Wisdom with Money
Did you hear the story about the Texas billionaire? He was extremely wealthy, owned a huge ranch, and was having a massive barbecue to show off his new Olympic-size swimming pool that was home to his new pet, a great white shark.
It was at the height of the party when he called everyone to the pool and said, “We are going to have a little extra fun tonight. I will give half my fortune or the hand of my beautiful daughter in marriage to any man who will jump in and swim across the length of the pool.” Nobody moved. A hush fell over the crowd. They stood in pure terror and disbelief. So he said it one more time, “Here is the opportunity of a lifetime. Half my fortune or my daughter’s hand in marriage.”
All of a sudden there was a splash, and the crowd turned in dismay to see a man swimming full force across the pool, and the shark quickly pursuing and nipping at his heels. The man jutted across the pool as though propelled by a jetpack. He made it to the other side and popped out over the wall and a roaring round of spontaneous applause erupted.
The billionaire couldn’t believe it and ran over to him and said, “That was amazing and absolutely harrowing!” He slapped a towel and his arm around the man’s back and said, “I suppose you want half my assets.” The man said no. The billionaire then said, “Then my daughter’s hand in marriage?” The man said, “No.” The billionaire asked, “Well, son, what in the world do you want?” The man looked at him sternly and replied, “I want the name of the guy who pushed me in the pool.”
Money is important, and many do crazy things to acquire it, but we all realize there are more important things than money. We are studying the book of Proverbs. It's a book that is written to give wisdom, and if we are going to succeed in life we need wisdom. And we will certainly need wisdom in acquiring and managing money.
Today we are looking at what Proverbs says about money, and I want to look at four principles of money that shape how we think about money.
The Lord First
When you craft a sermon you want your main points to come from the text. This came right from Proverbs, and after seeing this I couldn’t put anything else as my first point.
Honor the LORD with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine. (Prov 3:9–10)
We are told to honor the Lord with our wealth
- property,
- wealth,
- sufficiency.
- Usually refers to individually-owned possessions.
Wealth has the possessive here, your wealth, so it shows that we possess something. Throughout proverbs there is an emphasis on the actions we do and the consequences that follow. When we work we profit and acquire wealth.
Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,
but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. (Prov 12:11)
This is very similar to 2 Thess 3:10 that says he who does not work shall not eat. If you do what you are supposed to you will have bread. You will have what you need. If you don’t work, don’t expect to eat and have other stuff. That is the backdrop of this verse.
But this verse isn’t primarily about acquiring wealth; it is about stewarding wealth.
Most teaching focuses on acquiring wealth. We love to hear that. But you need to see that life is more about stewarding. We are to honor the Lord with our wealth. It very clearly says honor the Lord from your wealth. Put the Lord first and everything else will fall into place.
Here we see a key teaching on proverbs of wealth. Money is not the end goal. It is a means to a greater end, and that is to honor the Lord.
*If we fail to honor the Lord with our money we fail to honor the Lord.*
In our society money is treated as an ultimate end.
It is the end goal of business, of life aspirations. That may be true for the world, but it is not true for Christians. For Christians our ultimate goal is not getting more stuff, but honoring the Lord.
But one of the keys to honoring the Lord is in the second half of the verse.
Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
Proverbs teaches something very similar to the rest of the Old Testament. That is we give to the Lord first. He is more important than anything else. We talked about this a few weeks ago. The Bible lays out a principle of giving to the Lord. Of tithing and tithing was brought to the temple.
The best of the firstfruits of your ground
you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. (Ex 23:19)
The image of this passage brings us into the center of the Old Testament worship center. It follows the other teaching on honoring God with what he provides, with tithing and giving to him.
It reminds us of Abram who went off and fought kings and gave a tenth to Melchizadek.
We are first and foremost to honor God with our wealth and to give him the firstfruits. This stretches us, but it also changes us. This is where we begin to put our faith into practice and acknowledge God’s reign over our lives.
I have a friend whom the Lord has blessed, and he would describe himself as one who is gifted to give. The Lord has blessed him, and he likes to bless others. I was talking to him about it, and he said he wasn’t always that way. He came to Christ in his teens, but wasn't walking with the Lord. He made some bad decisions in life and then some more bad decisions to cope with those. In his mid twenties he was struggling and started going to church. He started to feel challenged to put Christ first in his life and took some steps to get there. He heard about giving and decided he would do that. He would give everything he had in his wallet on Sunday morning.
His habit was to get his check, pay his bills, hit the bar real hard on Saturday night, and wake up for church, and everything he had in his wallet, he put in. Sometimes it was a lot. Sometimes it was a little. But no matter what was left he gave it all. He was a giver! Soon he started to realize that God had blessed him, and deserved to be first in his life. He began to give first and trust God for everything else. He came to believe if God wasn't first, it didn't matter what else he did, and he felt God continually provided for him. He had a saying that he “could not afford not to give.”
Proverbs speaks of God being of first importance, and the one who is in control of all we have and all we hope to have. He is sovereign and able to provide and protect us. He enables us to work. He gives the victory and successes.
It is written from the perspective of perceiving what happens in life. He observes some give and grow richer. That doesn’t mean there are not hard times and not times when giving hurts. If it doesn’t hurt then it is not a sacrifice. But there is something God gives us in place of that, a gift that cannot be gained anywhere else. Speaks of some ironies in life.
then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine. (Prov 3:9–10)
There is a conviction that blessings come from God and nowhere else. He is the one that makes rich. What we most want in life–peace, joy, happiness, love–does not come from money. It comes from the Lord. When you put God first in everything, he will lead you to do what you need to do. There may be hard decisions, hard seasons, but he will bless you. That is the message of Proverbs.
The blessing of the LORD makes rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it. (Prov 10:22)
Take time to consider: What is first in your life? This is what positions us for truly wise living, fearing God first and foremost. We are most concerned with him. If we miss that we will miss everything else to do with wisdom and with money.
Live Within Your Means
Proverbs teaches us to make do with what we have, and specifically to be cautious about debt. Debt is borrowing money to get things you can't afford. There are good types of debt. When you go into debt to acquire an asset or business or something that appreciates. But debt is rampant in our nation. The average household debt is $80. States are in debt, our nation is in so much debt that we can hardly pay the interest on it. Debt is the normal way of life, but Proverbs caution us against it. It speaks strongly against this.
The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender. (Prov 22:7)
Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm,
but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure. (Prov 11:15)
You don't hear the banks using these verses for their mottos. Come borrow and be our slave! Kind of catchy. Come let us rule over you! Come lose your security. Every commercial seeks to encourage you to spend more money.
The issue dealt with here is living above your means. When you go into debt you are essentially incurring more than you can afford. That is not ideal.
If you owe more than you make it is not good. It is not sustainable. Some of you think duh! Do I really need Keith to tell me this? Well, this is something that is lost on most Americans. As our nation barrels into 40 trillion dollars in debt, it is something that has been lost on our leaders, our best educated.
But note that when you take out a debt, in the effort to gain something, you are also losing something. You are losing some freedom. You are a slave to the lender. And it's not the lender's fault that causes this; it is our own desire.
One of the great stresses on marriages and families is financial. One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was to live below my means. Leave some margin in your life. Margin is a buffer. There may be times you lose your job, you make less, etc., and you want to be ready for this.
Too often people get themselves into trouble because their appetite is bigger than their bank account. They want more than they can afford.
Morgan Housel, author of the bestselling book The Psychology of Money said it well, “To grasp why people bury themselves in debt you don't need to study interest rates; you need to study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism” (p6).
The key reason people do not do this, is they want to impress others. They want to honor themselves.
Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
than pretend to be somebody and have no food. (Prov 12:9)
Enslaved by their own desires. Constantly stressed and overworked because of their insatiable appetite and pride. If you are in that place, you don't need more money; you need to rest in the Lord and his plan for you.
"Nobody cares about the things we care about" (Housel).
Enslaved to our own expectations. We have unrealistic standards. Many don't want to be in the pool swimming with sharks but they are too scared of what others might think to get out of it. The fear of the Lord will set you free. They are ensnared. Trapped and enslaved, and too proud to humble themselves. They are fools, but fools can become wise when they begin to fear the Lord.
Be Generous to the Poor
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
and he will repay him for his deed. (Prov 19:17)
This is interesting. I think it gets left out of a lot of discussions on finances in the church. Sometimes when you emphasize a person's responsibility to work diligently you can minimize those who don’t work diligently. You become a self-righteous pharisee rather than a grace-motivated servant. Proverbs calls us to be responsible and also generous.
Throughout the Bible there is a care and concern for the poor. Many people who are biblical conservatives and think about good things like honoring the Lord, caring for their family first and enjoying what God has provided don’t like to talk about taking care of the poor. We can preach on an individual’s responsibility to God and encourage that, and also say we see and care for the poor.
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,
but he who is generous to the needy honors him. (Prov 14:31)
I don’t think it's sufficient to say I pay taxes and I tithe. I think this pushes us beyond that. Some are poor because of their decisions and some are poor because of things that came at them in life. We are told to be generous. We are not told to admonish or judge.
Giving may include giving to those on the street. I know people who keep cash on hand for when they see someone in need. Others have made goodie bags to give to people in need.
It may mean being more strategic. We had an old house in Maryland, and there was always something to do on it. I met an old country boy handyman who was struggling in life. He was always interesting to talk to. But I would pay him to do work on my house. I could have done the work, but I viewed it as a way to help him. I could have gotten better work from someone else, and there were several incidents, but this was something that tugged at my heart.
Again, Proverbs reminds us that it’s not just about us getting more stuff. We are to trust in the Lord and his ability to bless and sustain us.
Our lives are not about acquiring more, but walking with the Lord and being good stewards of what he provides for us. He can give and he can take away. And there is a refreshing when we help others.
Tempered Pursuit of Wealth
Proverbs advocates that we work, and work hard. That we build and acquire, but it also warns against focusing too much on wealth and work. It cautions about pursuing wealth to the detriment of other things. It reminds us how fleeting wealth is.
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
do not trust your own cleverness.
5 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. (Prov 23:4–5)
Work is hard and it doesn't mean that we don't work hard, that we are not tired, but it is reminding us how fleeting it is to be rich, and how silly it is to sacrifice everything else for that.
The world seduces us to believe that we are what we have. That if we have possessions then everyone will think how great we are. We use money to honor ourselves rather than God. We chase things that don't matter to other people.
We work, but we don't wear ourselves out trying to gain riches, weary to the point of feeling like you can’t go on. We need to rest in God and refresh ourselves in the things he gives to us.
Alexis Tocqueville wrote
strange melancholy which often haunts the inhabitants of democratic countries in the midst of their abundance, and that disgust at life which sometimes seizes upon them in the midst of calm and easy circumstances. Complaints are made in France that the number of suicides increases; in America suicide is rare, but insanity is said to be more common there than anywhere else. These are all different symptoms of the same disease....
We are going to live by faith in this life. There are times we are not in ideal circumstances, and Proverbs teaches that God gives us wisdom to get through those times. If you have done things wrong, turn to the Lord and he will lead you out of it. There are times when we are anxious and worried and we have to keep doing what we are doing. There are times our anxiety, fear, worry are warning lights telling us we need to look under the hood of our lives and ask what are we going after? Sometimes the Lord is at work uprooting our idols.
A person’s life does not consist of the abundance of their possessions. Proverbs directs us to pursue other things. Righteousness. Kindness to others– friendship. Part of the reason there is so much loneliness is people are working so hard to acquire new and more stuff. Be kind and generous to others–that is a relational word. Doing what is right.
Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness
will find life, righteousness, and honor. (Prov 21:21)
Take time to build relationships. Don't work so hard at earning wealth that you miss out on friendship. You need these. You will dry up if you don't have this. Many pursue wealth to the exclusion of community.
Part of the reason churches are struggling is people are so shallow in community. Church should be the place where we are learning what real community, where real, meaningful relationships happen, and are cultivated. And we have a purpose of sharing this life with others.
Morgan Housel wrote
The United States is the richest nation in the history of the world. But there is little evidence that its citizens are, on average, happier today than they were in the 1950s, when wealth and income were much lower–even at the median level adjusted for inflation. We’ve used our wealth to buy bigger and better stuff. But we have simultaneously given up more control over our time. The median house went from 950 sq. ft. in 1950 to 2463 feet in 2018. The average American house has more bathrooms than inhabitants! (p 86-88)
Your kids don't want your money; they want your time. Unstructured, quality time. You are there because you want to be with them. Not worried about getting the next thing done so you can keep the plates spinning in life (Housel, p 89).
We pursue work, but not as though it is the most important thing. It is important, but it's further down the priority list.
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread. (Prov 30:8-9)
Don’t let the acquisition of money be the thing that trumps everything else. Dad, you are more than what you make–your being there, your putting your arm around your kids and loving them. God doesn't call you to be rich. He calls you to be faithful to him. If we have that then that is enough.
It doesn’t bring happiness. The more you get, the more you want. Like a leech that just keeps growing and getting more and more bloated. It is being content in the Lord and what he has provided for you. Content in your station in life. When you are depressed and angry and mad, it means God is revealing and operating on an idol in your life. Don't think God is absent. He is very active, just not the way you want. You want your idol worship, and God just unplugged it.
It’s very possible that you climb the ladder of success and find it is leaning against the wrong wall.
The old saying you never see a hearse pulling a U-haul. We leave it all. And all our wealth cannot purchase our righteousness. Christ is the one who lived perfectly, died for us, and secured our righteousness. We seek to honor him. In him we have an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade. All that we receive now is not the end goal. These are things we steward for him and his mission.
When God starts dealing with our idols, it is devastating.
Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death. (Prov 11:4)
The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” Proverbs 19:23
Being rich is not about money; it is about being faithful to God and walking with him. We all have missed the mark and have fallen short. We have all jumped into the pool with sharks and come out broken, but the good news is found in the ultimate wise man Jesus Christ. He was perfect, yet he became poor so that we might become rich. He had all the glory and power, and he gave them up to save us. He died on the cross for our sins so that we could be saved. So that we could have life with him. We begin to see that life is about being with him and serving him. We put him first because of the love he has shown for us, not because we have to or because it's the right thing, or because we got pushed. We do it because he loves us.
Discussion Questions
- What do your finances say is of first importance in your life? Has there been a change in your life where you began to honor God first with your finances? What brought this about?
- What is your view of debt and living above your means? Do you ever feel like you are wearing yourself out because of what others think about you?
- Do you ever think about helping those who are poor? What might this look like in your life?
- How has God shown you his riches in Jesus Christ?
