Bigger Barns

Sermon today:

greed...

illustration..

Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown. Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost. As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide. The title of Tolstoy's story was: How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Bits & Pieces, November, 1991.

Estate Lawsuits

Jesus was busy

teaching the people.

Someone interjected

seemingly unrelated topic:

Luke 12:13 ESV

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

It didn’t have anything

to do with what Jesus

was teaching about.

Why did he feel

good time to

bring this up?

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Jesus seems

put-off by this request:

Luke 12:14 ESV

But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

In saying this,

Jesus was not teaching:

He doesn’t care.

Our burdens are nuisance.

He is uninterested.

God did give

instruction on this topic.

Torah teaches

process of inheritance.

Oldest son

gets double portion

younger sons

equal portions.

Women provided for

by man in their life

(father or husband).

Bible is not clear,

Jesus doesn’t ask story.

Man is convinced

Brother cheating him.

Even though God

had given instruction

(He cared) about topic.

Jesus had nothing to say.

WHY?

In this story,

Jesus is focused

on spiritual teaching.

Jesus feels this issue

a distraction from

His main goal...

Jesus’ mission was

teach truth

give example of righteousness

die for our sins.

Playing judge on issue

although not evil

(actually commendable)

not His mission!

We see this frequently

in the Bible.

People ask,

Why didn’t Jesus

take up XXXXX issue.

Jesus was laser focused.

He didn’t allow other causes,

as good as they seemed

to take Him away

main purpose.

People ask why

Jesus didn’t address:

slavery

Polygamy

Alcohol Use

Oppression of Poor

Ect.

Social Justice Warriors

This is my primary

concern with

social justice warriors.

Many causes are actually

not evil

good causes

biblical

BUT

Not main mission.

We need to be like Christ.

He was not distracted

by the good

or the evil

Why didn’t Jesus

get involved in this

inheritance case?

High and Holy Calling

Look at the issues

Jesus was just

teaching about:

Luke 12:8–12 (ESV)

“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

--

And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

--

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

These are

deep

profound

enriching

teachings.

These are ideas that

lead our minds to heaven.

In the middle of this

man interjects:

Estate law-suit.

Jesus was dwelling on

high and holy themes.

This man just took

heavenly conversation

focused it upon

worldly issues.

These are two brothers

fighting over inheritance.

As a pastor,

being invoved with families

laying loved ones to rest.

I see some very ugly

aspects of human nature.

People are fighting

angry over will.

Can’t get along enough to

bury loved one in peace.

I can tell you,

nothing spiritual about

these fights...

Very earthly!

Jesus is put off

by the man’s request

because it doesn’t

fit in with context.

This is Satan,

filling time and energy

with issues that

not evil but

distracting from

Godly purpose.

We must guard against

things which

steal our focus from

that which is holy.

We must ask ourselves,

Using my time

heaven or earth?

Majority of thoughts

heaven or earth?

Free time spent

heaven or earth?

Money, Money, Money

Jesus next words

to the crowd:

Luke 12:15 ESV

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Jesus about to

launch into parable.

Before He does

He explains the

Purpose of the Parable.

Lesson to be learned:

be careful of greed.

more to life than possessions.

Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.

Bibliographic Reference is Uncertain: Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p.150ff.

Plentiful Harvest

Here is parable:

Luke 12:16–17 ESV

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’

Gardening / Farming

The harvest is often

completely unpredictable.

Some years

great harvest

poor harvest.

Trick

grow different things

usually succeed

in something.

This past summer

Fungus on tomatoes and eggplant

aphids on broccoli and cauliflower

rabbits/dear ate sweet potatoes

raspberries and strawberries died

Beets never sized up

Onion never bulbed

BUT...

great crop of potatoes

lots of leafy greens

Tons of Peppers

Jerusalem Artichokes were 15 feet tall

All Fruit trees survived first year

carrots, radish, kale - did amazing

It’s impossible to predicts

what will succeed.

Try different things.

This parable

farmer got

best harvest ever!

If I Were Rich…

People don’t

give more as

they make more.

They more people make

they less they give,

until they make

more than $500,000

The Lower incomes

generally give more

percentage of wealth

until > $10 mil. per year!

Lesson,

Don’t wait until

you have more to give!

Bigger Barns

Harvest so good,

no room to store it!

Luke 12:18–19 ESV

And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’

Solution???

tear down old barns

build bigger ones.

Let’s be clear,

nothing wrong with

succeeding in business.

Nothing wrong with

gaining wealth

Issue arises when

wealth is the

primary focus!

Nothing wrong with

getting good harvest.

In truth,

that is blessing

from God Himself.

When we see wealth as

means to serve God.

opportunity to serve others.

Privilege with responsibility.

God can greatly bless

and use us!!!

In the parable,

what was man’s plan?

Store up enough

so that here was

no need to work.

He would hoard the

blessing which God gave

to bless/serve world.

Jesus told story

to make a point.

After question

about inheritance.

Jesus read man’s heart.

He wasn’t just victim.

He was in family dispute

because he was

focused on

greed

getting wealth

hoarding for self.

Jesus saw in the man

a warning for us all!

God knew that

we are so tempted

to focus mind

things of earth.

In this story,

we see ourselves.

The greed of our mind

seeking what’s best

only for self.

Hoarding blessings.

The Hearse Pulling a U-Haul

May we all remember

where this mindset leads.

Luke 12:20 ESV

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

Why did God condemn

this man?

His heart was selfish

Didn’t care about

others

God

service

God will likewise condemn

each one of use who

choose same mindset.

God had given him

immense blessings so

he could be the channel

of blessings to others.

Yet, he hoarded them all

selfishly to himself.

Greed is really

misunderstand

state of the dead.

Luke 12:20 (ESV)

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

Greed teaches,

false teaching about death.

Either:

There is no life after death.

You take your wealth with you to the afterlife.

There is no life after death.

get what you can get now.

(atheist/ agnostic view)

You take it with you...

Hoard what you can.

(pagan view - Egyptian).

As SDA’s

we should not be

fooled by this false teaching!

We know!!!

soon will die

only thing

going with us

character

family

friends.

In the parable,

God purposely gave him

more than he could keep

so he would learn

the blessing of sharing

God’s grace with all.

What did he do?

find a way to make sure

none goes to others!

He spent more money

in order to hoard

more money.

We look at this story

thinking:

“what a bad man.”

Let us be honest,

this is the norm

in our world!

And most of us

are caught in this web

of selfish greed.

Statistics and Research

What are you willing to do for $10,000,000? Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:

Would abandon their entire family (25%) Would abandon their church (25%) Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%) Would give up their American citizenships (16%) Would leave their spouses (16%) Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%) Would kill a stranger (7%) Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

James Patterson and Peter Kim, The Day America Told the Truth, 1991

Greed is part

of American culture!

How can we be set free?

God explains,

in the next verse.

Rich Toward God

Luke 12:20 ESV

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

continuing.

Luke 12:21 ESV

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

What does it mean

to be rich toward God?

Firstly,

it is contrasted with

laying up treasure for self...

There is an antidote

to the constant greed

warring against our soul.

The solution is:

sacrificial benevolence

toward others and

God’s work.

When we put,

helping others

supporting God’s work

before our selfish desires

Satan’s plans are broken.

He can’t completely

control us with

selfish greed.

Let me explain further,

you might say,

I am giving to

others and God.

Firstly,

giving to family members

does not count as giving.

That is a giving that you

should do but

even the wicked do that.

I’m talking about

giving to others

in addition to

people of your family.

Second,

being rich toward God

is not just giving

out of our abundance.

Being rich toward God is

giving that is sacrificial.

It should put a damper

on the plans that

you could have done

if you wouldn’t have

given it to God!

Let me give you

an example...

You all know,

Raluca is a dentist.

Some dentists make

ridiculous good money.

Our time here has been

not great financially.

We see neighbors

and others around us

own much nicer things

than we do but

must be making less...

That is obvious

because we are not

living on our total income.

We made a commitment

years ago to give

20% of our gross income

to God and others.

10% Tithe

5% Church budget

5% Special Offerings

or people in need.

We had a separate

bank account for

that 5%.

We called it

the Jesus fund.

We had

Checking

Savings

Jesus Fund.

We were helping

those in need.

To be honest,

we got burned

a number of times.

We would help

people through a

financial crisis...

Then, next month

they would be in

a financial crisis again!

We were getting frustrated

giving money to people

was enabling them to

make worse choices.

We got disillusioned with

giving people cash.

Besides all this,

we were deeply in debt.

When Raluca and I

got married we were

$350,000 in debt.

Mostly student loans.

We really wanted to

get out of debt.

We were listening to

Dave Ramsey.

12 Baby steps.

Debt snowball.

One day we heard

him address an issue.

He suggested that people

not give such large

percentages of their

income until they

get out of debt.

His argument was,

once you are out of debt

you can give more

God and others.

I regret to confess

we listened to Dave Ramsey

we stopped giving 20%

of our income.

We moved it to 15%

got rid of the Jesus fund

(that we were disillusioned about anyway).

We did end up

paying off student loan debt.

bought houses

back in debt.

We were not being

great stewards of

our income

not saving much.

Not helping others...

Over the past

couple of years

it was really bothering me

made commitment to

give 20% to

God and others

only giving 15%.

In truth,

Raluca was in

worse job of life

paid terribly.

Stayed there

hoping to buy practice.

In mean time,

debt was increasing!

Finally,

the commitment banquet

comes around.

Raluca and I,

already knew what

we would do.

Give that 5% again

to building fund.

We wanted to be

rich toward God.

Just recently,

God answers our prayers

with Raluca’s job situation.

She changed jobs.

Not fully sure yet,

but it appears she will

be making significantly more.

We will be

able to get back out of debt

and give even more

toward God’s work.

To be rich toward God,

it must hurt!

The question must be asked:

But how are we going to

pay these bills?

buy this dream item?

still go on vacation?

Being rich toward God

will not allow us

to do all the other things

we wanted to do.

If it doesn’t hurt

it’s not sacrificial

it’s not

RICH TOWARD GOD.

Appeal

Often,

my appeals are of

a general nature.

I could just say,

please be rich

toward God.

I’m going to be

more specific.

Dec 3rd is

giving Tuesday.

The whole country is

promoting a time

of year-end giving.

Remember the purpose

of year-end giving...

Not just to find a write-off

because you made too much

money and taxes will be high.

The purpose is saying:

“God you have

abundantly blessed me.”

“You provided all my need

and then some on top.”

“I want to be

rich toward You.”

Many of you

have already pledged

for the building project

in a sacrificial way.

You may already be

stretched financially.

You may be serving God

with a devoted heart.

But if God brought

even more than

what you expected.

Please consider,

year-end gift.

The building project will

use this money

for God’s kingdom.

Upcoming Business Meeting.