PROVERBS 15:27<\/b>; 21:26; 28:20<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2026 he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished<\/i><\/p>\n
(Prov. 28:20)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Solomon understood the importance of keeping money in its proper place. Because this is such an important theme in Scripture, we will study poverty and wealth this week. Proverbs teaches that the wise man keeps both poverty and wealth in a proper perspective. He does not consider poverty to be sought after as a high road to heaven, but he also avoids the snare of pursuing riches. He does not look down his nose at the rich, wrongly judging that only poverty leads to virtue and that riches flow only from vice. Yet, neither is he ambitious to be rich. He realizes that both poverty and wealth have their share of temptations. The prophet Agur discerned the fine line that must be traveled between poverty and wealth. He prayed that God give him neither poverty nor riches; for if he were poor, he would be tempted to steal, and if he were rich, he would forget God.<\/p>\n
Some people fall into temptation because they think they are free to pursue<\/i> riches\u2014after all, they say, isn\u2019t wealth a blessing from the Lord? Not always\u2014sometimes it\u2019s a deadly snare. The wise course is to accept what Providence gives, and not hasten<\/i> to be rich. Said Bridges, \u201cA faithful man is opposed, not to the rich, but \u2026 to him that hastens<\/i> to be rich. A man may be rich by the blessing of God. [But he that hastens<\/i> to be rich does so by his own covetousness.] He may be rich, and yet faithful. [But he that hastens<\/i> to be rich does so at the expense of faithfulness.] The faithful<\/i> man would rather be poor by Providence than rich by sin.\u201d<\/p>\n
A man is truly blessed by being faithful, not by being rich or poor. The Bible does not condemn wealth, but it does condemn covetousness, and it warns of the temptation to fall into the pursuit of riches<\/i>. This does not mean that it wrong to increase your wealth by godly means, but it does mean that you ought not to hasten to be rich. Bridges wisely wrote that anyone who loves his own soul will not seek<\/i> the opportunity to get rich, \u201cor even avail himself of it without a plain call and clear advantage for the glory of God. Let God be our satisfying portion. Let Him be supremely loved and honored, and He will determine for us, whether the worldly advantage be a Providence or a temptation.\u201d<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
2 Samuel 9\u201311<\/p>\n
Luke 19:28\u201348<\/p>\n
Read Proverbs 30:7\u201311 and Matthew 6:9\u201313 and consider these two prayers in light of today\u2019s lesson. Do your desires reflect those of Agur and of Christ? Are you satisfied with what God has given you? Do you covet when others have more? Do you pursue riches? Confess any covetousness you have or any ambition for wealth.<\/p>\n
For further study: Eccl. 5:8\u201312 \u2022 1 Tim. 6:3\u201310 \u2022 James 5:1\u20136<\/i><\/p>\n
tuesday<\/p>\n
april<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PROVERBS 15:27; 21:26; 28:20 \u2026 he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished (Prov. 28:20). Solomon understood the importance of keeping money in its proper place. Because this is such an important theme in Scripture, we will study poverty and wealth this week. Proverbs teaches that the wise man keeps both poverty and … Continue reading “THE PURSUIT OF RICHES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}