Sunday 03 • 10 • 19

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 arbitrator 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 larger 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 you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward god. And he said to his disciples, therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to a span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if god so clothed the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat or what you are to drink nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things. And your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The word of the lord. — Luke 12:13-34

Good morning. I mentioned to the 09:00 service that they were dragging in after losing an hour of sleep, but I think you all have gained an hour of sleep, so that's a good thing. But I'm a huge advocate of always having daylight savings time. I mean, simply put, more light means more fun, less crime, and never arriving too early or too late for church ever again. So when you get the chance to vote on the legislation that's coming, it's going to come at some point, please vote for always keeping daylight savings time. Might not be that simple, but still a man can dream.

So I'm Anderson Shore. I'm the intern here at Christ the King. And today, we will continue our sermon series of the seven deadly sins. We've talked about envy and sloth, and now this morning, you get to hear about greed. One thing that I've learned about being on staff here at CTK is that James Sutton, right here, he loves practical jokes, and Jeff Bradford really likes to be mean to me. So, thanks you guys. Given the intern the topic of greed, real cool.

With that, I'm going to ask Holy Spirit to come alongside all of us this morning. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you so much for your word. That you give it to us to be able to learn more about who you are and for us to see our sin. And I ask that his Holy Spirit shows us the word of God and convicts our hearts that he will speak for me. Holy spirit, speak for me. Let me be gentle. Let my words convict if need be. And let us all see that Jesus is amazing. In your name we pray. Amen.

Like James and Jeff have mentioned, this sermon series is tough. It's always tough for us to see our sin. And I wanted you to know that this sermon on greed is no different. Through my study of Luke 12 this week, I've received some punches. And my hope for today is that we will all walk away knowing that we are a greedy people, that we need Jesus, but we're freed up to seek the kingdom of God. So those are my three points for today. Number one, greedy people. Number two, generous Jesus. And number three, God rich mission.

I looked up greed and the internet spat out the definition of selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed. And as we look to Luke 12, I think it's necessary to add to that definition. A selfish and excessive desire for more of something in order to acquire something. Now, that's a little bit repetitive, I know, but it gets to the point that, yes, we are greedy for a lot of things.

We are greedy for more money, more status, better clothes, bigger house, but it doesn't stop there because the things that we are chasing after, thinking about before we go to sleep, spending our money on, are leading to something else. It's leading to something deeper.

In the documentary Minimalism, which you can find on Netflix, Rick Hansen, a psychologist says this: I think it goes to the bottom line fact that you can never get enough of what you don't really want. In other words, deep down, we don't really want more goodies, more toys, more cars. We want what they will bring us. We want to feel whole. We want to feel content.

As we look at Luke 12, we can get a glimpse of what the man in the crowd and the rich man value, what they are running after in order to feel whole, to feel content. So let's dive in. Starting in verse 13, someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." For some reason, this is kind of odd to me. Hey, Jesus, I know you're busy and all, but can you tell my brother to give me the money I deserve? This man thinks that because he has heard Jesus talk about money that he could just go to him and get his problem solved.

But Jesus responds in verse 14 saying:

Man, who made me judge or arbitrator? — Luke 12:14

And then 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 possession. — Luke 12:15

Jesus goes on to show us another example of greed in verses 16 through 19 with the rich man. The rich man that Jesus is talking about has been successful in his production of crops so much so that he has filled his barns and decides that he should keep all of his crops. He even goes on to tear down his old barns and build up new and bigger ones. This man even asked himself the question, what should I do with all of this excess?

And Jesus shows the nature of the human heart. Oh, should I keep all this? Should I give it away? Nah. I'll just keep it. And in the meantime, I'll build bigger barns, bigger houses, bigger closets, bigger bank accounts so that I can eat, drink, and be merry.

The man in the crowd is wanting what he believes is his fair share of money, and the rich man has the excess of his crops. But it is important to ask the question: what are these men running after? What are they valuing?

There are many reasons for why the man in the crowd and the rich man are valuing these things, but for the sake of time, let's focus on the idea that they value security, that they value comfort. You could say that the rich man values security by deciding to store up his crops rather than deciding to give some of it away to those in need. He could also value comfort by wanting to build up his treasure on earth so that he can eat, drink, and be merry. He could relax and just treasure the things that he has.

To me, it seems that the man in the crowd is using Jesus to gain his own security. The covetousness or greed of this man is operating out of a desire for security, to not be fearful about whether he has enough money in the bank. Or he could just be valuing comfort: maybe I can just get this money so that I can get this thing so that I can be comfortable, so that I can enjoy my life.

Like I said, it's funny to me that this greed causes the man from the crowd to yell at Jesus, "Hey, I need that money. Can you help me get that money? I deserve this." He's chasing after Jesus in order to get something that he thinks will make him feel whole and fails to recognize that Jesus is right in front of him—King Jesus that came to bring full wholeness, full salvation, full peace. He's standing right in front of him, and yet this man in the crowd is blinded. He's blinded by the entitlement that he believes he has to this inheritance.

Look, Jesus' words in verse 34 gives us a peek through the curtain on how greed affects these men, how it affects us as well. He says:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. — Luke 12:34

We see that both of these men are treasuring money, are treasuring the things of this world, and their hearts are not able to see the way of the kingdom. There are ways to be rich in God. They are not seeing the person of Jesus. They are not seeing how he can provide security, how Jesus is the ultimate source of contentment.

And we are like these men. Our hearts are affected by the things that we chase after, the things that we treasure. When reading about both of these men, I could not help from seeing myself in both of them.

So before I was on staff here at Christ the King, I was a wedding photographer. I used a lot of my time to be able to go into that business. And every wedding, I would look forward to something. I would look forward to getting a white envelope with some cash in it. A tip. And when I would get that tip, I would be really excited. I'd even maybe do a little dance kind of like Chandler from the office.

That stuck with me throughout the day. My mind would go to that idea of, yes, I can buy something for golf. I can use this to do another house project. I can buy another piece of furniture for our house. Every single time I would be gifted with that envelope, it was selfish. It was based off of my own comfort. Never was it, oh, I could use this money to give to a missionary and support them, or I could use this money, go and buy some food in order to just make a really nice meal and bless my neighbors. Never was there a thought that was separate from my comfort. It was me building my barns in my head.

And now with being on staff here at Christ the King and raising support for my salary, I always think, will we have enough? Will we be secure? Should I ask God for more support so that I can make sure that we are secure? You could even say that I'm the man in the crowd, and I'm using Jesus as a way to provide for my own safety, for my own security. Hey, Jesus, will you cut me some checks? Will you be my financial adviser?

If nothing is coming to mind right now on what you are greedy after or what you value, we don't have to look far, as Jesus gives us some categories to look to. Take a look. Jesus says in verse twenty-two and twenty-three:

Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. — Luke 12:22-23

This still reigns true today. We are bodily creatures. And a lot of the time, we're focusing on what we can put in our bodies and on our bodies. When people are talking with one another, I feel like weather is always a common topic. Oh, it's dreary this morning. Oh, it's going to be really nice this week. Awesome. Everybody loves talking about the weather. I don't know why. But what about when we're not talking about the weather? I think those times we're focusing on food and clothing. Food and drink, as in what restaurants are you going to? What's your favorite coffee shop? Are you a bourbon guy or a Scotch guy? Or clothing. Hey, where did you get those shoes? Hey, what kind of new fishing and hunting gear did you get? How many clothing blogs are you following? Or even on the red carpet, Oh my, who are you wearing?

But really, it seems like so much of our greed today has to deal with clothing and food, which can be warning signs for what we value. The rich man said to his soul, eat, drink, and be merry. And today, we are saying eat, drink, be merry, and posted on Instagram. What are we valuing? The trail might start by looking at where you're spending your money and what you're posting on social media. Maybe it's just me who's creating Instagram accounts in order to get free clothes, free golf, and maybe a free meal every now and then. Those are the things that I'm running after, that I'm greedy for.

But we are longing for comfort. We're longing to be known. We're longing for security. I know this is a lot, but strap in. What is the city of Raleigh running after? Is it building bigger homes? Is it buying new homes? Is it upsizing? Is it trying to move closer and closer to downtown to be inside the beltline? Is it tearing down our barns in order to store more and more of our stuff? How are we falling into this? How are we being swept into the river that culture is running?

Instead of storing up our crops in barns like the rich man, are we deciding to store up our money and our real estate value and continuing to climb the ladder of success? Are we going to Jesus for the things that we can get from him? Are we acknowledging that he is actually the one that has given us these gifts? Are we trying to find more joy in things than trying to find joy in Christ?

Whether it be valuing what we have or what we don't have, in absence or in excess, we need to see that we are not just chasing after money, clothes, paying off student loan debt, finally saving up six months of expenses, finding a job or a better job. No. We need to see that we are valuing security, comfort, feeling whole, but we are treasuring the wrong inheritance. We are treasuring the wrong barns. Our greed for more and more is destroying us.

Now, some of you might be thinking, I'm not actually chasing after more and more. More like less and less. I just Marie Kondo'd my whole house and got rid of everything that sparks joy in my life. And you might be saying, watched The Minimalist documentary and I've freed myself from the things of this world. The question I have for you is this. Are you getting rid of these things to try and find peace in your life, to find comfort? Are you being greedy for a clean house? Does it bring you ultimate joy for you to have less?

Wyatt Graham, a writer for the Gospel Coalition, says this in a blog post, "In any case, should our well-being, freedom, and happiness rely on whether we have or have not clothing or gadgets? Why do we run after these things?"

Why do we run after these methods that only bring a mere moment of happiness? Why do we look to temporary treasures, material things to fill us with joy when over and over again they fail us? What are we treasuring? Whatever it is, our hearts are following that and our hearts, our souls need something better. And just like the man in the crowd, the better inheritance is right in front of us. He's right there.

Verse 15 shows us that life is not in the abundance of possessions. Jesus uses the rich man as an example because he is blinded by his greed and is soaked up in his dreams of having everything that he has no vision to see Jesus. And the rich man's treasure will not last. Moth and rust will destroy it. Jesus says that.

Jesus says to the man in the crowd, I'm not your judge or your arbitrator. Jesus does not want this man to come to him to fix his money problems. No, he wants him to come to him to solve his heart problem. Jesus, like a parent, doesn't want just like a parent relating to a child, doesn't want us to approach him like an ATM. He doesn't want us to approach him for money or the things that he'll give to him. He wants us to approach him as a person.

I had to ask myself this question this week. Do I want the things that Jesus brings more than I want Jesus? Am I excited about heaven because there's gonna be no pain, no tears, no stress? I'm excited because Jesus will be there.

I'm a new dad. Carrie and I have a five month old named Molly, and we are in love with this little one. She brings us a lot of joy, and we are learning more and more about her. It's a lot of fun. We love learning that she likes to scoot around now. She likes to get under the couch for some reason. She smiles at weird noises, and she kicks that right foot over and over again, never the left, just the right.

And there are times when we've put Molly down, you would think that it wouldn't be this case, that we would just be soaking up this time with one another. But there's times when we're sitting on the couch and we look at one another and we say, I miss Molly. And there are times when we wake up in the morning, we go to her room, and most of the time, she is smiling ear to ear at us, excited that we come again and to spend time with her.

I was able to be guided to the idea this week that in the presence of Jesus comes ultimate joy. Just as Carrie and I wanna be in the presence of Molly because we love her so much and love being able to laugh with her, the Christian gets to be excited to be in the presence of Jesus. Do we say I miss Jesus? As we learn more and more about the work that he has done and how he brought us out of death and into life, we start to long for his presence every day, every moment of our lives.

All of his work, all of his qualities, all of the things we love about Jesus comes from his presence. The absence of Jesus means the absence of salvation. The absence of Jesus means the absence of peace, the absence of joy.

You make known to me the path of life. In your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. — Psalm 16:11

In Jesus, this is available and this is good news for us today. Christian, non-Christian, seeker, skeptic, hoarder, minimalist, there is something better for us to treasure and his name is Jesus. There's something better to treasure. We get to treasure his gifts to us. We have the opportunity to treasure his presence.

The Glad News

Now church, that is good news for us, but there is some amazing glad news as well. The truth that we need to see is that there is glad news that what Jesus values is us.

Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? — Luke 12:24

Church, we are made in the image of our creator. We are more valuable to Christ than the birds, than the lilies, and yet he feeds the birds and he clothes the lilies. Christ values you. Yes, everyone in this room, he values you.

And he chose to empty himself so you could become full. He chose to become poor so that you could become rich. Jesus could have kept his riches of heaven, could have kept his throne, but he traded his throne and his robes for a cross and nakedness because he values you.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. — 2 Corinthians 8:9

Jesus became poor because he values you. Jesus came to this earth because he values you. He took the cross because he values you. And he values you so much that he wants to give us a feast. He wants to give us clothes of righteousness.

True wholeness, security, and comfort can be found in this news. When you believe in what Jesus has done, your treasures are with Jesus and you are rich in him, so rich that the things of this world are not needed for you to have joy.

Jesus wants you to find peace in this truth and to stop running after your dreams of having a certain job, a house, enough money to go to fancy restaurants, or being able to get out of debt. Jesus wants you to know that he values you. And just as Molly smiles at us when we come into her room in the morning, Jesus is smiling ear to ear when you come into his presence, when you come to have a relationship with him.

Now, I feel like I need to address something. The enjoyment of God's gifts and being wise with money is a good thing. It is not sinful. Being able to enjoy a good steak, a nice red wine, or buying a big house are not bad things. Success is not a bad thing, but when we look to the created things rather than the Creator, that is when our greed can fester.

Saving money is good. The book of Proverbs shows us that. And paying off debt is a good thing, but it is when saving or becoming debt free becomes a purely selfish activity, when our worth, what we value is being affected by how much money is in our bank accounts. These gifts have been given to us for the enjoyment of God, for us to turn back to God, for us to use these gifts that he's given to us for his glory.

So how do we do just that? How do we use these things to give glory? How do we become God rich? There are many ways that we can do this. If it's becoming more like Jesus, growing in the knowledge of him, giving our money to the church and Christian causes as this is a good investment to the kingdom. Some of these might fall under the points that I'm about to say for us this morning.

Two Points for Becoming God Rich

We respond in generosity, and we seek and display the kingdom without anxiousness. When we are able to see that in Jesus we have been dealt with generously, that as we read earlier in Psalm 103 that God has not dealt with us according to our sins, but rather has put our sins on Jesus Christ, the response to that generosity is generosity. We know that we can be generous with our possessions and our time because we know that we are being cared for by the Father. That because we have been given an amazing gift in our salvation, we can use our lives as gift to others.

So what are some of the ways we can respond in generosity? Here we go. I've got a few. These are free, by the way. Maybe it means selling something in order to be able to give more. College students, maybe it is using your college majors to be generous with your skills and future money rather than just thinking about what major is going to make you the most money. We pursue paying off debt so that it frees us up to be more generous with our giving. The goal for us in bringing financial peace to Christ the King is not to get out of debt in order to get rich by worldly standards, but for money not to rule us and for us to be good stewards, for us to be able to be freed up to be generous.

Another example: maybe it means downsizing your house and moving to an area where one of our church plants are located. Maybe it means doing that soon so that you can join Russell, our next church planter, in Knightdale and be able to see what it looks like when Jesus becomes famous there. What would it look like when we get raises at our jobs for us to increase our giving rather than increase our spending?

Now, I know what you're thinking. Jeff and James are just sending out the intern to tell us to give the church our money. Hear this clearly: we care more about your heart than your money. The goal of this is not to get your money, but rather to realign your treasure so that your heart is treasuring Christ. And then we pray that that would spur you on to be generous to the church, to spur you on to see the mission of God happen in the city of Raleigh.

Oh, let us be people that don't make excuses when it comes to changing our budgets in order to become more generous. Christ the King, how are we showing what we value to our city, to our families, to our children? Are we showing that we are greedy for the things of this world, that our time throughout the week is just chasing after bigger barns? Is the desire for our time on this earth to serve King Jesus, or do we have more of a desire to be comfortable, to eat, drink, and be merry?

Christ the King, let there be a shift in the tide where our lives represent that we know our inheritance is with Jesus. We have received great riches and everlasting life in Jesus Christ. And with that, we get to be unbelievably generous with our time and our money because we want his name to be known by every nation, by every tongue, by every neighbor that we come across.

Now, I feel like I need to win back the Marie Kondo fans out there. I dogged on sweet little Marie Kondo earlier, which is actually kind of hard to do, but I did and I'm sorry. So I use a really good quote that she provides that I think is very fitting to this conversation.

Marie Kondo says this: when we really delve into the reasons for why we can't let something go, there are only two—an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.

I think there are times that we don't take a jump into living for the glory of Jesus, to be rich in God, because we have an attachment to our past or we're fearful of the future. "I love this thing too much. I'm entitled to have this, or I'm afraid to trust Jesus to take a chance."

Church, Jesus acknowledges your past and can free you from it. He wants you to grow out of your love for earthly things, and he promises us in the great commission that he will be with us. If he is with us, then we can take chances. If he is with us, then we do not have to fear the future. He has given us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will remind us day by day that our hope, our comfort, our security lie in Jesus.

We have an amazing future promised to us in Jesus. You can trust him. You can take risks for the kingdom because you have ultimate security in him. You can live fearlessly because you know that at the end of the day, you will be with Jesus in eternity.

I feel like the church has been invited to come play backyard football with Jesus. But we're staying back at home making sure that our pads are right, that we have our helmet, that we have our chin strap, that we have proper theology, that we have flawless discipleship methods. We are trying to be safe or get everything in order before we join Jesus on the mission field. When really he just wants us to trust him, to come play the game, to come make disciples, and to come and trust him.

The Command Not to Be Anxious

There's a beautiful part of this scripture that we have not hit on, and it is the command that Jesus gives to not be anxious. Jesus cares about feeding and clothing you, and he tells us that he will do just that. Do not be anxious. Go make disciples. He will take care of your food and your clothing. He will take care of our daily bread so that we can go and share with others the bread of life. And all along, he'll be with us.

Listen to the care that God has for you. Listen to the comfort that we can take in knowing that God does not want us to be anxious. He wants to take care of the lesser ambitions of clothing and food so that you can live out the kingdom and receive the amazing blessings that he has stored up for you. Listen to the word of God:

But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourself with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. — Luke 12:28–34

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.