Among some church people, there's an attitude that says, "you can talk about my spiritual life - but don't dwell too much on my money - 'cause when you talk about my money, you're meddling." Or perhaps said another way, "here I am, Lord, send me", but leave my money alone.

As a society today, we spend more time, energy and resources desiring what we don't have and going into debt to acquire it. Putting the pursuit of money, the pursuit of wealth and financial security above almost anything else.

We're in danger here - we talk about the problems in our society like poverty, violence, crime, sexual promiscuity and permissiveness, substance abuse, lack of family values - but don't they all boil down to the quest, the desire for more? And that desire for more leads to the pursuit of wealth, regardless of the cost to you, your family, your society-your faith.

The quest for more . . . the Bible speaks very clearly about the dangers of seeking wealth - of seeking, as the King James Bible translates it, "filthy lucre". Let's look at some of those passages this morning.

Speaking about the sons of Samuel in I Samuel 8, verse three says, "But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain (filthy lucre) and accepted bribes and perverted justice."

Our Meditation says, "Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself! Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder."

A paraphrase of our Responsive Reading from Proverbs 28 says this, "It's better to be poor and direct than rich and crooked . . . Get as rich as you want through cheating and extortion, but eventually some friend of the poor is going to give it all back to them . . . the rich think they know it all, but the poor can see right through them."
And our Scripture says this: " . . . People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." (I Timothy 6:9,10)

"The LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil."

Money itself isn't the problem- it's not bad to have money, to earn money, to use money - rather it's the LOVE of money that causes problems. It's what we choose to do with our money that can cause problems.

Larry Burkett, the man who writes the "Money Matters" page in our newsletter, " . . . contends that the USE OF MONEY is one of God's primary training grounds for every believer." (Christianity Today, June 12, 2000)

And that's true, isn't it? If we learn to acquire and use our money the way God wants us to, the way He directs us to - if we follow the principles of money management laid out for us in the Bible, we sure would learn a lot about being His followers.

As Christians, what we do with our money, with what God has given us, matters.

Our attitude about money matters.

We need to view money as a PRIVILEGE from God and be responsible for that privilege.

Jesus told many parables, many lessons about what this responsibility was. I'd like to highlight two. The first concerns paying taxes and is found in Matthew 22:15-22:

We need to be faithful in our responsibility to our government because of our responsibility to God. As Christians we should be good citizens in this world in preparation for our next home, Heaven.

The second passage about paying taxes emphasizes this and is found in Matthew 17:24-27:

Interesting little story, isn't it? Jesus knows that technically He shouldn't have to pay the tax because of who He is-God's Son- but "to not offend" the powers that be, He chooses to pay the tax in a very creative way! Wonder what Peter thought about that!

We need to view money like everything else, as a gift from God, and use that gift responsibly.

We are an affluent congregation - in general, money is not an issue for us. Usually, we just let the need be known and it is taken care of. We don't need to "pound the pavements" or "beat the congregation's ear" if we have a need. But we do need to be good stewards of what God has given us, both individually and as a church, and use His monetary gifts to us prayerfully and wisely.

Matthew 6:19-21 says:

Don't accumulate "stuff" or "things" and especially don't let "stuff" and "things" interfere with your relationship with Christ - don't let it become your master and become more important than Christ.

"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

If your treasure is in money, in physical things like your home, car, clothes - then your heart will be, too.

In II Corinthians 4:7, the Apostle Paul reminds us that we are breakable, fallible vessels - jars of clay - and he says this: "We have this treasure, this relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, in clay jars to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

A contemporary song says, "We're building temples for Jesus to live in - rooms warm and welcome where He'll abide." And we can do this because of our relationship with Him, because of our submission to Him and His guidance and direction.

Since the Enron scandal broke, and the stock market has looked less than favorable, kind of like a roller coaster heading south, most people have been very concerned how we as individuals and a country can survive this. Monty and I have received two letters from Janet, the woman who handles our investments. She encourages us to hold tight, not panic and ride out the storm. We were already doing that, not only because we trust in God to stay with us, no matter which direction our finances go, but we know Janet, and we trust Janet and we know that she will do her best for us because she has in the past.

It's the same with our eternal treasures. In these uncertain times when life can seem topsy-turvy and we wonder if morality and goodness and Godliness can ever prevail in a world like ours, we need to remind ourselves WHO it is that handles our investments. This financial situation or any other situation in which we find ourselves may seem overwhelming - but we do know Who controls every situation, don't we? And we can trust Him with our present and our future, with our resources, our gifts and our time.

For "we know whom we have believed in and are persuaded that He is faithful to take that which we have given unto Him against that day."

Our job is to trust God, keep our priorities straight by following His principles laid out in the Bible, and let Him handle the rest.

As Jesus said in Matthew 6:25-34