Watch Out!
Scripture
“Watch out! Be on your guard against greed of all kinds.”
~Luke 12:15 , The Life of Christ in Stereo
Quote
“Earthly riches are full of poverty.”
~Thomas Brooks
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I have read and preached the story of the rich fool {Luke 12} many times. To get the full meaning of this story you look for what is missing. Jesus is telling us the man’s thoughts; what is it that he never thinks about?
- He never thinks about God. He gives absolutely no thought to the One who created him and gave him life, health and the ability to make wealth.
- He never thinks about Giving. His problem, at least in his mind, is lack of space to store his wealth. A simple and cost effective solution was to give the excess away instead of tearing down the old barns and building new ones. It will always cost us more to hoard than to share.
- He never thinks about Glory. He never thinks about death or heaven to come. All his attention is on this sin cursed world.
- He never thinks about Faith. He doesn’t think about a relationship with Jesus or a church family. It never crosses his mind.
- He never things about Family. Not only does he not mention his wife, there is no mention of family at all. He doesn’t even mention grandkids.
- He never things about Friends. As greedy as he was, he may not have had any friends.
There is a reason why Jesus said, “WATCH OUT!” Greed is as subtle as pride and it can get you. It can wipe you out. Greed is like alcohol in a way. We all know people who drink but do not get drunk. We also know people who cross the line, drink one bottle or can too many and get inebriated. There personality changes and they become someone you don’t know. In most cases, when the alcohol takes control, they become an A-hole and make fools of themselves. Others are gentle when sober and mean when drunk. Be honest, how many of you want to spend a day with a drunk? Boozers are losers and their pity-parties are nauseating. They all offer pitiful reasons for getting drunk.
Greed works the same way. It does not happen in an instant, but when we fail to recognize it, confess it and turn from it, it takes more and more control until we are intoxicated with greed. It becomes our master. It is the determining factor in every decision we make. Think about it, what did it do for this highly successful farmer? It transformed him into a fool. It doesn’t take liquor long to turn a man into a fool. Greed may take longer but the end result is the same—you have a fool.
Why hoard something that does not belong to you in the first place? Do you think the LORD is encapable of maintaining His own wealth? Of course not; He has managed thus far, I think He can make it without our help. It reminds me of the old Vance Havner story. A man comes to see a psychiatrist and he had a piece of raw bacon drapped across each ear and a poached egg on his head and he tells the psycharistic, “I came to see you about my sister.” Havner would then say with a sly grin, “He had a few problems himself.” Don’t worry about God taking care of His money, you have bigger problems to deal with. One is to “Watch Out” for the greed bug.
Summer is here and I hope folks like Don Widner enjoy it because I don’t. I get along with heat about the same way I do with traffic. I am not going to complain, but I am going to get right up to the line. I will say this: Thank God for A/C. We Americans are a spoiled bunch. It does amaze me how fast it got dry. My pea patch got a rain the evening I planted them but I have yet to see a pea. I have our pumpkin patch plowed up to plant on the 4th of July but it is a dust bowl. Even the pond I am digging is almost dry and it was running over just two weeks ago. I have got to get a tree planted on the west side of my building, one that grows fast or else get a bigger A/C unit.
I’ve been struggling with the blog. There is so much I could do with it if I knew how. It took me two hours to make these changes. I do appreciate you reading the blog. I have not checked lately to see how many are reading. My guess would be less than a hundred but I could be wrong. Every time I think about quitting, someone tells me they enjoy reading it.
I think I said Sunday, “If 2026 has taught me anything, it is that you never know what a day will bring.” As soon as I walked in the door Sunday night, Holly said, “Daddy, where is your phone, Joe David has been trying to get in touch with you. Mrs. Marie passed away just a little while ago.” Marie {Cancilla} was promoted Sunday evening. No one expected it. She was at church Sunday morning and helped with the extended nursery. She loved little children. Marie was a happy person, always smiling and offering a hug. I nicknamed her “Sweet Marie”, don’t you see, it rhymes in two places. It like the nick name I put on Mrs. Clara, “Claire, from Paree, we we, don’t you see.” It is French {I think} and Clara hates it. If I wasn’t a preacher, she would probably use some French on me. Marie was a sweet heart, easy to please, always smiling. You know, we all need a Marie in our life. Some one who thinks positive and always lifts us up.
While I was at Michelle’s and David’s Sunday night. I went in to see Pat, David’s mom. Marie lived with Jeff and Renee and Pat lives with David and Michelle. She was sitting in a wheele chair and she is on oxygen. I had been standing for several minutes and I needed to sit so I pulled up a chair and sat down. I was laughing and talking with Pat and her care giver, when Jeff came over and got me up. I was sitting on Pat’s oxygen cord. Jeff saw her turning blue and he knew something was wrong. Just kidding, he acted promptly and she did not suffer.
In a quandary today: it looks like early morning is the only time for me to work outside. I tried to work after 6:00 last night and it was still over 90 degrees.
God bless you and thanks for reading the blog.
Mens Breakfast coming up Saturday week at the POINT.