Don't Get Caught Up

I Timothy 6:9

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

This past year we have seen great institutions crash and burn because of greed. The original failures speaking historically were Bearings, Morgan Stanley, Lehmann brothers and Co., AIG, Washington Mutual. Individuals like Bernard Madoff who took the money of trusted clients to invest in bogus deals just to make himself rich. Madoff was the manifestation of American greed at its worst. This greed has led us into this financial tail spin we call a recession. Two contrasts of conspicuous consumption come to my mind which show the distance between contentment and greed. I saw a woman who appeared to be a professor at he University of Memphis driving a hybrid, it looked like one of those small battery operated two-seaters. I thought ‘she is content and contributing to the stewardship of the eco-system.’ Then I saw the young manager on the HBO series “Entourage” driving a Huge Hummer on the movie studio parking lot, and I thought, ‘that is played out and wasteful.’ Our greed and obsession with getting rich has gotten us into this recession and only our godliness is going to get us out.

How do we avoid getting caught up in our greed and having a balance toward healthy prosperity?

1. Be Content. Verse Six says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. When we can wake up everyday and thank God for daily bread and share our bread with our neighbor then we have learned the secret of happiness. When God was bringing the children of Israel through the wilderness, he gave them enough food for the day. After that, it spoiled if they tried to keep extra. He covered them with fire by night and a cloud by day. He let them walk through the wilderness without their clothes or their shoes wearing out. While we are going through this wilderness called a recession, we must be content with food and covering until God gets us into the Promised Land, and even when we get there we can’t worship the gods of materialism when we get through.

2. Love God not your money. Verse 10 says, “Money is not evil but the Love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many arrows.” Money is not evil but when we fall in love with it that is when we get in trouble.

3. Don’t flaunt your wealth. Verse 17 says, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly in all things to enjoy.” God is the one who gives us the ability to get wealth. He is not opposed to us being rich, he just wants us to be responsible and charitable when and if we do become rich.

4. What will you do with your money when or if you become rich? Verse 18, says, “let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Dear God, you are the giver of all good things. You have given us the ability to get wealth. Help us as a country to turn back to you and away from our ‘Golden Calves or Bulls’ on Wall Street and turn back to you in true worship. We are blessed to be a blessing and as a result of forsaking the poor we have forsaken you. I thank you for my daily bread and for my prosperity, realizing that anything above food and covering is prosperity. I never want to be caught up in what I have but I do want to be caught up with you. Everything you bless me with help me in turn to bless others. Thank you, Lord, for taking care of us and bringing us through this wilderness called recession. When we get through help us to remember you and your poor.

In Jesus Name,
Amen.