MONEY

As we get older we think more about retirement and especially - Why did I not start earlier to get prepared for the time past employment.

Preparing for our life here on earth is not always a bad thing.

Yes we need to trust in God, but is not part of trusting in God, being good stewards of what He has given us?

1. God provided the money for us.

2. Giving back to God needs to be the first thing done with that money.

3. Our treasure needs to be in Heaven.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

4. The LOVE of money is the root of all evil.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

5. After all of the above, the money we get can be spent how we wish.

A. Buying certain items is sinful, thus wrong.

B. Not all purchases are wise.

Matthew 6:24-34 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I want to touch on another part of money for a moment - those who have limited amounts of money.

1. Loving money can still be a problem even if you don’t have it.

2. God has said he will provide. Many times we need to seek out the benefits and blessings He is offering.

3. Yes being poor is no fun. Worrying about being poor does not help and it alienates you from God.

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus

4. Being rich is not always fun either. I have seen what being rich can do: Drinking, drugs, suicide, broken families and general unhappiness. The love of money also alienates you from God.

Luke 18:25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Certainly we see that we are not to worry about our financial future. You cannot serve God and money.

The man who trusts in wealth is always concerned about how to protect it, insure it, make it grow.

He cannot rest from this because of the uncertainty of it all.

A man who trusts in wealth will be serving money and cannot serve God properly.

If we are continually worrying about whether we have enough money to retire, then when will we have time to serve God?

So where is the border between loving, and worrying about, money and planning for retirement.

Planning for retirement should be generally a set and forget it approach.

We should trust God and allow Him to work to provide for us.

Corrections and adjustments to our retirement plan can be made but they should be when things change in life, not on a hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis as is the practice of some.

You have a plan and are working it rather than having the retirement funding control you.

Primarily your treasure is your work for God.

1. This means you MUST be a Christian.

2. This means seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

3. This means use your money for God first, then for the world.

A. Rent/Mortgage, heat, electric, food, etc. are to be paid.

B. We may have other financial commitments.

C. God wants us to be honest and pay our bills but also wants us not to worry about them.

4. Planning is Not necessarily worrying.

5. Money is of the world. It

Matthew 25:14-30 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Making money therefore is NOT wrong.

It is a matter of the heart.

Serve God!

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Another thing to remember is that God has told us that He will sent Jesus back as a thief in the night. Our earthly permanent retirement may be today, tomorrow or later. ONLY GOD KNOWS.

2 Peter 3:10-18 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, being without spot or blemish, and at peace. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.