Security [Luke 12]

08.11.2024 - Sermon Manuscript

Once upon a time there was a man named Bob. Bob was a saver, and very tight with his money. He was NOT a generous person. His wife, Ann, was more of a spender - so ever since the day they were married, Bob took $20 out of paycheck every week and put it under their mattress. He felt secure in having that money under his mattress. It was like a warm security blanket - filling him with comfort and ease. Then years later, he became very sick and was about to die, he said to his wife, ‘I want you to promise me one thing. I have a LOT of money under the mattress. Will you promise me that when I’m dead, you’ll take my money from under the mattress and put it in my casket?” Well, Bob died, and his wife kept her promise. She went to the bank with the money, deposited it, wrote out a check to her husband for that exact amount, and put it in his casket. You can go ahead and cash that any time you need my dear. Today is week two in our series called AFFORD(able). We are walking through the parable of the rich fool and asking the question: can we afford to handle money God’s way? - Last week we kicked off by talking about greed and how smart Christians can actually use certain money practices to push back against greed creeping into our hearts. This week we are talking about security. How many of us use money as a security blanket, like my man Bob? How many of us turn to money when life is feeling unstable, things are feeling uncertain - and money keeps us from panicking? Just this past week - did you see this news story? The stock market crashed on Monday! I remember, I was literally sitting down to prep for this message, and I checked the news and I saw that the markets in Japan had crashed, then South Korea and Taiwan, then the markets in Europe took a plunge, and then in America they sank as well. In Japan they lost 12% of the market, the worst loss since 1986. The Dow lost over a thousand points, which comes out to something like a 3% plunge. And I remember thinking, “Oh wow - this story is going to dominate the headlines this week. This is going to spiral and go crazy and people are going to be really, really affected.” What a horrible, horrible thing. And then I thought, “nice timing for the sermon series though…” [pause, laugh] But THEN, the very next day - the market rebounded. Japan got 10% back, and everybody recovered a little bit. I mean, it was still crazy, but basically nobody panicked and we all just moved on with our lives. But I was reading this story this past week and I realized, when the bible says, “hey don’t put your hope in wealth, which is so uncertain” - this is what they’re talking about. If the stock market can plunge and then rise all in a matter of hours - it really shows us just how uncertain this whole thing is - and yet, how many of us use money as our foundation? How many of us trust in our emergency fund more than our emmanuel?

If you want to grab your bible or use your phone to flip over to Luke chapter 12 - and I haven’t said it in a while, but my brother in Christ Pastor Kyle from over at The Story church coined the phrase, “we are a BYOB church” - bring your own bible. And my promise to you is that if you bring it, we will open it. Bring your own bible - and if you don’t HAVE a bible, and don’t know how to look it up on your phone - there is a lovely bookshelf on the back wall with a whole bunch of beautiful bibles for you. Large print, kids versions, or just original recipe - whatever you need, please feel free to grab one. Now if you were here last week, you might remember - Jesus was teaching about security, about worry and God’s power, and he gets interrupted by a guy whining that his big brother is being mean to him. “He won’t share the inheritance with me!” and so Jesus, always the brilliant teacher - pivots this moment into a teaching moment. We dive in in verse 15, [read v.15-18]. So we open up on this story of a farmer. We don’t know much about him - maybe he’s a fantastic farmer, or maybe he just had a great year - it doesn’t say, but what we DO know is that he’s got abundance. He’s got extra. He’s got more than he needs. And his first thought is not “how can I love God with my abundance?” or “how can I love my neighbor with my abundance?” No, his first thought is “how can I love ME with my abundance?” He’s trying to take the extra in his life and turn it into a security blanket - but here’s the problem, and this is the first major thing I want you to grab this morning: An abundance of money is NOT a security blanket. We try! We try so hard to use the ways of the world to protect ourselves. But the problem is - it’s not enough. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 11 has this to say [read v.11]. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city, it is their shield against the chaos of the world. BUT if we back up one verse we get this [read v.10]. So what we see is that the bible sets it up like an either/or. Either you can trust in money to protect you and take care of you - OR you can trust in God. Money is not a bad thing, but it is not a security blanket. God needs to be your fortified tower. Your security blanket, your refuge. The funny thing is… money is a poor man’s substitute for true and lasting inner peace. Now here’s what’s obvious - a little bit, you don’t believe me. Just like you don’t believe me when I say something like “Money can’t buy you happiness” and you’re sitting there thinking, “Right, but it CAN buy coffee and gummy bears, and that’s pretty much the same thing.” 

Okay - so actually, we need to pause and take a second with this. So far in this sermon I have two things that no one in this room actually believes. 1.) Money is not a good security blanket and 2.) Money can not buy happiness. But let me see if I can explain it like this. I’ve got this length of rope up here. Now I want you to imagine that this length of rope goes on literally forever. Like, it never ever stops - just goes forever and ever. Pretend it goes around the world a couple of times - it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure this spool is finite, but just pretend - imagine that this is an infinity rope. Let’s just imagine this thing goes on forever. Now imagine that this rope is a timeline (by the way, this illustration comes from one of my heroes, a pastor named Francis Chan). But imagine that this rope is a timeline of your existence. You just exist forever. Now, do you see this red part? This would represent your time on earth. You’ve got a few short years here on earth, and then you’ve got all of eternity somewhere else. This is your existence. And what blows me away is that some of us, I’m not going to say “some of you” - because I’m in this too, some of US.. all we care about is this red part. All you care about, you’re consumed with this red part. You go, “oh man, I can’t wait until I get to here [point towards the end of the red]. You know what, I’m going to work hard and save save save so I can really enjoy this part right here. We’re consumed with that. We’re obsessed with the last half inch of the red part. We wonder - aw man, am I going to get to travel enough? Am I going to eat well? And it’s like, are you kidding me? What about this part? [hold up the white part of the rope]. What about this? And it’s crazy because the bible teaches that what I do during this little red part determines how I’m going to exist for all this, millions and millions of years forever. And so why would I spend this little red part, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible for the last half an inch? Trying to enjoy myself as much as I can - why would that be my focus? What if I spend my life, invest my life for this moment for this mission, this moment when I cross the finish line. I mean, we’ve got one chance at this life on earth. And it can end for any of us at any second, and we’ve got one chance at this eternity - and I’m not going to be fooled. And so when I say stuff like “money is not a security blanket” or “money can’t buy happiness” people will look at how a Christian lives their life, and some of the decisions we make and say, “well you’re just being stupid - because that’s going to affect your life” and I’ll respond, “no, you’re being stupid. Because it’s going to affect all of this.” [pause]. 

Listen to the way Jesus puts it, this is over in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. [read v.24-27]. Look, I’m not stupid. You’re not stupid. We live in a world that runs on money. Money is a fantastic security blanket, for this part right here. [touch the last half of the red tape]. And it means absolutely nothing for the rest of your existence. Back in our teaching text Luke 12 tells us, [read v.4-7]. An abundance of money is not a security blanket. But there is a God in heaven who loves you, gives you value and he - and his presence alone - is the strong fortress, the firm foundation you need to build your life on.

So let’s jump back into the parable of the Rich Fool. There’s a farmer, he has an abundant harvest - he makes a plan to build bigger barns. [read v.18-19]. I got lots of stuff, so I’m going to build a bigger barn and take it easy for the last couple of years. It’s funny - that sounds an awful lot like the retirement plan of every single human being I have ever met. But here is what I realized when I was reading this text this past week… because you know the next sentence, right? The very next sentence says, [read v.20-21]. Jesus perfectly describes what I would say is the super normal life plan of just about every single American - and then in the next line says, “You fool!” And here is what I realized - the American dream is not God’s dream. The American dream of working really hard for 30-40 years, squirreling away a giant barn full of supplies and then having one big vacation for the last 30 years until death is NOT God’s dream. Sometimes it feels like Jesus is out here poking holes in everybody’s retirement plans. 

Now I want to pause for a moment and give some comfort to my friends who are retired. If you have just realized that you are living the life of the rich fool, let me come alongside you for a moment. God is not mad at you for being retired. Please don’t hear judgment or anger or aggression. You didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s not your fault that this is the dream you were given, that you inherited from our culture. I’m not trying to make anybody feel guilty in retirement. What I’m trying to show you this morning is that God has something even better in mind for you. I’m trying to invite you into a more meaningful life - whether you need to get paid for the job or not.

Listen - let me show it to you from a different angle. We don’t have to be limited by this life. You don’t have to color inside the lines of the box drawn by the few years you have in this life. If you want your life to count - you don’t have to have a high IQ, you don’t have to have good looks or lots of money. If you want to live a life that has echoes into eternity - you can make a massive difference in this world - if we have the priorities of God’s kingdom at heart. You have the ability to be used by God to bring people in your life closer to Jesus. Sometimes Christians say “We are the hands and feet of Jesus” - and I want you to realize that you could be the reason someone spends eternity in heaven. God could work through you to bring his love into their life - they might find out about Jesus, they might be introduced to their lord and savior and have access to eternal life because of something you did. And I’m not saying you have to be a preacher. It could be something as simple as - you brought cookies to your neighbor and prayed with them when they were going through a rough time with their kids. Or you cooked a meal for a friend who just lost their job. Some people don’t want their lives to make a difference. They just want to be liked. Maybe finish school, get a good job, find a husband/wife, nice house, nice kids, work for a few years and then get a couple decades in retirement.  And that’s all you want! And so many people limit themselves to that. They don’t think beyond this life - and that’s a tragedy in the making.

John Piper, he’s a pastor who tells this story at his church. And he got news that two women were killed in Cameroon. Ruby and Laura, two lady missionaries - both in the 80’s, serving God their whole life. One was a doctor, one was a nurse and they poured their life out for one thing - to make Jesus known to the sick and the poor in the hardest and most unreached places in the world. They went from village to village to help people, but one day the car brakes failed and they went off a cliff and died instantly. And when he got the news he asked his church - is this a tragedy? And then he read them a story from Readers Digest (which should tell you how old this story is). Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs, now they live in Punta Gourda Florida, where they go boating every day and collect seashells. And he holds up the two stories and he asks, “which one is the tragedy?” The two women who devote their entire life to sharing Jesus’ love who died in an instant and find themselves in the arms of their savior? Or the couple, who at the end of all things stands in front of God with nothing to show for their time on this earth but a really nice seashell collection? The American dream is not God’s dream and we can make our lives echo into eternity with incredible significance - but not if the ultimate goal of our financial planning is a seashell collection. God has made you for more. Don’t waste your life. 

The story finishes back in Luke chapter 12, [read v.20-21]. This is how it is for whoever is not rich towards God. I don’t know about you guys - this was a really hard message to write, because I think this is a really challenging teaching we’re grappling with right now. I guess I want you to know that I’m struggling with it too. I don’t want anyone to misunderstand - I have a retirement account, but I also definitely want my life to make a difference on an eternal level. And so just very simply - what I’m seeing is that we have to figure out - okay, how can I be rich towards God. If we are rich for ourselves - God calls us a fool, I don’t want to be a fool. So how can I be rich towards God. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17 - check this out, [read v.17-19]. To be rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share. It sounds a little backwards, but the way to lay up riches in heaven - the eternal investment plan, if you will - involves loving and caring for and sharing what we have with the people around us. To have more then means to have less now. This has been Jesus’ message for us since the beginning. When he stepped out of heaven, he laid aside the riches of paradise, to enter into our world - to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, feed the hungry, and to offer forgiveness for the sins of the world - and then he looks at us and says, “this is what it’s like to live in my kingdom.” Sacrificial love is the greatest indicator of riches in heaven. And Jesus gave the ultimate example of sacrificial love when he died on the cross in our place. Took our sins, our debts, on himself - died in our place so that we could be forgiven. All we need to do is call his name, give our lives to him and we can be free. That sacrificial love, that is why his name is the highest name. That is why he has been lifted up. Philippians chapter 2 outlines it beautifully. It describes how he gave himself up, and then it says in verse 9. [read v.9-11]. That is BECAUSE of his sacrificial love. If you want to figure out how to be rich towards God, the secret is sacrificial love - just like Jesus.

The good news that I have for you today is that your life can have eternal significance. [Grab the rope]. God didn’t make you for this little piece of tape. God made this little part of your life to get you ready for THIS. I say this all the time, when I read the bible one of the first questions I ask is “what does this teach me about the God that is out there?” And I look at this text this morning and I don’t think God’s point was to make us feel bad for retirement planning. I think God was trying to show us that our significance doesn’t come from money. When it comes to money in our lives, we get completely frazzled and we live totallly upside down. We were made for bigger things! You were made for glorious, heavenly, eternal things - and we forget! We get SO caught up in this little part right here that we forget how all of this is preparation for eternity. 

Money is not your security blanket, God is. Because your life is only just beginning. Think about the stock market, and all that stuff - it fluctuated wildly last week. And it’s amazing because you can look at the exact same retirement account on Friday night, Monday morning and Tuesday morning and get completely different answers. The value rises and drops - but that’s not how it works with your life. If we put our trust in God, if we get our sense of purpose, our sense of value from GOD - instead of from money - that value is steadfast, that value is eternal. If God is your security deposit, then your value never changes. And this actually goes way beyond money. Some people get their sense of value from their looks, from their prestige, from their parking spot or how many friends they have on social media, how their kids are doing in school, how many months they get to spend in Florida during the winter. It rises and falls and disappears at the end of the day. But value that comes from God, richness towards God, treasures stored in heaven - that never changes.

So let me send you out with this challenge. I want you to ask yourself two questions this week as you pray and talk to God about security and money. The first question is “Who are you counting on?” Who do you count on when times get tough? Do you put your trust in the stock market? Do you put your trust in your next purchase? Your next vacation? Do you put your trust in the government? In your children? Do you trust in your health? Your friendships? Your job? Who are you counting on when things go sideways in life?

There’s a story that comes from a pastor named David Platt. David Platt is an incredible human being with a massive heart for mission work. He spends a lot of time helping people in India - trying to reach some of the most remote tribes in the world with the gospel of Jesus. And David actually became pretty famous - at one point he was the youngest mega-church pastor in America. He was 25 when he took on his first church, and the church was huge. They had huge financial resources, and when David came on board - he changed the way they looked at money. At one point they needed to build like 40-50 wells in a certain region in India. So they needed to fundraise - but it was really expensive because this are hard to get to - up in the mountains type villages. It was like $450,000 or something like that. And David found the money in an account for the church. And he said, “Well, we’ve got $450,000 in this account over here” And the church leaders said, “oh no, no, no - that’s our emergency fund. We need that, just in case.” Can you guess what they did? They got rid of their emergency fund to provide water for people in need. This is the same church where David Platt called up the Department of Human Resources in Shelby County, Alabama - where the church is located and he asked, “How many families would you need in order to take case of all the foster and adoption needs that we have in our county?” And the woman on the phone laughed at him. And he said, “No really, if a miracle were to take place, how many families would be sufficient to cover all the needs you have. She replied, “it would be a miracle if we have 150 more families.” So he got up in front of his mega-church and told them about the need, and over 160 families signed up to help with foster care and adoption. This is a true story, here’s a quote from his book, “We don’t want even one child in our county to be without a loving home. It’s not the way of the American Dream. It doesn’t add to our comfort, prosperity or ease. But we are discovering the indescribable joy of sacrificial love for others, and along the way we are learning more about the inexpressible wonder of God’s sacrificial love for us.” This week - ask yourself, “Who are you counting on?”

The second question I want you to ask yourself, with the life and riches you have - what are you investing in? Where’s all your time and money and energy going? Is it this little piece of the rope right here? Or this stretch right here? Who are you counting on to save you? And how are you investing your life? 

Imagine there’s a bank account that credits your account each and every morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every penny, every single day - right? Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME. Every morning God gives you 86,400 seconds to live your life. And every night, we burn up the remains of the day. We could live this life like the rest of the world - focused on me. We can take our abundance and not ask “how can I love God?” or “how can I love my neighbor” but instead we can ask “how can I love me?” How can I pour into ME? But that will get us exactly this far [hold up the rope]. But there is a better way. We could take our abundance. We could take our $86,400 that each new sunrise brings and we could invest it. We could trust in God as the true source of security and pour ourselves out for the world that desperately needs God’s love. We could focus on the rest of the story, live a life with eternal echoes and become truly rich towards God.