BEYOND SURVIVAL Part 1: Money Myths The Bible Dispels

76% of americans are living pay check to paycheck.
19% have $0 saved to cover an emergency expenses;
31% have less than $500 in emergency savings
49% of Americans are “concerned about their current financial well-being”
1 in 5 people (20%) facing financial hardship fall below the poverty line.
Only about 1/3 of Americans (32%) maintain a household budget
56% of millennials don’t have any money saved in a retirement account.
39% of both Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers have nothing saved for retirement.
2/3 of Americans would struggle to scrounge up $1,000 in an emergency.
The average American saves less than 5% of his or her disposable income.

Genesis 1:27-28 NIV
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

We were created to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion.

2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

1. I don’t think we should focus on money

Proverbs 22:7 NIV
7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Ecclesiastes 10:19 NIV
19 A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.

2. God’s blessings are not material

John 10:10 NIV
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Proverbs 10:22 NIV
22 The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

3. The Bible teaches money is evil

1 Timothy 6:10 NIV
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Do not value money for any more nor any less than its worth; it is a good servant but a bad master.
– Alexandre Dumas

1 Timothy 6:17 NIV
17 Command those who are rich in this present world 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.

4. Jesus modeled a gospel of scarcity

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Mark 10:29 NIV
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel

Mark 10:30 NIV
30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

Proverbs 11:10-11 NIV
10 When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. 11 Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.