SE101809
FINANCIAL MELTDOWN
1. SURVIVING IN CRISIS
It’s been about a year now since the economy went berserk. To review, this is how we got here:
- Historically low interest rates had people buying homes they couldn’t afford,
- This had banks leveraging all this new debt into incredibly risky investment schemes.
- It was all hunky dory as long as the economy was cooking along and home values were going through the roof.
- But then interest rates rose to slow this growth down
- Then people who couldn’t afford their home stopped paying.
Then a domino effect began…
- Banks got stuck with toxic assets
- Housing prices took a nose dive
- The combination meant huge banks went under
- Credit tightened up which
- Stopped a growing economy in it’s tracks.
- So our gov’t both Republicans and Democrats scrambled like mad to revive it with the now infamous BAILOUT plan.
Like a giant EKG machine applying 400 volts to a stopped heart, this BAILOUT is supposed to lift us out of a recession in the next year or two. But where did OUR money go exactly? And who will pay for all this bailing out?
It lead to some heated debate, and some gallows humor from late night hosts. Like Jay Leno who chimed in nightly:
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley told AIG executives -- this is what he actually said -- he said they should either quit or commit suicide. But I think that's plain wrong. I mean, why give them the option of quitting?"
Seth Meyers joined in:
"The federal government agreed on Sunday to provide an additional $30 billion to AIG. According to AIG, $15 billion will be used to build the world's biggest toilet, down which the other $15 billion will be flushed."
In this two week series, we want to hone in on this National Financial Crisis and how it applies to us, and see what godly wisdom there might be to help us deal with it from Christianity’s blue print: the Bible.
Next week, we’ll talk about what we can do now that we ARE here, and you’ll hear a compelling story from an AC3er like yourself who has been fully swamped by it… but let’s start not by studying the Symptoms of this crisis, but the Causes. WHAT GOT US HERE?
To do that, I want to use the story that Jesus told in Luke 15 famously called the Prodigal Son. In this story a man had a son who took his inheritance money, blew it on wine, women and song. But her repents and to his shock he’s welcomed and loved as his father kills the fatted calf to celebrate his return.
It’s a beautiful picture of grace, of God’s undeserved favor and forgiveness made available through Christ for all the penitent and the humble. Wow.
But let’s look at the young man’s attitude at the beginning of the story for some incredibly relevant lessons for us right now. Jesus says:
Luke 15:11-15 “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
I think we can see here a reflection of our own attitudes as a country and the true causes of our Current Crisis. SO let’s reflect on the Causes of his crisis :
1. OVER-IMPORTANCE OF WEALTH
• Lk 15:11-12 A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate…
Now think about this request. The son currently lives with the father. So all his needs are provided. He’s in rich relationships, he’s part of a secure environment. What doesn’t he have that he needs all this money for? The only thing he doesn’t have is control. Independence. So he seeks to get it by getting his inheritance money.
The dream of a lot of money represents the independence to control our lives. And because we value that above all things, we get caught up in risky things, risky investments. Why did we need that house that we could only afford if we took the
- no interest deal, or
- the adjustable rate, or
- the negative amortization?
o Why did we do it?
Friends, it was control. My heart will be at ease, because I’ll have (here’s the word) SECURITY. Now let me present a radical idea to you:
What if control of everything in your life shouldn’t be the highest value?
Jesus told the story one time of a man who was very successful. His investments seem to all be working out, but he needs more. Here’s the words Jesus put in his mouth: “I’ll build bigger barns!” He’s already been blessed, but if he just risks one more time, he’ll have complete control!
Luke 12:19
And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." Total security.
Ah, but then funny thing happens. He dies that VERY DAY. And that very night he stands before to given an account. Jesus took this opportunity to say, “Friend, life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions!” Does it matter more to be secure in this life or the life to come? What’s more important?
The Bible says, “good name is more desirable than great riches.” Now, ask yourself do you believe that? Oh, we all know the “right” answer, but I bet many of you said in your heart,
“Rick, I already have sterling character, what I don’t have is enough money!”
Really? What if you got your wish and got rich quick? What if you had gotten out of the market just before it plunged? What if you had sold your house when you had all that equity in it? What if you literally won a lottery payout?
For a lot of people, winning the lottery is not the American dream, it’s more like a nightmare, because they don’t have a good name. Evelyn Adams, won the New Jersey lottery not just once but twice (1985, 1986) to the tune of $5.4 million.
“Everybody wanted my money. Everybody had their hand out,” she says. “I never learned one simple word in the English language -- 'No.' I wish I had the chance to do it all over again. I can't go back now so I just go forward, one step at a time.” Living on food stamps.
Now hearing that, would you rather have money or a good name? Money without character is a 10 pound weight on a foundation of toothpicks.
Don’t cherish getting rich, friends. Earn all you can, but don’t cherish getting rich. The Bible says, it’s OVERRATED!
Ecc 5:12 People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich are always worrying and seldom get a good night's sleep.
The first cause of our crisis… putting too high a value on things and the security they bring.
2. INSTANT GRATIFICATION
• Lk 15:12 'I want my share of your estate now, instead of waiting until you die.' NLT
Notice the impatience. I want what I want and I want it now! If you look at compulsive gamblers here’s what happens. They get into financial trouble and they say, “that’s it, I’m no longer going to gamble.” But then they look at the debt they racked up or what they squandered they just get beside themselves at the hole they’ve dug and the time it’s going to take to fill it back it… and guess what?
They go back to gambling.
Because it’s the only thing they can think of to get them out of that hole quickly. They don’t want to be in debt, which is good, but they don’t want to fix the problem slowly. Friends, again, what’s going on there? It’s character stuff!
Let’s get honest… How many of us went through this: we sat down with the bank or a car dealer and they said “you can afford this IF we bump up this appraisal here, delay that interest rate there, forgo this down-payment here, beef up your income there, then abracadabra, “you’re in to this great house!” Or they said “congratulations you’ve extracted 20,000 out of your house!” You’re making money just living in it!
How many of us felt a tweak in that moment? I bet most of us, but we submerged it. Some of us said, “whoa, what’s the catch?” And the answer was,
“well there is no catch, my friend, AS LONG AS housing prices don’t go down. And come on, as if THAT’S ever going to happen!”
And we bit on that bait. Why?
- We trusted too much? Yes.
- The banks had too lax rules? Sure.
- The Gov’t kept interest rates artificially low for too long? Yes. All true.
o But somewhere in there, will we have the honesty to confess, there was something we wanted – and we didn’t want to wait. For that house, or for that thing that our house, like a giant ATM, would pay for.
It seemed too good to be true. And like most things that seem that way, it was! Really, something for nothing? Free money? Unlimited growth? As a result, we redefined normal, in terms of expectations.
- It’s normal to have what your neighbors have.
- It’s normal to use credit cards and never plan to pay them off.
- It’s normal to live now at the level it took your parents 25 years to reach.
Let me challenge high school or college students: learn to be content right now. Can I just tell you something straight up?:
you’re going to be poor for a while. It’s OK.
When I was 21 and newly married, I made a few hundred bucks a week. We lived in an apartment which, we did know at the time, but was a big drug place. A Police officer friend say’s it’s affectionately called
“pot villa.”
My wife and I went to college and ate a lot of mac-n-cheese. I had so much of that processed, artificial cheese in my blood my skin turned orange. On the bright side, at least I matched the lovely orange curtains we had, which matched the pink carpet beautifully! And one more thing, we had, are you ready?
- We were happy!
- Yes, we love each other more now, and we’ve grown in Christ a lot
o but our increased joy has NOTHING whatsoever to do with increased square-footage.
The Bible says:
1 Ti 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
That’s the REAL lottery!
So, the cause of our crisis,
- we value getting rich too much,
- we want instant gratification and third, as a direct result of #2, we engage in
3. SELF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR
• Lk 15:13 A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money on wild living.
This kid piles heaping tons of abuse on himself. And his self abuse costs him a ton of money. The Bible says sinful behavior is pleasurable in the short run, but harmful to us, and to God and to others in the long run AND it costs a lot of money! Sin is expensive!
Think about how much money we squander, though self-destructive behavior? Think of
- the money doled out by people who can’t control their drinking.
- The money doled out to those who have a drug habit.
- Think of the billions flushed down pornography sites.
USA Today did a survey. Guess how much money is lost annually in Las Vegas? 17 billion dollars! Did you know that average Americans spend $1,100 on lottery tickets a year, which is almost twice as much as they do in charitable giving. This is not to mention junk food, chew, and other things that are harmful to our bodies.
- Most smokers could take a full cruise vacation every year if they quit smoking and saved that money instead.
The Prodigal Son probably should have memorized:
Pr 23:20-21 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
How many of us wondered where God was in this financial crisis? We blame him, we cry out to him, we make him responsible. But the Bible says:
Prov 19:3 “A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.”
Is that you? Would you have the courage today to take responsibility for you part in whatever crisis you may be facing today? To say a decisive, “mea culpa!” My fault. It’s the first step to getting out of the crisis… Confession.
So our crisis is caused by
- Wanting to get rich quick
- Lacking patience
- Self destructive tendencies AND
4. SPENDING MORE THAN WE TAKE IN
• Lk 15:14 About the time his money ran out.
The Prodigal lived out Pr 19:4 “Wealth makes many "friends"; poverty drives them away.” And he also found out that debt is never, EVER about bad math skills is it? The question is not, how come I can’t balance my checkbook. It’s why can’t I stop buying stuff?
There was a game show in the 90’s called “Debt” hosted by Wink Martindale. Contestants would arrive with between $6,000 and $10,000 in debt—from credit cards, student loans and car loans—and they’d answer pop-culture questions to climb out of debt. So, instead of taking home TV’s or bedroom sets, players got the chance to win up to twice what they owed.
When asked why there were no prizes on the show, Martindale said:
“The contestants already have the prizes – that’s why they’re here…”
Jesus said,
Luke 12:15 "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;"
So the crisis is caused by
- getting rich being too important
- instant gratification
- self destructive behavior
- spending more than we have and…
5. BEING UNPREPARED FOR THE STORMS OF LIFE
• Lk 15:14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
Wouldn’t you know it… when his money runs out is just the time that an external crisis hits: FAMINE. Right when your transmission drops and your mortgage rate goes up, the market turns and you get laid off.
True story: Suzanne Mullins won $4.2 million in the Virginia lottery in 1993. Today she's deeply in debt to a company that lent her money using the winnings as collateral. She borrowed $200 grand, which she agreed to pay back with her yearly checks. WHY did this lottery winner need extra money?
She blamed the debt on the lengthy illness of her uninsured son-in-law.
What could she have done? Things happen you can’t control, but what you can do is PLAN . I’m going to go into detail about this next week in Extended, let me point out today that most of the people I meet have no real financial plan. But God says:
Pr 21:5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.
Crisis chases us into hasty shortcuts. An ABC news poll revealed 1 in 4 Americans, believe that their best chance to build wealth for retirement is by playing the lottery. Other people have a morbid financial strategy – you’re just waiting for somebody to die. It’s true! Some of us have done the math on old uncle so and so, and he’s due to kick the bucket – that’s all the planning you need.
Friend, that’s not a plan. Part of this crisis is that we didn’t think it would ever come. But our Grandparents did*. Because they know storms always come. Why aren’t we prepared for them? It’s a mentality that says, there’s time, it’ll all work out.
CONCLUSION
So friends, the first step to survive the CRISIS is know how we got here.
- The hyper importance of wealth building, when wealth is far less valuable than character is!
- The entitlement mentality of instant “gotta have it now” gratification.
- The self destructive habits that tank our lives and relationships
- The spending habits that reveal hearts that are insecure and shallow.
- The chaos that comes when crisis or emergency hits because we have no plan.
It’s going to take some advanced decisions to live in the wisdom of God’s money management strategies. And that’s how you survive. We’ll be talking about that next week. But I want to ask you all a sobering question:
- why are you so ready to surrender your freedom?
Do you realize what God did so you could be free? He sent his son to release us of all the fear that binds us up, the sin that condemns us, the hopelessness that assaults us. People who want what Jesus has to offer –they take that up, and say thanks for that freedom you purchased for me on this blood stained Cross… But here’s what I notice: almost in the very next breath, they say,
- but God, I’d like to give some of this freedom back in my finances. I want to be free in my spirit, forgiven, child of God, destiny in heaven, member of the holy, cherished community of saints…
o but I’m OK letting old lies tie me up with the over-importance of money,
o with having things so that I jack my life all around with debt and self destructive behavior to get it…
- I mean, you sent your Son to quench all my fear God, but I’d rather still live afraid.
o Afraid of not getting some stuff and what it will mean for my comfort
o Afraid that if I don’t get it now, my life is over.
o Afraid of storms that will come because I reject your wisdom and leadership.
You were made for FREEDOM. Don’t turn down any of this rich gift of God’s grace!
