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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus Kingdom Accounting (Luke 12: 13-21, 41-48; 14:25-35) ---- --------------------------------------------------- Pastor David says that our Christian life has some similarities with how to be successful while hunting: 1) plan and prepare. 2) make the effort needed. 3) report any harvest. In our Christian life, we need to live with great faith and EFFORT and need to count the cost of being a disciple. Luke 14: 26 tells us to hate our mother and father, which means that our love of others shouldn’t compare to our love of God. We need to discipline ourselves to love Jesus more than anyone and anything else in our lives. It is a false gospel to say that all God wants from us is our sin. God wants us to die to ourselves and be 100% surrendered to him. Life is hard, but if we are surrendered to God, when life overwhelms us, we can follow and trust Him even when we don’t understand what is happening. Are we willing to be open-handed to God with our kids, our spouse, and our stuff? We are blessed and wealthy compared to so many and we need to be willing to let it go. We do not need to make a vow of poverty. Money isn’t bad, but God values people. It is our mindset that matters. We need to be truly willing to let things go, be ready for service and live in the reality of Jesus’ return. (Luke 12: 35-40). Luke 12: 13-21 is a parable about a rich fool who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich towards God. Jesus came to give us life, not arbitrate about stuff on our behalf. The American Dream tends to take us away from being effective in our Christian life. Young people want to hang out with the young and active and older people want to kick back and take it easy. It is silly to not use and value people who have trained their entire life. God says that those who pile up treasures are foolish. Are we willing to love God more than our stuff? We will have to give an account. How much does God require of us? Everything! We need to sell out to following Jesus. To live rich towards God, we need to obey his commands and follow the Great Commandment: serve God, make disciples, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. We are all on a mission trip. We should live our lives consistent with the way of Jesus Christ, disciple people, and hold all we have with an open hand. Practical take-ways to be ready for Jesus’ return: -- Get rid of greed. This was the rich fool’s problem. -- Put aside power trips. -- First Jesus, then our families. To love our families most, we must love Jesus best. -- Stay surrendered from our stuff