Message Recap
Today, Pastor Megan taught about what Proverbs has to say about money. Megan began by saying, money is something we think about a lot. We make decisions based on it, including allowing it to direct where we spend our time and energy. It is a great tool but a terrible God.
Megan reminded us that Ecclesiastes 5 and 1 Timothy 6 warn us about loving it, and 1 Corinthians reminds us to give it away in love. And, for a man who didn’t have a lot of it, Jesus talked about it a lot—because it reveals our hearts. Money is a resource, so what does it look like to cultivate contentment and gratitude while managing our resources with intentionality and wisdom? The book of Proverbs has a lot of verses giving wisdom about managing money in wise ways.
Proverbs 3:9-10 says, "Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine."
Megan challenged to consider if we are honoring the Lord with our money. This brings us to her first point:
1. Why honor the Lord with our money? It's God's, not ours.
All we have is because he has given it to us to steward. And that is the key. Money is a resource for us to steward; it is not something we own. If we think we own our money, then we think it is up to us to determine how to use it and to even earn it. We should work hard, but ultimately everything belongs to God—He makes resources, including money, available to us so we might steward the gifts He has given us to reflect Him and His purposes. This brings us to her second point:
2. How do we honor God with our money?
We begin with finding our safety and security in God's name as Proverbs 8:10-11 says, "The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale."
God is our safety. Often, money takes the wrong position in our lives. It is tempting to invest in things that will bring us safety, security, status, and pleasure. Those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but where their position is in our hearts in light of our God is what matters.
Megan used the example of Jimmy Fallon's character in the movie Fever Pitch. He was obsessed with the Red Sox, and at one point in the movie, a little boy says to him, "You love the Red Sox but have they ever loved you back?" Money will never love us back, but our Savior Jesus does.
So how do we love God more than money? We love God with our money! This is how we become content with what we already have. This brings us to Megan's third point:
3. Where do we begin? We consider our debt.
Humility is what breeds contentment. We are from dust and will return to dust. All that we have is undeserved and is a gift from God. When we receive a gift, we long to say thank you to the gift giver. When we look at God, the ultimate gift giver, we are reminded how much He is in control, and we simply are not. Our very heartbeat reminds us of His love—we cannot control the beat of our hearts, the very thing that keeps us alive. When we consider the debt that Jesus paid for us, we can't help but walk in humility, grow in contentment, and steward our money well.
Megan then walked us through an exercise using the passage in Luke 7:36-50. As she read through the story, we were asked to imagine ourselves as the host (the Pharisee) in the story. She then read it a second time, asking us to imagine ourselves as the woman with the jar of perfume. She then asked us, "Which one do you relate to?"
Neither person in the story—the Pharisee nor the woman had the means to pay back the debt they owed. And neither do we! Jesus paid the ultimate price for us. Megan said, "Our relationship with money is dependent on our relationship with the Father."
