Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Today, we are wrapping up a series called “How To Be Rich”. Notice, we are not talking about how to get rich, but instead, how to be rich in a way that honors God.

Because the truth is, we are rich. Many of us don’t feel rich, but if you look at our lifestyle compared to the lifestyle of the vast majority of other people in the world, you have to see that we are very, very rich. We are mega rich.

Now, have you ever thought this, heard this, or said this? “Money changes people.” Anybody ever heard it? Said it? Thought it?

It’s true. Money changes people. We hear it. We say it. We believe it. Money changes people. But I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone say, “Money changes me.” Sure, money changes people. But it doesn’t change me.

Sorry, but you’re not the exception. If money changes people…and it does…and if you’re a person…which you are…then money changes you.

Here’s the thing, though. It can change us for the better, or it can change us for the worse. Typically, money changes us for the worse, doesn’t it? It makes people arrogant and proud and rude and selfish.

We learned in this series that people with more typically give less and they become selfish and they become materialistic, and they start to pursue the things of this world. Money changes us all the time for the worse.

But for those who love Jesus, money doesn’t change us for the worse. Instead, it can change us for the better. It can make us more humble. It can make us more grateful. It can make us more generous, and it can give us a very real divine sense of responsibility, because money doesn’t just change people. Money changes you and me.

That’s why what I am about to tell you is very, very important. This is a crucial thought that we all need to recognize, and that is this…God is testing you.

At this very moment, God is using money and wealth and riches and stuff to test us to see if we are capable of not just handling material blessings, but if we are capable of handling the most important true blessings and riches from God. God is testing us, and He wants to know if we can handle the real blessings.

Look at the words of Jesus. This is what Jesus said in Luke 16:10-11. Watch this test. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” (Luke 16:10-11, NIV)

Jesus said, “If you can be trusted with very little, you can be trusted with much. But if you are dishonest with very little, you’ll be dishonest if you acquire much.”

And then He said this…If you can’t be trusted with worldly wealth…if you aren’t trustworthy with money and stuff…who will trust you with true riches? Who will trust you with the real deal?

In other words, God wants to know, “Will you pass the test of prosperity?” Because honestly, most people don’t. Will you handle well all that God has given you? Will you pass the test of prosperity, because most people don’t.

Today, we want to talk about how to pass this test, but before we do, let’s look at how to fail it. If you can pass it, you can also fail it. Let’s look at a story that Jesus told that shows us very specifically how to fail the test of prosperity.

Luke 12, starting in verse 16, Jesus told this story that went like this. “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21, NIV)

So there’s this rich guy who has a very good year. His land produced a bumper crop. Remember that this was a largely agricultural society. The richest people in this culture were landowners. And this guy’s land did very well for him this year.

But he also had a problem. “I’ve got no place to store my crops. What am I going to do? I’ve got an idea. I’ll tear down my barns and I’ll build bigger ones. And after that, I’ll say to myself, ‘Self…you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’”

What did he just say? Basically, he just said in our language, “I’ve achieved the American dream. I’ve got more than I enough. I can get a bigger house, nicer car, and now I can kick back. I don’t have to work if I don’t want to. I can sit back and do nothing for the rest of my life if I want to, because I have all this stuff.”

And in doing so, he shows us how to fail the test of prosperity. How do we do it? We believe that more is always for me. That’s how we fail it.

We believe that as God gives us more, all of the more is for us. For example, here is how it plays out. Let’s say here is how much money you make.

And we’ll say here’s how much money you spend, because most people spend all they make.

And then, let’s say God blesses you and gives you a raise, or God gives you a bonus, or you inherit some money and all of a sudden, you have some margin. What’s the first thing that we typically think? When we have some margin, we think, “Whew! Praise God! What could I do with this?”

“I’ve got more. Now I can redo my kitchen.” “Now we can take that trip.” “Now I can go shopping.” “Now I can get a new car with heaters in the seats.”

“Yeah, I can get, I can get, I can get. I’ve got this extra, and so now, I can blow it on me!”

And so this is what typically happens. God gives us margin and we consume and absorb all the margin for ourselves. That’s typically what happens. That’s what this guy in our story did. “I can use it all, keep it all, store it all. It’s all for me.”

But go back and look verse 20. God says to him the very words that He might be saying to some of us. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12:20, NIV)

You fool. God is not being nice here. So many people think Jesus was always this meek and mild kind of wimp. God is always nice. Super nice. So sweet and nice that it’s sickening.

Not true. God looked at this dude and said, “You’re a fool. How stupid can you be? You missed the whole point.”

And then He said, “This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get all this stuff that you prepared for yourself?”

“You’re so dense that you don’t even realize that you’re time is up. You thought you had forever to consume all this wealth. Time’s up, bro.”

Now, look at how Jesus finishes the story in verse 21. He said, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21, NIV)

This is how you fail the test of prosperity. This is how it will be for those who think it is all for them. This is how it will be for anyone who isn’t rich toward the things that really, really matter.

Now, think about this. What did this guy do in the story? What was his job? He was a farmer. Okay? So, who made him rich? This isn’t a trick question. Who made him rich? God. Who made the rain fall? Who made the sun shine? Who made the crops grow? God. God had already made him rich. Jesus said this guy was rich even before he had this bumper crop. God just made this rich man even richer. God gave him a record year, and this rich guy got richer.

God made him rich. God was the One who gave him wealth. God was not angry with him because he was rich. God made him rich. God didn’t call him a fool because he was rich. God called him a fool because he didn’t know how to be rich.

God has made us rich. You might say, “Well, not really. It was me. I’m worked hard for it.”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. What you did, you did because God made you the way He made you. “Well, I’m good at what I do.” God made you good at it. “I made this wealth because I’m smart.” God gave you your mind. “I made all I have with my sweat and my effort.” God gave you your physical abilities. God is the One who gave it to you.

Deuteronomy 8 says it so simply. “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth…” (Deuteronomy 8:18, NIV)

God has given you the ability to do what you do. He has given you the ability to make money and build wealth. It is His blessing to us.

So God is not angry with the people in our country. He’s not angry because we’re more blessed than other people around the world. It’s His blessing to us.

But there are times when God looks at us and says, “You are totally missing the point. You thought it was all for you. I gave you more, but now I also expect more of you. When I give you more and you just consume it all, you’re failing. You’re failing the test of prosperity. That’s not how to be rich.”

Let’s go back and look at the Scripture that we used to kick off this whole series. It’s in the book of 1 Timothy, which was a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a young preacher named Timothy.

Paul told him, “Timothy, sometimes you are going to come across these rich people, and you need to tell them something a little different from what you tell everybody else. Here’s what I want you to tell these rich people.”

In 1 Timothy 6, starting in verse 17, Paul said, “Command those who are rich in this present world [that would include you and me] not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NIV)

We don’t settle for the imitation life that comes from riches and stuff. We want to experience the best of what God has to offer. We want to be rich in the things that matter. That means that we’re generous. We are rich in good deeds. We’re willing to share. We don’t believe that God gave us more just so we could consume it all. Like we’ve been saying throughout this series, that’s not how to be rich. That’s how to be selfish.

In each week of this series, we’ve picked up a key statement that is critical if we really want to be rich. Let’s walk through them again.

“God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich.” The definition of rich is you have more than you need. And almost every person here today could say, “Yeah, I really do have more than I need. I am rich.”

But then we added this thought to that. “I will not trust in my riches, but in Him who richly provides.” It’s so easy to trust in money and stuff. It’s so easy to build our stack of stuff so big that we believe our happiness, our joy, and our security comes from the stack. But as God’s people, we simply won’t go there. We will not trust in our riches. We will trust in God, who richly provides us with everything we have.

And then last week, we added this statement. “Because I have more, I will give more.” We have been given much, and we will be generous with what we have. We will generously support God’s church by bringing the tithe. For some of us, that rocked our world last week. But God said if you trust me in this, you won’t even believe what I’ll do in your lives. And as we grow in our giving, we’ll move beyond the tithe to offerings. We’ll always be on the lookout for ways that we can be generous. Ways that we can make a make a difference in peoples’ lives. Because I have more, I will give more.

This week, we’re going to add one more truth. I will create margin and ask God to use it.

It’s been awesome to talk to so many of you who are saying, “Man, this series is really rattling me. In a good way.”

And about right now, you are saying, “I sincerely want to be rich in a way that honors God. I want to give more, and I want to do more.” But right now, a lot of you are thinking to yourself, how? How?

You think, “I want to give more, but I barely have enough to make it through this month. How in the world can I give more when I barely have enough?”

I want to help you understand how. Most of you, this is going to fly right past you. I’ve done this job long enough to know the score. For most of you, this will go right past you. You’ll just go on with your normal life, and you’ll think, “Whatever.”

But for others of you, you’re going to see this for the truth that it is. Years from now, you’re going to say, “My life is so much richer because I applied this Biblical principle to my life. How can we give more and do more?” This is how.

We create margin and ask God to use it. Very simple. Totally life changing. We are going to create margin and ask God to use it.

In Proverbs 21, the Bible says, “The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.” (Proverbs 21:20, NIV)

The wise person has stores of choice food and oil. In other words, we have margin. In the house of the wise there is margin, but a foolish man does what? Gulps it all down. Some your Bibles say that the foolish man devours all he has.

In the house of the wise, there is margin. In the house of the foolish there is no margin, because the foolish consume and absorb and gulp down their margin. The fool thinks it is all for him or her, and that is not how to be rich.

Here is the thing that really breaks my heart about this series. Many of you still don’t believe you’re rich. Even after all we’ve seen and heard and experienced over the last month, you still don’t believe you’re rich. In fact, this bothers you because you want more and more and more and more and more, and the reason you don’t believe you’re rich is because you don’t feel rich, and you don’t feel rich is because you don’t have any margin at all.

You make a ton. A ton compared to people around the world, but you’re stressed all the time. You’ve got financial pressure all the time, because you don’t have any margin, and you don’t believe you are rich. And you still, honestly, want more because you think, “If I had more, I’d feel secure, and if I had more, I’d feel happy,” but you are buying into the lie of money. Money is promising to you something it cannot deliver. Only God can give security and true joy, but you don’t believe it, so what do you do? You pursue more…more money…more stuff…and you do it in the name of loving your family.

“I want to provide this for my wife. I want to provide this for my kids, and I want to give my kids more than I had as a kid,” and so many of you, you are providing all of this stuff, and your kids don’t even know you. They don’t even know you, and you think, “If I had more, we’d have a happier marriage,” and you’re about to lose your marriage.

This is why in Matthew 6, Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24b, NIV)

You can’t serve them both. Jesus knew that for most of us, money would be the number one competitor for our heart. Money is seeking worshippers and servants, and, and that’s what so many people are doing. And Christians do it in the name of Jesus.

“Jesus, bless me with more and more and more and more, more, more.” And all the while, you are failing. You are failing the test of prosperity. You can’t handle the good stuff because you are chasing the imitation. You get more, you consume more. God gives you margin, and you gulp it down and then ask for more.

Here’s a simple truth. God can better use people with margin. Simple, but true. God can better use people with margin.

Imagine this. Imagine you’ve got no financial margin and God sends you someone who has a need. You can’t help them. Why? You’ve got no margin.

God better uses people with margin. So, what are we going to do? We are going to create margin. That’s what we are going to do. We are going to create margin, and we are going to ask God to use it.

How do we do that? Well, here’s how much you make. Most of us, here’s how much you spend. Some of you actually spend up here, and that is absolutely insane. Some of you are thinking, “I’ve got plenty of margin. It’s called Visa. My margin is MasterCard.” That’s not margin. That’s madness. That’s not financial flexibility. That’s financial insanity.

Okay, so how are we going to create this margin? One of two ways. One is, make more. Two is, spend less. I am going to say it again, because some of you missed the power of what I just said. Okay? How do we create margin? Make more; spend less. I know. Rocket science, isn’t it?

Make more, and you know how to do that. Spend less, many of you have never even heard that before, so let me say it again. If you want financial margin in your life, you spend less. That’s how you do it. You. Spend. Less.

This means that you don’t get sucked in to what everybody else thinks you need, because you don’t need what everybody else says you need to really be fulfilled. You don’t need it.

“But in the world I live in, if you don’t have this size house and this kind of SUV and this kind of TV, you can’t be happy.”

What’s funny is that many of the things you think you need to be happy and many things that are consuming all the margin you have are the very things that didn’t even exist five years ago. Oh, yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it. Seriously, the things you think you need…the things you can’t live without…many of them did not even exist five years ago.

For example, look at how many people spend money they don’t have for an amazing new smart phone. They get their new Android and this bad boy will do everything except feed the dog and take out the cat. It didn’t even exist five years ago, but now you’ve got to have it!

I actually got a new phone this week. Here’s my new phone. And here’s the upgrade that I got…this phone actually has a keyboard on it. You don’t understand…that’s a huge upgrade for me. Up until now, I’ve had a flip phone. You know what I could do on my flip phone? I could make a phone call. Now, I’ve moved up from 1999 to about 2001. Now I can send a text message.

I still have no data plan. I don’t have the internet in my pocket. And you know why? Because it’s expensive! I’m not saying you’re wrong to have that, but for Nicki and I, it’s just not worth giving up our margin for a smart phone. So for now we’ll just be content with our stupid phones.

Seriously, when you think about it, most of the stuff that we “can’t live without” didn’t even exist five years ago, and yet somehow we survived. But now we think we can’t be happy without them.

As the people of God, we are going to be people of margin. We are going to spend less. We are going to create margin.

Very simply, what we are going to do is we will either make more, or we are going to spend less, or maybe both, and we are going to create margin and we are going to ask God to use it.

Now, I’ve got some great news for you. This isn’t just something where we say, “You should do this.” This is a deal where we’re saying, “We’ll show you how to do this.”

We know that no one can serve both God and money. You’ve got to be healthy financially if you’re going to be healthy spiritually. That’s why we are offering another Financial Peace University small group next year.

This small group has literally changed lives. It has changed entire families. Dave Ramsey has created FPU to help us get things back on track. To help us get a better perspective on money and stuff. In essence, it’s created to teach you how to be rich.

Starting in January, you’ll be able to sign up for this small group. Most of our small groups are free. Some of them might cost a few dollars for a book or something like that. This one costs $100. And I know that immediately puts some of you off. “I’m not spending that kind of money.” Let me tell you something…if you get into FPU and you seriously start learning and applying these principles…you’ll make that $100 back in the first month. Some of you will make it back in the first week. But we’re telling you now so you can set aside the money and be ready to sign up in January.

If it sounds like I’m really high on FPU, I am. It’s made a huge difference in my family’s financial life. Huge difference. We have paid off so much debt. We see money so much differently than we used to. God has blessed us because of the Biblical principles we learned and applied in our family’s life. A lot of people in this room have already gone through FPU and they can testify how powerful it is. Save your money. And get ready to sign up in January. The group will probably fill up, so be ready.

Here’s the bottom line of all this margin talk. Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of the heart. Are you willing to live on less? Are you willing to simplify your life? Are you willing to sell some stuff you don’t need? Maybe even just give it away? Are you willing to reduce your lifestyle in order to create margin?

People with margin are the people that God uses most powerfully and most effectively.

One more time. God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich.

I will not trust in riches, but in Him who richly provides.

Because I have more, I will give more.

I will create margin and ask God to use it.

That is how to be rich.

Our God is rich. Mega rich. But our God is also generous. Mega generous.

In Ephesians 1, the Bible says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” (Ephesians 1:7-8a, NIV)

God is rich in grace. He is loaded. Mega rich with grace. But He knows how to be rich. He knows it isn’t what you can get, but what you can give. That’s why He gives His riches to us. In fact, the Bible says that He lavishes His grace on us.

You can’t be truly rich apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. If you reject the riches of His grace, you are poor. I don’t care how much money you have. I don’t care how big your house is. I don’t care what kind of car you drive. If you reject the love and grace of Jesus, you are living in abject poverty.

But we want you to be rich. And it starts by accepting the ridiculously generous gift that is offered to you by an incredibly wealthy God. It’s a gift of love. Of peace. Of grace. Of a second chance.

Today we’re inviting you to choose to be rich because we’re inviting you to choose Jesus.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: generosity, How To Be Rich, Luke 12, Luke 16, margin, money, riches, wealth