Enrich Your Life In God

2. What symptoms of greed did the man show when he came to Jesus? How does greed infect your heart?

Let's look at some of the symptoms of greed laid out in the text so that we can diagnose the disease in our own hearts.

Some man asks Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute. We don't know whether this man's claims were just or not. It doesn't matter. Jesus knows his heart. He knows the real problem. This man loves the earthly. He does not see Jesus for the real work he came to do.

Maybe our minds jump to those preachers who promise earthly health and wealth to their followers: "If you believe hard enough . . . If you tithe . . . If you truly follow Jesus . . . then your life on earth will improve." Like that man, they don't see Jesus for what he really came to do. But by looking at them, we're deflecting the examination from exposing our own heart.

You do know why Jesus came, not to bring earthly riches but to pay our debt of sin. He came to bring us a heavenly inheritance in the place of the death and hell our sin has earned us. You know that, but is your heart firmly fixed on that? When our earthly lot falls short of what we expect, do we feel as if Jesus has let us down? Our complaining, even if we don't explicitly blame God, betrays a mind that thinks that God's care for us in this life isn't good enough. We're expecting Jesus to give us more out of life, just as that man was. "Jesus, tell life to give me my fare share." This looking for more, this love of what we could have out of life -- isn't that a kind of greed?

3. What symptoms of greed did the man in the parable show? How does greed infect your heart?

Now consider the man in Jesus' story. There's no hint of dishonesty or ill-gotten gains. He's a hard-working farmer. Who knows how many years he's toiled away? But now the big payday has come finally in. He has so much he has to build bigger barns.

But his words begin to betray his true heart. Notice how his thoughts focus on his accomplishments. Count how many times he says /I/ and /my/. "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops . . . 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" (Luke 12:17, 18 NIV). And what does he want out of life, now that he has a good retirement account for many years? He wants more leisure, more recreation, more of the finer things of life, more time to enjoy himself. "I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry'" (Luke 12:19 NIV). He's looking for more.

Do you see the many masks greed wears? What symptoms prove that greed infects your heart? Do we work hard because, like this farmer, we measure our worth by what we can accomplish? We know enough to acknowledge God, but is that only a shallow thankfulness to cover up a self-centered heart that pushes God to the sidelines as this man did, so that we can focus on the here and now? Do we rationalize greed arguing that it's not about money, but about getting the most out of life -- having the recreation, the leisure, the family vacations, the time for ourselves, the pursuit of happiness, the peaceful retirement, and so on? Isn't this all a love of having and a looking for more out of this life?