God and Money
Principles from Proverbs
26 April 2009
Introduction:
Today is our annual Planned Giving Covenant Sunday. We invite you to pledge how much you will give on a regular basis this year.
Last week we outlined five principles –
• Put God first
• Get your values straight
• Work hard
• Be business-minded
• God blesses generosity
Today we will consider five more. They are not all about giving but they are all relevant to our attitude to money.
1. Honesty is the best policy (10:2-3)
Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit (2).
Like wisdom, integrity is more important than wealth. A good name is worth more than a big bank account (22:1).
See also 11:4; 13:11; 21:6
Story of an Asian business man who refused a $20 000 bribe to accept an inferior building product in major construction because of his faith and integrity.
2. Don’t trust in wealth (11:28)
Proverbs 11:28 (ESV)
Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
See also Matt 6:19-21; 1 Tim 6:17
I said last week that it was important to work hard and plan for the future. On the other hand, wealth can vanish very quickly and it is dangerous to put our trust in material possessions.
We live and we give by faith.
When we began in ministry, we were foolish in that we made too little provision. Yet on the other hand, we never went hungry. We always had a roof over our head. We learned wisdom and love and handling difficulty by faith. We had a happy family with great kids.
Then when the College burned, and my notes, research papers, family papers, kids school books etc were destroyed, a business friend said, ‘It must be terrible to lose everything like that.’ I replied, ‘Well we still have the really important things – faith, family, friends... And, I suppose the reality is that if we are no richer for what we possess we are no poorer for what we lose.’
‘I’ve never thought of it like that before,’ he said.
To tell the truth, neither had I. But I still remember what I said – I guess it was a word from the Holy Spirit.
There is nothing wrong with having possessions – it is trusting in them that is the problem. How do we know if we are trusting in our wealth? Easy – what if God told you to give it all away?
3. Stay out of debt (22:7)
The borrower is the slave of the lender (Prov 22:7).
Get out of debt if possible. See Prov 6:1ff; Rom 13:8
This is also in the NT. See Romans 12:8.
About the only exception is a mortgage where you do have an asset to cover the indebtedness and where the only alternative is paying rent where you also part with money you will not see again.
In his introduction to The Screwtape Letters (1952 ed) C S Lewis said, ‘The greatest evil is not now done in sordid "dens of crime" that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmend, and well-lighted offices by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.’
As they say in the U.S. these days: 'The best way to rob a bank? Own one.'
Consider credit card debts in Australia. The average debt per person in 2006 was $1800 per head ($36 billion all up). By Feb 2008 it was nearly $43 billion – over $2000 per head for every man, woman and child.
What happens when there is an appeal for missions or some other urgent need? What can we do if have a debt to pay?
Story of a student who told me that after a class on self-mastery and Christian victory she had a great deliverance. I thought, ‘Drugs, alcohol, finger-nail biting, chocolate…’ The she told me she had cut up her credit card. And she felt wonderfully free!
4. Be balanced (30:8-9)
Give me neither poverty nor riches… lest I be full and deny you… or lest I be poor and steal.
Neither poverty nor wealth is in itself beneficial.
Contrast the so-called ‘poverty gospel’ (i.e. that poverty is spiritual) with the ‘prosperity gospel’ (i.e. that prosperity is a sign of God’s blessing).
Compare the story of Ashley Barker (Make Poverty Personal), a Tabor graduate who has chosen to live in Bangkok and work among the slums there to minister to the poor.
I am not immune to this sense of awkwardness around poverty. Even though I have chosen live in a developing world slum with my family since 2002 (and before that in a needy neighbourhood in Melbourne for ten years) that fear still strikes when I least expect it. Like anywhere else in a world of so much poverty, it is easy to be overwhelmed by what I see and, consequently, freeze. Recently, I was on the back of a motorbike when I went past a neighbourhood in Klong Toey I hadn't really seen before. I mean, I'd been past it, but I really only saw it for the first time. A long diesel goods train chugged past, so we waited with a crowd of people on motorbikes for it to pass by. That’s when an elderly lady caught my attention. She was sitting cross-legged, grey hair held back, eating some rice in the doorway of her home. The 'house' was really just a shack made out of plywood shipping boxes. As I looked up, I realised this lady’s whole neighbourhood was really just plywood boxes: no water, no electricity, harsh smells, rubbish and dog and human 'shite' scattered outside the rough rows of shacks hugging the train-line. Instantly, I was reminded of two quotes. First, Mike Davis’ Planet of Slums which states that today in slums one billion people (one in six) are "living in shite". This is true, both physically and symbolically, around the world and specifically in this lady’s experience. Second, a quote from 1 John 3:17-18 came to me: "If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children let us not love with words of tongue but with actions and truth". Overwhelmed by both what I saw and was processing, I tried not to stare at the old lady. We exchanged glances and smiles, but I looked away as we sped off. This did not seem an adequate enough response to the misery this lady was experiencing and I was haunted by the look in the lady’s eyes as I left.
Despite cluelessness and often a sense of futility, I must keep 'getting in poverty’s face' if I am to be true to following the One who redeemed me. This is where the anointing of the Sprit and true purpose is found. I know, too, that such poverty is far more painful and awkward for the lady by the railway track than I could ever imagine or experience. If I just look beyond myself to Jesus, I can hear him whisper "As you do it to the least of these, you do it to me" (Matt 25:31ff) and I know that somehow I meet Jesus in the embarrassment of poverty.
Contrast the story of Wilber Vickery (not his real name). He was brought up in a Presbyterian church but backslid. When he was 22 years old, he was invited by a friend to attend a United Charismatic Convention in Adelaide in January 1987. On the second day he was healed under the ministry of Billy Joe Doherty and also baptized in the Holy Spirit, which took him rather by surprise. A day or so later Mario Murillo prophesied that God would give him new ideas, that he would become a millionaire and that he would use his money for the extension of the kingdom of God.
He was studying science at RMIT in Melbourne at the time and had no money to spare – he was barely surviving as a student. His passion was engineering and he did not see how this prophecy could eventuate.
When he returned to Melbourne after the Convention, he met a friend at Alfred hospital who sold him about a particular problem they had to which they could find no solution. In thinking about this he felt that God gave him an idea and as a result he invented a device with a safety system that met the need. Over the next 2-3 years 20% of Melbourne hospitals were using them. By the mid-90s, 80% of hospitals in Australia were using them.
He then developed his ideas and now has 80% of the US market for another product. His company now employs over 250 people and has two plants in the USA, three in the UK, two in South Africa, four in NZ and 6 in Australia.
Today Wilbur has invested in some 500 missionaries overseas in countries like Myanmar, Vietnam etc. He has personally gone on short-term mission trips. He is an elder in his church.
Here are two men who have chosen totally different courses. Who is right? Clearly, both. Money in itself is not a guide to the will of God. We need both in the kingdom of God. Some of you are blessed financially and are able to give generously. Others have already made great sacrifices and can give little. Be content.
5. Don’t go guarantor (6:1-5)
My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, [2] if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, [3] then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor. [4] Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; [5] save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
See also 11:15; 17:18; 22:26-27
Of course, if you can afford it, it doesn’t matter. Or, parents may choose to guarantee their children and take the risk. But otherwise, it is a dicey business.
When we were newly married, my wife and I were asked by relatives to help them get out of a sticky situation. Would we guarantee a finance company loan to help them start a new business? We did but three years later found ourselves facing a huge debt that we could not pay. Almost overnight we had to leave our home, move into dirty and rough conditions at the back of a shop, sleep in a single bed together and then become shop keepers the next morning. Prov 22:27 was fulfilled!
We had to work hard seven days a week for three years to extract ourselves.
But God was gracious – when one company phoned to ask us when we would pay the $900 we owed them, I offered them $1 a week! This would take us 18 years to repay! They accepted it. Later they actually wrote of the remaining $400.
There were other little miracles, too. God prospered the business and we came out in front. We were also older and wiser.
This is what Jesus did for us. Knowing full well the possible implications, he became our security. See Hebrews 7:22. Jesus became the guarantor of a better covenant. It cost him – as he knew it would. We owed a debt we could not pay and he paid a debt he did not owe.
Our relatives never thanked us for what we did – saving them from bankruptcy and possible prosecution. What if we were never to thank Jesus for what he did for us? That’s a good question.
Something to think or talk about
Remember – you don’t have to answer all the questions. Just address those that seem most relevant.
Biblical
1. Read Proverbs 10:2-3. What does 2a mean?
2. How do 10:3 and 10:15 relate to each other?
3. Read Proverbs 11:28. How does the first part relate to circumstances in the world today? Is this always true in this life?
4. Why do you think righteous people are compared to a green leaf?
5. Read Proverbs 6:3 and 22:7. What is the similarity between them?
Personal and practical
6. Read Proverbs 30:7-9. What do you think of this prayer? Rephrase 8 and 9 using another subject other than money.
7. How can you stop money becoming a god in your life?
8. Think of some practical ways in which you can avoid getting into debt. Make a list.
9. Jennifer would love to give generously to the Lord’s work but she is a single mum with two children and she does not have a permanent job. She barely has enough to make ends meet as it is. In the light of the principles from Proverbs we have considered over the last two weeks, what should she do?
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