Am I "Rich Towards God?"

 I was listening to a well respected teacher of Scripture yesterday (John Piper) and his message was about being rich towards God.  Maybe you, as I, have heard the warnings many times about the love of money and the trap it sets.  In Matthew 6:21 and Luke 12:34, we're specifically told that where our treasure is, there too is our heart.  In the spirit of self-examination and confession, if we were to honestly assess where we spend our money and time, we might be sorely convicted of where our heart truly is versus where we think or would like it to be.  Our Pastor also spoke about this recently and exhorted us to set our hearts on things above (Colossians 3:1), not on the here and now.  Scriptures exhorts us to not give up our full birthright (as Esau did) for temporary satisfaction and gratification. 


  In the parable of the rich fool as told by Jesus in Luke 12:13-21, Pastor Piper highlighted the real problem that Jesus was warning about.   Here's the parable as told by Christ:


  Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’  “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."  Luke 12:13-21 (NIV)

  The thing that made this man a fool, was not that he was rich  (ironically even the world is trying to convince us that one who is rich and successful in business is evil, a very powerful political platform today), but that he:


  1)  Gave no credit to God for his bounty and therefore did not have a thankful heart; and


  2)  Had no thought of using his excess for anyone but himself, conceiving ways of ensuring it was stored and kept safe for his own personal needs, relaxation and pleasure.


  And there's the rub.  It's not a sin to be wealthy. There are many examples of Godly people in Scripture who had great wealth.  The sin is not being rich towards God and others with your wealth. 


  John Piper went into very specific and personal applications of how to ensure we're on-guard against being a slave to money and materialism.  I've posted the link to that podcast below if you'd like to hear the entire message--which is way more powerful than what I have captured here.  But I'm reminded again, that all of us in this country are far better off financially than most of the world.  Are we, as God's people in this country, being truly honest about our heart condition?  One sure test is looking at our bank account.  


John Piper Podcast