Latest / Pilgrim: a Podcast from Pastor Fortunato / What does the Bible say about money and riches? 1 Timothy 6:9-10
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome to the podcast ministry of Pilgrim Baptist Church.
- 0:07Wherever you're listening from,
- 0:09welcome.
- 0:10We pray that the truth from the Word of God speaks to your heart during today's message.
- 0:211 Timothy 6.
- 0:23We're going to talk tonight about money.
- 0:27And...
- 0:29I can tell you that I thought,
- 0:30there was a time in my life where I thought making it in this world was having money.
- 0:36I'm just being honest with you.
- 0:38And I spent a good part of my life making some money.
- 0:41I mean,
- 0:42I didn't make it,
- 0:42I had to work for it and earn it.
- 0:46But it can easily become a snare,
- 0:50a trap,
- 0:51an idol.
- 0:52So I'd like to spend some time in God's Word,
- 0:54because that's where we'll get our help.
- 0:56The Bible says in verse number 9 of 1 Timothy chapter number 6,
- 1:01but they that will be rich.
- 1:06This desire,
- 1:08this will,
- 1:09money should always be earned,
- 1:10by the way,
- 1:11at the service of others,
- 1:13not at the expense of others.
- 1:18This will to be rich no matter the cost,
- 1:22it's not of God,
- 1:23it's a satanic deception.
- 1:25It's this will,
- 1:27it's this desire for things,
- 1:29it's this desire for stuff that is against God's will.
- 1:35And our will has to line up with His will.
- 1:39Our will must be to glorify God and our will must always be...
- 1:48suppressed down because our flesh is fighting to glorify self and our soul since our soul saved wants to glorify god and we must consider how money and wealth and riches and material things falls into our lives you
- 2:06know a marriage works when both are willing i've said this before you can have the worst
- 2:18You can get the worst counsel from the worst counselor to try to help your marriage.
- 2:28And you can get some help if the husband and the wife are willing.
- 2:35But on the other hand,
- 2:36man,
- 2:36you can have the best pastor,
- 2:38the best pastoral council,
- 2:40the best church family that has multiple leaders that are,
- 2:43I mean,
- 2:43they really,
- 2:44they can just lay it on the way it should be laid on.
- 2:47They can be the best counselors,
- 2:49but if you've got a husband and a wife and they're not willing,
- 2:53it don't matter.
- 2:54I'm telling you,
- 2:55it's our will.
- 2:57that gets us in a lot of trouble.
- 3:00Child rearing is the same way.
- 3:03Sometimes you feel like you're on a horse and the horse is rearing and you've got to do all you can do to hang on,
- 3:08man.
- 3:09But child rearing is the same way.
- 3:11If the children are willing,
- 3:15parenting becomes,
- 3:17it seems like it's easier,
- 3:19doesn't it?
- 3:21And look.
- 3:26If one spouse is fussing or acting up or not living the way they ought to be,
- 3:31what should the other spouse do?
- 3:33Keep their eyes on God.
- 3:36and do what's right.
- 3:38If parents are trying to raise their children in a godly way,
- 3:41and those children are rearing up and bucking up,
- 3:46and they get to an age where they want to do their own thing and go a different way,
- 3:50did the parent fail?
- 3:52Not all the time.
- 3:53Maybe they just need to keep their eyes on God and keep their will focused on God's will.
- 3:59It's this willingness to want to get along and this willingness to want
- 4:04both parties to want to keep their eyes on God.
- 4:08Well,
- 4:08money wants to take you one way,
- 4:10and God wants to take you and I another way.
- 4:15What race are you willing to run?
- 4:18The one with patience that's set before you,
- 4:21or the race to be rich?
- 4:26Think and grow rich,
- 4:26man.
- 4:29All that stuff,
- 4:30all that self-help stuff.
- 4:34All of that is the race to be rich.
- 4:38I'm telling you,
- 4:39happiness is only found in a person,
- 4:43and that person is the Lord
- 4:46Jesus Christ.
- 4:48And look,
- 4:48you can make it in this world.
- 4:50You can have no education.
- 4:53You can be a college dropout,
- 4:56burnout,
- 4:56or never even went to begin with.
- 5:00You cannot come,
- 5:01you can come from a poor family where you didn't have money handed down to you and you can make it in this world.
- 5:07People have done it.
- 5:10People have done it.
- 5:13And it's all vanity.
- 5:16It's all vanity.
- 5:19So,
- 5:191 Timothy 6,
- 5:21we want to get our wills set,
- 5:22a way that will be rich.
- 5:25Fall into temptation is the next part of this verse.
- 5:29They that will be rich,
- 5:31fall into temptation.
- 5:32You know,
- 5:33Proverbs talks about,
- 5:34He that trusteth in his riches shall fall.
- 5:38Where is your trust?
- 5:40We don't trust in uncertain riches.
- 5:42Who do we trust in?
- 5:44The living God.
- 5:45That's our trust.
- 5:47We have the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.
- 5:52You can't search Him far enough,
- 5:54long enough,
- 5:54and wide enough to find all of the riches in the person of Christ.
- 6:00And we are takers of His exceeding grace,
- 6:03and we are rich in that.
- 6:06There are no poor Christians.
- 6:08We are rich in His mercy.
- 6:11But this fall into temptation,
- 6:13look,
- 6:13everybody's tempted.
- 6:16And it isn't a sin to be tempted.
- 6:19Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.
- 6:25Right?
- 6:27Well,
- 6:27Jesus never sinned,
- 6:28so it's not a sin to be tempted.
- 6:31But,
- 6:32in the context of this verse,
- 6:34they that will be rich,
- 6:36when your will is to be rich,
- 6:39then you will fall into temptation.
- 6:43And,
- 6:44it basically will reveal what is in your heart.
- 6:48You have a will to be rich.
- 6:52you didn't rob a bank,
- 6:53you didn't do a deed,
- 6:55but you have a will to be rich in the heart,
- 6:58and then that will is going to cause you to fall into temptation.
- 7:05Now,
- 7:08although the deed is sin,
- 7:12we can also say that the deed is not sin,
- 7:16because Jesus talks about
- 7:21murder,
- 7:22you're a murderer in your heart.
- 7:26You've never killed anybody.
- 7:28Look,
- 7:28killing somebody is a sin.
- 7:30But if you and I think for a second that since we haven't killed anybody,
- 7:36we're not a sinner,
- 7:38Jesus very quickly reminds us,
- 7:42look,
- 7:42have you ever hated somebody?
- 7:44Have you ever had ill will towards someone?
- 7:46Yeah,
- 7:47you're a murderer.
- 7:51The guy says,
- 7:51I've never cheated on my wife.
- 7:53You've never committed adultery.
- 7:55But that billboard on the highway that you took a double look to,
- 7:58God says,
- 7:58yeah,
- 7:58you're an adulterer.
- 8:00Why?
- 8:00Because in the heart,
- 8:02that's where the sin is.
- 8:07The deed is just a bigger manifestation of what is already in your heart.
- 8:14Now,
- 8:15you young kids pay attention to this part of the sermon.
- 8:18This is brought to you by way of a loving preacher.
- 8:30If you have a sibling,
- 8:31whether an older sibling or a younger sibling,
- 8:35you're not going to like them at times.
- 8:40And if you think or say the words,
- 8:43I hate you or get away from me or I don't like you,
- 8:48the same Jesus that said,
- 8:50suffer not the little children to come unto me,
- 8:53that same Jesus who loves children,
- 8:55he also calls you a murderer when you are mean to your brother or your sister.
- 9:04So all you young people repeat after me tonight please and say it nice and loud.
- 9:09Say it like you mean it.
- 9:11and if you don't mean it act like you mean it and hopefully you'll start meaning it okay here it is real simple deep deep theology okay ready be nice but let me hear it again louder be
- 9:26nice be nice why get yourself worked up
- 9:34Okay?
- 9:35It's your heart that has to be made right.
- 9:39Pride is committed in the heart.
- 9:41Greed,
- 9:42we're talking about money,
- 9:43it's committed in the heart.
- 9:48And the will to be rich will cause us to fall into temptation.
- 9:53Then it talks about in 1 Timothy
- 9:556 verse 9,
- 9:56fall into temptation.
- 9:58and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts.
- 10:03Man,
- 10:03you can't name all the stupid things people have done and do for money.
- 10:11Man,
- 10:11you did that for money?
- 10:13You needed money so you did that?
- 10:16Foolish,
- 10:17hurtful.
- 10:21Parents,
- 10:21teach your children about money at an early age.
- 10:25Teach them to give of their money.
- 10:27Teach them to work for money.
- 10:28Teach them that money is necessary in order to live in this world,
- 10:35but that the bigger treasure isn't our earthly possessions.
- 10:40No one starts off wanting to be greedy.
- 10:45Greed is foolish and it is hurtful.
- 10:48But notice what happens.
- 10:49You don't start off wanting to be greedy,
- 10:52but watch what happens at the end of the verse.
- 10:55Which drown men in destruction and perdition.
- 11:01You ever hear the phrase,
- 11:02man I'm drowning in debt.
- 11:06That's where that comes from.
- 11:08Then you're going to just drown yourself.
- 11:12And God says,
- 11:12you better be careful.
- 11:17And man,
- 11:20I'm just flooded with debt,
- 11:21somebody says.
- 11:22Yeah,
- 11:23you're drowning.
- 11:23You're starting to drown.
- 11:26And if you have a pool,
- 11:30you...
- 11:32I came from the
- 11:34People's Republic of New Jersey and in New Jersey they,
- 11:39they had a,
- 11:40you had to get a permit to do everything at your house.
- 11:44If you wanted a pool,
- 11:46forget about buying a pool because you needed a deck with steps and then you had to have a gate on the steps and then you had to have a fence around the whole place so that nobody would go in and because somebody would walk into your property,
- 11:59go into your pool and drown because apparently they can't see a big huge pool with water and so you got to pay for all that.
- 12:07Well to over correct.
- 12:15the fence around the water,
- 12:16around the pool,
- 12:17they overcorrected because they didn't want anybody to drown.
- 12:21They want you to put a fence up.
- 12:25God's putting some fences up so that we don't drown into debt.
- 12:30And if we don't heed those fences and we just keep climbing over every fence that God puts in front of us,
- 12:37we're going to be drowning.
- 12:38And God doesn't want that for any of his children's lives.
- 12:43Go to Exodus 23,
- 12:44because somewhere along the line,
- 12:46people,
- 12:47even Christians,
- 12:48get blinded by the God of this world.
- 12:52Exodus 23.
- 12:57Start looking at a few different passages.
- 12:59Exodus chapter 23.
- 13:06All these laws and ordinances God gave the nation.
- 13:09In verse number 8,
- 13:11he says,
- 13:15Exodus 23 verse 8,
- 13:17he says,
- 13:18And thou shalt take no gift.
- 13:24Back up to verse 7,
- 13:25keep thee far from a false matter and the innocent and righteous slay not,
- 13:29for I will not justify the wicked and thou shalt take no gift.
- 13:35Well,
- 13:35why not?
- 13:36For the gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous.
- 13:43So if you're a judge and you accept a gift,
- 13:48you're going to be blinded.
- 13:51It's easy to blind people with gifts.
- 13:56You ever hear the phrase love bombing?
- 14:00People,
- 14:00they just throw gifts at you.
- 14:02They just love bomb you.
- 14:04You know,
- 14:04gifts,
- 14:04gifts,
- 14:05gifts,
- 14:05gifts,
- 14:05gifts.
- 14:06Well,
- 14:06the love bombing,
- 14:08it's a negative phrase.
- 14:09It's not really about love.
- 14:12It's about,
- 14:13I've got another motive,
- 14:15but I'm throwing all these gifts at you because I want to blind you.
- 14:21It's not true love.
- 14:22It's deception.
- 14:24We need to be careful that we don't
- 14:27have get all of these material riches down here on earth and all these gifts we get for ourselves now we're blinded to the truth of god's word so let's be careful about that go to proverbs 30 proverbs
- 14:4430 be a good exercise to read one proverb a day
- 14:57...for the month.
- 14:58We did that a while back.
- 15:03If you forget a day or two,
- 15:04it might take you a little longer than a month,
- 15:06but it's got 30 chapters.
- 15:07Proverbs 30,
- 15:08verse 8 gives us some insight as well.
- 15:11Proverbs 30,
- 15:11verse 8.
- 15:19Remove far from me vanity and lies.
- 15:23Give me neither poverty nor riches.
- 15:26Feed me with food convenient for me.
- 15:29Man,
- 15:29everybody thinks they can handle all this money that they think that they want.
- 15:34But many men have ruined their lives over money.
- 15:37And they're thinking,
- 15:38oh,
- 15:38I can just handle it.
- 15:40And this verse,
- 15:41Proverbs 30,
- 15:41verse 8,
- 15:43you know what God says?
- 15:45You just be right in the middle.
- 15:47Don't pray for poverty and don't pray to be rich.
- 15:52God,
- 15:53just give me what's convenient for me.
- 15:55Somewhere right in the middle there's going to be what's convenient for you and for I.
- 16:01And I believe that's a good place,
- 16:02that's a good proverb to get a hold of.
- 16:05Alright,
- 16:05go back to 1 Timothy 6 and also get Isaiah 56.
- 16:14We're going to look at some strong warnings here.
- 16:22We've got Isaiah 56 and 1 Timothy 6.
- 16:32Keep your finger in 1 Timothy
- 16:346 throughout the message.
- 16:35But 1 Timothy 6,
- 16:36now the next verse.
- 16:40It says,
- 16:41For the love of money is the root of all evil,
- 16:45which while some coveted after,
- 16:47they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
- 16:58Greed is the selfish desire for something.
- 17:06I want more.
- 17:09I want more power.
- 17:11People think I want more wealth.
- 17:14I want more recognition.
- 17:17I just want more,
- 17:19more,
- 17:20more.
- 17:22And God says that love is going to hurt you.
- 17:27And the love of money is the root of all evil.
- 17:31Now,
- 17:31let me just park here and let's take another way of looking at it.
- 17:36what the love of money isn't.
- 17:39It's not greedy.
- 17:42Men,
- 17:42when we go and work a long week and Friday is payday,
- 17:48it's not greedy to want to have your paycheck.
- 17:53That's not greed.
- 17:54Okay.
- 17:58It's also not greed if you don't want to give your money to save the whales because the cashier,
- 18:07whatever place they're working at,
- 18:08the boss requires them to ask you,
- 18:10do you want to round up a dollar to give to,
- 18:13you know,
- 18:14save the manatees or whatever the humanitarian effort is.
- 18:18You can say no.
- 18:19Okay.
- 18:20It's,
- 18:20it's not greedy to say no to those things.
- 18:24It's your money.
- 18:25You've earned it.
- 18:26It's God's money,
- 18:27but He's allowed you to earn it,
- 18:30and you get to spend it how you want to spend it.
- 18:34And if I give to a charitable cause,
- 18:36I have convictions on where I want to give that money.
- 18:40I have a limited amount of it,
- 18:42you have a limited amount of it,
- 18:44and I'm looking to give it to specific
- 18:49Bible believing efforts.
- 18:52If you want to give to other things,
- 18:54that's fine.
- 18:54The point is,
- 18:55you're not greedy if you choose not to do that.
- 18:59It's your money.
- 19:00You can do with it what you want.
- 19:03And also,
- 19:06man,
- 19:06God tells us to provide for our families.
- 19:09It's not greedy to provide for them.
- 19:11That's the right thing to do.
- 19:16We know all these,
- 19:17we don't know them,
- 19:18but we've heard of them and have seen things on the news about all of these wealthy,
- 19:24wealthy,
- 19:24multi-million billionaires that give their money to certain humanitarian efforts.
- 19:33I don't know their heart.
- 19:34I'm not saying that we need to know their heart,
- 19:37but I'm saying a lot of people give to appear good.
- 19:45But they're not good.
- 19:48Their hearts are wicked and their hearts want to do wicked things.
- 19:54You know how politics works?
- 19:57Like that.
- 19:59It's a greedy,
- 20:01greedy,
- 20:02money-grabbing world.
- 20:05And people are given because they want something.
- 20:09And we need to be careful that we have some discernment concerning that.
- 20:15Man,
- 20:15Isaiah gave a strong warning.
- 20:17Look at Isaiah 56.
- 20:22Isaiah 56,
- 20:23God,
- 20:24oh,
- 20:25he never addresses,
- 20:29he always addresses the leaders harshly.
- 20:33The people,
- 20:35different.
- 20:36But the leaders,
- 20:37he lets them have it.
- 20:39Watch what Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 56.
- 20:46concerning these false prophets.
- 20:48In verse 11,
- 20:49His watchmen are blind.
- 20:51They're all ignorant.
- 20:52They're all dumb dogs.
- 20:55Imagine calling somebody a dumb dog.
- 20:57Isaiah the prophet did.
- 20:59They cannot bark,
- 21:01sleeping,
- 21:02lying down,
- 21:02loving to slumber.
- 21:03Then he says in verse number 11,
- 21:05Yea,
- 21:06they are greedy dogs which can never have enough.
- 21:10And they are shepherds that cannot understand.
- 21:13They all look to their own way,
- 21:15every one for his gain,
- 21:18for his quarter.
- 21:21Isaiah calls these false prophets greedy dogs that can never have enough.
- 21:27Man,
- 21:27he calls out these false prophets.
- 21:30In 1 Timothy chapter 3,
- 21:32what did we learn about church leaders?
- 21:36They shouldn't be greedy of what?
- 21:38Filthy lucre.
- 21:41God warned the prophets and he warns church leadership to not be greedy of money.
- 21:47It'll destroy a church.
- 21:50It'll destroy it.
- 21:52Go to Proverbs 1.
- 21:58There are countless people who have left church.
- 22:03and nothing changed on the doctrinal statement nothing changed on the belief of the preachers of the people but somebody did something dirty with money
- 22:18And that family or that group of people that have just had enough and it wasn't made right and it wasn't talked about and it was covered up and it was a dirty,
- 22:27filthy lucre deal,
- 22:28they're gone.
- 22:29Do you blame them?
- 22:31I don't blame them.
- 22:33I don't blame them.
- 22:36God warns very strongly.
- 22:40about how to deal with money and it should be righteous.
- 22:43Go to,
- 22:44okay,
- 22:45so in Proverbs 1,
- 22:46look at verse 19.
- 22:49Bible says,
- 22:50so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,
- 22:55which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
- 23:00Man,
- 23:00God says you seek gain by unlawful and wicked practices.
- 23:05Man,
- 23:05God calls you a murderer.
- 23:07That's a strong verse.
- 23:14Greedy of gain,
- 23:15which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
- 23:19To that person,
- 23:21look,
- 23:21it doesn't matter how many families starve to death.
- 23:26To the person that's always greedy of gain,
- 23:29to that business owner,
- 23:31it doesn't matter to him that he puts all of the other little businesses out of business in town.
- 23:37That's his goal.
- 23:38He doesn't care if they starve to death.
- 23:41All he is worried about is his own gain.
- 23:45It's a destructive lifestyle.
- 23:47Destructive.
- 23:49Where does it start?
- 23:51In the heart.
- 23:53Who did it start with?
- 23:55I think this is a good side road to take.
- 23:57Go to Ezekiel.
- 23:59Go to Ezekiel 28.
- 24:02Past Proverbs.
- 24:06go past Isaiah,
- 24:07Jeremiah,
- 24:09Lamentations,
- 24:14and you'll come to the book of Ezekiel.
- 24:17You'll need to get chapter 28,
- 24:19Ezekiel 28.
- 24:28We don't have time to open up the whole context of this chapter,
- 24:31so I'll just start reading in verse number 4.
- 24:37You have Tyre that's a city,
- 24:39but it's also a type,
- 24:42and that type is
- 24:45Satan.
- 24:46And in chapter number 4,
- 24:48it says,
- 24:49With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches.
- 24:56and has gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.
- 25:00All this wealth has been accumulated.
- 25:04By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches,
- 25:09and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.
- 25:19Therefore thus saith the Lord God,
- 25:21because thou hast set thine heart
- 25:24as the heart of God.
- 25:24Behold,
- 25:25therefore I will bring strangers unto thee.
- 25:29And this city of Tyre was destroyed and judged by God,
- 25:34but it's also a picture of
- 25:37Satan himself.
- 25:39When you get down to verse number 13,
- 25:41we see the type.
- 25:43Thou hast been in Eden,
- 25:45the garden of God.
- 25:48Well,
- 25:48that was nobody that was living in that city during that day.
- 25:52Now it's the type.
- 25:53That was Satan in the garden.
- 25:56And it says,
- 25:56every precious stone was thy covering.
- 26:01The sardis,
- 26:02the topaz,
- 26:03and the diamond.
- 26:05I was so happy,
- 26:07I saved up my money.
- 26:10And,
- 26:11man,
- 26:12I was in love.
- 26:13I saved up my money and I went to the jewelry store.
- 26:17And I was in love.
- 26:18I bought my wife a diamond ring,
- 26:24a diamond.
- 26:26And I spent all this money for this little itty bitty diamond.
- 26:32Because it's so valuable.
- 26:35And it had a real nice diamond in the middle,
- 26:38but I said,
- 26:39oh,
- 26:39I really love her.
- 26:41I'm going to get her the ring that's got the other little itty bitty ones around it.
- 26:46And that cost me a little bit more.
- 26:48But the real little itty bitty.
- 26:51I can't afford to buy diamonds every day.
- 26:56And I trust that you probably can't either.
- 26:58I don't think anybody has Sardis or Topaz and it says the beryl,
- 27:02the onyx and the jasper,
- 27:04the sapphire,
- 27:05the emerald.
- 27:07I don't have any emerald.
- 27:10And the carbuncle and gold.
- 27:13They say the price of gold is astronomically high right now.
- 27:18But,
- 27:19you know,
- 27:22I mean,
- 27:22I guess if you need money,
- 27:23you can put your gold tooth out or something,
- 27:25but for the most part,
- 27:27gold is very,
- 27:29very expensive.
- 27:32All of this we can't afford,
- 27:35but it says,
- 27:35the workmanship of thy tabers and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day thou wast created.
- 27:43Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth.
- 27:50Satan,
- 27:52he's a cherub by the way,
- 27:53not an angel.
- 27:53An angel doesn't have wings.
- 27:55A cherub has four faces and four wings.
- 27:59Seraphims,
- 27:59they fly and they have six wings.
- 28:02But
- 28:02Lucifer here,
- 28:04he was decked out in riches and in wealth.
- 28:15It wasn't enough.
- 28:21I don't want to just be the cherub that covers you,
- 28:26Lord,
- 28:27and my glory goes to you,
- 28:29Lord.
- 28:30No,
- 28:31I want you to be the one that covers me.
- 28:36And that was his fall.
- 28:39He wanted more.
- 28:41He had more than anybody could ever dream to have.
- 28:46But he wanted more.
- 28:48It's greed.
- 28:49And it starts with that anointed cherub.
- 28:54God help us.
- 28:56Do you believe in a trinity?
- 28:59Yeah,
- 29:00we believe in a trinity.
- 29:01We are made in the likeness of God,
- 29:04a soul,
- 29:05a spirit,
- 29:06and a body.
- 29:07Go to 1 John 2.
- 29:10Kids,
- 29:10I want you to get a hold of this verse,
- 29:13because you're going to be old enough someday to be actively presented with many opportunities,
- 29:23and I want you to know that there is a trinity of evil.
- 29:27that you need to be aware of.
- 29:29Well,
- 29:29we all do.
- 29:31Young people,
- 29:31I'd like you to really get a hold of this tonight.
- 29:351 John 2,
- 29:36verse 16.
- 29:37Here's the trinity of evil.
- 29:40For all that is in the world,
- 29:42the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father,
- 29:50but is of the world.
- 29:53I'm telling you,
- 29:54the world,
- 29:55the flesh,
- 29:57and the devil is the trinity of evil that we all need to watch out for.
- 30:03That world is worldliness produced by mammon.
- 30:07Our flesh is our attachment to it.
- 30:11We get so attached to it that we become spiritually blind and we become weak.
- 30:17Now the devil has a real good foundation to be able to build off of because we're already weak and we're already blind.
- 30:28Go to Matthew 6,
- 30:29I want to wind down on some thoughts that are important.
- 30:33But Matthew chapter number 6,
- 30:38verse number 24.
- 30:41Matthew 6,
- 30:4424.
- 30:47Back up to verse number 20.
- 30:49Let me get one thing real quick.
- 30:53Before I read that,
- 30:54I just want to get something.
- 30:56I think we'll go right with this.
- 31:00Okay,
- 31:00that's right.
- 31:01Matthew 6,
- 31:02verse 20.
- 31:04The Bible says,
- 31:05But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
- 31:10where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
- 31:12and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
- 31:16For where your treasure is,
- 31:17there will your heart...
- 31:21Be also.
- 31:23And this love of money is always going to be in conflict.
- 31:31Material riches are always going to be in conflict with spiritual riches.
- 31:36We can't get away from it.
- 31:39Does anybody have a super rich great granddaddy that left your family like five million dollars?
- 31:47No,
- 31:47I didn't think so.
- 31:48Me neither.
- 31:50Oh wait,
- 31:51except we do.
- 31:53Except we do.
- 31:54You don't have to turn there,
- 31:55I'll read it.
- 31:551 Peter chapter 4.
- 31:57The Bible says,
- 31:59I have,
- 31:59you have,
- 31:59if you're a believer,
- 32:01an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away.
- 32:09Nobody's stealing your inheritance.
- 32:11Nobody's stealing your spiritual riches.
- 32:13As a matter of fact,
- 32:14the Bible says,
- 32:15it's reserved in heaven for you.
- 32:20And the next verse says,
- 32:21who are kept by the power of God.
- 32:24You don't have to worry about the bank system crashing and not being able to keep your money safely.
- 32:29You have an inheritance that is kept by God.
- 32:33It's reserved for you.
- 32:35Get your eyes on spiritual riches that we have in high places.
- 32:41Matthew 6.
- 32:43Keep reading because God strongly warns us in verse...
- 32:48Number 24,
- 32:50no man can serve two masters,
- 32:53for he will either hate the one and love the other,
- 32:57or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
- 33:02You can't serve two masters.
- 33:04You can't love them both,
- 33:06gentlemen.
- 33:06Gentlemen,
- 33:11if your wife says to you,
- 33:15Yeah,
- 33:15I'm going out.
- 33:16It's Friday night.
- 33:17Oh,
- 33:17where are you going?
- 33:18Well,
- 33:18I got,
- 33:19I got some other guys going to take me out to dinner.
- 33:23Okay,
- 33:24hold on a second.
- 33:24Well,
- 33:25where are you going?
- 33:25I'm going to get my shotgun.
- 33:27That's where I'm going.
- 33:33Why?
- 33:34You can't love me and love somebody else.
- 33:37Are you kidding me?
- 33:41Husbands,
- 33:41we say to our wives,
- 33:43where are you going?
- 33:45Well,
- 33:45I'm going out,
- 33:46it's Friday night.
- 33:47Oh,
- 33:47where are you going?
- 33:48Well,
- 33:48some girl,
- 33:48I'm going to take her out to dinner.
- 33:51And she's going to say,
- 33:52oh hold on,
- 33:53where are you going?
- 33:54I'm going to get my shotgun,
- 33:55right?
- 33:56Because it's obvious that would never happen because you would be clearly showing your hand that you don't love the person.
- 34:06Well,
- 34:06I'm devoted to God.
- 34:10You know God's a jealous God?
- 34:15Where are you storing your treasures up?
- 34:16Because that same application applies.
- 34:21If we say we love God,
- 34:23Bible tells us very clearly,
- 34:24Jesus says,
- 34:25you cannot serve God and mammon.
- 34:31Well,
- 34:32man,
- 34:32oh man.
- 34:34I guess my relationship with money just created me a theological problem.
- 34:39I can't serve both.
- 34:43If you are in service to money,
- 34:44the idea is to accumulate more and more.
- 34:47We are not in service to money.
- 34:48We're in service to God.
- 34:50Mammon is material riches worshipped as God.
- 34:54You want to know why America is so corrupt?
- 34:58What's the American dream?
- 35:01Yep.
- 35:03Mammon is America's God.
- 35:09You want to be the president of the United States.
- 35:11You don't even have to go up that high.
- 35:13You want to be the governor of a state.
- 35:15If you don't have a couple million dollars to start with,
- 35:19you're not going nowhere.
- 35:23America's
- 35:24God is money.
- 35:25Matter of fact,
- 35:26you trace this word mammon,
- 35:28there is a false god of riches,
- 35:30Maimon,
- 35:31M-E-Y-M-U-N.
- 35:32He's the ruler over the sin of greed.
- 35:36Maimon is the god of greed.
- 35:40By the way,
- 35:41that is what is behind the false prosperity gospel.
- 35:45More,
- 35:45more,
- 35:46more,
- 35:46more.
- 35:48And you know what the false god of Maimon says?
- 35:53Hey,
- 35:53look.
- 35:56Don't try to war against God.
- 35:59Don't do that.
- 35:59Don't start a fight with God.
- 36:01No,
- 36:02no,
- 36:02no,
- 36:02no.
- 36:03Follow after me.
- 36:04Build your own kingdom.
- 36:07You can do it.
- 36:08You can build it and be a self-made millionaire.
- 36:11Build your own kingdom.
- 36:13You'll live for money and you'll die for money.
- 36:18Matter of fact,
- 36:20occultic and paganistic pictures illustrate the God of Maimon.
- 36:26He's depicted as holding the body of a sleeping man.
- 36:32And as he's holding this man,
- 36:33he's suspending him in air.
- 36:36And he's just holding this man as he's sleeping.
- 36:39And it's showing,
- 36:40it's depicting the control and the grip and the power that this Maimon false god has.
- 36:48A lot of greed can take a hold of on somebody.
- 36:54Mammon is used in the Bible to describe as a mindset to achieve and to pursue more.
- 37:02You'll just betray trust for material wealth.
- 37:05Thirty pieces of silver like Judas.
- 37:08He's sitting right with the Savior.
- 37:15Let's finish up in Matthew 6.
- 37:48than they?
- 37:50God says,
- 37:50man,
- 37:51you trust in all these riches.
- 37:53You work and you work and you work and you trust in your money to provide for you.
- 37:58God says,
- 37:58what about me?
- 38:00You don't trust me to provide for you.
- 38:03I provide for the fowls of the air.
- 38:05You're so much more higher and better than that.
- 38:08You're created in my image.
- 38:13And all our trust goes to money.
- 38:15It shouldn't be.
- 38:18Verse 27,
- 38:19which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
- 38:23None of us.
- 38:26And why take ye thought for raiment?
- 38:28Consider the lilies of the field,
- 38:30how they grow,
- 38:30they toil not,
- 38:32neither do they spin.
- 38:33And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
- 38:40Wherefore,
- 38:40if God so clothed the grass of the field,
- 38:43which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
- 38:46shall he not much more clothe you?
- 38:49O ye of little faith!
- 38:51Wherefore,
- 38:51take no thought,
- 38:52saying,
- 38:52What shall we eat,
- 38:53or what shall we drink,
- 38:54or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
- 38:57For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
- 38:59For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
- 39:04But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
- 39:10All these things shall be added unto you.
- 39:13I take therefore no thought for tomorrow.
- 39:15For tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
- 39:19Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
- 39:26You can work for mammon,
- 39:27you can't work for God.
- 39:32How many hours are you going to spend working for mammon?
- 39:35How many hours are you going to spend working for God?
- 39:40His treasures are so much better.
- 39:45Job 15 talks about a dreadful sound is in his ears.
- 39:51In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
- 39:56When death knocks on the rich man's door,
- 39:58if he's not saved,
- 39:59it's a dreadful sound.
- 40:04If you're saved,
- 40:06it's not a dreadful sound.
- 40:08You are following the voice of the Good Shepherd and praise the Lord.
- 40:14Jay Gold,
- 40:15he died in 1892.
- 40:17He had an estimated worth of $100 million.
- 40:21This is 1892.
- 40:24When he died,
- 40:25none of his family were present.
- 40:28Those who came,
- 40:29they didn't come for sympathy.
- 40:30They just came out of curiosity.
- 40:33and a little bit of,
- 40:34kind of,
- 40:34I'm glad he's gone.
- 40:38There was a cold sense of satisfaction that surrounded the entire town.
- 40:43Why?
- 40:44Because Jay Gold was a cold-hearted,
- 40:47unscrupulous,
- 40:50money-loving railroad developer in the late 1800s.
- 40:56He lived for money.
- 40:59He had no relationship with people.
- 41:03someday we're all gonna die you're not taking your house you're not taking your car you're not taking your clothes
- 41:18God says I've got a place prepared and if you've been clothed in my righteousness
- 41:23I've got an inheritance I want to give you he said that's how much I love you
- 41:31And all He asks for us to do is,
- 41:34can you just serve Me and not the money god of mammon?
- 41:43Hath not God chosen the poor of this world,
- 41:45rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom,
- 41:48which he hath promised to them that love him?
- 41:52Why don't we love God more?
- 41:54Because we can't serve both.
- 41:57Let's pray.
- 42:02Thank you for listening to the podcast ministry of Pilgrim Baptist Church.
- 42:07We look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
- 42:10In the meantime,
- 42:11you can sign up for our email newsletter at www.pildrumbaptist.church.