God has entrusted everyone with time, talents and treasures. The PCC
Financial toolbox provides practical tools and resources to evaluate and explore God’s financial principles and how you are stewarding the treasures that God has entrusted to you. Learning and applying God’s financial principles is a journey and takes time. When we learn God’s responsibilities and do our ours faithfully, we can experience contentment, hope and confidence about our financial future.
It may be surprising to learn to that Jesus said more about money than almost any other subject. There are more than 2,350 verses in the Bible on how to handle money and possessions. Handling our finances properly is clearly very important to God! The issue of money is important to God for three reasons (taken from the Crown Financial Ministries Biblical Financial Study Manual):
- How we handle our money influences our fellowship with the Lord. Jesus equates how we handle our money with the quality of our spiritual life. In Luke 16:11, He says, “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? If we handle our money properly according to the principles in Scripture, we grow closer to Christ. However, if we are unfaithful with it, our fellowship with Him will suffer.
This is illustrated in the parable of the talents. The master congratulates the servant who had managed money faithfully. “Well done, good and faithful [servant]; you were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21) As we handle money God’s way, we have an opportunity to enter into the joy of a more intimate relationship with our Lord. Sadly, this is a truth many people have failed to grasp. - Possessions compete with the Lord for first place in our lives. Money is a primary competitor with Christ for the Lordship of our lives. Jesus tells us we must choose to serve only one of these two masters. “No one 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.” (Matt. 6:24) It is impossible for us to serve money - even in a small way - and still serve the Lord.
When the Crusades were being fought during the 12th Century, the Crusaders hired mercenaries to fight for them. Because it was a religious war, the mercenaries were baptized before fighting. As they were being baptized, the soldiers would take their swords and hold them out of the water to symbolize that Jesus Christ was not in control of their swords. They had the freedom to use their weapons in any way they wished.
Though they may not be as obvious about it as the soldiers were, many people today handle their money in a similar fashion. Some Christians hold their wallet or purse “out of the water” in effect saying, “God, you may be the lord of my entire life, except the area of money - I am perfectly capable of handling that myself.” - Much of life revolves around the use of money The Lord talked so much about money because He knew that much of our lives would center around its use. During your normal week, how much time do you spend earning money in your job, making decisions on how to spend money, thinking about where to save and invest money, or praying about your giving? Fortunately, God has prepared us by giving us the Bible as His roadmap for living.
