Hello, everybody. Good morning. My name is Alex. I haven't been here before, but I'm
also from Faithful War Baptist Church. And the title of my sermon today is, The Love
of Money is the Root of All Evil, or another title you could put for the sermon is Beware
of Covetousness, which is talked about here in this chapter. The title of the sermon comes
from verse 10. If you look down your Bibles with me, in verse 10, it says, For the love
of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they have erred from
the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So the Bible tells us that the
love of money is the root of all evil, and it also calls this sin covetousness. So we
see that word covet in that verse there where it says, which while some covet it after.
So the Bible says in Exodus chapter 20 verse 17, which is one of the 10 commandments.
In fact, it's the last of the 10 commandments. The Bible says, Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's
house, thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. So the Bible tells us it
is a sin to covet something that belongs to somebody else that's desiring something that
doesn't belong to you. Now, Jesus also said in Luke chapter 12, verse 15, and he said
unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesses. So Jesus says, our life is not about just having as
many things as you can. It's not about how many things you can own or the wealth or the
riches that you gain in this life. That's not what life is about. So look down in your
Bibles with me in First Timothy chapter six at verse five, the Bible reads perverse disputings
of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness from
such withdraw thyself. So the Bible says that people who think that gain is godliness, meaning
people who think that getting as much riches as you can is somehow means that you're godly
that those people are destitute of the truth. And there's a lot of people out there who think
that the whole purpose of life and everything about life is just to get as much money and as
much riches as you can. The Bible says we should not have that attitude. Here's what the Bible says
in contrast to that in verse six, but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought
nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content. So the Bible is telling us that we should be content with the
things that we have, right? The food and the raiment. Exactly. Yeah, we should be content
with the things that God has provided for us. You know, he provides our needs. Obviously, money is a
tool that we can use. It's something that we need to provide for ourselves and for our families and
the people that we love. But it's not something that we should love. It's not something we should
seek to have as much as we possibly can and just have great riches and possessions in this life.
The Bible says in verse nine, but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. So they that will
be rich mean those that want to be rich or those that desire to be rich. Again, those who love
money, those who seek after riches. The Bible says if that's you, you fall into temptation and a
snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts. So if we seek riches in this life and we desire
to be rich, then that can lead you into other sins as well. For the love of money is the root
of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after
righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. See, we as Christians should not
seek after riches. We should not seek to just be wealthy in this world, but rather we should seek
about the things that are more important, the things like righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness. And the Bible defines money not just as what we would typically think of as
money. Sometimes when we hear the word money, we might think of like currency, you know, coins,
dollar bills, that sort of stuff. But the Bible also uses the word money to refer to actual
property as well. It says in Exodus chapter 21, verse 20 to 21, and if a man smite his servant,
or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding if he
continue a day or two, he shall not be punished for he is his money. So the Bible says this man
who is a servant, he is somebody's money because he's making wealth for for his boss. So therefore,
the Bible calls him money because he's an asset, right? Even the dictionary has this definition of
money as well. I found this on dictionary.com. One of the definitions of money is property or
assets with reference to their realizable value. So again, it's not just, you know, coins, it's not
just notes, but it's things that have value as well. So not loving money doesn't just mean not
coveting, you know, actual physical coins and currency, but it's anything that has monetary
value. It's desiring or seeking the riches of this world to have, you know, some people want the
fanciest cars and the fanciest houses and the fanciest clothes and the best food they possibly
can, or just the best of everything. Some people just want to have as many riches as they can. The
Bible says we should not have that attitude. We should not love money. We should not love property
and material items as well, because that's not what this life is about. Now, turn with me in your
Bibles to Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs chapter 20 and go to verse 20. I'll give you some time to
go there. While you're finding the verse, I want to talk about an example of something that is
common today that could be considered the love of money, and that is lottery or scratch tickets.
It's something that I've seen in this world because I myself used to work at a quick trip,
a gas station that's common in the Phoenix area, and I would work at the cash register and people
would come up and either redeem their tickets or they'd buy a lottery ticket in hopes of getting a
lot of money. Now, what is that? That's people loving money, so they want to get as much as they
can instead of working for it so that they can provide for themselves and provide for their
family. They just love money because they just want as much as they possibly can. So, I'll give
you some time to turn there. Proverbs chapter 28 verse 20. Another example is gambling. Some
people want to gamble, you know, go to casinos, etc., in order, again, to get rich fast, to get
money as quick as they possibly can because people love money. People covet the things of this world.
They want riches and wealth. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 28, in verse 20, a faithful man
shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. So, the
Bible says those that make haste to be rich, that would be trying to get rich quick, the Bible says
they shall not be innocent. So, that's a sin to desire to just be as rich as fast as you can,
and it contrasts that with a faithful man. Why does it contrast us with a faithful man? Because
a faithful man is somebody who's reliable, somebody who's trustworthy, somebody who actually
does a good job at their career and who isn't cutting corners and isn't stealing and lying.
People who actually work because they're an honest person and they're earning honest gain,
right, contrasted with somebody who's going to cheat and lie and steal and get money through
dishonest gain and try to get money as fast as they can by whatever means possible. That's a
person who loves money and that will lead people into other kinds of sins as well.
Just turn over the page, just one or two pages of Proverbs chapter 30, so just two chapters ahead,
chapter 30 verse 8 and 9. I'll start reading in verse 8. The Bible says,
remove far from me vanity and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches,
feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee and say,
who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain.
So this man, he's praying that not only should he have vanity and lies removed for him,
but he says, give me neither poverty nor riches. You see, it's obviously not something that we
want. We don't want to be poor, right, but we shouldn't want to be rich either. We should
want to have the things that we need provided for us and we should thank God every day that God
provides for us food and another day even, you know, that we can live another day and that God
has given us all kinds of blessings and not just complain about we don't have the best things in
this world. We should be content with the things that we had as we saw earlier and the Bible says,
lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the
name of my God in vain. So he gives an example of if somebody has riches, they might be full
and deny the Lord and say, who is the Lord? And we see that today that there's a lot of people
who, especially richer people, who don't want anything to do with God, whether it's people
that are unsaved or even people that are saved. People who are saved, they don't want to go to
church, they don't want to serve God because they think that they have everything that they need.
They think that life is just about building up the riches on this world and in this life.
The Bible says we should not have an attitude like that. Another example of a sin that
the love of money could lead us into is the sin or that the world is led into is that there's
people out there who will preach lies and preach false doctrine because of the love of money.
And we see that in Titus chapter 1 verse 10 to 11. For there are many unruly and vain talkers
and deceivers, especially they have the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped,
who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.
You see, there's people out there today who will call themselves preachers and call themselves
pastors, but they don't teach the word of God and they will not teach the whole council of God,
preach lies, preach false doctrine because they love money, because they want to get as many
people in their churches as possible. And even there's a lot of people who will have ministries
that's online or on the television, televangelists, people like Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland,
people who love money. Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. So there's a lot of people out there like Joel Osteen and other examples of
people who love money and will teach lies and not preach the whole council of God, not preach the
Bible, because they want as many people in their church as possible or even people watching on
television or online, then they send money in the mail, etc. So that's one of the greatest evils.
The Bible tells us false prophets are wicked. The Bible says they're reprobates. They're
destined to hell because they can never get saved, their minds are blinded. The Bible tells us that
false prophets are extremely wicked people, but as Christians, as people who are saved,
there's other sins that we could be led into by the love of money. Some examples include people
will steal from each other. That's a pretty obvious one, right? People will steal because they love
money. Like I mentioned earlier, people will cheat at their job. People will not work hard. People
will be lazy. And the Bible says that being slothful or sluggly is a sin. So what attitude
should we have as Christians instead? Well, the Bible says in Matthew chapter 6 verse 19,
the Bible says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust
doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love
the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon.
And mammon is basically another word for wealth or the riches of this world. So somebody who
loves money and who seeks the wealth and the riches of this world, the Bible says that that
person cannot serve God. He says to lay up treasures in heaven and not lay up treasures on
this earth. So we should focus on spiritual things, we should focus on the things of God,
what God wants for our lives. As we saw in the chapter in the beginning, 1 Timothy chapter 6,
where he said, you know, to flee those things, to flee the things of covetousness and loving money
and to follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. And later
in the chapter, the chapter we start at, 1 Timothy chapter 6, it says, charge them that are rich in
this world, that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who
giveth us richly all things to enjoy. You see, there's some people who are blessed with riches,
there's some people who are rich who are godly Christians, and the Bible says that those people
should not trust in those riches, but rather to trust in God and not to be high-minded. So maybe
you've had a life of a lot of riches and a lot of love and money and wealth, but now the Bible
tells us that you should, you know, stop trusting those things and the things of this world,
but rather trust God and serve God. Now it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it tells us what happens
if we seek the things of God instead. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11 to 15, it's talking about
the judgment seat of Christ when God will give us rewards after he comes back. It says,
for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build
upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work
shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,
but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. So the Bible tells us that if you spend your time
building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, gold, silver, precious stones, those things are
going to abide the fire. That represents things of eternal value. For example, if you win somebody
to Christ, you preach the gospel, witness to somebody who you know, a family member,
maybe somebody else at this care center, just anybody you know, you preach the gospel to them,
they get saved, that's something that nobody can ever take away. So that's something that will
abide the fire, that's something that will last for eternity. Versus the wood, the hay, and the
stubble, that represents things which will be burned up in the fire. The Bible says if those
works shall be burned, you shall suffer loss, but you'll still be saved, right? Of course because
once somebody's saved, they can never lose that salvation. But the Bible says if you do what God
says, if you lay up for yourself treasures on this earth, you will have a reward in heaven. So maybe
in the past you've loved money, maybe you've been covetous at some point in your life, I don't know,
but the Bible says that you should not love money, not covet the things of this world, not seek to
lay up treasures in this life, and just thank God for the things that you have. Thank God that He's
provided your needs, your food, your raiment, etc., and seek to serve God in any way that you can
so that you could have these eternal rewards in heaven. So in conclusion, money is something we
need to provide for ourselves and our families. Like I said, it's a tool, it's something that's
needed to survive, but it's not something that we should love. We should not love riches,
we should not seek to have as much gain as possible, but rather we should seek godliness.
Because the things, the spiritual things are more important, so we ought to spend our time laying up
treasures in heaven and not things on this earth. So thank you everybody and let's bow our heads and
have a word of prayer. Thank you Lord for this opportunity to preach and thank you Lord for
everybody coming here this morning and we pray that you please help nobody in this room to be
covetous to help us, Lord, to thank you for everything you've given and provided for us.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.