Money! We all need it. Whether it be in the form of cash, securities, items of material worth or in some other form, we must have money to compete and survive in the real world. It has been well said that "nobody gets a free ride." "Everybody pays the fiddler." "Pay now or pay later."

Very literally, "money is a defense," (Ecclesiastes 7:12). It is a defense against economic bondage, poverty and want. Money defends against hunger, embarrassment and doing without.

Learning to keep money (material things) in proper perspective is a great victory in life. Learning to manage and properly control money produces rich dividends.

God’s word is loaded with counsel and advice on how to deal with money. Thankfully, these principles are some of the simplest and easiest to implement. Money doesn’t resist and talk back like a mate or child. For many, money is life’s most perplexing element. The reason is heart-breaking. Money is such a plague to many because of the pressure they place on themselves through (1) mismanagement or (2) wrong expectations about money.

1. "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold," Proverbs 22:1.

2. Financial integrity means honesty and the prompt and satisfactory payment of debts.

3. Financial integrity means a good credit rating and refusal to purchase beyond one’s means.

B. Financial integrity also means one is not constantly in a strain and crisis over finances.

II. FINANCIAL INTEGRITY DEPENDS FAR MORE ON MANAGEMENT THAN ON THE AMOUNT OF INCOME ONE HAS.

A. To be sure, a certain amount of income is important; although, a low income person, who manages according to God’s principles, can do far better than a high-income person, who does not.

1. One does not have to be gifted to manage well. Management skills are not innate. They are acquired by people who choose to be good stewards. Some have greater aptitude in management that others, but everyone can manage.

2. Management is simply a matter of practicing the principles of the Bible on finances. They are not complex.

B. Failure to manage well produces many financial miseries.

1.Enormous stress.

a. It produces bills and constant worry about how they will be paid. Very often, this means juggling funds barely to stay solvent, dodging bill collectors and lying to them, repossessions, ruined credit and even bankruptcy.

b. Mismanagement can lead to dishonesty, thievery, misuse of the money of others, poverty, hunger and destitution.

2. The necessity of two-income families.

a. Many modern families would "go under", if both husband and wife did not work.

b. Very often the wife does not work because she wants to work; she does so because she has to.

c. Couples marry before they are financially ready, then allow their urge for material things to cause them to over-obligate themselves.

d. The result is the wife, who is often a mother, is forced out of the home and into the market place. She is then in the kind of environment most conducive to a broken home.

e. Furthermore, the parentless home is fertile soil for teen pregnancies, drug abuse, teenage crime and other failure in the children of the relationship.

3. The misery of financial bondage.

a. Financial bondage is a condition where not only what one has, but a large portion of what one earns already belongs to someone else. The one in such bondage really has no say in where the money he receives will go because it is already obligated to another.

b. Financial bondage is particularly severe when one is personally liable beyond his collateral or where no collateral exists. Examples are credit card debts and the fact that many who purchase new automobiles owe more than the value of the vehicle.

NOTE: There may be a difference between debt and true financial bondage. It would seem that debt, backed by adequate collateral on appreciable items and within one’s ability to pay without undue hardship, is not the same as unsecured over extension. Even such debt is dangerous and binds the debtor.

c. Financial bondage ruins the effectiveness and fruitfulness of multitudes of God’s people. They find themselves unable to tithe, give to missions or to help the poor. They are strapped to the world’s money markets and must work long hours "just to make ends meet." They owe more than they make and their monetary bondage doesn’t leave them enough time or energy to serve their family or church very well.

d. Proverbs 22:7 warns that "The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

 

III. THE FOUR BASIC REASONS WHY GOD GIVES PEOPLE MONEY.

A. To meet personal needs.

1. It is the intent of God that our material needs be met. Matthew 6:26-32 is an excellent treatise on this fact.

2. It is the Bible which says, "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel," I Timothy 5:8.

3. The principle of an income-generating work for the purpose of meeting personal needs was established with the first man on earth. God told Adam in Genesis 3:19, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread...."

4. A part of the money which comes to you was intended by God for your own personal needs. He knows men need food, clothing, shelter, transportat ion and other things.

B. To pay one’s taxes.

1. Jesus taught men to "Render unto Caesar (the political power) the things which are Caesar’s", Matthew 22:21. Jesus also established the legitimacy of taxes and the fact that citizens are to pay them when he commanded Simon Peter to take money from the mouth of a fish and use it to pay taxes for himself and Jesus. The incident is recorded in Matthew 17:24-27.

2. A part of the money that comes to you was given by God to enable you to pay political taxes.

C. To help the poor.

1. "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, "Deuteronomy 15:7.

2. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble, " Psalm 41:1.

3. "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again," Proverbs 19:17.

4. God has been careful to command men to give to help legitimately poor people. The lazy and sluggards are not to receive, but the truly needy are.

5. A part of the money which you receive was given to you by God for the purpose of your helping the needy.

D. To support the Lord’s work through his church.

1. He says, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it," Malachi3:10. (It can be proved from scripture that the church is the Lord’s current store house.)

2. To the members of the church which was in Corinth, Paul wrote, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come, " I Corinthians 16:2.

3. A part of all the money which comes to you was given to you by God for the support of his spiritual work.

 

Understanding why you have money will help you to use it as God intended, which is the most effective way to manage it. There are many practical benefits to good money management.