The Foolish Steward
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: The Life Of Christ
The hope is to draw closer to our Savior through studying his time here on earth.
When it comes to sermons how do you listen to them?
When I or another preacher begins his lesson by laying the foundation for the sermon do you catch yourself thinking about other things and your mind drifting away only to catch yourself and bring yourself back to the lesson?
There is no doubt that as preachers we have some responsibility here.
If a preacher doesn’t prepare well for a sermon it can be clunky and not put together well making it difficult to follow.
The old preacher saying is correct, poor preparation leads to poor attention.
However, the preacher isn’t always to be blamed for a lack of attention.
The apostle Paul who spoke before King Agrippa, Governor Festus, and even Caesar himself had Eutychus fall asleep during his sermon.
That brings me to our text this morning.
Jesus, the greatest preacher and teacher to ever walk this earth, found himself like every preacher has with someone more concerned with his own thoughts than the sermon being delivered.
In Luke 12:1 we find that thousands had gathered hear Jesus preach and Jesus did not disappoint.
Jesus started preaching on various subjects such as “the evils of hypocrisy, the providence of God, the necessity of confessing faith, and even the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.”
While Jesus was preaching a man in the crowed, consumed with his own thoughts, blurted out a demand that had nothing to do with what Jesus was preaching.
Luke 12:13 (ESV)
13 …Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
It’s obvious that Jesus was annoyed by this man’s interruption when he responded…
Luke 12:14 (ESV)
14 …Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?
However, not to loose the opportunity to teach a lesson based on this man’s thoughtlessness Jesus presents the parable of the “Rich Fool” or as we have titled this morning, “The Foolish Steward.”
Let’s read the parable now…
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 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.
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 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?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” 22 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.
As you can clearly see Jesus calls this farmer “a fool.”
However, I doubt those that new this man, his neighbors, considered him a fool at all.
After all when a man works hard his whole life and eventually acquires a small fortune to retire on most consider this person anything but a fool.
In fact he was obviously a very intellectual man to be able to work and succeed as he had.
So why would Jesus call this skillful, successful, and thus intelligent man a fool?
Let’s look at our lesson this morning to answer that question.
The first thing we notice about that this man is “he saw himself as…”
A Self-Made Man
A Self-Made Man
I And My.
I And My.
Within just four verses we find no less than nine times this farmer used the word “I” and “my.”
This farmer had become enamored with himself and thought he alone was the reason for the success of his harvest.
The reality is there is no such thing as a “self-made man.”
Men throughout history have often thought “they alone were the reason for their achievements.”
Remember Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:30 when he said…
30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
Or Samson who would say in Judges 15:16…
16 And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.”
Conceit is a trait that can produce much evil.
The conceit of this farmer caused him to embezzle from God i.e., take from God and consider it his.
Notice God had furnished the land for this farmer.
26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”
God had supplied the seed for this farmer.
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
God had supplied the water for this farmer.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.
The farmer used his talents to cultivate and harvest but he forgot his “silent partner, God.”
Summary
Summary
This embezzlement was a crime against God, a sin!
We must never forget that in reality nothing actually belongs to us.
14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
Not only had this foolish farmer embezzled from God but he…
Forgot His Fellowman
Forgot His Fellowman
Forgetting God Leads To Forgetting Man.
Forgetting God Leads To Forgetting Man.
When Germany left the teachings of Jesus “love your neighbor as yourself” for the philosophies of Nietzsche, mankind plunged into tow great blood-baths.
The Nazi’s atrocities against mankind, especially during World War II, are minor sample of what happens when man leaves God.
To forget God and still try to better the physical of mankind is a waste of time.
This is the natural fallacy of the communist philosophy.
They say, “See the dirty, ragged, drunk wallowing in the gutter. We can put a new suit on that man.”
Jesus says, “See that same man, I can put a new man in that suit.”
When mankind forgets God their fellow man isn’t far behind.
And unfortunately the reality is there is something about riches that blinds a person to the needs of others.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Summary
Summary
This foolish farmer never consider how he could help other with his abundance and only thought of the lavish lifestyle he had prepared for his “retirement years.”
This isn’t to say that rich Christians have to give away “all their goods” but they do need to remember that in the just a few verses down from our text God said this…
Luke 12:48 (ESV)
48 …Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Lastly we see that this man failed to see…
The Purpose Of Labor
The Purpose Of Labor
To Teach The Gospel.
To Teach The Gospel.
It’s sad today that so many have no clue why they labor and work.
Today people work to buy new houses, cars, clothes, or any other number of physical and material items.
Some, even labor for the opportunity to do unsavory and sinful deeds such as working for money to drink alcohol, do drugs, gamble, etc…
However, the apostle Paul tells us why we are to labor in this life and it isn’t for just material things.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
Paul worked so he could keep preaching the gospel.
Our first priority with working shouldn’t be what “can I buy” but what opportunities to present the gospel are afforded here that wouldn’t have been other wise.
We also find Paul tell the thief in Ephesus this…
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Here Paul says working helps you help the needy.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
In other words, our laboring for financial gain should always be done in light of the spiritual gain it can achieve, not just its monetary value.
The foolish farmer had forgotten what pure religion was and only focused on his own desires and wants.
Focusing on the spiritual allows us…
To Store Up In Heaven.
To Store Up In Heaven.
Like so many today the foolish farmer laid up his treasure on earth instead of in heaven.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
This foolish farmer lost everything because he ignored the law of God and spit on God’s blessings.
James Moffatt once said, “A man’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character, how he makes it and how he spends it.”
Summary
Summary
This foolish farmer was a wise earner, but a foolish spender.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Let me ask you a question that I want you to meditate upon.
What did the preacher who did this Jewish farmer’s funeral say about him?
Did he say, “we have gathered together this day to bury a fool?”
I doubt it, more likely the mourners were reminded by the preacher what an “honest, industrious, intelligent, thrifty, and successful man that thrived at everything he did.
Look how what he left his family and how he took care of them, what a shame it was that he didn’t get to enjoy all those years of hard work.
The preacher might even quote Revelation 14:13, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”
God, however, knew this farmer better and the truth is those around him, if they new God would have seen this foolish farmers spiritual fruit and known better than that as well.
With that said, my objective with this lesson isn’t to condone or condemn this man, God did that, but to remind us why this parable was written in scripture for us to learn.
And that is, that we are not self-made but God produced and that we don’t labor in this life for the things of this life but for the eternal home that awaits those that store up in heaven.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.