WEBVTT 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.120 Welcome to the Medichurch podcast. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.240 My name's Clayton. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:10.400 I'm the pastor here at Medicurch. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:18.079 And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:20.719 I hope that you enjoy today's message. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.760 While Jesus was on earth, he often taught in parables. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:31.280 A parable is a simple story with a significant meaning. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:37.520 In Matthew chapter 13, he told his disciples exactly how significant these parables were. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.280 He said that they teach us the secret of the kingdom of heaven. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:52.399 That means if we pay attention to the meaning of these simple stories, we can learn to live right here and right now in a way that builds the eternal kingdom of Jesus. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.920 My message today is bet the farm. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.439 The parables of Jesus are each so unique. 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:05.200 They're unique because of the context that sets them up, and the parable of the rich fool is no exception. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:06.879 It's all about the context. 00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:18.319 In Luke chapter 12, before he even gets to the simple story with a significant meaning, he first has a prompt which leads him to a proverb and finally into his parable. 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:26.159 When Jesus was on earth, he would speak in front of large crowds all the time, and often people would call out questions that they had for him. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:30.879 And in this passage particularly, though, there's something a little bit off about it. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:39.920 In Luke 12, 13, it says, Someone from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:46.319 Now you'll notice something about this question, and that's that it doesn't have a question mark at the end of it. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:50.719 He was actually making a demand of Jesus, which meant he didn't want any advice. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:55.840 He already assumed that he was in the right, and there were two major problems with this. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:07.680 The first is that Jesus was focused on addressing spiritual, eternal issues, and he was asking about a very material, temporary issue. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:11.120 We see Jesus' first response in verse 14. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:18.000 Friend, Jesus said to him, Who appointed me as a judge or arbitrator over you? 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:20.800 Jesus is like, you've come to the wrong place. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:23.120 The courthouse is right down the road. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.360 I'm here for a different purpose. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:27.120 But that wasn't the main issue. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:35.439 The main issue is that the demand that was made actually exposed the motivation of the man's heart. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:46.879 In verse 15, Jesus then told them, watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.159 You'll notice Jesus doesn't actually just respond to the man. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:55.840 He tells them, he leverages this moment to teach everyone in attendance a valuable lesson. 00:02:55.919 --> 00:02:58.240 And he says to be on your guard. 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:06.479 It's like a military call to assume the fighting position, to be ready to protect yourself with all that you have. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:13.280 And so, what is this that's coming against someone that requires them to be on like code red high alert? 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.120 It's greed. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:22.240 Now, maybe you're thinking that greed isn't an issue in your life because really greed is like a wealthy people problem. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:25.599 You have to have some money to be greedy in the first place. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:31.120 You think of greed, you think of Scrooge McDuck, you know, diving into his ocean of coins. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:35.039 That's simply a misunderstanding of what greed means. 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:44.400 In the original account of Luke's gospel, which was written in Greek, the word that Jesus used is better described in a word picture. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:54.479 It paints the image of someone who is reaching and reaching and reaching and yet can never get the object of their desire. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:58.159 Like a good proverb, this has a because. 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:07.280 Be on guard against greed because one's life is not found in the abundance of their possession. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:26.959 This is a statement of identity, which means if you're overcome with greed, not only will you spend your life painstakingly reaching and reaching and reaching and never being fulfilled, but you will also have a skewed perception of who you are at the most fundamental level. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:28.560 The stakes are high. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:34.639 Jesus highlights it with a proverb, and then he helps us understand it by telling us a parable. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:42.560 What's interesting about this parable is the man is already rich. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:48.079 He's responsible, he's hardworking, and now he's just had a bumper crop. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:53.759 He says, I don't have anywhere to store my crops, which isn't technically true. 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:57.439 As we find out in the very next verse, he already has barns. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:01.519 The complication isn't in his normal produce. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.560 The complication is born out of excess. 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:12.079 Now, Jesus is speaking 2,000 years ago in a part of the world where virtually everyone was impoverished. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.519 They were living day to day, hand to mouth. 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:25.759 They could intellectually understand the idea of someone having so much excess that it created a problem, but they were far from living in that reality. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:31.920 While this guy was thriving to the point of complication, they were just trying to survive. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:44.000 Which means that this parable might actually have more application today in the West in the 21st century, where almost everyone is living with excess. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:49.519 You know, houses have grown year by year, larger and larger. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:56.319 The average square foot of a residential home is significantly bigger than it was even 10 years ago. 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:07.120 And you might not be surprised to learn that the majority of that growth has come in two parts of a house: the closets and the pantries. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:14.480 We have so much stuff that at one point, 40 or 50 years ago, just having a one-car garage was kind of a luxury. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:19.759 Now we almost require a three-car garage and we don't even park our vehicles in them. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:24.800 That's just where the overflow of all of our stuff that doesn't fit in our closets go. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:33.439 And chances are that most of us also own one or two storage units to hold the things we can't keep on our main property. 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.680 We don't just have enough, we have more than enough. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:46.000 The farmer has a very 21st century problem, and he comes up with a very 21st century solution. 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.040 In verse 18, he says, I will do this. 00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:56.720 I'll tear down my current barns and build bigger ones and store away all of my grains and my goods there. 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.879 Now remember, the point of the parable is about greed. 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.800 It's not necessarily wrong that he has barns, that he is a wealthy person. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:11.360 It's about his intention when God brings him a blessing. 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:23.519 We learn that greed keeps us reaching and reaching and reaching for the things that we desire, things of this world that we want and can never actually hold on to. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:33.120 Greed makes you desire more, and more is a moving target, which means the closer you get to it, the further away it becomes. 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.079 And that's not the only thing that greed does. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:46.319 While we're reaching and reaching and reaching, it also causes us to take our eyes off of who we actually are and who we were created to be. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:50.639 Greed gives us a distorted view of our identity. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:55.279 This was the intended outcome of the bigger barns. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:08:01.040 In verse 19, then I'll say to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:02.000 Take it easy. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.120 Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:11.120 What is the identity distortion going on in the rich farmer's mind? 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:19.279 He'd spent his life as hardworking, as industrious, wise with his resources, and active in his land. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:28.079 Now all of a sudden, he's taking on this ultimate hedonistic lifestyle, a lifestyle of ease and retirement. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.560 Notice the thoughts that never crossed his mind. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:32.480 This is what Greed does to us. 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:53.039 Instead of thinking about his family, his identity as a father, as a child, how he could take care of his parents, how he could leave behind a legacy, instead of understanding his identity as a member of his community, a community where many people were going without, and now he has an excess that he could offer to them. 00:08:53.200 --> 00:09:01.200 Instead of thinking about his ultimate identity as a child of God and how he can use what he's been blessed with to bless others. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:04.559 He instead only thinks about himself. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.200 What can he do to get more and more and more? 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.919 Reaching out causes us to deceive ourselves. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:17.600 And God cements that with the very next verse. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:28.720 In verse 20, God said to him, You fool, this very night your life is demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:34.000 There's an exercise that I've taught for a long time, and I try to practice it in my own life. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:37.440 It's a little bit morbid, but it's incredibly helpful. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.759 I just call it the funeral exercise. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.960 The truth is, all of us have an expiration date. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:44.480 All of us will die. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:48.960 The funeral exercise is to think about the end of your life. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.240 What will be said about you at your funeral? 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:59.919 What will people have thought about how you use who you are and what you have to make a better world around you? 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:08.559 For those who know that you're a follower of Jesus, will they really be able to say that you lived your life as a part of the kingdom of heaven? 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:10.960 The farmer had done a lot of things right. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:20.559 He had tilled the field, he had planted the seeds, he watered his crops, but he forgets that only God brings the harvest. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:25.679 That everything we have in this life is a gift from God. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:30.399 Ultimately, he was shown to be deceived. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:33.200 And it all stemmed from greed. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:41.600 You see, we live often as the rich farmer, the one who is called by God the rich fool. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:51.519 We live focused on getting more and more, and so we are reaching and reaching, thinking that we will be satisfied when we finally have enough. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:56.080 When the truth is there will never be enough. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:38.879 We continue to live in a hookup culture where we're giving ourselves and giving our bodies away, thinking that we just want one more connection, and yet you know that when that connection comes, it will leave you reaching and reaching for more. 00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:43.279 Greed keeps us reaching and it distorts our identity. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:50.000 We live as the rich fool, a culture of excess that just causes complication. 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:59.279 And we don't know how to live our life because greed has kept us from knowing who we are. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:13.600 The rich farmer was basically shocked out of his greed when God reminded him that all of our lives are finite, and in fact, his life would be demanded of him that night. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.240 Jesus chose his words very carefully. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:19.840 His life being demanded of him was actually financial language. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:25.039 It's the language a banker would use to call in a debt, to settle an account. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:30.639 And the point is very clear that your life is on loan. 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:40.879 That we were meant to use our lives investing in this world to build the kingdom of heaven right here during our time on the earth. 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:56.080 And greed will rob you of the ability to find the thing your soul is actually longing for, the purpose that you were created with a life of impact and significance, purpose and power. 00:12:56.320 --> 00:12:59.840 Greed will keep you reaching and reaching. 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:06.960 The parable started with a proverb, and the proverb was about how greed distorts our view of our identity. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:13.759 If you want to know how to live your life and manage your blessings, you have to know who you are. 00:13:14.399 --> 00:13:27.039 You are a child of God, and only in the cemented foundation of that identity can you really pursue a life that is filled with blessing. 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:32.799 With greed, we are always reaching and reaching for more and more. 00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:38.480 And with God, we have someone who reached out to save us. 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:45.600 And greed, we are always going deeper and deeper in insecurity with God, our Father in heaven. 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:51.600 We have ultimate security both in this life and in the life beyond with greed. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.799 We lose sight of our identity and in God. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:14:02.080 We find the source of an identity that can sustain us through this life and beyond. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:11.600 In verse 21, Jesus says that's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:26.399 In the West, in the 21st century, we are basically all rich compared to almost everyone who has lived in all of human history and compared to most people in the undeveloped parts of this world. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:31.440 But just because you are rich does not mean you are wealthy. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:38.320 Wealth requires knowing who you are and being able to exercise generosity. 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:43.039 You're not wealthy if you cannot give away what you have. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:52.879 We've gotten to shoot this sermon at a family's property that is really near and dear to my heart, and they've been blessed and they know that. 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:57.679 However, they did not buy this property to build bigger and bigger barns. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:05.039 They didn't buy it for their own status or power or just to get more and more rich in this life. 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:07.360 They bought this to be generous. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.279 They're not building bigger barns. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:25.200 In fact, they're converting their barns into different residential pieces that people can come here to what they're calling the legacy ranch, a ranch that will make an impact in the world where people can come and find peace and connect with God. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:42.240 It's something that can be handed down, not just to the generations of their family, but can bring other families in, people who are in need, who can find a place to finally let go of the distractions of this world and connect and find their identity in God. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:46.639 Generosity is the antidote to greed. 00:15:46.799 --> 00:16:02.639 If we want to get rid of greed that is robbing you of the life that you're supposed to live, that is keeping you reaching and reaching and only ending up emptier and emptier, you have to know who you are and you have to surrender what you have. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.200 That's what generosity means. 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:10.720 When the rich man had a bumper crop, he never considered the needs of others. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:15.759 He never considered how to use his blessing to give back to God. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:17.200 We have all been blessed. 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:20.879 And the question is: are we ready to surrender what we have? 00:16:21.039 --> 00:16:28.240 Have you found your security and who you actually are, not the person greed has convinced you you are? 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:34.159 Are you ready to quit living to build your own kingdom, reaching and reaching for more and more? 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:43.519 Are you ready to lay down what you have and surrender it to Jesus as we seek to build the kingdom of heaven right here on earth? 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:50.960 Jesus concluded this entire passage about greed, identity, and generosity in verse 34. 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:56.559 He said, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:04.480 Thanks so much for listening to the message today. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:09.839 If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.039 You can rate and review or share it with your friends. 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:19.920 If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv. 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:22.400 There you can learn how to take next steps. 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:30.319 You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward. 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.759 Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.