Gain Your Money Correctly Series

GAIN YOUR MONEY CORRECTLY

MATTHEW 25:14-30

INTRODUCTION:

VIDEO CLIP: INTOLERABLE CRUELTY - 2:03

1 Tim. 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." There are some who will do anything, even as referred to in that clip: marry again and again, just for the love of money. Now, notice that God, in 1 Tim. 6:10, doesn’t say money is evil. Money is neutral like fire, it can warm you or burn you depending how it is used. But the stark reality, the honest truth is that you will never have enough money or things to satisfy you. Our two characters in that clip had used and abused people, one marrying & divorcing for the purpose of getting hefty settlements and the other making money representing them, and yet they still felt unfulfilled. They could of used this scripture: “Ecc. 5:10- "Those who love money will never have enough. How absurd to think that wealth brings true happiness."

Please understand that God wants our best. He wants us to be content, fulfilled. So, this morning I want us to look at Matthew 25 where Jesus tells a story that has many applications. One of those is about the proper way to gain money. If you have been with us for the first two parts of this series you will remember that God is interested in all aspects of our possessions. How we spend it, invest it, give it away and how we gain our possessions. (Insert) A wealthy land owner entrusted 3 servants with a portion of his estate and then went on a journey. He gave 5 bags of gold to one servant, 2 to another & 1 to a third. Some of your translations these money amounts talents. Some research suggests that in Jesus day a talent was worth about $1000 in today’s currency. So, this money, these bags of gold, were worth approximately $5, $2 & $1,000 respectively. The point here is that this is not chump change, it is something valuable and represents any kind of resource we are given.

So, each servant is given an amount and after a time the master returns and asks for an accounting. Both the man with 5 and the man with 2 bags had doubled their trust and the owner was very pleased. But the man with 1 bag was afraid to risk and intimidated by the competition simply buried his talent in the ground and returned it as it had been given. The owner was very displeased wit him. Notice vss:26-27- "You wicked and lazy servant! ...you could of at least put my money in the bank where it would of gained some interest." That servant was cast out of the owners presence. So, from this story let’s see three principles about gaining money correctly.

I ask you to please listen carefully this morning. There are some people, who eager for money, fall into a trap of greed. On the other hand I’ve known some Christian people who think if they were really spiritual you would have no ambition for money. They think poverty and spirituality are synonymous, and they go through life feeling guilty about what they have or being critical of those who have more. I think that Jesus gives us a balanced view of earning and investing money.

I. KEEP YOUR FAITHFULNESS FIRST:

The first principle is: You make sure you keep your faithfulness to Jesus Christ first. Let’s remind ourselves of a principle that we discussed last week. Please remember the principle of stewardship. A steward is simply a user, a manager of what someone else has given to them. Vs:14 Jesus said- "...the kingdom of God can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip." So, God here is the owner and we are the servants. Jesus is saying that God has entrusted His possessions to us. In fact, if you live at the poverty level in America, and you live a normal life span, by the time you die at about age 72, even at the poverty level, you will have been entrusted with over a half a million dollars. If you happen to do much better than that, say you average $25,000 a year in income and retire at age 65 you will have been entrusted with approx. $1.25 million. So the stewardship principle simply says that whatever you have, has been given to you by God. Just as in this story, where the talents were given to the servants to use for the master, so everything that we have, our cars, our houses, our children, our bodies, everything.. has been given to us by God & we’re to manage it, use it in a way that is pleasing to the owner.