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Book: Luke
 Print ( PC Only )
Luke 12:15 A Man's Life
Intro. Jesus has just been asked to be an arbitrator in a property
dispute between two brothers, He refused to get involved but
warned, "Beware of covetousness."
I. Beware of covetousness.
A. One of the 10 commandments is "Thou shalt not covet your
neighbors house, wife, or servants, or anything that is thy
neighbors.
1. The advertising agencies have caused us to covet many
things.
a. The subtle suggestion is that you need their
products to make you happy.
b. They have made a careful study of human nature
and they know that there is a basic sense of
unfulfillment in man.
c. There is sort of an awareness that something
is missing.
d. They lead you to believe that their product is
the missing link between you and fulfillment.
e. They then lead you into fantasies, just
picture this car in your driveway. Picture
yourself behind the wheel. Picture yourself in
this luxury resort. See all the fun people
have who do these things or have these things.
f. You begin to fantasize yourself doing these
things or having these things.
g. This is where the problem comes, for reality
can never live up to , nd the
attaining of the goal is usually great
disappointment.
2. There has probably never been a time in the history of
man when we had more things.
a. One of the greatest problems around our house
is lack of storage space.
b. The abundance of things has even opened up a
new industry, the renting of storage garages.
B. There is a big lie to all of this, and that is that life
consists in the abundance of things you possess.
1. Somehow we have come to believe that things can make
us happy.
2. We believe that happiness can be found by pursuing
after it.
C. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that
he possesses.
1. We read bumper stickers that say, the man who dies with
the most toys wins.
2. I like the one I read that said, "The man who dies with
Jesus wins."
3. We read the testimony of Solomon this morning
concerning things. He had more things than any of us
can ever hope to have.
a. He spoke of the emptiness and frustration that
they brought to his life.
b. Note how he searched from one thing to another.
c. Having achieved one goal and finding it empty
he set out for another goal only to find it
empty also.
ECC 5:10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor
he that loveth abundance with increase: this [is] also vanity.
D. The common folly today is the thinking that man can have a full
rich life without the dimension of the spirit.
1. When God created man He created him a trinity, body,
soul, and spirit.
2. When Eve was deceived into thinking that she could find
a fuller life by yielding to the fleshly desires, and
Adam transgressed the commandment in following her,
they both of them experienced the death of their
spirits.
3. From that time till now most men live in the animal
plane of existence, the body conscious plane. Their
spirits are dead.
4. Man is only 2/3rds whole. He still lives in a body and
possesses a mind, but the spirit is dead.
5. The spirit is the most important and vital part of
man's existence. It is in this dimension that man meets
God.
a. Paul said that the natural man understandeth
not the things of the Spirit neither can he
know them for they are spiritually discerned.
The reason he does not understand or know them
is because his spirit is dead.
b. Men who are spiritually dead have done what
they can to rob the spirit from others. They
have sought to remove God from our national
life. They would make man god.
6. With his spirit dead, man is capable of all kinds of
animal behavior. As our news media is so abundantly
proving to us.
7. Paul gives a list of things that man void of the
spirit will take pleasure in doing in Romans 1. In that
list he speaks of , fornication,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy,
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; haters of God,
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient to parents, covenant breakers, without
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Imagine the
violence and chaos in the streets when a nation has
been robbed of the spirit.
8. When Jesus said that you had to be born again to enter
the kingdom of heaven, He was speaking of the necessity
of a spiritual birth. He said, "That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit.
9. Man who lives in the dimension of the spirit is marked
by love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, self control, consideration for others,
faithfulness to his word.
10. In choosing a neighbor, which kind of a person would
you prefer? How about in choosing a mate for life?
This is why the scripture commands us not to be
unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. You have
a totally different set of values. One is pulling
hard toward the flesh, while the other is pulling
toward the spirit.
III. The parable that illustrates the difference between man's estimate
of himself, and God's estimate of him.
A. The man was rich, he had gained more than he could possibly
ever use or spend. His barns were running over, he had so much,
he had no place to store his goods.
1. He planned to pull down his barns and build bigger so
that he could store even more.
2. He thought to himself, "I have enough to last me many
years, I am going to take it easy, and just eat, drink
and be merry.
B. That was his estimate of his position, but God said, "Thou fool
this night you are going to die, and then who will possess your
goods?"
C. Jesus said, "So is the man that has laid up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God."
D. The man that lives in the plane of the flesh, who lives only to
fulfill the desires of his flesh, is dead while he is still
alive. He is living only for the now. The man who lives after
the Spirit, and seeks to walk after the Spirit, is living for
eternity.
E. The bottom line is found in verse 34, For where your treasure
is there will your heart be also. If your treasure is in
earthly things your heart will be in earthly things. If your
treasure is in heavenly things, then your heart will be in
heavenly things.
F. Where are you today? Are you walking after the flesh or after
the Spirit. Is your treasure in earthly things or in heavenly
things?
G. Each one of us must take inventory of his own life, and then
determine if I am satisfied to walk the path of death or do I
wish to walk the path of life. Will I live after my flesh, or
will I live after the spirit.
F. Many people are making the grave mistake of thinking that they
can sow to the flesh and reap of the spirit. Nature tells us
that you sow and reap in kind. If you sow to the flesh, you
will of the flesh reap corruption, but if you sow to the
spirit, then of the spirit you will reap life everlasting.
G. What is really important is not what you are saying about
yourself, but what is God saying about you?
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