I'd like to read you a verse today that maybe some people don't think is all that encouraging,
but I'd like to point out to you how it's quite encouraging if you're in the right place.
Here it is, Luke 16, 14.
It says, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things,
and they were scoffing at him.
Three key points in here.
First of all, this was the Pharisees.
We need to remember that these were some of the most devout religious men of Jesus' day.
Nicodemus and others like him were desired preachers and teachers and speakers all over
the place, and they were well known, and they fast two days a week, and they worshiped all
the time, and they memorized whole books of the Bible.
I mean, whole books of the Bible, not the names, but the actual book, every word.
The Pharisees had become lovers of money.
Now that's a really dangerous place to be, but if you're not there, then this is encouraging
in that way.
They're listening to all of the things that Jesus was saying, and they were scoffing at
him.
See, it tends to be that when people pick a different God in their life, they tend to
scoff at Jesus.
Jesus is a servant.
He's a giver.
He is love.
He chose to die.
And who would do that?
He chose to die to pay the price for sins.
And if you're rich, you know, you've got a lot to live for.
You're not going to die for anybody.
You might pay somebody to die for somebody, but that's not who Jesus is.
Jesus was the richest of them all.
He was God in the flesh, having come from heaven, taken up residence on the earth, first
as a babe, then as a man, then sacrificed himself on the cross, then rose again on the
third day after being put in a borrowed tomb.
That's the kind of model that Jesus has for us.
So whether you've got money or you don't got money, what you don't want to be is a lover
of money.
What you do want to be is a lover of Jesus.
Don't scoff at these teachings.
Everyone has a plan.