Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I'm going to have you turn to Hebrews for one verse, and then I'm going to read a lot of other passages to you. So don't bother trying to keep up. Just listen as I read. But I want you to turn to Hebrews 13:15, and as I read this, you will get a feel for what is coming with the rest of the the verses I'm going to read.
[00:00:29] So Hebrews 13, verse 5 make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have.
[00:00:43] For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.
[00:00:52] This verse might remind you of the way that Jesus speaks in the Sermon on the Mount, connecting money and trusting God into one thought.
[00:01:12] In Matthew 6:24 we read, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.
[00:01:33] You cannot serve God and wealth.
[00:01:39] We read the same thing in Luke 16. I'm going to jump though to 1 Timothy 6, verses 9 and 10. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
[00:02:17] Ecclesiastes 5:10 opens up the same theme.
[00:02:22] He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income.
[00:02:33] This too is vanity.
[00:02:37] Now, I've got many more passages. I'm going to keep reading them, okay? But I want to stop because I don't want to lose track of what we are seeing. I want you to see it as it's coming by.
[00:02:53] So you're probably not surprised by now for me to say that this sermon is on the love of money.
[00:03:00] The love of money and the love of money is something that Scripture speaks about over and over and over again.
[00:03:12] But what I want you to notice in the verses that we've just been reading is the aspect of looking forward to the aspect of expecting more.
[00:03:25] So there's this theme in many of these verses where it's speaking about love of money, but it's always talking about how there's not enough.
[00:03:35] This desire for more is written all through these verses.
[00:03:42] And in fact this one that we just read, Ecclesiastes 5:10, says explicitly that those who love money, it doesn't matter how much they get, they're still always going to be desiring More.
[00:03:58] Now, this is something that I think those who have the least probably have the hardest time believing.
[00:04:08] Because when you have so little that you're struggling to get by, you begin to think, well, life would be so much better, so much easier if I had a little bit more that I know I would be happy with.
[00:04:28] And you can just fill in the blank with. However, much more would really be a help with your next thing that you're really struggling to pay for. It might be that you're running out of money to make the mortgage, or that you're wishing that you could put a new roof on the house because it's really on the verge of leaking. Or there's all kinds of things that really feel like basic core needs.
[00:04:55] And when we're struggling to have those fundamentals, food, clothing, shelter, right.
[00:05:02] It can be very tempting for us to think, well, money will solve my problems.
[00:05:10] Money will be the answer. And if I only had this much more, I could have the essentials. I could have made basic needs met.
[00:05:19] And so I don't know what's wrong with all those people who have their essential needs met and still want more. They should be content, they should be happy, they should be satisfied, because I would be.
[00:05:34] But many, many people who are very wise have pointed out that this isn't correct. This isn't the way it works.
[00:05:45] Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon, and Solomon was given wisdom by God as a gift. He knew what he was talking about.
[00:05:55] And he is the one who says that it's the love of money that is at the heart of not being satisfied with money. And it doesn't matter how much you get.
[00:06:13] Also, many people have gone through the experience of being in desperate need and then of having their basic needs met and having much, much more and still not being satisfied.
[00:06:29] You can read people's testimonies, not believers, just people's testimonies of how when they had this much, they thought they only needed this much more. And when they had that much more, they thought they only needed this much more.
[00:06:43] And it just goes on and on, and it's pretty consistently more, more, more, more.
[00:06:56] And so the love of money is always accompanied by a looking forward, a longing, a desire that is expecting to be fulfilled in the future.
[00:07:10] I'm going to point out many other things about the love of money, but the first one I want you to see is it cannot be accomplished.
[00:07:25] I think I read this last week that Elon Musk is on the verge of being the first trillionaire.
[00:07:33] I think, And you know, it's remarkable.
[00:07:42] If you read and watch him, it's remarkable how much of his action is driven by the desire for more money.
[00:07:51] You'd think being an almost trillionaire would be enough, but it's clearly not.
[00:08:00] There is never enough for those who love money.
[00:08:07] I want to return to Matthew a couple verses earlier.
[00:08:15] Jesus says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do. Do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:08:41] Now the second point that I want you to see is that money is fleeting.
[00:08:51] Moth and rust destroy it.
[00:08:56] There's nothing that you can put your money in that is a truly safe haven here in this world, because this world is perishing.
[00:09:10] And so I don't want to contradict the financial advisors in the room.
[00:09:20] I'm not saying there's no such thing as riskier and safer investments or anything like that. I'm just saying that money has wings.
[00:09:31] Money has wings. It flies away on its own.
[00:09:40] I read about a man, very intelligent, wise man, who decided to invest in silver during, I believe it was World War II and went, got a bunch of silver and buried it in order to be able to have it safe and be able to get it later.
[00:10:07] And silver went up, I mean, just through the roof. The value of his hoard of silver that he had buried was just astronomical. When he went back to get it, but he couldn't find it.
[00:10:20] He spent years. I mean, the bombing had totally altered the landscape and he never found it.
[00:10:29] Money makes wings and flies away.
[00:10:32] So there's always this forward looking need for more. And then there's also this reality that it's not something that you can trust in. It's not something that you can rely on because it can be gone in an instant.
[00:10:51] Stock markets crash, buildings burn down, silver gets lost, it can all, it can all fly away in a heartbeat.
[00:11:04] Now the third thing that I want you to see, and by the way, this sermon is like a, I don't know, 17ish point sermon.
[00:11:12] I didn't count them.
[00:11:16] The next thing is I'm going to lose track of counting. So I'm just going to stop saying what the number is right now.
[00:11:22] The next thing I want you to see is right in this passage that I read in Matthew, which is that there is a command here. And the command is because of the nature of money and because of the nature of God. And everlasting life. You are not to be building your earthly treasure. You are to be building your heavenly treasure.
[00:11:48] You are not. You are commanded, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.
[00:11:55] That's a command from Jesus. And it's hard to escape.
[00:12:02] It's easy for us to rationalize out of it, but it's hard for us to escape. How directly we are told, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, because why? Well, because moth and rust destroy. The treasures on earth are going to be gone in the end. But your heavenly treasure that you build up will not be lost, will not be destroyed, will not fly away.
[00:12:30] And then also we are told it's because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:12:40] So next point, money will be in competition with God for your heart.
[00:12:50] Money will be in competition with God for your heart.
[00:12:57] Remember, in Luke 16 we read, no one can. Or I guess I read the Matthew 1. No one can serve two masters.
[00:13:04] Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
[00:13:12] So the nature of our love of money means that either you are loving money or you are loving God. You cannot be loving both.
[00:13:24] Either you're serving one or you're serving the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. And actually, Jesus again is so adamant, he says, you have to hate the other.
[00:13:47] You're going to love one and hate the other.
[00:13:50] Which one are you going to love?
[00:13:53] And you say, God. Well, then you must hate money.
[00:13:59] That's Jesus command. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, I've been quoting Proverbs 23:4, 5. Do not weary yourself to gain wealth.
[00:14:17] Cease from consideration of it.
[00:14:22] When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.
[00:14:30] It's gone.
[00:14:41] Luke 12:15 we read. Then he said to them, beware and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does life consist of his possessions.
[00:14:54] Now we're being reminded that there is more to life than what you own.
[00:15:05] Greed is closely, closely connected to the love of money, as is covetousness.
[00:15:15] When you covet, your desire is for what other people have.
[00:15:23] When you are greedy, it's not so much describing your attitude towards what other people have and more about your attitude towards yourself.
[00:15:34] You see the difference? Covetousness looks out at what somebody else has and says, I want.
[00:15:40] I'm going to take right from them. I want.
[00:15:45] But greedy just starts with I'm important.
[00:15:54] Greed just starts with not thinking about other people.
[00:15:58] Greed doesn't so much look at what somebody else has and be like, man. They.
[00:16:07] Greed just looks and.
[00:16:10] I'll take that.
[00:16:11] Yeah, I'll take that, too.
[00:16:13] Oh, there's some leftover ice cream. I'll take that.
[00:16:18] So greed, you see, I want you to see greed so that you understand how it applies to money. Because we can be greedy about all kinds of things.
[00:16:28] And greed is just only thinking about what you want, when you want it. Right?
[00:16:40] So after that warning, be on your guard against every form of greed.
[00:16:47] Listen to this from Colossians.
[00:16:51] Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which is idolatry. Which amounts to idolatry.
[00:17:10] Now, this connects back to what I was saying, where the love of money is going to be in competition with your love of God. You're going to love one and hate the other. So this is why idolatry is brought in.
[00:17:27] When it says that greed amounts to idolatry, it's showing us that we are worshipping something other than God.
[00:17:43] So I want you to think about greed in your own life. And I don't want to.
[00:17:50] I don't want to make the mistake of psychologizing this too much, putting it like too much in theory in your brain about what you're thinking.
[00:18:02] I want you to see how it works its way out.
[00:18:05] Idolatry connecting with greed. Okay.
[00:18:11] And to do that, I want you to think back to the Garden of Eden. You kids all know the story of Adam and Eve being in the garden, right?
[00:18:19] And I want you to think about what Satan promised Eve when he was tempting Eve.
[00:18:30] What was it that he said that would happen? What was it that he said Eve would get if she ate the fruit that God had commanded them not to eat? Any of you kids remember.
[00:18:51] What would happen?
[00:18:53] I see that hand.
[00:18:55] Go ahead, Owen.
[00:19:05] That they would be like God.
[00:19:08] Yeah. He told them they wouldn't die, which is what God had said. Right.
[00:19:11] And that they would be like God. Now, does anybody remember what it says?
[00:19:17] Eve thought after that?
[00:19:22] Daol.
[00:19:27] She thought sinfulness. Well, yes, I suppose she did.
[00:19:32] What did she think?
[00:19:34] It says she looked at the fruit and saw something.
[00:19:37] What did she see at that point?
[00:19:40] Clara, what do you think? Do you have your hand up?
[00:19:48] Yes, she. Yes, she wanted to be like God.
[00:19:52] It was desirable, is what it says. And for multiple reasons, one of which is because she believed the lie that Satan had said that she would become like God. And also just that it was desirable to make one wise. And it looked good to eat, right? It looked good to her. And so she decided, I'm going to go for it. Now, what I want you to see, I want you to see the underlying temptation. There is a temptation towards greed.
[00:20:27] And that's why this first sin came into the world.
[00:20:35] It was a desire for something that God had not seen fit to give her, right?
[00:20:44] The knowledge to make one wise between good and evil.
[00:20:50] What comes of greed is idolatry.
[00:20:58] It flows out into action. It's not just this thing where you say, well, I'm the most important. I'm thinking out, I'm looking out for number one. I'm thinking about myself, right? It actually flows out into action.
[00:21:13] And anytime we take an action that is driven by greed, it's that same idolatry. Yes, it's putting ourselves in God's place.
[00:21:31] It's putting money in God's place.
[00:21:35] Putting something in the place of God as the most important thing.
[00:21:46] 1 John 2:15, 16 were given this. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.
[00:21:55] If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.
[00:22:12] Again driving home the separation between loving God and loving the things of this world.
[00:22:25] Now you might, if you are, if you are thinking ahead, you might be wondering, okay, well, what does this mean about money?
[00:22:39] I mean, were the monks right? Should we all just take vows of poverty?
[00:22:48] Proverbs 28:20 says, A faithful man will abound with blessings.
[00:22:54] Okay, a faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished.
[00:23:08] So you begin to see the different place that blessings have from the love of money. Right?
[00:23:19] Just a simple statement that there are blessings, plenty of blessings for those who are faithful.
[00:23:30] But those who make haste to be rich aren't getting those blessings.
[00:23:37] They ultimately will be punished. Now, what does it mean to make haste to be rich?
[00:23:44] Well, it's talking about commitment to having more, a commitment to having lots of.
[00:23:50] It's a love of money, it's a desire for more.
[00:24:00] The important thing here is to understand that even as we are told not to love the world, nor the things in the world, even as we are told to.
[00:24:20] Cease from consideration of wealth and not to weary ourselves to gain it, we are also told that God provides for the needs of his children.
[00:24:34] And so you don't have to worry.
[00:24:38] In fact, if you give yourself to the running after money, that's how you end up in trouble.
[00:24:48] Now, that doesn't mean that there's no warning to take for those who are rich, right? You can't just be like, oh, well, you know, God's blessings.
[00:25:00] There are actually plenty of warnings for the rich.
[00:25:04] In Matthew 19:23,24, Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
[00:25:17] Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
[00:25:34] Or James.
[00:25:36] James is even more intense in some ways.
[00:25:42] Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.
[00:25:59] It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure.
[00:26:07] The rich are very directly addressed with regard to their money and their attitude towards it.
[00:26:17] Right?
[00:26:20] Why is it that the rich are condemned in James?
[00:26:25] Well, in part it's because they have been committing oppression with the power that comes with money. And so this is another thing that I want you to see, that there's many aspects to the desire for money.
[00:26:41] One of them is the desire for power.
[00:26:48] Wealth comes with a certain amount of influence, prestige and power.
[00:26:57] But it's precisely through the abuse of others that we are tempted to become rich.
[00:27:10] Right. This is greed. It considers only self and doesn't worry about the cost to others or the loss to others of what we take for ourselves.
[00:27:25] Psalm62:10 connects these two things. The temptation to use our money, our influence and our power for the the gaining of more through oppression of others.
[00:27:38] Do not trust in oppression and do not vainly hope in robbery.
[00:27:45] Who puts their hope in robbery? Well, those who believe that money is what they need.
[00:27:51] Right.
[00:27:53] And it specifically says, if riches increase.
[00:27:58] This is the continuation of the same verse. If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
[00:28:06] So this warning against robbery is connected right into even if you're not robbing, but if riches increase, don't set your hope on them.
[00:28:19] Don't let your heart turn towards money.
[00:28:25] Do not set your heart upon your riches.
[00:28:35] There's plenty of other places in Scripture where we are warned about the nature of money leading to corruption of action in other ways. Oppression.
[00:28:47] Proverbs 15:27 says, he who profits illicitly troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live. And now you see all of the window opening up into a whole new realm of sin that flows out of the love of money because bribes pervert justice.
[00:29:11] So we can look at oppression, we can look at direct acts of theft and abuse of power that enrich ourselves at the expense of others, right?
[00:29:20] But we can also look at the flip side where we're not really looking at, you know, the desire to oppress others, but simply the willingness to be bribed.
[00:29:34] Why would we ever be willing to be bribed? Well, it's simple. It comes down to money, right? It comes down to the love of money.
[00:29:43] It's very easy when you aren't the one that hasn't been offered, you are not the one that's been offered something to think.
[00:29:53] Well, just do the right thing.
[00:29:57] But when somebody literally slips money into your hand and closes your fist around it and shakes your hand and says, I think we've got an understanding.
[00:30:14] Now you have your own choice to make, right?
[00:30:18] Do I want this money or do I want to do the right thing?
[00:30:27] Again, we see this two sided choice. There's really only two sides. We will serve our money.
[00:30:36] It will be our master.
[00:30:38] Our love of money will master us or we will be mastered by the commands of God.
[00:30:57] He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf. Notice how the contrast there is between one who trusts in his riches versus the righteous. In other words, you cannot be righteous and trust in your riches.
[00:31:21] The outcome that we see over and over again in these verses of the love of money is that it will be our downfall.
[00:31:30] We see that from the very beginning when we're told that it will be our master.
[00:31:36] You cannot serve two masters.
[00:31:39] To have money as your master, to have wealth as your master means that you are no longer able to resist all of these temptations. Means that you are no longer able to fight against sin because you have this other love as your master.
[00:32:06] Probably one of the scariest verses is Matthew 13:22.
[00:32:12] This is the parable of the sower, speaking of one kind of seed. It says, the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns.
[00:32:21] This is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth.
[00:32:29] Choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.
[00:32:41] Again, that story is repeated in Mark and Luke as well.
[00:32:50] In Mark it speaks of the deceitfulness of riches and desires for other things.
[00:32:58] Desires for other things enter in and choke the word. And in Luke.
[00:33:05] It speaks of choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life.
[00:33:14] Now, riches and pleasures of this life are closely connected because with riches you can buy the pleasures of this life.
[00:33:27] But choked with worries is also connected, as we saw from the very beginning.
[00:33:33] When we worry about our clothes, when we worry about what we will eat, then what we're not trusting God.
[00:33:55] In Philippians 4, the apostle Paul gives us the opposite of all of these warnings.
[00:34:06] Verses 11 and 12 say, not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
[00:34:15] I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
[00:34:33] Now that sounds truly amazing at one level, for all of us, I think, to be able to say that you have peace regardless of how much you have and regardless of how comfortable you are, that's sort of like this, dare I say, you know, sort of Zen ideal, right?
[00:34:59] But it's not Zen.
[00:35:03] This is the peace that passes understanding. This is the fruit of the Spirit. In Paul's life, contentment is not the same thing as acceptance of the fates of this universe and the things that you can't change and so forth.
[00:35:27] This is Paul putting his trust in God directly.
[00:35:34] No matter what he has or doesn't have, he has this peace and contentment that is really miraculous.
[00:35:52] Now, if you think about money, probably the first thing you think about is how much you have or how much you need for the next thing that you want to buy. I mean, that's what pops into our minds immediately.
[00:36:10] What I want to ask you is, instead of thinking that way about money, is it possible in your daily thought pattern when you think about money to think about God's provision?
[00:36:32] Is it possible for you to see your bank account balance and to simply be thankful?
[00:36:45] Now you might say, well, yeah, it would be. I mean, I could do that if I had more in it.
[00:36:53] And when you, you know. And again, I'm going to say, you know, for the poor, that's like, that's really what they're thinking. I don't know why they're not able to do that, but I know why I can't do that.
[00:37:03] And the answer is, it's the same reason.
[00:37:08] It's the same reason. Notice how Paul says that he has learned how to live in any and every circumstance. And he says, I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry.
[00:37:28] It's the same secret.
[00:37:31] His contentment in both circumstances is the same secret, both of having abundance and suffering need.
[00:37:43] Isn't that amazing?
[00:37:47] We are so committed to our understanding of money being what allows us to have what we need, that we don't understand that it could be the same secret for both being in poverty and need and want and being filled and having plenty.
[00:38:09] It requires the exact same secret.
[00:38:14] What is that secret?
[00:38:20] What he says is he has learned contentment to be content to be content. Now, this is where I can expand well beyond money, which I think for a lot of you kids is hard to understand.
[00:38:35] Maybe for some of you adults, too. Money's hard to understand at times.
[00:38:40] But desire and contentment are easy for us to all grasp.
[00:38:49] You know the feeling of desiring something that somebody else has that's coveting, right?
[00:38:58] You know the feeling of looking at somebody else's Christmas present and thinking, well, they got a better present than I did.
[00:39:07] Right?
[00:39:08] You know, the desire to have your own room.
[00:39:19] You know, the desire to have. I mean, look, my favorite. I can't ever get away from this. But, like, the biggest cookie, right?
[00:39:30] I love cookies. So it's just.
[00:39:33] Maybe you. Maybe you all don't love cookies as much as I do, but when you see the cookie plate and it's going around and you're watching and you see it's. You know, I think that that one under there is the largest. And I hope nobody else sees that. It's.
[00:39:49] And somebody goes to take the cookie above it and you're like, oh, no, don't take that one. It'll reveal the largest cookie. And there's still three people before it gets to me.
[00:40:03] Now, I want you to see, not that this is something that's just to laugh about. I want you to see how deeply embedded desire is in us.
[00:40:17] Desire. The desire for the things of this earth, the love of the things of this world.
[00:40:25] When you find yourself being greedy even for cookies, I mean, because part of the reason it's so awesome to use the example of cookies is because they do not matter, right? It is only 100% purely about pleasure, right? I mean, this is why we eat. That's why I eat cookies anyway. It's not for nourishment, that's for sure.
[00:40:52] That's not how I'm trying to get my calories.
[00:40:55] It's just about pleasure. And a cookie is a good gift from God. The fact that they taste good, that sugar is yummy. Listen, that's from God.
[00:41:06] But the moment that you are looking at the cookie plate and you feel greed, that what is it called? The Green monster, right?
[00:41:17] Coming up out of your heart, you know that it's everywhere.
[00:41:30] So here's an idea. When you feel greed coming up in your heart, make a point of giving it away.
[00:41:44] Make a point of being thankful.
[00:41:57] Being thankful can be so hard, and yet there's so much to be thankful for.
[00:42:09] What has God done for us?
[00:42:19] Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
[00:42:34] We often think about things instead of money.
[00:42:42] So let's move beyond cookies for a minute, because nobody is stuck on cookies like I am.
[00:42:55] Okay, maybe somebody is.
[00:42:57] I see that hand.
[00:43:05] What about your Amazon cart?
[00:43:10] What does it reveal about your desire?
[00:43:16] How great your desire is? What about your saved bookmarks and tabs? What about. I mean, what about your eyes as you're walking through the store?
[00:43:30] And here, of course, it could be anything, because you can buy anything on Amazon.
[00:43:38] You can find a saved tab for whatever you want in this world, whether that's a private island or whether that's an MP3 player, right?
[00:43:49] You can walk through Costco, that great temple of consumerism, and you can find Windows or you can find granola bars, right?
[00:44:05] And there is never an end to the amount of things that you could want. This is the thing that's so amazing about our desire, is that it is infinite.
[00:44:18] This is why there is no end when we start loving money. It cannot satisfy because it is purely giving ourselves over to a desire. But here's the beautiful thing.
[00:44:32] If you contrast the love of money to the love of God, the serving of those two masters, the serving, the chasing after, the running after desire in this world, in this world's things, right, versus running after God, what you find is that God is actually infinite.
[00:45:06] God is actually able to fully satisfy that desire.
[00:45:12] And so there's no risk to pouring yourself out in chasing after God, because you will always be rewarded for chasing after God with greater gifts.
[00:45:34] There is the gift of God's provision here and now in this life, but there is much more.
[00:45:44] The gift of eternal life in the life to come.
[00:45:54] All through church history, the love of money has been central to the problems that the church faces.
[00:46:08] Central Today, the message of many churches is, worship with us and you will have money.
[00:46:25] Give to our offering and you will have wealth.
[00:46:33] It's sad in how transparent it is, right?
[00:46:42] It's sad in how transparent it is.
[00:46:45] It's like putting text wealth to register for a conference.
[00:46:55] Now I say it's transparent and yet it's not out there.
[00:47:04] I just quoted from a flyer for a conference that a friend of mine put on wealth.
[00:47:18] How can this be?
[00:47:19] It's because of how seductive the love of money is.
[00:47:25] It's always possible to find people and to attract people who want money, who love money, who are seeking after wealth, who are trying to get rich quick.
[00:47:41] It's a consistent sin, and therefore it's a consistent temptation for the church to hold that out as the carrot.
[00:47:53] But riches do not profit in the day of wrath.
[00:48:00] Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
[00:48:15] You might think that that's a quick jump to being able to seek after money again. All these things. See, I knew all these things be added to me. I know what I'm going for.
[00:48:29] But you can't get there without hating this world and money.
[00:48:37] You can't seek first his kingdom unless you hate those things.
[00:48:46] And that's the part that's actually hard.
[00:48:52] Don't be afraid.
[00:48:54] God is the one who provides.
[00:48:57] God is the one who has brought his church over and over and over again to repentance for the love of money.
[00:49:13] But let us not be needing to learn the lesson the hard way.
[00:49:19] Let us seek first his kingdom.
