Prov. 23:4-5

"Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven" Prov. 23:4-5

Someone once said, "Show me your checkbook, and I'll tell you what your heart is." Think about it. Now look at your checkbook. Go to the first entry where you deposited your paycheck. What is the next entry? Is it paying a bill? Buying groceries? Eating out? Shopping for a video? I should hope the first check is to your church paying your tithes. What is the second, third, fourth? Where is your heart? Where are your priorities?

Let's take another test. How much time to you spend in "church"? Write that down. Add to that the amount of time you spend reading the Bible. Now calculate the time you spend praying and add that to the previous total. Go ahead and add time that you spend EXCLUSIVELY listening to Bible based teaching on tape, CD, or TV. Total that list of times. How did you fare? Now compare that to the time you spend at work. Compare it to the time you spend in "play." Finally compare it to the time you spend with your children. Now how do you fare? From this can you begin to determine where your heart is?

The proverb writer tells us not to make ourselves tired by seeking to get rich. Hmmm. I've been there, at least I was seeking to gain sufficient that I didn't have to worry about where the next meal came from. But then, if I think about it, I did spend much more than forty hours in job related activities, at the expense of wife and children. What job do you think I have in mind? Teaching? Manufacturing? Construction? Ambulanceman? I am talking about my life as a minister of the Gospel. Frankly, I spent more time "working at ministering" than I did with God, and I was one of the good Bible believing guys!

Have you ever noticed that people who are rich don't quit working? Most of them work harder to get richer than you and I spend in order to make ends meet! Where does their wealth go? Mortgages. Cars. Sports teams. Business. More expensive toys. And there are some things that we just won't mention. It seems that there is never enough money in the bank to make people happy. How can a billionaire spend a billion dollars? It boggles my mind! When will Lee Ka Shing really retire? When will Cathay Pacific have made enough money and have enough customers that they will quit advertising?

Get Solomon's point? All the money in the world is not enough to satisfy our desire for wealth.

So what do we seek that will satisfy. Jesus. And when will we begin to recognize that fact? Let me relate a story that was told to me by a fellow pastor. Socrates supposedly had a man ask him how to gain knowledge. Socrates took the man to the river and waded in chest deep. He took the man's head and held it under water for ten seconds. He asked the man what he wanted, knowledge. He held the man under for twenty seconds and asked again, knowledge was the reply. A third time he held the man under water, forty, fifty, sixty seconds passed before he allowed the man to rise. "I want air!" Socrates told the man that when he wanted knowledge as much as he wanted air, he would get it.

When we want Jesus as much as we want air, we will find Him and love Him and want nothing other than to be with Him at the expense of all else. Amen and Amen.