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By Steve DuPlessie  |  April 1, 2018

Acts chapter 1 tells us that Jesus met, 40 days after the resurrection, with the eleven remaining disciples one last time outside Bethany. Verse 6 tells us, “Then they gathered around him and asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time you’re going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’” They were still fixated on the Triumphal Entry/King thing…

“He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”

Verse 9, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Apparently just he went straight up, out of their sight. As the disciples stood there, awestruck, incredulous, amazed, staring, mouths hanging open, into the clouds, the text tells us “…suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back… will come back in the same way you have seen him go … into heaven.’”

There’s another chapter to be written…
And with that we understand that there’s another chapter yet to be written. He will return! He said we can’t know the day or the hour. But one thing’s for sure, the King is coming!

Later James, the half brother of Jesus — converted late to faith after the resurrection of Jesus — wrote, “Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You must be patient, too. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near!” Catch that excitement, that anticipation? “The coming of the Lord is near!”

The Apostle Paul, writing to sisters and brothers in the region of Thessaloniki in Greece, wrote, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).

Again, Paul, challenging his protégée Titus to live in a  way that honored his Savior, wrote, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own” (Titus 2:11, 12).  “Waiting for our blessed hope…”

Living in eager expectation…
That’s living holy lives in eager expectation. Living in hope-filled anticipation. Not just accepting intellectually, but actually counting on, watching for, praying for, hoping for, preparing for, Jesus’ imminent, any-moment return; living like it could be today!

I joke frequently about eating dessert first; I mean, why eat vegetables first and leave dessert behind for the pagans if Jesus should return suddenly before I get to the strawberry-rhubarb pie with coffee ice cream.  But I grew up with sisters and brothers in Christ who said things like, “I’m going, Lord willing, on vacation next week.” Or, “Let’s plan to do that at 2 tomorrow, if the Lord tarries…” There was this prevailing attitude of living in constant readiness, constant anticipation, hope-filled expectation, that the King is coming.

Sisters and brothers, that hopeful watching and waiting is missing from us. Totally missing. We’ve been lulled, seduced by 2,000 years of waiting into thinking that there’s another 2,000 years to wait. Listen, that’s un-bliblical thinking. That’s disobedient thinking. Jesus said, “Watch and wait.” Be ready. Live like it’s today.  So I’m going to summarize all that as “Be watching.”

But did you notice that just before he left, Jesus gave the 11 disciples instructions for their mission: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth!” So we’re not supposed to sell all our stuff, and sit on the roof waiting. We’re supposed to be working, on mission. So that’s “Be watching, and, be working while you’re waiting.”

BE WATCHING, AND BE WORKING WHILE YOU’RE WAITING

Sure, go ahead and plan for college or marriage or even retirement. But plan with the expectation that it might never happen, because … the King is coming! I don’t know about you but I can’t wait! There’s nothing here worth holding onto! There’s nothing so great down here that won’t be so much better in the new heaven and new earth of eternity! No sickness, no sadness. No pain or death. No poverty or violence.  Just joy, peace, justice! All good!

Unless, of course, you’re not exactly sure where you’re going after this life is over.  If that’s the case, then I want to help you get that straight today. Check out this short video, then email me directly at steve@gnbc.org to follow up on that.

But, if you’re confident about the next life after this life, then I urge you to “sleep with one eye open,” (just kidding!), but actually live every day to the fullest, watching, waiting, expecting that the King is coming. That’s when “Justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24) Everything will be made right when the King gets here! And the King is coming! Maybe today! I can’t wait!!

By Steve DuPlessie  |  March 27 2018

So there is an interesting element in Matthew’s record of what happened on what is known as Palm Sunday. You might recall the story: Jesus was headed up to the city of Jerusalem with his 12 closest followers. So he told a couple of his disciples to go down the road to the little village of Bethphage and he told them they would find a donkey, and its foal, tied there. They should take the mother donkey and the foal and bring them both to Jesus.

He added, “If anyone asks you why you’re taking the donkeys, tell them ‘The Master has need of them.'” So the text in Matthew 21:1-11 tells us that the two disciples went ahead to Bethphage and sure enough, there were the donkeys waiting there, just as Jesus had said.

Ok, so it seems apparent from this report that Jesus already knew there was a donkey and her colt tied up and waiting in Bethphage; and he already knew that someone would question the disciples when they walked up, untied the colt, and walked away.

Some scholars think Jesus knew because he had made the arrangements ahead of time. Most think, retaining all the attributes and powers of his deity, Jesus just knew it, just like he knew all about what was going to happen to him when he arrived in Jerusalem. He’d already spelled all of that out to his disciples, three times: I’ll be arrested, tried, abused, mocked and tortured, then crucified, and then rise again from the dead three days later, he told them (Matthew 16:21-28). He knew all about it. He knew all about it and still he was moving forward to Jerusalem, to his arrest and certain death. He moved forward, “…obedient unto death,” as the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians, “…even death on a cross.”

Jesus was willing to submit; submit his own will, submit his own preferences, submit even his own comfort and safety, to obey the fantastic, eternal plan of His Father for your forgiveness and your redemption and adoption as a child of God. And in that horrible obedience Jesus was ultimately honored as Savior and Lord over all. He set an example for us: obeying God’s clear plan for us. Sometimes what God’s Word tells us to do pretty clearly … is not our own preference, it’s going to make us uncomfortable, and it might even put us through some difficult pain.

Maybe it’s a job you need to quit because you know it isn’t pleasing God. Maybe it’s a habit or a hang-up you need to submit to him because you know it isn’t pleasing God. Maybe it’s a judgmental attitude, or an attitude of anger, or holding an unforgiving grudge that has to go. Maybe it’s a relationship that needs to end because you know it’s not pleasing God. And Jesus set the example of submitting obediently to God’s plan, even when it’s going to hurt, because the reward on the other side of obedience makes it worth it.

Some are sitting here this morning, and you did it, you broke off that relationship that was pulling you away from God. Some here finally made the courageous decision to stop drinking or drugging because they knew it was way outside God’s best plan for them. Painful for the moment. Rewarding ultimately. Listen, obedience always brings blessing.

Don’t miss that key life principle for followers of Jesus: Obedience always brings blessing. Peter took a huge risk, stepped out of the boat when Jesus called him, and … walked on water. I have always told people who say they don’t understand why God is asking them to do a certain thing, that if they will obey Him, God will reward them with a sense of peace and joy that compares to nothing this world has to offer.  Obedience always brings blessing. Jesus knew that. So he went, resolutely, to Jerusalem.

 

by Steve DuPlessie  |  March 14, 2018

So let’s talk about “living on mission, working on mission.” Missional working. Missional living, in missional communities. That “missional” buzz-word, increasingly popular for disciples of Jesus since the early 2000s, is just another way of saying that Jesus called you to be a missionary. He called you to salvation for a purpose: to send you out as a missionary.

Ok, so maybe you’re not going to Djibouti or India. (Very cool if you are going overseas!) Not, more likely you’re going to Pawtucket or Rehoboth, UMass or BCC, Attleboro or Franklin, Boston or Providence, wherever, and you’re a called- and sent-one, a missionary; sent on mission to “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I commanded” (Matthew 28:19).

A quick question…
Ok, so what the one thing that followers of Jesus can do on earth that we can’t do better in heaven? … Worship? We can do that better in heaven for sure. Live a good life? We can do that easier and better in heaven. Get closer to Jesus? We can do that here and now, but even better in heaven. The one thing, the one thing that followers of Jesus can do on earth that we can’t do better in heaven is … make disciples.

Arguably Jesus could have saved you and taken you immediately to heaven. Eternity in his presence, worshipping, hanging out with Deborah, Rahab and Mary, Caleb, Joshua and David. All good! But you and I are saved and left here for a purpose, a mission: make disciples.

5 Stories of work as mission…
So, it only makes sense that the place you spend the great majority of your time, on the job, is also the place for … your mission. You might nod your head, and even actually agree with that, but the question is how. How can you use your work, your profession, your j-o-b, as mission? Let me tell you a few stories I heard lately.

One is about Machala, a young woman here in the GNBC family; she’s a full-time student who works part-time in a restaurant. And when some of her co-workers invited her into some gossip about another team member who wasn’t there, Machala actually refused to say anything bad. Later, when another work conversation turned to more gossip, one of the girls said, “Don’t worry about Machala, she’ll never say anything bad about anyone.” She’s trying to be salt and light as a follower of Jesus in a decaying and dark culture. That’s living and working on mission.

Then there’s Mark, a Physical Therapist who’s heard some difficult stories from his co-workers and clients, so he’s taken the bold opportunity to ask them if he can pray for them. He’s invited some to a weekly bible study he runs after work, and some co-workers and even clients have been part of that study for years. There’s Ray, who tells his new computer network customers right up front that he’s a Christian, and he’s going to try to give them the best service possible as a follower of Jesus.

And there’s Sandy, a nurse, who has had many opportunities to pray with her patients. There’s Don, who uses his retail locksmith store on South Main Street as a drop-in warming center for the street people of Attleboro, and offers them food and prayer and the gospel. And …  I could tell you more.

The point is simple, our text today reminds us that

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  – Colossians 3:23, 24

You’re not actually working for your boss. You’re not even working for yourself! Verse 24 reminds us, “It is the Lord Christ you are serving!” If you do your work in the presence of God, aware that God is watching, then everything else we’ll talk about, will naturally flow out of that foundational commitment.

A Theology of Work…
So let’s talk about that for a moment. I want to give you a Theology of Work: 7 quick principles for work as mission. Ready?

First, it’s God’s idea. Work is all part of God’s original creative concept. Genesis 2:15 tells us  “The Lord God took the man (Adam) and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  Did you notice something very important here: the design and command for Adam to work in the garden was BEFORE the life-crushing Fall that happens in Genesis 3, before sin entered into creation. Work is NOT  — as some think — the result of the curse from the Fall into sin. Creative, challenging, demanding, fulfilling work was a God-inspiried design right from the very beginning.

So first, Work was God’s idea. Second: All your strength. Jesus reaffirmed the great commandment, “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:28-30).

Where else do you use your strength more than in the workplace? Hours of your life every week are devoted to your work. So loving God with all your strength must mean loving God in and through the work you do. That gives work a different place and a different priority: not a job but a vocation, a calling by God to love him … by the way you work.

Third, you recall Jesus said there’s a second commandment which is like the first: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). This helps us understand the outward looking dimension of the great commandment. Doing good quality work is not the only way you’re a good neighbor, but it’s a critical way you’re a good neighbor.

Say you’re a personal financial advisor. A young family thinking of buying a house has one job and three kids. They don’t have a lot of money. They’re trusting you to give them good, sound, professional financial advice. Or say you’re in construction and you’re building front steps for someone. You want to build them well. If you don’t and the steps crumble and the guy rushing out to work breaks his leg and loses his job, then inviting him to church is almost irrelevant to what you’ve done to his life. Quality work, done well, is working on mission.

And of course, loving your neighbor is also about how you treat your coworkers. We’ve all been in situations where our life becomes a sleepless nightmare because of toxic relationships with coworkers. Ok, so how much of that do we own? Either by withdrawal and inaction, or by actively gossiping, or treating people with lack of kindness or respect? We need to love our neighbors, including the one in the next cubical or working on the same team.

Fourth, be honest. Jesus said, “Let your ‘Yes be Yes’ and your ‘No be No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37). As followers of Jesus, we need to be people of consistent, constant integrity; honest people whose words and work line up, and who actually produce on the promises. My father-in-law always said, “Under promise, and over deliver.” After all, for good or bad, you represent Jesus in the workplace. Be honest.

Fifth, Jesus’ code of ethics included, “Watch your words.”  Jesus said, “But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the judges; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable…”(Matthew 5:22). Be careful what you say. One employer I know of says: “Every time you type an email or social media post, imagine it’s going to be in the front page of the New York Times tomorrow.”

So take a moment and get quiet in your heart; pray for godly wisdom THINK…

Ask yourself: Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind?

Think about what you want to send or post. Write carefully. Read it again. Send it to a trusted friend to say, “Is this too much?” Use all the possible tools before you hit that send button. Watch your words.

Sixth, one critical principle throughout the gospels is that your space … is his space, including your work-space. Jesus said, “I’m with you, always.” You don’t enter into some godless bubble when you go into whatever your workspace is. Sure, it might feel like a godless bubble, but that’s not really the case.

As you’re praying by your bedside or out in your car before work in the morning, opening your life to the presence of God, it doesn’t stop when you walk in the workplace door. Jesus really is present there with you in your workplace.  He’s just as much Lord there as he is anywhere else. He’s listening to every conversation. He’s present for every joke or story. He’s very aware of every email, website, and media thread. Your space … is His space.

Seventh, work to the end. As always, Jesus sets the example for us. In the Gospel by John, we find, over and over again, that Jesus is working. “My Father is still working, and I also am working” (John 5:17). John 9:4, “I must do the work of Him who sent me.” John 14:0, “The Father, living in me, is doing his work through me.” And what are Jesus’ final words in John’s gospel when he was hanging between heaven and earth on the cross? “It is finished” (John 19:30) What’s finished? The work the father gave him to do.

Jesus worked, to the end, on the mission. There was no time off. There was no vacation. There was no retirement. Whether he was busy teaching huge crowds in the countryside, or hanging out at dinner with a few friends in the city, Jesus was always on mission, right up to the end. And that’s his example for us: living, working, focused on the mission, to the end.

3 Best Practices…
So how do you do that missional work thing? Well it will look different, and the same for each of us. Different because your situation is different. Maybe you’re the owner or the team leader; maybe you’re the intern or the line worker. Maybe most of your work is solo; maybe it’s constant conversation with the team or customers. So it will be quite different for each of us.

But it’s the same because we’re all on the same mission. No exceptions. So we can all adopt a few core best practices: First, be prayerful. Pray each day that God will use you in your relationships, in your conversations, in the example you set, for his mission.

Second, be aware. Eyes open. Ears open. Be aware throughout the day of the prompting of the Holy Spirit that “This is the opportunity for that redemptive conversation you were praying for this morning! This is it!”

Third, be humble. I’m pretty sure no one likes an arrogant, pushy, judgmental, know-it-all. Remember, you are representing Jesus to lost, broken, hurting people who need grace and mercy, forgiveness and healing through Jesus, just like you do.

That’s it. Be prayerful. Be aware. Be humble.

By Steve DuPlessie  |  February 23, 2018

I want to take a moment to recognize the crossing over to glory this week of  Billy Graham at 99 years old. His nephew said in a TV interview that the family isn’t mourning the death because his uncle Billy is now at home with the two people he loves most, Jesus and his late wife, Ruth.

Billy gave his life to Jesus when he was 16 at a tent revival meeting led by evangelist Mordaccai Ham. He preached his first sermon at 19, graduated from Wheaton College and married Ruth Bell, the daughter of missionaries in China.  After a short stint as a pastor and then president of a small Christian college, Billy began preaching full time as a traveling evangelist for Youth For Christ. That set the stage for launching his own evangelistic crusades in the middle of the post-war optimism of the 1940s.

I remember going as a kid to the Billy Graham crusade in Providence in 1964 with my parents. I remember the huge crowd, a choir of hundreds, and Billy Graham boldly preaching the gospel. I don’t recall the scripture text or the theme of his message that night except that he kept saying, “The Bible says…” in his North Carolina drawl. And when he called people to “Make a decision for Jesus” as the choir sang multiple verses of Just As I Am, hundreds of people responded.

Billy launched the Hour of Decision radio program in 1950 pioneering what is now a prolific Evangelical presence in broadcast media. In 1956 he launched an influential monthly magazine, Christianity Today, that serves as a strong voice of Orthodox gospel-centered evangelicalism today. And he co-founded my alma mater, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, north of Boston, in 1969.

But Graham is best remembered for his 417 evangelistic crusades. From the first crusade in circus tents with 6,000 attendees in Grand Rapids Michigan in September of 1947, to the final crusade with hundreds of thousands of people in New York City in 2005, Billy faithfully preached the gospel night after night. He insisted on integrating his crusades in the 1950s, before the tide of Civil Rights swept the nation. Over 58 years, Billy Graham reached more than 210 million people in over 185 countries and territories on six continents.

Billy was criticized by conservative fundamentalists for inviting Roman Catholic bishops to sit on the stage with him as he preached the gospel and for visiting Communist countries during the Cold War era. But he was happy to have Catholic bishops and Communist dictators sit on the platform behind him as long as he was free to preach Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners.

The longest of Graham’s evangelistic crusades took place in New York City in Madison Square Garden in 1957, which lasted every night for 16 weeks. In the largest single audience in the history of his ministry, 1.1 million people assembled at Yoido Plaza in Seoul in South Korea in 1973. In Moscow, in 1992, one-quarter of the 155,000 people in the audience went forward at Billy’s call to stand up and come forward to accept Jesus as their Savior.

In 2008 his staff estimated that Billy had spoken to more than 2.2 billion people in person, by radio, TV, or video. They estimate that 3.2 million people trusted Jesus as their savior at a Billy Graham Crusade.

He met personally and prayed with every US President from Harry Truman to Barrack Obama. He trained thousands of evangelists and counselors. He authored 33 books. And throughout decades of close media scrutiny, he set a high standard for unquestioned personal integrity; he famously established the Graham Rule of never being alone with a woman who was not his wife, not even in an elevator or a taxi cab.

Billy wasn’t perfect. He loved the spotlight and used the media well to advance his cause. He allowed politicians to use his presence for their advantage. He said things in the Oval Office with Richard Nixon that were ungracious in context and vile when taken out of context. Yet he lived a relatively simple and quiet life in spite of his international prestige.

In the end, there are millions who heard the gospel – many for the first time – from Billy Graham, and unknown tens-of-thousands who will be in heaven because of his single-focus on preaching the good news that Jesus loves sinners and died to save them. His voice and influence will be missed. Pray that God will raise up more women and men like him who will proclaim Jesus without fear or apology, women and men who keep Jesus and the gospel central to what they are all about.

By Steve DuPlessie  |  February 19, 2018

Jesus has a plan for his disciples; a very radical plan that invests our money differently with a much different and much bigger payoff in the end than the investment plans of our culture. Here’s the principle: Define yourself by what you give, not what you have.

So let’s dig down on this idea. Turn with me in your bible to Luke’s Gospel,  chapter 12, verse 13: “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, (that’s what they called Jesus: Rabbi, or teacher), teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’”

Ok, so this brother didn’t just want what he already had. He wanted part of his brother’s inheritance too! Jewish law and culture was pretty clear in Jesus’ day about family inheritances. The first-born son always got double what the others got. So if there were two sons, the first-born got two-thirds of the inheritance, and the second son got one-third. That sounds pretty unfair to us in our culture, and apparently this guy thought it was unfair, too. So, this guy wanted to get Jesus, the great teacher, on his side in the family argument. He was willing to do whatever he had to, to get what he wanted. He simply wanted … more!

And, to be honest, we’re just like that guy; maybe even worse. We always want more! We’re all infected with the sicknesses of consumerism and materialism, the subtle, unseen disease of want and greed. So, it makes the sense that the first important step is for us to recognize and acknowledge our problem … we always want more.

We always want more…
So even before He shares His parable, Jesus gives us … a warning: The fight against wanting more is a constant, ongoing struggle. Look at verse 15: “Then Jesus said to all of them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed!'” Now, I need to point out to you the sternness of this warning from Jesus. This phrase, “be on your guard,” is a present imperative … it tells us that we must be constantly, continuously, vigilant against wanting more stuff, because that temptation simply never goes away.

In fact, just when we think we have a handle on this materialism thing, our consumer-based society dangles another juicy prize in front of us – a new phone, a new TV – and greed will once again swamp our good intentions at moderation. In fact, marketers have already budgeted to spend billions this year in their ad budget to make you discontent with what you already have, to tease you with new gadgets, to help you justify more stuff.

So, Jesus said we’ve got to be ready to carry on a constant struggle in our hearts and minds against the attractive lure of more stuff: “He said to all of them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”

Who you are is so much more important that what you have…
So in the face of this temptation, Jesus wants you, wants me, to be thinking right – countercultural, transformational, but right! Verse 15b: “… a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus is telling this man, “Who you are is more important than what you have!” Did you know iPhone owners are about 21 times more likely to tech-shame a date who uses an Android phone. Incredible!

That’s a lesson that most of us never really learn, permanently. Oh, we claim to know that … and we might win little battles against consumerism and materialism in our lives … but we never really seem to grab hold of our real identity … as loved, chosen, forgiven, redeemed, daughters and sons of God! That’s your primary identity, that’s who you really are:  a loved, chosen, forgiven, redeemed, daughter or son of God! Grab that! Believe that! Internalize that!

You already have more than you think you do…
As you let this truth sink in … “who you are as a child of God is much more important that what stuff you have” … look at how Jesus lays out the logic of this next truth in the parable: “You already have more than you think you do.” Verse 16 says: “…The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.” Notice the man didn’t get rich because he had the good crop. He was already a rich man! He already had plenty! He just didn’t recognize it.

Now before you mock that guy as clueless, recognize that followers of Jesus in the United States control 55% of the wealth in the entire world, and 70% of the wealth of Christ followers worldwide. 70%! It’s hard to imagine just how rich we are until you spend some time in Haiti, or India, or any one of dozens of third world countries with no electricity – so no refrigeration; no indoor toilets, just a latrine out back; no public schools; no health care down the street … You already have much more than you think you have.

The more you get, the more you want…
But the next lesson in the story Jesus told was “The more you get, the more you want.” Look at verse 17: “He (the rich man) thought to himself, `What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

Did you see all of the personal pronouns in those verses? I, me, my, myself … This guy was really wrapped up in himself, wasn’t he? Pretty self-focused, definitely self-centered. He had a great crop, a great opportunity, so what did he decide to do? Build more barns, and bigger barns so that he could store all of his stuff and make room for… more! He gave absolutely no thought to blessing someone else with what he’d received. His goal was to retire young, party-hearty, enjoy all the comforts that he had! Really?

Listen, that’s the cycle of greed. That’s why The Apostle Paul wrote in his first advice letter to Timothy,“The love of money is the root of all evil.” Now don’t misunderstand me here. Wealth is not inherently evil. The bible doesn’t condemn money or even riches or possessions in themselves. In fact, Paul told Timothy, just a few lines later, that God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

But our culture is in love with money and stuff. And it’s not just the rich who are in love with money. Some of the poorest people I know are still in love with the money that they wish they had.

And, sadly, whether we know it or not, many of us in this room are entangled in the love of money. I know that I am. Always wish I had more. We think we have a handle on our desires, but we really don’t.

That’s why Jesus said and “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” We get caught up in debating about what the camel and the eye of the needle means, and we totally lose the pointed warning about our dangerous fixation on money, our potentially eternally fatal obsession with m money and more stuff, that becomes an idol, a security blanket that subtly replaces dependence on God, and a pleasure center that replaces enjoyment of God.

You can’t take it with you…
So the next lesson here in the parable here in Luke 12 for those of us who want to follow Jesus is this: “You can’t take it with you.” Look at verse 20: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”

You know, it really should make us wonder: if we can’t take the material things of this world with us when we die, why are we so totally and completely focused upon accumulating this stuff now? Why do we invest so much passion, so much energy in getting more stuff? I remember walking out of the Nursing Home the day my dad crossed over to glory … with one small box that had all his possessions. Jesus said in verse 21: “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

But…
Brothers and sisters, God has better, higher plans for us. You can’t take it with you; but, you can send it on ahead. Jesus told the crowd that day, verse 32: “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you … the Kingdom! (WOW!) For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom! So sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

Listen, Jesus wants to replace our natural, well-practiced selfishness … with new, un-natural self-less-ness. He wants to replace valuing stuff … with valuing relationships. He wants to replace investing in personal comfort and convenience … with investing in the Kingdom of God. It won’t make much sense to the world around you … but it makes complete sense in God’s ultimate long-term investment plan.

A new attitude…
God’s way of looking at things reveals the character, the heart of our tri-une God. God the Father is a giver. He demonstrated that in giving His one and only Son Jesus as our desperately-needed savior (John 3:16). And Jesus the Son is a giver: He gave us the much-needed Holy Spirit (John 15:26). And the Holy Spirit is a giver: He gives all of us good gifts that equip us to serve God and each other (1 Corinthians 12).

If you and I are going to be disciples of Jesus, who follow and reflect in our own lives and attitudes the Rabbi we follow, then we need to have his heart. And that comes down to the simple principle: Define yourself by what you give, not what you have.