Overcommitted To Money - Luke 12

In your life, when I bring up the topic of money, does that give you security or stress? When you think about finances - are you flooded with reassurance or anxiety? When my wife Sara and I got married, one of the greatest causes of strife in those first few years was money and money fights. There was a weird imbalance where we were not on the same page. One of our first fights was about whether or not we should have the same bank account. Should we merge our bank accounts or keep them separate? I wanted to merge the accounts, but she did not. And I couldn’t understand it, but we talked about it and it became obvious that she was worried, because she thought I was irresponsible with money. And at first I got all mad about it - all huffy and offended. But I sat with it for a bit and realized she was right. I, as a young man, was making very questionable decisions about what I did with my money. I needed to grow up. She didn’t want to marry a little boy who was going to waste all of his money in the candy store, she wanted to marry a man who could be responsible and make good decisions for our family. And in those first few years - it was really hard. We got married pretty young, and we were both grad students finishing up our Masters degrees - working part time jobs, living in a little 600 square foot apartment in the suburbs of Chicago. We didn’t know what financial responsibility looked like. Then I stumbled upon a book by a guy named Dave Ramsey. If you’re not familiar, Dave Ramsey is like this Christian financial guru guy who wrote a bunch of books and created a curriculum to help people manage their finances. And I read the book and I got SO excited. I had a plan, and so I came home and I told Sara, “we’re changing everything. I’ve been speaking with God and I have the new stone tablets with some financial laws for our household.” And again, we weren’t on the same page, she’s like, “what are you talking about? These are some extreme changes you want to make.” It’s not that the book was wrong or that the financial advice was bad - it’s that I came in and dropped it on her like a ton of bricks. Then we move up to the UP, and I start working as a lead pastor in my first church. And one of the Life Groups we offered was Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It was a whole class that we could take together. And we took that class together, and we learned things together, and we finally got on the same page financially. I don’t want to overstate it - we didn’t have a bad marriage or anything, but getting our finances sorted brought an immense amount of healing into our relationship. There’s a reason money and money fights are the number one cause of divorce in this country. But getting on the same page? finding balance and rhythm to your financial decisions? - it was like our relationship got a turbo boost AND at the same time, because we were finally budgeting - even though we received the same amount of money in our paychecks, it was like we got a pay raise, because we were making better decisions. Now I’m a pastor, she’s a stay at home mom - we were never going to be a wealthy household, and that didn’t matter to us - but we found peace, and it turns out - that makes all the difference. Now, Dave Ramsey sometimes gets criticized - he can be pretty aggressive and blunt, he’s been accused of bullying people - so I’m not saying I approve of everything he has said and done. But in my life, getting on the same page financially, radically improved our marriage, our quality of life, our giving - it made a big difference. Finding financial peace changed our lives. So let me ask again: does the topic of money and finances flood you with peace or panic? 

If you’re just joining us for the very first time - welcome, I’m so glad you’re here. This is such a great week to be here, and we are right in the middle of a series called Overcommitted, where we have been looking at the imbalances that are so common in life - and trying to find peace through abiding in Jesus. The tricky part about this series, and I mentioned this last week as well - the tricky thing is that none of these things are bad things. Being overcommitted does not mean that the solution is to not be committed at all. Our goal is not to cut these things out of our life, our goal is to find balance. To put these things in their proper place in life. I have a little girl, she’ll be two in January, and we just got a new kitten. One of her favorite things to do is to bear hug that kitten and haul it around my living room. Kitty! Poor thing’s all smushed. Now, I don’t want her to hate that cat. I don’t want her to ignore that cat. I just want her to have some moderation with her affection. And so today we are going to get into a teaching from Jesus on the proper place and relationship with money and possessions. 

If you want to follow along with me, we’re going to be in Luke chapter 12 today. I’ll give you a second to turn to that. If you didn’t bring a bible, we have a whole bookshelf full of them on the back wall. OR another really good way is to just bring it up on your phone. There are bible apps, or if even that’s confusing - you can just do a simple search for “Luke chapter 12” and it’ll bring it up for you. I always tell people, if you bring your bible - we are going to open it. We get into the word of God every week at this church, and if you’ve never done it before and you have no idea what you’re doing - that’s okay, today is a great day to start. 

We’re going to get into it with Luke, chapter 12, verse 13, where it says, [read v.13-15]. Now a couple things on that. Jesus was giving a teaching on hypocrisy and then some guy from the back row pipes up and says, “tell my brother to give me more money.” Now we don’t know much else about this dude’s situation - but Jesus comes back at him with such a key teaching. Jesus says “guard against every kind of greed, for life is not measured by how much you own.” Now this reinforces what I was saying earlier - that money and possessions have a huge place in our lives. So many of us live with an imbalance, we are overcommitted. Especially if you happen to live in America. We live in one of the wealthiest countries in one of the wealthiest and most comfortable eras in history. AND our church is in Byron Center - a wealthy town, in a wealthy country, in a wealthy time period. When it comes to world economics, the average American sits on the top of the top of the top. But Jesus knew that all that wealth, and all that comfort has a habit of getting down into our hearts and twisting us in selfish ways. And so the more you have, the more important this message becomes. We have to guard against every kind of greed. Estimates are that 1 in 10 verses in the gospels are about money, 16 out of Jesus’ 38 parables are about money. By pretty much any metric, money is one of Jesus’ top three topics. Tim Keller once said, “Jesus never spoke about economic systems - but he constantly spoke about the human heart’s attachment to wealth.” He knew that this was going to be a big deal in our lives. He knew that money and all our possessions have HUGE potential to imbalance us and cause overcommitted problems. That is why it is SO important for us to be on guard against every type of greed.

Jesus keeps going in verse 18, [read v.18-19]. So the farmer has a great year - SO MUCH extra, and he thinks to himself - “we’re gonna need a bigger barn.” He is faced with abundance and his first thought is personal expansion. In the greek, that word for barn is “apothekas” which is specific type of barn where excess is stored. It is not for distribution, it’s for accumulation. He is not planning to share, he’s planning to store. So let me ask you a hard question - when you have abundance in your life, what is your first thought? Is your first thought helping others? Or do you have a Christmas list? Like, if you won the lottery, anybody got a couple of things you’d purchase first and then you tell yourself, “then I would give the rest to charity.” Sure you would. Last week I was watching an old TV show called The Twilight Zone. Sara and I are actually big fans of sci-fi sort of mind-bendy type tv shows. If you don’t know, it’s a really old timey black and white sci-fi tv show. The basic premise is that every episode starts with one weird thing - and then we watch what people would do if that thing were true. And so last week, the kids are in bed and Sara and I are watching this show. And for this episode there was a little old couple who own a pawn shop, and a lady brings in an old bottle to sell. It’s probably worthless, but she needs money - so he buys it from her to help her out. Turns out there’s a genie in the bottle. What would you do if you had three wishes? And his first wish was probably what most of us would wish for - this episode came out in 1959, but humans are a predictable sort - a million dollars. And he’s worried the genie might try to play a trick, so he says, “I want a million dollars, cash in a pile, right here in the middle of the store.” And I’m watching this tv show like your average millennial watches tv - which means that it’s on the tv, but I’m also scrolling on social media on my phone while the tv is going. And I look up at the screen and the money is raining down making a big pile in the middle of the guys store. And I think to myself, “Oh man, how is this going to go bad?” Because of course it’s going to go bad. Tricky genie, big pile of money in the middle of the room. What’s going to happen. Then it cuts to the next scene, and it’s the next day, and the store is full of people. Neighbors and shoppers and just a whole bunch of people. And the pile of money is still there in the middle, and this is absolutely true - I was sort of lounging on the couch, and I actually sat up and went, “Oh no, the money is still visible - they’re going to see his money! they’re going to steal his money. That guy’s going to get mugged, he’s going to get hurt.” And then I watched as the guy reached down and grabs a handful of the money and starts handing it to the people in the store. Here’s a giant handful of money for you - I know you need help with your rent, and here’s a giant handful of money for you - you go get those groceries you need. Here’s some money for a new coat. And I had this moment of self reflection, where I looked in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw. When faced with the question of abundance, even in a goofy tv show, my instinct was to hoard it. To hide it. To keep it. And here’s my point with all of this - we read this story in the bible about a farmer who wanted to build bigger barns, and then we try to fool ourselves into thinking “I’m different than that guy.” Jesus holds up a mirror and we respond by saying, “That’s not me!” Jesus calls him a fool, but the hard truth, if we can have a moment of honesty - most of us don’t think this guy is a fool. For a lot of us, building a bigger barn sounds like really good financial planning. He’s not being selfish, he’s just being smart! This doesn’t sound like greed, it sounds like the American Retirement plan! And here’s what I want you to see - Jesus is not condemning financial planning, he’s confronting hoarding.

The rich farmer plans to build bigger barns, and then Jesus finishes the story in verse 20, [read v.20-21]. A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God. Now I want you to hold on to that phrase, “rich relationship with God” we’re going to come back to that - but first I’ve got to tell you about this story I read last week. Last year there was a news story in Plymouth township, on the east side of the state where police and firefighters rushed to save an elderly couple who were trapped in a house fire. This is November of last year - and when first responders reached the front door, they couldn’t get in because the doorway was blocked by piles of possessions, including a grandfather clock that was wedged behind the front door. The house was so packed with stuff they had to smash through windows just to reach the couple. Emergency crews would later say it wasn’t the flames that slowed them down, it was the clutter. The very things this couple had filled their home with - a lifetime of possessions, things they thought they needed, ended up standing between them and their rescue. For a lot of hoarders, their stuff gives them a sense of security - but when it mattered most, it was what they treasured that ended up trapping them. And before we throw stones - I feel like it’s easy to poke fun at hoarders because they’re such an extreme example - but how many of us have a closet we haven’t opened in months, or years, or maybe it’s not a closet, but a spare room, or a corner of the basement or a garage or a whole separate storage unit. Americans now rent more storage space than any other nation. The average person spends over $18,000 a year on non-essentials. Credit card debt in the US exceeded $1.14 trillion in 2024. Meanwhile Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.” Sometimes I feel like we’re a toddler sitting on a mountain of toys trying to convince the world we don’t have a problem.

First Jesus teaches us to guard against greed, and then Jesus hits it home with a story so familiar it’s like his punching us in the face with, “no seriously, this applies to your heart too.” But then, look at what he does immediately after this little story of the farmer. Jesus moves into a teaching about worry. Verse 22, [read v.22-28]. And I read that, and I think about where it’s located in the text…and I wonder - what if we overcommit to money, not because we’re greedy or selfish people, but because we’re scared about the future. 69% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 57% of US adults can’t afford a $1,000 emergency expense. Financial stress is THE number one cause of anxiety in U.S. adults. Some of us grip our finances and our possessions too tightly because we have a deep seeded fear of tomorrow. And this goes across the economic levels. Poor people are worried they won’t have enough to cover expenses today. Rich people know they have enough today, sure - but they are terrified of losing that and then they won’t have enough for tomorrow. The more you have, the more that fear of losing it can grip your heart. And if that’s you today. If you come in here worried - worried about rent or the mortgage, worried about that medical expense, or how you’re going to pay for the kid’s college, or that unexpected car trouble. I don’t have time for a whole rabbit trail on worry - but just let me speak these words of assurance into your life today. Verse 24 says that you are valuable to God. Verse 28 - God cares wonderfully for you. The answer to our worries about possessions, the insecurities we have about the future - reassurance is not going to come from more stuff. It’s only going to come from a rich relationship with God our father. 

The good news God’s word has for us this morning is that God wants a rich relationship with you. God wants a rich relationship with you. And a rich relationship with God will save you from overcommitting to money and pleasure in your life. Finances and possessions, much like everything we have talked about in this series - they are meant to be in the background of your life, not the forefront of your thoughts.

A few months ago I confided in a friend that ever since I moved back to West Michigan, it’s been really easy for me to envy my neighbors. Grand Rapids, Byron Center - man there are some really beautiful homes around us, and even if you have an amazing house already - there’s always a bigger house somewhere around here. There’s a lot of people building a lot of really big barns, if you know what I mean. And sometimes when I drive around, my mind wanders and I fail to guard my heart against any type of greed. And so this friend of mine recommended the book “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness” which is by Tim Keller, and I absolutely recommend it to you. It’s a really quick read - more of a booklet than an actual book. And in the book he says this, “the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.” His point is basically - if you can figure out how to have a rich relationship with God, rather than constantly evaluating yourself, comparing, seeking praise, defending yourself - whatever - instead you can live from the reassurance that you are valuable to God, that God cares wonderfully for you. And suddenly, with a rich relationship with God, our relationship with money and possessions becomes more balanced. And so let me ask you this question - with your financial planning, with the way you encounter money and possessions in this life - are you planning for the last 30 years of life, or are you planning for the first 10 minutes of eternity? Are you looking for ways to make the twilight years more comfortable? Or are you building a rich relationship with God that will last forever? 

The nice thing about trying to grow in the area of financial control and having a rich relationship with God is that because it’s such a foundational part of our lives in this culture - there’s SO many practical things you can do to grow closer to God. It’s very easy for me to make this apply to your life this week: I have three challenges for you. Maybe you just need to speak Jesus’ words about lilies and ravens into your life every single day. You are valuable to God, God cares for you wonderfully - and just remind yourself of that truth over and over until your heart starts to believe it. Or maybe you need something a little more practical - I know when Sara and I finally sat down and got on the same page financially, I THOUGHT we were living generous lives focused on other people. We were doing a lot of casual giving - throwing a couple bucks in the giving box when we felt particularly convicted to do so. But when I sat down and calculated it out - we were giving something like 1 or 2% of our income. And so we gave ourselves a tithing goal. 

If you’re not familiar, tithing is a biblical, spiritual practice of giving the first 10% of our income to the church. And when we started out, we were trying to give the last 10% of our income. You know - gotta pay the bills first, and groceries, and kids, and, and, and..but the problem was for us - we had a whole lot more month at the end of our monthly budget. When we tried to give the last 10% it always ended up being the last 2%. But when we switched it around - and that 10% came out FIRST, it’s amazing how we were always able to make room. So my first challenge is to speak Jesus’ words into your life every day. My second challenge for you is to take up tithing. Calculate 10% of your income - it’s pretty easy, we just move the decimal place. If your paycheck is $2,000 - then 10% of that is $200.  And like I said before, for Sara and I this was tricky. We were just giving leftovers, but when we got organized around our finances - we saw how much we were overcommitted to money. And let me tell you, that even though our income stayed the same AND our giving went way up as we gave the first 10% to God - so there was less money in our actual account. Our level of peace increased. And hear me on this - this is not just about a church budget. The truth is that disciplining yourself to give the first 10% is one of the absolute strongest ways to guard your heart against every type of greed. 

That’s a huge goal, and one I hope you’ll shoot for, but I also want to give you a little challenge, a benchmark you could start working on this week. It actually would probably help you hit your goal of tithing, but my third challenge to you this week. I want to challenge you to try a seven day spending fast. A seven day spending fast is really easy - you just spend zero dollars on non-essentials. Like, if you have to get groceries or gas or pay your electric bill - all of those are essentials. But all the other stuff - the donuts at the apple place, the fancy coffee (it is pumpkin spice season after all), the snacks, the last minute golf game, the antiquing, buying stuff on the internet - whatever it is. Can you go a week spending no money? Or maybe here’s another way to look at it - don’t just go a week spending no money, but instead ask yourself; what luxury is God asking you to sacrifice to meet the needs of someone else? If there is an imbalance in your life, where you are overcommitted to money and possessions - the best remedy is generosity. I want you to give because God sets you free from the things that desire to own you. God wants a rich relationship with you, but there’s all this stuff blocking him. And that stuff is parked in your garage, stored in your bank account, hidden in your safe, locked in a storage unit or on the other side of a retirement account. Are your treasures trapping you? If so, remember that freedom and peace is found in a rich relationship with God. let’s pray.