Should God's People Be Rich?

God wants his people broke, he wants them poor, he wants them living in poverty, he wants them living in. Lack is a subconscious belief that most Christians have, whether they know it or not. But my question to you is, is it right or is it wrong for God's people to be rich? Is it helpful or is it hurtful for God's people to be rich? Today in the training, I'm going to be breaking all of this down and more, but I want to encourage you to stay to the very end. I'm going to be sharing with what I personally believe, and I'm pretty sure it's going to shock you because it's probably not what you're thinking. Okay, before we can jump in and begin to start answering all of these different questions, I think we need to start at a foundational context of whose kingdom are we plugged into as believers. Okay, so pretty obvious, right? But God, our God is the God of abundance. Satan is a God, little G of lack, right? Our God is a king who wants to make you a king, or if you're a woman, a queen. But Satan is a God, little G, who wants to make you a slave. The tenants of Satan's kingdom are slavery, lack and death. But the tenets of God's kingdom are freedom, abundance and life. So as we dive deeper into the context now, understanding, are you plugged into God's kingdom? Do you believe God wants you to be blessed? Do you believe he wants you to prosper? Do you believe that God wants you to have just enough or more than enough? Right? Or are you plugged into the enemy's kingdom where you believe that you're supposed to go through life in lack, in scarcity, always struggling and never being able to get ahead. Like, think about this. Everything that God touches flourishes, it grows, it multiplies, right? Everything that Satan touches, it's always death, destruction. He comes to steal, kill and destroy, right? I don't know about you, but the ideas of death, destruction, lack, steal, kill and destroy do not sound like my God or his principles or his kingdom that we get to be a part of. Okay? So to start breaking all of this down, we need to go back to the beginning, to the garden. So I'm going to come over here to my board and let's start talking about it. Okay, so in Genesis chapter three, this is the story of where the serpent deceived Eve. But something interesting, okay, so God puts Adam and Eve in the garden. And here's what he tells them. He says, whoops. God says, you may eat freely of every tree in the garden, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Okay? Now let me ask you a question. Are the words freely and every, are those lack words or are they abundant words? Drop it down in the comments, okay? Are they lack words or abundant words? Well, it's pretty obvious they're abundant words, right? So let's come back here to the board, okay? So God, right off the bat, is offering them abundance by saying, you might freely eat of every tree the garden, but watch this. Except for the tree, okay? Now something very significant when it comes to this statement, right? You might freely eat of every tree that's in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So God was offering tremendous abundance to his people, okay? But the word the. Right, as far as you may not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is that an abundance word or is that a lack word? Drop it in the comments. Okay, well, that's a lack word, right? Freely in every or abundance. The it's singular. It's the only. It signifies the one thing that they lacked. Okay? So let me paint a picture for you here. Check this out. Okay, so now that we're beginning to understand the context of this, okay? Again, this is Genesis 3, but watch this. So here you have Adam and Eve in the garden, okay? And here's this beautiful garden that God has prepared for them. And God says this, you may eat freely of every tree in the garden. Now, probably some apple trees, banana trees, you know, almond trees, walnut trees, peach trees, right? Like all these amazing trees, mango trees, right? God's saying, look, I'm giving you all of this abundance. You might eat freely from all of these trees, okay? That's a lot of abundance. And then he says, however, he said you might eat freely of all these trees, except for the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So of course, here's what happens now we see later on in Genesis chapter three that the serpent comes in and the serpent begins to twist God's words. And he comes to Eve and he says, did God really say, Watch this, come to the board and I'm going to break this down, okay? So here are God's words, okay? Now here are the serpent's words, okay? And the serpent said this. Did God really say. Okay, so that phrase right there is very important. Did God really say that you may not eat of every tree in the garden, Right? So immediately the serpent comes in and he starts twisting God's words because that's not what God said, right? Like, let me turn my little laser on here. Check this out. Okay, so remember earlier we were looking at what God said, And here's what God said. God said they might eat freely of every tree except for the tree, right? God was saying, I'm giving them all of this abundance, tons and tons and tons of abundance. And this one thing, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, okay, it represented the one thing that they lacked. So the serpent comes in and literally says it like this. Did God really say that you may not eat of every tree? So this right here is an interesting lens that the enemy and the serpent presents to Eve. Because now that's not what God said at all. Did God really say you can't eat from every tree in the garden? No, that's not what God said. Right? So he's beginning to twist God's words. Why? Because the serpent wanted Adam and Eve to get their eyes off of all of the abundance that God was making available to them. And instead of looking at all of the abundance that was being made available to them, the enemy twists God's word so that get them focused on the one thing that they lacked. So watch this. In order for Adam and Eve, I'm going to come back here to the garden. Okay. In order for Adam and Eve. This is Eve. Let's give her some longer hair and we'll put even a dress, even though she probably wasn't in a dress. Okay? In order for Adam and Eve to get to the one thing that they lacked, they had to walk through all of this abundance just to get to the one thing that they lacked. Friends, it is my conviction that the very first temptation in the Bible was to actually get God's people to take their focus off of the abundance that God had made available to them and to place that focus on the very thing that they lacked. And how did the serpent do this? By twisting God's words.

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Okay? Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verse three. It says this. Lest by any means the serpent beguiled Eve with his subtlety of words. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Listen, here's the thing. Essentially what this verse is saying is Satan is going to try to use the same toolbox that he used to deceive Eve. He's going to try to use that same tool, toolbox, to try to deceive you. And when it comes to wealth and abundance and prosperity, right, Satan is going to come in and twist God's words. Some of God's words like, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And Satan's gonna say, did God really say that money's evil? You know, God said money's evil. Like Christians shouldn't have money, right? And unfortunately, this is a lot of what's going on in church culture right now is a lot of God's people. See, I believe that many of God's people struggle financially because they have conflicting internal beliefs around the subject of money. Like, so many of God's people, out of one side of their mouth, they're saying things like, money's bad, money's wicked, money's evil. And if you have a lot of money, you're greedy. But out of the other side of their mouth, they're saying, hey, would you give an offering, you know, or would you sow a seed? Or would you help us send these missionaries to the mission field? Would you help us, you know, bless the nations? It's like, guys, which one? Like, do you want me to have the wealth to be able to give, or do you not want me to give at all? Because money's evil and having money's bad, right? Like, we need to begin to get our conflicting internal beliefs correct around money. And I think a lot of this happens because the enemy has come in and has begun to whisper these deceiving words to the body of Christ and begin to say things like, money's bad, money's wicked. And now we are beginning to believe something that is not necessarily true. Let me ask you a question. If you were the devil, would you rather have your people having wealth or would you rather have God's people having wealth? The answer is obvious. You would rather have your people having wealth than God's people having wealth. So guess what you're going to do? You're going to creep in and you're going to begin to twist God's words and try to get God's people believing that poverty and being broke and we just want only enough. We don't want to be greedy, right? You're going to get God's people to begin to believe these things that are complete lies. If money is so bad, then why doesn't Satan just pour out a whole bunch of it on God's people and watch everybody slide into hell, right? We've got to get our conflicting internal beliefs around money correct. Guys, here's another example of having conflicting internal beliefs when it comes to money, right? If you go up to most of God's people and you say, hey, do you believe that God wants you to be wise? Most of God's people, probably all of them, if you were to ask them that question, they'd say, yeah, I want to be wise. I believe God wants me to be wise. Yes. But if you also ask them, okay, cool. You believe God wants you to be wise? Do you also believe that God wants you to be wealthy? Well, this is where a lot of people go, I don't know, like, wealthy. I don't know, maybe just wants us to. I don't know, right? Like, but here's the punchline. Proverbs, chapter 8, verse 18. It says this with me. This is wisdom speaking with me are riches, honor, enduring wealth and prosperity. Guys, here's the punchline. The Bible is literally telling us that wisdom has sidekicks. Like, okay, you believe God wants you to be wise, but guess what? If you get wisdom, wisdom brings everything else with her. And some of those sidekicks are wealth, prosperity, enduring wealth, which is generational wealth, right? Glory, honor, all these amazing things. So why in the world do we think like, yeah, God wants me to be wise, but I don't know if he wants me to be wealthy. If you have a lot of money, you're greedy, but would you please give an offering because we're trying to build our building or send our people to the mission field. Which one is it, guys? Which kingdom do you subscribe to? Do you subscribe to the kingdom of abundance and prosperity? See, a lot of times we get tripped up because for so long, the message of, you know, the prosperity gospel has been really perverted in the past by, you know, TV personalities or what have you. And therefore it's turned not just believers off, but unbelievers off to the idea of having a lot of money, right? And so now we're just like, oh, man, that was so gross. And slimy and weird. And of course, that was. If somebody is manipulating to try to say things like, you know, if you give an offering to me, God's going to bless you and make you rich. Of course that's wicked. That's wrong. Like, if you give to me, God might bless you, but he might not like, right? But like I was saying, like, which kingdom do you subscribe to? Do you subscribe to abundance, to wealth, to goodness, to life? Or do you subscribe to man? We're going to struggle, death, destruction, you know, barely enough, not quite enough. When you begin to look at somebody's life, it's going to be very, very obvious. Which kingdom are they living in, which kingdom principles are they living in? Because if they're connected into God's kingdom principles, they're going to have those pillars that come with God's kingdom. Abundance, life, wealth, prosperity. If they're plugged in to the enemy's kingdom and they're living, they may not even know that they're living according to the enemy's principles. They're going to be experiencing lack, destruction, poverty, right? So guys, here's the thing. People have asked me recently, like, oh, Rick, have you become one of those prosperity gospel guys? Well, here's my thing, number one, prosperity gospel is not even in the Bible. So I don't want to assume that I know what you are saying when you say prosperity gospel, right? But I do know this. I do believe in the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus, right? And I do believe in prosperity, right? I do believe that God wants me, his son, and you, his son and his daughter to be abundantly blessed and prosperous, not for the sake of just being rich, but for the sake of we are the sons and daughters of God. And when people look at our lives, we should be a testimony to the goodness of our father, right? So I will tell you this. I again, I don't want to assume that I know what you're saying when it comes to prosperity gospel, but I will say this. I do not believe in a poverty gospel, right? I don't believe in a destruction gospel, in a slavery gospel, right? I definitely don't believe that. So, guys, we need to begin to get our conflicting internal beliefs around money correct, okay? Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 15. It says this. The wealth of the rich is their fortified or their strong city, but poverty is the destruction of the poor. Let me ask you a question. Does the destruction of your life, of your finances, of your health, does that sound like some principles in God's kingdom that his people want to live by. Or does being a strong city so that we can actually house people and protect people and help people, right? That's what it means to be a strong city. I will tell you this. Whenever you are broke, okay, you can be a believer. But whenever you're broke and you're a believer, something really interesting happens. Let me tell you a quick story, okay? So when my wife and I got married almost 20 years ago, we were broke. As a joke, we were so broke that broke people felt bad for us, okay? Like, we were broke, broke. And it was interesting because obviously at the time, we loved God. We just didn't understand how money worked. We were still trying to get some of these beliefs right. Like, we didn't know if God wanted us to be prosperous or not. We're just like, well, I don't know. We've heard everyone say that money's bad. So, you know, we probably don't want to have a lot of it, but we do need to pay bills. So we're just kind of confused like everybody else, right? We were in that state when we first got married. We were kids, right? Early, early twenties. And something interesting would happen. We would have just like you. We would have friends or loved ones or neighbors. They'd be going through some stuff, man. They'd be struggling or they would need some help. And because we didn't have any resources, you know, we would feel bad for them and we would pray for them, which. That's awesome. Prayer is powerful, right? Empathizing with people, it's really important. But now that we've changed our belief and our eyes have been open. Wait. We actually believe that God wants us to be prosperous. He wants us to. To grow in wealth and steward wealth. Because either we're going to do it or the enemy's people are going to do it. So why not us? We're his sons. We're his daughters. Why not us? Now that we are moving in this reality and we actually have more resources now than we did then, okay? We still love God, right? But now if a friend, if a loved one, if a neighbor is going through something, if they're struggling, if they're having a hard time, we can still empathize with them, right? We still pray for them is extremely powerful. But guess what? Now we can write them a check. Like, guys, I'm telling you right now, like, broke people are the only ones who are going to tell you that money is bad. Broke people don't build schools. Broke people don't build hospitals. Okay, it takes funds to do the good thing that God has put in your life to do. It takes money not just to, like, live, but it takes money to make a big impact. Yes, we can pray, yes, we can empathize. But how much more powerful is it if we empathize, we pray, and we actually put money behind the very thing that needs change. Like, could you imagine if all of God's people were just coming under this false mindset, this false reality of like, well, we just want barely enough, you know, we don't want to be greedy. We just want just enough. That's the exact mindset that the Israelites had stuck in the wilderness for 40 years. Well, we don't want to go slay giants. We don't want to go do that. That seems like a lot of work. We're just going to stay here. But how many of you know that it was not God's will for his people to live off of manna? It was not God's will for his people to live off of manna? God's will was, I want you to go into the promised land, slay some giants, take some fortified cities and live off the wealth and the abundance of the land. But again, we always slump back into that. Well, I don't want to have too much. I don't want to be greedy. But imagine what you could do if your income doubled. Imagine the impact you can make if your income tripled. Imagine how many orphanages or schools or hospitals you could build if your income 10x right? You still love God, you still empathize, you still pray. But what if you could actually write some checks? Guys, I believe, like I mentioned earlier, okay, that as a kingdom, people, okay, as people who are part of a kingdom, we need to begin to understand that the kingdom that we are a part of, we as sons and daughters, are an extension of God's hands and feet in the earth. And guys, God is not broke, nor does he want his people going around with a scarcity and lack mindset. Like, well, we just want enough, you know? You know what's very, very selfish is most people have this idea that, like, well, I just want enough. I don't want to be greedy. You know, too much money, that means you're greedy. You know, money's wicked and money's evil. But here's the punchline. If all you do is just want enough to get by, I just want enough to be comfortable, right? The problem with that is if you only want enough, then you don't have more than enough to Take care of anybody else. Not only is it a good thing for Christians to create and steward wealth, but it is actually a God thing for Christians to create and steward wealth. Christians that believe that poverty makes them closer to God are actively abandoning their duty to be good stewards of the earth. Friends, I'm telling you right now, this is not about chasing money or loving money. This is about stepping in to what God said about wealth and abundance, right? So many people like their focus on the lack, right? They have all this opportunity around them, but they have chosen to come underneath the deceptive, twisted words of the enemy. Like, hey, money's wicked, you know, money's evil. You shouldn't be too wealthy, right? Just enough. But friends, I'm telling you right now, God wants us to go to the next level as sons and daughters. God wants to entrust wealth to his people in this hour. But you can't be religious about this, right? You can't be jaded about this. You can't have the love of money filling your heart. It's not about chasing the money, man. It's about chasing the potential that God has put on the inside of us to help and serve one another. So the way that God has actually set up the world and the way that he's actually set up the economy, okay, is he has set it up to where he said, I want you guys to exchange value with one another, okay? This is two people shaking hands. I know it looks ridiculous, but this is two people shaking hands, okay? So God has literally said, okay, I'm gonna put something good on the inside of you. Actually, let's make his heart red. Why not? I'm gonna put something good on the inside of you. And I want you to take this good thing that I've put on the inside of you, and I want you to serve humanity with this good thing that I have put on the inside of you. Now here's the thing. Maybe for you, maybe you are a salesman, Maybe you are a barista, right? Maybe you're a nurse, maybe you're a stay at home mom or dad, whatever it is that thing that God has put on the inside of you to serve humanity, God wants you to become obsessed with, with serving other people. Here's why. When we begin to become obsessed with serving one another, right? And we use that good thing that God has put on the inside of us to bring value. In fact, I need at least 10 people in the comments right now to drop these words, bring value. Or I need, maybe you can say it like this. So value God wants us to sow the value, the good thing that he's put on the inside of you. He wants you to sow value into the market to take the good thing that he's put inside of you, make other people's lives better. So that. Watch this. So that when you so value, okay, when you say, hey, God's given me this unique thing, this special gift, this awesome passion, and you have this need and I'm going to take that thing and I'm going to serve you, guess what happens? We say, wow, you really helped my life. Thank you so much. I am going to say thank you back in the exchange of dollar signs. Okay, guys, this is just the law of the economy. This is the law of how God set up humanity. God said, listen, I put something good on the inside of each and every one of you that other people, they have need of, right? And instead of you focusing on all the stuff that you lack, man, I'm not as good at speaking as him. I'm not as talented as her, and I can't do that. I want you to begin to focus on the abundance that God has placed on the inside of you and say, actually, you know what? I can help some people, I can serve some people. And here's the crazy part. When you begin to sow value, you begin to reap value back in the form of dollar signs, right? So my conviction is this, do I believe that God wants every single person to be rich? I believe that God wants every single person to become obsessed with serving his brother or his sister and as in, as high of a capacity as possible. Because the punchline is this. When you serve people at a super high level, it's going to be inevitable that people begin to pay you back in the form of dollar signs, right? So it's not about, should everyone be rich or not. It's about, I believe that God has put abundance on the inside of me. I believe that God has put something inside of me that can bless the world with. And instead of loving the money, I am going to love the people. And as a byproduct of loving the people, I'm going to receive dollar signs in return. Because watch this, guys. This thing scales, okay? This thing scales. The more value you can bring to the world with the thing that God has put on the inside of you, the more value you are going to get back. You guys know this, right? The more people you help, the more people you serve, the more people that you can impact their lives by saying, hey, I'm going to help you. And I'm going to help you. And I'm going to take this good thing that God's put on the inside of me and I'm going to help you, and you, and you and you, right? Whatever that thing is, then guess how God has designed it. They say, wow, thank you so much. And guess what they do? They say, thank you. And they pay you. They pay you back in dollars, guys, right? This, I'm telling you, this is exactly how God has set up the world. It's how he set up the economy. And you might be maybe having a hard time considering this, but the punchline is this. Let's consider Amazon for a second, okay? So Amazon, you don't understand how much value they actually. Okay, be honest. How many of you guys and gals have ordered Amazon in the past week? Just wave at me. Drop in the comments. Say me, right? How many of you guys and gals have ordered Amazon in the past two days? Drop. That's me. You know, you don't have to be shy. It's probably me, too. How many of you guys and gals have gotten home and there's an Amazon box on your door and you don't even know what it is because you order Amazon so much right now? The crazy part is, it's not just you, it's not just me, it's millions of people around the world. Why is Amazon one of the wealthiest companies in the world? Because they are bringing value to many, many, many, many people, right? The same thing goes for, and there's no shade in this, but, you know, if you work at a burger joint or if you work at Starbucks, that's awesome. But think about it. You're bringing the value of A$4,$5 cup of coffee to somebody, right? And so guess what, you're being paid back in a value of maybe 10 bucks an hour, 12 bucks an hour, right? But if you're a brain surgeon and you're bringing the value of, you know, you don't have to die, or if you're a heart surgeon or if you're a lawyer saying, hey, you don't have to be sued and, you know, spend millions of dollars, if you're bringing that kind of value, guess what, you're going to be paid back a higher level of value. So, guys, it's about, do you believe that you are son and daughter of God who has something good on the inside of you that is available in abundance so that you can serve humanity with? And in exchange, they're going to say, hey, thank you so much I appreciate you. And they are going to pay you back in the form of dollar signs, right? They're going to exchange value back with you in the form of dollars. Guys, here's the punchline. If you can get very, very, very good at bringing and sowing value into the world, if you can break off that scarcity mindset, that's that money's bad. And, you know, having a lot of money makes you greedy, you know, and you can step in to God's kingdom principles that, hey, you're a son, you're a daughter, you're an extension of my hands and feet in the world, and I want you to steward this wealth on the planet. If you can begin to step into this, guys, and you can begin to exchange and sow value into the market, you might just land up getting rich. It.