Title: fool
He said to them, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; rest, eat, drink, and be merry." But God said, "You fool, this night your soul will be required of you, and whose will you have prepared?" Such is the one who has stored up and is not rich toward God.>
Last week, one of the country's biggest conglomerates passed away.
Many condolences lined up, and condolences from all walks of life were spectacular, along with the fame of his survival. In this way, he too had to follow the public road of all his life. In other words, it is buried in the ground.
This is the road to life.
Coming empty-handed and going empty-handed! This is life.
When a person dies, then an evaluation is made about it.
Some universities have already said that they will teach him.
How he lived his life would be that people would like to learn it.
Everyone has come this way once in life, and it is a fixed thing to go once, but after you go, you will be judged in two ways.
How useful have you been? Or how foolish have you been?
These two will be evaluated.
1. Then, what kind of person did the Bible call foolish?
Today's passage is often referred to as the parable of This is the reason why the Lord told this parable.
A man asked his brother to give him the inheritance of his parents that would return him. In response to this request, our Lord said:
“Man, who made me your judge or divider?”
“Beware of covetousness,” he said. And he told this parable.
The content of the parable is this.
A rich man in a certain place had an abundance of crops and had no place to store his harvest, so he thought that he would build a larger storehouse and store it there. Then I thought to myself, 'My soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Let's rest, eat, drink, and be merry.'
To him, who was thinking like this, God said to him, "You fool! Tonight your soul will be taken back, and whose will you have prepared?" And he said, "Lay up wealth for yourself, and be rich toward God. Such is the one who did not succeed.”
In other words, he said that this is the life of a person who accumulates wealth, thinks only of his own pleasure, and does not think about God at all.
There is a quote from John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism.
'Make money hard. And there is a saying, 'Use that money for the Lord'. This is not to say that making money itself is bad or stupid.
This means that you will be evaluated according to how you spend the money you earned.
Wealth is something everyone needs, but it has strange qualities.
2. In other words, there is no satisfaction or gratitude in the wealth you have accumulated for yourself.
The lust for wealth is endless. Because the more you pile it up, the more greed you get.
Now that I have earned this much, no one is satisfied with it. This is the characteristic of wealth. Not only that, but people, through their own efforts,
It is easy to be mistaken for being wealthy. But that's not really the case. If everything can be done with effort and ability, who will not make money? But people don't think so. This is also a characteristic of wealth. The abundance of produce cannot be achieved through one's own efforts alone.
Even in the case of farming, there must be a balance between weather and temperature in addition to wind and rain. It is absolutely impossible with human effort alone.
Look at the farmers who were doing special crops in the heavy snow this time.
The world is now in unrest due to abnormal temperatures, earthquakes, fires, floods, foot-and-mouth disease, and mad cow disease. These days, meat restaurants are called Ulsang. The whole world is buzzing with the fear of mad cow disease. So it is said that the fish house is in full swing.
Who could have predicted that? Nevertheless, this person in today's text misunderstood that he had obtained it through his own efforts and abilities. So I didn't know how to thank you. The same goes for business and trade.
They all made money because there were people who sold their own. There is no single fire general in the world.
Then how important it is to live with gratitude!
Gratitude for human beings is the best good deed.
If you accumulate wealth for yourself, you will not have this satisfaction and gratitude.
3. He also said that he was foolish because he had accumulated wealth for himself.
In an old article, it was said that money clouded the mind of a scholar.
That's why gold (黃金) is called the heart of black death (黑士心). Wealth has the power to hold people's hearts like this.
So I want to stack it up.
Why did the rich become rich?
Because most of them didn't eat and didn't use them and just put them together. Thrift and frugality are virtues.
But not stingy.
It is easy to become stingy if you build up for yourself.
God's Word today also says, 'So is the man who lays up wealth for himself and is not rich toward God.' The standard translation says, 'A man like this is a man who is stingy toward God.' In other words, he is the only one who knows himself. Wealth is necessary, but it is said that it is foolish to store it up only for one's own sake. A wise person is someone who knows how to use their wealth wisely.
We are now meditating on the love of the Lord in Lent.
We all have wealth, to some degree or another.
It is not just material wealth.
, , , everything is wealth.
I need to reflect on what wealth I have accumulated just for myself.
Dear saints!
We should not lay up wealth for ourselves, but become people who can use it for the kingdom of God.
God is looking for such a person now.
Human greed has no limits. How much bigger are you planning to build?
Looking at our country today, it would not be an exaggeration to say that everyone, like this foolish rich man, is experiencing such economic hardship while trying to build a bigger warehouse.
When they had earned money, they only wanted to store it up, not to use it for the kingdom of God or his righteousness. So I was just trying to earn more out of greed, and this happened.
I've heard someone say this. He said that half of Korea's money is traded in Seoul, and more than half of all trades in Seoul are done by Christians. It must be said that it is moving in the hands of Christians who believe in Jesus. You can do it just by looking at it. God gives wisdom, health, and material things to those who fear him. But with the substance, he tests how to use it. Israel's history proves this. However, looking at our situation today, I think this result came about because we could not use our money and power right away for the kingdom of God, but only to build a bigger warehouse for ourselves.
As early as German sociologist and economist Max Weber (1864-1920), 'How did European society form such capital and welfare state?' Just as it was said that it was because in the hearts of Christians, the owner of wealth was God, we need such a thought in the hearts of Christians in Korea today. Even if you make money, you have to think that it is not mine. The idea is that the owner is God. I mean, I'm the salary boss who manages his stuff.
In that sense, I think it is time for us to establish the Christian life ethic for us today. When this sense of stewardship is right there, it is natural to be honest, industrious, frugal, and thrifty.
It was from the awareness that wealth was not mine, how all European countries accumulated capital and became welfare states. So, we created a system that can evenly provide benefits to the poor and those in need. These are various social insurance and livelihood security systems. So people who made money
This should be socially respected.
But what about our society today? Why do you turn your attention to the chaebols? Because everyone was just trying to increase the bigger warehouse just for themselves. And in a dishonest way.
Indeed it is. Money is not mine. Why is money called money? Because money goes round and round without an owner. Money always changes owners from one wallet to another. Money is money that stays for a while and goes back and forth. But people try to pile up their money in front of them.
We believers may reveal more money.
If you accumulate wealth for your own sake, you become foolish. There is a western proverb saying that if you want to ruin your child, you must pass on wealth.
It means that if you do not pass on faith along with wealth, your children will perish.
Look at these unbelieving chaebols
If faith is not inherited and only wealth is passed on, it will not be long before it is all over.
This is true in any country.
You have to earn money because you need it.
But if you build it up for yourself, you become foolish.
So God's people made it mandatory for the Israelites to pay tithes. What is the spirit of tithing? It's the spirit that makes me throw away the thought that I've earned with my own hands. The spirit of tithing is to write while remembering God. But whenever that spirit was damaged, God punished Israel.
I used to do (懲治). However, when they did not listen, their wealth was taken away by the enemy and burned. This is the repeated lesson of the history of the nation of Israel.
The Middle Ages was a time when the church was in control of all real powers in the world.
Among the Popes of Rome (who served 1243-1254), it seems that he was very fond of gold and silver jewelry. One day, while admiring the gold and silver tableware, he said to the famous scholar of the day (1224-1274):
'Don't you think that the era of saying, 'I don't have gold and silver,' is over now?'
Aquinas answered.
'Gone are the days when we could say, 'Walk in the name of Jesus Christ at the same time'
This conversation was quoting the words of Peter from the book of Acts when he raised him crippled from birth.
The words of Thomas Aquinas were advice to the Pope, who loved gold.
This means that miracles will disappear as long as the material is piled up.
It seems that our reality today has become that way.
As Christians, our obsession with wealth is stronger than ever, saying, “As the saying goes, “The era of telling us to walk in the name of Jesus has passed, it is an era where we cannot experience religious adventures and miracles.”
Today's Christians have silver and gold, but the power of Jesus is gone.
Maybe this is our self-portrait today, I don't know.
Maybe this is what the Korean church looks like today.
We are now in the season of Lent.
The Lord gave everything for me, what can I give now?
If you have accumulated wealth for yourself, you must now open your eyes to God.
Rather than thinking about building a bigger warehouse, we should have a heart that can be shared with those in need. There God will work with my wealth. ♣