Introduction
I wonder what you think of when someone mentions bills and debts. Has
there ever been a time in your life when you have dreaded the postman coming to
the door because there might be more bills you can’t pay? For some people this
is a major cause of anxiety and stress.
This year, KnowYourMoney.co.uk commissioned an independent, nationally-representative survey among more than 2,000 UK adults. It found that 62% of people across the country have some form of debt. It doesn’t include mortgages, but it does include getting into arrears on repayments.
Nearly three in ten people with debt (29%)
said they do not feel in control of it and have no plan as to how they will pay
it off.
A third (33%) said they buy items on their
credit card without first thinking about how they will pay it off later.
Two thirds of those in debt (67%) have no
financial safety net, money in savings, to pay off debt if required.
And 24% of people in debt said they lose
sleep because of it, while 41% do not feel comfortable speaking to friends or
family about the subject.
Owing Money
Chances are those figures include some of us
here today and there is help available. We had CAP here back in April and they
can help get you back on top if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
During one of the severe potato famines in Ireland, a number of
families wrote a letter to their landlord saying they had absolutely no money
at all to pay their rent and begged to be let off all their debts.
The landlord was a clergyman; Andrew Fausset, born near Enniskillen,
County Fermanagh, in 1821. For fifty-one years, he was rector of St Cuthbert’s,
York.
Canon Fausset wrote a letter back to his tenants. He said it was quite
impossible to let them off their debts. It would set a bad precedent. They had
to pay every single penny.
‘But,’ he wrote, ‘I enclose something that might help you.’ It
was a cheque for a very large sum of money – which more than covered all their
debts. That’s the gospel; good news for the poor.
But the way we handle our money, once we
belong to Christ, is a discipleship issue. In other words, Jesus wants to train
us and teach us to manage money wisely. It is part of his programme for us
because it is a spiritual matter.
It says in Luke 16.11, “If you haven't been
faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”
A well-known Christian leader once said, “By getting into debt I am
basically telling God that his current level of provision for my life is simply
not good enough.” Or do we believe what we say when we called God “Yahweh
Yireh, the Lord is my provider”?
I say all this about debt because our reading today from Romans 13
begins in v8 by saying, “Let no debt remain outstanding...”
This raises a practical question. As a Christian, wanting to live
faithfully according to God’s word, should I take on a loan - or in fact borrow
anything, even a cup of sugar from next door? God’s word says, “Let no debt
remain outstanding.”
Today’s passage links with last week’s which ended in v7 with these
words: “Give to everyone what you owe them: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if
revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honour, then honour.”
The Romans were voracious collectors of
revenue and the tax burden was heavy.
There was a ground tax by which you had to
pay, either in cash or in kind, one-tenth of all the grain, and one fifth of
the wine and fruit produced on your land.
There was income tax. There was a poll tax,
which had to be paid, no ifs, no buts, by everyone between the ages of 14 and 65.
Then there were customs duties, import and
export taxes, tolls for the use of roads and bridges, levies for entering
markets and harbours, and statutory fees for a license to possess an animal, or
to drive a cart or wagon.
Everywhere you went, everything you did, had
some kind of tax and the Bible says, “don’t argue about it, don’t grumble about
it, just give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
You and I also owe taxes; income tax, road tax, council tax, VAT. We
also owe revenue; national insurance, duty on fuel, water rates, TV license.
So, when it says in verse 8, “Let no debt remain outstanding,” it doesn’t mean “don’t ever borrow”, it means, when
you do incur a debt, pay it back. Pay all of it. And settle up promptly.
Don’t, for the illusory promise of a happier life now, create a Credit
Card monster which gets bigger and bigger each month and starts to make you
miserable and ends by controlling you.
Live within your means and be content. There
is a wonderful, happy freedom in being debt-free and this is how God wants us
to be.
This is ever so practical. What does it mean to owe no debt to anyone?
- It means I show my love for God by returning borrowed books when I’ve
finished reading them.
- It might mean delaying the purchase of that large screen TV until I can actually
afford it.
- It means being careful to keep promises.
- It means not falling behind on my rent when I know I have enough for a nice
holiday.
- We owe our employers a full day’s work. So, it means arriving at work on
time, not extending tea and lunch breaks, and not sneaking off early.
Owing Love
But there is debt that is allowed, in fact commanded. “Let no debt
remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…”
It’s a strange expression. What does it mean? You might say, “Why do I
have a debt of love? I can think of loads of people who have never given me
anything. I don’t even know these people. In what way am I indebted to them?”
The answer is this: the debt of love that we owe is nothing to do with other
people giving us something first. The truth is that we are permanently in debt
to Christ for the lavish grace he has poured upon us.
There’s a story about a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who pulled into a petrol
station to fill up. He went in to pay and noticed that his wife was deep in
conversation with the service station attendant.
It turned out that she knew him; in fact, they were High School
sweethearts before she even met the man who would become her husband.
After they drove off, the CEO said, “I bet you’re thinking, wow, I’m glad
I married a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and not that service station
attendant.”
She said, “No, actually. I was thinking, if I’d married him, he’d be a Fortune 500 CEO and you’d be a service station
attendant!”
That is a good picture of God’s grace in our lives. Everything we have
we owe to him. He doesn’t love us because we are amazing; he loves us because he is amazing.
The only way we could even start to repay him all that he has given us
is to love others in turn with the love we have received from the Lord.
It’s a debt that can never be repaid. You can’t say, “Well, I showed a
bit of love that person yesterday, I’m done for the week now; I don’t have to
love them today as well.” You can’t ever be rid of the debt of love.
No, if you love someone on Tuesday you still owe it to God to love them
on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday... They may not deserve it, but you still
owe it. After all, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were
still sinners, absolutely undeserving, Christ died for us.”
Commanded to Love
Sometimes, deserve the exact opposite, maybe there’s someone you can’t stand, someone irritating or annoying or
unfair or worse, but the command of the Lord is to love. “Love one
another.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “Love your neighbour as
yourself.”
A vicar was preaching on this command to love your neighbour and one
old man in the pews whispered to the bloke next to him, “I’d like to see the
vicar love my neighbour.”
But that’s the point! Jesus even says, “love your enemy.” G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbours,
and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same
people.”
That quote from
Chesterton might be apt for the notice board outside our church! If you know
the history, our neighbours around All Saints’ haven’t always been enchanted about
having a busy and thriving church in their street.
Sometimes complaints we
receive, mostly about parking, are fair enough and we must hold our hands up,
apologise for thoughtlessness and do better.
Sometimes criticisms are
duplicated and circulated against us. At times they are unfair, exaggerated and
even malicious. The Lord says, “you owe it to show your neighbours
love.”
If
someone hits you and you don't hit them back, that is mercy. If someone hits
and you don't hit them back but instead say, “Look, forget it, I’m not going to
hold this against you,” that is forgiveness.
If
someone hits you and you don't hit them back but instead say, “I forgive you”
and then you treat them to a free coffee, that is grace. This is what God's
love for us is like, and this is what he calls us to emulate.
“Let
no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt [to God] to love one
another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”
I
bet most of us are not particularly excited about law. If I said, “Oh, HMRC have
just come out with a new tax code. This is very important, so every Sunday for a
couple of months, we’re going to study it in detail, including the footnotes
and small print!” How many of you would miss church?
Or
what if your boss said to you, “Head Office have just produced 100 new policies
and procedures, and we’re going to go over them line by line”? It’s not what
you want to hear is it?
We
are not excited about rules and laws. But in a nutshell, basically everything
God wants from us until the end of our days, can be captured in two simple
guidelines; love God with all you’ve got and love others. If you just do that,
you haven’t really got to sweat about the rest.
Jesus
said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the [rest] hangs on these two
commandments.”
And v9 just unpacks
that a bit, picking 4 of the 10 Commandments.
How do you respect the purity
of your neighbour’s marriage and sex?
How do you respect the sanctity
of your neighbour’s life?
How do you respect the boundaries
of your neighbour’s property and possessions?
The simple, one-word,
but complete answer is love. One commandment covers it all.
I
was at a wedding yesterday. It was Paul’s first wedding and it was a beautiful
occasion.
I
often say when I conduct a wedding that some couples find that, over time, the happiness
fades because they get married believing a myth. And the myth is that marriage
is like a beautiful box full of all the things they have longed for; love, companionship,
intimacy, romance, friendship etc.
But
the truth is, that marriage, at the start, is an empty box. It’s empty
so you have to put something in before you can take anything out.
There
is no romance in marriage; romance is in people, and people put romance into
marriage.
There
is no love in marriage either; love is in people, and people put love into
marriage. This is what love is about. It’s not Love Island.
Couples
have to choose and commit to a lifestyle of giving, loving and praising, to
keep the box full. If a couple takes out more than they put in, before long the
box will be empty and they wake up one morning wondering where the magic went.
This
truth about marriage is true for all relationships. The more we put into them
the more enriching they will be.
As we saw a couple of weeks ago in Romans 12.14, how should I respond to
people who pick on me? “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
Love your neighbour as yourself.
And in 12.20, what should I do if I hear that someone, who has been
attacking me, is in material need? “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him something to drink.” Love your neighbour as yourself.
As Christian parents, Kathie and I tried to train
our children to put into practice what Jesus said to love your enemies as well
as your friends. Once, our then 8 year-old son came home saying he was being
bullied at school. I was heartbroken for him - and seething inside – I could
have really lost it.
But I told our son what Jesus said about loving
people who aren’t very nice and then I took him to the sweet shop to cheer him
up a bit.
On the way there, I had an idea. I bought two
packets of nice sweets, gave my son one pack, and then I said to give the other
one the next day to the kid who was picking on him at school. So, he did. The
kid was totally amazed, it melted his heart, and he later became our son’s
friend.
Ending
As I close, and as we go into prayer ministry, I want to share with you four
brief stories from Burundi that I was sent in an email yesterday. Today, 702
young people from all over the world are going out to 35 different places in that
country and it’s the love of Christ that compels them to go. Here are some testimonies
from the last few trips.
In Gisoro, a madman terrorised a whole village, wandering around for
years with a machete. A team came and prayed for him, he was healed, and for
the rest of the two weeks’ outreach he went around with them testifying to the
power of God at work in their lives.
One team found a girl who hadn’t been able to walk or be upright for six
months. The mother wouldn’t let them preach, saying she’d only listen if God
healed her daughter. They prayed and told her to get up. She stood. They prayed
further and her trembling legs became strong, and she walked to church the next
day to praise God for her miracle, along with all those who were converted
watching the miracle take place.
A famous witch doctor called Makari from Isale received what he thought
were prospective ‘clients’ into his den. When our evangelists revealed their
identity, the power of God came on him and he fell to the ground. When he came
to, he sat and listened to their preaching. He believed in Jesus and asked them
to come back two days later when he would burn all his charms publicly. When
they returned, they found Makari had invited all his relatives and other
witch doctor friends. He declared before all of them that he had turned to
Christ, and proceeded to burn his charms. At that point our team preached and a
further fifty people decided to follow Christ! Makari is now a member of
Emmanuel church, along with his family.
17-year-old Aristide from Cibitoke was pronounced dead by the doctor,
who withdrew the drip and covered his body with a sheet. The mother started
weeping hysterically, and her cries drew the attention of our team nearby. One
of them came rushing in, and felt led to claim his life back from the dead.
After praying over the corpse, Aristide started breathing again, and he and his
mother promptly gave their lives to the Lord, along with another forty-one
people who witnessed or heard about what happened.
Let's pray...
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4 August 2019
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