Jake WUlbecker  |  May 28, 2020

Jesus came to make you rich     

THe (Real) Prosperity Gospel

Jesus Came to Make you Rich


I have news for you. Jesus became a human to make you rich.
Now, before you throw me off the boat for preaching a prosperity Gospel, let me defend myself! Like John Piper and many others, I too abominate the prosperity Gospel. Its message does great harm to the true message of Christ. And yet, I stand by my statement. Jesus did in fact become a human to make you rich.
Let me prove it. Listen to 2 Corinthians 2:8:

  • For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Isn't that amazing? Jesus literally came to earth to make you rich.

But rich in what sense?
I think we find an answer in Ephesians 1:3:

  • Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

If you are a Christian you are in fact rich. Your wealth consists of priceless spiritual blessings!
But for many Christians - that's a bit of a letdown. "Ah, so we just get spiritual riches - I figured there was a catch." As if spiritual blessings were somehow not quite as valuable as cold hard cash. 


Here's the problem I see: I'm convinced that many Christians simply don't appreciate how good it actually is to be a Christian! 
"Sure" they think, "there's heaven to look forward to, but what really is the benefit of being a Christian here and now?"
But the reality is that there are invaluable benefits to being a Christian! The Christian walks through life with incredible spiritual riches - riches than an unbeliever misses out on.

I'll be posting several articles in the months to come, and the goal of each post is to underline and highlight the incredible spiritual blessings that God in Christ gives to believers. I want to show you how Jesus truly makes you rich.

God Gives Strength  


Jesus makes you rich because He gives you strength.

God is a God who gives strength to His people. It is to your advantage to be a Christian. You are rich, and one of the invaluable treasures God gives you is this: God offers to share his own strength with you.

Listen to these verses:

  • The LORD will give strength to His people (Psalm 29:11)
  • The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people (Psalm 68:35)

Now listen, you need strength. And no offense, but you are not the source of the strength that you need! In a very real sense, to be a human is to be weak.

You are weak because every day you face things that you simply cannot control. You can’t control whether or not you get cancer. You can’t control how other people treat you. A farmer can’t control the weather. An investor can’t control the market. You can’t control when tragedy comes into your life. The frank reality is that you need strength, and you are not the source of the strength that you need!

But there is good news. Scripture is teeming with the idea that God is a God who gives strength to His people. I narrowed down a long list of verses describing the strength that God gives us to the seven you see below:

  • The LORD is my strength and song (Exodus 15:2)
  • I love You, O LORD, my strength. (Psalm 18:1)
  • The LORD is my strength and my shield; (Psalm 28:7)
  • For You are the God of my strength; (Psalm 43:2)
  • My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart. (Psalm 73:26)
  • Turn to me, and be gracious to me; Oh grant Your strength to Your servant (Psalm 86:16)
  • Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. (Ephesians 6:10)


It's pretty clear to see that God is a God who gives strength to His people! As you look at Scripture, heroes like Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, Habakkuk, and Paul all have this in common - they all claimed that God was the source of their strength!


3 Ways God Gives Strength to His People


1. God Uses His strength on our behalf


God gives us strength in that He acts on our behalf. In other words, He controls the things that we cannot control. You get that sense from passages like Psalm 37:39:

  • But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in time of trouble.

What does it mean that God is our strength? It means that He uses His strength to control things that we cannot control. Psalm 31:4 highlights this as well:

  •  You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength.

God is our strength in the sense that He uses His strength on our behalf to control that which we cannot control ourselves. He uses His strength for our benefit.


2. God gives strength when you are weary

 

God gives us strength when we are weary! Isaiah wrote to the people of Jacob and said:

  • He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength (Isaiah 40:29-30)

There are many forms of weariness - physical weariness, relational weariness, emotional weariness. But the Christian who walks a weary path, has reason for hope because God just so happens to give strength to weary Christians! 

What amazes me is that God gives both physical and emotional strength. Listen to Psalm 73:26 describe this:


  • My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26) 

Did you see that? Your flesh and your heart may fail. However, God is there to give you strength. Real strength - not imaginary or a make-believe strength. God gives energy to your muscles and God gives strength to your soul. Psalm 138:3 says it like this:

  • You made me bold with strength in my soul. (Psalm 138:3)

This is soul level strength. God gives strength to those who are weary.


3. God gives us strength so that we can serve Him


Last, God gives strength to us so that we can serve Him. Listen to this passage from 1 Peter 4:11:

  • …whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ…

These words were written by Peter, one of the key leaders in the early church. Despite at one point denying Christ, church history tells us that Peter served Jesus to the point of crucifixion.
Let me ask you this: how did Peter find strength to serve Christ to the point of death? I'll tell you how, God gave him the strength he needed "whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies.

You need very real strength to serve God, but you are not the source of the strength you need!

Here's the good news: God offers you the treasure of strength. God gives us the strength we need to serve him, and that gives me hope because it means that God can use weak people like me!


Conclusion


Jesus really did come to make you rich. One of the priceless treasures he offers you is strength. My friend, never forget that it is good to be a Christian! There are incredible advantages to walking through life as a child of God. Why? Because God is a God who gives strength to His people.