“Planning for the Kingdom – Luke 12:13-34”
Gladstone Baptist Church – 9/1/07 am
1. We plan for our financial future, but we don’t plan for God’s kingdom. Vs 33b-34, 29-31OOPS
We are now half way through January and most of you have returned to work. There has undoubtedly already been a lot of planning for the coming year in your minds. You are organising your desk, your schedule. You have to buy a new diary. Archive your past emails and your notes. You need to think about your commitments for this next year and decide when you are going to plan holidays and the like. It is the time when you look over your budget again and see what you can afford to do on your home. Whether you can afford to upgrade the car or the boat or the TV or the surround sound system. It is a time to revisit your ambitions in life and see how you can take another step to achieving them. Maybe it is the year to finally go and start some study. Maybe it is the year to start saving some money. Maybe it is the year to launch out on a new adventure.
Larry Walters was born in 1949 and ever since he was 13 years old , he had been taken to an Army-Navy surplus store and saw weather balloons hanging from the ceiling. Since then he dreamed of being carried into the sky by such balloons. He had an obsession with this dream for the next 20 years until on 2nd July 1982, Larry, tied 42 helium filled balloons to a basic aluminium deck chair in his backyard outside of Los Angeles . It was anchored to a friends car with 2 nylon ropes. His goal was to float across the desert and hopefully make it to the Rocky mountains in a couple of days. He had planned it all out and had water bottles for ballast and a BB gun to shoot out the balloons to help him descend. He even wore a parachute for added safety.
When he was ready, his support crew cut the first rope and the second one subsequently snapped and Larry shot into the sky at over 300m per minute. It was so sudden, that Larry lost his glasses in the initial ascent, but he had planned for such an emergency and had a second pair in his pocket.
He climbed to over 5000m and for several hours drifted near the Long beach municipal airports. A TWA and Delta pilot spotted him and reported him to the control tower.
It was very cold up at 5000m and so he shot out a couple of balloons and started his descent. He unfortunately dropped his gun during the descent, and eventually landed in some high voltage power lines in Long Beach, 15 km from his launch point. Thankfully the tethers he used protected him from electrocution.
The Federal Aviation Administration wasn’t amused. A spokesman said shortly afterwards … "We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed, If he had a pilot’s license, we’d suspend that. But he doesn’t." Larry was later fined $4000 for breaking 4 sections of the act. One being … operating a "civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate."
Larry was a bit crazy, but you have to admit, that he did a lot of planning for his little adventure.
I don’t know how many of you in 2007 are going to fulfil one of your life long ambitions – maybe some of you might. Is anyone planning anything this crazy?
Okay I want to see what people are planning. Put your hand up if you are planning any of these things …
Is anyone planning on doing some holiday travel outside of QLD this year?
Is anyone planning on travelling overseas this year?
Is anyone planning on any home improvements? A new kitchen, a new bathroom, new carpet, a deck, a pool?
Is anyone planning on getting a new car this year? What about a new boat, TV, Surround sound system or other electronic appliance.
Is anyone planning on changing jobs this year?
Is anyone planning on getting your finances in order and going to see a financial planner?
Okay, I don’t want you to put your hands up for this one, but I want you to think about whether you would be able to in all honesty put your hand up if I ask you if any of you were planning to do something specifically that would advance God’s kingdom?
I think that many of you would have to think hard about that one wouldn’t you – “What am I really doing to advance God’s kingdom?” Jesus said to his would be followers … Sell your possessions and 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 your heart will be also.
We all know that we should advance God’s kingdom. But unfortunately, while we put a lot of time into planning our financial affairs and our holidays and what possessions we should own, we spend very little time planning how we are going to extend God’s kingdom.
But Jesus said our priorities should be on his kingdom. He said … And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
2. Most of us are nearsighted fools vs 13-21. UGH
If you have your Bibles there, open them up with me to Luke 12:13. Last week we came back to Luke’s gospel to look at some further teaching of Jesus. He was addressing his disciples, remember and he was urging them to live lives of authenticity and courage. He wanted them to fear God instead of man, because God knows all things and will one day reveal all things. Besides that, God, will decide our eternal destiny as well as any rewards we will be given.
Jesus was then interrupted by a question from the crowd …
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” [This man was concerned about money. It may have been justifiable concerns. And it was reasonable for him to come to Jesus who was considered a rabbi. In those days, if there was a dispute or uncertainty about the law, you went to the rabbi for clarification. But …]
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “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. 19 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.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
Do Not Worry
22 Then 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. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens [Ravens were unclean birds – they were detestable, but though ]: 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! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and 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. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Pray
It is a wise man who prepares for the future. Jesus said this himself – He said, you need to plan for the future and weigh up the cost of things – whether it is following me, or building a tower or going to war. Planning is good. But unfortunately most of us are near sighted fools. We only plan for the next 2 or 5 or 10 or 20 or 40 years. We are planning for our earthly lives only. We don’t plan for our deaths, let alone for eternity.
Jesus warns his listeners not to be like the rich fool who thought only of him earthly life and comfort. He feathered his nest and stored up more than he could possibly need or want. And when he died, it was all lost. Jesus telling the story, says … But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
All of us are incredibly wealthy by the world’s standard. We have clothes, homes, cars, jobs. We have many things we have stored up for ourselves on this earth. Many of us have rather healthy looking bank accounts here on earth – investment properties, shares, superannuation schemes. But if we were able to get a print out of the balance of our heavenly bank account, many of us would find there is virtually nothing in it at all.
We live for 80 years here on earth, but will live for eternity in heaven. 80 years is like a dot compared to the never ending line of eternity. Unfortunately, most of us are concerned only for the dot and aren’t considering the line at all.
Jesus says (vs 33) - Sell your possessions and 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.
Live for the line Jesus says – not the dot. Plan for the line not the dot.
3. We save up eternal treasure by – witnessing, serving. AHA
How can we plan for the line and send some treasure on ahead to our heavenly bank account? Well Jesus gives one way in the passage – he says sell everything you have got and give to the poor & needy. Now Jesus wasn’t asking for every Christian to sell everything and become paupers. He wasn’t objecting to ownership, but he was objecting to the domination that possessions have over us. It was like money – money isn’t evil, but the love of money is. Possessions aren’t evil, but the love of them is.
- I know I love my possessions when they control my life - I plan my life around their maintenance, upkeep or use and I can’t commit to church or a church ministry because I simply don’t have any free time. My possessions take up all my time.
- I know I love my possessions when they dominate my thoughts - I am thinking about using them or improving them more than I am thinking about winning people for God’s kingdom.
- I know I love my possessions when they consume my energies - After playing with them or maintaining them, I am too tired to go and spend time with God or to go and minister for him.
- I know I love my possessions when they distract me from God’s priorities – I would rather be out in my boat or in the garden or camping or at some sporting carnival than going to church.
Money and possessions aren’t evil, but the love of them is.
The Author A.W. Tozer has written “As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor; it can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.”
We can save up eternal treasure by providing for other’s needs. We would normally call this service or ministry. Remember the parable of the sheep and the goats and what people did or didn’t do?
Another way we can serve, doesn’t involve our possessions - it involves giving generously of our time to do good things.
1 Tim 6:17- 19 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Giving up our time to help in the community with Meals on Wheels or at Roseberry House. Giving up our time to help in our church. Helping prepare supper for the KOGS kids, joining one of the children’s church teams, turning up to a working bee and giving some time helping around the church. There are countless ways to do good and serve God in 2007.
How are you going to serve God this year? What are you going to do. Don’t squeeze your service into the time that is left after you indulge yourself in your hobbies and possessions and your interests. Make Service a priority in your life. Make service a hobby. This may mean you have to give up some of your other selfish hobbies or cut back on some of your selfish sporting pursuits. So be it – you will have eternity to enjoy some of these I’m sure. Plan to live for the line and send some treasure on ahead. In a couple of weeks we will have a positions vacant list out for you to consider how and where you could serve this next year. Please start praying now about where God would have you serve. He may be asking you to step our of your comfort zone – don’t fear that. But decide now to intentionally serve God in 2007 and begin to plan for the line.
A second way we can send treasure on ahead to our heavenly bank account is through witnessing of evangelism. We can’t take money or possessions to heaven with us, but we can take other people. That is without doubt the greatest gift we can give to another person. But we are so reluctant to share with them the gift of God.
I’m not telling you anything new when I say that for most of us, without intentional planning, we won’t tell others about Christ. We have good intentions, but that doesn’t make it happen. Most of us are just too scared. Others are just not tuned into the opportunities for sharing the gospel that Jesus is providing for us each day.
In a couple of weeks I am going to be preaching a series of sermons on how we can live as contagious Christians. Jesus intended us to live in a way that was contagious. A way in which people want what we have and are told about it without hesitation. Is that how you live your life? Well we need to be intentional about witnessing, telling others about Jesus and if we do this, we’ll build god’s kingdom.
4. We don’t have to worry, be afraid or be concerned about self - as God will care for us – WHEE vs 22-31
Now, none of this comes naturally, does it. We are not naturally generous. We are not naturally keen to evangelise others. We are first and foremost concerned about ourselves and our needs, not God’s kingdom and its needs.
But Jesus challenges us to change our priorities. And when we do, he tells us not to worry, or be afraid.
In vs 22 he says – “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.” When we have a focus on the dot, we are naturally concerned about our day to day needs, but when we have an eternal perspective, we realise that God is in control, not us. He will care for us. Jesus draws their attention to the ravens – God cares for them even though they were considered unclean. Jesus then turns to the lilies. They don’t have to spend hours and hours working to buy clothes. They don’t need to seek more overtime to enable them to upgrade to a bigger house than they need. God cares for both the lilies and the ravens and be assured that God will care for you. He provides for us in the most basic of ways. And rather than be consumed with thoughts of where tomorrow’s bread will come from, Jesus challenges us to seek His kingdom. When we do this, he promises to look after everything else. So don’t worry.
And then in vs 32, Jesus says – don’t be afraid. God has given us so many gifts already and one of these is His kingdom. It is the everlasting promise of life with Him. Our lives will not end with death – they will continue on forever. We don’t have to be afraid that we will miss out on something if we focus on God’s kingdom while we are here on this earth. No – our lives will begin when we die – they won’t end. Let’s focus on expanding his kingdom for the duration of the dot and then we’ll be able to enjoy oh so much more the line that follows.
5. God is asking us to focus on advancing the kingdom – it should be our greatest priority – YEAH. Vs 32-34
For many of us, we need to develop our long range sight. We need to stop being like the rich fool. We need to stop storing up for ourselves treasures and comforts on this earth and begin to start putting away treasure in our heavenly account. Plan your year out by all means – your finances, holidays, time and even your deck chair and weather balloon adventures, but don’t forget to plan how you will contribute to the advance of God’s kingdom. Make this a priority because this will be eternal.
I want to challenge you to think about 2 realms in which we can advance God’s kingdom this year. In your community. And in our world as a whole. In each of these, think about how you are going to serve and witness for Christ. Think strategically – what can you do to maximise the impact you have for God’s kingdom?
Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing …
In your community …
– how are you going to serve? That is fairly straight forward for most. In a couple of weeks we’ll have the positions vacant brochures out and you can get more information. But I am sure you have some ideas already – write them down. If every regular attender committed to serve in just one or 2 ministries, every ministry need would be met. I believe most of our ministries have an incredible potential to advance God’s kingdom in Gladstone, however, in the past, they haven’t been effective because they have been hamstrung by not enough people. Let’s commit to resource our church ministries well this year by volunteering to serve.
- Another way you might serve your community is by volunteering to help out the school chaplains or teach RE, or be trained as a lifeline counsellor or volunteer with Meals on Wheels, or go visiting some of the nursing home residents, etc.
- How about witnessing in your community. We’ll talk about this more in a couple of weeks, but maybe you could organise to do some regular social activity with mates at work to build bridges and opportunities to talk about God. Maybe you just need to sit down and talk about God during your lunch hours. Be Specific here – what are you going to do this year to tell others about Jesus??? Maybe you want to write down some names who you feel God wants you to tell about him.
How about in our world …
- How are you going to serve? Maybe you need to find some aid agencies to support. Get fully behind the Tear gift catalogues for next Christmas. Maybe it is to donate your time to go on a building project to the poor in the Philippines. There will be a team from Gladstone going to Uganda to build homes at Watoto next year – maybe you can start saving to go on that team.
- How are you going to witness? Find a missionary to support financially and in prayer. Instead of working overtime to fund your house extension, why not work some overtime and give all of that money to funding another missionary. If you haven’t got the money to give, commit to pray. Why not get a few other people together specifically to pray for one of our missionaries each month. Don’t under estimate the power of prayer. It is probably more important than money – yet few of us do it.
Take these sheets home and do some planning this week. Spend time thinking about how you will serve and witness for God this year. Be specific in your plans. Be intentional about your activities. We need to advance God’s kingdom this year and to do that we need to do some planning. No plans, no actions, no advances. What are you going to plan to do for God’s kingdom this year?
