Five Spiritual Attributes Affected by Our Wealth

We've been going through, of course, a series of sermons on holiness in a lot of in-depth study of the Old Testament, and the study of the Haggaios, and the New Testament, the Greek concept of holiness, and sanctification. We've been going through that now for four sermons. And, of course, there's about six more sermons to go in this series. But I thought we'd take a little break today. And do something very simple, a very simple subject, but a very practical subject.

Sometimes it's easy to forget to go back to certain very practical concepts and very simple ideas. And sometimes we need to go back and do that. Let's go to Luke 16 as our starting point. I'm going to read this from the NIV. It's not necessarily from the NIV, because the NIV is a much better translation of this passage. It's just easier to read, because of the way they translated it into the story style that they did. But this passage has actually created a lot of confusion at times, and exactly what Jesus was saying. Yet, if we look through it, the point he's making is very important for all of us. Verse 1 says of Luke 16, Jesus told his disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

So he called him in and asked him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager anymore. In other words, I hear you are sloppy, I hear that you're incompetent, that you're even dishonest. And I'm going to fire you. So, bring the books. Now, he knows the books are going to show that he's incompetent and dishonest. So he has a decision.

What is he going to do? Verse 5. Well, let's go to verse 3. The manager said to himself, what shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do, so that when I lose my job there, people will welcome me back into their houses. So he called in each one of his master's debtors, and called the first, how much do you owe my master? 800 gallons of olive oil he replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it 400. He said to the second, how much do you owe?

A thousand bushels of wheat. He replied, and he told him, take your bill, and make it 800. Now, what he's doing here is he's setting himself up for success when he loses his job. He's setting himself up so that everybody will say, you know, you're a good guy. You treated me really well. I hear you're out of work. You come work for me. When I worked at radio, it was interesting in the big markets. I hated working at big markets.

I love small market radio, because small market radio, you interact with the business people, and you're part of the community. And a big market like Austin, and I actually saw this happen in Austin once. And a big market like Austin, everything's based on the ratings. So, you're number one. And what happens is, is the next arbitrant comes out, and you're dropped to number three or four. And you always have, you know, these salesmen that sell the advertising, the radio ads, they realize where they're going to lose customers, because they dropped from number one to number four.

So what they do is they go around, and they go to the other station, they just went to number one, and they tell them, one of the number one salesmen, you want me. And usually they'll gobble them up. You know why? Because they're going to bring all their accounts. And they go to all their accounts and say, hey, I'm leaving. I'm leaving because we're not number one anymore, we're number four. And they actually leave by destroying, you know, stripping the business from the very company, maybe they worked for for five years.

And they literally just strip everything from them, and just almost drive a bit of bankruptcy. Stations have been destroyed simply because... Now, it's very interesting, because maybe the next arbitrant they're number one again. Well, you can't do that more than once.

You know, you get to play that game one time, and then everybody figures out, wait a minute, how can I trust you? If you would do that to your employer, how can I trust you with my account? But it happens all the time. That's what this guy's doing. He's figured out, I'm going to get fired, so at the expense of my employer, I'm going to get good with all the accounts.

Now, what Jesus says here is what people misunderstand.

The verse says, the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted truly. People say, well, wait a minute, is this... how's he making the good guy here, or the bad guy, the good guy? You'll see Jesus do this quite a bit. What he does is he takes a person that is a bad guy and uses them for a point. I mean, my favorite is when he uses the Samaritans as a good guy. Because in Jewish society, there's no one more despicable than Samaritans, because they weren't pure pagans like Romans. They were people who worshiped Yahweh, they worshiped the God of Israel, but in a pagan way. They were absolute outcasts in society, and he kept using them as the good guys. So he would always do this. He'd take a bad guy and turn it just because he was making the point so strongly. And the boy's making it, okay, this isn't a good guy, but the owner says, you know what? That was pretty smart.

You cost me something, but now everybody's going to give you a job. Of course, there's any problem with that. He uses the odor notes, he uses the accounts, too, and he goes around and sits down with everybody and says, hey, this guy's just taken advantage of. So he goes on, and Jesus says, for the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of life. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Wait, what's he saying here?

Wait, there's many places where Jesus talks about the misuse of wealth. So why is he saying, use physical wealth so that you can? Use it wisely so that you can have eternal wealth? What he's saying, and we'll see this in a minute as we go through the next few verses, he's telling his disciples, look, what you need to do is learn how to use what you have.

Learn how to use what you have. Learn how to take care of what you have, because how you deal with your physical things, your physical wealth, your physical belongings, tells God something and is a revelation of your own character. As we'll see, this has nothing to do with how much you have. He's not saying, if you're wealthy, you can't do anything. You can't do anything. You're a better Christian. That's what he's saying. Anymore than he says, if you're poor, you're a better Christian. Yeah, sometimes we think that way. People say, well, if you're wealthy, God's blessing you, you must be a better Christian. And then your poor people will say, well, God loves the poor, he hates the rich, so we're a better Christian. What you have is really zero importance in terms of who you are as a Christian. It is what you do with what you have. Notice what he says here. He drives from this point in verse 10 where he says, whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little can also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? So he stops and he says, okay, so here's my point.

Jesus' only point is, God learns about us and the character we develop and the godliness and the righteousness and how we use the things that we have. Now we don't usually think of it that way, but he says to be very careful on how you use wealth. And then the next statement, he sort of, Jesus, it's interesting how he does this. He makes his statement. And then, because people would take this and say, oh, I need to go out and make lots of money, so I'll have lots of things to work with. So he says here the next statement, no servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one who loved the other, or he will be devoted to the one who despised the other. You cannot serve both God and money. This is who you serve. He's not talking about what you have. There's people in the Bible. Abraham was a very wealthy man. There's other people in the Bible. You know, Elijah, during the drought in Israel, was so poor, he lived in somebody's house, that God had to give them food every day. So, obviously, where you are on the status of wealth is not important to God. What you do with what you have is important. And it's important that we cannot serve money.

And this is important in our society. You know, there's a lot of the Bible that is mentioned and written to wealthy people. And we say, well, I hope all the millionaires in the room are listening.

If you have electricity, and you have a roof over your head, that you have indoor plumbing, and your belly's full every day, you're better off than about 50% of the people in the world.

We are the wealthiest, of course. We equate wealth with the super wealthy.

We equate wealth with the super wealthy. But with most people in the world, you and I are wealthy.

Because we have more than what most people have. So, we have to step back and realize that when he's talking about wealthy many times, we fit that. We fit what he's talking about.

Most of us have a television set. Most of us have a car.

We have things that we take for granted that just 50, 60 years ago were issued a status of wealth. Those things meant you were wealthy.

You know, back in... if you just go back to the time of World War II, most people did not have a car because they could afford it.

He goes on and he says, the Pharisees, verse 14, I love the way Luke throws this in here, who loved money. Remember, Luke is gathering the information. Luke wasn't there.

Luke gathers the information from all these sources. He says, whoa, did they love money?

Of course, he's being inspired by God, too. But this little commentary, if there's any, who loved money, heard all this, and were sneering at Jesus. And he said to them, you're the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your heart. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. He says, what you think is important, your desire for status and wealth is meaningless to God. So we have a very important point here, being taught by Jesus Christ, that when we look at what we own, we may think it's not important to God.

But we have to realize that it is, in terms of how he uses wealth to help develop in us certain spiritual attributes. What I'm going to go through is five spiritual attributes that are affected by your money. You know, there's always a joke that, you know, a minister can talk about anything but money. He talks about money, that's it. A congregation won't listen. But there are five spiritual attributes that are affected by money. And then I'm going to take this a little time at the end. I'm going to go through a few biblical instructions about, and practical instructions, on how to get control of your money. Because I talked to, you know, more and more counseling I knew has to do with loss of job, loss of income, difficulty because of inflation.

Money problems are going to get worse in our society. So we have to be able to face this and understand it. First of all, the very first spiritual attribute of your life that is affected by money is your faith. Now we're going to go to the Proverbs a lot. We'll turn to some of them, and some of them I'm just going to read to you. But we're told it in Proverbs 3.

Honor the Lord, this is verse 9 and 10, honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first roots of all your increase, so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. God expects us, through tithes and offerings, to offer this to God of our wealth. And anytime we're in a difficult situation, that's one of the most difficult things to do. I know that, you know that. And yet, what that shows is, is when you and I have difficulty ordering God in a way that we believe we should with our wealth, but we don't, it's because it's a faith issue.

Tithing is a faith issue. You know, giving an offering is a faith issue. Because it doesn't mean a life. If you're really, really wealthy and don't need the money, and you give an offering it doesn't mean that much. It's when you don't have much, you have to say, wow, if I give something, I sacrifice. Which is interesting, that's what the word sacrifice means. I sacrifice. Now, it needs something. And it becomes a matter of faith.

It's interesting in Deuteronomy chapter 8, God told ancient Israel, I'm going to give you this land. And, you know, they've been slaves. They had no wealth. They lived in poverty. Then they crossed the Sinai desert as nomads. And he says, I'm about to give you a land that you can't even believe. This land, you're going to have your own houses. You're going to have your own land.

You're going to be able to grow your own food. You're going to have flocks of your own.

You're going to live in a luxury you can't dream of. And I'm going to give this to you. And you're going to be wealthy. And he said, but here's the great danger. He said, well, you're settled into that land. Your houses are built and you're growing your food. Everything's going just fine.

So when you get to that state, you will forget who gave you the wealth.

The privilege to have wealth is for God. Now, lots of people use this honesty to grab it.

That's an issue between them and God. There's many places in the Bible where even David said, I don't understand this, God. How come this person gets blessed and I don't? And of course, God's answer always was, well, they took the blessing by force. So they took the blessing through this honesty. Or they grabbed this blessing by hurting somebody else. Sooner or later, they deal with me. So why don't you stop worrying about that? Stop worrying about these people who do this because of this honesty or because they lie or because they Jesus. Eventually, they deal with me. Let's think about you. Let's deal with you. And you see that all through the Bible, of course, we deal with that too. Why does this person get the promotion? Why does this person get the raise when they were dishonest? Or they did something wrong? Or they were willing to compromise? And God says, I'll deal with that. Let's deal with you. Now, that now becomes an issue of faith. I must believe that God gives the right to have wealth and God will take care of me.

Now, God taking care of us. There's a lot of panic among people today. That's in the church too, about the way the world is going. And people are in this state of panic about what if the economy collapses? What if this happens? What if that happens? It's just constant.

You know, if you listen to talk radio to drink, you're not sat so well.

Literally crazy. Because we live in fear. Everybody lives in fear.

There's a point in time where we all have to decide God will take care of me.

I didn't say He will give you everything you desire. All I can tell you is, I have dealt with a lot of people in 35 years of the ministry. I've seen people obey God and live in poverty. But I've never seen a person obey God and starve to death. I've never seen an enemy. I've never seen a person who obeyed God go around naked. I've seen them wear used clothing.

I've never seen them go around naked. It wasn't what we always desire, right?

I always tell stories when I was a kid when my parents obeyed God, but in the wintertime, when they were sleeping in a snow on the ground, the construction was shut down. He was a construction worker. He had beads. If he didn't shoot a deer, he had no beads. And, you know, you bought your clothes of good will and did the best you could. There were other times it was good.

I look back on those times of what some people would call poverty. I look back on those as good times. We learned a lot. We were a close family. It wasn't a bad time. It wasn't a bad time.

Because God did something with it. Also, we'll say something else. Having wealth is a trial also. Now, I know what you're thinking. God, please give me that trial.

Please give me the trial of wealth. But having wealth is as trying at times as not having wealth.

I've sat down with people who make probably as much money as most of us in this room combined.

And they've lost control of their money. They're claiming bankruptcy. And you think, how in the world could you do that? Well, when your house pay was $4,000 a month, when your car lease is $500 a month, they're spending whatever they bring in.

And when you spend what you bring in, you eventually, or more than you bring in, you run out. It doesn't matter. The U.S. government is the richest, right? There's nothing more rich on the face of the earth than the U.S. government. And it's losing money so fast.

I don't understand how the economy does collapse. I don't understand it. There's no theory that explains why it keeps going except it's too big to fall. It's just too big. There's too much activity going on. But you can't live in that kind of debt. Luke, chapter 12. We'll get back to death a minute. Let's talk about faith here. Luke, chapter 12. So we need to go back to remember these simple practical issues. This is a section of Scripture that's been read so many times it becomes hackneyed. And it shouldn't because it's powerful. It's important for us not to take passage of Scriptures like this and just, yeah, we've read through it 100 times.

Because this is very important in understanding if we're going to be able to deal with wealth or lack of wealth and have a clear mind. Verse 22, he said to his disciples, speaking of Jesus, therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about the body, what you will put on. And of course, worry there is very interesting in the Greek. It's a powerful sense of anxiety based on the way you think you're just thinking, almost like you're obsessed.

You're obsessed with worry. Now, when you don't have, you know, you lose your job and you wonder where that you're going to how you're going to pay your house payment or your, you know, your apartment payment next month. There's anxiety in there. That's normal. He's not saying we should feel anxiety when we're dealing with a stressful situation. What he's talking about is this obsessed anxiety that leaves us in fear. Because if you and I are driven by fear, and we view our financial situation in fear all the time, and anxiety all the time, eventually, just the way human nature is, we will find a way to compromise with God. Fear drives us, because fear is the opposite of faith.

Fear drives us, then, to compromise with God.

So, it is anxiety what we'll do is we'll work on this happen. That's what fills anxiety.

Or because of this anxiety, we will go ahead and cheat on our taxes. Or because of this anxiety, we will make a business deal knowing that we're taking advantage of somebody.

And that anxiety, we will do all kinds of things, which are against what God wants us to be, his righteousness.

So, he's talking about this obsessive anxiety. He says, life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Now, if we stop there, it would be like Hinduism. Oh, don't worry about it. That's not what he's talking about. No, just sit around in a loincloth and pray, and that's what life is about. That's not what he's saying. God gave us the universe, and God gave us physical things, and God wants us to enjoy physical things. But we have to put everything into priority. We have to put everything into God's priorities. And we have to understand that sometimes being a Christian, well, no, always being a Christian is a priceable. It's sometimes physical things.

He goes on, he says, consider the ravens, for they either stowed or reaped, which have either storehouse or barned, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than birds? That sense of how much more value are you than birds is supposed to be a sentence of such hyperbole than it is shocking. You and I have heard it so many times, it doesn't matter.

He said, now, think of a bird, and then God cares for birds. And who are you in the eyes of God? You are his children. If God cares for a bird, don't you think your value to God is a whole lot greater than that? And at this faith level, when it comes to obsessive anxiety over physical things and over money, we are forgetting God's value we have before God. Now, the implication here is that there's going to be hard times, right? He didn't say, so what's your problem? You're never going to have a hard time. That's not what he says. He says, when you were worried and obsessed and anxious, just with anxiety over money, he says, remember how valuable you are to God, even in this situation. And which of you, by worry, can add one cubit to his stature?

If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spit, yet I say to you, even in solid and always glory, was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so closed the grass, which today's in the field, and tomorrow's storage in the oven, how much more would he close you, oh you of little faith?

See, this is an issue of faith, and he's talking about this obsessive anxiety, not the normal stress and anxiety we feel over the stresses of life, the problems of life. Losing a job, having financial problems, not knowing how to make, you know, your payment. What are you going to do?

You know, I had someone call me this week, was in a car accident, and said, how am I going to pay for my car? Well, we'll help you. You know, a church member, and we were able to help pay for the car. You know, people chipped in, looked around the church, we all paid for the car. And he did repairs, so the person keep going to work.

But, you know, God didn't keep that person from going into a car accident.

And God didn't keep them from having broken, or not broke ribs, cracked ribs.

Stressful, painful, yes. But God took care of the person, in the end. It wasn't how that person wished it would have worked out. Where are you going to rest in this? We wouldn't wish that on anybody.

He goes on, he says, and do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things, the nations of the world seek after, and your father knows that you need these things. Now, there's two important things here.

The seeking has to do with service again. Who do you serve?

Don't be like everybody else at serve. Food and drink and things. But then, notice what he says, and your father knows that you eat these things.

God doesn't want us to walk around starving, hungry, you know, not able to, you know, we come to church. Everybody knows that this is our church because everybody shows up and either beat up, run down 40-year-old cars with smoke pouring out of them, or we all show up with bicycles, and we all are tattered clothing, you know, and we're poor. We're the poor of the world that we want to be. That's not what God wants us to be. Now, I'll tell you what, there will always be people that come and get you who are poor, right? And people who are poor to be accepted.

Because it's not what you have, it's what you do with what you have.

That's what God's concerned with. Then he goes on verse 31, But seek the king of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Now, at this point, you think, okay, my anxiety is gone. I feel so much better. God's going to take care of me. I think the next statement comes out of the blue. Okay, you feel good now. God's going to take care of me. I'm not going to worry about my money. Good. Sell what you have and give to the poor, because give offs. That's what it is. Okay, sell what you have and give to the poor. Provide yourselves money bags. Do not grow old. A treasure in heaven that does not fail. Where no thief approaches or moths the stories. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He's back to the concept. Enjoy what you have.

Use what you have, but let your real treasure be in your relationship and obedience to God, because that is eternal. Any physical thing you have is short-lived. Do you see in the news this week? This man spent, I forget what he meant, millions he spent building a knot, and he took it out, but it's made of voyage. I forget what harbor it was. He's not very far out in the harbor, and you can see there's a hole in the bottom of the pot, and water's coming up like geyser, and it went out. There's this 85-foot yacht, and it just sent a roll number.

Now, I'm sure he had head shorts. If you can afford, you know, for a $4 million yacht, you have head shorts. But, you know, that was, he thought probably that was the last of his lifetime, and he had the money to do it. And it sank. We have to remember that all physical things are good, wonderful from God. But, they're not eternal. They're not eternal.

So this is a, I'm not trying to make you all feel bad that maybe you have a nice car. No, that's a blessing from God. Or feel bad because you have a nice house. No, that's a blessing from God. Or that you have some nice clothes. Don't worry about trying to make you feel bad if you say, well, I'm having financial difficulties right now, and I haven't had a new pair of shoes of the year.

You don't feel bad about that either.

I say, that's part of life. And I guarantee you, you know, I can't guarantee it because some people don't do this. Most of us are up here at one time, but down here is another. Most of us have been at some time where we were doing okay. I mean, I don't think most of us are wealthy, but we do okay. You have a house, right? You have a car. You have a full belly. You're watching television. Wow. Physically speaking, you're compared to most people in the world. You're doing real good. Especially if you're a Spurs fan. But, then you're watching the Spurs, okay?

My wife's a Spurs fanatic. I can taste it. You know, I gotta share a trial I have. I think it's time to share some of these.

During a Spurs game, I'm not allowed to talk. It's the strangest thing.

You all think that's funny? I thought I'd get a little citrusy. So, I mean, dare I say, oh, bad shot, Timmy. Oh, my. You know, you can go watch this in the other room.

What do you eat tomorrow for dinner?

Oh, let's go. Okay, the second point.

Faith. Okay, so money affects our faith. Now, these are broad concepts. This is a concept sermon. So, I'm giving you broad concepts. I'll give you a few practical things at the end.

Honesty. How we use our money affects our honesty. There's an old story about, it was a small town in the Old West where there was a farmer and a banker. And they were always at each other. And the farmer brought in just wagonloads of butter and sold it in one pound blocks to the baker. And the baker always said, hey, I get perfect scales here and you were one out short. And he kept bringing it in saying, no, they're not. No, they're not. They're a pound. So finally, the baker sued him and brought him before the local magistrate. And he said, well, what do you do? What do you use for scales? Well, it's very easy. He says, I just buy one pound loaf of bread for the baker and I use that. And he said, well, what do you do? What do you use for scales? Well, it's very easy. He says, I just buy one pound loaf of bread for the baker and I use that to measure what he does. See, it's very easy to say somebody else is dishonest.

It's very easy to see dishonesty in other people, but we need to be very careful about our own dishonesty. Proverbs 21, 6 says, getting treasure by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death. I see more people get burned by get-rich-quick scales. I see people compromise with their own honesty and not even realize they're doing it.

You know, when you work for somebody, say, if you have a 40-hour-a-week job, and that person pays you, I don't care if it's a bit of a way. If you hired on for 40 hours a week and you don't do that, you're stealing that person's time and you're stealing that person's money.

See, this is the point of character. You say, well, I don't even make me no ways. Big deal! No, that's not the point. The point is, it's who you are. I don't care whether you make $3 an hour or $1,000 an hour.

Your character is what you do with that hour. See, we measure by, well, they're only paying the minimum wage. What is it, $8.50? But I do a bit of wages. No, I don't care. I don't care.

They're only paying me a bit of a wage, $8.10. Hey, what do you expect from me? You don't want to pay me $20.

No. Your righteousness demands, I give everything I have. I give $100 an hour, even if you're only paying me $8. I give, for that hour, you get my full work. Let's see, we don't think that way. Because if you do that at $8 an hour, you will stay at $8 an hour.

If you give everything, you eventually will be making more.

Because that effort will motivate you, will motivate others to see what you do and say, hey, I want you at my place. Or, hey, I want to give you a raise. It may take a while.

But also, you go home at the end of the day, no matter what you're doing, you go home at the end of the day with a sense of accomplishment.

I have a saying, when I do counseling with young males in the church and out of the church, they come and just want to do counseling about life situations. I always tell them something. I'm going to tell you a basic principle of life. I learned this one time because I was at a camp, and I had a bunch of boys in a creek. I cleaned a bathhouse. The toilets were all stuffed up, and it was a mess. It was a mess. And they were going to do it. I used to, you know, I had this general rebellion over the counselors couldn't get them to do it. And I came, and I said, gentlemen, this is simple. This is life. You want to succeed in life? You clean some toilets every once in a while. That's the way it works. I let somebody else do it. I said, there is nobody else. There's you. Now, you want success? You want to go on to softball after this? No, we cleaned the toilets. If you don't want success, you can sit here all day. You can sit here and be lazy all day.

But I would go clean toilets. And I wouldn't go on until I went in. Well, pretty soon I looked at the all-trick away. Pretty soon they all feel okay. I'm telling them once and then we cleaned the toilets. Years later, a man came up to me and said, hey, I remember who he was at high school. He said, you know, I own a multi-million dollar business doing quite well. He said, you know why? I have no idea. He says, because when I was a kid, some man told me I was going to clean toilets. And he says, I realized that's what I was going to do in life. And he was valued because he decayed value more. You see what I mean? This has to do with character. Don't steal from your employer.

Because you're stealing from yourself. Work. Give a full day's work. No. Whatever they paid you, give them a little more. Give them more than what they paid. Whoever. Whatever it is. Give them more than what they paid you. Also, I have to say this is a problem sometimes at the church.

In the world, when you exchange money, services, and goods for other money, services, and goods, right? On a contract, you buy something to sell something, you exchange one service for another. It's called an agreement. And there's obligations with that. And you're considered dishonest if you do not fulfill your obligations. Families don't do that. Hey, I'll come by tomorrow and I'll bow the grass for you at 10. Okay, good. Come on by and... Let me give you a better example. I'll come by and bow that field for you and for free. And if I can use the grass I have to go feed my horses. So I get a little license with you. Whoever says, okay, I'll be at 10 o'clock Monday morning. Great! I get my field cut. You get your... right? We have an agreement. 10 o'clock comes, the person's waiting around and they never show 11 o'clock noon, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock. They waste the whole day waiting for the person to come. So they forget about it. A week later, the person shows up. Well, they've already now had somebody else cut the field. The person says, well, what are you doing? You said, I could cut the field. They said, well, yeah, you told me last Monday, I've wasted my whole day waiting for you. Yeah, but you're in the church. You should have kept it for me.

There's a problem here. You would treat somebody in the world like that, but sometimes in the church, we will not uphold our ends of contracts because we say, I don't understand, they're a Christian. That's dishonest, and that is the frauding of brother. We have a responsibility. I mean, how much more should it be with a Christian? You would treat a Hindu that way. How can we treat each other that way? Well, we make agreements with each other. We should do everything we can. You know, if you can't be there, you call the person saying, my truck broke down. They're going to understand, right? But we actually, as we'll treat each other like I see, you know, fathers and sons and brothers all do this kind of stuff. They'll set up agreements that will do a bad thing, they don't understand. No, they don't. There's some families that don't talk to each other for taking years because of those kinds of things. We're the church. Our obligations, our honesty is how we treat each other and our agreements. That's part of it.

The third point is work ethic. This is the whole subject in itself.

I've given you an adult seminar or something on work ethic. I've taken service in the past on work ethic. Work ethic is your ethical commitment to do the work ahead. You know, I read years ago a survey of hundreds of businesses of what these managers saw as the most important qualities in people they hired. I thought it would be talent, right? Experience the talent. It wasn't. You know, it was. They show up to work on time and they do what they're supposed to do in the way they're supposed to do it in the time of life.

And it didn't matter whether it was a janitor or executive. That was what everybody was looking for. They come to work on time. They do what they're supposed to do. So, in other words, they do have the skills of talent to do that. And they do it in the way they were told. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said, I lost my job this week. I said, why? Oh, well, you know, this manager I have, he told me to do such and such and it was just the stupidest way you could think of. And I just told him, that's stupid. He said, well, do it that way anyways. I said, no, and I went and did it my way. He fired me. And my way was better than his. Well, who pays your...

Well, I just won't do stupid things.

Okay, I hope you have long unemployment benefits.

Because you're going to be able to hold down a job. Work ethic. You know, there's an interesting scripture in 2 Thessalonians. The Church of Thessalonica was having a problem with this.

It's very issuing. It's how Paul dealt with it. I think it's so interesting.

Second Thessalonians 3.7.

Paul had lived in Thessalonica for a while. He's writing back to them about the problems they were having in the congregation. And he says, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you. Now, Paul was there with a number of other men that were with him when he lived there. And he said, now, I want you to remember what we did. Because he's going to tell them, I did this as an example for you. Because there was a problem in that congregation. Nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but work with labor and toil night and day that might not be a burden to any of you. Not because we did not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. So he said, when I was there, remember, I know that he served you as your minister. I worked another job to pay my own way. I worked another job to pay my own way. He says, I did this as an example. Because why? What was the problem? Why would Paul do that? For even when we were with you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. Wow! That is not a popular message in today's work. Now, which is stressor. He didn't say, if someone's out of work, if someone just for some reason, maybe they're on a fixed-in cup, maybe they don't have the ability to make more than a certain amount of money, maybe they did make a mistake and get fired. In other words, these are people who are willing to work, but for some reason, they're not working or can't make enough money, especially widows and older people who can't make enough money. That's what he's talking about here. He's talking about a very specific kind of person, a person who will not work. He thinks no one will work.

Can you imagine in our society today, a law that said, if you will not work, you don't get any government aid. We would have life. Now remember, this isn't people who are really in need. He's not even talking about people who made a mistake and are in need. That's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about people who are under employed. He's talking about people who just refuse to work. And we'll do it. He goes on. He says, for we hear that there are some who walk above you in a disorderly manner, not working at all. He's not even trying to get a job, but they are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. Remember one of the amazing things in the Old Testament? That's why we have to realize that even our capitalistic system is not the system of the Old Testament. There's bits of pieces that are part of the way God's in the economic system. And it's not entirely capitalist.

It's not entirely socialist either. But the idea that when you apply your field, you leave the quarters for the poor. Today we would say, how dare anybody require that? That's my field. And I said, no. You have a right to wealth. I gave you the privilege of wealth. You will share your quarters with the poor. You just really have to find anything to say. The poor had to go harvest it.

They didn't harvest it and take it to the poor. The poor had to go work. But it was there for them.

It's an interesting concept. It's not anything like a human being has come up with.

So the person who had been given the privilege of wealth worked hard, kept the wealth, but they also left the quarters in their field so that the poor could come harvest for themselves.

Which brings us to the fourth point. So we see that money affects our work ethic and work ethic affects our money. Money affects our generosity. Money affects our generosity.

Generosity, I want to make a simple statement here. Generosity produces more happiness than stiginess. Generosity produces more happiness than stiginess does. It's just, have you ever met somebody who's truly, truly stinging? And are they happy?

Some of the most stigious people in the world I've ever worked with were just so unhappy, and they lived thinking everybody's out to take advantage of it. I worked for a guy like that one time. That being thought everybody was out to take advantage of it. He wasn't a happy guy. And he pitched every, and his son was the same way. I remember they were driving, they were driving through West Texas, and I forget what town they were going through, but there was a drought. And so you had to ask for water, and the restaurant was charging a nickel for all the water you could drink, but they were charging a nickel because of the drought, and they had a sign. And he was so mad he wouldn't eat there. He just sat there, or everybody else ate, because I'm not going to pay a nickel for a glass of water.

It was that sticky.

I'm owed water. Actually, the God, it's this guy's water.

Let me read some Proverbs to you. Proverbs 14, He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker, but he who honors him has mercy on the needy. In other words, him or me, God. We have a moral obligation to help people in need.

We do.

So, you know, the flip side of this is somebody who does not work, then we have a moral obligation that that person has to learn to work.

But many other people, and it's so easy for us to judge that. Ah, that person's been out of work for three months. They don't need any help. He needs to get a job.

But he asked me something. Have you ever been out of work for an extended period of time and couldn't get a job?

I mean, you try, and you try, and you try, and you can't get a job.

Then everybody's saying, yeah, that person is getting a job. Yeah, they just don't get a job.

We've got to be real careful about how we judge things.

Now, like I said, there are people that don't work.

I've seen people that would go into a congregation, stay in someone's house for six months, and a person would finally say, I can't take any more care of you anymore, and literally go into somebody else's house for six months.

And they'd go, I can't take care of you anymore. They'd go to somebody else's house for six months.

Then you'd call the pastor from the last place they lived. They said, oh, yeah, they lived here for three years to stay with eight different people until finally nobody else would take care of them, so they moved on.

There have been rare occasions where we've actually found people who will go from congregation to congregation and haven't worked for years.

Because we're generous people, we feed them, we house them, we take care of them.

And then he will launch into the congregation.

Proverbs 22, I. He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives his bread to the poor.

Proverbs 21 13. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself of be not heard.

Proverbs 29 7. The righteous considers the cause of the poor, but the wicked does not understand such knowledge.

Let's remember this. Now, sometimes some of the most generous people I have met are people who are for themselves.

They might only have two pairs of shoes, but you get one of them. I have seen people like that.

I grew up in Appalachian, and he was poor.

And there were people who were like that.

You know, one guy would squeeze a nickel so much he wouldn't buy, you know, he's a millionaire, he won't buy a glass of water, he won't eat. I've seen people get food off their plate to another person.

Generosity is a spiritual issue. Aren't you glad God is generous?

What did we see in the side-press picture?

What did we see? God's generosity. I've made everything. I'm going to give it all to you.

He doesn't have to give us anything. What do we deserve from God? Nothing. No, we didn't give it to him. That's just what generosity.

Our money affects our generosity. How we deserve money.

And the last point is our contentment.

We have to have the drive to want to do more, to work hard. It's not wrong to say, you know what, I want a new car, and I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to buy this car. And if you have the ability to do that, you work hard, you buy the car. That's good! That's a character trick. That's work ethic. Of course, all of us should remember this, too.

You buy the car. Oh, man, that new car smells. Now, I have never bought a new car, but I like it when they smell the new car. You know, spray the new car smell, and it would bite. That sort of is. So you get the new car. It smells so good. It runs so good. Everything's perfect. And then, you know, the kids throw up in the car. Or it breaks down.

You know, I love this car. I've had it for four and a half years. But, you know, it's got some miles on it. The receipts are starting to get sort of worn. That's my car. Did you ever have a car that you bought that you loved? And a year later, you wish someone would steal it. You would pay somebody to steal my car.

I'm going to take my handle in shorts on it and put it, you know, go outside and break a window and leave the keys at it. So somebody else can. But you still owe money on it? You can't do that? Contentment is enjoying good things and nice things, and also living with the fact that nothing stays the same. Things wear out. Things break down. What's new now, two years should not be old. And part of the problem is we have a hard time with contentment in this society because we are so wealthy. I mean, every time you're content with someone or something, you turn on the television and they tell you it's outdated. Right? I lost track of the smart phones and the, you know, 2.2, 2.9, 3.0, 8.6. But, you know, it's like, and pretty soon it's like they've had 57 varieties of three years. And they keep convincing us to buy more and buy more and buy more. Computers. Everything. Cars. Now they have cars, you know, with sensors. They can tell you if you're going to run into something. You know what that is? That's just something more to break down.

I had a car that broke down a little bit, and I had a comic, and it cost me lots of money. They keep asking me, it won't cost you a thing. And what was it? Because the transmission would work.

It was a sensor. A sensor told the car, it told the motor that the transmission was broken.

So the car would work. So I'm stuck on the side of the road, this half a day of work, you know, have to leave my car overnight to find out there's nothing wrong with my car.

The car told itself there was something wrong with it.

Anyways, I can see you're about as interested in that as you were about my wife.

Tell me I had to be quiet to its first days.

First Timothy 6. First Timothy 6. Contemplates. Can I just read this? No. What happens? You know, when you give the same sermon twice in the same day, you can take the room. And it's like, wait a minute, I just read this. No, I didn't just read this.

Verse 6. Verse 76. Now godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is happiness. It's great gain. It makes life worth living. Things break down. You feel bad about it. Your suit wears out. Your dress wears out. Your favorite dress. And it just wears out.

And we learn to be content with the state we're in. Where we are. Sometimes you get new things, sometimes you don't. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we won't carry out nothing or nothing else. And having food and clothing with things we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and to many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, from which some have strayed from their faith and greediness and pierced themselves soon with many sorrows. But you, O man, this young minister of Sockington, you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. He doesn't say that the love of money is the root of all things, or the root of all evil. I think that's what it says in the old key of James. This is a much better translation. Almost all translations translate it this way. The Greek attempt was that the love of money is a root of evil. There's more than one root of evil. But again, he's talking about serving money, isn't he? I know I've said this so many times, but I worked in advertising. The whole thing is to trick you and force you into thinking there's something wrong with you if you don't buy this. It's to make you feel bad to buy something, or you will feel good if you buy it. You know, remember jellies? When did you remember jellies? They were a type of shoe that came out in the... 1980s. Yeah, mid-80s. And they were jellies.

I worked for a radio station. Jellies were $2.99 or $3.99 a pair. Little, little, rubbery plastic shoes that were bright colored. Well, we started running advertising for it, for this one company. And all these girls were in... all the high school girls were in a bind. Well, tipping point for me. High school kids bought them, but the adults bought them. And then the little kids bought them. And they ran out. So we advertised more. And they ran out again. So we raised the... we worked with the advertiser, we were $5.99, and they ran out again. We were selling jellies for $15.99 a pair until we satchered the market. Oh, you made a killing.

And after we couldn't sell anymore, guess what they sold? Three of them, you got a pair.

Because that's all they really were. That's what advertising got.

Every... grown women, everybody in that town had to have jellies. It was amazing. They were purple, they were pink, they were all these bright colors, and they were just little... Did you ever have a pair of jellies? No, okay. You didn't see anybody get jellied, personally. They were jellies! I mean, they were... they were $3.99 shoes! Huh? They were uncomfortable. Yeah. That's in flat plastic bottoms. Now, we were sold over $15.99 a pair. Which, I don't know what it would be today. It'd be at least double.

$32 a pair for flat plastic shoes that you would buy down at the dollar store.

That's what we were able to do.

And everybody had to have one, because they were so cool, and then it was like, oh, these are uncomfortable. And besides, I have three pairs.

Yeah, $15.99. That's all pure profit. $3.99 to $15.99. Because they were making profit at $3.99.

Contemplate. We learned to be content with what God is doing in our lives.

Now, real quick here in the last five minutes, then. Principles for some money management.

One, someone told me this years ago it's an old saying, but it's so true.

Live today like it's your last day, and plan as if you're going to live to be honored. And Proverbs 6, 6-11, it says, Go to the ant you sluggard, because she prepares. You read that little passage there, it's, look, ants gather food, and they last through the winter. You would be a sit around, and then in the middle of the winter, wonder why they don't have any food. And at the end of those Proverbs there, he says, A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding in the hands of sleep.

So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your knee like an armed man. Now, just because Jesus said we should be anxious about this future, doesn't mean we shouldn't plan for the future. If you've got a plan for the future, you have to have financial goals. You know, if you're going to plan for the future, you have to have financial goals. You know, if you're going to plan to spend $40,000 a year, you better go get a job making $40,000 a year.

If you're going to spend $80,000 a year, you better go get a job making $80,000 a year. You have to plan. Most people just go through life really nearly, not even know where it's going on. But the little story I put in the pastor's update last night, you know, you're in an airplane, and the pilot comes on and says, I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is our direction finder is down, the computer's down, and we have no idea where we're going. But the good news is we have a tail wind, and we're going there at 600 miles.

That's how most people live their lives. You have to plan what you want to do financially. Now, sometimes you say how important are certain things? Sometimes people want lots of money, and they get a job, or they make lots of money, and they hate it, because they hate to go into work every day. They hate it. Other people say, hey, I don't care what my career is, as long as I need this amount of money, because that means my goals are going to have to be going whatever.

But you have to plan. It's never too late to start planning. There are short-term goals and long-term goals. Financial planning is important, too. Be real careful about borrowing money. Proverbs 22, 7 says, the ritual is over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. You know, the greatest threat to your financial security is your credit card.

Save your money and buy it with cash if possible. Now, you can't always buy everything with cash. You get a house has to be financed, a car has to be financed, usually. But it is better to save your money. You want the big screen TV, and you go in debt, and you buy it, and two years later you want a bigger screen TV, but you're still paying on your credit card at 22% interest. So you get rid of that and buy another one, and now you've got more money on there.

I've seen people put themselves in bankruptcies, people who make a whole lot more money than most of us, because they live above their means. It's simple. You live above your means. You run out of money. It's simple. The credit cards will do that, and it's exorbitant, you know, interest that they charge. You know, one thing you can do, sometimes you see it, especially if they'll do this with furniture, no interest.

So you save the money, go ahead and put it on, you know, no interest for two years, but you already have the money, so you get to use your money and make interest off of your money. Well, you're off of their money. That's what they're doing to you all the time. Of course, you're getting, what, one-fourth of 1%, and they're getting 22%, but it's a huge difference.

By the way, God was at some age in Israel because they were charging each other 1% interest. He considered that to be wrong. So what does he think of a system that serves 22-27% interest? He has a little bit of a viewpoint of certain things that we do. He did believe that the Bible does have a set up for investment, but that's a whole other subject. There you can invest and make money or lose money, but you're doing that as an investment. But charging that kind of interest is against the law of God. Because it actually forces people into poverty. I had been in bankruptcy court with widows whose husband died, and they did not know how to manage their money and just kept running things up on credit card.

You got $30,000 on this credit card, $18,000 on this credit card, and $6,000 on this credit card. How much money do you bring in? Well, once in security, I get $1,200 a month. And so the judge says you are bankrupt. And you now are bankrupt.

You have a bad credit rating. You can't get a car. You can't get any loans. But you know what happens in the barabilee? Every case I've dealt with, within three months, a credit card company contacts him and says, hey, do you want a credit card? So be real careful about borrowing money. Which brings to a third point is, be careful about lending money, or co-signing for other's debts. Proverbs 22, verse 26 and 27 says, do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety for debts.

If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you? In other words, if you co-sign for someone, what the proverb says is, you make sure you're prepared and expect to lose it. So if you go co-sign for someone for $10,000, you have to be prepared to lose $10,000. If you can't afford to lose the $10,000, don't co-sign. That's what the proverb says. Or, you can lose your bed. That's the way it works. And then the last point, and it's practical points, you have to get control of your money. That means you have to learn to budget. And it has to be written down.

Don't get yourself a budget book, a ledger, just like they use it in your businesses. And you budget out how much money you bring in, and you keep track of wherever every cent goes. I said that with people, you know, I'm not a financial expert, but I could have a set up a budget. You said that when you helped set up a budget, and someone was, I said, wait a minute, you're bringing in this amount of money.

Where's this money going? I don't know. But you're losing $25 a week, which works out to be roughly $100 a month, which works out roughly to be $1,200 a year. You're losing $1,200 a year. Where is it? I don't know. Well, what do you spend your cash on? Well, I do go to Starbucks every morning, and I get myself a grande de... How much is it? $497? That's $1,200 a year. Now, if you have enough money to do that, that's great. You know the wrong way. Most of us don't. We don't even know where the money comes from. We spent it, and we don't know where it goes. I get to do that once a week. Once or two weeks. No, but you know it once in a while. But they do it every day. They do it every day. I tell this story. This happened so many years ago. I can't even remember what the person is. I mean, this is the confidentiality issue, right? I deal with a family who are sitting down and going through a bunch of issues. My father realized, he said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're losing $3,000 a year? Where's it going? What do you buy? I didn't buy anything but beer. Beer? Yeah. So how long have you been in alcohol? How do you know that? We spent $3,000 and you're a beer. That's how I know that. We get to work through this problem. Your budget is really not to raise your problem here. You've got another issue that we need to work with. It's a serious spiritual issue. So, budgeting and actually keeping track of every sin. Sometimes I've asked people, just write down every sin that you spend. I don't care whether it's 50 cents. Write it down. See where all your money goes. A lot of times, we're just letting it just. We're drinking it away in coffee or we're using it for lunches.

We can find a cheaper way to do it. We're just doing it on our cable system. Because we have to have Netflix and our cable and this and all that. You spend $200 a month on your entertainment system. That's fine if you have the money to do it. I'm not saying that's why. I'm saying if you don't have the money to do it, you can't do it. We have to prioritize where we're going to spend our money. You'll never do that until you get control of it. You'll never do that until your budget.

Budget, get out of debt. Those are the two most important things to get you control over. I know someone in San Antonio that decided to do that about four or five years ago. Budget, get out of debt. A family will pay off their house. They have like a 20-year mortgage. They'll pay off their house sometime next year. And they already own their car. And they're going to have more money to spend than what you and I could ever dream of.

Simply because they struggled five years is hard. They're out of debt.

It's important, whatever your present financial state, remember, money affects all aspects, or many aspects, of our spirituality. We just mentioned five today. Faith, honesty, work, ethic, generosity, and contentment.

Having wealth, or not having wealth, they're actually both tests of spiritual character. We didn't go through all the scriptures that where God tells the wealthy that they're obligations, or tell the poor their obligations. That's interesting, too. The Bible contains all kinds of obligations for the poor, which means there's always going to be poor, there's always going to be wealthy, there's always going to be people in between, until Christ comes back.

So, remember, Jesus taught that how we handle our physical wealth, it's a training ground. That's part of the testing, to see how we will handle the blessings, how we're going to handle the real blessings, how we're going to handle the universe, when God gives that to us.