The Christian and Money: Covetousness

The Lord Jesus Christ didn't often use the word beware. But when he did, he was saying something that we really need to hear. In Matthew 6:1, he said, "Take heed and beware that you don't do your alms, your religious duties to be seen of men." Watch out that you don't have selfish, proud motives. Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets." Why? Because they preach an easy Christianity that leads to a broad road that leads to destruction. In Luke 12:1, he said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." And in Luke 12:15, our Lord said, "Take heed and beware of covetousness." Now we need to read the whole context here. In Luke 12, beginning in verse 13.

Then one from 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 an arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." And then he spoke a parable to them saying, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, 'What shall I do since I have no room to store my crops?' So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry."' But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will these things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Notice that warning now in verse 15. He was speaking to the two brothers who had a falling out over the inheritance. And he's also speaking to us. "Take heed and beware of covetousness." Why? "One's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." What's so dangerous about covetousness? Well, the danger is this: you may get what you want, and if you do, then you may start to live an artificial life. You see, life is not made up of things and thrills. Life is much deeper than that. And so, in this parable, the Lord Jesus explains and explodes three myths about wealth. Now, these three myths are believed by millions of people today, including some Christians.

Myth number one: wealth provides solutions. In other words, this man was saying, "All of my problems are solved. Now I have enough money." Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that money solves all problems. However, I realize that there are some people who, if they just had a little bit more, it would help them in some of the problems of life. Somebody needs to pay for some medicine, or someone needs to repair an automobile. God knows about these things. The Lord knows the needs that we have. But we're speaking about people in general. Most people in general say wealth provides solutions.

Well, let's look at these two brothers. Were their problems solved because an inheritance was sitting there? I assume that the father died, and the father had left the inheritance to the two brothers. The older brother would get two-thirds, and the younger brother get one-third. But something was happening in the probating of the will, and the boy was not getting what he wanted. Now, did money solve problems? No, money created problems. Here is the Lord Jesus teaching the word of God, and this boy interrupts the Lord Jesus and says, "Lord, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." You see, his covetousness was crowding out the word of God. His covetousness was making his praying selfish.

James 4 tells us that the reason brothers and sisters and people don't get along with each other is not really money; it's the heart. What causes wars and fightings among you? It is your desire down in the members of your body. You lust and desire to have, and you have not because you ask not. Wealth provides solutions. That's myth number one. Did wealth solve any problems for the farmer? No, it created more problems for him. He had to figure out what to do with all that he had. He could have given it away, he could have fed the poor, he could have shared it with God's people, but instead he tore down his old buildings, and he made bigger buildings. Can you imagine? He thought he was enlarging his life by enlarging his real estate. People still think that. Get a bigger house, you'll have a bigger life. No, life is lived from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Myth number two: wealth guarantees success. This farmer was saying not only, "All my problems are solved." He was also saying, "All my desires are fulfilled. Eat, drink, take your ease, be merry, enjoy life." Now, that's man's view of success: treasures and pleasures, abundance of things, and the ability to do what you please. That is man's view of success. I'm sure that people listening must have been shocked when they heard our Lord's words recorded in verse 15: "One's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." We believe that it does. If we have another car, and another house, another room, another this, another that, we will be so happy. But of course, we aren't.

I think it was Henry David Thoreau who said that a man's wealth is measured by the number of things he can afford to do without. And I think there's a great deal of truth to that. Man's view of success is that you have an abundance of things, and you have the ability to do as you please. "Soul, take your ease." Then God comes along and says, "This is the end."

Now, what is God's view of success? Well, we didn't read the verse; it's over in verse 31. Luke 12:31, "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you." Jesus looked upon the things of life that people crave as an addition, a fringe benefit. He says, "You live for God's kingdom, God's rule and God's righteousness in your life, and you won't have to worry about things." You see, the farmer left God out. He was living according to his own will. He was outside the kingdom. He was living for time and not for eternity, and he was a failure. Now, according to his neighbors, he was a success. His crops were successful. His building program was successful. But his life was a failure.

Myth number one: wealth provides solutions. Myth number two: wealth guarantees success. Now myth number three: wealth brings security. "All my fears are gone. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Your worries are gone." And someone listening to me is saying, "Oh, if I would just inherit a million dollars, all of my fears are gone." Really? You see, if our faith is in money and possessions instead of in the God of glory, we are going to have no security whatsoever. There is no security in material wealth. Stocks and bonds change their value. Wall Street can have earthquakes, shocks, it can even crash. The money market changes. Psalm 49 is an interesting record of what people think. Psalm 49, beginning at verse 6. "Those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever, that he should continue to live eternally and not see the pit."

What's he saying here? Your money cannot buy off your day of death. But God said to him, "You fool, this night your soul will be required of you." Not an inventory of your wealth, not the blueprints on your barns, your soul, your life, it's ending. "Then whose will those things be which you have provided?" You see, wealth does not bring security in the things that really count. It cannot prolong your life. It cannot prevent your death. Oh, I know, you can buy medication, you can get medical service, but believe me, when that hour comes for God to call you, nobody can keep you. Your day has come. Wealth does not bring security.

So if the abundance of things is the ambition of your life, then beware. Your life is being controlled by covetousness. Only in Jesus Christ do you have the true riches. In verse 21, Jesus said we should be rich toward God. I like that. "So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God." What does that mean? Admitting our poverty, letting God know we are utterly bankrupt, and then drawing upon the riches of his grace, the riches of his goodness, the riches of his wisdom, the riches of his glory, drawing upon his riches to enjoy God and to do the will of God. "But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you."

Luke 12:16, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully." And he thought within himself saying, "What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?" So he said, "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'" But God said to him, "You fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided?" And then our Lord adds this admonition: "So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Now, in this parable, the Lord Jesus explodes three myths about money, about wealth. Myth number one: money provides solutions. All of your problems are solved if you have enough money. And the second myth that money guarantees success. All of our desires are fulfilled, but success is not measured in terms of material things. If material things are a measure of success, then Jesus was a failure. He didn't even have a place to put his head. Thirdly, the myth that wealth brings security. If you just have enough money, you can relax. No, says the parable. All of your fears are not gone because the last enemy may show up, and you can't buy your way out of the grave.

Now, the Lord Jesus told the parable, and then he applied it in verses 22 through 34. Here he makes an application of the parable, and he issues three admonitions. Notice verse 22: "Therefore I say to you, do not worry." Then verse 29: "Do not seek." And then verse 32: "Do not fear." Here are three negative admonitions that parallel the three myths that our Lord talked about in the parable.

Verses 22 through 28, admonition number one: "Don't worry about things." Now here he's talking about the mind. People like to worry. Don't worry. And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn, and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? Don't worry about things."

Money is not the solution to problems, and worry is not the solution. The English word for worry comes from an old English word that means to strangle. Worry will strangle you, it'll get a hold of you. In fact, worry can make you sick. Doctors tell us that many illnesses are directly connected with anxiety. Now, Jesus says, "Life is more than things." Now, God made things. Genesis 1:31. "Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good." God made things, and things are good. Nowhere does the word of God disparage or devaluate things. God made them, and they are good.

In Luke 12:30, the Father knows that you need these things. God knows we need food and clothing and shelter. We think we need more than we really do need. We have a confusion between our needs and our greeds. God wants us to enjoy things, but he does not want things to take the place of God. Verse 24, "Consider the ravens." He's talking here about food. "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about the body, what you will put on." To illustrate what you will eat, he talks about the ravens. To illustrate what you put on, he talks about the lilies. Now, the ravens don't sow or reap. They don't have storehouses or barns. They don't save for another season, and God feeds them. Now, the lilies, clothing, they're beautiful. You couldn't begin to manufacture anything as beautiful as the flowers that God has given to us so richly. Now, says Jesus, "You are worth more than the lilies. You are worth more than the ravens." Isn't God going to care for you? See yourself from God's viewpoint, and you'll stop worrying.

Admonition number two is in verses 29 through 31. "Don't seek things." Here he is speaking not so much to the mind as to the will. Don't will to be rich. Remember in 1 Timothy 6, Paul says, "Those who will to be rich are going to fall into many troubles and difficulties." Luke 12:29. "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind, for all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things, but seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you." You see, for us to worry and seek after the things of this world is to be pagan. We're living like unsaved people.

Now, our Lord is not saying here that it's wrong to plan for the future, nor is he saying it's wrong to lay aside for the future. What he's saying is it's wrong to live for this. It is wrong for us to think our security and our success are in the things that we have gathered together. If you have the Father, you have everything. Seek his rule in our lives, his righteousness. Our inward desire ought to be to please him. If we are pleasing him, he will take care of everything. He won't give us all of our greeds, but he will give us all of our needs.

Admonition number one: don't worry. Number two: don't seek after things. Number three: don't be afraid. Verses 32 through 34. "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have, and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

That is a critical statement. That means that the value of my life depends upon what I value. If I value money, that's as much as my life will be. If I value God, that's what my life will be. Your treasures and your pleasures determine your measures. This is the way God has made it. If you want to measure someone's life, find out where God is in that person's life. Now, it looks like our Lord is using a mixed metaphor in verse 32. "Do not fear, little flock." There he compares us to sheep. "For it is your Father's good pleasure." There he compares us to children in the family. "To give you the kingdom." Now, there he's talking about officers in the kingdom, rulers. But our Lord is saying you are in a little flock, you belong to God's family, you are in God's kingdom, and your God is a giving God. Your God has given you the kingdom.

Now what else can he give you? If he has given to us his very best, the Lord Jesus Christ, will he not take care of these other things that we need, like food and clothing and shelter and jobs, and money to pay our bills and medication and all of these other things that we need? He says, "Why don't you invest in the things eternal?" How do you do that? Seek the kingdom of God, put him first in your life, live for the eternal treasures. Here then are three admonitions to keep us from falling for the myths about money. Money does not provide solutions, don't worry. Money does not guarantee success, don't seek things. Money cannot buy security, don't be afraid. "Fear not, little flock, your Father is caring for you."