This morning, I’m going to tell you how to get rich. I’m going to tell you how to acquire wealth that makes Bill Gates’ fortune look like pocket change.
Last week -- flood in Mozambique, a country on the Southeastern coast of Africa. Caused by a cyclone and three weeks of torrential rains.
· Thousands of people killed. One million homeless and in urgent need of food, medicine, and shelter.
· 250,000 acres of crops (1/3) washed away, 40,000 cattle drowned, 141 schools wiped out.
· Many left stranded in trees or on rooftops for several days waiting to be rescued by helicopter.
This week, the NASDAQ stock index hit a new all-time high. The NASDAQ has more than doubled in the past twelve months. Meantime, the internet has made many instant millionaires. Example: Jeff Bezos. Six years ago, at the age of 29, he started Amazon.com. His stake in the company is now worth about 7 Billion.
What do these two stories, polar opposites, have in common? They both illustrate something that Jesus Christ taught twenty centuries ago.
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -- Matthew 6:19-21
This passage has a "Do Not" and a "Do". We’ll take them in order.
First, the "Do Not". "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth."
Is this an absolute prohibition against any form of savings? Is it sin to have an IRA or 401K plan? Is Jesus forbidding the accumulation of material possessions? Should Christians take a vow of poverty, giving away all of their belongings, and keeping just the bare minimum needed for survival?
We could all give away our gold wedding rings, sell our late model cars, take our suits and dresses to the Salvation Army, hold a yard sale for our TV’s and stereos and furniture, sell our houses, give all the proceeds to charity and move in with our parents. Is that what Christ is calling us to do?
No. As usual, Jesus is concerned with our hearts. External things, like material possessions, matter only because of what they reveal about what is internal, what is in our hearts. Jesus cares about our wealth, not for its own sake, but because it both has an effect on our hearts and reflects what is already in our hearts.
Let me give some support for this argument that Jesus in not forbidding us to acquire possessions.
"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! . . . It stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest." -- Proverbs 6:6-8 (NIV)
Here the Scriptures commend the ant because it makes provisions for the future. A wise man is one who follows this example. So a 401K plan is not sin, it is a prudent ant-like preparation.
"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:23 (NIV)
Note what Paul is saying: the important thing isn’t whether we have plenty or are in need. The important thing is what is in our hearts; whether we are content or not. Because our level of contentment is independent of our level of wealth. It is possible to be poor and content, or to be wealthy and discontent. [Someone once asked J. Paul Getty how much was enough. "One more dime," he said]
If contentment doesn’t come from wealth, where does it come from? Paul gives us the secret: it comes from Christ. Through Him, we can be content in "any and every situation." He is the one who gives us strength.
But all of this doesn’t leave us off the hook entirely. Christ is speaking against something. If he isn’t condemning all accumulation of property, what is he forbidding? The key is in the phrase, "for yourselves." Christ is warning us against greed, covetousness, the hoarding of wealth, the lust for riches. It’s one thing to provide for the needs of your family and make provisions for the future. It’s another thing to seek wealth for its own sake, just to spend it on greater and greater levels of comfort and pleasure.
People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. -- 1 Timothy 6:6, 9-10 (NIV)
Again the key is the heart, not the bank account. Whatever our financial situation, we must have an attitude of contentment. If we are harboring a love of money, we are on the wrong path. It is not possible to love money and to love God at the same time.
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. -- Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
So what is Jesus saying? If you are motivated by a desire to become wealthy, if the thing that drives you and motivates you is the accumulation of wealth, if your dreams and goals have to do with financial success and "security," if you are never content with what you have but always feel like you have to have more, then you are on the wrong path. You are serving a false God, and idol of your own making. And God will not take second place in your heart. It is impossible to serve God and money at the same time. If you want to know and follow the true God, you need to repent of your wrong attitudes and actions seek forgiveness and a change of heart in Christ.
Now, the problem is that we can convince ourselves that all is well, when in truth the love of money, the sin of coveting, is lurking in the recesses of our hearts. How can we tell?
1. Look at your checkbook. Look at the money going out. How much of it is going to provide for the needs of you and your family, and how much is going to meet the needs of others? Are you giving to charitable causes? Are you giving to the church? Are you helping those in need?
2. How do you respond when you hear an appeal for financial help? Do get angry that someone would dare suggest that some of your hard-earned cash go to helping someone other than yourself?
Remember, we’re talking heart attitudes. We’re all in different financial circumstances. I’m not trying to tell you how much, or to whom, you should give. I’m not trying to drum up contributions for WestShore Community Church. God has always provided for our needs, and we trust that He will continue to do so. I don’t know how much any individual gives to this church, and I don’t want to know. I’m just trying to give you a diagnostic tool that you can use to evaluate your own heart attitude. And if your expenditures are all for the benefit of yourself and your family, you need to consider whether money has more of a hold on your heart than it should.
3. Here’s another diagnostic tool: How do you react when you hear that someone else has come into money? Are you glad for them, or envious? Envy at the financial good fortune of others indicates covetousness and a lack of contentment.
4. Do your hopes and dreams center around money?
Why should we not store up treasures for ourselves on earth? First, because it’s pointless! They don’t last! Everything that you can accumulate on this earth can, and will be destroyed. The only question is how and when.
(v. 19) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."
Think of those people in Mozambique. The flood took away everything. It even took away the land itself, the topsoil. A million people have literally nothing left. One day they had a farm, a few head of cattle, a house, some tools - the next day they had nothing. You think, "Well, I’m not some poor subsistence farmer in Africa. My possessions are more secure than that. But are they?
· Your house can burn, but insurance covers that. What if something happens to make it worthless that insurance doesn’t cover?
· NASDAQ stock market - people jumping out of buildings in the crash of 1929
· Even money in the "safest" investments can be lost. Hyperinflation can destroy the value of your savings. Your bank can go under, and deposits are only guaranteed to $100,000. Your spouse can leave you and clean out the joint bank account.
· Even if none of these things happen, everything you own is deteriorating.
In other words, it’s a race between the deterioration of your body and the deterioration of your possessions. Eventually, both will turn to dust. And what Jesus is telling us is that it is unwise to invest all of our time and energy into accumulating things that will not and cannot last. Instead, we should be investing our time and energy in storing up the kind of treasure that lasts forever, the kind of treasure that cannot be lost or stolen, will not deteriorate, and cannot be used up.
Second, because they will make their way into our heart. What you invest in, your heart attaches to.
(v. 21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Is God some kind of cosmic Killjoy, looking for people having fun so that He can stop it? No. Who do you think created pleasure? He wants us to enjoy His creation in order to point us to Christ. He doesn’t want us to "fill up" on the appetizer, lest we lose our appetite for the main course.
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around about drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are too easily pleased." (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
This is the wealth I was talking about. "Oh, OK," you say, "I knew you weren’t talking about real wealth, just some spiritual thing." Not at all. This wealth is much more real than Bill Gates’ fortune. If I had a choice between the two, I’d take what I’ve got in a second. Let me explain.
· First, this treasure lasts forever. Bill Gates’ money will last, at most, another sixty or seventy years.
· Second, this treasure cannot be lost. Bill Gates could lose his fortune.
· Third, this treasure is much greater than anything this world can offer.
This grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ
-- Ephesians 3:8 (NIV)
As it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" -- 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV)
In other words, the treasures that God has prepared for us are so fantastic that it is beyond our ability to conceive. Therefore, they are greater than anything we can conceive of, including any amount of earthly wealth. I can imagine being as rich as Bill Gates. I can’t imagine the kind of treasures that God has waiting for us in heaven.
How do we acquire these treasures? How do we "store them up"? We do it by following Christ. We do it by trusting in Him for forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and by guiding our lives according to His Word.
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." -- 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV)
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
