Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

When you haven't any coal in the stove and you freeze in the winter

And you curse to the wind at your fate.

When you haven't any shoes on your feet and your coat's thin as paper

And you look thirty pounds underweight,

When you go to get a word of advice from the fat little pastor,

he will tell you to love evermore.

But when hunger comes to rap, rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat, at the window

See how love flies out the door.

For money makes the world go around, the world go around,

the world go around.

Money makes the world go around,

the clinking, clanking sound

of Money, money, money, money,

Money, money, money, money,

Get a little, get a little,

Money, money, money, money,

Mark, a yen, a buck or a pound,

That clinking, clanking clunking sound

is all that makes the world go round,

It makes the world go round.

While many of us might say we disagree with that sentiment, I think we also have to admit that money really does drive the world system in which we live.

Have a war and the world yawns; have an economic crisis like we’re in now and the world snaps to attention.

In fact, the thing that has most stuck me about this current crisis is how unimportant countries are becoming.

The U.S. is actively engaging foreign countries and reacting to their crisis with legislation.

A Congress which you and I could petition and get no action, can’t seem to act fast enough in response to other countries.

Why is that?

Because money makes the world go around.

It is, indeed, a powerful thing.

And there have been many reactions to its power.

It was Karl Marx, the father of Communism who said that the power of money must be destroyed.

He railed against money as the corrupter of life when he said:

. . .

what I am and am capable of is by no means determined by my individuality.

I am ugly, but I can buy for myself the most beautiful of women.

Therefore I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness — its deterrent power — is nullified by money.

I, according to my individual characteristics, am lame, but money furnishes me with twenty-four feet.

Therefore I am not lame.

I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor.

Money is the supreme good, therefore its possessor is good.

Money, besides, saves me the trouble of being dishonest: I am therefore presumed honest.

I am brainless, but money is the real brain of all things and how then should its possessor be brainless?

Besides, he can buy clever people for himself, and is he who has a power over the clever not more clever than the clever?

Do not I, who thanks to money am capable of all that the human heart longs for, possess all human capacities?

Does not my money, therefore, transform all my incapacities into their contrary?

He went on to quote Shakespeare, calling money, the “visible divinity”.

And in order for there to be true equality, then, he promoted the destruction of individual wealth.

His attitude towards the power of money?

DESTROY IT!

As we’ve already said, our culture takes the opposite approach.

We don’t want to destroy the power of money, we worship it.

Mark Twain said, “Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God, and over these ideals they dispute, but they all worship money.”

Jesus comes against both of these extremes.

Jesus doesn’t tell us to destroy the power of money, and He certainly warns us against worshiping it.

He, instead, tells us that we can leverage the power of wealth for His Kingdom.

In other words, we don’t worship money and we don’t seek to destroy its power, we use it’s power for his kingdom.

NEED

Now, I’m aware when I begin talking about money, some of us immediately feel guilty.

You see there are a few of you here this morning that are doing ok.

Well, let’s just be honest: If you moved to New York or San Francisco, you would not be considered wealthy, but here in Wilson, NC, you’re pretty well off.

You’re here this morning, so you probably know Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You know you’re saved and you have money, and sometimes you feel guilty that God has blessed you so much and there are so many people around you who have so little.

I want you to listen to this message today.

God wants you to enjoy the blessings that He has given you, and I want to show you how to do that without feeling guilty.

Yes, when it comes to money, there are some who have it, and feel guilty, but there are some of you who chase it, and are frustrated.

You’ve schemed and worked, scrimped and saved, yet the saving’s account keeps bumping back to zero and the debt keeps piling.

God has a way for you not only to stop being frustrated, but truly enjoy what you have.

Listen this morning.

Well, some of us have it and feel guilty, some of us chase it and get frustrated, and there are some who need it and feel angry.

The truth is you are bitter at God because He just seems to be absolutely oblivious to you and your need.

You’ve prayed and prayed; you’ve got other people to pray.

You’re like a guy I talked to recently that said, “I pray about my finances, and nothing seems to change.

What’s the point?”

Listen, God may want to show you something going on in your heart that He wants to fix.

In every case, whether guilty, frustrated, or angry, God wants to show you how to leverage your financial situation for His glory.

So how does He tell us to do it?

Read 1 Tim 6:17-19

Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

From this passage, here are three financial steps you and I can take to leverage our wealth for the glory of God.

If we want to leverage wealth, we must:

DIV 1: AVOID THE CRASHES

EXPLANATION: Pride

There are some pitfalls, some “crashes”, if you will, that this passage talks.

The first one begins v 17. Paul says, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be “haughty.”

Wealth lends itself to pride, very often.

If you have money you are tempted to think that financial value equates to intrinsic worth.

Simply put, you may think that you are better than those who have less.

Now you wouldn’t say it that way exactly, but in your heart of hearts you might think something like this: “Hey, if they had just had the gumption to go to college and apply themselves like I did, maybe they could get a good job.”

Or you might say, “I could have taken an hourly job and played it safe, but I took the risk of starting my own business.

I have more because I worked harder, I risked more, I’m a little smarter and a lot more ambitious.

I have more money because I’m just a little bit better.”

That’s exactly why Paul warns those who have wealth not to be haughty.

ILLUSTRATION

Napoleon is portrayed by the artists he commissioned to memorialize him as a strutting little man, standing defiantly with his right hand pushed between his vest buttons or as a hero astride a fiery steed, pointing the way for his troops to cross the Alps.

His bicorn hat made him instantly recognizable and imitated at costume parties through the years.

He was proud, a man driven by ambition to conquer Europe.

On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon was describing to his commanding officer his strategy for that day’s campaign.

He said, “We’ll put the infantry here, the cavalry over there, and the artillery in that spot.

At the end of the day, England will be at the feet of France, and Wellington will be the prisoner of Napoleon.”

The commanding officer responded, “But we must not forget that man proposes and God disposes.”