Good evening. If you would please turn in your Bibles and open up with me to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 12 as we continue our sermon series through the parables of Jesus. Luke chapter 12 verses 13 to 21. We'll be looking at the parable of the rich fool. Hear now the word of God. 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 arbiter over you? 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. 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 towards God. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Let us pray. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, Lord, We thank you for your word. We pray that your spirit would be sent here to us and work in our hearts that your word may be made effectual unto salvation. Lord, work in us and speak to us for your servants are listening in Jesus name. Amen. Our passage. Tonight is in a bit of an odd location. It sort of occurs seemingly out of the blue. If you would turn with me to the beginning of chapter 12. You know, Jesus here, he is essentially declared open war on the Pharisees for the first time. There's been some tremors of difficulties and there've been a few spats, but now he is declaring open war. He's just finished with a long list of woes against the Pharisees, the most powerful religious body of his day, and he's even called them unmarked graves. And he's openly warning his disciples to avoid these Pharisees and realize that these supposed religious teachers, they're a bunch of hypocrites. And then in verse four, he begins to switch topics. He begins to focus on death and damnation. And he tells his disciples that they should not fear those who can kill their bodies, but the one who has authority to damn their souls. In other words, he's pointing his disciples and he's saying, you don't need to fear the Pharisees. You need to fear God. Who you really need to fear is actually me. And then in verse eight, he switches again and he begins to tell his disciples how to die properly. He tells them that they are going to have to be dragged before the courts of this world, before synagogues, before kings, and they are going to have to acknowledge Him before them. And that on the final hour, when they have an opportunity to pronounce Christ, the Holy Spirit is going to come to them and help them. Now Jesus is saying that on the final day, the entire world, Jews and Gentiles, they're going to be united against His people. They're going to be persecuting them and that there won't be any safe place, but God will help them through it. You know, this is a very serious point in Luke's gospel. It's very somber. It's a tension here. You can almost cut with a knife. And then verse 13 happens. You know, there's this man, he quickly raises his hand in the back of the row and then he immediately blurts out, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. You know, this is seemingly out of nowhere. You know, who this man really is, he's really a heckler. You know, this is not the time to talk about inheritance law. There's a time and a place for that, but it's not when you're talking about death. This is a rude interruption. But we see here, we see Jesus, he's able to do something remarkable. He's able to turn this talk about inheritance law back on topic. And he's actually able to push this discussion forward. He's able to somehow take inheritance law and he's able to move from talking about how to die properly to talking about how to live properly. And that's how I want us to understand this passage today. Jesus is pleading with this man and with this crowd and with us here today to re-evaluate our lives and to live properly. And to understand what Jesus has here for us today, I want us to look at it under two headings. First, Jesus tells us to live towards death. And secondly, He tells us to live towards God, towards death, and towards God. Now you might think that that saying, living towards death, you might think that's a really odd way of putting it. But I think it actually makes a great deal of sense. You know, what you focus on in the future, it's going to impact the way you live right now. And the shorter your perspective, the more shallow your life is going to be. If you are entirely focused on this world and on this very second and you're not worried about what happens five minutes from now, odds are you're going to have a short life and you're going to have a very wrong-headed life. You know, what we need is a long perspective so that we can live properly. Look at this questioner here in verse 13. You know, he's heard Jesus's teachings on death, he's heard Jesus's teachings on salvation, and he's not concerned about any of that. What he's really focused on is what he believes should be his inheritance, and how he has been wronged by his brother. And he's so focused on these things, he's focusing on them with his eyes, and everything else in life is getting pushed to the sides. Everything Jesus has been talking about, he's heard, but he's heard it as background noise. He's been mentally counting up the acres and cash that could be his if it wasn't for his brother. And this questioner, he's not even concerned that justice be done. He really just wants a decision in his favor. That's why he demands Jesus. He doesn't demand that Jesus judge properly. He just demands, Jesus, just rule in my favor. Just tell my brother to give me the inheritance. He's focused on the short view of life, on the here and now. He's focused on the potential of getting an inheritance. He's convinced that his life is all about the possessions that could be his if Jesus just rules in his favor. And Jesus, he's calling this man out of his shallow life. And that's why he gives us this parable of the rich fool. And what I find fascinating about this parable of the rich fool is that he's like the questioner, but he's ever so subtly different in some very important ways. This parable, it's about a rich man. This isn't about someone who's about to be rich. It's not about someone who could be rich if he had an inheritance. It's about someone who is rich, even right now, but he still wants more, more and more and more. And Jesus, he's looking at this questioner, he's like, you want to be rich? Let's talk about a rich man for a moment. this rich man who has all this land, and he's given a bountiful harvest, and he's never wanted in his life, but he's still utterly consumed by the possibility of having just a little bit more. You know, Rockefeller, the great oil tycoon, he was once asked, how much is enough? He always just answered, it's just a little bit more. No one in this life ever thinks they have enough. They always just want just a little bit more. But the other thing is that this rich fool, you know, he's actually kind of focused on the future in a way. He does have some perspective. He is looking to the future. The best way I can put this, the best positive spin you can put on this is that he's building a giant rainy day fund. He's saving aggressively for retirement. You know, we usually call people like that prudent. You know, we usually associate frugalness with a virtue. It's a good thing. So how is this man a fool? You know, the issue is this. The rich man, in a sense, is a little bit wiser than the questioner. He has his perspective in the future. but it's not far enough. You know, if you play chess, if you play chess and you play and you are able to see about three moves ahead, if you're playing an amateur, someone who's never played chess before, they think you're absolutely brilliant because you're able to see three moves ahead. But if you play someone who's actually playing all the way to the end of the game, a true grandmaster, they can be blindfolded and you can tell them your move, and then they can say, you shouldn't have made that move. It's mate in 25. I've actually seen that happen before. They actually can see that far ahead compared to someone who sees so much further into the future, you look like an idiot. And that's what this rich fool is like. He's planning for retirement, but he's not planning for death. He should be planning just a few steps further. He's arrogantly acting like he can control his future, like everything is going to work according to his design. But he's ignoring the most inevitable thing in this world, other than taxes. It's death. Death is coming. And all of his planning is going to come crashing down, and he's not going to get to enjoy a single minute of it. Now, this is a parable. which is very fitting for us today. You know, all of us here in this room are in some measure prosperous, at least compared to many people in this world. America is a prosperous nation and we get to enjoy benefits from that. And perhaps more than any other time in history, it is easy to believe that we are supposed to judge our lives by our possessions. You know, the average person, apparently, sees somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 advertisements in a single day. You know, you can only remember probably about 10 of them. But thousands of these advertisements are trying to grasp you, trying to make you look and see, if you only had this, then your life would be fine. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every single year trying to convince you to live for this moment, trying to collect possessions. for yourself. And it's so easy for all of us, even Christians, to have our eyes slip from the prize and slip down to this world and at least live like this world is all there is, not focused on what is in the future. And it's more possible than ever before for us to look at this rich fool in this passage and for us to think he's actually incredibly wise. And the real problem is not that he's a fool, he's just unlucky. You know, what if this rich man had completed his Barnes? You know, what if he had gotten to be able to enjoy, you know, a life of luxury for years and years and years? Is he really still a fool? You know, what about us today? You know, say you work and you scramble and you You grab your way and you get to the top of the heap. You save hand over fist. You're able to retire at the age of 30. You're able to enjoy 70 plus years with the help of modern medicine, of luxury. Are you still a fool? Are you still like this rich fool? Well, I'll tell you, I think the answer is probably yes. The difference is it takes just a little bit longer to prove it. You know, everything that you own is still going to pass away. It still goes to the same place. It still goes to the yard sale. You know, someone's going to inherit everything that you have, and then they're going to put it in a yard sale one way or another. You know, I grant that you're going to be able to enjoy, perhaps, a few years under the sun. You're going to be able to enjoy a few moments. But just compare it for just a slight moment with eternity. You know, it's nothing compared with eternity. And if God lets you have a few years on this life where you live for your possessions and he lets you enjoy them for a time, it doesn't mean that you're right. It just means that he's playing along with you for just a little while. And if you have someone, someone who's mentally ill, they're suffering from a delusion, if you humor them, It doesn't mean that they're right. They can still be convinced that they're right, but they'll still be proven wrong in the end. And if you are able to enjoy the things of this life, if you are able to actually somehow be deluded into thinking that the things around you are all there is and this living for this moment and living for collecting things to yourself is all there is, you're actually worse than this fool. because you actually are even more deluded. You know, I've heard of a rich man. You know, he was once a close follower of Christ and he got a tremendous amount of money and he became obsessed with all the things around him to the point of idolatry. You know, and it seemed to work out for him for a time. He collected to himself power and influence. But every single day his wife actually privately prayed that the economy of the United States would collapse because she believed that it was the only thing that would turn her husband back to Christ, back to his first love. These things in this world can seem so alluring and we can be convinced that this is what we need, this or that, but we need the long view. You know, Edwards, he famously prayed, Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. And that's a prayer each one of us needs to pray. Lord, give me eyes not just for now. Give me eyes not just for retirement, not even for the nursing home, not even for death. Give me eyes beyond death for what happens afterwards. That's what we need. Because when you live towards death, you live in recognition that judgment is coming. And that matters more than anything else in this world. You know, one day you're going to be standing before the throne of God. And in that moment, everything you've ever done and everything you have is going to grow simultaneously very large and very small. You're going to see how much you've done that demands the wrath and curse of God. And you're also going to realize how much you've spent all your blood, sweat, and tears on that was perhaps not worth it at all in the grand scheme of things when you're standing before that throne. We need to see that we will all be judged by Christ on the final day. That's what we need to really see. Now, if you look in verse 14, Jesus says something that's perhaps a little strange to our ears. He says, man, who made me a judge? And perhaps some of you kind of thought to yourselves, that's actually a little strange. What are you talking about, Jesus? I can tell you exactly who made you a judge. It's your father. On the final day, your people are going to help you judge angels. What do you mean you're not a judge? Well, the answer is, of course, that For this moment on earth, he has not come as a judge. He's come to preach and teach. Make no mistake, he is coming on the final day. And he will be a judge, and he will concern himself with everything that has ever occurred on this earth. It's on that day that you are going to stand before his throne, and then you are either going to hear one of two words. You are either going to hear the word, the first word of verse 20, where God meets the fool and just says fool, or you are going to hear the word child. And in that moment, that one word is going to be worth everything in your life. It's worth living for this one moment and directing everything in your life for this one moment before Jesus Christ and where you are either seen to be closed in the blood of the Lamb or you are seen to be closed with all the dross of this world. One is more valuable than the other. But we need to not just live towards some point in time in the future, we actually need to live towards someone. We need to be living towards God. You know, the rich fool, he's focused not just on the now, he's focused on himself. If you look at verses 17 and 19, the constant drumbeat of these verses is I and my. This is what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops. I will do this. I will tear down my barns. I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul, he's focused in and on himself. And then God shows up in verse 20, and God just says to him, I've just heard you say, my, my, me, me. I haven't heard one single word about me. The one who gave you all of this. The one who actually gave you the land. The one who made you rich in the first place. The one who gave you all this harvest. He's actually the one who gave this man the barns. And this fool isn't giving a single look towards God, not for a single moment. This is a rich man. He has everything in this world, but he's using it incorrectly, not properly. You know, it's a difficult thing, but it is actually possible to use the things in this world properly. It is possible to be rich. and not sin. It is possible to save money and not sin. I don't want you to leave today and say, well, I heard today that we're not supposed to save for retirement. Don't go away thinking that. Save for retirement. You can save for retirement and still be a fool, but don't be a double fool. Save for retirement. But as soon as I say there's a way to use riches, My worry is that everybody in this room sort of breathes a sigh of relief, and everybody thinks, that was really close. I thought he was talking about me for a second. Because as soon as we hear someone say, there's actually a way for you to do this thing over here, we think, that's perfect. I always knew that, and it's precisely the way I'm doing it right now. And then we kind of switch off. You know, the difficult thing about talking about riches is twofold. First, riches are actually good things. Having stuff is not necessarily wrong. They are gifts from God. And God uses them to support your life, to bless you, and to point you back to him. But riches are also a tremendous spiritual danger. And both of those are true at the same time. And you can't forget one or the other. There is a way to use riches. It is possible, but it's very counterintuitive. It goes against every inclination of your heart. You know, Jesus said, a rich man is able to enter the kingdom of God as easily as a camel through the eye of a needle. And that's true, but it is possible with the help of God. If you can use the things of this world properly in the way that they're designed to, it's actually a miracle. It's only done by the grace of God. It's only done by him. We need to see that we need to have things directed in a way towards God. We need to live in a way where everything that we receive from God points us back to the one who has given us the gift. That's the only way you can truly enjoy in a Christian way the things of this world. Because so often we're like children on Christmas who are especially rude. We get the gift, we open it up, our eyes look on it, and then everything in the entire room disappears. They don't look at the person who gave them the gift. They don't thank the person who gave them the gift. They might not even remember who gave them the gift. The only thing going through their mind is, this is mine. My entire life is complete with my Hot Wheels collection right now. This is it. All right, we recognize that in that moment, we're watching a little idolatry at work. And that's how we are. We just disguise it a little bit better. Whenever we get something from God, it is our inclination, we immediately put it up on a pedestal and then we immediately start worshiping it. We get the gift and then we ask the gift to give and give and give. We actually start treating the gift like God, like it's a giver. And then we start demanding from it. We start demanding that this gift give us comfort, that it give us joy, that it even give us meaning. And we've turned even the smallest thing in this world into an idol. You know, all of us in this room, we need to have better eyes. Because if we had better eyes, we'd be able to see the crushing weight that we put on our idols. Not one of your idols can withstand all your love and devotion. Not one of them can satisfy the deepest longings of your soul. Why are you putting so much weight on your idols? You're crushing both the idol and you at the same time. You know, you can take gifts from God's hand, you can enjoy gifts from God's hand, but you have to always enjoy the gifts while looking to God. That's the key. You have to enjoy them as coming from the hands of a loving heavenly father who is trying to point you back towards himself so that you can enjoy the things of this world while looking at him. And if you're able to do that, something very curious happens. You're actually able to enjoy what you're given even more, even as you're able to look at God. You know, sometimes it's said that when you love God, the things of this world go strangely dim. And that is actually true in a way. And I think it's important for us to understand that. But there is a flip side to it. If you are able to enjoy the things of this world and not crush them and yourself with your idolatry, you're letting the gift be a gift. You're able to enjoy it for what it is. And then when you look around yourself, when you look around at the world around you, you see a creation given by your loving Heavenly Father. who every single facet of it, the smallest corner, is trying to point you back to him. You know, the blade of grass is not just a blade of grass, it is something from your father's hands. And seeing that changes your life. If you want to see the things of this world grow strangely dim and lose all their power, just separate them from God. Because God is the one who gives them any bit of color that they already have. God is the one who lets them and lets them exist and gives them meaning and purpose. And if you take them away from God, you're just going to destroy it. We need to focus on God in every facet of our lives. What we really need is God. From top to bottom, through and through, our life needs to be about God. It's the only way you can live properly. That's what Jesus is telling us, both in this passage, and we see it especially clear in John 17, 3, in his high priestly prayer, where he's praying for both you and me and all of his disciples. He says this, this is eternal life. that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. That is life. You know, what do you get in the Christian life? You know, you don't get prosperity gospel. What you get in the Christian life is God. That is what you get in the Christian life. And it is in God that you get every spiritual blessing. It is in God that the angels themselves almost envy you because the lamb has died for you. And you're a child of God and you stand before him as a son and as a daughter. And God has worked to redeem you and even now is working to conform you into the image of Christ. These are riches that are far better than any harvest. It's far better than anything that this man could ever store up in a barn. It is possible for the Christian, if it believes in Christ, is richer than anyone else in this world. And I don't just mean that the Christian is rich like we are compared to someone in Africa who lives on a penny a day. I mean truly rich. richer than kings, richer than governments, richer than companies. Christians are rich because they have God. So what do you pursue? What is the focus of your life? Do you pursue Jesus Christ? Is he your only love? Is he your highest desire? Is it your love and desire to know him first and foremost? because he is worth it. There is nothing in this world that is more worthy of your death and there is nothing in this world that is more worthy of your life than the son of God who gave himself for you and even now lives at the right hand of God. We might struggle with this for a time. This is a difficult thing for Christians. But on the final day, we will be standing before God, worshiping him focused on him and towards him without a single shadow between us. It's in that moment that we will understand what it means to live properly. And it's at that moment where we will be able to truly know what it means to be alive for the first time in its entirety. That's what's worth living for right now. For all of us is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let us pray. Most gracious and loving Heavenly Father. Lord, you have given us your people so many blessings in Jesus Christ and Lord, I pray that you would keep us your people safe, safe from the things of this world, safe from pursuing false idols. And Lord, keep us close to Christ, remembering that we will stand before him on the final day, and remembering that we will worship him in perfect bliss for all eternity. In Jesus' name, amen.