Do I Love Money? One Simple Test

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - We're honored to be joined again

00:00:06.480 | by author and speaker Paul Tripp,

00:00:07.920 | the author of the book Sex and Money.

00:00:10.560 | And we could do a whole week on money issues,

00:00:13.040 | but we have one day, so here it is.

00:00:14.900 | What are some symptoms of a life

00:00:16.920 | that is ruled by a love of money?

00:00:19.480 | What are some prompts that should alert us

00:00:21.400 | to this sin in our own hearts?

00:00:24.000 | - Well, that's a huge, huge question.

00:00:28.480 | The love of money is deeper than,

00:00:33.480 | I like to hold it in my hands, I like to smell it,

00:00:37.360 | I like to have a fat wallet.

00:00:40.040 | It's really about, love of money is about contentment,

00:00:44.680 | love of money is about humility,

00:00:46.640 | love of money is about identity,

00:00:48.640 | love of money is about worship,

00:00:50.720 | that it really roots in deep issues.

00:00:53.240 | Maybe, maybe the most subtle of the indicators

00:00:59.000 | of love of money is an ongoing chronic discontentment in me,

00:01:04.000 | that no matter what I have, I'm still not content.

00:01:10.320 | And maybe the biggest sign in the church

00:01:14.160 | of our discontent is debt, debt.

00:01:19.160 | It is shocking the amount of debt

00:01:22.600 | that the individual Christian is in.

00:01:25.400 | If you could view the average debt load

00:01:30.400 | of the average Christian, you would be amazed.

00:01:35.400 | And if that debt load could be removed,

00:01:39.680 | how much more flexibility would we have to participate in

00:01:44.560 | and to give to the larger agenda of God's kingdom?

00:01:48.920 | We now have a system called credit cards

00:01:52.400 | where we can actually spend money we don't have.

00:01:56.160 | It is an act of disobedience

00:02:01.160 | to put something on a credit card

00:02:03.640 | that you could not afford with cash,

00:02:06.840 | or that you do not have a plan to pay by cash,

00:02:10.080 | a reasonable plan, because you are now taking sovereignty

00:02:15.080 | and ownership over your money well-being.

00:02:20.680 | Well, no one has that.

00:02:22.640 | Only God has that.

00:02:24.040 | Only God knows what he's gonna provide for you tomorrow.

00:02:26.920 | And in places outside of something like a house

00:02:30.280 | where you don't have any choice,

00:02:32.400 | I think we're doing that all the time.

00:02:34.640 | We're spending what we have no reasonable expectation

00:02:39.080 | to be able to pay.

00:02:40.160 | Why?

00:02:41.000 | Because our hearts are discontent,

00:02:42.720 | and we're hoping that money will purchase for us

00:02:47.160 | contentment of heart.

00:02:49.040 | And it will never do that

00:02:50.380 | because it's not the role of money.

00:02:52.760 | So we love money because we think money

00:02:55.840 | is a pathway to contentment, and it's just not.

00:03:00.340 | Because money can't buy contentment.

00:03:03.000 | It can buy you stuff, but it can't buy you contentment.

00:03:06.000 | - Yes, amen.

00:03:06.880 | And there's so much more to say on money, debt, and giving.

00:03:09.520 | We could do a whole entire week of podcasts just on this,

00:03:12.720 | but our time is coming to an end.

00:03:14.840 | So for more, see Paul Tripp's book,

00:03:16.800 | Sex and Money, published by Crossway.

00:03:19.560 | I highly commend the book.

00:03:21.000 | And I wanna finish out our time together

00:03:22.720 | talking about parenting.

00:03:24.560 | And tomorrow, Paul, I wanna ask you a very basic question.

00:03:28.120 | What is the goal of day in and day out

00:03:30.680 | parenting investments that we are making in our children?

00:03:34.500 | I'll ask tomorrow.

00:03:35.340 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:03:37.980 | (silence)

00:03:40.140 | (silence)

00:03:42.300 | (silence)

00:03:44.460 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Do I Love Money? One Simple Test

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