September 26 - Counting the Cost - Luke 14:25-30

 Luke 14:28-31

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

1. Introduction

I have been rereading a biography on Rev. Sam P. Jones, who incidentally I did not name my son after! But if you don’t know who Sam Jones was, he was a contemporary of Dwight L. Moody, and some people even called him the Billy Graham of the 1800s. Sam Jones was born in Alabama, but he grew up in Cartersville. Interestingly enough, at least to me, is that at the same time that Sam Jones was beginning his ministry, Lottie Moon was heading to the mission field, also being from Cartersville.

Jones was born in 1848, and over his life, he would end up preaching to over 25 million people. He had been a lawyer, but before his conversion to Christ, he had been a drunk. As one person put it from his time, when he was sober, he was the best lawyer you could hope to have on your side. If he was drunk, he was worthless. In August of 1872, Jones was called to his father’s bedside. He was dying, but the father realized that his son was dying faster than he was. He said to him, “My poor, wicked, wayward, reckless boy. You have broken the heart of your sweet wife and brought me down in sorrow to the grave. Promise me, my boy, to meet me in Heaven.” Sam fell to his knees, and promised to his dying father that he would get his life straight, quit drinking, and live for the Lord.

However, that wasn’t as easy as it sounds. He struggled with alcoholism the rest of his life, but because of his devotion to the Lord, he gave it up completely. His last encounter with drinking, he had gone into the bar, but looked at himself for the first time in a long time in the mirror. Haggard, scruffy, matted hair, he said to himself, “is that all that is left of the proud and brilliant lawyer, Sam Jones?” He smashed his glass, and got on his knees in the bar and said “God please have mercy on me!” He went over to his boarding house, and over the next three days he detoxed with the help of the ladies who were also there. After those three days of detox, he went into town, got a new suit, and went back to his wife telling her “God has given you a new husband and our children a new daddy. Will you take me back?” Her answer was “Hallelujah, hallelujah, I’ve been praying for this!” Only one week later, Jones would step into the pulpit of his grandfather and begin a lifelong ministry for Christ.

Now, why do I tell you this story? Besides being a great story of faith, and one of great redemption, it is because Sam Jones was one of the wittiest and most memorable quote makers of the United States. Some of his quotes were “David was a great sinner, but he was a first-class repenter,” “the secret of a happy life is to do your duty and trust in God,” and “let’s quit singing the ‘sweet by-and-by’ and sing the “sweet now-and-now”. But perhaps the one that Jones is best known for, and you’ll hear it still from time to time is “the tune of America is pitched to the dollar.” Our country seems to sit down and count every penny before acting, making sure that it’s a good bargain before we do anything. Look at the recent construction bill that is hung up in Congress. Our legislators are hung up mostly on who will pay for it, how it's going to get paid for, and how well the use of the taxpayer’s money is going to be spent. We measure a man’s success by how much he owns, or how much is in his bank account. Well, this was no different than in Jesus’ day. Jesus spoke a bit about money in his ministry because I think that it was something that would speak to us even today. When we look at this passage of scripture and this parable that Jesus talks about, we realize that there truly is a cost to follow Him in our lives. Let’s look a bit at it.

II. The Cost of Faith

When we look at this entire passage of scripture, Jesus truly says some things that may seem bizarre to us. There is a large group of people that are following him, and he turns to them, I think somewhat abruptly. Maybe Jesus had known that some of them were there really to just see miracles, or even just for the spectacle of being in a group. He turns to the people following and tells them “if anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” This is harsh! One commentary noted that in the book of Matthew, specifically in chapter 10, verses 37-38, it is put down in a nicer fashion. But it still means the same thing! Unless we are willing to give all for Christ, then we are not truly ready to be his disciple.

Jesus spoke clearly about the kind of person who could not be his disciple. That word, disciple, simply means ‘learner”. Prior to this, Jesus had stated just before this passage in the same chapter that coming to God was like accepting an invitation. Jesus added that the invitation was just the beginning of learning from the master. I have a question: for those of you who have gone to college, or have had children go to college, when either you or they received the notification that they had been accepted into that school, were they immediately given their diploma? That wouldn’t be much of a school if they did that, right? The expectation of that school, when someone applies to it, is that they will teach the student and give them the skills to succeed not only in whatever profession they have chosen, but also in life in general. That is why the invitation is important, but we must know that the learning just starts with that invitation. Why else would Jesus keep us here on this Earth if it were not so?

Jesus boldly states that you have to come to him to learn without reservation. Family relations can sometimes be a hindrance to someone’s commitment to Christ. Look at how the Mormons conduct themselves: if someone takes on their faith, but then abandons it, they are treated as if they are dead to those who are still within the Mormon faith. The Jews also practice this. Even hardline Catholics have been known to do this, although it is a tradition that seems to be dying out in that faith. But can you imagine in Jesus’ day how upsetting this would be? And honestly, how upsetting is it to us today? Take for a moment to think of your mother. If someone came up to you and said “you will have to hate your mother to be able to do this”, your response might be all the way up to popping them in the eye! I mean, we love our Mommas! But our mothers can’t get us into heaven. They can pray for us, they can pray for our salvation, and I’ve known of many mothers that have prayed very hard for their children to come to Christ, to come back into church, and to have a close relationship with Jesus. They are saintly women! But they can’t save their children. Only Christ can do that.

What Jesus said to those who wanted and want to follow him now was and is still audacious. Only God could call for those who follow him to be so personally committed and devoted to his teachings and commands. If Jesus was not and is not God, then this would be madness at best, and idolatry at worst! But we do know that Jesus is God. John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word  was with God, and the Word was God.” Napoleon Bonaparte understood this about Jesus. He said “I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ was no mere man. Between him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and this hour millions of men would die for him.”

In any case of competing loyalties between Christ and ourselves, it can only be solved one way, and that is through hating even our own life. A strange thought, no? Jesus used this strong word, hate, to show how great the difference must be between our allegiance to him and our allegiance to anything else in this world. Matthew Henry, the great commentator on the Bible, stated “every good man loves his relations; and yet, if he be a disciple of Christ, he must comparatively hate them, must love them less than Christ. Not that their persons must be in any degree hated, but our comfort and satisfaction in them must be lost and swallowed up in our love to Christ. When our duty to our parents comes in competition with our evident duty to Christ, we must give Christ the preference.” Being a Christ-follower usually makes us a better family member, actually. In fact, most of the time being a Christ-follower means that you are going to bring your family into a place of peace and of great honor. But to lose focus on the fact that Christ is the first in your life, and the first in your family, is to put Christ in that second place. The greatest threat to the best often comes from second best.

Christ finishes the first part of this passage with the statement that whoever does not take up his cross to follow him cannot be a disciple of his. There are a few parts to this, I think. In the there and then, Jesus was pointing towards his own death on the cross and the redemption of mankind through his rising from death three days later. But in addition to this, think about the implication that it had on his listeners right then. Every single person right there with Jesus knew of the most brutal way that Rome killed those who went against them. Crucifixion is cruel, and humiliating. Part of that humiliation was that the Romans would make the person, just like Jesus did, carry their own crossbeam to their own execution. The Romans didn’t just crucify them, they quite literally hung a cross on that person. And everyone knew this. Only 30 years or so earlier, there had been a revolt against the Romans in Galilee, and the Roman General Varus crucified 2000 Jews along the roads of that region. They knew of the awfulness of this death! And beyond that, they knew that carrying a cross always led to death on a cross. It would be like having someone put down electrical wires on the way to the electric chair. The people knew that if someone took up their own cross, it was a one way trip, and that that person never came back from it.

To bear a cross in our lives is to fully accept the consequences of discipleship - the shame, the loneliness, the hostility that men direct towards a life that is the channel of God’s truth, justice, and love. A true disciple is not a person who consumes every tradition, every little fact so that they can give an orthodox answer to any question that someone throws at them. Not at all; it is the person who follows after Jesus, gladly sharing in Jesus’ redemptive suffering. Jesus told us, even today, to take up our own cross and to follow Him. OUR own cross. There is a story of a man who prayed to Jesus that his cross was too heavy for him to bear day in and day out. He prayed that Jesus would just let him take that cross off for a day and choose one that wasn’t so heavy. Well, Jesus visited the man in a dream. He took the cross off of his shoulders, and took it through a doorway and closed it behind himself. When Jesus came back through, he took the man into the room. In that room were crosses that were huge in height and huge in weight. They were massive! But in the corner of the room was a very small cross, compared to the others. The man excitedly said to Jesus, ‘Oh, I’ll take that one Lord! It doesn’t look too hard to bear, at least for a day!” Jesus shook his head, sadly, and said, “Son, that was the one I just brought in here that you laid down.” Our cross that we take up daily will look completely different from the one that I bear, or anyone else bears. But we are to take it up daily and walk towards Christ and  towards that one way ending.  We are to come after Him, and to be his disciple, even unto death. 

III. The Cost of Finishing

That seems like an awfully high cost of life, doesn’t it? Jesus tells us a parable here that helps to fully illustrate the point that he was trying to make. He talks about building a tower here. Have you ever toured a vineyard or seen pictures of one in the Holy Land? Often there are towers within those vineyards. But why? It was to protect against thieves, but it also was a place where grapes could be stored until they were ready to be processed into wine. Without nice, cool places, the grapes would start to ferment and turn into wine, which may or may not have been what was best for the vineyard owner. Jesus states that a person would sit down and first examine what they would need to do to afford this. Don’t we do the same with pretty much everything that we do in our lives? I know that there’s a whole industry in our country for people to work in that calculates the risk involved in making loans to people, be it for homes or for vehicles. In any case, you sit down, look at what your budget might be, and you figure up how much you can afford to spend on something. This has not changed since Jesus’ day.

But Jesus takes this one step further, as always. He points out to us that we have to count the cost all the way to the finish, lest we be mocked for not doing so. Have you ever seen a house halfway built? There is a site going towards Tasha’s Dad’s house that is just a foundation. It has been there for years and years, just waiting on a house to be built upon it. It’s so strange to think that someone started all this work to get a foundation built, but for whatever circumstance, it was never completed. I can think of another example. A prominent businessman in Blue Ridge had the idea of a horse park. He did consider the cost to get it going, but not the cost of completing it. Now, that part sits with street lights, a whole barn complex, and even sewer systems, but no homes, and no horses. Why? Because the cost to completion was never taken into account. It became a boondoggle! And that man, I know, feels that part of his life is incomplete because he never got it done. What Jesus asks of us here is this: sit down and see if you can afford to follow me all the way to the end.

But Jesus tells us even more than that! He tells us of a king that has war come to his door. He has 10k troops, but the other has 20k. Now, there are scenarios where an army can beat another when its 2 to 1 odds. But that’s a bad bargain, and usually ends up with the smaller army still being very decimated. And more often than not, the smaller army is just overrun. The king asks for terms of peace so that he might continue to live and rule. This is not to say that we are to surrender to our enemy. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of that: in our lives, we have Christ on our side, so we are never outnumbered. But Jesus does warn people against following him without an awareness of the consequences and a willingness to accept that. Jesus says to us still today with this part of the parable “sit down and see if you can afford to refuse my demands.”

Jesus alludes to the fact that faith and working in His kingdom is like a building and battle. Each of these are usually more costly than someone thinks at the beginning. Think about all the buildings we have known of that they give an estimate of how much it’ll cost, then a year goes by and the cost has doubled. Or, think about the people who said at the beginning of the Civil War that all the blood of the coming battles will be able to be taken up with one handkerchief. How wrong they were, when over 600k casualties happened over the course of four years. The cost is great to us who choose to follow Christ.

Jesus says at the end of this passage that whoever does not forsake all cannot be his disciple. There are two extremes that we must avoid when we share the Gospel this way, though. The first is to never give the impression that people have to clean up their lives before they come to Christ. It’s like saying you have to get clean before you have a bath. But on the other hand, you can never give people the impression that Jesus won’t clean up their lives after they come to Him completely. Jesus will clean them completely, as white as snow, but people who are lost must understand this. Every potential disciple must consider that cost. But even those who reject Christ must understand the cost, too. What is the cost of rejecting Christ? Eternal damnation, and suffering in the separation from God for all time. It means hardship and struggle beyond what a Christian must endure. It costs a great deal in our lives to be a true disciple of Christ, but it costs even more to reject him!

IV. Conclusion   

Jesus finishes with this, at the end of the chapter. It’s something that we are all familiar with because it is one of the most famous sayings of Christ. Starting in verse 34, it says “salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.” Natural salt, sodium chloride, will always have its saltiness, unless it is altered or contaminated. That was the salt from the Dead Sea. It had been contaminated with gypsum and other minerals. Because of this, it would literally lose its saltiness over time. As long as it was salty, it was still good for use in all sorts of different applications. But when it lost that saltiness, it was not even good to use in fertilizer. There was nothing for it to be used for, so it was thrown out in the garbage.

When we count the cost of being a Christian, and when we become a Christian, we take on the essence of Christ himself. Someone who turns away from Christ, or loses his way, or backslides, begins to lose that saltiness in their life. They become bland. They become useless to Christ, frankly. From the point of sodium chloride, it can never be reseasoned. Nothing will give it back its saltiness. The impurities of it cannot be removed by any means known to man. But there is hope for the soul that is impure. The way it can be made ‘salty’ again, making it the salt of the earth once again, is through Jesus only. And that is how the person becomes useful to the body of Christ once again.

I’ll ask you this one, are you salty? I know that sounds funny. But salt is a great tool all around. Jesus pointed out one use, that it could be used in fertilizer. It’s used to make the soil better, just like we talked about last week. It’s used as a preservative, to help in canning and in the preservation of foods. Are you helping to preserve your fellow Christian? It is used in healing, such as epsom salts. Are you being salty and helping to heal your fellow Christian? Being salty is a good thing in the Christian life! We know that Christ takes things we know about and turns them on their side when we look at them through the Christian perspective. And this is one of those times. Be salty for the people around you. Be the salt that Christ calls you to be. Let’s pray. 

September 17 - Matthew 13:3-9 - 4 Types of Soil

 Matthew 13:3-9

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

1. Introduction

We have just one more week of parables of Jesus, but today we turn to one more parable that is quite famous. As one author put it, parables were not meant to be decoded in the study; they were intended to be understood, heeded, and acted upon. When we study these parables, the intent by Jesus was for us to understand what he was trying to convey to us as believers, to bring attention to what we need to do in our own lives, and then to act upon that in which we need to improve!

One of the great itinerant Methodist preachers of the turn of the previous century was a man named William L. Watkinson. Born in Hull, England in 1838, he would be accepted as a candidate for the Methodists in 1858. Over the rest of his life, which would end in 1925, he would preach on a great many variety of subjects. When offered huge fees for his lecturing, he found that it interfered with his preaching, so he gave it up. He would spend many hours researching his sermons, and polish them often. But one thing that he said about the passage that we read just now speaks to us through the years. He said:

“We are told that in Japan there is a traffic in rice seed said to possess magical properties. Whatever crop you wish to grow, this seed will produce it. Only sow the rice and pray. There will arise barley, wheat, maize, watermelons, according to your heart’s desire. So we popularly cheat ourselves into the belief that by some magic things will eventually turn out satisfactorily, no matter how we live and act.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. We cannot sow to the flesh; sow covetousness, insobriety, dishonor, and realize the fruits of Paradise.”

In our day and time, we sow so much that does not grow into great faith. We push our own agendas, we try to hide hurts from people, we do things without considering the cost of it (which is what next week’s sermon is, by the way). And we often don’t consider the sower himself.

II. The Sower
The sower came not as someone who was going to tame the land. He did not come as a person who was going to conquer all things. Jesus came instead as the person who won his victories through persuasion and patience. The message of Good News does not just come down to us from his throne, but rather, it is planted into our very souls. That is the seed. The message of Good News, the Word of God, is planted into our souls for it to grow and prosper.

But what of the sower? Isn’t he careless in his throwing? Why not be specific in where he puts the seeds so that they will grow and make a bountiful harvest? Well, to fully understand this, we must know a little bit about the times that Jesus lived in. First, there were no tractors, no harvesters, no sort of mechanization other than a plow and mules, horses, or oxen. But even more than this, at the time of Jesus, people would plant exactly as Jesus was telling us in this parable. They would throw it everywhere in a field, even up to the sides of a road, and then later, they would plow all the seeds under the ground. In addition to this, we must remember that the sower came for all people,  not just the ones that have their lives in perfect rows. Remember that Jesus said himself in Luke 5:31 that “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”. As we well know, all of us are sick. We are sin-sick. And can you imagine the lack of hope that we would all have if we knew that no matter what we did as people, no matter what we did as Christians, and no matter what Jesus did on the cross for those sins, that only those who had everything in order, everything checked off, everything right in line, were the ones who would get to be saved? There are denominations of churches that do believe that, of course, but we believe that Christ came to save all! Remember John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will be saved!” Not, if you have not sinned, not if you have been to church your whole life, not if you are giving greatly to the church, not if you have served in the church, not even if you’re a preacher! The WHOLE WORLD has been given Christ to be saved. That’s why the seed is thrown all over the place because if it wasn’t, then there would be no need for Christ to have come into the world. God would have devised a way for those elect to have been saved only, and he would have condemned the rest of the world to Hell for their sins. But we can be saved, because we have the seed, which is the Gospel. 

III. The Seed

But what about that seed? One author put it this way: “to understand the nature of the seed means to accept its tremendous possibilities. It means to believe that it can give strength to our feeble purposes and grant us power to live by.” That same author states as well that the sowing of seeds is a precarious business. When a farmer would sow his field, he knew that when he was doing so he was going to put some of these seeds into places where it would not grow. It was a calculated expense and risk for the farmer. But the exchange would be that those seeds that fell into the great soil would come up and produce not only a great harvest for that moment, but would produce other seeds that would ensure the harvest of many years ahead.

We see that so many seeds end up in bad places. But what about the seed? It is an incredibly tough thing. An author I’ve been reading put it this way: have you ever tried to see a church killed off? A church seems to have very little chance against a world that is entirely against it. It may even be torn apart from within, but yet somehow, it refuses to die. Look at how dictators and regimes have tried to kill off the church. In the early 1990s, the fastest growing church in the world was the church in Russia. The Communists had tried for nearly a century to kill off the church, but it had actually grown and continued under their cruel rules. And when it became an open state, Christians within Russia took the opportunity to share their faith and to grow!

The seed of faith influences other religions as well. Look in Japan, where children literally sing “Buddah loves me this I know!” The Buddhist temples have playgrounds, schools, and grand buildings, because they took the form of Christianity and put it into their own faith. They even have co-opted Christ, naming him one of the great Yogis of their faith. It is the seed of faith that has done this. 

The seed of faith is shared through sharing it with others. Preaching the gospel, sharing your faith, talking with those that are hurting, and those in need. One person put it this way: sharing your faith is at once the most exciting and the most upsetting thing in the world today. Preachers experience this a lot. There have been so many times where I thought that I had preached a very poor sermon, but y’all have come up to me weeks after and said “well, I got a lot out of that sermon, I even used it to talk to someone!” And then other times I’ve been challenged heartily and felt like I preached greatly, but nothing happened with it. But that’s the part of the seed, isn’t it? It’s not really about me, it’s not really about whoever you listen to presenting the Gospel, as long as the Gospel is given. We should be very glad that the seed is not a creation of our own, of mankind. We would have messed it up greatly! And we should be even happier that the power of the Gospel is not in how we present it, nor is it dependant upon the person who is spreading that seed. It is something committed to us by God.

IV. The Soil

But there is one other part of this parable that Jesus gives to us, and he does spend a great deal of time explaining it to us. Look at Matthew 13, and start with verse 18. Jesus says this: 

“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Jesus gives us all we need from this. Since we know that the soils are symbolic, there are four different kinds of listeners. The first is the one who is hard towards the Gospel, the ones along the pathway. Pathways in Roman times were lined with stone. They were truly the first modern roads of this world. Lain in precision, put in with purpose, but also very hard and very much meant to last for a long time. When a farmer threw his seeds into the road, there is no way that they would take root. There was no soil for them to do so! But beyond this, this seed is laid out where anything can come and get at it. Have you ever put bird seed out in a place where birds can plainly get at it? I don’t mean a feeder, per se, but even just out in the open. A while back, we had a rooster wander into our yard, and the kids spread birdseed out for it. After it went back to its home, over the next day or so we had so many kinds of birds that found that seed, and all of it was taken up. This is the same for the person who is so hard against the gospel. They have the gospel given to them, but because of the hard stone heart or because they don’t understand it, they are easily taken away by the enemy, which of course is Satan.

Then we have the person who hears the Gospel, but they are in rocky ground. They receive the Gospel, and it gets into their lives. But the root is not there. They know God’s word, but it has not become their foundation. Just like last week, their house looks good, but they are on the sandy soil! Have you ever seen a plant growing on a rock? Only things like moss and plants of that sort truly grow on rocks, and even then, they are not the kinds of plants that have a true root system. Jesus takes this further, though. He tells us that when this kind of person hears the Gospel, and they apply it to their lives, they are filled with joy. Great! But when the first persecution comes, when the first time they have hard troubles in their lives, they abandon the Gospel. Now, this persecution and trouble may come from a few different places. We might think that it comes from the people that they used to associate with. Certainly that will happen. But sometimes, it comes from the people within the church, sadly. I saw a cartoon recently, and it had a man who was dressed in black leather pants, a leather jacket with all sorts of patches on it, tattooed up and down, long, dirty hair, but he was reading his Bible, one that was heavily marked and the spine was falling apart. He was saying “Thank you Jesus for saving me from my sins!” And the people around him on the pew were dressed perfectly, were good, decent-looking people, but were saying things like “I wish they wouldn’t let this kind of person in here” and “wouldn’t it be better if he went to one of those modern churches?”, and even, “I don’t even know if Jesus could save someone like that!” Our troubles can come from within our own community of faith if we aren’t careful. We have an option when we encounter people coming to faith: we can either help take the rocks out of the soil and help them take root, or we can put rocks into their path and they leave the Gospel behind, never having fully committed to Jesus Christ and his redemption for their lives.

But those rocks can be of our own making, too. I was reading this week a story about a man who went to a church in California, and he called up the preacher to let him know that he was not going to be at church that Sunday, and that if someone could cover for his greeting duties. A few days later, the man called back up to the preacher and let him know that, yes, he could be there. When the preacher asked him why the change, the man said “Oh, well I thought that the Rams game was the early game this week, but it’s not, so I’ll be there.” Now, this church member was probably likeable, charming. People probably had nice things to say about him. But so many of the people in our churches today are like this man. Church is just a building and another thing to check off the list. There are no roots! The kind of person who hears the Gospel but does not let it take root into their lives will not make a stand for Christ. This shallowness must be blasted away, getting the rocks out of the way, so that the root of the Gospel can be there! So that the roots can get down deep. When we get to a place in our lives where we are among the rocks, and we are trying desperately to cling to the Gospel and to take root, we are not content to be there amongst the rocks. We need room to grow, to push out, and to prosper in our lives for Christ.

Next, we have the seed that falls amongst the thorns. Jesus would talk about this in his next parable in this chapter as well, and I urge you to go and read the rest of this chapter because Jesus takes the time to reveal to us what will happen in the end times when he comes back to Earth. But right here, he is talking about a very specific person. We all have thorns in our lives, sometimes quite literally. We have a large Cherokee rose bush that we have to keep cut back in our garden or else it will choke out so many other plants, be it by overtaking their spot in the garden, or else blocking out the sun. It’s a dangerous place to grow up your faith amongst the thorns of life. You can take root, but look at what Jesus says here: they hear the word (that is, the Gospel), but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. This is someone who has not allowed the fullness of the Gospel to dominate their lives. They are too concerned with the accumulation of things in their lives, in the pursuit of this earthly life without thinking of the life eternal. They hear the word, but do nothing. They know the word, but they don’t truly accept it. They teach it, but they don’t practice it. They let themselves get overwhelmed by the worries and problems of life without knowing that God has everything under his control and command. They don’t grow in maturity in their faith because they fear what that might bring.

I’ve known a few farmers in my day, and I know that they all deal with what some call ‘dirty soil’. This is the soil that has those bad weeds that could contaminate an entire field and render it useless. The soil itself is very rich. It’s like that dark soil you see by the creekbank that could grow just about anything you put into it. But since that soil has not been cleansed of the bad seed that is within it, it looks rich, and it has a great deal of potential, but it will never produce in such a way that makes it worth the time and effort of the farmer. That is, unless something comes along to cleanse it completely and make it new. That is the hope we have in this life. We will experience that dual nature within ourselves. Even though we may be saved, while we are here on this planet, we deal with the sinful nature of our souls. But if we truly give ourselves over to Christ, if we truly live for him, we see those thorns become less and less in our lives. We see the gardener of our soul take those thorns out of life, leaving us room to grow and to produce. It’s not always easy, and often it's painful to pull the weeds and the thorns out. But the results are that we have deep roots, we produce, and we thrive.

Finally, there is the seed that falls on the good soil. This is the hearer who hears the Gospel, who fully understands it, applies it to their lives, and truly lives for Christ. Now, let me ask you, we’re about to get into the true part of fall. How many of y’all are planning for next spring already? Are you doing work in your gardens, at least a little bit, getting it ready for next Spring? I know that my Mom has already stripped out the dead things from her garden, and is planning on getting some new soil, nutrients, and such to add into the soil now so that it is completely ready for next spring’s planting. Now, could we wait to do this until later? Yes, I suppose we could. But would the harvest of the plants be as good if we waited until early spring or if we did the work now? It’s the work we do now that makes the harvest greater. In that same way, it takes work and sometimes even great pains to keep our hearts and souls receptive to the Gospel, even today. Did you ever stop to think that the Gospel is something that we continue to receive even after we become a Christian? It is the Good News, plural, not the good news singular. It is always alive and prospering, and should be in our lives as well!

That work that you do to prepare the soil for the hearing of the Gospel happens when you talk with other people as well. Did you know that sower has given us the responsibility to continue the harvest? He has given us all the tools to do so, have given us the training, and it is up to us to actually do the work. John 4:35 reminds us that the fields are white for harvest, but in verse 38, Jesus states to us that “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” When we use that opportunity to work in the field, Jesus has enabled us to take the seed that we have been given and to spread it to others. And Jesus honors and glorifies that. Look at what it says, that the Gospel seed that lands in the good ground, the one who hears it and understands it, will bear fruit, some 100 fold, some 60, and some 30. One expert on the time of Jesus said that a 2 to 1 harvest at that time would be considered a great harvest, no matter what plant was being produced. In modern times, even with all the technology that we have today, a rice field that produces a harvest that claims 4 seeds to every 1 is considered a great harvest that will ensure the health of a farm for years to come. Jesus was talking about 100 times the harvest coming in for some who believe. Think about this: Jesus came to earth, he recruited 12 inner circle men, and there were a few hundred that followed Him as he had his earthly ministry. From that, over 2 billion people have come to follow Christ today, and countless billions of people before us have come to put faith in Christ. From one person, to 12 more, to a few hundred, to over just 2000 years, billions.

And that is our job, even today. Spread the seeds. Spread the Gospel. Yes, some of it will land on the hard rocks. Some will land in rocky soil, and some will land amongst the thorns, and some will surely land into the good soil that you’ve prepared. And the way that you sow those seeds will be different from how I sow them, or how anyone else sows them, because our stories are all different, but point to the same place. Your story, your testimony is your own, and is truth that no one can claim is false. People will see what God has done for you in your life. By being humble, by seeking out the Kingdom of God first, and by sowing those seeds, you will be doing the work of the Lord, and it will be greatly blessed.

V. The Solution

When we look at this parable, it is one of the few that Jesus actually took the time to fully explain to his followers. If you go back and look at the verses in between the actual parable and the explanation, the disciples were confused by the message that Jesus was trying to give to his followers. But because Jesus gave the exact meaning, we can have no doubt in our minds what he meant by this parable. We must remember that all these different soils occur in our lives. We will see people who come to the Lord, but we will also see people who we share the Gospel with who will completely reject it. But here is the ultimate test for us: are we willing to share that news with any and all who come in our path? Just like Jesus did, we are to spread the Good News of the Gospel with everyone, not just those who are receptive.

I know that there are some of you in this congregation today that have already been doing that. Been doing it for years. But maybe you’ve been so beaten down by the rejection that lately, you feel like you can’t anymore. Or you feel because of how things are going in this church that you can’t. Can I tell you something, something that seems like a secret but really should be at the root of our Christian lives? It doesn’t matter what we are going through in our lives right now when it concerns the Gospel. This isn’t to mean that what you are going through doesn’t matter. It does, and it certainly does to Jesus. But when it comes to sharing the Gospel, we are to do it in all seasons of life, in all aspects of life, and in all circumstances. Look at Paul and Silas. Beaten half to death, forces to lay on their wounds because of how their feet were shackled. What did they do? They sang praises to God, and they prayed. And when the great earthquake happened and the jailer was about to kill himself, Paul led that man and his whole family to Jesus Christ. The soil we are in determines if we are going to grow and produce a hundred, sixty, or thirty fold what has been put into us. It is up to us to determine what soil we have been planted in, and if we will take time to work our faith and build it so that it becomes something that not only is easily reproducible, but is something that people desire! Can you be that? Absolutely, and it only takes one step: committing your life to Jesus Christ. You may be one of our older congregation members, but it’s never too late to turn your way back to Christ. If you have breath in your lungs, you have time! But if you are someone who has never given your life to Jesus, this is the time. If you are here today, do not hesitate, do not wait. We are not promised anything for tomorrow. Come to the altar today. And if you are joining us in the parking lot, there will be someone who can talk to you today about your faith in Christ. And if you’re joining us through our live feed, or even watching us later in the week, reach out to us through the comments or through the messaging. We will get in touch with you. The time is now, what soil are you in? Let’s pray. 

September 12 - Building on a Rock - Matthew 7:24-29

 Matthew 7:24-29

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

 

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,  because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Introduction 

 In Virgil’s account of Aeneid, the boatman of the underworld, Charon, is given a chance to visit on one occasion to visit the earth. From a high mountaintop, the feared oarsman looked down upon all things, the cities, the palaces, and works of man. As he went away, he said “All these people are spending time in just building birds’ nests. No wonder they fail and are ashamed!” Building birds nests to be swept away in the floods, when they might be erecting palaces of immortal beauty to dwell in forever.

Now, we know that Charon is not a real person, nor do we believe in the myths of the Romans. In fact, we repudiate them because we know the true God and we know his only son! But it’s interesting that even the Romans had a version of Jesus’ story about wise builders. Of course, this is one more of those Sunday School lesson stories that we know very well. In fact, a few years ago, there was a whole VBS curriculum that was based out of these verses! But even though this is familiar, we can always learn more from it as we look deeper. I’ve often said that the Bible is the ultimate book because every time we read it, be it something that we are reading for the first time or the 50th time, we always glean something new from it. 

This particular passage of scripture comes at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the most important message that Jesus ever preached. We could spend weeks and weeks just upon this sermon, and we might in the future! Many of our core beliefs about how we are to live our lives, how we are to address our God, and how we are connected back to God comes from this sermon that Jesus gives on the side of a mountain. 

The entire Sermon on the Mount ends with this story. It was the one that Jesus wanted his listeners, and in turn, us the reader of the Bible in today’s time to remember most. Whenever I am talking to you, preparing my sermon, what often takes me the most time is what I begin with and what I end with. It’s an old axiom of musicians: no matter how badly you mess up in the middle, if you do great at the beginning and especially at the end, most of the time you’ll be forgiven for any mistakes you made between the two! But what Jesus was saying to his people was this: go and do. As one author put it, this is the proper conclusion for any sermon; the discourse which demands no decision, no choice, no act, is not truly Christian! When non-Christians read this story, there are some who see Jesus as nothing more than a dreamer, an idealist. But in reality, Jesus is the greatest realist who saw into the heart of the truth of man. He is the one who showed how things truly are. And if we ignore that, we are doomed to complete sorrow. That realism, that knowledge of what we need most in our lives is God, is why God prompts us to action. Let’s look at these two men in the story. 

I want to take these out of order, actually. Jesus talks first about the man who has the house built on the strong foundation, but I want to wait on him until the very end. Look at the man who is the foolish builder. Now, I know that you’ll find this hard to believe, but there are many times where I do not follow the directions. I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a teacher who told us our instructions for a test. She said very clearly, and even had in the instructions on the top of the paper “read all of the instructions, all the questions, then begin your test.” Well, nearly all of us dove right into the work. It was perhaps the hardest test that we had all seen in our lives! Schoolwork that was WAY above our level. But for the few of us who had either 1) had an older sibling who had warned us, or 2) done what was actually told to us for instruction, the instructions told us at the end of the test to write our name at the bottom of the test and turn it into the teacher’s desk. We didn’t have to do any of the hard work that was on the test at all! All we had to do was to write our name and to turn it in. And so many of us got poor grades because we tried to do the work that we weren’t prepared for. 

Someone who is like the foolish builder is like this, someone who does not follow directions. They are going through life without instruction. Have you met someone who is truly and completely lost? They may have been to church when they were younger, they might have even said they were saved, but you look at their life and you know they don’t have the least inkling of what they are doing? It’s because they don’t have the instruction manual in hand. They are going through life without God’s guidance in their life. They are going through the test that they are not prepared for because they aren’t looking at the full instructions. God still takes care of those people. But He wants them to pick up the instruction manual, the Bible, and to live it!

Another aspect of someone who is like the foolish builder is one who has a weak foundation. As I was reading this week, I came across a passage that struck me hard. It read that from the outside, the houses that Jesus talks about in this story look similar. They both look like they are stable, both look like you could live in them. But what good is a house if at the first sign of trouble, the winds, the floods, and any other trouble, is that house if it falls in on itself? It all seemed so wonderful when the sun was shining on it and when there was no true need for protection from the worst. But we need that house to be able to stand when the storms come and try to blow it over! 

Another part of this weak foundation is when we make our spiritual lives mechanical. This is part of a weak foundation. When I first went off to college, I went to a Christian school. It was an eye-opener for me, in certain ways. First, you had people who had been so sheltered their entire life that when they were able to have a little bit of freedom, they went buck wild! But on the other hand, you had the ones I lovingly termed the Pharisees. You see, the Pharisees at this college were ones who would come up to you and ask all sort of questions about your spiritual life, and if you didn’t answer them in such a way that reflected their own personal, mechanical way of devotion to God, then you were an outcast. For example, I was asked one time when I did my Bible devotions. At that time, I did it at night right before I went to bed, that way it would be fresh in my mind for the next day. Oh no! The Pharisees couldn’t have that. You had to do it first thing in the morning. In fact, if you weren’t doing it in the first 30 minutes that you were up, which should be some time around 5:30 or 6 in the morning, never you mind if you don’t have a class until 10 AM, then you were doing it wrong and you should repent of your sins because of that!

Well, first of all, that attitude of judgment against a fellow Christian did more damage than good. Never are we going to convince a non-Christian to follow Christ if we can’t even treat one another well. That’s not to say that we can’t help correct our Christian brethren or sisters! But we always must do it in love and in kindness. But besides this, the foundation where if you don’t do something by some prerequisite list or methodology is fatalistic. It is building your life on the sands. It is relying more on the traditions of faith than faith itself! It’s not a bad thing to have traditions, and it’s not a bad thing to have a set time to study the Bible. It’s not a bad thing even to do it in the morning! But if we just make it one more thing that we have to ‘do’ rather than understanding the why behind why we are doing it, then our foundation is crumbling under our feet.  

The final part of the foolish person who builds their life upon the sand is the one who suffers loss for trusting their own plan. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:11 “for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” There are so many religions, faiths, and even some that parade themselves as false Christianity that claim a ‘system’ for faith. They claim that if you do this or you do that or if you pray a certain way that you will be guaranteed admittance into Heaven. This is a false foundation. People rely on science as their religion, and they claim that because this particular sequence of events happened, that is why all things are they way they are. They remove any of the divine in science, and lay a false foundation, believing in something that God has already preordained for us to know ages ago. The person who puts his faith into anything other than God realizes that when the rains come, when the floods come, whatever they have regarded as faith will fail them. Their foundation will fail, and they will have their house fall.

Now, we have said just about all we can for the moment about the poor paths of the man who built his house on the sand, but there is another one to talk about. The first man that Jesus describes in this parable is the one who builds his house on the rock. While in comparison, his life might seem perfect. But guess what? He’s also facing the storms of life, the floods of life, and all of the bad things that were happening to the other man. But he has something on his side. He has the solid rock foundation!

It reminds me of a picture I saw one time: be like a duck. Be calm on the outside, but paddle like crazy underneath the water!  This man was proactive. He was standing against the storms of life because he knew he was on solid ground. The foundations of life are not visible and the inner qualities do not show on the surface. As one author put it, we cannot succeed in eliminating conflicts in our life, nor do they go away if we try to ignore them. When we choose to be proactive towards the storms in our lives, and when we make sure to build that life on the foundation of the Gospel, then we are able to withstand the storms of life.

We know that Jesus was a builder. He was a carpenter. Some Bible scholars believe that some carpenters were more like contractors are today: they are over a crew of carpenters, and others who have specialties in construction. Jesus would have been keenly familiar with the concept that he was talking about here, and would truly have known what it meant to have a strong foundation for a home. But Jesus was also completely in tune and understanding of the Law and of his audience. The Torah had a story similar to this in the extra writings, but Jesus took it one step further to show that he truly had come to fulfill the Law. Isaiah 28:16-17 says “therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” It is interesting that so many years before Christ came to Earth God would foreshadow Jesus’ teachings through the prophet Isaiah. The precious cornerstone, the thing that carries the entire weight of a building and that which the foundation is perfectly laid, is tested, is sure, and is completely precious. But look at the second part of that verse. Does it not seem the same? That whoever does not build upon that cornerstone will see their lives washed away?

It is the wise man who heeds the words of Jesus and lives by them. When we have our lives down in the foundation of Christian living, not in a way that is just another thing on the calendar, or another thing to do during the day, but truly living in the way that Christ would have us live, we do find that our lives become easier to live. I remembered something that a friend said to me once. They said, how sad is it that those who live without God have to completely rely upon themselves and themselves alone for guidance, for wisdom, and for instruction? That has stuck with me. When the storms of life come, we have a great ally to depend on. One who will give us what we need to succeed in our lives, and to bring not only ourselves closer to God, but to also bring others to God as well. And we can do that today. If you have ever had a place in your life where the storms of life are battering you, and you don’t know if your house can stand anymore, this is the time to get your home on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. It is the time to get your house in order, and it begins by standing on solid ground with Christ. We have so many things that are attacking us today. We have a global pandemic occurring, not just in far flung places, but right here in the Valley. We have Christians being persecuted not just in lands that are being controlled by Muslims, but in our own United States. Places where our Christian neighbors are taking a stand for the most vulnerable of all peoples, the unborn. But we can withstand those storms because Christ has us. We can stand firm, we can stand tall, and we can always call on the name of Christ. Let’s pray. 

 

 

September 5 - The Rich Young Fool - Luke 12:13-21

 Luke 12:13-21

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; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 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 my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain 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?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

1. Introduction

This week, we’re starting a new, short series on some of the parables of Jesus. Jesus was such a good storyteller. He was able to take a short little story, just like the one that we just read together here and use it to illustrate a deep point about faith. Now, how many of y’all have ever used a story to teach? I know I have. In fact, being a Southerner, most of us have used a story or two to teach others about life in general.

Jesus, like I said, was a master storyteller. My Dad told stories often. In fact, his last ‘job’, for lack of a better word, was as a storyteller. He actually taught classes on storytelling both at the John C. Campbell Folk School and the University of North Georgia. To be able to tell stories in a way that engages the audience is something that is a bit of a natural thing. But it can be taught as well! Jesus was taking the time in his earthly ministry to teach his disciples, and us in turn, how to tell the story of how to live our lives for God in a way that every single person that we meet could understand it. That’s the importance of storytelling, and Jesus knew that his audience would understand the big ideas of the faith if he could communicate it in a way that they would understand!

Let’s look at this story in Luke 12 today. I want to start by looking at the very beginning of this chapter. I won’t go verse by verse, but I think that it's interesting to see that this is the part of Jesus’ ministry where he is already attracting large crowds, but also the attention of the Pharisees. He tells the disciples to be on guard against “the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy,” which we see in verse 1. Jesus knew already that the Pharisees were trying to trap him into some sort of heresy against the Law, but Jesus also knew that the people must know that he had come to fulfill the Law! Jesus is teaching, reminding the people that God is the ultimate authority over all things, and that God is to be feared and worshipped. And he also tells the people that whoever publicly acknowledges Jesus before others will be therefore acknowledged before the angels of God. And he reminds us that when we are to defend our faith, the Holy Spirit will guide us and teach us on what we should say.

Suddenly, there is a shout from the crowd. We can’t be certain if this was a plant from the Pharisees, since we know that Jesus has warned the disciples that there would be people trying to trip them up, I think that Jesus had foreshadowed this in the previous verses. The man cries out “teacher, tell my brother to divide his inheritance with me.” In that day and time, it was the Rabbis that would solve problems of inheritance. This man, be he a plant or not, was acknowledging that Jesus was a great teacher. It is likely that the person who yelled out was a younger brother who was upset because his eldest bother had received twice the inheritance than he did. Jesus flatly refused to be pulled into that controversy, because he knew that there was a problem in that man’s life, and it was greed and jealousy. Well, Jesus certainly could have just straightforward told this man what to do, but Jesus saw a teaching moment, and he seized it. He tells a story.

There was a rich man in the land, and his investments of farms had a HUGE harvest. He thought to himself, ‘what should I do? I don’t have any more space in the barn or silos to put this extra!” Then he though, sort of smart as he was it seemed, “I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones! I’ll put all the extra crops in there, and then I’ll say to myself, boy you done well. You’ve got grain for years and years. It’s easy street now, I don’t have to really do any more work for a while! Take life easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!” And he takes it to his own soul to do that.

But God said to him, “You fool! This very night, I’m taking your life from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?!” And Jesus finished saying in verse 21 “this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for himself but is not rich in towards God.” 

2. Prepared, but unprepared

Wow, what a story, right? Jesus knew that the man was not right with God, be it if he was part of the Pharisees, or even if he was just wanting some resolution to a situation that he thought was unfair to him. One commentary I read this week said this: “Jesus cannot be a party to the amassing of wealth since he considers the pursuit of it to be a prostitution of man’s energies and talents. The story illustrates how man can give too much value to material possessions. The maxim of Jesus is the antithesis of secularism. Possessions do not equal life.” 

This man, in his eagerness to do well for himself, forgot about the spiritual part of life. I think, personally, that to amass wealth is not a bad thing in general. It can show the blessings of God to a person, and can truly show a great testimony of how God has worked in their lives. But if you reread the story, what is the major thing that this man is saying? MY crops, MY barns, MY grain, MY goods, and finally, what was worst, MY soul. Have you ever met someone like that? They thought everything that they had was just theirs, including their soul? It’s a symptom of a sin-sick soul.

This man was prepared for life physically. He was on easy street, wasn’t he?  He had food galore, he had security, and he had means. But he was unprepared for life spiritually. One writer stated that the soul is not an embodied spirit. It means life! It is God’s creation and gift to mankind, and is under His domain. Mankind is on earth as a steward to that soul, and is responsible to God for the life he has been given. This man had spent his whole life building up his own personal empire. He had taken control over it, wrestled it into being, and prospered for it. But he had taken it a step too far - the possessions that he owned had come to own him, and he neglected the spiritual side of life because of them. He began to worship the things that he had rather than the one who made him. This story is a criticism of our blind worship of whatever seems to please and interest us in this world. The things of this world, the things that are physically here, attack our acceptance of the voice of power, which is the voice of God.

This man was ready in his numbers, even! He had enough money to tear down his barns and build larger ones. Jesus doesn’t implicitly say this, but you could guess that this man had the funds to store his abundant harvest in other locations until this work was done. He was rich! But in his richness, he had overlooked the essential. I have been reading a book to help with this series of lessons over the next few weeks. That line, that we overlook the essential in our lives comes from that book. In it, he talks about how things are big and large in most men’s lives. Buildings, cars, books, even! I was reminded that Adolph Hitler, the worst man, deranged and dangerous, looked for the grandeur in life, especially when it glorified himself! Even when his generals and politicians begged him to stop these giant projects, both in buildings and in wasteful military projects, he refused, stating these giant projects would be the glorious beginning of the Third Reicht. In the end, though, it bankrupted Germany. Hitler put his faith in himself, in his own financial status, and in the thought that things could save him, but in the end, perhaps the greatest atheist of the last 100 years, one of the most evil men this planet has ever seen, could not be saved by the things around him. 

I saw another example of this financial aspect this week, too. Universities are often measured by their student enrollment. Kennesaw State sent me a mailer this week that stated that they have 41000 students now. When I was there in the late aughts, they were running around 25000, which is a great number. Interestingly enough, at that time when I was there, around 2800 students, or just over 10% of the student population, had scholarships and grants. The number of students that receive those scholarships and grants is the exact same as it was 12 years ago. But they consider themselves to be a great success because they have 41000 students now! But instead of 10% of the students being debt free, they have raised their tuition and lowered the amount of students that can get aid. And realistically, there are small Christian institutions that are producing even greater leaders than the universities that are leading the charge for things like Critical Race Theory, or the God’s Dead movement that is still alive and well, unfortunately, in America. They place their faith in numbers and in financial security. 

But isn’t it even the same about churches? We look at churches that are large, and are growing, and we try to imitate them. But when you look closely at some of those churches, you realize that they are not really growing like they should. Sure, they have numbers. They have loads of people coming. But many are treading water. They have people for a season, when it is convenient for them to attend. They don’t ever get any deeper than that spiritual milk that they come into faith on. They never get into the true MEAT of the scriptures, of discipleship, of creating the relationships within the community of Christ that creates other disciples for Christ. It’s not a bad thing to have a large church, or even to be growing. But numbers help us overlook the essential. As one author put it, when size becomes the standard of measurement, the Church has begun its period of decline. 

Just like the rich fool, we find it easy to ignore the unseen things. This man found pleasure and his passion in the things that he had. The emptiness and despair so characteristic of our time comes because we forget that the seen is temporal and the unseen is essential. We get things but gain no satisfaction in our personal relationships. We learn how to sell but we are low on character. We have our strongboxes, our full barns, even building bigger barns, but we have no faith to live by. And so we are poor in spirit. 

This man in the story was ready to reap his earthly reward. He had worked hard, had he not? I mean, if anyone was worthy of an early retirement, it was this guy. He had even said to himself, “you have plenty of grain laid up for years!” But that was not something that he could promise to himself, was it? God is the only one who knows exactly when our life begins and when it will end. The amount of goods that he had was not a guarantee of more life, nor was the lack of it a guarantee of less life! Certainly, people around him would have called him a good man, a smart man. But what does God call him? A fool! But why? A fool is a man whose decisions about the present do not take into consideration the possibilities of the future. This man’s life had been one of futility. We know of so many people that we say “Oh, it’s so bad that he died when he did. He had so much to live for! There was so much more that he could have contributed!” This man, surely, was mourned in such a way. He had spent his whole life amassing things. And what was left of it? It gets passed onto the next generation, perhaps just as wrapped up in the selfishness that this man was wrapped up in. When we center our attention on our possessions rather than on doing what Christ commands us to do, we are truly being foolish ourselves!

When Jesus told his story, he was reminding us that the crisis of life always demands spiritual qualities. If we are not prepared for it, we are like the man within this story, making plans, making sure things are stored up, but for naught. But there is hope, and Jesus himself gives it to us in the last verse of this passage. He says “this is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.” Now, what Jesus means in that is truly the opposite. How are we to live our lives? For others. We can amass great wealth. Truthfully, compared to the rest of the world, we are completely and utterly rich. It’s one of the reasons why so much of the world hates America. We don’t truthfully understand how blessed we are, and how truly wealthy we are. But we have an opportunity to do more with what we have. How do we become rich towards God? By taking a direction that is opposite to the man in this story: we become sensitive to humanity’s needs and hurts, and we minister to those.

My grandfather retired as a Colonel in the United States Army. He believed with all his heart that there was no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole! He said that in the heat of battle, and he was in many battles in Vietnam, that people who had professed to be atheist, deists, or any other -ists other than Christian, would call out to God for help! And truly mean it! The crisis of life demands spiritual qualities. We can come to a place where our possessions can come to control us, to dominate our lives, or we can use our wealth, our possessions, and our spiritual lives to use for the kingdom of God. But it is our choice to do so, just like it is our choice to follow Jesus. Jesus could have made it where we would always be forced to live a life that was in poverty. Yes, he would take care of our needs, but as for our wants, he could show ourselves to be poor. But we have the choice that when God blesses us that we either hoard those things for ourselves only, or we choose to share them and make them available for Christ to use. 

3. Conclusion

I’ll finish with this. Jesus told a great many stories about being ready. When a crisis is upon us, we likely will have no time to prepare. The occasion demands a response right then, according to our immediate condition, and to postpone that decision, one that comes from God, is completely out of our control. During the outbreak of World War One, a group of British sailors were on the way to Antarctica for a scientific expedition. As they sailed, the British had declared war on Germany. The head of the party, Ernest Shackleton, wired back to the admiralty that they were willing to forego the scientific expedition, turn back to England, and to serve their country. A few moments went by, and a wire came back with two words - “Proceed - Churchill.” For you see, at that time, the Lord of the Admiralty was Winston Churchill.

It’s easy for us to turn away from the essential in our lives. It’s so easy to turn in the direction of the bright lights and the action. It would have been simple for this crew to have just turned and not gone onto do their work. But we can be saved from the poor state of the rich fool in Jesus’ story, if we only choose to truly follow Christ. And you can do that today, right now, even in your car. If you have drifted away from what is the most essential thing in your life, a true relationship with Jesus Christ, you still have time to turn back! It is the grace of God that allows us that time to do so. And we can do it today! If you have been drifting in your life, if you don’t know what God wants you to do, or even if you know that the things in your life have taken over, take a moment right now to pray that God will release you from that. If you haven’t ever made a commitment to Jesus Christ as your personal savior, today is the day. Don’t be like the foolish man. Store up your treasures in heaven, and remember that Christ wants you to live life in a way that always honors Him. Let’s pray.