Rich Towards God

Read Luke 12:15-21

As you might be able to tell, this is kind of a continuation of last week's lesson. Our question is, what does is mean to be "rich towards God?" But we're going to try to understand some things before we answer that. 


First, what is it that the Rich Fool has done wrong?
He stored up his possessions for himself. Or more broadly, he loved his possessions and himself more than anything or anyone else. 


Here are some other verses that talk about this idea; what is the key phrase that keeps coming up?

• 1 Tim 3:3 requires that a church leader must "not love money"
  
• Heb 13:5 "keep your lives free of the love of money"
  
• 2 Tim 3:1-5 lovers of money are included in a list of selfish, ugly traits, which concludes with "having a form of godliness but denying its power."
  Does this list sound familiar? Does that pretty much describe the culture we live in? Maybe even ourselves? Do you have a form of godliness that has no power to change your life, or anything around you? Is that the God we know?
  
• 1 Tim 6:10 This is the famous one. (If you really want to understand what it says, read v.5b-10.) We Christians are quick to point out that this verse doesn't condemn money – "the love of money is the root of evil," we like to call attention to. And in that way, we can justify that its OK for us to have money, "just as long as we don't love it."
  And as far as that goes, that's true.
  But do you realize how hard it is to have money and not love it? Or, especially, how small of a distinction it is to want to keep your money (or want more of it), but say that you don't love it? It's such a fine line, it may as well not even exist. Instead, the "love of" clause becomes a convenient excuse for our wealth.
  

Does this mean I can never have money? I can never live comfortably?
No. But it does mean that you need to be very, very careful that it does not control you. Just as in the parable of the talents, everything that you have, God has given you to use. If we ourselves belong to God (I Cor 6:19-20), how much more that things that we call "ours"? Everything you have is really His, and you should be ready to give it back the moment He asks for it. Remember, you cannot serve both God and Money.


What can the Rich Fool do with this wealth?
Let's return to the Rich Fool. In v.17, he says, "What shall I do?" There are only 3 choices that I can think of:

• Store/save it up. Jesus says, uh-uh.
  
• Spend it all immediately on himself. Think about that one for sec. I don't think that's where Jesus was going.
  
• Share. To give it away is the only option left.
  

So, how do we be Rich Towards God?
You should be beginning to get the picture. But to really drive it home, let's go back to Paul's letter to Timothy. Read 1 Tim 6:11-12, 17-19.
What do these keywords tell us?

• pursue – It doesn't just "come" to us… we have to chase these things! They require work and diligence!
  
• put hope in God – like we talked about last week, God is worthy of our hope and trust, because he will take care of us
  
• for our enjoyment – God does not want us to be unhappy! Sometimes we think of God as some cosmic killjoy that just wants to take away anything that's fun, but that is NOT the case! It's okay to enjoy the things he blesses you with!
  
• rich in good deeds – Such a great phrase. Not only does it tell us to fill our lives with good deeds (think "make your life thick with good work"), but it also implies that our lives, our character will be richer for having done them. We are the ones who actually benefit from our own good deeds!
  
• Be generous… -- This is the ultimate way to show that money has no hold over you. In addition, it specifically spells out that this lays up treasure in heaven. So if you never how to put Matt 6:20 into practice, now you know!
  
• life that is truly life – Only God can give true life. You can chase after fulfillment, and try to create a meaningful life, for yourself, on your own… but you will end up losing yourself (Luke 9:24). Instead, if you give up control of your life to God, and live richly toward him without holding anything back, he will give you a life you never dreamed of!
  

 

Intimacy with Jesus

By Abigail Ludeman, with the Holy Spirit

 Psalm 27:4-One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

When I first read verse, it did not click. One thing? I ask for lots of things! Dwell in the house of the lord?  What does that mean? Isn’t he everywhere? Beauty of the Lord?  Ok, so Jesus is beautiful.  That’s nice… Seek him in his temple?  Well, there are Muslim mosques in India.

 But this verse has changed my whole paradigm. Who wrote this? King David.  Who was he?  The Bible says he was a man after God’s own heart.

Read verse again—remember this is Old Testament.  The curtain to the holy of holies wasn’t torn in two yet.  Only the high priest could enter into God’s presence. And yet David wanted to be with the Lord.  And he didn’t sit there, he didn’t play Nintendo, none of that.  David gazed on the beauty of the Lord.  He gazed…not just glanced for a moment, the beauty of the Lord captured all of his attention

I want to propose to you that there is so much more to our God than we think. Our God is a mystery.  He wants us to seek him.  He wants us to gaze on his beauty.  He wants us to be intimate with him. 

 And not only does God want us to be close to him, but we need to be close to him! I love this book The Seven Longings of the Human Heart—One thing it says is that “God hard-wired us to need, to want, and to find our satisfaction in Him and him alone…When these longings are not fulfilled in God, we are left empty, with pain, mourning and dissatisfaction.  We have built into us a God-shaped vacuum, which remains empty until we allow God to fill it by fulfilling our deepest longings.” 

You know what, we all have deep longings.  We can’t ignore that fact.  America is the picture in my opinion, of dissatisfied people.  We buy huge houses. We have so much stuff that there are now organizational companies who come and help people find a way to fit it all into their homes.  We have turned to sex, drugs, alcohol, and pornography.  60 million people in America are obese.   

And I’m not excluded.   I struggle with thinking that food will make me happy.  It never does.  I feel so bad about it when I stuff myself.  But we can only grit our teeth and resist sin for so long.  We are human, we need to be satisfied.  If I don’t go to him, sit at his feet and listen to his voice, that void will stay empty. 

Sometimes it’s hard to get away from everything in our busy lives, but we must.  The only way we can be truly satisfied is through Jesus Christ.

So go wait.  Wait on the Lord in a secret and quiet place.  God wants us to be fulfilled people, and his love is better than life. Take a couple minutes right where you are to quiet yourselves and listen to your loving Father.

This devotional message 

was prepared and delivered by Abby Ludeman

at the March Bible Quiz Meet.

Taking Every Thought Captive

2 Corinthians  10:3-7

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the word. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every though to make it obedient to Christ

I just think this is a good reminder that we live in the world but we aren’t like the world. The weapons we have are from God and so they have divine power. Since we are from God we demolish arguments and pretensions that come up against what we know about God. A pretension is a claim.
It also says that we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. If you think about it literally you might see something like what we were saying at our Servant Leadership team meeting. The picture we came up with was a bunch of little thoughts flying around in a bird cage.
After you stop thinking about it like that, just think about how hard it is to make all your thoughts obedient to Christ. A different version says that though probably means plot, or design so this means that we need to submit not only outwardly but also inwardly meaning in thought or mind.
So if you need to make all your thoughts or plots obedient to Christ that would mean that every time you try to plot your revenges on some one your thoughts wouldn't be obedient. So try it strive to make your thoughts obedient to Christ.

This devotional message 

was prepared and delivered by Katie Hersman

at the February Bible Quiz Meet.
Watch Katie's message on YouTube!

January Devotional

Give your all to God; He will always give back to you more than you could ever need .

This devotional message 

was prepared and delivered by Nick Roth

at the January Bible Quiz Meet.

December Devotional

Meaningless controversy is never worth it.

This devotional message 

was prepared and delivered by Brad Widman

at the December Bible Quiz Meet.

Devotion

Devotion: What comes into your mind when you think of that word? What does it mean to be devoted to someone or something? Webster’s dictionary describes devotion as “religious fervor, an act of prayer or private worship other than regular corporate worship of a congregation.” It also states that “the act of devoting is the fact or state of being passionately dedicated and loyal to an idea, person or thing.”

Okay, so now that we have a definition I want you to think of things in your life that you are devoted to, according to this definition. Right now I have one that comes to mind and that is the Seattle Seahawks.  I am completely 110% devoted to the Seahawks; I am loyal beyond belief.  I check their site every day to find out what happened at practice. I have jerseys and memorabilia. I watch every game without fail.  My whole Sunday is planned around the Seahawks game.  So, now what is the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of what you are devoted to? What do you spend most of your time doing? My guess is that like me, most of you came up with something that you are devoted to besides God.

In 1 Corinthians 7:29-35, Paul is taking about marriage and how those who are married should live.  Then all of a sudden Paul breaks off from the topic of marriage and just talks about how we as Christians should live our lives.  Paul says in verses 29 – 35:

What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away. I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

Let’s go back here to verse 31 and the word engrossed. What do you think about this idea? It says “those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.” What do you guys use on a daily basis? Is it a computer, a cell phone, maybe your car.  Are you engrossed in those things? Are you more concerned about texting your friend, or checking your Facebook page than spending 30 minutes with God in prayer or reading His word? From that last passage it looks to me like we all have a lot of work to do in order to achieve this level of devotion that Paul is talking about.

So let me ask you: do you devote yourself to God in this way? Do you want to live your life in undivided devotion to the Lord? I know that I do. So let’s start a change today so that rather than pursuing the things of this world we pursue the things of God. So that rather than worshiping the creation we worship God. So that instead of being engrossed in the things of the world we would be engrossed in God. So here is my challenge for everyone reading this: take a real close look at your life, what are you allowing to take up your time? Are your interests divided? Are you concerned about the world’s affairs or are you concerned about the affairs of God? I want you to understand that the hardest and most important aspect of your life is your relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, but it’s always worth it. It’s not easy to wake up early before school so you can read your Bible and pray to God. It’s not fun to go to your friends and tell them about Jesus and invite them to church or youth group or to bible quiz.  But our reward both in heaven and on earth for living a life of undivided devotion to God is always worth it.

This "devotional" message was 
 prepared and delivered by Kyle Miksovsky 

at the November Bible Quiz Meet.
Watch it on youtube!