This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. Luke chapter 12, picking up in verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. 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. 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. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. It's the reading of God's word. Please have a seat. Let's begin in prayer. Father, we are so grateful that you hold tomorrow in your hand. We're so grateful that you hold today in your hand. We depend on you for everything we need and right now we depend on you again. to feed our souls, to guide us, to convict us where we have been in sin, to give us your wisdom for how to better please you. Lord, we depend on you. So please be faithful to your people right now. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. So we open with a selfish dispute. I really sort of enjoy the time that things come sort of unsolicited out of the crowd around Jesus, where someone wants to bring up something that wasn't being talked about. Jesus has not been going around saying, here, let me settle your family affairs. He's been teaching about a lot of other things. And then this guy shows up out of left field and he says, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. He hasn't given any information, doesn't give any context. It doesn't seem like he's there with his brother. You know, like me and my brother are having a hard time working this out. Could you lend your wisdom to our situation? No, I think he's just showing up to see if the famous man of God will side with him and make his brother do what he wants. And Jesus just totally refuses to engage with what this man wants. And it's not because Jesus couldn't have made a good decision. It's not because Jesus lacked the authority. It's because that's not what he's here to do. He's bringing the salvation of God. This dispute is not what he is called to do. Leon Morris, he said it so well. Jesus came to bring people to God, not to bring property to people. And that's a saying our times could use. Jesus came to bring people to God, not to bring property to people. Jesus' purpose, it wasn't about settling earthly matters. That's not what he was there for. But he's more than willing to make a teaching opportunity out of this man. And so he does that. I'm not going to engage with your dispute, but you are now the object lesson of what I'm going to talk about. And so he turns to the crowd and he's going to use this man to warn them all. Be careful when you speak up out of the blue to Jesus. Jesus warns them about greed. Now, you know I preach out of the ESV and many of you read out of the ESV and you would have seen that I did something different here. The text reads, take care in the ESV. It says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. And I really don't think that's as good as a word as greed, which is what most of the other translations have done. Covetousness makes us jump to the person that you're coveting, right? So when I covet, there's someone else involved. And Jesus is going to talk about something broader than simply when we are envying or coveting what our neighbor has. And so the word is better greed. He warns them about greed. Now, what is greed? Let's define our terms. Greed is a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions. Or more colloquially, and I owe this to Brian, the famous multimillionaire of what, the late 19th, early 20th century, John Rockefeller. You may know this story. One time he was asked how much money is enough money?" To which he famously responds, just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Jesus warns them to guard against greed. He warns them and he expects them to treat greed seriously. Treat greed warily. Jesus tells them to see greed not simply as a sin and that would be bad enough, but as a great error that mistakes where true life is actually found. And he's going to tell them a parable to drive home just that point. We call this parable found in verses 16 through 21, the parable of the rich fool. Jesus tells us of a man who is already rich. He's already rich, and this rich man just had a plentiful harvest. And the parable really gets started not just in the context of a wealthy man, but in his response to this blessing from God. Because it is a greedy response. Let's take this a verse at a time. Look at verse 17. So this rich man thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. It starts with a greedy question. It starts with a greedy question. First off, let's all just put out there that not having enough room for all your stuff is not the worst problem to have. And it's like we are like one verse into this parable and it's getting real convicting for Americans. Because we have a lot of stuff in our lives. There are businesses devoted to simply helping us store our stuff. Other people have built the bigger barns for us and we pay them so that we can use their barns for our stuff. If you're uncomfortable now, don't worry. We are just getting started. But second, listen to how the rich man views things. See, his concern is how he is going to keep all his stuff for himself. That's his concern. The way Jesus tells the parable, he's not sitting around saying, what a great harvest. I know that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. Thank you, God, for this harvest. Praise God for this harvest. No, he's not saying anything like that. He's saying, hmm, how can I keep all this? How can I keep all this? Psalm 37 verse 21 says that the righteous person is generous and gives. The rich man is not thinking about giving anything away. He is not trying to be generous. His problem is that he has so much stuff that it's actually difficult to keep it all for himself. Quite a problem to have. And so verse 18, a greedy question then leads to a greedy solution. A greedy question leads to a greedy solution. Look back at the text. 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. This solution, it really puts the greed into the spotlight. His solution to having too much stuff is he is going to tear up his current barns and replace them with bigger ones. See, be clear on this parable. The problem with this rich man is not that he was trying to provide for the daily needs of life. He is not dealing with essentials. He wanted excess, not essentials. He wanted luxury. not necessities. And bigger barns would allow this man to accomplish his greedy goal of hoarding his surplus for himself. Verse 19, all this greed for a sinful and delusional goal. Look at the text. And I will say to my soul, soul, You have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. So here we have to ask ourselves, what really is the problem with this man? Is the problem that he's wealthy? Is the problem that this is a rich man? Well, not necessarily. We always have to be clear. Deuteronomy 8 18 will say that it's the Lord who gives power to get wealth. Wealth by itself is not the problem. The Bible will condemn the love of wealth, but wealth itself is not the problem. So is the problem that this guy was saving money and planning ahead for the future. Well, that can't be it either. The Proverbs encourage saving. The Proverbs also strongly encourage planning, saying that planning leads to abundance. Planning's not the problem. So if the problem isn't wealth, if the problem isn't planning, what is this guy doing that's going to get him so strongly rebuked in the next verse? You know what he's doing? He's trying to secure his future apart from God. He's trying to secure his future apart from God. I want you to notice the total absence of God from his thinking. He doesn't thank God. He doesn't honor God. He doesn't seek to serve God. Look, look back at the text. In contrast, I want you to look in verses 17 through 19 and just pick out the words, I and my. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. 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. Is it about God for this guy? It's about him. It's about him. He is looking to take care of himself. This is the man who thinks that life is all about an abundance of possessions. He thinks that his wealth makes him the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. His wealth is the delusional security that his soul craves. It's not just the sin of greed, it is a delusional means to that goal. He wants to live independent of God and he thinks that he can do so with his wealth. What does God think of all this? God calls him a fool. Look at verse 20. See, when the rich fool thought that he had secured his future, God yanked the security right out from under him. The man had just been saying, I will say to my soul, soul relax, eat, drink and be merry. And God says this very night, your soul is required of you. Your so-called security did nothing. Wealth may be a hedge against this world, but it is no defense against God. God rebukes the man for his foolishness because greed is foolish. The man hath thought life was in the abundance of his stuff, so he devoted himself to gathering and hoarding his stuff. And his whole future depended on the security of that stuff. And then God says, You spend all this time trying to keep your wealth for yourself. And now, who is going to get it? The answer to that is not you. Not you. For all you did to preserve your wealth, you're not even going to get to enjoy it after all. So Jesus concludes in verse 21, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Your treasure will not save you. Your treasure will not put your life in your control. Your treasure will not accompany you into eternity. What a waste it is to spend your life grasping after treasure that you cannot even keep. See, one reason that we need this warning is that so few of us think that we are greedy. So few of us think that we are greedy. And whenever we are convinced that we are not in danger of a sin, that is when we are the most vulnerable. Jesus gave us this warning for a reason, because people need to be warned about their greed. You need to be warned about your greed. So how are we greedy? Humor me, how might you Be greedy. Let's come back to the heart. Let's come back to the heart, not about the circumstances, let's examine the heart. We said that greed is the strong desire to acquire more and more. So try this on for size. What do you always want more of? Maybe flip the question around. What really bothers you when you don't have it? Now the obvious answer that we're all somewhat susceptible to is money. And so we always want another sale, another client, another raise, another deal. Sometimes though it's not even about those things, sometimes we simply want money itself. Like we don't even want to buy anything. We just want the assurance of knowing that we have a big old bank account. We just want money laying around. But it's not just money, there are also the things we get greedy for. Those things that we always seem to want more of. It can be gadgets. It could be TVs. It can be clothing. It can be accessories. It can be shoes. It can be another thing that you don't need for the house. It can be cars. It can be collectible figurines. It can be fine dining. It can be vacations. It can be video games. Men, it can be guns. Whatever it is, whatever it is, I want you to look in your heart for what you want more of. And don't let yourself off the hook here. Don't let yourself off the hook because you can't see it at first. Because greed is sneaky. Greed is sneaky. Jesus warns us to take care. He says, take care, be on guard against all forms of greed. I want you to picture, imagine that the police officer knocks on your door and warns you. There've been reports there are armed men in your neighborhood just roaming about looking for a home to invade. What do you think you would do? The officer says, so take care. Be on guard. What do you think you would do? I think you would be on guard. I tell you what you would not do. You would not peek out the window and say, I don't see anything. I guess I'm good. Jesus warns us against greed because greed is sneaky. And it's this sneaky sin infecting so many lives. And the really bad part is people don't even realize it's infected their souls. They don't even realize how compromised their priorities have become because they never even looked twice at the greed that was motivating them. So look, look for the things that you always want more of. Hunt them down. Search your heart, search your life, and when you find something, and I just really believe pretty much we'll all find something, hear the words of Paul from Colossians 3 verse 5. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry, he says. Paul calls greed an act of idolatry. That thing that you crave so much is a little god camping on the throne of your heart. Put it to death. Evict that little God from your heart. Repent that stuff ever took the throne of your heart. Repent that you ever saw life in the stuff of this world. And that's the second half of Jesus' teaching. He says, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. See, greed is the result of not believing Jesus, because we think that more stuff does, in fact, equal a better life. We tell ourselves just a little bit more. But then the stuff just piles up and piles up and piles up and we find that we're still in the same life, still struggling with the same sins, the same failures, the same weaknesses. We find that our life is unchanged for all the stuff we've heaped upon it. Life isn't found in the riches of this world, but there is life in Christ. Life isn't found in being rich toward yourself. Life is found in being rich toward God. Life isn't found in the creation. Life is found in the Creator. Now, you know, I don't want to go overboard here. You know that God is the reason that the world is full of delightful things? God is the reason for anything that's delightful. Please don't hear me and think that you're not supposed to find delight in the delightful things that God has created. It's not what I mean at all. God is the author of delight and delight is not the problem. But see these earthly delights for what they are. God didn't give us the delights of this world as a substitute for him. He certainly didn't give the delights of this world as competition for him. No, the delights of this world, they are a peek into God's character. And those delights, we see just little snippets of his goodness, of his wisdom, of his creativity. And the delights of this world turn out to actually be just the faintest hint of the delight that is found in Jesus Christ. See, the remedy for our greed and our obsession with the world stuff, it's not for you to just say, stop being greedy. That's not the solution. The remedy to our greed is to find the blessing that is better. And pour your heart into that. Jesus is better than this world. His gospel is better than this world. While there is no life in this world, there is everlasting life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. while the world's treasures fade and perish. In Christ, we have heavenly treasure that will never be taken from us. There's coming a day, a day that this rich fool did not bargain with. There's coming a day when each of us, every single one of us is going to die as the young, And that's the old, unless Christ comes back first, every single one of us is going to die and we are going to stand before our maker. And if our treasure is only found in this world, then don't be surprised when the Lord says to you that you have been a fool. But if we are rich toward our God, don't be surprised when you are welcomed into glory with more heavenly treasure than you ever imagined. The choice is this. Be rich toward yourself in this world and lose it all when you die, or be rich toward God and gain more than you can imagine. See, if you actually believe what Jesus is saying, this choice is the easiest choice you could ever make. If you actually believe him. But it's when we don't believe Jesus that we start asking questions like this. How much do I have to give up? Or have I given enough yet? When we do believe Jesus, We ask questions like these, how can I be rich toward God? Or what else can I give away? I want you to take this question home with you. What has God given you to give away? And don't limit yourself. Consider your time, consider your treasure, Consider your talent. What has God given you to give away? Whatever you give, you know you'll never out give God, right? You will never out give God. Hear the words of Paul one more time, 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that by his poverty, you might become rich. On a cruel cross on Calvary 2000 years ago, God made his people rich. Even the poorest Christian is a heavenly millionaire. Our God knows how to give good gifts. So what has God given you to give away? He has been rich with us. Let's be rich with him. Let's pray. Our Father, We delight in the riches that have been showered upon us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Please give us the eyes of faith to see how rich you have made us. How glorious is the inheritance in the saints. God, you have been so good. You continue every day to be so good to us. Lord, help us now. Help us to repent of our greed. Help us to repent of justifying our greed. Help us to repent of believing in the American dream more than in the gospel. Father, forgive us and stir us up and point us in the right direction. We pray that we would see the riches we have been given clearly, and we pray that we would stand on that foundation and be generous with you. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com