Stewardship: Dedicate It
Here is the second thing to do with your money.
2. Dedicate it.
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. Did you catch the first word of this passage? Honor. That means to give weight to, set aside as the top priority, don’t forget it. Give honor to God with your money. As soon as you get it, remind yourself that it is not yours. When Proverbs mentions wealth it isn’t talking about the day you become a millionaire. It is just talking about your stuff – your paycheck, your apartment, your car, your DVD collection, your sweet video game suite, your computer, all your stuff. Give proper weight to God first.
Remember, it isn’t yours to begin with. God, your Master, is appointing you to distribute it according to his directions. So make sure you are honoring your Master by first dedicating all of it to Him.
Stewardship: Earn It
So what do we do with money? If all of it belongs to God, and he has established us as his stewards, what does he tell us to do with it? He has not left us without instructions. He has given us careful, detailed directions for how to handle his money in a way that honors Him. Here is the first of those directions.
- Earn it. We have to get money if we are going to steward it, and to get money we should earn it. It isn’t wrong to make money; it isn’t wrong to make lots of money. In fact there are men and women in Scripture who are noted as people of wealth, both from the Old Testament and the New Testament. Here is how the father in Proverbs tells his son to make money:
- Earn it through faithfulness. Proverbs 28:20: A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished. Proverbs 13:11: Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. For many of you in my parents’ generation you are thinking in your minds right now, “Amen! That’s true!” And for many of us in my generation you are thinking, “Ahhh, crud. Even the Bible says that. I thought it was just my grandma.” I know I definitely don’t like to read that in Scripture. I want it to say, “Be faithful to God and he will suddenly give you millions of dollars.” Bing! Bang! Boom! I am done with work and toil and waking up to go to the office. But God tells us that we must earn our money through faithful, ongoing work.
- Earn it through hard work. Proverbs 14:23: In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. Furthermore, consider Proverbs 13:4: The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Talking about getting a job doesn’t get you a job. Talking about your dream self-started business that is going to make you millions doesn’t make you millions. Hard work leads to profit. Hard, tenuous, toilsome, tough, painful, laborsome, back-breaking, sleep-missing, sometimes-wish-you-could-fire-your-boss, sometimes-wish-the-lottery-odds-were-better kind of work is what leads to profit. The soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Be diligent and work hard.
- Earn it with great caution. 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. We have all experienced this, right? You get a paycheck and it is gone in a moment to this bill, that bill, that debt, this debt, this meal, that meal. It seriously took wings and flew away.
This is the balance to the hard work described earlier. Don’t kill yourself or your family because you work too hard. Your paycheck will be gone soon. Do not put your trust in your money or your paycheck.
notes on Proverbs
About three years ago, God used Proverbs 1-2 to shape my heart. Whitney and I were in our first year of marriage, she was pregnant, and I was feeling like I had to grow up fast. The wisdom of these early chapters of Proverbs were so helpful. I truly enjoyed God’s kind and severe words through Solomon. I have recently re-discovered some of those study notes. I wanted to post them here for better future tracking. This first one is some general comments and notes on the book of Proverbs.
ONE: On the author. It is interesting to me from the beginning to remember that Solomon is the following as he writes proverbs:
1. a son (of David): think of all the proverbs there are about fathers
2. a son of a king (of David): think of all the proverbs there are about kings
3. a king (of all of Israel): again, think of all the proverbs there are about kings
4. a rich man
5. a wise man through his prayer to God (1 kings 3:5ff)
6. a man who blew it in the end, but God still used him (1 kings 11)
TWO: On prayer. It is hope-giving to know that the entire book of proverbs might be a response to Solomon’s prayer when he first took the throne. it is also sobering to know how truly God hears and answers prayer. see 1 kings 3:5ff.
it is worthy of noting that solomon asked for an understanding to govern people. he was given understanding and wisdom. and he gave away understanding and wisdom. in other words, what he received he gave. he did not ask for wisdom and give music. solomon was remembered for what he asked God for: wisdom to govern.
THREE: On my pride. This is strong. in my life i must confess that i will not listen to good instruction if there is one little thing wrong with the man. if he does not live out his message perfectly, i would rather slander him. all the while, i fail to realize:
1. i don’t live out the messages of my mind very much, and
2. God uses men who don’t live out the message, too.
FOUR: On God’s communication to us. It is encouraging to think of all the different ways that God seeks to communicate to us/command us in his written Word. and surely he is creative and diverse still today through his Holy Spirit.
FIVE: On teaching the Proverbs. Teaching by proverbs is…
1. much easier than expository or systematic
2. demanding of wisdom and experience (to make such broad general strokes about life)
3. not hard to prepare or organize in one sense; but in another sense they are very difficult because of the experience they demand. furthermore, every proverb is a literary masterpiece, packed with insight and wisdom.
4. easy to remember
5. easy to prove or disprove
6. more weighty because of how bothersome and affecting they can be if they are true
7. common in all cultures and parts of life. (think: as the saying goes…, my dad always said…, don’t ever forget this one thing….). it was also common during the OT time. Egypt had wise men (Genesis 41:8); Edom was known for its wisdom (Obadiah 8); Babylon had wise men (Jeremiah 50:35).
8. indisputable if correct. you can’t argue with the straight up facts of life.
9. is expressive, but not explaining. proverbs just state or express truth; they really don’t defend it that much. along this line, too, it is good to remember that every good rule has an exception. the same is true with proverbs.
