Why We Listen To Money Talk

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12: 1 – 2)

Since I posted last week about money speaking, I am sure some are wondering how money can speak to God’s people. And it is a valid concern especially for those who pride themselves in being close enough to God to constantly hear from Him. How then can money draw my guidelines in life?

How did Adam who had a clean and clear relationship with God obey the voice of someone who was speaking contrary to God’s clear order? How did Abraham listen to his wife and act contrary to the voice he had obeyed for all those years? How did David forget God’s commandment when he was at ease yet he had endured worse situations under intense pressure without compromising his faith? How did Elijah wish to die after his greatest triumph?

We are human after all, even the most spiritual of us. That is our default spiritual position. And as fallen men it becomes easier to listen to the lower voice than it is to listen to the higher one. It requires effort to be able to access God’s voice.

Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29: 12, 13)

It is therefore folly to expect to hear Christ with the kind of effort we expend on hearing from mammon. As someone who was in broadcasting engineering I can compare it with using a normal radio to access a satellite signal. It is simply impossible. The fact that they are both radio signals does not cover for the fact that probably the only thing both receivers have in common is being radio receivers.

That is what we do when we think that the fact that we could easily access and understand the language of the world before we got saved means that we can listen and hear God’s voice as easily. This is because we are of the world and it therefore does not need any effort from us to hear when mammon and the world speak.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (John 15: 19)

I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)

We also have a problem listening to God because it makes us unpopular. We fear being branded unprogressive, un’cool’, archaic and many other unflattering epithets. And we dread being unpopular. It is not only teenagers who deal with peer pressure. We are born with a craving for attention, any attention. But it is the applause that draws us most so that we will do crazy things to maintain it.

That is why a respectable man will leave his wife of many years for the house girl or his secretary because she treats him with the respect and honor he feels he deserves. That is why a woman will leave all decency to sleep with the watchman or gym instructor because they ‘worship’ the ground she walks on. That is the world. And that is what we are up against when we decide we must hear God’s take on things material.

Not only is it difficult and unpopular to listen to God, but there is no motivation we will get to pursue it outside the scriptures. We love spiritual inertia. We prefer immersing our efforts on things offering worldly rewards. That explains why we will fete people who acquire degrees over those pursuing great spiritual potency, especially if (as) it is devoid of worldly rewards. We are more worldly than we think.

 What is wealth? What qualifies us to be called rich men? What is prosperity? This is because the direction we take in drawing those definitions will determine which voice we will be hearing. With all the preaching commonly dubbed prosperity gospel it is very essential we have the right source. This is because we will be guided by that source whatever we may say.

Examples are in order here. Who between David and Solomon was richer? I can hear some wondering whether I know what I am speaking about. But their stories tell us that Solomon was wealthy whereas David was rich. Explain. I know someone is almost shouting.

Solomon had made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones. It is interesting to know where all this GDP was coming from. We find the answer when the Israelites approach his successor with their request. Please reduce our taxes. The glory of his kingdom was carried on the backs of his people. And that is the reason we see the first act of rebellion for Israel after declaring secession is stoning a tax collector. Everything Solomon did weighed down on his people; from trading to forced labor to extravagant feeding of guests. He used seven years to build the temple with the materials his father had raised yet used fourteen to build his palace. He was so self-focused. And no wonder he could have as many women in his harem as he had.

Contrast that with David. From the time he was a rebel leader we never see him hoarding spoils from the wars he fought. He always shared his portion with others, and not his soldiers. He was always sharing; from grace to his foes to spoils to his friends. In fact it was the fact that he was living in a good house that made him feel guilty that God’s house was in a tent. And that was the same reason we see him spending the rest of his life raising materials, drawing plans and organizing the worship of the same.

But the thing that brings this out is the time he was bringing the ark to Jerusalem.

And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it in his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed every one to his house. (2Samuel 6: 17 – 19)

And we are here talking about a city, with enough visitors that had been invited from all Israel to celebrate the placing of the ark of God into the tent David had made.

Allow me to ask the question again. Who was richer between David and Solomon?

This takes us to the differences in the one we allow to speak to us. Mammon seeks to make us selfish or self seeking in all our endeavors. And that is what he seeks to do with anything God gives us if we gave him half a chance.

Those wasteful tendencies I mentioned are not just wasteful. They are in the spiritual realm a diversion of resources from people they are meant to serve just as the many fatted oxen Solomon fed his guests were a great burden to the people he led.

Look at most of those people driving those fuel guzzlers. You will almost without exception find them earning so much whereas the majority of people working under them struggling to make ends meet. Many times the amount of money they spend monthly to fuel that vehicle would be able to pay several lower caliber staff. The allowance they spend to feed their dog is more than the amount used to pay the handler. It is Solomon replayed in our generation.

But how will people know that I am the boss if I drive those useful vehicles? I will throw that question back to you differently. How did people know that Jesus was the Christ? How did the Jews know who to arrest when they started to persecute the church? Christ did not have anywhere to lay His head. The only time He used transportation was when He rode an ass, and a borrowed one at that.

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: (1Corinthians 1:26)

Those questions of relevance are asked from the direction of mammon and worldliness. God will never ask such questions as He looks for different evidence. My relevance to God is many times (probably all the time) directly opposite to my relevance to the world. It then goes without saying that what makes me a success will many times paint me as the opposite in God’s sight.

Mammon seeks to corrupt my sight and ambition to the wrong goals. Whereas God expects faithfulness from any assignment He gives me, mammon will seek to draw me to the opposite direction by enticing me to seek rewards or relevance in the world without caring to know what God expects of me.

Let me give examples. Some years ago I knew of this popular pastor who drove such a guzzler yet his associate could not afford to take his wife to a public hospital to get their baby. Again a few days’ fuel allocation for that vehicle could have effortlessly sorted his associate’s dilemma.

I have gone for many missions. Have you ever wondered why the laborers (evangelists, builders, medical teams etc) will use substandard transport when the ministry bosses (a confusion of terms since ministry is service, the John 13 type) fly or use the most expensive and comfortable rides yet they are going for those missions to see what the workers are doing? They will sleep in hotels when those doing the donkey work sleep in tents and many times cook their own food when the senior ministers eat from those hotels.

I wonder whether you are getting at the thrust of my message. The devil wants us to redefine success.

For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. (Luke 22:27)

Mammon wants us to aim at the rewards and accolades instead of God’s approval. Then nobody will desire the job of Christ’s minister. Why become an associate pastor when the senior pastor takes all the goodies? Why become a laborer and travel those roads even as the bosses are going by air? Mammon seeks to ‘prove’ to us that serving God on His terms does not make any sense. That living according to God’s revelation is retrogressive. And we have bought that lie completely. Instead of being the salt we have become the meat and made the world the salt. We will rot if we are not rotten already.

That is the reason I started with Romans 12. We do not have a problem because we listen to mammon. Our main problem is that we do not listen to God enough to allow Him define our values and our own being. And that has no short cut. We must seek God with all our hearts to find Him though He is waiting for us. Failing to do that clearly means that we are listening to the devil as Christ told the Jews. We do not choose to listen to mammon. Failure to clearly and fervently listen to God means that we are listening to the devil.

Yet there is honor in going God’s way. I remember going for a mission with many young people. As usual I look for duties nobody is doing instead of those everybody wants to do, many times they are the very menial ones. In fact I had been asked to join the mission to train pastors on discipleship though that was changed at the last moment, I don’t know why. For the whole week I was the electrician until most people thought that the church had hired me to do that. I did not do much else except a few other menial jobs no one else was doing.

After the mission a report was given of a mission I had been part of out of the country. After the service several of those young people came and asked me to confirm that I was the one the pastor had mentioned and I conformed that it was so. They were amazed that their electrician is a missionary. To date they come to me to know what I am involved in. And they respect me so, even coming for guidance on life issues.

Will we continue to allow mammon to define usefulness and success to us? Are we content to have the world giving us accolades for succeeding in their system when there is a higher way? Whose between the world’s and God’s commendation would you rather have?

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)

That is the black and white view of the whole issue. Worldliness is not only defined by outright sin; adultery, stealing etc. A worldview that is not guided by the scriptures is as bad, maybe worse because one may be feeling so spiritual because I have enough verses to defend my worldliness.

But one does not have to have money to be worldly. In fact the devil does not seek to give many people money for their pursuit of mammon. He gives just a few so that the rest will crave it. Giving to many will counter his purpose as the emptiness of ‘reaching’ will be easily evident. And that is why pyramid schemes (and many have pastors in their leadership) are so attractive. They will have one person so high up making all the money effortlessly because he/ she sold (they say introduced and trained) a few people to the system. Then many will aspire to earn as much money as effortlessly as the leader and will spend all their waking and sleeping time strategizing and pursuing introductions to the system. Yet very many end up completely broken because it is a wasteful and unattainable pursuit.

Inward looking is from the devil as we saw with Solomon. Any pursuit with me at the centre is not from God, whether buying or selling or eating or drinking. We do not live for ourselves, but for Christ who bought us with His blood.

How much time do you spend in God’s word? How much do you reading newspapers and watching TV. The one you spend more time with is the one who defines your worldview.

Will we give God and His word more leeway in our lives? Will we make Christ’s Lordship a reality in our lives?