Better Banking Series

A man told of buying his 7-year-old daughter a game called “The Game of Life”. It was the SpongeBob SquarePants version of The Game of Life and his daughter thought it was very cool. His daughter Tabitha thought the person who got to the end of the game first was the winner. But that wasn’t what the instructions said. What the instructions said was - at the end of the game -the winner is the person with the greatest net worth. It actually says that.

And the dad said it struck him as odd, because the winner of the game wasn’t the person who helped the most people, nor was it the person who gave the most away. The winner of the game was the person who accumulated the most wealth! He said “We play these games starting as children, and by the time we are adults, we start believing that that is how you win at the REAL game of life. (Greg Nettle)

Ted Turner (founder of CNN and worth about 2.5 billion dollars) said: “Life is a game. Money is how we keep score.”

Years ago there was a famous comedienne named Joan Rivers, who joked: “People say that money isn’t the key to happiness. But I always figured if you have enough money, you could have a key made.”

But then you have Jesus, who famously said “Not so fast”! Well, he didn’t actually say “Not so fast”… but what He did say was pretty powerful. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

In other words: Be careful where you bank! Be careful about what institution you invest your wealth in because, there’s the “bank of earth…” and there’s the bank of heaven, and the one in heaven gives a far better rate of interest.

But before we get to that, there are a couple of questions about wealth that we need to consider. First – is there anything IMMORAL about a person being wealthy? The answer: No! Proverbs 10:22 says: “The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” And Proverbs 21:20 declared: “The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.” Wealth and wisdom went hand in hand.

In fact, the Bible mentions several wealthy people that were righteous. Job was VERY righteous, and he was VERY wealthy. Abraham, Isaac & Jacob - they were all well off too. Then there was Joseph (2nd most prominent man in Egypt). There was also King David, King Solomon, King Hezekiah and Queen Esther (these were all wealthy people).

In the New Testament there was Mary, Martha, and Lazarus who were also apparently wealthy because Mary spent the equivalent of a years' wages to purchase the ointment that she poured on Jesus' feet – John 12:3; Joseph of Arimathea had his own tomb (which poor people didn’t generally have) and he donated his tomb for Jesus to be buried in; Lydia appears to be the 1st European woman convert, and she was a wealthy merchant; woman); then there was Barnabas – an early church leader who had a lot of land - and sold some of that land to help the poor in early church.

So, all through the Bible there were wealthy people who were righteous individuals.

That said, are wealthy people shoe-ins for heaven? I mean, if God blesses people with riches you’d think that the wealthy would be sure to get through gates. But Jesus taught (Luke 18:25) that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”

His disciples were appalled, and cried out: “Well, then who can be saved?” It was a common belief in that day -that wealth could buy you a way into heaven. But Jesus said… that wasn’t true!

Jesus told the story about the Rich man and Lazarus – the rich man ended up in hell because he was more interested in his OWN comfort than in helping poor. The rich man’s money didn’t do him any good, because it wasn’t his wealth that got God’s attention. It was what he DID with his wealth that caused God’s response.

Jesus told the parable about rich man who intended to tear down his barns. "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." Luke 12:16-21