MANAGING FINANCES THE JESUS’ WAY*
Luke 12:13-34
Did you know that in the New Testament, Jesus said more about money than He said about heaven and hell put together? He talked about finances all the time. Out of His 38 parables, 16 of them are about finances—and how to use them and how to keep them from using and abusing you. Get this—in the New Testament, there are 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith but more than 2,000 dealing with financial matters.
Now that’s not to say that finance is the most important subject in Scripture—it isn’t. But it is a critical issue and the thing that often enslaves our hearts when God wants to own all that we are. Jesus taught five specific principles in Luke 12 that will help direct your money management.
1. More Is Not Better
Jesus says it very simply, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things that they possess” (v.15). You say, “I know life isn’t about stuff!” But saying it and living it are very different. It is all tied back to, “Do I really believe what the Bible says? Or do I think that somehow more stuff is going to enhance my life?”
People who have more are not necessarily happier. A bigger house will not make you more happy? A bigger car will not either. These days it just means more expensive fuel. If you have a nicer car or better clothes or more exotic vacations, you are not happier because of it. I’ve met with people from different parts of the world who live simple lives, small huts, simple food, without fancy clothings and cars and they have bigger smiles, more joyful worship, and a greater sense of God’s fullness than some of us have ever known!
More is not better. In fact, can I suggest to you that the bulk in our bank accounts and the poverty of our souls indicates that many times more is worse? That’s exactly what Jesus was saying when He talked about the danger of riches and the tendency to trust in things.
2. Hoarding Is for Fools
In the parable beginning in verse 16, Jesus calls a person a fool who hoards his income for himself and doesn’t generously share it. “So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Hear Jesus’ heart in this matter. He is asking, what are you doing that for? Life is suddenly over and you invested in what doesn’t last. It’s foolish.
You say, “Well, what if I really began to give in that generous way—how will I live? What about my retirement? What would my kids go without? It gets very complicated.” But Jesus makes it really simple in the next few verses. I think He anticipates our concern about generous giving and so in verse 22 He says, “‘Therefore I say to you do not worry about your life, what you will eat nor about the body what you will put on . . . If then God so clothes the grass which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith.”
O you of little faith—Ouch.
Jesus says, You don’t trust Me very much do you? Do you think that God is going to leave you behind because you put Him first? This whole matter of giving is about faith. When the offering plate goes by every week at church, you make a choice to give and trust God or hoard and not. “Will I give ten percent off the top as He has asked me to do? Or will I keep most of it just in case God doesn’t supply?” It’s a matter of faith.
Really, it’s the question, “God, does everything that I have belong to You?”
3. You Can’t Out-Give God
But Jesus isn’t telling us to give generously because He wants us to sweat. Instead, He wants us to experience our inability to out-give God. He says, “And your Father knows that you need these things. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you” (v.31). You’ve heard those verses before, but did you know they were in the context of giving? Have you ever given generously, out of sacrifice even, and seen God multiply it back in blessing? I have. Sometimes it returns financially and sometimes it returns in other spiritual blessings, but it always returns! God Almighty will not be in a debt position to you. Do you know what it is to trust Him, be obedient, and see Him meet all of your needs? It’s a phenomenal thing!
Two more of Jesus’ financial principles next week or to hear this complete message “Fired up about Finances” from the series, Passions of Jesus: Finding Out What Fires Him Up, go to the Walk in the Word archives for last Thursday and Friday, March 13--14. Join us on air through March 26 for more messages from the series, Passions of Jesus: Finding Out What Fires Him Up
4. If my money is for self, my heart is not for God.
Take your wallet out of your back pocket or purse and get it in your hands. (Really!) This is a symbol of all that God has given to you. Hold that symbol as you read Luke 12:31-32:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you.” (That’s the verse we covered last week that describes our inability to out-give God.) On the heels of that familiar verse, Jesus says these tender words, “Do not fear little flock—” (verse 32). That’s the only time in the whole New Testament that He calls us “little flock.” Jesus is so tender. He knows we get really protective when we get our money in our hands. “Oh no! What if I go without?” and He says, “Do not fear little flock. For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Oh, is that all we get—the kingdom of God? All that belongs to the Creator of the universe? That’s allwe get? How foolish to grip so tightly to my little smidgen of resources and in my disobedience shut myself off from the resources of Almighty God!
Then He says, “Sell what you have and give alms”(verse 33). This doesn’t mean liquidate everything, otherwise we would all be on government assistance. What Jesus means is, “Don’t let your buying habits leave you in a position where you can’t give.” Then He compares earthly investments to heavenly investment. “Provide for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.”
In light of all this, I’m sure you have questions. “Should I buy a better car?” “We’re tithing and we have some cash. We want to buy a new house. Should we do that?” I don’t have any answers except for this next verse. I’ll let you wrestle with it. Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there you heart will be also” (verse 34). Jesus says “Be careful” because the more you accumulate, the greater the tendency for your heart to get drawn away.
5. The Time to Give Is Now
Right now. Not next year. Not when I get things settled. Not when I get the mortgage paid down. The time to give is now.
“Stay dressed for action,” Jesus says, “ and keep your lamps burning,and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes.” In other words, get up, get ready to give, to serve. Jesus could come back at any moment.
“If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!” If you have been faithful to God in these money matters, you will be blessed for your faithfulness.
I’ve been in the ministry a long time and I’ve never worried about the financial needs of God’s kingdom. I’ve serve the Lord for about 34 years now, and I must tell you that God truly provides. Whatever God calls us to do, He provides. Believe me, the Lord is not up in heaven saying, “How are we going to pay these bills? We really need the people of God to come through for us!” That’s backwards. What I’m passionate about is to see people get free who think that the next thing they buy or the next vacation they take is going to make them happy. Nothing but living for and obeying Christ is going to turn that key.
If the truth were known, some of us are like that little English boy who lived in the darkness of the tunnels under the streets of London. He never saw the light of day until someone found him, took him by the hand up a stairway and out into the beautiful world of trees and lakes and sky. Some of you have been living in the darkness of hoarding or of frivolous spending. I long for you to experience the joy of making what God has given you available to Him.
I pray that He would give you the courage to put Him first and to experience the marvelous provision reserved for those who obey His Word.
*This message is adapted from Dr. MacDonald’s sermons on finances.
