This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alanson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part four in the Road to Financial Freedom series. This message is titled Getting Witcher. It's taken from Luke, chapter 12, verses 13 through 21. Now you're speed with today's message. It's about our heads, our hearts, our purpose. Father, we sing a song like that and we mean it. We sing a song like that, Father, where we come before you and we say we want you to take our whole lives. Every aspect of them and yet then Lord, we pull back and it's so easy to pull back. And yet Lord, as we recognize who you are and as we remember who you are. Today, on the first day of this week, we really do want you to give us that freedom to focus on you and find our life wrapped up in you. So we come to you today and we honor you and we worship you because you are the God who is sovereign and almighty. And in the midst of your mightiness, it brings us down to humility. But also, it takes away our fear. We trust you. Father, today we recognize that you are the God who knows everything. There are no limits to your knowledge, your omniscient. You know our hearts right now, you know our fears and our shattered dreams and you know the desires that we have for today and for tomorrow and for the future. Father, you know every one of us. You know us so well that it could be said you know us better than we know ourselves. You know what we need and you provide it. You're always working. You never rest. You don't need to because you're infinite. You know everything about us, but you know everything that will face us tomorrow. And so Lord, we come to you and we put tomorrow into your hands. We trust you. Lord, be with those who are here today who are feeling overwhelmed by guilt and shame who just need to know that it is true that the cross is empty and so is the tomb that Jesus really did rise again from the dead and that there are sins once and for all are taken. Lord, those who need freedom to live in every area of their life. We need boldness and power. Lord, you know us. You know us. Those who are young, those who are older, those who are struggling and those who had the best week ever and were tempted to think you had nothing to do with it. Lord, we all come before you and we worship you. And we thank you, Lord, that we can honor you now, but Lord, we are so thankful that you never cease to speak to us. And so we pray that as we look into your Word this morning, you would teach us in a way that shows that the human voice is not going to get away in the way of the divine Word. So we pray for the one who teaches it. You'd forgive him as sins and use one who is limited to communicate your infinite truth. Get through to us, Lord, today we pray and set us free. And we'll give you the honor and the praise and the glory as we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it is good to see you, all of you, Luke 12 is the text if you have your Bibles turned there. Now, they did put in a few extra rows here during prayer and during singing and that means that some of you are absolutely uncomfortable because you're not sitting where you normally sit. And I'm sorry, I can't do anything about that. You'll have to just deal with that. But I do suspect that some of you, some of you are worried that I'm going to pick on you and I might. And some of you are worried that I would figure out that probably it's because you botched the time change. Is that true? How many would go honest? Confession is so good for the soul. How many of you botched the time change? Just raise your hand. Good. Oh, yeah. Four of you. I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's more than that. Listen, in the third service, if we've got five people, I'm not preaching this again. We're going to have a little prayer time and that's going to be it. But Luke 12 is where we're at today. I'm glad you're here no matter what the reason and today we conclude our series, the road on financial freedom. Some of you are absolutely relieved that this is the last week that I'm going to be talking about this subject. And you know, but a lot of you have said to me this has been good. We need this. So, there, I'm justified in teaching this. It's been stuff I needed to hear as well because some of us get so stuck. We've been talking about how we're stuck financially. We get into debt. We said where did it come from? We got these bills. We don't know how we're going to pay them where they came from. We don't know what we're going to do with our money and there's conflict in the home. We're stuck. We're not planning together and it's messing up our relationship with the Lord because we're not even involved in kingdom giving. And so, we get stuck and we want to get free and that's what we've been talking about. How to get unstuck, how to get free financially, and how we can put this all into perspective. I like free people, by the way. Don't you? Free people are just so much more fun to be around. They're alive. They laugh. They're a little bit more sassy, but they're fun to be around. And we've got to become free financially as well. Well, you're not free financially. The prison walls just close in on you. It's incredible. But finances gets into everything. I like the story of the grandma that came to visit her granddaughter and the brand new baby grand boy. And she came to the door and saw her granddaughter and said, how do you like your new baby brother? And she said, oh, it's all right. But there were a lot of other things we needed around here. You know, when it comes to money, we can always think there's a couple other things I need really. I don't need, you know. But, well, that's the way it is with money. Let me tell you as I start that there are four ways that you can live. And this is, I've shared this with you before. It's not new. There's four ways you can live. You can live above your means. One way you can live is above your means. That means everything that comes in and more goes out. And as the couple said, they said, I don't want to be rich. I just want to be able to afford the life I'm now living. That's living above your means. And if you're in college and if you're in seminary, you're living above your means. But a lot of other people are too. You can live at your means, which means that everything that comes in goes out. But you see, if you're living at your means, your crisis ready to happen, aren't you? Because as soon as the crisis happens, the water here goes, the dishwasher goes, all of a sudden you're living above your means. So you're just living, you're in a crisis and neither of those ways are free. You're not living free when you're living above your means or at your means. Living within your means is better. That means that you're planning your setting budgets together. If you're married, you're planning for college for the kids or tech school or some of you're planning ahead for them. And there are some people that actually live below their means. You say, what's that? Never heard of that. I've met people like that. They live below their means. That means they determine they're going to live at a certain standard. And I don't understand this. It's a gift. And I appreciate it. I appreciate them because a lot of these guys, given to the kingdom in an amazing way, they said, we're going to live at this level. And everything above that goes to God and his kingdom and his work. And you say, no, there aren't people like that. Yes, there are. I've seen them. I've met them. I've seen the checks they wrote. And I go, how could they do that? You and I would choke with some of the generosity that is exhibited out there with people. It's just amazing. And so really, there's four ways that we can live. And you know, what I want to say to you is you can live however you want. If you're a Christian, if you've embraced Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you can live however you want. And go to heaven. You say, no, no, you live above your means. You can live out your means. You can live within your means or below your means. You live all you want. You'll go to heaven. Isn't that nice? All right, let's pray. It's over. You can live however you want, but you won't be free if you're in the top two categories. And so Jesus is inviting us to live free in all areas. And we're going to talk about that. How to get richer today in the area of stuff. And that's why we're going to go to Luke 12. Actually, we're going to look at verses 13 through 21. But I want to give you some background in verses 1 and 12. Because Jesus is preaching a sermon. He's with a bunch of disciples. We don't know how big the crowd is, but it's a large crowd. And he's speaking and the gist of verses 1 through 12. Here's the reader's digest version of that three-point sermon that Jesus is making. He first of all says, I hate hypocrisy. Don't you? I hate hypocrisy. In the word hypocrisy in the Greek is the idea of play acting. He doesn't like people who are play acting spiritually. We don't come here to play games spiritually. We're not here to say how good we are, how wonderful we are. We're a mess. We're all a mess spiritually and growing. We're at different stages of messiness and different stage of growth. Jesus says, I hate hypocrisy. Don't play like you're more spiritual than you are. So we don't worship because we're together. He says, I hate hypocrites. Don't be one. Number two, he says, listen, the most important thing you've got to focus on in life is your relationship with God. He's talking to this whole crowd. He says, I know the tendency is for you to be worried about stuff. He says, in the only way Jesus could say, God is holy, God is righteous, and one day you're going to meet Him. And He's holy, and you need to understand it, one day you're going to meet Him. Make your priority to get your relationship spiritually connected with the God of the universe. And then everything else falls into place. The financial falls into place. He hadn't even gotten to that as an application yet. But he says, I want you to live boldly, and I want you to live freely, but you got to get spiritually right with God. When you're spiritually right with God, then you understand that He'll take care of the rest. I love what Jesus said. He said, fair God, don't worry. But specifically He said, are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. I used to hate it when pastors when I was growing up would read that. And then they would say, some of us have fewer hairs than others. I hate it when prophecies come true in my own life. But Jesus knows how many. And even if I'm taking drugs to get more back, which I'm not, He'll know how many I could have in any possible good world if it all grew back. But He knows. And then He says, do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows. So He says, don't be a hypocrite. Don't play games. You're right with God. And if you get right with God, He'll take care of all the rest. If He takes care of sparrows, He'll get right. You can know that He'll take care of you right in the middle of this sermon. While He's speaking, a guy comes up. Now they might have been standing. They might have been sitting. But He interrupts Jesus. I've been interrupted before preaching. And it's disconcerting. You know, you're in your flow of thought. You're about ready to give some pearl of wisdom that God gave you in the study during the week. And somebody says something like, amen, preach it. And you go, whoa, a Baptist crept into the crowd. One time in the front row, we had a guy from Jamaica, a brother from Jamaica sitting in the front row. And he liked what I was saying. And he was saying, amen, Jesus. He was saying, go for it. preach it, brother. And I preach the best sermon. I have a preach. And I preached on Jesus' wept or something like that. I don't know. But He interrupted me in a good way. I've been interrupted in a bad way. Let me tell you this. You interrupt me. Let me tell you what I'm going to do. Just to warn you. I want you to know, I'm going to be so insecure if you interrupt me. I'm going to make you the center part of the sermon. How does that feel? It's what Jesus did. I learned it from him. So he's preaching. Look, verse 12, here's the text. Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Where's his brother, do you think? Right next door. I'm convinced of this. Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. That's what little kids do. When they bring their brother, tell him to share them. This is exactly what we're saying. Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Jesus replied, man, who pointed me a judge or an ardor between you? Then he said to them, watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. I think he pointed at the guy. Wait, he didn't need to. You interrupt Jesus. You're going to become the center of his sermon. He said, watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. One of the most profound things Jesus ever said, right there. A man's life. Actually, the word man is not in the original text, so you ladies who are struggling over that. The word anthroposis and there were there. The word anaries isn't there. It's basically one's life does not consist in his possessions. Crosses all genders. Then because this was a teachable moment, Jesus told a story. Someone told me recently, Jesus never gave a Bible study. That's true. Ever thought about that? Jesus never said, turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 10. I'm going to expose it to the whole chapter. Never did that. He just saw the need of people, either their hurt, their pain or their sin and applied a truth and then a story to it. Hmm, powerful stuff. Here's the story. He told him this parable. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 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 will tear down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 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. But God said to him, you fool. You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself and is not rich toward God. Let's talk about Jesus in the victim, first of all. If appearances say anything to us, this guy was a victim, right? Someone said recently to me, judge everything by appearances and nobody would eat a noister. It's absolutely true. Some of you guys eat those things. And I wonder if you're going to die right there in the spot. People with normal eating habits would need those things. I have a friend who took me to sushi once and he was so disappointed. I said, this thing's wrong. I said, cook it up, bring it back. But anyway if appearances show anything, this guy was a victim and he had that victim mentality. In the first century, when it came to inheritance, the first born son got twice the inheritance of the second born son. The girls got nothing. Actually the dad got money for the girls when they got married. Now that was cool. In our culture today, we pay when the girls get married. I don't understand that but that's the way it is. This guy was a victim. Either he was the second born wanted to get more or he was the first born had a smarter second born son that took over. And he says, Jesus have this guy share my inheritance with me. I don't get involved in family inheritance issues. Don't come to me with your issues. I mean that's that's like fighting back alley stuff. I've seen Christians who got along pretty well turn into the happy fields in McCoy's when it comes over to inheritance issues. Now note, did you notice also that the victim doesn't ask Jesus for justice? He doesn't say, Jesus, all I want is for the right thing to take place here. You know, I don't know what the right thing is, Jesus. I mean, maybe he ought to get it. Maybe I ought to get more. Maybe I ought to get more. I don't know, just give me justice. He doesn't want that. He wants stuff. He's right. And don't get me wrong. I understand this guy. I'm not throwing a rocket in. I'm a recovering materialist. I understand. I've used Jesus this way sometimes. Jesus, I'm the king's son. You're the king. Don't you think you ought to treat me like a king and give me more stuff? You know, so I understand this guy. We are raised in a culture of, we're all victims. You say, what do you mean? No, I'm not a victim. You're a victim. Millions billions of dollars are spent every year to convince you that you don't have enough. You ever wake up in the morning and say, you know, I just have too much stuff. I got too much money. I got to find a way to get rid of this. I got to download some of this money just weighing me down. Most of you, we don't wake up that way. We wake up think because our culture has made us think that way. You can be a billionaire and you say, you know, I just need a little bit more. We've been born in this way. We're born just like this guy. And Jesus, fascinating response is, man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? Between you? See, his brother was there. Who appointed me an arbiter between you two? His brother was there. I love this. And the word man, that's not flattering. It is not saying, hey, brother, who appointed it? No, it's man. Jesus is distancing himself with this guy. It's a nutcase thing you've just brought to me. Jesus says, don't trivialize me by bringing this kind of stuff to me. But I think he also says, I'm not going to be the arbiter here because Jesus doesn't want the kingdom of God to be seen as a political and an economic thing. See, and by the way, I just read Jim Wallace's book, the politics of God, Jim Wallace is to the left of anybody I've ever read on these, he's a graduate of my seminary. They try not to talk about that. The Democrats love him, the right wingers don't. But he made two great statements in his book, which I agree with. And you know what? He might be right on a lot more of the stuff than I think. But he says, God is personal, God is personal, but never private. I agree with that, don't you? God is personal, but never some of you don't know. You think this is a political thing he's drawn man to here. God has a personal relationship with you, but the personal relationship he has with you is never, never private. Our relationship with him extends into our relationships with other people and even into the culture. Would you agree with that? Yeah, sure, that's biblical. Then the second statement he made is, God is not a Republican or a Democrat. I know, I agree with that. I agree with that. He's a libertarian. I agree that when he said that I said, you're right, you're right, he isn't. Do you agree that God is not a Republican or a Democrat or a libertarian? Something you're going, I don't know, because God asked my opinion last week about how I should vote. Oh, that's right, he's absolutely right. The question before us is, how does our faith inform our politics? That's the big question. That's why we're so divided as a country and why we're divided as a church, as Christians. We struggle on politics and we fight on these things and Jesus doesn't want to get into that because what he wants to say in this parable is that the most important thing you need to focus on is your relationship with me spiritually and eternally. Because, see, the Jews in Jesus' day believe they would know who the true Messiah was. When the true Messiah showed up, he would free them politically and he would free them economically from the heavy tax burden of the Romans. They would be free. And so Jesus here is really studiously avoiding politics and economics. And he says to us, the most important thing is what we do eternally and spiritually with the God of the universe because he is holy. And we will stand before him but because this guy intruded, he was brought face to face with a living, breathing example of greed. So he tells the story. Parables have how many points usually in a parable? How many points is the teacher of a parable trying to make? Usually one. And he gives that point in verse 15. Here it is. He gives the point up front before he tells the story. He says watch out beyond your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possession. When you see the word watch out beyond your guard against, you need to know that those are commands. It's in the imperative and they're in the present tense which means I command you to be constantly on your guard against every form of greed. Constantly on your guard. Let me tell you the story. He tells the story about this, about this rich man. And Jesus saw spiritually, right through this guy. But one thing I was studying is I saw it for the first time. Jesus says, be on guard against every kind of greed. So I was reading my, you wonder what do pastors do when they prepare for sermons? They read the text of the scripture and when they don't understand something, they look in commentaries, the people who are smarter and wiser to see what the, it says. So I look, I don't know how many commentaries I checked out this week. What does it mean? Every form of greed. I never thought about it before. And none of the commentators dealt with it. I have to talk about it. How am I going to figure it out? The father said, just look inside. I said, okay, so I looked in my own heart and I thought, okay, these are the kinds of greed that I know are out there. There's fear-based greed. Fear-based greed is this. I don't know if I'm going to have enough for tomorrow. I know God says he's good and he's powerful and he's loving. But I fear tomorrow. My dad was raised on the mission field as a missionary kid and he told me this story over and over as we were growing up. He said, your grandma, Abuelita, your grandma, when a, when a beggar would come by, I just off the street and asked for food, she'd go and open the cupboard and give them whatever they had. Sometimes two, three, four times a day. And I'd look at her and say, Mom, what are we going to eat? She goes, God will take care of us. I want you to know my dad grew up with some fear. He had to learn what his mom learned. There is a fear that's based, there's a fear-based greed. You keep wanting to get more because you fear about the future. There's a significance-based greed. The more I have, the more significant I am, the more I have the better I am. The more I have, the more worthy I am. A friend of mine, Simon Bailey, checked out the story of Al Capone, the gangster, the guy that killed people for booze and a lot of money. And one time he was asked, why he did it? Why he was such a bad guy? And I just always wanted to be significant. That's all I wanted. He was bad to the bone, just to gain significance. And so there is a significance-based greed. I got to get more and more so I can feel good about myself. There's a feel-