insight into how you can help your children, teach them to take care of the "little" things, and the "big" things will take care of themselves. Every Christian should pray this prayer: “Dear Father, I know that all of my earthly possessions are yours, and You have entrusted me to be the caretaker. I pray I will reflect Your glory in the way I take care of the things You have given me. Help me teach my children to do the same. Amen.”