REAL Rich

Intro

We are talking about what REAL Rich looks like. Let’s look at the scripture and then break it down from there. Bc I know it gets weird when we talk about money. But scripture talks about it a lot. Actually about 5 times more than anything else. So this has clearly always been an issue. But I get it, people abuse it. There are churches and pastors that have abused it. Abused money itself, but have abused the teachings of it as well. Especially here in America. It can consume us. Not too long ago a church out in Texas found $600k in their walls. I’ve been begging Radius to let me start knocking in some walls around here to see what we got. But let’s talk about what is REAL Rich? What are true treasures? And how should we view our stuff?

Pray

Matthew 6:19-21 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Tons of confusion on this subject. And what a coincidence that we are in the richest nation the world has ever seen. I’m sure many of you have battled with this before. We have probably all heard that money is the root of all evil. But if you’ve read your bible, you know that’s not what it says. For the love of money is the root of all evil. It’s right back to a heart issue. Or we hear a lot that “God wants you happy.” So then it’s, well money would make me happy. Even though we know that’s a lie that we sell ourselves. We see it every day. All the lottery winners that throw their lives away after winning. You’ll see it in celebrities and famous people too. It’s more rare when you see one who has it together. But does God want you to be happy? Well yea, His desire is for everyone to be saved and live for eternity in His presence. But for now, it’s important for us to remember that this is His creation, this is His story, to carry out His will, for His glory. Our true happiness is found within that. Living inside of that is easier said than done.

A couple years ago I was really tested on some of this. I had something that I was chasing and desiring. It wasn’t sinful, nothing bad. I was kinda trying to turn a hobby into a career. I really felt like I took the necessary steps leading up to it. Then I took a leap. I did not feel like God was catching me on the other side. At all. And hey I’m all for putting the work in and grinding though. I know that anything worth achieving is worth working for. But I could not help but feel that I was all of a sudden alone on this journey. And so that already had me processing things in my head. Like am I trying to do something outside of God’s will for my life or am I just being weak. So I’m wrestling through scriptures in my head, trying to make sense of things bc I’m impatient and the feeling isn’t going anywhere either. But I’ve made a leap, I also don’t want to be wrong and look like a fool. So I’m fighting pride here too. But a few months in I began to read a book called Dangerous Prayers. And it’s about dangerous prayers, prayers where you ask God to break you. To break you and expose anything in you that needs to be. Bc it’s through those tough times that we’ll grow and come back stronger. And for some reason, I prayed one of those prayers.

So what came next was my own fault, He broke me. To the point where I was searching deep within. Even to the point of wondering what I even believed. And what He exposed in me, was this very thing. I was elevating it. It was all about me and building my own kingdom. Living inside His will isn’t about me, it’s about Him and being focused on building His kingdom.

I still remember during one of my prayers, as I’m juggling scriptures, having a little voice come through my head, a thought. That said, “boy you better go check your theology.” I said yes sir and went and looked those verses up. Sure enough I was spinning it in my head to try to justify giving myself what I wanted. A couple of the verses I was trying to twist was, He’ll give you your heart's desires. I was constantly telling myself, I love God. I serve. I do all these things, He is going to give me my heart's desires. Knowing that is not what those verses are getting at. It’s always that you would be seeking God so much so that the desire of your heart would be His will.

And then it was, He works all things out for good for those who love Him. Just conveniently leaving out, “who are called according to His purpose.” It’s always that our primary focus would be on building His kingdom. That’s where we will find our purpose. That’s where we will produce fruit. And it’s that lifestyle that builds heavenly treasures.

We are just managers.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it;

It says the same thing in corinthians. It’s littered all throughout the scriptures. Many of Jesus’ parables are telling us this same thing as well.

Be A Good Steward

“A Good Manager”

The most important things to God are His people and His word. What God says about stewardship, is that a good steward values people over personal financial gain. When we invest in others and share God’s word, we grow his kingdom. Your money is just another resource that can be used to help further the greater calling in loving others and sharing the gospel.

Now none of this is to say that money or our stuff is bad. We’ve probably all heard the saying, “God doesn’t care about you having money, He cares about money having you.” That’s a good way to put it. Which is why Jesus asked the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow Him. He knew it was a heart issue with him. The proverbs are full of verses about us being wise with our money. That we should be saving. We should be growing our resources. We read in Proverbs that a good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children.

Proverbs 21:20 The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.

And again in Jesus’ parable of the talents. Matthew 25:14-18 14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

Then He goes on to tell us how the first 2 servants were told, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ But the one who did nothing, Verses 26 - 30 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.(Do something with it!)

28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Money is the analogy here but it’s more than that. This gives us what Jesus regards as faithfulness. That we would use our time, talents, and resources that He has entrusted to us, to advance His interest in the world. There’s 2 potentially fatal mistakes that we could make here that stick out to me. The first one is the obvious one, to do nothing with what we have. To do nothing with the time, talents, or resources that we’ve been given could have eternal consequences.

And the second one would be to zero in on the money part and begin to think that our stuff is a measurement of our faithfulness. That was the Pharisees then and we see it being taught all in our world today. The problem is that God refutes that in His revelation through His word and through His natural revelation, the world around us. I don’t for a second think that I have more faith than the person in the 3rd world country whose life is on the line when they share their faith. No, they have a ton of faith. Or do I think I have more faith than the disciples had? I bet we all have a nicer house than they had. Probably have a couple cars, I bet they would’ve loved that. Some A/C, come on! They were persecuted and died some pretty gruesome deaths. But there’s no doubt in my mind that they heard, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” There’s no doubt that they were faithful in advancing the kingdom. It’s on their backs that the church was built. It’s because of them that we have the gospel today. Our faithfulness will not be measured by how much stuff we have. It’ll be measured by what we do with the stuff we have and how we use it in advancing His interest.

Luke 12:15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Story of Joseph

Let’s look at how someone handled great wealth. Most of us have heard the story of Joseph. I wonder how it’s been heard though. We can really miss the point of these stories sometimes. Now I’m not going to read the story because it is over multiple chapters. But Joseph was the son of Jacob. It’s at the end of genesis and really you’re still in the story of Jacob. And you know how it goes, Jacob favored Joseph over his other brothers and they seemed to have noticed. Joseph had his colorful robe from his father and then had the dream. He dreams that his brothers will one day bow down to him. Then he goes and tells them that he had this dream. Which I would probably keep to myself. So what do they do? They decide to kill him but instead they end up selling him into slavery. He eventually ends up in Egypt, which was the most powerful country in the world at the time. The captain of the guard, Potipher, buys him. Genesis 39:2-6 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.

But then Potipher’s wife begins to notice him. She makes her move and he flees. He’s a man of God. But she claims he tried to rape her and has him thrown into prison.

He spent a few years there, but never lost his faith or his favor from God. Eventually the Pharaoh has a dream about the 7 healthy cows and 7 unhealthy cows. The 7 unhealthy cows eat the 7 healthy cows. It wakes him up. Then he goes back to sleep and he has the same dream, only this time it was ears of grain. So he looks for someone to interpret these dreams for him and he can’t find anyone. Then his chief cupbearer remembered the Hebrew prisoner, Joseph, who interpreted one of his dreams a couple years back. So Joseph comes and interprets the dream to be that 7 of great plenty would come, followed by 7 years of famine. And the famine would consume the land. So the Pharaoh was to collect and save up through the 7 good years, to be prepared for the 7 years of famine. Joseph even tells him how to do it. It impresses the Pharaoh so much that he puts Joseph in command of all Egypt. Second only to the Pharaoh himself. The Pharaoh gives him a new name, a wife, a big ring, new clothes, he probably looked like a dark skinned Rick Flair.

And now is the point where we can easily think, He made it. He trusted God and God blessed him. The problem is that is not the point of the story and Joseph doesn’t see it that way either. Generally in scripture, it is not a good thing to be under a pagan King, in a pagan land, with a pagan name, with pagan wealth, with a pagan Wife who was the daughter of a priest of one of their false gods. Joseph calls this the land of his affliction. It’s even in the meaning of one of his sons' names. He goes on to give his sons Hebrew names. Even though his Hebrew family was the ones who sold him into slavery. He still had his eyes set on God. He knew he was in this land, but he was not of this land.

Then his brothers come back into the picture. Everyone is coming to Egypt because Egypt is prepared for the famine. He tests them some but eventually reveals himself. And what does he tell them? That God sent me here to save you. To preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. He had all the riches the world had to offer but his eyes were still set on God. He knew it wasn’t about wealth and power. He was there to fulfill a purpose.

God had made a promise to Joseph's great grandfather. That the King of Kings would come through his offspring. If they die in this famine then that can’t happen. Bc the lineage goes, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Judea. Joseph knew his purpose was that God had him there to keep them alive. We now know more specifically that it was to keep Judea and his son alive, as well as the others. This is another story in the redemptive history. It’s pointing us to Christ and shows how God keeps His promises. The story of Joseph shows us how being faithful and a good steward of what's been given to us, can play a much bigger role in God’s plan than just our lives.

The Widow's Offering

Mark 12:41-44 41 And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.43 And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. 44 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Yea she didn’t give more money than the others, but in a spiritual sense she did. She laid up treasures in Heaven.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

So again, if you got it, and when you consider the history of the world we all do, then that’s all good. But it’s what you do with it that matters. It’s yours to manage it. Not to own it.

So now that we’ve built some of the framework. That everything is God’s. People, all of creation and everything in it. We are just managers, not owners. It’s His creation, to carry out His will, for His glory. We are to seek His kingdom in all that we do, it’s about advancing His kingdom not ours. No matter if we are number 2 in the world like Joseph or if we are like the widow with 1 penny. Remember our passage, let's look back at verse 21, 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If my treasure is that which is in Heaven then my heart is with that which is in Heaven. If my heart is in Heaven, then the treasure I’m trying to build is that which is of Heaven. This is how we live inside His will. And it’s inside His will that you will then truly live.

Direction

This is how we get our direction in life. The bible gives us that. We’re quick to grab the next self help book and read it cover to cover, but are we reading the bible cover to cover and applying it to our lives? If this gives us direction then it’s clear that we are to be generous. We are to be generous with our 3 T’s. Time, talents, and treasures. So now our focus should be to structure our lives to reflect that. Some things you could probably change today. Like sharing a meal with someone, praying with someone, ministries always need help.

Or it may be a life changing decision that may be more long term, may even be radical. Especially to the outside world. Like is He calling you to change a career or leave a career. It happens a lot. These are the weighty decisions that can come when you are structuring your life to reflect Christ. That’s not a decision you necessarily make today. But through understanding our direction of how we are to structure our lives with a focus on advancing His kingdom, we will begin to see where things are toxic. Or where fruit isn’t being produced. Then we need to figure out why that is and if it requires making a change. If it does then you start working towards that. Doesn’t mean you make a rash decision, we are still supposed to make wise decisions. To some extent, there will usually still be a leap of faith required though.

Or maybe it’s possessions. Is He calling you to make a move that may require you to sell that new house you just built? This is a personal one for me. I’ve had that conversation through prayer quite a few times. It has been very healthy in decision making though. I didn’t come up with it. I read it in a parenting book actually. The guy was talking about the american way of life and how we will allow our stuff to make decisions for us. He was specifically getting at having kids. That if God’s calling you to have another child then you shouldn’t allow finances to make that decision. If you have a nice house or a nice car and He’s calling you to make a move that’s financially hard, then you can sell that house, you can sell that car.

The point is, where is your treasure? Bc that’s where your heart is. If we’re holding onto our stuff too tight to follow Christ then we sound a whole lot like the rich young ruler. I haven’t had to sell my house, but using that mindset of being willing to, has been very healthy when my wife and I pray for direction for us and our family.

As christians we have our ultimate direction, in Joseph’s time the focus was bringing about the savior of the world. For us, it’s to grow His kingdom by making disciples. That’s more than just evangelism, or sharing the gospel. That’s doing life with people, at least for a season. And as we see, we are called to do it by being generous. So we had the 3 T’s of what we are generous with, that’s our Time, Talents, and our Treasures. Now we have the 3 R’s of how to give. Give Responsibly, Give Relationally, and Give Respectfully.

GIVE RESPONSIBLY

We want to make sure that needs are met in the best way possible. We know that more money doesn’t always help. And in the wrong hands, it can be very destructive. Remember we are managers, we aren’t careless or foolish with our 3 T’s. But at the sametime when you’re being generous, you will be taken advantage of at some point. You can’t let that worry consume you. We are called to be cheerful givers. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Doesn’t mean you don’t vet the situation. We are still to be effective and efficient and produce fruit. We are not afraid to use partners or intermediaries as conduits to get resources where they need to go as long as the need is being met.

GIVE RELATIONALLY

We want to meet more than financial needs. Our hope is to have enough relationships to meet spiritual needs. While financial generosity often opens the door to spiritual conversations, we want to make sure that we have enough relationships to engage in those conversations.

GIVE RESPECTFULLY

We don’t give with a bunch of fanfare. At the beginning of chapter 6 in Matthew there’s a warning for this,  “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. We share and exercise generosity not for public relations but in order that we might earn the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. One of the driving points of our Give Hope campaign. We’ll talk about it here bc we’re Radius. You’re Radius. If you call this church home then you’re Radius. So we’ll celebrate it when we gather and talk about what God’s doing. But we aren’t going to advertise it or push it on social media bc we don’t want the attention pointed back at us. Our hope is that through our generosity it would not only meet a need, but open a door to starting a conversation where we can share the gospel. We are sowing seeds of generosity not for immediate gratification but as investments in eternity.

So we are managers, not owners. Not ours to cling onto.

Use our 3 T’s to grow the kingdom. Our minds and efforts should be focused toward building His kingdom.

We are to be generous with our 3 T’s by

Giving Responsibly, Giving Relationally, Giving Respectfully