God and Money

There are many things that try to take the place of God in our lives… right? we call these idols.

Idols are things, whether good or bad is irrelevant … that we take beyond simply a point of admiring, liking, looking up to or pursuing and put them in a place of a god.

Essentially, we worship them. idolize. Revolve our life around. Change our actions, give them our thoughts, sacrifice for in the hope that they will satisfy us… but heres the kicker … they never longterm satisfy but only demand more.

Sex can be that idol…

Drugs...

Relationships...

Status...

in fact anything can be.

And one of the biggest, is MONEY.

What we believe about money has a huge impact on our life…

What we actual believe, not just what we say we believe but what we believe about something translates into action.

Belief about anything manifests in our actions and ideas...

Right?

And i know I amongst people who want to live right and do things God ways, but we are all caught in the tension of the reality of needing money to live. to provide. To get by. to make a difference. To want to be generous but finding it hard because it feels like we have nothing to be generous with.

Of knowing God is our provider but also that the landlord, the bank, the checkout at the grocery store does not take a tab or a bible verse as legal tendor when we are needing to make those payments.

By the end of this series I want us too have:

A biblical view of Money. Gods view and ideas.

To have broken down misconceptions about being a christian and money.

to be freed from any unhealthy thinking around money … both on the greed and lust of it naid side of things, but also the poverty mindset that is a lie and twisting of Gods word. God wants to you to prosper … the right way, with the right reasons, in the right time.

To be freed from any spiritual strongholds in this area, and walking away with practical steps of stewardship.

I will start the series today, next week we will pause for a special celebration service and with, and then we will continue it into June...

I know this will be a sermon series that will set some of us free.

I know this will be a series that will give you a greater levels of freedom and trust as God as provider.

And will give practical steps to stewarding well

MONEY LOVE.

often been said that the most Jesus taught about was money compared to anything else…

Now I don’t see that, but i do see him using money as a teaching opportunity to point to things.

That in the stories, parables, teachings and examples we find in scripture he references money more then any other topic… even though not neccesarily teaching on it speicifcally everytime.

Why?

Well I believe it is this … that he knows for all he was talking too, rich or poor, common or uncommon, unedcucated or highly educated … all of those and all of us … MONEY plays a signficant part of our life.

Jesus knows by using the reference point of money and wealth he is touching on something that impacts us all. That can take our attentnion. That can replace God in our life or attempt too.

Timothy.

9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Some people have obmitted words from this and present it as

MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.

Thats not what the bible says...

It says the LOVE OF MONEY is the ROOT OF ALL KINDS OF EVILS

Its a big difference.

One statement, the false one puts MONEY as the problem.

The biblcal one, THE LOVE OF MONEY, puts the motive, feeling, attutitude, about Money as the problem.

The false one points to money the external as the thing that is EVIL

The bible points within … our view, our regard, our love … adoration of Money as the leading to evil things… internal.

This is what I want to say today God does not say or see MONEY, MAKING MONEY, WEALTH, HAVING A LOT OF IT as bad or evil. Nor is money good. it is A NEUTRAL … IT JUST IS.

Potential for great good.

And for Evil.

THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ISSUE.

Love is a watered down word in our culture and that watering down brings us problems...

I can say I love the poutine from New York fries, or I love my wife…

two very different levels of love, but we use the same word for it.

This causes problems. I actually think we need to think about how do we articulate the phrase GOD LOVES YOU to the world around us.

Because we use it so flippantly. it doesnt do justice to the depth and scope and magnitude of Gods love.

Do I a have a love money?

What is the love of the money… AVARICE. GREED.

PHYLARGYRIA:

Phileo love, a friendship, loyalty, a deep love, faithfullness

Money is a tool … like a drill. We use a drill. We may even like drills…

If you all of the sudden had a deep, friendship, loyalty kind of desire and friendship for a drill fetish so to speak well most of us would acknowledge that as a problem.

Yet no one blinks an eye in our culture when it comes to the MONEY obsessed culture we are in.

Status is

I have found this misconception amongst christians and it is false… that being rich equates to we should be suspicious, and if someone has not much it means they are living for Jesus in faith… its not true. It can be. But it is a judgement left for God and not for you and I.

Someone can have a lot of money and not have PHILEO love of it, and be totally good clear of conscious and actually living out Gods will on the earth...

and someone can have no money, not able to support themselve and have a love of money the bible warns against.

Being rich is not the problem, being poor is not the problem.

LOVING MONEY AS AN IDOL IS THE PROBLEM.

GREED IS THE PROBLEM.

LUST FOR MORE AND MORE IS THE PROBLEM.

10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; ESV Ec 5:10.

The bible does not condemn the having of money.

It warns that it may bring some challenges...

What does LOVING MONEY IN THIS WAY lead too?

Wander away from the faith...

it can lead to many PANGS… DISTRESSES, GRIEFS, PAINS.

How often do we hear the story of the wealthy business man who is wealth obsessed at the expense of his marriage. or health. and in the quest to gain more loses everything.

kingdom coffee guy

More subtle ways...

I know God wants me to be generous, but I need to be selfish for a while here then I will become generous all of the sudden.

I know I am neglecting my family, or my friends, but they ll understand later on why I did it ....

I do not want you to hear this as dont work hard… christians are meant to be hard workers. But we are meant to have a different motive.

MONEY MOTIVE MATTERS

So what does God say about money and wealth then...

The bible speaks of money a lot -

Stewardship

Firstly God os God over all including a money.

So if God owns it all, it goes from being ours … to us being Stewards of something that is ultimately His.

Contentment

Generosity

Hard Work

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Wealth

Wealth. Abundance, usually of money or material goods, whose value is ordinarily expressed in terms of some understood unit, such as a national currency. It is virtually synonomous with riches, and both may refer to family, friends, or even moral qualities, in addition to material possessions.

The Bible has much to say about material wealth and makes it clear that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15). Obviously God owns all wealth, for he is the creator and possessor of all that exists (Ps 50:10–12).

In the OT riches are a mark of favor with God (Ps 112:3) and he gives power to acquire wealth (Dt 8:18). Both the piety and the wealth of Job are well known (Jb 1:1–3). Solomon was perhaps the richest man who ever lived; God granted him “riches, possessions, and honor” because Solomon had asked for wisdom and discernment rather than material things (1 Kgs 3:10–13; 2 Chr 1:11, 12).

Not all rich men were good. Nabal was “very rich,” but he was “churlish and ill-behaved,” stingy, and wicked (1 Sm 25:1–38). The affluent king of Tyre was the object of God’s judgment (Ez 28), and many other rulers of the world fell under the same condemnation. In Isaiah 53:9 the prophecy concerning the Messiah links the wealthy with the wicked: “they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.”

In the NT wealthy men are often seen as godless, for example, the rich farmer (Lk 12:16–21) and the rich man with Lazarus (16:19–31). The wealthy are condemned for oppression and greed (Jas 5:1–6). Luke 6:24 pronounces woe against the rich, and all three synoptic Gospels speak of the dangers of riches (Mt 13:22; Mk 4:19; Lk 8:14).

Not all rich men were bad. Jesus was buried in the tomb of “a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph” (Mt 27:57). Nicodemus, who provided lavishly for the burial of Jesus (Jn 19:39), was “a ruler of the Jews” (3:1) and probably a man of means.

What we believe about money results in how we act and treat it...

I want you to reflect and think on what do you truly believe about it today:

How much do you think about it?

How much do you want more of it?

why do you want more of it.

Many of the heros of the faith were rich.

Abraham … wealthy.

Moses … wealthy.

Solomn … wealthy.

David.... Wealthy.

The list goes on ...

This will challenge some of you -

in the new testament there are rich people and many of them are spoken of well in the new testament as followers of Jesus:

Joseph of Arimathea… wealthy follower of Jesus in his minisrty who privided the tomb for jesus burial before he rose.

Jesus in his crew had a delegated treasurer…

The book of Luke was funded by wealth

The ministry travels cost a lot of money.

And there are also many who had nothing in the natural, but were highly praised.

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The teaching that money, or having money is EVIL or UNGODLY is utterly false, and not bibical.

How do we know? well would we give it up if Jesus asked us too?

Eye of the needle.

Money makes the world go around…

You and I need it. for most of us, we probably need more of it. But more then that, we need to AVOID the trap of LOVING MONEY.

So the question, for us becomes what are we doing with what we got? Not how much do we have and how to get more…

But am I being a good steward with what I have?