Biblical Counseling

We went through about a seven-week series on marriage counseling, and one of the things we did there is kind of refer you to other resources, because the truth is we could spend a whole lot more time on it. What we're doing is a two-week spot. This is two weeks' worth of material you've got in your hand here. A two-week spot on financial counseling, and the truth is that that's another one of the same category. You could spend much more time on it.

One of the reasons why we attack it where we do is because frequently the financial counseling while it can fit people in all sorts of different situations, it's frequently a marriage issue. One of the things we've not brought up at all is divorce and I don't think in this class we'll have a chance to get to it. I think our main approach has been let's prevent it rather than spend time becoming experts on it.

Well, I'll just offer this little statistic, and that is that for those who get divorces, money, at least as a symptom, is involved in about 90% of divorces. It's a significant factor. And I don't mean just arguing over the money when you get the divorce. I'm talking about contributing to the divorce, the tension over monetary issues is a significant contributor to divorce proceedings. The best possible thing is to understand things ahead of time and to prevent the problem rather than to wait till all of a sudden things are crashing and burning. And then suddenly at that point to try to fix things. It's interesting.

Having gone through business school, it's funny, I had all sorts of financial classes and everything else. All that training I had in business school had almost nothing to offer in the way of help in terms of family finances. Almost nothing. And one of the reasons is because it's a bunch of business analytical tools but it doesn't give you biblical principles.

And that's where we would definitely like to head different here. What we're going to do is, first of all, let you know about and refer you to some material that's on the, it says HHVBC, I notice it should be HHBC, Holy Hills Bible Church website. There is, under the archive materials there, that link, if you type it in, is a pretty lengthy, crazy link. But it's under the archive materials and under finances, God's intent for your finances. And there's basically nine. audio sessions that correspond to what you see outlined there in the middle of the first page.

That now actually page 80 because we're continuing on with the page numbering series here now that we're starting the quarter. And so we have the introduction which we'll actually be including in today and the big picture Where are we now and why? Those we'll be proceeding with today and next week. The rest of the material is all material that we cover in audio form online there, and you can also get the entire printed material set from Sue, Nancy, or Sue Ellen.

They have it filed away nicely. I cover some really valuable topics there. You know, dealing with, for example, whose money is this? And living within your means, God's view of debt. I owe, I owe, so off to work I go. The ant principle, okay? Using money wisely. Is it spending less and having more? And then the things that count.

Kind of to wrap it all up and bring it together. Obviously, if you're going to really deal with somebody in any detail, you really do need to dig into those materials. What we're going to do is kind of deal with the spiritual front end of those, both in laying down what's true and also laying down the myths, the falsehoods. And actually, the timing on this could not have been better. As a nation, we have been seeing, as a nation, we've been going through rolling crises. I get a sense we're not done, okay?

Rolling crises, and one of the things we'll see in here, the savings rate for the United States, which some decades back was around 10%, is now about negative 2. So basically, Americans are just pitching their money overseas. We send it over to the Orient for our manufactured goods, and we send it over to the Middle East for our oil. And, you know, essentially, we have twin crises of energy costs and, you know, financial management.

Conflict we're having right now is predicted back in the 1950s. The financial crisis that, you know, has hit the headlines and hit everybody else in the nose in recent weeks and even in this last week, that's been boiling for a long time and the roots of this latest round started in the early 90s. I mean, this is all stuff that's been around for a long time. We're just in the perfect storm.

Now, in view of that, really having a perspective on things is going to be real valuable and important here. So anyway, for further pursuit and study, those audio files and the written files, highly recommended. There have been other materials available. Any of you aware of some of the other, you know, kind of Christian finance materials that have been available, different names of? Crown Financial Ministries. Crown Financial and with?

Larry Burkett. Yeah, Larry Burkett, okay, when he was around, yeah. And I had training under Larry Burkett's program. Any others you've heard of? There's another guy, I'm trying to remember his name, who is still alive and around. Can't remember his name offhand.

But here's been my impression listening and looking at a lot of the materials. A lot of it, while it's pretty good, there's one rather significant caution. An awful lot of it lacks a grace perspective, a lot of legalism, and a lot of just, you know, do this, do this, do this. and lacks an understanding of identification and therefore fails to give a really fully biblical perspective. So some of the different materials are out there. You can go to the Christian bookstore or even hear things over the radio and that kind of thing. Some of the materials that are out there might be good and might be useful. And I've talked to some guys that have used some of the materials.

The one caution is just, you know, be aware. Some of that stuff is pretty legal and some of it is sort of Christian how-to without giving you the Christian why and the Christian, you know, who are you and what's the reason for this. Okay. Anyway, with those cautions in perspective in advance here, Let's dig into this part that's titled Introduction. What God has in mind.

Money grabs almost everyone's attention. People tell jokes about it, yet take it seriously. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld observed this about society's approach to money. People relate to money and they gauge themselves by money. That's one thing. In our culture, what do we mean by people gauge themselves by money? Yeah, here's how I'm doing. I must be okay because, you know, and it's a funny thing, the savings rates gone down so frequently, it's how much stuff I have, you know. So we'll come back to that observation later here.

Some Christians have dealt with the apparent gravitational pull of money in worldly and fleshly directions by denouncing it. Money is just evil, right? So you'll hear that perspective. Others among Christendom have woven the gravitational pull of money as a material incentive into their teaching and doctrine. Where have you seen that or how have you heard that said among churches? You just, you cannot give the Lord, right? So that's why you need to put more money in the offering plate and the Lord will, you know, pay you back.

Is that the way? Yeah. That's the way it frequently is taught. And the funny one of the, it's almost like a comic. One of the guys on TV that you'll see that says that, his name is Crufflo Dollar. But, you know, and some of those guys make big bucks, you know, selling the prosperity gospel. You just, you know, do this and this and this, you make lots of money.

One of the teachings that I heard, I think a lot of this comes out of Bill Gothard and his teachings is you've got to give your 10%. And if you're not doing well, I mean, there's nothing about financial counseling. It's all about giving your 10%. And if you give your 10%, then you'll be fine. Everything else will work out. But you give your 10%. And if you have not been giving your 10%, you need to go and pay back what you haven't given in the past. And you're not going to be well off financially until you do that. You've got to pay the Lord back for what you haven't given Him in the past.

So that teaching goes along. And again, it's more law. We definitely won't be going that route here. What's interesting is the Lord, when He had His ministry in His first coming, spoke about money very often. And we've got to give some outlines here. When he told parables, he frequently, not always, but frequently used some aspect of money as the substance of the parable or the turning point. Even, of course, real critically here, you know, the lost coin or the prodigal son, you know, give me my inheritance and, you know, let me spend it.

The rich man and Lazarus. Pharisee and the tax collector. All those things. There's lots and lots of money. The cost of being a disciple. No servant can serve two masters. Lots and lots of parables and specific accounts dealing with money, where money is a central issue.

During the Lord's last week on earth, you say, okay, here he is, he's on the last days here on earth, and what does he do? He drives out the money changers from the temple, right? He told the parable of the vineyard tenants, basically dealing with how they're running it as a business. He talked about giving Caesar's money to Caesar and God's money to God that last week. And he told them that the widow's sacrificial offering there in the temple was greater than the offering of the rich from their surplus.

So it's interesting. Even in the Lord's last week, he touched on this money topic several times. What's interesting, if you look at all the places the Bible talks about money, it talks more about money than heaven and hell combined. Isn't that interesting? It really is fascinating, the focus.

But, what's real key to look at as we examine this is all the scripture is written for us here in the church, but only some parts are written specifically to us. In this regard, we find some key insights regarding the biblical principles about money to be found in the New Testament epistles written to the churches. So let's look at what some of these are. And the way we've done this is to lay them out as principles.

Principle number one, spelled out in Romans 8, 28, 29. For we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also foredestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. So the principle, top of the page 82 there, is God's intent, predestined for each believer, is to use the principles, circumstances, and constraints related to money to conforming us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

People think about money and, of course, always having enough of it and having the flow of money and all that. But the key thing spiritually to look at here is the Lord intends to use money as part of those all things work together to conform us to the image of Christ. And that's key.

Have you heard of anybody having money problems? Ever hear about that? Money problems. You've heard that, right? Now, alright, here's a five. It's got one of those cock-eyed, you know, new dollar bills with Lincoln's off-center. I don't know why they put them crooked, but anyway. Alright, so here's a five dollar bill. Is this $5 bill causing anybody any problems? Cheryl, is this bothering you? No, okay. Do you have any trouble with this, John? No? Okay, I'll make sure. I'll speak to it if you have any trouble. Anybody else have any trouble with it? No? No? Okay, I didn't think so. You see, people really don't have money problems. Only when they're out of debt.

Yeah, that could be a problem, couldn't it? The money is really not the problem. Money is really, you know, dealing with it is really more of a symptom. And spiritually speaking, I mean, all the focus on money, all the focus on money in our society, certainly in the headlines in this last week, all this focus on money, and of course compared to 700 billion, I guess this is pretty small, But with all the focus on money, you look at it biblically, and the Lord's intent is to use this to conform us to the image of Christ. Here is this thing called money, and we have this idea of people having money problems. The reality is nobody has a money problem. They've got other problems, and it shows up in the money.

It shows up in relationship to money. And so that's a key thing for us to see. What's God's perspective on this stuff? And how does God see it versus how does the world see it? Because the world is not going to give us the perspectives we're going to see here. Let's look at this next principle. Principle number two.

Starting at 1 Corinthians 6 there, 19, do you not know that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price? Or the very next chapter, 1 Corinthians 7, you are bought with a price. The next principle here is you are not your own, we are not our own, we have been bought with a price. Since we are not our own but are Christ's slaves, then neither is the money received into our hands our own, but the Lord's. Paul the Apostle makes application of this principle in regard to glorifying God in our bodies and recognizing that we are Christ's slaves, having been bought as his possession. It follows then, based on Paul's logic, that if we're not our own, that's the general principle, that neither is the money which God has given into our hand for a time ours to own either.

It's entrusted to us, isn't it? See, from the world standpoint, of course, this money didn't, you know, if I have it, it's mine, right? But for a lot of what we do, we have like our name on an account. It'll be checking, savings, whatever it is. We'll have our name on an account and our name is attached to that. But really, it's entrusted to us. We use it for a time. How many people get to keep it? Take it with them. What's that? Hardly get to see it. Yeah, hardly get to see it.

I heard this one account, this fellow had made special arrangements with the Lord that when he was finally done with this life that he'd get a special exception and could take, you know, half a dozen gold bricks with him into heaven. And so, you know how the typical story goes, you get there to the gates of heaven and for some reason Saint Peter gets appointed to be there. You know how the story goes.

Anyway, so here this guy comes up with a briefcase full of bricks. And, you know, gold bricks, solid gold. And he comes up and, of course, there's nobody else coming in with a briefcase full of bricks. As a matter of fact, not a briefcase full of anything.

And so this is a rather notable exception. And what's this? And the guy says, I got special permission from the Lord that I could bring these gold bricks in with me. Oh, well, that is exceptional, you know. Let's take a look there. And they open up the briefcase, and sure enough, just a half dozen gold bricks. I guess you can take it in here. I can't see a problem with it. But I don't know why you want to take chunks of pavement in here.

The reality is our whole perspective on it is, you know, to try to look at this thing and consider it real valuable when you walk through heaven's gates and this is a common place, right? Now, principle number three here is in Romans 12, 1 and 2. Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. or 1 Thessalonians 4.3, for this is the will of God, your sanctification. The principle that we draw from that is the biblical use of money and our approach to it are founded in a biblical understanding of God's will.

What is God's will? To understand the godly use of money, we must understand what God's will is and is not. Because really, you think about money, Let's ask this. What's God's will about money? Does God have a will for money? This is God's will that you save this percentage. This is God's will that you give this percentage. This is God's will that you give it all to Bertha?

No. Does God have a will about money? God's will is really focused on you, isn't it? And as much as the Bible talks about money, and we've made note of that, as much as the Bible talks about money, the real focus is not on the money. the real focus is on the believer.

And God's will has to do with the heart and mind of the believer first and foremost. We've talked previously about God's will in this elective as we've gone through, and I think that was about last May. Covered it for four weeks here. I'm going to look at the middle paragraph there. Put simply, God's first and primary will is that we believe in and behold His Son, Jesus Christ, through His Word. God provides scriptural parameters and principles to direct us in the context of the choices in daily life, money matters included.

In those instances where making the right choices at a specific fork in the road does indeed matter to God, He will either Already providing the guidance in scripture will make it clear that one path is his will and not another. But that's actually going to be rare. If he's not providing scripture, he will certainly make it clear for the believer who wants to see it. But his need to do so is going to be unusual.

How are we going to deal with money with respect to God's will? Remember the things we talked about. There are things in which God is sovereign and He's dictated certain things to be. Does money have anything to do with any of those things? For example, you have been identified with Christ. as a believer. Is that going to change? Nope. Is money going to impact it? Nope.

The things that are sovereign are not money issues. Secondly, there's God's moral will. Those things are laid out in Scripture. Does money have to do with that? Yeah. Now, there are things about money, and that's something that is spelled out in Scripture. One of them is not to have a love of money, not to be in love with the stuff. That's one of the principles, but there are a number of others. And then there's God's individual will.

Does that matter with respect to money? See, you are individually going to have to make choices about money, aren't you? But it's understanding the biblical principles that makes the decisions about what to do with that money a whole lot more clear. Although it doesn't spell out the same thing for each one of us, does it? Okay, let's look at principle number four, spelled out beginning in Romans 6 there, 614.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 2 Corinthians 3, 5-8. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of the new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of the space, fading as it was, how the ministry of the Spirit failed to be with even more glory? The principle we have spelled out here is the law given to Israel through Moses and the manner in which God has dealt with and will deal with Israel is not the same as its manner of dealing with believers of this age. Why do we bring that up? Why would we bring up that point in dealing with money here? Why does that matter?

Many of the promises for Israel are earthly promises, earthly blessings. In the church, we have heavenly promises. One has to do with location. Earthly versus heavenly. Does that mean money is earthly, therefore we don't touch the stuff? No, but it does have to do with where is our hope, where is our identity, where is God promised for us? So there's a distinction there. What else? What other difference do we see in Scripture between Israel and the Church here?

Well, one's long, one's grace. Oh, okay. Well, does that make a big difference? I should say! Yes, big difference. The tithe, giving of one-tenth, by the way, that wasn't all that the Jews gave, but the tithe, giving of one-tenth, which went to the tribe of Levi, and by the way, that wasn't even all for the temple, but for the temple service that they gave, they gave more than that. Depending on your income, Jews typically would give somewhere around 25 to 33 percent of their income. to things having to do with the temple and the priests and that sort of thing. Maybe that's where our government gets the higher figures. Yes, they get the higher figures.

Now, so let's get back to it. With law, why is that actually a problem for the Christian to try to live under the law when it comes to money? We're not under law. Okay. All right. And so what difference does that make? It makes you focus on the money rather than the Lord. Okay. The law puts your focus on the money. Okay. There was a, well, I'll get there.

One of the things, the law tends to look at, you know, what's the right number? What's the right number? And the attitude is often, what's the right number so that I can pay this and make the Lord happy? Or what's the right number so that I can pay this and the Lord will leave me alone? Pardon me. Yeah, how much to buy the Lord off here? So if I put in this amount, God won't bother me.

Isn't that frequently what the law looks at? If I put in this percentage, then I'm good. If I put in this other percentage, then I'm not good. And the law puts the focus on my resources and what I do and on the money and things here on planet Earth. Oh, isn't it interesting? Yeah. Not necessarily the money, but it's what was good for me. Yeah, and it comes back to how I feel about it.

And that was the point that I was going to make. There was these two boys who were in church and they kind of made it a hobby to sit near so they could watch this fellow who they knew was quite well off put his money in the offering plate. And after some weeks of watching him very carefully, I mean studiously, after church one time they kind of pulled him aside and they said, well, we noticed that you only put a dime in the offering plate every week. And we know you're worth a whole lot more than that. How come you're only putting a dime in?

And he says, well, the Lord loves a cheerful giver and that's all I can cheerfully give, you know. What it amounts to is that giving out of the law ends up, the focus is on me, the focus is on, you know, I've got to do this, and what does it take for me to give, percentage-wise, in order for me to be in right standing with God. And the focus is all on me and the money. It's like Wayne's point here. And even, as I've had some people express it, how much do I have to pay to get God off my back? What's the buyout to get Him to leave me alone?

Instead of the biblical principle, as we end up covering in a subsequent chapter, a biblical principle is instead that the giving is between you and the Lord. The Lord indeed loves a cheerful giver, but it's a giving out of one's relationship to the Lord. That's where it starts. And the focus then is where? In the relationship with the Lord, and not on the calculator. Now, let's take a look at the next one, Principle 5, Colossians 3, 1-5.

Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

The first Timothy 3 passage that we quote next here, an overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, etc. Free from the love of money is the way that finishes off. First Timothy 6, later on that same book, for the love of money is a root, not the root, a root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. And one that we'll look at in our main service here this morning, Hebrews 13, 5, make sure that your character is free from the love of money. being content with what you have, for He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." The Bible talks about money a great deal. We've made that point.

Not because it is eternal or spiritual, but because our perspective on money springs directly from our place of spiritual dependence. Got that? Our perspective on money springs directly from our place of spiritual dependence. That's the underlying question, isn't it?

And by the way, does the Lord have an opinion on that? Your place of spiritual dependence? Oh yes, very much. What's his opinion? What's the Lord's perspective on that? On spiritual dependence? What does He think? Yes? Rely only on Him. Yeah, rely on Him. Look to Him.

And this is foundational. And that's one reason why we want to start at this place, not just, okay, here's the rules, do this with your money and do that, and here's the how-to. But we want to get, what's God getting at with this whole money thing? It's these fundamental spiritual perspectives on things. And getting those in place first, and realizing that just law and how-to isn't going to get you there.

Realizing that the real question is, see, you know what money is all about? Money is all about What's going to happen when there isn't any? When we're beyond this? That's what money's all about. You see, in the end, does money matter? Yeah, it matters.

But in the end, we're not going to be here with money. We're going to spend a whole lot more time away from here without money than we are here with the money. So really, as much as the Bible talks about money, The big issue is what comes afterwards. And the money is all about just getting ready for that. For that time when there isn't any money. And for that time when we're away from here. And we're with the Lord. Because that's what counts. So we spend all this time studying this stuff so that we don't have to deal with it.

Alright, one of the things we're going to be looking at next, next week, is looking at myths. Myths about money. Now why would it be important to talk about myths about money? Yeah, things that aren't true. Things that we're told that aren't true. And it's important to get those dealt with because essentially the world is working real hard to perpetrate the myths. To sell us on these things that are supposedly true but are simply not. And it is key to get those falsehoods out of our mind because that causes people to behave in certain ways. Even Christians.

One of the things we mentioned earlier, the savings rate in the United States is about minus 2% is the latest figure. So we're digging a hole. That's the average savings rate in the United States, minus 2%. And it has fallen precipitously. And as far as I can tell, it's still falling. That's the latest check. Savings rates declining. The debt is a percentage of disposable income going up here. People are up to their eyeballs in credit card bills paying 24 to 30 percent, often on some fairly significant amounts.

And why are they doing that? A lot of it is because they buy into the myths. They buy into the myths. And it's real critical that we get those myths pushed aside, because they're essentially telling us things, giving us values, giving us perspectives that are not true. They're the world's perspectives.

Several years back, my younger brother, who is Well, he's a pastor of a small church, and one of the things that that means is he does several things. He's a logger during the summer, and then once he's through logging, now he's raising turkeys until Thanksgiving. But anyway, he is a pastor, and he was invited to speak at Ukiah High School, which is the largest high school in the county, at their baccalaureate service. And one of the things that he spoke on was, 20 lies the world's going to tell you.

Okay? And those kinds of warnings are what we'll be looking at next here because the world is telling us lies. The world is selling us lies and spending billions of dollars doing it, by the way. Okay? And so we want to take a look at those next. Thoughts? Comments? Puzzlings? Exasperations? Yes? No? Okay, all right.

Lord, as we handle this big topic of money, and boy, we've seen in this last week, it's certainly grabbed people's attention. As we look at it, Lord, we look to you for wisdom, we look to you for your insights, and we thank you that you've made so clear what you have in mind. And not only have you made your intent clear, but you've spoken actually quite a bit of detail. And Lord, we just look to you to provide us wisdom and insight and understanding, not just to fill our heads, but that it might be applied to our lives as well. And we look to you to do just exactly that. In Jesus' name.