Getting Eternity Right Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The parables of Jesus cut to the deepest level of human motivation. 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. Today, what we can take home from a powerful parable. 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, it's amazing how we can focus on money when it's clear we can't take it with us. Well Dave, I know exactly what you mean, but I do want to push back just a little bit because I like to tell people that you can take it with you if you transfer it into a fund that lasts forever and that is secure. Jesus talked about that when he was speaking about money and said lay up treasures not on earth because they can be corrupted but in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal.

So in that sense we can take it with us. I love the parables of Jesus and I trust that this series entitled You Can't Redo Life, a series on the parables, has been a blessing to you and today is the last day we are making these messages available to you so that you can listen to them again and again. Here's what you do, go to rtwoffer.com. For a gift of any amount, by the way, these messages can be yours.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series of messages, You Can't Redo Life. And now we give our attention again to a powerful parable told by Jesus. 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 Ten 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.

Now, it's interesting that we should not divorce Jesus, the parable, from what Jesus says afterwards. Your Bibles are open to the text because as a continuation of this discussion, he says in verse 22, therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, about your body, what you will put on, is not the life more than food and the body than raiment? Let's skip to verse 29, and do not seek what you are about to eat and what you are to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world, seek after these things and your father knows that you have need of them. Instead seek his kingdom and his righteousness and these things will be added to you.

Fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And then Jesus, again this unpredictable Jesus, says, sell your possessions and give to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys for where your treasure is there your heart will be also. You know, verse 33 has sometimes been misinterpreted.

It's been misinterpreted. You look at the Middle Ages and there were those who says we're going to sell absolutely everything and we're going to walk around naked and we're going to preach the gospel. If we as a church did that, what we'd soon discover is that we ourselves would be a huge burden to society because we'd all give our way into poverty. You need to take the saying of Jesus and you need to relate it to the parable. What that man should have been doing, instead of being so covetous, is giving away most of his wealth, keeping what he needed to live on, but making sure that when he died his barns weren't full for himself, but for others. And Jesus here is teaching us exactly what we need to know about money.

There is a word, therefore, and that is the word greed. There's a second lesson that Jesus is teaching us and that is a lesson about life itself, isn't he? What is life?

The Bible says it's like a vapor that's here for a moment and gone. You and I do not control the time that we die. I mean if somebody wishes to take their own lives they may say, their own life they may say, well I'm controlling when I die. By the way, bad idea.

If you're hearing this message and you are tempted to do that you are putting a period where there should be a comma and there is hope. Don't accept darkness as an option. But the fact is that we really can't control the time that we die.

This morning coming to the church I had the radio on and I discovered that on one of our expressways three people were killed this morning. This man thought, well I have my future in control. You know, I have much goods laid up for many years. And God said to him, tonight, this night, your soul is going to give an account.

I'm demanding it from you. Life is not under our control. And the real purpose of this life is to prepare for the next.

That's why we're here. I've gone into bookstores and I've looked at the travel section. And there are people there, you know, who are buying books because they intend to go to France possibly or Germany or some place in Europe or some place on the other side of the world. And they're buying guidebooks as I myself have done and they're trying to learn a few words in a foreign language.

My friend, they are giving more attention to two weeks in Europe than they are giving an eternity that is about to come. Because you see, eternity is on its way and this life is preparation for eternity. And that's why Jesus says here that we should use our possessions, provide for yourself money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that will not fail. I've already emphasized Jesus in context is not telling us to sell everything. He's asking us to use our money wisely. And that's why here at the Moody Church, we have classes on how to do that, how to budget, how to live within your means so you don't go into debt, how to save, how to give. But the point is this, that all of life is preparation for eternity.

I've never done this, but when I'm on a plane and somebody says, what do you do for a living? Maybe what I should do is I'm saying, well, I'm full time trying to prepare for eternity. That ought to get a nice conversation going. That's what Jesus is teaching here. And so there's a lesson about greed. There's a lesson for us about life. And then of course, because he confused time and eternity, there's a lesson here about eternity, isn't there? You've heard me say this many times at the Moody Church and I'm sure you will hear me say it again. Life is short. Eternity is long, very long. If you were to take a measuring tape that would go from here to Mars, by the way, this past week, Rebecca and I were with a man who is an astronomer and with a laser beam flashlight, he was pointing out all of the stars that are up there.

And he seemed to know all of them by name and all these constellations and all of these relationships and I was just looking at it and thinking, God, I mean, what a party you had when you just threw all that stuff together. And I asked him, I said, how many galaxies are there? And he said, two to the tenth power.

Do you know how much that is? I mean, that would be a number this long. And if you were to have a measuring tape from here to Mars or beyond, this life could just be a little hairline in compared to eternity. And of course, if we wanted to compare it to eternity, we wouldn't stop with Mars, would we?

We would go beyond that, all the way to eternity. No wonder Jesus said to this man, you fool. The way in which you prepare for eternity, by the way, is not to give all your money away as the first thing that you should do. You and I know that in order to really prepare to meet God, we are thankful that when Jesus died on the cross and was raised again from the dead, he paid for our sin so that we can be forgiven. Our sin can be wiped away. And that's the only way you'll get into heaven, by the way. You'll get into heaven because of the righteousness of Jesus applied to your account. And don't tell me that you're a Christian because you are baptized. It's possible to be baptized so often that the fish in Lake Michigan know your name and still be lost.

And we saw some of them, I think, yesterday asking what our names were. So don't think that you are it because you were brought up in a Christian home and you're a good person. There are plenty of people who are good, who will never make it to heaven. You must trust Christ as your savior to prepare for eternity. Would you remember that and get that straight? But the point is, yes, the point is he prepared for time, but not eternity.

You know, as I was preparing this message, I was reminded of a very wealthy farmer who was not known to me, but was known to the members of my family. His wife was a Christian. He came to church, just sat there, no spiritual interest at all.

I marvel at that. Miserable, but totally content with his sin and unwilling to come to Christ to receive forgiveness. He owned much land, kept buying it up, and God gave him good crops. He was still relatively young and he wasn't sick before this time, but he was driving his truck to the big city and he was found dead, dead of a heart attack.

God said, today, your soul is demanded of him. I wasn't at his funeral, but some of my relatives were, and they said that what they did at the funeral is they had a table where they memorialized him. And on the table, they had a miniature grain elevator.

They had, and some of you who weren't brought up on a farm won't know this, but they had a grease gun that's used to grease farm machinery and even his overalls that he used to wear. And I thought about that and I thought, well, is it really true that the person with the most toys at death wins? So this is what it comes down to. This is what it comes down to for a rich man who had all the money in the world, who expected to live many, many years and suddenly without notice, his soul was demanded by God.

And unless there's some mercy that we don't know about in his life, since he gave no evidence of being interested in receiving the gospel, perhaps he heard the words of Jesus, you fool. You lived as if this was the only life there was when this life's only purpose is to prepare for eternity. One day, Rebecca and I were in a funeral home and we're actually looking at caskets. I never know whether they should be caskets or whether they should be called coffins.

All that I know is no matter what you call them, they look rather final when you think about the fact that someday you're going to be in one of them. But the lady who was demonstrating them to us showed us that some of them, I don't know if all of them do, they have a little drawer that you can pull out. The little drawers may be one foot by one foot and two inches deep in which you can put something to memorialize and encapsulate the life of the person who died. She said, for example, there are some people who will put golf balls into it because this guy really was into golf. I tried golf one time and I'm not into it.

It took me six strokes to get a hole in one, so I've decided that I got to go with something else. But, you know, you put golf balls in there. I suppose if somebody liked to go to Las Vegas, you know, you could put some dice in there when they die.

If somebody was interested in politics, maybe you would put a book there that was their favorite author. Whatever it might be that somehow symbolizes their life. So I was looking at that little drawer and I thought, hmm, I wonder what would fit in there when I die. Could I ask you a question? When you die, when your soul is demanded by God, what will be in that little box?

What symbolizes your life? This rich man thought he had it made. God said, your soul is demanded tonight. And by the way, speaking of the sin of covetousness, you know, the other day I heard an ad on the newspaper or over the radio like you've heard, you know, for advertising a casino. It gives all of the details and it says, have a gambling problem, call one of the reporters.

They don't want anybody to get that phone number. Let me tell you something. It's not a casino on planet earth that regrets having made somebody an addict.

They're looking for addicts. I think that what Jesus is saying here, you've got a covetous problem? Sell your possessions, give them to the poor, be generous, that'll take care of your covetousness. The bottom line, here's a man who mistook eternity for time and in the day of judgment heard the awesome, horrid words of God, you fool. Now this message is intended for you. It's intended for you. If you are a Christian, it is also intended for you, especially if you are an unbeliever here today. And there may be many with us today, pious, self-righteous, content, neglecting their soul. So I go back to the words of Jesus quoted earlier when he said so clearly, what shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what are you giving in exchange for your soul? If your soul has not been redeemed, hurry to Jesus, ask him for cleansing, for forgiveness, transfer your trust to him, look upon him and be saved. Because someday, maybe not soon, but someday your soul will be required.

Well, let's pray. Father, the passage is sobering. Forgive all of us, myself included, for living as if this is the only world that exists, forgetting that our real purpose of life is for eternity. Help us to prepare to meet our God, for your word says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God unprepared. For those who are here today who've never received Christ as Savior, would you cause them to believe, maybe they're in the balcony, maybe they're in the lower part of the sanctuary, they may be listening on the internet or by radio. Many who have joined us at this moment, we pray, help them to believe on Jesus and be saved. We call on you to do what we can't, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. If you've been listening to Running to Win for any length of time, you know that we always point people to Jesus Christ.

This ministry is really about him and not about us. I trust that you've been blessed as a result of the parables that Jesus told. And if so, these messages can be yours in a permanent form so that you can listen to them again and again, share them with your friends.

Maybe you missed some of the sessions that we had together. For a gift of any amount, these messages can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com. And I want to thank in advance the many of you who do indeed help with this ministry.

You support it financially. Thank you so very, very much. We want to make this resource available to you. It's entitled, You Can't Redo Life, a series of messages based on the parables of Jesus.

And as I was mentioning, here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, since this is the last day that we are making this resource available, I'm going to give you that contact information one more time.

You go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. A famous passage in the ninth chapter of Isaiah is causing Carrie to wonder what's going on. She writes, Isaiah 9-6 says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Can you explain Jesus as Everlasting Father?

Carrie, I want to thank you so much for your question. And I need to tell you that I have not looked into this in detail, but I assume that what you're asking is calling Jesus the Everlasting Father seems to negate the trinity. But all that I can tell you is this, that this is a strong affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ. In sequence, you remember there in Isaiah chapter 9, it says that he will be called the Mighty God. The phrase Everlasting Father was often used of Jehovah. And in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is called Jehovah. Now, if this were the only verse in the Bible about the identity of Jesus, we might be tempted to say that there is no trinity. But of course, we know especially when we get to the New Testament, it is very clear that there are three persons in the Godhead. But here, Jesus is being affirmed as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, deity. As the creed says, God of very God. So rather than this be a denial of the trinity, I would rather look at it positively and say it is an affirmation of the fact that the essence of Jesus, the theologians sometimes use the word substance, the essence of Jesus is clearly one essence. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but there is only one essence. So in that way, Jesus is also the Father. And of course, in the New Testament, he said, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

Bottom line, Jesus is God, a very God. Thank you, Kerry, and thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Somewhere a doomsday clock measures how close we are to annihilating ourselves. It's almost midnight. But another clock is ticking. When the time's up, Jesus will return to the earth he left in a cloud atop the Mount of Olives. The King of Kings will take charge. Next time on Running to Win, don't miss a series on The King is Coming, a look ahead to the end of earth's history and the gateway to eternity. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.