This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Another
episode of the New Mercies Podcast. Today's reading,
we find ourselves in Luke chapter 12. Now, if
you've been following along this week, you started
in Titus 3 as we wrapped that up from the last
week and the last series. Then we went into Haggai
1. This Sunday, we're going to be talking about
Haggai 1 from the pulpit and just where we're
going in this new series called Fill the House.
But we looked at Haggai 1 on Tuesday. And then
Wednesday, we looked in Deuteronomy 8. And if
you saw a little bit of a progression, Haggai
1 dealt with misplaced priorities. And then Deuteronomy
8 warns us about forgetting God whenever there's
comfort or prosperity that happens. We're going
to look today in Luke chapter 12. Now, just to
give you a little bit of a heads up, Luke 12
is a big chapter. I hope you read it all today.
I'm going to focus in on one part. I'm sure if
you have read it, you probably know the part
I am focusing in on. A lot of really good stuff
happening here. Jesus is teaching within this
context in Luke chapter 12. He's talking to his
disciples. He talks to the crowds before it's
all said and done. It's a really powerful text.
encourage you to read it all. I want to read
just a couple of verses, though, out of Luke
12, down in verse number 13 and following. It
is the parable of the rich fool. And this is
not the rich young ruler, which sometimes we
may get those two confused. This is the parable
of the rich fool, and we'll see why he's foolish
in just a moment. But let's go ahead and read
some scripture together, and then we'll talk
about it for just a second. Luke chapter 12,
beginning at verse 13. Someone in the crowd said
to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance. But he said to him, 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 treasures for himself and
is not rich toward God. Now that is a parable
Jesus taught to convey a lesson or a message
that is a really deep spiritual issue within,
I believe, the heart of everybody, right? This
is a powerful... Again, read all of Luke 12.
It's really great. Jesus' teachings, brilliant,
way better than this podcast is going to be.
Go look at what he says. But I want us to look
specifically, if Haggai 1 talks about misplaced
priorities, if Deuteronomy 8 talks about warning
us about not... forgetting God or neglecting
God whenever there is prosperity or comfort that
comes. Luke 12, this passage specifically, talks
about hoarding up instead of stewarding. If God
gives us something, he is stewarding us. He's
giving it to us to steward for him. He's saying,
I trust you with this resource. What are we doing
then with the resource? This is a story of a
man who he had a lot going on. His land was producing
for him. meaning he had a pretty good head on
his shoulders, means he probably prepared the
land well. He probably had some pretty good knowledge
and understanding of what he needed to do and
probably a pretty good farm man. But here's one
of the things I don't understand. So first off,
this story kind of pops up out of nowhere. Jesus
is with his disciples. Read the context of Luke
12. There's a big crowd that's pushed in. There's
a lot going on. He warns about the Pharisees
and their hypocrisy. He warns about a couple
of things. Don't be afraid of people that can
take your life. Be afraid of the one that can
destroy your soul. And he kind of gives these
disciples warnings. And then this guy just comes
up and interrupts Jesus. As he's in the middle
of a conversation, this guy comes up. Hey, teacher.
Tell my brother to split this inheritance with
me. And can you imagine Jesus in the middle of
a lesson, teaching, and some guy come up and
say, hey, I got this personal matter with my
finances. I need you to help work this out with
me. And Jesus is like, who made me the arbiter
in your issue? I'm not the guy that's in charge
of any estate. I'm not in charge of any of this
stuff. Why are you even approaching me with this?
This guy kind of interrupts. And Jesus, I think,
is really important that we emphasize and understand
Jesus refuses to referee greed. He's not going
to referee greed. He's just not going to do it.
It's a greedy heart. He doesn't want to be the
one that referees that battle. He's not going
to do it. It's interesting to me whenever we
get in a situation where we want something or
we need something or we have this desire to get
something and we're like, we're going to pray
Jesus would help us to work through this. Let
me go ahead and tell you, according to the Scripture,
Jesus does not referee greed. He's not going
to do it. Don't even ask. Don't ask Jesus, hey,
I'm in this business transaction deal. I'm trying
to get this. This other client's trying to get
this. I'm trying to get this. This is going on.
Jesus, why don't you help me to get this that
I want? Jesus doesn't referee greed. He doesn't
do it. He says, in fact, to his disciples, hey,
be careful. Be careful that you don't fall into
this covetousness, meaning you're coveting what
somebody has. You want to be wealthy because
of certain reasons that don't grow the kingdom
any. It's not like you're trying to invest in
it. It wasn't like this guy was saying, hey,
Jesus, listen, I want to give everything in this
inheritance to the church. Is there any way you
can help me kind of work through that? It's not
what the guy says. He says, hey, tell my brother,
come over here, tell my brother, we've got to
split this up. I need it. I want it. Jesus, come
help me do this. And he was like, let me just
go ahead and warn everybody about this coveting
spirit that's on you. You need to get rid of
it. Be careful. Put some guardrails up. Make
sure you don't have this spirit about you. And
he says something in there. I want to read it
again because it's a really powerful line that
I think we miss a lot. And it's verse number
15. He says, take care, be on your guard against
all covetousness. For one's life does not consist
in the abundance of his possessions. You know,
I don't know who needs to hear this today. It
does not matter what you have. It doesn't. Your
life does not consist of what you have. It does
not consist of what you own. Let me rephrase
it. It does not consist on what you have purchased.
It does not. How big your house is, how fancy
your car is, how nice your wardrobe is, how much
stuff you have, that's not what life is. That's
not life. Jesus makes sure and helps us to understand
that possessions have this quality to them that
a possession will promise you some type of security,
but the truth is it can't deliver that security.
It can't. It can make you feel a little bit safe,
but ultimately, when is enough enough? This man
had a really profitable land. It kept building
more and more and more and more. And he says,
what I'm going to do, I've got so much, I can't
even store it all. So he says, what I'm going
to do is I'm going to build bigger barns. I'm
going to build bigger areas so I can store more.
Then when I have it stored up, I can take a year
off. I can take time off because I've earned
it, because I've done something. Well, first
off, the land produced it, not you. So the Lord
is the one who provided it. And now instead of
you saying, what I want to do is distribute this.
I want to share it with somebody. I think it's
really important for us to understand that abundance
is a terrible substitute for God. Terrible substitute.
And here's why. This guy in this story, in this
parable, he had a land that produced a lot. He
had a problem. The problem was not the harvest,
right? The problem was his heart. That was the
problem. The problem isn't the amount of stuff
coming into your life. The problem is how you
are handling it within your heart. That's the
issue. Jesus says, listen, this guy did not talk
to God. He talked to himself. It says he reasoned
with himself. He thought to himself. He didn't
talk to God. He didn't talk to a neighbor. There
was no gratitude in any of this. It wasn't, I'm
so thankful that what the Lord's doing. I didn't
even deserve this. I didn't realize this was
going on. I had no idea. This is amazing. What
should I do with this, Lord? That's not what
he said. He said, I've got more, so now I need
to hold more. That's what I need to do. I need
to grow my capacity to hold more so I can have
more. That's what's gone on. See, this man is
called a fool, not because his land produced
a lot, not because he was very productive. He
was called a fool because he may have been ready
on earth to have a lot of stuff, but he wasn't
ready for eternity. He didn't have those eternal
things ready and set and prepared in advance.
All he had ready was more storage, more storage.
Even the parable, Jesus says, this guy, he's
got all this stuff, and he builds these barns,
and God says, hey, it's time for you. All that's
well and fine. I'm not against wealth. Jesus
is not against wealth. He's not against resources
and blessing and financial gain or anything.
He's against wealth without God. Without knowing
that I don't have to do anything for the Lord
in this, Jesus says, I want you to steward this.
I don't want you to hoard it. I want you to steward
it. How can you share it? How can you invest
it? How can you pour into the next generation?
How can you let the gospel keep growing? It's
what Jesus is trying to help us understand and
see. Eternity does not consult your retirement
plan. It just doesn't. There's no warning. There's
no extension. God doesn't give this guy longer.
He doesn't say, you know what? Because you've
gotten so much stuff, I'm going to leave you
here for another year so that you can really
go out and do the mission work. See, we get our
priorities out of whack, right? We get our priorities
out of order. So we say what we'll do is once
we get enough money, then we will blank. What
we're saying is, God, we're going to trust our
abilities. We're going to trust our understanding
of finances and resourcing. And then once we
trust us, then we'll give you something. God
says that's never how this works. Don't miss
out on what the Lord is trying to do because
you're so focused on trying to build bigger barns.
Jesus makes sure that we understand this man
was not ready for eternity. I want to read one
more little spot again so that we understand
the depths of this. Verse 17, he begins by saying,
what shall I do? And then he says, I will do
this. I will tear down barns. I will store my
grain. I will say to my soul, soul, you've got
plenty. Stay. This is great. You know, the first
time God speaks to him in this, he calls him
a fool. It says in verse 20, but God said to
him, fool. The man never asked God a single thing.
You may say, well, how do I know if I'm ready
for eternity? How do I know if I'm ready for
what's being required of me? Because God says,
this night your soul is required of you. It's
time for you to be brought into my presence and
forever. Your life on earth is over. These people
that you're leaving all this storage to, they're
going to blow through it anyway. It's not going
to matter. And he says, so this night your soul
is ready. So how do you know when your soul is
ready? Well, it's a pretty good indicator if
you just start by talking to him first. So I'm
not going to go any longer in this episode. What
I want you to do today is I want you to pray.
Pray, God, what do you want me to do with what
you've given me? It's that simple. Honestly,
it's not rocket science. You don't have to be
some Bible scholar. You don't have to be a deep
theologian to understand that you can say, God,
here's what I have. What do you want me to do
with it? That's it. I promise you this. He's
not going to say, you need to store up more for
yourself so that you can be more comfortable.
If we understand the heart of God, this pursuing
shepherd that loves us and cares for us and sent
his son to die for us and is trying to get the
gospel to every person in the world, if we understood
the heart of that God, we'll understand he's
not going to tell us, just build more for yourself
and be sure you're real comfortable. It's not
what he's going to do. He's going to say what
you need to do with it. I don't know what you
need to do with it today. I don't know what you
need to do with what you have. You may be a person
that's listening and says, you know what? I don't
have a lot. Okay. What are you going to do with
what you have? What are you going to do with
what you have? Maybe the Lord's wanting you to
invest what you have. Maybe your finances. It
may be your talents. It may be your time. It
may be your opportunity to serve. I don't know
what it is, but I do know this. God's given you
resources. He's provided something for you. What
are you going to do to sew it back into eternity?