Money And Your Relationship With God
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Every year at the church
where I Pastor (www.parkwaybiblechurch.ca) in Toronto, I preach
on money. Yesterday I preached part one
of a two part series called “Money Myths.”
A money myth is a belief about money that appears correct but is
contrary to God’s principles. Though
many pastors hesitate to preach on money, I do it every year because I believe
I must preach the whole counsel of God and I believe that handling money is a
vital part of discipleship. Fifteen
percent of all that Jesus taught had to do with money so I don’t believe I’d be
a faithful Pastor if I didn’t teach His people what His Word says about
it.
Many of us don’t see the
connection between how we handle money and our relationship with our
Saviour. The fact is that money and
possessions are God’s number one competitor for the affections of our
hearts. Of your heart. Of my heart.
Jesus said, No servant 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. (Luke 16:13)
It’s not that you have to be
poor to be close to Jesus it’s just that money and possessions are always in
competition and our God is a jealous God.1 Every follower of Jesus has to constantly
guard their heart2 less our devotion be diverted from the
Saviour.
The fact is that how we
handle our money and possessions reveals the true condition of our heart. The scriptures tell us that For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:21). If Christ is
truly Lord of our hearts then He will also be Lord of our cash. If you are walking close to God and you
understand His perspective on money and possessions, it will impact how you
think about and handle money and possessions.
The reason I preach regularly about money is because I sincerely believe
that God wants us, as disciples, to be
equipped to handle these earthly possessions for His glory and He doesn’t want
material things to dominate our hearts.
The Apostle Paul had
commissioned young Timothy to confront error in the Ephesian church and to
establish right principles in the young church there. He understood that lack of contentment with
God’s provision was a great danger to godliness, the chief goal of the
believer.
Now there
is great gain in godliness with contentment,
7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out
of the world. 8 But if we have food
and clothing, with these we will be content.
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. (1 Tim 6:6-10)
I know that most of us don’t’
consider ourselves rich and therefore conclude that this passage has nothing to
do with us. However, the truth is that
if you are reading this you are among the 5% of the richest people in the
world. The problem with riches isn’t
that they are bad in and of themselves, but that our basic fallen nature can be
so easily ensnared by the deceitfulness of riches. Unless we bring everything, including our
riches under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, they can drag us into “ruin and
destruction.”
Money, rather than being an
unspiritual matter, has everything to do with our walk with the Saviour and
unless we know and practice God’s principles when it comes to money we will not
experience all the joys and blessings of what it means to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ.
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