Welcome! I want to have a chit chat about something we don’t chit chat about very much – Money! In fact, I want to spend a few weeks looking into how the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world look so differently at how we live our lives concerning wealth. It’s a big deal.

I hate it that there is an impression out there that churches are all about money. I hear that quite a bit in conversations about why a person might not go to church.

I get it that some have seen certain pastors or certain TV evangelists talk a lot about money and especially giving money to their particular church or ministry. I know that is out there. But I actually think these ministries are the outliers. I don’t think most Christ followers actually experience teaching about stewardship of life and the dangers of riches and the stumbling block of hording money all that much.

Real quick – let’s define some terms here. Money is what we use as a medium of exchange for goods and services. In and of itself money is just . . . money. A benign noun.

But when wealth becomes a goal or a pursuit of the heart in order that I can live a life independent of the Kingdom of God, that now is an issue. Our tendency as a people surrounded by affluence breeds a desire for leisure and comfort. This fallen worldly kingdom tells us lies about possessions and the owning of worldly things. It says things like:

“The person that dies with the most toys wins”
“You deserve a break today”
“You should have a retirement worthy of your achievements”
“You will look better in ______________________________.” (fill in the blank with some kind of car or clothes or house)

Getting back to what I was first talking about, I don’t think many pastors talk about money all that much with their congregants. Many churches are small, and it seems like meddling with their friends’ personal lives. And, not to be mean, but a bunch of us pastors don’t have our own financial lives all that well put together. I suppose that there is a very loud and in-your-face 5% of pastors that do actually badger people and preach falsely about health and wealth and the Christian lifestyle. This done to the sadness of Jesus and in contempt of a true godly understanding of the risks of material possessions.

I’m going to go off for a second. In some of our churches we have turned Jesus into a middle-class, materialistic American Jesus. This pandemic of greed is why the rest of us need to talk about life stewardship – so that we can tell truth from lie. Some preach a Jesus who doesn’t mind materialism and who would not expect us to forsake our creature comforts; a Jesus who is fine with a nominal devotion to God that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. There is presented a Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger altogether. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream.

But when we do this, we need to realize what we are doing. We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. Me. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead, we may be worshiping ourselves!

Randy Alcorn reckons that “15 percent of everything Christ said relates to this topic of our tendency to pursue wealth –more than his teachings on heaven and hell combined” (The Treasure Principle, Multnomah, 2001, p. 8). Let’s look at some of the things that Jesus said about money:

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Mark 10:21

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:33

“For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Luke 18:25

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Luke 12:15

“Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.”
Luke 12:33.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” ⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.”
Luke 19:8-9

Jesus saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.”
Luke 21:2-3

“But God said to [the man who built even bigger barns], ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:20-21

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head . . . Follow me.”
Luke 9:58

The problem with the pursuit of riches and the accumulation of wealth is that we tend to idolize it – by that I mean that we put our trust in it. So, Jesus warns us against this temptation. Paul jumps on this bandwagon as well telling his friend Tim who has his own church in Ephesus:

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.
1 Timothy 6:17

I guess the point for today is that God has very strong opinions how approach wealth and the pursuit of possessions. Jesus said:

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

³³ Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Matthew 6:19-21, 24, 33

Over the next few blogs, we are going to unpack this idea here. Let me tell you up front, we are not going to seek a “happy medium”. We are going to seek the pure righteousness of God and apply ourselves to that task. It might hurt, but it will be good!

This is Dave Scherrer and 100 Fold Ministries. Check out our website at 100foldministries.org for some more Kingdom minded “stuff”!!! Drop me an email and let me know what recent kingdom-minded book has meant a lot to you. Or just drop me an email for fun! dave@100foldministries.org

Peace till the next time!