LOJ #134: ‘In Cash We Trust’
Andover Baptist Church-February 12th, 2012
Opening
A. Text for today is Luke 12:13-21 and our sermon is titled ‘In
Cash We Trust’
B. Scripture NET:
“12:13 Then someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 12:14 But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or arbitrator between you two?” 12:15 Then he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 12:16 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 12:17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 12:18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 12:19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 12:21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”
C. Children’s Sermon (SLIDE)
1. Get some money, some people think that this is more
important than Jesus
2. What do you think?
3. Every gift is from God and we should put Him first
4. Because one day in heaven, we won't need money all
that we will need and have is our relationship with Jesus
5. So I think we should take the advice of money (‘In God
we trust’ and trust Him
D. Introduction
1. Last year Steve Jobs died (the guy who started Apple)
2. He had lots and lots of money (7 billion in fact, enough
money to give every person on earth a dollar bill)
3. But he still died
4. There were billions of people in the world older than
him, with billions less in their wallet and yet they were
still alive and he was dead
5. For most of his life Mr. Jobs didn’t believe in God,
6. Although I know he started talking to people about the
possibility near the time of his death telling his
biographer that on a scale of 100 he was at a 55 in belief
in God
7. Whether or not he did before his death, he surely
believes now and his billions don’t matter at all
8. We all here today have been blessed with income and
with life
9. Today Jesus asks us all, ‘Are you ready to give an
account?’
Sermon
READ: Luke 12:13, 14 (Scripture slide)
“12:13 Then someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 12:14 But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or arbitrator between you two?”
A. Jesus had just spoken about great spiritual truths, the crowds
were in awe likely
1. Except for one
2. You all know someone who has the ability to say
something totally awkward at just the right awkward
moment (let’s just call him Milton, just kidding)
3. Not really focusing on what Jesus said this man hollers
out to Jesus to help him with a money issue
4. The Lord of Heaven and earth was before him and all he
could think about was the bottom line
5. Oh how often times when we can experience a deeper
relation with Christ and make our time truly count we
exchange the eternal for temporal trinkets
B. What was this guy’s problem?
1. According to the law the eldest brother received a
double portion of the inheritance
Deuteronomy 21:17 (NET) “Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved wife as firstborn and give him the double portion of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power – to him should go the right of the firstborn.”
2. Well that seems unfair at first glance doesn’t it?
3. Not really when you realize he would be the one to take
care of his mother if she were still alive and his
unmarried sisters if he had any
4. For some reason this man is unhappy with the lot that
was given him
C. Jesus wants nothing to do with the situation
1. Even if it was unfairly split this there were authorities
that could deal with it and Jesus did not come to be this
type of arbitrator
2. Jesus did not come to be a judge of laws or of people
(this go around anyway)
3. Jesus came to give life to those who broke the law and
had turned to Him
4. Jesus' mission was of much greater value than this
simple and obviously sinful request
5. Jesus knew that this man had a greater problem, not only
was his heart not right with his brother, it was not right
with God
READ: Luke 12:15 (Scripture slide)
“Then He said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from all types of greed, because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
A. Jesus could see what was really driving this man
1. This man, even if he had been wronged, was coveting
what his brother had
2. I’m sure you have seen inheritances destroy
relationships, because money becomes more valuable
than the relationship with family and misery ensues
3. All of it boils down to one nasty, naughty word: greed
B. Jesus uses this moment to teach the crowd and us that greed is
something to be on your guard for
1. What is greed? Literally the thirst for having more
2. Greed is to a greedy person as saltwater is to a thirsty
man, meaning the more a greedy person consumes the
more insatiable their desire for more grows, harming
them the entire way
3. Jesus’ words ring just as loud, if not louder, to our
generation today.
a. Our consumerism in America is known the world
over.
b. Come on people, we wait in anticipation for the
commercials of the Super Bowl as much if not
more than the game!
c. Capitalism has become our Gospel.
d. Now there is nothing wrong with making money,
but when money makes you….that is the
problem.
e. I could safely venture to say that that a whole lot
of souls are being sold on Wall Street along with
the stocks
f. Look at our entertainment industry.
a. How hard is it to openly be a Christian
and stand up for what God's Word says?
b. If you speak up you lose fans, fame and
money.
c. It's an unholy compromise.
d. No gold statue, or platinum record is
worth the price of your immortal soul
e. I’ll give you a small example, one in
where the person stood up for what was
right
1. Justin Beiber (one of the most
popular teen pop stars today)
2. He was interviewed in Rolling
Stone Magazine
3. And Beiber had not hidden from
the fact that he was a believer
4. So guess what the interviewer
asks him. It is about records, tour
dates, anything pertinent to the
recording industry? No
5. He asks Justin what he things of
abortion and homosexuality
6. Bless the kid, because he not only
said abortion was ‘killing a baby’
but that homosexuality was a
choice
7. You ought to have seen the
backlash against him for that. I
like the kid because he remained
faithful, I hope he remains so.
8. Oh and what did the Beibmeister
say about greed, ‘I don’t love
money because once you start
loving money, you’ve got a big
house and nice cars and just an
empty heart and that’s the truth
I’m not just saying that.’
4. What Jesus is talking about here is the timeless theme of
love for this world and not for the next
5. Christ said, ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole
world and yet forfeit his soul?’.
READ: Luke 12:16-19 (Scripture slide)
“12:16 He then told them a parable: “The land of a certain rich man produced an abundant crop, 12:17 so he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 12:18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 12:19 And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’
A. Jesus tells a parable.
1. Often rabbis would not fully reveal what they were
trying to get across in their teachings, but give enough
information that the people could draw conclusions for
themselves
2. They often did this in little moral stories called parables
3. Over 3,500 rabbi parables are known from this time
period…and for the record Jesus' is the best
B. The premise of Jesus’ parable here: A wealthy man made his
money off of crops. One year his land produced a large and
profitable crop.
1. This abundance got him to thinking what to do with the
excess
2. Which lead to a problem: he currently have enough
room to contain it (terrible isn't it)
3. He had bigger problems than that, much bigger (as we
will soon see)
C. So the guy starts to plan in his mind how he was going to
manage his crop.
1. He came to the conclusion to tear down his old barns
and build brand new ones
2. Bigger and better, more and more.
3. All based on the things of this world.
4. Not a word devoted to the next.
4. Not a word devoted to his fellow man
5. The rich man mentioned himself a dozen times in a few
sentences
D. The rich man thought he had a good goal: working on
retirement
1. He would save up all this money and retire
in relaxation.
2. This would give him, what he thought, was many years
focused on himself
3. Does this not eerily sound like the American dream?
a. The retirement mentality of our nation
b. Retire so that you don’t have to work.
c. Travel in an RV, move far away, etc.
d. Do all these things, often without an inclination
to what God would have you do
e. It’s as if many people retire to simply die awash
in enjoyment it seems.
g. Friends if that is your dream, you will find that it
will turn into a spiritual nightmare
4. What about all you retired folks here today?
a. Is your retirement a selfish pursuit?
b. Or a time that you can give back to God in ways
you never did before?
c. How many of you retired here today still don't
open God's Word often, don't pray to God often?
d. What really matters to you if that is the case?
e. Why waste what could truly be years of value to
your eternity?
f. God wants to use you at every point in your life.
Why stop?
5. Younger generations are you simply working to
accumulate and retire?
a. Did you know that money in a 401K has little
value to you inside a coffin?
b. A paycheck can’t pay dividends on your
relationship with your spouse and kids.
c. And believe it or not time is more valuable than
what your paycheck shows, no matter how much
you make or sock back.
6. Take a look at what this man wants to accomplish
a. Relax
b. Eat
c. Drink
d. And celebrate
e. Isn’t this the worldly life?
f. And what a hollow, pathetic existence it truly is
g. The person who lives this life is the type of
person we mentioned in the Defender’s Sunday
School: The Empty Self
1. It's the type of life focused only on one's
self here in this world, forgetting the
needs of others and the need to prepare
for the next
2. As I was preparing for this sermon, my
cat gave me a perfect illustration
3. For some insane reason she got
aggravated with her own tail and started
chasing it all the while biting and clawing
for it
4. So much effort for something that if she
caught would simply hurt her
5. In her actions lies the irony of the empty
self
E. Some of you might ask, ‘Is there anything inherently wrong
with being rich?’
1. No!
2. Look at Abraham, Solomon, Job and Joseph of
Arimathea
3. And it was obviously God that had blessed the man's
fields
4. It wasn’t the man’s wealth that was the problem, it was
his attitude towards it
a. First we see no concern for the needy and others
b. Second, he appears to have no concern for others
c. He was driven by selfish ambition, assuming that
both his wealth and life would last
d. God knows what really was the case
e. For that very night the man was going to slip
from this mortal coil and stand before the
Accountant of his life
READ: Luke 12:20, 21 (Scripture slide)
“12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded back from you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 12:21 So it is with the one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God.”
A. 'But'
1. One of Jesus favorite words is back again
2. You see the man had plans 'But' God.
3. You see the man’s plans were interrupted by God’s.