Sermon:
Moola
…a sermon about money
–Part 2
by Chris Cumming
It was the famous Jonathan Swift [satirist and poet] who said: “A wise
person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.”
Today we continue the journey to get wise about money in our heads. We are
going to immerse ourselves into the Word of God to see what is being said about
money. It will be a comprehensive journey as I encourage all of us to bring the
finances of our lives under God’s authority.
Bring your finances under God’s authority.
Notice Luke 16:
Luke 16:10-12
10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he
that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will
commit to your trust the true riches?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall
give you that which is your own?
Notice the meaning here in the commentary.
Who will commit ... - If you are not faithful in the small matters pertaining to
this world, if you do not use aright your property and influence, you cannot
expect that God will commit to you the true riches of his grace. Men who are
dishonest and worldly, and who do not employ the deceitful mammon as they ought,
cannot expect to grow in grace. God does not confer grace upon them, and their
being unfaithful in earthly matters is evidence that they “would be” also in
much greater affairs, and would likewise “misimprove” the true riches.
True riches - The graces of the gospel; the influences of the Spirit; eternal
life, or religion. The riches of this world are false, deceitful, not to be
trusted Luke 16:9; the treasures of heaven are “true,” faithful, never-failing,
Matthew 6:19-20. ~Barnes Notes
Quoted verses:
Luke 16:9
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness;
that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Matthew 6:19-20
19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
So God is saying to us that He wants us to be experts in the small matters of
the world, as they are the training ground for us becoming experts in the real
riches of the Kingdom of God.
This is going to be an ongoing series of sermons. We will not necessarily being
doing them all in a row but I will be bringing them to you in the coming months
as we schedule them. This will be very important training for all of us. We
will be dealing with worldly elements; money and finances. From scripture, God
will be giving us a multitude of spiritual principles and concepts to become
experts in all aspects of them. What you are going to see is that what we learn
through money and finances will impact virtually every aspect of our physical
and spiritual lives.
So… Bring your finances under God’s authority.
Here are the twelve elements into which we are going to be immersing
ourselves:
1] Right Attitudes
2] Wrong Attitudes…todays subject
3] Credit
4] Giving
5] Family
6] God’s Blessings
7] God’s Curses
8] Government
9] Investing
10] Planning
11] Restitution
12] Work and Wages
Let us continue. Today we will deal with element two, “Wrong Attitudes.” The
sub-elements for Wrong Attitudes we will cover today are: Love of money, Bribes,
Pride, Covetousness, Greed, Dishonesty, Envy, Partiality, Disobedience,
Injustice, Ego, Futility of Riches, Fear, Bad Counsel, Indulgence, and Suing.
2] Wrong Attitudes
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling ---Proverbs
16:18
2A Love of Money
…where money is more important than God
---Lovers of money will never be satisfied.
Ecclesiastes 5:10
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth
abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
---One cannot serve two masters.
Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve
God and mammon.
---How love of riches can prevent one following Christ.
Mark 10:21-22
21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest:
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great
possessions.
---Love of money brings temptation.
1 Timothy 6:9 [See
Lesson]
But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
---Love of money the root of all kinds of evil.
1 Timothy 6:10 [See
Lesson]
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.
---Lovers of money in description of perilous end
times.
2 Timothy 3:1-2 [See
Lesson]
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
2B Bribes
…use of money to pervert justice.
---God detests bribes.
2 Chronicles 19:7
Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for
there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking
of gifts.
Commentary:
Gifts - he accepts not the faces of men, nor receives bribes, nor should his
judges; this is forbidden by him. ~John Gill
---Don't take bribes.
Job 6:22
Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
---The wicked take bribes.
Proverbs 17:23
A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment.
---Bribes pervert justice.
Proverbs 29:4
The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts
overthroweth it
---bribes corrupt.
Ecclesiastes 7:7
Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
---sin to take a bribe.
Amos 5:12
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the
just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their
right.
2C Pride
…desire to display riches.
---Riches will not save us.
Job 36:19
Will he [God] esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of
strength.
|---The wicked are prideful.
Psalm 10:2-5
2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the
devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom
the LORD abhorreth.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God
is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as
for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
---Do not boast.
Psalm 75:4-7
4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the
horn:
5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the
south.
7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
---God tears down the proud.
Proverbs 15:25
The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border
of the widow.
---The proud are an abomination to the Lord.
Proverbs 16:1-5
1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from
the LORD.
2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the
spirits.
3 Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.
4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of
evil.
5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand
join in hand, he shall not be unpunished
---Pride brings a man low.
Proverbs 29:23
A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.
2D Covetousness
…Desire for what others have
---Do not covet.
Exodus 20:17
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any
thing that is thy neighbour's.
---Stay away from individuals who covet.
1 Corinthians 5:11-12
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is
called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge
them that are within?
Commentary:
Not to keep company - To be wholly separated and withdrawn from such a person.
Not to associate with him in any manner. ~Barnes Notes
---The covetous will not be in the Kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Ephesians 5:5
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who
is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
2E Greed
…overwhelming desire for more
---The greedy blesses his covetous [wants more].
Psalm 10:3
For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom
the LORD abhorreth.
---Beware of greed.
Luke 12:15
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
---Do not be a rich fool.
Luke 12:20-21 ...parable of the rich fool
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
---Avoid greed.
Ephesians 5:3
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named
among you, as becometh saints;
---Some are motivated by greed.
Titus 1:10-11
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of
the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which
they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
---Greed will exploit.
2 Peter 2:3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you:
whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not.
2F Dishonesty
…perverted in heart
---Do not steal.
Leviticus 19:11
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another.
---Put lying lips far from you.
Proverbs 4:24
Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.
---God hates a lying tongue.
Proverbs 6:16-17
16 These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.
---Ill-gotten gains fail.
Proverbs 10:2
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
---Better to be poor in righteousness.
Proverbs 28:6
Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in
his ways, though he be rich.
---He who covers up his sins will not prosper.
Proverbs 28:13
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh
them shall have mercy.
---Thieves and those who covet will not enter the Kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:10
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God.
2G Envy
…jealousy over what others have
---Do not be envious of evildoers.
Psalm 37:1
A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious
against the workers of iniquity.
---A firstfruit can slip if he gets envious of the prosperity of the wicked.
Psalm 73:2-3
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
---Do not envy sinners.
Proverbs 23:17
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the
day long.
---Do not fret over evil men. Do not be envious of them.
Proverbs 24:19-20
19 Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked;
20 For there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall
be put out.
---Put aside envy.
1 Peter 2:1
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and all evil speakings.
2H Partiality
…giving unreasonable favor to someone
---Do not judge unjustly.
Psalm 82:2-4
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
---Partiality is wrong.
Proverbs 24:23
These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons
in judgment.
Proverbs 28:21
To have respect of persons is not good: for for a piece of bread that man will
transgress.
2I Disobedient
…ignoring God’s direction
---Listen to and obey God.
Deuteronomy 8:20
As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish;
because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
---The results of disobeying God are not good.
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew
himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein
thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
---Disobedience results in God not hearing.
Psalm 66:18
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
---More results for those refusing to obey God.
Proverbs 15:10
Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth
reproof shall die.
2J Injustice
…taking unfair advantage
---Do not do injustice.
Psalm 82:2
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
---Remember to show mercy.
Psalm 109:16
Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy
man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
---What good is gain if there is injustice.
Proverbs 16:8
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
---The outcome is not good to those who mock the poor or are glad at
calamities of another.
Proverbs 17:5
Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities
shall not be unpunished.
---Do not oppress the poor.
Proverbs 22:16
He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the
rich, shall surely come to want.
2K Ego
…self-elevating attitude
---Do not brag.
Proverbs 27:1
Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
---Being rich can lead to ego.
Proverbs 28:11
The rich man is wise in his own conceit; but the poor that hath understanding
searcheth him out.
---God gives us warning on being egotistical.
Jeremiah 9:23
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
---Do you giving in secret.
Matthew 6:3-4
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand
doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
---Be not highminded.
1 Timothy 6:17 [See
Lesson]
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust
in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to
enjoy.
2L Futility of Riches
…recognition that riches are temporary
---Riches often get left to others.
Psalm 39:6
Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he
heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
Psalm 49:10
For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish,
and leave their wealth to others.
---Trust not in riches
Psalm 62:10
Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set
not your heart upon them.
---Riches will not profit in the day of wrath.
Proverbs 11:4
Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
---Trust in riches and you shall fall.
Proverbs 11:28
He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a
branch.
---What is the advantage of gaining much riches if one falls from the faith?
Luke 9:25
For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or
be cast away?
2M Fear
---Anxiety weighs the heart down. Ever worry about money or finances?
Proverbs 12:25
Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.
Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Psalm 38:6
I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
2N Bad Counsel
…listening to wrong advice
---Do not listen to fools.
Proverbs 13:20
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be
destroyed.
---Depart from fools.
Proverbs 14:7
Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips
of knowledge.
---Avoid angry people.
Proverbs 22:24-25
24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not
go:
25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.
Quotes on counsel:
"Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your
spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise."
"How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their
own upbringing. Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right
paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
~Anne Frank
Note: This is why we constantly preach, “get all the information you can
and get all the counsel you can.”
2O Indulgence
…surplus to the point of waste
--- Don't love pleasure over God.
Proverbs 21:17
He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall
not be rich.
---Drunkenness and gluttony lead to poverty.
Proverbs 23:21
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall
clothe a man with rags.
---Exercise self-control.
Proverbs 25:28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and
without walls.
---Over indulgence is not good.
Proverbs 27:7
The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing
is sweet.
Quotes on overindulgence:
"The proximity of a desirable thing tempts one to overindulgence. On that path
lies danger."
2P Suing
…taking another firstfruit to court
---Do not sue another firstfruit.
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust,
and not before the saints?
2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall
be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to
this life?
4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge
who are least esteemed in the church.
5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no,
not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one
with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer
yourselves to be defrauded?
8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
Rather than going after a brother in the faith, go to this verse:
1 Peter 3:9
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
Study these points you have heard this day.
Meditate on them.
Examine yourself against them.
Bring your finances under God’s authority.