Luke 12:32-40
Paonia United Methodist Church
August 8, 2004
Life is hard.
No, I mean it.
Life in and of itself is rough.
We get up,
We encounter situations we would just as soon avoid,
We deal with people we would just as soon pass on by,
We struggle just to make ends meet…
And, no one gets out of here alive.
Life is hard.
And, we are the wealthiest most blessed nation that has ever existed.
If we are in a position to complain about our lives,
What kind of lamenting do you suspect Jesus listened to
As the people around him struggled for their very existence?
It certainly puts our problems into perspective.
I am hoping that our youth who attended the Heifer Ranch got a good dose of that.
Struggling with midterms and struggling to find food are not equal stressors…
Although, both certainly do cause stress.
Dealing with a boss that doesn’t recognize all your gifts may be insulting,
But coming home with no way to feed your children
Is something quite different all together.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I think that it is easy to lose our perspective on life.
I think that we have it so good here that
Any inconvenience or annoyance that we have to deal with
Creates an undue level of stress.
The reality is that when you leave here today,
Short of a meteor or runaway train hitting your house,
You will have a place to go home to.
You have a life and people around you that love you.
Whether you live in a mansion or a trailer,
Your life is better than 90% of this world that
Struggles to get by.
So, why the stress?
Why, when we have it so good are we so stressed out
By the things in life that are supposed to be our blessings?
Now, if you missed that part,
Let me repeat it…
Why are we so stressed out by our blessings?
Have you noticed that our blessings are the very things that get us worked up?
Our jobs, our cars, our homes, our kids…
I don’t know your situation…
Fill in the blank.
Now, please understand something here…
I am not making light of real life and death struggles here.
Domestic violence, cancer, alcoholism…
These are real issues.
But, that is not what I am talking about right now.
I am talking about the mortgage,
The kids grades in school, braces, the car, the lawn,
Again, I don’t know your situation,
But I do have a pretty good idea that there are a lot of people
Who spend a lot of time worrying and stressing out
About their blessings.
So, what advice did Jesus give to those
Around him that were preoccupied with their stressors?
Well, I am going to give you the Gospel lesson in two parts this morning.
They do go together, but getting their connection may
Take a little explaining.
Let me give you the first part now.
Take a listen…
Luke 12
32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell 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. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
This is the Word of the Lord
Wow!
Don’t you all feel better now!
Sell all your possessions and give them away.
If you want to clear out your checking account today in order
To make yourselves feel better, you spell my last name…
N-A-D-A-S-I… and we will both feel better.
You know, when I have asked people over the years their favorite
Bible verses, I cannot recall ever hearing one person recite this one.
In fact, it stands so far out, that we have a tendency to miss
What comes before it and after…
Listen again to the first verse.
"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you
the kingdom.”
Did you hear that part?
Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
I want you to hold on to that thought.
Hang on to it and then reflect again on those things that have you stressed out.
What is it that you worry about that keeps you up at night?
What is it that you find yourself preoccupied with?
Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
If that is so, why am I still so worked up?
Now that is real question.
Let’s take a look again at that getting rid of your possessions part.
How many of you think that really means having a big auction,
Giving it all away, and living on the street?
Okay… The good news is that I don’t either.
But…
And, there is always a but…
But, when your possessions come to posses you…
There is a problem.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
These are the things you have to hand over.
Let me give you an example from my own life.
For me, my possession was the ministry.
I owned every problem in the church,
Every person’s struggle was my own.
Every person that got ticked off at me or the church…
I took on every last part of it.
When the attendance went up,
Obviously I was doing something right.
When the giving went down, I didn’t sleep at night…
That was my fault too.
Tell me something, who owned who here?
In one of those sacred “duh moments”
It dawned on me that none of this was mine to begin with.
Its God’s church, Christ’s ministry, and, best of all,
His responsibility to figure out the details.
My part in this is just to be obedient and do what I am told.
I cannot tell you what a relief that is.
My role, for lack of a better word, becomes my possession,
Rather than me becoming possessed by my role.
There is something else that I want for you to notice here.
Jesus taught this principal using money as his example.
I am not.
I have given a number of sermons on giving in recent weeks,
So I do not want you to hear that this is a message about money.
Its much bigger than that.
It is a message about stewardship…
How you are willing to share the blessing of yourself
With your God?
Jesus used money and possession as his example because that
Is how people measured success.
In fact, he talked more about money than he did heaven.
And, usually it was in the context of the one big idol
People put before God.
People’s security and their hopes are all wrapped up in it…
And security and hope are the very qualities that God asks us to put in him.
That’s why it is a spiritual issue.
And, that is why money never satisfies this hunger.
When you talk to wealthy people, they will tell you
That when you have money, it just leaves you with everything else to sit
And worry about.
The real issue is not money and possession.
The issue is faith and trust and perspective.
That is what this is really all about.
Are you going to continue with the illusion that you are in control
Of your world?
If so, the world will continue to posses you instead
And you will carry the weight of it on your shoulders.
Folks, you have to give away that which posses you.
That’s the only way to grow, thrive, and survive,
Are you with me here?
Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
But where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
You have been blessed beyond all people of all times by your creator.
He loves you and has been pleased to give you the kingdom…
How will you be a good steward of that kingdom?
Will you possess it as a good steward and share?
Or will it possess you?
You have to give away that which owns you.
How do you do that?
Well, it depends on what we are talking about here.
Let me give you a few examples from my own life
And you can tell me if you think the principal works.
I have given God my addictions to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
God has given me my health, my sanity, my marriage, and my integrity.
Pretty good trade don’t you think?
I have given God the freedom to send me where he will.
He has sent me to one of the most beautiful areas of the nation.
Not bad.
I have given God the first fruits of our income by tithing the first 10% back to him.
He has given me a beautiful home, cars, boat, wood shop, and all
my hearts desires.
Most of all, he has given me the ability to enjoy my possessions
Because I own them, they do not own me.
I would say that God has been faithful.
Everything that I have been willing to hand over,
He has blessed and returned it to me 100 fold.
What would you say?
You get to make your own choice on this one…
But I would like to share with you how much easier life is when
God gets to be God, we live as the people he has called us to be.
I think that the part that holds us up in our willingness to be good stewards
Is that at some level we simply do not trust.
We see the world as hard and a constant struggle…
And, as our thinking continues,
God is all powerful and has created it this way.
Therefore God is hard and desires for us to struggle.
Most of us wouldn’t admit out loud that that is our mentality,
But underneath, when we are struggling we wonder why God is picking on us.
I want for you, when this time comes to remember these words…
“Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
“Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
You see, that is the part in this that God actually is playing.
The part that you are experiencing is the harvest from
The seeds you have sown.
God isn’t picking on you.
God has blessed you.
What have you done with those blessings?
Are you willing to hold your blessings with open hands?
Now, I told you that there was a second part to this scripture…
And that it fits, but it does require context.
Well, if you were here last week,
You have all the context you need.
If not, let me say this…
There is a limit to the time that we have here.
People who get stuck in a rut inevitably do so because they think there
Is all the time in the world to change.
It doesn’t work that way.
Hear the rest of this mornings lectionary text
…
Watchfulness
35"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
If you have heard anywhere in this message a call to apathy or complacency,
I assure you, this message is anything but.
We are called to be people who are Spirit led,
And people who are to be Spirit led today.
People often put off the life changes that they know they need to make
Because they think that they have all the time in the world to make
These changes.
Time is of the essence folks,
Time is of the essence.
Like I said last week, the clock finally will catch up to you.
The Good News is that you and I have been blessed.
It is our Father’s pleasure to give to us the Kingdom today.
How will you respond?
Will you be a faithful steward and hold with open hands
The gifts God has given to you?
or will you be possessed by your possessions?
People of God, I exhort you this day to hand over that which holds you.
Your Father desires to bless you, but cannot until you allow
Him to play the part of God in your life.
