Our 3rd Gift To Manage: Wealth -- Part 1

I want to start today by talking about unseen dangers. These are the little-known dangers that are around us, all the time. You can look just where you live and find them!

Did you know…

• Household dryers can be dangerous? Dryers cause more than 15,000 house fires every year.
• Toothpaste is poisonous?
  If you shallow too much of it can actually kill you!

There are dangers like this from everyday items that we use all the time. I saw something funny online when I typed in “warning labels” on Google…

These are labels from the Fourth Annual M-LAW Wacky Warning Label Contest…

On Shin pads
"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

On a toilet
"Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."

MY FAVORITE label On A Jet ski
"Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."

WINNER - HEAT GUN THAT WARNS: “DO NOT USE AS HAIRDRYER”!

The scary thing to me about these is that they had to put these warnings out because someone tried to DO there things!!

The gift we’re going to look at today is another amazing gift that can do a lot of good in our lives and others lives, but there also is a major danger comes with it.

It’s a danger that most of us don’t even think about, but it’s serious! It has the power to ultimately destroy our lives!

We’ll look more at that in a second, but first…


Let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. 3 Sundays ago, we started our new “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

You only have 1440 minutes given to you everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes “Time Management” a holy thing!

LAST week, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is health. I showed you in the Bible that God cares about all of us – not just our spiritual health, but also our mental, emotional and physical health!

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life you have.

You can read these last two talks on the “Life Management” Blog (here). You can also email your friends to read any posts that you think they’d like!

Today we’re going to look at the 3rd gift. The third gift God’s given us to manage is Wealth.

This gift has one major danger.

It’s the danger that we’ll begin to seek this gift MORE than the gift giver – that we’ll love and rely on it more than God! The danger is that we’ll look to it as the source of our provision, instead of God.

Jesus warns us in Luke 16:13 - "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So, the question is…

How can we protect ourselves from the danger of this gift?

The first way is to remember that God is the ultimate source of whatever amount of wealth we have!

Some of you might think, “Wait a minute! God didn’t give me my wealth! I worked for it!” That might be partially true, but God gave you the ability to gain wealth.

In Deut. 8:18, Moses told the Israelites not to forget, after God brought them into the promised land and blessed them, that He was their ultimate source! He said in verse 18... "Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors…”

When we forget the REAL source of our wealth we forget who to thank and who we really owe!

I think I told you this story before about a conversation between a self-made millionaire and his pastor, but I want you to hear it again…

The self-made millionaire told his pastor, "I started out with nothing. My parents were broke and didn't give me a thing. I put myself through school. And from the time I was a kid till now, nobody's ever given me anything."

The pastor asked, "You did it all by yourself?" The man said, "That's right." The pastored asked, "And nobody's ever given you a thing?" The man replied, "Not a thing."

”Well, let me ask you this," said the pastor. "Who gave you life? Who gave you your marvelous brain, your talents, your natural abilities? Who changed your diapers and put food on your table as a child? Who taught you how to read and write? Who spent hours, weeks, and years educating you?"

The pastor continued, "Who gave you your first job? Who mentored you in business? Who lent you money to start your own business? Who raised a little girl and nutured her into a woman who could give you herself, her love, and your children?"

Still the pastor questioned him, "Who buys your products? Who takes care of your customers and manages your offices?" Who gave you your health? Who cleans your home, your office buildings, and the toilets?"

The pastor finished by saying, "If you can still look me in the eye and tell me you've done it all by yourself and that nobody has ever given you anything, then my last question is: Who has blinded your eyes and given you such a foolish, arrogant, and ungrateful heart?"

The self-made millionaire was silent for a few minutes. It was one of those eureka moments. Then he said, "What do I have that I haven't been given?"

This self-made millionaire started a letter writing campaign. He wrote to everyone who had influenced his life and said, "Thank you!"

This man's name is John Marks Templton and he said in his autobiography, "For more than 30 years my family sent Thanksgiving cards, rather than Christmas cards to our friends, desiring to spread our gratitude for the many gifts of life."

We need to always remember that we got where we are today because of other people’s help!

Ultimately, we owe all that we have and all that we are to God!

Remembering He’s our source and thanking him regularly is one way to protect and insulate ourselves against the dangers of wealth.

We’ll look at some more ways to protect ourselves later, but first I want you to understand that God has given you the wealth you have, and because of that, He wants you to manage it in the best way you can!

If we manage it the right way it can bless us, bless others and bring glory to God. If we don’t, it can be a curse to you and your offspring!


I want you guys to understand that God cares not just about you giving your money, but also about you growing your money and not wasting it!

If you come to be with a church you EXPECT me to warn you about the dangers of money. You expect me to talk about sharing/giving your money, which I will, but first I want to talk to you about how to grow it and not waste it!

If we’re going to use our money in ways that please God we have to know how to handle it better! Listen to how Jesus ends this parable in Luke 16:10-12…

10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

God cares about how we handle our money!

How we handle worldly wealth, is in some ways, practice for the “true riches” that come from God!

That’s why I want to show you today 3 ways that can help us manage our money the right way.

Let’s look at the first way…

Continued tomorrow...