Redeeming Money
Sermon #5 — November 1, 2015
(Main Scripture: Luke 12:13-34)
SUMMARY:
The holidays are right around the corner. For some, it will be a season of
generosity; for others, a season of greed. Today’s Scripture is a helpful, albeit
unnerving checkpoint against the universal human tendency toward greed. Like
the man seeking Jesus’ help in the story, we easily see the greed in others but fail
to see the greed in ourselves. In her book, The Overspent American, sociologist Juliet
Schor wrote than only one-third of Americans who make over $100,000 per year agree
with the statement: “I can afford to buy everything I really need.” This epidemic reflects our
tendency to look to money for our security and happiness. And yet, though money promises security and happiness to us,
ultimately it provides neither. Said differently, money is a poor and impotent savior. It is a completely ineffective Jesus-substitute. It never satisfies like we expect it to, but only leaves us wanting more. When we use money for things like retail
therapy—spending money on goods and services to fill the hole in our souls—like a drink of salt water, it leaves us feeling
more thirsty not less. According to Scripture, we cure from greed by getting healthy in our relationship with money. A healthy
relationship with money includes cultivating generosity (to remind us that God, not money, is our true wealth), resisting fear
(because if God cares for the birds, how much more will he care for us), knowing our family (because the church is given to
us by God as a safety net in times of trial and scarcity), and knowing our true Elder Brother, Jesus, who was not stingy with
the inheritance (he gave everything for us).
QUOTES AND THOUGHTS FROM THE SERMON:
Nobody sees themselves as rich, because we view wealth in relative terms. If we earn five figures, we resent “the rich” who
earn six. If we earn six, we resent “the rich” who earn seven. And so on.
The Bible is neither anti-wealth nor anti-acquisition. Abraham, the father of the faithful, was very wealthy. So was Job, who is
described by God as the most righteous person in the land. Even Jesus was rich—“though he was rich, he became poor…”
What the Bible warns against, then, is not the possession of wealth but an obsessive chasing after wealth. We can love God
and have money, but we cannot love God and love money, too.
Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
- Erich Fromm, German psychologist
We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
- Dave Ramsey
Money is hazardous and therefore I encourage you to put limits on how much you keep for yourselves—not how much you
make, but how much you keep.
- John Piper, Desiring God
Home is where when you’ve got to go there, they’ve got to take you in.
- Robert Frost
GROUP QUESTIONS:
1. From the sermon or your direct reading of Luke 12:13-34, share something that surprises, encourages, or troubles you.
2. In what ways are affluent people most vulnerable to being blind about their greed? In what ways are less affluent people
most vulnerable?
3. Do you agree that the security we seek from money is a false security? Also, do you agree that “retail therapy”—spending
money on things we don’t need in order to fill an emptiness in our souls—will not give us the happiness we seek from it?
Why or why not?
4. How do the following Scriptures, taken together with Luke 12:13-34, help us better understand what Jesus wants for us and why?
Haggai 1:6 | Matthew 6:24 | 1 Timothy 6:6-10
5. If there’s one thing Jesus would want you to walk away believing and receiving today, what might it be?
CLOSE IN PRAYER:
Consider using 1 Timothy 6:6-10 to guide you as you pray.
NEXT STEPS:
Listen: “Treasure vs Money” (sermon) by Tim Keller (goo.gl/f7CC5Q)
Read: Wealth Creation as Integrated with Faith: A Protestant Reflection by David W. Miller (goo.gl/rcie5z)
Journal Exercise: Do you see money as an idol to you? Do you have a
financial finish line? In what areas of money and spending do you struggle
with the concept of “everything comes from and belongs to God?” Journal
about how God is speaking to you regarding wealth.