God Wants You to be Rich
By Wes Strubhar

It’s like moving to a far away place and having to leave your possessions behind… a move that is far enough that you will be flying to your new home. You can’t take much on an airplane with you. You could try selling everything and carrying the cash with you to buy new things at your destination, but then you would be at risk for getting robbed or even just losing what you had worked so hard for. There’s something that would work much better. Just transfer it ahead.

The title of my message this morning is, "God wants you to be rich". You're probably wondering where I am going with this. I'm not playing a trick on you, and I'm not being sarcastic. God really does want to bless us. He wants what is best for us. That is "love" defined. And God has an established history of showing that love to His people. We can start with Abraham. Did God bless him with material things?

Here we see that Abraham and Lot had so much they couldn’t live next to one another.

What about Jacob?

Just this gift represents some serious wealth even by today’s standards. This was just a portion of what God had blessed him with. He started with nothing but a stick.

What about David?

Nathan here reminds David that God has blessed him in every way.

What about Solomon?

He was greater than all the kings of the earth.

Samples from Proverbs show God’s blessing the righteous.

Proverbs 3:16… "Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor."

Proverbs 8:18 … "Riches and honor are with me, Enduring wealth and righteousness."

Proverbs 14:24… "The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools is foolishness."

Proverbs 22:4… "The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life."

Have I established the pattern for you yet? But if I stopped here, I would only be telling you half of the story. There is this little problem, you see. Even Solomon came up against it, and you can find his frustration expressed in Ecclesiastes chapter 2:18-20:

Paul wrote it to Timothy this way in 1 Timothy 6:7:

How many of you have ever seen or been in a funeral procession? There’s one special car called a hearse, that carries the person’s body. Have you ever seen the hearse pulling a trailer full of stuff? There’s a reason!

Many cultures have grappled with this dilemma. Egyptian Pharaohs were entombed with their belongings, wives and servants. They wanted to take it with them. Native American tribes would put hunting weapons with people when they were cremated - so they could use them in the "Happy Hunting Ground"

What if we could take our worldly wealth with us to heaven? Do you suppose it would have any value there? What would a $100 bill be worth in heaven? How useful today is the technology of 50 or 100 years ago?

There are jokes about people trying to take it with them. The point is always that we can’t. At least our society has figured that one out, even if it is kind of a depressing thought.

It’s like moving to a far away place and having to leave your possessions behind… a move that is far enough that you will be flying to your new home. You can’t take much on an airplane with you. You could try selling everything and carrying the cash with you to buy new things at your destination, but then you would be at risk for getting robbed or even just losing what you had worked so hard for. There’s something that would work much better. Just transfer it ahead. That way the money would be there waiting for you when you got there, but you wouldn’t have to worry about losing it in transit. That would be a smart idea. If you were moving to another country and some sort of currency exchange needed to happen, the banks could just take care of it when the transfer was done. Yes, that would be the way to do it.

Wouldn’t it be neat if God would let us do that with what we have worked hard for here on earth? You know, like if we could somehow open an account at the Gold Street Savings and Loan and then make transfers to that account from our wealth and efforts here.

That’s not really such a remote thought.

Let’s look at a familiar passage from the gospels.

This guy has it all, and he wants to keep it. The only thing that could stop him is death, so he asks about living forever. "What good thing can I do to obtain eternal life?"

This man is living under the Law of Moses, and that is the answer Jesus gives. "Keep the commandments. Do what you know you are supposed to do." I think he gives a sincere answer. "I’ve been doing that. Is there something more?" At this point Jesus lets him in on a secret. If you want to have it all, and you want to keep it forever, you have to send it ahead. To have it there, you have to give it up here. The way to keep it is by giving it away. To conserve it forever, use it up for the Lord.

But he doesn’t get it. And sadly, most of the time we don’t get it either.

What we have here isn't really ours anyway. For most of us a large portion of what we have technically belongs to the bank! But that's not what I'm talking about. Scripture tells us that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And this morning I'm going to apply that to today and say he owns the cars in a thousand parking lots as well. Suppose someone asked, "Whose purple minivan is that out in the parking lot?" My first reaction would be to say it is mine. (I know - Dodge doesn't call it purple. They call it "deep amethyst" or something that sounds sophisticated. It's purple, okay?) In reality, it is God's purple minivan, not mine. He is just letting me use it. I'm only a steward of what He lets me use and enjoy.

If you think I’m taking that short interaction with the rich young ruler too far, look back at Matt 6:19-21. Jesus isn’t saying he wants all of His followers to be poor. He is saying that if you are going to store it, store it some place secure. It is about the same thing as saying to someone a few years ago, "If you’re going to put your money in the stock market, stay away from the dot-coms. Stick with something more secure." For us here this morning, a CD at Gold Street Savings and Loan is worth a whole lot more than a CD at Wells Fargo.

This concept is really not that much different than saving for retirement. One who starts young and is consistent over the years will have a much better and more enjoyable retirement than the one that waits until the last 5 years before they retire to start saving anything.

This concept of sending things ahead shows up often in Scripture and it doesn’t have to be some great thing. Let’s take a look at just a few passages.

Jesus speaks here of a reward for giving even a cup of water.

Give to those who can’t give back. Notice when the repayment happens.

You are our crown in the presence of the Lord at His coming.

Paul is talking here about profit increasing to their account.

Transferring our wealth ahead benefits us here and now as well as later. It makes it easier for us to remember to trust in God rather than our bank account or our 401k. Proverbs 11:28 says, "He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf."

When our main concern is having money and things here and now, we are putting too much emphasis on the "here and now". Listen to Paul’s warning in 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

The key is to focus on eternity. How many of you remember the three-dimensional pictures that were popular 5 to 10 years ago? I remember the first time Shannon and I saw some of those in a mall. There were quite a few people standing around staring at these jumbles of dots. We overheard the vendor explaining to some other folks how to "see" the real image in the picture. I looked at a picture and did what he said, but I didn’t see anything. Shannon looked for only a few seconds and said, "Oh. Cool!" And she moved to the next picture. Within a couple of minutes she had looked at all of the pictures on display. She said, "Wes, you have to come see this one!". My thought was "Oh neat More dots." And then it happened. I caught a glimpse of the actual image. I lost it just as fast, but now I knew what to look for. I was persistent and the image came back into focus. They were cool! In my opinion, they still are. The key was to focus beyond the dots, as if the dots were really a window and the picture was beyond that window. Then I could see clearly. I remember one picture that was a maze. In order to find the correct ending point, you had to follow this three-dimensional path from the start. But if you couldn’t keep that image in focus it was hopeless. Lose it once and you had to start back at the beginning. Because it went from a path that you could follow to just a bunch of dots if you lost focus.

Our walk with God is so much like that! In order for things to make sense, we must focus beyond all of the events right in front of us. On a camera the farthest focus distance is labeled with a lazy-8 sort of looking thing. What does that stand for? Infinity. It is pretty similar for us, except it is eternity instead of infinity. Not much different, really. Only when we focus clear out to eternity do the pieces fit together to make a clear image. Only then can we hope to negotiate this maze without running into a lot of walls. And it takes most of us a lot of effort to maintain that focus. And just like those pictures are confusing and frustrating for those who can’t get their eyes to focus quite right, this life and what God has to say about it is confusing and frustrating to those whose focus is here and now. The more often we put effort into focusing on eternity, the better our Spiritual "eyes" get at making a clear picture for us.

Sending our valuables ahead of us helps us to focus there. And it helps us avoid the temptation of getting caught up in those things here. But it isn’t only the rich who need help avoiding the love of money. That possibility exists for all of us. It applies to Bill Gates, and it applies just as much to the panhandler on the street corner. If our focus is on money and stuff here and now, what God has to say to us about what is really important will just look like a bunch of senseless dots.

Okay, okay! I get it. How can I store up my treasure in heaven? How can I transfer my wealth to an eternal account?

Luke 14:12-14 contains an important principle to keep in mind. We don't just do things for people that will return the favor. And we're not doing things just for folks who we think deserve it, or for folks we like. We serve fellow brother and sister Christians just because they are fellow Christians. And we give Christ the credit when we do it. That maximizes the credit to our account. It's not about doing good works and earning a bigger mansion in Heaven. It's about just living up to the minimum that we should have been doing all along anyway.

Here are some real, practical things we can do.

We could go on for a long time. You get the general idea. Do something that benefits someone else because it ultimately benefits you even more. Don’t keep track of favors you do, or who "owes you one". You appreciate what God has done for you, right? Express it to His other children around you.

And I'll put a little disclaimer in here. I think everyone here is sensible enough to take what I've said the right way. But in case anyone misunderstands what I'm saying - God is not telling us to be financially irresponsible. We don't take money owed to someone else and give it to the church. "Sorry, I can't pay. I gave that money to God." Not only will that not fly too well here, it won't go too far with God either. There's a difference between self-sacrifice and only sacrificing things that would impact others. That's not really a sacrifice at all.

Here's an example of what difference it can make to look ahead, rather than constantly living for the here and now. I read a story a few years ago about a husband and wife who came to this country. They had no money, and didn’t speak English, but they had a cousin in Texas who had his own business. He owned a doughnut shop in a mall. He agreed to employ them in his shop, working in the back where language skills wouldn’t be an issue. They slept on a cot in the corner. It wasn’t much of a start. But they appreciated the opportunity their cousin gave them and worked hard at it.

Within a few months the wife picked up enough English to start working out front.

This meant more pay, and at this point they could have gotten an apartment.

They discussed it, and decided to stick it out a bit longer just sleeping in the corner of the shop. They would save for the future.

After the end of their first year in the U.S. they had a healthy savings built up. Enough to buy a car and move into a nice apartment. They discussed it, and decided to wait another year. They had made it this far. One more year wouldn’t be that bad. The husband learned all about making doughnuts. The wife learned about keeping the books, and making the business profitable. By the end of the second year they had enough saved up for a sizeable down payment on a house. Instead, they bought the business from their cousin. One more year of living in the back of the shop would give them some financial security. But instead of living well below their means for one more year, they did it for three more years. They then purchased a new car and a modest sized new house with cash. They also opened more locations for their doughnut business. They had been in the United States for only 5 years. They started with nothing. They accomplished more than many of us who are born here manage in a lifetime because for a relatively short time, they focused on the future rather than here and now.

I’m going to end this morning with one last passage.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Copyright © 2004, The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

 

The author of this sermon, Wes Strubhar,  may be reached at: mr_wes@yahoo.com

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