Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to restrain yourself.Don’t weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom.
5 sermons cite this verse
… The first thing is more fatigue. Proverbs 23, verse four, the Bible says this. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Have the wisdom to show restraint. He says it's dumb, it's foolish. To wear yourself out trying to get more things. Because even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat. Now number two, not only does bringing, having more, wanting more bring more fatigue, it brings more expenses. Did you know that? It always costs more to have more. It always costs more to have more. It brings greater expense. You know, I always say that if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, so is the water bill. Because somebody had to pay for that green. Now, Ecclesiastes 5.11 says this. The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. I like that. It's true. The more money you got, all of a sudden you got to have an accountant. Or you got to have a housekeeper. …
… in Ecclesiastes, Solomon taught, for example, don't worship money because it can be easily lost. In Proverbs 23, verses four and five, we read, do not worry yourself to gain wealth. Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on money, it is gone for wealth certainly makes itself wings and like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Money can increase stress, Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5.12, he said, the sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much. The person who doesn't have a lot, he's able to sleep at night. He's not worried about his finances and what he's going to do with all of his money, but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. Solomon said, money can rob us of present joy in this life. In Ecclesiastes 5.13, he said, there is a grievous evil, which I've seen under the sun, riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. So given the benefits of money and also the limitations of money, Proverbs tells us what a reasonable goal for us ought to be in our finances. …
… And yet the Bible says not to do this. Proverbs 23 verse 4 and 5 warns us about materialism and it says this do not wear yourself out trying to get rich have the wisdom to show some restraint your money can be gone in a flash as if it had grown wings and flown away like an eagle you know you can lose your money Don't spend all of your life trying to get something you could lose so quickly. You can fly away like an eagle. Now, evidently, America's founding fathers wanted you to remember this because they put an eagle on every dollar bill. As a reminder of this verse. It has been my observation, having counseled thousands of people, that we spend the first half of our life sacrificing our health, overworking, in order to get wealth. And we spend the second half of our life sacrificing wealth in order to get our health back. Have you ever thought about that? The first half of life, you give up your health in overworked in order to get wealth. …
… what God has placed in my life. Read our first verse today, Proverbs 23, verse four. Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Do not trust in your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. I like that right there. Just fly off like an eagle. I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called Wings. Wings. Anybody here in this service, you ever felt like, where did all my money go? Did my money just fly away with wings like an eagle? I'll never forget when I was growing up, when I was old enough, my parents let me take over my bedroom and I got to start putting up all my posters. That's a real day in a man's life right there where you get to take over your own bedroom, put up your own posters. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, my whole bedroom, you couldn't even see the white on the walls. It was just all posters. I didn't have any football or baseball. I had all basketball posters all up in my bedroom. The best poster when I was growing up was a poster of a guy. He had his arms out like this. He's six foot six from North Carolina, Six-time NBA championship, the greatest basketball player to ever play the game of basketball. …
… Put this verse down. Proverbs 23 and verse 4, labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. If you set your goal to be wealthy, I can tell you you're going to have difficulty. Because when you set your goal to be wealthy, then money becomes your master rather than your servant. It's incredibly bad advice to tell a young person, make all the money you can just so you make it honestly. Because if you tell a person to do that, he'll be making money when he ought to be doing something else. He'll be making money when he ought to be spending time with his children. He'll be making money when he ought to be serving the Lord, when he ought to be praying, when he ought to be doing other things. A, a rich man is poor when he becomes a slave to his money. A rich man is a poor man when he has no treasure in heaven. Put this verse down. Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 5, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? …