Managing Money God's Way: Spending Series

Managing Money God’s Way: Spending

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 9/25/16

I read a story this week about a wealthy man. As he lay on his deathbed, he spoke with his 3 best friends, a doctor, a professor, and a preacher. He said, “I’m going to prove them wrong. I’m going to take it with me. I’m giving you each $100,000 in an envelope. After I die, before they close my casket, I want you each to put the money in with me. Sure enough, he died, and at his funeral the 3 friends each stopped by the open casket and put in an envelope. Later that day, they were talking about their friend and his unusual request. Then, the doctor spoke up and said, “Guys, I need to get this off my chest. We all know that money wasn’t going to do any good in the ground. The hospital is completing a new children’s wing. I took $50,000 of that cash and gave it to that cause.” “Well, as long as we confessing,” said the professor, “You’re right – there really was no reason to put that money in the ground. I donated $70,000 of it to the university library.” They both looked expectantly at the preacher. He said, “I’m ashamed of both of you. Our friend trusted us. Why, I put in a check for the whole $100,000.”

This morning I want to talk about something that isn’t always easy for us to talk about… money! We have a lot of names for it—cash, cabbage, greenbacks, the dough, the gravy, the loot, the moola, the Benjamins, the all-mighty dollar—but a lot of us aren’t comfortable talking about money, especially in church.

But the reality is—the Bible has a lot to say about money! There thousands or verses in the Bible about wealth and finances… literally thousands. Did you know that 1 out of every 6 verses in the synoptic gospels is about material possessions? Did you know that over half of Jesus’s parables are about money or possessions? Did you know Jesus talked more about money than He did any other subject, including heaven, hell, temptation, sin and salvation? Clearly, money is a big deal to God! Why is that?

I think it’s because we spend our lives wrapped up in it. We spend so much of our time either making money, spending money, thinking about money, worried about money, using money, enjoying money, wishing we had more money, etc. God knew money would be a big deal to us, so it’s a big deal in the Bible.

Unfortunately, in church, we tend to think a sermon on money is just a plea for more giving—a guilt-driven appeal for you to open your checkbooks. For Jesus, though, teaching about money was essential preparation for a godly life. Like the old saying goes, “Show me your checkbook and I’ll show you what’s important to you.” In a sense, your checkbook is a little window into your soul. Few things test your faith and maturity more accurately than how you manage your money. In fact, I believe how you handle your money is the litmus test of spiritual maturity. Why? Because Jesus said, “And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” (Luke 16:11 NLT).

In other words, God is watching me to see how I handle wealth (however much or little I have) in this life, how I manage it and what I do with it on earth. If God can’t trust me with material wealth (money) here on earth, then he won’t trust me with true spiritual riches in eternity. It’s a matter of stewardship. Stewardship is just an old English word for management.

The number one key when it comes to money is acknowledging that everything we have belongs to God. We’re simply called to manage God’s money. The Bible says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). That includes whatever you have in your wallet or bank account. God is the owner—period. A lot of Christians think they are managing money God’s way because they give a tithe at church. They forget that the other 90% belongs to God too, so we need to manage all of God’s money God’s way.

Now as far as I can tell, there are only three things we can do with money—we can spend it, we can save it, or we can share it! Those are the only three options (unless you have crazy money and you use it to wallpaper your house). In fact, at home in order to train out kids how to manage money, each one of them has three envelopes—one labeled spending, one labeled saving, and one labeled sharing. Whenever they earn money, they split it between those three envelopes, which helps them to visualize these three purposes for money.