Whose Are You?

Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story about a small family and their grandmother that goes on a roadtrip.

The grandmother is cranky, manipulative, and racist; but she couches it in a veneer of vague Christian terms. When they stop to get lunch on the trip, she talks with the shopkeeper about how “A good man is hard to find.”

The whole time in the background there’s a news story that keeps getting mentioned of this cold-blooded killer that calls himself, “The Misfit,” who has been murdering all along the midwest.

The grandmother decides that she wants to have the family make a stop down a dirt road to see a historic landmark, and manipulates her family into stopping; but on the ride there, the car flips because the grandmother distracted her son, who was driving.

They are then seen by a car in the distance, which stops by, and three men come out. The grandmother almost instantly recognizes the Misfit, and identifies him.

Now that the Misfit is recognized, he and his friends slowly take each member of the family out of view of the grandmother, where there is a scream and then a gunshot.

Finally, it’s just the Misfit and the grandmother. She pleads for her life, offering religious platitudes and asking the man to pray, but he won’t listen. Then, the grandmother has a moment of realization: she develops compassion for other people, something she had been lacking the entire time. She looks into the Misfits eyes and sees another human being. She then says, ‘Why, you’re one of my own babies! You’re one of my own children!” and she touches him on the shoulder. The Misfit is scared from this sudden scene of compassion and shoots her three times in the chest, killing her, which is how the story ends.

See, the grandmother cared deeply about what others thought of her, about looking the part of the good Christian woman while inside being full of malice and manipulation. She is the hypocrite: always looking down on others but never looking at herself.

This was a problem in Jesus’ time, just like in the 50’s for Flannery O’Connor, just like today. We care so deeply about what other people might think that we forget about who we are. We end up just being creatures that can’t look up to our Creator because the other creatures are so distracting.

And so, I want to ask a question with this Scripture that I hope you’ll think about:

Whose are you?

I know what you’re going to say! You’re going to say Jesus if you are a follower of Jesus, and if you’re not, you’ll probably say something like “myself,” but I implore you to honestly ask during this sermon, Whose am I? Where do I place my value? What does success look like for me?

We’re going to look at this by looking at two main questions that go along with the Scripture that we have for today.

Who do you fear?

Jesus jumps in to this section right after pronouncing woes on the Pharisees. So, right after He calls out the Pharisees for being full of malice and lacking in justice, he looks over to His disciples and says

Luke 12:1-3

Jesus begins his discussion on fear by mentioning hypocrisy, which is exactly what the Pharisees (and we) do!

Hypocrisy is the insecure need to look better than others.

The Pharisees, the grandmother in the story, and us, all desperately want to look better than the person next to us because if we’re better than them, then we don’t have to look at ourselves. We can hide the pain and shame that we have behind closed doors because we have made ourselves so very righteous in front of others.

It’s the bragging about our prayer life in a small group when we haven’t opened our Bibles in weeks. It’s the getting angry about the person smoking when we have an addiction to booze. It’s the looking down on young people for being lively and not taking anything seriously when we’re just really miserable in our own souls.

But in the Kingdom, there is nothing hidden. There is no righteousness except for the righteousness of God, and no amount of hiding or covering up will ever be able to truly hide the problem of our own souls. Hypocrisy dies in the face of God because He is fully authentic. There is no pretending in God, He is. And so, in the face of our Lord, all pretension dissipates.

And so, Jesus approaches this topic of hypocrisy, of ownership, by talking about fear.

Now, fear in this case is not like how I’m afraid of failing or of how people are afraid of spiders, it’s a little different from that.

Fear, in this case, is more like reverential awe, or acknowledgement of authority.

So, you might not be physically afraid of your boss, but maybe you do acknowledge the authority that they have in your life as the person that signs your paychecks.

Or, maybe you’ve used fear in this way with the ultimate phrase in parenting, “just wait until your father comes home.” (do people still do that or is it just in movies?)

In this hypothetical scenario, it’s not like the child is supposed to be physically afraid of their father, he’s not going to physically hurt his children! But the child in this scenario has to fully acknowledge the authority of their father and understand that when they arrive, there will be a reckoning of authority.

And so, Jesus essentially asks us, who do you fear?

Now, we’re going to approach this question by using two BIG terms that have been used for a few hundred years, which are “fear of man,” and “fear of God.”

Fear of man

Luke 12:4-7

Jesus starts out by telling us, “don’t fear the people who can kill you, but have nothing more to do!”

I don’t know about you, but I’m not really in the market to die anytime soon, so I might still be a little afraid!

This is obviously an extreme case, and Jesus does this a lot, where He uses an exaggerated or extreme example as a symbol for the whole concept, but there is still definite concrete examples of this!

The Pharisees did kill people for going outside of their faith!

Look at Jesus, Stephen, Paul had multiple unsuccessful attempts on his life because of his faith. There are plenty of followers of Jesus in the world today who live under the threat of death because of their faith!

But this also looks like the tiny ‘deaths’ that you and I can experience every day.

It’s the isolation that you can receive at work for being an overt follower of Jesus.

It’s the ridicule that you can get from your family because you don’t agree with abortion

It’s the little slights and jabs that your friends can give because your Saturday nights and Sunday mornings look different from theirs.

And all of these little deaths can push us to capitulate to the culture, to sell out and start looking like our friends, family, or neighbors.

BUT THAT IS TO GIVE IN TO THE FEAR OF MAN!

I think that’s one of the two ways in which the fear of man affects our life and our faith. In my mind (and there might be more), I see two common ways in the Bible and in life now that we can give in to the fear of man.

Giving in to culture

When we change the way we talk when we’re around certain friends so that we can fit in, or when we agree blindly to statements that we know aren’t in agreement with the Bible, or any time that we hide the truth of our faith, we are giving in to culture.

We become like the people around us who have not yet been transformed by the love of Jesus, and in so doing, completely eliminate our ability to tell them about or show them the love of Jesus.

Hypocritical righteousness

This is the flavor of fear that the Pharisees were best at. This is the changing how we talk when we’re in front of “church people,” or talking to our children differently at church then when were driving away from church. It’s getting really good at Christian language while ignoring Christian practice.

Both of these point to one thing, people being really big in our minds. So big, in fact, that God has to take a back seat.

We’re so focused on the opinions and thoughts of others that we become blind to anything else! We need to be liked, or to be acknowledged, or to feel like we’re in power, all because someone or some people seem so big in our minds that we can never overcome their glaring stare.

And yet, Jesus tells us not to fear man, who can really do anything only in the immediate, but rather to fear (to acknowledge) God, who is eternal and all encompassing!

Fear of God

This is what Jesus now calls us into. Instead of fearing man and making their image larger than it is, we must look at God and see His majesty and change our lives in light of His presence.

But what does this look like?

We must acknowledge His authority.

We see that first in vs. 5! Instead of fearing the person who can do nothing eternally, we should acknowledge the One who is completely eternal!

And before we go to quickly into just pointing to hell as the reason to acknowledge God, look at the next verse!

Luke 12:6-7

He calls you a bird! Not even a valuable bird, a really cheap bird!

But the message is this: God is the One who you must acknowledge, He has all the power and authority. And yet, He lovingly cares for you with that power and authority, just like He takes care of even the smallest and most insignificant creatures.

Remember, you’re worth more than many sparrows, and God cares for them, how much more will He care for you?

That’s a normal phrase of Jesus, I think He probably used to say it a lot, and I love the idea that all of His disciples kept hearing about how they’re worth more than sparrows.

And then Jesus changes the scheme a little bit and starts talking about acknowledgement.

Luke 12:8-9

All of this points to a question that used to be a big thing that one of my old youth pastors would talk about

Who would know that we are followers of Jesus?

If we got rid of the Grace sticker on our cars or the Christian hat thats that we wear, who would be able to tell that we are believers?

Could anyone look at your life or hang out with you for any length of time and say, “that there is a saint who loves the Lord?”

I can think of a few people that I’ve known in my entire life that sweat and breathe and exude like Jesus, and they’re the type of people that I want to be.

Jesus tells us that we need to “acknowledge Me before men” and then He will acknowledge us, but if we deny Him, then we will be denied by Him.

That’s a pretty terrible thought!

But if we can’t acknowledge Jesus before others, if our lives look so opposite of Jesus that no one could ever see the love of Christ in us, are we really following God? Or are we like the grandmother who was full of manipulation and cruelty, but had a thin veneer of Christian language to make herself feel better.

And then we get to everyone’s favorite question to a pastor in Vs. 10!

Luke 12:10-12

The unforgivable sin

This line in vs. 10, and the subsequent explanation of further information in vs. 11-12, has caused lots of problems for young Christians because they ask, “have I committed the unforgivable sin!?” “Am I out because I touched a ouija board one time?”

There’s a few legitimate ideas as to what the unforgivable sin is (and a bunch of illegitimate ideas), but the one that I think makes the most sense based off of context and the message of Jesus is that the unforgivable sin is the permanent rejection of the message of the gospel.

This fits in with what Jesus was just talking about regarding denying Him or acknowledging Him.

To be clear, it’s not even saying that if you reject Jesus once that you are out, because we have plenty of stories in the Bible of people rejecting the message of Jesus, it’s the persistent, unrepentant rejection of Jesus that’s the unforgivable one.

And then, Jesus, like He did with the sparrows in vs. 6-7, gives us some encouragement.

He tells us not to worry when we get the opportunity to tell people about Jesus, even when it’s before the authorities, because the Holy Spirit will provide for us.

He’s still being kind and welcoming, because all that we have to do is trust in the Lord and He will provide for us.

And so, we have this really exciting discussion on fear of God and fear of man, and then someone in the back starts yelling about his inheritance!

Luke 12:13-14

It’s almost like if I was in the middle of this sermon and then someone yelled out, “Yeah, but my sister got the house when my parents died, so I need something!”

WHAT? Have you not been listening!?

Jesus even responds, saying, “what are we doing right now dude?”

But Jesus is a lot more patient and intelligent than I am, and so He makes it into a good story.

And all of this points us to another question under that main question that we have to ask today, “Whose are you?” and that is

Who do you belong to?

Luke 12:15-21

What we have here is a story of a man who accumulated a lot of wealth, enough to retire, and then said, “alright, I’m done, time to move to Florida and drink on the beach,” but lost his life the very next day.

So what can we learn from this, and how does this point to our main question? The message doesn’t just seem to be, “be poor,” so what is it that we’re supposed to glean from this passage?

The conflict of ownership

What we have here is a conflict of ownership

See, the problem with this farmer wasn’t that he had stuff, it was who he thought the stuff belonged to.

Look at the passage

Luke 12:17-19

It’s full of “I” language!

I will do this to my barns, etc.

The reason why this is a problem is because he thinks that all of this stuff belongs to him, but really it is all a gift of God!

He put all his worth and value in what he had without realizing that he could lose it all in an instant!

So, what did this guy need? What was the desperate need of this farmer? Who did he think he belonged to?

Knowledge of the sovereignty of God allows us to live generously.

What do I mean by that?

When we know that God is in control, we can live generously, and I think it’s for two reasons.

First, because I know God is in control, I know that He will provide what is needed as long as I am willing to work in His will.

So I show up to my job and work hard because that’s what we were created for, and God will continue to provide because He is a good Father.

Second, because I know God is in control, I know that any attempt to get more than what is needed will not work.

Just like the farmer, God can remove resources that we didn’t need to illustrate our need for Him.

So we should be able to live generously.

We must be able to look at the people around us and live with generosity in light of the generosity of God.

See, I’m really good at spending someone else’s money.

If you give me your credit card and tell me to be abundantly kind to someone, they’re about to have a really good day!

But when it comes to my own money, I tend to look a lot more like this farmer.

So if it’s really God’s wallet, God’s house, God’s car, and God’s fridge, I’m going to be able to be a lot more generous.

And I know what you’re going to say, because I say it too. “I’d be more generous if I made more money! Right now, everything is just too tight and I can’t make it work!”

But that’s just simply not true!

Just listen to the title of this new’s article from the Baron

Even High Earners Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck: Why $300,000 Isn’t Enough Anymore: https://www.barrons.com/advisor/articles/financial-planning-retirement-goldman-sachs-0dbba6b6

In the article, it says that more than 2/3rds of people that earn more than $300,000 a year are still living paycheck to paycheck!!

I’m not going to ask, but anyone feel like they could maybe make ends meet with $300,000!

But that shows what we’ve been talking about is true! If we are a slave to ourselves because we are owned by our own pleasure or need for success, then no amount of money will be enough to be generous; but if we are radically enraptured by the love of Jesus, then no lack of money will be enough to not be generous.

So, if you find yourself having more than you need (which is most of us), I’m not telling you that God says to give away everything and just subsist paycheck to paycheck. I can’t find that in the Scriptures. But I am telling you that the minute that you start to think of your stuff as your stuff, then you need to watch out, because greed is taking you, and the best way to get rid of greed is to live generously.

And so, we’re going to return to our question for the day, Whose are you?

Are we so afraid of the people around us that they wouldn’t know that we are followers of Jesus or we hide our true selves behind a veneer of Christianity?

Are we so enslaved to the stuff that God has given us that we can’t acknowledge the God who gave?

LOOK TO JESUS!

He is the God man, who became man so that we could be forgiven of our sin and freed from the destructive power of the fear of man and brought into the reverential love and awe of God Most High!

Look to Jesus, who gave up His very life to save you from the burden of sin and bondage to the things of this world!

You don’t have to belong to broken masters anymore! You can belong to the God of the universe who loved you, forgave you, bled for you, and died for you!

If you’re someone who is defined in who you fear, and people are made large in your soul, then maybe you can remind yourself every time you start fearing man more than the God of heaven that you are worth more than many sparrows! The God of the universe who loves you enough to have died for you knows your name and knows all of the hairs on your head! You have nothing to fear in human beings!

And if maybe you lean more to the conflict of ownership problem, and the things that God has given you have become your new master, let’s give radically and tell our souls, “Soul, you belong to Jesus, not to the things that Jesus gave!”

But whatever it is

Application: This week, make it clear Who you belong to.

Whether that be by being explicitly clear to your friends that you are a follower of Jesus or by giving away the things that have been holding you into the world, take the step and make Jesus the Lord of your life!

Baptismal call.