MK040 Sermons
Greed (Audio)
of your life. One of the things that my dad enjoyed doing with us as kids and he now enjoys this very much with his grandkids is playing games and one of my dad's favorite games we were kid growing up was the game monopoly and that was just one of his favorite games it would always take a long time but his strategy was always of course to obtain the properties park place and boardwalk that was his strategy and we of course had to amass enough money and try to wipe him out before he could get houses and then hotels on those locations but sometimes that strategy wouldn't work one of us would get one of the properties absolutely refused to trade him anything for it and then he would be stuck with the railroads that's what he would be stuck with you know the railroads is all he would have as a rail was and eventually we would wipe him out and the way we did that is we would obtain the park the properties on the red and the yellow pieces we would obtain those we would pack those out with hotels and and then he couldn't get past us to get to his place and we would trade anything for those things even the utilities it didn't matter what we had to trade to get rid of but our goal was to obtain as much money as we could buy as many houses as we could put as many then buy as many hotels and put them on the property and wipe out the other person and I spent many many hours as a kid playing the game monopoly and there's something about the game of monopoly and there's something about having money and earning money and making money that has a very attractive power and a very attractive poll to in each of our lives you know and it starts as little kids when we're playing with these things and you know it's as we get a little bit older and get that first job and now we have that first taste of some actual income it can slowly take over without us realizing it there's a movie a number of years ago entitled Wall Street and then that movie it had this description of the what greed was and I want to read that for you it's going to come up on the screen it says greed for lack of a better word is good greed is right greed works greed clarifies greed cuts through and clarifies the evolutionary spirit now if I were to ask this crowd show of hands how many of you are greedy this morning we got one hand back there in the very back you know got another one there so I didn't ask but you put your hands up so now we all know but you know it's a pretty modest crowd and I think this crowd this you know who is here they would generally say that you know I'm not really I'm not really greedy but when I think about greedy people I generally tend to think of you know individuals like Wall Street Wall Street investment brokers or or people that have big houses and fancy cars or or people that run big corporations they want to just stomp out the little guy and you know take advantage of them and and that's what we think of when we think about being greedy but what if I told you that Jesus said it doesn't matter how much money you have that determines whether or not you're greedy the amount of money you have does not determine whether or not you're greedy and this morning we're gonna take a hard look at what Jesus had to say about this subject if you haven't been here with us we've been in the series of studies on the parables these are stories that Jesus told throughout his life and these are not the kind of fairy tale bedtime stories that have a nice happening ending these are stories with an edge these are stories that catch you by surprise these are stories that without realizing it you're drawn into it you're interested in and you're thinking about it and then suddenly you're the person in the story and this story is about you and last week we looked at the issue of entitlement and we talked about what is it like when we live our lives as if we are an owner when we're only a renter and this morning if you've come with dad to church because he asked you to come and you don't normally come and the church thing isn't your deal you might be encouraged to hear what Jesus has to say about money or you might not be you might not be I thought how ironic is it that I'm speaking about the subject of money and greed on and stuff on Father's Day when most of us will get more stuff on Father's Day you know but I'm sure that all of us here live somewhat comfortably and have a little bit extra and Jesus is gonna talk about that this morning and that affects all of us regardless of where we're at on our spiritual journey you have your Bibles if you would turn to Luke 12 Luke 12 is the passage we're gonna be in this morning Luke 12 if you don't have a Bible our guys have some and they will pass those out to you make them available I'd love to have you follow along in those Bibles that also be up on the screen and you can also connect to the internet here and download you version and follow along on that as well Luke chapter 12 as we've been talking about the parables one of the things it's important is to look at the audience who is listening when Jesus is talking who's listening last week is the religious leaders this week it's a different audience Luke chapter 12 verse one he identifies his audience it says when a crowd of many thousands had gathered so that they were trampling on one another Jesus began to speak first to his disciples this is a pretty massive amount of people in that day villages were a couple hundred people several hundred people and so to create a group that the size of thousands there's a lot of people gathered there they had heard about Jesus this is partway through his ministry and they heard about him heard about the the story tell heard about the healer and they were all there to hear them to hear what he had to say and as they're talking he's speaking specifically to his disciples who are just the ones closest the ones that were following the ones that were there with him but other people could hear as they were out in the crowd and they were out in the crowd someone heard what Jesus had to say interrupted him last month I had a chance to speak to a a local Christian school during the day of prayer in the beginning of May to a kindergarten through 12th grade chapel and I don't do that very often that's not my normal speaking audience that I'm communicating with and so as I was speaking often I will ask and if you hear me speak I'll ask rhetorical questions that I'm not intending for the audience to the respond to but I forgot that I was speaking to an audience that included first graders so every time I asked a rhetorical question over in this corner all the hands went up you know and they're doing this trying to get my attention you know and and I'm just trying to not make eye contact with them and eventually they put their hand down you know and then you know towards the end of the message one little kid he couldn't restrain himself anyone so I said yes or no and the kids said yes you know really well you know just interrupted the whole thing you know and it's kind of like that's what happens to Jesus he's speaking to this whole crowd and he and he's talking about it you can read through the first part of chapter 12 there on your own but in the midst of that this guy jumps up with this question in verse 14 or verse 13 look at the question teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me now teacher was accurate because Jesus was one who taught all the time he was teaching about the kingdom God but this guy doesn't ask about the kingdom of God this guy doesn't ask about when the world's gonna come to another this guy doesn't ask about relationships he asked Jesus a legal question a legal question he says teacher can you take care of this legal problem for me now based on the culture we know a little bit of what was happening in that day and that day likely what had happened to this individual it's his father had passed away and in the culture of that day the oldest son received the double inheritance how many first born sons are here in the room let me see your hands oldest sons not just first born but you're the oldest okay all right how many of you are not the oldest son let me see your hands okay it really sucks to be you because you got half or you got less than half you know and ladies I'm sorry there was nothing that was given to you but apparently what happened is the big brother had gotten the inheritance and it's his job to divide it and he hadn't done it yet and so this guy wasn't asking something unreasonable something unreal he was just asking for what was owed him what was his part he wasn't say give me more he wasn't say I deserve more he said just give me what is my part that's all that he was asking for but in the midst of this look what Jesus goes on to say in verse 14 he says why do you who pointed me to do this job who pointed me to do this job that people periodically come and ask me questions about legal matters I'm like hey you're asking the wrong question you know if I'm wrong person that's really what you said but Jesus then took the opportunity to speak into a matter and tell a story and he speaks in the matter in verse 15 he says this he says beware or watch out or be on your guard against all kinds of greed that's an interesting statement isn't because when I think when I think about greed I think it's just somebody they got plenty and they want more that's someone who's greedy Jesus says now says there's all different kinds of greed and notice the next phrase he says life does not consist in an abundance of possessions now Jesus is not as he has in other places said I want you to go and sell everything and give it to the poor that's not what he's saying here he's not saying you shouldn't have his he says your life is more than the abundance or the extra that you have but the extra is often how we reflect our worth and our value because what do we do when we have extra what do we do well we invest in we might flaunt it hey you wouldn't believe what happened to me we might upgrade something in our lives a vehicle we're home and so everybody's aware that something has changed we might buy more insurance acquire more power we might even present ourselves to be poor and not let up because we don't want others but Jesus says life is more than what you possess and if God owns everything and he says you're a steward of this what right do I have over not only everything I have but my extras this creates dilemma because the Bible says that we should work hard it says learn from the end the Bible says that we should live on less and and then we shouldn't exceed we should not have excessive debt and so we pay down our debt we live on less we work hard what's the result you are going to have extra so the confusing part of this experience is if I do what God says with my finances I'm gonna be faced with a dilemma of having more than what I need especially in our Western culture today so what do you do with all the extra is there anything wrong with just one thing a little more some things that are a little nicer Oh dear Lord you made many many poor people I realize of course it's no shame to be poor but it's not great on our either so what would have been so terrible if I had the small fortune if I were a rich man yeah baby baby baby baby baby baby don't all day long I've been a bit it come if I were a wealthy man I would have to work hard yeah baby baby baby if I were a little bit a rich little little little little man I'd have built a big tall house where the rooms by the dozen right in the middle of the town I find in a roof where the real wooden floors below there would be one long staircase just going up and one never longer coming down and one more leading nowhere just for show I feel my yada with a chicks and turkeys and geese and ducks for the town to see and here squawking just as noisily as they can and it's love again will land like a trumpet on the ear as you to say he lives a wealthy man if I were a rich man yeah baby baby baby baby baby all day long I've been a bit it bump if I were a wealthy man I wouldn't have to work hard yeah baby oh I see my white my gold looking like a rich man's wife will have proper double chip supervising abuse to a hardster like I see her putting on air since strutting like a peacock oh what a happy which is here screaming at the servants that most important many time will come on a me I will ask me to advise of them like a solemn the wise if you please revet of you for me revet of you housing problem that would cross her advice I and it won't make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong when you're rich they think you really know I wear rich I don't have that time that I'll have to sit in the synagogue and pray and maybe have a seat by the eastern wall and I discuss their holy books with a learner the men seven hours every day and that would be the sweetest thing of all if I were a rich man yeah baby baby if I were a wealthy man I won't have to work hard the epidemic epidemic epidemic epidemic epidemic no who made a bell iron and the lamb you the queen I should be what I am what it's I will I will be everybody said that you really like that Amanda didn't you were loving it down here when it mess up God's plan if you were just to give me a little extra replace that thing that's not as nice that thing that isn't working as well would it really mess things up but Jesus told a story and I want us to read these first couple verses of this story look at verse 16 it says a ground of a certain rich man yielding an abundant harvest he thought to himself what shall I do I have no place to store my crops it goes on to say in the next verse this time then he said this is what I'll do I'll tear down my barns build bigger ones in there I will store my surplus of grain and then verse 19 and I said to myself you have plenty of grain laid up for many years take life easy eat drink and be there if you look at the story this guy actually does really well he has a great year their businesses up profits are up bonuses are in a raises on the horizon investments are doing nicely he has everything in his fingertips it's all going well but notice if you go back to verse 16 notice what he does when he realizes this he thought to himself what should I do not us that doesn't seem very odd yeah I think to myself about things all the time but remember this is written in an ancient Near Eastern culture that is heavily communal and when you are thinking about something you discussed it with your family you discussed it with your friends you discussed it with the elders at the city gates everybody knew everybody's business in that day you know kind of like living in Lancaster County a little bit you know I mean you know but you didn't just do things on your own in that culture and in that day but he just thought to himself himself Isaiah five eight says this look at as it comes up on the screen it says what do you add whore house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land what you come to realize quickly is this guy didn't there's no evidence of any family in the story no evidence of any friends friends no evidence of any business partners no evidence of any relationship he's all by himself and so what does he decide to do open up another account tear down the barns build bigger barns in the next verse doesn't really seem like a bad idea but if you look at verse 18 he says this is what I'm gonna do I will tear it down I will store my surplus grain and then the verse 19 I will say to myself you've done pretty well you've done pretty well no mention of employees somebody had to harvest all that grain I don't think he did it himself no mention of people that worked for him it's all about him and he ends with this dialogue with his soul where he says take life easy and that word life is the the word we get the word soul he says just you can kind of take it easy rest easy he says eat drink and be married but there's no one there to celebrate it with Solomon in the Old Testament talked about that and Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 15 this is what he said he said so I command the enjoyment of life because there's nothing better for a person under the Sun than eat drink and be glad enjoy well accompany them in their toil all the days of the life that God has given to them but that's really all this guy's soul is about his soul the core of who he is is all about possessions and then simply pure enjoyment of those possessions himself that's in a very stark contrast to what David in the Psalm said about his soul in Psalm 40 Psalm 42 one where he said like the deer pants for streams of water so my soul longs are pants for you oh God this guy just his soul was all about himself but it's easy to look at this guy and think he did pretty well he did pretty well he wasn't like the guy that Solomon talked about in the Proverbs when he says go to the end y'all slugger because you need to learn from him because you're a lazy bum and you need to get off your duck and do some work this guy was obviously a hard worker of value that we know about in our community he not only was a hard worker but he saved and he planned for the future he did just throw it all away he built bigger barns so that you have more to go plant for the next year so he was a wise investor he was discerning likely didn't have any debt ready for retirement his kids college fund is packed out he lived life seemingly well and you almost anticipate that at this point in the story that God would say something like you have really done well and because you've honored me with a little bit I'm gonna bless you with even more we almost are anticipating that to be the next phrase in the story not ready to hear what God says when you look at all that this guy has done that appears to be on the surface right because what does God say next to him in verse in the next verse it says you fool now God didn't just say to him you know you're really kind of missing this one area of thinking about something beyond yourself and it would be good idea if you did that that's not what God says God says to say you know some of your money should go to help others that's not what God says his categoric comprehensive analysis of this guy's way he is living life is a fool not would you expect to hear when you see what the outcome of his life was that goes on to say in this phrase this very night your life or your soul will be demanded from you this is the language when someone calls in alone when you borrow money from someone they say time to pay up time to pay the piper that's what God said to the guy he was playing it for what's coming next and God says mm-hmm time to pay the piper you're done you're done and it's a powerful reminder for us that life is not a right life is not a privilege tomorrow is not something you and I deserve tomorrow is a gift that God blesses us with every single day man the story forgot this and he believed it was all his and the surface was all his and he could do whatever he wanted to do with it and it would be fine but it wasn't he forgot what Solomon said and ecclesiastes 2 verse 18 and 19 I hated all the things I had toyed for out of the Sun because I must leave them to the one who comes after me and who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish reality is is someone's gonna get all our stuff and they're going to decide what to do with it you and I won't I think what Jesus did is he was trying to alert his audience he was trying to wake his audience up who were likely very poor very poor say to them greed is not connected to the amount of money in your pocket or in your accounts or on your net worth statement greed is not connected to that greed is all about forgetting that there's more to this life forgetting that life is short and we don't know if tomorrow is guaranteed for us and when it's given to us to recognize that as a gift from God and recognize that if all I do is pay attention to that stuff I'm gonna miss something very very significant look what he says in verse 21 he says this this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for himself themselves but is not rich to work out the one who continues to labor for themselves and the one who continues to be a tenant to only my own stuff one day God's gonna say times up times up I don't know what it is about our culture but we have this thing about collecting collecting as a kid I collected baseball cards and I have boxes of baseball cards and you know I was a big Baltimore Colts fan before they up and left went to Indy you know and you know in the late 70s all I hated the Steelers they always beat the Colts in the playoffs you know and I collected newspaper clippings about the Bert Jones and Lydell Mitchell my favorite teams and I collected this stuff now what am I gonna do with this stuff you know they just collect things my son was on this binge of collecting Arizona tea cans I don't know what we thought was all about you know just talking to recycling the other day good thing one of the things a few years ago I said to my family I'd like to have an activity scene we didn't have an activity scene it was a pastor not having a good scene in it so I went to Shady Maple on their half price off sale on you know midnight gladness and started bought a little piece and it's time we buy a little bit more now we have a nativity scene and one of my family said well why are we gonna get something more I'm like what do you mean something more I'm like they have the whole city of Jerusalem they have the whole city of Bethlehem I'm like I don't need the whole city of Bethlehem in my house you know I just wanted a little activity scene you know a few years to have the whole Middle East you know it can take over my basement you know Saudi Arabia and Jordan and Iraq I mean but isn't that what happens to us you know like all that would be nice to have something that's a little like this and then we just add more and more and more and more and more I won't even ask you how many of you have bought something and then gone home and found the thing you just bought guys with tools you know I mean and then what do we do with the thing that we don't ever take it back that would be too embarrassing to tell I'm sorry I already had one you know I just found it no no we keep it and we just had more to our stuff you know biggest fastest growing a big growing industries in our and around the country you know what it is storage units to store all of our crap that we don't even know what it is and then somebody saw and then we forget to pay the rent it gets sold out from under us and somebody else buys our junk you know like mad west then you know I mean you know what's up with all of that but that's just kind of the world that we live in and we look at this dude who seemed like he was doing some good stuff and saving and planning for the future and having extra and God's analysis of his life is you are a fool and what would he say to me and what will he say to you on that final day and that final hour when he looks at our accumulation of our stuff it's a very sobering thought and I don't think what God is saying to us is you're not supposed to have things that you need in this life it's not the message today I hope you don't walk away with that thought but I can justify purchases I can argue my way out of into things that I need more of all the time and there's nobody telling me you shouldn't do that but Jesus is giving us a warning today he's saying need to think real carefully about what you're doing with your stuff need to think real carefully about what you do when you have a little bit of extra you weren't expecting some of you may be listening to me this morning and you may say you know John I really I don't have a lot of extra and maybe you don't and for you this challenge is to say God I just want to be grateful for what you give me and grateful for every day maybe you have all your needs met and you have a little bit more I want to challenge you what are you longing for more of what are you doing with your surplus with your extra some of you have a lot of extra I think I got has been very good to you and one day you'll have to give an account to God and so this morning as we wrap up on a challenge you to think about these couple of things number one is just to be grateful for every day as a gift from God be grateful for each day as a gift from God this guy forgot that and God said time's up number two are you focused on what you want or what you need a start to somebody who at between services they were saying yeah he want to get asked what do I need what do I want but what's your focus on your focus on number three what do you do with surplus what do you do when you got two a thing two of something do you keep it case on my break what do you do with it I want you to walk away with this phrase are you stockpiling are you sharing what you have a stockpiling are you sharing what you have because this guy was obviously stockpiling it he was just stalking it stalking it stalking it really forces us especially in our western culture to ask a lot of hard questions about I about things in our culture that are very culturally accepted norms like retirement funds like college funds all these things that have become the norm that we've started to believe that this is wise and is there a component that I think that there is but what's my motivation for having that that's my motivation for having that and we're forced to face this reality with this story today so what are you doing with it are you stockpiling it you know I thought to myself I thought what if we went home and one of the benefits of when you move is you have to purge everything right so did you guys just purge everything here's just moved back and they just purged everything we've been in the same house for 23 years now fortunately my wife is a thrower she throws stuff out so you might disappear you wonder where it went you know but but if you're not like that you probably have layers upon layers of things and it might be time to do something about that you know I don't know if you've heard the statistics if you haven't used something in about two to three years you're not going to you haven't worn it in two to three years you're not going to get back into it let me just tell you that let's be honest with one another you know and if you do you know by yourself some new clothes reward you know but we just need to be honest with ourselves and say I got all this extra stuff sitting around that I'm not doing anything with it and I thought to myself I thought you know if we if we said we're just gonna we're gonna purge our stuff you know I imagine we can fill that building up in five-point bill so full we'd have to figure out what to do with all this stuff now that we have to bless other people with it you know I'm not gonna stockpile my stuff I'm gonna have what I need I'm gonna trust God to meet my needs beyond that I'm not going to hoard it for a rainy day I'm gonna invite you to bow your heads with me and just take a moment and meet with God and once you ask honestly am I stockpiling and my sharing listen to what he has to say this way you you you you (buzzing) (buzzing) - God, this is another one of those stories that it's really easy to look at and say, what was that guy thinking? And this, that Jesus is talking to us this morning about our stuff, about the extra, about what we prioritize in our lives. Just that statement, our life is more than all of the extra stuff that I have. It's my life about being rich towards God. Or it's, it's just so easy for me to forget this. When I walk out of these tours, so easy for me to forget. Every day is a gift. I want to pray that you'd help us as we wrestle with this reality, as we seek to live in a way that is not going to get encouraged anywhere in our culture today. That we might have a sense that this is what following Jesus looks like, when I make these kind of choices in my life. God, we need your help to do this. That there's one thing that gets a stranglehold around our hearts in our lives at some point. God, we need you to pry our hands open like we would do with a young child holding something that could harm them. So you know God, it's time to, it's time to get rid of some of this stuff. It's time to sell this, give this away. Bless others, because I don't want my life to be about this stuff that someone else eventually will get. And you're never praying, you know.