Luke's Gospel, chapter 12. The rich fool. Many of you know that when I have opportunity to come and fill the pulpit that of late I've been for some time now walking through the parables and we're running out. And the rich fool happens to be, the parable of the rich fool happens to be a difficult, It's one of the hardest texts that I know of to preach in the U.S. of A. Why is that? Well, it's not because the text is complicated. It's not complicated really at all. In fact, it's very simple. It's one of the few parables that Jesus, at the end, he gives us the gist. He gives us the moral of the story. He gives us an answer key. This text is hard to preach because The fingers pointed at us. When I talk about us, I'm talking about our Western world and the culture that we live in and the magnificent blessings that we enjoy. We're wealthy. We are wealthy. We have so much stuff that over 40% of us don't have room for it. We pay somebody 100 bucks a month. to store it for us. We even have places where it's climate controlled and do that. We clear out a Kmart here in our community and now it's full of storage area so that we can put the things, we can place the things that we don't really care enough to have in our homes, overstuffed homes, or the garage that where we can't typically park the multiple cars that we have. And we put that stuff that we don't really want that badly in those storage places. Yes, we are, especially by international standards, even if we fall into what we call the poverty threshold here. Rich? Yes. Foolish? Well, we'll have to decide. I warn you, this morning I had someone, a man come to me afterward. He thanked me for bringing this message. It's not something I delight in to bring a hard word like this. Often we ask that, we realize that sometimes the same message can comfort the afflicted, but sometimes, you know, God's word is like a scalpel. It afflicts the comforted. And so we want God's word to do what it does. One of the things I appreciate about this church is no matter where the word falls, it's the word of God, amen? And we will embrace it, whether it's comforting us in our affliction or afflicting us in our comfort. So this one cuts to the quick. I know you wanted to come on a cold February morning to be afflicted, but this is God's word. Accumulation is common among us. It's just so ingrained, I believe, in our culture that we don't realize it. We can poo-poo the possibility that Jesus could be speaking to any of us, and our desire for more wealth, though, is so prevalent that if, and I challenge you to try this. Think of a celebrity you know, someone well-known in our culture. Put that in a search engine. And oftentimes, more often than not, when you start to do that, you know how it will auto-complete what perhaps would be the most common search string, and it will complete the sentence for you? Often when you put a celebrity's name in it, it'll say so-and-so's net worth, because people want to know. How much do they have? How much do they have? People really care about net worth. Young people especially, I had this even this week, my own daughter come up to me because the talk of the young people is, hey, how much money does Jeff Bezos have? How much money does Elon really have? And I mean, nothing new under the sun. We were doing the same with Warren Buffett and so forth and beyond that. We'll talk about some of those other folks later, but there's a danger in this. It's been said that money unmakes the man who makes it. It's been said that a penny can blot out the sun and that can be S-U-N, but it can also be S-O-N if you hold it close enough to your eye. Half of Jesus' parables have, in some way, the use of money and stewardship of resources linked to the very main idea of that parable. This particular parable is referred to by parable scholars as a negative example story. A negative example story. It's a bad example. I like to refer to them as a don't be that guy or don't be that gal type of parable. You don't wanna be like the guy Jesus talks about in this parable, the rich fool. Jesus, as I mentioned, closes this parable with what's called a nimshal. A nimshal is an explicit statement that shows the parable's purpose and intent. He provides the moral of the story, so we're not left guessing. And here it is for this particular parable. He says, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. This is what we're after this morning. We all want to be rich. Our Lord illustrates the foolish, the wicked poverty of laying up treasure only for oneself. So this morning, with God's help, we'll use this negative example to exchange the rich fool's foolish poverty for a richness toward God. So to answer the question this morning, what does richness toward God look like? Three things, number one, richness toward God rises above self-consideration. Richness toward God rises above self-consideration, verses 13 to 16. So Jesus delivers this parable in response to an actual encounter, a real setting. He's about many, many, many people. If you look there in chapter 12, in verse one, you're going to notice that Jesus is encompassed about by a number of people. It says, in the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, began to say to His disciples first, Beware of the eleven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." So, He's encompassed about by thousands of people. One of the most amazing things about, especially this chapter, but this happens all throughout Jesus' ministry, is this strange phenomenon. All these people are are encompassing Him, but He's speaking to His disciples. And so several times, Jesus will speak directly to the crowd, because He'll talk to the crowd. But over and over, we see that then He'll direct His attention to the disciples and speak directly to them. But in the midst of that, what He's doing is He's speaking to them in such a way that He's also speaking to the crowd, the crowd can hear what Jesus is saying to his disciples as well. I believe that's intentional. And that's one of the reasons you'll see if you scan down to verse 41, Peter says this, he says, Lord, master, are you telling us this? Or are you telling the crowd? Who are you talking to here? So in the midst of the crowd, we read about this special encounter here, starting in verse 13, or yeah, verse 13. a special encounter that begets our first parable. And it reads, someone in the crowd said to him, so this large crowd, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. It's a somebody. This somebody calls Jesus teacher. Most of you are aware that Jesus was regarded as a rabbi. He was considered a teacher. It shouldn't surprise us. When he spoke, he spoke as one with authority. When he spoke, people listened. And so he was regarded as a rabbi. And we know that that title is often used for him. Rabbis of that day would settle disputes as mediators. That was common for them, especially if those disputes involved the Mosaic Law and the interpretation of the Mosaic Law. So onlookers would have regarded this man's plea to be, not to be out of place, not to be inappropriate. It would have been appropriate to ask a rabbi to discern according to the law. But if you look at what he says, you see what's inappropriate. It's the demanding nature of the request. He's not asking, he's essentially telling, mandating, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. And I really don't think Jesus was peeved. I think he used this as an opportunity for a teachable moment. I think he was using this as an opportunity to point everyone higher than the issue that was at hand. It was a teachable moment. Jesus wasn't going to be Judge Judy for this time. He was going to transcend that. This man was after an inheritance. And if you know the law, the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, and you've studied that, you'll know that it addresses matters such as inheritance. There's a concept within the law about primogeniture, that is that the firstborn gets a double blessing. We read about that even in the book of Genesis, don't we? And so most folks are going to say that this was probably a younger brother, because the older brother would have been in charge of the estate, and he would have gotten his portion. And so perhaps this is, you know, according to conjecture, of course, that this was probably a younger brother trying to get his piece of the pie. But notice Jesus' response in verse 14. He said to them, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? I noticed that there was still a difference between what Pastor Larry was reading and what was on the overhead. I do apologize for that. I actually enjoy when we have that because we all know that the New Testament wasn't written in English, right? It wasn't captured in English, and we get to see some of the nuance of language. We, as English speakers, enjoy an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the number of translations. I mean, here are the Turkmen that are looking for their first translation, and we, how many do we have? I mean, we could almost, each one of us in this room, have our own English translation, but it really, when we read two together like that, it helps us to get, really, the sense of the text. Jesus says, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? I mentioned Judge Judy. He's saying, do I look like Judge Wapner? That's for some of the older ones among you, People's Court reference there. It's clear that Jesus responds to the man's lack of civility, his decorum when he calls him man. That had to have been a little bit deflating for him. Anthropos, you're just calling him dude. Hey man, that's not an address that indicates any kind of familiarity. not necessarily fighting words, but it's like, hey guy, that's not my lane, I don't know you. He asks, who made me judge or arbitrator over you? Which is interesting because Jesus really is the arbitrator and judge, and he's the final judge, and later on in this very passage, he's going to talk about how he is the judge and divider over weightier matters, but that's the point. He's not concerned with this sort of petty matter that's before him. Look at verse 15 now, he said to him, Take care, he said to them, take care, be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. This is right before our parable now, but this truth declaration, do you see that it's a doublet? Not only does he say take care, he also says be on your guard. Does that sound redundant? Take care, be on your guard. Yeah, it's a double. It's saying the same thing in a different way twice. And that's intentional. And your different translations are going to bear that out. This is like the foot stomp. How many of you have ever had a teacher that does the foot stomp? Or a professor? What does that mean? Pay attention. This is testable material, right? This could be on a test, foot stomp. That's what Jesus is doing. He's saying, pay very close attention to what I'm saying. Why? Because this is a temptation that each of you will face. Right? For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Money is the root, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He recognizes this, and that's why so many of his parables and so much, nobody talks more about money than Jesus does. Because it really reveals our hearts, and that's where Jesus is getting in this message. Be vigilant in your own being, look out for covetousness, look out for greed, that word that's used there. You know, the translations are split right down the middle on this one, whether they use covetousness or greed. I believe there's a nuance of difference in the definitions of those words, but the Greek indicates a strong desire to acquire more, more and more material possessions, or to possess more things than other people have. All irrespective of need. So this goes beyond what's needed, what we need, and this goes into want and a desire to have more. This is what Jesus is warning us about. But wait a second, that's the American way. Bingo. That's why it's a tough message for us. This is the world we live in. Jesus parses that point. And I think it helps us to understand what's meant by that word. He says, one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. That's not the point of your life. You're missing it. It's not your stuff. It's not your earning capacity. It's not your net worth. It's not he who dies with the most toys wins. That type of pursuit is actually counter to Jesus' message and Jesus' mission. So, as we launched here, I don't know if I gave you this part, but the first guy that we met, this man in this example, in this little encounter, he's the pushy pupil. Pushy pupil, have a lot of Ps this morning. But secondly, letter B, we have the parable proper. So here's the parable. Our parable, again, is not born in a vacuum or drawn out of thin air. It's based upon this occasion, this encounter, and the parable is an extended analogy that was delivered to make the point about greediness, the greediness of this stranger and the vigilance that we should have as we're all so prone to what's in our world and this deadly form of sin. of greed, of covetousness. So Jesus wants to show everyone the way that kingdom people should think about and deal with money and wealth. How should we do that? And he's going to use a negative example to demonstrate how we should live. So verse 16, he told them a parable. The land of a rich man produced plentifully. Land of a rich man produced plentifully. So we meet now a perplexed proprietor, this landowner. perplexed proprietor, letter C. And what was significant about this rich man's land? It produced plentifully. So the perplexed proprietor and his plentiful produce. Say that four times fast. A lot of Ps. But if you look at this, is there any sin yet? Has sin occurred? this man owns some land, nothing wrong with that. Rich man, nothing wrong with that. His land produced plentiful. No, that's actually a blessing. Those are all, I mean, where do these good and perfect gifts come from? They come from above, nothing wrong. But here comes the perplexity. What do I do with it? What do I do with it all? So as he considers that question, I think we're going, you'll be on the lookout, you'll start to see where the foolishness creeps in. Why he's not just rich, he's the rich fool. Verse 17, and he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? You see where I put the emphasis there? You see the trouble brewing? Further he thinks to himself, And that can be really dangerous, especially if it stays there. Proverbs tells us that the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. This man's not seeking the wisdom of counselors, godly or otherwise. This is the dangerous counsel of oneself. Look out if you're your only counselor. He is not seeking the Lord in prayer. We have no indication that he's seeking wisdom from the scripture. He's thinking to himself. Beloved, beware of becoming an island to yourselves. I think you understand this concept. I'll drill down a little bit more though. We all stumble in many ways, James tells us. The book of James is regarded as the Proverbs of the New Testament. He also tells us that when we lack wisdom, what should we do? Ask of God. He gives it liberally. Ask of God. And the book of Proverbs itself teaches us to seek counsel. Seek counsel from your godly brothers and sisters. It tells us that we can find safety, that we can find victory there. Christians, seek godly counsel in your life decisions. Perhaps as I was reading that, you heard me emphasize some of the language there, some pronouns. Did you notice the me's and the I's in there? And the my's? Friends, this man's attitude, his approach, it's all about number one. It's all about himself. His attitude, his appetite, it's the antithesis of richness toward God. It's looking inwardly. The monologue that you find there in verses 17 through 19 in the Greek uses the personal pronoun my four times and the pronoun I Eight times. He's self-absorbed. He wasn't thinking of anyone else. Not the poor, not the naked, not even his neighbors, and certainly not the community, just good old number one. Philippians tells us, Paul tells us in Philippians, let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. So number one, richness toward God rises above self-consideration. Kingdom people look to God, his people, and the interests of others. Number two, what does richness toward God look like? Richness toward God understands that security is not self-generated. It doesn't come from us. We don't create security, our own security, even if we think we do. So we're gonna look at this. This is borne out, letter A there. Sometimes you hear Pastor Larry say number A. Caught myself doing that as well. A, a prideful and pitiful plan. This is a prideful and pitiful plan. Let's look at this plan he's hatched. He said, I'll do this. I'll tear down my barns, build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. Did you notice that I language again? The my language? I'll tear down my barns. Why is he tearing them down, by the way? Why is he tearing them down? Why didn't he just build another barn? Well, perhaps, if you build another barn and you only have so much land, that's gonna take up more land, just build upon, tear down and build a larger one where you're at, and then you can maximize your arable land, possibly. Maybe you've asked yourself this question, why didn't he just sell it? Why didn't he sell his grain? He had an excess, it was a bumper crop, why not just sell it? Well, some of you financially minded folk know that you sell all that stuff, that huge bumper crop, what does that do? Floods the market, right? If he sold it all, he'd flood the market, and what would that do to the price of grain? Yeah, drives it down, but, He hangs on to the grain. He can sell it at a much higher price over time. That's what we call playing the stock market. The point is, he could have shared. He could have donated at least part of the excess. He wasn't expecting of a bumper crop. He wasn't expecting this large S, he was expecting something that would fit into the barn that he had, whatever containment structure that was. It's funny when you look at photos of this type of thing for messages and so forth, you'll see a barn like that epic barn that's up there in Grand Teton, the famous barn there, things like that. Likely, that's not what it looked like, okay? Even though he was going to tear it down, it probably was more subterranean with a cover on it. Whatever it was, whatever it was he thought. this grain would fit into his current structure and it didn't, it went beyond that, so much so that he had to tear it down, thought he would tear it down and build others. But I wanna be clear here because I don't want you to get the wrong idea, there's nothing wrong with investment. In fact, that's part of God's mandate for us to have dominion and he's called us to create and make more. The problem is you get sin mixed in with that, in our selfishness, Look, there's nothing wrong with building our business or our portfolio. God blesses that, and God bless you for doing that. But do that, so long as you're after what God is after. What is God after? The problem with the barn builder guy here is he's not after what God's after, clearly. There was no thought for sharing any of this. It's all about him. In fact, he digs a bigger hole for himself. He keeps on digging. And of course, Jesus, this is a notional story here, and so Jesus is kind of trumping it up here, but it makes the point, doesn't it? Verse 19, and I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. You notice that he's, who's he speaking to? And he's speaking to himself. Not only is he speaking to himself, the translation here is very important. The word there is, in the Greek, is psuche. It is soul. It's the word from which we get like psychology, psychosis, psuche. Our soul, Jesus uses that term intentionally. He could have used normal personal pronouns, but he doesn't, why? I believe he uses the word soul because he's intimating that the man thinks that this huge increase is going to bring him soul satisfaction, peace, joy, and contentment. This great excess, in other words, will please him all the way to his inner self, his inner being, beyond the material, into the realm of transcendence, into the realm of the spiritual. So this foolish man mistakenly thought he's the master of his own destiny. His hard work has paid off and now he can just coast and find ultimate soul contentment. Beloved, hear me. Soul peace only comes from the maker of our souls. The one who made our souls is the only one who can grant peace to our souls. Notice now. The swift response in verse 20, the punishment pronounced. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Isn't it ironic that the rich fool thought he was set for good, that his soul was sure and secure. That very soul he spoke of is now required of him. It's required of him from the Lord Himself. By the way, this is the only parable that features God himself as one of the actors. People make pleas to God, and there are certainly parables where there are characters who represent a God figure. Think of the father in the parable of the prodigal son type of thing. But in terms of God himself being an actor in the narrative of a parable, this is the Lone Ranger here. I didn't know that until I started unpacking this, but here's how God acts in this particular parable. He responds. He responds to this approach. He responds to this language. He responds to this arrogance. He calls the rich man a fool and requires his soul of him. He's literally a damned fool. I think most of you are aware that the word fool in the Hebrew context means more than just ignorant, more than just unaware. Proverbs contrasts foolishness with wisdom for sure, but the wise are synonymous with the righteous and the foolish are synonymous with the wicked, right? Wise, righteous, fool, wicked. Psalm 14.1, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Foolishness in this regard is not amoral then. Foolishness is counter to the wisdom that comes from above. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The tragic irony is that this man thinks he's got it all figured out, that he will be his soul's deliverer and provider, that he's in charge of his own destiny. Beloved, richness toward God understands that security is not self-generated, it's God-generated. That's where it comes from. Thirdly and lastly, richness toward God lays up treasure beyond oneself. Richness toward God lays up treasure beyond oneself. So wickedness and folly are ultimately illogical. Because we can look at this and say, well, this guy's a fool, he's an idiot, right? But sin, if you really think it through, sin is silly. It doesn't make sense. It's illogical. It's unreasonable. So after the rich fool's condemned, it's interesting we read, the things that you've prepared, namely the barns and all that you've hoarded up, all that's in your storage unit, whose will they be? Can't drive a U-Haul into eternity. Foolish, it's ridiculous. Now we see letter A here, the principle that Jesus proclaims, the principle letter A proclaimed. Verse 21 is what's referred to again as that Nimshal. Remember, that's the moral of the story, that statement that shows the parable's purpose and intent. So Jesus says here in verse 21, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. In other words, this is the outcome for people who have this attitude toward wealth and material, material gain. This is the outcome for the rich fool, those whose riches are pointed inward. Many of us here this morning are quite successful. Many of you are quite successful. I'm impressed. God's gifted you in so many ways. And that's part of his plan. That's what he's called us to do. And he's the one who empowers us to do it. Blessing. But even lower middle class folk here, or poverty threshold folks among us, believe it or not, we're among the top 10% in terms of wealth. if we look on the global scale. Ricky Franich, our small group this past week, was talking about how if you've been born in America, you've really won the lottery in a lot of ways. Yeah, praise God. Amen. Friends, where does the Lord want that richness directed? Upward. Outward. It's counterintuitive, I know. Radical. But this is, it's a beautiful secret. When you start to embrace that principle that so many people miss, we know, this is Ellen's cliche, you can't out give God, He provides, He's our Jehovah Jireh, His storehouses are endless, but believe this, it all comes from Him to begin with. You didn't decide you were gonna be born here. None of us did. We're simply stewards of His good gifts. So when Jesus mentions laying up treasure, we have to think of Matthew's Gospel. Remember what He said there. Many of you have memorized this. Do not lay up your treasures here on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures where? In heaven, where moth nor rust destroys and thieves do not break in and steal. These are imperishable treasures. They cannot be corrupted. And you take them with you. Beloved, learn this secret. Letter B, parting petition here. Couple of illustrations. Learn to be rich toward God. Learn to be rich toward God. None of us have arrived here. We all want to be more rich toward God and follow in the vein of our Lord Jesus. But let's learn this lesson to lay up our treasures in heaven. Have you ever heard about the first billionaire? The very first person to reach the status of billionaire was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through on those goals. At the age of 23 years old, only 23 years old, he had become a millionaire. And by the age of 50, he'd become a billionaire with a B. Every decision, every attitude, every relationship he had was tailored to create his personal power and wealth. But three years later, at age 53, this man fell ill. His entire body was wracked with pain and he lost all the hair on his head. In complete agony, the world's only billionaire at that time could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest milk and crackers. That's how bad off he was. An associate of his wrote, he could not sleep, he would not smile, and nothing in life meant anything to him. He was numb. His personal highly skilled physicians that he could afford predicted that he would die within just one year. That year passed agonizingly slow for him, and as he approached death, he awoke one morning with a vague remembrance of a dream. He could barely recall the dream, but he knew it had something to do with not being able to take any of his successes with him into the next world. The man who could control the business world suddenly realized he was not in control of his own life. He was left with a choice. So he... called his attorneys, called his accountants, his managers, and he announced that he wanted to channel his assets to hospitals and to research and to mission work. On that day, John Davison Rockefeller established his foundation. The new direction eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, cures for current strains at that time of malaria, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his choice is enormous. It's a long list. But perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller's story is that the moment he began to give back just a portion of all that he had earned, his body's chemistry was altered so significantly that he got better. It looked as if he would die at 53, but he lived, get this, he lived to be 98 years old. It's one thing to be healed. It's another thing to be made whole. So there are blessings both in the hereafter and in the here and now. If you've got a generous heart, Rockefeller learned gratitude, generosity. He gave back. Doing so made him whole, giving up his fear of the future of having more than enough financially, giving up what the world tells us that we need to keep. That's what brought life to him. He wasn't living before, but he lived those last 40 or so years to the fullest. It really wasn't, in terms of financial, what the financial advisors would say, the responsible thing to do. But you get the point. In one of what is perhaps John Piper's most famous sermons, a sermon which would ultimately lead to him writing a book, maybe some of you have read it, called Don't Waste Your Life. In this sermon, Pastor John tells the story of a couple of missionaries, a couple of women who had died on the field of Africa, on the mission field in Africa, a couple of weeks, three weeks previous. He said that these two, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards, had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. She was single all her life. She poured it out for one great thing, to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached. To the poor, to the sick, to the least, the lost and the lonely. Laura was a widow. She was a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old herself and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon at the time of their passing. Well, one day the brakes gave way and over the cliff they go. And they're gone, killed instantly. John Piper relates, I asked my people, was that a tragedy? Two lives driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ. Two days after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No, that's not a tragedy. That's a glory. Amen. I tell you what tragedy is. He says, I'll read to you from Reader's Digest. Some of you know what Reader's Digest is. I'll read to you from a Reader's Digest story what tragedy is. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler playing softball and collecting shells. That's tragedy. People today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And he says, I get 40 minutes to plead with you. Don't buy it. With all my heart, I plead with you, don't buy that dream, the American dream, a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, nice family, nice retirement. Collecting shells is the last chapter before you go to meet your creator and give an account of what you've done. Here it is, Lord. Look at my shells. I've got a nice golf swing. Look at my boat. Don't waste your life, he says. Amen. Beloved, does Jesus' parable strike a nerve with you? It does for me. I think if we're honest, most of us would like to have the perplexity that this rich fool had in the beginning, a bumper crop. Once again, the problem isn't wealth, it's the sinful accumulation in our hearts behind it all that Jesus is addressing. So in our culture, people don't just wanna make a living, people wanna make a killing. If you're familiar with Fiddler on the Roof, how many of you are familiar with Fiddler on the Roof? A lot of you. A lot more than in the first service, I think. He sings, if I were a rich man, Or when told that money is the world's curse, he responds, may the Lord smite me with it and may I never recover. Just recently, a young woman who many of you know was sentenced to several years in prison for embezzlement here in our community and related charges. She had taken over $2.4 million and for about a decade, of her life, she did that and she was put away for about that long. When this was reported in social media, some of the folks in the comment section asked the question, would you do it? If you knew you were getting 10 years for this $2.4 million, would you do it? I'm sure if you asked her, would you do that again for the $2.4 million in a heartbeat, she would choose to be back with her family. What about eternity? That 2.4 million didn't bring happiness to her, just a longing for more. Beloved, learn this lesson now. Learn to become rich before God, and your soul will be truly content. I close with the words of Paul to young Timothy. They're for us, too. Chapter 6, 1 Timothy. As for the rich in this present age, charge them, that's us, not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy, there to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Beloved, Jesus is real life. He's the way, the truth, and the life. If you have come to this meeting tonight and you don't know him, I would plead with you to talk with one of us. Would the elders in this room raise their hands, please? You see our elders among us? I'm certainly available. There are many besides our elders that are willing to talk with you. If you're wondering about what it looks like to have that kind of peace, to live for Christ, Don't leave this room this morning without turning your life over to Him, because He will give you eternal joy and contentment. That's the only place it's found, and it's through His finished work on the cross that we can actually