New Series: Christians and the Concept of Wealth

I know most of you don’t want to hear about this subject or you think you have heard all there is to say about it already.  In this next few messages during this time of year when we are thinking about the past year and setting goals for the new year, I feel it is important we look at the root cause of many people’s difficulty with the whole concept of wealth creation.   Our mindset on this subject needs to be right and it needs to be built on the true concepts as Jesus taught them.  This begins with a battle of the minds.  One I won a long time ago.  Though Alistair Kent was not one of my mentors at the time (I didn’t know of him then) he is an excellent modern day mentor and one I would recommend to any Christian having trouble with the concept of living abundantly.  As ministers who are responsible for teaching your flocks you can find a lot of information and resources on this website, http://www.wisdomonwealth.org .  You will find a lot of Alistair Kent’s articles here as well.  I will be borrowing a lot of his words as I get this message together.

First Subject of series: God is a God of Abundance

There is nothing about God that smacks of insufficiency, lack or limit.  He teaches us to be the same.  You have probably heard all this part before.  God didn't just create our planet; he created all the other planets and the sun (which is a star) that make up our solar system, and all the planets and suns that make up all the other solar systems in our galaxy and all the other planets, suns and solar systems in all the other galaxies in our universe. That ought to be enough to boggle our minds and much more than our minds can naturally take in, and yet God has created even more, and more and much more.

Our sun is a star.  In addition to our sun there are an estimated 200 billion further stars in our Galaxy.  Some of the stars that we can see at night with the naked eye are more than 1,000 light years away. And we've only been looking at stars in our galaxy.  If the universe were a beach, then our own vast Galaxy is but just one of numerous grains of sand. NASA's Hubble Space telescope can see up to 50 million of these galaxies in our universe!

Now I say all this to make the very important point that God is a God of relentless abundance. He wasn't content with one planet, one solar system or even one galaxy, but the realm of his created order is far, far greater than the brightest human mind can comprehend.

Yet out of that abundance, when we focus on little planet Earth, we can see that God has created it with an incredible amount of wealth. There are vast natural resources that lie under the earth's surface such as minerals and oil. God gave us plants and trees that reproduce after their own kind. We have animals on the ground, birds in the air, creatures in the sea and a sun in the sky. And in all of this, God has given us the ability to use these resources to create wealth for ourselves.

So how do we see God working all this out through his people in the scriptures?

The Old Testament

Contrary to widespread belief, great people in the Bible enjoyed great wealth.

Abram was 'extremely rich' (Genesis 13:2), Jacob became "very wealthy" (Genesis 30:43) and Isaac "became a very rich man and his wealth continued to grow" (Genesis 26:13).

King David was 'a man after God's own heart' (1 Samuel 13:14) - but he was also incredibly rich. The Bible tells us in 1 Chronicles 29:3 that he gave all the gold and silver from his personal stock towards the building of the Temple (millions of pounds worth in today's terms, probably in excess of a billion)!

We revel and stand in awe of the timeless truths and incredible wisdom found in the book of Proverbs. But who wrote most of it? Only the wealthiest king to have ever lived, and will ever live, King Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs. One time, the Queen of Sheba visited him and she was left breathless when she saw the degree of his wealth.

And when we look at the magnitude, detail, precision, costly materials and skilled labor that was put into the building of Solomon's Temple, it tells its own story of wealth, abundance and excellence.

We are not told so much detail about the prophets, but Jewish custom tells us that Isaiah came from royal stock, Jonah had enough money to finance a trip to a distant country and Jeremiah didn't appear to have any problems in buying $4,000 worth of land when God instructed him to (Jeremiah 32:9).

The New Testament

Even Jesus had a degree of wealth! Kings (probably quite a few more than the statutory three that the Christmas Carols state) brought incredibly rich gifts at his birth. Wealthy women supported him and his 12 disciples throughout their ministry.

Jesus quite rightly spoke about the trappings of riches, but he was also comfortable around wealth. He even produced it miraculously!

In his first public miracle (as recorded in our Bibles) we don't see Jesus amazing the crowds by healing the sick, raising the dead or walking on water. We see him keeping a party going by supplying extra wine! He took 135 gallon capacity containers used for ceremonial washing and turned the water in them into wine. And not any old wine, but fine wine. That's the equivalent of about 800 bottles of wine from each container - at $20 a bottle in today's value you're looking at a total of $16,000 worth of wealth created - from each container!

We can also look at when he produced a meal for the multitudes - not once, but twice! With crowds being probably around 15,000 people (writers only recorded men in those days), we see Jesus taking the young boys offering of fish and bread, blessing it, miraculously multiplying it and feeding everyone. There were even basketfuls left over! Taking the value of a tuna baguette in today's market at $1.50, we can see that Jesus created around $35,000 worth of wealth. Of course the focus of the account is that he was meeting a need and teaching a principle, but nevertheless, a huge amount of value was created. And the disciples didn't have to go and spend that money on food themselves.

And even to show that the principle of miraculous provision was not just about huge wealth, we see Jesus instructing Peter to go fishing at the rivers edge, take the first fish that bites and open its mouth. In it he would find a coin which was to be used for Jesus and Peter's temple tax (Matthew 27:17).

We can flick further through the pages of scripture to the writings of the Apostle Paul. He had enough money to go on three world trips and supported his team. He was also a tent-maker by trade (a very well-to-do business). And listen to this: the scriptures tell us that not only did Paul know what it meant to live in need, but he also "knew what it was like to have plenty" (Philippians 4:12).

What about you?

Am I saying that God wants us all to be millionaires? No.  Am I saying that wealth equates directly with godliness? No. Am I saying that we should all strive to be rich? No. What I am saying is that Christians are called to greatness, but unfortunately many are conformed to mediocrity. Yes there will be troubles and times of tribulation in this life, but that doesn't negate the fact that God wants us to share in his wealth. His plan is for us to prosper. He wants us to pay our bills and be out of debt. He wants us to succeed and prosper. And not just for our own sake, but for the sake of those who are in our sphere of influence.

I'm not talking here about a certain amount of money that God wants to bless us with, but with a principle that God wants to bless us according to his abundant riches, just as he blessed those who followed him obediently in the scriptures. And that blessing includes wealth (The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it. Proverbs 10:15, NIV).

As ministers, we must think carefully about what teachings we take on board in our lives. False teachers and doctrines can be hugely damaging to the Church and severely hinder the works of God that he has for us to do. Think too about how God views such things. James 3:1 tells us that Bible teachers will be “judged by a higher standard and with greater severity” (AV) than other people. God sees this as a critical area.  Again as ministers we must be responsible in this area and teach others the truth as well.

So where does God fit into the equation? Well, he loves all his children, but not all their lifestyles. Some, I’m sure, bring great sorrow to him – especially when we get into false doctrines and teachings – to whatever extreme.  While I personally don’t feel our current day Bible is complete in itself I do feel it is full of inspired truth and worthy for teaching out of.  It is my purpose to give a balanced biblical view of how God wants us to perceive and handle wealth in our lives.

I passionately believe that the Devil will do everything he can to prevent us from managing and creating wealth, so that God’s Kingdom is not impacted through the giving of our resources. After all, a rich person has far more power at their disposal to be able to help where financial assistance is needed than a poor person.

More on the mindset of this subject next week.

Blessings, Reverend Sharra