The great question.

"Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Luke 12:20.

The answer to God's question to the Rich Fool is: 'NOT MINE, I HAVE NOTHING FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!'

Boys and girls, I will repeat something I said in a previous Assembly: 'We cannot take into the world that is to come any riches we may have accumulated here!'

1. No matter what we gain in this world it is no preparation for the world to come. We can easily forget the 'world to come' as we concentrate upon the affairs of the 'world that now is!' That is forbidden to the one who hopes to gain heaven.

"No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier," 2 Timothy 2:4.

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (riches)," Matthew 6:24.

Soldiers are forbidden by law to have anything to do with active politics while they are engaged in army duties.

2. We cannot live for this world AND also for the Kingdom of God. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew 6:33.

"But this I say, brethren, the time is short . . ."1 Cor 7:29. Then please note the verses which follow up to verse 33.

Nothing is more important to our own wellbeing than serving God.

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on," Matt 6:25. "

"And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." Mark 10:29-30.

'Leaving all' to follow the Lord Jesus is the price some have had to pay. But the Lord compensates many times over!

3. So then, the one that puts God and His Kingdom before his own affairs will profit themselves greatly by doing so! "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew 6:33.

Solomon - 1 Kings 3:11-13; Widow/Zarephath - 1 Kings 17:10-15.

"Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine," Proverbs 3:9-10.