THE PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL-Luke 12

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"

15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;” NOW THAT’S RELEVANT FOR TODAY.

JESUS GOES ON TO SAY: “life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." The word for “life” Jesus uses is the word that speaks of quality of life. So, He is saying that your quality of life doesn’t consist in all of your stuff.

16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
NOTE in those days everyone was in relationship to one another—family lived together and villages worked together in times of abundance and in times of loss. Yet this man “thinks to himself”. You see, he consulted no one on his decision—no one, not even God.

18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.
Instead of sharing it with those in his family and village who are in need, he makes the decision to “store” his surplus in bigger barns.

19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '

The purpose for his decision is so that he can take life easy, eat, drink and be merry. This is called retirement in most cases. However, Jesus has us all on a mission. It’s our real purpose for being here. We are only satisfied if we fulfill our God-given purpose and that purpose is not hoarding stuff for ourselves, but to be self-giving. This has nothing to do with making money and increasing your possessions. There is nothing wrong with that. It has everything to do with how you use what you have. Since all you have belongs to God Who enabled and empowered you to gather it, He wants you to use it compassionately.

NOTE what happens to this man: 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
That very night of his boasting and his self-centered decision God “demanded” not only his stuff, but his life! The word used here means to “take it back” or “repossess” all you have and all that you are—your very life.

Jesus ends His story with a strong summary application:
21 "This is how it will be with those who store up things for themselves but are not rich toward God."

Think it over...

JESUS PLUS NOTHING

All add-ons to Jesus violate the "simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" and even pave the way to following after the spirit of of anti-Christ. Anti-Christ means "instead of" Christ. This means that a person who is into anything that must be added on to Jesus in order to find acceptance with God is saying that Jesus is not enough. Many well-intentioned people are caught up in this spirit and count on their check list of organizations to belong to, seminars to attend, theological stances to take and a Christian religious experience to validate their "membership" in the club that is going to heaven.

But Christianity is just another religious system of do's and don'ts--another religious culture that has great value, yet complicates the simpicity of Jesus. The fill up our churches with believers in Christ. But is it enough that a person believes in Jesus?

No, even the devils are BELIEVERS! Jesus refers to a group of teachers and prophets who have been prophesying (speaking) in the name of Jesus, casting out demons in the name of Jesus and even performing many miracles in the name of Jesus. Now, it's most likely that this group of people called themselves BELIEVERS, too. Now, we have churches filled with a group of people who claim to be BELIEVERS.

SO WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? Jesus says that the difference is "only those who do the will of My Father will enter the kingdom of heaven." According to John 6 the will of the Father is to do the work of God, which is to believe or trust Jesus with your life. Jesus also says that a fool builds his house on the sand with no firm foundation, because he "hears My words and does not practice them." The wise man "hears My words and practices them." The difference is simply this--those who actually do, practice and follow the teachings and principles of Jesus.