“Being Christ to Our Community: It’s in the Way that You Use It”
Luke 12:15-21
An extremely wealthy man was on his deathbed.
He called his wife to him and gave her his final instructions.
“What I want you to do is this,” he said, “I want to you go get two of the biggest and strongest bags you can find.
Then, I want you to take those bags down to the bank, open my account and fill those bags with as much cash as they will hold.”
“Then, haul the bags up to the attic and hang them from the rafters.
As soon as I die, I will grab them on my way up.”
The man’s wife did as she was told, and the man died not long after.
Several months after his death, the woman was up in the attic cleaning out some junk when-low and behold-she bumped her head on one of those money bags.
They were both still there, hanging from the rafters as her husband had instructed.
Upon seeing them, the woman banged her fist in frustration and said: “I knew I should have put those bags in the basement!!!”
No matter how many bumper stickers there are that proclaim: “The one who dies with the most stuff wins,” the fact remains that you can’t take your money nor your stuff with you.
There are no storage units in heaven, no banks, no barns.
Last week we talked about how the root of the word “culture” is the Latin word “cultus”—which is a system of religious worship.
So, the culture we live in worships wealth and the pursuit of it.
That’s our world.
It’s where we live, breath and do business.
But just because we live in the world does not mean we have to live according to the world’s values.
And here lies the freedom which is found in putting our full trust in Jesus Christ!!!
In John Chapter 17—on the night of Jesus’ arrest which leads to His Crucifixion—Jesus prays a very intense prayer to God the Father on our behalf.
In it Jesus prays: “they—meaning me and you—are not of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world even as I am not of it.”
When Jesus Christ was born into our world the very Kingdom of God came and dwelt among us—made His home among us.
After Jesus died and was Resurrected, He sent His Holy Spirit to live in those who believe.
That is you, that is me.
That is what constitutes the church.
In reading the Bible, we notice that Jesus made little distinction between the Kingdom of God and The Kingdom of Heaven or eternal life.
For example, think back on the story that we talked about last week—the story of the Rich Young Ruler from Luke Chapter 18.
This young man comes running up to Jesus asking Him: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
After the man goes away sad because of his great wealth, Jesus says: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
You see what I’m getting at?
The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life are all inter-changable.
We enter when we give up our hold on the “cult” of this world and embrace the way of Christ instead.
Eternal life begins now.
Jesus says, “I am the Resurrection and the life.
Those who believe in me will live even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.”
Then He asks: “Do you believe this?”
The Kingdom of God is Jesus’ Church.
That is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
We are in the world, but not of the world.
We are of the Kingdom of God!!!
And therefore, we are to live accordingly.
And so, the Parable of the Rich Fool, which we are looking at this morning is really a parable about how NOT to live as a member of the Kingdom of God—even though it is the way the world teaches us to live.
This guy’s barns are already bursting to overflowing.
And he finds himself in a terrible dilemma.
He has a bumper crop, but has no place to store it.
What a problem he has.
What a cause for anxiety.
And it does cause him anxiety, as money always does.
Those who don’t have enough worry as to how they will feed and keep a roof over the heads of their family.
Those who have too much, are addicted, and like drug addicts they need more and more and more—as they guard what they have as if, well, as if God Himself was a dollar bill, a checking account—you name it!!!
I can relate; can you?
This poor but rich farmer is so totally self-absorbed that he doesn’t even think of anyone but himself.
“What shall I do” he asks himself.
“I have no place to store my crops.”
He goes on and on and on like this without one thought for the hungry person down the road or the poor widow with three children to feed and clothe.
He thinks nothing about sharing any of his great wealth, even though it was God Who provided him with this amazing harvest in the first place.
“This is what I’ll do,” he says, “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones…
…I’ll say to myself: ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.
Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”
In other words, “I won’t think a thing about anyone but me, myself and I.”
“I’ve got it made.”
“I’m living on easy street.”
“Life is gonna be good for ME!”
And what’s wrong with this?
I mean, the guy in this parable is doing exactly what any good investor would tell him to do.
And yet, God calls him a “fool”!!!
The funny thing about money is that how we use it can be one of the most telling indicators of our spiritual health!!!
Our checkbooks, whether on paper or on our computers, paint a vivid picture of what we value most.
Have we used the money God has given us to help feed and clothe the poor—you know, those things Jesus will ask us about, once we meet Him face to face?
Have we given back at least 10 percent of our income to the Church—to the Kingdom of God?
Remember, we are Red Bank United Methodist Church.
We are called to be Christ to this community.
Is our giving driven by our mission to go out into this great Harvest Field of lost souls which surround this building or is our mission limited by our lack of giving?
Will people go to heaven because of what we give?
Unlike the man and his bumper crop and his bigger barns, are we being “rich toward God”?
In Matthew 16:26 Jesus asks: “What good will it be for a [person] if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
The week before last Gayle Rathburn came to me all excited.
She had noticed that, other than on Wednesday nights, we don’t feed a meal to the middle school kids who stay in our church building Monday through Friday after school.
She had taken note as to how much some of them eat at the Wednesday night dinners and was concerned that they might not be getting enough to eat on the other nights when we don’t feed them.
So, she said she wants to feed them every night.
She was so excited she could hardly contain herself.
Last Sunday, she mentioned this in her Sunday school class.
Immediately, someone wrote her a check for $300.00 seed money.
She started cooking for the children the next day.
This is an example of what it means to be rich toward God.
When that check was written, a barn was pulled down—so to speak-- so that the Kingdom of God could advance on this earth.
How many more kids could be fed, wounds bandaged, love made manifest and souls be saved if we were not afraid of the cost?
Jesus gave His ALL for us.
What will we give?
Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 6: “No one can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and Money.”
When money is our master, evil follows.
We are spiritually bankrupt, and other people are left without.
Our time, talents and treasures get disproportionately used for our self-serving desires.
And then a world of plenty for everyone becomes a place of greed, starvation, division, and conflict.
The headlines change day by day, but the story is always the same, is it not?
That’s why God is on a mission to win our hearts and set us free from money.
Arthur Simon writes: “Money can be put to good use.
That is exceedingly good news, because money makes a terrible master but a magnificent servant.
A servant, of course, cannot be in charge…
…The servant’s role is to carry out the intentions of the master.
So, money—that pretender, that pseudo-god—must be put in its proper place and made obedient to God.”
Think about it, Jesus emphatically and repeatedly connected the use of money with generosity to the poor and needy.
Think about Jesus’ description of the final judgment—we’ll be talking about this more next week—but here it is in part:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you invited me in.
I needed clothes and you clothed me.
I was sick and you looked after me.
I was in prison and you visited me.”
What are my priorities?
What are your priorities?
How do we spend our money?
How do we spend our time?
What do our personal calendars tell us about this?
John Piper’s father was an evangelist.
One night at a revival something happened that had a profound and life changing effect on young Piper.
His father had been preaching a revival and an old man came forward that night and gave his life to Christ.
John overheard the man speaking to his father.
He said that he had spent his whole life, up to that point, running after useless things.
And he kept repeating over and over again, “I’ve wasted it; I’ve wasted it; I’ve wasted it.”
This was the inspiration for a book that Piper wrote which he entitled: “Don’t waste your life.”
Sometimes, people facing a terminal illness will talk about regretting how they spent way too much precious time caring about unimportant things.
We live in this world where it’s so easy to get our priorities messed up.
It’s easy to walk around as if we have blinders on.
Things are broken.
So, in order to help us understand what is truly important in this life, the way we were created to really live—Jesus told many stories and parables.
And a number of these stories and parables have to do with our attitude toward money and possessions.
Next Sunday is Consecration Sunday.
On October 7, we were given pledge cards in our bulletins.
We will receive them again next Sunday.
On them, we will be asked to make a pledge as to the amount of money we will give to the budget of this church in the coming year of 2019.
I’ll be giving a bit over 10 percent of my salary.
It’s not easy to do this.
And I’ll admit, sometimes I am tempted to hold it back.
Sometimes I think to myself, “Wow, we could afford a bigger house if we didn’t tithe to the church.”
But tithing is a spiritual means of grace.
It increases our faith and reliance on God.
It loosens our grip a bit on the material.
It lessons our anxiety, as trusting in God rather than money always does.
Imagine how you and I could BE Christ to this community through the commitment we make next week.
Let us pray.
