January
11, 2004
Dr.
Jerry Nelson
Many people and especially Christians enjoy having money to give away to help others.
A few months ago I learned of several young adults who each had very little money, who nonetheless each pitched in between $50 and $100 to help a family in need.
A while back Barbara and I were able to take a couple of hundred dollars and give it anonymously to a person who was struggling financially.
them.
able to financially support a young missionary couple or to support a
a child in India or Ethiopia.
Have you had the
privilege of having some extra money saved or available that you could just
respond to a need?
Most of you believe in what we are
doing in and through Southern Gables.
You see the worldwide
outreach we are having through our missions and missionaries,
You see and hear the students and adults, whose lives are
being positively affected by our ministries,
and you are pleased with the spiritual investment being made in the lives of children.
But of the over 850 households that consider Southern Gables their
church
home, from giving records that are anonymous to me, it appears that
nearly
500 of those households are giving less than ½ of 1% of their income to
the ministries of SGC.
Apparently many of us are UNABLE to
give in any significant way to the ministries we believe in.
We are UNABLE to give to other people in need and to other worthy projects.
I say we are "unable to
give."
Don't I mean that many
"won't give"?
NO, I mean
"unable" - Unable, because we are burdened by debt and blinded
by materialism.
Harry Heinrichs who assists people in financial planning and who formerly worked for the Evangelical Free Church of America wrote,
"85% of evangelical Christians
are so badly in debt they are in financial bondage." (Beacon Oct '92)
We are not able to do with our money what we wish we could do because
of
past decisions resulting in debt and the blinding effect of materialism
resulting in the spending of our money on things that don't truly
matter to us.
What has brought this sorry state of
affairs about?
Lack of income? No!
SPENDING!
There are at least three things to do
with money:
"Spend it"
which we will look at this week.
"Save it" or
"Give it" which we will look at the next two weeks.
Today we will look at "spending it".
Most of us are ready to
admit we have no trouble spending money!
And Sears, Penny’s, GMAC, and all the other advertisers in
the world seem more than ready to help us.
But the question is: Am I spending wisely?
And what does "wisely" mean?
When we became Christians we made an
important decision:
Who is Lord and who
isn't.
Jesus is Lord and we are not.
He, who made me and
saves me has the right to guide my life.
And because my welfare
is a primary concern of His and because He is all-knowing and all-powerful I
can trust Him and take His counsel.
when I became a Christian that is the direction I took - to follow Him.
That really means I have
already decided that I and everything God gives me, in actuality, belongs to
Him.
Now it is my intention to talk about
"spending" today but it is important that we establish a foundation
for our thinking.
I'm going to state in a minute that
God has the right to tell us how to use His money - the money we have in our
possession and the money we will earn.
If you agree with that
it will have tremendous implications for how you use money.
In Haggai 2:8 God, speaking of all the
wealth of the nations of the world, said, “the silver and the gold are mine, declares
the Lord Almighty”
In Deut 8:18 God says, “Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives
you the ability to produce wealth” -
even the ability we have to earn money
comes from Him.
The breath, the health, the abilities, the time, the resources we use to get money is from Him.
Everything we trade for money we get
from Him.
In I Cor 4:7 Paul asks the rhetorical
question, "What do you have that you did not receive?"
Jesus in the Gospels told the parable
of the servants’ money -
How each servant of a
certain rich man was given money to use on behalf of the rich man until he
returned.
One of the points he
makes so clearly is that the property belongs to the rich man not to the hired
men.
Would anyone want to argue seriously
that God is not the owner of all we possess?
Isn't it true that the
Bible clearly teaches that we and everything we have are His and we are the
managers of it?
We are stewards and hence the word stewardship.
Since that is what the Bible teaches then it is proper to ask the question:
"How does God want me to spend His money?"
And I'm not speaking of
just 10% but all 100% of it.
We all know how to spend
money but "spending wisely" means spending it according to God's plans not just mine.
I want you to reflect on that for a
minute - Do you believe that?
Does everything you have truly belong
to God and it is simply entrusted to you to invest it for God?
If that is true it is as true for
every child in this room who gets nothing more than an allowance
as it for every student who earns only
a few dollars a week
as it is for the seemingly underpaid
laborer
as it is for any six-figure income
person here.
None of us in this room is stupid - we can see full well where this argument is going.
Do we dare look
seriously at how God says we should spend His money?
We should dare.
Do we believe He has our best interests in mind?
Or do we not trust Him?
Do we feel that he will kill our joy or make us paupers?
Or do we already know we are spending His money wrongly and
we don't want to face it?
buying a house, a car, a couch or an ice cream cone we don't need
are the needs of the ministries of the church, or a missionary couple
in
need of support or earthquake victims in Iran.
It makes us very uncomfortable!
Will you face that issue with me
today?
Will you think with me today about how
we spend God's money?
Remember: every penny we
get is God's- we are the managers!
Let's look at what the Bible says are
appropriate ways to spend God's money:
I.
The first of them is found in Romans 13:7 where God says, "If you
owe taxes pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue..."
That is consistent with
what Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar."
As much as I despise mismanagement and
misuse of tax dollars and vote to try to reduce mismanagement I like what a
friend of mine wrote, Probably "none of us can find a country with lower
taxes that we'd rather live in."
Or as one who returned from India with us said it, “I thank God for Environmental Protection Agency.”
It is right to spend
some of God’s money entrusted to us to pay taxes.
II. The second appropriate way to spend God's money is to meet our needs.
In I Timothy 6:8 the Bible says that we should be content if we have food and clothing. I believe that the principle of clothing extends to shelter.
It's appropriate for us
to spend God's money on food, clothing and shelter for ourselves.
But what does it take to meet our needs and when is it nothing more than unfettered materialism?
When are we spending
money rightly on food, clothing, and shelter and when are we simply responding
to the advertisers appeal to our greed?
A pastor wrote, "We see in
glorious living color on our television screens, an enormous steak oozing and
sizzling and crying out, "Take a bite”. The lure of the steak is exceeded
only by the tantalizing call of the crab legs swimming in melted butter and
lemon juice. As the lemon is squeezed in dramatic slow motion, a mellow,
inviting voice adds the final tempting touch.... You know as well as I do that
it's not easy to be content with last night's leftovers after having visually
feasted on sizzling steak and crab legs.
It takes awesome willpower not to get
in the car and head for the advertised restaurant." Christians
in the Marketplace Hybels p 78
Is there something wrong with eating
out? Of course not!
But when the percentage
of a family's income spent on eating out goes up at the same time that the percentage to charity goes down it at
least makes one question "whose money is it?"
I’ve told you before of Albert
Schweitzer who was a medical missionary who died in 1965 at the age of 90.
"His standard attire was a white
pith helmet, white shirt and pants and a black tie. He had worn one hat for 40 years and the same tie for 20 years.
"Told one day that
some men owned dozens of neckties, Schweitzer remarked, "For one
neck?"
All day long I’m bombarded with advertising that tells me how much more I need than what I have.
Several years ago in Christianity
Today a department store CEO was reported as boasting that he could turn
“luxuries into…necessities” more quickly than anyone else. (From Clapp in C.T. Oct 7, 1996)
Honest advertising is not evil , but so much advertising appeals not to any
responsible use of God's money but directly to my
pride, my greed and my
impulsiveness.
How does pride affect it?
·
What
part does it play in the kind of neighborhood in which I will live?
·
The
label on the clothes I will wear?
·
The
kind of car I will drive?
After all some automobiles are certainly classier than others.
Does it really matter whose label is on the rear pocket
of my jeans?
Will I really play better golf with a certain emblem on
my shirt?
Pride can cause us to overspend far beyond our needs.
What about greed - how does it affect us.
I don't want much, I just want a little more!
Several years ago I had an old Hyundai with 130,000 miles on it.
I hated sitting with my knees just under my chin.
When it finally got to be time to sell that car Barbara and I stopped
at the
Ford dealership and took a drive in a new Explorer.
As we drove up the street and then the highway I found myself coming
up with some pretty convincing arguments for how much I needed this
vehicle.
And of course once you see one with all the whistles and bells,
the one without the chrome side moldings just isn't good
enough.
Greed can cause us to overspend far beyond our need.
a used Fort Taurus would be more than adequate.
What about impulsiveness?
"If I had wanted it tomorrow, I would have asked for it
tomorrow."
Merchandisers claim if they can get you to look at an item in a
grocery store for at least three seconds you will purchase it.
How many times have you gone to the store for one thing
only to come home with a whole bag of items that you just discovered you needed
while you were at the store?
Credit cards are a major problem for
many people.
It is estimated that families on
average will spend 26% more each year if they use credit cards than if they
don't.
No wonder the stores are
willing to pay 5% or something for the use of credit cards. (Hybels pg 81)
Steve Thurman of Colorado Springs has
written that there are three signals to him that he has crossed the line from
need to materialism:
1.
When
I begin to compare what I have with what others have and make
my purchase on that basis.
2. When I begin to lose
appreciation for what God has already provided me.
3. And when I lose the joy of
cheerful giving thinking instead about the
things I could have purchased I know that I've crossed beyond spending
to
meet my needs and into materialism.
The Bible says that it is perfectly
right to spend God's money on my needs
BUT am I truly willing to ask God what is a NEED and what is not?
III.
The third proper way to spend God's money is on our family's needs.
In I Timothy 5:8 "If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
Yes we are to meet the needs of our family but the same questions must
be
asked in this case as in our own case:
What is the need and
when has it crossed the line into nothing more than a response to materialism?
Sportswriter, Leigh Montville, in Sports Illustrated several years ago
wrote of
Jack Clark, a baseball player for the Boston Red Sox.
It seems that Clark, who made $3 million/year had filed bankruptcy.
He was $6.7 million in debt,
owing $55,000 to American Express,
$19,800 to Visa,
$37,000 to Nordstroms,
$400,000 on back taxes
and apparently a great deal of money on the 18 cars he owned worth
over $1.5million.
Montville wrote, "I will be generous. I will say that if a man
does a good job
and makes a lot of money, he is entitled to a large and fancy
automobile. A
big ride. I will say that his wife should also have a good car,
probably just as
large and fancy, in these days of political correctness, as her
husband's.
Maybe there should be a van or something for the big jobs, and a fun
jeep
for vacations and maybe a vintage special as a toy in the garage. That's five
cars. Maybe throw in a sixth
just for a whim, an extravagance. But I
do not
understand 18 cars."
"Do you print out a little domestic schedule when you have 18
cars, telling
you which car to use on which day? Is there confusion when you have,
say,
three Mercedes and two Ferraris?
Are you always asking, "Where's the
Farrari?" only to be answered by the question, "Which
one?" Can you
remember which of the 18 cars are filled with gas and which are not?
"We all push the financial envelope from time to time, why
just last week I bought a necktie I couldn't afford but "I do not
understand 18
cars!"
I don’t know if Clark has a family or
not but I thought this was an illustration of the ridiculous lengths some will
go in the quest to acquire - to spend.
How many times do we
rationalize our expenditures of God's money by saying we are doing it for the
family.
Maybe we are feeding the
same pride, greed and impulsiveness in our children as in us when we go far
beyond need in our spending of God's money.
Yes, we can spend God's money to meet
our family's needs but are we willing to ask God what is a need and what is
just materialism?
IV.
The fourth proper way to spend God's money is by spending it on things
to enjoy.
In Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
we read, "Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and
drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the
few days of life God has given him... Moreover, when God gives wealth and
possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in
his work - this is a gift of God."
Paul said something
similar in I Timothy 6:17 “We are to put our hope in God who richly provides us
with everything for our enjoyment."
It is appropriate to
spend some of God's money on things beyond just exactly what we need.
There's nothing inherently wrong with owning a house with one
more bedroom than you need.
Or an Oldsmobile rather than a Ford.
Or eating at the Brown Palace rather
than Burger King.
The questions are "Does God want me to spend His money
this way?" and "Will I be
able to do the other things He wants me to do with His money?"
In purchasing things beyond our exact
needs are we willing to ask God how he would want us to spend the money?
I have mentioned him many times to
you, but John Wesley, writing 250 years ago with great wisdom for our day, said
there are four questions to ask when spending God's money:
1.
In spending the money, am I acting like I owned the money or am I acting
as a manager (steward) of God's money?
2.
What Scripture requires or allows me to spend this money in this way?
3.
Can I offer up this purchase as a sacrifice to the Lord?
4.
Will God reward me for this expenditure on the day when he returns?
Listen to the prayer he used before
making a purchase and ask if you dare to pray it:
“Lord, You see that I am going to
spend this money on this particular food, clothing, furniture or whatever it
is. And you know that I act with a single purpose to be a steward of your
money, spending this portion of the money in keeping with the purposes for
which you entrusted me with it. You know that I do this in obedience to your
word. Let this purchase be a holy sacrifice, acceptable through Jesus Christ.”
If you can pray that prayer with a clear conscience you are spending God's money wisely.
V.
A fifth way to spend God's money properly is to spend it to meet the
needs of others.
God has entrusted each
of us with sufficient wealth that we may share some of it with others.
That is taught by example and precept throughout the
Scriptures.
It has been said that if
we could reduce the world to a global village of one hundred people:
Seventy would be unable to read,
One would have a college education,
fifty would be suffering from malnutrition,
eighty would live in housing unfit for human beings,
and six would have half of the money of the entire village.
Gary Demarast writes, "If those
of us among the six in the village who are Christians are going to take Jesus
seriously, how much longer can we justify controlling, spending, and hoarding
half of the resources intended for all 100 of us? (Demarest
I Timothy)
I think God, through the Apostle Paul
in 2nd Corinthians, makes it clear that He never
intended that everyone would have exactly the same amount of money or
possessions
BUT he did intend that those with more
would be able to help those in need.
Many of us cannot seriously help
others in need because we have so woefully mismanaged God's money by spending
it on ourselves, our families, and on luxuries far beyond our needs or God's
desires.
I'm convinced as I said earlier that
Christians want to be able to meet
the needs of others but materialism and debt are preventing us.
We must get a handle on
the materialism and we must remove the debt.
VI.
That brings me to the sixth and final way I will mention this morning as
a proper way to spend God's money.
In Romans 13:8, God says
to pay our debts.
Many of us have slavishly followed the
culture into debt
How many of us have sold our financial freedom by past unbiblical spending which has left us in debt?
Remember Jesus' powerful words in Luke
16:11 "If you have not been
faithful with money who will entrust
true riches with you?"
Whether we are the
manager of much of God's money or very little, we are judged not on the amount
but on the faithfulness of using it according to God's desires.
If we are in debt, then we are
responsible to pay off those debts.
And my guess is that if, other than a
reasonable home mortgage, you have been unable to get out of debt for more than
10 years you need help.
I’m certain most of you have heard
this definition of insanity:
Insanity is trying the same thing over and over again expecting
different results.
If you been unsuccessful at getting control of your spending then you need help.
A trusted mature friend is a good place to get that help.
A consumer credit agency is another
place to go.
Every Christian, I believe, needs to
live on a budget.
Some need it to get out
of debt or so they do not live beyond their means and get into debt.
Others, who have more
than enough income, need it so they can resist the temptation to purchase
things that are easily affordable but with money God would have them use differently.
The only reason some aren't in debt is that their income
keeps rising to cover their lack of discipline.
I began today by saying that many people and especially Christians enjoy having money to give away to help others.
But obviously many, here this morning,
are unable to use their income the way they would like to.
The same Holy Spirit of God, who
enables us to grow spiritually in other areas of character and discipline, is
able to help us mature as managers/stewards of God’s money.
Are
we willing to see this as a spiritual issue and change the way we spend the
money God has entrusted to us?
Most
of all, are we willing to think of the money as belonging to God and ourselves
as the managers of it to accomplish his purposes?