Does Scripture Forbid Entrepreneurs from Raising Big Money?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Well, the love of money is the root of every kind of evil.
00:00:08.000 | So what kind of warning should be sounded to Christian entrepreneurs
00:00:13.000 | who have financially embarked on a venture to raise a lot of cash for a new business?
00:00:18.000 | It's a really good and sharp question from a listener named William.
00:00:22.000 | "Hello Pastor John, 1 Timothy is really an exhortation against false teachers
00:00:27.000 | and the problems in that church because of them.
00:00:30.000 | Saying that, chapter 6 deals with such.
00:00:33.000 | I've always had a hard time fully understanding verse 9 about desiring to be rich.
00:00:39.000 | I am an entrepreneur and a business owner,
00:00:42.000 | and with my business I want to fund myself and my team in order to do missions together.
00:00:47.000 | Therefore, I desire to raise a lot of money.
00:00:52.000 | Does this contradict the Bible?
00:00:54.000 | Is it in a context of greed or desiring money as ultimate?
00:00:58.000 | What does it mean to be rich, and to what level does this cover?
00:01:02.000 | Is there a godly way to pursue a lot of funding?"
00:01:07.000 | Let's start with the words of Jesus and then make our way to the text he referred to,
00:01:13.000 | especially 1 Timothy 6.
00:01:15.000 | Jesus said in Matthew 6, 19,
00:01:20.000 | "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,
00:01:26.000 | and where thieves break in and steal.
00:01:28.000 | But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys,
00:01:34.000 | and where thieves do not break in and steal.
00:01:38.000 | For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
00:01:42.000 | And later, Jesus illustrated the dangers of this laying up treasures on earth
00:01:47.000 | by describing the fool whose business prospered,
00:01:52.000 | and he kept building bigger and bigger barns to accumulate more and more profits that he was earning.
00:01:59.000 | And he said this, "Soul, you have ample goods."
00:02:05.000 | Way more than ample, in fact.
00:02:07.000 | "You have ample goods laid up for many years.
00:02:09.000 | Relax, eat, drink, be merry."
00:02:12.000 | That's Luke 12, 19.
00:02:14.000 | And God said, "Fool," well, you don't want to be called a fool by God.
00:02:19.000 | You can be called a fool by man, but you don't want to be called a fool by God.
00:02:25.000 | God said, "Fool, this night your soul is required of you,
00:02:31.000 | and the things you've prepared in all those barns, whose will they be?"
00:02:36.000 | Now, the problem here is not that this man's business prospered.
00:02:45.000 | It's almost inevitable that gifted, hardworking business people with integrity
00:02:54.000 | are going to run businesses that prosper.
00:02:57.000 | They are.
00:02:59.000 | They're going to be successful, by and large.
00:03:02.000 | They're going to make a lot of money.
00:03:04.000 | That's not what Jesus condemned here, as though he would say,
00:03:09.000 | "You know, if you're good at what you do, you should stop doing it."
00:03:12.000 | That's not the way Jesus dealt with things.
00:03:14.000 | The problem was the bigger and bigger barns.
00:03:20.000 | The problem was accumulation, accompanied by—and I say accompanied by,
00:03:28.000 | because it could be both cause or effect.
00:03:32.000 | The problem was accumulation accompanied by a sense of self-reliant,
00:03:40.000 | self-satisfied ease in this world, as though the next world,
00:03:46.000 | or the world in need over there in who knows what neighborhood,
00:03:50.000 | don't really matter to me.
00:03:53.000 | Jesus correlates excessive accumulation with the place where your heart is resting,
00:04:01.000 | where your treasure is, there's your heart.
00:04:04.000 | Where your treasure is, there is your heart.
00:04:08.000 | So if it's not evil to be successful in business,
00:04:13.000 | and it is evil to accumulate and accumulate and accumulate
00:04:18.000 | because of your sense of needed security and your pride
00:04:23.000 | and your indifference to the world and your indifference to coming judgment,
00:04:27.000 | then the implication would be, "Well, something else should be done
00:04:32.000 | with the proceeds of all that God-given success."
00:04:35.000 | So let's turn to 1 Timothy 6 and see what he says.
00:04:38.000 | This is 1 Timothy 6.6.
00:04:41.000 | "Godliness with contentment is great gain.
00:04:45.000 | We brought nothing into the world.
00:04:47.000 | We can take nothing out of the world.
00:04:49.000 | If we have food and clothing with these, we will be content.
00:04:56.000 | This is the kind of witness which may attract the world as unusual."
00:05:02.000 | So they say, as they do in 1 Peter 3.15,
00:05:07.000 | "What's the reason for the hope that is in you?"
00:05:10.000 | Because they can see that our hope is not based like theirs
00:05:15.000 | on getting richer and richer and richer.
00:05:18.000 | That's why they ask, "What's the reason for the hope that is in you?
00:05:21.000 | You seem to be content with food and clothing,
00:05:25.000 | and you're somehow making yourselves a conduit of extraordinary generosity."
00:05:31.000 | This is the difference between true Christianity and the prosperity gospel.
00:05:36.000 | The prosperity gospel believes that the world will see
00:05:40.000 | the material prosperity of Christians and be motivated to embrace Christ.
00:05:45.000 | Well, that's not the way it works.
00:05:48.000 | What they are motivated to do is embrace the money
00:05:52.000 | that the Christians have wanted to accumulate,
00:05:55.000 | and if Christ can be a good stock investment to get that,
00:05:59.000 | well, I'll use Christ for that to get what I really want.
00:06:03.000 | That's not saving faith.
00:06:05.000 | If we have food and clothing with these, we will be content,
00:06:09.000 | because Christ has made an incredible future for us
00:06:13.000 | and provided all our soul needs.
00:06:17.000 | Now, that might cause the world to wake up
00:06:20.000 | and ask a reason for the hope that is in us,
00:06:23.000 | because it seems to them like we're not hoping
00:06:26.000 | in the same stuff they're hoping in, namely the accumulation of wealth.
00:06:30.000 | Then the text continues, "But those who desire to be rich"
00:06:35.000 | Now, that is not necessarily the successful businessman.
00:06:39.000 | Let's make this distinction again.
00:06:42.000 | That's the man who sees his business prospering
00:06:46.000 | and falls for the temptation that he needs to continually increase his lifestyle
00:06:52.000 | with the symbols of wealth and power,
00:06:55.000 | and what he wears and what he lives in and what he drives
00:06:59.000 | and the vacations he takes.
00:07:01.000 | They all have to look rich, rich, rich and opulent,
00:07:04.000 | otherwise people won't know how much money I'm really making
00:07:07.000 | and how successful I am.
00:07:09.000 | That's the falling into temptation and into a snare
00:07:13.000 | and into senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction
00:07:18.000 | for the love of money and all those symbols of wealth is the root of evil.
00:07:24.000 | And I think that sentence, "The love of money is the root of all evil,"
00:07:28.000 | should be translated that way rather than just by all kinds of evil,
00:07:32.000 | because the heart that loves money, needs money to be content,
00:07:37.000 | is not content in God.
00:07:39.000 | That is the kind of heart that produces all evil, period.
00:07:42.000 | All evil comes from that kind of heart.
00:07:46.000 | It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith
00:07:50.000 | and pierced themselves with many pangs.
00:07:52.000 | So that's Paul's version of the warning about wealth-loving barn-building
00:07:58.000 | in Jesus' words.
00:08:01.000 | And then in verse 17, he gives an alternative vision
00:08:07.000 | for the successful Christian entrepreneur.
00:08:11.000 | So listen up.
00:08:12.000 | This is the question that was really being asked.
00:08:15.000 | "As for the rich in the present age, charge them not to be haughty.
00:08:22.000 | Know yourself and your sin and your weaknesses and your dependence
00:08:29.000 | and your God and your Calvary, and know them so well
00:08:35.000 | that money can't make you proud," he continues,
00:08:40.000 | "nor set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches.
00:08:46.000 | Know how fragile your body is, how fragile your mind is, Mr. Rich Man.
00:08:52.000 | Know how fragile the economy is.
00:08:55.000 | Know how fragile the culture is.
00:08:58.000 | Know how fragile the economic theories are.
00:09:01.000 | Know how fragile and temporary this whole world is,
00:09:06.000 | that you cannot be foolish as to bank on something so fragile as riches,"
00:09:13.000 | he continues, "but set your hope on God, who richly provides us
00:09:19.000 | with everything to enjoy.
00:09:21.000 | And that enjoyment is not only the simple delights of eating and drinking
00:09:26.000 | and reading and gardening, but even more, the delights in sharing
00:09:32.000 | those resources with others because it is more enjoyable to give
00:09:37.000 | than to receive."
00:09:38.000 | Jesus said that in Acts 20.35.
00:09:41.000 | And then he closes, "They are to do good, to be rich in good works."
00:09:51.000 | That's the alternative to bigger barns, rich in good works,
00:09:56.000 | to be generous, ready to share, thus storing up treasure.
00:10:02.000 | Remember, Jesus said, "Don't lay up treasures on earth.
00:10:05.000 | Lay up treasures in heaven."
00:10:07.000 | Well, here's Paul's interpretation of that.
00:10:09.000 | Thus, that is, in doing all those good works and making all that glorious
00:10:14.000 | entrepreneurial success a means of doing good in the world,
00:10:19.000 | thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future
00:10:25.000 | so that they may take hold of life, which is life indeed.
00:10:29.000 | So, William, it seems to me that the bottom line in answering your question
00:10:34.000 | is that we pursue a heart that is so satisfied in God and all that he is
00:10:41.000 | for us in Christ through the gospel that we are freed from the craving
00:10:46.000 | to accumulate and that we turn our great earnings, which are not evil,
00:10:53.000 | we turn our great earnings into doing good for others.
00:10:59.000 | And I don't simply say giving away to others.
00:11:03.000 | I don't want to be simplistic here.
00:11:05.000 | I'm not saying if you're rich, give your money away.
00:11:08.000 | That's not wise, necessarily.
00:11:11.000 | Here's what I say.
00:11:13.000 | Because giving your money away may not be nearly as effective in doing good
00:11:20.000 | as by creating an industry that employs 10,000 people, which would be better?
00:11:27.000 | To give 10,000 jobless people jobs or to give 10,000 people $100 each
00:11:33.000 | or whatever, $1,000 for that matter.
00:11:36.000 | Way better to get them working and you might have the way to do it.
00:11:41.000 | This is a profound and beautiful work of God in the heart of the diligent,
00:11:46.000 | creative, honest, humble, unashamed, Christ-exalting entrepreneur
00:11:53.000 | who has not deceived himself but truly longs to live for the glory of God
00:11:59.000 | and the good of others, especially the eternal good.
00:12:03.000 | Yeah, that's very good.
00:12:04.000 | And may God bless every Christian business owner with wisdom as they
00:12:07.000 | steward God's money for its maximum benefit.
00:12:10.000 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:11.000 | And thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper.
00:12:15.000 | For more information, you can go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
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00:12:38.000 | Well, speaking of building institutions,
00:12:40.000 | God gives each of us a unique blend of skills and inclinations,
00:12:45.000 | certain instincts and mental capacities, emotional strengths and tastes, etc.
00:12:52.000 | So how do I know what role I'm supposed to play with my own set of gifts?
00:12:57.000 | It's a perennial question.
00:12:59.000 | Every generation of Christians face it, and it's the question on the table on Monday.
00:13:04.000 | You won't want to miss this one.
00:13:05.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:13:06.000 | Have a great weekend.
00:13:07.000 | We'll see you on Monday.
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