RICH, FAT AND HAPPY

The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity.  Deuteronomy 28:11a
 
God’s heart is limitless, as are His resources.  There is nothing He won’t do for us.  As the Apostle Paul put it:
 
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?  Romans 8:32
 
Oh my goodness, such a promise!  God loves us so much that there isn’t anything He wouldn’t do for us!  In fact, He’s already done it!  God has already paid an incredible price, slaughtering the one most near and dear to Him – His only begotten Son – that we might have life.  And not just any old life!  Jesus said:
 
I have come that you might have life, and life to the full.  John 10:10 paraphrase
 
God did this so we might have abundant life - so our cups would truly overflow with blessing!
 
It would be so easy to string verses such as these together – along with many others that say God’s grace abounds toward us, He has given us all things, and indeed given us everything we need - and assume that because we’ve been promised all the blessings of heaven, then the sky’s the limit.  2 Corinthians 9:8, 1 Corinthians 3:21, 2 Peter 1:3  If, after all, God has already given us a Mercedes, why would He skimp on accessories?  Bring on that sunroof and those heated leather seats!   Oh my, when the thermometer plunges below zero in January, how wonderful are heated seats!
 
Unfortunately, that’s not the gospel of grace, and it’s not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus does in fact promise us abundant life, but the life He offers us is full of Him, not possessions.  In fact, Jesus warns us:
 
Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.  Luke 12:15
 
It’s in the nature of our flesh to want to be rich, fat and happy, but Jesus said those who pursued such things would gain for themselves nothing but woe.
 
Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
Luke 6:24-25
 
It’s tempting to slant things Jesus said toward our benefit, in ways that don’t fit with God’s heart as a loving father.  Jesus did in fact say:
 
Ask and it will be given to you.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Luke 11:9
 
And He promised that everyone who does these things will receive, find, and experience open doors.  Not only that, Jesus said that it’s in God’s nature as our loving Father to give us good gifts that reflect our desires.  Those of us who are parents know how our hearts yearn to give our kids the desires of their hearts.  God is like that – or rather, we are like Him, because we are made in His image.
 
But we also know that giving our kids too much of a good thing is not a good thing!  Most moms know it’s not a pretty picture when Johnny gets all the sugar his little heart craves; things don’t go well for anyone in the family when that happens!  And Jesus was quite emphatic that the same is true for us.  As sugar is to a child, so greed is to an adult.
 
Take care!  Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have.  Luke 12:15b MSG
 
Nor, might i add, is life limited by what we don’t have.  As the life of Jesus fully demonstrates, we can have an amazing life with paltry little money.  As the saying goes, money can’t buy happiness.
 
But who doesn’t wish for just a little bit more?  Yet God says that craving is dangerous.  God says things will not go well for us, if we let the world lure us toward its lifestyle.
 
I'll say to myself, Self, you've done well! You've got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!  Luke 12:19  MSG
 
To those who pursue the world’s definition of “the good life,” Jesus says:
 
Tonight you die.  And your barnful of goods - who gets it?  That's what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.  Luke 12:20b-21  MSG
 
Wow!  That is radical!  Jesus is relentlessly warning us about the deceitfulness of wealth.  In another story, Jesus tells of a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption.  When a beggar appears on his doorstep, pitifully in need, the rich man turns him away.  After both of them die, their fortunes are reversed.  The poor man is comforted in the heavenly presence, while the rich man is left to torment in hell.  Luke 16:19-23
 
Jesus doesn’t say that by taking care of our brothers in need, we can gain a ticket to heaven.  We can give everything we possess to the poor, sacrificing our bodies to boot, and still gain nothing.  1 Corinthians 13:3  What matters is our hearts.  What God cares us about is love.  When you get right down to it, pretty much the only thing God cares about is love.  And faith.
 
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  1 John 3:16-18
 
How we use our money doesn’t determine what will happen to us.  That is living by the law and is death.  But how we use our money does reflect what has already happened to us.  We are new creations; the old has gone and the new has come.  We are free to give as abundantly as God gives, and that is exceedingly more than all we can ask or imagine, according to the bountiful measure of God’s love within us.  So we no longer use our freedom to indulge ourselves, but to serve one another in love.  2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 3:20, Galatians 5:13
 
The new covenant promise of an abundant life is radically different than the old covenant promise of prosperity.  Under the old covenant, blessings were experienced through the circumstances of life and were conditional upon performance.
 
Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.  Deuteronomy 29:9
 
Old covenant prosperity was primarily (but not exclusively) material in nature.  God’s people were to be the “have’s;” most of the others were “have not’s.”
 
The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.  If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.  Deuteronomy 28:12-13
 
God intended His people’s prosperity to be extreme.
 
You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock - the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.  Deuteronomy 28:3-8
 
Through celebrations of thanksgiving, old covenant prosperity was shared within the family, with God and others without means, including priests, aliens, orphans and widows.  Because it was the law, the standard was very specific:  a tenth of the harvest was given to God and others.  Deuteronomy 14:22-29  In addition, God commanded His people to give generously to the poor.
 
If anyone is poor among your brothers in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs . . .There will always be poor people in the land.  Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.  Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11
 
If these requirements were met, God blessed all the work of His people’s hands.  But if God’s requirements were not met, He cursed them, and the curses were every bit as extreme as the blessings.
 
You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until He has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies.  Deuteronomy 28:16-25a
 
In the book of Deuteronomy, the list of curses extends for pages.  Marriages were dishonored, houses were vacated, women were violated and sons were relegated to slavery.  Prosperity dissolved into hunger, thirst, nakedness and dire poverty.
 
Obviously, the old covenant left something to be desired.  God himself found fault with it, and so He replaced it.  The new covenant is not fulfilled by man but by God himself in the person of Jesus Christ.  Jesus not only fulfilled every requirement; He Himself became the new covenant.   On the cross, Christ took all of our curses from us and became sin and its curse, so we could become the righteousness of God.  Hebrews 8:8, Isaiah 42:6, 49:8, Galatians 3:13, 2 Corinthians 5:21
 
As a consequence, we now live in grace.  God no longer distributes blessings on the basis of who earned them; many basic blessings are poured out on everyone - evil and good alike.  Matthew 5:45  We are no longer burdened by the requirements of the law; we have truly been set free to love God and love others.  God has made us sons and daughters so we can experience intimacy with Him and inherit His kingdom.
 
God’s kingdom is foremost spiritual, but it also has many material aspects and its realm is so vast that it is beyond anything we can see, hear or conceive.  1 Corinthians 2:9  Because it extends forever and ever, the full extent of God’s kingdom will not be revealed in our present lives, but God has already given it to us, and through prayer, God calls us to bring the first fruits of his kingdom to earth, here now.  Luke 12:32, Matthew 6:10
 
Through His Spirit, Jesus is the one who releases this glorious kingdom.  As we abide in His love and truly listen to Him, He listens to us.  We ask whatever God has put on our hearts, and He gives it.  John 14:13, John 15:7  This is not for our direct benefit, but for the benefit of others (though we most certainly benefit, because it is more blessed to give than to receive.  Acts 20:35)  Our Father is greatly pleased and glorified when we distribute the fruits of His kingdom with His heart, so He calls us to sow abundantly and he promises we will reap accordingly.  John 15:8, 2 Corinthians 9:7
 
The kingdom comes when we love as Jesus loves.  John 15:12  Jesus loves extravagantly, so we do, too.  The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the sick are cured, the deaf hear and the dead are raised to life.  Matthew 11:5  The ambition of Jesus is that we would do all these things – miracles such as these following us wherever we go (Mark 16:17-18) – and even greater works, because He has gone to the Father and conquered on the cross everything that stood in opposition to the advancement of His kingdom.
 
But Jesus did not accumulate blessings for Himself, so we must not either.
 
Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom, (so) sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Luke 12:32b-33a
 
Jesus does not give as the world gives, so we must not either.  John 14:27  Those who do not love and obey Him are still under the law.  Romans 2:12  That old covenant system is all about giving to get, performing for prosperity.  Under that system, people give because they have to, and then only to the extent required.  This is not God’s heart and does not glorify Him.  In fact, now that God has given us a better covenant in Jesus Christ, giving the old way offends God.  If we cannot give with the same grace He has given us – if we give only because we are compelled to - God now considers it the same as not giving at all.   2 Corinthians 9:7
 
The right heart recognizes that God’s resources are limitless.  The right heart sees that everything we’ve been given is a gift, and every gift of God is meant to be given away.  Matthew 10:8  The right heart knows that there is more where that came from – infinitely more.  The right heart is not troubled or afraid of running out, and does the works of God with great peace of mind.  John 14:27  The right heart believes that when we make others’ needs our first priority, our personal needs get met in due course, usually without even asking.  Matthew 6:32-33  This is how Jesus advances His kingdom.
 
Under the old covenant, blessings were conditional, so people concerned themselves with running out.  When the blessings flowed, much ended up in barns.  God wasn’t offended by such behavior; He considered it prudent and blessed it.  Deuteronomy 28:8  But under the new covenant, the blessings are unconditional, so there is no reason to hoard.  Big barns are a sign of disbelief in God’s provision and therefore offend Him.  Jesus pleads with us:
 
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Luke 12:24
 
This, then is how God responds to those who consider themselves sons or daughters but build barns:
 
This very night your life will be demanded from you . . . This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.  Luke 12:20b-21 excerpted
 
Under the old covenant, a man’s only inheritance was what he managed to set aside in this world, invest and pass along to his next of kin.  That system is still in place today – it’s the way the world still operates – but it’s not for us as God’s sons and daughters.  We don’t operate the way the world operates – under the law.  Instead, we operate under God’s grace by faith.  Because Jesus has set me free, i can choose to build up wealth that old fashion way, but why would i want to?  It’s like stuffing money under a mattress in a rickety old unlocked house, when i could be earning a guaranteed return in the universe’s most secure and profitable bank.  Luke 12:33
 
Moreover, Jesus suggests that if i sock away what comes my way, i’m not really as free as i think.
 
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  No one can serve two masters . . . You cannot serve both God and money.  Matthew 6:21, 24 excerpted
 
Jesus says that if i cling to money – or anything else that comes in between Him and me – i’m not serving Him.
 
Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.  Luke 14:33
 
Wealth is such a powerful temptation, that Jesus advised some who came to Him to sell everything.  Matthew 19:21  The greater the wealth, the greater the potential stronghold, which is perhaps why He said it was terribly difficult for the truly wealthy to hear Him when He calls.
 
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  Matthew 19:24
 
Some have taken this to mean that admission into heaven demands poverty, but that is not what Jesus said, nor does it fit with the gospel of grace.  If we cannot buy our way through the front door, by purchasing stuff to sacrifice (Matthew 21:12), surely we cannot buy our way through the back door, by giving away a generous portion of our wealth – even all of it.  1 Corinthians 13:3  Jesus does not honor good deeds done apart from Him, no matter how impressive they may appear to others.  Matthew 6:1, 7:21-23  While a life lived in devotion to Jesus is inherently sacrificial, the measure of such a life is not sacrifice, but love.  Matthew 10:38-39, 9:13
 
Indeed, if every believer lived hand to mouth, who would be left to give to the poor?  The Apostle Paul demonstrated that the devout live their lives in ways that do not unduly burden others.  1 Thessalonians 2:9  Paul did not consider money evil, for he had to both earn it and receive it to support his ministry.  Rather, he said loving money is evil, for people who are eager for money are apt to wander from their faith.  1 Timothy 6:10  Trusting in money, or any other blessing, rather than God Himself, is likewise evil.  We are to place all our trust in God, and only in Him.
 
But many people have the opposite problem.  They use their money foolishly and so become poor.  Jesus does not consider that sort of poverty a virtue, but a vice.  He says to them:
 
If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?  Luke 16:11-12
 
But on the other hand, it is not wise to hold money tightly, like a miser.  Jesus calls us to be generous to God by giving freely to those in need.  He promises if we are generous to others, God will be generous with us, not because we have earned it, but because generosity is God’s nature and fruitfulness is a hallmark of His kingdom.   Jesus even speaks of a hundredfold increase accruing in present times to those who are truly sacrificial, but He doesn’t suggest the bounty will be all peaches and cream.  Instead, He predicts it will attract persecution.  Mark 10:30  In any event, He asks that whatever resources come our way, merited or by windfall, be put toward building His kingdom and not our gain.  There is tremendous prosperity in that kind of wealth, but like many other things in the kingdom, it’s mostly hidden from sight.
 
Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die:  Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord?”  Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.  Proverbs 30:7-9
 
What all of this means for you as an individual believer is not for me to say, because we do not live by rules but by faith, not by bread but by the very rhema – voice – of God.  Matthew 4:4  But surely if you ask Him, God will whisper His reply in your ear, for it is His good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and an even greater one when you show yourself to be just like Him by giving it away!