There is an important lesson we can learn when it comes to fire. Fire, when it is contained and with boundaries, can warm a house in a fireplace or cook a meal on a stove. Fire, when it gets out of control can destroy everything in its path. This same lesson can be applied to money. It has its place, but when it has our hearts, it can destroy relationships, marriages, and lives. There is a quote when it comes to people and money that can be convicting; “Use money and love people. Don’t love money and use people.” In a world where money can appear to have all the power, the reality is God has the power. He teaches us throughout all of Scripture how to use money and love people.
WARM-UP
What is one thing in the warmup that got personal with you today?
How important are boundaries when it comes to using money?
WORKOUT
It’s interesting in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount that in between His lesson on giving to the poor and His lesson on storing up treasures on earth (both lessons on money) we find His lesson on how to pray (the Lord’s Prayer). We need the Lord’s help when it comes to our heart and money. Jesus saw an opportunity to teach Peter and the disciples about money as they watched a crowd drop money into the temple treasury. “Many rich people were putting in large sums. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning his disciples, he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had— all she had to live on’”
The rich gave out of abundance of money; the woman gave out of abundance of love. God is less concerned about what we give than the heart behind why we are giving. Do we give out of obligation or conviction? Do we give out of abundance or sacrifice? Is our security in our bank account or the Lord? One way we can know if money has us or we have money is how we give away our money. Do we give our tithe to the church? Do we give to those in need?
We often think, “I will give when I have more,” when the reality is, if we don’t give when we have little, we won’t give when we have more. Peter and the disciples understood this lesson they learned from Jesus and applied it to the first church when they “sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need”
They had been given much from Jesus and were going to give much as His followers.
WRAP-UP
How could a heart to give refuel your faith?
What challenges you the most when it comes to money and giving?
Pray together on how the Lord wants to use you to have a heart for giving.