Tunstall Apo Pm 17th Sept The Harvest.
Place: Tunstall Apo. Date: PM Sunday, 17th Sept. 2006.
Text: Luke 12:16-21. Theme: The harvest of the man or the harvest of the soul.
Introduction: Reading: Luke 12:16-21.
“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?' So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
This man seems to be all right; yet our Lord called him a fool. Why? This man gave all of his thought to himself, and he was greedy, I read this poem:
“I had a little tea party
This afternoon at three.
’Twas very small—
Three guests in all
Just I, Myself, and Me.
Myself ate all the sandwiches,
While I drank up the tea.
’Twas also I who ate the pie
And passed the cake to Me.”
This is the way many people live. The parable of the rich fool is one of the strongest paragraphs in the Word of God. The attitude of the world today is “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Our Lord said, “That is the problem that is what makes a man a fool.”
If you live as though this life is all here and now, and you live just for self, and as though there is nothing beyond death, you are a fool. This man had gathered all of his treasure on earth but had stored none in heaven.
1ST POINT: THE HARVEST OF THE MAN, VERSES 16-19.
“Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?'
So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”
The first thing you always notice then you read this passage of Scripture is this man’s selfish words. The word I appears five or six times, showing the selfish focus this man has as a result of his fortune. His plan is to store his abundant resources for himself, as though the assets were his alone and should be hoarded. This focus on the self is what Jesus is condemning.
1. “What shall I do?
2. I have no room to store my crops?
3. I will do this.
4. I will pull down my barns and build greater.
5. I will store all my crops and my goods.”
It cries out of this man’s own actions, you would believe that he made the seed, brought the sun and rain, and then he grew the seed till it was a perfect fruit, and then he brought in the harvest.
The parable of the rich fool illustrates the fact that possessions are not the principal thing in life. Because of a remarkably good crop, this wealthy farmer was faced with what seemed to him a very distressing problem. He did not know what to do with all the grain.
All his barns were crammed to capacity. Then he had a brainstorm. His problem was solved. He decided to pull down his barns and build bigger ones. He could have saved himself the expense and bother of this tremendous construction project if he had just looked on the needy world about him, and used these possessions to satisfy the hunger, both spiritual and physical.
As soon as his new barns were built, he planned to retire. Notice his spirit of independence: my barns, my fruits, my goods, and my soul. He had the future all planned. He was going to “take his ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”
Let us look again at verse 16 “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.” May I say that:
1. It was unlikely that a “rich man” would toil the ground of any of his farms.
2. It was unlikely that a “rich man” would plant all the seeds on his lands.
3. It was unlikely that a “rich man” would weed out the weeds of his lands.
4. It was unlikely that a “rich man” would gather in the fruit of the harvest.
So why is he so proud of his labour and harvest, when more likely then, he never lifted a finger to bring this harvest in?
More so when he never brought the warmth of the sun, or the rain when it was needed to water the ground. No! He grew rich on the labour of others; it was what others had done for him that made him rich.
When a man or woman is caught up with the goods and things around them, like this man was, they are never happy with what they have, and always want more.
1. They have a car, but they want a better car.
2. They have a house, but they want a bigger house.
3. They have a holiday by the sea, but want it to be the Mediterranean.
4. They have a row boat, but want a yacht.
5. They have a PC, but want a wireless broadband network.
6. What ever they have, they will always want more!
Because, all of their lives they have lived for self and “I.” Look at this rich man again, “What shall I do? I have … I will do this. I will … I will store all my crops and my goods.”
Have you ever spoken to the person locked in this “I” mode? Everything they speak about is about themselves one way or another. “I have this, I went there, I am doing this, and I am going there.” You are soon bored being in their company, and often feel how shallow and empty their lives must be.
In the case of this man, he ends by saying: “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” The man has sold his soul for a full barn! The soul of this man was not to have eternal life, but to feast for a season, in this case, not even one night. Note: “This night your soul will be required of you.”
The harvest of this man was death, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death.” What are you labouring for today, life or death?
2ND POINT: THE HARVEST OF THE SOUL, VERSES 20-21.
“But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'
So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Death is never expected or wanted, it spoils our plans for the future and robs us of life! This is why we never speak of it or plan for it, yet it comes to us all, even you and me. In the case of this man death was upon him before he had time to plan for it. On the night of his death he was planning a big feast, not only for his body, but he wanted his eternal soul to join him in the feasting that night.
God was not invited into this man’s life or his feast, but God had plans for him, “But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' How sad it is that you can leave God out of your plans, but He never leaves you out of His plans.
Let us look again at Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is ETERNAL LIFE in Christ Jesus our Lord.” See the man should have brought God into his plans, his plans should not be of the here and now only, but of the eternal. He had many plans for the place he was leaving, but had no plans for the place he was going too.
Remember when I said earlier “He grew rich on the labour of others; it was what others had done for him that made him rich.” Well this man, like you and me, can become rich in Christ Jesus unto eternal life. For this man was offered a hope, just like you and me.
For it is by the death of Jesus Christ the Son of God that we can have eternal life. It is by the CROSS, the death and suffering of the Son of God that one comes into the presence of God. This is the best way of becoming rich, by the labour of another. Rich unto salvation! This causes a good selfishness in us, “I have sinned, I need Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and I will accept Him as my Lord.” Then we will become truly rich.
I could never except that a loving God would call any man a “fool.” More so when even the Bible says, “call no man a fool.” But this is not spoken in anger by God to the man, but in love, “Oh! Foolish man you have left God out of your plans, and you have missed out of His offer of salvation.”
CONCLUSION:
God’s judgment on selfishness is clear. What did the rich fool have for the next life? He could not take his grain with him. What he owned was no longer of any value after death. In a single day, the rich man became poor. All earthly wealth is temporary and ultimately worthless (Matt. 6:19–21; 1 Tim. 6:6–10, 17–19; James 5:1–6).
There is another fool in the Bible, “It is the FOOL that says there is NO GOD.” Sadly YOU may hear those words spoken to you, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.” Are you ready to meet with God? Do you have eternal life? Or are you only living for the here are now?
Well, tonight I must say to you, “Oh! Foolish man now is the time of your salvation.”