One of the things that many of us are suspicious about are ministries that ask for money. Religion and money can be a toxic combination. And yet – God has a plan to involve His people in His work. So does God really need our money? Or is He after something else altogether?

 

God Wants our Hearts

I used to wonder a lot why it is, that God in His Book, His story, His love letter to us, this thing we call "the Bible" – I used to wonder why is it that God talks so much about money? Why does He talk about it so much, so directly and so painfully sometimes?

And to tell you the truth, I used to be very sceptical of Christian ministries, like the one in which I now serve, who put out their hands – that’s how I saw it – for money. Hang on, hang on, hang on, this all smells of a bit fishy. And so the picture I had in my head was quite simply this: this thing called the Bible is just a book written by a bunch of self-serving religious people who want to get their hands on my hard earned cash. That’s honestly how I was it.

I don’t have that view anymore, although I am still a bit sceptical of the tele-evangelists who ask me for money to buy a jet, or who drives a Rolls Royce, I have to say. I believe in being a wise steward of what God’s given me and I see a whole bunch of more pressing needs in this world than those.

And so today in this second message, in this series called, “Money Matters – A Kingdom Perspective” what I wanted to do is to share with you the profound teaching from God’s Word that changed my mind about this ... this money thing. The thing that helped me let go of the tight rein on my purse strings and open my heart and my wallet to the desperate needs of people – physical, emotional and spiritual – right across this world.

Every now and then we receive a letter or an email here at Christianityworks, asking a very simple question about ministry and money. Generally the question goes something like this: "Okay, if you guys are a "faith" ministry like you say you are; if you really do believe that God will provide all your needs, why is it you just sent me a letter asking me for money? Why don’t you just rely on God?"

You know what? That is not an unreasonable question. In fact, it’s quite a good question. And the assumption that seems to underpin it is that having faith in God for His provision and involving people in supporting His work, that those two are somehow mutually exclusive. The assumption is this: if you guys had faith, God would just provide so don’t send out letters and emails. Now I want to look at that by taking you and me for that matter, to the Bible, directly into God’s Word.

It was at a time when God was commanding Moses to build the very first tabernacle; the Tent of Meeting; the mobile forerunner if you will, to the temple that was ultimately built in Jerusalem, many years later by King Solomon. Have a listen:

The LORD said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all those whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breast-piece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.

That comes from Exodus chapter 25, verses 1 to 8.

All the things in that list were incredibly things, but please ... please note with me, God’s approach. God commanded Moses to go to God’s people and ask them to give an offering. Not to cajole them, not to twist their arms, not to shame them or manipulate them, but to go to all those whose hearts prompt them to give.

It was those whose hearts had been moved to give from whom Moses was to receive this precious offering unto the Lord. So here in the Bible, God commands the very first fundraiser; God commands Moses to go and ask God’s people for money. So it seems that faith on the one hand and engaging God’s people in giving on the other, well, they’re not mutually exclusive in God’s eyes. As it turns out, the exact opposite is true; they are intimately connected.

So God really need my money? Does He need your money? Again, it’s not a bad question! The last time I checked God was the creator of the whole universe. He owns it all! Everything that’s in it was made for His glory and His pleasure. He owns the cattle, the Bible tells us, on a thousand hills. So, hunch is that God isn’t sitting up there in heaven sweating on my donation or yours. You see, God isn’t anxious or concerned about how He’s going to fund His mighty deeds on this earth and nor should any minister or ministry in God’s service be so concerned. Completely to the contrary, Jesus clearly taught us that God knows every need and that when we first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, all that we need to meet our needs will follow along behind. Matthew chapter 6.

And as I look throughout my Bible, from Moses, whom we have just discussed, right through to the Apostle Paul, who did a whole bunch of fundraising for the Christians in Jerusalem who were suffering in a famine, what I see is that the way God usually works – not always, but usually – is that He involves His people in funding His work. Let me say that again: He involves His people in funding His work.

God’s normal practice is to get us involved! So, if He doesn’t actually need our money, why does He do that? The reason is that He wants, not so much our money, but our hearts. Remember what He said to Moses - who was to give: “... those whose hearts prompted them to give.” And God knows that our hearts are attached to our wallets. Now, I’m sorry to be that direct but it’s true. That’s exactly what Jesus said! Now this comes from a wonderful passage of teaching about not worrying all the time as to how our physical needs are going to be met. This is what Jesus said. Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 to 21:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures here on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves can break in and steal them; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now, you think it would be the other way round – where your heart is, that’s where you would put your treasure but it’s not that way. If we hoard all our wealth up for ourselves then that’s where our heart will ultimately be, wrapped up in ourselves. That’s why if we hang onto our money, we end up serving the false god of mammon – wealth – and as Jesus points out, in doing that we are misplacing our faith. We are putting our faith in something that just won’t deliver. More about that another time.

If on the one hand we invest in the Kingdom of God as He calls us so to do – as He moves our hearts in one direction or the other, towards this need or that one – then our hearts will end up resting firmly in God. Our trust will end up in Him for all His provision rather in our temporal wealth. We can only serve one or the other – God or wealth – you can’t serve them both. That’s precisely what Jesus said, either we will be a slave to the one or we will be a slave to the other. God knows that and that’s why He involves us financially in supporting His work, to give us the opportunity to have a change of heart.

And that always costs us something. Friend, let me say it again: God doesn’t need our money! Instead He wants our hearts. He wants all of us and He knows that involving us in sacrificial giving, that’s exactly what He will get. It’s a God thing! What someone gives, which Kingdom work or ministry that he or she supports and how much they give, and those things are entirely between that person and God. In your giving, it’s between you and God.

The point is simply this: God wants our hearts and He knows how bound up our hearts can be in our wallets.

 

A Heart Divided

Let me ask you: have you ever been on sporting team where there is an argument or disagreement or dissension? In Australia where I live, you sometimes see it within political parties. There’s backbiting or there’s arguing and instead of playing on the one team against the other team – which is how our system of government works – they end up playing against one another.

And here’s what happens: any team which is fighting amongst itself simply isn’t going to win, whether it’s a football game on a sporting field or an election to take government. Division, dissension, argument, disagreement – all that horrible, terrible stuff – tears a team apart. And when it’s torn apart, everyone has to focus on that division, first winning then as so often happens, bayoneting the wounded – as we used to say in the Army – and then hopefully healing. And the longer this division and dissension go on, the worse it gets.

Now, imagine if, instead of that happening amongst a team of people that this division is happening within you and me – within our hearts – that our hearts are torn between the one thing and the other; between doing this and doing that, believing this or believing that.

I don’t know if you have ever had that happen to you, but as a Christian I know that whenever I’m tempted, that is exactly what’s going on. I want to do one thing, I want to honour God but the Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 7, I’m torn with following after my desires against God’s will. And that ... that can’t go on!

Now, we have been chatting so far this week about this whole issue of God and money. Why? Because a lot of people are drowning in debt; a lot of people haven’t learned to use money as a servant, rather than allowing their desire for wealth to master them and control them and enslave them. Remember it’s not money itself here that is at fault but our love of money. First Timothy chapter 6, verse 10:

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

And I know so many people who are living with a divided heart on this matter of money. It may well be that they are giving to God’s work – to the church and to the poor and needy, to this or to that, perhaps they are even tithing, giving ten percent of their income to God’s work – and yet they still have a divided heart over money. On the one hand, they want to serve God but ever with what they are giving, they know that they still have more than enough to meet every whim and every desire to build their wealth, to produce more wealth so they can have a bigger house. See, once you have money it becomes a whole bunch easier to make more money.

Or some people, some have managed to get themselves into so much debt that they simply can’t afford to support God’s work, to give money to the poor, to support their local church or the other things they feel God is really calling them to be involved in.

As someone involved in this ministry, Christianityworks, that produces these radio programmes – something we can actually only do with the support of faithful people who pray for us and give financially – see, I see this quite frequently; this is a common thing. "Aw, I’d love to support you but my business isn’t doing well", or, "I’m unemployed", or "I don’t have a lot of cash at the moment". I had one man tell me that, and then take his rather large family off, not on just a holiday, but on a pretty expensive overseas holiday.

Now please, don’t get me wrong. The last thing I’m doing here is getting all bitter and twisted here about this phenomenon. My faith ... my faith is in God! And even through some of the most financially dire situations over the years, He has always showed up; He has always provided for our needs, invariably, through His people.

What concerns me here though is the deception, "Aw, I don’t have enough money to support God’s work". In my experience, it’s almost never about not having enough money, it’s about the priorities we have, which if we examine those priorities, would tell us a lot about the divided nature of our hearts.

I want to take you to meet a man called Cornelius. We meet him first in Acts chapter 10. He is the man whom God chooses first to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Remember up until this point, that God, therefore His Son was the God of the Jews. God had much, much bigger plans than that and the lynch pin here is Cornelius. Question is: why did God choose him and not someone else? Acts chapter 10, beginning at verse 1:

In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” He stared at the angel in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” The angel answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God."

Why did God chose Cornelius? Because he was a pray-er and a giver and both those things told God that this man’s heart was right. He was a man whom God would trust for the entry point for the Good News of Jesus into the Gentile world. What we do with our time and our money tells us an awful lot of what is going on in our hearts. Cornelius’ heart was sold out to God, completely and utterly and that ascended as a memorial before God. In other words, it got God’s attention and God noticed there was something going on here in this man’s heart.

The alternative is a divided heart. Have a listen to what Jesus says about that. Matthew chapter 12, verse 25. Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself can stand."

Now, Jesus was saying that in a totally different context. Some people were accusing Him of being powered by the devil instead of by God, when He had cast a demon out and those words were His response. But the principle of what He is saying, a kingdom, a city, a house and let’s follow it right down, a heart divided against itself cannot stand.

Why are so many Christians struggling in their lives? Because they have a heart divided against itself. Flip flopping between God and mammon; God and wealth. Jesus said over and over again: you can’t do that. You can only serve the one or the other; you can’t be a slave to both.

The only way I learned to do that – to be set free from this desire for wealth and to serve God instead, on reflection, the only way that I think that any of us can learn – is to make decisions to be involved in supporting the various Kingdom works that God calls us to support, to the level that He calls us to; that He moves our hearts to and then to go and do that, even if it costs us the holiday; even if it costs us something else that we really want. To give not the loose change, the leftover stuff in our pockets but to give sacrificially.

Next week we are going to meet someone who did precisely that; someone who gave all she had. Friend, a house and a heart divided against itself cannot stand. Listen again: it cannot stand. As God challenges us about where we put our treasure – into His Kingdom or into our storehouses – what He is doing is He is asking for our hearts. And the thing that happens, as He has our hearts, we discover that they find a rest and peace and a safety and a security that we never thought was possible.

 

A Change of Heart

The mere fact that many of us want to chase after wealth – we’re drawn, we’re tempted to serve the god of mammon instead of the living God – demonstrates we’re human. See, it’s a natural tendency of our flesh to war against God and reject God. And every human heart desires security. And this place of struggle between holding on to all my money, devoting my life to making more, on the one hand and yet, being prepared to open our hearts and our wallets to the needs that God calls us to be part of meeting – is such an intense struggle for many people. Especially, let me say, for two classes of people: the very, very rich and the very, very poor.

The next week on the programme we are going to meet one of each of those and see how they responded to this challenge. As I mentioned earlier, for me as a wealthy businessman who became a Christian later in life, was this huge struggle to get to the point of tithing my income. The more you earned the bigger one tenth of it is.

Now, Jesus was human and Jesus had His struggles too. Not with money so much, as it turned out, but He was tempted by the devil. We read about that in Luke chapter 4 and elsewhere. But He had another struggle; another temptation; a much bigger one actually, much later in His ministry. It was a life and death struggle in the Garden called Gethsemane that demonstrated that this was not just the Son of God going to the cross but also the Son of man. This struggle shows us Jesus humanity. Come with me and listen - Matthew chapter 26, beginning at verse 36:

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here for a while, while I go over there and pray.” He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.

Then he came to his disciples and (you know what?) he found them asleep, and he said to Peter, “Could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink from it, your will be done.” Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, the same words.”

See, three times He asks for this great burden of having to die on the cross, to be taken away from Him and yet three times He yields His will, His very life to God, His Father. He is prepared to die that He may bring life to many. It’s this same Jesus who said in Luke chapter 9, verse 24:

For those who want to save their lives will lose them but those who lose their lives for my sake will save them.

And friend, that applies so much to our money. Those who cling onto it greedily, serve another master. Those who follow God’s call to give much of it away, even all of it if that’s what God demands of us (he does that sometimes, not always) those people demonstrate they are serving the one true God. And for many, this struggle is so intense because their faith is in their money; in their wealth; in their security, rather than God. They depend on wealth rather that this Carpenter on the cross.

And I have to tell you, I was there. I spent a lot of my time there, a lot of my early Christian walk there. I wanted to put my faith and my trust completely in my capacity to earn money. Let me tell you though friend, money is not secure. Money fails! And the only way to change, the only way to trust God instead of money is to shift our treasure “for where our treasure is, there our heart will also be.”

Our heart follows our treasure! It’s how I learned to overcome the struggle, truly, from being a wealthy, selfish businessman, hanging on to all my money, to being someone who now lives by faith in God on a daily basis. And as big a risk as that might seem up front, letting go of some of our wealth for Jesus sake; letting go of a substantial proportion of our wealth for Jesus sake – as scary as that seemed to me – now as I look back, I have a peace; I have a safety; I have a security in trusting in God that I never, ever, ever found when I was trying to trust in money.

It’s such an incredible paradox and it’s such a difficult step sometimes to take a significant amount of money – not lose change – a significant amount of money and sow that into the Kingdom of God, where He calls us. My heart followed my treasure, just as Jesus said. First I had to move my treasure, and what happened? My heart followed along behind it!