Two Pitfalls that Promise Poverty
Live Life Well • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome everyone!
Great Bible Trivia Wednesday
I was so impressed by the answers, the amount of preparation and study that people put into this. Made me so proud!
I hope that the book of Revelation is becoming more clear to you
Anyone memorize a Proverb this week?
MINE: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.”
OPENING PRAYER
Lord, would you help us today to see the greatness of Your wisdom? Would you help us to put our worldly ways of thinking away and replace them with your ways. And would You help us to come to Your Word today as a life giving substance that is worthy of our complete devotion. We ask that you would not only give us understanding, but help us to apply these truths directly to our lives and be faithful to this Word today. Amen.
Sermon Introduction
We are continuing a series through the first 9 chapters of proverbs tithed: LIVE LIFE WELL. And today we are going to discuss two issues that lead to money problems wise people are urged to avoid.
The two issues relating to money are “securing another’s debt” and “laziness”. The question I pondered was why Solomon chose these two specific two topics? It seems like wasting money on senseless things would be better. Or that the borrow is a sleeve to the lender. But here God has moved Solomon’s heart to warn against becoming collateral for another’s debt and becoming lazy.
Money is a very important part of life. It is important if you follow Jesus and it is important if you do not follow Jesus. We need everyday to make it in life. And God knows that! And contrary to some people’s thinking, God does not want you to live a life in poverty! Now God May use poverty if it is necessary to humble us so that we grow in our faith, but God does not want us to be poor so long as it does not hurt us spiritually. How do I know that? Because God blessed Solomon when he asked for wisdom and gave him riches.
But money, like anything else can be used foolishly causing us to suffer or wisely allowing us to Live Life Well. Now if you’ve even been poor, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Life is hard when you’re broke! Life is stressful when you do not know how yo will pay your bills every month! Marriage is far more difficult when finances are tight! Ao God has given us much wisdom about how to be wise stewards of our finances and not all into poverty.
The first half of chapter 6 gives us 2 pitfalls wise people avoid when it comes to money. These are not suggestions, they are divine wisdom from God Which means we must take them to heart and obey them!
Pitfall 1: Taking responsibility for another person’s debt
Pitfall 1: Taking responsibility for another person’s debt
My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, Have given a pledge for a stranger, If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth, Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids; Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
What does it mean to “become a surety”? He is talking about taking responsibility for another person’s debt or making a pledge to pay another person’s debt if they default on a loan.
How does this happen today?
The most common way we see this today is by co-signing for a loan someone else. A co-signer is doing is making a legal agreement that they will be responsible for that debt if that person doesn’t make the payments.
Another way is by getting into a business deal with someone that puts you at a great risk financially if your partner defaults
Another way would be to bail someone out of jail, put up a house or a large amount of money on their word that they will follow court orders.
This is unwise is because the person who takes this financial responsibility puts their own financial future at stake
At any point during the duration of that loan, that person could stop paying payments, that person could die, that person could destroy the property that the loan is for, and then force you to pick them up and pay for them.
Whats even worse is the co-signer does not have the right tot take possession of the item even if they are having to pay the payments on it.
Doing this puts that person in bondage for the entire duration of the loan.
It is also unwise because the co-signer puts himself in bondage until the loan is paid in full!
(v 2) “If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth”
Think about this:
Someone comes up to you and wants to buy a car but they cannot get a loan for themselves for whatever reason. And they ask you to co-sign on a 5 year loan.
Suppose you have compassion towards them, sign the loan as a co-signer, and now every single month for the next five years you have a worry if that person is going to make that payment.
And just imagine that payment is $250 and if they default and you have to pay it, then you are going to struggle financially because you are struggling to make ends meet now.
Also co-signing does not make you partial owner of the vehicle. The vehicle still belongs to the primary signer, you are simply footing the bill.
In most cases, if a grown adult cannot get a loan on their own, it is probably because they have defaulted on loans in the past or their finances are too risky for a bank to give them the money.
If it is too risky for a bank who is receiving a substantial amount of interest off of the loan, then it is certainly too risky for us too.
Co-signing is not a commendable act, it is irresponsible.
Doesn’t this go against the principle of generosity taught in Proverbs?
NO. Generosity is helping someone out if they have a need AND you have the extra to help them.
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in your power to do it.
Generosity is not going to put yourself in financial danger because you cannot give what you do not have!
God does not expect you to give what you do not have.
God CERTAINLY does not want you to gamble the next 5, 10, 15 years if your life at the hands of a friend or even a stranger.
The only time this MAY BE ACCEPTABLE is within the boundaries of the home and Ill explain why:
The two people addressed here are the neighbor (a friend) and the stranger (anyone outside the family).
Parents today often co-sign for their children because the child cannot get a loan on their own without credit.
Why would this be acceptable? Because the child lives at home under that parents authority. IF the child does not make the payment, the parent can take the car. If the child quits their job, the parent can take the car and sell.
Parents use discretion here:
I would never co-sign for a child who is financially irresponsible.
What if its too late and we have already done this?
(v 3) “Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.”
In other words go to the person who you have signed for and beg to be released from that person’s debt.
Ask them to refinance the loan and get it out of your name.
Ask them to to go to a finance company if need be and get your name freed from that debt.
Ask them to sell the item and pay off the note so that your name can be freed from that responsibility and bondage!
Pitfall 2: Laziness
Pitfall 2: Laziness
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,
The word “sluggard” makes us think of a slug that is slow moving or idle.
A sluggard is someone who is habitually lazy…and according to proverbs lazy people are unwise.
Instead is us deciding what we are, let’a see how God defines a lazy person and use that as a mirror into our own lives.
A lazy person hates work: “The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work” (Prov 21:25)
A lazy person loves sleep: “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed” (Prov 26:14)
A lazy person loves to give excuses: “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets’” (Prov 26:13)
A lazy person wastes time and energy: “He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great waster” (Prov 18:9 KJV)
A lazy person believes he is wise, but is a fool: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly” (Prov 26:16)
A lazy person will always be a servant: “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor” (12:24)
A lazy person becomes a beggar: “The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.” (Prov 20:4)
Laziness leads to poverty: “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”—Your poverty will come in like a vagabond” (Prov 6:12)
All of us have the temptation to be lazy at times, BUT WISE PEOPLE KNOW HABITUAL LAZINESS IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH A GREAT LIFE!
WHAT DO WE DO IF WE SUFFER FROM THE SIN OF LAZINESS?
We go and learn wisdom from the ant and become wise!
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.
“Go to the ant”
Go, stoop down over an anthill and observe her ways.
Watch what an ant does
Study her characteristics
Think about its lifestyle
People say, that’s insulting!
But the ant is only wise because God has made it wise
And the Bible says all wisdom given to creation comes from God
So whether we learn wisdom from an ant or from the Bible, it all comes from God and is worth having!
Two things observations here that make an ant the teacher of a sluggard:
The ant is self-motivated
The ant plans ahead for the future
And if you have a sluggard inside of you, take notes
1) The ant is self-motivated
(v 6-7) “observe her ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer, or ruler”
If you have ever watched an ant, you will notice they never stop moving
They are constantly walking around, moving dirt, carrying food
You never see an ant sitting down watching other ants work
And you never see a cheif ant making the other ants work
The queen ant does not give out work orders in the morning and drive the ants with a whip
It builds its house without orders or commands
It does everything by its own free will.
A sign that we have gotten lazy, gotten apathetic is the fact that we do nothing when no one is driving us
When the boss is gone away we play
When the husband is gone, the house goes untouched
When there are is no one there to hold us accountable, we lay around and waste the day
I took a couple mission trips to the Dominican a few years ago
When I was in the Dominican a siren went off everyday around 1 or 2 pm over the whole city
We asked the guy hosting us what this was and He said that signaled siesta time
So Dominicans would eat lunch at 12 and then siesta for an hour before going back to work
Everyone in the city stopped but the ants
And everyone in the city would have their h
An ant is self-motivated
He needs no laws to work, even with all the freedom in the world, he knows what has to be done and does it!
This kind of discipline comes from the inside INSTEAD of from the outside
It takes inside discipline to work and stay on task when you do not have to!
The difference in the sluggard and the wise man is inside discipline.
He tells the flesh what to do, not the other way around
It doesn’t matter if his body says its tired, he commands his body to get up and get going
It doesn’t matter if his body says he doesn’t feel good, he commands his flesh to go out and get to work
It doesn’t matter if his mind discourages him that all his work is for nothing, a wise man commands the flesh to go
He has goals
He has objectives
He has purpose
And for that he will avoid self-inflicted poverty
The person who needs an outside source of motivation will most likely always serve someone else
He will always work for others, he will never be the Chief because without inside discipline he does nothing
Be the person who has that inside discipline who has no need of a chief, and what you will learn is you will become your own chief
2) The ant is future oriented
(v 8) “Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.”
If you watch an ant, they will spend all summer working
He spends his time searching for food and storing it
He spends his free time building his house
It doesn’t matter how hot it is
It doesn’t matter how tired he is
But you’ll never see an ant above ground in the middle of winter
Why? Because they will die!
They go down deep into the ground, all huddle together, insulated by the dirt, protecting the queen, and waiting until spring to do it all over again
Why is it that an ant works so hard during the summer?
Because he knows winter is coming when he cannot work.
He is no fool, and even as small and simple a creature an ant is, he is always preparing for the future and making sure he has enough to get through
One of the most foolish things we can do is fail to prepare for the future
There is going to come a time in your life when you cannot physically work anymore
And if you have not been wise like the ant, you are going to find yourself in poverty
And it happens all the time
I see people who live on SS which is not enough to live on and suffer the last 20% of their life because they failed to plan for the future
I see people who are my age and have no idea what they are going to do for retirement and they only have about 25 years left to work
When I was 23 years old I got a job at a factory
And I met a guy there that was wise financially
And he encouraged me strongly to start putting away money into a 401K account for retirement
The last thing a 23 y/o is thinking about is retiring, or having money to retire
But I did, and as I grew older I put in more and more
And now I’m halfway there and so thankful I started that at a young age and will be prepared for the time when I can no longer work
People who are not future oriented are destined for poverty!
The fool dismisses the idea of saving for the future by saying “everything will work out!”
The fool says, “I will work until I die”.
The fool says, “I will find someone to take care of me!”
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.” (James 4:14)
The Bible says this will be the future of the one who disregards God’s wisdom:
How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”— Your poverty will come in like a vagabond And your need like an armed man.
How long will you lie down? When will you arise from your sleep
Remember Proverbs teaches discipline by providing the consequences of our choices
The consequences here are clear:
Poverty comes to those who are lazy
Poverty comes to those who do not prepare for the future
Poverty comes unexpectedly
“Your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man”
Poverty is not the absences of riches, it is the absence of the necessities of life:
Poverty means poor, oppressed, in circumstances beyond their control
And it will come suddenly and unexpectedly!
Like a vagabond who has no home and wanders about aimlessly looking for its next victim, it almost always finds the sluggard
Like when a thief or an armed man BUT THIS TIME COMES WITH FORCE!
He plans to break into the house with violence and even bloodshed when that family least expects it!
So does poverty to the sluggard
Two closing points:
This is not a sermon mean to put anyone down. It is a sermon series about how to wise and life life well.
Let me encourage you with this: no one is born wise or becomes instantly wise.
They learn wisdom as they go, learn from mistakes and hardships, apply that wisdom, and then reap the fruit of wisdom later on.
If these pitfalls are a part of your life, learn wisdom and apply wisdom and then praise God for the wisdom He gives.
This is also not a sermon about how to get rich, or how to be wealthy. Getting rich must never be the goal for a child of God.
I want you to hear again my Proverb from this week from Proverbs chapter 30….and this has been my prayer for a long time
Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.
I think that is the middle ground we should all seek when it comes to money
One who makes it his life ambition to be rich is sure to shipwreck his faith. He will become like the rich young ruler who loved his money more than God.
Jesus said Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
On the other extreme side of that is living in poverty which is also undesirable and makes life very hard!
For the one who uses his money foolishly and becomes impoverished often results to sin to meet his needs.
Either by stealing of some form
Or by manipulating others to some degree to meet his needs
Or by getting other to pledge his loan and then not being able paying it back
Or by using others to get his way through life
Any of these would cause us to profane the name of our God….THAT IS to profess Jesus yet dishonor him with sinful ways
Here is the right path for the wise:
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
If you will seek God first, not pursing riches and not being foolish with money, God will make sure your needs are always met
And even better than that, you bring glory to His name
~PRAYER~
