Conformity to a sick world
The two Sundays between Christmas and New Years we have been looking at what the Bible says about finances and specifically about putting God first in our finances and being generous to Him and His kingdom.
We addressed why our elders felt it was important to take these weeks to remind ourselves of God's truth about this matter. Jesus taught more on finances than He did on heaven and hell combined. Out of His 38 parables, 16 of them were about finances—and how to use
them and how to keep them from using and abusing you. in the
New Testament, there are 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on
faith but more than 2,000 dealing with financial matters. So if we are to preach the 'whole counsel of God' we must deal with it as well.
And we preach, teach and call people to obey God's Word in these areas without apology for understanding and obedience of God's Word is always for our good and it brings glory to God.
We believe that in our culture financial truths have become so twisted and upside down that Christians are often confused and living by the world's standards and values rather than God's. And conformity to a sick world is to be sick oneself. So we need a major adjustment in our understanding, our perspective and our living.
Week one we looked at Matthew 6:19-24 where we learned that our heart is hooked to our finances so whatever has our finances has our heart and whatever has our heart we are likely enslaved to. Jesus said, 'where your treasure is there will your heart be also'. And He said, 'you cannot serve two masters'. So who has your finances? God or self and the world? This is a crucial matter for whoever has your finances has your heart and you are a slave to. And you cannot serve God and money so which is it?
Week 2 we walked through the OT book of Malachi to see what God thought of people who obeyed him with externals but did not put Him first in their heart and in the values and priorities of how they lived their lives.
Folks our culture is sick when it comes to materialism. What the Bible says unwise at best and sinful at worst our world says is normal and good. God says a person is a 'fool' if he '
lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God' (Luke 12:21). Romans 13:8 says to 'owe no man anything' which doesn't mean you cannot borrow but the wisdom of the Bible teaches us that it is not a good idea
to go into debt. Debt essentially makes us a slave to the one who
provides the loan. And we are to ensure we keep ourselves fully devoted to God.
If you don't think our world is sick when it comes to finances and materialism just think for a minute what is accepted and viewed as 'normal' in our culture.
Credit cards are a way of life and viewed as necessary. Big mortgages of several hundred thousand are common place today. In the past one had to sit with a bank manager and show one had assets to cover a bank loan - which was offered for just a few years. But today credit and loans are available as a standing offer via lines of credit, overdraft protection, home equity loans, etc. Most students at universities will graduate with loans due. Products are offered for sale often without a price but rather simply by listing the monthly payments or bi-weekly payments. The wisdom of leasing a car is almost never questioned and car loans are often for 5-7 years.
We could write much to show that our society is sick financially but let me illustrate one way. We all know federal, provincial and municipal debt and deficits are out of control and yet everyone thinks it is normal and necessary. And consumer debt is rampant - i mean over the top out of control. But people just seem to shrug their shoulders and assume it is just a way of life.
Folks the dollars are so big and the numbers so overwhelming that we have lost any sense that awareness that we are poised for a major collapse and we cannot pay it all off - so a crash is inevitable. Let me show you some examples.
Our federal government currently has a debt of about $552 billion dollars! And their 2010 deficit - what they are spending more than they are taking in, is $56 billion! When we hear that we just think - not bad - just 56 billion dollars!
Well a billion is rather big. Think of it this way - a million seconds is 13 days, but a billion seconds is 31 years worth! So if you dropped a loonie in a bucket every second it would take you 31 years to get a billion dollars. And our federal government is spending 56 billion more this year than they are bringing in and they say to us 'no need to worry - we will get this under control in a few years'.
31 years x 56 and you get a big number and that is just our 2010 deficit. If we tried to figure out our debt of $552 billion - well it is almost beyond grasping - so we just pretend it isn't that bad. And our province owes about $225 billion and is spending $20 billion more this year than they bring in. The numbers are staggering but few seem to be concerned.
If you look into the US it is way worse and our economy is strongly tied to theirs so we are hanging on the thin edge of a cliff and disaster isn't far away. The Americans spend $4 billion a DAY more than they bring in. And their current deficit - just their 2010 overspending is about $1.3 trillion dollars. And their current accumulated debt level is almost $14 trillion dollars!!!
A trillion - so what you might say. The terms have become meaningless but we must understand how HUGE a trillion dollars is and how impossible to cover this debt. A trillion seconds is equal to almost 32,000 years. So just 1 trillion seconds is way, way longer than the Bible says mankind has been on this earth.
So if you could drop a loonie in a bucket every second starting now you would have to keep this up for almost 32 thousand years to get just one trillion dollars - not even as much as the US is overspending this year.
Let me illustrate it this way - with some images i found on the web - just to help us grasp how monstrous the dilemma and how blind, twisted and distorted we have become - remember - conformity to a sick society is to be sick oneself.
Norm
A stack of one hundred dollar bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains about $10,000 and would fit in your pocket. $10,000 in cash is a LOT of money isn't it!
Now if we were to stand beside a stack of $100 bills equaling $1 million or 100 packets of $10,000 each we could put it in a grocery bag and walk around with it - but $1,000,000 is huge money for any of us. Here is what it looks like ...
But if you stood beside $100 million dollars it would be much larger - look at how much 100 million dollars would look like ...
Now let's see what 1 billion dollars looks like? And remember our federal government is overspending $56 billion this year alone and the US government overspends $4 billion every day.
Finally - want to see what a trillion dollars would look like? It is shocking - the US government owes nearly $14 trillion and is overspending about $1.4 trillion this year alone. Look at what a trillion dollars looks like - notice bottom left of the image the tiny man standing there - and these stacks of bills are stacked 2 pallets high!
