"Make Money Serve" Proverbs, Practical Kingdom Living, #4

Sunday, October 5, 2014. Proverbs (various)

- "In a church in the deep South, the preacher was moving to the end of his message, and with increasing intensity he said,

- "This church, like the crippled man, has got to get up and walk."

- The congregation responded, "That's right, preacher. Let it walk."

- He added, "This church, like Elijah on Mount Carmel, has got to run."

- "Run, let it run, preacher. Let it run."

- "This church has got to mount up on wings like eagles and fly."

- "Let it fly, preacher. Let it fly."

- Then he added, "Now if this church is going to fly, it's going to take money."

- "Let it walk, preacher. Let it walk."

- In another story, a man met his pastor at the door on the way out after Sunday morning service, and said,

- "Pastor, I'm glad you said you didn't know where the money was going to come from to operate this church. I was afraid you were going to ask us for it."

- Through Proverbs, Solomon gives us a biblical viewpoint that will help us look at money as God does.

- Solomon taught his son that money, while necessary for life and a useful tool, is incapable of meeting human spiritual needs and can corrupt the heart.

- When I fear the Lord, I won't serve money; I'll make money serve Him.

- This morning we're going to explore this idea in three ways:

- We're going to look at what money can do, what money can't do, and money and the heart, then we'll take a short look at how we can apply what we learn to our lives.

- First, Money Can…

- 1. Money can provide some protection.

- Proverbs 10:15 and 18:11

- 10:15, "A rich man's wealth is his strong city; the poverty of the poor is their ruin."

- If you have some money, a crisis or an emergency can be easily faced without much stress with savings or cash on hand, but if you have no cash or no savings, an emergency or crisis has the potential to leave you as helpless as the poor.

- Proverbs 18:11, "A rich man's wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination."

- The wealthy imagine their wealth makes them impregnable, totally secure, like a high wall, nearly impossible to scale and easy to defend, while it is basically true, wealth, however, doesn't guarantee invincibility.

- The Lord is the only indestructible tower to whom the righteous can run and be safe (18:10).

- Money can provide some protection.

- 2. Money can bring influence.

- Proverbs 19:6-7, "Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them."

- The poor man in this proverb has no influence over his brothers or his friends.

- He can't even win them over with a convincing argument.

- His words fall on deaf ears.

- The generous wealthy person, however, is another story.

- Imagine how many friends you would have seeking your favor if you gave generous gifts to everyone you knew.

- Money can bring influence.

- 3. (And most importantly) Money can be used to honor the Lord.

- Proverbs 3:9-10, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats be bursting with wine."

- In the Law of Moses, the Lord commanded the godly to bring their first and best from the harvest as an offering in faith and worship to him.

- While it may seem more practical and useful to keep our first and best for ourselves, God promised to bless those who faithfully and obediently bring what he commanded.

- The blessing God promises is not a blessing for us to keep for ourselves.

- Just as God promised to make Abraham a blessing so that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed, so also the blessing of filled barns and bursting vats of new wine are not for our benefit alone.

- God blesses us with plenty to make us a blessing to others.

- Money can bring influence; money can provide some protection; and money can be used to honor God.

- When I fear the Lord, I won't serve money; I'll make money serve Him.

- Now let's take a look at what money can't do.

- Second, Money Can't…

- 1. Money can't buy a longer life.

- Proverbs 11:4, "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death."

- The Lord Jesus said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?" (Matthew 16:25-26)

- Contrary to what we see in the media, money won't buy you a longer life, that's just wishful thinking.

- Money can't buy a longer life; only God's righteousness can deliver us from death.

- Eternal life can only be found in Christ Jesus.

- 2. Money can't buy freedom from trouble.

- Proverbs 15:16, "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it."

- It is a fantasy to think that money brings a life of ease.

- W. H. Vanderbilt said, "The care of $200 million (equal to several billion today)...is enough to kill a man. There is no pleasure in it." 

- Most people would choose wealth over poverty, but what if that wealth brought with it heaps of trouble and worry?

- It's better to live paycheck to paycheck and fear the Lord than have all the worries and turmoil that can come with great wealth.

- Solomon teaches that there are many other things money can't do, but let's just consider one more.

- 3. Money can't replace integrity.

- Proverbs 28:6, "Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways."

- A poor man's daily walk of blameless integrity before God is infinitely more valuable to him than a wealthy person who calls evil good and good evil.

- Money can't replace integrity; money can't buy freedom from trouble; and money can't buy a longer life

- When I fear the Lord, I won't serve money; I'll make money serve Him.

- Now let's look briefly at money and the heart.

- Third, Money and the Heart.

- 1. Money can rob the heart of compassion.

- Proverbs 18:23, "The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly."

- Imagine a poor man wearing dirty rags, begging for mercy at the feet of a wealthy man all decked out in his finest clothes and jewelry.

- The heart of the wealthy man is callous and feels no obligation to show the poor man any mercy whatsoever.

- The wealthy man mercilessly demands immediate repayment of the poor man's debt.

- Solomon gives us an ugly picture of a heart controlled by money, emptied of compassion.

- 2. Money can rob the heart of humility.

- Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

- Here is a poor man who is left with no choice but to borrow from a rich man to survive and the rich man, his heart robbed of humility and puffed up with arrogance, sees the poor man as someone to be used for his own personal gain.

- He lords the poor man's debt over him, while the poor man has no way out from under the man who wields power and control over him.

- Solomon gives us another ugly image of a heart controlled by money, robbed of humility on a power trip.

- 3. Money can rob the heart of discernment.

- Proverbs 23:4-5, "Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven."

- When I was 17 years old, I joined the Army reserves, mainly because the pay was good.

- It was hard, stressful work because of the ever present authoritarianism of my angry, alcoholic boss.

- While I made a lot of money, at least by my unimaginative youthful standards, I found it difficult to save money, and spent about half of everything I made, some summers, when I was supposed to be saving up for University.

- Much of the money I made sprouted wings and flew away or so it seemed. It was like it just disappeared.

- Obviously, it didn't just disappear, I spent it unwisely.

- When making money becomes our only goal, we aren't exercising discernment.

- A money-driven heart lacks discernment.

- When I fear the Lord, I won't serve money; I'll make money serve Him.

- Daniel Defoe's classic novel, Robinson Crusoe, was actually written as an allegory or parable of the Christian life.

- In it, Defoe teaches his understanding of how to live as a Christian.

- After being stranded on an isolated island, Crusoe shortly begins to admit the reality that he might possibly never get off the island.

- Of his impossible situation, Crusoe said:

- "I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have."

- How then should we live? What should we do?

- I want to suggest Three Possible Applications:

- First, Decide to live inside the standard of living God has given you.

- A. Exercise self-control; don't overspend.

- B. Exercise self-control; don't give in to impulse buying.

- C. Set a budget and stick to it.

- Second, Cultivate thankfulness toward God's gifts/provision.

- Too often we spend a lot of time being thankless, i.e., complaining, about what God has not given, so cultivate thankfulness.

- A. Thank God for what you have, often throughout each day.

- B. Choose to see complaining for what it is: sin against God.

- Third, Store up treasure in heaven – be generous.

- A. If you don't yet tithe, pray about how to start taking steps toward giving a tithe, 10%, to the local church.

- B. Give sacrificially to meet the needs of others.

- Why? Giving is the only medicine against the sin of greed and selfishness in our lives.

- C. Give away quality goods you haven't been using to those in need. Why? Giving stuff away that you're not using keep you from hoarding stuff you don't need when there are others who have needs.

- When I fear the Lord, I won't serve money; I'll make money serve Him.