Is Cash King?

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. It discusses the role of money in society and the love of money as a spiritual issue. It emphasizes the importance of seeking God's kingdom and trusting in Him to provide for our needs. The transcript encourages giving and being good stewards of what God has given us. It concludes with a reminder of God's love for us and the importance of praising Him. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Psalm 49, 16-20 Don't be afraid when a man is made rich, and the glory of his house is increased. For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory won't descend after him. Though while he lived, he blessed his soul, and men praise you when you do well for yourself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light. A man who had riches without understanding is like the animals that perish. Money, money, money, money. From songs to shows, oh, how it is held up. And for good reason. In the world. The world runs on money. Eating, living, working. It's all money. It's a cycle unlike any other. Work to get money, use money to get food and shelter, but also entertainment that is saturated with the idea that you need more stuff. So you buy stuff on credit and need to work to pay off the debt, which means you can buy more, which means you need to work. Work to buy to work to buy. And that's the best case. Common case is work and work to get enough to squeak by while semi-starving and feeling the lack of all you don't have, and then work more to squeak by again. The worst case is either working your butt off or being unable to work and not getting by. Not making ends meet. Facing choices like eating or paying bills. It's a vicious cycle no matter where on the spectrum you are. Everyone loves either the things money buys or the freedom to do whatever they want to do or simply the release of the tension from having just enough to get by. So they do it again, and again, and again, caught in the fear of what if I don't have. Now money can be a wonderful, amazing tool, opening doors to travel, education, full bellies, opportunities, and all the things we're told are finest. Money can also be a cold, hard, terrible barrier to having your children fed, clothed, and under a warm roof. Or yourself for that matter. It doesn't always have to be about children. Some of us love it and some of us hate it. Many of the evils of the world revolve around money. When we love the money, we have trouble loving the Lord. The money becomes our Lord. It's fine to appreciate it, but it can't have a hold on us. When it gets the hold on us, it is a terrible thing. Sometimes we can get trapped by the things it can buy us. Sometimes we get trapped by the things it saved us from. Sometimes we get trapped by the security we feel we have. But in the end, the trouble is that we have put our own value on things and we're refusing to acknowledge the value the Lord puts on things. When money becomes that important to us, it's an anchor bringing us down. And it's all temporary. But man, despite his riches, doesn't endure. He is like the animals that perish. Psalm 49, 2. But we can't seem to get it. We have to place an arbitrary value on everything. Everything is labeled, weighed, and then a dollar value is placed on it. We've even started putting values on things that have no real substance. We are literally creating money from nothing. It's a crazy system. And I'm not debating capitalism versus socialism versus any other ism. I'm just looking at the base values of money itself. What really is it good for? What benefit does it bring us? It's totally arbitrary. It's mankind saying what mankind feels the value of any given thing is. Everything being compared to everything else. And it seems the only real reason for it is so that we can amass things to be able to see, I have succeeded. I have value. I have worth. I am rich. I have success. I have achieved. But it's all just smoke and mirrors. There's a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, wealth kept by its owner to his harm. Ecclesiastes 5.13 Wealth in and of itself is not evil. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having thousands, millions, or billions of dollars. Why would there be? Money is the least important thing in the kingdom of God. It has the lowest and least value. The problem is how you view all of that money. Whether you have five dollars in your pocket or five million in your bank, if you're not willing to give it away, then it has you and you don't have it. The kingdom of God is about blessing. Philippians 4.19 Serving others. Galatians 5.13-14 Giving away what we have. 2 Corinthians 8.7 Not keeping the best portions for ourselves. Matthew 6.19-21 Do you see a theme? No matter what teaching is coming from the Lord, part of that teaching is about giving, not storing up for the sake of storing up. He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them are increased. And what advantage is there to its owner except to feast on them with his eyes? Ecclesiastes 5.10-11 If you see someone who truly loves the Lord, and they have lots of money and or things, I guarantee you they are giving away more than you see. No, we are not called into the system of the world. We are called into freedom, out of bondage, out of slavery, out of the cycle of stuff. Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you. So that with good courage we say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Hebrews 13.5-6 Money has no hold on us if we don't give it one. Money has no value in and of itself. It's just a tool. I am never worried about money. I don't care what something costs. If I need it, I'm going to be given it. Why? God meets all my needs. Remember Philippians 4.19? My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. There is a lot of glory in heaven. Materially alone. It is streets of gold, gates of pearl. The Lord isn't strapped for cash. And neither should we be. We should focus on the Lord, loving and serving him. The rest comes our way. Matthew 6.33 More than that, the Lord uses the systems of the world to our advantage. For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But to the sinner, he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. Ecclesiastes 2.26 Wealth transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. It's a real thing. But it doesn't mean we get all we ask for because God is not going to give you something that will be a burden to you. James 4.3 He won't be part of putting a hook on your flesh or a stumbling block before your feet. God does not want the negative for anyone. Now all of this takes some adjustment of thinking. We always look at bank accounts, at what we have, at what we can get together. But if you love God and seek him diligently, you'll have everything you need. Period. It's a promise. If you need it, it will arrive whether you have the money for it or not. You just need to be fully persuaded that God provides your needs. God blesses us, but he doesn't promise us once. Instead, the Lord promises our needs met and then blesses on top of that. Not our list of blessing, his list of blessing. His list is better than our list anyway. Not only are his things better, but he knows what you like and he wants you to have it, to enjoy it. And if we don't get in the way, we get it. How do we stay out of the way? We seek him and pay attention to our spirit health. We seek him and listen for what he wants. We accept blessings, possessions, and even money. But we are ever ready to hand it all over at a moment's notice. No matter what that means for us in the natural. We own nothing. In the kingdom of God, there is no ownership. What we do is steward for the Lord. We are stewards of what God has given us. If it isn't ours, why would we hesitate to give it away? Anytime something goes out of us, something returns. And the return is never less than what went out. God is a God of growth. His people are people of expansion. In him, all richness abides. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that you think of him? What is the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8, 3-4 We are on the mind of Almighty God. He will not leave us hanging. We will not be abandoned to poverty and lack. Not of we have him on our minds. This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear, reverence God, and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment with every hidden thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil. Ecclesiastes 12, 13-14 Our commandments are to love God first and foremost and then to love one another as Jesus loves us. Matthew 22, 34-40 And what do we get? Relief from money, relief from want, and all the blessings of heaven. Jesus promised. Therefore, don't be anxious, saying, What will we eat? What will we drink? Or with what will we be clothed? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient. Matthew 6, 31-34 Our daily affirmation of God's love is Hebrews 13, 1-8 The love of money is the worst thing we get caught in. At the end of your life, ultimately the end of the world, what is that money good for? You have valued things on earth, mortal, temporal things. When you die, what good has it done? You may have had all the finest of the fine things, but you're in the same boat as the pauper who had nothing at all and suffered from all the diseases that strike the poor. You may get things here, but if you have nothing stored in God's kingdom, when you die, you will have nothing. God loves us, so Jesus is with us always. He is beside us for us to talk to and to work things out with, if we'll listen to him. And though there is an inescapable press toward progress in this world, and we are bombarded with a deluge of things to buy, sell, do, Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. We can serve a good God with good service, because by grace, through faith, Jesus gives us the tools to do it. The simple love of God for us, and of us to God. We get there through praise, and we get there through believing the word of the Lord. He is good, and his mercy endures forever. As we close, remember that you have birth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love, and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one, and remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only-born Son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. He can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.