SUCCESS Leads Us To FORGET
Luke 12:16-21
The great dread of our age is the insidious onset of Alzheimer’s disease, the inexorable loss of the very memories that constitute our individuality, our personhood. Big pharmaceutical companies are investing massively in drugs which might retard or even prevent the decline and preserve the failing memory. Yet, suppose our memories are painful, bringing back painful experiences. Might it be possible to erase them, wipe them out as cleanly as pressing the delete button on a computer?
Our text today tells us that we as well often forget even the most important thing when we attain success in life.
I. SUCCESS LEADS US TO FORGET OUR NEIGHBORS (V. 17)
With a good crop coming in, the man said, “What shall I do?” Meaning, “What shall I do with my money?” “How shall I spend my money on me?”
When the man succeeds all the more, his mind was so busy thinking for his life. He wasn’t thinking about anybody else but himself.
Any time we think only about ourselves, our wants and our needs or what we want to do and never consider anybody else then we are in trouble! We are in trouble with the Lord, because He wants us to think of others!
Prov. 11:24-26 “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.”
Two friends met for dinner in a restaurant. Each one requested fish and after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish, a large one and medium-sized one, were on the same platter.
One of the men proceeded to serve his friend. Placing the medium-sized piece of fish on a plate, he handed it across the table to his friend. His friend said, “Well, you certainly do have a lot of nerve!”
“What’s the matter?” asked the other man. “Look at what you’ve done! You’ve given me the smaller piece of fish and you kept the big one for yourself.”
The man responded, “Well, how would you have served the fish?” The angry man said, “If I were serving, I would have given you the bigger piece.” “WELL,” replied the man, “I’VE GOT THE BIGGER PIECE, DON’T I?”
(SermonCentral.com)
Lets be honest, any time we want the bigger piece of anything it is because we are thinking only of ourselves! There are many people who always want the bigger piece!
Charles Kingsley said, “If you want to be miserable, think much about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, and what people think of you.”
II. SUCCESS LEADS US TO FORGET OUR GOD (V.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."
This man did not realize who blessed his crops and the reason for it. There are many persons even Christians living in this world thinking futility like him.
James 1:16-17 “Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
All good things come from God our Father. All good material, physical, and spiritual things come from God.
Ps. 103:1-2 “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS.”
A good example of this is Apostle Peter, whe the Lord Jesus blessed his business, instead of giving more attention to it, he leave it and followed Jesus.
Luke 5:11 stated, "When they had brought their ships to the lad, THEY FORSOOK ALL AND FOLLOWED JESUS."
His once and for all decision made him a great apostle of Jesus. He made a right choice in life!
III. SUCCESS LEADS US TO FOGET OUR SOUL (V.19-20)
"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." "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?
All this rich fool was thinking about the “here and now,” not the "hereafter."
Read: Ecclesiastes 2:21-23
There was a very wealthy man who died. Shortly after the funeral a one neighbor asked another neighbor, "How much did he leave?" The wise woman responded, "Everything."
The more money and material goods people had, the more they can do without God! But that’s foolish thinking and living!
Prov. 11:4 “Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
CONCLUSION
Verse 21 says "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
The word of God reminds us in the beginning of this text (Luke 12:15b), "A man’s life does not consists in the abundance of his possessions."
"Security in life does not lie with barns but with God."
Illustration:
In one of his books Leo Tolstoy tells the story of a young Russian who inherits his father’s small farm. He immediately starts dreaming of how to expand his property when one morning a well-dressed stranger visits him and makes him an offer that is too good to be true - he could have free of charge all the property he could walk around in one day. The only condition was that he returns to the same spot from which he started, the grave of his father, before the sun went down.
Seeing the rich fields in the distance, he sets out without taking any provisions or saying goodbye to his family. He figured he could cover six square miles in a day. After a short while he decided to make it nine, then twelve and finally fifteen square miles. By noon he makes it to the halfway point. Though hungry with his legs aching he continues.
He was near the point of exhaustion but the obsession to own the land drives him on. With only a few minutes left before the sun went down, he gathers all his strength, stumbles across the line, the new owner of fifteen square miles of land, and then collapses on the ground, dead.
The stranger smiles and said, "I offered him all the land he could cover. Now you see what that is, six feet long by two feet wide, and I thought he would like to have the land close to his father’s grave, rather than to have it anywhere else."
Having said that, the stranger whose name is Death vanishes, saying "I have kept my pledge." (SermonCentral.com)
Each one of us will come face-to-face with the same stranger and must begin to ask ourselves, "What does a man get for his toil?"
I will remind you about this again and again. Success in life will leads us to forget. So the apostle Paul advice us to be very careful how to live, not as unwise BUT AS WISE!
God bless!
