Our Relationship with Money

Today I want to extend this idea of looking at the kind of relationships we should have, and specifically I want to explore our relationship with money. How should we as Christians see money, how should we use money, how should we give money. All of these things. And Jesus himself tells us that our relationship with money is very important in our walk with Christ. In fact money is talked about so often in the New Testament, and some of you might've heard this, that money is talked about more than Heaven and Hell combined! And it's sort of true!

There are so many verses in the Bible about money this could be a 5+ hour sermon if we really went through them all. But I want to stay focused today. And this sermon isn't about how to invest in the stock market, or how to start a million dollar business, or how to get rich. But I want us to open our eyes to how we deal with money, because it's such an important part of our lives here in this world. For people in their youth, it's important to learn how to manage money. Once you get married, it's even more important to manage money. Once you buy a house and have a family to provide for, it's even more important to have a good relationship with money, and so on.

So, together we will first look at a story and a parable in the New Testament which helps us understand the DANGER of money, we will look at people who saw and used money correctly and incorrectly, and then we will look at some more specifics on how we should really view and use money.

And I think many of us know some of Jesus's and others' teachings on money right? Some of them are well known. In Luke Chapter 16, and in the other Gospels as well, Jesus himself makes this famous claim many of us have heard:

Luke 16:13 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

And then later in 1 Timothy Chapter 6, Apostle Paul says:

1 Timothy 6:10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Jesus, Apostle Paul, and even the Old Testament make some pretty bold claims about money. And it becomes very clear that there is some sort of separation between God and money. That it seems like money and God somehow just don't go together. Jesus himself says you cannot serve both God and money at the same time. And I want to look at two people specifically to see this. One serves God, one serves money, and through their choices, they go down some very different paths.

The Danger of Money — Judas and Mary

The first person I want to look at is Judas Iscariot. Many of us know him for his betrayal of Jesus, but if you look deeper into the story of Judas, you can see there is this strong tie of the love of money in his life. Now the Bible doesn't say too much about Judas, but there are a few key points that make Judas' relationship with money very clear to us.

And if we skip a little ahead into the life and ministry of Jesus, we get to this point very close to the end of the life of Jesus on this earth. It was before the Passover and Jesus made a trip to Bethany, and he was in the home of Simon the Leper, with other people around him, and then something interesting happened. It's a pretty important event as this is covered in all four Gospels in slightly different ways. If we look in Matthew:

Matthew 26:6-9 "6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. 9 "This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.""

So we see something interesting, a woman came and poured expensive perfume on Jesus and the disciples were confused about this waste. And this is a side note, but when you are studying the Gospels, it's super important you look across the four books to see the different accounts of the same story.

If we look at the book of John, he gives some more detail about this exact story.

John 12:1-3 "Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

So notice here, a lot more of the blanks are getting filled in. Jesus was having a dinner in his honor, with Lazarus at the table with him, and there were others — from Matthew we know they were the disciples. And Martha, the sister of Lazarus, was serving. And the next verse — Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, was the one who came in and poured the expensive perfume on Jesus. But look at verse 4 onwards:

John 12:4-6 "But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it."

See, in the book of John he specifically calls out Judas Iscariot, that when the perfume was poured Judas objected and asked why wasn't this sold for money? And notice Judas knew the exact value of that perfume. In that same part it says Judas was in charge of the moneybag. Judas was the treasurer of Jesus' ministry, so he knew money, he knew the value of many things, and he knew exactly how expensive that oil was.

And John the writer puts in a very interesting statement in verse 6. It seems like he wrote this part of the Gospel not in the moment, but sort of remembering back. He says "Judas said this not because Judas cared about the poor, but because Judas was a thief, and being the treasurer he helped himself to what was put into it".

See, John is specifically calling Judas out here — after all this happened, the disciples knew Judas had a problem with money. Judas was stealing and using parts of that money for himself. And when he sees something worth an entire year's wages just wasted in his eyes, it seems like he gets thrown over the edge, that this is the tipping point of Judas. Because then in the Gospel of Matthew, it says that after that anointing happened, "THEN Judas" went to the chief priests and made a deal to give up Jesus.

Again we cannot say for sure that it was purely because of money that Judas decided to betray Jesus. But we very clearly see he was a thief, he had a love and greed for money. And even if money wasn't the full reason, he still sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver to the High Priests. And that 30 silver number was negotiated! In Matthew 26:15 it says:

Matthew 26:15 "Judas said, What will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him thirty pieces of silver."

Judas was probably negotiating and fighting for a bit more money — not for Jesus, not for anyone, but himself. And so we see the Gospels painting this clear picture of Judas. He is a person who loves money. A person who sets his eyes on money.

But I want us to notice Mary of Bethany as well at this moment. Now think about this. That alabaster jar, that pure nard — Mary, or maybe one of her family members, they decided to buy it. They decided to spend a huge sum of money, a year's worth of wages, to buy this insanely expensive oil and perfume just for Jesus. Imagine spending 50, 60, 70, 100 thousand dollars today to go buy something super expensive, just to go pour it out on someone, and then wipe their feet with your hair. Isn't that such a level of faith and reverence for Jesus?

See look at the contrast here, these are two people that look at money in two different ways. You have Judas who sees that expensive oil and his eyes have greed towards it. And you have Mary who is the complete opposite and sees this oil not for the money. She sees this oil as the best thing she can buy and do for Jesus, and you can see just from this action where her heart is. And remember that a little while back Jesus literally resurrected her brother from the grave. She probably had such a level of joy and love for Jesus you just can't comprehend it. Her heart isn't on the money, it seems like she couldn't care less about the money. Her eyes were only on Jesus.

I think this story is a perfect example of:

Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You CANNOT serve God and money."

And notice that out of Judas' greed, that 300 denarii worth of oil sent him to betray Jesus, and ultimately to Judas' death as well. And at the same time, that 300 denarii worth of oil, Mary used to anoint Jesus. Jesus first responds and rebukes, saying this wasn't a waste of money, and then he says:

Matthew 26:10-13 "In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

Both Judas and Mary knew the worth of that oil. Yet how they viewed money differently led to the death of one, and such a blessing and story that we still read today for the other. Praise God!

It's very interesting to me that Jesus, who is God and who knows all things, made Judas the treasurer. Out of all the people in Jesus' ministry, the one person who he decided to make treasurer was the one person who had a greed problem with money. Who knows, maybe being the treasurer made him greedy with money, or he was that way before, but Jesus knew what was going to happen. And yet he made him the treasurer. Again we can't fully connect these dots because it's not written, but I think there's definitely a lesson here.

The Rich Young Ruler

So we read this story and we got an example of someone who sees money with greed, right? Okay, now let's look at one parable and see an example of someone who is already rich, who already has a ton of wealth.

Matthew 19:16-26 "16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" 17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments." 18 "Which ones?" he inquired. Jesus replied, "'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'" 20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?" 21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, 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." 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" 26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.""

So what does this verse tell us? Think about it for a second. I'm going to try to sum it up in one sentence or thought. "As a Christian, being rich puts you at a spiritual disadvantage." And I'll say it again.

And notice I say spiritual disadvantage. It's not completely impossible. Jesus makes it clear that it is extremely difficult for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. And he gives this crazy example that you'll have an easier time putting a camel through the tiny eye of a needle than the rich getting to heaven. But notice, he doesn't say impossible. And he goes on to say with man, the rich getting into heaven is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Jesus is making these clear distinctions here, that this man was doing everything right in life so far.

He asked what must I do to get eternal life, and Jesus says keep the commandments. Okay, he said he does that, he's living a good life according to the law, right? But the man asks what am I lacking? And when Jesus brings up the topic of money, and to give away his money, boom — right there, the idol in that person's life came out. And notice, this rich person was doing everything in life right, except he was holding onto his money. And because of that one thing, it causes him to turn away completely from God. He wanted to be with God, he went away from Jesus sad, and yet the temptation of his riches was too much to turn away from them.

And if we skip to the very end of this chapter, Jesus says many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. He's making this distinction that specifically, those who are rich will come last, and those who are poor will come first. And I think this distinction applies even in this current world when you look at physical life and spiritual.

When we are rich, if we aren't careful, it can limit our reliance on God. Again, being rich puts you at a spiritual disadvantage. If you have a million dollars, a house, cars, everything — if you don't pray today or tomorrow, you're probably going to be okay, right? Fridge runs out of food? Okay, drive to the store in your car and buy it. Hot water tank or something in the house breaks? Call the plumber the next day and pay whatever. These are kind of simple examples, but seriously!

When we have riches, when we have so much in this world paid for and set, it can limit our reliance on God! Think about those wild stories we've heard before, even from many of our parents, when people lived in horrible times with no money, they couldn't even afford to buy food for the next meal. What do you do? Well sometimes in those low, low moments, the only thing you can do is pray and rely on God! And through that we sometimes hear these miraculous stories that this person had no food or money, and yet at their doorstep they open the door and see a bag full of food.

God provided that. And God provides for those who are poor, those who are brokenhearted, those who are crushed in spirit. But when we have money and we have everything provided for, it can easily create a false sense of security. It can create idols. Chasing the next biggest house or fastest car. It can turn us from the one we truly need, to this world and just never being satisfied.

And it becomes clear from this story, money can cause great, great pain when we have greed. But at the same time, money can be used for great, great things for the kingdom of God. And from that parable, having riches can be a very real danger to our spiritual lives that we have to be aware of. But it's not about the money itself, right? It's the matter of our heart. It all depends on where our heart is.

Money as a Test

Okay. So far we've looked at these stories and we know the bad side of money, right? We know riches put us at a disadvantage spiritually. We know the greed and love of money can kill us spiritually as we saw with Judas. We know holding onto riches can turn us from God. But we also saw that those people that do have money, with the right heart, can still be used by God and do amazing things.

So how should we see money, if we know how not to see it? Do we need to sell all our possessions and give it to the poor? Do we need to go buy an expensive gift for God for a year's wages? What do we do? Just as the Bible gives us lots of stories and examples of the danger of money, it gives us many good examples of the correct things to do.

And when I was researching and making this sermon, I came across this very simple idea of an overview of money for us as Christians. And you can think of money in three different ways. In the life of a Christian, money can be seen as a test, money can be seen as a tool, and money can be seen as a testimony.

And if there were only two things you'd get out of all of this sermon, it's one, the danger of money, that we read so far. But number two is that how we handle money as a Christian is a test of our true and real faith in Jesus Christ.

Now think about it. If we are Christians and we believe in God, that means we believe God is sovereign over all things, it means we believe God is in control of everything in the world, that all things are God's, that nothing happens without God's knowing. And if we read:

Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the LORD's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

So if everything is God's, that means the money we make in our lives from our jobs, or the money we already have, and even the jobs that make us that money — it's all the Lord's, it's all from the Lord. And this brings us to this idea of "stewardship", that we are stewards of God's resources that he gave us. That the money we have and the money we make isn't ours. That it is all God's, but he gives us that money and we as stewards, or as managers, are called to manage what God has given us.

And this is the number one thing we have to understand about money — we are given by God what we have, and we are called to faithfully manage that money in the way that God calls us to. And if we say we have faith, if we follow what God teaches about money knowing it's all God's, we put that faith into action.

And if we have faith and trust in God, and money comes from God, and God wants to work all things for our good, do we have the same faith in God if we have barely any money or riches? Maybe God will only entrust us with a little bit right now. Maybe more in the future. Regardless of what God decides, do we surrender ourselves to him and trust that what he has given us in this moment of time is the best for us?

Philippians 4:19 "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

When we read a verse like that, do we have faith in that? And there are multiple verses in the Bible that point to God being literally the one in control of money.

1 Samuel 2:7 "The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and exalts."

God himself has control over our poverty and wealth. Again, we are just stewards or managers of what he's given us.

And even in my life, for some reason some of the times I've been the most convicted of sin and mistakes in my life is when I mismanaged money. There were points in my life when I spent money on bad things, I did bad things with it. And then I think to myself — I've prayed so much about having a career, God provided me with a career and the ability to provide for my family, and then I take the money God gave me that I earned from the job God gave me, and I spend it on something useless or even sinful and turn what God gave me against him and myself? When we understand this idea of stewardship, our use of money becomes much, much more serious.

But our human nature is often to see money apart from God, and just turn our minds and hearts to it. And we have to be careful of doing that. See, I think this is where the idea of the prosperity Gospel starts to come into play. And it's probably one of the most dangerous teachings in America in Christianity right now. That the closer you get to God, the more and more he will bless you with finances, with health, with success. And that's just not true. We see in the Bible stories of God using the poor. We see stories of God using the rich. We see stories of God rebuking the rich. God does not promise that we will have riches if we follow him.

Yes, God does bless us with finances. Yes, God does provide us what we need. Yes, God wants the best for us. But it is still a fallen world, bad things still happen, and at the end, it really isn't about the money. God works so much farther beyond money, but we as people in this world always find a way to tie things back into worldly money. But with that prosperity Gospel, it makes money the goal. But we already read that you can't serve money and God. That those who idolized money pierced themselves with many griefs, in Timothy.

If we look at Luke Chapter 16 again, this chapter starts with the parable of the shrewd or dishonest manager. And we won't read this just for the sake of time, but let's skip to verse 10:

Luke 16:10-13 "10 "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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."

Reading this at first kind of sounds like prosperity Gospel, right — that if you are faithful in little God will give you much — but that's not what is being said here! A lot of people focus on that first part of if you're faithful in the little things, only then God can trust you with bigger things, but there's something more interesting in the next verse.

Notice it says if you haven't been faithful in unrighteous wealth — that means worldly wealth, it means money — then why would God entrust you with "true riches"? What does true riches mean? That's not money! True riches here are the true riches in Christ. It's salvation, it's heaven, it's peace, it's joy, it's all the gifts that are from God.

See, with these verses right here, Jesus connects how our faith and how we manage our money has a direct connection to deeper spiritual riches. He's not promising that being faithful in little will result in riches in money. But this is exposing the position of our hearts. If we are managers of the amount of money God gave us, and we don't manage it well, how can God trust us more?

See, God loves us and God provides us what we need. It might be lots of money, it might be little. He might be protecting us, he might be teaching us. He one day might use us and our riches to do great things. Or he might use us when we are poor to also do great things. See, it all comes back to God — it's all his at the end of the day, not our own. And he calls us to be faithful in the money he has given us. And it's on us to read the Bible, to learn more and more how we are supposed to do this.

You know, if God says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive, do we have faith and actually do that? If Jesus says to give Caesar what is Caesar's, and to not be a liar, do we do our taxes without stretching the truth, without pushing things a little too far? If God has blessed us with lots of money, maybe even one day, do we understand that we have to take that very seriously, that it does put us at a disadvantage? And do we stand on guard? If God in our current season has given us little, and maybe it's even hard, do we have faith God will supply our every need? Do we know how much is too much money for us? Are we sober in ourselves, knowing how spiritually strong we are? How much we can handle?

The world tells us we need to keep seeking more and more money. But we know the dangers. Are we able to tell ourselves at one point enough is enough?

Proverbs 30:8-9 "Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."

Notice the writer here knows that too much is dangerous for his faith — he might turn his back on God. And at the same time, being poor has its troubles.

1 Timothy 5:8 "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Do we use our money to help our family members, and even relatives? And maybe this will be more and more important once you get married. But again notice how our giving and our use of money is tied to our faith. That if you don't help and provide for your family, you flat out deny the faith you say you have. Those are some bold statements, but this list of verses goes on and on.

Money as a Tool

Okay. We see that money can be seen as a test. Money can also be seen as a tool. If we quickly read 1 Timothy 6:10 again, it says "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils." Notice this was written very particularly. It says money is a root of many evils. Money itself is not evil. But it's when we take our hearts and place them on money and not on God that it becomes a foundation for evil.

If we look back at the story of Judas and Mary of Bethany, we see two different people who have two completely different views of money. We have Judas who had greed and was always stealing and seeking money. And we have Mary whose heart was on Jesus, and she just so happens to have money to do something amazing for him.

See, that family of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus — they were a wealthy family. By biblical standards, I would say they were rich. They had a house, they had finances to host a dinner, they were able to afford a private tomb where Lazarus was, and in fact they had so much that Mary could go to the market and spend 300 denarii, a year's worth of wages, to praise Jesus. To be able to do that they had to have a lot of finances. And look at how God used that. If we look at that story, Jesus used an act that required great wealth and it was pleasing to him. At the same time, you look at the story of the poor widow, someone who gave only a few cents, and again it was an incredible thing that Jesus called out.

In the same way, you have the rich young ruler who had money, but turned from Jesus. You have Judas, who might not have been super rich but he was greedy — he also turned from Jesus. Money itself is a neutral thing. Money itself is just a tool. It's a tool that is used to buy and sell goods and services. And yet with that tool, it's capable of amazing things for the kingdom of God, and it's capable of horrible tragedies too.

And just like someone who works in construction, if they are an expert with all their tools, they can build beautiful houses. And yet with that same hammer that you use to build, you can very easily tear down and destroy. And there is great wisdom in knowing how to use this tool of money. And it's in God's will for us to spend time learning about this tool, learning how to manage money, learning how to give money.

If we go into that chapter in Luke again, Chapter 16, verse 9, it says:

Luke 16:9 "And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."

And here, "unrighteous wealth" doesn't mean money that was earned in dishonest ways — it just means money of this world, just the usual physical money we use. And notice it says to make friends using this money. So that down the road those friendships will endure into eternity, that these people we will see in heaven.

What Jesus is alluding to here is to use our money in this world to reach out to lost souls, to bless other people, to "make friends" as he says, because this money is a temporary thing — it fails, it's just a tool. But with that tool, you are able to do great things for the kingdom of God.

And I think this is where a lot of the short words we hear at church around offerings come from. The giving part of money, right? And it's a huge part of how we handle money as a Christian. And I'm not going to stand here and demand you give 10% of your money, or you have to give here and there. But I hope we are starting to see this picture of why we would want to give generously.

Proverbs 3:9 "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce."

See, as we've seen, we know money is all God's and we are just a manager of what he's given us. And money is a tool that can do great things not just in this world but for God too. And I think this is something we all need to figure out for ourselves — how can we give the first of our money, and not even money — our time, our everything. How can we give the firstfruits of what we have, how can we use this tool of money that God gave us, through being generous, to move forward his kingdom? And again through our generosity, it is our faith in God in action.

It is absolutely in God's will for us to be generous with money. But it's also absolutely in God's will for us to learn this tool of money. To learn how money works in this world. How do loans work, how to budget, how to save, how to provide for a family, how to invest for the future, how to properly do taxes, how to learn skills, and work hard to earn money. And even how to enjoy the money you earned for you and your family. One of my favorite books — if we look at Ecclesiastes, like in chapter 5, the writer spends a while saying chasing after money and working is vanity, it's like chasing the wind. And yet at the end of the chapter he says there's nothing better than to enjoy the fruit of your toil, that when God gives someone wealth and possessions, to be happy in that and enjoy it, because that is also a gift from God. But again it's all about the position of our heart.

And if you want some homework or to learn more, the book of Proverbs is a great place to get lots of practical advice about money. I already read a few but there are so many more in there — it's really good to read.

Money as a Testimony

And finally, the third thing I mentioned — testimony. Money can be seen as a testimony. And what I mean is the way we as Christians handle money is a testimony to those around us, in the Church and in the world.

See, the world is so focused on money. Everything is always about that grind — making money, getting that bigger house, better car, more stocks and investments. And many times, stealing, being dishonest, doing whatever it takes to make money. But when we as Christians, having faith in Jesus, do something different in our lives with money — when we see money differently, when we save it, when we are smart with it, when we are very hard working and not lazy, but at the same time very honest in our work, when we give generously — it's so different than what the world does that it can be such a sharp, polarizing change.

The way we handle money while we ourselves are poor is a testimony. The way we handle money if we have riches is also a testimony, if we follow Christ through it. Giving those few cents in the offering is a huge testimony of a person's own faith that God will provide. Using riches to fund ministries across the world, to build things, to help tons and tons of people — that's a huge testimony. When's the last time we've seen someone wealthy make massive strides for Christ and not be selfish with it? When that does happen, it's so polarizing, and such an amazing thing to see.

And in the same way, how we interact with people that are poor in the world is a huge testimony. In this world people usually look down upon those in poverty — those that are homeless, asking for money on the side of the street. And sure, some of them take advantage, but there are other people that are truly in need of help.

And we as Christians, knowing what we know about money, knowing that God is all sovereign, that the money I have is all from God and I'm just his manager — God calls us to give generously and help those that are low and in need. That we freely give God's money, not our own, to someone that God also loves.

And when we start to see people not for their money, not ranking them based on how much they make, and we interact and help people not looking at that, it's such a massive testimony of Christ.

The world does not teach these things, but God teaches these things and it can be such a shock to people all around. And I'm not saying to be like a Pharisee who shows off — you know, we should give in private and not be flashy — but us being ministers to others in the world using the tool of money that is God's, that God lent to us, is a huge testimony.

When we have this understanding of money, the way God intended, it really is so much different than what the world teaches us. And when we follow God's plan for money in our own lives, it's such a blessing to ourselves, our future families, and the rest of the world.

Praise God.