Whatever It Takes – What’s My Life Really About?

If you have a Bible, open to Luke 12. We’ll be looking at the parable of the Rich Fool. And as we do that we want to build out a framework for what a life leveraged for the glory of God looks like. How do we start to move ourselves in that direction? Because God has given us everything. And we want to be like him. So what does it look like for us to give everything to him? 1 

But first, I want us to consider the life of Eric Liddell who was a world-class Scottish athlete who gained international fame for refusing to run in the 100-meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics because it was scheduled on a Sunday.

1 Works Consulted: 

“Be On Guard Against Greed” – Greear 

“The Rich Fool” – Allberry 

Luke: An Introduction – Morris 

“The Parable of the Rich Fool” – Fulginiti 

“Let’s Be Rich Toward God” – Piper 

See, Liddell was a devout Christian and he had such strong convictions about keeping the Sabbath day holy that not even an Olympic gold medal, which he was expected to win, qualified as a justifiable exception. 

Instead, he chose to run the 400-meter race; an event he wasn’t favored to win. Lots of people thought he was making a mistake. But before the race, someone handed him a note that quoted part of 1 Samuel 2:30: “Those who honor me, I will honor.” Now, the message being sent wasn’t that God owed Liddell a win, but he did go on to win and set a world record in the process. 

The point is that Liddell didn’t see a gold medal as the pinnacle of his life. In fact, instead of chasing fame, he would later leave the world of sports entirely to serve as a missionary in China. He became virtually irrelevant in the eyes of the world. 2 

And when World War II started, he was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp, where he spent his remaining years caring for the vulnerable, leading Bible studies, and offering hope to other prisoners who probably had none. Liddell would eventually die in that camp just months before it was liberated. 

Last week we started a new sermon series on stewardship called Whatever It Takes. To say that Christians are stewards means that God has called each of us to manage what he’s entrusted to us for his purposes. Things like our time, our talent, and our treasure – these are resources that don’t belong to us but have been given to us as a gift from God that he wants us to leverage to advance Christ’s kingdom. 

Today we’re focusing on our time and asking the question: What’s my life really about? Lots of people will spend their time doing whatever it takes to live a satisfying life. But have you ever considered what God would do through you if you decided to give your life back to him. If, like a blank check, you said, “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in endless praise.” 

Eric Liddell could have had a good life as a sports icon and there would have been nothing wrong with that. You don’t make it to the Olympics without some God-given ability anyway. But he chose to leverage his life to serve God in other ways because he understood real success isn’t measured by the possession of medals or by making a name for yourself. Real success comes from a life surrendered in faithfulness to the Lord. 

And so as we turn to the parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12 Jesus wants us to ask the same question – what’s my life really about? 

[v. 13] – Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be 3 

on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

Leading up to this moment, Jesus had been teaching his disciples on a variety of topics while a crowd had surrounded them. Eventually, a man in the crowd interrupts Jesus because he wants Jesus to help settle a dispute between him and his brother. Here you have a younger brother who’s upset that his older brother is withholding his share of the family inheritance and he wants some legal assistance. 

If you think about it from the man’s perspective, it makes sense. When people got around Jesus, it didn’t take long for them to acknowledge that Jesus is powerful and his teachings cut to the heart. 

So he appeals to Jesus’s authority. He calls out, Teacher. And his issue falls under the conditions of the Jewish law. So it makes sense that he would ask Jesus to do this. 

And Jesus is not unsympathetic to matters of justice. But Jesus recognizes something more pressing going on beneath the surface. The issue isn’t justice, but greed. To which the younger brother would probably say Amen. My brother is being greedy. But notice Jesus doesn’t call the man’s brother forward. Instead, v. 15 says, “he said to them…” because Jesus saw covetousness as a relevant issue for everyone present. 

And if you just thought to yourself, “Oh, we’re talking about greed now, this must be a sermon for somebody else.” Then you’re just the kind of person who needs to pay attention. 

Jesus warns them, “Be on your guard against all covetousness…” To covet means either we desire something we shouldn’t or we want something more than we should. The reason why you need to be on guard is because the sin of coveting is at the level of desire. It flows naturally for us. We feel 4 

very justified in desiring the things we desire and Jesus is saying you need to keep that in check. 

That’s what makes the problem of greed so deceptive and why Jesus says watch out. It also explains why Jesus could be prompted into this teaching by someone who isn’t materially wealthy. 

He says to be on guard against all covetousness, which means there’s more than one way to covet. That’s why our problem is not in the things we can possess but in how strongly we desire to possess them. You may have a healthy relationship with money but you desire power, you desire status, you desire security. 

If you’re wondering, how do I know if I have a coveting problem, then just ask yourself: Am I content with the way my life is right now? And if the answer is no, then what do you think you still need to be content? 

JD Greear says “Contentment is a present posture we learn to enjoy in the now, not wait to experience in the future once we’ve acquired all that we think we need.” 

Jesus reminds us that the purpose of our lives is not found in the abundance of our possessions. It’s not that we should neglect the basic necessities of life. That would be foolish. But the Christian stays steady in the highs and lows of life because they’ve been supplied with Christ and day-by-day they’re learning that he is more than enough for me. 

And so in [v. 16] Jesus goes on to tell…them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? ’18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample 5 

goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. ’”20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? ’21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” 

What’s Jesus getting at here to help us understand what life is really about? Let me offer four points from Jesus’s story that help us move toward faithfully leveraging our lives in service to God. 

1. We need to know true wisdom. 

Again, [v. 16]“ The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops? ’ 

Here you have an industrious man. He’s figured out his lot in life and he’s labored toward that end. And he’s been productive. By every practical measure he’s successful. He made good choices. Things worked out for him. And he asks a good question: What should I do with the fruit of my life’s work? 

And how many of us wouldn’t want to be in this guys ’shoes? Poor guy. His biggest problem in life is being so wealthy that he doesn’t know what to do with all of it. 

But at the end of the story God calls him a fool. Why? Surely, it can’t be because he’s wealthy. 

The Bible gives us two pathways for understanding how to live: the way of wisdom and the way of folly. We’re inclined to think the wise person is the one who’s responsible with their time and thoughtful with their resources. But things don’t go well for the foolish person because his life is the product of a series of bad choices. 6 

But the Bible tells us there’s something even more foundational than the choices we make: 

[Proverbs 9:10] – The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. 

And in [Psalm 14:1] – The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” 

In the NT, Paul says multiple times that you should pay attention to your life and walk in a manner worthy of your calling. 

[Eph. 5:15] — Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 

According to the Bible, walking wisely means building your life around the reality of who God is. It’s to give God the proper weight he deserves and to see him as essential to all that you are and do. If you look back at Eric Liddell’s life, he literally said, “God you are worth more to me than fame and gold. You are my highest prize and my greatest joy.” 

That doesn’t happen by chance. You have to cultivate that kind of love for God through regular time in the Word and prayer. We need to learn to feast on the Word of God. We need to read it. Memorize it. Pray it. Practice it. Live it. Be it. 

I once heard someone ask a guy who works out everyday how he built up that level of discipline in his life. Because, you know, if you’ve ever worked out, at some point you have to get past the internal dialogue of your body saying why do you keep hurting me? And the guy said, I began to see working out as a necessity to life. Paradigm shift. He said, I need this as much as I need water and food. I can’t live without it. I think we should view the Word that way. 7 

King David says in the Psalms, “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates [listen] day and night.” That guy’s putting in 2-a-days. 

The wise person builds his life on the Word and Jesus is the Word. You want your life to change? Learn wisdom by spending time with Jesus. And if wisdom means life with Jesus, then the foolish person lives each day like Jesus doesn’t really matter. It’s not that the foolish person has bad things to say about Jesus. They just don’t find him relevant to their life. They don’t see where he fits in. 

Being a foolish person doesn’t mean that you’re as reckless as you can be. Being a fool means that you’re godless. 

Just go back and look through this rich man’s life. Not once does he consider God. He doesn’t consult God. He doesn’t acknowledge God. He doesn’t honor God. He doesn’t thank God. His life is devoid of God. 

In [v. 19] he thought his ample goods made him secure in life. Instead, he’s become a perfect example of someone who gained the whole world, but lost his soul. He thought he had all that he needed, but he had none of God and in the end he had nothing at all. 

He needed to know true wisdom. And another way we learn to grow in wisdom is: 

2. We need to learn to number our days. 

I don’t think I know a single person who’s ever told me they spent time reflecting on the momentary nature of their life. The only time I hear people talk about the brevity of life is after someone’s died, and even then we’re 8 

really just thinking about the brevity of that person’s life. We mourn and we move on. And we live like tomorrow is promised. 

The Scriptures tell us that learning to number our days is an important part of our discipleship. Job & the Psalms tell us life is but a breath and our lifetime is like nothing in the sight of God. Isaiah 40 tells us that our lives are like the blades of grass that wither and fade. James 4 compares our life to a mist that’s here one moment and gone the next. We are a blip in the record of human history. 

[Psalm 90:12] – teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 

The point of recognizing the momentary nature of our lives isn’t to point out how insignificant we are. God says that we are of immense value to him. We’ll speak more about that in a moment. 

The point is that when we recognize how temporary our lives are, we’ll stop looking at the fullness our storehouses for security. We’ll stop measuring our lives by the acquisition of stuff and start investing in the eternal kingdom God is building now. 

Learning to number your days is a paradigm shift. It’s a call to shift your focus away from the temporary to the eternal. It’s not an encouragement to slow down and do nothing. It’s a call to leverage what little time we do have to do great things for God today. What are you waiting for? 

It’s human nature to think about our limitations as a reason for passivity. But God wants us to see the brevity of our days as opportunity to do bold things in his name. Listen, when I talk about the international nature of our church to friends in the US, I know the first thing that comes to their mind is diversity. International means people from all over the world gathering together. 9 

But I wonder if for locals, and for others who’ve been around our church for a while, when you hear international, you think transient. International in KL means that people are constantly coming and going. It’s just the nature of our city. 

For expats, maybe you think of your time here in terms of work assignment and visa status. You’re on a one year or two year contract and then it’s on to the next place. No need to lay down roots or get too involved because you’ll be gone before you know it. 

For many locals, you might have a similar mentality. Being in a place like KL is just a means to an end. Maybe you don’t prefer the city because it’s dirty. Too many people. Traffic jams. Cities are filled with all the world’s vices. You’ll come here for school; for work. But your heart’s not really here, and so you’re not that invested. You’re just looking forward to the day when you can retire and go back home. 

But I don’t think God wants us to see the limitations of our time as a reason to play it safe or wait for retirement. Instead of looking at your location as an assignment for your job, consider it an assignment from the Lord and ask, God what have you put me here to do? And how can I use the time you’ve given me to help build your church? 

The kingdom of God is something that Jesus started the day he first came on the scene. And he wants to do something today through his church to advance his cause. He’s calling more people into the kingdom and he’s calling us to enter that work with him, employing whatever time we have with whatever talents he’s given us to serve the cause of multiplying disciples in our city and world. 10 

Again, I’ve heard people express when we talk about church membership, that membership isn’t for them because they know they won’t be here long. Listen, church membership is about playing the long game with your discipleship. It’s about committing to the people of God and the mission of God for the glory of God. 

We’re not trying to hoard people as if we somehow have ownership over you. We’re trying to mobilize you for mission. We’re calling you to intentionally invest yourself in what God is doing today. Our desire is to see you catch the vision, grow in your giftings, and then let God use you, send you, and plant you into whatever place he has for you next. Your location may change and the needs around you may change, but God and his mission stay the same. And he wants you to be devoted to him. 

So, we don’t need to worry about being frugal with our time. Instead, we give ourselves away to the mission of God because we trust what he’s capable of doing with us for his kingdom purposes. 

3. We need to know what our life is worth. 

Your life doesn’t belong to you but is a precious gift from God. If you have air in your lungs, then you’ve been given the gift of life. Your life is sustained by God and one day we will all give an account to God for everything we did with the time he gave us. That’s what’s going on in v. 20. One day your life will be required of you. 

To live as if my life is my own is an affront to God and a misuse of his good gifts. That’s the folly of the rich man in the parable, and he tells us exactly what he thinks his life is about and what it’s worth. 

[v. 19] – he congratulates himself. He tells himself…“Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 11 

There’s all kinds of problems with this line of thinking: 

1. He has a false sense of time – his ample goods made him think that he had many good years ahead of him. And the reality is, we don’t know how long we have to live. We don’t know the day or the hour when our lives will be called upon. 

2. He has a false sense of purpose – he thinks his success is reason to relax and coast through life. This is what he tells himself. This is what he most believes. He tells himself, well done. You finally reached the mountain top. You’ve finished everything you wanted to do in life. It’s time to celebrate yourself. You deserve it. 

3. He has a false sense of value – Yes, he’s acquired much wealth, but he hasn’t really given much thought to his eternity. And that’s a really sad reality for a guy who’s made himself the center of his world. (Hasn’t thought about the most important things) 

Everyone in this room this morning has a soul. And Jesus is asking us to consider what our soul is worth. What is my life really about? Because the reality is, what you think your worth tends to dictate how you live and treat others. Those who think they’re life is of little value act like it. But those who understand how precious they are to God live like it. 

Jesus is saying our lives aren’t measured by what we have but by what we’re worth to God and God has made what we’re worth to him abundantly clear. The Christian claim is that God sent his only son Jesus to die on the cross for us. He lived the life we could not live and died the death we deserved to die. And through him we have life forever. That is a payment without price for a reward that is of eternal value. And he did because of the joy set before him. He did it for you. 

Remember, the whole reason why Jesus started telling this parable in the first place came in response to a younger brother asking for a fair share of his family inheritance. But here you have Jesus saying, listen brother, I’m 12 

going to give you something even greater than a third of your family’s inheritance. I’m going to share my heavenly inheritance with you. And that means you’ll have access to every spiritual blessing through me. 

And so just as I gave up my life for you, I want you to learn to give up your life for me. And the only way you do that is if you marvel at how immensely valuable you are to God. Not for what you can do for him. But in response to what he’s already died to do for you. 

And Jesus says, when you really start to understand that then you’ll start to realize that the best gifts in life are not what you can acquire for yourself but in the inheritance that God has given to you in Christ as his beloved children. 

If you jump down, later on in the chapter, in [v. 32] – Jesus goes on to tell them “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” 

The kingdom is not something we can obtain ourselves. It’s something that we receive by grace through faith. So don’t put your trust in the possessions that sit in storehouses, but let your faith be stored in God who’s a good father who’s pleased to give us everything. And that’s why: 

4. We must enjoy being rich toward God. 

This is a question I’ve been thinking about all week: What does it mean to be rich toward God? 

[v. 20] says – But God said to him, ‘Fool!…21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” 

When we get to the end of our lives, God won’t judge us based on how many assets we’ve accumulated. He’s not going to look at your bank 13 

account and say “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And if you think God will be impressed by the things you have, then you’ve probably mistaken your stewardship with ownership because everything belongs to the Lord. 

At the end of our lives, God won’t care about how much we have, but how much he has of us. That’s why Jesus wants us to be vigilant about what we desire to possess because he knows that what we possess will eventually possess us. And it is infinitely better to be rich toward God. 

Because the more we have of God the more he has of us. That’s what produces a satisfying life. For you to have much of him and for him to have much of you. 

God desires to use your life for his redemptive purposes if you’ll let him. Maybe you’ll become missionaries or pastors or evangelists. Maybe God will use you to build websites or to engage digitally in a way that brings the gospel to people otherwise hardened to the Christian faith. Maybe you’ll be on the frontlines of the refugee epidemic and serve the physical and spiritual needs of displaced people from all around the world. 

Maybe God will use you in surprisingly normal ways through your profession to open up doors for the gospel to go forth. I read this story the other day about Pat and Marian Kennedy who were medical missionaries in what later became the United Arab Emirates in the 1960s. These were professing Christians in the Muslim world who were specifically invited by the ruling Sheikh to open up a maternity hospital in response to a birthing crisis. Literally, 1 in every 2 children and 1 in every 3 mothers were dying in childbirth because of disease and the lack of modern medicine. 

The Kennedys work in that maternity hospital immediately averted the crisis, and many of the current ruling leaders in the UAE were born in that hospital. 14 

Over 60 years later, there are churches in Dubai today who can trace their ability to worship Christ freely to the medical work that took place in a clay house with a thatched roof in one of the hottest climates in the world. 

Who knows what God might call you to do with your life to bless the nations for his namesake. And you do it, because you’ve come to know the Lord and his purposes. You’ve come to love him and want your life to be a declaration to the world of his great worth. 

See, Jesus owed us nothing yet gave us everything. So don’t be afraid to give your life away to God because God’s already rewarded you with everything in Christ. And we know that nothing done in Jesus’s name is ever wasted.