“There was a pastor who went to a garage sale and he saw this beautiful children’s playground set that was for sale. It was priced at $30. It was a great deal because a new set would cost about $100.”

Despite this, the pastor went to the owner and asked for a 50% discount. The owner would not go lower than $25.

“This pastor wanted to press in. So he said, ‘I’m a poor pastor from a very small church. Can you give me a break? I only have $20 with me today.’”

The owner was a Christian. On realising that the man was “a man of God”, she agreed to let him have the playground set for $20.

“The pastor was so happy. ‘The Lord bless you. The Lord will honour you as you honoured Him.’

“But as the pastor opened his wallet, he had inside it a $100 bill.

“Liar, liar pants on fire.”

This was the story Pastor Benny Ho, LoveSingapore’s Marketplace Lead, opened with at his session at the recent N5 Conference.

N5 is Asia’s only kingdom-focused gathering for financial planners. The theme this year was “Clean Hands, Pure Heart”.

Ps Benny shared the tale to underscore the importance of integrity amongst believers when it comes to money. 

Ps Benny was one of 15 speakers and panellists who spoke at this year’s N5 Conference.

Nearly 200 financial planners from over 15 companies gathered over two days (October 3 and 4) to listen to 15 speakers and panelists talk about how to blend financial excellence with biblical truths.

Here are the highlights of Ps Benny’s opening message on having clean hands and pure hearts, drawn from Psalm 24.

The psalm that looks ahead

Psalm 24 is the final in a trilogy of psalms that begin with Psalm 22, a Messianic psalm that points to the coming of Jesus as Saviour some 2,000 years later.

“It tells us our God is a God who saves,” said Ps Benny.

Psalm 23 paints a portrait of Jesus as Shepherd.

“He is the God who leads us to green pastures and still waters, reminding us that He is a God who cares for us, who shepherds us.”

But it is Psalm 24 that “points us into the future”, making it an ideal reference for charting the path ahead for the financial planners.

Said Ps Benny: “He is not just a Saviour who saves. He is not just a Shepherd who watches over us. He will one day be our King who rules and reigns.”

Psalm 24 is considered an entrance liturgy, believed to have been written by King David when the Ark of the Covenant was being brought back to Jerusalem.

“But more than just the Ark of the Covenant coming to Jerusalem, the psalmist was able to prophetically see something else,” said Ps Benny. “He saw eschatologically to the point when the King would come back and reign again.

“There’s a prophetic edge to it. That’s the bigger canvas that the psalmist was looking at. This is a psalm that describes the entrance of man into God’s presence. The psalmist tells us what the posture we need to have when we come into the presence of God.”

But Psalm 24 is also about “God entering our space”.

“Verse 7 goes on to say, ‘Lift up your heads, O gates; and be lifted up. O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.’

“Now what is that? That is also about God entering our space. So this entire psalm is really about two things: It is about a man entering the space of God, entering the presence of God and it is also about God entering the space of man.

“How do these two things interact together?”

Worship God our Creator

The entire premise of the psalm is founded on one thing: God is the creator and the owner of all things.

“The psalmist begins Psalm 24 by saying, ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.’

“So not just what was created at the point of creation but also whatever the earth produced, they all belong to the Lord. The Lord is the agent of all creation, past, present and future.

“God created everything at the beginning, and then He had to redeem everything again back to Himself at the cross. And today He’s sustaining everything, keeping the whole earth spinning and all of that. And one day He will ultimately inherit all things.”

The only logical response to that, said Ps Benny, is to “bow our knees and worship this awesome Creator”.

This understanding of the Creator-Sustainer God should give wealth managers, financial planners and business owners a deeper appreciation that their resources and clients are not theirs to use at will, but God’s to use as He wills.

“Our posture must be that of a steward, not the owner.”

He will give you clean hands and a pure heart  

If the God who created it all is to be worshipped, how should He be worshipped?

“The psalmist goes on to ponder this important question: How can man come into the presence of such an awesome God?”

Ps Benny said the answer to that lies in our understanding of God.

“Verse 3 and 4 says, ‘Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in this holy place?’ This place is referring to Mount Zion, where God’s temple stands. It is the holy ground where God ’s Shekinah glory is: His house.”

If where God is is so holy, then only those with “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4) may approach.

“Clean hands, pure hearts – right action, right intention, right things that we do and right motives for doing it. We all know that the right action can only come because the heart is pure, right?”

The problem is that no one really has clean hands and a pure heart (Romans 3:23).  

“The good news is that we are now justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith (Romans 3:24-25).

“The psalmist actually saw it prophetically way back in Psalm 24:5-6.”

Ps Benny (centre) praying over the N5 Conference attendees.

How then should this inform the way we conduct ourselves?

“Do you know how the psalmist distinguishes God’s people from the rest of the world? He called them ‘those who seek the face of the God of Jacob’.

“That word ‘seek’ is the Hebrew word baqash, which really means to seek with desire and to find and to secure. It’s a strong word to denote intentionality, expectation.”

And He will reign over our work as worship

Then comes the climax of Psalm 24 – how God is going to come to His people (Psalm 24:7).

“God will come to us if we welcome our King with hearts of willingness, hearts of faith and expectation. The amazing thing is to know that this King of glory is so willing to come into our space, if only we are willing to welcome Him.”

For the financial planners, it means to “lift up the gates and open the doors of our offices, our boardroom, our factories, our workstation, our financial companies and welcome the King of glory into the marketplace”, explained Ps Benny. 

“All this that you do – your work – do you realise your work is your worship?

“When this work that you do as unto the Lord becomes worship that rises to the throne of God, it actually builds a canopy of praise and worship so that the King can come and sit on it.

“When the Scripture says God inhabits the praises of His people, that word ‘inhabit’ literally means ‘sit on’. God sits on the praises of His people.

“And where God sits, He rules. And don’t be surprised when God begins to sit in a marketplace and throne, He begins to decree things.

“Next thing you know, signs, wonders, miracles begin to happen in the marketplace.”

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