Nicolas Campbell
Narrative Hybrid Outline
A. Story about putting your foot in your mouth.
B. Linking Statement
I. Retelling the Biblical Story
A. So we are met with literally a mob of people. There were thousands of people who were trampling over each other to get close to Jesus to hear him speak. Then Jesus goes into a lengthy speech on the love of God, fear of Satan, dangers of blaspheme, and the Holy Spirit giving knowledge. Jesus was essentially giving a sermon. I can just imagine thousands of people all sitting there with their eyes fixed on Him. They are listening to the very words of God. It must have been an awesome sight.
All of a sudden a man stands up and says, “Hey! Teacher! Tell my brother to give me what is rightfully mine of the inheritance.” Now have you ever asked a dumb question? Now I know that you are probably thinking, “Well Nic, the only dumb question is one that doesn’t go asked.” That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about bringing up a question in the most inappropriate time. Every eye just turns toward you in a room, you feel your face start to flush, and you wish desperately that you could go back in time about 30 seconds. I think that is what is happening right now. This guy just stands up in a crowd of we are told thousands of people and sticks his foot right in his mouth. Now Jesus stops what he is talking about and takes time to answer the man. First he scorns the man, “Who do I look like an Estate Lawyer? You need to look inside yourself and be on the lookout for greed. Your life is not about how much stuff you have. Come on! Haven’t you been listening to anything I have been saying?” See this is the point where the man’s face started to get red and he smiled sheepishly and slowly started to sit down to avoid the gaze of Jesus. Can’t you just feel it? I feel embarrassed for the man even over 2000 years later. Jesus then jumps straight into a parable.
“There was once a day trader. Each and every day he sat at his computer and watched the trends of stocks go up and down. He was finally catching on to the trends of the market. He began to build quite a portfolio and he was constantly gaining more traction in the market. One fateful day he noticed that every single one of his investments had quadrupled overnight. He quickly sold off everything that he had and cashed out. He had made more money than he knew what to do with. He tossed and turned all night. He could not sleep. He didn’t know what he was going to do. That morning he called up a friend of his who was a financial advisor, and they set up a meeting that day. They discussed strategy in more stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. With this diversified strategy the day trader had enough security to retire at the age of 30. He made plans to head for Tahiti. He was going to spend the next few weeks sitting on a beach drinking fruity drinks with little umbrellas, learning to surf, and watching every single sunset without a care in the world. Then he was going to move to the suburbs, 2 story brick house, 5 bedrooms 4 baths, marble imported from Italy for the floors, lush green lawn, and a golden retriever. He was so excited about his plans. He went home that night and slept more soundly than he ever had in his life.
“The next morning his financial advisor had forms for him to sign. He came up to the day trader’s apartment and knocked loudly on the door. No answer. He called him on the phone, nothing. The flight to Tahiti was in 2 hours he had to be getting ready to go. The financial advisor lifted up the door mat and found a spare key. He opened the door and walked into the bedroom. There in the bed was the day trader dead still with a smile on his face.
Silence came over the crowd. Jesus stood there and then said to them, “That’s what will happen to anyone who does not first seek God.”
B. Complications- So I have quite a problem with this parable. I have been wrestling with this issue for what seems like forever. It seems like God killed the man because he was selfish. I think, “Wait, he didn’t even have a chance to really do anything with his wealth. God you can’t be that cruel. You really aren’t going to just kill people off if they don’t ‘tithe’ right?” Then I look at myself, and I see so much selfishness. We all can. If you are sitting there thinking “I’m never selfish.” Then we need to have a separate talk. If you can afford a Big Mac then you are already more wealthy than 75% of the world’s population. To a certain extent we are all selfish with our resources.
C. Resolution- Then I began to really study the text. I tried to think about this passage not at a 21st Century American, but really dive deep into it. First thing I discovered is that God doesn’t care what I think is cruel. God is God. He is the one who spoke into darkness and created light. He is the author of justice and does not conform to our finite definition of Justice. Secondly, God isn’t killing this man simply because he didn’t give his 10% to the local church. That’s not the point of the story.
D. Historical Central Theme- Jesus’ point is we need to consider the eternal before considering the temporary. A man stood up in the middle of his speech about the truth of God and holy teachings to ask Jesus to intercede with his brother about inheritance. I can just imagine Jesus thinking, “Are you kidding me right now?! After all that and you are worried about a will?”
E. Contemporary Central Theme- We too need to begin to “first seek God.”
II. Apply the Biblical Story- First Seek God
A. Blessings are often overpowered by grumbling.
i. Explanation- The first thing that we see about this man is the only thing he is concerned about is building more barns so he has enough room to store his goods. He is blessed with this incredible gift and he complains about not having enough room.
ii. Illustration- Let me put this into perspective. How many of us have opened the refrigerator and sighed because it’s too full to fit something in it.
iii. Application- That’s exactly the same perspective that this man has, just shrunk into our homes. We have all done that. We have an incredible amount of blessings, but instead we find something to complain or worry about.
B. Second Proof of Central Theme- We need to be thinking eternally.
i. In the scripture we have two men. The first one is sitting there in the crowd thinking to himself, “Blah, Blah, Blah, when will this guy shut up for a second so I can ask a question about the money my brother owes me?” The second guy we see inside the parable is thinking to himself, “What is the greatest thing I can do with all my blessings? I know eat, drink, and be merry for a long time.” Both of these two men had an amazing opportunity. The first one had the opportunity to hear from the lips of Jesus. To literally be taught by God incarnate. The second man had so much wealth he didn’t know what to do with it. Widows, orphans, homeless, sick, strangers all could have been helped with some. But these men thought internally rather than eternally. Jesus talks directly about this in v. 15. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” Here’s the thing. Greed is something internal. The Greek word for “greed” here is “Pleonexia” (pleh-on-ex-ee'-ah) it’s a noun. So it is something that is there internally and Jesus is telling us to be on guard for it building inside our hearts.
ii. Illustration- A friend of mine, named Stephen, once told me a story about a time he was struggling. He was in a bind and didn’t know what to do about it. He came home one day and his neighbor called out to him, “Hey man! How are you doing?” My friend replied, “Not so great. I’ve just got a lot of big issues going on right now.” The neighbor called back, “Just follow your heart buddy.” Stephen stopped in his driveway and called back to the neighbor, “What if my heart lies to me?” The neighbor didn’t really have a response.
iii. Application- Each of us needs to look inside ourselves and examine our hearts. Is that really where we should be making our decisions? Sure the romantic in me says, “Oh that’s where love comes from.” But really? Here God is telling us to be on guard and examine our hearts to keep from being lead astray. We’re being told, “Stop acting on impulse and think eternally!” It isn’t even about us. God gives us a blessing it’s for a reason. It’s to further glorify his name and be put to work in his kingdom. God gives us the chance to talk to him it’s to reveal his will, not to listen to us whine about getting our fair share.
C. Third Proof of Central Theme- God not only expects us to think of Him first he commands it.
At the end of this parable we are still left struggling with the idea of this man dying. NIV says in v. 20 “This very night your life will be demanded from you.” I don’t really like the way this is worded, because if something is demanded of me it seems like I could say, “no.” Rather a better way to put it was this man’s soul was arrested from him. It’s forcibly stripped from him in the middle of the night. See someone who is living in the truth with God will willfully sign his soul over. He’ll give it up; it doesn’t have to be taken from him. Whatever it is for the trust in God is there that it will be better.
i. Illustration- This past February a woman named Lucinda was moving into a new apartment with her daughter Ashayla. They were still unpacking one evening at around 9PM when Lucinda finds a gun in her face. She’s told to freeze, but quickly runs towards her daughter’s bedroom. A bullet whizzes by her head and hits the wall beside her. The gunman runs after Lucinda and catches up to her in the bedroom. There he is met by Joe, a 2 year old English Bulldog. Joe stops the man in his tracks and attacks him. The gunman fired several times and 4 bullets found their mark including one to the head, but Joe wouldn’t stop. The gunman was forced to flee.
ii. Application- See Joe was willing to give up everything. There wasn’t time to sit and ponder over the decision. Each of us needs to do whatever it takes to do what God would have us do. There is nothing greater than the perfect will of God. If it takes our resources that we were saving to provide food for someone then praise God that we were able to share our blessings. If it takes our time to sit down and listen to the burdens of our fellow person, then rejoice that you are able to show them to rely on Christ. If God calls for your soul we can also take joy in going to Paradise.
III. Repeat the Central Theme- In everything we must First seek God.
IV. Closing Remarks
