The world around us is crazy. There’s a lot that is happening, where it feels like we’re on the brink of something major. Whether that be civil war, economic collapse, or who knows what next. Now, I know there is a lot of pastors talking about prophecy and how what we’re experiencing now is fulfilling that prophecy, I will not being do that anytime soon. Not that I do not believe that there are not prophecies being fulfilled, but rather, I have shared with you that I can only speak on things I have been led to speak on. As I have been seeing what God is leading us to talk about so far this year, the overarching theme has been eyes focused on Jesus, making sure we stand on what he has called us to and shedding off anything else.
This brings us into our next series where we’re going to be talking about going beyond. What that means, is that there are a lot of things we deal with that we need to get over, or go beyond in our life. Sin is the center of this.
See Paul states in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
There is an understanding in Scripture that we who have accepted Jesus as Savior, no longer live as other people do in the world. Because of that, we must move beyond what this world has for us. We are to live differently, speak differently, love differently, trust differently.
As Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
This new is both here today, and a future reality. In Romans 8:23, Paul tells us that, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
So though there is a future state where all things are anew, we who now follow Jesus are to begin to live in that future state, because we have the firstfruits of it by the Holy Spirit who indwells in us.
And so, we’re going to spend the next several weeks looking at different topics that we are called to live beyond what we are now.
The first of these are routed in how we are to live for today and how we are to trust in God for tomorrow. Let’s look at two passages to give us an understanding of this. First, let’s turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 16. As we open up to Luke 12:16, we find that someone has asked Jesus to help solve a dispute between two siblings. One sibling feels that they are not getting their rightful inheritance. Jesus then warns that person that “…life does not consist in an abundance of possessions (12:15b).”
It’s from there that we get this parable, that people have titled, the Parable of the Rich Fool. Let’s read starting in Luke 12:16.
“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.’”
This parable tells of a man who increased his wealth immensely. Such an increase of wealth in fact, that he had to restructure his entire storage system to accommodate it all. But not only that, this dramatic increase in wealth led to him saying to himself, that he no longer had to work hard, and he could relax for the rest of his life.
Isn’t that what we all would like? So many times in my own life, the thought has crossed my mind, “If only I had money, I wouldn’t have to do this.” I remember growing up and knowing, that my parents had a nest egg; that we were rich and they were just waiting for the right time to spring it on me.
A life of ease is always a desire, because then we would’t be living to survive, but rather to live as we want to. The man in the parable is hopeful, but then there’s a twist, his life ends before he can have his “happy ending”. And Jesus poignantly reveals that when we seek to store up material goods for our future benefit, there’s the possibility that are lives will be cut short of experiencing what we had built up. Instead, Jesus points us to being rich in our relationship with God, rather than material possessions. To trust God with our future, rather than the things we acquire.
I want to juxtapose this parable against the historical story from 1st Kings chapter 17, starting in verse 7. In 1st Kings 17:7, we find ourselves not in the New Testament, but the Old. And instead of a parable in answer to a question, we find a struggle between those that follow the Hebrew God, and those that follow after idols. The prophet Elijah proclaims to the Israelite King Ahab that God has said that there will be “…neither dew nor rain in the next few years…(17:1).”
This is because Ahab is worshiping false gods, and the lack of rain, points to the Hebrew God’s power over these false gods. But Elijah isn’t immune from the lack of rain, and it’s in the midst of this drought that we pick up in verse 7.
“7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to him: 9 ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.’ 10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ 11 As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’
“12 ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.’
“13 Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.”’
“15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”
17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
22 The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
A widowed woman with her last food, in the midst of a wide spread drought; she and her only son, prepare to eat their last meal and die. There is no hope for the woman, and she has come to terms with her own death. She has no hope, because there is no god to turn to save her. See the greater cultural situation that we find this widow in, is that she is not a Hebrew woman. Her god is not the Hebrew God, but rather the Canaanite god Baal. Baal was the god of thunder and rain, and with the drought, it meant that Baal was in his slumber cycle, and he wouldn’t be able to help. And so, this woman was lost in despair.
There is a stark difference between Jesus’ parable in Luke 12, and the real situation we see right here.
In the parable, the farmer has optimism for the future, in this woman’s life, there is only pessimism. Yet in the parable of the farmer we see tragedy, and in the widow’s story, we see victory. The farmer has everything, yet loses it all, and the widow who has nothing, gains everything.
Why? What is the difference between the two? Why does the one lose, while the other gains? It comes down to one word, trust.
In the parable, the farmer trusted in his own abundance. He says things to himself like, “…You have plenty of grain laid up for many years…” And, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
The farmer trusts in his wealth, he trusts that it secures his future, he trusts that his tomorrow is taken care of and that he has nothing to worry about.
In the story of the widow, she has nothing to trust in. Her whole life has come to an end and she sees no way out. But when this prophet comes along she places her trust in the word that comes from his God. She trusts in that word that her jars would not run out. She trusts in that word when Elijah asks for her dead son. She trusts, when nothing about tomorrow is hopeful. This trust solidifies when she says, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”
For us, it’s really easy to fall in to the trap of trusting in the things we have for our security. We want to capture the unknown of tomorrow and make it serve us. Is there anything wrong in preparation? No, but that’s not what the farmer did, he wasn’t preparing for tomorrow and trusting God that whatever happened God was in control. No, he was trusting in the wealth as his god. Paul shows us what it means to prepare, and give our tomorrow over to God. In Acts 16, Paul talks about wanting to go to Galatia, but the Holy Spirit kept him from it and instead moved him to Macedonia.
Plans about tomorrow are not sinful, but trusting in them, trusting in what we can put together ourselves is the problem. We must have the trust of the widow. We must recognize that all that we have is dying and all we can put our hope in is the Word of God. We must fully trust in him for our tomorrow, because then we recognize all we have is this moment.
Tonight, our life may be demanded of us, like it was of the farmer, but if we trust in the Lord now, that won’t scare us. If tomorrow is our last day, it will not faze us, because our hope is not in anything less that the living God who has dominion over all things.
No sickness we face, no financial crises we have, no governmental edict that is imposed, will ever trouble us, because we have not put our trust in the things of this world, but in God himself.
This is what we must go beyond, we must move beyond trust in the things of this world to anchor us, and instead we must anchor ourselves only in Jesus.
I love these words from Isaiah 26:3-4, “You (God) will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”
My challenge for you this week is to go before God with a simple morning and evening prayer: God help me trust in you for my today and tomorrow and not in the things of this world.
Let us engrain in our lives, the trust in the only secure thing in this universe, the God who created it.
As disciples of Jesus, our lives are his. When we confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, our lives were bought by him. We are his. We are new creations, no longer looking to false gods and idols to secure tomorrow, but now we are to trust in Jesus for every moment that we are given. In this moment we must trust in Jesus, and if we are given tomorrow, then we must trust him there. Because we are promised nothing in this life, expect what God gives us. Let us then trust only in him, and in him we will always be satisfied. Amen.
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