Some Thoughts on Money

There are a few things that have happened in my life recently that have provoked my topic for today. There was our church’s memory verse for the month of February, Proverbs 14:23 “In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.” Then there was the Imprimas, a free publication from Hillsdale College that wrote on inflation in the United States. And finally there was the increase in fuel prices of over 50 cents per gallon between the time I went to work and drove home later that day.

It is amazing how much the Bible has to say about finances and our relationship to them. In Luke 14:28 there is the account of a man who set out to build a tower but did not properly count the cost and was not able to finish the project. This reminded me of the value of counting the cost in all financial areas of our lives. It is never how much money that we make, but what we do with the money; hence, learn to live on a budget.

Then there is the value of understanding the difference between contentment and covetousness. I Timothy 6:6-7 “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” The chapter goes on to teach several other things such as how temptations and snares bring foolish and hurtful lusts, loving and coveting money will cause you to err from the faith and bring sorrows, and how not to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God.

Hence, Matthew 6:19 teaches us that some things we invest in are only temporal, while other things are eternal and cannot be lost. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…”

Finally, I am reminded that life according to the Bible is one of stewardship and not ownership. I will one day give an account of my life including that of my resources. I would rather hear “well done” than to be considered an “unprofitable servant” by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Mark Englebert
Door Bible Baptist


  

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