Steve's Blog

I’m about halfway done with The Root of Riches, by Chuck Bentley, and already the ideas are pouring in for our next sermon series on finances. You might be wondering what else there is to know about money. As long as we keep the two biggies in mind: 1) Christians aren’t supposed to love it, and 2) we’re supposed to be generous. What else is there to know? End of story. One of the first things to discover about God and money is that there is never an end to the story. Unlike your Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, you can’t set it and forget it. Money demands our regular attention, maybe that’s why God chose a tree to help us understand it better, ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ To be fair God specifically refers to a root not a tree, but in my mind, roots trigger the image of trees. Tree experts say that what’s under the ground is just as prevalent as the trunk, branches and leaves we see above it. It’s got to be true, when it comes to digging, the only thing I detest more than a broken fence post anchored in cement, is a dead tree. It’s the roots; they go everywhere, wrapping around everything. They’ve even been known to destroy septics, sidewalks and foundations. They’re a bear to dig up because the whole time that tree’s been alive the roots have been non-stop growing. You think you’ve got money figured out and under control, don’t be so sure. Like that root hidden underground, money has more influence than you might realize. In one of the most telling verses on money, God warns His people, the Israelites to always thank Him for all their provisions, otherwise, “there may come a day when you say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” (Deuteronomy 8:17) Did you catch who they’re boasting to? Themselves. They say to themselves, quietly in their hearts, ‘yeah, I’m working hard, yeah, I’m disciplined, yeah, look at what I’ve done.’ Not one of them will opening admit these thoughts of pride, but in their hearts that’s what they’re thinking. Like the Israelites many of us would never admit that we love money. We’ve got our savings and retirement, our budgets—it’s not because we love money, it’s because we love God, right? And yet how many of us believe that if we only had a little bit more money then we’d be happy, or maybe wishing we had what our neighbors had, or find ourselves dreaming about winning the lottery and fixing all of our problems?

We’re doing a four week series on the love of money not to get you tithing, not to get you a budget, not to get you a savings plan; the fact is that money is fighting to be first in your life, it’s unquenchable, overpromising and surprisingly deceptive. Just like the Israelites we’ve got to fight to keep God at the center of our lives. The first step you can take to keep God at the center of your life is to join Kari and me in attending the financial seminar on November 5. It’s called the Money Map Seminar, it’s going to kick off our Roots to Riches series. Have you ever thought that all you needed was just a little bit more?

-Pastor Steve Wilhite

pastorsteve@ltcc.org