How to Handle Money God's Way

Introduction: Why Talk About Money?

It's interesting—as a pastor, I get all kinds of requests. "You should preach on marriage or parenting." "You should preach on what's happening in our country and politics." "You should preach more on the end times." I have never received a request to preach more on the minor prophets, but I have gotten emails saying, you should preach more on giving.

Why is that? Because money is an intensely personal issue. If we're honest, it's an area in which a lot of us struggle—it's a stronghold. Consider these realities:

• 62% of Americans will retire with less than $10,000 in savings.
• Two-thirds of people in our country live paycheck to paycheck.
• The average consumer debt outside of a mortgage is near $40,000 per household, most of it credit card debt.
• The average Christian in America gives only 2.5% of their income away, while the average non-Christian gives 2.8%.

Clearly, this is an issue we need to speak to. Jesus himself was not afraid to talk about it—depending on the theologian, Jesus spoke about money and financial matters in 10–15% of his teaching in the Gospels, and a third of his parables involve wealth or finances. As he taught in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Where your treasure is, your heart is also."

Jesus knew it's not just dollars and cents—it's a matter of the heart. As we study Proverbs, we need God's wisdom, not man's thinking, if we're going to thrive rather than just survive.

"The plans of the diligent certainly lead to profit, but anyone who is reckless certainly becomes poor." — Proverbs 21:5

In this series through Proverbs, we're looking at seven dimensions of human flourishing. Today we look at finances. Out of 900 proverbs, 130 of them address wealth, finances, and giving. From those, here are five proverbs for financial flourishing.

1. Deal With Your Heart First

As in all things, the root issue is a heart issue. The way we think about money, spend money, and consider giving all originate in the heart. To the Hebrews, "heart" meant more than feelings—it meant the essence of who we are.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." — Proverbs 3:5–6

If we lean on our own understanding, we fall into pitfalls. Proverbs warns us of several:

The danger of prioritizing the temporary. Proverbs 23:4–5 says wealth can "fly like an eagle" and disappear. We can't control the economy, the stock market, or our 401k. If our hope is bound up in temporary things, it can be here today and gone tomorrow.

The danger of pride. Proverbs 30:8–9 contains the only prayer written in the book of Proverbs:

"Give me neither poverty nor wealth... Otherwise, I might have too much and deny you, saying, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I might have nothing and steal, profaning the name of the Lord my God."

What an honest prayer—asking God for contentment. As Paul echoes in Philippians 4, it's not about how much is in our bank account, but whether we are content and managing well what God has entrusted to us.

The danger of looking to money for happiness. Proverbs 15:16 says, "Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with turmoil." Sometimes money comes with additional burdens rather than solving our problems.

The Iceberg Illustration

Most of an iceberg sits beneath the surface of the water. What's visible above the surface is the equivalent of our actions, words, and how we spend money. But our attitude, beliefs, and heart about money sit beneath the waterline. What sank the Titanic wasn't what they saw on the surface—it was the mass beneath it. If your heart isn't in the right place about money, that's what will ultimately destroy your life.

2. God Deserves Your First and Your Best

"Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest... Then your barns will be completely filled and your vats will overflow with new wine." — Proverbs 3:9–10

One foundational belief about stewardship is this: God owns it all. We are stewards. This goes back to before the fall—Adam didn't own the Garden of Eden; he was a steward of it.

Imagine you're visiting Nashville and a friend lets you use their best car for the weekend. You drive it downtown, to dinner, to the parks. But at the end of the weekend, what does the owner expect? For you to return it. If you kept it, you wouldn't be a good friend—you'd be a thief. Everything God has given us, we steward for a season. The question is: will we take good care of it and remain faithful with it?

Disordered vs. Biblical Priorities

Our culture teaches us to spend, save, then give if there's anything left over. We're bombarded by advertising—on average, we see 1,754 ads a week promising lasting happiness, while we might get thirty minutes in God's Word.

Biblical priorities are the opposite: give, save, then spend. We give first because God gave to us first, and we want to reflect our good Father.

Our world adds another hurdle: the temptation to borrow—to use money we don't have to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't know.

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender." — Proverbs 22:7

The promise of Proverbs 3 is that our barns will be full—not necessarily with riches, but that God will sustain us and give us what we need when we trust him first.

3. Diligent Work Is Better Than Shortcuts

"The plans of the diligent certainly lead to profit." — Proverbs 21:5

The word "plans" here is the Hebrew word for meditation—to carefully think through something. This means setting a budget, thinking carefully about our obligations, and planning accordingly.

Last week we met Diligent Dan, who takes his vocation seriously and works hard for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). Another part of Diligent Dan's life is that he budgets and plans—and the first line item in that budget is what he gives to the Lord, because God owns it all.

This verse also gives us a foil—let's call him Hasty Hal. "Anyone who is reckless"—impulsive or hasty—"certainly becomes poor." Because he doesn't plan or budget wisely, he falls for get-rich-quick schemes: the lottery, sports gambling, whatever promises a shortcut. He falls farther and farther into the trap.

Building wealth happens one step at a time. We develop a wise plan and work it—not because God needs our money, but because God wants to develop Christ-like character in each of us.

4. Develop a Generous Way of Life

"One person gives freely and yet gains more. Another withholds what is right only to become poor. A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water." — Proverbs 11:24–25

Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in The Message puts it well: "The way of the generous grows larger and larger, while the way of the stingy grows smaller and smaller."

It's counterintuitive—they give away and yet gain more? Who do you think God entrusts with wealth? Those who manage it faithfully and give it away generously. But it's not just about dollars and cents—there's a joy that comes from participating in what God is doing.

"He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." — Proverbs 11:25

During my cancer diagnosis, you all have shown up and shown out with generosity toward my family. On our thank you notes, I write this verse a lot, because I believe it's true. I have a stubborn streak that wants to say "I've got it, I'm good"—but wise mentors have told me, you need to let others do things for you, because you don't want to steal their blessing.　God has told them to serve you in this way.

My parents came to stake my tomato plants. Church members mowed my yard and filled our flower beds with flowers. Someone showed up with racks of ribs because "the Lord just told me to do this." It's humbling—and it brings them joy, because they get to participate in what God has called them to do.

Our kids had fun watching light bulbs go up around the continent of Africa this week, knowing that when they shook us down for money, it was going toward telling kids in Africa about Jesus. We want to train our children to participate in what God is doing—not because God needs our resources (he owns the cattle on a thousand hills), but because he knows we need it, and we get to share in the joy.

5. Don't Entrust Your Future to Anything But God

"Anyone trusting in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage." — Proverbs 11:28

Think about that word picture—a rich, dense, growing forest, under whose canopy of shade many things can flourish. That's what a faithful person can experience when God entrusts them with resources they use wisely to advance his kingdom.

Identifying Our Financial Hang-Ups

A guest speaker at a recent retreat, Chris Goulard of the Christian Stewardship Network, shared five emotional financial types—similar to personality types or love languages. Take a moment to identify your own hang-up:

1. The Secure Steward – has a healthy, biblical worldview of money; sees God as owner and self as steward; generous because they trust God's abundance.
2. The Comfort Spender – spends to soothe feelings like anxiety, anger, or boredom.
3. The Self-Worth Spender – uses money to create or reinforce identity, often seeking power, prestige, or popularity, sometimes with an entitlement mentality.
4. The Careless Spender – avoids thinking about money, spends impulsively without considering consequences.
5. The Security Seeker – appears to handle money well but struggles beneath the surface with fear of not having enough.

All of these principles apply to all of us, but it helps to identify where our particular challenge lies. The good news is that Jesus, who is wisdom personified, meets you where you're at. He's given us these principles because he loves us and doesn't want us to have an unhealthy relationship with money—he wants us to use it for his glory and our joy.

The Invitation: Test Me

"Bring the full tenth into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way, says the Lord of Armies, and see if I will not open the floodgates of heaven." — Malachi 3:10

This is the one and only place in the Bible where God says, "test me"—and it's regarding the tithe. The word here for "test" is different from the warning in Deuteronomy 6 not to test the Lord; here it means to examine or scrutinize. God invites us: "I know how near and dear money is to you, how it's something you grapple with every day. So trust me."

Ultimately, the question is: do we trust God or not?

Walk, Run, or Fly

Going back to our opening story—walk, run, fly.

• Some of you need to take a first step and simply walk. You're giving nothing to the church, nothing to God's kingdom. Over 50% of people who attend our campuses give zero to the church. For you, the step of obedience is to begin giving something and watch what God can do.
• Some of you need to start running—giving only when there's something left at the end of the month. Running means putting one foot in front of the other, being steady and consistent. Trust God that as you put him first in your budget, he will provide what you truly need. He doesn't promise luxury, but he promises sufficiency.
• Some of you have been entrusted with much, and it's time to fly—to be generous, to partner with what God is doing in this church, in the ministries we support, in reaching the nations and meeting critical needs in our community, so that we can tell people the good news of Jesus.

Wherever you are on this journey, we believe with all our heart that God is faithful to us. Now may he find us faithful to respond to him.