Proverbs 20.21 says, an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Immediate wealth is rarely managed wisely. We've discussed on previous occasions the examples of people winning millions of dollars in the lottery only to squander it all in a short amount of time and end up as poor as ever. And of course, some spend the money in ways that get themselves killed, like the man who bought a boat, put it out on the Ohio River and got drunk and drove that boat right into a barge and was killed. And I'm not laughing because the event is funny, but... for sanity's sake. The same thing can be true about inheritances. Getting an inheritance itself is not a bad thing. It's much more legit than winning large amounts of money in a lottery or becoming rich with overnight fame and wealth like so many of these so-called social media influencers. so many of whom end up dying from dumb stunts pulled, or driving an expensive sports car too fast and wrecking and killing themselves, or drug overdoses and the like. An inheritance is basically a way for the one who originally accumulated such wealth to keep his or her wealth in the family. A man has a right to do that. The problem is, The ability to make a profit and maintain wealth with a budget and proper spending is not passed on through the genes. A rich man has to make the effort to then instruct his future beneficiaries on how to handle such large amounts of money, property, and holdings, etc. And those beneficiaries then must be willing to learn. Many times it's learning, you know, who to trust. And even better than that, to trust but verify. Now, for the record, I'm not speaking from experience. I've never inherited any large amounts of anything. As far as I know, I don't have any rich uncles to speak of. My dad went to be with the Lord this past year, but my mom is still with us and should be for some time to come. We hope to just all go up in the rapture at any moment, which makes the whole matter moot. But as an observer of current events, culture, and a student of history, including what we find in the only infallible history book on the planet in our Bible, I've seen this play out any number of ways, both in the past and in the present. But the first thing that comes to mind for most of us when reading our proverb is the so-called prodigal son. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Now this fella took his inheritance and literally ran with it. He spent it on wine, women, and song, and ended up feeding with the swine. Did you know that if you go down to Skid Row in any big city where the homeless and prostitutes and drug addicts are concentrated, you'd find people who come from families of wealth? Not many, or even most, but you'll find some. And some of those people won't go home strictly due to pride. As miserable as their lives are, they're not repentant as the prodigal son was, and they would never apologize for their faults, failures, and terrible choices. The shame of confessing their sin and wickedness, their foolishness and other failures is just too much. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16, 18. That's why we can only come into an inheritance with our heavenly father if we are broken and will humbly approach him with repentance and a faith that is fully trusting only in him and not holding onto our baggage of beloved sins or any idea of contributing to our own salvation with our own works. Psalm 34, 18 says, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. The child of God comes into an inheritance with humility, not hastily, humbly, and the end thereof is blessed. And that's why we can say with the Apostle Paul and what he wrote in these inspired words of Ephesians 1, 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Amen.