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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > With earthly possessions, watch out for covetousness | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Hymn 66 Psalm 49:1,2,5 Psalm 103:1,2,6 Hymn 1 Hymn 81 Scripture reading: 1 Timothy 3:6-10 Catechism lesson and text: Lord's Day 44 and Luke 12:13-21 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
A man once had a daughter about to get married and he couldn’t afford the wedding. However, this man was a famous author and he had fans. One of his biggest fans was Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia. She loved the work of Denis Diderot and she felt sorry for him. She offered him the equivalent of over $200,000 for his personal library. He could even hold on to the library and act as her personal librarian. Suddenly all Diderot’s money troubles were over. He had enough for the wedding and more to spare.
One of the first things he bought was a beautiful scarlet robe. But Denis Diderot soon noticed that his scarlet robe didn’t fit with all his other possessions. So he had to upgrade. And he spent the rest of his life upgrading, endlessly shopping and pursuing more and better possessions.
James Clear tells this true story in his bestselling book Atomic Habits. He writes: “Diderot’s behaviour is not uncommon. In fact, the tendency for one purchase to lead to another has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.” It’s a chain reaction that seems impossible to stop.
The fact that the Diderot Effect is so common means the Tenth Commandment continues to be relevant. Denis Diderot wasn’t a Christian, but we all know Christians aren’t immune to the “spiral of consumption” he fell into. Perhaps some of us experience it regularly. When it happens, Scripture tells us that there’s more going on than meets the eye. It’s not just about your outward behaviour. You’re not just getting possessions. Possessions are getting you. They’ve got your heart.
In our passage from Luke 12 this morning, Jesus encounters someone just like that. He uses the opportunity to teach his disciples about the heart dangers that come with earthly possessions. He’s actually providing a valuable lesson on the meaning of the Tenth Commandment about covetousness. So I preach to you God’s Word and I’ve summarized the sermon with this theme: With earthly possessions, watch out for covetousness.
We’ll consider:
- The folly of selfish greed
- The wisdom of being rich toward God
During his earthly ministry, people always flocked around Jesus. Some of them wanted to hear what he had to say. Others wanted to watch what he might do. But there were others who wanted to use him. That’s what happened on this particular day in Luke 12.
There was a man whose father had recently died. He claimed that his brother was hogging the inheritance, taking more than his rightful share. It was common practice to ask rabbis to resolve these sorts of disputes. So he goes to Jesus, thinking that this rabbi will rule in his favour. He’ll then get the portion of the inheritance he thinks he has a right to. It’s impossible to say whether or not this man was actually being cheated by his brother. Perhaps they were both being greedy and selfish in their own ways. After all, there is a saying, “Whenever there’s an inheritance 99% of people become wolves.” Whatever the case was, Jesus was able to discern that there was a heart problem with the man in front of him.
In verse 14, Christ first made clear that his role on earth during that time was not to be a judge or arbitrator of inheritance disputes. Yes, he will return to judge the living and the dead, but that comes later. Now, during this period on earth, his calling is to teach and preach, and then later go to the cross for sinners. So with that said, he again takes on his role as a teacher – ironically, the very thing the man called him in verse 13.
He teaches not only this one man, but everyone there listening. Our Lord Jesus gives a two-fold command, “Take care, and be on your guard…” That command teaches us that there is a threat, a danger from what he’s warning against. If you don’t listen to Jesus, you’re going to suffer harm.
Christ’s warning is against “covetousness.” You could also say greed. What he has in mind here is exactly what God prohibited in the Tenth Commandment: you shall not covet. Covetousness is about the desires of your heart, the greedy desire to have more. If you wanted to, if you had the political power, you could make laws for all the Ten Commandments. But you could never make a law to enforce the Tenth Commandment. That’s because you can’t look into the heart and gauge what’s there. Only God and the individual know what the desires of the heart are. And when we have improper desires for things, for money, for possessions, that’s called covetousness. God calls it a sin.
We should also notice how Jesus warns against “all covetousness.” You could also translate that, “all kinds of covetousness.” You see, there are various kinds of covetousness. Commentator Philip Ryken notes, “The poor are tempted to want all the things they do not have, while the rich are tempted to want even more of what they have.” In the case before him, the one brother perhaps desired to hold on to what he had. He may have been stingy and unwilling to share. And perhaps the brother in front of Jesus had received the share of the inheritance allotted to him by his father, but he wasn’t happy with that and wanted more. I’m not saying that’s the way it was, but it could have been. These are different ways in which covetousness can reveal itself. There are indeed “all kinds of covetousness” that we have to watch out for.
In verse 15, our Lord Jesus goes on to explain why we should be watching out for covetousness. He says, “…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Life isn’t supposed to be about your stuff. That’s not the way God created us to be. Focussing on possessions doesn’t lead to human flourishing. We can become obsessed with more. We can become discontented with what we have. We can crave what we don’t have. When this happens, we’re undermining God’s purpose and design for human life. Life becomes dysfunctional and unhealthy when covetousness takes hold. Just think of the wedge between the man and his brother in our passage. Covetousness and greed can break down families and other relationships. God doesn’t want that for us.
Because that’s the case, Christ drives home the point with a parable here in Luke 12. It’s about a rich man. In the Bible there’s nothing inherently wrong with being rich. There were godly rich men in the Old Testament, men like Abraham and Job. Still, there are dangers that come with being rich and wanting to be rich. We read about that in 1 Timothy 6. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils,” says Paul. Loving money and wanting more of it has led some to wander away from the faith. Being rich means you have to be extra watchful when it comes to covetousness.
The man in the parable certainly wasn’t watchful about his heart. His land produced plentifully. Again, nothing wrong with that. That’s a great blessing. When we receive an abundance, we should be thankful to God. He is the giver of these good gifts. Scripture tells us to acknowledge him in all our ways, and that includes when he lavishes blessings on us. But when this rich man in the parable was so greatly blessed by God, he didn’t turn to God with thanksgiving. He didn’t acknowledge God at all. God isn’t on his mind and he receives no mention whatsoever.
Instead, notice how the conversation in this parable is totally directed inwards. I want you to take a moment and look at verses 17 to 19 and count the number of times you see the word “I.” – you kids can do this too if you have a Bible. There are six. You could also count the number of times you see the word “my” – five times. This whole conversation is self-centered, self-oriented. This man is the center of his own universe. He thinks he’s the master of his own destiny. God has no place in his thinking at all. This is the very definition of foolishness, according to the Bible. For all intents and purposes, he’s an atheist. He lives and acts as if God isn’t there.
Now that this man has a bumper crop, he’s got a problem. He thinks it’s a storage problem. His barns are too small. So he decides he’s going to level all the old barns and build new ones where he can store not only his huge amount of grain, but also his other possessions. They can all be nicely hoarded away.
After making this grandiose plan, he talks to himself further. He says that once the new barns are up, he’ll have so much wealth for years to come. He won’t have to work for a long time, if ever again. He can just focus his life on relaxing – eating, drinking, and partying. He’s got the good life in his sights, the life of leisure.
The rich man has his own evaluation of his situation and it’s quite positive. But God evaluates it quite differently. He evaluates it objectively against the holy standard of his law. By that standard, this man is a fool. Especially in the book of Proverbs, the Bible teaches us a lot about the kind of person a fool is. For example, Proverbs 28:26 says that a fool trusts in himself. But we also learn about fools in other places. Most famously, Psalm 14:1 says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Notice how the fool says it in his heart, inwardly, just like this rich man here in Luke 12. With the way he’s talking to himself, he’s a practical atheist. Maybe he would say he believes in God, but with the way he’s living, he shows that for him God may as well not exist. The foolishness of practical atheism is something that tempts us too. It’s easy to compartmentalize your life and make it so that in your mind, God isn’t relevant for this area or that area. For this rich man, God wasn’t relevant when it came to his possessions. And this is part of the reason God calls him a “fool.”
But there’s more to it. The fool doesn’t reckon with his own mortality. The fool doesn’t reckon with the frailty of human life. We’re all going to die. That’s reality. No one lives forever on this earth in this age. There comes a time when God calls us out of this life. We just don’t know when that time will be. The wise person lives with the awareness of that. The foolish person ignores their own mortality and frailty for the sake of their sin, whether it’s greed or covetousness or any other sin.
That’s what the rich man did. He thought he would have many years ahead of him to enjoy his riches. But God said, “No, you fool. Tonight I require your soul from you.” Your soul is not your own, it belongs to God. When he calls for it, it has to come to him so he can do as he pleases with it. For some, for those who have placed their trust in Christ, that means a blessed eternity in God’s presence. But for those who haven’t trusted in Christ, those who have trusted in themselves and their possessions, that means an eternity under God’s wrath. There are only those two options. There’s no middle ground. Loved ones, when your soul is required of you, I plead with you: make sure your soul is safe in Christ. And since you don’t know when that will be, if you’re not already placing your trust in him, start doing so today.
In verse 20, God asks then about the rich man’s wealth: “…and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” What about all that grain, what about all those possessions? Like Denis Diderot, you can be obsessively upgrading your whole life long. You can be focussed on getting more and getting better, whether it’s money or goods. But when your soul departs your body when you die, you’re going to leave it all behind. When you get lowered down into the grave, you’ll just have the clothes on your back. That’s reality and it’s the fool who ignores it or denies it. It’s the fool who thinks that all there is to this life is the abundance of possessions. Such has a person has a shortened horizon and misses out on the fullness of what God wants life to be.
You see, as one commentator pointed out, instead of having a storage problem, this rich man had a spiritual problem, a heart problem. He was turned in on himself. He gave no regard for God, and he also had no regard for the people around him. Ambrose was one of the Church Fathers. He wrote, “You have barns – barns are the bosoms of the needy. Barns are the house of the widows and the mouths of orphans and infants.” God sometimes blesses us with more than we need so we can in turn bless others. He wants us to be his hands and feet to show mercy to a needy world. Failing to realize that and being greedy, hoarding it all for ourselves, that’s utter sinful foolishness. That kind of utter sinful foolishness deserves God’s eternal wrath.
If you’ve ever let that be part of your story, I have good news for you. When you lean on Jesus Christ, he has carried the wrath you deserve for your selfish greed. When you rest in Jesus and what he did on the cross, he paid the penalty you owe to God. Your soul has been purchased with his blood. You need have no fear when the day comes that God requires your soul of you. Loved ones, there is forgiveness in Christ for selfish greed. Just bring it to the Lord, confess it to him, and he will forgive all of our different sorts of covetousness.
And yet there’s even more good news. Jesus said, “…one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Let’s think about the life of Jesus himself. How much did Jesus own? Not much, maybe just the clothes he was wearing. He didn’t have an abundance of possessions. He didn’t ever succumb to the temptations of covetousness. He was tempted in every way like we are, but he never sinned. He was the perfect man always on guard against greedy selfish desires. And his obedience is ours when we believe in him. It’s transferred over to you. When you’re with Christ by faith, God looks at you and he doesn’t see the foolish rich man in this parable, but the wise man Jesus. Isn’t that a relief to know?
Then being in Christ by faith, we also see the wisdom of being rich towards God. In verse 21, Christ gives the punch-line (as it were) of the parable. The main point: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Laying up treasure for yourself like the rich man did – that’s foolish and evil. Being rich toward God – that’s wise and righteous.
So then the next question obviously has to be: what does it mean to be rich toward God? Our Lord Jesus explains that further in chapter 12. Being rich toward God essentially means living a God-centered life, a life that takes God into account in everything. So Christ speaks in the following verses in chapter 12 about the necessities of life. Take God into account with those necessities. Take his providence into account. He will provide for his children. Trust him. Think more about God and less about your food and clothing and house.
As an illustration of what it means to be rich towards God, we could think of the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes often confuses people because it seems to give mixed messages. The messages are mixed in the book itself, but also when compared to what other Bible passages say. The key to understanding Ecclesiastes is one little phrase that occurs numerous times: “under the sun.” Most of the book is looking at life “under the sun,” which is to say apart from any real reckoning with God and his presence in this world. So it’s saying, if there’s only life “under the sun,” then it’s all “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Life under the sun, without God, is just pointless and foolish. The real point is that it’s only when life is considered with God, when we’re rich toward God, that life becomes meaningful. That’s the wise way.
And our Lord Jesus says in Luke 12:31 that if we seek God’s kingdom, if we’re rich toward him, then everything else will be added. Another way of putting this is that if we line up the Tenth Commandment and the First Commandment, everything begins to fall properly into place and we can see how rich we are with God. The Tenth Commandment is about our improper desires. The First Commandment is about God and how we should desire him above all, have him at the center of lives. So the Tenth Commandment tells us to turn away from our improper desires, our greed and covetousness, and the First Commandment tells us to turn to God and have him alone at the center of our lives. Our whole world should revolve around him and not the earthly things we covet, not our sinful desires.
If we’re believers, God has already been rich towards us in Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with a super-abundant life in him. God has promised to be our Father and love us as his children. We have his Holy Spirit to comfort us and guide us. We have his promise of a new creation waiting, a place of great contentment, joy, and peace. So this isn’t about working our way towards him – he’s already come near to us in his grace. No, this is about how we respond to the riches we’ve been graciously given. Christ says we’re to be rich toward God. It’s something we’re called to do. Prayerfully depending on God we can begin to do it. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can start being rich toward God by not letting anything take his place at the center – not possessions, not money, not anything at all.
During the Second World War, bombers were sometimes shot down over the ocean. If the crews survived the crash, they’d been in a life-raft with limited rations of food and water. If they weren’t rescued soon, they’d eventually run out of fresh water. Most people can only survive three days without water, less if they’re injured or it’s really warm. So you can imagine being really thirsty and you’re surrounded by water, all this water from the ocean. Eventually you’d be tempted to drink it. Some did. Having drunk the salt water, they only wanted more. Then they drank more and more, until it finally killed them. It’s one thing to do that in an emergency. But imagine having fresh water available and then choosing to do that. That’s foolish. That’s what we do when we turn away from God and look to other things to satisfy us. We always need more and what we want more of will only kill us in the end. Loved ones, it’s so much wiser and better to go to the fount of living waters. Turn to Christ, be rich toward God in him, and you’ll find what life really consists of. AMEN.
PRAYER
Merciful God and Father,
Thank you for showing us the foolishness of covetousness. Through your Word, we now see it for what it is. We ask for the help of your Holy Spirit to hate it and turn away from it. We pray that you would forgive every time we have veered into this foolishness. Please forgive us through Christ our Saviour. Regard us in the light of who he is and what he has done in his perfectly obediently life. We pray for the guidance of your Spirit so we can be rich toward you. Help us to have you at the center of our lives, to seek first your kingdom. Help us to see possessions and wealth for what they are – gifts from your hand, entrusted to us for service to you and our neighbour. We pray that we would never make created things greater than you, our majestic and awesome Creator God.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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