Should Christians Want To Be Rich?

AI Generated Transcript (I only fixed glaring errors and added a couple of paragraph breaks -  I ignored all the grammar problems haha):

Should Christians want to be rich? Welcome to Jon's Voice Notes, where I say whatever it is I want to say without any planning. That's what I do. But what I'm thinking about today, out loud for you, spontaneously, stream of consciousness style,

Should Christians want to be rich? I reviewed my previous episodes and I do see there is a similar one. Um, so if I duplicate content, well, it must be important. 

It's a beautiful, cool but beautiful spring day here in Northern Illinois. I am sitting here in my office looking out these sliding glass doors at trees and green plants and a courtyard with a beautiful lawn and it's just a spectacular day.

I whined for so many years about living in northern Illinois instead of out west where I lived for 15 years in Oregon where it was so beautiful there. But man, I've just been a couple years of just beautiful spring days. I love the springtime. But okay, back to our topic. Should Christians want to be rich? Should Christians desire it or pursue it? So, I don't know. That's...

There's a couple of angles on that. I think, as I mentioned in a previous episode, people are really afraid of the prosperity gospel. They're afraid of something that maybe it's like an imbalance.

I don't actually listen to a lot of prosperity gospel teachers. So I can't, you know, I can't really authoritatively even describe the whole of it other than I understand that it's basically, you know, health, wellness. You know, God wants you to be healthy. God wants you to be well. God wants you to have money. Basically, God wants you to be rich. And I don't know how well they teach on how to get there.

But I am not convinced that it's entirely false. I mean, maybe some teachers of it are entirely false. I don't know. Because like I said, I don't listen. But I'm not sure that the idea is entirely false. Maybe it's just an issue of whether or not it's balanced with the rest of what the scriptures say.

Maybe it's just an issue of seeing the whole picture. Because I don't believe, you know, one of my favorite passages at my age and time in life is, "'Teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom.'" Don't remember where that is off the top of my head. I think it's attributed to Moses. Yeah, I think it's attributed to Moses. Might be in the Psalms or Proverbs, but it'd be attributed to Moses.

um look that up fact check me that i'm not going to claim that's factual because i'm not sure but i know it says it in the bible teach me to number my days are right that i may gain a heart of wisdom so what does it mean to number your days are right and what does that have to do with the pursuit of wealth well i think we have to start with the fact that if i'm going to number my days are right there are at least two things i need to consider one

I do not know if I will be here alive on this earth tomorrow. You don't know. Nobody knows. None of us know. We don't know what's going to happen. Only God knows. This is a part of his secret to himself only knowledge.

is who's going to be alive when and how long. Only God knows these things. I'm not suggesting we be doom and gloom and think that we're about to die. I'm just saying realistically, I don't know. I also don't know that I am going to die soon. I might live for a long time. I might only be halfway done with my life, even less. Maybe, I don't know. I just don't know.

I think to number my days are right is to just be aware that I'm not in control. One, mortality is impending for all of us. It's coming. We are on our way to exit this world and enter into eternity and everything that God has for us there. This is reality. This is numbering your days aright, to be aware of that.

So it involves being aware that you do not have control directly of when you will live and when you will die. But it also means thinking long-term about your whole life. So should we live in this moment like we're going to die tomorrow? Or should we consider the ant, you sluggard, who stores up food in the harvest so that he has something in the winter? Which is it? Both. Both.

we should be living in such a way that um you know get the best out of this day give to the lord the best of this day give to the people you love give to yourself the best of this day however some significant portion of your day should be invested in the unknown future as well

This is why the Bible talks about Jesus. Don't worry about what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink, what you're going to wear. Look at the flowers of the field. Even one of those is more beautifully dressed than Solomon. Don't worry. But then the Bible also says, and remember, Jesus wrote it all. Remember who he is. He is God, and he wrote the whole Bible, not only the things that he said when he was here physically.

He's also the same one who said, consider the ant who lays up something for the future. And there's, you know, you'll find things in the Bible in both directions. I think to number our days are right is to consider both and to think about both. You don't want to be out of balance where you presume your future. You presume that you have a future.

Well, I don't know. Maybe you should presume that you have a future. But what I mean is a certain kind of assumption where you're blind to the reality around us. But how does this tie into whether or not Christians should want to get rich? Well,

That's another thing. In the Bible, there is a condemnation of kind of the worship of money, the love of money. There is a problem there that we humans have where we love our wealth in a wrong way. However, I would argue that from the whole of the Bible, going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, we are designed by God to become more wealthy.

You were designed for this. I was designed for this. This is what we're supposed to do. And I'm still thinking of that other episode. I don't remember exactly what I said, but I know I talked about this. God put Adam and Eve in the garden, said, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. Take dominion. Expand. Take it everywhere. Take this beautiful garden and everything that you create everywhere. 

By having children, they're creating wealth, because there's more humans now. Humans are wealth. It's like the existence of humans and their potential fruitfulness

In creating beauty and excellence and provision and improving the world the way God designed us to, a human being is wealth. Stephen Lawhead, in some of his Pendragon Cycle books, the character Merlin, yes, the Merlin of the King Arthur legends, lives with these little people. I don't remember what they're called.

But he lives with them for a while. And they call their children wealth. The same word for wealth as the word for children. And yes, I'm aware I just referenced a fictional work. But the idea is fascinating because children are wealth. Humans are wealth. You're wealth. You are potential.

You have the potential to make your life, your spouse's wife, your children's, your spouse's life, your children's life, your family's life, your neighbor's life, everybody's life better, more comfortable, more beautiful, more interesting.

you are this you are wealth you were you are a creature designed to be create and spread wealth maybe we need to think differently about what wealth is

My philosophy, I didn't go to university and learn all the philosophies of economics, but my philosophy that I understand is money is basically a means or vehicle of exchanging and sharing wealth, if done in the Christian way, in ways that are mutually beneficial. We should be sharing the wealth in mutually beneficial ways.

I give you this money which you can trade, you know, that represents the wealth I have created in exchange for some of the wealth you created. And if we do it right in the kingdom of God way, we both go away happy. One of us goes away happy because we have more money to use for the things God has for us, including taking care of ourselves and our family and making our lives better and other people's lives better.

And the other person goes away with whatever it is that you provided for them, a service, a product, something. So the Bible talks a lot about money. Have you ever heard the idea that in heaven, you know, there won't be money? We paint this picture like it's going to be a socialist paradise in heaven where everything is common ownership. Maybe. I don't know. It's not revealed exactly what it's going to be like there. However,

I'm not convinced. I wouldn't be surprised if there's still ownership and voluntary sharing and wealth and generation of wealth. And some people have more than others just because some people make different choices and have different priorities.

but there'll be no poverty i'm convinced there'll be no poverty there'll be provision for everyone but you we might still be working to get our provision at least but however that is in heaven at least here in this world we were designed to work to get our to at least to expand our provision i mean adam and eve were placed in a garden with food to eat that apparently was readily there like children they were provided for by their father

But they could expand it. They could increase it. They could be creative with it. They can make more interesting things with it. And they were to tend the garden. So they were, one of their jobs was to tend the thing that was providing for them and creating their increase, their wealth.

So I'm hoping just this talk is getting maybe give you a different way of looking at it because it's not about being greedy for mammon. But I believe that you are designed for wealth and therefore it is natural. God has put it in you to desire to increase your wealth. And I'm using wealth to mean the whole of your prosperity, which includes money.

all while numbering your days aright and knowing that you don't know your future. All you can do is live in what you know, what God has given you, your domain that he has given you, the things he has given you to do and expand and grow and make fruitful. That's your job. Your job is not to know whether you're going to be a billionaire in a year because you don't even know if you'll be alive.

But you're designed for this. You're made for this. I'm going to submit to you that it is natural and good and a God-given gift to desire wealth, to desire to increase wealth, to desire money and desire to increase money. It is fear that turns that into greed, or at least that's one of them. Maybe there's other things, but fear is what turns that into greed.

I'm afraid so that I don't care about other people. I want to hoard and make sure I have everything and to heck with everybody else. These are the kinds of things that create greed. But desiring a nicer living situation, desiring a better vehicle for transport, desiring a better job, none of these things are inherently wrong.

Now, what about this phrase from the Bible? Godliness with contentment is a means to great gain. Or some version I have read says godliness with contentment is great gain. I've thought about this, and this is what I believe that is about is being content with what you have and where you're at while doing things in God's way.

And all kinds of righteousness, ethically fulfilling your purpose, is going to lead to gain. So how do you balance that contentment versus a desire for more? Well, this is a lordship issue. This is an issue of idolatry or not idolatry.

If I had a son and he wanted a bike, I would love to teach him. This is how you get a bike. You walk down the street and knock on doors with your rake and say, I'll rake your yard for $10. Maybe I'm showing my age there. Maybe it's a lot more money for something like that now. I don't know.

but and then after you have served others and those others out of the joy of not having to do it themselves have given you the means of exchanging wealth money you go and buy a bike so you desired something more than you had and you served others to obtain the means of trade and then you went and obtained the thing that you want is this sin

Well, in the human heart, it could be. You could idolize the bike or whatever lifestyle you wish you had. So this is something you just have to be aware of before the Lord. Let him work on your heart. Am I being inordinately greedy out of fear or out of idolatry? If you are, then maybe you're the rich young ruler, another Bible reference. You need to give it away. You need to give your wealth away.

You have an idol in your life. But if it's not an idol, and it's not fear and with disregard for the well-being of others, it's what God gave you. So can you see how the desire for wealth is not inherently evil? In fact, I'm going to say that it's inherently, or at least generally good, but it can be corrupted by sin. Right?

so should christians want to be rich i'm going to say christians should want to expand and grow their wealth the word rich has connotations that um do you need to be a you know a filthy billionaire we're all different we have different giftings and different callings i think like if someone just walked up to me and said here are two billion dollars

I have a whole new job now. I have to figure out what to do with it. And you're probably thinking, well, I know what to do with it. I'm going to buy a house and a car. Well, there's a reason when people win the lottery, it ruins their lives and they end up bankrupt and broke and in debt. It's because they didn't know how to be a millionaire or a billionaire or whatever, half a billionaire, whatever you win in the lottery these days. They didn't know how to do it.

That's why the reason they didn't already have it without the lottery is because they don't know how to do it. So if you have a lot of money, you have a different kind of stewardship before the Lord. And I believe due to different callings and even different desires, the good kind of desires, the natural God-given kind of desires,

We're still different. Due to that, there'll be different levels of wealth that different kinds of people are going to want to pursue. But once again, it's an issue of, is it idolatry? Is it with disregard for the wellbeing of others? If it's not idolatry and it's not disregarding the wellbeing of others,

And you feel maybe you just like to earn a lot of money and you like to do things with it, make your life better or invest it or whatever. And it delights you. Is that the love of money that the Bible is talking about? I don't think it is. I think you could literally have someone who delights in acquiring a lot of money and doing a lot of things with it. And that's not the same thing as the love of money that is the root of all evil. It could be. You could make an idolatry out of it if you want to.

So should Christians want to be rich? Well, sort of. I'm going to vote yes. You should want to be rich. I understand the word rich has negative connotations sometimes. So you need that desire God has given you to expand and grow and improve and take dominion, which all of that is a form of the pursuit of wealth, but not with idolatry and not with disregard to the well-being of others and not with fear.

with delight, with joy. So I would, you know, what's going to happen to me when I say this, I would say, go out there and pursue wealth, teach your kids to pursue wealth, not to, not to idolize it. I feel like I need to keep saying that, but teach your kids to pursue wealth. In fact, it's one of the main things they're made for. So yes, you should desire to increase your wealth.

You don't have to compare your desire for increasing wealth to anybody else. You might be different, different needs, different desires because you're a different person God created for a different purpose. Billionaires have a whole other world they have to manage. And here, let me just slip in a side note about billionaires because I've heard people say like, how is this billionaire a billionaire when they could feed? How many people could they feed with that money?

This is not thinking. You're not thinking that kind of statement through if you say something like that, because where is the billionaire's money?

What they probably don't have, I mean, maybe some do, but what they probably don't have is $2 billion in their basement in gold. You know, they go down there and, you know, crack their knuckles and, you know, with evil glee, they count their money. Maybe there's some people that do that and they have an idolatry problem, but most billionaires' money is in some sort of company.

It's in a company or business or that either they're running themselves or they're involved with or they're an investor. They're providing capital so someone else can pursue their dream and their dominion and their pursuit of kingdom wealth, right? That money is doing something in the world. You, most people listening to this probably don't.

um you're probably working for someone that has money whether it's a corporation or a person or a local business they have the resources and you are serving their needs and their customers needs and you're receiving your pay

So is that greedy, filthy person with all their money making you work for him? Or are they out there providing jobs for those who prefer to be an employee? Are they out there providing goods and services that make the world better?

So being a billionaire or a millionaire or a hundred thousandaire or whatever you are or desire to be, other than maybe your emergency reserves for the day of crisis, should you buy gold? You don't want to ask me because I don't know. But that money is at work.

it's at work in society in the world and it's serving people somewhere somehow so i don't see billionaires as inherently evil a billionaire just like someone who's broke can be morally good or morally bad they can be an idolater or not an idolater they can be freely pursuing their God-given calling and it's producing just great wealth and they have been made the ruler of many cities

or they can be evil and running people over with disregard for their well-being. It's the same whether you're a billionaire or you have $10. Your heart attitude can be the same. So don't

think don't buy into the richer automatically evil they have more ability to be evil you know if you're a billionaire you can do more evil than someone who has ten dollars but you can also do more good you can do more good so in summary wow this is my longest one yet

Yes, you should pursue wealth to the level of which God has given you faith and desire for whilst repenting of and cleaning your heart of any idolatry or fear or disregard for others. So hopefully that gives you something juicy to think about today.

Thank you for listening to Jon's Voice Notes, where I ramble stream of consciousness about whatever I want to talk about today. Hopefully somebody in the universe will be blessed. 

Jon Davis, signing off.