Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 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.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12:13-21 ESV)

 

In our study tonight, we looked at this question: Is stuff bad?  And very quickly, the answer was given that, no, stuff isn’t bad – but valuing stuff too highly is.

That is the situation that this foolish man finds himself in in the beginning of the passage in Luke 12 quoted above.  Imagine, Jesus, rumored to be the Christ, thousands around Him feasting on His every word, and then this guy stands up as though he hasn’t heard a word and asks a question about getting what he considers his stuff.  The fact is, this man was so consumed with his stuff, or lack thereof, that he probably DIDN’T hear a word Jesus was saying.

The awkwardness of the moment isn’t relieved by Jesus.  He turns the screws on this guy to make clear to him, the crowd, and us, that stuff is of little importance.  ”Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  Jesus quickly pinpoints that this man’s real problem isn’t with his brother, the laws of the land that keep him from getting what he wants, or even the stuff that he wants – it is his DESIRE for it!  

Right Desires

The focus of Jesus isn’t what was outside of the man (the stuff he wanted), but on the desire inside of him for the stuff outside of him.

If you want to desire something, Jesus says, desire God!  In His concluding remark to the parable of the rich fool, Jesus says, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  Our focus should not be to avoid riches (though they do bring troubles of their own), but to find our wealth in God.

So, it is not that stuff is bad, but if it out-values God for us, then our hearts are skewed, and we do not observe the world rightly.  We must reevaluate the relationship we have with what we have and want, and ask God to give us contentment in the finished work of His Son, and that as we have need, that He would provide us with what we need, and that we would defeat the deceitful desires that tell us that God won’t provide for us.