Words of Jesus Podcast - Jesus Expects Us to Think

Episode Date: March 1, 2024

It is the propensity of man to shift responsibility; to look to experts or professionals to relieve the pressure of thinking, of deciding and of acting; a type of child (or slave) mentality. It is true, we begin our walk in Christianity as servants; however, there is more for those who would be heirs. God desires a "living sacrifice." Daily we deny-ourselves. Daily we take-up-our-cross. Daily we seek a Word from God. Daily we obey Jesus when He says, "Follow-me". ***66: Jesus Warns Against CovetousnessLuke 12:13-21 After Jesus had given his warnings regarding hypocrisy, one of those present said to him:            “Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.”            Jesus replied:            “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?”            He continued:            “Take heed, and beware of covetousness. For a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”            Then Jesus told a parable of a rich man to the multitude, saying:            “The ground of a certain rich man was brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said, ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said unto him, ‘Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?’ So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents the Words of Jesus series with Don C. Harris. Hello my friends and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris here, your host. And we are going to be talking from the 66th chapter of our book, the title of which is, Jesus Warns Against Covetousness. After Jesus had given his warnings regarding hypocrisy, one of those present said to him, After Jesus had given his warnings regarding hypocrisy,

one of those present said to him, Master, speak to my brother that he may divide the inheritance with me. Jesus said, Man, who made me a ruler or a divider over you? He continued, of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying what shall I do because I have no room to bestow my fruits and he said this will I do I will pull down my barns and build greater and there I will bestow my fruits and my goods and I will bestow my fruits and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. Several things in here.

This story has been told over and over, certainly been preached over and over. And there's a lot of things about what we read here that are very, very familiar to us. However, there are some nuances of this little meeting, the story, and of course this meeting with this man that was concerned about his inheritance that I think would do us good to take a look at. One was, Jesus asked a question that was not answered. And that was, who made me a ruler and a divider? And one gospel says, a judge over you. Who did that?

Well, you know, the answer to the question should have been answered by the young man that says, well, I guess I did. But I have found that in Christianity, many people who want to gain something, not necessarily stuff, but a lot of people want to put credence behind what they say by saying jesus said so there's some people who want to uh take the sting of their bad behavior out of their life they're out of their bad behavior

by saying well you know jesus didn't say anything about it or the bible doesn't say anything about it or my church doesn't care about it or whatever else and people constantly um for reasons of gain, and I suppose you could call both those situations gains. If somebody is gaining comfort in a sin that they're committing, but for selfish reasons, people take, they take from or try to attach themselves to some authority that agrees with them. This man was under the impression that if he were to get Jesus to say, yeah, bring your brother here.

Hey, bud, why aren't you sharing the inheritance with him? You see, this would give it some credence, and the guy might, he might give in if Jesus said so. But he's not going to give in because his brother says so. He's not going to give in because the inheritance says so. He's not going to give in because it's the right thing to do. Now, Jesus really did not come to command us. Did you know that? Jesus came to make us into the people we need to be to hear the commandments of God, his Father. He didn't come here to give commandments.

He came here once to give them he was the one that wrote the 10 commandments in the rock but that's been done and he's not really here to give us little rules to live by or you know the you know this this can make you happy do this and this and then and then that believe this and this and this wouldn. Believe this and this and this. Wouldn't it be, I mean, no. The answer to the question, let me answer before I even ask it. Wouldn't it be nice if he did? No, it would not be nice. We'd just be automatons, robots. We'd be doing whatever we're told to do. I kind of enjoy being able to serve God as a matter of my will it's an offering that i give

him every day this is why the bible says offer yourselves living sacrifices not dead automaton sacrifices not just a machine that can do the will of god for you but living sacrifices what does that mean this is a brain that's functioning a spirit that's functioning a body that's functioning all coming together to make you and anyway i guess what i'm saying is is that if we if we do live our lives in this manner you're going to find yourself doing this more times than you're going to be proud of. Well, you know, the Bible says this and that, or it doesn't say this, or it doesn't say that. Therefore, you know, well, you know, don't you think you're hitting that wine a little hard this evening? And well, Jesus drank wine. Right?

You've been here. You've heard these things. You know what my answer is if somebody says that? So what? How does that give you a license? You know, when I go to Jesus and say, hey, you know, wine, no wine. What do you say? Who made me a judge or divider over you?

Don't you have a brain in your head? Don't you have a spirit in your body? Don't you have a spirit in your body? Don't you know the right thing to do? He was constantly flabbergasted by us. I can't believe you people are actually living and moving and having your being with no brain, no spirit, no nothing. How do you do that? And he used to ask people what say ye

uh we don't say anything what think ye uh we don't think anything really you think that's christianity just uh just follow a list of rules you want jesus to tell you to quit to quit hanging around that girl at the water cooler and go home to your wife and be a husband to her you want him to say that to you is it really well he looked at that that that woman that was caught in adultery and said, neither do I condemn thee. Bible says so. Oh, I guess it does. Well, then you go right ahead. Are we idiots? Why are we going to the Bible to try to find out how to do what we know is the wrong thing to do? First of all, one of them is our sense of right is not developed. It's just, it's not developed. There's a real problem with our sense of right. There's a problem with our consciousness. Not consciousness, I'm sorry. There's a problem with our conscience.

Our consciences are so dulled. As a matter of fact, the apostle, he described it in a very interesting way. He says, having their conscience seared as with a hot iron. I weld. I'm a round hot iron. I know what hot iron can do to you. And you know the really peculiar thing about iron that can melt the skin right off your ends of your fingers? It looks just like iron that's not hot. And if you're not careful, you can pick it up wrong. You can pick up the wrong one or whatever else, and man, it doesn't take you long to let it go. And you look at the ends of your fingers, and your fingerprints are all white, and it's burning like crazy. And now you find that, well, you can just touch anything and not feel it.

It perfectly describes what we do to our conscience when we're constantly, just a second, just touch it. Just touch it, just a second. You know, find something really, really hot, just just a second just touch it just touch it just a second you know um i i you know find something really really hot and you think okay i can move from here to there there just just a little bit and you know to make sure it doesn't it doesn't burn well you know you keep doing that and the time becomes kind of cumulative. And if you constantly disobey your conscience, friend, you're not going to have one.

Do you know how many conscienceless people we have in this world today who feel no compunction no resistance no nothing when it comes to doing something wrong how can a 16 year old kid decide to walk into a room and take an automatic weapon and kill a bunch of people how can he do that where's his conscience it was never developed it was never taught to him he's in the same state he was when he was a six-month-old baby he cried till he got what he wanted and some mother somewhere thinking that she loved him give it to him never been controlled you know I used to run a children's home. And boy, I can pick them out in a crowd. And I'll look at a child and realize

no one has ever said no to this kid. Ever. You know, I've asked them, why do you even bother to ask? Why do you even bother? You know the answer's going to be ask? Why do you even bother? You know the answer's gonna be yes. Why would you even ask?

I'll tell you why you ask. Do you wanna know why you ask? You ever wonder why a child that gets everything they want asks for it? Because there's still a little conscience awake in that child. And they're really not sure. Frankly, I think they're begging for somebody to say no. And when they don't get it, they'll try it again and try it again, until all of a sudden he starts thinking for himself and realizing,

hey, I don't have to ask. Well, that's when you hide the guns, because you're not going to stop this child. You're not going to stop him ever. Are you one of those mothers that takes everything and takes it all off the coffee table? You've been to those homes, right? Then you realize, you look in the living room

and you think, wow, everything in this room is three feet high. Or it's not there. Bookshelves are all empty to the third shelf. Coffee table's clean. Everything, there's nothing that a child can touch. Why is that? They've just kept moving stuff out of his reach. And as he grows up, up why the bookcases just

get more and more empty or the you know the coffee tables just get cleaner why because they will not say no they just won't why don't why don't they say no there's a host of reasons, and none of them are good. Absolutely none of them. Have you raised a child like that? Let me tell you something. Somebody's going to say no to him. It might be his teacher. Of course, you know, he might flap his teacher's tires after school. He might shoot him.

I don't know. This world, man, we live in today. Who knows? People are afraid. They're just afraid to walk down the street people shoot one another for entertainment purposes nowadays it's weird but you're just talking about people that have no conscience where'd they where's their conscience where did it go it was never developed or it was constantly he uh this child he she whoever constantly overlooked it and overlooked it overlooked or got permission from you to do whatever they wanted to do

but there is somebody that will stop them i i used to ask parents do you do you want to say no to this child or do you want their teacher to do so well a lot of times they say well you know that's why they go to school to learn discipline no no no man are you uninformed about school i mean even in the days when school was decent uh uh that's not where a child is supposed to learn discipline child's supposed to learn discipline from their fathers. This is why we can't worship God. This is why God doesn't appeal to anybody today. Nobody's ever had a dad.

Nobody's ever heard the word no. Nobody's ever heard thou shalt not. So if you raise a child like this and you're not going to say no to them, and they're teachers, they may or may not. I don't blame them if they don't. I don't know how teachers get up and go to school every day. I really don't. But somewhere, I said,

just imagine that cute little two-year-old that you cannot control, crying and bawling and squalling and tearing at their clothes and throwing things and cutting a big fit. Just imagine them about five, maybe six foot tall with a policeman's hand on their head and pushing them into the back seat of the squad car

because somebody is going to say no to that child. Now we're getting to where the police don't even want to do that. Friend, it used to be just good, solid thinking to want to please your God and to be on the right side of the world.

But you know what? We're moving into a time now when it's going to be an absolute necessity. You're going to make it? You're going to survive? Your kids are going to survive? Are you going to make God a hobby for them? Really?

Come on. Are you really thinking about this? Somebody's going to say no to your child. It ought to be somebody that loves them. I guarantee you that cop doesn't love them. I guarantee you that school teachers don't love them. I guarantee you nobody loves them like you do. What's your problem?

You never were said no to? You were raised by an absentee father and an overbearing mother? I don't know what your problem is. But get your driver's license out and do the math. Are you over 30 years old? Get over it. You know what to do. You know the right thing to do.

You don't have to mimic your parents. You don't have to become your parents. You don't have to suffer your parents. You don't have to become your parents. You don't have to suffer through that. Wake up. Be somebody. You know the right thing to do. Do you realize this is why we're going to hell? This is why the end of that kind of life is hell.

People say, how can God take good people and throw them into hell? He doesn't. There are no good people. We're all just trying to make this thing work. Well, you know, Jesus came here and says this is the way it works. And we don't even know what he said. You know, people have been following this series. Jesus came here and says this is the way it works. And we don't even know what he said. You know, people have been following this series.

And 40, 50, 60% of what they've heard me read, they'd never heard before. That's amazing. Christians don't know the words of Christ. Our churches have failed in this area. They've failed miserably. The lack of understanding on the part of leadership, the lack of roles, of role models.

You know, what do we do? We stick a basketball in their hand. Put a Game Boy in. Somebody told me, don't say Game Boy anymore. That's gone, man. That's gone. You're just dating yourself. But, well, you know what I mean. They're sitting around doing this, you know.

Man, take that thing and throw it against the wall. Find yourself a brick wall. Something that'll do some damage. And saying, this has got to go but unfortunately you may not be able to sit on the couch and play candy crush yourself oh no god forbid all right so jesus says uh you don't mind if I have some fun with this, do you? All right. He says, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. Now, this can be dissected as well. You can look and hear what Jesus is saying

because I'll tell you, the fact of the matter is that a man's life, it really can be, it can consist of the things he possesses. You see, you have a responsibility to put a roof over your family's head. You have a responsibility to feed them properly, and to clothe them properly, and to make sure that they have what they need. There are many things in life that require things.

And if you don't have those things, if you're just, you know, homeless on the side of the road with a dog, I've seen you there. If that's you, and your mom's watching your kids so you can go out and beg, or whatever it is you're doing, listen,

that's not Christianity. You can hold up all the little cardboard signs you want that say god bless you but you know what if you were capable of blessing me if you were capable of calling god's blessing onto me with a little cardboard sign surely you could call it upon you see no i'm not being cruel here i understand hard times but i also understand people that don't see the importance in in the abundance of things i'm sorry i misspoke because i'm thinking ahead in in the that their life consists in the things that they possess. What was Jesus saying? He was talking about the abundance of things he possesses.

A man's life consists if not in the abundance of things that he possesses. And there are people who've taken this, and they've taken the story of the rich man go and so all that you have give it to the poor and they have they've they've derived from this a a poverty and ascetic lifestyle a you know a minimalism and these kind of things thinking that they're going to be close to god no you probably just need to stand closer to a razor stand closer to a a deodorant bar get yourself a bath get yourself you know press the wrinkles out of your pants and go get a job because i'm going to tell you something your

life does consist in the things you possess we come into this life and we possess things. Do you think this is some hedonistic lifestyle that I'm promoting here? No. You have a responsibility to have things in this life. You know, God is one of the ones that established ownership. You don't remember that? Oh yeah, it's the commandments. We don't believe in the commandments anymore. What commandment says that? Thou shalt not steal. You know, if everybody's supposed to share everything equally, how in the world can you steal?

God is in favor of private property. He's in favor of you enriching your life so that you can have what you need not what you want and not in an overabundance that you have to build other barns it's the abundance of things that life is does not consist of it's not just things this idea of just the poor you are the close you are to god nah come on that's ridiculous especially if people in your life for poor you are the close you are to god nah come on that's ridiculous especially if people in your life for whom you are responsible are suffering on that on that account he says the ground of a certain man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself, what shall I do?

Because there's no room to bestow my fruits. This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. That is really an odd thing, don't you think? Why does he say I'm going to pull down the barns that I do have and build greater? Now you could look at this and say, well, you know, back in those days barns weren't necessarily made out of wood, but they were, you know,

large tents or whatever, and they needed the materials for that. I've heard all that. But I don't think Jesus was giving us a dissertation on how to increase your storage capacity. I think it's interesting that this man says, I'm going to pull down my barns and build greater. Why would he do that? Why would he just not add barns?

I really think that it's got something to do with pride. I not only want to own these things, I want people to see my abundance. I don't want them to see a small barn. I want them to see a big barn. So there's an ego factor in here. He says that when he's all done and he gets all of his grains or his goods

or his fruit gathered and put into that barn, then I will say to my soul, soul, interesting, huh? I will say to my soul soul thou hast many goods laid up for many days eat drink be merry a lot of people don't know that the that the term eat drink and be merry is in the bible the old saying is eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you shall die jesus said you forgot one thing on the eat drink and be merry the father looked at him and says you fool tonight your soul is going to be required of thee who do you think is going to own all that stuff when you're done you know who's going to own it your enemies isn't that what um who was it who was it oh the preacher in ecclesiastes

he was talking about you know what happened what i've noticed is is that uh when a person dies the fools in his life end up with his money the fools in his life the people that have given him trouble all of his life they're the ones that end up with his possessions he said that can't be the right thing to do so what is a person supposed to do when he says I see that i have an abundance i see that i have much and you know many of us americans we have much what shall i do i got an idea i got an idea how about not selling everything you have and feed the poor but do you know there's many things you could do to promote the gospel, to promote a good, solid, foundational

religion in children's lives where going in and shooting up a library and killing people is just not the right thing to do. To reinforce, to bolster his conscience. You know, it's not midnight basketball that's going to fix these problems. It's going to be people who have a relationship with God. There's only a handful of people that can help them do that. Well, when you look at your abundance

and you wonder, what can I do? I got an idea, and you know what it is. We need to share. We need to be good to one another, treat one another better. Our time is gone. Sorry about that. Fastest half hour in television. All right, so if you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you. Send them to me. Don at ThinkRedInc.com or write to ThinkRedInc Ministries, P.O. Box 718 Pytown,

New Mexico 87827 Till then, bye bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of ThinkRedInc Ministries. Email Don at ThinkRedInink.com. That's thinkredink.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you