Luke chapter 12. A passage that you are probably familiar with. As we read it, you'll probably hear at least the one verse, the one phrase that you've probably heard many, many times before, which is kingdom of God first and His righteousness, and these things will be added to you. So this is Luke's version that we'll be reading this morning. But as we start, before we do that, I can just tell you that even as I share this sermon, even as I finished it this week, I feel that it's underdone.
It is one of those passages that I just don't know if I'll ever be able to explain well enough because I don't understand it fully and at least I'm not applying it as fully as I should be. So please understand that this is a sermon that is preached with a lot of humility, but also with full knowledge that it is a call that is much bigger than us and is much bigger than we can probably muster up at least in this life to seek first the kingdom of God. So let's read from Luke 12. We're going to read from verse 13 all the way through to verse 31. Luke 12 verse inheritance with me.
And Jesus said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And then he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops?
And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. And he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you will eat nor about your body, what you will put on.
For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
If then you are not able to do as smaller thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek His kingdom and these things will be added to you. So far, our reading. There is three things I want to share with you this morning and they are basically drawn from what I would call our text verse, which is this morning taken from verse 15.
Jesus said to them, take care. Be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. I think this is a verse that really locks in both what Jesus says in the parable and then goes on to talk about with the birds and the lilies and then finishing up with seek first the kingdom of God. These two things go together. Sort of Jesus warning against the negative and promoting the positive.
And I think this verse, verse 15, holds the two together. But as you read this, as we read this together, you'll see that there's a couple of things in this one verse that Jesus says that's very practical. The first thing is he says, take care. Take care. Why does Jesus say that?
Because he's saying, stop and give attention to this. Stop and listen to what I'm about to tell you. Jesus says, take care concerning what? Covetousness. Now covetousness, that word to covet is one of those inflated religious words that probably has lost a lot of its meaning today.
We don't really understand it. We don't really use that word. I think we don't take it seriously at all today. I don't know if we've ever really taken it seriously, but if we look at our world today, I think it's one of those things that we don't even think about twice. Do not covet, you shall not covet is actually one of the 10 commandments, however.
It's the tenth of the 10 commandments. But we don't actually think of it as a sin. At worst, I think an everyday Aussie will think to covet is simply a natural desire for things. And Jesus gives us this word, take care against covetousness. If you're anything like me, you've probably grown up watching those family sitcoms of the nineties.
I don't know if you were into like Full House or Family Ties or any of those sort of shows. Yeah. Eighties and nineties. At the end of every show, there was always a moral to the story. Did you ever pick that up?
It was a basic lesson to learn. One person would be caught, you know, it's always this sort of thing. They would have two dates and they would try and run between the two dates in a single sort of episode. They didn't have the courage to sort of speak the truth, so they were trying to hold these two dates going. And it would always backfire.
So the lesson at the end of the day was don't lie. Just be honest. Or you'd hear, don't be arrogant. Or you'd hear that we should work hard. We shouldn't try to cheat the system or whatever.
And there was another very common lesson in these sitcoms. Money isn't everything. Money isn't everything. And it's a funny thing, but I think we've listened to those sort of statements so often and we say yes to that at a intellectual level. We know or we think that possessions don't make up the most important parts of our life.
We'll say that to one another. Money isn't everything. Remember, money isn't everything. But actually, look at most people's lives and how they live, and that knowledge hasn't done much to stop us. Because it's not a knowledge problem.
The Bible says it's a heart problem. This is why Jesus makes special mention to say, take care. What we're seeing, what we're seeking when we seek to build up possessions, and I think we can include experiences, and perhaps in our day and age, it's more experiences than possessions. But what we're seeking when we're trying to accumulate these things is the security and the identity that only comes from something and someone eternal. And Jesus says at the end of this, doesn't he, that it is God and His kingdom.
That the only real thing that is worth pursuing is God and His kingdom. If you're not a Christian here this morning or if you're a Christian struggling with material possessions, listen to this. It is not until we bank all our hope on the storehouse of God's grace that we will find rest. And even as Christians, we can wrestle with this. We won't find rest, Jesus says, in anything less than God's grace.
Otherwise, we stuff our lives with the fading things of this world. We build our lives on a kingdom of rust and dust. When Jesus tells his disciples that a man's life doesn't consist in the abundance of his possessions. He's saying that a man does not find meaning. He does not find any meaning in his possessions.
But if we were to go to our Instagram pages, if we go and log on to our Facebook pages, how much of the stuff we see there from our friends is not all about what I have, what I'm experiencing, what I've worked so hard to attain. Instagram is the number one vehicle, and I sound like some puritan by saying this, it's the number one vehicle by which Satan influences us with this lie, that life consists of that photograph. We joke about it. Millennials joke about it all the time. If we don't have a photo of it, it didn't happen.
It's so funny but our life can get boiled down to a photo. We take photos of where we eat. What we're eating. Who you are going out with. What holiday destination you could afford, what sort of new toy that you have bought.
If there was ever a time for Jesus' warning to be heard, take care against covetousness, it is now. And yet the heart that covets has been around forever. It was around when Moses had to share that tenth commandment. It's been around since Jesus had to start this teaching. Why did he start this teaching?
Because there was a man who elbows his way through the crowd. Jesus is teaching and this man makes a beeline to Jesus and says, teacher, I have a brother who does not want to share his inheritance with me. Tell him. Tell him to give me some of that money my father owes me. Haddon Robinson, who's a pastor and a preacher, he points out the unfortunate situation of a heart so consumed with desire for possessions and experience.
This man's obsession with his inheritance keeps him from hearing what Jesus was teaching. Keeps him from hearing who Jesus was and what he was on about so much that he goes and he barges his way to say, help me with settling this inheritance issue. And Jesus is almost incredulous. He says, man, who has made me judge over you? An arbitrator, a magistrate over small claims.
You have not heard anything that I've told you about myself. You don't know why I've come. All this time you've stood here and you've missed it. Somehow you think that I've come to settle disputes between two warring brothers. And this man is a living example of what Jesus is warning us about when he says, take care because the obsessions with worldly priorities can keep us from hearing what Jesus has to say.
That is the warning. The obsession for worldly possessions can keep us from hearing what Jesus has to say. So the first question is, are you taking care? How often do you take stock of the pursuit of lifestyle and new experiences? Is it consuming you?
Perhaps the single best diagnostic question to ask ourselves and something that perhaps you want to write down is, do you feel like you are missing out on life if you don't have certain things? If life does not consist of the things we possess, why do you feel our life is impacted negatively if you don't have those things? It's a question worth thinking about. Take care Jesus says because this is the stuff that is really important to keep tabs off. Now I tell you why I am humbly preaching this because this weekend, I was meant to be playing in a ball tournament that we've been working towards for months.
Months and months and months we've been training for this. Wednesday, I get struck down by this vertigo where I cannot stand up for the life of me. I had to sit on the bench yesterday because I can't play. And I was furious. I'm so angry with God.
Even this morning, I was complaining in the shower to God. My life is not made up of that experience. And I think God has taken it away this weekend to teach me this very lesson. What is this tournament? It is nothing.
It doesn't mean anything. And yet, because I've been working at it, I've been pursuing it for months, training, making sure I'm healthy, but it's nothing. It really isn't anything. Take care. But then Jesus says, okay, not only have I now highlighted that we have to stop, and this is something important, but then Jesus says, proactively be on guard.
Is it something that needs proactive steps? And then Jesus goes on and he tells a parable about a wealthy farmer. This man has a very good job already. He's got a farm that is very productive. He's wealthy, but he could be more wealthy.
He can have more stuff if he just invests a little bit more, builds a bigger barn house, a few more silos, maybe hires a few more workers, and he can multiply what he has. So he builds a bigger farm. Yet, death comes knocking at the door. As soon as he's finished with the project, God says to him, you fool. All those things that you have worked for, all those things that you have obsessed about, what do they mean now?
Whose are they now that you're dead? How do any of these things help you now? And the parable drives at this sharp conclusion. This man spent his time thinking about himself. Spent his time building for himself.
Talking to himself. We see that. He says, to his soul, soul. You if you can have these things, you can rest easy. You drink and eat and be merry.
He doesn't pray to God about these things. He talks to himself. The rich man does all the talking from the beginning and into the middle, but in the end, God has the final word. You fool, God says to him. In all of his talking, the rich man never approaches God.
But notice this, the wealthy farmer is not said to be a fool because he had wealth, but because he loved wealth. He was rich, but he was not rich towards God. That is the issue. I want to disabuse us of a notion that I think we all have, which is some of us are wealthy and some of us are poor. We're all wealthy.
If we have loose change rattling around in our car, in the little console or in our purse, we're wealthier than 97% of the world. If we have a fridge, if we have a car, we belong to the top 3% of the wealthiest people in the world. Jesus is talking about us, whether you're a uni student or whether you're in retirement or whether you are earning a salary. To be wealthy like all of us sitting here in this church, every single one of us, to live a rich life not directed towards God and His kingdom is to be a fool. Because no matter the wealth, a time is coming when it is all thrown in the bin.
Francis Chan, who wrote the book Relentless Love. He's got a brilliant quote. And I think it's stolen from D L Moody, but everyone quotes him. But I whatever. It's not my, I'm not arbitrator.
God has made me judge over this man's quote. But this is his quote. He says, our greatest fear should not be a fear of failure. Our greatest fear should be of succeeding in the things that don't matter. Our greatest fear should not be a fear of failure, but succeeding in the things that don't matter.
It's not easy being rich. We have never realised it but all our neighbours, all our friends are rich. And we're on the same treadmill here in Australia just running after that little carrot on the end of the stick. And it's not easy being rich because there's always ways for us to spend money. And we think and we have restless nights.
Do I invest my money here or do I get this or do I go to South Africa at the end of this year or Bali at the end of this year? Being rich is hard work because we have to worry about all those sort of things. Do I get a white SUV or a black one this year? It's not easy being rich because we have so many distractions. But this is what we must remember, they are distractions.
And if you really want to sound moody and depressed, if you wanna sound like the writer of Ecclesiastes, you'd say, they are all meaningless. Meaningless. Meaningless. The life of wealthy people like us can be likened to a game of chess. Perhaps not even wealthy people, all old people.
The life of old people can be likened to a game of chess. We put everything out on the board. We position all the chess pieces, and then we start agonising about which moves to make to win the game. But every now and then, we need perspective that Jesus gives us today. When the game is all over, the chess pieces, they all just go back into the box.
The bishops, sure, on the table are very powerful. The knights, amazing manoeuvrability. We have the queen with all her power. But when the game is over, they're just plastic pieces in a box. And that is where we end up as well, an expensive box.
And in a very sobering way, what Jesus is saying is this, when you measure what you have and what your life amounts to, don't measure it in the flesh of your youth, young people. Don't measure it in the anticipation of your teens or your twenties. Don't measure it by the manoeuvrability and the power of your thirties and your forties. Stand rather by the side of a grave and then look back and ask, is the thing I pursued really worth my life? Was the thing I obsessed over worth my life?
You've amassed so much and what are you leaving behind? Was all of that worth living for? And Jesus says, be on guard. Take up that shield and that sword and be ready. Take proactive steps not to fall into that treadmill of chasing after the carrots on the sticks that so many of our friends and our colleagues are chasing after.
He says it because there is no peace there. There is no joy there. There is no lasting happiness there because there is no eternity in any of those things. Proactively rather, be on guard, proactively search the things that are eternal, the things that matter in the end. If you've been in this church for a little while, you know about a character in my family's long lore.
A man, a farmhand, a Zulu farmhand by the name of Philemon. I don't know if you remember him. Philemon was a Zulu man with very sagely earthly wisdom. He was like an uncle we had. And every now and then, Philemon would throw a party at his house.
He lived on our farm and he would invite all his friends, usually around payday, once a month, and he would have a party. But often these parties would go on too long and too late. So dad would have to go and speak to them and break up the party. And at one point, it became so disruptive and annoying that mom or dad had to ask him, why do you keep having these parties? They're getting you into trouble with your boss, which is my parents.
And he dryly responded, if I don't have these parties, who will come to my funeral? And it always struck me that response. Because firstly, what sort of man lives with that perspective nowadays? I mean, who thinks about their funeral when they're doing anything now? Who throws a party now to consider what it will mean for their funeral?
When we throw parties, we consider how much fun we're gonna have now. Maybe about the headache tomorrow, who knows? But perhaps as a Zulu man, living in South Africa at that time, his own mortality was something more real to him than it is to us. Perhaps Philemon was aware that any time could be his time. But secondly, I think what's happening is there's a prioritising taking place.
For him, relationships at the end was far more important than the money at the moment. Relationships, those people that he was investing in, was far more important than even the delight or the pleasure of his bosses. Much to the chagrin of my parents, obviously. Who will be at my funeral? What will be said of me?
It's a sort of question that might be worth asking ourselves more often. It's a type of question worth keeping in mind when making decisions about what we invest in. What is the scope of this expenditure? How long will it last? Where is it heading?
What is it building up? What is the return on this investment going to be? Be on your guard against all covetousness. Jesus says, for one's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions. But then lastly, Jesus tells story of being rich, but being rich for something else that has long lasting worth.
The parable Jesus tells is quickly followed by Jesus saying, don't be anxious. Don't worry about what you're going to eat, about what you're going to wear. Consider the birds. They don't have barns or storehouses, and look how God provides for them. Consider the flowers in the field.
They don't sow and they don't definitely log on to eBay to buy the latest brand of clothing. But look how beautifully they are clothed. Not even Solomon in all his wealth had the beauty of some of these flowers. How much more important are God's kids to Him than birds or flowers? So why do you worry about God's providing these things for you?
Do not seek. Do not chase after these things, Jesus says, but, verse 31, seek first the kingdom of God and these things will be added to you. Now this bit of teaching after the parable of the rich fool tells us that the parable was less about being rich or poor than it was to be rich about something worthwhile. It's a kind of rich that anyone can be, in fact, even if you are poor. Charles Spurgeon said, one way you know that Jesus Christ is the most precious thing is that nothing else is.
Spurgeon's obviously not saying that nothing matters. They all serve a purpose, but what we as wealthy people need to think about very carefully is what purpose does my wealth serve? What am I pursuing with all I have? And this is why I say it's such a hard thing. To seek first the kingdom of God is to look at all we have through the lens of what Christ can do with it.
Does that make sense? To seek first the kingdom of God is to look at all that we have through the lens of Christ can do with it. This is why Jesus doesn't say, and now give 10% to the church. We don't find him saying, well, now you divide what you earn by this to the poor and this to your family and this tithing to the church. He doesn't give us a formula.
He says, it is all part. It is all part of the kingdom. It should all be viewed as what is God expecting from this? What am I to use this for? To seek first the kingdom of God is to open our bank accounts and see money not for our use, but for God's use.
To seek first a kingdom when we enter our homes at the end of the day is not merely to see a dinner table full of yummy food, but perhaps to see an opportunity meaningful relationships worth building. To seek the kingdom first is to see our jobs as platforms from which to serve. To see our homes become outposts of heavenly retreat. And I dare say if you were to think of anyone you admire as a Christian, and some of them might even be in this church, anyone you admire as someone that's really been fair dinkum about their faith, they are people whose lives are open, whose homes are open, whose fridges are open. That is to seek the kingdom first.
And so our cars become vehicles ready to be muddied with boots of anyone in need, rather than being sedans protected from the lightest scuff. Why should we do these things? Because these are the things that are of eternal weight. These are the things that mean something. And because they mean something, they are worth investing in.
How often do you look at your finances to see if you could be using them better for the kingdom? Why is it that Open House can't afford a full time pastor? Is it really because we're a poor church? How often do we look at the wonderful gifts that we've been given? The massive houses we own, the fancy cars we drive, the PlayStation fours we buy.
I'm looking at a few young guys here. The cool gadgets we have in those homes. Is there a better way to leverage these things for God's purposes? Generosity, kindness, compassion, these are the things that hold currency in the kingdom of God. And the funny thing is whether you believe in God or not, whether you are a Christian or not, somehow we find and we know that these intangible things of love, kindness, compassion, they're really far more worthwhile than gold.
Somehow these things might make us far happier. Seek the kingdom because it is something worth investing in. And so that's why I say it's hard because I'm trying to wrap my mind as I was writing this sermon. What sort of examples can I give? But I can't give you examples because you live your life.
You know what you earn. You know what your bank account balance. You know what your investments are. You know how open or closed your lives are to these things. I can't tell you.
But what I can tell you is seek the kingdom first. And I can ask you, can you tell me you are doing that? Are we seeking the kingdom first at Open House Church? The wealthy farmer was a fool because he didn't seek the kingdom. That is what Jesus is saying.
But the ultimate tragedy in this story is that if the farmer would have sought the kingdom, he would have found the king. And what is the ultimate tragedy about this man who busted his way through the crowd to get to Jesus is that he heard about the kingdom, but he didn't realise the king was standing in front of him the whole time. And that is what we must hear finally at the end of it all today as well. You see, you could live a decent life and you could do decent things and you could be quite generous, but still not find the kingdom. That's also true.
But those who truly seek the kingdom, they will also find the king. The rich farmer thought that he was very wise building up these large storehouses, but on his tombstone was written words, or the word, fool. That is why tradition has called it the parable of the rich fool. Oh, but friends, when Jesus came, they called Him a fool as well. Why?
Because He didn't build storehouses. And He kept no money for His own. And people didn't understand that. He didn't carry Himself through the crowds as if He was the only one who mattered, even though He was the only one who mattered. He prayed to His Father in daily dependence on Him, not moving a muscle until the Father confirmed it.
He didn't find satisfaction in His reputation. He didn't marvel at the crowds that came to listen to Him and said to His soul, look at all these crowds. Look at what has been stored up for you. Relax. Rest.
Eat. Drink and be merry. He didn't rest on any of these things and instead, He poured Himself out even further. And so they called Jesus the fool of heaven. He left all the riches of the equality of God.
Philippians 2 said, the riches of equality with God and He emptied Himself to take on human form. Imagine it. All that exists. All that exists. The farthest reaches of the universe belong to Him, and He gives it all up.
What kind of a king does this? I'll tell you, a king who loves the kingdom. A king who sought the kingdom first Himself. The king who would do anything to rescue that kingdom. And so having left that crown of glory, having exchanged all the glory for the cross, exchanging the throne for the tomb, the everlasting life that He has for an untimely death, exchanging praise for shame, righteousness for wickedness, Jesus came for the rich fools who are us.
Why can we seek the kingdom of God first? Because now that Jesus has come, there is a kingdom to find. And this kingdom is the one that is full of joy. Reserved for the afterlife with so much joy and so much praise and glory that it is spilling out into our lives today. This kingdom's currency is not coin or card, but love.
Love exemplified in the cross. The cross which pays for failures right now to love. And so there is no better investment in all of Australia than in this kingdom. Not a kingdom of rust and dust. A kingdom of eternal glory where one day all the friends that you have invested in, those who have come into your house, those children that you've spent time with teaching, talking about the gospel with.
All those people will glorify God for your generosity. And where you'll be able to stand back and say to yourself, every single cent was worth it. Every single dollar is accounted for right here. Take care. Be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
Let's pray. Heavenly father, we hear these words again. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have shared that with us. But where do we start? Lord, I just pray for all of us, even if we don't know where to start, Lord, that we will simply take up the call to seek the kingdom.
And Lord, if we know that this seeking of the kingdom is sort of just one little sphere of our life, just one little pocket in this whole thing of life, then we've missed the point. If this kingdom is not the hub of our wheel and our jobs and our friends and our relationships are the spokes leading out from that hub. If we don't have this kingdom in the centre of our existence, Lord, we have missed out. There is a treasure. There is an eternity of joy that can be invested in right now.
And so I ask, Lord, for all of us to be able to see that and sense that and know how we are to use what You have given us. God, I really pray that our church will not be weighed under guilt by this sort of message. But God, that we will have the maturity and the perspective and the vision to hunger for joy, to desire to be filled with things that are so much more worthwhile, to be hedonistic even about what is available for us in this kingdom. Lord, give us a desire to see people saved. Give us a desire to see people disciple and grow into a maturity where their lives will reflect Jesus and will be safer and happier and more wholesome than anything this world can offer them.
Lord, help us to see that our work is so much more dignified than we even view it. That it is building something far greater than our boss's bank accounts, than our stockholders' portfolios. That our jobs and our gifts and our talents can be used to serve the living king, to establish a kingdom that will never perish, spoil, or fade. And then finally, Lord, we thank You that You were the heavenly fool who gave up all for us. And we thank You, Lord Jesus, that You would come to pay our penalty, die our death for the failure of our love.
And we thank You, Lord Jesus, that because You did that, we have a kingdom to find. Help us, Lord, in that pursuit. Help us to recalibrate and readjust our life in knowledge of that again. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.