The Lion's Share
Part 2: More Than Enough
Pastor Rick Henderson January 11-12, 2025
I grew up playing football. I played through high school. If I don’t look like a football player to you, I was smaller than most everyone else. But I made up for it by being slower than everyone else. I never played for a coach who cut the roster to a limited number of players. It was always, if you can survive, you’re on the team.
The first days of practice were always the same — tons of guys on the field. But after the first couple of days, hitting would begin.
And for some reason, only about half the guys came back to practice the next day. Not everyone is a fan of getting hit. Last week we kicked off a new series about money. Not everyone is a fan of a sermon series on money. It would make sense to me if some of us are thinking, “Maybe I’ll sit this one out.” The only person who ever asks for a money sermon is the church treasurer when we’re behind.
But we aren’t behind financially. So, why in the world would we dedicate an entire series to money?
When we talk about MONEY, we’re talking about our __________________.
There are all kinds of ways that we can fill in this blank. Some of us might fill in this blank with the word, WOUNDS, or INSECURITIES. Some of you know what it’s like to be left out, mistreated, ignored—treated as though we were less than because we had less than others.
Some of you know what it’s like to be mistreated or never truly seen because you had more than. Maybe you have wounds and insecurities from never really knowing if people wanted you or if they wanted stuff from you.
Some of us might have church wounds related to money. If that is part of your story, I hope that you will come back over the next two weeks because those two weeks have the potential to contribute healing to wounds you have from the way a church taught you or pressured you regarding money.
For all the ways that we could fill in this blank, there is a word that encapsulates all of it.
When we talk about MONEY, we’re talking about our HEARTS.
Believe it or not, there’s nothing that Jesus talked about more than money. Because when we’re talking about money, we’re talking about our hearts. You get to evaluate if we truly live up to a promise I made last week. We are zooming on this topic because we want for you, not from you.
In his most famous sermon ever, Jesus said this.
MATTHEW 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
This does not merely mean that our hearts follow our money. Though it can mean that. It’s also true that our money tends to follow what we’ve put our hearts on. It’s important to remember that the heart doesn’t mean the center of emotions in biblical thought. Instead, it’s the intersection of our affections, desires, and will—the core of who we are. You and I and every single person are going to invest ourselves where we think life is found. We will be entangled and attached to and chasing after where we think the stuff of life is.
This statement came in the context of investing our treasures either in this life or in heaven.
This is a view of life. In this view, you’re born; you die; that’s it. If this is all there is, it makes perfect sense to invest all of your money and stuff in getting the most out of this as you possibly can because you never know when it will run out.
This is a view of life. In this view, you’re born; you die, but that’s not it. Everyone lives forever somewhere. If this [BETWEEN DOTS] is not all there is, it makes perfect sense to invest all your money and stuff in the things of heaven—because it’s never going to run out.
Jesus is bringing us face-to-face with an urgent question. Are we living for this [LINE] or this [RAY]? If this is true, it makes perfect sense that Jesus would say something like this to us.
MATTHEW 22:37-38 “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
This life is important. And yet, this life is not all there is. He made us for eternity. We get to choose an eternity with him or an eternity without him. That’s why talking about our hearts, the core of who we are, is so important. So, this is THE question of the series.
QUESTION: What/who gets the lion’s share of you?
Any honest conversation about our hearts will eventually include our relationship with money. When it comes to our hearts and our money, it’s complicated. Money may be morally neutral, but it’s not neutral. Last week we looked at a stunningly honest prayer from a guy named Agur.
PROVERBS 30:7-9 “Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
We visualized his prayer like this.
He understood his own moral vulnerability if he lived with MORE THAN ENOUGH or LESS THAN ENOUGH. So naturally, he asked God to make sure he lived in the JUST ENOUGH zone. It’s very important that we see what is NOT in this passage.
There are no commands in this passage. There are no rules. There isn’t even any advice. There is nothing about this passage that states or even implies that we should all strive to live only on JUST ENOUGH. Instead of any of that, it’s one man getting publicly honest, in a personal prayer. If I live above this line [MORE THAN ENOUGH] I’m too morally vulnerable to handle it well. If I live below this line [LESS THAN ENOUGH] I’m too morally vulnerable to handle it well. Money may be morally neutral, but it’s not neutral.
My challenge to you was to wrestle down how much is just enough. For those who may be interested, Pastor Svea and I do a podcast called Church Is Messy. We are publicly wrestling through how we define JUST ENOUGH for our own lives. It’s possible that it may be helpful to you as you try to wrestle down how much is JUST ENOUGH.
From my soul down to my toes, I’m convinced that it is wise to wrestle this down [JUST ENOUGH]. But it’s a not a Biblical command to live on JUST ENOUGH. These are not moral lines.
For anyone who is below this line [LESS THAN ENOUGH] please take advantage of things like Financial Peace University. Take advantage of the resources and people in our church who want to help you live above this line. Wherever you’re at on this, you should take Financial Peace University.
Most of are above the LESS THAN ENOUGH line. And after you wrestle this down [JUST ENOUGH] many of us are going to realize we live above the MORE THAN ENOUGH line. I don’t want you to feel guilty about that. I do want you to feel responsible. And I want us all to be wise. And I want us all to have life that is truly life.
Will you grab a Bible and open it to Luke 12. It’s in the second major section of the Bible called the New Testament. The New Testament starts with Matthew, Mark, then Luke. What we’re going to read is Jesus’ response to someone asking him a money question. He had been teaching a lot about money, so it’s no surprise that someone would ask a money related question. How Jesus responded—that might be surprising.
LUKE 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
At that time and in that culture, the oldest brother always got the lion’s share of the inheritance. The reason was that he was now head of the family. This was a patriarchal society. As the new head of the family, his responsibility was to make sure everyone was properly cared for.
Who’s got a brother? This is the little brother. He is not a fan of how big brother is leading the family and sharing the wealth.
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; 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 will 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 with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Jesus took a very specific issue between two brothers and responded to it like it’s an everybody problem. Watch out! Be on your guard. Stay vigilant against all kinds of greed. Why?
Greed is EASY to see in others but DIFFICULT to see in ourselves.
These hurdles are on loan to me from Century High School. I’m praying that God makes their track team faster than and dominant over Mayo and John Marshall.
Are you familiar with Social Comparison Theory? It helps explain how we compare ourselves to others so as to lessen anxiety. We tend to compare ourselves morally to be people we think are less moral than us and we tend to compare ourselves financially to people who have more than us. The result is that no one ever feels guilty for what’s wrong with the world or financially responsible for making it right.
How many of you have ever rounded up your bill at the cashier so that you could give to charity? Awesome. That’s a good thing. I think it’s good to feel good about that. But does that count as being generous? It’s genius, but is it generous?
This may not be true of you, but it is true of our society—we’ve lowered the bar for what it takes to be generous and we’ve raised the bar for what it takes to be greedy. What if we have it backward?
I’ve been in pastoral ministry for more than 25 years. What I’m about to tell you is the exact same thing I hear from other pastors. People will share with me all kinds of vulnerable details about their lives. And it’s a privilege to be trusted. People share trauma. People share regrets. Sometimes people share crimes they’ve committed. No one has ever said, “Pastor, will you pray for me? I’m greedy.” No one ever admits greed. It’s other people who are greedy, right?
When the CEO for United Health Care was murdered on the streets—that was a grievous tragedy. The taking of a human life is always a tragedy. Did you notice how many people celebrated or acted as though the murder was understandable? Did you notice how many people either explicitly or implicitly said that other CEOs should be killed, too? Did you notice how casual people were with the murder of a very wealthy person?
Yes, there are grotesque and evil abuses of our economic system. The growing wealth disparity and pay gaps, and elevating profit over people all need to be addressed seriously. Here’s my point. Much our cultural response exposed that we think greed is an out-there problem. Jesus said watch out because greed is in here [HEART] problem.
[HURDLES] Maybe not you, but the collective we - as a society - might have these flipped around. We feel generous, even when we’re not. And we don’t feel greedy, even when we are. That’s why Jesus said to them and to us, “Be on guard against all kinds of greed.”
How do you define greed? Maybe this will help.
GREED:
- If I have ___________, I will be HAPPY.
However you feel in that blank, greed is binding being happy to the acquisition of whatever this is. Hang with me, because it gets worse than that.
- If I have ___________, I will be HAPPIER.
You might be happy, but you could be happier. Greed is binding being happier to acquiring whatever this is. I think you see where this is going.
- If I have ___________, I will be HAPPIEST.
Now, Jesus said all kinds of greed. How many kinds of greed are there? I don’t know. I think there are at least three.
KINDS OF GREED
We all need to know that we have value. We all need to know how to be OK, even with the ups and downs of life. And we all need fulfillment in life. Greed has a funny way of attaching itself to these three, very real needs.
There is nothing new in what I’m about to say. Very little of my job as your pastor is to give you new information. Most of what I do is to remind you of what you already know.
- Significance
Your NET worth ≠ your SELF-worth.
We know that, but we still sometimes feel a little bit better about ourselves when we’re with those who’s standard of living is lower than ours. We know that, but we still sometimes feel a little bit worse about ourselves when we’re with those who’s standard of living is higher than ours. Your NET worth ≠ your SELF-worth.
- Security
Just because you can COUNT it doesn’t mean you can COUNT on it.
Be wise. Have savings and investments. Just remember that money has a way of growing wings and flying off. We know too much to put too much trust in money and stuff. You know the story of Enron. You know the story of the 2008 crash. You know the story of COVID. And every funeral you go to is a reminder that money can do nothing to solve our greatest need.
- Satisfaction
There is a difference between enjoying ___________ and needing ___________ to have joy.
Being a fully devoted follower of Jesus doesn’t mean living a life of austerity, where we are flirting with poverty. It is a life that breaks the bond of love for things. It is a life that breaks the bond idols of the heart. And instead of that, it cultivates a bond of love with God and a bond of love with all other people.
Charlie Dates is a pastor in Chicago. This is what he says about this passage.
What Jesus is getting at is not a denial of the material needs of life. But he is saying to this young man, ‘Money can buy you a lot of stuff, but it can’t buy you what you’re after.’ If you look for the essential things of life in material acquisitions, then you will miss the very essence of life itself. –Charlie Dates
Where you do think the essence of life is found? You and I, we’re going to invest there and entangle ourselves there. Our hearts are going to follow that. What/who is getting the lion’s share of you?
Let’s look at the climax of the short story Jesus told.
LUKE 12:20-21 “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 with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Earlier Jesus said, to the guy, who made me a judge or arbiter for your dispute with your brother? Now Jesus is claiming to be judge over human hearts and eternity. What should we make of this? The guy who initially asked the inheritance question treated money as too big and Jesus as too small. And Jesus is now right-sizing it all.
You fool! What was it that made this man a fool?
It wasn’t that he ran out of time. It was that he ran into eternity unprepared. I need you to buckle up and lean in. We are at the point where it’s so easier to misunderstand the point. In this story, the man is not condemned for having a surplus. The man is not at all condemned for wealth, living above the MORE THAN ENOUGH line. He was a fool because he was only rich here [LINE], but in poverty here [RAY].
Physical WEALTH makes it easy to forget spiritual POVERTY.
I’m begging you to do the work of being a careful listener and thinker. Physical wealth does not equal spiritual poverty. If it did, we are in trouble. Because the truth is that most of us live above the MORE THAN ENOUGH line. Physical wealth makes it easy to forget spiritual poverty. It makes it easy to forget how fragile we are and how dependent we are on the God who made us in his image.
What does it mean to be rich toward God? Last Sunday my wife and I drove home in separate cars. We arrived at the same time. We both hit the button on our garage door remotes. That means one thought it was opening, when it started to close. The short version of the story is that we had to buy a new garage door this week.
In the immediate aftermath of crunching the garage door and trying to figure out what happened, this is what we did. We laughed. We hugged. We made lunch and took a nap. We are garage door poor. What do you think, are we rich towards each other?
Being rich towards God is 100% about relationship. It is 100% about finding peace and rest and happiness in him. It is normal for us to be asking ourselves, “What do I have to do to not be greedy?” And it’s normal to think that the response is to be generous. The problem is that response is dead wrong. Stay with me. Generosity is an eventual step, but it’s not the next step. The step that comes before that is discovering contentment. And if you attempt generosity before acquiring contentment, it will eat you up from the inside out the same way greed will.
If you can find it quickly, turn to Philippians 4. This is a letter that was written to church like ours, by the Apostle Paul. As we read this, remember that he wrote it from prison. Let that sink in.
PHILIPPIANS 4:4-13 Rejoice in the Lord always.
Where is he, again? PRISON.
I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Everything he just said is relational. And it’s relational vertically and horizontally. Worship—that’s vertical. Let your gentleness be evident to all—that’s horizontal. This is another way of saying, “Love God with all of who you and love people.” Then he instructs us to pray, with the promise that the peace of God will guard our hearts.
What we just read is 100% about relationship. Contentment is found in being with Jesus—finding rest, peace, and happiness in him. Spiritual formation begins with being with Jesus. We can never skip that and we can never grow beyond that.
- No amount of Bible study or Bible knowledge can replace being with Jesus.
- No amount of obedience can replace being with Jesus.
- No amount of serving can replace being with Jesus.
- No amount of generosity can replace being with Jesus.
Spiritual formation, being a devoted follower of Jesus is about being with Jesus. If you want to be on guard against greed, be with Jesus. Experience the peace that comes from being with him. Now, let’s look at what comes next.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.
We’ve got to practice the way of Jesus. It’s important to think and study. It’s important follow examples. It’s vitally important to put those things in practice. But the practicing of the way of Jesus comes out of being with Jesus. And what is the result?
And the God of peace will be with you. I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Contentment has nothing to do with what you have and everything to do with what has you. What/who has the lion’s share of you? I pray and hope that you would know Jesus.
Maybe you’ve been living like this life is all there is. This is an opportunity for you to humbly turn away from that approach and put your trust in Jesus.
Maybe you are a follower of Jesus, but you’ve drifted into living and investing like this life is all there is. This is an opportunity for you to humbly turn away from that.