Spending Money Like This World is Not Our Home

If you have a Bible—and I hope you or somebody around you does that you could look on with—please open with me to Proverbs 22. If you’re visiting with us, my name is David. I’m one of the pastors here and we are sincerely honored that you are here. 

I have good news today for everyone who knows Jesus as Lord of your life. For anybody who has come here today anxious, stressed, worried, tired or exhausted in this world, I have good news: This world is not your home. For anybody experiencing physical struggles, emotional struggles, mental struggles in this world, for anybody who is weary from doctor appointments or hospital visits—for yourself, a family member or a friend—I have good news: this world is not your home. For anybody who’s frustrated or disappointed in political parties and/or personalities in this world, I have good news: this world is not your home. For all who are hurting or have been hurt in this world, for all who have been unfairly or unjustly treated in this world, for anybody who’s heavy-hearted when you see news headlines of conflict, crime, suffering and war in this world, I have good news: this world is not your home. As followers of Jesus, we rightly cling to and celebrate this good news: this world is not our home. 

So here’s the question I want to ask today. If this world is not our home, then why do we spend our money like it is? Why do we regularly think about how to spend our money in this world and rarely think about how to spend our money on the world to come? We don’t look at stresses, struggles, suffering, pain, heartaches or headlines as if this world is all there is. So why would we look at our finances as if this world is all there is? 

What might happen, how might it revolutionize our lives and what our lives count for in this world, if we started spending our money like this world is not our home?

Campbell Morgan is a British preacher from about a century ago. He wrote this:

You are not the child of today. You’re the child of tomorrow. You’re of eternity. You’re the offspring of deity. You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth, poor, sorry, silly soul. You’ve made a fortune and stored it in a place you cannot hold it. Make your fortune but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning.

I love that. A right understanding of who you are and where you belong totally transforms your approach to money in this world. You don’t live like the rest of the world lives. You don’t approach money like the rest of the world approaches money. So today I want to help you see who you are and where you’re going. I want to help you see how to spend your money on what will matter in this world and in the world to come. Think about how important this is in light of the series we’re in on adulting in real life. 

Think about the many high school, college graduates and young adults in our church family. The world is telling you- to spend, save, invest. Approach money now in a way that will be good for you 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, when you retire. However, God is saying, “That’s foolish.” Why live for 50 years from now, knowing that a few years after that, it’s all going to be gone? God is saying, “I want to help you live a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, 50 million years from now.” That’s a wise way to live and a wise way to spend your money. Now, some of you might think, “Well, as a high school student, a college graduate or a young adult, I don’t have a lot of money. Maybe this will apply to me when I actually get more money.” 

The reality is, everything we’re going to look at today starts in your heart, regardless of how much money you have. Don’t think, “When I get more money, then I’ll live wisely,” especially when more wealth in this world is actually prone to make you less wise in this world. Don’t underestimate the hold that more money will have on your heart. 

What I want to do is walk through the book of Proverbs. I want to show you a wise approach to money in this world, according to the God who created this world and who is one day going to usher in a new world. To be clear, when I say “wise approach to money in this world,” what we’re going to talk about today is how to flourish through your use of money in this world. So this is not a message about you needing to feel bad or guilty about how you use your money. This is a message about how you can flourish and thrive in this world—and in the next. I’m assuming you actually want to flourish in every facet of your life, including your money. So let’s listen to God for what it means to flourish and how to be wise with our money.

Also, to be clear, my name is David Platt, not Dave Ramsey. So, if you are looking to have all your financial questions answered today, you have the wrong Dave. But if you’re looking for clarity on what God says in his Word about money, specifically from the book of Proverbs, hopefully you have the right Dave today. What that means is you’ll likely walk away from the next few minutes with a variety of questions about how this relates to your budget, savings, investments or 401k in this economic system. The Bible doesn’t actually answer all those questions. Instead, the Bible gives us something much better. The Bible gives us timeless truths about God, about us and about money that guide how we approach money in any country or any economic situation in any time in history. And the Bible points us to the power we need to live according to those truths. That’s what I want to show you today. 

So I want to take over 100 proverbs—meaning wise sayings that deal with money—and boil them all down to two tips for reading Proverbs about money, plus nine truths from Proverbs about money that will help you flourish if you take them to heart. So, yes, that is eleven points and I’ve already taken a good bit of time. So if you’re taking notes, write quickly. And to be clear, this is not going to be exhaustive. We’re not going to be able to hit everything. So if you want to stay around for about 12 hours, we could get closer. But for the amount of time we have, we’ve got two tips and nine truths. I’m going to give you two tips, one at the beginning and one at the end. So here’s the first tip, the first piece of counsel when reading Proverbs about money.

Tip #1: Remember Proverbs was written under the old covenant; we are under a new covenant.

We really could spend all day on this one because it’s so important. I’m going to try to fly through it, but it’s going to get thick for a moment, so just hang with me. 

We need to remember that Proverbs were written under the old covenant and we’re under a new covenant. So let’s take a Proverb like the one you see in front of you, Proverbs 22:4: “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” Now, in one sense we know that Proverbs are more like principles and guidelines, not promises and guarantees. So this Proverb is not a guarantee that if you’re humble and you fear God, you’ll definitely have riches and honor’ some translations say a long life in this world. We can think of many examples of people in the Bible who are humble and fear God, yet are poor and dishonored in this world, then who die young. Jesus would be a clear example of this. That doesn’t make this Proverb untrue. It’s a true principle, not a promise for every person’s life. It’s the principle that there is reward, there’s value, in humility and the fear of the Lord. At the same time, when you understand the old covenant and the time in which Solomon was writing this in the Old Testament—that’s what ‘testament’ means, covenant—it makes sense in a way that’s actually different from the new covenant—the New Testament. 

You’ve got to see this. In the Old Testament, obedience to God led to acquiring possessions in this world. So here’s a quick biblical theology of possessions from the very beginning of the Bible. God created all things, including material things, in this world. They were all good. God created man and woman to enjoy material things. When you get to Genesis 12 and the founding of God’s people in the Old Testament—the old covenant, the people, the nation of Israel—God makes a promise to Abraham. Listen to what it says in Genesis 12: 

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. 

So do you see this? God promised to bless Abraham and much of that blessing was material. God promised to give him possessions and land as a sign of God’s blessing on him, because God was establishing a nation, a people, in the Old Testament. God was going to bless them, so that through them all the families of the earth, all the other nations of the earth, would be blessed. Spiritually and materially, that blessing would flow through God’s people to all the peoples of the world.

In the rest of the book of Genesis, we see this over and over again. We see the riches and possessions of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob grow. That’s emphasized over and over again. Then it continues all the way until God’s people are about to enter into the Promised Land, this prosperous land flowing with milk and honey. Listen to what God says to his people in the book of Deuteronomy As they’re about to enter the Promised Land. This is a guarantee from God in Deuteronomy 28:

1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

 Now listen to this. Then God says:

15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

It’s basically the exact opposite. So get this picture in the Old Testament: during the old covenant, obedience to God led to acquiring possessions—material blessings—on earth. Now don’t miss the reason why. We saw it over and over again in what we just read. God was giving possessions to his people to establish a place that would display his glory to all the nations. It’s the whole story of the Old Testament. God led his people to this place—the Promised Land—where they would set up a nation, a kingdom, led by men like King David and King Solomon. 

Let’s fast forward to Solomon, who wrote most of the book of Proverbs. Let me show you what God said to Solomon at the very beginning of his reign in 1 Kings 3. God had said, “Solomon, I’ll give you whatever you desire.” Solomon asked for what? Does anybody know? Wisdom. Now listen to how God responded:

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

Do you see this? That’s Proverbs 22:4 on display. Humility before the Lord leads to what? Riches, honor and life. So that’s the picture in Solomon’s life. This is what God said to him. It’s what God said all throughout the Old Testament leading up to him. Now it all leads in Solomon’s day to the building of a temple a few chapters after 1 Kings 3. It’s establishing this place where the glory of God would dwell in the middle of his people, in Jerusalem, as a display of his glory to all the nations. We read about that in 1 Kings 6 and 7. 

In 1 Kings 8, they dedicate the temple with an extravagant feast. We read about all the possessions of Solomon in such a way that by 1 Kings 10, the queen of Sheba, a pagan queen, comes to see Solomon’s wisdom and wealth. She’s amazed. I’m going to show you one more passage. Listen to what she says; this will bring it all together. In 1 Kings 10:7, this queen of Sheba says: 

7Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” 10 Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

11 Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. 12 And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.

13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.

Do you see what’s happening here? It’s full circle. It’s what God had promised in Genesis 12 coming to fruition. God had blessed his people—his nation—materially, in a way that they were then blessing other peoples, other nations. The rest of 1 Kings 10 goes on to talk about all the wealth of Solomon. Now, we don’t have time to look at how Solomon abused that wealth. He didn’t heed his own wisdom, disobeying God, and by the end of his life, the kingdom was totally falling apart. 

Don’t miss the picture here. In the Old Testament, God had promised to bless his people materially as they obeyed him, so that he would establish them as a nation in the Promised Land as a blessing to all the nations around them. That’s the picture we see in the Old Testament. But what’s interesting is that once you turn the pages of the New Testament and you read about Jesus, who is inaugurating a new covenant that builds on everything in the Old Testament, things are completely different.

In Mark 10, a rich man with all these possessions comes up to Jesus and what does Jesus tell him to do? “Go sell all you have and give it to the poor.” Reading on in Mark 10, it says the disciples are shocked: “We thought obedience led to getting possessions, not obedience leading to giving away possessions.” Jesus says the same thing to the crowds: “Sell your possessions. Give to the needy.” Luke 14:33 says, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” 

The disciples are shocked. In all of this, they thought obedience would lead to acquiring riches. But in the New Testament, obedience to God is leading people to abandon possessions in this world. Now, don’t get me wrong. Not every follower of Jesus was commanded to get rid of everything they had. There are major themes throughout the Old Testament and Proverbs regarding money that are repeated in the New Testament. We’re going to look at those in just a minute.

Nowhere in the New Testament do you ever see a promise like we read in Deuteronomy, where God says, “If you obey me, I will bless you materially.” Nowhere do you see Jesus say, “Follow me, then you will have riches, honor and long life in this world.” We saw this in our church Bible Reading Plan this last week in Matthew 8. Jesus says, “Follow me and you may not have a roof over your head.” In the words of Craig Blomberg, who wrote a great book called Neither Poverty Nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions: 

The New Testament carried forward the major principles of the Old Testament, with one conspicuous omission. Never was material wealth promised as a guaranteed reward for either spiritual obedience or simple hard work. Material reward for piety never reappears in Jesus’ teaching; in fact it’s explicitly contradicted throughout.

Do you realize how significant this is? I would say that for most people in the church today, particularly in our country, we still have an Old Testament—an old covenant—approach to possessions. We read stories about the wealth of Abraham, David, Solomon, and we think, “That’s what God wants for us.” In fact, we’ve created an entire theology and exported it around the world that says, “If you trust God, you will have wealth and health.” We have called that the prosperity gospel. But it’s not the gospel. It actually misses the whole point of the good news of Jesus Christ. He is not a means to having more in this world. He is the end who is greater than everything in this world put together. He’s not establishing a place, a nation, a physical kingdom on this earth anymore. That was the story of the Old Testament—God giving his people possessions to establish this place that would display his glory to all nations.

Now in the New Testament, God is giving possessions to empower a people to spread his glory among all the nations, which totally changes the way we view money in our hands in this world. God has not given it to us to build a physical nation. To be sure, we praise and thank God, we celebrate our country for its founding, for the freedoms we have. But to be clear, the United States of America is not and never has been the light shining on a hill that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5. That shining city is made up of followers of Jesus from America and Saudi Arabia, China and Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, India and Brazil, Iran and Russia, Ukraine, North Korea and South Korea. God is giving his people in all the nations possessions, not ultimately to build up one nation, but to spread his gospel and his glory among all the nations. That changes everything about how we view our lives, about how we understand what’s most important in this world, and about how we spend our money. 

Now, again, that doesn’t mean that nothing in Proverbs applies to us today in the new covenant, in the New Testament. It just means that we need to make sure to filter everything we read in Proverbs through what we hear from Jesus and the rest of the New Testament about money. If we don’t, we’ll approach money like they did in the Old Testament and we’ll miss the point of why Jesus came.

All right, that’s the first tip. I have nine truths and one more tip to go. So now we’re really going to go quick. This will be Secret Church style. Maybe write these down, then go back and meditate on them this week or discuss them with somebody else. Discuss them in your family, with your friends, in your church group, then come back regularly to them.

Truth #1: Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, justice, righteousness, integrity, honesty, humility, love for people and fear of God are all more important than money.

Remember, these are not exhaustive…well, this first one’s going to seem exhaustive. This is my way of getting ten points into one. If you’re taking notes, just hang with me—I’ll come back to this. But just see these Proverbs.

First, wisdom, understanding and knowledge.  

• Proverbs 16:16: “How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” Wisdom and understanding are better than gold and silver, as is knowledge.
• Proverbs 8:10-11: “Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.”

Justice is better than money.

• Proverbs 16:8: “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.” 
• Proverbs 11:4: “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” There it is: riches will not save you in the end; righteousness will. So it’s better to be just, righteous and poor than unjust, unrighteous and rich.

Righteousness, integrity and honesty.

• Proverbs 28:6: “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.” Choose integrity over money every time. 
• Proverbs 20:17: “Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.” What imagery. Honesty is better than money, than bread gained. 

Humility.

• Proverbs 16:19: “It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.” It’s better to be humble and poor than rich and proud. 

Love for people.

• Proverbs 17:1: “Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.” Love for people is more important than money. 

Fear of God.

• Proverbs 15:16, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.” 

So wisdom, understanding, knowledge, justice, righteousness, integrity, honesty, humility, love for people and fear of God are all more important than money. So here’s the question. Just look at the evidence of your day-to-day life. What looks most important to you? Most of us will go to work throughout this week to make money—which is not bad. It’s good. We’re actually going to talk about work next week. But this week, are you pursuing the fear of God more than you are pursuing money that you’re making? Are you pursuing righteousness and holiness with greater effort than you’re pursuing money? What’s more important to you this week: making and spending money through the work you’re doing, or loving and serving the people you’re working with? What about loving and serving the people in your home who are more important than your work?

Make sure that more important than pursuing money, you’re pursuing wisdom, understanding, knowledge, justice, righteousness, integrity, honesty, humility, love for people and fear of God. Make sure money has its proper place in your life—behind all of these things. That’s truth number one.

Truth #2 – Wealth is not worthy of your trust.

God warns us over and over and over again, “Do not put your trust in your money.” Contrary to what this world will tell you, your money cannot make you secure. You think, “I have this much in my bank account, so I’m secure.” You’re a fool. 

• Proverbs 11:28: “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.” Money cannot make you secure because money will not last you very long. 
• Proverbs 23:4-5: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” What a picture! You think you’ve got it. Just picture all that money, flying away. We know that. I was just teaching from Ecclesiastes with another group recently. You make all this money, then you die and leave your money to somebody else who will waste it on something else. That’s what you’ve spent your life doing. Don’t do it. Fly away. 
• Proverbs 27:23-24: “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?” Wealth is not worthy of your trust.

Truth #3 – God is worthy of your best.

• Proverbs 3:9-10: “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” Give out of your firstfruits. Before it even hits your hand, before it even comes into your bank account, let it be going out. Give off the top to the glory of God. 

This is the Old Testament principle of the tithe, which we’ve talked about before. In the New Testament, it’s not a ceiling for giving, but a starting point. So start with giving a tenth off the top, then increase your giving from there. God is not worthy of your leftovers; he’s worthy of your best.

Truth #4 – Debt can be very dangerous in your life.

Obviously, there are different kinds of debts. This is not a blanket statement that all debt is sinful or bad. Hear this warning from God. 

• Proverbs 22:26-27: “Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?” So a general guideline for starting out and throughout your life is this: “Beware. Debt can be very dangerous in your life.”

Truth #5 – Contentment is absolutely critical to your life.

• Proverbs 15:27 (NIV): “The greedy bring ruin to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live.” 
• Proverbs 28:25: “A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched.” 

Guard, guard, guard your heart against the desire for more and more and more, for newer and nicer and bigger and better. Be content with what you have. Trust in the Lord. This is the thrust of 1 Timothy 6:6 in the New Testament: “Godliness with contentment is great gain” in this world. If you want gain, godliness with contentment—that’s great gain. And 2 Corinthians 8:9 says God gives you more, not so that you can get more, but so that you can give more. 

Truth #6 – God is generous toward you so you can be generous toward others.

• Proverbs 11:24-25: One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.” These Proverbs are so good. Did you hear that? The world says you’ll be richer, you’ll be fuller, you’ll be better off, if you withhold and keep more to yourself. God’s Word says no. You’ll be richer, fuller, better off when you freely give to others. 
• Proverbs 11:25: “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” There’s blessing in giving. God is generous toward you so you can be generous toward others. 
• Proverbs 22:9 says the same thing: “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.” It’s good for the poor and good for us to give according to God’s design.

Truth #7 – Your relationship to the poor has a direct effect on God’s relationship to you.

Listen closely to these two Proverbs. 

• Proverbs 14:31: “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker,  but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” Did you hear that? Your approach to the poor either insults God or honors God. Is your approach to the poor insulting God or honoring God? That’s a penetrating question.
• Proverbs 21:13: “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” That Proverb just said, “You ignore the poor, God will ignore you.” Now, we need to filter this, like all of these others, through the new covenant. Our access to God is only by faith in the blood of Jesus, but we also need to seriously ask, “How much are we listening to the cry of the poor?” 

How much are you listening to the cry of people in need in our city? How much are we listening to the cry of people who are starving in Sudan or in Gaza right now? Not just listening through an American-centered political lens, but through a Christ-centered personal lens when it comes to our use of money. This is why we have leaders in our church who are continually exploring how we can give locally and globally to people in need. Your giving to the church is helpful to that end. 

Truth #8 – God will judge those who acquire money through injustice.

• Proverbs 22:16: “Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.” 
• Listen to this language in Proverbs 22:22-23: “Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.” God will rob of life those who rob the poor. God will judge those who acquire money in unjust ways. 

Truth #9 – God will reward those who give money to the poor.

Now look at the converse of the previous truth. 

• Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” What a picture. Giving to the poor is lending to God himself and leads to reward from God himself. 
• Then listen to Proverbs 29:7: “A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” Do you know the rights, the needs, of the poor in our city, in our community? Do you know about what’s happening in Sudan or Gaza and many other places right now, in such a way that you are giving in a way that is good and right for others? 

I need to just pause here. Think about these nine truths we just flew through. Do you realize, if we lived according to these truths, if we use our money according to these truths, our lives and the world around each of us, our influence in the world, would look a lot different. We desperately need to not be conformed to the pattern of this world when it comes to money, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And here’s the beauty of doing that. Approaching money in a way that accords with what we’re seeing in God’s Word will not just lead to others thriving, it will lead to us thriving. This is good for others, good for us and glorifying to God. Win-win-win. Wisdom is thriving. 

Tip #2 – Remember that every Proverb about money ultimately points to Jesus as the wisdom of God, who lives in us and leads us to live for treasure in another world.

If you want to know how committed God is to us thriving in a way that’s totally different from the world around us, listen to this second tip for reading Proverbs about money. It’s related to that first tip about the old and new covenants. Tip number two: remember that every Proverb about money ultimately points us to Jesus as the wisdom of God, who lives in us and leads us to live for treasure in another world. That’s a loaded sentence, so let me explain it. 

First, wisdom is not just sayings on a page. Wisdom is a person who lives in us. The greatest news in the world is not just that God will forgive you of your sin when you put your faith in Jesus. Yes, that. For anybody within the sound of my voice who’s never trusted in Jesus and what he did on the cross to pay the price for your sin before a holy God, I invite you to trust in him today. He died on a cross for our sins. He rose from the dead in victory over sin, to make a way for us to be forgiven of all our sins before God forever. And that’s not all. You can be forgiven of your sin and filled with his Spirit. He comes to live inside of believers, enabling us to live the life that God has created us to live. 

Do you want to know how much God wants you to thrive with money? So much, that he will put his very Spirit inside of you—the Spirit of wisdom—to transform the way you think about money in this world and lead you to live for true treasure that’s going to last for trillions of years.

Proverbs points us to Jesus as the wisdom of God, who lives in us and leads us to live for real eternal treasure. We read this in our Bible Reading as a church family this last week. In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus says, “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” —in another world— “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Do you want to thrive now and ten trillion years from now? Then stop spending money like this world is your home. Take Jesus at his word and live for treasure in another world. 

I want to pause at this point and give you a moment, in light of all that we just  heard from God in his Word, to reflect prayerfully on this question. Before we do anything else, let’s just pause and ask, “What are two or three ways, maybe more, that I can thrive more with the money I have, not according to this world, but according to God’s Word in light of the world to come?” How is God calling you to shift your approach to money in light of his Word and the world to come? Think practically and write down some thoughts you have. 

What does the passage say?

1. Read the highlighted proverbs aloud as a group. Let group members share observations. Try not to move into interpretation of the passages or application of what you read quite yet. Simply share what you observe.

What does the passage mean?

1. Read Genesis 12, Deuteronomy 28, 1 Kings 3 and 10. What principles should we apply to reading the Proverbs in light of the Old Testament? 
2. Read Matthew 6:19, 24, Luke 12:33, and Luke 14:33. What principles can we apply to read the Proverbs in the context of the New Testament and with Jesus’s teaching

How can we apply this passage to our lives?

1. Look at your life, and what do you value, what do you pursue more: The fear of God or money?  Loving and serving people or making and spending money? Justice or money? Righteousness/Holiness or money?
2. How do you fight the temptation not to put your trust in wealth but instead in God?
3. How have you practiced giving out of the generosity that God has given to you? 
4. How are you doing in being content with your money? How do you practice contentment? 
5. What are some good disciplines you have practiced in avoiding debt? Why is it important to not fall into the danger of debt? 
6. What are some ways in which we close our ears and eyes to the poor? 
7. How are you paying attention to the poor in your city and worldwide? How is God leading you to meet the needs of your community and the nations both physically and spiritually? 
8. How can you use your money to meet your needs today and give with an eternal perspective for our future home? 
9. Out of the list of the nine truths which one are you struggling with the most right now? 
10. What are ways you can thrive more with my money according to God’s Word and in light of the world to come?

• Pray this week that the Holy Spirit will give you the wisdom to transform the way you think about money and how you can use your money to meet people’s needs now and for eternity.

If this world is not our home, then why do we spend our money like it is?

Two Tips on Reading Proverbs About Money

1. Remember that proverbs were written under the old covenant, and we are under a new covenant. 

• In the Old Testament… 
  • Obedience to God led to acquiring possessions on earth.
  • God gave possessions to His people in the old covenant to establish a place that would display His glory to all nations.
• In the New Testament
  • Obedience to God leads to abandoning possessions on earth.
  • God gives possessions to empower a people to spread His glory among all nations.

2. Remember that every proverb about money ultimately points us to Jesus as the wisdom of God who lives in us and leads us to live for treasure in another world.

Nine Truths from Proverbs about Money that will help you flourish

1. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, justice, righteousness, integrity, honesty, humility, love for people, and fear of God are all more important than money.
2. Wealth is not worthy of your trust.
3. God is worthy of your best.
4. Debt can be very dangerous in your life.
5. Contentment is absolutely critical to your life.
6. God is generous toward you so that you can be generous toward others.
7. Your relationship to the poor has a direct effect on God’s relationship to you.
8. God will judge those who acquire money through injustice.
9. God will reward those who give money to the poor.