Making Moral Choices: Part 5

How do we make moral decisions in an immoral world? That's what we've been thinking about for several weeks. I want to, we're going to conclude today, but let me start with this thought again as we begin. I've talked to several of you after some of the classes and I get feedback, so I want to emphasize something here. the principles that we have been talking about, about how we live by the book.

And when I say the book, I mean the Bible. I want to submit to you that the principles we have discussed are God's principles. These are principles that we, as Christians, I submit, should accept, should live by, should submit to. We live under the book.

having said that we as christians might disagree sometimes about how to apply the principles that's okay sometimes we have that disagreement for example it is a principle that we as christians should dress modestly

i submit we should all buy into that principle however it may be that we might have a little disagreement about what is modest and what is not modest but our goal should always be to meet the principle of modesty when it comes to parenting we should all i think as christians want our children to obey parents and we should expect that children will obey parents and we should all as christians agree that it takes discipline for our children to grow up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Now we might disagree on exactly how you do the discipline, when you do the discipline, under what circumstances you do the discipline, and that's okay. But we should not disagree on the principle that obedience to parents is required and that discipline is necessary. Do you see what I'm saying? So if David Rogers has used examples to apply these principles and you haven't agreed with the way I've applied them in certain instances so be it but don't disagree with the principle submit to the principle and seek to implement it in your lives what should we do we've been looking at relationships today we're going to actually look at the last two aspects of making moral decisions we're going to look at the issue of work some biblical principles regarding work and biblical principles regarding money and stuff and then i'm going to wrap up but let's let's begin with prayer lord as we uh again think about things of your word and how you want us to live i just say thank you first that you have given us a guidebook that if we will take it to heart seek to live by it will make our lives so much more enjoyable Make life more delightful.

Make life more pleasant. Help us to avoid substituting our judgment for what is good and right and true for your judgment. Instead, may we always yield to your judgments, your principles, and thus find light and life and joy and peace. I pray for hearts that are hardened against submission to you and your word. Soften hearts.

I pray for hearts that are uncertain about the things of the faith. Through your spirit give people certainty. I pray for those who feel unworthy. They see how far they've fallen short. I pray that they will know a special sense of the forgiveness that comes only through Jesus Christ.

guide us in our thinking now as we turn to think about your kingdom and your word for it's in christ's name we pray amen here's some principles about work principle number one god expects us as believers to provide for ourselves and for our families in fact it was the apostle paul who said in 2 Timothy 3.10, if a man won't work, don't let him eat.

That's Paul, that's not David. If a man will not work, he shall not eat. Now Paul didn't say if a person is unable to work, we shouldn't help them. He didn't say if someone was temporarily out of work and unable to find a job, we shouldn't help them. But the point was, that as believers we are expected to work to provide for ourselves.

And Paul was proposing and setting forth a rule that if you have somebody who's healthy and able to work and has work available and just says, I'm just going to live off somebody else, he says, don't let them eat. Because then in a hurry they'll start working. His goal was not to starve them to death. His goal was to make them see their responsibility to work. We are not only to provide for ourselves, our families it was the apostle paul who said that if a person will not provide for his family he's worse than an unbeliever and so as christians we have a responsibility not only for ourselves but our families to care for them in our work we work for christ christ is the boss i know there's somebody else who who is your supervisor but ultimately always every day when you go to work jesus christ is your boss

that means that even when your supervisor isn't around you work hard because jesus is watching that means when you go to work you don't forget all of the admonitions that you have as a christian all the instructions you have from your boss jesus christians in the workplace are little lights in the darkness when you go to work to be a plumber to be a roofer to be a lawyer to be a doctor whatever you go to be you don't go just to do a good plumbing job you don't go just to put on a good roof you don't go just to be a good doctor you want to be all those you want to be good at all those things christians should be but you are there to invade the darkness with the light

you don't just go just to do the occupation and forget your obligations to jesus christ it is obligation to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ into every corner of the earth and a great place to start is where you work you take the gospel to the workplace when you're in the workplace you pray for your work fellow workers as opportunities arise to help meet needs of fellow workers you are there and can help meet those needs and thus show the love of Christ now I'm not saying that you shouldn't be working when you're supposed to be working your employer's paying you a wage you do your job but don't forget all the commands that Christ has given us

don't be silent about who you are you don't have to force this folks I have found if we're just willing to be open in conversations who we are what's important in our lives we'll come up in the conversation with our fellow workers you don't have to go and just be shoving tracks in people's faces i'm just saying be open in the conversation when you're in the break and you're talking about what you're doing this weekend it's all right to talk about you're going to church or it's all right that you're working with operation christmas child it's all right that you're doing these things people will know what's important in your life and begin to hear things about jesus christ if we're just open and willing to talk about it so often we're afraid to talk about it you know that's you just don't talk about, quote, religion. I have never found anyone be upset with me if I was respectful toward them and it was part of the normal flow of conversation to say things about my relationship with Jesus Christ. Don't be silent. You're the light in the darkness. Be diligent.

I've made that point. Christians ought to be the best workers because we're honest. We're trustworthy. Our employers can depend upon us. We will do the job well.

Fourthly, trust God, relax, and quit worrying. I've talked to many of you, and I've been there myself, feeling all the pressure of work. Oh, if I just don't work harder to bring in the bacon, you know, this sort of rising early, going to bed late, stressed out, working weekends.

Listen to what the scriptures say. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves. What Jesus is trying to tell us is, yes, we're to work hard, but at root, at root, we are taken care of by a loving Father. It's not our rising early and working late that assures we have what we need to live on in our family. It's the gracious hand of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, I tell you, I'm speaking Jesus' words now, don't worry about your life, about what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. is life not more important than food and the body more important than clothes so don't worry saying what should we eat or what you would drink or what should we wear for the pagans the pagans the pagans the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows what you need

jesus christ our lord will provide for our needs if we will trust him our needs not necessarily everything we want but for our needs so christians ought to work hard but it ought to be a trustful sort of working hard not the kind of frantic scurrying scared pressured work we work as people who know we have a loving father who's going to make sure everything will be okay

Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 31.

And all these references are in your handout. On this one I didn't separate them out, but they are there in your handout under the in relation to work. So Matthew 6, 25 to 31 is a great one. Philippians 4, 19. My God will meet all your needs according to his riches and glory.

In Psalm 127, 2. In vain you rise up early and stay up late toiling for food to eat. One reason you can feel safe is you've got a family that will take care of you. And I mean it's the family of Jesus Christ. If you lose your job, folks, all you've got to do is let us know.

You hear me? All you've got to do is let us know. you will not go without. If I have to take it out of my pocket, you'll be okay. There's nobody in this room, not a single person, who has to be afraid that they won't be able to get by.

This class has been very generous. We've helped people who, when they couldn't make house payments, some of you don't even know about this, when they couldn't make house payments, we paid their house payment for several months.

That's one reason we got the family. Right? You never need to fear that you won't have enough. Because God has provided, and one way he has provided, he's given you a generous family. And they're sitting all around you.

You hear me? Rest. Part of trusting God means that we rest as God commanded. Every Sabbath you rest. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. For the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. Own it. You shall not do any work. Neither you nor your son or your daughter or your manservant or maidservant.

your employees these days or your animals or the alien that lives within your gates for in six days the lord created the heavens and earth but he rested on the seventh day

the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god do you hear me

one last one that i didn't have on my handout from last week that i added if you are an employer A biblical principle is you treat your employees fairly and you pay them their wages when they are due.

It'll be determined in court if it's true or not, but there's one huge company that at least is reputed to have required its employees to continue to work after hours without pay to help the bottom line.

Christians don't do that. They pay their employees, they treat them fairly, and they pay them their wages when they are due. You don't hold back your money on your employees. People need their paycheck on a regular basis in order to be able to make ends meet. The biblical principle was in the Old Testament that for poor people, you paid them every day.

At the end of the day, you paid the wages because they had to have the money that day to buy food. Now, the principle for us, I think, is you pay people timely. People don't, we don't have to do it every day necessarily, but you need to pay them on a regular basis and frequently enough so that they can have the money they need to get by. Everybody hear that? Okay.

Now I want to go to money and stuff. Principle number one on money and stuff. Let me say this. Some of the greatest passages about money and stuff were written by a tax collector, a guy named Matthew, who tax collectors were reputed to be greedy people. They were tax collectors because they could skim off the tax money they collected.

And so this guy who probably, before he met Jesus Christ, was a greedy, grasping sort of person, passages about how the biblical attitude towards stuff and money and one biblical attitude is you never ever love money or stuff do you hear me we love god we love people but we never ever love money or stuff and i know i can see some of you looking how can this be how can we not love money and stuff. Our whole system is built, our whole economy is built on the fact so often that we are grasping after money or stuff.

Never ever love money or stuff. Why not? The Bible tells us why not. Number one, the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.

people because they love money will sometimes cheat sometimes they will go gamble away money that they should be using for other purposes people will do all sorts of things for money just look at tv and see what people will do for a buck

right they will surrender their dignity they will surrender their respect they will marry somebody they've known for hardly any time at all for a buck christians should not we should never ever love money or stuff because where your treasure is that's where your heart's going to be if you love money and stuff if that's what you're after in life that's where your heart's going to be and that's not where your heart is supposed to be your heart is supposed to be with jesus christ so you don't love money or stuff because it competes for loyalty to jesus christ you never ever love money or stuff because it doesn't last

the scriptures press us to invest in things that last eternal things But you don't take stuff or money with you. As Paul says in 1 Timothy 6-7, we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. Yet some of us are like the guy, you remember the story, the guy who wanted to build some bigger barns so he could have more stuff and bigger stuff. And God finally said, tonight your life is over. and you wasted it on stuff that doesn't last.

Some of you, and there was a point in my life where I was really wasting time seeking after more stuff.

It doesn't satisfy and it doesn't last. How much is enough? How much is enough? John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the world, was asked that question.

How much is enough? His answer was this. a little bit more and he made a good point there's never enough if you're if you're after money or stuff you always want more so you got to get away from the love of money or stuff another reason not to love money or stuff is it competes with god you cannot have two masters in life you can only have one and the scriptures impress upon us you can't serve both god and money Why not? A lot of Christians say, why can't I serve God in money? The reason is they make competing demands that are at odds with one another.

God says, you surrender to me, follow me, love me, pay your tithe, give money to the poor. Money says, acquire me, keep me, hoard me, build me up. You can't serve both God and money.

and if there is a reason we ought to be careful about money and stuff it's because it's a very dangerous item the scriptures tell us it is harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle

and that needle is the little sewing needle the picture is this huge camel to go through a needle the eye of the needle it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to eat in the kingdom of heaven why is that? because when we have riches we tend, not inevitably but we tend to put our trust that stuff and it takes our heart away from God. I have some lessons I have taught in other locations about money and stuff and I go into deeper details. It is one of the most uncomfortable subjects I have found for Christians in America. We're in love with our stuff. We're in love with our money and we don't like it when people tell us we shouldn't love our money and our stuff.

but we shouldn't.

So what should we be? What is the right attitude? I think there are two main attitudes about our money and stuff. One is an attitude of contentment.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, Hebrews 13, 5 says, and be content with what you have. Because God has said, never will I leave you, nor will I forsake you. In other words, you've got enough. Be content with what you have. This is how the Apostle Paul said it.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. He didn't even say a house. He said food and clothing, we will be content with that.

contentment is an inward satisfaction and sufficiency that does not depend on our financial position or the circumstances in which we find ourselves instead is an attitude of thankfulness for what we do have and a contentment with what god has provided to us our whole advertising system is built on the fact that we are discontented people we're not happy with the way we look with how much hair we have what color our hair is with what kind of car we've got with what kind of house we've got we want something bigger, better, different, newer, improved the scriptures say that's just what the pagans run after quit acting like the pagans

instead learn to be content

we have one of those sales people came into our home one time First question was, wouldn't you like to earn more money? I said, no, we've got plenty. He had never heard that answer.

But surely you would want more money. I said, no, we've got plenty. He didn't know where to go from there.

Contentment and generosity is the other.

Generosity toward God and others. a long discussion one time with a friend who's sort of on the periphery of christian faith and he was wanting to argue about how much the tithe was and i had a long discussion with him i realized i talked gave him the wrong answer really i mean i told him it was 10 and we talked about 10 of net and gross and all this kind of stuff you know the whole emphasis of the new testament is not these legalistic things. The whole tenor of the New Testament is not how little can I give. The whole tenor of the New Testament is how much can I give. Generosity.

The New Testament presses us not to look for the floor of how little we can give, but the ceiling, how much can we give.

Among the believers of the early church, among them because the people were generous command those who are rich in the present world paul says not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in god who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment command them to do good to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share if you have been blessed materially you should be generous some of you can give more than 10 percent and it not even affect you but 10 folks is the floor for christians toward the lord's work but it's just the beginning it's not the end let me give you some reasons we should be generous over four billion people in the world do not know jesus christ we should give to help them know jesus christ 1.3 billion people of the about six billion people in the world live in absolute poverty by world bank standards that means they live on the equivalent of a dollar or less each day. 31,000 children under the age of five die every day in developing countries, half of them from hunger-related causes. That means for every breath you take today, a child dies. I told my son Caleb that, and I looked at him, and he held his breath.

every breath a child dies Americans according to Christianity Today December 2003 issue Americans spend $240 a month on fast food and $5 a month to help the poor

how do we begin to develop biblical attitudes about money and wealth here are my suggestions work with the poor

there's something about going and working with poor people that makes you understand how much you've got those of you been to honduras you know what i'm talking about some of you've been to ethiopia other places work with the poor work with the poor you can work with them by giving to help the poor pray you can actually go and feed poor people it gives you a whole different outlook secondly change your vocabulary about your stuff i think we need to about our stuff. I don't think we need to say we love our stuff. In fact, we need to start. It's alright to enjoy the good things God gives us to enjoy. I'm not saying don't enjoy the things He gives you, but don't let your heart become attached to it.

I think we need to change the actions towards stuff. Quit acting like it matters. Don't be frantic to get the latest and greatest.

Don't act like the pagans who are running after that stuff. In fact, begin to act just the opposite. It doesn't matter.

Your car may be old. It may have a lot of miles. So what? Does it get you around? What else do you need?

Pray for contentment and an attitude of generosity. these old hard hearts get attached to stuff we need prayer to help and god will help us buy things for the right reasons because they're useful they're durable they're suitable for the task but don't buy them just because they give you status it doesn't have to be a name brand to flash around buy it because it's useful because you need it give stuff away there's nothing better giving. And lastly, enjoy things that are free. You know, some of the, I think the best things in life are free. Salvation is free. Louise doesn't charge me to snuggle up next to her each night. I get to listen to Kate sing. I get to go and play tennis with Caleb.

I get to go hike in the Pisgah National Forest. I get to watch the sunrise and the sunset. I get to walk on the beach. It doesn't cost me a penny. Start to value the best things that are free.