Getting Eternity Right Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

It's true, there's no U-Haul following your hearse to the cemetery. You can't take it with you. Jesus told a story about a man who had a lot but wanted a lot more.

That night, the man's life was taken. If there's one thing you want to get right, it's where you will spend eternity. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today we begin your last message from the parables of Jesus.

Give us a preview. You know, Dave, I've often thought that if I were ever asked to speak to the investors on Wall Street, this is the passage of scripture I would use. This is the parable. Jesus talks about a very wealthy man, great crops, I will tear down my barns and build greater. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, and then Jesus says these words that are chilling. Today, your soul will be demanded of you.

Takes your breath away. You know, I believe that what Jesus Christ communicated in these parables is so critical that we want to make this series of messages available to you. The series is entitled You Can't Redo Life for a Gift of Any Amount These Messages Can Be Yours.

Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com, or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. This would be an opportunity for you to grow in your Christian faith as you think about what Jesus communicated through these powerful stories.

Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now let us open our hearts and our minds to the words of Jesus that are a rebuke really to the wealthy, but to all of us. The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. So said Michael Douglas in a movie.

There's an alternate view. Watch out, beware, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions, Jesus Christ. So who are we going to go with in life today, Michael Douglas or Jesus?

There's no doubt that our society has chosen to go with Michael Douglas. Greed is good. It's the one sin that you can commit that you'll never be disciplined for.

Almost no one will point it out in your life. We may know when we have crossed the line in moral issues, in honest or dishonest issues, but there's something about greed that seems so right. The problem is that Jesus made it very clear that greed leads to problems, and we know the problems that greed leads to, don't we? For example, greed leads us to debt.

So people go into debt because of greed. Years ago, Christians used to have to pray, Lord, I need a car, give me one. Maybe somebody would lend them one. Maybe they'd have enough money for one. But today you don't.

All that you need to do is to have some kind of credit and you can go there and you can buy that vehicle and you don't even have to pray about it. And so greed, I should say, leads us to debt. There's another problem with greed, and that is it leads to dishonesty. You think, for example, of how many people have been dishonest in business and in their dealings always wanting more, always justifying it within their mind because greed is really the thirst for more.

And then if that isn't enough, greed is also very deceptive. You've heard me say many times that money makes the same promises that God does. It says that I will be with you. I'll be there for you.

The problem is that money cannot buy happiness because there are many miserable people who are wealthy. And in the end, when it's time to die, all the money in the world and all the things that you accumulated will not help you. With that introduction, I want you to turn to the 12th chapter of the book of Luke, Luke chapter 12. And I hope that all of you do bring your Bibles to church. If not, there is one probably in the seat in front of you, page 871, page 871, where Jesus again interacts with people.

And the Bible says here very clearly that Jesus was interacting and teaching. And it says in verse 13 of Luke chapter 12, someone in the crowd has said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said, man, who made a judge or arbitrator over you? 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 life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

Wow. Jesus was so unpredictable, wasn't he? You know, somebody comes to him, and rabbis used to always settle disputes like this. Somebody comes to him and says, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

If he was an elder brother, as he probably was according to the law of Levitical inheritance, the older should receive two-thirds, the younger one-third. But you and I know all about those disputes, don't we? In my short life, I've heard so many different stories of people who have had conflict within the family. The family gets through the funeral, and then afterwards the arguments begin. One child tries to chisel the other out of his inheritance, or it can go very differently. Maybe the person who was in charge of the estate, the arbiter, maybe the person who has power of attorney wants to hog all the money and not share it with the others for whom it was intended. And families have been divided and sometimes permanently divided. We'd expect Jesus to take a side on this issue and say, yeah, it's only right that your brother divide the inheritance with you.

And under certain circumstances, that would have been good advice. But Jesus doesn't do that. He leaves behind the issue of the conflict, and what he does is, and it's just like Jesus, he gets to the heart of the matter and he begins to talk about greed and covetousness. You know, greed has two different cousins. The first is covetousness.

And you think of all the problems that people have gotten into because of it. Eve sinned greatly because she coveted the idea of being like God. David got into deep water and had to pay a tremendous price for his immorality when he coveted another man's wife. And of course, Satan himself, that was the first sin. He said, I will be like God. And so he coveted God's position in the universe.

And look at what happened to that. Covetousness. Another cousin of greed is envy. Envy is when I'm angry with somebody who has money because I don't want them to have it.

And we despise those who have been blessed more than we have. You know, there's an old story about an angel coming to a man and saying, anything that you ask for can be yours, but your ex-wife is going to get double. You ask for a new car, she is going to be getting two of them.

You ask for a million dollars, she is going to get two million. So he thought for a while and said, what I want you to do is to make me blind in one eye. In another version of the same story, I heard that the man said, I want to be half dead. We resent the fact that other people are being blessed. And so all of these sins coil as a serpent in our heart, deeply justified. We live with denial.

We have layers and layers of rationalization. So Jesus just avoids the whole issue of the conflict, and he goes directly to the issue at hand, and that is a covetous, greedy spirit. So this is what he says. He told them a parable. This happens to be the last in a series of ten messages on the parables, how the parables help us get it right the first time, because we can't redo life. It's not that we've covered all the parables by any means, but these are the ones that I have chosen to expound on. So verse 16, he tells them a parable. 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'll 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? And then Jesus adds, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Years ago, and I'm not sure exactly where, I found an outline on this text which I am going to adapt for my own purposes. As we look at it, I want us to notice three huge mistakes that this man made. And then let's ask ourselves if we might be making the very same mistakes. The first mistake that he made is that he mistook his body for his soul. He mistook his body for his soul. There he is saying to himself that, oh, look at my goods, and I will say to my soul, soul, the Greek word is psyche. Thou hast met much goods laid up for many years. No, no, no, his body had ample goods laid up for many years, but his soul was being starved.

There was no attention being paid to his soul. And come with me to Wall Street. How much attention is being given to the people's souls? Come with me to LaSalle Street. People pay attention to their body, but they neglect their souls.

Go to the health clubs. Yesterday at about 8 o'clock in the morning, I was walking toward Lake Michigan, and I was surprised at the hundreds of runners that I encountered on a Saturday morning at 8 o'clock. My first thought was, get a life. What are you doing on a Saturday morning running like this? Well, you know, you're laughing, but have you ever seen a runner smile, for heaven's sake?

I don't think so. And so you have all of these people prepping their bodies, making sure that they are healthy, and then they add to that health foods. And they are more concerned as to whether or not potatoes have toxins than they do their own soul.

And that may be fine. And then, of course, they eat all kinds of vitamins to make sure that they live a little longer. It's not wrong. A friend of mine says that he was told that if he would run every day, he would add 15 years to his life. And so he ran for three weeks and says, it's absolutely right. He said, after three weeks, I feel 15 years older already just doing that.

Well, I try to jog too, sometimes not very faithfully, but it's a good idea. But what a disaster. What a disaster it is when people confuse their bodies with their souls. So their bodies are well cared for and their souls are starved. They never go to the word of God. They never seriously pray. They never connect with other people. There's just no spiritual life there. And this man confused his soul with his body.

Wow. What about the relative value of the soul and the body? Jesus said this, what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Your body is important.

Take good care of it. But it is not as important as your soul. No matter how much care you give your body, you will die. But your soul is going to live on forever and your body will be eventually raised. But what will man give, said Jesus, in exchange for his soul?

And what would you give in exchange for your soul? This man confused his soul with his body. There's a second mistake that he made and that is he confused himself.

He mistook himself for God. If you look at the text, you'll notice that six times this man used the little word I. And about another six times he used the word me, my, or myself. So I'm going to reread it emphasizing this narcissistic view of life. By the way, he spoke to himself.

You know, if you're a real narcissist, there's nobody else around as bright as you are, so why should you expand the conversation, right? So this is the way it goes. 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, and be merry. I, I, I, I, I. How did he mistake himself for God? First of all, because he took ownership of that which belonged to God.

What's this business of my barns and my grain? Is he the one that created those little kernels that have programmed within them life so that they can reproduce? Is he the one who created the soil? Is he the one who was the one who gave sunshine and rain and moisture so that he would have a good crop?

Is he the one that did that? What's all this my business doing here? And what about my retirement accounts and my bank accounts and my inheritance and my house?

Where's all that coming from? We learned in the last parable I spoke about that it is God's, but he was assuming ownership over something that actually belonged to God. But there's something else in the text and that is also that he thought the future was in his hands. He thought the future was in his hands. So thou hast much goods stored up for many years. I'm going to have a long life. I'm going to be around for a while and I have enough assets and I have enough money to make sure that it's going to happen.

I can live in ease, eat, drink, and be merry for as long as I can possibly be. And so he thought that that was under his control, but of course it wasn't. There's a third mistake he made. He mistook his body for his soul. He mistook himself for God. And number three, he also, notice carefully, he mistook time.

He mistook time for eternity. Just think of it. God is speaking and God said to him, verse 20, fool.

Wow. And I was thinking about this as I prepared this message. Just imagine dying and God almighty saying to you, fool. You know, D.L. Moody said that he was preaching one time and while he was preaching, somebody actually came up and laid a piece of paper on his pulpit. And he looked at the piece of paper and it had but one word, fool.

D.L. Moody paused for a moment and said, you know, he said, I have frequently received letters where people didn't sign their name, but this is the first time I've had somebody sign his name and not write the letter. When this man heard the word, fool, from God, God said, fool, signed God.

Fool. This night, not tomorrow night, not next week after you've had some time to think through what your will should say, but this night, your soul is required of you. And the Greek word required can also be translated demanded. God says this night, this night, your soul is demanded of you. A word that was sometimes used when a note became due.

You borrowed some money from somebody and it was to be borrowed for a certain amount of time and now that time is up and the payment is demanded of you. And so this man finds himself confronted with a living God. And now suddenly he's got to give an account to God and he realizes the huge mistake he made, but it was indeed too late.

Jesus says, that's the way it's going to be. Verse 21, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You lay up treasures for yourself, but you have no riches toward God. What does this story teach us? I'd like to suggest it teaches us three lessons and for those lessons, I'll give you three words.

First of all, it teaches us something about greed, greed versus generosity or greed versus trust. Here you have a man who was greedy, but you see the reason he didn't see it is because as far as we know, every dime that he earned, every bushel that he harvested was done honestly. There's nothing in the text here to suggest that the man was crooked in his dealings. It's not that he was chiseling people out of what was theirs.

It's just that God happened to bless him with big crops and so he had to build bigger barns. Let me tell you that the sin of covetousness, which the Bible says is idolatry, that sin actually exists in all of our hearts and it is the most difficult sin for us to see. When the Apostle Paul was speaking about his own conviction of sin, I believe it's in Romans chapter 11, he said that he was righteous, he did everything right, but then there was one commandment that slew him and that was the last of the 10 commandments, thou shalt not covet. And he realized that lust itself is coveting that which isn't yours. And it was that that drove the Apostle Paul to his knees and the recognition that he needed a savior because he understood clearly that thou shalt not covet is a sin.

And you and I need to remember that. You know, the words of Jesus Christ are so powerful and set within the context of parables. The parables that he told are very difficult for us to forget. Jesus Christ was a wonderful communicator.

And all of us remember the story of this rich man and the various stories that Jesus told to get a point across. I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of running to win. And you know, it's because of people like you, it's because of the investments made on the part of thousands of people that we are now in 20 different countries in three different languages. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

I like to think of it as these are the people who join the running to win family. It's not just that you support a ministry, but you become a part of us in a very personal way. For more information, here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com. And when you're there, by the way, you click on the endurance partner button.

RTWOffer.com. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I know frequently when I hear a phone number or a website, I don't have time to write it down.

That's why I'm going to repeat it now. Hope that you have an opportunity to take note of this. Connect with us. Become an endurance partner. Find out information. Go to RTWOffer.com.

Click on the endurance partner button. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us get the gospel around the world. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635, North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. In the story of the rich fool, greed was one issue, but covetousness was another. None of us is free from the grip of wanting more. Next time on Running to Win, Erwin Lutzer concludes his series with some final thoughts on a parable as meaningful today as it was when Jesus told it. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.