Break Out Of That Poverty Mentality! You Were DESIGNED To Flourish!

(This is where I saw the image that I am using here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-have-i-learned-human-flourishing-winton-bates - I have not read that article yet, but maybe I will. 🙂)

AI Generated Transcript (I only fixed glaring errors):

I was in a mastermind type group - or whatever you want to call it - for pastors and people in ministry that are trying to figure out how to start a business on the side or do some sort of side hustle to increase their income.

And one of the things that came up, and I think this meeting was kind of about it, is just a poverty mentality and some of the ideas that Christianity has taken on, culturally speaking, in regards to money.

And I've thought about this quite a bit because I think there's a reaction to what is often called the "prosperity gospel,"  which I am not an expert on the prosperity gospel, so if you believe some of that I'm not trying to offend you. And I don't follow a lot of those people, those guys, but my understanding and from what I see and hear is it sounds to me like a true principle has been pulled off the shelf, on the Christian shelf of, you know, 560 Christian ideas. I made that number up in case you didn't know. And then kind of took that and raised it up higher to the exclusion of all the others.

But I think one of the things that's resulted in this reaction to the prosperity gospel, and maybe who knows what other sources these ideas come from, is a general bad view of money. An idea that making money is bad, that doing something to earn money is bad, you're supposed to be altruistic and not expect anything in return, especially if you're a pastor or a missionary or a minister or, you know, teaching Bible content, it should be free, right? You always hear it should be free, although it's never, there's no such thing as free, somebody paid with their time and effort or whatever. But I wanted to, this is what I was thinking, I didn't get a chance to share it in my group, so why not share it now? Or maybe I did, if anyone from there is listening, but I don't think I did.

So, when God made Adam, He put him in this garden. At one point in that passage it said, there was no man yet there to work the garden. So, but God put him there and said, be fruitful and multiply and take dominion and fill the earth. And then God gave Adam a woman, took him right out of, took her right out of his side and made a woman, which, but, you know, Adam had figured out he can't do this, his job without a woman, he needs a woman to do his job. So, then God said, you know, there to the man and the woman, be fruitful, multiply, take dominion.

And the way I see it is it's like God created this painting, this beautiful creation that we call the earth, the world and all the universe. And then He put these little painters inside the painting, said, keep painting, make it beautiful, make it flourish. So, taking dominion over the land and over the animals, all of this are the things that produce food and wealth. And basically God put the humans there and said, flourish, create, and it's a form of creating wealth. Not saying everything someone would call creating wealth fits in with this, but it's a form of creating wealth.

So, what I'm trying to get at is it is core to being human - to desire to create wealth. It is not inherently sinful to desire to create wealth. It is, it might be the other way around. I mean, I'm not, you know, maybe some people are called to a vow of poverty or whatever, but there's, in general, if you're human (and if you're not human, I'd like to understand how you are listening to this), but if you are human, you are designed to create wealth. You are either, and you can't actually really survive without doing that. You could try and go out and live in the woods in a cabin. And if you have survival skills, you might, I guess you might live if you have those skills, but at some point in the future, you're going to be alone and you're never going to really be able to create a lot of wealth because there's just a certain kinds of wealth that can only be created by interaction.

The wealth of children can only be created by interaction between a man and a woman. The wealth of the full potential of what humans can do, it requires each other interacting. You get good at this, I get good at that, we trade with each other. So, what I'm getting at is it is human to create wealth. It is human to desire to create wealth. So, you might have to think, what is that? What is creating wealth? I think it's creating the good and the beautiful and the beneficial with our hands and with our minds. That's what it is. And then we serve one another, and we mutually increase our wealth together.

And in another conversation, we can talk about what is money and how does that interact with all this. Because there's definitely, oh, and to get back to, you know, let me jump way back to where I started. The prosperity gospel, if this is what they're doing, tell me if I'm wrong. They're pulling one element of the truth of God, which is that he does want us to flourish. And maybe making that the main thing. You can idolize anything, right? But don't react to that. I'm working. I don't want to react to that by thinking, therefore, pursuing wealth is bad. Pursuing wealth is good. Pursuing wealth is what you're designed for.

And you just, the issue isn't that you don't want to do that. The issue is the whole gospel, the whole of Christianity needs to be included in what you learn or what you teach and what you do. We also know that we have no control over how long are we going to die in an accident tomorrow or live for another 50 years. There's lots that we can't control. So we don't want to idolize the pursuit of wealth, but it's still, it's a Christian thing to do. Getting a job and making money is a Christian thing to do. The Bible commands that if you, especially if you've been stealing, work with your hands so you have something to give to someone else. That's a command to increase your wealth so you can give to someone else. And it talks a little bit about how to do it there, working with your hands.

So I think I'm talking kind of fast because I'm getting excited. But somehow we have to break this poverty mentality. I need to break it in my life. You need to break it in your life. Desiring a raise at work is not sinful, inherently, it could be, but it's not inherently sinful. It's not automatically sinful. I'm not saying you can't have a sinful attitude about any of these. Desiring a raise, desiring to switch to another job that gets you paid better, desiring to start a business, advance your business, create a lot of wealth. These are not inherently wrong.

Yeah, if you don't agree, tell me why. I would love to interact with you. But this is just what I'm thinking about right now. That was not a prepared sermon. That's kind of my point of this little voice notes exercise is I just want to share my thoughts as they're happening. So you're getting it live and raw. I'm literally sitting in the parking lot at the doctor's office in my van recording this.

So get rid of that poverty mentality and pursue wealth for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of your own well-being and flourishing, for the sake of your spouse's well-being and flourishing, for the sake of your children's well-being and flourishing, for the sake of your community's well-being and flourishing. Pursue wealth. That is what I'm going to tell you to do today. Go out and pursue wealth. God bless. Jon Davis, signing off.