Albert Barnes: Hebrews 13:1: Let brotherly love continue--Be all of one heart and one soul.

Feel for, comfort, and support each other; and remember that he who professes to love God should love his brother also. They had this brotherly love among them; they should take care to retain it. As God is remarkable for his philanthropy, or love to man, so should they be for love to each other.

2) Keep marriage pure--v4; Gen 1:27-28; Prov 5:15-23

Matthew Henry: Here you have a recommendation of God’s ordinance of marriage, that it is honorable in all, and ought to be so esteemed by all, and not denied to those to whom God has not denied it. It is honorable, for God instituted it for man in paradise, knowing it was not good for him to be alone. He married and blessed the first couple, the first parents of mankind, to direct all to look unto God in that great concern, and to marry in the Lord. Christ honoured marriage with his presence and first miracle. It is honorable as a means to prevent impurity and a defiled bed. It is honorable and happy, when persons come together pure and chaste and preserve the marriage bed undefiled, not only from unlawful but inordinate affections.

3) Get rid of greed--vv5 & 8; Ps 119:36-37; Lk 8:14, 12:15-21, 16:13; Eph 5:3-5; Col 3:5; 1 Tim 6:9-10

John MacArthur: No amount of money will make up for a lack of contentment. John D. Rockefeller once said, "I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness." Cornelius Vanderbilt added, "The care of millions is too great a load… There is no pleasure in it." Millionaire John Jacob Astor described himself as "the most miserable man on earth." Despite his wealth, Henry Ford once remarked, "I was happier doing mechanic’s work." And John D. Rockefeller commented, "The poorest man I know is the man who has nothing but money."

Love of money and contentment are mutually exclusive. As a Roman proverb put it, money is like sea water: the more you drink the thirstier you get (Barclay, The Letters to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 132). Ecclesiastes 5:10 sums it up, "He who loves money will not be satisfied with money."

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Children's Message

Visual aid: a steering wheel or a toy car or a remote control toy car. Later, some Monopoly play money.

Every so often when mom or dad are driving, they see a car that has a sign on the back. It says: "Student Driver." That means that the person driving is learning by doing, and the person in the right seat is the instructor.

 

I want you to imagine that this wheel is how you steer through your life. Imagine that this is how you make the decisions of your life. Will you work hard in school or take it easy? This is how you will decide what kind of job you will have, what kind of person you will marry and a hundred other very important things.

Today’s Bible reading has some very important advice: (Heb 13:5) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

How you think about money will be shown in what direction you steer your life. Many people want all they can get because they think it will make them happy. Some TV/movie characters call money "bread." Well, here is some play money from my Monopoly game. Can you eat it? Will it really make you happy? Yes, you need enough of it to live, but that’s something very different than the LOVE OF MONEY. The Bible says that loving money is where all the trouble comes from.

Some of the richest men in the world have said that a lot of money made them miserable; it didn’t make them happy; it made them worry more; some of them couldn’t sleep at night.

Be satisfied with what you have, the Bible says. Even if you don’t have as much money as you’d like, you still have God who has promised to take care of you the way he cares for the birds and for everything else that He created. He has a promise that no money could ever buy you. God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Now that’s a promise that you can take to the bank. No one can take it away from you. And when you get to Eternal Life, it will be a million times more than any money could every buy you. Make sure that you’re always steering the way God is pointing, and you’ll have a much better life.