Rich and Richer

Luke 12:13-34 

If you have been receiving emails from the church this week, you have been hearing about the crisis in Mongolia. Western media has hardly mentioned this at all, but Mongolia had national elections last week, and there were accusations of unfair practices at the ballot boxes. The accusations rose into a full scale riot. The party headquarters of one of the two major political parties was burned as was a cultural antiquities building that contained priceless artifacts. Several people were killed and hundreds were injured.

But there was something else going on that I found far more serious. Tom Terry is a Christian, an American living in Mongolia, who has been doing something I find really awesome for Christ. He has created a private, non-government TV news network that broadcasts throughout Mongolia called Eagle TV. Eagle TV provides unbiased news of Mongolia to Mongolians as well as producing a large number of Christian shows, mostly focused on teaching Mongolians the Bible. It is beginning to have a huge impact in Mongolia.


Eagle TV has butted heads with the government of Mongolia at various times, in part because they are unbiased in how they report news. Eagle TV provided live coverage of the riots, and the Mongolian government has now accused Eagle TV of being a contributing factor to the riots because of their live coverage. There has been a four-day curfew/martial law situation that has just ended, and during this period they only allowed the government TV station to stay on. In addition, during the curfew period, they debated adding new laws that would have basically shut down Eagle TV for good. We need to stay in prayer for Tom and for Eagle TV.

But I bring this up at the beginning of my message entitled Rich and Richer, on Luke 12:13-34, for another reason beyond that of prayer. When I look at the situation with Eagle TV, I have to ask, “Why is it that just as Eagle TV is on the cusp of causing a dramatic impact on Mongolia for Christ, that it is in danger of being shut down?” And there is only one answer: Satan. Satan is opposed to the spread of the gospel more than he is opposed to anything else. And in each culture, in each country, he will use whatever works best to limit the spread of the gospel. Let me say this again: in each culture, in each country, he will use whatever works best to limit the spread of the good news about Jesus Christ. And Satan is no dummy – in fact, he’s really smart! He customizes his attack to each culture so as to have maximum disruptive effect. And he doesn’t just use one kind of attack at a time; he uses a variety of specially targeted methods of attack simultaneously. The techniques that he uses are such that if he doesn’t get at you one way, he will in another.

I think that today’s passage speaks to our culture, and our culture right now, today, with a bull’s eye for accuracy. And when I think about how Satan targets his attacks to our culture, I think that this passage speaks to two of his most effective methods that he is using against us right now. So let’s look at Luke 12, beginning at verse 13.

Someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then He said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." – Luke 12:13-15

I have spent some time thinking about this, and I would say that Satan’s #1 attack on our culture is to encourage greed. Now you may disagree with me whether that is #1, and that’s fine. There are others I have thought about, such as lust, and pride, but you have to agree with me that the encouragement of greed is high, very high, on his list.

Now you need to understand how Satan works. He uses the culture to do his work for him. He uses the government to do his work for him. He uses anything and everything he can find to do his work for him. In Mongolia he uses the corrupt government, along with many other things.

But in America, one of the things he uses is the television. Now I’m not saying that it is a sin to watch TV. I’m not saying it isn't a sin to watch TV. But you won’t see Satan working to have our government shut down TV for 4 days, because TV is his friend. TV promotes greed. Just think about this for a moment: the average American will see 23 million commercials in their lifetime. Twenty-three million! Just think about that! If you lived 100 years and went to church once a week for every week you were alive, you would listen to 52 hundred messages. Each commercial is a complete message. It is shorter than a message in church, but it is a message. Compare 52 hundred to 23 million and you will see that in our culture, TV, and I’m just talking about the commercials, TV has an incredible influence.

Pretty much every commercial either tells us to buy this or to watch that. The ones that tell us to watch that do so because they direct us to watch more TV in which commercials tell us to buy this.

By any measure, our culture is a culture consumed by greed. Despite being the richest nation in the world, in the history of the world, our total savings rate is negative. As a nation we are spending more than we save, including the effects of retirement plans and other savings vehicles. We watch those commercials and we want to have what we see now.

Now, I find Jesus’ rebuke of the man in the crowd somewhat shocking. Now I will say this – it is rather odd to see someone interrupt the flow of Jesus’ teachings with a personal request for Jesus to make this man’s brother to settle up responsibly and fairly with him. It seems neither the time nor the place. But someone willing to do this is probably not making this stuff up – his brother probably really is not giving him his fair share.

Jesus’ response disturbs me because I can see Him saying the same thing to me. Consider this scenario: you are having troubles getting your insurance company to pay for what they are supposed to pay. You feel frustrated and angry. You pray to Jesus. “Jesus, you say we can go to you with anything. Please make the insurance company pay what they owe me. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.” Or substitute insurance “insurance company” with a friend who refuses to pay back what they borrowed from you, or a credit card statement that shows you were double charged, or an online merchant who didn’t send you an item you purchased. We all have these experiences. Stick in your own experience here. What if, in response to your prayer, you suddenly heard the following audibly from heaven? “Man [or woman], who appointed Me a judge or an arbiter between you? Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; [your] life does not consist in the abundance of [your] possessions.”

Jesus sees our hearts. Look, I am guilty of this too. I had an experience like this just this week. (Well, not the audibly speaking from heaven part, but the frustration with a business part.) Jesus sees our hearts. On the one hand, this gets us upset because it is our legal right to not be ripped off, just as it probably was the legal right of that person in the crowd to get more of his father’s inheritance. It’s not that we are wrong; it is that the degree of “upsetness” we feel is an indicator of how much Satan is influencing us in the area of greed.

Because our culture as a whole is so consumed with greed, we really need to watch out. In our culture, just being normal is a problem. Jesus knew this was a problem with this group, and so He elaborated on the problem of greed.

And He told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "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. 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."' – Luke 12:16-19

"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?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." – Luke 12:20-21

Does this parable make you uncomfortable? Then watch out! It makes me uncomfortable, for several reasons. First, this guy is building a successful business. I am impressed by people who successfully build their own businesses. It is not easy to do – many, many things can go wrong. Your business can fail because of things totally out of your control – lawsuits, changes in economic conditions, the weather – countless things. And your business can also fail because of flaws in you – you are not industrious enough, or you procrastinate, or your anger makes you lose an important client, or you are just not sufficiently skilled in all the areas required for you to succeed in your business. If you have a successful business, at a minimum you are doing many things right, and in addition to this, you have also probably had a lot of good fortune.

And when you are successful, what are you supposed to do? Expand your business! Isn’t that all that this guy is doing? Maybe it would be wiser to just add to his existing barns without tearing the old ones down, but if you’ve earned it, you can do what you want, right?

And that part about taking life easy – isn’t that the whole goal of retirement? That’s what all those TV commercials by investment companies imply.

But look at the answer! He is a fool! That means we are fools if we think similarly! And now he is dead, and perhaps his sons will fight over the inheritance just as the man who, with his brother, was doing the exact same thing at the beginning of this passage.

What does the last verse mean? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. What does it mean to be rich toward God?
Now don’t take this the wrong way, but God doesn’t need your money. He doesn’t! That’s not what this is about. Now am I saying don’t give to our church? No, I’m not saying that. Our church needs money to operate – to keep up the building, for upkeep and for administrative expenses that enable us to be effective in reaching out to others, and in using our money for outreaches to our community – for all these things, we need money.

But at a fundamental level, what is money? Money is something you accept in exchange for your most valuable possession, your time. Why are we here on this earth at all? Why doesn’t God just call us home the moment we become Christians? Because He has a mission for us – to be a part in building His kingdom – to show love and share the gospel – to raise your children to love the Lord – to help others to grow in Christlikeness, to serve Him with your life. Was our man in the parable doing any of these things? Was he thinking of others? No – there is no sign that he was. He was thinking only of himself. His greed had made him rich in the world’s eyes, but in reality he was bankrupt.

Does this mean that we shouldn’t save up for retirement? I don’t think so – the question is what you are saving up for retirement for. If the goal is just be selfish and live your own life, you look a lot like our man in the parable. But if the goals include making it so that you won’t be a burden on your children later in life, if your goals include making it possible for you to be more involved in other people’s lives, working for Jesus, doing the things He would want you to do, provided He allows your health to permit it and provided He doesn’t take you home sooner – if your goals are like this, then I don’t believe there is anything at all wrong with saving for retirement – in fact, I think it is a noble goal, provided it is within balance.

Then Jesus said to His disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? – Luke 12:22-26

Jesus then speaks just to His disciples. He has just warned them of the foolishness of just living for yourself and your own future. Now He says not to worry about getting enough. Right now, one could make a decent argument that Satan’s #2 method of attack is to create and promote fear and worry. What do fear and worry do to a Christian? The ultimate effect can be exactly the same as greed: to get you to focus on yourself and forget about living for God. Our culture is consumed by fear. We jump from fear to fear with amazing frequency, but there is always something to be fearful about. In 1999 it was fear of Y2K problems. In 2000 it was fear of the effects of the dotcom crash. In 2001 and 2002 it was 9-11 and the anthrax attack. And on and on. Recently some have become convinced our world is about fall completely apart due to global warming. For more of us, it is fear of the effects of inflation in gas prices and food, as well as a fear that our economy is falling apart.

Now don’t get me wrong – many (but not all) of these problems have been and are real. But our culture seems completely unable to deal with living in fear. Past generations have had much greater challenges, but they seemed to handle it better. And what is one of the primary ways in which all this fear gets propagated? Yes, the TV and media. Fear sells. Worry sells. It gets people to watch the news, and it sells products via commercials.

Can you honestly imagine living in Jesus’ day? Without much in the way of medicine? Without any kind of job security? With tremendous political uncertainty due to the Roman occupation of your land? These guys had much more to worry about than we do! And yet, to them, Jesus says, “Don’t worry. Trust in God. He will take care of you.” He even takes care of the ravens. “Raven” is just a nice word for “crow,” by the way. He’s talking about crows. And notice how Jesus points out the utter uselessness of worrying: it doesn’t change anything! All it does is sidetrack you from prayer, from serving God, from loving God and loving your neighbor, and so on.

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. – Luke 12:27-31

Jesus goes on about worry. Don’t worry about food, because God even feeds ravens. And don’t worry about clothing, because God even clothes the grass, so to speak. The phrase, “do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink,” means to not become consumed with worry over these things. And why? Because your Father, who loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you, knows about it. Instead, Jesus says, seek God’s kingdom. Hunger for Him. Seek to clothe yourselves in Him.

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell 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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Luke 12:32-34

Everything you buy in this world wears out. Cars wear out. Even houses wear out. You can keep rebuilding them piece by piece, slowly replacing part after part, but houses wear out. But using your money and your time for building God’s kingdom is the ultimate hedge fund. It is the ultimate tax shelter. It is the ultimate retirement account. The principal is guaranteed by God Himself. It provides a rate of return unmatched by anything in this world.

Now, if you feel like you have been trapped by our economy, that rising prices and stagnant wages are strangling you, listen to the following passage from the book of Haggai. To me it sounds like it was written today.

Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while My house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! – Haggai 1:3-6

Now this is from the Old Testament, and God’s house refers to the temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed and needed to be rebuilt. Today we do not need to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, because where is God’s temple? We are God’s temple! Each of us individually, and us together as a church are God’s temple. I believe this passage speaks to the building of the church, Christ’s Body, in America today.

By the way, I don’t think this means we should all live in shacks. But it means that you should live within your means. In building (or paying for) your own house, you shouldn’t become so tapped out that you cannot give to God’s house. I will talk about more about what I think it means to give to or rebuild God’s house in a minute. But first, here is more the passage:

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild My house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because My house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. – Haggai 1:7-9

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, in America, God’s house lies in ruins, but the trends are tending this way. In general, if you look at the percentage of college students who drop out of churchgoing and who then stay dropped out, the numbers are staggering. If you look at the percentage of children of families in evangelical churches who drop out of church when they grow up, the numbers are equally staggering. God’s house doesn’t yet lie in ruins, but I think you could say that it does lie in ruins in most of Europe, and America might be heading that way.

Now, what does it mean to build God’s house? From Mark Darling, a pastor in a sister church in Minneapolis, here are four Biblical purposes of our money for investing in eternity:

1. Your money is to support you as God’s missionary and God’s servant to meet your needs.

At the pastor’s conference I went to last week, I hosted a discussion on bi-vocational pastoring. As you know I don’t take a penny of salary from this church. But listen: we are all bi-vocational! You are a tentmaker! Your money is to support you as God’s missionary and God’s servant.

2. Your money is for you to support God’s work on Earth, and in particular, the local church.

3. Your money is for you to win others and influence them for Christ.

Have you ever thought about this? It is absolutely scriptural. How do you do this? If you cook, invite people over for dinner, and spend some money on them. Take them out to dinner. Give them gifts. Be generous!

4. Your money is to help God’s people in need.

Do good to all men, but especially to those of the household of faith.

Here are some questions to help you evaluate whether you are building God’s house.

1. Outside of Sunday morning, am I encouraging the saints?
2. Am I building spiritually-minded relationships with unbelievers?
3. Am I regularly in prayer for the people in #1 and #2?
4. Am I feeding my soul with God’s Word?
5. Am I giving generously and joyfully with my time and money?

If you feel like God is prompting you to take some action steps based on today’s message, I have two suggestions. One, if you feel God prompting you to action but you don’t really know what that action might be, talk to Fred or me about what you are thinking and feeling. We would love to talk with you – we know where there are real needs in our body – we can tell you what needs to be built – and we also would love to brainstorm with you into finding things that use your God-given gifts to build His house. And two, if you feel like you know what God is prompting you to do, for example, to pray daily for our body, or to get into God’s Word every morning, write it down on your welcome card so we can pray for you and provide a measure of accountability. We’re not going to beat you over the head with it; we’ll simply ask you how you are doing in that area.