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“Rich
Toward God”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 12:13-21
“So it is with those who store
up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS, we have just heard Jesus telling one of his
parables, the kind of stories Jesus uses to make us think and then
search for the truth outside of how we naturally think about certain
issues.
We can all almost relate to this one, in how the rich man seeks to
provide the wealth that he wants, in order to take care of himself in
his retirement years. Yes,
it is shocking that when he was all ready for the rest of his life, then
God calls him a fool, and tells him that his life, in this world, is
over that very night.
We all know that there is no telling what tomorrow might mean for
us. Recently, a young lady
from Kaufman was found strangled to death in Portland, Origen.
There have been 5 confirmed dead through the bridge collapse in
Minneapolis. Also, 23
missionaries from South Korea were taken hostage in Afghanistan, and two
have been murdered. These
missionaries from South Korea are Presbyterian.
We all know that there is no way we can predict what our day will
be like tomorrow.
Still, I want to ask us all a question about this parable, my self
included. This man is rich,
and his land was very productive, putting forth a wonderful abundance of
crops. And, he realizes,
that based on the size and number of barns that he has, he cannot store
all of his produce. So he
asks HIMSELF, what he must do about it.
He decides to tear down his little barns and build new big ones
so that he can store all his grain and goods.
And after he accomplishes what he decided to do, he is proud of
himself and happy for what he has done, and again talks to himself,
saying, “Soul, you have ample
goods laid up for years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”
Here is the question I want to ask us: Suppose this rich man had known
that he was not alone in his life, suppose he had known that the Lord of
the kingdom of God was with him always, suppose he had known that Jesus
Christ, who is the richest human being towards God, was actually in his
heart, with him always, would he have asked himself the same questions
and made decisions based on what he wanted for himself?
If he would have known that the Lord Jesus Christ was with him,
wouldn’t he have asked Christ how to work with the situation he was
in. And I certainly cannot
answer for Christ, but with Christ being his Lord and knowing his life
span here, Christ may have lead him to use his crops and produce to help
hungry people during his life here.
You and I need to be rich toward God.
That is who Jesus Christ is.
He is our wealth toward God.
And no matter what we are going through in our lives, Jesus
Christ is with us.
After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil.
After he had fasted for forty days and nights—we cannot even
imagine what he must have felt like after 40 days of no food—Satan
came to him and said “If you are the Son of God, command these stones
to become loaves of bread.” “But Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘One does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Obviously, Jesus was not going to do what Satan was telling him
to do; he was going to wait until he knew the word of God the Father in
his life.
God shows us that he is always with us by events that happen in our
lives that appear at first to be a coincidence, but then they have a
purpose behind them and the only way we can see it is to know that it is
from God.
I had a friend in college who was an African from Ethiopia.
There was a civil war going on in Ethiopia in the late 70’s, so
he and six other young men sought to escape the country.
They had to walk across the great deserts of Sudan in order to
reach Egypt, and two of the young men died during the weeks that they
walked across the deserts. My
friend finally made it to Egypt, where he found a job in a restaurant.
During his first week in the restaurant, he met the President of
Montreat-Anderson college, who when he learned his story, made all the
arrangements to lead my friend to the college in the United States.
This is a big story. The
president was looking for someone to reach out to. This is a big coincidence, that they met, and God changed my
friend life.
There are not too many of us who have such grand coincidences in our
lives. But we do experience
coincidences with purposes that show us God is with us.
When we were starting our church’s website, we were working on putting
together pictures of our church, and we were going to take pictures on a
certain Sunday. We brought
our digital camera. Of
course, what question were we asking ourselves?
Who can take the picture, because, who ever takes it, will then
not be in it? Yes, there
are ways to use a camera to take the picture itself.
But, that is not easy, especially when it’s the pictures of
twenty some people. Well,
on that Sunday, Angus Gascoinge, our guest preacher, sometimes, showed
up unexpectedly, and volunteered to take the picture.
Was that a coincidence with a purpose, showing us that God is
with us? Yes.
We are never alone in our lives, no matter what we are going through.
And, our partner is the richest human being toward God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And instead
of our making total decisions, by communicating totally to ourselves, we
may ask our Lord Jesus to lead us in how we are to deal with a certain
situation in our lives.
We do not have to ask ourselves what we should do; we may ask
Jesus, what He wants us to do.
Let us pray…
Amen.
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