Dr. Ray Pritchard Christian Blog and Commentary

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Hold Lightly What You Value Greatly

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Updated Jun 23, 2007

We have just posted a new sermon on the Keep Believing website: Hold Lightly What You Value Greatly

Here’s an excerpt:

The rich farmer did well in so many ways . He worked hard, he played by the rules, he spent his money wisely, he found good land, he worked it in the hot sun, he planted and he irrigated and when the harvest came in, he was rewarded far beyond his expectations. He planned to build more barns because he had so much that he couldn’t care for all of it. Let me repeat what I said in the beginning. I find it very hard to criticize this man. He did what any of us would have done.

In fact, this is exactly the sort of man we want in our churches. When we find a man like this, we cultivate him, we build a relationship, we invite him to a special dinner, we make he gets the red carpet treatment. A man like that could do a ministry a lot of good. We might make him the chairman of the elder board because he is such a good businessman

The lesson of this parable will be lost on us if we think that Jesus is criticizing him for being rich. That’s not his problem . His problem isn’t his wealth or his plans to expand his buildings. That was all quite commendable.

Jesus condemned this man because he forgot one fact. He forgot that he was going to die someday. And what then? Someone else will have all that he owns. An old Italian proverbs says, “The last robe has no pockets.” Billy Graham likes to say that he has never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse. There is no point is asking how much a man left because the answer is always, “He left all of it.”

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com . Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.


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