SUNDAY SERMON - When a person becomes a born-again Christian, some physical conditions remain the same, if not worse. The realities of life never change so readily. This two-part article serves to explore the life of a born-again Christian and the need for financial stability. The Pastors tell us that Jesus will answer our financial burdens to ensure that we come out of debts and doubt. But, I believe that this is one of the ‘trickiest’ part of believing wholesale what we are told in church. There are fundamental rules that will never change whether you are born- again or not. But before we go into the subject of debt relief for Christians, I will highlight the reasons why we must come out of debt as Christians. Why does God want us Christians to have financial stability? Firstly, God wants you to have financial stability in order to support your family, that is, the spouse and children whom He has given you. Do not harbour this idea that God said we should multiply, so He will take care of your family. No, that responsibility is yours and yours alone. Secondly, having financial resources is a sign of God’s blessings to you too. When you have nothing to show for what God has blessed you with, then it means that you have actually not been blessed. There is a song which says “Count your blessings and name them one by one,” You can only count tangible things not intangible ones. Thirdly, God wants us to have sufficient financial resource base so that we could give some back to Him. One preacher once said “Good people are like clouds, they receive only to give” My belief has always been that whatever God can get through you, He will give you. However, when you become a receiver only, God will not give you anymore. Christians must know that whenever a person ceases to make a contribution to society, he or she begins to die. Fourthly, God wants us to be benevolent and contribute to charity. Your contribution to charity is like doing God’s work directly. A good many people out there pray to God in the morning saying “God give me to day my daily bread” and yet they do not even know where the food will come from. So, as a Christian, when you see a person is in need of food, or anything and you give him or her, you are answering their prayer which was directed to God. You become God’s messenger. Many Christians today are labouring very hard trying to please God by pretending that they can keep the Ten Commandments. Even when Apostle Paul has told us (Galatians 2: 15 – 16) that, it is impossible to keep the commandments on our own, they still struggle on their own to keep the law. They are unaware of Jesus’ own teaching in Matthew 25: 41 – 43 which says “Then he will say to those on his left ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite me in; I needed clothes and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me’ The above passage tells us that what will bar us from going to heaven is actually failure to do to your fellow man or woman in need as you, yourself, would like to be treated. If, as Christians, we have financial resources, then it will be our responsibility to help others who are less fortunate than us. I am a witness to a person who got saved and encountered more financial suffering than before. He could not come out of debt and the more he tried to balance his books, the more he sank further into debt. He borrowed money to pay off his debtors and ran bills in every kiosk including the newspaper vendors. But he took heart in the word of God in Jeremiah 31: 4 “I will build you up again, and you will be rebuilt, because I have loved you with an everlasting love”. He discovered that all the money he was earning only benefited him exclusively. He decided that from henceforth, he would divide whatever he was earning with God and gave the church two post-dated cheques, for the next two months, which were supposed to be cashed as soon as the salary went to the bank. He would only take the balance that remained after the church had taken theirs. As the cheques were paid, his life started changing. He slowly and steadily came out of debt, and today he is by all means a wealthy person. In the next commentary, I will share with you the ten steps that made a difference in the life of this person. Every Christian must try to improve his financial status as a sign of God’s blessings. Email: redplan20002001@yahoo.com
