Theme:  We cannot place ourselves in a position to want other’s belongings.
You cannot put those things in this life ahead of your soul and its final condition.  While many are sure that they have retirement and all of their investments in order, they often place the years of life ahead of the years of eternity. 

DO NOT COVET Verse 15, to want those things of others!

KJV 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
 9.  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
 

THE PARABLE

THOSE THAT DO NOT KNOW GOD WILL BE PUNISHED
KJV 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9
7.  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
 8.  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
9. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

CHRIST BECAME POOR FOR US
KJV 2 Corinthians 8:9
9.  For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

OUR LIVES ARE A VAPOUR
KJV James 4:13-17
 13.  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
 14.  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
 15.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
 16.  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
 17.  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
 
 

WE WILL DIE THEN BE JUDGED
KJV Hebrews 9:27
 27.  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

WE MUST PERSUADE MEN TO BE READY
KJV 2 Corinthians 5:1-11
 1.  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
 2.  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
 3.  If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
 4.  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
 5.  Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
 6.  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
 7.  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
 8.  We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
 9.  Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
 10.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
 11.  Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

THERE IS A TIME TO BE JUDGED AND PEOPLE MUST CHANGE BEFORE THAT TIME!
KJV Acts 17:30-31
 30.  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
 31.  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

BUILD YOUR FAITH UPON THE ROCK!
KJV Matthew 7:24-27
 24.  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
 25.  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
 26.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
THIS BOILS TO SEEKING FIRST THE KINGDOM!
KJV Luke 12:31-40
 31.  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
 32.  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
 33.  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
 34.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
 35.  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
 36.  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
 37.  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
 38.  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
 39.  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
40. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
 
 

Copyright 1999 by Brian Yeager may be reproducted for non-commercial purposes at no cost to others.