![]() ![]() Jesus says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” I think sometimes we get it backwards. Finances and our heart motives, the inner man, are directly connected. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.” The Apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 4:7 that “’What do you have that you did not receive? Nothing! And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it!” When we boast we are saying, “Look! Everything I’ve accumulated is from my own hand.” God owns everything, and that is a foundational principle that you want to convey to your counselees.Īs we look at the Scriptures, you’re going to see that Jesus directly connects finances with our heart. First Chronicles 29:11-12 says, “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth Yours is the dominion O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. We are really managers, not owners of our money. God gives everything, and everything we have has been given to us. Sometimes, I think we think of it as my money, and then there are things we give back to God. Third, and this is really foundational for this workshop, God owns everything. You don’t have to be good with numbers to help them understand the wisdom that the Bible has for us in relation to money and finances. It’s okay if you use a calculator to add ten plus ten. Second, you don’t have to be good with numbers to apply biblically sound financial practices. Your role is to bring biblical instruction in the area of finances. You’re not there as an expert you are a biblical counselor. You’re not there because of your background in the markets or how to invest dollars. First, when you are counseling, remember that you are not a financial advisor. We want to be able to help them understand what the Bible has to say about finances.Īs we get started, let’s have some foundational reminders. As you get into the counseling, you realize finances have played a major role in the mess that a couple has gotten themselves into. Many times, though, it is a complicating problem. Interestingly, it’s usually not the presenting problem. Finances can be a serious issue when people come for counseling. We want to be able to counsel people so that they have a little better sense of their finances. ![]() One day, their neighbor came over and said, “Hey, Will! How would you like to cut my grass?” Will looked up at the neighbor and said, “How much?” The neighbor said, “Ten dollars.” Will gets this look on his face and says, “I’ll be right back!” He runs into the house, and Doug is sitting there thinking, “What’s this neighbor doing, taking advantage of my kid for ten dollars! That’s a big yard.” Will comes running out of the house, and he looks up at the neighbor and says, “Will you take five?” He was out cutting the grass for their family, pushing that mower when it was still too big for him and struggling to turn it around. That’s what he liked to do more than playing sports. Doug tells the story that when Will was young, he really liked to cut grass. ![]() He’s now married with four girls and is a youth pastor in South Carolina. It involves his son, Will, who I had the privilege of teaching when he was a middle school student. Usually when you present someone else’s materials, you don’t tell their jokes or their intro stories, but he tells a story that is pretty funny, and I just want to share it with you. I want to give thanks to our teaching pastor, Doug Rutt, who originally developed this outline. At the Hope Center, a lot of our presenters are cross-trained, so we teach each other’s material at times. I’d like to talk to you about a biblical view of finances. In that role, I oversee the Hope Center, which is our counseling ministry and is also an ACBC Certified Training Center. My name is Tony Anderson, and I have the privilege of serving as the executive pastor and the pastor of counseling at Christian Family Chapel. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |