Your ultimate purpose is not to get rich, but to find and fulfill God's purpose for your life which is to please Him.
We don't decide what we are to do, but discover what God made us for.
God doesn't want us to covet because it will destroy us.
1 Timothy 6:10 (ESV)
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.
It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
You can have money but not love it. You cannot have money, but love it.
The problem is not the money, but the love of it.
We have to overcome the love of money to become what God has for us.
God needs rivers to flow His blessings through.
1 Kings 21 (ESV)
21 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
2 And after this Ahab said to Naboth,
“Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house,
and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.”
3 But Naboth said to Ahab,
“The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
4 And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen (pouting) because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him,
for he (Naboth) had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
And he (Ahab) lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.
"Naboth's answer was no"
How do you respond to an unexpected no will reveal a lot about you.
Arab assumed that he was getting this property.
He was already planning what he was going to do with it.
Assuming is always prideful.
If you think that someone owes you, you make it impossible for them to be graceful to you.
Ahab had worked it up in his head with no facts.
If it's from God, you don't deserve it because it's grace.
It's an undeserved gift.
Everything from God comes from grace.
Luke 17:7-8 (CEB)
7 Jesus teaching: “Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner’?
8 Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’?
9 You won’t thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you?
10 In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’”
You shouldn't require a response for everything you do.
If you expect special attention from others or God for doing what you're supposed to be doing, it will mess you up emotionally.
If you think that someone owes you something, you're in the wrong.
Expect nothing, but appreciate everything with people.
With God, we should expect what He said that He will do, but keep your eyes off people.
If you expect things from people that your not doing yourself, you're being a hypocrite.
Matthew 20:8-14 (ESV)
8 Jesus teaching: And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’
9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.
10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
The workers assumed that the owner would do more than what they had agreed upon.
11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,
12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
The workers talked behind the owner's back and spoke evil about him for doing what they had agreed upon.
13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?
Ahab could have backed off and respected Naboth. He could have trusted God for something better, but he did not.
1 Kings 21 (ESV)
5 But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?”
Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard, and it lead to murder.
6 And he said to her,
“Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’
And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”
7 And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel?
Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful;
I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
Don't pet pouters. You are encouraging them to yield to wrong spirits.
It became a root of all kinds of evil.
8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city.
9 And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.
Satan will pump you up before he takes you out.
10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’
Then take him out and stone him to death.”
11 And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them,
12 they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.
13 And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.”
So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.
14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”
15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”
16 And as soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.
19 And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him,
‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”
God held Ahab personally accountable because he knew his wife was up to no good.
How you get your stuff can be bad.
It matters how things come.
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.
21 Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.
22 And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin.
23 And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’
24 Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”
25 (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.
26 He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.)
27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.
28 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”
James 4:10 (ESV)
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Keith Moore, Faith Life Church
https://flcmedia.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/FLCSarasota/MP4/2018/HD/180923Video.mp4
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