Faithful Stewardship: Navigating Debt with Integrity

Borrowing young people we have a lot of young people here this this has to do with whether you borrow from a family member whether you borrow from a church member whether you borrow from your friend listen when you take somebody else's property and you don't return it or you return it in a condition other than you borrowed it in do you know under Moses there were things said about if you borrowed something and you brought it back in not the same condition like you brought it back like let's say you borrowed an animal to plough with and you brought the thing back lame or dead. [00:02:17]

Listen there's principles in scripture on borrowing and one of the things is if you borrow and you don't restore return or even make full restitution if the thing you borrow is not able to be returned in the same condition that you borrowed it from you know who you're like you're like the wicked that's what the wicked do righteous people don't do that righteous people borrow and they pay back again. [00:04:30]

You sign a contract you you know what nobody takes out a student loan without signature nobody takes out a credit card without some kind of signature or authorization if you do that you're swearing to your own hurt what what you're doing is you're you're giving your name you're giving your word that's the idea behind swearing it comes to your own hurt when it doesn't turn out the way you expected it to by your own hurt it's like oh okay this isn't in my best interests anymore yeah but the problem is you you sign the mortgage. [00:05:22]

If I am the lender I'm free anytime to say you're released from the debt in fact under the Old Testament do you know how often debts were forgiven suppose they were supposed to be now that's how God set it up that nobody would be in debt longer than seven years can you imagine if we all of a sudden instituted that today it'd be good I mean our government would be helped big time but nobody would loan to them anymore which it would be good. [00:06:48]

If I owe somebody something like like let's say I smashed the mower deck and I take it back to Glenn and Glenn says brother don't worry about it that mower I I was gonna get rid of it anyway I don't care about it don't worry about it could he do that would I be off the hook yeah yeah if he forgives the debt I say this if somebody writes off debt she's wondering I think should I still pay it my thing would be this have I coerced somebody or twisted their arm to forgive my debt because I don't want to be that person. [00:07:58]

Sometimes you get people like George Mueller Hudson Taylor they take the text what Romans 13:8 oh no man anything except to love one another well they take that as forbidding all debt the problem is that it's not that's not consistent with the Greek verb the idea there is keep on owing don't don't keep owing somebody and in fact if you look at verse 7 why don't we turn there if you look at 7 what he's saying is never get it he's not saying never get in a place where you owe somebody. [00:10:05]

There are two basic kinds of debt there is a secured debt and there is an unsecured debt unsecured debt is like a student loan very risky here's the thing you get into massive debt through student loans say you say you're in debt a hundred grand that's an unsecured loan which means there's no asset behind it you if you don't finish your degree you got a lot of wasted debt there or let's say you do finish but then you can't get a job it's very risky. [00:12:01]

The big issue in all of this is that if we borrow we pay what what's owed if we borrow we return if we borrow we make sure people get back what was what we borrowed from them we're not looking for ways out you get a traffic ticket pay it you got old phone debt you pay it now look that doesn't mean you can't call the company in fact you need to if you get in a situation where you can't pay you need to communicate with the people you can't pay if you're under an obligation you need to be good to your word. [00:13:48]

This is integrity when you owe somebody something and you can't make a payment and you just disappear and you avoid their phone calls what's that this is what the world does that's not being honest and full of integrity and uprightness that's acting like the wicked what you want to do is you want to communicate and you know what if there's a place to call a company and say look I I've got you guys charged me all this for medical bills and perhaps I can pay one lump sum and you know you guys you guys want eight thousand dollars from me well how about if I pay $3,000 one like right now and work we're good if they say okay well okay I mean negotiating's not bad. [00:14:39]

Christians with poor credit scores because you've defaulted on different things and you've you've missed paying bills and you haven't been faithful and you've got collection agencies against you that's look you know do you know one of the things that we're told to discipline people out of the church for is greed and oftentimes that's exactly what it comes down to people want stuff they can't afford they go into I mean credit cards people who have outstanding ongoing credit card debt is probably a sufficient amount of a demonstration of greed that people ought to be put out of the church if we were dealing faithfully with 1st Corinthians 5 and what greed really is. [00:16:06]

I recognize some people there they amassed that debt when they're lost and then they get saved that's where I was I had this debt I got saved and then for the first time in my life I really began looking at finances through biblical lenses and and saw in the years after that to try to get everything squared and one of the things was restitution just looking at things i took i stoled I borrowed never gave back or I destroyed and try seeking to make restitution. [00:17:57]

Your life is being controlled when you're in debt I mean you you're in a place where you have to maintain a job you have to maintain an income there's tremendous freedom when you don't know I mean when everything is paid and you don't owe anybody anything because you're very free to I mean you know you're you're free to pack up and go you're you're free to make a lot of decisions in your life that you would not otherwise be able to make the truth is that if somebody has large debt and they're feeling like the Lord is really pressing them to go to the mission field how could they do that how could they do that they can. [00:18:21]