Note taker. I'm going to do our last message in our Vision 2025 series. This is called the Wise Man's Wealth. And let me tell you about a guy named John. I met John through our mutual neighbor.

Our mutual neighbor lived right in between Angie and I and John and his wife. Our mutual neighbor's name is Jason. This was about 2005 or 6. One day, Jason and I picked up John on the way to a pickup basketball game. Jason was a new believer.

He and his family had come into our church. They were from Minnesota. I didn't know people actually lived in Minnesota. I'd only heard about that in elementary school. And so he was my first Minnesotan friend.

He had never heard the gospel. He and his family, we witnessed to them. They came into the church and he said, hey, next door neighbor John, he likes basketball like us. Let's go play ball with him. Invite him to this thing we were doing on like a Tuesday night.

So we pick up John, and on the way, we stop at a gas station because Jason's about out of gas. And so they go in and John wants to make a good impression on his new neighbor. And so he buys some lottery tickets, and he gives me a lottery ticket. That was our first interaction. He didn't know that I was a preacher, and he didn't know I was a Christian.

So he didn't know that I might think that playing the lottery is, you know, a tax on the poor and on the disenfranchised. So in that moment, when he handed me that lottery ticket, I had two choices. I could say, man, thanks, that's so kind of you, but I don't gamble and I'm against the lottery. Now, remember, this is a lost man. And I knew this, or I thought, or probably not going to win anyway, right?

The numbers are against you. So what can I say? And I had a split second, and I prayed this prayer. Holy Spirit, help me. He handed me that ticket.

And here's what I said. I thanked him and I said, I tell you what, if I win, we'll split the winnings. Is that cool? He goes, you got a deal. And I thought, okay, Lord, help me with this.

I decided not to make it an issue because we approached money and possessions differently in that moment. And here was a guy that I wanted to meet, the Lord. Little did I know that this brief encounter would lead John to visit our church. His eyes got big as baseballs when he saw me up there preaching. He believed in the gospel.

He was baptized. And, pastor, that story has A happy ending, doesn't it? Oh, no, no. He ended up getting a divorce, and then cancer knocked on his front door and barged its way in, and it took his life. And so that's how his life ended, dying of cancer.

But you know, when you die of cancer and you know Jesus Christ, you go to heaven. And man, at his funeral, I was so thankful, so grateful that I didn't tell him, don't give me that lottery ticket. I don't believe in gambling. By the way, don't give me a lottery ticket. I don't believe in gambling.

Don't do that. I don't need another illustration. But what I want to illustrate to you is people think about money and possessions differently based on whether they know the Lord or not. And Proverbs shows us how to think about money and possessions. And if we think biblically about these things, it's the best safeguard against greed.

It's the best safeguard against envy. It's the best safeguard against turning money into an idol. And so today I'm going to preach to you about the wise man's wealth. And I'm going to answer this question, what's the real danger of money? And I'm only going to give you two answers to that question.

What's the real danger of money? And we're going to let King Solomon answer the first question and King Agur answer the second. And they both wrote proverbs that you can find in your Bible. So what's the real danger of money? If you're ready, say yes.

Number one. Money can easily replace your trust in God. That's a danger. You don't want this to happen. Money can easily replace your trust in God.

I want you to consider Proverbs 28, verse 11. The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor, who has understanding, searches him out. You should read Proverbs twice to kind of get the feel for it. The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor, who has understanding, searches him out. I want you to consider the rich man here.

He's so full of himself. And when you mix pride with wealth, it makes wealth lose its value. It's like being blinded by your own reflection in a mirror.

David prayed in Psalm 139, verse 23, Search me, O God, and know my heart. You know, the poor who has understanding searches out the rich man, who's wise in his own eyes. And it's the same searching that David asked God to do of himself. So I want to ask you this question. Have you ever Thought that God might be looking at you through the eyes of someone you think is beneath you.

Because the rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor man, whom he doesn't regard, searches him out. In fact, searches him out means he sees right through him. The discerning poor man can often see the blind spots of the wealthy. It's a major proverb, and it highlights two key ideas. Let me give them to you now.

This proverb highlights this idea. Wisdom doesn't care about your status.

You can be what the world considers uneducated, without any resources, unimpressive, not highly regarded. And yet God can think that you're so much higher than all of that. Wisdom doesn't care about your status. The ones we often overlook might be the ones Heaven considers to be truly wise. And here's the second idea that this proverb highlights.

Your peers aren't always the best judges of your character. Hey, can I tell you, most of us, me included, enjoy living in an echo chamber. We surround ourselves with people who look and think like us most of the time. So you talk about what you think about. You think about what you love.

And all of those things are impacted by the closest people around you. So your peers aren't always your best judges. And so my question is, who has. Excuse me, who has your ear? Who can tell you to stop and you'll pump the brakes?

Who has the kind of influence in your life that they can make you think differently? I want to suggest to you that you need the body of Christ to do that for you. You need people who have been regenerated, given the new birth by Jesus Christ, so that they think and live in a way they never could on their own, helped along by the spirit of God. I want to suggest to you that you need them as your peers so that you can hear a voice that says, you know I love you, but maybe that's not the best path to take. Instead of, you know what?

I so want to be your friend. I want to applaud everything you ever say and do.

The rich man is wise in his own eyes, but the poor man who has understanding searches him out. Let me give you another proverb as we talk about the idea that money can easily replace your trust in God. Proverbs 18:11. Hey, so far, so good. Are you receiving the way I'm delivering this?

Because I can change it up. Okay. Proverbs 18:11. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city. They imagine it an unscalable wall.

See, if you don't think about Money and possessions the way God wants you to. You'll idolize it, you'll trust in it, and it will be your security. I put a wall around me. All of my efforts, all of those exams I studied for in college, all the diligence that I put into my work, now I'm safe because of what I've achieved. The rich may be insured to the max, and they may have plenty, save for a rainy day.

But when death comes knocking, it will be their moral bankruptcy that will ruin them. Because God can step over every wall we build. Those with material riches convince themselves that their money is a fortress. It's a high wall protecting them from all harm. They think, who needs God when I have enough resources to fix any problem that comes my way?

See what's the real danger of money, Pastor? It can easily replace your trust in God. But as the Bible commentator Derek Kidner wisely points out, the world sees the unseen as the unreal. You Christians believe in a God. You can't see.

He's not real. If he were real, I could see him. The world treats the unseen as the unreal. But it's the man of wealth, not the man of God, who has to rely on his own imagination in order to feel secure. I don't have to pretend like my life has got a shield around it.

Jesus already promised me. He put one there.

I'm trusting in him, not my stuff. And if it weren't for the Holy Spirit living in me, the Bible telling me this, and the local church illustrating it for me, I wouldn't believe that. I believe, just like the rich man who's wise in his own eyes in the Bible. What if I told you that out of the 10 times that King Solomon talks about wealth in Proverbs 5 times, he tells the young person to value it, go get you some of it. Organize your life so that you can have some.

And the other five times he tells the young man, don't you trust in it at all? It's fleeting balance.

Why does he do that? Why does he say, value it five times, don't trust in it the other five times because wealth is worthless at the judgment.

Proverbs 11:4. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

Did you know that you can't bribe God?

You can't take any of your stuff with you. You can send it on ahead, but you can't take it with you. And you can't go to heaven with your checkbook or your card. Now checkbooks are out I guess and say, God, I know. I lived my whole life as if you weren't there.

I heard your truth and I rejected it. I really meant to, but I never got around to it.

Can you just let me in the cheap seats? How much will it cost? You can't bribe God because salvation is not for sale. It's a free gift. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus paid for it. Don't you dare think you can.

Have you ever noticed how often the wise man in Proverbs takes a critical stance on riches? By the way, money's not the root of all evil. Loving it is. Money's just a test. It's pass, fail almost every time.

In Proverbs, the wise man speaks about riches with a tone of warning, not a tone of sympathy. Because wealth tricks people into thinking it provides real security, but it's a mirage. Proverbs 11:28. The one who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage, like the green plant. May I tell you, wealth may give you a sense of security, but it is only temporary.

How do you know that, preacher? Anyone who's faced a terminal illness knows that the security of the rich in their visible wealth is just an illusion, while the security of the righteous in their invisible God is real.

What's the danger of money?

Number two. Second answer to that question is there's a threshold of wealth that will simply overpower.

You can reach the point of no return, where if you achieve what the world calls success, you can get so much stuff that you'll never look back at God even one time. So here's King agur in Proverbs 30, and he prays with the urgency of a dying man. Verses 7, 8 and 9. Two things I request of you, God says, King Agur, do not deprive me before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me.

Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. I wondered if you saw in that prayer two economic extremes. Agar fears that either extreme too much wealth or too little will lead him away from God.

Not just having it, but not having it can lead him away from God. Because I'm not really talking to a room full of American wealth. I'm talking to a room full of earth wealth. I mean, I can just take you across the border and show you, the stuff that you have. But you might be closer to American poverty than American wealth.

And I don't want you to think that you're immune from this. King Agar didn't think he was. He thought too much or too little could take him away from God, which would be the worst thing ever. If he's rich, he might forget God entirely. He might commit verbal apostasy like Pharaoh did.

When Moses says, yahweh, the Lord says, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, who is the Lord? And that's what King Agra says, look, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? If I deny I ever knew you.

But if he's too poor, on the other hand, he might resort to stealing. Isn't that one of the Ten Commandments? You shall not steal. He might break one of God's laws, showing the world that he believes, number one, God is no help. Or number two, God's laws are impossible to keep.

Either one's terrible. Either one's false.

This is the only prayer found in Proverbs, the book of the Bible, about wisdom. In the Bible about God, there's one singular prayer in it, and it's about God. Don't give me too much and protect me from too little. Give me balance and trust in you. So if I want to summarize this prayer, I think Jesus already did it in the model prayer.

How can I summarize Proverbs 37, 8, 9? Real simple. Lead me not into temptation.

The reason? I think it's about the model prayer. I think Jesus had this prayer in mind when he taught the disciples to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. You know the model prayer, right?

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. What's the next line? Give us this day our What? Look.

What? King Agar says, feed me with the food allotted to me. It's right there.

It's the only prayer in Proverbs, and it shows. King Agar is wise in two ways. He has two virtues of wisdom in this prayer. Number one, he has what I call humility in ambition. He's like, lord, here's the plan that I have for my life.

It's not to be awesome and it's not to be pathetic. Do not deprive me before I die. He doesn't ask for great wealth, and he doesn't ask for comfort because he doesn't have it. He asks for integrity and just enough for each day. Daily bread.

That's his ambition. He's humble in it. Here's a second virtue of King Agar in this prayer. It's humility and self awareness. This guy knows himself.

He says, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord and profane the name of my God. King Ager says, God, I don't trust me.

He knows himself. He knows his own weaknesses. Instead of praying for the ability to handle extreme wealth, hey, God, give me a lot and help me do it right. Instead of praying for the ability to make it through poverty without profaning God's name, he asked for God's help to avoid both of those pitfalls entirely.

The great devotional writer Andrew Murray wrote, let us study the Bible until our hearts are filled with the thought. My one need is humility.

And may I say to you, even Moses warned Israel against getting too comfortable when they're surrounded by abundance. Hey, it's Thanksgiving's coming up, right? Let me tell you what I do to worship God at Thanksgiving. You ready? So spiritual.

I eat so much food. Testify. Yes. Mothers in law and moms cook or whatever. I mean, and I thank God for the abundance that we have.

I really do. Moses said, beware though. Deuteronomy 8, 11, 14, here's Moses preaching to several million Israelites without voice amplification somehow beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments and his statutes, which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. This has been the warning in the Old Testament.

And in the New Testament the apostle Paul says, godliness with contentment is great gain. And he says, give me food and clothing and that'll be enough. First Timothy six, eight.

I didn't have a long sermon for you today. I wanted it to be simple and I wanted the two truths to hit home. So let's apply this to our lives. Let's make a commitment today at church, among the saints of God, in this room, having heard the same truth. And let's make two commitments.

Number one, let's not build our lives around material possessions.

If you take inventory on your schedule, if you take inventory on your priorities and your objectives for the coming week, and you take the bird's eye view and you look at it and you summarize it. Does it shout just a little more money, just more me and my children? It's just about getting more. Have you built your life around the pursuit of things that are going to burn up in the judgment fire of God? Let's not build our lives around material possessions.

First commitment. Here's the second one. Let's not let wealth or poverty pull us away from God because there's a threshold of wealth that will simply overpower us. King Agar prayed against it, and his prayer is for us to follow.

Right now. Where you are has the pursuit of things and worldly success and more money and a bigger house and a better ride, sweeter vacations and a better photo dump on Facebook. Has that been what it's been about for you? Is it pulling you away?

Because here's the Lord very mercifully through the preaching of the Scriptures, with arms wide open, saying, come on back to me, come on back to me before you reach the point of no return where no one will be able to dethrone you from being Lord of your own life. So let's make these commitments. In fact, those two commitments are what I want you to bring to the prayer team today when our service adjourns. This is prayer ministry Sunday, and we value praying for one another. And you don't have to be a member of our church for this.

Anybody who's here today, after we adjourn our service, we're going to have prayer ministry up here and most people will go that way. You can come this way and we will pray for you. We will pray with you. We will encourage you. Don't leave without some spiritual resources that you need.

Pray about those two things. You won't get any judgment. You'll just get encouragement. Final word today. Real wealth is not found in what we have.

Real wealth is found in who we trust.

The wise man's wealth is his relationship with God. So let's put our trust in the one who's truly unshakable. Let's bow for prayer today. Thank you, God, for teaching us about money but not beating us over the head and clubbing us with it.

Because we know that you could and it'd be right because we deserve it. But our prayer, God, is that we would walk in the same.

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