Here at FOTC most of the Sermon Series Pastor Scott and I do are centered teaching through one of the books of the Bible… Maybe it is Psalms, Judges, one of the Gospels or for the last year one of the New Testament Epistles of Paul or as in this series James, Bottom line, what we teach on each week of the series is pre-determined by what the book is talking about in that week’s section of scripture.

Faith, Love, our attitude, judging other, being kind, entitlement, prayer, salvation… whatever that section talks about is what we talk about that week… God know what we need when we need it and this is on way the Holy Spirit works…

Church, we’re going to talk about something today that might make some of us squirm a little—but yeh God, that’s how we grow. Because the Word doesn’t come to just pat us on the back—it comes to shape us, correct us, and set us on fire for what matters.

And this week James is speaking directly about everybody’s favorite subject to talk about in Church… MONEY.

I am not big on talking money on a Sunday morning… growing up….My parents left the church they grew up in because the pastor started removing people from membership rolls if they were behind on their tithing.

Growing up I would go to various churches and I would see TV Evangelist… talk an awful lot about money… and they would quote passages of scripture on money then tell me I needed to give mine to them… last year there was a TV Evangelist trying to guilt his church and viewers in giving him money for a second 50 Million dollar Private Jet… that’s not what that passage is saying…

Bible talks about money and giving more than a lot of other things

You’ve heard that old saying, “Money talks.” And it does.

The problem is… a lot of the time, it’s not saying what we think it’s saying.

Many times when the bible talks about wealth, possession, money, the passages is not focused on wealth, but on what a person’s attitude toward wealth says about their spiritual condition.

It’s telling the truth about our hearts. About what we love.

About who — or what — is in charge of our lives.