Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I was in a church history class with Dr. Gerald Bray, world renowned scholar of theology and Old Testament. Very eccentric guy, very smart, brilliant.
[00:00:17] He would wear chacos with white socks to class every day, dress pants and a short sleeve dress shirt. And he would come in every day for class and he would sit on the desk up front with his feet hanging off the front of the desk. And he would sit there for two and a half hours and not stop talking, no notes.
[00:00:45] And he just recounted church history and theology from the very beginning. And it was a fascinating class.
[00:00:53] And on this day he was giving a profound lecture, I'm sure. But I wasn't listening because I was balancing our monthly budget and wasn't on a computer or phone that wasn't around me. It was just paper in front of me. And I kept balancing our budget and coming up hundreds of dollars short, over and over.
[00:01:19] And those were just our bills, nothing beyond our bills.
[00:01:24] Electric bill, water bill, rent, that was all that was on the sheet. And we were hundreds of dollars short over and over and over again.
[00:01:34] I was a seminary student with only a part time job. Denae was working full time at a school at that time. But we were committed that when Titus was born, in just a few weeks she was going to come home.
[00:01:49] And I was trying to figure out how in the world we were going to make this happen.
[00:01:54] And another issue was our insurance was not going to pay for much of the delivery of our son.
[00:02:02] And I had no idea what we were going to do. And we don't have parents that could just bail us out or we didn't really know. We were kind of alone in Birmingham with just the two of us. And most recently we were down to one car, a car that someone gave us. The transmission went out and we had just moved into a larger apartment to make room for our son that was about to be born before we were in a one bedroom apartment. It was very, very small, right next to the interstate, very, very loud there in Birmingham, Alabama. And I know what some of you are thinking at this point. You're thinking that this story is going to turn into one of those. And God just miraculously provided for all of our needs and we've trusted him ever since.
[00:02:51] That's not how this story ends.
[00:02:55] I left class that day and I remember walking across campus to the financial aid office, beautiful fall day, to take out a loan, something I would not recommend for anyone to do. But I had no other choice in that moment if I was going to pay for my son's delivery, for him to Be born. And I remember very clearly muttering to myself as I walked across that beautiful campus there, Samford in Birmingham, Alabama. I remember muttering to myself, I hate money.
[00:03:37] I hate it. I can't wait until the day where I don't have to think about these things.
[00:03:45] Whether it's I make more money, which my calling. There was not a lot of prospects for that at the time, or Jesus just comes and I don't have to worry about this. I hate money. I remember saying that very clearly. And here today, there are all kinds of different views about money in the room.
[00:04:06] Some of us hate it.
[00:04:08] Some of us view it as an unnecessary evil or a necessary evil. We don't like money. We don't like this conversation. We don't like to talk about money. There are others in the room today, and it's an idol for you. You absolutely love money. You put a lot of hope and confidence in money. And you can do that today, whether you're rich or poor, you can have a lot of money and put a lot of confidence in it, or you can have very little money and hope for it. And that's where you would find your security if you just had more. Rich or poor, you can see money as an idol. Others here today just like it. You like money, you like numbers and finances and talking about the economy and these things.
[00:04:58] And then I'll tell you this, many today are just ignorant when it comes to money. You don't know how it works. You don't even think much about it. You don't know that there's a wrong and a right way to think about money. You don't know that money has a purpose because of God in your life. Well, when we come to the book of Proverbs, Proverbs ends up being very positive about money. As I was studying, I was thinking Proverbs is very negative about money. And now I'm realized, no, no, Proverbs is very positive when it comes to money. Even though in Proverbs we see the discussion of poverty that comes from injustice and laziness and foolishness. We even see the topic of riches or luxury in Proverbs. That can be a distraction that can cause us to idolize the stuff that we have.
[00:06:00] But at best, Proverbs puts forth an idea of what we might call wealth. Now, that doesn't mean luxury, riches. When Proverbs talks about wealth, it's simply talking about the resources that God has provided you. Wealth, resources that God has given you. And so you see in the outline, and if you go to Ashland Church Blog. You. You'll see the outline of the whole sermon there. The first question is, what is wealth? And it is the abundance from which God provides for us, meets our needs. It's not just currency or dollars and coins, it's how God meets our needs. And Proverbs tells us through wisdom. Most often God meets our needs in abundance. He gives us more than what we need. And for everyone in the room here today, compared to the rest of the world and compared to human history, we are all very wealthy.
[00:07:07] Now, there are situations beyond our control where we may have less or we may be financially strained, but because of where we live, we all have access to provision, and we all have access and opportunity for what Proverbs describes as wealth. What Proverbs says is, it all comes down to foolishness or wisdom for you when it comes down to resources and provision and ultimately wealth. And the first point, and we're going to move through some initial points very quickly before we get to God's plan for wealth or provision. And the first point we want to make is when we think about wealth, we got to understand wisdom is the goal, wealth isn't the goal. And you can't get that twisted. Proverbs 8, verses 10 through 11, Solomon says, Take my instruction talking to his son, instead of silver and knowledge rather than choice, gold. For wisdom is better than jewels. And all that you may desire cannot compare to her. So no possession that you could ever have can compare to wisdom. And that's where you've got to start. I need to be wise. I don't need to be rich.
[00:08:33] I need to have wisdom, not wealth. In Proverbs 15, verses 16 through 17, we read, Better is a little with fear of the Lord. And so you can be poor and still fear the Lord. And that's better than wealth. That's better than money, he says, better than great treasure and trouble with it, more money, more problems.
[00:09:02] You can have little and still fear the Lord. And that is better than wealth. And think about who's writing this. Solomon.
[00:09:10] Solomon, who was wealthy, rich, had a lot of stuff, extravagance, luxury. And he turns to his son and he says, at the end of the day, wisdom is more valuable than any of this. And Solomon even prays to the Lord, give me wisdom. And God gives him wisdom and wealth to teach us about wisdom in wealth. And so it is better to be poor and wise than a rich fool. And that's what you've got to understand as a Christian when it comes to the issue of money, what God is Teaching you right now is how to be wise in Christ. That is the goal I need to be wise in Christ. I cling to the gospel, the cross and righteousness. That's where I find my identity. That's where I find my security. And I can live content in that with wise in Christ, whether I'm wealthy or poor. Which leads us to the next point. Wealth doesn't determine your status. Proverbs 22, verse 2 says the rich and poor meet together. In some sense, they're one notice before the Lord. The Lord is the maker of them all. Whether you're rich or poor, you're created in the image of God. You are valued before God. And the Bible even teaches that created in the image of God, we stand before God with the same status, but we've also marred that status in sin. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, and we stand before God the same as sinners, rich or poor. And one of the most beautiful things about the church is we see a picture of this before us. Wealthy folks, poor folks, folks who may have a little, those who have a lot, and then a lot of people in between.
[00:11:08] And yet in Christ, sinners who believe the gospel, we all have the same status. And so we don't look around as maybe poor folks and resent the wealthy. And the wealthy do not look down on the poor folks.
[00:11:25] Wealth does not determine your status. And that is why giving in the church of our resources is a beautiful picture of unity. Because some folks give a little, some folks give a lot. The percentages are different all across the room. But guess what? It's the same goal. The glory of Christ from here to the ends of the earth. And we all have the same status before God as we give. And so wealth doesn't determine our status. But next we see a wrong way to pursue wealth, a wrong way to wealth. And when we talk about these two problems in pursuing wealth in foolishness, both of them are characterized by a lack of fear of God. We don't stand before God as those created in his image, accountable to Him. And we must trust Him. We must rely upon Him. We must obey Him. We don't stand before him in that way. And so when it comes to wealth, we have a skewed view of it, and we begin to pursue wealth in ways that dishonor God. And so one of the first wrong ways to wealth is through wickedness. And Proverbs unpacks this everywhere. We would think of just sinful ways to pursue money, obviously, prostitution, theft, selling drugs, but also lying on your taxes or lying on your timesheet, or even working for companies that sell or serve evil.
[00:13:05] And as Clay talked about last week, just being lazy, not serving your company or your boss, well, that's wickedness. And you should not pursue money or wealth in that form of wickedness.
[00:13:20] But we see also deceit. Proverbs 20, verse 17 says, the bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man. At first he says, this is what I need. And so he pursues wealth by lying, manipulation, and it tastes good at first, but afterwards his mouth is full of gravel.
[00:13:43] It doesn't taste the same. There's nothing there. It breaks his teeth. It's not worth it. Pursuing wealth through wickedness, Pursuing wealth through deceit. Proverbs 20, verse 23. Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord and false scales are not good. This is just sort of where we lie to folks about how much things cost, where we upcharge folks, or we see people who are in a desperate situation and we take advantage of it for our own benefit and we hide these things. There's a wrong way for you and your businesses and as an individual to pursue wealth, wickedness, and deceit where you display, I have to trust something other than God, so I disobey God and take advantage of others. But now we're down to God's way to wealth, and we want to spend some time on these points.
[00:14:41] And when we talk about God's way to wealth, again, let's go back to resources and provision, because I know I keep saying wealth in some of your minds, you're thinking rich, luxury, extravagance. Proverbs is just talking about provision from the abundance that God provides you.
[00:15:00] And here's a point to make, and it's interesting in proverbs because there's a lot of things like this wisdom normally leads to wealth, or provision. Wisdom normally leads in that direction.
[00:15:16] Now, I want to say from the get go, the prosperity gospel that some of you are going, wow, is he getting close to that? Absolutely not. That is heretical. That's blasphemous. Anybody that teaches you, if you just have enough faith, you will be healthy and you will be wealthy. Anyone who tells you to sow a seed in their ministry and you'll reap whatever, that is blasphemy, and that is heresy from the pit of hell.
[00:15:43] Got it.
[00:15:45] Okay, got that.
[00:15:47] But there are principles in proverbs where you apply them to your life and it leads to good things when it comes to your resources and the way that you are taken care of in the world, even by God. Notice Proverbs 22, verse 4. The reward for humility, which is lowliness and fear of the Lord. The one who stands before God and says, I'm the creature, you're the Creator, and trembles before him. He is holy, he is righteous, and I'm accountable to him for my life and my breath and even my money. Notice he says, the reward is riches, honor and life.
[00:16:33] And so there is provision that comes from fear of the Lord in your life. Now, again, this is normally the way it works. There are certain situations beyond our control. Maybe where we live, our family history, just the providence of God, where he teaches us things, we think about the story of Job. He takes everything away from him.
[00:16:59] What is he doing to teach him wisdom?
[00:17:02] But we see here there is a principle that if you live before the Lord with fear, you will be taken care of even in abundance. And the point is, the one who is wise before the Lord and lives before the Lord with some sense of gravity, and he realizes he must be careful in all of life, will be careful or it comes to his finances, will be careful when it comes to what he has provided with. That is the principle. You live before humility. And you say, I don't provide. You live with humility before God. I don't provide for myself. You are the Creator, you've got to provide for me. And so there's humility in that. And then there's notice the fear of the Lord. And so when God does provide for you, you have those resources, and there's a sense of trembling, which you go, God gave me this.
[00:17:54] God gave me this job. God gave me these resources, and so I must be careful with them.
[00:18:01] And here he says, this leads to provision, abundance, wealth. He even uses the word riches here. And so what does wisdom look like when it comes to your finances or wealth? What is a plan? If you said, give me a plan, give me some points of wisdom so that I may pursue this, this way of financial fearing of the Lord. What does that look like? Well, first of all, it looks like prayer. The first step in God's way to wealth would be to pray. And these are the verses that we looked at as we began the sermon.
[00:18:43] Notice, he says, remove far from me. And by the way, this is the only prayer in Proverbs.
[00:18:50] This is the only prayer.
[00:18:53] And it's a prayer that surrounds the issue of money. And think about Solomon as he's writing. He goes, okay, if there's something you should know, as he's Compiling this. He says, it's this. This is what you should pray for. The man who prayed for wisdom, this is how you pray wisely when it comes to money. Don't make me a liar. And then he says, give me neither poverty nor riches.
[00:19:19] God, I pray that you wouldn't make me poor, and I pray that you wouldn't make me wealthy, because there's danger in both of those categories. And then he says, feed me with food that is needful. What is that prayer? Give me what I need. It's the same thing Jesus taught the disciples. Give us this day our daily bread. Give me what I need today. That is how you pray. When it comes to the issue of wealth and provision, why is this? Just give me what I need, God, make me poor. Don't make me rich. Because there's danger that I would be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord?
[00:20:01] Or I would be poor and still. And that would lead to wickedness and profane, the name of God.
[00:20:07] So he says, there's a balance here.
[00:20:10] You don't want to make money. The idol don't give me so much money that I began to depend on it. Because what happens, and the struggle for us in our current culture is we go to work, we get the check or it's deposited in our account, and then we take that money and then we push the buttons and we go to the grocery store and we do all of the transactions and we put the food on the table, and then we pay the bills. And through all of that process, we can begin to think, I'm doing this.
[00:20:44] It's my hands and feet that are doing it.
[00:20:48] And without this prayer that we say, no, God, you provide.
[00:20:54] And stepping back and seeing him as the provider, we can turn into idolaters of self.
[00:21:00] And we would begin to say, I don't need God. Look how skilled I am. Look at my work ethic. Look how I've moved up in this company.
[00:21:12] We don't need God. And he says, protect me from that in both ways. I don't want to be desperate either. It's okay for you to ask God to take care of your needs. That's the first thing you should do. If you're here today and there is struggle financially and you're trying to figure these things out, you should be praying about those things, asking God to take care of those things, not looking to yourself. And before you look to anyone else for help, God, you help me. Because at the end of the day, I want to turn around whether I'm rich or poor, and say, God did that. God took care of my needs. God provided for me. And so we begin by praying. In First Timothy, chapter 6, verse 10, we see this warning against the love of money. Money isn't evil, but loving money, the root of all kinds of evils. Paul says as he writes to Timothy. And he says, it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith. Do you see how severe that warning is?
[00:22:20] You can have so much money and love money so much, or you can be poor and long for money so much that you turn on God and you turn away from the faith and you say, I can take care of myself, but. Or I don't need God to take care of me, or he hasn't taken care of me. And you begin to wander from the faith and notice and pierce them with many pangs. This is a devastating result of wealth, is that you would turn from God. We see this in the story of the rich young ruler with at the end of the day, Jesus would say, it is hard for a rich man to get into heaven. Why, when you provide for yourself, you don't look to God to provide.
[00:23:07] And you can even do that with the gospel. I can take care of myself financially. I can take care of myself in all these other ways. Why would I need Jesus to do anything for me?
[00:23:17] Wealth, the love of wealth. And so he says, just give me what I need every day. So how do you know that you're making wealth an idol? Well, rich or poor here today, let me ask you this question. Is God enough for you?
[00:23:32] How much do you pray about this?
[00:23:35] Or how much are you striving to take care of yourself? That'll tell you where your security really is. Is it in yourself? Is it in the numbers? Or it is in God?
[00:23:45] Is it that money, whether you have a little or a lot, is where you find absolute security?
[00:23:52] You're here today worshiping Jesus, but what really gives you confidence is how much is in your bank account. Whether it's little or a lot, or whether you're longing for more. That's where your security and joy comes from. Is it God? Is it the gospel? Back to the first point. Wisdom is the goal. Wisdom in Christ. That's where we want to get to, where we don't love money. And every day you should wake up and say, God, no one here. One of the great things about being in New Orleans and serving at grace, at the green light, you will begin to talk about people. And you have a certain perception in your mind of people who have Lost everything, what that's like. And then you talk to people who owned very successful businesses, and here they are, homeless, without anything.
[00:24:38] No one here knows what tomorrow will bring when it comes to your finances.
[00:24:43] So every day you should get up and say, God, you take care of me today, I'm going to trust you. And that should be your prayer. You take care of my needs, and then what do you do? Well, you get to work. So we talked about last week. The next step in God's way to wealth is to work hard. Again, we are humble before the Lord that He will provide, and then we have gravity before the Lord as He provides. And part of that is work. We work hard. Notice Proverbs 10, 4, 5. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. So if you want to be poor, be lazy. You want to be rich, get to work. He who gathers in the summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. Proverbs 12:11. He who works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will lack sense. Again, general principle. Normally, if you work hard, you will be able to take care of yourself.
[00:25:48] But if you're lazy, worthless pursuits, you're a fool. You lack sense. What does that look like? Well, wisdom before God works in the goodness of God. First of all, what is the goodness of God in your life? Well, he created you. He gave you your life.
[00:26:12] He gave us the world in which we live. That is the goodness of God. And this is where we work. But how do we work?
[00:26:20] We work with gratitude. We thank God that he's given me this life. We thank God that he's given me this world. We thank God that he has given us opportunities to glorify him through work. And wisdom lives in the world and says, I can't waste this opportunity.
[00:26:40] And there are opportunities before me to use my mind and my body to accomplish great things and to provide and care for others. And so I get after it for the glory of God. I work hard for the glory of God. Whatever garden that God has put me in, my job, my career, my family, I work hard for the glory of God. And normally that leads to provision. You see, there's a version of Christianity that says it is more spiritual to be poor. And so often that is an excuse for laziness.
[00:27:16] There's a lot of folks that don't want to work and they walk around like it is more spiritual to be poor because they're lazy and they're Fools.
[00:27:28] And I would say this to parents. Some of you look at your kids and you think, they only live. They're only kids once.
[00:27:36] They need to have fun. They need to experience things.
[00:27:41] And you don't make them do anything.
[00:27:44] And they end up being lazy, miserable with nothing, failures, looking for you to take care of them the rest of their life. You better teach your kids how to work.
[00:27:56] I remember When Anna was 14, she had her first job, and we had church members coming up to us going, are you guys okay?
[00:28:06] Do you all need something?
[00:28:09] Why? Well, I saw Hannah this week, and I saw she's having to work.
[00:28:16] Do y'all. Are y'all okay? Why is she working? Well, in my house, if you want a car, you're gonna. I got too many kids. To pay for your cars, you're gonna have to pay for your car. You're gonna have to pay for your car insurance. And if you want to, here's what we do. You want to go out on Sunday and you want to eat at Culver's and Hacienda and all that, you gonna have to pay for it. I can't pay for it. You could double my salary, and I couldn't pay for it.
[00:28:46] They got to work. And I don't feel bad about it. I don't feel bad about it because you can give them all the degrees and you can set. If they don't work, they ain't going to have anything. And you want them as parents. I know some of you, that is what you want for them. I want them to have it better than I did. Well, teach them how to work harder than you, and they'll have more than you normally.
[00:29:14] So I got to move on. All right, so work hard, then. Give to God first. Proverbs 3, chapter 9 through 10. Honor the Father, honor the Lord with your wealth and with first fruit. So what you bring in your house first, and at this time would have been the produce, there would have been sacrifices. First fruit offerings.
[00:29:40] He says, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats bursting with wine. And so he says, exalt the Lord first What you get first, whether it's money or whether it's whatever it is you give to God first. But we're caught up on verse 10. Then our barns will be filled with plenty. What does that mean? Is that a guarantee that if I give to God first, that he'll give me in return? It's not always a guarantee, but it is normally how it works out.
[00:30:13] Why is that again? Back to this living before God with wisdom. The person who lives with God to the fear of the Lord realizes God provides and he wants to honor God first. And the person that is careful in that way will be careful with their finances. And it normally tends up or ends up, tends to be ends up that God blesses that over time. And here we would see a principle of giving to God first, which I believe is most reflective in a tithe. Now, is that a command or a requirement here at this church? No, it's an Old Testament principle. And if we begin to look at the Old Testament as they tithe different things, whether it was currency, whether it was animals, sacrifice, they actually had 20%, 26% of their life that was given over to God in resources and material. So it's way beyond 10%.
[00:31:13] But the principle of a tithe is I just give to God first before I do anything else with my money. I make sure I'm giving to the Lord. And so on your spreadsheet, on your budget, that's where you start. Before you look and see if you have anything else to do to spend, you say, I'm giving to the Lord first.
[00:31:37] And here at this church, that is a personal conscience issue. I will never know what one person gives in this church. And we don't micromanage that. We leave that up to you and the Lord. But it is a great place to start 10% and work in that way to say, this is the Lord's first. But when we get to the New Testament, it is even greater than that. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him.
[00:32:02] And you display in your giving that my life is his. If you're willing to die for him, you should be willing to give for him in the sake of the gospel, right off the top. So however you work that out, the first thing you should do is give to the Lord. And this is a test of your heart. Why would you do that every time? It's just to say, do I trust the Lord? I asked him to provide.
[00:32:29] He provided.
[00:32:32] Do I trust that he's going to provide again? Well, I honor him with that gift. I honor him with those resources. And it is a test. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And our bank account will display where our heart is. We just move through and say, where's my heart? I can see it.
[00:32:56] It's in the places where I spend money and the things I spend money on.
[00:33:00] And so that's why you start with God. What are the things of God that I want to give to for the sake of the gospel here and around the world. And then the next principle is, don't waste it. And so we're praying, we're giving or we're getting to work. We're giving to God and then we don't waste what God gives us. Proverbs 21:17 says, Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. Whoever loves wine and oil will not be rich. What is he saying there? If you love stuff and you're longing for this extravagant life where you can just spend and spend and spend, you at the end of the day won't have much, you're going to devour it all. Which is what Proverbs 21:20 says. Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. And so the wise man sees what God has given in his resources and he stewards them. Well, a fool just dives in and devours it all. And so don't waste what God has given you. He's not talking about being some miserly joyless scrooge here. Some of you say, that's my husband.
[00:34:18] Just don't spend anything and miserable all the time.
[00:34:23] Why did you buy that version of cheese at Kroger?
[00:34:28] That's not what he's talking about here. He's just talking about being a wise, self controlled steward of God's resources. If God has given it, I must wisely steward it. And this is really hard in our culture of affluence.
[00:34:47] It is just, it is in front of us all the time and we are being bombarded with all the things that we need and we deserve right now. And we got to get it right now. Even if we got to go in debt. Talk about that in just a minute. I'm going to go in debt to get what I want right now so I can keep up with everybody around me in the houses, in the cars and where they eat and what their kids wear.
[00:35:12] And we just devour God's resources. And then we walk around and say, I don't have enough money.
[00:35:18] Well, you got enough streaming services on your phone.
[00:35:23] You eat out every meal.
[00:35:26] Really? Is that true? Is that really true? Think about it. Think about the things that you actually need. I think Starbucks coffee, just a cup of coffee is $7.
[00:35:39] You get that every $7. I'm not gonna do math right now. I failed algebra in high school. I'm not doing that. I'm not trying it.
[00:35:48] Do you really need that? Are you just the fool who's devouring what God has provided so don't waste it. And then next, avoid debt. Proverbs 22, verse 7 says, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender. And so ultimately in this context, those who were foolish ended up having to borrow from those who had. And then the rich become masters of the poor. And so the fool who was unwise can't serve God with his money. He is serving the the person he owes. And so one quick word about what people might describe good debt, which is not much debt, which are things that you would invest in that would increase in value after you pay them off. Just like we did with the land. Immediately the land is worth more than what we paid. And when we build a building, that will be hopefully the plan that what's on that property is worth more than what we take out or loan for it. Now let me move on. Most majority of debt is bad.
[00:37:02] It's frivolous credit card spending, school loans with no purpose.
[00:37:08] You don't know what you're doing. Why are you going in debt to do that? Right now you're just acquiring debt for little gadgets and trips.
[00:37:20] Then you just mount up debt and you know what happens? You become a slave to that debt the rest of your life. The mission of your life is not to pay off debt. It is to serve Jesus. And so you got to think about your debt in that way. I had a really good friend, I didn't realize what he was doing. Every semester we would go to the financial aid office and pay our bills. And I noticed he was using a credit card.
[00:37:48] We were in Bible college to pay every semester for his school. And I asked him about it. I said, what are you doing with that credit card? Like you just gonna pay that off? What are you doing? He says, the only thing I got to pay for school.
[00:38:01] And he went in massive debt using a credit card. And I remember years later talking with him about missions ministry. And there were things that he could not do as a pastor who longed to be on the mission field because he had so much debt. And he would say, you remember in Bible college when we had that talk, now I can't do this, I can't go serve this church. And he was a slave to his debt. And there were so many things in life that he couldn't do.
[00:38:35] And that lesson is for all of us. We become a slave to those things and we can't give to the glory of God.
[00:38:43] And so we avoid debt. And then we plot notice next, wealth gained hastily will dwindle but whoever gathers, little by little will increase it. Again, it's not about the money. God is teaching you to depend on him day after day after day, daily. And so we're not in some get rich quick scheme. Gambling, no, should not do that.
[00:39:10] You're trying to get rich quick.
[00:39:13] What you're really doing is saying, God gave me this. And without gravity and care, you're turning it over to chance, and you're trying to get it quick, that there's no trust in the Lord in doing that.
[00:39:28] You're trusting in self and chance, and it's not the purpose of money. Purpose is that you would trust the Lord and not think that you're God over those things. And so with wisdom, you plod. And sometimes it takes years and years and years to reap the benefit of hard work. Saving, investing over time, and not being in debt. It takes a long time. It doesn't come overnight.
[00:39:56] And so, young folks, you want to get to work, and you want to work. You want to figure out how God's going to use you, you and your work and your career, and you want to get after it. And then later in life, you use your life to invest in other things, because now you have resources and now you can give the way you've always wanted to give because you haven't been lazy and you haven't made stupid decisions with your money. But finally, we must remember, wealth is for others. And first of all, it's for our family.
[00:40:29] Proverbs 31. We don't have time to go through Proverbs 31. I know some of you think it's a Mother's Day sermon. It's not.
[00:40:36] Proverbs 31 is actually about a man married to wisdom. The wife in Proverbs 31 is wisdom and a man married to wisdom. If you read that, some of you women read that and go, oh, my goodness, God wants me to work harder than my husband.
[00:40:53] Mother's Day is miserable for you. Not here. It's about a king who works hard because he's married to wisdom. And he makes wise investments and he works hard, and he's known for his business savvy. And his family rises up and praises his wisdom because he takes care of them.
[00:41:14] And so your wealth, dads, is for your family. You are to provide for them. However, that works out the different jobs and careers in your home. Ultimately, men, you are to provide for your family. Your wealth isn't for you.
[00:41:32] I know you got to go hunting sometimes. You got to do things for yourself. I get it.
[00:41:37] But Your kids need what they need first. And your wife needs to feel secure because you take the ownership of providing for your family.
[00:41:46] And wealth also is to be used for the poor. This is a big topic in Proverbs almost for a whole nother sermon.
[00:41:56] But Solomon says, you've got to take care of the poor and you should not deceive them. There should be no injustice for the poor. I'll just read Proverbs 14:21. He says, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor. And the point of those two things is your wealth is for others, your wealth is for others, it is to provide for others, and it is to care for the poor here and the poor of those who can't do anything in return.
[00:42:23] That should be a part of your life where you're giving and you're serving those who can't do anything in return for you. Now why is that? It's ultimately about the gospel. The same way in the Gospel, the Father takes care of our needs. We're to take care of the needs of our family, we're to take care of the needs of our children as parents, and then we're to take care of the poor because we were poor and Jesus took care of us. Those are both gospel centered giving principles. When we talk about giving around here, we don't want you to leave those things. We don't want you to leave the gospel.
[00:43:01] We give in light of the gospel and so we remember wealth is about the gospel. 2 Corinthians, chapter 8, verse 9 says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. This is what we're doing when we give to those who can't provide for themselves or give in return. We're reflecting Christ. Notice this passage. You know the grace of God. You know undeserved favor from God. You could do nothing before God, and he gave his Son for you notice. Jesus Christ, though he were rich, he had authority, all power, all glory in heaven, and yet he took on flesh notice for your sake. He became poor. He had no place to lay his head.
[00:43:52] Itinerant poor preacher.
[00:43:55] Why? So that you might get his kingdom. He became poor so that you might become rich. He was treated as a sinner on the cross so that you might be given righteousness. He was forsaken at the cross so that you might be accepted. This is the principle ultimately of giving. It's in light of the gospel. Why do I give? Because I Know the grace of God. I had nothing and in Christ, God gave me everything. So it is a joy for me to give. We don't want you to feel guilty about giving. We want you to experience Christ like joy. You remember who you were when you give to those who are in need. I was in need. And you remember that you have grace. I was lost and I was needy. And yet God provided a way for me through grace. And so wealth is ultimately about joy. Joy not in the wealth, but being like Christ. And so ultimately you say God, even the psalmist said, bless us so that we might bless the nations God, I want resources so I can be more like you. I don't want them to resonate on me. I want them to pass through my hands with great joy for the sake of others.
[00:45:08] You know, I've learned a lot about money. I remember my grandmother teaching me how to tithe with pennies.
[00:45:15] She would give me 100 pennies. She would set them down, we would count through them. Then she would count out 10 and say, these are God's pennies.
[00:45:25] And I learned a lot. Like I you just, in my family, you give to the Lord first.
[00:45:33] I've learned a lot with finances. Scrapping to buy groceries at times.
[00:45:39] And yet I would not change one thing.
[00:45:43] I would not go back to that day when I'm muttering I hate money and saying, God, would you just give me a lot of it right now? I wouldn't change that because I have seen God provide every step, every kid, every transition in life in mind blowing ways at times. And yet there's still days I wake up and say, I hate money.
[00:46:09] Some of you look around, yeah, we're meeting in a warehouse. It's obvious you don't like spending money.
[00:46:15] That's all that's about to change. I guess there's some days I love money. I think too much of it.
[00:46:23] And the good news is God loves us too much.
[00:46:27] God loves us too much to let us love money more than Him. And he's after your heart today. Whatever situation you're in, he wants you to love him most and be wise before Him.
