The Good News According to Luke: Part 10
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: To truly walk with Jesus, you need to ask yourself where you find your loyalties, your treasure and your life.
Where are Your Loyalties?
Where is Your Treasure?
Where is Your Life?
Where are Your Loyalties?
The times in which we live will test your integrity and your loyalty to Christ.
Luke 12:1-12 ESV
“In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.””
As the people of God, we must walk in integrity, meaning that we are the same in our love for Jesus and others no matter where we find ourselves or who we are around.
God knows that we live in a fallen world where people neither honor him, nor revere his commands.
Nonetheless, he expects our allegiance to be first to him, even in the face of persecution.
In such a way, we know that we have God’s backing in all that we say and do as we look to represent him in the world he came to redeem.
Where is Your Treasure?
The times in which we live will expose what is in our hearts and show where our hearts truly lie.
Luke 12:13-34 ESV
“Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “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. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
It is not wrong to have a blessed life - it is wrong to sacrifice the pursuit of the Kingdom of God for that life.
The parable of the rich fool is speaking directly to the American Dream and what our generation feels like is its inalienable right to unlimited worldly success and pleasure.
People live for themselves and their own personal enjoyment with no regard for the future, the Kingdom of Christ or standing before God in judgment.
This is not good.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”
Let no one be deceived.
According to Jesus, we know what and who we love by how we spend our time and our money.
Tithes (giving our first and best ten percent of all of our income to God) and offerings (it is time for our annual clothing drive at Second City for the needy of the city) are what God uses to keep our hearts anchored in him.
God wants to free you from F.O.M.O.
God wants to give you a proper perspective on Y.O.L.O.
God will judge how we spend our time, talent and treasure.
How will he judge you?
Where is Your Life?
The times in which we live will require us to determine from what source we are seeking life.
Luke 12:35-59 ESV
““Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the very last penny.””
Do you have a zeal like Jesus for the Kingdom of God?
God expects to find us doing his business when he returns.
We need to live as ready servants, eagerly awaiting our Master’s return.
Jesus lived a sinless life of Kingdom focus to be the example of where true life should be derived - in the presence of and in eternal service to Almighty God.
He died on the cross for our shortcomings, that we might, in repentance, turn away from self-absorbed living that is a bottomless pit taking life from us, rather than giving it to us.
Proverbs 30:15-16 ESV
“The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, "Enough": Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, "Enough."”
After his suffering and three days in the grave, Jesus rose from the dead victoriously and will make his return to judge all of the living and the dead - providing rewards for those who were faithfully serving his purposes as they sped his coming, punishing those who instead chose hedonism as they were in their wait.
True life is only found in Jesus.
We need to be those who are discerning enough to know from what other sources we’ve been looking for life and turn from these false gods to serve our risen King!
The question remains, how will he find you when he comes?
Jose’s story of a young man who was shot defending a woman harassed on the street.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher