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An excerpt from
How To Be Wealthy

September 23, 2003

  1. And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.

  2. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

  3. And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Luke 12:13-15

Jesus said a man’s life does not consist of the abundance of things he possesses:  The thing we need to remember is that this extra—this abundance in our life—is not what our life is made of.  We tend to judge people by the extra’s in their life.  We see they have a house or a place to live, but how big is their house?  We see they are driving a car but how expensive is their car?  We see that they’re wearing clothes but how nice are their clothes?  We have that tendency to judge people by the excess in their life (or lack of).

Our life isn’t made up of the extra’s.  We need to beware of being covetous.  Many times, without even realizing it, a person can be thinking that once they obtain to a certain level of wealth then they can sit back and enjoy great blessings and what happens is that they change Lordship.  Because I have all this money now I can do whatever I want with my time.  I can buy whatever I want.  I can go wherever I want.  And no longer is their heart in doing what the Lord wants but it’s in doing what they want.  They no longer do what they do because the Lord wants them to but they do what they do because money has provided a way for them to do whatever they want.  Do you see the danger here?  The Lord is not against us having things but He doesn’t want money to become our master.  Jesus went on to tell the parable of the rich man:

  1. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

  2. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

  3. And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

  4. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

  5. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

  6. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Luke 12:16-21

It’s important to see here that this man was already rich.  It didn’t say, the ground of a certain poor man brought forth plentifully.  It said a rich man. This man already had abundance.  So don’t get the idea from this parable that Jesus is saying it’s wrong to be rich or that it’s wrong to have abundance.  Don’t think that God is saying you can’t have any extra.  That’s not what He’s saying here.  This man was already rich.  It wasn’t that he was poor, got some extra and God told him to give it away.  No, he was already wealthy.  He already had his barns full.  His excess was full and then he got extra on top that excess.  So he decided to retire.  He decided to sit back take it easy and eat, drink and be merry.

The Lord wants us to be blessed.  If you read on after Jesus told this parable of the rich man He went on to talk about not worrying about the things of this world, that God would take care of us.  He said in Luke 12:31-32:

  1. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

  2. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

He wants us to be blessed.  It pleases Him to bless us.  He just wants to make sure that His blessings won’t destroy us.

God Bless you and have a great day!