The Love of Money

John D. Rockefeller, the business magnate and oil tycoon who started Standard Oil, once remarked, Do you know the only thing in life that gives me pleasure? It is watching my dividends come in. That's what the old boy said. Modern day billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett would agree with that statement because money is their god.

But listen to me, friends. The only dividends you collect in hell are the flames around your ears. My Bible states that the love of money is the root of all evil.

And my message today is entitled, The Love of Money. And I fear that there are a good many individuals out there who belong to churches and serve their church in some capacity and dutifully tithe to it on a regular basis, but who, if it came to choosing sides, either Christ or their wealth, would choose the latter and not the former and be like the rich young ruler who held on to his investment portfolio and walked away from Jesus. Vance Havner said of the rich young ruler, The rich young ruler was a good boy, but he wasn't God's boy.

And that's true, friends. We tend to foolishly believe that our money belongs to us, so we often hoard it for a future day rather than giving support presently to the spread of the gospel and then trusting God for tomorrow. My good friend, the late Bill McDonald, who wrote the classic work, Believer's Bible Commentary, always told me that money should never be frozen, but always be in motion, going to where the need was for the support of God's people and the advancement of his kingdom.

William McDonald's desk in his apartment in California was an old wooden door taken off the hinges and placed atop two chairs. That's what he wrote his books on that blessed so many. He wrote and published over 80 books.

And it was Bill who influenced me never to take any royalties off my books, but to use those funds only for printing Bibles and the support of missions. Turn in your Bibles, friends, to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 6. We will be in verses 19 through 21. And let me read you the words of Jesus as they pertain to our subject today.

And it is my prayer that if your life is out of step with God's will in regard to money, that you will come under deep conviction from this message and by God's good grace realign your life so that you live to advance the kingdom of God in your generation. May the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of his holy word. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and dust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Oh, friends, if we could only get a better view of eternity, how it would alter our lives here.

I used to have a business partner many years ago. And one day while the two of us were having lunch at his country club, he told me what he wanted on his tombstone. He said he wanted the words a win, win, win.

Because the only thing that mattered in life was how much money you ended up with at the finish line. I drove home that day with my heart heavy and under conviction of sin. And I walked in the door and I told my wife what my business partner had said that he wanted on his tombstone, win, win, win.

And then I replied to my wife, do you know what I want on my gravestone when I die? Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Money used to be one of my gods.

I used to love to make a lot of money. There's nothing wrong with making a lot of money, friends. But you're dead wrong if your goal is to hoard it and only give God part of it.

Jesus did not give part of himself on Calvary. Rather, he gave us all. How can we only piecemeal back to him what we want and when we are good and ready? Jesus had to teach me to live on nothing, to have nothing, and to be nothing.

For I can say with the Apostle Paul, I have suffered the loss of all things that I may win Christ. I'm thinking of a Christian man right now who's been long in glory, who when he was alive, he set up a trust and put one million dollars in it and lived off the interest for both his life and his wife's life. They both lived into their late 90s and then died.

He had a will that left that million dollars to ten ministries that he was fond of. The trouble was, by the time this man died, more than half the ministries on his donation list were out of business for they had to close their doors for lack of support. That taught me a big lesson, friends, because it made me wonder, had this wealthy Christian given his money to support these ministries when he was alive, would they not still be around when he died? But we want the use of what we consider to be our money now and give to God when we decide rather than when he directs.

God had to change my view on how I viewed money so I could better understand how he moves through his people to accomplish his purposes, offer his glory. Let me ask you, friend, where is your treasure? Is it in your stock portfolio or your pile of gold coins? Or do you use the means God has given you to advance his kingdom by the spread of his gospel? When our lives are over, and we die, and leave behind all the material things we struggled so hard to get, and enter eternity, and go to the judgment seat of Christ, and our life is reviewed by the one who has eyes of fire, and all our works are put into the fire for testing and review, will what remains be the gold and silver and precious jewels that reflect how we live for Christ in eternity? Or will we stand there with regret, knee-deep in the ashes of a wasted life? Listen, friend, there are still 1,800 languages that need the Bible translated in their native tongue. There are missionaries on the foreign field right now that need support to further spread the gospel.

There are people you pass on the street each day that need to have a gospel track placed in their hand to read about the one who came down here so we can go up there. Jesus did not build big institutions, but he did build individuals to reach the lost and perishing. There is a great need for Bibles in lands like Russia and in China today.

Let's spend less on indulging ourselves and spend more for God and his gospel. Only one life, it will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.

And as I lay dying, how good it shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. Let us pray.