Luke 12:13-21
What will you be doing 100 years from
now ?
Everyone of us is going to being doing one of two things 100 years from now.
Serving the Lord
Jesus in all of eternal glory – or
Suffering in the tormenting
flames of hell.
For that
reason alone – the question I ask is a serious question.
We would rather leave it light & uncertain because that
keeps us from the responsibility of having to change & get serious about
the here & now.
But Jesus would
say the opposite: We must think about and be concerned with and focus on
ETERNITY.
13 someone called, “Teacher, please tell my
brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Friend, who
made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?”
Jesus has a way of getting to the root of problems/the
heart of the matter.
15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against
every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
1. Beware… Guard against -For many, we
are like vacation travelers. We take along too much stuff.
We would be better off if we asked, “How much can I get
along without?”
2. Every kind of greed When Covetousness
has been defined- as an unquenchable thirst for getting more of something we
think we need in order to be truly satisfied.
3. Life
is not measured by how much you own.”
We have been led
to believe by high powered advertising that a man’s life DOES consist in the abundance
of things that he possesses
So Jesus tells an
example parable that involves the fortune of one man and how he handles it.
16 Then he told them a story: “A rich man
had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.
This farmer has a banner crop
year.
17 He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I
don’t have room for all my crops.’
So
great is the yield that he lacks storage space for it all.
18 Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my
barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat
and other goods.
The decisions the
man makes to address his dilemma are perfectly normal and prudent.
19 And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My
friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat,
drink, and be merry!”’
1. Say to myself This man believes that what he has is his in
no uncertain terms. Several times in the next few verses he speaks in
first-person terms about what he has.
2. You have enough There is no hint of
an awareness of stewardship or responsibility to others as a result of his
fortune.
3. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry
In his view he, he has earned it! So after he stores his grain, he can relax
into a totally self-indulgent life of ease." Almost every culture recognizes that using the
creation for strictly selfish ends is a distortion.
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will
die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’
1.A fool When God addresses the man as
fool, he indicates the man's blindness in judging life's priorities. The man's
soul is being weighed in the balance. Only his naked character will be on that
balance.
2.You will die As the man
contemplates his future as one of the rich and famous, God has another account
to render: the man is about to join the dead and departed.
3. Who will get :One thing is for
sure, his treasures will not be his anymore.
21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up
earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”
1. Fool to store up earthly wealth Does
it take a funeral scene to demonstrate that. The greatest tragedy is not what
the man left behind but what lay before him: eternity without God!
2. Not have a rich relationship with God.”Jesus'
point is that the seeker of wealth ends up with an empty soul and an empty
life.
CONCLUSION:
Now What does it mean to be "rich toward God"?
It means to
become a child of God by placing your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ
on the cross at Calvary. When that takes
place – You become an inheritor of great blessings.
The real measure of our wealth is what will be ours in
eternity.
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