Resolution: Get Debt Free!

Wouldn't it fee great to be debt free?!

Last Sunday at Lifepointe Church, I spoke on the crippling effect of DEBT and the freedom found when you manage money according to biblical priorities. The message was titled: “Resolution: Pay it Off!” You can listen to the message at http://www.lifepointeindy.com/, click the sermons button, and you’ll see the January 20 message and title.

Consider this text of Scripture

Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. Rom 13:7-8

Notice the phrase, “Let no debt remain outstanding.”

The first step in a sensible and God-honoring financial plan is this: get out of debt!

This has never been more important that this very moment. The experts are predicting a recession for our economy. Lower interest rates are with us for the moment of the government’s ‘stimulus package’ but higher interest rates and inflation are sure to come. The best starting position for tough financial times is being debt free.

The bigger issue for Christ-followers is that smothering debt keeps you from being able to freely follow God’s voice and direction in your life. It’s difficult to take a week off and go on a mission trip if you can’t afford either the trip or the time off. Many of you have dreams that God has put in your heart but your debt has you so tied down that you are unable to pursue your God-given destiny. Sad.

God’s plan for your money can be summed up in two statements:

Honor God with your money.

Bless others with your money.

Here is the way the Bible says it:

Proverbs 3:9 – “Honor the Lord with your Wealth”

How do you honor God with money?

1. Give to your church and to worthy ministries.
2. Let the management of your money be a testimony to God.

When you honor God with your money, he promises that blessing will flow to your life.

Jesus said it like this: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Luke 6:38

You must also bless others with your money. But who?

1. Your family.

If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 1 Tim 5:8

2. Your grandchildren.

A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous. Prov 13:22

3. People in need.

"If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks..."You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings. For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, 'You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.'” Deut 15:7-8, 10-11

God’s design for your financial life is really pretty simple: he has given you the power to create wealth and you are to remember him in your management of it (Deut 18:8).

In order to honor God and bless others with your money, you must first get out of debt.

If you live near Carmel, IN, we can help you at Lifepointe Church. We are hosting Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University – the proven debt elimination and money management system. For more information, call the church at 317-571-0630. You will have a weight lifted off of you and new sense of freedom when you live debt-free.

You should also know about the greatest debt-cancellation project in the history of the world. It is described in this bible verse:

[Jesus] made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Col 2:13-14

Jesus paid your sin-debt; a debt so large that you could have never paid it with a thousand Sundays in church or a resolve to live the rest of your life doing good works. As the old song says, “Jesus paid it all.”