Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Mo Money, Mo Problems? | Torah | Deuteronomy 15

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

What is the purpose of your money? Are you using your money in a biblical way? What is your view of money and generosity? Tanya looks at Deuteronomy 15 to share the purpose and heart behind generosity. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 15

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. If you are always generous, if you don't worry about money, and if you don't have any struggles about how to use it, then you should turn off this episode and listen to Taylor Swift's new album instead. But if you're like the rest of us, I hope you stick around for a few minutes as we unpack together more than just a few Bible verses taken out of context that leave us feeling

good or bad about ourselves and money, and look instead at the story of generosity that unfolds throughout the entire Bible. It's a story that shapes us and offers grace where we need it most. I have really no grounds to stand on today, other than being on this journey with you. So I'd love to humbly walk through this together. We are by nature, not generous people. Chances are, mine was one of the first three words in your developing vocabulary. Chances are mine is still one of the first things that comes to mind in our current thought vocabularies. We do get better at taming it, but it's a struggle that sits with us. And if sin causes us to live for ourselves, then money is part of this self-obsession.

We tend to think about it like this. What can I do with it? What do I want to do with it? How can I get more of it and how can I make it work for me. Now there is sometimes generosity woven into this narrative, but it's usually not the driving factor. But what if we flip that narrative upside down? What if we redefined the purpose of money? What if we let God's word do that? Well, Deuteronomy 15 tells us about something called the year of Jubilee. When God used Moses to tell the Israelites how to live in the new land, he commanded generosity. It would have sounded like a challenging sacrifice. In the seventh year, you're not only going to refrain from working your land,

but you're going to stop collecting revenue from the people who owe you money, and you're going to release any servants that are working for you. The message was really this. Your abundance is going to provide for the needs of others. Is this the way we view money? That it's a tangible way God has given us the ability to provide for the needs of others? let's back up because I promised we wouldn't take a few verses and make a blanket statement about money. If we widen the lens, the biblical story is a generosity story.

For God so loved the world, he gave. He gave creation. We struggle to even put words to the majesty of God's creation. But if you've even escaped the concrete walls of your school or office today to breathe in the air or see the sky, then you've experienced the wonder of this creation. If you saw your kids before school or took your dog out for a walk, you have been touched today by creation. The ground level of understanding generosity doesn't begin with a line item on how much to give.

It starts with the awe of what the Lord has given us. He gave the covenant. Moses dedicated the majority of his sermon to the loving gift of God's covenant. Their father Abraham was an idolatrous servant of self. Yet God came to him and gave him an eternal promise that would alter the course of his story and ours. God makes covenant with us, not because of what is in us, but what is in him. The ground level of understanding generosity doesn't reflect the goodness of the one receiving, but the goodheartedness of the giver.

God's covenant is his generous heart on display. He gave freedom from slavery. The pandemic revealed a problem we have with commitment. While there were certainly times we needed to stay home, we used excuses like never before to get out of things we promised we would do. All it took was one word, COVID. Our promises can be fickle and subject to conditions. We often don't follow through with our promises to be generous.

but not so with the Lord. Even when it looked like things were going in the opposite direction for Israel, God was unleashing his power on a hard-hearted king to free his people from slavery in Egypt. God is generous with his power. He gave the law. Now, we tend to think of the law as a burden instead of a gift, but for people with no organization and no structure, it was one of the most loving gifts they could receive.

God wasn't ambiguous or hard to please. He gave clear instruction on how to live after they left Egypt. He gave the law. Now, we tend to think of the law as a burden instead of a gift, but for people with no organization and no structure, it was one of the most loving gifts they could receive. God wasn't ambiguous or hard to please. He gave clear instruction on how to live when the Israelites left Egypt.

God gave the law as a testament to his authority and generous love. He gave the promised land. Now the promise land is visible evidence of God's generous fulfillment of his promises. Since Israel was preparing to cross the Jordan, they were looking head on into the generosity of their father, who was patient, kind, and faithful. He didn't abandon them in their sin, but sent them into the land where he would eventually provide his most generous gift they would change the life of everyone who believed. He gave his son. When all had been silent and the world was broken and unable to function as God intended, he sent his son to a poor family in a despised town.

He didn't send him to a palace or give him a gold crown. Jesus came willingly and humbly and showed us that generosity involves sacrifice. What could be more generous than a Savior willing to take the penalty for people who ignore and despise him? This then is the basis for our generosity. It doesn't come out of duty. It comes out of love. We have to first understand the loving story of our generous father to begin to have hearts that are able to follow his call to take care of others.

There's a Saturday Night Live skit that aired a few years ago, where Adam Sandler plays a tour guide for his family's Italy-based tour company. He advertises a 10-day trip to Venice, Rome, and Pisa, but acknowledges that sometimes his company gets poor reviews from travelers. He wants to make sure future customers are aware that while his company can take them to Italy, it can't change their condition. They can take you on a hike, but they can't make you into a hiker. They can take you to an Italian villa, but they can't make you feel good about yourself in your swimsuit. They can take your picture in Venice, but it's still you in the picture. If you're sad at home,

then you will still be the same sad you in Italy. We tend to think money can change our story. But God's word constantly reminds us he is the only one who can do that. If we use money as an attempt to satisfy what we feel in the moment, there will always be a struggle between our kingdom and God's kingdom. No matter how much money we have, we will still be the same, sad, us. God commanded Israel to forgive debt and release service. as a way to bring his kingdom into their lives.

If they did this perfectly, there would be no poor among them. But of course, like us, they did not. They didn't do anything relating to their riches perfectly, and neither do we. We need to understand that we will always, no matter how much we have, have money problems if we don't bring our money under God's authority. Because money matters, our heart matters. How well our finances are doing is related more to what we love than how much income we earn. If we expect money to provide for us something that it cannot, we will never have enough,

no matter how much we receive. Money issues are identity issues. As those who are in Christ, we carry the identities of sinner and saint. We've been given every spiritual blessing in Christ to live as he did, but when we forget who we are in Christ, we look for these blessings elsewhere. We need to recognize our tendencies to look to money to be our Savior. And God didn't tell them to fix debt with a budget. God told Israel to solve debt with forgiveness.

He told them to care for the poor with an open heart and open hand. He told them to depend on him in the sabbatical year to provide food instead of working the land. I'm not telling you to throw your budget out the window. I don't think that's what it says. But I don't think the biblical story tells us this is a solution to the problem we have with generosity. If so, we could line item our way through life and we would be very cold and calculated people.

A budget can't address underlying heart issues with money. But there is amazing grace for our struggles with money. God is extraordinary with the generosity of his grace. He knows we need to be rescued from our self-focused and idolatrous lives just like Abraham. And he comes to us, even when we're not crying out for his help. He uses people and situations to expose our hearts, and he uses his word to shine light in our dark places. He's not just specific in what we should do with our money, but he gives us the grace to do it. His grace transforms the way we think about and use our money.

ultimately, God's goal for us is probably the same as it was for Israel. Your generosity is going to provide for the needs of others. And if you're used to setting money goals, God would put generosity on the top of your list and everything else would flow out of that one goal. He has a bigger plan for us than to meet our desires with money. And, well, ultimately, like Adam Sandler said, be as sad after as we were before. He calls us to follow his example and open our heart as he has. And the needs he puts before us, well, they're not accidents, but they're opportunities.

And the way we respond shows God's heart to a needy world. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul says that generosity is not just a command, but proof that the earnestness of our love for others is genuine. If this isn't where we are yet, we can ask God for help. He won't turn us away, for he, for he, loves giving generously what he alone can give. Are you prepared to invite him to reshape your financial life via your heart? If not, why not?

His grace abounds and awaits. Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.