Are You Rich? (Part 1)

Introduction

Are you rich? Well, what do you mean exactly by that? I want you to explore that thought on whatever level you want to explore it, and whatever area you want to think about it. And we’re going to try to cover all the angles of it this morning and this evening. Is this the way you see yourself? Are you rich? So as you ponder that, and as I think about wealth, the story that immediately came to mind that I want to begin with today is the story of the rich young ruler. As told in the Luke narrative in chapter 18, there is a shorter narrative of this in Matthew 19. There is a similar narrative in length in Mark 10 that has some nuances that we’ll talk about in a moment that are not found in the Luke narrative.

But I am using Luke’s account of this story or reason, as you’ll see momentarily.

1. One Thing You Lack

Do you have any kinship with this character in the book of Luke? To shorten this reading, I will summarize.

I do, what good things shall I do to inherit eternal life? I wish we could get more people to ask that question and give me the opportunity to answer that question. Jesus talked about good in regard to that, and him being addressed as good teacher. He went on to talk about the young ruler’s responsibility to keep the commandments of the old covenant to which he was amenable. And he says, These things I have observed from my youth. And yet there was something in those commandments that obviously was missed. Because Jesus said to him, one thing you lack. Verse 22 sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, which is quite an offer. Come, follow me. May I suggest that the one thing the rich young ruler lacked indicated why he had experienced failure in regard to the commandments that Jesus had already mentioned.

And the first commandment that he did not reference, thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. His wealth interfered with a complete observance of the commandments. And the truly tragic part of this story is the response of the young ruler. Jesus makes an incredible offer. And he refuses it. He doesn’t go and sell all that he has and contribute it to the poor. Instead, he walks away sorrowfully because he has great possessions. I’ve always wanted to interview the rich young ruler and to ask him about that choice now. Did you make a wise choice? Well, we know the answer to the question. What the rich young ruler could tell us right now about that choice. But what I want you to notice in particular is Jesus’ response to him walking away.

Notice Jesus didn’t run along after him begging him to return. Jesus looked at him and he said how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eel than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Wealth is a great impediment to receiving the kingdom and all of its associated blessings, including treasure in heaven. And we’ll read a verse like that, and I’ll tell you who we don’t see in that verse. You and I struggle to see ourselves there. And that’s what this lesson is about. Because I’m here to tell you. We should see ourselves right there.

Then who can be saved? Well, if it’s up to just me and you, it’s impossible. With men it is impossible, I quoted the verse in his introductory comments. With men it is impossible. With God, all things are possible. And Peter said, but look, he didn’t do what you asked him to do, but we did that. We have left everything to follow you. And Jesus says, let me tell you the payoff of that decision. There is no one who has left houses or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times as much, and in the age to come, eternal life. Now to the nuances. Verse 30 of Mark 10 says, you’ll receive a hundred times as much, not just many times.

I have a whole sermon on that, Sherry’s heard it so many times she won’t let me preach it anymore. A hundred times as much, that was Brett’s favorite sermon growing up. I’d go hold meetings, and Brett, Daddy, are you going to preach a hundred times as much? He loved it. I don’t think he loves it as much anymore either, but that’s a little nuance of this story in verse 30. Along with, and this is another thing Mark adds, along with persecutions, we often don’t put that on the positive side of the ledger. But in the Mark narrative, that’s added something else that Jesus said, along with persecutions, which causes us, of course, to share the sufferings of Christ, and there’s a benefit to that. There’s a positive aspect of that.

Peter talks about that in 1 Peter chapter 4. So we see that in Mark 10 and verse 30, a little added thing. But I want you to notice verse 24 of Mark 10th. Because something happens in the Mark narrative that doesn’t happen in Matthew and Luke. Jesus repeats himself.

After he talks about how hard it is for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he says, Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of heaven. Some add the word wealth in that verse in Mark 10 and verse 24, depending on your translation. But he mentions it again. That’s attention getting.

2. Luke's Emphasis on Wealth

That was a particular emphasis, as you’ll notice, and I didn’t really pay much attention to that until this past week. In his section of the Beatitudes, that is different than the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 through 7. Blessed are the poor, not just the poor in spirit, blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who hunger now. They don’t have all the wherewithal that seems to promote the spirit that seeks after God and the things of God. And then he goes on to say, woe to those, instead of the Beatitudes, he says, woe to those who are rich. Woe to those who are well fed now.

For you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now. They have time and the wherewithal for great merriment. Jesus isn’t opposed to laughing. He isn’t opposed to a good meal. But what he’s saying is that those things and having them in abundance might be detrimental to faith. For you shall mourn and weep. Woe to the rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. Now, here’s Luke’s emphasis. Then he tells the story. Remember the guy that comes to Jesus? Hey, tell my brother to divide our father’s inheritance with me. You know, this, he’s being selfish. He’s taking it all for himself. Jesus arbitrate on this matter. Who made me an arbitrator? Who made me an arbiter of this? Jesus asked. He says, and here’s his response, beware of covetousness.

An inordinate desire for material things. This life does not consist in the abundance of a thing which a person possesses. After all, as he would say in another place, what does a man profit if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? But he says, beware of this desire for stuff, material things. That’s not what life consists of. And he talks about the guy who had all of these possessions, who tore down his barns and built bigger barns. He was preparing for the future. But what if your soul is required of you that very night, and you’re not rich toward God? That’s tonight’s lesson. The trouble with treasure. He goes on in that very context in Luke chapter 12, as he’s talking about seeking first the kingdom.

The Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. That sort of leads more into tonight’s lesson. Sell your possessions, give to charity, make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven. A thief can’t take that from you. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also be dressed in readiness and keep your lamp alight. And then when he gets to chapter 16, now, is Luke emphasizing wealth or not? We started in 18. We went back to 6 all throughout 12. Then when you come to 16, may I suggest the hinge of that whole chapter? The hinge of the whole chapter is in verse 14. I have it circled. Luke 16, 14. Look at that. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things, and they were scoffing at him.

Now, what’s bracketing that in chapter 16? He goes on to talk about what? The rich man and Lazarus story. Okay. The rich man fared. His comfort was now. He was faring sumptuously every day. But in hell he lifted up his eyes, and he’s not rich anymore. And then there was the poor beggar Lazarus, who had nothing, blessed are the poor, but now he has everything. See how the reversal in the next life happens? Okay, we know that story. And what precedes verse 14 is the story of the unjust steward, how that he took care of himself. He did whatever was necessary to provide for himself. And Jesus says the children of this age are wiser in their own generation than the children of life. Which suggests that we have a little bit different.

We should have a different perspective than the unrighteous steward. But we should learn something about how he went to every length to provide for himself physically. We should go to every length to provide for ourselves spiritually. And we’re going to conclude with a couple of verses in that narrative at the beginning of Luke 16 at the end. So put your marker there. Okay. And of course, an illustrative story is that of Ananias and Sapphira, which Luke also tells. That’s why I’m mentioning it. Their inordinate affection for material things was their undoing. And we can say a lot about that. What relevance do these passages that we’ve looked at in Luke? What relevance does any of this have to you? And to me. Which gets me to the real title of this morning’s sermon.

3. The United States of America: Are You Rich?

I sort of have multiple titles today. The theme is, Are you rich? Don’t you love it when I do this? But I had to save this. Title. This is actually Sherry’s idea. She said it just in passing, but I love when she does this. She says something. Oh. That’s good. I can work with that. So here’s the title. Ready for this? Sherry’s title. The United States of America. That’s so true. That’s where we live. You know when I read passages in Luke, and then 1 Timothy 6, we’ll talk about at the end. There were some Christians in the first century who possessed wealth. And all of them were not instructed to do what the rich young ruler was instructed to do, and that is to sell everything and give it to the poor.

In fact, Ananias and Sapphira were instructed that before you sold your tract of land, did not those things remain your own? It was the hypocrisy over the whole deal, trying to be like Barnabas, who actually gave all the proceeds at the apostles’ feet. It was their hypocrisy and all of that, seeming to give all of the price, but keeping back part of the price and showing their inordinate attachment for material things in the process. That’s what caused them to be struck dead. So we read about people who have some wealth, and we’ll see that in 1 Timothy chapter 6. But I want to talk to you about your wealth. When you read the rich man’s story in Luke 16, when you read about, no, we want to identify with Lazarus.

Okay? The guy that actually has a name in the story. We don’t identify with him. Not in our physical circumstances. But we want to identify with him in the end, right? You ever see yourself as the rich man in the story? How about the rich unruler? Well, let’s go with the young part. At least we want to identify with that.

What about what you have materially? Anything you can compare with those two characters in Luke 16 and Luke 18. Now, this is the main part of this morning. I want you to get this. Are you rich? I want to talk to you about your affluence. That’s a big word, just means wealth. Expanding your vocabulary this morning. Everybody, even our kids are going to know what affluence is. See this over here? That’s affluence. How wealthy are you? I did some research. Look at a lot of different websites.

The richest people in the world. You realize most Americans, right? Are in the upper 1% of the wealthiest people in the world. Now, I’m throwing you a bone if you don’t think you are. And you may be below the threshold that gets you at 1%. So, and this may not cover everybody, we may have some people in our audience who might be as low as the upper 5%. But let’s see. If I’m in the upper 5%, that puts 95% of the world as less wealthy than me. You put yourself in the upper crust, the upper 1%. Let me tell you, the average median salary in the world. I’m trusting these numbers, but it sounds right to me.

The average median salary in the world. $1,225, American dollars annually. Okay, so if that’s all you make, now, kids, y’all don’t really count. You’re living in the luxury of your parents. You’re going under their income. You don’t get to do this. I work at McDonald’s, and that’s all I make. No. No. I’m pretty sure that’s not paid for all of your clothes and your phone. So. Okay. We’re talking about families here. $1,225 annually puts you at about the middle. So let’s talk about real wealth. You know what gets you in the 1% in terms of earnings. Now, this is not possession. That’s another whole what you’re worth materially. If your average net income exceeds $33,000 to $34,000 annually, you are in the upper 1% of the wealthiest people in the world.

Those aren’t my facts. Those are the facts several websites are throwing around. You may be in a household if your spouse works where both of you are in the 1% by yourselves. That’s how wealthy we are in America. The United States of Wimerica. And I’ll tell you this. The top one percent of the wealthiest people in the world own half of the world. Most of those one percenters live in the United States of America. And white households exceed blacks and Hispanics by far in these categories. Now there’s a lot more facts that I assemble I’m not going to get into right now. I’m just making the case for your affluence. And I don’t know about you, but that scares me to death. How hard it is for the wealthy.

And if I don’t accomplish anything else today, from now on, when we read those passages, I want you to quit thinking about everybody else. I want you to think about you. I need to think about me, because that’s where we are. We’re the wealthiest people in the world.

A lot of folks have lost sight of that. Truth about our circumstances. Thus, we complain about every little thing. Right. Wealth doesn’t bring happiness necessarily. We’ll talk about that in the conclusion of this lesson. That’s why the Occupy Wall Street thing is really quite hypocritical. As we’re going to attack the upper 1% of the 1%ers. You see what’s see what happens there? These guys that are multi-millionaires and billionaires, we’re going to attack them because of their failures to share their piece of the pie. We’re really, it’s the one percenters getting on the upper one percenters of the one percenters. My oh my, how absurd and hypocritical is that. And we do that. I talk about this all the time. We drive through neighborhoods and look how big somebody else’s house is.

4. The Dangers of Wealth

You know how many people in the world would love to have your house. Or even half of it. Not to mention all the comforts within it. Have I made the point? You’re rich. Let me tell you what the dangers of that are.

When he was walking away, who was he thinking about? Me. Me. That’s who he was thinking about. And that’s the danger of wealth. We don’t need something outside of ourselves. That’s what the poor need. We don’t need something. All we need is me, and I’ll tell you what happens when we’re wealthy. The focus becomes me. We might have had a me generation several decades ago, but it ain’t nothing on this generation. This is the me generation with a turbocharge. This is the me generation gone to seed. And it affects every one of us in this room. Because we’re wealthy. We best not deny that. That’s the danger. And it’s why marriages are crumbling. In this country. It’s why. They don’t last. Because you can always move on to the next best thing for me.

Me. It’s about me.

This is what I’m warning you about. And not only does it cause us to be self-preoccupied, we’re going to be less enthused about the spiritual. Because we’re so enamored and enthralled with the material. No wonder people sit in puce like this and say, man, this guy’s boring me to death. Well, he may not be doing a very good job. But this is different. This isn’t like watching a ball game like I did yesterday at college station. That’s all I’ll say about it.

I sat there and there was a loud crowd going on around me. Well, not that loud, but there was a crowd, the people wearing blue were loud. And there was entertainment in front of me. I didn’t have to do it. I just sat in my chair. Listened to all the sounds and watched the big screen, mesmerized by all of that. This isn’t like that. This is worship. This is an investment of our minds and directing our thoughts to the throne of God that we can’t see, that’s not material, it’s invisible. And people look at this and say, I’m not getting anything out of this. Well, what are you putting in it?

But we’re so focused on everything around us and everything that’s that’s stuff. That we don’t think about the fact that I have a soul that has a tremendous need, and that I’m directing this worship to a living God who’s going to be my judge. And that’s why we’re always reminding folks of that. But this is the problem of living in the United States of America. People want religion.

Some people believe the Bible’s the word of God. And they, well, if they’ve read anything about this, well, I certainly want what Jesus has to offer. But am I going to be the disciple Jesus calls me to be? Because remember what he told the rich young ruler, come and follow me, and you shall have treasure in heaven. You’ve got to follow him. This is the problem. So when we find ourselves lacking interest in spiritual things, we might want to look to the problem of our wealth. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion. Who sprawl on beds of ivory. I love that. I don’t know about you, but I prefer my mattress to a bed of ivory. That sounds hard to me. In Amos chapter 6, I’d rather sprawl on my king-sized mattress with a nice memory foam pillow topper, you know, on top of that thing.

The bed of ivory, that sounds a little uncomfortable. I have to go to the chiropractor more often. But you know, and hey, what comforts do we have? I’ve told you before, the thermostat of my house is always on the perfect number. And the perfect number at night is 67. And they’re giving away electricity these days. I mean, it’s cheap. Forget the I can keep it at 67 to keep my bill under 100. That’s incredible. We have the perfect temperature. And look, if we need our food heated up, we got a microwave. We can heat that thing right up. Instant meals without all the mess. Might be changing the molecular structure of your food, but that’s another story. Might want to think about that. That’s just the beginning of our comforts, the cars we ride in, the places that we can go.

5. What Are You Going to Do About Your Wealth?

Just like we get a whim and off we go. We can get tickets to that and tickets to this. We can get tickets on our phones. And there we go. Entertainment. Fun. Don’t you think that’s all a little distracting? Yes. So why should you invest in spiritual things? Because God is the being who made all this. That’s why. In whose hands your very life and breath depend. Yeah, we don’t have a sense of that. We wake up each day and it’s my oxygen, and here I am. No, it’s not. He also, not only does he sustain my life and give me the life and breath that I have, but he holds the keys to life and immortality. Treasure in heaven. So, in conclusion, and we’ll wrap some more of these thoughts up tonight, what are you going to do about your wealth?

Well, you might need to give it away. Rich young ruler apparently needed to give his away. But there were some people who didn’t give it away who served the Lord. So I’m going to tell you this. At the very least, we should be thankful for what we have. We should be good stewards of what we have. After all, it’s only yours for a short time. And that’s why I take you back to Luke 16, if you still have your marker there, your electronic marker. If therefore you have been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon. Now, material things don’t have a negative spiritual charge. I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. This is material, therefore it’s unrighteous. This is an unrighteous pulpit. No, this is material things being used in a good way.

Or this pew you’re sitting on. But mammon that material things that generally promote unrighteousness in people become covetous about, he says, make use of it. And if you don’t make use of it properly, who will entrust you the things of real value? That’s what he asked. That’s the conclusion. Who will entrust the true riches to you? And so, as a part of that good stewardship, we need to share with others. Luke 16 and verse 9. Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of righteousness. Now, if it’s inherently sinful, he wouldn’t say make friends of it. He’s saying use it properly, make friends of it. That when it fails, oh, what do you know? This stuff, whatever’s in your treasure box. We say it all the time, you can’t take it with you.

There will be a lot of things, not going to be a lot of things attached to the hearse that carries you away, you know, dragging along all your possessions. They’re going to put them in the grave with you. What good are they going to do? Your stuff’s going to belong to another. He says that they may receive you into eternal dwellings. A tough passage, but what’s the they referring to? I think it’s referring to the material things. And your use of them will determine your eternal destiny. And if you’ve used them properly, they receive you into eternal dwellings. Good stewardship leads to ultimate wealth in the presence of God. At least that’s one thought about that. But I want to conclude with this in 1 Timothy chapter 6 this morning.

We’ll explore more of this tonight. Those who had wealth, and again, we better see ourselves. We better see this instruction pertaining to my circumstances, instruct those who are rich in this present world. Paul isn’t telling Timothy, I want you to go out on the street corner and preach a message about wealth. He’s talking about those who are in Christ here. Now, he might do that other kind of preaching I just mentioned. But he’s talking about Christians who possess some measure of wealth. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, and this is more to this tonight, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Do good, be rich in good works, generous, ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

Conclusion

Do you know what every appeal at the end of every lesson, every amount of instruction that is given in this place is telling you just that? Would you take hold of that, which is life indeed?

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

Mesmerized, tantalized by a variety of devil sponsored winds, or more greatly enthralled with life and immortality. God has brought immortality to light through the gospel. Two concluding thoughts. Number one Are you drawn to him who imparts true wealth? Have you been drawn to his cross for healing? If we can help you do that, let’s stand and sing together.