Pastor John Ortberg tells the story about putting his kids on the envelope system when they were little. When they received their allowance, they would put it in envelopes labeled “Give,” “Save,” “Gifts,” “Spend,” and so on.
Well, Pastor Ortberg thought it was working until one day he had a Band-Aid on his arm. His daughter, who was about six at the time, asked, “Why?”
He explained that he had gotten a medical exam that day to get life insurance.
She asked, “What's that?”
He explained, “Well, Daddy loves you so much and loves the family so much, so if anything were to happen to Daddy (which of course it won't, but if it would), it would provide for $250,000.”
Her eyes got really wide. She has a tender heart, and Pastor Ortberg knew she'd be worried. She looked up at him and said, “Apiece?” And Pastor Ortberg thought, “I'm not sure the right lesson is getting communicated.” (John Ortberg, "The Ten Financial Commandments," www.PreachingToday.com)
Try as we might, it is so easy for our children to get the wrong idea about money. In fact, we can ALL get the wrong idea about money; and if we’re not careful, begin to love it more than anything else.
The Bible says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Timothy 6:10). The love of money can be absolutely ruinous to our spiritual lives, our relationships, and even to our sense of well-being.
So, in our materialistic society, how can we avoid falling prey to this ruinous love? How can we keep from being hooked by money’s lure? Well, it helps to get God’s perspective on money and see where those who love money end up. So, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Revelation 18, Revelation 18, where we get that perspective and see what happens to those who love money.
Revelation 18:1-2 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. (ESV)
Now, Babylon in the Scriptures is current day Iraq. But throughout her history, she has always pursued wealth and power in opposition to God and His people. Like I said two weeks ago, I believe God is raising up the Babylonian Empire again (in the form of Iraq), just so he can fulfill the promise he made in Isaiah 13 to completely destroy it in the last days.
Well, here, we see the announcement of its destruction, so sure, that it’s in the past tense. Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! – Babylon is doubly fallen. That means she will come to a sudden and total destruction. All that will be left are demons and vultures to haunt her palatial dwellings.
Revelation 18:3 For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” (ESV)
Babylon was, and will again become, the center of great commerce, making a lot of people rich.
Revelation 18:4-8 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. (ESV)
Despite her boasts, God will burn the empire down. Babylon will fall. God will judge her, and she will be suddenly and unexpectedly destroyed. In a single day, verse 8 says. One day she’s boasting about her wealth. The very next day she’s burning.
That’s what happens to those who make money and power their god like Babylon did. Quickly and unexpectedly, at a time when they least expect it their entire empire will come crashing down. Skip down to verse 21.
Revelation 18:21-24 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No workman of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth.” (ESV)
This wicked, wealthy city will become a veritable ghost town. She’ll be so completely destroyed, nobody will be able to locate her again, just like Sodom and Gomorrah.
That’s what happens to those who love money. All of a sudden the money disappears. The wealth is wiped out. The riches are ruined, and the assets are turned to ashes.
In September 1929, the experts were predicting years of economic prosperity. In fact, an economics professor at Yale University said, “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
Well, you know what happened. The stock market crashed the very next month, in October 1929, and plunged our country into the Great Depression. (The Perils of Prosperity)
Material wealth is fleeting. It never lasts. It’s not worth pursuing. Proverbs 23:4-5 says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle” (NIV)
Not too long ago, there was an elderly woman in Israel who had hidden her entire life savings of one million dollars in her bed mattress. Every night she slept on one million American dollars and Israeli shekels. She had had a bad experience with a bank and had lost trust in them. In fact, she didn’t trust anyone, not even telling her own daughter what she had done.
Well, that turned out to be the wealthy woman's big mistake. One day her daughter decided that her mother needed a new mattress. Perhaps, she sat on the bed and it felt a bit lumpy. Whatever the reason, she decided to replace the mattress. She wanted to present the new mattress as a surprise gift, so the new mattress was delivered without her mother's knowledge, and the old, lumpy mattress went into the garbage.
She smiled as she brought her mother into the bedroom and presented her surprise gift. Her elderly mother didn’t think about it until she got in bed that night. After she fell asleep, she woke up and suddenly realized what had happened to her life savings. She literally screamed.
The next day, her daughter was walking through a garbage dump hunting for the lost mattress. Workers combed through the trash as bulldozers moved piles of garbage attempting to uncover the lost treasure. (Ian Deitch, “Israeli woman mistakenly junks $1 million mattress,” Associated Press, June 2009; www.PreacingToday.com)
That’s the way it is with money – so difficult to acquire, so easily gone. So…
DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH MONEY.
Don’t let riches consume your passions. Don’t let wealth become the pursuit of your life, because it disappears so quickly.
And when it does, those who love it are depressed. They mourn. They weep and wail, becoming inconsolable in their grief.
Revelation 18:9-10 “When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’ (ESV)
First, the kings mourn – the executives, the ruling class. Then the middle class, the merchants, mourn as well.
Revelation 18:11-13 “The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more— cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. (ESV)
No one will be able to buy their merchandise.
Revelation 18:14-17a “They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’ (ESV)
The merchants cry, because their source of income is gone. When the money is gone, the ruling class mourns, the middle class mourns, and even the common laborers mourn as well – the sailors and seaman who carried the goods.
Revelation 18:17b-19 “Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: “ ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin! (ESV)
You don’t have to be rich to love money. Even poor people can love money. They can live their lives in pursuit of it, and end up miserable just like the rich.
Once upon a time a very wealthy merchant found himself very depressed. He wondered why, so he asked his friends about it. They told him, “Look for a happy man and ask him to give you his shirt. Then you’ll be happy again.”
The merchant searched for a long time until at last he found a happy man. “Give me your shirt,” he said. “I’ll pay you for it.”
The happy man began to laugh. He didn’t have a shirt! (Kitty Muggeridge, “Gazing on Truth,” Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no. 5)
You see, money never makes anyone happy. On the contrary, it often makes people very miserable.
A 2005 biography of Henry Ford tells the story of the man who achieved incredible fame and fortune, and yet describes how, in the end, this “gifted man was undone by his own success.”
Ford loved ordinary people and they loved him back. By 1920, half of all cars on US roads were Fords. But Ford wasn't selling just cars. He preached a new gospel to a public raised on the Puritan ideals of delayed gratification and self-control. Ford believed that money was for spending, and that workers should use their income to buy products that would improve their lives – products like his Model T.
Seen as a hero for making it possible for the average family to own a car, Ford's opinion was sought out for every area of life, from world peace, to marriage, and child care.
People idolized Ford so much he eventually convinced himself that he was infallible, and he made some ruinously bad decisions. The adoration blinded him to his own hypocrisy as he preached family values and yet kept a mistress. It also drove him to ruthlessly undercut his only child, Edsel Ford, at every turn. Edsel’s gentle style and superior education offended the senior Ford, but he mourned grievously when Edsel died young…
Ford's last days were sorrowful. On a visit to the house where he had lived as a newlywed, he told his chauffeur, “I've got a lot of money, and I'd give every penny of it right now just to be here with Mrs. Ford.”
Money never made anybody happy. On the contrary, it quickly disappears; and when it does, those who love it are depressed. So don’t fall in love with money. Instead…
FALL IN LOVE WITH THE LORD.
Let God consume your passions. Let Jesus become the pursuit of your life, because those who love the Lord rejoice even when the money is all gone.
Revelation 18:20 Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you.’” (ESV)
Babylon, throughout her history, has always mistreated God’s people. She carried the Jews into captivity 500 years before Christ, and she will persecute the Believers during the Tribulation. The fact is many of God’s people have been abused for the sake of money and power, so they will rejoice when it is gone at the end of the Tribulation. But we don’t have to wait until then. God’s people can rejoice today, even in the midst of great loss.
In his book, Forged by Fire: How God Shapes Those He Loves, Bob Reccord writes about the time he suffered a severe cervical spinal injury. The pain was so excruciating, the hospital staff couldn't even get him into the MRI until they had significantly sedated him. The MRI showed significant damage at three major points in the neck. Later, the orthopedic surgeon's assistant later told him, “Bob, your neck is a wreck. There is no way you can avoid surgery.”
Injured nerve bundles were swollen, so the only way Bob could relieve the pain was to use a strong, prescribed narcotic and to lie on bags of ice. Sleep, what little there was, came only by sitting in a reclining chair.
Two days after he was injured, Bob lost 80 percent of the strength in his left arm. Three fingers on his left hand totally lost feeling, and even the slightest movements would send waves of pain hurtling down his left side and shoulder. To add insult to injury, physicians said he had to step completely away from his work and begin to wear a neck brace… 24 hours a day for five weeks.
About halfway through that experience, Bob found himself sitting on the screened-in porch behind his home. The day was cold and blustery, but he was committed to being outside, just for a change of scenery. Suddenly a bird landed on the railing and began to sing. On that cold, rainy day, Bob couldn't believe any creature had a reason to sing. He wanted to shoot that bird! But the bird continued to warble, and Bob had no choice but to listen.
The next day, Bob was on the porch again, but this time the atmosphere was bright, sunny, and warm. As he sat, he was tempted to feel sorry for himself, but the bird suddenly returned, and he was singing again! Where was that shotgun?
Then an amazing truth hit him head on: the bird sang in the cold rain as well as the sunny warmth. His song was not altered by outward circumstances, but it was held constant by an internal condition. Bob said, “It was as though God quietly said to me, ‘You've got the same choice, Bob. You will either let external circumstances mold your attitude, or your attitude will rise above the external circumstances. You choose!’” (Bob Reccord, Forged by Fire: How God Shapes Those He Loves, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN, 2000, p. 112; www.PreachingToday.com)
My dear friends, if you love the Lord, you can choose joy in any circumstance. You can rejoice no matter what happens, because you don’t need a pile of money to be happy; you just need the Lord.
So don’t fall in love with money, which quickly disappears and only leaves you depressed. Instead, fall in love with the Lord, and rejoice, even when all the money is gone! Make sure that you love god and not your money. Make sure that the Lord is the center of your pursuits. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and let Him take care of your needs.
Go back to verse 4. We skipped over it earlier, but I want us to focus on it now as we come to the end of our time together. It is God’s application of this passage to our lives.
Revelation 18:4-5 Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. (ESV)
God calls His people to come out of Babylon. Come out of this world’s system. Come out of its pursuit of money and power, lest you too fall into its sin and ruin.
John Maxwell describes an incident when 300 whales were found dead. It turns out that they were pursuing sardines and got marooned in a bay. (John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader within You, 1993, p.31)
My dear friends, don’t pursue money. It isn’t worth it. It is like pursuing sardines, which in the end leaves you marooned in a bay of misery.
Instead, pursue God with every ounce of your being. Put the Lord first in your life. Make Him your TOP priority. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Then and only then will you find true joy even when everything else is lost.
In his book, Things Unseen: Living with Eternity in Your Heart, Mark Buchanan talks about the time when his children first got to that age when the essence of Christmas becomes “The Day of Getting”.
On Christmas morning, when the gifts were handed out, the children ripped through them, shredding and scattering the wrappings like jungle plants before a well-wielded machete. Each gift was beautiful: an intricately laced dress Grandma Christie had sewn, an exquisitely detailed model car Uncle Bob had found at a specialty store…, a finely bound and gorgeously illustrated collection of children's classics Aunt Leslie had sent. The children looked at each gift briefly, their interest quickly fading, and then put it aside to move on to the Next Thing. When the ransacking was finished, Mark’s son, standing amid a tumultuous sea of boxes and bright crumpled paper and exotic trappings, asked plaintively, “Is this all there is?”
Buchanan writes, “We are taught not to value things too much, but to value them too little. We forget to treasure and to savor. The pressure of constant wanting dissipates all gratitude. The weight of restless craving plunders all enjoyment.” Then he adds a surprising thought – one that points to a deeper reason for our greed. He writes:
“God made us this way. He made us to yearn – to always be hungry for something we can't get, to always be missing something we can't find, to always be disappointed with what we receive, to always have an insatiable emptiness that no thing can fill, and an untamable restlessness that no discovery can still. Yearning itself is healthy – a kind of compass inside us pointing to True North.
“It's not the wanting that corrupts us,” he says. [It’s] wanting… the wrong thing.” (Mark Buchanan, Things Unseen: Living with Eternity in Your Heart, Multnomah, 2006, pp. 50-51; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you want to escape the ruinous love of money, then don’t stop wanting; just start wanting the right thing. Don’t love money; love the Lord, who loved you first and gave Himself for you on a cross.
