Keeping the main thing, the main thing. (2)

13 Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”

14 He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”

15 Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”

16-19 Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’

20 “Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

21 “That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE

ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE

Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol

WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)

overt greed in the video.

What is your relationship with money.

Both Jesus and Paul warned us about this concern.

We live in a world where we have some rich folks are so wealth the have enough money to run a country.

We have some folks in this country that want to redistribute wealth 3% of 15 billion is 450 million. There is just not enough wealthy to make the difference .

Lincoln said of slaver what was wrong is you make the bread and someone else eats it.

Society is teaching a credit system today some of our young people feel we don‘t even need money.

Society is teaching a credit system today some of our young people feel we don‘t even need money.

‘t even need money.

we have greed in our society today ....

GOD: ILLUMINATION (THE GOAL IS TO RESOLVE THE TENSION

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 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.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 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.19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

I. STEP ONE: A REALIZATION THAT WEALTH IS NOT HAPPINESS.

A. tell my brother to share the inheritance

B. Take Care and be on your guard against all covetousness

15

take care

to be alert or on guard, pay attention, see to it that foll. by μή and the aor. subj. (Diod S 27, 17, 3 ὁρᾶτε μήποτε ποιήσωμεν; Epict., Ench. 19, 2; Lucian, Dial. Deor. 8, 2; BGU 37, 5 [50 a.d.]; POxy 532, 15 ὅρα μὴ ἄλλως πράξῃς; 531, 9 ὅρα μηδενὶ ἀνθρώπων προσκρούσῃς.—B-D-F §364, 3) ; ; ; ; Cl 21:1; D 6:1.—W. μή and impv. (B-D-F §461, 1; Rob. 996) ; .—Elliptically (B-D-F §480, 5; Rob. 949) ὅρα μή (sc. ποιήσῃς) watch out! don’t do that! ; .—Used w. ἀπό τινος look out for someth. (B-D-F §149; Rob. 472) ὁρᾶτε καὶ προσέχετε ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τῶν Φαρισαίων look out (for) and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees . ὁράτε, βλέπετε ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τῶν Φαρ. . ὁράτε καὶ φυλάσσεσθε ἀπὸ πάσης πλεονεξίας Lk 12:15.1

be on guard

φυλάσσω (phylassō). vb. to guard, watch, keep. Primarily denotes guarding, but can also indicate keeping commandments.

This is the usual Septuagint translation of שָׁמַר‎ (šāmar, “to keep”). Phylassō has a substantial overlap in meaning with τηρέω (tēreō, “to keep”), but leans more in the direction of “to guard [a prison]” or “to watch [at night].” This primary sense can be seen at several points in the nt, such as the shepherds keeping watch (phylassō; ) or the sentries guarding (phylassō; ) Peter. A similar sense is to “be on guard against” (; ; ). In some cases, phylassō does mean “to keep,” as in “to obey.” It is used to indicate keeping ot commandments

covet

πλεονεξία, ας, ἡ (πλεονέκτης) the state of desiring to have more than one’s due, greediness, insatiableness, avarice, covetousness (so Hdt., Thu.+; Aristoxenus, Fgm. 50 p. 23, 36ff [πλ. as the vice pure and simple]; Diod S 21, 1, 4 [πλ. as the μητρόπολις τῶν ἀδικημάτων]; Musonius 72, 9; 90, 10 H.; Dio Chrys., Or. 67 [17] περί πλεονεξίας: 6 μέγιστον κακῶν αἴτιον; 7 μέγιστον κακόν; Ael. Aristid. 39 p. 733 D.: πλ. is among the three most disgraceful things; Herm. Wr. 13, 7; pap, LXX; Test12Patr; GrBar 13:3; ApcMos 11; EpArist 277; Philo, Spec. Leg. 1, 173, Praem. 15 al.; Jos., Bell. 7, 256, Ant. 3, 67; 7, 37 al.; Just., D. 14, 2; Tat. 19, 2; Ath., R. 21 p. 74, 9; Theoph. Ant. 1, 14 [p. 92, 7]) B 10:4; w. other vices (as Diod S 13, 30, 4 in catalogues of vices. On these s. AVögtle, Die Tugend-u. Lasterkataloge im NT ’36) ; Cl 35:5; B 20:1; D 5:1; Pol 2:2; Hm 6, 2, 5; 8:5. Used w. ἀκαθαρσία ; . Characterized as εἰδωλολατρία (s. εἰδωλολατρία, πλεονέκτης and cp. TestJud 19:1. Chaeremon the Stoic, Nero’s teacher, in Porphyr., Abst. 4, 6 [=Chaeremon, Fgm. 10, p. 16 Horst] contrasts πλεονεξία with θεία γνῶσις). Of false teachers , (s. γυμνάζω end). πρόφασις πλεονεξίας (subj. gen.) pretext for avarice (cp. Philostrat. I 362, 14 πρόσχημα τ. πλεονεξίας). φυλάσσεσθαι ἀπὸ πάσης πλ. guard against every form of greed .—The pl. of the individual expressions of greed

C. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Love:

φιλαργυρία, ας, ἡ (φιλάργυρος; Isocr. et al.; Polyb. 9, 25, 4; Diod S 7, 14, 5; Cebes 19, 5; Herodian 6, 9, 8; ; TestJud 18:2; 19:1; AscIs 3:28; Philo; Jos., Bell. 2, 483; Tat.; Mel., P. 50, 366) love of money, avarice, miserliness w. other vices 2 Cl 6:4; Pol 2:2; 4:3; 6:1. As ῥίζα πάντων τῶν κακῶν the root of all the evils (Goodsp.) or ἀρχὴ πάντων χαλεπῶν the origin of all that is acrimonious1

1 Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 1056). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

root:

ῥίζα, ης, ἡ (on the formation s. Schwyzer I 352, cp. Lat. radix; Hom.+; ins, pap, LXX; OdeSol 11:16b; TestJud 24:5; Philo; Jos., Ant. 3, 174 al.; Tat. 12, 3f).

① the underground part of a plant, root

ⓐ lit. ; ; Hs 9, 1, 6; 9, 21, 1. ἐκ ῥιζῶν to its roots, root and branch (Heraclid. Pont., Fgm. 50 W.; Plut., Pomp. 629 [21, 3]; Polyaenus 2, 1, 10; ; Aesop, Fab. 70 P.=101 Ch.//71 H-H.) . ῥίζαν ἔχειν have (deep) root(s) ; (Theophr., HP 6, 6, 7 πολλὴν ἔχουσα ῥίζαν; Reader, Polemo p. 372).

ⓑ in imagery and transferred sense (LXX; oft. Philo; SibOr 3, 396): in the parable οὐκ ἔχειν ῥίζαν (ἐν ἑαυτῷ) have no firm root and hence be easily inclined to fall away ; ; .—In Paul’s figure of the olive tree, its root and branches . On ῥίζας βάλλειν 1 Cl 39:8 () s. βάλλω 3c.—Of the beginnings fr. which someth. grows (Socrat., Ep. 14, 2; Herm. Wr. 4, 10): a family or nation (Ael. Aristid. 30, 16 K.=10 p. 120 D.; OGI 383, 30f [I b.c.] ἐμοῦ γένους ῥίζα) ἐκκόπτειν ἐκ ῥιζῶν root out, destroy root and branch B 12:9 (cp. ἐκ ῥιζῶν ἐξαιρεῖν Jos, Ant. 9, 181). ῥίζα πικρίας Hb 12:15 (πικρία 1). ῥ. πάντων τῶν κακῶν 1 Ti 6:101

1 Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 905). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

craving

ὀρέγω (oregō). vb. to aspire. Describes the literal act of stretching oneself but figuratively refers to aspiring toward something or desiring something.

Each of the three occurrences of this verb in the nt conveys a sense of desire based on aspirations. says that anyone who “aspires” (oregetai) to the office of overseer is noble, while a later passage warns that some of those who love and “desire” have gone astray from the faith (). According to , many ot heroes of faith “aspired to” (oregontai) a better and heavenly land1

1 Bianchi, F. (2014). Desire. D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.), Lexham Theological Wordbook. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

wandered

ἀποπλανᾶσθαι ἀπό τινος wander away fr. someone or someth. ἀ. ἀπὸ τ. πίστεως they have gone astray fr. the faith 1 Ti 6:101

1 Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 119). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

pangs

② mental pain, distress ἀδιάλειπτος ὀδ. τῇ καρδίᾳ μου (sc. ἐστί) my heart is continually grieved (Philo, Aet. M. 63 ὀδ. ψυχῆς). Of the remorse of conscience ἑαυτοὺς περιέπειραν ὀδύναις πολλαῖς they have pierced themselves to the heart with many pangs .—Schmidt, Syn. II 596–610. DELG. M-M. TW.1

16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 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.19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

II. STEP TWO: A DECISION TO SHARE RESOURCES, NOT HOARD THEM

YOU: APPLICATION (TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO AND WHAT THEY HAVE HEARD)

Conclusion:

Keep the main thing the main thing

This local church has given to the poor within and without the church

13 Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”

14 He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”

15 Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”

16-19 Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’

20 “Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

21 “That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”