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Colin Smith: Jesus makes it very clear that money is a master, and it will seek to gain control of your life. It will lure you by offering great benefits, but then it will hide from you its increasing demands. And money is a marvelous servant, but it is a terrible master.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. We’re continuing our series Wisdom for Life. Colin, what a powerful and provocative statement there: Money is a marvelous servant, but a terrible master.

Colin Smith: Yes. All of us have a relationship with money, and the question is: Who's going to be the boss? Is money going to be a master over me? Am I going to be its servant? Or am I going to be a master over money? Is it going to be in the position of the servant? These are really important questions.

The book of Proverbs has a great deal to say to us about our relationship with money. Let me ask you this question: Do you know the harm that money can bring to you? Because Proverbs is very specific about the harm that money can bring to you. You’ve got to know what that is so that you can be on your guard against it.

The other thing that is very clear in the book of Proverbs is that everything that we have and everything that we enjoy is a good gift that comes from the hand of God that He has actually entrusted to us. Everything that we enjoy, and therefore we are stewards of what belongs to Him. The book of Proverbs is wonderful on this subject.

Again, it's so practical, Steve. I have been greatly helped and challenged by the wisdom of the book of Proverbs in regards to the subject of money, and I think that you're going to be helped and challenged by it, too.

Steve Hiller: I hope that you will join us in the book of Proverbs as we take a look at what it has to say about money. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want to make four observations today from the book of Proverbs about money. They boil down to four words. Here is everything you need to know about money from the book of Proverbs in four words: blessing, danger, priority, and opportunity. That's the range of what is covered in this marvelous book of Scripture on this very important and very practical subject.

So let's jump into it together, and we begin first with blessing. The book of Proverbs celebrates the blessing of money as a good and gracious gift from the Lord. Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it." Alongside that statement in the book of Proverbs, we need to put another one that is very similar and stands alongside, and that is Proverbs 10:4, which says, "The slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich."

Put these two together. Solomon is affirming the importance, the value, and the reward of hard work. So on the one hand, he says it is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich. On the other, he says it is the hand of the diligent that makes rich. This reminds us of a very important principle that runs throughout the Bible, and it's this: that God works through means.

The normal means by which He prospers us is through the diligent work of our own hands. But while our own hard work may be the means by which blessing has come, Proverbs is reminding us that God is the source of that blessing that comes through the work of our hands. The blessing of the Lord makes rich. You find this, how God works through means, all over the Bible.

For example, Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers are working in vain." Who is doing the building? The laborers are building the house, yes, but it is the Lord who builds the house. He works through means, and He works through the means of these laborers, but it is God who is building the house.

Notice the wonderful statement that's made here: The blessing of the Lord makes rich. All that we have is a blessing from the Lord, a gift from His hand, and He adds no sorrow to it. It's a great tragedy when someone has a great deal of money and is not able to enjoy it. Sorrow came with it.

It may have come because of guilt as they look back on how they got it, or the sorrow may come because of fear that they have about how and where and when they might lose it. But when you know that what you have really has come as a blessing from God through the work of your hands, then you have the freedom and the peace to enjoy it, and no sorrow is added.

This is a major theme in the book of Proverbs, that Proverbs celebrates the blessing of money as a good and gracious gift from the Lord. So all you have, give thanks to God for it because every good gift comes from His hand. That's the first thing: blessing. Never forget this is a blessing from the Lord.

Second: danger. If money is a blessing, how can it also be a danger? The answer to that, as we all know, is that money is a power. It lures us almost as a rival to God Himself. Remember Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and money." In other words, Jesus makes it very clear that money is a master, and it will seek to gain control of your life.

It will lure you by offering great benefits, but then it will hide from you its increasing demands. And money is a marvelous servant, but it is a terrible master. By the way, here's an encouragement: Never envy someone who has more money than you do. Never. Here's why: Because that person has more responsibilities than you do in this regard.

That person has more temptations than you do in this regard, and that person has more to account to God for than you do in this regard. So never envy someone who has more money than you do because Jesus said, "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required." There's a lot that is required with all that we are given and entrusted from the hand of the Lord.

That is why Proverbs said, "Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it." We must all give an account for what we did with what God has entrusted to us. The more that you have, therefore, the greater your responsibility is in that regard. Therefore, every one of us, whatever we have been entrusted with, whether it be much or whether it be little, we need to be very familiar with the dangers that come with money.

What dangers does money bring? Let me point out three from the book of Proverbs. The first is that money can ruin you. Here are two proverbs on that. First, Proverbs 20:21, "An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end." Or chapter 13, verse 11 is similar: "Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it."

You see that these two proverbs are warning us particularly about the dangers that come especially when money is gained quickly, gained hastily. I remember still with great sadness a man in the church that I pastored in London before we came here who told me with great joy one day that he had been headhunted for a prestigious job in the city of London and he had quadrupled his salary overnight.

I rejoiced with him. It was marvelous, what a blessing. Within a year, he had left his wife and he had abandoned the faith that he had professed. Very simply, as I saw it, the money went to his head and it ruined him, within a year. Parents who have money should observe the teaching of these important proverbs: "An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end."

What would be the effect on your children of landing suddenly a large amount of money as an inheritance on them? Money is a blessing, but it also brings a huge responsibility before God. Those who are wise will think about the capacity of a person to handle the responsibility that comes with it. "Wealth gained hastily"—twice Proverbs warns us about this.

How else does that happen? It can happen through an inheritance. It can happen, of course—this is what the lottery thrives on, isn't it? You drive down the interstate and you see these flashing billboards with multiple millions. When it is won, what will happen? It will drop a massive responsibility on someone who may not be able to handle it well at all.

The same, of course, applies to another way in which in our culture people gain fabulous wealth hastily, and that is through lawsuits. Instead, Proverbs commends to us something different: the great value of money that is saved little by little. Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. So begin to save, and as the money that you save grows, your wisdom to handle it will grow alongside.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Wealth. It's part of a series we’re calling Wisdom for Life, where we're taking a look at the book of Proverbs and pulling out wisdom that we can apply to our lives—today, of course, looking at money.

If you missed any of the programs in the series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, the website is openthebible.org. Or you can order a copy of this entire series, Wisdom for Life, on CD. Ask about that when you call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365, or order online at openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Money can ruin you. We need to take that seriously, and especially if it comes hastily. Second, money can't save you. Proverbs 11:4, "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death." Very simply, the principle here is that money makes us more comfortable in this world.

Because it makes us more comfortable in this world, it therefore distracts us from the plain reality that none of us are going to be here for very long. It is appointed to man once to die, and after that comes the judgment. So Jesus said, "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and then loses his own soul?"

You remember that Jesus told a story about a rich man? He was already rich, and then he got a bumper harvest, so he was going to be even richer. He said, "What shall I do? I don't have place to store my crops. I'll tear down my barns, I will make bigger ones, and I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.'" Wouldn't that be wonderful, by the way, to have ample goods for many years?

But God said to him, "You fool. This night your soul will be required of you." This man had money to enjoy for many years, but he did not have many years to enjoy his money. This is the thing: Money seems so solid. It seems so real. You have a folder with your investment reports—this is real. Eternity, oh, the pastor talks about that and it seems so vague and it seems so distant.

But actually, the reality is exactly the opposite way around. So Proverbs says in chapter 23, verses 4 and 5, "Do not toil to acquire wealth. Don't make that your goal in life. Be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it"—in other words, when that's the thing that you go after—"it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven."

Proverbs is saying to us, remember this: It's actually money that is fleeting. That's the thing that is passing away. Because one of these two things is absolutely certain: Either you will be taken from your money, or your money will be taken from you. So setting your heart on making money is simply the wrong goal.

The only things that are solid and real and lasting in this world are the things that are unseen. So set your heart on things above where Jesus Christ is seated because riches do not profit in the day of wrath. But righteousness, that's what delivers from death. So going after righteousness, that is far wiser than going after riches.

So we’re on the dangers. Money is a great blessing, a gift from the Lord, but it brings with it certain inherent dangers. The danger that it can ruin you, especially if it comes quickly, the reality that it cannot save you, and then here's the third thing: that money has this inherent danger that it will tempt you. It will tempt you.

Proverbs identifies four particular ways in which money will tempt you. The first is it will tempt you to control, this feeling that if you have money, you can use it as a means of control. Look at Proverbs 11:26: "The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it."

What's happening here is very simple. There are people, a community that needs food, and there is a merchant who has grain. God has blessed this farmer with a good crop, but instead of bringing it to the market, he holds it back, and the reason that he holds it back is in order to drive up the price.

The people can't make him sell, of course. There's no law that can compel a man to sell what he owns. So the people are helpless to get this grain that is there onto the market so that they can be fed. Because the man's motive is pure selfishness, he's holding it back to drive up the price, the people curse him. They curse him.

But a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. So here's another farmer, and he also has a bumper crop. He says to himself, "You know, if I held this back off the market, I could get more in the longer run for it, but there's a community that really needs grain right now, and so I will sell it." He figures that into his calculation.

Charles Bridges makes this comment: "To him that subordinates his own interest to the public good, blessings will be upon his head." Remember the cursing came from the people who cursed the one who withheld. But here the blessing is a blessing that comes from God Himself. A blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

Now, you see what this is saying, and it's very important and practical. To only consider your own bottom line and not to give weight for the needs and the good of others, that is to be cursed. But to subordinate your own interest, to consider also the good of others, that will be blessed. Or as our Lord Jesus put it in the Sermon on the Mount, "You do to others as you would have them do to you."

That's the first temptation: it's in regards to control. The second, of course, is the temptation to cheat. Proverbs 20:23, "Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good." Here we are in the marketplace, and a customer comes and wants to buy, let's say, ten pounds of grain.

So the merchant pours this grain into a bucket that's on one side of the scales, and on the other side of the scales he places a weight. On the weight there's a marking that says ten pounds, but it's not ten pounds, it's actually eight pounds. So when the scales balance, the customer gets shortchanged. Proverbs says that unequal weights—that's what's being described here—they are an abomination, strong word, to the Lord.

Of course, there are so many ways in which we are under pressure in this regard in business today. You know what's hidden in the small print, the added costs that are not mentioned in the sale, and so forth. Money will tempt you to cheat. This would be a very good conversation for us in the life groups this week about the particular ways in which that pressure is experienced in our working lives. It comes with the pressure that is upon us in business.

Then thirdly, money may tempt you to credit yourself. "A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man who has understanding will find him out." Notice that Proverbs suggests that being wise in your own eyes is a temptation that particularly comes to who? Answer: to a rich man. This is a temptation that comes with any success.

With any kind of success, the natural temptation that comes in its wake is that you credit that success to yourself. So you become overconfident, and so you lose the ability to listen meaningfully to others. "I know, I can do it, I've proved it." So the Lord says when God's people come into the promised land, beware, because there they’re going to prosper.

Beware when you do, lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth." You shall remember that the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get the wealth.

Steve Hiller: Pastor Colin Smith here on Open the Bible, taking a look at money from the book of Proverbs. We've seen the blessing and the dangers. Next time, we’re going to look at money's priority and the opportunity that it presents. So I hope you'll tune in.

If you ever miss a program, come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. You can stream the program or you can download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org. Another way to listen is through the Open the Bible app. You'll find that for free at your app store, and it's a great way to listen to Pastor Colin's teaching on demand whenever it fits your schedule.

We’re able to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching because of your financial generosity. We really are a listener-supported ministry, and as you give a gift of any amount this month, we'd love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand new 30-day devotional. It's called Grow in Hope, and Colin, why did you write this book?

Colin Smith: Well, Grow in Hope is the second of three books that we are putting out from Open the Bible this year: Grow in Faith, Grow in Hope, and Grow in Love. The reason for all three is that, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians in chapter 13, everything else will pass away. I mean, that's quite a statement, isn't it? Everything else will pass away, but these things will remain: faith, hope, and love.

These are things of supreme importance. I’m absolutely persuaded that our greatest need is to have a stronger faith, to have a more certain hope, and to be renewed in a resilient kind of love. If that happens in the lives of Christian believers, some very, very good things will follow.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of this book. Again, it's called Grow in Hope, and it's our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give at our website, openthebible.org, or when you call 1-877-673-6365. That's 1-877-OPEN-365. And again, the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.

Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again, and I want you to know about Watch Your Doctrine. Watch Your Doctrine is a six-session course that is geared for leaders, but accessible for every believer. The six sessions will introduce you to six central truths of the Christian faith: how we know God, how God speaks to us, how sin affects us, how God's Spirit brings new life, how we’re made right with God, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. There are questions at the end of each session, and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information or to begin this free online course, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.