Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

When a Mr. Blodgett won 25 thousand dollars on a TV program the master of ceremonies asked him what he was going to do with the money.

He replied, "It will probably all go to charity."

The audience broke into a tremendous round of applause while the band played for he's a jolly good fellow.

After the excitement subsided the master of ceremonies turned to the winners wife and asked if that met with her approval.

She responded, "Why certainty my name is Charity."

Here was a man who knew how to avoid a fight about money.

He simply surrendered.

Most mates do not do so, however.

Studies among students indicate that the cause for most arguments in the home are about money.

One man said his home split up for religious differences.

His wife worshipped money and he didn't have any.

Many men complain that their wife's favorite book is the checkbook.

Once they start one they can't put it down until they finish it.

Robert Schuller said, "Whether a man ends up with a nest egg or a goose egg often depends on the chick he marries."

One of Henry Ward Beecher's favorite stories was about a young man who applied for a job in a New England factory.

Asking for the owner, he was ushered into the presence of a very nervous man.

He said to the young man, "The only vacancy we have is vice-president.

The man who takes the job must shoulder all my cares."

The young man responded, "That is a tough job.

What is the salary?"

The owner replied, "I'll pay you ten thousand a year if you will take over all my worries."

"Where is the ten thousand coming from," the young man asked suspiciously.

"That my friend," replied the owner, "Is your first worry."

Worry over where the money is coming from has always been a wide spread practice.

Epicurus, the ancient philosopher, said that being rich did not end your worries, but just gave you different worries.

A modern writer said, "I know at last what distinguishes men from animals: Financial worries."

This is not the whole picture, but it is a fact, and the fact of men being worriers over money is becoming more and more evident as prices continue to rise and taxes threaten to gobble up what inflation has not already devoured.

Bird images have always been common on money.

One of the famous coins of Alexander the Great had an eagle on it, which is also true of our American currency.

A modern poet sees in this a symbol probably not intended by the engravers.

He writes, "Eagles on dollars are proper and right, because they symbolize swiftness of flight."

Money talks, but for most people it never stays around long enough for a good conversation.

Richard Armor said, "That money talks I'll not deny, I heard it once: it said goodby."

Money still talks today but it makes less cents.

All of this negative thinking about money as being a cause for worry and hard to hold on too is based on the assumption that money is good and nice to have in sufficient quantities.

Why worry about it, or be concerned at its departure if it is not good?

Christians have all the same complaints and so they too feel that it is good to have money, and that it is a positive good.

Why then is the most famous statement in the Bible about money that, "the love of money is the root of all evil?"

It is often misquoted as money is the root of all evil.

But Paul does not intend to convey the idea that money is in itself evil in any way.

It is the love of it, and the greed and avarice and covetousness this leads to that is the root of all kinds of evil.

Failure to make this important distinction has led to many false attitudes based on this verse.

Before we look at what Paul is saying we must first look at what he is not saying.

We must first speak in defense of money as a good thing.

Paul knew that money was essential for maintaining the church.

He urged Christians to give generously every week.

He also sought to collect money for the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

Paul was not anti-money man.

He was only anti-avarice.

Money can be used to fulfill the will of God and provide most everything man needs for happy and effective living.

Even the higher things of life an spiritual experiences depend upon ones ability to buy good books, music, and art.

But even the thousand and one commonplace necessities are not to be treated lightly.

Many testimonies can be summed up in the words of an unknown poet.

Money ain't everything people declaim,

To which I offer a faint

And timid objection, and beg 'em to name

A few of the things that it ain't.

It's comfort and shelter from wind and from rain,

It's chickens that stew in the pot,

It's doctors and nurses when you are in pain

What is there that money is not?

Money ain't everything-money won't buy

Happiness, optimist shout.

Still, it will get quite a lot that a guy

Cannot be happy without;

It pays for the gas and the lights and the rent.

It settles your bills at the store;

Money ain't everything, but its percent

Is ninety-nine point forty-four.

We might quibble with him on his percentage, but we must admit that even if money is not everything, it is plenty.

All of the blessings of our heritage as Christians and Americans come to us because of money well spent.

The first Christian church in Europe began in the house of Lydia.

She was a woman of means who spent her money for the cause of Christ.

Without men of means like Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus would not have had a tomb and a decent burial.

Without men like Barnabas who gave so much to the early church, many who became Christians at Pentecost would have been poverty stricken.

If time permitted, we could trace the history of Christian giving and show that everything we have to day for Christian growth is due to money well spent by those who have gone before.

We have Bibles in abundance only because of wise Christian investments of the past.

Our political heritage is another story connected with money.

In 1780 congress did not have enough gold and silver and had to go to paper money.

Britain flooded the country with counterfeit money to try and paralyze business.

The dollar sank to a worth of two cents, and there would have been economic collapse had not Robert Morris and a few other wealthy patriots come forward with their private fortunes to save the colonies from ruin.

Collectively we are all blessed because of the good power of money.

On the individual level the same thing can be demonstrated from history.

Abraham Lincoln at 18 was very poor.

He had made a small boat and was asked by two men to take them to a steam boat out in the river.

He did so and as he lifted up their trunk to them they each threw a silver half dollar in the floor of his boat.

Later, looking back on this event, Lincoln considered it a turning point in his life and he said, "I could scarcely believe my eyes when I saw the money.

I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day...the world seemed wider and fairer before me.

I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time."

Two unknown men spending fifty cents each changed the life a boy who went on to change the history of a nation, and whose image is now on our nations money.

When was a dollar ever better spent, and who can deny the power of money for good?

The point of these illustrations is not to try and cover up the fact that the Son of God was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, or the millions of other dastardly deeds done for money.

The point is to give us a balanced perspective so that we are aware that the Bible and life support both a negative and positive view of money.

In one situation money might represent the opposite of the kingdom of God, as when Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and mammon."

In other cases the kingdom and money are made one, as when the kingdom is likened to treasure buried in a field, or to a pearl of great price.

The biblical picture is not always one of God or gold, Christ or cash, salvation or silver.

It is often master and money together, as when he who was rich became poor that we might be made rich, or as when we are said to be bought with a price.

Jesus paid it all, and He was our ransom.

But you say, this is not the giving of money, but the giving of himself as a sacrifice for my sin.