of Luke. Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. We're going to be looking at verses 13 through 21 this morning. Luke chapter 12 verses 13 to 21 and as you're turning just again for those who came in a little bit later just a reminder that following the service is a fellowship lunch. There's food and drink that's provided for you for your lunch and for just an opportunity to be together and to share and rejoice in Christ and in just being together. So join us for that. All right, Luke chapter 12. If you are able to stand, stand with me for the reading of God's word. Hear the word of the Lord. Luke 12, beginning in verse 13. And someone from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you? Then he said to them, watch out and be on your guard against every form of greed. For not even when one who has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, the land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, what shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for you for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you. And now who will own what you prepared? So is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Here ends the reading of God's inerrant word. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is instructive and convicting. And so, Lord, we pray that it would have its work in us. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see the wonderful things that are found in your word. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. You can be seated. This week I was looking for recession proof businesses. You never can be too prepared, right? We keep hearing of a looming recession that is upon us. And I found the typical recession-proof businesses like health care and auto repair, funeral homes and tax preparation services, we know that death and taxes are recession-proof. They always show up no matter what might be happening in our economy. But one that struck me was actually a $44 billion industry in 2024. $44 billion. And only expected to continue growing. I'll give you a hint. The only thing you need, there are three things you need. A padlock, a rolling door, and square footage. Any guesses? Self-storage. Did you know that there are over 52,000 facilities operating in the United States with over 2 billion square feet of storage space? That's an amazing amount. And it's growing, right? I read this week that one in 11 Americans 1 in 11 Americans pay for storage space of some sort because of their material overflow. So that means that people pay money not just for the stuff. They pay money to store their stuff or to park their stuff. And so it ends up being kind of a genius business model, right? Because it doesn't matter if the economy is booming or receding, because the whole business is built on the unshakable reality, the unshakable truth that people love their stuff. And since they've exceeded their garage space, or maybe they don't have a garage if you happen to live in an apartment or somewhere else, They'll pay for it. Now, I'm not trying to make you feel unnecessarily guilty if you are one of the one in 11 who have a storage facility or that you too are busting at the seams in your garage, right? But neither is it to let us off the hook, but rather to have some perspective, to think about what Jesus says here in the Gospel of Luke. Because Jesus gives us a much needed perspective in verse 15 when he instructs his disciples with these words. And he's used one of these verbs before, watch out and be on guard, on your guard against every form of greed. You know, greed, like nothing else, is really one of those more subtle sins. It's not always evident. It's not always clear. We usually think of sins like lust or pride or jealousy or anger, but greed? Is that really sinful? I mean, isn't that tied to ambition? And isn't ambition important? I think I've shared before, back when Sears used to send out, or Montgomery Wards, does anyone remember that? They used to send out catalogs. I loved when they did that. As a kid, I'd open that in the mailbox and plot out Christmas gifts and plot out birthday gifts and any other kind of gift or hint I could give to my mom or dad about that. I've often shared that greed and just the thought of more. If you want a contemporary expression of that, maybe look at your Amazon wish list, right? Not what you've bought, but just your wish list. And you get to begin to see, yeah, we are consumers at our hearts and can struggle with this particular issue. greed. Americans often struggle with contentment as the the newest thing flashes before our eyes. Whether we're looking on social media, Sears doesn't send catalogs, Montgomery Wards doesn't even exist anymore because they didn't get with the times. But whether it's Amazon, the internet, social media, We are in search for the newest and the greatest. We search for a new house, or a better house, or a remodeled house. Or if not that, we're looking at RVs, or vacations, or trendy clothes and accessories, or the newest technological advancement and gadget, whether that's Google or Apple. Take your pick. And you have to ask ourselves, when it comes to the issue of contentment, When is enough enough? When I think of that, I always think of the quote that many of you have likely seen from John D. Rockefeller, who, of course, was the first American billionaire. And he was asked by a reporter, Rockefeller, how much money is enough money? And Rockefeller replied, just a little more. just a little more. The crazy thing is Rockefeller's wealth at the peak of his life was 3% of the entire GDP of the United States. He owned 3% of it. And if you follow, you know there are other entities currently who own larger percentages than three. So it's interesting. The abundance and the growth. He was one man. These others are usually groups. They're investing other people's wealth and growing it. He had plenty of money and yet in his mind it was never enough. And we kind of can kind of think through that. You think about raises that you've gotten and it's True, that inflation is at an all-time high. We go through those seasons, the economy kind of ebbs and flows. But we seem to be able to match our expenditures, don't we, right? We get a raise, and it's like, where did that raise go? And again, some of it is on legitimate things, but we grow in our contentment, right? We want the newest or the latest. And so greed is one of those more sneaky sins. It's often unassuming. And yet Jesus has some very strong words for greed. He has some very cautionary words for his disciples. He wants his men to know that greed is not an inconsequential sin. It can lead you away from God and it ultimately is a revealer of the heart. It reveals your priorities. It reveals what you ultimately love. There's an author who's written a lot on money and possessions. I think his book is actually entitled Money, Possessions, and Eternity. A guy named Randy Alcorn. You might know him because he wrote a book on heaven and most people love that book. But he's got a little book too entitled The Treasure Principle and I can't remember which book this is from but he says there is a powerful relationship between our true spiritual condition and our attitude and actions concerning money and possessions And I was thinking of that quote this week because that is certainly true if we're talking about Jesus and his teaching and that there is a relationship between our true spiritual condition and our attitude and actions concerning money and possessions. I mean, Jesus thought this so important that he prepares his men concerning the treasure of their heart and the temptations that greed may bring about in their life and even in their ministry. Jesus says, look it, there is a way that you are to view your earthly possessions. Jesus mentions treasure in verse 21 of our text, but he also mentions it, we'll look at this next week, in verse 33, and then that kind of crescendo passage that we might be aware of in verse 34, where Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so Jesus is very clear that money and possessions are a revelation, right? They're a litmus test for where our heart is. They're an indicator of what we love, what we prioritize, what we even prize. And so Jesus cautions his men, because you can think of it, given the context, right? Material security. You know, what this guy is enjoying where he can say, I can take it easy and eat, drink, and be merry, right? That's attractive. That's an attractive alternative when Jesus has just said, you're going to go out, you're going to stand for me, and you're going to be opposed. Right? Ease and comfort and stuff is a lot, is a big temptation when faced with persecution. Yet Jesus warns them. that not only is there a real danger in fearing man more than you fear God, which is what he's just said in the previous verses, but there's another danger, and that is to have an excessive attachment to your possessions, an excessive attachment to your stuff. Many people, even this last month, were brought face to face with, how important are my things? How tightly connected am I? And it's a tragedy. I'm not saying they shouldn't be concerned or overwhelmed by those things. But how does a believer respond to that kind of loss? Is there an open handedness to it? Or is there a deep grief and loss that's so debilitating they find it difficult to see how they might continue on and exist? And Jesus would simply warn, hey, there's pause for concern here if we're that tightly connected to our possessions. And so he warns these believers. He warns them. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus provides the kind of setting for this instruction. What leads to this? What leads to the parable? And we know that the parable is prompted because someone in the crowd asked Jesus to resolve a family dispute over inheritance. And there's nothing. like family disturbance caused by what your parents leave you. Some of you have likely endured some of that, right? Who gets grandma's quilt, right? Who gets the old piano? Who gets what part of this? And so there is that, there's nothing like, you know, disputes over inheritance to divide people. And clearly this man sees Jesus as possessing some kind of authority and wisdom. It wasn't uncommon in the day for disputes like this to be brought before rabbis. So because rabbis knew the law, we know that Moses in the Old Testament during the exodus and the wilderness wandering, dealt with disputes, right, over land or possession or whatever it might be. And so family feuds, especially when they involve money, are among the most difficult disputes to reconcile. So this is likely the younger brother who's asking this question, since it's the elder brother who would have possession of his father's estate. It's likely that the estate is land, and this brother, like the younger brother in the parable of the The prodigal son is asking for his peace, at least his dad's dead at this point. And he's asking, hey, sell this part. I want to cash out. And I want you, Jesus, to tell him to do this for me. And Jesus rebukes him in verse 14. The irony is Jesus is a judge and a mediator in the truest sense, but not in the sense that this guy is thinking, not in the way and not in the timing. And so Jesus' work is redemptive. Remember all sites from Luke 9, I think it's verse 51, all sites, he's put his direction towards Jerusalem. He's going to the cross. This is redemption. And so he's preparing his men for what happens after. And his eyes are set on Jerusalem. His eyes are set on his redemptive work to the cross. And so he rebukes this. He's like, man, there's more to life than your stuff. Jesus uses this brother's request as an opportunity to prepare his men for how they ought to view stuff. And so this morning I've entitled the message, the dangers of more stuff. If you want a more technical term, you could say the dangers of materialism. And that's true. I mean, we struggle here with such affluence and abundance in our country. Greed of every form because we have the richest poor in the world. Right? And yet we still struggle over possessions and things and how to view them. And so notice that in verse 15, Jesus turns towards his disciples. Then he said to them, he doesn't directly speak this to that younger brother, he's speaking to his disciples. And he warns them concerning greed in every form of it. He gets to the real fuel behind this younger brother's request, and that is greed. There's nothing like greed to cause disagreement and disharmony and disunity. Greed ultimately makes us, if we don't leave it unchecked, greed leads us to an insensitivity towards people. I don't know if you read this Christmas season, the Christmas Carol, right? And Ebenezer Scrooge, he's kind of that epitome of what greed leads to, this insensitivity towards people. He didn't care about his employees. He didn't care about charity, right? He was kind of like, let the government, I pay taxes, let the government take care of those charity cases. And that's what greed does. It makes us ultimately insensitive towards people. And so Jesus warns his men of the dangers of pursuing stuff, pursuing possessions. And he gives five lessons, five lessons on the dangers of more stuff. We see the first one in verse 15. Verse 15, the first lesson is it distorts the meaning of life. Materialism, the pursuit of more and more and more, it distorts the meaning of life, or you could even say true life. Because there's no doubt this man who's very productive in this parable, whose barns are overflowing so much so that he's got to build new ones so that he has enough room, more square footage for all of his abundance. And so this guy is living. I mean, he's got it easy. He can eat, drink, and be merry, right? And so this is really a distortion, Jesus says, of the true meaning of living, of what life is about. And then he says, guard against, verse 15, guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions. Greed and the thirst for more creates a distortion about what life really is about. Jesus says you need to be super sensitive regarding every form of greed, every little way it makes its way into your hearts. That word greed has the idea of excess, this insatiable desire for more and more. Someone once said of greed, greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough, right? It's a good image, right? Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth, right? So it's never satisfied. It's got a large stomach that just can consume and consume. It doesn't matter whether you are among the haves or the have-nots. Doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, it isn't just the problem of the quote-unquote 1% those bad guys who are making all the money. It's not just them. Again, I'm not letting them off the hook. They may indeed be greedy people, but greed finds itself everywhere. We will do all kinds of things to gain what we do not have or what we want or long for. murder for it, we will steal for it. Those are all forms of greed, right? Those are all forms of pride. We think we deserve these things. I ought to have these things. And if I have these things, then I really am living. And that's true life. And I see the lifestyles, this dates me, the lifestyles of the rich and famous. You remember that show? You know? And you want that. You might even convince yourself you deserve that. You're entitled to that. And so, again, it all comes from a life that says, that is really living, right? That's when I'm really living. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 5.10, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money. And it's true, that's true if you're rich or poor, or the middle class. Then he says, nor he who loves abundance with its produce. This, too, is vanity. It's meaningless. It doesn't matter whether you are among the haves or the have-nots. We're all tempted towards being consumers and desiring more and more and more. The poor are tempted to want all the things they don't have, while the rich are tempted to want even more because they're never quite satisfied. Possessions are deceptive. Because it seems like once you have one, you're not satisfied and you want another. It doesn't quite deliver what you think it will. It's faulty advertising because it never provides what you think it will, whether it's joy or satisfaction or happiness or being merry, right, as this abundant farmer is. The 19th century Scottish preacher Alexander McLaren says this, quote, covetousness is folly because it grasps at worldly good under the false belief that thereby it will secure the true good of life. But when it has made its pile, pile of things, right, it finds that it's no near peace of heart, rest, nobleness, or joy than before. and has probably lost much of both in the process of making it. Isn't that true? The mad race, he says, after wealth, which is the sin of this luxurious, greedy, commercial age. By the way, times don't change, do they? McLaren was in the 19th century. He still saw it. He said the mad race after wealth, which is the sin of this luxurious, greedy, commercial age, is the consequence of a lie. That life does consist in the abundance of possessions. And so Jesus warns us to guard against it. set up a parameter around it, guard, protect yourself, because it is dangerous, it is deceptive, it is lies that distort what it really means to live. While it is true that there is a certain minimum amount of material goods that's necessary for life, right, we need water, we need food, we need shelter, those are things that we need, They are necessary for our existence. It is not true, however, that the greater abundance of those goods means the greater abundance of life. In reality, the more you have, the more demands there are to work harder to keep all that stuff. J.C. Ryle said, the more acres a man has, the more cares. It's true. Anyone have a big yard? You got to mow it or pay someone to mow it, right? That's what keeps me from moving to these other states where they're like, yeah, there's an acre of land. Yeah, you got to mow it. I don't want to mow that. You got to take care of it. That takes a bunch of hours or a bunch of money or whatever it might be. Jesus says, listen, possessions don't add life, not true life. There's no genuine, lasting, meaningful existence with stuff. And if you want empirical evidence for this, look at your celebrities that you love and adore so much. Are they happy? They have everything. They have the American dream. And yet, why is it that so many of them are either addicted to some kind of substance, they're divorced a million times, Right? Because they can't keep a relationship. Their kids are astray. What is it? I'm not saying it's only the money, but why is it that even all their abundance doesn't lead to living? All their homes and their cars. I always think of a really well-known singer. Became famous as a young man. He had it all. Money, women. And yet he writes a best-selling song about what? How lonely he is, right? What if you had it all and nobody to call? Maybe then you'd know me. You know who I'm quoting, right? I thought it was living. It's empty, it's vanity. There's more to life, that's what he's sharing with us. And there's tons of songs about that very reality. There has to be more to life than this stuff, because it ultimately doesn't satisfy. If you want another Bible portion to read, read Ecclesiastes. He says it. I've had it all, man. I've had it all. I've chased it. I've had it. I've experienced it. It turns to ash in my mouth. It doesn't bring me any lasting joy, because I die, and somebody else gets all my stuff. It's not true living. Truly living involves something far greater than stuff. True living, Jesus will say, is tied to God. More on that in a moment. It's tied to Him. Truly living is being faithful in response to God's goodness. It's living rich toward God, not things. He'll say that very thing in verse 21. So, materialism first distorts the meaning of life. Second, It denies the true source of wealth. You notice how arrogant this productive farmer is about his own success? So Jesus in verses 16 to 18 tells this parable, this very rich man, very productive. This man had made it. He had everything this world has to offer. He's productive. The text doesn't suggest, by the way, that this was ill-gotten gains. He was a successful farmer. He was made rich continually by this farming. But notice the emphasis in the text. Jesus says, and he began reasoning to himself, what do I do since I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods. Notice how, as you read that the first time, did you notice how often that first person pronoun is used? If you count verse 19, he uses I six times and my five times. What we're learning about this productive farmer is that he is self-absorbed. For him, it's all about me. Notice the rich man gives no acknowledgment of the blessing from God, that this abundance and this wealth is from his hand. His little soliloquy completely contradicts Psalm 24.1. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, it all belongs to him. There is no such thing as my crops and my barns and my grain and my goods. Does he give any consideration to the fact that it's the sun that the Lord created? It's the seed the Lord created? It's the process of germination that he designed and the rain that falls on both the just and the unjust? There's no mention of God, in fact, Jesus emphasizes the fact that it's all about him. He even talks to himself. There's no mention of God or anyone else for that matter. I doubt, I highly doubt he harvested that grain all by himself. He likely had workers It was those workers who not only pulled out that grain the first time, workers that built the farms, and then workers that take that grain and put it back in with its increase, right? He didn't do this alone. There's an arrogance and pride. It's very much, if you remember in Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar as he looks out on Babylon, this vast kingdom, and what does he do? He takes credit until God humbles him, right? And what's going to happen in this parable? God's going to humble him, right? He looks at that vastness and thinks it all comes from him. And scripture is abundantly clear as to the source of our wealth, whether it's great or small. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 5.19 refers to wealth as a gift from God that he himself dispenses. Moses told the Israelites that as they were preparing to go into the promised land that it was God who actually gave them the power, the energy to attain wealth. It was the Lord who would ultimately prosper them. In First Chronicles 29, 12, David acknowledges that all riches and wealth come from the Lord. And it's not just wealth and abundance, right? James 1, 17, every good thing given and every perfect gift is what? From above, right? It's all from him. In Acts 17, Paul says of the Lord that he himself gives to all people life and breath and what? All things. All things. Our prosperity, our American prosperity, they all come from God. There is an arrogance about our possessions when we turn inward and we think, It's all about us. We did this. It's like Bart Simpson in the Thanksgiving special of the Simpsons who is asked to pray and he says, dear God, thanks for nothing. We got this stuff all ourselves. That is the epitome of the unbelieving heart that thinks, ah, this is all from my doing. And scripture is Again, over and over, it doesn't matter where you go, it all belongs to Him. It all comes from the Lord, whether in daily provision, you know, like the manna that would run out, like you couldn't take more than you needed because it'd go bad. Why? Because you need to trust Me. Right? Those daily provisions. And I know some of us have been at those moments where give us this day our daily bread is not just something we learned as a kid. It's like, yeah, that's true. I need God to provide for me today because I don't know how it's going to work. Right? And so whether it's daily provision or if we say, if we're like this guy, wow, Lord, you have You have filled my barns, right? I mean, I got a lot of stuff. I got a lot of possession. And scripture speaks of how you're to view that and what you're to do with that. But a lot of things, it has the potential of denying the true source of wealth like this farmer does. Third. Third, it deforms God's design of work and generosity. Notice how this farmer with his abundance and his new built barns with more abundance, notice this four-part mission statement he gives in verse 19. And I, he's still self-focused, will say to my soul, soul? You have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. It's like, man, this guy's living the American dream. You have it all. Abundance, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And yet, you look at scripture and you realize, man, we were designed to work. We were designed to be sharers, and yet he's saying, hey, I'm going to take it easy. I'm going to eat and drink and enjoy myself. He has abundance, no need to work any longer, so it's time for leisure. Some may even view this, and some of you, this is not to say this is a bad idea, but retirement, right? The idea is you work, work, work, work, work, and then you've got a few years. Some people many years, some people a lot of years to retire. Take it easy. And I'm not talking about that, all right? But with that concept, this guy has got his Hawaiian shirt on and the pina colada is mixed, right? He's ready. He is ready for retirement. Non-alcoholic, of course, right? But again, biblically, we're designed to work, right? And that's in the garden, right? Adam is designed to cultivate. He's to care for the garden. Eve was designed for bearing children and family. And so work is not a result of the fall. It's God's very intention for us. Now, of course, the fall makes it worse and more difficult, right? It's more difficult to achieve this, thorns and thistles, pain and childbearing. But leisure and rest and enjoyment, those are part of the design, but they're not the only part. It's not rest for six days and work one day, right? No, we were designed to accomplish things and to do things. And you can do that in retirement, okay? So if you're retired, I'm sure you're busy. You fill your time somehow, and that's good. We're meant to be that way, right? There's never a time, biblically speaking, where we're simply living for our own pleasures. We work and rest, and then we work, and maybe we get an extended rest with a vacation, but then we go back to work. It's not we stop and just vacation. work again. We belong to Christ, the New Testament tells us, and so we work for his glory. We don't work for the weekend. We don't work for a vacation. We don't work for more stuff. We work for his glory. We work for his honor, not as man-pleasers, but as seeking to please our master, right? Seeking to please the Lord. We work because God designed us for that. It may have different seasons, but we still do work with integrity of heart. As Paul told the Ephesians, serving with goodwill as to the Lord. We even do our laboring and our working for the Lord, not for men. And so abundance could potentially deform God's intent, God's design of work. But also notice that this farmer is quite selfish. He gathers to himself. He serves himself. In fact, the only thing he's mentioned is self. He even talks to himself. He is the quintessential hedonist, and not the John Piper Christian hedonist type, right? This is a hedonist. It's all about him. He rests all of his hope in his things and his leisure and his pleasure. The Middle East was and still is very communal. It's a very communal culture where people gather at city gates and tea shops and kitchen tables and roadsides to talk about things great and small. And yet, in the midst of this intensely connected culture, this man has no one to whom to share his good fortunes with. His wealth has isolated him. He is in a self-exile, talking to himself about all of his stuff. There's no relationships that are mentioned, no sense of sharing or giving. Notice his focus is personal pleasure, eat, drink, be merry. And yet, Jesus is going to say, drop down in chapter 12, verse 33, what is he gonna say? Sell your possessions and give it as charity. What do we do with the abundance of stuff? And by the way, you do this too. I'm not saying you do it in the right way, but you're thinking, my garage is filled. These clothes are out of style. And what do you do? You go give them to the thrift store, right? We're always doing this. Sell your possessions and give it as charity. Give it away. Make yourselves, this is great, make yourselves money belts which do not wear out an unfailing treasure in heaven where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. What is Jesus getting at here? We'll talk more about this next week, but generosity. The abundance of things is so that we would grow in our generosity. We're relational people. We are meant to be relational. We are meant to be in community. And it's in that community that we shoulder one another's burdens. Isn't it interesting? That's the very thing we see in the Book of Acts. Book of Acts talks about the fact that no one was in need. Why? Because they were caring for each other. There is an open-handedness with our stuff. Again, not socialism, but neither is it Ebenezer Scrooge's miserly, you know, this is mine, I earned it, I did it, it's all mine. It's very interesting that The new life we have in Christ that Ephesians talks about, this verse has always kind of struck me, Ephesians 4.28. It says, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor. There's the creative mandate, right? That we were designed for this. He must labor, performing with his own hands, right? Don't be lazy is the idea. What is good? Don't be a burden, an unnecessary burden. We all go through seasons where life is hard, right? But we don't want to be an unnecessary burden, so we work with our hands, right? You labor. And then he says this, so that he will have something. And you think, well, of course, right? You get something because of your work. No, but notice what it says, to share with one who is need. Man, is this how we think of our possessions? This life isn't just about us, it's other focused. Abundance and materialism dismantles God's design of work and generosity. We'll talk more about generosity next time. Fourth lesson, verse 20. It delivers a false sense of security. It delivers a false sense of security. This is really the fruit of failing to see the source of your wealth, right? The believer is to see God as the source. The believer is to see he's the one that provides, he's the one who allows us to prosper. Instead of viewing his prosperity, though, as a blessing that God has given, what is he doing? He's putting his security in the abundance of his stuff. His trust isn't God, it's his overflowing barns. But riches can come and go, right? You ask Solomon, that's exactly what he says. You read the Proverbs, you read Ecclesiastes, and he says, listen, wealth is like life. It gets up and flies away. Proverbs 27, 24, riches do not last forever. Paul told Timothy to tell those who are rich in this present world, in this present life, not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, right? It could come and go, right? Another tax hike, a fall in the stock market. It could all go. A fire that takes it all away. There's uncertainty. There's no guarantees. Hopefully your financial advisor's been telling you that. Like, I'm not a wizard. I don't know what the stock market's got. I don't know. It could go up. It could go down. I have no idea. You think of your retirement, you think, I'm definitely going to have money when I retire. Maybe. If you're a government employee, probably. But probably with other people, you don't know. I think I've seen videos of people who, when the stock market dumped, they lost their retirement. These guys were greeting at Walmart, right? So I mean, it could happen. It's a false security. You trust in that nest egg you've been saving. You trust your retirement funds are going to come through. Now again, please, scripture also says there is a prudence. right, in saving for a time when you can no longer work, right, certainly, of being smart with your money. But our security and our faith can't be in those accounts. We have to trust the Lord, that He will provide, He will give, He will direct. He might take away as well, but He'll still provide in the midst of the taking away, right? We trust Him no matter what. We depend on the Lord for the future. We try to make wise and godly decisions, but ultimately we trust in Him. And the farmer assumes that hoarding his grain equals security for the future. Notice what the Lord says in verse 20. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your soul is required of you, and now who will Own what you prepared. You read Ecclesiastes, Solomon's always like, man, that's the worst part about wealth. You die, you worked hard, someone else gets it. Can't take it with you. And in this very isolated, self-focused, God jumps into the story, steps into the story, right, in the midst of the money-making and the merrymaking, and he says, you are a fool. This man has a bigger problem than bulging barns. He didn't fail to forecast. And I'm not talking about retirement and paying off your house and all of those. God tells the man his soul will be required. I love that. The terminology is that of a banker who would call in the loan. the loan is due. God is telling the man that his loan is now due, and that loan is his mortal existence. Something he did not calculate was his own mortality. And he's a fool, because as the wisdom literature points out, life is short, death is inevitable, and the timing of your death is completely unknown, at least to you. He didn't realize that his life has always belonged to God. And now God is coming to claim it. To leave God out of one's plans is the height of folly. The beginning of wisdom is what? The fear of the Lord. God's not taking a shot at this man's intelligence or his business prowess. That's not what's being done here. He's not brainless, he's godless. He's so concerned about things he could never keep. Now who will own what you prepared? These things, you're going to perish and you're not going to be able to enjoy them. You can't take it with you, right? James 4.15 ought to really be our mantra as believers. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills. we will live and do this or that, right? We don't know God's will, not in that sense. Randy Alcorn said of this parable, he says, the most troubling aspect of this parable is that if we met this man, most of us would commend him for his foresight. Yet foresight is exactly what he lacked. He may have planned 20 years ahead, but he failed to plan 20 million years ahead. And as it turned out, he didn't even have 20 years before facing God in judgment. He had closer to 20 minutes." End quote. There is no bigger fool than he who does not prepare for the life to come. That's true living. And this leads us to a final instruction about the danger of stuff. Number five, we see this in verse 21, it deposits in earthly accounts not eternal ones. It deposits in earthly accounts, not eternal ones. Jesus says in verse 21, the fool is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Right? Storing up stuff that can be taken away, that's lost when we die, instead of being rich toward God. Nothing is said here about what we have or how much we make. Having or not having treasure doesn't seem to be the issue. The issue of our attitude about what we have, our motivation for what we do with it, that is the issue. Some people lay up treasures for themselves, like the fool in the parable. They live for money and all the things that money can buy. Their goal is getting things for themselves. If that is what they want, it's all they will ever get. I think one line from a, this was a rapper that was dissing on Prosperity Gospel, he goes, if they're living their best life now, they're headed for hell. It's a profound line. He's talking about the Joel Osteen kind of approach where, you know, God's all about your happiness and money and prosperity. That's their goal, that's what they're gonna, That's all they'll ever will get. They will never gain the pleasures that come from knowing God, trusting God, treasuring God. That's the real abundance. That's real abundant living, is knowing God, of being in Christ. And Jesus calls us away from the poverty of our soul in thinking that our possessions are our treasures. He says, you need to be rich toward God. God has lavished us with the gifts of his good creation. Sure, food, clothing, shelter, and millions of other little material blessings, but more than that, He has lavished us with the gifts of His saving grace, the forgiveness of our sins, freedom from guilt, and the hope of eternal life. And you might ask, what does that mean to be rich toward God? I think we, at least in part, sang about it this morning, right? Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. greatest, what, treasure of my longing soul. We find life in Him. We find life in knowing Him and trusting Him and being known by Him. He is our treasure. It means we count God as our greatest riches. He's our greatest reward. His priorities become our priorities. because he's our greatest delight. It means we aren't deceived by the message of money and stuff that woos us with, man, if you only had this, then you'd really be living. If you had more money, your life wouldn't be so boring or meaningless or unhappy. One's life does not consist in the abundance. his possession. That's a lie, Jesus says. Don't listen to its messaging. Life is not having more things. He who dies with the most toys does not win. He who dies with the most toys, Solomon would say, still dies. All right? Still dies. And there's no trailer behind the hearse that's carrying your body. Being rich toward God is the opposite here of laying up earthly treasure for yourself. Being rich toward God is the opposite of acting as if life consisted of possessions. Being rich toward God is what Paul told Timothy to tell those who are rich material on this earth. He says, command them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, that's something that's certain. Being good, rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. That's an open-handed approach to your things. I have more so that I might give more. Being rich in good deeds, generous, that's really living. What a different perspective on our possessions and our riches. And by the way, Scripture, even Luke, celebrates these kinds of people. Think about in Luke chapter 7, that well-to-do centurion whose faith exceeded that of any Israelite that Jesus had met. But do you remember what he was known for? He built a synagogue for the Jews. He was known for his generosity. It's the very reason the Jews wanted Jesus to listen to this guy. You think of the hospitality women like Mary and Martha and Lazarus who were found, where Jesus found respite. He found comfort in their hospitality. You think of the the well-connected women in Luke chapter 8 that Jesus mentions. He names them and they were giving, and it says, from their possessions. There's a highlight of these women who were generous in giving. All these were wealthy because, not because they had a lot of stuff, because they were rich toward God. Not all who give are rich materially, but they're rich in their giving. They're rich in being toward God. They're sharing their generosity. They're prioritizing of eternal matters and not earthly ones. When you think of that, you can't help but think of what Paul said about the Macedonian churches in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, who were poor, but they wanted to be a part. And Paul characterizes these who gave by their own accord, meaning he didn't twist their arm, right? And it says they gave of their own accord, and it says this, beyond their ability. Here these churches were poor and Paul is commending them as abounding. They probably weren't even the biggest offering that he got for that need, but their generosity of them giving out of what they didn't have, they were rich towards God. Again, this isn't always rich in the world's eyes in terms of amount, but rich toward God and those things that he prioritizes. We'll talk a lot more about generosity next week. Listen, you can enlarge your savings account and build huge accounts, plan for retirement. We can live as if this is all the life we will ever live. And I think this is what Jesus is pointing out. We can be rich toward God by treasuring Him above all, by making deposits in eternal ventures, giving towards gospel growth, missions, the church, being open-handed with our possessions, and ready to share, which is all the things that Scripture says. The issue is really not how much you have or don't have, but our attitude about what we do have and what we're going to do with it. Amen?