Dec. 4, 2016 A Better Retirement Plan by Conley Owens Deacon

Retirement as a Spiritual Problem

So, please keep your finger in Luke 12, where Steve just read for us, because we'll be going to there shortly. According to an article earlier this year published in Time Money magazine, one out of three Americans has not saved anything for retirement.

The median amount that people have stored up for retirement is less than $10 ,000, and of those 55 and older, those nearing retirement, that number is less than $50 ,000. Now, people have different philosophies on what you need to retire.

Maybe Social Security will be enough, but if you want to live the same kind of lifestyle you can live while you have a salary, those numbers don't add up. You would need something more. Retirement and preparing for retirement is a big deal, and Jesus is going to address that in this passage.

He has some thoughts on how we should be thinking about retirement. Now, recently, Pastor Josh in the evening services has been going through Matthew 6. He's talking about storing up treasures for yourself in heaven, not being anxious.

This is a parallel passage in Luke, but this parable only shows up in Luke. It doesn't show up in Matthew, and so I'm hoping that this will elaborate on the teaching that you've been hearing from Josh in Matthew 6.

And if you have not—if you think you are behind and you're storing up for retirement, maybe it's the case that you're not as behind as you thought. And if you're ahead, maybe you're not as ahead as you thought.

We will see. Let's look at what Jesus has to say. The beginning of the parable is in verse 16. Okay, so here's the problem. You have some excess. What do you do with that excess? Or maybe even more broadly, even if you don't have excess, how do you gather up wealth?

How do you increase your wealth? This is a big problem. People have different ways of addressing this problem. Some people take it very seriously, right? They save a lot. They don't spend. They make sure they have a lot on store.

Other people treat the problem very differently. They live in the moment. They spend what they have. You've heard the statistics about lottery winners. 70 of people who win the lottery are broke within a few years.

Why? It's because they're just interested in living in the moment. They're not planning. That's kind of a perversion of what Jesus says later in this chapter when he says, don't worry about what you'll eat and drink.

He doesn't mean don't plan. But regardless of where you are on that spectrum, whether people plan or whether they don't plan, it's almost universally the case that people treat this as a non-spiritual problem, as an amoral problem.

They think, well, you can plan how you want to plan, and that may be right for you, and this is how I will plan, and that will be right for me. However, this is a spiritual problem. This is a moral problem.

Jesus is addressing it, and he's addressing it in a parable. I think that's a pretty good sign that this is a spiritual problem. And the way you think about retirement, the way you think about planning for the future says a great deal about your spiritual state.

Now man, ever since the Garden of Eden, has had this desire to improve his state. God said to Adam to subdue the earth. What does that mean? That means he was to improve the garden, right? He was to improve his state.

This is a good desire that God has given man. The question is, how do you appropriately channel that desire to improve your state? And so we will see how this man decides to channel that desire. Verse 17, excuse me, verse 18.

And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink, be merry. Now you may have saw this coming. In verse 17 he had said, what shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? It's pretty clear that he wanted to store his crops and so that's what he does.

He tears down his old barns, he builds up bigger barns, and he stores his crops in them. Now some people look at this because they know that Jesus is going to end up having some negative comments about what this man is doing.

They know he's going to be condemned. And so they say that this is inherently wrong what this man is doing. He's building up bigger barns. He's storing now so that in a time of scarcity, he can price gouge his neighbors, that evil man.

First of all, the Bible doesn't say he's trying to price gouge his neighbors. Secondly, if he was, in a way that might be a service because otherwise, you know, they would either have nothing or they would have to go to someone else who would charge them even more.

And another thing, is this not what Joseph did in the land of Egypt? Didn't he store up in years of plenty for later years and then charge a much higher price? And he was commended for these things. So his problem is not in storing up so he can price gouge neighbors.

The problem lies a lot deeper than that. If you've ever heard the Christian financial advisor on the radio, Dave Ramsey, if he lived in the first century, this is probably something that he'd be telling you to do.

Instead of saying, you know, put the maximum matching in your 401k and then put the rest in a Roth IRA, he'd be saying, okay, the first thing you do is you tear down your barn, and then you build a new barn, then you put your stuff in it.

This is the first century plan. Proverbs 6, 6 through 8 says, Go to the aunt of Slugger, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she gathers her bread in— excuse me, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

In a way, that's what this man is doing. He is preparing his bread in summer and gathering his food in harvest. So his problem is a little deeper than the surface-level action. There's some problem with the surface-level actions, but the real problem is much deeper than that.

And so let us look and see what that problem is. Jesus analyzes the man's actions in verse 21. He says, So is the one who lays up treasures for himself. Right? That's the man's first problem. He's laying up for himself.

He is greedy. He's—listen to the way he talks. He talks about my barns, my grain, my goods, my soul. You can see his singular self-interest when he's talking to himself, saying, my soul. He cares about me, me, me.

Very, very greedy person. Now let's back up and consider some of the context in Luke. There's a reason at this point in Luke why Jesus is addressing greed. At the end of chapter 11, he has visited the house of Pharisees, the house of a Pharisee, and he has there condemned the scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.

One of the key examples of the hypocrisy being that they claim to care about the poor. They give alms. But in reality, they take advantage of others, you know, possibly through their superior understanding of the law.

They arrange things in a way that they benefit. They are hypocrites and they are greedy. And now after Jesus accuses them of hypocrisy, how do they respond? Look at the very last two verses of 11, 53 and 54.

As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. So they are trying to turn around that accusation of hypocrisy.

He has accused them of hypocrisy. They want to accuse him and accuse his disciples of hypocrisy. And Jesus, at the beginning of chapter 12, he says to them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

He is saying, now they're looking for hypocrisy in you, beware of that. Because if they find it, that will be the downfall of Jesus and the disciples. And guess what? It is the downfall of Jesus and the disciples.

Judas, Judas pretends to care about the poor, right? He's the one who wants to sell the perfume in order that it might be given to the poor, but they don't realize that he controls the money person. He really wants it for himself.

And when the Pharisees find this hypocrisy and exploit it, what do they do? They give him 30 pieces of silver so that he would betray Jesus. This hypocrisy of greed is the downfall of Jesus and the disciples.

But that's not exactly why Jesus warns them against the leaven of the Pharisees, against hypocrisy. He warns them because in verse, excuse me, sorry, verse 4 of 12, I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do.

In other words, the Pharisees are coming for you, looking for hypocrisy to kill you, but do not fear them. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who after he is killed has the authority to cast into hell.

God Almighty is also looking for hypocrisy in man. Fear him. He will do much worse than the Pharisees ever could. And so they must be on their guard, worrying about this greed and hypocrisy. And if you're a little confused, too, how Jesus is relating greed and hypocrisy, if that's not clear, it seems like it might just be that one would only be a hypocrite if they claim to have some special care for the poor, some special selflessness, before having any greed would really make them a hypocrite.

Well, consider the words of Hebrews 13, 5 through 6. Hebrews 13, 5 through 6 says,. In other words, if you have a love of money and you claim to fear God, that's not true because you fear man. Man can do something to you if you love money.

That makes you, as a believer, as someone who claims they fear God, a hypocrite. There's another, there's another problem with this rich man's actions. Verse 20 says, You know, this man was talking to his own soul, saying, soul, look what you forgot for many years.

And then God says, soul, you're required. It's, it's a dreadful irony that this man of prudence, this man who's looking long ahead, has all that stripped away from him and doesn't get to enjoy any of it.

And what is the answer to the Lord's question? He says, Maybe a biological heir, maybe the state. It's to whomever God pleases. That passage Steve Redhue in Ecclesiastes calls that a striving after wind.

It calls it vanity. It says, This also is vanity and a striving after wind. Right? You can gather and collect all you want, but eventually it's going to go to someone else. It's vanity because no matter how hard you try, it amounts to nothing.

It's striving after wind because just like someone trying to catch the wind, they can't do it. It'll just slip right through your fingertips. It is, it is a dreadful, dreadful irony. And he says, Right?

That's a very foolish thing to think. We all know that our lives are finite. James 4 .14 says,. But yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

If your life is only here for a little time and then vanishes, it would be very foolish to invest in that. You know, if I was considering buying Apple stock, and Apple stock is very high, but I know that the price of silicon is about to rise and that will affect Apple's ability to produce phones at a reasonable cost.

And I know that their stock price is going to fail. I would be a fool for investing in a company who I know their stock price is going to fail. Now, how much more is the fool who invests in his own life when he knows full well that his life will not only decrease in value, it will disappear from off the face of the earth like a mist.

The one who invests in some company that has a bleak future has some chance at that panning out. The person who invests in himself knows for a fact that his life will fail. Just like Apple's value, the value of Apple stock is contingent upon their ability to source material.

The value of your material comforts is contingent on you being alive. And if you know that you will one day not be alive, that is an investment that is doomed to fail. Another way you can think about it is cars and houses.

People will tell you often that investing in a car is a bad idea because cars generally decrease in value. Investing in a home is a good idea because homes generally increase in value. So someone is foolish if they invest in a car expecting that to be their nest egg, because it's probably going to decrease in value.

But so much more is the fool who invests in himself when he knows that he will vanish off the face of the earth. In this phrase, he says, Now a lot of times you'll hear that phrase differently. You'll hear it, If you've ever heard that and you thought it was in the Bible, it's not exactly.

It's a conflation of this verse and Isaiah 22, 13. And what's going on in Isaiah 22 is they say, because the Judeans have enemies that are going to attack them. They know they're going to die. And so they decide to pursue their final days of self-indulgence instead of repenting to God and doing something that would have some effect.

And this, the only difference between them who know they're going to die the next day and this man is that he is pretending he has many years when in both cases, even if he were to have many years, in both cases, their life is finite.

He is pushing this truth out of mind. That is what makes an action foolish. It's not not having information. It's having information and pushing it out of mind, pretending like it doesn't matter. So what should we do?

What does Jesus say to do? It says, So there's a good plan. There's a good plan. Being rich toward God. So what does it mean to be rich toward God? Being rich is to have God's favor. It's to have his blessings.

If you remember the parable, excuse me, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts off, Now in Luke, Jesus says that also. He gives that beatitude in the Sermon on the Plain, but he follows it up with something else that he doesn't include in Matthew.

He says, You see, those who invest in their own material comfort in this life, that does not pan out. That will give you comfort in this life, but no more. Those who are poor in spirit, those who are humble towards God and serve him, will have much in the life to come, and they will receive their comfort there.

This is a good investment. This is wise. The world might not agree. The world might say that this is like throwing pennies into a wishing well, right? You expect to get some treasures in heaven. You're really counting on that.

That's like throwing pennies into a wishing well. But we've already said, we've already showed that someone who invests in themself is investing in something that is doomed to fail, right? And so if you are investing in yourself, you are the one throwing pennies into a wishing well, right?

You are the one who's throwing things away because that is a failed investment. Material goods do not last. Treasures in heaven, these things last forever. And so I would ask you to, when you, maybe when you go home and you're in the car and you're talking with your spouse, categorize big items in your life, ways you spend your time, ways you spend your money, and ask yourself, to what degree is this pursuing final days of self-indulgence?

To what degree is this pursuing kingdom purposes? And that's a difficult task, but I'd like you to try it. And it's not as simple as you think. It's not like, oh, well, I give the church this much. That's treasures in heaven.

And I give, you know, this is our entertainment budget. And so, you know, these are not treasures in heaven. It's not that simple. God says he loves a cheerful giver. So if you're giving to church and you're not doing it cheerfully, that does not equate to treasures in heaven.

And remember, Jesus' first miracle was to make wine at a wedding. So he's not opposed to enjoying oneself and enjoying God's creation. So that doesn't mean your entertainment budget can't necessarily contribute to treasures in heaven.

And it's not just money either. It's time. Think about these things. Jesus says, Jesus says, one's life, this is in verse 15, one's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions. So you must ask yourself of what does your life consist?

And like I said, this is a very difficult task. You know, if we want to check, my family in particular, if we want to check what's in our bank account, we have an app that can do that quickly. And we have a couple of other accounts and we can check those very quickly.

How do you, how do you check how much, how many treasures in heaven that you've stored up? There's no app for that one. How do you know that you don't have any treasure at all? In fact, later on in Luke 17, Jesus is going to say that if you do what God requires for you, if you do some good work, you are only doing what is required of you.

There is no, there is no meritorious reward for doing, doing what is required of you. And then moreover, everything you do is to some degree tainted by some selfishness, some greed, some hypocrisy. And if you don't believe that, then at least you can believe that at some point, one of your actions has been tainted by some degree of selfishness or greed.

So the fact of the matter is, is that if you have no meritorious actions, if you are only doing what is required from you, and some of them have been tainted, you are not, you do not have treasures in heaven.

You have debt. That's a, that's a big issue. So what is the solution to this problem? Jesus hints at it in this opening when he fields this question from this man. So let's read that. Verses 13 and 14.

So we have this man who wants his brother to divide the inheritance with him. You know, the Old Testament deals with, deals with inheritances, but it can't cover every possible situation. So this is one that the courts apparently haven't been able to decide, and this man feels that he's been treated unfairly, and he wants to be treated fairly.

However, he doesn't realize that it's not his brother who's the greedy one, and it's he who is the greedy one. Not that his brother's not necessarily guilty of that, but he is the greedy one. This is a, this is a common problem, right?

People hear sermons, and they say, boy, I've got a friend who could really use that one. When it's, when it's you yourself who need to hear the Word of God and have your actions corrected. And so, so he's got this problem, and Jesus' response to him is a little different than you would expect.

He doesn't come out and directly state the answer. Of course, he gives a parable, which is a little cryptic, and then he gives the statement that's a little cryptic. He says, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?

Now, what exactly does that mean? Of course, he is this judge over us. He's the Lord. What Jesus is doing, he's alluding to Exodus 2 .14, and I'd like to read that passage for you. So if you'll turn with me to Exodus 2, and we'll start in verse 11.

Exodus 2, verse 11. Okay, so there's two, there's two major things that are going on here. One, this man is accusing Moses of hypocrisy, right? You want us to stop fighting? How come, you know, you killed that man yesterday?

And so, so Jesus in part by, by alluding to this statement is, is levying that accusation of hypocrisy. But there's something more important going on here too. Jesus has switched it around. So instead of saying, like this Hebrew slave, who made you a judge over us?

He's saying, who made me a judge over you? Just like this Hebrew slave who does not recognize Moses' authority, he doesn't realize that God has sent Moses to deliver them from the oppression of the Egyptians.

This man who is asking Jesus a question may acknowledge Jesus' authority to some degree, and as much as it would apply to his brother, but doesn't acknowledge the implications of what that would mean for his own life.

Jesus, later on in this chapter in Luke 12, he says that people should be willing to sacrifice their familial relationships for the sake of the kingdom of God. This man is willing to sacrifice his family relationships along with the kingdom of God for the sake of wealth.

He doesn't acknowledge what that authority would mean in practice. And if he would just submit to God, if he would submit to Jesus and actually have him be Lord over him, judge and ruler over him, this would fix his problems.

And it would not fix his problems merely because he would obey. Consider this. Jesus is the perfect possessor. He is the perfect—he has stored up for himself treasures perfectly, right? He has not acted greedy, not acted selfishly, not acted hypocritically, and he has sought the kingdom.

Not only has he sought the kingdom, he has established the kingdom of God. And so he has a perfect treasure that he has stored up while we have debt. And when he died on the cross, he paid the penalty for— he paid that debt for anyone who trusted him.

And those who trusted him, he stands in their stead, and they have the treasure that he is owed, and he bears the debt that we were owed. That is how Jesus fixes this problem. And not only that, there's more.

It says, you know, Jesus tells us to be on guard against all covetousness. This problem of not being able to store up treasures for ourself if our deeds are always tainted. This problem is also fixed in Jesus.

We can guard against all covetousness. This is something that we are enabled to do through the work of Jesus Christ. When we give our good works to the Father, we do not hand them directly to him tainted.

We give them to the Son. Like our praises, like our thanksgiving, like our worship, these things are mediated by our great high priest who makes them, who offers himself, right? These are much better through him, mediated through him.

And even though they are not meritorious in and of their own, Jesus, because they are offered in Jesus, his work is recognized, and we are credited with rewards. God is willing to reward us even though our works are not meritorious.

We can begin storing up treasures for ourselves in heaven. And that's exciting. I mentioned earlier that ever since the Garden of Eden, God has given man this desire to improve his state, right? Subdue the earth.

He wants—man has this desire, and it's a good desire. Just how do you channel that desire? And ever since the fall, the avenues for channeling that desire have been greatly changed. Right before Adam could improve the garden, he could expect his material goods to hang around for eternity.

But now that is no longer the case. You no longer have that avenue available to you. You only have this limited time while you are on this earth to store up treasures in heaven by seeking the kingdom, by serving the Lord.

So use this time wisely. So no matter how much you have stored, how much you have stored up for yourself in earthly accounts, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And if you are one who has not trusted Jesus, if you are not able to store up treasures for yourself in heaven, no matter how many material comforts you've gathered up for yourself on earth, they will not last.

And you know this. If you are honest with yourself, you know this. So you need to turn to Jesus, and he will make—he will give you a great hope. You will have not only the kingdom, but much more. You know, I quoted that verse, Ecclesiastes 2 .26.

It said, "...for to the center he is given the task of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.". Who is the one who pleases God? It's Jesus. And if you are in Jesus, it is also you.

All things will be given to Jesus, and we can be co-heirs with him, inheriting the entire kingdom if we are in Christ. And so if you already are in Christ, I would encourage you to use this time that you have now to continue storing up treasures, to continue offering your good works through the Son of God.

And I wonder to myself what the statistics would look like if we were able to measure treasures in heaven. What would it say? Maybe 99 of Americans have stored up absolutely no treasures for themselves in heaven, no matter how bleak the statistics might be.

My hope is that Providence Bible Church can be a church that would defy all the odds, despite those statistics. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your Son, who is our great treasure.

I pray that you would encourage us through your word, that you would cause us to pursue you and to pursue your kingdom, and to keep our eyes on things above as we seek to improve our state in a godly way, in a way that serves you and serves the kingdom.

In Jesus' name, amen.