Defeating The Enemy Of Debt (Pt. 2)

Below is an excerpt of the sermon...

Being choked financially. We cannot think about God’s Word because we’re worried about debt and financial problems. And so here we go.

2 Kings 4. We’re not going to read the whole passage. But this is the miracle of the woman where the handmade that fills up the vessels and God keeps multiplying the oil. Notice what the prophet says to her here. It says in verse number five second Kings four and looking down please in verse five. 2 Kings 4:5-6 “So she went from him, and shut the door upon her…” And I’ve always thought, I’m sure that hurt. Folks, if you just read the bible slow, you get all kind of cool things okay? But he says she “shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. [6] And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.” Here’s that text: 2 Kings 4:7 “Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go…” Notice what he told her to do with the oil. He didn’t say to use it all on herself. They were in debt. Her husband had died. He says, “Go , sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.”

You know, that’s pretty good advice for all of us. Be industrious. Have something to sell or something to do. Some income. Sell the oil. And then he said, “Right away before you do anything else, pay your debt. Pay your debt.” So, before we take that cool vacation, before we do this or that, we need to make sure that we’re paying our debts. It’s interesting, but here’s how the world sees us as Christians: If we owe them money and haven’t paid them, it doesn’t matter how good we tell them God is, that’s just how people think. You know, if a “Christian” owes someone money and they’re inviting them to church, they’re not going to come to church because they’re thinking, “If you’re a real Christian, you’re going to pay me what you owe me.” So again, sell the oil, pay thy debt, and then somehow budget to live on the rest. And that’s great advice for all of us there. And again, if you’re here tonight and you just declared bankruptcy, we’re not trying to make you feel bad. We will put your picture up here in just a second… but I’m just kidding.

And do we have that picture? There it is. You know who that is? I talked about him last week. That’s that group that was going bench to bench. Now look, it doesn’t even look like Justin Bieber, they don’t look like Michael Jackson. It doesn’t even look like the Monkeys, the BGs, the Turtles, the Animals or even the Beatles at this point. Just average kids. Okay, that’s good, thanks. And if you weren’t here last week, so what was the deal? They played for tips. They were just going outside, elderly people sitting around. “Hey, would you like us to sing a song? What song?” And so, I asked him. I said, “How much you make doing this?” They said, “God is good.” And I said, “But have you… I mean you still have a day job? I mean, you don’t just play one song and go to the next bench full time, really?” They said, “We quit our day jobs.” I said, “How much do you make?” They said, “$600.” I said, “Wow, that’s not bad. Between four of you, $600 a week.” They said, “No, no, no, $600 a day.” I said, “Well that’s like $150 each.” “No, no. Each.” I don’t know how many hours a day they did it—five, maybe six days a week. They were taking home $3,000 a week. Cash, no taxes. Oh, wait till our president finds out. They’re going to be taxed because they’re in the upper echelon. We need to divide their wealth. Anyways… But what I’m saying is, it can be done. There’s a way. “Pastor, I can’t pay my debts. I can’t get out of debt. I just can’t get ahead.” There’s a way if four kids—and they sing mediocre. One guy kinda plays at the guitar—if they can make it, we can too, by the grace of God, we can.

Let’s pray. Father, bless this time. Help us in, Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our little answer sheet here will go quickly. We forgot about three or four passages to read. Someone said this: “90% of the problem solving Is realizing there is one.” So, about the time we say, you know, I just can’t get ahead financially. I’m always in debt, never have the things I want. And there’s pressure. And I’m robbing Paul to pay Peter, and I’m not answering the phone, and throwing away credit letters and, and bill collectors are coming. It starts with realizing there’s a problem. Realizing there’s a problem is a great thing to do.

No one is born financially smart. We all have to be taught. I was speaking to someone earlier this week and they said, “You know, my family never taught me anything about finances. You know, my parents never told me anything about it. I mean they just brought money home, paid the bills, and never shared any of it with us.” And I want to say this to the parents: it is always the parents’ responsibility, the leaders, to bear the financial burden. It is not the childrens’ responsibility. I don’t think it’s ever wise to put all the bills on the table and get the kids around. “Look, it’s all because of you!” You know, the debt is acquired by the parents. That’s not the kids’ fault. They need to just feel everything’s great, everything’s secure, everything is wonderful, and that’s our job to do that.

15% Of Jesus’ teachings was on wealth. It was more than the total number of times He spoke on Heaven or Hell. He spoke more on wealth than any of those subjects. Interesting. So, there is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and how we handle money.