Our Heart Attitude Toward Money I Pastor Jonathan Love

Have you ever wondered if your relationship with money is holding you back from experiencing true spiritual freedom? In this powerful message, Pastor Jonathan explores how our heart's attitude toward finances can either draw us closer to God or become a subtle form of idolatry. Through biblical wisdom and personal insights, he reveals money's true purpose as a divine tool for deepening our trust, contentment, and generosity. Whether you're wrestling with financial fears or seeking to align your resources with God's kingdom, this transformative teaching offers practical steps for using money to worship God and bless others. Don't miss this opportunity to discover how your finances can become a pathway to greater intimacy with God.

📖 Key Scripture: 1 Chronicles 29:3-9
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Transcript

Praise this morning, you guys. Happy to be in the house of God together with spiritual family. I love it. I want to welcome everybody out at our Alamance campus who's with us this morning. We love you guys.

So excited about what God is doing out there at Alamance. We got one church, two amazing locations. And I tell you what, I'm fired up to be sharing with you guys this morning. We are in the last week of our Kingdom currency series. And let me just say, we saved the best for last.

I appreciate you guys laughing at that. The first service didn't laugh and it was awkward. So listen, this has been so good and so encouraging, so challenging. And I'm telling you guys, it can be life changing for us as we put into practice these principles of generosity and putting God first in our financial lives. And as we close out the series today, what I want to do is I want to just talk about our heart attitude toward money.

Like, how does God want us to view money and use money? And I know there's a lot of different reactions, a lot of different feelings when it comes to talking about money and resources. It's a really big deal. It's a really important part of our lives. And as we've said in this series, Jesus had a lot to say about money, right?

This was a very important topic to him. And it's not because money's important, right? It's not that money is important, but it's our heart attitude toward money. It's our relationship with money that is very important. Why?

Because more than anything else, money is a heart issue, right? And how we handle our finances reveals a lot about what our heart says about Jesus. Jesus said this. He said, no one can serve two masters. Either you're gonna hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money. You can't really say it much more plainly than that, right? You're either gonna love God or you're gonna love money. You can't do both. This is not a neutral issue, right?

You can't say, hey, I really love Jesus, but. But I really love money too. You can't say like, hey, I just don't ever want to talk about it. It's not important. Who cares?

It's a big deal. Jesus said, you're either gonna serve God or you're gonna serve money. Now that word, serve, what it means is to be devoted to. It means to serve as a slave. Now, I don't think anybody here Has a giant statue of $100bill in your house that you get down and, like, worship every morning.

I hope you guys don't do that. Maybe you do. I don't know. If you do that, you should stop. Okay, we have a freedom group for you next fall, but I doubt it's that obvious, right?

Nobody's doing it that way. But I do think that there are some heart attitudes that we can have that end up causing us to be devoted to serving finances and money, and it becomes a small God to us. And these are subtle, all right? And please don't just dismiss them when I say what they are. I want to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts today.

So here's two wrong heart attitudes that we can have toward money. And the first one is this. Some people think that money is my source of happiness. Or in other words, they really like what it can get them, right? They like all the stuff, the big houses, the fancy cars, all the cool toys and gadgets.

But even more so, they like the status, the lifestyle that it gets them, the notoriety. They recognize the power that money has because it can help them get more stuff. And their happiness in life is based on the stuff that they get and the status that they maintain, right? The image, the importance level. You know, the Pharisees in the Bible, the ones, the religious leaders that Jesus was always having to go after, he always had to correct them.

They loved money. They loved what it did for them. The power, the influence, the status. They were way more focused on that stuff than they actually were on building a real relationship with God. Now, people like this oftentimes can overspend.

They can rack up debt and live beyond their means. They're concerned with what other people think about them. Their identity is tied to this. They're never content. They always seem to need more, right?

Their joy in life comes from this. They may work too much. They may neglect other important areas of life. You know, that's exactly what happened to the rich young ruler in the Bible. Here's this young man.

He's outwardly, he's doing all the right things. He's following the rules. He's obeying the laws. He even sought after Jesus. He, like, went and found Jesus and he asked him, hey, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life?

That's a great question, right? His head really seemed to be in the right place. And Jesus says, hey, that's great. You're following all the rules. You're doing the right stuff.

But then Jesus goes after his heart. It Says Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said, go sell everything that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. Jesus knew that this was the big issue in this young man's heart.

And Jesus went straight after because he knew if he didn't get this issue right, then nothing else was gonna line up. It says at this, the man's face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth. His happiness was in wealth. His happiness was in his stuff. Now don't miss this.

Jesus looked around and he said to his disciples how hard it is for the rich. Someone who loves money, somebody who loves what money can get for them. Notice Jesus doesn't put some kind of standard or qualifier on what it means to, to be rich. Speaking to people who love money, he says how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. People who think that, that money is their source of happiness, they live for the treasure that they can acquire down here on this earth.

They don't, they don't think about eternal treasure. Their minds are focused down here on this world. And so they don't understand the kingdom of God. They don't understand how God's kingdom operates. And so they don't, they don't step into that.

They don't enter into it. They don't live their lives for God's kingdom. They don't understand God's economy and God's system for finances. And so they don't work it. They live for their hearts are captured by an earthly kingdom and they miss it.

And I'm saying they by the way, because I'm trying to be nice. I think really this is a we. I think all of us can fall into this at times and in seasons of life. Sometimes our love of money, what money can get for us or how important we choose to make it in life, it can stop us from falling. Following Jesus wholeheartedly, I mean the rich young ruler, he missed out on his destiny, on his purpose.

This was a life changing invitation from Jesus. He said, go sell everything and then come follow me. Make a difference with your life. Like, let's go change the world together. But he missed it.

How would we respond if Jesus gave us that same invitation today? What would our knee jerk reaction be? It'd be so easy to say, like, yeah, like I'd be all in, like, so joyful, let's go. But really, would we, would we? I've seen this, you've seen this.

People that work too Much live for their careers, their status, they gotta keep up with the lifestyle. They're too busy to come to church, too busy to prioritize relationships. They don't have any time to give their lives away, to invest in others. And they end up missing God's purpose for their lives because money is their source of happiness. Now the second wrong heart attitude that people can have toward money is number two.

Money is my source of security.

People think that they need it for security to be safe, and they fear not having enough. What would happen to me if I ever ran out? Would I be safe? And so they worry, they save. Maybe a better way to say it would be they hoard and they're not generous.

They can't be, because they always think that they don't have enough. And so they work like crazy, they worry like crazy and they hold on tightly to their resources to make sure that they never run out. And by the way, this has absolutely nothing to do with how much we have, like how much, how many resources we have. This is a heart attitude. Plenty of wealthy people can live just like this, holding on tightly to what they have.

Now people who view money as their source of security oftentimes have what we call a poverty mentality. They don't understand generosity because they always think that there's this limited supply so they better hold onto their piece of it. And now people like this, they might seem more spiritual than the people who love money, who view money as their source of happiness. They might live more frugally. The signs might not be quite as obvious.

They might not have all the flashy stuff, but it's just as damaging to their lives as those who love what money can get them. Why? Because their trust, their hope, their security is in money, not God. And that opens them up to all sorts of trouble. Money is their source, not God, and so they end up serving money.

It creates a very unhealthy and damaging fear in their lives. People can almost be controlled by this fear of not having enough. It creates so much pressure and stress. Now I want you to listen to this truth. In Proverbs it says what?

The wicked dread will overtake them, but what the righteous desire will be granted. Now, I'm not calling us wicked. That's not what I'm trying to say. I don't think that's what this verse really means. I think it's speaking to the person who's self sufficient, who's putting their trust in themselves, their security and their resources.

But listen to this truth. If you fear and dread not having enough, and you look to money as your source of security, then that fear, it begins to overtake you. What you dread, what you fear begins to control you. People who live like this, they might end up hurting people that they really love and care about unintentionally because they withhold or they try to control things out of fear, or maybe they just miss opportunities to express love. It limits you from being generous.

It holds you back from fulfilling God's purpose in your life to be a blessing to others. It holds you back in areas where God really wants to grow. You like trusting in him, living a life of faith. You don't need to trust God if you're holding on to all your resources, right? If you're trusting in yourself and your savings, you can't build faith in that area if you're holding on to everything tightly.

So that fear has now overtaken you. Now, neither of those are the right approaches to take. Right? Money is not my source of happiness. It's not my source of security.

It's not evil. So what's the proper heart attitude for us to have toward money? Have you ever thought about that before? Like, what is the purpose of money? Why did God set it up this way?

Why did God set up this system of finances? And, and here's why. Here's the right heart attitude that we should have toward money. Money is a tool. It's a tool that God uses to bring my heart closer to Him.

It's that simple. And maybe you've never really thought of it that way before, but it really is true. God wants to use money in our lives to bring our hearts to closer to Him. Remember, it's a heart issue. This is a heart issue.

And we have said this before, and I'm going to say it again. God does not need your money. God doesn't need your money, but he does want your heart. He wants you and he loves you enough to set it up this way, right? The purpose of money, it's not happiness, it's not security.

It's to give you an opportunity to get closer to God. And when you catch this, then you start to understand what a powerful tool money can be, right? Jesus said it. He said, where your treasure is, there your heart is also. Let the power, the truth of that verse sink in.

We can use our treasure to bring our hearts closer to God. It's a gift. Money's actually a gift from God to our lives to bring us closer to Him. And I wanna give you four ways where we can do just that. Four Ways to use money to bring your heart closer to God.

And the first one is this, number one, use money to worship God. You know, that's what you were created for. Your highest top priority. God created you to worship him, to honor him. You were made to express love and affection and passion to God.

Money just helps us fulfill that purpose. You work hard for that money, right? So hard for it, honey. It's your time, your energy, it's your hard work, your passion in paper form, right? You pour out all this effort, you pour out all this hard work, and the result of that is your income, right?

When you get paid, when you receive your income, in a sense, that's a piece of your life. So what are you gonna do with it? How we spend our money, how we invest our resources, it demonstrates what we value the most, our top heart priorities. And if you are a follower of Christ, then God is your top priority. We put him first.

How we invest our finances should reflect that. So what do we do with our money? We choose to worship God. We choose to give to Him. We use money to say, God, you're the best.

You've rescued me. You love me. You've forgiven me. You're always there for me. And I just want you to know God, like, deeply, deeply, from the bottom of my heart that I love you.

You have me. I'm yours. I want to show you my gratitude and worship and the joy that you fill my heart with. God, I just want to worship you. I want my heart to grow closer and closer to you.

Of course you can have my treasure because I want you to have my heart fully. And I want to share a picture with you guys from scripture of just this King David. He's known for being a worshiper, right? He wrote so many of the psalms. He deeply loved the presence of God.

He had this secret life of worship and intimacy with God. David so loved God that he wanted to build a temple that was going to be a dwelling place for God's presence. He wanted to build something extravagant to honor God. That's what was flowing out of his heart. Nobody was making him do this.

It wasn't like I should do it, I ought to do it. It seems like it's the right thing to do. David was so deeply in love with God. He was passionate to do this. He so wanted to do this.

And so he's making plans and he's leading the way in providing the resources for this project. He's been gathering resources from all over the nation of Israel from their abundance. And he's collecting these resources. And now I just want you to hear his heart in this. Listen for his heart.

He says, besides in my devotion to the temple of my God, he's saying, apart from what I've already done, I now give my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God. Over and above everything I've provided for this holy temple. He says, I'm giving my personal treasures. I want to give more. I want to give my best.

I want to be extravagant towards God. How many of you guys know God could snap his finger and make the most beautiful, amazing temple in the world, right? God doesn't need David to do this for him. He doesn't need that from David. But this is so good and so healthy for David's heart.

And then in response to seeing what David did and his worship and the gift that he gave God, it says anybody who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord. The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the King also rejoiced greatly. I want you to notice the heart attitudes. They're rejoicing as they gave.

There's great joy. It says they gave freely and wholeheartedly. It's just deep heart work worship flowing to God now along with the gifts that he's giving. Listen to David's heart posture. It says David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, praise be to you, Lord, the God of our Father Israel.

From everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory and the majesty of and the splendor. Right? He's just worshiping. He's expressing love and honor to God.

For everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours. God is the kingdom. You're exalted as head over all. And now our God, we give you thanks and we praise your glorious name.

I read that and I say, God, let that be my heart. I want to be like that. To give so freely is an act of worship and love and surrender and honor. Because you're so amazing to me, God, because you love me so perfectly, I want to give to you freely, with all my heart, with joy. I want there to be great rejoicing as I give to God.

I want God to know that you're my highest priority. You have first place. My heart is yours. You're the best and I love you. I thank you and I'm telling you guys, it does so much good for our hearts.

And our lives. This so helps to break the heart attitude of loving money. Because we're making a choice to love and honor God first. He's our true source of happiness and joy. How else can we use money to bring us closer to God?

Number two, use money to trust God. Now, follow me on this. Years ago, a mentor of mine shared something with me that was so profound, so important, and it really has, like, stayed with me all these years. And this is what he said. He said, your greatest asset in life is your need for God.

Your greatest strength that you possess is being aware of how much you need God, of how much you're completely dependent upon Him. You are at your best when you realize, I can't do this on my own. I can't make this happen. I need God. I need help.

And when you go through something in life or you face a situation where you know, like, I absolutely need God to show up, whether that's in your marriage or in your finances or in raising your children, a health issue, maybe it's just facing a difficult season of life, whatever that is, that's a great place for you to be. Now, you might not like what you're going through. And yes, it might be hard, it might be painful, but I'm telling you, it's a good place for you to be, because you've got to get desperate for God. You've got to get close to Him. You've got to depend upon his goodness and his faithfulness and his promises, Right?

You've got to lean into him because he's the only one who can get you through it. And the more you recognize your need for him, the better off you are, the stronger you get. Because in your weakness, you're relying on his strength. Now bring that principle. Bring that into your financial life.

Money is a reminder for us of how much we need God. Early on, one of my greatest fears as a husband and a father was that I wasn't going to be able to provide for my family's needs financially, that I wasn't gonna be able to take care of the basic things that we needed to live. And I'm telling y', all, I wrestled with that fear, anxiety. It was so unhealthy for me. It caused so much stress in my life and my heart.

I felt a daily pressure, and it was a heavy weight on me. Truthfully, it was impacting other areas of my life. And all of that was because ultimately I was trusting in myself. My trust was in me. And there's a portion of scripture in Jeremiah Where God's talking to his people and he's trying to teach them, he's trying to help them.

And it describes exactly what I was feeling at that time. This is what the Lord says in Jeremiah. Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh. That's exactly what I was doing. I was trusting in myself.

I was trusting in my own strength and my own abilities. And I didn't mean to do it. But it says, whose heart turns away from the Lord? It was turning my heart away from God, my focus away from God. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands, not a fun place to be.

They will not see prosperity when it comes. Yikes. That's exactly what I was experiencing. Again, I didn't really mean to do it, but I was trusting in myself, my strength, my own abilities. It was on me and I was feeling all those negative impacts.

I felt like that dried up bush in the wastelands. And then one day, God began to show me that I didn't have to carry that fear, I didn't have to carry that pressure. And my fear, my need, drove me closer to the one who actually had the power to do something about made me realize how much I needed God, that I absolutely could not make this happen on my own. It helped me realize that God is my source, God's my provider. He's the one who takes care of me and my family.

And that realization brought me so much closer to God because I had to get a hold of him and depend upon his faithfulness and goodness and his promises. Now the very next verse in Jeremiah, God shows us what it looks like, the complete opposite. As we start moving from trusting in ourselves to trusting in him and the promises that come along with that. He says, but blessed. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in God, not in us, but in God.

They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. How many of you know that's a good place for a tree to be to put down roots by the stream? It does not fear when heat comes, no matter what comes. There's no fear. There's no need to be afraid.

Its leaves are always green because God is blessing it. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. There's a fruitfulness that comes because God is blessing. And I'm telling you guys, that's God's promise to each one of us as we trust him, as we honor him, as we obey him, in our lives. And that includes in our finances.

That is God's promise to you that you'll be like that tree by the stream. And I'm telling you, he's faithful to do it. That's why tithing and giving to God is so important. It's that first step that we take to put our trust in God. And it doesn't just help build trust in the area of our financial lives.

It helps deepen our trust and our faith in every area of life. Test him again. Try them. See what happens. Here's what I would say.

Choose to put yourself in that place of dependency upon God and watch him fulfill his promise. It'll be so good for your heart. You're gonna get closer to him. Your trust in him is gonna grow deeper. And that dependency creates intimacy.

It also so helps to break the power of seeing money as your source of security because we're putting our trust in him, not the security that money provides. Number three. How else can we use money? Use money to grow in contentment. And I think that this is so important.

I think that this is a heart attitude that, that our culture has forgotten. We've forgotten how to be content. We fixate on things that we want. We fixate on the stuff that we don't have. And instead of waiting, right, instead of making wise decisions, instead of learning to be content, we rush ahead and we borrow to get what we want.

There's this sense of instant gratification. I want it, so I gotta have it. And we don't really stop to think, can I afford this? Is this a wise decision? Is this what God would have me to do with these resources?

Is this in the budget? We figure, hey, I can afford the monthly payment, so let's just do it. And really, we've learned to live beyond our means. We've learned to live beyond God's provision for our lives. You know, that's essentially what debt is.

It's living outside of God's provision. It's not being content with what God has provided. We've got to learn how to grow in this heart attitude of contentment. Paul discovered this truth. He says, now there is great gain.

I underlined those words in my Bible. Great gain and godliness with contentment. For we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these, he says, we will be content, right? If our basic needs are met in life, we can be content.

That's enough. But then he addresses the opposite of contentment. He says, but Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction like bankruptcy and divorce and anxiety and stress and disorders. And fighting for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. Notice that Paul is not against the rich.

He's not against being rich. He's talking to people who don't have it, but they really want it. They fixate on the stuff and it leads to all kinds of stress and brokenness in their lives. And it's dangerous. We call that discontentment.

Discontentment is just a dissatisfaction with what God has presently provided. And when we're discontent, in a sense, we're saying that God, your plan is inadequate, that you haven't been a good provider. If only I had. And really it displaces God from our financial picture. It promotes complaining and unbelief.

And again, it's kind of what debt is. It's a little bit like financial whining. It's being discontent with what God has provided. But contentment, on the other hand, contentment is gratitude. It's gratitude for your present provision with where God has you.

And it's an acceptance of God's methods and God's timing to move you forward toward prosperity, which is just that you're going to have enough and have some to give away. We need to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness for God's provision in our lives. Being content, it's a discipline. It's actually a skill that we can learn. Paul said, for I have learned to be content.

He said, I've learned this in whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content. Right? Paul found a secret in any and every situation.

Whether I'm well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Well, what's the secret? Paul? Tell us the secret. He says, I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

I love that. God will give you strength to be content. God will give you peace. God's going to give you self control to turn away from the stuff, to follow a budget, to start saving. God's going to give you the grace to trust him and to wait for his timing.

It's a heart decision. I'm going to learn to be content. I'm going to thank God for what he has provided. Right? That's a heart attitude I'm going to cultivate.

There's great gain for us when that's our heart posture number four, the final way that we can use money. And I'm telling you all right now, I'm going to share this with you guys, but I'm preaching to myself right now. This is just an area where God has just been so challenging me, so speaking to my heart in this area. And number four, use money to sow generously.

Money just gives us an opportunity to be generous toward others. It's an opportunity for us to share the love of God, to share God's heart with other people. You know, God loves people so deeply. If you ever want to know what's on God's heart, it's us, it's people. God, in his very nature of who he is, is deeply generous to us.

He showed that to us by sending Jesus to die for us. He gave. He generously expressed his love to us.

So let's help others experience that same love by the way that we choose to sow, by the way that we choose to invest and live generously. What if we just made a decision like, let's just be generous people. Generosity shouldn't be something that we do from time to time, like a transactional thing. We want generosity to be who we are. We want to use our time and our gifts and our talents and, yes, our treasure to be a blessing to others.

And I want you to listen to this principle, okay? This is a kingdom principle of how God's kingdom operates. It's a fact. It's a done deal. But it's more than a principle.

It's also a promise. All right? And it's simply this. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow.

God says, make no mistake, I'm not going to be mocked. Right? You will reap what you sow. And you can think about that in a negative way. But forget that.

Let's think about the positive. You will reap what you sow. And Paul says this. He says to the Corinthians, remember this? Remember this.

I'm telling you guys, remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. But whoever sows generously will also reap generously. And here's my question for you today. This is the question that God's been asking my heart, is, do we really believe this?

Like, in our heart of hearts? Do we really, truly believe this, that we're going to reap what we sow? Do we really believe God's word that if we reap, we'll sow? Do we believe it? Because here's the thing, if we do believe it, then we're going to sow generously.

We're going to choose to live differently. We're going to give, we're going to pour out. We're going to invest in others. We're going to invest in God's kingdom and we're going to love people. We're going to invest in God's church and we're going to be givers and we're going to sow generously.

And when we do that, it says it's a promise. We will reap generously. We're going to reap. When we sow, we're going to reap. What are we going to reap?

Oh, my gosh, it's way more than money. Who cares about the money? That stuff takes care of itself. Yes, we're going to reap God's provision in our lives, but we're also going to reap more of God's presence. We're going to reap more joy in our lives, more joy in our relationships.

We're going to reap rewards in heaven that we literally get to enjoy forever. We're going to reap the joy and the blessing of seeing lives changed by the love of God. We're going to reap more of a sense of purpose and fulfillment and destiny in our lives. We're going to reap the blessing of God. The favor of God is going to be on whatever we put our hands to.

And even more than that, when we sow, we will reap. You literally cannot outgive God. That's where that saying comes from. It's the principle. It's the promise of sowing and reaping.

And I'm so praying this over my heart today, and I'm praying this over every one of you, that God would just give us fresh faith today to believe this, like in our heart of hearts, to believe that when we sow, we're going to reap generously, that God will give us a revelation today to see this and that we'll become people that are just so generous that solely that so freely give. Because there's so much joy in that for us. I'd love to pray for you guys. Why don't you go ahead and close your eyes? Before I pray for everybody, I want to take a moment right now.

And if you're here today and you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you'd say, I don't have a relationship with him yet. Then I want to give you an invitation today to do just that. You know, we're talking about money and all this stuff today. But more than anything, what I hope that you caught is that God loves you like crazy. That God so wants your heart that he died.

He loves you so much that he sent his son to die on a cross for you. So that you could be forgiven of your sin. So that you could start a relationship with God today. And if all you have to do to start that relationship is simply ask, you receive this free gift from God. And you just say, God, come fill my heart today.

I want to give my life to you. I want to follow you. I want to put you first in my heart. And when you do that, God promises that he forgives your sin and that he brings you into the family of God. All you have to do today is ask God.

I want to pray for all of us right now, Lord. I do pray that you would give us faith today, God, to truly believe your word, to believe your heart God, in this principle of sowing and reaping. God, we want to just make a decision today to let go of of our finances. God. We don't want our finances to have our heart, God.

We want to give our hearts fully to you. And I pray God you'd help us today to take those steps, to just worship you, to trust you, God, with our money, God, that money really would become a tool for us to bring our hearts closer to you. And I pray today, God, just give us a revelation of what it means to be generous people. God, give us faith today to be generous, to trust you at your word and just to live open handed lives, Lord, for your kingdom, God, for your glory. We love you Lord.

I pray your blessing over all these people today, Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.