21 Jan

8/5/18   LUKE 12:13-21   “STOP THE GREEDY, HELP THE NEEDY”

One of the great things about being a little older is that I don’t really want much of anything that I don’t already have.  I’m satisfied where I’m at.  I really wish I had learned this earlier in life.  There was a time when I had to have all the things that my friends and neighbors had.  I was envious and greedy.  Some of you might be or may have been the same way.  Today’s Scripture is about this subject and we really don’t like to talk about it much, but it’s all around us.  And for the most part it’s inside all of us.  I know that I am very guilty of this in my life although not as much as I used to be.  Now that I know Jesus Christ I can see just how greedy I am.  And when I think of my life before I knew Jesus, well I just shudder.  Anyway, let’s see if we can see this in our lives and can we make the proper adjustments.

George W. Truett is a well-known pastor in Texas tells of this.  One day he was invited to dine with a very wealthy Texas man.  After the meal, he was led to a place where he had a tremendous view of the surrounding area.  The Texan pointed to all the oil wells that covered the landscape and boasted, “Twenty-five years ago I had nothing.  Today I own everything as far as you can see.”  They looked in the opposite direction at golden grain fields that sprawled across the horizon and he bragged, “They are all mine.”  Then they turned to the east and looked at a huge herd of cattle and the man kept bragging, “They are all mine.”  They turned to the west where there was a huge forest and he kept on, “That too is all mine.”

The Texan was expecting Dr. Truett to compliment him on all of the successes that he had.  But Dr. Truett did something different.  He placed his hand on the man’s shoulder and pointed heavenward to the sky and simply asked, “How much do you have in that direction?”  The rich Texas tycoon slowly bowed his head in shame and said, “I never thought of that.”  Unfortunately, there are many people who have never thought of this!

I am pretty sure that we don’t have any tycoons watching today.  But I’m also pretty sure that we have some or many who are very proud of their possessions.  We have people in our midst that are always looking for greener grass on the other side of the hill.  People will leave an area, divorce their spouse and even leave a church because they think that the grass is greener over there.  Well, take it from one who used to be like that, it isn’t any greener there or anywhere.  I used to chase that rainbow until I met Jesus Christ.  In a life changing moment I could see the fallacies of my greed.  I still have the greed but at least I can now see it.

We can see this in today’s Scripture lesson.  We begin with Jesus talking to his disciples.  While he was talking, thousands of people had gathered around Him.  I think that this is pretty hard for us to imagine.  He is talking to his twelve and before too long there are thousands gathered.  Jesus had some sort of drawing power that people today only wish they could have.  It is all because He told the truth and there is only one truth and that is Jesus.

Anyway, a man wants Jesus to take sides in a family squabble.  In those days the inheritance laws were pretty clear.  The oldest male got the bulk of it and the others got what was left.  This was obviously a younger brother that wants more than he was entitled and wants Jesus to take his side.  But Jesus will have none of this as He says, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

Jesus didn’t come to this world to settle our petty little arguments, and pretty much all of our arguments are petty.  No, He came to teach us how to live and how to attain eternal life.  And often times He does this by the telling of parables.  I believe that one of the signs that Jesus is God comes from the fact that He can tell the perfect parable at the perfect time that will last for thousands of years.  And it seems that He does this on the spur of the moment.  I couldn’t come up with a parable of any type that would last more than a few moments if I had a month to prepare.  I think that these parables are amazing.

So Jesus tells of a rich man who has a good crop.  It was so good that he didn’t have a place to store it all.  So he decides that he will tear down his old storage units and build new ones.  Then he can take life easy, and eat, drink and be merry.

I’m going to stop here for just a moment and look at this last statement.  We have to be very careful when we quote the Bible.  We cannot take quotes out of context and use them to support our own theories or practices.  There are religions in this country that are based on misrepresentations and misquotes of the Bible.  I know of people who do this on a regular basis.  And here is a prime example of why we need to be careful.

We can take this one line and say that Jesus is telling us to “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”  We can pull this out and it is exactly what Jesus says.  But it is part of a story that He is telling us.  He is not telling us to live this way.  I have heard of people in my life that have misquoted this.  It is pretty obvious to most of us what is going on here.  But there are other places where the distinctions are not so clear.  As rule of thumb, when you see a controversial passage, try reading it in the context of the whole text.  Often times this will clear things up.  And beware of those who you think might be misquoting the Bible.  There are many of them around including so-called Christian religions!

Now, back to the story!  Jesus is telling us of a rich man who is getting richer because of his good crop.  And he is also a very extravagant man as he is going to tear down his granaries and build new ones.  You may call me a little old fashioned or a little frugal or if you know we well enough, cheap, but why would you tear down the old ones.  Why not just build a few new ones and keep the old ones.  I think that it would be a much wiser use of his resources.  We can see that the problem in the parable is pretty much the same as the man who wanted his brother’s inheritance.  The problem is greed.

And that is our problem today also.  We can see it all around us.  You can just take a look at some of the advertisements that you find on TV.  It is a very rare occurrence to see corporate America make a better product for the good of the people.  Let me tell you brothers and sisters in Christ, if they aren’t making money on a product, then they won’t make the product.  Corporate America is all about money.  If they happen to make a product better it is only because they will make money on it.  The prescription drug business is an example.

And this doesn’t only happen in America.  Ron Blue who is a financial advisor went to a rural village in Africa and asked one of the villagers, “What is the biggest problem in your village?”  He was expecting an answer about a shortage of food or medical supplies.  He was not expecting the answer he got when the man said, “Materialism.”

He went on to explain, “If a man had a mud hut, he wants one made of stone.  If he has a thatch roof, he wants a tin roof.  If he has one acre, he wants two.  Materialism is a disease of the heart.”  We can see by this answer that even in a place where the people are lacking the necessities of life, materialism or greed is alive and well.

Therefore, I think that I can safely say that there is not one person who is listening or reading this sermon today that can say that they are not affected by materialism or greed.  We usually want more than we have.  We are never satisfied.  And I have only found one way that has helped me to curb this greedy appetite.  And that way is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Confess your sins and ask Him into your heart today and you will never regret it.  If you are a little unsure, ask me or someone else you know who is a Christian.  I know that you have Christians in your midst and they would love to talk to you about this decision.  But do it today because this leads us into the next section of this passage.

Jesus is giving us a bit of a warning here.  He tells the man that this very night his life will be demanded of him.  He will die this very night.  And then who will get all of this stuff that he will leave behind?  And this is because it doesn’t matter how much you have or don’t have in this broken world; you cannot take it with you.  This ‘stuff’ doesn’t matter one bit to God.  He wants your heart.  He wants a personal relationship with you.  And He doesn’t want it with us.  Rather He wants it with you, individually.  We like to think of Christians as a group of people that we can bunch together.  However, we are all different individuals with individual gifts from God.

I had a conversation with a man when I was on vacation once that went something like this.  He said, “How can a loving God put people in such a terrible place like Hell?”  I could only answer the obvious answer.  Our loving God does not put anyone in Hell.  We put ourselves there when we make the decision that we know more than God and reject Him.  It is your decision and your decision alone.  God has given you all the tools to make the right decision and it is up to you to answer.  He even sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to walk with you, to teach you and to die for you.  So our loving God has given you all the right tools.

And that is what Jesus is talking about here.  The rich man only has to make the right decision.  The greedy man who wants more inheritance only has to make the right decision.  And all the stuff they have makes no difference at all.  It is like the story of the wealthy man who died and at the funeral a neighbor asked someone, “How much did he leave?”  And a wise woman responded, “Everything.”

We are living in a world where we are bombarded with messages from Satan.  He is absolutely everywhere.  Unfortunately this has led us to the dark, dark world we live in today.  He has gotten friends of mine thinking that our loving God is to blame for their troubles.  He has got them thinking that we can have heaven on earth.  He has got them believing that whatever they believe is the truth or I have my truth and you have yours.  But they need to know that the truth comes from God and is God.  Sometimes I forget just how prevalent and awful Satan is in his tactics until I talk with someone who doesn’t believe.  We as a country and we as a world are in big trouble.

So here are a couple of things that you can be doing in your own small portion of the world.  First of all, Jesus tells us to be ready.  We do not know when He is coming back for the whole world and we don’t know when He will be coming to take us home as individuals.  Jesus is saying that anyone of us or even all of us could be called home to Him in glory by tonight.  We just don’t know and we have to be ready by having a personal relationship with Jesus that I talked about earlier and I’ve talked about it often.  I do this because I don’t want to see anyone left behind.  I want to see all of you in heaven, especially those I have never met.

The second thing that we can do is to help others to be ready.  Now most of you know that I am rather an evangelist type of preacher.  That is what I do and maybe you aren’t very good at that.  Well you don’t have to be a good evangelist in God’s perfect kingdom.  Maybe you can help in Sunday school where the children are being led to Jesus through lessons, Scripture and teachers.  We need people to teach our youngsters.  Or maybe your gift is service and people see you in service for Christ.  We all have at least one gift so use it.

Recently, I had a person tell me, “How dare you teach the children that God is the only way to heaven.  You should teach them all the different ways.”  And my answer was, “How dare I not teach the children the only way to heaven.  And this is because they deserve the truth and all other so called ways to heaven are orchestrated by the devil himself and they are absolutely false.”  Our children deserve the best and you can help them to find it.  They are starved for the truth and they deserve it.

You can also help people to find Jesus through mission projects.  You may be alone or may be your church is small or large but I know that you can give with the best of them.  After all, Jesus is telling you that you cannot take any of it with you.  So why not give to make God’s world a little better.  There are unlimited ways to further His kingdom as you start to make a difference in this world, a kingdom difference.  It all starts with the person in front of you.

I would like to close with a little story from Geoff Baggett.  He tells of a young couple who were struggling with finances.  They sat down to talk about it one day and one said to the other, “If we miss two payments on the refrigerator and one on the washing machine, then we will have enough money to make a down payment on a big screen television set.”  My friends, these are the things that you have to be on the watch.  These are the things that are not important.  Satan loves you to be greedy.  Jesus wants just the opposite.  Jesus wants only what is the very best for you.  And you can have what is the very best if only you read His word and listen for His voice.  I praise the Lord for the day He came into my life and many of your lives.  I pray that He will come into all of your lives.  He changes lives for the better.  Thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.