Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Greed Your God? | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 12.13-21

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. Jesus talked about money in a way that would make most of us feel uncomfortable if a pastor at the church we attended talked like Jesus did. I know as a pastor I can't talk on money as often as Jesus did or say the things he did. I mean, it's not that someone's telling me I can't do it. It's just that I'm afraid that people would think I had some sort of ulterior motive.

Starting point is 00:00:41 Jesus spoke about money a lot, depending on how he counted, about 15% of his teaching was about money. That would be about eight sermons every year. He spoke more about money than heaven and hell combined. And unlike us, when he spoke about money, he was not timid. He didn't pull any punches. He wasn't afraid of challenging his listeners. Jesus says things about money, especially in the Gospel of Luke. He says things like, blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven, but woe to the rich,

Starting point is 00:01:16 for they've already received their comfort. Or he says, whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. That's just some of the hard and difficult teaching about money that Jesus says in the gospel of Luke. Well, in this episode, we're going to look at Luke chapter 12 in this parable he told about a rich fool. And the setting is that there are some brothers who are having a dispute about an inheritance, and they try to get Jesus to be the judge in their dispute. And he refuses. He doesn't want to take sides. But instead, he says this in verse 15. He said, watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. That's the principle that Jesus is communicating

Starting point is 00:02:09 to those who listen to him as these two brothers argue about their inheritance. And we learn from that principle something about how greed works. Because Jesus doesn't say to somebody, hey, watch out. You might be committing adultery. I mean, if you're committing adultery, you know that, right? You're not surprised by it. But Jesus says, watch out because you might be greedy. Greed hides itself. Greed blinds us in a way that other sins, maybe like adultery, don't blind us. Jesus says, you never even consider the possibility that you're greedy.

Starting point is 00:02:46 You're like, me? Greedy? Of course not. I mean, have you ever sat in a small group in which people shared struggles and anyone has ever shared that they are greedy? No, I haven't. I don't think you probably have either. And part of the reason is that when we think of greedy people, we think of people who spend

Starting point is 00:03:05 lavishly, spend all kinds of money on things that are really not that important. And all it takes is someone in our friend group, someone in our family, someone maybe we saw on television or we read about in a magazine who spends more lavishly than we do. And that lets us off the hook. We're not greedy. They are. but Jesus is saying that you need to be on the alert you need to watch out you need to pay attention because you might be greedy and not even quite realize it in fact when you hear Jesus talking about

Starting point is 00:03:44 greed if you think well that's not me oh that might be a bad sign an old preacher tells the story of a farmer who came to his wife one evening and was very happy to say that their cow had given birth to twin calves, one red, one white. He said, you know, I had this feeling, this kind of a spiritual impulse that we should dedicate one of those calves to the Lord. We'll bring them up together when the time comes. We'll sell the one and keep the proceeds, and we'll sell the other and give the proceeds to God's work. His wife asked him which one he was going to dedicate, the red or the white one. And he said, oh, there's no need to worry about that now. We'll treat them both the same way. And when the time comes, we'll do whatever. And off he went. In a few months, the man entered the kitchen,

Starting point is 00:04:32 looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he said, I have really bad news. The Lord's calf is dead. But she said, you hadn't decided which one was the Lord's calf. Oh, yes, he said. I had always decided it was going to be the white one, and it's the white one that had died. The Lord's calf is dead. So Jesus communicates the main point here. Watch out. Be on guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in abundance of possessions.

Starting point is 00:05:05 And then he tells them a parable. And the parable is about a certain rich man who had a crop that was bigger than he could have ever hoped for. And he said, look, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns so that I'll have a place to store all my surplus grain. but God said to him, you fool? This very night your life will be demanded from you.

Starting point is 00:05:31 Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. Jesus called this man a fool because he thought life consisted in the abundance of his possessions. He thought if he had more money, he would be more secure. He thought that if he had more money, he would be happier. He didn't know that Ecclesiastes 510 says, whoever loves money never has enough,

Starting point is 00:06:04 and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. When this man got more money, he thought that it was for himself, that he should spend it on himself. There was no sense that God is the one who had given it to him, no sense that he should share this with others, no sense that he was a steward or a manager that was supposed to manage the resources God had entrusted to him. Instead, he thinks of himself. This is money for his life, his future, his wants, his needs, his security. But God says that very night, his life

Starting point is 00:06:45 will be demanded from him. In other words, in this story, God calls this man of fool because he forgot his life was short. The man hadn't been thinking about the long term. He'd only been thinking about life on this side of the grave. We have a natural tendency to think like this guy, a natural tendency to think of the immediate instead of the eternal. That's why Moses says in Psalm 90, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. When God teaches us to kind of remember how short our life is, it makes us wise in a way that really nothing else can. We remember that our life here comes to an end, but our life with God lasts forever. And that's why Jesus concludes this parable by contrasting the way this man lived with those who

Starting point is 00:07:42 live in a way that make them rich toward God. See, Jesus wants us to realize, that there are two different ways to live our life, two different ways to spend the resources God has entrusted to us. A way that we can be rich in things or a way that we can be rich in God. A way that we can spend our treasures here on earth or a way that we can lay up treasures in heaven. This man is a fool because he chose to be rich only here on earth, rich only toward himself and not toward God. Would you invest in a stock that you knew was certain to fail? Well, of course not. I mean, it's silly to even ask the question. And yet maybe it isn't so silly. Maybe the answer is not so obvious. Because if we are about accumulating earthly treasure, it's exactly

Starting point is 00:08:40 what we are doing. We are investing in something that we are certain will eventually fail. We are investing in something that moths and rust can destroy and thieves can steal. When I die and stand before God, I don't want to hear him say to me that I'm a fool. What I want to hear him say is, well done, my good and faithful servant. In the area of my resources and the things God has entrusted to me, I want to be faithful in using them in a way that pleases and honors God, that both loves God and loves my neighbor. Thanks for listening.

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Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Greed Your God? | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 12.13-21

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