Proverbs 11:24-26

24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more;
    another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

25 A generous person will prosper;
    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

26 People curse the one who hoards grain,
    but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.

Listening guide

 We can gain more security. 

There are really no _____________ that lead to _______________.

  • “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (10:4)  

  • He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” (10:5)  

  • “The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.” (10:16)  

  • “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,” (10:22) 

  • “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (11:4) 

We can’t see our own _____________



Only people who ________ ____________   have security.  .

Discussion questions

Sermon

I’m a budgeter  

Budgeter = a person who budgets (excessively?) I’ve got my little budgeting app “YNAB” and I look at it, sometimes multiple times per day! 

That financial concerned only increased with COVID. 

  • I panicked about the financial situation at the beginning of COVID, for my family and the church.  

  • Like many of us, our family has lost some income during the pandemic and you start to wonder what effect that will have.  

What I want.... what I want is what I see in the Bible. I want a sense of security apart from savings. Like these examples.... 

The Bible tells us this example of a poor widow. She has only 2 small copper coins. She didn’t worry. She was secure, even though she was financially unstable.  

There was a man who had something of a similar story. Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary to China for some years. He had one coin left to his name at one point. He gave that coin to a poor woman, and he says that as he prayed, was released by God and felt great freedom and blessing.  

Adventure 

That’s the promise today. Finances right now can be pretty hairy.  

That’s been wonderful for me, to gain a sense of security apart from our savings. A sense of security that has nothing to do with my financial stability. That is something I am slowly gaining. The next piece of the good life that Proverbs lays out for us.  

We’re looking today especially at Proverbs 11:24-26.  

The thing is, the Bible is full of instructions on money. It’s anything but easy. I’ve had some people say things like, just do whatever the Bible says and you’ll be okay. I listened to a couple of teachings on Proverbs and money and people had to list between ten and fifteen principles to cover most of it. If you are looking to the Bible to figure out financial security, that is not easy. Let me give us an example. Take today’s lesson from Jesus.  

Development 

The owner of a vineyard sends workers into the vineyard. He isn’t choosy about the workers who were ready at 8 am verses the workers who didn’t get out of bed and to work until 2. He sends them all into his vineyard to work.  

At the end of the day, he pays all the workers the same amount of money. He gives them a day’s wage. It’s a fair wage. The surprise is, they all get the same. What is the message of this parable?  

Part of it is, if you tell people you’re going to pay them a certain amount, pay that amount. Be honest with your money. Don’t cheat people. Don’t take advantage of them. Pay them for their work. But what about the people who only worked a little? Jesus pays them the full amount too.  

We see even more. God wants us to prosper, to flourish, to do well. He wants us to do well. Even if we don’t deserve it. It’s not so much that he wants us to be rich, but he wants humans to flourish. This is what is so complicated about money in the Bible.  

See, my YNAB system has 4 simple rules: Every dollar has a job. Embrace your true expenses. Roll with the punches. And 4, age your money. If you can follow those 4 rules, you’ll do okay with your money. What it can never do, it can never teach you what you should do with your money. Or take Dave Ramsay. He has 7 baby steps. I’m not going to list them all here. If you use those rules, you’ll do okay with your money. What they can never do, they’ll never teach you those should be the rules.  

Why does the Bible make it so hard then? What is the Bible doing? Why can’t God give us 4 simple rules, or 7 baby steps?  

This is the first thing we learn today. There are really no rules that lead to security. You will never have security if you just try to follow the rules to prosperity.  

I feel like I’m living proof of that. Because I’m a budgeter. I use my system pretty well. And we are fine. I’m thankful we have no debt. Remember, we have the advantage right now of not buying a house. But I don’t know if that has given me any more security. I still check my app a couple of times per day. I still think about my finances – a lot. Am I worried? I don’t know, I don’t think. Am I secure? That would be a stretch.  

Just because I say that, there are no rules that lead to security. What Proverbs does do, it describes the path to security more clearly than anyone else. Proverbs says some simple things like,  

  • “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth.” (10:4)  

  • He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” (10:5)  

  • “The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.” (10:16)  

There are many times the book of Proverbs connects hard work, ingenuity, insight, creativity, self-control, and discipline with prospering, prospering materially, prospering economically. There are lots and lots of statements in that regard. But there are plenty of times where Proverbs says something different about security.  

  • “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,” (10:22) 

  • “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (11:4) 

You know what the Bible is doing when it says all this about money?  

You read all this and you start to realize, you know, I thought the Bible was mostly about hard work, about being a good person.  

The Bible says so much about the fact that I don’t control my security. I don’t control my flourishing, my prosperity, and my well being.  

If we can’t control our sense of security, our sense of safety, our sense of well being; what does it mean that we keep obsessing about it? What does it mean that its such a constant repetition in our life?  

Point: We can’t see our own greed.  

One of the strongest examples of this, it’s 

Andrew Carnegie started the company that one day became US Steel. At the age of thirty three, he took a ruthless evaluation of his own heart and produced a little “note to self”. He wrote,  

“Man must have an idol. The amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry. No idol more debasing than the worship of money. Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately therefore should I be careful to choose the life which be the most elevating in character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty five, but during the ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in securing instruction.” (Carnegie quoted in Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods, pg 69)  

Here is the problem for Carnegie. Even though he realized this about himself, nothing changed! He did not resign business two years later. He brought many of the very character degrading effects right into his life. Steel workers worked 12 hour shifts on floors so hot they put wood on their shoes. They had filthy housing. Most died in their 40 from accidents and disease. They got one day off every two weeks.  

You hear what the Bible says about money and prosperity, it’s way too complicated for you to untangle on your own. You are never going to get this all unwrapped on your own.  

We can’t see our own greed.  

I’ve got to say, if you’re an American, you’re most likely in denial about this. I hate to say this. People honestly don’t confess a lot of sins to me. We don’t like to confess our sins. We keep them to ourselves. The one sin I don't think anyone has ever confessed? Greed. 

Americans are always saying stuff like this: “I hardly have enough to live. I hardly can make ends meet. I can’t possibly live any more simply than I’m living. I really don’t have that much money to give away. I really need all this stuff.” The rest of the world knows better. They look at the level of how we live and they say, “Are you kidding?” 

What’s the mark of being an addict? The mark of being addicted to money is that you confuse needs and wants. Everything you want, you think is a need. What you think you need to live is so far beyond what you really need to live that you feel like all your money is tied up and you ca... 

We are addicts. Americans are always saying, “I can’t give away any more. I couldn’t possibly give any more away this year. I can hardly make ends meet. I couldn’t possibly live with anything else.  

The only way you are going to achieve real security  

24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more;  

another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.  

25 A generous person will prosper;  

whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.  

26 People curse the one who hoards grain,  

but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell. 

 

Did you hear this? “One person gives freely, yet gains even more;  another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”  

That is a paradox. It’s supposed to be a paradox. It’s saying the person who tries to increase, decreases, and the person who’s willing to decrease, increases. Giving gains more, spending secures; but hoarding loses, saving wastes.  

How can that be?  

The words we’ve got translated as “give freely”, if you wanted to translate real strictly they could be “scatter”. Some translations have the word scatter. They say, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”  

How can this be? We should ask the farmers.  

Right? In fact, this word scatter is taken from agriculture. In farming, you scatter your seed, and the more you scatter, the more you gather. The more you sow, the more you reap. If you would hold on to your seed and say, “Oh no, I can’t spare any seed,” you’ll starve. But if you’re willing to scatter your seed and give it all away, you’ll gather. 

By the way, when you gather, it comes back in a better form. You probably can’t sit there and eat the seed (it depends on the seed, I know), but in general, it comes back in a better form. Now here’s what the book of Proverbs is saying. You are an addict to money. Unless you are willing to throw your money on the ground so it all dies, you’ll never have security.  

Do you know what makes this so powerful? So true?  

There is a verse in John where Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”  

You notice what Jesus says there. He says the kernel has to fall to the ground and die. He doesn’t say, prosperity and plenty and flourishing come when you work really hard. He doesn’t try to change their behavior. He doesn’t even try to get the people to think differently.  

He says, look, when a seed dies, that is when prosperity and flourishing and security come for all.  

Do you know what he’s saying? He’s saying, “Let me show you the ultimate gathering and scattering. Jesus Christ on the cross was literally broken to pieces.” You know, when they flogged him, those 39 lashes had little pieces of metal and bone on the end of the whip, so he was literally being torn to pieces. On the cross he was broken to bits. On the cross he was distributed. On the cross he was scattered. Why? To gather us. 

The cross as the ultimate scattering to gather, the ultimate act of generosity, the ultimate place of wealth distribution, the ultimate place of becoming poor in order to get real riches, the ultimate place of a seed dieing so that there is life and flourishing… When you die with him, the power of money, it will just shatter.  

Here’s the reason why. The cross, the ultimate act of generosity, is your ultimate security. Right? Do you believe in the cross? If you believe in the cross, then you know God cares for you, and that’s a security money can’t give you.  

Why would Jesus Christ have given up heaven? Why would Jesus Christ have given up his glory? Why would Jesus Christ have given up all the treasure he had? Because you and I were more valuable to him than that. If Jesus Christ valued us like that, there’s a significance money can never give you. When you are melted by that generosity, when that becomes your significance and security, you will be free from the power of money. 

Or I’ll put it this way. Whatever you treasure in your life, it will drive you. It will control you. You will feel like, “I have to have it.” It will demand that you die for it. But Jesus Christ is the only treasure that died for you, died to get you, so that you can rise with me. He will rearrange what you want and love in life.  

He will turn your money into real wealth. When you give it to the poor, you’ll see their lives being repaired. When you give it to ministry, you’ll see people literally changing forever, getting joy forever. Then you’ll finally have the wealth. But you don’t do it in order to get wealthy. You don’t do it to feel better about yourself.  

Only people who give freely have security.  

Action 

Can you do this with me? Only people who give freely have security.  

One of the starkest examples of this, I got this from someone else. During the 2008-2009 crash, many people lost millions. There is story after story of people who killed themselves because they were so overcome by despair. One man named Bill had a different experience.  

About three years before he had become a Christian. His ultimate security shifted to Jesus. He said, “If this economic meltdown had happened more than three years ago, well, I don’t know how I could have faced it, how I would have even kept going. Today I can tell you honestly, I’ve never been happier in my life.”  

That’s how it goes when the one who scattered himself for you is your ultimate security.  

People who give freely have security.