MoneyCENTS

Week 3 in our “Two Masters” series Pastor Craig preached a message entitled MoneyCENTS. Jesus himself taught more on money than he did heaven or hell. It was that important to him so if we call ourselves his disciples it would make sense that it would be that important to us. 

After the Beatitudes on the sermon on the Mt., Jesus teaching wasn’t over. Matthew 6:19-34 reveals Jesus’ insight into money. He tells us how money exercises power over us, why money has this power, and how we can break it. 

Money exercises power over us because our lives are filtered through it- in order to eat and live independently we have to have money. The problem is greed and materialism comes in easily and blinds us spiritually. In our American culture, most of us know someone who has more or spends more and that’s all it takes to write off our own greed. We make excuses for spending money unnecessarily on ourselves because there is someone out there spending more. 

What we are doing with our money is usually something no one else knows about but ourselves. If we want to follow Christ’s teachings regarding money we are going to have to let others hold us accountable. 

• Who have you authorized to hold you accountable financially? 

Money exercises power over us because money is a powerful way to obtain our heart’s desire. For some of us it’s about gaining a sense of significance- we like the seeming status money affords us. For others it’s about security and feeling a sense of independence and control. Either way, when our heart is set on either of those things instead of realizing that both our significance and security ultimately come from God we will fall into being enslaved by money. 

• How have you looked to money for your significance? What about control? 

So how do we break this power of money? We make Jesus the treasure of our lives. The thing about treasure is that what makes a treasure a treasure is that we are willing to pay any price to get it! All other treasures in this life require us to die for them. Jesus is the only treasure that willingly died for us. 

• What have you been killing yourself for lately? 

Finally, moving forward in money management we must have understanding and a plan. Sometimes it’s not a lack of desire that is holding us back from doing better. Sometimes it’s simply not understanding how to make money work for us instead of against us. Money can be used for great things if we understand it and have a clear management plan for it. God doesn’t just want to be a person you come to for advice with no personal investment in your money. God wants to take full responsibility and become your financial management partner. Will you let him?