Loving Money
We are to be aware of the power of money
in causing us to rationalize sinful decisions
and to deceive ourselves regarding the ultimate results.
Judas is a classic example of a man
who violated this Principle.
And it impacted his life in a horrible way.
You know the story.
Everybody who knows anything about
Christianity knows about Judas.
He's a very well-known personality.
Even though people know very little
about the Bible, they know about Judas.
Actual plays and dramas and operas
have been done about Judas Iscariot.
He literally turned against Jesus and turned Him
in to his enemies for 30 pieces of silver.
The price of a slave. It was horrible.
Now when I think about Judas--
and I think about the whole situation.
And you try to put it in context.
I'm not sure that he believed that Jesus
would literally be taken and crucified.
After all, he watched Jesus avoid
serious attacks on His life.
He was in Jerusalem when they tried to stone Jesus.
And he was there when Jesus
simply disappeared and walked through
and walked away.
He had seen Jesus escape death.
So he knew that He was an unusual person.
That He had power. He saw that.
He saw Jesus heal people.
He had plenty of evidence that Jesus
had these supernatural powers.
And he also knew that Jesus lived a perfect life.
I mean, how could people put to death
a person who lived such a perfect life?
And all of this may have been in his mind
as he was rationalizing what happened.
He knew Jesus was innocent.
So how could He be condemned?
I'm going to make the most of this for myself.
And take advantage of this opportunity.
That's what I think he was thinking.
But when it actually happened--
that is when Jesus was actually crucified--
the reality set in.
And he was absolutely filled with incredible grief.
If he had been just a hard-hearted guy,
I don't think he would have been filled with that grief.
I don't think he thought that Jesus
would ever be crucified. That's my personal opinion.
But notice his deep, deep regrets:
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that
Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse,
and returned the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders. ...
That's ironic, isn't it?
He took those thirty pieces of silver
and he returned them.
And imagine how he felt when they rejected it.
And he said:
..."I have sinned by betraying
innocent blood," he said. ...
You see, he knew Jesus was innocent
even when he betrayed Him.
..."What's that to us?" they said.
"See to it yourself!"
So he threw the silver into the temple and departed.
[And then] he went out and hanged himself.
One of the most tragic stories in the
whole of the New Testament. Or the whole of the Bible.
And of course the motivating factor
in his life was money.
He'd been stealing from the money bag.
He saw another opportunity.
And he betrayed Jesus for those 30 pieces of silver.
So I think more than any other biblical personality,
Judas illustrates what Paul warned against
when he wrote these words to Timothy:
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...
Now how many times have you heard
people misquote that and say:
Money is the root of all kinds of evil?
That's not what Paul said.
It's the love of money that is the
root of all kinds of evil. Judas loved money.
And notice the evil it led him into.
And notice Paul goes on to say:
...and by craving it...
That is, money, because of selfish motives.
...some have wandered away from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Well, Judas illustrates one of the
greatest and saddest examples of
being pierced with grief.
Which led him to commit suicide.
It's a powerful--it's a powerful illustration.
So the question that comes to me
in Reflection and Response is:
Why is a love for money such a
powerful force in leading both
Christians and non-Christians
to rationalize dishonest behavior?
Now again, money is not the issue.
It's the love of money. And we see that the Bible--
the New Testament--illustrates people
who have lots of money who followed Jesus.
And some who had very little.
The key was how they viewed their wealth.
What they did with their wealth.
What their motivation was with their wealth.
But Paul warns and says: If you have it, be careful.
And by the way, even if you don't have it, be careful.
Because this is what has led
some people to commit horrible crimes.
Is the love of money. Or the lack of it.
And causes them to do some incredible things.
So the question is:
Why is it so powerful?
Well, you see it all over. It happens.
It has happened to people all over the world.
We see it in our culture today.
And we see it among unbelievers.
And unfortunately we see it among believers.
We see church treasurers who have succumbed
to a temptation to steal from the church.
It's happened to pastors.
Which is horribly sad when that happens.
And that's why we really need a system
of accountability and protection.
Even among those of us who are Christians.
And over the years as a pastor,
you know, I just basically have refused
to handle the money.
We look to others that we can trust.
Usually multiple individuals that will
handle the money and make sure that it is
properly handled and accounted for.
And used in a proper way.
Now I could give guidance in how we
do that and how we use it.
But to personally handle it, I think
pastors have to be very careful about that.
Because of the temptations that exist in that.
Tell you a funny story, by the way.
Happened many years ago when one of
our elders was in charge on a Friday night church.
And we had a bag that would lock
after several people handled it.
And everybody had gone. And the bag was locked.
And I don't know why but he said--
some of you remember my dear brother,
Jim Harris who did this. It wasn't his problem.
But he came to me and he said:
Gene, I don't know what to do with the money.
He said: Would you take care of it?
And it was locked.
So to show you how I'd put this kind of thing
out of my mind, I took it home.
And when I got home, I put it in a hall tree.
But the fact is, I forgot I put it in the hall tree.
It was just out of mind. Out of sight.
And we couldn't find it.
And I had to go to the Friday night
congregation and say:
Look, you know, cancel your checks.
We've lost the money. It's gone somewhere.
Well, about six months later I was
rummaging through the hall tree and I found it.
And of course, then that was hilarious.
Because I had to come back and confess to the
whole congregation that I'd found it.
Some of you remember that.
The fact of the matter is we have to be
very, very careful in relationship to money
in all of our lives, regardless of our situation.
So how do we maintain or apply this Principle?
Well, first of all we need to
make a commitment to honesty.
I'm going to be an honest person.
I am not going to violate a code of ethics
that God says very clearly throughout Scripture.
Dishonesty, stealing in any form is wrong.
And some of you have heard me tell this story.
As a pastor I perform weddings.
And I perform funerals.
And the normal thing is that people
usually reward you with an honorarium.
And would you believe that about
ninety percent of the time it's in cash?
Now who's going to discover that I take
those nice hundred dollar bills
and never report it to the IRS?
Virtually nobody's going to discover that.
And yet the IRS says I'm accountable
to pay taxes on that money.
It's very clear in the IRS rules.
I must admit at times I've been tempted.
But my wife has kept me honest.
She's the keeper of the--our accounts and money.
But temptation--of course there's a temptation.
And there are people in our culture today
with cash transactions that violate dishonesty.
Violate our tax codes on a regular basis.
And it's wrong.
We need to make a commitment to honesty.
In whatever we are doing.
A commitment to honesty--very, very important.
I think another commitment is to be generous.
To build a concept of generosity.
Now you have to be careful because I know
some people, who because they're generous,
they rationalize and say:
I'm entitled to cheat the government.
And that's wrong too.
Being generous is not a sign you're going to be honest.
But to me it's a very important reflection.
If your heart is right, I'm going
to be a generous Christian.
And I'm going to give the firstfruits to the Lord.
And that should be a part of our thinking.
But perhaps it's summarized
most beautifully in this way.
When Jesus said in Matthew 6:33.
Remember that? When he said:
Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness, and all these things
will be added to you as well. It's a matter of priority.
Jesus talked about priority.
So let's remember this powerful force
that's illustrated in this Principle:
We're to be aware of the power of money
in causing us to rationalize sinful decisions
and to deceive ourselves regarding the ultimate results.