Title: God Sees the Rich
Contents
God the Creator blessed all people to have dominion over material things (Genesis 1:29-30).
▣ Therefore, some people grow and multiply their wealth like ears of grain,
Genesis 26:12-13 “Isaac farmed in that land and gained a hundredfold in that year, and the Lord blessed him, and the man became prosperous and prosperous, and at last he was rejected.”
▣ Some people work hard like Jacob to multiply their wealth,
Genesis 32:10 - “I am not worthy of all the grace and all the truth you have shown your servant, but I have crossed this Jordan with only my staff, and now I have made two herds.”
▣ Some people have been given special rights to own property. (The rich are given by heaven.)
Deuteronomy 8:18 - “Remember the LORD your God, for he has given you the power to obtain wealth, so that you may fulfill the covenant you swore to your fathers as it is today.”
In this way, God has given everyone the opportunity to earn money through hard work.
However, most people are not able to use all of the wealth they have gained through their hard work for themselves because they try to use it only for their own body and store it up in the world.
Sometimes, due to the history of looting and locusts, they spend their wealth on unwanted places,
Unable to fulfill his splendid dreams, he dies unexpectedly, so Solomon said, “All the results of toiling to death under the sun are in vain.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-11)
} But God says that the riches we have gathered for ourselves to die for can be stored up forever in heaven, where there is no moth and rust.
Matthew 6:20-21 “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal.”
Because God has promised to protect our lives and guide our lives, he said that no one can take it or harm it.
} God says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He said that wealth is like a magnet that attracts people's hearts.
Everyone lives with a desire to covet and collect wealth.
That is why, while teaching saving at school from an early age, we naturally learn the secret to becoming rich through the exploration of knowledge, and we learn the value of material and money while teaching saving at home and in society from an early age.
▣ What kind of person do you think rich people are?
Most people think of a rich person as a person with a lot of common sense.
But how much money do you have to have to be rich, and what do you think is the criterion for being rich?
▶ A global economic magazine defines a person with an annual income of 1 billion won or more as wealthy.
▶ According to a book called [8 Steps of a Happy Little Rich Man] written by a Japanese novelist Ken Honda, a happy little rich person has assets of 1 billion won or more. He was said to have met the conditions.
▶ In the case of Korea, Shinhan Bank also asked customers through a survey.
“How much money do you need to be rich?” He replied that he had to have 3 billion to be rich.
▣ But is it true that everyone is rich just because they have a lot of money? In fact, the rich can be divided into two categories.
One is the respected rich, the other is the accused rich.
They have the same wealth, but some are respected and some are criticized.
The reason is that? It is the difference between being dignified and not having the same wealth, but they are respected and criticized.
In this way, the truly rich people in the world can be said to be those who have a lot of money and yet have dignity.
▣ Today's text is also a parable about the rich.
Verse 16 says, “There was a rich man in his field that yielded abundantly.” Luke said this man was rich because he was obviously a wealthy man.
But in verse 21. He said, “So is he who is not rich toward God.”
This rich man is rich from the worldly point of view, but not rich from God's point of view.
Most people think that first of all, if you have a lot of money and have a class, you are rich.
However, in God's eyes, those who have wealth and dignity are not considered rich.
God's standard of being truly rich is different from that of man.
Who is the rich man God sees?
1. Those who have faith toward God.
Verse 13 - "One of the crowd said to him, "Teacher, command my brother to share the inheritance with me." And he said, "Who made me a judge or divider over you?"
▣ Jesus tells parables from verse 16 to the man who had a quarrel with his older brother over inheritance. When a man who had a dispute with his brother over inheritance came to Jesus and asked him to share his inheritance with his brother, Jesus saw that he had covetousness in his heart. says no.
▶ Even the original sin of Adam and Eve is the result of not being able to overcome the greed of the heart.
However, when blood and flesh are inherited to all who exist on this earth as descendants of Adam,
Since the covetousness of the heart is also inherited, the covetousness of the heart cannot be controlled before God.
A person can never become rich because he cannot have the faith God has given him.
▣ Why did God create Adam and Eve? Do you know if you were naked?
If you make clothes, they will ask you to make pockets, and if you make pockets, they will ask you to fill them with money, so I left them naked.
▣ God exhorts those who are born again to lay down everything before God.
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are burdened and burdened with the toil of life, and I will give you rest.”
Like the rich man in the text, those who value material things first cannot fully believe in God.
In Luke 18:25, Jesus tells the parable that it is better for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.
The truly rich people in the world God sees are those who completely entrust their lives to God like Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph.
Covetousness buys God's wrath, but believe that faith is the channel of blessing to receive God's love and guidance, and I hope you become rich with holy faith as much as a mustard seed toward God.
2. People who know how to share love are truly rich.
Verse 18 - "And he said, "This I will do: I will tear down my barn and build it larger, and store all my grain and goods there." The rich man is immersed in hoarding his fortune, and says he will build a bigger barn for his future because he doesn't have a barn to store his grain.
▣ This rich man is saying that he did not look after his neighbors while hoarding material for himself.
It says that he was not open to the poor and needy people around him.
▣ Recently, a survey agency surveyed people who won the lottery with more than 1 billion won. Surprisingly, 80% of people who won the lottery were unhappy after winning the lottery. And they divorced because of money, failed trying a new business and lost all their money. ▣ Among them, 20% of people found their lives happier after winning restoration. Why?
They were happy to donate and share some of the lottery winning money to needy neighbors.
It is possible that wealth blinds people's reason and makes them build their own huge Tower of Babel, which can injure family members, neighbors, and saints.
Do not think that if you have a lot, you will share it, but remember that the faith to share even a little is the image of a saint who resembles Jesus Christ. So, share your heart and material in the Lord, so that you can become rich in the sight of God and inherit the kingdom of God.
※ There are four kinds of people in the world)
① Live rich and die rich,
② Live rich and die poor,
③ Live poor and die rich,
④ People who live poor and die poor
3. Those who have hope in God are rich in God's sight.
Verse 19 - "And I said to my soul, Soul, many goods are laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, and be merry." This foolish rich man thinks he's made a lot of money, so he can live worry-free for years to come.
▣ But God said in verse 20
“And God said, ‘You fool, tonight your soul will be required of you, and whose will your preparations be?” he inquires.
This foolish worldly rich man thinks that if he has a lot of money he will live long.
However, the Lord tells us that a person's life is in God's hands, and warns that those who are not stingy with God will lose their lives, souls, and material as well.
▣ What is this rich man's view of life?
They focus everything on their physical life, focus on multiplying, and do not care about “the spiritual life that is their eternal future.”
This person is obsessed with worldly things, not knowing that if God, the owner of the soul, calls the soul, he will lose all he has and cannot prepare for the “time of the soul.
▣ Some tribes in Africa appoint a chief from among those who want them, and as a chief, they are given the right to do whatever they want for 7 years. People will become chiefs and compete and fight with each other. This is because greed blinds them to their future.
In Matthew 6:19-20, Jesus says that those who have hope in God are not stingy with material things before God.
The rich in the world would be defined as those who have a lot of money and have power, but
Who is the rich man God sees?
I pray that you will become rich in God's sight by remembering that you are a person who entrusts your future to God while having holy faith in God and giving love to your neighbors.