Blessing, Prosperity and Rewards, Pt. 2
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In Christian circles, you might hear someone express the desire to be “blessed.” People say it about their marriages, their careers, and their bank accounts. But what does it mean? Pastor Nick Gatzke takes a closer look at what blessings actually look like and whether God’s version matches ours.
In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points to the fact that poverty points to eternal prosperity.
And he says this, Seeing that the crowds went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth, and he taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Jesus teaches that the ones who are blessed are the ones who are meek and hungry and lowly in spirit and who long for God, even in the midst of their difficult circumstances. And blessing from God is not primarily found in comfort, though that’s what we desire. That blessing from God is actually seen in the Sermon on the Mount when you are persecuted. opposite of comfort.
Perhaps most strikingly, we see this displayed in Jesus’ interaction with the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10. This was a man who was a follower of Yahweh.
He was righteous, at least by his own accord, because he did the deeds of the law, and a first century Jew would look upon him and say, that man is blessed by God.
He’s following God faithfully, and as a result, he is wealthy and prosperous in his ways.
And when he comes to Jesus and says, what must I do to be saved? Jesus walks him through the law, and he says, I’ve done all of that, I’ve done all of that, I’ve done all of that. And Jesus says, well, then go sell everything you have and give it away to the poor. And the man goes away, drops his head, and Jesus responds, how difficult. It will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. He would say this, and then he would go on to say that all things, even that thing, is possible with God. Jesus is not decrying wealth as such.
He is highlighting the obstacle that wealth brings, which is self-sufficiency. The constant desire for comfort and the ability to have it that wealth provides. And God can even overcome this and save people. And so earthly prosperity is no longer a sign of God’s approval and it’s no longer a sign of God’s reward. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t give it.
Some of you here today have a lot of money. And that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t given you your money. He indeed has. But it does mean that you are not more blessed than the person who has less money than you. And in fact, your wealth creates for you some unique obstacles and temptations towards self-sufficiency. It could be good for you or it could be bad for you.
But the consistent message of the New Testament is that prosperity and reward are coming. for the people of God, for all of you who believe in the Lord Jesus, but they’re coming for you in eternity. And so let’s just look. Take a glimpse at the rewards of the kingdom.
The New Testament presents earthly rewards and blessings not as a form of God’s blessing or prosperity, but rewards of prosperity reserved for the coming kingdom. And he says that one of those rewards is an imperishable wreath. 1 Corinthians 9:25: “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do so to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”
One of the rewards of eternity is a crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:8. Paul writes, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only me, but also all who have loved his appearing.” Another reward is the crown of life. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” 1 Peter 5:4 says, “When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.” Revelation 2:10 says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Hebrews 4:9 talks about the eternal reward of rest.
“There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” God gives earthly provision, but eternal prosperity for those who are faithful to him.
God gives earthly provision for now, but he will give you eternal prosperity for those who are faithful to him. And the New Testament sets up the same dynamic as the Old Testament when it thinks about blessing, prosperity, and reward in the message that the greatest reward is God himself. Enthroned in glory, the king of heaven becomes your father.
Upholding the universe by the word of his power, the Lord Jesus becomes united to you and you to him. With the promise of inheritance of the kingdom, the spirit of God takes up residence in you as a seal and a promise. The temptation for wealth in this world will always be before you, but you can have no greater wealth, no greater prosperity, no greater reward than God himself. As the old Fanny Crosby hymn says, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.”
Friends, there are 700 implications of what this means for you today. This arc of blessing, prosperity, God’s presence, eternal reward, and what it means. I’m going to give you seven very quickly. Implication number one. The prosperity gospel of Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer and Kenneth Copeland and many others in our time that says God’s desire is for you to have health and wealth if you live faithfully to him is really not the gospel, it’s the anti-gospel. And it’s the anti-gospel because it requires you to do something to gain God’s favor. When the message of the gospel is that you don’t do anything to gain God’s favor, Jesus himself is the one who purchases God’s favor for you by living a perfect life, by dying a sacrificial death, by having victory over sin, death, and the devil, that you might be restored as sons of God and enjoy him forever.
Implication number two, that one of the greatest abuses that I fall into and that you fall into. One of our greatest abuses of God in our time is valuing him simply by what we can get from him rather than valuing him for his infinite splendor and glory. He is the almighty God and there is none like him to treat him like the genie in the bottle. is beneath him and it displays in me and in you a profound lack of understanding in who he is and a profound lack of trust in his ways. When God doesn’t give us what we want and we get angry at him and we stomp our feet like children and we throw little temper tantrums, what an incredible misunderstanding of who God really is. Have you ever met somebody or heard of somebody who met somebody that they didn’t really know who they were, even though they were of great importance? You hear stories like that sometimes of somebody meeting a prince or a king or a president or a business leader, and they don’t show them the honor that they deserve because they just don’t know who it is. And so they’re ashamed or they’re embarrassed. How shameful is it when we know, we know who God is. but we still treat him like our servant. We’re angry when we don’t get our way. God’s glory and splendor merit worship on its own. If God never did anything for you ever again, but simply acted as God, that would be enough to make him worthy of our praise and honor and allegiance and trust.
Implication number three is that if God is the greatest reward, then you can expect that the more you know him, the more you trust him, the more you experience him, the more you enjoy his kindness to you, the more that you will find joy and delight in all of his good gifts, and it will enliven your hope for eternity. There’s rarely a day that passes that I don’t think about and long for heaven. And the day when this earthly tent is destroyed, but we have a home from God. I didn’t used to be that way. But the farther we go down this road, the more we long for the reward that awaits us. And there’s joy in that.
Quickly, implication number four, that when you give to God of your finances, that giving now becomes a joyous response to God rather than a hope for a return, that this doesn’t mean that God won’t honor your faithful giving to him. God definitely does honor your giving to him, but there is not a scriptural teaching of God giving you a multiplication factor on your investments into his kingdom. We give to God because we love him, because we trust him, because he provides for us in an ongoing way, and we know that he honors and blesses obedience of all kinds.
Implication number five, if God gives earthly provision, but eternal prosperity to those who are faithful to him, then you can have confidence and contentment in this life. You don’t need be beholden to your desires for the newest and nicest things, that insatiable desire that you have to buy more and have more and pursue more. that you think will make you happy but never actually does, you can actually learn contentment. In a world that pumps out advertisements to you at the tune of hundreds if not thousands a day that says you don’t have enough, you’re not satisfied, you need more, you can actually learn contentment. The pressure that we have on us right now to buy is unprecedented in history. And contentment is… the anti-American gospel in some ways, I mean, we want to always have more. But Hebrews 13 says, “Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have. For he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what can man do to me.’” You can learn contentment.
Implication number six, that if this is true, that God provides earthly provision and eternal prosperity, then you can reorient yourself to rewards that truly last. When I said at the beginning of the sermon that God blesses you not in the way that you expect, but in the way that’s actually better for you, it’s more than what you want, this is what we’re talking about. It’s crazy, isn’t it? That some people would actually think that God’s greatest concern is to make us wealthy or comfortable on earth if we’re obedient, and they miss out on the fact that this reward or that reward would be worthless in a very, very short amount of time.
God wants to give you rewards that last forever. Anyone who understands finance would tell you that you shouldn’t choose temporary gain over long-term loss. And yet so many of us in our flesh were tempted to seek and to strive and to beg God for temporary gain, even at the cost of a long-term loss. And so… want a nicer house or a more luxurious car or more money for entertainment.
But here’s the thing. The $5 million home will become very dated and the materials will begin to degrade and wear down. But the eternal house from God lasts forever. The nice things that will bring you temporary pleasure now will not be with you in the grave. Life goes by so fast. Just a few years ago, I had a brown beard, and now it’s more white, and I’m not that old. One gray hair for every church person. I’m not as young as I used to be, and neither are you. Ask anyone. Ask anyone today in the hallway in their 60s or 70s or 80s, and they will all say the same thing. I don’t know how it’s possible that I got this old this fast. Amen. Time slips away. And so what is your investment strategy? Short-term gain or eternal reward?
Implication number seven. And this one is really, really important. They’re all important, but this one strikes a nerve. And it strikes a nerve because the prosperity gospel that is so often preached today that even compels the preacher to name names, has an incredibly damaging effect on millions of people around the world. And this is what it is. The implication that God’s prosperity for you is an eternity means that you don’t have to live in guilt, that you are not faithful enough, and that is why God is not giving you health or wealth. One of the most disgusting aspects of bad theology of prosperity is that it leaves millions and millions and millions of people who suffer in disease or have no earthly possessions with this constant sense of guilt that they are not doing enough for God and that’s why God is not prospering them. And so they strive harder to do more and they never, ever, ever catch up. And if the prosperity gospel of our time is true, then God hated the apostle Paul who died a poor man.
God hated the disciples of Jesus who were all inflicted with sickness and persecuted and died shameful, martyr deaths. If the prosperity gospel is true, then God hated missionary after missionary after missionary who would forego earthly prize for heavenly reward as they died. in South America, in Africa, in China, in India. And because the prosperity gospel is proclaimed today, millions of people live in guilt as they suffer, compounding their problems and giving them a picture of a false God. But friends, you need not live in guilt. You need not be ashamed if you’re found to have faith in the Lord Jesus because your reward is coming.
And your best life now will not be defined by comfort or money.
Your best life, the life that God might see fit to give you, might be a life in which you suffer for a little while, but you will obtain glory forever.
God gives earthly provision, but eternal prosperity for those who are faithful to him. And so what should you do? What should you do? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you.
Let’s pray. Father, in our flesh, we’re so enamored by… more and doing more. God, we confess to you the constant struggle of our heart and the desire for greater material prosperity. And yet you promise us something even better. Help us today, God. Reorient our perspective. Give us an eternal investment plan. You are worthy of honor and praise and glory. And so we worship you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
