I assert that God's identity and our relationship with him do not depend on the crowns we wear or the fortunes we possess. I trace this truth through David and Job, showing that God was God before David became king and remained God when Job lost everything. I argue that ambition and wealth are not sinful in themselves, but they become dangerous when they become the foundation of our identity. I call us to pursue success with freedom, to treat the crown as a responsibility and the fortune as a resource, not as a savior. I urge us to place our hope in God rather than in uncertain riches and to measure our worth by character and faith, not by position or possessions. I juxtapose the anointing of David and the devastation of Job to interrogate the constancy of divine sovereignty amid human fluctuation, and I insist upon a recalibration of how we conceive prosperity. I recount Samuel’s visit to Jesse, noting that David received God’s anointing while he remained a shepherd in obscurity, and I contrast that with Job’s ostentatious wealth and subsequent ruin. From 1 Samuel 16:1–13 and Job 1:1–22 I derive a principal conviction: God’s identity is not contingent upon our crowns or fortunes. I argue, with theological precision, that God was God before David assumed temporal authority, and remained God after Job’s losses, and that this truth dislodges any theology that equates divine favour with material status. Throughout the exposition I evoke scriptural anchors — 1 Timothy 6:17–19 and Philippians 4:11–13 — to demonstrate that the biblical economy commends the prudent pursuit and stewardship of wealth while simultaneously locating ultimate hope in the immutable character of God rather than in ephemeral assets.

Takeaways:

• I remind listeners that God was God before David's crown and remains God beyond every fortune.
• I teach that ambition and wealth are not wrong in themselves, but they must never become the foundation of our identity.
• I point to Job's story to show that tragic loss can reveal true character and enable worship to persist despite unanswered questions and deep grief.
• We teach that prosperity must be pursued from a posture of faith and freedom, using riches to serve others and to steward resources wisely rather than to secure our worth or soothe our fears.

Imagine the scene.

An entire nation gathers to witness the coronation of its king.

Trumpets sound across the cities, soldiers stand at attention.

The most powerful men in the kingdom assembled to honor the man who will occupy the throne.

There is gold.

There is ceremony, There is authority.

There is the unmistakable spectacle of a man who has reached the pinnacle of earthly power.

And as the crown is placed upon his head, the crowd erupts in celebration.

His name is David.

But I want you to do something rather unusual.

I want you to remove the crown, remove the throne, remove the palace, the soldiers, the royal garments and the cheering crowds.

Take away everything that announces his greatness to the world.

And now travel backwards in time until you find a young shepherd tending to his father's sheep in the fields of Bethlehem.

There is no crown, There is no palace.

There is no royal audience.

There is just a young man, his sheep, and the God who sees him.

Now answer me this.

Was God any less God when David was a shepherd than when David became a king?

And if God was already God before David possessed the crown, why have so many of us come to believe that our greatness, security and relationship with God depend upon the crowns we acquire?

Welcome to the message with NJ and to the fourth installment of our series.

He is still God.

In our previous message, before the sea opened, we stood with Moses and the Israelites.

As Pharaoh's army approached, the Red Sea blocked their escape.

We discovered that even though Israel had departed Egypt with silver and gold, their wealth could not purchase a passage through the waters.

And we established something profound.

God did not become almighty when the sea opened.

He was almighty when the sea was closed.

And today we move from the shores of the Red Sea to the throne room of Israel, and then to the ashes of a man who lost almost everything.

Because God was God before David wore the crown.

And he is still God when Job lost his fortune.

And somewhere between those two extraordinary lives, I believe we will discover something essential about the true meaning of prosperity.

You see, when we first encounter David In 1 Samuel 16, something remarkable happens.

God sends the prophet Samuel to the household of Jesse to anoint the future king of Israel.

Jesse presents his sons before the prophet.

And when Samuel sees Eliab the eldest, he is impressed by what he sees.

Here is a man who looks like a king.

But God interrupts Samuel's assessment.

In 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord declares, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.

Now that is very fascinating, because while the prophet is examining the qualifications of the man or the men standing before him, the man God has chosen is.

Is not even present.

David is outside tending the sheep.

Imagine being overlooked at your own family's royal selection process.

I mean, there are people who complain because they were not invited to an important meeting at work.

David was not invited to the meeting where somebody in his own family was about to become king.

But when Samuel asks whether Jesse has any other sons, David is summoned.

And there, in the presence of his brothers, Samuel anoints him.

Now, what I want you to notice is that David receives the anointing long before he receives the crown.

His circumstances do not immediately change into those of a reigning monarch.

Saul remains on the throne, and David's journey will include service, danger, conflict, and years of uncertainty.

But God's purposes are not suspended simply because David's circumstances have.

Have not yet caught up with them.

And this is where I want to speak to everyone pursuing success, financial prosperity, and greater influence.

There is nothing inherently wrong with ambition.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to become the chief executive, to build a multinational business, to increase your income, to own property, or to establish generational wealth.

All of those things are fine.

I believe we should cultivate our gifts, pursue excellent work excellence, work diligently, and create opportunities for those who come after us.

But here is the danger.

Sometimes we become so consumed with becoming somebody that we forget that our ultimate worth was never determined by the position we occupied.

We believe, we begin believing that when we receive the promotion, we will finally matter.

When the business reaches a certain valuation, we will finally be successful.

When the bank account reaches a particular number, we will finally become secure.

And before long, the crown we were pursuing becomes the thing by which we measure our lives.

Yet the God who saw David in the field was the same God who saw him on the throne.

The crown changed David's position.

It did not change God's identity.

Now, I want to take you from the story of the man who acquired great power to the story of man who lost extraordinary wealth.

His name is Job.

And I think we sometimes forget just how prosperous Job was.

The opening chapter describes a man of remarkable material abundance.

He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very great household.

The Bible describes him as the greatest of all the people in the East.

This was not a man struggling to make ends meet.

Job was wealthy.

But the scripture also tells us something about his character.

He was upright, feared God, and turned away from evil.

In other words, before we learn about the size of his possessions, we learn about the quality of his character.

And that distinction is enormously important because prosperity can reveal what we possess.

But character reveals who we are.

Now, Job story takes an extraordinary painful turn.

In a devastating succession of events.

He loses his livestock, his servants, and ultimately his children.

Now imagine that a man who began the day surrounded by extraordinary abundance finds himself confronted by unimaginable loss.

And I want us to be sensitive here, because the loss of children cannot be reduced to a lesson about money.

Job's suffering was not simply financial.

It was deeply personal.

The Scripture does not ask us to pretend that such suffering is insignificant.

Job mourns.

He mourns.

He tears his robe.

He shaves his head.

He falls to the ground.

And then in Job, chapter one, verse 21, he makes one of the most unique of the most remarkable declarations in all of Scripture.

Jehovah gave and Jehovah hath taken away.

Blessed be the name of Jehovah.

Now I want you to consider what has just happened.

Job lost his fortune.

He has lost his children.

His wealth has been shattered.

But in the middle of his grief, he recognizes something that his circumstances cannot erase.

God is still worthy of worship, not because his tragedy was good, not because the suffering was painless, and certainly not because Job understood everything that was happening.

In fact, as the book continues, Job will wrestle with profound questions about justice, suffering, and the ways of God.

But even here, in the earliest moments of his grief, Job refuses to make his worship entirely dependent upon his possessions.

And I think that confronts something uncomfortable in our modern understanding of success.

We have become remarkably good at celebrating God when things go well.

When the deal closes, we declare that God is faithful.

When the salary increases, we testify about his provision.

When the house is purchased, the business expands, or the investment performs exceptionally well.

We celebrate his goodness, and we should.

But what happens when the team deal collapses?

What happens when the company closes?

What happens when the house must be sold?

What happens when the investment disappears, the career ends unexpectedly, or the life we work so hard to establish begins falling apart?

Does God somehow become less worthy of our worship?

This is why I believe we need a more mature understanding of prosperity.

The Apostle Paul addresses this beautifully in 1 Timothy 6, 17.

He instructs those who are rich not to place their hope in the uncertainty of riches, but in God, who richly provides us with things to enjoy.

Notice that Paul does not condemn the possession of wealth.

He challenges the location of our hope.

That is a critical distinction.

You can possess considerable wealth without allowing wealth to possess your heart.

You can build a successful business without making that business your God.

You can enjoy financial Increase, live comfortably, provide generously for your family, and leave an inheritance without confusing any of those blessings with your ultimate source of security.

The problem is not that you have money.

The problem begins when money has the authority to determine whether your soul has peace.

Because riches are uncertain, markets fluctuate, companies fail, economies contract, assets lose value.

And sometimes circumstances beyond our our control can dismantle things we spent decades building.

But God does not fluctuate with the market.

He is not experiencing an identity crisis because the economy has entered a recession.

And his sovereignty does not rise and fall with the value of your investment portfolio.

Which, frankly, is wonderful news because some of us have watched our portfolios behaving ways that would test the faith of the Apostle Paul himself.

But beneath the humor is a serious question.

If everything you worked for disappeared tomorrow, what would remain of your relationship with God?

Now?

Please understand me.

I am not suggesting that we should abandon our ambitions or become indifferent to financial prosperity.

Quite the opposite.

Work diligently, build responsibly, invest wisely, create wealth, provide for your family, be generous, establish a legacy.

But pursue these things from a place of freedom.

Faith, not as substitutes for faith.

Because the crown is a responsibility, not an identity.

And the fortune is a resource, not a savior.

So let us return to David.

Before he entered the palace, he was God.

Before Samuel poured oil on his head, he was God.

Before Goliath fell, before the victories were celebrated, before Israel recognized him as a king, he was God.

And when David eventually ascended the throne, God had not become greater.

Now consider Job.

Before the livestock multiplied, he was God.

When the household prospered, he was God.

When disaster struck, when the possessions disappeared, when grief entered his home and the questions became unbearable, he was still God.

And that is the extraordinary truth I want you to carry into your own life.

Before you were employed, he was God.

When you received your first salary, he was God.

When you were promoted, he was God.

When you purchased your first home, he was God.

And if the day comes when the title disappears, the business fails, the money runs out, or everything you thought made you successful is taken away, he is still God.

Not because suffering does not matter, not because financial loss is insignificant, but because the God we worship was never dependent upon our success.

For his identity and our deeper security is found not in the permanence of our possessions, but in the faithfulness of the one who holds us.

There is one final image I want to leave with you.

David eventually wore a crown of earthly authority, but centuries later, another king would come from David's lineage.

His name was Jesus, and Although he was worthy of every crown, the world placed a crown of thorns upon his head.

The one through whom all things were created willingly entered human suffering, endured the cross and rose again.

And through him, we discover a hope that no earthly fortune can purchase and no financial catastrophe can destroy.

Because the greatest treasure of a Christian life is not ultimately something God places in our hands.

And it is the relationship he makes possible with himself through Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for every blessing you have entrusted to us.

Thank you for your opportunities, provision, resources, careers, families and ability to work and create.

Give us wisdom to pursue prosperity without becoming enslaved by it.

Give us humility when we succeed and courage when we fail.

For those experiencing financial hardship, open doors of provision and surround them with people who can help.

For those who have suffered devastating loss, bring comfort and strength.

Teach us to build without becoming consumed by what we build, to receive without forgetting the giver, and to remain faithful when the things we possess are no longer there.

Above all, teach us to find our deepest identity and security.

Security in Jesus Christ.

In his name.

Amen.

And as we close, I want you to remember something.

David's crown did not make God sovereign.

Job's fortune did not make God faithful.

And your success will never make God more worthy of worship than he already is.

In our next message, we will travel to a small village called Bethany, where two grieving sisters are waiting for Jesus.

Their brother has died.

His body has been placed in a tomb.

Four days have passed, and hope appears to have disappeared with him.

But something extraordinary is about to happen.

Because before Lazarus ever walked out of the tomb, Jesus made a declaration that would change the way we understand life, death and the power of God.

He did not say, I can perform a resurrection.

He said, I am the resurrection and the life.

Our next message is before the stone was rolled away.

But until then, remember, he was God before the crown.

He was God beyond the fortune.

And whether you are standing in the palace or sitting among the ashes, he is still God.