Rich Toward God - 05.03.2026

Today's Key Verse '

Luke 12: 21 So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself and is not rich [in his relation] to God [this is how he fares].

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

But I found myself just meditating and perhaps pulling back a little bit of a feeling back a little bit of the human idea just to get at some of the why of the statement Jesus is making, the statements he's making, as he's teaching, with an attempt to pull up a seat beside you and understand more clearly how these teachings impact our life journey. He closes our conversation before he moves into a parable. By making a statement that in verse 15, he says, Take heed, beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And then he closes out the parable in verse 31.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

By saying, So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

And I found myself spending time this morning to get a deeper understanding of what he's teaching in here in the way of being a witch. So that's going to be our theme. If you turn with that chapter, our key verse was that 21st. I kind of stole the round thunder by reading the 21st verse, but we have it up there, and if you don't mind, let's just together read this out loud to the streaming audience. If you're able to stand, you don't mind standing, you're able to stand. We'll read this again together. And then we'll spend our time right in this because this is not all that he has to say. Again, this verse says, So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. I think that readers, let's try that again. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. So our theme is rich toward God. Rich toward God. I found myself on the unpack this in the midst of three questions that we wrestle with in life. The question of who am I, the question of identity, the question of why am I here, the question of purpose, and the question of where am I going? The question of eternity or legacy. And wanting to step underneath of this particular parable with and see how how do those grappling questions are being revealed in the midst of this episode in the life and times of Jesus. So let me read this to you, these verses, and then let's back into them, and I'll give you the life lesson. Verse 15 says, Well, let me start with 13. And one in the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And then he said, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesses. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This I will, this will I do. I will pull down my bonds and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and to be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall these things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. I jotted down three life lessons. I'm going to give it to you on the front, and I'll try to make sure that I give it to you when we close. The kingdom riches in and from God include a personal relationship and a new identity in Christ, number one. Secondly, a new life purpose and a life fellowship through Christ, number two. And number three, a secure present and eternal, a secure present and eternal life with Christ. Be thankful today. Be thankful today. Can we spend a little time? Spend a little time, family. So I noticed as I was walking through this, this parable is powerful and it he lays out in the midst of this conversation. And three things jump off the page, three character traits of the individual that he's laying out for us in this storyline jump off the page as he's teaching this. As he's laid the groundwork that a man's a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things that we possess. Anybody believe that? Amen. Make sure we're on the same page in the house. It's not your identity and your purpose and your life existence does not consist of the things that we possess. Is that alright? Okay, if we believe that, we're gonna continue on with the word. Make sure we're in the same place. Make sure we're in the same place. And so as he lays out this groundwork, I found I noticed three, one writer coined it. I can have to paraphrase it to fit my, to fit as the Lord was leading me on this. Three character traits of the individual, he was number one. The description of him, it was number one, it was practical atheism. He he laid in, he never put God in the midst of anything that he was doing in his storyline. Number two, uh, self-centered materialism. He he he was he focused his his his love was focused on the material things in life. And it wasn't that there's certainly nothing wrong. God has blessed us with the material things in life, so uh the the the the good or the evil is not in the material. The question that Jesus always put is what are you gonna love?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

What are you gonna commit yourself to?

SPEAKER_02 7:22

What do you what do you have to do a covenant relationship with? And thirdly, he had this short-sighted or false uh sense of security. I had to Google chat this way because I was trying to get an ism in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

And then the chat gave me securitarianism. I said, okay, I didn't make it up.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

He thought he thought his security. So when you walk down through this page, you begin to see it very clearly. And it's a simple, it's a simple storyline. He talks about how this rich man has plenty and the Lord has blessed him with all of these things, and somehow in the midst of this journey, he he seems to think that everything that he has, everything that he's accomplished, everything that's a part of his lifestyle and his makeup and his environment and his and his and his uh success in life is because of his own ability and intellectual ability, emotional makeup, uh commitment to the physical aspects of life, his own favor and fortune that somehow he's mustered, and that he can, that life has been so good to him that it's uh and it's all based on his own his own making, his own doing. And so you hear this string of eyes and me's running down through the storyline when he says that he thought to himself, saying, What shall I do that I because I have no room to bestow my fruits, as if somehow he was able to make the fruit rise out of the ground and somehow make the plenty come season after season. It was a it was an I-based, self-centered type of type of lifestyle, and he didn't make room or didn't allow room or didn't recognize in his journey that that God indeed was the source of everything. God created all things, all things created by him, not anything created that was created apart from Christ Jesus. And therefore, he is a he is the creation of God, and everything he has is a part of God's blessing and favor on his life. And it is given not so that he would glorify himself, but so that he would glorify the creator who is giving it unto him. Can I preach this thing for a moment? So Jesus is unpacking this powerful life lessons in a simple but powerful parable, and he talks about something that the man did not create and really does not control. He says the ground of a certain man, the ground of a certain man brought forth plentifully. You can plant seed all you want, you can you can you can water all you want, but if if you don't have if God hasn't provided the right environment, then there's no fruit going to be produced. We can we can toil over it, we can labor over it, we can sweat and toy tail over it. But if it if it doesn't have God's favor, then there's not going to be any produce that takes place. So even so the ground that brought forth plentifully was because God was blessing him plentifully. But in the midst of that, this practical atheism that he was living his life, and we we want to we want to caution, he cautions us because he he knows, he understands that in in every life situation we deal with, particularly as you put yourself in the days materialistic, uh the days of life of plenty mindset that we're all in, but we in the lifestyle that we live in the world and the nation that we live in, the setting that we live in, that indeed it becomes very easy for us to focus our attention on the material things of life. We gotta live in we're material beings living in, we're spirit beings living in a material world and dealing with material circumstances. But the danger always comes, the tapping always comes by placing our focus and our attention and our commitment to the things, to the creation, rather than to the creator. And so he kind of gives us a he kind of gives us a modeling in front of us of what it looks like when you have, when you feel like that you just, you know, that nothing you touch can go bad. Yeah, indeed, everything you touched turns ago. So he's got this ground that has brought him forth plentifully, and he thinks to himself, what should I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he says, This I will do. There's a whole lot of eyes going on here. I will pull down my bonds and build greater, and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods. Now, on the surface, when you think just from a pragmatic, this pragmatic atheism standpoint, he's thinking, well, now this is this is a simple formula for me. I I've got more than I can deal with here, and and and my plan needs to be I simply need to be build a build bigger bond so that I can become a bigger producer and and and supplier of these goods to those who have, and I can sell these off and I can have more plenty. I've got plenty, I'll sell it and get more plenty. It's a pragmatic atheism. It's doing life without God in the center of it. And thinking that somehow uh you can be glory, we can be glorifying ourselves in this walk of faith. I know this ain't gonna make you shout yet. I'm coming to some good parts. I am but we need to, we, we, if we if we're if we're if we're serious and we're transparent with ourselves, the reality is that we all can find ourselves getting influenced and sucked into this component here and thinking that you're putting a whole lot of I into the living that we're dealing with, and a whole lot of my into my conversations is as if somehow we have the ability to create this wealth and create this favor and create all of these things that we deal with. And the Lord just wants to caution us in this process because when you start putting I in front of God, putting me and my in front of God who created and gave you all these things, then then it invariably you set yourself up to be tempted and influenced and pulled in a direction that is other than God-centered, Christ-centered. And the enemy is just slick enough to prop you up and stand you up and set you up, and then cut your legs out from under you. I'm gonna preach to the camera. Preaching to the camera. I mean, the plan, the strategy, I mean, I can't, the strategy wasn't a bad strategy on the surface. I'm gonna pull down my bonds. I got too much fruit here, I got too much stuff. I simply, I I simply will pull down bonds, big, bigger bonds, and then I can store all my fruit. But God ain't in the midst of any of that. There is no, there is no, there is no kingdom, for lack of a better, there's no kingdom service, altruism, altruistic type of modeling that comes to mind at all. He he had to look outside of his all of this plenty, all this wealth he had, and see that there were those who had there was a need. Couldn't he have blessed somebody with that? Could he have changed some life? There's widows out there, couldn't he have touched some widow that had a need? There were homeless and the helpless and the hapless out there, couldn't he have blessed into their lives in some other way or even provided some sort of employment that would help them get upon? There's a whole lot of undercurrent stuff here that could have taken place, but Jesus lays out the parable in stark, straightforward type of language that helps us to understand clearly the point he made earlier as he was opening up the conversation when he says it's important for us to understand that our life, our life doesn't isn't defined and doesn't consist of the things that we have. And he begins to walk, continue to walk us through this practical atheism and this self-centered materialism and this mindset. And I'll say to my soul, after I pull down bonds and build greater bonds to store all my fruits and all my goods, I'll say to myself, so I mean this is the conversation, and then I'm gonna then I'm gonna actually, and I'm not gonna get into a place of meditation and prayer and worship and thank God for all that He's done for me. I'm not gonna have a conversation in which I lift my head, I lift my head up to the Lord, or I bow down in front of the Lord and say, Lord, thank you for this ground that is yielded to me plenty. I'm looking at his call in historical context and listening with famines and things that hit me, but Lord, you have blessed me beyond comparative beyond anything I could possibly imagine. He doesn't do any of that. He begins not to look up to the Lord, but he begins to look inward to himself and thank himself. It's almost like that Phariseic moment when he says, I'm thankful that I'm like like this guy over here who's a sinner. You can almost hear him say, I'm thankful that I'm not like those folk out there in the street that ain't got no food. Beggars down at the temple who can't walk. Gotta get folk to carry them down. I'm thankful. He ain't thankful for anything. He just said, I'm I'm let me let me just get to the business at hand here. I'll pull down bonds, I've got my I've got my timeline and my business plan laid out in front of me here. And if I'm gonna maximize my profitability and deal with my own, my own, not only my only needs, but deal with the consumer consumers' needs out there, then I'm just simply gonna build a better financial model and a better a better corporate model for my bit my dealings here, and then I'm gonna sit back and say to my soul soul, you've been doing good. Life is good for you. I've laid up much for many years. Let me just kick back and enjoy life. No kingdom imagination at all because there was no kingdom relationship at all. A very secular mindset, a very practical atheism, a very self-centered materialism, and a very short-sighted sense of security. Because when you get down to all of those eyes and knees and my's and the statements and the and the dialogue and the correspondence that's taking place in Jesus' teaching here, he gets to this pregnant moment which he invites us to. It's almost like a sea law moment. You better pause right here and let the band play for a little while because I need you to meditate on what I'm about to tell you. And Jesus says, but God. Oh, that sounds good, young man. You you you've had a few good years. You've the ground is still the ground has given you, yielded you plenty. But in the lesson, in the lesson, you didn't take the lesson from the yielding. You didn't take the lesson from God's blessing on your life. You didn't recognize and give God the glory for who he is and all he's done and what he's doing in your life. You failed to trust in the Lord and then walk in him daily and understand that he's the one that enabled you to wake up in the morning, he's the one that gave you breath so that you can breathe. You didn't give up to get him any credit for keeping you safe overnight. You didn't give him trust in the didn't bless the Lord for providing all of the seed that enabled you to plant in the ground and didn't give the ground the fertility to be able to yield the fruit for you. You didn't give God any credit for any of that thing. You just thought it was on you and you did it for yourself. And then you had the audacity to say so. Then you have the audacity to have this internal conversation with yourself. You're sitting over there glorifying yourself and saying, So you done good, brother. And then Jesus has to redirect his attention to a butt-God moment. And the butt God moment says it says thou fool. Thou fool. This very night shall your soul be required. And in pronouncing his his judgment at the moment, he also gives him a license left to think about. And then who shall these things be? I mean, who's gonna get the stuff that you think is all yours? You can't take it with you. No place, no place, and no place in the eternity for it. Things don't rust and decay and fade away on this side. So who so who's gonna get the stuff that you just finished thanking your soul for doing such great work around? And so it is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. So how does Jesus deal with this practical atheism, this practical atheism, this self-centered materialism, and this uh short-sighted and false securitarianism? He gives him a life lesson, he lays out a life lesson in the teaching that first of all gives us the necessary pause that we need. It's a you you you you're operating in a realm that is outside of a recognition of what God's riches really are about. The foundation that's before you. You you you you you haven't you thought you'd answer the questions, who am I, why am I here, and where am I going? You thought that who am I was wrapped up in your vocation and you and in and in the the the success that you had. You thought your purpose was all wrapped up in just how much you could accumulate and how good your business was going. And that only not only identified who you are, but that that magnified what you were doing and why you were here. And you took for granted that your days would be long. And you would indeed enjoy them for however however long. There was no end point to your living. No point, no point that God had any say in this process. And God was teaching him through teaching them through the parable and teaching us as we listen in. The importance of recognizing Oh Lord, you're my everything. He needed an oh Lord, you're my everything. And he had an old me and my everything. And he could not understand, he could not he could not understand his destiny. Because he didn't recognize his purpose. He didn't understand his purpose. Because he didn't know who he was. Can I talk to somebody on the camera side? Who just may be struggling? Trying to figure out the wholeness of this being that you are. With the world all around you trying to give you identity markers, attempting to define who you are. What's important on a secular, worldly, humanistic formula apart from God? Oh, I need somebody to pray with me this morning. This is the season that we're in. And you not only struggle with purpose because you don't have identity locked in, but you have no idea what your destiny is about. Confused and grappling for your destiny, and therefore you're listening to you're listening to whatever voice is in your ear for media, social media, whatever, family, friends, schooling, whatever it is telling you that in order to be successful, in order to be happy, you need to be this type of person. Or in this type of location, or doing this type of vocation. And not worry about. You can be nihilistic. You can, you know, don't worry about twist and R. You know, you better live for today. That's kind of what he said. So I'm gonna sit back and say, Soul, you've done good today. Why don't we just uh basically eat, drink, and be happy? Until you have a butt guard moment. The Lord loves you enough for you to have a butt guard moment, and and and and prayerfully he doesn't put an end point behind that but a comma. Because the message is powerfully plain until you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, I'm gonna hear. A personal relationship with Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. You cannot possibly know who God has created you to be. You're just flipping around trying to find yourself. And if you don't have the identity, a new creation in Christ Jesus, and Christ is called as your purpose. This is the richest component here. That personal relationship and new identity in Christ, then you get to how then you get to unpacking one of why the Lord have me here. I got a sense of who he says I am. I'm a child of the king. I've got an inheritance, I've got giftedness that he's provided, spiritual gifting that he's provided to do what he's called me to do. He's placed me in situations and opportunities that are unpacking the why of the this is the what of who this is the who of what I am. Now he's placing me in situations to unpack the why my hair component. That's the life journey of the fellowship, the ongoing fellowship and purpose in Christ Jesus with Christ Jesus, so that I can walk in my wholeness and my joy and my fullness of the creation that He's made me to be. And if in that process, the groundless principle and it yields a whole bunch of fruit, and I understand who created the fruit, and I understand who's blessing me abundantly, and then I get a sense of the purpose of the mind that he's giving me the fruit, and if I need the building of the blind, and then the one with the process of building minds, because the never has the purpose of the meaning of it, and there's a kingdom purpose, it's not the meaning purpose, it's not a soldier happening in your in your fruit, in your mind of purpose, it's so that God can utilize what he put in the middle, so that I can win some of these to the glory of God, and we're clearing anybody but the camera. We move from self-cending capitalism to from the new people and fellowship with Christ, that the name of the be abundantly blessed by his boundary and poured out in and through me so that I can not only be blessed, but be the blessing of those he sends across my path. You know that he'll open up the windows. The word has told you, and you've experienced that God will open up the windows of heaven, and you won't even have room enough to receive it if you just trust him and walk with him. You say, give me some of that, Lord. Trust him. And then he moves us to a clear, powerful understanding and assurance that we will be with him forever. There's more to life than this life.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Oh, I wish somebody was with me.

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Yeah, there's gonna be days when I'm not gonna have to get up and this knee is clicking on me like it's doing.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Back won't be hurting like it's I'll take that, Lord.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

And in the midst of that, he gives that teachable moment and said, that's how it is when you're rich. And then, but but if I dropped the pen and stopped it right there, then then then this this this wouldn't have you shout in the moment. But then Jesus can, I'm not gonna read it all, but then Jesus takes him into this diatribe. If your Bible's got red lettering, you keep on reading the red lettering on the on that Bible because he's got good news he's wrapping. Because then he says, Oh, wait a minute, wait, wait a minute. You don't have any reason. Believers in Christ Jesus, new identity, new purpose, new legacy, new security in Christ Jesus. It's just why why are you anxious? You got you got nothing really to be anxious about. He said, look around you. All of God's creation glorifies Father God. I said, my goodness, can't ravens deal with them and he he he he's he's programmed this this creation of his so that indeed he's blessing them too hard. And he he talks about, look at these ravens, they don't sow, they don't reap, but somehow they got they don't have storehouses, but they find a way to feed themselves. How about lilies? You know, look how beautiful they are. You know, they they grow, they they you know, they look at the grass, look how much clothes. He starts talking about all how God has done. He said, look around you how nature is is is praising God and it's glorious giving glorifying to him. He said, if God is doing all of that in the inanimate world going all around you, and in the animal world around you, don't you think he's gonna take care of his children? So don't be anxious for that kind of stuff. And then he gives you this 31st verse that we love so much, but seek ye first the kingdom of God, and then all these things shall be added unto you. He just drops that right in the middle of that after telling us, don't you know that your life consists more than the things that you have, the things that you all around you? Don't you understand that you can't, you're not rich in God when you're putting your treasure in the world? But then he says, and why? And that's what's making you anxious. You're trying to do life without Christ. You it's it's not that it's not even it's not that you're trying to do life without Christ. You just you're just doing life and not putting Christ in the center. It's like, okay, Lord, I'm about to finish. Okay, Lord, I'm I think I'm, you know, believing side of things. If we get all we can get ourselves influenced and dragged into a mindset that somehow we're thinking that we've accomplished this stuff. And he's inviting us to recognize that that will bring you anxiety when you put it on yourself. Will it not wait a minute? Won't it bring you fear and anxiety if you put that weight on yourself? I mean, life isn't gonna be perfect. You're in a fallen world, we're fallen individuals, and therefore, if we think that if the weight of our success is all folded in on us, then how are you dealing with those moments when things don't look so successful? And the Lord says, Come on, God's got you. God's got you. Don't don't be anxious. Look around you. Grass, look how it's closed, look how the lives, look, look at all this stuff around you. Look how the animals are able to find their food. Look at all the blessing God is doing to the same God.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Well, you say, Oh, but preacher, preacher, that's good preaching. That's okay preaching up there from the pulpit there. But you don't know what I'm going through down here in this life journey I'm dealing with.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

You know, you know, I gotta walk that walk. I mean, you know, it may be two or three steps elevated up here, but we're on the same ground, man. I mean, you know, we walk the same way.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

And the seek ye first moment is the powerful moment for us to readjust, just kind of adjust our thinking back to what God would have it to be. Away from practical atheism to the riches of God. And Paul grabs hold of it. The scripture that we read together for our congregational scripture this morning, he he clearly seizes a moment when he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. And let me get over to the amplified here because it's the kelp for nothing. He said, Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything. Do not fret or have anxiety about anything. How is that possible? But with every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God and God's peace shall be yours. That, in parentheses, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God, and being content with his earthly lot, whatever sort that is, that kind of peace, which transcends all of our understanding, shall garrison and mount God over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. You're my life lessons, group, and all these things shall be added unto you. Riches, riches toward Christ. God's riches in and from God include a personal relationship and a new identity in Christ, to a new purpose and life fellowship through Christ. And three, a secure, a secure present and eternal life with Christ. Be thankful today, Father God. Once again, we just thank you for this day you have blessed us with, for this moment of worship and praise, fellowship and study that you've given us. Thankful that you open up your word for us. That indeed you continue to enrich us, strengthen us, give us a portion of your wisdom as we live out this daily life. Thankfully, Christ is walking with us every moment and fellowship with us every moment of the day. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing and convicting and bringing us to the place where we can be walking in your blessing and in your service. When we find ourselves tugged in any way, tempted any way to step outside of the reality, step outside of the thinking, the understanding of reality, that all things are yours, sustained in and through you.

SPEAKER_00 35:00

In and through your glory.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Correct us. Bring us back to that place. Fellows. An abundance blessing in and through Christ. We will give you the glory. We will give you the honor, we will give you the praise.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

It is yours, and it is yours alone. And all God's people say prepare for our time of giving. If you hear the Lord has moved in your heart, you see. We invite you to come down from your Christian experience of the candidate for baptism with that as well. You can see us now, you can see us now.