"Money"

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Today's reading is from a book of truth. Chapter 12 verses 13 to 21. You'll find it in on 1 0 4 4 in the church bible. Someone in a crowd said to him, Peter, tell my brother to to to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?

Then he said to them, watch out the honor of God against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of pot possessions. And he told them this parable, The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.

Then he said, This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat drink and be merry.

I got said to him. You fall. It's the very night your life will be demanded from you. And who will get what you have prepared for yourself. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but it's not reached towards Scott.

Great. Please keep the passage open in front of you. So that's, Luke chapter 12 starting at verse 13, page 1 0 4 4. Because we're gonna be looking at that together. We're in a series.

Oh, the iPad has turned off. I think I'm relying on you on this. At the back. Thanks. So we're looking at a series.

Rich is gonna come and sort me out. Welcome. We're in a series called Stories on the Road Lessons in following Jesus. It's a series which is about discipleship. That is what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Now, we can't cover everything in the section that we're looking at. We're looking at a section which is Luke chapter 9 to 19. It's a section in which Jesus stepped out resolutely for Jerusalem. And he gives teaching on what it means to be his follow-up. Thank you, Rich.

And oh, 0, well, it didn't make any difference because I haven't got the slides, right on there we are. My fault. There you are. You're just gonna have to listen to him and follow the points as we go through. So we're in this, section, loop 9 to 19.

We can't cover every passage. In it, there are plenty of stories Jesus tells about what it means to be his follower and what it looks like day by day, and we're gonna look at some of them. But I want to encourage you to read the whole section, and to do that, I over length, So let's start this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, this Wednesday. I'm sure it's in your diary. But it starts then goes through till the till Easter.

And, in that time, it would be great to read through the whole of this section of 9 to 19. So what we've done is, I've sectioned different sections for each day, and it's gonna be on the prayer diary, and you can get the prayer diary either by email, I think, from Colin, or you can get it on prayer mate, which is an app that you can get, which I find really helpful for, helping you pray. You can use that app and you will get if you get the feed from us, then you'll get day by day a little section that you can then look up and read your way through, like Luke 9 to 19. And then in Easter week, you'll have finished that and you'll be into, in Luke's gospel, the account of Jesus's arrest, trial, crucifixion, death and resurrection. So I would encourage you to use that through length.

And if you've already got your own bible reading, plan, bible reading notes, do that, and do this as well. I would encourage you to do this. It's not gonna be very long, passages. So I'd encourage you to do both if you can. Well, today, we come to a passage, which is all about greed and about money.

And so we're gonna pray. Let's pray for the lord's help to become business. Father, please would you teach us help us to know what it is to be a follower of Jesus. Help us father to apply these words in this passage, to our own hearts and to our lives. And father help us to be those who follow Jesus in day to day life.

When it comes to greed and money, father please help us. Delivers those who know Jesus and your great goodness to us amen. Now, just notice, at the start of the passage, or towards the start of the passage, the warning Jesus gives. So would you just look at verse 15 with me? Jesus, it says, then he said to them, watch out.

Be on your guard. Against all kinds of greed. Now just pause on that for a moment. Would you? Jesus is giving a strong warning about greed.

There's very I don't remember him saying this kind of thing about anything up. Sort of watch out beyond your guard. Said it once or twice elsewhere, but but really it's quite unusual for Jesus to be quite so strong about it. Watch out. If you were to say of someone, watch out for them, be on your guard.

That means that person is dangerous. And probably suckle. They might catch you out. Or it might be you might say that about scam emails or scam messages, scam texts that you might get. The people doing them are sneaky, They want to get you.

And if you're not on your guard, they could catch you because you could slip into it by accident. Jesus is saying, that is true of greed. Watch out. He said, be on your guard. And yet, I think Most of us, if as you arrive, someone said, you know, what what sins might you be tempted to commit?

And we don't do that on the door as people arrive. We try try not to start things like that. But if someone did, I wonder how many people would say, yes, greed is 1 of those things for me. I'm tempted by greed. I suspect very few of us would say that.

And we might well say that because we probably think, well, I just don't have that much stuff. Greed is for the wealthy, the super rich, they're the greedy ones, and therefore, do you notice probably most of us are not doing what Jesus said? We are not on our guard. We are not watching out for greed. Because Jesus is not saying this parable just to the rich.

He's saying it to the crowd. He's saying to them. Watch out. He says to you and me. Watch out, be on your guard.

Therefore, as we go into this story, Jesus Thomas, Let's assume we are all susceptible to greed. That is what Jesus is saying after all. So let's all be on the alert as we look at this story. So what happens here in this story? Well, someone comes to Jesus in verse 13 and says, tell teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

And Jesus replies, man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you. In other words, this situation with this guy, we don't know much detail about it. But basically, Jesus is saying, look, I've I've not been appointed to be the person who sought this out I mean, he is the judge of all people, but he's saying this situation is not 1 that that I'm gonna come in on. But he uses it as a reason as an excuse to then do teaching about free, and he issues a warning, and then he tells the story. And our first point is, this story is the dream story.

It's a dream story. Jesus is telling the story of something, and I think we would all like to be the person at the center of this story. He tells a story about a man. Let's have a look at it. First 16, and he told them this parable.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. Okay. Let's pause there. So this fan is already rich. And then it says his fields, his ground just produces above her crop, 1 year.

He just does really well. Now notice this man has not become super wealthy through any immoral means. He has not committed fraud. He has not stolen from anyone. He has not underpaid his staff.

He has just had an abundant harvest. Things have just gone really well for him. Like someone who's worked really hard, got really good promotions, and now he's being paid really well. Or someone who has invested really well. Just happens to, you know, bought it at the right time, sold at the right time, and has made lots of money or someone who's inherited lots of money.

It's just all gone really well for him. And isn't this exactly what you would want? Isn't this just what you'd want? Suddenly to discover that you've made linen. And through totally honest about bored me.

First 17. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I've no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones.

There, I will store my surplus grain. He has so much. He doesn't he he can't fit it all in his barn. And that's not wrong. It's just what it now what happens?

So of course, he tears down his barns and builds a bigger 1. What, I mean, what else are you gonna do? Just wise, wise thing to do. It's just wealth management, isn't it? That's what he's doing.

And verse 19, he says, I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years, take life easy, eat drink, and be married. This is it. Life will never be the same again for him. He has no worries now. Take life easy, he says.

The mortgage is paid off. He doesn't need to worry about job security. He doesn't need his job. He can just give it up. Just retire and just enjoy what he's got.

Now like I say, this is the dream story, I think. It's presented to us as the dream nowadays as well in the media, isn't it? You see it in adverts for, well, things that all you see it when people win the game shows. There you go, and they they win millions and go off and live the luxury lifestyle order in adverts for the the lotto millions or whatever it is, where you see the couple who've won in the past, you know, on their recliners by the pool on some tropical island saying to you, it could be you. It's the dream.

Now the Bible doesn't say money is evil. Doesn't say wealth is wrong? So what's wrong here? Where is the greed? Well, let's have a look at his thinking.

What he thinks? Because greed has shaped the way he thinks. It's actually distorted the way he thinks. Let's see that. Happens in a number of ways.

So our second point is greedy thinking. And just follow through. There are several things I'm gonna we're just gonna go through really quickly to see how he's thinking. And the first thing in this greedy thinking category is I am the boss of my life. That's what he's thinking.

Do you know did you notice as it was written? The repetition of the words I, me, my. It's at least 3 times, at least 10 times in 3 verses, verses 17 to 19. I won't read them out again. But at least 10 times, he said, me, my height.

It's my crops. It's my barns. My decisions, and did you notice how he makes his decision? He talks to himself. So verse 19 begins, and I'll say to myself, He's talking to himself.

And more literally, I quite like the way it is, more literally. It is, I will say to my soul, soul. You have plenty of brilliance all. I just quite like that. He's he's actually talking to his soul.

Because the only person that he has reference to is himself. And this is how most people think, isn't it? We've tended to think like this. I'll determine my life. However, but money I have, it's my money, and I'll do what I want with it.

And we might even dream about if we were those lottery winners. You you see, when we see those people on the TV, those lottery wins, we don't just think, good on, on. Nice for them. We start to then put ourselves in the issue, and we think, what would be the first thing I would do if I won? And that's me talking to my soul, saying, soul, if you have those millions, this is what you would do.

We talk to ourselves, and we think we're the boss of our lives. The next bit of dodgy thinking, greedy thinking, is that money makes him safe. Do you notice that? He says first 19. I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years, Take life easy.

Take life easy. All the worries are gone because now you have safety. You have security because you've got the grain in the barn. And if you've got the money in the bank, this is what you feel, isn't it? You feel like you've got safety, like you've got security because the things that could get other people aren't gonna get you.

You crash your car, need to replace it, Fine. Use some of the money. The washing machine breaks down. You could buy 10. It wouldn't make a dent on what you've got if you've got the money in the bank.

You're safe. You're secure. Your house is secure. Your family is secure. Your future is secure.

You feel safe. Green makes you think money makes you safe. The next bit of greedy thinking is that my goal is a stress free, fun filled, retirement. Let me say that again. My goal is a stress free, fun filled, retirement.

First 19. Again, I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years, take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. This is the goal of his life. Jesus said earlier, the greedy person, thinks that life is all about the abundance of possessions, and this guy has loads of it. And so what lies ahead is the dream, luxury for the rest of his life.

And it's the goal of so many people's lives. It's the prize people desire we watch as pension funds increase and look forward to the day when we'll be able to draw on it, not have to work, but take life easy. And the last bit of greedy thinking is the end of life is a long way off. That this stress free, fun filled retirement is gonna stretch on for years. Again, that's what he says.

Verse 19, isn't it? You have plenty of grain laid out for many Retirement stretches on as far as the eye can see. And that Jesus says is greed. It shakes our thinking, distorts our thinking. And I don't know about you, but I think that is frighteningly close to home, isn't it?

And you don't have to have lots of money to think like this. Jesus said at the start, life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions, but you don't have to have lots of possessions to think it does. We could just live our lives, envying those who have more. Maybe a bit bitter, but we don't have what they've got. Jesus says to you and me, if you see yourself in that at all, Even if you don't, he says, watch out, be on your guard against greed.

And Jesus shocks them. I think this would have been a shock verse 20, but God said to him, you fool This very night, your life will be demanded from you, then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? And this is our third point. The third point is you fool. It's the foolishness of greed.

I wondered, did you hear about it was a few years ago thinking of foolish stories. Did you hear about there was an aspiring sailor who, wanted to sail decided to sail from Gillingham, that round to southampton. Gillingham just east of London, round the coast, he wanted to sail round to southampton. Made a real mess of it. He, made several errors.

The boat he bought was not suitable for sea use. He decided he would use a road map to navigate He had no navigational equipment on board. He also had no extra fuel reasoning that because he could drive from Gillingham to South Hampton on 1 tank of petrol, he ought to be able to do the same in a boat. He had a VHF radio, but no idea how to use it. But his biggest error was that since he had no charts and no navigational equipment, he decided the best way to get there was just to keep the land on his right.

Which sounds logical, but when he got to the Isle of Sheppy, he started circling it. And after a day and a half of sir circling it, ran out of fuel and had to be rescued. I wonder how many people will find that their lives have actually been a bit like that. They thought they were getting somewhere, but actually in the end, find they didn't get very far at all. Look at god's verdict at this man.

You fool, he says. Why is it so foolish? Well, because you don't know when your life will end. He assumed his life would go on and on, that he was set up, had reached his goal. The retirement would go on for a long time, and you can just imagine the retirement party after he He decides, I don't need to work anymore.

The retirement party has just ended. He has the tickets for the cruise to the Caribbean upstairs in his suitcase. He's ready to go off with his wife to enjoy the long retirement, searing chest pains. He collapses the floor and is pronounced dead before arriving at hospital. The reality is we none of us know when our lives are gonna end.

I realize that isn't a happy thought, but it is the reality, isn't it? Greek distorts our thinking, blinds us to the reality. The reality is we don't know when life fully. And we have a tendency to live in total denial of that fact. He noticed how often.

He noticed how often in the media when someone's death is reported, how often it's reported in a kind of way that it seems like we're surprised. That another person has died when it happens to everyone. Of course, it's shocking. Of course, it's sad, but it feels like it always takes us off guard. And it feels like our I hope is that maybe death might miss out me and my loved 1.

But that's foolish. We don't know when we'll die, and you are not the boss of your life. Verse 20, again, he says, but God said to him, you fool this very night. Your life will be demanded from you. See, there is someone higher and greater than us, God will demand our lives back from us.

Although we like to think with the ultimate bosses of our lives, we're accountable to no 1. We are accountable to god. He gave us our lives, and he will demand it back at some point. We will all of us meet our maker. And therefore, since we know that this is an appointment, none of us can avoid, we are wise to ask.

What is he going to want from us? What does he want from us? And this story is saying the answer is not that I managed to gain enough money and enough possessions to live in luxury because God says that's foolish. The next reason why it's foolish is because you can't take anything with you when you die. That's the point, isn't it?

That's what Jesus is saying. First 20, you fool this very night your life will be demanded from you, then who will get what you've prepared for yourself? You see? It's just stupid. Didn't it?

We we we save it. We we long for all these possessions. We have that dream of the of the lottery lifestyle, but you can't take any of it with you. How much can you take with you? Nothing.

The classic liner that funeral of a wealthy person, someone asks how much did he leave behind? The answer is all of it. At the start of a funeral service, I often say the words from 1 Timothy 6 verse 7. We brought nothing into the world, and we take nothing out. From the richest billionaire to the poorest person on earth and both die, they will appear before God on equal footing with none.

So what are we to do about this? Because Jesus is saying, our dream life, our dream story is foolish. He says, be on your guard. Green is dangerous. It snares us without us knowing, and it presents life in a distorted way as if life were all about the abundance of possessions, as if luxury and security of money were all that's needed, as if I'm the boss of my own life, and as if life will go on forever, and that's a deception.

But thankfully, we can take Jesus' solution He says, verse 21, here's the answer. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but he's not rich towards god. What's the remedy? The remedy this is our fourth point. If you're taking notes, this is the fourth point, the remedy for greed is to become rich.

The remedy for greed is to become rich. Rich towards god. The solution Jesus gives is not simply give all your money away or give all your possessions away. Though what Jesus says will change the way that we relate to our possessions and our money. But what he says is we need to be rich towards god.

Now what does that mean? Jesus is talking about a different kind of wealth, a wealth that can't be earned, and doesn't show up on your bank balance. And we're just gonna skip down a few verses to see it to look at a couple of verses, which actually aren't in our passage for today. They're gonna be in the passage which Abri is gonna preach on next week. But with so I'm I don't wanna give away everything about it, but we are just gonna dip into these verses because they're so important, so relevant for this.

So it's verses 32 and 33. Jesus says, do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the poor, provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out a treasure in heaven that will never fail where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. In that passage, Jesus is saying that if you are his follower, you have been given the kingdom. It is already yours.

Now that's an incredible thing to say. He thinks, well, the kingdom is Jesus's. He says, no. I've given it to you. It's yours.

And whether you have lots of earthly possessions or none, if you have the kingdom, You have something of infinite value. Notice. It it it it in it, there is the treasure that will never fail. Jesus says. It cannot be stolen, cannot be destroyed, it lasts beyond death for eternity.

So Jesus says, don't chase after possessions in this life, receive the kingdom. If you're a Christian know that this is yours, you already have the kingdom. It's entirely free for us, it's a gift, but it cost Jesus' life. He died in our place, taking on himself the punishment for our greed, our rejection of him, That's what it cost him. And he did it so we could be forgiven and could receive the kingdom.

2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9, Jesus is encouraging the Corinthians church to be generous, to be givers, and he does hope by saying this for you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you threw his poverty might become rich. Jesus went through poverty, through going to death on a cross so that you and I could gain a riches that that is far greater than anything this world has. And you have that Christian, you are already rich. And therefore, when you go to places and see people who are rich in this world's eyes, Don't envy them. You know, you can go to places.

You can go to places, not that far from here, where you will see the bigger houses and the fancy cars. You can go to places. We we've been there a few times to Spain on holiday. You can go to a place in Marbella. There's a bit on the, where there's a bit where all the yachts, sort of moored, and they are fancy.

They are amazing. And it seems that the people with the loads of money, they drive their fancy cars around the streets. In fact, it seems like they just do circuits. Just to show off their cars. They do.

And you can just see them doing it, and it would be so easy to be envious and envy them. You have something far greater than they do. If they knew if they knew the value of what you have, they should be envious of you. Because your treasure lasts for it. And for them, what they have, it will not last.

Those fancy cars and yachts, 1 day will be on a scrap leap, and they can only enjoy them for this lifetime at the most. So Jesus says, change your treasure. Change from having possessions as your treasure to having the kingdom of God as your treasure, which is far better. And when we do that, that will change the way that we relate to our possessions. And use them.

You can then use your possessions for kingdom purposes because life no longer consists in the abundance of your possessions. The goal of life is no longer what money can buy you, The security that you need is no longer found in money. And so that gives us a freedom when it comes to money to be generous. And there is someone when you do the reading through loop 9 to 19, there's someone in there who you will read about who has this exact change, a guy called Zacchaeus, who if anyone was all about money, it was him. He was a tax collector.

In fact, he was a chief tax collector, and he was quite prepared to be hated in order to gain more money. He's quite prepared to be dishonest in order to gain more and more. And yet after he's met Jesus, he is transformed. And he now restores people what whatever he took from them. And more.

And he's freed up his wallet is freed up to be generous. Now sometimes people ask how much should you give? Of their income? Should it be 10 percent? And the answer is Jesus doesn't give an amount?

The new testament doesn't give an amount. Rather he frees up our hearts from the love of money, and says, be generous. And I wanna encourage you. Yes. It's good and right to give to Hope Church.

Look at our website. If you wanna see how to do that, but not just Hope Church. Give to other goss other needs, and I'd encourage you to prioritize gospel work in your giving, though it's good to be generous to other things as well. John Piper has a good line on this. He's an American pastor.

He says, because of Jesus, we care about all suffering and especially eternal suffering. So we care about all suffering. So we wanna give, be generous to, you know, where we see suffering, where we see need, that we might need that. But especially eternal suffering. So we particularly want to prioritize giving to gospel work.

See, as this treasure, as this change of treasure sinks in, as we delight more in what we have in Christ, We're freed up, but we still need to be on our guard. Don't we? Greed still wants to get us. We have to keep coming back and keep assessing ourselves. Because it can keep grabbing hold of us because it's so out there so around us.

We are surrounded by the idea that greed is good. So we have to keep examining our hearts and keep coming back to what Christ has done for us, what Jesus has for us, and the riches we have in him. And maybe you've realized maybe you think this morning, actually, you've realized maybe you aren't a Christian. Maybe this passage has helped you see the foolishness of living for possessions and that that that has been you. Maybe you've had your eyes open to the foolishness of it.

And if that's you, Jesus invites you to become really eternally rich, not through having a big bank balance, but by coming to him, and receiving the kingdom. Being 1 of his people, will you accept his death in your place? Will you receive the riches, the treasure, the kingdom doesn't guarantee an easy life? Sometimes it's far from it, but it is by far the best life, and it is a life which stretches on forever, eternal life. What Jesus is saying here makes perfect sense, isn't it?

It's a deal worth taking. I'm gonna finish with a quote from Jim Elliott. Some of you will know this quote. Jim Elliott was a missionary. He was killed while trying to reach people living in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador.

And he was killed by those he was trying to reach. And he said this. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. That is what Christ holds out to us. He heavenly father helped us to examine our own hearts to see where we are tempted by greed.

Father, it is such a such a difficult story to read because father, our hearts warms so easily towards this dream life. We are so tempted and yet we don't realize it. Although we are so often not on our guard, we fall for the lies. Are the please help us. We confess to you our greed, that we have loved possessions, found safety in them, security in them longed for them, Are they help us to see that we are accountable to you, that our lives are in your hands, and help us to see the glory and wonder if Jesus of the treasure we have in him.

Made that outshine all that is in this world. And help us, therefore, father, to have our hearts freed from the love of money and from greed. Arment. Our last song, the redendous thing picks up on that