Store up Treasures in Heaven During Financially Tough Times

Title: Store up Treasures in Heaven during Financially Tough Times

Text: Matthew 6:19-24

Date: March 8th, 2009

You can’t help but hear a lot of news about the economic recession our country and the rest of the world is in right now. The news is all about how bad the economy is or is getting. You would think that the most important thing in the whole world is how the stock market is doing, or how the housing market is, or the level of the unemployment rate, or gasoline prices or any other indicator of the condition of the economy. From the way people are talking today you’d think that the worst thing in the world has happened – the economy has gone down! Now to be sure, I don’t want to minimize an important thing such as the economy. Jobs are important, keeping the prices of goods and services affordable is very important, the stock market is important too for many reasons, probably the most important is that so many people’s retirement accounts are tied to it, and other aspects of the economy are important too. But my point is that people seem obsessed with economic data and news. My observation of Americans specifically and other people in the world generally is that the economy is too important. What I mean is, while economic issues are important, they are all-important, they aren’t most important, they aren’t the be-all and end-all of everything. But from the conversations I hear and the news I see every day you would think that the economy was the most important earthly thing of all. And what that says about us as a people is that we have our priorities wrong; we have our value system out of kilter. We see things improperly; we aren’t viewing reality correctly when we elevate economic matters above other more important things. And that’s just the problem that the recession is bringing out to everyone who will take the time to observe and reflect on what is happening. Our present recession is exposing a flaw in the mentality and thinking of Americans and other people of the world. What the recession is revealing is that we all love money and material goods too much. I wish I could say that Christians are the exception, but I can’t. We too who call upon the name of Christ are caught up in the same warped values as the rest, I’m sorry to say. We too, like most other people, elevate money and material possessions and material well being above almost everything. But the sad truth is that we’ve been warned before about this, but we ignored the warning and just followed the crowd into materialism. None other than the Lord Jesus has warned us in his teachings found in the New Testament not to place money and material things above more important spiritual and ethical truths, but we’ve conveniently forgotten these teachings as we’ve pursued the material good life available in the modern world. But we are off track because we’ve failed to listen closely enough to Christ’s teachings about money and possessions that he presents so clearly. Well, let’s not continue in our error. Let’s stop and take the time to truly listen and learn from the teachings of Jesus on money and material goods. Let’s stop and get it right finally before it’s really too late. If this current economic recession does anything, let it be to get us Christians back to the truth about money and possessions. Let’s listen to Jesus instead of the evening news. Let’s turn to Matthew 6:19-24, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . . 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.” Let’s look at three important truths.

Turning to Prayer During Financially Tough Times

Title: Turning to Prayer During Financially Tough Times

Text: Philippians 4:6-7, Matthew 6:5-13, 7:7-11

Date: March 8th, 2009

If you watch the television news or listen to the radio or read the newspapers the thing you’ll hear over and over again is how bad the economy is and how more and more people are losing their jobs or losing their homes. If you listen you hear how companies are losing money or going out of business. You’ll hear about governments trying to stimulate the economies of their nations by borrowing and then putting that money into the economy in an effort to get things working properly. Closer to home, we hear about local businesses closing or laying off workers. We see and hear people going on unemployment and looking for work. We learn of cuts in local budgets for school, police, fire services, etc. and we wonder how far all of this will go. For most people, they’ve never experienced anything like this during their lifetime. Very few people alive today have experienced the Great Depression, so this is new to almost everyone. But the economic situation keeps getting worse and worse – by modern American standards. We must not forget that for most of the world, our recession would actually be a positive economic situation, since most of the world lives at or around poverty level. Think of nations such as India and most of the countries of Africa. But for us Americans, these are difficult times simply because we’ve known only prosperity and being forced to live with a troubled economy is something we aren’t used to doing. But the question is how should a Christian respond to economically troubled times? Last week I talked about the importance of standing on the promises of God during financially troubling times. This week I’d like to talk about depending on prayer during bad economic times. Most of the time when there is nothing wrong with the economy and things are going well most people neglect prayer. It’s only normal and natural for people to put off prayer when times are good. In the Old Testament we see this pattern of neglect regularly in the history of the Jews. When things were difficult and times were hard the Jews turned to God in faith and prayer, but just as soon as God delivered them from trouble they forget about God and neglected prayer. They got over-confident in themselves and turned away from God and pursued their own will and way in life. That happens to Christians today also. For many years now things have been going relatively well for Americans; prayer was seen as optional, something that could be done or should be done, but not a necessity for survival in life. But now things are changing. People are experiencing worry and stress and struggle on a scale they haven’t seen in a long time if ever. How will they respond? With faith or fear? Will we turn to God in prayer or will we turn to ourselves with our own plans of self-help? For the true Christian, prayer is the answer to economic troubles. So today, let me examine a few biblical passages that explain the importance of prayer so that we can apply them to our economic difficulties today.

Don’t Forget God During the Good Times

God’s Promises to Stand on During Financially Tough Times

Title: God’s Promises to Stand on During Financially Tough Times

Text: Matthew 6:33-34, Philippians 4:19, 4:6-7

Date: February 22nd, 2009

Every day on the news we hear about how bad the economy is, especially the housing market and the banks. We hear how hard it is to get credit in order to buy homes or cars and what economists call “big ticket” items like washers, dryers, refrigerators, etc. To make matters worse, many companies are laying off workers and scaling down because people simply aren’t buying as many products as before. People are instinctively cutting back on expenses and that causes companies to cut their costs, and it’s a downward spiral. With more people out of work and more people losing their homes to foreclosure and more people trying to cut back – there is no question that we are in challenging financial times. But how shall a believer respond to such a challenge? How should a follower of Jesus react to all the financial pressures closing in? Well it’s pretty clear that there should be a clear distinction between the way a faithful follower of Christ reacts to financial pressures and the way a non-believer might react. After all, it’s during the tough times that our faith is tested. During difficult times our faith is put to the test and reveals whether or not we really, truly believe in God and God’s promises. Will we respond with fear as the world does or will we respond with greater faith and trust in God? Well, it’s obvious that the believer should respond with faith, but faith in what? Certainly not faith in ourselves or our own cleverness. Clearly not faith in our government or even the “spirit of the American people,” as some politicians likes to flatter their constituents. Our faith should respond to financial crises, or any crisis, with greater trust in God and in God’s Word. Practically speaking, that means we should respond in prayer and in standing on the Promises of God. We find our comfort, hope and peace in God and God’s Word, not in the things of the world. But in order to put our faith in God and God’s Word we have to know how to do it. Today, I’d like to talk about standing on the Promises of God during financially tough times. Then, next week I’ll talk about how to trust in God through practical prayer during a financial crisis. It’s not enough to believe in prayer and God’s Word, but when the times of testing come we must actually turn to God and God’s Word in practice. How is that done? That’s what I’d like to talk about today this morning. Do you know how to find God’s promises for finances? And then, once you find a promise from God concerning money, do you know how to stand on that promise? I’ll try to explain how that is done as well? I don’t claim to be an expert in finances, nor do I claim to be an expert on the Bible, but what I do know is that God’s Word gives us promises to trust and I’d like to explain how to do that today. I’ve had to stand on these promises time and time again, and God has never let me down. I might not always get what I want financially, but I always get what I need from God. Let’s look at three of God’s promises concerning finances.