TEXT: Romans 13:8

SUBJECT: Family Life #27: Paying Your Bills

This afternoon, with the Lord’s help, we’ll continue our study of Family Life. The topic is one most families need help with—but few very want it. They say they do, but their actions and attitudes prove they’re not serious. The subject is Paying Your Bills.

Of course it is. I’m not sure anything causes more friction between husbands and wives than wondering how they can pay their bills. What starts with them soon reaches the children and results in an unhappy home life for everyone.

I can’t prove this, but I suspect many "unrelated problems at home" are, in fact, closely related to paying your bills. An irresponsible husband, for example, is hard to respect. A wife who won’t control her spending is hard to love. Parents who are always fighting about money are hard to obey. And when you’re wondering if you’re electricity is going to be turned off, it’s hard to spend much "quality time" with your kids. Lines of communication are either choked with screaming and nagging or cut off entirely.

Like "the love of money, not paying your bills "is the root of all kinds of evil".

Yes He does. In fact, He more than wants it—He commands it! Our verse says so,

Now, what does this mean? Some have taken it absolutely. They believe that all borrowing is wrong and that any debt—including a mortgage—is sinful. I know a man who is so opposed to taking out a loan, he won’t buy a house until he can pay for it with cash. I admire the man’s patience and integrity, but I don’t think that’s what our verse requires.

The great commentator, John Murray, explains it this way,

The Golden Rule teaches the same thing. It says,

Prophets" (Matthew 7:12).

Some of you—I know—have clients or customers. Do you want them to pay their bills? If you do, pay yours. Or, does it hurt you when they don’t pay? If it does, then it hurts them when you don’t pay!

One more thing here: If you think about what "bills" are and what they’re for, it becomes obvious that the Lord wants you to pay them. What is a bill? It’s a call to keep your promise. You agreed to pay so much for something, the bill says, now do it. And what is a bill for? It’s for some kind of work. Now, is "The laborer worthy of his hire?" He is. That means you’ve got to pay him for what he did for you.

If this is what bills are and what they’re for, it follows that the habit of not paying them paying them is both lying and stealing. It may be legal to not pay your bills, but it’s still wrong.

The Lord wants you to pay your bills.

No, they’re not. Some debts are unavoidable. How can a family plan for a catastrophic illness or accident? Or, how can the hardest working man provide for his family if he loses his job and cannot find another one? Other debts are the result of swindling or natural disaster or oppression or other outside forces—including Satan (see the Book of Job).

Falling victim to these things does not make you a deadbeat. If you have, you have nothing to be ashamed of. And before we criticize others for not paying their bills, we need to know their circumstances.

Not all debts are the result of sin or folly—but a lot of them are.

Some people can’t pay their bills because they don’t make enough money. That’s not sinful, of course, unless it’s the fruit of sin. What sins keep people from earning enough to live on?

• Laziness. This takes many forms. Some men won’t learn the skills necessary for a job. Others have the skills, but won’t look for a job. Some have a job but lose it because they won’t hustle. In every case, bills go unpaid because

• Pride. Some men think they’re too good to work with their hands or to take an entry-level position. They may want to work, but they’re not willing to take what they can get! These leads to a spotty work record and unpaid bills as far as the eye can see. All because of pride. And that’s a sin.

• Rotten attitude. Some men are very skilled and hard-working, but they can’t get along with anyone. They won’t do things the way the boss says to do them, for example. Or they gripe all the time. Or gossip. Or, in some other way, make life miserable for everyone at work. The rotten attitude keeps them from earning a good living and paying their bills.

• Stupidity. What if a man loves his minimum-wage job? Is there anything wrong with that? No, there isn’t. But if that’s the kind of work he wants to do, he can’t do some other things. For example, he can’t marry or have kids. Why? Not because either minimum wage jobs or having a family is bad, but because you can’t have both and also pay your bills! It’s not wrong to have a low IQ; it’s not wrong to be uneducated. But willful stupidity is wrong!

If the Lord wants you to pay your bills, He also wants you to make enough money to do it! That means you’ve got to prepare for work and work--hard, smart, and with a good attitude.

The other reason people can’t pay their bills is they spend too much. What do I mean by "too much"? I mean "more than they can afford. How does that happen?

It is not usually the result of luxury items. I’ve known many people in debt, and not one of them drove a Maserati, lived in a mansion, wore a mink coat, or vacationed in Tahiti. They don’t have the credit—or the guts—to spend that kind of money.

If Big-Ticket items don’t bury us in debt, what does? The little things. Let me give you three examples. They’re highly selective, of course—and deeply prejudiced!

1. Fast Food. I can cook five hamburgers and a basket of cut potatoes, and buy sodas for about five dollars. The same meal—at Jack in the Box—would cost twenty-five dollars. Now, if the fast food were far tastier or healthier than my homemade food, you might think it’s worth the difference. But is it? Does anyone over 18 really like fast food? Or is it the ambience of paper cups, plastic trays and noisy kids that you’re paying for? No, of course, it’s the convenience we want. But I can eat those burgers at home sooner than I can drive to Jack in the Box and buy them.

This is not a huge expense. But it has a way of adding up. $20/week saved on fast food becomes $1,040/year. Wouldn’t that cover some bills you can’t otherwise pay?

2. Cable TV. The basic rate is about $40/month. If you add Premium Channels to that, it’s much higher. Unplugging the Cable will save you $500/year. Watching less TV will save you a whole lot more! How often have you seen things you couldn’t live without? Only you didn’t know that until you saw them on TV?
3. Internet Access. To get on the Internet will cost you from $25-$50/month. Unplugging it, therefore, will save you from about $300-$600/year. Now on this one, many parents will protest! The Web is so educational, they say. But, honestly, are your kids getting on the Net to learn? If they are at times, couldn’t they learn the same things, even better, from a book?

No. A legalist would say, "God commands you to cut off the cable, unplug the net, and stay away from McDonald’s". But I haven’t said that. Or implied it, either. The Lord neither commands nor forbids these things. Thus, they’re a matter of liberty. If you can pay your bills, live at Burger King if you want to, while working on your laptop, and talking about The Sopranos!

But if you can’t pay your bills, these would be good ways to save money. If you can think of better ways—God bless you. The point is, if you can’t get your income up to your expenses, take your expenses down to your income.

You’ve got to do one another--if you want to pay your bills.

When it comes to debt, the best way to get out of it is to stay out of it. You can never start to young paying your bills. Kids, if you’ve borrowed money from someone, don’t buy anything until you’ve paid it back!

Young adults need to hear this too. I know a young man who must make $75,000/year. He’s unmarried, has no kids, and lives with friends. The same young man is up to his chin in debt. Why? Because—early on—he got in the habit of spending more than he made. Don’t get into that habit!

If you can’t afford a car, ride the bus. If you can’t afford a new car, buy an old one. If you don’t have money to go to the movies, stay home.

If you don’t believe me, talk to people who have been in debt for twenty or thirty years. They’d give anything to be where you are now. And to not make the mistakes that you haven’t made yet. Stay out of debt!!! That’s Number One.

Number Two is this: Cultivate a horror of debt. I’ve never made much money, but I’ve always paid my bills. Except for my wife’s good sense, the main reason I’ve done it is because debt makes me sick to my stomach! A few years ago, a friend lent me $600. Although he put no pressure on me at all, I scrimped and saved, sold books, and collected cans to pay him back. I can’t stand being in debt.

But many people can. They don’t like being hounded by creditors, of course, but unpaid bills don’t really bother them. John Murray calls it,

If you say ho hum to your unpaid bills, you’ll never pay them. Cultivate a stomach turning, head-throbbing, bowel-loosening, knee-knocking horror of debts, and you’ll go a long way toward staying out of them. Proverbs 6:1-5.

Number Three: Remember you have no right to things you can’t pay for—and neither do your kids!

If you can’t make your mortgage payments, you have no right to own a house. I don’t care if all your friends do, you can’t have one. You want your kids to have a good education, of course, but if you can’t afford the tuition at a private school, don’t send them there! You have no right to a cell phone; no right to a TV; nor right to a car; no right to a roast beef sandwich. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.

Number Four: Don’t use a credit card to supplement your income. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using a credit card. But you shouldn’t live on it. Here’s why: It’s APR is likely to rise a whole lot faster than your income! How many of you expect to get a 20% raise at work this year? Not many of us will. But that’s the rate a bank is charging you for using its card.

Number Five: Don’t bounce checks. Last Wednesday night I went to Albertson’s for some chips and salsa. The bill was about $5.00. I wrote a check for it. But what if the checked had bounced? It would have cost me $50.00! For that, I could have gone to a Mexican restaurant, had better chips and salsa, a whole dinner, and five margaritas! Bouncing checks is one of the wasteful things you can do. And unnecessary. Because all you have to do is keep your balance up to date.

Number Six: Learn to do some things. If you don’t know how to pump gas, learn how—it’ll save you $5/tankful. If you don’t know how to change the oil on your car, learn how—it could save you $100/year or more. If you don’t know how to cook, learn how! A single person can eat well on $3000/year. But if he goes out for every meal? At $20/day (that’s cheap), he’ll spend $7,300/year. That extra four thousand will pay off a lot of bills in a hurry!

Number Seven: Get the advice of someone who knows how to fix a budget, pay down debt, and so on. Larry Burkett is a Christian financial counselor and he has a network of associates who—I think—will advise you free of charge. Use him. Or someone else.

Some issues are spiritual, but others are technical and very few non-professionals can help you with them. Talk to a financial advisor, an accountant, an attorney, or someone else who knows how to do it.

But, don’t confuse counseling with repentance! If you won’t do what the counselor tells you to do, you’re wasting your time and his! Don’t seek advice unless you’re ready to follow it.

Number Eight: Where debt is caused by sins, repent of them. If you’ve been lazy, work harder. If you’ve been wasteful, cut back. If you’re hard to work with, get a good attitude. If you’re too good to start an entry-level, humble yourself.

Number Nine: Pray, Psalm 127:1.

Number Ten: Start now!

Here, a great deal could be said. And maybe should be. But, just think of all the bad things that come from not paying your bills. And take them away—the tension, the headaches, the fears, the fights, on and on. Then, reverse them. Instead of tension, you have comfort; instead of fears, you have confidence; instead of fights, you have peace.

Paying your bills will give you freedom, Proverbs 22:7.

Paying your bills will make you useful, Ephesians 4:28.

Paying you bills will enhance your witness and glorify your Savior.