Following Jesus With Your Finances
God Is … Dead?
Who is your God? By definition, your god is whatever you put your trust in. That means, for a lot of us, our God is … money.
I moved to Vegas twelve years ago, and in that time alone we’ve had two financial crises.
A lot of Americans have looked to money to be their god, to do for them what only God was meant to do. They tried to find their hope in money. They tried to find their security, their significance, and their identity in money. And when our economy has plummeted it felt to many like their god was dying. In some ways it is the height of irony that we have “In God We Trust” printed on our currency because the reality for many is, “In Money We Trust.”
God’s … Chief Competition
We’ve just started a new series at Verve called WHAT IF? You Could Win With Money. The stereotype is that churches always talk about money. (We don’t – we haven’t talked about money in three years!) And that churches are always asking for money. (We don’t – in the first part of our series we didn’t talk about giving. If you come this week, you’ll see that we’re not talking about giving again.) So, why do a series on money?
Because Verve is a church that values the Bible, we teach what the Bible teaches.
Do you know Jesus talked about money more than He talked about heaven and hell combined? He talked about money more than prayer. Why?
Because money is God’s chief competition. Money can easily become a God-substitute. Money can become a functional Savior for us. Jesus spoke very directlywhen He said, “You cannot worship two gods at once. You can’t worship both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
God’s … Test
I vote we change our currency. Instead of, “In God We Trust”, I think it it’d be more accurate to say, “In God We Trust?” I’d add the question mark because how we think about money and handle our finances answers the question of whether we really do trust God or not. Money is a test of our trust. It says a lot about whether we’re serious about following Jesus.
I remember back when I was in college and a new follower of Jesus. I had a single mom who was a school teacher and couldn’t afford to help me financially. I worked two jobs and tithed (gave 10%) of my income on both. The real question was when I received school loans. It didn’t really make sense to give 10% of my school loans in the church offering, but I did it anyway. Why? I was serious about following Jesus.
In my early years of ministry, I was not making much. (My first salary was $9,600. That year my wife made $12,400.) We were newly married and had to buy a bed and table. We moved across the country. Expenses were mounting up and we couldn’t quite afford them. We reached a point where I had to ask some family members for a small loan to get us through. When I received the money from them, money we desperately needed, the question became whether we’d give 10% of their money. It didn’t really make sense, but we did. Why? Serious about following Jesus.
Money is a test. You find out who your trust is really in, and whether you’re serious about following Jesus.
It’s easy to nod our agreement with what the Bible says about money, it’s much more difficult to actually live it out. An example: The Bible says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Most Christians would nod their heads in agreement. But if I saw you and said, “I’ve got $1000. You can have the $1000. OR I know someone who is in need and you can give them $1000 of your own money. It’s up to you and I won’t tell anyone what you decide.” If you really believed it’s more blessed to give than receive you’d say, “Keep your $1000. It will be better for me if I give away $1000 of my money!” But would you?
Money is a test. You find out who your trust is really in, and whether you’re serious about following Jesus.
The Bible says when we give, God gives back to us by pouring down blessings in abundance on us. We nod, but do we really believe it? I’ve had a lot of Christians say to me, “Tithing is just Old Testament, right? That doesn’t apply any more, right?” and “We don’t tithe off our gross, do we?” In other words, “I can give less, right?”
Money is a test. You find out who your trust is really in, and whether you’re serious about following Jesus.
I know it’s a risk to give God ten percent (or more) of your income. But God is trustworthy. I’ve been taking that risk for a long time now, and he has always proven himself faithful.
Did you hear about the guy who hated his wife’s cat? One time she went out of town and, in a fit of anger, he killed the cat. When she came home he told her the cat was missing and that he had put signs up all over town offering a $10,000 reward for the safe return of the cat. One of the man’s friends said, “Wow, that’s quite a risk, to offer a $10,000 reward to get back a cat you don’t even like,” The man smiled and said, “Trust me, when you know what I know, you can afford to take the risk.”
If you’re afraid to do what God says to with your finances, I would think about how faithful God has been to me, smile, and say, “Trust me, when you know what I know, you can afford to take the risk.”