(Earning Money) Being faithful to make money and bring the world's wealth into the church.
As we begin walking through this sermon series into the fascinating world of finances, our first stop is talking about God’s standard for EARNING money. Let’s face the facts, work is not always the best part of our day, week, year, or life. But work is a necessary part of life that allows us to earn money so that we can in turn use the money received in the ways that we think it should be used.
I get it, it’s nearly impossible to survive without money in this world. Money represents your time, your energy, your talents, and your total personality converted into currency. We usually hold on to it tenaciously, yet it is uncertain in value and we cannot take it into the next world.
Tell me what you think about money, and I will tell you what you think about God, for these two are closely related. A man’s heart is closer to his wallet than anything else. -Billy Graham
Have you ever been at work and wondered what you could have done wrong to deserve the punishment of having to work for your current employer?
Maybe you have had an interaction with a customer where they get to feel a certain type of way about something you have no control over, but they let you know exactly what’s on their mind. Let’s be real, nobody is better at using 4 letter words than someone who might have gotten the wrong order. Then you get caught looking around because you KNOW they aren’t talking to you…
1. Hustle has always been in the game plan
Genesis 1:26-28
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”
27 So God created man
in his own image;
he created him in the image of God;
he created them male and female.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
2. Riches aren’t always righteous
Hustle is honorable. Money is necessary. But riches are not righteous. In other words, our hustle is not holy, our God is.
Here is the main thought of this sermon point: Chase God more than you chase money. It is easy to justify being all consumed by money,
Matthew 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Luke 12:34
34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
3. Riches and God’s Kingdom
What does God say about earning money for his church
2 Corinthians 9:8-10
8And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
