Money, Money, Money

"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." Ecclesiastes 4:10

I am sure you have heard the saying, "The love of money is the root of all evil." We always put the emphasis on the LOVE of money being the root of all evil. Of course, money in and of itself is not evil, right? Just the LOVE of it. That is true to a point. After all, money is just paper or value and without human beings misusing it, it cannot be sin in and of itself. No “thing” is sin. Just the abuse of it. Well, I'd like us to back up a little and be careful how quickly we can think we don't love money. We do more than we want to admit. More obviously we love the things that money can buy. Not just the shopping stuff, but the power, influence, feelings and appearances that money makes possible.

In this world today I am confident of this. Hunger, war, poverty, sickness, all continue because of the LOVE of money. Greed, avarice and politics are vicious cycles of consumption that destroy the very possibility of eradicating those things that hurt human beings the most. We must be on constant alert to the pitfalls of loving things, or stuff, or money, or what it buys. This is such a soft and tender issue with people. Let me draw an example. If you talk about my wife in a disparaging way, look out...... because I love my wife and I will get downright defensive on her behalf. Same way about Grace Harbor Church and School. As a matter of fact, when my wife or the Church or School has been attacked, especially mercilessly, I love and protect them all the more.

Isn't it funny that money is the one other thing that we can become so defensive about? It is MY wife, MY church and school.... and it is MY money. We have the same feelings about our cars. MY car. The latest item on the 'better not cross me list' is MY phone. When I don't have MY phone..... look out! Or, when MY car doesn't work..... better stand back. I would have an incredibly desperate time not having MY wife or MY church and school. Then, not that far down the list comes some stuff and things that I am embarrassed to admit how important to me.

See, at the top of the list really is MY Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then, MY wife and family, then a space and MY church and school and then bigger space and MY other stuff. Think hard now about how MY money has so much to do with things farther down on the list, but my feelings are stronger. I know that providing for our families and personal safety and being able to help and other things are definitely attached to needing money. But, I do believe we are too attached to our money. Now let's read the verse again. "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless."

Solomon, who writes these verses, knows of what he speaks. Richest man in the world and because he is wise, he knows his riches are meaningless. We don't read in Ecclesiastes very often. It is hugely convicting and very indicting of what our core issues are. Think about it. Money really is a wonderfully terrible and terribly wonderful thing. When we love money we can tend to use people and love things. We should love people and use things. If you are hugely dissatisfied and think if you had money you wouldn't be, be careful that you don't fall into the trap of loving money; it can be the root of all evil.

With His blessings,
Pastor Fred

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