What the world hasn’t given, it can’t take away.

I recently found a new favorite artist. He’s the bombastic, passionate, young, and fiery singer-songwriter who rocketed into spotify charts with his song Dusty Bibles. The song is a modern prophesy:

We got dust on our Bibles, brand-new iPhones… No wonder why we feel this way.

Good, right?

Josiah Queen is his name. And he’s written a small collection of other songs too. Another favorite line came to my ears this week:

What the world hasn’t given, it can’t take away.

The song is about the treasure God alone can give and nothing and no one can take away: joy.

But I’d like to pause and turn the crystal the other way and look at it from the reverse:

Naturally, I’m going to apply this to money. Because so much of our lives orbit around money. It can shape:

• the education we pursue

• the work we choose

• the place we live

• the people we know

• the possessions we acquire

• the lifestyle we maintain

• the legacy we leave behind

Money is very powerful. And, as such, it’s a terrible place to put our security — so why do we so often do exactly that?

I have to confess that my buddy Josiah (I’m sure we could be good buddies) hits the nail on the head - yes and amen - but those words were much easier to sing with passion at 23 than 33.

Even though I know full well wealth is unstable. Markets fluctuate. Businesses rise and fall. Careers end. Health changes. Possessions deteriorate. Moth, rust, the whole nine. Even the wealth we carefully preserve will eventually pass into someone else’s hands. And we all must reckon with the fact that everything money buys us is temporary.

All the trappings that the world offers to us, it can also take from us.

And yet…

Christ, our treasure that does not fade, our pearl of great price, has given us in Luke 16:9 a rather staggering picture of the lasting treasure we can, in fact, acquire with worldly wealth.

And I tell you [learn from this], make friends for yourselves [for eternity] by means of the wealth of unrighteousness [that is, use material resources as a way to further the work of God], so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9 (AMP)

Let’s unpack this briefly:

“…Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth…”

what a brilliant opener. Be friendly. Use money to make friends. It’s very easy to do. Prov. 19:6 reminds us of this: “everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts”. Do you want lots of friends? Give gifts. Lots of them. Great use of wealth, right there.

“…so that when it [fails/runs out/is all gone]…”

the failure is inevitable here — it’s a given. The wealth will fail. In fact, many translations say “when you fail”. It’s almost implied that, at some point, your wealth-accumulating abilities will dry up and evaporate. Certainly few aged men and women find themselves in their peak earning years.

“…they will welcome you into eternal dwellings…”

The implication here is that these friends were not heading for heaven prior to encountering you and your clever (shrewd) use of worldly wealth. You leveraged your money to build Gospel-seasoned friendships thereby leading to the salvation of your friends.

Someday when you and your wealth fail, and you finally lay down to your final rest, your eyes will open in the age to come and you’ll be met face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and embraced by your friends - for all eternity - who will join you in the fully-restored, fully-redeemed work of the kingdom. All because you dared to trust, not in riches, but in God. And you leveraged these failing riches to “win friends and influence people” unto glory.

Wealth is not our refuge. It is a temporary tool entrusted to us for providing our needs, loving our families, serving our neighbors, and building relationships that will long-outlast the wealth itself. That’s kingdom work. And it’s yours for the taking.