Gift: The Story of Money

We have been granted great freedom in the gospel, including with our money, but it's hard to know what to do with our freedom. Paul reminds us that our freedom is for love, and instructs us how to navigate the complexity of love.

By the time of Jesus, a group of Jewish teachers had developed rules to ensure Israel's faithfulness to God around money. However, these rules were not only oppressively difficult, they only covered our corruption. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers a righteousness which is both greater and easier.

Success in our modern economy requires smarts, but is there a difference between money smarts and money wisdom? Proverbs teaches us that money wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, and inevitably results in blessing. But then the story of Job challenges that framework. How do we make sense of it all?

During our series on the story of money throughout the Bible, we are pausing every fourth Sunday to discuss what we've heard. This week, Dash Laryea asks us to consider practices which resist the false story of Mammon and maintain our dependence to God.

After God redeemed the people of Israel from slavery to Egypt, he intended for them to become a holy nation. Holy nations practice holy economics. But what does that mean? Listen as Dave describes the "neighborly economics" of the Old Testament law, looking at the radical politics of the Sabbath and what it might teach us about wealth today.

How do we stay true to God's story that all of life is gift when we live in a world that expects us to be takers? The Bible identifies two competing narratives around wealth. This week, we watch Father Abraham courageously decide to hold to God's story and learn how we too can remain faithful to God with our wealth.

After learning all wealth is a gift from God in Genesis 1 and 2, we are introduced to a alternative story for money in Genesis 3. In the Fall, the Serpent tells Eve that God is not a Giver, but a Taker. These are still the two stories on offer today. Which story will we believe?

It's often hard to translate the Bible's ethics into modern action. Nowhere is this more evident than the Bible's instructions around money. Is money a blessing or a curse? Do I have too much or too little? In order to navigate these questions, we need each other. Every Fourth Sunday during this sermon series, we will pause the story and discuss together what we've heard. Listen in as our church wrestles with the challenge of viewing money as, first and foremost, a gift.

Every dollar has a story -- a past, present, and future. But who gets to tell that story? Today, we began an 11-week series on money that will trace our relationship with wealth through the Bible. For Week 1, Dave asked us to consider how "creation from nothing" means that everything--including money--is gift. All our possessions begin and are sustained by the love and power of God. This impacts everything.