True Ownership Series

TRUE OWNERSHIP

Text: Luke 12:13-21

This morning we begin a journey.

A journey that will take us in the direction of TRUE NORTH as we travel together over the next few weeks seeking God’s truth.

Our journey begins this morning by thinking about TRUE OWNERSHIP.

What comes to your mind when you hear the words TRUE OWNERSHIP?

Do you think about “who really owns things?”

Perhaps when you hear the words

TRUE OWNERSHIP

you might even think about, “where things COME FROM.”

Do you ever stop and really think about where things come from?

Let’s take a look.

PLAY MOVIE CLIP

( movie clip has image of pitcher of milk then fades to a cow then picture of pearl necklace followed by picture of an oyster picture of a baby followed by a picture of a mom and dad. you get the idea the pinacle is a picture of money and then a picture of the hand of God...)

Where do things come from

Milk comes from cows

Pearls come from Oysters

Babies come from the Stork (Moms and Dads)

I recently heard about an expectant mother who was rushed to the hospital upon arriving at the hospital to give birth the stress was too much and the woman fainted.

The woman didn’t immediately come to…

…and the doctor decided to go ahead with the delivery.

Even after twins (a boy and a girl had been safely delivered) the woman still did not come recover from her fainting.

Eventually After a short while she came to and was conscious alert and fine.

Immediately she noticed that she was no longer pregnant.

The doctor explained to her that she had been out of it for a while and that she had now had two beautiful twins… a boy and a girl.

The doctor said and because you were not conscious and your husband is overseas we took the liberty of letting your brother name the two children.

“Oh no”

thought the mother…”not my brother he is a nutcase”

She swallowed hard and asked the doctor

“So what did my brother name the children?”

“Well” said the doctor “he named your daughter, Denise”

The mother thought to herself “REALLY that is a beautiful name, I am quite shocked that he came up with such a fine name.”

“and what did he name the boy?” asked the mother.

To which the doctor said “He named your son Denephew”

Where do things come from?

Our text today as we think about TRUE OWNERSHIP is in LK chapter 12 but we would do well to remember what God’s word says to us in James chapter one …there it tells us where everything good comes from.

We are told in James 1:7 that

7 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…

When we think about that verse it reminds us of the origin of all good things.

All good things come from God.

And If all good things come from God shouldn’t we agree that everything good that we have is because of God’s good grace toward us.

In LK chapter 12 Jesus was teaching to an immense crowd of people.

As a matter of fact so many had gathered to hear his teaching that the Bible says they were trampling on one another.

It must have looked a lot like our modern shopping centers on the day after Thanksgiving.

Just packs of people conglomerated together that day.

They were not there to shop or spend but they had gathered to hear the spiritual message that Christ was bringing to those who would hear and receive it.

Jesus had spoke that day on a number of hot topics.

In verse 1 He warned against hypocrisy (12:1),

In verses 2-3 we find that Jesus had spoken about the coming one day of God’s judgement and how everything will be revealed.

Jesus then spoke to other things such as a place called hell and the fact that some people can really end up there.

He spoke of the empowerment of God’s Holy Spirit in verse 12and how it teaches us what to say.

Then after Jesus has spoken about all these very important things a voice comes forth out of the crowd that makes a strange request.

A man speaks up and asks something sort of odd.

Let’s take a look at verse 13 and follow along with me as I read.

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher,… tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

15 Then Jesus (spoke to the crowd saying), “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”