Well, there's a man called Viktor Grun, and chances are none of you have ever heard of him. But Viktor Grun, I have no doubt, has had an impact on every life in this room. Viktor Grun was an immigrant to the United States. He was an Austrian by birth. He fled the horrors of Nazi Germany. He was a Jewish man, so he was fleeing for his life quite literally, and he ended up in Manhattan and found a new home in America. He was also an architect by trade. He was a man who designed things and designed buildings and communities, and he was a central planner. And being an Austrian, he was from the capital, Vienna. And so as he came to his new home, he wanted to bring some of the best aspects, the best parts of Vienna, to bear on the United States. And so he dreamed of creating an environment where he would take these basically utopian views of what his socialist home in Vienna had been, and helping to make them take hold in America.
That was Victor Grün's dream. Grün envisioned a place like Vienna where people would walk around in a very walkable town, and they would gather in the town square. And the people of the town would gather and walk to the town square, and they would sip their coffee and eat their their crescent rolls, right, and their danishes, and they would talk about the day's events, and they would discuss life, and they would discuss ideas, and artists would gather. You get the sense of this utopian view that Victor Gruen had about what he was going to create in the United States. He envisioned a town square that would be the center of commerce, and life, and socialization, and community. It would be a key ingredient in casting the new sprawling American suburbs into the image of his Vienna. He was worried that these suburbs, as they grew, were going to become car-dependent and car-driven. And he thought that he could plan some sort of building that would turn the tide.
And so when Dayton's Department Store in Minneapolis called, they had heard of his idea, and they invited him to come up to Edina, Minnesota. So basically kind of the leaf— the Leawood of the Twin Cities. This first-ring suburb of very affluent people. And Daytons, the family that owned and started Target, said, 'We want you to come and we want you to create this grand idea you have for the suburbs.' And so he seized the opportunity. And his brainchild became the Southdale Center. For those of you who don't know, the Southdale Center is the first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall in history. It was the first mall. Gruen included sculptures and cafes. He was going to make a mall like visiting Vienna. If you're feeling the juxtaposition, Gruen wasn't. He really thought he was going to pull this off. And so between two large anchor stores, one of them being a Dayton's department store and another one on the end, the vision was there would be all these shops in between. With the caveat that he built in the middle of it a 5-story grand atrium. This massive grand atrium that he named the Garden Court of Perpetual Spring. You sense the utopian vision here, right? And if you're from the Twin Cities, the Garden Court of Perpetual Spring sounds really good when it's -20 in January. Within this atrium, it was actually the length of a city block, there was foliage and natural light and plants. Here, he believed, is where the community would gather, like in old Vienna, where people would walk and come and spend their day and sit in the atrium and sip coffee and create culture and share ideas, and that culture would flourish.
Well, Gruen was creating culture, just not the kind he imagined. To the Jewish pro-walking socialist from Vienna, the Southdale Center, to his horror, became a model for the 1,000 shopping malls that followed it. The Viennese socialist dream became a driving engine for the essence of Western consumerism. That's really what the shopping mall is, right? By the end of the mid-'70s, U.S. News and World Report estimated Americans spent more time in these centers of materialism than anywhere else except for at home and the office. So if you had to rank where Americans were most of the time, the ranking went something like: work or home, 1 or 2, in some order, and at the shopping mall. That's how they were prioritizing their time. In the US, there is 16.5 feet of shopping mall for every citizen. So you can find 16.5 feet of mall somewhere and kind of claim it. Like, this is my space of mall. So you can go to Oak Park and do that if you want. Gruen's legacy wasn't this utopian city center where everyone would come to walk, but these malls that then had sprawling parking lots and actually fed into the way the suburbs sprawled and were car-dependent.
What he became known for, his legacy with mall architects, was known as the Gruen Transfer. The Gruen Transfer describes this moment when a visitor to the mall becomes so overwhelmed and disoriented and discombobulated by the sheer volume of options and shops and lights and shining flashing things that they completely forget the single purchase that initially brought them to the mall, and instead they become wandering zombies through the mall. The Gruen trance are having captured them, and they just start walking in and out of stores, handing over the plastic, and purchasing things that look nice and shiny and they need. That's Gruen's lasting legacy.
If Jesus were to preach Luke 12:13-21 today, chances are he might call this the Sermon in the Mall. So turn with me now to Luke chapter 12 for the Sermon in the Mall.
6 · The full reading of the primary text establishes the biblical foundation—a man's request for inheritance, Jesus' refusal to arbitrate, His warning against covetousness, and the parable of the rich fool
Hear God's holy and authoritative word. 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 arbiter 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 towards God. The word of the Lord, may He write its truth upon our hearts.
7 · The unit establishes that while God's word is timeless and universal, this particular text on covetousness has special urgency for American Christians living in material abundance
Well, in Luke 12, Jesus tackles a subject that is of paramount importance for believers in every time and in every place. That's the beauty of God's word. In God's wisdom, God's word is timeless. Its truth is transcultural, transhistorical. It applies to every people in every time. In every place, but there are certain texts that land with special emphasis on certain people. And this is one, I think, that is helpful, a necessary exhortation, a necessary challenge and charge to American Christians.
8 · The unit defines covetousness—perpetual lusting after more—and connects it to the American context where unprecedented wealth makes believers especially vulnerable to this sin
In a land of vast wealth, where the average person's purchasing power exceeds even the nobility and the kings of previous periods of history, in this day and age, we are especially vulnerable to covetousness. The word that the ESV translates as covetousness sometimes gets rendered greed. It refers to this perpetual lusting after more, an insatiable desire to accumulate more and more things and stuff. And Jesus' warning is simply this: be on guard against greed. Be on guard against greed. Be on guard against covetousness, this longing for more, more of what you already have, more of what your neighbor has.
9 · The unit establishes that Jesus addresses this warning about covetousness to ordinary, non-wealthy people—disciples and crowds who have limited means—demonstrating that greed is not class-specific
What's fascinating though is Jesus tells this parable to a crowd and disciples who are not, by and large, fabulously wealthy. The average person in the crowd that Jesus is telling this parable to is not sitting on a massive 401(k) portfolio, right? They're not coming out and then going back to Herod's palace. They're average, run-of-the-mill Palestinians. Most of them aren't vast landowners. They're simple people. The disciples in particular, right? Some of them are simple fishermen. The ones who had vibrant trades and careers, right? Tax collectors, people of those kind, they've left those careers behind to follow Jesus. And so the disciples, they've left jobs and families and homes and sources of income to follow Jesus on this pathway of discipleship. And yet it's to these disciples and to these crowds of mostly, we can assume, ordinary Palestinians that Jesus gives the same warning, the same warning to those people that he's giving to the wealthy few in the crowd.
10 · The unit establishes the universal nature of greed through Rockefeller's famous quip, showing that even the wealthiest never have enough and that ordinary people covet what the wealthy possess
And the reason for that is really simple: covetousness, greed, is something that tempts all men equally. John D. Rockefeller He's sort of the Bill Gates of the Gilded Age, right? Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, if you're familiar with that. The famous— you've heard this before, I'm sure— was asked once, 'How much money is enough money?' And what did he reply? 'Just a little bit more.' There is a synopsis of covetousness, of greed. Rockefeller, who is wealthier than any of us can even fathom being, Bill Gates-level affluence. How much money do you know? How much money is enough? There's no such thing as enough, was his response. And when the average person looks at the Rockefellers and the Gateses of the world, our response often isn't sublime contentment with what God has given us. It's a longing for what the Rockefellers and the Gateses of the world have.
11 · The unit explains that Jesus' parable serves not to induce guilt but to provide diagnostic tools for detecting covetousness in our hearts—a difficult task in a culture where accumulation is a status symbol
Remember that old show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? Like, I'm really dating myself with that. I remember that as a kid. And I remember they would show you, you know, these incredible opulent homes, right? If you're younger, maybe it was MTV Cribs, right? But they would show you how the other half, and really not the other half, the other 0.1% lived. You know why those shows are on TV and why they get ratings? Because the other 99.9% look at it and think, 'I want that. I want to have that. I want to live like that.' Jesus' goal in this parable is not to leverage a sense of guilt upon us. And that's not my goal this morning either. What Jesus is doing is giving us tools in this parable through a story to diagnose our hearts. Covetousness, Jesus knows, is a deadly thing. It's an incredibly difficult thing to detect as well. Not only is covetousness this, this dangerous virus, it's hard to figure out if you have it, especially when you're trying to diagnose your own heart. Especially in a time and place like we live where the accumulation of possessions isn't just the norm, it's a status symbol, right?
12 · The basketball anecdote illustrates how people define their identity by possessions—when one idol (athletic achievement) is crushed, the man reaches for another (wealth) to restore his sense of self-worth
Several years ago, I was playing basketball with a group of guys, and I knew probably half the guys there, and the others I didn't. And while we were playing, one of the guys was getting beaten pretty badly and pretty consistently by another guy on the team. And this guy was getting more and more frustrated. And all of a sudden, in the middle of a very friendly game of basketball, this other guy, this guy that was getting schooled, right, just lost it. The other guy was bigger than him and he just kept posting him up until he'd get the ball and he'd turn around and pfft, pfft. And the guy was getting more mad and it became very clear that this guy found some sort of identity in his prowess on the basketball court. And as that prowess was being shattered in front of a bunch of strangers, he lost his cool. But it was incredibly telling what he did. He stopped play, he threw the ball at the other guy, and he started yelling at him, 'Man, do you know how much money I've got in my wallet? Do you know what kind of car I drive?' It was the weirdest thing. And everyone else on the court just kind of stood there. And took a step back and looked at this guy losing his mind because he was getting beat at a game and yelling at a guy he didn't seem to know and somehow boasting about the amount of money in his wallet and the kind of car that he drove. The irony being we were pretty sure he didn't know the other guy, so for all he knew, the other guy had more money in his wallet and drove a nicer car.
13 · The unit interprets the basketball incident theologically—two cultural idols (athletic achievement and wealth) were exposed, demonstrating how easily people define their identity by possessions rather than by Christ
But— It was a very telling moment. Two of the great idols of our culture were exposed. Though I doubt most of the people watching the escalating fight were thinking along these lines, I was watching thinking, here is an idol of sports and an idol of wealth, an idol of athletic achievement and an idol of possessions on full display. It's easy to define ourselves by these things. That's what that guy in his smack talk was doing. His idol of athletic achievement had been crushed before a bunch of strangers, and so now he was throwing out the idol of his wallet. 'Look! I got Benjamins!' It's easy to define ourselves by our possessions. But Jesus says to define ourselves in such a way is a deadly dangerous thing. Take care, Jesus warns us, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life, one's identity and happiness, does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
14 · The unit establishes that Jesus and Paul frequently address money and possessions not because wealth itself is evil but because being controlled by the desire for wealth is spiritually deadly
It's impossible to preach through the Gospels and not touch on the twin topics of money and possessions. Jesus talks about them frequently and for good reason. They are a great temptation and a potential snare for anyone who would follow Jesus. That's Jesus' point with the parable. I'm telling you this parable about possessions, about a farmer with his big barns, because I want you to be aware, listener. I want you to be aware, crowd and disciples. I want you to be aware, Providence Community Church, that there is danger if you're not careful in how you handle wealth and possessions. The Apostle Paul repeatedly condemned not money, but the lust of greed. Not money, not having money, but being controlled by money, controlled by the desire for more money. In Ephesians 5:3, Paul says, 'But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.
15 · The unit highlights the shocking juxtaposition in Ephesians 5:3—Paul places greed on the same moral level as sexual immorality, confronting the listener's tendency to minimize covetousness
Now be honest, you don't expect greed to follow the list of sexual immorality and impurity, do you? On the scale of really bad sins, Right? Really horrible, nasty stuff that you don't confess in care group. Surely longing for more stuff isn't grouped in with sexual immorality and impurity. That's a safe thing. 'Well, I've kind of been dreaming too much about a new car.' That seems like a clean thing on the scale. Not according to Paul. Paul recognized that covetousness is a deadly thing. Longing after your neighbor's car is on par with longing after your neighbor's wife.
16 · The unit establishes the positive vision—Jesus and Paul call believers to be a countercultural gospel community visibly different from the surrounding culture in how they handle money and possessions
This greed is poisonous to the soul and toxic. What Jesus is laying the foundation for, what Paul is building upon, is this vision for a countercultural gospel community. In 2 Corinthians 5, he says, 'The love of Christ controls us, so we live differently. We live as holy people.' Christians in the middle of Corinth? Corinth is crazy. Corinth is immoral. Corinth is sensual. Corinth is cosmopolitan, greedy, out-of-this-world nuts. But you, holy ones, formed by the gospel of Christ, you live differently. The love of Christ controls you. The old is gone, the new has come. We live a different way. And part of the way that the gospel shaping us and changing us and marking us in the midst of community is the way that God's people battle against covetousness and by the power of the Spirit are freed from greed.
17 · The unit expounds Ephesians 5:5-8, establishing the stakes—covetousness is idolatry that excludes from God's kingdom, and believers must walk as children of light, visibly different from the culture in how they handle money
The Apostle Paul repeatedly goes after it. In the same passage, he goes on a few verses later to say in Ephesians 5:5, 'For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure,' so same two things again, 'or who is covetousness,' that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Let no one preach to you that this is an area where you can be just like the culture. This is an area where it doesn't matter if you're any different from the world around you. God doesn't care about this part of your life. No, Paul says, let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, sexual immorality, impurity, and idolatrous coveting, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partakers with them. For at one time you were darkness, But now you are light in the Lord, so walk as children of the light. Be that people so changed, transformed, and conformed to the gospel that you are visibly different in how you think of sexuality, and how you think of what is pure and impure, and how you think of money and possessions. The warning, Paul says, is that to be taken captive by greed is to be cut off from the promises of God, to have no inheritance in the kingdom.
18 · The unit clarifies that Jesus' warning is not about possessions themselves but about being mastered by possessions—either the possessions we have or the ones we desire
The call to follow Christ is a call to give over to kingdom purposes both our desires and our possessions. And that's the tricky thing about greed and covetousness, right? The person with no possessions can be more imprisoned and enslaved to greed than the person with many possessions. It's not just possessions, it's also desires. Jesus isn't saying, 'Have no possessions.' He's saying, 'Don't let the possessions that you have master you. Don't continue using those possessions to ordinary ends.'
19 · The unit expounds Luke 12:13, highlighting the jarring interruption—in the middle of Jesus' teaching about bold witness, a man demands his inheritance, exposing his heart's true priority
This passage, this discussion begins in a way that was really— it jumped out of the page at me. In the middle of the crowd, a guy comes forward and it's really sudden when you read it in context, right? In the previous passage, Jesus is saying, listen, things are going to get tough. Don't fear man more than you fear God. 'When the moment comes for you to testify to who I am in the midst of a hard world, I will give you my Spirit, and the Spirit will speak and testify for you.' It's like this holy moment. And it's like, 'Hey Jesus, my brother got the inheritance! Tell him to give me half!' 'Were you listening to a word that I said?' That's where you're going right now? In a world opposed to the kingdom of God, my Spirit is going to fill you when you need it to testify and bear witness. Hey, hey, I want to make sure I get half of my dad's stuff. He's a huge dollar sign. He finally died. Can you make sure I get my half? Jesus has not judged Judy. Working in civil court wearing a little doily. That's not who he is.
20 · The illustration shows the real-world consequences of covetousness—a man's bitterness over an inheritance destroyed family relationships, demonstrating how greed enslaves and embitters
But it struck home for me because I had a conversation with a man once, and this had happened to him. He and his father had built a business together, and yet his father was the one who owned the business. And when his father died, he left it all to his brother. And it was heartbreaking to hear this man talk about just how it had destroyed his relationship with his brother and just to hear the bitterness he had towards his father. It was heartbreaking because on a certain level this man had been wronged, but it was heartbreaking as well because on another level you could tell this man had come to a place of utter hatred and bitterness. Towards his father and his brother because of stuff. Coveting what his father hadn't left him had destroyed the relationships.
21 · The unit draws the theological connection—while the man in Luke 12 and the man in the illustration worry about earthly inheritance, Jesus warns that those enslaved by greed forfeit their heavenly inheritance
It's striking because as that man that I met and this man in the passage worry about their inheritance, Jesus says, The man enslaved by the longing for more has no inheritance in the place that really matters, in the kingdom of God. Greed is a nasty thing, and so we must beware. We must be on guard against all covetousness. It has a power to put a vice grip on our hearts like few things can. The grave danger of greed is that our possessions can possess us. Our possessions can possess us.
22 · The unit begins exposition of the parable by highlighting the significance of the opening phrase—this is not an average farmer receiving unexpected blessing but a rich man receiving more abundance on top of existing wealth
And to drive home this point, Jesus tells a story. Luke is the only gospel that records this parable of the rich man, this rich man expanding his barns so he can retire in comfort and ease. And Jesus begins by saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. Every jot and tittle, every, every word in Scripture is inspired and inerrant and infallible. And so when you read the words, you dig into them. Jesus is telling us something. The land of a moderately okay middle-class guy produced plentifully. No, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. That's a telling statement. This isn't a bumper crop for an average guy that then made him rich. He's already wealthy. And on top of the great wealth, his significant fields have produced a vast harvest. The rich are getting richer in Jesus' story. It's a story of abundance on top of abundance.
23 · The unit establishes that the rich man has not built wealth through dishonesty but through farming—a noble profession dependent on God's blessing through sun and rain, showing that prosperity tests everyone
And yet Jesus describes a farmer, right? He hasn't built his wealth through dishonesty. There's nothing in the story that tells us that. He plants, he waters, it grows, he harvests. He hasn't stolen or manipulated. He hasn't cheated anybody. By using the image of a farmer, Jesus wants us to relate to him, to realize we're all vulnerable to greed. Whether you're a farmer or a rancher, a teacher or a secretary, a housewife or a doctor, a student or a craftsman, every noble profession under the sun can fall prey to greed. This farmer, though, this farmer God has blessed materially. God has blessed him. That's the only way this harvest can come about, right? We go about our world oftentimes disconnected from this. We walked outside of our house yesterday and Lincoln points me to the flowers. He says, 'Flowers! Mommy planted them. They're opening up because Mommy planted them.' No, the flowers are opening up because God brings the rain and the sun shines. No, 'cause mommy planted them. Like, he was adamant. This is not God's doing. This is mommy's doing. Mommy is the gardener. Let's go back to Genesis, buddy. But we so easily disconnect that God is the giver of all gifts. And agriculture is the place where you see it. Who makes the sunshine? Who makes the rainfall? Not too much rain that it gets flooded, not too much sun that it gets scorched. This guy's bumper crop has come because God has blessed him.
24 · The unit reframes prosperity as a test rather than simply a blessing—the question is whether believers will respond to God's generosity with faithful stewardship or with hoarding
So the rich man stumbles into a windfall harvest, and here he's really come to a test. Prosperity is a challenge. It's a test. It's an opportunity for Christ followers to handle their wealth in a way that blesses, that blesses them and blesses others. To handle their wealth and prosperity in a way that doesn't curse them and doesn't curse others. Like the farmer, our typical response to more money or unusual profits is to think, 'I have been blessed.' Biblically, it'd be more accurate to say, 'You've been given a test.' How will we respond to God's unexpected generosity?
25 · The unit expounds the farmer's failure—building barns is wise, but the sin is his self-centered heart exposed by the Greek pronouns 'my' and 'I,' showing no thought of God, neighbors, or stewardship
The farmer fails his test. Recognizing that his blessing exceeds his ability to store it all, he opts for hoarding rather than generosity. Now, building new barns isn't what's evil in the passage. That's not what's wrong. That's actually wise. If you don't build the barns, the grain is going to spoil. He's being a wise steward at that point. It's as he continues to build the barns and starts thinking, 'What am I going to do once I get it all in the barns? I've got lots of grain, man. Grain is green.' That's where he gets into trouble. The evil is how self-centered he becomes. The passage is dominated by these Greek pronouns that get translated 'my' and 'I.' My, my, my, I, I, I, I, I. God isn't in the equation of what's happened to him. His neighbors aren't in the equation. The poor people in his community aren't in the equation. He is all that's in the equation. He doesn't give generously. He doesn't care for the needy. He doesn't seek to bless others. There's no apparent thought given to stewardship. There's absolutely zero gratitude. To the God who's given.
26 · The unit addresses the farmer's retirement plan—the only biblical discussion of retirement—showing that Jesus presents retirement as hoarding-fueled inactivity in strongly negative terms, contrasting it with faithful lifelong service
Instead, the farmer decides the time is ripe to retire, to kick back and live out his days in ease and comfort, to eat, drink, and be merry. What's fascinating is this is really the only time the Bible talks directly about any sort of notion similar to our notion of retirement. This is the only place. In part, it's because this notion of retirement is really a mostly modern thing. Most of Jesus' crowd, these average people, the disciples, there's no sense of retiring. 'Man, if I live to 50, I've outlived my parents by 10 years,' is part of the reason why. But it's just not a time and place where you accumulate wealth like that. But here, the notion of retirement is discussed in the one place. And here this retirement is made possible because of what man's hoarding. And in his hoarding, his dream of retirement is, 'I've gathered all this, and now I can ease into inactivity and total rest.' And Jesus presents it in a strongly negative light. If that's all retirement represents, it's not a biblical vision. Of how to end out your days. And just because people died young in Jesus' day, let's not forget Job, Abraham, Methuselah. There'd be some old dudes in the Bible and still no notion of retirement. Faithfully serving the Lord, maybe a little slower than when they were in their 20s, but still faithfully serving Him.
27 · The unit expounds Luke 12:19, identifying the farmer's self-talk as a statement of worship—he has become possessed by his possessions, finding his security and identity in them rather than in God
So after he's built the barns and he's filled them, he utters a bone-chilling statement, a declaration that totally exposes his heart. 'And I will say to my soul,' it's Jesus basically saying he is completely exposing what's going on inside of him. 'And I will say to my soul,' soul, inner man, the core of who you are, You have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. It's a statement about worship. This farmer has become possessed by his possessions.
28 · The unit establishes that greed distinguishes the righteous from the evil—the greedy crave perpetually while the righteous give generously, and covetousness is idolatry that excludes from God's kingdom
Proverbs 21:26 views greed as the dividing line between righteous people and evil people. There's lots of other things in Scripture that are dividing line between righteous people and evil people, but there's times when the dividing line is actually greed. Proverbs 21:26, 'All day long he,' the greedy person, 'craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.' All day long he craves for more, enslaved by greed, the righteous give without sparing. The evil in the parable isn't about wealth building, as though it's inherently evil to have a savings account. The warning is about being possessed by the wealth that you have. The wealth you want or the wealth you don't have. Our possessions have this power if we're not careful. And the possessions of others can have power as well. And when they do, Paul says, Jesus says, it becomes an act of worship. It becomes idolatry. That's Paul's exact point in Ephesians 5:5, 'You may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance.
29 · The Corvette story illustrates idolatry in action—Lori's dad worshiped his car even through years of unemployment, and the young pastor-to-be worshiped it alongside him, showing how possessions possess us
There was a guy that lived just across the yard from us. We had sort of this interesting lot where I grew up. It was sort of just being developed. It was kind of that edge of town. We were sort of the edge of the original town and a new subdivision was being built. And so this house got built, not really backdoor neighbors, but across the next cul-de-sac. There was no houses in between. So I would sit there in my driveway shooting buckets, playing with the toss bag as a kid, mowing the yard, and I could see Lori Kinney's house. Lori was the girl who was my age. I could see Lori Kinney's house, and most importantly, I could see Lori Kinney's dad's '69 Stingray Corvette. That thing was sweet. It was just pearly white. It was covered in chrome. It was a '69 Stingray Corvette with those awesome T-tops. This one, it was really nice that he'd come out there and make this big elaborate show of taking the T-tops off. And then every time he would get in it, it was like, vroom. It would sit in the driveway for like 5 minutes. The car certainly— it's July. You don't have to warm it like that. He's just letting the neighborhood know, Lori's dad is in his Corvette. I got a Corvette and you don't have one. Vroom. And he'd just rev it. And I would just sit there, ball under my arm. 'That is a sweet car. Maybe if I work on my jump shot for a million more hours, I'll make money to afford one someday.' I remember when he lost his job and went on without a job for a year and 2 years and 3 years. He still had the shiny Corvette. And how he just spent all day waxing it, making sure the chrome shined. And I remember when the house got built between my house and their house, and it wasn't a year later that the guy in the new house bought a '69 Stingray Corvette, white, with T-tops. This guy worshiped that Corvette. And there was a young man across the street who worshiped it right with him.
30 · The unit applies the Corvette illustration to the congregation—children and adults alike can worship possessions (bicycles, motorcycles, clothes, shoes), and such idolatry ruins souls because it displaces worship of God
A little boy can come to worship his bicycle or his Pokémon cards if he's a little boy at Providence. A big boy may worship his Harley. A little girl worships her dolls. A big girl may worship trendy clothes or expensive shoes. The list goes on. Our possessions can possess us. Jesus speaks into these blind lusts with a prophetic warning: 'One's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.' There simply isn't enough stuff in the world to make you truly happy. Greed has the potential to ruin your souls because it leads to idolatry. And when you worship those possessions, whether it's a new watch or a '69 Stingray Corvette or someone else's possessions, you aren't worshiping God.
31 · The transition marks a structural shift from the negative warning (beware of greed) to the positive calling (be rich toward God), setting up the sermon's second major movement
The charge of Luke 12 is simply— is not simply, 'Don't be greedy.' It ends in a calling. Be rich towards God. Be rich towards God. Beware of greed. Be rich towards God.
32 · The unit expounds Luke 12:20, identifying the farmer as a fool for hoarding possessions for a life he cannot keep—the way of wisdom is to use possessions for God's eternal purposes
God calls the rich farmer a fool because he's hoarded his possessions for a life he cannot keep. The way of wisdom, the way to pass the test of prosperity, is not to hoard your possessions, but to use those possessions to God's glory for eternal purposes.
33 · The pastoral aside addresses potential misunderstanding—God designed us to enjoy things (steaks, cars), but worshiping them is sin
Now part of how God has designed us as people with bodies is that we would enjoy things. It's not wrong to enjoy a steak. It's not wrong to enjoy a '69 Corvette. It's wrong to worship a steak. It's wrong to worship that vehicle, to invest time and hours imagining the vehicle you're going to get. Hannah's thinking, imagining the motorcycle you want to get. There was some conviction as I was preparing this message.
34 · The unit establishes the biblical balance—neither wealth nor poverty is the ideal
The Bible doesn't view being wealthy as evil in the same way the Bible recognizes that poverty is a terrible thing. You encounter real poverty, you see people really struggling in poverty, there's no glorification of It's way better to be poor. Poverty is hard. What does the Proverbs say? Give me neither poverty nor riches. That's the call.
35 · The unit establishes the dominion mandate as the framework for biblical work—work hard, turn profits, provide for family reasonably, but use wealth for God-glorifying purposes, not early retirement and leisure
God has called us to fill the earth and to subdue it, to exercise dominion. And part of that calling is to work hard. Part of that calling is to turn profits. But also to turn that hard work and to turn those profits to God-glorifying kingdom purposes. Work hard, turn profits to provide for your family in a reasonable way, not extravagantly. Work hard, turn profits so your kids can go to college and they can work hard and turn profits. Yes, absolutely. Work hard and turn profits so you can retire at 30 and then do nothing for the rest of your life but sit at the pool and golf. No, not so much.
36 · The unit expounds Luke 12:21 and connects it to Luke 16—the farmer's error is failing to be rich toward God by hoarding rather than giving, seeing his own ingenuity rather than God's blessing, attempting to serve money instead of God
Jesus warns us the farmer's great error is that he is not rich towards God. He's a hoarder and not a giver. He arrogantly looked at his abundance and he saw his own ingenuity, not the providential hand of God who had blessed him. In a few chapters, he gives this warning in Luke 16: No servant can serve two masters. We know this passage, right? For either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. And then Jesus draws this connection. You cannot serve God and money. Those are the two masters I'm talking about.
37 · The unit expounds Luke 16:14-15, showing that the Pharisees tithed meticulously yet loved money—proving it's possible to tithe and still fail to be rich toward God, because the issue is what we do with the remaining 90%
It's the next verses that are really telling. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard these things and they ridiculed him. This isn't the first culture under the sun where to have God's perspective on money and possessions means you're going to be very out of step with the mainstream. They ridiculed him, and Jesus said to them, 'You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.' Remember, the Pharisees are meticulous tithers, right? We just saw a couple weeks ago they give 10% of everything to God. They give 10% of the herbs in their garden. They're so obsessed with their tithing, right? 'You are the ones who justify yourselves before men.' Jesus acknowledges, though, there's an obedience in tithing. There's something biblical about tithing. God calls us to do that. Being rich towards God is not less than tithing. But according to Luke 16, it's possible to tithe and still be a lover of money. It's possible to tithe and still be a lover of money. It's possible to give up the first fruits and miss the call to be rich towards God, with the remaining 90%!
38 · The unit establishes that how we handle money reveals character, and Scripture contains many examples of believers who passed the test of prosperity by leveraging wealth for God's purposes
Richard Halverson, a Presbyterian minister, used to be the chaplain of the U.S. Senate, famously said, 'Money is an exact index to a man's true character. All through Scripture there is an intimate correlation between the development of a man's character and how he handles money.' The Pharisees' true love is money, and so they fail the test of being rich to God. But it's entirely possible to be rich towards God with our possessions. Scripture is full of examples. People that God blesses, God tests, and then who pass the test. They are wealthy and they leverage their wealth for God's purposes.
39 · The Lydia example illustrates a believer who passed the prosperity test by leveraging her wealth and home for gospel mission—people were saved and discipled because she invested resources for God's glory
Lydia. A fashion designer essentially in Philippi, utilizing her industry and her home as the center of missions for the local church. People are being saved, people are being discipled, people are maturing in the gospel of Jesus Christ because Lydia is utilizing her resources for the glory of God in Paul's mission of establishing a church in this city.
40 · The Mary and Martha example illustrates believers who passed the prosperity test by opening their home to Jesus and the disciples—hospitality as a form of being rich toward God
The hospitality of Mary and Martha in this gospel Mary, Martha, Lazarus opening their home to Jesus and the disciples.
41 · The widow's mite example illustrates that being rich toward God is possible even in poverty—Jesus commends the widow who gave sacrificially out of her lack
The word is full of people passing the test of possessions, even when they don't have many possessions. The widow and her 2 copper coins. Jesus says she gives more than all the rest of them because she gave out of her lack.
42 · The $1,000 missions gift illustrates contemporary believers passing the prosperity test—both the giver and the eldership had opportunities to be rich toward God by sowing into Farris's work in Pakistan and the Jamaican church planters
We have someone, I have no idea who it was, who gave $1,000 to the church. And said, 'I would like for this $1,000, if it's okay with the elders, to go to missions.' This was a great opportunity for that family to be rich towards God in a $1,000 gift to missions. And as an eldership, we got an opportunity to be rich towards God in this $1,000 gift. And we got the joy of saying, Where should we give this? There's $1,000 to sow into the kingdom here. We talked and said, let's give half of it to Farris in Pakistan for the work that he's doing there among these orphans and widows and fledgling pastors in this persecuted area. And let's give half of it to these 3 Jamaican men who are going to the pastor's college next year to go back to Jamaica to plant a gospel-centered Reformed church in the midst of this an island that's the most violent place in the Western Hemisphere and with almost no gospel-centered reform presence.
43 · The application draws out the principle—your heart follows your money
And you know what happens? Our heart follows our money. I don't know who it is, whoever gave that gift, their heart has followed that money. It is more tied to being rich to God. And I want to tell you that story so that as a church We can rejoice together as those funds go out in the name of providence, and we can be more rich to God together as we partner with Ferris and partner with these 3 Jamaican men. We're going to see the gospel declared.
44 · The application leverages Augustine's insight to drive home the principle—your heart follows your treasure, so if you want to love God's kingdom work more, give to it
To be rich towards God, we must be possessed by God. Augustine famously comments on Jesus' famous dictum, Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure. Where your treasure, there your heart. Where your heart, there your happiness. To be rich towards God is to be possessed by God. Your heart will follow your money. That's what Jesus says. That's why, that's why money's a test. You want to love Pharis more and the work that he's doing there more? Give to it. You want to love this church more and the work of this church more? Give to it. You want to love those church planters in Jamaica more? Give to it. You want to love Sovereign Grace more and the work of our denomination? Give to it. You want to love the work of Forest Avenue? Give to it. Your heart will follow.
45 · The unit corrects potential misunderstanding—being rich toward God is not about earning God's pleasure through giving, but about being possessed by God first
But we do this, we say and cling to Christ, and there's a temptation in this sort of thing to think, I'm taking these things and I come into worship and I'm I'm setting them before God, and now I worship and I'm encouraged because I gave sacrificially and God is now pleased with me this morning because I gave. But that gets it wrong. The person who's rich to God is the person who's first been possessed by God. The good news of the gospel is that for those who are in Christ, those who have been brought into union with the eternal Word of God. That's what it means to be in Christ. For those people, they've already been possessed by God. The Spirit dwells in them. They're so possessed by God that an old heart of stone is gone, a new heart of flesh is there. We who once were slaves to sin Slaves to greed, slaves to covetousness, and all kinds of idolatry. Now in Christ Jesus, we've been made slaves to righteousness. One of Paul's favorite designations for himself, it's not Paul the Apostle. Yes, he uses that, but you know what his other favorite is? Paul, bondservant of Jesus Christ, slave of Christ. Possessed by Christ and rich towards God.
46 · The unit expounds the gospel as the reversal of the rich fool's hoarding—God doesn't hoard His glory or wealth but generously opens heaven's storehouses and invites us to the banquet through Christ's redeeming work
God in His great mercy, He doesn't leave us in the shackles of our sin. Jesus leaves the comfort of heaven and He enters into our world. 2 Corinthians 5:21, He becomes sin for us to redeem us. And the promise of the gospel is because of that, We now have a share in His inheritance, and the infinite blessings of the Father's kingdom come to us by faith in Christ Jesus. You could describe the gospel this way: God doesn't hoard His glory, and God doesn't hoard His wealth. In Christ, He has opened heaven's storehouses, and He has invited us to the banquet. God could build bigger storehouses and God could relax and be merry. Before He creates, the triune God is perfectly happy being God all by Himself. But His generosity means He doesn't just build the storehouses. He invites us and He says, 'Come and eat and drink and be satisfied in Me.'
47 · The application calls believers to look upon Christ long enough to become rich toward God—the sermon is ultimately about eternal joy in Christ, increasing capacity to enjoy God by investing in His purposes now
Look upon Christ long enough and you'll become rich towards God. Generous with all you possess. This isn't primarily a sermon about possessions or money. It's not primarily a parable about those things. It's a a sermon and a parable about eternal joy in Christ, about increasing your capacity to enjoy God in eternity by investing your heart in richness towards God and his purposes now.
48 · The closing prayer petitions God to conform the congregation to His word, protect them from greed, make them rich toward God by deepening their joy in Christ's generosity, and grip their hearts more tightly as they honor Him with possessions
Would you bow your heads? Lord, you have been limitlessly generous to us in Christ Jesus, your Son. There is no good thing, Father, that you withhold for us because of Jesus. Because you were generous to us in Jesus and in sending your Son, you will be generous to us in everything else. So we ask that you would affect us with your words. Lord, conform us to your words. Protect us from greed and covetousness, but more than that, make us rich to you. Let us see and taste and understand with new depths and new contours the enormity of your generosity to us in Jesus. And give us deeper joy there. And let that satisfaction, and let that pleasure in Christ, and let that joy that we find there, let it transform us. And Lord, as we honor You with our possessions, would You grip our hearts more tightly? Make us more rich towards God. Control us more with the love of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.