What Does the Bible Say about the Pursuit of Wealth?

What does the Bible say about the pursuit of wealth? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. In fact, right now, we're live on YouTube and on Instagram.

So if you go to our pages there, you can check out what's happening in the studio. And of course, you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. And Adriel, first up today, we have a call from one of our younger listeners. This is a voicemail from Zeb.

Hi, Pastor Adriel and Mr. Bill. I'm 8 years old and I have a question. Why did God put the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden if he didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from it?

Zeb, thank you so much for reaching out to us, man. I love Bill when we get questions from our younger audience and that is an excellent question. It's the questions that my kids have asked as well and many people have asked it.

It's just a good question. Why did the Lord put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there in the Garden? And as a result, Eve eats from the tree, Adam eats from the tree, and everything goes downhill from there.

Well, let me just look at the passage. Let's look at Genesis chapter 2 verse 7. The Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course, you know, God tells Adam and Eve not to eat from that tree.

The day you eat from that tree you will surely die. Now, this idea of good and evil. Many people think, you know, what was happening here is God is testing Adam and Eve. He's giving them an opportunity to choose to follow him. You know, discerning between good and evil, that's something that's for just judges, for kings even throughout the Bible. And so there's this kingly testing that's taking place in the garden of Eden and Adam and Eve are called to pass the test.

There's this period of trial. God gave man free will. God wanted man's free love. And so that's another reason why we think that the Lord placed that tree there. He's calling Adam there in the garden to love him and to follow him and to obey his commandments, what he'd revealed.

And as Bill said, the rest was history. Adam didn't obey. Whereas, you know, Adam should have judged the serpent who deceived his wife, he sort of let things happen and ended up going the way of the serpent, he himself eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, the good news is that God didn't allow anything that he hadn't already purposed how to resolve, how to solve. And he knew he was going to solve the problem of our sin through Jesus. And so that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it was a testing tree. It was a time of trial for Adam in the garden. But it was also, you know, demonstrating for us that God wants our free love.

He wants us to follow him and to obey him because we love him. And so may God bless you and help you to do that. May God help all of us to do that. Zeb, thank you so much for your call and for listening to CORE Christianity.

We really appreciate you. Let's go to Susie calling in from Texas. Susie, what's your question for Adriel?

Yes. I was wondering, when you look at 2 Chronicles, chapter 16, and starting actually in verse 7, how Asa got sick in his feet and it actually killed him from not relying on God. And I wanted to know why pastors don't stress it more that in all things we should surrender to God's way in everything. Thank you.

Now, Susie, can I just follow up with you there? When you say, surrender to God's ways in everything, so Asa is this king in Judah who there in 2 Chronicles, chapter 16, he gets diseased in his feet. The disease is severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians. So here, you know, it's trusting God in all things like, you know, entrusting him with our sicknesses, our illnesses, all things generally. Are you thinking of really maybe more specifically just when we have health problems?

Right. Well, actually, I wasn't raised like that, but like even, I just noticed that even when I would get a flu shot, okay, the flu shot, when I wouldn't get it most years and then people pressured me to get it, and then I would get the flu shot, and then I would end up getting sick. But all the years I did not take the flu shot, I did not get sick. So it seems to me that God is in control of our health, and I'm Baptist, so I'm not taught that, but it's just the way that the Lord led me. Well, I do think that there is something to this, to realizing, and you're totally right, that our lives are in the hands of the Lord. Now, does that mean that we should not take care of ourselves? That, you know, if I'm sick or have cancer or something like that, I just, well, I'm going to just trust God, I'm not going to go to the doctor. No, I think there's some, you know, there's being presumptuous there.

We do want to avail ourselves to the many gifts that God has given to us, even through common grace, to make sure that we are taking good care of our bodies. And yet, I do think that there's a balance. There are many people today who are so gripped by fear, even fear of sickness and disease, that they're not walking in trust, recognizing, Lord, my life is in your hands. And so there is a balance. There's on the one side, I think, Susie, people who just put all of their hope in medicine and in science and think that that's their quote unquote salvation. Certainly many atheists and people who reject the gospel, but even for, I think, Christians, I think, you know, there are many who are so gripped by fear that they're not laying their lives down before the Lord. And again, that doesn't mean, and this is the other error, that doesn't mean that we don't go the way of saying, or that we go the way of saying, well, you know, God, my life is in God's hands, so I just am, you know, I'm not going to go to the doctors because who cares, right? Like it doesn't matter. No, I think that these are good things. This is just a part of how you take care of yourself.

So there has to be a balance. And there in 2 Chronicles chapter 16, it's an interesting passage. It says in verse 12, again, in the 39th year of his reign, Esau was diseased in his feet.

Oof, I don't know what that was. Really bad athlete's foot? You know, I mean, what are we talking about here? But he's diseased in his feet and his disease became severe.

I mean, this is really, really bad. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians. And this seems to be a pattern in his life.

Earlier, and you noted this, Susie, in verse 7, at that time Hanani, the seer, came to Esau king of Judah and said to him, because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. And so here we see a pattern of not trusting in God and putting our hope in earthly wisdom, earthly power. And so that's that one error that we want to avoid. But again, it's a good thing to go to the doctors. I mean, if, you know, you're really diseased in your feet, you can trust God and go to the doctors as well.

And so we need to have that balance. Susie, thank you for your question and may God bless you. Good counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. You can call us right now at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. We'll be taking calls for the next 15 minutes or so.

So hop on your phone now. Let's go to Darryl calling in from Missouri. Darryl, what's your question for Adriel? I guess my question is this. The Bible tells us that Satan was kicked out of heaven. And when he was kicked out, he took a third of the angels with him. So then when you read in the book of Genesis, how it talks about Adam and Eve, it says that Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan. So my question is this, when Satan was kicked out of heaven, was Adam and Eve already here, or did it kind of all happen at the same time?

Hey Darryl, thank you for that question. When we're thinking about the fall of Satan, the fall of the angels that rebelled against God, we really aren't given a ton of information. It doesn't seem like the early chapters of Genesis focus on that. When Genesis 1 says that God created the heavens and the earth, in that statement, in this language of creating the heavens, I think right there Moses is saying, the angels too. So there you have the creation of everything, including the angels. But there isn't a focus on the fall of the angels.

It's just sort of assumed. The serpent comes in. And there are passages that we can go to in Isaiah, maybe in Job, where it's talking about Leviathan, certainly in the book of Revelation, to talk about this or allude to this fall. Jesus in Luke chapter 10, verse 18 says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. So it seems like you have the creation. And then obviously at some point after that, because Satan is a created being, he wasn't always, he's not everlasting or eternal, after that he falls and comes into the garden. So that's the chronology, but we don't know exactly when or even what that looked like, per se, except that it's attributed to his great pride and arrogance, wanting to be like the Lord. And so I think, you know, when the Bible doesn't speak, it's best not to speculate and try to figure out, okay, well, when exactly did it happen? Was it on day two of the creation or something like that? We don't know. We do know that it happened. And we do know, as I said to that young caller, Zeb, earlier, that God had already purposed how he was going to resolve this issue, and in fact did, through Jesus' son. And so I appreciate your question, brother, and thank you for reaching out.

Just a follow-up for you. You mentioned pride, and pride comes before the fall. And in today's world, we have a lot of pride. We have a lot of people who think pretty much they rule their own world and they call the shots, and they're not acknowledging that we have a creator, they're not acknowledging our Heavenly Father, and that pride is something that's a huge stumbling block for so many people.

It totally is. And, you know, Paul even says, you know, when it comes to ordination and, you know, raising up new pastors in the church, make sure it's not somebody who was a recent convert, lest they get puffed up with pride and fall into the snare of the devil, the temptation of the devil. Pride is a real problem, right? And, you know, I was just preaching about this last week on Sunday, thinking about what the gospel should do to us. I mean, really, as we understand the fact that we were weak, we were nobody, we were sinners, we had fallen short of God's glory, and yet He was merciful to us. What that's supposed to do is dissolve our pride. Where is boasting? Paul says we can't boast in ourselves.

It was all of grace. And so pride, right, when we see that, when we see that, that arrogant pride rising up in our hearts and in our minds, I think what that tells us is, okay, I'm not living in light of the gospel right now. That reality of who God is and what He's done for me, that's not front and center.

That's not clear to me in this moment. And so it's a good warning. It's a good call back home to remember God's immense love and grace, despite the fact that we were sinners. And another reason to be accountable to other believers and to be plugged into a local church where we can have people kind of act as iron sharpening iron and say, hey, I think, buddy, you're being a little prideful there.

Absolutely. We need that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Want to mention a great resource that we have, a perfect time of year with so many young people graduating from high school. We just, my daughter went to several graduation parties this past week and more to come. And if you have friends or relatives, maybe a son or daughter, grandson, granddaughter, cousin, nephew, niece who is graduating, we have this wonderful resource for you that we'd like to tell you about. Yeah, it's a short booklet called How to Keep Your Faith After High School. And I mean, this is something that you or your graduating high schooler could read in an afternoon. It's only about 80 pages.

It's not very long, but it packs up just a solid gospel punch. Can we say that? We can. I think so.

Yes. And so get a hold of this resource, How to Keep Your Faith After High School. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

Get your free copy of How to Keep Your Faith After High School. Well, this is Core Christianity, and you can call us 24 hours a day and leave your voicemail question for Adriel. Love to get your voicemails.

We try to review our voicemail system once a day. And here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Jonathan. What does the Bible say about the pursuit of wealth? And can you pursue wealth and still be a man of God and make it into heaven? Thank you.

Hey, Jonathan. Thank you for that question. The Bible does give us quite a bit of wisdom on this subject. Just to say flat out, I do think you work hard, you pursue wealth, hopefully for the right reasons, not for the wrong reasons.

I think there is a snare associated with the pursuit of wealth. So you have to be aware of that, and the Bible addresses this. But it's not like if you're wealthy and God has blessed you, that just means, well, the kingdom of heaven is close to you. Consider what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 6. And really, that's, I think, the chapter you want to focus on.

There's a lot of teaching. When you think of Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about money and possessions there. So we could go there. But I'm going to 1 Timothy 6 right now. And Paul tells Timothy in verse 5, let's start there. He says, constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain, but godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world, but if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich, those who desire to be rich, here it is, fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Jonathan, you have to ask yourself, is this pursuit, is it the love of money that I'm chasing after?

Well, Paul says, you do that and that's like piercing yourself through the heart with a spear. Many pangs await those who, I mean, that's what they live for, money and possessions. But he's clear that it's not like, I mean, just within the church there are people who God has blessed and who have worked hard and have been rewarded for that great work. You know, he goes on to say in verse 17, as for the rich in this present age, in other words, right, like he doesn't say, you know, there are no rich people in the church. He says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Here's the kind of wealth that we are called to pursue as Christians, treasure in heaven. Now, as you're pursuing that and you're working hard, whatever it is God has called you to do, your vocation, you know, it may be that he blesses you with earthly riches. And I don't think that's something you have to be ashamed of, but the real question is, are you rich in good works? Do you realize that those things that God has given to you, he's given to you to share and to do good to others? But if for you it's, no, I actually am not pursuing a treasure in heaven.

I am just pursuing treasure on earth. That's my focus. That's what drives me.

That's what I live for. Well, then there's a warning there in, certainly in 1 Timothy 6, but also throughout the Bible. And this is one of the areas that I think we ought to be convicted as Americans. We live in a beautiful country where we have more resources than most of the world, most of the people around us. And it's easy to take that for granted. And it's easy to get caught up in that snare of, I need to have more and not have that godliness with contentment that Paul talks about there in 1 Timothy 6. So God help us and God give us wisdom as we seek to prioritize the right things in our lives, to seek that treasure which is in heaven. And if God has blessed us, and again, there's nothing wrong with that, with temporal blessings and gains, to seek to honor him with those resources as well. Amen.

So well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Also, just to note, we're going to be recording a second episode of The Core after our live program ends here in just a few minutes.

So if you weren't able to get through, you can still call us for the next 35 minutes or so at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Jordan, who's calling from Indiana. Jordan, what's your question for Adriel?

Yeah, so I was listening to another radio program today. And as I was, I know, I believe it's Corinthians where Paul talks about how when we enter heaven, you know, we won't really be married anymore. So it kind of got me thinking, you know, if, if you're married to somebody, you spend your entire life together while you're here, obviously, we have sexuality, God, which is a good thing. When we enter heaven, and that marriage is just no longer one, I guess that's a two part question. It kind of had me wondering, you know, so why do we get married while we're here, but two, would then when we enter heaven, that sexual aspect of our relationship no longer be? Yeah, great, great question, Jordan. So the text where Jesus is the one who says, okay, in heaven, we're not, we're not having weddings anymore, you know, he says in Matthew chapter 22, and in verse 30, for in the resurrection, then either marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven.

And so the question is, well, why is that? What's the purpose of marriage? And certainly we could, we could point to a number of things like having children, like supporting each other, encouraging each other, we have this complementary relationship that Genesis talks about, that the Bible talks about, for our mutual good and upbuilding, and for the advancement, ultimately, of God's kingdom, you know, as we seek to raise children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but also as we seek to exhibit, and here's a purpose, that love that exists between Christ and the church, Paul says in Ephesians, you know, marriage is this great mystery in that it pictures the relationship between Christ and the church. In other words, that's what our marriages here on earth are supposed to be a kind of type of, a display of the love that God has for his people. And so the reason there is no more marriage in heaven is because we have the reality. We have the marriage supper of the Lamb. We have the union of Christ and his bride. And so our marriages here on earth, which are a shadow, a picture of that, find their fulfillment, are fulfilled, I think, in that heavenly reality. And so that, I think, you know, in getting to the answer to your question with regard to, well, why, you know, why no more marriage?

What's the purpose? Well, now we have the reality in heaven. You also asked about, well, what about sexuality in heaven and in the new creation?

That's an excellent question. And again, especially considering what Jesus says there in Matthew chapter 22, we're not married or given in marriage, we're like the angels of heaven. I know a lot of people are thinking, well, boy, I don't know, that doesn't sound like, I don't want to miss out on that.

But here's, I think, what we need to understand. One, we can't even begin to fully fathom the bliss, the joy, the pleasure, the overwhelming sense of everything good in the presence of God and in the new creation. You know, some people wonder, you know, like if, what about my loved ones who don't go to heaven? How am I going to be able to enjoy the new creation or heaven when people who I knew on earth aren't going to be there? Or if I think of, you know, what about, you know, the difficult things we experienced on earth, the memory of those things, how is that not going to taint our heavenly reality? And I think part of the issue is we just don't understand how those things are going to be eclipsed by the wonder of being in God's presence. And so, you know, we can have all these questions about, okay, what exactly is that going to look like, and how is that all going to work out?

And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I just know it's going to be more amazing than anything we could ever imagine. And that's what we look forward to when it comes to being in the presence of God, this fullness of life through Jesus, through our salvation, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we get a small taste of here. But what's coming is more than we could ever even fathom.

And so, man, we should be excited about it. We shouldn't think of it as, you know, oh man, what am I going to, you know, I really am going to miss this, that or the other. There isn't going to be anything I think we miss when we're in the presence of God. And, you know, a lot of people think of heaven as, you know, just people floating around on clouds with harps, and we're just singing Alleluia, you know, a trillion times. And they think, oh, that's boring. Look, whatever heaven is, it's definitely not going to be boring.

It's going to be spectacular. And the new creation is the same. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.