The Rich Fool

0:00:00    You may not be rich, but you might be a fool. Find out on the more faith, more life podcast. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another more faith, more Life podcast. Today we’re going to talk about the rich fool. Now, you may not be rich, but you may be a fool. And I want to help solve that in your life today. So I got my bible right here. I’m not going to read it to you as much as just paraphrase what’s going on here, but it’s a parable of the rich fool. It says, and in it, you know, a certain rich man, I guess he was already rich, but he got richer and he produced a good crop. And he thought to himself, what am I going to do?

0:00:39    I got so much in this crop, I don’t have any place to store them. I know what I’ll do. I’ll build bigger barns and I’ll store it and I’ll have plenty for me. And then here’s the line that’s supposed to be the kicker in it for us. So he said to himself, after he stored up all this for many years, take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. Okay? Take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. But God, God, but God said to him, I guess he’s rich, but God speaks to rich people. He’s a fool. But God speaks to fools, too. He says, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you.

0:01:20    Then who will get for all this that you’ve stored up for yourself? All right? And then the last line is out of the parable, explains it to us. It says, this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. All right? Oh, so many lessons in this for us. And the first lesson I want to do is clear up, which I’ve mentioned on other podcasts, is it just aches in my heart to hear people preach against prosperity and prosperity, gospel and prosperity, and they just want riches and all that.

0:02:01    And then after they preach against prosperity, they take up an offering. So what is that like? None of them want to be poor. I said, listen to one guy. Like, in fact, I know he’s got lots of money, and then he preaches against, well, these prosperity preachers, right? Well, everybody should be a prosperity preacher if you’re a Christian, because what is this kingdom of God but prosperity, prosperity, spirit, soul, body, family, home.

0:02:31    We prosper in God. Yeah. And they actually are preaching prosperity, but then they, you know, okay, let’s back up, though also, and realize, are there some people that preach just to get money. Of course. They know exactly what they’re doing. Are they pushing all the buttons to cause you to give money to them because, you know, you want, you need help financially. So they’re going to give me money or God, of course.

0:02:57    Are there people that do that? Of course there are. There are people in the world, there are people in the church, there’s people in politics that do stuff just to get money. But that doesn’t change the gospel of prosperity, which God wants, to prosper your life in every area. And so what’s come out of it since the middle ages, as a matter of fact, is God wants to keep us poor, and we don’t realize that.

0:03:23    Do you know a word called gnosticism? Knowledge. It’s the, that we’re saved by knowledge. That’s gnosticism. And gnosticism came in, it was coming in, and I don’t know what year it started, but as the gospels were being written, it was creeping in, until when John wrote his gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, gnosticism was happening, and gnosticism was. You’re saved by knowledge, and so you need more knowledge.

0:03:55    And materialism is bad. The body is, I don’t know what word to use. Zion. What’s a good word? The body is nasty. Everything about it is nasty, you know? And so everything you do with your body and you do this and your body has to do that, that’s bad. And it’s anti-spiritual, okay? But the Jewish truth in the gospel is God created everything. He created you. He created you good. It’s not nasty. And so we need to change that, that everything is prosperous in God, right?

0:04:38    Spirit, soul, body. And so what happened with the gnostics is then is the gospel started turning toward materialism is evil, and spiritual is good, okay, spiritual is good, but materialism isn’t. Evil has nothing to do with it. You can be rich and be spiritual. You can be poor and be spiritual. Poor people are not more spiritual, right? Poverty doesn’t teach you anything, right? Except you don’t want to be poor.

0:05:12    Right? You don’t want to be poor. I don’t know anybody that wants to be poor. There are a lot of poor people out there. God have mercy on them. I help poor people. I help you. Do I have mercy on them? Some people have just circumstances or they inherited it or whatever, many, many different reasons, right? But poverty does not make you spiritual. Being poor does not make you spiritual, right? But neither does rich make you spiritual. So it doesn’t matter. It’s not part of this system. Right.

0:05:44    But prosperity is all right. So in this parable, we want to realize that it’s telling us without. Maybe you didn’t hear it, because I have heard this preached before as anti-material, anti- money, anti-riches. Right? The guy was rich. He stores up riches, then he eats and drinks to be merry, and then he dies. And who’s going to get his? And that’s how it’s going to be for people who store up riches for themselves. Okay?

0:06:17    And that’s not what it says at all. Okay? So let’s back up, all right? And let’s be honest. How many listening right now would like to be rich? Well, Zion and I, we raised our hands right. We’d. Of course. I’m not going to forget God. I’m not going to be like this guy. See, what did what. What did the rich guy who even got richer do wrong? Was it the riches? And that’s what’s been preached for centuries.

0:06:45    So let’s start getting it right, because you might raise your hand. Now, let me add this to it. The desire to be rich can be a snare. That’s what the Bible says. If your desire is rich to be rich, that could throw you off. But the. The desire to say, I’d rather be rich than poor is not a snare, because you want to provide. I mean, you want to do good for yourself, for your family, and hopefully then you get the number one thing.

0:07:18    You also want to include the kingdom of God. Right now there’s people that are listening right now. We don’t push it on here. You’ll notice we don’t do big donation pushes or money pushes on here. But you really should consider a donation to this Steve Gray ministries and more faith, more life, because it’s solid. Solid. You’re going to hear things you never heard from anybody else, or rarely from anybody else, I should say.

0:07:46    And it’s solid. It’s good theology. It needs to be heard, and it helps get the message out. Okay. But I would be amiss if I turned this into a money making project, which I’m not going to do. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t hear God say, you should give. You’re storing up for yourself. Why eat, drink and be merry? Uh oh. So that’s what the guy did wrong. Listen, he got more riches, more stuff, more barns, right? More crops.

0:08:21    And then he said to himself, is it? Let’s see. Yeah, he’s talking to himself. Do you talk to yourself? I was looking it up. Make sure he talked to himself. He didn’t go tell somebody else. But he told himself, listen, I got plenty now. Take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. Oh, so that’s what people do. It’s not the riches, because the riches, riches can bless other people. Bless you, bless other people, prosper you, prosper the church, prosper.

0:08:55    Come on. But he wasn’t going to do that. He’s going to take life easy. Take life easy. Oh, so that’s what God was opposed to. A person who had riches, stored him up for himself, and then did nothing but just sit and how many of you listening right now? That’s what you really want to do, right? You’d really like to be rich so you can take life easy. Sit and do nothing, become, what is it, a couch potato, whatever.

0:09:28    And, you know, and watch more movies, get a yacht and float around and just float and float and swim and float and eat, drink, be married. All right? And down deep inside, that would be like, wow, that would be a great life if I had enough money just to take life easy. But I’ve got to go to work and I have to, okay? So I don’t want to use myself as an example very often, but I will. Okay, so if I. If I would be granted multiple riches, I would not take life easy.

0:10:03    I would do multiple. What I’m doing. That’s the difference. I would multiply what I’m doing. So your donation, if you got plenty of money, share it with us, send it, you know, go to more faith, more life. Make a donation. You know why? I’m not going to take life easy. I’m not going to spend it on ease. I’m going to multiply this message and get it out even more. Okay, so the mistake he made was not getting rich.

0:10:28    So you can make money, you can be rich, you can make more money. It won’t bother me a bit if you even pray to make more money, if you have the right heart about it. Okay, so let’s see what this guy did. Because most of us would like to be rich or richer, right? Okay. The desire to be rich, though, is wrong, especially if all we want to do is take life easy and spend it on ourselves, our pleasures or whatever.

0:10:59    Okay, so this guy gets real rich and he’s rich and he gets richer, and he says, I know what I’ll do. I’ll take it. I’m going to take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry. All right, so then in the parable, the guy dies, and it’s obvious that where’s all this going to go? He’s not going to get it, right? And so it’s going to go somewhere. We don’t know where. We don’t know if he has relatives or whatever, but it’s not going to go to him.

0:11:28    So he sort of wasted it on himself, and he’s going to take life easy. And he wasted his life on just nothing, right? So God, then at the end of it, do you notice? Let me grab my Bible. In the end of it, do you know what it says? It says, this is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself. Now, that is where preachers go. They love to preach. Some preachers love to preach that. It’s sort of an anti-money thing, anti-rich thing. While they wish they could be rich, like I said, all of a sudden they’re preaching against riches. And they say, now it’s time for the offering.

0:12:07    Everybody give. You know, just give as you can and what. So, okay, this is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself. Stores up things for himself. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It goes on. There’s more words. It says, but is not rich towards God. Double rich doesn’t mean you can’t be rich in material things. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong or God’s anti to become rich or richer. Maybe you’ll never be rich, rich, rich like some. Maybe you never own a yacht, but you can become richer.

0:12:51    All right. For you. Okay, so that’s not the problem. The problem is you need to be double rich. He was not double rich. Right? Okay, so he needed to be double rich. So he was rich in material things. But it says, this is what will happen to people who are not rich in God. Rich in the things of God, rich in the. In the. Yeah. Who’s not rich towards God. So that’s all. Isn’t this easy? You need to be double rich.

0:13:22    So be wise. Don’t be a fool. God calls this guy a fool. A fool because he doesn’t understand. If he was double rich, then he can lay up for himself what riches in heaven? You can be double rich, so you got the riches here, and then you do things for God. You don’t take life easy. You don’t get rich to take life easy. You get rich so you can be rich in God now. And the richer you are or the more prosperous you are.

0:13:54    Probably not everybody, but a lot of times you have the ability to even become more rich in God. Maybe you have a little more free time than the average worker or somebody who has to work 8 hours a day and 40 hours week, whatever. But you got a little more flexibility, I don’t know, maybe you’re your own boss, you own your own business, whatever. But the key is double rich. So I’m not going to preach against riches.

0:14:21    Why? It doesn’t do any good. Because you’re still going to want to be rich and the world is going to be rich and people want. Right? So what I need. What do I need to preach? What do you need to preach? What do you need to tell people? What’s the truth of this is be double rich. In other words, I need to be preaching rich towards God, right? And leave out riches and material things. Because if you’re rich towards God, you’re going to do right towards God.

0:14:51    And it’s going to bless God, it’s going to bless the church, it’s going to bless the preachers, you’re going to bless me, right? If you’re rich towards God, you’re going to bless me today. And so, and this ministry, I shouldn’t say me. I don’t get any of it. I don’t get any of it, by the way, in case you want to know. But it would be a blessing because we could do more, right? But if you’re rich towards God, then you’re okay.

0:15:18    Get rich towards God. And that’s what should be preached. Instead of preaching against prosperity or maybe even prosperity preachers, or even against people who take advantage of people’s wanting to be rich. And so they sort of promise, if you give your offering to me, God’s going to make you rich or whatever, you know. Okay, there’s people out there like that, but that’s not the gospel. And we don’t need to. Stop worrying about that.

0:15:45    Stop preaching against. Right. Preach for being rich in God. Because that’s really good news to you today, right. I can tell you this. If you’re willing to become rich in God, then being rich in the world is irrelevant. It’s irrelevant except you could be a blessing. Yeah, okay, that’s good. But it’s irrelevant towards God. God does not mix the two together. If you are rich towards God, then you’ll be rich in heaven, right?

0:16:14    Heavenly riches laid up for yourselves, treasures in heaven. You’ll be rich towards God then. Being rich in earthly things is irrelevant. You’ll do the right thing. You’ll be blessing people, right? So that’s what we should be preaching, how to become rich in God and to be rich. Cause this is a mistake this guy made. He took it easy. I’m telling you. Don’t take it easy. Get rich towards God. How do you do that? Well, I’ve spent my whole life being rich towards God, and I’ve been able to have be involved in two major moves of God that touched the nations. I touched nations, hundreds of nations around the world, two times.

0:16:57    I was younger then I’m older. Got to do it twice. What am I going to do next? I don’t know. I would like to touch nations again, but if people and nations don’t want to be touched by God, don’t want to be rich in God, then I’m just sort of walking on a treadmill, right? But I want to get off the treadmill and I want to run the race for the Lord. So that’s my heart’s desire. That’s why I’d love to be, I’d love to have more finances. I can do more, but I’ve spent my life trying to be rich in God.

0:17:28    So if I am rich in God, does it matter if I’m rich in any other way? Not really. Cause if I’m rich in God, I’m not going to take life easy. God’s not taking it easy. Jesus doesn’t take it easy. Right. Jesus, in fact, he said this about his father. He said, my father is at work, right? And I must be at work also, right? My father’s at work. My father goes to work. So he’s not. Is God taking it easy? No, he goes to work.

0:17:57    That’s what Jesus said anyway. And so Jesus goes to work too. And I go to work. I want to work for the kingdom. I want to grow rich in God through the kingdom, in the kingdom and help you become rich in God. Now we don’t have to talk about prosperity and the prosperity gospels. Some people call it, we don’t want you to be poor. Right. We don’t want you to be poor in God, and we don’t want you to be poor in the world.

0:18:27    That’s double poor. Sorry? That’s double poverty. Right? So we want you to be rich in God. We want you to be rich in the world. You can do more. Poverty is no fun. Okay? So from now on, the rest of your life, you can release yourself from the idea that God wants to keep me poor. Do you mind if I take a drink? I’m going to. Did I just. Did I give an a? I’m going to cover the label like they do. Sorry, my throat was dry.

0:19:04    Okay, so get rid of that. Get rid of the idea of God wants me to be poor. Why? What good would that accomplish? What good would that do? If you’re poor and you’re in poverty, you’re certainly not going to take life easy because life is not going to be easy. This guy got rich and he went the wrong direction. He took life easy. When he didn’t, he could have done a lot of good. So I want you to not be poor in the world, and I don’t want you to be poor in God.

0:19:35    Why we have double poverty when you can have double riches. All right? So get rich in God. Okay? If you feel like, well, I’m living from paycheck to paycheck. By the way, Zion, did you know that I did a, I saw this survey that single moms struggle more financially and live from paycheck to paycheck more than single dads or married dads. So, you know, if you’re a single mom out there, get rich in God. A lot of times we spend so much time being bitter or angry or struggling paycheck to paycheck, and we don’t realize, how do I get out of this? Get rich in God.

0:20:17    Get rich in God. Pray, read the Bible, get to church, get involved, give your energy. Don’t take life. Don’t, don’t try to, don’t try to take life easy. If you’re poor, it’s not going to work. Okay? So don’t take life easy. Get involved with God. God everywhere is Jesus, Bible, church, helping, serving, whatever. Then after that, all this, and you look in here and say, okay, God, I am trying hard. I’m working to get rich in you, help me financially, help me to get more rich in the, in this so I can do more.

0:20:55    And I’m not, if you make me whatever rich means to you, richer, better, more prosperous, I’m not going to take life easy. I’m only going to do more. You make me prosperous, you bless me financially, you bless me more, I’m going to do more, I’m going to serve more, I’m going to give more, I’m going to write that check or I’m going to use my phone and I’m going to, I’m going to Apple Pay my church. Right.

0:21:26    And so, and so those, those are the parameters of what you can as how you can get out of this poverty situation. God will help you. Poverty is not of God. Being poor is not of God. Being rich is not of God. Being rich in God. That’s the key to poor people. Middle, you know, middle class people and rich people. Whatever, whatever you’re in, that’s the key. Get rich in God and anybody can be rich. In God, it doesn’t, listen, it doesn’t cost anything to be rich in God.

0:22:02    Well, a little effort, a little time, yeah, but it doesn’t cost you any money, right? It doesn’t make your life worse. Being rich in God doesn’t take away from being a good mom or a good dad or, you know, a good family or a good worker, whatever. It’s only going to make it better. Being rich in God only makes things better. And then you can turn and say, God, help me to be richer in the things of this world because I’m rich in you.

0:22:33    That means I’m going to be rich in you towards everybody. Isn’t that good? Isn’t that great news? Right? Sometimes we call it good news, and it is good news, but this is great news to you, understanding how the kingdom of God works. So if you’re already doing pretty well financially, then the mistake you’re going to make is what I’m going to tell myself. I get to take life easy, eat, drink and be merry, okay? That’s where your mistakes going to be, right?

0:23:04    So you want, if you’re rich in material things, or medium, at least middle, whatever, you need to get rich in God, and it’s all going to come together for you then now you got God’s system that he always intended. If you’re not rich, if you’re poor in material things, poverty, what do you do? Get rich in God. And God will help you get out of poverty. I know he will, because poverty’s not of God, it’s not in his kingdom, all right?

0:23:33    And he’s going to help you get out of it. You may never own a yacht either. You may never get a private island. I was looking at some, heard about somebody, they bought a private island. Atrocious numbers of money, but okay, you and I, we may never get to do that, but we can be rich in God, and then we can get rich enough in this world to make a difference, to provide family, to help our church, to help the kingdom of God, to bless ministries, whatever.

0:24:02    So what is the message today? Don’t be a fool. Get double rich and your life is going to go great and you’ll lay up for yourself. Riches in heaven. And that is God’s system for his people. Did you get that today? All right, so don’t be a fool, right? Get rich in God. Till next time. Bye.