Scripture

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luke 12:32, NKJV

Quote

He is no fool, who gives us what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.

~Jim Elliot

There are two fools in Luke 12, one fictional and one real. The man who rudely interrupts Jesus while He is teaching is the first…“Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” Trust me, children can become obsessed with their inheritance. In chapter 15, we will meet a young man who couldn’t wait for his father to die. He, to his own shame, ask for his inheritance early. He acted just like this fool in Luke 12. Just call it what it is and what it is is GREED. The eldest son in most Jewish families was the executor of the estate and although traditional they got a bigger share, they divided the rest among the siblings. Legally, they did not have to share and evidently, the man in Luke 12 had not been given his share.

A few months back, just after a grave side at the cemetery on Gravel Ridge, a man came up to me and said, “Bro. Jack, you don’t know who I am do you?” I had to look twice before I saw that I did indeed knew him. He married a girl from Danville and played on our church softball team for a couple of years. They attended DBC on and off for two or three years. His dad died with cancer when he was forty and this young man was just a child when his father passed. I did his grandmother’s funeral {his dad’s mother} and I knew his uncle and his aunt. After her passing they divided the estate [not huge] and they did not give this boy a dime. He should have gotten his father’s share but he got nothing. When I talked to him about it, He said, “It is not a problem Bro. Jack, I never expected anything and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.” That was very wise on his part but also rare. Most folks will fight for what they think is theirs.

What most folks don’t seem to realize is that you cannot keep any inheritance you recieve here unless you turn around and give it all to the LORD which some have done. The real inheritance is yet to come. Peter said, Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. Paul said, Since we are His children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. I think Barny Fife describes this inheritance as well as any when he said, “Its big, really big.” Actually, Paul may have said it best, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE