Are You Man Enough to be God’s Man?
A Man And His Treasure
In his book, Disciplines of a Godly Man, R. Kent Hughes relates this remarkable true story:
In 1923 a very significant meeting was held at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Attending that famous gathering were nine of the worlds most successful financiers. The president of the largest independent steel company, the president of the largest utility company, the president of the largest gas company, the greatest wheat speculator, the president of the New York Stock Exchange, a member of the President’s Cabinet, the greatest bear on Wall Street, the head of the worlds greatest monopoly, and the president of the Bank of International settlements. A high-powered group if ever there was one! These men were the supreme masters of the financial world!
Twenty-five years later, in 1948, the picture was much different. Charles Schwab had died bankrupt after living on borrowed money for the last five years of his life. Samuel Insull had died a fugitive from justice, penniless in a foreign land. Howard Hopson was insane. Arthur Critten died abroad, insolvent. Richard Whitney had just been released from Sing Sing Federal Prison. Alber Fall was pardoned from prison so he could die at home. Jesse Livermore died a suicide, as had Leon Fraser and Ivar Krueger. All these men, masters of finance, were actually mastered by their wealth![i]
We are in the last two weeks of our discussion of “Have You Got What it Takes To Be God’s Man?” Today we are going to talk about A Man And His Money. There is hardly a more personal and important issue to any of us than money. It affects every part of our lives. It influences how we spend all those hours at work. It has an impact on how we get along with our spouse, and our children. When money is tight, our minds are fixated on devising some way of being relieved of the pressure – some way of scratching together a few more dollars – “What can I sell?” “Can I work more hours, or get a second, or third job?” “What can I do???”
If that describes you, I have good news for you today. God has a way to relieve the pressure. I want us to take a look at a teaching from Jesus about how we can be free from the worry about money, and how a man of God views and handles his possessions. In Matthew 6:19& 20, Jesus said,
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The point Jesus is making in His teaching is exactly the point demonstrated by the story of the nine financial wizards of 1923. All their treasures were laid up on this earth, and when the world had its predictable way with them, not only was their treasure destroyed, they were destroyed along with it!
For followers of Christ, the picture is to be completely different! Our treasure is to be radically different from the rest of the world – and invulnerable to the earth’s destructive power.
On your tables, you will find a half sheet of paper with discussion questions on it. Take the next five minutes around your table to answer the questions and we will talk about them as a group when we resume.
Discussion Questions:
Ø What are some every day examples of “storing up treasures on the earth?” What are some of those “treasures?”
Toys – cars, houses, “things”
Security – 401k, pension, portfolio
Self – looks, body, clothes, power
Ø How do we see those treasures “destroyed?”
Toys break – cars rust, houses burn
Security is fleeting – (Enron, United Airlines, etc.)
Our bodies break down, our clothes fall apart, power is fickle
Ø How can we practically “store up treasures in heaven?” What does that mean?
Invest in eternal things – the lives of other people, helping them physically, materially and spiritually. We invest in eternal things when we serve the Lord in daily life and in the church.
Paul talks about this in I Corinthians chapter 3. He says these words,
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
This is not a question of salvation –that is insured by the foundation – Jesus Christ – the question is – “what are we investing our lives in after we’ve come to Jesus. Each of us will be judged according to the treasure we built with our lives. Are we building up treasures of worldly stuff – wood, hay and straw, that will be burned up - or eternal things, gold, silver, precious jewels that will last for eternity?
Ø Does it surprise you that Jesus instructs us to “send our treasure ahead, and our heart will follow,” instead of “sending our heart, and our treasure will follow”?
It is surprising, but it shouldn’t be. We think, “If my heart is in the right place, I will give the way I’m supposed to.” Jesus says, “Prime the pump! Send your treasure ahead, and your heart will follow – and you will give even more to the Lord as He blesses you. It reflects the truth we looked at in January – Where God said, “Test me in this, bring in your tithes and offerings, and see if I won’t throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you won’t have room for it.” We want the blessing first – God says, “not so fast!”
The way to be free from financial pressure is to put it all in perspective. It’s all gonna’ burn! It will all belong to someone else one day! If we would just decide to get out of the rat race, and get our priorities straight, the pressure would be gone! We’d worry less about money if we could see that we don’t need lots of stuff to have a happy life.
Most people would not claim to be greedy – we just want enough to live comfortably – but it’s that definition of “enough” that gets us into trouble. Some of us lived very comfortably when we were first married and were living on $6.00 an hour, living in a one bedroom apartment, eating macaroni and cheese for dinner three nights a week. But now we think that “enough” is multiple cars, eating out three or four or five times a week, cable TV (in four rooms) with surround sound, wireless internet, air conditioning – the list goes on and on – “That’s not greedy, that’s just enough! – It’s the basics!”
G.K. Chesterton said, "There are two ways to get enough: One is to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less and less."
Back in 1889, a London writer named Jerome K Jerome wrote a little book entitled “Three Men and A Boat (not to mention the dog).” It became a huge hit – it’s the true account of three bored men who decide to take a boat up the river Thames. If you like folksy humor, you’ll love it.
Jerome wrote that they had to make a list of what to take on the trip. He says,
The first list we made out had to be discarded. It was clear that the upper reaches of the Thames would not allow of the navigation of a boat sufficiently large to take the things we had set down as indispensable; so we tore the list up, and looked at one another!
George said:
"You know we are on a wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without."
George comes out really quite sensible at times. You'd be surprised. I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life, generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.
How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha'pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with - oh, heaviest, maddest lumber of all! - the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal's iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!
It is lumber, man - all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment's freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment's rest for dreamy laziness - no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o'er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the sombre-waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget-me-nots.
Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.
You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water. You will have time to think as well as to work. Time to drink in life's sunshine - time to listen to the Æolian music that the wind of God draws from the human heart-strings around us - time to -
I beg your pardon, really. I quite forgot[ii]
Men, it’s time for us to take the lead in our families, and at our church, and put our focus where it should be – on the Kingdom of God. If your family budget doesn’t include support for the Kingdom of God – YOU need to take the lead and correct it. If your schedule does not include time for your primary ministry – to your wife and children – and your primary mission – to reach the lost for Christ – then YOU need to take steps to correct it.
Far too long have we been captured by the glitter of the world, and chased it’s prizes – prizes that are hollow and meaningless, while the things of real value – the eternal souls of our wives, children, friends, neighbors and coworkers have slipped through our fingers. It is time we get our priorities straight.
We do that when we, by an act of our will, put our treasure in heaven, knowing that our hearts will follow.
Ø We do that by investing in the eternal through our regular, disciplined, generous giving of our financial treasure to God.
Ø We do that by valuing time with those we love more than over-time at work.
Ø We do that by learning to live with less, instead of trying to figure out how to pay for more.
Ø We do that by seeing the value of the human soul, and the worthlessness of our toys.
May God grant us the will to store up treasures in heaven, and hearts that will desire the very things He treasures.