How To Be Rich

 

Those of you who are new are going, “Great! Why in the world did we come to church today?” Okay? We are in a series that’s called “How to be rich”. We’re not talking about how to get rich, because a lot of people will tell you how to get rich, but we’re recognizing that according to the world’s standards, we’re already rich, and we want to be rich in a way that honors God. Let’s go back to week number one and review. For those of you who were here, would you help bring everybody else up to speed? We learned some good news and some bad news, and the good news was what? The good news was you are rich. We discovered that. If you make $45,000 a year or more, which many of you do, you are in the top 1% of wage earners alive today. If you make $45,000 a year or more, you are in the top 1% of wage earners alive today. You are rich. You’ve got things that only rich people have, like a car. Some of you, you’re so rich you have a house for your car. It’s called a garage. Some of you are so rich you have so many clothes you can’t even wear them all. Some of you are so rich that you get to go to places called restaurants, where you pay other people to prepare your food. That’s how rich you are, and this is good news because, God blesses some people with wealth, and God takes great delight when you enjoy some of what God gives you. And the other good news is, because you have so much, you can do a lot with it. That is good news. We also learned there’s some bad news, as well. And the bad news is, help me out. What’s the bad news? The bad news is, you are … you are rich. That’s bad news, you see, as well as good news. It’s bad news because this is one of your greatest spiritual challenges. Because you are rich, it would be so easy to trust in your riches and so difficult to trust in God. In fact, Jesus was the one who said this. He said that, “It is more difficult for a rich person,” and that includes you, and that includes me. “It is more difficult for a rich person to get to Heaven than it is to get a camel through the eye of a needle.” He said, “It, it’s so difficult, it’s almost impossible. The good news is, though, with God, it is possible for even rich people like us to get to Heaven. The challenging thing is, it’s really, really hard. That’s bad news.

The other bad news is, because we’re rich, we have a greater responsibility than those who are poor. Jesus said that to whom much is given, and that’s us. He said, “Much is expected.” Good news is we’re rich. Bad news is, we’re rich, and that raises the question, as we are acknowledging that we are rich, it raises the question, “Why did God make us rich?” Why did He make us rich? Now, let’s be honest. As we observe most people’s lives in our country, as, as they get more, if we would observe their lives and try to answer that question based on simple observation, how would we answer the question. Based on what I see, if I answer the question, why did God make most people I know rich, the answer I would say, “Well, it appears so that they could have more, and get more, and buy more, and consume more.” Based on my observation, that’s how I would respond. Very rarely would I ever say, “Well, based on my observation in your life, it looks like God must have made you rich, not so that you could get more, but so that you could give more. I mean, I’ve watched you, and as your resources have increased, your lifestyle has remained relatively constant. Sure, you might have enjoyed a few things now that you didn’t in the past, but you’ve created margin, and you’re using this margin to make a difference in other people’s lives.” Saying something like that would be very, very rare.

God made you rich. Why did He do it? We’ll let scripture answer this question? II Corinthians 9:11 speaks directly to this question. The Bible says this, “You will be made,” what? All of our campuses, help me out. “You will be made …” Say it again. “You will be made rich in every way.” Why will you be made rich? So that you can be what? So you can be generous on how many occasions? Say it aloud, “on every occasion, and through us your generosity with result in,” what? “It will result in thanksgiving to God. Imagine this. Imagine if we were rich like we already are, and we became so generous that when people saw us they went, “Oh, I thank my God for you. You are so incredible. You’re not like a lot of rich people I know. They are kind of arrogant and stuck-up, and think it’s all about them, and now they think it’s all for them; but yet, sure you enjoy some and God wants you to, but you don’t think it’s all for you, and you’ve been giving, and I just want to say, ‘God, thank you for you, because you are awesome!’ You are making a difference.” Why did God make you rich? God gave you more. One of the things He wants is for you to give more.

Let’s review our key statements. If you were here with us the last couple of weeks, we’ve kind of been picking up these statements along the way, and, and the first was this. Go ahead and say it after me. “God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich, but I will not trust in my riches, but in Him, who richly provides.” Now, here is the part I want you to add. “Because I have more, I will give more.” Let’s say it all, all together. I’ll start. “God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich, but I will not trust in my riches, but in Him, who richly provides. Because I have more, I will give more.” That’s how to be rich. It’s not how to get rich, because you already are rich. That’s how to be rich in a way that matters to God.

Why did God make you rich? Well, one of the reasons is so you can give more. Now, that raises the next question, and the next question is this. “So, how could I learn to give more?” How could I learn to give more, because by nature, I’m selfish. By, by nature, I want to trust in my stack of money and say, “My stack will provide security.” If I don’t feel security, I want more and think that will provide security. Or, I think it will provide. How can I learn to give more? Because truthfully, if you are like me, as my income has increased, so has my lifestyle. And that’s usually what happens. If you get a raise, you think, “Okay, now we can get a house cleaner. Or, if you get a tax refund, you think, “Okay, now we can go on that trip.” Or, if you get a bonus, you think, “Now, we can buy that HDTV.” Or if you get something, you think, “Now, we can get more tots,” or whatever it would be. We tend to think that more is for us. How is it that we are going to learn to be bigger givers? If you are taking notes, you must become an intentional giver, and this is so important. This is so life changing, if you get this. We’re not going to be kind of after the fact, or leftover givers. But we are going to become intentional and prayerful about what we give, because truthfully, if you look at our lives, most of us, we are intentional consumers. We, we intentionally scheme how we can consume. You may find something you want and say, “Okay, if I don’t eat for a week, I could buy this iPod. I am going to scheme so I can figure out how to get it.” I’ve seen people who wanted a house, and so they thought, “If I borrow this money from my grandparents for the down payment, and then I get the raise, and we get a tax refund, and we get this low interest, and they’ll negotiate on us, and if I stand just like this, then maybe we can afford this house.” And they do all these crazy things, trying to get what they want. They scheme to consume. It’s very rare that you ever see someone scheme on how to give. “If we kept our life simple, and if we downsize, and if we didn’t buy this thing, then, oh, this is so exciting, we could give more!” How rare is that, because most people really don’t believe the words of Jesus when He said, “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.”

How, how are we going to learn to give more? We are going to become an intentional giver. Look at what scripture says. II Corinthians 9:7, each man, each person should give what he has,” what? Would you say that phrase aloud? “Should give what he has decided in his heart to give.” That is very important. Not reluctantly or under compulsion, for what kind of a giver does God love? God loves a cheerful giver. How, how do we give? Well, what we do is, we become intentional about it. We pray about it. We seek God. “God, where would You have me give? God, where could we make a difference?” We, we scheme and investigate God. How could we give more? If you do that, you become a little bit like my wife, Amy. She, she schemes, not how she can consume, but how she can give more. It’s just, it’s, it’s just ridiculously Godly. It’s just the way she is. She’ll investigate, and she’ll go out and try to find, “Where’s the best place, the most efficient in feeding kids that are hungry?” And then, when she gives to these organizations, she gets excited about it. Why? Because she’s intentional. She’s excited. She gets to give, then they send her an envelope back three days later saying, “Will you give more?” She doesn’t say, “Oh, all they want is my money.” What she says is, “Oh, can we give more?” Why? Because she’s a cheerful giver. It was intentional. It wasn’t just a reaction, someone knocked on our door and said, “Hey, can we have money for this deal?” It was an intentional, prayerful, thought-out process. “God, where can we best make a difference?” And because of that, because it was intentional, she’s very, very, very cheerful.

How do we become bigger givers? We become intentional givers. That’s how to be rich. Let’s break it down into two thoughts, two ways to be intentional. Number one, we will intentionally return to God what belongs to God. Let me say it again. We will intentionally return to God what belongs to God.

[video] Well, this is where the rubber meets the road. You’re paying the bills. In fact, what’s in here tells more about your heart than just about anything else. Let’s talk about it. As intentional givers, well, we’re going to return to God what belongs to God. Scripture says this. In Leviticus 27:30, “A tithe …” Now, what’s a tithe? This is the Hebrew word maaser (mā os’ er), and it means one tenth. It means ten percent, so 10% of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, it belongs to the Lord. The tithe, ten percent, it belongs to the Lord. Scripture says it is holy to the Lord, so how do we give the maaser? How do we give the tithe? Well, the Bible says in Malachi 3:10 that we are to bring the whole tithe, bring the whole maaser, into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Now, scholars agree that the storehouse is the local church, that we bring ten percent of what God trusts to us to the church. We give ten percent to the church so there may be spiritual food and spiritual nourishment in the church for God’s people. Then, we give offerings above the maaser, above the tithe, to other places. We are going to return to God what is God’s. But let’s be real. Let’s be honest. The more we have, the more difficult it is to give. As strange as that sounds, it’s true. For example, let’s say you make ten dollars in a year. Well, it’s pretty easy to give one dollar, because you think, “Well, ten percent, one dollar, what can I do with one dollar.” No big deal. In fact, you might say, “Hey, here’s two because, you know, what can you do with two dollars?” But then, let’s say one year you make ten thousand dollars, and so you want to tithe off of that. And all of a sudden, you’re going, “Oh, my gosh. You were right, this one thousand dollar check, a thousand dollars? I can do something with a thousand dollars,” and that check gets a little more difficult to write. Well, let’s say though, you’re faithful and God really blesses you. And one day your pile grows big. You’ve got a big stack. And let’s say you make a hundred thousand dollars that year, and all of a sudden you’re going, “Ten percent of a hundred grand, that’s ten thousand dollars! Ain’t no way I’m giving ten thousand dollars,” because as crazy as it sounds, the bigger your stack grows, the harder it is to give. That’s not how to be rich. That’s how to be selfish, and we’re not going to be selfish. We are going to be intentional, and return to God what belongs to God.

Let’s look at it this way. God will use the tithe in so many different ways in our lives. For example, a very important thing is this. God will use the tithe to teach us to put Him first. God will use the tithe to teach us to organize our lives around Him. In fact, scripture says this. The Bible says the purpose of the tithe is to teach us to put God first in our lives. The problem is, most people don’t. For example, let’s say you’ve got a pie. Well, you’re going to have to divvy up your pie into different places. Let’s cut a piece of the pie, a big piece, and this will be your mortgage payment. Good news is, you’ve got low interest. Say you put a piece of the pie right here. Then, you’ve got your car payment, a pretty good piece of the pie. Good news is, you look really good in your car. And then, you’ve been shopping and so you’ve got some credit card bills. Cut that piece of the pie. And then, you’ve got your kids in a lot of activities. Boy, they’re expensive. Little burgers, piano, soccer practice, and then you’ve got cable TV and you’ve got something on yourself, and so before long, you’ve divvied up your pie and all these places on yourself. Wait a second. I forgot God. We’ve got to give something to God, and so we tend to give God our leftovers. That’s not how to be rich. That’s how to be selfish. What should you do, though? The tithe teaches us to put God first in our lives, and what we want to do is this. We want to say the first fruit, the very beginning, it belongs to God. So, we will take our whole pie, and we are going to cut out about ten percent, and say, “You know what? Thank You for blessing me with this whole pie. This isn’t mine. This is Yours, God. This belongs to You. God, it is my honor to worship You with ten percent.” All of a sudden, this teaches me to prioritize my whole life around God. I am worshipping God with the tithe, and I am prioritizing and arranging my life around God. The tithe teaches you to put God first. It also, the tithe, increases my faith in God. By giving to Him first, He’s actually building my faith and trust in Him. I honestly believe that ninety percent, with the blessings of God, goes further than a hundred percent without the blessings of God. Ninety percent with His blessings goes further than a hundred percent without. Now, here’s the deal. It takes faith to give to God first. To give God ten percent, it takes faith to give first. If we give what’s left over, it doesn’t take faith at all. In fact, that’s how God gave to us. The Bible says while we were still sinners, He sent Jesus. God gave by faith, even before we accepted the grace of His Son. The Bible teaches us to give by faith. In fact, scripture is very, very clear. In Malachi 3:10, here’s what the Bible says. God says, “I’m so sure of this I want you to test Me. You don’t believe Me? Put it to the test. Cut ten percent out of your pie and give it to Me,” God says. “Test Me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw out the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” That’s how good God is. The tithe, it teaches us to trust God and prioritize our life around it. We will be intentional givers. We will intentionally return to God what is already God’s. Find you some pie. [end of video]

All right, so we are going to be very intentional. Now, some of you may say, “Okay, I, I have not been trusting God in this way, and I want to. I want to honor Him in His word, and I’d like to return the tithe to Him.” What we have come up with is just a way for you to test God very specifically. A few years ago, we started doing this, and so many people have had their lives totally changed by this, we just call it a three-month tithing challenge. And your campus pastor will tell you more about, but what you can do is, you can simply say, “Yes, for the next three months, I want to put God to the test, and I am going to tithe over the next three months.” At the end of this time period, if you get to it and say, “You know what? That didn’t work out. I don’t believe in it. I don’t think … it just didn’t, it just didn’t work.” You can just contact the church and we will give you back everything that you gave during that time, no questions asked. But, what will happen is, you will see God prove Himself faithful to you. As you re-arrange your life around Him, you worship Him. You put Him first. You give Him ten percent, and you watch, as God will do more with ninety than He was doing with one hundred, when you were keeping it all for yourself. We are going to be intentional, and we will intentionally return to God what belongs to God.

I’ll give you an example. This, this … I’m still having a difficult time internalizing what this lady did for me. I was in another country, a third world country, in a, you might call it a house, but it was more of a hut or a shack. It was a place where this lady lived. It just basically had a roof. It was smaller than my bathroom, no concrete floor, a dirt floor. She had her toilet, the place she’d go to the bathroom, was a hole out in the yard, so there was nothing there. Well, this lady knew I was coming for sometime, and she was very excited to give me meat. She, she heard I loved meat, and so we sat down, and she put this meat in front of me. I was looking at it, and you know, I’m trying to be polite, because she obviously had worked on this, and I’m wondering myself, “I wonder what this was.” You know, did it bark, or something? You know, which would be horrible. Or, some of you might be thinking, “Did it meow,” but I’m not going to make a cat joke, because some of you are very upset about my cat jokes. We are getting letters and emails every week. People complain about my cat jokes, so I haven’t been making them in a while, because I’m just joking. So, stop complaining. I’m just joking. I, I have two cats at home. My kids like cats. I don’t hate cats. I like them. I just can’t eat a whole one by myself. [laughter] So, quit complaining. I like them. Okay? So, anyway, meow, there’s this meat in, in front of me and I’m wondering, “What is this? I don’t know what it is,” and so I’m eating. It didn’t taste very good. I was trying to be polite. I was thinking, “This isn’t T-bone steak,” and whenever I walked out, and my translator said, “Craig, did you notice how she, the lady who was cooking it for you, didn’t have any meat?” I said, “Well, yeah. You know, why is that? And he said, “Because she’s been saving for months to have enough money to buy that to give to you, and she hasn’t eaten meat personally in well over a year.” And, that just rattles me so deeply in my soul, I don’t even know how to describe it to you. To, to be with a lady, who we are talking has nothing, and I can go out and eat some big burger, I can’t even eat it all, you know. I just throw the rest away. And she schemed in order to give and be a blessing to me. According to the world’s standards, she is very poor. According to God’s standards, that’s how to be rich. I want to be that way. I don’t want to scheme on how I can get more and more and more. I want to ask God how I can be more intentional, because God has blessed us. Help me out. “God has blessed us.” Try it again. “God has blessed us with more than we need. We are rich, but we will not trust in our riches, but in Him who richly provides. Because we have more, we will give more. That’s how to be rich. We will not give like average people. We will give like only a rich person can give.”

[Craig Groeschel] Well, welcome today to all of you, all of our network churches and all of our campuses. Today, we are wrapping up a series called “How To Be Rich”. Notice, we are not talking about how to get rich, but instead, how to be rich in a way that honors God. If you are new with us, we want to kind of bring you up to speed, so those of you that have been here for the last few weeks, would you kind of help everybody come up to speed as we review what we learned in the first week. If you remember, we learned in week number one some very good news and some bad news. The good news that we learned is that you are what? The good news is, you are rich. We learned that in the first week. A lot of people don’t feel rich, but when we look at our lives compared to people around the world, we are very, very rich. In fact, some of you, you are not regular rich, but you are mega rich, mega, mega rich. For example, this is shocking, but some of you may make $45,000 a year or more. Some of you don’t, but one day you might, and we learned that if you make $45,000 a year or more, you’re in the top one percent of wage earners living today. That’s how rich you are, and that’s good news. It’s good news because we can enjoy what God has given us, and it’s good news because we can make a difference in the lives of people around the world. The good news is, you’re rich. We also learned, though, some very bad news, and the bad news is what? The bad news is you’re rich. Well, that’s right. It’s good news and it’s bad news. And it’s bad news because it’s one of the greatest spiritual challenges that you will ever face, the fact that you are rich. Because you are rich, this is a huge spiritual hindrance. It can take our focus so easily off of God. In fact, Jesus was the One who said this. He said, for rich people like us, He said, “It’s far more difficult for rich people to get to Heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It’s a huge, huge spiritual challenge because it’s so easy for us to trust in our riches and not to trust in God.

The other bad news is this, because God has given us more, He expects more out of us, as well. We have a significant responsibility because, to whom much is given, much is required. Much is expected, and so God expects a lot of us. Now, many of you, you are already rich and some of you will get even richer. Have you ever thought this, heard this, or said this? That money changes people. Anybody ever heard it? Said it? Thought it? It’s true, money changes people and, typically, we say money changes people, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone say money changes me. But it does. If it changes people, it changes us, and it can change us for the better, or it can change us for the worse. Typically, when people don’t know God very intimately, money changes us for the worse, doesn’t it? It makes people arrogant and proud and overly confident and rude and, and selfish. We learned that people more typically give less and they become more selfish, and they become more materialistic, and they start to pursue the things of this world. And money changes us all the time for the worse. But those who are very close to Jesus, though, money doesn’t change us for the worse; instead, it can change us for the better, and it can make us more humble. It can make us more grateful. It can make us more generous, and it can give us a very real divine sense of responsibility, because money doesn’t just change people, but money changes us. That’s why what I am about to tell you is very, very important. If you are taking notes, this is, this is a crucial thought that we all need to recognize, and that is this. God is testing you. At this very moment, God is using money and wealth and riches and things to test us to see if we are capable of not just handling material blessings, but if we are capable of handling the most important true blessings and riches from God. God is testing us, and He wants to know if we can handle the real blessings.

Luke 12, starting in verse 16, Jesus told this story that went like this. “There was a ground of a certain,” what? Would you say that aloud? “There was a ground a certain rich man.” That could include kind of us, “and it produced a good crop. And this guy, “He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I’ve got no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘Okay, here’s what I’ll do. I’ve got an idea. I’ll tear down my barns and I’ll build bigger ones, and there, I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘Self, okay? You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’ “ What did he just say? Basically, he just said in our language, “I fulfilled the American dream. I’ve got enough, more than I need. I can get a bigger house, nicer car, and I can kick, I don’t have to work if I don’t want to. I can sit back and do nothing for the rest of my life, if I want to, because I have all this stuff.” And, he’s going to show us how to fail the test of prosperity. How do we do it? If you are taking notes, write this down. Here’s what we do. Here’s what we do. We believe that more is always for me. That, that’s how we fail it. We believe that as God gives us more, all of the more is for us. For example, here is how it plays out. Let’s say here is how much money you make. Okay? Here’s enough. We’ll say, here’s how money you spend, because most people spend all they make. And then, let’s say God blesses you and gives you a raise, or God gives you a bonus, or you inherit some money and all of a sudden, you have some margin. What’s the first thing that we typically think? When we have some margin, we think, “Whew! Praise God! What could I do with this?” Now, fill in the blank. I don’t know what you say. “I can get a house cleaner twice a month,” or “I can get someone to help with the yard,” or “I can get the new Apple iPhone,” or “I can get the HDTV,” or “I can redo my kitchen,” or “I can go shopping,” or “I can get a new car with butt warmers in the seat,” you know, or whatever it is. “Yeah, I can get … I’ve got this extra, and so now, I can blow it on me!” And so, what happens is typically this. God gives us margin and we consume and absorb all the margin for ourselves. That’s typically what happens. That’s what this guy did. “I can use it all, keep it all, store it all. It’s all for me.”

Verse 20, God says to him the very words that He might be saying to some of us. God says, “You fool. You fool. You missed the point.” God says, “This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get all this stuff that you prepared for yourself?” Then Jesus kind of summarizes this, and, and He says, verse 21, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for,” who? “Anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not,” what? “But is not rich toward God.” This, this is how you fail the test of prosperity. This is how it will be for those who think it is all for you and isn’t rich toward the things that really, really matter. Now, before you run out of here going, “I’m sick of this,” let me show something that I hope you will hear. What did this guy do in the story? What was his job? He was a farmer. Okay? So, who made him rich? This isn’t a trick question. Who made him rich? God. Okay, who made the rain rain? Who made the sun shine? Who made the crops grow? God. So God had already made him rich, and if you notice, God just made him richer. God just gave him a record year, and this rich guy got richer. God made him rich. God was the One who gave him wealth. God was not angry with him because he was rich. God made him rich. God called him a fool because he didn’t know how to be rich. See, God made us rich. You might say, “No, no, no, no. Not really, it was me. I’m the one who worked hard for it.” No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, what you did, you did because God made you the way He made you. “Well, I’m good.” God made you good at it. God is the One who gave it to you. So, God is not angry with the people in our country, because we’re more blessed than other people around the world. I think there are times, though, when God looks at us and goes: “You guys are missing the point. You thought it was all for you? But I gave you more, and I expect more of you. When I give you more and you consume it all, you, your, you’re failing the test of prosperity. That’s not how to be rich.”

So, let’s review where we started. We started a few weeks ago with some scripture. This was the Apostle Paul, and he was speaking to Timothy, and he said, “Timothy, sometimes you are going to come across these rich people, and you need to tell them something a little different than you tell the rest of everybody, so here’s what I want you to tell the rich people,” and Paul gives him this advice. I Timothy 6:17 he said, “Command those who are rich in this present world,” okay, that includes us. “Command them not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. But instead,” where should these rich people put their hope? They should “put it in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” Then in verse 18, he says, “Tell these rich people, command them to,” what? Help me out. He says, “Command them to …” You guys can do better than that. “Command them to do good and to be rich,” how? “To be rich in good deeds and to be selfish?” No, no, no. To be what? “To be generous and,” what else? “And willing to share.” Tell these rich people to be rich in good deeds, to do good things, to be generous, to be willing to share, and then, when they are rich like this, he says in verse 19, “In this way they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so they may be able to take hold of the life that is,” what? “That is truly life.” Not fake life. “Not, not settling for the imitation of, of material riches, but experiencing the best of what I have to offer,” God says. That is how to be truly rich.

Let’s review our key statement. If you are new with us, we’ve got a statement that’s kind of driven us through this series, and it goes like this. Help me out. “God has blessed me.” Try it again. “God has blessed me with more than I need. I am rich, but I will not trust in my riches, but in Him who richly provides. Because I have more, I will give more.” That was our statement for last week. This week, I want to add just three simple words to it. If you are taking notes, it will read like this. It will read, “Because I have more, I will give more and do more.” Let’s say that. “Because I have more, I will give more and do more.”

I’m thrilled to talk to so many of you, who are saying, you know, this, this series is really rattling you in a good way. And about right now, you are saying I, I sincerely want to be rich in a way that honors God. I want to give more, and I want to do more, but right now, a lot of you are thinking to yourself, how? How? You think, “I want to, to give more, but I barely have enough to make it through this month. How in the world can I give more when I barely have enough? Same with your schedules. You think, “Well, I’d love to do more, but you know, I am so overwhelmed. I’ve got so much going on.” I mean, truthfully, some of you, you could only make it to church like, you know, once a month, because your life is so crazy and you’re working and the kids are everywhere and, and you think, “I’d like to do more, but I just don’t have any time. I want to, but I don’t know how. How can I do this?” Well, what I want to do is, I want to help you understand how, and I am going to share something with you that, for many of you, this will be a life-changing moment. I promise you, it will. Most of you, it will fly right over. You’ll just go on with your normal life, and you’ll like, “What’s the big deal? Craig is being overly dramatic. Preacher guy, whatever.” You know, forget that. Some of you, you’re going to see it, and you are going to, you are going to look back at this moment. Years from now, you’re going to say, “My life is so much richer because I applied this Biblical principle to my life. How can we give more and do more?” This is how. Write this down. Very simple; very life changing. Here is what we are going to do. We are going to create margin and ask God to use it. It is very, very simple; very, very life changing. We are going to create margin and ask God to use it.

Let’s look at scripture that speaks directly to margin. Proverbs 21:20. Help me out. The Bible says, “In the house of the wise,” what do we have? We have what? “We have stores of choice food and oil.” In other words, we have margin. “In the house of the wise there is margin, but a foolish man,” does what? “A foolish man devours all he has. In the house of the wise, there is margin. In the house of the foolish there is no margin, because the foolish consume and absorb all the margin. The foolish thinks it is all for himself or herself, and that is not how to be rich. You see, here is the thing that, that breaks my heart about this series. Many of you, you still don’t believe you’re rich. You really don’t. You don’t at all. In fact, this bothers you because you want more and more and more and more and more, and the reason you don’t believe you’re rich is because you don’t feel rich, and you don’t feel rich is because you don’t have any margin at all. You make a ton. A, a ton compared to people around the world, but you’re stressed all the time. You’ve got financial pressure all the time, because you don’t have any margin, and you don’t believe you are rich. And you still, honestly, want more because you think, “If I had more, I’d feel secure, and if I had more, I’d feel happy,” but you are buying into the lie of money. Money is promising to you something it cannot deliver upon. Only God can give security and true joy, but you don’t believe it, so what do you do? You pursue more stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff, and you do it in the name of loving your family. “I want to provide this for my wife. I want to provide this for my kids, and I want to give my kids more than, than I had as a kid,” and so many of you, you are providing all of this stuff, and your kids don’t even know you. They don’t even know you, and you think, “If I had more, we’d have a happier marriage,” and you’re about to lose your marriage.

I don’t want to be hard, but this is, this is why Jesus said you cannot serve both God and money. You can’t serve them both, because He knew that for most of us, money would be the number one competitor for our heart. Money is seeking worshippers and servants, and, and that’s what so many people are doing. And Christians do it in the name of Jesus. “Jesus, bless me with more and more and more and more, more, more.” And you are saying, “You are failing the test of prosperity.” You can’t handle the good stuff because you are chasing the imitation. He gives us margin, and we consume it. See, think about this. God can better use people with margin. Simple, but God can better use people with margin. Imagine this. Imagine you’ve got no financial margin and God sends you someone who has a need, but you can’t help them. Why? You ain’t got no margin. Same with your schedule. Sometimes, I let them schedule me so busy, I’m so busy I don’t eat some days. I mean, it’s, although God may send me someone to minister to, and I can’t. I don’t have time. I’m scheduled out. Got no margin. God better uses people with margin. So, what are we going to do? We are going to create margin. That’s what we are going to do. We are going to create margin, and we are going to ask God to use it.

Let’s talk about money. How do we do it? Well, here’s how much you make. Most of us, here’s how much you spend. Some of you actually spend up here, but that’s just crazy and that’s a whole another deal. Okay, so, what are we … how are we going to create margin? One of two ways. One is, make more. Two is, spend less. I am going to say it again, because some of you missed the power of what I just said. Okay? How do we create margin? Make more; spend less. Make more, and you know how to do that. Spend less, many of you, you’ve never even heard that before, so, I’m going to unpack it. Okay? Here’s what we do. Here’s how you do it. Ready? You spend less. That’s how you do it. I’ll say it again, slowly for some of you. You spend less. Wha, wha, here, here’s what you do. You don’t get sucked in to what everybody else thinks you need, because you don’t need what everybody else says you need to really be fulfilled. You don’t need it. I mean, you know, in, in the world I live in, I’m like if you don’t have, you know, this size house and this kind of SUV and this kind of TV, you can’t be happy. What’s funny is that many of the things you think you need to be happy and many things that are consuming all the margin you have are the very things that didn’t even exist five years ago. Oh, yeah, put that in your pipe and smoke it. I mean, seriously, the things you think you need, many of them did not even exist five years ago. And yet, you can’t be happy without them. So, we are going to spend less. We are going to create margin. It’s not just with money, but you can do it around your house. You can go and look at all your clothes, and you can go, “Uh, I’ve got too many clothes. I don’t wear all of these. Ten percent of them, yeah, here’s a hundred shirts, ten of them I’m giving away.” You just created margin. Some of you, you could do like fifty percent of them. Yeah. Yeah, you’re laughing. I’m not. I’m serious. Fifty percent of them you could get rid of, and you’d never even miss them, because you don’t wear them! You just created margin. You can do other creative things. You may know someone who needs a place to stay, but you don’t have an extra room. Well, you can move two kids into one room together. Now, I know some of you think that’s child abuse. Okay? You, you ought to see how we are abusing them at my house. Okay? We put like four kids in a room. We just pile them up, but what you do is, is you create margin, and then you let God use it. And so very, very simply, what we are going to do is we will either make more, or we are going to spend less, or maybe both, and we are going to create margin and we are going to ask God to use it. Same with our schedules, and this is where it’s truly crazy, because many of you, you don’t, you don’t have margin. You’re like, “Hey, would you serve at the church?” “Oh, I’d love to, but we, we can’t. We can’t give an hour to God,” and I’m not saying this sarcastically, but many of you can’t because you’ve been sucked into the cultural vortex of busy-ness. And you’re as busy, busy, busy, busy. Some of you because you’re working so much to maintain your habit of buying things that you don’t need with money to impress people you don’t even like, but that’s a whole another deal.

Ten percent, that’s for beginning givers, for baby givers. That’s where we start, but we become radically extravagant intentional givers. We give intentionally and prayerfully. We seek God, and then when we do, we don’t give reluctantly or under compulsion, but we give cheerfully, because we are very passionate about this. And we give the tithe, and then we give offerings to, to feed kids who are hungry around the world and to help pay a bill for an extra neighbor and, and to campus development and to missions and to dig water wells for people who don’t have clean water, and, and to our favorite Christian radio program, and to evangelistic ministries. And one day, then, we’re not giving ten percent, but we’re giving fifteen percent, and then sixteen percent, and, and eighteen percent and twenty-one percent, because we give like only rich people can. And not only do we give more, but what else do we do? We also, we do more because we are rich in good deeds. We’re generous. We are willing to share. We do less so God can have more to work with.

One more time, from right here. Okay? “God has blessed us with more than we need. We are rich, but we will not trust in our riches, but in Him who richly provides. Because we have more, we will give more, and we will do more. And that is how to be rich.” May you always be rich in a way that honors the One who first blessed you.