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Why Better Things Don't Always Make Things Better, Part 1
October 27, 2026 · 25 min
Join Chip as he discusses why better things in life don’t always make life better.
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Chip Ingram is an American Christian pastor, author, and teacher. He is the founder, teaching pastor and CEO of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry.
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The Lie That More Money Brings More Happiness 0:11 Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram.0:14 Sometimes the very thing we dream about that we want, that we're so passionate about, oh, Lord, if I just got married, oh, God, just give me that job, oh, God, just... And sometimes you mortgage all that0:26 really matters to get it and you find yourself empty. If that's you, you wanna stick around because we're gonna talk about why better things don't always make things0:38 better.0:40 Welcome to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Would more money make you happier? It's a simple question, but Chip says the way we live often reveals a very different answer than the 1 we'd give out0:52 loud. Today, as we continue our series Building Authentic Community, Chip turns to James chapter 5 and some of the strongest words about wealth anywhere in scripture. Through an unforgettable1:04 story from a cardboard city in Manila, he'll show us why God isn't opposed to wealth, but he is opposed to what it can do to us. Here's Chip with today's message, why better things don't always make1:16 things better.1:18 I'd like to start, a little bit unusual. I'm gonna ask you a question. I want you to answer this question with the very 1st, most immediate1:30 response that comes to your mind. I don't want you to answer it with what you ought to, what you should say, what a Christian's supposed to say, what some really holy person would want you to say, I'm just gonna read 11:42 question and just the most immediate reaction that comes to your mind, honestly, true or false, I want you to say it in your mind, you don't have to blurt it out. Here's the question, are you ready?1:54 If I had more money, I would be more happy. True or false? Okay, I hear false. Then why is it that everyone wants2:06 more money? The lie is this, my significance, write that word in, and value, write that word in, is2:18 measured by the quality and the quantity of the things that I possess. And today, we'll learn that those very subtle2:30 philosophical values and mindsets are at the core of destroying some of the most important relationships in your life. It's a very, very interesting passage.2:42 And so let's open up the text together. Notice what it says in verse 1 of James chapter 5. It opens up and says, now listen, you rich people, and this is strong, weep and wail because2:54 of the misery that is coming on you. Verse 1, written to unbelievers abusing God's children, judgment's coming for what you've done. He goes on to say, Your wealth has3:06 rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. Verse 3, your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have3:18 hoarded wealth in the last days. Look, the wages you failed to pay the the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.3:30 You have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men,3:43 those who were not even opposing you. And so the intended audience is some rich unbelievers, but out of it I think are some principles for all of us.3:54 Scathing rebuke followed by the 4 reasons for the rebuke. Now here's what I want you to get before we jump into this very strong passage. The truth is God is not opposed4:06 to wealth, but God is opposed to the misuse and the abuse of wealth. So that's the warning. He says, the misuse of wealth4:18 that hurts and abuses other people will bring the judgment of God. And then he's gonna give the reason. There's 4 warnings that he gives out of verses 2 through 6. The 1st 1 has to do4:30 with how much you've accumulated. He's gonna talk in in verse 2, and he's gonna say, here's the warning, don't hoard it. Warning number 2, don't steal4:42 it. Don't steal it. He goes on, warning number 3, this is about how we spend the money that we have, and here4:54 he says, don't waste it. Don't waste it. Listen to the scripture, you have lived on earth in luxury and self indulgence. You have fattened5:05 yourselves in the day of slaughter. Pretty strong stuff, isn't it? What's the application for us as believers? For me the application is just because you can5:17 afford it, doesn't mean you should buy it. Just because you can afford it, does not mean you should buy it. We we we're we're deluded in thinking it's our money.5:29 It's God's money. 100 percent of all that you have, all that I have, it's God. You say, well, I work for it. Okay. Who who gave you the talent? Who gave you the job? Who gave you the oxygen? He's the lord of all5:41 the earth. Silver and gold is mine, Deuteronomy 8. He he... Everything belongs to him, and so what he's saying to these people is don't waste it. Don't waste it. Don't hoard it. Don't5:53 steal it. Don't waste it. And then finally, warning here, is don't abuse it. He talks about how do you use your money to influence other people. He says, don't use your6:05 money to to abuse the influence that it can have. Notice he says in verse 4, you have condemned and murdered innocent men who were not opposing6:16 you. The owners didn't pay their wages. Well guess what happens? Not only can the guy goes home and cries out to God, says God, I worked all day, I didn't get any money, I can't feed my family. Well he has other...6:28 He's got bills to pay, right? He's got a landlord to pay. So the landlord comes to the guy and says, hey, where's my money? He goes, well the guy didn't pay me. He said, yeah, it's a personal problem. And you know how6:38 they got people to pay their debts back in that day? They put them in prison, which is really smart. I mean he's really... I mean making a lot of money in prison to pay off that debt, but that's how it worked. Remember6:48 the parable of Jesus and you know the man who came and wouldn't pay the debt and he said put that man in prison, he begged begged begged for mercy and then he did the same thing with someone else. That was how it worked6:59 in the day. So literally what he's saying here is that you've abused it, you've condemned and murdered men. If you end up in prison in order to pay your debt and you can7:10 never pay your debt, what do you end up doing? You die. You die. And this is the harsh word from the spirit of God who sees this injustice to these7:22 unbelievers who are hoarding and stealing and abusing these people, and he says, they weren't even up... Opposing you. Literally, that phrase is, they7:34 were powerless before you. They they they weren't even in the game. They they couldn't do anything against you. And now you see people who use money for bribes,7:46 to pay off judges, political appointments, to get contracts. See that's how you abuse money. Anytime you use money to prefer justice and control others7:58 instead of love and serve others that will bring glory to God, it's an abuse. I remember being in the Philippines with, 1 of my buddies and, a little guy named Alex, and he was on the front of the motorcycle, and I was8:10 on the back of the motorcycle, and I was scared to death, and I should be in Manila as we were weaving in and out of cars, and they're like cardboard cities. I mean, they're they're just the poorest of the poor, and8:21 they're like cardboard shacks and little corrugated aluminum, and and and they call them squatters because there's no land and they're like refugees and they form these little cities, and then every now and then8:33 someone very powerful will decide, you know I wanna use that land for a project of mine. And so he makes a call to the government and the government says, oh, sounds good. And if you've traveled anywhere around the8:44 world, bribes are a part of how life works in almost every country in the world. And, my friend Alex, just a neat guy, godly guy that had a ministry among all these refugees,8:56 and and I mean hundreds, thousands and thousands of people, and Alex was the only 1, there was a little pole, and they ran a wire, and he had 1 light bulb that hung down in the middle of his cardboard shack. And all the9:07 people from all around would come at night because he had a light bulb, and he would read the Bible, and he shared Christ with him. And then I still remember his entire house was just about the size of this stage9:19 right here, and there was 1 about from here to here was 1 bed, and and he wasn't apologizing, he was like showing me, Chip come and see, this is so beaut... You know, I'm such a rich man, I'm such a rich9:31 man. And he would he would sleep this direction and and his wife would sleep that direction, so they would be on this 1. It was a dirt floor, and there was another bed about, you know, 4 feet, and he had a small boy9:42 about 5 years old, and his wife was ready with number 2. And he was so excited to show me his castle with a light bulb. And then I remember hearing, some guy wanted to use that9:54 land. No warning. No telling people anything. Just a line of bulldozers came in. Thousands of people displaced. That is what James is talking about. That10:06 abuse.10:09 You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get back to today's message in just a moment. Did you know Chip isn't just on the radio? He's on YouTube too? Just search living on the10:20 edge with Chip Ingram and hit subscribe. You'll find full length video teaching from Chip on marriage, parenting, leadership, and a whole lot more, Ready to watch whenever it fits your schedule.10:33 It's also a great way to share a message with a friend who needs it. Alright. Now back to our message.10:38 This is a very depressing passage. And this passage that we've read is happening all around the world, especially in 3rd world countries.10:51 And it's happening probably more here than we like to believe. Because as Christians, for that lie of security and significance, we hoard. We must hoard some because our garages are full of allFour Warnings Against Misusing Wealth 11:03 this stuff that we got about every 6 or 8 months trying to get other people to take our junk, which is their treasure. And you know what? I think as Christians, you know, we we steal it. I mean, every every employer here11:14 paying people what they're worth. Everyone making sure they got the kind of benefits they need, what they're worth. Everybody here who works and has an employer, you put in a full day even if the supervisor is11:25 gone. Or do you come in a little late or leave 0.5 hour early? You know what that's called? It's called stealing. The hoarding, the abuse, the stealing, the wasting. How much unconsciously has the11:37 buffet mentality kinda got into our bloodstream and that when we have a little extra we just, you know, do this and do that? Because every moment of every day, what are you getting? Advertisement, advertisement,11:47 advertisement, advertisement, advertisement, advertisement. You know what? You like... You know, you gotta watch like you got 3 of them, but you need a new 1. You got a blouse, you got like 4 of them, but you need it in11:55 a lighter shade of this or that. You know, you got like 4 pair of shoes that go with everything, but you get get 1 for this outfit, this outfit, this outfit, this outfit, this outfit. I mean, like how many feet do we12:04 have? But what happens is it becomes normal, doesn't it? It just becomes normal. And I think there's warnings here for us as believers. Now this could end on a very negative note, but it's not going to. Because remember12:16 I said we're gonna have a good time together. What I wanna do is I wanna flip this around and ask and answer the question, if that's the wrong way to use money that brings12:27 God's judgment, what's the right way? What what what would be the 4 positive ways that we could leverage this amazing wealth? 1 of the things that upsets me about Christians is they feel12:39 really guilty. We're all very wealthy. Now, what we do is we find someone more wealthy and we think we're middle class. I mean, I've I've met with people in living rooms who are only worth 10 or 12000000 dollars and just12:50 feel like, I don't have much. I mean, now real wealth is... And they'll talk about someone with about 100000000. I've been in rooms with people that have 100 or 200000000 dollars and look at me like, no. Wealthy? No. No.13:01 I mean when you have a big capital b in your portfolio like in billions, now that's wealthy. And you know it's just a game that we play. And so we think, well people making like over 200000 now, they're wealthy. And I13:13 got news for you, you are wealthy. I am wealthy, and you know what? That's not bad. It's just a stewardship, it's just God has made us wealthy, then what we ought to13:25 ask is, Lord, how do you want us to use this wealth in a very positive and good way? And so what I wanna do is I wanna flip this around and let me give you 413:36 commands right out of scripture on the right uses of wealth, and I wanna take the model because he's gone negative negative negative negative, I wanna go positive positive positive positive, so when we walk out of here13:47 instead of feeling lonely and bad and guilty about our wealth, we can say, Hey, here's a practical systematic way that we can use the God given wealth for good. So with that, are you ready to13:59 roll? Good. Command number 1 is save it faithfully. Although hoarding is condemned, God does say that wisdom demands that we plan for the14:11 future with our excess wealth. Notice what it says in Proverbs 21 20, the wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. Biblical savings14:22 is about stewardship, not about security. Do you see the difference? As a believer I need to save for emergencies, for crises, for future needs, to help others,14:35 to make better use of my money, and when I save I make better decisions. There is a reason why those commercials say, you can buy this today and no payments for 18 months. It's14:47 because you start buying stuff and having stuff you can't really afford, but you know it doesn't hit you for 18 months. And usually there's a little thing in the fine print where you're gonna end up figuring... You'll14:57 pay the interest on that some way somehow, you know they're gonna get you this way, this way, or that way. But you know what? When you save, it's in a novel thing. What if you've made car payments to yourself, so the15:08 next car you bought, you walked in and said, how much does it cost? Here it is. And you paid no interest. What if you save so that when your washing machine breaks down, you walk in and say, I need a new washing machine,15:19 and you pay them cash. And by the way, when you pay cash and when you save and you have, you know, that taken care of, what if there's a big need, or what if there would be, imagine, like a hurricane would15:31 hit and millions of people would be displaced. What if you had money on the side that you could just reach into and say, you know something? This is for an emergency. I thought it was for my emergency.15:43 Lord, I think you must want it for their emergency. And you could give it, not with, oh, I wish I could do something. See, God says it's important and wise. You know, Proverbs says observe the ant. Right? What does he15:55 do? You know, they work together, and and they they do things at different times of the year so that when the winter comes, they have prepared. So I think it's very important to save.16:08 Savings as a steward requires a couple things. Now this really sounds elementary, but I've been some really, really bright people that don't quite get this. In order to save, follow very16:20 carefully, you have to spend less each month than you make. You you want... I'll go over that again slowly. Okay? Get to get that get that pen out. Okay.16:32 In order to save money, you have to spend less than you make. So if you make, you know, 2000 dollars a month or 5000 dollars a month or16:43 10000 dollars a month, you have to live on less than that so you can take a portion of it and save it. And and I'm I'm not being as facetious as you think I am because 1 of the things I did to16:55 get through seminary is I, I I I did some selling of investments and some financial planning, and what I found is if the people made 50000 a year, that was the window, they spent about 5517:07 grand. If they made 100 grand a year, they spent about 110 grand a year. If they made 250000 dollars a year, they spent about 300 grand a year. It was amazing, whatever window that people make, their expenses17:18 seem to always exceed what they make. It's an amazing thing, but you would have to begin to save. It will be just a freeing,17:30 freeing thing to have money set aside for emergency or future purposes... Purchases or something someone else needs. The 2nd positive way to use your wealth is make it17:42 honestly. This is how we're supposed to gain wealth. Notice what it says, work brings profit, talk brings poverty. We're to17:54 work hard instead of seal it. Notice work hard instead of the get rich quick schemes. Proverbs 13 11, it's not in your notes, but you might wanna jot that down. It says wealth from18:05 gambling or the idea of getting rich quickly disappears, but wealth from hard work grows. For the classic New Testament passages is Ephesians 4 28, let him who steals, literally18:17 it's happening in the church, the grammar here is literally stop stealing, Let him who steal steal no longer, but rather what? Let him labor performing with his own hands what is good in order that he may18:29 have something to share with him who has need. Work hard but wisely. I love Proverbs 23 4. It says, don't wear yourself out to get rich.18:41 Have the wisdom to show restraint. Work hard. That's how you gain it. You know, I I know when you can't sleep, and there's times I can't18:53 sleep. It's 1 42 in the morning. You know, you even read the bible a little bit, still can't sleep. It's now 3 33 in the morning. You're now thinking what a terrible day it's going to be, and maybe I could watch some19:05 mindless thing on TV. It'll help me sleep. And so you turn on the TV. The quality program between about 2 30 in the morning to 5 will blow your mind. And what is it? With no19:17 money down, I'll show you how to buy real estate like you've never dreamed. Right? Or for 19 99, 7 payments of 19 99, this book has the magic19:28 formula where you can be a millionaire. And then they have these guys with all these testimonies, and I love the guy... The 1 guy, you know, he's in the boat with all the babes in the bikinis and back going, hey, man.19:37 I'll tell you what I did. I went through this course and... What is it? It's a lie. It's just a lie. There are no quick fixes. God says,19:48 there's nothing wrong with wealth. In fact, God says, he gives wealth to the godly and he adds no sorrow to it. He says, try this. Just work for it. Quit20:00 quit quit trying to get... I I don't know how many believers, even Christian organizations, about 10, 12 years ago, a Ponzi scheme soaked tens of millions of dollars promising, if it sounds too good to be true, just20:12 take it. It's too good to be true. People who promise 20 percent return and this return and that return, something smells, don't go there. There is no free lunch.20:24 Work hard. Save it, make it honestly, and before I get to the next 1, I wanna ask you a question, because this is always lingering in the back of people's minds. People ask me, so how much money can20:36 a godly person make? I have an answer. Now this is Chip Ingram. We were in James before, you're gonna get Chip Ingram, so you can say, I like this, I don't like this, I'll weigh it. My answer, as20:48 much as you want. Of course, there's an end to, you know, you ready? That's not the whole answer. As much as you want, as long it doesn't hurt your health, your family,21:00 others, and then here's the key test. As long as your spiritual growth is outpacing your financial growth. That's the test. Because21:12 money will always reveal your heart. You can make as much money as you want, as long as your spiritual growth is outpacing your financial growth.21:24 You're listening to Living on the Edge with the message titled why better things don't always make things better, part of our series building authentic community. You can revisit this teaching or catch21:36 up on the rest of the series anytime at living on the edge dot org. Chip reminded us today that our worth was never meant to be measured by what we own. The things that make life21:48 truly rich can't be bought. They're given, and they're chosen. That's the heart of Chip's book, I Choose Love. It shows that agape love, the very love God has for us, is a decision toHow Christians Participate in These Sins 22:00 give, serve, and put somebody else's best interest ahead of our own. And when love like that takes root, it changes how we see everything, including our stuff. Get your copy of I22:11 Choose Love at a special price today at living on the edge dot org slash offers. You know, we hear from listeners all the time who've been willing to take an honest look at their own hearts.22:23 1 listener, Matthew, recently told us that going through 1 of Chip's studies revealed something he didn't expect. I learned that I was more materialistic and self involved than I thought I was.22:35 I was having recurring temptations to seek security in stuff, situations, circumstances. Well, that honest look, he said, brought him back to 1st things and to what God wanted to do in22:47 him. That kind of change is exactly why this ministry exists, and it happens because listeners like you give. Become a monthly partner or make a generous gift today by going online toFour Positive Commands for Using Wealth 22:59 living on the edge dot org or calling us at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3. You can also send your gift by mail to Living on the Edge, PO box 3007,23:11 Suwanee, Georgia 3 0 0 2 4. Now, Chip, before we go, share a little more with us about why money is so dangerous.23:19 Be glad to, Dave. Money in and of itself obviously, is not bad or wrong. God isn't opposed to us having it, but he's opposed to what it can do to us. He's opposed to23:31 us getting it by stealing or manipulating, defrauding people. He's opposed to us hoarding it or finding our security in it. But what I will say, and I think this is23:43 really underestimated, especially those of us that live in the 1st world, I think we say things like money is neutral, and it's not. Money is dangerous.23:55 Money is powerful. It's it's the other god. We need to understand that, yes, we have to deal with money. We need to have it, spend it, save it, invest it, give it.Money Is Powerful and Dangerous 24:07 But Jesus said that there's 2 gods, him and mammon. And it's very interesting. They don't even translate it money. They they really gave it a name. And the idea is it's so dangerous24:20 that that's why there's all the warnings about money. In our next broadcast, I'm really gonna talk about a specific game plan about how to take this dangerous commodity and use24:31 it wisely, invest it wisely, give it wisely, earn it honestly. Money is a powerful, powerful thing, and we need to get a good, clear biblical perspective of24:43 it, and then put that into practice. The next broadcast you don't want to miss.24:47 I'm Dave Drew here. We'll see you next time right here on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.In this video 0:00 The Lie That More Money Brings More Happiness10:59 Four Warnings Against Misusing Wealth21:49 How Christians Participate in These Sins22:53 Four Positive Commands for Using Wealth23:57 Money Is Powerful and Dangerous
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