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Be Rich in God

            Question: What would you say is your most valuable earthly possession? Home, job and skills for a career, income and investments, spouse, family, health? Follow-up question: What are you going to do when it is gone? I ask those questions because it’s easy to live as if our meaning and purpose in life is attached to any of those blessings, but not one of them is specifically connected to any permanent promise of God. If we don’t understand this, and then God calls us from any of them, the trauma begins. But it doesn’t have to be that way. God called Abraham to leave his home, left Naomi and Ruth without husbands, and allowed the devil to take away Job’s health and children. Jesus called some of his disciples to follow him full-time and leave their jobs; he commended women who spent way too much on extravagant offerings to him and men who cashed in their 401(k) for a field or a pearl others thought to be merely mundane commodities. All of these faith-filled followers were rich—in God.

            Today God’s Word tells us more about what it means to Be Rich in God. “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.” Can you make my job easier today and just admit that the title “rich in this present world” applies to us in this building, even the jobless, the foreclosed, and college grads strapped with debt? As Americans we are rich. We have the technology and the time to spend an average of 10 hours per day connected to some kind of media, whether that’s a smart phone, iPad, iPod, or TV. The average American net worth has historically amounted to more than 10 times higher than the average Indonesian, whose net assets total only $1,000. In the 4 minutes it’s taken for me to get this sermon going, about 75 children in Third World countries have died of preventable diseases that don’t have the same negative impact on us. And we purchase more than 31 billion bottles of water per year, even though time after time tap water wins in taste tests and any plastic bottles we throw away are creating an environmental disaster.

            Listen, it’s not wrong, bad, or sinful to be rich in this world. God made people like Abraham, Job, and Solomon rich. It’s okay to be a rich American! However, it is bad, wrong, and sinful according to the word of God “to be arrogant” about it. That means our attitude—more than the amount of our paycheck (or lack of paycheck)—makes the biggest difference when it comes to our money. Arrogance says, “I’m not rich, the Bible’s warnings about greed don’t apply to me, and the church shouldn’t be talking about money.” Arrogance can make us “put [our] hope in wealth, which is so uncertain.” Hope. A joyful certainty about the future. A working partner with faith. If your joy or your certainty about the future is shaken by unpredictable interest rates, market plunges, or unemployment, then you have arrogantly put your hope in wealth. The wisest man in the world and the richest man in the Bible discovered that the hard way.

            In today’s first Scripture lesson (1 Kings 3:5-12) we heard young Solomon’s pious answer to God’s blank check invitation for him to ask for whatever he wanted, and God would give it to him. Solomon asked for wisdom. So focused on God’s ways instead of his personal wishes, on the good of the people he served instead of gain for himself. Therefore, God was so pleased that he gave Solomon not only wisdom but riches. As the months and years passed, however, and Solomon amassed his worldly wealth and political power, he invested himself less and less in God’s treasures and more and more in his own. Solomon pawned off God for the riches of this world. Later in his life, he realized the error of his ways, repented, and by the grace of God returned to the faith-filled young man he once was. He explains in the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” He was rich in the world until he put his hope in God. Solomon continues,“I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will revere him” (2:10,11; 3:14).

            The sin in us that God condemns today is not an innocent mathematical error we make when reconciling our checkbook. It is much worse. Our sin is the faithless, self-inflated arrogance that thinks I am the exception, that God’s guidelines for wealth and warnings about greed don’t apply to me. If even the wisest man in the world falls into the deception of wealth…then we’re more than a little smart to sense its danger in our lives, and to repent to the God who “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” A millionaire with many heirs waiting for his wealth died. His children and grandchildren gathered at the hospital and after a quick and easy grief session asked each other, “How much did he leave us?” A family friend, on her way in the door, heard their great concern and said, “I’m pretty sure he left everything.”

            Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven. How much did he leave you? In his own words: “The Father…will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth…[who] will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:16,17,26). “You are in me and I am in you…Remain in me…I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me…bears much fruit” (John 14:20;15:5). “My peace I give you…Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). “The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name” (John 15:17). Don’t tell me that the church shouldn’t be talking about money. We, who have sinned against God with our money, rely on his forgiveness to remove our shame. These words of Jesus, these promises of God that he still loves us, still provides for us, still calls us to follow faithfully—no financial advisor or money magazine is going to announce them. You’ll hear them only in the church, and in your Bible reading. And they make a world of difference for our encouragement. Did you hear Jesus? He gives you everything the Holy Spirit does, and the Holy Spirit enlightens you with everything Jesus promises. Jesus gives you everything he himself does and promises that, connected to him by faith, you can do every good work he commands. Jesus gives you every reason to live in complete peace and joy, and assurance that every one of your prayers is answered in light of your heavenly Father’s perfect wisdom and love.

            If you’re looking to be less rich in greed, less rich in worry, less rich in self, and to Be Rich in God, then trust that God “is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 8:8). Another market plunge? A deeper recession? The economy is uncertain, but God’s riches never lose their value because they’re based on the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Anxious about retirement? Stressed out about your job? Resist the urge to be rich in self, and go to God poor in spirit, confessing your sins, empty-handed and eager for his generous grace. “He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich he has sent away empty” (Luke 1:53). First Timothy 6 continues by explaining what it means, in our actions, to Be Rich in God.

            Being rich in God means that we will live differently than everyone else around us. We will “do good,” when it comes to making decisions about money, meaning that the primary criteria for financial decisions is not just “can I afford it” but “is this good?” Sometimes good means saving for the future what I’d like to spend now. Sometimes good means spending for others what I’d like to spend on myself. Sometimes good means taking a break, gaining some insight, and doing some purposeful planning for God-pleasing strategies related to money. Grace Church can help. According to leaders at Grace who teach our money management course called Financial Peace University, 8 out of 10 households in America will experience a $10,000 financial setback every 10 years. Maybe you’ve already experienced that, and if not, are you ready for it? Attend the fall session of Financial Peace University and begin a journey, like a handful of Grace members have, in order to live debt free and make more informed financial decisions. You’ll study scriptural promises and financial principles that combine to help you manage your money instead of letting your money manage you.

            Being rich in God also means being “rich in good deeds.” You know that good deed you’ve been putting off because you’re not sure you can afford it? Being rich in God means you can afford it—you can give your time, adjust your calendar, spend a little extra, invest yourself and enrich the life of another because God makes you rich in him. When asking whether or not you can afford more good deeds, don’t ask, “Can I really do this?” but, “Can God underwrite this with his treasures?” And he already assures you: yes.

            Being rich in God also means that we are “generous and willing to share.” Like Grace worship attenders gave $3,500 in a recent door collection for a neighboring church recovering from flood damage. Like Grace members and friends contribute regularly to our operating fund and our building fund that allow us, through budgeted income and expenses, to reach more and more people in our ministry. Thank you! Please consider some new challenges, such as the building fund dipping below our mortgage payments, and our discovery that $4,500 worth of tents, chairs, and tables will no longer be donated to our Oktoberfest at Grace. And remember God’s promise that when we are “generous and willing to share,” our charity is sown like a seed in the ground, and God makes it grow and produce fruit in our lives many times the amount we had sown.

            One memorable quote says, “The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost our money.” Be Rich in God. Believers who trust God more than money, who love God more than money, and use money to serve God instead of God to serve money, “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.” Be Rich in God. Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on August 21, 2011

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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