A Slave to the Lender
Proverbs 22:7
 
We are spending a large portion of time during the month of February learning about Biblical stewardship principles. Last week, we laid the foundation by answering the question, “Who’s in Control?”. And of course, the answer is God. He owns everything; He has all the rights, and we have the responsibility to be stewards over what He entrusts to us. And we are responsible to Him, and will answer some day at His return. 
 
In the meantime, we are demonstrating our understanding that it’s His stuff and not ours, and earning the right to be trusted in the coming Kingdom of God with even more. So the emphasis is not on how much we have or make, but rather on our faithfulness to God to seek to accomplish His goals with His resources. 
 
The focus of our study today is  The Vulnerability of Debt.
 
Debt makes you very vulnerable.
 
Do you realize today that after all taxes are paid in America, one out of every four dollars goes to what we call installment debt? Installment debt has nothing to do with paying for education or has anything to do with paying the mortgage on your home. Installment debt has everything in this world to do with debt that you have accumulated through clothing, through furniture, or other items such as those.
 
So any discussion that includes the financial
problems in America today must include a close look at consumer indebtedness. In fact, I wish someone would talk to our Congress and President about the dangers of living beyond your means and trying to borrow your way into prosperity.
 
And what is happening at the national level is true at the personal level, and that is we are vulnerable. The word "vulnerable" means that you open yourself up for a wound. You open yourself up for a hurt. So when I talk about the vulnerability of debt, what I'm saying is that debt opens the opportunity for financial disaster. 
 
Now there are a couple of things I think it would be good for us to remember in regard to being vulnerable to debt.
 
Listen to what the Bible says in Proverbs 22:7.
 
First of all, the issue is not debt but bondage.
 
In other words, eventually if you borrow and borrow and borrow, you will no longer have freedom but you will have a life filled with bondage. And you will no longer have the joy of serving the Lord or serving others, but you will become a slave to the one who lends you the money in the first place. 
 
In fact, it’s interesting to see that the words "borrow" and "lend" both come from the same root word. Its meaning has to do with physical control. The word borrow can be translated to mean "to be ruled over" and the word lend can be translated to mean "to rule over."
 
So when you sign a contract that commits future income or assigns the control of existing assets to the lender and you are personally liable to the lender to meet the conditions of the contract, you become a slave to the lender. At the same time, the lender has become The owner of your future income, and therefore, in addition to becoming a slave you have conditionally transferred the stewardship responsibility of your future income and existing assets from you to the lender.
 
Now let me ask you two questions. How can you be a servant to the Lord and the lender at the same time? And by what authority do you personally transfer the stewardship responsibility that God has assigned to you, from you to the lender?
 
So to borrow in a way that causes you to submit yourself or your resources to anything other than the Lordship of Christ and God's ownership is to violate our stewardship responsibilities. 
 
What about the other side of the verse? What if you are in a position to be a lender? Well, in the same manner to “lend” in a way that gives us control over someone else’s finances upends God’s sole responsibility as owner. 
 
Let me illustrate that: Now remember, God is the owner and He has all the rights and we have the responsibilities. 
 
People who are able have a responsibility to work and provide for themselves, and for those who can’t, we as a church family are to assist. All of that omits any need for any borrowing or lending to ever take place in the church. 
Further, we have the promise of God found in Philippians 4:1 that God is responsible to supply all need, and each individual is responsible to fellowship
with God at the point of each need. This includes provision to us and provision through us to others.
 
So let’s suppose a very close friend of yours has a critical need for money. Being a close friend and having some resources, you offer your assistance in any way that would help. Later your friend's problem worsens and he approaches you for assistance.
 
His pride would keep him from asking you to give him the money outright, so he approaches you for a loan with a desire to pay you the same rate of interest you are presently earning. This way it would not cost you anything to help him and he would feel better with these conditions. Remember, feelings can be deceiving.
 
And let’s say that you comply with the request of your friend. Has his need been met? No, it has simply been transferred from where it was to a loan to you and increased by the cost of the interest charged.
 
Here’s another consideration: Did he fellowship with God and receive His provision from the grace of God by faith? No, because you assumed God's role and became His source.  Was God glorified by what happened? No, because your friend received the help from you, he glorifies you as his source.
 
Now let’s assume that out of the goodness of your heart you lend the money to your friend interest free, expecting the principle only to be returned.
 
Would that meet your friend’s need? No, because again, it has only been transferred. Remember our verse: The borrower is in bondage to the lender. And again you assumed God's role. 
 
Well let’s just suppose that you are a very, very generous person, and you simply hand the needed money to your friend and tell him it is his, no strings attached, no paybacks. It is purely a gift.
 
Would that meet the need? Yes.
 
Has God really met his need and become truly glorified as the source of this provision? That depends on you. 
 
There is a possibility that you r friend will always feel an obligation to you because of your generosity, and will still be enslaved. 
 
The key is obedient generosity. How should you respond to a friend in need?
 
Well, God is the owner and source of all obedient provision. Your responsibility is to take the need of your friend to God in prayer asking God what He wants done with His money. After God reveals to you that it is His will to meet the friends need through you, then you give it. 
 
You go to your friend and say, “I want you to know I had a worship experience with my Lord today concerning your need. And He has He has shown me that it is His desire to meet your need through me. Please take this money as it is from the grace of God designated to your need. Please do not thank me for this. It is truly from God. Don’t try to pay me back because My God will bless me sufficiently for this obedience?"
 
Question! Has the need been met? Yes.
Has it cost you- anything? No, because God is the owner and provider, and you are the steward. God is faithful to replace that which He requires of His stewards as a result of their obedience. And He is glorified through it. 
 
You see, the issue is not debt but bondage. If I am in bondage, it's hard for me to serve the Lord. If I am in bondage, it is hard for me to obey what God says about finance in the word of God.
 
And if I’m holding someone in bondage, I am robbing them of depending upon God, and I’m robbing God of His rightful place as owner of their money.
 
The borrower is slave to the lender. 
 
Here’s a companion truth. Now remember, we are talking about the vulnerability of debt. The issue is not debt but bondage, and
 
The problem is not income but spending.
 
One of the greatest things we can ever learn in regard to financial problems is that the problem is not how much money I make, but how much money I spend. 
 
Generally speaking, for those who do work, and struggle with the bills and rely upon credit cards, the issue is not an income problem. We're just treating a symptom of the problem, and what we need to be treating is the problem.
We need to get a hold of our desires. We need to get a hold of our spending habits.
 
The average American is addicted to spending.
 
Did You Know…
• Business Week says that total household debt in the US was more than 100% of our disposable annual income last year. Now that is scary.
• The total consumer debt is at 1.7 trillion dollars. (You can visualize a trillion dollars as a stack of $1000 bills placed one on top of the other, flat side on top of flat side, reaching 67 miles high.)
• The personal credit card debt carried by the average American is $8,562 and the total interest paid in 2001 was $50 billion.... an average of $1000 in interest per consumer.
• The average consumer carries 8 cards and 20% of cards are maxed out.
• There were 1.3 million credit card holders declaring bankruptcy last year. Bankruptcies have exceeded 1 million per year every year for at least 7 years now.
• IRS tells us that 85% of those reaching age 65 do not have $200 in the bank and that 87% retire on less than $250 per week for life.
 
Something is obviously going seriously wrong in our country. More and more people are spending more than they make each month. And it’s a dangerous trend – for each person as well as for our country.
 
Why is that happening? 
 
And thirdly, the Cause is Not Need but Materialism
 
 
The real root of the problem is materialism: seeking happiness through the accumulation of material things.
 
In Dangers, Toils & Snares, John Ortberg writes:
 
When we take our children to the shrine of the Golden Arches, they always lust for the meal that comes with a cheap little prize, a combination christened, in a moment of marketing genius, the Happy Meal. You’re not just buying fries, McNuggets, and a dinosaur stamp; you’re buying happiness. Their advertisements have convinced my children they have a little McDonald-shaped vacuum in their souls: "Our hearts are restless till they find their rest in a happy meal."
 
I try to buy off the kids sometimes. I tell them to order only the food and I’ll give them a quarter to buy a little toy on their own. But the cry goes up, "I want a Happy Meal." All over the restaurant, people crane their necks to look at the tight-fisted, penny-pinching cheapskate of a parent who would deny a child the meal of great joy.
 
The problem with the Happy Meal is that the happy wears off, and they need a new fix. No child discovers lasting happiness in just one: "Remember that Happy Meal? What great joy I found there!"
Happy Meals bring happiness only to McDonalds. You ever wonder why Ronald McDonald wears that grin? Twenty billion Happy Meals, that’s why.
 
When you get older, you don’t get any smarter; your happy meals just get more expensive.
 
 
There is a lie that Satan uses over and over again to lure people away from the life that God desires for them. It’s the “Happy Meal” lie. Buy this and you will be happy. And if you have to, borrow and pay it back. But by all means, the desire must be fed. 
It is the lie that materialism will fill the empty place inside.
 
What does the Bible have to say about materialism?
 
1Tim. 6:9-10 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. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with
many griefs.
 
Did you catch that – the love of money causes people to wander from the truth and actually pierce themselves. It is their own fault. They think they’re going to be happy if they just get the next thing on their list – but instead of receiving happiness they pierce themselves with many griefs. Can anybody relate to this truth?
 
Jesus said this:
Luke 12:15
 
And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
 
Materialism contradicts this verse. Jesus says our lives are NOT defined by what we have. But when we spend and spend, getting ourselves into debt to have more things – what do you think that says about us? When you fall into the trap of materialism you are saying that at least to some extent you believe your life is defined by what you have.
 
And by the way, materialism is not a rich man’s disease only. Even those who don’t have much fall into the trap of believing they will be happy if they had a little bit more – their materialistic urges are simply fulfilled at Wal-Mart rather than Macy’s!
 
By the way, do you know how God speaks to poor people? Attention Wal-Mart shoppers!
 
Listen: that’s not what God had in mind for us. 
 
So what’s the solution? 
 
The solution is not “worldly stuff”, but Godly contentment.
 
Heb. 13:5-6
 
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”[a] 6 So we may boldly say:
 
 
      “ The LORD is my helper;
      I will not fear.
      What can man do to me?”[b
 
Did you notice whose responsibility it is to do this? It is YOURS. It is MINE. It is a command from the Lord – “You! Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.”
 
And why? So that you don’t have to vulnerable to anyone.  Your confidence is in God? After all the Lord is my Helper.
 
What can man do to you? Well, if he is your owner,a nd your in bondage, he can take your house or car, and disrupt your life, and demand what is owed. 
 
But when we learn to be content with what you have, and have escaped the bondage of covetousness and greed, we can sleep like a baby and live in confidence.
 
Col. 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
 
And when you feel that urge to find meaning in your life from spending and accumulating things – put that urge to death because it is really idolatry – putting your money ahead of God as the one who will bring you happiness and fulfillment in life.
 
Jesus said it very clearly in Matthew 6:24:
Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
 
If you are in debt and you are a Christian then like it or not you are trying to serve two masters. And the Word I just read has bad news for you – it’s impossible to do. You can’t serve both God and Money. That’s why Paul called greed idolatry – because when you’re chasing after happiness through the things money can buy, then you’re depending on something else to provide for you. You’re worshipping an idol.
 
And that idol has to be replaced with the good news that God will never leave us or forsake us. The lie that things will make you happy needs to be drowned out with the knowledge that only a life centered upon God and filled with the power His Spirit provides will truly be a fulfilled life.
 
Now – if I may be so bold, I’d like to offer some practical steps for those of you who realize you’re addicted to materialism and you want to break the bondage you’re in.
 
1. Stop spending more than you have.
2. Pay off debts systematically.
3. Once the debt is paid off use that money for savings and ministry.
 
For some of you it’s time right now to take the first step. I’ve got scissors right here. If you want to – you can come right up here get in line and get your credit cards out of your wallet.
 
As you cut them up – you’re going to be saying to God that you choose to rely upon God for your happiness. That you’re done with trying to rely on “Happy Meals” to make you happy. And that you want to be free of the bondage of materialism that threatens to ruin your future – or at the very least rob you of the true joy the Holy Spirit will give you when there is nothing else in your life you’re trying to find joy from.
 
That is really the message of the gospel. We all understand debt. I owed a debt I could not pay. It had accumulated through all my life. 
And it held me in bondage. And yet, I just kept on spending and spending trying to meet the needs of my life. But my “perceived needs” were not my needs at all. It was just stuff.
 
And do you know what happened? Jesus, the Sinless Lamb of God laid aside everything He had, and became poor for my sake, that I might be rich. He set me free; He met my needs; He filled my life with goodness; and brought contentment. 
 
And today He waits to do the same for you.