Financial Stewardship, Part 4

Debt

Message Preached by Pastor Dean Allen
at the
1990 New England Baptist Family Conference

(See the special Handout given when this sermon was preached.)

BEFORE I address the subject of debt directly, let me just tie together one last thing on giving. You might ask, "What about tithing?" Some would say, as I did for years, that it would be inconsistent with being under grace. It's a Levitical practice, a legal practice. Under Christ tithing cannot be imposed on the people of God. It would be reverting back to Moses, and it would be illegitimate. Now, it is not reverting back to Moses. It would be reverting back all the way to Abraham, 430 years before Moses, and to Jacob who learned that practice somehow from Granddaddy and carried it out. Moses institutionalized it by God and put it in its Levitical form. The Lord then commanded the Pharisees, These little things you ought to have done [of tithing the minute seeds], and not to have left the greater matters of the law undone: mercy and justice, etc. (Matthew 23:23).

Some will say, "The Lord was applying that to the Mosaic system. After He died and rose and the Pentecost occurred, that doesn't apply to the saints." Well, let me ask you this one question. If you are under grace and not under law (and that's true) and therefore that has all changed, in which direction should the saint move in his giving proportion from ten percent? Should he go down or up? Should Christians under the grace of the revealed will of God in saving His people by the shedding of the blood of His everlasting, holy Son, give more or less than the Pharisees and the Levites? What legacy do you wish to leave and carry with you to the day of judgment? "What do ye more than others?" The Pharisees tithed and gave offerings. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that we're under a better covenant, a better system, a better Priest. I suggest there ought to be better offerings.

If you move anywhere from ten percent, it ought to be up. You ought to go way beyond the law. The Pharisees had this explicit problem. That's why the Lord got us in the Sermon on the Mount — this nit-picking about whether it's net or gross, or whether it's ten percent, or whether you can go less, or whether you can afford it, or whether it's convenient. The Lord died to liberate us from that stinginess and legalism — not to keep us from keeping the law, but to free us to love the law. Legalism has killed. The Pharisees used the law and their perversions of it to prevent their hearts from worshiping and giving. The saint is opposite to that. He delights in finding ways to give and to worship. That point alone convinces my conscience that if I'm going to go anywhere from ten percent, it's got to be up.

Now you may have a problem about tithing on gifts. A safeguard about that is to get your tithing and offering up above the ten percent and always be giving more. If you're all hung up on that, be ahead of yourself. Give more and more, and then you don't have to nit-pick on that stuff. And your conscience will be free.

I know a pastor who for years was living in a parsonage freely provided by the church; and for years, he tithed the pro-rated value of the parsonage. Twenty years or so later, they began to deed the house over to him to make it his. Every year a certain value of that house became his income. But he didn't have to start dipping into his checking account and pay tithes. He had already paid. It saved him thousands. The shock of his economy would have killed him. He was in no position to come up with ten percent that first year because they gave over to him a big percentage just like that! He could never have found the cash. But he didn't have to. He had been thinking. You say, "That sounds a little legalistic. You mean paying on something that's not money?" All your increase (Deuteronomy 14:28). I hope you see the point.

Before we open up the subject of debt, again I'd ask you to join me as we pray together.

Our Father, give us light and give us sight. Receive our thanks for your help thus far. Keep us tightly connected and tied to the Scriptures in everything we think and do. Let none go from this place zealously applying principles without biblical foundation only to be frustrated later when they try to change and confuse themselves and others. Let none, though, stop short of obeying every word that proceeds out of your mouth. Give me liberty and boldness, conciseness of expression. Help us, O Lord. Give us ears to hear, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

The subject which I've decided to preach to you today is the most practical address of the week in the sense that it is not so much an exposition or even a collected comment about various texts of Scripture; nor is it dealing with the underlying principles of the heart as much as we have been doing. It deals with one area of the handling and treatment of money. The reason I've picked this one area is that it is so expressive on the one hand of the condition of the heart of our nation in its unrighteousness regarding mammon. On the other hand it is so needful to be corrected so that much of the other things we would learn about handling money biblically can be done. Debt is a crippling vice. It has saturated the problems and the lives of God's people (as well as those that are not God's people) and, in many cases, has undermined the very cause of the gospel — if that could be done humanly speaking.

Psalm 37:21 "The wicked borrows, and pays not again; But the righteous deals graciously, and gives." Note the contrast between the wicked and the righteous at the application of their handling of possessions.

The wicked, because of the disposition of his heart, borrows. That means he has not labored to get it himself. He has not planned; he has not prepared. He is not able at the point of need to supply it because of his disobedience to God's commandments previously. He lives, as a pattern of life, depending on others to supply his needs when the time comes. Because it is the pattern of his life to live in dependence and to be irresponsible, when it comes time to repay them, he has not wherewith to repay because his habits haven't changed. And so he doesn't repay. It never occurs to him that that is wicked. For you to call him wicked, you would be very mean and harsh and legalistic. He didn't mean not to repay. He had the full intention. He said he would when he borrowed, didn't he? He said, "You don't know how I got into this circumstance. I'm so ashamed. If you could just advance me a bit, I'll have it all for you next week. I promise. I don't know how it came to this. Please help me." And your compassion goes out to him. You reach in and give asking nothing in return. But your heart expects something in return and has a right to in that case because he has set you up to expect something in return: what's yours.

A week goes by and you notice he's avoiding you. A couple of weeks go by, and you begin to be agitated a bit a wonder about it. You read into it the best of the five options of his motives, and you wait another month. Finally he inadvertently bumps into you, and the face pinks a little, and he says, "Oh I haven't forgotten. Tomorrow. First thing." And you give him another six weeks. Finally you are forced either completely to lose respect for him or you have to face him. You don't want to be greedy or sound as though money is all you think about, so you try to find a gracious way. The ultimate result is, "I wish I could, but I can't. Please be patient." He doesn't think it's wicked. The Bible says it's wicked. The wicked, as a way of life, borrows and doesn't repay.

The contrast to the disposition of the wicked is the disposition of the righteous which is gracious and gives. It is almost as though borrowing without being prepared every time to repay is opposite to giving. And giving is opposite to borrowing irresponsibly. The two dovetail with what we preached yesterday. Giving is not only a cure for a covetous heart; it's a cure for bad debt. A disposition of giving will prevent you from having bad debts. You will not think in terms of taking; you'll think in terms of giving. You'll prepare your life to be that way. There's a strong line drawn between the two. The wicked borrows and doesn't repay. But the righteous is gracious and gives.

Now turn with me to Romans 13, a chapter that is either ignored or twisted in our culture. The first seven verses are the subject of much debate in this generation, especially among Reformed thinkers regarding its application in our life. We're exhorted to submit to the powers that be in government, to have that attitude of rendering to all their dues, paying our taxes even to the wicked. And in this chapter it was either Claudius, Caligula, or Nero. Two of the three we know were publicly practicing homosexuals. Nero married a 12-year-old boy in a state wedding and then handed him over to his succeeding Caesar, the boy then became the next Caesar's whatever you call it. Now we know that that's the kind of king to whom they were paying taxes in Rome when these verses were written. They were paying taxes to men who were using their tax dollars to buy lions to eat their children and their brothers. They were paying tax dollars to men who were using those taxes to promote all manner of vice and wickedness. Christians were subsidizing them, and the apostle said to keep on paying it!

That very understanding ought to eliminate this nonsense spirit of rebellion that says, "I ain't paying taxes if it's going to an unrighteous cause." All you're saying is that you've found an excuse to be a hoarder of your own money. You'll drive on their highways. You'll use their parking lots. You'll expect the police and the fire people to take care of you in a jam. You've revealed a wicked and covetous heart. The love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil (I Timothy 6:10). Much of what we see in this false piety of our day comes from a rejection of the clear directive of God's Word in the New Testament.

In that context, verse 8 stares us in the face. "Owe no man anything, except to love one another." Have nothing left undone in your obligations to your friends, neighbors, enemies, and brethren, except that thing which can never be completely satisfied, namely, loving. Have everything else settled. All your accounts, keep them short. "Owe no man anything, except to love one another."

I do not agree with some that are popular teachers in this society and do teach that all borrowing in itself is morally wrong. Some believe that since the borrower is servant to the lender that a Christian should never borrow because that would make him a servant of men. Well, there's nothing wrong with being a servant. And so that doesn't eliminate borrowing as such. However, I do believe that the vast and overwhelming preponderance of debt in our generation is unwarranted by biblical authority, it is outside of biblical priorities, it is disruptive of biblical living, and it is ungodly in its motive and in its fruits. Not all, but the vast preponderance.

For the United States of America to be a debtor nation is an inexcusable shame! As a citizen you ought to be ashamed of being a debtor, and you are. You owe it. Your government that you elected has put you into debt by mismanaging your money. But we as a nation do not have the moral guts to change it because the majority of us are acting the same way our representatives are acting. For a Christian to be swamped with monthly payments for things that are rusting or lying idle in the basement is a shame. Did you hear that? It is a shame! And debt is what brought it about. You shouldn't be paying on something you're not using productively. Now, if you bought it, you better be paying on it. But you shouldn't have gotten into that position.

Let me define for you debt as I mean it when I speak about it throughout the rest of this sermon. In the sense of Romans 13:8, I believe debt is owing to anyone that which I cannot righteously repay without undue hardship. I wouldn't say that necessarily makes all of this kind of debt sin. I would say it certainly makes it unwise. But it is probably rooted in some sort of sin. Virtually all of our financial problems are rooted in sin at some point. We need to be humble enough to admit that. You need to be humble enough to recognize that it's not just by accident that you have fallen into financially hard times. There is almost always sin somewhere in the past that has produced it. Unless you come clean with that, you're never going to deal with this at the heart level. You'll never get it conquered. You'll make some pharisaical adjustments when you're under the emotion of some fresh preaching, and you'll go home and eventually be right back in the same pit. I would spare you that.

Noah Webster, in his 1828 dictionary, defines terms rightly with moral and biblical illustrations. It's saturated with the Ten Commandments in defining things. He said this (where he gives a sentence and uses the term): "It is a common misfortune or vice to be in debt." That's the way the world viewed it in 1828. That's one of the reasons they had to change the dictionary. It is no longer considered a common misfortune or vice to be in debt. It's considered not taking advantage of the economy to be free of debt.

Benjamin Franklin said, "When you run in debt, you give another power over your liberty." Now here's a lot of common grace. The Bible says the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). Ben Franklin understood that principle from his observation of life. In the early colonies, it was not considered wise or noble to be in debt. And most of the men that framed our documents of foundation were free of debt; others owed them money. That's wise.

In other words, you can use your credit card to get things that make you look and feel rich. It is at this point of complete irresponsibility that our generation is shocked when the bill really does come at the end of the month. They're so swept away by the thing (as Eve was swept away by the fruit — it was good for food and desirable to look upon), that they refuse even to let their brains consider what it's going to feel like when the first bill comes. And when it does come, it's so stunning they ignore it. They can't bear the pain of looking at it and looking at the bank book and reckoning with the irreconcilability of the two. I'm not being hypothetical. I'm speaking of a vast and increasing number of men who are the heads of houses (and many who are members in good standing in our churches) who act so irresponsibly by using debt to get things they could never get otherwise, that they don't know how to live with themselves when the bills come due and, therefore, fall prey to the temptation not to pay the bill.

Our church will not allow a member to continue to be a member who refuses to correct unrighteous debt. I Corinthians 5 says a covetous man is wicked and must be removed from membership. You ask, "What does this kind of debt have to do with covetousness?" What else does it have to do with? A man who takes money from another to buy something he wants and can't do without, and then refuses to pay back, and when addressed and dealt with will not listen but continues to heap up more, and builds a legacy behind him of not paying his debts, and has people offended all over town at the name of Christ and the righteousness of the church, cannot be tolerated in the church. I didn't say that the day you find out about it you nail him and kick him out. But using appropriate biblical means and processes, you cannot tolerate that in Christ's church. It's theft! We'll see that in a moment. It gives the appearance of opulence often without the advantages and freedom.

Formerly, only the rich could afford expensive things. Now everybody can get them with credit. There was a time that you simply said, "We can't afford that. We can't get it." But our economy made it possible for you to get it — not with your own money, but with someone else's money. So then you feel secure. You got the thing that your rich neighbor has. You have your pool. You have your second television, or your fancy remote VCR, or whatever. And I do not believe that these things in themselves are evil. No. We don't condemn the possession of a second or a third car, depending on the need, or even having a pool in your back yard. But some people feel security when they get these things, and they don't know that they're on the threshold of utter disaster financially. They feel secure because debt makes them feel secure, but the very things about which they've surrounded their security are going to crumble under the foundation that they've laid. Debt is deceptive that way. We're deluged with it in this country.

Twenty percent of all cars in this country are repossessed. One man said in a recent study that Americans are debt-happy. And it's so. Remember this, you own only that on which you do not owe. If you owe, it is not yours to the degree that you owe on it. It is the person's who loaned you the money. The bank calls it a lien. That means it's theirs to the degree that you haven't paid them. They bought it. They're letting you use their car, their pool, their TV, their fridge. You may not agree with that. But you better have agreed with it the day they come and pick it up and take it back. They have the first option on the thing you bought. If a day comes when you owe a payment and you do not pay, on that day you become a thief. You are now keeping what belongs rightfully to another, and you've not satisfied his requirements for it. Is that serious? Unrighteous debt, unpaid debt is thievery. And thieves go to hell.

"Pastor Allen, wait a minute. I know I'm a Christian." You will prove it by the way you deal with your debts. Or you'll prove you're kidding yourself. Do not be deceived for the sake of these kinds of things, one of which is covetousness. The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. In Revelation chapter 9 (verse 21), when it concludes that passage of all these things that the trumpets of woes are bringing on the earth, it says, "And they repented not of their [and he lists these great, terrible sins, and the last one] thefts." In other words, they heard it preached in the church, they heard it clearly distinguished that unrighteous, unpaid debts are thefts, they would not go out and start putting it right. They didn't repent of their thefts. Brethren, that is as biblical, it is as true, it is a straight as I can make it. I do not apologize for making you squirm in your conscience about shocking fear that you are in danger here with your debt package. If you're not prepared to straighten it out, you fall under the category of those who would not repent of their thefts.

You say, "Pastor Allen, if you knew the weight that I'm bearing with my debts, you could never say what you're saying. It will take us years to get . . ." I'm aware of that. But, see, God looks on the intent of the heart, and the motion, and the motive, and the direction. God is not going to burden you down and say, "All right, Pastor Allen and I have caught you this week. You've got $15,000 on MasterCard. You'll never pay it back." (That's not a figure I took off the top of my head. That's from my own personal counseling. It piles up.)

You say, "Pastor Allen, I would have to become a worse thief to pay that off. I'd have to rob a bank to get that straight." I'm aware of that. I would not bind your conscience to thinking that if by tomorrow morning you haven't paid it all off, you're going to go to hell and there's no retreat. I don't mean that. But I say this: If you do not have a disposition of heart, when you see these things biblically clear, to immediately put it right in whatever way and as quickly as you righteously can without undue hardship on your family and others that are dependent on you, and if you don't have the disposition to get to your creditors immediately and make an arrangement for repayment that satisfies them to the best of your ability, my dear friend, you don't have a repentant heart. And that means you're unregenerate, and you need to be saved. You need to turn from that heart. It's frightening, isn't it? That's why these things need to be preached, because we don't think about them. We are playing fast and loose with the moral law of God at the eighth commandment and don't even know it.

But I want you to know God is gracious. I want to say specifically that we've been dealing with the heart, and hearts that are steeped in sin and need help. My Bible teaches me that God is the God who is able and ready to renew hearts, to cleanse hearts, to create new hearts. God is able to do that! "Lord, put my heart right about my unrighteous debts and the fact that I'm keeping what belongs to another, and I'm hoarding it, and I'm refusing to repay it. I repent. Have mercy on me. Forgive me. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew within me a right spirit." Then go to your creditor and make arrangements. Humbly say, "I've blown it; I was a poor manager of money. I didn't read the future; I presumed on it. I've borrowed. I cannot repay you according to our agreement. Will you allow me to give you this much? And as soon as I can righteously increase it, I will. Would you let me?" Almost in every case your creditor will go overboard to let you. Five dollars a week is better than nothing.

I know this firsthand by having to do dirty, pastoral, private investigative work to call creditors to try to remove the stain of our church's reputation from one of our member's treatment all over town. I asked them what they would take to satisfy, so I could give him good counsel. I did that because he wouldn't call them. I thought "What am I in this stuff for? I thought the Lord called me to preach the gospel." But you understand that this is right at the heart of the gospel. And every one of those creditors said, "Pastor Allen, this is the first church we've ever known to have any interest in making it right. We've got debtors that are in churches all over this town. Their pastors never call us. What's wrong with you? What do you preach at that church?" Oh, it swelled my heart to be able to say, "We preach the Bible." "We wish we had more churches like yours around here." That's the truth! It was a tremendous testimony. You see, a lot of those creditors know those guys are "Christians." And they will not darken the door of a church that will allow a man to steal their money that way and call it under grace. You wouldn't either. If you can't learn it by preaching, you'll learn it someday when some believer lies to you about how much he's going to repay and never does. It will get to you. You'll start finding verses to support my thesis.

You're a thief if you keep what belongs to another, and you better repay it. God will give you time to get all the affairs straight. He gives space for repentance. Accept in your heart you're going to get it right. Get to your creditor. He'll work with you. Put it straight.

3. Debt Presses Hard against Self-Control.

The fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Galatians 5:23). Debt makes you able to loosen the reins a little bit. You can get out beyond the parameters of control. That makes it easy. A lady once commented, "I love credit cards; they go so much further than money." You better avoid that. It makes you be an impulsive buyer. You walk by a window. You see something. The money's not there, but you've got the card. You can get it. "Ah, let's buy it honey. The Lord will provide at the end of the month." God hates hearing that. He will curse that comment and bring it back to haunt you.

4. Debt Frequently Causes Worry and Marital Problems.

I'm not even sure "frequently" covers the subject. That's a gracious way of putting it. Debt makes many wives anxious for tomorrow. "How are we going to pay all these bills?" It tempts people to put the wife and the mother out of the home to supplement the income. It increases the tension of the home, the irritations of the home, the resentments of the home — all because we got those things we wanted. And it's amazing how quickly the kids lose their excitement about those things we got for them. We got them to make our kids happy. But they didn't. And you still have to pay the debt. And there's pressure. And sometimes the very little lady who said, "Honey, let's go on and let's do it," three months later will say, "You got us into this. Get us out!" I hope you haven't done that. Sometimes that happens because of what is in the hearts. The emotions and the tensions make you say things that are vicious because you're worried and afraid. Debt does that. Be careful!

Debt removes the debtor at least one step away from his responsibilities. If you don't have to pay when you buy, it just sort of softens your conscience a bit, just sort of lulls you to sleep. Put off what you can pay. "Don't withhold good from him to whom it is due if you have it in your power to do it." Be careful about that. It often comes to irresponsibility, especially in a bankrupt-happy system. There are men who live their lives plotting bankruptcies. The way this system is worked out — if you know the law — you can build up jillions of dollars worth of debt and never pay anybody, and they'll never get it. I'm a witness to that.

6. Debt Often Loses Friends.

Borrow from somebody and don't repay, and see how long you have him as a real trusting friend. Let me give a suggestion here. Don't ever lend to a friend unless you do it in the context of proven trust. In other words, he must have a life and relationship with you in which you have not one thought that there is any possibility he is not a man of his word. You've got to have proven patterns of trustworthiness before you lend him money. I don't care how soft he is, how much you love him, or how good a Christian he is. If you don't know by practice that he keeps his word and pays his debts, don't lend to him. You're not doing him a favor. It's not gracious of you. It's not loving. It's stupid. It's foolish. You're laying a snare for him. Don't do it. The Bible says to beware going to your neighbor's house too often (Proverbs 25:17), and that assumes often with a hand out. "Just five more dollars." Once you start lending to somebody, he remembers the path to your door real well.

Beggars have a network of communication, and our church is on their list. We helped a couple, and they all know where we are now. It's amazing how they communicate and know the times of our services. But they never come to them except about five minutes after we start. They show up in the foyer so smelly and unkempt that we're almost ashamed to bring them in. And they like that. They want a deacon to come out right now and talk. It's an emergency. It's an emergency that's been building for nineteen years. But our policy is: you sit for an hour and fifteen minutes under the preaching of our pastors, then we will talk. Does that seem cruel? It's not cruel. Who called us to be a divider among men (Luke 12:14)? Who made us responsible for other men's irresponsibility? If they're not willing to hear the Word of God, they can get money from lots of other sources in this culture other than the gospel.

Don't take the bread away from the children and throw it to the dogs (Matthew 15:26) unless you can prove that it's valid and rational to do so. Now don't misunderstand me. We have a benevolent church, and we've helped lots and lots of people with their food and rent and all sorts of things. Sometimes we've been proven to be fools. There were times God has blessed it. We've helped. It's not that we're stingy. We want to be responsible.

Consider, when you lend to a friend, having a legal contract that's binding drawn up and signed. That protects both of you. You say, "Well if you have to do that, why not just go to the bank?" The reason he didn't go to the bank is that the bank knows he can't afford to repay the loan. That's why he came to you."You're talking about some of my family members, Pastor." I know that. And I'm talking about some of mine!

If the bank looks at your economy and says you can't afford to repay this loan, then don't run to a Christian and try to go around it. You're laying a snare for everybody. Don't do it. You lose friends that way. Ask him why the bank wouldn't lend it to him. I've had people ask me for loans because they think Christians don't charge interest. That's when you start finding out what the real motive is here. Now I'm not saying it would be wrong for a Christian to lend a brother money. No. But be careful how you do it, under what setting, and in what context. It's better to just give it to him and not expect to be repaid. If you want him to have it and he needs it, just give it to him. That's more biblical. Don't bind him. Give it to him. If he wants to repay it and has a conscience, he will. He'll give you interest for it. If you do borrow from a friend, pay interest. You kept it out of his savings account. He has lost more than just the money he gave you. Give it back to him.

Does the Golden Rule apply to any of this? Do you remember in II Kings chapter 4 when Elisha was delivering that poor widow from her debt by the miraculous provision? Remember what his first directive to her was after the thing multiplied and she was able to have plenty? He said, "Go pay all your debts and then live on what's left" (verse 7). This poor widow! Her first obligation was to her creditors, not to her tummy and her sons' tummies. That's biblical. Don't tell the creditor, "You don't understand. We have this real, quite critical need." What about him? It's his money you've wasted. Get that straight. Debt often loses friends.

7. Debt Sets an Atrocious Example for Your Children.

Don't rear your children to think in the way you've been thinking. They'll grow up and be much worse than you are; and you'll never be able to stop them because they'll say, "Dad, you did it this way." Change it. Make your children be able to have a legacy someday so they can say, "One thing about my daddy, he never owed anybody anything without paying it." One of the first things I was taught was not John 3:16, but "Pay your debts." Make your bills on time or ahead of time. Don't ever pass the grace period. Don't even get close to the grace period. And don't get yourself in the position where you have to go with your hat in your hand to somebody, apologizing for your stupidity. Early it! Pre-school. That was drummed into us, and it saved me from a lot of problems later.

8. Debt Often Reveals Moral Problems.

Why is it that revealing immorality and breaking the moral law is often the case with debt? It reveals discontentment. Let me suggest some practical directives about buying, and about developing sales resistance. This is to you wives especially, but not because I think husbands don't have a problem.

Discern the motives of salesmen and potential partners. If you read Proverbs and James 4:13, you'll find this partner deal. "Come on. Let's go together and get gain." Watch out. Debt reveals discontentment. Here's the salesman. "Hey, lady! Bargain! Bargain! Bargain!" he yells. You say, "That's great." You never even thought of buying this thing till you saw the sale. You're not buying it because your family has a plan, and established needs, and you're looking for the best buy.

You husbands are going to have to have enough gumption to teach your wives gently, but firmly and consistently, that just because she got one shoe for half price does not necessarily mean she got a good deal. In my experience, most people need two shoes. I laughed at my wife in years past because she would fall prey to some of this. "Oh look at this thing I got here for half price." I said, "Honey, you only got half a thing! Of course it was half price, and you can't use it." But I have to tell you, my church will testify that this woman is no wasteful person. She is frugal, and it's amazing what she can do with the little with which she's provided. But I had to recognize that some of the feminine traits especially are suckers to these bargain deals. You'll be as gods (Genesis 3:5). The salesman has a great deal on this. He's appealing to your greed. That's where the problem is. You want something for nothing, and he's using that to get you in. You will always pay much more than the bargain says, or at least almost.

Another sales gimmick: Buy now. "You'll never have this chance again." Or "If you don't sign it now, somebody else is going to buy it tomorrow." I've had a wonderful time responding to that line. "You mean to tell me that someone else should get this great benefit? I'd rather do that. The Lord taught me it's more blessed to give than to receive. Let the other man have it." I said that to a salesman one time, and he didn't know what to do. When he says, "You must buy now or you'll miss it," you can say, "I've missed a lot of things in my life but never anything I needed. My Father has promised to provide my needs."

We have a policy in our home. We don't ever make a major purchase without spending at least twenty-four hours on it, and praying over it, and spending a whole night of sleep, so that our emotions have had a chance to change. Then we finally make the decision not looking at the thing, but looking at something else: our home. Almost every time, it's amazing how much less we want it the next day than the night we saw it.

You've got to understand that they package it to sucker you. Be careful. You don't have to buy now. It displays your unbelief when you think God can't provide it next year. You know you're going to need something in two years, but it comes on sale now. You want to get it on sale because in two years you'll have to pay more. Thou fool. This night your soul may be required . . . (Luke 12:20). Don't buy something you don't need because you get it on sale. God can put it on sale again. And my experience is it will come on sale again. We have one store in Albany that goes out of business every year. Really! "Going Out of Business Sale Up to 80% off!" Now I'm sprinkling this with all these little epithets, but I tell you we're dealing with real root, serious problems here. Debt often reveals problems with sin.

"Congratulations! You're among the honored few who deserve the card we're going to send you!" That appeals to your pride. Flattery. "Guess what? Lucky you! You're proven track record has made you worthy of a 22.9% credit card with a mere $35.00 annual fee. We've found you to be among the few . . ." And you find that every neighbor in your village got a copy of that letter.

I'm talking about biblical principle. Beware of the flatterer. He lays a net for your feet. A flattering mouth works ruin (Proverbs 26:28). Meddle not with him that flatters (Proverbs 20:19). "You deserve a reward for all your labor!" I get that line in some of these offers. "You deserve . . ." Brethren, your gospel heart ought to dread hearing that stuff. You start talking to yourself about what you deserve in any area, and you're already falling away from gospel truth. You deserve nothing. Reject it. If two men offer me something, and one of them says I deserve it, and the other one says, "Here, we have something for sale. If you need it, we'd like to sell it," I'll pay more for the second man's product just because I don't want to deal with a lying flatterer. Pride goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18). Don't let them play on your pride.

Sometimes they create discontentment. The whole design of their pitch is "New! Improved!" That assumes what you have is old, outmoded, no good. It makes you feel discontent. The whole planned obsolescence of automobiles assumes that unless you have a new one every year or two, there's something wrong. I'm not saying it would be wrong if you can afford to do that and keep that new vehicle with a warranty — whatever you think is wise. But be careful that you're not always getting discontent with what you have. "Got to buy a new one, Honey." Why? Refrigerator. Twelve years old. Does it keep our food cool? Is it at least, appearance-wise, decent enough that people don't walk in and are ashamed of us in the parsonage? "Honey it looks fine. Nobody in the church is going to come and feel that they're not taking good care of us. We don't . . ." Now my wife is just the opposite. She's the one who always says, "We don't need that. Let me paint it. Don't buy another one. Let's wait. Honey, we could spend that on food." I'm thankful to have a woman like that.

Sometimes they play on your man-pleasing vulnerability. They say, "Everybody else has one." "The great American road belongs to . . ." "Mom, apple pie, and . . ." "The best selling . . .  in America." Why are they telling you that? They need to do something because they know the product will not sell itself. They create in your man-pleasing vulnerabilities a sense that you're doing without what your peers have. Teen-agers aren't the only ones that have peer problems. One of the reasons we can't handle some of our teen-agers in this culture is that they are doing just what we've been doing all our lives and don't have the moral ability to stop it.

Buy what you need. Don't be sold.

9. Debt Hinders the Progress of the Work of the Gospel.

What you could not resist last Christmas now comes back to haunt you when an appeal for the work of Christ comes, because you can't afford it. You're laden with debts. If I buy today what I do not need, I will need tomorrow what I cannot buy. Often it's the work of the gospel itself that suffers. And we go with our drooping eyes to the pastors and hope they understand. They do. They understand that in the past we mismanaged God's money by debt.

Principles for the Avoidance of the Pitfalls of Debt

The fruit of the Spirit is self-control, and you need a dose of that to avoid getting badly into debt.

Sales Resistance and Wisdom in Buying Are Crucial

To stay out of debt, you've got to have sales resistance. And you've got to be wise in buying. Ask some questions (not: Do I want it? Do the kids want it?). Do I need it? Will it glorify God? Will it help or hurt my reputation? Will it make me tend toward more attachment to things? Sometimes it's legitimate, but I still shouldn't buy it. What others can afford is not the measure for me. Just because someone else in the church could afford it, I don't have to have one. Diversity in the church means we're not all supposed to get to the same level of economic ability. Don't feel bad about that. God gives different gifts to different men. Rejoice in your brother's prosperity. But don't fake it and try to get up to that level of credit. What I can afford is not the final consideration. Sometimes you can afford it, but you shouldn't buy it anyway. There may be something else you need to do with that money. You need it? You can get it. If you don't need it, you can wait.

Live within Your Means

What I cannot afford, I must not buy. If you will hear that and live like that, this stuff will get solved and you'll get free. Live within your means. It is OK not to afford something. You don't have to get it. Think sober judgement. Let not a man think of himself more highly than he ought (Romans 12:3). Let him not think he can afford what he really can't afford. Think sanely.

Discern the Reason that You Are Lacking Funds

You must be a discerning person to avoid getting into the traps of debt. Learn how to discern reasons for not being able to afford something that you think you need. If you can learn to discern the reasons and the root causes, it will help you a lot to distinguish what you ought to do and settle it. I would give credit here to Bill Gothard. Though I would warn you about his hermeneutic, his legalistic tendencies, the lack of centrality of the cross in his teaching, his doctrine of sanctification, his doctrine of eschatology, his doctrine of the Christian life, and a lot of fundamental things, in many cases of what we call "Christian behaviorism" his tactics are good and need to be given credit. In this case he has helped me a lot. I would suggest six possible reasons for lack of funds. There may be more.

1. It may well be that you misspent money earlier. It could be that it's your fault you're in a place where you need to borrow money. You had it earlier. You misspent it. The prodigal son wasted his substance in riotous living. Now he has to live in a hog pen. Nobody's fault but his own. Understand that you wouldn't be in this predicament if you hadn't created the problem. You're not going to solve it by getting under a worse predicament now. Don't borrow.

2. It may be that you don't need it. God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19). You may not need this thing. Often the need for debt to get it is a sure sign that you don't need it. If you don't have the money, it may be God's way of saying you don't need it. God will provide your needs and not, ordinarily, by debt. You could, by the way, buy a cheaper car — a used one. You could suffer. Sacrifice. Do without. Oh, I wish I could drum that into this society!

3. Oftentimes shortness of funds is God's chastening. You sinned. You can't do a cursory reading of the Bible without coming to that conclusion. In Deuteronomy 28 there is a whole list. If they wouldn't keep the commandments of God, cursed shall be this and cursed shall be that: your ground, your womb, everything. God cursed it. That's under the Old Testament. You explain to me why women all over the place are casting their babies prematurely all over our culture in a time when we have made sex our goddess. I'm not saying that is the reason your wife miscarried. No, no. But I'm saying generally when God sees a society move in the areas of sexual sin, He judges sexual sin at the point of sexual life and productivity. In general.

God, often, will judge them by not letting their crops produce and not letting their job produce, and they can't make ends meet. Our culture is filled with the obvious evidence of God's judgment. You may be being chastened as a Christian. It's not wrath. It's chastening. It's a loving Father saying, "Whoa. It's good for you to be afflicted that you may keep my statutes" (Psalm 119:71). Humble yourself. "Thank you, Lord, for putting me in financial crisis to show me that I've got some sin problems." Discern them. Get counsel. Correct them. And God is then free to bless your finances. Discerning that may be one of the problems.

4. It could be that God is testing your faith. "Prove me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts . . ." (Malachi 3:10). You're tempted not to tithe because your budget is in a mess, and the Devil says, "Surely God doesn't expect this. Any preacher that will want to get your tithe when you're broke and in debt is probably just wanting your money." When you're tempted to withhold from God what belongs to Him, and then rob God the way you've been robbing others, you can overcome that temptation by saying, "The Lord is testing my faith. Am I going to do right even though times are troublous?" Then you tithe. You give by faith. God may be proving your faith. He tested the faith of Jacob. He tested the faith of Joseph. Believe God when things are lacking. Sometimes He tests faith.

5. It may be a sign from God that you need to make a major change. I usually put this as a last resort. It could be that you need to change careers. It could be that you need to move — only if you move to a place where there is a church of like faith and mind. Never do you move to a new job and violate other biblical principles in order to put your finances straight. God will curse that. Don't do that. But maybe a major change is needed. Jacob had to move to Egypt because of lack of funds. God forced his hand. Last resort. But he had to do it. The whole clan had to go to Egypt — 430 years because of a famine that God sent. God had His plan. Sometimes He is directing us with our money in ways we don't even see.

6. It also could be that you are lacking funds because God is building character. Contentment. Patience. Thankfulness. Keeping you from temptation if you get that TV and VCR. There's no telling what you'll invite into your living room. You see, debt can let you get it anyway. And then your soul goes down the drain. God would have withheld it. He didn't give you funds. You ran around it and borrowed. Now you're in trouble with your soul. Do you see the point?

Your children will never become thankful children if they always get what they want. The best way to guarantee kids will become thankful is teaching them to hear "No." Not all the time. But say, "No you may not" sometimes. We turn our kids down every so often so they will appreciate the things that life can offer them. They want it all. Right now. We frequently feel greedy, and stubborn, and selfish, and say, "No you can't." But you know what happens when we finally say yes? They look at us and say, "Oh, thanks, Dad!" I'm just saying that is what happens when they've had it withheld and you finally give it. The littlest things make them thankful. That's the same with you, isn't it? "Oh, Lord, how long?" One of the reasons that one day soon we're going to stand in Glory and give praise and thanks to God for the way He did everything is because of how long we waited for it and didn't see it. The very thing that is frustrating some of you right now is going to create the greatest praise one day. God is building your character.

I do trust that you can see the connection between unrighteous debt and contentment, and thankfulness, and covetousness, and a heart that's right before God. I would, if I could, free us all from all installment loan. But if you have to have it, keep it at a minimum. Pay off your creditor first. Don't take a vacation while you owe me money that you haven't paid me. Don't you do that. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches (Proverbs 22:1). May God give us help in this fumbling effort to lay out some of these things. May He help our souls to see His name and kingdom and the stakes that are high in the way we treat our finances. Let's bow together.

Our Father, we do give you thanks that your Word is full of help, and promise, and warning, and direction, and correction. We welcome your Word, O Lord, which is profitable for instruction, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. We bless you, O Lord, that you have loved us enough to sting our consciences. You've loved us enough not to leave us in our practices, but to warn us and to throw up red flags in our faces. Give us grace, O Lord, to heed what you've said, to put ourselves in the place of putting things right whatever the cost. Give us wisdom. Give us the wisdom that in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Teach us, O Lord, not to rely on our own understanding, but to walk biblically and to walk with wise men. Help us, O Lord. Have mercy on many who have felt the stings of conscience this week, some of whom have been bowled over, no doubt, with shock when they've seen themselves and their finances in the light of Scripture. But we pray that your tender mercies may draw near. Give them light at the end of the tunnel. Make them to see that you're a gracious God, and you would not have revealed these things to us if you were of a mind to kill us. O Lord, give them confidence to look to you. Give them patience to wait upon you. Give them holy resolve and self-control to obey you to the end. And may our reputation as believers in this society be that of one of reproving the unfruitful works of darkness rather than accommodating them and practicing them. O Lord, forgive our sins in this area and correct us and create within us a clean heart. Renew within us a right spirit, thereby restoring the joy of your salvation so that the result may be sinners converted to you and transgressors taught your way. Hear our prayer and receive our thanks through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.

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