“The lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with gain. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them increase; and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes?” – Ecclesiastes 5:10-11
I preached on money, wealth and finances not too long ago. It’s not my favorite subject or theme to preach from the pulpit. I’ve seen too many churches get jacked up because of money issues and I know that talking about money in the church is always a sensitive thing. Three subjects that I’ve noticed to really put people on the edge of their seats and make them feel uncomfortable are the subjects of sex, politics and money. But regardless of the responses and whether people like it or not, the Bible has a lot to say about these subjects. So I tackled the subject of money & finances. I know that these are tough times economically. I know of folks in my own church who are dealing with joblessness and struggling to make ends meet. But I think it is imperative that the Church, the people of God, understand that we must not allow money to be the source of our hope, our security, our identity, our significance… to be a god in our lives.
Now, I don’t want to write my whole sermon here… it would be too long for you to read and you probably don’t have all the time in the world to be reading blogs anyways. But here’s what I’ve got to say about money.
Money is relatively a good thing in the Bible… especially in the book of Proverbs. We all need money to make it in this world. The Church needs money to do ministry and so on and so forth. There is a strong connection between hard work, originality, creativity, self-control, discipline with prospering… prospering materially and economically. Proverbs like “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth,” or “He who gathers crops in the summer is wise, but he who sleeps during harvest time is disgraceful.” Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of the LORD brings wealth.” So money and wealth are incredibly great gifts from God. But money also has incredible spiritual danger attached to it. For example, money has the power to destroy integrity according to Proverbs 11:1. Secondly, money has the power to destroy community because you become self-absorbed according to Proverbs 11:26. Thirdly, money has the power to distract us from what is really important in life. Proverbs 11:4 says, “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” This verse is talking about judgment day. Questions like “What is my life amount to?”, “What am I really doing with my life?”, “What difference am I making in the world?”, “Who am I really helping?”, and “What contribution am I making?.” Wealth blinds us to judgment day questions. Wealth instead pulls us away and sucks us into a frantic cycle and a frantic life of consumption.
Lastly, money makes us proud and over-confident according to Proverbs 30:8-9. When people have money, they often tend to say, “I don’t need God. Why in the world would I need God for? I have everything I want and need.” Who’s the LORD?” There is nothing like economic success to make one feel over-confident. The more money a person makes and the more successful he or she becomes, the more the person will think he or she got it because they were so smart or so disciplined. And this makes the person feel over-confident and proud. Bernard of Clairvaus once said, “To see a man humble under prosperity is the greatest rarity in the world.”
I don’t know about you but integrity and character, community and humility are all important to me. I don’t want the might of money to destroy these things in me. I don’t want money to control me and how I live my life. My wifey and I are not rich. We don’t have anything saved up for the future but we are hoping to start very soon. We only have one car. We don’t own a house… we rent. We live off of one income so that my wifey can stay home and be a mom to our daughter… it’s been tough at times. We’ve had to dip into our savings and learn some hard lessons along the way. Budgeting and staying true to our budget has been equally difficult especially for a guy like me who’s not as detailed oriented. But with all of this, still I feel that we are incredibly rich and wealthy. We’ve always had food on our tables and a roof over our heads. We’re not living for this world or trying to be comfortable. We’re trying to be more “Christ-like.” This world is not our home. We are just passing through. We are resident aliens in this world. We have a Father who owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hills. My Father is rich! We know that there are people all over the world that can’t eat like we do and don’t have anything near what we have in terms of shelter and just basic neccesities of life. So what God gives to us, we accept and we are thankful. I know that others who read this will not like what I’ve written. But it’s safe to say that all of us (including myself), whether we know it or not, or whether we like it or not… have too much love for money. It has become either our significance or our security. Money either makes you feel important and proud or it makes you feel safe and secure. Instead of God being our significance and security, money is. It is the alternative to God and it has enormous spiritual power over us.
We need to be aware of this. Now if you are someone who is struggling to make ends meet… or maybe you’re not even doing that… I know that our country is in recession. But God is still God and He is still in control. He’s sovereign over the affairs of men. He knows what He is doing. We can trust Him for all things. And even if God doesn’t do what we’d like for Him to do concerning our money and finances… let that not change our commitment to live for Him and our devotion to Him. Even if He doesn’t save us from this economic crunch, “Blessed be His Holy Name!” You have a wealthy Father and you are truly rich beyond all measure.
Habakkuk 3:17-18, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on teh vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there areno sheep in the pen and no cattle in teh stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
If God has given you wealth, that’s great. More power to you… or I should say, “more money to you!” But with wealth comes great responsibility to be a great steward of what God has given you. Use it wisely. Apply the scattering principle, which is that the more you scatter your wealth, the more you’ll gather wealth in a different form. It’s called “Agricultural wealth.” Proverbs 11:24 and Psalm 112 pretty much says that he who scatters gathers and he who gathers scatters. It’s a paradox, but it works in God’s economy. In agriculture, you scatter seed and the more you scatter, the more you gather. The more you sow, the more you reap. But if you hold onto your seeds and won’t scatter them, you’ll starve. But if you’re willing to scatter your seeds and give it all away, you’ll gather. Now when you gather, it comes back in a better form. The only way for you to turn your wealth into real riches is by giving it away. I’m not talking about the wealth and health prosperity junk that’s out there. I’m not saying that if you give it away, God is somehow going to make you richer in the end… no. I’m saying God will give you wealth in a different form. Also, you will have broken the power of money over yourself.
In 2 Corinthians 8, St. Paul is trying to get people to give to the poor. And in doing so, he doesn’t go after their will. He doesn’t say to them, “You better give or God is going to punish you!” He also doesn’t go after their emotions. He doesn’t say to them, “You have to give because these people are so poor and look how much they’re suffering…” He goes after their hearts! 2 Corinthians 8:8 says, “No! Listen. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though He was rich, for our sake He became poor. So that you through His poverty might become rich.” He’s talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ on the cross was literally broken into pieces. On the cross, he was broken. On the cross, he was distributed. On the cross, he was scattered. Why? So that we could be gathered. Paul is calling us to see that Jesus on the Cross became the ultimate scattering to gather, the ultimate example of agricultural wealth. The cross is the picture of the ultimate act of generosity, the ultimate act of wealth distribution, the ultimate place of becoming poor in order to get real riches. Jesus gave up heaven and glory because He valued us more than those things. Jesus Christ is the ultimate treasure who died for us. Give your wealth away and you’ll receive ultimate joy.
I think the church needs to learn how to tithe. How a church gives is a reflection of how the church is doing. Proverbs 11:24 says, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” The part about “withholds unduly…” is talking about a stingy person who is not giving away what is required. What would be required? In the Bible, it says 10%. In many places in the Bible, it’s says that if you’re not giving away at least 10% of your income to charity and to ministry every year, then you are disobeing God’s rule for generosity. But I think it’s more than that… tithe is the rule, but the Cross is the wisdom. Jesus didn’t save us by tithing His blood. Jesus didn’t save us by tithing His glory. We are alive by His giving of everything! Jesus’ Cross means sacrificial giving. Don’t you dare think you’re being wise about money if you only tithe! If it’s not making any measureable difference in the way in which you live, in the way in which you do things, in the way you take your vacations, in the way in which you buy things… you’re obeying the rule, but you haven’t brought the cross into your economic life. Everything already belongs to God… He’s just letting us keep most of what He’s given to us. An authentic believer who is striving to live in obedience to God, who is loving God will tithe faithfully to his or her church, but on top of that… they will give sacrificially to charities and to missionaries and to other ministries. This is hard, but this is God’s wisdom for His people.
Jesus Christ gave himself away and look at his harvest! It’s you… it’s me… it’s the people of God!
“No one can sever two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:14-15)
As for the Kim Family… we will serve the LORD!
Justin Kim
