Money Lovers

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you GOD lover or money lover?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that our love for GOD should be more than anything or anyone in this world

IV. TEXT:

Ecclesiastes 5:10-11 (Amplified Bible)

He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with gain. This also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!

When goods increase, they who eat them increase also. And what gain is there to their owner except to see them with his eyes?

V. THESIS:

Our love for GOD should be more than anything or anyone in this world

VI. TITLE:

Money lovers

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Name: means Koheleth in Hebrew Bible or rendered as Preacher

B. Author: uncertain, but the experiences cited here are related to King Solomon

C. Date written: probably around 935 B.C.

D. Purpose: To report author's finding for ultimate meaning in life.

E. Audience: young people

F. Main theme: Life without GOD leads to emptiness, futility, and lack of significant meaning

G. Key words: "vanity" and "under the sun"

H. Key verse: Ecclesiastes 12:13 (Amplified Bible)

All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Money lovers has not enough and never satisfied

"He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with gain"

1. They are not satisfied.

Ecclesiastes 6:7 (Amplified Bible)

All the labor of man is for his mouth [for self-preservation and enjoyment], and yet his desire is not satisfied.

Luke 15:14 (Amplified Bible)

And when he had spent all he had, a mighty famine came upon that country, and he began to fall behind and be in want.

Isaiah 55:2 (Amplified Bible)

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy].

1 Timothy 6:10 (Amplified Bible)

For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs.

Reminders for us who love GOD:

Isaiah 65:13 (Amplified Bible)

Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame.

If we love and desire GOD, GOD will be the One to feed us, give us drink, provide us entertainment and rejoicing.

B. Money lovers goods increases = consumers increases too

"When goods increase, they who eat them increase also"

Luke 12:16-31 (Amplified Bible)

Then He told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man was fertile and yielded plentifully.

And he considered and debated within himself, What shall I do? I have no place [in which] to gather together my harvest.

And he said, I will do this: I will pull down my storehouses and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain or produce and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many good things laid up, [enough] for many years. Take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself merrily.

But God said to him, You fool! This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?

So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself and is not rich [in his relation] to God [this is how he fares].

And [Jesus] said to His disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious and troubled [with cares] about your life, as to what you will [have to] eat; or about your body, as to what you will [have to] wear.

For life is more than food, and the body [more] than clothes.

Observe and consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn; and [yet] God feeds them. Of how much more worth are you than the birds!

And which of you by being overly anxious and troubled with cares can add a cubit to his stature or a moment [unit] of time to his age [the length of his life]?