FILTHY LUCRE
TITUS 1:7
PART 2
I brought in another coin from my collection this morning. I believe that I have brought this one in before. This is a silver shekel. (Describe). This was the what every Jew had to pay his temple tax with. Either a full or ½ shekel. Both of which are the same in design. Because this was the official currency of the temple, scholars believe that this was the "silver" coin which was paid to Judas to betray Jesus.
I want that to just sink in for a moment. It was the love of this coin, this silver that causes a man to betray, to turn against, the Son of God. Because of that man’s love for this money he betrayed God himself. The more I thought about that the more I was amazed. How could anyone love money more then their creator, their redeemer, their Lord.
While it amazes me that Judas would betray Jesus for 30 of these, what is just as shocking is the it still continues today. People all over the world, some we may even know, betray God, sell out God, for this stuff, for money, for gold, and for silver.
We all know people who are obsessed by money. I remember when I worked in a printing plant as a maintenance mechanic, there was a man their by the name of Ron, the name has not been changed to protect the guilty. Now Ron would sell you anything, not drugs but anything else. He had what amounted to a small store in the warehouse were he worked. He sold soda, cigarettes, videos, whatever people would buy. Ron always walked around with wads of cash. On payday he would cash your check for the change or your check. During the day he would scurry like a rat from garbage can to garbage can looking for cans. Being a short man he would just about jump in. Ron was obsessed with money, money was his god. Money was the only thing that matter to him. Money and how to get more. And that is a real sad way to live, yet many people live just like Ron.
Last week we began to talk about the love money. Please turn with me to our passages today. I just want to read over the two passages we began with last week. The first of course is Titus 1:7 which was where we started, that is page 1032 in your pew bibles; "For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,"
In our study of Titus we came across the qualification of an elder which states "not greedy for money". Which in turn let us to our second passage which is in the form of a warning to us all;
That passage is 1 Tim. 6:10 which found on page 1029 of your pew Bibles: "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."
Now from these two verses we noted the dangers of the love of money. We saw how the love of money will cause us to forget God, cause us to place our trust in an unstable foundation, how it will cause us to be ungrateful, how it can cause us to rob God and others. In others we saw last that the love God, or the ungodly desire for money, will as Paul points out 1 Tim, bring about all kinds of evil.
I closed last weeks sermon by noting the whole issue with money is attitude. The issue is not whether you have a lot of money or a little money, it is how you feel about. What priority it has in your live.
The wrong attitude to have about money is to love it, to let it be your driving passion.
The right attitude to have is this. That all the money I possess is Gods. I am simply a steward of it, and I should strive to glorify God will all that has give to me.
Now last week spoke mostly from a negative prospective about money this week I want to speak more on the positive side.
Now I made mention last week that we all desire money, we have to. That is how we buy our food, shelter, and clothes and a whole more.
The Bible does not deny us the right to have money. Remember that our text does not say that money is evil, it is the love of money that is the "root of all kinds of evil".
Money is amoral. Money is neither good nor bad. It can be used for bad things, it can be used for good things. It is like your car. You can use it to go to work, bring your kids places, or you can use to run people over or whatever. The car is not good our bad, but how you choose to use it. That is the way money is.
Some Christians say that it is wrong to possess money. Some advocate a kind of Christian Communism. They base this outlook on Acts 2:44-45 which states; "Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need."
From the passage they have make the jump that Christians should live in a community where all things are given to a central source and then is given out on an equal basis according to need. They say that it would be wrong for a Christian to be well off.
But if we understand the verse properly and it’s correct context we see that it is not the case. Now the two verbs "sold" and "divided" in this verse are what they call in the imperfect tense, which means it was a continuous action.
In other words we can translate the passage "and were
Selling their possessions and goods and were dividing them among all, as anyone had need".
This passage is not teaching that all Christians are to equal in possessions and money, but that those early believers would sell their goods and possessions and give the money to those in need as the need arose.
There is no evidence in Scripture or other wise that the early Christian lived in some sort of commune where everything they had was shared.
What we do see then, and what we should see now is a picture of self-sacrifice for the needs of one another. What was seen in the early church was that the needs of those in need were taking care of by those who had an abundance.
That is the example that we all need to follow.
I believe that Acts 4:34-35 puts it in proper perspective; "Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need."
So let us not be lovers of money to the point were we commit evil be ignoring the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Now there those who also teach that for a Christian to save money, and plan for the future, such as retirement accounts is also wrong. They would say that this shows a lack of faith and that seeing as we do not know when Jesus will return again it is foolish to save money.
Well I believe that that while the Bible certainly teaches that we ought to faith in God. It also teaches that we are to prepared using the means that God as given.
Does saving show a lack of faith in God, is it unspiritual to save for the future.
I personally believe that not saving for the future is irresponsible presumption rather then faith. As God gives the blessings I believe that we are responsible to be good stewards, and part of that stewardship is to look down the road and prepare for it.
Unfortunately very few of us do save of the future. Nation wide Americans save less then 2% of their incomes. And most would have to admit that they are not depending on God to take care of them when they are old. They are counting on Uncle Sam or a relative to take care of them. Some would say that they simply are not planning on being around.
Saving for the future is Biblical. Do we remember the story of Joseph. Joseph knew that there would be seven goods followed by seven bad years. So during the good years Joseph planned for the future, he placed the grain into a savings account. And God blessed him for that.
I Proverbs 21:20 we are told, "In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has"
We should plan our saving, we should all be putting away a little something for the future. The Bible points to the ant in Proverbs as an example to us; "Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest."
Some saving for the future is not ungodly, it is no unspiritual or unchristian, in fact if we look to the Bible we see that that is what is commanded.
Now we can go overboard. We can place all our faith in what we have saved rather then in God. The key here is moderation. Be wise in your saving, but not to the point of you love your saving or are trusting in your savings more then God.
Be a good steward of what God as provided for you.
Another area of money we need to discuss is that we do need to practice generosity. When God saves us it should cause us to be free from any bondage the money has on us. It will cause us to be generous, to have a sense of freedom.
I think of the story Zacchaeus. He was chief tax collector, and a very wealthy man. Zacchaeus I am sure loved money more then anything. Why else would he rip off his own people. But God changed this money loving men, into a man who loved God more the money, into a man who was free from the bondage which money held him to. A generous man.
We read of this account after Zacchaeus meets the Lord Jesus; "Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
God changed the very heart of Zacchaeus, something which He still does.
We need to be rich toward God. We need to be giving God our best. Not our leftovers but our first fruits. God needs to come first, in all we do, that must include our finances as well. We need to be investing in God’s stuff and well as for our own futures.
Giving God’s ministries, missions, those in need, and so on.
What most people do not understand when it comes to their money is that it is not their money at all. It is God’s money. Whether it is in the possession of a believer or unbeliever it is God’s money.
I want to read to you two verses; First from Haggai 2:8;
"The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts."
Then from Deuteronomy 8:18 ""And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day."
Not only does God own all the silver, all the gold, all the money, God gives the power to get wealth. It all belong to Him. We in reality do not own thing.
Yet it is amazing ho must we love, how much we can covet something that is not even ours. We are just stewards of what God as blessed us with.
Maybe you sit out their this morning thinking I wish God would let me be a steward over little more of it. But ask yourself, how faithful am I with what He was already given me. So many of us want more, yet we are terrible stewards of what we already have.
I think of my daughter Beth. Every time I cook Macaroni and cheese I give her a bowl full and the first thing she says is, "Save some more because after I eat this I am going to want more". But you know what? She never finishes what she has. She will just leave it there when she is done. It gets all hard and yucky.
A lot of us are like that. We say God say some more stuff for me because when I am done with I am going to want some more. But you see we don’t do what we should do with what we have, why should He give us more. I am not going to give Beth any more Mac & Cheese because she did not do what she needed to do with the first bowl.
Don’t expect God to give us more and more when we do not do what we should with what He has already given us.
The love of money is not a good thing. It can and almost certainly will lead to evil.
I am reminded of a story. A very wealthy man dies. During his life time he insisted that he could take some of his money with him when He died. So leave leaves $100,000 to each of his three best friends with the instructions to place the money in his casket just before it is closed for the final time. So after the funeral the three friends are talking. The first guy states, "You know Jim always talked about buying a really nice, so I figured he would want be to buy one, so I kept out $40,000 for a new car". The second states, "Well I also have confession to make, I know Jim always liked to travel, so I figured he would want me to see the world, so I kept $50,000 for an extended trip around the world". The third man is shocked, so he speaks up, "I don’t believe you two, denying the wish of a dear departed friend, you two should be ashamed. I put in a check for the full amount!"
I pray after hearing the messages of the last two weeks that you begin to see what the love of money really is, it is form of bondage. The love of money can tie you up, and make you useless to God. The love of money can be a bondage that will lead to eternal death.
There many people in hell today because they loved money more then God. I think of Judas who we spoke of at the beginning of the sermon.
So I ask you today are you in bondage to the love money? Does it have a hold on you that you cannot break. Is the love of money dragging you down into the pit?
Allow me to read to you two verse regarding Jesus Christ; The first is Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;´
And the other is John 8:32; "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
You see Jesus as the power to set you free, He is the truth that will set you free. He was sent by the Father to proclaim liberty to the captives. It does not matter what it is that is holding you captive; be it love of money, lust, drugs, whatever. He can set free. He is able to do it.
If we are to free from whatever it is that has us in bondage we must accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. We must recognize that fact that we are sinners in bondage to sin. Recognize that we need the saving grace of Jesus Christ. That His blood alone can pay the price for our sins, in fact He already did when He died on the cross for.
I ask you trust in Jesus today, allow Him to free you from whatever has control over you. Turn it over to Him, believe in Him today. Let us pray together that God, through Christ. would set us free from whatever bondage we may in.
Pray for freedom from bondage, the bondage many of us return to after we have been freed.
