Our sermon passage this morning is Luke chapter 12, verses 13 to 21. So let us give to the Lord now our ears and our hearts as we receive his word. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. 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 bigger 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 that you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. Well, let's ask the Lord to bless his word to us now. O Lord, help us, we ask, by your Holy Spirit, even now, through the listening of the word and the reception of the word into our hearts and minds, to be rich towards you and to, even as we hear the word now, to be laying up treasures in heaven. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, can you remember a time when you had something so important that you had to share with someone else. But then you were disappointed to find that they weren't even listening to you. You sat down with someone, a friend, maybe a co-worker, a boss, something like that, and you share some major thing that's happening in your life. Or perhaps you share a major struggle that you're going through. But rather than you know, them nodding to show that they're listening, they take out their phone and began tapping and scrolling. Or maybe if they do wait till you finish talking, they completely change the topic of conversation, which shows that they weren't even listening to begin with. That can be very discouraging when someone does that. And we've probably all both been the recipients of that, and we've probably all at times been guilty of doing that to others. Well, this very thing happens in our passage to Jesus. After his confrontational dinner party with the Pharisees, a huge crowd begins to gather. So Jesus took time to teach his disciples and anyone else who would listen. He taught incredible truths that ought to challenge and comfort the heart of any believer. He warned of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He directed our hearts from fear of man to fear of God. And best of all, he called us to fearlessly confess Christ before man with the promise that Christ himself will confess us before the angels of heaven. And just as he finishes wrapping up by speaking of the Holy Spirit, he's interrupted by this man in the crowd that speaks up and changes the topic entirely. This man doesn't ask a clarifying question. He doesn't say, Jesus, tell me more of what heaven will be like, or tell me more of the Holy Spirit. No, he wants Jesus to settle a financial matter for him. And this failure to listen to preaching, well, it can reveal a lot about a person's heart. This interruption of Jesus' preaching to talk about finances says a lot about where this man's heart is. So rather than addressing his financial issue, Jesus instead addresses the issue of his heart, calling out his greediness, his covetousness. And we also need to hear Jesus' warning against the danger of covetousness, because just like this man, all too easy for us to be driven by greed and driven by the desire to have more stuff. We're so prone to, like this man, equating our life with the abundance of what we own. We're so prone to finding our identity in the stuff of life, either what we drive or how we dress or where we live. And while it's good for us to be financially prudent and wise, and it's not wrong for us to enjoy earthly things, we can so easily use that as an excuse to mask the greed that's in our hearts. And thus we all need to hear Jesus' warning when he says, take care, be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Well, may the Spirit of God help each one of us kill this sin that so easily becomes our focus, and may he help us to instead live for the true purpose of life, which is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Well, let's consider Jesus' correction of this man's thinking. There are three things that this man gets wrong. First, he has a wrong estimation of his problem. Second, he has a wrong estimation of his life. And third, he has a wrong estimation of his wealth. Well, first, this man has a wrong estimation of his problem. And as I said, this becomes abundantly clear in how he interrupts Jesus, and then in how Jesus responds to him. Well, as I said, the setting is that Jesus has come from this dinner party. There is a huge crowd gathering, thousands of people, and they're all trampling over one another. And Jesus has taken the time to carefully warn his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees. He's warned them of the dangers of the fear of man. He's carefully illustrated why and how we can fear the Lord. God is the master of heaven and earth. He has the authority to cast into hell. And yet he's also the God who knows every hair of your head. And he cares for each one of you. And then as Jesus begins to talk about heaven and finally about the Holy Spirit, well, he's interrupted by this man. Even as Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the only thing in this man's mind is denarii signs. That's all he's thinking about. He's not listening to Jesus' sermon. No, he's only thinking about his own problem that Jesus isn't even addressing. and he needs Jesus to solve his problem, so he pushes his way to the front of the crowd and interrupts Jesus with this demand. Now it's not unusual for Jesus to be interrupted when he's preaching, but usually it's by someone, a parent whose child is dying or critically ill and Jesus is more than willing to postpone his teaching to go and help. However, this man's reason for interrupting Jesus is nothing like that. The problem that he brings is a dispute over inheritance. Well, the situation is all too familiar. A father had died and he had left a sum of money or probably a plot of land, more likely, and now the two sons are squabbling over who gets it all. And it's likely, many suggest, that the older brother had claimed the whole thing for himself. And so the younger brother is feeling a little short-changed. And certainly this is not an insignificant matter. And so he goes to Jesus and he says, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Now while we might feel some sympathy for this younger brother who's being shortchanged, notice what he's saying. He's not asking Jesus to adjudicate on the matter after carefully talking to the two brothers and gathering all the paperwork and the documents and the deeds and all those things and reading the will and eventually coming to a fair decision. No, he's not asking. He's ordering Jesus to rule in his favor. Essentially, he's saying, Jesus, don't worry, I've got all the paperwork here. You just need to sign the line here. I've already done all the work for you. That's all I need, just your word to adjudicate for me. And perhaps we might think that, oh, this is a good opportunity for Jesus to do some social justice, as it were, to get involved in the affairs of people and here reconcile two brothers. I mean, after all, Solomon and Moses used to hear the cases of Israel as they were brought to them. Here's an opportunity for Jesus to do some wisdom work. However, perhaps surprisingly, Jesus refuses this man's request. And he does so for at least two reasons. First, he says, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? Jesus wasn't sent to be a judge or an arbitrator of civil matters. And if he had begun to do so, if he had begun to adjudicate on property disputes and family legal squabbles, well then his messiahship could easily have been misinterpreted for his coming to establish a geopolitical nation. rather than a spiritual kingdom won by his blood. So that's the first reason. The second reason Jesus refuses to arbitrate is because this man's real problem wasn't with his brother. It wasn't with the inheritance laws or the way that that was all working out. No, his real problem was the greed in his own heart. Notice what Jesus says in verse 15, now broadening the conversation to the crowd. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Jesus points to the real problem that this man has in his heart. His problem is that he has a greedy, coveting heart. You know the Greek word here for that's translated as covetousness could also be translated as greed or greediness. It's the same thing. This is not a word that describes the enjoyment of the good things God has given us in moderation, in temperance, in self-control. No, this word has to do with the drive to acquire in abundance and in excess It is the insatiable craving for more and more, especially as it relates to money and comfort and luxuries and ease and things. One ancient philosopher called greed the queen of all evils, which overthrows and destroys. Isn't greed the cause of all wars, where one nation-state covets the land, resources, or people of another nation? Greed is the ever-constant desire for more stuff. Greed turns the abundance of possessions into a god, and the pursuit of those possessions, the way that we live and serve this god, That's why the Apostle Paul calls greed idolatry in two places. But in Colossians 3.5, he says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. That's an interesting list, isn't it? I mean, yeah, sexual immorality. That's an idol, that's idolatry. Yeah, put that to death. But would you really, would you list greed alongside sexual immorality, evil desire, impurity? It doesn't matter if you do or not, Paul does. Covetousness, greed is idolatry, and it's serious. Kids, have you ever, wanted a toy so badly that it almost feels like life itself is meaningless without that toy. You know, maybe it's the thing, the latest thing that you see on the TV, or it's what all of your friends have, but you don't have it. And life just seems kind of boring without it. All of your other toys, you know, they're kind of old and, you know, you're just bored with them. This is what you must have, and life is unfair unless you have it. But you know that Christmas or your birthday is right around the corner. So maybe you nag your parents or maybe you circumvent them and ask a doting grandparent for this toy, this thing. Okay, it might take a little bit of time, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, so the birthday or Christmas rolls around, but at least you know it's coming. Then what happens? Well, you know, don't you? You get the toy, and then, yes, my life is complete, you unwrap it, you play with it intensely for a couple of days, maybe a week or two, then what happens? Well, you know, yeah, you enjoyed it, but it kind of loses its luster. And let's be honest, you throw it into the toy bin with all the other toys, don't you? And then what happens? Well, then you see what your friend got for her birthday or for his Christmas present. And now that's the thing you want. And now my life is incomplete until I have that thing. And on the cycle goes. Well, children, that is greed. That's greed in its covetousness. And as grownups, we chuckle perhaps at the way you do this with your little hearts, but we are no different. We do it with the latest gadget that we have to own. We must have it. Or the latest version of the same gadget that's now in a new color, or it has an extra USB port. Or it's the latest model of car. Or it's thinking that... Well, if I just get this piece of furniture in my house, then I'll be content with my home. You know, I just need this thing. Okay, maybe it costs a tremendous amount and maybe it's not the one, but then I'll really be happy with my home. And until I get that, I just can't be happy with this home. Despite the fact that probably most of us, I would say all of us, live like kings and queens compared to the people that Jesus is speaking to in his passage and like much of the developing world. That's what we think. We think that if I just get this thing, then I'll be happy. But we know, don't we, no sooner do we have that thing, no sooner does that package come from Amazon that we're clicking on the next thing that we want to have delivered to us. We're craving the next thing. And it's so normal for us, but it shouldn't be. Why do we do it? Is it just this quirk we have as moderns, as Americans? No, that's not it. It's that we have a problem. You have a problem. What is that problem? Well, let's not euphemize it by calling it consumerism. Let's not euphemize it by calling it the American dream. Let's not joke and call ourselves shopaholics. Let's call it what it is. Let's call it what Jesus calls it. It's greed. It's covetousness, which is idolatry. You may have come here this morning like this man with various problems, problems that are real and by no means should be minimized, but do not make the mistake of this, man, by thinking that all of your problems are related to the fact that you don't have money or this thing or that thing. Do not make the mistake of thinking that all of your problems are external to yourself. You see, Jesus shows us that our greatest problem is not that which we do not have, but that which is in our hearts. It's the problem of our sin. And so many people want a Jesus who will change their problems, but they don't want him to change their hearts. But friends, we need Jesus to change our hearts. And so let us be a people willing to have the greed of our hearts exposed before Christ, that he might not only correct us, but then lead us in the path of repentance. Well, not only did this man have a wrong estimation of his problem, secondly, he had a wrong estimation of his life. For this man, life itself was all about getting more stuff. He equated life with acquiring more and more things. And again, we know this to be true of our own hearts. The reason advertising is so successful and effective is because it appeals to our greed. Advertising feeds the lie that in order to have the good life, you need to have the latest things. Advertising has us chasing after the latest clothes, the latest cars, the latest gadgets, and it promises us fulfillment when we obtain these things. Now, there's nothing wrong with owning nice things and enjoying those things. There's nothing immoral or wrong about owning a high-end vehicle. There's nothing wrong with living in a nice home in a well-to-do neighborhood. Jesus is not condemning the enjoyment of good things that God gives us in moderation and temperance and self-control. Rather, the problem he's addressing is the greedy heart. the greedy heart that equates life itself with getting more stuff, and make no mistake, this is an equal opportunity sin for the rich and the poor. Whether you think of yourself as someone very well-to-do, or you think of someone who's maybe been hard done by by life and you don't have a lot, well, this is a sin which Jesus says we must all beware of, and to which Jesus says to this man, one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Well, Jesus goes on next to correct this wrong estimation of his life with a parable. He begins in verse 16. The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 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 larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. So the story describes an already fairly wealthy man who sows his crops, and then when it came time to harvest, there's a bumper harvest, more than anyone could ever have expected. And now he's gone from being wealthy to being extremely wealthy. Well, this creates the problem of what to do with all of his harvest, what to do with his wealth. So he decides to tear down his old barns and build new larger ones to store his grain and his goods. Well, so far there's nothing objectionable. This man became very wealthy as a result of his own hard work. He sowed the fields himself or he employed others to do so. And as a result of the good harvest, which was the Lord's blessing, he became wealthy. It wasn't that he had cheated the poor or cheated widows out of their homes or something like that. No, he worked hard and he received a good harvest. And it would seem that he's trying to be prudent. by storing his harvest in barns that can house it. The problem isn't his wealth. It isn't his bumper crop. It's not even necessarily his barns. No, the problem is how he responds to these things in his heart. rather than speaking to God and thanking God for this wonderful harvest and praying to God and saying, Lord, give me wisdom to serve you well and honor you well with this newfound wealth. Instead, who does he talk to? He talks to himself. His wealth turns him inward. And notice what he says in verse 19. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. In his self-talk, we see self-confidence and we see self-indulgence. Notice how he self-confidently asserts, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. You know, this guy is so sure of himself. He is so self-confident. And why wouldn't he be? You know, he has all of this wealth. Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow and how you'll eat. He says, why would I worry about tomorrow? My bank account is full. I could never spend all my money, even in my lifetime. And he knows that, and he knows exactly how the rest of his life is gonna look. He's got ample goods stored up for many years. This man's future is secure, and his possessions are a guarantee of that. You see there his self-confidence. You also see his self-indulgence. He's sure that his wealth will keep him going amply for many years. How does he intend to spend those many years? How does he plan to spend his early retirement? Well, he tells himself, relax, eat, drink, be merry. This phrase, eat, drink, and be merry is a phrase, an idiom for self-indulgence and hedonism. He has no intention on helping the poor of Israel for whom famines and bad harvests were common. He didn't think to check his neighbor fields, like maybe they had a terrible harvest this year. Maybe there's ways he can help them and keep them alive. He has no intention to serve in the local synagogue or give to the temple. No, his intention is to use all of his newfound wealth to secure his own comfort and ease in excess and leisure. In short, this man was doing exactly what Jesus warned his disciples not to do. He was equating his life with the abundance of his possessions. Well, Jesus, of course, hasn't finished the parable yet, but what he has presented to us so far is supposed to be a damning indictment of this man's plans and reasoning. But how many of us would look at this man up to this point and say, what's wrong with this? Isn't this the good life that we're all supposed to be working towards? Isn't this how society presents retirement? Society dangles the life of luxury and ease and laziness of this man before us and it tells us, this can be yours, this should be yours. If you work hard enough, if you sacrifice family on the altar of your career, if you're willing to give those things up for long hours and late nights, if you're willing to claw over your co-workers to make it to the top, well, this good life could be yours. Then you'll have enough to sit back, relax, enjoy yourself. Now, again, to be clear, It is wise and it is good to prepare for one's future. It is foolish not to prepare for one's future. However, there can be a fine line between wise planning for the future and the kind of greed that we see exemplified in this man's heart. How do we know if we've crossed that line? Well, this man's retirement became an idol through his self-confidence. And so ask yourself, do you look to your provision in retirement as the source of your self-confidence? Do you look at it, apart from prayer to God and apart from the knowledge that we depend upon him for all things, and do you look at it and do you say smugly to yourself, ah, my soul, you have amply provided for yourself for many years. I have security in this life, not because I'm trusting in God's provision, but because I've provided or I will provide enough for myself. Do you view all that you own as gifts from God to be used the way he has designed? Do you praise God from whom all blessings flow? Or do you see your possession simply as the fruit of your own hands? Whether retirement is far off, Or if you're currently retired, is your plan for retirement one of pure self-indulgence? Do you say to yourself, relax, eat, drink, be merry? Well, depending on how you've answered those questions, you may have made the mistake of this man in equating life with the abundance of possessions. What is life for you? Are you living the Christian life now? If you've ever thought to yourself that, well, now I'm just plodding along and I'm enduring, but life will begin when I'm 65, or whenever I can retire, and maybe sooner if I can. If that is your thinking, and let's be honest, we all fall into that trap of thinking, well, that's when my life will begin, when I don't have to get up for work and all those things. If that's how we think, we've fallen for the trap of greed. We've fallen for the trap that this man has fallen for and we have hearts like his. But God's law comes to each one of us and he asks, where is your life found? Is it found in the abundance of possessions? Where is your contentment found? Do you refuse to be content unless you have a hefty retirement saved up? Where is your heart? For Christ says, where your heart is. How does it go? There your treasure is also. Well, we have hearts plagued with the disease of greed, and it's only if we have our hearts changed by Christ that we can be set free from the love of money, that we can say with Paul, no, my life, my life is hidden in Christ. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Well, this man had a wrong estimation of his problem, He had a wrong estimation of his life. And third, he had a wrong estimation of his wealth. Well, how would you estimate the wealth of this man? Now, for most of us who are suburbanites, bar a few of us who are farmers, and as those not living in the ancient world, we probably don't appreciate how wealthy this man was. Most of us, if someone says, I'll give you a barn full of wheat or something, what am I supposed to do with that? But for someone, for a society of people living hand to mouth, I mean, this guy had extreme wealth. And so to put it in contemporary terms, You know, this is the guy who saved everything in the late 90s. He put it all into Google long before it skyrocketed. And now he's worth billions of dollars. Now he has so much money that he has no worries about the future. You know, he's 40 years old, 45 years old. He's already living the dream. He's retired. He's making plans to jet set around the world. He's, you know, looking up to buy beachfront properties. And which one of us, honestly, wouldn't be envious of this man? You know, we look at his wealth and we say, that's the life. He's living the dream, we say. That's our foolish assessment. But look how God evaluates this man's life. He looks at this man's life, he looks at all of his wealth, and he says one word, fool, fool. Now to be clear, he's not a fool because he's wealthy. Often and usually you become wealthy through wisdom, not through folly. But he's a fool because he thinks he's got it all figured out. He's a fool because his wealth has become his idol, his confidence. He doesn't fear God, he loves himself and he loves his wealth. And God says 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. Notice the contrast in plans. You see the man's plan and you see God's plan. The man says, my money has secured for me many years, but God says, no, not many years, tonight, this very night. The one who has the authority over life and death, the one who has the authority to cast into hell, has cut short this life of this proverbial man. You know, no sooner has this man finished nailing, well, they didn't use nails then, but no sooner has he finished putting his barn together than, and he goes inside and he lays in his bed and he lays back and he's dreaming of all his years of ease and comfort and parties and relaxation and, you know, trips to Rome and all the things that he plans to do, then no sooner does he feel a sudden crushing pain in his chest and he calls out for help and his servants don't hear him, and he's dead that very night. He didn't get to enjoy his wealth for a day. His life is over. And God asks, rhetorically, of this man, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Now, he could say, oh, well, I'll leave them to my children. Well, that's not the point. The point is, whoever gets all the stuff, it's not going to be you, because you're dead. And these things are perishable and earthly, and you can't take them with you. That's Jesus' point. Naked, you come into this world. Naked, you will leave. We all come into this world penniless, and we will all leave penniless. That's why the words of the psalmist in Psalm 49 says, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others. And thus, a life spent accumulating stuff is a life unprepared to meet your maker. Again, we look at this man and we're envious. Look at what he has that I don't. But Jesus shows us, this is not a man worth envying. I won't go through the names of the billionaires of the world, but they're coming to your mind even now. But we look at them and we're envious. Imagine the power. Imagine the wealth. Jesus says, are you kidding? Don't be envious of them. They're not worthy of your envy, they're worthy of your pity, because this is a life wasted, a life devoted to money, a life devoted to the service of self is a life wasted, and it is a life that will be judged by God, the God of heaven and earth, who has the power to cast into hell, and it will be found wanting. And if this is your life, friend, if you're here visiting today and your life is your stuff, your car, your retirement, well then, your life will meet the same fate. It will be a life wasted. And so let each one of us learn from the folly of this fool that we may not walk in his ways. Well, if storing up treasure for self and idolizing greed is the way of folly, what's the way of wisdom? Well, Jesus provides the answer in verse 21 when he concludes, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. So if the fool is not rich towards God, well, then conversely, the wise man is the man who is rich towards God. How are we rich towards God? Well, first, we are rich towards God when we understand what is our true and greatest wealth. The man who interrupted Jesus equated his life with getting his inheritance. The man in the parable equated life with his abundance of material wealth. The problem for both of these men, the problem of greed, isn't that they wanted something of such great value. It wasn't that they had their goal and aim set too high in life. It was that they were settling for something of such little value and importance. This man dreamed of long days sitting on the beach with not a care in the world and a cocktail in his hand. Having golfing trips all over the world, having a regular diet of steak and lobster caviar. And he made the foolish estimation of thinking that this was life itself. But the problem with this thinking is that all of these things, though nice to have, we'd all like the new car and we'd all like the lobster supper and those things, but the problem with all of these things is that they're all temporary. They're passing. They're fleeting. They're subject to moth and rust and decay. None of it's lasting. None of it's eternal. None of it truly matters. in eternal terms, and none of it will go beyond the grave. The only lasting and enduring treasure is that which is only found in heaven with God, and only one thing obtains this treasure. It is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith. This is the pearl of great price. This is the lasting treasure for which we must sell all that we have to seek to obtain. And yet this is the treasure which money cannot buy. This is the treasure that has been given to us as a gift by God through Jesus Christ. You know, we're so often tempted to boast in our works and in our riches and the things we've obtained by the work of our own hands. But our greatest gift, heaven's best gift, heaven's wealth comes to us, not through what we have done, but simply through faith, trusting, and the finished work of Christ's hands. Recall the lawyer who asked how to obtain the inheritance of eternal life and how Jesus showed him it was impossible to obtain eternal life, that inheritance through works of the law. Recall how Jesus commended Mary for choosing the good portion or inheritance. What did Mary do? What acts of piety, what works of the law did she do to obtain that good portion? She did nothing, she simply sat and received the righteousness of Christ by faith. And thus we are rich towards God when we cast ourselves on his mercy and faith, when we acknowledge that neither our works or our wealth can contribute anything to our eternal standing, and what truly matters are the eternal riches of grace received through Christ. A second. We are rich towards God when we then serve him with our material wealth. Now Christ is not calling us to vows of poverty, but if you are in Christ, that means you have taken upon yourself a vow to him in baptism. What that means is that he and not possessions, he and not greed and wealth and the accumulation of more stuff is your God. And so you are to serve him. And when you give of your time, your resources, your wealth, when you open up your own heart to other people, you demonstrate that your contentment and satisfaction and joy is not rooted in those things, but is rooted in Christ your Savior. You show that Christ is your life. And from the abundance of his life, you can give to others freely. And beloved, as you seek to apply this in your life, do so looking to Christ, who is the pattern for all of us. How did Christ demonstrate his richness? Well, it wasn't in coming and living a life of glory and splendor with fabulous riches and things. No, he showed us his richness in loving us and giving himself for us. Beloved, look to Christ, whether you have an abundance of possessions or whether you are in a place where you have very little and you're struggling to get by. Look to Christ, the one who, though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we confess the ways that our faith is so little and so small and how we equate the good life and the blessed life with material things which are subject to moth, rust, and decay. Lord, help us to fix our eyes on that which is above. Help us to fix our mind on heavenly things and the riches and the abundance that we have there secured for us as an inheritance through Christ and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us without measure. Help us then to live out of the abundance that we do have in Christ, in pouring ourselves out in a life of service to you and to your church. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.