Charting a course with our checkbooks

As a church, we have been wrestling with the question "What does a person who has a growing and maturing relationship with Jesus look like"? When you read the four accounts of Jesus life in the Bible, you discover that Jesus talked about money a great deal. Money and material possessions were a constant theme of Jesus teachings. In the four accounts of Jesus life, there are approximately 500 verses on the subject of prayer. Similarly, there are approximately 500 verses where Jesus talked about the subject of faith. Now faith and prayer are essential aspects of our relationship with God, so you would expect Jesus to spend a lot of time talking about them. If you were to guess, how many verses do you think there would be in the Bible where Jesus talked about money? 50? 100? 500? What if I told you that there are approximately 2, 350 verses where Jesus is dealing with the issue of money. Now you may be here and are wondering “why would Jesus spend so much time talking about money?” There are two reasons why money and material possessions were a constant theme of Jesus teachings. First, Jesus knew what we know, which is that much of our life involves the use of money. Jesus talked a lot about money because He knew that much of our lives revolve around its use. Is there anything in your day to day life that does not involve money? And because of this reality, possessions and stuff often compete with the Lord for our devotion. Jesus, understanding this, spent so much time talking about money because He also knew that how we handle and spend money reveals our love and the depth of our relationship with the Lord, because we spend our money on the things we love don’t we? At church we have been talking about how we can measure the level of love we have; we can measure what we are devoted to; by looking at our checkbooks, because we spend our money on the things that we love and are devoted to.
In a story in the Bible, Jesus shares that how we handle money can have a profound impact on our relationship with God:


"He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Luke 16:10-13

So, what do you find yourself spending your money on? What do you think that what you spend your money on says about what you are devoted to?