TRUE WEALTH: "Making Friends with Money"

Here are the notes from yesterday's message at New Life Community Church.  The message is entitled "Making Friends with Money" and is the second in the series TRUE WEALTH.  If you would like to listen to this message, you may do so by going to our website at www.newlifesite.com.  God bless.

True Wealth, Part 2                                                                            Sunday, February 10, 2013

 “Making Friends with Money”

The blessing of the Lord—it makes [truly] rich, and He adds no sorrow with it   Proverbs 10:22 (Amplified)

Money can be your best friend or it can be your worst enemy.

⁹ “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, Luke 16:9 (NKJV)

¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?  ¹³ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”  Luke 16:10-13 (NKJV)

Why this message is so important:

1.     It is where we LIVE.

2.     It is a TEST from God.

3.     We need to PREPARE.

Mammon promises much but delivers little.

SECURITY

IDENTITY

HAPPINESS

⁹ Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  I Timothy 6:9-10 (NIV)

How to Make Friends with Money

1.     RETURN the first.

⁹ Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.  Proverbs 3:9-10 (NIV)

Ten is a test.

Ten plagues over Egypt

Ten Commandments

Ten times God tested Israel in the wilderness

Ten times Laban changed Jacob’s wages

Ten times God tested Israel in the wilderness

WE FIND OUT WHAT IS IN OUR HEART

Illustration:  Woman who won the lottery

⁹ You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. ¹¹ Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. ¹² “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.  Malachi 3:9-12 (NASB)

²² Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ²³  … so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.  Deuteronomy 14:22-23 (NIV)

2.     STEWARD the rest.

TIME, TALENTS, TREASURES

¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?  Luke 16:10-12 (NIV)

Illustration using three men.

²² “Now consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.  ²³ “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”  Psalm 50:22-23 (NASB)

3.     FOCUS on true riches.

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)

²⁶ whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” ²⁷ Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.  ²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Hebrews 12:26-28 (NKJV)