When it comes to money and finances, preachers often fall into one of two extremes. The first is to avoid mentioning money altogether; or, if they absolutely must talk about it, to approach the topic very gingerly and apologetically, with a vague sense of embarrassment, as if money were a subject not fit for polite society. So, in spite of the fact that most of us spend a great deal of our time either earning money, or spending money, or thinking about money, in some churches you almost never hear it mentioned. If you didn’t know any better, you might think that the lights in those churches glowed with the pure glory of God, and the heat radiated from the presence of God, or you might conclude that the preacher and his family were fed miraculously with manna, like the ancient Israelites in the desert. You would never imagine that such vulgar things as utility bills or salaries were involved. You would be left with the impression that God was either not interested in money, or that money was somehow dirty or evil.
Now, in their defense, there’s a reason why some preachers react that way. They don’t want their motives questioned. They don’t want to be lumped in with the money-grubbers, the preachers who talk and act as if the whole Christian life were about nothing but money. Thankfully, those are a small minority, but for them, money is the primary means by which we relate to God. If we love God, we will give Him lots of money. If we do what God wants, He will reward us with money. In those churches, money is talked about constantly. It is absolutely front and center.
But both of those approaches miss the mark. One represents an un-Biblical underemphasis on money, and the other an overemphasis on it. The truth is that money is important, and it does affect our spiritual life. But finances are not the only thing that matters in the Christian life. They’re not even the most important thing. And God’s blessings don’t always come in the form of Federal Reserve Notes. So having said all that, what help can the Bible give us in this area? How can we honor God and serve Him with our finances? And how can we get free from this feeling of never having enough?
First, let’s define the problem. Most people would state it like this: "I don’t have enough money. I have trouble paying my bills, I’m in debt up to my eyeballs, I can’t buy the things I need. I want my family to have nice things, but I can’t afford them." Are those legitimate concerns? Yes! But, they are not the real problem. Listen very carefully to what I am about to say: A lack of money is not the problem. The problem is the discrepancy between what you have and what you want; the problem is the gap between your financial resources, on the one hand, and your desires and perceived needs, on the other. In other words, your demand exceeds your supply. Now, that may sound like just a semantic distinction, just playing with words, but it’s not. It’s absolutely critical. Because your definition of the problem affects how you try to solve the problem.
If you think the problem is money, you’ll try to solve it by getting more money. That may help in the short run. But in the long run, it never works. You cannot successfully close the gap between what you have and what you want by getting more money. Why? Because without a change of heart, your demand will always increase to exceed the supply. You will always want more; you will always feel like you need more. No matter what you have, it will never be enough. You will never be content. The truth is that happiness and contentment don’t come from our circumstances. They come from the heart. And that’s where the root of the problem really lies. Not in our wallets, but in our hearts.
So this morning, I’m not going to talk about budgeting, or choosing between term and whole life, or finding the best credit card rate. Instead we’re going to look at something more fundamental, or hearts. Let’s allow God’s Word to do a little surgery on our souls. What’s really at the root of our money problems? Something the Bible calls "coveting". In the Ten Commandments, it’s number ten:
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." -- Exodus 20:17 (NIV)
What is coveting? Simply put, it’s desiring something you can’t legitimately have. It’s desiring something you know God doesn’t want you to have, or desiring something so strongly that you don’t care if God wants you to have it or not. Even if there’s nothing wrong with the thing itself, if you want it so much that that you are willing to ignore or disobey God in order to get it, that’s coveting. Coveting is any desire that you put above your love for God. And it’s not just limited to physical possessions. You can covet status, or achievement, or power, or pleasure, or good health, or anything else. Anything you want more than you want God is coveting, even if it’s something good.
This is not a minor issue. God made this one of His "Top Ten" sins, because it’s so destructive, and so common. This drive to get what we want, without submitting our desires to God’s will, is the root cause of all kinds of lying, and deceit, and violence. Listen to James:
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." -- James 4:1-3 (NIV)
Do you hear that? "You quarrel and fight. You even kill to get what you want." And James is writing to a church! But that’s what coveting produces. Quarrels. Fights. Angry disputes. Envy. Resentment. Note that they don’t bother to ask God for what they want. They’re willing to fight for it, but not pray for it. Why? Because in their hearts, they know that their desires are not legitimate, and so they don’t even bother asking God for them. Do you ever do that? Do you ever avoid praying for something because you suspect that maybe God doesn’t want you to have it? And in your heart of hearts, you’re determined to have it whether God approves or not? And if you prayed, you’d have to submit your desires to God’s will, and you don’t want to do that? Listen to these warnings:
"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 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." -- 1 Timothy 6:9-10 (NIV)
"Then [Jesus] said to them, ’Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’" -- Luke 12:15 (NAS)
God hates coveting because it’s so destructive. It tempts us into doing evil; it leads us to do and say foolish things; it can even cause us to abandon the Christian life entirely. If you want something so much that we are unwilling to listen when God says "no", then eventually you will choose that thing over God, to your own sorrow and grief. Coveting clouds our minds. It deceives us into thinking that real life is about what we have, and what we can get, here on earth. It pulls our vision downward, instead of upward; it takes our primary focus away from God and the things that are eternal, and puts our focus on things that are only temporary. It warps our values and our priorities.
"All right," you say, "But I’m not covetous. I’m not greedy." But understand that coveting isn’t just some greedy old miser like Ebenezer Scrooge counting out his money. It’s any time our hearts are inclined to something we want more than we want God. We may not even realize that we’re doing it, because coveting can be very subtle and hard to detect. Consider this: We live in a society in which coveting is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged. What do I mean? Our economy is driven by advertising, whose purpose is to make us want things. We’re exposed to hundreds of advertising messages every day. They’re everywhere. But the one thing advertising doesn’t do is help you think about whether God wants you to have something. And when we desire something without reference to God, we are only one step from desiring it in spite of God. And that’s coveting.
Here’s another point: even when the thing we want is good or neutral in itself, our desire for it is coveting if we cannot have it legitimately. And our desires are illegitimate when fulfilling them would prevent us from doing something God wants us to do. For example: Is it wrong to have a new car, or a nice house? Not at all. But if that car loan ties up so much of your income that you have no money available to help those in need; or if you take on such a high mortgage that you can’t give generously to support the work of the church, then your desire for that car or that house is covetous. If you want career success so much that you work all the time, and so you can’t give adequate time to your family, and you’re so busy working that you never have time to serve other people in the body of Christ, then your desire for
success is covetous. Any time your desire to have something conflicts with what God wants you to do, that’s coveting. When you seek anything else more than you seek to love, and serve, and obey God, then you are coveting, even if the thing itself is a good thing.
So what’s the antidote for coveting? Contentment. Contentment and coveting are mutually exclusive. Contentment teaches us to be thankful for what we have. It teaches us to radically redefine what we think we need to have in order to be happy and fulfilled. Listen to Paul:
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." -- 1 Timothy 6:6-7 (NIV)
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who givesme strength." -- Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)
What is Paul telling us? That by the grace and strength Christ supplies, we can be completely content with what we have. We can be content with even less than that, with just the basic necessities of life, like food and clothing. In fact, we can be content even when we don’t have that, when are in actual need, when we are hungry. For you and I, living in 21st century America, the most materially wealthy society the world has ever known, living in affluent Westlake, taking for granted as we do the kind of luxury that the kings of Paul’s day could only dream of, his words hardly make sense. We can’t imagine being fully satisfied and content without all kinds of good food, and hot running water, and warm, dry homes with indoor plumbing. We can’t imagine being able to live, much less be content, with only one change of clothing, and a mud hut to live in, and a diet that consisted of eating the same thing every day.
We may be able to imagine how a Christian who is, for instance, a poor peasant in China, or Peru, or Zimbabwe could be content, because they’ve never experienced the kind of lifestyle we’ve grown accustomed to. But it is almost unimaginable to us that we could be content with much less than we have now, that we could be content with the little that many Christians around the world possess. Yet we could. By the grace of God and the power of Christ, we could be content even if we lost everything. And what’s even more amazing, you can be content with what you have here, today, right now. Whatever you have, plus Christ, is enough. Because Christ is enough. He is far more than enough. And when we understand that, then we will truly be content.
Is there anything this morning that you are desiring more than you desire to love, and serve, and follow Christ? Even if you get it, you won’t be satisfied. Nothing ultimately satisfies but knowing Jesus Christ.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
