The passage before us this evening presents us with the portrait of a man mired in greed. When we think of the vice of greed, we often jump to an extreme example, something obvious, a sort of caricature, like what we see in someone like Dickens, Ebenezer, Scrooge. Someone so obsessed with money that he ceases to care for anyone or anything, including himself, except for money. It's not that people like this don't exist or have never existed, but I'm willing to guess that most of us here feel somewhat safe from this sort of temptation to make money, to make wealth, all that we are, the sole source and focus of our desire. Our passage this evening tells us that greed is much more pervasive, usually less obvious. It is sin that creeps up on us and destroys our soul. It is one of the worst forms of idolatry that we can engage in because it replaces God in every aspect of our life. Greed, as we will see, often begins with an inflated love of self. It draws us away from our sense of dependence on God and blinds us to the realities of death, judgment, and hell. This passage will help us see many of the different aspects of greed, how it can be confused with a sense of industriousness, how it can be confused with contentment. And despite all the ways we may justify our greed, we will see that it ultimately keeps us from being rich towards God. And we will find that if we are locked in this sort of temptation, we will have lost our souls for the very thing we falsely trusted in. Our passage begins with an unnamed man making a request to Jesus to come and help him with a financial dispute with his brother. From what we read, it seems fairly obvious that his brother has received all of his father's possessions, and this man is hoping that he can get Jesus to intervene on behalf, on his own behalf, to get a share of this inheritance. Christ rebukes the man in two ways. First, he raises a question. Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? This man almost certainly did not believe that Jesus was the Lord and judge over the universe. He likely only believed that Jesus was a spiritual authority, someone who had expertise in scripture rather than in law or finance. This request from the man, then, is an attempt to leverage Christ's spiritual authority over his brother in a way that we could only describe as abusive. Out of his covetousness, this man is willing to put illegitimate pressure on his brother to try and turn this dispute about an inheritance into some sort of spiritual matter. that Jesus was quick to point this out and refuse it firmly. This is a good reminder that greed is not an isolated sin. No sin ever is. For this man, greed led him to abusiveness. For others, greed can lead to fraud or even murder. A greedy heart has very few boundaries when it comes to getting what it wants. The second way we see that Christ rebukes this man is seen in what he then says to the crowd. Turn with me to verse 15. Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. This man has made what he could get the central aim of his life. To elaborate, to illustrate this danger, Christ then presents us with a parable, which begins like this. The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. Here we see the first danger of greed, what we can call the confusion between contentment and covetousness. This man is not cheating or stealing to gain his wealth. He's not, he's coming to it by honest means, and he's managing his affairs in a way that we might be inclined to admire. How often have any of us masked our greed under the pretense of simply being a hard worker? Scripture certainly approves of hard work. We can recall what we find in Proverbs 6, which says, go to the aunt, O sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief officer or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a robber and want like an armed man? Do we use this sort of wisdom as an excuse for a love of money? It's good to be industrious. It's good to be prudent with what God has given you. But what are we managing our affairs for? What's our aim? What is the motive with all this hard work? The problem for us and for this man is never about how much we actually have. It's never about the extent of our wealth or the success of our business. It's about what we want for it and what we desire from it. And what does this man desire from his wealth? We see in verse 19 that the man says, And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. This is the second danger. see clearly this spiritual motivation that this man has, see how he speaks comfort to his soul with material wealth. His sin is not in desiring to enjoy the fruits of his labor or appreciating the good gifts which God has given to him. His sin is in resting his soul, his life, and what he has earned, and placing before his own soul material comforts of this world. We cannot confuse our sense of contentment, which is being at peace with what God has given us, whether ill or good circumstances, with greed, which is finding an excessive love in what God has given us, a love that's inappropriate to its object. The line between the two may seem thin, but the danger is certain. For us who do not have a great deal of wealth, this can still be a temptation? Do we strive for money thinking that if we just have enough to get by, we will be at peace? Do we habitually worry over our finances or find that we can only be happy when things are going well? This temptation is not only for the rich, but for each of us, regardless of our state. The worst of this danger is shown in how this man falls into the temptation to replace his sense of spiritual need with physical goods. His love of pleasure has replaced his soul's desire for God. He has traded the eternal for the temporal, true wealth for grains and goods, both of which rot and can only satisfy him for a moment. He's cultivating a desire for worldly things that will only grow and will never find any final satisfaction. He lulled himself into a false sense of security, a false sense of comfort, a false sense of peace, and for that he's caught off guard. We read in verse 20, but God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? His soul, which he spoke comfort to just moments before is now being called to judgment. A man who set his soul on money is now called to stand before God to give an account, not an account of his wealth, but of his sin or righteousness, whether he loved God, whether he trusted and rested in him, or whether he loved only money and the things of this world. This man forgot the providence of God. He forgot that it is God who gives all good things and also gives us the ability to enjoy what he's given. He forgot that what he had is not his, and it never belonged to him, but it always belonged to God. What God granted to him, he could take away in a moment, but unlike Job, this man did not say, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord, but instead he's left reeling, left wondering, who will get my things? This question that God asks him, the things you have prepared, whose will they be, shouldn't be a shock to anyone. We should all know, and we all do know, that we're going to die. We all know that we can't take our things with us. Yet I fear we are all too often troubled by this thought, who will have my things when I'm gone? The fear we feel at that question, the resentment, the bitterness, the pain, exposes some measure of greed in our hearts, who will get our things. It exposes that part of us often wants money, wants material comfort for ourselves in such a way that we have no interest in sharing or letting it pass to someone else after we're gone. This selfish desire is that third danger of greed. We can see that at bottom it goes well beyond a love for self and becomes a love of money simply for money's sake. Why do we care who will have our things when we're gone, except that part of us is placing a greater value on the things that we possess rather than our own soul? This sort of selfishness leads to death. It destroys our soul in the same way it destroyed the soul of this man. This love of possessing money, this love of wealth makes us a slave to what we have. When we fall into this sin, when money becomes our idol, we quickly fall into the same sort of pattern we see in a character like Ebenezer Scrooge. What began as love of self, a love of pleasure, a desire for comfort, for security, rapidly becomes an obsession with having. The pleasure of greed is found simply in the idea of possessing things. It's not found in what we can actually buy that gives us the pleasure. Love of money is never ultimately about a love for yourself. It's about a love for the things you have. As Christ told us from the beginning of this passage, greed is when we make life consist in the abundance of our possessions. So then greed is when we're possessed by our possessions. Christ then concludes his parable saying, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. What does it mean to be rich towards God? Do we have anything that he needs? Didn't we just hear that everything we have already belongs to God anyways? To be rich towards God is to love God, to put your faith in his Son for the forgiveness of your sins. It is to hope that one day you will see him face to face. To be rich towards God is to obey his commandments, to love your neighbor as you love yourself, to use what he has given you generously, spending all we have prudently to help those who are in need, and to be content in letting what we have go in the same way that we were pleased to receive it. Simply, to be rich towards God is to live for him, not for money or anything else that the world has to offer. This is why greed is such a vicious idol. It turns everything on its head. It draws us away from God, and it does so often without us even noticing. So how many in this age have put aside work, worship for the sake of profit, choosing to go to work instead of worshiping their creator? How many have given up praying to God to bless their labors? How many think that what they earn is entirely of their own strength or skill? When we do this, how different are we than a child who thinks that what he has obtained, He's obtained some sort of financial independence because his parents offered him an allowance. How many of us in this age have become practical atheists? Laying up wealth for ourselves, but failing to be rich towards God. So how is it that we're to be rich towards God? Are we to do this by our own strength? No. This would be to replace greed with pride. to replace covetousness with self-righteousness. If you're here this evening and you feel overly attached to wealth, driven by a love of money, and you want to be rid of it, because you don't want to be known as a greedy person, then be warned that all you're going to do is replace greed with pride. You will only go from coveting money to coveting the approval of others. You will have traded sin for sin, vice for vice, and be worse off than you were at this moment, and even more deeply under the wrath of God, because you added self-righteousness to your covetousness. You were still running down the road to death and hell. But today, if you feel that you're under the sin of greed, if you feel that your desire for wealth has consumed your heart and has been the sole aim and focus of your life's desire, and you hate this sin because it is a sin against God, then flee to Christ. In Christ, you will find generosity in place of greed. The one who gave everything to you, even his life, will teach you how to give. The one who loves you and will bring you to love others more than you love yourself or any of the world's possessions. His grace is sufficient for you. He alone can save you from this road to hell. In Christ, you will be forgiven. In him alone, will you be declared righteous, so that when you die, God will not come to you and say, fool, this night your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? Instead, you will be brought before his throne and hear him say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. You were entrusted with much and you were generous with much. You were loved much and you loved much. If you desire this today, know that now is the time for repentance. Turn to Christ in faith and all this will be added to you. faith alone can receive all these good gifts. Beloved, cling to Christ, and he will be your great reward, far greater than any earthly gift or good. For those of us here today who are in Christ, for those of us who enjoy the comforts of knowing him as our Lord and Savior, who have been baptized into his name and have died toward the desires of this age, we must ask what this passage requires of us. How is it that we fight greed from growing in our hearts today? Let me draw your attention to the words of Christ in Matthew 6 24. We read, no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one or love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. This passage is not telling us that the love of money crowds out It's not only telling us that the love of money crowds out the love of God in our hearts, but it can be thought of in the opposite direction. We can think of this passage as telling us that the love of money is crowded out by our love for God. If we serve God, we cannot serve money. If we love him, we will hate greed. So as we grow in being rich towards God, we will necessarily grow to hate greed in our heart. We will want more and more to put to death every covetous desire and intent that we have. As we heard earlier, being rich towards God is to trust in him, hope in him, love him. But also it includes a desire to love others in obedience to God. Part of putting greed to death is growing in the virtue of generosity. And so, as we read in passages like James 1.27, we hear that religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. In a similar way, John asks in 1 John 3.17, if anyone has the world's goods, wealth, money, time, possessions, anything, and he sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? We show ourselves to belong to Christ by the way we use our wealth to help our brothers and our sisters in Christ. The call of this passage is to be rich towards God, which includes being rich towards one another. Now here, I'm not telling you to whom or how much you ought to give your money. Rather, we are hearing that we ought to be eager to give what we can, where we can, to whom we can. To give prudently, so that what you give is not wasted or misused, but to give nonetheless. Remember also that greed, the desire for wealth and money, can affect those who have very little. And so too, we must remember that even for those of us who have very little, we're still being called to be generous with what little we have, even if all we have to give is our time. Just as Christ was eager to give everything to us, even his life, we should be eager to give what little we have to help others in need. This is the chief way that we fight greed in our heart. This is how we learn to view our wealth rightly. Finally, we must fight greed by considering what it does to us. Consider all we've heard tonight. The way that greed drives us away from God, from others, and even leads us to mistreat ourselves. The way it subjects everything to money. When we're possessed by greed, the love of money crowds out the love for God. The love of money dominates us and destroys us. If we pursue money for its own sake, if we are led by this desire for possessions, we are walking down a path which again leads towards the wrath of God. But as Christians, our greatest hope and greatest comfort is knowing that we will be with God, that we desire to enter into communion and fellowship with him for all eternity. And greed is trying to rob you of this. It's not that we can lose our salvation. All who are in Christ will endure to the end. This passage is placing before us what's at stake if we do not endure, if we remain in love with this world. The end of greed is death, and we cannot afford to be complacent about this for even a moment. With Christ, we shall endure, but we must know the enemy we face. We must see sin for what it is, and for what it will do to us if we grow weary of fighting it. Greed, worse than nearly any other sin or vice, can take hold of us completely, dictating how we live, how we think, how we act. It is idolatry, and it is rampant in our age, and far too easy to ignore, justify, or excuse. With Christ, we can and we will persevere. but don't be lulled into thinking that this is an easy battle, thinking that we're safe from certain sins or snares. When we begin to think that way, we're in the most danger. And so we're left with a question tonight. What do you say to your soul? In times of need, in times of joy, in times of despair, what do you say to your soul? Do you say, soul, your savings are good, the stock market is up, be happy, don't feel anxious, you're taken care of, you have everything you need? Do you speak material comfort to your soul? Or when you speak to your soul, do you say, soul, you have Christ, he belongs to you and you belong to him, be at peace, for he is with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Where we run in times of trouble is where our heart lies. Do we run to that which never perishes? Or do we play the fool and put our hope in something that was never ours to begin with? Let us pray. Our great and glorious Lord, you who gave us everything we have. Apply this word which we have heard to our hearts. Speak to us the joy of knowing you. Teach us by your Spirit to root out every touch of greed in our hearts, to live in a way that is pleasing in your sight. Help us to walk each day in a way that is upright and godly, so that we may be ready to give a good answer at that day of our death to Christ, who is our Lord and Savior. To him, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, we all honor and glory now and forevermore. Amen.