The Fool

Truth Stories is our ongoing message series in the parables of Jesus. My name is Mark, one of the pastors. Good morning and happy Father's Day. Yeah, let's give it up for the dads one more time. Awesome, all you dads. I wanna welcome all of you, of course, those of you here live and on our live stream. We are so glad that you are with us today. And I gotta say, Father's Day came just a little bit early for me because anyone just a little bit excited about the NBA champions, our Golden State Warriors, huh? Yes. And Steph Curry, of course, MVP, I mean, it was amazing. And I'm gonna circle around to Steph in just a little bit.

But first, you know, this Father's Day coincides with another holiday called Juneteenth or Emancipation Day, which goes all the way back to June 19th, 1865, when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to deliver and enforce the news that slavery was over. This was two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two months after the end of the Civil War. And the first Juneteenth clearly did not put an end to racial inequality in our nation, but it was a significant step in the right direction, progress towards a better life for all people, amen? Amen.

Well, as we continue in our message series, today we're going to see a parable where Jesus describes, well, he tells a story where God calls a man a fool. Ouch. But God was not being mean or he wasn't angry. In the Bible, the fool is often someone who misjudges their situation. They read the circumstances a certain way only to find out later they're wrong, fooled. Fooled.

For example, in 1964, a new avant-garde artist was introduced to the art scene in Europe. His name was Pierre Brassau, and his work received just rave reviews in museums. Here's one of his paintings on the screen right here. And commenting on this, a critic named Ralph Underberg wrote this. He said, "Brassau paints with powerful strokes, but also with a clear determination. His brushstrokes twist with furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of a ballet dancer." That's high praise. And all the other critics agreed with him, except for one who said, "Only an ape could have done that."

Well, it turns out he was absolutely right because here's Pierre Brassau, also known as Peter, a four-year-old chimpanzee, ending the careers of many art critics. But among other things, these critics praised Pierre or Peter for his color choices. But in reality, Peter chose the paint colors based on how they tasted. Now, it's one thing to misread the situation like in this art prank, but what if it were to sum up your entire life? That'd be tragic. That's what Jesus addresses in today's parable.

We're gonna be in Luke 12:13–21. I just wanna give you a little bit of context before we dive in. Luke 12 follows on the heels of Jesus criticizing the Pharisees and the religious rulers because they have misjudged God's intentions. They've misappropriated the scriptures. And so as a result, they become what Jesus calls hypocrites. And so he turns to his disciples and he says, "Beware the yeast of the Pharisees," which is hypocrisy because a little hypocrisy goes a long way.

And then Jesus goes on forecasting that just as the Pharisees would oppose him, they would eventually oppose his disciples. But he says, "Don't live in fear of those who can take your life. You should fear more or have the highest regard for the one who holds your eternal destiny in his hands." And so this is all very heavy, serious stuff. And then starting in verse 13, someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." It's like, "Hey, hey Jesus, Jesus, hey." I know you got some important things to say to your disciples, but I'm kind of on the clock here.

And so here's the thing, I'm supposed to get some money, but my dad made my brother the executor of the will and I haven't received a single check yet. Could you just kind of talk to him and move him along? It just goes to show, we reveal a lot about ourselves by what we ask of Jesus. Know what I'm saying? I mean, think about it. What you pray about most reveals what you value the most. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I am saying it's a clarifying thing.

Along these lines, a preacher I heard put it this way, "If God were to say yes to all of your prayers, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, if he were to do that, would it change the world or just your world?" Know what I'm saying? It's like, remember when you were a kid and maybe you're out in the front lawn or out in the street playing with other kids and then suddenly somebody's mom steps out and says, "Who wants some ice cream?" And everyone was like, "Me, me, me, me first, me first, me first." Well, that's the guy in verse 13 here.

I mean, Jesus, I mean, think he's misjudged the situation just a little bit. Standing in front of him is Jesus who offers an eternal inheritance and yet all he cares about is getting a cut of dad's estate. And so, verse 14, Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or arbiter between you?" I love this 'cause Jesus is like, "I'm not getting into your dog fight." And in fairness, it was not uncommon for people to ask rabbis to settle disputes among them, but Jesus is no ordinary rabbi.

So he seizes the opportunity to teach this man and all the others there something far more important. Verse 15, "Then he said to him," that's Jesus, "Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." And all kinds of greed here is another way of saying covetousness, this strong, ongoing desire to acquire more and more and more. And some of the things that we end up wanting to acquire, we didn't even think about until somebody else acquired them first, right? And then suddenly it's like, "I gotta have it, can't miss out."

I mean, let me just take you back in the calendar about two years, what was going on in March of 2020? Suddenly, like couldn't have enough toilet paper, you know, gotta build a bigger pantry. There's gonna need to be years from now, these kinds of cartoons are gonna have to come with an explanation, right? 'Cause what kind of madness was happening where toilet paper became such a thing, but again, it plays into human nature. If somebody else has it, I need to have it, and I wonder how many other things will we look back on someday and have the same response?

Man, I don't even need to wait to someday, I just can walk into my garage. There's boxes up in the attic there. I don't even know what's in those boxes, but I'm sure it must be very precious. Can any of you relate to me just a little bit? And to be clear, Jesus is not saying it's wrong to have possessions, He's not preaching against money here, He's saying, "Watch out, be on your guard in an ongoing way." This is not one and done because greed has a way, it'll sit back and wait.

And then, you know, you feel a little down, or you're looking at neighbors doing across the street, and it just starts to grow and spread. Jesus is saying, "Don't let things become the main thing." Because life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. So He's gonna drive this point home in the following parable. And along the way, I wanna make just three simple points, they're really applications for all of us. And I have to say, I'm indebted to a pastor named Andy Stanley for how these are worded. So thank you, Andy, I appreciate it if you're watching, welcome to you as well.

Now I have to say, dads, you may be, you may already be thinking this, it's like, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, time out, Mark. You're gonna talk about money and possessions on Father's Day, I think we should all just get a break. But guys, I promise you, if you hear what Jesus has to say today, and you apply it to your life if you haven't already, this may be the best Father's Day gift you ever receive. And the same is true for each of us, because this applies to all of us.

And it begins with something that most of us know in our heads, but we can ignore in our hearts. So the first thing I think we all need to apply is this, is to realize money can add meaning to life, but money is not the meaning of life. And by money, just for simplicity's sake, I'm referring to money as a currency to other things, right? To possessions, prestige, even power. And if I make any of these things my ultimate goal, it will lead to my undoing.

Because listen, money can be a great servant, but it is a terrible master, terrible master. And it all depends on my perspective. If I see myself as a steward of what God has given me in His grace and generosity, then money simply becomes a means, a tool. I realize that I am blessed not only just to bless myself, but to be a blessing for others. And when I able to do that, that brings real meaning to life, it brings significance.

Now listen, this is not a pitch for giving, but the obvious fact is this, every dollar that this church operates on is donated, right? Now we have tuition for our schools and stuff like that, but the general church budget, every dollar supports ministries where hearts are transformed, souls saved, marriages repaired, lives recovered, kids loved, groceries given, communities reached, and the list just goes on and on and on.

And of course, there are all sorts of other wonderful ways to do this, like we heard earlier with mercy ships, but however and wherever you leverage your resources to bless others, again, it adds meaning to your life. And this doesn't mean that you can't bless yourself, so to speak. What it means is that we're talking about being generous. Because first of all, God is generous. And secondly, at a very practical level, generosity is an antidote to greed. It's very hard to be generous and greedy in the same moment, right?

We'll continue in verse 16. It says, "And Jesus told them this parable," remember the circumstances, I need my dad's inheritance now. Let me just tell you a story first. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. The man doesn't have power over the ground. He didn't make the ground. He doesn't give the power of seeds to generate life, but he benefits from this. And he said to himself, "What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops." Now this question right here is really the kicker right here.

What shall I do? My stock has exploded. I have exceeded my financial goals, okay? Now what? And listen, you don't have to be wealthy to ask this very same question, because at the heart of what shall I do is a deeper question, which is, what is it all for? Whatever God puts into my hands, what is it all for? For me, myself, and I? Or is there something deeper?

Well, here's how the man in the parable answered. Then he said, "This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And there I will store my surplus grain." Has a little bit of an eye problem, doesn't he, right? Me, I, me. He goes on and says, "And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry." Now to the original audience, okay, they didn't see this guy as being greedy. They're this part of the story. They go, "Well, he's blessed. I want to be blessed too." I mean, we all want to be blessed. I mean, isn't this really the American dream right here? You know, I made it. And so now I can live life on my terms.

But there's a catch. Because we were created to live for something bigger than ourselves. And if you try to just live for yourself, you will find yourself being perpetually unsatisfied. Do you believe that? Well, don't just take my word for it because some of you are thinking, "What do you know about money, Mark? You're a pastor, come on." Well, let me introduce you to someone who knew what it was like to be ultra rich, perhaps the richest human being in the history of the planet. I'm talking about a guy named King Solomon.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, they got nothing on Solomon. Check this out because according to 1 Kings 10, just in tributes alone from other kings and kingdoms, Solomon received 25 tons of gold a year. 25 tons. At today's rates, I looked up the price of gold yesterday. At today's rates, that's $56 billion annually. And that went on for 40 years, amounting to $2.2 trillion. And you wanna know something? That was only part of his income. That was just one stream. He had a fleet of merchant ships that traded goods all over the known world at the time. He had 1400 chariots.

You know those guys? You know like, oh, Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, they've got these famous car collections. This is like 1400 Ferraris at the time. Not only that, but 12,000 of the finest horses. Scripture said, "Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones." And they got a lot of rocks there. So Solomon, you could say he knows what he's talking about. When he writes this in Ecclesiastes 5, "Whoever loves money," what? Let me hear you. "Never has enough. Whoever loves wealth is," what? "Never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless." In other words, realize money can add meaning to life, but it is not the meaning of life. That's where we start.

And if we're going to experience true meaning, we need to apply the second thing. We need to ask, to what ends do you want your life to be a means? In other words, where's it all headed? What's it gonna amount to? Bigger barns or bigger hearts and bigger impact? The man says to himself, "You have plenty. I mean, you're good for, you're golden. So just take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry." But God said, "You fool. You fool. This very night, your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you prepared for yourself?" Answer, somebody else, right? Somebody else is gonna kick up their feet in his big house and they're gonna eat his food and drink his wine because there's one thing money can never buy a guaranteed future, right?

So what was it all for? It was all for not. I mean, it was a total loss. And so Jesus sums this up by saying, "This is how it will be with whoever, not this is how it might be. This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God." And my friends, if we think that this could never, ever happen to us, we are fooling ourselves. And bear in mind, this is not about the amount of your money, it's about the purpose of your money.

Let me give you an example. This last Tuesday, Newsweek featured this article entitled, "Faith Helps Drive Steph Curry in NBA Title Quest." You may know, we won that title quest, right? That was awesome. Anyway, I diverge. Says this about Steph Curry. He's very secure in who he is. Because of how rooted he is in his faith, basketball doesn't define him. Rather, playing basketball is just one of the ways he uses to live out his faith. In other words, it's a means to a greater end.

And by the way, this is from Newsweek. This isn't from like Christianity today. But this is the kind of winsome witness that he has in a watching world right now. Goes on to say, "His family is also involved in many charities, including Eat, Learn, Play Foundation, based in Oakland, where they work to end childhood hunger and provide safe spaces for kids to play sports." What do you do with some of your surplus grains? Well, he doesn't just build maybe some bigger barns. He where he store houses in the stomachs of hungry children and creates spaces in rundown neighborhoods.

Final thing they say, this is wonderful. "In a world of egos, Curry exudes humility in his interactions with the media, his teammates and coaches." You've seen this, this is why he's so beloved. "And in a culture of self-glory, he is out there giving the glory, or giving God the glory." Again, this is from Newsweek, but that's the kind of impression that he's making. Now, someday, and it will be a sad day, Steph Curry will play his very last NBA game. And on that day, he will be richer than he is even now.

But not just monetarily, because he is accruing riches in the things of God, leveraging his fame and success for God's purposes and God's glory. That is laying up treasure that will never rust, spoil, nor fade. How about you? If never before, ask to what ends do you want your life to be a means? What story will your life ultimately tell? And if you're having trouble identifying this, let me just suggest you one final application. It goes like this. Imagine what do you want people to celebrate about you after you are gone?

I'm not being morbid, but that day is going to come for each of us. Now imagine peering in on your memorial service, your funeral. What are your friends and loved ones saying in that moment? Well, you know, he sure did love those warriors, period. Or we don't know, she was an amazing business woman and had a beautiful house too. Yeah, and there were other things. Or will it be so much richer? I got to tell you, as an aside, I've done well over a hundred memorial services and they usually fall into two categories.

Some of them are rich with the things of God in the lives of those folks. And people just go on and on. Others, I have to say tragically, are somewhat empty because it's like, yeah, you know, he was an einers fan. Oh yeah, he really liked his cars. He liked to fish, but nothing of enduring significance. It's sad and tragic. Just recently, I was reminded of two people whose godly influence in my life cannot be measured. The first came out of very humble means. He was Pastor Roy Kraft, René's predecessor for 47 years here at Twin Lakes Church.

The other was Dorothy Hammer, who was just a dear friend and even my honorary grandmother in our wedding. And while I was at Camp Hammer on staff there, we just had a great time. Dorothy and her husband Francis were rice farmers in Stockton and they owned hundreds of acres of land as a result, land that was eventually sold and developed. And so if you drive through Stockton, you'll go underneath Hammer Lane. It's named that because they owned all of that land there. And without Pastor Kraft's initiative and the Hammer's generosity, a place called Camp Hammer never would have existed.

And if you're new to Twin Lakes Church, Camp Hammer was our Christian Camp and Conference Center right next to Big Basin State Park, burned down almost two years ago in the wildfire. But for 55 years prior to that, it was a place where countless lives, thousands upon thousands of lives were touched with the gospel and hearts were just radically transformed, including my own. If it were not for the ministry of Pastor Kraft and what the Hammer's did, I would not be speaking to you right now. No way. My life would have looked very differently.

And just about a week ago, Jamie Romm, our video director who grew up at Camp Hammer, she unearthed a video from 23 years ago. It was at a luncheon where Pastor Kraft was sharing with our staff and some senior saints in our church about how Camp Hammer came to be. Listen carefully and watch this.

- I was thinking, sitting there, let everybody go. Before most of you were born. Oh, not you, Don. But you, young staff members, back in the '60s, I said to a realtor one day, see if you can find some acreage for a camp. And it took several weeks, a couple months, and he said one day, Roy, I think I found some property. I said, let's go look at it. And he brought me out here. None but thistles and dry brush and so on. But I thought, man, all of this, $40,000. I didn't have $40,000. But I went to the bank and borrowed five, and I got my brother to borrow five. And we put the $10 down and tied up the property. And then I went to some of the men in the church that tried to get them interested, and I couldn't seem to get them interested. So I said to my brother around, well, let's just put it back on the market, the property. We'll come out okay. As much as I hate to do it, let's do it. The very day that I was going to put this back on the market, a man came to my study and said, I hear you found some property for a camp. Is it accessible? Oh, good road. Does it have electricity? Yeah, right there. Does it have water? Spring-fed water. He says, let's go see it. And then he and his wife said to me, how would it be if we want this and gave it to the church? And Mr. and Mrs. Hammer did that. And Mrs. Hammer is here today with us. Just wanted you to know.

Love them. Wow. Think about that. How many pastors would borrow $5,000 in what would have been 1961 to start a youth camp? Bear in mind, $5,000 for Roy Craft and another $5,000 for Ralph Craft, who was his twin brother and fellow pastor, that was a large chunk of their annual salary. They didn't have their church write it, they wrote it. And I could talk about the impact again of Pastor Craft and Camp Hammer all day long. And you know what? So could many of you.

And even though these dear saints have been in heaven now for about 20 years, their legacies live on and on and on because they were rich in the things of God. So amen indeed. So let me ask you church, do you wanna be richer than you can even imagine? If so, don't just accumulate stuff you will eventually leave to others that they may just end up fighting over. Leave a real inheritance. And right now, if you're thinking, well, you know, I'm not an influential pastor, I'm not a person of means, I'm just not really an impact person.

I had a person tell me this last night. I also received a text from a close friend of mine last night. Here's what he said to me. "I'm sitting here crying as I write this because I've lost count of how many people have walked up to me in the years since my mother died to tell me things like, I was laid up after an operation and your mom knew I had a little dog that I couldn't take out. And she came over every day and walked my dog for me. I was new in the neighborhood and your mom brought me a plate of cookies and could tell I was lonely. And so she just chatted with me. Eventually she invited me to church where I found Jesus and my whole life was changed. I lost my husband and your mom would call me up at random times and just pray for me. He says, "I mean this woman who barely had enough to pay her bills, she had no inheritance to leave us but she did leave a majestic, magnificent, towering legacy that continues to echo in my life and my children's lives to this day. She did not make us rich, she enriched us."

Listen, life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. No matter who you are, you can build a legacy that faithfully reminds and draws people to the greatest treasure of all, Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? And you know this, you know that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich. And so in the power of the Holy Spirit, may we all become rich in the ways of God. Amen? Amen, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness and Your grace. This is not something we can do in our own strength. It happens as You capture and captivate our hearts. And so Lord, may each of us as a result be wise and clear-eyed about the resources You entrust to us, whether they are little or much, and protect us from every form of greed lest we become foolish in our thinking. Lord, give us hearts that seek to live for Your glory and Your good purposes, and for any who do not yet know what it's like to possess the riches of Christ. Oh God, may You draw them to Yourself through Your love and Your lavish grace, for it is in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. And all God's people said, amen.