A Word in Season: Rich Toward God (Luke 12:15, 21)

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If this world and this age had a mantra, it might be this, that life consists in the abundance of the things that you possess.

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It's that obsession with the here and now to the exclusion of everything else.

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It's the attitude that is revealed in times of personal or national or global crisis, the absolute prioritization of stuff and things, the measuring of life and its value, its worth by how much we've got and how much we can keep.

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It's the spirit of grasping, getting, holding and storing, a profound self -centeredness that thinks only in terms of what we have and what we can keep.

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To be honest, it is not simply the spirit of this age, but the spirit of the world as a whole.

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It's there in Luke chapter 12 when the Lord Jesus Christ has just been speaking with real weight and force about living in the light of the judgment to come and calculating time in the light of eternity.

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And somebody shouts out and says, Rabbi, teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.

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Despite the fact that Christ has been holding heaven and hell before his eyes, he is laser focused on the here and the now.

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And he's already decided that he's not being treated unfairly and that he needs more stuff.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ takes the occasion to put his finger on the underlying issue of his heart and so many of our hearts.

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He says, beware of covetousness, be actively on guard against the spirit of discontent and envy, the appetite for constant accumulation, the wanting more and more.

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Why? Because one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

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It is not all about your house and your car and your clothes.

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It's not just about how much stuff you can fit in your cupboards and your shelves and your wardrobes and your closets.

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It's not just about the size of your rooms and the size of your bank accounts. Life is so much more than just what you possess.

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And the Lord illustrates that with this telling short parable about a rich man who had been gifted much.

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His fields were bringing in a bumper crop. He had a really good year and he decided for himself in a song of self -centeredness that he would store it all up, that he would keep it for himself, that he would live off the profits, that he would enjoy perhaps we might say an early retirement and that he would just enjoy the pleasures of life for years to come and that there was nothing else that he needed to worry about.

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And the Lord God, who was, if you will, listening in on this man's internal conversation, called him a fool, a man who'd got his priorities utterly confused, a man who, despite being a success in the world's eyes, was a tragedy in the eyes of God.

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Why? Because that very night his soul would be required of him and all that stuff that he'd accumulated would be passed on to who knows who.

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And so the Lord Christ emphasized that this is the picture of the man or woman who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God and that ought to recalibrate our souls.

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When we think about the life that we live, when we think about the priorities that we have, when we think about the investments that we make, where does

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God and his kingdom come in the scale? Are we thinking, even on the

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Lord's Day, of how important it is that we are rich toward God, rich in faith, rich in hope, rich in love, rich in service?

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Are we giving our time and our energy and, yes, our money, not just toward the things of this world, not just investing in things that will pass away, but are we truly rich toward God and so ready to certainly enjoy and appreciate the blessings he gives and to use well and to rely upon and delight in the necessities that he provides?

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But are we thinking beyond that? What can I do with the resources with which God has blessed me?

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How can I employ the things of this life in order to invest in the things of the life which is to come?

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For life is more than the abundance of things. Life is not just about existing and existing in comfort.

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Life is about serving God, the God of our salvation, knowing him, delighting in him and proving rich toward him, making a heavenly investment that will bring an eternal return.