Rick Warren - Lessons from a Shrewd Money Manager—Part Three

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We are so glad

you're here. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren.

So let's join Rick right now for the final part

of a message called Lessons from a Shrewd Money Manager.

The seventh thing that we learn in money management is

that money shows how much. Money shows what I love most.

It shows what I love most, and that's the next verse.

In verse thirteen, Jesus talks about the fact that money

really reveals my priorities. It shows what I value, what

I love most. Verse thirteen, Jesus says no servant can

serve two masters. You ever try to serve two bosses.

Doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's a stress on you.

It says he will either hate the one and love

the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise

the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Now,

once you circle the word cannot, this verse is filled

with deep spiritual truth, and let me pull out a

few of them.

Number one.

Notice here he says it is impossible to live with

divided allegiance. He doesn't say it's difficult to live for

God and money or it's hard to live for God

and money, or it's stressful to live for both God

and money. He says, you cannot, it's impossible. You cannot

serve God and money. And so the real stress in

your life going on right now is not what's in

the economy that's symptomatic on the outside. What's the real

stress is what's going on inside you. You have a

divided heart, and the heart of the problem in your

stress is a problem of the heart.

It's you're trying to serve two gods at once.

You can't say, my number one goal in life is

to make money, and my number one one goal in

life is to serve God. You can't have two number

one goals. One has to be subordinate to the other.

You have to decide what's going to be God in

your life, God or money. And if God is God

in your life, then money takes a subordinate role. It

takes a secondary position. It's not as important as doing

what God wants you to do. And if God says

do something but it costs me money, I still do

what God tells.

Me to do. You can't have two gods.

Now, God doesn't want your money, it's all his anyway,

what you think is yours is really his. What he

wants is what it represents, your heart. He wants your

heart now, he says here in this verse, no servant

can serve two masters. In other words, I'm going to

have to choose what I'll love most in life. You

know it doesn't work. He lays it out in black

and white. He isn't vague. You see, tell me how

you're spending your time, and tell me how you're spending

your money, and I'll tell you what you love most.

Now you may say, well, I love Jesus the most.

Well, it doesn't matter what you say. What matters is

what you do.

I mean, I could say to you, I think it's

important to spend time with my kids.

Do you do it?

No? Then it's not important to you. I could say

I think it's important to read the Bible.

Do I do it? No?

Then I don't really believe it's important. It's not what

I say is important, it's what I do. If you

want to know what you love most, look at two things.

Look at your calendar and look at your checkbook stubs,

or your bank statement or your credit card report. Because

the way you spend your time and the way you

spend your money shows what you value most. He says,

money shows what I love most. Now write this down.

Love people use money. Okay, write this down, love people

use money. That is the biblical basis from money management.

I am to love people and I am to love God,

and I am to use money as a tool. Now,

if you get that reversed, you're in trouble because if

you start to love money, you're going to use people.

If you love money, you'll use people. But if you

love people, you'll use money. And when anybody starts to

love money, they will use people to get more money.

And there are plenty of users in this world because

to them, money is more important than people. Money is

to be used, not loved. Now, there's nothing.

Wrong with making a lot of money.

In fact, I pray for you that you I pray

for those who are members of Saddleback Church. I pray

for my flock that you will be financially successful.

I pray for that for you.

Why not so you can be some fat cat, but

so you can make a difference, so you can be

do good in the world, so that you can further

the gospel, so that God can use you in ways

that you can't be used if you have nothing, no resources.

So I pray for your financial blessing all the time.

And there's nothing wrong. You ought to make all you can,

and save all you can, and give all you can. Okay,

there's nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesn't

become your god, as long as it's not in first

place in your life. How do I know that God

has first place in my life? Look at my time

and look at my money.

Now.

The choice, he says here is always between God and money.

It's very easy for money to become a god. Now

follow me on this. When I live for my money,

it becomes my master. When I give my money, it

becomes my slave. When I live for money, it masters me.

When I give my money, I'm telling where it goes.

I'm in control. When I say I want to save this,

I want to spend this, I want to invest this,

I want to go give this. That means I'm in control.

Money serves me instead of me serving money. And if

God gives you something and then tells you to give

it away and you couldn't give it away, you don't

own it.

It owns you.

A lot of people are possessed by their possessions. Oh,

I could never give that up. Then it's your idol.

It's your idol. And so he's saying, here, learn to

love God most Now, finally, number eight, the best use

of money, not the only, but the best use is

to invest it in getting people into heaven. And at

least some of your money you should use in this way.

It's not the only way, but the highest use of

your money is to invest it in getting people into heaven. Now,

in verse nine, we have one of the most misunderstood

miss in interpreted verses in the entire Bible. Most people

don't know what this verse means. In fact, when you

read it, it sounds crazy. In verse nine, Jesus says this,

I tell you use worldly wealth, that's the money your income.

Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves. What I

was supposed to buy friends, so that when it is gone,

you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Remember how the

unjust guy, the steward, he goes out and he gets

some friends by cutting down their dead. He says, use

worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so when it's gone,

you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings. He's talking about heaven

there and does that verse shock you? Let me tell

you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean go out

and buy friends. It doesn't mean you can buy your

way into heaven. It doesn't mean you can purchase your

eternal self.

Salvation is a gift. It is free.

You can never earn it or buy for it. By it.

It's a gift. What it does mean is this, use

your money to build relationships that are going to last forever,

eternal relationships, by winning people to Christ. Use your affluence

for good influence, use your affluence for insuance. He's saying,

whenever I use my money to help somebody become a believer,

to follow Christ, to become a Christian, then that person's

going to be in heaven forever and ever and ever,

and they're going to be an eternal friend, and they're

going to be eternally grateful because I use some of

my money to help them get into heaven. And he says,

if I use some of what I make my worldly

wealth to make friends for eternity, I help people come

to Christ, then I'll not only be rewarded in heaven,

but I'll have these friends.

Forever.

It's the longest term investment you could ever think of.

Now.

Notice in this verse it says use worldly wealth to

gain friends for yourself. So when is gone, you'll be

welcomed into eternal dwelling circle. Welcomed into what's he talking about.

He's talking about who's gonna meet you when you get

into heaven. Imagine getting to heaven and when you walk

through the gates, there's a crowd of people who are

there because you use some of your money to help

them become believers, and they go, Oh, Mary's.

Finally here, She's finally here.

We've been waiting for you. You're the last one to die.

We're glad you're here. All of us are here because

of you. Will that be worth it?

Oh? Yeah?

And so when he says, take some of your money

and use it that way. When you take some of

your money and you use it to help somebody go

on a peace trip and they go on that piece

trip and somebody comes to Christ, that person is heaven gonna.

I'm here because of you. When you use some of

your money to go on a piece trip yourself and

somebody comes to Christ and that peace trip, then they're

gonna be people in heaven saying I'm here because of you.

When you take a friend who's not a believer in

Christ yet and you take them out to lunch and

you buy them lunch and you just be a friend

to them and you love them and you help them

with the problems they're going through, and when the time

is right, you invite them to church and you tell

them your testimony, you share your story, and they become

a Christian. You have just invested for eternity. When you

buy a Hallmark card for somebody who's just had a

loss in their family and you write a little word

of encouragement and a Bible verse and tell them that

Jesus loves them, and then he has a plan for

their life, and you just you're building that relationship. You're

making a friend for life, and when that person comes

to Christ, they're going to greet you in heaven. When

you take some of your money and you buy it,

go buy a Christian book that was meaningful to you

and you give it to a friend, you have just

invested in eternity, because when they come to the Lord,

they're gonna be there. He says, so that when you're

welcomed into eternal dwellings are there. When I walk into heaven,

I'm going to be greeted by thousands of people because

I've helped thousands of people come to Christ. Step across

that line, and there's gonna be people that go, Rick,

come here because you you help me know the Lord,

and I'm gonna be greed. I want when you walk

into heaven, I want there be a crowd to welcome you.

I don't want you walking into heaven and nobody's there

to greet you, because nobody's in heaven because of you

as your pastor. I want you when you walk into heaven,

people going, look, he's here, Bob's here. Bob, you help

pay for my expense to go to the Men's retreat,

and at the Men's Retreat.

I accepted the Lord. Jerry's here, Jerry, Jerry.

You took me on that white ot a rafting trip

that saddleback did and sitting around a campfire, I gave

my life to Christ with a group of men. Thanks Jerry.

I'm your friend forever. I'm a friend for the next

one trillion years. That's the stuff that's going to last.

I want people in heaven cheering you because you invested

your life the way and time and money the way

Jesus says to Now, let me give you a little

wisdom sage advice. You know I'm a grandfather now, so

I can give you grandfatherly advice. Okay, here's the grandfatherly advice.

Don't waste your money on stuff because stuff doesn't last.

Stuff doesn't last. I don't care what it is. It's

all temporary. It's gonna rot, it's gonna rust, it's gonna

wear out, it's gonna go out of style, it's gonna

get stolen, it's gonna lose its value. Stuff doesn't last.

Nothing on this earth is going to last. This building

is not going to last. Those trees are not going

to last. Your car is not going to last. That

piece of art at home is not going to last.

In fact, on this planet, there are only two things

that are going to last for eternity, only two. One

of them is the Word of God. The Bible says

heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will

never pass away. Why because truth is eternal. So you

invest in in truth, you invest in God's word. Number two,

there's one other thing that's going to last for rather

Oh yeah, it's people one of two places, heaven or hell,

and where I spend my time and my money may

determine where some people spend their eternity. So I want

to suggest that the best investment of your life is

not and your money is not in the stock market,

but the best investment of your money is in the

Word of God and in people, because it's the only

stuff that's going to last everything else you're leaving behind.

People say, well, you can't take it with you. That's true,

but you can send it on ahead. And you send

it on ahead by investing in people who are already

going there, and you do it while you're living. You

can't do it after you die. You can only do

it while you're living. Do your giving while you're living,

so you're knowing where it's going. As a pastor, I've

done a lot of funerals, and most of you probably

don't know that. For people who don't have clothes or

suits to wear at a funeral, you know in the

bodies in the caskets. Funeral homes sell what's called funeral suits.

Funeral suits and funeral suits are just their nice suits.

They look like any other suit, and you put the

body in those funeral suits, and then they put them

in the coffin so they look real nice tigh coat

and hold it the The only difference between a funeral

suit and a regular suit is this.

They don't have any pockets. Why they don't need them.

I've never seen.

Anybody's in Oh, I need a pocket in my suit.

When I'm in that casket.

You don't need it.

You're not taking it with you, but you can send

it on ahead. The Bible calls it storing up treasure

in heaven. Did you know that while you're here on

earth you can actually be investing in heaven for yourself?

Jesus said it several times. It's called storing up for

yourselves in heaven. Look at this verse on the screen.

Jesus said this, store up for yourselves treasure in heaven.

Did you know you can store treasure in heaven? And

notice who it's for? It's not for God. It says,

store up for yourself. Are you sending anything on a head?

Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where moth and

rust don't destroy it. It's not gonna rod, it's not

gonna rust, and where thieves can't break in nobody can

steal it. The economy isn't going to take it away.

It's the only one hundred percent sure investment for where

your treasure is there, your heart will be.

Also.

I heard about a guy saw a cartoon a while back,

and he gets to heaven and they take him over

to his home and said, here's your home. He's just

got this little shack between two giant mansions. And he says,

you know, how come I don't have a mansion. They said, oh, well,

this is all the material you sent ahead. You send

in any material ahead? Or are you spending it all

on interest payments for yourself? You invest in people who

are going there. That's an eternal ira and it pays

dividends for trillions of years.

Let's bow our heads.

As we close. Let's do some honest evaluation. Does God

really have first place in my life? If God looked

at an audit on me right now and looked at

my schedule and looked at my checkbook or my credit card,

how I'm spending my time and money? Is God really

first place in my life? Can God trust me with

what He's allowed me to have? Am I acting like

it's all mine rather than's just on loan from God?

Am I forgetting that?

One day I'm going to give an account of what

I did with what he loaned me. There's the way

I'm using my money show that God can trust me

with more? Or is my track record saying no, he

can't trust me with even what he's given me?

Am I looking ahead? Am I planning my spending?

Am I procrastinating or acting quickly on getting out of debt?

Do I need to face some facts and sell off

some stuff and maybe even move Have I loved money

instead of using money? Have I realized it's a spiritual

test and that God can't trust me with spiritual power

if he can't trust me with material possessions. But you say, Lord,

I want the way I use my money to show

that I love you most, that I trust you most.

I know I can't serve two masters, and I choose

you God to be God.

In my life, not money.

And help me to use it, to invest it, to

spend it, to give it, to share it all. Wisely,

help me to realize that the best investment is to

in getting people into heaven. Lord, I know that my

messed up finances are a symptom of a messed up life,

and I need you to be the manager. I need

you to come in and clean house. I've tried finances

my way and they don't work. I want to do

them your way. I want to learn your financial plan,

and I don't want to wait any longer.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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