Day #202: Proverbs 3:11-20

BACKGROUND:

Because wisdom brings happiness and because wealth often does not bring genuine happiness, wisdom’s value far exceeds the worth of precious metals such as silver... gold, and also rubies. Wisdom returns to her possessor a much greater value than anything gold or silver can purchase.

Wisdom, personified as a woman, gives with both hands, that is, generously. Her right hand gives longevity and from her left hand she gives riches and more. Besides giving a long life, wisdom also provides a quality life: pleasantness and peace.
When God created the world, He used wisdom... understanding, and knowledge. If God needed these, then certainly people need them.


SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)

Some people think that the Bible says that "Money is the root of all evil". It actually says "The love of money is the root of all evil."

God is not opposed to wealth, in fact, many of the people in the Bible were extremely wealthy. Abraham was probably a millionaire in our terms. Job was the wealthiest man of his time. David and Solomon were both the wealthiest men of their time. We know that Barnabas made a lot of money because he was able to give it to the church. Joseph of Arimathea, the man who gave Jesus his tomb, was extremely wealthy. So God is not opposed to wealth, simply for being wealthy. But God is very much opposed to the misuse and abuse of wealth. He wants us to use our wealth wisely, no matter how much or how little we have.


I want to look at the wrong and the right uses of wealth today for just a moment. By the way, everyone in this room is wealthy according to world standards. If you own a car, you're wealthy. If you have more than one change of clothes, you're wealthy. If you own a home, you're in the top 5% of the world. By world standards, by the very fact that we live in America, we're wealthy. Just so you know. We sometimes play the comparison game so much, we fail to remember how we have been blessed.


Proverbs 21:20 says, "The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets." Proverbs 30:24 says, "Consider the ant how it stores up in the winter." This is the principle that the Bible says, we ought to save money faithfully. The average American only saved 4% of his income. The average European saves 16% of his income. The average Japanese person saves 25% of his income. Why do we save so little in America? I think it's because we live for today. We're the Now Generation.

Jesus told a number of parables. Over half deal with money. He talked more about money than he did about heaven or hell. He talks about investment, how the wise man invested his money and the unwise man didn't invest his money. The master came back and said, "You're wicked." It's wicked not to make our money work for us. When we save our money we get our money to work for us rather than working for our money. In order to develop the habit of saving you've got to do two things:

You need to learn to live on a margin. That means live on less than you make. John D. Rockefeller said many times, "Save 10%, tithe 10%, live on 80%." Obviously that worked for him.

You learn contentment. You've got to learn contentment with what we have. If you don't learn contentment you'll spend all the money you have as soon as you get it. My old senior pastor – Pastor Yaeger used to say used to say, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."


What is the purpose of saving? Here's where the Bible differs from the world's thinking in a major way. The world thinks you save money for security. If I could just accumulate a big enough bank account I would be financially secure. The problem is, there is no such thing as absolute security. No matter how much money you've got, you could lose it instantly. \

Everything that I have in life can be taken away from me: my family, my money, my reputation, everything. There is only one thing that cannot be taken away from me and that's my relationship to Jesus Christ. I've got to put my security in Christ and not a passbook account, CD's, stock. We don't save like the world saves simply for security.

Why do we save? The Christian saves for stewardship reasons, not for security reasons. Proverbs 21:20 says "The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets."

Having money saved allows us to be able to help other people when they have a need. We save in order to help others.

That's the right accumulation according to scripture, what about the RIGHT APPROPRIATION. The Bible says in Proverbs 13:11 "Wealth from gambling quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows." What is gambling? A get-rich-quick scheme. In the book of Proverbs, at least six or seven times, scripture teaches us don't get involved in get rich quick schemes. Easy come, easy go. You make it quick, you'll lose it quick.

Proverbs 14:23 says, "Hard work brings a profit; mere talk leads to poverty." Over and over again in Scripture the Bible teaches the value of hard work. It is a legitimate honest way to increase your income by making money honestly through work. If you talk all the time, dream, plan get-rich-quick schemes you're not going to prosper in life. God approves of work as a means to wealth.

Proverbs 11:16 (GN)says, "A lazy man will never have money but an aggressive man will get rich." Proverbs 12:27 (GN) says, "If you're lazy you'll never get what you're after. But if you work hard, you can get a fortune." What matters to God is not so much how much money you make but how you make it.

What does the Scripture say about the RIGHT ALLOCATION? The Bible says we are to spend money wisely. The Scripture says, "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as sure as haste leads to poverty." He's talking about planning your money and planning your spending. We spend 16 years in school learning how to make money but not six weeks learning how to spend it wisely. It is easier to get into debt than to get out of debt. Buy now, pay later. Only 162 easy payments. I've never had an easy payment. They are all difficult.

The number one reason for financial pressure is not that we don't make enough but we don't spend it wisely. The median income in Contra Costa County per family is $85,000. That's incredible. There are people who are making incomes in the high six digit figures but they're still under pressure. It shouldn't be. The problem is not that we don't make enough, but we don't spend it wisely.

Because we do make good incomes in America, it tells me that we're never going to have enough money unless we know how to spend it wisely. The more your income goes up it seems your expenses go up. Our yearning capacity always tends to exceed our earning capacity.


How do you spell relief? BUDGET. Have a budget. Spending money wisely means having a budget. What is a budget? Planned spending. Telling your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went. The wise man plans. "The plans of the diligent lead to profit as sure as haste leads to poverty." The opposite of budgeted spending is impulse buying. That leads to poverty. I see it, I want it, I'm going to buy it.

Part of this means keeping good records. Proverbs 27:23 (LB)says, "Riches can disappear fast so watch your business interest closely." God wants us to make money honestly, save it faithfully, spend it wisely.

THE RIGHT APPLICATION. How do we use the influence that money has? We are to give money generously. Proverbs 11:24-25 says, "It is possible to give away and become richer. It's also possible to hold on too tightly and loose everything. Yes the generous man shall be rich. By watering others, he waters himself."

This principle is taught over and over again in Scripture. Give and it will be given unto you. Just like seeds, the more we sow the more we reap. There are more promises in the Bible related to giving than on any other subject. It's incredible what God promises when we learn to give. He wants us to learn to be givers because God is a giver. If we're going to learn to become like God we've got to learn to be giving people.


No matter how wealthy I've become, I'm not financially free until I've learned to give. But if I learn to give I'll be a very happy person. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.