Watch Out

7-31-22Sermon Notes“Watch Out”

An elderly man confided to a friend that he was planning to live to be one hundred. The friend replied, “I would also like to live to be one hundred. But how do you plan to do it?” “It’s quite simple,” the other man said. “All you need to do is live until you’re ninety-nine, and from there on be very careful!”

Sometimes I think that someone should have given me that advice going in to 2022. “It’s going to be a new year…anything could happen…so be very careful!” Have you had days like that? Like it the whole day needs a warning label that says, “Watch out?!”

Did you know that Jesus gave such a warning? What was it that caused Jesus to say, “Watch out…to be on your guard?” It may not be what you think. Here’s what our Gospel for this Sunday says:
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; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
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.’
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.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.”’
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?’
21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12: 13-21 NIV)
Watch out! Beware! Jesus knew that even in his day, when the average person had few possessions, that it would be easy to let greed and anxiety over possessions become the focus of life. 2000 years later, and I would say this temptation is even more of an issue. Wouldn’t you? Join us this Sunday as we remind ourselves of what it means to be Kingdom focused instead of “stuff” focused.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Sam