God first - Riches and everything else second (Luke 12:13)
Dr. Roberto Miranda
SUMMARY: In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus warns against greed and excessive attachment to material possessions. He uses a parable about a rich man who stores up his abundance of crops and goods, but dies before he can enjoy them. The man is a fool because he has focused solely on himself and his possessions, without recognizing God's sovereignty and the importance of stewardship. The passage teaches that everything we have belongs to God and that we should seek His wisdom and will in all our decisions. The attitude we have towards money and possessions can determine our level of blessing from God, both in this life and the afterlife.
This sermon discusses the story of a rich man who is focused solely on accumulating wealth and possessions, and does not consider spiritual or eternal matters. The sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and putting Him first, rather than pursuing material things. It also highlights the fragility of life and the need to prioritize eternal matters before it's too late. The sermon encourages listeners to reflect on their own priorities and consider whether they are truly seeking God above all else.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing our fragility and mortality and surrendering our lives to God. He invites anyone who has not yet given their life to Jesus to make a personal pact with Christ and invite Him into their heart. He encourages them to publicly confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior and not to resist the touch of the Holy Spirit. The speaker prays for those who take this step of faith and entrusts their lives to God.
This sermon discusses the story of a rich man who is focused solely on accumulating wealth and possessions, and does not consider spiritual or eternal matters. The sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and putting Him first, rather than pursuing material things. It also highlights the fragility of life and the need to prioritize eternal matters before it's too late. The sermon encourages listeners to reflect on their own priorities and consider whether they are truly seeking God above all else.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing our fragility and mortality and surrendering our lives to God. He invites anyone who has not yet given their life to Jesus to make a personal pact with Christ and invite Him into their heart. He encourages them to publicly confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior and not to resist the touch of the Holy Spirit. The speaker prays for those who take this step of faith and entrusts their lives to God.
Gospel according to Saint Luke – Chapter XII, beginning with verse 13: “One of the crowd said to him: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him: “Man, who has set me over you as a splitting bone and said to you, take heed and beware of all covetousness, because the life of man does not consist in the abundance of the goods that he possesses.”
He also told them a parable saying: “The inheritance of a rich man had produced a lot and he thought within himself, what will I do because I have nowhere to keep my fruits and said: This I will do; I will tear down my barns and build greater ones and there I will store all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods in store for many years. Rest, eat, drink, rejoice. But God said to him: "Fool, tonight they come to ask you for your soul and what you have provided, whose will it be?" So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
Brothers, this passage tells us about what our attitude towards material possessions should be. The Lord referred to this element of money and possessions on many occasions and He always did so by making a radical call to the children of God to rid themselves of love and excessive attachment to money and material things.
One of the things the Lord Jesus Christ talked about the most was about money. I remember when I started in the ministry I really disliked having to talk about money. And if I had to ask for money for, for example, the construction of this building, I would sweat a lot before standing up to people to make a call. And sometimes I made so many excuses that when I finished I didn't even remember what I was asking for.
But over time I realized that the Lord Jesus Christ had no shame in talking about money and the need for us to use our money and our possessions radically in favor of the Kingdom of God. Furthermore, the Lord considered that the attitude towards money and material possessions in a sense determined the level of blessing that we could receive from God, both here on earth and in the afterlife.
For us it is easy to understand that in this life God may give us more or less blessing according to our behavior here on this earth. But the Bible also suggests that there are different degrees of reward and glory that we are going to enjoy in the life to come according to our level of investment in the Kingdom of God here on earth. Now I don't know how that differentiation is going to occur in the life to come. I do not know if God will give a mansion with many rooms to some, if he will give others a two-bedroom condo? I don't know, I'm not sure. Or if we are going to reflect more light or less light according to our behavior.
I'm not sure, but what the word does suggest to me is that according to what we invest here for the Kingdom of God, we will enjoy to some greater or lesser extent in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord always took advantage of circumstantial opportunities to talk about eternal principles. And here we see him doing this. He is on the road and a very upset man approaches him because his brother does not want to share the inheritance that legitimately belongs to him too. And he asks Jesus as rabbi and teacher to force his brother to give him his part of the money. And the Lord, instead of doing what this man asks, reacts with annoyance and a little offended by what is being asked of him.
And rather He uses this opportunity to refer his listeners and all of us as well to universal principles that we should employ in every material situation. What the Lord did was go to the root of the problem. He did not stay in the superficial symptomatic situation, but rather He went to the attitude produced by situations like the one in front of Him.
We know that greed is, many times, excessive attachment to money; It is what produces conflicts between human beings. How many of us know of situations, perhaps within our own family, where the body of the father or mother is not yet cold and the children are already fighting over money. And how many families have been divided by these things? How many marriages have problems regarding the matter of money?
I believe that at the root of all these situations is the element of selfishness and excessive attachment to material things. That is why the Lord, instead of losing himself and investing his glory in resolving a minor dispute, what he did was that he used that moment to give principles that could resolve any dispute in which we may fall with respect to material matters.
That is why in verse 15 we see that he tells them: “Watch out and beware of all covetousness”. Think about the seriousness of the Lord's warning, he says: "Look" means, be careful, pay attention. And it also says "Beware", that is, protect yourselves from... And it says "from all greed". In other words, it's not just a little thing here and there, but the basic attitude of the heart, of greed.
In the original Greek the word that is translated into English as greed is “pleonexia”. Say everyone, pleonexia. Beware of pleonexia my brothers of the congregation of León de Juda.
What is greed? What is pleonexia? I would define greed as an excessive attachment to material things, an exaggerated love of money and matter. Now I could also say that greed is also an excessive attachment to anything in this world. I think they may be greedy for recognition from others. There are people who can be greedy to sleep, I think. What's more, there are people who can feel greedy to have a well-built and muscular body. In fact, I believe that in this 21st century culture there is an excessive glorification of the human body. And billions of dollars are invested in staying well muscled and slapped, I don't know if that word exists but you know. And all this speaks of the excessive attachment to what is created and taking one's gaze away from the creator.
Because I believe, brothers, that at the root of greed there is also idolatry. Greed and idolatry are brothers and have the same roots. Greed is born from an exaggerated awareness of the now and the here of time and space. When the person loves the current life too much, the world in which he lives, his values and his investments are determined by a focus of what happens here on earth, in this life. And when he takes his gaze off the creator and eternity, he places it only on time and space, and then he becomes a worshiper of the temporary and the limited instead of worshiping what has made all of this possible. And in a moment we're going to see how this rich man exemplifies this kind of attitude.
But look for a moment in Chapter 31 of Job as is the attitude of a person who loves money excessively, how his love of money is linked to idolatry. Says Job 31:24 "If I put my hope in gold and said to gold, 'my trust is you'. If I was glad that my riches multiplied and that my hand found much.
So far it's easy to understand how this exemplifies greed. But look at the association Job's mind makes now. He says: "I have always looked at the sun when it was shining or at the moon when it was beautiful."
What are we starting to see here? I believe there is a connection between the worship of creation and also the love of gold and material things. Job's mind is making that spiritual association, or the mind of the Holy Spirit for that matter.
“And if my heart was secretly deceived and my mouth kissed my hand. This would also be judged wickedness because it would have denied the sovereign God.” You see, greed is mixed with both the worship of nature and creation as well as the worship of oneself and the denial of God. All these things are mixed with each other.
Now, perhaps you say: Well, I'm definitely not a greedy person so thank God I can put myself to sleep there while the pastor finishes the sermon because that's not my turn. But brothers, I suggest that it is not so easy to escape the teachings of Jesus and the moral implications.
The Lord speaks here and uses the rich, miserly gentleman as an extreme case of greed but I think we can recognize the elements that move him in each of us. Look at some of the mistakes that this foolish man makes: firstly, he does not recognize God at any time, at all times he is only thinking about his money and his person and how to make his money grow. Throughout the passage there is an excessive use of the I or the possessive mine. He says: "I will tear down my barns", he says: "there I will keep all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul". It's always me, me, me.
You are not consulting with God at any time before making major decisions regarding your possessions. How many times do we make material decisions about a job or a relationship or any other love decision and do not ask ourselves: "Lord, what is your will specifically regarding this matter in my life?"
In every decision that we make in our lives, there must always be, whether that decision is big or small, like in the background in our mind, that God is what penetrates every aspect of that decision. Seeking God's wisdom in all our decisions should be something so important that sometimes it doesn't even need to be consciously mentioned. Our sensibility must be so penetrated by the awareness of the Lordship of God in our lives that everything we do must obey the consideration: What does God want me to do? And for me this is one of the signs of a mature believer who is aware of the lordship of Christ in his life. Another thing is that in this man there is no sense of stewardship. Everything is yours. He controls nothing, he owns everything.
And the idea of stewardship in writing tells us something very important. It is one of the most important truths of scripture. And it is this: “everything I have and everything I am belongs to God”. Repeat after me: "everything I have, everything I am, belongs to the Lord."
And if that is a part of our life, that means that we, everything we decide and manage, always has to be with that awareness that this is not mine. When I give the Lord my tithe, for example, I am not giving him my money. I am simply setting aside for the Lord 10% of the one hundred percent that He deserves. I didn't hear many amen when I said that.
I'm going to be honest with you, when I give my tithe I don't stop too much to think about what I'm doing. Firstly because if I think too much, I won't give it up. But secondly, it is because I have understood that I have no discretion or power to decide with respect to that 10%. Everything I have belongs to the Lord and the Lord has said: “set aside 10% of what I have given you”. And I just obey.
And when we serve the Lord, for example in the ministry, and give our lives to the Lord full time. In reality we are not doing anything extraordinary or heroic, we are simply making a personal recognition of what is a fact and that is that my life, my talents, my time, my energies belong to God.
When you see this, it revolutionizes the way you decide things in your life. Your mind no longer thinks so much about matter but thinks about the God of matter. Your priorities come to be spiritual and not material. You are more concerned with how your life can be useful for the Lord. How your money can advance the interests of the Kingdom of God. How the energies of your body can be used for the glory of God. Because you know that God is the owner of your life, and that everything you have has come from his generosity and his hand. And your life is consumed by a sense of gratitude to the Lord who has given you everything. Then you know that any little thing you give to the Lord is something minimal compared to the totality that He has given you. He has given us his all when he gave us Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
How can we be stingy and scant when we give to the One who gave everything for us. I tell you brothers, many times we do not experience the glory of God in our lives and the joy of being believers because we are deceiving ourselves in terms of who is the Lord of our life. To experience the joy of the Lord, one must first surrender totally to the Lord.
And this is not a poetic image, it is an image that has resonance in every moment and in every situation of life. When I choose to sleep one hour less to answer the phone to a person who is in need of a word of affirmation and advice, that is living our life in the light of Christ's lordship. When you decide to share your privacy with someone who needs accommodation for a day or a night, that is recognizing that Christ is the Lord of your life. When a woman or a man decides to sacrifice the joy of being in the service to bless children in the Children's Service up there or down there at 12, that is recognizing the stewardship and lordship of Christ in our life.
In other words, brothers, these sublime principles have very concrete and sometimes painful consequences.
Romans 8:5 says: "For those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who are of the spirit about the things of the spirit." The person who recognizes the lordship of Christ, his mind and his priorities and the investments of his time and energy are always, his affections above all, are in how that advances the Kingdom of God.
A third thing about this man is that he has what I call side vision. You see that all he wants to do is distribute and recombine things. He's like locked in a big bubble and he can't get out of it, so what he does is he just redistributes the possessions he has. And he says: “what will I do because I no longer have a place to put my goods. Oh! What I'm going to do is I'm going to build something bigger and then I'm going to put it there.”
You see it's all a purely horizontal view. Everything he does has to be done at that ground level only. The image that comes to mind is people playing dominoes, when they pick up the dominoes and move them with both hands across the board and just recombine them, not picking them up or taking them out or anything, just rearranging them. The person who does not live for God, his life is simply reduced to that only. His life is reduced to making decisions that have no vertical resonances with God. It is a poor and mean life. It is a life of symbolic but not real advances. It's just like a ball game or any sports game, that for a while the players get serious about what they're doing and invest all their energy but when the game is over, what actually changed in the universe. Everything stayed the same. It's a serious game but that's about it. It's just a game.
And how many human beings spend their lives precisely get into the game that others have defined for them. That game includes, for example, going to college and making a career. Or like Donald Trump, acquiring a lot of money and getting married many times and being envied by many men, and being on the news and on television, but at the end of the day, what is changing in the universe? What eternal or moral implications is this game people are playing having? When we died, and the music ended, what meaning and what effect our very life had, brothers.
When they nailed your coffin, and drove you 6 feet underground, what impact did your life have on the world? And what implications did the little game you were involved in at that time have for eternity? We have to be thinking about how my life can affect eternity. How my life can help save someone from eternal hell? How can my life edify the soul of someone who is clumsy and gross in moral and spiritual terms? How can I grow and develop morally and spiritually so that in my time here on earth I can appear more and more like Christ Jesus. How can I use my belongings and my goods and invest them for eternal life and for the Kingdom of God?
Do you see the difference between a horizontal perspective and a vertical perspective? Do you see the difference between an animal and earthly mentality and a spiritual and eternal mentality? Brethren, unfortunately the churches, including ours, are full of people who are deceiving themselves. We come to church but our hearts are still attached to that horizontal mindset. We have not cut the umbilical cord that unites us to this land and its cares and vanities.
For a moment I remember the word of the Apostle John in First John where he talks about love for the world and the things of the world. And I think it's in First John but it's not in one of the books of John and we're going to find it. It says there: “My brothers, let us not love the world or the things that are in the world” 2:15 – “Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, does not come from the Father but from the world.”
There are only two attitudes that God recognizes, one that is attached to the world and one that puts its affection on God, that's all. I want to ask you, you and me too, each one of us here: Which of these two attitudes, in a moment of supreme honesty, which of these two attitudes defines my behavior at this moment in my life? Can I truly say that my affection resides in the Kingdom of God and the interests of the Kingdom of God? I know that we will never be able to respond one hundred percent one way or another, but I believe that we can discern when we are at least getting closer to that position that God wants. I beg you to spend a little time today to meditate on that question, especially I want to refer to the young people who are here in the congregation this morning.
You have your whole life to live and depending on the attitude you adopt, you can avoid or not avoid many mistakes and many troubles that we fall into for not understanding this word. Decide once and for all to put all your affection, your love, your passion and your loyalty in the Lord and not in anything else.
Another mistake this man makes is that he believes that his soul is going to be satisfied with material things. In verse 19 he says: "and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods stored for many years, rest, eat, drink, rejoice." The image that comes to mind is Casper that "friendly ghost" drinking water and the water falling to the ground because he can't drink it. Brothers, that is what happens with a person who tries to fill an essential need that exists in every man with material things.
Human beings have been programmed by God to find satisfaction only in God. We human beings enjoy great freedom because God has made us free, but our own mental, emotional, physical and spiritual configuration imposes certain needs and certain conditions for our enjoyment of life.
A great Christian sage said: “Our hearts, our souls seek rest and they will only find their rest in you.”
God has made a hole in our heart, in the center of our being and that hole has the shape of God and can only be filled when the shape of God gets into that hole and fits perfectly.
The image that comes to my mind is when a person who is thirsty, that essential thirst that exists in every man, and opens his heart and the form of God enters that hole and one kind of sees, like in the movie from “Star Trek” this giant shape kind of going into that hole there and filling the whole screen and ringing with a clang, like a gate closing. It arrived, it fit perfectly where it had to arrive.
And brothers, men live looking for satisfaction in money, in prestige, in sensual pleasures, in fame, but none of these things can fulfill the program that God has established in us. It is because our programming does not allow it to be so, that is, even if we want to, we will not be able to because we are made in a way that God made us. And the wisest thing is that we stop fighting against that reality of our being and that we submit and seek first, first.
If you want to be happy, the first thing you have to do is fill that hole that has 'God' written in the holes. Satisfy that first and then look for the other things. Because God has nothing against wealth or prosperity or against romantic love or against the enjoyment of life. What offends God and hurts is when we put those things first and forget that those things should just come as second or third priority. Because we recognize that the matrix of everything we experience and do must first be one of stability and sufficiency in God. And that if that precondition is not fulfilled, everything else that we experience will occur in the context of a great dissatisfaction that will not allow us to enjoy what comes to us.
Have you ever tried to eat a good meal with a toothache? No matter how succulent that food may be, that pain permeates your entire being and will prevent you from enjoying that delicious food. You have been depressed and they suggest that you go to an amusement park. Can you really enjoy all of this if your whole being is permeated by a negative attitude?
And so are human beings, they try to get satisfaction in events and objects while the essence of their being, the context within which all those events or objects occur, is contaminated by emptiness and the sense of imminent punishment that will come some day So let's understand clearly, first, says the word, "seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added to you." If you want to be truly happy, discipline your flesh, resist the impulse to go towards what is urgent and intense, decide according to eternal principles, consult the manual before your feelings, choose to follow God's instructions and not those of your body , or your nervous system, or your emotions, your wounds, or your physical appetites, and decide according to the instructions of the manual that is God. And you will find rest for your soul. Resist the tricks of your mind, because the mind is the most deceitful thing in the world. The heart is terribly deceitful, and we have to learn to control it, and decide and prioritize according to the values established by the word.
Another thing this man does is fail to recognize the fragility of life. It does not recognize the inherent fragility of life. This man says: Soul, you have earned many goods, keep them for many years. He believes that he has many years ahead of him. Perhaps you are a man of 40 or 45 years old and you are thinking that you have at least 40 or 45 years left to enjoy all your riches and your professional and financial achievements. He is full of physical health, people respect and fear him for all the power and money he has. His financial success has given him a sense of sufficiency and permanence, but he doesn't understand that in the world of the eternal and the spiritual they have made a decision for him.
He doesn't understand that he doesn't have the ultimate right to decide the trajectory of his life. In the spiritual world a declaration has been given that on that very night his life comes to an end. Brethren, how many of us, particularly the young again, people full of health and life and vigour, have a great future ahead of them, perhaps some are here and have just graduated from university, for example, or from High school and they have a bright future ahead of them, and they feel like they're going to live like many decades ahead of me, and the idea is - there's time in the future to decide to live for God. In what I can I will give a little to God, I will go to church from time to time. I will refrain from major sins, but from time to time I will wink at God and he understands, and I will enjoy the many years that I have and when I am already more wrinkled and my skin droops a little, then I will begin to cultivate religious life. –
Brothers, if there is something in writing, it is that human life is fragile, it is unpredictable. The word says that the life of man is like the flower of the field that flourished for a moment but then perished because the wind came and took it away. And then people look and don't know where he was. And you don't have to think only about death to see the fragility of life, riches are fragile, one day we can have it and the next day we can lose it. Health is fragile, one day we can have it and the next day it is lost. Youth and its beauty is fragile, one day our skin is smooth and vigorous and shiny and another day we have to resort to creams to maintain that same shine. And so are emotions, one day we can be full of joy and optimistic, and another day feel depressed and down.
Brothers, we live in a world mined and full of dangers. The Lord Jesus Christ said: "In the world you will find only one thing, affliction." Woe to him who does not consider his fragility. Moreover, I believe that the root of our wisdom is the awareness of our mortality. The Bible says: "Teach us in such a way to number our days that we bring wisdom to our hearts." Paradoxically, the awareness of our fragility is not a source of weakness, on the contrary, it is a source of strength.
Being aware that we are weak and that we need God every day, makes us fragile and moves us to seek the protection that we can only find in God. So we understand that I cannot manage and defend my life. My only defense and my only hope is to take my fragile life and place it in the mighty arms and hands of the Lord. Commend my life to the Lord. Tell him: Father, I want you to administer and manage my hours, my days, my talent. Give me what you want and take away what you want. I surrender the management and interests of my life and put them in your hands. I put my weakness in your infinite strength. Guide me wherever you want. Brothers, there is the root of joy and happiness.
God wants us to enjoy that rest. God wants us to stop being anxious about the problems and uncertainties of life, and to find our rest only in Him. And it all begins by giving our lives to the Lord, giving our hearts to the Lord, giving our future, our past and our present. Mr.
Telling him, Father, all my riches, whatever they are, I put them in your hands, you manage them today.
I want us to lower our heads for a moment now, and meditate on the word that God has placed in our hearts. Let the weight of the Lord's message settle deep in your heart. And we are going to do an examination of conscience. How important are the things of this world including the things of matter to me. To what degree do they influence the eternal decisions I make? Where are my priorities? I want everyone here to decide this morning: I am going to put my life in the hands of the Lord. I am going to live for God. I am going to live for the Kingdom of God. I am going to be a radical disciple of Jesus, completely surrendered to the Lord. I surrender your life to you, Jesus.
I want to ask if there is anyone here today who not only understands this aspect of already being a Christian giving our hearts to the Lord, but I want to ask if there is anyone in this place who has not yet given their life to Jesus and has not made a personal pact with Christ and wants to do it this morning and wants to say to the Lord Jesus: Lord, I give myself to you today. I give myself to you today, and I ask you to take control of my life and guide me for the rest of my days and if there is someone who wants to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would like to pray for you this morning. I am going to ask you from where you are to tell the Lord Jesus: Lord, come into my heart right now. I recognize that I still do not have a good personal relationship with you and I want to do it this morning and I want you to take dominion and control of my life and do that there in your spirit, in your heart.
I would encourage you to go a step further and raise your hand to publicly confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior because he says that he confesses himself before men, He will also confess you before his Father who is in heaven. I want to ask if there is anyone this morning who wants to give their life to Jesus and who wants to invite him into their heart and become lord of their life. I would like you to raise your hand to pray for you this morning. Will there be someone who wants to give their life to Jesus Christ before leaving this place? It can be a young person, a child, an adult, an old man. You know you are not living for Christ and you want to take that step of faith this morning. I would like to place you before the altar of Jesus and pray for you so that the Lord covers and fills your life. There will be someone, raise their hand this morning. It can be from above, it can be from below, someone who hasn't done it before. There will be someone who wants to give his life to the Lord. God bless you, take my hand, amen. There will be someone else who wants to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't leave here. Don't be like this rich man who thought, well, there's time to do it. I will do it another time and it was precisely that attitude that attracted the judgment of the Lord and there was no other opportunity for him or her. The time is now, says the Bible, it is today and it is here, where the Lord is speaking to you. We invite you to take that step of faith and not resist the touch of the Holy Spirit. Anyone else want to take this step of faith this morning? Raise your hand, I'd like to pray for you before we go. Stand up, brother there and accompany him there as a sign of spiritual support, there where he is. Let's pray for him. We are going to bless your life and we are going to entrust it to the Lord this morning and if you still feel that desire to take that step, you can do it by getting up, standing up and we recognize you and pray for you too.
Thank you, Lord Father, I bless this brother and place his life in your hands, you know his heart, you know his needs, he takes that step of faith this morning. Cover him with your grace and strengthen him Lord. I ask that his heart be revolutionized on this day and as you promise Lord Jesus enter him, dine with him, be intimate with him, speak to his life and Father we declare that today becomes the property of your kingdom and that you establish your lordship in the center of his heart. Father, I bless him and all his family and each one of us this morning, recognize that in one measure or another this word touches us.
We bless your name this morning Lord Jesus. Thanks for your word. Thank my Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Amen. Amen. Glory in the name of Jesus. Amen
He also told them a parable saying: “The inheritance of a rich man had produced a lot and he thought within himself, what will I do because I have nowhere to keep my fruits and said: This I will do; I will tear down my barns and build greater ones and there I will store all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods in store for many years. Rest, eat, drink, rejoice. But God said to him: "Fool, tonight they come to ask you for your soul and what you have provided, whose will it be?" So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
Brothers, this passage tells us about what our attitude towards material possessions should be. The Lord referred to this element of money and possessions on many occasions and He always did so by making a radical call to the children of God to rid themselves of love and excessive attachment to money and material things.
One of the things the Lord Jesus Christ talked about the most was about money. I remember when I started in the ministry I really disliked having to talk about money. And if I had to ask for money for, for example, the construction of this building, I would sweat a lot before standing up to people to make a call. And sometimes I made so many excuses that when I finished I didn't even remember what I was asking for.
But over time I realized that the Lord Jesus Christ had no shame in talking about money and the need for us to use our money and our possessions radically in favor of the Kingdom of God. Furthermore, the Lord considered that the attitude towards money and material possessions in a sense determined the level of blessing that we could receive from God, both here on earth and in the afterlife.
For us it is easy to understand that in this life God may give us more or less blessing according to our behavior here on this earth. But the Bible also suggests that there are different degrees of reward and glory that we are going to enjoy in the life to come according to our level of investment in the Kingdom of God here on earth. Now I don't know how that differentiation is going to occur in the life to come. I do not know if God will give a mansion with many rooms to some, if he will give others a two-bedroom condo? I don't know, I'm not sure. Or if we are going to reflect more light or less light according to our behavior.
I'm not sure, but what the word does suggest to me is that according to what we invest here for the Kingdom of God, we will enjoy to some greater or lesser extent in the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord always took advantage of circumstantial opportunities to talk about eternal principles. And here we see him doing this. He is on the road and a very upset man approaches him because his brother does not want to share the inheritance that legitimately belongs to him too. And he asks Jesus as rabbi and teacher to force his brother to give him his part of the money. And the Lord, instead of doing what this man asks, reacts with annoyance and a little offended by what is being asked of him.
And rather He uses this opportunity to refer his listeners and all of us as well to universal principles that we should employ in every material situation. What the Lord did was go to the root of the problem. He did not stay in the superficial symptomatic situation, but rather He went to the attitude produced by situations like the one in front of Him.
We know that greed is, many times, excessive attachment to money; It is what produces conflicts between human beings. How many of us know of situations, perhaps within our own family, where the body of the father or mother is not yet cold and the children are already fighting over money. And how many families have been divided by these things? How many marriages have problems regarding the matter of money?
I believe that at the root of all these situations is the element of selfishness and excessive attachment to material things. That is why the Lord, instead of losing himself and investing his glory in resolving a minor dispute, what he did was that he used that moment to give principles that could resolve any dispute in which we may fall with respect to material matters.
That is why in verse 15 we see that he tells them: “Watch out and beware of all covetousness”. Think about the seriousness of the Lord's warning, he says: "Look" means, be careful, pay attention. And it also says "Beware", that is, protect yourselves from... And it says "from all greed". In other words, it's not just a little thing here and there, but the basic attitude of the heart, of greed.
In the original Greek the word that is translated into English as greed is “pleonexia”. Say everyone, pleonexia. Beware of pleonexia my brothers of the congregation of León de Juda.
What is greed? What is pleonexia? I would define greed as an excessive attachment to material things, an exaggerated love of money and matter. Now I could also say that greed is also an excessive attachment to anything in this world. I think they may be greedy for recognition from others. There are people who can be greedy to sleep, I think. What's more, there are people who can feel greedy to have a well-built and muscular body. In fact, I believe that in this 21st century culture there is an excessive glorification of the human body. And billions of dollars are invested in staying well muscled and slapped, I don't know if that word exists but you know. And all this speaks of the excessive attachment to what is created and taking one's gaze away from the creator.
Because I believe, brothers, that at the root of greed there is also idolatry. Greed and idolatry are brothers and have the same roots. Greed is born from an exaggerated awareness of the now and the here of time and space. When the person loves the current life too much, the world in which he lives, his values and his investments are determined by a focus of what happens here on earth, in this life. And when he takes his gaze off the creator and eternity, he places it only on time and space, and then he becomes a worshiper of the temporary and the limited instead of worshiping what has made all of this possible. And in a moment we're going to see how this rich man exemplifies this kind of attitude.
But look for a moment in Chapter 31 of Job as is the attitude of a person who loves money excessively, how his love of money is linked to idolatry. Says Job 31:24 "If I put my hope in gold and said to gold, 'my trust is you'. If I was glad that my riches multiplied and that my hand found much.
So far it's easy to understand how this exemplifies greed. But look at the association Job's mind makes now. He says: "I have always looked at the sun when it was shining or at the moon when it was beautiful."
What are we starting to see here? I believe there is a connection between the worship of creation and also the love of gold and material things. Job's mind is making that spiritual association, or the mind of the Holy Spirit for that matter.
“And if my heart was secretly deceived and my mouth kissed my hand. This would also be judged wickedness because it would have denied the sovereign God.” You see, greed is mixed with both the worship of nature and creation as well as the worship of oneself and the denial of God. All these things are mixed with each other.
Now, perhaps you say: Well, I'm definitely not a greedy person so thank God I can put myself to sleep there while the pastor finishes the sermon because that's not my turn. But brothers, I suggest that it is not so easy to escape the teachings of Jesus and the moral implications.
The Lord speaks here and uses the rich, miserly gentleman as an extreme case of greed but I think we can recognize the elements that move him in each of us. Look at some of the mistakes that this foolish man makes: firstly, he does not recognize God at any time, at all times he is only thinking about his money and his person and how to make his money grow. Throughout the passage there is an excessive use of the I or the possessive mine. He says: "I will tear down my barns", he says: "there I will keep all my fruits and my goods and I will say to my soul". It's always me, me, me.
You are not consulting with God at any time before making major decisions regarding your possessions. How many times do we make material decisions about a job or a relationship or any other love decision and do not ask ourselves: "Lord, what is your will specifically regarding this matter in my life?"
In every decision that we make in our lives, there must always be, whether that decision is big or small, like in the background in our mind, that God is what penetrates every aspect of that decision. Seeking God's wisdom in all our decisions should be something so important that sometimes it doesn't even need to be consciously mentioned. Our sensibility must be so penetrated by the awareness of the Lordship of God in our lives that everything we do must obey the consideration: What does God want me to do? And for me this is one of the signs of a mature believer who is aware of the lordship of Christ in his life. Another thing is that in this man there is no sense of stewardship. Everything is yours. He controls nothing, he owns everything.
And the idea of stewardship in writing tells us something very important. It is one of the most important truths of scripture. And it is this: “everything I have and everything I am belongs to God”. Repeat after me: "everything I have, everything I am, belongs to the Lord."
And if that is a part of our life, that means that we, everything we decide and manage, always has to be with that awareness that this is not mine. When I give the Lord my tithe, for example, I am not giving him my money. I am simply setting aside for the Lord 10% of the one hundred percent that He deserves. I didn't hear many amen when I said that.
I'm going to be honest with you, when I give my tithe I don't stop too much to think about what I'm doing. Firstly because if I think too much, I won't give it up. But secondly, it is because I have understood that I have no discretion or power to decide with respect to that 10%. Everything I have belongs to the Lord and the Lord has said: “set aside 10% of what I have given you”. And I just obey.
And when we serve the Lord, for example in the ministry, and give our lives to the Lord full time. In reality we are not doing anything extraordinary or heroic, we are simply making a personal recognition of what is a fact and that is that my life, my talents, my time, my energies belong to God.
When you see this, it revolutionizes the way you decide things in your life. Your mind no longer thinks so much about matter but thinks about the God of matter. Your priorities come to be spiritual and not material. You are more concerned with how your life can be useful for the Lord. How your money can advance the interests of the Kingdom of God. How the energies of your body can be used for the glory of God. Because you know that God is the owner of your life, and that everything you have has come from his generosity and his hand. And your life is consumed by a sense of gratitude to the Lord who has given you everything. Then you know that any little thing you give to the Lord is something minimal compared to the totality that He has given you. He has given us his all when he gave us Christ Jesus on the cross of Calvary.
How can we be stingy and scant when we give to the One who gave everything for us. I tell you brothers, many times we do not experience the glory of God in our lives and the joy of being believers because we are deceiving ourselves in terms of who is the Lord of our life. To experience the joy of the Lord, one must first surrender totally to the Lord.
And this is not a poetic image, it is an image that has resonance in every moment and in every situation of life. When I choose to sleep one hour less to answer the phone to a person who is in need of a word of affirmation and advice, that is living our life in the light of Christ's lordship. When you decide to share your privacy with someone who needs accommodation for a day or a night, that is recognizing that Christ is the Lord of your life. When a woman or a man decides to sacrifice the joy of being in the service to bless children in the Children's Service up there or down there at 12, that is recognizing the stewardship and lordship of Christ in our life.
In other words, brothers, these sublime principles have very concrete and sometimes painful consequences.
Romans 8:5 says: "For those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who are of the spirit about the things of the spirit." The person who recognizes the lordship of Christ, his mind and his priorities and the investments of his time and energy are always, his affections above all, are in how that advances the Kingdom of God.
A third thing about this man is that he has what I call side vision. You see that all he wants to do is distribute and recombine things. He's like locked in a big bubble and he can't get out of it, so what he does is he just redistributes the possessions he has. And he says: “what will I do because I no longer have a place to put my goods. Oh! What I'm going to do is I'm going to build something bigger and then I'm going to put it there.”
You see it's all a purely horizontal view. Everything he does has to be done at that ground level only. The image that comes to mind is people playing dominoes, when they pick up the dominoes and move them with both hands across the board and just recombine them, not picking them up or taking them out or anything, just rearranging them. The person who does not live for God, his life is simply reduced to that only. His life is reduced to making decisions that have no vertical resonances with God. It is a poor and mean life. It is a life of symbolic but not real advances. It's just like a ball game or any sports game, that for a while the players get serious about what they're doing and invest all their energy but when the game is over, what actually changed in the universe. Everything stayed the same. It's a serious game but that's about it. It's just a game.
And how many human beings spend their lives precisely get into the game that others have defined for them. That game includes, for example, going to college and making a career. Or like Donald Trump, acquiring a lot of money and getting married many times and being envied by many men, and being on the news and on television, but at the end of the day, what is changing in the universe? What eternal or moral implications is this game people are playing having? When we died, and the music ended, what meaning and what effect our very life had, brothers.
When they nailed your coffin, and drove you 6 feet underground, what impact did your life have on the world? And what implications did the little game you were involved in at that time have for eternity? We have to be thinking about how my life can affect eternity. How my life can help save someone from eternal hell? How can my life edify the soul of someone who is clumsy and gross in moral and spiritual terms? How can I grow and develop morally and spiritually so that in my time here on earth I can appear more and more like Christ Jesus. How can I use my belongings and my goods and invest them for eternal life and for the Kingdom of God?
Do you see the difference between a horizontal perspective and a vertical perspective? Do you see the difference between an animal and earthly mentality and a spiritual and eternal mentality? Brethren, unfortunately the churches, including ours, are full of people who are deceiving themselves. We come to church but our hearts are still attached to that horizontal mindset. We have not cut the umbilical cord that unites us to this land and its cares and vanities.
For a moment I remember the word of the Apostle John in First John where he talks about love for the world and the things of the world. And I think it's in First John but it's not in one of the books of John and we're going to find it. It says there: “My brothers, let us not love the world or the things that are in the world” 2:15 – “Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, does not come from the Father but from the world.”
There are only two attitudes that God recognizes, one that is attached to the world and one that puts its affection on God, that's all. I want to ask you, you and me too, each one of us here: Which of these two attitudes, in a moment of supreme honesty, which of these two attitudes defines my behavior at this moment in my life? Can I truly say that my affection resides in the Kingdom of God and the interests of the Kingdom of God? I know that we will never be able to respond one hundred percent one way or another, but I believe that we can discern when we are at least getting closer to that position that God wants. I beg you to spend a little time today to meditate on that question, especially I want to refer to the young people who are here in the congregation this morning.
You have your whole life to live and depending on the attitude you adopt, you can avoid or not avoid many mistakes and many troubles that we fall into for not understanding this word. Decide once and for all to put all your affection, your love, your passion and your loyalty in the Lord and not in anything else.
Another mistake this man makes is that he believes that his soul is going to be satisfied with material things. In verse 19 he says: "and I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods stored for many years, rest, eat, drink, rejoice." The image that comes to mind is Casper that "friendly ghost" drinking water and the water falling to the ground because he can't drink it. Brothers, that is what happens with a person who tries to fill an essential need that exists in every man with material things.
Human beings have been programmed by God to find satisfaction only in God. We human beings enjoy great freedom because God has made us free, but our own mental, emotional, physical and spiritual configuration imposes certain needs and certain conditions for our enjoyment of life.
A great Christian sage said: “Our hearts, our souls seek rest and they will only find their rest in you.”
God has made a hole in our heart, in the center of our being and that hole has the shape of God and can only be filled when the shape of God gets into that hole and fits perfectly.
The image that comes to my mind is when a person who is thirsty, that essential thirst that exists in every man, and opens his heart and the form of God enters that hole and one kind of sees, like in the movie from “Star Trek” this giant shape kind of going into that hole there and filling the whole screen and ringing with a clang, like a gate closing. It arrived, it fit perfectly where it had to arrive.
And brothers, men live looking for satisfaction in money, in prestige, in sensual pleasures, in fame, but none of these things can fulfill the program that God has established in us. It is because our programming does not allow it to be so, that is, even if we want to, we will not be able to because we are made in a way that God made us. And the wisest thing is that we stop fighting against that reality of our being and that we submit and seek first, first.
If you want to be happy, the first thing you have to do is fill that hole that has 'God' written in the holes. Satisfy that first and then look for the other things. Because God has nothing against wealth or prosperity or against romantic love or against the enjoyment of life. What offends God and hurts is when we put those things first and forget that those things should just come as second or third priority. Because we recognize that the matrix of everything we experience and do must first be one of stability and sufficiency in God. And that if that precondition is not fulfilled, everything else that we experience will occur in the context of a great dissatisfaction that will not allow us to enjoy what comes to us.
Have you ever tried to eat a good meal with a toothache? No matter how succulent that food may be, that pain permeates your entire being and will prevent you from enjoying that delicious food. You have been depressed and they suggest that you go to an amusement park. Can you really enjoy all of this if your whole being is permeated by a negative attitude?
And so are human beings, they try to get satisfaction in events and objects while the essence of their being, the context within which all those events or objects occur, is contaminated by emptiness and the sense of imminent punishment that will come some day So let's understand clearly, first, says the word, "seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added to you." If you want to be truly happy, discipline your flesh, resist the impulse to go towards what is urgent and intense, decide according to eternal principles, consult the manual before your feelings, choose to follow God's instructions and not those of your body , or your nervous system, or your emotions, your wounds, or your physical appetites, and decide according to the instructions of the manual that is God. And you will find rest for your soul. Resist the tricks of your mind, because the mind is the most deceitful thing in the world. The heart is terribly deceitful, and we have to learn to control it, and decide and prioritize according to the values established by the word.
Another thing this man does is fail to recognize the fragility of life. It does not recognize the inherent fragility of life. This man says: Soul, you have earned many goods, keep them for many years. He believes that he has many years ahead of him. Perhaps you are a man of 40 or 45 years old and you are thinking that you have at least 40 or 45 years left to enjoy all your riches and your professional and financial achievements. He is full of physical health, people respect and fear him for all the power and money he has. His financial success has given him a sense of sufficiency and permanence, but he doesn't understand that in the world of the eternal and the spiritual they have made a decision for him.
He doesn't understand that he doesn't have the ultimate right to decide the trajectory of his life. In the spiritual world a declaration has been given that on that very night his life comes to an end. Brethren, how many of us, particularly the young again, people full of health and life and vigour, have a great future ahead of them, perhaps some are here and have just graduated from university, for example, or from High school and they have a bright future ahead of them, and they feel like they're going to live like many decades ahead of me, and the idea is - there's time in the future to decide to live for God. In what I can I will give a little to God, I will go to church from time to time. I will refrain from major sins, but from time to time I will wink at God and he understands, and I will enjoy the many years that I have and when I am already more wrinkled and my skin droops a little, then I will begin to cultivate religious life. –
Brothers, if there is something in writing, it is that human life is fragile, it is unpredictable. The word says that the life of man is like the flower of the field that flourished for a moment but then perished because the wind came and took it away. And then people look and don't know where he was. And you don't have to think only about death to see the fragility of life, riches are fragile, one day we can have it and the next day we can lose it. Health is fragile, one day we can have it and the next day it is lost. Youth and its beauty is fragile, one day our skin is smooth and vigorous and shiny and another day we have to resort to creams to maintain that same shine. And so are emotions, one day we can be full of joy and optimistic, and another day feel depressed and down.
Brothers, we live in a world mined and full of dangers. The Lord Jesus Christ said: "In the world you will find only one thing, affliction." Woe to him who does not consider his fragility. Moreover, I believe that the root of our wisdom is the awareness of our mortality. The Bible says: "Teach us in such a way to number our days that we bring wisdom to our hearts." Paradoxically, the awareness of our fragility is not a source of weakness, on the contrary, it is a source of strength.
Being aware that we are weak and that we need God every day, makes us fragile and moves us to seek the protection that we can only find in God. So we understand that I cannot manage and defend my life. My only defense and my only hope is to take my fragile life and place it in the mighty arms and hands of the Lord. Commend my life to the Lord. Tell him: Father, I want you to administer and manage my hours, my days, my talent. Give me what you want and take away what you want. I surrender the management and interests of my life and put them in your hands. I put my weakness in your infinite strength. Guide me wherever you want. Brothers, there is the root of joy and happiness.
God wants us to enjoy that rest. God wants us to stop being anxious about the problems and uncertainties of life, and to find our rest only in Him. And it all begins by giving our lives to the Lord, giving our hearts to the Lord, giving our future, our past and our present. Mr.
Telling him, Father, all my riches, whatever they are, I put them in your hands, you manage them today.
I want us to lower our heads for a moment now, and meditate on the word that God has placed in our hearts. Let the weight of the Lord's message settle deep in your heart. And we are going to do an examination of conscience. How important are the things of this world including the things of matter to me. To what degree do they influence the eternal decisions I make? Where are my priorities? I want everyone here to decide this morning: I am going to put my life in the hands of the Lord. I am going to live for God. I am going to live for the Kingdom of God. I am going to be a radical disciple of Jesus, completely surrendered to the Lord. I surrender your life to you, Jesus.
I want to ask if there is anyone here today who not only understands this aspect of already being a Christian giving our hearts to the Lord, but I want to ask if there is anyone in this place who has not yet given their life to Jesus and has not made a personal pact with Christ and wants to do it this morning and wants to say to the Lord Jesus: Lord, I give myself to you today. I give myself to you today, and I ask you to take control of my life and guide me for the rest of my days and if there is someone who wants to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, I would like to pray for you this morning. I am going to ask you from where you are to tell the Lord Jesus: Lord, come into my heart right now. I recognize that I still do not have a good personal relationship with you and I want to do it this morning and I want you to take dominion and control of my life and do that there in your spirit, in your heart.
I would encourage you to go a step further and raise your hand to publicly confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior because he says that he confesses himself before men, He will also confess you before his Father who is in heaven. I want to ask if there is anyone this morning who wants to give their life to Jesus and who wants to invite him into their heart and become lord of their life. I would like you to raise your hand to pray for you this morning. Will there be someone who wants to give their life to Jesus Christ before leaving this place? It can be a young person, a child, an adult, an old man. You know you are not living for Christ and you want to take that step of faith this morning. I would like to place you before the altar of Jesus and pray for you so that the Lord covers and fills your life. There will be someone, raise their hand this morning. It can be from above, it can be from below, someone who hasn't done it before. There will be someone who wants to give his life to the Lord. God bless you, take my hand, amen. There will be someone else who wants to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't leave here. Don't be like this rich man who thought, well, there's time to do it. I will do it another time and it was precisely that attitude that attracted the judgment of the Lord and there was no other opportunity for him or her. The time is now, says the Bible, it is today and it is here, where the Lord is speaking to you. We invite you to take that step of faith and not resist the touch of the Holy Spirit. Anyone else want to take this step of faith this morning? Raise your hand, I'd like to pray for you before we go. Stand up, brother there and accompany him there as a sign of spiritual support, there where he is. Let's pray for him. We are going to bless your life and we are going to entrust it to the Lord this morning and if you still feel that desire to take that step, you can do it by getting up, standing up and we recognize you and pray for you too.
Thank you, Lord Father, I bless this brother and place his life in your hands, you know his heart, you know his needs, he takes that step of faith this morning. Cover him with your grace and strengthen him Lord. I ask that his heart be revolutionized on this day and as you promise Lord Jesus enter him, dine with him, be intimate with him, speak to his life and Father we declare that today becomes the property of your kingdom and that you establish your lordship in the center of his heart. Father, I bless him and all his family and each one of us this morning, recognize that in one measure or another this word touches us.
We bless your name this morning Lord Jesus. Thanks for your word. Thank my Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Amen. Amen. Glory in the name of Jesus. Amen
