Borrower is Servant to the Lender Prov. 22 :7 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

This is a proverb that you never want to forget – when you go into debt you put yourself in bondage – God never intended for any of us to be in debt – conditions in the world have inflated to the point now that if you are going to buy a house in certain parts of the country or build a church in certain parts of the country, you’ll be blessed just to have enough money for the down payment, much more the ability to pay cash for the thing – everything is run on debt – the government owes over 17 Trillion – the money supply is no longer reported by the Fed – so everything just keeps going up in price – and for you to own something like a car or a home is going to be hard to swing without debt – but it is not impossible – there are men who advise ways for you to stay out of debt – and they have some good advice.

Once you go into debt you are a servant to the lender and you must abide by his rules – who ever thinks to look at the rules when the loan is approved – they are so happy just to get the money – but you’d better know that there are rules and you have to follow them or pay the consequences – an FDIC insured depositor borrowed 1.9 million dollars against a 2 million dollar CD – the bank was closed and the FDIC only insured the CD for $100,000 which was applied to the loan – the borrower had to come up with an additional 1.8 million dollars to repay his secured loan – you never thought about that did you – lots of people are in bankruptcy because the rules said that it was time to pay and they didn’t have the money to pay when the time was up.

Now let’s look at the problem with debt – debt can result from:

Disobedience to God – Deut 15:6, 28:12 – God blessed the Jews so that they didn’t have to borrow – they started experiencing financial problems when they disobeyed God.

Lack of Contentment – Phil 4:11-12; Heb 13 – not willing to live within the means which God has supplied to you.

Improper priorities – Matt 6:24-34 – seeking something other than his kingdom and his righteousness first – when I left the banking business to enter the ministry my wife was wondering how we were going to make it – I told her to look up and see if the birds were still flying [Mat 6:26] – as long as we were still seeking his kingdom first and the birds were still flying then I knew the Lord would always take care of the needs.

Lust – Jas 4:2-3 – buying something God didn’t want you to have.

Lack of Charity – in Phil 4 the Lord promises to meet the needs (19) of a giving church – 2 Cor 9:6-8, Prov 28:27.

Lack of trust – Ps 37:3-5 – not trusting in, delighting in and committing thy way to God.

Conclusion: Would you rather be a servant to God and live with what he wants you to have or be a servant to the lender and live with the rules he imposes?