Derek Prince - Use Your Money To Make Friends For Eternity
And then in Luke 16, Jesus had more to say along this line. I'll begin at verse 9: And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail - or the alternative reading is, when it fails - they may receive you into everlasting habitations. And Jesus had just told the story about a rather unscrupulous steward who was going to lose his job and lowered the bills that were due to his master in order to get favor with his master's debtors. In other words, the lesson without going into details is be astute in the way you use money. See, Christians don't have to be foolish. In fact, they should be wiser than the people that don't have God to counsel them. And He said make friends for yourselves with what the world considers mammon. That when you fail, or when it fails, they may receive you into eternal habitations.
This is such a beautiful picture to me because Ruth and I have such a vivid picture always before our eyes of people in the Third World and the oppressed nations. And we are continually urging people to use their finance to bring God's Word to these people who are crying out and starving for it. And sometimes I tell those people, you give maybe ten pounds or $20 or whatever it is, and you don't know what happens to that money. But it goes to some remote Third World nation and brings them the Word of life. And people come to know the Lord, they're saved, they receive eternal life. And then they pass on to the next world ahead of you. But when you die and enter eternity there will be people there saying, Thank you. Because of what you gave, I'm here. If you hadn't given, I would have never known this way of life. So be wise with what you do with your money. Use it to make friends for eternity.
And then Jesus goes on with another principle. A very, very important one; verse 10: He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Quite apart from the subject of money that's an extremely important principle. If you are faithful in the little things, God will give you the bigger opportunities. But if you're unfaithful in the little things, you'll never have the bigger opportunities. Because, God tests us in the small things. Many of the issues or decisions that we consider small and unimportant are actually decisive in our lives. Because God is watching us to see how we'll act. And if we are faithful in the little, He'll give us the bigger opportunity. But if we aren't faithful in the little, He is much too wise ever to entrust us with anything bigger.
See, a lot of people have the attitude: this isn't a very important job, it doesn't really matter how I do it. But if God were to give me a really important job, then I really would do it well. I want to tell you God will never give you that job. Because He tests you in the small things. And then He applies this particularly to money in verse 11: Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? In other words, if you don't deal faithfully as a Christian with your money, God will never commit to you the real spiritual riches. Again, He tests you; are you faithful in the material, then He'll begin to pass on to you the spiritual. See, there may be some of you here tonight you're really longing for a greater spiritual ministry, for more spiritual gifts. And you may be praying and fasting - well, that's all good. But maybe the key to your problem is what you do with your money. Because if you're faithful with that, God will begin to open to you spiritual riches.
This is why I so much regret the teaching that money isn't important. Because in some ways, it's decisive. What God is going to entrust to you spiritually, depends on what you do financially. Let's look at a statement by Paul in 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8. This is one of the two chapters that deal exclusively with money. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And twice in this chapter, he speaks about money as the test of our sincerity. 2 Corinthians 8:8. He's giving directions about what to do with money and he says: I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love. And then in the last verse of the same chapter he says: Therefore, show to them and before the churches, the proof of your love. What is the test of sincerity? What is the proof of love? What they do with their money, giving. That's a very searching thought, isn't it? If we claim to love God and be His servants and be concerned about the things of His kingdom, but we are not faithful in money, we're hypocrites. Our love is not sincere.
And then one final thought again from Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount again, Matthew 6:21: For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Jesus was so down to earth. He didn't say, Give your heart; He said invest your money. Because, where your money is your heart will follow. If you want to have more concern for the work of God? You want to be more zealous? I'll tell you one way: invest more. That's really a basic principle. We would like to invert it and say, Well, where my heart is my treasure will follow. Jesus said no. Where your treasure is your heart will follow. I hope I've succeeded somehow in persuading you that what we do with our money is important. Maybe there are some of us that need to reevaluate our attitude to money, our thinking about money the way we handle money. Let's let the Holy Spirit search us. And put His finger on areas where maybe we haven't been faithful. Maybe we are encountering frustrations in our lives, things aren't going the way we think they ought to. The root problem may be we're not handling our money aright.