Preaching on Money, Part I
In my early 30’s I found myself pastoring a church that had a significant budget requirement every week. To keep the lights and AC on in our rather sizeable building, to pay all of our ministry and support staff, and to meet our missions obligations we needed to have offerings each month that were, quite honestly, something of a stretch for the size and makeup of our congregation. Occasionally, the finance team would come to visit me in my office to say, “Pastor, we’re falling behind. It’s time you preached on money and giving!” I can’t tell you how I dreaded seeing them come through my door!
Why Old Preachers Love to Talk about Money
As a young pastor, I was reluctant to preach about money. At the time, however, I knew several older preachers who relished any opportunity to tackle the subject. I wondered why this was so. Did they just not care who they offended? Were they jaded to the financial demands on their hearers? Did they just not know that they ran the risk of feeding the “money-grabbing-preacher” stereotype that already existed in peoples’ minds?
Now that I’m an older preacher, I think I understand. The longer I live, the more I realize that the only thing that really matters in my ministry is to make disciples. And the longer I try to make disciples, the more clear it becomes that how we use our money is the truest measure of our discipleship, because it reveals where our treasure really is.
Debunking the Myths
The reason we are sometimes loath to preach on money, and the reason many of our hearers are uncomfortable when we do, is that we have bought into several popular myths. They are really excuses we give to avoid dealing with our own idolatry. Here are three of the top myths that need to be debunked:
Myth 1: “What I do with my money is a very private thing.”
This myth is so obviously false as to be laughable. Nothing is more public than the way you use your money. The house you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the restaurants you frequent, and the vacations you take all put your money on display for anyone who is watching. They shout loud and clear how much money you have and what you have chosen to do with it. In some cases, people spend money precisely for the purpose of making a statement. There is nothing private about how we use our money.
Myth 2: “God just wants my heart, not my money.”
It is true that God does not need our money. And it is also true that God does want our hearts. But this does not mean God does not want our money. He wants our money, not because he doesn’t want our hearts, but precisely because he does want our hearts. He knows that if he doesn’t have our money, he doesn’t have our heart.
Myth 3: “I don’t need to give God my money; I’ll just give him myself.”
What does this even mean? Who is it that earns, uses, spends, invests, saves, and gives my money? It’s me, myself! Our “selves” are so woven together with our money that we are fooling ourselves if we think that we can separate one from the other.
Telling the Truth About Money
The truth is, God has woven our relationship with material things into the Scriptures from creation to new creation. He doesn’t distinguish between your “heart” and your money. There is nothing more appropriate than talking about money in church.
In this series, I will offer some “sermon seeds” along the lines of a topical “Big Story Series” as I have described here. First, we will suggest some texts and preaching ideas for telling the “story of money” as God intended. Then, we will look at some ways money becomes a liability when it is tainted by sin. Finally, we will see how the gospel redeems our relationship with the material world and rewrites the story of money.
