Luke 12:13-21 A Closer Look at Greed May 28, 2017

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1 Luke 12:13-21 A Closer Look at Greed May 28, 2017 To view the intro video, go to This video is a trailer for a larger video by Rob Bell titled simply, Rich. In it he gets into the some of the numeric facts printed on the back of your bulletin, (see below) that shows us that our country is indeed blessed by God. And yet we are a culture that still wants more. We are in a sermon series, Taking a Closer Look at the Seven Deadly Sins. So far, we have taken a closer look at pride, envy, anger and sloth, this week we are talking about greed. There may be some of you who are straining not to roll your eyes right now, thinking, why do we need to talk about money? Well it just so happens, Jesus had a lot to say about money. Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing one out of ten verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money. The Bible, as a whole, offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions. Since it seems to be a highlight in God s word, we too need to be talking about it. Besides the parables Jesus tells, he also addresses our relationship to money and possession in his sermon on the mount, (Matthew 6:19-20) where he says, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. I wonder if he would use the same words today, or would he say something like don t store up for yourselves earthly treasures, where depreciation and inflation eat away at your savings, and where identity thieves threaten your credit rating. I don t know, but he doesn t stop, he goes on in verse 24, to name the ultimate issue, of our relationship to money, saying, No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus makes it clear that it isn t the money itself that is the problem, it is our devotion to it. It is our love of money and it is our love of the possessions we acquire with it, that is the problem. James Ogilvy wrote, Greed turns love into lust, leisure into sloth, hunger into gluttony, honor into pride, righteous indignation into anger, and admiration into envy. If it weren t for greed, we would suffer fewer of the other vices. If what he says is true, which I believe it is, it is obvious that greed causes a lot of problems: it creates conflict, it gives us a false sense of well-being and it keeps us from being rich towards God. So, let s look at these three problems before we delve into the solution which, by the way, is giving. First, greed, that is the love of money and/or love of possessions creates conflict. True story, about a woman who was one of six girls in the family. Upon reaching adulthood, unlike her five sisters who remained close to home, she married and moved several states away. One day she got a phone call from her mom, informing her that her father had passed. So, she and her husband got on a plane and flew home. Knocking on the front door, the couple was greeted by her grieving mother and five sisters. But when they walked into the house, they were shocked at what they saw. Everything in the house was labeled with one of the five sisters names. Somebody wanted the piano, and somebody wanted the bureau, you got the picture. The couple could feel the tension in the air. That is what greed does it creates tension. I m afraid I know that tension all too well in families who have lost loved ones. Instead of focusing on grieving their loss, they obsess over who will get what. They fear they won t get their fair share. This tension create conflict.

2 We can see this same kind of tension in today s scripture. Verse 13 introduces us to a man in the crowd who tells Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Presumably this man s parents have died or at least the father did, and the issue this man has is that his older brother refuses to share the inheritance. This may seem odd to those of us in the 21 st century, that someone would bring this up to Jesus and so publicly at that. But in the first century that is what they did. When someone had an issue, they would go to their teacher, their rabbi, asking for counsel. But note this man isn t seeking Jesus council, so much as he is telling, dare I suggest demanding, Jesus make his brother give him some money You can tell that Jesus isn t pleased with the request being phrased this way as he says, Man, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you? He isn t about to be made into a Judge Judy, Judge Mathis or for those who have been around awhile, Judge Wapner. Whether it is his tone or his choice of words, Jesus isn t about to get involved in this family conflict. Because ultimately it is greed that is creating it. Whenever we value money and stuff over people, it s bound to cause conflict in our relationships. It can bring conflict between siblings, as we saw in today s scriptures. it brings conflict between couples; money problems are the number one reasons couples file for divorce. It comes between friends, neighbors, co-workers, and it can even get between our relationship with God. I am keenly aware there will be some people who will argue internally with everything I say, even if I cite chapter and verse from the Bible to back it up. Because some of us would rather risk dissonance in our relationship with God by blowing off his directives on giving, than change how we manage our money. Your relationship with God is at risk here. Now I am not saying that if you don t give, God will ignore you. No, I am saying, when we hold ourselves back from giving in a manner God calls us to, we are ignoring God. When we give into the voice of greed we are not putting our faith in God, we are putting our security in the wrong things, money and possessions. And Jesus knows this, which is why he goes into the parable of the fool, saying, The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. So, 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 all my grain and my goods. And I ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. 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? It s never good when God calls you a fool. But, understand, God didn t call this man a fool because he was successful at farming and made a lot of money. There is absolutely nothing wrong with running a profitable business. God didn t label him because he sinned along the way. Certainly, if he had the author would have indicated such. His success didn t come from inflated prices for his crops; there is no evidence he abused his employees, engaged in hostile takeovers of other farms or lied to his banker. By all appearances this guy was hardworking, honest and had good business savvy. If we knew a guy like this, we would probably admire him. So, why does God call him a fool? First, this foolish farmer failed to recognize the source of his wealth. He saw himself as a self-made man. He gave all the credit for his success to his hard work and business expertise. As you look at verses 16 through 20, you will see six I statements. I this, I that, he says. Four of them are I will statements, as if he s the master of his own

3 destiny. You also will find in the text five my statements my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods, myself. Did you notice, God is conspicuously absent in this farmer s monologue? I would think farming is the one business where God s contribution is preeminently recognized. A farmer depends on God to provide the sunny day and the right amount of moisture. Too much or too little could be a farmer s ruin. God provides protection from pests and from natural disasters. Without God, there would be no harvest. But the farmer is a fool because he fails to recognize God as the source of his wealth. Do we recognize God is the source of our wealth? Do we realize every dollar we have earned, every gift we have received, every stock dividend we have comes from God? Don t you think that gives God the right to have a significant say about how those dollars are distributed? And furthermore, this farmer also failed to recognize the brevity of his own life. In verse 19, the farmer says to himself, You re going to have plenty of good things laid up for many years. But verse 20 says, This very night. God says to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. There s a contrast being drawn here. The farmer thinks his earthly existence is going to go on forever, but it s not. He s investing everything in that which rusts and rots, this is all transitory stuff. Which is why God calls him a fool. I hate to break it to you, but our days on earth are numbered. We have not guarantee that we will be here 10 minutes from now let alone 10 years from now. If you re spending your money only on fleeting things, God will say the same thing to you. Greed gives us a false sense of wellbeing. But don t think it s all about the here and now. Don t spend your money just because it makes you happy today. God says think about the future, become rich towards God. And that s the problem, greed deprives us of opportunities to be rich toward God. In verse 21, Jesus sums up the story: This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. What happened to the foolish farmer could easily happen to you. God presents us with a clear choice in this verse. We can either store up things for ourselves more clothes, more lattes, more square footage in our homes, more phone apps, more travel miles, more rounds of golf, more video games or we can be rich toward God. Jesus infers that it s tough to do both simultaneously, for two reasons; because money is a limited commodity and because many of the things we spend our money on require our time and attention that ends up not only diverting our time but also our very presence. The reality is, the more we spend on ourselves, the less we have to invest in the work of Christ s kingdom. It s a matter of arithmetic. I know of a couple who went on a 2-week mission trip to the Czech Republic. The husband was self-employed, so, not only did they have to shell out the money for the trip itself, he also lost two-week s salary. But you know, he said he wouldn t have done it any differently. He said, The work that God did through us in the lives of Czech people was awesome. This couple was being rich towards God. But ya know, I wonder how many times in the course of a year they had to make some tough decisions; to say no to personal spending so they could say yes to paying for the trip? Most of us don t have enough money to do everything we d like to do. So, if we want to be rich towards God, we need to be very intentional about how we use our resources. Maybe you ve seen ads for an organization like Compassion International, the cost is only $32 a month to sponsor a child, but to make the investment may mean you ll have to take a sack lunch to the office.

4 Maybe you re thinking to yourself, I would love to begin tithing to the church s ministry, but I have a huge car payment. Well then you need to make a choice, either you choose a brand new car that requires a fat monthly fee, or you buy one used, pay cash so you can tithe the money you might otherwise be spending on interest on that loan. Maybe you would like to go on a mission trip yourself, but then that means there will be no luxury trip to Jamaica, Bahamas or Disney world. Unless you are independently wealthy, if you want to be rich towards God you will need to be taking money from something you value for yourself or those you love and invest into something that has eternal implications. Because, money is a limited commodity. Secondly, many of the things on which we spend our money require time and attention that gets diverted from God-honoring pursuits. According to chancellor at Denver Seminary, Gordon MacDonald, In ancient days when the king of Siam had an enemy he wanted to torment and destroy, he would send that enemy a unique gift, a white elephant, a live, albino elephant. These animals were considered sacred in the culture of that day. So the recipient of that elephant had no choice but to intentionally care for the gift. This elephant would take an inordinate amount of the enemy s time, resources, energy, emotions, and finances. Over time the enemy would destroy himself because of the extremely burdensome process of caring for the gift. Our spiritual enemy uses the same strategy on us. Leading us to spend money on things that take a lot of time, a lot of energy, away from God-honoring pursuits. Buying a boat or a cottage but then when summer rolls around you start missing weekend worship services. Or maybe you invest in a gym membership and now instead of starting your day of devotions and scripture reading you start working out before you go to work and before you know it, it s the end of the day and you never take a special moment with God. Maybe you pay for a spot for one of your kids on a traveling sports team, but now Saturdays are taken up with ballgames. When the church says, Next Saturday join our community impact ministry as we serve the poor, you can t make it. Are there white elephants in your life? Are you spending money on things that take your time away from God? The money isn t the problem, but it may be distracting you from God honoring pursuits. When we are distracted from God honoring pursuits, it usually boils down to greed. The antidote to greed is giving it is generosity, it is making the commitment to make a significant gift to God s work, for some of us it will mean working towards becoming a tither, that is giving 10 % of your income to God s work in the church. Others of you may already be there but you realize you have been so monetarily blessed that you could do more. In doing all of this you will find as you grow in generosity, conflicts will be reduced, you will have a true sense of well-being and you will no longer be so distracted from God. You will be blessed. This is Memorial Day weekend, one of those patriotic holidays that we hear more calls for God to bless America in word and song. But the truth of the matter is God already blesses America so the question remains, are you going to bless God? Are you going to bless God by seeking to invest your time and money in God honoring pursuits? Because I would wager that most of us can say, if we are honest, we have enough. But maybe, just maybe God has blessed us so we can bless others. Let us pray

5 Bibliography Hughes, K. (1998). Luke: That You May Know the Truth. Wheaton: Crossway. Ogilvy, J. (1999). Greed. In S. R. ed, Whicked Pleasures: Meidtations on the Seven Deadly Sins. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. (insert) Greed turns love into lust, leisure into sloth, hunger into gluttony, honor into pride, righteous indignation into anger, and admiration into envy. If it weren t for greed, we would suffer fewer of the other vices. James Ogilvy We are more likely cry out to God when we are in need than when they have plenty. We become complacent and self-satisfied, ascribing our riches to our own efforts instead of acknowledging that every good gift comes from God. But I like being comfortable Greed causes conflict Greed gives us a false sense of well-being Greed keeps us from being rich towards God The antidote to greed is giving God blesses America We represent 6% of the world population, yet we consume over 40% of its resources. About a billion people don t have clean water, yet we go to any one of our sinks and turn the tap on. 800 million people won t eat today (300 million of which are children). Experts estimate that providing water, basic health care and nutrition for all would take about a billion dollars same as what America spends in one year on ice-cream. Greed comes in many forms fearful greed-hesitant to give money because you are afraid of not meeting your own needs. (Proverbs 3:5-6) covetous greed-you need something because you notice everyone else has it. (Romans 12:2) impulsive greed-you see it you want it you get it... often resulting in debt. (Proverbs 22:7) family greed-justifying expenditures because it is for the family (Proverbs 22:6) good-life greed- needing the best of everything (Proverbs 22:1)

6 retirement greed-can t be more generous because you re saving as much money as possible for retirement. (Luke 12:20) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21 NEXT STEPS I will memorize Matthew 6:21 I will read use scripture to counteract the various forms of greed. I am committing to increase my giving to God. I will attend all of the sermon series A Closer Look at the Seven