Jesus tells a story in Matthew 13 which includes important financial advice you won’t get from Wall Street. A sower goes out to sow seeds. Some seed lands on the road where it gets eaten up.  Some seed lands on rocky soil, where they grow into plants that wither in the sun.  And some falls among the thorns.  Some translations says weeds.  And the thorny weeds or weedy thorns grow up with the plant and choke it so it remains unfruitful.  Key word there: unfruitful.  What is Jesus talking about?

This is Part IV of V of the Parable of the Sower.  I’m am breaking the thorny, weedy soil into two parts.  Part III was about the weed Jesus calls “the worries of the world.”  This time, it’s what Jesus calls “the deceitfulness of wealth.”  The Greek word translated “wealth” is the same word for abundance.  Have you ever thought much about abundant wealth.   This probably isn’t too hard to do if you are an American.  Everyone in this country sees commercials and social media posts and has conversations about having or getting an abundance of wealth.  I get adds that say, “Just click here for my 7 secrets for making money when you sleep.”  These days, the best know people on earth are not sports and rock stars.  They are billionaires.   Jesus says wealth is deceptive – it’s a like weeds or thorns that choke a plant – and the plant is less fruitful as a result. 

My mother was a gardener.  As a child, I was often called on to weed the garden.  As a result, I have a bit of experience with weeds.  And we have remarkable weeds here in Florida.  They grow fast.  They’re hard to pull out.  Some have thorns.  Some put off toxins and poison other plants.  Some are thorny, and you can hurt yourself if you aren’t careful when trying to pull them out.  I had a little garden I planted with my youngest daughter.  It was not a good location.  We managed to get a small harvest of beans, but I couldn’t keep up with the weeds where we’d planted squash and tomatoes.  Most of the squash rotted before we could harvest it, and the three mighty tomato plants produced four wimpy omatoes.  Not very fruitful.  The weeds were a big part of the problem.  The weeds didn’t kill the plants.  They just made them unhealthy and consequently unfruitful. 

When Jesus takes the disciples aside, he said the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth and like weeds that choke a plant and make it unfruitful.

What is it about abundant wealth that makes us unfruitful.  Jesus ties a word to it.  Deceitfulness.  The ideas around abundance and wealth deceive us.  Briefly, wealth deceives us because it’s associated with a false god – whom Jesus called Mamon.  False gods promise two things that really only come from God: significance and security.  The ideas around wealth deceive us in both places.

Let me give you three quick examples of how money deceives people.

Deception #1 Wealth will make you free.

              Think about these words: “whoever loves money never has enough.  Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.  As goods increase, so do those who consume them.”  Solomon wrote that about 3000 years ago.  His point – if you give yourself over trying to get wealth, you make yourself a slave to it.  There’s a reason Dave Ramsey, who is a Christian, helps people find financial peace rather promising them financial freedom.  It’s because he knows that pursuing financial freedom is a fool’s game. 

 Deception #2 Wealth will make you safe.

              In one sense this is true.  If you are wealthy, maybe you can drive a reliable car, get good health care, or move to a low crime neighborhood.  But wealth also makes you a target.  And money has a way of evaporating.  Inflation eats it up.  A surprise expense sets you back.  And how many stories have you heard of someone counting on money to be there for them, only to discover it was gone, lost, stolen when they needed it.  When you trust it to be there for you, it leaves you.  And then there’s the fact of life.  One day you’ll leave it.  Jesus tells the story about a guy who had a great crop.  He tore down the small barns and built bigger ones.  I’m going to eat drink and be merry.  And God said, “you fool. This very night your life is required of you.  Who’s going to have your money now?

Deception #3 – Wealth will make life easier. 

I bore witness to this one up close as a pastor.  What I can tell you is that having wealth amplifies everything.  On the plus side – your house is bigger, your cars are nicer, your clothes are more fashionable, and your vacations are more exotic.  But – your hours are longer, your worries are multiplied, and your family is more prone to have big problems that blow it up.  I recall a very sad die after a funeral.  The dad had built up a successful business, bought a house on the water, and put beautiful cars in the driveway.  But the kids left the widow, fought over the inheritance, and lost their relationships with one another.  Life was harder.  And I’ll add one more.  I’ve notice that there is no addiction so gripping of its victims as a well-funded addiction. 

And there are more deceptions.  Have you ever heard these?  With wealth, you get more friends.  With wealth, you can solve problems.  And really, isn’t a fruitful life one that is wealthy? 

Jesus says that wealth deceives in a way that makes our lives unfruitful.  So here’s the bottom line. If you want to have a fruitful life, make sure you know the truth about wealth.

There’s a story in the Bible about a man named Abram who under stood this.  In Genesis 14, Abram went on a rescue mission and fought a battle to rescue his nephew Lot.  Lot’s city had been plundered and Lot and his family had been carried off as part of the plunder – likely to be slaves.  Abram wins and as a result collects everything that was stolen from Lot’s town plus a lot of plunder.  Then me meets a king and a priest named Melchizadek who greets Abram and blesses him in the name of the God who is the “Creator, Possessor, and literally the Purchase of heaven and earth.”  Abram knew his God to be the one who owns everything.

He did two things in response. 1) He gave a tenth of everything he had.  He gave it to Malchizedek. When you know everything belongs to God – it frees you up to be really generous – because it all belongs to God.  And then there was a corrupt and evil king of Lot’s city whose stuff Abram had brought back.  That king said, “You can keep it Abram, just let me have my people back.”  This was sneaky, by the way.  The king would have deflected any trouble with his people and put it on Abram.  Abram said, “No.  I’m not gonna touch your stuff.  No one’s going to say you made me rich.”  He could say that because he knew God, and He knew God would provide everything he needed, and so he could be wise with his money.

I could talk a long time on this, but I want to give you an encouragement that came from John Wesley.  This encouragement set a lot of people from the deceiving power of money.  He said, “Earn all you can.  Save all you can.  And Give all you can.”  And people did.  And their stories and the stories of their families changed when they began to live like that.

May you know the Lord who is the possessor of all things. May the story you tell be beautiful and may your family be blessed. May may he set you free to be generous and wise with the wealth God gives you. And may your life bear much fruit!  Amen!