 Okay, there we go. So last class we started with the introduction of the course and we also saw God's perspective about money. This course is called Financial Stewardship. So what is it? How does God view money? Is money good? Is money bad? Is money necessary? Our finances something like a necessary evil that we tolerate and endure? What is it? So we looked at some of those things last class. So let's continue with that. So we looked at some of these a way of thinking or what we call as attitudes, attitude towards money. So we can either have a good attitude or a right biblical attitude towards money or we can have a bad attitude towards money. So we looked at some of the correct attitudes towards money. That is that when we use money that God will be glorified. We also looked at the fact that money can be used for the work of God's kingdom. We need money for the work of God's kingdom, for work of ministry and that when we use money, it can be used for the work of God's kingdom that there may be enough for the work. So we looked at some of the scriptures. And the third one is that we may be able to give to those who are in need, that we may be able to share and give to people who are in need of money. So we looked at some of the scriptures in that also. Let's look at one scripture which is Ephesians 4 verse 28. It's in their notes. Ephesians 4, 28. It's page number three. It says, 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. So it's talking about working for money. You're working your labor with your hands. You're putting in effort and in return for that effort or work, you are getting paid for it and you are using that to help someone who has need. So it starts by saying you don't steal. That's not the right thing to do. You don't take forcefully what is not yours. Don't do that. Do not steal. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him work, let him labor. So labor when you use that word labor, it means hard work. So don't be afraid of hard work. It's okay to work, put in effort and work hard. Work with your hands what is good and in something that is ethical and good, morally pure. And at the end of it, when you get a reward for your labor, when you get paid for the labor, you can actually help someone who has need. So money can be used in all these ways. So these are good perspectives, mindsets to have about money. Okay. So does anyone remember the some of the scriptures that we saw about money that talks about God's heart towards money? Okay. Any scripture that you can share, even online students, any scripture that you still remember without looking into your notes? Any scripture that you still remember that we spent? Yeah. First Timothy six and verse 17, right? Okay. So first Timothy six and verse 17. It's a very defining verse. And it's defining in the sense it actually shows us what God's heart is towards money, right? First Timothy chapter six and verse 17. It says, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, but to trust, sorry, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give willing to share and so on. Okay. So that's verse 18. So verse 17. So Paul is writing to Timothy and he's saying command those who are rich in this world, in this age, in the present age, not to be proud, not to be proud because of their material riches, not to become proud. So money has that ability to make a person feel proud because they are a lot of material possessions. So he says command them not to become proud. Then he also says, command them not to trust in the riches because money has that quality to make someone proud. Money has the ability also to, one of the characteristics, it's not, it's not certain, right? Because money can actually lose its value. Do you remember some time back, a few years back before the pandemic when we had the demonetization, right? So overnight, the 2000 rupees note lost its value, right? So they said, the government said that 2000 rupees, after a particular date, will no longer be 2000 rupees, but its value will be zero. Okay. Yeah. So you had to go, you know, submit or deposit that 2000 rupees in the bank and get that value of 2000 rupees in other currencies like 500 or 100 or so on, right? So overnight, there was a date given saying that by this date, this value will become zero. Okay. So if you're not going to change that, it's going to become zero. So after a particular date, it was just paper, right? Even today, if you see any 2000 rupees note, doesn't have any value. You can tear it, burn it, you can make airplane with it. It doesn't have any value, right? So Paul is writing and saying, hey, don't put your trust in uncertain riches, right? Today, it's valuable 2000 rupees. Tomorrow, it becomes zero. So don't put your trust in it. What's the other part of it? But in the living God, which means you put your trust in the living God. And then it talks about God's characteristic or God's nature, who richly gives us all things to enjoy. So that's God's heart. So God is not the one who's withholding. He does not want to hold back anything. He's talking particularly about riches, about money. He's saying God's heart is that that we have enough and more for all these things that we talk about, you know, that helping God's kingdom to help other people. But he says yet to who richly gives us all things to enjoy, okay, that you personally, that you individually might use it on yourself to enjoy, right? But it says, it gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, let them share and so on. So it talks about God's heart, God's heart about money and God's heart about people and money, right? Any other verse that we saw that you remember? Which one? Proverbs 23. Okay, Proverbs 23 and verse 4. Okay, do not overwork to be rich because of your own understanding sees, okay? So it's an instruction about money. Do not be obsessed, do not overwork and continually, you know, do something in order to be rich, right, because of your own understanding sees, right? Okay, and then the verses following, if you see, it talks about the nature, again, the uncertain nature of riches, you know, riches will certainly make themselves wings and they'll fly away, etc. Okay, okay. But particularly about God's heart towards money, we read that, okay, this is God's characteristic, this is God's heart towards money and about towards riches and about people who are having money, anything that we can think of? Anything that you remember? We saw. Okay, I don't see anything on the chat, online students are also welcome to post. Okay, let's look at Psalm 35. Okay, Psalm 35, verse 27. Psalm 35, verse 27, let them shout for joy and be glad who favor my righteous cause. Let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant, right? Psalm 35, verse 27, yeah, Psalm 35, 35, Psalm 35 and verse 27, let them shout for joy and be glad who favor my righteous cause and let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure, which means who delights in the prosperity of his servant. So we see another word here, prosperity. Okay, so prosperity, it's in the Bible, used in the context of let God be magnified. So prosperity is not a bad word, okay? So prosperity is not, again, always about money. It includes, money is one part of it, but includes so much more, right? It's about success, it's about growth, it's about thriving and flourishing and so on, right? So who has pleasure in the prosperity of the servants? God. So God has pleasure, which means he delights, he's happy, he's glad, he's not angry, he's not sad, right? He has, he has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, right? So when we as his servants, when we progress, grow, thrive, succeed, in all ways, the Lord is happy, right? He takes pleasure in it. Okay, so today let's just continue with some of the, the attitudes that, some of the wrong attitudes that we could have. Okay, we looked at some of the good attitudes, what are the wrong attitudes that we could have about money, okay? The one thing is to be covetous and to be greedy about money, okay? So what does covetous mean? Yeah, something does not belong to me, and I desire that, I want it, you know, this piece of land is mine, I see another piece of land, it does not belong to me, but I, I want it, you know, and by any means I want to have it, right? Or someone else has some other thing, and I don't have it, and I desire it, and then it's, I want it, and not by rightful means, right? I just want it, and I'll do anything to get it. So that's covetous, covetousness, okay? So to have an attitude of covetousness, what is greed? Greed to be greedy. Okay, okay, so greed is discontent, right? You're, you're not content with what you have, okay? Not satisfied, like you said, not satisfied, not content, but always desiring more and more and more, okay? Now, it has a positive side, right? Which means that you, you know, you're ambitious, you want to grow, you want to succeed, you want to grow, I mean, you want to, let's say, you want to develop certain things, and so you're working towards it, but this is the negative side, right? Of the same thing, being ambitious, it is greed, where you are not really satisfied, okay? And greed is always for, it is selfish, it's for me, for myself, right? It's not for, for the sake of sharing, it's not for a noble cause, but it's always directed, focused towards oneself, right? So that is greed. So now that's the wrong attitude that we could have about money, okay, to be covetous, to saying, okay, I want, that person has, I want it, okay? Let's look at a few scriptures. Look 12 and verse 15, okay, that we have in the notes, look 12 verse 15, and he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. So these are the words of the Lord. So he's saying that, you know, take heed and beware of covetousness, be aware of covetousness, it can creep in for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things that he possesses. It's not one's life or one's success in one's life or it's, it's not a marker where you say, okay, I have all these things, therefore my life is successful, right? So one's life is not in the abundance of things that one possesses. Okay, let's look at another verse, 1 Timothy 6 and verse 9, but 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. Okay, 1 Timothy 6 and verse 9, those who desire to be rich. Okay, let's look at a few verses before that. Okay, 1 Timothy 6, we looked at verse 9, let's look at verse 6 itself. Okay, godliness, okay, you can follow in your Bible, 1 Timothy 6 and verse 6, now godliness with contentment is great gain. Do you see that? Okay, 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, godliness with contentment is great gain. And look at the reasoning in the second, verse 7, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we carry nothing out. Okay, so you're saying we didn't bring anything in into the world and it's 100% sure that you cannot carry anything out. Okay, having food and clothing with these we shall be content, but 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. Verse 10, 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 pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Okay, so this is the whole picture that we get. Okay, so godliness with contentment is great gain to be content with what you have is great but the love of money leads to all kinds of things. So he says that the love of money, those who desire to be rich, they want to be rich, but I just want to ask is one thing, okay, is it wrong to be rich or is it wrong to desire to be rich? So we need to be clear about this, right? Because when you look at that verse, those who desire to be rich fall into all kinds of temptations. So I don't want to be rich. So when you have that, when you're saying, okay, I don't want to be rich, then maybe we are not even planning or working towards it, right? And then we end up in a place where, okay, I can't afford this, I can't afford that. Why? Because I'm not working towards it. And why? Because I don't have a desire to work towards it. So what do you think? Is it wrong to desire to be rich? Okay, if it's not wrong, you can just explain, you know, it's not wrong. Take a blessing in order to see what blessing it will be, but won't go well at all. Yeah. Right, it says that that verse that we saw, God takes pleasure in the prosperity. So does it mean that I don't desire these things? Or how should I live my life then? In contentment, pastor. If it's about desire to be rich, so we can't linger every time about money, because it's like, yeah, because I'm important in this situation, this thing should be in this, blessings and all, my life should be joyful, whatever is necessary for me, it should be, I think it's personal, like what we want in our life. Yeah. But I think always, every time about money, it is wrong. It is like the sufficientness it should be, it should be said that what we have or not, but what we need, it should be good. Okay, okay. Let's look at that verse. It says, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts. Okay, so which means that this person who's desiring to be rich is not mindful of anything else, right, is not discerning, is desiring to be rich, but it's not discerning. He's falling into temptation, which means that temptation to do, what is temptation? Temptation is an inducement to sin, right, so he's not mindful of the righteousness of God, he's not mindful in pleasing God, so that is what it is, if they fall into temptation and foolish and harmful lust, which means it's a life that is not really controlled by the spirit of God, right, so it's controlled by this desire to become rich. So riches take priority or importance over everything else, right, work, ministry, life, whatever, God's will, God, you know, everything else becomes second in my order of importance. This is at the top, so when that is there, I'm not discerning, I'm not interested in pleasing God, I'm not interested in doing the right thing in order to get riches also, I'm not interested in it, whatever means is there, I want to do it, right, so that is why this person is falling into temptation, this person is falling into any foolish and harmful lusts and so on, right, and it says they have strayed away, right, look at verse 10, for the love of money is a root for all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from their faith in their greediness, so which means their love for the Lord wanting to please the Lord, wanting to hear his voice, wanting to even know Lord, what is your will in this, they have strayed away, okay, so something else has taken importance, so that is what it is, right, so because, like maybe God has called you to be a businessman, right, so why are you doing business, God has called you to do business, with what focus will you do business, right, to end of the day to make a profit or to make a loss, being a prophet, right, but you will do everything ethically, right, because if you let's say you're a milk vendor, you want to make a profit at the end of the day, but because you want to make a profit and not a loss, will you add, you know, like two liters of water to one liter of milk and sell it as, you know, I've got three liters of milk now, no, right, so that is going to be desiring to be rich, forgetting about, you know, the love of God, forgetting about righteousness, path of righteousness, forgetting about all that, so the thing is this, that we, you know, as a businessman, yes, we need to make profit, but the fact is above all that is a love for God and want to do the right thing, but at the same time, you know, you want to grow your business, you want to be successful and that is why you are doing what you're doing, and in the right way possible with the wisdom that God gives. Amen. Okay, so covetousness and greed is definitely a wrong attitude to have when it comes to handling money. Hebrews 13 and verse 5, again, you can check in your notes, says that let your conduct be without covetousness, be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you, so he's linking contentment with the very presence of God. Jesus has said, I will never leave you or forsake you, which means the one who owns everything, the one who owns the universe, the one who says that, you know, the cattle on a thousand hills are his, the gold is mine, the silver is mine, you know, he has said that he will never leave nor forsake. So why should our heart be covetous? Why should our heart be greedy? Okay, so saying that this is something that we need to order our life, that our behavior, let our conduct be without covetousness because the Lord himself has said that I will never leave nor forsake. Okay, so covetousness and greed is a wrong thing to have, the wrong attitude to have about money. The second thing is also competition, which means that we compare and we say, okay, that person has, so I need to have more than that. My neighbor has this, so I need to be better than this. I need to have more money than this. I need to have more things than this or my whatever belonging has to be more or better than what that person has. The TV has to be better, the car has to be better, the bike has to be better, whatever, you know, so it's competition. We are trying to be better than the other person. Now it's good to learn, it's good to grow, it's good to improve. So that's the thing. We may say, okay, I don't want competition, but we are not improving ourselves. We are not growing ourselves. We are not learning ourselves. It's good to learn, it's good to grow, it's good to improve ourselves, maybe as a church, as a ministry or as an individual. I just want to improve, be better than how I am today or grow to be better than how I am today. But the reason, if I'm doing it so that I can be better than the person next to me, so that he or she looks when I'm in front of me, he or she should not look better than me. So that's the heart of competition. So it says in Psalm 73 verse 3, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The Psalmist sees the prosperity of the people who are wicked, morally wrong. He says, I was envious of the boastful. He's saying, how can they have it? How can they have it? I need to have it. James chapter 3 verses 14 and 15, but if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly sensual demonic. Bitter envy, self-seeking goes together. So now that's the wrong attitude to have. And now we are looking at all this because it's possible when it comes to money, it's possible when it comes to material wealth and riches that this attitude creeps in without us knowing. And especially in a work setting, in a professional work setting or maybe in business, this attitude could creep in, where it's no longer about my personal growth and my betterment and my improvement, where you're saying that person, that other person should not grow. I want to be successful in such a way that that person should be wiped out. I used to work in sales and I remember the, I think the second company that I worked for heard words like, we have to kill competition. We have to kill competition. We have to wipe out their products and we should be there everywhere. We need to have monopoly, kill competition. And initially I was very shocked to hear such words, kill competition, but that's the thing, that's the mindset. When it comes to certain, even professionally, a person should not be there. It's not like everybody thrives, everybody has some speciality in their product and because of which they grow, no, no. The attitude is, I will grow at the expense of someone else's, someone else not growing or someone else not being there. I want to make sure that they are off. So that's the wrong attitude to have when it comes to money. Then as you can look at the other scriptures there, I think Philippians 2, let's look at that verse also, Philippians 2 verses 3 to 5. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Ambition is good, selfish ambition not good. It's for self-promotion. It's only concerned about oneself. So it's not good. So let nothing be done through selfish ambition as the motive. That's what Paul is saying. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, which means, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you, verse 4, look out not only for his own interests, but also. Okay, so there is a not only and a but also. Okay, saying not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And so we might ask having this question, what if, you know, should I just think about other people's needs and other people's needs? What about my needs? I have some legitimate needs. I have some legitimate requirements. Right? What about those? So, see, this was such things in proper perspective. Let each of you esteem others better than oneself. Okay? Let each of you look out not only for his own interests. So it's okay. Now, you have some legitimate requirements, you have some legitimate interests. It's fine to look out for it in order to, you know, provide for that requirement. So not only for that, but also for the interests of others. Right? So in that way, that is how we will esteem others better than one way of esteeming others better than ourselves. Okay? So we looked at those strong attitudes. What is the third one? This is about when we say, I have abundance, therefore I am spiritual. I have abundance. It's a sign that God has blessed. It's a sign that God is pleased with me. It's a sign that I am prospering. And therefore I am a spiritual person. Everything is fine with me and so on. Okay? So that is one end of the thing where we begin to equate riches to spiritual, doing well spiritually. Excuse me. Okay? So doing well, you have material possessions and everything. So we equate that to spiritual growth and doing well, spiritually, you know, in matters of faith and so on. Okay? So James talks about the fact that, hey, there comes in your, in your gathering, a person who's rich and a person who's poor, and you're treating the person who has material possessions a little differently from the person who does not have material possessions. You know, you're giving that person prominence. Excuse me. Sorry. You're giving that person more respect. You're giving that person prominence. And the other person who's materially doesn't have so much, you're treating that person differently. You know, you're not giving him the rightful place or you're not plays of importance. So he's saying this cannot be so. Right? Let's look at James too. And he says, verse five, listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen, sorry, has God not chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love him? Next, so he's talking about partiality. He's talking about the fact that, hey, just because the person has finances and everything you're saying, okay, something was going right and you're giving him a place of prominence, even in a setting where you're supposed to worship God equally and without any bias, without any prejudice. Now, so which means that when we say, okay, this person is doing well, this person is, you know, prospering. And then therefore, we're saying we are equating that to spirituality, faith, the person of faith and all that. Now, sorry. Now, the other side of the spectrum is also not good in the sense, we see someone who's poor. Now, this is especially true, you know, in a, maybe in a place like India or, you know, we see someone who, who's poor, who is, you know, who does not have material riches and so on. And then we say that, wow, this must be a man of or a woman of great faith, right? Both extremes are false. But we feel that, okay, this is, it's okay to consider this, you know, a person doesn't have enough, the person doesn't have money and everything. Wow, so noble, right? The person is so noble and we need to treat both equally. We see a person who's rich, we think though that that guy must have done something wrong, something wrong, some dealings, you know, we see they must be doing something wrong in order to get their riches. We never think, okay, that maybe that person is working hard. We never think like that. No, maybe they had some influence, maybe they know some people, some political connection. That's how we think. We never think that, okay, maybe that person is working hard, maybe that person is working smart, maybe that person is doing something wisely, investing wisely. We never think like that. At the same time, if somebody is, does not do well financially, then we think that, okay, you know, that person is a person of great faith. Right? Now, both are wrong assumptions, right? We cannot assume that. We cannot come to such conclusions. So that's again, an attitude which is like where we, it's a sense of false humility sometimes, it's a sense of false spirituality. So that attitude also we should not have when it comes to money, whether it's abundance or lack. Maybe assign certain attributes to people because of that, which is, which is wrong, okay? Any questions here? Think about, what you're saying is that material prosperity is not the scale, is not the measuring scale in order to say, okay, this person is doing well, spiritually. Sometimes we make that wrong conclusion. Any questions, any thoughts online, anyone? Okay, let's, let's move on to another, you know, another wrong attitude that we could have about money is, is a sense of security that we have because of the money in the back, right? So we looked at that, first Timothy chapter 6 verse 17 where Paul writes and he says, command these people not to be proud. And he also says not to trust in the riches, right, but to put their trust in God, who blesses, right, who gives all things, literally, okay? So what is, what is he saying? He's saying that don't put your, don't have a sense of security because of what is in the bank or because of your possessions, you know, because money is capable of giving us that sense of security, you know, you feel a little confident, you feel a little secure, yeah, I can take care of it, right? Money gives that sense and so much so when we trust, when we put our trust in money rather than in God, that's a sense of false security, right? So we say, okay, I have the support of, you know, these people, you know, we can even put our security in man, right? I have, I have this background, we can even put our security in maybe our influence and connections and so on. The same way, we can put our trust and security in riches and say, I have this or if I have this, then I will be secure. You know, that's also true, right? And sometimes we think like that, you know, I don't have money now, but if I have this, then I will be secure or I then I will be confident, right? So putting our trust in material riches does not give us, it's to say that, you know, putting our confidence in material riches and to be saying that I can be secure because I have so much is a false sense of security, right? Okay, then, okay, there are several scriptures, you can go through that any other scriptures that you want. Okay, so I think we'll, we'll stop here. So we looked at some of the wrong attitudes, we looked at some of the good attitudes that we could have about money. So the thing to do is to apply it. Okay, so we looked at several things to see that, hey, do I have this in my life? Do I think like this when it comes to money? Just ask yourself, you know, what is my attitude towards money? Maybe we never thought about it, right? We never thought about it because we said, oh, I didn't have enough money, you know, so what's the point? What do you think about it? What is my attitude towards money? Whether it's lack of money or it could be abundance of money, but what is my mindset? What is my attitude towards it? Is it something which is biblical in nature or it is something that comes out of my experience or out of my fear and so on? Okay, so if we need to make those corrections, those changes, then it'll be very liberating, freeing because truth always liberates, right? And the Holy Spirit leads us into these truths, right? Okay, we'll stop here and we'll continue next class.