God Rich

0:00 The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the sixth chapter. Glory to you, O Lord. In echoes of the prophet Isaiah and Mary's song of praise, Jesus reveals surprising things about who enjoys blessing and who endures woe. He invites his disciples to shower radical love, blessing, forgiveness, generosity, and trust even on enemies and outsiders. The scripture says, Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

0:40 Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely reward is great in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

1:17 Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again.

1:50 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. Allow me to pray. Good and gracious God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations upon all of our hearts be acceptable to you in this day, in this moment. Our Lord and Savior. Amen. You may be seated. Well, so here we are for, I think will be a good sermon to present, but we'll see. The title of the sermon is God Rich. God Rich. And we'll get into that a little bit.

2:28 But to open us up, I thought of the opening illustration about thinking about when I'm sick and really not feeling well, I tend to be a very, very kind and humble person. Very kind and humble person. And this isn't just the man flu. When I'm super tired, when I'm not feeling well, I'm gross, when I'm just downright exhausted, I come to the realization that I only have so much energy that I have to ask other people for a lot of help. In what normally I could do by myself.

3:00 But, and it makes me vulnerable, it makes me reflect, and I stop and think, man, I'm so nice, but I have to be because I really need people's help. Have you ever had this type of experience? Yeah. And I bring it up because there's a certain power when you realize how powerless you are. And if you stop and think about it, how can you be powerful when you are weak? And it's a paradox. And I think Jesus is showing us that somehow it's possible. This is what he's speaking to.

3:32 Because my point today is this. Jesus is looking at us and saying, if you want the kingdom of God, if you want to enter into it, well, you get God rich by recognizing it's more powerful to be poor than you might think. If you want to enter the kingdom of God, you can recognize, enter it in a poor way, and that's actually riches. And we'll get into that more. But essentially, he's getting rich by being poor. It's a paradox. It's what Jesus is presenting us with.

4:04 So the question is, how do we do that? Well, first, and I'll touch on it more, but I'm using God rich as a way to describe blessed. I'll explain that more. But I think Jesus wants you to look at him and his kingdom and see that it's accessible in the simplest way. And that's by letting Jesus define what really matters. What true riches are and what poverty is in light of what Jesus is saying and the kingdom. And let him define it as the key. Because in verses 20, 21, and 22, he speaks to how you can be blessed when you're experiencing poverty.

4:40 When you're experiencing grief and hatred. In those verses, he notes that somehow amidst these things, you can laugh. You can be filled. You can have joy. And to see how that's possible, I think it's by saying blessing comes by letting go of the world's definition of poverty or even riches. And we do that by looking at Jesus and his kingdom. And that's because I believe Jesus' kingdom is for the taking now. It's for the experiencing now. So, we reconsider blessedness. And it's not just the entry point, but it's also available now.

5:22 Are you with me? Yeah. Well, let's start by looking at how I think a way of looking at the way the world defines or looks at the things we struggle with or how we define ourselves. Because this informs us when we look at blessed and being God rich, as I put it. I think you all are familiar with a little band called the Rolling Stones. This is a little bit. I'm a fan. I really enjoy them. There was a song, I Can't Get No Satisfaction. You know this song?

5:52 Yeah. Well, here are some of the lyrics. I can't really do Mick Jagger well, so I'll just read it out. But it says, I can't get no satisfaction. I can't get no satisfaction. I'm going to try and try and I try and I try. I can't get no. I can't get no. When I'm driving in my car and the man comes on the radio and he's telling me more and more about some useless information supposed to fire my imagination. When I'm watching my TV and a man comes on to tell me how white my shirts should be, but he can't be a man because he don't smoke the same cigarettes as me.

6:24 And I can't get no satisfaction. I can't get no satisfaction. This song, I think, really highlights I, me, myself. What can I do? What can I not do? The song leaves you with a sense of, I think, some parts of our life and reality. And that's that the pursuit of things can leave you empty. The Rolling Stones and the song are leading us to see, in a way, what Jesus is speaking about with being blessed and entering the kingdom. And you're thinking, well, how is that?

6:59 Well, blessed means it's OK to be rich or to be poor because you're already blessed. You are, in a way, you're God rich. To the world, you're plagued with what you can get and what you can grab from those things and gather satisfaction or what you can achieve or how you can define yourself with things or feelings. And that's why this song and the way Mick Jagger presents it, it's so powerful because you really can't get no satisfaction. So, Jesus offers us a reminder of being blessed amidst that experience and reality.

7:43 Are you with me? Well, let me give you a definition or way to think about blessed. Blessed, the theological way, but we'll extrapolate more, is complete objective favor from God. You are blessed because God himself is gazing upon you. He is with you. You are a reflection of the dignity and the image of God. You did nothing to earn this. God is with you. So, in a way, I'm saying you are God rich. His presence, his power, his ability is available to you. I think of it in this way.

8:20 I'm a trust fund baby of God, if you will. And I think you all, yeah. And you all are as well. We're so wealthy with our God and our Father that we never have to worry about God's love or God's presence because God is my dad. God is my bank. Now, you're like, okay, well, help me understand this differently. Okay, think of it this way. Really super wealthy people. They're so wealthy because their money makes money. For example, if you all had $1 million and you put it into a high interest yield account for one year, the current rate right now is about 4.5%.

9:01 In one year, that would be about $450,000. That's nothing to bat at. That's pretty nice. Even after taxes, you'd still be okay. If you had $10 million and you put that in the bank for high interest, that'd be $450,000 in one year. So, all that to be said, there's a lot when your money makes money. Now, I'm comparing that to the wealth that we have in God. You are God rich. God's love, God's presence is super abounding and produces in a similar way. And does that make sense?

9:42 The crazy part is this. Are you ready? Jesus is sharing, as I'm trying to, that y'all are so God rich, but you have two problems. Either one, you don't realize it. Or two, and guess what? You keep leaving God's wealth for other stuff. You take a burden for a blessing. I can't get no satisfaction. You and I, like the song says, we get lost in our world where we're seeking things to satisfy us. And you're like, no way, I don't do that. Well, maybe this will ring a bell.

10:26 Adam and Eve, I think, are the best example of being completely God rich. They live with God. They were in a relationship with him. They had access to him. He gave them a beautiful place to live. And what happened? They're tricked into thinking they needed something more. I suggest we're all plagued with this as well. A choice between God rich or stuff. A simple question to think about this week is, what have you traded your God riches for? What have you traded your God riches for?

11:04 What have you forsaken your God rich trust fund for? I'll be real, I've pawned God a lot this week. I pawned him for, ooh, this will make me feel really good. This will make me feel valuable. This will make me feel expensive. When I'm feeling sad, I think this will make me feel nice or better. When I don't feel strong, I'll be rude to this person or unkind or won't say something nice. I trade in gold for garbage. Am I alone in this? Thank you. And this is where we kind of shift now because it's sort of kind of getting a challenge.

11:45 This is where we come to the woes. Jesus talks about the woes in verses 24, 25, and 26. And to look at these, I want to talk about another famous song and a famous musician. You may or may not know him, Bob Dylan. Yes. Very good. And surprisingly, this has happened, Like a Rolling Stone. His song, Like a Rolling Stone. Let me read to you some of the opening lines here. Once upon a time, you dressed so fine, through the bums a dime, in your prime, didn't you?

12:16 People call, say, beware, doll, you're bound to fall. You thought they were all kidding you. You used to laugh about everybody that was hanging out. Now you don't talk so loud. Now you don't seem so proud. About having to be scrounged at your next meal. How does it feel? How does it feel? To be without a home. Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone. A really good song. In my interpretation, as I was reflecting on it and preparing for this sermon, I am seeing it as about the fall of a person and how they're wrestling with the sad fact of being defined by stuff.

12:55 The song describes a lot of ways in which people, they have placed their idea, their identity, in earthly riches. The song shows how they're discovering and considering what are things really worth now. And the best part of Dylan's song is, I think, the part of the chorus where he says, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. I started to think about that. And I think Dylan's presenting the listener with a question. What is the worth of a stone? What is the worth of a stone?

13:34 I bring it up because Dylan's song, I think, again, cues up Jesus to me in these woes. Jesus is speaking to us in this passage about these woes, which they do seem harsh, but in a way they are a consequence of certain lifestyle and living choices. The focus on certain things over other things. They're an outcome of forgetting that you are blessed to begin with. You are God rich and you walk away from that. And those woes come because people trade in God for lesser gods.

14:10 The woes come because we lose sight of what God has already given us. And that's why I brought up Dylan. It's the song of life with the woes that are being experienced. For example, near the end of the song, it says, Oh, princess on a steeple and all the pretty people all drinking, thinking they've got it made, exchanging all precious gifts. But you better take your diamond ring. You better pawn it, babe. You used to be so amused at Napoleon and rags and the language that he used.

14:40 Go to him, he calls you. You can't refuse. When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose. You're invisible now. You've got no secrecy concealed. How does it feel? Oh, how does it feel to be on your own with no direction home? Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. Again, the illustration here in verse 24, Jesus says, But woe to you who are rich, for you're receiving your comfort in full. It's heavy, I know. But again, it's because this person in the song by Bob Dylan is just, they've forsaken something.

15:21 And they're now experiencing what it's like to be without God's riches. They are experiencing the woes. And the question, and I think Jesus is really posing his question is, is a rolling stone or is a stone blessed? Is a stone blessed? Is the person who's been cast off by the world, its goods, its glories, its pursuits, is it just a complete unknown to God? Something to think about. What is the worth of a stone? Think about that as we move into, we're actually going back up to the top of this passage, verse 20.

16:05 In verse 20, it says that Jesus turned his gaze in some translations. He turned his gaze. And what I want to share here is how we look at something as important. I shared how we look at blessed or how we understand being blessed is important. That being God rich and how you understand that makes a difference in our lives now, so we don't trade in the riches for something else. And so I want to shift to the vision of God. And in verse 20, it's literally Jesus is looking at his disciples.

16:38 He's looking at us. Stop and think about that for a moment. Jesus is looking directly at you. Have you ever been so in love with someone that they just stared at you? Jesus is looking at you right now. He's looking at you and sharing how valuable you are right now. Rich or poor is not why he values you. Friends, he sees you not as a complete unknown. He does not discard us as a stone. Jesus sees a piece of gold. And you are valuable to Jesus no matter what the world may say or what the world may seek and how they define riches or value or importance or relevance or whatever it might be.

17:43 So the question is, how do we apply this? What does this look like? Well, Jesus looking at us, turning his gaze, teaching his disciples. Because you have to remember, he was just healing people like crazy. And he decides to stop doing that. He turns, he looks, and he speaks to how even the poor in the world's eyes are still seen and beheld by God. So I was thinking about this. I work in the hospitals a lot. And I get amazed at the things I get to see and how other people see them and interpret them.

18:18 For example, I was talking with a nurse who was sort of trying to make sense of a husband whose wife was the patient. And she was basically nearing end of life. His wife had a terrible disease where she was wasting away in the bed. She was essentially paralyzed. And little by little, she was wasting away and dying. From the world's perspective, she was not beautiful. She did not smell good. She was pitiful. But you know what? That husband, he would just stand there as I talk with him about how he was doing, how his wife was doing.

18:56 He would stand there and he would kind of look past and through me to his wife in the bed. He would stare at her with this amazing love that I could not understand. At one point, we were meeting and he just stood up, walked over to her, sat next to her, looked deep into her eyes, just gently caressed her hair. Their eyes were going back and forth. There was so much love in these eyes. There was so much passion, memories, hopes, and so much more. And now you're thinking, that's so beautiful, but so what?

19:31 Well, I was talking to a nurse who was caring for this patient, this family, and she was saying, that's so terrible, it's so sad. And I said, yes, it is. But I got to see a man who saw beauty amidst tragedy. I saw a man who was God rich in the poorest of situations of a life moment. And this is what I think Jesus is telling us to look at things. When he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of God.

20:02 Somehow we can access those points in the most terrible of moments, in the most tragic of situations. Because Jesus is staring at you in your moment. That's what it's like to be God rich. He is saying the kingdom is right there. A way to enter it is by looking at things as he looks at them. Are you with me? Okay. A quick example of this is this. When you feel down, when you feel useless, when you feel vulnerable, ask Jesus in prayer, help me how I enter the kingdom in this moment.

20:39 When you feel discarded or cast aside, ask the question, Jesus, am I still valuable? I wonder what you'll hear. Or you really want to see the kingdom and you want to see how God rich you are. When someone makes you feel less about yourself, they insult you. They do something to you that really hurts. Ask them this question. Do you see me the way Jesus sees me? It's not trying to be antagonistic, but it's being mindful of how Jesus sees you and sees them. And it's a reminder that you are valuable.

21:18 You are seen. You are God rich. And the kingdom is accessible even in those challenging moments. Friends, when you're God rich, you're blessed and you're able to bring the kingdom into anything. The challenge is believing that it's okay to be poor in those moments. And that seeing when you see it that way, you start to see how Jesus sees things and defines things and challenges things. Because Jesus is staring at you. Do you see that if you stare back, whether you are rich or you are poor, he is staring at you.

21:51 And there's nothing in the world that can change that. Do you recognize that no matter what you think, what Jesus thinks is you are more valuable than how you see yourself. Friends, it's so key because if you want to enter the kingdom, look at Jesus. If you see old and irrelevant, remind yourself that he sees a child with plenty to offer in his kingdom. The decision is up to you how you see that. You want to see whatever he sees his beloved. Friends, that is God rich.

22:25 And the world needs people who are God rich because the world's vision is poor. Not the kingdom of God. Our vision is that we are poor in spirit. And that means we are God rich. Are you with me? Well, amen.