The Love of Money (Compliation) — Compilations

The Deception of Presumed Conversion

And I'll tell you, the hardest people to get born again are the born-again Christians. They're the hardest ones, because they think they're already born again, you know. They're so hard to... So you've got to do exactly what Andrew was telling us.

That's the deception. People are convinced they're saved, and you've got to talk them out of it. And you've got to talk them out of it. Now, any page of the Bible, basically, will tell you you're not really a Christian and so forth until, you know, there's some holiness in your life.

Goodness, that message comes through so loud and clear. And you've got to talk them out of it.

Possessions as a Test of the Heart

More and more seriously, we scale down the house I told you I built. I sold that house.

And, you know, it was tough, because when you love money... It's so interesting, you know, because I, at one time, used all the props that people use today, you know. And they say, well, I've sat in many people's homes, these, you know, lavish homes, to say, this all means nothing to me.

You know, that's like, that's like, that's like sitting in someone's living room and packed to the, stacked to the ceiling are pornographic magazines and them saying, inwardly, I'm pure. You know, that's like the person taking a knife and stabbing into someone's back and saying, inwardly, I'm a loving person.

That's like the drunk saying, well, inwardly, I'm really sober, you know. I mean, come on, you're only fooling yourself. If this means nothing to you, then get rid of it. Because it could mean a lot to people who are starving and people who are waiting to hear the gospel for the first time.

Because it could mean a lot to people who are starving and people who are waiting to hear the gospel for the first time. If this means nothing to you, then get rid of it. As, as people who are deceived, but who are in reality, pure in heart, are confronted with the truth and they will believe it.

Now, those who have something great to lose, if they accept the truth, they're the ones that have set up these impenetrable barriers in their hearts that will be exposed as the wolves in sheep's clothing and the scribes and the Pharisee types.

But I believe there's a whole slew of sincere people who just don't know any better and they think this is what Christianity is. And when someone comes to them and just like the rock on the hammer keeps telling them the truth, shining the light into their lives, they're going to wake up and say, oh my God, what have I been believing?

What have I been doing all my life? Because that's what happened to me. I was persuaded gradually by the word of God. And I had, I realized that the gospel has been so twisted and so perverted, you know, today that it's almost, you know, it doesn't hardly even resemble anything in the scripture.

You know, it's so different. The word repentance is a forgotten word. It's a forgotten concept. You know, it's just not even said. And you hear guys say, if you preach repentance, that's legalism because you're adding works, you know, to salvation.

That's baloney. If, you know, Jesus preached repentance, John the Baptist preached repentance, all the apostles preached repentance. Jesus said, go and preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins. If you have not mentioned repentance, you have not preached the gospel.

Your gospel is heresy if you don't tell people to repent. It's utter heresy. And when you stand before Jesus, he's not going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You know, he's going to say to all those guys, you are a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Depart from me. All you did was deceive people.

Solomon, Abraham, and Prosperity Teaching

I'm a pretty preacher and so forth, and I could take any, all these scriptures and just twist them.

You know, I'd say, well, you know, God made Solomon rich, you know, as if that was like the reason God's going to make all of us rich. And then I went and I read in the scripture where God said hundreds of years before the guy Solomon was even born, he said, when you guys decide to get a king, don't let him multiply silver and gold.

Don't let him multiply horses and don't let him multiply wives for himself. Did Solomon obey that little commandment there? Totally ignored that. The wisest man became the most foolish man who ever lived.

His wives turned his heart away from God and he became an idolater. So why would you ever set up Solomon as the example for the church? He was an idolater. You know, did he love his neighbor as himself?

No, God made him rich because he didn't ask for riches. Initially he asked for wisdom and God said, I'll give you wisdom. And of course the wisdom would be, use the riches I give you to love your neighbor as yourself and do good.

But Solomon didn't use it to love his neighbor as himself, he used it to love himself. It's obvious 700 wives, 300 concubines, that's a thousand, thousand women for one guy. He didn't even know all their names.

How demeaning that is to women. Is that loving your neighbor as yourself, taking 999 wives of other men? God made Abraham rich. I'm going to be rich like Abraham. You want to live in a tent for all of your life?

You know what I'm saying? You want to be rich like Abraham? Yeah, have a tent all your life because he never moved out of his tent. Did he ever have running water? No. Did he ever have a wristwatch? No.

Did he ever see a flush toilet in his life? The guy squatted over a hole. You want to be rich like him? The guy squatted over a hole. You want to be rich like him? If you just live in America, you are already so fabulous.

How many have one of those machines that has four wheels and a steering thing and you can drive hundreds of miles in it? Solomon would have given his whole kingdom to have one of those things. Am I telling you the truth?

We're so wealthy by historical standards and by the standards of the world today. This all means nothing to me. Well, if it means nothing, then give it to somebody who it will mean something to like survival or like the gospel or like something else that could save their life or save them for eternity.

Selling Possessions and Funding Missions

And I used to teach, you know, God wants to give you more and more and more. And then one day I read the Bible where Jesus told his disciples. He didn't say get more. He said sell what you already have.

He said sell what you already have. He wasn't saying get more. He was saying get rid of what you got. Lay up treasure in heaven. And I had never in my life met a single Christian who had ever done that.

I never heard a single sermon about giving away your possessions. I began to preach at my church. I mean, and people were like rolling their eyeballs and, you know, gagging and we're not coming to this church to hear how we can give it away.

We're coming to church to hear how we can get more for our greedy selves. That's what they were coming for. And I changed, you know, and they didn't like it. And I started telling them, you know, that I was doing it.

I said, you know what? Last week I sold my dining room set. We're giving the money to charity. And I said, how many places do you need to eat? You know, you got the kitchen and you got the kitchen table.

Then you got the back patio with the back patio table. Then you got the dining room with the dining room table. And if you don't like any of those places, you got the TV tray so you can watch the TV when you stuff your face.

You know, come on. So my congregation, I'm selling my guns. I had guns. I had, you know, I had shot my guns in years. I just had them. Well, if that isn't a treasure, what is? It's just a thing sitting there rusting away.

I sold my gun and gave the money to charity. And then I realized, you know, I'm getting all these little things. I got this house which I'm making payments on for the next 25 years. I don't have to do this because I've got enough equity that if I sell this thing, I can get out of debt completely for life and I can take that $900 a month that I was spending on me because I love me so much.

And I can start loving my neighbor as myself. And that's how I started my ministry. That's how I started going overseas. I said to my board, this year I don't want to raise because I was up to $70 ,000 a year.

And I said, this year I want a deduction by $20 ,000. They about fell off their chairs. How many pastors ever said that to their boards? Cut me by $20 ,000. I said, cut me by $20 ,000, but I want to use that money for missions.

And so I didn't need that money. I had that money for missions. I had my mortgage money for missions. I started ministering to pastors. And I'm not trying to set myself up as some great example because I'm a hypocrite in many, many ways.

Repentance from Comfort and Trust in God

I'm repenting in this conference because I'm thinking to myself, I minister to these pastors every single month. I'm telling them, don't lay up treasures on this earth and so forth. And yet things that we take for granted, we got our health insurance.

We got our life insurance. We got our retirement savings and so forth. And I eliminated the health insurance because I just can't afford it. But I can't afford to believe God. Hallelujah. Look at me. Do I look sick to you today, man?

No, sir. No, sir. Praise God. I'm a Pentecostal. I believe in divine healing. Hallelujah. What happens if you get sick and die? I go to heaven. Big deal. But you were a fool. If you would have had health insurance, you could have prolonged your life.

Yeah, I could have prolonged my life and let those orphans starve. Yeah, I could have prolonged my life and let those orphans starve. And let those orphans starve. You think I'm a fool? I don't think so.

You think I'm a fool? I don't think so. There's so much pain in this world. What is it that keeps me holding on?

Yeah, I could have prolonged my life and let those orphans starve.

Yeshua's promised a world of love. Is it that keeps me holding on? You think I'm a fool? I don't think so. Gotta let it go. Gotta let it go.

The Sermon on the Mount and Obedience

How many know that Matthew chapter 6 is in the Sermon on the Mount? We're supposed to be making disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded. And again, I don't want to be the guy pointing the finger.

I want to be the guy confessing my sins. You know, I was a pastor for 10 years, never once preached from the Sermon on the Mount. You know, I'm supposed to be teaching people to obey all Christ commanded.

And here's the most compact compilation of His commandments. I never taught it. Why? Because people didn't want to hear it. I knew that, and I wanted to build a big church. And if I did, if I was forced to mention these, like if someone asked me a question, oh man, I would quickly dig into the guys who would help me to understand what Jesus must have really meant.

How many know what I'm talking about? You know, they've written thousands of commentaries to help us understand what Jesus really meant. Alright, so here it is, Matthew 6, verse number 19. Do not, do not, everyone say, do not.

Okay, is that like, what does that mean to you? How do you interpret that? Yeah, yeah, not a suggestion, not a hint. You know, do not, do not what Jesus? Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth.

Oh, thank God I'm not laying up any treasures because I don't have any boxes of gold coins and rubies and diamonds. Oh, thank you Jesus. I'm off the hook now. But, how do we define treasures? Well, he said here, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Okay, now, boy, that means it could be more than just those gold doubloons I one time had in that treasure chest. Verse 19, where rust destroys. So, now, that's not really a contemporary example. All those things, what they have in common in that day is that they were temporal in nature.

They were destined to perish, right? Not really needful, not so useful, destined to perish. And when you die, you leave it all behind. You know, you always hear those guys saying, you never saw a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer, you know, that's not, you don't take it with you.

And so, if Christ were here today speaking, I think he'd say something like, don't lay up treasures on this earth where the Nasdaq can fall by 50 in a very short time. My hand is up. How many lost money and have lost money in the stock market?

Just come on. Yeah. Don't you feel stupid? You know, my hand's up, okay, so I'm not condemning you. Don't you feel stupid? Don't you wish you had given that money away rather than just let it be sucked away?

And you're looking at number one stupid head, okay, right here, just, you know, here it is. Don't lay up treasures on earth where fads are constantly changing the style and you've got to keep up with the Joneses.

My hope is fixed upon eternal treasures. So I'll just keep on looking up each day. So I'll just keep on looking up each day.

You ever buy a new car before? Yeah. Oh, the new car, you know, the new car, you know, you keep it polished and shiny and so forth. But every one of those cars that you practically worshipped at some time winds up in one of those crusher machines at the junkyard and they just get sold for junk, doesn't it?

That gives us a better perspective, an eternal perspective. Don't waste your money on stuff that's going to perish. You're an absolute utter fool when you can lay it up in heaven where it never perishes.

You know, I have these guys, these financial guys come and say, you know, if you're a wise guy, you're going to be saving for retirement because you've got a plan for your latter years, blah, blah, blah.

Well, yeah, there's wisdom that if you hate your job and, you know, eventually you want to work full time for Jesus, you want to retire and go to the golf course and play bridge and watch soap operas and go to hell, fine.

But if you want to retire and work for Jesus, now that's godly. See, but when I retire, I'm going to do the same thing I'm doing right now. But I thought, yeah, that's wisdom for people who are going to retire, but I'm never going to retire, so I don't need that.

And secondly, if I'm really wise, I'm going to lay up treasures for the big eternal retirement. You're getting me here. It's so much wiser, so much wiser. And so then Jesus goes on to say, verse number 20, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven when either moth or rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal.

Now listen to this, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You reveal what your heart is by where your treasure is. It's just that simple. It's not, you know, well, I can have these things, but as long as I have the proper attitude towards it, it doesn't have me.

If you have it, it shows that's where your heart is at. You wouldn't have it if you didn't want it. Now again, the guy stabbing the person in the back, inwardly I'm loving, no you're not. The drunk who says inwardly I'm sober, no you're not.

The porno attitude says, you know, I'm really a pure person on the inside. You're just fooling yourself. If you got it, it's, you know, it has you. And that's why scripture says these outlandish things like, if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

Yet, you know, you say, oh, I'd be content. But if you're not content with what you have right now, which is much more than food or covering, you would never be content with food and covering. Bible says, listen to this one, this is straight out of the Bible.

Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have. Okay, so juxtaposed to each other, you know, it's one or the other. If you're not content, you love money. I know that's hard, so I'm not expecting a lot of amens, but that's the truth.

So much pain in this world. What is it that keeps me holding on? Yeshua's promised world of love. What is it that keeps me holding on? Let it go, let it go. My cheek. As I read in your word, the promises you'll keep in the end.

You will hate the one, love the other, or hold one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, brothers and sisters, my dear brothers and sisters, it would be worth our while to meditate on these scriptures a long time, very deeply.

Because America's God, there's no doubt, is money. They're devoted to it. They worship it and so forth. It controls their lives. They derive their happiness from it. And that same thing is in the church.

And it's interesting, Jesus never really contrasted anything else that is a direct competitor for the hearts of people like he did money. Money is like the chief enemy of God in the sense that it can be a tool for good if you obey God with it, but it can be what drags you into hell.

Because scripture says, no greedy person will inherit eternal life. And Jesus said, I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was hungry, you fed me. But you didn't, so you go to hell. So our possessions, what we do with our money is the major test of what's really in our hearts.

The Pharisees were lovers of money, full of darkness, full of pride, thinking, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. I fast twice a week. I tithe of everything.

I'm a tither. The Pharisees were scrupulous tithers. Jesus said, you guys tithe your garden herbs, your mint and your dill and your cumin. You're so big on tithing, you Pharisees. Why? Because you have to pay for your buildings.

And the most important thing is to pay your tithes. But the truth of the matter is, you can tithe and go straight to hell because you love money. Yeah. Especially when you're tithing with the sole purpose of, I want to get more.

And how you motivate me to give my tithes is that promise that I'm going to get more back in return. And so I'm not giving because I love God. I'm giving because I love me.

Oh, I did that for so many years.

I do believe, give and it shall be given unto you. But not so when God gives it back to you, you can lay up treasures on earth and go to hell when you die. I believe he gives it back to you to replenish so you can give more.

And continue to be content with your wages. This is not a way, you know, this is the John the Baptist conference. When they said, what should we do to repent? John said six things. Whoever has two coats, share with him who has none.

If you've got food, do likewise. The tax collector said, well, what should we do? And he said, don't collect more than what you've been told to collect. The soldier said, what should we do? And he said, don't accuse anyone falsely.

Be content with your wages and don't take money from anyone by force. Did you hear that? Five out of the six things that John said had to do with money, at the initial, initial repentance of people just making a decision to begin following the Lord.

And we got a Bible, you know, here's a guy that comes, he's looking for eternal life. And Jesus says, okay, sell everything. Give it all away. And the guy walks away very sad. And our Lord said, how hard it is for those who are wealthy.

And that pretty much includes everybody who's wealthy, doesn't it? He's not talking about this one guy. Well, Jesus only said it to one man. Use the same logic. Jesus only told one woman to repent of adultery.

Does that mean there's only a sin for one woman to commit adultery? You know, you're twisting the word. And the disciples were shocked. Who can be saved? You know, my God, you know, who can be saved then?

You know, because it seemed like it was so hard. It's so hard for a rich man to be saved because he's unwilling to repent of his greed and love his neighbor as himself, the second most important commandment.

You know, are you being convicted? I'm being convicted. Glad I came to hear myself say this because this is really piercing my heart. You know, to think, you know, man, I better get my act together. If you behold your brother in need and close your heart against him, how does the love of God abide in you?

The false heretical prosperity gospel has crept in to even those who say they're against it. But in reality, they're living it out in their lives. And so, Lord, expose anything in our hearts that's not right.

Lord, if we're greedy, oh, my goodness, we don't want to find out on judgment day. I'd rather find out right today than when I stand before you. And so thank you, Lord, that you love us enough to rebuke us.

We know that the wise person receives the reproof that the fool hardens his heart. And so we don't want to be fools like Solomon was, wasting our money on self-indulgence when you've entrusted so much to us.

We, the richest people in the world, have a great responsibility to be good stewards so that we're ready to stand before you. And so continue to deal with us in this regard, oh, Lord. And I pray that this coming revival here or else, Lord, that you're bringing to pass by your power and by your grace will touch us in that area, that there'll be a massive outpouring of normal Christian giving, of people that don't love money, and so they don't cling to it at all, and their trust is in you.

They rejoice in being able to pray, give us this day our daily bread, because we don't really need anything beyond today. Lord, we can trust our Father. Hallelujah. It's so good to know you. Help us to know you in this way, that we might show our faith.

Pray this in the lovely name of Jesus. Amen.