The Foolish and Wise Heart

Amen. Church, if you can turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 12, starting verse 13.

When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's Word. Luke chapter 12, starting verse 13.

I'll give you this afternoon the Word of the Lord. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? He said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

He told him a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what should

I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this.

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

Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

The things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

And he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap.

They have neither storehouse nor barn. And yet God feeds them. How much more value are you than the birds?

And which of you being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life? If then you're not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothed the grass, which is alive in the field today and tomorrow's thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you?

Oh, you of little faith. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.

For all the nations of the world seek after these things and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you.

Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags, and do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail.

Where no thief approaches, no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

That is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Today's message is entitled

The Foolish and the Wise Heart. In this era of my ministry here to you,

I'm trying to get through as much as possible. And what normally would be like three sermons, I condensed into one, and I condensed it into the afternoon service, which is supposed to be the shorter service.

And so please be patient with me just a little bit. If I go a little bit over, there's a lot of information here that is just such a blessing.

And it's so good. And I want to help bring to you alive

God's word and message to us in relating to the foolish and the wise heart.

We just went over this morning how in Jesus' ministry, he turns his attention to his disciples, and he tells them to be weary of the leavening of the

Pharisees, how we are to acknowledge him before man, how we are not to have the fear of man, but rather the fear of the

Lord. And so what happens now in this part of scripture in verse 13 is that someone in the crowd said to him, so now the crowd are gathering even closer to Jesus, and now they begin to question him.

And they say, teacher, tell my brother to divide inheritance with me. Remember earlier in this morning's message,

I said many of the crowds that gather to Jesus gather to him not to follow him, but to get something from him.

And of course the first thing that comes out of someone's mouth as the crowds gather to Jesus is they say, teacher, tell my brother to divide inheritance with me.

Like he wants him to be a judge and an arbiter over these trivial matters that truly are of insignificant in comparison to eternity.

And so Jesus responds to this person saying, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? What an interesting statement, because Jesus is in fact the judge of the world.

And yet why does he then rebuke this questioner with this statement? And I believe the reason why he's rebuking him with this statement of saying, who made me judge is he's saying, who's making me a judge over such trivial things?

These are small things. These are things that are not weighty in relation to that which truly is of importance here.

And he says in response in verse 15 with a rebuke, he says, take care and be on your guard against all covetedness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

You see, Jesus warns us against covetedness for one's soul, one's life, the word life that's used here in the

Greek, it's the word for soul. One's soul, one's life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.

And so the Bible has much to say about the foolish and the wise man. In the book of Proverbs, the foolish is seen as the one who does not fear the

Lord. The wise man in the book of Proverbs is the one who fears and considers the

Lord in all things. And so we begin to see this contrast between a foolish and a wise man.

And Proverbs brings this out beautifully. One in Proverbs is short -sighted, impulsive, and is described as the one who lacks understanding.

Yet the man in Proverbs who fears the Lord does not lack understanding, does not lack foresight.

Instead, he weighs a matter rightfully, and he judges with discernment.

Here Jesus is beginning to also delineate the lines between the wise and the foolish man.

The foolish man is concerned with the here and now. The foolish man is concerned with only what he can see.

Yet God is calling us to a life of wisdom where we consider things, not only what is in front of us, but that which is also in the future and with eternal consequence and importance.

Jesus reminds us that our life, our soul, does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions.

And what is this man looking for Jesus to do? To be an arbiter between him and his brother in regard to earthly possessions.

Now, it's not as if these things are unimportant. Again, if you're the person who feels wronged and you feel like you do something, that is no trivial matter to you.

It matters to you when you feel like you're wrong, and so maybe this individual feels like his brother has wronged him in some significant way.

Then yet Jesus is pointing to something that is of even more significance than this scenario.

And he points out what could be an underlining sin in this individual's heart, which is the sin of covetedness.

To covet. See, in this parable, Jesus is, or in his teaching, this rich, this person is considered his riches before the spiritual riches of Christ and his kingdom.

He goes on to say this in verse 16. He told him a parable saying this. The land of a rich man produces plentifully.

He thought to himself, what should I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops.

And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns, build larger ones, and there

I will store 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. Okay, this doesn't sound so bad, right?

Here you have essentially a businessman who's stored up, who has an excess, who has a profit, and what he desires to do with it is to build, is to essentially grow the economy, grow his economy.

Not necessarily anything inherently wrong with that, but it is the posture of one's heart which determines whether something is a blessing or a curse.

Notice what the Lord says in the parable in verse 20. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Whose will they be?

The reality that we all must contend with, brothers and sisters, is that we will all die.

10 out of 10 people die. We are all part of the ultimate statistic. Have we thought about what lies in the other side of eternity?

Well, I assure you, most people don't really think about that. Most people try to delay that thought.

In fact, death is always that existential crisis that is on the outside. We are just the mere observers of it.

We are never the ones that are actually going through it unless we, of course, feel the pain and suffering of losing a loved one or we ourselves are in a precarious health scenario or situation in which we are facing death's door.

But for the majority of our lives, we look at death as an existential thing, kind of far out there into the ether.

It's not something that is a reality that is upfront and personal, at least not most of the time.

And yet, the Lord is reminding us that we must consider that divine appointment. That appointment is coming.

It is coming for all of us. Some of us will die young. Some of us will die old.

Some of us will die somewhere in between. Have you made an account for your soul?

Have you invested your soul in that which has eternal blessing and benefits?

The foolish man does not consider eternity. The wise man considers not only what is in front of him in regard to this earthly life, the here and now, one's earthly goods, one's earthly possessions, one's earthly business, but he also considers what has eternal consequence and benefits into eternity.

Pastor Francis Chan is famous in one of his clips for demonstrating eternity in a kind of a helpful way.

He comes on the stage, and he has this huge rope, and he says, your life is like this part of the rope right here, maybe an inch of it.

That's what this life is like. And this whole rope represents eternity, and what you do with this little inch here, what you do with this little piece of the rope will determine what the rest of eternity will look like for you, and it's important, beloved, that we have that mindset, that urgency of recognizing that the here and now matters towards eternity.

And so the foolish man will not consider that. He considers this to be all that there is.

He considers his inheritance all that there is. He considers his business all that there is. He considers only that which he sees and touches here as all that there is, as essentially modern -day materialism.

And so the Lord has told us what is good. He has told us what is right, and one's life is not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

There is more to life than one's possessions. There's more to life than one's clothing. There's more to life than one's food.

There's more to life. Period. And so, in this parable, you see the rich man, he lost sight of eternity, showing that the fool is the one who lays up treasure for self in this limited time that we have, and does not store up treasure toward God in heaven, which is exactly what it says here in verse 21.

He says, so is the one, the fool, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Brothers, what good is earthly riches if you're not rich toward God? If you could, as Jesus says, what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?

There is no gain in that. That is a wager you do not want to mismanage. And yet the

Lord continues in his word to us in verse 22, and this is where it becomes very helpful and practical for us today, saints.

And he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

Earlier this morning, I said there are some verses of scripture that I just don't always look forward to preaching. Again, as a double hitter, another scripture

I don't necessarily look forward to preaching. Why, because these are things that are relevant to all of us, and they're hard because it's easier said, it's easier heard than done and applied.

Of course, it's easy to hear these words, but it's hard to apply them.

Similarly, it's like when you're in a tense conversation, maybe with a spouse. Men, have you ever tried this, where your wife maybe is upset and you tell her to calm down?

Doesn't always work, does it? But vice versa is true, right, ladies?

Sometimes you tell the husband, honey, calm down, and sometimes we don't calm down. You see, it's easier said than done.

What Jesus is pointing to is, again, a posture of a heart between one who is foolish and one who is wise, one who considers a matter and one who does not.

So Jesus tells us, therefore, as a result of, because of what he had just said, what he had just pointed to about being rich toward God, he says, don't be anxious about your life, what you eat, nor about the body, what you put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

I was an addiction counselor for four years in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, most of you know that.

One of the great joys of that job and working with these men is that these men had sometimes accumulated wonderful things and then lost them all.

One person in particular who was in our addiction recovery program, his name was

Link Gates, and Link Gates was a NHL player, and he had played professional hockey for I think around eight or seven years and has made amass quite a bit of wealth during the 90s and I think early 2000s, and he was a well -recognized player.

I'm not a sports person, so I had no idea who he was until someone told me several weeks into him being in our program who he was and why it was kind of a big deal.

And this is a man who had amassed great wealth in his life and yet in such a short time because of his addiction, he had lost it all and was living on the streets of Edmonton, homeless and destitute and clinging for life.

Through our program, we were able to help him for a season of life. I don't know what has become of him since then, but again, it shows the brevity of life, the brevity of success even in this life.

Sometimes success is here for a moment and then it's gone. Brothers and sisters, that is the reality of life in this age.

Therefore, what should really matter is not one's possessions, not what we can amass, but rather the life that we live toward God, a life that pleases our

Creator, a life that is not filled with folly, but is filled with wisdom.

Jesus commands us not to be anxious about our life for there's more to life than our needs.

Notice what is brought up in this text. He says, life is more than food and the body more than clothing.

Those are needs. Those are bad things. You need food, you need clothing. These are things that are generally good, but you know what?

Life is more than that. Why? Because you have an eternal soul.

You have an eternal soul that's at stake here in this limited, finite window of time and opportunity.

And so life is truly more than food. Why? Because there's a food that will be given to us that shall never perish.

Life is more than just one's clothing. Why? Because there will come a day when we are clothed and shall never be made naked again.

Brothers and sisters, there's more to life than that which is temporary here on this side of eternity.

And so this is what is required of us is to consider as what Jesus says in verse 24, consider the ravens.

They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouses nor barn, yet God feeds them.

How much more of value are you than the birds? Similar to what Jesus said in earlier verses in chapter 12, verse four through six.

He again points to the intrinsic value of the human being made in God's image.

There's an intrinsic value that you have that's more than the sparrows, that's more than the lilies of the field.

You matter. And your finite time here on this earth matters, so make the most of it for kingdom use, for kingdom interest.

Again, life is more than just the abundance of one's possessions. And so Jesus goes on to say in verse 25, in which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to a span of life?

Again, referencing my experience as an addiction counselor, one of the things that we taught our men was something called the serenity prayer.

Anyone ever heard of the serenity prayer before? If you don't like repetitious prayers, you're probably not a fan of it, but I really came to love this prayer.

And it goes a little something like this. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things

I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, accepting one moment at a time, and accepting hardship as the pathway to peace, taking as Jesus did the sinful world as it is, and not as I would have it, trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next, amen.

People are mostly familiar with that first sentence of that serenity prayer. But the way that serenity prayer continues on is points to an eternal reward.

It points to an eternal perspective. And so why should I allow things to be in God's hand?

It's because there's something called eternity, where ultimately all wrongs will be made right, where ultimately all things lost will one day be restored.

And we look to the story of Job as an example of this, even as the scripture in the New Testament tells us to look at the story of Job and his perseverance as a testimony for us today.

Because Job, what did he have? He had wealth, he had riches, he had children, he had land, he had cattle, he had all the things that one could need or want, and yet systematically, one by one, through the enemy's doing, all those things were systematically taken away, one by one, until he was left with nothing, completely destitute, sick, and dying.

And even in that, he doesn't curse God. But you know what he does do?

He certainly wrestles with them. And he gets fed up to the point where he says, he says, God, where are you?

Why is this happening to me? And God speaks from the whirlwind.

And he says, essentially, who are you, oh man? And where were you when

I laid the foundation of the earth and the sons of God shout for joy?

Who are you and what are you? It reminds me of what the psalmist says in Psalm 8.

He says, what is man that you should be mindful of me and the son of man that you should care for me?

For when I look at the heavens and I see the works of your hands, when you see how grand and how big

God is, it reminds you of how small we actually are and how small our problems actually are.

Recognize how big your God is and then you'll see how small your problems are. And again, these things are easier said than done.

I, myself, and many of you here, I assume, are going through a tough time, tough season, time of change, a transition, unforeseen circumstances.

And these are challenges for all of us to contend with. Are we going to trust in the God who feeds the ravens, the

God who feeds the sparrows of the sky? Are we not worth more than they?

So then it goes on to say, if you're not able to, if then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

That's why I really like the serenity prayer because it tells us God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change.

There are things outside of my control. There are certain things that I cannot change. I was watching a podcast, and there was a famous sports player who said he was taught, and one of the things that he finds most helpful is something that a coach had taught him, which is this phrase, control the controllables.

Control the controllables. That is to say, again, similar to what the serenity prayer says, God, grant me the courage to change the things that I can.

Okay? But the wisdom to know the difference. Between what you can change, and between what you can't change.

And this is where the heart of wisdom comes into play. The Lord makes it clear that God is still gracious and good to his people.

In verse 28, it says, but if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow's thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you,

O you of little faith, and do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor to be worried, for all the nations of the world seeks after these things, and your

Father knows that you need them. Instead, so here's what Jesus says you shouldn't do.

Don't worry about these things. Here's the alternative. The alternative is this.

Seek first the kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

These things will be added to you. And then he gives us this other word of encouragement.

Again, if you recognize the theme here in chapter 12 of Luke, it's a lot about fear.

And he closes this discussion in verse 32 by saying, fear not.

Just as he told us not to fear the man who can kill the body, just as he told us not to be worried or anxious about our lives, he tells us, fear not, little flock, for it is your

Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So sell your possessions, give to the needy, provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

What an encouraging word from our Savior. He reminds us of the alternative to anxiety.

The cure to anxiety is to trust in God and to seek first his kingdom, that is to say, his interest before our own interest.

Seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be added. And he encourages us to sell our possessions, give to the needy.

He's encouraging us to live a life of selflessness, not to be hoarders, but to be outrageously generous in the cause of God's kingdom, to be outrageously generous in terms of giving of ourselves, giving of our possessions to those that are in need of it.

Because there, your true treasure will be exposed. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I wanna encourage you as we close in this sermon that faith doesn't operate in fear.

And we demonstrate our faith by where we store our treasure, which shows exactly where our heart or where the state of our heart truly is.

The difference between the foolish and the wise person is one, the foolish person has a small, limited, and earthly -minded focus, while the other, the wise man, has a perspective that sees past one's own self -interest and is able to perceive the importance and the value of eternal and spiritual truths.

May you choose today to have a wise and prudent heart, to be a faithful and wise servant that is found on that day waiting for his master.

Friends, you can be one of those individuals who are wise, and that begins by receiving the

Lord Jesus Christ, by knowing that he is truly Lord, he is our Savior, he's our only hope, that he truly died for our sins, and that he offers us the opportunity to repent, to turn, and to trust in him.

This call is not just for the unbeliever, it is for us as Christians to continue to admonish ourselves in that way, for the door is indeed narrow, and the path narrow that leads to life.

And so, friends, may you continue to choose the path that leads to eternal life, that good old way, the way, the truth, and the life himself,

Jesus Christ, and he is the one who we proclaim to you today. Let's pray. Gracious and good

Savior, our wonderful Savior Jesus, we thank you that you have spoken to us in this word and have given us the cure to anxiety, the cure to a foolish heart, and that is to have a heart that trusts in you, a heart that desires your kingdom, your interests before our own.

Lord, forgive us for where we fall short, for Lord, we do sin when we fail to trust in you.

We do sin when we fail to see your provision in your hand of goodness, even when times are difficult, even when times are bad, even when situations seem insurmountable.

Lord, help us to be led by your Spirit, to be focused on that which is heavenly and not simply upon the abundance of our own possessions.

Lord, may we be willing to lay down all of our possessions in pursuit of your glory, in pursuit of your kingdom.