We don’t like to talk about money,
and contrary to what many people think or believe, most pastors (me included)
dread talking about it in worship. But it is such a hot-button issue since most
of our lives revolve around the acquiring and spending of money. This being the
case, GOD expects us to wrestle with it. Money issues have the propensity to
rise above all of our other life issues, and they can contribute to them all –
relationship problems, stress/worry/anxiety, and time management problems. For this
reason, the Bible has a lot to say about money, wealth, and the way we either
manage it or allow it to manage us. Consider this:
- ·
There are approximately 700 verses on prayer
- ·
There are approximately 600 verses on faith
- ·
There are 2320 verses on money and wealth
- ·
And 2/3 of Jesus’ parables deal specifically
with money, wealth, and possessions!
The Bible offers us three (among
many) cautions about how we are to approach money and wealth. Before moving on
to money management, let’s consider them:
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Idolatry: idolatry is giving something
god-like status in our lives that is NOT GOD. The first of the 10 Commandments
says: You shall have no other gods before me.
(Exodus 20:3)
·
Envy: we get envious or jealous about
what others have, thinking we deserve it. The last of the 10 Commandments says:
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or
donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:17)
- ·
Distraction: we can lose sight of what is
truly important when money occupies a disproportionate spot in our lives. Paul
wrote, “The love of money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want
money so much that they have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot
of pain. (1 Timothy 6:10)
Think about your own life…I am sure that you can see how all
three of these cautions have proven to be tricky for you and the way you either
(a) manage your money, or (b) allow your money to manage you.
Considering these three cautions, ultimately, we must make
sure that we are worshipping GOD with our whole lives. Jesus spoke about this
in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets
eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile
treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s
obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most
want to be, and end up being. Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open
your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live
squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the
blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! You can’t
worship two gods at once. Loving one god, you’ll end up hating the other.
Adoration of one feeds contempt for the other. You can’t worship God and Money
both.” (Matthew 6.19-24, MSG)
I love how Jesus talked about the peril of greed causing us
to be squinty-eyed and live in a dank cellar. Since we are about trying to find
the living room that comes from the
abundant life Jesus came to give (John 10:10b), we must realize that
worshipping stuff will get us nowhere, while worshipping GOD opens our eyes to
the true treasure of living. And since our worship of GOD does include the way
we use our resources, we need to make sure we make use of our money in a way
that is consistent with GOD’s plan for abundant life. Here is a top-ten list, with scripture references,
that can help you keep your worship for GOD versus worshipping stuff:
1.
Everything
belongs to GOD: Everything belongs to God, and all things were created by
his power. (Heb.2:10)
2.
GOD
creates wealth: But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,
and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today. (Deut.8:18)
3. Give
thanks to GOD for your wealth: This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast
of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts
boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in
these I delight,” declares the Lord.
(Jer.9:23-24)
4.
Save
for your children’s inheritance: If
you obey God, you will have something to leave your grandchildren. If you don’t
obey God, those who live right will get what you leave. (Prov.13:22)
5.
Get
out of debt in order to be free: The poor are ruled by the rich, and
those who borrow are slaves of moneylenders. (Prov.22:7)
6.
Guard
against greed: “Jesus said to the crowd, ‘Don’t be greedy! Owning a lot
of things won’t make your life safe.’” (Luke 12:15)
7.
Money
in-and-of itself isn’t evil, but loving it more than GOD is: The love of
money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want money so much that they
have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot of pain. (1
Tim.6:10)
8.
Put
GOD before money: You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will
like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot
serve both God and money. (Matt.6:24)
9.
Count
the cost of your spending: Suppose one of you wants to build a
tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won’t you sit down and figure out
how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? (Luke 14:28)
10. Give back to GOD: Honor
the Lord by giving Him your money and the first part of all your crops. (Prov.3:9)
Though it might seem counterintuitive, the last point on
that list – giving back to GOD – is the Lord’s ultimate plan for how we are to
manage our money. This leads me to the fourth and final key to our living room: generosity! GOD knows that we are inclined to be stingy or
greedy with our possessions, so generosity is the solution to stinginess and
greediness.
Giving and generosity is part of our individual and
corporate worship. As individuals, we are called to give, and as a church we
are called to do the same. This is part of our all-encompassing mission
statement to make new and better followers of Jesus Christ to help transform the
world! Our generosity changes us, individually AND as a church, so we
can help others see how good GOD is.
The standard for giving in the Bible is the tithe. The
tithe, or 10% giving off the top of our gross income, was what was used to
support the ministry of the Temple, the priests and servants in the Temple, as
well as the needs of the poor. In fact, those who took the tithe so legalistically
were even known to give one out of every ten leaves from a plant or bush! They
never wanted to be accused of not giving GOD His due.
The tithe was indeed the standard for giving, but somewhere
along the way we lost sight of that standard. Nowadays, we look at the tithe as
a goal as opposed to the standard. According to one study, the average
committed Christian gives 2.58% of his/her income to the work of the Lord…this
is a far cry from 10%, and churches all over are living with the implications.
GOD knows we can struggle with our ministry of generosity, so He allows us to
test Him in this one regard, and this one regard only. Check out Malachi
3:8-10:
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask,
‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a
curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in
this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open
the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store
it.”
This is a challenging thought to be sure…no
doubt about it…but generosity is GOD’s solution to the peril of greediness and
stinginess. I know it isn’t something that’s fun and easy to think about,
because giving can be hard. I think to when I was a child and needed to tithe
off my $2 allowance and 20-cents wasn’t a big deal. But as I have gotten older,
and the numbers have gotten larger, I tend to think about all the things I could
do with that check that we write to the church. And I will be honest – there have
been times when I have gotten squinty-eyed and not followed-though in my
ministry of generosity as I should have. But as our family considers our need
to be generous, we once again are striving to be generous based on GOD’s
standard of the tithe.
As I close out the themes from this Living Room series, I want to leave you with this one last verse. Check
out Proverbs
11.24-25:
The world of the generous gets larger and
larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses
others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.
May we all be in serious prayerful
contemplation about your own personal ministry of generosity!
Have a great week!
Pastor Mark
