A person who loves God with money is content with the basic necessities of life because of the cross of Christ. Are you a person who loves God with your money? Are you content with the basic necessities of life? Have you found the secret of being content in the provision of the cross of Christ?
Look at 1 Timothy 6:3 – 10…
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Are you a person who loves money or do you love God with your money? Verses 9 – 10, which we looked at last week, are most likely the key verses of this passage & they’re located in the middle of 1st Timothy, which is a letter that was written by the apostle Paul to Timothy who was his son in the faith and a young church planter in the city of Ephesus.
Throughout this letter Paul tells Timothy how to deal with many different obstacles that arise in ministry and one of the things he warns Timothy and the church in Ephesus about is the danger of being a person who loves money.
Ask yourself these questions: How do I know if I’m a person who loves money? What is my mental picture of someone who loves money? What behaviors do I think would characterize a person’s life that loves money?
Are you negligent with your money? Do you constantly think about your next purchase? Do you find yourself impulsively spending? Do you consistently blow your budget? Do you give a certain percentage of your money to the ministry of the gospel regularly? Your answers to these questions will reveal if you love money or if you love God with your money.
And here’s the thing… Contentment is a big part of becoming a person who loves God with your money. In verse 8 Paul says that, “if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.” In other words… If you want to become a person who loves God with your money then you must learn to be content… comfortable… at ease… at rest… satisfied… with the basic necessities of life. A person who is content with the basic necessities of life isn’t seeking after more stuff, more things, more junk or more money.
But how do you become content with less instead of always seeking more? Paul tells us in Philippians 4:11 – 13 that “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any & every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” In other words, Paul found the secret to loving God with his wealth by being content and the secret to being content is doing all things through Christ who strengthens you. You become content by asking for and resting in the strength of Christ instead of trusting in the weakness of wealth.
When we become discontent by trusting in the weakness of wealth we spend money impulsively, we spend money outside of our budget restrictions, we become controlled by our plans for our next big purchase and we hoard our money rather than giving it away.
But when we become content in the presence and work of Christ we spend wisely and strategically, we stay within our budget restrictions, we resist being controlled by the next big purchase and we give our money away regularly, proportionately, generously and sacrificially.
But why? Why is this topic so important? Is this topic important because God wants us to be better Christians? Is this topic important because it takes money to fund a church? Or is this topic important because life will get easier if we think, feel and behave differently with our money?
Why is this topic so important? I don’t think we should learn to think, feel and behave differently with our money so that we become better versions of ourselves or so that the church budget gets met or because life seems like it would be easier if we did so. It is good to think, feel and behave differently with our money. And it’s important for churches to make budget. But I don’t think these are primary reasons to respond rightly to this mini money talk.
I think we should learn to think, feel and behave differently with our money because of our proclamation of Christ. When we proclaim Christ as our Savior then we are proclaiming that he wasted nothing to save us from our sin. He withheld no expense to purchase us from hell. He counted the cost of our ransom carefully and he paid the price completely and willingly. He didn’t give his blood on our behalf from his leftovers he did this from the riches of his grace.
In summary we love God with our money by being content with the basic necessities of life. And we become content with the basic necessities of life by trusting in the strength of the presence of Christ instead of trusting in the weakness of our wealth. And we love God with our money by being content because Jesus spent himself completely, proportionately, generously and sacrificially to make us his own possession.
A person who loves God with money is content with the basic necessities of life because of the cross of Christ. Are you a person who loves God with your money? Are you content with the basic necessities of life? Have you found the secret of being content in the provision of the cross of Christ? A person who loves God with money is content with the basic necessities of life because of the cross of Christ.