Words of Jesus Podcast - Treat Money Like A Rival to YHVH

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

It is our duty to work to meet our physical needs in this world. Today, we are compensated with money. It's a good system when our hearts do not turn to our own ability to meet our needs. We must use caution to keep our earnings in the proper perspective. Is the question of desires or unexpected tragedy, "Can I afford it?" instead of "Is it God's will for me?" The more money we have the more difficult it is to hold it in the proper light. Our faith is revealed by where we turn to solve a problem. Who do we trust? Money? The lottery? The government? A relationship with the Lord Jesus? ***Ch 52: Jesus Tells Peter To Get The Tax Money From The Mouth Of A FishMatthew 17:24-27JESUS AND his disciples returned to Capernaum. The collectors of the temple tax asked Peter:            “Doth not your master pay taxes?”            Peter replied:            “Yes.”            When he came into the house, Jesus said to him:            “What thinketh thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?”            Peter answered:            “Of strangers.”            Jesus then said:            “Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money. That take, and give unto them for me and thee.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris of Think Red Ink Ministries. Our goal here on this program is to reinforce Christianity with the wisdom and the words of Jesus, which incidentally are recorded in red in your Bible. Do you know what Jesus said, what Jesus did, and what Jesus said to do? This series is based on Jesus, his life, his friends, his ministry, and his relationship

with his Father, as recorded in the four Gospels. We'll delve into mysteries that have been hidden since the foundation of the world. No, not mysteries that are hidden from us, but for us, in the words of Jesus. We're going to begin today with chapter 52. This is where Jesus tells Peter to get the tax money from the mouth of a fish. Jesus and his disciples return to Capernaum. The collectors of the temple tax asked Peter, Doth not your master pay taxes? Peter replied, Yes.

Then he came into the house. Jesus said to him, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children or strangers? Peter answered, lest we should offend them go out into the sea and cast in a hook and take up a fish that first cometh up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give to them for me and thee this is a one of the famous stories of a miracle of Jesus that he sent Peter to find a fish and within that fish was going to be a piece of money. And there's been speculation about this, whether

this is kind of a metaphorical usage of finding gold in a fish's mouth. Well, you've never heard that there's people that that talk about um found money um in and consider it many times to be a blessing from the lord that uh they would actually find money in a location they not they weren't necessarily looking for money and uh And they will use the term found money. And some people use the term gold in a fish's mouth. Well, I became interested in the

Peshitta version of the Scriptures. If you're not familiar with the Peshitta, it is an Aramaic text that is purported to have been given to the Eastern Orthodox Church by the disciples themselves. That's what's purported. I don't know. I wasn't there. But I understand that it's supposed to be an Aramaic text and as well as being an Aramaic, being a first generation text.

It's a pretty interesting study. If you'd like to find a Peshitta, you can find them online. And this particular Peshitta was edited or translated by George M. Lamza. And he goes into some of the colloquialism of the Aramaic tongue. And one of the things that they do say in Aramaic, or at least in that society, is to find gold in a fish's mouth, means to make yourself money to make gain by fishing. And he, not necessarily insists, very humble man, I really appreciate his work. He doesn't necessarily insist, but he says that this very well could be Jesus telling Peter,

in order to pay these taxes, let's fall back on how we know how to make money. Peter was a fisherman. And he very well could have been telling Peter that there are some things about the ministry, about the spiritual, about vocational, and about the natural that do come together from time to time,

and it's very much like our ministry here. You know, I just hate when money hinders something in the ministry. And you know, we really don't experience it that often. We really do appreciate the fact that many people are obedient to the Lord about the tithe and these kind of things, and we always seem to have what we need. But there are times when money is a hindrance to what we would like to do, and sometimes even to what we feel like the Lord is calling us to do.

And it's very frustrating for me that something is crass and is dirty. And the Bible even uses the term filthy lucre. It's just a shame sometimes that that would hinder something spiritual. But it does. Because as spiritual as you want to be and as, you know, as spiritual as you may want to make your ministry, the truth is, is that, you know, something has to power the lights. Something has to purchase what's necessary for ministry and it just comes down to money. And it's unfortunate, but sometimes it does. But I tell myself and my staff, money just needs to be handled like strychnine.

And that is that it is a deadly poison. And a little bit should go a long way. And that you don't get too involved in it. And it actually has a medicinal property when it's in the proper perspective and amounts and ratios and such. But then as soon as you move out of that medicinal property, it will kill you. And so I teach my staff and constantly myself

that I don't play the game that most people do. When they, you know, the Bible says that money is the root of all evil. No, it doesn't, brother. It says the love of it. Well, okay, you want to play that kind of a game, go ahead, let's pretend like you don't love money. And then that way, everything you want to do is just fine.

Well, you know, that's not very honest as far as I'm concerned for someone to think that, that they need money on a daily basis. They deal with money on a daily basis. They're constantly, you know, begging people, asking people, selling stuff. They're constantly doing stuff in order to get money so that they can do what they call in the ministry of Jesus or whatever they're doing.

And so if they want to pretend like they don't really love it, okay, that's fine. But I guess whatever it takes for you to get along. But I really think that things like this ought to be dealt with, But, you know, I guess, you know, whatever it takes for you to get along. But I really think that things like this ought to be dealt with, as I say, just like poison. It's a shame that money has to be a part like it does, but it does. And I think that it would be, it's interesting that George Lomza in the Peshitta was saying that that Jesus' advice to Peter was that if they need money, what they need is not a part of our kingdom. And so we're going to have to go and work in a situation, an environment that does honor money.

And I think this can be good advice in that direction. I think it can be also this, you know, and we're not just trying to erase a miracle, which seems to be very popular among people today. But I think that that's good, solid advice, no matter where it came from, to tell you the truth, that there is a crass and unspiritual part of ministry. It's just a fact.

When you're dealing with people that have needs, you can't go and lay hands on somebody's LP tank and fill it with propane. Chances are you're going to need money to do that. And you can pray for it if you want to, but many times that's just a cop-out that when somebody says, I'll pray for you, which means I'm not going to do nothing else. I guarantee you I'm not going to actually reach in my wallet and try to help you with money. You know, the love of money is a rude one, or whatever they want to play with, to try to get themselves out of actually helping. But I think to take a very temporal situation

and try to separate it from the spiritual and not really understand that these things combine, they intersect all the time. We have certain needs. And there are certain things that are going to have to be met and fixed with money. That's all there is to it. And there's just not a better thing to do than to go work with your hands and offer what you, you know, your gain from that work to the work of the Lord. That's the way it should be done.

We don't sit around and pray for a paycheck. No, we get out and we work. And, you know, people, some people have real serious problems with giving money. You know, some people say, well, you know, the super spiritual will say, I don't want to insult God with just giving him dollars. It's not dollars, dopey. This is your life, man. You go and give your life. You give 40 hours a week to somebody who couldn't care whether you live or die. And I don't know what kind of boss you have, but in most cases, you're just an employee. You're a number and you give them 40 hours of your life That's just the working hours not the whole not doesn't even count all the part of your life that is involved in holding that job and having a car and having the clothes and having the

Time in the mornings and the times in the evenings and all when you add it all together You know when when a man offers you a paycheck, what he's handing you is, this is the world's evaluation of your life. So, you know, really, if you're having trouble with the given money thing, I don't think you're looking at this right. Because the money thing, I don't think you're looking at this right. Because the money thing,

and I'll get into this, because I don't think a lot of people understand it. But just because the world evaluates your time and your life with a certain digit on a piece of paper. It doesn't mean that you have to, number one. Number two is that this makes a money offering a very good thing to offer the Lord. This is why he put it in his law as to paying tithe on our increase. It's just the fact that there are things that we need in life that he can't supply without money. It's just the fact of the matter. There's many things that God can't do. One of them is he's not going to pick up a spoon and stuff oatmeal in your mouth. Somewhere along the line from the oats growing to the oats being processed to being put into a container and sent to a grocery store,

purchased by you and carried home and boiled and put into a bowl for you to eat. Somewhere along the line, the Lord's work is done. He's not cooking for you. He's not going to spoon feed you and he's not going to do the washing up afterwards. There's some place along the line

that he stops i just think that it's a lot sooner than a lot of people do look i thank god for miraculous supplies of needs had them in my life and i appreciate them and i'm really pleased that in most cases let's be honest here in most cases they let's be honest here, in most cases, they're not something that I sat around and begged and cried that he would supply. It falls into that category of my father knows you have need of all these things. You talk about insulting the Lord, I want to tell him something that he already knows. And a lot of times, he's already working on the situation and it just hasn't come together yet and so I just think we just need to live in a richer state of faith than we do

now if you have trouble with giving money as a gift you do need to consider that that this is a part of your life that you're giving. It's not just money. Now, how did money become the root of all evil? And you want to re-quote that to me? Everybody does.

Nobody likes me leaving out the love of money. They don't like that when I leave that out. But I leave it out for a reason. Because chances are, if you're involved in it, if it is a part of your life and a very important part of your life, and it is with a lot of people, and for good reason sometimes, but if it is a part of your life, friend, you're already involved in the love of money. You're already involved in it. You know, it's not just the greedy old miser in the basement, you know, that's, you know, throwing bills in the air or counting his gold coins or, you know, just loving money. I mean, I don't know of anybody that does that. I don't know anybody that's got that much money,

to tell you the truth, but people don't do that, and they think because they don't do that, that they are free and clear of this idea of the love of money being the root of all evil, and understanding that if you're involved in it at all, that you have to be careful not to love it. You have to be careful with it. You have to understand that it is, i said a poison a necessary poison a medicinal poison but it's done in certain uh in increments and certain ratios certain measurements

so that it doesn't get a hold of your life the bible says he that loves the world um or does and doesn't love god because he loves the world, the love of God is not in him. And I think that here's another example of the love of. The King James uses words like love and hate, and sometimes their backgrounds or their translations, their words from which they came, are a little richer than the words that we're actually translating them into.

For example, the Bible says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau. Well, an American reads that and says, Well, why did he hate Esau? What did Esau do? He wasn't even born yet. And you could have a legitimate complaint if you think that hate actually is that gnawing hunger to see somebody's hurt. You know, the obsession with, you know, what's wrong with somebody, that kind of thing. See, what you're doing is is you're

taking hate and resentment and putting them together and that's not necessarily what the king james is trying to teach you because the word hate actually means reject it just means rejected i accepted esau i'm sorry i accepted jacob and rejected Esau. And I can do that because I'm a sovereign God, because I know more than you do. And essentially just tells us to shut up. Wait for me to ask for your opinion. And in doing this, in understanding the love and the hate thing, I think perhaps we'll be better equipped to understand the love of money. Because if the love of money is the root of all evil, could we take that scripture and reciprocate and say that the hatred of money is the root of all righteousness?

Could we do that? I don't think that's true either. So what is he actually saying? Well, if we understand hatred to be rejection, I think that it would be perfectly acceptable to say that the love of something is the acceptance of it. Now, let me tell you how you know that you love money. When you see money as an answer to whatever problem you happen to have, my mother always taught me that if money will answer your problems,

you don't have any problems. And I've always found that to be somewhat true and so if you if you believe that if you look at a situation and you think a disaster we had it we had a building hit by a tornado here recently and you stand back and you look at it what happens you pull out the little mental calculator and you start looking at what's broken and what's got to be replaced and how much this is going to cost and and you and you look at that and you think wow that's a lot of damage well that's a lot of damage and you've got a number for it now well is that is that really the evaluation of the damage? Well, it's a monetary

evaluation of it. But you see, when you look at a problem and you think, I need money in order to fix this problem, you're treading on very dangerous ground and i'm going to tell you why the love of money the acceptance of money the see money is it's the blood inside the mammon machine out there and if you feel like it has the answers to your problems what have you just done to your lord god where have you just placed your lord god the The trouble with money, the reason it's so powerful, and the reason it is rejected so vehemently by God, and we are warned against it, is because, friend, outside of the drastically and wildly supernatural intervention of God. Money can do anything God can do. And I dare you to find the difference.

Does that shock you at all? Does it bother you that I would say something as horrible as money can do anything God can do? Do you realize that, you know, if you just back away from being so super spiritual just a minute, think about this. What do you think about? What occurs to you when a disaster strikes your home?

Or it comes time to, you'll want to do something. You wonder, first of all, can I afford it? Not is it God's will, or not is it the right thing for me to do. Is it right? But can I afford it? Because if I want to do it, well, it must be right. I mean, is there a question? See, these are signs of a very, very poor Christian lifestyle. And I'm afraid that because money has just been accepted so many places and in so many ways, I'm afraid that because we've lived like this so long that we don't think anything of it.

But friend, money needs to be dealt with as if it is something that will take your soul. You have to be very careful with it. One of the things that I try to get across to people is that giving is not necessarily just so that you can feel like you have done your part or that you're a Christian or that you're satisfying the pastor. You know, he sees your check come through every week and whatever, and he thinks you're wonderful.

And you just can't imagine him, you know, not seeing your check go through, and if you do miss or something, you apologize, and you know, golly, when are we going to stop this foolishness. I know a person that was concerned about what the bank teller would say if they saw some check written to some organization or to some store somewhere, you know, what they would think about it. So, I mean, there's a lot of concerns that we have, but here's one concern you ought to have. The more you have, the more money you have, but here's one concern you ought to have. The more you have, the more money you have,

the more in danger you are of becoming in love with it and it being your only consideration. It's not just the fear of not having enough money that is betraying you here to the Lord that money is your God. It's not just the fear that comes on you, like, you know, if my car's totaled and my insurance had lapsed and it's, you know, I'm going to need $25,000, $35,000, $45,000 to replace this car. You know, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? Oh my, oh my. And running around like that, you know, scared to death, feared, wondering what's your future is going to be. It's not only that. It is the calm assurance that you have because you have money in the bank that betrays your love for money over

and above your own God. These kind of things they're very in-depth and you know if you're sitting there thinking well i never thought of that do you know it's because we're so busy cramming our our eyeballs full of television shows and and uh and busying our lives with everything from you know being a a soccer mom to wanting to be a corporate executive and working 16 hours a day or whatever else your little plan is in life. A lot of these things take our time and we don't think about this stuff.

But our assurance should never be our insurance. It should never be that. I'm not preaching against insurance. It should never be that. I'm not preaching against insurance. I mean, it makes good business sense in a lot of cases. However, the money in your bank account is not where your calm assurance about your future should come from. You should understand that we serve a God that can put a gold coin into a fish's mouth.

And, you know, I'm sorry to say, but if that happened to most of us, you know what we'd be doing tomorrow? We'd be out fishing. Not because we need it, but because, wow, man, you know, when you throw a hook right over there and you get a fish out, it's got a gold coin in its mouth. And mouth and you know we find our own benefit there look can i just can i just caution you just to back away a little and take a look at what is our savior and and in our life and in in properly evaluate is it actually a relationship with our God with our Lord Jesus Christ is it really that is it really a relationship or is it just merely

that we have enough money there are people out there that feel like hitting the lottery would be the the salvation of their whole family oh you know my husband and i are having trouble but you know we're arguing and fussing and it always seems to be about money it'll always be about money sister it'll always be about money it doesn't matter how much you have it'll always be i mean if it is a money situation, more money doesn't fix it. It just doesn't. We have to quit thinking this way. You know what you're involved in?

The love of money. That's what that is. Well, I don't love money. I know you insist on that. But the truth is, you have to treat it like a demigod. You have to treat it like it's a rival god in the in the world we live in because it can do miraculous things it i mean if you had unlimited money what in the world could you get done in the world and if you know if you're a christian you're all you're thinking about is i just you know i just want to preach the gospel around the world. And you think because you're doing that

with this money that it's okay. As I say, I don't think many of us could tell the difference between a ministry that is blessed of the Lord and one that's just blessed by a bunch of people that are under an obligation to give. There's so much to talk about in the area of money. And our time is gone for today.

Hey, I want you to do something for me. I appreciate those of you that have involved yourself in our ministry, and if you haven't up until this point, I'd love to get an email from you, questions, comments about the show, whatever's on your mind, email me at don at thinkredink.com, and if you'd like to write to the ministry itself, you can do so at Think Red Ink Ministries,

P.O. Box 718, Hightown, New Mexico, 87827. All right, until the next time, Think Red Ink. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you