Luke 12:13-21
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”15 Then He said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And He told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 “Then He said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Luke 12:13-21 BUILDING PLANS
Springford Baptist Church: March 12, 2023.
This week there was a picture on the front page of the Hamilton Spectator of an extravagant home in Ancaster that has gone up for sale for 29 million dollars.
We can’t even imagine that can we?
Among other things, this house, set on a 5 acre property, has 11 bathrooms; a pool; a large hot tub; a children’s playground; a regulation-sized sports court; a 6200 square foot garage and this really amazed me: parking spaces for 100…
This kind of extreme spending of money is hard to comprehend!
When we talk today about “BUILDING PLANS,” we want to move from thinking about what kind of house we would build to what kind of life we are building.
Jesus’ so called “Parable of the Rich Fool” contains an important lesson when we are thinking about BECOMING more like Jesus.
As Jesus emphasizes, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)
If our life focus is on gathering more and more for ourselves, then we are definitely not BECOMING more like Jesus.
The story with a lesson that Jesus tells here involves a rich man. Sadly, this rich man had the misconception that life does consist in an abundance of possessions.
When greed is our focus, we miss discovering more and more of Jesus.
This rich man in the story has a very successful harvest. His crops produce so much that he decides he will have to build bigger barns to store it all.
His mentality is very much about keeping for himself.
There is no indication that he even considered sharing his surplus with others.
No, instead the rich man’s plan for himself is revealed, 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ (Luke 12;18,19)
He was willing to spend extra money on building bigger barns, but not to benefit others. Our accurate conclusion is that he is only thinking of himself.
Jesus highlights that this counting on the abundance of possessions is so foolish.
While the rich man feels very secure in what he has hoarded and thinks it is great to be able to sit back for many years to come with his feet up and to, “Eat, drink, and be merry,” there is something he has not considered.
What has he not considered? He has not considered the inevitable ending of his life on earth.
Then what will any of what he has accumulated mean?
As we would express today, “You can’t take it with you.”
And indeed you cannot! Instead of giving more and more of himself away, this man held on to it and tried to become greater instead of less.
We can write a different ending to this story.
If we refuse to make personal application of the lesson that Jesus is teaching here, then we too will be caught up in selfishly storing up more and more for ourselves.
Jesus challenges us to make the decision of being rich towards God. We can do this by sharing what we have.
We can ask God to guide us in how our resources can help to meet the needs of others.
As Jesus is BECOMING greater in us, it will necessarily affect our building plans.
We will not be asking, “What will contribute to my life of ease”?
We will be asking: “God, how can what I have be used to bless others”?
We can trust that God supplies our needs with purpose in mind. So rather than build bigger barns to store up our treasures and possessions, what can our “BUILDING PLANS” include?
This will be important as you the people of Springford Baptist Church are discerning God’s way forward!
We can consider how we can build loving relationships with people as God guides us.
We can be aware of needs in our communities and help build stronger households and families by responding to those needs.
We can have concern for seeds of faith to be planted and to grow in people of all ages.
We can commit our resources to God and ask how he wants us to use them.
If we are willing to do this, we will be putting into practice this whole approach of being rich towards God.
We will have less time, less freedom, less money to spend on ourselves.
At the same time, we can have greater love for God, greater love for others; greater awareness of God’s love for us; greater capacity to gives others hope; greater faith in the ways that God provides.
Our ability to be BECOMING more like Jesus really does depend on our “BUILDING PLANS”!