- Did you know that the first modern-day lottery was started in 1963 in the state of New Hampshire. And now there are 37 states who have lotteries, including Illinois. And in 1997, statewide lotteries suckered $16 Billion dollars from Americans.
- Did you know that the state of Massachusetts, started their lottery in 1972 with 50 cent tickets and a drawing once a week. It now has 33 different games to choose from their sales have
soared from $71 million in the first year to $3 Billion today.
- Did you know, that in Colorado, the lottery organizers spend more than $400 million dollars each year trying to lure residents to gamble on lotteries. And in a $25,000 study called Mindsort they analyzed the left and right sides of the brain to understand how to manipulate players behavior in order to get them once hooked, always hooked.
- A Massachusetts Lottery Ad sums up the point I am trying to get across perfectly. In the ad they offer two choices for how to "make millions." Let me quote,
"Plan A: Start studying when you're about 7 years old, real hard. Then grow up and get a good job. From then on, get up at dawn every day. Flatter your boss. Crush competition ruthlessly. Climb over backs of co-workers. Be the last one to leave every night. Squirrel away every cent. Avoid having a nervous breakdown. Avoid having premature heart attack. Get a face lift. Do this every day for 30 years, holidays and weekends included. By the time you're ready to retire you should have your money. Or Plan B: Play the Lottery."
- I am not sharing these numbers and these facts and these ads to make you feel guilty if you have ever bought a lottery ticket. That is not my point. My point is to share a common desire among Americans, and even among American Christians. The desire to get rich. The desire for more money.
- Since so many want to get rich, I thought I would do a little research and come up with a sure fire way that this can happen. I am not kidding, I have figured it out, and as the infomercials promise, in three easy steps, you will get rich quick. You don't need to go and buy a lottery ticket, you just need to follow these three steps and it is guaranteed or your money back. Now of course you know that I am not referring to monitary richness, but Godly richness. How can we be rich towards God? So lets figure out what are some wise choices we can make with our money.
In order to get rich towards God:
STEP ONE: A Realization That Wealth Is Not Happiness
- Despite the cliché we have heard time after time, "Wealth cannot buy happiness," most of us still believe that if we only had more money, we would be happy. If we make 25000 a year, we are sure that true joy will come with a salary of 50000 a year. If we earn a salary of 50000, we are convinced that all our needs will be met with an income of 75000.
-As the beggar asked the millionaire, "How many more dollars would it take to make you truly happy?" The millionaire reaching his gnarled hands into the beggar's cup replied, "Only one more!"
- Well maybe we aren't that far gone, but we can still fall into the trap of thinking our money, or the money we don't have is the key to our happiness and to our joy.
- Listen to what the Proverbs writer had to say concerning this:
11:28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
23:4,5 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
have the wisdom to show restraint.Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
- It is Satans great lie, the lie that makes us think that fulfillment, contentment, peace all lie in the money we have saved in our bank account, or the car that we drive, or the house we live in, or the funds in our checking account. He wants you to think that what you have is not enough, so go out get some more, because that will satisfy.
- He is like the credit card companies. You know how they operate. They start off giving you just a little credit, say $2500. At first that is more than you will ever need. But as you begin to reach that limit, you realize that a little more would really hit the spot. And of course they come through, and increase your limit to $5000. Now you are satisfied, that is all you will ever need, but over time your right there at the max, and just one more increase, and what do you know they have increased your limit to $10000. Eventually, it ends in a trap that is strangling you and causing panic and fear. You are in a dark, deep hole that seems inescapable.
- You think I am being overly dramatic. Have you ever felt the heart wrenching, gut turning feeling of financial crisis. Have you ever known someone who has had to file bankruptcy? If you have or if you know someone who has, then you know my dramatics are not out of step.
- And it all starts with this lie, the lie that what you have and what you are worth and what you don't have is the key to your happiness and fulfillment. But it's not! They are but a passing moment, like dust in the wind, one moment they are here and the next, they are swept up in a tornado. Ask our friends in Oklahoma City. There names, ------------. ---- is a youth minister, ---- is a teacher. They are living comfortably in their two bedroom apartment, with two cars and a comfortable lifestyle and in one night, all of their material possessions are swept away leaving them only with the clothes on their back and one car.
- But their happiness, their fulfillment, their peace is not in their wealth, but in there God. A God who satisfies the soul before the bank account. Who quenches the heart, who fills the yearning so many desire.
- If you want to get rich towards God, then the first step is to realize that wealth is not fulfillment.
Step #2: A Decision to Share and Not Hoard
- Marquis de Lafayette was a French general and politician who helped George Washington in the American Revolution. After the war was over, he returned to France and resumed his life as a farmer of many estates. In 1783, the harvest was a terrible one, and there were many who suffered as a result. However, Lafayettes farms were still able to fill their barns with wheat and were unaffected by the devastating harvest. One of his workers, offered what seemed to be good advice to Lafayette, "The bad harvest has raised the price of wheat. This is the time to sell." After thinking about the hungry peasants in the surrounding villages, Lafayette disagreed by saying, "No, this is the time to give."
- I think that Lafayette understood what the proverbs writer said in:
11:24-26 One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.
22:9 A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
- We have to realize that the wealth and possessions we have, are not to merely serve our needs, but are intended to serve the needs of others. We are to be channels of God's blessings. And the proverbs writer, warns that if we refuse to be channels of God's blessing, that if we decide that our possessions and our wealth will only serve our needs and our desires, then cursings will fall on you.
- If you want to get rich, then you need to know that resources should be shared, not hoarded. Abundant harvests invite gift-giving, not barn building or profit taking. Lafayette had an opportunity to store up treasures for himself, but decided instead to offer his wealth to those in need. This act did not impoverish him, but instead it made him rich --- rich towards God. Such generosity is good planning not only for this life, but for the end of your life.
The final step to getting rich towards God is:
Step #3: A Commitment to Serve God Instead of Money
- When we think about Jesus' teachings, parables, sermons and prayers, often times we assume that Jesus spent most of his time talking about God and love and salvation. But that's not the case. Do you know the two subjects that Jesus focused on the most often? 1) The kingdom of God and 2) Money.
- Jesus was greatly concerned about how we handle our money, about how we view our money, about what we do with our money. We have to remember that God knows us better than we know ourselves. And God also knows that money can be the one thing that stands between us and Him. The one thing that we are unwilling to surrender to Him. Money can be our golden calf, our chariots, our idols. It happens like this:
- Lord I trust you with my life, but the bills are higher than normal and we are having a tough time making ends meet, so I think you will understand, but I am gonna have to hold back on giving to you this month. I am sure you understand.
- Or Lord I trust you with my life, but the IRS is pounding hot on my trail and I really need to pay them before I give to you. I promise I will make it up later, but they have a deadline you know.
- Or Lord I trust you with my life, but if I only had more then I would be happy and fulfilled, so could you give me more than you have already given me.
- Or Lord I trust you with my life, but I really should hold on to the abundance you have given me instead of being a channel of blessing, after all you know how it goes, times can get tough before you know it, I just want to be prepared for the worst. You know how this economy is Lord, so I am just gonna hold back for now and maybe later I will be ready to share.
- And we say thanks for understanding, but I don't think he understands that line of thinking. God wants all of you. He wants your trust, your faith, your life, which includes the way you use that which he has given to you. After all who do you think gave you what you have. It is the same one who can take it back.
- Please understand I am not trying to manipulate you or con you in any way. I simply want you to see the rich blessings that God has in store for his people who trust him fully with their life, who trust and serve with their time, with their words, with their actions and with their money. I am not saying he will bless with material blessings, but I am saying you will rich towards God, that will overflow your soul, and your mind, and your heart with blessings that can be found from God alone when we serve him and not our money.
Conclusion
- You may not know this, but there is a story with our name in it found in the Bible. It is true, it is found in Matthew chapter 19, and we are the main characters. Let me put a contemporary twist on it. You see one day, we were walking down the main street of Ipava
(you know the town where every ones a neighbor). It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping. And you were just minding your own business, going to the Post office to pick up your mail, and then you were going to go to the bank where you were about to cash your paycheck. Just a normal day, like any other.
- As you are walking, all of a sudden you see Jesus on up ahead. It is clear that it is him, he's the only one in town who wears sandals everywhere and dresses in a robe. Well, you have been meaning to ask him something, so you run up to him, catch his attention and you ask him your question, you say, "Teacher, what good things must I do to get eternal life?" Seems like an innocent question, and you wait for a response.
- Jesus says, "Why that is simple, if you want to be with God forever, just do what he says." You respond, "Like what."
- And you hear what you expected to hear from Jesus, "Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, honor you mom and dad, and love your neighbor as yourself."
- And you think and say, "No problem, I've done all that." And at this point you are feeling pretty good about yourself. I mean, so far, you have lived up to the expectations, you have met the requirements, you done all the right things. So you tell yourself, I guess I really do trust God with my whole life. And not convinced that you really lack anything, you go ahead and ask, "Is there anything else?"
- To your surprise Jesus has an answer, he says, "If you want to give it all you got, go sell your possessions and give it all to the poor. Then all your wealth will be in heaven and you will be able to follow me."
- And the man went away saddened, because Jesus asked him to give up the one thing he was unwilling to part with, his wealth.
- The honest truth is that all of us are in that story. All of us have that natural tendency to trust in our wealth, to cling to it as if it is our security, to look to our money as our source of happiness and fulfillment, to allow finances to govern our decisions and our choices as opposed to trusting God to govern such choices. Everyone of us is in that story. But Jesus looks at us and he says the same thing he said to his disciples in 19:26, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
- I don't have the answers to all of you financial questions. And quite frankly nobody does. And, to be honest, God doesn't even need your money and neither does his church, they will survive with your money or without it. Because the real issue, is not your money, it is your heart and all God asks of us, all he desires of us, is for us to simply say to him, "Lord, I really do trust you with my whole life, including my money." Can you say that this morning?"
