Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
The game of billiards has been around for quite a while, but amazingly, there is no single person who has been credited with the creation of the game. Apparently, in 1469, King Louis Xl of France had a waist high table made so that he could play without hurting his back. Pool evolved from the game of Billiards, and the main difference is that a pool table has six pockets, while a billiard table has none. Back in the mid 1800s, the place that you would normally find a billiard table would be in a saloon, but they were also in the private homes of the more affluent families who could afford this type of luxury. Billiard tables were normally very expensive, because of the materials that were used to make them. They could be very ornate in their craftsmanship and made out of expensive wood such as mahogany, African rosewood, Brazilian cherry, Walnut and burl. But occasionally in the colder regions of this country, winter weather could set in very fast and before people knew it, they were buried in snow. If they weren’t prepared for winter, they would eventually run out of firewood and would burn whatever they could in order to survive the cold, even if it meant cutting up their beautiful billiard table and tossing it into the woodstove.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
People can waste incredible amounts of money during their lifetime, shelling out grossly immoral amounts of money on luxuries that they don’t even need. They will pour vast amounts of money into their home, only to have it destroyed by a tornado. They will work half of their life to purchase a yacht, only to have a hurricane rip it to shreds. Rather than being content with what they have, they always want more, a compulsive desire that leads to a fruitless life. Like the riches of the Titanic buried deep in the sea, or tossing an expensive billiard table into the fireplace, many people are destined to a life of misery, having everything they want, but nothing they really need.
James 5 ¹ Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. ³ Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
There’s a huge difference between what somebody wants and what they really need to get by. For example, sometimes when a student goes off to college, they will tell their parents that they want some new dressers and cabinets and a bunch of other things in order for them to move into their dorm room. The first day of school hasn’t even begun yet, and they are already ringing up an extremely expensive bill for things that they actually don’t need. I’ve known some students in the past who had dressers and cabinets that were made out of cardboard. They were very sturdy and incredibly cheap, providing the same function as the expensive ones from the furniture store. But sometimes people can be very covetous, and they want the expensive stuff rather than being content with what serves the same functionality. Think of all the good things you can do with that money that you saved! Maybe you could help out your parents, or give some of it to the poor. Maybe you could buy some food for an elderly person down the street and give it to them in the name of Jesus. Being content with what you have and becoming rich are interrelated, and what I mean by that is if you are not content with what you have, you will always be seeking more, rather than using what you have been given to further the gospel of the kingdom of Christ. How can you give to the poor if you constantly tell yourself you need a new roof when it’s only two years old? How can you give to the things of Christ when you constantly tell yourself that you need to save up for a better vehicle? How can you help a poor brother in the church, when you decide you need to use the money to buy a billiard table? That is what the love of money is all about, being used only to serve your needs rather than helping the poor.
1 Timothy 6 ⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain. ⁷ For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. ⁸ And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. ⁹ But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
When people cannot be content with food and clothes, they constantly are seeking more in this world. Rather than focusing on one day at a time, they are looking forty years down the road, becoming enslaved so deeply in bank debt that they waste the rest of their life trying to pay it all off. Rather than living the simple life, and doing something good with their time and the possessions they have been given, the rich people will store it all up for themselves for the last days, living as kings, but will perish as fools.
Luke 12 ¹³ And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. ¹⁴ And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? ¹⁵ And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. ¹⁶ And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? ¹⁸ And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. ²⁰ But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? ²¹ So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
All of the riches of this world will eventually be burned up by God, and what will matter most at the judgment is what you did for the Lord with the things that He gave you. Some people’s eyes are going to be bigger than their heart, swimming in a sea of opulence and enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. Rich men are walking down a path of misery, and their wealth shall eat them like fire. They will learn the hard way when they see all of their treasured possessions cast into the fire and burned up in the heat, like busting up their luxury furniture, and breaking the legs off of……
……The Billiard Table
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.❤️
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