Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith. As the landlord of His creation, God wants us to understand that He really does own everything. He owns us and our environment, but He also owns our wealth, and this hits close to home. Today, we take a look at five principles to give us a biblical view of wealth.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, wealth has a way of wrapping its tendrils around our hearts and squeezing them to prevent our sharing what we have. I'm sure today's talk will guide us on breaking that kind of stronghold. You know, Dave, what you have said, of course, is true, but at the same time I want to thank God for the many generous people that there are in this world, particularly believers who support the gospel ministries that the Lord has used to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to many countries of the world.
For example, running to win could not exist were it not for the fact. that we have those who say we not only pray for you, but we also invest in your ministry. And I can't help but remind people that during this month it's a very special month, any gift that they give will be doubled. And because I know that there are many people listening who are generous, I want to thank you in advance for helping us. And by the way, at the end of this month, it is also the end of our fiscal year.
Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com because we have a very special gift for you if you participate. Go to rtwofferer.com. Thanks in advance and at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again.
Now what I'd like to do in the next few moments is to give you five principles that will help us understand a biblical view of wealth. Five principles, and we shall go through them quite quickly. Number one. Wealth has the power to bless. Wealth has the power to bless.
Especially in the Old Testament, you find wealth sometimes being directly linked to people that God just chooses to bless. God blessed Abraham, and what did he give him? He gave him flocks and herds and so forth. God blessed Solomon, and what did he give him? More wealth than any other person of the period.
He became the most wealthy man on the face of the earth. Wealth can bless. The Bible says in the Psalms, wealth and riches are in his house, and righteousness endures forever. It's talking about the righteous.
Now I need to tread very carefully here, and you listen as I tread carefully. It's interesting that even though in the Old Testament wealth is often a sign of blessing, poverty is never a sign of disfavor. from the Lord. In fact, sometimes God took men like Job and gave them a great deal of wealth and blessed them and then took all the wealth from them to see whether or not they were really trusting Him or not.
So, while you do have in the scriptures, in the Old Testament particularly, it's different in the New, but in the Old Testament where you have that relationship between wealth and blessing, God never despises the poor. God never says that if you're poor, therefore it's a sign of disfavor. And therefore, I'm sure that those who have been poor and those who have been rich would say, most assuredly, it is better to be wealthy than it is poor, because wealth can be a sign of blessing. I mean, wealth can enable you to live in a nice house, to buy nice clothes, to go to restaurants, to buy cars, to enjoy leisure. Wealth can be used to bless the lives of others as you generously give it.
Wealth can be a blessing. Poverty, on the other hand, I suppose can be a blessing too, but we struggle with that, don't we? It was about 25 years ago I saw the film Fiddler on the Roof. Wasn't it Teve, who was in the barn and having an argument with his son-in-law, and his son-in-law was interested in socialism, as I remember, and he said something like this, well, it's no disgrace to be poor. And I remember Tevier.
Walking out of the barn and looking into the sky and saying something like this.
Well It's no disgrace to be poor. But on the other hand, It's no great honor either, he said. Do you remember that line? Wealth. can bless you.
It can bless you. All throughout the scriptures we can show that. Let me give you a second statement of biblical understanding of wealth. Secondly, wealth. has the power to curse you, to curse you.
I won't read it again, but why did God say, look? When you get into that land with its wealth and with its crops and its iron and its blessings of pomegranates and vegetables, when you get into that land, beware lest your heart be lifted up with pride and you say, I've done it. Why can wealth curse? Because wealth makes all of the same promises that God makes. Wealth says, I'll be with you in sickness, I'll be with you in difficulties, I'll be with you when you're well and I'll be with you when you're going through difficult times.
I will give you happiness because I'll be able to buy for you clothes and food and all these other things, and you don't have to trust God anymore because I will be there for you. And as a result of that, because of that, wealth Curses people. And when we forget that we are just stewards and we become owners and we begin to say, this is mine. I possess this, and the wealth begins to possess us. Beware.
Some of you know people who are not generous. You know people who will take a quarter before they put it into the offering plate and hang onto it until their knuckles turn white. because they say to themselves, This is mine Beware, God says, because it has just cursed you if you look at it as yours. Wealth. It's magnetic.
People who have high principles have sometimes sacrificed them when big money has been waved in their faces. I remember when the New Era scandal happened a number of years ago, someone was saying he sat in a boardroom where people were going to invest in it because he suspected it was bogus and he pled with them not to and he said it was as if their eyes glazed over and they would not listen because the possibility of wealth was too overwhelming for them. 23 million people watched. I was not among them, but 23 million people watched when a young woman married a man whom she had never met before. and they married on national television.
Who wants to marry a multi- millionaire.
Now there are a number of concerns. What does that say about marriage? But I'm interested particularly in the money aspect. Here's a young woman who said yes. meeting a man she had never met and he had never met her and uh However, she did sign a pre-nuptial agreement that she really did not have any right.
to his wealth if things went bad in their marriage. There are a number of things that are wrong with that picture, wouldn't you say? Very wrong with that picture. But let me just suggest one. Why who wants to marry a multimillionaire?
Why not have a show entitled, Who Wants to Marry a A poor but nice guy.
Now why didn't they have that on television? I could think of some people then who could participate in a show like that. Multi millionaire. I'm reminded of what Peter said to someone in the New Testament. He said, Did he not your money be damned?
At least one translation translates it that way. Money can bless. Money can bless. It's more fun to be rich than it is to be poor, I can tell you that. But it can curse.
Dug from the mountainside or washed from the glen, servant am I or master of men? Earn me, I bless you. Steal me, I curse you. Grasp me and hold me. A fiend shall possess you.
Lie for me, die for me, covet me, take me. Angel or devil, I'm just what you make me. and from Genesis to Revelation. Especially from the lips of Jesus, we have one warning after another after another after another, because wealth can bless. but it can also curse.
Let me give you a third principle. Wealth and poverty are God's means. They are God's means of leading us. You'll notice that the book of Deuteronomy says, I led you into the land. I'm in verse 2 of chapter 8.
Remember how the Lord your God led you into the desert.
Now that was God leading them into the desert. God led them into poverty.
Now he was going to lead them into the land of wealth. Both were of God. There are some lessons that wealth cannot teach you. There are some things that only poverty can teach you. There are some things that maybe being wealthy can teach you that being poor can't.
And God says both are in my hands. Most people, it's been my experience as well as others, we go through that roller coaster of sometimes we have money and sometimes we don't. And most of us came up through the poverty route when we were first married and we understand what poverty is. And what God is saying is, don't you realize that that's the way I lead you? I want you to trust me for those things that you cannot afford, and I want you to pray about them, and I want you to see how I will give them to you, even though you can't afford them.
Now we have circumvented that principle. And it's called credit card. Debt. We said I don't have to pray about it. I don't have to ask God whether He wants me to have new furniture.
I don't have to ask God, do you want us to have a car, a new car or not? I can just go buy it. And pay for it later. In the midst of wealth, I read recently that there is more consumer debt in the United States right now than ever. When times are bad, the debt goes up because people need money in order to live, supposedly.
And in good times, it goes up even more because people are so optimistic that they'll be able to pay these bills. Oh, friend, if I don't get a chance to say this at any other time in this series, I shall say it now. If you are a slave to credit card, if you use credit cards not to simply pay your bills at the end of the month, but it accumulates. You remember when we were boys and girls, we all wanted to play doctor? Remember that we used to always want to say, let's play doctor or whatever.
This is your chance to revert back to your childhood and play doctor. And the way you can do it is take those credit cards and perform some plastic surgery. on those credit cards. I don't know if you heard it or not, but I heard of a plastic surgeon who melted. That's another story, of course.
Wealth is God's way of leading us. The Apostle Paul says, I have learned in whatever state. Yeah, you say, well, he was never in Illinois.
Well, wait a moment now. He said, I have learned in whatever state I am. Thereby to be content. He says, I know what it is to be wealthy, to have my needs met. I know what it is to be poor.
I know what it is to abound. I know what it is to be abased. And I accept both. From God. Let me give you a fourth principle.
Wealth can be the means by which we test God. It's the means by which we test God.
Now, I've looked at this passage ahead of time, so I want you to only listen to us, but it comes from the book of Malachi, chapter 3, verse 8. Will a man rob God? he says. People were not giving their offerings, they weren't bringing their tithes, they were not giving God his 10%. In the Old Testament, they were to do that specifically, and there were other offerings that they were to make as well, and they weren't doing it, and they were saying, Well, I have my own needs first.
There were no first fruit offerings to the Lord. They said, Well, we're going to keep the best for ourselves. God says, will you rob me? You say, but how do we rob you? In tithes and offerings, you are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it. Did you know that throughout scriptures it always says, don't test the Lord. Don't put God in a box. Don't jump over a cliff saying, Well, he has to rescue me because he's promised to take care of his people.
Don't do that. This is the only text in all the Bible. Where God says, Test me. God says, check me out. And see what I will do if you will trust me with your money.
and be generous. And give as I have prospered you, and see what I will do, and see the blessing that will come your way. Later on, when we get to the New Testament, we'll see how that principle works out more specifically in our day. But God is saying, here I am. Here I am.
Trust me. Trust me. Wow. What an opportunity we have as a church. Isn't it marvelous that after 75 years, Though we've not had a building program in those years, that God has led us to this moment, to this hour.
to this opportunity in this millennium. And he says to you and to me and to anyone else who is listening, test me. And just see what happens when you become generous and you trust me with your money. And see What I will do Principle number five. Money or wealth is the means of testing our own faithfulness or lack thereof, our own faithfulness.
Someday I'll go into this in more detail, but you remember Jesus in the New Testament said this: He said, if you can't be trusted with filthy lucre, you know, we say, Oh, no, no, no, no, it's not. It's not filthy, Lucre. It's really nice.
Well, Jesus understood that money could be such a curse. Yes, he also understood it could be a blessing. But he says: if you can't be trusted with money, If you can't be trusted with stocks and bonds and mutual funds and cougars and whatever else, if you can't be trusted with this, he said, who will give you the true riches? God says it's a test. To see how you will do.
And the way we pass that test will determine even the kind of reward that we have as we stand in the presence of God. The question is: have we been able to trust God? Or have we said as Israel did? the strength of my own hand and my own ingenuity. It is that.
that has given me the ability to beget wealth, and it is mine. Cursed. is the person. Who says that? I've never forgotten the story of William Cantillon, who wrote a little booklet entitled The Day the Dollar Dies.
In it he talks about post-war Germany. And when the government was begun in Bonn, after some settlements were made in World War II, after World War II, there was a woman who kept all of her German marks. And she kept them in a box, and she worked very hard, and she put her money in the box, and she always took it. And I'm sure she looked at it once in a while, but she kept it there because just outside of Frankfurt there was a Bible school that had been demolished in the war. And because she had quite a few marks, she brought the box full of marks.
To Mr. Cantillon, who was in charge of the school, and said, here's money so that you can rebuild. In his book, he talks about the agony he went through. He thought to himself, Did she not read this morning's paper? Was she not aware of the news?
Had she not heard? Must he be the one? To bring such sadness to this dear old woman, God bless her. That day, the morning, or I should say the day before, the government in Bonn had cancelled all German marks. her money.
was worthless. I told you a moment ago that money makes all the same promises that God makes. I'll be with you. I'll give you happiness. I'll be there when you need me.
You can always depend on me. You don't need any friends because when you're desperate, you can buy anything you like. Makes all those promises. I can't keep them. And in the end, everything is going to be cancelled.
All of Wall Street, all of LaSalle Street. All the talk, all of the business communications, all of the satellites and the technology and all that went into that, it will be canceled and worthless. The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. And the scripture says that the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the world and all of its work shall be burned up. Money made promises.
It could not keep. And that which we keep is that which we meet on the other side. Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where the stock market. can vacillate, but rather Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves cannot break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.
We have before us a challenge, don't we? And the challenge is, can we trust God in the area that is most sensitive to us? The most sensitive to us, and say, Lord. It is yours. Therefore, I have only really one really honest question.
What will you have me do with that which belongs to you? I'm the caretaker. And you are the owner.
Some of you listening to this message may get a wrong impression, so I need to correct it. If you are here today and you've never trusted Christ as Savior, you don't go to heaven by deciding to give and be generous. It's nice to do those things, but that's not the way. First of all, you receive the free gift that has been given to us in Christ. By grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves.
It is not of works, it is a free gift.
So I offer you today the water of life freely. Don't even begin to think about giving to God unless first. You've come to Christ to receive the water of life freely, to belong to him forever, and then as his child. You say now, Lord. Father, what will you have me?
to do. Let's pray. Our Father, we want to thank you today for all of your mercies, for the grace of Christ, for the strength of Christ. We thank you today that we are blessed beyond measure. Most of us have.
Many suits of clothes. Many of us have cars that work and homes that are warm in the winter and cold in the summer. Father, how you have just poured out your blessing. We have said in our hearts, this is mine. Oh, forgive us.
Cleanse us, Lord. We ask that you shall bring us to that realization that all is of your grace. And we have only one question. What do you want? Thank you for this congregation and for the many who are listening.
And we pray today that with one voice and one heart we might be the people that we should be. We ask in Jesus' name. Oh man. Oh man. Oh my god.
I want to emphasize what I've just said. It is so important to realize that no gift that we can give gets us into heaven. What we must do is receive the free gift of eternal life, but then having done that, we desire. To say thank you to the Lord, and one way we can do that is to invest in gospel ministries. That's why we are so grateful for the many of you who support running to win.
Perhaps you've heard me say it before, but because of people just like you, this ministry goes around the world. As a matter of fact, we are in fifty different countries in seven different languages. And the good news is this: that anyone who gives a gift during this month. that gift will be doubled. I hope that you pray about enabling us to continue this ministry and you becoming a part of it.
Here's the contact info. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.
Now, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again, but I want you to also know that as an expression of our appreciation, we're sending you a very special resource, a book I've written entitled Christ Among Other Gods. I wish I had lots of time to tell you about it, but the bottom line is this: it helps us to understand why Christ alone. is a Saviour. Other religions do not have a Saviour. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember, your gift will be doubled. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. You've heard Erwin Lutzer with God the Landlord, the second in a six-part series on managing God's gifts.
We're learning how to manage wealth, and this means seeing the close connection between stewardship and worship.
Next time, we turn to Exodus chapter 35 to learn how worship happens. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
