The Danger of Godless Greed

In the past few weeks, we have
seen, has been wrangling, as it were, with the Pharisees,
rebuking the scribes, the lawyers, the experts in God’s Word. Last
week, directly in those first opening chapters, we considered
His gracious call to His own disciples that were listening
in on His interactions with the Pharisees and the scribes. Perhaps
they were rattled, and so Jesus calls them to undergird themselves. He calls them to a truer and
more vibrant faith. One of those is the trust in
a sovereign God. Trust in a sovereign God. And
amazingly to me, in the midst of this message that was so intimate
and so… the tension that must have been
in this scene must have been incredible. And having just rebuked
the scribes and the Pharisees, and now gently and intimately
turning to His disciples to undergird their own faith. And suddenly, someone blurts
out a question. They want Jesus. to act as some
kind of a mediating force so that they don’t get gypped of
the family inheritance. The scene is almost too hard
to believe that someone would have the audacity to interrupt the Lord God Himself in the midst
of doing what He came to do to seek and save the lost, to encourage
faith, to bring about faith, And here this selfish man, this
pitiful man, blurts out, if you would, let’s pick up this deep
passage beginning in verse 13 of chapter 12, where Luke simply
records, and someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my
brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said
to him, man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, beware and
be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when
one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying
the land of a certain rich man was very productive. And he began
reasoning to himself, saying, what shall I do since I have
no place to store my crops? And he said, this is what I will
do. I will tear down my barns and
build larger ones. And there I will store all my
grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul,
you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your
ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. But
God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required
of you. And now who will own what you
have prepared? So is the man. So is the man,
said Jesus, who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward
God. Jesus was ever in the moment.
Immediately upon seeing the distress on his disciples face, He turned
to them and sought to give them encouragement in those first
12 verses of chapter 12. And immediately, in the midst
of these precious words of our Savior, this sermon that He was
giving on encouragement, someone blurts out, interrupts, and Jesus
uses that as an example. And an immediate example to give
another lesson. A lesson about greed. Jesus wants to address here an
extension of the folly of the fear of man, an extension of
the folly of fear of poverty, the folly of the fear of others
taking what you think is rightfully yours. When a man stood up and
called on Jesus as rabbi or teacher, he did so not without precedent. The rabbis often served in this
function, even as elders do in this current day and age. So
what the man did was not altogether out of place. The timing was
rather poor, interrupting Christ in the midst of this lesson.
But the precedent was there. Certainly God’s Word had outlines,
Deuteronomy chapter 21. Numbers chapter 27, it had outlines
of how the wealth of parents was to be distributed upon their
death. Somebody once said, though, that
when there is an inheritance, 99% of the people become wolves.
Perhaps the other 1% didn’t know that there was a death in the
family. It’s sad to see. We’ve seen it
even in our own family. When there’s a death in the family
and things are to be divided, suddenly that coffee table in
the corner that we never paid so much attention to begins to
look pretty good, doesn’t it? And then when you begin to talk
about dollars and money, you see people who are beloved relatives
begin to gnash their teeth and tear at each other and fight
over the last penny. We’re supposed to be watchful
of those attitudes. We’re not supposed to participate
in that kind of behavior. And here, Jesus points these
things out to this young man. Look at verse 14. He said, man,
who appointed me a judge or arbiter over you? In other words, in
a very real sense, Jesus says, I’m going to maintain my priorities.
And my priority is not to come into some kind of a so-called
law court and act as some kind of a judge. There were those
places and the judges would perform this for a fee. So even this
man is being greedy in and of his requests. He had a place
to go. He had a place to go and have
his complaint heard. Jesus doesn’t obligate Himself.
And you know the amazing thing is that we do. We think that
every icky, picky little thing that comes up somehow is our
business to fix. And here the Lord Himself didn’t
obligate Himself to enter into every argument. It’s good counsel. The Proverbs says that meddling
in other people’s business that doesn’t belong to us is like
taking a dog by the ears. If you’ve never tried it, I wouldn’t
advise it. I think I’ve told you before,
my brother tried it one time. He batted a new dog by the ears.
He stuck his face down in the dog’s face and he ended up with
some 50 stitches for it. The dog nearly tore off his nose.
That’s what the Proverbs says is like messing with things that
don’t concern us. Involving ourselves in these
matters. But it was beyond just wisdom.
Beyond just the wisdom of Solomon that Jesus refrained Himself.
It wasn’t what Jesus came for. Jesus didn’t come for this purpose.
This didn’t square with His mission. Jesus came to seek and save the
lost. Jesus claimed to proclaim the
day of salvation through repentance and faith in Himself. Not to
be used as some kind of an arbitrator. One that would take a fee to
settle some petty argument. That wasn’t Jesus’ calling. And
he begins by pointing that out to the man that I’m not going
to be drawn into this argument in short. And he began to say
to them and by them, I take to me not only his disciples, the
apostles, his closest followers, but I think the greater part
of the crowd, anyone who had an interest in Christ, even the
scribes and the Pharisees who without a doubt were still within
earshot. And he said to them, beware. Be very careful. Beware and be
on your guard. I mean, he doubles up on the
verbiage there to indicate that this is a very serious condition,
a very grave concern. Beware and be on your guard against
every form of greed. For not even when one has an
abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” Every form
of greed. And you know what? In my life,
what I have seen, I’ve watched this from time to time. And I
don’t know what it is about the human condition. If you get one
free thing, you know, it’s a nice free thing and you’re happy to
have it. And then all of a sudden you begin to look, is there another
to be had? Can I have two of those free things? Last year,
we took the kids to the Ram Jam, right? Where all the kids are
all gathered together there and all the athletes are there and
all the kids get to meet them. And at the door, they’re handing
out basketballs and everybody coming in got one orange squishy
basketball. Great toy. Great thing to have. And at the end of the day, they
announced to the kids, we have plenty of extra basketballs.
Feel free to take two or three more if you would like. the heart of man came out in
the heart of children. Beware of every form of greed.
And you saw kids stuffing themselves. One kid looked like Hulk Hogan.
You know, his sleeves, his shirt, all stuffed full of basketballs.
And people were fighting and they’re rolling all over the
place and fighting over little tiny foam basketballs. Jesus says every form because
He wants us to learn it at every stage of life because it’s there.
And here at the twilight of life, a parent had died leaving his
estate and all these two sons can do is bicker about who’s
getting what and how much. The bottom line here is that
both sons were greedy. Both sons. The older son is greedy. Perhaps he was in charge of the
estate as was the custom, the tradition. Even the exhortation
of God’s Word. Perhaps he was being greedy with
withholding. The other son is being greedy
for demanding his fair share. He brought the case before Jesus.
He’s obsessed with justice, for securing what he thinks is rightfully
his. And perhaps it was. Jesus points
out. Jesus knew his heart. He knew
what the man possessed. He knew what he had. And in essence,
what Jesus says, it’s enough, because He warns him about greed,
which is always more than what’s enough. That’s greed. That’s
the nature of greed. It’s the thirst, like drinking
salt water, if you’ve ever done it. The more you drink, the thirstier
you become. That’s what greed is. We saw it in Balaam. We saw it
in Achan, Gehazi, Judas, Ananias. Throughout Scripture, we see
examples of that and it’s no less true in our own day and
age. J.C. Ryle said it this way, there
is no sin at any rate to which the heart is more prone than
greed. Isn’t that frightening? No wonder
Jesus says, beware and be on your guard against every form
of greed. It is a sin, Ryle goes on to
say, that ever since the fall has been the fertile cause of
misery and unhappiness upon the earth. Wars, quarrels, strifes,
divisions, envying, disputes, jealousies, hatreds of all sorts,
both public and private, may nearly all be traced up to this
one source.” It’s frightening. Greed caused it all. pointed out that beyond just
the fact that money is like seawater, that the more you drink, the
thirstier you become. He reminded me of an illustration.
Do you know how to catch a crawdad? There are a variety of means.
I introduced the Magnussons to our particular means as last
year, getting down in the creek in mud up to your knees and chasing
the little critters with a bucket. That’s one way. I forgot to tell
the Magnusons there’s an infinitely easier way. Tie a piece of bacon
to a string and throw the bacon in the water. Wait about five
minutes and you’ll have every crawdad within 20 feet trying
to attach itself to this bacon. But the fascinating thing is
this. When you pull the string up, you would imagine that the
crawdads would let go and flee. But they don’t. They will hold
on with a death grip like no other. They would even go right
into a pot of boiling water if you were inclined to eat one.
Why is greed so dangerous? Jesus says, why? He says, for
not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his
possessions. Yeah, you know what that little
piece of advice goes directly counter to the advice of our
own day and age We have made it a national pastime to take
care of our money And we have budgets and we have check registers
and bank accounts and online banking where it’s all done for
us And if we don’t have that we’ve got quicken and there’s
nothing wrong with any of that. Don’t get me wrong. I Every news
channel, every major news channel has one of these TV shows entirely
dedicated to how we can watch our money. And so we do. We watch the stock market. We
talk to our broker. We watch the inflation. We consider
the economy. We’re bound to our 401ks and
our investments and our portfolios, our property values, our tax
shelters. All of those are just we’re obsessed
with in our day and age. And it’s all rolled in together. This obsession with our wealth
is rolled into this one little phrase, net worth. Net worth. And it basically says that whatever
dollars you can scrape together from whatever corner and 401k
and bank account and piggy bank, whatever else you got, you gather
it all together. And in the final analysis, that’s
your net worth. It’s not what Jesus says. It’s not at all what Jesus says.
He says, even when one has an abundance, your life doesn’t
consist in those things. That isn’t what life is about.
That’s not what’s important. That’s the problem that when
people begin to build their identity on what they possess, how they
define success, that’s when their perspective gets off. I Timothy said it this way, instruct
those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited. Don’t
focus on those things. Don’t put all your stock on there
or get this to fix their hope on the abundance and the uncertainty
of riches. Don’t put your hope there because
it’s precisely that it’s uncertain. You have a whole bunch of pile
of money now, it may not be there tomorrow. I read this one illustration
about how a man with great hope had squirreled away money for
years in the wall, just tucking money whenever he could, paper
money, down into the wall. And years later, when time of
need came, he peeled off a board of the wall and the vermin had
got in and they had made a nest out of this, chewing every dollar
bill up. It’s hopeless. Even when we think
we’ve got it, ultimately God is in control of it, right? One Puritan said, greed blinds
a man to the fact that he remains forever distinct, separated,
apart from his possessions. It isn’t our net worth. That
isn’t what life is all about. He goes on and says, the man
who values himself for what he has and not for what he is, is
the man who fancies himself great because his possessions are great.
That’s one of the most familiar objects of ridicule. Men can
very soon learn the art of measuring progress, not by themselves or
their own personal growth, nor any ripeness of character or
any real internal acquisition, but by mere outward material
gain. And what is more common than
that in our society? We look at a man and we don’t
judge his character, we judge his pocketbook, right? He concludes by saying, this
is the way we practically come to measure ourselves by what
we have, to think that our life consists in the abundance of
the things we possess. And in order to illustrate this
profound point, Jesus just wants to tell one of His many classic
stories. I don’t believe that it was a
real story. I don’t believe Jesus had really somebody in mind.
This is a parable. A parable meant to cast alongside,
to compare. He tells a story that has a much
deeper meaning. And here is where we do dip into
allegory. This is where we do look beyond
this parable to examine some truth, some axioms of life. And he says this, he told them
a parable saying the land of a certain rich man was very productive. Several weeks ago, speaking in
another situation, and I was reminded of the fact that when
I was in fourth grade, I played the trumpet, right? Well, I tried. Played the trumpet. Now to this
day, I love to hear the trumpet played because I know how ridiculously
hard it is to do well. It’s extremely hard to play the
trumpet and play well. And just like that, I respect
this man. Fictional as he may be, the land
of a certain rich man, he’s already rich, was very productive. The reason I respect him is I’ve
tried gardening. And what the bugs don’t get,
the raccoons do. And what the raccoons don’t get,
the drought or the disease does. I mean, I don’t even know how
we eat. This was no sin on this man’s
part. This is due to the providence
of God. And that’s all Jesus is saying. We can take every
indication from this that this man got what he got through hard
work. There’s nothing dishonest mentioned
about this man’s behavior. In fact, one said that we are
given the distinct impression that this man had become rich
because God had blessed the labors of his hands. That’s it. Don’t
misread this and say that just because the man is rich that
he’s sinful. Scripture doesn’t say it. Matthew
5 says God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. You can’t look at those things
and decide that, oh, because the man’s rich, he must be a
sinner or because the man’s poor, he must not be right with God.
That’s the health and wealth mentality. Wealth isn’t an indicator
of spirituality. We can’t look at a man and infer
that because he’s rich, that he must be sinful or cynically
conclude that Because he’s not rich, that he must not be right
with God. Being poor isn’t necessarily
a virtue, but neither is it an indicator of the man’s spiritual
life. The point I’m making here is
the rich man is never once, in this passage, maligned simply
for being rich. In fact, never in Scripture is
a man maligned simply for being rich. Abraham was rich. Solomon was wealthy. Job was
wealthy. Wealth is not the issue before
God. It’s what you do with it. But a wrong view of wealth so
often has us drawing the false conclusion that all wealth is
sinful. And as a result, we end up disparaging
the rich. And then we’re afraid, in and
of ourselves, we’re afraid to make money. Ashamed if people
give us money. Afraid to make money and lots
of it. I can remember when I first started
my pool business in California. I thought, boy, this is just… I’ve got to be fair with these
people. I’m just going to charge $15 an hour for my repairs. And
I had so much time on my hands. And finally, a good brother pulled
me aside and he said, you know what? The going rate here in
California is at least $30 an hour. He said, people see 15
and they just think that you’re fly by night, that you don’t
know what you’re doing. Very shortly after that, I raised
my rates to 25 and I had so much work, I had to turn it away.
People didn’t think I was legit. I was afraid to make money. You
know what Charles Wesley said? Make all you can save all you
can give all you can. Don’t be afraid to tap into the
Lord’s blessings and use it for his glory. We’re too afraid because
we have this false view about money. It’s not a sin. It’s not a sin to be blessed
of the Lord and to be used of God because of it. It’s the love of money, one of
the first correctives from Scripture that ever received. Because I’d
always heard that little adage, you know, money’s the root of
all evil. You know that’s true, don’t you? Until you open God’s
Word. And God’s Word says it’s the
love of money is the root of all evil. It’s the love of money.
And it’s the love of money and the inevitable corruption that
it promotes that Scripture presents as a distinct possibility. Not
because money is inherently evil. Because they’re hearts. Our greedy
hearts are inherently evil. So in the midst of this great
increase, look at verse 17, he began reasoning to himself, what
shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.
Planning isn’t a sin. No sin in planning, in deliberation,
in management of the funds and in thinking about the future
and managing a 401k. There’s no sin in that on the
face of it. Look at verse 18. He said, this
is what I will do. I will tear down my barns, build
large ones, making decisions. There’s no sin in that. Implementing
plans for the future. There’s no sin on the face of
it. Verse 19, I will say to my soul, so you have many laid up,
many good things for years to come. Take your easy drink. There’s
no, you know what? There’s no sin in retirement. I look forward
to it one day, hopefully far off down the road. There’s no
sin in retirement in and of themselves. These things aren’t sin. And
yet, I would say that in the context, if you look deeper,
there is sin throughout. There’s sin throughout every
part of this passage. And I’ll tell you why. First
of all, we have the fact that Jesus told this parable to illustrate
greed. And so we can see from the very
start of this passage that the man’s heart is greedy. The very
purpose that he told this parable was to illustrate greed. Verse
20 concludes, Jesus concludes, that the rich man was a fool.
His behavior was foolish and a fool who is as good as dead.
But thirdly, Jesus points out at the end that he wasn’t rich
toward God. He was spiritually impoverished.
You never hear one mention of the Lord in the man’s diatribe. And so I want to look this morning
in closing in this warning of godless greed. That’s what we
see. This is this is an example of godless greed. That’s the
purpose of the parable. And Jesus gives to us three sins
clearly laid out here. Three sins of a spiritually impoverished
man. Three sins of a man whose heart
is not right towards God, who only wants what he wants. First of all, godless greed is
identified by haughtiness. That’s the old Puritan word. It’s self-centeredness. Haughtiness. Thinking that you’re the only
one there is. And listen to him. Look at verse
17 again with this perspective, knowing that Jesus told this
about greed. Verse 17 says, He began reasoning
to Himself. You know what? There’s nothing
wrong with meditating. But when you never get outside
of yourself, when you never go and seek another brother’s counsel,
when you never go to God, and you never ask God, God, what
would You have me to do with this? Verse 17 says, what shall I do? And you begin to note in this
passage, it’s a profound thing. Over and over and over again,
it’s I, I, me, my. He began reasoning to himself saying,
what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? The first thing that you note
is the man never thanked God. He’s haughty. He’s arrogant. He never thanked God for the
blessings that he’d been given. He’s already rich. He’s being
given even more. And he doesn’t even have the
courtesy to raise his eyes to Almighty God and give Him gratitude. You know what? There’s a deadly
silence between verse 16 and verse 17. Deadly. And that’s
why we say thanksgiving ought to be a day in, day out thing
for the Christian. Not just a one year celebration. Verse 16 says, the land of a
certain rich man was very productive. Not only is he getting richer,
he’s getting much richer. He’s already rich and God’s giving
him more, and the end result is the man is reasoning to himself. Verse 17. It’s the best God got. It’s the most God got out of
the man is a little reasoning to himself. What most people would have the
decency to call a godsend, this man merely calls a windfall.
He doesn’t even acknowledge that there is a God. It’s a funny
thing with our day and age. People refer to the calamities
and hurricanes and whatnot as acts of God, but they never refer
to the blessings that God gives children as an act of God. The food that we enjoy. An active
God. The job that we have. The money
that we have to raise and maintain our households. An active God.
Oh, but we’ll point the finger at God when bad things happen.
Not only did the man fail to acknowledge God’s goodness in
thanksgiving, he never sought God’s counsel. He never wondered
what God might have him to do with his wealth. He was conceited. This was the original self-made
man. It was all his. It was all his
doing. He had only himself to thank for it. There’s another mark here of
an impoverished man. Godless greed is identified not
only by haughtiness, but secondly, by hoarding. Hoarding. Verse 18 said, this is what I
will do. And he continues this mantra
of his, I will, I will. I will tear down my barns and
build larger ones. And there I will store all my
grain and my goods. And here you see clearly the
man’s heart. Completely fails to consider
anyone other than himself. He never considers the service
of God in the service of others. How can I minister to someone
else? Only how can I minister to me? He isn’t interested in
his goods, his worldly goods being used by those in need. When you think of things like
grain, and you have an entire silo full of grain, and now it’s
full and you have cause to build a bigger one, he’s never going
to use all this grain in all of his life. It’s the nature
of grain. That’s the nature of farming.
You never farm for yourself. There’s no profit in that. He only wants to store them.
He only wants to store His goods. One pastor writing on this section
said this, he said, the love of gold dehumanizes human life. Isn’t that sad? When we begin
to think more highly of things than people, that’s sad. It dehumanizes
human life. How it stifles a man’s natural
affection. It robs him of all the things
that make life worth living. It makes him remorseless in his
selfishness and greed. It shows how such a nature, by
perverting its powers, brings ruin upon itself. Sad. The love of gold. And the next
thing you know, he loves that more than people. Don’t we know
people like that? And don’t we see in our own hearts
the natural tendency for that sin? We should. We’re given to hoarding. James
warned about it. Come now, you rich, weep and
howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches
have rotted, your garments have become moth-eaten, your gold
and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness
against you. James says it in the strongest
terms possible, that hoarding and keeping more than what you
need is a sin. It’s a sin. And it’s worthless
in the final analysis. In the end, it’s going to be
absolutely worthless. Paul said it in a more positive
way. He said, instruct them, teach your people to do good. to be rich in good works, to
be generous and ready to share. That’s to be the heart of the
servant of God. That’s to be the heart of the
child of God. To look for ways to minister.
Do you know, as we’ve seen in the past, as we’ve looked at
the passage, one of the purposes of work itself is so that we
might have, so that we might share with those in need. Isn’t
that a beautiful thing? Do we really know what it’s like?
Is it really for us more blessed to give than to receive? Not
for this man. For him, he thought, it was more
blessed to hoard. It was more blessed to keep.
It was more blessed to store than it was to give. No wonder the parable has so often
been entitled, The Rich Fool. It was sad, his behavior. But there’s a third mark. There’s
a third mark of godless greed in this passage. Not only is
godless greed identified by haughtiness and hoarding, but thirdly, hedonism. Hedonism is an old word as well. It just defines those that are
absolutely given to caring for self. Enjoying life to the hilt. Is there anything wrong with
enjoying life? No, that’s exactly what Ecclesiastes encourages.
And there are too many people that, you know, they look like
they’ve been weaned on a dill pickle and they go through life
depriving themselves of any blessing of God. Right? God wants us to enjoy life. He
says, eat and drink and enjoy life. Enjoy life with the woman
of your youth. Enjoy the good things that I
give. But when your life is only that, When that’s all you do, that’s hedonism. Look at v. 19. You talk about bad advice. Look at the advice He gives to
Himself. I will say to my soul, soul, let’s have a little conversation
here. Soul, yes? You have many goods
laid out for many years to come. Yes? Take your ease. Eat, drink, be merry. The problem
is the soul doesn’t have the capacity to enjoy those things. The soul doesn’t have the capacity
to dwell on those for as long as he wishes. He’s only with
you as long as you’re alive. And that’s what the man forgot.
The man is seen as placing his security in physical things. And anytime you do that, it is
a false security. He misapplies this physical comfort
to his spiritual soul and the things never transfer. Comfort
to our physical being never transfers to our soul. Psalm 52.7 says it this way,
Behold the man who would not make God his refuge. This is
this man. He would not make God his refuge,
but he trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong
in his evil desire. And that gives us that attitude
of hedonism, that it’s live for the moment. James, in rebuking the rich,
said it this way, you have lived luxuriously on the earth and
led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts
for the day of slaughter. That’s the sad thing, is that
people that live like today is all there is. There’s no tomorrow.
I’m going to live it up. There is no God. I’ll live how
I want. They fattened their hearts for
the day of slaughter. One Puritan warned this way. He said, it’s hard to possess
riches without sin. It’s hard. It’s a hard matter
to have them. and not to be hindered from heaven
by them. It’s hard not to grow proud and sensual and hurtful
and worldly. There is not a condition in life
that tends towards insolency and contempt of God so much as
luxurious fullness.” There’s a warning like that in the Proverbs,
isn’t there? Don’t give me too much. Don’t give me too much
lest I deny you. It’s exactly what Jesus is warning
here when He says, beware and be on guard against every form
of greed. Because when you have and you
think that’s all that life consists of, and you begin to live this
hedonistic lifestyle that cares nothing about tomorrow, cares
nothing about morals, you’re on very thin ice. No wonder
Jesus closes with these very solemn words. Jesus is responding to one very
common phrase in Scripture. Eat, drink, and be merry, for
tomorrow we die. Very common phrase in Scripture.
Seen three or four times at least that I could find. But God says
to him, you fool. And he would say to anyone who
holds to that view, you fool. This hedonistic, pleasure seeking,
pleasure mad lifestyle that you’ve adopted And now, who will own
what you have prepared? It’s a sad thing going to an
estate auction. If you’ve never been, I mean,
they’re interesting. There’s some neat things there from time to
time. But you know one sad thing that I
see? I’ve never been to an estate auction. I’ve never been to an estate
auction. It’s a sad thing to see, isn’t
it? My wife makes us a photo album
every year. It’s one of our precious… First thing that I’m supposed
to run out of the house with if it catches on fire. Photo albums. All the arms can carry, right?
It’s one of our most precious possessions. It’s one of our most precious
possessions. The sad thing is you go to a state auction and
people are thumbing through them, throwing them back on the table.
They’re under the table. They’re dust collectors. Interesting
pictures of people that don’t have names. That’s the point that Jesus wanted
to remind us, that’s what he wanted to remind his disciples,
that that is not all that life has to offer. Even the most precious
possession one day is going to be a dust collector in somebody
else’s auction. It’s a sad reminder. Ecclesiastes
5 says it this way. He who loves money will not be
satisfied with money. He who loves abundance with its
income, its vanity. When good things increase, those
who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their
owners except to look on? Sleep of a working man is pleasant,
whether he eats little or much, but the stomach of the rich man
does not allow him to sleep. This is a grievous evil which
I have seen under the sin. Riches being hoarded by their
owner to his hurt. And when those riches were lost
through a bad investment and he fathered a son, there was
nothing to support him. As he had come naked from his
mother’s womb, so he will return. He will take nothing from the
fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. Essentially,
Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, said that’s the best
we can hope for. It’s the best. Riches are fleeting. What God
gives has no promise for tomorrow. That’s what makes us constantly
called to fall on our knees and thank God for what He has given
and to plead with Him, hopefully, but not demandingly for more. Jesus warned us as He warned
them So is the man who lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God. The man’s problem was not
that he was rich, not that he was rich at all. His problem
was that he was rich and yet poor spiritually, poor in his
relationship with God. Where do your riches lie? Do
they lie in your bank account? Where does your hope lie? Where
does your heart lie? Because if it’s not with God
and God alone, you’re on dangerous ground. Let’s examine our hearts. Father, we acknowledge you as
the giver of all good things. Father, we thank you and praise
you that you have given to us such a tremendous abundance. And suddenly we find ourselves
to be on very dangerous ground. that all you have given as a
blessing may become to us a curse. If we look at these things improperly,
if we look at these things selfishly and haughtily, if we hoard them,
if we turn our lives into some empty hedonistic adventure, Father,
then we will truly be on very perilous terms. Grant us the
grace to examine our hearts with regards to physical things and
how we handle the blessings that you’ve given to us. And in this
Thanksgiving season, Father, may we ever be mindful to thank
you for the blessings, first and foremost, and to see what
you would have us to do with them for your glory. Lord, we
thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.