We are in our second to last week. We've been
in three weeks so far in this sermon series,
Stored Up, where we're looking at our treasures,
gospel treasures in our life, recognizing flat
out that the Bible talks about money. Churches
should talk about money. Now, do churches do
it in inappropriate ways? Absolutely they do.
But what does it mean to be a good steward of
the resources, time, talents, treasures, we hear
that all the time, that Christ gives us? And
we are in our fourth week. We'll finish it up
next week, which is crazy to think that's already
Labor Day weekend. Where did August go? But then
we're going to start up that second week in September.
We're going to be in the book of Acts. It is
a text I've really never preached before in a
kind of expository way, earth, wind, and fire.
We're going to dive in to that. The sermon discussion
group will start back up. And yeah, like I said,
all the other ministries will as well. So I'm
excited about that. But we're going to kind of
come to another kind of, not roadblock, but just
kind of a yield sign in Luke chapter 12 about
money, about resources. I chose the title Rich
Toward God because that is not something we think
about a lot. We want God's riches to be lavished
upon us, which isn't always money. But how do
we return that into a life that is... The perspective
is that we are rich, right? And not by the world's
standards, but by biblical standards. And how
can we give back? How can we be rich towards
God? Well, we're going to start by defining what
that looks like in Luke 12, verses 13 through
21. So again, we use the ESV here, but feel free,
if you have your Bible, to pull it out or your
Bible app to follow along. Luke chapter 12, starting
with verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to him,
him being Jesus, And he said to them, And he
told them a parable saying, 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 a larger
one. 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. Some strong language
that we see. When God calls somebody a fool,
I don't know about you, I don't want to be on
the receiving end of it, though I have been a
lot in my life. That is probably not a good place
to be. But it starts with a man and his inheritance.
And it's one thing that seminary does not prepare
you for, spoiler alert, Evan, how to sit and
be a conflict mediator when it comes to a family
executing a will. I have absolutely no expertise
in it. I have the Bible. I have some... pastoral
counseling classes under me, some experience
in clinical pastoral education. I can sit with
someone dying of cancer and hopefully bring them
comfort with just the power of presence and a
good Lord's Day one. But you bring Lord's Day
one up in a family battle about money, it doesn't
work. They don't want to hear it. Because they
come to the table with what kind of mentality?
If you've ever been in that room where someone
is executing a will, hopefully a lawyer, and
hopefully it's spelled out. I have a great couple
lawyers that would be good for that. Shameless
plug. But how many have ever sat at that table?
Only a couple of you. And it can get awkward.
If you don't have someone that knows what they're
doing, it can get awkward. I know families that
now for... 10 years have not spoken to each other
because of inheritances. And what they thought
or demanded or had created in their mind, what
they were going to get and what the deceased
didn't give them. And it's so sad to watch. It's
so sad to see. You know, you might be like, oh,
I'd want to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.
No, you don't. It's not fun. Because when someone's
life is laid out to just What's on a sheet of
paper or what's in a ledger or bank account or
whatever? It's a real awkward conversation. But
I have watched families tear each other apart.
They eat their own. And I find it interesting
that in this passage where we're being called
to be rich toward God starts with a man and his
inheritance. The passage begins with a man interrupting
Jesus. If you would have read a little bit before,
he actually interrupts Jesus. And it's interesting.
He says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me. At this point, I feel comfortable
saying that. That's like one of you asking me
to tell your sibling to split an inheritance.
What am I going to say? No. Give it all to the
legacy fund and then just run away. Right? That's
probably what I would do. Like, no, your heart's
earning a good place. Give it to the legacy fund.
But this isn't unusual back then. Rabbis were
often asked to settle disputes because rabbis
had made themselves very important in the life
of a community. Not just the religious side,
temple, teaching, all of that, but in all of
the other things. They were in bed with Rome.
There was a corruption going on there, but rabbis
were often asked to settle disputes. I'm asked
to settle disputes, but I try not to touch inheritance
conversations with a 10 -foot pole. If you're
going in disputing, how many people think it's
going to end well? I don't have to call any of
you fools because you kind of picked it up in
context. But the request is telling this man,
or the request that this man is asking and kind
of demanding Jesus to do, it's not about justice,
it's not about being fair, but it's about getting
his stuff. He wants his stuff. We don't really
know where the inheritance comes from. We don't
really know the size of it, though it sounds
like it's pretty hefty. But Jesus refuses to
play arbiter for the property. I love this. I
think it's great. Instead, Jesus uses this as
a teaching moment. Only Jesus could do this.
Because I tried this week to put myself in that
situation with one of the families I had to deal
with this about 10 years ago in Crown Point.
And what if, you know, they're all coming demanding,
they all have lawyered up. If you have to lawyer
up against a brother or a sister, that usually
doesn't start well, right? So everyone has their
lawyers and I come in. I was like, do I wear
a clerical collar to try to like be intimidating?
I didn't. Like, what if I try to go, guys, you're
all fools, but let me teach you that the Lord
is your shepherd and you shall not want. Nope.
I just kind of sat there. And I was just kind
of like, the only thing I really offered to that
is, just remember, this is your brother, this
is your sister. You have Jesus in you. They have
Jesus in you. You guys can work this out. Unfortunately,
it didn't really go, right? Because I'm not Jesus.
I'm fallible man. But I love that Jesus refuses
because he seizes this moment to expose the deeper
problem, and this is the problem that a lot of
us deal with today, and it's why I put it forth
in five sermons, greed. Ugh, ugly word, greed.
Greed, in a simple Pastor Jim definition, which
is very simple, is desiring more than you have.
Right? You may argue with me on the definition.
I'm not going to get into the linguistics of
it. But for the purpose of our discussion today,
Jesus is going to call out greed. He says, take
care and be on your guard against all covetedness.
Now, where do we hear that word, thou shall not
covet? In the Ten Commandments. We're going to
read them next week. Do you not think I'm going
to center on that one for this sermon series?
You better believe it. Be on your guard against
all covetousness for one's life does not consist
in the abundance of possessions. So the question
today behind the text is very simple yet profound.
Friend, what are you living for today? Are you
living for bigger barns? Are you living for a
bigger God? Just let that hang for a minute.
I keep looking over there at Jesse who actually
has barns. And so I'm like, okay, I'm sorry.
This one's, I guess, straight for you. But understand,
that's a question for all of us no matter what
we're going through. Whether it's a problem in
a marriage, problem in relationships, problem
in a family, issues on your sports team, in school
already, whatever it is. Are you wanting bigger
barns so you can house all your stuff for it?
Or are you looking for a bigger God to intervene?
Because I guarantee you one's always available.
And it's not the barns. So Jesus, in perfect
Jesus fashion, goes to teach. The parable of
the rich fool. So verse 17, it's not going to
be on the slide because I want you to just hear
me read it. But the parable of the rich fool
is so, I think it's so apropos for our time in
2025 as it was in this moment. What Jesus calls
out first is the language of self in verse 17
through 19 of chapter 12. So 17 through 19 says
this. And he thought to himself, what shall I
do for I have nowhere to store my crops? And
he said, I will do. I love he's having like a
conversation with himself and I totally do this
in the car by myself. I will do this. I will
tear down my barns and build a bigger one. 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. I may have just given an exercise you
do with yourself. That you give yourself some
kind of self -affirmation or self -talk. Not
a bad thing, right? But the whole plan, he is
telling to himself. This is the language of self.
The man in Jesus' parable has a problem. Too
many crops. A good problem, right? But notice
the way he says it. What shall I do? For I have
nowhere to store my crops. I will do this. I
will store up. I will say to my soul. In just
three verses, he refers to himself more than
ten times. Friend, his wealth is not the issue.
It's his worship. He is putting himself first
in all things. He's not thanking God. He's not
serving others. He's not thinking eternally.
His eyes are on himself. This is what St. Augustine...
Calls the homo incurvasus ense that the human
heart is curved toward itself. We have a word
for that in our reform lingo. It is called total
depravity. That we are bent towards ourselves
in all things. We all do it. So I think he's
got to change the language. Have you ever done
that in your prayers? Where all of a sudden you're
praying and then you kind of punk yourself out
and go, man, I sound selfish. All I'm doing is
praying for all my wants to make sure my bank
account looks good, to make sure I get this or
that or the other. And it's okay to pray those
things, but it's not okay to exalt that over
others. Because we immediately in verse 20 get
God's verdict. But God says to him, fool. Probably
shows we shouldn't do it. This night your soul
is required of you and the things you have prepared,
whose will they be? The word, the Greek word
for required here is actually a commercial term.
It's fascinating. As if God is calling in a loan
from this guy. Maybe you've gotten that call
from a debt collector. Maybe you've gotten that
call or a reminder on your phone. Your mortgage
just went out. And I don't know how many people
go, yay. Right? That doesn't feel good. I remember
when I was at Crossroads, total rabbit trail,
but I was at Crossroads Community Church in Aurora
where I was a college young adult teaching pastor.
And this is a while now. There was hot debate
in the elders room and in the staff of whether
we should go to online giving. And we had an
older pastor, the founding pastor, Ed Doble,
great guy, love him to death. He was really against
it because he had more of that old school mentality.
And he says, and Jesse, you're going to appreciate
this. He goes, I just, I love the pain of, he
said it that way, of writing that check and putting
it in that plate. Yeah, you get it. You're laughing
over there. Calm down. And it was just so funny.
And then we had our youth pastor goes, Ed. The
younger families are going to feel the same pain
when they see the notification that the money
just went out of their account. I thought I was
going to get a bigger laugh than that, but that's
okay. It was definitely more of a realization
of why we want to give. There's a struggle. We
need to give it. Yet the Bible says that he wants
joyful givers. Though we may feel that pain and
though it may be a sacrifice, it's still about
God and not about us. But God's calling in alone,
it seems. Your life, your breath, your very soul.
He's reminding the guy, it has never been yours.
This week, when I got to that. One thing we try
to take ownership of in our life is our life.
But friend, that was given to you. You didn't
do anything to earn that life. You didn't do
anything to create that life. You were born.
Not because you picked a number and it was your
turn. No. God gave you that life. Your life has
been given to you. It was never yours. Your life
is on loan from God. Some of you don't like that.
Some of you are really uncomfortable. They're
like, ooh, Jim, I don't know. Think about it.
What Jesus is saying, the verdict God has for
this guy is none of this has been yours. And
guess what? Your inheritances, they're not on
you either. You didn't earn those. The joke in
the family on the wealth side, that's my mom's
side, is my papa, God bless him, he worked for
Juul and Produce for like 40 years, you know,
and always did these little things. financially
to let his grandkids know that he's got their
back. And I remember I was talking to my cousin
Mark, you know, we would get like in eighth grade,
he would, our whole entire year, all of that
year for us, he would put dimes in a jar for
that whole year. And then however many dimes
were in there, then, you know, you would think
he would just give it to us. He wrapped it in
like a foot of masking tape and gave it to us
when we turned 13. These are just my funny little
quirky things that my papa did. But we all loved
that kind of mentality. And then I remember when
we got to college, whenever we saw him, he would
always get these little envelopes. And he would
just, not flashy, not showy. When he'd hug us,
he'd just slip it in our pocket. Or when he shook
our hand, he'd put it in there like he was making
a drug deal. And just on there, it just said,
a little help. And I remember one of the first
times my cousin Mark, who's a year younger than
me, got it. He called me, and he said, so what
is Papa trying to do? And I go, well, read it.
It's just a little help. It's just a little encouragement
along the way. And Mark goes, does he not realize
college is expensive? Because he would put like
$19 in there. He'd put like $32, just a little
something. But I remember as Papa was dying,
I asked him why he did it. And he just said,
I just want you guys to receive blessing. Learn
to receive blessing. Because guess what? That's
$19 you didn't have the day before. Whew. Man.
And what a jerk am I that I wish he put $1 ,900
in there. Right? Which, yeah, that would have
been better. But that's because I'm thinking
of self and not receiving the blessing. The tragedy.
of this man is not that he was wealthy, but that
he was unprepared to receive that he is not his
own. Right? Evan just said it up from the stage
20 minutes ago. We are not our own, but we belong
to somebody else. We belong to God. He was unprepared.
He spent his life preparing for himself, not
for eternity. Okay, pastor, here comes the stewardship
side, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're not even
going to get there. We're going to get to the
morale next, verse 21. So is the one who lays
up treasure for himself and is not rich toward
God. The key phrase, rich toward God, this is
the only time this phrase appears in Scripture.
It means a life orientated towards generosity,
dependence, worship, and eternal investment.
Friends, the world has the opposites ready to
go and wants you to live that way. Wants you
to be more of a miser and be greedy. Wants to
be independent, not dependent. Would rather worship
something else, yourself, besides God. And don't
care about eternity, care about the here and
now. Which is why money, finances, times, talents,
treasures, even from the Ten Commandments through
Jesus, the completion of those. Right? That he
doubles down on them with the way he says love
God and love people. It's all about stewardship
and it's all about idolatry. Heidelberg Catechism
110 warns not only against theft, but also against
greed, waste, and hoarding. Instead, it calls
us to work faithfully so that we may give to
those in need. Our deacons do a wonderful job
of this, and I've been having a conversation
with one of them about kind of where we're at
with the money we set aside for mental health.
And it's a wonderful conversation, and our deacons
are so generous when it comes to people that
need it because it's a crisis, really, in our
culture. And you may not believe in it, and that's
your prerogative, but I do and our church does
because it's about perspective, and I think meeting
that need is part of benevolence. The problem
here, though, isn't possessions. It's possessions
without perspective. Man, am I preaching at myself.
You guys don't even need to be here for this.
You're not? Don't leave. That's weird. But understand,
I need this. That there are times I look at my
possessions, our possessions as a family, without
eternal perspective. And we've never missed a
meal. Our cars run. Right? We've always been
clothed. Our basic needs are met. And the Belgic
Confession reminds me, and it may remind you
today, that good works are not the fruit of faith.
It's not the root. Sorry, that reminds us that
good works are the fruit of faith. It's not the
root of faith. To be rich toward God is to live
by grace and respond with what? Gratitude for
that grace. John Calvin puts it this way. We
should not merely bury the gifts of God, but
make them bear fruit. Make them bear fruit. How
are you bearing fruit? How to be rich toward
God? As we start landing the plane this morning,
being rich toward God is more than just simply
avoiding greed, but it's an intentional way of
living. You see, Jesus does something. He doubles
down by contrasting the fool who lays up treasures
for himself with the wise disciple who lays up
treasures in heaven. So let's look at some practicality
this morning. How do we actually do this? First,
we need to guard against greed daily. Greed is
rarely obvious. It often hides behind languages
like responsibility, security, investment. Just
a little more. Jesus says, be on your guard,
friends, which implies that greed is always crouching
at your door. We resist greed by confessing it,
naming it, and inviting God to search our heart.
Second, that we should see life as a stewardship,
not ownership. The rich fool forgot that his
very soul was required of him by God. Everything
we have, our days, our money, our home, even
our talents, are loans from the Lord. To be rich
toward God means asking, how would the true owner
want me to use this gift? Have you ever been
given a gift? And you're like, how do I put this
into practice? I remember, go back to my papa.
One of the things my papa wanted to do, he was
a car guy, right? He always wanted to pass down
his cars. and it never really became any kind
of like inheritance issue or anything like that.
It just seemed at the right time, the right grandkid
needed a car, and when he went through his cars,
he did that, right? And I was blessed to have,
at a very young age, a Chrysler 300M. This thing
was half a boat. The only unfortunate thing was,
I love my papa, but he had just souped this thing
up. How do I say this delicately? I can't, so
I'm not going to say it. But it was like super
tinted windows, chrome, beautiful chrome hubcaps,
had a chrome extender on the exhaust pipe, right?
That was about this big. And that's not exaggeration.
It was about that. You don't know. But after
the third time of me singeing the hair off my
leg, I ripped it off, right? And for the first
six months. Whenever, my papa always wanted me
to pick him up and drive him around, like go
to White Castles with this car, right? It's the
only car I've ever had with leather interior
and a sound system that was worth something.
And he goes, let's go to White Castles. And I
was like, how does this work? Like, I didn't
even want to park it in the driveway. But I just
remember for six months, he yelled at me because
I closed the door too hard. Because he told me,
oh, these are the special heavy doors, and you
don't need to, that's going to hurt. And you
just endure it. But I had this blessing and I
felt like I needed to live it out in a certain
way for him to be a good steward of it. But that's
really what the Lord is saying to us. To be rich
toward God means asking, how would the true owner
of my life want me to use my life? That might
be a perspective shift for you. You may have
never thought about that. If your life is not
your own but God's, How do you think God wants
you to use it? Well, third, prioritize eternal
investments. As my barn owners in the congregation
know, earthly barns rot. They fall apart. They
blow away. But guess what? Eternal investments
do not. Every dollar invested in gospel work,
every hour spent discipling someone, every act
of mercy done in Jesus' name is a deposit into
a treasure where we learned two weeks ago no
moth and no rust will ever destroy. So how else
do we live it out? Practice radical generosity.
Generosity is not measured. It's not measured
by how much you give. but how much you keep.
The widow gave her two coins, we see in Luke
21. Gave more than all the wealthy donors because
of her faith. To be rich toward God means living
with hands open because your heart is already
secured by Christ. And you know that you know
that you know you can't take it with you. Fifth,
live with an eternal perspective. Psalm 90 teaches
us to number our days. And I so, even though
I'm not rich, I'm not rich, but I'm a fool. But
the rich fool had plans for what? Decades. But
no thought about eternity. That's painfully laughable.
Being rich toward God means remembering that
today could be the day your soul is required
of you. So how would you live differently if
we actually believed that? Starting today. Today.
Because we also look to Christ. The riches of
God given to us in the person of Jesus. If the
rich fool hoarded, Jesus emptied. He shows us
what it means to truly be rich toward God. The
life of Jesus is the one that we should model
because we claim Christian, little Christ, and
here are ways Jesus did that first. He emptied
himself of heavenly wealth. 2 Corinthians 8,
9. He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,
so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Christ set aside treasures of heaven to enter
our poverty. Not for his sake, but for ours.
Jesus gave rather than stored. While the fool
built bigger barns, Jesus built a bigger family.
How do I know? We're all in it. He invested not
in silos of grain, but in disciples, in healings,
in relationships that would last into eternity.
His wealth was people reconciled to God. Third,
Jesus' death purchased true treasure. Because
on the cross, Jesus gave something for his wealth
that none of us ever have. He gave everything,
his body, his blood, his life. He died with no
possessions, no savings, no inheritance but his
people. In doing so, he secured us an inheritance
of eternal life. As Romans says, making us heirs,
sons and daughters of the king. Fourth, and this
is one we can do right now today. Jesus invites
us into his riches. To be rich toward God is
not about what you give up. It's about what you
gain in him. Union with Christ makes us heirs
to his kingdom. And some of you, you want that
now. We don't get that now. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Not our kingdoms, not our will, but it's on earth
as it is in heaven. What we see lit dimly in
a mirror, we will one day see face to face. So
how are we investing in that? How are we showing
the world our union is with Christ, which makes
us heirs to his kingdom, not to stand over people,
but to come from underneath and serve them and
love them because we're co -owners of his promises
and partakers of his joy. The rich fool clung
to his barns, friends, and he lost his soul.
Jesus gave up everything. and gain to people
for his own possessions. I don't know about you,
but last week we talked about kingdom economics.
That's what this is. And that's the gospel. You
probably have someone in your life that is fretting
and worrying and losing sleep and all of these
things about their financial situation, their
relationship situation, all of the things. Friend,
we can offer something much better. It's not
answers always to those earthly problems, but
it's an eternal perspective of the cross. That
that person has been forgiven. That if they profess
that Jesus is Lord, believe in their heart that
God raised him from the dead, they will be saved,
not from their earthly problems. When you're
saved, guess what? You still pay your mortgage.
You still have your credit card debt. You're
still trying to figure some of it out. But your
perspective shifts to the cross of Christ. to
the glory of heaven. So when I pray, Lord, let
us shine lights into dark places, this is one
of them. And friend, I need to look at my mirror
first because I get freaked out about this stuff.
And I need to find that perspective. And God
tends to give that to me in her, in Carrie. She
tells me very nicely sometimes that I have my
perspectives off. But guess what? Sometimes she
has to put it right here. If you don't have people
like that in your life, get them. If you're the
one that always just brings down the golf foursome
you do every week or the coffee you have or whatever
it is because you're worried about all the worldly
things, what if your soul is required of you
tonight? All the things don't matter. Get yourself
that kingdom perspective, and if you have it,
give it. To others.