The Good Seed

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." Luke 8:4-8 A parable is a story intended to reveal something about the world by using an extended metaphor. Jesus used parables to both reveal and conceal what He was trying to day. Parables reveal truth in a palatable form. This parable was unique in that it was the first to be used. It is found in Mark 4, Luke 8,and Matthew 13. The way this parable was presented is interesting. Jesus just told the story without explanation and without introduction. This was confusing to many people who heard Jesus. Even His disciples were bewildered by it. Why did He do it? He tells us in the next passage--Luke 8:10 "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' ? Jesus told parables to deliberately confuse His hearers! It is amazing to think that Jesus would do this, but He did. There is a pattern to the spread of Cod’s Word that is repeated over and over. First there is expansion. The Word goes out, and people respond. Next, there is consolidation. The disciples have to be trained to be sent out. Third, there is opposition. People will not like what he says. This leads to crucifixion, martyrdom, and rebirth. The same pattern is found in Paul. Paul carried the Gospel all over the known world. At every city he consolidated his victories by training disciples while the opposition mounted. Following this, there came a widespread persecution (read murder) of Christians, led by Satan himself. But whenever persecution came, the church not only survived, but thrived. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The pattern goes on today. God blesses and brings His word and power. Resistance builds even as leaders are being trained. Then comes persecution. Many are lost, but some disciples remain to take the gospel forward. The story of the sower is the story of the Kingdom. The pattern of the sower is the pattern of the Kingdom—the same pattern we see until this day. First, there is going. Who is “the sower? He is never identified. He is simply a man who spreads the Word of God. The sower is any of us. The sower is all of us. It is whoever spreads the Word of God across the earth. At the time when Jesus is giving the parable, it is uncertain who the sowers will be. The people who were called by God to spread his word have not yet been identified beyond the twelve disciples. Contained in the crowds who listened to Jesus are dozens, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people who will become sowers of the Word. This parable is calling them out. Who has ears to hear it? Who has even the curiosity to come and hear what it means? One thing is for sure—the number of sowers is not equal to the size of the field. Jesus said in Matthew 9 “The harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest top send forth laborers into the harvest.” God makes the sowers. We don’t. We’ve all known churches that constantly pushed people to win converts. They are trying to call forth the sowers. But Jesus said pray and God will bring forth the sowers. In this parable, the message is hidden, so those who can be sowers will come forth. We don’t become sowers because we try. God just puts the seed in our hands and tells us to spread. Jesus shows infinite patience in allowing sowers to come forth. Churches were put here to sow—to be part of the process of sowing and growing that produces the fruit of the Gospel. We were put here to preach and be persecuted, to die as martyrs only to have the truth reborn. If there is no resistance, there is no Gospel. If there is no difficulty there is no fruit. We must pray for sowers to come. Then there is the sowing. When the sower goes with his bag of seed, where does he go? He goes as far and as wide as we can. Modern agriculture is very different from ancient agriculture. A farmer does not broadcast his seed. Instead, he narrowcasts it. He knows what produces and what does not. But the ancient had to try everything. He went at first wherever he could, he ought to have the good sense not to spread the seed just everywhere. The rule is this--spread it where it will grow. When it comes to the Word of God, most churches do just the opposite of this We find the places where the seed has already gone down and heap more seed upon it. When a familiar plot of ground is found to be resistant to the Word, we just keep throwing seed on it. Our county is one of the most churches areas in the country. 28% are in church on any given Sunday. 24% of those are in Baptist churches, where the Gospel is really preached. There are few people who have lived long in this county who have not been to church or been told the Gospel. The citizens who have lived long in this county have for the most part either believed in Jesus, or turned hard against him. So where do we spread out seed? You guessed it—among people just like ourselves. One church imitates another, until we have managed to turn off half the people in the county. We unthinkingly act just like everyone we ever knew in church, and keep inviting those same hardened, resistant people to church, even though who have rejected the Gospel long ago. Meanwhile, there are new people, young people, strange people, minority people all around us who may not be so hardened to hearing the Gospel. Those we ignore, so that the church can look and act like it always did. But the sower in the parable casts his seed far and wide. His only criteria for spreading the word is that there be a willing audience. Many will not like it. He expects this like a salesman knows that not every flyer he sends out will bring a customer. He only cares that everyone be given an opportunity. Next comes the growing. When he seed begin to take root, then what? It is still a struggle to bring the seed to fruition. Jesus lists three reasons the seed does not make it. .1. The ground was too hard to receive the Gospel. My yard has a good covering of grass. But there are some places, especially in the shade, where nothing grows. When I look at those patches, I see that the ground is like stone. I put grass seed on it, but it washed away with the first rain. There are two reasons a person becomes hard to the Gospel. They may have reason to believe a lie. People who are devoted followers of other religions are hard to reach, because it puts them against their family and culture. So are the greedy, the lustful, and the gluttonous. That doesn’t mean we should not witness to them, but we must realize that they will probably not respond. There is no room in their life for God’s truth. They are firmly and completely given over to a lie. The other reason is because he has a reason for rejecting the truth.. Once they believed, but they have seen so much hypocrisy and abuse in the name of the Lord that they want nothing to do with any of it. These people can only be reached by much prayer, fasting, and of course a great deal of loving patience. 2. The ground was too shallow for roots to grow. In college I worked for four years with Icthus, a Christian rock festival which attracted tens of thousands of young people. My job was to witness through the crowd. Once I came across a group of young people all from the same church. They were very hard to the Gospel. They wanted nothing to do with it personally, yet whenever the bands came on, they would cheer an carry on with the rest of the crowd. They even wore Christian jewelry . I shared the Gospel with them, but I could get nowhere. Finally I asked them if they had ever received Christ before. They all had. “They told me that at first, they were very excited. But then it faded. No one told htem what to do next. So instead of sharing with them about how to be saved. I shared how they could continue to walk with Him with prayer, Bible reading, etc. What I thought was hard soil turned very tender. They were believer, they just did not know how to grow deeper. What kind of gardener will spread his seed one day and come back in three months, expecting a harvest. He knows that seed must be weeded and cultivated. We do this in small group discipleship and through training in prayer and Christian living. We must get close enough to the soil to find the rocks and pull them out. 3. There are too many other things in the soil. Even if we have good soil, the weeds often choke it out. On my lawn, along with the bare patches, are weedy patches, where clover or dandelions replace good grass. I don’t care much, of course. As long as it’s green, it looks the same. Unfortunately, many have the same idea about the Gospel in the Bible Belt. As long as people look like Christians and act like Christians, they are okay. In time, we see the worldly things outgrowing heavenly things in our lives. But Jesus assures us that in every place, there will be some who will grow, in spite of these obstacles. Finally comes the reaping phase. When there is growth, is is abundant—thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. The successes wind up outwaying the failures. When the persecution time comes, and much of what we have built is wiped out, then there will be those few who have been left behind who will survive. A flu bug is a very vulnerable thing. It cannot survive long outside the human body. If you put it in a liquid even a few degrees hotter or colder than it is used to, it will die. If you put it in the sun, it will die. Even so, the flu bug is a great danger to us. Why? Because there are so many of them. This is what Jesus said about the Word of God. those who believe it are many, when the Gospel has been spread. Eventually, the Gospel will overrun the earth. So let’s not waste our time on bad soil, weedy soil or rocky soil. Let’s go out and find the fertile fields. Then let’s make disciples and grow them into spiritual maturity, so they, too can join the harvest.

Pestering God

Jesus’ disciples said to him “teach us to pray.” In response, Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer. It is a simple, sweet prayer, perfect and all-encompassing. Some say that if you just pray the Lord’s Prayer, then you know all you need about prayer. Well, I must disagree. There’s more to being a person of prayer than knowing how to pray. Knowing how to bait a hook doesn’t make you a fisherman. Knowing how to use a box wrench set doesn’t make you an mechanic. Knowing how to sew doesn’t make you a dress designer. And knowing how to pray doesn’t make you a prayer warrior. Jesus didn’t stop at the Lord’s Prayer. He dealt with other considerations as well. How can we improve our spiritual lives (that’s what our prayer life actually is—the totality of our spiritual lives) we may improve it by expanding upon one of three dimensions—by increasing our desire, by increasing our understanding of God’s power, or by increasing our persistence in seeking His help. In Luke 11, Jesus deals with all three of these dimensions-- Luke 11:5-8 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 1. We increase our desire for God's help. We don’t have people dropping by in the middle of the night, In Jesus’ day, there were no hotels or restaurants. People stayed in one another’s houses. So it was important to have extra food in the home. Not to have extra food was a serious social embarrassment. We don’t see it that way today. We just can’t fully understand why this man was so upset. So, to understand this parable as Jesus intended we must change it a little. Imagine it’s 4 A. M. You are home alone on a sultry summer night. Because you are alone and because it is hot, you are not wearing pajamas. Suddenly, you hear a thump on the door. You get up, put on a robe, and go outside to see what it is. You open your door. There is no one there. You look down and see a newspaper thrown by the paperboy laying on the porch. The paper must have hit the door. You bend down to pick it up, but there are some things you don’t realize. You do not know that the sash to your bathrobe is not securely tied Furthermore, you do not realize that the sash is caught in the front door. When the storm door closes, it catches on your robe. When you stoop over to get the paper, you bump the door, causing it to automatically close and lock, taking your robe with it. So there you are, newspaper in hand, suddenly undressed. What can you do? There’s no one in the house. Soon, your neighbors will awaken, and you will be there in front them all. First you panic, then you try and think. Desperate moments require desperate measures. So you go to your neighbor’s door, holding the newspaper in front of you. “Whaddya want?” he yells. “Please,” you say, “This is your neighbor! I need to borrow a bathrobe and a crowbar!” “At this hour?” About this time, you hear other voices. His wife and children have also awakened. His wife says “Who is it? It is a burglar?’ “No,” he says. “It’s our neighbor. I think he must be drunk or something.” “Please,” you reply. “I’m desperate.” Come back in the morning.” “Please, not. I have to have it right now!” Ordinarily, you would respect this man’s privacy and come back in the morning. But you are driven by utter extremity. You are willing to risk a friendship to save yourself from ruination. That ia closer to the way Jesus wants us to experience this parable. The reason most of us have so poor prayer lives is that we have so little knowledge of our own needs. We don’t realize how serious our sins are, how desperate our situation. We don’t see the danger we are in, so we don’t pray as we should. George Morris, formerly of Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, told of taking a high school evangelism team at Daytona on Spring break. They were scheduled for a six o’clock prayer meeting, then they would hit the beaches in teams with tracts. The first day, only a handful of kids showed up for prayer. Then they hit the beach, and it was embarrassing. Some of them were laughed at and chased off. One team was sprayed with beer. It was a humiliating first day. The next day, however, when six o’clock rolled around, the room for prayer was full. They had learned how desperate their need for prayer was. 2. We increase our view of Christ’s power. We must realize that Christ is capable of meeting our needs, and we are not. We simply do not have the wherewithal to meet our own needs. We have no other place to go. One of the most damaging phrase in the English language is this-- “I can handle it.” We are plagued with a foolish sense of independence. A couple is lost on a car trip. The wife suggests they ask directions. The man says “I can handle it.” A man is moving a couch. The wife warns him that if he doesn’t get help, he could hurt his back. He says, “I can handle it.” We were not created to exist alone. We were created to need help from God. In desperate times, we desperately need to lean on Him. How big is your God? Most people’s view of God is not very big—only a little larger than their view of themselves. When our view of God is too small, it is easy to imagine God is incapable of helping. In this parable, the homeowner had to believe that his neighbor had bread, before he could ask. We must believe that Christ is the Bread of Life, before we ask, too. Paul writes in Ephesians 3:20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!” If we want to increase our spiritual life, we just need to get a bigger God, one who is able to provide more than we imagined before. It is important that we understand where God’s power lies. Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." God’s power to save, heal, and to provide is found in Jesus Christ. 3. We increase our faith through persistent asking. Most of us are afraid of being a pest—even to God. That is why shy people are poor at getting what they want from life. They are afraid to inconvenience others to get it. But look at this parable. The homeowner came to the door, stepping over his sleeping children. This man was willing to pass over his own children to answer the neighbor. Will God answer the prayer of a sinner? Most people would say “no,” but this is not true. God does not have to answer an unbeliever’s prayer, but there are plenty of example of Him doing just that. If anyone asks of him, persistently, believing He will hear, He will pass over his own children to answer. Salesmen are taught to not take “no” for an answer. The first time a person says “no” they may not mean it. We must believe that we can get what we want, if we are persistent enough. Jesus told us not to take “no” for an answer, either in verses 9-10 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. ask and keep on asking, to seek and keep on seeking, to knock and keep on knocking. He assures us, though that if we ask He will give. God answering prayer is not random—it comes when our need meets His power through persistent faith. If we are lacking in any of these, we will not receive. But if we expand any of these, then a perfect connection occurs, and we receive what we ask of Him. Don’t take “no” for an answer, not even from God. Keep asking, keep knocking, keep begging, and we will receive. Answered prayer is not random. Whether or not our prayers are answered may be predicted. Answered prayer comes when desperation meets faith. Once we realize that we can find help nowhere else, and at the same time recognize that God has the power to meet our needs, then wonderful things occur.

The Politics of Heaven

Luke 18:1-8 Politics is the art of getting things done in a city or state. “Polis” is the Greek word for “city.” While “tics” refers to a skill or art. Politics The practice of politics varies from place to place. However, there are some general rules regarding politics. 1. Politics is about people. A politician swims in people like a fish swims in the sea. He realizes that everyone he meets may be useful in getting things done. 2. Politics is about flexibility. In order to get someone to do what you want them to do, you must give them something that they want in return. 3. Politicians do not take “no” as an answer. What is “no” today, may be “yes” tomorrow, so he is persistent in going after what he wants. 4. Politicians seek the friendship with those who can help them the most. As we have a new administration in Washington, we have seen that the people who know the president best enjoy the spoils of victory. Those who opposed him get little or nothing. This brings us to an interesting question. If politics is universal, does it also exist in heaven? Do the laws of politics also work in the kingdom of God? The rules of politics are certainly different in heaven. But politics exists in heaven as well as on earth. Those whom God favors receive the most from him. At this point, some people will object. Does God play favorites? I am aware of Peter’s statement in Acts 10:34 “God is not a respecter of persons.” But if we read the rest of what Peter says, we discover that He does favor some. Acts 10:34-35 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. Peter is not saying God does not have favorites. To the contrary, he is says that anyone who fears him and does what is right can be His favorite. It is not saying He does not pick and choose. He is merely saying by what criteria He chooses. He chooses the ones who fear him and does His word. But doesn’t Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount that God “lets the rain to fall on the just and unjust, and the sun to shine on the good an the evil?” H Nevertheless. In the same chapter, he begins with this statement. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. . . . “ We all may get the sun and the rain, but God’s favorites will have earth in the end. Those who are closest to God will enjoy the victory with Him. God chose Abel over Cain. He chose Isaac over Esau. He chose Joseph over his brothers. He chose Israel over all other nations. He chose David and his line to be kings. Jesus chose twelve disciples out of seventy. He chose three over twelve. He chose Peter over the three. At every step of Biblical history, God played favorites. So we had better do like politicians do. We had better be among His favorites. The more time we we spent with Him, the close we become to him. Luke 18:1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Here is a woman who had to go to a crooked judge for help. He does not care about anyone. All he cares about is money and power. What chance does a widow, with no means or money, have of getting justice from this man? Yet she has to try. In Jesus included one extraneous detail in this story that is very important to us. She came for justice against her adversary. Why does he mention her adversary? There was someone in town who was no doubt petitioning the judge against the woman. Jesus is showing that a judge plays favorites. Half of the people who go before a judge go away disappointed. Is it proper to pray for something that will deprive someone else? Should a sports team pray to win a game? Should a job applicant pray to get a job, when there are a hundred other people who need it as desperately as he does? Should we pray that a hurricane divert from hitting our community, when that only means it will hit somewhere else? God does not discourage us from asking what we wish. In fact, he encourages us to ask. He says you may ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you—even over those who do not pray, or those who pray and do not seek. Not only does He not discourage prayers for selfish reasons, He encourages us to make our desires known. False modesty or phony protestations of selflessness do not become us. We are selfish creatures, and often pray for selfish reasons. So this widow prayed for justice from her adversary. At first, he petitions before this judge did no good. He would not even hear her case. She came to court and waited for her case to come up on the docket, but it never came. Instead, those who were rich were heard before her. Day after day she ame, and day after day she was overlooked. She could not bribe the judge enough to hear her case. Have you ever felt that way with God? Does it ever seem that your petitions are not being heard. Don’t give up. This is the point of the message. Keep asking. Here’s what this woman did. In the morning, when the judge was walking to work, she threw herself in front of him and begged him to hear her case. She threw herself on the ground. He stepped over her. In the evening, when he came home, she threw herself before him. ‘Judge, hear my case!” He walked around her. She was a nuisance. He locked her out of the court. She held up signs against the court window. He drove her off. Yet here she was again and again and again, pleading to be heard. At first, this woman was nothing to the judge. But she became something to him. He knew her face. When she showed up in court, he said, “I’ll hear her out, and I’ll be rid of her.” Jesus’ point is this--if the worst judge will hear your case when you keep getting in his face about it, what will the best of judges do when you do the same? How long will it take your own father to hear your case, if you persistently ask? God is not a bad judge. He is a very good judge, but like all judges, he favors those who will most persistently make their case before him. Think of it. Jesus is telling us that God wants us to be His favorite. He wants to shower us with blessings, but he asks us to be persistent in our asking. It is the relationship we have with Him which gives us the keys to the kingdom. That relationship is forged by time with Him. We must network with him to receive what He wants to give. “Ask and keep on asking, “Jesus said, “and it will be given. Seek and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. For whoever asks receives, whoever seeks, finds, and to who knocks, the door will be opened. Do we always get what we want. No. There are some conditions on prayer we must know. First, we must know that God really is sovereign. Sometimes, he does not give to us, because it is actually not part of his plan. In some contests, we are better off getting second place than first. Other times, it is better that we do not place at all. Only God knows this. We must be willing to bow to his wishes. God is not our genie in the bottle who must do our bidding. He is a sovereign, free, and wild God who does what He wishes and appears as He will. We must not think that because we are persistent that we will always get our way. Te need to have respect for God’s choices. Second, we must be flexible. What we ask may not be what God wents, but God gives great consolation prizes. He does not allow any of us to go way empty handed. He will bless all who turn to him. Getting from God is not a matter of things but a matter of the heart. He satisfies our heart first, then our cravings. People are run by insatiable cravings for lust, food, money, power, revenge, and so forth. It is these very cravings from which God wishes to free us. If he gave us according to our cravings, it would disappoint us in the end. But he gives according to our heart, and then satisfies our cravings. He would no more fulfill all our cravings than he would give a drunkard a drink. Third, we must be persistent. The secret to getting from God is to cultivate a relationship with Him. Meet him morning and evening. Meet him through the day and pester him. Get everyone you can to join with you in this pursuit. Don’t let go until you get the answer that satisfies you. The Bible has a word for this kind of persistence. It’s called faith. Faith is the belief that if we pray to God, He is listening. It is the belief that God will fulfill his promises. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” In other words, when Jesus comes again, will anyone be waiting? Can we believe in a hope deferred enough to keep asking? This woman was persistent, and got what she wanted. We should all be willing to wait and receive. \

Greed

Luke 12:13-37 Luke usually introduces Jesus’ parables with the story of a human encounter. On this occasion, Jesus met an unusual man. We do not know his name. He simply shouts a question out of the crowd. But consider what this man had to go through to shout out this question. He walked many miles through rough terrain. He had to make his way through a crowd of people who in faith and desperation, crowded around Jesus for salvation in bodies and souls. Many of them came, but few would get the chance to speak. Yet this man was able to speak his plea. What was his desire? Did it have to do with eternal life, like Nicodemus? Was it a plea for healing from a deadly illness? Was it the cry of a disciple “Lord, teach us to pray”? No. This was his only question “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!” This may seem like a shallow question to you and I, but it was critically important to his man. It had been building up inside of him for years. This man had a father, who became ill. While the rest of the family thought of losing poor daddy, this man set his sights on what poor daddy owned. He was secretly pricing his houses, lands, and furniture. He focused his attention on his inheritance after he went. But the division was not up to him. His older brother was the first-born. It was the custom for the oldest to be the executor of the estate. He divided the goods according to custom between the other siblings. His older brother, who may well have been as greedy as he was. The older brother did not divide the estate. He kept it to himself. This made the man furious, but there was nothing he could do about it. The courts would not hear his case. So when he heard about Jesus, who might be the Messiah and was certainly a man of great power, he decided to ask him for justice. Only the man was disappointed. Here’s what Jesus. "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you.?” Even worse, Jesus made him a living example of greed. Was this fair? Actually, the man had a point. Shouldn’t his brother divide the estate? Wasn’t this man entitled to a portion of his father’s wealth? Why doesn’t anyone stand up for this man’s rights? This isn’t about rights. It is about heart. This man had no sense of proportion. All he could see was money. Consider what he had been through. He lost his father. He was cheated by a brother. He had seen the Son of God standing before him in the flesh. Yet all he can think of was his inheritance that he did not have. He did not think of himself as greedy, but he was. No one thinks of themselves as greedy. Greed is just an extension of behavior that we all share. Greed is not a quest for money--it is a quest for what money brings. Greed is the outworking of a desire for power, security, or comfort. Greed comes from a sense of entitlement--that the world owes us something. We set out to take it, even at the expense of others. If we fail to take it, then someone must have cheated us out of it.We never think of that as wrong. But Jesus says that it is. We are not meant to be secure in this life. Only God can bring true security. To illustrate this, Jesus told a tale. 16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 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 all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things 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?' Then he gives this moral. 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Jesus speaks about another man—a farmer. He does not start off to be greedy. But his success starts to get the best of him. He grows so much grain that he cannot use it in a season. He could give it away, of cours—he doesn’t have to keep it. But he starts to think. “If I save enough of this grain, I won’t have to worry about the future. So he keeps it. But how does he keep it, and where? There’s no room. So he builds bigger barns. But how do you build bigger barns? You hire more workers. But how do you feed those workers? You grow more grain. Now you have workers and barns, but you also have more overhead. You need more horses to work the farm. You need milk cows and chickens to feed the workers. Barns must be repaired regularly if you want to keep them. So the farmer must work harder. Soon there is on time for anything else.. Now he wonders, will I ever get to the place where I can enjoy life? Can I ever retire? He knows he can’t. One day, he will finally fill those extra barns. Then he can retire. After years of trying, he finally gets to the point where he can retire. He finally fills those extra barns. He is finally caught up. Now he can play. He jumps up and clicks his heels—--and falls over dead of a heart attack. On his grave they write. “Here Lies Farmer Jones—the Greediest Man in the County.” But he’s not greedy, is he? Jesus says he is. He’s greedy because he thought that the acquisition of wealth would bring happiness. He looked at wealth the way the Bible says we should look upon God, as the source of life, health, and happiness. He was greedy because he was worried, and he was worried because he was greedy. Jesus addresses the worry behind the greed. In verses 22-27 22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. God has give us all a superabundance of wealth. The problem is, what we don’t see it. Worry comes between us and the vision of God’s abundance. The birds don’t worry. As a result, they enjoy more blessings than we. The lilies don’t worry—yet look how beautiful they are. God provides for them. If you want to know happiness, look at your dog. He runs around naked and eats dog food out of a bowl on the floor, but at the end of the day, when you have been working so hard to get the best for your family and life seems to want to crush you under its load, your dog is curled up on the rug with a silly smile on his face, enjoying life. If you want to trust, look at a baby. All a baby needs is milk and mamma. He doesn’t’ care if he is dressed in rags or silks. All that matter to him is who is holding him. Jesus takes that moral and applies it to our lives. 32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “For where your treasure is”. Where is your treasure. Our treasure is what we treasure. Do we treasure things, or do we treasure relationships/ God in His good grace has first of all given Himself to bless us. Lean upon him like a child leans on his mother’s breast. Lean upon him like a dog looks to his master. In this,w e will never be disappointed. Ditch the baggage of life. You don’t need it. God has given you the kingdom. Put your treasure in your heart, not in things. Trust God and he will hold you up.