Are You Rich? (Part 2)

Introduction

This morning, we asked the question, are you rich? A question that we’re going to explore in more detail tonight. Of course, the sermon title was The United States of Wimerica. If you missed that, Gary’s going to have it on the website very soon. And a little bit more on that title. I really wasn’t clear about the context. In fact, I’d sort of forgotten what the context was of Sherry’s phrase that she threw out there. It had to do with what is always in the news these days, the issue of transgender. Perhaps a sign of our affluence is that we have time or the wherewithal to consider what gender we should be. Certainly another whim of our culture. I’ve got to tell you, I just can’t get over the whole Caitlin Bruce thing.

I’ve mentioned that before.

And while it’s almost comical to us that it’s so sad, it is also a violation of the effeminate quality that is categorized in a list of behaviors of which God does not approve. And so this is the whim Erica that we live in. We have so much affluence, so much material wherewithal, that there are all kinds of distractions and whims that we can follow. Further, we were talking this morning as we left, and I had forgotten this, though I’d followed it in the news, the affluenza defense of a Texas teen who killed four individuals. He was 16 years old, and he killed four individuals because of the fact that he was drunk, drunken driving. And they made a defense on the basis of affluenza. Now, that’s not the thing that we get that affects our bodies.

Okay, that flu. But this is the result of our affluence. They actually made this argument in court, and it got him a lighter sentence. And you might remember Ethan Couch’s story because while he was under probation, he had already served the time that he was going to serve. He violated his probation, and he and his mother fled the country. They were found in Preto Bayarta. Ultimately, he was extradited back, where he is still now on probation. But the argument was made that because of his parents’ marriage, which was very toxic, because of his affluence, he had the cars, he had the money, and this was a psychiatrist that the court appointed for him. He had the cars, he had the money, he had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.

Now that was the defense that was made. He spoke of the marital troubles of his parents. He said his father does not have relationships, he takes hostages. You know, really couch this in horrible terms. He doesn’t have relationships, he takes hostages. Maybe he does. He said the boy’s mother was indulgent, her mantra was, if it feels good, do it. So in these circumstances, his affluence made it impossible for him to make good decisions, and therefore he shouldn’t be sentenced to the max as a 16-year-old for his drunk driving that killed four people. And so this is the United States of America. A psychologist responded to this, Dr. Jeffrey Metzner. He said, but even if it were narcissistic personality disorder, when it comes to responsibility or non-responsibility, that’s not an accepted excuse.

If that were an accepted excuse, we would be seeing a lot of guilty people in these cases. And he says, it’s not even a known disorder among the world of psychology. So we continue our thought this morning about the influence of wealth and the question, are you rich? Quickly. Who are some of the richest men in the world? Who comes to mind? Bill Gates. Warren Buffett. Mark Zuckerberg. That’s a new one to the top 10 list in recent days. Michael Bloomberg, that’s four names that I thought you might recognize among the top ten. Imagine you had their kind of wealth. What could you do with that amount of money? I don’t know if you saw this in the news recently. President Obama, you know, he’s been through a lot of vacationing since he got out of office.

There was a picture of him with Richard Branson as he was out on the water doing kite surfing with Richard Branson. Richard Branson owns his own private island, and the Obamas were with Richard Branson doing all this fun stuff. Wow. What if you had the wherewithal financially to own your own private island? Wow. Now I want to ask you this question. As a Christian, as a child of God, do you see yourself as wealthier than those that I’ve just mentioned? I ask you to consider Philippians chapter 4 and verse 7 as the first verse tonight. A verse that I would say to you, if you possess it, if you possess the peace of God, you are a wealthier person than Warren Buffett and Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates and Martin Zuckerberg.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. If you possess the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension, I want to suggest to you tonight that you are wealthier than those men. Because, as we said this morning, all that they possess is simply temporary. They are stewards of those things, as Steve Jobs could tell us about how temporary they really are, because he doesn’t possess them anymore. And all of those things are fleeting. They will be passed on to other people. But if you have the peace of God, that pertains to things far beyond this life. As we saw in the conclusion of the lesson this morning, God has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

And so what we’re going to do tonight, just very briefly, is we’re going to look at a couple of parables that I love for a lot of reasons. Number one, for their message, but I like the fact that they are brief and yet tell a very powerful story. And so I want to talk to you about the tiny but powerful parables. And these are two parables, you know we can’t memorize as much scripture as we would like. But we certainly could memorize the tiny parables in three verses if only those who did our verse divisions had put the second parable all in one verse. I would have been much happier. You know, I’m and Aaron’s smiling. He’s just like me in this regard. You know, if we can just have them in one verse each instead of the second one, it was short enough.

They could have done it in one verse. But we have three verses, two of the tiniest parables, the two tiniest parables in Scripture. And look at their message. The first is the parable of the hidden treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. Now, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Which a man found and hid. Okay, why would you hide a treasure out in the field? Because you had to have some security or protection for it. You know, it’s not like they could go to the bank like we do, and hopefully there’s some security there in regard to our investment, in regard to our material goods that we have amassed. So he might go out and hide it.

He might go out and bury it, and it might be found on a reality TV show, looking for buried treasure that some people watch and enjoy. But he goes out and he hits, but he’s so excited about it for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. He’s so overwhelmed by his treasure that now he’s going to go buy the field that the treasure is in. That’s the nature of the kingdom. To possess citizenship in the kingdom is having this treasure and the joy over it that would cause you to buy the plot of land that you buried it in. Interesting. The second parable is that of the costly pearl. Again, I wish it was only one verse. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls.

1. The Incredibly Great Value of the Kingdom

And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Now, another thing I like about these two parables is that they’re very similar. They both deal with the concept of the kingdom and joy. He finds one pearl of great value, and he goes and sells all that he has in order to purchase it. This is the incredibly great value of the kingdom. Three points quickly tonight, and the lesson is yours. Number one, the incredibly great value of the kingdom. Our English word wealth comes from an old English word wheel, which I bet you didn’t know that. I didn’t. Which means well-being, adding the th is a condition, and so wealth is then the condition of well-being. Well, if you have a lot of material wherewithal, you have things at your disposal to take care of yourself.

Now, if we’ve been taken care of in the most significant and ultimate way, and that is our souls. If your soul experiences well being, that is, you’re in fellowship with your Creator. You have received cleansing for your sins, you have a hope that extends beyond the grave to an eternity of bliss in the presence of God, then how wealthy are you. I saw this quote. What a tragedy. To know the price of everything. But the value of nothing. You’ve probably heard that before. And sometimes because we don’t appreciate the value of what we’re talking about tonight and the real riches that we possess in Christ, we tend to more greatly value all of these trinkets and things in the material world that so allure and mesmerize and tantalize us, as we said very briefly in the introduction, which I mean the conclusion of this morning’s lesson that didn’t go very well.

I was just trying to wrap it up. But I talked about things that mesmerize and tantalize, and we know what the price of all those things are. And if it’s a big ticket item, well, we’re going to work, we’re going to save, we’re going to try to put money away because that’s where we want to go. Maybe Richard Branson’s private island. That’s where we want to go. This is what we want to purchase. This is what we want to possess the bigger house, the nicer car, the clothes. I don’t know what else is there. Toys, all the toys that people want. And kids, you’re not the only ones that want toys. In our affluent culture, the adults have toys too. And if nothing else, it’s going to Disney World.

So knowing the price of everything. But the value of nothing. Let us not fall victim to underestimating the value of spiritual investment. And I say all of that, thank you, to emphasize this word in Scripture that appears many times. That’s really what it means. I tell you, young people all the time, whatever follows the word blessed in Scripture, you need to pay attention to. Because whatever follows is something of tremendous value that you need. It is the idea of the ideal state of existence. The ideal state of living. Whenever Jesus says, blessed are, you need to pay attention. That’s the ideal condition of life. And we can talk about a lot of beatitudes, but I’m going to talk about one we don’t talk about much.

At least I don’t. And it was at the Last Supper. After Jesus has gone around and watched the disciples’ feet, he’s starting to give them instruction. He says, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. If you learn how to serve other people, he says, you’re blessed. You’re blessed if you do these things. Blessed are those, as we I’ve got to mention Revelation. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. For they shall have rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. And finally, in the conclusion of the book, and we passed over this hurriedly on Wednesday night. And that’s the wrong verse. Verse 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes. Verse 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

2. Our Problem Is Perception

Now that slide’s going to annoy me the rest of the night. Okay. That was 2214. But notice the nations are bringing their glory into this city. Blessed are those who have access to this city. And that’s what we have. If we’re in Christ. Now, I’ve emphasized the parables and the incredibly great value of the kingdom. But you know what our problem is. Our problem is perception. Martha said, as she was talking to me about this morning’s lesson, not knowing what I was going to preach tonight, I said, Well, yeah, that’s what I’m preaching tonight. She said, Every time I pray, I know I’m rich. And that’s great comment. And yet we might look at things like, boy, if only I had been Evan Spiegel. So who’s Evan Spiegel?

Well, he’s now a multimillionaire. Because he was the one who came up with Snapchat. Who had its IPO this week, its initial public offering, stocks. You can buy Snapchat stock. And because of its first day, he became an instant multi-millionaire. We have more than that. It’s hard to appreciate affluence. You didn’t have to struggle to achieve for yourself, but was graciously placed in your lap. That’s our problem of perception. A lot of us in this audience tonight received what we have in Christ first by the introduction of this message, this gospel, by our parents, perhaps our grandparents before that. And it’s always hard. Like the young person they were trying to defend with the affluenza argumentation. It’s hard to appreciate wealth when it’s just been laid in your lap.

Do you really think that children who grow up in great material and financial wealth really appreciate what’s been handed to them in the will. Versus a guy like Evan Spiegel, who suddenly, over just a few years, amasses such tremendous wealth, and the change that means in this life.

Now I’ve got to tell you, my parents are here, and Sherry says I mention this every time that they’re here, which is not that often. I am thankful that as a young person, from my first recollections, one of my first recollections was sitting in Bible class or being in Bible class, I think, when I was three years old. I remember that congregation that we worshiped with in Jeffersonville before we moved when I was four to the place where I would worship throughout my teenage years. So one of my earliest recollections was sitting in a Bible class among the Lord’s people. And so, as I’ve said before, I knew God’s plan of salvation and the world baptism places. I knew that before I was ever a sinner.

And so those things are placed in your lap. And so it makes it more difficult for those of us that are often described as second generation Christians. Okay, and I do this because there’s really no such thing. You don’t inherit salvation from your parents. You become saved when you repent of your sin and confess the name of Jesus and are baptized into Christ. You really are just a first generation Christian. But I’m talking about that process of our parents being in Christ before us and maybe generations beyond them. It is very difficult for us to appreciate what has been placed in our laps versus the one who’s made the discovery. Like in the parables. I think we miss the sense of discovery, and I think that’s one of the reasons.

There are a multitude of reasons that I think cause us as second generation believers to struggle. One is our first, another is our first experiences with sin are while we’re attending all the assemblies of the church.

Doesn’t it? I mean, here we are attending assemblies with mom and dad Sundays, Wednesdays, hopefully, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and that becomes then our first experience with sin while we’re doing all that. So we don’t necessarily get uncomfortable with the practice of sin while we worship God. So that’s another hurdle. So I want to mention that, throw that in. No extra cost. But this idea of the joy of discovery that these two parables talk about. The problem of perception. Let me give you a biblical verse here. Luke 15. Parable of the prodigal son. Have you ever noticed this at the end of the parable? He’s all upset because his father’s killed the fatted calf or the prodigal son that’s come home. And I want you to listen to what the elder brother says in the story.

He says to his father, look, for so many years I’ve been serving you, and I have never neglected a command of yours, and yet you have never given me a kid that I might be married with my friends. Oh, you’re playing favorites. You love the prodigal more than you love me. You’ve never made such a big fuss over me. Notice his self-interest in all of this. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with harlots and killed the fatted, you killed the fatted calf for him. Oh, I’m being mistreated here in all of this. But I want you to notice verse 31. And he said to him, My child, you have always been with me. And all that is mine is yours.

Well, you talk about the problem of perception. Oh, look what you’re doing for him. And look how he’s lived. I’ve been loyal to you, which I might question that elder brother’s response there, but I’ve been loyal to you all these years, and you’ve never killed the fatted calf for me. You see, it’s the problem. He says, all that I have is yours. The problem of perception. I want to look at another verse in this regard. If we’re in Christ, and this is in the context of God having revealed to us through the Spirit things that we could not know. Things that I have not seen, an ear has not heard, things that have not entered the heart of man, then this. And I have it underlined in my Bible.

All that God has prepared for those who love him. Everything that God gives us, the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension that we read about in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 7, the treasure of forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God, all of it. Including heaven at the end of our lives, immortality with God forever. Do we perceive that? Do we appreciate what we have in Christ? I am thankful that I was not, as a very young child disassociated from the truth. If your circumstances are so fortunate to have been brought up among the Lord’s people, let’s say that right. We weren’t brought up in the church. We were brought up among the church. I wasn’t raised church of Christ. I was raised to know the Lord by the instruction that was given to me.

Okay, let’s say that right, so we convey the right things. Where was I? Okay. If you were fortunate enough to grow up among the Lord’s people, be thankful. That you did not. Oh, the grandfather says that. Family members, if you were fortunate, be thankful that you didn’t have to search. Oh, I know. If you have the right heart, you will find. But how many people are out there don’t even have a clue of what truth is, of what right is, about religion that God doesn’t approve of, and they’re trapped, and there’s 30,000, 40,000 denominations. Where do you go to look? Again, providence of God is involved in the right hearts, finding the truth. But at least you weren’t easily misled out there. You had access all the way along.

You were taught to think right about the Bible. That’s huge. Be thankful for that.

3. Seek First the Kingdom of God

Make sure you realize how fortunate you are. And finally, what these parables tell us and emphasize to us is a point that Jesus makes in the Sermon on the Mount. If we are positioned in and thriving under the reign of God, that’s the idea of the kingdom. If we’re positioned in and thriving under the reign of God, that is life’s most pressing concern. There’s not anything that is more important than that. And that’s what it means. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all of these things in the material world that have to do with wealth, all of these things in the material world that we get anxious about, as he says in that context, our heavenly Father knows that you need those things.

He knows that we need clothes to put on our bodies. Well, let’s see. Was there any problem with that this morning? Did you go to the closet? There was nothing there. Did you have options? You ought to see my tie rack. I got options. And I’m pretty sure as I look out over this audience, y’all are not wearing the same clothes every service. But even if you were, that’s okay. If that’s all you had, that’s great. Or even if you just have a pinch it for a certain outfit. I don’t know.

But we got options. We don’t just have those things that he’s talking about in Matthew chapter 6. We got options. But our Heavenly Father promises to take care of us if we will seek the kingdom first. And those parables, those tiny but powerful parables are telling us, yeah, you absolutely should seek it first. You need to make that a priority. It is more important than your leisure, your recreation, your entertainment, your desires to flitter about here and there, the United States of America, making the kingdom your first priority is what those parables are telling us we should do. It affects our decisions about assembling. It affects our decisions about vacation and assembling. Which comes first with us? Seek the kingdom first. Don’t put God on the back burner for your whims.

Or your affluence will destroy you. And quit worrying so much about the next day and the day after that. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Take therefore no thought of the morrow. Jesus concludes this section in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 34. So, what you’ve got right now is right now. That’s what you got. I don’t know where you’re going for supper. You may not know where you’re going for supper. I don’t know if you’ve got the next few hours planned or not. Or you’re just going to fly by the seat of your pants. I don’t know what you’re going to do. Steve’s about to feel a lot better. I’m nearly done. But what you do have is right now. You need to make sure in your heart of hearts.

Conclusion

Whether you’re outside of Christ and need to possess this reign of God for your life. Or whether you’re in Christ and you struggled to have the right perception about what you have, and you found yourself more enthralled with the world than with Christ and His cause and His things and His people. You need to determine as a result of these parables, as a result of this instruction, I am going to seek the kingdom first and foremost. And make that determination. As far as your eye can see, I’m going to make that determination for the rest of my life. However long it may or may not be. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And the things that most people worry about, those things. God will take care of them and take care of you.

Do you need to make him a priority and need to respond to the invitation? Let’s stand and sing again.