You heard McGregor whining. He was, and he's down on the right. I was going to edit him out, and I thought, no, that's McGregor. You have to keep him on the TV.
She is there now, and I'll be leaving after service today to finish up, and then tomorrow we send her off to her first day in her new big girl job. She's transferred to Frostbank, so it's not new. But Thanksgiving is here. It is like just a few days away. So this is kind of a precursor. Okay, it's a week or more, but you know you gear up, and I, you know, you have there are some things that have to happen in order for it to be a successful Thanksgiving.
Tracy, this, you know, you're in the south now, so you need to understand that gravy is a beverage, especially during Thanksgiving. You need to know that, you know, Thanksgiving isn't complete unless there's a little side helping of emotional trauma somewhere along the line. You know, if you look around and that crazy relative isn't there, it's because you're him or her. You are the crazy relative. I've been there. But now my sister's here, so she gets that honor.
I can't really think of Thanksgiving without the words of this hymn coming to my mind. And some of you know exactly which one I'm talking about. Count your blessings, name them one by one. It just does it every year. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.
The verse talks about when upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed. How many of us have felt that way over the past few years? Being thrown about from side to side. When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings. Every doubt will fly, and you will be singing as the days go by. Count your blessings, name them one by one.
So what more of a fitting reminder to have an attitude of gratitude? We do this every year. We say during this special time of the year. I've got a ring in my ears, Brandon. And it's not the normal ring. It's like the sound.
I don't bring it down a little bit. But we always tell ourselves and our family members and our friends that we should focus on being thankful during this time of the year. But we should be thankful every day of the year. Joe must have been sneaking a peek at my sermon notes because he spoke in the giving of our tithes and offerings about some of the things. He even quoted the scripture that I have, one of the scriptures I have in my sermon. And Sharon talked about it with the joy shots. Count your many blessings.
But I want you to understand that today we're going to talk about how not to count your blessings. There's a right way and there's a wrong way to count your blessings. There's a good way and a bad way to count. But there's also a good way to count your blessings, a way that flows from faith and a way that doesn't. A way that inspires hope and a way that really leads to despair and destruction.
I have all this information about the background of that song, Count Your Many Blessings. But guess what? If you want to know about the background of Count Your Blessings, Google it later. Not during church. Wait until later.
But before we get going, really, I want to make sure of this one thing, too. I want you to know, I want this to be drilled into each one of you. We are blessed. Joe talked about it. We are blessed. We're blessed physically and financially, economically. There are people, and we've heard stories over the past few years, about people who are putting their lives in danger, risking everything to try to come to this country.
There's something going on here that people from all over other parts of the world will risk life and limb to get here and to bring their families here. And it's not just financially, but that's what we're told and what we see over and over again. We are blessed. None of us that I know of in this room are worrying about what we're going to eat for our next meal, or if our children are going to eat. There are roofs over our heads. We have opportunities to fellowship and to eat and to work and to thrive. We are blessed.
I was talking to someone a few weeks ago that I went to visit, and they were kind of complaining a little bit about how hard it is lately to live on a fixed income. And I started to think about that, and I think we've all been there, where we would wish that someone would fix our income because it's broken. But we have to remember that we are blessed to be right here where we are.
We also know that everyone in this room, we're blessed spiritually. We have a God who loves us so much that we can come to this place and worship and sing praises to Him and speak about Him openly. He loves us so much that we are known by Him, and He sent His only Son, who loved us so much that He voluntarily sacrificed His life so that we can have a relationship with that Father. So that our sins could be forgiven, paid for by the blood of the Son.
We know that we are blessed. We are blessed spiritually. We know that even when life is bad, God is good. Let me say that again. We know that God is good. And all the time... Good, good, good. You got it. You're awake. That coffee is helping. It is the nectar of God.
So how can we count our blessings? Blessings in the wrong way. Well, there's an example, as we consider a parable of Jesus in the book of Luke, chapter 12, that I'd like you to turn to. Verses 13 through 21. I'm actually going to... Yeah, I'll read it from here. Luke, chapter 12, verses 13 through 21.
I'm not going to say what I said last week, that if you don't have your Bible with you, then you can just wallow in shame and guilt, because that's what the church does. We're going to have it right up there if you need to read it. You can get it on your phone, the YouVersion. I see. You got a big Bible, too. Patsy must be really spiritual with a Bible that big. Or she uses it to hit Joe when he doesn't.
That's a... You know what a Bible bump is? It's like a cyst that you get on your wrist. My grandma used to say, well, when you get a Bible bump, you put your hand out and you take the Bible, and you smack it really hard on that cyst, and it disperses the... Hit him with the word. It always works. Sorry, that was my one rabbit trail.
Let's get to Luke, chapter 12, verses 13 through 21. Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."
And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry." 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?" This is how it will be, Jesus says, with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God."
There are dangers in miscounting our blessings or counting them the wrong way. There is a right way and a wrong way. And this parable explains to us the wrong way. Now, I don't believe that this man in the parable was an evil man. It doesn't say anywhere in there in the parable that he got rich by being evil or doing wrong things. He was probably a hard worker. He worked long hours. He worked hard to build up the wealth that he had. There is no way. There is nothing wrong with wealth. As a matter of fact, God wants his children to be wealthy.
I did not say prosperous. Because when you're wealthy, the scripture that Joe read means that you can live generously and you can give to help those that are around. I don't think that he was dumb either. You can't be dumb and acquire wealth like this man had in this parable. He didn't become successful by making stupid business decisions. He was successful and prosperous. He was smart. He was probably not an evil man. But he was a fool nonetheless.
See, stupidity is a matter of the head. Foolishness is a matter of the heart. That's important to remember. There are things that I am ignorant about. I don't know much about quantum physics or chaos theory. But I can be smart in some things and be a fool in things that really matter. Stupidity is of the head. Foolishness is of the heart.
This rich fool, he was blessed. And he counted those blessings. That's probably something that he was really good at doing. We see that in the parable. He was good at accounting and financials. That's why he commissioned bigger barns to be built. Tear down the smaller ones. Build bigger ones. But in his case, those blessings really did him little good. Something was wrong. Something was missing in his calculations.
And if you and I want to avoid the same mistakes, then we need to learn some lessons from this bad example. How not to count. How not to count your blessings. And here's where I think he went wrong. First, he was blessed, but he started counting in the wrong place. Here's what I mean. He assumed that he deserved those blessings, first of all. His hard work, his smart decisions, everything that he did led him. All these exceptional talents, they accounted for his success. They are the reward, the reason that he was wealthy and rich.
He counted his blessings and he gave himself all of the credit. That's foolish. I mean, even if you go back and read through the scripture and all the commentaries, they talk about this man, there is no hint anywhere in the passage and in the original languages that says he gave a hint of others contributing to his success, that he built it all by himself and no one helped.
Well, we know some things, don't we? I would never do something like that because I know that he's got gifts and abilities that came from his family, from his mom and dad, from his ancestors, things that were passed down. And he absorbed those and learned those, and they helped his success. He had to hire people as well, not just laborers, but people to manage the resources that he had. We talked about that just a short while ago. Managers, when we talk about Joseph's life.
He didn't give credit to anyone. He was a self-made man. We remember that phrase? There's no such thing as a self-made man. You can't do it. I come from, as Kimberly and I were talking earlier, from a Scotch-Irish and Norwegian background. I know that there are some traits when my ancestors came over to New York and then split in two directions that there were things that they brought with them from their heritage, from their culture, and they stayed with them all the way through.
And I'll tell you what it was. Because, one of them was, Midwestern, you know, I'm a refugee from the Midwest. It's hard work. I had one person say, well, you've got a really good, it was North Carolina, so I can talk about them. You've got a really good work ethic. Yeah, I'm from the Midwest. All those ethnics up there are good, hard workers. It's a work ethic that I learned from my father, who sometimes worked two jobs, three jobs. He had his own business for a while, worked outside of that.
That I learned that he had to start working early. And because I was so poor, I couldn't pay attention, I started working at 12 years old. I had four paper routes at 12 years old, two in the morning before school, two in the morning after school. I learned that from those that taught. This man taught me as I was coming up. This man had to have people who taught him the things that he needed to achieve what he achieved in life. And we're all that way.
He never gave credit to anyone except him. That was his first mistake. He started in the wrong place. He ignored the contributions that other people made into his successes.
The second thing that I know is that he was blessed, but he left God out of the equation. That's an even deeper issue for his miscalculations in life. Nowhere in the story does the man take God into consideration at all. That's the definition of a fool if you look at the Word. The Old Testament, Psalm 14:1. The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.
Now, it's important to understand something. It might be better translated or rendered to say that the fool says, there is no God for me. There is no God for me. That's what this man is saying. It's not about atheism. Proverbs and the Psalms, the wisdom books, when they say there is no God, it's basically saying I know that God exists, but I choose not to follow Him, not to live according to His principles.
A fool isn't an atheist. The fool doesn't deny the existence of God at all; he simply leaves God out of the equation of his life, of his daily life, of his actions. And beloved, that's our danger. That's something that we need to be very aware of as we go through our days.
But I want you to know this. I want you to remember this. While the fool in our story might not have been thinking of God, God would have been thinking of him. When we count our blessings, when we look at all the things that God has poured out on us, we should always begin by admitting that our God is the owner and the provider of all the things that we have. This is the truth that's behind the heart of what the Bible calls true worship.
One of the things in our ministry with the Salvation Army of over 25 years that I began to see was that the Salvation Army, in trying to prepare for its officers and its pastors to not have to worry about their house and living expenses and all of that stuff, they provided everything for this. But in our minds, what begins to happen is that we thank God, who is the source for the army and the resources that it provides, but sometimes we forget that the church is not the source, simply the resource. God is the source from which all those blessings come.
And what happens then? Then we make other things the god in our lives. This is a danger for all of us. The source is always God. The resources flow from Him. We're called to be just like Joseph, stewards of someone else's resources. We don't own anything. We spoke about that a little bit when Sharon and I were going through the health issues with Matthew. We saw that with Abraham and Isaac when Abraham realized that he had said, "Here I am, Lord," and the answer is yes to whatever you need. Now what's the question?
Abraham realized Isaac didn't belong to him because he gave him back to God. And God can do whatever He wants with the stuff that's His. It's the same way with the stuff that we have. God has given it to us to manage. So when you live generously and you give your stuff away, you're not giving your stuff away. Anyway, you're investing the stuff that God has given, and you're reallocating it to someone who might be in need.
God's not a sugar daddy as well. He's not someone who just hands out goodies when we ask. He's not Santa Claus. That's coming up too, by the way. I'll have a list. No, I mean, I'm kidding. But God is involved in all of it. We are stewards or managers who use what has been entrusted to us. I love that word. God trusts you with what you have, what He's given to you, to handle it wisely.
So the rich fool failed to recognize God as the source of his blessings. And the Bible defines a fool as one who lives without acknowledging God. We are all managers. God owns it all.
The third thing that he did wrong was he stopped. He was blessed, but he stopped. He stopped counting too soon. He was short-sighted. He was thinking only of this life. He wasn't thinking about what happens after. When you say count your blessings, name them one by one. But when we do, we shouldn't forget whose credit is for those blessings.
And we shouldn't certainly forget that, or stop counting too soon. Just think about what's here before us on this moment. He thought that all that mattered was this life, that this life's accounting was all there was. It took all the action took place on this side of the grave. And so he never ever considered that part. It makes sense because he never ever acknowledged God in his daily walk and the things that he did.
There's a story about a, of course, a Texas preacher, George Truitt. He's a well-known preacher from a previous generation. And he tells about a dinner that he attended with a wealthy rancher. This rancher, after dinner, they go out onto the porch, and the rancher looks out over all these oil wells, and he says to this pastor, "25 years ago, I started with nothing. And now, all of that is mine, as far as the eye can see."
And he looked in the opposite direction at all the cattle. And he said, "Everything that you see in that direction is mine as well." And he looked to the east. He said, "All those fields and crops, as far as the eye can see, that's all mine." And then pointed to the west, at this beautiful forest. I don't know where there's a beautiful forest in Texas, but I'm sure it's probably more north. Yeah, Austin.
He said, "I own it all. As far as the eye, I can see in that direction. It's all mine." And then, he paused because he was expecting that this pastor would, you know, congratulate him on all of his successes. And George Truitt puts his hand on the man's shoulder, and he points up and he says, "Well, what do you own in that direction?"
And that rancher, he bowed his head. He was sad. He was frustrated because he realized he hadn't done anything in that direction. Just like the man from our parable today. That rich fool that lived in Jesus' day. He loved that bumper sticker, "He who dies with the most toys wins." But he didn't really look at the other one that says, "He who dies with the most toys still dies."
There are no U-Hauls following hearses. I'm thankful for that because I drove around, drove a U-Haul all the way to Austin on Friday, and it was horrible, Kirsten. Or Houston, yeah, not Austin. I'm thinking about the forest, apparently.
The rich fool, my point is that he had a short view. He did not look to the future. He had plenty of time. He was in total control of his life. Everything was working out according to the plan that he had, and he would build, and he presumed that tomorrow it was going to be just like yesterday. He lived as if he had forever. And that wasn't true.
Jesus has, there's this twist in the story, a surprise twist of the story, because then we know that that night, God says to him, "You fool! This very night, your life is going to be demanded from you. And then who's going to get all of this stuff that you've prepared for yourself?" The New Testament warns us, really, that we brought nothing into this world, and we're going to take nothing out of it.
On another occasion, Jesus was asked this question, for what, and he says it in Mark 8:36. I think I have that in there, Kirsten. "For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Only a foolish person believes that their money is going to follow them to the grave.
The man was called a fool, but he counted his blessings. He knew that he was rich, but he counted wrong. He started counting in the wrong place. He stopped counting too soon. He did not give credit to those that helped him along the way. But the most important miscalculation was that he counted the wrong things. He was rich in what money could buy, but in little else.
I guess the question is, what about you? What about me? Am I counting my blessings the right way, or am I counting them the wrong way? So the moral of this parable, of Jesus' story, is from verse 12. This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not rich toward God.
Isn't that a nice three-word phrase? Rich towards God. How do you do that? What does it mean to be rich toward God? Well, there's two accounting standards for true riches. First is contentment. Nothing is more valuable than contentment. Paul talks about it a lot. Paul, 1 Timothy 6:6. Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Without contentment, it doesn't matter how much money you have, does it? You're not going to be satisfied. You're always going to want a little bit more. But with contentment, you can find reason for thanksgiving no matter what your circumstances are. Whatever we find ourselves in, trials and tribulations, or triumphs and victories, we can find contentment there.
Sharon talked about it in her joy shot when Paul says to, or James, I think, says to take joy in your trials and tribulations. And she's like, oh, how do you do that? That doesn't make any sense. It does when we realize that we are not rich on earth, but richness with God provides that contentment and leads us to joy in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
A contented man knows from whom all blessings flow. A lack of contentment is what prompted Jesus to tell this parable in the first place. Remember, a man came to him. He was interrupted by this man who wanted him to settle an inheritance issue with his brother. And Jesus immediately saw through that problem, that request, and he went right to the heart of the matter, greed.
Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions, in the abundance of stuff. And then Jesus told this parable. A greedy, discontented man is never rich enough to feel blessed or satisfied. There is never enough.
So the Bible insists that riches, being rich, true riches, are measured by contentment and another word, generosity. Here's some of the Bible's promises. This is 2 Corinthians 9:11. "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
What is that? Is that saying that God wants us to be wealthy? Not necessarily wealthy, but He wants us to have resources, and He wants us to live generously with those resources, not to put them in bigger barns and store them for a rainy day. And when we do that, so that we can be generous on every occasion, there will be thanksgiving, opportunities for thanksgiving to God.
Jesus, in our text, is talking about a man who's all wrapped up in himself. He's focused on himself. And I know, and I'm not going to go there, but I know that you've heard in the news or on your internet feeds about a man who seems to be, who is all wrapped up in himself lately. And that's not the way that the Bible tells us to live.
Twelve times in those four verses, the text uses I, me, my, or mine. The farmer didn't own great wealth. Guess what? That stuff, that great wealth owned him. He was a slave to that stuff. And a man like that, it's hard for him to give away what he has just for the sheer joy of generosity.
So the New Testament kind of sums this up by saying this. In 2 Timothy 6:17 through 21, just past where Joe read this morning, it says this: "Command those who are rich in this present world to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. In this way, they will lay up a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."
You're not giving stuff away. You're investing, not in this life, but in the next life, a foundation that you can build upon. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings and see what God has done. That's a good practice. But it's not only, as I said, as we approach Thanksgiving. It's a good practice for us every day of our lives.
So the rich fool started wrong. He stopped too soon. He counted the wrong things, and ultimately, his story is a lesson about our priorities, a lesson telling us that the main thing, you know where I'm going, is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Thank you, Yogi Berra. That's on a plaque right in that room right over there. Because apparently, I've said it more than once. That's the difference between a wise man and a rich fool. That's also a legacy that's worth living for those who follow in our steps.
I read a story about Patrick Henry, who's a famous American patriot, you know, who wrote things, well, near the end of his life. He wrote something that I'm sure this rich fool would have loved to have been able to say. No, no, that's a good one, though. Henry wrote this: "I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that, and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have been rich. And if they had not that, and I had given them all the world, they would be poor indeed."
My prayer for you today, as we enter into this Thanksgiving season, where we start to give thanks and we never end, is that you are blessed in the things that money can't buy. And, I hope you know it.
Pray with me.
Father, help us as we go into these days ahead to always remember, well, this lesson, first of all, Lord, this example of how not to count our blessings. But, Lord, bring to our attention even small little things that are victories, that are good, that happen in our day. The light turns green as we're approaching it. Thank you, Jesus. That's a blessing.
Someone buys our coffee in the drive-thru ahead of us. Thank you, Jesus. That's a big one. Lord, other opportunities that come our way. The laughter of our family around us. The table as we share a meal. Friends who love and support us. Send us a note during the day. Help us, Lord, to see those things and to say, thank you, Jesus.
Help us to count our blessings and to store up treasures and build a foundation, not here on earth, but in the next life so that we can be a part of it. And truly be blessed and have opportunities to bless others.
We pray, Lord, as we go our separate ways today, that it would be an opportunity to count our blessings and to give you praise and glory for your goodness to us. Be with us as we separate. Keep us strong and healthy and safe that we might come again and come together and worship and fellowship one with another.
We pray, Lord, that you would continue to bless this country and bless your church. We pray for the leadership and the changes that are happening, that you would be involved in the midst of all of them and that we know as sovereign Lord, your plan will succeed. So we ask, Lord, that you would guide men and women to do your will and to steward the resources and the treasures that you do give to us.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
If you need prayer, elders, I thought of something this morning as I was in that back room praying. That's a perfect place for us to meet afterwards. So if you would make your way back there to the annex room or whatever we're going to call it. And if you have prayer concerns, please go right back there. Our elders and their wives would love to pray with you. You can stay here and fellowship a little bit more. There are probably some donuts left in that thing.
Pray for Sharon and I on traveling back to pick her up. And we will hopefully have a great morning sending Mackenzie off to her new job tomorrow. There was something about the announcements that I wanted to say, and I can't remember.
God bless you all. Have a great day. Shake some hands, hug some necks on your way out. Shake some necks.
on Nov 17, 2024
