In his sermon titled 'Think Biblically About Money,' Scott Brown explores the theological framework for understanding money from a biblical perspective. He begins with the parable in Luke 16, emphasizing the importance of shrewdness in managing resources. Brown identifies four worldly perspectives on money: the prosperity gospel, voluntary poverty, stewardship, and socialism. He then presents seven marks of biblical shrewdness: recognizing money as good, understanding its dangers, viewing it as a barometer of spiritual health, acknowledging it as a stewardship, seeing it as a work of God, using it as fuel for joy, and considering it an opportunity to display God's wisdom. Throughout, Brown stresses the importance of aligning our financial practices with these biblical principles to ensure our resources are used to further God's kingdom and support righteous causes.

Ashes just led us through this consideration of the first matter of thinking about money with shrewdness and that is to consider the matter of first fruits that we bring our our first fruits to the Lord. I want to begin in to move now into sorta theology of money. It's of course a brief flyover of the theology of money. We're trying to encourage one another to think biblically about handling money and its reality in our lives and to have a foundation in this matter I'd like to give now. I'd like you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 16.

Luke chapter 16, I'd like you to find verse one. And we'll begin to unfold one of the critical matters here. This is a parable of the Lord Jesus about money. Half of the parables that Jesus told were about money. And of course, this one here in Luke 16 is consistent with that.

And so I'll begin reading in verse 1 in Luke 16. He also said to his disciples, there is a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do?

For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I'm ashamed to beg. I've resolved what to do that when I am put out of the stewardship they will receive me into their houses." So he called every one of the masters debtors to him and said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil.

So he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50." And he said to another, How much do you owe? So he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, Take your bill and write 80. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much and he who is unjust in what is least is in unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches and if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

So this is a very powerful lesson from a very bad example from actually very bad men. It's a shocking illustration you know you have a rich man and you have a corrupt corrupt steward he's been squandering his master's resources and finally he hears about it and the rich man says what's happening what's going on here and And the rich man fires him and asks for an accounting. He probably should have asked for an accounting first. But the steward says to himself, what should I do? And he says, I don't know how to do anything.

And so I've got to figure out how to make this money work for me. And so that's what he does. And he summons the debtors and He gave them tremendous discounts, 50%, 20%, and things like that. But then, shockingly, the rich man praises him for acting shrewdly. And then in verses nine through 13, he offers an explanation.

And the interpretation I think rests on this word shrewd, more shrewdly. And the word that the Lord Jesus Christ uses here is a word that indicates a well-devised scheme, a carefully considered advantage, an inner consciousness, an understanding and a thoughtful consideration, intellectual activity about how to use the resources, how to be shrewd. And that's really what we want to do in this entire conference, is to help us be well devised in our planning, to be carefully considered in how we use God's resources for the greatest advantage of the kingdom of God, that we have an inner consciousness, a thoughtful understanding and a consideration that we think about it. So we're spending these hours for that purpose. And of course, in this parable, the obvious principle is that use your money for treasures in heaven.

Use it for the salvation of sinners. Use it for the spreading of the truth. Use it for this prosperity, the gospel. Use it for the support of your family. Use it for the support of the government.

Use it for righteous means under God's care. Now when we think about money we have to recognize that our thoughts need to be cleansed about it. Our emotions, our perspectives about it, we've all learned, we've all been brought up with particular perspectives about money. And there are different perspectives that people have. The four major perspectives that exist in the world about money are first the prosperity gospel and that's that that God guarantees your prosperity and Christianity is a means of personal gain.

The second view is the view of voluntary poverty, and it's the view that money is demonic, that poverty is holy. This is the doctrine of liberation theology and many Roman Catholic mystics. The third view is what we'll call the view of stewardship and that is that money is a gift of God and it's meant to be managed. And then finally, there's the fourth view and that's the view of socialism that the government will provide it. The government will take it, and the government will provide it.

So those are various ways that men in the world think about money. But we're talking here about the shrewd handling of money. And so I want to give you seven marks of biblical shrewdness, which really forms my understanding of the doctrine, the biblical doctrine of money. And so I have seven of them for you, and the first is that money is good. And there are many places to go to prove this.

Money is created by God, is a good gift. It gives stability, it gives comfort, it gives provision, it gives pleasure and opportunity. Somebody said that money is like muck. It stinks unless you spread it around because it's actually meant to do good. It's meant to do something good.

And I'll just give you a number of illustrations from the Bible about what money is designed for and why it is such a good thing. We shouldn't think that the money itself is evil. It's a means of blessing. In James 2, 14 through 17, you have this picture of a brother who's in need. You see your brother who is in need.

He's naked. He's destitute of daily food and Christians can't stand around and say go in peace, depart, be warm, be filled. Christians don't do that. They actually that rise up and they help their destitute brother. We get money to share with those in need.

In Ephesians 4.28, we read these words, "'Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. One of the reasons God gives you work and the making of money is so that you have something to give. People who think minimalist, think in terms of minimalist in terms of their money are thinking wrongly. You should make as much as you can so that you can give more away. God has designed your job so that you'll have something to give away.

In 1 Timothy 5, 8, we learn that it's indispensable for providing for families. And we read the words of the apostle to the church there. Now, if anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those in his own household, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. In Romans chapter 12 verses 10 through 13 we read that our money is designed, it's good for the needs of the saints. And we read these words, be kindly affectionate to one another and with brotherly love.

In honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging behind indolence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, and then finally distributing to the needs of the saints, and then given to hospitality. In other words, you're using your house, you're using whatever you have for the saints. Next, there are, there's the legitimate sustenance of the state. God calls his children to pay their taxes. That's in Romans chapter 13 verses 5 through 6.

One of the good uses of money, and it can be hard to believe when you think about how your government deals with your money, but God actually commands you to pay your taxes. It's a good way to use your money. And Christians should have a good attitude about it, yet I'm sure not without concern. It fuels the spread of the gospel in Galatians chapter six verse five. Very, very clearly there that We are to do good to all, especially of those who are of the household of faith.

And those who are taught the word should share all good things with him who teaches. In other words, those who teach should have others share. And they're talking about financial resources. Money is good because it supports those who teach. Another good use of money is that it supports men of God.

That's in Luke eight verses one through three. And women of God. There's tremendous testimony about all the women who served the Lord Jesus Christ by giving them his resources, you know, their resources. We've been in our preaching on Sunday mornings on the things that took place in the cross and the women that were there. And then the women who were at the grave, well, the women bought those spices and the women were there, they gave of their resources.

The women that had some of the most dramatic conversions out of paganism and darkness and demonism. They gathered together and they brought their money together and they supported the ministry of Jesus. The support of the spread of the truth in 3 John verses six and seven. This is a picture of sending people forth to spread the gospel in other lands. They go on a journey and the money is given, and I'll just quote it, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.

When you give your money to someone who's spreading the gospel around the world you become a fellow worker of the spread of the truth. In Philippians chapter 4 verse 14 we learned that the Philippian Church shared their resources with the Apostle Paul giving aid for his quote necessities. And so money is good. It has many many good uses. It gives you food, it gives you clothing, it gives you shelter, it gives a place for you to raise your children, it gives you resources to purchase medicine and the different things that you need.

John Wesley said it like this, Money helps to supply the place of a husband to a widow and a father to the fatherless. We may be a deference for the oppressed, a means of help to the sick, to ease them in the pains that they're in. It may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame, yea, as a lifter up from the gates of death. And so money is good. And so we should devise, we should scheme, we should be shrewd in thinking about how to spread those resources around.

The second mark of biblical shrewdness is to understand that money is dangerous. In Mark chapter 10, verses 23 to 25, we learn that sin mars the right use of money. All of us have experienced this in our lives. Money is morally neutral, But you and I are not morally neutral. And that's really the problem.

We're sinful. And that makes actually everything that we get to have some kind of danger. And the truth is that money is the measure of our morality. Francis Bacon said that money often unmakes the man who makes it. It's not the money that's the problem.

It's the heart of the man who has the money in his hands. And so the Lord Jesus Christ in Mark chapter 10, he looked at his disciples and all those around him and he said how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were astonished. But then he said it's impossible with men, but everything is possible with God. And so we learn in 1 Timothy 6 that it's actually a root of all evil.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. So money is a danger. I'll never forget when I was in my teens there was a popular prosperity gospel preacher in LA on television and radio all the time. His name was Reverend Ike and he was famous for saying, it's not the love of money that's the root of all evil, it's the lack of money. So give it to me, that was his message over and over again.

Some of you might have heard of him. In Luke chapter 12, we learn of a man who was green with envy toward his brother and he was covetous over the inheritance. And Somebody came to the Lord Jesus and said, you tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

You know, when someone dies and people start fighting over the inheritance, you can often trace the marks of the greed and the green that comes out all over the place. And that's what Jesus was referring to. You see the tragedy of the rich man and the joys of the poor man Lazarus after they died in the same text in Luke chapter 16. Now one of the things that we should always remember is that God is powerful and one can be freed from the love of money. That's what we learn in 1 Timothy chapter 6, 18 and 19.

Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. You don't have to be in bondage to money. All these things can take place in the life of a believer. This is the power of God that releases one from the bondage of covetousness.

This is all about how to understand how to well-divise scheme, how to be biblically shrewd. You need to understand that money is dangerous. It's dangerous to your soul. Well, money is also a barometer. In Matthew chapter 6, 21, we learn that money is a barometer.

The Lord Jesus says, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And then he ends that section up by saying, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon, because our relationship with money is a barometer. It tells us our spiritual temperature. And we can look at our pocketbooks and our checkbooks and see what our spiritual temperature is.

So it's a good way to tell your temperature. But it's a way to be shrewd about money. You can look at your temperature and be shrewd about it. The fourth mark of biblical shrewdness is that money is a stewardship. And there are various passages of scripture.

You'll hear this word stewardship used over and over again. I know you will. I've seen the outlines and it's a good thing because that principle is really one of the most fundamental principles in giving. In Luke chapter 16 verses 11 through 13, if you're untrustworthy with worldly wealth, who will trust you with riches in heaven? Because it is a stewardship.

As Psalm 104, 24 says, the silver is mine, the gold is mine. And what has happened to us is that our king, the Lord Jesus Christ, has gone to a distant land and he's given us resources. What will he find? How will we have invested those resources? And how we've invested those resources will be a measure of our hearts.

Richard Halverson who many years ago was the chaplain in the United States Senate said this, Jesus Christ said more about money than any other single thing. Because when it comes to a man's real nature, money is of first importance. Money is the exact index to a man's true character. All throughout scripture, there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man's character and how he handles his money. So money is a stewardship.

It's a way that we channel what God has given. And another important way to be shrewd about money, to think rightly about money, is to understand that money or wealth is a work of God. It's God who gives the wealth. In Deuteronomy 8.15, we find this stated very clearly. God says that God gives you power to get wealth.

And he said he tells the children of Israel this in the context of their wilderness wanderings and how he provided for them. But he tells them it is God that gives you the power to get wealth. And I believe that he's speaking about everything from top to bottom. All of your mental capacities, all of your gifts as a human being, all of the opportunities that you have, all of the people you bump into, the family you grow up in, the nation you live in, the very trades that you're exposed to and are attracted to, all those things are gifts of God. And Money is a work of God from top to bottom.

And it's very interesting that God gives great riches to some and not others. But it is God who does it all. We shouldn't be despondent about our station unless perhaps our station is occupied because of our disobedience or our lack of wisdom and we just should learn from it. So let's let's be shrewd, Let's understand about money. If you think rightly about money, just recognize when you think about your money, it's a work of God.

It's a work of the sovereignty of God. Another matter of shrewdness, money is a fuel for joy. Money is a fuel for joy. Acts chapter 20 verse 35 makes it very clear that there's more happiness in giving than there is in receiving. The apostle Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders And he says, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

So there's much joy in giving. Money is actually a fuel for joy. And that's what the apostle Paul is communicating to us. And then finally, the seventh mark of thinking shrewdly about money is that money is an opportunity for the display of the wisdom of God. Proverbs 21 verse 20 makes this very clear.

There is a there is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise. But a foolish man squanders it. What the writer of the proverb is saying is that the wise man does not squander the oil that he's given. He handles it wisely, and he doesn't spend it all away. It is in his house.

He has actually resources to give. It's an expression of a wise man. And so there you have it. These are various matters of biblical shrewdness. And so there they are.

If you want to think rightly about money, think biblically about money, think theologically about money, you need to recognize that money is good, that money is dangerous, that money is a barometer, that money is a stewardship, that money is a work of God, that money is fuel for joy, and money is also an opportunity for the display of the wisdom of God. I love the words that we read in 1 Timothy. We brought nothing into the world, so we can't take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering with ease, we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

But that doesn't happen to people who think shrewdly in a biblical way about their money. And I pray that the rising generation in this church has a very clear and biblical understanding about money, that they think about their money the way that God has prescribed that we think about money. And All of what we're doing here is to promote that.