Five Financial Myths Series

Sermon Title: Five Financial Myths

Place: Oakdale Wesleyan Church

Date: February 6, 2005

Series: Living the Uncomplicated Life

Introduction

I got a beautiful illustration in the in-box of my e-mail about myths that circulate our world. Every few months someone sends out this e-mail to me and it has been happening for about the last ten years. This is one of the reasons I seldom read or respond to forwards in e-mails. Let me read the original e-mail and then I will read the retraction that I got this week….

DR. DOBSON’S PLEA FOR ACTION

CBS discontinued "Touched by an Angel" for using the word “God” in every program. Madeline Murray O’Hare, an atheist, successfully managed to eliminate the use of Bible reading from public schools a few years ago. Now her organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington, DC.

Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America.

They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand!

If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped. This group is also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools!!

You as a Christian (or any other religious background) can help!

We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country. As Christians we must unite on this. Please don’t take this lightly.

We ignored this lady once and lost prayer in our school and in offices across the nation.

Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference in our country.

Please press "forward", and forward this to everyone that you think should read this.

Now, please sign your name at the bottom (you can only add your name after you have pressed the "Forward").

Don’t delete any other names, just go to the next number and type your name and state. Please do not sign jointly, such as Mr.. &Mrs. Each person should sign his/her own name. Please defeat this organization and keep the right of our freedom of religion.

REMEMBER: Our country was founded on freedom of religion and our Constitution is based on the 10 Commandments.

This sounds good and all and what a stirring subject. But as stirring as it sounds, as gut wrenching and alarming as it may appear to be, this is a myth!

Let me now read the retraction…..

Just a note here to say that I regret having sent you this petition as we now have information that it is not valid, and would not be of help, officially. The person that sent this to me then sited this e-mail they received in regards to this petition.

Just to give you a heads up. Online petitions do not hold any legal weight because the individuals cannot be verified. Also, this particular email is a false email in that it refers to the FCC petition number 2493 which is not a current FCC petition.

If you do a search online you will discover that this type of email has been circulating for years and is not accurate. There are no current attempts to ban religious broadcasting that the FCC is considering.

Just thought you should know for future reference.

Robert Canen

We live in a world of myths. In fact we are so enamored by myths that sometimes we Americans no longer know what is reality and what is a myth. We sit in front of our televisions, we head off to the movie shows, we engage in plays, and even sporting events and loose touch with reality and get wrapped up in a mythical world.

Unfortunately the church is not unscathed in this world of myths. Often times myths even influence and affect the church. We hold ideas or concepts that are just not accurate or true according to God’s word.

We are currently in a series Learning to Live the Uncomplicated Life and often times the complications that we have secured in our lives are very well due to myths that we have taken and made concrete ideologies and governing principles of our lives. This morning we are continuing our look at Finances and Holiness and we are going to break down five myths in the church that surround our financial stewardship.

This morning is going to be more of a teaching sermon. So you probably won’t walk away from this sermon all inspired and pumped up to do something great, rather, my hope is that you walk away from this sermon with some solid financial concepts on which to build your life. Concepts not based upon myth but rather based upon God’s word.