It’s Okay To Be Rich – Remember And Learn From The Poor – Part 4 of 4

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for being with us today. This is the conclusion of a great sermon series — that we are talking about the poor and the wealthy, and it’s called, “Remember And Learn From The Poor.”

So that’s what we’re talking about. This is number four of four, “Remember And Learn From The Poor.” You could check all of them out in a playlist right here in this card that will come up if you’re watching on YouTube. Otherwise, check out our website to find this playlist.

Today we are talking about how it is okay for you to be rich. God wants you to be rich. He wants you to be very wealthy and use that wealth for His Kingdom. Now throughout this sermon series, we’ve talked a lot about what it looks like from a posture in your heart and mind in order to become worldly rich.

Alright, you have to have the right character traits. The right mindset. The right devotion. Everything needs to be properly aligned with God and what He wants for your life in order for Him to bless you with worldly wealth. Because He has to be able to know that you are going to use that wealth for His purposes rather than your own.

So if you are rich or wealthy or if you have gained wealth and now you’re a Christian and you’re already rich, don’t be ashamed of anything when it comes to worldly, or Earthly, riches and wealth.

A lot of people teach that, “Hey, you can’t have a lot of money,” or “You can’t be rich,” or “You can’t be successful,” or that devotion to God is like the poor monks or the wandering nomads or cynics or philosophers or all of these things.

Look, God wants you to be wealthy. Now I’m not saying that everything is about wealth and riches. I’m saying that if you are rich, or if you are wealthy, that’s okay. God wants to bless you. He is very wealth — wealthy. He has the cattle on a thousand hills — everything in this world is His.

He wants to bless you with it. He wants you to take good care of it. In the beginning, in the Bible, He even told humans, “Hey, everything on Earth, I give you. It’s yours. Rule it. Subdue it. Take command over it. He’s giving it to us. He wants us to be good stewards of the things of this world and build His Kingdom so don’t be ashamed at all about your wealth.

It doesn’t mean you need to be proud about it — remember what the Bible says about pride: everyone says, “Oh, it’s, it comes before a fall” — no. A haughty spirit before a fall. Pride before destruction. Do you want to be destroyed? Don’t become wealthy and proud.

Be wealthy and humble. Remember we talked a lot about character traits in the sermon series already. The mentality of the poor. You need to be humble. There are so many things that go into becoming rich and using it for God’s Kingdom.

God wants you to be rich and very well-off. Several of God’s followers were very wealthy. So here we go. We’re going to put to bed this myth that you need to be poor in order to follow God or that you have to be destitute. That you can’t be wealthy.

No, several of God’s followers were wealthy. Now, this one point right here: if Christians can’t be rich, who in the world is going to be rich? Non-Christians. Now, from a godly perspective, who does God want to control the world? Who does God want to have influence on the world?

Christians. Because then we’re building His Kingdom. Now if we aren’t going to be wealthy, how are we going to do things here on Earth? How are we going to have resources to be able to go to the ends of the Earth and travel and support missionaries and build churches and raise people up in Christ and buy Bibles and buy things and use them for the Kingdom if we don’t have the wealth?

It’s a simple point and, right there, you should already be convinced that it’s okay for Christians to have wealth and to use wealth to grow the Kingdom of God. Now we’re going to dive into the Bible and take a look at many many people in the Bible that God blessed abundantly so that they could use their wealth.

They would use what God gave them to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. On Earth as it is in Heaven. Look at the descriptions of Heaven: the streets, for crying out loud, are made of gold. There are all kinds of beautiful jewels on the gates on the walls surrounding Heaven. Think about that — that is very, very wealthy.

That’s rich. The angels are adorned with beautiful jewels that… that one jewel on them is… is probably worth more than we would ever make here on Earth. What we have here on Earth is a fraction of what we will receive in Heaven.

So if we say, “On Earth as it is in Heaven,” why would it be wrong to think that we could receive great riches here on Earth as long as we use them to glorify God? Consider, here we go. Let’s dive into it.

Abraham, the father of all the nations. He was a very, very, very rich man. He had all kinds of land, livestock, servants, workers, hired hands, maidservants, menservants, livestock upon livestock, fields, vineyards — all kinds of stuff. He was a great follower of God. Let’s check it out.

Genesis 13.2, “Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and in gold.” Very wealthy. He was a great follower of God. His son Isaac inherited most of this. He was very wealthy.

Jacob. Also very wealthy. He, Jacob, left — remember, remember the story. He left and went to work for his father-in-law for many, many years. Was very, very poor but then became extremely wealthy because of his heart and his devotion to God.

He ended up taking 50% of everything that his father-in-law had and they parted ways. Remember the story. The story of Jacob when they — he said, “Alright, fine. I’ll take all of this type of sheep or lamb,” and then he’d start getting them and his father-in-law would be like, “No, that’s wrong.”

“Okay fine, I’ll take this,” and then he even said, “Look, if you say you’ll go this way, I’ll go that way. If you say you’ll go that way, I’ll go this way,” because he didn’t care about the wealth. He cared about serving God and being loyal to his father-in-law and saying, “Look, whatever you decide, I accept because guess what? I trust in God.”

And God said, “Hey, thank you. You put your faith and your hope and your trust in me. Guess what? Boom — you are very wealthy.” Look at the Egyptians and look at the the Israelites when they left Egypt. They left slaves. They had nothing.

Okay, when they were slaves, they had nothing. When they left Egypt, the Egyptians were so glad to get rid of them that they gave them all kinds of gold and silver and jewels and all these riches and said, “Here, get out of here.” And… and so God said, “And so you will plunder the Egyptians,” so they left very, very wealthy and then they ended up using it all to build His temple.

And, in fact, they had so much coming in from the people who plundered the Egyptians that the people building the temple said, “Stop, we can’t take any more of your wealth. We can’t accept any more gold, silver — we have way more than enough than what is needed to build this temple.”

Their hearts were right. They said, “God gave it all to us. We’re giving it to Him. We’re using it to build His Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Where did God dwell in Heaven? They say, “Hey, let’s have God dwell here on Earth as it is in Heaven.” They started building it on Earth as it is in Heaven. They had so much. So, so much abundance, they didn’t have room to store it. These were very very wealthy wealthy people.

Alright, let’s keep going. Lazarus, this is the brother of Martha and Mary. Martha and Mary. Mary Magdalene, is filled with demons, cast out, follow Jesus. Martha, you know the stories of Mary and Martha — “Why doesn’t my sister help me?” “She’s spending time at my feet. I will not always be here, Martha.”

The same one that… that we’ll get to it. She put perfume on Jesus’ feet, dried every… everything – wiped his feet with her hair and Judas then said, “What the heck? What are you doing, dumping this expensive stuff on Jesus?

Anointing his head and washing his feet?” And she, — “Hey, the poor you’ll always have.” Let’s get to that first off. Lazarus, their brother very, very rich, and was a good friend of Jesus. We need to go to the New Testament for that. That’s in John 12.

“Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” — That was previous — in the Old Testament here, or I mean, then in the New Testament earlier on, so this is Lazarus.

He’s already raised from the dead. He’s living completely for God. He’s very wealthy here. A dinner was given in Jesus’s honor. Alright, so to host a dinner, you had to be pretty well off.

“Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Jesus. Then Mary took a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; She poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

We’re going to pause right there before we read the next verse. Nard, you might say, “What is Nard? We have no idea what this is.” Well, nard is a shortened version. It’s a perfume made from an herb, a root.

It’s called spikenard. Now this is some nasty-smelling stuff. I suppose they thought it smelled really, really good then. It’s so fragrant that literally a drop that much would smell on your finger for months. Months you would smell that smell. That’s how potent this is.

You pour – That much would fill up a whole house. It’s so strong. Imagine a pint. Now, this stuff is also so expensive that a pint of this in today’s money would be like $50,000. $50,000! So she just dumped $50,000 on Jesus’s feet. Washed His feet with this. The whole neighborhood probably smelled it and, and then she wipes it up, with… with her hair.

This is very, very expensive. Google up spikenard. If you ever have the chance to smell it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s a very, very medicinal herb. It’s very potent. Very powerful.

It’s excellent for ridding the body of any kinds of funguses or bacterial growth. Anything like that which is probably why they used it back then. For perfume and ointments because it, it, it could cure all kinds of stuff.

Very very potent. Very very expensive. Very smelly. She put a whole pint on there. Now we’re going to read – we’re going to read Verse 4, (John 12:4) “But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.’”

Alright, now I say $50,000 today because that’s about the average income. As inflation rises and time goes on, whenever you watch this sermon, think about it. What is a year’s wages? I’m not talking a poverty of a year’s wage. Or a rich, rich person of a year’s wage. Middle-class year’s wage. 50 to 100 grand. That’s how much this perfume was worth. Can you imagine the amount of a year’s wage, dumping it on His feet?

That’s how much she valued Jesus and that’s the lesson in this but the point is, in order to have a pint of pure nard, they weren’t poor. They were very wealthy. He was a good friend of Jesus.

Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus. Mary, Martha, Mary even potentially traveled with Jesus so Lazarus and Martha would’ve been at the house. This was Martha’s perfume. She took… No, Mary took a pint of the pure nard and put it on Jesus.

So Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Whether they saved it together and bought this for this occasion. Whether one of them bought it, we don’t know how they acquired it. The point is, it’s very, very expensive.

Now let’s take a look at Joseph of Arimathea. Of course, this guy had to be rich. If you’re not sure who he was, let’s go to Matthew 27:57-60.

“As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite of the tomb.”

Alright, a few things here. Number one: only rich people were really buried in tombs that they had, had cut out of the rock. Why? Well because at this time, in order to be buried in a tomb, you had to own this property.

So you bought a piece of land and then put your dead body there. You didn’t put your own body there, but you had your body put there. So you… you purchased a piece of land — very expensive — and the sole purpose of this land was going to be your graveyard.

It wasn’t like today where you got buried in a cemetery for 5 or 20 thousand. It was lots of money. You bought a select property and then you carved out of the rock, a tomb. This is very very expensive. We’re talking probably upwards of $100,000 or more.

Ah, probably in today’s money, 100,000, plus. Alright, he also wrapped it in pure linen. Then he even prepared the body for burial. Put it in the tomb. Covered it with a stone. In addition to the tomb being worth about 100,000, the body also had to be prepared for burial.

And so Joseph of Arimathea did this. But there was also another party involved in this preparation and all of the spices and the fabrics and the perfumes that were used in burial were very very expensive. So let’s keep going with this. He prepared this body with a man named Nicodemus. Let’s go to John Chapter 19 Verse 39. John 19:39.

Alright, 38, we’re going to start there. “Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.”

Alright, that’s a recap of what we just read. “Now, he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.”

If you remember Nicodemus, he was the Pharisee. Met with Jesus in the cover of night and was asking him about — “Surely I can’t enter my own mother’s womb again. How do I find Heaven?” — all of this stuff.

Okay, one of the Pharisees that probably converted to be a follower of Jesus, so “Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.”

75 pounds of myrrh and aloes — what is myrrh? Well, if we go back to the birth of Jesus, the wise men, the Magi, whether there were three or multiple of them. We have a whole series on the Magi. You can check out that right here in a card if you’re watching on our YouTube channel. Otherwise, check out the series on our website.

75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, spices, things like that. Myrrh was one of the gifts that they brought to Jesus. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now spikenard, or nard, is also rumored to be among those gifts but gold, frankincense, and myrrh were definitely there.

Myrrh, one of them, very, very expensive. Something reserved for royalty. Usually, only the royals had that. So 75 pounds was brought to anoint and be put on Jesus’s body, soaking these pure linens, these fabrics.

Very expensive. How much was this worth? Well, first of all, we need to go with — In history, there was a leader Galil. He was buried. He was a very very prominent Pharisee. We get this from the book of Josephus. He wrote this historical account and this guy was buried with 40 pounds of myrrh and aloes — 40 pounds — prominent leader — that was the most recorded other than Jesus.

75 pounds — what is the normal? Like if you were a regular person and you got buried? The normal was about seven or eight pounds. So this was 10 times the amount of a regular person that was being put with Jesus.

How much did this cost? Anywhere from 150 to about 250 thousand in today’s money. 75 pounds. Now, if we take in comparison spikenard, the pint of pure nard, that was about $50,000. How much is a pint? About half a pound. Maybe a pound depending on the density of the liquid. So if you had 75 of those, we’re talking a lot of money.

Now of course, nard is way more expensive than myrrh, but still, you get the picture. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. It said, “So he had his own tomb carved out of” — this is 100,000 plus — then we have Nicodemus bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes 150, 200 thousand plus going into this. He had to be a rich person.

Okay, let’s keep going because we’re running close on time. This whole thing was very expensive. Very costly. Let’s, let’s go to Job. This was one of the most devout followers of God of all time. Job was blessed. Very rich. He was blessed. Very, very rich, then he lost it all then God gave him multiple — many times — 10 times what he had before.

He was probably a millionaire before. Then he lost everything. God blessed him even more abundantly. Multi — multi-millionaire. Job. Very, very good follower of God. He was literally put through hell by Satan. He remained faithful.

When Satan was through, God blessed him. He became a multi-million, maybe even a billionaire, of that day and age. In today’s money, if you follow Jesus, you can be very, very wealthy indeed.

Let’s look at some other people very quickly. Look at Joseph. He kind of went through something like Job — grew up very wealthy. Had a father. Who was his dad? Jacob, okay, very wealthy.

Joseph had a coat of many colors that would be very expensive. Very costly. Eventually sold into slavery. Had nothing just like the Israelites, who then later remember — plundered the Egyptians and had all kinds of wealth.

Alright, Joseph, before that happened. Before the plundering of the Egyptians, he was put in charge of everything. He was second to Pharaoh at this time. He was the most powerful person other than Pharaoh. That would be like second in the world. Very very wealthy.

Let’s look at King David. King David had wealth upon wealth. Cattle. He had a kingdom. He had palaces, temples — he accumulated all the wealth to build the temple of God. King David was a multi-multi-millionaire. Maybe even billions in today’s dollars.

Then we go to Solomon, David’s son. Alright, King Solomon was so wealthy that if you take a look at Jeff Bezos — probably the wealthiest person in the world — Bill Gates, Elon Musk — you combine all their wealth, put it together, King Solomon — Double. Double.

King Solomon had more than double all of them combined. That’s how wealthy King Solomon was and why did King Solomon get it? Because he said, “God, I want wisdom.” He sought first God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness. God said, “All this will be given to you as well,” — boom. “There will be no one, no one in the past that will have been as rich as you. No one ever to come.”

You take a look at the most wealthy people in the world today. Far wealthier than anyone in the past — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk combined. Not even half of what King Solomon had. Unbelievable.

Then take a look at the Queen of Sheba. She was so wealthy she brought caravans of spices and gold and fabrics and textiles and all kinds of stuff to King Solomon just to hear his wisdom. These people in the Bible were so, so wealthy.

Imagine today if Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and these people, if they were followers of God and they used their wealth like King Solomon did. Or like David did. Or like Joseph. Or Nicodemus. Or Joseph of Arimathea. Or Lazarus. Think of the world we would live in today. So what’s your goal? Your goal needs to be to follow God with all your heart.

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and accumulate wealth and use it to build the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven. Take this whole series to heart. Get your mind right. Get your heart right. Seek God and use everything He has given you for His glory. Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for showing us that we can indeed have earthly wealth. That we can be rich and live a very wealthy life here on Earth. Lord, I pray a blessing on each of these people. That you would bless them and expand their territory.

Bless them abundantly. Give them the right heart and the right mind to serve you always. That they would be like the good servant in the parable of the talents, that everything that you give them, they would double and that you would give them more and they would keep using it.

Double and double and double and double, building and growing your Kingdom here on Earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Get out there. Do what you can for God. In everything you do, bring glory to God. Get your heart right. Get your mind right. Serve God. Seek Him first and then sit back and wait for all these things to be given to you as well, and then keep using them to glorify God. Have a great week. God bless.