There are more than 2,000 verses teaching about finances in the Bible. As my church gets ready to start Financial Peace University #9, I wanted to write my thoughts on finances you probably won’t like me much after you finish reading it though. Still needs to be said. This blog is especially written to those, like myself, who have been (or are) caught by the “Debt Delusions”.
Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.”
Luke 14:28-30 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.”
How many of you have enjoyed playing the game MONOPOLY? You know how the game works. Players accumulate property, build houses and hotels, and then wait for the other players to land on their property so they have to pay up. Eventually you hope to bankrupt everyone else and have all the money and property. America at its best!
Regardless of who wins the game, when the game is finished, the board is folded up, all the game pieces are put away, and the lid goes on the box. It has only been a game.
Owning a Rolls Royce, an extravagant house, and living a “the Rich and Famous” life will yield no more joy for eternity than winning at MONOPOLY. When your life is over, the game pieces are put away, and the lid is closed on your coffin. It won’t really matter who owned the railroads or Boardwalk.
Earthly wealth doesn’t guarantee earthly happiness or heavenly treasure.
Something is obviously going seriously wrong in our country. More and more people are spending more than they make each month. if we are going to be set free from financial bondage we need to understand that debt is a symptom, not the root problem. Materialism is the problem. (1 Tim. 6:9-10, Luke 12:15)
When we take our children to buy a Happy Meal. You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness. Their advertisements have convinced our children that: "Our hearts are restless till we find our rest in a happy meal."
The problem with the Happy Meal is that the happy wears off, and they need a new fix. No child discovers lasting happiness in just one and say: "Remember that Happy Meal? What great joy I found there!"
Happy Meals bring happiness only to McDonalds. You ever wonder why Ronald McDonald wears that grin? Twenty billion Happy Meals, that’s why. When you get older, you don’t get any smarter; your happy meals just get more expensive.
There is a lie that Satan uses over and over again to lure people away from the life that God desires for them. It’s the “Happy Meal” lie. Buy this and you will be happy. Get rich and your problems will disappear. It is the lie that materialism will fill the empty place inside.
It doesn’t matter whether we earn a little or a lot, whether we spend everything or hoard it all. When we find ourselves in financial bondage we are preoccupied with money. We become anxious about meeting present obligations, and are driven to get more money and the things money can buy.
The good news for all of us here today is that God is concerned about our financial affairs. He is not only concerned, he can teach us the right way to handle our money and he will bless us in the process. God knows all too well that the love of money leads to all kinds of evil. He knows that materialism is a trap and that many people have fallen into it and have been plunged into ruin and destruction.
That is why God’s Word has so much to say about the proper perspective toward money and proper principles for handling it.
For those of you who haven’t taken Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey, here are a few tips that the bible says:
Financial freedom: we must work to earn a living-
1. The Bible teaches that we should strive to earn an honest living.
2. When God created Adam, he took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen. 2:15)
3. 2 Thessalonians 3:12, 10 “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command and urge such people to settle down and earn the bread they eat” “We gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat”
4. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you. So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
BUT! There is a big difference between all of us and our abilities to make a living.
1. Some have many more abilities than others and many have worked very hard to make themselves more marketable by receiving years training and schooling. We are who we are, where we are, and we have to do the best we can for the glory of God.
2. The best way to advancement of any kind is to work hard in whatever situation we are in. Those people who sit back and “wait for their ship to come in”, must realize that ships don’t come in, we have to swim out to them.
3. Jesus taught in the Parable of the Minas that the servant who proved himself was rewarded with more opportunity. Jesus said, “Well done, my good servant…because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities” Luke 19:17.
Okay, so here is the “No Brainer” Tip, AVOID DEBT!
1. Indebtedness is a crippling epidemic in our culture. Consumer debt sits like an invisible elephant in the center of far too many homes, including Christian homes.
2. What we sometimes fail to understand is the way debt works against us. When the credit card company sends their cards, they don’t attach an instruction sheet explaining how 27% (this can be larger) interest works for them and against us when we don’t pay off our bill.
Have you ever heard people say, “I just don’t know where my money goes?” The reason they don’t know where it goes is because they don’t look. And they don’t look because they don’t want to know (been there, done that). Bringing design to our money management requires that we assess how much we have, identify what is coming in, track what we spend it on, and estimate what we will have for the future.
One person described the function of a budget as “telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
Another person said, “Money talks and mine always says – good-bye.”
Ever use fly paper? As a kid in New Jersey, I remember mom hanging it in our house…it was somewhat curly, and she would hang it from the ceiling…I thought it was Christmas or something! Well, fly paper has on its surface a sweet, honey-like substance, which is also very sticky. It’s a simple principle: the fly approaches saying, I want the honey, want the honey, and want the honey! He lands and begins to eat, saying, I got the honey, got the honey, got the honey…and he tries to leave.
Then the paper says, I got the fly, got the fly, got the fly!
We avoid budgeting because we want to spend impulsively, and a budget requires that we sort out the difference between needs and wants. If we really value financial freedom, then a budget is invaluable. Many people today run around saying, I want the money, want the money, want the money…and before they know it, the money has got them!
So, now here’s the biggest TIP!,
GIVE to GOD!!!
People who are financially free are in a position to be generous. Because they have been intentional with their finances, they are not strapped by debt and are in a position to respond generously for kingdom purposes and to the needs of others.
Giving to the Lord cannot wait until we have financial freedom! It must begin immediately, regardless of the situation we are in.
When we find ourselves financially strapped, the first thing to go out the window is usually our giving to the Lord. There are plenty of scriptures that support this. The best proof, ask anybody who is following this principle. They will have some testimony for you.
In Africa, there’s a certain monkey that’s considered a delicacy to eat (yummy, bring me a fork and knife!) They have a proven method for capturing these monkeys. The build a little box, put a whole in the side of the box, and fill the box w/ nuts and fruit. The hole is just big enough for the monkey to slide his hand thru, but once he grabs the food, making a fist, he can’t get it back out thru the hole! And he will stand there for hours, rather than to drop the food!
Matter of fact, he’s so greedy for the food, the natives can actually walk right up to him, and knock him in the head…he would rather commit monkey-cide than to drop that food.
Some are committing financial suicide, because they won’t let go of the tithe!
We obviously need to make money, avoid dept and most importantly tithe. It’s a decision, a habit and God’s principal. You do want to do God’s work…. Right?
(Stay tuned for my next blog. It will help you make the right decision about finances and life itself!)
