The Peril of Riches | Lon Solomon

[Music] well hello everybody and welcome to live with lon we are so glad that you're with us today and i am so glad to be with you teaching the word of god as we study it together so today we have a fairly famous passage uh that i'm sure many of you will be familiar with uh but we want to do what we always do we want to expose it the scripture that is we want to look at the passage take it apart and look at it in its individual parts put it back together and then now that we really understand it apply it to our lives and uh so we have a wonderful passage today but before we dig in let's pray here we go dear lord jesus as we pray every week work in our hearts illuminate our spirits make our minds and our hearts able to comprehend the truth and the beauty of your word father forgive us for our sins this week and even this day lord burn in our hearts cleanse our hearts and make the channel open and free flowing between your holy spirit and us between your word and our hearts today and we pray this in jesus name and everybody said amen and amen okay now uh we are studying the gospels when luke chapter 18. jesus is on his way from the sea of galilee up north where his headquarters has been for three years during his public ministry he's on his way to jerusalem for the very last time to be arrested tried crucified buried and resurrected praise the lord and to seal and purchase once and for all our salvation on the cross and in the resurrection okay now he's almost to jericho uh where he's going to turn east and go up the jericho road about 13 miles from jericho to jerusalem but we'll talk about that in the next couple weeks when we get there uh so are you ready to dig in all right here we go we're in luke chapter 18 new king james version of the bible and uh we are going to be at verse 18. now remember the context remember we always say a text without a context is a pretext that is it's a falsehood uh you you as i've said many times you can't just take a verse out of the scripture and throw it up against the wall like a piece of spaghetti and see what sticks no uh the scripture has to be interpreted in context and that's why we study i want you to say with me come on the bible stay with me the whole bible and what nothing but the bible and then we apply to our lives now the context here is found in chapter 18 uh beginning at verse 15 where uh let's look at verse 15 and they also brought infants to him that he might touch them but when his disciples saw it they rebuked him and jesus then rebuked them and said let the little children come to me and do not forbid them verse 16 for if such is the kingdom of god verse 17 assuredly i say to you that whoever does not receive the kingdom of god as a little child will by no means enter it now the context here is childlike faith the context here is childlike reliance on the lord not just for our salvation but for everything we need okay and coming out of this uh teaching we get our our next passage which relates to it uh there's no accident these two passages are butted up against one another because what works against our trusting the lord uh like a child in simple childlike faith well there's several things pride arrogance haughtiness uh uh being educated beyond our intelligence yes that's one thing but on on the other hand also riches money which makes us feel self-dependent which makes us feel that we can buy our way through just about everything so we don't have to trust the lord like a child we can trust what our money can do for us and that's where our passage links in to where jesus was last week he's trying to warn us here that one of the great enemies of childlike faith which opens the doors to heaven for us and which enables us to see great and mighty things that we know not jeremiah 33 3 as we walk along the christian life hand in hand with our heavenly father uh the thing that threatens this more than anything these uh these great blessings is money and the love of money and the reliance on money so let's watch here we go uh verse 18 and a certain ruler asked him i assume this ruler was standing right there listening uh to what he was saying about childlike faith good teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life now that's a great question you know the the philippian jailer acts chapter 16 after the angel blew the doors open on the jail ran to paul and silas and said sirs what must i do to be saved and it's interesting in that passage paul gave him a very straightforward answer believe in the lord jesus christ and you will be saved uh very simple now here uh the lord doesn't do that and and there's a reason why uh the reason is he wants to flush uh the rich young ruler out and force him to confront his own arrogance and his own self-reliance and his own dependence on his religious works and activities to try to get him to heaven so that's why jesus just doesn't give him a straight up answer okay watch now verse 19 and jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good but one that is god you say oh why did he say that of course jesus is good he's sinless the sinless son of god yes well now i think although i can't be positive but i think the reason the lord jesus said this to him is because this man prodded himself with being good and himself with being righteous and jesus is trying to say to him human beings none of us are righteous uh in our flesh uh so i think he was reflecting uh the mistake that this rich young ruler was making in his own mind in his own self-estimation that's what i think now watch jesus goes on then to answer him and says you know the the commandments the ten commandments do not commit adultery do not murder do not steal do not bear false witness honor your father and your mother so jesus said uh these are the things you need to do to inherit eternal life to work your way into heaven and uh there's two responses that a person can make to this response number one is oh my gosh i'm in deep weeds now i i i've broken all of these uh certainly honoring my father and mother uh there's no toddler alive who doesn't break the ten commandments even though he may not know them uh uh and and so uh all these other things gossiping against your neighbor bearing false witness against your neighbor remember jesus said if you look on a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her in your heart in the sight of a holy god friends in light of that definition which jesus gave in the sermon on the mount i doubt if there is a male alive who hasn't committed adultery almost every single day according to that definition and maybe not a woman either a do not murder uh jesus said uh if you hate your brother in your heart you've already murdered him uh so who can meet these these uh these ten commandments and keep them perfectly nobody that's responsible number one oh my gosh jesus is there a plan b cause if this is plan a i can't do it that's response number one that is not the response this guy gave he gave response number two look what he said he said in verse 21 all these i have kept from my youth now come on all these do not commit adultery according to the definition of definition of jesus do not murder according the definition of jesus uh i've never slandered my brother i've never dishonored my parents come on what are you kidding and that gives jesus to possible responses response number one is to argue with this guy and try to convince him that he has not kept all these commandments uh jesus doesn't do that why because you're not gonna convince this guy of the he he's self-righteous he believes he's done you're not gonna convince him option number two available to jesus is to smoke him out uh to out him and that's what jesus does watch and when jesus heard these things he said to him you still lack one thing sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me now friends jesus in his list of the ten commandments he gave this guy he left one of them out we left several out but one that he left out is thou shalt not covet thou shalt not desire uh material things and the things that your neighbor has his car uh his chariot whatever his horses his house his clothing his money his bank account his portfolio uh his furniture uh his oven whatever and uh jesus uh chooses this commandment now and says okay you've kept all the ten commandments all right i'm not going to argue with you let's just see how about number 10 do not covet do not love material things do not be jealous over money and what it can buy so go give all your money away and come follow me and you will have reward in heaven what jesus is trying to do he's trying to prove to this guy that this guy has not kept all the ten commandments not no way or even if he feels he kept the other nine he's not keeping number ten now uh you know this verse has been used i'm afraid and twisted to be used in some very uh uh unhealthy ways i remember when i first got uh saved back in 1971 i hitchhiked down to see my parents in atlanta and share the gospel with them and i fell in with a group of people who were out on the street passing out the trap passing out tracks called the children of god it was a cult but i didn't know that uh and when i've i was in my nia vitae when i fell in and began passing out tracks with them i thought this was great uh they said to me would you like to join the children of god i said yeah sure why not seem like wonderful young men wonderful young women uh they had bible study every night yeah sure why not they and they showed me this verse and they said okay now then what you need to do is sell all you have and distribute it to us and we will give it to the poor so we'll handle it for you and come follow us and you'll have treasure in heaven they use this verse well i didn't have much i mean frankly i barely had the clothes on my back but i did have a i didn't have a savings account my parents had emptied it out when they ran into financial trouble and promised to pay me back there had been thousands of dollars in it i got from my bar mitzvah and no i didn't have any of that but i did have a couple of gold pieces one that my grandfather had given me a 20 gold piece one that my dad had given me a ten dollar gold piece i mean they were worth i don't know a few hundred dollars at the time so i called my dad up there in atlanta and i said dad where are those gold pieces uh that that i've got he said well they're in my safe deposit box i said well i'd like you to get them for me i'd like to sell them and he goes why and i told him and he refused he said no i'm not getting them no something sounds fishy about this and i'm not getting them and i'm not letting you do that well uh eventually i left town a couple weeks later i figured out the children of god weren't everything they they uh said they were and i still got those gold pieces to this day uh and i'm i'm so glad my dad didn't let me sell them and they're a precious keepsake now that my grandfather and my dad have passed on my point is they took this verse and twisted it uh to apply to me now jesus would never said to you and me uh demanded that we sell everything we have and come follow him as ever for every follower of christ no that's taking this out of context that's throwing it up on the wall like a piece of spaghetti and saying that's what you need to do and there are a lot of christian cults uh and even churches who will tell people that no no this was for this guy the rich young ruler at this moment in time for his unique situation all right you with me now jesus is trying to show him that he loves money more than he loves jesus which then is a violation of commandment number one you shall love the lord your god you shall have no other gods before me so now he's violated commandment one and two as well okay now watch and when he the young man heard this he was very sorrowful for he was very rich and when jesus saw that he became very sorrowful he said how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of god for it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god i want to know where that idiom comes from like trying to put a camel through the eye of a needle right here out of the bible folks now the disciples react because in israel at this time riches were considered to be an outward sign of god's blessing of god's pleasure with you of god's happiness with the way you were living uh that you were walking close with god so these the disciples are scandalized and that's why they say and those who heard it said well then who can be saved if if rich people who ipso facto are walking close to god and are being blessed and being loved as a special way by god if they can't get into heaven how in the world is everybody else going to get in well jesus said and by the way that wasn't true it was just what the jews thought he said the things which are impossible with men are possible with god and peter said see lord we have left all and followed you and he said to them assuredly i say to you there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children now watch not because they ran out on them but they left them for the sake of the kingdom of god who shall not receive many times more what they left in this present time and in the age to come everlasting life now i love mark's gospel uh because some people i've used this verse i've preached on this verse and said that uh because it says in in matthew's gospel chapter 19 that god will return to us a hundred fold uh in this life and i've talked about that and i said and you know god will multiply the houses you left the money you gave up and everything like that and i've been attacked by people enough they said that's the prosperity gospel no it isn't it's the bible it's what jesus says and i'll show you that look at mark's gospel mark chapter 10 verse 29 let's put it on the screen peter says verse 28 see and we have left all and followed you same uh event and assuredly jesus said there is no one who's left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the gospel now watch verse 30 who shall not receive a hundred-fold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life don't tell me that god didn't make a promise uh that he would give back to us materially uh a hundred fold what we what we give up for him he may not give it back in the exact same form uh uh like gold pieces but he will bless you back that's not the prosperity gospel that is the gospel uh and i've certainly seen that true in my life you know i started hitchhiking around chapel hill i left chapel hill i started hitchhiking around with five dollars in my pocket and a nap sack on my back with a a an extra pair of jeans an extra pair of socks my dog's food and his bowl and brush and all of that that's how i started my christian life i didn't have a savings account i didn't have a trust fund i had the two gold gold pieces that's it and now 50 years later i look around and not only has god bless me with all kinds of great things like a wonderful wife and a wonderful family and many years of of being able to serve him and good health but he's also blessed me materially beyond anything that i ever imagined uh and and i've been a pastor my whole life i never did anything to acquire funds like be a hedge fund manager or you know start a business i've never done anything i've been a pastor and and look at how god has blessed me and when people say something like that about it i say look you know uh i'm not going to apologize um for the blessings that god has bestowed upon me i didn't ask for him it wasn't a condition of which i went into the ministry no i never quoted this verse back to the lord and said you need to give me a hundred no i just serve the lord from my heart and look what god did he fulfilled his word uh and i'm not going to apologize for god's blessings on my life uh but he he did what he said and many of you know exactly what i'm talking about because he's done the same for you so this is our passage and jesus ends it here in mark's gospel book for by saying but many who are first will be last and the last first what's that mean well the rich people whom all the israelites believed were the most blessed and who were on the top the first they're going to be last if they don't trust christ and people who are last in the eyes of people in the jewish culture because they're not rich but they're rich in faith they're going to be first okay now that's our passage but we want to stop now we want to ask our most important question are you ready come on now here we go one two three so what ha ha yeah baby come on now how sweet it is yes it is and uh there's a lot of lessons we could draw out of here we could talk about the fact that jesus never offered the rich young ruler a second chance anywhere in the bible that we see so you got to grab the opportunities that jesus brings your way today is the same day of salvation paul says in second corinthians uh if it's there and being presented to you you need to grab it uh and and mo abraham had to grab uh the opportunity the lord gave him when he said abraham leave your lands your country your relatives and come follow me and i will make you great and moses had to grab it right there at the burning bush when god said i want you to go back to egypt and lead the children of israel out and esther had to grab it right at the moment when mordecai said you need to go see the king and ruth had to grab boaz right there when he saw her and on and on and on we could draw that out of this and that's certainly true but that's not the point jesus makes we would be wise here to make the so what the jesus makes and what's the so what that jesus makes well look we read it back to luke 18. look what he said he said verse 24 and when jesus saw that the man became very sorrowful he said how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of god that's his point we could also make the point that anything you leave and give up for christ he's going to multiply that back to you he either here on earth or with treasure in heaven a hundred fold we could make that point because he does say that but that's not the main point the main so what is the peril of riches when it comes to getting into heaven and the kingdom of god are you with me in context that's the main point now what else does the bible say about that well let's look at mark chapter uh four where jesus tells the parable about the sower and the seeds look at at the third soil he says in verse 18 these are the the seeds that are sown among thorns uh where they are the ones that hear the word and the cares of this world and the look at this verse 19 the deceitfulness of riches and those desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful the deceitfulness of riches first timothy chapter 6. look at this with me verse 9 but those who desire to be rich paul says fall into temptation and a snare a snare a trap and in the many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierce themselves through with many sorrows and look back down if you would in verse 17 command those who are rich in this presence age that they not be haughty proud nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living god who gives us richly all things to enjoy so uh here's the deal the bible warns us that the deceitfulness of riches can choke off the word of god in our life so that we miss heaven and paul warns us that many people have fallen into a snare and the many harmful and foolish lusts in their desire and their greed for money and he says don't be haughty don't be proud don't trust in your money but trust in the living god this is the problem this is why jesus said why it's so hard for people who are rich uh to get in the kingdom of god because when we're when we've got lots of money uh there is that great temptation to trust what we can do to solve our problems including getting into heaven with money we're a great philanthropist and that'll get us into heaven using our money and giving it away no that's not going to get us into heaven no we're we're in terrible trouble in this situation or in that situation so rather than turning to god like a little child aha here we are like a little child and throwing ourself on him we try to buy our way out of it and the same thing with heaven rather than turning to the lord jesus as our savior as a little child and just trusting him we try to earn and buy our way into heaven it's funny when you go to israel on many of the buildings you will see the names of the benefactors the great philanthropists you know donated by uh uh whoever uh barry and sonya uh smith uh spiegel or whoever you know they love to put their names on these buildings over there the people who give the money like god's gonna see it and this is gonna help get into heaven no no wrong childlike faith gets us into heaven child life faith is how we move through life and how we uh respond to the needs of life uh and we can think of some people uh for whom first timothy six uh came true uh uh that they got themselves in all kinds of trouble uh uh how about uh ananias and sapphira acts chapter five where the holy spirit struck them dead because of their greediness and they're lying to the holy spirit to keep some money back from the house they sold how about judas john chapter 12 tells us he was a thief and he loved money and he used to steal from the bag the purse that the the disciples carried around and that made him open to 30 pieces of silver to deny the lord how about in the old testament uh the the hazel you may not remember him uh uh he was elisha's servant and when naaman the leper the syrian general came and elisha healed him from his leprosy uh elisha the uh naaman wanted to give elisha all kinds of money and elisha said no i just want you to worship god the true god but gehazar secretly went after naaman and took a bunch of that money he said well if elisha is not going to take it i'm going to take it and when he came back elisha said to him second kings chapter five where have you been and he's i've been anywhere and he said oh yes you have did not my heart go with you when you went after naaman and took that money from him he said hey zai is this the time to lay up money and houses and clothing and riches no and now the leprosy that left naaman it will cling to you the rest of the days of your life and immediately gaze i became a leper we can go on but the love of money paul says is the root of all sorts of evil so let me close and say what's our lesson for today the lesson for today my friends is be careful that money particularly when we get a lot of it does not make us what did paul say in 1st timothy chapter 6 look at this he said did not make us haughty does not make us verse 17 proud and arrogant that we don't trust in our riches but in the living god and this is very subtle so all i can do is ask you to examine yourself and uh and you know say is is money interfering with my ability to just strictly trust god am i trusting in my money some this is why i believe god often doesn't give us a lot of money until maybe later in our christian lives uh because he's got to teach us how to rely on him in a way that money won't pollute by the time we actually get it if he gave it to us right at the very beginning it would obviously for many of us uh certainly for me it would have been a huge challenge uh not to trust the money it still is a challenge for me and every one of us uh the way our flesh is wired uh that we'd rather trust anything rather than put our simple trust in christ uh you say i know that's not true of course it is the flesh does not want to do that and that's why so often that you and i will come to god after we've tried every single thing we can think of to solve our problem and the last thing we try is to come to the lord drop on our knees and say oh lord jesus i'm just going to rely on i'm in trouble can you help me i'm just going to rely on you like a little child how come we didn't do that first well because our flesh hates that uh our pride hates that and that's why it tends to come last so let's be careful now does that mean we go give all our money away well of course we should give to the work to the lord but that means does that mean we know we just go and just absolutely uh give it all away no that's not what jesus is asking he's asking us and he tells us here in first timothy of chapter 6 verse 17 that god has given us all things richly to enjoy god doesn't mind if we enjoy the things of this life so long as they don't endanger they don't threaten our simple childlike dependence on the lord jesus to meet our needs not the things of this world so let me close by giving you the balance this comes out of the book of proverbs reading from the new american standard uh translation chapter 30. listen now we'll put it on the screen this is wonderful this would be worth memorizing chapter 30 verse 8 and 9 the writer of proverbs says give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is my portion lest on the one hand i be full rich and deny thee and say who is the lord or on the other hand lest i be in want and steal and profane the name of my god now wonderful balance uh don't give me too much where lord i go off and i say who is the lord i don't need him i got my money and don't give me too little uh that lord i might do something that might profane your name but just lord you know me you know what i can take uh you give me what i'm what i can take and what i need and and lord help me to trust you that whatever i have right now is what you know i can handle in terms of riches and money and if i could handle more you'd give me more but you've given me what you know i can handle and i don't know about you but i i can relate to this when i first came to christ and i worked as a janitor at the good news mission uh even when brenda and i got married for many years i mean we were poor church mice uh i was going to mcdonald's was a was a big was a big deal we ate casseroles every night and i remember one year when we were out at hume lake speaking um the youth speaker that week not me i was the adult speaker but the youth week speaker drove up in this massive uh uh like durango uh and he was throwing uh jet skis on the back and he was towing motorcycles on the back and uh i was like holy moly you know how does you know he was youth how in the world does he get enough money how does he afford all this stuff and i got to be honest i was i was pretty envious and i said to the lord lord how you know i'm a senior pastor of a fairly large church i can't buy all this stuff how can he how come you give it to him and blah blah blah blah guys you know and i'm telling you the lord said to me just as clear as a bell hey solomon listen to me if i could give this stuff to you without it being perilous to your faith and your walk with me i'd give it to you uh but right now son if i gave you all that he has uh if i it would be a danger to your soul and i had to come to the place of saying lord you will give me what you need to give me what you want to give me what i can handle when i can handle it and if you haven't given it to me at this point i need to assume that right now i would not be able to handle it without it hurting my work walk with god and therefore lord um i'm i'm okay i trust you that your judgment's best you say well so this youth pastor if it wasn't gonna hurt his walk with god maybe he should have been senior pastor mclean bible church i don't know i didn't go that far in my thinking i'm just telling you for me i knew god was saying be content my friend be content when you can handle more i'll give you more in the meantime you just be content uh to grow in the lord and stay humble let's pray dear heavenly father we live in a material world that cries to us from every nook and cranny uh that we should uh love the material things of this world and lord you know that in our flesh we do love those things uh madonna said i am a material girl living in a material world well lord you don't want us to be a material girl or guy you want us to be a spiritual man or woman uh living in a material world so lord jesus remind us of that you're not going to give us more material things than we can handle more material things than our spiritual depth can handle without being compromised and lord for all of us help us to be content with what you've given us trusting your wisdom and your discernment for what we lord jesus what we can handle without being it without it being perilous to our souls use your word today to encourage us lord uh and to uh really help us uh to uh be content with such things as we have and we pray this in jesus name and everybody said amen okay ladies and gentlemen brothers and sisters boys and girls that's preaching yeah it is okay hey listen great to have you with us today um some punch people wrote in about my master's shirt i just want to say my son justin who was a golf nut talked me into one time going to the masters and taking all three of my sons as a great guy trip uh and it was and i was happy we did it once and praise the lord so that's what that's all about i've only been once and um okay so god bless you have a good week [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Lon Solomon Ministries

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Length: 39min 54sec (2394 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021