Save Me, I'm Drowning!

The Problem of Financial Bondage

Nehemiah 5:1-19

If you saw someone drowning and God said the only way to save them was to throw in your child, would you do it?  I wouldn't.  But that's exactly what God did in order to save our souls.  We were going under, drowning in sin, and God, our only hope, did what only He could do, which is to bear our sins, in our place, so we could be saved!

Now we're saved, but most of us still know that drowning feeling, because we are drowning in debt and going under financially.  One of the main weapons the devil uses to stress out believers is money troubles.

Good news:  There is hope, and help.  The Bible has the answers.  Jesus spoke more about money than He talked about heaven and hell combined!  And there's many more principles throughout the Bible that will help us...including right here in our Nehemiah study...

v. 1  They are fighting over money.  'Til debt do us part!

v. 2  They have a shortage for basic human needs...just for food.

v. 3  Just to eat they have to sell their necessities of life.

v. 4  Now they are borrowing money just to pay their taxes!  The IRS accepts credit cards because of this.

v. 5  Their children have been sold into slavery, their future mortgaged away.  The same is happening in the USA today.  For the first time ever, we are raising a new generation who does not expect to have things better than their parents.  It used to be that the kids would help the parents later in life...now it's been reversed and if not for the parents, many kids would not survive.

These are God's people in our text, and they are in financial bondage, and that greatly limits both their happiness and what they can accomplish in their lives.

God has a better way.  What God orders, He pays for.  Where God guides, He provides!  He is our source, our be all and end all.

Symptoms of financial bondage:

1.     Having to charge necessities of life.

Do you use credit for groceries and gasoline, clothes, etc., knowing you won't be able to pay it off in full that month?

2.     Borrowing money to pay fixed expenses.

Talking about the house payment/rent, car payment, phone or cable?  Borrowing from one card to pay on another card?

3.     Are creditors writing and calling you for their money?

If there's a person in your life you'd like to never see again, just loan them some money!

4.     Are you tempted to be dishonest about money?

Do you try to talk your way out of bills?  Think about cheating on your taxes?  Tempted to do something dishonest or unethical?

5.     Do you ever say, I can't afford to tithe?

Do you bring the Lord's tithe [10%] to the Lord's house on the Lord's day so the Lord's work can be done in the Lord's way?

6.     Do you and your spouse ever argue about money.

"Theirs was a perfect marriage, except a fatal flaw--one was quick on the deposit, but the other was quicker on the draw!"

One guy said, "My wife and I never argue about money.  We made an agreement years ago, that I would make all the big decisions about money, and she would handle all the little ones.  It's worked out great, we've been married 30 years and there hasn't been a big decision to make yet!"

7.     Do you know how much you really owe?

Are you afraid to add it up?  It's amazing in counseling how many people know they are in financial trouble, but have no idea how much they really owe.  They sweep it under the rug.  They try not to think about it.

Proverbs 27:23
²³ Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand.  God has told us to be good stewards of what He gives to us.  He is entrusting us w/ money, and we are letting Him down!

8.     Do you know what it takes to survive each week?

If you added up all your expenses for the month and divided by 4.3, do you know right now what the answer would be, what you need to make ends meet?  Many people just put their check in the bank and start writing checks, and then wonder why they have so much month left at the end of the money!

Make a list of all your bills, necessities of life.  Put God up top, give Him the firstfruits!  Don't leave anything off the list, if it is a need to survive.  These are non negotiables.  Do the math and see what you have left.

If your total need is $612, and your income is $615, you've got a problem.  You and your spouse are arguing, and really, you are arguing over 3 dollars!  The rest of the money is a no brainer...already spoken for.

Suggestion:  Have a checking account for fixed expenses.  Have another account for the difference between your income and your fixed.  Do an online transfer or whatever, and that money is what you make your decisions about.  You've already made the decisions about your fixed items.  The second account is the only REAL money you have!

Don't consider plastic as real money, because it is not!  Don't enslave yourself in a dungeon of your own making.  Christ wants to set us free from financial bondage.  He wants to raise us up from drowning in a sea of debts!  We made big credit mistakes early in our marriage as we tried to have everything our parents have, only 20 years quicker.  We cut up those cards and paid them off and plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is!

Now, what if your fixed expenses are more than your paycheck?  That means every week you go in the hole, and that's before you buy anything you want.  That means nothing can ever break down or need repaired.  That means you never save, never get a vacation, and never get a break!

Obviously, there's only 2 possible fixes:

• Decrease your outflow
• Increase your income

Most of us really could do some downsizing, but we're upsizing everything including our extra value meals!  Whichever solution we choose, the one thing we cannot do is ignore the problem.  We must sit down on purpose and prayerfully work this thing out!

Time out, you don't have to be poor to be in financial bondage.

v. 7  The nobles and the rulers were the wealthy who were taking advantage of the people.  They were charging exorbitant interest rates, foreclosing on properties, and they themselves are in financial bondage, because they weren't good stewards of money either, even though they had a lot of it!

Some sit here and think they are doing ok.  But are you in financial bondage?  Ask youself...

Do I trust in my money more than in my God?  I don't care who you are, you are supposed to pray 'Give us this day our daily bread.'  Your money could take wings and fly away!  Money talks-it says, 'bye bye!'

Are your personal goals in tune w/ God?  Are you trying to build a personal portfolio or the kingdom of God?  Are you laying up treasures on earth or in heaven?  Are your values temporal or eternal?

Is every dollar you have available to God?  Not just the tithe.  What about the other 90%?  My God can ask for any of my money or all of it at any time because it's not really MY money, it's all His!  I'm supposed to be the manager.  And if He can trust me, maybe He will entrust me w/ more!

Do you find yourself making money when you ought to be serving God?  Do you ask for overtime on God's day? Do you say, "I can't go to church, I'm too tired from work."  Or, has God blessed you to the point that you buy things which in turn take you away from Him?  The worst thing that ever happened to some Christians is that they had enough money to buy a boat!  They have money to travel, and travel they do, especially on God's day, because Monday is coming, and I've gotta make money to cover things!

We've seen the problem of financial bondage, next time...

The Principles of Financial Freedom