Through this entire process, we are investing in the Kingdom, and we must never lose sight of that goal.  And we must also maintain a spirit of contentment with what God provides for us in each season.  All in all, freedom from debt is possible, even in the current economy.  We should pursue it and financial wisdom in general as we should pursue everything else: for the purpose of building the Kingdom.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
-Luke 16:10-13, ESV

Recently, we looked at the need for Christians to step out in faith to give sacrificially when their churches embark on projects to build the Kingdom.  This is above and beyond the tithe, which we have previously seen is still commanded.  But in the current economy, even the tithe may seem out of reach.  As abysmal inflation causes stagnant wages to fall short of meeting even the bare necessities, how can someone barely making ends meet ever be able to tithe, much less give above and beyond that?  This post takes a practical look at personal finances to offer a biblical path to go from drowning in the financial storms of life to standing firm, able to endure them while being generous.
Finances in Scripture
As always, we must begin with Scripture, which has much to say about personal finances.  First, money is a tool, so we cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by it, whether we are seeking it or lacking it.  The rich young ruler’s possessions had become his obsession, so he was unwilling to part with them when they became a hindrance to following Christ.  This temptation is great, so Jesus said it is extremely difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom.  Many fail the test of wealth, therefore we must reject prosperity theology that makes Jesus the means and wealth the end.  But we must also reject poverty theology that despises wealth.  Remember, it is not money itself but the love of money that is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).  We are to neither desire overabundance nor destitution but adequate provision.  We must pray with Agur: “Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:8-9).  In Jesus’s teaching on money, He emphasizes stewardship.  We are to be faithful with whatever He gives us, using and controlling it, not letting it control us.  Many people in our day are controlled by money through debt: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).  And since we are exhorted not to be dominated by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12) and to seek freedom from slavery (1 Corinthians 7:21), we should avoid debt entirely or free ourselves from it as quickly as possible.  Debt prevents us from caring for ourselves and our families as we ought, supporting the local church and building the Kingdom as we ought, and preparing an inheritance for our children as we ought.  These are the primary objectives of our money, so we must align our budgets to reflect that.
Freedom from debt is certainly easier said than done. Our society has so successfully marketed debt as a necessity that many Americans are drowning in debt, seeing no way to live without it: car loans, credit cards, short-term financing, the highway robbery known as payday loans, and student debt.  So many Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck that a minor disturbance—even high inflation—can be enough to swamp the boat.  Too many Americans are too busy bailing water out of their sinking financial boat to focus on where the boat is headed, meaning they are unable to prepare for the future or build the Kingdom.  So if you are in this position, it is vital to figure out how to get the boat sitting high enough in the water that you can set a long-term course.  While that may seem impossible, it is doable, even in this economy. Fortunately, there is a very practical, Scripture-based method, which I will summarize.  This is taken from a course that I would highly recommend: Financial Peace University, which is based on 7 “baby steps”.  I will focus on the first three, which are the most important: get some money in the bank, quickly pay off all non-mortgage debt, and establish an emergency fund.
Step 1: Put $1,000 in the Bank and Establish a Budget
Returning to our boat analogy, the first step is to get enough water out so that the next moderate wave will not swamp the boat.  This means putting $1,000 in the bank.  If $1,000 is unattainable, then $500 will suffice.  The point is to have something saved up so that you will not have to go into further debt just because something unexpected comes along.  You may wonder where this $1,000 is coming from, especially if you feel like you are drowning now.  It will come a dollar at a time as you take control of your finances with a budget.
While some may think that a budget is too restrictive and controlling, it is actually a very effective tool to help you control your money.  In my sermon on giving, I applied 2 Corinthians 10:5 to money by saying that we need to take every dollar captive to obey Christ.  That means we need to know where every dollar is going, which can only be done through a budget.  Start by listing all sources of income and how much you expect to bring in from each source during the month.  Along with this, list all payroll taxes and other deductions, then calculate your net income for the month.  Next list all expenditures: giving, saving, housing, utilities, food, transportation, clothing, healthcare, other personal needs, recreation, and debt payments.  For large expenditures that do not happen monthly, divide their cost evenly over every month.
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In 1983, John Scully was the President of Pepsi. He had poured his life into that company and built it into one of America’s most iconic brands. By all accounts, he was on top of the world. But, in 1983, his life would dramatically change with a few simple words. Insert Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs was the genius upstart entrepreneur who founded Apple. He had a brand new company and visionary ideas. But, he was untested, unproven, and frankly a little unstable. Yet, in 1983, he delivered one of the most incredible sales pitches ever recorded. When courting John Scully to leave Pepsi and come to Apple, this is what Jobs said:

John, do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?—Steve Jobs

That proposal pushed Scully over the edge. At that moment, John Scully left everything he had built to follow Jobs and change the world.
I appreciate this story because it perfectly articulates how frivolous it would be to build a life on sugar water. But I also don’t like this story because Steve’s alternative is no better. To build a life on gadgets and tech would be just as meaningless as an empire of liquid sugar. It most certainly has been.
Most recently, this has become all the more clear. Tech stocks are plummeting, tech-friendly banks are going insolvent, and the entire industry is gearing up for a massive recession. If that were not enough, Big Tech hasn’t delivered on any of its promises.
Case in point, Facebook’s mission statement is: “to give people the power to build community and to bring the world closer together.” That sounds great, except that it hasn’t. Instead, in the Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok world, people have become more divided, isolated, and less able to have meaningful dialog, conflict, or relationships than ever.
All you have to do is look at the world around us, and you can see it. No one seems happy. People are polarized and angry at one another. Activism is fracturing people into increasingly smaller and smaller victim classes. Law and order is eroding, and the fabric of our society is unraveling as we speak. We are no better in the Steve Jobs era than we were in the Pepsi era. Any person who is being objective can see this.
With that, it is time for a new pitch.
If you want to change the world, limit investing in the limited and maximize your investment in the infinite. How do we do that? First, invest in a faithful church. Invest in a community that believes the Gospel and preaches it as their lives depend on it. Invest in a church that understands the disease of sin and liberally offers Christ as the only cure. Invest in a church that does not bend its knee to the world and woke culture but stands on God’s eternal and immutable truth!
How can you invest in this? I offer you three ways and one reminder.
Invest Your Time
One of the best ways to change the world is to get married, have lots of children, raise them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and teach them to invest their time in a local and faithful church. To fight to be there when the doors open and to value participation in the community. To help that church accomplish its mission. Listen intently to the sermon and walk away chewing on the truth of the Gospel throughout the week.
It involves teaching them to be present and active in the community and to give their lives for the very thing Jesus died for; His bride. It also involves teaching them how to go to work to the glory of God, how not to place their hope in their career, and how to build Jesus’ Kingdom through God-glorifying labor in their vocation (1 Cor. 10:31).
Paul says in Colossians 3:23:
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In the autumn of 2016, trans activists targeted Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, at the time a relatively obscure psychologist based at the University of Toronto. Peterson had released a video explaining why he opposed proposed Canadian legislation, Bill C-16, an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act regulating speech regarding gender identity. Due to his decades-long study of totalitarianism, Peterson stated in no uncertain terms that in the fight for civilization, language was always one of the first battlefields—and was thus the hill to die on. We all know how that fight went. Instead of getting cancelled, Peterson got rich and famous.
After the fact, many wondered: why was Peterson so willing to sacrifice his career over the issue of transgender pronouns? He is now one of the world’s most well-known intellectuals, but at the time there was every likelihood that his story would end the way most of these incidents do—with a quiet firing, a 24-hour news story, and another victory for the dudes in drag. I heard a student ask Peterson this question at one of his early lectures in 2017, before he launched his global tours marked by the presence of security and prohibitive speaking fees.
His response was simple: why not? Usually, he pointed out, there are few compelling reasons to die for any particular patch of soil. But in order to fight, one has to draw a line. For Peterson, that line was language. He would not say what the trans activists and their government enforcers told him he must say, because he refused to cede the right to choose his words to the state.
It is cliché to mention George Orwell these days—everyone does it. But when it comes to explaining how totalitarians of all stripes manipulate language for ideological ends, it is difficult to beat 1984. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?” Syme, of the Ministry of Truth, tells Winston Smith. “In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
When the range of available terminology is narrowed, so are the boundaries of the debate. When you accept the confines placed on language—or, in the case of ‘preferred pronouns’, use the compelled speech demanded of you—you accept ground chosen by your ideological opponents and agree to put aside the most potent weapons you have for making your case: words.