Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 59 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

It's Only Money (Part 2)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 59 of our Trek, and as we examine these nuggets of wisdom each day, we need to seek for them as if they were nuggets of gold. Speaking of gold, the next several days we will focus on the accumulation of wealth, both in money and the true riches of life.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I was able to put a coat of polyurethane on "The Eating Area" floor late last night and the second coat very early this morning. It is looking really nice. We will let it set for a couple of days before moving the furniture back into the room. This has been a much lengthier project than we anticipated, but it is nearing completion.

On our Trek, we started down the money trail yesterday with a new series “It’s Only Money” and the theme of being on the trail of true riches. Yesterday we traveled on the money trail and considered "What is Better Than Wealth?".  We discovered that several items are. If you missed yesterday’s podcast, please check it out.

Today we are going to explore a couple more precepts about money. So, let’s head on up the yellow brick trail to our land of true wealth.

What Money Cannot Do For You

“Money isn’t everything,” someone has been quoted as saying “but it’s a long way ahead of whatever is in second place.” Proverbs informs us, however, that not only is money not in first place, but it is not even in the running for second place. One reason is that money simply cannot purchase those things in life which are most important.

1. Money cannot buy you security.

There are two primary reasons why money fails to make you secure. The first is that money simply cannot purchase security, for security cannot be bought. There are those who deceive themselves by thinking that wealth offers them security, but this is only imaginary.

Proverbs 18:11, "The rich think of their wealth as a strong defense; they imagine it to be a high wall of safety."

The second reason money cannot offer us security is that wealth itself is often only temporary. Not only does our wealth fail to make us secure, our wealth itself is insecure.

Proverbs 23:4-5, "Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit. In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle."

During the great recession of 2008, millions of people lost large portions of their retirements that they had worked so hard for. Millions of others lost their homes and possessions. We cannot place our hope in money as security because remember "It’s Only Money."

2. Money cannot buy you wisdom.

Proverbs 17:16, "It is senseless to pay to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning."

3. Money cannot provide you with life’s most precious gift.

We know that money cannot buy true friends because bought “friends” will forsake us when our time of need arrives.

Proverbs 19:7, "The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone."

The Prodigal Son in Luke 15 illustrates this principle clearly, but we will leave that story for another day.

I can attest personally to the fact that a godly wife cannot be purchased, but is a gift of God’s grace.  Paula is my gift of God’s grace.

Proverbs 18:22, "The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord."

Proverbs 19:14,