Ohio State football players selling memorabilia and autographs for cash. Auburn potentially paying Cam Newton hundreds of thousands of dollars. Photographs of Alabama players signing autographs and wearing suits from a local business owner. University of North Carolina coaches funneling players to an agent. With each new week, a new scandal involving major college football programs comes to the surface. And now, the scandal of scandals. Yahoo Sports reports that a major booster of the Miami Hurricanes was paying potentially hundreds of players, funding lavish sex parties, automobiles, wedding rings, and even abortions to the tune of millions of dollars for almost a decade!

There’s one problem in all of this. College Football is a multi-million dollar business. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being made annually on the backs of young men who are compensated with tuition! Arguments can be made on both sides of spectrum. On the one hand, you have people rightly saying that college athletics is amateur sports and money should not be paid to players. Paying players would make college sports professional and would complicate the system. On the other hand, people are saying that if college football is a million dollar business then players should be compensated. It’s called capitalism!

While debates can we waged on both sides of the issue, one thing that is crystal clear is that this illustrates how money complicates things. We like to think that if we won the lottery life would be easier, and yet we hear story after story of million dollar lottery winners who end up broke and worse off than before. Money complicates marriages, friendships, lives, and especially churches. Make no mistake, money is a necessary part of life and should be stewarded well. However, money can easily become an idol as we look to it for security, comfort, and self-worth.

Unlike money, Christ is the one who brings ultimate satisfaction to our deepest longings. Money may provide temporary financial security but in Christ we have eternal salvation security. Money may fund the purchase of a nice home, comfortable leather seats in a car, or an extravagant vacation but Christ is the only one who offers true peace and joy through the gospel. And, for a season, the increase of wealth can increase our sense of worth as we compare what we have to the poverty of others. We like to think that our home appreciation equals our individual appreciation. This is a pure lie as we see many of the most wealthy and powerful struggle with depression as they realize money doesn’t satisfy. In Christ we have tremendous self-worth! We see that we were created in the image of God and that God longed for a relationship with us to the extent that he sacrificed his son on our behalf. My self-worth is not determined by the car I drive or amount in my investment portfolio, but by the Creator of the universe who spoke me into existence and desires a relationship with me.

It can be easy to point the finger at players and men involved in the latest college football scandals. I hope that we ask ourselves the hard question, “Is my hope in money?” Money only complicates things, and Christ can only satisfy.