The Creature from the Black Lagoon. How many of you have seen the movie? It's an oldie. It came out in 1954. I guess we all could tell our own monster stories and how movies scared the living daylights out of us. Whether they were under the bed or in the closet or outside our bedroom window, our only protection was hiding under the covers.

Probably every parent in America at some time or another has tried to console our children with the words, "There is no such thing as monsters. There is no such thing as monsters."

At least for this morning's message, to every sincere parent out there, I beg to differ with you. There is such thing as a monster. It's not the creature from the black lagoon. It is the creature from the cash lagoon. This creature has moved from the Amazon into mainstream America. He's got many of us in a stranglehold, and he's swimming away with us as we drown in the seas of debt.

The Bible teaches us a lot about money. Money matters to God. He wants us to manage our money in a strategic way. But this creature from the cash lagoon has other plans. He's smart and strategic and likes to keep us all messed up when it comes to money issues. Let me mention three partner monsters and then give you a very practical plan, a formula that I believe is biblical and one in which I believe God will honor.

The creature's first partner monster is the plastic people eater. You carry them with you everywhere you go. They're called credit cards, plastic piranhas. Here's how this creature works. We make our way down the steep banks of the cash lagoon. Warning signs are all around us: "Warning: You're Swimming in Interest-Infested Waters." And then we use these plastic people eaters as flotation devices. American Express, Master Card, Visa, Discover.

I know you already know this but it merits emphasizing—credit cards are very poor flotation devices. They can't support us. They leak. Before you know it, you have one arm and leg off the side and you start sinking deeper and deeper into debt. You cry out, "Help me! I'm drowning!" The plastic people eater has taken another person down.

Have you noticed that your wallets and purses are designed for credit cards? These cards come in a variety of colors. They have themes. They have the logo of your favorite team. You can even decorate your own. They are very attractive. They even have your own name engraved on it, giving you a sense of power. You go to the cash register, lay down your card, and it's done. You've just bought something else.

These plastic people eaters, left unchecked, can and will destroy you in the lagoon of debt. The average American household carries $8,400 in credit card debt. If you make the minimum payments to pay it off at 18% interest, it will take you 25 years and $24,000 to pay an $8,400 debt. Collectively, we carry $735 billion of credit card debt. This is 31% higher than it was five years ago.

The average American receives 50 unsolicited credit card offers a year. I'd say we receive 150 a year in my mailbox because sometimes I'll get three or four a day. My middle son Kevin is a full-time college student, and he probably receives more offers than I. Can you imagine a credit card company offering a $20,000 line of credit to a college student who only works a part-time job for spending money?

What does the Bible say about this issue? Listen carefully. "The borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7). Please understand that this verse is not implying that we should never go into debt, that we should never borrow money. But when it comes to credit cards, I can't tell you how many families I've counseled who have put themselves in a debt jam through the misuse of credit cards. Pay off your full credit card balance every month. If you can't do that, then stop using them until you pay them off. It's very difficult to live in the zone when you have become a slave to the lender.

Anita and I use credit cards almost every day of our lives. They can be good tools. However, and please don't miss this, every month we pay off the full balance. It has been years since we have paid any interest on a credit card.

The second partner monster is the media monster. Our lives are bombarded with media—drink this, buy this, look like this, smell like that, save on this. One of the most fascinating parts of my family's visit to New York City was staying in Times Square. We could walk out our hotel door and in thirty seconds be standing at the epicenter of commercials and advertising. It was unbelievable. The media headquarters which surrounded us spend billions upon billions of dollars every year. They explore advertising angles and use creative means all over the country with one purpose in mind: to get us to spend money.

Anheuser-Busch has ten 30-second spots for tonight's Super Bowl game. Each spot costs around $2.6 million. So that's $26 million dollars this beer company is spending, all with the motive of getting you to buy their product.

How does the media monster work? He gets our envy engines revved up. He puts a little media bait out and makes us feel dissatisfied. Then they make the product look so attractive that we're convinced our dissatisfaction can be overcome by buying that product. What happens then? We spend money we don't really have and end up living beyond our means. Once we do that, we cannot become the kind of people God wants.

The media monster convinces us that buying something will bring us contentment. It never works, does it? All it does is numb the pain temporarily, and then the bill comes in and we think, "Whoa! We're drowning in debt." That car you just had to have…that new HD TV that would satisfy…the new miracle drug that would get your body looking good once again….It doesn't take long for the newness to wear off, does it?

I've tried to teach you in this sermon series that one of the ways we honor God is understanding the fact that we don't own it all. God owns it all, and we're just managing His stuff. Imagine the amount of stress and anxiety we could take off our lives if we could get on the same page as God when it comes to spending money.

Many of you are living out of the zone right now. You're messed up because your money is all out of whack. It's out of whack because you've bought into the tactics of the media monster. Advertisements always over-promise and under-deliver. God is just the opposite. He delivers on every promise and then some. Don't get me wrong. It's great to have things, but we must learn that true contentment comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And one of the most effective ways we nurture that contentment is by living in the zone, recognizing that everything belongs to God.

The Bible addresses the media monster issue as if the words were written in 2006. Listen to these instructions: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is" (Romans 12:2, NLT). The media monster is out to suck you into the world's value system. But Jesus gives us the cure to fighting off this monster. He said, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). God will take care of all your needs. So don't worry about all this other stuff. Stay in the zone.

God wants to bless each of our lives. But we've got to be blessable in order for God to bless us. Once we're blessable, then we can turn around and be a blessing. We can't be the kind of blessing He wants until we get a good handle on our finances.

We have to spend money. God wants us to enjoy our money. But too often this media monster prompts us to spend too much. And when we overspend, we get into debt, and then we can't leverage the money for the kind of life God wants us to live. So we conclude, "I can't tithe. I can't bring the tithe into the storehouse because I'm a victim of the media monster."

Let's look at one more monster. Let's call him the budget boogeyman. With the plastic people eaters we have two options: pay off the balance each month or cut up the cards. With the media monster we have one option—look past the hype and ask ourselves, "Is this about need or greed?" The budget boogeyman messes us up in a different way. Let me describe three kinds of spenders which have fallen victim to the budget boogeyman.

First are the blue-light spenders. You younger folks may not know what I'm talking about. Remember the Kmart blue-light specials. "We have a blue-light special on aisle 13 for ladies' pajamas. For the next 15 minutes all ladies' pajamas will be marked down an extra 30 percent." There is a mass change of direction of every shopping buggy in the store. And the NASCAR buggy race is on, destination aisle 13. Blue-light spenders are impulse spenders. Impulse spending will take you right out of the zone.

Second are the save it/blow it all spenders. You save your money and then blow it all in one shot on a new piece of furniture, a fancy piece of equipment for the shop or new clothes. Save it all and then blow it all is not a good way to build a healthy budget.

Third is the keep-up/one-up/show-up type of spending. There is a never-ending battle going on to keep up with the Joneses. Once we surpass them, they get one up on us, so we have to purchase something else to show them up.

What drives these kinds of spending? Jealousy, envy and greed. Our greeds overshadow our needs. And then we fall victim to the creature from the cash lagoon. The Bible reminds us of a very important truth: "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds; for riches do not endure forever" (Proverbs 27:23-24). The Bible says here that we better know about our stuff. We better get our finances in order so that we can live in the zone and position ourselves to be on the receiving end of God's favor.

So how do we do this? How can we bring order to our finances? How can we be saved from the creature from the cash lagoon? How can we get relief from sinking into ever-increasing debt? How do you spell relief? B-U-D-G-E-T.

Imagine driving your car without a gas gauge. Tell your next car salesman that you want him to take it off your vehicle because you want to drive by feel. You're not going to do that. Yet that's how many of us operate when it comes to spending money. We spend it by feel.

The key to whipping the creature from the cash lagoon is to plan your spending. In other words, develop a budget. A budget tells your money where you want it to go as opposed to going, "Man, where did my money go?"

Let me close this entire series of messages with a principle that can deliver you from the creature from the cash lagoon (run video of the creature dead, floating in the water). We've talked about how God is the Blessor. We are the blessed. He wants us to be a blessing by receiving His favor and reflecting His character. One obvious way we reflect His character is by bringing the tithe into the storehouse. We bring it, not give it because the money is God's anyway. We move into the zone when we bring the tithe and recognize that He is the owner and we are the managers.

You've probably heard this principle before. It's very simple. It is called the 10-10-80 principle. Or another way of putting it—the bring, the save, and the live principle (B-S-L). Every time we get paid, the Bible says we are to bring the tithe into the storehouse. If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with God, not with me. When I bring the tithe, the other 90% will be blessed. If I don't, the 100% will be cursed. I believe tithing is the quickest way to see God move supernaturally in your life. If we don't bring it, we are being disobedient. I can challenge you, but it is your choice.

The second 10%, we save it. Did you know the Bible talks about saving money? I encourage you to put aside 10% of your income in some type of interest-bearing account. Get your money working for you. Of all the creatures on earth, God chose to use the ant, those pesky little things that sting your ankles and crawl on your counters and mess up your picnics. Ants are powerful. They know how to save stuff and store stuff. The Bible says, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest" (Proverbs 6:6-8).

Why do we save? We save to learn how to live on a margin. We all make a certain amount of Skittles, a certain amount of money, and we live on a margin. Saving also teaches us contentment. Last week we looked at a verse in Philippians which told us that Paul learned contentment. How do we learn contentment? By living on a margin.

So bring 10, save 10, and then enjoy the other 80. Pay your bills. Buy stuff. Go places. God gave it to you to enjoy. Don't be embarrassed with what God has blessed you with. It takes a lot of discipline to practice this principle. But once you get there, stay there. Don't let your purchases cut into your bringing and saving. Practice this 10-10-80 principle and you will find yourself moving from The Land of Ing into the Zone. And when you live for a while in the sweet spot of God's success, you'll never ever want to go back to The Land of Ing again.