(upbeat music) - We're honored to be joined again by author and speaker Paul Tripp, the author of the book Sex and Money. And we could do a whole week on money issues, but we have one day, so here it is. What are some symptoms of a life that is ruled by a love of money?

What are some prompts that should alert us to this sin in our own hearts? - Well, that's a huge, huge question. The love of money is deeper than, I like to hold it in my hands, I like to smell it, I like to have a fat wallet. It's really about, love of money is about contentment, love of money is about humility, love of money is about identity, love of money is about worship, that it really roots in deep issues.

Maybe, maybe the most subtle of the indicators of love of money is an ongoing chronic discontentment in me, that no matter what I have, I'm still not content. And maybe the biggest sign in the church of our discontent is debt, debt. It is shocking the amount of debt that the individual Christian is in.

If you could view the average debt load of the average Christian, you would be amazed. And if that debt load could be removed, how much more flexibility would we have to participate in and to give to the larger agenda of God's kingdom? We now have a system called credit cards where we can actually spend money we don't have.

It is an act of disobedience to put something on a credit card that you could not afford with cash, or that you do not have a plan to pay by cash, a reasonable plan, because you are now taking sovereignty and ownership over your money well-being. Well, no one has that.

Only God has that. Only God knows what he's gonna provide for you tomorrow. And in places outside of something like a house where you don't have any choice, I think we're doing that all the time. We're spending what we have no reasonable expectation to be able to pay. Why?

Because our hearts are discontent, and we're hoping that money will purchase for us contentment of heart. And it will never do that because it's not the role of money. So we love money because we think money is a pathway to contentment, and it's just not. Because money can't buy contentment.

It can buy you stuff, but it can't buy you contentment. - Yes, amen. And there's so much more to say on money, debt, and giving. We could do a whole entire week of podcasts just on this, but our time is coming to an end. So for more, see Paul Tripp's book, Sex and Money, published by Crossway.

I highly commend the book. And I wanna finish out our time together talking about parenting. And tomorrow, Paul, I wanna ask you a very basic question. What is the goal of day in and day out parenting investments that we are making in our children? I'll ask tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

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