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It never has the sacrifice of a saint gone unnoticed by God.

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Still today, from Rwanda to Iran to the People's Republic of China, there are people being

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killed for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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We in this culture have it differently, however.

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For the persecution, the challenge to our faith that we face is not so much from a tyrant

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that sits on the throne as a tyrant that appears in commercials on television.

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I am speaking about King Materialism.

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I'd like you to open your Bible with me to 1 Chronicles, chapter 29.

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We're going to read some words of David.

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As they gathered in offering for the building of the temple of the Lord.

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First Chronicles, chapter 29, beginning in verse 10.

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So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly.

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And David said, blessed art thou, O Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever.

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Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty.

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Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and the earth.

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Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and thou dost exalt thyself as head over all.

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Both riches and honor come from thee, and thou dost rule over all, and in thy hand

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is power and might.

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And it lies in thy hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.

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Now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name.

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But who am I, and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this?

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For all things come from thee, and from thy hand we have given thee.

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For we are sojourners before thee, and tenants as all our fathers were.

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Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.

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O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build thee a house for thy

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holy name, it is from thy hand, and all is thine.

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Today we are thinking about the stewardship of all of life, including our life's blood.

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Every aspect of stewardship is a test of faithfulness.

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The Dr. Erwin Lutzer rightly points out, our attitude toward money is an especially accurate

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barometer of our relationship to the world.

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I would add to that that it is also a thermometer of our walk with God.

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God has a great deal about our stewardship of life and of our resources in the Bible.

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Over 700 verses deal with it.

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It is an important part of our daily lives because statistics say that 80% of our working

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time is spent thinking about, talking about, or working for money.

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This morning we want to think about what our Lord Jesus has taught us that God wants regarding

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our money.

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The Lord Jesus had a great deal to say about our money.

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One of the key texts is Luke chapter 16, and I invite you to look there with me in the

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Gospel of Luke the 16th chapter.

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Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who had a steward who acted shrewdly with his

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money.

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Jesus does not necessarily commend what the man did, except that the man was shrewd with

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his money.

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Jesus says in verse 9, And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon

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of unrighteousness, that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

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He who is faithful in a very little thing, that is like money, is faithful also in much.

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And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing, is unrighteous also in much.

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If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, that is money,

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who will entrust the true riches to you?

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And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give

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you that which is your own?

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No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or

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else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

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You cannot serve God and money.

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Again I say to you that the tyrant we face today is not the one on the throne, it is

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on the tomb.

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It is the tyrant that confronts us day after day in a materialistic world like we live

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in, to use our money for ourselves.

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There are three things I want to say this morning that I think God wants us to realize

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regarding our money.

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First of all, God wants us to have money.

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You see if God wants me to have money, well that's two of us, right?

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Indeed God does want you to have money.

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It is all His as David pointed out to us.

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It is He who gives power to men to get it.

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In Deuteronomy 8, 18 it says, the Lord gives you power to make wealth.

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In Proverbs 10, 22 it is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich.

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And Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, 17, God richly supplies us with all things

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to enjoy.

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Contrary to what some people think, God does not condemn having money or making money.

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Indeed God gives us the ability to do so.

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God wants us to have money.

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Now that's not the same thing as saying that God wants us to be rich.

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Some God chooses to make wealthy.

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He does not choose that for all of us.

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But God wants all of us to have money.

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Now we need to recognize that with the money comes temptation.

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The money itself is amoral, depends upon how we choose to use it that makes it good or

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evil.

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Wealth is not in itself inherently evil.

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Abraham, Job, Jacob, David, we are all extremely wealthy people.

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God wants us to have money.

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There are certain biblical principles that are designed to help us gain wealth.

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So when we say that God wants us to have money, we should not think that God is going to send

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us a check every Monday morning.

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We need to apply the principles that God gives to us in His word as to how to gain wealth.

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The first principle is that of work.

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Sorry to start there, but that's probably the one that's most important.

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God expects us to work for it.

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Proverbs 14, 23 says, in all labor there is profit.

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The apostle wrote to the church and said, if anyone will not work, neither let him eat.

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He should not be living off of other people.

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There is the principle of work.

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God expects us to work to gain wealth.

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Secondly, the principle of saving.

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The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets.

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Proverbs 21, 20 in the Living Bible.

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The third principle is to plan and to plan carefully.

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Again from the Living Bible, Proverbs 27, 23.

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Plans can disappear fast, so watch your business interests closely.

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The principle of planning carefully makes us aware and hopefully causes us to beware

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of impulsive buying, which is at the heart of so much of the commercialism of our day.

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I have a brother-in-law who stocks shelves for a certain company, and he has shared with

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me how carefully, indeed what a science it is as to what items go on what shelf.

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We walk into a grocery store and we think, well somebody just put them there.

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In fact, it is carefully planned where every item in the store is to gain the greatest

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advantage over you to cause you to buy things that you might not have wanted when you went

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into the store.

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We need to plan carefully when we go to the store.

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We need to plan carefully by budgeting our money so that we don't just spend according

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to the line in our checkbook.

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And then there is a fourth principle by which God has designed we should gain wealth, and

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that is through gifts and inheritance.

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For example, we have the prodigal son that Jesus told about.

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He wasted his inheritance, sadly, not the first one to do that.

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But inheritance and gifts are another way that God intends for us to gain wealth.

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I have not yet been able to uncover the principle of gambling by which God wants us to gain

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wealth, by the way.

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It is a tragedy in the state of Minnesota how many people are going to the casinos and

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hoping there to make it rich.

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My son works for a local gasoline station as a cashier and tells me about the people

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who come in to buy lottery tickets and other forms of gambling in the state.

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And he has talked to them, found very few of them have won anything, and their statement

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seems to be over and over again, well, I've got to get it back, all the money I've lost.

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I've got to get it back and keep buying these things until I win.

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And the gambling industry is sucking the people of this state dry as a result of that.

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That is not a biblical means of gaining wealth.

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In fact, it is an unbiblical means of losing wealth.

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God wants us to have money.

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He wants us to have more than we need so that then we can be free to share it with others

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as He directs us in life.

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But I don't have enough money, somebody says.

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If we respond that way, we have to ask ourselves some questions.

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First of all, do I really need more money?

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Do I need it?

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Or do I simply want it for certain things that I want for myself?

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I have to ask myself, is God testing my faith by withholding for a period of time?

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Is God wanting to see whether I trust my checkbook or Him?

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Third question I have to ask if I say I don't have enough money is have I wasted what God

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has already provided for me?

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And do an honest examination of how I've handled my finances.

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I have to ask myself fourthly, have I violated some biblical principle so that God is not

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able to bless me as He wants to?

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For example, have I been impulsive?

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Have I been lazy?

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Have I been self-indulgent?

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Have I been careless?

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Have I procrastinated?

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You see, those are all problems that hinder God from blessing us as He wants to.

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So we have to examine our hearts to see if we have violated some biblical principle.

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Not only does God want us to have money, He wants us to think properly about it.

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In the first place, He tells us in 1 Timothy 6 verses 6 through 10 not to love it.

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We are not to love money because it will destroy our lives.

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It will make us useless to God.

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It will lead us to compromise.

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The love of money will lead to ruin and destruction of our souls.

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Somebody has said, well, everybody has a price and you know that can be true.

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Hopefully it's not true of you and me, but what's your price?

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If you establish a price for your faithfulness to God, Satan is going to be willing to meet

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that.

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I heard a story that John MacArthur told a number of years ago now and I've shared it

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here in the past about a nationally known author who was at a banquet in New York City.

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At this banquet he was seated next to a very lovely lady and he asked her the question,

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would you be willing to spend the night with me for $100,000?

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She blushed when he asked the question and said, well, yes.

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He said, well, how about for $10?

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And she said, well, what do you think I am?

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He said, we've already established that now we're just negotiating for the price.

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What's your price?

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The devil will be willing to meet it.

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If you want to love money and establish that as a goal in your life and a high priority

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of having it and using it for yourself, it will compromise you.

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God wants us to think properly about money, not to love it, first of all.

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Secondly, to be aware of its nature, money is deceitful.

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It tricks us.

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Mark 4.19 warns about the deceitfulness of riches which chokes the word of God in our

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lives.

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Money is also temporary.

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I've not seen a hearse with a U-Haul trailer behind it yet, have you?

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Money is for this life.

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When we leave this life, it's gone, it's left behind.

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It is not eternal.

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That's why Paul writes to Timothy, don't fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches.

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God wants us to think properly about our money, not to love it, to be aware of its nature.

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And thirdly, He wants us to make it our servant.

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That's what Jesus is talking about in Luke chapter 16 in this rather strange parable

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that we've not taken time to read this morning.

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In the parable, Jesus is simply telling us that proper handling of our finances is a

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key to spiritual fruit in our lives.

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God will not entrust to us true riches if we do not learn how to use money.

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And when He tells us to make friends with our money, He is saying that we are to use

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it in such a way that as a result of the use of our money, people are one with the gospel

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to faith in Jesus Christ and they're in heaven to receive us there when we die.

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That is captured so poignantly and touchingly in that song, Thank you for giving to the

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Lord.

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If you've not heard that or you haven't heard it recently, dig it up and listen again

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to the words that remind us all that the use of our money is important and the best use

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that we can make of it is to invest it in such a way that people are one to faith in

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Jesus Christ and as a result of our investment, then they are in heaven there to receive us

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with thanksgiving when we arrive.

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God wants us to have money, He wants us to think properly about it and finally God wants

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us to manage our financial stewardship well.

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We do that first by recognizing that our priority responsibility is to God.

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I think one of the key texts that underscores this is found in Proverbs chapter 3.

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Proverbs chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 tell us this, honor the Lord from your wealth and

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from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your

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vats will overflow with new wine.

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Honor the Lord from your wealth, the first of your produce.

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That is we're not to leave our giving to God to the leftovers, to whatever we have after

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the bills are paid.

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We're to honor God with the first of our produce.

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Now how do we do that?

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Well I believe that while it's not a legal regulation in the Word of God that God has

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established a principle of giving in the Bible that He has chosen to bless.

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It is the principle of tithing, of giving 10% of our income to God.

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Now it's not that that is the high range, it's not that when we've done that we've

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done everything that God could ever ask of us, it is that that is a principle and we

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may choose to give far more than that, like Zacchaeus for example who gave 50%.

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But the point is that we need to recognize God first in our finances.

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The tithe is a way to do it.

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We are also to recognize our responsibilities to our families.

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To me this is one of the subtle ways which gambling erodes society because the ones who

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ultimately suffer from it are families.

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We need to recognize that we have a responsibility to our families.

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If we don't take care of our families, the Word of God says, we are worse than infidels.

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Now we need to be careful not to pamper our children or to lavish things upon them that

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do not help them develop character.

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But we need to help our children see that God does provide for us in our families.

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That is a way that children interpret God's faithfulness by how their parents meet their

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needs, not their greeds now, but their needs.

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And when they see that happening in the home, they grow up with the understanding that God

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takes care of me.

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We do have to be careful and guard against the pressures of our world toward materialism.

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We have to control the expectations of our children that are so puffed up by television

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commercials.

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But let's recognize that we do have a responsibility to our families.

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Thirdly, God wants us to think properly about our money by, and being good stewards of it,

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by recognizing our responsibility to the poor and to the needy.

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Throughout the New Testament you see this.

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And in the context, it is not so much the needy of the world, though we ought not to

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have hard hearts toward the needy of the world, but it is especially the needy among the Lord's

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people.

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We are to defend the poor.

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We are to reach out to them to help meet their needs.

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So God wants us to have money.

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He wants us to think properly about money.

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He wants us to manage our money well as good stewards.

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As you know, stewards are those that take care of the wealth of another person.

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David, with all of his wealth and his honor, his power, recognized that God had given him

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everything.

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He said, all is yours, Lord, and we are returning to you, but what is yours?

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A basic principle of stewardship in the Bible is that first we give ourselves to the Lord,

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and once he has us, he has all of our stuff.

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Our money can be a curse.

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Our money can be a blessing.

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It depends upon our attitude toward it.

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It becomes a curse to us if we covet it, if we are greedy for it.

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Consider Achan in the Old Testament, who was greedy for some of the leftovers of war, or

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Ananias and Sapphira, or Judas, who stole from the disciples' purse.

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Money can be a curse to us if we don't handle it rightly, if we don't have the right attitude

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toward it.

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But money can be a blessing if we see it as a stewardship.

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It is more blessed to give, said Jesus, than to receive.

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And all of us have had that experience of giving to someone else without any strings

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attached and seeing the joy that comes to their face, to seeing the relief in their

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lives as God provides something.

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It is more blessed.

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It is a greater joy to give than to receive when we understand that our money is God's.

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And we're willing then to share God's money with others.

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It becomes a blessing to our lives.

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All we're really doing when we give is taking our hands off of what belongs to God anyway.

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And surely we can't help but give when we realize all that God has done for us, can

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we?

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When we understand the grace of God that is so exceeding toward us, can we help then but

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be generous in our giving to God and obeying the principles of stewardship in His Word?

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We are responsible to be stewards of all of life, and there may come a day when some of

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us will be good stewards by laying down our lives as martyrs like those that we heard

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earlier in the service.

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But I wonder if there isn't a greater challenge to our fleshly human hearts than martyrdom,

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and that is learning to be good stewards of the possessions that God puts into our hands.

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If we can learn to do that, then we can be entrusted with the true riches.

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Let's pray.

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Father, on this day as we reflect over the generations of saints who have testified and

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confessed the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we want to stand up too and say that we pledge

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allegiance to the Lamb.

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And we want to show that allegiance even in the little things of life like our giving.

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And so may the Spirit of God work in us afresh, a deep desire to be good stewards of what

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belongs to you.

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And to think properly about those things that you put into our possession, and to use them

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well in a way that honors you first, and in a way that meets the needs not only of our

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families but of others in the family of God.

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Would you, by your Spirit, fasten this upon our hearts that we are stewards of those things

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that you have graciously put into our hands.

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In Jesus' name, amen.