Borrowing And Saving - Should Christians Do Either? Series

Introduction:

A. Before going to Europe on business, a man drove his Rolls-Royce to a downtown NY City bank and went in to ask for an immediate loan of $5 thousand.

1. The loan officer was quite taken aback, and asked what collateral he could offer.

2. “Well, here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce,” the man said.

3. The loan officer promptly had the car driven into the bank's underground parking for safe keeping, and gave him $5,000.

4. Two weeks later, the man returned to the bank, and asked to settle up his loan and get his car back.

5. The loan officer checked the records and told him, “That will be $5,000 in principal, and $15.40 in interest.”

6. The man wrote out a check, thanked the loan officer, and started to walk away.

7. “Just a minute, sir,” the loan officer said. “While you were gone, I found out you are a millionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000.”

8. The millionaire smiled and said. “Where else in Manhattan could I securely park my Rolls-Royce for two weeks and pay only $15.40?”

B. I think we all would admit that was some pretty good dollars and sense by that millionaire.

1. That’s one of the challenges we have as God’s people, because we are focused on spiritual things above, we don’t always have good money sense here below.

2. Sometimes we don’t really understand the way money can work for us or against us.

3. Nowhere does that show its ugly head more than in these two matters that we want to address today – borrowing and saving.

C. We are in our third lesson in our four part series called Spiritual Dollars and Sense.

1. In the first lesson we discussed –Earning - where our money comes from.

a. We learned that everything belongs to God, and God gives us the ability to earn a living.

b. We also discussed the challenge of keeping money in proper perspective.

2. In last week’s lesson we discussed – Spending - where our money goes.

a. We talked about the importance of contentment and containment as a way to avoid impulse spending and over-spending.

b. We talked about the importance of living by a budget and making good purchasing choices.

3. If you missed either of those lessons you can get them from Nathan Laatz, or you can listen to them online at our website, or on Youtube.

D. Today we want to take a look at borrowing and saving, and answer the question: “Should Christians Do Either?”

1. Is it right for Christians to borrow money?

2. Is it right for Christians to save money?

3. What does the Bible say about these questions?

I. The Christian and Borrowing

A. When we look into the Bible, we find two direct statements about borrowing.

1. Neither of the statements tell us that we can’t borrow, but both of them communicate something important about borrowing.

2. Look at Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”

3. When we borrow money, we put ourselves into a place of obligation.

4. We give the loaner a position over us, and we become a kind of servant to them.

5. That might work out fine, but on the other hand, it might put us into a bind.

B. The other verse that says something about borrowing is Psalm 37:21, “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously.”

1. Obviously, if we never borrow, we will never have a problem repaying.

2. But if we do obligate ourselves by borrowing, then we may find ourselves unable to repay.

3. The inability to repay may be the result of our own doing, but it also may come for reasons we had no control of – illness, the loss of a job, or some kind of unexpected catastrophe – car accident, fire, flood, etc.

4. Because of the challenges of repayment, we should be very careful about borrowing.

5. For, as we know, it is a lot easier to borrow money than it is to repay it.

C. As we think about borrowing, we need to understand that all debt is not equal - some debt is better than other debt.

1. Most of us are not going to be able to buy a house without going into debt, but most of the time that is good debt.

a. The house retains its value or goes up in value, and if we need to get out from under the commitment, we can sell the house and erase the debt.

2. Education loans are another good kind of debt, because they enable us to get degrees that will open doors for future employment – it’s a good investment.