Real Social Security

Real Social Security

Psalm 37:3-5

Intro: I’m not sure if you’ve seen the news lately, but we are in an election year.

Yeah, I know, seems like just 4 years ago we went through all of this.

Let’s see, it’s the last week of July and the election is the first week of November, so we have…(count months on hand) still enough time for us all get a new roll of duct tape and wrap it around our heads to keep them from exploding.

This election, like all of the others before will no doubt take on a personality of its own.

Looks like it might be a replay of 1992 when the economy was the big deal.

Just 4 years ago when a majority of the debate centered on the war in Iraq.

And in 2000 who could forget the Social Security debate.

We really haven’t heard much about that this time around though.

Remember: We had George W. Bush on one side looking for a “strategery” that involved personal investing…

And Algore encouraged the “Social Security Lock Box”…yeah, good times; or not so much.

Anyone know the actual name of the Social Security Program?

Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI)

As we know it is a federal program funded through a payroll tax we know as “FICA”…the Federal Insurance Contributions Act.

The Social Security Act was signed into law at approx. 3:30PM EST on August 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Act was created to “provide benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit payable at death. Payments to current retirees were (and continue to be) financed by a payroll tax on current workers’ wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer.”

Yeah…that is what it is supposed to do at least.

I’m sure we all have our opinion of Social Security, and that really is for another time and another place…but I do want to talk about Social Security this morning none the less.

Not the government based program we all know and love so well…but real social security.

A real social security that thankfully is not in the hands of the federal government…but is in much better hands.

Let’s read about it this morning.

Read Psalm 37:3-5 and pray.

One afternoon a few weeks back I came across this passage while doing my Bible study and thought, “Wow…a 3 point sermon, right there for me, thanks God!”

And quickly jotted down the points God showed me in the margin and then looked up at the chapter title so that I could hopefully remember where it was and saw this description…read chapter description.

And then I said, “Thanks God, a sermon and a title!”

The truth is God does give us security that is beyond our imagination.

And it is this social security I want us to consider this morning.

But why do I call it “real Social Security”?

Let’s look at definitions of those two words (in your bulletin)

Social: of or relating to human society…or the welfare of human beings as members of society

Security: the quality or state of being secure

Social Security is not a government mandated financial program…it is protection God offers to His people.

Real social security what God offers to you today.

No paper work, no 9-digit numbers you need to memorize, and no taxes included.

There are 3 keys to this security:

First of all, you must have…

1. Trust…

One of the things I love about these verses is how they read like Proverbs…and admonition followed by a promise.

Read vs. 3

If you trust in the Lord you dwelling place will be established.

For us as born again believers this is not a promise related to a physical land, but is a promise about our eternal inheritance.

If we trust in the Lord then our eternity can and will be sealed.

But to not trust in the Lord also seals our eternity.

God created us for a reason…the pinnacle of His creation so that we might relate to Him; but changed about 6000 years ago in a Garden called Eden.

It was there that the first sin took place…God said don’t do it, the man and woman did it anyway.

Since that day a sin nature has been passed on from generation to generation, even to today and you and I have perfected it in our own ways.

Scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God according to Romans 3:23, and the 3 chapters later we are told “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

There is a debt that must be paid because of our sin, but God showed His love for us in sending His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.