Encouragement to Trust God from Dr. Michael Youssef. I believe with all my heart that financial planning is very important because living generously does not mean living carelessly. Living generously means that while you have a plan and a will and a budget, your ultimate confidence and your ultimate trust is not in these, but in the Lord your provider. If you build your trust on anyone and anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ, I make you a promise you will be disappointed. Up next on Leading the Way Audio, stories of misplaced trust in money and wise words from Proverbs. It's a look at how God guarantees eternal strength and safety, even when things appear unsettled. Living generously, that's the topic of today's Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef and you can learn more about Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way when you visit us at ltw.org or when you call 866-626-4356. But wait until after Dr. Youssef's message though, because he is ready to passionately proclaim uncompromising truth.
Listen with me. Proverbs 18 verses 10, 11 and 12, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe. Verse 11, the wealth of the rich is their fortified city. They imagine it, they imagine it, don't miss that one, in fact underline it, they imagine it an unscalable wall.
Verse 12, before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor. Try to imagine two people, okay, two people. One who feels absolutely safe behind a fortified tower, a fortress, I mean real tower, real fortress, real fortified and nothing could shake it, nothing can penetrate it. And then the other person who is sitting behind a tower or a wall and he think that it is fortified but is really flimsy, little bit of wind will blow it away.
It is not all that high, it can be easily scalable. First let me tell you about the one who is really behind this protective fortress, this fortified tower. There are basically seven main names for the Lord in the Bible and every name has a power behind it for us to trust and rely on. First Elohim which means the creator God, he is the tower of creation, he is the creator God and it's occurred two thousand seven hundred times in the Old Testament and thirty two times in the New Testament. Then secondly there is El, E-L and there are components of it, which means the Lord of power and might.
It is mentioned two hundred and fifty times in the scripture. Then there is Elah, the living God, the God who is to be worshipped and to be adored and to be obeyed and to be trusted fully. Then there is Yahweh or sometimes Jehovah, but he is the God of the covenants and it occurs eleven thousand six hundred times. Fifth there is a list of the components that most of you know, this compound name of Yahweh.
They all basically become under one heading, but there are many of them in the scripture. Yahweh, Yara or Jehovah Jireh, he's our provider. Yahweh, Rapha, he's our healer or he is our leader.
Yahweh, Nessie, he's our banner or he is our flag in which we fly on our lives. Jehovah Makaddesh, he's our sanctification. Oh Yahweh, Shalom, he is our peace. Oh Yahweh, Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. Oh Yahweh, Tazdiknu, our righteousness. Oh Yahweh, Shammah, the God who hears us. Oh Yahweh, Elyon, he is the most high God. Oh Yahweh, Roi, oh the Lord is my shepherd.
All this is just one. In other words, there is nothing you need that is not provided in the name of the Lord. Then six, only mention once for good measure in Exodus 15 two, Yah or Yah means a God who inhabits all of eternity. Then Adonai, the one who is in control, the sovereign one, the one who sits in heaven not saying whoops, look what happened here, I didn't know this was coming.
He is totally sovereign and in control. It means his lordship is absolute and occurs 300 times. Now you can begin to get the picture of what the Bible means when it says the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runs into it and they are safe.
It means that his name is indestructible, his name is immovable, his name is imperitable. And when you are inside that tower, when you are inside that fortress of the name of the Lord, you are untouchable. You are untouchable by the enemy of your soul. You are untouchable by the stressful circumstances.
You are untouchable by the natural disasters and distresses. A problem comes when we take ourselves out of the fortress and we don't run to the fortress and stay there on the Welsh-English border, the many ruins of great castles. Now there are some strong towers and ruins.
In fact, one was renowned that is indestructible and yet you see the pieces on the ground just like the Titanic was the unsinkable and it sunk. In North Somerset, England is a rocky gorge known as Barrington Cone. Around the gorge are all sorts of sheep and cattle grazing and there are also some villages that kind of cling to the valley. One of those villages is the village of Blackden. Blackden was a little village in which a man by the name of Augustus Topledy lived. He ministered in that village. One day while Augustus was walking down toward the Cone, all of a sudden a fierce storm, thunderstorms, sent him scurrying, looking for a shelter, looking for a place to hide and there he saw a great gorge cut between towering cliffs and it looked to be safe that he could hide there from the storm and from the danger of the lightning and the thunderstorms and when he scurried toward the cliff, he found himself literally not able to stand.
He was just so cramped, this tiny little place but he wanted to escape the fury of the storm and so he placed himself very tightly inside this place with protective and as he stood there cramped, his soul welled up within him and he uttered these words, rock of ages cliff for me, let me hide myself in thee. Beloved, when any storm of life hits and it hits all of us, whether it be canceled or a victim of violent crime or whether it be going through tough times, family problems, whatever it may be, I can tell you in those times and in those circumstances all of the money in the world cannot help you. All of the financial securities that you banked on in the world will not help you. All of the silver and gold that you have hoarded away cannot help you.
All of the financial walls and trusts cannot help you. Only the name of the Lord, which is what? Stone tower. First Corinthians 10, 4 tells us that that rock is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who's our safety. He is the one who's our security. He is the one who's our protector.
He is the one who's our guide and guidance. His name is the only imperitable fortress. His name is the only imperitable tower. His name is the only guarded defense for us. His name is the only thing that ensures our safety. His name is the only dependable shelter from the storms of life. His name is only wall of fire that the Bible talks about and a hedge of protection. The name of the Lord is what?
Stone tower. The righteous run into it and they are? Saving. Now remember this when you attempted to think and we all do.
Remember this when you attempted to think that living generously may impoverish you or living generously may affect your security or living generously may leave you with less or living generously might deplete your resources or living generously will make you feel like you're not protecting your assets. Remember that. Remember that the name of the Lord is what?
Stone tower. That's why verse 11 Proverbs 18 he says if you place your confidence in your possessions be very careful. Oh be very very very careful why because they are like a flimsy wall.
A little bit of wind and is blown. They like the wall that is easily scalable. In fact the New Testament gives us three examples of three people who absolutely had confidence in their wealth. They had confidence in their possessions and every one of them thought that he has an imperitable wall ended up looking very flimsily. Let's look at them. One of them came to Jesus and when Jesus told him to give up his wealth he was devastated to say the least.
Why? Because his wealth was his total security and the Bible calls him the rich young fool. The second one his focus was to double and triple his net worth every year. I mean he was really a man of ambition so he wanted to feel secure. This is not enough more double it double it double it and God said tonight your life is going to be taken away from you and what good is that to you. The third person a man who lived absolutely focusing on self. I mean his own self indulgence was absolute paramount in his life and Jesus said he ended up for all of eternity in torment.
I'm going to explain that in a minute because here is something that I plead with you never never never forget. The Bible never condemns wealth. The Bible never condemns riches. The Bible only condemns those who place their whole trust, their whole hope, their whole confidence in their wealth.
Refuse to live generously. Now this is the case with all these three men. I want to go back and look at each of them in detail. First one is in Mark chapter 10 verse 17. This man had his whole faith firmly established on his possessions. Oh to be sure he was enthusiastic, he was sincere, he was ready to give himself to Jesus. In fact the Bible said Jesus looked at him and he loved him. He loved his enthusiasm, he loved his positive attitude, he loved his optimism, he loved his willingness to come to Jesus.
But all of that came to a deflating, disappointing, discouraging end. When Jesus looked straight through him and he saw that his confidence was in his possession. When Jesus looked at him and he saw through him, he saw that this man was rich but spiritually poverty stricken. Empty in spite of possessing a lot of things. He was needy in spite of his riches. Restless in spite of his resources and trusts. And when Jesus tested him he could not make the transition from trusting his possession to trusting Jesus. This man was crying for help. And you know what?
Here's the good news. He went to the right person who could help him. He went to the right person. Although he was famous and he was rich he was not embarrassed to go and kneel before Jesus. The Bible said he went and knelt before Jesus. He couldn't tell us what people thought. He knelt before Jesus.
He wasn't embarrassed. He came seeking the right thing. Eternal life. He realized that this life would be fifty or a hundred sooner or later it's going to come to an end. The matter is where do you spend eternity? Every one of us are going to live forever.
It is where you're going to spend your forever. And so he comes asking the right thing. Eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal life? He even came to the only one who could give him eternal life. He came to Jesus. And Jesus tested him to see how much this man is willing to trust God. One thing you notice in the scripture particularly as you read the gospel accounts. That Jesus didn't ask every one of his wealthy friends to sell their possessions. Nicodemus was a wealthy man. And when he had an encounter with Jesus Jesus said go and sell yourself.
No, no, no, no. He just said you'll be born again. You must be born again.
Why? Because Jesus saw through this man Nicodemus' possession was not his God. Joseph of Arimathea was a very wealthy man.
Joseph of Arimathea. He never said to him go and sell what. In fact Luke tells us about a group of women, wealthy women who were supporting Jesus' ministry financially. He never said to them go and sell what you have.
No, no, no, no. Because that was not the problem for them. He never asked them to sell their possession and follow him.
Why? Because Jesus knew that their trust was not in their trust. The name of the Lord is what? The righteous run into it and they are saved. The man's money could never buy eternity. In fact all of the money in the world could never buy eternity. Things he trusted could never save him. Only trusting Jesus could save him.
The second man you find in Luke 12 16. This man's business model, I mean it tells you that he is truly successful. He has a great business model. In fact his business strategy would make Wall Street sit and take notice.
Whatever they called it back then. This man's business plan had business books written about it. That's how good it is. Warren Buffett got nothing on this man's business plan.
He was too busy and too successful to think about running to the name of the Lord. Here's what he said. I will build many more bonds. There's nothing wrong with that.
Did you get that? Say Amen. There's nothing wrong with that. I will expand my business. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I will be richer than Bill Gates. Doesn't say it in the Bible but that's what I'm making it easy for you to understand. There's even nothing wrong with that. There are holy ambitions among Christian businessmen that I know. Nothing wrong with that.
I am going to build me palaces, one in Jericho, another one in Lebanon for the summer, another one in the Negev for the winter. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Bible said God gave us all things for our enjoyment. There's nothing wrong with that. That's okay too. But here's the clincher.
Here's the clincher. Verse 19 of Luke 12. He said to himself, self, be very careful what you say to yourself. We talk to ourselves all the time. All of us with such speed.
You'd be amazed. We all do. But be very careful what you say to yourself when nobody's watching. Be careful what you say to yourself what nobody knows. Be careful what you say to yourself when nobody's around. This man said to himself, I want to say my, my, my. I'm going to live generously.
No. I'm going to give sacrificially. I'm going to honor God with my wealth because he honored me with everything I have. I'm going to help others.
No, no, no, no. That's what the righteous does. That's what the righteous says to himself, herself.
This said, I will say to myself, self, you got plenty of goodies laid up before you for many, many years. Every time I read those words in verse 20, I literally weep because two words, I would not be in that man's place for all of the wealth of the world. Bible said, God says, you fool. The third person we find here in Luke 16 20. This man had a hopeless case of self-focus. He had a helpless case of self-worship. The object of his existence was self. The object of his worship was self. The object of his spending was self.
All while right in front of his door, there is a desperate need represented in a man by the name of Lazarus. But he closed his eyes and he blocked his ears and refused to see and refused to hear. And Jesus said that self-absorbed person ended up in torment for all of eternity.
Listen to me. He did not end up in torment for all of eternity because of his wealth. He ended up in torment for all of eternity because the focus of his life was self. The selfish man turned evangelist after two seconds in hell. All of a sudden, sin Lazarus, if he rises from the dead, my brothers may hear him. They may believe in him. So I don't want him to come here in this place of torment. And Abraham said to him, if they're not going to believe the scripture, if they're not going to believe the word of God, even if a person rises from the dead, they're not going to believe.
His wealth was the object of his trust, not the Lord. And that is why the scripture says the name of the Lord is what? The righteous run into it.
They are safe. When you trust in the Lord, listen to me. When your whole trust is in him, the market can go up or the market comes down. The name of the Lord is?
The economy could boom or the economy busts. The name of the Lord is what? The righteous run into it and they're safe. They're safe for all of eternity, all of eternity. So let me ask you this.
Are you safe or are you so stressed out and you long for peace in your life? You long for assurance of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Run to the tower. Run to the tower. Leave your imaginary unscalable wall behind you and find the tower strength in Jesus.
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