Greentree Community Church

Well here I am once again, going after the controversial subject of money.  It is controversial in our culture, but doesn’t the very fact that we make it so controversial and so private and so sacred indicate that it has become a problem.  Usually, when we say that something is a ‘private’ issue and NOBODY else’s business, what we really mean is that the issue is too personally important, too sensitive, or that we are too unwilling to accept any instruction because our hearts simply refuse to change.  If that is the case, then we have stumbled upon an addiction or what the Bible calls an idol, something we worship, or better said, something that is a good gift from God that has now replaced God as the object of adoration, satisfaction, and worship.  So, maybe the mere fact that this feels so intrusive and controversial to us personally is not less but all the more reason to address its significance in our lives?  After all, Jesus talked about money all the time, more than he did heaven and hell combined.  This is probably the case because he knew how much power money held, even in a society like his, to prevent people from entering heaven (Matthew 19.24). 

As I said in the previous post, if you want your heart to be somewhere or for something, then put your treasure there so that it will follow (Matthew 6.21-24).  Most people spend their time waiting on their heart to simply change on its own, as if it’s a light bulb that will simply turn off at some point when it blows.  So we reason with ourselves, “When my heart changes, then I’ll start to put my money there.”  But Jesus knows how self-deceptive money actually is so he reasons in the exact opposite way:  “Invest your money in God’s purposes and then your heart will change.”  This will be the scariest step because we feel we are making a risky investment if our heart is not “into” that kind of thing yet.  But what Jesus is promising is that our heart will begin to respond on the back end, that we will actually get joy, satisfaction, and contentment (the actual enjoyment of money—yes, God wants you to really enjoy it!) to a much greater degree by giving it away than if we kept it for ourselves. 

So, it may seem that Jesus and his church is always asking for money and guilting people into donating.  But the reality is that Jesus doesn’t work like that at all.  He is actually offering you a much better deal than anyone else—put your money somewhere where it can never erode, where the investment multiplies exponentially, and where you can actually enjoy it!  He wants to make you happier and more content about money than you have ever been in your life.  When we do that, we will get the joy from it and the world will get the picture as to what our real treasure in life actually is.  As it is now, the church seems no different than the world in its priorities and therefore they conclude that Jesus is not much of a treasure after all, since money is seemingly better and more valuable.  However, when we give it away, we show that there is something better—Jesus Himself. 

So, the basic idea here is that Jesus doesn’t want us guilty; he wants us free!  He wants us to be free from the fear of losing it, free from the need for the comfort and security it provides, free from its enslaving power to consume all of our lives around its call.  So, if we want to be free from the bondage of materialism, greed, fear, security, and comfort, then we must learn to give sacrificially.  This type of giving not only demonstrates our freedom; it grants it as well.  The more we give, the more we purposefully break off the yoke of slavery which money places so heavily upon us.  Next time, more on what God will give us in place of slavery, fear, and greed…