Money Is Not for Accumulating (Proverbs Sermon 9)

Andy synthesizes the wisdom given in Proverbs about money and shows that when you put it all together with the rest of the Bible, we are to use money to advance God’s Kingdom instead of accumulating it.

– sermon transcript –

I appreciate Tom sharing about George Müller because basically, George Müller’s example on money is what I want to commend to you. We got about three-quarters of the way through our study last time, so I just have a few verses from Proverbs that I wanna share, but more than anything, I want to share with you an example and a warning in reference to money. Let’s begin and look at Deuteronomy chapter 17. Now you wonder, why are we starting in Deuteronomy? Well, hopefully, that’ll become clear, but in Deuteronomy 17, we have regulations given by Moses before the Jews enter the Promised Land about what a king must and must not do if he should ever take the throne over the people of God. So there’s rules in here about a king.

So in Deuteronomy 17:14, it says, “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover,” look at this, “must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the king has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray and he must not accumulate large quantities or large amounts of silver and gold.” You just read Solomon’s life story there, the opposite of Solomon’s life story. Look at the very last part, what does it say? He must not accumulate. That’s my lesson tonight. Don’t accumulate. Don’t accumulate. It’s not for accumulation. There’s no purpose in it. It’s to be used here in this world. For what? For the advancement of the kingdom of God.

Now, Solomon was an incredible accumulator, actually. Look over at 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10 describes some of that accumulation. 1 Kings 10:14, it says, “The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents.” One talent is 75 pounds. Well, it’s a ton of gold. It’s more than a ton. That’s an awful lot of gold. 666 talents of gold every year. As a matter of fact, so much gold flowed into Solomon’s kingdom, so much came in that silver was considered of little value in his day. Parenthetically, what did Jesus say we owed? Remember the parable in Matthew 18, what do we owe? 10,000 talents. So how much accumulation is that for Solomon? That’s like 20 years of Solomon’s income or whatever that we owed. Twenty years. Why did Jesus set the stake so high? Because God is infinitely holy, and we are sinful. End of parenthesis. 

But Solomon accumulated tons of gold. If you look down at verse 26, I guess that’s the best way I can find from 1 Kings 10:26. What are the first two words you get there in the NIV anyway? Solomon accumulated. That’s all you need to know. He just did. He accumulated tons and tons of stuff.

Now, the thing about George Müller that I love is that he was not an accumulator. In his life, he was a man of faith who, God used in a mighty way to provide for orphans, to minister to orphans, and meet their needs. Every day he would have to get on his knees and basically beg bread for the orphans that their needs would be met. In his lifetime, in 64 years of ministry, he cared for 10,029 orphans. That’s the equivalent of 10,029 children. Can you imagine having 10,029 of your own children you are to feed and care for and clothed and send to Duke University, which I’ve been told is $120,000 for four years? I mean, that’s an awful lot of money. And he did. Well, he didn’t send them to Duke, but he fed them, he clothed them, he cared for them, he educated them, he evangelized them; 10,029 of them. 

All in all, when he died, he had about 60 pounds, British pounds, to his credit and 1.5 million pounds had flowed through his hands. 1.5 million pounds. In hundred years ago, American money, that’s about $8 million. So what was $8 million a hundred years ago be worth today? Hundreds of millions of dollars flowed through this man’s hands, and he had a couple of thousand bucks when he died. That’s about it. He was not an accumulator. Instead, he used his money and his riches for the kingdom of God.

Now, the Proverbs that Solomon gives us do teach us how to accumulate wealth. I think it’s good to accumulate and then disperse. There’s nothing wrong with accumulating and dispersing, alright? The point is, as soon as we get money spending it out, it goes, I think we are violating some principles that we get from the Book of Proverbs, there’s a wisdom to it. For example, we have the fun here, Jack, that every year we pay out Memorial Endowment fund. And now we’re just living off the interest on that, and every year tremendous amounts of money go out for missions because of some wise financial policies. But if you were to look at it, we’re in the Book of Proverbs now.

How do you accumulate wealth? We covered some of this last time. If you look at Proverbs  3:9 and 10, it says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine.” So the desire is that first and foremost, we would honor God with our wealth. That is as true in my opinion for a church collectively as it is for individuals.

If the church collectively accumulates and spends money always on itself, I think it’s gonna dry up, eventually.  God won’t continue to send the water flow down that tributary, there’s a blockage. There must not be a blockage on this financial issue, we’ve gotta keep the pipes clear. So a church therefore should be channeling money for the Lord’s work. But we must put God first and then he will see to it that there’s a sense of blessing, a sense of abundance.

And we also saw the blessing of God by grace, 10:22, it says, “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.” So the blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and we should pray that blessing, we should pray that God would bless us with money with wealth. Why? So that we can see unreached people groups come to Christ. Some things do cost money. Now you can’t relate money to soul saved, but it costs money to cross the Pacific Ocean. It costs money to print Bibles in the language of large populous Asian nations. It’s expensive to do some aspects of ministry, and that’s what the money is for.

We also covered live a righteous life, righteousness. Look at 21:21, “He who pursues righteousness and love finds love, prosperity, and honor.” So as you pursue righteousness, this reminds me very much of another statement on wealth, and that’s in Matthew chapter 6, Seek first the kingdom of God and his what? Righteousness. And all these things will be added to you as well. You put God’s righteousness first. And that’s a big topic, isn’t it? Remember what John the Baptist tries to stop Jesus from being baptized? And Jesus said, “Let it be so now, we must fulfill all righteousness.”

Righteousness motivated everything Jesus did. And so as we pursue righteousness here at First Baptist Church, we’re gonna see financial prosperity, and why? Because it’s not accumulating here, it’s being dispersed for the Lord’s work. Also, work diligently and skillfully. Look at 10:4, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” We have a lot of diligent workers in this church.

Also, it says in 22:29, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings, he will not serve before obscure men.” So a combination of hard work and skill tends to, in this world, produced what? Wealth. It just does. That’s good, that’s a good thing. Then disperse it for the kingdom of God. That’s how the money multiplies. Be skillful and hardworking, and then be generous. Look at 11:24-26, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly but comes to poverty. 25, A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. 26, People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.” If you put those three together, it’s the same thing. You hold on to it, you’re stingy, then you will not be under the blessing of God. Again, I think it works for corporate bodies like First Baptist, as much as it works for individuals. If we have an accumulating kind of mentality here, we will not be under the blessing of God. But if we have a dispersing mentality, we will be under the blessing of God, and he’s gonna keep the money flowing in here.

Now, this one has nothing to do… It’s here only because it’s in the Scripture, and that’s, have wealthy parents. So you wanna accumulate, have wealthy parents. 19:14, it says, “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.” And 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children. But a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous.” Now, I think there’s some truth to this. And the fact of the matter is, that we want to leave to our posterity a storehouse of wealth, but I think first and foremost, what we wanna do is leave a storehouse of a legacy, a legacy of godliness, a legacy of righteousness.

When Müller died, there was not much to disperse to his relatives, but there was an incredible legacy, wasn’t there? There was an unbelievable spiritual legacy. His relatives, his friends, those who work with him understood how to handle money. They understood how to get on their knees and ask God for things, to not hoard, to not store up, to not accumulate, but to disperse and to disperse freely.

Now, the next one, it says that we should store up wealth little by little, and here we have the ant. Look at 6:6-11. “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit, and scarcity like an armed man.” So what is being enjoined here is that we should be diligent and plan for the future, to be like the ant, to be hard-working who stores up when there’s abundance for times when there is not abundance.

The problem I have with this verse is that it seems to contradict the no-accumulation principle. Well, that’s the way Scripture is, you know? You don’t wanna drift too far to one side or too far to the other. I will say this, that Müller challenges me ’cause he seems to have accumulated nothing! He resolved in his heart that he would not accept a salary, a paid salary from his church, but rather they put a box at the back of the church, some of you may be taking notes on this and may come to me and say, “You know, it’s a good idea.” I’m growing into Müller’s fate. I would say of all the years of the faith, he challenged me the most. I mean, no joke, I’m really challenged by this guy. He determined that he would not accept a set salary, but instead, there’d be a box at the back and if you want to contribute to the ministry of the church, including meeting his needs, you would contribute there. He also resolved, he and his wife, that they would never once ask anyone or talk to anyone about financial needs ever. Never, but only to God.

And there were times that he would get on his knees and there’d be some money, some British pounds in that box in the back, but the deacons didn’t unlock the box and forgot to look after the issue. And he would get on his knees, he and his wife, and they would pray, and the deacon would literally have… This is no joke, a sleepless night, he would toss, he would turn, he would wonder why he couldn’t get to sleep, and finally, it would hit him, the locked box. And he’d go and he’d unlock it and find some money in there and bring it to the Müllers so that they could eat. He would pray that sleepless night under the deacons. Maybe I should pray sleepless nights under the deacons, I don’t know, maybe God is leading us to do amazing things, I don’t know. But just the faithfulness and the trusting of God, he would get on his knees and ask God for it.

So how do you hold that example together with the ant? I don’t know, I’ll leave that to you, but I think it’s good that we… At least this much is clear, we can have the ant’s diligence. Müller was not lazy, he was a hard-working man, and he was frugal with his money and he was faith-filled in the work he did. So he is not convicted by the ant, he’s not a sluggard, he’s just trusting God.

The final that I found in the Book of Proverbs is, have a good field and good equipment and be a good steward of them. Now, this is an odd place to stop, but I think it’s interesting. Luke 12:16, you remember the parable of the rich fool? You don’t need to turn there, but just… You remember how the parable of the rich fool be. Remember, the rich fool has a great year. Remember? And it’s just abundant harvest, and he says, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I don’t have barns big enough.” What’s a barn for in one word? Yeah, accumulation, storage, that’s what you use a barn for. It accumulates stuff. So that it sits there, and you can have plenty for years to come. And the rich fool says, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll tear down my small barns and I’ll build bigger barns so I can accumulate more.” You see? And remember what God said to him, “You fool, this very night, your soul is required of you, and who then will get the things you’ve stored up?”

But what’s interesting to me is how the whole thing begins. 12:16, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.” Now, just stop and think about how Jesus begins the parable, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.” Where did his wealth come from? From the soil, it came from something he didn’t have any claim over. It came from God. It wasn’t really his, was it? It was God’s.

And I guess, what I’m saying is, I want us to be faithful like Müller. I don’t want us to be accumulators, I want us to be open-handed, be clear pipes to allow the money to flow through us individually and corporately together for the building of the kingdom of God.

I’m gonna close tonight with the fog story, just ’cause I love it so much, and to challenge you. Thank you, Tom. I wasn’t planning on sharing it tonight, but I’m gonna share it anyway. Some of you have heard this now three times, hear it again. Alright.

Basically what happened was, for many, many, many years, George Müller had been trusting God day-by-day for the needs of, at one point, as much as 2500 orphans at any one given time. He had over 2000 orphans to care for. And again, this is a man that never raised funds, he never sought or solicited funds from anybody. Just by faith, he trusted God for their needs, and so he recorded over 50,000 specific answers to prayer. He kept a record of them. He wrote down, “We prayed for such and such and such and such happened.” 50,000 specific answer to prayer, and it would be just as simple as, “We had no food, we prayed, a bread cart broke down in front of the house and wanna know if we had any use of X number of loaves and sure enough, we did.” And send it before the orphans.

That’s the kind of stuff that would happen. God broke that axle and answered a prayer, I think, is what happened. All of a sudden they’re trotting by, then boom! I’ll tell you what, if you’re a bread cart driver, the word gets out, “Don’t drive by that orphanage. Strange things happen to your truck or your cart as you’re going by.” Many, many answers to prayer.

When he was 72 years old, he and his wife were sailing from England, steaming from England to America, they were gonna meet the President who had heard about his work with orphans who were gonna go on a speaking tour and do various things for the Lord and they were gonna start in Quebec.

They got some distance off the coast of New Finland, and suddenly a very, very dense fog bank surrounded the ship and they did not move. Now, you know why. Out there in the ocean, you might hit an iceberg, you might hit another ship, and you might sink, and so you don’t move. And so the captain spent 24 consecutive hours standing on the bridge waiting for a slight break in the fog bank, and he must have been exhausted, waiting and waiting for that fog to clear, at least some. And it says in the account, suddenly his life changed forever because 72-year-old George Müller appeared on the bridge, and I tell you parenthetically, I’d like to be that much of a life-changing kind of person, that just appearing on the bridge and having that little conversation with somebody changes somebody’s life forever, and that’s exactly what happened.

Müller appears and says in true Prussian style, and he was a Prussian, he was a German man, he lived in England all his life but he was born and raised in Germany. Alright, and he said, “I am here to tell you that I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon without fail.” They’re in the middle of the Atlantic. And the ship captain says, “I’m sorry, sir. That is quite impossible.” And then Müller answers, “Very well then, if what you say is true then God will provide another way. In 52 years, I have never missed an appointment, and I’m not gonna miss this one.”

At that point, the account says, “This man’s looking at him like, ‘What kind of lunatic asylum did you come from?'” And he said, “Do you realize how thick this fog bank is and how long we’ve been sitting here? Do you realize what kind of fog this is?” He said, “No, and I don’t really care. My eye is not on the fog, but on the God who controls every circumstance of my life.” Isn’t that something? And that had been forged with 50,000 answers to prayer, and then he said, “Let’s pray.” And he kneels down right there, and he prays a simple prayer. It’s not in the words, is it? It really isn’t.

“Father, I pray that this fog would move so I can get to Quebec by Saturday afternoon. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Something like that. At that point, the captain begins to pray. He probably felt guilty, I think, like, “Well, alright. I guess we should pray about the fog, I never did pray. In 24 hours, I haven’t prayed. Okay, so I’ll pray.” He begins to pray, Müller puts his hand on his shoulder, squeeze a little, stop. He tells him to stop. He said, “First of all, you don’t believe He will. Second of all, I believe He has. And therefore, there’s no need for you to pray.” Now, this guy’s eyes I’m sure are wide as saucers and he continued, he said, “In over 50 years, I’ve never failed to gain an audience with my king. You may get up and look through the door, the fog has lifted.” And the man walked across, open the door and the fog was gone. Praise God. 

Now, we kick this around in the Acts seminar. So what happened with that fog? What was going on with that? Müller didn’t move it. God moved the fog. What was going on there was a source of divine communication from God to his faithful servant. And he didn’t show you those kind of things lightly or quickly, you kind of work into that. When you’ve been trusting God and trust in God, He starts to show you more and more of His will, more and more of what He wants to do, more and more things. Wouldn’t you love to see that happen in this church? Won’t you love to be the kind of church where people just kneel down and answers to prayer happen like this? Wouldn’t you just love to just kneel down and say, “God, we know you’re sovereign of all things. Do X, Y and Z.” And then God does it. Not because we’re kings, we’re not. He knew he wasn’t, God is the King, but because he’s communicating His will to us then we’re praying effectively. Wouldn’t you love to be that kind of a church? It’s a matter of stewardship. And I think the money, it all fits together. I want us to be faith-filled with what God gives us.

Let’s close in prayer. Father, we do thank you for what we’ve studied tonight, it’s been appropriate. We thank you very much for the answer to prayer about the passport. We thank you also O Lord for what you’re gonna do through that, and we do pray now in Jesus’ name that you do mighty things, O Lord. Do things O Lord, with those that are already there. Do things with those that are going to go there between now and when we leave. Do things when we’re there. Lord, just do awesome things there. You know exactly what we’re praying for, we’re praying for conversion, we’re praying that people who are imprisoned by sin would rise and go forth and follow you. And we ask this in Jesus’ name for their sake. We wanna see great things done in that country.

And Father, we thank you for the money and the finances that you’ve given this church. This is a wealthy church, by almost any standards. Father, I pray that there would be no accumulation here, no blockage, but rather just a flowing and flowing and flowing of resources for the kingdom of God, and we’re gonna see the budget grow, we’re gonna see amazing things happen as we trust you and as we build your kingdom. Father, I thank you for the patience of those that sat through tonight and we went a little longer, I just pray in Jesus’ name, Lord, make us faith-filled people. Thank you for your servant, George Müller, who taught us faith by his example, O Lord. I pray that we would imitate his faith, as it says in Hebrews 13:7. Father, we thank you for the day we’ve had in your house, and now as we go on into our world, pray that we’d go empowered by the Spirit to be witnesses for you, Lord Jesus, we pray in your name. Amen.