“Money, Money, Money” – Pt. 2 – Psalm 49:5-6

Swinging pendulum illustration:  hold pendulum up to your nose and let it go.  It will come back but not hit you.

How do you know what to trust?  If somebody on the street that you have never met says you should trust them, should you?  No.  We learned that as little kids and from the government, right?  The only real way to know you can trust something is if it has been proven to be trustworthy.  What if something or someone is trustworthy some of the time?  Are they trustworthy?  If your car starts most of the time, is that ok?  If your spouse is faithful 9 times out of 10, is that faithful?  Can you trust a chair that only falls apart about half the time?

What about something that only lets you down in a crisis or when the pressure is really on?  If you went to buy tires and the salesman told you that these tires are great for around town but don’t go over 55 on them, whatever you do; are you going to buy those tires?  Of course not.  If they can’t be trusted under pressure then they can’t be trusted.

What about money?  Can you trust money?  You can trust it to buy you a gallon of milk down at Bilby’s store.  It may take $7 to do it, but it will do it.  If you have enough money you can usually buy almost anything from somebody.  I even heard the other day about some bored college kid who sold his soul on ebay.  Good luck collecting on that but you can even buy a soul if you want to.

The problem with money is that it is deceiving.  If you have money, it will get you out of trouble every time…until it doesn’t.  If you have money, you can buy your way out of every problem…until you can’t.  Money is great for buying friends (if you don’t care about the quality of friends).  It’s great for buying a good time (if you don’t mind it being over too soon and bringing problems with it).  Money deceives us into thinking that it will always be there.  Money deceives us into thinking we can handle this problem if we just spend some of it.

The problem is that like an old chair, money will let you down and it is usually when the pressure is on and we need it most.  Money deceives us in several ways.  It deceives us into thinking that it will always be there.  It deceives us into thinking that we need just a little bit more of it.  And it deceives us into thinking that we have control over people or things when in reality we have no real control.  And that can be scary or that can be comforting, depending on your outlook.

Let’s look at a passage written by someone whose outlook was correctly focused in Psalm 49.  The psalmist starts off here saying that he wants everyone’s attention, please.  Everybody, short, tall, rich or poor listen up.  I’m about to tell you the truth.  So, let’s read this important message in verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 49.

Why should I fear when evil days come,
    when wicked deceivers surround me—
⁶ those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of their great riches?

This is obviously not so much of a question he needs an answer to.  It is a question that answers itself.  It’s a rhetorical question meant to make the reader understand the deception of wealth.  Let’s look at this closely to see what is meant exactly because I want us to see that this deception is contagious.

The psalmist is saying that evil days have come and wicked deceivers are surrounding him.  And who are the wicked deceivers?  He tells us that the wicked deceivers are those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches.  Why would he say that those people are wicked deceivers?  There are 2 ways that I see.

First they are deceivers because they have been deceived.  They have fallen for the lie that money can buy anything and everything.  And why does it seem like so many people that have money have fallen into that lie?  Because it is a pretty convincing lie.  Satan knows how to use money and he has used it to bring problems at least since Jacob swindled Esau out of his birthright. 

Satan knows how to make it a convincing lie by making money trustworthy some of the time.  Sometimes if you have enough money it will get you out of a jam.  Sometimes if you have enough money it will buy you some pleasure that will last for some time.  Sometimes if you have enough money it will buy you some power over some people.  And because it works sometimes, people are deceived into thinking that it will work all the time.

And so now, not only are the people deceived by money, they start to deceive others.  The psalmist is saying he is surrounded by people who are deceived by money and who are trying to intimidate him with the same deception.  But he is not falling for it.  He says that these wicked people have surrounded him and now evil days have come.  And most people would be afraid but not the psalmist because his outlook, his perception of money, is correctly focused and he sees money as the tool that it is.

*Hold up old sharpshooter shovel*

There is nothing good or bad about money, in and of itself.  It’s just a tool that can be used for good or bad but it will let you down.  Oh, it looks dependable.  It has been dependable in the past.  But it will let you down.  Is it going to come from the handle or the shaft or the blade?  It will let you down and it will usually come when the pressure is on and you want it to help you the most.  Then what are you going to do?

Now, I know that there are not many of us in here this morning that would consider ourselves to be extremely wealthy.  Don’t worry; I am not going to give a long speech about how much wealthier we are as a country than most other countries.  We all know that.  But I also know that because there are no Bill Gates or Ted Turners here this morning that it has been pretty easy for you to agree with what I have been saying.

“Yeah, preach it, pastor.  Mean old rich people deserve it!”  The problem is I’m not just talking to rich people.  Money is deceptive and as I said earlier that deception is contagious.  It can make people who have very little become convinced that they need more and without more money then everything is hopeless.  I have seen people with hardly anything be as happy as they can be and enjoying the full life that God has promised in John 10:10.  But I believe I have seen more poor people be just as miserable as they can be because they didn’t have everything they thought they should have.

They have been deceived by the people who have wealth – people who themselves are deceived – into thinking that the answer to all their problems will come if they can just have enough money to be happy.  I hear people all the time say they don’t want to be wealthy.  They just want to have enough to be content.  But that day will NEVER come, folks!

What’s worse is that it is the same people who say with their mouths that God will take care of them.  “I know that God is in control but…”  There is no “but” at the end of that sentence.  Either He is in control and is aware of your situation or He’s not.  I know that there are some people here that are hurting financially.  I know that jobs are scarce and precious.  I know that our food pantry has been there for lots of us and that’s great.  That’s what it is there for.

But now is the time, my dear family, to believe.  In fact, and I’m going to be blunt here, now is the time to put up or shut up.  Don’t be deceived!  Either believe that God is sovereign or quit saying it.  Don’t bring that deception in here because we know how contagious it is.  There is a misconception about God that if we just have enough faith, then He will pay our bills.  But what happens when our bills don’t get paid.  Your misconception leads to a loss of faith.

 

True faith is what the boys in Daniel 3 had.  When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were about to be burned alive they said we know that God can save us and that He will save us.  But even if He doesn’t…  Even if He doesn’t!  I want that to be our unofficial motto around here.  I know that God can and I know that he will.  But even if He doesn’t! Say it with me.

And what happens if He doesn’t?  What happens if the bills don’t get paid?  What happens if we lose our place to live?  What happens when the doctor brings us bad news?  Still I will praise Him.  Still I will worship Him.  Still I will believe Him.  And why should I praise, worship and believe Him?  Because He has proven Himself to be trustworthy all the time.  From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation and all through our lives, God has never let us down.

He is not a tool that can be counted on most of the time.  He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things so don’t just do something, sit there and let your hands hang down and be still and know that He is God.  And because He is God, He can choose to pay your bills OR…OR…He may know that what you are going through is going to make you more like Him and all you have to do is believe and be obedient and don’t be deceived. 

Of course, no one is going to use that as an excuse to sit on the couch eating bonbons and watching Oprah, waiting for God to pay the cable bill.  1 Timothy 5:8 says, “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”  But once you have done all of what you are supposed to do, let go and let God, as they say.

O.J. Simpson has been in the news again lately.  He has been in jail for some time but in 1978, when he was still playing for the Buffalo Bills, he was quoted as saying, “I sit in my house in Buffalo and sometimes I get so lonely it’s unbelievable.  Life has been so good to me.  I’ve got a great wife, good kids, lots of money, my own health – and I’m lonely and bored…I often wondered why so many rich people commit suicide.  Money sure isn’t a cure-all.”

That’s pathetic on several levels but mainly because O.J. was deceived and he knew it!  He knew he was deceived by money and things but he didn’t know where to turn.  He didn’t know what to believe.  He didn’t know in what to invest his time, talents and treasure.  Nor did he know at that time how much worse it would get.

I want us to look real quickly at what the Bible says about where we are to invest our time, talents and treasure.  I’m not going to spend much time on this but instead of being deceived by resources, let’s see where to invest them.

First, James 1:27 says that we are to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  In other words, we are to take care of those who can’t take care of themselves but also those from whom we will never be repaid.

Secondly, Acts 4:32 teaches that we are to invest in the church.  “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. ³³ With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all ³⁴ that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales ³⁵ and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”

It says that God’s grace was powerfully at work through their sharing.  It’s not how much we give.  It’s the spirit of sharing that unleashes God’s grace.

Next, Listen to Psalm 1:1-3.  Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, ² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  ³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

Instead of being deceived by wealth and all the problems that come with it, this says that those who are in the word and meditating on it are the ones who prosper.

Titus chapter 2 tells us that we are to invest our time…in each other.  It says that the older or more spiritually mature are to teach the less mature.  In verse 12 it tells us to teach these to say “No” to worldly passions; to not be deceived by things of this world.

And just like we are to invest in each other, Matthew 28:18, the Great Commission, tells us to invest in unbelievers.  “¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

And lastly, John 3:21 says, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Live by the truth.  Don’t be deceived by wealth or the lack of wealth.  Live by truth.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  That’s where your investments should be…because He is trustworthy.