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Ask Pastor John
Surviving Financial Panics
00:13:49
How can we fight anxiety through financial panic and stress? Pastor John offers five truths about God’s character to calm our hearts and minds.
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- [00:04]
A
Well, you open your phone, you go to your banking app, you look at the numbers in your banking app and your stomach just drops. It drops because the balance is lower than you expected and because there are now rumors of layoffs coming at work. And everything you built for years to keep your family safe feels incredibly fragile all of a sudden. That can be paralyzing. And you stand in church trying to focus and sing worship songs, but it feels almost impossible. And all you can think about is months mortgage payment and all the other bills that have to be paid. How can you find any sense of peace or even happiness right now in this moment, in this experience? Today on Ask Pastor John Surviving financial panics. So many of you are emailing us right now to tell us this is the situation you're facing right now in life. And today in our Bible reading, we are Studying Luke, chapter 12, verses 32 to 34, a timely text for a listener like Marcus. He wrote us. Marcus is a project manager now facing a corporate downsizing. Pastor John I find myself in a dark place right now. My company is going through another round of layoffs, and for the first time in my life, I'm looking at the possibility of an unemployment check. I'm paralyzed by fear and anxiety every time I look at my bank account. I've worked hard to provide a certain life for my family and the thought of losing our house or not being able to afford what we need feels like a failure. It's hard to sit in church and worship when all I'm thinking about is the next paycheck and how I'm going to survive if it stops. Honestly, it feels like God is a distant judge watching my performance during this crisis. How do I stop being so anxious about money when the threat is so real? Is it even possible to be happy when you're in financial ruin? Even here's how Pastor John addressed Marcus fears from Luke 12 and that I've shared with several friends. And I want to share it with you today. Here's Pastor John.
- [01:53]
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So Luke 12:32, 34 of the dozens of texts I could have chosen is all about worshiping God with your money. There are four points I want to make. Many more could be made. I think I counted about 10 sermons I'd like to preach on these three verses. But I'll preach one and make four points. Number one in verse 32 in particular. The first point is God commands us not to be afraid about money, not to have fear about money when it comes to money things we're not supposed to be anxious don't worry, don't be afraid, he says, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. That little verse there is sandwiched before and after with money. Verses 22. Following are all about money, things, clothing, house, and whether you're anxious about them. And then it's followed by selling possessions and giving alms and laying up treasures in heaven instead of on the earth. So this little verse, this beautiful, magnificent promise verse, the first point is, don't be anxious. Don't be afraid. But now there's a deeper point in this verse, and the deeper point is that when you're not afraid concerning money, you magnify five things about God, and that's worship. When you're not afraid or anxious or fearful about money, you magnify five things about God in this one verse. And when you magnify God through not being afraid about money, you worship. Here are the five things. These are precious things that we want to magnify about God. Number one. When we're not afraid about money, we magnify God as our shepherd. Do not be afraid, little flock. The word flock means we've got a shepherd and we are sheep. And therefore Psalm 23 kicks in. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not what want. That word is the old Elizabethan word for lack. I shall not lack. I shall not be in want. That is, if I have a shepherd like this who loves to give me the kingdom, I will not lack for what I need. Therefore, if I believe that and thus exclude fear, I will magnify his shepherd, love. Number two. If I do not fear concerning money, I show that I treasure God as my Father. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. So not only am I or are we sheep who have a shepherd, we are children who have a father. He's multiplying images for us here to get rid of fear. That's what he's doing. Don't be afraid your sheep who have a shepherd. Don't be afraid your children who have a father. Now, what does that imply? Well, verse 32 verses earlier makes pretty plain what it implies. All these things, eat, drink, wear, money, things, all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek. But your Father knows that you need these things. Now, he didn't say that to mock us. He said that because, knowing that we need these things, he'll work to provide what we need in order to magnify his fatherhood. But now be careful. Do not come to God with an agenda defining for him what you need. Come to God and learn from him what you need. The word need today in America is so inflated that it scarcely has any meaning in a universal context anymore. So if we are fearless about money, we magnify him as shepherd, we magnify him as father, and that is worship. Thirdly, if we're not afraid concerning money, we show that we treasure God as our king. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the what kingdom? Who has right and authority to give us the kingdom? No peon disposes of the kingdom. The king disposes of the kingdom. And therefore, not only is he a shepherd, loving us as sheep, father loving us as children, he is king ruling us, providing for us, exerting sovereignty and power on our behalf as subjects against our enemies, including the lack of things we need. So if we trust him as king and shepherd and father, and thus overcome our fear of not having enough money, then we magnify him and he is worshiped. Fourth, if we are fearless with regard to our money, we magnify him as free and generous. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom, not sell you the kingdom, not rent you the kingdom, not lease you the kingdom for payments, mortgage payments, rent payments, lease payments. He will give you the kingdom. He loves to give you the kingdom, which means he's generous. And therefore, if we let his shepherd, like fatherly, kingly generosity, work on our fear, our anxieties, and I'm talking a battle here. You know I'm talking a battle here, right? We're not talking something that happened yesterday and doesn't happen tomorrow. We're talking a weekly thing, a paycheck by paycheck thing, or unemployment check by unemployment check thing. We're talking a battle here. The way we battle is by preaching to ourselves what I'm preaching right now, that's the way I do it. It ain't automatic for John Piper to be fearless about money, though. I get paid plenty. Way, way, plenty. It isn't automatic for me, it isn't automatic for you. We are battling fear and anxiety every day, not to mention greed. And we do it by saying, he's shepherd to me, he's father to me, he's king to me. And he's not as shepherd, father and king, folding his arms, standing off in the corner saying, maybe, maybe you'll get the kingdom. I'll watch your performances. It's not the way he does it. Give, give, give, free, free, free is what the Lord does. And fifthly when we overcome our fear and live free of fear, we magnify our God as happy in his giving. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom, or it is his good pleasure. Another version says to give you the kingdom. Or another version, it pleases him. He's pleased to give you the kingdom. He wants to do this. He is not selfish. Simony is not his virtue or vice. He is a generous God. So the first point of this message is, trust him as shepherd, trust him as father, trust him as king. Trust his generosity and trust the fact that it's lavish because he loves to do it. Preach these things to yourself and attack fear and anxiety in your life with these truths so that when you overcome fear about money, God gets the glory. These five glorious things shine out of your life. And if anyone asks you, I know that you're in financial straits and yet at work you seem to be caring about others and fairly happy. How is that? Then you say, can I share five things with you about my God? And he is worshiped. He is worshiped.
- [12:17]
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Yeah. It ain't automatic for John Piper to be fearless about money. Yeah, it's not automatic for any of us. Nothing about this is natural. And the core secret here isn't a better budgeting software. The key is to remember who we are dealing with. A father, he's shepherd to me. He's father to me. He's king to me. And he doesn't want to sell you the kingdom or lease it to you. He has chosen gladly to give it to you. So you have to actively fight this fear. You have to preach this generosity to yourself. Because when you overcome fear about money, God gets the glory. Yes, others are watching us. And in the hardest season, others notice how we speak of the generosity of our Father. Obviously, there's a lot more to say here. See the Aspeston book in that section on biblical hope for Christians who are facing Poverty on page 120 to 121. Even if poverty is not what you do, experience or will experience, that would be worth reviewing God's promises to those in poverty. And then don't miss that section on beholding the one who never loved money on page 112. It gives me the chills every time I read that. Page 112. The one who never loved money. Glorious. Well, it is perhaps personal money anxieties that explain why we can be tempted to make small compromises at work. To stretch the truth, to close the deal, to fudge the numbers, to get the promotion next time. The danger of small compromises at work. And for that, Pastor John rejoins us in the studio. I'm Tony Reinke. We'll both see you back here on Monday. Thanks for listening.