I will never forget that conversation this year. I talked with a guy who said every time he came to church, the preacher was always talking about money. That revealed two things: 1) He had been to one of our church services twice within the last year, and 2) money had become his god. And we cannot serve two masters.
Amanda and I had a great conversation yesterday about people’s “closed fist” when it came to finances and the church. After Jeff’s fantastic message on it yesterday, we discussed people who get defensive concerning the subject. You never hear anyone saying, “there goes the church talking about marriage and faithfulness again…here comes another message on purity…they always talk about relationships…”
The one area that people get defensive is money. Why? Because we cannot serve two masters.
“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” -Luke 16:13
We seem to love messages on encouragement and even don’t mind messages on certain issues, but when a preacher begins to talk about money, we get defensive. I am the stingy one in the family. Amanda is the giver. She wants to give and give to people, but sometimes, I want to hold onto what is “mine.”
Today, I am praying about my attitude towards money. I hope you can do the same. What would happen if the church stopped seeing how much stuff we could possess in this lifetime and we started pushing to see how much we could give away?
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
