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Virtual
Chapel: Treasure Seekers 4/15/08
Someone in the
crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
inheritance with me." 14Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a
judge or an arbiter between you?" 15Then he said to them, "Watch
out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life
does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 16And he
told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man
produced a good crop. 17He 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. 19And 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?' 21"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up
things for himself but is not rich toward God." Luke 12:13-21
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Have you ever seen the show on HGTV Clean Sweep? The shows
premise is to organize other peoples messy houses. Recently they
had a contest for the messiest house in America. The winners
(a.k.a. messy people) got a clean sweep of their entire house. I
know that most of us dont keep our houses picked up all the
time; after all, we have other things to do, but I am confident
that this was indeed the messiest house in America. The floor
was no where to be seen. Clothes, bags, boxes, etc were strewn
all over the house. When it came time to get rid of the clutter,
the family had a hard time of letting go of their possessions.
Although five dumpsters had hauled off a tremendous amount of
stuff, there remained a sea of possessions that they refused to
part with. Their common reasoning was, I might need it later.
Todays scripture lesson speaks of a man in a similar situation.
The man was a good farmer and had done well for himself. He had
so much bounty that he built a larger barn to store it in; after
all, he might need it. As it turns out, the farmer dies suddenly
and all that he stored up is no good to him anymore. The moral
of the story is evident. We should not put our need for security
in things; rather, we should look to God for our ultimate
security plan. This lesson is also given to the man at the
beginning of the scripture who asks Jesus to make his brother
give him the share of his wealth. Jesus warns him not to covet
treasures on earth, but rather to grow rich in God.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, preached
often on financial management. In 1760, Wesley preached a sermon
titled The Use of Money . In it he says, The love
of money, we know, is the root of all evil; but not the thing
itself. The fault does not lie in the money, but in them that
use it . When it came to capital gain, Wesley believed in
these three principles: gain all you can; save all you can; give
all you can. As you might guess, people agreed with him up until
the third principle to give all you can. Wesley reminds us that
we are not our own; rather, we have been entrusted as Gods
stewards here on earth. All that we have belongs to God, not to
us. To keep it for ourselves breaks our covenant with God as His
stewards. Wesley challenges people of faith to do all
possible good, in every possible kind and degree, to the
household of faith, to all people .
The scripture passage in Luke challenges us to rethink our
security. Security does not come from whats stored up in our
barn, but from God alone.
Prayer: God remind me this week about whats really
important. Give me the strength to depend on you and not to
fruitlessly seek security in material things I possess. Amen.
"Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait
for the Lord." -Psalm 31:24
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