Sermon in Outlook 05.08.2007

Let's go ahead in prayer and thanksgiving. Dear Heavenly Father, you have once again given us of your grace and mercy that we can be and dare to be called the children of God today. May, having received this greatest blessing of all, the blessing of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name and precious Atonement Blood, and having believed that our sins are all forgiven, we have been able to travel with you, dear Father, in your kingdom of grace upon this earth, guided by your third person, the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.

Give us the of your word today, dear Father. Give that which you know is necessary for each and every one of us, so that we can be comforted, uplifted, chastised, and carried as your grace child of God. We ask this in your Son's name, our Lord and Savior Jesus. And we trust that you will be with us till the very end like you have promised.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Certainly with many mixed feelings that we are, I am here today, here in this pulpit before you, dear brothers and sisters. I haven't been away with my dear wife for over two months. And I'm missing you that are here. There were many there in Finland that wanted to be remembered by you brothers and sisters here, who sent their greetings, many, many greetings. Greetings of which I don't remember, namely except but a very few.

It goes without saying that we had a wonderful two months there on our travels. But I also say that when that two months was up, it was good to come home. It is good to be at home. In this connection, I think of a child of God and a corrupt child of God. It is easy to act pleasant and jovial even and happy when you're on vacation away from home. And people, your friends, your brothers and sisters, they see you as that. But at home, when we see each other and you see me in that corruption that I carry, the mistakes that I make, but you still carry me with a forgiving heart. This is what true friendship is all about. This is that friendship that flows forth from the spirit of the Heavenly Father and joins us together in one hope, one spirit, one faith, one baptism. And we want to stay in this with God's help until sight has changed to seeing.

I will read from the Gospel of St. Luke. Reading from the 13th verse to the 21st. This place in Scripture came to my thoughts sometime last week when there was a discussion with some brother, I guess it was brother or brothers, about envy, jealousy, that wants to many times rule our life or govern our thoughts at any rate when we make journey as a child of God.

Even if it was always difficult, we feel trepidations about coming here for fear of corrupting God's word and that our thoughts would come from our head rather than from the spirit. But still we want to be obedient. And I will say this, that after having to speak some sermons in Finland in a Finnish language, it just seems so much easier to speak a language that I know and you know and understand.

But in this place in Scripture, we read that one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a deliverer over you? And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

And he spoke a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid aside, laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So it is that he layeth up treasures for himself and is not rich towards God. Amen.

I don't remember when I've taken this text before, but it's a familiar text to me. I believe I took it at the soviet services in Finland back in '82. It seems like it's suitable for our area when we think of it from a farming, grain growing standpoint, and likely, it was suitable in the country that Jesus spoke this parable to this one person that came to him.

Jesus always used everyday experiences in his parables so he could show to them where God's kingdom is and the wisdom that is within God's kingdom. Those all who are sanctified by the Holy Spirit are part of this wisdom which is not from us, but it is from God.

And we read how this one man came to Jesus calling him master, giving him the proper respect and address, and made a request of Jesus. Speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. Scripture doesn't record anything more concerning that inheritance. But so much is there written here and been recorded that there was a problem between, obviously a problem between two brothers who obviously their parents had died and, according to this one, he was not left as much of that inheritance as the other.

Jesus, we could even, you know, we could conjecture, it's not necessary, but we could even assume or conjecture that that brother was justified in that. We don't know what the circumstances are, nor do we need to know, because it's not recorded for us. But Jesus made a straightforward answer to that man. Jesus sees your heart, he sees my heart, he saw that man's heart. He said, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? Jesus could not and would not help that man. Jesus did not come to settle earthly disputes, disputes that arose from greed and envy, but he came to forgive those that have fallen into greed, those that have fallen into envying one another. He came here to give, to preach the gospel of the forgiveness of sins to all sinners.

This man didn't show any consideration for his soul. Jesus could see that. Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? That's all Jesus answered him. But he began to speak that in a parable to all those that were there like there always was people around Jesus. He said, and he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Covetousness, envying somebody else or wanting something that somebody else has, and carrying probably a hardness towards a brother or a sister, or maybe even a group of people. This comes from the heart of greed. And we remember that this was put in here, not as a historical fact, but Jesus knows our make, and he knows that we are but dust, and he wants to teach us in these very fundamentals of caring faith and a good conscience.

And he said, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits.

And he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

This man thought, we can see plainly that he thought strictly along circular lines, and how he could amass more and more to himself. Is there anyone in our audience today that can say that they haven't fallen in these matters also?

If somebody as a farmer, looking as a farmer, if somebody has a nice array of bins that are nice to work with and nice to put grain into, I wonder if a farmer that isn't that blessed or that fortunate wouldn't have a little bit of envy that, oh, if I had been like that.

Is there anyone in here, in this church today, if one of our brothers or sisters would buy a new car? Granted, we feel happy for them. There's no question about that. We do feel happy to see our friend have a new car. But again, if it's a little newer and a little nicer than ours, do we sometimes experience that? Hmm. I wish my car were just a little bit nicer.

These are exactly what Jesus is talking about. It extends to houses, it extends to dishes, it extends to food, it extends to gardens, it extends to yards. We each, God has given us the ability and the brains and the wherewithal to make in the greatest portion our yards and the places that we live in neat and tidy.

But it is good that we would ask from the Heavenly Father that He would let us be, allow us to be satisfied with what we have and not to strive to be better than we are or better than someone else.

The Apostle Paul says that the love of money is the root of all evil, whereby many, which many have coveted after, and have been wounded by many sorrows and thorns. However, he's not in those words, but in this thought. And I think he even mentions as a result that we have become shipwrecked in faith.

And he also says that we came into this world with nothing. And we're going to leave this world with nothing. Having food and raiment, let us be satisfied therewith.

In this time of abundance that the world has never known before. And they said it's from in Finland, and dear friends of ours from many years ago. And he said it's the same thing in Finland. Back in the late 80s, they had tremendous upsurging economic situation in Finland.

But this one gentleman at least, and another one as well told me that times have never been as good and profitable in Finland as they are now. I think there's a special place for watching for a child of God under these circumstances. We forget to remember where this food, where everything comes from. Does it not come from the hand of the Heavenly Father?

This man didn't consider that what he was building and working towards came from the hand of the Heavenly Father. He just thought he's going to tear down those barns, those grainers that he had from before and build brand new ones. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

I'm sure that each and every one of us as we approach and come into adulthood, we think of retirement, think of the workload getting a little less, and because of the society that we live in, we are blessed with this kind of future and opportunities.

But remember, dear brothers and sisters, and I speak to myself, first of all, that these aren't the most important things or the most important goals that we have. Even there's nothing wrong with them. God blesses our endeavors and our plans as long as they're in the right perspective.

And that right perspective always has been and always will be that our sights are towards heaven and eternal life. That's what the former saints have waited for. And this is what we wait for too in the Spirit.

Even how good things go for us in the world, and many times we tend to forget that most important thing of all. But I'm sure you brothers and sisters like me in moments of reflection heaven. Maybe once a day, sometimes many times a day. We remember that there is a home waiting for us in heaven.

And this is why Jesus likes, in this parable, reminds us that what is more important. He said that after this man had all this storage and he had it made in the shade for who knows how long. It says, But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided?

First of all, those temporal possessions were going to leave behind. Just, that's it. That was the end of the road as far as his ownership of those temporal possessions. But much more important is this, so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.

That man's life ended that night. He did not any longer, when death closed his eyes, did not any longer have the hope of eternal life in heaven.

This is why God, through his servants, through his word, reminds all those that are in the hearing of God's word, that we would take, keep close attention to this.

I was at soviet services for many days. There was a man, a foreigner, foreigner, I mean a different color. He was of a different race, and he was sitting beside a Finnish woman, and it's always interesting when I travel out there to visit with those people that are a color other than ours, to find out where they're from and what they do.

He was sitting there at the front benches of a tent there amongst 80,000, 60,000 people, and I went up to him and I shook his hand and I asked him if he was in faith, and he said he was, but his wife, he spoke English, but his wife, or not the wife or girl, I don't know, friend, whoever that other woman was, turned to me and said in sin that he wasn't in faith.

And I told him, with these words, the fact is Howard Parks was starting his sermon just at that moment. And so I told that young man that you have an English-speaking sermon now before you. I said, listen close to that sermon.

I said, in that sermon you'll find where God's kingdom is and how a penitent sinner can come into fellowship with God and his children upon this earth. That precious gospel of forgiveness of sins that we own in God's kingdom.

I never saw him afterwards, but hopefully there was that seed planted there. And so it goes with people that do want to make repentance and come into this kingdom of grace upon this earth.

If there was even one here in these services today that doesn't know this goodness and grace and mercy of God to our Son, to his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, Jesus, you can personally believe that your sins are forgiven, the greatest of which is unbelief.

Believe them forgiven in Jesus' name and precious atonement blood. And you, dear brothers and sisters, just as you find yourself, just as you believe, feel yourself, you cannot lift your hearts to believe that your sins are all forgiven in Jesus' name and precious atonement blood.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.