April 25, 2010
Sermon #833

God's Economics

The United States is in an economic crisis. Our forefathers built the nation and its laws (the constitution and bill of rights) upon two things. A democratic republic and a capitalistic economic system, which is Biblically based.

Matthew 25:14 - 29 (NKJV) ¹⁴"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
¹⁵And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
¹⁶Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.
¹⁷And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.
¹⁸But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord's money.
¹⁹After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
²⁰"So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.'
²¹His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

²²He also who had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.'
²³His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'
²⁴"Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
²⁵And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'
²⁶"But his lord answered and said to him, 'You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.
²⁷So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
²⁹'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

Introduction: A talent in Roman days was not your gift; it was a Roman coin. Jesus started the parable by saying this is what the Kingdom of God is like, and then He gives us the economics of the Kingdom.

The person who will not invest and improve what he has is a "lazy servant" and will lose even what he has.
Proverbs 12:24 (NKJV) ²⁴The hand of the diligent will rule, But the lazy man will be put to forced labor.

Whatever feeds you – rules you!
ILL: Egypt
Genesis 41:46 - 57 (NKJV) ⁴⁶Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. ⁴⁷Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly.
⁴⁸So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them.
⁴⁹Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.
⁵⁰And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him.
⁵¹Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house."

⁵²And the name of the second he called Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
⁵³Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended,
⁵⁴and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
⁵⁵So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do."
⁵⁶The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt.
⁵⁷So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.
- Where did Joseph get the grain? – from the Egyptians
- Who did Joseph represent? – Pharaoh, the government of Egypt
- How did the government redistribute the gain? – sold it equally.
- What happened to God's people?
  
  Exodus 1:8 - 14 (NKJV) ⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. ⁹And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
  ¹⁰come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land."
  ¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.
  ¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
  ¹³So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
  ¹⁴And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
- Study the process;
  - Need
  - Taxation
  - Redistribution of wealth
  - Slavery
- Whatever you depend upon becomes your God!
  Matthew 6:24 - 34 (NKJV) ²⁴"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
  ²⁵"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
  ²⁶Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
  ²⁷Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
  ²⁸"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
  ²⁹and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
  
  ³⁰Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
  ³¹"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
  ³²For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
  ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
  ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
  ILL: Look into the history of the Socialist Russian Union. From Socialism as an economic system, to Communism as a political system to Atheistic belief is a process.
  Pius XI famously wrote, "no one can be at the same time a good Catholic and a true socialist."
  Other Christian critics, such as Doug Bandow, have alleged that the government compulsion necessary for Socialism contradicts the Apostle Paul's advice: "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (II Corinthians 9:7) Bandow continues: "Most important, the Christian faith recognizes that all human institutions are flawed, and that sinful men are likely to misuse their power."
The Jews desired to return to Egypt because of the dangers of living by faith.
The ultimate government control
Revelation 13:15 (NKJV) ¹⁵He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. ¹⁶He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, ¹⁷and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ¹⁸Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.
ILL: This is economic & social equality – small and great, rich and poor, free and slave!
- The economic history is : Barter – metal coins – paper money – paper checks – electronic transactions – worldwide electronic transactions –barcode