What is proper preparation for the future? Our culture has something to say about this. Most of what culture tells us revolves around the pursuit of two things: money and comfort. Society tells us that money and comfort are closely linked, and the more money you have, the more comfort you will ultimately achieve. Recent research, published in Nature Human Behavior, cites that more income “tended to be associated with reduced life satisfaction and a lower level of well-being.” We see this play out in our culture time after time. The pursuit of happiness is often linked to the pursuit of money, which guarantees purchase of those things to make us happy. But unfortunately, the purchase of things to achieve happiness isn’t often the road to happiness. Have you ever really pined for something? Have you ever really wanted to buy something, like a flat-screen T.V. ? You did all the research, you imagined it hanging on your wall, you saved up money and secretly (or not so secretly) despised the television you currently owned. The time came, finally, to buy that television and hang it on your wall. What a glorious day, you finally achieved your goal and the t.v. is here, its on your wall- And then what? Perhaps a feeling of letdown. The feeling of elation is replaced by diminished returns. It didn’t give you the euphoria you expected. Why? Well, it doesn’t matter, because there is something else out there that can do the trick. Maybe a car, a boat, something else.
We, as humans in the western world, do this all the time. We buy into a culture that says more is better, excess somehow equals contentment, and in the end we end up buried in trinkets that were meant to give us life, but instead drown us. John D. Rockefeller, a billionaire in the 1900s, easily regarded as the richest man ever, was once asked by a reporter, “How much money is enough?” His answer: “Just a little more.”
There is a real danger of getting on a cultural treadmill that always demands more steps. In the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), Christ says “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (15) So, the question becomes, if money and possessions aren’t the key to well-being, what is? What is of value?
PROPER PREPARATION
What is proper preparation for the future? As we’ve already noted, there is a very human need to prepare for our temporal (temporary) future. And there’s nothing wrong with preparation. As a matter of fact, the bible talks about preparation as a good thing (Genesis 41:15-41). But it also discusses the necessity of faith for provision (Luke 10:1-4). So, as a Christian, how is it we should prepare? And what are we preparing for?
First, we have to understand the distinction between Human (Temporal) preparation and Spiritual (Eternal) preparation. Human preparation, as discussed, is a way to guarantee our safety, comfort and survival in life. Again, nothing wrong with preparing for the uncertainties of the future. It becomes problematic when that need for safety, comfort and/or survival becomes the driving force. When that happens, we repeat the same problem so many repeat: we begin to control our environments, try to spin the outcomes, divise plans for our ultimate security. In other words, we remove God from the equation and say “I can do this on my out. I can squeeze out all mystery in the future. I can command and control all aspects of life.”
Spiritual preparation is the exact opposite. There are 3 points:
Abandoning worry- Worry is one of the most devious and afflictive issues people deal with. That’s probably why Jesus, and scripture in general, address it so often. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gives a wonderful dissertation on worry:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? 27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. 32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (NIV)
Jesus gives us the seemingly impossible task of living a life devoid of worry. But what is his prescription? Understand the true nature of God- He will take care of you through your troubling times.
This is a total mind reset when it comes to worry. Our culture tells us a very different story. All you need to do is turn on the news. The underlying focus of drilling news into us is to report the instability around us and ultimately undermine our confidence in our surroundings. Why? So you will need to stay tuned. Perhaps some good news will be thrown at you down the line. A crumb of hope in this crumbling world.
But Jesus’ advice is much richer than anything the world can offer. Get this: Jesus is asking us to create a new paradigm in thinking. Instead of relying on a crumbling, sin-infested, corrupt world, he’s asking us to think eternally. To shift the focus from instability to stability. In other words, create your foundation for strength in God rather than human theology. He says, “Life is more than food or drink, and the body more than clothes.” In other words, life is about more than just survival, just chasing after those things you believe you need in order to be happy and content. Furthermore, verse 29 and 30 states “And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after these things, and your father knows you need them. But seek his kingdom first, and these things will be given to you as well.”
Christ tells us that 1.) We are not to worry about our basic provisions. 2.) Do fall into the patterns of the culture. 3.) God knows what you need. 4.) Seek God and he will provide these things for you.
Understand God’s Provision- Once we realize that God wants us not to worry about the future, we have to understand that God will always provide for us. This is the basis of faith. That we, as Christians, understand that God’s promises for a future is rooted in out trust.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
When we begin to understand God’s ultimate design for us, it becomes evident that God wants communion with him, a loving relationship built on trust. Understanding the God wants to provide for us is key to this. Guess what? You are reading this right now. Perhaps it is a smooth time in your life, or perhaps rough, but if you look back on your life, through the turmoil, strife, letdowns, wins, you can note one thing: you’ve been provided for. Understanding that God has always been there, and will continue to be there, is important to understand. It gets us to the third point.
Relying on God- To rely on God means to give up worrying and replace it with trust, understanding that God is in control and that you can trust Him for your provision, and to realize that through the high and low moments in your life God is there, reliable, and ready for you to connect.
WHAT ARE WE PREPARING FOR?
There are 3 things, as a Christian, that we are preparing for: Jesus’ second coming The end of our time on earth Eternity
JESUS’ SECOND COMING
Jesus will come again. As Christians, this is an article of faith. When Jesus returns, he will return with the purpose of gathering his people and creating a new paradigm, a long-standing empire of peace.
Many over time have created a false narrative of this moment. It has been crowded with doomsayers, crazy men with calculations that seem to point to the end of our world. The crackpots who crave an audience really do the apocalypse a grave disservice. Instead of being rooted in biblical truth, they sensationalize the end of times (especially drawing from the book of revelation), apply symbolism to current events and cry that the world is ending. Jesus’ return, for a Christian, is actually a joyous event. If you are prepared for it.
THE END OF OUR TIME ON EARTH
We will all reach an end on planet earth. It is human nature to push this thought away, make it an abstract instead of a truth. But the real story is that we grow old and eventually lose our energy, our minds, and go away. Unless Jesus returns in our lifetime, this is our shared fate.
ETERNITY
Our preparation is ultimately for our eternal home. We will spend a much longer time in eternity than we will on earth. So the real question is this: if we are all headed toward this eternity, shouldn’t our life, our motives, our thoughts, dreams, desires- shouldn’t they all reflect eternity on a daily basis?
Far too much of our life is spent trying to please ourselves. Running after those trinkets that look like they will bring us happiness. We miss the point that our eternity is really where our focus should be. When we place our daily thoughts and activities on the eternal implications they all have, it changes our paradigm.
So let’s look at this idea through three different passages. They are all found in the Gospel of Luke.
The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21)
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
When we talk about preparation, this parable is a very good one to discuss. Christ is preaching when a young man breaks through the crowd and asks Christ to side with him in a money issue. Christ side-steps the argument and uses it as a teaching moment. Verse 14, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
First, Christ reminds the crowd that life is about more than possessions. He says to be on alert against all kinds of greed. Greed is not defined simply as a love for money. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food. Intense and selfish desire are good descriptors. You can plug just about anything into that description and you have the broad meaning of greed. Why is greed so devastating? Because it takes the focus off your dependency on God and places it on yourself. There are many reasons why wealthy people are not especially happy, but one of the overall reasons is because the dependency has been misplaced. We simply can’t do it on our own. We’re not built that way.
Christ tells the crowd a parable. The gist of it is simple. There is a RICH man who has a big payday. In verse 16 and 17, we get the story. What’s he going to do with this great windfall of grain? He has a choice to make. First, you’ll notice the man never consults, or thanks, God. He wonders what HE will do with MY grains.
He ends up making a fatal decision. Instead of sharing it with others, he decides to build bigger barns to store it all. This gives him the freedom he deserves. He can now store it all up, take it easy, live the good life.
But the problem is this: God will demand his life that very night. “Then who will get what you prepared for yourself?”
The rich man’s problem is that he was selfish and his selfishness had eternal implications. He prepared for himself, for this life only, and not for the eternal.
THE TRUTH ABOUT PREPARING #1
We can’t only prepare for this life (temporal). We must prepare for eternity.
When we make our eternal outlook our priority, it changes the way we view the temporal. The truth is sobering: in this life, we will lose everything. The house we live in, the spouse we cherish, the health we obsess over, the job we pour energy into. One day it will all be gone. The question becomes: what is of value?
If we plan to live in eternity, then we have a focus that really matters.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19:31)
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
In this story, we have a great juxtaposition. We first have a rich man. How do we know he is rich? Well, not only does scripture call him out as one, but we see some of the trappings of his wealth: fine linens, lives in luxury, wears purple (the color of royalty). Then there’s Lazarus: full of sores, begging, longing to eat the scraps from the rich man’s table. He’s truly in sorry shape, but let’s look at where he is. He’s at the gate of the rich man! This is remarkable, because we can assume the rich man sees Lazarus every day. It speaks to the rich man’s attitude.
Well, both of these guys die. The rich man is buried, where as Lazarus is most likely thrown in a heap outside the city gates. This is notable because the rich man, with all the trappings of success, is buried in respect, most likely in a family tomb. He even has an auspicious end.
This first part of the story is lived in the temporal setting of human life.
But that isn’t the end of the story. Both men have an eternity to face. Lazarus is whisked away to Abraham’s side, whereas the rich man is hurled into Hades. In Hades, we don’t see a change in the rich man’s attitude. He asks Abraham to send Lazarus to do his bidding on two occasions. The first is to satiate his own suffering. The second is to warn his family about this eternity.
We see the rich man is still selfish and in his life of luxury, he did not lead those closest to him to the understanding of eternity. He received his luxury during his human existence, gobbled it up and selfishly provided for himself.
This part of the story, the eternal part, is much longer, and mimics the truth that our eternity will be longer than our short time on the earth. The Rich Man, who had a lifetime of selfish behavior, can’t understand why he isn’t getting his way in this reality. His motivations, which were incorrect in his human life, are such a part of him he can’t be any other way. His eternity is affected by his human motivations.
TRUTH ABOUT PREPARING #2
Our Motivations matter.
We must always check our motivations in life. Sometime it appears we are doing the right thing, but many times in life we are dialing in our actions.
Tithing is a good example. Why does a Christian tithe? Often times, we tithe simply because it is a function of our church life. We are conditioned to give 10% without really giving too much thought to it. Why? Because we’ve always done it. But true tithing is a function of the heart, about thankfulness and mercy to others. The amount is inconsequential.
In this scenario, we can get locked into the belief that COMPLETING THE TASK equals GODLY DEVOTION. We trick ourselves into this deception when we don’t check our motives. What about helping others. Sometimes we do this out of obligation, perhaps feeling we must do it because others are watching, or we can’t get out of it, or it makes us feel good. This is why checking our motives in any given situation matters. The rich man in the story had all the trappings of success. People of his time may have revered him, looked up to him, admired him. But the truth is, he was completely corrupt in his human motivations.
Watchfulness (Luke 12:35-47)
35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” 41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?” 42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows.
The parable of the good steward really tells us how we need to act in this life. He frames it in the guise of a servant waiting for his master to return from a wedding banquet. In that time, a wedding banquet could run for a few days up to a month. So if we put ourselves in the mindset of the servant, when the master leaves, the servant has no idea when he will return. No cell phones or email in those days. The carriage leaves and could return at any time.
So, the servant is tasked with a choice: how do I choose to conduct myself during the master’s absence? Of course, this is the choice we as human beings have in the face of our eternity. Jesus, the master, will one day return. Or we will die before that time. How are we to act in the space of that time? Like the good steward, who keeps the windows clean, the house sparkling, the animals fed, the staff working? Or like the bad steward, who uses the time to indulge in his own selfish acts?
For either choice, there are consequences. For the steward who prepares for the masters return, the scripture tells us there will be rewards: the master will serve the steward and put the steward in charge of all of his possessions. For the bad steward, he will be punished and considered an unbeliever.
So, as Christians, it is imperative that we prepare, during all of the small moments of our life. In other words, preparing for eternity is an everyday event. Just like the good steward in the story, he is prepared, watching from the window and keeping his light burning, well aware the master could return any moment. It hints that we are to make the most of our opportunities, approach life with an eternal outlook, and be prepared, so that when the master returns, or life ends, eternity is at the side of Abraham. TRUTH ABOUT PREPARING #3 Preparing is about diligence, obedience and perseverance.
Striving to meet God, where you are, is the best way you can prepare for eternity. You’re not perfect, and you aren’t ever going to be. You are not trying to earn your salvation. But you are trying to do all that you can to be that person God needs you to be. Through your talents, passions, gifting and even your weaknesses, you are a unique and powerful creation. Align yourself with God, seek his kingdom first, prepare for you eternal future.