Poverty, Riches And God

16 And He told them a parable, saying, "The land of a certain rich man was very productive.

17 "And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ’What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’

18 "And he said, ’This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

19 ’And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry."’

20 "But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’

21 "So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

But how do you do that? How can you be rich toward God?

In chapter 14 Jesus gives the Pharisee who invited him for dinner this advice: Luke 14:12-14. Then he told a parable of a king who gave a great banquet and when those he invited didn’t come, he made his servants go out and fill his house with the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.

Where do all our blessings come from anyway? And how does God want us to think about them? After this parable, Jesus makes it clear that no one can be his disciple unless we renounce all that we have... I am not making that up! Look at Luke 14:33.

What is it about riches and poverty that Jesus is teaching us? Why does God’s word in the gospel of Luke keep hammering on this? Luke 15 tells a story about what appears to be a wealthy man who has two sons. When the younger son asks for his inheritance, the Father divides the inheritance between his sons and the younger son gathers up his money and takes off to a distant land and wastes it all. Then when he has nothing and a famine comes upon the land, the younger son is in need so he hires himself out to a pig farmer where his job is to feed the pigs. He gets so hungry the pig food begins to look good to eat. And Jesus said, “No one gave him anything.” This young man is in poverty. And it is here, in the poverty and the smell of the pig pen, where he is broken and starving that he comes to his senses and realizes his true condition. Scarcity shows us things about ourselves that riches can not.

As we turn back now to the rich man and Lazarus, what lessons do we learn about wealth and poverty and their relationship to our eternity?

I don’t think anyone here is as wealthy as this rich man. But I don’t see anyone here as poor and needy as Lazarus either.

Is it not tempting to want to be rich?

Is it not also tempting to look down on those who are in poverty?

What does God think about this? What is his word to us on these things?

Here are a few applications to take home.

1. Those in poverty give us with plenty an opportunity to be rich toward God.

We who have are tested by how we handle our possessions. Riches and pursuit of wealth easily blinds us from the kingdom of God and chokes out the word of God from bearing fruit. But those who follow Jesus Christ and are blessed with wealth may by their generosity prove their faith to be real and actually store up treasures in heaven. Listen to 1 Timothy 6:17-18