Sermon Central
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How Wise People Build Wealth Series
Contributed by Wayne Cordeiro on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Wealth is not just the accumulation of money. That would be the wrong target. Wealth is not solely money. In fact, this is not a message of how to achieve your financial dreams. This is a message about how to live right.
“No.”
Do you collect baseball cards?”
“No.”
“Well, you’re going to be poor. What do you collect?”
He responded, “I collect friends.”
Isn’t that funny? Have you ever heard someone say something and think, “I wish I had said that?” I remember that comment and realized that is what makes him rich. Here is a man who is the best friend I could have. He is loyal, compassionate, and caring. I realized that is what makes him wealthy.
How do we acquire these things? What is most valuable?”
• Decide What You Treasure and What Is Not Up for Sale
If we don’t decide what is not up for sale, everything will be for sale: even our family; our virtue; our morality; our integrity; our honesty; our marriage; our faith; our church. Everything will be up for sale unless we decide that these are our treasures and they are not for sale. We must decide and decide early on.
What are some of those treasures we say are not for sale? Would it be our conscience; our faith; our devotion? We need to know what they are. Why?
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:34 NASB).
Early on in the story of Job, a storm takes away his house, his possessions, everything! He has nothing left! His flocks are killed, his kids are wiped out! Everything is gone!
Yet, he is able to say, “Praise the Lord! God is going to provide. I am just going to keep my integrity. I said I would be loyal to God and that is not up for sale. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are because I don’t serve God only because He gives me wealth and goods and other different possessions. No, I am going to serve God even if there is nothing. I will stay true to my integrity.”
His wife got angry at him and said, “Stop that! Just get mad at God won’t you?”
“No! Praise the Lord. God is going to provide,” Job responded.
She was like that lady’s neighbor. She was just getting angry.
“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die! But . . . in all this Job did not sin . . .” (Job 2:9-10 NASB).
What a wife! I wonder if Job got her out of a catalog. Where did this egghead of a wife come from?
Job defined what was true, what treasure to him was, and what would constitute wealth. He vowed, “No matter what happens, that is not up for sale.”
He learned how to live right and in the end, God said, “Because you live right, I will restore to you not just what was taken away, but I am going to give you double what you had!”
He became so affluent because he had developed discipline, integrity and resolve. To him that was a treasure and God says, “Now you understand the righteousness of the kingdom.” It is not just one-dimensional. It is a treasure chest of different things.
So how do we build those disciplines?
BUILD SLOWLY
Wise people build slowly because we are not just building wealth; we are building all the disciplines necessary to sustain the stewardship of that wealth. We build slowly and thoughtfully.
It is just like anything else. I have been learning some new runs on my guitar. In the beginning I had to slow it way down and practice it very slowly, day after day.
