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Give thanks? In times of financial difficulties. 26th Sunday after Pentecost, November 9, 2008
We’re continuing in our series, “Give thanks?” today by tackling a tough issue. Last week we had a guest speaker who talked about being persecuted for being a Christian. Today we're talking about something that hits very close to home for many of us: What are we to do, how are we to give thanks, in times of financial difficulties? Let’s review, shall we? The bailout plan isn’t working. In fact, I read recently that some have proposed yet another bailout plan. There was even a proposed plan to send out another stimulus check! Neither one of these have taken place or are on track to happen, so don’t hold your breath for another check in your mailbox. Around the world, the markets are reacting to our market, and bailout plans similar to what we’ve done here in the U.S. are taking place in the markets of many of the major foreign countries. The old saying goes, “When the U.S. market coughs, the rest of the world catches cold.” To put it point-blank, the world-wide economic situation isn’t looking good. But hey, at least the price for a gallon of gas has come down a little! Before we can get to the point of the message, though, ‘giving thanks in times of financial difficulties’, and what we can do during those times, we have to get honest with ourselves. Yes, the market is in trouble, but rather than spending our time thinking about and dealing with that, we need to stop for a moment and look at ourselves. We have to take a good hard look at our checkbooks for the past several years. Are financial struggles a spiritual problem? I think so, because in many cases the root of these problems goes back to the first lie ever told, and the effects are just snowballing. It all goes back to what our parents were told in the Garden of Eden: “For God knows that when you eat of {the fruit} your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [1] In other words, “You are being held down. There’s more out there for you to grab. You could have more, if only you’d take it!” And so we have. The average American carries $8000 in credit card debt. The problem is we want more. Most of our indebtedness comes from wanting to live beyond our means. I understand that’s not the case for everyone in every single situation. Sometimes those unexpected things happen, and we’re blindsided. But that’s not usually the case, is it? How many of the things for which we became indebted were really “needs” verses a “want”? Let’s call it what the Bible calls it: “Greed.” You ever wonder why in the list of the Ten Commandments there are two commandments that deal with the subject of coveting? Why did God have to double up on the subject of wanting more and wanting things that we are not entitled to have – our neighbor’s house, possessions, status, relationships? It is because something in the flawed human heart wants more and more. Like Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit we have desired what we think will taste good to us. We have concluded that we must have this “thing” in order to be happy and fulfilled in life. But these things do not ultimately fulfill. They just make us hungry for more. They could have made us happy if they had been in their proper place under the Lord in our lives. But we have put them above the Lord. “I must have it now. But I don’t have the means to get it; so what can I do? I will enslave myself to my greed and my desire to have.” Then the words of Proverbs 22:7 ring out for each of us: “The borrower is the slave of the lender.” We’ve done it as individuals, we’ve done it in our businesses and we’ve done it in our nation. That’s the bad news. We need to start here though if we are to ever grow into all that God would have for us. What do I mean by that? In a statement that would shock many people in the religious world, I say unto you, God’s main goal for you in your life is not to make you rich and happy. His main goal for us is to forgive us our sins, and bring us into heaven with Him. And that’s the good news. I want to be very careful with what I’m about to say – I don’t want any misunderstanding, and so I’m going to repeat myself again to make sure we are all hearing the same thing: not all financial trouble we find ourselves in is because of irresponsible living. Sometimes things in life just happen and we’re left in a bad spot – the car breaks down, a sickness comes out of the blue, the roof starts leaking, the major appliance gives up – but, for the most part, that’s not the case. For many, if not most, the reason for ‘suffering’ with financial problems results from the consequence of not handling the resources God gave us properly. Again, though, the struggle is part of the good news, and that’s what we want to talk about giving thanks for. Clear as mud? Bear with me for just a moment. Would you please turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, beginning with verse 5. Hebrews is the 19th book in the New Testament, so the order goes: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the Gospels that tell of the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus; then comes the book of Acts which records the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church; after Acts come the Epistles, literally the ‘letters’ that answer the question, “In light of what Jesus did for us, and what we now understand from the Holy Spirit, how should we now live?” Those books are Romans, 1st & 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st & 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon and then Hebrews. It might be easier to find Hebrews by turning to the back of your Bibles and working backwards from the end. Then you would start with Revelation – a book about the end times; and after that you would go through the remaining Epistles – Jude, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st John, 2nd & 1st Peter, James and then Hebrews. Again, we are going to chapter 12 and looking at verses 5 – 11: And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. What’s the ‘discipline’ so many experience as it relates to financial difficulties? You know what that is – the struggle, the worry, the anxiousness, the deeper and deeper falling into debt, and becoming enslaved by it. How can we give thanks in these times? Because these things remind us we are solely dependent on God for our lives, and they drive us back to our Heavenly Father where we receive forgiveness and acceptance again. Where we are reminded of the cross and the new life available at the empty tomb. Where we realize we can have freedom from the hold of financial debts. How many of you parents let your children do whatever they want without correcting them or showing them the better way? If there was a parent who let their children run pell-mell without correcting, or disciplining them, would that be a very loving thing to do? The reason we correct – the reason we discipline – our children is because we love them and want what’s best for them. How much more so for our Heavenly father? I’d like to read this passage from Hebrews again in a different Bible version. Listen to how the Message version of the Bible puts these same verses from Hebrews: So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as His children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child He loves that He disciplines; the child He embraces, He also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God’s training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best. At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. God is training us to live God’s holy best. Give thanks! Give thanks that He loves us so much He lets us experience the difficulties we do as a repercussion of our own sins, so that we will turn to Him and live. Give thanks for the financial troubles? Give thanks for the lions and the bears and the snakes? Yes! They mean God hasn’t forgotten about us, and still waits for us to come to Him so He can take care of us. “So what do we do in the meantime, Pastor, because when I leave here today my financial struggles aren’t going to be magically vanquished? Unless of course you actually were given a magic wand to make everything better!” Sorry, I wish there was such a thing. There’s no quick fix, but what we can do is follow what God says. In the margins of your Bibles next to these verses in Hebrews, write the scripture reference, Matthew 6:25-34, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Seek first God’s kingdom and don’t worry about tomorrow. That doesn’t mean we live irresponsibly as if we don’t have to think about the repercussions of what we do, but rather let’s not be so consumed by worry over financial struggles so that the worry consumes our lives. Seek God’s kingdom first. We do that by spending time in His word; spending time with Him in conversations, i.e.: prayer; and spending time with other Christians. This is how we’ll get to know the things of God. Then we start the process of rebuilding our lives through the power given us by the Holy Spirit by first confessing to God the sinful desire to have things at His expense and put them ahead of Him. The battle begins not with a pen in hand writing the latest check to the Visa people, but with hands folded and on our knees before the Lord. He can handle the sin of not being good stewards of the gifts He’s given us just as He has handled all other sins in our lives. Cut up the credit cards. Pay off one debt. Then take the money you are saving monthly by paying off that debt and pay off the next debt. Then the next one, and on and on. When you go to make a purchase of anything, ask yourself, “Is this a want or a need?” If it’s a justifiable need – groceries (the ‘real’ groceries, not the junk food or extra stuff we don’t really need, or the impulse buys because something is on sale), gasoline, paying a bill, by all means, spend the money on the needs! If it’s a want – going out to dinner, purchasing clothing, a new toy or accessory, wait. Don’t purchase it right away – and especially don’t ever purchase a ‘want’ with a credit card! It’s ok to indulge in ‘wants’ every now and again. It’s not okay to indulge in them if the ‘needs’ are so great they are not being met. Will all the problems be gone overnight? Probably not. More than likely it took a long while to get into the bind you are in. It may take a while for the Lord to undo it all. But just like with Abraham and Sarah God lives up to His promises to us. Remember what happened with them? He promised them both they would have a child – twenty-five years later they were still waiting. But in the end Abraham and Sarah laughed and they laughed with God – and the name they gave to that child, Isaac, means “laughter.” Laugh with the God who says, “Believe me when I say I can do the impossible. The sins are forgiven and eternal life is yours; can I not also handle the earthly life you have now? Do you believe this?” Even to the financially crippled He comes to us and gives us that crippled Son of His on the cross. And He gives Jesus to us because He loves us where we are, but loves us too much to leave us there, and carries us crippled people when we need Him – and that’s all the time. But He also came to bless and to free us from indebtedness. He is the One who calls it a spiritual problem. He is the only One who has the spiritual answer. That answer is the strength to say “No” to temptation. It is the freedom from debt, even financial debt, that He offers us by helping us to pay off our debts by living within our means. It is the strength He gives to hold up a pair of scissors and cut a little plastic rectangle credit card in half. It is the contentment He gives to let us enjoy and be at peace with the things we already have. It is the abundant life that comes with knowing Him, which is a far greater blessing than anything else in all the world. It’s the self control as we shift gears into “holiday season mode” and move towards Christmas. And it’s the thankfulness that God has never given up on His sinful children, but continually seeks to draw us back closer and closer to Him so He can heal us, fix us, and set us straight again. It’s giving thanks for that, even if it means the road there isn’t always the smoothest. Amen
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