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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Wes Peppers

Do All to the Glory of God

Father in heaven, what a blessing it is to be in your presence again.

Open our hearts, open our minds to the ministry of the Word today, and speak to us, we ask in Jesus' name.

Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12, is a very powerful chapter.

And there's a special story there that is I believe applicable to the Seventh-day Adventist Church today.

Luke chapter 12 and verse 13, I'm gonna cut out a lot of this message, because I usually preach this in about an hour, but I'll just do it here in 59 and a half minutes.

Then 1 of the crowds said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

So obviously, this fellow had just had a father that passed away, right?

Because he says divide the inheritance with me.

And so if this brother had understood and had his mind where it should have been, according to the law, what did the law say?

And this man is coming up and he's making a fuss about it, but he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?

He was essentially saying, I did not come here to be a judge of earthly things.

I didn't come here to be an arbitrator over financial inheritance.

I came to bring spiritual life to the lost.

I came not to deliver you from the Romans, but I came to deliver you from sin.

And how sad it was that the people of the earth in those days, the chosen people, wanted to be delivered from the Romans more than they wanted to be delivered from the wickedness of their own hearts.

That's not my purpose, that's not my reason, that's not the cause that I've come to the earth.

And so Jesus then gave a warning, and he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses.

And I want to appeal to you today that what I'm going to share does talk about material things, but it's not just talking about material things.

And we're going to talk about the riches of a different kind this afternoon.

So verse 16, Then he spoke a parable to them, saying, I usually preach about 20 minutes on those 3 verses, but I'm not.

Then he spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?

And so this guy had a great field of harvest, better than normal.

And he says, well, what am I going to do with all this abundance?

How many of you have been blessed like that?

Whenever you think about God testing you, some of you are like, I don't remember that.

You go to India for a month, and you'll come back, and you'll realize you have an overabundance, right?

But when we think of God testing us, how do we normally think that He tests us?

But did you know that God also tests you with blessings?

He will tempt you in the sense that he's trying to get you to do the wrong.

But God will test you because He wants the evidence for the universe that you will do the right thing.

God's not testing you to see, are they going to sin?

But God will test you because He says, I want everybody else to know.

I want the devil to see what I'm doing in their life.

And without a test, you don't have a testimony.

How many of you ever learned the greatest lessons in life laying on a beach in Hawaii on vacation?

You do not typically learn the greatest lessons of life in luxury or in leisure.

And then you don't want to endure any kind of hardship, right?

But we go through, and God loves us enough to allow us to go through nothing more than what Jesus went through for you and me.

He allows us to go through those things to develop that character because he wants Christ to shine through more brightly than he's ever done before.

So the man asked the question, well what do I do because I have no room to store my crops?

So he said, I'll do this, I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods." Now that's very interesting isn't it?

Notice that the Bible says he said to himself When he had an abundance, when he had a blessing, when he had a great amount of extra, who did he consult?

He didn't say, God, what should I do with the blessings You've given to me?

But he consulted himself, and he said, this is what I'll do.

I mean, how many of you have ever owned a barn?

Now I've had a barn, and listen, barns are not cheap.

I had a barn in Michigan that was with the property when I bought it, and it was a big pole barn.

It was like 20 by 30 or something like that, 32 by something.

And All it was was the frame, just the corner posts, and there was like a couple of posts down the middle, and then the trusses, and just tin around it.

There was no, it was just a mud floor, there was no electricity in it.

But the insurance company said that if that barn were to be destroyed in a disaster, they would give me like $35, 000 to replace it, because that's how much it costs.

It takes work to build something, doesn't it?

So here's this guy saying, I already have barns that are full, but now I have more stuff over here that I gotta figure out what to do with.

I'm gonna take down my barns and build greater, and then I'm going to have enough, and I'm going to say to my soul, soul, you've done well for yourself, eat, drink, and be merry, right?

Well, it actually takes money and time and effort to tear down those barns and build greater.

This man was gonna spend money to be more selfish.

He's gonna spend the money to pay his workers to tear down the barn, and then he has to go into town and buy more materials, because you can't build a bigger barn out of the same material.

So he has to buy more materials, have all that stuff delivered, and then pay his workers to then put up a bigger barn.

Just so that he can have enough to be leisurely.

Now, I should have probably put these on the screen, but I didn't, so you'll bear with me.

It is the afternoon, but you just got to hear this.

By the parable of the foolish rich man, Christ showed the folly of those who make the world their all.

This man had received everything from God.

The sun had been permitted to shine on his land, for its rays fall on the just and the unjust.

The showers of heaven descend on the evil and the good.

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Do All to the Glory of God

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