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Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2003

Grace Church of Burlington July 13, 2003 The Church lost a gutsy hero this past week              John W. Rockefeller once said, "I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness." Not only do most people believe that money will buy happiness, so do most Christians.             On July 4th, Larry Burkett, well-known Christian author and radio personality went Home to be with the Lord, after a long battle with cancer and heart disease. He was 64. Over the past three decades Larry Burkett used seminars, books, newsletters, and radio programs to share the Bible's message on finances with readers and listeners in the U.S. and abroad.             Though I did not agree with everything that he said, I so appreciated that Larry Burkett was one of the first from the Christian community to have the courage to question America’s obsession with materialism. He continually urged believers to get out of debt.             Much of his counsel on personal finance was just economic common sense, although his justification always led back to Scripture. He strongly urged every individual and family to be firmly committed to drawing up and following a budget. To determine the priority and necessity of purchases, he advised a three-tiered approach to spending that he once dubbed the "Volkswagen/Oldsmobile/Cadillac" strategy of needs, wants, and desires. Needs include food, clothing, housing, job-related expenses, medical care, savings, educational provisions, and other basics; wants involve choices about the quality of goods–steak or hamburger, new or used car; and desires are those things that we can afford only after meeting all obligations, material and spiritual.             Though Larry Burkett has gone Home, his message still needs to be heard. He was constant preacher of living debt-free. While most of us cannot pay cash for a home, we could certainly scale back. Our "mansions" sit empty most of the time as husband and wife break their necks trying to pay for them. They work so many hours, they hardly sleep in those huge homes, much less enjoy them. That’s not exactly the "good life."             Larry Burkett also urged us to live simply. What most of us consider financial assets are really liabilities.  Our homes (garages and even our rented storage spaces) are filled with them. Cars that we drive primarily recreationally, boats, snow mobiles, jet skis, etc. They take up space, require maintenance, tie up our money and are only used a small fraction of the time...if at all. Our homes are filled with huge televisions that we barely watch, stereo systems that we don’t listen to, pool tables, air hockey table, ping-pong tables, etc. that are rarely used. (The ping-pong table at our home is used more often for a "table" than a game.) And if we had to raise cash quickly, we’d find out even more quickly how little they are actually worth. They are not financial assets, they are liabilities.             Then, Larry Burkett urged believers to give generously. He contended that the use of money is one of God's primary training grounds for every believer. He wrote, "The foundation for any family financial plan must be built upon God’s Word. Throughout His Word, giving a portion of our wealth is described as essential to our receiving God’s wisdom. This is not for God’s benefit, but for ours. The willingness to surrender to God a portion of what we have is the external evidence of an internal commitment. There will never be ‘enough’ to give. You must simply commit that portion to God and adjust the rest accordingly. When you do this willingly and obediently, God promises to provide His wisdom to manage the rest."             Heaven is richer now that Larry is Home. He was a godly man and a wise steward. How about you? Are you in debt up to your ears? Do you live frugally? Are you a generous giver and wise steward? Today would be a great day to surrender your finances to the Lord and start making some spiritual and Biblical changes in your money matters.