You hear it expressed all the time. “All they talk about in church is money!” Usually the person who says that has other issues with churches and this one just happens to be the one that most often surfaces. And for sure, there may well be churches where money is all they talk about.

It generally makes people angry when they suspect that all the church wants from them is their money. For people who love Jesus and their Heavenly Father, however, it is just the opposite. They would get angry if the church would not talk about money! Money given in church is one way believers tell their God, “I love you!” Offerings are considered an opportunity and not an offense.

It is like a young man who buys his sweetheart a Christmas present. He spends the money because he wants to. He spends as much as he can…maybe even more than he thinks he should. He insists on it. It’s for “her” and he loves her. Don’t you get between that young man and his billfold when it comes to the present he wants to purchase to show his fiancée his love.

A long time ago some very poor people in Macedonia understood completely that their church was not just trying to get their money. We hear about them, “Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.” We also hear that “out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:1-4) The church was just the place they wanted to be. It gave them the chance to say to their God, “I love you…We love you!”

The cattle on a thousand hills are the Lords. All of the gold at Fort Knox is his. Every dollar bill in your billfold is already his. But he gives you the chance to use the dollar bill to say to him, “I love you.” And it delights his heart when you do it because you are not giving him money but love. That is the currency that God who owns everything does not have until you give it to him.

The church doesn’t just want your money.

God wants your love.