Use It

Use It

By Rob Wiltshire

When it comes to money, God has a purpose for it.  And to be clear, that purpose isn’t to give money to the church.

Rather, Gods purpose for money is to use it as a tool that reveals to people his heart towards them.

Gods heart towards people is that they feel,

Valued

Cared for

Seen

Wanted

Forgiven

Supported

Looked after

Etc.

And when it comes to money, God wants to use it as a tool that causes people to feel and know they are.

But there’s a problem; “God isn’t walking around our communities, causing people to feel valued or cared for.” “He’s not investing in helping people feel seen or wanted, or even forgiven.”

These things might be Gods heart for people, but we don’t see him spending money doing this.

Or do we?

In Matthew 25 Jesus tells a story of a boss who goes away for an extended period of time and gives responsibility of keeping his business moving forward to three people.

He’s worked with these three for some time and knows what each of their strengths and weaknesses are.  So he hands to them responsibility’s according to their strengths, along with a sum of money to carry out their job descriptions. 

To the first man he gives $5,000 cash, to the second $2,000 and to the third he hands out $1,000, and then he takes off leaving these three men in charge.

As soon as the boss leaves, the man who was given $5,000 cash goes straight to work and earns another $5,000.  The one who was given $2,000 does the same, and the one who was given $1,000 places the cash he was given in securely locked safe.

After a period of time the boss returns home and gathers the men he left in charge to get a report of what’s taken place in the company during his absence.  

The first man gives his report and highlights how he was able to turn $5,000 into $10,000, and the second man shares how he was able to turn $2,000 into $4,000.  The boss is excited!  He promises to throw them a party and put them in charge of more areas of the business, as they have shown how capable they were with what they were given.

But the third man.  When he comes to the boss, he returns with the cash he stored in the safe.  He tells the boss he was scared that he’d loose or waste the money, so he felt the best bet was to place it in a safe so nothing could happen to it.  He tells the boss that he was just trying to protect what the boss had given him.

The boss is furious!  He highlights how he could have at least placed it in a term deposit so there’d be interest gained on it.

The boss rebukes and fires the man.

What Jesus is highlighting to his listeners is that he — Jesus — is the boss in the story; he is going away (back to heaven) and has left us in charge.

Us being you and I. 

And the responsibility he’s given to us is to keep his Kingdom, his mission here on earth moving forward.  And his mission is simple… help people know and discover his heart towards them.

Now just to be clear while the story highlights that two people doubled their money, the story isn’t about doubling our money, its merely about using it. 

The reason the boss rebuked and fired the man who hid the money in a safe wasn’t because he didn’t double the money, it’s because he didn’t use it.

When it comes to money, God wants to use it as a tool that reveals to people his heart, and he has given that responsibility to us. 

And guess what?  That doesn’t take much. 

$4 will get someone a coffee, $20 will shout them lunch.  Writing words on a card and posting it costs next to nothing.

It doesn’t take much more than the extra coins we have floating in our cars and some initiative to use money as a tool that reveals to people Gods heart towards them. 

How can you be deliberate this week with what Gods given you, to help someone around you discover Gods heart towards them?