What True riches are and how they come

Messages for May 2017: Our Month of Our Wealthy Places

Message for Sunday the 7^th of May, 2017

Theme: Understanding our Wealthy Place in Christ

Topic: What True riches are and how they come

Introduction: In Lk.16:11, The Lord Jesus was teaching about faithfulness and He made this statement: “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” (my emphasis). From this text, it is evident that when God talks about riches, contrary to the misconception of many, money is not the true wealth or riches He is talking about. In fact in Deuteronomy 8:18 where the Lord talks about us remembering God in association with wealth, we are told that He gives us the power to get wealth. In other words, the power to get wealth is superior to wealth itself. So the rat race of life run by men does not only end them in frustration but makes the possession of true and lasting wealth a mirage to many of them! I believe God’s compassion is moved daily as he sees men whom He has created in his image and after his likeness reducing themselves to nothing for nothing. Sadly, many in the Church have brought themselves into bondage to the enemy in a bid to get ahead in this rat race because of a misunderstanding of what true riches are. So today we shall start by looking at what true riches are and how it comes.

What are true riches?  Contrary to what the world think and has passionately promoted through the media over the years since the fall of man from the glory of God, riches are not money or material possession even though they may be used to measure some aspect of riches. This is why the Lord talks about true riches in our text scripture as opposed to just riches. Also, riches are not fame and power. As a matter of fact, fame without God’s grace can result in one attracting all the wrong company whose only motive is to further their personal hidden agenda through the flattery of the famous until they are done with their victim. This explains why the evil woman or man would always hunt for the precious life. See Prov.6:26. Also riches is not the same thing as having political or financial power even though those things could prove the existence of true riches in a person’s life through God enabling them to unleash their potential.

True riches can best be described by God who is the author of our lives. I want to bring it out from the word of God by looking at several examples of people who were said to have prospered and why.

First from the example of Abraham, we see a man who encountered God and God took note of him enough to cut a covenant with him and made him the custodian of the world. See Gen.12:1-4 where God made a promise to Abraham and Gen.14:18-20. The covenant God cut with Abraham is called the Covenant of The Blessing. He reiterated this truth through the priest of the most high God Called Melchizedek when the priest blessed him and called him by inference the custodian of the world. God gave him land and riches to match his new status and in addition, gave him perpetuity and relevance forever. Thus Abraham became:

1.     The most reputed faithful man since the fall of Adam.

2.     Able to procreate through a barren wife in old age in fulfillment of the promise of God made to him twenty five years prior.

3.     The father of all that have faith. See Rm.4:17-21 and Gal.3:7-9.

4.     The father of a covenant people who became known as the children of Israel and his offspring are presently determining the political playout of the nations of the earth.

5.     He became a financially rich man. Gen.13:1-2.

6.     He had a military force which in spite of its small size was able to take on five nations and defeat them. Gen.14:1-17

Abraham was indeed and still is a great man whose greatness was rooted in his relationship with God.

The same could be said of Job who was described to be the greatest man in the east in his generation. He was described as having such a strong fear of God that God boasted of him to the devil which brought Job serious trials all of which he overcame and received divine restoration. In Job 29, Job disclosed the source of his greatness being the wisdom of God and the light of God by which he walked through the darkness of this world. See Job 1; 2:1-10; 29:1-25 and Job 42:12-17

In the New Testament, we see the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who started from the humble beginning of a carpenter ending up as the King of kings and Lord of lords and to him all power in heaven and on earth have been entrusted.  See Mt.28:18-20; Philippians 2:9-11 and Rev.19:11-16.

Apostle Paul found the Lord on the road to Damascus and became a custodian of the light in 2/3^rd of the New Testament. See Acts 9 and 2Tim.4:6-8.

More examples like Joseph, Daniel, Peter etc abound in the bible which we may not speak of now for want of space and time, but we can read through our bibles to learn about them.

The sum of what we are saying here is that our wealthy place is in our relationship with God. When that relationship is sound, it gives birth to our wealthy places which include all what we benefit from this relationship like divine presence, godliness with contentment, peace and all the multiple graces of God we stand to benefit from God based on the depth of our relationship with God.  

How True Riches come:  True riches are products of the wisdom of God. Access to the wisdom of God is found in the grace of God which is freely offered to us by God. See Prov.9:1-6; Eph.2:8-10. When we receive the grace of God, then the journey to walking in our wealthy places begin for us.

How to receive the grace of God: God’s riches are distributed to us through His graces. The grace of God is divine favour and divine ability to do and be what we cannot do and be naturally.

Favor happens when God treats you with preference. On the other hand divine ability to do what we cannot do naturally is first based on our choice for what God wants for us and our decision to drive our choices to their logical conclusions. For example we cannot naturally walk in the spirit because the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him. See 1Cor.2:13-14; Rm.8:5-9 and Gal.5:16-17.

The first of the grace of God everyone must receive in order to have access to all the graces of God is the grace to be saved. It is an invitation of God to mankind. We are told in 2Cor.5:18-19 that God was in Christ Jesus reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses against them. This is extreme grace. This is the grace for reconciliation which God has offered to us through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. All we need to do to receive this grace is to believe and accept him as our Lord and Saviour.

Please if you are yet to make this great decision of receiving Salvation from God which can only come through receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, this is another opportunity for you. Should you want to take advantage of this opportunity, you can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.