Last September an article came out that Grand Rapids decided NOT to pay back more than $81,000 in parking fees it had mistakenly collected. Street parking is supposed to be free during the holidays, but for years people had been paying through a smartphone app to park. For some reason the app never notified drivers that parking was free and it continued accepting those payments from uninformed drivers. Once it was discovered, city officials decided it would be too difficult to pay back the $81K to everyone who had mistakenly paid.
Now I don’t know all the details, so I’ll let others judge the fairness and reasonableness of the situation. And I also don’t know anything about how well the city is handling of finances overall. But it does get me thinking about how we handle our own money as Christians.
Our sermon today is titled “Wisdom & Money.” There are lots of passages in the bible that bear down on the topic of money. We may be familiar with those famous verses in the Bible about money like, “You cannot serve both God and money,” and “Do not store up treasures on earth,” and, “Money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
We may reference those passages along the way, but our attention will be what Proverbs says about money. There are around 75 verses related to money in Proverbs. So, our takeaway from that one fact is that God wants us to be wise when it comes to money – and He has something to say about it.
#1 WORK HARD
First, when it comes to money, work hard. We spent some weeks on work ethic but I’ll just start with this point of when it comes to making money, work hard. Proverbs 10:4 says, “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” “Diligence,” working with focused energy – hard work. Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit…”
If you ask our kids what are the 3 rules for work they should all be able to answer and tell you: 1) do the job right, 2) do it with a good attitude, and 3) work hard. Laziness, negligence, and bad attitudes are not what make for good adults. Nor good Christians when it comes to work.
APPLICATION: Work hard. Don’t be lazy. As a matter of fact, Colossians 3 tell sus that we should work as if working for the LORD. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “….” The right perspective about whatever employment we may have (or whatever responsibility for that matter), is that we are doing it FOR the Lord. We work FOR Him. We are serving man but we are not serving man ultimately – we are in our task serving Christ. So let the way we approach working to earn money be done with us fully aware that we are doing it under the Lordship of Jesus.
#2 MANAGE MONEY WELL
Wisdom means managing your money well. Not managing money well indicates unwisdom, or foolishness. Turn to 21:20 with me, “The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.” The wise store up. They manage their resources well. The fools don’t save, instead they spend, spend, spend. They gulp their resources down. So many times they need to borrow because they spend more than they make, they live beyond their means – not within their means.
A great example is Proverbs 31. Turn there with me and follow along from verse 13-25…. She works hard, she’s not lazy, her pantry is well stocked, she can provide, she can buy things with money she HAS, she can give to those in need, she’s not worried about tomorrow because she’s stocked and ready for tomorrow rather than trying to pay off yesterday still.
APPLICATION: Make a budget. Take control of your finances and be responsible with the money God gives you. Know what you’re spending, where you’re spending it and get it under control with a budget. Get your spending beneath your income.
APPLICATION: If you’re in debt, make a plan to get out of debt. There are great resources like Dave Ramsey, Financial Peace University, and others. They have helped millions of people. Proverbs 22:7 says, “the borrower is a slave to the lender.” The wise get out of and stay out of slavery.
Its one thing to have a mortgage and some manageable debt where the payments are easily manageable and don’t threaten your giving, saving and budget. Its another thing to be constantly refinancing your home over the years, borrowing against your equity, racking up consumer debt, maxxing out credit card after credit card, paying off one debt by going into a different debt, and on and on. Get your debt under control.
This is a moral issue. If we borrow money and have no real way of paying it back that is essentially deceptive. If we borrow money and ignore paying it back that is theft. Proverbs 3:27-28 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you’ – when you already have it with you.” This applies to paying our debts. Let us not be irresponsible in taking on debt do or get something we want now and have no real commitment to paying it off. “Like clouds and wind without rain,” Proverbs 25:14 says, “is one who boasts of gifts never given.” Clouds give the appearance to the farmer that rain is coming for their crops. It’s talking about someone who gives assurances of their intention to give a gift but never gives the gift. Rainless clouds. But the principle applies to loans too: someone who gives assurances to a lender upfront that they will pay a loan back but then never pays it back is like clouds without rain. It’s an integrity issue.
APPLICATION: Don’t back the debts of others. Proverbs 17:18 says “One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge and puts up security for a neighbor.” Turn to Proverbs 22:26-27…READ. The idea is that we shouldn’t put our own resources at risk by agreeing to pay the debts of others who don’t pay them themselves. If someone won’t pay their debts they need to suffer the consequences. The wise don’t assume those consequences.
All this is part of managing money well. The wise manage their money responsibly – controlling it through a budget, living within their means, saving, avoiding irresponsible debt, refusing to be the security for the debts of others, and so on. Be wise in how you manage your money.
#3 DON’T TRUST IN MONEY
The wise may be rich and they may not be rich, but the wise never put their trust in money. Turn to Proverbs 11:28 with me, “Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.” If the wise have riches they don’t put their trust in their riches. If the wise do not have riches, they don’t long for riches as though riches are the key to life. They don’t put their trust in riches and so they don’t make getting riches their number one ambition, because the wise have put their trust elsewhere.
One reason is because they trust God. “You can’t serve both God and money,” Jesus said. Another reason is because they are content, as Paul said, “if we have food and clothing we will be content with that.” Another reason is because godliness is more important to them than riches, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” Paul said.
But still another reason is because riches are so fleeting, as Proverbs 23:5 explains, “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”
The wise do not put their trust in riches.
#4 MONEY IS NOT YOUR STATUS
People who are wise do not make Money their status. We don’t look for it to give us status. A couple ways this applies:
First, don’t pretend to be richer than we are. Turn to Proverbs 13:7 says, “One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing…” Similarly, 12:9 says, “Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than to pretend to be somebody and have no food.” The immediate interpretation is if you don’t have it then don’t pretend you do. Don’t make the status of being rich so important to you that you pretend to be when you’re not. And I would say don’t rack up debt to make it look like you do. But the point of these two proverbs has to do with image and status. The foolish thing to do is to make money something you base your image and status on.
APPLICATION: Live within your means. Be content. Don’t live beyond your means. Don’t try to put up an image that you have to plunge yourself into debt for.
APPLICATION: Find your status and image in Christ, not some status that a certain standard of living would give you. “You can’t serve both God and money” Jesus said. Don’t think that only applies to “rich” people. It applies to the attitude towards money that anyone can have – rich or poor and everyone in between. Find your image in Christ.
And this leads to second point – an important and very related point: DO NOT IDOLIZE MONEY. Something becomes an idol when it becomes the highest thing we serve. When we devote our time, money, thoughts, energy all to it. When we find in our idol the comfort, security, status, sense of meaning and so on from it.
A good indicator of what might be an idol is what we are willing to sacrifice everything else for. It could be our idols are career advancement, sports, even family (Jesus said, “Whoever loves mother or daughter, father or son, more than me is not worthy of me.”)
But also, money can be an idol. We can get caught up in living for it, making everything in our lives take a backseat to us getting it. Do not idolize money, as Jesus said. Do not forsake God by serving money. You see this in various ways in Proverbs. Proverbs 23:4-5 says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich…” Don’t kill yourself and everyone around you to get rich. See how it describes someone who is so obsessed with riches that they’ll wear themselves out to get it? I’ll say they wear everyone else out around them too. They will sacrifice themselves and everyone and everything else to get there.
The solution is contentment with our needs being met. Proverbs 30:7-9 says, “….” The guy wants only his basic needs met and he will be content, he has no ambition for wealth, and his real desire is godliness. These same traits are reaffirmed in the NT, in 1 Timothy 6:6-10 Turn there with me… READ….. See how Paul urges the same things as the Proverbs guy? Godliness, contentment, don’t make wealth your ambition. Making money is not wrong, making lots of money is not wrong. But its the obsession, the “I will ruin and neglect whatever I have to ruin and neglect to get it,” kind of attitude that is in view here for sure. Its the “I won’t be happy and I can’t be happy unless I get riches” attitude thats really the heart of the matter.
#5: BE GENEROUS
The wise are generous. Turn to 11:24-26 with me….READ. Worldly thinking says if we give we lose. But God says if we give we gain, as 24a and 25 point out. Now, there are 2 ways emphasized in Proverbs that the wise are generous: they are generous towards those in need, and they are generous towards God.
First, they are generous towards those in need. Proverbs 14:31 connects honoring God with giving to needy, “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” But then 19:17 says how we treat the poor is how we treat God, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord.” And that is something the Lord rewards, as the 2nd half of the verse says, “and God will reward them for what they have done.” How we treat the poor is how God will treat us. Proverbs 22:9 says, “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.” Or 28:27 says, “Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes tot hem receive many curses.”
APPLICATION: Be generous towards those in need. Paul said in Galatians 1 that when he was recognized as an apostle by the other apostles they asked him to remember the poor, and Paul said, that was the very thing I was ready to do.
Take an interest in the needs here at EFC. Are there widows you could bless, young families, or a person or family going through a rough patch? Take an interest and take the initiative and find out. The meals ministry is a great way, giving to the Deacon Fund is a great way. There are ways to help that are not publicized.
Second, the wise are generous towards God. Turn to chapter 3:9-10 with me…READ…Proverbs is consistent with the rest of Scripture teaching us to be generous to God. Psalm 112, especially verses 3, 5 and 9….Then
#6: SEEK THE RICHES THAT ARE GREATER THAN RICHES
There are other riches that are superior to financial riches and the finest possessions.
First is Fear of the Lord, Proverbs 15:16.
Second is Love. Proverbs 15:17
Third is Righteousness, Proverbs 16:8
Fourth is Peace & Quiet, Proverbs 17:1
Fifth is a Good Name, Proverbs 22:1
Sixth is a Blameless Life, Proverbs 28:6
Seventh, Serving God, Proverbs 30:8-9.
Don’t make the lesser riches of money and possessions a higher priority than these riches. These riches are worth far, far more. Seek the riches that are beyond riches.
CONCLUSION:
Our goal is to be wise servants of God when it comes to our money. Work Hard, Manage Money Well, Don’t Trust in Riches, Money Is Not Your Status, Be Generous, and Seek The Riches That Are Greater Than Riches.