Treasure the Treasure Which Cannot Be Lost.

by Pastor Edwin Lehmann on October 6, 2019 in

Sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost                                                                              August 25, 2019
Text: Luke 12:13-21                                            ILCW Series C                                             19:2147
Theme: Treasure the Treasure Which Cannot Be Lost.

If we didn’t ride our bikes that day, my friends and I would walk home from school. But whether we rode or walked, we raced each other to the corner phone booth on Main Street. Do you know why? Often a caller would forget to retrieve his coin from the return slot on the pay phone if his call didn’t go through. And then we would get the prize – a dime to spend on candy at the corner grocery store. We never missed hitting that phone booth. It was like an obsession.
Looking for coins in phone booths, walking along the street hoping to find a dollar bill – it’s what we did as kids. I once found a 20 dollar bill! Boy was that something. For a long time after that my eyes were glued to the ground, looking for money in the gutter.
There once was a man who picked up a golden coin from the road. Ever after, he kept his eyes fastened on the ground in hopes of finding more. During his lifetime he picked up much gold and silver, but in all those years he never saw the flowers by the wayside, nor the grassy meadows, the rolling hills, or the silvery flowing streams. He caught no glimpse of the blue heavens above, nor the snowy white clouds billowing upward like giant angel pillows. At night the stars came out and shone like gems of everlasting hope, but the young man kept his eyes fixed on the mud and filth of the road. There he sought his treasure. When he died a rich, old man, he knew life as just a dirt road in which to pick up coins as he walked along.
That’s what a life of mixed-up priorities and greed will get you – lots of silver and gold, perhaps, but a loss of higher blessings. And worse, the loss of the greatest treasure of all – Christ. “Watch out! Be on guard against all greed,” Jesus warned, “because a man’s life is not measured by how many possessions he has.” So Treasure the Treasure Which Cannot Be Lost.

A crowd of many thousands had gathered to see Jesus. There were so many in the crowd that they began trampling on one another (v.1). Maybe they were all vying for a better spot for themselves next to Jesus. I wonder if there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on besides, as each one was looking out for himself. As the jostling continued, Jesus turned to His disciples and said, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Such hypocrisy, that is, trying to appear what a person isn’t, would put their lives in jeopardy physically and eternally – from the Pharisees who wanted to get rid of them, and from themselves if they failed to faithfully proclaim the saving truths of the Gospel that Jesus handed down to them. It was an important lesson for them to take to heart.
Meanwhile one of the jostlers in the crowd interrupted Jesus saying, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Now there’s a guy who had something else on his mind. The request doesn’t seem to fall in line with the things Jesus was talking about as He admonished those listening to fear God not people, and to trust God’s care for them as they confessed Christ in the world. Clearly, this man was not concerned about spiritual things. “Man,” Jesus answered, “Who sent me into this world to be a judge and divide up inheritances. Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because a man’s life is not measured by how many possessions he has.” There is much more to life than the things we own. Jesus told a story to make His meaning clear.
Once there was a farmer, a rich man. He did not have a big farm, but what he had was very productive. His plants stood tall and straight. As they ripened, the heavy ears of grain bent the stalks down, so full of grain were they. When harvest time came, there was so much that the farmer did not have room to store all his crops. “What shall I do with all I’ve got?” he asked himself. “My barns aren’t big enough to hold it all. Ahhh, I know what I’ll do. I’ll pull down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I will say to myself, ‘Soul, you have lots of things stored up for yourself to last many years. Don’t worry about anything. You don’t have to work any longer. Just eat, drink, and enjoy yourself all day long.’”
Do you see what his concern was? Do you see what he trusted in? Do you see what he treasured the most? It wasn’t God; it wasn’t a Savior; it wasn’t heaven. It was earthly. Things that wouldn’t last forever. Things that would eventually go away. Things that in the end have no eternal value. He did not treasure what God treasures.
That very night God said to him, “You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded from you. Whose then will all these things be that you considered so valuable in life that you left me behind?” Jesus finished by saying, “That is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Therein lies the question that He would ask of each of us: “Are you rich toward God? Is He the One that you treasure above all things? Is Christ the Savior the most important thing to you? Ah, we would all like to say, “For sure!” to that. But does your life show it?
Don’t think that Jesus meant it is wicked to have money or other things. Don’t think that Jesus meant having hobbies and things you like to do as being evil. All such things are gifts from God to us. He opens His hand and showers many good things upon us. But money and things, like all the gifts God gives, are trusts from Him that He places in our hands. When He entrusts us with them, He would have us use it not for selfish pleasure and in neglect to Him, but in His service and for people’s eternal welfare, especially your own.
“If you want to be truly secure and safe for the future,” Jesus would say, “Seek first the kingdom of God…a treasure in the heavens that will not fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v.31f).
Maybe you think, “Well, this is one problem I do not have. There is no danger that I will trust in my riches because I don’t have so much.” But can you say that Christ and His wonderful treasure of forgiveness and life in Him is the only treasure for which you strive? Does your life show that it is the most important thing to you so that you won’t miss an opportunity to store it up within you?
We are surrounded by a wealth of things, money, stuff, toys, activities, etc. What are we going to do with it all? How will we store it? Well, we build bigger houses and dream of 3 car-garages and yard sheds to house all the stuff in. Scary, isn’t it? Sounds almost like the man in the parable!
There once was a bumper sticker that read: “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” Did you ever see it? We might even snicker at the tongue-in-cheek humor implied in it. But, you know, that saying comes dangerously close to the truth that Jesus warned about in this story. And it lies just beneath the surface of all of our lives.
There was another bumper sticker offered as an alternative to the first. It read: “The one who dies with the most toys…dies.” Now there’s a sobering reminder that comes close to the point of Jesus’ parable.
Think about it – which “toy,” or if you want to be more positive about it, which blessing will you be able to take with you when your life is called from this world? The Bible soberly reminds us: “We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it” (1
Tm.6:7). There is nothing we can take with us except our souls. So, if we succumb to the temptation to find purpose and meaning in life through the abundance of possessions or whatever earthly thing or activity man considers important, we will wind up lamenting with Solomon in our OT Lesson this morning: “Vapor. Nothing but vapor. Totally vapor that vanishes!” (Ecc.1:2).
Which blessing will you take with you? Only one – Christ, the Savior! Christ prepared the greatest of all treasures for us at His cross where He paid for our sin and at the empty tomb of Easter where He rose to give us life. If He lives, He promised, that those who trust in Him will live, too. If that is true, then when we die and leave all the toys behind, we don’t die like the foolish rich man; rather, we live in Christ. And finding life in Him, our souls will never be found wanting at the end.
You know, I don’t have a single one of those coins anymore that I found when I ran to the phone booth daily. I don’t even have the $20 that I prized after finding it in the gutter. But I have Christ and His Word; I have His kingdom and His righteousness by faith. They make me rich in God now and eternally as I remain in Him. You have it too as He remains the center of your life.
God grant that in steadfast faith we Treasure His Treasures. Then they will not be lost to us; for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Pastor Edwin Lehmann

Preacher: Pastor Edwin Lehmann