Introduction: As we approach the end of the age and the greatest harvest of souls ever witnessed, the Lord is going to bless His church to fulfill the Great Commission. Like the children of Israel coming out of Egypt there will be a great endtime wealth transfer to the Body of Christ. Hence, we need to understand wealth: wrong attitudes, right attitudes and the purpose of wealth.
I But remember the Lord your God: Wrong attitudes about Wealth
i) Forgetting the source: It is easy to forget the Lord after acquiring wealth. Success, praise and financial prosperity can lead to pride making us think that we are the source of wealth. Moses is reminding the people here to remember the Lord always. Jesus instituted communion so that we would always come back to the source of all our blessings: His sacrifice on the cross.
ii) The wealth we acquire is ours: Ownership is an issue we must forever settle. All that we have belongs to God! Psa 89:11, Psa 50:10, Hag 2:8. We are stewards not owners.
iii) Poverty = Spirituality: This teaching has roots in pagan thinking called Docetism (matter is bad, mind is good). It is amazing how deep this thinking has permeated Christian circles. We need to resist it. According to the Word, poverty is a curse, Deu 28:48. Wealth is neither moral nor immoral; it is amoral. Our attitude towards wealth determines what it becomes, blessing or curse.
II It is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth: Right attitudes about Wealth
i) Wealth comes from the Lord: God gives us the ability to produce it so it must be good: Jam 1:17. Our attitude towards wealth makes it either a blessing or a curse: Blessing or Mammon, e.g. idols – nothing in themselves but if worshipped cause evil powers to inhabit them.
ii) Patriarchs in the Bible were wealthy: All patriarchs were very wealthy. Our father of faith Abraham was a very wealthy man. To establish God’s covenant, Abraham had to be a prosperous person. He had 318 trained men in his household by which he could go after Lot’s captors and rescue him. When Job was restored, he got twice as much of the wealth he had before.
iii) Jesus became poor so that we might be rich: 2Co 8:9, this is the only legitimate situation for poverty: when someone voluntarily gives up his wealth for the prosperity of others. Jesus left his throne in glory and became poor for our prosperity. The apostle Paul embraced hardship and difficulty to preach the gospel.
iv) God wants to prosper you: 3Jo 2, 2Co 9:18, Pro 10:22. It is God’s will for us to prosper.
III And so confirms his covenant: The purpose of wealth
i) To confirm God’s covenant: In Exodus the purpose was to go and worship the Lord, to build the tabernacle. In Joshua it was to subdue the land. Today it is for fulfilling the Great Commission. This is going to take a lot of resources that God will give to his people.
ii) Money is to be a good slave: But a poor master. Money is meant to be use for God’s purposes. When God blesses us we must ask him to show us what He wants to use it for. The tithe (first ten percent of all our increase) belongs to Him. The rest of it is our seed. Some is to eat and some to sow.
Conclusion:
Are you prepared for great blessing? We need to firmly warned about wrong attitudes towards wealth, embrace the right attitudes and be firmly focussed on the purpose of wealth.
