Money Management

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:

• ·        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