It’s time to Break the Curse…
For your Sunday Meditation….
The sermon today came from Mark 12. 41-44 and Luke 12. 13-21. There was ’3′ parables used:
- The first parable the preacher used, was one that he and his wife had just came back from the Biltmore Estates for some R & R. It was about George Vanderbilt, who had this house built in 1895, that was 175,000 sq. ft, it was 4 acres long, had 41 bathrooms and it sat on 129,000 acres. Mr Vanderbilt had amassed a fortune of 200 million in 1895… today it would be the equivalent of 90 Billion! He was without a doubt the richest American there has ever been. But…he died. He couldn’t take all of that fortune with him.
- In Mark, it was the story of Jesus sitting in the temple and watching the people as they gave their offerings. It is the tale of the widow woman who gave 2 small coins which amounted to less than a penny. Jesus noticed this and declared, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasurey than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything- all she had to live on.”
- In Luke, Jesus told the story of a certain rich man who produced a good crop. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. “ Then he said, “This is what I’ll do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
Question… How do you view and value…things? Do you love the gifts… more than the giver?
John F Kennedy said, “Ask not what you country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?” Now replace ‘country’… with…GOD. When you think about the many daily blessings the Lord gives you… like 
waking up this morning, it should blow your every-loving mind! In this game of life, no matter how much you win or lose… if you don’t wake up…..??
Back to the Story….
What would you have told the widow woman when she asks you, “Should I give the very last I have? Perhaps you answered, “Girlfriend, the Lord knows your trouble, HE understands, don’t give your last… how will you make it?”
What would we have done with the man who stored up all his treasures, retired, chilled out, ate, drank and partied?
If you read his story, it sounds very much like what we call… ‘The American Dream’. This man would have been given many accolades, entrepreneur of the year, richest man in American, he would have no doubt been a trustee of the church. He is very poplar, people seek his advice on how…he… made it!
There lies the problem…look how everything is ‘I’. Sound familiar… don’t forget the source of whom you may be blessed. A wiser man would have taken that blessing… just the overflow and passed it on. He would have quickly found that the more he gave… the more he got!
Our problem is that our view of wealth and things, are from the bottom-up. GOD views it from the top-down. Do you trust GOD enough… to test him… for the future. When it says to give and HE will pour you out blessings that you will not have room enough to receive… that’s TRUTH!
GOD desires to bless us…. to PASS IT ON! The key to winning at life… the more you pass it on… the more it keeps coming!
Be Blessed!