Three Bags of Gold: Put Your Trust in the Kingdom, Not Riches

Sermon outline

The kingdom of God is God's way of doing things, and the lesson of the rich young ruler is not that wealth is wrong but that your trust must rest in the kingdom and not in riches. Keep the kingdom first and money second, and what you need will come in this lifetime.

1. Three bags of gold and a tablet he did not read

   A wise, wealthy father will not hand his whole inheritance to his son at once. He gives him three bags of gold and a tablet with five laws on handling money, and sends him out to trade. The son loses all three bags to get-rich-quick offers before he ever reads the tablet. Then he starts from the bottom, saves coin by coin, invests with honest and experienced men, and after ten years returns with six bags. Only then does the father release the full inheritance, because the son will now function with wisdom and not only with money.

   Illustration: The three losses: a bet on a 'guaranteed' racehorse at Nineveh, a partnership in a shop with a man whose own gold was supposedly delayed, and a loan to a stranger with a deal 'so huge, it can't fail'. He stresses that the story is from a book and not from the Bible.

   “Now I have wisdom and I'm ready. No one can lie to me. No one can cheat me.”

2. The kingdom of God is God's way of doing things

   Reading from Mark 10:13, he asks the church to underline 'kingdom of God' and say the definition back to him several times. The kingdom is not a geographical location. Whoever does not receive, accept and welcome God's way of doing things like a little child will not enter it, and being childlike means not forever asking why, what, when, where and how. God wants you led by the Spirit, ready to move when He says go.

   Illustration: A saying he has used for years and calls part of his own challenge: he analyses so much that it paralyses him, while other people take a leap of faith and go.

   “The kingdom of God is God's way of doing things.”

   • Mark 10:13-16

3. The rich young ruler was a good man, and Jesus loved him

   Many commentaries paint the young ruler as arrogant, but the passage shows otherwise. He ran up and knelt, he called Jesus Teacher, and he asked an honest question about eternal life, which he did not yet have. His money had not made him proud. Jesus, looking at him, loved him, which shows that Jesus loves rich and poor alike and was looking at the attitude of the heart.

   Illustration: In today's terms the young man had the expensive car and the 'bling bling', and he still knelt and showed respect.

   “Jesus loves everybody, rich and poor.”

   • Mark 10:17-21

4. Hear every message within the whole counsel of God

   He stops to warn that a message can be taken out of its context and twisted to say what we want, so that what seems a good message becomes wrong. The right way is to understand it within the framework of the whole counsel of God. Later he adds that a little leaven leavens the whole lump: a little twisted truth can mess you up, which is why it troubles him when a guest preacher undoes what he has taught on this subject.

   Illustration: People who run to church, have a cup of coffee and a quick message to appease their conscience, and cannot say afterwards what the preacher spoke about.

   “We don't come to church to have a cappuccino, we come to church to hear the word of God.”

   • Galatians 5:9

5. One thing you lack: a word to one man with one problem

   'Go and sell all that you have and give to the poor' does not mean every wealthy believer must do so. If you gave everything away you would simply join the ranks of the poor. Jesus was speaking to one individual whose unique problem was that he had money above the kingdom of God. Everyone is struggling in a different area and God knows which button to press with each of us, so we should not judge or condemn one another.

   Illustration: Religious people quote this verse as a rule for everyone, he says, but will not do it themselves.

   “His unique challenge and issue was that he had money over the kingdom of God.”

   • Mark 10:21-22

6. Spiritual renewal is always followed by economic revitalisation

   He repeats a statement he made at the offering a few days earlier. You cannot be born again, loving God and serving Him, and not have economic revival follow. The time frame is another matter: months, years, even a decade, but it will come. He tells the church they do not have the young ruler's problem. They already have eternal life and have put money in its right place, but they must never let the two switch roles. God is taking them year by year to their wealthy place, wherever they live.

   Illustration: One minute you are driving down the freeway wondering where the money for fuel will come from, and the next you have enough to fill fifteen cars. Of himself he says he was poor in Durban and is now rich without having had to run elsewhere looking for wealth.

   “The kingdom of God for me is always first, money second.”

   • Mark 10:23
   • Psalm 37:25

7. Trust: place your confidence in the kingdom, not in riches

   He asks the church to underline the word trust in Mark 10:24, where the Amplified explains it as placing your confidence and sense of safety in riches. This, he says, is the message for today. Forget the young ruler, who had a problem you do not have. What Jesus is telling those already in the kingdom is where to put their confidence. With men it is impossible, but all things are possible with God.

   “If you put your trust in God's way of doing things, you'll never be impoverished.”

   • Mark 10:24-27

8. A hundred times as much, now in this time

   Peter, honest and brash, asks in effect, 'I've left everything to join you, what's in it for me?' Jesus answers that no one who has left house, family or lands for His sake and the gospel's will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this lifetime, and eternal life in the age to come. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and Solomon were all rich. Seek the kingdom first and all these things will be added, even overtake you. Jesus told His disciples to look for a 'worthy' person in each city, which he explains as someone able to take care of himself and someone else.

   “Jesus is not against your wealth.”

   • Mark 10:28-31
   • Matthew 6:33
   • Matthew 10:11

9. Humility is an attitude of the heart

   Who is more humble, the man in the Porsche or the man praying that his old car will not stall? Humility is not decided by wealth, clothes or the car you drive. The man in the sports car may simply be enjoying what he likes, and you can admire it without resentment. The young ruler was wealthy and humble at the same time.

   Illustration: Newly saved, more than thirty years before, he chose a pair of suede Hush Puppies over smarter shoes at the same price because the smart ones 'don't look humble'. He never wore them and later gave them away, and God said to him, 'Son, humility is not in what you wear. Humility is in the heart.'

   “Humility is an attitude of your heart.”

10. Prosperity is the gospel to the poor

    If you receive the message of the kingdom and keep it in its right perspective, he says, you will be loaded. Prosperity is not a side message. It is the gospel to the poor, so that their lives will change. Speaking of the country's debate about wealth, he says giving poor people money without Christ leaves them poor again soon after. They need the gospel first and then economic freedom, because freedom without wisdom ends like the son with the gold. Only the Holy Spirit can tame a human heart, and He comes by acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

    Illustration: He points back to the opening story: economic freedom with no wisdom will do what that young man did with the gold.

    “Prosperity is not a message. Prosperity is the gospel.”

    • Luke 4:18

11. Your miracle is just around the corner

    To those who have walked a long, hard road and keep asking 'when?', he answers that it comes in the fullness of time and is just around the corner, so do not quit. We walk by faith and not by sight or feelings, and God is not a man that He should lie. Do not fix your confidence on the person you think will give you the breakthrough. God uses unusual things and unusual people: He made a donkey speak to a prophet and can raise up stones to praise Him. There is nothing more to strive for. He will do it because He loves you.

    Illustration: Driving towards a bend, you cannot know what is around the corner until you reach it. He also mimics the believer's bargaining: 'I gave my offering, I even bought Pastor a tie, I even stopped at the red robots. When, when, when?'

    “God uses unusual things to bless you in unusual ways.”

    • Galatians 4:4
    • 2 Corinthians 5:7
    • Numbers 23:19
    • Numbers 22:28
    • Luke 19:40