Riches, Honor & Life Prov. 22:4 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The world certainly seems to be interested in riches honor and life but they are deceived by them and about them, as well.

Riches – they are currently in the hands of the proud – you find them mostly in entertainment, communication, transportation, politics, computer technologies, medicine, finance, brokerage firms, investment managers, etc. – in Aspen CO housing was driven up initially by Hollywood actors, then .com people and now by investment managers – there is no shortage of egos in this crowd – and there is virtually no fear of the Lord with this group either – they live according to their own opinions of right and wrong and good and evil – the world is 180 degrees out of sync with God.

Honor – in society men are honored for their bravery, their achievements (philanthropy), their athleticism (MVP), their financial successes (Fortune 400), and so forth – but what God would honor a man for and what the world honors him for are two completely different things – Job and Abraham were honored by God whereas Saul, Ahab and Jezebel were honored by men – there are big differences in these two groups.

Life – for the world, life is just a matter of how much pleasure you can get out of the time you have here on earth – life to most people is all about getting the most out of what happens between the cradle and the grave – but there’s more to life than that – today men are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.

In the Old Testament Riches Honor and Life went to men that God blessed like Abraham Job, David, Solomon, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth – they humbled themselves before the Lord and they feared him – that’s the group in Prov 22:4.

But in the New Testament men that are humble and fear God often end up penniless, dishonored, and dead – Jesus (Phil 2 humility, Heb 5:7 fear, in Mk 6:4 he was dishonored and at his crucifixion they stole his 5 garments and left with absolutely no possessions of his own), Stephen , Paul (broke Phil 4:12, dishonored 1 Cor 4:10-13; killed) – but just wait till Jesus returns; we’ll have riches, honor and life that the world knows nothing about.  Riches – Rom 11:33, Eph 1:7, 3:8; Phil 4:19 – Honor – Jn 12:26 – Life – 1 Jn 5:11-12.  And these three come by humility and the fear of the Lord.