The Thieves of Wealth Lk 12: 33 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

When the Lord was preaching to his disciples he said, “provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief aproacheth, neither moth corrupteth,” [Lk 12:33].  Today we want to see in the Bible the thieves that “break through and steal,” [Matt 6:19].  The thieves of wealth are:

Crooks – Lk 12:39 – see also Prov 1:13.  These are thieves that break into your business or your house and take whatever they want.  When they want something now and they don’t have the money or the credit to buy it, they’ll just come and take it from you.  This is particularly true with the increased drug problem.

Debt – Prov 22:7 – when you pay interest to someone so you can have what you want now and pay for it later, you are assuming that you will be able to pay for it through the term of the debt.  If you can’t, they’ll raise the rates on you.  That makes sense because of your credit risk, but that doesn’t make sense financially.  If you’re struggling to pay at the lower rate, how are you going to pay at the higher rate?  Don’t forget what happened in 2008 when the housing bubble burst and we sunk into a financial crisis in the credit markets.  When you can’t pay they take your pledged assets.  Foreclosure is not the thief; debt is. You should have never borrowed the money in the first place.

Promiscuity – Prov 5:3-11 – she may be pretty and you may think that you want to spend the rest of your life with her.  However, you don’t know her as well as you think you do.  If she is like this strange woman in Prov 5, she will clean you out.  And some of her friends might be in on the take.  Notice the warning, “Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth,” [Prov 5:10].  These include her boyfriend and your lawyers.  Some Country Western songs tell the story right.

Vanity – Prov 13:11 – wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished.  The common saying is, “Easy come; easy go.”  You are more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery.  And if you do win, there is an almost 70% chance that you will be broke within 7 years [from an article on nydailynews.com].  Lottery winners are more likely to file for bankruptcy within 3-5 years of winning than the average American [from an article on cnbc.com].  Windfalls are typically pitfalls.  You’ll lose what you got and what you already had.

Publicans – Lk 3:12-13; 19:2, 8 – some politicians, certainly not all, use their position to exact… more than that which is appointed.  They get rich, through the misuse of their office, at others’ expense.  They “sell’ the office.  When President Truman left office, companies offered him millions of dollars to work for them.  He turned down the offers.  President Truman said that the folks who wanted to hire him were not hiring him, rather they were hiring a former president.  He went on to say that he would not do such a thing to the office of president.

Fiscal irresponsibility – Ps 37:21 – when you borrow, you are supposed to repay what you borrowed.  The rise in our national debt is an indication that we are spending money that we don’t have and paying treasury obligations with borrowed money.  Because of currency devaluations and budget deficits financed with more debt, our representatives are, in essence, stealing from future generations.

Spoilers – Gen 34:25-29 – the spoilers in war can ransack a country.  The defeated country is too weak to defend itself or negotiate for favorable terms.  The victorious country takes what it wants, from land and minerals to wives and children.  They are terrible thieves.

The antichrist – Is 10:12-14 – the biggest thief of all will be the antichrist.  Of course, since the antichrist is already at work, the theft of national treasures is already underway.  This partly accounts for our rising national debt and the decreasing value of our currency.  He eventually puts the world on the mark of the beast because he will have control of all the wealth.

Conclusion: so you see that the only way to protect your wealth is to trust the Lord with it, and to send it on ahead, as a very wise man once said [Lk 18:22].  In the end, you will have to trust the Lord to take care of you.  You can’t trust the money [Prov 23:4-5].  Trust the Lord.  He won’t steal from you.