Money, Money, Money

Ecclesiastes 5:10 “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”

Luke 18:24 “Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

Jesus often warned about money, possessions, wealth, and greed. 11 of His 39 parables used money as part of the story.

The question is what do we do with it? What is a healthy attitude concerning money?

1 Timothy 6:6–10 “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

This passage has been used many times to incorrectly state that money is evil. But that is not true. It is the love of money that can bring about all kinds of evil.

Money can cause all kinds of compromise in our life.

Matthew 13:22 “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

Jesus often warned about money because the promise of “stuff” can take our eyes off of Jesus. It’s interesting that the last of the ten commandments is a warning against the positive urging of the first commandment.

To covet and want something with such strong desire that we will do anything to obtain it is idolatry, a direct violation of God’s command to have no other gods before Him.

A Wise Prayer for Contentment

Proverbs 30:7–9 “Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”

What a perfect prayer. It comes from a nobody. Agur, son of Jakeh is his recorded name. Proverbs 30 is his prayer and the only mention of his name in the Bible. No information exists outside the Bible about him. In obscurity his prayer was recorded as wisdom, though he humbly claimed to not be wise.

Don’t let me have so much that I forget God.

Don’t let me be so poor that I am tempted to sin and take what I need.

Jesus gave us the secret to being content. It’s trusting God.

Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Matthew 6:28–29 “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Keep your eyes on what God wants you to be busy doing and He will give you what you need to accomplish it. He will meet your needs along the way.

Use money to build God’s kingdom not yours.

Matthew 6:19–21 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What kind of treasures are you building up? Are you building up for yourself or for God?

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying things. But when gaining more stuff becomes an obsession and you lose sight of serving the LORD, that becomes a problem.

There’s an altar where everything that we have done with what God has given us is going to be measured. It’s not merely going to be measured for quantity, but quality. However, some will not have much to put on in the first place because they have spent their life chasing money and possessions.

Jesus warns us about money. We need to be careful with it. Make sure it is a tool that you are using to serve the Lord, not a slave master that is driving you away from Him.