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Rich Toward God

In the hour that we are living, especially in this country, the spirit of covetousness is so dangerous. The Scripture says in the last days that men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Tim. 3:4). Man's self-indulgence, the love of self, the power of pride and over-evaluation of his individualism has controlled man since the Fall. The focus has been on self because of Satan, the father of self, the father of lies, who said, "I will ascend above the throne of the Most High God. I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:14). That spirit is the force behind covetousness. It is not wanting to be a little better off but to be exalted and lifted up--the over evaluation of self. Covetousness says, "I deserve the best!" Doesn't everybody think that? We have to come to grips with that pride and selfishness that many times still dominates in our members. The spirit is subtle and manifests itself in many ways.

In Luke 12, Jesus is speaking to a person that came to him and said, "Master, make my brother divide the inheritance with me properly. I want what I deserve." Do you want what you deserve? All you deserve in life is a devil's hell. Everything else is the grace and mercy of God. Therefore, to be discontent with what God has given you is to judge the character of God and to over-evaluate yourself. You need to be satisfied in the sufficiency of God. You need to say, "God is enough. God is just. I trust in His love for me and I rest in His sovereign purposes." Some of us are not satisfied and do not believe that the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow. So we go on building sorrow after sorrow. We ruin families, friends and enterprises because we are never satisfied.

"Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. [Jesus responded and said], Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" (Luke 12:13-14). We know Jesus is the Judge, but what does He judge? He judges spiritual things, character and relationship. The Lord is really not concerned with whether or not we are getting our rights from the material perspective. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, your Father knows what you have need of and will provide for you in the material realm. He has promised that He will be involved in meeting all of your necessities, but He is not concerned with the abundance that you get concerned with.

We get caught up in abundance, but we should be concentrating on needs. We should be thankful that our needs are being met instead of acquiring and needing more. The real tragedy of this need for more is where we draw our worth and confidence from. We trust and rest in our riches. When we trust in them, they are our security blanket and the indicator of our success. We are preoccupied and driven by these things instead of being rich toward God and resting in the presence of God.

So many people are preoccupied with "bigger barns," brand-name clothes, the size of the house, the type car they are driving, but Jesus isn't speaking toward any of that. He says, "Fool, you have spent all of your time building barns, tearing them down, building bigger barns, resting in them, and you were not rich toward God." He didn't say there was anything wrong with being temporally rich. The problem was he was not rich toward God. It is not about the temporal stuff; it is about laying up treasures in heaven. It does not matter how much earthly stuff you have if you are rich toward God.

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