Ep. 084 - 5 Money Myths NOT Found in the Bible

Episode Transcript

Austin
Not everything we assume about money and success is biblical. Even when it feels like common sense, American culture teaches us to glorify financial independence, pursue ever higher lifestyles, and measure our worth by our net worth. But those ideas, while popular, can subtly pull us away from a faithful stewardship and into self-centered thinking. Today, we'll explore five money myths that sound wise but aren't actually biblical.
Spencer, today we're going to start off in Proverbs 32:27. God helps those who help themselves. If you don't know this, that's not in the Bible. Proverbs 32 is not in the Bible. It ends at Proverbs 31. But this is often a common quip that we hear, whether it's in the media or whether it's from friends in our circles.
The reality is, it can be really appealing to take self-help concepts and overlay them as scriptural. So today, we want to walk through some ideas that are maybe from our civilization, our culture, really the American ethos that we have co-opted to be Christian versus or things that we think should be in the Bible, but they're not in the Bible.
So start us off with this idea of God helps those who help themselves. This is not in Scripture. And where does it come from? Why is it so? Maybe even alluring?

Spencer
Well, it's the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and it's the sense of independence that we can do it. We can take control of our lives. And there is really a level of responsibility that we do see in Scripture. However, there's a kernel of truth that then an entire framework is built around without all of the other structure of Scripture to give it form.
So we think about that again. Another corollary to this is I need to provide for my own needs. I need to provide for my own family's needs, even to the point that we look at, part of Scripture in 1 Timothy, where Paul is talking about providing for the poor within one sphere of influence and being able to take care of one's family.
In that context. And that can be co-opted to the point of saying, okay, now you you have to provide for your family. What we see in Scripture actually, is that Psalm 24:1 declares, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it ownership belongs to God. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He does not need our resources.
He actually does not need our work now. He invites us to participate alongside him. There is a responsibility of being faithful as a steward, but that's very different than taking it on our shoulders and saying, I have to be able to provide the outcome is mine. Yeah. That's that's a very different energy that is counter to Scripture, right?


Austin
Well and I think about this, too, the Proverbs always encourage us to pursue wisdom, to pursue the biblical wisdom and planning financially, but it never encourages us to pursue total independence. Right? God gives us freedom to enjoy this world, to save, to do things wisely. But he never encourages us to seek independence because independence, oftentimes what it's going to do is say, well, now I don't need God because I've got my barns full.
I have everything that I need, and I've built it all on the sidelines. I have helped myself and God has not helped me get there. I don't need God anymore. That's oftentimes that that pull that it leads to.

Spencer
Well, and we see this, you know, in the Last Supper, Jesus in John 15 saying, apart from me, you can do nothing. Yeah. So there's a sense that that spiritual, but there's a sense in a very real and tangible way that that is all of life. We need to be connected to the vine, so we shouldn't expect that.
Okay. Well, over here. Yeah. I need to pray for God's wisdom. And I need to be able to share with friends. And I need to be able to do that with my family or what have you. But over here, on this side of things, I got to pull myself up by the bootstraps and I'm going to, you know, take control of my own career.
And there's this dichotomy sometimes that can result, where we divide these, these pieces out that, there's nowhere in Scripture.

Austin
Yeah. Well, even I think about it anecdotally of my own life when we were missionaries, I knew that we were saving for retirement, sort of, but not really. Maybe this was because I was still young and in my 20s and early 30s. But the reality was I was not concerned about that whatsoever. I was maybe more concerned that was God can provide on a day to day level, right were donations going to come in was were are we going to get a full paycheck.
And God always provided. But as I've shifted as I've, I'm now getting closer to that mid-career point and we've started allocating more resources towards savings and retirement, and I see those numbers grow. There's more of a pull of me to be like, okay, where where is the market going? What is happening? Maybe it's also because of the industry that we're in, but I think it's a both/and it's my focus was not there and my focus was not because we didn't have a whole lot.
There wasn't a whole lot to lose. Right. And so I think that there's always this pull that we need to come back to, that we are reminded that God is our provider, that we don't get our provision from what the stock market does, what the bond market does. We get our provision from the Lord. He can choose to totally deconstruct the entire American financial system.
And if that happens, he is still our provider.

Spencer
Well, and we really need to take wisdom from our brothers and sisters in places like China and Iran because the Iranian church, believe it or not, is the fastest growing church in the world by many measures, and the one in Afghanistan is not far behind it. And the Chinese church is growing by leaps and bounds, and the Chinese believers actually pray that economically, they will not see the same success that we have seen in the United States, because they've seen us depart from depending on the Lord.
And they say, we don't want that. You know, we don't love the regime that we have in place, but they do remind us on a day to day basis of the difference between man's idea of success and God's idea of success.

Austin
Right. So that dovetails well, Spencer, as we contrast the church in the Middle East and Asia where there is high persecution with this idea that wealth equals God's favor. And again, we look at it and we say, there's a kernel of truth, but it's not the full truth. So talk us through this falsehood.

Spencer
Well, we see it in Proverbs. And if we take it just at face value and we don't put it in light of the rest of Scripture, again, there are plenty of different places that talk about God rewarding the person who works diligently. And there are plenty of examples, including David and Solomon, that the Lord blessed certain kings with wealth or even, people within the context of Scripture.
But wealth equals God's favor is so far from the biblical witness. We just start to list off the number of people who were, in God's favor. And yet we're not wealthy. You think about any of the apostles? Yeah. You know, you think about Mary. You think about any of the Old Testament prophets. They were the opposite. They were actually speaking to those oftentimes who had wealth, the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, and saying, you have depended on something outside of God, and now you're going to face consequences for that.
God is going to discipline you because you've been trusting in this wealth. So in fact, God's God's favor is not related to that wealth. In fact, God is frustrated by the wealth that you're depending on there.

Austin
Well, and I think about Proverbs 3:9-10, honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruits of all your produce. Okay? If we honor the Lord with our wealth and the first fruits of all of our produce, what I think the Proverbs writer here is saying is you are looking and seeing what is coming in, and you are being generous with those first fruits.
You are being generous with those things that God is providing. The therefore then is verse ten that says, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. So he is saying that there can be this abundance, but it's first out of a posture of I'm honoring the Lord with the wealth one of our favorite authors talks about.
It's not that Christians can't have wealth, it's that they can't have wealth and simultaneously be hoarding it for themselves. They have to be constantly, giving the surplus of their wealth to their poor brothers and sisters. The reality is, we aren't just intended to hoard up all of this stuff for ourselves. Wealth in itself is not necessarily evil.
It is the hoarding of the excess for myself and not being generous with a brother or sister in Christ.

Spencer
And I think here we really have to be mindful of Jesus own warnings. You know, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. You know, taken just Jesus words there, that is really a stern rebuke to those in his day and those in his day were poor compared to us in the West, by and large.
So we have to be, I think, very, very careful as well. Jesus says in the sermon on the Plain in Luke six, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. There's this sense that you have a level of dependency that you have to look to the Lord. You're blessed in that way. Even though it's difficult, he has woes instead, for those who have amassed riches and depend upon those.

Austin
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think even those ideas that we have just talked about with this idea, even in Proverbs 3:9-10, can dovetail into our next idea. God will bless you with financial riches if you are faithful. I think it's the if/then. Well, if I honor the Lord with my wealth and the first fruits of all my produce, then it is a promise or a guarantee that he will fill my barns with plenty, and my vats will be bursting with wine.
If I think of it as a transactional component, that will, I'm giving to God. Therefore God will give to me. God is not transactional, in that way. He calls us to faithfulness. But he doesn't say just because I'm faithful. If you tithe, then it opens the windows of heaven. Like these are not scriptural concepts. God is not transactional
in the if/then statement. He longs for our faithfulness and our hearts to be transformed, not so that we can just get more. Right. Tithing, giving, generosity is not giving to God, so he'll give it back to us. These are not it's not the reality. It's what is my heart's posture? Do I trust in Jesus to continue to provide for me, or am I seeking some transactional reward that is looking towards my earthly reward versus my eternal inheritance with the father?

Spencer
Well, and in Malachi 3:10, we would say, is taken out of context so often because in this setting, you know, God does say tithing. You know, if you tithe or if you give that he will open up the windows of heaven. But he's basically saying, you're being stingy with me. And so you have no understanding of what I would even do to reward you or bless you if you weren't so stingy with me.
Yeah. It's it's the conversation that you might have with a child, you know, a very young child that, the child is withholding any kind of, goodness from siblings or others. And you're saying I have enough? I can help you, you know, don't don't, believe that, you know, these actions are going to be ultimately for your good.
That's what our Heavenly Father here is saying is you're making poor decisions. I have enough to be able to bless you and do everything that I need. If you give and if you are faithful, you will not be harmed by being faithful, right, there. Instead, you'll know me in a deeper way rather than saying, hey, if you give me two, I'll give you three back.
You know that that's not what the Bible, I think ever is really going towards, and certainly not what we see in the Apostle Paul's writings to the church in Corinth. You know, if we think about 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and he's he's focusing on the generosity of the church in Macedonia and helping the church in Jerusalem. They're giving out of their poverty.
And he's saying, this is beautiful, and it's beautiful in some ways, because they're doing so out of a deep desire and a joy that they have. So the heart's posture is so much different than, hey, Paul, you know, if we send on these two to Jerusalem, do you think we'll get 4 or 5 back? Right. You know, as a result.

Austin
Right. And I think that transactional peace, that idea of, well, I deserve God's blessing. And that blessing becomes a financial blessing. It doesn't become more of the Lord. We who we long for more of Jesus, we don't long for more of stuff. And I, our family right now is going through a 30 day prayer time for Iran.
And one of the stories that we heard of last night was that believers get arrested frequently just for being a Christian, so they're sent to jail. And then the bail that they have to owe is often the title to their home or their business. And so if they flee the country after they've been arrested, then they have given up their home or any sort of financial success.
They're purely arrested because they're following Jesus and they're talking about Jesus. And their reward is not that they get more right, it's that more of their stuff is taken from them, but they still find it. I can't tell you how many stories I've heard of believers, our brothers and sisters in Iran who have been arrested for their faith.
And they say, I count up my joy to go back and continue to share my faith, even though everything was taken from me. Right. And it's this counter culture. It's this totally different view, because their view is my eternal inheritance with the King of the universe is far better than anything that I could receive here on this earth.
And I think until we learn that that is the true posture that our hearts need to long for, that nothing on this earth will satisfy long term. That the only inheritance that I will truly enjoy forever is the one that I receive from the father in eternity.

Spencer
Well, that's that time horizon that we get back to in terms of our investment. We are very poor investors oftentimes in the United States because we are investing with a very short term mindset, even if that is 30 or 40 years or 100 years. It's a small short term mindset. Now, if we're investing in such a way that we're looking towards God's favor and we're trying to align our resources with him, then that doesn't preclude it.
You know, a great investment there, in temporal elements. But so often we start to allow that to, to be our focus and our pull, rather than seeing our brothers and sisters who go completely counter to this idea that, you know, you're going to be blessed financially if you're faithful, and say, well, I'm faithful and I'm being incredibly blessed and none of it's working out in terms of my net worth or my bottom line, right?

Austin
So let's go ahead and come on to that next key point. More is better. The reality here again, it continues to go into that idea of well, if I have the bigger house, the bigger the nicer car, my life is going to be better. Again, anecdotally, we have heard so many stories of people who had it all and it was just not satisfying.
Because when we're chasing the things of this world, it is never satisfying the reality here. Ecclesiastes 5:10 warns, whoever loves money never has enough. Like what a gut punch we we in the West think, man, I've got to have two, three, five, ten, 15, $20 million in the bank and then it's going to be enough. But whoever loves money never has enough.
There will never be enough money to satisfy the desires of our hearts that lead us away from the Lord.

Spencer
And I think this is one that is easy enough for a lot of Christians to say, oh, I don't fall temptation. I don't fall into that temptation. I'm not going to go in that direction. I know that more is not always better. Well, any survey that's out there that asks people, how much would you need to have to have enough?
It always comes back that people say, I need about 15% more. Yeah, 15% more salary, 15% more having saved. 15% more, being able to allocate, you know, towards different. So the water that we swim in says that more is always better and more is helpful. And we need more because, you know, here's where we're at right now. If you just had a little bit more, you'd have more decisions.
Yeah. You know, there but that's not necessarily oftentimes that just leads to poor decision making because we don't really have the time to make great decisions there. So we just accumulate. And then as we accumulate that second or third barn, now it starts to rot. Yeah. And then we've got bigger problems on our hands because now we've got to look at it, address it, and oftentimes repent of it.

Austin
Absolutely. And I think to coming back to this, we look again at the words of Jesus in Matthew 6 and he says, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. He's just gone through, part of the sermon on the Mount where he is saying, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And if we're trying to store up our treasures in a place where moth and rust destroy, thieves, break in and steal. We're needing to guard our treasure.
But if our treasure is eternity. If it's in heaven. If it is serving the King of the universe. Universe. And those can't be stolen.
Let's lay up those treasures. Let's actively put our treasure, our wealth to work so that we're laying up treasures in heaven, not on earth. Because where our treasure is, there our heart is. If my treasure is my stuff, then it's not Jesus. If my treasure is in, in, in eternity, then I can find joy and contentment in my everyday life.

Spencer
Well, and this can even have application in terms of how much we give. Because it's wonderful to give. It's wonderful to push resources in that direction. As you talked about sometimes, even though we can look at that and say, well, if I can just give more, then it will be, you know, a good thing. And, and that can sometimes even lead us to work longer hours or have more of a focus just on that particular piece.
So when our focus is, is more and more towards dollars basically, and even how we allocate those dollars rather than just faithfulness, we come back to Kirkegaard, who, you know, kept coming in his writing back to seek first the kingdom of God. Yeah, not hey, can I give more even to the kingdom? But seek first the kingdom of God?
Because instead of working that extra hour, maybe God is asking you instead to invest in a relationship, because oftentimes time and money can be, interchangeable there. Sometimes it is that we need to pay more attention, to the people in our lives, you know, there or certain situations, or just be open to what the Lord might have.
So often in the States, we will put together a plan, and we'll really try to work that plan, and we won't be in that simultaneously, listening to the Lord and being faithful during that moment, which is difficult. But that's what the Lord calls us to in Scripture, rather than, you know, even trying to just give and give and give, more.

Austin
Yeah. Well, even let's talk about faithfulness in this last key idea that retirement isn't for just for relaxation. I think we often look in our, American concept of, I'm going to save and work for 40, 50 years, and then I get to play for 30 or 40 years. However, the long the Lord gives us, the retirement isn't purely about relaxation.
We need to enter the Lord's rest when we retire. But if you go back to our conversation with Jeff Hanan a couple months ago, the reality is retirement is a new season of life. It is an entrance into greater kingdom work. It's not just cessation of all work, it is entrance into a different season of work. Moses was 80 when he confronted Pharaoh Paul continue to write and teach and encourage believers into his later years.
We look at in Paul's writings at Titus 2. He calls older men and women to encourage younger generations. There is a tremendous amount of wisdom that you accumulate through 60 and 70 years of life that I long for. I long for my elders to teach me. And I'm realizing now, as I look at the congregation of our church, I'm like, I'm 15 to 20 years older than some of these college kids.
I have wisdom to bestow on them. My work is not just here as an advisor, I need to be engaging these guys because they look up to me as well. And I'm just recognizing, like this work of following Jesus, of discipling men and women. It's an eternal work as long as I'm alive.

Spencer
Well, you're starting to get some weight in your in your hair, you know, so that wisdom is coming, you know, through.

Austin
My hair is also departing me.

Spencer
Well, so, you know, there there are those markers that these young bucks they're seeing. Okay. Austin is he's got some years under his belt. He's a man of wisdom. But, you know, in all seriousness, you know, we do need to be much more proactive each season, but particularly as we have a transition into a retirement season now, we have more space in a lot of ways to be able to sequence our time, to be able to make investment in relationships, to be able to make investment in projects that the Lord might be calling us to.
So having that transition that is really proactive and not just saying, hey, I can do whatever I want with my time, I've got, you know, so much leisure and then I'll do it. I'll sprinkle it in with, you know, a little bit of what the Lord might call me to. No, It should be really, as we've just talked about, the Lord owns my time.
I'm a steward. I have the wonderful opportunity to participate with him and blessing the world. But I want to be much more proactive than just saying, okay, I was doing something, you know, 40, 50, 60 hours a week over here. And, now, I'm not going to be doing that. There needs to be a time of sabbatical like we talked about with Jeff so often.
We need to have a time of rest and then a time of kind of refocusing. But moving through that and not coming back to, okay, my life is about leisure. Absolutely.

Austin
And I think we'll we'll end here today with the commendation from Paul and first Timothy 6 and he says in verses 17 through 19, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so they may take hold of that which is truly life.
And the reality here is, as we give of ourselves, as we take away our hope and our treasures on earth and lay them up as treasures in heaven to to which Jesus is working in and through us. That is how we take hold of true life. Clients. If you want to talk to us about what scriptures actually say about wealth, we would love to have that conversation with you.
As always, feel free to leave comments or questions down below and we'll see you again next time. If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss the next episode.

Disclosures
This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee and you can visit our website at www.SecondHalfStewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.