Investing for God - Your Money

I hate to admit this, after all I said about it last Sunday, but I actually opened a piece of junk mail this week. I had no choice; it came in a plain white envelope. It was a letter from an insurance agent, and it went something like this…

Planning for your future? May we furnish you information about a retirement plan that

will pay you a guaranteed fixed income you cannot outlive. It will relieve you of premium payments if you become totally disabled. It will provide cash for emergencies and opportunities on a tax-deferred basis. It will spread premium payments conveniently over your earning years. It will increase your assets and protect your earning power.

Notice the key words he used in that letter? “guaranteed, relieve, provide, increase, protect “ People are more interested in financial security now than they have ever been before. That’s because we’re living in such uncertain economic times. Public opinion polls indicate that a majority of Americans do not feel confident about their personal financial future.

All around us are signs of serious cracks in America’s economic foundation. In the business world, companies that used to be solid symbols of America’s financial strength - companies like IBM and General Motors - have been rocked to the core. Others, like Pan American Airways, have gone out of business entirely. Thousands of Americans have lost their jobs and their incomes in the process.

People are feeling the crunch in areas like medical insurance. Businesses stagger under the skyrocketing costs to provide health insurance for their employees. More and more private individuals simply cannot afford health insurance, so they live under the fear of being wiped out financially by a serious illness or accident.

Americans are looking at their retirement years with doubts and questions. The baby boomers, who are going to begin retiring by the millions after the turn of the century, wonder whether Social Security will even be solvent when they become eligible to collect benefits.

Others, who are relying on the pension plans of their companies, are going to be left with much less than they had planned as benefits are slashed by corporations desperately trying to stay alive.

Even if you do have a little extra money to sock away, it is becoming increasingly difficult to decide what to do with it. Institutions which offered financial security and stability are proving to be not so safe anymore. The banking industry and the insurance industry have been rocked by scandals in recent years. There have been more bank failures in the last five years than at any time since the Great Depression.

Everybody looks to the Federal government as the ultimate safety net in the event of financial disaster. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that that’s like jumping out of a leaky rowboat in order to board the Titanic!

The federal government continues to spend money like a drunken sailor, running the federal deficit into the trillions of dollars. By the year 1995, experts tell us that the entire revenue generated by all the income taxes of the American people will not be enough even to pay the interest on the national debt, let alone reduce the principal. Our lawmakers in Congress have shown us time and time again that they do not have the discipline or the courage to put America’s financial house in order.

We are living in perilous economic times. People’s confidence is shaken. It seems more and more likely that there is, in the words of one writer, an economic earthquake coming. In light of that, it is imperative that we followers of Jesus Christ get back to living according to the Bible’s principles for finances. It’s always been important, but now it’s doubly important.

The Bible is full of sound teaching on money. There are over 700 verses in Scripture on the subject of finances. Two thirds of the parables that Jesus told his disciples had something to do with money. God gave us some sound financial principles to show us how to live. Those principles are for our good. They will keep us out of financial trouble if we obey them.

But if we ignore them, we do so to our own peril. Not because God is going to step in and punish us, but simply because we are going to become victims of the consequences of ignoring the way things work. If you step off the top of the Twin Towers, you will fall to your death. Not because God is punishing you, but simply because you’ve ignored the law of gravity.

Now you may be saying “Wait a minute. I know people who seem to be ignoring some of these Biblical principles for finances, and they’re doing just fine. In fact, they seem to be getting ahead.”

But that’s just because the economic cycle hasn’t run its course yet. Stick around a while longer. You will find that people who ignore God’s principles will lose in the end. Let me tell you an interesting story about that…

The year was 1923. The place: the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. The occasion: a meeting of the greatest financial and business leaders in America. Among those present were the president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company, the president of the largest gas company, the greatest wheat speculator, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, one of the greatest stock speculators on Wall Street, the head of the world’s greatest monopoly and the president of the International Bank of Settlements. Quite a gathering! These men were at the top of the financial mountain.

But where were they 25 years later? By 1948, Charles Schwab had died bankrupt after living on borrowed money for the last five years of his life. Samuel Insull had died a fugitive from justice, penniless in a foreign country. Howard Hopson was insane. Arthur Critten died insolvent. Richard Whitney had just been released from Sing Sing. Albert Fall was pardoned from prison so he could die at home. Jesse Livermore had committed suicide, as had Leon Fraser and Ivar Krueger.

You play by God’s rules for finances, you win. You play by your own rules, you lose in the end. So let’s look at some of the most important financial principles God has given us in Scripture…

1. God owns it all.

There’s a metallurgical company alongside Interstate 75 in Ohio which you can see as you drive by. It is called the States Smelting and Refining Corp. On the side of one of the buildings is a huge sign, lit up at night. It says “Christ is the answer.”

It was put there by the founder and president of the company, a man named Stanley Tam. He literally made God the senior partner of his business, and he devoted the profits to spreading the Gospel. His company grew so fast that the IRS audited it for ten straight years. He wrote a book about his company entitled God Owns my Business. Stanley Tam is a man who has captured the essence of this first principle. God owns everything. He understands that we are just here to be the managers of what really belongs to God.

This first principle has more to do with what’s going on in your head than what’s going on in your bank account. What is your attitude toward money? Do you think of money something that you own, and you control, and you spend to satisfy your own desires? Or do you see the money in your pocket as really belonging to God?

The Book of Haggai was written to people who had the wrong attitude toward money. They looked at money the way most people do today - as something to be made, and accumulated, and then spent on their own desires.

So God had to remind them in Haggai 2:8 ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine.’ You see, the people had forgotten that fact. And because they had, they were living self-centered lives financially. They were spending on their own pleasures, building bigger and better houses, but they were not really finding the satisfaction that they were looking for. They were chasing the American dream, fourth century BC version, but not finding it. Listen to what God says to them in Haggai 1:

Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

God says to them “Listen! When your reference point is yourself, not God, you will never be secure and you will never be satisfied, financially or otherwise.” So the first principle you have to get firmly fixed in your mind and in your heart is that your money is not your money, it is God’s money. He has placed you in charge of it as a manager, or a steward, and he’s going to call you to account some day for what you did with it.

When you realize that the money you have control over really belongs to someone else, that is going to affect your spending decisions. You can’t use that money for whatever pleases you. In fact, if you do, you will be guilty of the crime of embezzlement.

Recently, I heard the tragic story of a Christian man who was the chief financial officer of a small company. He was entrusted with the company’s funds; he was the keeper of the books. But he betrayed that trust and he embezzled 100,000 dollars of the company’s money for his own use.

How could a Christian do such a thing? Well, that crime began when that man’s attitude changed. He looked at that money in his hands and he said “Mine”. He no longer saw himself as a steward; as a servant of that company, he saw that money as being his. And so he betrayed trust, he took it, and did what he wanted with it.

We shake our heads and we cluck our tongues at somebody who would do such a thing, but how many of us are embezzling God’s money? God has put that money in our hands to provide for our needs, to share with others who have needs, and so to bring honor to his name. But instead, we spend it wildly on our own whims and pleasures. We throw it away on junk. That’s embezzlement. That’s a breach of fiduciary trust, and it is one of the sins that American Christians are most guilty of.

Some Christians try to get around the issue by putting aside a few dollars to put in the offering on Sunday, hoping that that will satisfy God. They say “That’s the Lord’s money. The rest is mine.” No it’s not! Every last dime you’ve got is the Lord’s money. It’s all the Lord’s money.

The Psalmist said “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” God owns it all. And we are simply managers of a portion of his property. And that principle is where we’ve got to start if we’re ever going to understand the Bible’s teaching about money.

2. If it’s all God’s money, then we’d better make sure we honor him in the spending of it.

Remember, we are the managers, God is the owner. Every spending decision we make, we’ve got to make in the context of the question “What would God, the owner, want me to do with his money?”

If we would just stop and ask that question, it would really help us to discipline our spending. We would be much more careful about the things that we purchase. So many Christians get into financial difficulties because they spend foolishly and impulsively on things that are simply not necessary. They swallow hook line and sinker this line that says that you have to have the best of everything.

A little while ago, I was sitting in a traffic jam, and a car pulled up beside me in the next lane that was worth close to $100,000. And there I was right beside him in my little $8,000 Honda. And I thought to myself “Buddy, you and I are going to get to the same place at the same time. But it’s costing you $92,000 more than me.” You don’t need to have the best - that’s just pride playing you for a sucker.

We need to ask ourselves “What would God want me to do with his money?” next time we go into the shopping mall, and we’ll probably come out with a lot less stuff!

The godly woman in Proverbs 31 “…considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.”

Here is an individual who has disciplined her spending, purchasing only those things she has given much consideration and thought to. The result of her wise spending decisions is that she accumulates a surplus out of which she can give to the needs of others.

Proverbs 31:20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

Honoring God in the way we handle his money is going to involve giving - giving to God’s work, and giving to those in need. There is much we could say about the subject of giving, but time will not permit. Let me just say that regular, generous giving to the Lord’s work and to the needs of others has got to be a part of your financial life if you are truly going to honor God in the way you handle his money. It’s the acid test. Your giving reveals your living.

Christians who fail to give, or who are meager in their giving to the Lord’s work experience a leanness in the souls, and a lack in their finances. They are like the Israelites in the book of Haggai, who neglected the Lord’s house while they built their own. So God arranged that their purses would have holes in them. If your purse seems to have a hole in it, if you don’t seem to be making progress financially, maybe you need to look at what you’re giving.

We are headed for tough economic times, and you’re going to want the extra security and protection that God provides to the person who gives generously.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

God delights to provide for people who make giving a priority. The church at Philippi had learned this lesson. Paul commended them on their generosity in sharing with him when he was in need. They sent him money time and time again when he was in Thessalonica. And it was because they gave generously to the Lord’s work that Paul assured them in

Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

(Because you got involved in meeting the needs of other people.)

Matthew 6:31-33 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Principle 1 - God owns it all.

Principle 2 - Honor God in the way you manage the money he has entrusted to you.

Principle 3 - Get out of debt and stay out of debt

Here in America, we are living in a financial house built on sand - the sand of credit. Consumer debt in America totals over 1 trillion dollars. The Research Institute of America says that the average family spends 25% of its income on debt. That means 1 out of every 4 dollars is to pay for your past purchases.

Americans think nothing of buying everything from cars to Christmas presents on credit. It’s so normal that getting a line of credit has become almost a right of passage into adulthood - like getting a driver’s license. Maybe the motto “In God We Trust” should be replaced on our currency with the motto “Buy Now, Pay Later.”

The Federal Government has set the example. The U.S.A., supposedly the richest nation in the world, is now the #1 debtor nation in the world. If we’re so rich, how come we’re in hock to everybody else? We have allowed our government to mortgage our children’s financial future to pay for the programs and privileges of the present. And probably sooner than later, this whole system of deficit financing is going to collapse and come crashing down on our heads. You cannot ignore God’s principles!

There are two great needs in America today:

1. for the principles of God’s Word to be taught clearly

2. for Christians who will demonstrate that those principles work

But so many Christians have gone against the principles of God’s Word in this area of borrowing and buying things on credit, that now they’re in financial bondage just like everybody else. They’re not distinctive. The salt has lost its savor. They can’t be a testimony to the world of the truth of the Bible, because they are living just like everyone else.

The Bible does not forbid borrowing or lending, but it does not encourage it. It discourages it. It warns of the dangers of it. The idea is to stay out of debt. If you don’t, you are courting financial disaster.

Proverbs 22:26 Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

When you borrow money on credit, what are you doing? You are actually making an assumption about the future. You are assuming that you will have the ability to pay back that money over the course of time. But you don’t know the future! Things can change. Economic conditions can change. You can lose your job. The whole dynamics of the pay-back equation can change overnight. And you don’t know that.

Larry Burkett tells about a couple of Christian doctors who got wind of what seemed to be a really good business deal. They had a chance to purchase a four million dollar apartment complex for only two million dollars. They had to put 100,000 down and finance the rest. They went to Burkett and sought his advice. He said “Don’t do it.”

So they went to somebody else for advice, and they went ahead and bought the complex. Well, less than a year after the deal was completed and the doctors were congratulating themselves on being such sharp businessmen, it was discovered that the building had been insulated with asbestos.

The health department condemned the entire complex, and it was ultimately torn down. The doctors were able to sell the land for 1 million dollars, but that still left them with another million to pay on the original mortgage and nothing to show for it. Things can change. Don’t count on the future.

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.

There’s another good reason for staying out of debt. When you’re in debt, you’re in bondage.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

If you borrow money, the Bible says that you now become the servant of the lender. He now has a claim on you; he has a lien on your life. And that minimizes your ability to serve God.

I know of young people who felt God calling them into missionary service, but they couldn’t go because they were up to their ears in debt. I know of pastors who come out of seminary with $20,000 in student loans to pay back, and it ruins their lives - it puts enormous stress on their marriages, and it hinders their ability to shepherd their congregations with joy and freedom.

The Bible says that no man can serve two masters. If you borrow money, you’re simply inviting a second master to take hold of your life. And that master will dog your footsteps until you’ve paid up.

There’s a third reason for staying out of debt. Staying out of debt protects you from acquiring things that would be harmful to you. If God really wanted you to have something, he would provide you the money for it. If you don’t have the money for it, it’s because God doesn’t want you to have it.

But if you go ahead and buy that item on credit, not only will you be putting yourself into financial bondage, you’re going to end up having something in your life that God didn’t intend for you to have. And mark my words, that thing will become a major Excedrin headache to you! So staying out of debt can actually serve a protective function in your life.

Principle 4 - Build a surplus for future needs, but don’t hoard God’s money.

Proverbs 6:6-8 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

The ant is a very wise creature, because it builds up a surplus for future needs. In the summer and the fall, it gathers food for the coming winter. How much food does it gather? Just enough to get it through the winter; ants never stockpile more than one winter’s worth of food. They don’t hoard their resources; they accumulate them for the needs that they know they will have.

An interesting experiment was conducted on an ant colony in New England. The entire colony was dug out of the ground in one piece, and transported to Florida, where it was placed back into the ground. Then, the scientists watched to see what would happen.

Those Yankee ants began busily storing food that first summer, just as they always did. But then no winter came that year, because they were in Florida, not New England. The second summer, the ants began to store food again, but this time, they didn’t store as much. Once again, no winter came. The third summer, the ants didn’t store up any food, because they knew that they would be able to obtain food throughout the year.

There’s a difference between saving for legitimate needs, and hoarding. God expects us to use our common sense as we manage his money. He expects us to anticipate the needs we are likely to have and begin to discipline ourselves to put aside some of our present resources to save for those needs. There’s nothing wrong with building up a surplus for that purpose.

Don’t let anybody tell you that it is unspiritual for a Christian to have a savings account, or an investment program. Some Christians seem to think that you should just go on a day-to-day, hand-to-mouth basis; that that’s really spiritual, that you’re really trusting God. But that’s not spiritual, that’s stupid. It’s disobedient to God.

So that’s one error, but then there’s an opposite error - that is, becoming obsessed with accumulating wealth. Bernard Baruch was a millionaire financier and counselor to Presidents. He had accumulated a massive personal fortune. Someone once asked him how much money was enough to provide for all of a man’s needs. Baruch answered “Just a little bit more.”

Beware of hoarding your resources; of saving simply for saving’s sake. It’s all too easy for a Christian to become preoccupied with stashing money away, with building a nest egg that is all out of proportion to his future needs. Pretty soon, you begin to put your trust in your net worth, and you begin to look at your bank statement instead of the Lord God for your sense of security.

There’s so much more to be said about God’s principles for finances in the Bible.

Principle 1 - God owns it all

Principle 2 - Honor God in the way you handle his money

Principle 3 - Get of debt and stay out of debt

Principle 4 - Build a surplus to meet future needs, but don’t hoard God’s money.

If you will determine to live by these principles, you will be effective and productive in your financial life in 1993, and you’ll give the glory to God.