I am going to finish up this series today. It’s called «Margin: How to Balance Our Resources and Responsibilities.» Although I know we could talk more about this, I think this is a good day to wrap it up. By way of commercial, I’m starting a new series next Sunday that I’m calling «Adam’s Family.» Y’all remember that show called «The Addams Family»? Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Amen. We’re going to figure it out. We’re going to look at Adam in the Book of Genesis and what was going on in his life and his family. It’s going to be great and how we can glean from that in our lives. But we’re going to pick up Margin, Chapter 6, Part Six, right now. And before we do, we assigned music. Can y’all hit them with that theme music one more time? Push me. «CU, I’m close to the edge. I’m trying not to lose my head. It’s like a jungle sometimes. It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.» Like, can you believe sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from going under? Yeah, hey Thomas, hit them with my favorite part one more time! Woo! Bring it with «Hey, give it up for Sexual Chocolate!» Woo, that’s what I’m talking about! Alright, you lose margin in your life. You get close to the edge when you don’t have margin. Yeah, you ain’t got time for no mess. I ain’t got no space for no mess, no space for no problems. And see, margin, by definition, as we’ve been talking about, is the space between our load and our limits. We all have loads; we all have responsibilities. All of us do. We all got deadlines. We all got work to do. We all got problems. We all got commitments. Anybody got problems? We all got obligations. We all got responsibilities. We all got bills. Anybody got bills? Now, here’s the balancer: we all have time, we all have knowledge, we all have wisdom, we all have spiritual strength, we all have finances. The problem is we usually have more load than we do limits, so because I’ve got more load than limits, I’m upside down, and I’m living without margin. Margin is that life when you’re in that sweet spot of living where you’ve got fewer loads than limits, when you’ve reduced your responsibilities below your resources. So you have that gap, that space where you can just go. You shouldn’t have to wait until you retire to get that. You know, we shouldn’t be jealous of retired people. God didn’t say in Matthew 11 that my yoke is easy and my burden is light just for retired people, right? He says, «Come to me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.» And so that’s the life He’s called us to. One of the signs that you’re living without margin is when your routine has been disrupted. Routine is usually a sign of margin, because when you have a routine that has a rhythm, your life has a rhythm to it. I work out at this time, I have my prayer time at this time, I go to work at this time. When you have a rhythm to your life, it usually creates less chaos. But when your rhythm is broken, that means things have come in and interrupted it. Now, your life has been disrupted and chaotic. Anybody understand what I’m talking about? When you have chaos in your life, the key is to recognize it and then course-correct to bring order back into your life so that it’s not controlled by chaos. You understand what I’m saying? That’s how you recapture it. God wants me to have order in my life, and I need to have enough space for interruptions, but I’ve got to have order. Another sign that you’re living without margin is the inability to relax. Some people just cannot relax; it’s like if you relax too long, you start saying, «Let me get my butt up and do something.» That’s what margin is. Margin is letting your butt sit down and do nothing. Children do it well; they like, you know how some people don’t do anything, and you get mad at them? They’ve got margin! If you’re a young person sitting around doing nothing, just tell your parents, «This is margin! Amen, calm down! I ain’t got to clean this room; this is margin! Pastor said this is margin.» See how that’ll work for you? So here’s the deal. We’ve been talking about getting margin in our schedules, margin on our calendars, margin in our health, and margin in our souls. Today, I want to conclude this series by talking about how to get margin in the area of our finances. This is so important because when you don’t have financial margin, it bleeds over into other areas of your life. See, when your money is in chaos, it is impossible for you to be in peace because your money will snitch on you. You can sit there; you and your money, you ain’t got no financial margin, you can sit there and chant, you can meditate, you can hum, you can sit in front of a bowl of milk and say the word «blue, blue, blue.» You can do that, but your money is saying, «Bills, bills, bills! We broke! We broke!» Like, your money will snitch on you!
