Being Rich Toward God
Question: In what way can we be “rich
toward God”?
· In material possessions or money –
that’s the context here in Luke 12
· In time – for many people, time is
more important than money.
· In allegiance, affections, praise and
worship
All those are good, and it’s part of being “rich toward God.”
But I would like for us
to look at another answer today – a biblical answer, in the book of Micah,
chapter 6 and verse 6. Micah is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets, at the very
end of the Old Testament. Micah is the sixth one, just after the book of Jonah.
Micah asked a question
very similar to the one we ask today. How can we be rich toward God? What
should we give to the Guy who already has everything?
Micah asks,
Mic 6:6 With what
shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him
with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with
thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my
firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul?
Mic 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is
good.
And what does the LORD
require of you?
To act justly and to love
mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
So, we are supposed to do what is
right, and be merciful to those who need help. What
shall we bring when we want to give something to God? What is it that he wants
from us? To act justly, to love mercy, and to be humble.
To help people who need help.
Now,
Jesus has something to say about the way we give help. Do it in private, he
says. Don’t turn it into a publicity stunt. Do it, but don’t make a big show of
it. This is part of what it means to be humble.
Let’s
turn back to Luke, and this time go to chapter 14.
Jesus has something to say about not only how we give help, but he also tells
us something about what sort of people we ought to help.
Luke 14:12 and 13:
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or
dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich
neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.
Lk 14:13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled,
the lame, the blind,
Lk 14:14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you
will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Although this passage is about giving
banquets, I think the same principle applies to the gifts we give. If we think
people are going to eventually pay us back, then it’s not really an act of
generosity on our part.
As
Jesus said in another place, if we love only those who love us in return,
there’s not much virtue in that – even unconverted people do that. If we give
money to family members, there’s not much virtue in that – even the unconverted
do that. We are not being generous if
we are simply doing our duty.
True
generosity is something given to someone who really needs help, somebody who
can’t pay us back. That is doing justice, showing mercy, and walking humbly
with God. That is giving to God something that he really wants. That sort of
generosity is being “rich toward God.”
I
suppose I could quit now, but there is something more I’d like to say. I’d like
to go back to Luke 12 and notice there is something else we can and should give
to God. Luke 12, verse 22:
Lk 12:22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do
not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will
wear.
Give God your worries – we don’t need
them. There’s no need to treasure them in our hearts. Give God you worries, and your anxiety, and a whole bunch of other bad
stuff.
Give
him your fear, your anger, your hatred and bitterness and disappointment. We
don’t need those things, and God doesn’t want us to keep them. We need to give
them to God because he’s the only one who can dispose of them properly.
Give
him all your sorrows. Come on, be generous. Give him all your bad habits. Give
him all your resentment, all your immoral thoughts, all your addictive
behaviors. But why stop there? Give him all your sin and all your guilt.
Why?
Because he has already paid for it. It belongs to him,
and we aren’t supposed to keep it. So we need to pry our fingers off of it and
give it to him. Come on – be generous. Give him all your guilt, all the
negative stuff he doesn’t want us to have.
Why
is that? Because God is the author and originator of all
generosity. He wants to give to us, he wants to forgive us, and he
invites us to his banquet, and there’s no way that we can pay him back. It’s a
free gift, and he wants us to take it, and it makes him really happy if we
accept his offer. He invites us to accept the righteousness that he gives, and
he invites us to give him our worries and our sorrows and our sins. And he
wants us to give everything that we have. Come on, be generous. Let him have it
all. You will be glad you did.