Then someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator between you two?” Then he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. ”He then told them a parable:[1]
“The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.[2]
“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out—a treasure in heaven that never decreases, where no thief approaches to break in and steal, and no moth or rust destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”[3]
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The Bible has a lot to say about money.
Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables Jesus told deal with money and possessions.
10% of the Gospels deal directly with the subject of money.
The Bible has 500+ verses on prayer and 500 - verses on faith, but 2,000+ verses on money and possessions. There are a LOT more sections addressing poverty/the poor.
So, let’s talk about how to see and use money through the lenses of Scripture.
1. The Money We Have Is From God’s Provision
“Every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to use it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 5:19)
You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 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. (Deuteronomy 18:17-18)
2. We Are Stewards
David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand… Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. (1 Chronicles 29: 10-16)
3. Money’s Has The Potential To be Destructive
Mark 10:24 - “How hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!”
Matthew 13:22 - “…the love of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word of God, and he becomes unfruitful.”
1 Timothy 6:10 - “For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith…"
Hebrews 13:5 - “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have…”
Ecclesiastes 5:10 “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.”[4]
Christian singer Steve Taylor wrote a song called Cash Cow. It’s a strange mini rock opera, to be sure, but you don’t hear many popular Christian songs calling out the danger of money. Here’s a taste.
It was a morning just like any other morning ...in the Sinai Desert ...1200 B.C. It glistened, it glowed, it rose from the gold of the children of Israel (and most of the adults): The Cash Cow.
The golden Cash Cow had a body like the great cows of ancient Egypt and a face like the face of Robert Tilton[5] (without the horns). And through the centuries it has roamed the earth like a ravenous bovine seeking whom it may lick.
From the Valley of the Shadow of the Outlet Mall to the customized pet-wear boutique; from the trailer of the fry chef to the palace of the sheik, the Cash Cow lurks.
Who loves you, baby? Who'll give you good credit? Who says you'll regret it? "I was young and I needed the money." "I had money, and I needed more money." "I was filthy rich--all I wanted was love. And a little more money..."
Woe to you, proud mortal, secure in your modest digs. You think you're immune? I, too, was hypnotized by those big cow eyes the last time I uttered those three little words, "I deserve better!"
What are the warning signs, that money is becoming a problem? I like Tim Keller’s list.
You can’t give large amounts of it away. You get scared if you might have less than you’re accustomed to having. You see people who are doing better than you, even though you might have worked harder or might be a better person, and it gets under your skin. And when that happens, you have one foot in the trap. Because then it’s no longer just a tool; it’s the scorecard. It’s your essence, your identity. No matter how much money you have, though it’s not intrinsically evil, it has incredible power to keep you from God. – Tim Keller
4. Money Has Great Potential For Good
“Now, my brothers, we must tell you about the grace that God had given to the Macedonian churches. Somehow, in most difficult circumstances, their joy and the fact of being down to their last penny[6] themselves produced a magnificent concern for other people. I can guarantee that they were willing to give to the limit of their means, yes and beyond their means, without the slightest urging from me or anyone else.
In fact they simply begged us to accept their gift of supporting their brothers in Christ. Nor was their gift, as I must confess I had expected, a mere cash payment. Instead they made a complete dedication of themselves first to the Lord and then to us, as God’s appointed ministers.
I don’t want you to read this as an order. It is only my suggestion, prompted by what I have seen in others of eagerness to help, and here is a way to prove the reality of your love. Do you remember the generous grace of Jesus Christ, the Lord of us all? He was rich beyond our telling, yet he generously became poor for your sakes so that his poverty might make you rich." (2 Corinthians 8:1-9)
When we realize that others are in need, and we have the resources to alleviate that need, we should generously and joyfully do so. It is a sign of the reality of our love for God and others. God does not prosper us so we can indulge ourselves. God prospers us so we can extend the gift of generous grace to others.
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions were all his own, but they shared everything they had...it was distributed to anyone as he had need.” (Acts 4:32-35)[7]
This is not government-mandated communism or socialism; this is Holy Spirit inspired, voluntary communalism. This is the financial implication of covenant community. We are part of a community that needs our contribution from the blessing God has given us. That could manifest in many ways, but here we see one clear and practical way: take care of each other’s physical needs.[8] The early Church Fathers were uncomfortably blunt on this issue.
Didache (100s) “Share everything with your brother. Do not say, “It is private property.” If you share what is everlasting, you should be that much more willing to share things which do not last.”
Irenaeus (130-200) “Instead of the tithes which the law commanded, the Lord said to divide everything we have with the poor. And he said to love not only our neighbors but also our enemies, and to be givers and sharers not only with the good but also to be liberal givers toward those who take away our possessions.”
John Chrysostom (300s) “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours but theirs.”
Basil the Great (300s) “The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put into the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help but fail to help.”
Ambrose (300s) wrote, “The things which we cannot take with us are not ours. Only virtue will be our companion when we die…The bosoms of the poor, the houses of widows, the mouths of children are the barns which last forever... You are not making a gift of your possession to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his.”
5. Generosity is meant to be an act of worship, not a legalistic transaction followed by angry, begrudging givers. We will either worship wealth, or worship with our wealth. Here’s how to worship with our wealth.
“The important thing is to be willing to give as much as we can—that is what God accepts, and no one is asked to give what he has not got. Of course, I don’t mean that others should be relieved to an extent that leaves you in distress. It is a matter of share and share alike….
At present your plenty should supply their need, and then at some future date their plenty may supply your need. In that way we share with each other, as the scripture says, ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack’…
Let everyone give as his heart tells him, neither grudgingly nor under compulsion, for God loves people who give cheerfully. After all, God can give you everything that you need, so that you may always have sufficient both for yourselves and for giving away to other people. As the scripture says: “He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.”
The more you are enriched by God the more scope there will be for generous giving, and your gifts, administered through us, will mean that many will thank God. For your giving does not end in meeting the wants of your fellow-Christians. It also results in an overflowing tide of thanksgiving to God.
Moreover, your very giving proves the reality of your faith, and that means that people thank God that you practice the Gospel that you profess to believe in, as well as for the actual gifts you make to them and to others. And yet further, people will pray for you and feel drawn to you because you have obviously received a generous measure of the grace of God. Thank God, then, for his indescribable generosity to you!” (Excerpts from 2 Corinthians 8-9)
6. In giving back to God, we reorient our hearts.
The NT does not mandate a tithe amount. Along with its many encouragements to be generous, it says this about the heart of the giver:
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
God’s not interested in a legalistic approach to generosity. Setting a number like 10% too easy; it lets us avoid our hearts. I suspect that God wants to use our relationship with our money like a fire in our lives (to use imagery from last week. Do I think of what I have as mine, or am I a steward of what is God’s? Is my money merely for me and my family, or have I been given a resource that has communal obligations attached to it? What does it look like to simultaneously be responsible for myself and my family while trusting God that I can be generous in ways that might even make me financially uncomfortable at times? What should bring me greater joy: watching my retirement account grow, or watching my financially desperate brother and sister have their needs met?
“I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. If our giving habits do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we want to do but cannot do because our giving expenditures exclude them.” – C.S. Lewis
This, I think, is where our hearts get exposed. We love the stories of followers of Jesus who were radically generous with their money, trusting God to take care of them. We know it’s admirable. It’s just….really, really hard to think of doing that ourselves.
But God does a fiery work of purification through our love of generosity and kindness. There is something soul-transformative in giving. It frees us from the power of money, and it frees us to celebrate how God’s provision for His people (as a group) helps us to take care of each other.
I think we learn something about the heart of God, who is lavishly generous to us, when we are generous to others. Some ideas for generosity:
the church (for our spiritual mission and our benevolence fund)
your neighbor (Who is your neighbor? Everybody.)
missionaries/missions organization (His House, VidaNet, Esperanza, Sal, Heather and Mila Sanchez, the Ducrozet family)
organizations that work with those in need (locally, think Goodwill Inn, Father Fred, Single MOMM, Thrive, Freedom Farm and Affirm Ministries, Peace Ranch, Touching Hearts, Thomas Judd)
It doesn’t have to be much compared to others around you. We all have different amounts of resources. But being generous is part of God’s good plan to bless His people, both the giver and the receiver.
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[1] This parable has a parallel in Ben Sirach 11:18–19: “One becomes rich through diligence and self-denial, and the reward allotted to him is this: when he says, ‘I have found rest, and now I shall feast on my goods!’ he does not know how long it will be until he leaves them to others and dies.” (NIV First Century Study Bible)
[2] Scripture warns against merely storing grain when others were hungry (Pr 11:26).
[3] The Testament of Judah 19:1 (second century b.c.) reads, “My children, love of money leads to idolatry, because once they are led astray by money, they designate as gods those who are not gods. It makes anyone who has it go out of his mind.”
[4] Proverbs 11:28 - “He that trusts in his riches will fall…”
Psalms 62:10 - “If riches increase, don’t set your heart upon them.”
Luke 18: 24-25 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Hebrews 13:5-6 “Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have because He has said, “I will never leave you; I will always be by your side.” 6 Because of this promise, we may boldly say, “The Lord is my help - I won’t be afraid of anything. How can anyone harm me?”
[5] A prosperity gospel televangelist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tilton
[6] Deuteronomy 15:11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
[7] Perhaps they were taking their cue from Proverbs: One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell. (Proverbs 11:24-26)
[8] “The Dead Sea Scrolls community also tried to live simple lives, and they were critical of wealth. Josephus claimed not one member of the sect had greater wealth or possessions than another. Upon joining the community, a person’s possessions were handed over to the leaders and became communal property.” (NIV First Century Study Bible)