This is just food for thought:
If you have had an education and know how to read, then you are more blessed that over two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won’t survive the
week.
If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer
than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change lying in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds
wealthy.
And if you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death,
You are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.
PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL
LUKE 12:13-21
I could probably put the whole of today‟s sermon into a very few sentences. I would say to
you that God is God all the time. God wants to be first in our lives all the time – in the good
times and in the bad, on the mountain and in the valley. God wants us to remember Him
and to thank Him when nothing exciting or out of the ordinary is going on, because He is still
our God – even when we don‟t think we need him.
Elvis Presley recorded a gospel song titled“We Call on Him”. These are the lyrics – listen.
We call on Him
Whenever storm clouds gather
We call on Him to light our darkest day
Why must it be that only when we're lonely
And hopes are dim, we call on Him
Why don't we call on Him before we lose our way
To count our blessings and thank Him while we may
We call on Him when no-one else will answer
We ask of Him a reason to go on
When our cup of joy becomes a cup of sorrow
Filled to the brim, we call on Him
Why don't we call on Him before we lose our way
To count our blessings and thank Him while we may
So, yes, I could end this message right here, but since this is my first Sunday back in the pulpit,
I intend to make the best of it! Turn with me to Luke 12:13-21.
13Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with
me."
14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he
said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not
consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
17He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
18"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there
I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things
laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
20"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?'
21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward
God."
First of all this morning, let‟s be clear – neither in this parable nor in others does our Savior
condemn wealth or possessions in themselves. But while Jesus does not ALWAYS attack
wealth, this parable is reflective of a consistent theme of his teachings: Possessions tend to
possess us. Care for possessions makes it more difficult to truly care for what God cares for.
Possessions distract us from the fullness of life. Possessions distract us from true wealth; from
what is rich in the eyes of God. His focus here as in other circumstances is on the condition
of the heart.
God wants us to enjoy life, but not without a relationship with Him. We are to "set your minds
on things above, not on earthly things." (Col 3:2).
One of the great dreads of our life today is the creeping onset of Alzheimer‟s disease, the
inevitable loss of our memories that constitute our individuality, our personhood. Billions are
being spent on research and patients are looking for any hope that will defeat the disease.
But our text today tells us that many of us often become forgetful of the very most important
thing when we attain success in life.
This was true of the Israelites – not just once but many times. In Joshua 23 and 24, just before
his death, Joshua reminded the Israelites of all that God had done for them. He had given
them all the land He had promised them. They could enter and enjoy all its blessings. They
just had to possess it, worship God, and remember to keep His commandments. But it seems
that as times changed from challenging to pleasant and peaceful, the Jews forgot who was
responsible for their prosperity and peace. They began to experiment with other gods & to
neglect worship. Why does it always seem to be so – that we only remember God when
times get tough? And during times of ease, we take the credit for ourselves or simply forget
who our Provider is. The psalmist reminded us in Ps. 103:1-2, “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my
inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS
BENEFITS.”
Let‟s look at the story in today‟s passage.
SUCCESS LEADS US TO FORGET OUR NEIGHBORS (V. 17)
With a good crop coming in, the man said, “What shall I do?” Meaning, “What shall I do with
my money?” “How shall I spend my money on me?”
The more he succeeds, the more his mind becomes so busy thinking of his life, he wasn‟t
thinking about anybody else but himself.
Any time we think only about ourselves, our wants and our needs or what we want to do and
don‟t consider anybody else then we are in trouble! We are in trouble with the Lord,
because He wants us to think of others! The 2nd great commandment is, “Love your neighbor
as yourself.”
“And he thought within himself, saying, „what shall I do, since I have no room to store my
crops? So he said, I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater ones, and there I
will store all my crops and my goods.”
There was nothing wrong with the man‟s desire to build more barns; it was probably a good
and prudent idea. The problem lay in the fact that there is not any thought of sharing his
abundance with others.
Charles Kingsley said, “If you want to be miserable, think much about yourself, about what
you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you, and what people think of
you.” So, success tends to make us forget our neighbors.
SUCCESS LEADS US TO FORGET OUR GOD (V.18)
Listen to the prophet Isaiah in Is. 22:8-13.
8 the defenses of Judah are stripped away.
And you looked in that day
to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest;
9 you saw that the City of David
had many breaches in its defenses;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.
10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.
11 You built a reservoir between the two walls
for the water of the Old Pool,
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.
12 The Lord, the LORD Almighty,
called you on that day
to weep and to wail,
to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.
13 But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
"Let us eat and drink," you say,
"for tomorrow we die!"
When we focus on ourselves…we do not give God the credit for things he has done. Then He
spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.” Jesus
spoke of a man who was rich, a man who had honestly earned what he possessed…Jesus
didn‟t have a problem with that…Jesus was speaking of a man who was leaving God out of
the picture…he was speaking of a man who was saying to himself…look what I have
done…look what my fields have yielded…look at me and my wonderful problem.
Where was God in this picture…the fact that he was a steward over all that God had given
him…the fact that God had blessed him with a good crop free of blight and disease… the
fact that God had blessed him with such an abundance that „his cup overflowed‟…that his
barns could no longer hold all that God had given him…this man was not giving God any
credit for these things that he had done.
When we focus on ourselves…we make plans that leave God out.
It is interesting to note that in this parable the personal pronoun „My‟ occurs four times and „I‟
occurs five times. The rich man says…my crops…my barns…my goods. There is no thought to
putting God into his life. In all his plans, he has left God out.
This man had forgotten who blessed his crops and the reason for it. There are many persons -
- even Christians -- living in this world thinking like him.
James 1:16-17 “Don‟t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from
above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like
shifting shadows.”
All good things come from God our Father. All good material, physical, and spiritual things
come from God. Our health is a blessing of God. Our families and friends are blessings from
God. But God wants to be first – remember, the very first commandment is, “You shall have
no other gods before me.” And Jesus said, in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves his father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me”.
A good example of this principle is the Apostle Peter, when the Lord Jesus blessed his
business, instead of giving more attention to it, he left it and followed Jesus. Luke 5:11 stated,
"When they had brought their ships to the land, THEY LEFT ALL AND FOLLOWED JESUS." His
once and for all decision set him on the road to being a great apostle of Jesus. Peter made
a right choice in life!
SUCCESS LEADS US TO FOGET OUR SOUL (V.19-20)
"And I‟ll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy;
eat, drink and be merry." "But God said to him, ‟You fool this very night your life will be
demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?
Jesus doesn't fault him on his agricultural skill, but on his independent attitude. "And I'll say to
myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and
be merry.' " (12:19) Again, there is no thought to putting God into his life. In all his plans, he
has left God out of the equation.
The man actually believes that his riches will now insulate his life from hardship. God isn't in
the picture at all. His focus is squarely on goods rather than God. All this rich fool was
thinking about was the “here and now,” not the "hereafter."
It is very hard not to become emotionally attached to our things in this life. When L J and I
lost our business in 2002 along with all our savings and after many months of barely hanging
on finally sold our „dream home‟ at a loss, we were, understandably I think, truly sad. We
had put so much of ourselves into that business for so many years and designed the house
just to fit us. It‟s really amazing how God‟s absolute truths quietly slip up on you and hit you in
the side of the head. I realized then and there, that “you can‟t take it with you”…that God
blesses us with many things, but they are only on loan for us to use…that we are only
stewards of the things of this life.
When we focus on ourselves…we consider spending our resources only on ourselves. In this
verse, the rich man is talking to himself and assessing his future physical well-being. This man
thought that when he put his plan into action that he would have it made for years to come.
He was convinced that his future would continually expand under his control. Nothing could
have been further from the truth. He was beginning to show traits of being a „Fool‟. In
scripture, a fool is one who leaves God out of any consideration. Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool
has said in his heart there is no God.”
In the book of James, it speaks about this rich man‟s attitude in Chapter 4 verses 13-15 when
it says, “Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a
year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will
happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then
vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
One of the most dangerous words in our language is the word, “Tomorrow”. When we speak
of the future, we should say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” The Bible does
not discourage us from looking into the future, as we make our plans, whether it be in
business, in relationships, or in our personal lives, BUT we are to do so from the perspective
that ultimately God is in charge. With this in mind, we should plan with a humble heart,
knowing that God is with us…to help us and to strengthen us and to guide us in all we do.
When our hearts are focused on ourselves, we store our treasures in the wrong places. “But
God said to him, „Fool! This night your soul will be demanded of you; then whose will those
things be which you have provided?” As Prov. 11:4 reminds us ,“Wealth is worthless in the day
of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.”
A man becomes a fool when he begins to think that all that he is and all that he
accomplishes and all that he possesses is because of his doing. When folks leave God out of
their lives, they are violating the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before
me.”
And finally, when we focus on ourselves…we will find ourselves in conflict with God‟s Plan for
our lives. "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich
toward God." Jesus encourages in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where
thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
The word of God reminds us in the beginning of this text (Luke 12:15b), "A man‟s life does not
consists in the abundance of his possessions." And we could add – in our good job, the
numbers of our friends, our family members. All these are perishable, on loan to us, and will
not go with us when we leave this planet. But our soul is eternal and has an eternal destiny.
Remember God at all times. Praise Him, worship him, feast on His Word, do for others. Put
God first, and so store up treasures in heaven.