How to be Wise with Your Wealth

Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

Money. We all need it, but how are we to think of it, how are we to use it? The last several weeks, I’ve been preaching a series of sermons on how to be, or develop a faith that works. Today it’s how to be wise with your wealth. There are some preliminaries I’d like to talk about. First as we talk about this and hear what James has to say, we need to see that everyone in this room, comparatively speaking, is wealthy. If you don’t believe me, just take a trip sometime. Any capital of South America will do, or Africa. Just get out of the town into the shanty areas and just take a walk and you will see that if you have more than one change of clothing, you are wealthy. Or if you have anything other than a cardboard box over your head, you’re wealthy. I’m not saying this to make us feel guilty. It’s my belief that God is not opposed to wealth, in fact if you look in the Bible, many people were wealthy. Abraham was one of the wealthiest men of his time, he had kings come and talk to him. David and Solomon were obviously wealthy men. Barnabas, Paul’s companion was a wealthy man. Joseph of Aramathea, the man who gave Jesus his tomb was extremely wealthy. Poverty is not a virtue. At the same time, money, wealth, things, can be very dangerous spiritually speaking. Jesus talks about money and investing more than most any subject does. We see it throughout the bible.

The famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon said years ago, “It is a very serious thing to grow rich – of all the temptations to which God’s children are exposed – it is the worst, because it is the one that we do not dread, therefore it is the more subtle temptation. Where one person has been ruined by diversity, ten have been destroyed by prosperity.” Perhaps that’s why Andrew Carnegie said a long time ago, “Millionaires seldom smile.” 

So, we will look in James at money, and as we do I want you to remember a couple of things. James was very practical, and you remember when we first began this series, he said “Consider it joy when you receive various trials”. Throughout the book, you see the various trials that God allows us to have, and maybe one of the most serious trials that we have is how to deal with our finances. James is also very direct. He’s one of the most direct writers in the Scriptures. Sometimes what he says almost bowls us over. In this case, I think he’s being more direct than most times. Let us listen to the Word of God as it comes to us from the book of James:

Now listen, you rich people. Weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded; their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages the fail to pay the workmen who mow your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing you. Be patient then brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against each other brothers, or you will be judged. The judge is standing at the door.  

This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Let us pray:

Father, we come before you and ask that even as we hear the challenges that come from James, we would also be encouraged. Encouraged to seek you as we use whatever we have, especially our lives, for you. Be with us now as we hear the word Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Well, I know it’s a dangerous thing to talk about money. My experience as a pastor, the wallet is the last thing that people want to give up. We kind of resent it when people talk to us about money. I’m reminded of the Scotsman who was insulted by the daily newspaper which tends to tell stories about Scotsmen who were misers all the time. He wrote them to them and said, “If you don’t stop telling Scotsmen stories about how we’re misers, I’m going to stop borrowing the paper.”  Of course, Scotsmen take a lot of brunt for that kind of thing – they are kind of the Jack Bennys of history.  But all of us have trouble with our money.

Today I want to talk about some things that James says about what we shouldn’t do and then turn and talk about what we should do.  Now, what I will say today is not the be all and end all of everything about money, but there are some things I hope you will find helpful – that I have found helpful.

The first thing we should not do is have accumulation for accumulation’s sake.  That is, we shouldn’t hoard our wealth.  James is not saying that we shouldn’t save…saving is a good thing, as we will see a little more later.  But money is a dangerous thing.  Even as we save it, we are tempted to pack it away.  One of the first billionaires in America was a man named Bernard Berouch, in the Depression.  He had millions upon millions of dollars and a reporter asked him one day, “Mr. Berouch, you have all this money.  When will you have enough?  How much will be enough?”  Mr. Berouch said, “Just a little bit more.” 

Another story about a man who had a lot of money and he overheard a woman say, “If only I had $100, I would be satisfied.”  The man thought, “Okay, I can handle that.”  He took out a one hundred dollar bill and handed it to her.  He heard her mumble as she walked away, “If only I had said $200.”  It is never enough, and that is the problem…it is never enough.

Jesus tells a story in Luke which is rather chilling, in a way.  It is about a man who has bumper crop…a big harvest, and he wonders what he should do with it.  He decides that he will build bigger barns so he will have enough for years to come.  The parable goes like this, “That very night God came to this man and said, fool.  This very night your life is required of you.”  This man had a couple of assumptions which proved to be disastrous.  One is, that his life was his.  The other was that his stuff was his to do with as he wished.  Now, we may act like that and we may live like that, but sooner or later, our lives will be required of us.  We all know we can’t take it with us.  You see, having savings is okay but hoarding is not…what is the difference?  How do you tell the different between the two?  The difference is rather subtle, I think.  But you can tell the difference between the two by asking yourself a simple question. 

It is not by accident that James talks about the last days, how the judge is going to stand at the door.  As Christians, we are going to heaven and that is great.  It is by grace that you have been saved through faith.  But the other side of that, is that all of us….all of us….will stand before the Lord and give account for how we used our lives and what we did.  All of us will stand before the Lord and answer some tough questions….. “What did you do with all that stuff I gave you?”

That is where it becomes crystal clear about saving and hording.  If we had to say to the Lord, “I took all the stuff you gave me and built it up and made it bigger and bigger….” But you didn’t use it.  You see, God doesn’t want us to hoard.  He has made us to be operative in this world…us and our stuff.  He has made us to invest ourselves into this world…us and our material stuff.  If we just hoard it and keep it for some sense of security, we are not really trusting God, are we?

I have become convinced that God doesn’t allow us to become really comfortable in the world, because when we are, we don’t have to worry about him, do we?  We have that sense of security.  But when we are insecure, then we go, “Lord, help.”  Don’t hoard it.

The second thing we should not do is misappropriate our wealth…simply, don’t steal.  The context for James was that often in that culture, people would be day laborers and they would go to a place and a man would come and say “Work with me today.”  It happened all the time in Houston where there was a gas station you could go to and every morning there would be lots of Hispanic folks there looking for work.  If you had a job that you needed done, you could negotiate a price with one or two workers, take them to the job, feed them lunch and then return them to the gas station.  That kind of existence is okay, but you could have easily cheated.  In Jesus’ time that was what happened.  People would often go work for someone and then the person would say, “You didn’t do a good enough job.” or, “I’m not going to pay you.”  That is what James is condemning…they were stealing from these people.

Now, we may say that we don’t have that kind of a situation, but it is easy to steal.  You can steal by lying about your age at the movie theater….you can steal by making a bad business deal or being corrupt in what you do…by not being honest.  You know, I am not one of those people who condemn big business…in all of the movies, the enemy is the big business, but it is easy to cheat in business. 

I remember it well; I was visiting a woman in Tennessee.  She had a wonderful house that sat up on a hill.  As you looked down into the valley, it overlooked Interstate 40, a major interchange in East Tennessee.  I began to ask her about the history, who owned the land as they must be rich by now.  She told me that a widow had owned it and real estate developer who had made friend with her.  When it came time to sell she wanted him to buy it and he bought it from her at a hundredth of what it was worth.  I looked at he woman in shock and surprise and she said, “Now Chris, don’t you condemn that, that’s just business.”  I replied, “It’s business, but it is business from the pit of hell.”  It is okay to make a profit, but this guy stole this property from this woman.  It is easy to steal.

Third is, misallocation.  I think, because we are wealthy, we have this attitude that we can have whatever we want – right now.  It’s easy isn’t it…how many credit card applications do you get a week?  I don’t know about you, but I have to shred at least twenty-five and some of them are for my children.  It is so easy to get credit.  I remember the day when Sears would not give me credit…that was twenty-five years ago…now you have to fight them off with a stick.  It is easy.  I think it is okay to have nice things, it really is…but after we have taken care of our obligations.  Obligations to God, for one.  Obligations to our family; to our community.

Fourth is in misapplication of wealth.  I find it interesting that Hollywood stars are often asked their opinions about things, like the war in Iraq, for instance.  Some of these people are smart people just like anybody else, but some of the folks that are asked for opinions…well, the lights are on but nobody is home.  They are just beautiful people.  They make a living because they are beautiful, but there is just nothing there…what do they know?  Well, they are wealthy and they are famous…that is the way the world works.  If you have stuff, you have influence I guess.  There is nothing wrong with that.  James uses an example of influence…he is condemning the folks back then, in those days you could put someone in prison if they didn’t pay their debt…James says, “You have misused the powerless people because of your influence and your wealth.”  God wants us to use our influence as well, for His work.  It is okay to have influence but we need to use it well.

So, what are we supposed to do?  What is the right way to use it?  Going backwards, we go back to accumulation…right accumulation.  That is simply, savings.  If you read the Book of Proverbs, a very practical book, you find all kinds of references for the wisdom of saving money in the right way.  There is a difference if you are saving for something but your security is in the Lord.  There are a lot of reasons for saving well…for education, for something we want to have later, or for other reasons.  Particularly, we save money not simply for security as the world sees it.  I think that is really what happens; we don’t know what the future is but we want to feel secure…really, a part from the Lord.

But we need to save for many practical reasons.  One is that it helps impulse buying.  If you have the discipline to save, when you go out say, ‘I’d like to have that…but I don’t have it because I am putting money away…maybe I need to save for it.’  Or, to help others.  It is really wonderful to have a little money put away and if a need rises up to be able to write a check for that.  I have seen that happen in so many places I have been.  In some churches I have been in, there have been folks in the church who are hurting and someone else in the church has been able to help them by giving them a low interest or no interest loan, or just wrote a check for them.  It happens all the time. If someone has a need or a need arises, in the two years I have been here I have seen it happen time and again and again, someone comes and says they want to take care of that need and they write a check for it…because they have it.  That is part of the reason we do that.  We want money to work for us rather than us work for it.  We need to learn contentment…enough is enough.

The second thing is, right appropriation.  Sometimes we ask ourselves, ‘How much money should we make?’  I don’t think the Bible really says that; it doesn’t say anything about an amount.  What it does say, is that in your pursuit of your living, if it hurts you, for example, it is bad.  There are a lot of workaholics out there, people who work and work in pursuit of something – maybe the brass ring or some kind of security – pursuing something, yet their health gives out whether mentally, physically, or spiritually.  Or does it hurt your family?  Do all of the hours you are putting in hurt your family?  You know, your kids may not tell you straight up that they really want you…they may say they’d really rather have a computer…or something else, but they really want you and your presence.  You have to ask yourself, “Am I balancing my life or am I hurting others…my marriage, my kids?”

What about your spiritual life?  Over my career as a minister I don’t know how many times I have had it said to me, “Sunday is my only day off and I need to have that for myself.”  So they never come to church.  I can understand that, if that is your only day off; but do you really have rest when your relationship with God isn’t there?  Or there is no time to pray or to read the Bible or whatever…they are so focused on work that they don’t think about the other part of their relationship and the balance that God wants us to have. 

Thirdly, we need to have right allocation.  That means, simply, spending wisely.  I know this is going to step on a few toes, but we really need to talk about debt a little bit.  I heard a story about a man in such debt that his friends called him ‘The leaning tower of Visa.’  The number one reason for financial pressure is not that we don’t make enough.  There is story after story of people who make hundreds of thousands of dollars and yet are in debt.  It doesn’t seem to be a one-to-one thing.  It really is how we spend our money.  How do you spell relief?  B-U-D-G-E-T.  I can’t tell you how to budget your money, but if you need help, there is help.  If you need advice, there is advice.  God wants us to have discipline.  I am not saying that you are a big sinner because you may have several credit card debts; we all make mistakes.  But God doesn’t want you to be in debt if you can help it…some cases you can’t.  I am not talking about a house mortgage and those kinds of things, but a lot of people have the mortgage and the cars and then have credit cards.

I do want to offer one practical thing, some of you already know this technique.  If you have, for example, five credit cards, how do you pay all of those things off?  Well, you choose the smallest one and make the commitment that any extra money you have plus the payment will go to paying that debt off.  So if you get a tax return or whatever it happens to be, you put it in there.  When you get that debt paid off in a year or whatever it takes, you take the money you were paying to that debt and put it toward a second debt, doubling the payment. You make the commitment to put it all in there.  Then you attack the third one…the first payment and the second payment goes toward the third debt.  It is interesting and it works.  God wants you to be more comfortable that way.  Again, I am not saying you are a big sinner because you are in debt, I am really trying to encourage you.  I think that is what God is trying to do, to encourage all of us to be more disciplined about how we deal with these things.

Last but not least, is right application.  Returning to the idea of influence, God wants us to have influence not only in the world, but in the world for His Kingdom.  We often simply take care of ourselves, but God wants us to have an eternal perspective.  There is an old story about a man who got to Heaven and they showed him around and he saw all the mansions where people were living.  He asked, “Where am I going to live?” and they took him to a little shack.  He said, “Wait a minute, I thought I was supposed to get a mansion.”  They said, “Well, that is the best we could do with what you sent up.”

Jesus talks about treasures in Heaven.  Now the motivation here is not to say, “I’m going to give to the Lord and have the big house when I get to Heaven.”  We really don’t know what we are going to have in Heaven.  Heaven is a real place, but I tend to think of the mansions as symbolic.  I think it is John who says, “No eye has seen, no mind has conceived, what God will give us in Heaven.”  The energy that I am talking about is not self-centered…if I give five bucks here I will have stuff up there.  That is not what we are talking about.  But the energy is that we pay it forward.  I like the movie where the kid is given the assignment to change the world and he does it by doing a good deed and telling the person to do a good deed for someone else.  I like that; there is something Christian about that.  It applies to our money as well.  If we just use it for ourselves we are not acknowledging the fact that God is the owner of ourselves and our stuff.  We are not acknowledging the fact that God says to seek first His kingdom and we will have all those other things as well.  God wants us to have a balance.

That is what I would like to leave with you today.  I am not trying to meddle in your life and I am not trying to be condemning, but I think God wants us to use our resources in a better way.   That is what I would encourage you to do…pray about your finances, your stuff, your lives…and ask God to show you how you can do it better.  I believe that if you do that sincerely, that in a few months you will see your life change for the better in these areas.  That is my hope and that is my prayer.

Let’s pray…

Father, thank you for giving us our lives and all the things that we have.  I pray that you would help us to use them better for your glory and your kingdom, but also for ourselves.  That we may live lives more joyful.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.