FILTHY LUCRE
TITUS 1:7
PART 1
This morning I have brought in a one my coins from my collection. Describe coin. This was the same type of coin as in the story of Jesus being confronted by the Herodians and asked if it is lawful to pay taxes or not. Jesus asks for a coin. Jesus notes who pictures is on the coin and states render to Caesar what is Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is Gods.
In other words pay your taxes, (as we get close to April 15th those words take on a significant meaning to some), and pay God what is due Him, which would be honor praise, worship, your very being.
Now I use that coin and that story to illustrate to you the fact the our Lord Jesus Christ spoke a lot about material possessions, He spoke a lot about money and giving. In fact he taught more to say about our possessions and how we relate to them than he had to say about heaven, hell, or the second coming. So it is an important topic.
There are very few topics that are more sensitive then money. Most of us do not like to talk about it. We don’t normally discuss how much we make, how much we keep, how must much we give. We are just not comfortable with that kind of talk. Some say that it is a personal matter and should not be discussed openly. Some say that to much emphasis is placed on the subject, and in some cases that is true. I know church that place a lot of emphasis on giving and the church budget, I know of pastors where that is all they talk about.
Now you know that I personally do not talk a whole lot about money, and giving and so forth. Because I like many of you find it uncomfortable. Now I did speak on the subject briefly in our sermon on being good stewards about a month or so ago.
One thing I will say is that whenever I do speak on the subject, I know there will be a visitor. This keeps me thinking, "Boy I hope that person does not think that is all I talk about".
We are going to be talking about money not for just one but for two weeks. These messages are not going to be about giving per say, because I believe that it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to give what we give, not a long winding preacher who harps on how much we give or do not give. But these sermons will deal with our attitudes concerning money.
Please turn with me to this morning passage, that would be Titus chapter 1 verse 7. Page 1032 in your pew Bibles. We are continuing our study on the book of Titus. As I stated before one thing that is nice about preaching through a book of the Bible is that you will hit many different subjects. No one can accuse me of preaching "at them" because what ever I preach on is what is next in the text.
Titus 1:7; "For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,"
To refresh your memories, remember that Paul is giving to Titus the qualification of elders, or leaders in the church. He uses the terms elder and bishop interchangeably. They are the local leaders of the church. In our case, that would be the deacons and pastor of the church. Now we have also seen that these qualities are not traits that the leaders must have, but as we have seen in looking at the Scriptures that we qualities that all Christians are to have.
Today we will be looking at that last phrase, "Not greedy for money", or as the KJV of the Bible puts "filthy Lucre" (luc-re). Now Lucre means "monetary gain" or simply making a profit. These phrases come from one Greek word. Which basically means "greedy for profit" will to get money through dishonest gain.
Not being concerned with how one gets money, as long as a profit is made.
What Paul is basically saying is that an elder, and as we shall see all Christians, is not to be a lover money.
As I read this passage and studied it I was reminded of another passage found in scripture and that is 1 Tim. 6:10 a passage we all know, please turn with to 1 Tim 6:10, just a couple of pages back for Titus. Notice what Paul writes there; "For 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 sorrows."
This portion of scripture goes hand in hand with what Paul states in Titus 1:7.
Now as I stated we are all familiar with that particular verse. However many of us hear it misquoted. People like to say, "Money is the root of all evil". However that is incorrect. It is incorrect for the following two reason.
First of all money is "a" root to all kinds of evil, not the one and only. There are many things, in fact just about anything can be a root evil. Money is just one of them, no worst then the others no better. It may be, and obviously is one of the most popular roots to evil but is certainly is not the only one.
Second, it is "a root to all KINDS of evil". Not all evil, but all kinds of evil. We cannot blame the love of money for all the worlds woes, sure it is one of the biggys, as is being power hungry, pride, and so on. But the love of money is not the only source of evil.
So let be sure that if we quote the Word of God, we quote in correctly, not having it say something it does not say.
Now just as he does in Titus 1:7 Paul here warns us about the love of money and some of its dangers. The word of God cautions us about the love money, and a consuming desire for money.
We need to realize that we all desire money. WE have to. That is how we eat, how we have a place to live, how we entertain ourselves, we can even desire money to serve God.
What I am speaking of is a desire for money where that is the most important thing in your life. To the point here you sacrifice you relationship with God, with your family and children. The desire for money that I am speaking of is one where that is the most important thing in your live. What I speaking of is an unhealthy desire for money, an ungodly desire, driven by a love of money.
Some points I wish to make from the Scripture. First of all the desire for money can lead to more evil. That is what our Paul states in 1 Tim 6:10, and because it will lead to more evil that person is disqualified from being a elder in the church.
Notice Paul states that money is not the root of all kinds of evil, but the LOVE of money. And ungodly obsession for money and more money.
I will say right now that you can have a lot of money and not love it. I know some people like that. On the other hand you can have very little money and love it and I know people like that as well. It is not the money that is the problem it is the obsession with it that some people have, both rich people and poor people.
The desire for money will cause people to do evil things, unethical things. In 1 Tim. 6:9 Paul writes, "But 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." The love of money will lead many to fall into temptation.
The desire for money is never satisfied. Those who love money can never have enough no matter how much or how little they have. Listen to the word these words of wisdom found in Ecclesiastes 5:10-11, "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, They increase who eat them; So what profit have the owners Except to see them with their eyes?"
It is not a question of having more and doing more with it. The questions is what do you do with what you have? So many people think in terms of if I just had a little more. For those who love money, just a little more is never satisfying, they need strive for more and more.
The desire for money shows a lack of contentment. Those who love money are never content because there is always more money to be made. Paul writes again in the 6th chapter of 1 Timothy; "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out."
Godliness and contentment go hand in hand. Hebrews 13:5 tells us to "keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you".
Contentment will never come in the form of a large saving account, it will not come from making a six figure a year salary, true contentment comes only from a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. True contentment is knowing that you have been forgiven of your sin the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. God created us to be content, content with a relationship with Him.
We should be content with living for God, serving God. Obeying God. Think about it. The world offers no contentment, only God can fully satisfy us, only God can provide for our physical, emotional, and spiritual need. To search for that anywhere else, be it money or something else, is foolishness and will leave us wanting.
The desire for money will separate us from God, the love of money will drive a wedge between us an our creator. Jesus states in Matthew 6:24 "No one 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."
Mammon is another word for money. Love for money will crowd out God. This fact is seen in scripture. In Joshua chapter 7 Achan brought defeat to the Israel army and death to himself and his family because the of his love for money. In Numbers 22 Balaam attempted to curse God and His people for the love of money. Delilah betrayed her lover Samson for the love of money. In the NT Annias and Sapphira loved money so much they lied to the Holy Spirit of God, bring about their own deaths.
And is was the love money, 30 pieces of silver to be exact, that Judas betrayed his master, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The desire for money, the love of money will drive us from the relationship of God we should have. How many of us are not walking with God the way we should because we have to great a desire for money, because we love money and what it can buy more then we love God.
There are many consequences of money. Loving money leads people to forget about God. The author of Proverbs chapter 30 a man by the name of Agur writes; "Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You, And say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God."
The love of money, whether you are rich or poor can cause to forget God, to disobey God.
Loving money can also cause us to stop trusting in God. One of the dangers of having money is that we can begin to trust in it rather then trust in God. We think that everything is fine because we have money in our saving account for a rainy day. We look to that for security. That is how many Christians live. I know that at times I slip into that mind set myself. But that is not trusting in God. Now I am not saying that we should not have saving accounts or plan for the future, something I want to speak about next week. What I am saying is that we need to be sure that we are not trusting in that, that our faith is not in the money. It is a means that God can us.
I just want to read to you a couple passage from Scripture; Pro. 11:28 "He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like foliage." Also 1 Tim. 6:17 "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 all things to enjoy."
Let us be on guard against trusting in money rather then God.
Loving money will also cause us to rest on an unstable foundation. When your trust is in money are trusting in something that could be here and gone tomorrow. I think of the stock market crash of the 1920’s. People lost everything they owned. They had all their trust in the stocks. While most the money was on just on paper people trusted that, that was were their faith was. And it all just evaporated before their eyes.
Again this is a biblical principle, Proverbs 23:4-5; Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven."
Let our trust be in God. Our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ because unlike money and wealth we can be certain that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Loving money can cause us to be ungrateful. We become thankful to money rather then the one trough whom all blessing flow. In Duet. Chapter 8 we read of God’s provision to the Israelites. God is hesitant about blessing them with abundance. He warns them to beware when they are rich lest they forget where it came from and forget the Lord their God.
We need to thankful to God for all that we have. It matters not whether we have a lot of money or a little we need to thank God for whatever it is we do have. Many do not thank God for the $10 they have in their pockets because God as not give them a million. Well if you are not thankful for the $10, then why should God give you a million.
Loving money can also cause us to rob God. That sounds kind of strange doesn’t it. Robbing God. When we love money to much we will ignore what we know to be true. We may know that God would have us give x amount of money to His work, but we ignore it because we do not want to part with that which we love.
God states in Malachi 3:8, "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ’In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings."
We rob God when we do give what we know in our hearts we should give to God.
The love of money will also cause us to rob others. No I do not mean we will go up to someone and tell them to hand over their money. There are other ways to rob someone. We rob others by not helping them. John writes in 1 John 3:17; "But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?"
To see a brother in need and ignore that need because you love your money more then your brother, is robbing that brother. The love of God is crowded out by the love of money.
A man once asked God how long a million years was to Him. God replied, "It’s just like a single second of your time, my child," So the man asked, "And what about millions dollars?" The Lord replied, "To me, it just like a single penny." SO the man gathered himself up and said, "Well Lord, could I have one our your pennies?" And God said, Sure my child, just a second."
Let me ask you, How much do you love money? Now I know we "like" money. We like what it can buy. We all like to eat. We like to buy things for others and so on. We all like money. But do you love money?
Does your pursue of money interfere with your relationship with God. Does it interfere with your relationship with your family? Is money or how to get more on your mind most of the time? Your you content with what you have now or our you wanting more? Do you feel a sense of comfort because of the money you do have?
If you answered yes to any of those you need to ask yourself very plainly. Do I love money more then God? More then my Family? If you find yourself in that situation you need to go to God in prayer. You need to ask forgiveness, and rearrange your priorities.
Let us realize that the whole issue with money is attitude. The wrong attitude is to love it, to let it be your driving passion. The right attitude is to realize that all money is God’s and since he give us to be stewards of it, some more then others, we should glorify God with all that He has blessed us with.
If you are trusting in money for anything, be it security, peace, whatever. It will fail you in the end. I call on you to trust in Jesus, believe in Him as Lord and Saviour. Turn your live over to the one who will always be there for. Through stock market crashes, through recessions and depressions, Jesus will still be their for you.
Let us all be obedient to the words found in Romans 10:9-8; "But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
LET US PRAY
