Pentecost 11–Followers of Christ Know that Earthly Wealth is Meaningless

Earthly wealth is meaningless without God. The meaning of life cannot be found in the abundance of earthly possessions but in the abundance of heavenly blessings. The believer recognizes that everything the world seeks and offers is meaningless. Rather, he sets his heart on the treasure found in the fullness of Christ.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

O God, you reveal your mighty power chiefly in showing mercy and kindness. Grant us the full measure of your grace that we may obtain your promises and become partakers of your heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!

or

O Lord, grant us wisdom to recognize the treasures you have stored up for us in heaven that we may never despair but always rejoice and be thankful for the riches of your grace; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!

VERSE OF THE DAY

Alleluia. Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” Alleluia. (John 14:23)

or

Alleluia. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Alleluia. (Matthew 6:21)

THE GOSPEL: LUKE 12:13-21

It is shocking to hear Jesus deny authority over anything, much less something as mundane as an inheritance. But finally, that is the point. Earthly wealth is meaningless. The man called Jesus “teacher” but hadn’t learned the lesson. So Jesus teaches him and us how foolish it is to think that life consists of what we have. By contrast, the life of faith is lived in joyful thanksgiving for both the temporal and eternal blessings that come from above. By faith, this, then, is being rich toward God—a life of thanksgiving for all that he has given us through Jesus.

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FIRST LESSON: ECCLESIASTES 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26

The Teacher, King Solomon, had more riches and worldly pleasure than we can comprehend, but experience had taught him that they are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Yet, in an effort to find meaning in life, so many pursue the “stuff” this sinful world offers. In the end, having the most toys adds up to nothing but an inheritance squandered by fools. Rather, true wealth, true value, true satisfaction only comes from the hand of God. If one seeks to find meaning in life, search no further than the wisdom and knowledge of God.

See the hymn “My Worth is Not in What I Own” below.

Pastor James Hein’s wonderful introductory post A Guide to Gospel Thinking provides some valuable connections to this text.

Visual Exegesis: The Song

The 2014 indie movie The Song provides a modern take on the story of Solomon and his “vanity” pursuits. It’s worth a watch, both for professional and personal reasons.

SECOND LESSON: COLOSSIANS 3:1-11

The last of three readings in Colossians tells us to set our mind on things above, not on earthly things like the man who built bigger barns or the teacher who chased the wind. Yes, our struggle continues between the old and new Adams. But that old Adam has been buried with Christ, and the new man has been raised with Christ. The result is that our life is hidden with Christ in God. We do not seek worldly wealth but heavenly glory.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

– Colossians 3:1-3

Artist’s Commentary: Visual Exegesis

In this image the regenerate believer has his heart (from “seek the things that are above”) and mind (from, “set your minds on things above”) rooted in the resurrected and enthroned Christ. However – as we know from the rest of Colossians and scripture in general, this doesn’t mean that the Christian “pulls out” of the world…rather, we are to have roots in heaven and fruits on earth. I wanted to portray the believer, then, as a sort of “inverted tree” with the mind and heart as the roots in Christ and the hands as the branches bearing fruit here on the earth.

Christopher Powers

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

Artist’s Commentary: Visual Exegesis

We are to seek the things above, where Christ is (which I think has to mean, “the things of Christ.” Jesus is not merely one of the “things above,” He is the fountain and wellspring of all good things). We are to seek Christ and the things of Christ. That is to say, this is to be our desire, our pursuit, our longing.

Our great goal and the object of our heart’s hungers is not to be anything here in this world–neither something tangible (a job, a wife, a family, possessions…), nor something intangible (recognition, a status, a role in the lives of others, an intellectual discovery, aesthetic experience). Our great goal, our hunger, our hope must be anchored in the “things above,” in the risen and right-this-second-living and soon-to-be-returning Jesus Christ Himself. He is to be the end of our desire, the one whom we seek.

And we are to set our minds on Christ and the things of Christ. This is so crucial….What is so often my mindset? Far too often it is set on the things of this earth (I don’t mean trees and stars and music and food and story….those are glorious things and, for some reason, I don’t seem to have trouble receiving them as expressions of the beauty of the Lord). I mean things like “what people think of me”, “what is my legacy”, “what monuments am I leaving behind?” Or “Why can’t my life be more like this?”, “Why can’t my story look like that story”, “Why can’t my situation be like that situation?” etc….envious, earthbound thinking. This is not how one who has died and risen with Christ ought to be feeding their mind. No, the mind, the thinking, the focus, the “obsession” is to be with the risen Christ and the things above…..

Then Paul grounds these commands with another truth that flows from our union to Jesus—we died with him and our life is now hidden with him in God. Just consider that–what an awesome reality! “Christopher Powers”—all of his glory, all of his honors, all of his achievements, all of his self-advancement, all of his recognition—died. He died with Christ on the cross. And because of that, my LIFE—all that I am, all that will remain of me beyond the dissolution of this body, all that is truly me—my LIFE is hidden in Christ. And what’s more, Paul goes on in verse 4 to say that Jesus is my life.

All my good is in him, all my meaning is in him, all my hope is in him, all that I am is bound up in, hidden in, forever rooted in HIM. And what is not him in me is loss.

“Hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Hallelujah, Jesus is my life”

Christopher Powers

All I Have is Christ by Sovereign Grace Music

VERSE 1
I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still

VERSE 2
But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace

CHORUS
Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

VERSE 3
Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
O Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

Music and words by Jordan Kauflin. © 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. All rights reserved. Administrated worldwide at www.CapitolCMGPublishing.com, excluding the UK which is adm. by Integrity Music, part of the David C Cook family. www.SovereignGraceMusic.org

SUPPLEMENTAL SECOND LESSON: JAMES 5:1-11

The trap has been set and sprung for those who seek after wealth. Their very actions accuse and condemn them. The idolatry of greed has seized their hearts, driving them to deception and even to the point of murder in order to satiate their carnal lusts. Here is a warning for us as we recognize in ourselves the same epicurean attitude so prevalent in our hedonistic society. But God be praised, the old Adam has been buried and the new man arisen in Christ. Our hearts no longer find comfort in the temporal, but only in the eternal. The imminent judgment of the Lord no longer threatens us but comforts us as we patiently endure the temptations of the flesh and wait for the Lord.

PSALM OF THE DAY: Psalm 34

ALTERNATIVE PSALM OF THE DAY: Psalm 90

HYMN OF THE DAY

Christian Worship, #484, Brothers, Sisters, Let Us Gladly

MORE THEMATIC SONGS

Take the World, But Give Me Jesus melody by Ascend the Hill

Jesus, Priceless Treasure new melody by Joey Schumann

My Worth is Not in What I Own by the Getty’s

My Worth is Not in What I Own: Lyrics

My worth is not in what I own
Not in the strength of flesh and bone
But in the costly wounds of love
At the cross

My worth is not in skill or name
In win or lose, in pride or shame
But in the blood of Christ that flowed
At the cross

Refrain:
I rejoice in my Redeemer
Greatest Treasure,
Wellspring of my soul
I will trust in Him, no other.
My soul is satisfied in Him alone.

As summer flowers we fade and die
Fame, youth and beauty hurry by
But life eternal calls to us
At the cross

I will not boast in wealth or might
Or human wisdom’s fleeting light
But I will boast in knowing Christ
At the cross

Refrain

Two wonders here that I confess
My worth and my unworthiness
My value fixed – my ransom paid
At the cross

Refrain

— Words and Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Graham Kendrick ©2014 Getty Music Publishing (BMI) / Makeway Music (admin by MusicServies.org)

Artist’s Commentary: Lyrical Exegesis

Lyricists are always on the lookout for a big idea, a concept or phrase that might just have a song hidden inside it. Like the sculptor running their fingers over a rough block of marble and laying out their tools, or a potter feeling the weight and texture of a fresh lump of wet clay, the imagination has to see something that doesn’t yet exist.

Some years ago I was struck by the simple phrase “My worth is not in what I own” and sensed a “big idea” in waiting.

It is a theme I have explored before in songs, in fact, one of my earliest performance songs is called ‘How much do you think you are worth’, but here it came again and I saw a congregational song in potential.

I made several attempts over several years to let loose that big idea, but during a writing session with Keith and Kristyn Getty I bounced my seed idea off them and the process began. The song went through numerous drafts and redrafts, but eventually, it settled. From the first occasion it was sung it was clear that the theme resonated powerfully as people began to join in.

We know that our culture calibrates human worth by measures of wealth and status, skills and achievement, beauty and youth, power and so on, but we don’t always appreciate how deeply those values are ingrained into us and how effective they are in driving our behavior. Christians are little different. We need to sing about our worth from God’s perspective, not ours or our cultures, and God’s perspective centers in on the cross.

John Stott wrote; “Our self is a complex entity of good and evil, glory and shame, of creation and fall… we are created, fallen and redeemed, then re-created in God’s image” ….. “Standing before the cross we see simultaneously our worth and unworthiness, since we perceive both the greatness of his love in dying and the greatness of our sin in causing him to die” (The Cross p. 285)

William Temple wrote: “My worth is what I am worth to God, and that is a marvelous great deal, for Christ died for me.”

It has been a pleasure working together with the Gettys to bring this song from concept to reality and we hope that it will help many to sing themselves free from all that steals away the joy of being loved by God.

Graham Kendrick

Questions to Consider

(Please share your answers/thoughts in the comments below)

1. What is God saying to me in these lessons?
2. For what do these lessons lead me to give thanks?
3. What sins do these lessons lead me to confess?
4. For what do these lessons lead me to pray?
5. What is the connecting thought that sticks out the most in these lessons? What major theme(s) connect(s) all the lessons?
6. Which piece of artwork did you find to be most beneficial? Why?