Can I Trust God With My Money

Can I Trust God With My Money

Proverbs 3:5-10 1 Timothy 6:17-19 Glenville 1-8-12

We are in the middle of a series of Can I Trust God. Last week Pastor Kellie preached on “Can I Trust God With My Disappointments.”. Today we will look at “Can I Trust God With My Money.” Next week we will look at “Can I Trust God With My Future.”

Suppose for a moment I gave you a million dollars in a bank account. But there was one catch. The account could not be in your name, and you always had to ask the other person to give you some money, which they would do, and you could not take out more than $10,000 in a given month. Now since the account is in that person’s name, and they could take out your money at any time, who would you trust with your money in that account? What quality did you look for before making your decision?

Trust has nothing to do with how much feeling you can muster inside about something. For instance, if somebody gave you a chair with three very wobbly legs, you would not say, “I’m going to get the trust from deep inside me to believe this chair is going to hold me up.” If you do, you are going to hit the floor. Trust is based on the character or the nature of what you are putting your trust in. When God says, for us to trust Him, God is saying, “ check me out and examine me. See if I am worthy of trust. Look and see if I am a liar of if I am Faithful & True.” God would not tell us to put our trust in anything that was not trustworthy. The only place God says for us to put our trust and our confidence in is in Him.

What is it about money, that causes us to forget our commitment to trust God. Especially, when God is not anti-money. As a matter of fact, God says if you trust me with your money, I will see to it that you receive more money. It’s amazing that when others say something like this, we will believe them, but when God says it we think it can’t be true.

Let me show you something, if Chase Bank said deposit$ 1,000 in our savings account and we will give you$ 100 at the end of a year, but First Merit said deposit a $1000 in our savings account and we will give you $50 at the end of the year where would you put your $1000 if you could set it aside for a year. Why do you trust what Chase has said? Have you ever read it’s fine print, saying this offer can be changed by us at any time due to a change in circumstances at our discretion.

In our Old Testament reading, God said, “ if you trust me with the first part of your paycheck, your income, your birthday money, or your profits, I will make you wallet, your purse, or your bank account fatter than what you would have had.” There is no fine print saying, this offer will be rescinded based on external circumstances beyond God’s control. Is that good news or bad news?

It is amazing to me how we will trust others with our money, but not God. We will even act foolishly in believing that God will send us money to help us keep our trust in others. Why else would we get a summer job that lasts for 8 weeks and with our first pay check sign a 2 year phone contract with Verizon so that we could get a new free phone? Why do we trust that somehow we will get the money to keep Verizon from turning off the phone, when we tell God,” God I do not trust you with the first part of my money to make it grow.”

Well if you have had any problem trusting God with your money, I want you to know that you are not alone. There were a group of rich people in the bible that would not trust God. So some of you can sit back and relax, because this message today is geared toward the rich people we read about in the New Testament scripture. Some of you are thinking, finally a message about money that can’t possibly be for me.

In our New Testament reading it said, “1 Timothy 6:17-1917 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.