(Basics) 46. the Love of Money Is Evil — Zac Poonen

God and Money as Opposing Masters

Today, we want to consider a little more in depth about how God and money are two opposites, and if you are attracted to one, we will reject the other. Let's look at Luke chapter sixteen and verse thirteen once again, where Jesus said no servant can serve two masters, and the two masters are God and mammon, mammon meaning money and material riches.

Either you will hate one and love the other, or hold on to one and despise the other. If you love God, you'll hate money. If you hold on to God, you will despise money. If you love money, it proves that you hate God.

If you hold on to money, it proves that you despise God. It's as clear as that. In fact, in one Timothy six and verse ten, it says the love of money is the root of every sort of evil. Not money. Money is not the root of all evil, but the love of it.

How the Love of Money Stunts Christian Growth

And many people wander away from the faith and destroy themselves and create a lot of problems for themselves, it says there in those verses in one Timothy six. So, if we don't get this matter of money right in our life, we're going to have a lot of problems.

We'll never be able to grow in the Christian life. And I'm convinced that this is one of the main reasons why many believers do not make progress in their Christian life. They seem to be stunted, like little children that have never grown up.

Why Negative Preaching Cannot Defeat Greed

How can we love God more than we love money? Is it by preaching and preaching and preaching that we should hate money? No, that doesn't seem to work. A negative message like that will only produce Pharisees who imagine that they hate money and imagine that they love Jesus and imagine that all other believers are not like them.

They'll be self-righteous. That's not the way. Here is an example. Think of a young girl who's deeply in love with a young man and who feels that she cannot live without him. And she's always thinking about him, trying to meet him, telephoning him, writing letters to him because she's deeply in love with him.

Now, he may not be a good man. He may be a bad man. And the parents may try to tell their daughter, give up that relationship. Give it up. Stop loving him. Hate him. And it doesn't work. It's just like telling believers to hate money.

It doesn't work. And the parents keep on telling the girl, no, he's not a good boy for you and that's not the type of boy you should be in love with or marry and give it up, give it up, give it up, give it up.

Nothing happens. They continue to meet secretly and no matter what the parents say, her love for that man just increases. This is exactly how it is with many believers. They hear hundreds of sermons on hating money.

It doesn't make any difference. They still love money and secretly they are attached to it, just like this girl to this boy. And then, now listen, one day a miracle takes place. This girl now meets another young man who is far more handsome, far more considerate, far more kind and better behaved and with a better job and better prospects and in every way more attractive.

A New Love That Drives Out the Old

And suddenly her heart is filled with love for this young man. And she never wants to see that first young man anymore. What the parents did not succeed in doing in so many years, in one moment this man has come into her life and accomplished.

And she never will reply to the phone call of that first man. She finished corresponding with him. She says, I never want to see you again. I finished with you. What happened? Her parents are delighted because this new man is a very good man.

How did she get rid of her love for that first man? There we see how we can get rid of our love for money and material things. Your heart has to be filled with love for someone else. That's the only way.

That new love will drive out the old one. It's like light driving out the darkness. Supposing a room is filled with darkness and you switch on the light. What happens? The darkness and the light cannot live in the same room.

Till then that room is filled with darkness and in one moment it's gone. Just like this girl. For so long her heart was attached to that bad man. And the parents could never remove that affection from her heart.

But once she found this better man, she's changed immediately. So we don't preach a negative message. We lift up Christ. And when your heart is drawn to love him, when you see Jesus as he really is, when you love the Lord with all your heart, automatically, without any effort, you'll find that your attachment and love for money has disappeared.

Hypocrisy Between Sunday Worship and Daily Life

So what shall we say if this girl outwardly says that she loves this second man but secretly still corresponds with the first man and telephones the first man and secretly meets the first man. What would you say?

You'd say she's a hypocrite. She's only pretending to love the second one. She's actually still in love with the first one. Now this is the condition of many, many believers. They say they love Jesus.

Every Sunday they get up and sing songs which are like wonderful love letters written to Jesus. Some of these hymns that we sing on Sunday morning are like love letters to the Lord. Fantastic love letters.

But throughout the week we are interested in the first man. What does it prove? We're just hypocrites. We don't really love the Lord at all. And why don't we love the Lord? You can't force a person. You can't take this girl and say, Come on, you must love this man.

Love is spontaneous. You can't force it. If it doesn't come automatically, it's just not there. And it's only when you get to appreciate a person, it's when this girl appreciated the second boy, that's when she was drawn to him.

And it's only when we really see the glory of Jesus, how good God is, how loving he is, how much he gave to purchase me to be his own, how he suffered and lived and died on this earth only for me, then we will love him.

And when we love him like that, the attraction of these earthly things just vanishes. So, it's very clear that even if you call yourself a believer, if you still love money and material things, you do not love Jesus with all your heart.

It is impossible to love God and mammon. And if you say you don't love mammon, but you pursue after it, aren't you telling a lie? If you say, No, I don't have any interest in that first boy anymore, but every now and then you're running after him, aren't you telling a lie?

It's exactly the same. You say, but we need money to live on this earth. We certainly do. I said that right from the beginning. We're not saying we don't need money. Even Jesus needed money to live on this earth.

Distinguishing Provision from the Pursuit of Wealth

But he never ran after it. That was not the goal of his life, to make more and more and more money. No. Let me ask you a question. Are you excited when you suddenly get a lot of money unexpectedly? Are we longing to make more and more money?

If your answer is yes to either of these questions, that means you're excited when you get more money. You're longing to make more and more money. Then it is clear, my dear friend, that you are loving money.

You do serve mammon. There's nothing wrong in getting more money. There's nothing wrong in getting a very high salary. No. You can get 50 ,000 rupees a month and still love God. It's quite possible. It's not a question of how much you earn.

I'm not saying you can love God only if you get 300 rupees a month. That's not what Jesus taught. It's not a question of how much you earn. It's a question of whether you love, whether you run after it.

That's the point. Now many believers are so foolish that they think that if they get more money, that is an indication of God's blessing on them. Some believers even wish that God would help them one day to win a lottery.

Gambling and the False Promise of Financial Blessing

And if they can get that bumper price of 10 lakhs, having bought a ticket only for 1 rupee, boy! You know, lotteries are one of Satan's means to lure people to worshipping money, gambling, hoping to earn a 100 ,000 rupees by paying 1 rupee or 5 rupees.

What's the use? How are you getting that 1 lakh rupees? 100 ,000 people have bought tickets and you are cashing in on the disappointment of 100 ,000 other people in order to be lucky. You are getting 1 rupee given by 100 ,000 people.

Is that the way God wants us to live on this earth? That's what lottery is. Where do you get your 100 ,000 from? 100 ,000 other people have bought tickets and you want their money. That's not God's way for us to earn a living.

No! Do you think Jesus would buy a lottery ticket? Many people think that that will make them happy. It's evil to live off the money of other people. It's better to have a little that we earn on our own.

Biblical Warnings About the Desire to Get Rich

Don't think this is an indication of God's blessing. God's blessing is not seen in material things. Jesus was poor and he was the most blessed. The apostles, Peter once said, silver and gold I have none.

Paul was poor, he had to work with his hands, struggle to earn a living. You know, in the Old Testament we have an example of Lot and Abraham. Abraham never wanted to get rich, but God blessed him and he was rich.

But Lot wanted to get rich. He went to Sodom to make money. You read about that in Genesis 12, Genesis 13 and all the way up to Genesis 19. What is the result? He destroyed himself. Balaam, he wanted to get rich as a preacher.

What is the result? He lost his calling and went to hell. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha. You read in 2nd Kings chapter 5. He wanted to get rich. He not only missed the opportunity to be the next prophet after Elisha, but he also brought leprosy upon himself and his children.

You see, so many examples. Judas Iscariot, he wanted to get some money and destroyed himself and went to hell. We have enough warnings. Demas, he could have been an apostle like Paul. He could have written scripture.

Instead of that, he went after money and destroyed himself and lost his calling. Dear friends, take it seriously. The Bible warns us, those who want to get rich will fall into temptation and to many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

Loving Christ Wholeheartedly

There is only one way to escape it. Say, Lord Jesus, I want to love you with all my heart. Not 90 of my heart. With all my heart and all my life and save me from this terrible evil of the love of money.