DWM-27 WFF-35 WFP-30
Short Clip
The Allure of wealth has never been easy to resist. Once a wealthy Christian plantation owner invited John Wesley to his home. The two rode their horses all day, seeing just a small part of all the man owned. At the end of the day, the plantation owner proudly asked, “Well, Mr. Wesley, what do you think?” After a moment of silence, Wesley replied, “I think you’re going to have a hard time leaving all this.” The plantation owner was attached to the world he was in. Wesley was attached to the world he was going to.
This morning can you say that you have obeyed Christ’s words and have become “rich toward God?” If there is any hesitance in your responses look again at our text and listen to Jesus with your heart as we stand and read Luke 12:15-21
This morning we return to Luke, and for a little while we are going to focus on what Jesus meant by His description of true believers being “GOD WEALTHY”. Money, Possessions and Eternity. Ownership: Giving God All. God’s kingdom was the reference point for these men. They saw all else in light of the kingdom. They were compelled to live as they did not because they treasured nothing, but because they treasured the right things.
We often miss something in missionary martyr Jim Elliot’s famous words, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep–to gain what he cannot lose.” We focus on his willingness to go to the mission field. That willingness started when he relinquished his hold on things as MINE!
DO WE HAVE THE GET-RICH-TOWARD- GOD MENTALITY? Some saints who did talk like this. Listen carefully:
• I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all. But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther
• John Bunyan wrote his classic Pilgrim’s Progress from an English prison cell to which he was c condemned for unlicensed preaching of the gospel. This is how he interpreted the words of Christ and Paul: Whatever good thing you do for Him, if done according to the Word, is laid up for you a treasure in chests and coffers, to be brought out to be rewarded before both men and angels, to your eternal comfort.
• John Wesley said, “I value all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity.”
• Similarly David Livingstone stated, “I place no value on anything I possess except in relation to the kingdom of God.”
• And so it is that when a man walks along a road, the lighter he travels, the happier he is; equally, on this journey of life, a man is more blessed if he does not pant beneath a burden of riches. Tertullian
• Let temporal things serve your use, but the eternal be the object of your desire. Thomas A Kempis
• J. H. Jowett once said the true measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all our money.
This morning we start a four-week trek. We will be hiking the great passages that describe for us how we can start or increase in our becoming “RICH TOWARDS GOD” in our MONEY, POSSESSIONS, AND ETERNITY.