What Should We Think of Flashy Pastors?

00:00:02.000 | What should we think of flashy pastors?

00:00:07.040 | That's the question this Monday morning from a listener named Emily. Emily writes in to ask this, Pastor John,

00:00:13.240 | thank you for sharing your wisdom with us all on this podcast.

00:00:16.280 | Recently social media accounts have surfaced and gained quite a bit of attention which show numerous well-known pastors wearing

00:00:25.040 | extremely expensive and flashy clothes and

00:00:29.120 | shoes and watches, etc.

00:00:31.480 | These accounts have raised controversy about whether these leaders are

00:00:35.040 | justified in doing this. Many say that they should be able to use the money they make however they please or

00:00:40.280 | that these items are gifts, but others are offended by their luxurious

00:00:45.080 | lifestyles and argue that regardless of how a pastor obtains these things,

00:00:49.360 | they should still be demonstrating humility and reverence towards their congregations and toward those who are struggling to simply survive.

00:00:58.400 | Many think their lavish lifestyles discredit Christ.

00:01:02.120 | 1 Peter 3:3 seems to allude to this issue, but I'm curious Pastor John,

00:01:06.600 | what other text of Scripture speak to this and where do you stand on it all?

00:01:11.240 | Well, there's no question where I sympathize here.

00:01:14.320 | I mean my sympathies have been made clear over the years with regard to

00:01:20.000 | simplicity and wartime lifestyle.

00:01:23.120 | I get angry when I see pastors flaunting their luxury as if it were a compelling

00:01:29.840 | testimony that Jesus is more satisfying than what money can buy. Baloney. It's appalling.

00:01:37.280 | So let me say loud and clear right off the bat,

00:01:41.840 | nobody is

00:01:44.320 | drawn to Jesus as the spiritual, saving,

00:01:49.040 | satisfying treasure of their souls.

00:01:53.000 | By the luxurious lifestyle of those who supposedly preach the Word. Nobody.

00:01:58.080 | What people are drawn to in preachers who make much of their luxury is the hope of luxury.

00:02:05.080 | That's what they're drawn to, the hope of luxury. This is not Christianity.

00:02:09.480 | Christianity is to be drawn to a crucified and risen Savior whose greatness and beauty and worth in

00:02:17.160 | himself are so admirable and

00:02:21.320 | so satisfying

00:02:23.320 | that the heart cries out with the psalmist, Psalm 63, "The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life."

00:02:30.840 | Yes, and everything in this life. You cannot commend

00:02:36.640 | the truth that Jesus is better than money

00:02:40.600 | by giving the impression that you live for money. A decisive turn happened in redemptive history with the coming of Jesus

00:02:50.040 | that makes it invalid

00:02:52.040 | to use the lavish temple of the Old Testament,

00:02:56.160 | the priestly robes, the gold-plated utensils, the lavish curtains as a model for

00:03:03.200 | contemporary church buildings or Christian living. It's invalid. The Old Testament was by and large a come-see religion.

00:03:11.480 | Queen of Sheba was breathless at the wealth of Solomon.

00:03:17.120 | But the New Testament is largely a go-tell

00:03:20.480 | religion.

00:03:22.320 | Unlike the Old Testament, the Christian Church has no temple,

00:03:25.960 | no geographic center like Jerusalem, no ethnic identity like Jewishness, no

00:03:31.800 | theocentric civil structure that puts people to death for impieties.

00:03:36.440 | We are a pilgrim people, exiles, refugees,

00:03:41.520 | scattered among the nations with the grand mission given by the Lord Jesus to make disciples of all the peoples of the world.

00:03:48.800 | And we're not done with that.

00:03:51.240 | This

00:03:52.960 | revolutionizes the way we think about money and use our resources. It all tends toward

00:03:59.440 | the simplicity of wartime living where we strategize to glorify God by finishing the Great Commission and

00:04:07.320 | evangelizing our cities and showing love to our neighbors.

00:04:11.720 | The New Testament is relentless.

00:04:13.720 | It's amazing. Just read it.

00:04:16.280 | It is relentless in pushing us toward simplicity and economy for the sake of Christ and away from luxury and away from

00:04:23.600 | affluence and finery.

00:04:26.040 | For example, Luke 6 20, "Blessed are you poor,

00:04:30.200 | for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Woe to you rich, for you have received your consolation." Luke 8 14,

00:04:37.640 | "They are choked by the riches and pleasures of life." Luke 9 58, "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

00:04:45.600 | Luke 12 15, "A person's life does not consist in the possessions that he has."

00:04:52.000 | Matthew 6 19,

00:04:54.520 | "Don't lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Matthew 6 25,

00:05:01.200 | "Don't be anxious about your life,

00:05:03.400 | what you shall eat or what you should drink or your body, what you should put on is not life more than food and the

00:05:09.200 | body more than clothing."

00:05:10.680 | Luke 12 31, "Seek the kingdom. These other things will be added."

00:05:14.720 | Luke 12 33, "Sell your possessions, give alms, provide yourselves with purses in heaven." Luke 14 33,

00:05:23.040 | "Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 18 24,

00:05:28.800 | "How hard it will be for those who have riches to get into the kingdom of heaven."

00:05:33.000 | James 2 5, "Has not God chosen the poor in this world to be rich in faith?"

00:05:38.440 | That's the refrain over and over and over throughout the whole New Testament and

00:05:44.800 | even in those places, and there are only a few, where wealthy Christians are

00:05:50.440 | directly addressed. Like 1 Timothy 6 17, the message is, "Be thankful to God for all of your

00:05:58.120 | legitimate enjoyments and

00:06:00.880 | be filled with good deeds

00:06:03.120 | for those who have greater need than you." In other words, there's just no

00:06:08.800 | encouragement anywhere in the New Testament that we should accumulate and accumulate or

00:06:14.720 | increase the symbols of our wealth,

00:06:17.800 | by what we wear, what we drive, where we live. The man who builds bigger barns

00:06:23.760 | for what he doesn't need is a fool. He's a fool, Jesus says.

00:06:30.280 | The gist is this, "Be content with a relatively simple lifestyle."

00:06:36.240 | And I say relatively because I know that virtually all Americans are rich, period, because the rest of the world,

00:06:43.880 | two-thirds of the world, lives so close to the edge.

00:06:47.720 | So I'm talking a relatively simple lifestyle, "And make as much money as you please and give what you don't need

00:06:56.000 | for the sake of the glory of Christ and the spread of the gospel and the care of the suffering."

00:07:00.440 | Most of the New Testament

00:07:03.080 | circles around, revolves around, three main concerns when it comes to teaching on money. One,

00:07:09.600 | how to display the value of Christ and the gospel.

00:07:13.840 | Two, how to meet the needs of the lost and the suffering. Three, how to avoid the soul-destroying

00:07:20.560 | dangers of wealth. So just a word about each of those.

00:07:25.000 | How to display the value of Christ and the gospel.

00:07:30.000 | Paul said in Philippians 3, "I count everything as loss

00:07:34.160 | because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." He wanted

00:07:41.040 | to live in such a way as to show that his heart was satisfied with Christ and

00:07:49.440 | not

00:07:50.880 | captured by the idol of greed.

00:07:53.960 | So he worked with his hands

00:07:55.960 | rather than give any impression that he was fleecing the churches.

00:08:01.400 | 1 Thessalonians 2, 5, "We did not come to you with any pretext for greed."

00:08:07.560 | We weren't using our ministry as a cover-up for our love of money.

00:08:12.680 | To the elders in Ephesus, he said, "I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You know that.

00:08:19.840 | I worked late at night to keep from being a burden on anybody." To the Corinthians,

00:08:25.760 | he said, "We are not like so many

00:08:28.000 | peddlers of God's Word." To Timothy, he said, "If we have food and clothing,

00:08:34.080 | we will be content." And then he just laid it down for all the pastors.

00:08:39.200 | They must not be lovers of money. 1 Timothy 3, 3. Now the point of all those words

00:08:46.240 | was to remove

00:08:48.880 | every obstacle

00:08:50.800 | from believing the gospel and to show the superior worth of Christ over all earthly possessions and to

00:08:58.320 | set an example for the believers of

00:09:00.560 | self-denial and a happy embrace of

00:09:04.440 | sacrifice for the sake of love. Because as Jesus said, "It is more blessed,

00:09:11.080 | it is more blessed to give than to receive." And anybody who's been walking with Jesus for any amount of time knows

00:09:18.720 | you're gonna be happier and sleep better at night the more generous you are, the less selfish you are.

00:09:24.200 | The second main concern of the New Testament and

00:09:27.560 | possessions is how to meet the needs of the lost and the suffering.

00:09:32.920 | Jesus said, "Sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags that don't grow old,

00:09:40.600 | a treasure in the heavens."

00:09:42.880 | That's Luke 12, 33. Paul said, "Let the thief no longer steal, but let him labor doing honest work with his hands

00:09:51.280 | that he may have

00:09:53.560 | something to share with those in need." Isn't that amazing? In other words, don't steal and

00:10:00.880 | don't just work to have.

00:10:03.600 | Work to have to give.

00:10:07.120 | Just the three levels, right? You can steal, you can work to have, you can work to have to give. And he says, "Go there, Christians.

00:10:13.480 | Go there. Live there. Live to give."

00:10:17.160 | Christians are going to inherit the entire world and everything in it. Oh my goodness.

00:10:24.000 | We could spend a whole session on that. Yeah. 1 Corinthians 3.21. You have everything, Christian.

00:10:29.080 | You don't need to grasp for it now. You're gonna get it in a vapor's breath.

00:10:35.400 | This little world is gonna be over. The present world is

00:10:38.800 | lost without the gospel.

00:10:41.360 | Millions are suffering. This is the age for radical generosity and sacrifice,

00:10:48.040 | not the age for luxurious living.

00:10:51.080 | Finally, number three, that last concern with possessions is how to avoid the soul-destroying

00:10:59.560 | dangers of wealth.

00:11:02.360 | Jesus says it's hard for the rich.

00:11:05.040 | To enter the kingdom of God. Luke 18.24.

00:11:08.120 | Paul said, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many

00:11:14.800 | senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction." Oh

00:11:20.000 | goodness, how clear can Jesus and Paul be about the dangers of

00:11:26.160 | accumulation and accumulation? So I say it again. It is appalling

00:11:33.120 | that those who claim to be faithful ministers of the Word of God

00:11:36.800 | would flaunt their luxuries. Just appalling. It turns Christ

00:11:42.280 | from a beautiful,

00:11:45.040 | all-satisfying Savior into a broker

00:11:48.520 | who gives us what we really want,

00:11:51.680 | money and comfort.

00:11:54.280 | Yeah, nothing but a broker of money and comfort. Thank you, Pastor John. As

00:11:59.440 | Paul says, "For we are not like so many peddlers of God's Word."

00:12:03.280 | You mentioned this text, that's 2 Corinthians 2.17.

00:12:07.200 | That section, that whole section of 2 Corinthians 2 verses 12 to 17 is so rich when it comes to

00:12:14.280 | ministry. And on Wednesday, we're gonna return to it and ask, "Am I called to ministry? Has God called you to the ministry?

00:12:22.360 | Is he calling you to the ministry?"

00:12:25.200 | Well, there are five tests in that text to discern a calling to ministry.

00:12:31.280 | We'll see them next time on

00:12:33.800 | Wednesday. I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.

00:12:37.280 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Should We Think of Flashy Pastors?

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