"Financial Insecurity"
Sermon Transcript for July 20, 2003Scripture Reading: Philippians 4
By Rev. Mike Beck
Well, do you have your Scripture memory verse from last week put to memory? Turn to your neighbor—no, I won’t do that to you. But before we put it up on the screen and read it together again, in your mind, have you put Psalm 27:1 to memory? Let’s read it together: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; of whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Today we are going to read from what I consider to be one of the greatest chapters in all of Scripture—Philippians, Chapter 4. Before Dan reads these words for us, let me remind us of the context. This letter from Paul to the church at Philippi was not written on hotel stationary in some swank Conference Center. These words were written while Paul was under guard in chains in a Roman prison. He expected to be released, but wasn’t guaranteed. The possibility of execution was a real one. One can assume in that kind of setting that fear would naturally raise its ugly head. But when you listen to these words, there’s not a hint of fright. In fact the flavor is one of joy and confidence. The Apostle Paul stood tall against his fears despite very difficult circumstances. So let us stand as Dan reads portions of Philippians 4 for us: “Rejoice in the Word always. I’ll say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. You may be seated.
For many persons hearing my voice this morning, the fear of financial insecurity is a very real fear. I know that because I’ve had extended conversations with several persons struggling with that right now. Those persons when they get dressed in the morning they strap on a heavy backpack of financial concerns and they wear it all day long. And sometimes it’s so much a part of their lives they can’t even remove the burden when they lay down to sleep at night. And whether they are responsible for their financial problems or whether the cause lies someplace else, doesn’t really matter. These persons simply wonder, “Will the relentless pressure connected with my finances ever end? Does God even care about that part of my life? And how do I live a joyful, Christ-centered life when maybe for the rest of my life there’s not really the money that I need?”
Do not minimize, friends, the need for financial resources. It takes money to live. To persons who are struggling financially, the cost of basic necessities sometimes is overwhelming. Many of these persons work or, for retired persons, they have worked extremely hard, but for numerous reasons they can’t see any light at the end of the financial tunnel. Friends, it’s true, financial fears know no age boundaries. They are present among young adults getting married and raising kids. Those of you who your house is paid for and you are older, would you like to be in your twenties again starting over with the average price of a house and a car today? They are present among persons in their late 40’s or early 50’s whose jobs have been eliminated due to downsizing. They are extremely gifted, capable people but when they turn in resume after resume the companies would rather hire somebody in their 20’s they can get for less money. Financial pressures are true for persons who were doing pretty well, and then unexpected health problems came along and the trap door of any financial security they knew blew wide open underneath them and they feel like they are falling in to an endless abyss. It’s true among persons whose financial portfolio they had counted on for retirement shrunk dramatically with the stock market decline or their Certificates of Deposit came up for renewal and they had been getting 8%, now the bank says we can give you 2%. It’s true among senior adults who many of you hearing my voice find half of your income consumed with doctor bills and prescription drugs.
For persons struggling with fears concerning their finances, it is really no comfort to remind them that they are better off than two-thirds of the people in the world. That is true. There is much we can learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ in 3rd world countries. But we don’t live in Mexico City, or in the Congo, or in Haiti. We live in the United States of America. And I guess what I’m wanting to say at the beginning of this message is that financial fears are a very real thing and we do ourselves no favor to pretend they don’t exist. As we work through this series on fear, be aware that your personality type will determine the things that you are afraid of. Some people have no concern whatever about finances even though they don’t have any money. They are not wired that way. Other people, when finances even get a little tight, because of their personality their stress level goes way up.
And before we go any further let me say this, I rejoice as your Senior Pastor in the financial diversity present in this congregation. We’ve still got a job to do in the community. Because of the beauty and architecture of our building, people have a tendency that don’t know our congregation to think that we are primarily upper class in our socio-economic level. I can tell you from the people who have come in the six years that I have been here that they represent every spectrum on the socio-economic level here in Franklin. And for those who are lower level class, it makes my heart rejoice when they tell me how warmly they are received here at Grace. In fact, I chuckle at the e-mail Reverend Dan and I received a couple of years ago. This person didn’t stay at Grace. I was kind of glad they didn’t because their e-mail introducing themselves to us, telling us what their jobs were, but then they said, “We feel like we’re the kind of people you would want in your church”. There may be a heart issue going on there.
There is nothing wrong with the desire to be financially secure. Let me see the hands of all of you who would like to be financially secure. Raise your hand. Anyone whose hand did not go up, report to the office afterwards, Dan and I want to talk to you about truthfulness. We all want to be financially secure. In fact John Wesley’s advice was this, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” The Bible is filled with numerous Godly persons who have riches and material possessions. It is only a problem if financial security, riches, and possessions take precedence over our relationship with God to when they become an idol. Then there is a problem. Believe me, I can relate well to the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 4 when he said, “There have been times in my life that I have had little. And then there are times in my life that I have had much.” And Paul said, “I’ve learned to be content in all of those times.”
But having been there, I’ve learned this truth spoken by Christian financial advisor, Larry Burkett, who died of cancer within the past couple of weeks. In fact if you haven’t heard, one of the great saints of our day went home to be with the Lord last night. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, author of the four spiritual laws, driving force behind the Jesus film, died of cancer at age 83, I think, last evening. But Larry Burkett writes that most people believe that the solution to their fear of financial insecurity is more money. But then here’s the irony that he discovered in his counseling. A person making $30,000 a year believes all they need to solve their problems is an additional $10,000. But you know what the person making $50,000 a year believes? It’s an extra $15,000. And the person making $100,000, do you know what they need? They need an extra $25,000. And the heart surgeon who came in to counsel with Larry one day said all he needed to be financially secure was a couple hundred thousand more!
I bet many of you can relate to this. Mickey and I discovered, for instance, when we were in seminary our expenses were always just a little more than our income. And now I make a good salary and do you know what? My expenses are still just a little above my income. It’s not just your money. So let me quickly suggest ten principles from the Word of God that can help us deal with our financial insecurities.
1. Realize that money alone will not bring happiness. I’ve already said it takes money to live. There’s nothing wrong with desiring to be financially secure. But society will tell you happiness is just one purchase away and that’s not true. You know from neighbors up the street who don’t have hardly anything and yet they are happy. And then neighbors the other direction who’ve got a boat and a camper and a $300,000 house and they are miserable. Money alone will not buy you happiness.
2. Learn to distinguish between your WANTS and your NEEDS. This is a hard one. In Verse 19, Paul says, “God will supply all of your wants.” Did He say that? No! He said, “God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.” And, friends, in our society we are going to battle with this one to the grave. It relates to what I mentioned to you a few weeks ago. Some of the smartest minds in our society spend most of their waking hours figuring out how to make you discontent. For those of you with children, the very worse mistake you can make in parenting is to give to your kids everything they think they want. Please don’t do that. You’ll fail; you’ll not prepare them for adult life if they get everything they think they want. We’ve got to follow the advise of Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
3. Learn the secret of contentment. Learn to savor the simple joys of life. If you asked me in this past week, “What was the happiest moment?” Mickey, it was Wednesday night just sitting out on our deck on a relatively cool, non-humid evening watching the birds fly overhead, listening to the neighbor’s lawnmower, and it didn’t cost a cent! But we have to learn how to do that. Society says its possessions; Paul says, “I have learned the secret of contentment.” In our recent stewardship series we learned this equation in I Timothy 6:6, “Godliness plus contentment equals great gain.”
4. Go deep into understanding the biblical principle of stewardship. I talked way to long on this one in the last service so I am just going to list it at this service. Stewardship is about more than how much you give to the church. Stewardship is how you see all of life. Do you realize that if the financial resources are there it might actually be practicing biblical stewardship more to buy a $30,000 car and drive it for 15 years than it is to buy a $12,000 Hundi despite the 100,000-mile warranty? There was an individual in the church who was struggling with this a while back. There was another couple that was struggling with putting a room addition on their house and feeling guilty about that. And I talked to them about stewardship. And I knew that they honored God financially. The longer I am in the ministry the more I realize one of the most important things I have to do is teach my people about stewardship of life from a biblical perspective.
5. Trust in God. Learn and claim the promises of scripture. Now I know that God loves us all alike. But friends, as I read my Bible, do you know who I see over and over again that God has a very special place in His heart for? It is the poor. From Genesis to Revelation, the poor hold a special place in God’s heart. I expect to get to heaven, but there is that verse several places in Scripture that says, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” When I get to heaven I expect to be in the back of the line because in this life I have been so blessed in so many ways. The poor, I think, will be in front of the line. Trust in God. Claim the promises of scripture many of which are here in the 4th chapter.
6. Avail yourself of the resources of the present moment. Here’s what I am saying here. I’ve counseled with some folks with financial struggles who think it is beneath them to take an $8.00 an hour job. If an $8.00 an hour job is all that is out there, than I take the $8.00 an hour job until something else comes along. Maybe my math is all messed up, but $8.00 an hour seems like a better deal than $0.00 an hour. Avail yourself of the resources of the present moment. This verse is not in Scripture. Scripture does not say, “God helps those who help themselves.” You won’t find that verse. But you will find that principle over and over again. You may remember the story of the man. The floodwaters were rising. He went up to his roof. He prayed that God would deliver him from the floodwaters. And a rowboat came along. And he sent the rowboat on its way because God was going to deliver him. And a speedboat came along. And he said, “Nope, God’s going to make the floodwaters go down.” And a helicopter came along. And he waved the helicopter goodbye because he was praying that God would make the floodwaters subside. And the poor man drowned. And he asked God in heaven, he said, “God, you didn’t answer my prayers?” And God said, “I sent you a rowboat, a helicopter, and a speedboat, what more do you want?” But you see, he thought it was on his terms. Avail yourself of the resources of the moment. I was aggravated in seminary; they made us poor seminary students’ health insurance available for almost nothing. And I would get so made at some of my neighbors who wouldn’t shell out $20.00 per month for the health insurance believing that God was going to take care of all their medical needs. But what I’m saying here is maybe God took care of their medical needs with a $20.00 a month health insurance program.
7. Don’t be too proud to receive help from others. If you read all of chapter four, in some of the versus we didn’t read you’ll see that Paul gives thanks for a gift that he had received from another church. Sometimes, friends, pride gets in our way. I had to learn this lesson in seminary. We would never have made it through without some people who helped us out along the way. I’m much better giving than receiving. But you know what I learned? Nobody offered to give me something if they didn’t want to. And if I say, “No” to help from others, I’m robbing them of a blessing of giving. But if you are a part of our mission program here at Grace, you can feel good. We can’t advertise it because we respect the privacy of the individuals we help, but this year almost $15,000 will be given from you to people in our church and others in the community caught between a rock and a hard place who are trying desperately to help themselves but they need some help in the moment. You make that possible.
8. In times of financial concern, be open to the lessons God wants to teach you. They are hard lessons but friends God is more interested in your character than he is your comfort! Most of you have gone through tough times in your life financially. Some of you who are doing very well today struggled to just put food on the table at one point in your life. But I wonder, when did you grow the most in your faith? It was probably when you struggled to put food on the table. So if you are going through a financially hard time, maybe God in that time wants to develop your character. It isn’t easy; it’s refinement my fire. And again, Paul says, “I have learned”. If you are in financially tough times now, what are you learning, what does God want to teach you?
9. Don’t lose sight of the spiritual treasures God has credited you your account. This is especially true for those of you in times that are tight right now. Remember the old gospel song, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue.” Would you do this for me? Would you blink your eyes? Would you realize that in the spectrum of eternity, this life is just a blink of the eye? Are you laying up treasures in heaven? And if you are struggling financially, remember those eternal treasures. Material things are going to ultimately wear out, but the treasures you are laying up spiritually will last forever.
10. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you. Here’s are Scripture memory for next week. Why don’t you read it with me? “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.” Friends, as we go from this place, I am not suggesting simplistic answers. Your fears and concerns are very real. If you are looking for simple answers in this area, see me afterwards and I’ll recommend a couple of TV preachers for you to watch who tell you if you’ll send your last $5.00 God will give you $50.00 back in return. Do you know what I want to ask those TV preachers? The Lord that preached the prosperity Gospel, my Lord Jesus, said, “He didn’t even have a place to lay his head. And when they put Him to death they gambled for the only one possession He owned.” I’m not suggesting simplistic answers; I’m not saying that life is easy. For some of you, you may struggle financially every day of the rest of your life. But I am telling you this from first-hand experience--God is faithful! He will provide for your needs if we seek first the kingdom. Beulah Schrader gave me this quote this week; it is so good. I’m slow; it took me a minute to catch it. “No God, no peace. Know God, know peace.”
Let’s close by reading together again our Scripture memory for this week, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.”
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn