January 28 Sermon: Where Is Your Treasure?

This week’s message discusses the folly of pursuing material wealth and the importance of being 'rich toward God.' The parable of the rich man from Luke 12:13- 21 underscores the transient nature of worldly possessions and the necessity of focusing on eternal values. Jesus calls us to forsake covetousness and seek to be rich toward God.

Consider these questions as you listen to this week’s message from Luke 12:13-21:

1. What key lesson does Jesus teach about wealth and possessions in the parable found in Luke 12?

2. How does the text interpret the saying "you can't take it with you" in the context of pursuing material wealth versus spiritual richness?

3. In the discussion of Luke 12, how is the concept of God's sovereignty over life and death used to illustrate the foolishness of prioritizing material possessions over spiritual values?

Transcript:

As a typical early 90s youth group junkie kid, I made a lot of trips to Christian concerts and Christian music festivals, and this was an important part of not only my entertainment, but this is also where I outfitted my wardrobe okay, and one of those events was coming up. I would not only set aside money for my ticket, but I needed to come home with a new T-shirt or seven, and many times there were more than just the T-shirts of the bands I was going to see and their merchandise tables. There were often walls of shirts that were Christian T-shirts and many of them, you may remember, they had like famous logos, but they like Christianized them. Like in the 90s, you would see people wearing orange shirts with the Reese's logo on it all the time, but the Christian version had the same font, but it said Jesus and some pithy slogan. I don't remember what it was, but they had those. Another famous one was you know, when I was in high school people wore golds gym shirts. Well, that's a low hanging fruit for a Christian T-shirt designer. You just remove the L and you have God's gym. They had those all over the place. There were shirts with Bible verses on them, and I can always remember one that was at nearly every festival I ever went to on the wall of shirts, and it had this statement it said in the end the one with the most toys still dies.

Now we know this to be true. This is a common understanding. We have this phrase that we use you can't take it with you. We say this all the time. The things of this life are temporary, and so are we. Like I've mentioned on so many occasions, the things that we so desperately think we need to have are quickly replaced by the newest and the latest and the greatest. By the time we usually get our hands on the thing we are after in the first place and those things that we chase after, they inevitably end up in a landfill. And the wealth we might accumulate in our lifetime that we can maybe pass on to the next generation, it's probably going to be squandered by somebody. It'll lose its value due to inflation. Again, that famous cliche you can't take it with you. We know that to be true.

So, as we come back to the story that Luke tells, for a few weeks before we're going to move on to the book of Revelation on February 18th, we find ourselves continuing to work through chapter 12, with Jesus telling us a relatively familiar parable today. And as we drop into this passage, we're going to think about three main points here. The first thing that we're going to see is that God is sovereign over wealth. This parable is triggered by a man asking Jesus to tell his brother to give him some of the inheritance. The man is after the wealth of the world and Jesus tells this parable to let the man know that money is a foolish pursuit because at any moment God may say that it is his last moment on earth. And then the foolishness of the pursuing of things of the world is our second point. If my possession of that which I pursue is temporary because my life is temporary and but a vapor then I should be seeking something more, something eternal. And finally we see that there is something worth seeking. It's foolish to seek after possessions, but there's something that has value and should be pursued, and that is we should be rich toward God. So as we look at this passage today, we're going to start out looking at verses 13 and 12 and setting up the parable.

It starts out today in this passage in a somewhat interesting way. We've seen in chapter 12 that Jesus is growing in popularity. The crowds that are surrounding him are continuing to increase. This is sort of a building thing. Through the book of Luke, right, jesus has just spoken about the importance of confessing him before men. We looked at that a few weeks ago. And then this outburst from the crowd happens, and I think you can probably imagine this happening.

Jesus is one who is teaching with authority and he is seen as someone who is wise. So there were probably people yelling out requests while he was teaching every day, right? And what this man asked Jesus to do seems like a really reasonable request to us. And you know, back in their time the oldest received the vast majority of the inheritance. This was just the way things worked, and all this man wants is his fair share. He wants it to be divided, and that only seems right to us. Our modern minds are thinking that is a strange tradition. It should just be equal. Five kids split it five ways, three kids split it three ways. That's the way we think.

But Jesus responds to the man in a very poignant way. You have to think that maybe the guy was sorry. He even asked, right. He says who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? Now, of course, jesus is his judge in the greater sense of the final judgment, isn't he? But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He is asking why he came to Jesus with this problem. What does a rabbi teaching crowds of people in Galilee have to do with this dispute between this man and his brother, him wanting to have some of the inheritance? And I say that the reason that this man likely regrets asking Jesus this question is because Jesus has asked him. Who made him want to make a decision on this matter. That's not the reason he probably regretted it Instead. That's a tame statement. But the next statement is tough.

There's a biting statement from Jesus here, in verse 15, where he turns the question back on the man in the form of a warning. He says take care and be on your guard against all covenants, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Now, while it might seem fair to us that the brother should divide the inheritance, jesus is more concerned with the condition of the man's heart, isn't he? He is getting at the root of why the man asked for the inheritance in the first place. The man is violating the tenth commandment in his pursuit of this money that is legally his brother's, and Jesus wants him to know that the biggest issue before him is not what his brother is doing or the traditions or the customs of their culture.

The most substantial thing that this man is facing is the covenantness of his own heart, and this is important for us to remember as we think about this passage and as we think about remembering any of the commands of God, because we can easily become so concerned with how people are treating us or what the culture is doing that we lose sight of the personal sin within our hearts Because we're justifying how we feel based upon what other people are doing to us. We get blinded to our own sin in this way so often. This is a perfect example here of what Jesus teaches in the Gospels right about removing the log from your own eye before you worry about the speck in your brother's eye. This is what Jesus is talking about here. You're so concerned about how the culture is treating you and your fair share. You're not realizing that you're coveting this money and, of course, realizing your own sin, realizing the condition of your own heart.

While all this stuff is going on, it's easy for us to become blinded to our own sin and selfishness, because we're so concerned with other people. And Jesus here not only warns the man of violating the 10th commandment, but he also lets the man know why. Because life is more than what you can gather to yourself, as long as you are taking breath. Life is more than that. Like the old t-shirt I mentioned a few minutes ago, in the end the one with the most toys still dies. And while there's nothing wrong with possessing material goods it's a necessity of life it's the attitude and position of our hearts and our minds that matters in regards to those things. And Jesus says that our life does not consist in gathering things to ourselves.

And so I wanna take this moment to remind us of Westminster's shorter catechism question and answer number one. It asks what is the chief end of man? And the answer is not to get all the stuff that I can. That's not the chief goal of life, that's not the chief end of man, because that would be an attitude of not only coveness. But when we're seeking these things, when we're seeking that stuff, it's not just the covening that's going on in our heart, we are also idolizing those things. We are seeking something other than God. We're replacing the pursuit of God with the pursuit of material possessions. So if our answer to what is the chief end of man is the abundance of possessions, we have a serious problem, and it isn't just covening, it's idolatry, because the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. When that is our pursuit, when that is our concern, we will be focused on God and not all these things, all these possessions that we can gather to ourselves.

And so all of this sets up this parable that Jesus tells this man and tells the people around them, and it's a really straightforward story, right? This isn't a parable where we're going to have to worry about being confused because we don't really understand it because of the cultural distance between us and them, whether that's Middle Eastern culture or the time period. This story is not confusing at all. A farmer has land that produces plentifully and notice how Jesus states this, and it shows our first point for this morning about how God is sovereign over this stuff. Jesus says the land of a rich man produce plentiful. Jesus doesn't point to any wisdom or skill or business acumen that this man had the land produce plentifully. It isn't that he planted at the right time or he had some special methodology that increased his yields. It's the land that's doing this. God is ultimately the one who has blessed this man. It's not him, it's not his work. God is sovereign over what is happening. He has been blessed.

And Jesus also tells us that the man has an issue before him. And what does he say? What shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops? Now, the way that Jesus tells this story here is masterful. Really, it's excellent. Because if we stopped at verse 17, we might think, oh my, what a dilemma this man has. He has all these crops and nowhere to put them. And, like I said, jesus is telling this, if we stopped here, there would be a sense of suspense. He has these crops, no place to put them. But think about the story, and I'll move on in the text here in just a second to remind you. But think about the story. Does he really have nowhere to put the crops? And we see it in the next verse here he's got a place to put his crops because he tears down barns to build bigger ones. So what's the problem here? You see the issue. The issue is not the abundance God has given him, that God has blessed him with this abundance. It's what he does with the abundance. So what is the chief end of man? To have as much as he wants and do nothing. That's what he believes his chief end is. He wants to keep it for himself. That's what he wants to do.

This man could have filled his current barns, or he could have maybe even made another barn and stored a little more than normal, but that isn't what he did. He was so concerned with himself and keeping as much as he could that he did something excessive. He destroyed what he already had to keep all that he possibly could. He actually created additional expense for himself to hold on to what God had sovereignly blessed him with and given to him. God blessed him, but instead of sharing it, he did everything he possibly could, again even increasing his expenses, to keep it all for himself.

It's important that we remember that the sin of covetousness is not just desiring what we cannot have. That's kind of what we think. We think of just covetedness being this desire to have something we currently don't have. It's also when we keep for ourselves that which God has blessed us with and not share it with others and share the abundance he has given us. And this parable, shows us something that's really convicting as we think about this story, because I think so many of us could easily be this guy.

I know I could. You know I have a lot here right in front of me, and if I could make this last, that would be great. I've worked hard. I deserve this. Sure, I could bless others. I could provide housing for someone instead of tearing down my barn and rebuilding. I could do very well for myself and still help others. But you know I deserve this. I have done this. I have invested properly. I have planted at the right time. I deserve this. I'm gonna take the rest of my life off. I'm gonna relax, eat, drink and be merry. Do you feel that? Do you understand that maybe we could be this guy too, very easily, because it's so easy to be blind to the people around us when we're looking in on ourselves and coveting those things that we desire, and one of the things that we tend to covet is our own comfort.

Well, here, what we've seen is our first point of God's sovereignty, and it hits home as we come to verse 20. Here. This is the high point of the story, and it reminds us of the fact that all of this, all of his positioning and all of his planning are just a temporary scheme. He is not God, he is not the chief end of his existence. And it's humbling to read this, to read these words full this night. Your soul is required of you. Not one of us has promised another day. We're not God. It's today, the day that my soul is required of me. It's today the day appointed for me to die. And this truly shows us our second point for this morning of the foolishness of pursuing possessions. Of course, we see the fact that God is sovereign over more than just wealth. He is sovereign over all things, and we are not. Our time will end, and so it's foolish to pursue that which does not last. I've mentioned this multiple times already, but this is the point where this comes home in a real way for us, doesn't it? It is one thing to say things are temporary. It's an entirely different thing to stop and consider this reality that our soul could be required of us today and everything that we've pursued is gone or doesn't mean anything.

Each day, we get up and we pursue the things that are needed for survival, and we are blessed to live in a time and a place where we actually have great abundance and we can pursue more than just our next meal or the water that we need to survive. We not only have vocations that provide for our needs, we have hobbies, we have other pursuits all blessings. We spend a lot of time of our lives thinking ahead, don't we? Not only how much money we can have in the bank, but also what can we buy next, or what possession would be good to add to our collection of material things, and in our abundance, we often would rather tear down what we have already to make room for what's coming. We're always planning for more, wanting more, but the statement by God in this parable humbles us.

The things you have prepared, whose will they be? What will become of our pursuits when we come to the end and there's no more pursuing to be done, because our life has come to an end and there is an answer that we could try to give here, isn't there? We could try to answer this who's will they be? Well, they'll belong to my kids, they'll belong to my grandchildren. This will be passed on, this will be my legacy, this is the way I live, beyond my last breath, and while there's nothing wrong with building a legacy for your family. The statements here still rings true. Whose will they be? The blunt answer is not yours. You'll be dead.

What you pass on can be squandered and likely ends in the landfill, but sooner than you would imagine your legacy to last. None of it will last even as long as you imagine, and it's foolish to pursue the things of this world because they're temporary. Think on all the stuff that you've pursued in your life. Where is it now? How much of it is gone already. How much of it is nowhere to be found. It was important in that moment, in that time, but now you likely couldn't locate so much of the stuff you obsessed over, even if you tried. It's gone.

And we're called, then, to pursue that which is not temporary and instead seek after that which remains. Our pursuit is, then, not to be rich in the eyes of the world, but to be rich before God, and to not seek treasures for ourselves. And this does not mean that life is meaningless, because Jesus does not leave us here with the idea of hopelessness, does he? He doesn't say hey, none of this stuff matters. Life is terrible. You get all the stuff and then you die. He doesn't say that he offers hope. He doesn't say life is meaningless. He said there is something that you can pursue that has meaning. Seeking to relax, to eat, to drink and be merry is futile, but there is something that matters. Jesus says there is a way to live a life of purpose and meaning, and that is to be rich towards God, to seek Him and His righteousness. Seek those things, because it cannot be taken away from you. It has value not only in this life, but it has value in the life to come. I think we get this.

The message of this parable is a clear one, and we know that our possessions and worldly pursuits are temporary, but it's an entirely different thing to live our lives. This way, though, isn't it To be rich toward God? It isn't something tangible. It isn't an account where we can see the number increasing with interest right and feel like we're moving. It isn't a barn or a bin that we can see having a little more in each year that it's increasing. We can't see that. This is why seeking to be rich toward God is something that we have to pursue all the harder we seek this when we pursue the things of God.

We are rich toward God first when we acknowledge that we come to Him with nothing Because of our sin and our rebellion against God. We come to Him with hands that are empty. If we think that we come to God with wealth of our own, we are as foolish as this man in the parable, because we need God to fill our hands, because we bring nothing of our own to Him and we seek to be rich before God. When we acknowledge this and ask Him to fill us, when we understand that it is His righteousness that we have and not our own, then we are rich toward God. When we seek His word and fill ourselves with His promises, we are becoming rich toward God when we seek the love, when we seek to love others because we have first been loved by Christ and what he has done for us in His sacrificial life, his death, his resurrection and His ascension. We are then rich towards God, and I want to be very clear with what I'm saying here, because confusion is so easy. I'm not saying that we are adding to our salvation or getting greater and bigger rewards by being rich toward God. That isn't what Jesus is saying by using this phrase rich toward God, as if we can somehow cash that in later on. That's not the point. The idea of being rich here is one of fullness, one of peace with God, because this is a pursuit that matters, that has meaning in this life and the next.

And as I was working through this text over the course of the week, just reading it and thinking about it, I honestly could not have planned a better text to have sitting in front of me as I preached to you this week, based on the story I'm going to tell you here in a minute. You would think the story happened to him and then he picked this text to preach. That's not the case. I don't work that way. This is the text that was sitting there for us this week. I know a few of you kept up with my writing about my triple.

I was gone. The first week was primarily spent preaching and teaching the class, preaching Christ from all over the world, and I was able to read all of the scripture. But the second half of the trip was to see the other work of the ministry that I went there to work with. So this past Tuesday we went to a school that they have for children in a small city called Hosanna, and at this school I met not only children in that school that were in situations of life that I never would have imagined, and after even meeting them, I still struggle to even comprehend the way they live. To even have a category for processing through it is difficult.

I also met mothers of several of the children, who work at the school. They sew the uniforms. This is to help them make ends meet and have money, because most of them are single mothers. Their husbands have either died or the men can't provide for the family, and they just abandon them. This school serves the poorest of the poor, and I was told that the school is filled with children and it was that if they didn't go to school there, they couldn't go to school anywhere. And it's not because they didn't have money for tuition or something that the state school is free of charge to them. The issue is that they couldn't have afforded a uniform or supplies like pencils and books and all those things. This was the problem that was before them, and so at this school, they get a good meal every day, their supplies are covered, and they also get a very balanced education, including science, language, english, they get Bible instruction All good.

Well, at the end of the day, it was a long, emotional day. We got in our van and a man that works at the school got in and this girl that got in with him was small. I didn't see her get in, actually, and I heard her voice and I turned around and I'm like, why is this girl with us? And I found out that we were taking her to her mother. So it was at an open-air market and I wanted to see this and everybody except the driver was getting out of the van and so we started walking in. I thought we were dropping this girl off at her mother and we got there and my friend Samuel says no, we're here to pick her up. Her mother is blind, one of theBoxs. And we got and she was working at a booth in this open-air market selling grain. How she kept from being robbed, I have no idea, but we had come so that this daughter could lead her back to the van and we gave them a ride home and we did not just take them to her home and drop them off, they invited us into their home where five of them live, and the total space of that room, the room they live in, is probably smaller than the study, my study here at the church, very small.

She had been with the woman. The blind woman had been widowed, she had remarried, had two more children. Then the husband could not provide for them and he abandoned them. They don't know if he's dead or alive. Now I'm telling this story to show I'm not telling you this story to show you how good you have it. That's not the point. Of course, if you want to take that away from it, I'm not gonna object to that application. But I want to tell you about what went through my head as we were standing there and I can only understand. I can't understand anything. It's all coming to me through my friend translating to me.

But I sat there in that mud house. I wanted to take them all away from there, sorry. I wanted to fix their problem. I wanted to come back here, do a fundraiser, build them a big house, ask everyone to contribute. It wouldn't take much money to help them out beyond anything that they could imagine. I wanted to rescue them from. You know what was right in front of me? This tiny room, this blind woman, these children who don't have anything.

But as I laid in bed that night thinking about those emotions and I was trying to take in everything that I had seen and, trust me, it was a lot. That probably wasn't the most difficult story I heard that day, okay, but it's the one that I had the most vivid understanding of, because I was standing in their home and so my thoughts actually came to this passage, because I had been working on my sermon earlier in the day, I had been thinking about this and what came to mind to me that night, laying there staring at the ceiling, was let's say I found a way to help them out, get them a bigger home, better resources for clothing and meals. Let's say I got that all figured out. If they didn't know Jesus, it wouldn't matter. I could fix their earthly problems theoretically, but if they weren't rich towards God, what did it matter? It isn't just a rich farmer who tore down his barns, so do you get, retire and live easy? Whose soul will be required of him? It's not just me whose soul will be required of me. That family also will one day breathe their last, and while they will most likely never be rich in the eyes of the world, they can be rich towards God.

So before we left, we prayed with them and every place else we went, samuel asked me to pray and I would pray and he would translate. I couldn't do it there, I just let Samuel pray, and when he asked her if they wanted to pray, she was sitting on the edge of her bed. And when he asked her to pray, or asked when he told her that we were gonna play, she slid off the bed and got on her knees and fell on her face and as Samuel prayed and I'm heart for them. I have no idea what Samuel said, no idea at all, but her posture and the way she said amen told me that she is rich towards God, she has faith in Christ and that makes her rich beyond measure, and that wealth cannot be taken away from her. So may God bless us.

May we be more concerned with richness towards him and not the world. May we seek his kingdom, a kingdom of salvation that never fades away, because we didn't have anything to do with it. We purchased for us in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of our Savior. So may we daily seek richness towards God, that our lives might glorify him, that we might value that which can never be taken away from us, that we might value that salvation that God has blessed us with in Christ. Amen.

Let us pray, almighty and everlasting God. We praise you for the gift of your word. We thank you that we have this warning in this parable. This parable was not just a warning to this man who wanted an inheritance, but it's a warning to us that each and every day is a blessing from you. Any day could be the day that we breathe our last, and so we pray, oh Lord, that we would value richness towards you instead of seeking to be well off in the eyes of the world. May you bless us with humility, and may we seek you above all things, your kingdom, your righteousness, because we know that we have richness in Christ that never fades away. It is in his name that we pray, amen.