Freedom and Finances

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Freedom and Finances</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id525.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Love, Work and Boundaries"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id527.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getting a Grip on Your Finances"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>"Freedom and Finances"</B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, July 2-3</B></div> <bR> <div>      Review re: responsibility. Don't take responsibility for things that individuals must take responsibility for. Help people get back on their feet, but don't help them continue in unhealthy patterns (accountability). </div> <div>      Mark Jobe, pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago, wrote on this subject. He said, “I recall one couple that lived in the projects and started coming to church. They wanted to become members, and I said to the husband, 'No. You're in sin right now, and that needs to be cleared up before you become a member.' He was unemployed and had repeatedly ignored job opportunities the church had found for him. I told him, 'You're a healthy young man who needs to provide for your family. The Bible is clear that if you don't provide for your family, you're worse than a non-believer.' / The wife was furious with me and kicked me out of the apartment, slamming the door in my face. She was so used to the culture of the projects where none of the men worked that she didn't think it was right for her husband gone eight hours a day at a job. But today he's got a job, they've moved out of the projects, they own their home, and they've sent the kids to college. / They were so used to the culture of neediness that exists in the projects, but a direct assault of biblical truth changed them.” (Leadership Journal newsletter, 4-11-05).</div> <div>      After you are working and earning a paycheck (in obedience to 1 and 2 Thessalonians), what next?</div> <bR> <div>      Maybe you have seen Stanley Johnson on TV. He has a nice house and nice yard in a nice neighborhood, they drive brand new cars, he even belongs to the local country club. How does he do it? He's in debt up to his eyeballs (LendingTree).</div> <div>      Most of us have lives of financial slavery, the “squeeze,” too much month left at the end of the money, laying awake at night worried about how we are going to deal with the financial needs of this week, let alone our financial needs in the future (college for the kids, retirement, etc.). We live paycheck to paycheck, if not a couple paychecks behind. We are up to our eyeballs in debt. What do we have prepared if something went wrong, if we lost our job or were otherwise out of work for a few months, or if a car breaks down; what if a surprise comes along, like if your family is suddenly expecting another child. And it is not an income issue – people with higher incomes simply have more debt.</div> <div>      The answer to most of these situations is, I hope my credit is good enough, then I can just get a loan. Mastercard says, “There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.” So we buy gas and meals and rounds of golf and DVD's and groceries on our credit cards, and we still are paying for that stuff 3 months later. Oh, we maxed out our Mastercard? Well, Ditech or LendingTree will let you borrow on your home to pay off your credit cards, and go deeper in debt, putting your home at risk. </div> <div>      Have you noticed the increase in the number of fees, and the amount of fees with credit cards. And even if you are late one day on your payment, they can and probably will jack your interest rate to 19%. That is a good example of this truth: Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant (or <I>slave</I>) to the lender.”</div> <div>      Sooner or later we have to get tired of this slavery and we have to fight for freedom. And it starts, not with a higher income, but with a new perspective. We need to adopt a culturally new, but very ancient, perspective on our financial lives. Instead of living in financial slavery, in the financial squeeze and worry and concern, we are to be good stewards or managers of our money, because it ultimately belongs to God. When you are a steward, you manage that which someone else owns. You are in the position of managing something, rather than being managed by it.</div> <div>      You have to fight hard for freedom, financially. But it will mean freedom from greed and discontentment, freedom from stinginess and selfishness, freedom from worry. In this mini-series on financial freedom, we will talk about contentment and generosity. We will talk about getting out of debt and staying out. We will talk about wise planning for this month and for the future.</div> <div>      Please turn to <A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=2Cor+8:1-15" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>2 Corinthians 8:1-15</U></A>. Paul had been organizing a collection to help the poor Christians of Jerusalem. The Corinthians had expressed an interest in and willingness to help, but along the way, their good intentions were interrupted.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1. Stewardship demands placing ourselves and all we possess under God's control.</B></div> <div>      8:5 - The Thessalonian and other believers in the region of Macedonia (including Philippi and Berea) gave generously because they first gave themselves to the Lord. They applied to themselves the role of steward – that <I>they</I> and <I>all they possess</I> belong to God. The Thessalonians did not have much money, but they had the right perspective with money, and thus were able to financially free. </div> <div>      When you give yourself to God, you then respond to the will of God (vs. 5b) about how to use money and possessions. At a bare minimum, we should go to God and his word for instruction on how to handle money and possessions. And we should handle money (save, spend, invest, give) based on God's values, the things that matter most to him.</div> <div>      You are responsible to manage and be generous with however much or however little you have (8:12). If you have lot's of money, don't be wasteful because you have plenty. If you don't have much, don't say, “It's so little, it's not worth taking the time to manage.” However much or little you have, use as a wise steward for the glory of God. Be a steward of all the resources God allows you to have in your possession. </div> <div>      Tell your money what to do – don't wonder where it went and what happened to it. Manage it because it belongs ultimately to God. Make it work <I>for</I> you rather than <I>against</I> you. How does money work against you? When you are worrying about it; when it is being wasted or mismanaged, when you are experiencing the consequences of that mismanagement; when you are unable to give generously; when you remain unsatisfied and never content; when your money and possessions own you and run your life, rather than you managing them. Make it work for you and for God rather than against you. And God will bless you with the ability to <I>enjoy</I> that money and those possessions, as you manage them for him.</div> <bR> <div> <B>2. Our stewardship is based on God's generous gift to us in Christ Jesus.</B></div> <div> 8:9 – We are to be good stewards (therefore generous) because of the grace of God to us.</div> <div>      1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”</div> <div>      Dee Dee Ramone of the punk rock group the Ramone’s, died in June 2002 at age 50. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in March of that year, Dee Dee Ramone praised his bandmates and himself. “I'd like to congratulate myself, and thank myself, and give myself a big pat on the back,’ Ramone, joked at the time. “Thank you, Dee Dee, you're very wonderful.” </div> <div>      Our every breath is a product of the grace of God. We owe are very existence and our eternal salvation to him. Therefore, all we are and have belongs to him. And when we give all we are back to him, he blesses us beyond all we could imagine.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2005, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>