SPIRITUAL STIMULUS PLAN – THE NEED
INTRODUCTION: Sin isn't paying off quite as well as expected; at least, not on the stock market. The Vice Fund, a mutual fund that invests in the so-called "sin" industries -- distilleries, casinos, tobacco companies -- along with aerospace/defense, has plummeted by 42 percent in the last year. That is 4 percentage points worse than the Standard & Poor's 500 Index overall performance. That plunge in the Vice Fund's value is in the face of the conventional expectation that people will not cut back on drinking, smoking and gambling even in hard times. In contrast, the Ave Maria Growth Fund, which invests only in companies whose practices conform to Christian values, is down only 33 percent. It has beaten the Vice Fund by 9 points and S&P by 5 points. Writing in The Wall Street Journal about the difference in performance of the two funds, Brett Arends commented, "It's hardly a miracle -- but maybe enough to raise eyebrows on Wall Street, a secular place where the usual invocation is 'let us prey.'" "Sin" stocks are usually considered safe places for investments during downturns, as those industries normally have a strong cash flow even when other investments are tanking. But for some reason, that hasn't happened in the current recession. The Ave Maria Growth Fund has rules that steer it away from investments that in any way support things the church opposes; especially abortion and activities the church judges to be anti-family. In practice, those rules kept the fund away from such financial debacles as AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup and General Motors. Earlier this month, the Ave Maria Growth Fund was awarded the 2009 Lipper Award for Best Multi-Cap Core Fund for the three-year period ending December 31, 2008, out of 653 funds.
Now THAT’S a stimulus plan; a stimulus plan that’s guided by a spiritual focus. You may have heard that our country is experiencing some economic difficulties. Businesses are going bankrupt; people are losing jobs, homes, retirement, investments, and all semblance of financial security. The government’s response has been to borrow two trillion dollars to try and prop up the banking industry, insurance industry, auto industry, and so on. A trillion dollars here and a trillion dollars there and pretty soon you’re talking some REAL money. Time will tell whether it is successful. What I want to spend the next few weeks talking about is a SPIRITUAL stimulus plan because all this bad news has a way of weighing on people’s spirits with fear, anxiety, worry and depression.
The Apostle Paul was familiar with bad news and personal adversity. In AD 62, after spending years preaching the gospel on three missionary journeys, Paul found himself imprisoned in Rome awaiting trial on a capital offense. From his incarceration in Rome he wrote letters to churches including one to his favorite church, the church of Philippi. Paul had first come to Philippi about 10 years earlier during his second missionary trip (Acts 16). It was the first city in Europe where Paul preached and he founded the church there. The Christians in Philippi were facing many challenges including severe economic hardship due to civil wars in the area. Yet Paul’s letter to them is filled with joy, hope, confidence and faith. Clearly, there is a message for us in this Philippian letter.
Now let’s note three relevant parallels in Paul’s circumstances to our situation today that shows the need for a spiritual stimulus plan.
I. THE AUTHOR HAD A TENUOUS HOUSING SITUATION
Philippians 1:13 “I am in chains for Christ”.
We know Paul’s housing situation by comparing references in Philippians to Luke’s history in the book of Acts. Paul was brought to Rome as a prisoner. He had been accused by the Jews in Jerusalem and Caesarea of fomenting insurrection among the Jews, of profaning the temple, and of being a ringleader of the hated sect of the Nazarenes (Christians). Paul had appealed his case, requesting to be tried before Caesar himself, rather than before the prejudiced Roman governors in Judea, who often sought to please the Jews more than they sought justice. While in Rome, Paul lived in a kind of house arrest. House arrest for Paul wasn’t an electronic ankle bracelet like Paris Hilton got to wear while serving her time at home. He had a rented dwelling, possibly located somewhere near the camp of the Roman Praetorian guard, and constantly wore a long chain which coupled him to a Roman soldier who was always with him. That was his housing situation.
The housing situation for many of us today has certainly deteriorated. I know that some of us have lost homes or are in the process of losing homes. The April (09) foreclosure rate rose 32% compared with the same month in ’08. Nevada, Florida and California lead the nation in foreclosures. 342,000 households received a foreclosure notice in April ‘09 and 340,000 in March ‘09. Some of us are one or two paychecks away from losing our homes and with the current job market, that’s a frighteningly realistic prospect. I know that some of us have had to downsize from large homes to smaller homes. Some of us have seen the value of our homes decrease to the point that we owe more on the mortgage than the homes are currently worth in the open market. Some of us have gone from being owners to being renters. Some of us have had to move in with our parents or children. Almost everyone’s home situation is in a state of flux. When your housing situation is tenuous it can contribute to feelings of worry, anxiety, fear and doubt. These feelings are the enemies of faith. That’s why we need to tap into Paul’s “spiritual stimulus plan” as it is unveiled in the book of Philippians. As bad as our housing situation might be, is anyone here as bad off as Paul? Is anyone here chained to a soldier under house arrest? Obviously not or you wouldn’t be here. And yet, in spite of Paul’s tenuous housing situation the Philippian letter is full of joy and confidence and hope and faith. That’s why we need to tap into Paul’s “spiritual stimulus plan” as it is unveiled in the book of Philippians.
II. THE AUTHOR LIVED IN A CONTENTIOUS SOCIO-POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
Philippians 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven.”
When Paul was in Rome, Nero was in power. Nero ruled Rome from AD 54 – 68. Paul was in Rome from AD 62-63. Although Nero started his rule well, he ended it as one of the most monstrous, cruel and insane rulers in all of history. Nero taxed the people heavily. In AD 64 two-thirds of Rome burned and many Romans became suspicious that Nero himself had started the fire. To shift the blame Nero accused the Christians of the crime and slew thousands of them, covering them with pitch and burning them as human torches, and throwing them to the lions in the coliseum. Nero’s persecution was the first of ten great persecutions instigated by Roman emperors against the Christians.
We live in a contentious socio-political environment today. I’m not necessarily talking about Republicans verses Democrats here. I’m talking about the political corruption, fiscal mismanagement and collapse of values that seems to characterize so much of the political process across party lines. Newsletters solely devoted to government antagonism toward Christians and Christian values are proliferating. I could reel off examples of anti-Christian bias for you but I know you’re already aware of it and I’m preaching to the choir. So many of my conversations, probably like yours, seem to gravitate toward the deteriorating socio-political environment in which we live. Be very careful about placing too much trust in “government solutions.”
QUOTE: Dobson told his radio listeners Tuesday (May '09):
I want to tell you up front that we're not going to ask you to do anything, to make a phone call or to write a letter or anything. There is nothing you can do at this time about what is taking place because there is simply no limit to what the left can do at this time. Anything they want, they get and so we can't stop them. I've been on the air for 32 years and I've never seen a time quite like this and...the utter evil that's coming out of the United States Congress. It just illustrates what happens when we don't have what the Founding Fathers referred to as checks and balances.
ILLUSTRATION: The ant and the grasshopper. Two different versions - two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Take responsibility for yourself!
MODERN VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green. The ant's taxes are raised and his home is confiscated by the government. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Don’t put your hope in government.
The government is gaining more and more authority coupled with less and less moral restraint and that causes feelings of worry, anxiety, fear and doubt. But, these feelings are the enemies of faith. As bad as our socio-political environment may be, is it worse than Paul’s? Are there government agents trying to cover you with tar and set you on fire? Are there government soldiers waiting to feed you to a lion? And yet in spite of Paul’s contentious socio-political situation the Philippian letter is full of joy and confidence and hope and faith. That’s why we need to tap into Paul’s “spiritual stimulus plan” as it is unveiled in the book of Philippians.
III. THE AUTHOR FACED ECONOMIC INSTABILITY
Philippians 4:12 “I know what it is to be in need”
When Paul wrote Philippians he was dependent upon others for his financial support and that support was tenuous and intermittent at best. Paul knew what it meant to be in need, to be homeless and to go hungry. Likewise, the recipients of Paul’s letter, the Philippians, were in economic turmoil. In the words of Paul they lived in “extreme poverty” (II Corinthians 8:2) having been overtaxed by the government and also having recently suffered through several civil wars.
We live in a time of great economic instability. Some say we’re in a recession and others say it’s a depression or close to it. Ronald Reagan used to say that the difference between a recession and a depression is that when your neighbor loses his job it’s a recession but when you lose YOUR job it’s a depression.
EXAMPLE: I’ve only been fired from one job in my life, and it’s the first job I ever had. I was an 18-year-old kid working for Scotty’s lumber in Jacksonville, Florida. They started me out working in the warehouse stacking lumber and helping people find their stuff, and that was fine. But then they made me a delivery truck driver on one of those flat-bed delivery trucks. I’m not a great driver now and I was a whole lot worse then. Within a very short time I had bent the “Scotty’s” sign on the top of the truck down flat, torn off both side mirrors while backing into a gate, gotten lost numerous times and even dropped an improperly secured load of roofing tar onto the Fuller-Warren bridge in rush-hour traffic. I remember the day my boss, Leon, called me into his office, handed me a pink slip and said “Steve, I think you ought to think about pursuing another line of work.” I said, “I’ve been thinking about going to Bible College.” He said, “That sounds like a good idea.” I went home, went to my room, closed the door and cried. I was so demoralized. And I didn’t even have any real financial obligations to worry about! I was still living at home, single, with no kids. It was just the emotional impact of being “let go.”
It doesn’t really matter how the economy is doing if you lose your job or can’t get a job, it’s depressing. People are losing their jobs at unprecedented rates, incomes are shrinking, prices are rising, wealth is disappearing and no one really knows what is going to happen in the economy, only that the future looks grim. All of this economic instability causes feelings of worry, anxiety, fear and doubt. These feelings are the enemies of faith. But is our economic stability any worse than Paul’s? Have we been confined to a room for the last two years totally dependent upon the intermittent financial gifts of far away friends? Are we living in an impoverished land torn by civil war? And yet in spite of Paul’s economic instability the Philippian letter is full of joy and confidence and hope and faith. That’s why we need to tap into Paul’s “spiritual stimulus plan” as it is unveiled in the book of Philippians. This is a letter that speaks to our needs. The path to peace in the midst of tumultuous circumstances is a SPIRITUAL path. The stimulus we really need is one that the government can never provide. We need a SPIRITUAL stimulus plan.
CONCLUSION: Dear Abby recorded a powerful story. A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was a custom in their affluent community for parents to give their graduating children a new car, and the boy and his dad had spent weeks visiting one dealership after another. The week before graduation they found the perfect car. They boy was certain it would be in the driveway on graduation night. On the eve of his graduation, however, his father handed him a small package wrapped in colorful paper. The Father said the package contained the most
valuable gift the Father could think of. It was a Bible! The boy was so angry he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again.
Several years later the news of the father’s death finally brought the son home again. Following the funeral, he sat alone one evening, going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit when he came across the Bible his dad had given him. Overwhelmed by grief, he brushed away the dust and cracked it open for the first time. When he did, a cashier’s check dated the day of his high school graduation fell into his lap --in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together. The gift had been there all along but he had turned away. The most valuable gift the Father has given us is the word of God. The only way we can learn to live with all of the pressure, problems, and perplexities of life is to learn how to live in the word of God.
For the next thirteen weeks I invite you to come back for God’s spiritual stimulus plan as it’s revealed in the book of Philippians. We’re going to talk about relationships, evangelism, hope, steadfastness, unity, obedience, kindred spirits, assurance, holiness, peace, attitude, contentment and generosity. This plan comes with a guarantee: put it into practice and it’s guaranteed to revive our SPIRITUAL economy.
