Sermon Outline Feb 11, 2007
Title: Being Rich with God
Text: Luke 12:13-21; Romans 8:29
Telling: Outline
1. Introduction – God’s two great purposes with mankind. His
general plan for all, (salvation 1 Tim 2:4) and His personal
plan for each (sanctification Romans 8:29, 1 Thes 5:23 ).
Unsaved, Carnal Christians, Spiritual Christians. Going home!
2. Parable of the Rich Fool!
+ The circumstances of Jesus telling this Parable
+ Jesus’ mission was spiritual, not legal, political, or civil.
+ The Parable summarized! Relates to OT reading (Ecc. 5:15)
and Epistle reading (Eph. 1:3).
+ Sanctification = Are you Rich with God?
+ Nothing wrong with wealth, security, savings! But!!!
The Riches of the Christian’s Life:
1. The Meaning of being Rich with God
-Growing: not standing still or backwards
-Growing in child-likeness with the Father
- -Growing in likeness to Jesus
-Growing in being led by the Spirit
2. The Means of being Rich with God
-Private: Prayer, Scripture, Confession of sin
-Public: Worship together, Lord’s Supper, Fellowship
3. The Marks of being Rich with God
-More aware of sin, evil, devil
-Increased love of Jesus and the Father
-Increased interest in spiritual things
-Increased love and kindness to others
Are you growing as a Child of God?
Closing Prayer: prayer for spiritual growth
Father God, I pray for spiritual growth. Enable
me to develop a child-like spirit; a likeness to
Jesus; and a willingness to be led by Your
Spirit. In the Name of Jesus, and the power of
Holy Spirit. Amen!
OT: Psalm 42
Epistle: Eph 1:3-11 All praise to God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly realms because we are united to Christ. 4 Even
before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to
be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to
adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through
Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great
pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured
out on us who belong to his dear Son.[a] 7 He is so rich in kindness
and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son
and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along
with all wisdom and understanding. 9 God has now revealed to us
his mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill his own good
pleasure. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring
everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in
heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with
Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[b] for he chose
us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his
plan.
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
13 Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my
brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” 14 Jesus replied,
“Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as
that?” 15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of
greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” 16 Then he
told them a story: “A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine
crops. 17 He said to himself, ‘What should I do? I don’t have room
for all my crops.’ 18 Then he said, ‘I know! I’ll tear down my barns
and build bigger ones. Then I’ll have room enough to store all my
wheat and other goods. 19 And I’ll sit back and say to myself, “My
friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take
it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You
fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you
worked for?’ 21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth
but not have a rich relationship with God.”
 A had a lot of unusual experiences lately. I was
hitchhiking the other day, and a hearse stopped. I said,
"No thanks-I'm not going that far." /Then I came
across a 5 year old, and I asked him, “what does the
word "benign" mean? ”He said: Benign is what you will
be after you be eight.”/ Last week, I went to a furniture
store to look for a decaffeinated coffee table. They
didn’t have any./ I bought a house on a one-way dead-
end road. Now I don't know how to get out./ I got a
flat tire, so I pulled my car into a gas station. The
attendant walked out, looks at my car, looks at me, and
he said, "Tire go flat?" I couldn't resist. I said, "Nope. I
was driving around and those other three just swelled
up on me.”
Here are some hastily written,
grammatically different or misspelled, excuses
by parents to explain why their children missed
school or needed to be excused from Phys Ed:
Mary could not come to school yesterday because she
was bothered by very close veins.
Ralph was absent yesterday because of a sore trout.
George was absent yesterday because he had a
stomach.
My son is under a doctor's care and should not take
phys ed. Please execute him.
Please excuse Ray from school yesterday. He had
very loose Vowels.
Please excuse Joyce from P.E. for a few days.
Yesterday she fell out of a tree and misplaced a hip.
Please excuse Sarah for being absent. She had to go
to the doctor to have her shot.
Our Father God doesn’t ask for explanations, and
we don’t have to make excuses to Him. He already
knows all things. He knows what we have need of, and
He knows what we’re dealing with in our life.
He told us through His Son Jesus that if we make
His kingdom our first priority, he will take care of
everything else.
He just wants us to fulfill the purpose for which
He created us.
He had two great purposes and plans for all
mankind when He created our first parents.
Salvation and Sanctification.
Last week I spoke about the first great purpose of
God: that all men might be saved and come to
the knowledge of the truth.
That’s God’s general, universal plan for us; that
all mankind be saved. Being saved or being born anew
is a spiritual awakening that every one of us needs
to experience in order to have a real relationship with
God. Christ said that unless we have that spiritual
awakening we cannot enter the kingdom of God.
The Father sent us His own Son to provide that
awakening, to restore that relationship and reconcile
us to Himself.
I called last week’s message: “Being Right with
God.”.
Today’s message is called, “Being Rich with
God.’
 Once a person has awakened to the fact the he or
she is a child of God, then God begins to put His
personal plan for that person into operation. He
begins the process of sanctification. The Holy Spirit
who dwells in the heart of a saved person begins to
work to make that person more like God; more like
Christ.
Romans 8:29 says, For those God foreknew
he also predestined to be conformed to the
likeness of his Son.
So God’s personal plan for my life and your life is
to not only save us by waking us up to to the fact that
we are His children, but to sanctify us; to draw us
closer to Himself.
____________________________________
The Bible divides all people into three categories:
The Unsaved, The Baby Christians, and The
Spiritual Christians.
Many people are Unsaved! They have never
come to know, believe and receive Jesus Christ. Even
some who call themselves Christians are unsaved;
because they never personally received Christ as their
Savior
Then there are some Christians are saved but
remain Babies in the faith. They don;t grow up! They
don’t allow the Holy Spirit to work in them, and
conform them to the image of Christ. They remain
Baby Christians all their lives. They are not
sanctified.
The third group, the Spiritual Christian,
allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, making
them into mature Christians.
They are becoming more godly, more like the
image of who God originally intended for us.
You see, we need to be saved to go to heaven.
But we also need to be sanctified in order to be fit
for heaven.
Listen, the Holy Spirit is preparing each of us for
our return Home. Heaven is our real and final Home.
We originated from heaven when God first
imagined (or imaged) us, even before we were
conceived and born. And the Father desires that we
will come Home at the end of this life. That we come
home dressed in robes of white.
John the Evangelist, who was given visions of the
end of the world, says this:
“After this I looked up and there
before me was a great multitude that no
one could count, from every nation, tribe,
people and language, standing before the
throne and in front of the Lamb. They were
wearing white robes and were holding
palm branches in their hands. And they
cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."
And one of the elders asked me,
"These in white robes—who are they, and
where did they come from?" I answered,
"Sir, you know."
And he said, "Yes, these are they who
have come out of the great tribulation;
they have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb.
God is always working in people’s lives to wake them
and to work in them his holiness.
_______________________________
Let me tell you a story about one such man, a
lukewarm Christian, who God is getting ready for
heaven. He had a very unusual encounter with…
Well, let me just tell you some of the story.
Here’s part ONE:
Andy Peterson,is a 24 year old park ranger at
Roxborough State Park, in Colorado. He loves the out
of doors so much that even on some of his days off
he would climb the 3 and a half mile trail up to the
7,000 foot summit of Carpenter’s Peak. It’s one
secluded trail up, one trail down. No shortcuts. No
bypasses.
This particular day in April he had clear and
warm weather with a beautiful view of the
surrounding mountains. In his own words he said,
“I reached the summit where there was a
panoramic view of the towering Rockies. I scaled the
highest rock and circled around it, a chill running
through me as I stopped and gazed on the
magnificent horizon in every direction. After a brief
rest, I removed my shirt, tying it around my waist.
Then I started back down the trail.
As I started to go down the trail, I saw
something that stopped me cold. There, lying under
a pine tree to the left of the trail was a large
mountain lion lazily chewing on a small stick.
He was blocking the trail and not moving a bit,
just looking at me. My legs shook uncontrollably as I
eased backwards, back up the trail as quiet as
possible. Instinctively I reached for my knife, which I
always carried with me. I knew I had to get past this
wild animal in order to get off this mountain.
As my brain raced with thoughts and ideas of
what to do, my body prepared for war. I looked down
at the knife in my hand. The two-inch blade looked
too small and inadequate to really be a defense
against the lion. When I looked up again, he was
gone! My eyes strained through the brush to my
right, looking for a glimpse. There he was! He had
moved closer. He was slowly coming toward me. His
piercing gaze seemed to stare right through me.
In the blink of an eye, the cat’s 200 pound
frame was directly in front of me, its head rising
above my waist. Its eyes again locked on me in a
rigid stare. It seemed to be sizing me up before the
attack. At 130 pounds, I’m positive I looked like an
easy meal. Just then the lion let out a wicked, deep
growl, revealing four immense teeth that were three
or four inches long.
The lion leapt before I could react, paws
extended. It slammed into my chest causing us to
tumble down the trail, ending up side by side in a
rolled up mass of fur, claws and blood. My blood!
_____________________________________
Hold on now, there’s more to the story!
But let me ask this! If Andy Peterson was
going to be killed by that mountain lion that day, was
he ready for heaven? Did he have a personal
relationship with God? Was he becoming Rich with
God, as Jesus asks in today’s gospel?
 Today’s gospel story is a parable which Jesus tells
about ordering our lives so that we are prepared to go
Home to heaven. And He concludes the story by saying
about the foolish man who had so much material
treasure, and so little spiritual treasure. Jesus says,
“How foolish is he that lays up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The man had said to himself, "You have plenty
of good things laid up for many years. Take life
easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You foolish man! This
very night your life will be demanded from
you. This will be your last night on earth.
And Jesus concludes with those words "This
is how it will be with anyone who stores
up things for himself but is not rich
toward God."
RICH TOWARD GOD!
The question which today’s readings ask you is this:
ARE YOU RICH TOWARD GOD?
Are you and I spiritually rich, whether we’re
materially rich or not? Are we rich in the things of God;
the things that are permanent and eternal? Not the
things which are passing and temporal.
Are we rich in a love for God and others?
Are we rich with the Word of God, the Bible?
Are we rich with moments of speaking to God in
prayer?
Are we rich with being honest about our sins and
confessing them to God?
Are we rich with speaking the Names of Jesus
and Father with reverence and praise?
And you know what? It’s only the things that
make us rich with God that we can take with us into
heaven!
Only the things that are in our hearts! “What is it
you treasure in your heart?” Jesus asked.
Am I building up riches for heaven? When I step
across that river onto the other side of life, when I walk
through that brief tunnel of the shadow of death; will I
be rich toward God? Will I have grown spiritually
enough so that heaven will not be a foreign and
unfamiliar place for me?
To think of life only in terms of physical things
is both foolish and fatal because life is not measured
by material possessions but by spiritual and eternal
things. Is Andy Peterson rich with the permanent
things of God?
If Andy Peterson was going to die by that
mountain lion that day, was he ready for heaven? Did
he have a personal relationship with God? Was he
becoming Rich with God?
Here’s part TWO of our story:
Andy said, “The lion leapt before I could
react, paws extended. It slammed into my chest
causing us to tumble down the trail, ending up side
by side in a rolled up mass of fur, claws and blood.
My blood!
I jumped up. The lion leapt at me a second
time, barely missing me. Backpedaling, I tumbled
down the path, trying to fend off the cat with, of all
things, the shirt that had been tied around my waist.
Suddenly the lion stopped in its tracks. I was
able to make a quick stand. Hanging onto the strap
with one hand, I swung my backpack with all the
force I could find.
Standing still, the cat just drew back. I lashed
out at the lion’s face. Again, the cat easily dodged
my desperate swing. Once again I started
backpedaling, with the cougar staying inches away
from my terrified body. He was toying with me, like
playing a game which he knew he would ultimately
win.
I fumbled down the path backwards, tripping
over the boulders. The cougar launched into the air
and tore into me just as I hit the ground.
For a second time we rolled together, down
the trail. When we came to a stop, I was on my
knees, over the lion that was on its back. The top of
my head was in the lion’s mouth.
The long dark shape of a tooth hovered an inch
in front of my left eye. The lion’s teeth were sunk
into the top of my skull! Its jaws loosened slightly,
then bit down a second time. Blood poured down
over my face.
Holding the knife in my right hand, I slashed
towards the lion’s neck. The blade wasn’t drawing
blood. I tried swinging the knife from a different
angle.
Raising the knife high over the animal’s head, I
plunged it into the back of its neck. Once, Twice.
Nothing, not even a whimper from this bloodthirsty
beast.
A whipping paw shot toward my face, pulling
off the skin below my left eye. New blood began to
stream down my face. With the other paw clasped
tightly around my neck, its claws began digging in.
Why wasn’t my knife cutting into the lion’s
head? With an effort, I looked past its head to the
knife that I was still holding in my left hand. The
knife’s blade had closed on my left index finger,
cutting halfway through.
Reaching over the cat’s head with my right
arm, I managed to pry the knife open. It was at this
moment that I realized my right hand was touching
one of the cougar’s eyes.
Desperately and with all the force I could
muster, I plunged my right thumb into its eye,
simultaneously sinking the knife into the cat’s skull
with my left hand.
The lion shrieked, releasing its hold on my
head. The claws pulled out from my neck. The lion
jumped backwards.
I knew I must get down the mountain, now!
Blood was gushing from the 8” gash ripped across my
forehead. I turned and ran - for my life!
________________________________________
There’s one last amazing part of the story I have
to tell you. But I have to ask again? If Andy Peterson
was going to die by that mountain lion that day, was he
ready for heaven? Did he have a personal relationship
with God? Was he becoming Rich with God? Would he
ever see his parents and his friends again in heaven?
+Are you and I becoming rich with God?
+Are we building up treasures in our hearts
that we will take to heaven some day?
In the spiritual life we CAN’T stand still; we
either are growing forward or sliding backward.
The rich man in our gospel story was convinced
that he was in control of his life and that wealth gave
him control. But God's words to him made it clear that
he had no power over the present: "This very night
your life will be demanded from you."
At this crisis point he discovered a truth that
everyone learns sooner or later: God owns our life,
and He merely loans us our earthly existence.
At any time He can call in His loan. We are
sojourners and pilgrims on earth who are
returning Home, where we began.
Sure, let’s enjoy this life! Let’s enjoy our family
and those we love! Let us even enjoy our wealth and
security, if we’re so blessed! But seek first the kingdom
of God and all other things will be given us besides.
Let’s be sure that we are growing in the spiritual Riches
of God.
Now here’s the last part of our STORY:
“The lion shrieked, releasing its hold on my
head. The claws pulled out from my neck. The lion
jumped backwards.
I knew I must get down the mountain, now!
Blood was gushing from the 8” gash ripped across my
forehead. I turned and ran - for my life!
Halfway down, the trail I glanced over my right
shoulder and saw that the lion was back for the final
kill and there was nothing I was able to do. I glanced
away for a moment, then, I again glanced over my
right shoulder, expecting to see him racing after me.
But he wasn’t there! Where is he?What was I
seeing? What’s happening? Did I faint? Did I pass out?
Was I delirious?
When I glanced over my shoulder, there was no
lion at all, instead, I saw…what I saw…I’ll never
forget…I saw what I always imagined to be the face
of Jesus.
I know this sounds weird, but it’s true! The
face of Jesus was in plain view where once the lion
had been. And for the first time since I saw the lion,
I felt safe and unafraid.
All my fear disappeared. I felt completely
SAFE! Or should I say, SAVED?
Though I wanted to keep staring, I turned my
head and continued down the trail. Near the bottom,
a group of hikers suddenly appeared. I knew that my
nightmare was finally over. I knew that I was SAVED!”
___________________________________________
Andy Peterson received several dozen stitches
to his face, neck, upper chest, both shoulders and
right leg. He set a record at the Hospital by requiring
70 staples to close his head wounds.Once only a
lukewarm Christian, that day was also the day of his
spiritual awakening. Jesus saved him in a most
unusual way, body and soul, and he became a child of
God who is rich with GOD.
 The event changed Andy Peterson’s life so
radically that he gave his life to the Lord and goes
around the country giving his testimony about how
the Lord saves. His website is called Lion King
Ministries.
_____________________________________
You don’t have to encounter a mountain lion to
have a personal encounter with Jesus. But you do
have to encounter the Lion of Judah, as Jesus is
called. Or, more recently the lion Aslan who is Jesus
in the movie NARNIA.
All we have to do is become a child of God and
then let God’s Holy Spirit make us rich with God,
make us into mature Spiritual Christians who begin to
resemble Christ, the Father’s Son.

Let us pray:
Father, we want to awakened and become your
children. We want to become rich with the things
that are lasting and permanent, that never fade or
tarnish. Father, we know that if we are rich with You,
then, as the choir will sing: We are convinced that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities, neither the present nor things to
come, nor powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thank you Lord Jesus, AMEN!