Teachings of Jesus (Part 20) Warning about Greed
To start out, here’s some questions for you, ‘Do you consider yourself a greedy person? Do you like to accumulate more and more of what this world has to offer? Do you have a problem letting go of your stuff or any of your money?’
Today we are going to be looking at the 2nd warning Jesus gives in Luke 12. His 1st warning which we looked at last week was a warning about hypocrisy. But today we’ll see that He tells us to beware of GREED READ 13-14 13 “Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
It seems right after Jesus finished warning them about being a hypocrite someone in the crowd recognized Jesus’ authority and interrupted Him and asked Him to solve a family problem. You see, Rabbis in that day were expected to solve legal matters.
But Jesus refused to get involved. Why? Because He knew that any answer He would give this man would not solve the real problem, which was greed in the hearts of the two brothers. And as long as those two men were greedy, no answer would be good enough for them. Their greatest need was not to have their disagreement settled but rather their heart needed to be changed.
Like many people today, those men wanted Jesus to serve them and meet their personal needs. And like many today it seems as though they weren’t so concerned about the fact that Jesus wanted to save them and transform them.
Greed is an unquenchable thirst for more and more of this world’s goods. We live in a greedy society today and every day the world seems like it wants us to believe that we need to have more to be somebody or make us happier.
Listen to verse 15, “ 15 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.”.” “Jesus, you mean to tell me that it’s not true that ‘He who has the most toys wins?’ Let me ask you – Do you believe what Jesus is saying here is true? – that life is not all about what we have and how much we own? If this is what we believe, why do so many in this world, even within the church, spend so much more time, effort, and energy seeking to get more and more things of this world, than things of God?
Some many agree with Jesus’ statement in theory, but in practice many even in the church are living quite the opposite. Far too many have bought into the lie that we need more to be happy and hold our lives together.
Many believe that marriages are held together, and our families and children need the nicest and best we can provide. So moms and dads will work like crazy people, hours and hours a day, wearing themselves out, to buy the nicest home, the nicest furniture, the nicest things they can get. But lives are not held together because we have material things alone; in fact material things make a pretty lousy glue to hold our families together. That’s why many who are wealthy are miserable, unhappy, and their relationships and families are falling apart.
Priorities are messed up. Our families don’t need us to work so much we are never around, just to have more – instead, more than anything else, we need to be there for one another. Kids need quality time with their moms and dads more than they need the biggest house or the latest gadgets. Husband and wives need more quality time together more than a fancy new car or truck.
I’ve known too many families that have broken apart because dad thought it was more important to work endless hours, hardly spending any time home with his wife or kids, to bring home that big pay check. I remember one fellow telling me after his marriage broke up, that his wife and kids should have known how much he loved them by how many hours he spent away from them as a truck driver. But that fact only embittered his wife and kids. She said that she would rather have lived with less and had him home more, to give them more of himself. But he just could not see that. Rather than settling for just a little bit less, he just had to have the best of everything. His priorities we wrong, he ended up miserable; and yes he was a member of the church.
I personally believe that’s why more and more families are breaking up and kids are so unhappy and getting into trouble each year all around our country. Some parents just want more and more, and it’s destroying their families. To illustrate the folly of greed, Jesus continues on and tells a parable about a man who was well off, and the folly of him hording. You see, he was very self centered, and 11 times in 5 verses, Jesus has the man refer to himself as, “I,” “my,” myself, and “himself” to illustrate the point.
This man could fit right easily in to our 21st century American society. He was a man who centered his life around his things rather than God and others.
Someone has rightly said, “This parable shows an honest man being executed by his own estate.”
Listen to the words of Jesus: Read Luke 12:16-21 “16 And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He 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 my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain 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 whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Why does God call this man a fool? It is because he was rich in the things of this world, but he was not rich in the things of God. He had invested all of his time and energy into his farm and things that will not last, because he built his kingdom in that which is temporary, and had completely neglected the eternal.
So basically Jesus said that we are fools, if we …
#1. We do not give God the credit for things He has done.
#2. We are fools if we make plans but leave God out.
#3. We are fools when we live only for the moment and ignore the eternal consequences.
#4. We are fools when we store up our treasure in the wrong places.
The Bible also talks about other fools; for example..
– He Who Trusts In His Own Heart is a fool. Proverbs. 28:26.
– He Who Is Always Right [In His Own Eyes.] is a fool Proverbs. 12:15.
– He Who Despises Wisdom and Instruction is a fool. Proverbs. 1:7.
– He Who Says There Is No God is a fool. Psalm. 14:1
Back to the parable; when the time came for this man to meet God, he was not ready, and all that he collected was left behind. All that he left behind could not help him one bit. And according to Jesus, his end will be the end of all who act the same; those.. “Who stores up things for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
In Mark 8:36-37 Jesus said, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Do you have an answer for that?
In Verse 35 He said, 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.
Here’s a question for you; how rich are you in the things of God. I ask this because Jesus is saying we are fools if we are not rich towards God, and we are fools if all we care about is acquiring more money, and more stuff for our self, and ignore Him and others in need around us. First of all in our last lesson we saw in Luke 12 that Jesus warns us to beware of hypocrisy and here He tell us that we need to be beware of becoming greedy. I pray that you take these warnings seriously.
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