Word of Salvation – September 2024
Money Matters (2) – Worship
Sermon by Rev. Peter Smit B.D. – 2 of 5 on Stewardship
Readings: Luke 12:13-21; 1Tim.6:6-10
Mccrindle researchers and communication specialists surveyed Australians about what they buy and why. Discovered… Australia is a nation of consumers. Our consumption habits are impacting our physical and emotional lives with four in five Australians (80%) believing they consume significantly or much more than what they need.
[https://mccrindle.com.au/insights/blog/why-australians-are-caught-up-in-consumerism/]We live in a consumerist society.
As Christ followers we are not immune to the desire to find contentment in our consumption.
We’ve begun a short series is on money; how to view it and how to use it for God’s glory.
Last week we discovered biblical fundamentals regarding Ownership.
God created the world and therefore everything in it belongs to him.
Money is a part of God’s good creation.
All we have belongs to God.
Even our ability to create wealth is a gift from God.
God entrusts us with money to use as faithful stewards.
God desires that we use money for good to bring blessing to others.
Although money is God’s good gift, God warns us about the dangers of money.
Money can become an alternative god – an idol
God didn’t make us to worship money, he made us to worship him.
The Bible tells us why God alone deserves our worship.
Because He rescues people from slavery.
In OT He brought his people out of slavery in Egypt
The NT reminds us God rescues us from our slavery to sin
Because God loved us and rescued us, you are called to…
Deuteronomy 6:5
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Luke 4:8
8‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
Worship God, love him because he loved you and rescued you.
God gave two commands to guide our worship.
i) You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3)
and closely linked to that…
ii) Do not covet. (Exodus 20:17)
Don’t worship an idol, it will enslave you. Worship God alone.
Don’t covet or long for what belongs to others.
To avoid these dangers regarding money, check your heart for…
1. Sinful attitudes to money.
How does the good gift of money—so full of potential for blessing—become destructive?
This happens when we permit ungodly attitudes to grow in our lives.
The first sinful attitude to money is…
a) Prideful self-reliance.
If you’re wealthy, you can get proud.
Think I’m fine, I have got reserves stored up,
I’m a self-made person
I don’t need God to supply my daily bread
You must reject this prideful self-reliance.
Deuteronomy 8:10–14
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied…11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God…12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Don’t become proud. Don’t think you’ve earned it and therefore deserve it.
God says…
Deuteronomy 8:17–18
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
All you own has been entrusted to you… 1 Corinthians 4:7
7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?
It is all God’s gracious gift…
Don’t think it was your power that have produced your wealth. It’s God’s gift.
Application:
Truth is … Wealth can evaporate in a moment.
The capacity to earn money and produce wealth can disappear like mist in the sun.
We must never think
“My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”
Are you drifting into prideful self-reliance?
Reject that sinful thought.
Thank God daily for your work, your daily bread,
his gracious provision for your needs.
The second sinful attitude to money is…
b) Greed
In the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13–21 Jesus warns us against greed.
Jesus told a story of rich guy.
He had such a bumper crop and windfall that he decided to retire early.
His retirement plan was to build huge barns, store grain, sell it over time and relax.
But he was motivated by greed.
He had no thought of offering it back to God.
Sharing or giving to the poor.
His retirement moto was “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry”.
This man’s sin was not his wealth, or his storage plans.
It was his selfish greed and disregard for God. He was not rich toward God.
He selfishly hoarded for himself.
Our hearts can be darkened by greed. Jesus said that greed is one of the evils that can come from inside a person and make them unclean. (Mark 7:20-23) The Bible lists it, along with wickedness and lusts, as outworkings of a depraved ungodly attitude. (Romans 1:29).
Greed drives adult children to steal their elderly parents’ money.
drives an employer to underpay his workers to enlarge his own profits…
blinds people to God’s provision and makes them stingy….
seduces people to live for money it and worship it.
The Bible warns us… 1Timothy 6:9–10
9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Money is not evil – rather “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”.
Don’t let the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word of God, making it unfruitful (Matthew 13:22) in your life.
Money is dangerous because it has power to deceive. It’s a good liar.
If you give in to greed, it will ruin you.
It will choke out your worship of God
The Bible says, put it to death.
Colossians 3:5–6
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
Don’t let greed gain a foothold in your heart.
Get rid of attitudes of prideful self-reliance and greed.
Turn away from this sinful worship of money.
How can we grow God glorifying attitudes to money? Let me give you two ways…
2. God glorifying attitudes to money.
a) Continually praise God.
Deuteronomy 8:10
10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
It is praise of God that keeps our hearts from pride.
Praise him for your home, for your health, your freedom from hunger.
Psalm 63:3–5
…your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Live a life of praise. Model a life of praise for others and your children.
Find your joy and satisfaction in the giver not the gift.
Praise God for his provision.
Hebrews 13:15
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
b) Always give thanks.
Jesus always gave thanks.
Before He miraculously fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish,
and before he fed another group of 4000 people with 7 loaves and a few small fish,
Jesus paused to give thanks to God the Father. (Matt 14:19 and Matt 15:36)
Not only did Jesus give thanks for the food God provided…
Jesus gave thanks for the salvation God provided…
At the last Supper …the night before he was crucified Jesus celebrated the Passover meal
remembering how God rescued his people from slavery… Jesus
Mark 14:23–24
23 …took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,”
At the last supper Jesus raised a cup,
thanked God for securing salvation for sinners like you and me.
Jesus gave thanks that you could now be rescued from sin…
from prideful self-reliance and greed.
Jesus gave thanks, that through his own shed blood on the cross, God could save you.
That’s how much he loves you.
There is only one way to be truly free from worshipping money…
That is to worship the one true living God and his Son Jesus Christ.
It is God who supplies you with everything…even salvation.
So turn away from those hidden sinful attitudes to money.
Ask Jesus to forgive you and save you.
Offer your life back to him in worship and praise.
As you worship him, you will find life to the full.
Look to the Lord and worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness
Lift up your voice to him in praise and thanksgiving
for all God has graciously provided for you
through Jesus Christ our Lord.