Incredibly life-altering and life-giving instructions. This eternal wisdom, these profound declarations of truth that go overlooked or completely underutilized or ignored altogether because very few people find themselves to be the rich in the passage. Today, we start a brand new series. Well, it’s brand new. We’re calling it Rich. We’re We’re talking this series, it’s four weeks, about what the Bible says about money. That’s what this is about. I want you to know, just from the jump, I’m not going to ask for anything. Amen. I just simply want to teach you about what the scripture say about money, and I’m really excited about this series. We did something like this in 2018, but I think a repeat of these teachings are long overdue. We’re calling this series Rich because there are a lot of passages in the Bible directed at rich people. If you’re like me, when you run into those passages, you just read over them and you go, Well, thank God that’s not me. If you’re like me, what you relate to are not those passages. What you relate to are the other passages, the widow with two copper coins. You think, wow, in that story, there’s a group of people with a lot of money giving it away.
Then there’s another poor widow who has She has two copper coins. She has nothing. And you’re like, That’s me. I am the lady with two small coins. And I mention this because, as I said before, there are just all of these passages towards rich people, and oftentimes, they go completely overlooked because everyone goes, That’s obviously for someone else. Hebrews 13:5 is one of those passages that says this. It says, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. First Timothy 6:10, it says, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This is Jesus speaking in Matthew 19:23. Then Jesus said to them, to his disciples, Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again, I tell you, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Then for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How about this one? I think this next one should go on a pillow. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Now, this is just a tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of these verses. Two statistics that I find interesting. Eleven of Jesus’s 39 parables, Jesus talked about money. In one of Every seven verses in all of the Book of Luke, Jesus talks about wealth or money. When I read those passages, and when I read a passage like what I just read, I just think to myself, oftentimes, ouch, I wouldn’t want to be one of those people. For me, it actually goes a little bit deeper because one of my favorite books in the Bible to study out is the Book of first Timothy. The Book of first Timothy is where the apostle Paul writes a long letter to a young evangelist, a guy named Timothy. Timothy is a minister, probably in his 30s, leading a ministry, leading a pretty large church. Paul is mentioning to him all the things that he needs to do as a minister. One of the things that Paul tells Timothy to do, and this is 1 Timothy 6:17, this is pretty strong words by the apostle Paul. This is what he says. He’s talking to Timothy, this young evangelist. He says this, Command those who are rich.
I take this to heart because he is talking to a minister in his 30s that is like me, and he’s commanding him. He says, speak to the rich among them. Speak to them. Charge them. He’s giving this apostolic correction. He’s saying, if you’re a young minister in your 30s, speak to the rich in your congregation. You might wonder what the word rich means here. The word rich means exactly what you think it means. Someone who is wealthy, someone who has some rich, and the Bible describes it’s rich in the current age. It’s not like wealthy in heaven. It’s rich here on earth. He’s talking about materially rich, and he says to warn them. Here I am, I’m leading a congregation and helping to lead a congregation. I’m being charged with warning the rich to do something. The question becomes, who is rich? Who is it? I could just ask You raise your hands. That would make this job a little bit easier. But it’s a weird thing in our culture to ask. In fact, many of you are already squirming. It’s weird because no one thinks they’re rich. At least most people don’t think they’re rich.
And so who is rich? Easy. It’s people with a lot of money. But how much money? Are we talking assets? If you have a car, are you rich? If you have two cars, are you rich? If you have three cars, are you rich? How How many bedrooms do you need to have to be considered rich? Three bedrooms? What if you live in a high rise in Fort Lauderdale? Are you rich then? Is it about destination? Is it about debt to income ratios? Is it about material possessions? If you own a Mac, are you rich? How do you get to decide who’s rich? Is it about flexible income? It’s about after all the bills have been paid. It’s about how much debt you have. Are you rich if you have more money money than debt. It’s about how much money is in your 401k. But see, most of us, truthfully, I’m telling you all these things, you don’t care. All you care about is that whatever I’m going to say is higher than where you are. That’s what we care about. It’s one category higher than me. And here’s the other thing to think. Even if we think we might be rich, no one wants to admit they’re rich.
There’s a weird negative stigma about this. By the way, this is so strange. It’s the only attribute that we treat like this. Because if I said to you, who here has been blessed with a wonderful spouse. Raise your hand. Yeah, exactly. How fast? I asked you earlier to raise your hands. No one raise their hands. Who here is tall, over 6 foot? Who feels that? Yeah. Or a woman over 5’8? I have no idea. If I said, you know what? Who is here been blessed with athletic ability? You’d see people raise their hand because who’s good at music? Who’s creative? But if I ask you, are you rich? Very few people would raise their hand. Unless you’re trying to be spiritual, you’re like, I’ve been spiritually blessed with all the riches that God could possibly give. Most people would be like me. It’s not me. Then you would see, if I finally I asked you, and some people actually raise their hand, you would be looking around at the one person who didn’t raise their hand and you think to yourself, I know where they live. They are definitely rich. What I’ve learned is that rich people don’t know they’re rich.
The Bible has these amazing teachings, these incredibly life-altering and life-giving instructions, this eternal wisdom, these profound declarations of truth that go overlooked or completely underutilized or ignored altogether because very few people find themselves to be the rich in the passage. Today, we start a brand new series. Well, it’s brand new. We’re calling it Rich. We’re talking this series, it’s four weeks, about what the Bible says about money. That’s what this is about. I want you to know just from the jump, I’m not going to ask for anything. Amen. I just simply want to teach you about what What the Scripture Say About Money, and I’m really excited about this series. We did something like this in 2018, but I think a repeat of these teachings are long overdue. We’re calling this series Rich because there are a lot of passages in the Bible directed at rich people. If you’re like me, when you run into those passages, you just read over them and you go, Well, thank God that’s not me. If you’re like me, what What you relate to are not those passages. What you relate to are the other passages, the widow with two copper coins.
You think, wow, in that story, there’s a group of people with a lot of money giving it away. Then there’s another poor widow who has two copper coins. She has nothing. You’re like, that’s me. I am the lady with two small coins. I mention this because, as I said before, there are just all of these passages towards rich people, and oftentimes, they go completely overlooked because everyone goes, That’s obviously for someone else. Hebrews 13:5 is one of those passages that says this. It says, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. First Timothy 6:10, it says, For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This is Jesus He’s speaking in Matthew 19:23, Then Jesus said to them, to his disciples, ‘Truly, I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘ Again, I tell you, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
How about this one? I think this next one should go on a pillow. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of these verses. Two statistics that I find interesting. Eleven of Jesus’s 39 parables, Jesus talked about money. In one of every seven verses in all of the Book of Luke, Jesus talks about wealth or money. When I read those passages, and when I read a passage like what I just read, I just think to myself, oftentimes like, ouch, I wouldn’t want to be one of those people. For me, it actually goes a little bit deeper because one of my favorite books in the Bible to study out is the Book of first Timothy. The Book of first Timothy is where the apostle Paul writes a long letter to a young evangelist, a guy named Timothy. Timothy is a minister, probably in his 30s, leading a ministry, leading a pretty large church. Paul is mentioning to him all the things that he needs to do as a minister. One of the things that Paul tells Timothy to do, and this is 1 Timothy 6:17.
This is pretty strong words by the apostle Paul. This is what he says. He’s talking to Timothy, this young evangelist. He says this, Command those who are rich. I take this to heart because he is talking to a minister in his 30s that is like me, and he’s commanding him. He says, Speak to the rich among them. Speak to them. Charge them. He’s giving this apostolic correction. He’s saying, If you’re a young minister in your 30s, speak to the rich in your congregation. You might wonder what the word rich means here. The word rich means exactly what you think it means. Someone who is wealthy, someone who has some rich. The Bible describes it’s rich in the current age. It’s not like wealthy in heaven. It’s rich here on earth. He’s talking about materially rich. He says, To warn them. Here I am, I’m leading a congregation or helping to lead a congregation, I’m being charged with warning the rich to do something. And the question becomes, who is rich? Who is it? I could just ask you to raise your hands. That would make this job a little bit easier. But it’s a weird thing in our culture to ask.
In fact, many of you are already squirming. It’s weird because no one thinks they’re rich. At least most people don’t think they’re Rich. And so who is rich? Easy. It’s people with a lot of money. But how much money? Are we talking assets? If you have a car, are you rich? If you have two cars, are you rich? If you have three cars, are you rich? How many bedrooms do you need to have to be considered rich? Three bedrooms? What if you live in a high rise in Fort Lauderdale? Are you rich then? Is it about destination? Is it about debt to income ratios? Is it about material possessions? If you own a Mac, Are you rich? How do you get to decide who’s rich? It’s about flexible income. It’s about after all the bills have been paid. It’s about how much debt you have. Are you rich if you have more money than debt? It’s about how much money is in your 401k. But see, most of us, truthfully, I’m telling you all these things, you don’t care. All you care about is that whatever I’m going to say is higher than where you are.
That’s what we care about. It’s one category Very higher than me. And here’s the other thing to think. Even if we think we might be rich, no one wants to admit they’re rich. There’s a weird negative stigma about this. By the way, this is so strange. It’s the only attribute that we treat like this. Because if I said to you, who here has been blessed with a wonderful spouse? Raise your hand. Yeah, exactly. How fast? I asked you to raise your hands. No one raise their hands. Who here is tall, over 6 foot? Who feels that? Yeah. Or a woman over 5’8? I have no idea. If I said, you know what? Who is here been blessed with athletic ability? You’d see people raise their hand because who’s good at music? Who’s creative? But if I ask you, are you rich? Very few people would raise their hand. Unless you’re trying to be spiritual, you’re like, I’ve been spiritually blessed with all the riches that God could possibly give. Most people would be like me. It’s not me. Then you would see, if I finally I asked you, and some people actually raise their hand, you would looking around at the one person who didn’t raise their hand and you think to yourself, I know where they live.
They are definitely rich. And what I’ve learned is that rich people don’t know they’re rich. And so the Bible has these amazing teachings, these incredibly life-altering and life-giving instructions, this eternal wisdom, these profound declarations of truth that go overlooked, or completely underutilized or ignored altogether because very few people find themselves to be the rich in the passage. And God’s like, I have something for you, you wonderfully rich people. And no one raises their hand to say, I will accept that teaching. So what do we do? How do we figure this out? How do we figure out who’s rich? Well, several years ago, there was a Gallup poll done that tried to figure out who is rich. And not surprisingly, every group that Gallup spoke to said that the group slightly higher than them was the rich group. They talked to a group who made a household income of $40,000 a year in the United States, and they asked them, How much is rich? What’s a household income that would be considered rich? And all of them said $74,000. That was the average response. $74,000 of household income, just a little less than double their income.
And that would make them feel like they were rich. But then they asked the group that made between $50,000 and $75,000 who was the rich and And that group said, not surprisingly, people made over $100,000. And they asked the people who made over $100,000, and they answered the question, it’s over $150,000 a year. And what I’ve learned is that the rich line moves. It just moves and moves and moves. And so when they asked the top earners in America who was rich, this was the answer they came up with. Are you ready? The top income earners felt that you would need $5 million of assets to be considered rich. Because after $5 million of assets, you would have about a $200,000 a year of interest payments on your money that’s just sitting somewhere in a bank, and that you would basically that money would just be kicking back. That $5 million will be kicking back to you about $200,000 a year, and then you can consider yourself rich. And so here’s the thing. There’s some poor guy there who has $2.5 million in assets thinking, I haven’t really made it yet. And no one did this, but I bet you if you ask the people with $5 million in assets, they would say, You need $10 million in assets to be considered rich.
This is the way that wealth works. This is the way that people think about wealth. I read a book this past month called The Algorithm of Wealth, where there was a guy who described that he’s relatively wealthy and he’s sitting on his own yacht, and he’s in a canal in Palm Beach, or he’s on a canal in Palm Beach, and he’s sitting there, and he saw Microsoft, ex-CEO of Microsoft’s yacht, pass by, and he thought to himself, Man, I wish I could have that yacht. And then he thought to himself, The guy who’s sitting on that yacht, the X CEO of Microsoft, he also, because in that same canal was Steve Jobs’ old yacht. And so he’s thinking to himself, Man, I wish I could have that yacht. And that’s the way it works. The rich line just moves and moves and moves and moves and moves. And that’s why you may cross from being not rich to being rich and not even know it. And you may find yourself in a perfect position to hear the teachings of Jesus Christ and completely miss them because you didn’t feel rich enough. In fact, many of you, most of you are making more money than you made 15 years ago.
And if someone would have told you, Man, you’re going to make this much money, you would think, Wow, I’m going to be totally loaded. But now you think to yourself, I was just naive because Because the financial pressures haven’t gone away. And so you’re sitting here thinking, I am not amongst the rich. So who is rich? Who is God talking to you? Well, I’ll tell you this sermon series is for Everybody in this room with over $5 million in assets. I’m just kidding. It’s for no one. By the way, you never get a paycheck and go, We did it, honey. It was June 16th at four o’clock. It was Father’s Day. I remember it. I went from not being rich to being rich. It doesn’t happen. And what ends up happening is because you don’t know that you crossed the line a long time ago, you just continue to pursue being richer and richer and richer and richer. And along the way, you damaged relationships, you drained your energy, and that pursuit leads your life with more stress and more anxiety and less and less freedom and more and more a feeling of suffering because you did not learn how to be rich.
Instead, you just tried to get richer and richer and richer. Ecclesiastes 5:10 says this, Whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. You just try to get richer and richer. You think if I could just get X amount, all my financial pressure would subside. And the thing about it is you felt that when you made a a lot less as well. In other words, when you made 20,000, you thought, if I could just make 30, and you thought, if I could just make 50, if I could just make 100, if I could make 120, if I could make 150, then it would all go away. And this is Jesus This is warning to you. Watch out beyond your guard against all kinds of greed because life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions. And so what you’re trying to do is get more life by having more money. And what you’re doing is missing life altogether. Okay, so back to our question, who’s rich? Well, let’s talk about it internationally. You knew we were getting here. If you earn, this is household income. If you earn $40,000 a year of household income, you are a top 8 percenter across the world.
8 percenter. You’re in the top 10, baby. Most of us would be in this group, at least. Let’s go a little further. If you make at least $60,000 a year of household income, you’re in the top 5 % of all the world’s earners. You’re a 5 percenter. You want to be in the top 1 %? Make $100,000 $100,000 a year of household income. Total household income, you are a one percenter. Of all the people in all of the world, the eight billion people, you are in the top one % of earners if you make over $100,000 a of household income. Now, I told you that, and no one here turned to their wife and goes, Honey, we’re rich. We did it. I love this church. No one at work tomorrow is going to be like, You know what I learned at church? I’m rich. That’s what I learned at church. And the reason you’re not going to say that is because here’s what happened. You crossed the rich line a long time ago, but you didn’t feel like you crossed the rich line a long time ago. This is my silly chart. Most of us have crossed the rich line a long time ago, but But you don’t feel better about crossing it because you don’t feel very rich.
According to the UN, 1.8 billion people are estimated to live on less than $3 a day. That’s what people make in a day. No one in this room got up to run and grab it. In fact, I threw it over to Jose, and Jose went like this. Keep that thing away from me. The majority of people, that’s what they live on. That’s what they live on. Rich people. You want to hear about who’s rich? Own a car. 3% of the population of the world’s population owns a car. And then some of you have houses for your guitar, for your… Sorry. Own a car. Some of you have houses for your cars. You call them garages. Some people don’t have places to live, but you have a house for your car. Some of you use those cars to drive up to restaurants. You roll down your window and you say, Give me a hamburger, and you spend $10 on a burger, fries, and a soda. This is people’s or more people are saying. I That’s more than most people live on in a week. So subsequently, rich people struggle with things that poor people don’t struggle with.
Rich people struggle with weight. Poor people struggle with starvation. Rich people have closets full of clothes. And so there are rich people, rich women in particular, who stand in front of closets. And I’m not saying this because I’ve seen it. I’ve never seen this. This never happened before. But rich people, rich women will stand in front of closets full of clothes and say, I have nothing to wear. Meanwhile, their rich husbands are working on their rich cars or sitting inside their houses for their cars, working on those cars and thinking to themselves, you know what? I need a new one of these. So what’s the point? There’s billions of people who live on less than what I threw on the ground, and no one has yet to pick it up. And what happens along the way is we don’t realize we’re rich. Now, let me just say this. I’m not saying any of this stuff to make you feel shame or make you feel guilty about your wealth. The Bible is really clear about this. This is what it says, The blessings of the Lord bring wealth. God put you in this country. God put you in this generation.
God gave you your talents. God gave you your skills. God gave you these amazing things, not so you would feel guilty. In fact, this is Ecclesiastes 5. It says, Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, this is a gift of God. This isn’t about feeling guilty. This isn’t about feeling like, Oh, man, I feel so terrible. This isn’t about feeling uncomfortable. All I’m trying to say is that God has something to say to you that most of us are pushing aside because we don’t want to admit that we are the people he’s speaking to. See, the reason we don’t want to be rich or we aren’t rich is because we don’t We feel like we’re rich. We have been blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed. And I want to tell you that there are people out there who have nothing. And here you are, rich out of your mind. And God has a lesson for you that I hope that you will hear today. I want to share with you a brief story, and then I’ll… I want to share with you a brief story. There’s a story that I heard outside of a very large city in in a developing nation where there’s a very small little hut.
There was a very small little hut in a very little town outside of a large city. And there was this single mom who was in the house. And what was happening is that they were bringing her of people to visit the village. And one of the people they brought around, journalists were following Bill Gates at the time. And so Bill Gates was going from house to house in these little villages and just going in and shaking hands with people and asking them what they needed. And so a journalist was following around Bill Gates, and Bill Gates walked into this one particular house, and he looked at the woman, he shook her hand, he walked out, and the journalist stayed. And the journalist had this sense of great pride. And he said to the woman, Did you know that the person who just left your house is the richest man in the entire world? And the lady said back to the journalist without any expression, she said this, Everyone who visits from the West seems to me like the richest person in the world. To her, everyone in the US is rich. In other words, if you would have been the next person to walk in that room, she would have put you in the same category as Bill Gates.
And I understand it. None of us here are like, man, I feel like I’m crushing it financially. Maybe someone does feel that, but not a lot of us. And what ends up happening, as I mentioned before, is that we just look for something more and something more and something more We chase and chase and chase and chase and chase, not realizing that we’ve crossed the line a long time ago. So in this first lesson, my job is simply to bring to the reality of the idea that we, in fact, are rich. We have jobs, and let me just make another comment. I understand also that we have people in this room without jobs. I’m also acutely aware of the fact that there are people in this room with serious financial difficulties. We have people who are upside down financially. We have women, single moms in this room who are trying to raise a whole family by themselves. I understand some of you have crushing medical bills, and some of you have crushing school debt. I understand that. But my point is that the majority of us today are doing okay. And so we have to learn to be rich.
And the first way to learn to be rich is to acknowledge that we are rich. So I’m going to ask you to do something that’s very uncomfortable. In fact, it’s I’m going to be super, super uncomfortable. But please, after you’ve gotten mad at me and all that stuff, I’d like to ask you to think to yourself, why am I so uncomfortable? Why did I get mad about that? What in my life makes me feel this? So in a second, we’re going to practice. We’re going to acknowledge confessing that we are rich. I’m going to ramp up to it a little bit slowly by telling you a funny story. I had a friend come over a couple of weeks ago. They came to my house, and it was their first time at my house. And they said, wow, Tony, you have such a nice house, three bedrooms. And look at this yard. And he said, you’re like, rich. And I was working on this lesson. And let me tell you what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say is I bought this before the pandemic, and my interest rate is 2.5 %. And I wanted to say it got on clearance.
It was a great deal, or Whatever. That’s what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say, You don’t know my situation. I did this, and my parents helped, blah, blah, blah, blah, He was like, What? And I wanted to say, Just kidding. Ha ha. L-o-l. It was super awkward, and he just moved on. So I know it’s awkward, but here’s what I want you to do. I want you to repeat after me. I’m going to put this thing on the screen. I want you to repeat after me. Feel it. Embrace it. Feel it. Are you ready? I’m going to say it. God has blessed me with more than I need. God has blessed me with more than I need. Isn’t this true for you? Isn’t this true for you? God has blessed you with more than you need? Okay, I’m going to say it again. God has blessed me with more than I need. Here’s the uncomfortable part. I’m rich. A little more gusto. I’m rich. Okay, now that I’m in a room full of rich people, I can read the very first charge. It’s going to be an outline for our discussion. Here it is.
First Timothy 6:17. Command those who are rich, that’s you, in this present world, not to be arrogant, not to think that because you have more than someone else, that you’re better than someone else, not to think that your accumulation of wealth is because of you, nor to put your hope in wealth, not to think that if it goes away, then you’re hopeless, and if you have more, then your hopes are full. But not to put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hopes in God. Who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them, that’s you, to do good, to be rich in good deeds. You’re rich financially, so you should be rich in doing good for others. To be generous, which means to take some of your wealth and to give it away to those who don’t have it. And willing to share, which means that if you have a lot, You should be willing to give a portion to someone else. In this way, if they are rich in good deeds, if they put their hope in God and not in wealth, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.
Our Lord longs for us to have life that is truly life. And as we learn these lessons these next couple of weeks and begin to put them into practice, I know God is going to bring us closer to the life that he dreamed for us because we’re going to learn how to be rich in the current age. Timothy is called to charge those who are rich, to be prepared, or sorry, to beware of the temptation to take our money and to make it into something that we feel like is our own. And instead to We realize that it’s a blessing from God that he’s going to use to bless other people, to not put our hopes in it. The Proverbs 23:5 says, Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprint wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Trust in God. Find joy in him. Be generous. And in that way, you’ll find life that is truly life. One more Let’s all do it together. God has blessed me with more than I need. I’m rich. I’m excited for this series. The next four weeks, we’ll learn a lot about money, we’ll learn a lot about the Bible.
I’m super pumped about it. Amen. Okay, At the end of our talks, every week we do take up an offering in this church. But what I’m going to do is I’m going to not talk about it at all. Instead, every week, we have one of our members who’s going to talk a little bit about how they’ve become rich in this way. This week we’re going to have Miguel Bernades share a little bit about it. He’s going to talk a little bit about what generosity means to him and how he has a generous heart. We’ve asked them to come up and share, and so hopefully We’ll take some time to listen to him. He’s going to share for about five minutes.
Good morning, church. How are you?. My name is Miguel, and I have been privileged to be part of the Body of Christ here in this congregation since 2005. I don’t know any other congregations. This is my family. I am very blessed being in this building, but not because of the building, but because of you guys. Here, sitting among you are men and women that has been instrumental in my walk with God, and not only in my walk with God, but also for for my wife and for my children. So today is Father Day, and it’s amazing that we are starting with this new journey or with this new series about how can we be closer to God? For me personally, and I’m not going to share about this scripture, but in Matthew 5:8, we see that only the pure in heart will see God. Would you like to see God? Do you want to see God, or do you want to wait until you’re dead to see God, or you want to see God today? I want to see God today. Actually, I am in the presence of a body of saints in Christ.
This is an amazing time, and I am very honored to be here. I want to read from you something that moves me all the time. We’re in John 11:38, and I have another scripture, but after listening to what just Tony preached, here we read, Jesus once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave of stone laid across the entrance. ‘Take away the stone, ‘ he said, ‘but Lord, ‘ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by the time there is a bad order, for he has been dead, he has been there for three days. Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And then you know the rest of the story. Now, why is this related with giving? And why is this related with Matthew 5:8? And why is this related with my finances? I don’t know if you are marveled at the miracles of Jesus Christ. He has the power to do everything by himself, and yet, he will always ask the participation of men and women. So now it is not Tony, it is not your brother Miguel, it is the It is the Holy spirit.
It is the Holy spirit that is moving you to analyze, to search, and to pray, what is your idol? What are you idolizing? And The man that is in front of you, come from Mexico, I had the blessing of coming here in America in 2000. I had the blessing to come here in America, and I have the blessing to be bilingual. But I have the blessing to be chosen by Christ and responded to Christ saying, Yes, Christ is my Lord. And yet in my imperfect way of following Christ, the man that is talking with you has an Apple watch of of $543 and an iPhone 12 that I cannot still believe. I’m a man that tomorrow I’m going to be 54. I cannot still believe that I am paying $900 for an iPhone now. It used to be a laptop that you will pay that money for. Now, once again, this is not the shame game. This is not the manipulations game because God in Christ, he does not want What’s your money. What does he want? Your heart. What part of your heart? Your whole heart. That’s what he wants. I think this is a great opportunity for us to understand, to analyze, to pray, to pray, to meditate.
What are my idles? What are my fears? What are my insecurities? Culturally speaking, this is crazy. You were to love God and do not touch dead people. How come you’re going to be asked to move a stone of a body that has been dead for four days? It’s crazy. It’s culturally countercultural. Yet, they trust in him. And because they trust in him, Lazarus is back from the dead. So you know what or you know why the Bernades family continues giving? Because we were saved. Because we were dead. Because in the outside, you will look a very successful executive with a beautiful wife and three children, and our marriage was dead. I was spiritually bankrupt and completely about to physically die. By the grace of God, we were approached by women and men from this congregation, and we get to listen to the gospel. And by his grace and by his Holy spirit, we responded. I responded. If you were to meet Miguel in his 20s, that man will never, ever respond to Christ. But Miguel, in his 35, was humiliated, was about to die, and was watching his marriage being completely completely obliterated. By whom?
By my sin. By my sin. So it is in your given. It is in your giving that you allow others to listen to the message. It is in your giving that is countercultural in a society that wants you to be focused on you, on what you want, what you desire. When? Now. Now, the Holy spirit is telling you, Move the stone. Move the stone. Be countercultural. Let’s give with hope, with joy. Not because somebody is compelling into shame. No, because God sent his son to die for you, for each one of you. How much can you give to earn more love from Christ? Can you pray harder? Can you give more? God loves you. He really loves me. So this is why the Bernades family with jobs, without job, with good salaries, with less salaries. Now, mind you, biblical wealth is exactly what we are being challenged here. If I have, I don’t know, six pairs of shoes and I afford to have this watch and I have a car with gas, I’m rich. Yes, I’m rich, and that’s challenging. And it’s between me and the Lord to decide how much I can contribute to.
And it doesn’t matter how much I contribute because he’s going to multiply. For what? For saving one more soul. For saving one more soul. Thank you.
Let’s go to God in prayer. Father, we’re so thankful for I was standing back there listening to Miguel thinking about this is the strongest offering thought I’ve probably ever heard, and it attacks the stuff in my heart, too. God, I just pray that you would allow whatever it is that you’re trying to do in our lives, in our hearts be receptive to you, be receptive to your teaching. Father, you are a good God, and you do save our souls. God, thank you. We want to say, Lord, we’re thankful that we are so rich. Lord, we’ve been blessed with so many things. God, thank you for blessing us with the houses we have, the shelter we have, the cars we have, the children we have, the lives that we have. Father, we just want to give everything that you have given us for the benefit of the mission and the goals that you have in this world. Father, we know that part of it is for our own enjoyment, and we get that, and sometimes we even feel guilty about that. But Lord, that also all of it somehow is also yours. Father, be with us as we think about how we’re going to be and how we’re going to respond to the teachings of your son.
We love you, Lord. We thank you in Christ Jesus’ name. Amen.