Let's Talk About Money

Love you all, praying for you,
 
I just love God’s Word – it tells the truth.  Let’s talk about money.  Why?  Because you will love God, or you will love money.  You cannot do both - God said.  What do you think about money?  Is it important to you? It’s important to God.  Just not for the same reason.  Some people say, “Money is just not important to me.”  Others view money like Lombardi viewed winning… “(It’s) not everything, it’s the only thing.”  Most people want money because they think it measures something - how successful you are, and how many options it affords you.  But that’s not what it measures according to God.  His view of success with money - is not what man thinks success is.  According to God, money does measure something, success, only not in accumulation, but distribution.  According to God, it’s not how much you get, it’s how much you obey with what you’ve been given.  The goal isn’t to get more money, God said to the rich fool, tonight your very life will be required of you, then who will get all that you have stored up for yourself?  Neither is the goal to do things that make money.  Sometimes what God wants you to do, will produce money.  And sometimes, the better you do it, the more money it will produce.  But other times what God calls some people to do doesn’t produce money, it’s fruit is of a different kind.  Either way, God brings the increase, you just plant the seed - (which also came from Him).  The goal isn’t even to be a steward.  You are one already.  You’re either a good one, or a poor one.  What’s a steward?  Someone who cares for another’s possessions.  Whose money is it?  God’s.  The silver and gold are mine says the LORD, and the cattle on a thousand hills.  Do I need a bull from your stalls, or a goat from your pens?  If I were hungry I wouldn’t tell you, because the cattle on a thousand hills are mine.  “But I earned it.” Did you?  It doesn’t matter, when you’re a steward whatever you earn, still belongs to the owner, it’s not yours.  God told the Israelites, you cannot sell the land, the land is mine, you’re just renters.  Every fifty years at Jubilee – all the land in Israel went back to the original owners – the tribes and families of Israel who by inheritance were assigned their portion of the promised land.  So real estate prices were predicated on the number of years until Jubilee – when it was all returned.  They were just renters, not owners.  Whatever you earned was just labor, not ownership.  Did you make the grass grow? Or the crops grow? Did you make the raw materials that comprise the product you produce? Did you make it rain, did you protect it from drought, did you stop inflation, government interference or regulation, or shutting down your industry?   Did you stop thieves from stealing what you have? Did you keep yourself from getting sick and being unable to work? Did you give yourself good health, did you give yourself the next breath? What about waking up in the morning in your right mind, did you do that? Was that great business idea yours?  Did it come from you? All of these things God did.  Did you keep your company from going bankrupt? No, God did.  You just labor.  God said the laborer is worthy of his wages, but the ability to work, the ideas to increase production and spare from loss, all come from somewhere.  Not you.  There is nothing new under the sun.  Anyone who said “I did that!” Is not only ignorant, but perhaps borderline narcissistic.  It’s God who did all these things.  Have you ever noticed our tendency to take credit for what someone else did.  Money is the measure of the heart.  It is God who gives you the power to gain wealth.  It is God who holds health together, nations apart, and the economy together.  Solomon spoke of a grievous evil under the sun, wealth stored to the detriment of the owner, or war or calamity, that sweeps it away, so a man never gets to enjoy what his own hands produced.  When it comes to money - God owns it, you’re a steward.  It’s not how much you get, it’s how you obey with what you have, and everything you have or did comes from God.  So what about money?  It’s just a byproduct of labor if you work for it, or ideas if it works for you.   Far more important… What does God want you to do?  Then, whatever money that labor produces, what does He want you to do with it?  Some people say our job is to get more, because of the parable of the talents.  That wasn’t the point, they missed the first sentence… “the kingdom of heaven… is like.  God said don’t overwork to get rich, have the wisdom to show restraint.  Some people decry money disadvantage, they’re part of the ‘money is success’ camp.  So Lebron’s kids have an advantage over your kids, what does that matter?  It’s not what you have, it’s how you obey with what you have.  Someone once said, “More money, more problems.”  Those with money have often reflected, “Money doesn’t change you – it just makes you more of what you are.”  More money definitely is more responsibility… it’s more to obey with.  Money perhaps is just a tool that God uses to test us, and to teach us obedience.  Some people obey money – not God, it’s a god to them.  They love it and obey it.  Your god is who you obey.  They make all money decisions based on how much money it will get them, not on what God tells them.  Sometimes God will tell you to do something that doesn’t make money, but loses it.  Everything you give – appears at face value- to be a loss.  Only in God’s kingdom, everything you give that God directed you to give, is a gain, not a loss.  Work for the Lord, not for money, wealth, fame, or to please someone else, your spouse or your boss.  Money is a measure of work, sometimes a measure of productivity.  It’s definitely a measure of priority.  God said it’s a measure of the heart.  It’s what you obey with, or not.  So how do you learn to obey with money? Know God’s Word, Know where it is, and Know God’s Voice.   #1 Know God’s Word, what God says about it.  Learn to think like God thinks about money, not the way man thinks.  (See The Money Packet – to learn what God says about money).  #2 Know Where It Is, give an account of it, (Start a 4C’s Accounting Tool, or get current with yours – you can’t obey with money, if you don’t first know where it is.) #3 Know God’s Voice, what He tells you to do with it.  (4C’s daily will make it a regular conversation with Him). Then you will learn to obey with money – the Holy Spirit will teach you.  You’ll learn to love God, not money.  Money won’t control you, you will just steward it – however God tells you.  And when you are faithful with a few things… you will be entrusted with many things – and enter into the joy of your LORD.  Money brings a cheap joy, a temporary joy.  But the joy of the LORD is a different level, it’s eternal not temporal, it doesn’t depend on money, it is given by God.  Praying that you are faithful in 4C’s – a Godly pattern of stewarding money.  Praying that you are current in your 4C’s tool, whatever tool you use.  Praying that you are obeying with time, with thoughts, and money, overcoming with your testimony!  So your joy can be full!  So you hear well done today!  Then – you’ll hear “Well Done!” on that day. 
 
Love you all,
dad