Man To Man II, Overcoming The Temptation to Love Money

Mixer time, well, just so you can get to know a couple people maybe, but also to find out what maybe some of your core values are. Here's a little scenario for you. Some of you are married and some of you aren't. I know, so if the wife part of this scenario doesn't work for you, just it works, it applies if you're single. How would you, or you and your wife, respond if, the night when you got home from this meeting, you received a phone call from a person that you knew was credible, all right? Not a quack, but a friend, somebody that you work alongside or have known at some point in your past. It's not someone from New York, but who says to you, well, since it was a New York friend, it came out wrong, right? How would you answer this question if they said, hi, how would you and your wife like to double your income in the next year and become financially free within five years? Stand up, move around, tell one or two people, make sure they know your name. How would you and your wife like to double your income in one year and be financially free in five years? What would your response be? Make sure you get the name of the person you're talking to, all right? All right, take another minute, and then go be seated. Give me some of your responses. What would you be prone to say? Can you come right over? No. How? You'd want to, what's the gimmick? Well, so you, most of you would say, well, yeah, I could. So basically, I've heard everyone say so far, yeah. Remember, the question was, would you like to? How would you like to double your income in one year and be financially free in five? I've heard most everyone say, yeah, I'd like to. But, well, you don't know what their way is. Anyone that would have said, no thanks? Oh, how come you didn't say that? I asked you. Right away, wouldn't you tend? I mean, implicit in that statement is the idea that there's a quick way to become wealthy. To double your income in a year and be financially free in five from scraps. Now, if this is someone that you'd seen go through a long process, and you knew the, but if they're just calling you up out of the blue and saying that, implicit in that statement is, I'm going to get fairly wealthy fairly quickly, right? And so automatically, it would seem that there'd be something in you that would say, well, I don't think so. Why? Because generally, if it's too good to be true, it's probably not. Anyone? Not in the least. I was just going to have you come up, Ron, and say, hey, guys. OK. Well, I just was curious. I mean, there's no, most of us would have serious reservations. I guess I could say that pretty fairly. Is that correct? I mean, because it doesn't seem. And I don't know that any of us here, maybe a couple of us have had the experience of seeing that happen. Kind of the point of it, though, was that perhaps some of us are in a place where that isn't all that important to us. Sure. Sure. But what you're saying, Gary, is that you know that to get wherever this person's describing you, it's going to take more time. And it's going to take away from something that you already value and are trying to keep secure. Now, we've encouraged you to bring your Bibles. Again, I know that it's not always easy. We're in a hurry. But take a look at just two scriptures I'd like you to lay hold of with me. These are sort of the baseline scriptures. Somehow they didn't make it into my notes. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy 6. Let's begin reading in verse 6. Can we do that, please? Greg Young, would you read verses 6 through 10? How many of you are familiar with the first part of verse 10? For the love of money is the root of all kinds, or the root of all evil, most translations say. I'm real familiar with that. But look at the next part of that verse. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. That scripture has a lot of emotion just in the words. And guys, I know I'm talking here tonight. I'm mostly all believers in Christ. And so Paul is directing his words to men like us who are believers in Christ. And he's saying, hey, I know men who have been eager. And that word means to have a passion for. Any other translation for that word, eager, there? Verse 10, halfway through, some people eager for money. Any other translations other than eager? That word implies that they have a passion toward action. Eager for money, have wandered from the faith. And don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't lose your faith. I'm not going to get into the discussion of eternal security. But I will say, you can wander from it. And like the old frog in the kettle analogy, you know? The funny thing is, most of you would have the discernment to tell a quack on the phone, no, I'm not interested in your get-rich-quick scheme. But a lot of us unknowingly would get into a long kind of slow drift away from the things that we really value, just because we have that same desire somehow to have more. And Paul's saying they've pierced themselves. Notice that. God didn't pierce them. The devil didn't pierce them. They pierced themselves with many griefs. And we're going to talk a little bit later just about the fact that, does money really make us happy? And why do people so hunger to have more of it? Money, in a lot of ways, I would think is, we're going to talk about other sin and other temptations, I really should say, not necessarily sin, other temptations. But money may be the most difficult, because it's one of the few things that is always out there and always paraded before us in the world's point of view. And all the promotion is positive. If you think about it for a minute, for example, food. I mean, you can have food as paraded across your television screen, all the different kinds of foods and gourmet thises and that's. But overeating is a problem. Or alcohol, OK? I mean, you can see, alcohol can be, we see the beer commercials, and guys have feet that stand on the Rocky Mountains, and all kinds of crazy things. And everyone that's drinking beer is having fun. But drink too much alcohol, and what do you have? You have a problem. You have a serious problem that becomes an addiction. Sex is satisfying, and so the culture glorifies it. But inappropriate sex can kill you. And it can do other things to ruin your life or your marriage. Money is powerful. And money can be promoted as, let's get more. But what's wrong with having more and more and more money? Yeah. But there is no, oh, I'm addicted to money, or there's no consequence that you can look at and say, oh, there's the person. They're going to the hospital because they have too much money. You see what I'm saying? There's no warning sign at the end of the money tunnel, like there is with alcohol, or there would be with sexuality, or there might be with some of the other things. I don't think that I'm looking at a group of men who think having money can make you happy. How many of you already know that that isn't the case? If money could buy happiness, I mean, it's a cliche. And I have said numerous times that some of the most profoundly unhappy people I know, who I've had the responsibility to counsel in my ministry, have come from the wealthiest families that I know of. And it's almost eerie in some ways. The correlation, in some cases, between more money, the more profound the dysfunction in some of the families that I know. However, money can. Let's be honest. Money can make you, hey, did I pass these out? No, I'm not on here yet, but let me have this. Money can do some nice things for us. I mean, it can keep us secure from the ups and downs of life. If you have some money in your savings account and your refrigerator breaks, you don't have to wonder how to keep your food cool. I mean, there's no question about the benefits. It can make you free and independent of the need for other people. How many of us like to ask people for stuff? Most men hate that. I'll make it on my own. But money gives us the freedom to kind of not need others. It can give you power over others. I'm not on the outline at all yet. I'm just getting ready to. Oh, hey, well, you know what? Use the blue on a scrap paper, then, because I'll never need it again. I'm sorry. I'm getting too excited. The yellow ones were already passed out. When did we do that? You did it, John. I appreciate it. No, you're so far ahead of me that I, but OK. Money can bring you, in some cases, superficial respect. You ever watch somebody, a valet, come out to your 1974 Olds 98, and a guy pulls up in his BMW 750 or 840 or something. And that valet, there's this momentary, wow, this guy must be a heavy hitter. But it's superficial. If the guy from the dilapidated car gives him a $10 tip and the guy from the Beamer gives him a $2 tip, suddenly, that's all respect. Paradigm will change, right? Money can bring you different comfort and pleasures. There's no question about that. There's no question that it can. And I think it's wrong to deny that there are benefits to having money available. But it can also bring a whole long list of responsibilities and even difficulties. A couple of things I've observed and shared in the times, the more money you have, the more management it requires. I mean, if you don't have a lot of money laying around, you're not worried about meeting with your financial counselor to decide where your investments are going to go. You're not watching the ticker tape in the bottom of CNN all day long because you don't care. And the more money you have, the more skeptical you are of people, the more defensive. I watch people who are wealthy. They're very defensive because they think everyone wants something from them. And that may seem like a nice problem to have, but it really becomes an awkward way to live. And I've seen this happen with people. And for the person who is really captivated by money, the only thing worse than not having it is to have it and to lose it. And I know men who have become quite successful and wealthy and who are very afraid of losing their wealth, more afraid and more paranoid than people who don't have money who are trying to get it. And that's why Paul says, and let's look back at the scripture again, underline or highlight verse 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain. God wants you to be content, and he wants you to enjoy contentment. I mean, there's great gain in that. There's another scripture that says, be content with what you have. And that's very difficult for us because we're always looking at the next thing and what we might. But another question I'd like you to share together here for a moment, all right? You don't have to get up and move around, but just the guy on your right or on your left or in threes. What do you think is really the most motivating issue when it comes to this matter of money? I mean, what is it really that people are trying to, what drives them to want more of it? Is it the things I mentioned? Is it pleasure? Is it security? What do you really think money does for people that causes them to want more of it? What do you really think of this? Share it with somebody, and we'll talk about it. What's the number one thing behind people's drive for money? What do you think it is? Number one thing, why do people really drive themselves to have more and more and more money? What's really behind it? One word, all right? Let's see what one another think about this. What do you really think is behind it? No wrong answer here, just your opinion. What is it? Pardon me? Power, all right? You think it's material things, just stuff. Esteem? Physical security. What is it? All right. More than anything, what we're trying to get is what really drives the love of money? What is it? Self-sufficiency, or as we said earlier, you're helping me with this, guys. I-E-N-C-Y? All right. I'm sorry? Yeah, esteem. I'll put that under that, OK? Obsession. Pardon me? Reunions. About two years before we were here. Any others? This, I mean, really drives you. All right. Lack of trust in the Lord. I've kind of thought a lot about this, just because I've studied this in the past for different times. And I see this, and you know what? There's not a topic that we talk about at the church that's more difficult to feel like you're breaking through than this one. On a Sunday morning when I, in a year's time of all the messages I would bring, if I talk about money or giving, it's the quietest sermon of the year. It's like there's this, it's just, we have all these defenses and all this. But in a lot of the studies I've done, I have discovered what I think, and some of these, I think, are probably very similar. I think it is that money permits us to do the one thing we all want to do, and that's to be in control. Now, that has to do with power, no doubt. That has to do with self-sufficiency, no doubt. But a study that USA Today did not too long ago of a big survey, the number one thing that the respondents said that they wanted in life was to be in control of their lives. That equaled their definition of happiness. Happiness to them was, I'm in control. Control maybe means I don't need you. That would be self-sufficiency. Control maybe means I can influence the circumstances that might diminish me otherwise. I can overrule them, because I have money. I'm in control. And now, there's a lot of other ways for people. If they don't have money, they try to exert control in a lot of other ways. And we're going to talk about that in succeeding weeks when we talk about lust, because lust is basically the attempt to take control of something, usually another person. But if you think about it, how many people do you know that have money that exercise control over you? Doesn't that come with the territory? Oftentimes, it does. And that's why it's an interesting thing, because God says, and let's look at a couple of things, three things that he says about money and who he is. First of all, letter A, God made everything. So he's created everything. Nobody out there has any stuff that God hasn't somehow created or provided the resources to create. These are important. You might want to jot these down. It'll help your understanding of this. James 1 and 17, every good and perfect gift comes from our Father who's above. Number two, since God made it, he has retained ownership of everything he's created. He is still the owner of all that there is. Guys, we lose sight of that the minute we go out and push the security alarm in our car. This is my car. No way. It's all the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. What does that mean? That means everything in it, it belongs to him. And if that gets into your spirit, even though God may allow you to have some of his stuff for a period of time, it's still his stuff. And one of the greatest things in my life, I've been helped a whole lot in realizing stuff comes and goes, but God doesn't change. And if God decides to take some of this stuff back, and some of you may know, if you know me at all, ever since I was a little guy, in my family, automobiles were a big deal. My uncle raced stock cars, and we used to go to that. My grandfather sold cars as an occupation. My dad used to bring home cars to work on them. It was just something our family always did. OK. And when I got my first car, it was a big deal. I don't think I got it until I just graduated from college. Well, no, actually, my first car, I was in college. And it was a 1954 Buick Special. What are you laughing at, brother? It was a great car. What are you talking about? Well, yeah, you were about 30 then, and you remember that. But this was in 1967, so it was 13 years old. And we bought it from a classic little old lady down in, I grew up out in Beaver, which is about an hour from here. And this lady had the car in her garage for years and drove it on weekends. And it was absolutely perfect condition. It's 16,000 miles on it, and it was 13 years old. We bought it, and I remember distinctly, it's not an exaggeration. We bought it for $250. And I drove it to college that next year. We went to Earl Shibes and got it painted for not, what is it now, how much is it now? One, is it $1.99? It was $29.99 when we got it painted. And it was a great paint job. But I remember, I mean, I was just, and whoever said obsessed, I was obsessed with keeping it nice. But when you're part of a fraternity and you give your stuff to guys in your fraternity, goodbye. I mean, it comes back with stuff on it. And along the way, I kind of learned something there that I can steward and take care of. But basically, it's God's stuff, and I have to let go of that. Because how many of you know your stuff will put you in the hole? I mean, you'll go nuts if you have to be the one that protects it, takes care of it, and possess it. It'll possess you if you let it. All right? So God says, I'm just asking you to take care of my stuff. My call to you is, I'm going to give you some of my stuff, God says, for you to take care of. And guys, note in your margin under letter C there, Matthew 25. Matthew chapter 25. Because God makes it really clear there that the way you handle his stuff, his gifts, his resources now in this life will determine what he can give to you in eternity. Stewardship is God's idea. And the way to overcome the temptation to love money is to see yourself simply as a steward or an administrator of God's resources. Yeah? Yes. Even though time might be stretched here, just because this is a controversial passage, why don't you flip there to Luke 16? This will get you thinking between now and our next time together if you've not really studied this one. Luke 16. There was a rich man whose manager, that's the Greek word for steward, was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, what's this I hear about you? Give an account of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer. The manager said to himself, well, what shall I do now? He's thinking, all right, I'm on the carpet. What gift? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. How does that describe you perfectly? That's me right there. I'm not doing any more digging, and I'm not going to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 800 gallons of olive oil, he replied. By the way, that was a huge sum back then. If you know anything about olive oil, that was one of the commodities that was treasured. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 400. Ooh, cut it in half. Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? 1,000 bushels of wheat. He told him, take your bill and make it 800. So this guy's gone, and what's he doing? He's using his influence and power to help basically pad his own way for the future. Now, the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. Now, Mac, you just taught this. That is a key sentence or verse in this passage. The master said, hey, basically what? You did a heck of a job. Well, yeah, and I'm not here to do an exposition in this passage, but here's the point that Jesus makes. The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the people of the light. In other words, he's using the principle here of comparative interpretation. He's saying, look how these guys do it. They are so sharp, so shrewd. Why aren't you sons and daughters of mine, why aren't you equally astute in my principles? That's the point. He says, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself. This is an interesting one which you can think about. So that when it's gone, you will be welcomed in eternal dwellings. Now, look at verse 10. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And that's the point I was making. If you're faithful with what God gives you now, he can give you more. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. And I love verse 11. If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, gentlemen, if we can't handle money, God says, look, who's going to trust you with true riches? And if you've not been trustworthy with someone else's property, i.e., God's, who will give you property of your own? In other words, money, it's the entry ticket into the blessings of God in your life. And I hope that this is clear, because I'm going to jump right into my second point. If you haven't learned how to handle God's money, you're not going to be able to handle God's other blessings. If you want to be in ministry, if you want to be an effective servant of the Lord, you have to learn how to handle God's money as a basic beginning point. And the tithe is the basic building block of good stewardship. You want to break money's control over your life? The beginning point is to learn to tithe, to give God. And the word tithe in Hebrew, the definition of the word, means 1 10th. Someone said to me once, hey, well, my family, we're tithing 5%. Is that OK? And I said, well, you know, I appreciate the fact that you're giving 5%, but you're not tithing. To tithe means I'm giving 10%. It's by definition, all right? And a couple of comments about the tithe, just to help you with questions you'll get. How many of you have heard the argument, well, tithing is Old Testament. We live in the New Testament. Have you heard that? It's the law. I live under grace. My response is twofold to that. First of all, tithing preceded the law. Just jot down these scriptures, Genesis 14, and then specifically also Genesis 28-22. Because long before Moses received the law, there's illustration of Abraham and Jacob tithing of their increase to honor the Lord. So it is literally a principle that's given from creation on through. Very important. Also, people say, well, I've never seen in the New Testament. Well, jot this scripture down, and I'd put it on the overhead so you can see that I'm reading exactly as it is. Matthew 23-23. Let's read it out loud, everyone. Yes, woe upon you Pharisees and you other religious leaders, hypocrites, for you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your garden, but ignore the important things, justice, mercy, and faith. Yes, you should tithe, but you shouldn't leave the more important things undone. There it is in the New Testament. Jesus saying, you know, you should tithe. You should tithe. But that's just the beginning point. That's not the end. You should also take care for the important things, such as justice, and mercy, and faith. And as you've heard me teach over the years, tithing is the beginning point. Your offerings come after that. But it's what opens you then. I like to say it this way. My tithe is my way of saying, God, I honor you as the creator and owner of everything that I have. Now, I've heard it said this. Have you ever heard someone say, well, I give God his 10%, and then I just keep the 90%. And I'd rather have my 90% and with God's blessing than have the whole 100% without it. I've heard that. But you see, the fact is the 90%, it's his too. And if you let God direct you in that, it's so much more satisfying. And I'm saying this with a lot of conviction, because I have, as someone in ministry, I've had to watch God just take me along from having nothing to just having great blessing. And I've watched him do it, not because I've been shrewd, not because I've managed my assets well or invested wisely in the stock market, no. Just because I've obeyed the scripture and trusted God, and he's been faithful. Every time you write your tithe check, it should be to you a recognition that every blessing, everything that you have, has come from the Lord. And guys, when you put your tithe check in that offering basket, what I want to recommend that you think about is you say, Lord, as I do this, I am acknowledging you are my source, not my corporation, not my sales quota, not how cool I am on the computer, not my intelligence, but you, oh God, are my source. And guys, that's why I recommend that you tithe every week, not once a month. We write our tithe check once a week, because it reminds me every week that God is my source. And I need that every week, especially when there seems to be more needs than I have resources. And I put that tithe check in, and I say, Lord, you're my source. And it's a great blessing. I thought we'd stop right now for a minute and open up the floor for a second. Who else would like to share how you have, in your life, experienced blessing in the tithe? Maybe you had a difficulty. Maybe you had a struggle. But God bless you. I can say, just to start with, he is taking care of me as you are my father. So six months after you stepped out, God will put you in a new job and totally change it. OK, exciting. Somebody else? How many of you found it easy to tithe? Not the first time, though, right? Well, we still have it every week. OK. We're just always in time. Yeah, how many, if you wait, well, we'll pay these bills. And if there's anything left, we'll pay our tithe. Goodbye. If you live where I live, that's not going to happen. But I want to say, and I say this carefully, because there are times when I know I have needed it. And I said, Lord, you've got to come through. And it didn't. And it didn't come through when I needed it, or when at least I thought I needed it. But you know what? The word trust, then, appears real big on the screen of my heart. And I say, God, then, if you decided not to come through, I can't tell you how many times this has happened in our church. Well, I said, it's got to come through. And it didn't come through the way I thought it needed to. Let me just tell you, when that happens, God is preparing plan B. So just hold on. The whole thing he is saying, he's waiting to see. Now, will you trust me, even though it didn't happen, even though you didn't get the payment, or you lost the opportunity, or gee, I had to sell this thing that you thought you were going to trust in, then? That's when this whole thing of being a Christian becomes exciting. Because what you know is happening is your Heavenly Father is not going to let you out there. He may have to reorder. He might be in the process of totally changing something in your life. But he's using this particular incident just to start that process. And I think it's Oswald Chambers that says that when you have come to the place of maturity, when God doesn't come through the way you think he should, that you don't assault his character. And that's what we tend to do. If he doesn't come through, you say, well, you know what? This tithing stuff doesn't work. And God, I don't know that you're really worth trusting. Sunday? Right. We don't want that legalism to set in. And by the way, do you sometimes think if you had a lot of money it would be easier? I read a story of a wealthy man who visited his pastor and was troubled by the concept of the tithe.