Guarding Against Greed

SERMON: 2011-07-17--ac1166--guarding-against-greed SOURCE DURATION: 00:43:20.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided window consists of continuous sermon material, including exposition, application, and concluding musical elements that are integral to the message. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:39:21.360-00:43:19.880 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, as I said a few moments ago, we want to pick up where we left off with Ananias and Sapphira last week. We saw that it was their greed, particularly their greed for money, but also their greed for attention that did them in. And it's very easy for you and me to sit here today and to point fingers at them and to echo the words of the Apostle Peter when he said, "What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." But truth of the matter is, of course, that probably none of us here today is immune to falling for that same temptation, are we? How many times haven't we all pretended to be more spiritual than we really are? Or how many times haven't we tried to find our security in earthly goods or measured our status by our accomplishments or sought the applause or the approval of man over the favor of God or hid our greed under a cloak of spirituality or pretense? And the only reason I think that hearses don't line up to carry out dead bodies after church services in the world today is not because we have suddenly become so super spiritual, wouldn't you agree? But rather because God has chosen to step back far enough to give us grace and mercy so that we can grow into what it is that in Christ we are. And if you're in Christ this morning, then you have confessed that God is your Father, that He is the source of our supply and that He is the source of our life, that our treasures do not lie on earth but rather in heaven and you have already committed yourself to putting off the old and to put on the new because as the Apostle Paul points out so clearly, in the kingdom that God is building, He will not tolerate any kind of greed and He is very determined to flush it out of your life and my life. Listen to this scripture, Ephesians 5, verses 5 and 6, "For of this you can be sure." Now notice this, "No immoral, impure or greedy person, such man he says is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of such things, God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient." Notice what he says, "A greedy person is an idolater, tries to find life in something other than God, it's right up there with immorality, sexual immorality or impurity." And he says, "Don't let anybody deceive you because of such things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." So God's very anxious to root out in your life and in my life any vestige of greed that is at odds with His kingdom. So the question then is, how do you get rid of that, right? Because if we're really honest with ourselves, this runs much deeper and is much more extensive than we are inclined to think. So that's what we want to talk about as we talk this morning about guarding our hearts against greed and I want to do that on the basis of this parable that we've read together from Luke chapter 12, "The Parable of the Rich Fool." Allow me to set the context. The first 12 verses of the chapter deal with the instructions of Jesus to His disciples to realize that if they're going to be about the business of the kingdom, they're going to be persecuted, they're going to be hauled before courts, not to worry about what they're going to say because your Father who is in heaven, the Holy Spirit, will give you the words that you need in that hour. Then in verse 13, there is a man in the crowd who picks up on this and he uses the opportunity to ask him this question. And here is the question, someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." That's not an unreasonable request, is it? It's a justice issue. And if you want to see fights in families, then watch what happens when there is an inheritance on the table. It so happens that just last Sunday after the service, one of the women here visiting her mother in the neighborhood who was dying, asked to speak with me after the service. I tell you this story with her permission. And there is a big kerfuffle in her family over her mother's inheritance before the woman is even dead. And those are not unusual stories and they cut to the core. "Master, bid my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Now notice the answer that Jesus gives, his answer has two components with it. First of all, he says, "Listen, this is not my business." Verse 14 of that chapter, "Man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you." Very interesting answer because though Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings, and before him one day all the nations will be gathered and he will be judging them, he has not come into the world to condemn or to judge the world, but to save the world. And so he refuses to step outside of his calling and outside of his anointing and he says, "Listen, this is not my job. My job is not to help you settle your earthly goods. My job is to point you to the God and Father of all creation." Very important lesson there because there are times for all of us when we get invited to step into situations that we may not be called to or anointed for. And if nevertheless we step into those kinds of situations, you know what's going to happen, we're either going to make matters worse because we're not gifted in that area or we spin out ourselves because we don't have the anointing that we need. And so the example of Jesus is very helpful, "Who has called me to be a judge or an arbiter on your behalf?" and the implied answer of course is, "Nobody, so don't ask me to decide your problems for you, that's why you have courts, that's why there's a structure of authority in the nation for you to get just as done as you perceive it." So that's his first answer, "It's not my business." But then ever open and looking for teaching opportunities, he uses it to drive home the greater spiritual lesson. Listen to verse 15, "Then he said to them, 'Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.'" And then he says this, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And that then becomes an introduction to the parable of the rich fool. And he tells this parable, "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do, I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years, take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.'" Now here's what I find fascinating about this story. This man does what any good businessman would do when he is blessed with an abundantly good year. He wants to expand his business. Listen again, verse 17, "He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do, I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.'" Makes good sense, doesn't it? What else is he going to do? He's not going to let it rot outside, and he certainly isn't just going to give it away. And so he does the logical thing, he builds bigger barns, he expands his business. I ask you again the question, what's wrong with expanding your business? And the answer is nothing. In fact, Jesus, when he tells the parable of the talents, commends his servants for taking their resources, investing them prudently and wisely, and increasing their possessions. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant." So, what's going on here? What's wrong with this man building bigger barns? Why does Jesus go to the extreme of calling him a fool? Well, if you listen carefully to the story, for two reasons. Number one, he finds his security in his possessions, not in his relationship with God. Verse 19, "I'll say to myself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years." In other words, he says, "My future is secure. I've got a retirement that I can bank on." And Jesus calls him a fool because he underestimates the frailty of life, and that security does not lie in the abundance of your possessions. It lies where? In your relationship with God. He thinks his security lies in what he owns. He hasn't taken into consideration the importance of God in his life. But there's a second reason that Jesus gives us that this man is a fool, and that is because he fully expects to spend his extra grain and his goods on himself. Because notice how verse 19 continues, "And I'll say to myself, take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry." And so here is a guy who says, "I've worked hard. I have earned the extra produce that has come my way. It's going to be my future. It's going to be my security, and I can spend it on myself." And I submit to you this morning that that is the essence of what the Bible calls greed. See, if you look at the dictionary definition of greed, it will tell you that greed is an avid hunger, a rapacious desire for certain things, typically wealth. We talk about Scrooge being greedy for money. Sometimes food. We talk about greedy eaters. My classic example of a greedy eater is a guy by the name of Guy Beauchamp. Some of you have heard me tell this story, a fellow from Regina. So he said, hitchhiking through Nova Scotia when we were there to go to Newfoundland to supposedly bury his dead grandfather, called me up from a service station and said, "Can you please come and pick me up?" So I drove out there on a Tuesday night in the rain, brought this guy home, and we fed him. I have never seen anybody eat like Guy Beauchamp. I did not know that you could put that much food in your mouth all in one bite. We've all met up with people like that. But if we define greediness as this avid hunger for things or for material possessions, then most of us will look at ourselves and we say, "Well, I'm not a greedy person. I don't live that way. I know how to restrain my appetite, and I just want my fair share. I work hard to get that, so I deserve that, I own that." And we all might know one or two people around us that we think are kind of over the edge and a little bit greedy. But really, how many of us would consider ourselves greedy? Probably not too many. But you see, when you listen carefully to what Jesus is talking about here in this parable, then greed is not just this rapacious desire to own the whole world and you're not going to rest until you're on top of everything. No, no. Greed is much more subtle than that. Greed is a preoccupation with the here and now. Greed is a preoccupation with material possessions and a desire to not only have for our own security what we can provide, but also in such a way that we can spend it on ourselves. We use it to up our social status and it gets in the way of our relationship with God because it becomes so quickly an end in itself. Examine this in your own life for a moment, if you will. In the course of your average day, where does most of your time, talent, and attention go? Now remember, Scripture says, "Who are we to love above all? The Lord our God, our neighbor as ourselves." God gives us gifts to use for the blessing of other people and thank God many of us demonstrate the fruit of faith and we can do that. But isn't it equally true that when push comes to shove, a lot of our time and talent is not focused on how can I grow in my relationship with God, how can I honor him in my work, in my relationships, in what I do, but rather it goes into how can I succeed, how can I get a fair wage, how can I better my lot in life, and how can I live as comfortably and securely as I possibly can? I mean, tell me if I'm exaggerating. You don't know the power of money, by the way, until you don't have any or when you face yourself in prospects where you don't have security and where your hope has to be in God. It's very easy to say, "I have hope in God." When you've got a big bank account that you can fall back on, your real hope and faith in God gets demonstrated in those times when there's no food in the fridge, when there's no money in your wallet, when the bills come piling up, and when you don't know how you're going to be looked after in your old age. Isn't that true? I mean, that's the story of millions of people, including very good believers around the world. So there's nothing wrong with material possessions, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying material possessions, but what Jesus says here, greed is not just this over-the-top, "I want what I want." No, the rich man thinks that what he's got is of his own doing. I love the phrase where Jesus says, "The ground gave forth a good crop." Did you notice that? I think that's a deliberate dig at this rich man because this rich man is saying, "I don't have a pretty good farmer, and I made it happen." And Jesus says, "Well, you know, it's the ground man, it wasn't your doing. You were just blessed of God, and you ought to be blessing God for that, and you ought to be thanking God for that, and you ought to be saying to God, 'How can I be a good steward of what God has given me?'" Isn't that true? And so Jesus calls him a fool not because he's rich, because the Bible never condemns rich people. There's lots of God's people that have been rich, and they've been rich in earthly goods. The issue with this man is that he thinks his life consists in the abundance of his possession. He doesn't understand that his real life lies with God, and so Jesus says, "The man is a fool because his money cannot keep him alive, and this night your soul is required of you." I remember a fable, and I have no idea where it came from years ago, but it was one of these science fiction stories where people from earth in their spacecraft have gone to another planet, and they have found life there, and they have interacted with the citizens of that planet. And as they are about to leave, the people that live on that planet decide they're going to give a farewell present to these space people who are planning to go back to earth. And so here's what they did. They transformed their spacecraft into pure and solid gold, and the earthlings looked at each other aghast, and they said to the aliens, "Why in the world did you ever do that because the thing is too heavy to fly, and now we can't get back home?" And the aliens said, "Well, we thought we'd do you a favor because we listen to your conversations, and we thought this was what you wanted because gold was your highest value." Jesus says, "You're a fool, man, because life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions." And so that's how Jesus ends the parable, then, with a general lesson for the public where he says in verse 21, "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God." Let me say it again, greed is putting your trust in earthly things for your own pleasure rather than in your relationship with God. So how do we guard our hearts against the preoccupation with earthly things? It begins by properly identifying what greed is and recognizing the root of this that was so obvious in Ananias and Sapphira, runs through all our lives because it's part of living in a fallen world. And we all need God's grace and God's mercy to recognize it because that's where it starts. Are you with me? Am I making any sense? Are you honest enough to say that you see at least a little bit of yourself in there? Secondly, Jesus goes on and he gives us a second key to enable us to guard our hearts against greed and that is to recognize God as our provider. Jesus now launches into a fairly lengthy teaching that you will recognize immediately as Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. And even though it's a little bit long, I want to read it with you because it is so practical and yet takes so much grace to live this way. We read from verse 22, Jesus said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them and how much more valuable you are than birds. Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life since you cannot do this very little thing? Why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the lilies grow. They don't labor or spin, yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." If that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. "For the pagan world runs after all such things and your father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well." Amazing teaching. Miserably convicting. Because in the kingdom of God, as Jesus pictures it, life is amazingly simple. God is at the center. He's the creator and the sustainer of all things. Through faith in Christ we become his children. As his children, he cares for us, he cares for our needs, he cares for our concerns, he promises to look after us. And just as he looks after the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so he says, if you seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, he says all these other things will be through me thrown in. He just makes that so very simple and so very practical that you wonder how in the world can we really get hold of that. And yet the key, obviously, is to learn to recognize God as our Father in that way. And to know, as we sang earlier, that he really is good and that he delights in dwelling within us and blessing us. That doesn't just mean you sit back passively and all good things rain from heaven upon you. I mean, the interesting thing about the birds of the air is that the birds of the air actually go out there and they look for food. God never intends for you and me just to passively sit back and say, well, God's my father and he just better look after me. No, no, God says, you make it your business to look after my business, and you take the gifts and the opportunities that I give you, and you step into those. And as my child, I promise to bless you. I promise to give you whatever you need, both for time and for eternity. And if you want to understand what that looks like, I always go back to the story of Adam and Eve in the garden before they fell into sin. Because there you see this reality lived out. Later on you see it lived out in the person of Jesus who just lives this way in all simplicity. But here you see it lived out in the garden. And God gave them a relationship with himself. They walked with God in the garden. God put them together so they had companionship, they were not alone. God gave them a mission and a vision. He supplied all of their needs. They had a purpose beyond imagination and beyond understanding. You and I, if we are in Christ, we have a purpose, we have a mission. God has promised to meet us in that place. And through much testing and trial, he will purify us until that day when we sit on thrones with Jesus and the deepest dreams, the deepest longings of our hearts in that day will have been satisfied because we know that God is our Father. How do we break the power of greed? It starts by identifying what it is. It moves into a revelation of God as our provider. And then Jesus adds still in this chapter a third key to breaking the power of earthly goods over our lives. And that is to live generously. For notice how this chapter ends. Jesus goes on to say, "Do not be afraid, little flock. For your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Allow me to call your attention to the argument, the logic of what Jesus says there. It begins, he says, with the realization that your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Remember, Adam and Eve received the whole earth as their inheritance. The promise to Abraham was that he and his offspring would what? Inherit the whole earth. The promise to Jesus was that he would become king of kings and lord of lords. In other words, everything the Gentiles fight for, which is how to keep body and soul together in this world as comfortably and as happily and as practically the things nations go to war about, the things girlfriends fight each other over, men battle each other over, and nations go to war against each other, God the Father has promised as a gift to his children. You don't get it because you're good or better than somebody. You don't get it because you work at it harder than anybody. No, no, you get it because you are in relationship with God. He's your Father, and the key to prosperity long term in the kingdom of God is not how smart you are, not how hard you work, or how many resources you've got to come in your way. No, does God know me as his son or as his daughter? And if he does, then he will give me the kingdom. How did Jesus become king of kings and lord of lords? Because he was in relationship with the Father, and he was obedient to the Father even unto death. And therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name that is above every name. It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I don't know about you, but I'd just kind of like to stand here with open arms and say, bring it on. It's like what makes the gospel good news. But that has practical implications because notice what he goes on to say then. Not only does he say, your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom, but now this is where the rubber hits the road, sell your possessions and give to the poor. And what he is saying there is if it is true that God is my Father and that he will take care of me like he takes care of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, then I can afford to hold what I have been given loosely. Because there's always more to be had. And that doesn't mean I become a squanderer. Doesn't mean that I become irresponsible. Doesn't mean that I'm not a good steward. The early church shows that selling your possessions wasn't always taken literally by all of the church. It was for some people their calling on life and for others, they became good stewards of what they had. But in either case, it wasn't about this is my life, this is my security. You know, my security is in God my Father and in obedience to him, I will reflect his character and his nature. That's why Christians around the world, including many of you here, are far more generous than most people in the world ever are. Why? Because you know God is your Father. He is the one who blesses you. And that pile of grain in your barn can just as easily be 100 bags as 10 bags when you're trying to bag it up. Have you ever noticed that? You think you've got a pile, but without the blessing of God it shrivels and disappears and becomes nothing. And you think you don't have much and God blesses it and multiplies it and all of a sudden it's more than you ever thought it would be. So it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So because it's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, you can live loosely. You can be obedient to the Father and share what God has given you in blessing to other people. That's one of the distinguishing characteristics of God's people. But then he goes on to say this, he gives a reason for this. Notice the next verse, "Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys." How many of us know that even with the best attempts at stewardship, earthly riches are at best fragile and temporal? I won't ask you to hold up your hand, but how many of us have not lost money in investments or in business deals or in relationships? Probably not a one around here, particularly if we've ever taken any chances. And how many people don't go through life thinking they've got it all together only to have the rug pulled out from underneath and they end up with nothing at the end? In this world, our worldly goods, they rust and they get lost. Down south of the border, big discussions taking place because is the United States going to default on their interest payments by August the 2nd? If you're following the news, big controversy between the Democrats and the Republicans, are we going to elevate our spending limit? Interest alone in the United States on their debt is between $10 and $15 billion a day. You thought you owed money, you know? And we'll see where that ends up, but you've heard the news stories of whole nations being on the verge of bankruptcy. I mean, Greece has had to be bailed out twice now. There's big questions about is Spain going to need help from the European Union and all of this sort of thing. And Jesus says this, "There is one way to make sure that your earthly goods are not lost, and that is to invest them in the purposes of the kingdom." Because when you do that, he says, "You are transferring your savings into the eternal kingdom where God will reward you." Here is how Paul puts it a little bit later in 1 Timothy chapter 6. Listen carefully. "Command those who are rich in the present world not to be arrogant, not to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain." Same thing as Jesus has just been talking about with regard to the rich fool. But to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Again, same thing Jesus has been talking about. Put your hope in God. He promises to look after you, and notice he says it is okay to enjoy what he has given you. You ever notice how guilty Christians feel? I mean, don't you ever feel guilty when you have food on the table and then you watch one of these African hungry children shows come on television and you say, "Oh my goodness, what am I doing? It's just not fair." And those are legitimate questions. But the Bible never teaches asceticism. It never says it is wrong to enjoy the gifts that God gives you. So be without guilt. But remember this, God who gives you richly to enjoy all things, wants you to be good stewards of what it is that he has given you. So let's look again how that verse goes on. Command them to do good, to be rich in doing good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. Now notice where he ends up. In this way, they will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. Do you get that? You take your money, you invest it in obedience to God in the purposes of the kingdom. Guess what happens? It gets charged to your account for the new age that is to come. And if you believe that there is coming a new age where not one good deed will go unrewarded and no bad deed will go unpunished, then you want to lay a foundation so that God rewards us in the age to come because we have transferred our wealth from this world into the world to come. You invest in the future, and that nobody can ever take away from you. As somebody said that I listened to very recently, he says, "I have lots of regrets looking back over my life over money that I've lost. Bad business deals that I've made, money that I've squandered foolishly and unwisely, and I wish I could bring it all back," but he says, "I've never, ever wished to take back money that I have invested in God's kingdom for God's purposes because I know it will never be lost and it will never be squandered." And then watch where Jesus ends. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Isn't it true that when we talk about this sort of thing, like when we're talking about this, do you feel like any grinding anywhere? Do you ever say, "Let's get off this topic and talk about something nice and comfortable and pleasurable." Well, what does that demonstrate? Where your treasure is, is where your heart is. And the more your treasure is in the here and now, the more your heart is going to be in the here and now. So how do we guard ourselves against this preoccupation with a world that the Bible says is going to pass away? It's to put our treasures in heaven because as we invest ourselves in God and in God's purposes, that's automatically where our hearts are going to go. And so the cure to the desire to live in the here and now, to be as comfortable as I can and to all the striving that we do to try to make our own lives better and more comfortable, the cure to that is to live generously before the face of God. Because as we live generously before the face of God, make the building up of the Church of Jesus Christ our priority, and make the conversion of individuals our priority, that's where our heart is going to go. And then as our heart focuses on God and on the things of God, then we discover that in relationship with Him, He can surprise us with joy because He has promised to meet our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now none of this happens automatically. It happens as we're joined by faith to Jesus, learn to buy into biblical values, and allow the Lord to change us as many of us here have been by the power of His grace from the inside out. And maybe next week we'll come back to that and look at how practically we can implement [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:39:21.360; remove through 00:43:20.000] that for the [CUT] glory of God. All I once held dear, built my life upon, all this world reveres, and wars to own. All I once dog-gained, I have counted, lost, spent, and worthless now, compared to this. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you Lord. Now my heart's desire is to know you more, to be found in you, and born as yours to process by faith what I could not earn, all surpassing it of righteousness. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you Lord. To know the power of your risen life, and to know you in your suffering, to become like you in your death, my Lord, so with you to them, and never die. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you Lord. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you Lord. I love you Lord. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:43:20.000; resume after this marked segment]