Spiritual Strategies for Economic Survival

Well, the last couple of years have been challenging for many people probably most people actually as the economy makes a slow recovery after the pandemic and I think, as I've been observing and reflecting on my own experience, there are two particular drivers of anxiety.

One is, of course, inflation.

Evolution has outstripped wages growth, so although you might have got a pay rise this year, it probably didn't keep up with the cost of living, which, of course, means you have less spending power than you did a year ago.

The other big one, of course, is the housing crisis.

People with perfectly good jobs are sometimes living on the street because they simply can't find somewhere to live.

Builders are losing their life savings as builders go bust, and if you're a renter and can find a place, you may well be paying an outrageous amount in rent.

Andrea and I actually experienced a little bit of this pain in the last year when we signed up with someone to put on a patio on our house and a pegola, and they went bust.

It was a good builder.

They just went bust, couldn't find labour and took a substantial deposit with it.

And we have.

We're okay, by the way.

I just want to express that I share your pain.

We have five adults living in a three bedroom house, and we assumed that the discomfort of small bedrooms and shared bedrooms would have driven out at least one of our children by now, and we're wondering if we need to reconsider our long term housing plans.

But you know, the problem is who wants to be upsizing their home at our stage of life?

Of course we could add a third economic challenge to this.

Our biggest trading partner, china, is facing some very strong economic challenges that may well affect the mining sector that fuels our state's economy.

So there's a bunch of things going on economically that perhaps can cause some anxiety for us, and over the next five or six weeks we're going to explore the topic of how to stay afloat when the economy is sinking.

Might sound a bit dramatic, but that's how it feels some days, and so we want to look at what the Bible says about this, spiritually, socially and practically.

And just to give you a heads up, in the final week we're planning on having a panel question and response with Alissa and Kathy, if babies allow us to.

So, just so you know, alissa is a certified practicing accountant and Kathy is a licensed in the financial industry, so they kind of know what they're talking about.

So if you have questions that this series as I speak prompts, there'll be an opportunity to ask them Again.

You can scan the QR code for an online form or you can just fill in a response card and pop it in the response box at the back.

Response cards are on the table outside, so don't have to do that today.

Just keep that in mind as we go through this series.

So today I want to look at how can we stay afloat emotionally or, as the subtitle in my Bible of the text we're about to read says, the cure for anxiety.

So we're going to read from Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25 to 34.

Matthew 6:25–34

If you have a Bible or a Bible app, you're welcome to turn to that, and I'll be reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

So Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25.

Matthew 6:25

And this, of course, is Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount.

Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Aren't you worth more than they Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying.

Why do you worry about clothes?

Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow.

They don't labour or spin thread.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon, in all his splendour, was adorned like one of these.

If that's how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith?

So don't worry saying what will we eat or what will we drink, what will you wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all of these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

May the Lord bless His reading to us.

Well, as creaky as it sometimes feels.

We are blessed to live in a country with a robust welfare system.

We have unemployment benefits to free healthcare.

But you know, that's actually a very new invention in history.

For most of history, the social safety net was family.

A bad year or long unemployment meant going hungry, not being able to afford medical care for your kids.

Not having medical care was worth, and maybe even homelessness.

And it's into that context that Jesus says don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear Now, I don't know about you, but that seems a little bit unrealistic sometimes.

Don't worry, can we really live worry-free and practicalities of life, and if so, how?

Well, jesus begins by asking isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?

To which we probably respond well, of course it is.

But we live in a very consumeristic society.

Whether it's a latte with a smashed avo on sourdough for breakfast, designer sneakers, a trip to Bali or saving for a better house, the quality of our lives often feel tied up with the goods and services and experiences that we consume, and media really reinforces this message.

Social media influences advertisers, the news media, sometimes even government with the policies and the messaging they give.

Now, I actually like smashed avo on toast and I like nice threads, but when these things become the focus and what gives us identity and meaning, we start running into the rocks of anxiety, because what happens when I can't afford them?

So being worry-free doesn't begin with having enough of these things, and it doesn't begin with having enough money for these things.

It begins with understanding that actually they're just not that important in the big scheme of things, or rather that they're far more important things.

So we need to change our perspective.

Now, I know this morning I'm mostly speaking to Christians, but, if you like me, I find I constantly need my perspective challenged in this regard.

We all know that the most important things in life are not these, and that they are things like what brings true goodness and meaning and contentment, the social and the spiritual dimensions of life.

Now, they say, no one dies wishing they'd spent more time in the office.

You can be poor and happy, but you can't be lonely or spiritually empty and happy, regardless of how much money you've got.

But the noise of our society and media make it very difficult to be content to live in the reality of these higher truths, and so Jesus is going to address this in a moment.

But the cure, he says, for anxiety begins with believing that there are more important and more transcendent realities to live for than just these material concerns that actually eclipse these material concerns and make them seem less important in the light of eternity, and so what we need to do is we need to shift our perspective away from a focus on material things and how big they learn we can't get rid of it all together but just what place they hold in our hearts and minds and onto the spiritual things.

The second part of staying afloat is summed up in Jesus' words Aren't you worth much more than these?

In the lilies of the field, as some translations put it, the wildflowers of the field that are thrown into the furnace, the birds of the sky, aren't you worth much more than these, and won't he, god, do much more for you?

So Jesus said that God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the wildflowers of the field.

Now, if you paid attention in high school science, you might be thinking well, hang on a minute.

That's not actually how it works.

God doesn't handcraft each wildflower and put it in place.

Their genes make them what they are.

Nor does he handfeed the birds, otherwise, what do we do with the ones that die during a drought?

Well, again, jesus challenges us to take a different perspective, one of the concepts in philosophy.

I'm going to get a little bit philosophical here briefly, but it's really helped me sort through this issue of God's involvement in His creation.

This is what we call God's providence, his care over creation and the way when we look at the world we can see the mechanisms that make it work is the idea of causes and what philosophers call material causes and efficient causes.

So what am I talking about?

Well, I want to use an example made popular by John Lennox.

Someone asks why is the kettle boiling?

And you might say well, it's because the electricity in the element is exciting, the atoms in the water, so that they heat up and start bubbling, and so on.

I didn't pay that much attention in science either.

That's the material cause, what we might call the scientific explanation.

Or you might say it's because I wanted a cup of tea.

That's the efficient cause.

I'm the agent that made that happen.

I don't know why it's called the efficient cause.

You've got to ask Aristotle that.

So when we study science and when we study the world with a scientific lens, we're concerned with material causes, and of course that's good.

Science is good.

But here's the limitation.

That's all science can do.

That's all it's good for.

It is concerned with physical material realities, but these physical material realities are just the tools.

That God, who is the efficient cause the agent uses.

Why are the wildflowers of the field so beautiful?

Why are the birds of the sky fed?

It's because God had ordered it.

God wanted the cup of tea, so to speak.

And he uses genetics, he uses the climate, he uses the lifestyle cycle to affect these things, but ultimately he does it and, according to Genesis, chapter 1, he delights in it.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

He's not just a remote God who switched it on and then left.

He looked at creation, he looked at the world and said he's good.

And you know what?

He looked at us, humanity, and he said on that day he said it's very good and he's not hands off.

Colossians, chapter 1, verse 17, says that In Christ all things hold together.

Colossians 1:17

His power is still at work in creation and again, that's what we call God's providence, his care of the world.

So, look, if we're going to live a worry-free life, we need to shift our thinking away from the material, mechanical, scientific view of the universe, or just only having that sort of view, to one in which we see God as intimately involved, god as caring.

Jesus says that if God cares for these things which, in the end, you know, we just toss dead flowers into the bin, we've got a new puppy at our house and, oh my goodness, my garden is in a terrible state Not that it was brilliant, but it is destroyed.

If God cares about those things, how much more does he care for you and for me, who are made in His image and who have inestimable worth?

See, god sees you, god values you, god loves you, god cares for you, which doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get smashed avow on toast or a holiday to Bali, but it does mean all will be well.

So in trying to learn to live the worry-free life, we've shifted our perspective and we're trusting in God's care.

Jesus says there's one other thing we need to do to live a worry-free life.

You see, it's not enough to believe in the non-material aspects of life.

Those higher ones are spiritual and the social.

We have to pursue these realities so that they become real for us.

And so Jesus says to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness.

Well, what does that mean?

Does it mean I spend all day in prayer, quit my job and just go to church?

Well, no, those things are important.

Not quitting your job, but prayer and church are important.

But it's actually far more radical than that, because it gets involved in the whole of life, just stepping back.

The problem with materialism is that it elevates finances to a god-like status in people's hearts.

We desire things and we actually start to serve things, and when that happens, rather than people using money as a tool, we actually start to get used by money, and that leads to injustice.

Whether that's an airline outsourcing services overseas while still making huge profits, or a clothing brand underpaying sweatshop workers or whatever it is, injustice abounds, and it's all because of money, and you know we're nearly all complicit.

Very hard not to be complicit in this, unless you're very diligent.

Chances are you're wearing an item of clothing that was made through exploitative labour practices.

We were shopping during the week, and I was having a look at brands at the shopping center.

I thought I wonder, so I pulled out the Baptist World Aid has an ethical clothing brands thing, and I'm scrolling through.

I'm like it's almost impossible to get something that has a high grade.

A lot of places are getting better, though, so there is hope.

Pursuing the kingdom means pursuing the interests of the king, the king who came and, rather than using people, gave his life for people.

Pursuing the kingdom means loving the king and loving the things the king loves, so loving people and loving justice.

You can't love people and be content within justice.

Right, and incidentally, I know that most of our Bibles say to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

In both the Greek and the Hebrew the word for righteousness is the same word in the Greek and Hebrew for justice.

They're not separate words like they are in English.

In the English we have one that tends to be the more inward looking one and one that tends to be more outward looking.

But they're both linked concepts biblically being right within ourselves and right with God.

You can't separate it from being right with other people and right with His creation in the way we treat one another.

So I was sort of reflecting on this at the beginning of our service.

Material and consumerism.

They lead to a scarcity mindset.

You know there's not.

Will I have enough?

There's not enough housing out there.

How will I find housing?

And then you start having to put some money under the table or fighting for that resource, and the fear of not having enough leads to anxiety, conflict and exploitation.

What do we do?

Because often scarcity is real, but trust in God means we cast off the fear and death of consumerism and pursue the abundant joy of life in God's kingdom.

It's not that we can't seek material things we still need clothes, we still need food, we still need a place to live.

It's that we seek them in the context and the values of God's kingdom, trust in God to supply.

And when we seek God's kingdom first, jesus says he adds these things to us.

They will come to us and we don't need to anxiously pursue them.

It's not that we can be completely passive, but we do it from a different place.

When we open ourselves to do that, we open ourselves to His abundant grace.

Sometimes we have the resources to do things ourselves, and we should, but there's an element of God's grace that we sort of might miss it out on because God doesn't need to do it to us.

And again, this isn't about sin, this isn't about wrongdoing or anything like that, but when we come with a need to God, it puts us in a place where we can experience His grace and His power at work in our lives.

But it's got to come from trust.

So finish off.

How can we stay afloat when the economy is sinking?

Well, maybe you feel like the whole world is sinking.

There's a lot going on.

Our instincts may tell us we have to hold on to what we've got and fight for what we need.

But Jesus tells us to live in a different and counterintuitive way, to change our perspective, to trust in God's care and to seek first His kingdom.

As we do that, we plant ourselves in the abundance of God's grace.

Jesus elsewhere says he loves to give the kingdom to those who earnestly seek it.

So we really can't lose.

If our heart is for the kingdom, he will give it to us.

So there is more to life than just food and clothing.

God loves and cares for you and there is plenty in God's kingdom.

Let's pray, father.

We thank you.

We thank you that Jesus demonstrated this abundant grace in coming down to us and living so simply giving Himself for us.

Father, that's such a challenge to those of us who seek to follow Him.

Help us to see the world as it truly is, both material but the spiritual is so much bigger and the relationships we have are so much more important than these material things.

Father, help us to trust you, to trust your love for us.

Father, give us a revelation of your love.

Father, give us a faith to seek your kingdom first, to live in this world as citizens of your kingdom and to put ourselves in positions where we can receive your grace In Jesus' name amen.