Return To Prosperity (Oct 24, 2021) Craig Turnbull

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

It's great to have you here.

We have an amazing guest today.

All the way from Oakville.

You guys know where that is?

All the way from Hope Church in Oakville.

We have Pastor Craig Turnba with us.

Pastor Craig, come and bring the word down.

Thanks, Dave.

Good morning, everyone.

So here's what happens when you are visiting a church is you come to the church and you come to the time before the church service, where the worship team is faithfully doing their job and they're practicing and everything like that.

And then they tell you what time you're supposed to get up to come and preach.

And then what ends up happening invariably is the very first service happens, and then you forget the time that you're supposed to come up.

And so one of the elders has to say, Craig, you can come up now.

So that is what you just witnessed right there.

As Dave said, my name's Craig, and I come from Hope Church, which is in Oakville.

And some of the stuff I do there involves uh teaching the Bible to adults, and occasionally I get to stand and preach.

And I really love it when I get to go and to meet with other churches that are very similar to ours and get to encourage them in the Word of God.

So I'm super thankful to be here today.

Before I get started, it it if it's not apparently immediately obvious, I need some prayer.

So if you wouldn't mind, I'm gonna pray for us as we begin our time together.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have now to gather and to study and to look at your word.

We thank you, Lord, for a source of truth in a world filled with confusion.

And not just confusion, also lies, also deceptions.

A world filled with everything against you.

We go to work in these climates, we go to school in these climates, we have friends, we have family.

We've been, many of us, all week surrounded by the opposite of what your word says.

So, God, we pray that like refreshing water upon us, you would wash us clean, that you would redirect our hearts and our minds to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ here today, that he would be glorified within our midst.

God, you have a plan.

You brought us into this room right now.

And there are no accidents in your economy.

You know exactly what you're doing all the time.

So what, Lord, do you want to say to me?

Please break down any walls that are there.

Please open my heart.

Please help me hear from you.

Please lead us in your word.

For your great glory and our great joy.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, uh, if you have a copy of God's word, would you join me in 2 Chronicles chapter 26?

2 Chronicles 26 · chapter mention

2 Chronicles is one of those books that sometimes you have to go to the front of your Bible and the index to find.

So go ahead and do that if you need to, or scroll to it on your device if you'd like to as well.

I told you before that some of what I do is adult education.

And actually, just this afternoon, I'm going to be teaching on a whole host of kings to my church.

And the kings are funny, right, when you read the Old Testament, because if you're not careful, they can kind of slide into this category of good king, bad king, good king, bad king, good king, bad king, good king, bad king, and oh, there was David and then there was Solomon.

If you're not careful, you can slide into that category.

In fact, the king that we're going to look to today, King Uzziah, some of us only know him from Isaiah chapter 6 when there is this fantastic vision in the year that this guy died.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

But Uzziah is the king of Judah at a time when it is sweet to be the king.

Solomon is the last king of the United Kingdom, and then it breaks down, and there's a whole bunch of Yahoos and a whole bunch of mistakes that are happened.

But then the wealth of Judah begins to ascend, and Uzziah steps into the throne position.

It's under Uzziah's reign that there's enormous levels of wealth and prosperity, almost like nothing that has been seen since the days of Solomon.

But here's the thing: in Uzziah's life, there are lessons for us today.

It's not just a story of a good king, bad king.

There's truth in this story.

So I'm going to give you a mini biography today and show you a little lesson on prosperity.

Now that word prosperity is a real buzzword, especially in church circles.

Because sometimes if you hear the word prosperity, that's like immediately, I'm never going to that church.

Because that's wrong, right?

What we're going to do today is look at what real prosperity looks like.

There's lessons for us, lessons that are going to encourage us, and lessons also that are going to warn us.

But more on that in a second.

You've got 2 Chronicles chapter 26 open.

2 Chronicles 26 · chapter mention

You did it.

Congratulations.

We're going to read this chapter, but I'll pick it apart bits and pieces.

If you've got God's word in front of you, let me start with verse 1.

And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.

He built a loath and restored it to Judah after the king slept with his fathers.

Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

Let's stop right there.

That's introductory stuff that we've just read.

Uzziah is made the king at 16 years old after his father Amaziah dies.

That's normal succession stuff.

You get that, right?

The king dies, his son takes over.

Now here's what's exceptional, though, for any king, regardless of where you live, this guy will reign for 52 years.

There's a couple more things that are helpful I want you to see.

There's a mention of this city, Elof, in verse 2.

That's a port city on the Gulf of Akaba, and why is that important?

Well, because up until this time, Judah didn't have a port city.

That means ports means water, which means trade, which means wait for it, money.

Translation, Uzziah is taking the nation up.

But see this more importantly, verse 5.

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Now that guy, Zechariah, is not the guy who wrote the book of the Bible, Zechariah, someone else, same name.

He, we're told, instructs this young man in the fear of the Lord, which is a really good thing, right?

Because he's just now eligible to get his G2 license.

Is there anybody here who's 16 years old?

Any 16-year-olds here?

Okay.

Not that you would raise your hand because you're like, what's he gonna say?

Now I'm sure most 10th graders could do a great job of leading a nation, could be great as a king, but just in case, even though the maturity is rock solid in place, just in case he needs help, he's got help.

And by the way, how amazing to be raised this way, to be raised in the fear and the knowledge of the Lord.

That's a great starting place for Uzziah.

But notice this results in Uzziah seeking the Lord and this terrific statement that we read in verse 5.

As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Prosper.

That last word in verse 5.

Prosper.

Do you want to hear something neat about that?

As a preacher, you're supposed to look up cool words.

So I looked this word up.

And in the Hebrew, it carries with it an idea of forced entry.

In other words, any obstacles, any obstacles in Uzziah's path to success, the Lord kicks down.

Any door that's in his way, the Lord knocks it over.

The Lord is the battering ram, battering down the walls of any opposition that this king is going to face.

That his man is going to face Uzziah.

Have you seen a battering ram?

Here's a picture for you from a modern-day battering ram.

They're kind of small things.

If we could get that picture.

Well, it's coming.

It's a bar that they hold and they slam into doors, right?

You've seen this before?

That's the image that's being conveyed here.

A battering ram.

That's the idea behind prosperity.

Anything that is in the way, the Lord knocks down.

And that takes me to the first point I want to give you.

I'm only going to want to give you two points today.

Here's the first point.

When it comes to prosperity, you've got to remember that everything you have comes from the Lord.

Prosperity comes from the Lord.

The Lord chooses to blow down any walls that stand in Uzziah's way.

Let's take a look at a few of these walls.

This is what the Lord does in verse 6.

Uzziah went out and made war against the Philistines and broke down the wall of Gaf and the wall of Jebna and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and everywhere among the Philistines.

Verse 7.

God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived in the Gerval and against the Muanites.

The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became strong.

Now, I don't have a map with me to bring with you today, but let me just say this.

That's north, south, east, and west that has just been described.

Every border has been secured.

Battles have been won.

Border security, we are safe and we will be safe.

Verse 9.

Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate and at the valley gate and at the angle and fortified them.

What are those?

Those are battlements.

Defensive measures.

Now we have secured against the enemies.

Now we're going to build battlements to stay safe within.

And now that we're secured, let's develop within.

Verse 10.

And he built towers in the wilderness and cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds both in the Shephala and on the plain.

And he had farmers and vine dressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.

Now he's thinking, My people will be safe and fed well.

So let's raise an army.

Verse 11.

Moreover, Uzziah had an army of soldiers fit for war.

Verse 12, the whole number of the heads of the father's houses of mighty men of valor was twenty-six hundred, and under their command was an army of over three hundred thousand who could make war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.

Army raised, manpower in place.

Now let's get the weapons.

Verse 14.

And Uzziah prepared for all the army shields and spears and helmets and coats of mail, bows and stones for slinging.

In Jerusalem he made machines invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners to shoot arrows and great stones, big technology, weapons tech happening.

Maybe even building battering rams.

Who knows?

Uzziah has developed the nation into a dangerous and prosperous country.

And we read, and his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.

That's a success story, isn't it?

That's a story of prosperity.

That's everything you need.

If you had a resume like that, I have won wars.

Battlements have been built.

I have developed a nation's agriculture.

I have raised an army.

I've got weapons tech all set to go.

And you saw this book ending the story in verse 5.

God made him prosper.

And then verse 15, for he was marvelously helped.

This is why you succeeded, Uzziah.

This is why you are strong, Uzziah.

This is why you are prosperous, Uzziah, because the Lord has kicked down the doors for you.

Uzziah had all that he had because someone else had done it for him.

Uzziah had everything that he had because of someone else's effort.

You think about that in the world today.

In some ways that's really obvious to see.

Maybe you went to school with people like this.

Maybe you work with people like this.

They have all that they have because of someone else's effort.

It's a very difficult thing, isn't it?

It's a very different thing to be born into wealth and then actually make that wealth yourself.

Sometimes, and I say this sometimes, the family is blind to how good they have it because they've never had anything else.

It's like they were born on third base and they thought they hit a triple.

They have all that they have because of someone else's effort.

We can see it obviously with money.

But once we start to put it in all that we have, that maybe isn't tangible like money, once we add the Lord to the picture, then this blindness becomes true of all of us.

Can I ask you this question?

What do you have today?

What do you have today?

What's in your life right now?

Is it the wealth?

Maybe some of you do have the big bank accounts.

Is it the family that you have that you're blessed by?

Is it the career that you have?

Is it the health that you enjoy?

The home, the cars, the investments, the clothing, the skills, the brain, a heart that is actually beating and lungs that are actually filling as you sit there in that seat right now.

Can I ask you a question?

Can you name one good thing that you have that wasn't given to you by God?

If I could, I'd I'd pull up behind me a list of things as I took some thought to this, as I thought about all the good things I had that weren't because of God.

And I could put up a list behind me, and it would be a blank screen.

But I know how this works.

Because I think like you do.

You say, hang on a second, Craig.

Hang on a second.

I know that that's really true.

I know I'm supposed to say that that's true.

That I have everything I have because of God.

I all that I have because of God.

And I'm even supposed to say I'm blessed.

But I know how your heart works because my heart works the same way.

Because in the quietness, you would never say it publicly, right?

In the quietness, you say things like, Yeah, but I worked hard for what I have.

I went to school when people quit.

I put in the investment.

I made the risks.

I worked the late hours.

I lifted the weight.

I was dedicated when nobody else wanted to do it.

I figured it out when others couldn't figure it out.

I just I was disciplined, man.

I get some credit, right?

I get some credit, right?

But then I ask you back the question: but where did you get your strength?

How did you get your mind that you have?

Did you choose to be born where you were born?

Did you choose to be born when you were born?

Did you choose the brains that you were gonna have in your head?

The height that you were gonna have, the muscle density that you were gonna have, the gender that you have, the color of skin that you have, the culture that you have, the parents that you have, the home that you grew up in?

Who then is responsible?

Who is responsible ultimately for all that you have?

Who is responsible for everything that you have in your life that is good?

The Apostle Paul hits on this truth really well to the rich cosmopolitan Corinthian church.

And by the way, the Corinthians would love this climate.

They have the wealth like we have the wealth.

Paul says this to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

What do you have that you did not receive?

If you received it, why do you boast as if you didn't receive it?

Understand this.

Prosperity comes from the Lord.

If there's any boasting to be had, it belongs to God.

Now, earlier on in the Old Testament, even before the ransomed Israelites from Egypt put their first sandal into the promised land soil, even before that, the Lord warns them through Moses.

The Lord who smashed the global superpower of the day.

Egypt that had been around for thousands of years, unbroken in its military dominance.

The Lord smashes them, takes a baseball back to their teeth, and knocks them out, destroys all of their gods, walks them through the wilderness, and brings them to the land of promise.

And then Moses warns them from God.

He says these words in Deuteronomy chapter 8 Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I've commanded you today, lest when you've eaten and are full and you've built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied.

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

Then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground when there was no water, who brought you water out of a flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end.

And then he says this in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.

Deuteronomy 8:17

The Lord told them, Don't you think for a second that all of your prosperity comes from anyone else or anything else but me.

I am the source.

If there's any boasting to be had, it's me, says God.

Don't think it's because of you.

But they forgot.

We know this.

We read the Old Testament, they forgot.

Just like Uzziah forgot.

Just like we forget.

2 Chronicles 26, 16.

Back to the text.

But when he was strong, he grew proud to his destruction.

There's the hinge.

Uzziah became strong.

Makes sense.

Life was going really well.

But then his heart starts to lie to him.

His heart starts to tell him that actually, no, wait a second.

It's not God.

It's actually you, Uzziah, that's responsible for all your wealth.

All your success belongs to you.

Literally, the text tells us his heart becomes high, lifted up.

He looks out at all that he has done.

He's won the wars, he's built the battlements, he's built the army, he's grown the crops, he's got the cars, he's got the cottage, he's got the money, he's got the success, he's got the followers, he's got the fans, he had the fame of nations, he had all the honor that could be given to him.

But it wasn't enough.

He wanted more.

And in that desire for more, what we're gonna see is that he's gonna lose the most important thing he could ever have.

Look at what he did in verse 16.

Watch where his heart takes him.

For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

21st century timeout here for a second.

Why is that so bad?

It sounds like he just Walked into sage in the mall and turned on the aromatherapy machine.

Okay, what's the big deal?

Bro likes mint.

What's the problem with that?

That's not what happens, right?

You get this.

To our eyes, this just looks like nothing.

But actually, what's happening here is a huge deal because the incense that he's burning is at the altar of incense within the temple.

And that's a priest's job.

That's not the king's job.

The incense symbolizes the appeasing of divine wrath and the presence of God in the temple, and that was only to be burned by priests.

Now, on rare occasions, rare occasions, kings were allowed to walk in and they were allowed to offer sacrifices.

But taking on this priestly role?

No, no, no.

Not allowed to do.

And not the way to gain, as we're told, honor from the Lord God.

In fact, the Old Testament is filled with occasions where the offerings and the sacrifices were just treated with disrespect, to disastrous consequences.

In fact, these are stories that Uzziah would have heard from Zechariah growing up on the felt board as Zechariah's teaching him.

Think Saul, the unlawful sacrifice.

Think the sons of Korah attacking Moses.

Think Aaron's own sons, the guys who start the priesthood, or even Eli's children.

But here's Uzziah.

Mr.

Done everything.

Walking in, thinking he can do whatever he wants.

With all that he's accomplished, it's not enough.

He wants more.

He treats the sacred with profanity.

He makes what's holy into something common.

He's doing what he wants to do, regardless of what God has told him not to do.

More, more, more, more, I can get away with it.

I'm big.

More, more, I'm the king.

And his pride leads him to destruction.

Let's track again with the story.

Now the priests understand what's going on here.

They understand the big deal that this is.

And they rush in to stop him.

They rush to stop the king.

Verse 17.

But Azariah, that's the chief priest, went in after him with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor.

And they withstood King Uzziah.

And they said to him, It's not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are actually consecrated to burn the incense.

Go out of the sanctuary, for you've done wrong.

And it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.

These brave priests stand against the man.

They stand against the man of the nation.

The man who can do anything he wants is now being told he can't do that.

Now he's confronted.

And he's got a decision to make.

I can either listen and get out, or I can be the king.

I can be the man.

I can get mad.

How dare they talk to me like that?

Uzziah chooses poorly.

Look at verse 19.

Then Uzziah was angry.

Now he had a censor in his hand to burn the incense.

And when when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of the incense.

And Nazariah, the chief priest and the priest, looked at him, and behold, he was leprous on in his forehead.

And they rushed him out quickly, and Uzziah himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him.

Immediately he's judged.

Immediately, leprosy appears right in the middle of the forehead.

Now one of the side benefits of having to wear masks all the time, for those of us who are prone to blemishes, is it sometimes whole covers those things up, right?

All of a sudden you get a zit.

Oh, I'm wearing a mask all day.

No big deal.

Especially for our teenagers, right?

Hey, that's great.

No deny, you can't find the zit.

No big deal.

I got a mask on all day.

Where does Uzziah get leprosy?

Right, smack dab in the center of his forehead.

No denying it.

Right there for the rest of his life.

Judged.

A sign of judgment for everybody to see.

Now it startles the priests, it startles the king, and they all bolt.

This is panicked fleeing from the scene.

It's like a lightning bolt that strikes in a soccer game when it's raining.

It's a wake-up call.

We gotta get out of here because it could get much worse.

Now watch this.

Watch this.

Because for all of his prosperity, for everything that this man has accomplished, the man who wanted more and more and more and more.

Now God's word tells us that Uzziah has lost the greatest thing he ever had.

Verse 21.

And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death.

And being a leper, he lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord.

And Jotham, his son, was over the king's household, governing the people in the land.

Just with your eyes down still on verse 21, it records for us three losses.

One, he lost his house.

According to the Israelite rules, you have to be separated if you are an Israelite and you have struck with leprosy or a skin disease that could be contagious, and God's purity laws demand that they be separated from their family.

So probably he's got some sweet digs, but he's still alone.

It's not his house, it's not the palace.

He has to live alone.

Loss number one.

Loss number two, he loses his position.

Can't be the king, can't entertain guests, can't be the guy who welcomes foreign nations and makes policy and sits in front of your council if he got leprosy.

So now Jotham, his son, becomes the public figure of the monarchy.

Those are two big losses.

You lose your kingship, you lose your house.

But that's not even the worst part.

Worst of all, he loses access to the presence of the Lord in his life.

In the Old Testament, the presence of the Lord was to be found localized at the Temple Mount.

In the New Testament, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of the Lord dwells within us.

But in the Old Testament, not so.

The presence of the Lord dwells at the Temple Mount.

And what we read is now he is excluded from the house of the Lord for all the days of his life.

Still got the borders.

Still got those battle achievements.

Still got the troops.

Still got the money.

Still got the weapons.

But he's lost access to the presence of the Lord.

He's lost the real prosperity in his life.

And this is gonna be the second thing I'm gonna say.

When it comes to prosperity, you've got to remember that it all comes from the Lord.

But here's the second thing: that the Lord himself is the highest treasure.

The Lord himself is the highest treasure.

Uzziah's pride took hold, his heart's lifted high, all the accomplishment, all the battles won, all the wealth, all the power, everything that God had broken down doors to give the king all that prosperity, Uzziah takes and says, Look what I have done.

And that leads his heart to forget the Lord.

Hey, just sidebar here.

Does your first name have a meaning?

My first name is Craig, and apparently it's like the Scottish version of Peter.

It's supposed to be rock or crag.

It's like rock.

I don't feel like a rock most days.

I feel like a ball of lint most days.

But, anyways, does your name have a meaning?

Do you know what Uzziah's name means?

It means the Lord is my strength.

But that's not how Uzziah felt.

He didn't believe that anymore.

He believed that Uzziah is actually Uzziah's strength.

And in a moment, he becomes the poorest person in the kingdom.

But here's the thing: Uzziah knew what he lost.

He heard the lightning bolt on the soccer field.

He fled right away.

We don't have much of the story, but we do know that he fled when the leprosy appears.

Lesson learned right away.

And there's good indication to believe that there was repentance.

Right at the beginning of our passage, we read that the writer assessed him as one of the good kings of Judah.

Uzziah knew what he lost.

But here's my fear.

As we look at other church in the world today, there may be some in the same place as Uzziah, but they don't even know it.

They're lepers distanced from the house of the Lord, and they don't even know it.

Their pride has picked them up and moved them away from the near presence of God, and they don't even know it.

That's just how they live.

With hearts lifted up, taking credit for what was given to us, never satisfied, hearts wanting more and more and more and more, and not knowing that they're living impoverished lives.

How can you tell?

Prayer life.

Kind of weak.

Maybe not even there.

Time in the Word?

Not really.

Opening it up on Sundays, maybe.

No community with other believers.

No real thankfulness or worship to God.

No real joy or peace or stillness.

Lots of anxiety, lots of frustration, lots of anger in their lives, lots of righteous anger.

How dare they do this to me?

Lepers.

Separated from the presence of God and not even knowing it.

Hold on a second here, because there's so much hope for you, for us today.

If you're realizing that that may be you.

Let's be honest, drift is real.

Slowly realizing that maybe leprosy is sitting on your forehead.

There is so much hope.

Drift is real.

Have you noticed this in the past 18, 19 months?

More angry, more frustrated, more envious, more anxious.

Drifting away from the presence of the Lord.

But there's hope.

Let me summarize so far what we've seen.

I'm almost done, I promise.

Here's some truths from Uzziah's life for you.

One truth number one, you've already heard it.

Everything you have comes from God.

So if that's true, and it is, then we need to stop taking credit for the things that we have.

Stop taking credit for the money that you have.

Stop taking credit for the home that you have, or the children that you have, or the brain that you have, or the body that you have.

They're all gifts.

Do you know what a gift is?

Think of your birthday party, okay?

I don't know, you're celebrating your birthday party, whatever your age is.

Ladies, I'm sure you're all 29 years old.

We're celebrating your 29th birthday.

We come together, we bring you presents, and we're celebrating you.

And then you say, when you've opened the presents, look at all the presents.

I'm so awesome.

I deserve them.

They're mine.

Thank me for being me.

Wow, what a what a party.

That's the equivalent of what we're doing.

Look at my house, look at my car, look at my brains, look at my kids.

Yeah, I chose the right decisions.

Yeah, I worked hard.

No! God has been gracious to you.

Everything you have, everything you have that is good comes from the Lord.

Thankfulness is the only response.

Thankfulness.

God, thank you for all that I have.

That's the first thing.

Second thing is related to it.

You could have millions and miss it all.

You could be a leper and not even know it.

Locked out from the presence of God, still wealthy, still powerful, still got the big house, still got the nice car with those air-conditioned seats, those new things.

What is that?

You got those?

Fantastic! You got all that, but you're a leper.

See, Isaiah's pride led him to reach beyond the role of a king, to lay hold of a priesthood also.

But that's not how it works.

Let me say that again and see if you catch what I'm saying.

Uzziah's a king, and that's not enough for him.

He's reaching out to lay hold of the priesthood.

Because Uzziah wants to be king and priest.

You getting it?

Uzziah wants to be a king and a priest at the same time.

There's a problem with that though, isn't there?

Students of the Bible.

And the problem with that is that there is only one person who is king and priest at the same time.

Let me take you to a story of the priest-king.

Mark chapter one.

You don't have to turn there, I'll read it for you.

Mark chapter one, a leper comes to the priest-king and implores him.

And kneeling said to him, if you that's not imploring.

This is imploring.

If you will, you can make me clean.

And moved with pity.

Who's he?

That's Jesus.

Stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.

Listen, there is grace for you today in Jesus Christ.

Grace for you who see the drift that's real.

Grace for you who have left the highest treasure.

Grace for you, maybe who've never even found the highest treasure.

There is grace for the one who is seeking true prosperity in their lives.

Not the money, not the stuff of this world, that's not prosperity.

Real prosperity, real wealth, because your heart is set upon the Lord.

Your treasure is the Lord.

If you come to Him today, if you implore Him today, if you confess your sins to Him today, say, God, I've lifted up my heart.

It's too high.

God, I've forgotten you.

God, my thankless card is ruining me.

God, my pride is destroying me.

God, I am far from you.

God, the drift has been real.

These past two years have been brutal.

So much self-righteousness rising up.

God, please save me.

Please save me.

Draw me again into your presence.

Listen, if you come to Jesus even now, and I'm not just talking for the first time.

So don't dial me out, okay, longtime Christian.

Even now, if you come to Him, there are hands reaching to you that are willing to say, Be clean, faithful, and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Not just for you who are coming for the first time, but for you who are coming again and again and again.

Return to real prosperity.

Okay, everything you have comes from God.

You could have millions and miss it all.

Here's the third thing, really quickly.

You don't have to have a penny to your name to be the richest person in this world.

That's real prosperity.

If you have the Lord, and by that I mean the Lord is your trust, the Lord at the center of your life, your highest treasure in this life.

Take it all, but I have Jesus, and you can't take Jesus from me.

And if your heart delights in him and you seek him and you understand that he meets all of your needs and then some, the great shepherd for your life, then you will understand more than anyone else that your God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.

Listen, I'm gonna finish with this.

Real prosperity is not about what you have, it's about who you have.

And when the Lord is all you have, you come to the beautiful truth that the Lord is all you need.

And you don't have to have a penny to your name to be the richest person in this world.

That's prosperity.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for your word, which is living and active.

We thank you for its comfort to our lives, for its encouragement to our lives, but also its correction.

Someone who loves you speaks truth to you.

We thank you, Lord, for your love for us.

I think I'm not alone in this room, Lord, when we recognize that there is this tendency within our hearts to slide away from you.

There's a tendency to move away and to begin to follow after what the world begins to entice us in.

Hear the rumors of this is where real prosperity is found.

This is where real success is found.

Oh Lord, please deliver us.

Deliver us from this leprosy.

That we would be drawn again into your presence, where we would find the fullness of all joy possible.

God, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for forgiveness that's found even today in Jesus Christ.

And God, I pray for humble hearts that are drawn to Him now.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.