This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and I want to welcome you back for day
four of our look at Psalm 46 to 50. That means Psalm 49 today. Psalm 49 starts
by letting us know that it has some wisdom for us to hear.

Listen to verses one to four. Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you who
live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike.

My mouth will speak words of wisdom. The utterance from my heart will give
understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb.

With the harp, I will expound my riddle. As you read this Psalm, and it begins
by saying, I've got some wisdom to give you. As you begin to read through the
Psalm, you quickly see that it has some wisdom for us about riches.

First, it tells us about the great danger of riches. The Bible, it's very clear
that money is neither good nor bad. It's what we do with that money, or what
that money can do to us that's good or bad.

Money isn't the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. And
Psalm 49 tells us that the evil that's in money, in wealth, is that wealth
confuses people.

It warns us again and again that wealth can confuse you. Look at the ways that
wealth can confuse you in this Psalm. First, wealth confuses your trust, verses
five and six.

Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me, those
who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? When you have wealth,
it seems to give you things, make things better, and it's easy to get confused
and start to trust in that wealth. And as you're trusting in that wealth, we're
reminded here that you're also trusting in yourself.

Here's the confusion. Getting the things that money can buy often causes people
to lose the things that money can't buy. Because I can get what I think I need,
you start to lose what you really need.

You lose a passionate love for God in the midst of all the things. You lose a
healthy relationship with family in the midst of gaining more money. You lose a
compassion for those who struggle financially in the midst of your pride about
your finances.

Wealth confuses us. It can confuse your trust. Wealth also, in this Psalm,
confuses your future, confuses the way that you look at the future and think
about the future, verses 12 and 13.

But man, despite his riches, does not endure. He is like the beasts that perish.
This is the fate of those who trust in themselves and of their followers who
approve their sayings.

Here's the danger, here's the confusion. Wealth causes people to think they'll
live on this earth forever. Now, if they looked at it logically, they know
they're going to die, but there's something about wealth that makes you feel like,
oh, I'm going to have this forever.

It's never going to end. Wealth can even dull your longing for heaven because you
have it pretty good on this earth and because you have it a little better than
other people, it dulls your longing for what is immeasurably better than what
any of us can imagine. Wealth is just enough to make you think that you've got
enough, but we don't have enough.

Our future is in eternity, our future is with him. We are not going to endure on
this earth, but we can live with him forever, and wealth can confuse that in our
minds. Wealth can also confuse your legacy.

Third thing that wealth confuses in this psalm, verses 10 and 11. For all can
see that wise men die. The foolish and the senseless alike perish and they leave
their wealth to others.

Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless
generations, though they had named lands after themselves. We all want to leave a
legacy, and we should. God put that in our hearts, but we need to remember that
our legacy is in eternity.

It's not on this earth. This earth is going to perish, this earth is not going to
last, but whatever we send on ahead in terms of how we use our wealth to reach
people for Christ, or use our wealth to minister to people in Jesus' name,
that's going to last forever. On this earth, whatever money you have, it's just
going to be passed on.

There's no legacy in that, how much you built up, 'cause it's just going to be
passed on. It's just left to others in the end. It's just left.

However big or how many houses you have on this earth, there's a very shocking
picture here. The only house you're going to have in the end is your tomb. Your
body's going to be there.

Now, for Christians, we're going to be resurrected out of those tombs one day, but
that's all you got left. Wealth can confuse your legacy, can make you think you
can build a legacy on this earth, and forget that our greatest legacy is in
heaven. And finally, and maybe most tellingly, wealth confuses your
relationships.

Verses 18 to 19, talking about a wealthy person. Though while he lived, he
counted himself blessed, and men praise you when you prosper, he will join the
generation of his fathers who will never see the light of life. In the midst of
talking about the fact that we will all die one day, however much wealth we
have, there's this phrase, men praise you when you prosper.

Well, we all know that's true. They praise you just 'cause of what you have, not
because of who you are. And anybody who has wealth, they know that.

The praise that you hear, you're never quite sure of where it's coming from. Are
people praising me? Are they talking to me?

Or are they praising my money? Are they talking to my money? Even in your own
family sometimes, you're not sure.

Wealth confuses our relationships. We've all had to work with families, or I
certainly have and have known of families, where maybe there's been a lot of
wealth that's been passed on to the children, and boy, are the relationships
confused. What the parents had hoped would lead to wonderful life, wonderful
life of ministry and loving their family has led to infighting and focus on
material things and money.

Wealth confuses your relationships. Now, I just want to remind you that you
don't have to be rich to be confused by riches, all these things we just talked
about. Often, those without riches look to those who are seemingly rich to them,
and they begin to think too much of those riches.

So the way you think about wealth is what's important here, not how much you
have. You can have nothing in the bank and still be confused by wealth every day
of your life, because you're going after it every day of your life. Instead of
being confused by wealth, this psalm invites us to a place of wisdom about
wealth.

God wants us to have wisdom about wealth. So let me read verses 16 and 17, and
then verse 20. Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of
his house increases, for he will take nothing with him when he dies.

His splendor will not descend with him. And then verse 20, a man who has riches
without understanding is like the beasts that perish. So what is this
understanding that we need to have?

Well, a couple of things. First, it's the understanding to look at your riches
through the lens of eternity, to see through the lens of eternity. It's in this,
it's all through the Bible, but it's in this psalm as well.

Verses seven to nine says, no man can redeem the life of another or give to God
a ransom for him. The ransom for a life is costly. No payment is ever enough
that he should live on forever and not see decay.

So when you look through the lens of eternity, wealth can't do anything about
that, which is most important, our life, our eternity. But verse 15 says, but
God, but God will redeem my life from the grave. He will surely take me to
himself.

The idea in this verse is that we're snatched from the power of the grave, we're
redeemed. This is incredible hope from the Old Testament. This verse, verse 15,
is called one of the mountaintops of Old Testament hope.

God will redeem my life from the grave. It says here, he will take me to
himself. I like that.

Have you ever thought, you don't go to heaven, you are taken to heaven, taken by
the savior who loves you. So you look at your riches through the lens of
eternity. When you do that, you see things differently.

If you look just through the lens of what's happening on this earth, sometimes
it feels like those who have wealth more than you do, it feels like they're
winning. It feels like they're getting all the blessings, not when you look at
it through the lens of eternity. Picture it like this.

You're invited to this huge mansion for a meal. And in the first course, the
person next to you, they get this huge salad draped with every kind of seafood
and vegetable, everything you can imagine. And they get this incredible bowl of
soup, biggest bowl you've ever seen.

It can be French onion soup or it can be clam chowder, whatever you like the
best. It smells unbelievable. That's what they get.

And you get, for the first course, you get a peanut, a peanut on a plate. That's
all you get for the first course. And you feel cheated.

You feel like they're winning. Second course, the person next to you is escorted
out of the house because they've insulted the owner. And you enjoy, because you
love the owner, you enjoy this incredible three course or let's make it eight
course, let's make a 10 course meal and dessert.

And at the end of the meal, by the way, you're told that, oh, did you like this
meal? I'm going to give you the mansion as well. I'm going to give you the house as
well.

And you're going to have this banquet every day for the rest of eternity. It's
yours forever. That's the picture.

So stop feeling cheated because some people on this planet have more than you
do. Don't look at it that way. Look through the lens of eternity.

What's the understanding we need to have? It starts there. And then the second
understanding is because you have that, you use your wealth to glorify God.

Don't be confused by your wealth. Wealth cannot prevent death or determine your
destiny or better your relationships. Instead of being confused by wealth,
choose to use your wealth for God's glory, to do what Jesus talked about.

Jesus in Luke 16, nine says, and so I tell you this, use money, taint it as it
is to win friends. And let's make sure that when it fails you, the money, they
will be welcomed. They will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

Let's pray together. Lord, wealth is so enticing and it looks like it gives so
much. Thank you for this song that reminds us of the wisdom you want to give us
about wealth.

That it can confuse the most important things in life and keep us from the most
eternal things in life. God help us to have wisdom about wealth. Help us to see
things through the lens of eternity and to use whatever you've given to glorify
you.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow, Psalm 50, Psalm 50 talks about God's
judgment.