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Sermon
Richard Patt
The key verse of the parable Jesus tells here has a way of sending a chill down the spine. In that verse God exclaims, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you ..." (v. 20). Hearing that dramatic warning, maybe you have surmised, "Will I ever get caught in a situation where those stern words are addressed to me?" Generally we tend to feel we have our lives on the right track. We try to keep ...
2. Rich Toward God
Luke 12:13-21
Sermon
John G. Lynn
The southern California cities of San Diego and Los Angeles are well known for their misty mornings. Each day in Los Angeles, in the Beverly Hills section, the sky is thick with fog. "Don't worry," the natives will tell you, "it will burn off by noon." And sure enough it does. Every morning it is the same thing ... thick, cold fog until 11 or 12:00. Then sunshine for the rest of the day. In Annapo...
3. Sharing Shalom
Luke 12:13-21
Sermon
W. Robert McClelland
The Bible has a great deal to say about wealth and the people who own it. This parable of Jesus for example: The usual interpretation speaks of it as a teaching concerning the folly of a life devoted to the accumulation of wealth. It is ridiculous to seek security through riches. The foolishness becomes obvious, so the interpretation goes, when suddenly one night the man dies and must stand before...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Who would have thought that a public television show about the junk, or, excuse me, family heirlooms cluttering up everyone's closets, attics, and basements would turn into one of the hottest TV shows going? What's the name of it? Anyone? It's my favorite TV show. That's right: Antiques Roadshow. Antiques Roadshow is now a classic treasure itself, having been public televisions' biggest audience g...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
I officiated at a funeral recently of a man who died of a heart attack two weeks after he declared bankruptcy. With his beautiful wife, five kids, and many grandchildren circling the grave, this is how I began the eulogy: One of the wealthiest men in the world died on [....] His name was . . . . He made his wealth in real estate. The real real estate of life. You say: how cruel can you be? In fr...
6. Who's the Fool?
Luke 12:13-21
Sermon
George Reed
This parable is often referred to as the parable of the rich fool and has been used to make any number of homiletical points. Some of them have even been relevant to the story! I have heard many a sermon preached on the “eat, drink, and make merry” portion of the scripture. We were warned about the dangers of having a good time. This was taken as a warning against what used to be called a “liberti...
Sermon
King Duncan
Bishop William Willimon was chaplain for many years at Duke University. He is a well-known writer and speaker. He says wise things in a witty way. Once Willimon and his wife had a group of students over to their home after a chapel service. They had a picnic, then some of the students lingered to play basketball or to talk. Willimon sat on the patio with one student who said, “Dr. Willimon, thank...
Sermon
King Duncan
A sixth-grade teacher posed the following problem to one of her arithmetic classes: “A wealthy man dies and leaves ten million dollars. One-fifth is to go to his wife, one-fifth is to go to his son, one-sixth to his nephew, and the rest to charity. Now, what does each get?” After a very long silence in the classroom, one little fellow raised his hand. With complete sincerity in his voice, he answ...
Sermon
King Duncan
I want to give you a quiz. There was a famous line from a movie more than twenty years ago. The line goes like this, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Do you remember that line? It’s from a popular 1980s film titled, Wall Street. The story revolves around an ambitious young stockbroker, played by Charlie Sheen, and his ruthless, greedy mentor, played by Michael Douglas. Douglas’ charac...
Sermon
Note, first, that God did not say this man was evil. God said he was a fool. Note, secondly, that most of us would not say he was a fool. We’d say he was an obviously successful businessman. We esteem abundance. Jesus said, "A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." We act as though a man’s life does consist in the abundance of his possessions. We have a saying, "If you’...
11. Real Security
Luke 12:13-21
Sermon
One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?" And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to hi...
Sermon
King Duncan
Motivational speaker Danny Cox tells an interesting story in his book, Seize the Day. Danny and his wife took a hot air balloon trip early one morning in Africa. As the balloon rose gracefully, they saw a herd of wildebeest running frantically across the vast expanse below. The herd stopped suddenly and began looking around as if they were confused. Danny asked their pilot why the herd had stopped...
Sermon
King Duncan
A 6th grade teacher posed the following problem to her arithmetic classes: "A wealthy man dies and leaves ten million dollars. One-fifth is to go to his wife, one-fifth is to go to his son, one-sixth to his butler, and the rest to charity. Now, what does each get?" After a very long silence in the classroom, little Joey raised his hand. The teacher called on Joey for his answer. With complete sin...
Sermon
King Duncan
Permit me to do a little prying. It's for your own benefit. How many of you have made a will? You don't have to raise your hands, but it could be an important question for many of us. Many family squabbles have erupted over the lack of a wellthought out will. There is a book titled THE 400WORD WILL. It contains some interesting wills from Japan. Listen to a few of these. I quote: "After you finis...
Sermon
King Duncan
We live in a crazy country. The Associated Press carried a story recently about a woman who tried to hold up a bank. Her weapon? A device that she said controlled a bomb in her car. Brandishing her innovative weapon, the woman demanded money from 3 tellers at a branch bank in Bowling Green, Ohio. Suddenly the tellers realized that the device she was waving in their faces was not a remote control f...
16. You Fool!
Luke 12:13-21
Sermon
Ron Lavin
The incident stirring up this text is the request of someone in the crowd who asked Jesus to judge between on older brother and himself regarding an inheritance. The real problem isn't the request which Jesus refused, but the greed lying beneath the surface of the request which Jesus addressed with a parable about a rich fool who went to hell. In Jesus' day, the oldest brother got the inheritance...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
We are called to lay up treasures in heaven, not possessions on earth. Not too long ago, small was "in." The trendy catch phrase touted "small is beautiful." Advocates of a conscientious style of eating called for a "diet for a small planet." We read bumper stickers that urged us to "think globally" but to "act locally." There is now a new housing trend that flies in the face of all attempts to ...
Sermon
James Merritt
We are all familiar with the television show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Well USA Today recently said the answer is: "Everybody." In an article entitled, "Everyone wants a shot at being a millionaire," I found out that we are a country drowning in millionaires.[1] The estimate is there are now close to 15 million Americans with assets of $1 million or more[2]; while just ten years ago there w...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
Have you noticed how almost everything you buy these days has a warning label on it? Welcome to the world of protection from litigation. Some of the wackiest ones include: A bottle of sleeping pills with the warning: “Caution, may cause drowsiness” A fishing lure with the warning: “Harmful if swallowed” Washing machine with the instructions: “Don’t put people inside.” It causes me to start thinki...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
It is a familiar scene in courtrooms, families arguing over an estate. It is an especially ugly scene when dividing the inheritance divides the family. That is the scene that opens our text for this morning, the gospel lesson from Luke. A man came up to Jesus, and said, "Make my brother divide the inheritance with me." The request was crass and boorish, but probably not uncommon, for Jesus was kn...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
A fool and his money. Are soon parted, right? Someone has rewritten it to suggest that "A fool and his money are some party!" OK. Some of us are old enough to remember Adlai Stevenson, Governor of Illinois, UN Ambassador, two-time Democratic candidate for President, and rare wit. Stevenson once said, "There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody."(1)...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
A religious coalition led by Rev. Jim Ball launched a media campaign three months ago asking Americans “What Would Jesus Drive?” The advertisement, designed to discourage religious people from driving SUV’s, pickups, minivans and other gas guzzling vehicles, quickly captured the attention of Americans. The three major auto makers publicly stated that they already made fifty models of fuel efficie...
Sermon
James Merritt
If I had announced ahead of time that today I wanted to give a message only to people who were rich you realize that this room would be mostly, if not totally, empty. Most of you, if not all of you, wouldn’t show up for two reasons. First of all, most of you do not think of yourselves as being rich. If you heard that announcement, your first response would be, “We aren’t rich so we will sleep in.”...
Sermon
King Duncan
A woman who lost her husband several years ago developed a friendship with a man who had also lost his spouse. They seemed a perfect match. All their children agreed they should get married. So a date was set and invitations were sent out. The invitations read like this: “Phil, Richard, Karen, Allison, John, Matt and Steve request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their mother and fath...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Somewhere along the way I saw a cartoon of an elderly man of obvious wealth on a canopied death bed, surrounded by servants, family members, lawyers, and all sorts of “hangers-on”. It was quite clear why most of the people had gathered there, but now the old gentleman is sitting up with his arms folded and a very determined look on his face. One bystander says to another, “Someone just told him he...
Showing 1 to 25 of 42 results