Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Should Christians Be Rich? | Questions You’re Asking

Episode Date: October 7, 2020

"We have narrowed salvation to focus only on our souls or only on individuals. And we have missed what God is doing on a cosmic level, what God is doing on a bigger level." When we think about salvation, we probably think about our souls, but it's way bigger than that. God cares about all of his creation, which includes animals and nature. We are called to be stewards of the earth and caretakers of the land. Most of us care about the environment, but we might not realize how important it is. Learn how we're supposed to care for the earth from Dr. Sandra Richter as she joins Keith and Patrick to discuss how creation fits in with the Kingdom of God. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10 Minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are answering questions you're asking. A lot of these are coming from our Facebook page. So follow 10-minute Bible Talks on Facebook, vote on your favorite questions, or you can just give your own, and you might hear it right here on the podcast. Should Christians be rich? How do you want the Bible to answer that question?

Be honest with yourself. Why do you want that particular answer? Okay, now that you've answered it in your own head, I want you to consider this. If your household income is over $100,000, you are actually in the top 0.66% of the richest people in the entire world. Now I know what you're thinking. Like, hey, that's not even close to what my household makes. Okay, well, if you make over $40,000, then you're in the top 3.17%. How about over $10,000?

Well, then you're in the top 12% richest people in the world. In fact, if you make over $2,000, you're in the top 20% most rich people in the world. So chances are that if you're listening to this, that means you can afford the technology required to listen to a podcast, which probably means that you are numbered among the 20% of the most wealthy people in the world. In fact, let me add one more wrinkle. When the Bible talks about wealthy people, what the Bible means by wealth really doesn't match American standards of wealth. It's far, far, far below American standards of wealth. Being wealthy in Bible days just meant having enough to feed your family on a daily basis, and meant having a steady income so that you could give enough food for your families that you

could pay for what little cost you had. I mean, to be wealthy in those days was not typically extravagance. And so by modern standards, if you live in a home with central air, if you've got a bathroom, a shower. If you've got clothes that you put on, maybe fresh clothes every day, which would have been a wild idea to people in the ancient world. If you're able to put food on your table for your family, you're already wealthier than what the Bible calls, quote unquote, wealthy people. So again, let me ask you the question, should Christians be rich? How do you answer that question now? The funny thing is that I hardly know anyone who thinks of themselves as being rich. And that's because we tend to think about wealth in proportional terms, not absolute terms.

Almost everyone knows someone who is more rich has more than him or her. And so that makes it easy for us to say, well, they're rich, but I'm not rich. Perhaps that's why in 10 years of ministry, I've had people confess to me almost every imaginable struggle with sin. But do you know what I've never had a single person tell me? I really struggle with greed. Now, I don't think that's because no one actually struggles with greed. I think it's because greed isn't like a lot of other sins. You either did or did not steal.

It's definable. You know it. You either did or did not commit adultery. You either did or did not lie. But when asked the question, am I greedy? Well, it's not so obvious, is it? And we often say, well, no, I must not be greedy because, again, I've got less, less than that person. That person has more than me. How could I possibly be greedy? All of this to say,

maybe the question, should Christians be rich? Maybe that's really the wrong question. Chances are, if you're listening to this, you're already rich, at least by the absolute standards of the Bible. You're already probably a rich Christian. I mean, let me start here. I'm a rich Christian. And so the real question is, how should rich Christians think about their money? I want to draw out six different principles that we can take from the Bible about how we, as rich Christians, need to think about our money. And the first thing is this, we need to steward it. Contrary to the claim of many libertarians out there, your money is not your own to do with as you please. And contrary to the claim of many socialists out there, your money is not the states for the state to do with it as it pleases.

Your money is God's money. Quoting from Exodus 19, the Apostle Paul wrote, the earth and all of its abundance are the lords that's in first corinthians 1026 paul understood it your money is god's money your money is a gift that god has given to you in order for you to steward it responsibly of course this looks like budgeting well by giving and saving and spending wisely but i think more importantly this has a lot to do with your attitude don't think of your money as your money It's God's money. And at the end of our lives, he's going to hold us accountable for how we've stewarded the gifts, the finances that he's given to us. So number one, steward money. Number two, don't love it. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

If you love money, you're going to end up serving money. And money is an awful master because money is never satisfied. Money always wants more and it doesn't love you. It just loves consumption. In our consumeristic world, we are actually encouraged by our culture to love money and the stuff that it buys us. But I suspect that we do well to love it a lot less. And one practical way to do that is by trying to live simpler lives. Fighting for contentment with what we have. seeking to serve King Jesus' interest before we ask the question, how can I get a raise? So steward your money. Don't love your money. Number three, be generous with it. Have you ever felt like God isn't answering your prayers like he can't hear you? Have you ever considered that it might be because you aren't giving your money away to those in need? Check out Proverbs 2113. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. Although it seems radical, our community has a claim on our wealth, precisely because it's not our wealth. It's what I already said. It's God's wealth. He's called us to give generously to

those in need as people who are stewarding his financial gifts. The Apostle Paul said that God loves a cheerful giver, which means that it doesn't just matter that we give. It also matters how we give. So what should motivate our giving? What should make us cheerful givers? Well, I think we should be motivated by the ability to see God's image reflected in the lives of those who have great need. I also think we should be motivated because we want to imitate God's own heart. You see, who is God? Well, God is a generous giver. And if we want to image God, if we want to reflect him, we need to be generous givers as well. Now, sometimes people will say, well, who should I give to? And the implication is I should only give or help out people who are deserving. You know, someone who would never spend money on the wrong thing.

They take the bus instead of wasting money on a car. They're filling out resumes constantly. And I always kind of laugh and I say, well, is that what you do with your money? Are you always using your money wisely? Are you never frivolous? Are you constantly doing the right thing? Well, of course not. And a bigger picture than that.

Remember, God loved us enough to generously give us the greatest, most extravagant gift he's ever given, his own son. and he didn't give that gift to the quote-unquote deserving poor. He gave it to his enemies. He gave it to people who didn't deserve the gift at all. You and me, and the net gain on that generosity was absolutely eternal. You see, another great motivation is that giving is the best investment strategy out there. There's a story about Warren Buffett, and he asked his neighbor how his neighbor was going to pay for his kids to go to college. And the neighbor said, well, I don't really. I don't really. know, I guess I'm just going to figure it out. And Buffett replies, he says, okay, well, just invest $10,000 with me and I will get you enough money to cover your kids' education. Now, at this time, Warren Buffett wasn't famous. He was still working from home, and $10,000 was a lot of money. And so the neighbor said, thanks, but no thanks. Do you know what we call that? A $450 million mistake. Proverbs 1917 says, Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,

and he will reward them for what they have done. In other words, generosity is an eternal investment strategy. Don't make a $450 million mistake. Don't make a mistake that's actually far larger than that. The Bible calls us not just to steward our money, not just to love it, but to be generous with it. Okay, number four, we need to work for it.

Paul warned the Thessalonian Church against potential freeloaders, and doing so, he was actually in good step with the Old Testament. Proverbs suggest that there's a correspondence between hard work and financial success. Now, that's not a way of saying that someone's in poverty or someone is struggling. It means that they aren't working hard. The point is, if you want to not be in poverty, a good way to do that is by working hard. It's not always guaranteed, but it's a good principle to live by. Okay, number five, enjoy it gratefully. Again, the Proverbs have a lot to say about money, but the Proverbs speak frankly about enjoying the good things that wealth can bring us. It's not interested in guilting or shaming people for how

they spend, as long as they earn their money honestly, as long as they give it away generously, and they see it as a gift from God that they need to steward. If that's all true, it's good to enjoy your money gratefully to spend it in ways that you enjoy. Number six, lastly, you need to be content with your money. You might think right now, I just, don't have enough or my family just doesn't have enough. I wish we could just have more. You don't have too little right now. Even if you feel like you do, you right now have exactly the amount that God wants you to have. You have exactly the amount that God has entrusted you with. So our six principles, we need to steward money. We shouldn't love it. We need to be generous with it. We need to

work for it. We should enjoy it gratefully. And we should be content with it. All of this makes me think of a guy you've probably never heard of. His name was Thomas Cannon. And Thomas Cannon was a postal worker. He died at the age of 79 and he never made more than $25,000 in a single year. But over the scope of his lifetime, he gave away $156,000. That was mostly in the form of $1,000 checks that he wrote to random people that he read about in the newspaper and saw, wow, these people are really in need. I like what one author Sandra Wagman said about him. She said, not many people would consider living in a house in a poor neighborhood without central heat, air conditioning, or a telephone, and working overtime so that they could save to give money away. And yet that's exactly what Thomas Cannon did.

You see, I think Thomas Cannon is a picture of how we should all see our money. Our money is something that God has given us to steward. He's called us to use it for the sake of communal good. Thomas Cannon is a wonderful picture that it's not about how much money we have. It's about the heart that we have in our giving. I love Proverbs 30 versus 8 and 9, and I want to use it as a prayer to end our time together. This is what the writer of Proverbs says. Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who's the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. That should be our prayer, that we wouldn't have so much that we would think, I don't need God anymore, and that we wouldn't have so little that we turn to bad behavior. The Proverbs are clear, wisdom looks like seeing our wealth as a gift from God to be stewarded for his purposes in the world. So let's fight to do that together. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe. and give us a rating.

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