Based on Luke 12:16-21

MEMORY TEXT:  “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28).

There is one final lesson from the parable of the foolish rich man.  Jesus continued the parable, taking the part of the man:  “And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

>   It is the most foolish of all to imagine that, by eating, drinking, and being merry, we are doing our souls any good.  If we were to say, “Body, take it easy, because you have everything you need for many years”, it would have made more sense.  But our souls aren’t fed by material things.  A large part of our problems are caused by thinking that things will make us happy.

When a person loves earthly things so much that he can't get along without them, he opens himself to a lot of suffering, both physical and mental.  Some people, for example, have taken foolish risks to keep their riches intact.  They have died rushing into burning houses or were killed because they stubbornly resisted armed robbers.  Apparently they felt that without their material possessions life would not be worthwhile.

Others, when forced to part with their wealth, have been thrown into agonizing despair, even to the point of suicide.  Once, six armed gunmen broke into the deposit boxes in a London bank and stole valuables worth more than $7 million.  One lady, whose jewelry was appraised at $500,000, wailed, "Everything I had was in there.  My whole life was in that box."  What a sad commentary on her values!

The foolish rich man was foolish because his heart was not in the right place.  It was on earthly things rather than on heavenly.  Colossians 3:2 counsels us, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”  This advice is not just for the rich people.  A person can have next to nothing and still live by the values of this world, which is to get, get, get.  The bad news is, “Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied” (Proverbs 27:20).  There are only two ways to get enough: One is to accumulate more and more, the other is to desire less.

Lord, give me enough so that I won’t be tempted to steal, but not so much that I forget You.