Title: What God says about Money – So Who’s in Charge of Your Wallet?
Place: Oakdale Wesleyan Church
Date: January 30, 2005
Subject, Series: Living the Uncomplicated Life
Introduction
There is an idea that floats around out there that God has little to say about how we use our money. The complementing discussion then centers around the thought that the church has no business telling us how to use our money. And then the disdain sets in, the church is always talking about money and how we have to give more. One of the largest complaints non-churched folks have against the church is that the church is always talking about money. The sentiment that then comes is that money is a private issue and the church has no business meddling in private issues. Therefore, most pastors (I not being one of them) don’t like to talk about money. I on the other hand love to talk about reality issues that face modern Christians. I personally believe there is no topic that shouldn’t be addressed in church if it is addressed in the Bible. In fact, only weak, ineffective churches refuse to deal with the real issues that we all face.
So let’s talk about money. We are a very conversational church in that I love to involve everyone in the sermon. So to make sure we can all get involved this morning let me open with a question. How many of you have absolutely no money to your name, you never have, you never will, and you really don’t care one bit either way how much money you have? You have never worked to gain more wealth, you have never received a single pay check, and you have lived your entire life with absolutely nothing? Well, I didn’t see any hands go up. So, I guess it would be safe to say that everyone here deals with money. Some deal with more than others, but we all deal with money. I was just thinking about this the other day, we are a relatively small church, with a realitively small budget. Steve, how many years have you been treasure (3?). Do you realize that in about 5 more years at the budget our church has you will have dealt with over 1,000,000 dollars in our church? Wow, when you look at that way, we have a lot of capital that we control or have use of.
So we all deal with money. Well to set the record straight, I only address specifically the financial issue once per/year and that is usually done for about 3-6 weeks straight. This year we are setting the financial concepts in the bigger frame work of Simplicity so we will look at money for 10 weeks total before we are done.
Secondly, the Bible does have a lot to say about money. In fact the Bible says more about money and possessions then any other single issue that faces humanity. In fact, Jesus Christ said more about money than any other issue. And finally, of course it is a private issue, but then again, that is where the church mostly deals is in the private arena of the private areas of our lives. In fact, only ineffective, stale, out of touch churches don’t deal with issues that are private and near and dear to the heart.
So as we turn this corner this morning, what in the world does money have to do with Holiness? Great question, thought you would never ask. I thought this was suppose to be a holiness series we are in, why are we all of a sudden now talking about stewardship or money? Well, let’s review, what is holiness in its simplest form? Holiness is about becoming like God in all of our ways, (love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind – ie. Love him completely with every part of your life.)
Question next, for the average person, besides sex and relationships, do you think there is anything that is closer to the heart then money or the things money can buy? Probably not! Outside of relationships and sex anything you tag on to your life you are able to have by the power of your economic recourses, ie, money.
So follow the logic train for just a moment here. If we are to love God with everything we got, that would naturally include our wallets and checking accounts! If you say you love God yet you don’t honor him with your spending habits, then you really don’t love God completely do you? Look at it this way, you can go to church every Sunday of the year, in fact you can go more than once a week, you can get involved in Bible studies and ministries, yet your love for God never changes the way you spend your money, then your love for God has not impacted your life very much at all.
Here is a quote from, everyone else always gets quoted so I thought I would write a quote and you can all quote me, ““No single issue more clearly defines our Christian character then how we spend our money.” – Rev. John W. Baker (read it again)
So why mix Holiness and money? If we are going to be an effective church, we must deal with those things in our lives which are dearest and closest to our heart, money, sex, and relationships, because the way in which we view these things has a drastic impact on the reflection of God in our lives and a drastic impact on our personal holiness.
Last tid-bit as to why holiness: The title of our series is “Living the Uncomplicated Life.” I am sure every one of us would have to agree that probably the single biggest way that people complicate their lives is by the use of their money. If we had no control of money, chances are we would have little complications in life. In fact, societies that have less money seem to be less complicated then societies with lots of money. So if we are striving towards simplicity so as to uncomplicated life, we must deal with the economic issue. God knew that, that’s why he wrote so much about it in his word. So over the next 7 weeks we are going to see what God has to say about money.
Continue with Prayer
Well, you have heard enough about why I feel we need to go down this road. Let’s turn over to Jesus to see what he has to say about all this. I’m going to read from Matthew 6:19-24. Just so you know where I am heading, I’m going to specifically address verses 19-21 of this section.
Let’s just do a simple Bible study of this passage this morning as sort of a transition into our discussion about money.
1. Why link money with Holiness?
I already told you what I thought about as to why we need to link money with Holiness but here in Matthew we now see from Jesus own words as to why we need to link money with Holiness. Jesus stated pretty clearly, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
A treasure is anything that you hold near and dear to your heart. Treasures are those things that you highly value. So with this simple statement Jesus is simply saying, discover your treasurers and you will discover your heart. So how do we find our treasures? Simple question, what do you spend the most money on? That will reveal what you value most. This is neither bad nor good at this point, it simple reveals your heart.
2. The Problems with Treasures on Earth
Jesus puts the economic issue into two categories, treasures in heaven and treasures on earth. He then gives warning or blessings about each. The first category is treasures on earth. I have a feeling we have some very smart people here this morning. So why don’t you help me with the sermon for a moment. What are treasures on earth? Let’s make a list.
Good list, now, what does Jesus say can happen to these treasures? I’m going to jump down a few verses to 24. The first danger of earthly treasures is that they can enslave us. Money, wealth, power in and of itself is not bad. Don’t get the idea that having money is bad. Last week I encouraged you to take a look at the Old Testament heroes of Abraham, David, Solomon, Moses even. These O.T. greats had lots of money and lots of power. One of the most humble men in the Bible has got to be Job and yet if you read the account of Job you find he was quite a wealthy man. So wealth itself is not bad, it’s the enslavement or love of money as Paul put it to Timothy in chapter 4 verse 3 that is bad. So the first danger of money is that it can easily enslave us, either we don’t have enough or we have more than enough but always need more.
Secondly, Jesus plainly states that moth and rust will destroy treasures on earth. I have a real example of this. I like Oatmeal. One day I got up and I wanted a bowl of oatmeal. I hadn’t had oatmeal for a while so I went to the cupboard got out the oatmeal container and started to make myself a big bowl of oatmeal. I cooked it up in the microwave and then proceeded to add my milk, brown sugar, and a dash salt before sitting down to eat my big bowl of oatmeal. I got it all ready, sat down and started to eat. It was good, I got it just right, with enough salt and brown sugar and milk. I was really enjoying my bowl of oatmeal while reading some mail or what not that was sitting on the table. I really wasn’t paying close attention to my bowl of oatmeal but about half way through the bowl, I noticed something in my oatmeal. As I looked closer I discovered what looked to be like bugs in my oatmeal. Immediately I went back to the oatmeal container, popped off the lid and looked inside. I about threw up, the container was full of little maggots or flower worms or mealy worms. They whole container was alive and moving inside and I had just eaten at least half a bowl of them.
So treasurers on earth can root, they can be eaten away by moths. And Jesus says, hey, others can even steal them. When I was in high-school, I spent a good chunk of hard earned cashed to purchase a kicking stereo with new speakers, and equalizer, the whole thing. Well, about two weeks after installing the whole set-up in my car while I was at swim meet and had my car parked at the school, somebody popped my locks, got in and stole the whole thing and I never saw it again. So treasurers on earth can be stolen.
3. The Benefits of Treasures in Heaven
Jesus solution or suggestion then was to store up treasures in heaven. These treasures moths, rust, and thieves can’t get at. Again, you folks are sharp people, what are some treasures we could store up in heaven?
Great, the one that I would zero in on, is the treasure of a pure heart. Your personal holiness is a huge treasure and that is a treasure stored up in heaven. This is a treasure no one can take away. No one can take your Godliness away!
4. A Balance between the Two
Treasures on earth, treasures in heaven. Before we leave this idea and move into the rest of our series on Living the Uncomplicated Life, let me give you a balance point or even goal that I want us to strive after over the next few weeks.
Only an idiot would say we should live completely without earthly treasures. We need certain things to live this life. Clothes, food, shelter, transportation, these are things we really can’t live without. There are also some things I don’t’ think we should live with out because God has blessed us with them, beauty of nature, relationships, spouse, friends and family. These are things God has given to us and expects us to learn to live with even. But then there is still one more category, things we don’t need, but things God has given to us, nice house, boat, leisure activities, pleasurable things, fun food and the alike. These are things that God desires for us to enjoy but expects us to be thankful that we have. But how do we balance this?
I am trying to stay away from big ten gallon words during this series but I want to give you another word to add to your arsenal of words and it might make you feel real smart. Today’s word is Asceticism. Asceticism is something that we should avoid at all costs. But what in the world is Asceticism?
Asceticism is the idea or concept of extreme self-denial. An ancient cult called the Ascetics believed that if one completely separated himself from worldly possessions that it would open the door for them to be united to the spiritual realm. Asceticism is not what we are after. Asceticism sees all possessions, all goods, all material wealth as essentially evil and must be avoided. This is a false teaching or idea not presented by scripture. In this avenue of thought we would actually declare that what God has given us is evil but this runs contrary to the Psalmist who declares the majesty of God and instructs us to learn from nature that all created things declare the glory of God. Things in and of themselves are neither good no bad. Being rich or poor is neither good nor bad. Having lots of money, wealth, power, riches, homes, and material possessions is not bad. There is a warning about these things because the desire and lust after these things is so easy to fall into.
So what is the balance point. Simplicity. Simplicity is the challenge to allow God to be in charge of your wallet. That’s when we get ourselves into trouble is when we think we have a right to use our money the way we think we should. The Bible tells us that we don’t have a right because it is not our money, we are simply enjoying it for a season. We are stewards of all that we have. Thus, the idea of stewardship.
Through our journey over the next several weeks, I want to challenge you in the area of your stewardship of God’s resources by taking a close look at what God says through his word.
Conclusion
About two years ago I had an interesting thing happen. I was working in my office going through the membership materials with someone, I don’t even remember who it was right now. We had the door to my office open and it was a Monday I believe and Michelle was teaching piano lessons and parents were coming and going. As I taught the lesson I did not realize that one of the parents was sitting on the pew by the secretary’s office and they started to listen into our lesson. The lesson was on stewardship and tithing. The next week as the parent came in he struck up a conversation with me. He apologized first for ease dropping but then he said he had some questions about what I was teaching. He started off by staying that he had never been taught in his church anything about money and fiscal responsibility. So he wanted to know more about this whole idea of stewardship. I answered his questions and gave him some more information and literature on the ideas and concepts of stewardship and he was very grateful because he felt like he was missing out on something huge.
Now I don’t know if he started tithing or what but I do know that his interest was sparked and he was no longer just going to drop a few bucks in the plate because that was the right things your suppose to do. As we finished up our conversation I could see the wheels spinning and he now was starting to see the fact that everything we really have is God’s and God does care about how we use his stuff.
That’s where we are going! I think this guy is not alone in his search. In fact, I think there are many people who might even be sitting here this morning that really do want to know what God thinks of our money and how we use it. I think there are a lot of people that really want to be wise stewards of their resources but may-be just lack the knowledge as to how to do it. So that’s what we are going to do over the next seven weeks, we are going to explore living the uncomplicated life by incorporating the ideas of Christian Stewardship into our lives.
