Luke 11:52-12:31

Read along as Matthew guides you through the Gospel of Luke. In these verses, Jesus offers warnings and encouragement. He tells a parable about a rich fool and teaches that we need not worry about our lives because God has already given us everything we need: life and everlasting life.

Matthew is the Pastor at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in the beautiful small town of Grand Haven, MI. Discover more about St. Paul's today. www.stpaul'sgrandhaven.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right. Well, friends, welcome to Bible study today. We will start reading in Luke chapter 11, verse 52. You might remember from last time that Jesus was explaining these woes on the Pharisees and the experts of the law because they should know better. They have access to the prophetic teachings. They they should understand a clear biblical definition of injustice. And yet they in even in this day and age continue to kill the prophet instead of do what the prophet is encouraging society to do. He's basically saying, you know, he's walking around and saying, today is just as bad as it was when Isaiah was prophet, right? Or this is just as bad as it was when Jeremiah was prophet. Um or this is just as bad as when Elijah was prophet. Look, here's Elijah, you know, John the Baptist. And and what happens to these prophets? Uh, the people in power do not like them because they're trying to speak truth to that power. And uh and Jesus says that this generation will be held responsible for all this shed blood, the blood of Abel, which is the first murder, from the first murder on. The people of this generation will be held responsible for injustice. So harsh words from Jesus, and and we'll finish this section now, but first let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to open up this book of all books and to read your words for us today. We ask that your word would be our guide, that your spirit would be our teacher, and that the glory of Jesus would be our greatest concern. All right, Luke chapter 11, verse 52. Woe to you, experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering. What does it mean to take away the key to knowledge? Let's say you're a biblical scholar, or you're a pastor, you're a preacher, you're a Bible teacher, you're an expert in scripture. What would it mean to take away the key of knowledge from the people that you speak to, that from the people that you teach?

SPEAKER_03 2:20

You wouldn't allow them to learn what's true.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

At that point they had so many of their laws, like washing your hands and all that stuff, yeah, that they didn't go back to uh love the Lord your God.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Right. Yeah. Yep. You know, you can see throughout history various examples of this. That I think the Pharisee tradition that has this really heavy, burdensome oral law, like you're talking about, is one way to do it. You make it really tough to follow the law, and you just keep adding on these rules. And then guess who's in charge of these rules? You are. And guess who's in charge of the interpretation of these rules? You are. And guess who gets to lord that over you? They do, right? And so that's one way to take away the key of knowledge. Are there other ways that experts in the law, Bible teachers, pastors might, priests might take away the key of knowledge that is held within scripture?

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Excuse me. Do they limit the things you can do in church life? You cannot campaign for anybody in church. Do they say it?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I don't know if limiting campaigning is is quite the same would be taking with a key of knowledge. Yeah. Yes, I I do think that it it's disempowering, right? The church can disempower people. And really, you think historically the Catholic Church did this for a long time. They uh to an illiterate society, they didn't teach their folks Latin, they didn't teach their folks Hebrew and Greek, they didn't teach their folks how to read scripture for themselves. It got to the point where for like generations of people, the only folks who understood scripture were the priests.

unknown 4:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

And that's it, I mean, that's part of the main reason why Martin Luther, you know, nailed up his theses and the and the Reformation began began to happen. What Martin Luther did most is translate the Bible into the German vernacular. And by doing that, he actually we read in that book, he solidified all these different uh types of German into one unified German language, right? And people were allowed in their own language to read scripture for the very first time, you know, and and now we're able to read scripture in English, and we've got 20 good translations. So translating scripture so that scripture is totally accessible, so that you can go home, lock yourself in a room, and read this book, and this book is fully sufficient for your salvation. I mean, sign me up. That's what I'd like to see happen. That's that's that's removing the key of knowledge from any one particular pastor and saying, you you all, by God's Holy Spirit and by God's grace, and by the work of some scribes who have helped enable you to read this in your own language, you can encounter all the keys of knowledge, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:20

I think they couldn't read it or couldn't all you have is what they told you.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_05 5:28

And you could question what if all you've told us this much, and you want questions to ask.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah, exactly. And this is this is another reason why reading the Bible in community matters so much, because um we need to hear what questions are bubbling up in our friend's heart. We need to think about things from a different perspective sometimes and not just have you know one person who has studied scripture and they happen to know everything about the Bible. It's like, no, read it on your own, you know, read it together, talk about it, discuss it, debate it, right? That but the experts in the law, what Jesus is saying is, woe to you, you have taken away the key to knowledge. And here's what's really bad is you yourselves have not entered, and you're hindering those who have entered. So you are the blind leading the blind. You've taken away the key of knowledge, but you yourself haven't entered into the world that scripture is painting. You have not entered into the kingdom of heaven yourself. You're not reading Isaiah and hearing the wolf shall lay down with the lamb and then working every day to become a peaceable kingdom. You're reading that and being like, ah boy, I like the wolf. Let's be wolves, you know. Instead of trying to defang culture and promote peace like scripture is asking us to do, you're just you've picked a side and you're gonna win. That's it. Period, done. So you're the blind and you're leading the blind, and that's a terrible combination. Part of what makes Jesus so popular is he opens up scripture to people. The miracles attract big crowds, but then when Jesus speaks about scripture, everyone is listening. In this book are the words of life. This book can shape our hearts to be wonderfully loving, creative creatures of God. In this book, we discover God, right, and our purpose, and where this whole thing is unfolding and heading towards the peaceable kingdom, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:41

And if only we could open that up and celebrate it together and not in my lifetime, the Catholic Church did not let the congregation read the Bible.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Right, yeah. Yeah, I mean that it wasn't encouraged. It gives them authority then. They've got all these secrets and you don't know them. Yeah, it gives them power. So you have the key of knowledge, but but ironically, you're the blind leading the blind, right? You've hindered those who were entering.

SPEAKER_04 8:10

They have a different Bible than we have.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, they've got a little bit of a they've got the a couple extra books. Yeah. 53. When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely. Oh, I wonder why. Right? Uh he just insulted them, challenged them, uh, publicly shamed them, publicly proclaimed woe to be upon them in the way that they are doing this religious experiment. And so when Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. What does that mean to try to catch him in something he might say?

SPEAKER_02 9:02

If he talks against the Caesar or excuse me, contradict something in the church.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Sure. Yeah, maybe he's gonna have an interpretation of scripture that Caesar wouldn't like to hear. Let's jot that down and keep track of it. Maybe he's gonna have an interpretation of scripture that's that we can bring up charges of blasphemy, you know, against him. That's what they end up doing, right? They they propose that he is speaks of God in a way that puts him a little too close to God himself, right? So they uh they bring up charges of blasphemy against him. All right, chapter 12. Meanwhile. Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another. Can we just pause there and think about this for a second? Jesus is attracting crowds of many thousands. I mean, this is incredible. Without Facebook or without television, without radios, without any kind of marketing, without any kind of promotion, without any kind of commercial, thousands upon thousands of people are drawn to this Jesus. People in desperation, people who are curious, people who are hungry, people who are eager for God's righteousness, the religiously fervent, the religiously apathetic. I mean, he's he is attractive to so many different people for so many different reasons. It's really, really wonderful.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

Well, they want to change in their life, and maybe it's gonna be it.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Yeah. So such a big crowd that they were trampling on one another. Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying, Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. Second time he's repeated this, this idea that there are no secrets. You know, whether you're thinking about Jeffrey Epstein, or you're thinking about a conspiracy theory, or you're thinking about whatever, everything will be brought into the light. And that's a good thing. It might be painful, it might be hard. There might be some tough times when that happens, but everything will be ultimately disclosed. God sees this whole world and sees all of your hearts and knows everything. And and Jesus is here to reveal what's been kept in the dark. So there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in daylight. What you have whispered in the ear of the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs. You think about politicians today. And you hear you hear about like, well, boy, they go to lunch together and they giggle and talk and they are in closed door meetings, and then they step in front of a camera and they bark the same boring talking points, right? And if only we could know what they were really saying behind the scenes. Wouldn't you like to know what George W. Bush was thinking about when he was in the Oval Office? Wouldn't you like to see what Bill Clinton was doing? Maybe not Bill Clinton. Wouldn't you be curious to know what it was like for FDR when he was in the bunker, thinking about talking about plan making plans, all these things that powerful, powerful people do in the dark. Jesus is saying, this is all gonna on the one hand, it's horrifying because part of what he's saying is look, if there's leaders out there planning war, it's going to be shouted from the rooftops. That means war has come. Right? That means it's been brought into the light, and that is terrifying, right? We're talking about apocalyptic, like, oh, nobody needs this, nobody wants this, what are we doing? Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

The world, well, Roosevelt, Roosevelt did so many things.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Oh, so many.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

Right. Yeah. Because the news would have been all over it. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah. Yep. So he's talking about the hypocrisy of Pharisees. You know, wouldn't you like to go to uh to the Vatican when they're picking the Pope and get inside that room where only the what is it, the archbitch, archbishops are allowed to be in, and nobody really knows what happens in there until you see the is it black smoke or white smoke? You know, wouldn't you love to see what's in the secrets of the Vatican? I would. Also, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

You know, we've been to the Vatican. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:06

We even went downstairs. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Because Larry was he probably saw all the secrets.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

No, we didn't they we didn't see the secrets. If you're Catholic, some of those secrets are kept to the best and never get out.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

The the other thing Jesus is talking about with this hypocrisy of the Pharisees is uh they talk about scripture publicly, they pray publicly, they lead worship services publicly, and then they go behind closed doors and who knows what they're doing, right? And that will be exposed. Right. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will show you whom you should fear. Uh okay, so let's say war comes, and a big bad woman army like like Empire Rome is knocking at the door. Are you afraid of what they can do to you? They can kill your body, they can murder you, they can maim you, they can do horrible things to you. And Jesus is saying, do not be afraid of people who can harm your bodies, do not be afraid of those who can kill the body, and after that can do no more. Rome, Caesar might be able to decapitate you or hang you on a cross. But once you're through that pain and that suffering and that bodily death, Caesar has no power over you. Caesar has no power in the next life. Zero.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Who does? Who should we fear?

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Right? Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Yes, I tell you, fear him. We've got this all mixed up in our world.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

We're afraid of what we see right in front of us. We're not afraid of what Jesus is talking about here. That the the God of the universe has a plan for the universe, and that plan is a peaceable kingdom. It is a place of peace. It is a place of generosity, it is a place of healing love. In our lifetime, we think of peace and healing love as weak things, and we think of other things as strong things. Laser guided missiles, nuclear weapons, right? Big giant robots that Elon will build. We think of these things as powerful things. And Jesus is essentially saying, You have no idea. You've got the whole thing upside down. Eternity is a long time. Your life is like grass. You live a few days, you wither and you fade. And what happens next? The robots aren't in charge of that. AI's not in charge of that, the missiles aren't in charge of that, the defense department is not in charge of that. God is. And if we live with this understanding that there are mighty forces in our world, but we don't put God at the top of those forces, we're ignorant at worst. Or at best, we're ignorant. So fear God. The beginning of knowledge, this is scripture here. The beginning of knowledge is to fear God. Why would we fear God? Because God is so burning, bright, holy, other God could clap and the universe would exist. God could speak and light itself would be made. Right? We should fear God. And then in Jesus realize what a savior we have. Right? That two things can be true. No one has ever seen God. God is too furiously bright, and we have seen Jesus. And he is light from pure light, a good dose of God that's palatable. Thanks be to God. Verse 6. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. You're afraid of what might happen. They could shave your head and scalp you. They could crucify you. They could burn you like a witch. They could tie stones around your feet and dunk you into the sea. But God has every hair of your head numbered. God loves you. God's beyond whatever we might define as life. And if they shave every hair off your head, do you know what God will do? And I'm excited about this one. Come and find every hair and put it all back together. And you'll, you know, you'll have a glorious full head. Someday. Someday, Wayne, we will. You wait. I'll have a mohawk. Yeah. I mean, does it comfort you to hear Jesus saying these words? It's harrowing, right? Because none of us want to be crucified. None of us want to experience death. None of us want to stand up in front of the tanks and say, please don't march any further just to have them roll right over top of you. And yet, this is what Jesus is asking his followers to be radically nonviolent. You don't have to be violent. The world won't be solved with violence. Right? God will handle this whole thing. God is in charge. You read Revelation, the world doesn't end with apocalyptic war that the Christians win. That's not how Revelation goes. Revelation is won by the lamb who was slain. The lamb who was slain is seated on the throne. Jesus is going to go to the cross. Part of why he's teaching us about this is he's going to show us exactly what this looks like. He himself will stare into the teeth of the dragon. And he will allow the devil to do its worst. He will allow the empire to torture him and do its worst. And he understands that there's life on the other side. And it's very interesting to see that the people who were closest to Jesus were all willingly martyred. I mean, that's not a coincidence. They saw it. They saw what happened. They saw what he endured, and they realized, oh my word, there's a lot more to life than what this empire thinks it can do to me. And that means there's a lot more to life than what I might think I could do to my enemies, too, right? You're not gonna get rid of Caesar just by cutting off Caesar's head. Caesar, just like you, has an eternity. I tell you, verse 8, whoever publicly acknowledged me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. You can't be a hypocrite. You can't sit here and be like, Well, I do believe in Jesus, but I'm gonna go out there and act like a pagan, right? No, you have to have your actions and your public life match your interior life. If you know that peace and justice is the way, start acting like it. If you follow Jesus, tell the world. Right? And help this world enter the kingdom. Whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. That's a tough one to interpret. What do you think that means, verse 10? Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Any ideas? Yeah. Yeah, I think I think you're right. Something something along the lines of we've got Messiah as a category, Son of Man as a category, we've got God as a category. And let's not make uh those things necessarily exactly equal, son of man and God still different. Have an understanding that the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is wholly other. Right? And and the Messiah is divine because the Messiah happens to be Jesus. But if somebody out here in the world is confused about uh a messianic figure, or is confused about a son of man, or doesn't understand who this Jesus is, that's different than blasphemying God. Now it is interesting that Jesus gets killed for blasphemying God, right? He's that that's gonna be the charge against him. And so, you know, I don't I don't always know exactly what to do with that. A lot of people like to say Jesus was without sin, and I like to remind people, well, he's he's certainly killed as a sinner, right? And and he's standing in our place and we are sinners. Right? And so um that's that's kind of an interesting connection.

SPEAKER_04 24:27

Well, it isn't. I think it happens all the time. When there's something goes wrong, they blame God. Not something else that was around the situation, but it's God's fault.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

But when something goes right, they take credit. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_04 24:41

Yeah, but it happens a lot. I knew someone whose son was sick and they blame God then that he got sick.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Well, no pleasant. Is religion going the number of people who are believing in God is that going down?

SPEAKER_02 24:58

And I think it seems like when times are well, maybe not with all this war coming along, we'll turn back, but if times are good and you're you're prospering, you tend to think it's you.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

You ask for help when you need help.

unknown 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

You don't ask for help when you're sitting pretty. Yeah, I think there's truth there.

SPEAKER_04 25:24

Well, it was on the news this morning. All Gen Z are going back to church.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

That's what some people say. Yeah. Maybe Gen Z will be the the generation that says no thanks to cell phones and yes to Jesus. I don't know. That'd be fine. They'll they'll show us the way.

SPEAKER_04 25:39

The stuff that's on the I've been looking through their lies. Yeah. Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

So uh whoever disowns me before others will be disowned before the angels of God, and everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemies against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When you are brought before synagogues, remember he's teeth he's talking to his there's a crowd of thousands, but he's talking to his disciples specifically here. When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at the time what you should say. He's encouraging his disciples that God will be with them in their in their arrest, in their suffering, in their unfair trials. You you don't have to go and study and study and study to try to outwit these experts in the law who have studied and studied and studied and are trying to pin against you lies. I mean, look at how Jesus acts when he is put on trial. He he doesn't defend himself very readily, but he accepts that God is in control, and and he accepts what God will have happen and faithfully practices a kind of obedience that is really noble. You see this in Stephen, when Stephen is stoned in the book of Acts, people are they're gonna kill him, they're gonna throw rocks at him to kill him. And and that's their perspective, and his perspective is totally different. His eyes glaze over, he sees heaven opened, he hears the angels singing. I'm gonna guess that not a stone even hurt him. I mean, it there's a lot going on in this universe, and what people want to do to you doesn't necessarily have to hurt you as much as they want it to hurt you. Jesus is saying, I will protect you. Not saying that they won't hurt you, but I will be with you. I will be with you. Not a hair on your head. The Holy Spirit will provide for you. Right? Verse 13 Somebody in the crowd said, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Quit talking to your disciples and come over and engage with us. Okay, so he gets a shout out. Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. What's his brother doing? This is him and a brother, and they've got an inheritance. What's their inheritance?

SPEAKER_04 28:37

So this must be a younger land and their their uh whole province, their lineage.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

This must be their their dad's land, their dad's money, their dad's something. Their inheritance has two sons.

unknown 28:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Yeah. Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? And then he said to them, Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. What's behind the guy's question? Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. What does this guy want?

SPEAKER_02 29:25

He wants friends with his son.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

He wants money, he wants property, he wants something. And he's the rightful this belongs to me. He's upset about it. I legally I should get this. Maybe so. But he's shouting out to Jesus, like he has come to talk to the Lord of the Jesus is just radiating love, right? And he and what he is concerned about is who gets the red Corvette? Me or the brother, you know, and so Jesus is just like, man! He doesn't even call him by his name. He calls him man, as in like all you humans, I'm not here to judge you in that way. I'm not gonna give you the red corvette because you deserve it, and I'm not gonna give her the lake house because she That's not what I'm doing. That's not what it means that God is the just judge. That's not even close to what it means.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

Well, he probably doesn't deserve it at all. Right. That's why he wants it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah. Well, and the truth is we all want it. I mean, if your parents leave some inheritance, are any of you gonna say no thanks? Right?

SPEAKER_04 30:46

No.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

No. You're not gonna be like, yeah, that's not rightfully belongs to me.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Well there's a well there's a lot, and is what they say, too.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

I wasn't treated quite fairly enough.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:58

That's what the one thing says in as you know, oh the elder brother got twice a production from the next much good even when you were.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Or maybe the brother hasn't given him his fair share, and he even just wants you know his his share. Yeah. Yep. And and so Jesus calls this man man, and it is representative of all of us. None of us are gonna not want our parents' inheritance. Let's just be honest. Let's call a spade a spade. We are human beings, and yeah, we'll take the inheritance. I mean, we'll we'll do good with it, right? We would we'd we'd be generous with it. We'd give 10% to church, you know. Keep the rest. So then Jesus tells them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. And he 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'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. This is capitalism. This this is this is we all do this in our this is it. You work long enough so you can retire. Eat, drink, and be merry. And you've got a nice storehouse of grain, and you earned it. This is yours. Right watch out. 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? I mean, this is a nice way to say, you're gonna die. Who gets your grain? Who gets your big storehouse?

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Who gets your stuff? You're gonna die.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. So who gets your stuff? Kids who are gonna argue about it. That's who gets your stuff. Right? This is what this is what he's talking about. Two kids, a brother comes to Jesus and says, Give me my fair shake, you know, and and Jesus tells him a story about what's gonna happen to all our stuff. You're gonna die. And I love again how Luke does this. He's talking about the exact same thing that he was talking about to the disciples. Are we living in this lifetime as if the kingdom of heaven is real and eternal? Or are we living in this lifetime as if what we see in front of our faces is what matters most?

SPEAKER_04 34:01

Well, I think it you get to a time where you change. When you're young, you're working, you're working to have a better life. You see your kids are this, and then when you get to they're all grown on their own, they're all taking care of themselves, then you start to look differently at life, and and and what's around you.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

Have you ever made out a will?

SPEAKER_02 34:24

This kind of goes along with making out a will. It's okay, I'm gonna give it to my children. Well, what if they're dead? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

I'll leave it to my grandchildren. What if they're dead? Right. All the way down to you take it.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Right, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And it, you know, we often think of when we think of inheritance and will, and uh, I always think of like the Uber wealthy, which I don't think we is like the right sort of like I I I read an article about Melinda Gates, Bill Gates' ex-wife, who has uh she's giving away his money, right? It's her money. She's the fifth wealthiest woman on the planet, and she's giving it away. And and if you go to her nonprofit website, you can't even apply for grants, but she'll just like show up at your door and be like, here's 30 million to this small little ministry, here's 50 million to this, you know, justice agency, here's three million to this little college scholarship fund. And she's just giving it away. And and she spends her days researching organizations so she can give it all away before she dies. That's pretty cool. But also, that's a distraction. If that's where my head is thinking when Jesus is talking about inheritance, I should be thinking about my own life and my own kids. I should be thinking about uh how I live generously or not, right? I should be thinking about uh how do I give it all away because none of it ever belonged to me in the first place? That's the service berry, right? All of this is a gift. How do I live open-handed and be generous? When I die, my kids are just gonna argue over the money I give them. Why not give it to everyone? I don't know what that means exactly, but fundamentally that is what happens eventually. So you give it to your kids, and one of them invests well, and they build a bigger storehouse, and one of them blows it all, and then they give it to their kids, and within three or four generations, is it really even your money anymore? Maybe, but also hasn't it just kind of gone like the wind? At the end of the day, you're not in control of it, and God has so much more in store for you than whatever you you think about your storehouse of grain from when you lived in Grand Haven, Michigan from this year to this year, you know, in 2,000 years, in 10,000 years, in a million years, what will matter? Not whether or not you died a horrific death. What will matter is that God remembered every hair on your head and gave you that mohawk, and you're singing with the angels, and you're eating at the table, and you're surrounded and basking in love and in light and in glorious company of the saints. So what are we living for? And Jesus is I think he's trying to get us to see that there's a lot more going on than just what we often see. So you can go ahead and skip that more. You know, you can go ahead and skip that argument and live today for eternity generously, kindly, without worry. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God. What does it look like? I know what it looks like to be rich. Melinda Gates, Bill Gates, a lot of us in this room on a worldly standard, right? Think about how much money somebody in a third world country has, and then you think about how much we have been blessed here in this country, and how wealthy all of us are. I know what it means to be rich, but what does it mean to be rich in God? He just said, what is it? What does it mean to be rich toward God? What is real richness toward God look like?

SPEAKER_04 38:38

Well, first you divine what rich is. That's the question. What is rich?

SPEAKER_00 38:46

Yeah, that's what I'm asking. What is rich toward God? What is rich in this term? Not in worldly terms. I know what money is.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

Well, if we may if we want to make God happy, then we're doing what he has taught us to do.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah, so serving God and doing the things that God has taught us to do.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

If we're listening to what he's saying.

SPEAKER_00 39:07

Yeah, listening to God.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Right. Doing things that well, some people wouldn't do.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

How else?

SPEAKER_04 39:16

So you have to be humbled.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:18

That's what you have to be.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

How else can you be rich toward God?

SPEAKER_04 39:25

I can't talk about it because I'm into a situation right now.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Yeah. You're being rich toward God in your situation that you can't talk about. Yeah. Yeah. You're helping.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Right. I'm helping somebody right now.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

And you don't have to say any more than that. I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

I know. And she said, I keep reading these verses. And I keep reading these verses. And I said to her, This other person and I have been sent by God to help me.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 39:54

That's what I told her.

SPEAKER_00 39:55

Yep. That's the truth. And that's the truth for the church in general. Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Mm-hmm. That's right. That's what we're talking about. Being rich towards God is helping others. Being rich towards God is being generous towards others. Being rich towards God, uh, yeah, spiritual disciplines, being filled with the Holy Spirit, also cultivating the kingdom, you know, uh, serving the poor, feeding the hungry, uh, forgiveness. You're rich towards God when you practice forgiveness. If you hold grudges, you're not very rich towards God who forgives you, right? You mirror God's attributes back into this world. That's being rich towards God. Read the Bible, sing, and pray. That that helps. Yeah, you know. Do not worry. Here's a way to be rich toward God. Do not worry. Then Jesus said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. And now go back to high school and tell that to every high schooler. That that the world is more than what clothes you're wearing, or how you look, that the world is more than whether or not you've got food in your belly, or whether you're eating the right food, or whether you have to eat that yucky food that your mom made for you, or whether you get pizza with your friends. That the world is more than uh drugs and alcohol and sex. That the world is your life is more than superficiality. Maybe Gen Z is going back to church. Maybe they don't care about superficiality. I look out at a lot of Gen Z people and they still look very, very American. They're wearing their fancy clothes when they go to church. They look like Justin Bieber. They might be raising their hands and singing praise to Jesus, but are they filled with the richness of God? Is Gen Z like like no generation before them serving the poor? Is Gen Z like no generation before them being generous? Maybe. I hope so. I hope they do it better than my generation did.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Don't worry about your life. We should be teaching our children.

SPEAKER_00 42:22

How do you teach your children not to worry about their life? What you eat and what you wear doesn't define you. There's more to life than things. This cuts against capitalism. And it's not that capitalism is inherently bad. It's not. Capitalism is fine. But in this late stage of capitalism, we have so many advertisements and so many powers and so many companies telling us that the way towards the good life is just buy my product. And you see that within every segment of society. Even like health, you know, the health segment of society. It's like, how do you even know what's healthy anymore? Because every health expert that you can go and listen to, they've got a product you can buy, right? The whole like make America healthy movement is okay, but also you're all selling us supplements. Like you're you're making money by telling us to do it this way, right? And there's a conflict of interest there. Right? There's a conflict of interest when all of our hope for cancer research and for you know AIDS research or for uh any kind of scientific research is done by corporations. Van Andel Institute hires half the biologists graduating from Hope College. They're not doing that just to be generous and to give science to the world. They're gonna create products. And new plastics and new stuff.

SPEAKER_04 44:07

We don't need any more plastic.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

We don't need any more plastic, but we're gonna keep inventing biodegradable plastic now. Well there's a lot of so it's better for you, you know. We'll save the world by industry's evolution. Ha. Right?

unknown 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds. Look at the other creatures around the world. Look at every creature you can think of. Do any of them do what human beings do? And we are supposed to be in charge of all these creatures? I mean, Jesus is kind of like, look, look at I mean they're doing it better than you. And you're supposed to be the ones that are lording it over. Come on, guys. I wat I think I said yesterday I watched the show called Alone, which is this awesome little survival show. People, it's like what survivors should be. You go into the woods and you don't talk to anyone except the camera, and you're just and you gotta survive. And in the the latest episode, people are up way north. It's the first time they're filming in the Arctic Circle, and they drop you off in August, and the days are 18 hours long, and and by the end of September, it's gonna be like the days are six hours long, and snow is here, and ice, and it's gonna be crazy. It will be crazy. I'm so excited to see what happens in episode five. I got that idea from the boy spell. Yeah, that's right. It's really what it is. They're just going to survive. But there's a guy there that uh there's a guy there that that's from Michigan, and I think he's gonna win. And uh what a lot of people do is that as they fish and as they hunt, they start to try to smoke the food and store the food. But what ends up happening is they get attacked by grizzly bears or polar bears or wolverines, or they end up having some interaction with an animal that wrecks their entire storehouse, right? Because these animals are monsters and they have sharp scent and they, I mean, they are it's really hard to fend off a grizzly bear when it's just you and you have nine arrows. It's not like you're only allowed to bring a certain number of things. You can't just roll up with all your gear. Anyway, so this guy, he's taking a different strategy. He said, I'm gonna live like an animal. When I get it, I'm gonna eat it. I'm not gonna store it, I'm gonna let my body store it. And I think he's gonna win. And then I'm reading this today, and I'm wondering, why don't we do that? Why don't why don't we that's what the Israelites were supposed to do in the wilderness? Manna and quail, daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Why don't we eat what is provided for us by God today? And that's it. And tomorrow is a new day. Why do we need canned food and preserved tomatoes? Why do we need pantries and ovens and stoves? I mean, when the Israelites are in the wilderness, what happens when they are greedy and they try to s store the manna and the quail?

SPEAKER_04 47:21

Well, they wouldn't spoils easier. They figure this is easier. Yeah. I mean you you look at what they now we have this uh one thing that's a a dry uh that dryer thing. Now that's the thing you cook everything in that's electric.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Yeah. Right. The air fryer, yeah. Everything in the air fryer. It's like a microwave fryer. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 47:50

So it's so then we buy all the stuff. Our kitchen is full of stuff, which we can really do with just the silver the album, but the other is quicker. We don't have any patience. It always has to be done in a minute.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yeah, quickness is an issue. Jesus is talking about worry, he's talking about anxiety, and because of our anxiety about tomorrow, we act a certain way today. And we store grain. And we make sure that we've got what we need for tomorrow because I don't want tomorrow to show up and I've run out of toilet paper. I better go to the store today, right? And you do that, and you just amplify that within systems of systems of systems doing that. Now, companies are acting that way too, and churches are acting that way too, and governments are acting that way too. This forward mindset. And we're all really at the heart of it, we're anxious. And Jesus is saying, do not worry. Look at the raven. Does the raven worry about tomorrow? Or is the raven present to today? And Jesus is saying, try to learn from creation and be present today so that you can live open-handed, so that you can live generously, like that service buried book. Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life? You know what you can't do? You can't add an hour to your life, but do you know what you can do? You can build a big storehouse of grain and convince yourself that you're setting yourself up for the future. Since you cannot, though, add hours to your life, since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink, do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after such things, and your father knows that you need them, but seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. So much of the priorities that we have in American culture in 2026 are just out of whack with the kingdom. We're frantically trying to outcompete each other, we're frantically trying to provide the best for ourselves and our families, and Jesus is asking us to seek first the kingdom. It reads to me like the Garden of Eden. You know, I think about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden and what their job was as human beings to rule and to serve and to till.

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Um what is our job as human beings?

SPEAKER_00 51:04

My nephew was in the Chronicles of Narnia on Saturday, and uh it reminded me that in Narnia there are no human beings, and so it's a big deal when human beings show up in Narnia when these four children arrive, because there's creatures, there's a lion, and there's a witch, and there's Mr. Tumnus, and there's the beavers, and there's all these animals, wolves, and good creatures and bad creatures, but there are no human beings. And C.S. Lewis is asking the question what does it mean to be human? What is our role and responsibility? And C.S. Lewis answers that by having these four children become good rulers. They become good kings and queens. But for what purpose? For the goodness and peace of Narnia, not for their own gain. You know, what does it mean to be human? To love God and love your neighbor, yes, but to be rulers of this planet, we should be not worrying so much about ourselves, maybe taking care of those sparrows and those wildflowers, and letting the rest sort itself out. So my encouragement this week is to think about worry. Watch yourself when you're worried this week. Are you worried because an empire is on the move? Are you worried because you see the atrocities in this world? Are you worried about yourself and what you might wear or what you might eat or what you might look like? Where does worry pop up in your life? And then maybe consider this wisdom from Jesus. You know, when they say don't worry, it's like you just worry more. But try to internalize it. What does it mean to care about the things God wants me to care about? What does it mean for me to be rich in God and be generous towards this world? We'll leave it there. Grace and peace, everybody. Have a great week.