Debt and the Future | The Almighty Dollar S5 E2

Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.

Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.

Thanks for joining us. Hey, early on in my ministry

here at Islands, I mean, I've been here 14, been around here

14 years this March. And so it feels like 5 minutes.

It's been amazing. And early on when I got here, I

met a man named John Major and I got to know him and John was

just a became a really good friend.

And John had a great career. He had been in the Navy as an

officer. And then he became a quality

assurance guy, ISO 9000 quality assurance.

Basically what that meant was he knew how to ask the right

questions and when to ask them. And he, he and I became fast

friends and he got involved in overseeing the finances of our

church. He led a financial management

team here and he was integral to our church.

One day he said to me, after I've been here just a short

while, he were talking about our finances and he said, Steven,

what if we just paid off our debt here at the church?

We just paid it all off and we had enough money in reserves to

pay off all of our debt. But it meant that when we paid

off all of our debt, we would have nothing in reserves.

We would basically have nothing in the bank account.

And so I was a little nervous about it, but we met with our

elders and we thought about it and they decided to, to, to

take, to step out on faith, even though it felt risky and to step

out on faith and pay off our debt.

This has been many years ago. And I remember thinking, man,

God surely is going to be proud of us for doing this, you know,

and like this coming Sunday, I bet we're just going to have a

massive offering because like, it's just going to like, he's

going to like, he's going to be like, way to go, guys, you did

it. I mean, I'm kidding, I'm not

kidding, you guys. We wrote a check for $100,000

and we had $0.67 left in our bank account as an organization.

Yes. It didn't feel awesome, brother.

It didn't feel awesome. And especially I was feeding my

family on the bank account, you know what I mean?

My pay, the payroll. So I said, man, surely God's

going to honor us. We're going to have a big

offering this Sunday. And instead, I kid you not, it

was the lowest offering of my ministry to date on that Sunday.

And I panicked. I was like, what are we going to

do? And John calmly said to me,

Stephen, we made a decision in prayer that honored God.

We can trust him with the outcome.

Don't panic. And man was he right.

Man was he right. Over time, we rebuilt that

margin and then some and got to where we had significant months

worth of operations in March in reserves and years later.

And John could have known this and neither could I.

When we were making those very wise financial decisions about

the future of islands. We couldn't know that in 2020

COVID would come and many churches during COVID struggle

to survive. And I don't know if you know

this, but many churches closed down and COVID simply because of

finances. They just didn't have money to

survive it. And not only do we have money to

survive it, we had money to thrive through it.

And if you were around in during COVID, that was a tough season

for this church. And I'm telling you, one of the

reasons we're here today, still operating, yes, God, but through

John Major and his wisdom in leading us to be careful with

our debt and finances years before COVID gave us the margin

to get through COVID. So we didn't get through COVID

because of luck. We got through because of wise

decisions made under the leadership of God years before

COVID. Here's the thing about money.

And here's the main idea that I want you to carry home with you

today. This is it.

If you want to write something down, this is the main idea.

How we leverage money and how we use debt.

How we leverage money and how we use debt shapes our future far

more than it helps our present. So I'm going to say it again

because I didn't see anybody write this down, so I'm just

going to assume you're going to like you're logging it in your

memory. I got you, Nancy.

Thank you. Appreciate you.

You make me feel better about myself.

How we leverage money and how we use debt shapes our future far

more than it helps our present. Now, today isn't about

condemning debt. The absolutely not.

If you notice when we're doing a money series, some people stay

home. All right, you guys picked up on

that. They're like, I'm not going

around there. I don't want to hear this

because it's so personal. Money is very personal.

It's really personal. So this today is not about

condemning debt or pretending that this is.

This issue of debt is not complex.

It's about understanding what debt does to our freedom and

what debt does to our future. And really, today's about

letting Scripture invite us toward something else instead.

And we're going to start with a very clear passage of Scripture.

You know, normally I preach on like one passage of Scripture

and we get all of our ideas from that text.

But this series is more topical, meaning we're using different

Bible verses to support ideas that I want to teach you.

And so we're going to start with one very clear text from the

Bible. Proverbs chapter 22, verse 7.

Proverbs 22:7

Proverbs chapter 22, verse 7. You have your Bibles, your your

Proverbs 22:7

phone. This is a verse that maybe

you've heard before. I think this is a verse that

every family should have on a magnet on their refrigerator in

their home. I really do.

I think this is a verse that everybody should have on their

coffee mug. And this is not a coffee

muggable verse. When you hear it, you're going

to be like, that doesn't sound like a coffee muggable it.

But if we all had this on our refrigerator, have us on our

mug, it, it might help us. Proverbs 22 verse 7 Solomon,

Proverbs 22:7

wisest man ever lived, said this.

The rich rule over the poor and the borrower slave to the

lender. Y'all know that was in the

Bible. Now here's the first idea this

morning that I want you to get. Debt feels helpful now, but

shapes future pressures. Debt feels helpful now but

shapes future pressures. When you turn to debt.

When I turn to debt and overspending in our lives, we

are not trying to wreck our lives.

Nobody's going. I'd like to make a mess of my

life. Let's just borrow more than we

could ever pay back because it would be awesome to live with no

margin. That would be fun.

Nobody says that. Usually when we reach for debt

or overextending ourselves financially, it's because we're

looking for relief. We're looking for something to

release the pressure we're feeling.

So for example, if you're committed to driving, pay for

cars that are just you never have car debt and that's your

commitment that for most of us, that's going to mean we're going

to drive old beat up cars that have to be worked on from time

to time. All right.

And that means you're going to be frustrated on some days

because you're going to have some piece of junk in your

driveway that didn't start again and you're having to like piece

it together or you're going to be headed to Macon and it's

going to break down. You're going to have to get it

fixed on the road like, but your commitment to living card

without car debt means you're probably going to drive old cars

and then you're probably going to have the frustration of

fixing old cars. And So what would that's a lot

of pressure. So what would feel like relief

to you would be to do what to go finance a new car.

It would feel like relief to say, man, I could have at least

three or four years without this, without this, without this

misery of always. Like if you go to Google Earth,

Google and you look at my house on Google Maps and you look at

them right now in my yard on Google Maps, there's a car with

a hood up. And I kid you not, if you go to

the previous picture, like there's a car, it's a different

car with a hood up. OK.

And so if so, nobody goes into debt, you know, trying to make

their lives tough. Everybody goes into debt trying

to find relief. You want relief from the

pressure, So we borrow money. Something feels urgent.

Something unexpected has come up and that's happened to me.

Something or maybe something's missing in our lives, something

we wish we had. And here's the thing, borrowing

money often for all of us feels like progress.

It feels like we're moving forward.

It does. It feels like we're taking care

of a problem, that we're getting something handled.

Have you ever borrowed money for something and went, I will just

figure that out later. Anybody yes, but let's be

honest, we'll just that's a that's a tomorrow problem.

I'll just figure and and and see that feels like relief because I

don't have to solve that problem today.

I can solve that problem later or this borrowing this money

right now will help us get our ducks in a row for right now and

we can figure out the problems with that later.

Now let's be very clear about what Proverbs is saying and what

Proverbs is not saying. The writer is not condemning

borrowing. The writer is not condemning

borrowing. And I know you think, well,

that's what Stephen's going to say in the sermon.

And while I kind of wish the Bible said that, I wish the

Bible just condemned borrowing, but it doesn't.

The writer, Proverbs, is not condemning borrowing.

He's not saying that if you borrow or use debt, you're a

Sinner or you're a bad person. He's not saying that at all.

No, the writer is simply describing reality.

This is descriptive, not prescriptive.

Do you understand what I mean by that?

This is descriptive. The writer of Proverbs is just

describing something. What's he describing?

He's saying simply, this borrowing will create pressure,

obligation, and reduce freedom. That's all he's saying.

So I'm saying you're a bad person for doing those things.

It's just like if you borrow, you're going to create pressure,

you're going to create obligation and you're going to

reduce freedom, not because God is punishing you or someone is

punishing you, but because now your your future has a claim on

your present. Your future has a claim on your

present. It's, it's not like God's mad at

you, like, well, you borrowed all this money, now I'm going to

punish you and you're going to feel pressure and misery and

like no margin. No, it's just like, this is just

a, this is just a law, like a natural law.

Like if I drop a, an item from up here, it's going to fall

because of the natural law of gravity.

The natural law of debt is that if I leverage debt, it's going

to create pressure, obligation and reduced freedom.

Not because someone is punishing me, but because the future now

has a claim on the present. Let's be frank.

Most people, you and I, we borrow money because we're

trying to solve a problem. That's what most of us are

trying to do. We're trying to solve a problem.

We're not trying to create a bigger, bigger problem.

We're trying to solve a problem. If last week we said that the

key to our money challenges is not about dollars but about

authority, do you remember that that was the main idea last

week? So then if that's true, the key

to our money challenges is not about dollars but about

authority. How does debt impact this

authority issue? That's a question worth asking.

If I want to have the authority of God in my life, how does debt

impact the authority issue? See, the necessary shift that

happens when you and I leverage debt or overspending is it has

to change who or what we're loyal to, who or what we serve.

It has to leveraging debt forces that change.

So the question today in this moment is if it's all about

authority and who has the authority of my life, how does

debt shift that authority? It's a question worth asking.

And that's our second idea this morning.

Debt shifts of debt shifts future loyalties, not just

future dollars. Debt shifts, future loyalties,

not just future dollars. Let's go to Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6:24

verse 24. You should have known this is

going to show up in this series. This is something Jesus said

from the Sermon on the Mount. This is what he said.

He said no one can serve 2 masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be

devoted to the one and despise the other.

He said then it's a period. And then Jesus said, you cannot

serve both God and money. Now what is Jesus doing here?

The principle that Jesus is teaching is simply this.

You cannot live with divided loyalties.

You cannot live with divided loyalties.

And then he just uses money as an example.

He just, it's just money as an example.

He's saying, hey, no one can have divided loyalty in their

life. You cannot serve both God and

money. For example, money's just an

example. You see, here's the thing about

debt. Debt doesn't just affect our

future, but specifically debt effects our future loyalties.

It doesn't just affect our future, it affects our future

loyalties specifically. Now be very clear.

Again, Jesus is, you know, thinking about Proverbs was not

a condemnation passage. Jesus here is not condemning

anyone. Jesus is not using shame here or

guilt here. He's not saying, oh, you're a

terrible person if you serve money.

He's just saying, hey, here's the, here's the rule of life.

You can't serve two people. You can't be devoted to two

people. Married people get this.

Amen. Like it's just, it's just kind

of how humans work. Like this is just how humans

work. They they have to have a single

loyalty. He's saying, hey, it's

impossible to serve God and also to serve money.

In other words, whichever you serve will demand your complete

loyalty. Now here's what's interesting.

Debt has a way of forcing you to shift your loyalties without you

making an intentional choice. Debt has a way of forcing you to

shift your loyalties without you making an intentional choice.

So think about it this way. If I leverage my future with

indebtedness, then I've already committed my future.

I've already committed my future loyalty.

I've already committed my future effort.

I've already committed my future energy.

So what I've said is that my future freedom is the currency

that I'm spending today. But I'm also saying that my, my

future will have to have a loyalty to the debt that I'm

creating today. So I know this is a little bit

of a nuance, but think about it like this.

When we're carrying debt, your future decisions are already

spoken for. You have some decisions that are

already made. You're not going to be able to

make them because they're already made for you.

Your generosity, your margin for generosity, for example, will be

shrunk down. You'll have less margin for

generosity. So you think, hey, I want to be

more generous. Well, debt will automatically

bring that margin down. That's not a choice you

necessarily made to have less margin and generosity.

That's a choice that debt make for us.

Does that make sense? Our margin Forrest will shrink.

It just will. You can't rest when you owe the

man. I owe.

I owe. It's off to work.

I go I/O, I/O, I/O, I/O, I/O. I can't.

I rest. I rest.

It's. I have a bunch of debt.

Like it doesn't go, it doesn't go hand in hand.

Future decisions are already made for you because of debt.

Our ability to respond to God's prompting shrinks.

Debt demands loyalty. Specifically, it demands loyalty

to income. How do you service debt with

everybody? Say income, you're all like,

man, this hurts you guys. Does this hurt a little bit?

It's OK. I'm, I'm not trying to shame

you. I love you.

Debt demands loyalty to income. And So what I mean by the fact

that that debt has a way of shifting our loyalty away from

God to income is that that's not an intentional choice we made.

It's something that's forced upon us because we reached for

debt to solve a problem. And so now we have to be loyal

to income. And let me explain this to you.

The replacement of making God first and serving God first.

That replacement doesn't happen overnight.

No, because of debt, I'm slowly wooed away from my loyalty to

God and I'm forced to focus on income so I can serve as debt

again. This isn't like you're a bad

person and you need to get your life together.

This is just descriptive. This is just what happens if I'm

overextended, if I have a lot of debt, if I'm trying to service

that debt, then I have to earn a lot of money.

I have to be focused on income, and that's going to limit margin

in other areas of my life. Again, not that I'm a bad

person, not that I'm dumb or stupid.

It's just reality. My son just said, well, if

anybody would like for him to live with you, let me know.

Oh man, break his kneecaps. I'm just kidding.

This is on YouTube. So again, this is not intended

to make any of us feel guilty. It's meant to function like a

triage or a diagnosis for you to kind of just do some inventory.

You can't heal from what you do not name.

You got to name it. So debt feels helpful.

It does it feel, it feels like you're solving your problem, but

it shapes future pressures. It creates pressure and debt

will slowly shift loyalty away from God.

It just has to, it has to shift it to money, to income.

Now, what's the alternative, Steven?

You always have a solution for us.

I do. There is an alternative.

The alternative is contentment, and this is the last idea.

Today, contentment projects. I'm sorry.

Contentment protects the future by quieting fear.

Contentment protects the future by quieting fear.

Now, contentment doesn't mean pretending that we don't feel

fear because we feel fear about the future.

It means that we're learning to trust God enough that fear no

longer gets the final say. Contentment protects the future

by quieting fear and slowing the urgency that that fear creates.

All right, the writer of Hebrews writes this beautiful passage.

Writer of Hebrews says keep your lives free from the love of

money and be content in what you have.

Because God has said never will I leave you and never will I

forsake you. Now that promise sounds

beautiful, doesn't It's just, can we just look at it for a

second? Keep your lives free from the

love of money and be content with what you have.

Because God has said never will I leave you, never will I

forsake you. It sounds beautiful and they're

beautiful words. But if we're honest, when fear

rises up in a view, have you ever had fear over financial

situations? Yeah, some of you are like, sit

down, son. Let me tell some stories.

When fear rises up in you over financial situations, when the

numbers don't work and the future feels uncertain, most of

us don't struggle in that because we don't know this

promise. We know this promise.

That's not like, it's not like if you just knew this, you

wouldn't struggle. No, we know this promise that

God will never leave us or forsake us.

The problem is not that we don't know what the problem is.

Do we actually trust it? Do we actually trust that it's

true? You see, there's a deeper issue

beneath debt. That deeper issue is about trust

in God, my Savior, that that's the deeper issue below debt and

why we leverage debt. You know, guys, debt has has a

power over us. Not because we're irresponsible,

not because we're silly or foolish, but because at some

level we're afraid that if we don't secure our future for

ourselves, then nobody else will.

Like that's what we're afraid of.

Contentment sounds right and trust sounds good, but fear

keeps whispering this to us. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know you read that Hebrews passage and I know you go to

church and I know you love God and all, but what if what if he

doesn't come through for you? What if this doesn't happen the

way you think it will? And here's the thing that that

fear, if that fear were true, like in other words, if God were

distant from us and he's unreliable, in other words, if

it was kind of like we have this God and he's up on a mountain,

but he's not really personally involved in our lives, then that

fear would be reasonable. And borrowing from your future

would make sense to protect your presence, right?

That would make total sense. But Christianity, if you're not

a Christian, listen to this for a second.

Christianity never asked us to trust in God.

Like in the abstract, No. Christianity says look at the

work and the acts of God and trust him based on what he has

done already. So in light of what he's done,

trust him, not in some abstract idea.

So what has God already done for us?

When you look at Jesus, we see that that God came to earth.

Jesus came to earth, God in the flesh.

He came not to secure his own future at our expense, but he

came to secure our future at his expense.

In other words, he paid a price so that I could have a future.

He paid a price so that you could have a future on the

cross. And think about this for a

second. All the things you're afraid to

lose, security and safety, knowing that you're OK on the

cross. Jesus lost the very things we're

afraid of losing. That security, that provision,

that control over life. He lost control.

He lost all of those things we desperately want.

He lost the things that we use debt to secure.

He gave them up. Why?

So we would never have to wonder if God would abandoned us.

How do I know God would abandoned me?

Because Christ died on the cross for me, I can trust.

I'm not trusting God in the abstract like, well, I believe

God is good. No, I'm looking at the cross and

I'm saying, well, God has already proven that he will not

abandon me. He's already proven that he came

for me and met my greatest need. And so when the writer of

Hebrews says, never will I leave you and never will I forsake

you, that promise is not optimism.

It's not the writer of Hebrews is like, oh, this will feel

good. Let me tell the guys this, that

God will never leave you and God will never forsake you.

No, that promise is based on a purchase, a purchase, a purchase

made in blood. You, the Bible says were

purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And so the reason God can't forsake you and can't deny you

because to forsake you or deny you would be to deny himself

because you are one with him through the blood of Christ.

And this is this is where the this is the deeper issue under

our fear around our finances, right?

This is why this message just can't be about going out and

changing your behaviors and getting really serious about

your money. No, the message is really the

deeper issue is like, do I actually believe the gospel that

I am one with the heavenly Father through the blood of

Jesus Christ that he purchased for me and that this promise

that he will never leave me or forsake me is not empty

optimism. It is a purchased promise,

purchased with the most precious blood of God himself.

Like that's the deeper issue. And when that begins to sink in

that I can trust this God because of what he's done for me

through Christ, then contentment stops being something we try to

produce. It's something that comes out of

a spiritual practice of daily trust in God of as I say all the

time, preaching the gospel to myself every day.

The God is all has already proven to me and to the world

that He's trustworthy because he paid for my sins.

So let me be clear, contentment is not pretending we don't want

things. It's just choosing to trust God

more than we trust the urgency to get things.

Just that practice. And the more you practice

trusting that God has taken care of you, the urgency to borrow

from your future weakens. Because you know it's not all up

to you. God has proven He will be there

for you. You know, consistently choosing

trust will keep us from asking our future selves to pay what

our present selves want. So when you're looking at a

present self moment and you're thinking about leveraging debt

for something your future self is going to have to do, just ask

yourself, do I really want to put this on future Stephen?

Because future Stephen's going to have to deal with this

decision. And what can, what contentment

does and trusting God does is it keeps you from forcing your

present wants to put demands on your future self.

So here's some practical things that I just want to say to you

before we close. Number one, I want to be very

clear about this. This message is absolutely not

been about and the scripture we've read has absolutely not

been about saying debt is wrong and never use debt or faithful

people who love God will never use debt.

I mean, I have a mortgage. I have a great mortgage.

I mean, it's amazing. I told my wife if I die and I

get you get the life insurance, do not pay the mortgage off.

I told her I said put the money in the bank, let it draw

interest. Because you, I'm telling you

the, the interest rate on my mortgage is nothing.

I would if they give me 100 years to pay it off right now,

I'd take it at the rate I just read.

So, so the, the reality is, I'm not saying, and this the

scripture is not saying that you know that, that all debt is

wrong. Some debt can be strategic and

some debt can be temporary. And let's be frank, our economy

functions as a debt economy. I know dude.

That's and that's brutal. Like if you notice that all

we've talked about for like 2 years is interest rates.

Three years interest rates. My father did not like Jimmy

Carter. My grandfather loved Jimmy

Carter. Do you know what the single

difference between them was? My father was middle-aged with a

16% mortgage. My grandfather was retired with

a paid for house and CDs that were paying 10% later.

My father loved Reagan and guess who my grandfather could not

stand. And what was at the center of

that? Interest rates.

So we are a debt economy. I get that.

But what you and I as Christians are being invited into is

something deeper than rules. Like hey you shouldn't and you

should. We're being invited into

discernment. Discernment.

The invitation this week is not for you to go out of here

feeling guilty and shameful and being like, I got to fix this,

no, but instead to just slow down and invite God into the

conversations about your money. That's it.

Just pray. Before taking on debt or

extending yourself financially, consider asking some questions

in prayer. So one question you could ask is

what is driving this decision? Is it fear and patience

comparison? Is it genuine need?

Remember, debt will often promise relief and it'll tell

you, hey, this will make things better.

But it's stealing from your future.

So it's worth pausing to ask what it is you're really trying

to solve right now, and if there's a different way to solve

that problem than debt. Another question to ask is what

will this cost my future freedom?

What will this cost my future freedom?

Will this decision limit my generosity?

Will it limit my margin? Will it limit my ability to

respond to what God may ask me to do later?

Remember, when we borrow, future freedom is the currency we're

spending today. You could say future rest,

future vacations. You can say all that future

freedom. And the third question is, have

I invited God into this decision?

And I am amazed at how many Christians I've talked to that

will make major financial decisions and will not pray

about it. So have I invited God in this

decision? Not after the fact.

Like, hey, God, by the way, I just went in and indebted myself

$50,000. I thought I'd let you know.

Can you help me make the payment?

But I mean, before you make the decision, not just asking him to

bless it, but thinking like a thinking like a steward, like a

manager instead of an owner and saying, God, I'm seeking your

wisdom because I'm about to spend some of your money that

you gave me. I'm about to leverage it in the

future too. I'm about to leverage the future

income you're going to give me in the future.

And I need your wisdom on this decision.

Will you bless me? Will you give me your

understanding and let me know whether I'm doing a foolish

thing or not? Just talk to God about his

money. Now, these questions are not

meant to shame you. They're meant to createspace for

wisdom, clarity and trust and to try to help your discipleship in

following Jesus. The invitation this morning is

freedom. It's freedom, It's freedom from

pressure, it's freedom from fear, freedom to trust that God

has provided for you and that it's enough that you can you can

be like, hey, what I have is enough.

And that if he's provided for you in the present, that he will

provide for you in the future. You see, when you choose

contentment and trust, we stop asking our future selves to pay

for what our present selves want, and we begin living with a

freedom that money can never provide.

How we leverage money shapes our future.

How we leverage money and how we leverage debt shapes our future

far more than it helps our present.

Will you stand with me as I pray for us?

We're going to pray for our brother Brad, who's still

overseas just a few days left. I hope you've been using your

prayer card to remember him this week.

Father, thank you for this church.

Thank you for the gathering we've had.

Thank you for just the Scripture that it's not full of shame and

guilt, but it's instead invites us into a better life, a life of

freedom, a life of wholeness. Thank you that you're proven

that you've trustworthy. Lord, I pray that the brothers

and sisters that have heard this message today, whether in this

room or online or later on a podcast, that they have sense

that I love them and care for them and do not have any

authority in these areas around debt and money.

I only have the authority of the scripture.

And so we, we just, we trust that there's been no shame, but

there's only been hope. God, we pray for our brother

Brad. He's in South and he's in Asia,

Southeast Asia. We pray that you're watching

over him and his team and you protect them.

Or we thank you that our church has been praying for him these

past few days and we look forward to seeing him when he

returns. And we pray for every moment of

every second. Your angels are shielding them

and shielding him specifically from any danger that would come

to them. We love you.

We thank you for our church. We're honored to have been given

this beautiful place. God, I just thank you for

letting me start this message by talking about my good friend

John, who's in heaven now and all that he taught me.

Honored for that wonderful relationship and give you praise

for it. In Christ name we pray, Amen.

Have a wonderful day, friends. We love you and we thank you for

being here today.