| Introduction When we consider the subject of God, my heart, and stuff, we are considering the place that possessions should have in our lives. Ultimately, we are considering negatively the sin of covetousness and positively fulfillment in God through Christ. This is an issue that is not a respector of persons. One may have all kinds of stuff and relate to them in God-glorifying way. One can also have nothing and covet everything. What you have is not the issue. The issue is what you are satisfied with. I. What Is Going on in Luke 12? A. A great crowd had gathered to watch the debate between Jesus and the Pharisees, 12:1a 1. The debate had intensified when Jesus openly challenged the Pharisees, 11:39-44. 2. The Pharisees tried to get back at Jesus by looking for a way to catch him with his own words, 11:53-54. 3. In the middle of this war, Jesus turns to the crowd and denounces the Pharisees, 12:1b. B. At the height of this conflict a man comes in and stops the debate, 12:13. 1. He had been watching the debate – one from the crowd. 2. And his request? "Tell my brother to give it to me!" 3. Talk about missing the point. a. Jesus had talked about his being the Son of Man prophesied in the OT, 12:8. b. Jesus had just said how the Holy Spirit is going to minister to them. c. And the big deal for this guy was that his brother wasn't being fair to him. C. Jesus took the opportunity to teach on a related topic to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: covetousness and pride, 12:15. ESV – And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 1. The reason Jesus is singling this guy out is for our benefit because we are more like him than we might be willing to admit. 2. So Jesus gives us a double warning: take care and be on your guard. a. The first word, take care or take heed literally means see to it and thus pay attention. b. The second word, be on your guard against or beware, is the word used for the guard or watchman on the city wall watching for the enemies. c. Both words are in the imperative mood (command) and in the present tense, which conveys a continuing action. II. Jesus Is Teaching against Practical Materialism. A. Materialism is the worldview that teaches that all that exists is the material. 1. There is nothing outside the material universe, that is, nothing transcends this universe. 2. This worldview denies the existence of a spiritual reality, including God. B. Practical materialism is living life as if only the material universe exists. 1. Though Christians readily deny and denounce materialism as a worldview, they often live as if that was their worldview. a. This practical materialism is fundamentally a focus on, and trust in, what we can touch and possess. b. It is a far deeper problem than having stuff. c. It is an expression of worldliness. 1 Jn. 2:16 – For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. d. We have a tendency to link who we are with what we have. 2. Jesus is calling his people to live lives that are consistent with the worldview that this present world is not their home. C. So, what was this guy's problem? Not his brother, but himself. III. Jesus Is Warning US against Life Defined by the Oldest, Most Powerful Temptation: The Temptation to Covet. Gen. 3:5-6 – For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree wasgood for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make onewise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. A. What is covetousness? How do we know when we are coveting? Larger Catechism helpful. WLC 47 – What are the duties required in the tenth commandment? The duties required in the tenth commandment are, such a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame of the whole soul towards our neighbour, as that all our inward motions and affections touching him, tend unto, and further all that good which is his. WLC 148 – What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment? The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbour, together with all inordinate motions and affections to any thing that is his. 1. Covetousness is desiring stuff too much. 2. It is replacing our delight in God with joy in stuff. 3. And practical materialism happens with covetousness has cash to spend. B. Covetousness brings the Ten Commandments around full circle. Eph. 5:5 – For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Col. 3:5 – Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 1. Through covetous attractions and distractions within the heart, our stuff takes on meaning in our lives beyond what God intends. 2. Idolatrous cravings take our hearts away from God and affix them to things of this world. 3. We can't do that and serve God at the same time, 16:13. C. The sin of covetousness is not that we have stuff; it is that our stuff has us. 1. That's why the man in the crowd found it so easy to ignore what Jesus was teaching and to demand a ruling on his belongings. 2. Covetousness blinded him from everything but his momentary object of worship: a family inheritance. IV. Covetousness Is an Equal-Opportunity Sin. A. The audience gathered around Jesus on that day was made up largely of peasants, yet Christ took aim at their coveting and unbelief by relating a parable of the rich fool, 12:13-21. B. The issue is not tax brackets, but desire; so whether one is rich or poor doesn't matter. C. Yet, affluence can be a spiritual disability, 18:24. 1. But this doesn't mean God is biased against the rich; it means the rich are often biased against God. 2. Their affluence feels like it meets needs, but it really diverts attention from the Savior to their stuff. D. On the other hand, it is important to locate materialism and consumerism in the coveting heart. 1. Covetousness doesn't start with shopping addiction or "and offer I couldn't refuse." 2. The real problem is a heart that desires a different God than Jesus. 3. Austerity or indulgence won't solve it V. The Solution to This Man's Problem Was Standing Right in Front Him: Jesus Christ. A. To appreciate God's solution, we must understand man's problem, 12:16-21. B. This is the tale of two characters. a. He is thinking, "Business is good, and it's time to consider storage upgrades." b. Needing strategic advice to form a business plan, he calls upon the most trusted consultant he knows – himself. c. Building bigger barns is the reasonable plan he devises for stewarding his increased resources. d. Inspired by his own genius, he comforts his soul, satisfied that he has invested wisely and earned a little time off. 2. Enters the Divine-Auditor a. The rich man's number has come up and it is time for the great accounting of his investments in heaven. b. Facing eternity, he stand bankrupt with nothing to show but debts he can't pay and he has a new name: fool. 3. What's the moral of the story? Covetousness chains the heart to things that are passing away. VI. Four Covetous Chains That Bind Our Hearts to the World. A. Chain 1: my stuff makes me happy. 1. The rich man said, "you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry" 12:19. 2. In today's language his self-advice might be translated, "Shop, buy, and consume – and let it bring you happiness." 3. Certainly we enjoy getting new things, but the happiness that comes from stuff functions much like a drug, creating temporary sense of order or status that become so intoxicating that we need greater "stuff-hits" to maintain it. a. Our cravings to relax, eat, drink, and be merry can be a powerful temptation when we believe happiness is only a purchase away. b. Isn't it what the current American thinking about retirement is all about? Work like crazy now even if you can't enjoy the present so that one day you might be free to go collect sea shells at the beach. 4. The chains of covetousness are forged in the fires of discontentment. 5. The problem is that when happiness is in stuff, we find out that no amount of it makes us happy. B. Chain 2: my stuff makes me important. 1. The intertwining of pride and covetousness is as inevitable as it is destructive. a. If I am truly at the center of things (pride), then stuff exists to serve my desires (coveting). b. And if I find my identity in stuff (coveting), then the amount of stuff I acquire makes me important (pride). c. If the man wanting Jesus to rule on the inheritance took his mind off of himself for a second, he might have seen this truth and himself in the parable. 2. How many advertisers seek to peddle their products by appealing to our inner arrogance, the unvarnished assumption being that we deserve the best? 3. The Bible calls this chain "the pride of life" in 1 Jn. 2:16, which is part of the three pronged definition of worldliness. C. Chain 3: my stuff makes me secure. 1. In the parable, the economy was roaring and times were good, 12:16. 2. And the good times became a test for the rich man: where is he going to place his trust? 3. Have you ever thought of prosperity as a test? a. This man's answer to the test was in 12:18. Good or bad? b. Randy Alcorn, in his book Money, Possessions and Eternity, says that he heard the following statement a leader of the Romanian church. "In my experience, 95 percent of the believers who face the test of persecution pass it, while 95 percent who face the test of prosperity fail it." c. I can already see some of you praying that God would test you in this way: Go ahead, Lord. Test me with plenty – I can take it! d. Yet if our hope is in the security that prosperity might bring instead of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have already failed the test. D. Chain 4: my stuff makes me rich. 1. The rich man measured wealth incorrectly: he measured it by what was in his barn while God measured it by what was in his heart. 2. And we might measure our own wealth incorrectly as well: we might want to build and store, build and store without sufficient consideration for the purpose of our prosperity. 3. We have to be careful that, like the rich man, the things we prize the most don't become our demise. a. Captain Ahab goes down with Moby Dick. b. Gollum goes into the fires of Mordor with the ring VII. What to Do? A. If you are presently in bondage to the chains of covetousness, there is good news: the chains of coveting, though strong, are not unbreakable – he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. B. Jesus followed the rich fool parable with a discourse on the abundant provision of the Father, culminating in the promise of 12:32. 1. Can you see the beauty of this promise? 2. We of idol-tempted hearts, chained to things that are passing away, are promised an inheritance in a kingdom that will never pass away. C. So post your guard by walking in grace. 2 Cor. 9:8 – And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things,may have an abundance for every good work. D. Consider your true riches. 2 Cor. 8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. "When someone sets his affections upon the cross and the love of Christ, he crucifies the world as a dead and undesirable thing. The baits of sin lose their attraction and disappear. Fill your affections with the cross of Chris and you will find no room for sin." John Owen E. Confess and repent – to God and to those who have been sinned against because of your covetousness. F. Express specific gratitude for all God has done for you and all that HE has given to you. G. De-materialize you life 1. This may mean that you should get rid of stuff. 2. And if this rubs you wrong, why does it? H. Give generously 1 Tim. 6:18-19 – Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. I. Guide and guard your kids 1. Guard against the pressure of everything around them that tells them that their value is in the stuff they have, clothes they have. 2. Guide to share and give so that others can be blessed by their possessions.
C.S. Lewis said, "He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only." It is this realization that will free us from covetousness.
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