“Escaping the Debt Trap”
1st Timothy 6:6-10
This morning I want to begin with a question…in fact several questions. First of all where do you go when you need financial advice? Who do you talk to when your finances are in trouble? The 3rd question I want you to answer by a show of hands. How many of you have ever struggled with your finances and did not have enough to pay your monthly obligations/bills? My hand is going up with yours. That’s everyone. So we are all in the same boat today. If you look to the right or to the left everyone in this building has been down this road. Now the question I didn’t ask and I don’t want you to answer is this…how many of you are in that boat right now?
Did you know…
The average family in America carries 9312.00 in credit card debt.
17% of families in America do not have enough money to be able to go just 7 days without a paycheck.
6 out of 10 people will retire with less than 10,000 a year.
Total consumer debt in 1980 was 1.3 trillion dollars. Today it is 15.6 trillion
Conflict over money is still the leading cause of divorce in America today.
Now here’s the deal. Debt is a trap that every American has fallen into at one time or another. It is a trap that is very inviting, very easy to get into and the problem is you are usually in way too deep when the trap goes off. Most traps snag you right in the beginning. This one is different. Here is how it works. This trap is called debt. We wander in usually because of greed or simply a lack of contentment. Tammy Faye Bakker used to say that shopping is much cheaper than a psychiatrist. We’re not happy with things as they are; we want more yet we don’t have the money to buy it. So instead of just saying no or let’s wait…it’s honey, let’s buy it now. And so you reach for your wallet or purse and you pull out that trusty credit card. And we’re so used to doing this that it comes out very easily. See how it just slides out. We don’t give it a 2nd thought. But then we are still not content. That is because things do not equal contentment. This word contentment is a lost word in our vocabulary today. This is the definition. “To be satisfied with who we are and with what we have; not wanting anything else.”
Contentment is an elusive thing. In fact one of the traps we fall into is this…we say, “if I just had that car I would be content.” “If I had that new dress or that new computer or whatever it might be, then I would be happy. Then you think I don’t have the money though. So what do we do? Simple. Pull out that credit card. It’s painless. At least till we get the bill. That’s why they call it a Discover card. Because when you get the bill you discover just how much you are going to owe. So we wander around looking for contentment, making purchase after purchase, looking for contentment but all we find is a trap. And now we’re stuck. We’re trapped. Fortunately the Bible gives us a way out.
vv. 6-8 It is more than interesting to me that as Paul talks about debt that he begins the conversation by talking about slavery. Do you see the connection? He starts by addressing everyone who is in slavery. He says in v. 2 “these are the things you are to teach them. Let’s look. He starts with a formula: Godliness +Contentment = great gain. Paul writes these words to a group in the church who had somehow come to the conclusion that the way to financial success was through godliness/religion. This should not surprise us that this attitude was present in the 1st century; what should surprise us is that it is still present in the 21st century-today.
You’ve heard the TV preachers who say this. They are all to prevalent on radio and television. They will tell you to give to God and that he will make you wealthy. But actually those pastors are the ones getting wealthy. Homes, cars, even jets. I saw this week that Kenneth Copeland’s church bought him a private jet…the cost 40 million dollars. Top of the line. He actually collects planes. He lives in a 6 million dollar home that is twice as large as this entire building. What these guys preach is that if you give enough you will be wealthy. This happened in the 1st century….it continues today.
Paul says it is not Godliness/religion (v.6) that brings financial gain. It is Godliness plus contentment. Remember our definition of contentment is “to be satisfied with who we are and what we have; not wanting anything else.
v. 7. Paul reminds us that we will leave this world the same way we came in. With nothing. Yet we will spend our entire lives pursuing things.
v. 8. He says if you have food and clothing be content. And he gives us this advice, this teaching for a specific reason. Look at v. 9 “people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.”
Now if I did not make it clear before, look at this trap again. Contentment is over here. That is where we will find it. You don’t have to go somewhere else to find it….contentment is found in the midst of our circumstances, not by leaving them. We think that the grass is always greener on the other side when usually it is much tougher to mow. Contentment is here. Destruction is here. You will never find contentment in this area. Never. Here you find one thing. Destruction. Ruin.
My best friend as a teenager once told me when we were about 14 that it was his goal in life to be a millionaire. Not the only person to ever say those words. But it became his passion. He was consumed with wanting to be wealthy. He started gambling, small card games but they quickly escalated. It just wasn’t enough. It never is. If you know what a pyramiding scheme is that’s what he got into. Pulling in friends, relatives; you invest in this and you will get rich. They gave him their money…in the end no one got rich, everyone lost their investment and my friend went to prison…for several years.
Paul started this chapter by talking about those who are under the yoke of slavery. Burden. Any time you are enslaved to something you are in a prison of sorts. You have lost your freedom to become what God has called you to be. You have fallen into a trap that the world has set for you. You see you can be in this trap for a while before you know it. Everything seems fine. You’re enjoying these new things and you have and life seems ok. But then the trap closes and the pain begins. I asked you at the beginning of this message today how many of you had ever been in a place where you couldn’t pay your bills and every person here said they have. Me too. It’s a terrible place to be. Because when you’re there you don’t own your money, your money owns you, you don’t own all these things….they own you. And the interest you are paying on them is far more than you realize. If you put 1000 dollar item on your charge card, how many years will it take to pay it off by making the minimum payment?
Look at v. 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil. Then it is like he says let me give you a big example of what can happen to us. V. 10b. Here is what that looks like.
Desire for wealth ---- temptation to spend $$ we
greed do not have
love of money
So how do we know if we have the money to buy something or not? Easy. Check your bank account. Is it there? No? Then you don’t have it. Another way to know whether you have the money or not. If to pay for it you have to pull out one of these (credit card). As soon as you do you have just spent money you do not have and have paid more than the item is actually worth.
So what do we do? Here’s the answer. Get out of debt. Hmm I thought you said this was simple. It’s actually hard; you won’t like it but you’ve got to get a picture over here in your mind of what being out of debt can do for you and your family. You have to get a picture of what financial peace actually looks like.
To gain financial peace, start with these 5 actions….
(1) Stop using your credit card (s) immediately. Today. Not tomorrow.
(2) Destroy your credit cards. So that you won’t be tempted. Cut them up. Burn them. Bake them in the oven. I cut mine up.
(3) Throw every dollar you have at the smallest balance you have. Then when you pay that one off start putting the one you were paying on that one toward the next one. This is the snowball effect.
(4) Find a 2nd job. Take all of the money and throw it at the debt.
(5) Learn to hate debt. You probably already do. But if you’re still in debt, then you haven’t learned to hate it enough.
Listen if you want God to help you take care of your finances then you need to who Him that everything you have belongs to Him. How can you do that? Give. Tithe. Why should we tithe? I will give you several reasons. (1) the Bible says to. Malachi says “bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. This alone should be enough. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, It is the only scripture where God says we can test Him. (2) "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” I would never say that God would make anyone rich because they tithed. But I can tell you from personal testimony that your needs will be met. There will be blessings for you. God will provide. (3) Do it because you love Christ and His church. It is a part of worship when we tithe and it allows the local church to sustain itself and grow. Don’t you want that for Eagle’s Landing?
I heard a story of a missionary in Africa who received a knock on the door of his hut one afternoon. Answering, the missionary found a native boy holding a large fish in his hands. The boy said, "Pastor, you taught us what tithing is, , to give 10%, so here. I've brought you my tithe." As the missionary took the fish, he questioned the boy. "If this is your tithe, where are the other nine fish?" At this, the boy beamed and said, "Oh, they're still back in the river. I'm going back to catch them now." Do you see what he was doing? He wasn’t waiting until he was blessed to give. He gave before the blessing. Don’t wait for God to bless you financially before you give. Or you may wait for the rest of your life. Give now. The blessing will come.
CARD in program.
