Be Rich in What Matters the Most // Be Rich (Part 1)

I'm starting and you serious and this would be called be rich not this is not gonna focus on how to become rich this is gonna focus on how to be rich because everybody's focusing on becoming rich and a lot of people don't know how to be one and we all know a lot of rich people who are not good at it for those people who think if you be if you have a lot of money it automatically makes you good at being rich it's kind of like having a lot of children it makes you automatically a good parent somebody said not really having a lot of money doesn't make you good at being rich the same way as having a lot of children doesn't make you good at being a parent and so Bible has a lot to say and we're going to learn about that today's message is the first installment and I'm gonna title it being rich at what matters the most and so if you have your Bible we will take our text for this series from Timothy from the New Testament in 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse 17 and down Apostle Paul tells Timothy he says command these things to those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty not to trust in uncertain riches but in living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy let them do good that they may be rich in good works ready to give willing to share storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal life now I understand some people today maybe it's your first time when the pastor said what rich your heart is not doing good right now maybe the idea of money is a is in the church you know you grew up where maybe you've experienced abuse in this topic perhaps you've experienced where pastors or ministers they they stole money from the church perhaps you've experienced where people lived off of the poor and the whole goal was give give give give and I want you to put your prejudice and your experience aside just for a little bit and I want you to hear with your heart what God's word has to say I am not afraid to talk about money because Bible talks about money and God talks about not just about money but how for us and plus it's it takes eight hours of your day on the average it's an important part of your life and therefore it matters to God and it matters to us the good news is you're rich the bad news also is you're rich statistically and it says that if you make thirty three thousand dollars a year a household income you are on the 1% of the richest people in the world now I understand you might argue and say well Vlad you don't understand and some of those places the living costs are extremely low but today just comparing based on the income if your household makes eighty thousand dollars a year you are on 0.1% of the richest people in the world so most of us in this room who have a job that pays minimum wage you are from 1 to 4 of the top richest people in this world now you probably don't feel rich that's one thing about being rich you never know that you are rich and you don't feel rich like I meet with single people who are we're never ready the people who say I'm not ready for marriage usually are ready for marriage it's the guys who always scare me that they say I'm ready for marriage that you know they're not ready it's kind of same thing with riches the rich people usually don't feel rich none nobody here today feels rich nobody feels that this applies to them but if you go to toward third world countries if you meet people who are struggling or big the reason why we don't feel rich is because there are people who are richer than us the good news is for most of us here today we qualify for this verse is that we're rich but what I want to focus on is not necessarily will have serious where we're gonna talk about how to hustle and how to work hard and everything but what I want to focus on today is not how to get richer but how to become good at being rich and what does Apostle Paul what does the scripture tell us about being good at being rich and we're gonna break this verse down go through it as quickly as we can the first thing that Apostle Paul says and if you are taking notes I want you to write this down he says do not be proud as a rich person don't be proud as a rich person pride is so easy to see in other people impossible to see in yourself pride comes naturally for the rich people and we don't like proud rich people nobody likes that when you are arrogant and you are rich it's not good yes it smells people don't like it but it's not just that people don't like it it's that God don't like it why do rich people have a greater tendency toward pride than poor people because of our value system because your worth is not based on Jesus your worth is based on your net or your wealth and when your worth is based on your wealth you will either be depressed or proud and many people today your worth is not based on Jesus and so when you don't have nothing you feel worthless and when you get something you feel worthy and you feel entitled you feel you're better than other people and while we judge the rich people who are bad at being rich if your worth is not based on Jesus Christ it will be based on your wealth and your appearance and your accomplishments and your accolades all and your failures or on your past or on people's opinions or on your weaknesses if I can borrow Jacob and Zakir and for an illustration let's give them a round of applause quickly brothers so I want you to hold this and so Zaki is going to represent a person who's worth is based on Jesus the Bible says the righteous man a good man he builds his house on the rock have you noticed one thing that every season the rock remains the same size when it's winter when is summer it's the pretty much the same now it could decrease sister slightly but it's pretty much the same size it doesn't grow and it doesn't shrink your words in Jesus doesn't change when you get married your words in Jesus doesn't change when you get a job your words in Jesus doesn't change when you get out of poverty Jesus loves you the same and you have to know your worth in Jesus and it's solid and it's heavy somebody give God some praise right now no but there's alternative of where pride comes in for rich people and where discouragement comes in for poor people is when your worth is flexible fluid when your worth is when you don't have a job you feel worthless you don't have a boyfriend and you don't have a girlfriend you don't have a house or you're you're not maybe with certain you're not keeping up with Jonas's and this is how your Worth feels like and then praise be to God you get a promotion I want you to start bloating it you get a promotion you get a job and you're worth becomes inflated good good come on get more prosperity I'm gonna break through a little bit more come on come on okay come on we don't want to be richer than that now pause for a moment I want you to tighten it up so I want you to see that both I want you to see that both people don't know how to be on the stage number one and but the real illustration that I want you to see is this is that this person looks way bigger when your arrogance is inflated self-worth write this down arrogance is inflated self-worth it's when your worth grows with your income when you think you're more important because you have money now people should listen to you more why because you have more money in your bank account because you drive a nicer car arrogance and pride is natural for wealthy people if their value system is based under income instead of who they are in Jesus because if you are in Jesus who you are in Jesus you remain the same whether you have money or you don't have money but when your value system is now dependent on having money you feel more important you get mad when people don't recognize you as more important your value system is inflated now your money is inflated there's nothing wrong with that your money is increasing that is good when your money increases make sure your self-esteem doesn't your self-esteem is connected to the Calvary not to your bank account your self-esteem has to be connected to the cross not to your profile you're not to your real estate not to your car and not to your clothing and that is the only guarantee rich people have not to be proud in the midst of the wealth can somebody say Amen why it takes one problem in our country this size and when you touch a person whose identity is in Jesus rain came the floods came and them house who was built on the rock stood I lost my money I didn't lose my mind lost my house but I didn't lose my family I lost everything got wiped out in that stock market crash but listen except myself because my worth I'm still the same valuable in the eyes of God I don't walk around with my head down wide because I know my work hallelujah it takes one car accident it takes one financial situation and what is left of your self-worth and people say I'm worthless they commit suicide why because when you live in pride you will have to live in pity if your self-worth is connected to your net worth connect who you are to whose you are instead of how much money you make somebody say are you with me that's why I believe that rich richest people must understand before you start giving your stuff giving your tanks real generosity doesn't begin with giving things it begins with giving thanks let me write let me say I worked on this point a lot so I feel like didn't get enough receptivity my self-esteem is not based on it but this message is real generosity doesn't begin with giving things it begins with giving thanks it's acknowledging who's the source of everything you have a king of Babylon he got out and he looked at all the kingdoms and there was a warning that he will crumble and he will fall just like this balloon Daniel gave him a warning he says you're gonna be nothing if you don't acknowledge God is the source of everything and the bakken answer doesn't obey that instruction so he gets up on his palace and he says isn't this all of my then my power build all of this this is my glory and the voice was still in his mouth when God said you're finished and he lost his mind every person who gets inflated with pride because of their achievements very soon blows up by losing their mind King Saul did exactly the same thing somebody else got more prosperous it was David and King Saul lost his mind Herod had people worship him and the Bible says warms came and they ate him you can be rich or you can be poor but base your identity not on your income not on your dress code or what kind of restaurants you can afford to eat in not on the brands of your clothes or the brands of your technology your devices or where you live your zip code what kind of neighborhood base your identity and Jesus Christ then you can stay humble I love this story about King David Davida store at the end of his life and in first chronicles in second chronicles chapter 29 david is donating money to the temple and some people calculated how much he donated that he gave a hundred twelve tons of gold a hundred twelve tons of gold and so it's good it's pretty much about seven billion dollars worth of stuff that he gave to God and the people gave one hundred eighteen tons of gold and then he gave 200 something tons of silver he gave all of that money away and david says this this this in his prayer he says god i'm not worthy to beat this generous and he says things like he said blessed are you O God of Israel he says yours is the greatness the power and the glory the victory and the majesty and he says both riches and honors come from you and you reign over all in your hand this power and might in your hand is to make great and to give strength and then he says but Who am I who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this for all things come from you and of your own we have given you for we are aliens and pilgrims before you we and our fathers our days are a shadow on earth this is a billionaire giving over seven billion dollars in and offering to God and he says God Who am I to offer billions of dollars to you to my knowledge nobody's here is a billionaire but we could borrow this attitude in the state we are in today generosity doesn't begin with giving things it begins with giving thanks you can't be generous in your giving if you're not generous in your Thanksgiving if you can't lift your hands if when the song is singing you your heart doesn't feel gratitude for being alive if you can't give praise to God you holding it back and when you holding it back your identity and your self-worth is being inflated what is being under attack and you're gonna suffer from that and I challenge the rich people at hungry generation do not be proud say this with me my worth is not based on my net worth are you with me the second thing the Paul is saying is don't be proud he says don't trust in riches there was one more rich person in the Bible that we meet and this rich person he had a great year great great income flow his business quadrupled he meets with his financial counselors and he says what we should do a lot of money coming in we got our stocks went up real estate went up everything is going good and so they met together and they decided to do this what are we upgrade updated I've great our company update our buildings upgrade all of our cars let's also move into a better neighborhood let's launch into a new territory bring our product into a new territory so when I read that I'm like this is that's a wise council when your money is coming in to to upgrade to update you to go further and Jesus looks at this idea and he calls this man a fool now there are parts of the Bible that I've wrestled with everything I'm like I don't like it this is one of them the man did not take a trip to Las Vegas this man did not bring prostitutes and alcohol and drugs and say let's party it up he actually used his finances to upgrade to move forward his business and his life this is nothing wrong at first but Jesus says this he said this man is a fool and not only that what bothers me is what Jesus next is so is everyone who becomes richer in money but not in God because he says tonight I will come and ask for your soul what will these these things be who will they be left to and then Jesus talks about being trusted so for us what our lesson from this is a lot of times it's more more we live in a culture where you don't buy new things because your things are broken you buy new things because they're available it used to be you only upgrade because the things that you having don't work you buying your shoes why because the ones you have have holes in them you buy a new car why because that car the transmission died today we no longer do that we update and upgrade for two reasons you either got a promotion or the Apple released in your product and then you're looking at your phone and you're like ah this sucks I know it's iPhone 10 but this something's wrong with the screen I can't go 12 feet into the water I can only go 11 and a half I need something that goes at 12 feet you haven't been near the ocean for the last 10 years but in case I ever go there and I'm not against upgrading and updating I'm when it comes to Apple products I'm the first one that's guilty that's why I said this verse wrestles with me but Jesus is saying to not trust in riches and I want you to write this down and repeat this witness say I will not trust in riches but in Him who richly provides don't trust in riches trust in him who richly provides and that is visible by your upgrading and updating systems what do you do when your Inc income increases do we just rush through the way hey that means I need to update I need to increase people need to know that I am prosperous let that verse wrestle with you because it's wrestling with me number three he tells to the rich people Apostle Paul he says not only we have to not be proud don't trust in riches we trust in God don't make your wealth your source of your source of worth but he says this he says that do good do good and to me what that speaks of is not to cut corners don't try to be don't be bad trying to be good trying to be rich a lot of times when you start accumulating money it's easy especially if you can afford good lawyers to start cutting corners start becoming this honest with our finances start um especially those of us who are generous generosity does this weird thing to us what it feels like we are excused from living honest and no people who because they give they feel like it's okay now that they are not honest before God for the financial life that they're living you don't need to necessarily pay taxes they don't need to pay their employees they can steal a little bit there they can light there they can change things that why because I'm generous King Saul did that in fact God told him to destroy Amalekites he went and he didn't destroy the Amalekites what he did is he saved the fattest and the biggest for himself and when Samuel come back samuel says what is the sheep that I'm hearing over there and then solves is all that's for God and Samuel rebuked him and he says God was asking you a plain simple thing to do don't think your generosity can over compensate your lack of honesty that means live honest in your finances don't steal do good do good is don't steal I remember me and my wife we started we embarked on this extra generous lifestyle 2013 at the end of 2013 and something happened I was i liked this TV show that i stopped producing episodes with the main character there who would jim caviezel the guy who was in passion of the christ' called person of interest and it was on Tuesday night the it was airing at 9 o'clock and he had commercials I don't like commercials and so but at that time they had this thing called LimeWire for those of you that was Torrance where you can download illegally the whole the whole TV show I used the word illegal I guess it is illegal but I didn't see it as illegally so what I would do is that I would come from church and just download the TV show that will show up at 10 o'clock at 6 o'clock and my excuse was for this I just don't like to sit through commercials and I cannot sit till 10 o'clock as I have to be a church next morning so I had these three godly reasons for which I was downloading things that were not legal and then I had a last one is this I'm ripping Hollywood they're already wicked what difference does it make and I remember once um the Lord convicting me he's of lad you're a thief I said no I'm not he says you're downloading stuff illegally and I followed that God why not convicted me for watching stuff while you convicted me from watching things that are downloaded illegally and then when I start paying for the things that I wanted to watch I watched a lot less and me and my wife we made a decision after that is that content or things we're not going to get things that are illegal some of you might say well there's nothing wrong with that invite a police officer and ask him if it is a lot of people they steal things or do they sell things for those of us special who really want to sell you know remember when I was selling my car that had a you know a salvage salvage title and I knew things were wrong with it and the first time I sold it I dropped the price so low and they asked me what's wrong with the car I told him nothing they're like why are you selling it for Seoul I'm like I'm just generous and God convicted me he says fix the car and tell them the truth and raise the price after race to deliver fix the thing I raised it as high as I could and I told him the truth I I didn't plan to sell it I just wanted to be honest I said this was wrong this was wrong this was wrong and I was about to leave and he says I have a check and full price the guy gave it to me now I'm not saying it would always happen like this but rich people you're good at being sneaky you're good at cutting corners it's hard to become honest as a rich person that's why Bible challenges us do good don't become bad in trying to be rich number four be rich in good works be rich Apostle Paul says be rich in good works meaning the only thing I must be richer in my faith than in my finances what Paul is saying is that make sure your finances are not the only thing you're growing in make sure your bank account is not the only thing that sees the increase make sure your stocks are not the only thing that's increasing right now but make sure your faith is increasing your good works is increasing be you richer in things that matter not just finances I remember in 2013 toward the end of that year our church a youth group at the time was the youth pastor a youth group was stuck we were not growing as God wanted us to grow we were not seeing salvations for two years at that time already and me and my wife we had we had two rental properties now they were not net nice they were not necessarily like new or anything they were older and but I was under 30 and having children rental properties you know it was for me it was a big deal and so we were trying to save to build our own house and by 30 to build our own house and everything and and you know what God convicted me with is this kind of this theme that I'm speaking to you about God was saying why is that you're increasing in houses but you're not increasing in my grace and I said God oh well your grace is your business this is my business you know those to certain state were separate you know don't mix those two things up and I felt challenged by God you say listen it's it's not right that your finances is growing but your ministry and your calling is not and so we leveraged our finances and said you know what we want to pause I'm growing in finances and who want to grow in our spiritual life now for your record I worked at the church and so I had a prayer life but I knew that things were not growing as they supposed to be growing and so I decided that I'm gonna be richer toward my faith not just toward my finances the crazy part is things worked out with the house everything worked out but today I see an increase on my faith and I see an increase of what God is doing in this place you know when you go to gym you don't just work out on your biceps or your triceps you don't just work out on your chest and then have chicken legs you got a workout and everything and see some of you you have like chicken legs in your spiritual life because you're only working out and your finances but your faith is not worked on your good works are not worked on and Paul is saying it's good that you're working out and your finances he says make sure you get rich as well in your good works come on Subin number five be ready to give the example of the poor Widow teaches us that Jesus looks at our finances not in a sum but in percentages how do you give as a general as a rich person I give you three three principles or three tips to give as a priority as a percentage and as a progression as a priority as a percentage and as a progression meaning make giving a priority don't give after you pay all your bills give before you pay all your bills don't make giving at the end me giving always in the beginning secondly make it a percentage don't give spontaneously percentage you may say oh but you know what in the Bible it is Jesus looks at the widow who's giving a sure small sum of money and Jesus measures are giving by not how much she gave but she magic he measures it by the percentage this giving represents in her finances because what she gave was a little but it was the highest percentage God in heaven doesn't measure our giving by the sum but by the percentage because if a person gives five hundred dollars and they have a million dollars it may look a lot more than an intern who gives five dollars and they don't have much because they're looking for a job they're barely paying through or a retired person elderly person so what I want to tell you today is this is that God wants you to focus on your percentage this is the best is becoming for us is that we have a certain percentage and we try to increase that percentage and the good percentage to start with is you can start with ten Bible has a lot to say about ten now you might not like the whole tan or tide start with twelve you think no the whole tithe is you hate it make it easy on you start with 15 15 is way different than 10 whichever percentage you start with keep it and then grow it one percent of two percent or something but if you're one of those people you whenever you feel that you just like I'm just gonna give $50 and everything you're not going to grow in that grace it's kind of like saying hey I feel like going to gym today I'm gonna go to gym but those of you you know that that never works that's why you're still paying for gym membership and you never go there why because there has to be this setup they just set it up every day I'm gonna go or these days I'm gonna go same thing with giving you set it up and then you go with that are you with me let's go a little bit further at number six Apostle Paul says be willing to share be willing to share so it's not only he's challenging rich people hey stop be proud trust in God instead of in your riches he says do good meaning don't don't do anything shady and he says hey you know make sure that you live at generous you you live a life of giving you prioritize giving you you put your giving and percentage you make progressive but progress and grow in your giving you become rich in good works but then he says be willing to share and so I've been meditating and I said Lord how does this apply to me and I found out that a lot of rich people what they have is they have extra stuff they don't use and what we typically do with that stuff is we sell it and Paul is saying to share it so it's very practical you got on your phone the old old phone is still really really good that the policies say don't ever sell anything he just says just don't sell only start sharing a lot of generosity is not limited to giving money it's to giving things it's to giving things that are good that we have in our possession that we can be blessed with others Apostle Paul and John walk to the temple they didn't have money with them they said silver and gold we don't have right now with us and many people use that verse he said look Paul and Paul and John were broke that's not what the Bible says the Bible says that Paul and John forgot her wallet that didn't mean that they didn't have money because the church had money the people donated money there but Paul and John just didn't walk with the wallet to the temple but they said hey we have a gift right now we want to give it to you Jesus at the Last Supper he didn't have money but he washed the feet of disciples God doesn't want us to limit generosity to giving money because some of us that is the easiest thing to do but God wants you to give yourself give your talents bless somebody with something like we had a guy who has a company and we really needed to do that conquer it in the front it looks so great when you guys walked in doesn't look great and you know this week it was raining and this gentleman he came in he brought his crew he brought his company and they did that whole the whole day and you know we asked him you know to give us the bill and he says hey I'm just blessing I just want to be I just want to share come on and you know what we say we receive come on somebody are you with me sheer you know did this another thing that does not mean that all of us as Christians here we simply have to start expecting every person in our church to give us stuff afraid I need to say that because a lot of we have photographers we have hair stylists we have construction men we have teachers we have writers we have proof readers we have media people and a lot of times what happens with church people is that we expect things for free I believe in not getting anything for free but getting things for something because otherwise it's not right for us let people give things for free if they want to but if they don't sometimes like if I may not able to pay in money I said listen if you do this for me I'll be able to do this this this this is gonna pay a lot more than money if not then okay let's give you money now but you have to be able to share one poor person was sitting under the bridge and and rich person was walking by gave him five dollars next day gave him five dollars third day he didn't have the money the poor person he's a tomorrow it's ten don't live like that like we give cars in the church don't expect a car that's too low even if you need a car say Lord bless me but I can give a car but the way set your aim higher aim for the stars you'll land on the moon but aim higher don't don't have a poverty thinking let's learn to share I mean my wife made a decision that everything we have in our house including a house the our goal before we die to be able to give everything that we own and as of today pretty much everything except the house cuz we don't own it yet the morning we still have mortgage I'm believing for somebody to pay for my mortgage the God speaks to you it's gonna go for a good cause because we want to we want to give a house away one day and so we want to give everything that we own one time from couches we had a good couches we had good kitchen table and then had a computer washer and dryer and a lot of things that we would have and you know wanted to put on for sale but at the same feel like you know let's find somebody that we can bless and at the time we needed those extra 50 60 70 bucks but as a rich person God tells me learn to share not just to sell are you with me last thing is store a foundation for eternity Paul is saying to the rich people is don't just fill your IRA but also fill your ie a meaning not just your individual retirement account but fill also your individual eternity account Paul is saying is that retirement is good it's good to say for your retirement Roth IRA and whatever things that you put in your retirement and putting each month something aside even though retirement is not necessarily very scriptural but nevertheless our culture does it it's a good thing to do god bless you but you're not going to live very long on your retirement nobody in this room is guaranteed to get to their retirement my my uncle who passed away you know just not long ago you know he didn't get there nobody's going to I'm not guaranteed I will live - my retirement nobody in here is guaranteed and while it's good and wise to say for your retirement something that you're not sure you can I get that and how long you're gonna live that we don't know what is sure is you will live forever in heaven and that's what you need to be moving your finances to see some of us think in this room that when I die I'm gonna have mansions in heaven who told you that Michael doesn't tell that every person is gonna have a mansion Bible says that those who place going who are in Christ will go to heaven but what you're gonna live in in heaven is really dependent on you don't think God God is not Bernie Sanders it's not gonna build every person in the same house like aho projects that's not God God has different measures over the words God is not gonna be word the same way me a season a reward mother Teresa God in heaven has different things for different people based on what based on what we did with what we could on this earth so that's why it's good to be rich on earth what's better is when you die so you're not broke in there now in heaven is still good to be broke because you can sleep on the streets made of gold but it's better to live maybe in a mansion right so I borrowed this from Pastor Martin in Sylvia we went to Nigeria I went to Nigeria three times in my life and we had these think on IRA's in Nigeria these are money and these are things you used to buy things and when you bring these into the United States they are completely worthless you can't buy a taco with these it's like a lot of them there's like 500 220 but in America you can't buy much with it now I was in Nigeria and I still brought some stuff here I can tell you one thing is that you live here you can't take your dollars with you to heaven they're gonna be left on earth and in heaven they're not gonna do anything but what you can do with these naira Xand is what you can do with your things is you can convert them you can convert your gifts you can convert your stuff you can convert your house and your car you can converse convert your clothes you can convert your words you can convert your smile you can convert everything is about you and send it a hand of you to build your eternity hedge-fund if somebody say man I want to challenge to rich people in this room don't be proud on a challenge to rich people in this room don't trust in your riches on a challenge to rich people in this room be rich in your good works do good serve others and worry more about your eternity than your retirement amen

Channel: HungryGeneration

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Keywords: healing miracles supernatural today, pastor vlad hungrygen, hungry generation, exorcism demons, hungry gen, vladimir savchuk, John Chi in US, miracles sermons fire, intimacy with holy spirit, worship, freedom from demons, relationship with Holy Spirit, crazy deliverances, riches, prosperity gospel, pulpit pimps, millionare, easy cash, andy stanley

Id: gQF5-cC2gKE

Length: 38min 13sec (2293 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2018