Sermon Tone Analysis

March 26, 2012

By John Barnett

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Jesus taught more about money than any other topic.

He once asked his audience, ‘What does it profit someone to gain the whole world—and yet lose their own soul?”

People have always been closely connected to their money.

In the past week we have gone through a historic period for our generation.

It seemed to many people this past week, that they were on the verge of losing their whole world.

Jesus said gain the world and lose me, or:

*Lose the World and Gain Christ*

As we open to Luke 12, we are about to hear Jesus speak with absolute authority on money.

We need to listen.

One of the financial world’s most respected news services, Bloomberg, tells us that in the past 12 months we in America have lost $6 Trillion dollars in real estate equity and over $8.3 Trillion dollars in market equity.

For the three hundred million of us that live in America that translates into $20,000 per person in lost real estate values and $28,000 per person in lost stock market equity.

That is the most money ever gained and lost in such a short time in all of modern history.

But one commodity has not changed, it has actually only gotten more precious by the day.

God's Word points clearly to the only source of our hope in Christ.

The Bible reveals that:

• In uncertain times, we have a Immoveable Rock.

• In fearful times, we have a Fortress and Refuge.

• When the world is shaking, the financial markets quaking, and our trusted assets seem so fleeting—we have an anchor that can keep our souls.

Someone taped this poem, extolling God's Word, in the back of an old Bible I found.

Read it to be wise.

Believe it to be safe.

Practice it to be holy.

This book contains light to direct you, fruit to sustain you, comfort to cheer you.

It is the traveler’s map, the pilgrim’s staff.

It’s the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, it’s the Christian’s chart.

Here paradise is restored, heaven is open, the gates of hell are disclosed.

Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully.

It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure.

The Bible.

The Book you can trust.

And that Book over-and-over warns us to:

*Be Careful How You Build*

Listen again to Christ's words in Luke 12:15-21 as we stand and I read them to you.

/15 "Then he said to them, "Watch out!

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

/

/ 16 "And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.

17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do?

I have no place to store my crops.'"/

/18 "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.

19 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."

'/

/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?' /

/21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."/

*Building Fireproof*

All week long, as the financial markets around the world unraveled, our text Sunday evening kept moving me deeply.

Christ's words, through the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 3 that we studied in our look at Christ's Judgment seat should challenge us to think whether, “What we have built will survive.”

Remember what we saw last week?

I Corinthians 3:14 says:

If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.

How do we make sure that we are building something that will last forever?

As a believer the Bible has given me an insider’s knowledge.

God's Word has already described a future time when all the valuables of this world—all money, possessions, fashions, and treasures--become worthless: at our death or Christ's return, both of which are ahead for each of us.

This knowledge should utterly change our investment strategy.

As Jesus noted in Luke 12, for believers to use the majority of their precious time and energies building up more and more wealth and possessions is foolish.

In face of the inevitable events God describes for us, the endless storing up of vast sums of money for some future day would be like the historic equivalent to hoarding Confederate money on the day before Sherman took the South.

Any believers who puts their hopes for life on earth in money, betrays a basic ignorance or unbelief in the Scriptures.

Investments made for Jesus, backed by the eternal deposit assurance promises, are the only currency recognized by our God, whose Kingdom lasts forever.

The deposits to his Kingdom are made by our daily offering of our time in worship filled service; and by the sacrificial investment of our resources for Him.

*Building for Eternity*

I keep in my study a piece of one man’s dreams that was smashed into millions of pieces and did not survive.

What am I talking about?

A year ago this week I stood on a low platform of rock that sticks out into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel.

That platform was part of a city named Caesarea Maritima, built by one of the most incredible builders of all time named Herod the Great.

The rocks I stood on were the just foundation of one of the greatest cities ever built.

In 4 BC when Herod died his city Caesarea by the Sea rivaled Rome and Athens as one of the grandest and most beautiful cities in the entire world.

But one part of the city was the grandest; it was Herod’s personal palace.

It was on a point that jutted far out into the Mediterranean Sea.

There he lived a life of unrivaled opulence.

Not even the Caesars of Rome had 33 years of life at the top.

And Herod lived every one of those days for himself.

His palace, in which I stood that afternoon, had been built from the most expensive and exquisite materials money could buy.

Only the best for Herod, he lived for Herod; and a person who lives for themself will always be surrounding themselves with more and more comforts, treasures and pleasures.

Herod’s hunger for pleasing himself was unimaginable and endless it seemed.

One special part of his palace was varieties of marble he used to built with.

All were imported and brought by ship to be used in his palace.

Marble that was red, green, white, black, swirled and clear, all were brought, no cost was spared.

But on that day last year, all that I could find that was left of Herod’s huge palace he had built for himself -- were the scattered pieces of smashed marble that have been washing up on the shore for two thousand years since the Romans came and leveled the palace in 67AD.

Herod lived for Herod, and people who live for themselves -- give to themselves all their best treasures, but not to God.

And those people, and their treasures they have built do not survive!

*Herod Lived For Herod*

Jesus promised endless joys to all who live this way for Him.

All this should give us cause for reflection.

Who are you and I living for?

Herod like the Rich Fool in our text, both lived for themselves.

What kind of building materials are we producing?

Are we using our lives making earthly palaces or are we sending our building materials ahead to heaven for our own dwelling place?

Who have we influenced spiritually to the point that they would welcome us into their eternal dwelling places?

To what needy people have we sacrificially given our resources?

Apparently those whom we have influenced for Christ, directly or indirectly, will know and appreciate us and desire our fellowship in heaven.

What a thought!

This is encouraging both in light of saved family members, friends, and others we have impacted, and for many we do not even know who have been touched by our prayers, by our service, and by our financial giving.

Jesus gives us a tremendous incentive to invest our lives and our assets in his kingdom while on earth.

The greater our service and sacrifice for him and for others, the larger and more enthusiastic our welcoming committee in heaven, the more eternal residences we will have opportunity to visit, and the more substantial our own place in heaven.

One day money will be useless.