What Money Says

What Money Says

Mat 16:26, 2 Cor 9:8, Mal 3:8 -10, Matt 5:17 -18,

August 23, 2004

I. I have been talking about control issues, and one of the places that most people seem to have a lot of control issues is in the area of money.

A. I am pretty sure that you have heard the phrase " Money talks".

1. We use that phrase to talk about how people use money to get what they want.

2. But, money has more to say than that. Money tells people around us what we think is really important.

B. Bob Dylan (who is living proof that you don’t have to be able to sing to be a singer) once said "money doesn’t talk it screams". Well money is at least something that screams to the people around us about what’s in control of our lives.

C. Money gives us a sense of control over our own lives.

1. If we are honest during the times that we think about getting our lives under control, one of the first things that we think about is money.

2. If not money then it is the things that it will buy or the bills that it will pay off because of the things that we have bought..

D. We worry about earning enough money, or saving enough for a rainy day when all the time we are standing in the middle of flash floods that never seem to end.

E. All the possessions that money can buy so soon seem to possess us!

1. There are few things in our lives that can put our lives at loose ends more than fretting over money.

II. Now I don’t think that many of us would think that we have this problem but just in case let me say something about it.

A. Not having enough money is not the only thing that causes worry about money.

B. There are people who worry and fret over the conditions of their investments as much as others worry over their bills.

C. People with money are many times just as controlled by it as those without.

D. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of money, just enough or not enough how we handle money says a lot to people around us about what is important to us, and who is in control of our lives.

E. And so many times money can hurt families, marriages and friendships.

F. It would scare most of us, or it should to think about how much of our time is spent thinking about money.

1. How many times does the Lord get pushed to the back of our lives because of something to do with money?

III. The old time highwaymen used the saying "your money or your life", and that may be closer to the truth than any of us want to believe.

A. The stress created over money has at least shortened a lot of lives.

B. For those of you who remember Jack Benny, he had a skit that is too close to the truth.

1. A robber jumps out and says "your money or your life" and he pauses for a long time.

2. "Don’t rush me", another pause, "I’m thinking, I’m thinking.

C. For so many people where ever they are financially, their money ends up being their life.

D. Jesus had a way of putting things into perspective though.

(Mat 16:26 NIV) What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

E. In one verse Jesus put our struggles with money into the right perspective.

1. Our money or anything else is not as important as our relationship with God.

2. I don’t think that any of us really want to gain the whole world, but we sure want to control our little corner of it, and one of the ways that we think that we can be in control is to have more money.

3. And there are a lot of times that in trying to get money, or use it to control circumstances, money causes us not to let Jesus have the authority in our lives that we should.

4. Which do we do more pray or spend time dealing with money problems or struggling to find ways to make more money.

5. So many times the things that we think we own end up owning us.

F. Please don’t think I’m downing money, I’d like to have more too.

G. I think the thing that we have to look at is how much of our lives does money control.

IV. It doesn’t take long to figure out that money can buy a lot of things but it can’t buy real love, or real joy or God’s power in our lives to bring us real peace.