Luke 16:19-31
Do we have a money problem? Having money certainly isn't a problem, but misusing it certainly is. The rich man in this parable definitely had a problem - it wasn't that he had a bunch of money, or that he had a huge mansion. His problem was that he built a gate to keep people like Lazarus out, and every day when he passed by Lazarus at the gate he didn't do anything. He would do well to read James 2:14-17.
In our society, do we have a money problem? We use tomorrow's money to pay yesterday's bills. We spend money we don't have to buy things we don't need to please people we don't even like. Now that's sick. There are rich people in the world, that's for sure, and some of them use their money well. Then there are people who think they are rich and live a rich lifestyle, even though they are not. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6), and people can love money even if they don't have it. Some of the poorest people in the world love money as much as the richest do. I think we have a money problem.
Let's get back to the truth of Matthew 19. Jesus told the rich man to sell everything and give it to the poor. I don't think the point here is that we all need to sell our stuff and give everything to the poor. Jesus also said that we will always have the poor with us and chastised His disciples for wanting to sell the lady's gift of perfume to give the money to the poor (Mark 14). I think that in Matthew 19, Jesus was reminding the rich man that everything we have belongs to God, and that God is not satisfied with only part of what we have (Acts 5). God demands ALL of it - not that we must sell it all, but that we must offer it all to Him for Him to use as He would like. That's why He says that it's so hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom - it's hard to offer everything to God when you have a lot of stuff! When's the last time you told God that He could use your cell phone however He likes?
Let's think in terms of God's economy, not the human economy.
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