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[0:00] Luke chapter 12, verses 13 to 21. Luke chapter 12, verses 13 to 21. Just allow persons to get there.

[0:19] ! Beginning at verse 13. Someone in the crowd said to him,! Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to them, man, who made me judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.

[0:51] 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.

[1:08] And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.

[1:18] And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.

[1:29] And there, I will store all my grains and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

[1:47] And I will say to them, relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

[2:05] And the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

[2:23] It's so good to see so many of you who came out this morning, especially having been invited by me.

[2:58] As Brother Lyndon had indicated earlier, he suspected I had something to do with it. But before I get sad, I want you to know that this is not a setup for you.

[3:10] Meaning, today's sermon topic was not designed specifically because I wanted you to hear it. That's a disclaimer, okay?

[3:24] I invited you because I wanted you to experience what we have here at the church. Great fellowship. A wonderful set of people.

[3:36] Good food. And before you think I was talking about food, real food, I was talking about the food of the word. But we also have food for you prepared in the rest.

[3:53] So before you go, before you go today, we want you to be blessed and share in the food that we prepared for you. But before that, we want you to know that today commences a sermon series.

[4:09] Even when I chose to speak on today, I had not realized originally that it was part of a series. But it is.

[4:20] So today, you'll get the sermon series called Jesus Speaks About. And today, it's about greed. Next week, it'll be about anxiety or worry.

[4:36] Thirdly, that'll be presented by Brother Clarence. On the third week, we'll speak about Jesus Speaks About Sin. Pastor Moss will address that.

[4:47] On the final week, Jesus Speaks About Grace, which will be presented by Brother Lyndon, who was here earlier today. Anyway, so whatever you get from today, from my presentation, I would say to you, expect better next week and the week after.

[5:07] I'm putting the pressure on, okay? But truly, really and truly, it's a wonderful fellowship of believers here. And hopefully, you can walk away saying, yes, that is true.

[5:23] If I had to ask each of you, when was the last time you lied? More than likely, you can say, you can give a pretty good definitive answer of when that was.

[5:38] And certainly, if I asked you, when was the last time you said something that you shouldn't have said, you were likely to be able to point to something fairly recent.

[5:52] Hopefully, not this morning. But probably something fairly recent. I said something I shouldn't have said, something I need to apologize for. And we go through the painstaking process of apologizing, hopefully.

[6:08] But if I were to ask you, when was the last time you were greedy? Most of you, including myself, would have probably had a hard time of identifying exactly when it was that I was being greedy.

[6:29] Because it's such a sin that we tend to just gloss over it. Greed normally produces, as a result of greed, I should say, normally produces the sins that we commonly know.

[6:44] Like lying, for instance. I may lie to you because I'm being greedy. But greed is almost always present in the human nature.

[6:57] The human fallen nature. Jesus speaks about greed. I want you to ponder something for a moment as I ask you this question.

[7:13] What is the greatest thing that you can do? Or, for those of you who have already have grown children, what is the greatest thing you could have done, could do, or could have done for your children?

[7:26] I will pause for a moment for you to think about it. Some of you have children. Some of you have grown children. But pause for a moment and think about it. Whatever that answer is, it reveals where your treasure is.

[7:47] It has some say on where your treasure is. And I'm not asking you to reveal what you thought in your mind. But many of us, if not most of us, would say something along the lines of, to give them a good education, to give them a great start, with an emphasis being on their ability to earn sufficient money, in order to have a good life.

[8:12] Whatever that good life is supposed to mean. But ought not our lives concerning our children to be about teaching them to love the Lord? Let us pray.

[8:25] Father, as we ponder your word, and as we think on the word that has been, the scripture that has been already quoted today, we pray that our hearts would be open to hearing from you.

[8:46] We pray that the words that I speak would impact the soul in what you have to say. to give us for the many times when we say things we shouldn't say, and we do things that we don't do.

[9:00] And help us, Lord, as we live our lives to stay away from greed. These things you pray in your name. Amen. Allow me to tell you a story.

[9:14] And it's a parable, so to speak. In other words, there's a meaning in there. And it's not a real story. But here's the story anyway.

[9:26] The year is 2024. A father, feeling particularly benevolent, one day leaves home to visit his grown and now married daughter, Mary.

[9:37] Call her Mary. And her family. While there, he pulls her aside and gives her a beautiful letter-sized envelope. It was like no envelope she had ever seen before.

[9:50] Colored all over with beautiful roses and other flowers. It was distinct and a keeper. As he hands it to her, he asks her to not mention to any of her siblings, because this was a special gift just for her.

[10:10] She agrees, and she opens it up to find $10,000 cash inside. Then her father says to her, take your family on that cruise that you always spoke about but never seemed to be able to do, because other more pressing needs in your life prevented you from doing so.

[10:37] I'm sure we've all experienced that. Being such an unexpected and wonderful surprise, she expresses her gratitude immediately to her father.

[10:50] And it would only take about an hour that she is out, busily on a computer, looking for the cruises so as to make plans for this family vacation. Dream of hers.

[11:03] It would be about a month later that Mary goes to visit her sister Martha. Yes, Mary and Martha. Not that Mary and Martha.

[11:17] It was a... She went to visit her sister Martha, who had, just the day before, purchased a much-needed car. It was brand new.

[11:30] As we say in Bahamian language, brand spanking new. Martha had chosen to go electric, so the car had all the bells and whistles.

[11:46] Mary was more than happy to share these moments of joy with Martha. Martha had struggled for a long time with her beta car for almost a decade that had long been on the brink of extinction and on its way out.

[12:05] It was 10 years old when she had bought it. So that car was more than 20 years old at this point and had all the problems that come along with it.

[12:16] There were dense-knit scratches everywhere and a taillight that was even broken. During Mary's visit to Martha, Martha, in her excitement, offers to take Mary out for a short spin around the neighborhood.

[12:32] And in so doing, Mary does all the things that people who are sharing an end on on such an adventure would do. She was expressing how nice the car was, how beautiful the color it was, and was touching the leather seats along with running her hands along the dashboard, excuse me, and consoles, pulling down the visor to see if there's a mirror on the passenger side.

[13:02] Okay, you ladies know what I mean, right? Checking out the digital displays, pressing the buttons of the auto windows, and checking all the...

[13:12] Excuse me. All the many varied storage pockets. And in the opening of the glove compartment, her eyes immediately zeroes in on the same unique envelope that she had received a month earlier.

[13:36] The end. Sorry for an abrupt ending. And this is...

[13:50] If I had to highlight what the sermon is all about, here it is. Greed is often a distraction that hinders us from adequately serving the Lord, or it is deadly for those of us that hoard for ourselves.

[14:07] Jesus speaks about greed, as found in Luke 12, 13 to 21.

[14:21] Now, before we actually get to the text, you know, normally, we have sermon text, and sometimes the text could be in a vacuum. And so I want to set up... I want to set this all up for you so you understand how this all comes about.

[14:36] Thank you. Excuse me. In...

[14:49] In... In... The immediate portion where chapter 12 starts, it reads... The opening verse of...

[15:08] Chapter 12. In the meantime... In the meantime... And so many...

[15:19] Listen to this carefully now. And try to picture it in your head. In the meantime, Jesus had just had dinner moments before with the Pharisees, with a particular Pharisee who invited him to dine.

[15:36] And for lack of saying it a better way, it didn't turn out the way the Pharisee expected. With Jesus mentioning a bunch of woes to them.

[15:50] Right? So, on the heels of this dinner, Jesus is now, as chapter 12 says, in the meantime, which means that sometime thereafter, Jesus and so many thousands of people had gathered, listen to the words, had gathered together, that they were trampling one another, on one another.

[16:16] He began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven and the Pharisees. Now I want to stop, which is hypocrisy. Now I want to stop there, just for a moment, because I just want to put something in your ear so you're clear on the context.

[16:34] It would be, think of it for a moment, like this. Okay. You are now, Jesus is speaking to you, his disciples, and particularly he's talking about the 12.

[16:49] And out in the midst of this talk, somebody who is standing off to the distance, because there are thousands of people trampling on each other, jumps up, and he says, he acts, not acts, but he tells Jesus to tell his brother to share the inheritance with him.

[17:16] Okay. That's the scene. I want you to catch what's going on in the moment, because there's a particular word in our text that I want to draw your attention to.

[17:29] Let me see if I can find it. Now, first, let me read it for you. Someone in the crowd had said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

[17:44] But he said to him, Man, who made me to judge over you? Now, Jesus is not suggesting that he doesn't have an answer.

[17:58] That's not what's happening here. Now, Jesus is having a very important conversation with his disciples. And that's the part I want you to pay attention to.

[18:09] The conversation is with his disciples. But the crowd is hearing him. That's the context. So, he said, Man, take care.

[18:22] And then, Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you. And he said to them. Now, what I want to suggest to you is when he said to them, it doesn't say he said to the crowd.

[18:40] It doesn't say he said to the man. He said to them. He now turns from the man and says to his disciples, that's to them.

[18:54] Beware of covetousness. And then he goes on to say the rest of the text. What am I saying here?

[19:07] What I'm trying to get at here should be obvious at this point, is that Jesus' word was not necessarily, although it involved everyone, and because all of us struggle with greed, every human soul struggles with greed.

[19:26] Jesus was talking to his disciples. That's the point I want to make here. Now, I want to address two main things in today's sermon.

[19:40] The first being the subtleties of greed. And the first one is very, very, very obvious. It's clear in the text. Jesus had been talking to his disciples, again, beginning in chapter 12.

[19:57] Jesus had been talking. Verses 1 to 3, he says, Again, to his disciples, beware of hypocrisy, which is the leaven of the Pharisees, for every hidden thing will be exposed.

[20:12] In verses 4 to 7, he says, Do not fear the one who can destroy the body. And in verses 8 to 12, he says, So the very first thing Jesus, that's happening in the text is, is this.

[20:40] This man, whoever he may have been, is hearing Jesus talking to his disciples. But he interjects himself into that, and he ain't into none of that.

[20:56] And that's what I want you to hear. What's the difference between a disciple and a non-disciple? A non-disciple is not interested in what Jesus has to say.

[21:11] He is interested in what he can get. And by the way, that goes for everybody whose heart is marked in that direction.

[21:25] If life is about what I can get, I could ignore all the other stuff, because what I'm really after is what I can get. So the first thing, the first subtlety of greed is it creates a disinterest in the things of God.

[21:43] Jesus could talk until the cows come home. But the only thing I'm interested in is what he could give me. Or what I could get. Secondly, and very obvious, from the text, another thing that greed produces is grievances.

[22:07] Notice what the man says. Tell my brother to give me a part of the inheritance. Now, hidden behind that is life ain't fair.

[22:24] So we need to settle making life fair. And the way we make life fair is we got to make sure everybody has the same amount of things.

[22:41] Now, that should ring in your ears at this point, because one of the things in our culture today, and it's very, very evident, it's big in politics, is to get you to experience a grievance and then get you to feel like I could solve your grievance.

[23:05] That's the nature of the human heart. And it's not just so it's politics. It infects every sphere of our life.

[23:16] If I can get you to feel like you got there's an injustice being placed against you, then I got you in the bag in thinking that I could help you to solve that injustice.

[23:31] And I want you to notice what Jesus does here. Jesus answers this man who dares to speak to him boastfully out inside of the crowd, totally disinterested in what Jesus has to say.

[23:49] And he says to the man, and you could hear the frustration if you want to be honest. We don't like to think that Jesus, we tend to think of Jesus as, you know, he's nice.

[24:02] You know, he's gorgeous. He doesn't break social norms. That's how we tend to think of Jesus.

[24:12] By the way, Jesus just had it out with disciples, not disciples, with the Pharisees who had invited him to their house for dinner.

[24:24] Go back and read it. It's towards the end of chapter 11. So we have this picture of Jesus. Jesus is a man who can settle the score, whatever the score is.

[24:37] Some people, even quote-unquote disciples, come to fellowships so some scores could get settled.

[24:57] Another set of leave greed. And for this one, I'm not going to address this particular text. And by the way, when I started on this journey, I had to stop somewhere because it was a long journey.

[25:15] And it comes up in Luke chapter 12, verse 14. Let me read 12. Luke chapter 14, 12, 14. He said also to the man who had invited him, when you give a dinner, and this is a different dinner.

[25:34] This isn't that dinner we just spoke about. When you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you'll be repaid.

[25:51] When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the just.

[26:04] Again, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says that. Some of the friends we choose, we choose them because they can benefit us.

[26:22] Do you know what I mean? Yes. That's a subtlety of greed. I'm going to do for you because you could do for me.

[26:42] Another way it's put, by the way, is if you want to fly with the, if you want to soar with the eagles, you've got to fly with them.

[26:53] You can't hang around with turkeys. It's a fairly common phrase. To which I almost always respond, it seems to me that Jesus always hung around turkeys.

[27:12] Is that not true? What is another? Another way, subtlety of greed. It fosters disobedience to the Lord.

[27:27] Now, I'm going to use one example, a very socially acceptable example, even in Christian circles. And this may rub some of you.

[27:43] I'm not trying to rub any of you. I'm just trying to make a point. In the Noahic covenant, that's when God had destroyed, well, before, in the Adamic covenant, that's Adam.

[28:01] God's covenant with Adam. We'll start there. God said to Adam, be fruitful and multiply. And the inference was, have plenty of children. That's the clear inference.

[28:14] Subdue the earth. When God destroys the nation, completely, the nations of the world, completely, wipes them out, and surviving is Noah, his wife, three of their sons, and their wives, so there's eight people alive.

[28:37] The very first, one of the very first things that God says to Noah is, be fruitful and multiply. David says things like, blessed are those who have children, none of whose quiver is full.

[28:54] Paul says, God loves godly offering. But most of us, don't pay no attention to this, because, we're bought into, the, the, the lie, I would say, that, children are expensive.

[29:20] I, I want to do, the very best things, I can do for my children, so I'm going to, I can't afford it, so I have a few of them, as I possibly can. Now, I'm not, I'm not trying, I'm really not trying, to mash anybody's coins.

[29:34] There's a proper way, really, I'm not. All I'm just trying to get us to see, is how greed, could impact, the way we live, or fail to live, because, we want to make sure, that we have a lot left, at the end.

[29:59] Now, we don't actually, say the words, like that, but, the implication, is very clear. And let me say this to you, as a grown, as a parent, with grown children, okay, and four grown children, I've often said, if I could do my life, all over again, I'd have more.

[30:21] And I may sound crazy, to some of you, but here's what I want, to say to you. I have four grown children, and I actually enjoy, their company.

[30:34] I have, one here, one. By the way, the reason why, I don't have three here, but, one lives away, one just had, a daughter, so, this week.

[30:52] So it's been, quite an eventful week. So that's, grandchild number seven. But what I want, to say to you is, if we truly believe, that God loves, the cuddly offspring, who better, than the people of God, than his own disciples, have those children.

[31:15] greed can also, in fact, our motives.

[31:31] In fact, greed does, in fact, our motives. I'm going to tell you, a personal story. This is a real, this is a real story.

[31:42] Okay. About three years ago, Randy Grebe, I know some of you know, Randy Grebe, from Adventure Learning Center, Adventure Learning Center, approaches me, in a, you know, semi-private conversation, and he says to me, Brother Tim, I'm trying to get, Adventure Learning Center, back up and running.

[32:03] Now, what had happened, was during the pandemic, it ran into, financial difficulties, it had to close, you know, there were limits, all where you can go, where you can't go, so the ministry kind of, joined the law, from that way.

[32:15] So, it was at that time, that, Randy, because I could, we were friends, and I said, Randy came to me, and he said, hey, would you be willing to help us, get this all started?

[32:27] To which I agreed, to help get it all started. And I knew clearly, that the implication, part of the implication, was, I don't only want you, to personally get your energy, in there, but I'm trying to, get you to help us, to get the finances, all about together.

[32:42] That was the, the clear on the presentation. It was at that same time, totally different matter, unrelated, so I thought, at the time, unrelated, that a lawyer friend of mine, who had conducted business, with me on a, on a legal deal, said to me, oh, oh Tim, I need to say to you, that our company, is still holding money to you.

[33:14] Okay? Now the reason why, I had totally forgotten, about this money, was because, I was involved in another, legal, I was involved in another, legal matter, and that legal matter, was kind of like, superseding, it was, it was a big one.

[33:34] Okay? Bigger. And could have had, implications on this matter. So I said, to the, back then, this is when, the litigation stuff, was all going on, I just said, just, we'll just finalize this, and, we'll just hold things, the way they are, until this other thing, goes apart.

[33:55] Which, this attorney was, very aware of. Ten, years later, this attorney, right around the same time, Randy Grebe, is asking me, to help out.

[34:12] This is when the attorney says it. Now, it might have been a month apart, it might have been, a week apart, I don't remember, that's not the important part, but they were happening, in the same year. So I said, to myself, I've lived without these funds, for ten years, and frankly, I didn't even remember, it existed.

[34:34] And I said, thinking to myself, if I could live without it, well, this time, whatever, whatever that was, I could live without it.

[34:48] So I decided, I thought to myself, whatever it is, Lord, ALC can have it. Now, in my heart, in my heart, in my genuine mind, I thought, I literally thought, and my thinking is before the Lord, now keep this, my thinking before the Lord, and I thought, yeah, I'd be a couple hundred dollars.

[35:19] That's what I thought. That's what I thought. So, we're going through this process, with Randy, and then finally, the lawyer says, hey, come pick up the check.

[35:39] So I go and pick up the check. my couple hundred dollars, right? Lo and behold, and I won't say the amount, because that's really not important.

[35:55] I had in my heart, said to the Lord, whatever it is, is for you, Lord. And I will say to you, that before the Lord, I was also saying, Lord, it's probably only a couple hundred dollars.

[36:23] Both thoughts going on at the same time. The Lord knew what I was thinking. Okay? Lo and behold, I get the check.

[36:37] And let's just say, I get to go buy me a car. Now, not the brand new electric car, but a car nonetheless.

[36:48] and in that moment, and in that moment, I began to realize, just how greed was.

[37:00] I had already said, I really didn't need this. It was, in my mind, a gift. this involves, years ago, the events that had already taken place.

[37:17] I am now just, in the moment, making a recognition. And you, if I could reveal to you, what was going on in my head, things like this.

[37:39] My Lord, you know. You know. I only thought it was a couple hundred dollars. So the challenge came on.

[37:57] This is where, this is where, the rubber hit the road. Now, what am I supposed to do?

[38:19] On the one hand, the Lord knew what I wanted to give Him. On the other hand, I said, you know, Lord, I lived without it all this time.

[38:35] I didn't even remember it existed. So, Adventure Learning Center, meaning, you, Lord, can have it. Because Adventure Learning Center is a Christian ministry.

[38:46] Now, in the end, and this is not to my credit and to my praise, because I'm just, I said, what actually was going on in my own head.

[39:06] But, in the end, I did, like I said. But, I'm not looking for bloods, because I'm saying to you, the bottle was real.

[39:24] So I'm going to say to you, make some vows to the Lord, but keep them.

[39:36] And by the way, I, I did not say to the Lord, and Lord, I didn't use the word vow. So let's be clear. I didn't say, Lord, I promise that if you do this, I will do that.

[39:51] But that's not what I did. I just simply said, you know, I lived it out of all this life. I can live it out of it. That's all I said. But that's a vow.

[40:03] I thought it before the Lord. Greed, colors, are motive. To which I, and now I'm going to move to my second point.

[40:24] And this comes from the second half of today's text, which really is, again, Jesus is talking to his disciples.

[40:38] I want you to hear this. We may think that Jesus is talking to that guy. That's not who he's talking to. That guy can hear what Jesus is saying.

[40:49] Part of the issue is, are we hearing? So let's read verses 16 to 22.

[41:13] And he said to them, I was 16, sorry. And he told them a parable saying, the land of the rich man produced plentiful.

[41:23] And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this.

[41:36] 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.

[41:51] Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

[42:04] And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God.

[42:21] If you're to push it all away, what was this man's fundamental problem? And I would say this.

[42:32] He thought that his work produced that bountiful crop. And he thought that that crop was his.

[42:56] Nothing we have, not even the clothes on our bodies right now. actually belonged to us. It belongs to the Lord.

[43:10] It's his. We are only custodians. And we ought never forget this.

[43:22] And notice I'm saying we, not you, we, should never forget forget that it all belongs to the Lord.

[43:36] And that was his fundamental problem. So he's thinking to himself. I heard a, in preparing for the sermon, I heard a guy say, his grandfather used to say to him, he talks to himself because he wants to talk to a wise person.

[43:54] laughter So he thinks to himself, you know what I'm going to do?

[44:10] I'm going to tear down this bond, I think a big, big amount. Big amounts. And if we had to be honest about things, some of us, hopefully none of us, but I believe some of us, I'm certainly guilty of it myself at times, we budget so tight that we budget free will graces to people right out.

[44:44] And I would venture to say, that's why some of us religiously give a tithe. But the behavior has fallen into a pattern.

[44:57] By the way, this is one of the things Jesus talks about if you go back to chapter 11. This is one of the things he's talking to the Pharisees about. Okay? You tithe right down to your crop.

[45:10] A little bit of mint, a little bit of this, a little bit of this, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of the next thing. But you forget the greater thing in life, which is the love of God. And some of us are so tight on our budgets, not because we have to be, but because we're just being very good stewards.

[45:35] They're so tight that we can't think far enough to buy somebody a cup of coffee to sit with them for some moment. Some of us are so tight.

[45:52] And by the way, it wouldn't be so bad if we, when we broke our budget, it would be for the Lord. But when we break our budgets, it ain't for the Lord.

[46:09] Right? Not any for the Lord. It's just something else. It all belongs to the Lord.

[46:19] And the message to this whom Jesus calls food is because they belong to you.

[46:35] You know, there's a sowing and reaping principle throughout the Scriptures. And so, you know, you go to work, you can get paid.

[46:49] So go to work. But that's not to be confused with the amount, the bounty that I might get because I pursue some type of transaction or the gain that comes because I may pursue it.

[47:06] It's the same gain that you will get if you do the same thing. One man takes a deal and he can live off that for the rest of his life.

[47:22] Another man has just as smart as him. Another man just as smart as him can make, could pull up. He needs like a hundred deals to get that type of benefit because the sowing and reaping principle does not determine the bounty that you get at the end.

[47:43] It doesn't. I know people who work harder than me. And I'm not going to say I'm smarter than them because I certainly am not.

[47:56] But for whatever reason, the Lord, you go through a process today, you get one. You go through a process tomorrow, the same process.

[48:08] you lose one or you get nothing. That's how life works. But there's a bounty. There is something that happens sowing and reaping.

[48:21] The sowing and reaping principle is true. But the problem with us who think about sowing and reaping is rethinking. Yet if I sow to the Lord, he will reap for me a bounty.

[48:35] A bounty. So we sow the Lord. Not because we love the Lord. We sow the Lord because of what we can get going back to the same from the beginning.

[48:54] Greed shows itself up when we think that that food that you are waiting at home.

[49:10] It's mine. I can do whatever I like, when I like, how I like. And that applies to everything.

[49:27] And then there's what is the other and that leads to this thinking it's mine leads to this principle. because you think it's yours.

[49:38] Because you think you work for it. Because you think you own it. Yeah, you give thanks to God. And you need to honor God.

[49:52] To which I want to draw your attention to the passage of Scripture. And this Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to 22.

[50:12] Now, in this text, Paul is talking about what we become when we are not mindful of who God is.

[50:28] And he says in verses 18 to 22. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

[50:48] For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. And this is the part I want you to pay attention to. For his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that he has made.

[51:10] He made it. It belongs to him. So they are without excuse. Well, they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were dark and claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images assembling man.

[51:32] I think I read a little too far. Just give me a moment. For although they knew God, they became futile in their thinking and although they knew God, they neither honored him as God nor gave thanks to him.

[51:51] The cross for the matter is the lack of the honor of God and the lack of giving thanks to God. And if you think, and if I think, that what I have is mine, I'm failing to give thanks to God.

[52:14] Even if I say in my prayer, thanks be to God, if I think that what I have belongs to me, if I think that I am not all in God, neither am I giving thanks to him.

[52:34] That's the deadliness of Greece. In conclusion, I want to draw our attention. Now, you know I wasn't going to leave you with that cliffhanger, right? In conclusion, I want to draw our attention back to the story of the father, Mary and Marlow.

[52:49] it was deliberately intended to be a cliffhanger, whether you realize it or not.

[53:00] The story addresses the point that Jesus was making to his disciples as he spoke to them about covetousness. How is Mary to respond while thinking, and shall I say while knowing that Martha was the recipient of a far greater gift from her father than what she had received?

[53:30] Let's be honest. That's what you all suspected that the story was about, right? Mary? Martha got something greater than Mary.

[53:44] But is this not a reality that we all experience? Are there not people among us that have far more than we do?

[53:56] Or in the very least appear to have? And are there not those who have far less as well? By the way, if there are those here who indeed think that they have the less than all the others here, it's very likely to be untrue because you probably do not know everyone's reality.

[54:21] But this single issue remains. Is it not true that God who chooses to give to whom he chooses?

[54:39] You sow, you reap. but not everybody reaps the same. And is it not true that God also chooses to take from those whom he chooses to take?

[55:08] Let's just put it this way. Fifteen years ago in my life. I was far better than off now. The Lord gave. And I can sit here, stand here and tell you, and the Lord I take it away.

[55:27] Does not God own it all? And is he not free to do whatever it is that he wants for his purposes and glory? Are we to dare and be his counselor?

[55:38] can the clay say to the father, and somebody should ring to you from the scriptures, can the clay say to the father, why have you made me like this?

[55:51] There are those who stand off to the side and in the crowd and only seek after the Lord in order to achieve greater wealth or status.

[56:01] that is how you think in the slightest you are clearly outside the kingdom. And if there are those among us that simply enjoy the community, its benefits while at the same time are not actively engaged in giving up of themselves for their Lord by serving their brothers and sisters in Christ, then you have something deep to think about.

[56:29] Are we even conscious of the fact that being on the receiving end of things at all times is another form of greed and covetousness?

[56:44] Here's a question for us all. Am I a mere benefactor of the graces of God through his church while at the same time very lacking in being a contributor?

[56:57] Brothers and sisters, the question is not if you put anything in off and plate. No, the question is this, do I readily recognize that everything, every single thing in my possession all belongs to God and that it is only fitting that I use whatever is in my sphere of control so as to build up treasure!

[57:24] In heaven to honor the Lord. is my heart one of gratitude and thanks to God? A transformed heart is a generous heart.

[57:38] It gives and does so without the placement of an obligation on its receivers. Unless we be comforted that we are listed among the people of God simply by being present on Sunday mornings, keep in mind that Judas himself was present as a disciple in those very moments.

[58:03] Even as he helped himself at times given that he was a whole of the money bag for the disciples. You can find that in John 12 26 if you lest you not remember.

[58:18] Judas helped himself. to those who hear the voice of the Lord he says take care and Jesus is talking to his disciples take care and be on your guard against covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

[58:43] It's not about who has the most at the end wins. And we as a church have been learning these verses in recent months and you would have heard it this morning.

[58:59] Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break and steal.

[59:12] For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. To those of you on the outside of the church and I don't mean outside like you don't fellowship that's not what I mean that you don't come to church but outside or perhaps on the fringe or possibly even inside the fellowship here but still outside the faith Jesus says Jesus says to you these are Jesus' words all your soul will be required of you and the things you have prepared whose will they be so is the one who lays a treasure for himself and is not rich towards

[60:19] God the problem for all of us is the heart that tends to covetousness and greed but our God changes the heart so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we can guard against it and Jesus' promises for those of you who are not believers in bread Jesus' promises that all who seeks after him will find him so I leave you with this question are you seeking let us pray let us close Father may our hearts be aware of greed that may be lurking inside help us

[61:33] Lord that in the moments that you would bring it to light so that we would not be a covetous people so that we would love you with our whole heart souls mind and strength that we would build up for ourselves treasures of heaven help us Lord forgive us Lord and keep us in your stead in your name we pray it.