Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Our sincere apologies. Audio from this week's sermon is unavailable.

It’s week #2 of our series called, “Dear Money.” In this series, we are writing some very honest and very direct letters to our money.

Last week, we wrote the first and obvious letter to our money. Dear Money, where did you go?

Today, we’re writing another very common letter. Dear Money, bail me out!

My sister-in-law works for social services in Virginia. Every time I see her, she always has a new story to tell. Like the one about the woman who told her, “The government gives me everything for free.”

Or another woman who wondered if she could receive government assistance because her son stepped on a paper clip.

Or the lady that came into her office not too long ago to see if she would qualify for assistance. She hadn’t lost her job. Her income hadn’t dropped. Nothing had changed in her life at all. She just said, “I was just wondering if I could get some money from the government now because of Obama’s new rules.” My sister-in-law smiled and said, “Those new rules haven’t hit my desk yet. Sorry.”

It seems like everyone is saying the same thing. Bail me out! Do you realize that just a few years ago, we didn’t even know what a financial bailout was? But now it’s used so much that the phrase that just rolls off the tongue.

In the second message of our Dear Money series, we’re going to talk about this very common message that people send to money. “Dear Money…bail me out!”

One night when I was in college, my roommate got a phone call. It was his girlfriend, so he was naturally on the phone for a while. These two had been having problems, so when I heard the direction that this conversation was taking, I split. I walked into a buddy’s dorm room and said, “Janeil and his girlfriend are at it again.”

About an hour later, Janeil sulked into the room and announced to all of us that it was over. He and his longtime girlfriend had broken up. Well, being the sensitive guys that we were, we knew we needed to do something to help cheer our buddy up. But we were also broke college students. So we decided to just head over to Mt. Echo park. We always had a good time hanging out there and we thought a change of scenery would do him some good. The only problem was that it was about 11:00 at night. We didn’t think that was a problem at the time, but it was.

About a half hour later, we were sitting at the park talking, laughing, and trying our best to help Janeil feel better. All of a sudden, a Cincinnati police cruiser pulls up and spotlights us. This was not in the script that we had planned for the evening.

An officer walked up to us and said, “Do you gentlemen mind telling me what time a park closes in the city of Cincinnati?”

“Um…I have no idea, sir.”

He informed us that the park closed at dark. That’s when my roommate decided to get a little attitude with the officer. He was having a rough day and apparently he felt the need to take it out on a cop. This was not a good idea. We all told him to pipe down, but he kept on talking.

Finally, I pulled him aside and said, “Dude, I’m sorry about your break-up, but I’m not going to ride downtown in a police cruiser because of it. Now shut it!”

He finally quit talking, and after the policeman checked all our records, he warned us sternly not to do this again and escorted us out of the park.

A few days later, we visited the park again…this time in the daytime. And lo and behold, there was a big sign at the park entrance saying that the park closed at dark.

I couldn’t help but thinking that we got in trouble…and if my roommate had his way, would have visited a police station…all because we ignored one sign. We almost needed bailed out of police custody because we ignored a warning sign.

That’s pretty much how it works, isn’t it? We need bailed out when we ignore the warning signs. Financially, that’s almost always the way it happens. We get into trouble and need a bailout all because we didn’t pay attention to the signs.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4, “Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning.” (Ecclesiastes 4:13, NIV)

Here’s what you can take out of that verse. The more you have, the less inclined you are to pay attention to warnings. And when we ignore the warning signs, we set ourselves up for a lot of misery.

If you’re fishing for a bailout from the government or from a family member or a friend, how many warning signs did you ignore? I realize that there are times when stuff just happens. And if you need assistance because of things that were beyond your control, this isn’t for you. But honestly, that’s not the case very often. The majority of the time, there were warnings telling us that we were on a bad path…we just chose to ignore them. And now we’re in too deep and we can’t get out.

Let’s talk about some of the warning signs that God has given us. These are lies that are prevalent in our culture. But the Word of God exposes them and warns us not to buy into them.

Have you seen the DirecTV commercial where the guy says that DirecTV will change your life? It will change your life. That is actually their tagline. If I spend all this money to acquire DirecTV, it will change my life. That might be the most blatant case of over-promise and under-deliver that I’ve ever seen.

Some of you have DirecTV. And you probably like it. You’re probably happy with it. But did it change your life?

That’s just an over-the-top example of the lie that we are constantly fed. More stuff will make everything better. Spend the money to get it. If you don’t have the money, than use a credit card to get it. But however you do it, you’ve just got to get it. It will change your life.

And what happens every time? Disappointment and discouragement. The high that we get from our new stuff quickly fades away and we’ve got to get more new stuff to experience it again.

Remember what Christmas was like when you were a kid? You waited all year for it. Then, on Christmas morning, you ran down the stairs on tore open all your presents. You were surrounded by all this great, new stuff. But then, by about 3:00 that afternoon, you were already bored. Or, at most, by the time a week went by, you weren’t excited about your stuff anymore and you were already looking forward to next Christmas.

Really, not a lot has changed from childhood to adulthood. New cars get old. New clothes wear out. New phones are quickly replaced with a more advanced model. New computers are outdated as soon as you pull them out of the box.

When you worship at the altar of new, you’ve got to keep spending. You’ve got to keep acquiring. Otherwise, the high goes away.

That’s what the Bible is talking about in Ecclesiastes 5 when it says, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, NIV)

It’s meaningless. It’s pointless. There’s a simpler way. There’s a better way. The Bible calls it contentment.

Hebrews 13 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, NIV)

Now, it’s important to see what the Bible is not saying here. It doesn’t say to keep your lives free from money. It says keep your lives free from the love of money. That’s the big difference.

You can’t have too much money. But money can have too much of you. You can’t have too much stuff. But stuff can have too much of you.

The answer is contentment. Contentment is not some magical, mystical, elusive thing. It doesn’t get more practical than this.

Contentment is a decision. You decide to be content or you decide to not be content. But it is absolutely a decision you make.

If you’re not currently content with what you have, there is probably a simple reason why. You’re playing the comparison game. You’re comparing what you don’t have to what someone else does have. That is a game you can’t possibly win. It is a deadly game.

And if you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe God. He said in the book of Job, “Anger kills the fool, and jealousy slays the stupid.” (Job 5:2, NCV)

This is strong stuff. Look at the strength of the words here. Anger kills. Jealousy slays. In other words, it is deadly. These things will kill. Who do they kill? The fool and the stupid.

That’s a nice, feel-good verse, isn’t it? Far too often, Christians believe that the canvas of the Bible is painted with pretty pastels. It’s all flowery and nice. It’s meek and polite. It’s just good, nice, wholesome fun for the whole family.

Generally the people who believe that are the people who go to church but have never read the Bible. The Bible can be sarcastic. It can be offensive. It can be piercingly direct.

This is one of those times. This is serious stuff and the Bible doesn’t mess around here. When we get mad and resentful because someone has something that we don’t…when we are jealous and envious over what someone else has…it is foolish. It is stupid. It is deadly. It will put a fatal chokehold on contentment in your life. And if you’re not content, everything else falls apart.

That’s what the Bible says in James 3. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” (James 3:16, NIV)

When there is envy instead of contentment, the Bible says there is disorder. In other words, it just throws everything in your life into disarray. Nothing makes sense. There is no peace or joy. And when things get that out of whack, James says it leads to every evil practice.

When we lack contentment, we are wide open for sin to just pervade our lives. When we constantly lust for more…more money, more stuff…we set ourselves up as the god of our own lives. And we constantly have to get more to satisfy our god. It will destroy us from the inside out.

You will never, ever become the person God created you to be until you learn contentment.

What changes can you make to be content right now? What can you do today to begin bringing contentment into your life?

You talk about a lie that is pervasive in our culture. Money and stuff will fix whatever is broken in your life.

There’s an old Andy Griffth episode where a guy named Colonel Harvey comes into Mayberry selling what he called “elixir.” He said it was “a tonic, an elixir to purge the body and lift the spirit, to put a light in the eye and hope in the human heart.”

Turns out that this elixir was 85% alcohol. It got all the old ladies in town drunk and landed good ol’ Col. Harvey in jail.

You know the saddest part of that illustration? I did it from memory. I know WAY more about that show than any person should know.

But the point is that Col. Harvey is selling his elixir everywhere we look. If we just buy this, it’s going to cure everything that ails us. It’s going to fix all the brokenness in our lives. The only thing you need to be happy and whole is a little more. A little more money. A little more stuff. Just a little more and everything is going to be great.

If that was true, then shouldn’t celebrities who are multi-millionaires be the happiest people on the planet? Shouldn’t pro athletes be models of people who really have their act together?

Hmmm… Tiger Woods. Lindsay Lohan. Yep, I want to be like them. Don’t you?

I’m not trying to bash them. I’m just pointing out that all their money didn’t fix everything. Look, we are all broken people. They are broken people who happen to have money. And their money did nothing to fix their brokenness. If anything, it just magnified it.

That’s what money does. Money is a magnifying glass. It takes whatever is already in your character and magnifies it.

If you don’t believe me, take it from a guy who won $16 million in the lottery…and then lost it all. He said, “Winning the lottery is like throwing Miracle Grow on your character defects. Everything is magnified.”

More money is not going to fix you. More stuff isn’t going to make everything ok. For example, if you have a broken marriage when you’re broke, you’ll have a broken marriage when you’re rich. You can’t put that kind of hope in money and stuff.

Listen to what Job said in the book of Job. “If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,' if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high. (Job 31:24-25, 28, NIV)

Money is not going to fulfill you and it is not going to fix you. But some of us have ignored those warnings from God and have forged ahead on our own. And now, we’re in deep trouble. We’ve spent money we don’t have to buy things that we don’t need…and now we’re in way too deep. And we’re yelling and screaming for a bailout.

Here’s what God would say to you…before you get a financial bailout, you need a spiritual bailout. You need to recognize the brokenness that led to this mess. Because guess what? If you don’t deal with the root cause, then it’s eventually going to happen all over again.

Proverbs 22 says, “Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.” (Proverbs 22:4, NIV)

Break that verse apart and you get the prescription for a permanent bailout. This will bail you out of the foolish decisions and the sinful choices that led to your financial mess.

Humility is the first key. You’ve got to be humble enough to admit that there’s a problem. You’ve got to be willing to admit that you’ve done some pretty dumb things. You’ve made some bonehead financial decisions.

Brian Morrissey, our small groups and worship minister, has told this story before. When he was younger, he made some very bad choices with a credit card. And it haunted him for years. He and his family were just able to buy a house a couple of years ago. It took a very long time for his past credit mistakes to be removed from his record.

But the thing is that Brian owned up to it. He has stood on this stage and said, “I made some incredibly bad decisions.” He didn’t look for a bailout. He didn’t try to blame somebody else. His decisions were his decisions. He owned them. He learned from them. He will never repeat them.

That’s how a humble person responds. That’s why the Bible lists it as the first prerequisite to getting things straight in your life. If you are not humble, then you are not teachable. And if you’re not teachable, nothing will ever change.

Proverbs says that we have to have humility and a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord means that we submit ourselves to His ways. When God tells us that this is the right way to go, we go that way. Even when our culture tells us something different.

Culture tells us to always lust for more. God tells us to be content.

Culture tells us that debt is normal. Everyone has a car payment. Everyone gets a credit card statement every month. It’s normal.

God says in Romans 13, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…” (Romans 13:8a, NIV)

Culture and God will almost always tells us two different things. We get to choose who to listen to.

If we are humble and we fear the Lord and we choose His ways even when they are more difficult, look at what Proverbs says will happen.

“Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.” (Proverbs 22:4, NIV)

Wealth, and honor, and life are the end result of a humble life committed to following the ways and will of God.

It’s not saying that God will make you a millionaire. But the Bible is stating a general principle that if we humbly choose God’s ways instead of our world’s ways, we set ourselves up to be blessed.

Now, this doesn’t mean that there won’t come a time when we don’t need some help. If you live by these principles, you won’t be seeking a bailout every other month because you will have learned how to live wisely and be content.

But, it doesn’t mean that times of need will never come. What then?

The book of Acts gives us a glimpse into how to handle this. In Acts 2, this is what the Bible says about the early church. “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 2:44-45, NIV)

This isn’t a bailout. It is the church living a life of God-honoring generosity. We talked about generosity last week. Here it comes again.

I have no patience…zip, zero, none…no patience for someone who asks for a bailout because they don’t want to adjust their lifestyle. That is selfish, stupid, and sinful.

But when a genuine need arises, the church is called to respond quickly and generously.

At ACC, part of that happens through our church budget. We have money set aside specifically to help people in need. If someone in our church hits a rough patch, we’ve got some cash set aside to help them.

Now, before anybody comes marching up to us with their hand out, you need to know that we look very carefully at the person’s track record before we give them anything. If they have a track record of living foolishly…if we are confident the money will give them will simply be wasted…it’s not going to happen. We are generous, but we are also wise.

That’s part of how this kind of help happens at ACC. But you want to know how it happens more often and more effectively? Through the generosity of individual people here at ACC.

I can’t even tell you how many stories I’ve heard from people here who have been helped by the generosity of another person. It is amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Acts 2 really does happen here. And in an age of government bailouts and handouts, we aren’t going to stop doing it the right way. We aren’t going to stop living lives of godly generosity.

Maybe you need to step up to the plate and bring generosity to the forefront of your finances. Who do you know that needs some help? What can you do about it?

Don’t wait for the government to do it. Don’t wait for the church to do it. You be the church. You be Jesus to that person. That’s what happens when you are generous.

This kind of thing doesn’t get a lot of press. You probably won’t receive a lot of recognition. But that doesn’t mean that it has gone completely unnoticed.

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 6. “Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.

I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4, NIV)

Remember what we said last week. Who is the only person you need to please with your finances? God. And God is pleased with generosity.

People don’t need to know. Do it in secret. Go all covert, special ops, CIA with your giving. Do your best not to let anyone else know about it. If you do, Jesus promises that you’ll be rewarded by God.

Ultimately, it comes down to your heart. Anytime we talk about money, it always comes down to a heart issue. This is no different. And it doesn’t matter which side you are on.

If you are in a tough spot and need some help, what is the condition of your heart? Are you in genuine need, or have you been living like a fool? Has a lack of contentment and a lust for more stuff got you into this mess? What’s the state of your heart?

If you are in a position to be generous, check your heart, first. Do you have a heart that beats with generosity, or are you a selfish, self-centered jerk? And when you give, are you giving to please God, or are you trying to score points with somebody else?

It always comes down to your heart. That’s why money matters. That’s why Jesus talked about money more than He talked about heaven and hell combined. Because money truly reveals the condition of your heart.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: bailout, Dear Money, generosity, money