Luke 12:13-21
We are in the age of billionaires especially if you live in California.
Recently a list was published of famous people who are atheist or agnostics.
Surprisingly, most of the famous figures like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg are mentioned in that list.
21st century insists that good life consists of wealth, fame and luxuries.
In order to pursue such life often the world pressures one to accumulate wealth for self.
In verse 15, Lord Jesus says the opposite of such belief.
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
How we live, expresses our Christian faith made up of attitudes and values.
Christian faith consists of compassion, love, kindness and faith in God.
Our faith also requires careful use of our material blessings.
Lord is just saying that money and possessions are to be used in spiritual serving – not to keep it for our own selfish motives.
Verses 16-19 Lord Jesus is very clearly talking about wrong intentions with our material blessings which God gives us.
Here a rich man blessed with wonderful crop that year – He made all out preparations to accommodate such huge harvest by building bigger barns/storage places.
We clearly see this rich man was not going to share his abundance with others.
We see many doing the same thing – keeping their wealth for themselves – not sharing with others – not contributing to the Lord’s service generously.
The Lord blesses us with material blessings but it is not right to keep it all for ourselves.
It is good and reasonable to have future plans for a rainy day and for our retirement.
Include a certain portion of our material blessings for the Lord’s service.
Verse 21 teaches two important spiritual lessons:
1. Life is uncertain
Never to take for granted the days we live on earth.
It is the fact of life – a person born into this world – surely going to die one day
We are accountable to the Lord not only with our spiritual disciplines but also with our material blessings
Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart”
All our riches and wealth, material blessings definitely stay here – they are not going with us.
2. No knowledge of our riches
We don’t know who gets our wealth, our possessions.
We will have no clue what happens to all of that we toiled for all of our life.
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
This is where the rich man gets the title ‘the rich fool’
If we are planning only for this life we are definitely fall into this category.
If we are living only for this moment we are definitely belong to this category.
If we are not considering contributing to the Lord’s service we are absolutely in this category.
The more we keep our blessings, the poorer we become in God’s sight.
Our attitudes and intentions with our material blessings decide the outcome.
We always have that option with what God has blessed us.
Rich in world and poor toward God
Which one is yours?
We are in the age of billionaires especially if you live in California.
Recently a list was published of famous people who are atheist or agnostics.
Surprisingly, most of the famous figures like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg are mentioned in that list.
21st century insists that good life consists of wealth, fame and luxuries.
In order to pursue such life often the world pressures one to accumulate wealth for self.
In verse 15, Lord Jesus says the opposite of such belief.
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
How we live, expresses our Christian faith made up of attitudes and values.
Christian faith consists of compassion, love, kindness and faith in God.
Our faith also requires careful use of our material blessings.
Lord is just saying that money and possessions are to be used in spiritual serving – not to keep it for our own selfish motives.
Verses 16-19 Lord Jesus is very clearly talking about wrong intentions with our material blessings which God gives us.
Here a rich man blessed with wonderful crop that year – He made all out preparations to accommodate such huge harvest by building bigger barns/storage places.
We clearly see this rich man was not going to share his abundance with others.
We see many doing the same thing – keeping their wealth for themselves – not sharing with others – not contributing to the Lord’s service generously.
The Lord blesses us with material blessings but it is not right to keep it all for ourselves.
It is good and reasonable to have future plans for a rainy day and for our retirement.
Include a certain portion of our material blessings for the Lord’s service.
Verse 21 teaches two important spiritual lessons:
1. Life is uncertain
Never to take for granted the days we live on earth.
It is the fact of life – a person born into this world – surely going to die one day
We are accountable to the Lord not only with our spiritual disciplines but also with our material blessings
Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart”
All our riches and wealth, material blessings definitely stay here – they are not going with us.
2. No knowledge of our riches
We don’t know who gets our wealth, our possessions.
We will have no clue what happens to all of that we toiled for all of our life.
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
This is where the rich man gets the title ‘the rich fool’
If we are planning only for this life we are definitely fall into this category.
If we are living only for this moment we are definitely belong to this category.
If we are not considering contributing to the Lord’s service we are absolutely in this category.
The more we keep our blessings, the poorer we become in God’s sight.
Our attitudes and intentions with our material blessings decide the outcome.
We always have that option with what God has blessed us.
Rich in world and poor toward God
Which one is yours?
RSS Feed
