Greetings to you, dear listeners, today we will talk about the love of money. The love of money is a very important factor both in the life of people in general and in the life of the children of God, therefore the Word of God pays much attention to this issue. The love of money is found in the Bible 5 times: Luke 16:14; 1 Tim. 3.3; 1 Tim. 6.10; 2 Timothy 3.2 and Hebrews 13.5.
But for the starting verse for our consideration of our question, we take Hebrews 13: 5: “ Have an unmerciful disposition, content with what you have. For he himself said: I will not leave you, and I will not leave you . “Why in this verse does the Holy Spirit not only advise or asks not to be covetous, but commands the children of God to have an unmerciful disposition? He speaks in an imperative manner: ” have “! Why? We find the answer in 1 Timothy 6: 10: ” for the love of money is the root of all evils, which, having surrendered, some have deviated from the faith and have subjected themselves to many sorrows . ”
Dear listeners of the Internet, what the Holy Spirit wants to tell you today on this issue has much deeper roots and meaning than you think.
So that the Holy Spirit can work in our hearts in this very direction, let us turn to 2 Chronicles 16: 9: “ for the eyes of the Lord survey the whole earth in order to support those [whose] hearts are completely devoted to Him ”.
The Lord Jesus looked for people in the Old Testament among His people – Israel. And today He is looking for such children of God (among the people of the world, in one way or another, there are none who would be devoted to the Lord with all their hearts), whose hearts are completely devoted to Him.
Those who seek His will and strive to think as He thinks; who seek to fulfill His commandments in which His will is expressed. So that you can understand why I said “keep His commandments,” I should note that many of the New Testament messages are written in the form of a commandment, in the form of commandments, as in Hebrews 13.5.
I will also cite such a passage in the Bible that we need for the topic under consideration and which is written in the form of a command, Phil. 2: 5: ” For the same feelings (thoughts) must be in you , which are in Christ Jesus .”
The Holy Spirit does not say: “desirable” or “it would be good”, but speaks in an imperative form: “ you must be in you! “.
Secondly, I must remark about this verse that in the original in this verse we have not the word “feeling”, but the word “thinking.” Therefore, this verse looks like this: ” Let there be in you the thinking that was in Christ Jesus .”
In the Word of God we find a lot of places in which we see how the Lord Jesus thought, and that all His thoughts are aimed at saving people for eternity, in order to have communion with them. It is those His thoughts that relate directly to His actions to achieve the plan of salvation of people that stand in the foreground.
We read about them further in verses 6-11: “ He, being the image of God, did not consider it a robbery to be equal to God; but he humbled himself, taking on the form of a slave, becoming like men and in appearance becoming like a man; He humbled Himself, being obedient even to death, and the death of the cross.
Therefore, God also exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name, so that every knee of heavenly, earthly and hells may bow before the name of Jesus, and every tongue will confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father . ”
All of these actions of Jesus were necessary in order to create the foundation for the salvation of lost sinners. All of God’s children know that Jesus wants all people to be saved. This is His holy will! Therefore, He shows such concern, love and longsuffering to people. Therefore, He calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and the children of God – sheep.
Have you ever wondered why He calls us sheep? There is a small book called The Good Shepherd. It is by Philip Keller. In this book, he interpreted Psalm 22, and I translated it into Russian and printed 100,000 copies in Ukraine.
Philip Keller started as a simple sheep shepherd and ended up as a doctor in sheep breeding. He had great experience in this profession and proved that sheep are the stupidest animal ! I advise you to get this book and use it as a desktop.
Therefore, the Lord Jesus is forced to show us so much love, longsuffering, indulgence; endlessly through the Word and the Holy Spirit to instruct and teach us how we should lead and think ourselves in the Kingdom of God !!! And although He gave us His Words as a guiding thread in our life, we persistently climb where it is dangerous for.
That is why the Lord also warns us against the love of money .
For the consideration of our topic and for those children of God who are seriously engaged in the study of the Word of God , what is said in Phil 2.5 is extremely important !
In this regard, I ask a very important question: do you know why the Holy Spirit requires us, the children of God, to think (and not feel!) As our Lord thinks? Because we must approach all the messages of Scripture soberly, and feelings are the domain of Satan. Do not be afraid of this message, for you will be convinced of this.
Many children of God, praying, try to squeeze a tear out of themselves in order to show that they are very touched by the grace and love of Jesus and that they love Him mutually. So that no one in the congregation thinks that the prayer is doing it lightly.
I cite a Scripture from which it is clearly evident that our Lord approaches this issue in a completely different way, John 14:21: “ He who has my commandments and keeps them, he loves me ; but he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him and manifest myself to him ” .
From this we see that the Lord Jesus does not require any feelings or emotions from us to prove that we love Him. But He sets a condition: first, to have His commandments! This means intensively studying His Word. And secondly – to keep these commandments! By this we get into the top ten – the target!
The love of the Lord Jesus for His redeemed ones runs throughout the New Testament. This is an undeniable truth! But why does He associate His love for God’s children with keeping His commandments in this verse?
Because this is a special side of His love! It consists in the fact that He reveals the secrets of His Word to diligent, obedient and obedient children of God: “I will appear to him myself ”! Figuratively speaking, it gives them the opportunity to read in the Bible between the lines. Many children of God mistakenly think that Jesus appeared, appears and will appear to them in the form of angels.
It’s a delusion! During the time of grace, Jesus does not appear to anyone! And if one of the children of God has or had such visions, then Satan appears in these visions. And this is possible only if the person who has these visions is occultly burdened.
And now let’s get closer to the question of love of money and ask ourselves the question: first, how does the Lord Jesus think on the issue of love of money; and secondly, what does He expect in this matter from His redeemed ones, so that they find favor in His eyes?
I must immediately and frankly say that many children of God avoid talking about this topic directly, openly, concretely and in a businesslike manner. Why? Because they approach this issue theoretically, but practically do not live according to the principles that the Lord Jesus offers us !!
Therefore, today we will see how it looks in practice. May the Lord bless this sermon in the heart of every child of God who wants to follow the Lord in obedience and prove that he loves Him. With all my heart, I wish everyone to draw the right conclusions for themselves.
I know about many children of God that although they are not millionaires, they consider it necessary “to have a small supply of money for a rainy day.” The Lord does not, of course, forcibly deprive His redeemed of such a “reserve”, but He offers them the following, which is written in the Gospel of Matthew 6: 19-21:
“ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not dig in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will also be . ”
As you can see, this message of Scripture also begins with the command: “ Do not collect! “. Well, how, dear brothers and sisters, will we by no means collect treasures on earth, or will we act as our Savior Jesus Christ, who has prepared untold treasures in heaven for every redeemed one, in the form of a command?
After all, our heavenly Father did not regret the most precious thing that He had and gave from His womb His beloved Son as a sacrifice for our sins and gave us eternal life. “ How can He not give us everything with Him? “.
I ask all the children of God not to speak automatically about this, but to deeply comprehend what it means: to receive eternal life as a gift, for which the Lord Jesus paid with the price of His life;
and what does it mean: to receive in eternity also an unfading inheritance from the heavenly Father !! What is asked for ?! How can we repay the Father and His Son for this? Only by the fact that we will have His commandments and fulfill them !!!
When the Soviet Union still existed and Satan diligently guarded its borders from the spiritual influence of the West, the Lord Jesus miraculously brought me to the homeland of my ancestors in Germany and immediately made me understand what He expects from me, how I can serve Him in this situation.
I immediately began zealously with my brother in flesh and spirit to look for ways to send spiritual literature to the Soviet Union. The Lord has shown us many different hidden routes by which we have transported hundreds of tons of spiritual literature.
But that was not enough! The Lord saw the spiritual hunger of millions of God’s children in the USSR and in the socialist countries and the absence of spiritual literature there. Therefore, the Lord Jesus opened the borders in the USSR through M. Gorbachov for the legal shipment and transportation of spiritual literature. We immediately seized the opportunity given by the Lord.
Missions “Light in the East”, “Slavic Mission”, “Bridge to the Motherland”, “Free Brothers” and other missions had mountains of printed spiritual literature in their warehouses by this time, because few people used hidden channels, and it was impossible to send them openly.
At my request, some of the missions brought several tons of this literature to my home free of charge. I started to send parcels intensively. I worked 16 hours a day. To begin with, I took the addresses at Friedenstim and at the Slavic Mission.
My money “reserves for a rainy day”, in the amount of 32,000 German marks, instantly melted, as the shipment of a parcel of 2 kg. cost DM 4 !! I quickly stayed at zero! With some brothers, we began to pray and ask the Lord: “If we act according to Your will, then give us the necessary means for this.
And make it clear to us if this business should be continued. If yes, then for this business we need money and literature. ”
When we were still kneeling in prayer, the bell rang in my apartment. I opened the door and one brother came to me with the joyful news that he had brought me 1000 Bibles to send from that brother, with whom we had secretly sent spiritual literature to socialist countries.
But I developed the shipping business so much that those 1000 Bibles were a drop in the ocean for me. The Lord saw my disposition in this matter and a desire to help the children of God in the East, so he excited the heart of one believer (I still do not know him or her) to donate 130,000 German marks to me at once !!
For 2.5 years, with the partial help of some of God’s children, I sent 23,000 parcels weighing an average of 2 kg. And he spent more than one million marks on this, because the missions’ supplies of literature were depleted and they began to take money: 15 each. stamps for 1 kg. (15,000 marks per 1 ton!) The shipment went mainly to Ukraine and Moldova: where there were more children of God who prayed for it.
At the same time, I was constantly left without a reserve of money!
This is what I wanted to say that the Lord can only help us to successfully fulfill his task, no matter how important it may be, if we completely trust Him, if we do not make ourselves financial “reserves for a rainy day” on which we relied would.
Our heart should be constantly where our merciful and loving Lord has prepared wonderful dwellings for us, and where we will be rewarded for our work on earth. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is concerned that you, dear listener, do not sit idly by, but work in the place that He has assigned you, and conscientiously do what He has entrusted to you. And what exactly He has entrusted you, you must find out from Him yourself
All children of God should conscientiously and diligently study the Word of God. And if you sincerely and with all your heart wish to serve the Lord with good deeds, then you must persistently seek from Him an answer: where, dear Lord, do you want to see me at the service?
Although we are not saved by works, but good works were prepared for the children of God by the heavenly Father even before the foundation of the world, Eph 2: 10: ” For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has ordained for us to fulfill . ”
You see, dear hearers, even before the foundation of the world, the heavenly Father saw you, each of you. And I have prepared a good deed for each of you to do it. Jesus Christ is the author of these good works.
He showed us in practice what these good deeds are. If you thank the Heavenly Father for giving you eternal life, then that is good! But it is even better if you find out from Him what good deeds He has prepared for you. On this we will finish today, we will continue next time.
