Pastor Tim Patoka Build On The Rock Week 11: August 12, 2018 Bigger Barns Luke 12:13-21 1) Be On Your Guard Against Greed 2) Be Rich Toward God With Your Surplus What some people call a necessary evil, others call the key to happiness. Some people spend their entire lives trying to accumulate it, others couldn’t care less about it. What is it that I’m talking about? It’s money, the currency that humans have used for thousands of years to value everything. And it will continue to be a big part of our lives. Therefore we would be smart to learn how to use it. During my years at Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, I attended a number of personal finance seminars. I found them interesting and helpful because of the practical advice they gave. Things like how to set a budget, realizing that a person’s budget will reflect what their priorities are. Strong encouragement to save for retirement while you are young to capitalize on compound interest thirty plus years later. But among the many things I learned, there was one lesson that stood out above the rest. And it was what our attitude towards money should be. It is a tool that we use to reach our goals and make our proposed future a reality. A tool that we can use to show our thanks back to God for what he has given us. In our verses for this morning from Luke chapter 12, we see what advice our Savior gives us on how our attitude towards money should be with a parable, a story, about a rich farmer who planned to build bigger barns for his surplus of grain but ended up acting a fool, and how we can use it correctly whether our income is measured in dollar and cents or multiple figures. 1) Be On Your Guard Against Greed People came to Jesus all the time with all sorts of questions. Sometimes it was the Pharisees who would try to trap Jesus with a trick question. Sometimes it was people who genuinely wanted to know more about God’s Word and what Jesus had to say about it. And sometimes there were questions that came out of left field. It’s one of those seemingly random questions that start off our verses for this morning where Luke writes, “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’” (Luke 12:13) Jesus, rather than play the part of the judge or arbiter in deciding how the inheritance should be split up, rather takes the opportunity to teach us about our attitude towards money. He says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) There’s more to life than the things that money can buy. There’s also faith and family and friendships. And to make sure that a person approaches money as the tool it is, Jesus gives us life lesson number one: be on your guard against greed. Don’t give into that never-ending temptation of acquiring money. And to illustrate his point, Jesus gives us a parable about a farmer who had an abundant harvest. His harvest was so great that he didn’t 1
Pastor Tim Patoka Build On The Rock Week 11: August 12, 2018 have enough space for all his grain. And so what did he decide to do? He decided to give in to his greed, to build bigger barns to store all his grain for himself so that he could eat, drink, and be merry in the years to come. Now you may be wondering, how could a bigger barn be a sin? If you’re looking at it from a business perspective, that’s exactly what he needs! Store up in years of plenty so that you’re not hurting in years of want. But I bring you back to why Jesus is telling this parable. It’s to illustrate his point. He said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) And he follows it up with a story about a fictitious farmer doing the very thing Jesus is warning against. This fictitious farmer thought that life consisted in the abundance of his possessions, specifically that the bigger his barns were and the fuller they were filled, the better off he was. And what was the attitude behind this all? Greed. That never-ending temptation to acquire materials possessions to make one’s life better. We all deal with this temptation of greed. There’s always going to be that latest gizmo or gadget on our wish list. We’re always going to want a nicer, newer vehicle. And while there’s nothing wrong in buying these things, there is a danger when we let greed drive us. Because greed does more than tell us to buy more things. Greed tells us that our focus should be on ourselves. Why did the parable’s farmer want to build bigger barns? For himself, so that he could take life easy in the years to come. Never once did he think to share his wealth with God or with others. It was all about him. When the temptation of greed comes knocking on our doors, who does it seek to benefit? Ourselves. We withhold our wealth for ourselves. We buy things that bring happiness to our lives. And it will never stop. Greed will always be telling, “Do this! Do that! Buy this! Buy that! Because you won’t feel complete until you have it all.” Yet life is not all about us or what we can do to better ourselves. As Jesus says, “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15b) So then, what does life consist in? In the blessings that God has already given to us. And while there are many physical blessings that we have, the most important blessing that we have is one we cannot see – the forgiveness of sins. There’s a reason why people came to Jesus with seemingly random questions about dividing an inheritance. It’s because he lived like no one else ever did. He kept everyone of God’s laws. He showed up the teachers of the law with his intimate knowledge of God’s Word because it is his word. Jesus never gave in to greed or placed himself over the people. He lived each day of his perfect life for you and me so that he could sacrifice himself on the cross for our sake. So that by his death, we might receive the credit of a perfect life. And how do we receive this state of sins forgiven? Not by how we live. Not by what we buy. But by faith, through trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin. He gives it to us as a gift even though we continue to sin. And it will be ours no matter how many or how few possessions we may have before us. 2
Pastor Tim Patoka Build On The Rock Week 11: August 12, 2018 2) Be Rich Toward God With Your Surplus Once we realize that life consists in the blessings that God has already given to us, we see how our attitude towards money changes. Money is not the goal, it’s a tool to reach our goal. Life is no longer about what I can get for myself. It’s about what we already have from God. When greed comes knocking on our door, you know what we can say back? “I’m good. I already have everything I need because I have my God who freely forgives my sins and provides for all my needs.” It’s this correct appreciation of what God already has given us that allows us to read what the Apostle Paul wrote in our Second Lesson from 1 Timothy chapter 6 – “But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” (1 Timothy 6:6-8) Even if all we have is food and clothing, we have something far greater than any amount of money could ever buy. A right relationship with God that assures us of these eternal truths: God loves us; God forgives us; and God will always be with us no matter how rich or poor we may be in this world. But we need to make sure we don’t forget these things so that we don’t end up like the foolish farmer. If you remember back to our parable, what did the farmer do after harvesting his abundant crop? As he tells us, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” (Luke 12:18-19) He gave in to his greed by deciding to build bigger barns to look at his wealth and by thinking only of himself in the years to come. And what was God’s reaction? And he says to the farmer, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:20) What good would that abundance of possessions do for the farmer when he passed away? Nothing. Everything that he stored up for himself would benefit him nothing. Jesus finishes off our verses with life lesson number two where he says, “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21) What Jesus means is not an either-or situation. It’s not that we should only be rich toward God but not store up for ourselves. Rather it is to be a both-and situation. That when we have a surplus of material blessings, that we store them up for our future and that we richly share them with God. This goes back to the correct attitude we are to have towards money. Money is a tool, something that can be used to spread the news of God’s glory. But now the question is, how much do we store up for ourselves and how much do we richly share with God? That’s where things become a case-by-case basis. First of all you need a surplus, an amount that is more than what is needed for the bare necessities of life. You probably aren’t going to have a surplus when the times are tight. When that happens, the leader 3
Pastor Tim Patoka Build On The Rock Week 11: August 12, 2018 of the family needs to sit down and see where the problem is coming from. If financial hardships are happening because of uncontrollable factors like a loss of a job or unexpected bills, then don’t feel guilty if you can’t richly share your wealth with God. But if times are tight because of poor priorities or unhealthy shopping habits, then perhaps you need to reassess how you spend the blessings that God has given you so that you can richly share with God in the same way you treat yourself. But if you are like the majority of America who makes more than what they need, look to Jesus’ 2nd life lesson – store up for yourselves while richly sharing with God. Build up your financial reserves so that when hard times come, you don’t have to drain someone else’s financial reserves to survive. There are plenty of resources out there to help with this if you’re looking for help. But remember to also richly share with God from that same surplus. Keep your offerings in proportion to your income and commitments so that you don’t put yourself in financial hardship. Richly give back to the Lord with a gladsome heart knowing that he will be with you and provide for all your needs of food, water, clothing, and shelter. He will never take away his greatest blessing of sins forgiven. And you may find that, like I’ve heard from many generous givers, that when you richly share with God you’ll have a unique kind of peace in your heart as well. People consider money to be many different things – a necessary evil, the key to happiness, or the measurement of a complete life. Yet money is not inherently bad. It’s a tool that can be used or misused like any tool. As our Savior warns us in these verses from Luke chapter 12, we are to be on guard against greed so that we do not misuse money. Greed says that we should look out only for ourselves and, as such, use our money only for ourselves. Yet when we consider the forgiveness of sins that God has freely given to us, we see how foolish greed is. For we already have that which money can never buy – a right relationship with God through faith in what Jesus has done for us. It is with this mindset that gives thanks to Jesus in every possible way that we learn of how we can use money in a God-pleasing way. To store up for ourselves while richly sharing that same wealth with God. While the exact dollar amounts will change from person to person, the attitude is the same. To give back to God in thanksgiving for he has already given us. May the Lord help us do this by keeping greed far from our hearts so that we may richly share with him while we store up for ourselves. Amen.
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