How to Be Rich

Make sure this works. Good morning! Nice to be here and to be back. We were up in Ohio last weekend, and we're trying to get used to the airports here in Florida and flying in and flying out. So we welcome, I would like to welcome all of our guests who are here today. We'll just jump right in and start since we are getting a little late to start on things and having to learn. We're awesome about the congregations here, and glad to have our guests here. I want to bring out today a Scripture that Jesus Christ gave us, all if we seek to follow Him. And He gave us this statement, this proclamation. He actually gave us a mandate. I'd like you to turn there because most of you, if you've studied your Bibles for years, you know that the Sermon on the Mount, Christ gave a statement in the sixth chapter of Matthew, verse 33, where He talked about the Kingdom of God. And we're going to discuss a couple aspects of that today that I hope you'll find very interesting.

In the 33rd verse of Matthew 6, seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. I ask you that question, what makes the Kingdom of God so seek-woven, so magnificent? What makes it so attractive, so alluring, that it should be number one in our lives? Because Jesus Christ was talking to His followers.

Seek you first, not second, not third. First the Kingdom of God. Is it so valuable that it's something that we should seek? Most people seek what first? Money. Most people seek money.

If you want to take something away from most people, write down on the list that most people want you to take is money. Because money just seems to make the oil go around, as we understand.

Do you seek riches? Now, is it first in place of seeking the Kingdom, in place of the righteousness of God? There's a lottery. It takes place in most states, anymore. There's quite a few states. There's a lottery here. And you actually pay money to have a chance to win. Look, more money, right? And people will stand in line for a long time, looking for a chance to win money. But if they had a lottery saying, well, we'd like you to contribute just a dollar, and then we'll put everybody together, and whoever wins the lottery will get to go help take care of the winner for a week. I don't think we've got too many people standing in line for that kind of lottery. Sad as it is. But it is something that most people dream, because if they win that lottery, it will solve all their problems. Why are there casinos?

And the casinos I just read in the paper the other day are making more money than they've made in the past few years. Everything else, the economy and everything else down, casinos are up. Why? It has to do with money. Casinos that have to create the dream of being a millionaire.

And so many people, that is so important. Because then, they will solve all their problems, and they will be able to create a life that they can really enjoy. Something they've really been looking for. The Lance is in the banking business. I'm sure you understand that. They cannot leave the vaults open. Right? You can't leave it, because people will just take it. Because they want it, it's very valuable. The cost of the vaults is very high.

They said, see first the kingdom of God. First. And His righteousness. God's righteousness. So do you want to be rich? If all of us had to answer that question, it would be hard to write N-O on those lists. To be honest, think, wow, there's so much month left after you've paid your bills. There's other bills left after you've paid all the money. It's interesting that Forge magazine, this last issue, said there were 29 billionaires, not billionaires, 29 billionaires in the state of Florida. And that 10 of those billionaires live in South Florida.

They may be your neighbors. I look around, I doubt they're my neighbors, but they may be our neighbors. I know one, it said there, his name is Dirk Ziff. Does anybody know Dirk? No? I don't know Dirk Ziff. He just happens to be the richest man in Florida. He actually has worth $4.7 billion and he lives in Palm Beach. And it says his job is he's an investor. Well, if I had $4.7 billion, I could probably be an investor, too.

But he's very wealthy. Mickey Arizona, the owner of the Miami Heat and the boss of Carnival Cruise Lines. And then there's Ted Turner down the list. He lives somewhere here, famous television and mogul oil. So worth actually $2 billion, they say. There's some very rich people that live around here you can look at and see it because moving from Tennessee, I never saw a Lamborghini in person before. Now I see three.

Four lives are just, and good job, guys, are just going to commonplace here. And I have seen a few maseratis that I've never seen before. People have money here, and you usually what? Know it. They want you to see it, usually. What would you do if you had a million dollars? What would you do if you had a billion dollars? Would you like to have that money? Yes, most of us would.

But that's another question because I'd like to ask you, what would you do for a million dollars? If somebody said, I'll give you a million dollars, what would you do? There are TV shows, reality shows, I think one of them is Survivor, it's been on TV a long time, right? And they actually, if you survive the show, you survive and win, you actually win a million dollars. And I see other shows that people are doing elements. They don't eat anything. Do anything for this money. There's a think tank in New York City a few years ago.

They decided they really wanted to examine if you would compromise your minds, your beliefs, if you would compromise those thoughts of saying, well, no, I would never do that. And actually see how much money it would take for you to shift those thoughts. So they actually pulled people off the street in New York City and they brought them in a room and set them down with just them and a few other people in the room. And they brought up a dead cockroach about that big.

And they asked these people, what would it take for you to eat that cockroach? And they laid down $250. And not one person picked that cockroach up and ate it. I doubt we would. Anybody here? Nope. Then they moved it up to $500. And some people, as they brought in various people at this time, still couldn't do it. They actually said one person at $1000 put his hands on it and started to go through his mouth and he just couldn't do it.

Of course, I've never been to New York, but according to people who have been to New York, the cockroaches are pretty big. So I get it as a full meal. But it was very interesting in their study because they actually showed that at $2000, people changed their mind. They were ready to eat it. The thing is, they did not know that this think tank, they weren't really going to give you the money. They just laid it on the table and when you put it in the mouth, they stopped you from eating it.

How much would it take for you to eat a cockroach? How much to tear a little wide wide? How much to cheat or to steal? Our husband commonly posed many times. How much would it take for you to pose naked? Because some people, I don't think it, nobody's going to pay me. There was actually people, they will pay a million dollars to pose naked. They said they never would until they came across hard times.

There was an interesting article that was published in the USA Today. We had a lot of these that went around and everybody was buying tickets. It's so funny to see somebody when he gets up to $200 or $300 million and they ask him why they played. And then they asked him why they didn't play when it was 50 million. Oh, 50 million. Yeah. It wasn't enough. But actually, one of the mega lottery that takes place across the whole United States, to win that when it is over $100 million, your chances are, and they put this down, $188 million.

$188 million. And I thought that was a little bit hard to comprehend. But when you see that four or five hundred million people are playing it from all over, going outside the United States, they're buying multiple tickets, many, many tickets, it kind of makes sense.

Money, money, money! As they say, it makes the world go round. Most of us think, well, no, we actually believe that we solve all of our problems. You ever thought that way? That if I just had more money, all my problems would go away, and I would live happily ever after. That's what the fairy tales all show. Prince Charming comes along, you know, the girl jumps on the back of the horse, they ride off in the sunset, and solve all the problems.

Right? If I gave you one thousand, one thousand dollar bills, they actually make that. I actually, I didn't know if you knew that, but they're a bank, they don't put them in, they don't send them out much, but they actually make a thousand dollar bill. What if I gave you a thousand, thousand dollar bills? What would you do with it? Now, I know we're thinking now, and that's what I'm trying to do, is to open up your minds, to try to comprehend what this kingdom of God seminar is all about, and why the Sermon on the Mount said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

That would be nice, wouldn't it? Trying to create in your mind. So where does wealth come from? Where does true wealth come from? Where does all wealth come from? Do you have Bible? I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8, verse 17. Deuteronomy 8, verse 17. Scripture says, And ye shall remember the Lord your God. For it is he who gives you power to get wealth. It is he who gives you the power to get wealth. And a lot of people want wealth, but they don't realize where the wealth comes from.

Proverbs 19, verse 4 says, Wealth makes many friends. Why? Power, influence, prestige. Yes. Address the way you wanted to. Drive what you wanted to. It's interesting that the latest statistics said there are 1,226 billionaires in the world today. 1,226. And there are actually 10 million millionaires in the world today. And the United States actually has 3.1 of those 10 millionaires.

The sad part was that back in 2008, we actually had 5 million millionaires. So you know what happened? The economy has changed. Those millionaires are not millionaires anymore. But by having 3.1 million of the 10 million millionaires in the world today, we are, without a doubt, the richest country in the world. By just the amount of millionaires we have.

What's interesting is this is supposed to be a Christian nation. We kind of profess that. But there is another nation that profess that way back. You can read about it in the 4th chapter of Hosea.

In the 7th verse, God corrected the people because He said, The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me. The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me. And you look at this country.

We have so prospered. We have had so many blessings. We have had such divine providence for our notion. And yet, we are the largest producer of pornography. We produce so many things that correct the entire world. Turn to 2nd Timothy. 2nd Timothy 3. 2nd Timothy 3. Many of you who study the Bible know these verses. In verse 1, it says, They know this, that in the last days perilous times have come.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, and as it says down in verse 4, Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Those are the last days, do you think we're there? Hmm. Hard to make an argument against it now, wouldn't it? Hmm. But what do you say to yourself, Well, yes, I understand that, but, Chuck, I could handle it. You know, I could really handle the money. And you might have even said that to God before.

God, let's open up those treasures in heaven, and let's fill that, fill my cup up, what? Press down, overflowing, as the Scriptures say. But the one thing you can understand from the book is that if you could, He would give it to you. That's hard for some of us to take because they always say, Well, we're a pretty good manager of it.

We just need more of it to manage, and I could be a better manager, right? But that's not what we have seen in the past history. You would probably say it wouldn't change me. Oh, wouldn't it? Yes. For most of us, it would change. There are certain people, we see Abraham, Daniel, Joseph, the various patriarchs of the Bible, who knew it, that they handled money quite well, and God gave them quite a bit.

But there's also, in each and every one of us, a little bit of Solomon. Solomon, as you know, was a great man. Started out very great, didn't end very well, though, did it? God gave him, because of his heart and mind, gave him everything you could want, great wisdom, and especially wrath. From a book called, Secrets of the Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Dr. Mike Murdock, he said Solomon was one of the most famous nations in history.

We will talk about the wisdom of Solomon today. He wrote over a thousand songs, numerous proverbs, and he still quit 3,000 years later. He said, Kings begged for an appointment with him, and he gave him Jesus Christ in two different accounts. Matthew 6 talked about his splendor, Matthew 6, 29, and also his wisdom in chapter 12. So how wealthy was Solomon? How wealthy was he? Well, in 1929, which is quite a few years ago, I don't know if anybody was alive back then, still in this room, that in 1929, the Illinois Society of Architects did an extensive and meticulous study on building Solomon's Temple.

And they put all the stuff that's in the Bible, they did all this research, to find out how much that temple, that building, would cost in 1929. And when they put all the gold and they put everything together, it came out to $89 billion. $89 billion. And with inflation, even though from about the year 2000, because we really haven't gone up that much, they actually brought the figures up to the year 2000, and it was $500 billion for that building.

That's pretty rich. That's pretty rich. And when you find that his actual house that he lived in was almost twice that size and took twice as long to build, you see some incredible wealth. To give you an example, I actually had the opportunity, quite a few years ago, to go through the Pentagon. Has anybody here ever worked or been in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.? It's the largest building, government building in America, maybe on Earth, that we know of. There's probably things we don't know about that are out there. But it's actually 6.5 million square feet. We were actually able to go when it was actually closed, and someone took us through so we didn't have to put up the crowds or anything, or people.

But if you spent at that 6 million square foot facility, and you spent $500 a square foot on that building, you'd only be coming between $4 and $5 billion. Kind of gives you an idea. Just how lucrative. One scholar noted that the Queen of Sheba came by ferry at more than 1,000 miles through mountains, just to sit in Solomon's presence.

And her gift to Solomon for answering her questions was 120 talents of gold. Right up to today's figures, it's about $4 to 5 million. Just to answer your question, I don't know if anybody in here has ever had somebody come up and even ask you to answer a question for $100.

But in a dream, God said to Solomon, ask, what shall I give you? And he didn't ask for long life, he didn't ask for riches. He asked for wisdom. God gave it to him and gave him also money. But I saw later how his life was turned around. 1 Kings 10 and verse 24 said, And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. Hm.

You're all in 1 Timothy, I like you. I like you turn to 1 Timothy 6.

1 Timothy 6. Interesting Scripture here. Verse 6 said, But godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we want nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

Hm.

Yes. Christ also said in Matthew 6 and verse 21, Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Where is your heart? Is it back on the kingdom of God? Is it seeking the kingdom in God's righteousness?

So we have to understand that this earthly life is our training ground. It's our practice field, if you can understand sports.

Because there is a time ahead when that kingdom of God will be here.

1 Timothy 3, 3 told that the ministers of God should not be greedy for money.

Because how are they to lead if they are greedy for money?

It's so interesting growing up, I remember the bankers on TV. They were always known as the greedy people. I remember growing up when I was a kid, I'd watch Lucy's show, and there was Mr. Mooney, and he was all about the money. And then along came the bevel of the wheel bellies.

And any of you might remember that show, you remember Mr. Drysdale. And he really shared how greedy he was for money. And he was all about the money. And I remember one show, he came in and he was all depressed because things weren't going well. And so the secretary, and Jane, or something brought him in and said, What are we going to do? And he said, I don't know. I don't know how I'm going to get over it. She opens up the vault, and he walks in there, and he got to spend a little time there. He came back, and ah, that makes me feel so much better.

And that's what we think about when we think about greedy, greediness.

So we're here practicing for our windfall. Our destiny in the family of God, a member, a son, a daughter, of a God family.

Because God is the owner of everything.

And he wants to share, to give his wealth to his children.

And sometimes we do not see that. We just see what's in front of us, and we don't see the big picture.

That is not about this life, but it's about the Kingdom of God. This life prepares us to live in the Kingdom of God, in the actual family of God. Or maybe we're like the little boy, who thought all his life, as he's growing up, and he reaches a age of ten, and he actually earns enough money to buy this pie. And he thought about that pie all his life, ever since he was a little bitty guy.

And so he finally earned enough money to buy that pie. And he was going to eat it.

And so he goes and he gets the pie, and so the person asking me takes the money and hand it to him, and says, well, would you like me to cut that in four pieces or eight pieces?

He goes, four pieces? You know I could eat eight.

So we sometimes don't understand.

We cannot look at it that way. That it's the same thing that what we're working for now leads us into the Kingdom of God.

We have to have that mindset. So we're called to be good stewards because of what we are about to inherit when the Kingdom of God is here.

Remember 1 Corinthians 2.9?

God tries to paint us a picture. What is he saying 1 Corinthians 2.9? I has not seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has planned for those who love Him.

He's offering us something that you have not seen. You have never seen anything so beautiful. No one can tell you how beautiful it is. Your mind cannot even dream it.

That's how great your reward for following God and seeking the Kingdom of God first and His righteousness is the reward.

See, with that in mind, because God owns it all, owns everything. One million dollars is offer puny, offer it pathetic to God.

Yet some people have left God behind. They have gone their own way. They have rejected His way. They have rejected Him. They have rejected His book.

For a whole lot less than a million dollars. Some have done it for a job.

Some for some man or woman, girlfriend or boyfriend that walks in their lives.

Or some have left God's way because they wanted to be like everybody else.

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I like to turn there because we'll be wrapping things up here in another 10-15 minutes.

One of those is in Romans 8.

And if you have time this afternoon, this evening or sometime this week, read the entire chapter 8 of Romans.

God goes a little deep with us on Romans 8.

But it's interesting here because He's trying to describe in Romans 8, verse 16.

So the Spirit itself bears witness of our spirit that we are... what?

That we are what? Children of God. We're actually called God's children. Children of God.

And if children, then heirs. Heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified together.

We're called sons of God, heirs to the entire universe.

I'm going to show you that in a minute.

Do you think Bill Gates' kids are worried about where the next food is going to come from?

Warren Buffett's kids? I'm worried. I might not be able to make my electric booth.

In verse 18, for I consider that the suffering of His present time is not willing to be conveyed, with the glory which He has been revealed in us.

So not only we're talking about glory, He's promised us.

For the honest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

So for the creation, the creation is actually in the mouth of translation says, the universe, the universe itself, the universe was subjected to fertility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The entire universe, that dead, decaying outer space, is waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for the kingdom of God to step forward and stop the deterioration, the corruption.

Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation grows and labors with both things, ever until now, when it will take place.

It's interesting that our universe, our galaxy, as much as they can explore and examine, as much information as we can have, if you can view it as this room, which is far cry, no year, but just give you something to relate to.

They have found, ultimately, that our galaxy, which is one of millions and millions and millions of other galaxies, that our galaxy allows, is one hundred thousand light years across, like this.

And they have now found that our galaxy is four hundred million light years from one edge to that edge, and then another four hundred million light years that way.

Four hundred million light years. Light years. One hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second, times sixty seconds, times sixty minutes, times twenty-four hours, times three hundred and sixty-five days.

That is an impressive inheritance.

Thank you, gentlemen, enough for all of us?

Stephen Hawking, in his book, The Brief History of Time, makes the name of our famous astronomer, Edwin Hubble, which a Hubble telescope is named after.

In 1929, he got to studying the sky and measuring light, and found that distant galaxies are moving rapidly across a wave from us, and that our universe is actually expanding.

So his galaxy is moving away, and so everything is expanding, it's growing.

Not evolving, in case you think it's evolution.

Which means our inheritance is getting bigger by the moment.

Romans 8, verse 14.

Who are you? Who are you?

It says, For as many are, as led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. It's mind-boggling. And in case that's not enough, turn to Revelation 21, and you can read about the Holy City.

Streets of gold, walls of diamonds, gates of pearl, all part of our inheritance.

How special is what we have been promised?

The Scripture says, The kings and great men have desired to know what you know.

They'll hear what you hear. But the thing with God, He says, You cannot come to Him, you cannot come to Christ unless He calls you.

He's not calling everyone now.

Because most people, they can't endure to the end, as the Scripture says.

Bill Gates, the richest man in America, with somewhere about $60 billion today.

Can't buy it!

Can't buy.

God. Can't buy His truth. Can't buy the blessings that God is offering.

Talking's pretty best.

As I think about that, because talking's supposed to be the most brilliant mind of our day.

He's the added Einstein of the modern day, if you've ever seen Him. But inheritance to those who know and follow their Father is what the kingdom of God is.

It's an inheritance to those who know and follow the Father.

Read the book!

And look to God for His righteousness to seek first the kingdom of God.

But it's so interesting because if you read the book, you understand the mind of God.

He actually says in Philippians 4, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ.

You can have that mind!

But it takes reading the book and working and turning your life over to God and let Him lead you by His Spirit.

I love that Hopkins said, here the most brilliant mind today in his book, in page 191.

He said, However, if we do discover complete theory, because everything to Him is basically theories.

All we got here, everything that we say and do, although he did believe in a Creator, he does.

It should in time be understandable and be all principled by everyone.

Not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of what all it is that we and the universe exist.

If we find the answer to that, it will be the ultimate triumph of human reason.

For then we would know the mind of God. So we truly do have an awesome God. And He wants to share the entire universe.

It's been laid out in the Scriptures.

1 The last thing is 4.16. 1 The last one is 4.16. He said, The faithful shall always be with the Lord.

So what would you do for a million dollars? Would you give up the truth?

Would you give up a relationship with the Father? It would be a bad investment, wouldn't it?

How I got it said, a person with six children is better satisfied than a man with six million dollars.

The reason? A man with six million dollars once more.

So, for any of you who had six kids, you'd understand.

So how great is that investment in our future?

Because I don't have numbers. Not millionaires, not billionaires, but trillionaires.

The only trillionaires you have to do it.

But how do you inherit something that is everything that God owns?

I looked on the Internet and I wanted to find out what's the largest number then?

It's actually called a Googleplex.

And it's actually one followed by a hundred zeroes.

But God has not promised a big millionaires, He's promised big developers, hasn't He?

Because He wants to give us so much more than we can even dream that this world has ever dreamed about.

I want to give you a small glimpse, a small porthole today, and to just how valuable.

How valuable is the creation you have as He is working with you and calling you.

Just how wonderful it is that we have the opportunity to have a relationship.

How special it is that we have a book, the owner's manual, that we can read.

We can understand ourselves and we can understand the Creator, the One who made us. And His image.

See, sometimes we forget just how valuable the calling of God is.

So many people died in the past, holding on to the truth.

So hopefully I've made a great case today for you to seek the Kingdom of God.

Now what? Now what are you going to do?

So seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Second part of that proclamation, God's righteousness.

You know, when Scripture says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is a way of death. God's way is a way of eternal life, and all the blessings that comes with that.

The way of man, all of us, it will lead you to death.

So what is righteousness? Well, simplified. Most of the time there's right and there's wrong.

And we're to do what's right, not wrong. We're to do what's right, and what teaches us what's right? The book. The book. God's inspired word teaches us what's right because it's right in God's eyes, not man's eyes.

And when we see what's right, we turn from doing what's wrong.

That's called repentance. That's why we see it in Matthew 3, don't we? Jesus Christ said what? Repent!

John the Baptist said, Repent!

In Mark 1, verse 15, Jesus Christ said, Repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of God. Hide both of them together. And then he sent his disciples out in Mark 6 and told them to do the people to what? Repent. Peter said it in Acts 2. Repent means to turn. It means 180 degrees.

My parents had a good way of teaching me when I was younger. You don't do that.

Turn around and do the opposite. That is where God is asking us as his people because we all sin. We all have problems. He's working with us. But it wants us when we see our point says, and we know, don't we? We basically know when we did something wrong. We said something we shouldn't have said.

Some of us just kind of pass out, oh, my bad. No, I want you to repent, to turn, and say, I'm not going to do that anymore.

And I want to seek God's righteousness, part of that incredible mandate that he's given us. So there's two ways. There's the world, and then there's the kingdom of God. Simple. God raised it out, authored his pages. We can either follow the way the world's gone, or we can follow him and go into the kingdom of God.

See, man is not righteous. He cannot be righteous apart from God.

He's not possible.

So I have given you the idea today for you to take and to study.

And look how many times the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is mentioned in the Scriptures. It's pretty important. Well, as most important is when I read, and I wish I could have been here at the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever given, in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. But out of the middle of it, he said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

So read the book. Read the book.

We have booklets in the back, in the back table. They're free, no charge. There won't be any follow-up. We're not going to have you come up here and give your heart to Jesus. You don't do that. But we have booklets to help you, because this book, from how many years you've been studying it, it's alive. You may read something today, and you'll get something different from reading the same thing tomorrow.

God is working with our minds, is working with that image that he made.

There'll be no follow-up.

We just want you to be able to have a relationship with God, because that's where it starts.

So I thank you for coming. If you will just bow your heads, or ask God's blessing on the food that we have, and your separate passage home.

And with that, I would like to thank you so very much for the opportunity to be here today.

We thank you for blessing us for the country in which we live in. Father, we ask that you continue to guide and direct us as we draw closer to you, and help us daily to study your Word. I look toward you for the answers, the big questions in life, and Father, even the small ones.

We just thank you so much that we've been able to come here and worship you, study you, and understand just a little bit more about you and your future and the Kingdom of God that you have promised for us. So we ask that you would help us, Father, to strive for your righteousness and seek that Kingdom as your sons ask us to do.

Father, we just ask for your blessing on the food and the drink that we will be partaking in. We know, we just ask to thank you for that, and know that everything good comes from you, and we thank you for that in the country in which we're able to afford those things, because it's not that way in different parts of the world. So we thank you for that. We ask for your special blessing on all of our guests, ask that you would protect everyone as they leave here today, and we just thank you for it all now in your Son's name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.