Roots Of The Problem

Are you willing to trust in God, the same one that sent his son so generously, so that we wouldn't have to worry about our place in eternity?

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For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

The question for us this morning is do you believe that?

Do you believe that, people, that everything else is sinking sand?

Do you believe that I'm the rock on which you can build and not just build but sustain?

And so, God, I would say I believe it.

Lord, what I want you to do is I want you to show us.

God, there's a lot of night happening right now in a variety of ways.

What we need in that is your light.

The illumination of your love, the illumination of your presence, the illumination of the fact that you are a covenant maker and that you keep your promises.

God, the issue with us sometimes, though, is that while we believe that, we want you to work in our timing.

God, I pray that our trust in you also is trusting in your timing.

So give us patience to persevere in that.

And God, what I finally ask is that you would illuminate your word today.

Speak to us fresh and new.

And Holy Spirit, be active wherever your people are hearing from you.

For it's in your name, Jesus, that I pray these things.

Amen.

Well, good morning or good day from wherever you're tuning in and wherever you are.

My name is Wade Burgess.

I'm the executive pastor here at Grand Parkway, and from time to time I have the privilege of being in front of you to deliver a sermon.

And today is one of those days, so thank you so much for your attention.

I also want to say to the members of Grand Park Way, thank you on behalf of myself and the staff and the elders for your continued support of the church through your tithe and offerings, through your prayers, and through the support of each other.

Thank you for that.

Well, during Neil's plan, albeit messed up sabbatical this summer, the staff has been preaching through the parables of Jesus.

And those are really just stories that Jesus told to illustrate a point or to give us some things that would help us remember what Jesus is trying to convey.

And so today's parable comes from Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

As you're turning there in your Bibles or your devices, whatever you're using today, I want to say this.

If you grew up in church or if you're a longtime reader of the Bible, likely what's happened is you're hearing about these parables and we're preaching those.

You're thinking, yeah, I read all that, I know all that.

In fact, I've heard sermons on it, and because of that, I'm good.

There's nothing new I can hear.

Here's my challenge for you today.

I want you to come at this with a fresh set of ears and a fresh set of eyes.

Asking, Holy Spirit, what is it that you want me to hear from this?

Either confirm what I already know and plant it deep inside of me, or something new that I hadn't yet considered.

That's how I want us to hear maybe this familiar parable today.

Now, most Bibles entitle this the Parable of the Rich Fool.

I want to offer a subtitle to it, and it's the roots of the problem.

I want to try to accomplish three things today.

The first is I want to define the roots of the problem.

Second, I want to try to make an argument for why I believe the two things Jesus is talking about here are actually not two different ideas, but really companions.

And then third, I want to give some maybe some solutions or combating the roots of the problem.

Let's read together.

Luke chapter 12, we'll start in verse 13.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Someone from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Friend, he said to him, Who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you?

He then told them, Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions.

Then he told them a parable.

Then I'll say to myself, You have many goods stored up for many years.

Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.

But God said to him, You fool, this night your life is demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Then he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat, or about the body, what you will wear, for life is far more than food, and the body more than clothing.

Consider the ravens, they don't sow or reap, they don't have a storeroom or a barn, yet God feeds them.

Aren't you worth much more than the birds?

Can any of you add one moment to your lifespan by worrying?

If then you're not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?

Consider the wildflowers grow, they don't labor or spin thread, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor has adorned like one of these.

If that's how God clothes the grass, which is in the field today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he do for you, you of little faith?

Don't strive for what you should eat or what you should drink, and don't be anxious.

For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your father knows that you need them.

But seek his kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.

Don't be afraid, little flock, because your father delights to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Make money bags for yourselves that won't grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Usually when Jesus gives a parable, something has prompted him to that illustration.

Something has happened or given him a catalyst for speaking to that.

This is no different.

We see there in verse 13, someone from the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Now, in those days, the Jewish custom was that the teacher or rabbi was in charge of family disputes.

You could go to them and kind of get some, uh they could weigh in on certain things if you and the family weren't uh eye to eye with that.

Now, what's interesting to me is that Jesus doesn't really address it at all.

Instead, Jesus, knowing the man's motivation and knowing the crowd's motivation, and knowing our motivation, Jesus instead addresses a key root of motivation, and that is greed.

Greed has its roots in the idea of misunderstanding, I believe, and I think the text will bear this out.

The first root of greed related to misunderstanding is a misunderstanding of how did I get it?

The text shows us that by this brother asking for more of something that he didn't even deserve.

All he did was be born, and he really didn't obviously have a choice in that.

But yet he's asking for more.

He feels deserving to have more.

And then the man with the barns, he worked hard, maybe.

You know, the thing about the Bible is I think it always gives credit where credit's due.

As you read through it, it'll tell you that Abraham was good and he was faithful in this one, and Job was faithful in this, and they worked hard and they did this, and they had all these things, and God blessed and helped them.

The Bible doesn't give any credit to the man here.

In fact, it says a rich man's land was very productive.

Now, I think farmers are probably some of the most faithful people.

Those that make their living from the land have to be some of the most faithful people out there.

While I know they're using fertilizer and tractors and planting and all that, but they're trusting ultimately in God for watering, for pestilence control, for all kinds of things that happened for that land to produce.

This landowner was no different.

He could so have easily attributed everything to God, but instead he had this theme of I.

Greed has its root in the misunderstanding of how did I get it?

Greed will change our understanding of the source if we're not careful.

Greed also has its roots in the misunderstanding of who owns it.

The younger brother is asking Jesus to weigh in on tradition, to weigh in really against the law at the time.

The law at the time said that the firstborn gets about twice the amount of inheritance of anyone else, and then on down the line from there.

Instead, this guy is going directly against the law and saying, Jesus, why don't you tell him, just give me more?

I think the crowd is thinking to themselves, how dare you ask for more?

You know the law.

This is this is ridiculous that you would even think that you deserve more.

But yet that's his misunderstanding of who owns it.

The landowner, as I said, gave no credit to God for what he had, nor for the abundance.

Between verses 17 and 19, there's about 10 references to I or my.

Look with me.

He thought to himself, what should I do?

I don't have anywhere to store my crops.

I'll do this, my barns, my grain, my goods.

I'll say to myself, on and on, he has what I believe to be this misunderstanding of who really the owner is.

And our misunderstanding of who the owner is will lead to greed faster than anything else.

Greed also has its roots in misaligned intention.

Let me try to explain that.

The younger brother doesn't even say, even to falsely pretend, hey, Jesus, tell my brother to give me the inheritance because uh, well, I'd like to do a lot of good with it.

That's what I'd like to do, and so let me see if I can convince you to tell him to give me.

No, he doesn't even do that.

I think we could argue even Judas, the one that betrayed Jesus, the history's greatest betrayer, even had this false intentions.

You remember when uh Jesus is gathered with some of his disciples, and the woman comes in and she's washing his feet with her hair and perfume and her tears, and Judas says, Hey, that perfume should have been sold and the money given to the poor.

I'm not saying we should have false intentions, but we saw it from one of the darkest hearts in biblical history, and yet this younger brother he just says, Give me mine.

The landowner doesn't claim false intention either.

It never crosses his mind that he ought to do something else with all the things that he has.

In fact, he's spending money to retain what he has.

It never occurs to him to be generous or to consider others.

Greed has its roots in the misunderstanding of how did I get it?

Who owns it?

And what's the proper intention that I should have.

Now you might be thinking, hey, Wade, that's perfect.

Let's stop there because the kids are rowdy and I'm ready to get to wherever I'm getting.

And well, you read all that other stuff and that was good, but really Jesus was really only talking about greed there, and that in itself can be an ample sermon.

And I admit, we're not going to plumb all the depths of the text today.

But I've got to think a little bit more because I think Jesus kind of had a continuation of thought.

I don't believe he was trying to start anew.

Instead, I think what he was doing was reinforcing a belief system, reinforcing this biblical view of God.

He even says right there in 22, therefore I tell you.

So he's taking one idea and he's moving right into this continuation of, as he's talking about greed, hey, also people listen to me.

Greed will, and here he is leading us into worry.

Now, before I try to make the argument of why those are companions, I want to give you a couple of roots of worry as well.

First, worry has its roots in short-term memory.

If I asked you, can you think of the last big thing God did for you?

How long would it take you before you name something?

What's the last thing God did for you?

If you're breathing, God has done something for you.

If you've been born, God has done a miracle for you.

If you've eaten a meal in the last 24 hours, God has done something for you.

But yet we'll sit there for just a minute and think, yeah, what has God done for me?

That's a good question.

I don't know the last, oh, oh, you you mean like this morning when he woke me up?

Do you know why in the Old Testament, uh, as you read about probably the middle or toward the end of Exodus throughout the Old Testament, uh, it seems that there's this continual theme, this continual reminder of the God that brought you out of Egypt, the same God of Abraham and Isaac and the God that brought you out of Egypt, the God that freed you.

You know why it continues to make those references?

Because it knows the Israelites suffer from some of the biggest short-term memory issues probably we've ever seen.

I mean, here's some folks that over 400 years are oppressed and praying to God, God, we want you to save us.

And God does.

He saves them from oppression, he saves them from slavery, and he doesn't just wipe out, he actually does it through these miracles and plagues, and he's causing the Egyptians to see his might, and he gets his people out of there, and they leave, and they're not past the city limit sign.

And they're going, Uh, you think maybe we should go back?

Uh, this kind of stinks out here.

And then God wipes out virtually the entire Egyptian army.

By the way, he wipes them out with the same uh sea that the people just crossed on dry land.

He wipes them out.

Then Moses, their leader, goes to the mountaintop to say, I'm going to commune with God.

He's got some things he wants to talk to me about.

And the people have seen this.

God has been guiding them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.

He's doing all this stuff.

Moses is on the mountain for no more than 40 days, and they look around and go, you know what we need?

We need a calf to worship.

Are you kidding?

The short-term memory that these people had?

Absolutely, they've got to be some of the biggest in history with a short-term memory.

Except for maybe us.

Worry has its roots in short-term memory.

It also has its roots in our view of God.

If our view of God is too small, then worry is a byproduct.

Let me say that again.

If our view of God is too small, then the byproduct of that is worry.

Let me try to demonstrate that to you.

I want to just pose four quick questions here for you to think about.

I want to show you where I kind of get the answers for this in the text.

The first question I would ask related to your view of God is this Do you believe you are thought of more than anything?

Look at verse 24, 27 and 28.

Verse 24, consider the ravens.

They don't sow or reap, they don't have a storeroom or a barn, yet God feeds them.

Aren't you worth much more than the birds?

27.

Consider how the wildflowers grow.

They don't labor or spin thread.

And in 28, Jesus said, if that's how God clothes the grass, which is in the field today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he do for you?

Your view of God has to be based on, do you believe that you're thought of more than anything?

The second question I think that helps us shape this idea of our view of God is do you believe that God, A, doesn't know what we need, or B, He cannot provide it?

Look at verses 29 through 32.

Don't strive for what you should eat or what you should drink, and don't be anxious.

Now I know easy for Jesus to say, right?

He's the Son of God.

Jesus, you're not going through all the things we're going through.

But listen what he says in verse 30.

For the Gentile world, and what he meant by that was the unbelieving world.

Those that didn't know God, the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your father knows that you need them.

But seek his kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.

Don't be afraid, little flock, because your father delights to give you the kingdom.

If your view of God is too small, I would say that either you don't believe he knows what you need, or you don't believe he can provide it.

Jesus is saying the exact opposite.

The third thing I'd ask you is if your view of God is too small, do you believe that you're the one in control?

Back up to verse 25.

Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

A lot of times we believe that we're the ones ultimately responsible for the outcome.

We're responsible for our actions, yes, but everything we want to have happen, we believe we're ultimately responsible.

Yeah, yeah, God's in charge.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, sure, yep.

But I've got to be the one to do it.

Recently we uh put in a new shower door in our master bath, and master sounds really good.

It's about as big as this area right here that I'm in.

But we put this new shower door in, and uh the shower door installer comes out, and I'm visiting with him while he's doing it, and he's kind of he's got ink all over.

He's got tattoos, and they're coming out, and I mean they're everywhere.

And I just said, Hey, tell me a little bit about your ink there.

Tell me what's that about?

He says, Oh, yeah, this is kind of the story of my life.

And he kind of starts walking me through the story that his his tattoos are telling.

I said, Oh, okay, what um which one's your favorite?

Do you have a favorite?

I mean, is there a particular one?

And he said, Yeah.

He said, It's this one right here.

He said, This is when my daughter died.

I'm like, whoa.

He said, Yeah, she was pretty young.

In fact, she had just learned to say daddy when she passed away from something we can't explain, the autopsy couldn't explain it.

We we have no idea why.

I said, Wow, man.

I said, Let me ask you something.

When you've gone through a tragedy like that, did your faith grow or did it diminish?

And he said something that I wasn't really expecting.

He said, My faith didn't change.

He said, The reason my faith didn't change is because I knew well before that, and I certainly knew during that I'm not in control.

Is your view of God shaped by who you think's in control?

Finally, I would ask you, if your view of God is too small, then I might argue, do you believe eternity is more important than our earthly life?

Look at verse 33 and 34.

Jesus says, Sell your possessions and give to the poor, make money bags for yourselves that won't grow old, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

Now that's a familiar verse, I think, to a lot of us.

But where I think we get hung up is we consider this lifespan, let's say 80 or I don't know, 120 years even, this finite lifespan, and we're so focused on that that we don't even think about the comparison between that and eternity.

We're so believing that earthly life is more important than eternity.

Everything we do revolves around that idea, and it starts to shape our view of God, and it'll start making that view very small.

Jesus knows the root of the problem is not just greed, and it's not just worry.

Let me try to demonstrate it this way.

And um, if I if I walked up to you and said, Hey, are you greedy?

Likely you'd say, No, no, I'm not greedy.

Do you worry?

Well, I worry some, uh, let's call it I'm anxious about things.

Um, but let me let me try this.

I don't know if this will work, but let me try this dialogue uh test with you, we'll call it, okay?

This is um kind of a pretend dialogue that I might.

Have with you or with someone related to this idea of why I think greed and worry are actually companions and not two different ideas.

I might say this, okay, you told me you're not greedy, that's great.

Well, let me ask you, why do you have a drive to have it all?

You might say, Well, I like stuff.

I mean, God made stuff, and I think I should have the stuff, and so I like stuff, but I'm I'm not greedy.

Oh, okay.

Well, let me ask you this.

Are you worried treasures in heaven aren't enough?

You might say, no, I just uh, you know, I want to keep.

I mean, I worked hard for it, and so I want to keep it, and that's why, you know, I'm not greedy, but I want to keep it because I've worked hard for it.

Oh, okay, because you worry it might be taken?

Well, sure, sure, I'd worry about it being taken.

Yeah, you bet.

So you don't believe God owns it all.

And whatever his intent is with it would be better than yours.

Or maybe this.

You'd say, okay, look, I'm really not greedy, but I did tell you I worry.

I mean, uh I'm I'm concerned about a lot of things, and I mean, who wouldn't be?

Turn on the news for more than about 30 seconds, and you'll find a long list of things to perhaps worry about.

And I would say, okay, well, name one of the things you're worried about.

Well, let's see, uh, I'm worried about uh losing my job, I'm worried about the economy, I'm worried about the fact that they're giving oil away at this point, et cetera, et cetera.

But I I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, here's a good one.

I'm worried that my kids are gonna make bad choices.

That's what I'm worried about.

That's a solid thing to worry about.

Well, I'd ask you, have you prayed about that?

Have you done your best under God's power?

Have you done your best to parent the way you should, the way the Bible says you should?

And have you prayed?

Before you answer, I'd ask you, do you believe God can heal and forgive and redirect?

You might say, sure, yeah, absolutely I believe he would do that.

Oh, okay.

You just don't believe it enough to not worry.

I would argue you're greedy for the outcome.

No, no, wait, I'm not greedy for the outcome.

I just want what's best for him.

Oh, okay, so you know what's best for them.

Well, sure I do.

I mean, I've lived, I've made several mistakes, I know what's best for them, I know the right way they should go.

Well, then I would ask you, what if your kid made bad choices?

So bad, in fact, that uh they ended up in jail.

But what if I went a little bit further and said that while they were there, he or she gets rescued by God?

What would you say if I said their life changed so much that they began a prison ministry?

And man, it was just everything God wanted it to be.

During that whole time of being shaped and this testimony written in their lives, you're likely greedy for the definition of what you said was best.

See how it works?

We think we've got great intentions, we think we worry about the right things, we think we're not greedy for the outcomes, but yet we are, and all of that is leading us to be firmly implanted with these roots of greed and worry.

So, what do we do with all that?

Well, let me offer up some combatants to the roots of the problem.

Number one, we've got to recognize the proper owner.

God owns everything.

Look at 24 again.

Consider the ravens, they don't sow or reap, they don't have a storeroom or a barn, and get this.

God feeds them.

My point is, God feeds his creation from his creation.

He is not only just the owner, he uses everything he has the way he wants to, and we can trust him fully with it.

You combat the root of greed and worry by recognizing the proper owner.

The second way you combat it is you recognize the owner knows and wants.

Now, for those of you with short-term memory, we'll go over that again.

That's verses 30 and 32.

Look at verse 30.

For the Gentile world eagerly seeks all these things, and your father knows that you need them.

And in 32, don't be afraid, little flock, because your father delights to give you the kingdom.

We've got to recognize the owner knows and he wants.

The third way to combat the root of the problem is generosity.

Generosity will ward off greed.

How do I know?

I know by personal experience, and I'm not bragging on my generosity.

I'm bragging on the experience of being generous, and the joys of that generosity far outweigh the happiness of retention.

Let me say that again.

The joys of generosity far outweigh the happiness of retention.

You hear the difference?

That idea of happiness being that emotional state that depends on circumstances versus that deep-seated joy that says it is based not on circumstance, but on a belief that I have.

Oh, generosity and its joy are so much better than retention.

That's really, I think, what we're meant to be is God's conduit of his blessings, not merely retaining everything we have.

The fourth combatant of the roots of greed and worry is to have a long-term memory.

We would do well to keep some reminders of how good God has been to us.

And by the way, if the Bible doesn't do it for you, if that's not good enough for you to read this and continue to understand how good and immeasurable God has been, then I might suggest, how about you journal some things?

Literally, just have a little something and just write down.

You could do it at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, just it doesn't have to be every day, but just write down.

God, what did you do today?

How good have you been?

I'd encourage you to take pictures.

Obviously, we do that on vacations typically and with family gatherings, but I would encourage you to take those pictures and look at them pretty often.

We were cleaning out a closet recently and we came across a scrapbook, I think, when uh our son Alex was, I don't know, between the ages of like five and ten.

And I'm not very sentimental at times, and I'm like, yep, throw it out, get rid of it, throw it out.

And we came across that, and I'm like, throw it, oh, wait a minute.

Oh, oh, hey, look at this.

I spent the next 30 minutes flipping through those pictures.

And what occurred to me as much as, man, that was a fun time.

Oh, I remember that.

Yeah, I still have that outfit because I keep everything.

And I what I still took away from that mostly was this.

God, you have been, oh, look at there, you were so good to us.

Reminders of close encounters and near-wrong turns will help us have a long-term memory.

Maybe every now and then look at your scars and consider how differently things could have gone.

The best way to kill a problem is to take an axe to the root of it.

The axes of the roots of greed and worry are a proper understanding, generosity, and long-term memory.

Are you willing to change your mindset?

Are you willing to believe in a God that's bigger than maybe you've given him credit?

Are you willing to trust in God the same one that sent his son so generously so that we wouldn't have to worry about our place in eternity?

Let me pray for us.

God, how much more do we need to believe?

How much more proof do we need?

It's the red letter words of the Bible, the very words coming out of your son's mouth that told us guard against greed and guard against worry.

Lord, why is that so applicable?

It's so applicable today as it was 2,000 plus years ago because human nature.

Our human nature says we're in control, we're ultimately responsible, and yeah, God, I know you're big and all that stuff, but really, Lord, don't let our view of you be so small that we miss out on all the things that you're doing.

God, I pray that you would replace in us a heart of generosity so that we get to experience that joy.

And replace in us a heart of surety so that we know absolutely for certain that you are in charge and in control.

It's in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

There's some questions to consider.

They're gonna come up on your screen and take a picture or jot them down, or maybe just consider this week.

Just one or two of those.

Take a moment as Clyde plays.

God, how would you want us to respond to you?

Where are we greedy where you need to weed that out?

God, I pray that you would improve our long-term memories.

I pray, God, that we prioritize you in eternity.

Where are we going to spend most of our time when it's all done?

Let us prioritize you appropriately.

Because you tell us where our heart is, there our treasure is.

And if we'll seek you, everything else will be taken care of.

Take care of us, God, as only you can.

For it's in your name, Savior.

Amen.

Well, thank you for joining us this morning.

Uh, I wanted to make you aware of a couple of things.

Speaking of generosity, you know, it's the DNA of Grand Parkway, I believe, that uh you are a very generous people, so much so that Gulf Coast Blood Bank has reached back to us and said, hey, you've had a couple of blood drives there, and man, your people have always responded well.

And summer is a difficult time for us.

Could we have another blood drive there?

And we said, absolutely, as long as you don't take it from me.

And so on June 14th, we're going to have our next blood drive.

Now, if you gave last time, it's enough time has passed for you to give again.

It'll be from 1 to 5 at the warehouse on that Sunday, the 14th of June.

You can register through our website.

We'll also be sending an email as we get closer to the date.

Second thing I'll tell you is that June 21st, we are coming back together as the church.

Now, my theology may be off on this, but I am unaware of anywhere that the temple was scattered.

It may have been destroyed, but not scattered.

I believe when we are scattered, we are just people doing the same thing together.

I believe we're the church when we come together.

We get to do that on June 21st.

We'll have three services: 8:30, 10, and 11:30.

We will only have services here in the main building.

We won't have child care yet.

You can go to our website and look at the full list of our reopening schedule.

But look forward to June 21st as we come back together.

Well, it's at this point in our service.

The way we end is that we offer a blessing.

And if you're sitting down, I would ask you to stand, but also maybe would ask you, if you're sitting on a couch or a chair, maybe you just maybe you just go to your knees easily here.

And just take your hands for the blessing that I believe God has for you.

The God that cares for the grass and for the birds.

So now go out and live as a paid for people.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.