This morning’s message is entitled “Hoarder or Steward?” O. S. Hawkins, who is with GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, asks, “At the end of your life will you be considered a hoarder or a steward?”(1) We’re going to look at a parable this morning; one which is commonly called “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” Hawkins states, “The parable of the rich fool illustrates the deceitfulness of guarded wealth.”(2) This is a stewardship parable, meaning that it will address the issue of our use of resources, both monetary and spiritual.
The lesson we’re going to learn is this: “Use it, or lose it.” If we do not use the resources that God has given us, then we are eventually going to forfeit them. Henry Blackaby reinforces this truth, saying, “If you (or your church) are not faithful with what God entrusts to your care, don’t be surprised if He refuses to give you more. Don’t be surprised if He even takes away what He gave you.”(3) We may hang on to our resources while we are still alive, but we will eventually lose them when we die. You see, we can’t take anything from this world with us.
Legacy of Destruction (vv. 13-15)
13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Right here we see how a man spoke to Jesus about dividing the inheritance that his father had left to his brother. His father may have had good intentions, and left the inheritance to the one whom he considered to be the more worthy or prudent son; but what he actually left behind was a legacy of destruction. His father had spent his entire life storing up and placing all his security in his wealth, but when he died he couldn’t take it with him. All he could do was pass it on, which led to strife and fallout among his sons.
What some would call a blessing, which is to receive a windfall of money which doesn’t have to be earned through hard work, turned out to be a curse. What was once the obsession of the father became the obsession of the sons. Now that the father had passed away, his sons were focusing all their energy, all their effort, and all their attention on this lump sum of money, land or possessions. So, what’s wrong with this picture? Well, that is what we’re about to find out!
Heaping Up Treasure (vv. 16-19)
16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry’.”
When looking at this parable we have to wonder what’s wrong with a man not wanting to waste his grain. Fred Craddock, professor of preaching and New Testament at Emory University, says of this parable, “There is nothing here of graft or theft; there is no mistreatment of workers or any criminal act. Sun, soil, and rain join to make him wealthy. He is careful and conservative. If he is not just, what is he? He is a fool . . . He lives completely for himself, he talks to himself, he plans for himself, [and] he congratulates himself.”(4)
The problem here is not that the man had failed to multiply his resources, as the Lord would have us do; but he wanted all his wealth for himself. The man in this parable sounds similar to a certain dog mentioned in one of Aesop’s fables. In the tale of “The Dog and the Shadow,” Aesop related the following story: “A dog, crossing a little [stream] with a piece of [meat] in his mouth, saw his own [reflection] . . . in the clear mirror of the . . . stream; and believing it to be another dog who was carrying another piece of [meat], he could not [refrain from snapping] at it; but . . . dropped the piece he had in his mouth, which immediately sank to the bottom, and was . . . lost.”(5)
The dog in Aesop’s fable wasn’t satisfied with what he had, for he also wanted the meat seen in the reflection. When he reached out to snatch it, the meat which he had in his own mouth, and the meat that he saw in the reflection, were both lost. He was left with nothing. The man in this parable who had his barns full, similar to the dog, was not satisfied with what he had, so he reached out to take in more. So, what do you think happened as a result? Well, we will soon find out that, like the dog, he would lose everything he had.
This man had a large amount of grain stored in his barns or silos. During one particular year there was a bumper crop, and he didn’t know what to do with all the excess, so he tore down his silos and built bigger ones that would hold the overabundance of grain.
James 5:2-3 helps us in understanding the meaning of this parable. James admonished, “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.” “The man James had in mind ‘hoarded’ his wealth. ‘Hoarded’ is a translation of a Greek word from which we get our word ‘thesaurus.’ It means ‘a collection,’ and has the connotation of gathering all we can and storing it up.”(6)
The first thing that James said is, “Your riches are corrupted.” This statement can be translated as, “Your wealth has rotted.”(7) “The first century world did not have certificates of deposit or stock certificates. Their wealth was measured in grain, garments, and gold. When James said, ‘Your wealth has rotted,’ he was referring to grain. A man’s worth was often determined by the amount of grain he could store in his barn. Remember, the rich fool had many goods laid up for future years. But grain rots. How does it rot? By lack of use.”(8)
This man hoarded his grain, and grain was money. When we hoard our money, or heap it up and refuse to spend it, then it is good for nothing. It might as well be sitting in the bank rotting. James continued to say, “Your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded.” Jesus said in Matthew 6:19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.” Just as when grain sits around and rots, when clothing sits in the closet it can get moth-eaten. “A hinge on a gate that hasn’t been opened in a long time can become corroded. A pair of pliers left outside can gather so much rust that they can hardly be opened.”(9)
The door on a bank vault that is never opened might as well be rusted shut. Now, there’s nothing wrong with making money. In the “Parable of the Talents” Jesus commended the men who invested the money they earned; but when money is only used for ourselves, or it’s never taken out of the bank to be used for the Lord, then it’s good for nothing. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy.” He continued to say, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20). We lay up treasures in heaven when we allow our resources to be used by the Lord, for His purposes, and to further the kingdom.
How we use our treasure is actually a witness to where we place our faith and trust. Henry Blackaby told of the time that his church wanted to see if they were operating their budget according to what they thought God “could” provide, or what God “would actually” provide. Blackaby stated, “The budget of our church normally would have been $74,000. The budget we set was $164,000. We pledged to pray daily that God would meet our needs. Any money that came in that we did not anticipate we credited to God. At the end of the year we had received $172,000.” He said, “God taught our church a lesson in faith that radically changed us all.”(10)
If we are storing up money then we are placing all our security in that nest egg instead of the Lord. Have you ever lived from paycheck to paycheck, not knowing whether you would be able to afford the next rent or mortgage payment? It’s at times like this that we tend to pray for God’s help, and in which we are forced to place our trust in Him; and He always comes through for us. When we are living close to broke, and we go ahead and place our trust in the Lord, then our faith will continue to be reinforced as God keeps on coming through for us.
If we have a lot of money stored up in the bank, then we are apt to just keep it there so we won’t get into trouble; or should I say, so we can put our faith in ourselves and in our own resources. I mean, “Why do we need to lean on God if we have something in the world to fall back on when we get in a bind?” Hoarding money causes us to stop trusting God. The Lord wants us to be wise and make money, and even save a little so we can pay our bills when an emergency arises; however, He doesn’t want us to hoard excessive amounts. God allows us to make money so it can be used for kingdom purposes.
The Last Days (vv. 20-21)
20 “But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Donald S. Whitney shares a story about someone who wasn’t able to keep what he had stored up on earth. He says, “A popular musician-songwriter of the early seventies was Jim Croce. One of his most famous recordings was ‘Time in a Bottle,’ a love song about his desire to save time in a bottle in order to spend it later with someone he loved. The eerie thing about that piece was that by the time it hit the airwaves, Jim Croce was dead.”(11)
We don’t know when our time is coming. When we die, what’s going to happen to all the wealth that we’ve stored up? We sure can’t take it with us. Will it go to our heirs so that they’ll fall into the trap of failing to trust the Lord? If we leave it to them, they might make the same costly mistake. Or, they might wind up fighting over it. If we don’t have a Last Will and Testament, will it go to the state to be used to further the sins of a government that has corrupted itself with power and greed? How do you want the money for which you have worked so hard to be utilized? The best solution is to use it right now to further the kingdom of God.
Time of Reflection
I must ask again this important question: “At the end of your life will you be considered a hoarder or a steward?” The bottom line, or the moral of the story, is this: “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Do you want all your hard work to go to waste, or do you want it to be used to further the Lord’s kingdom?
To reiterate something we just heard, Jesus said in Mathew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He continued to tell us in verse 24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
There are way too many people who have gotten caught in the trap of serving money over seeking the Lord; and as Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and money.” The thing we need to keep in mind is that whenever we serve money, then we are pursuing the things of this world over the things of the kingdom. Jesus declared in Matthew 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” When you place money above God, then you are forfeiting your soul.
We read in Matthew 19:21-24, “Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’.”
There is nothing wrong with becoming monetarily rich, so long as you remember who comes first; but all too often those who are wealthy will allow money to become their focus and idol. When this happens, they deny Christ and forfeit their life in the kingdom; and therefore, a camel can fit through the eye of a needle easier than a rich man can squeeze through the gates of heaven. If you have allowed the material things of this world to come between you and a relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, then I wish to encourage you this morning to put the kingdom first. Let go of this world, and come find eternal life in Jesus Christ.
NOTES
(1) O.S. Hawkins, Money Talks (Annuity Board, 1999), 72.
(2) Ibid., 66.
(3) Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God (Nashville: Lifeway Press, 1990), 189.
(4) Fred B. Craddock, Luke (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1990), 163.
(5) Aesop, Treasury of Aesop’s Fables (New York: Crown Publishers, 1973), 17-18.
(6) Hawkins, 66.
(7) Ibid., 68.
(8) Ibid., 68.
(9) Ibid., 69.
(10) Blackaby, 108.
(11) Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1991), 154.
