Sermon Transcript: “The Time Is Now” by Deacon Edward Odom
Speaker: Deacon Edward Odom
Sunday, November 17, 2013 – 4:00 p.m. service at New Beginning Church of God
Scripture: Luke 12 starting at 13.
13 And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
14 And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Stuff…it’s not about stuff. The time is now.
This man was storing up his stuff and he thought everything was alright. He had a great season and the ground was blessed so it gave him a lot of stuff. He actually got in a little dilemma. He had so much stuff he said What am I going to do with all of this stuff? He said, I got it, my barns are too small. I’m gonna tear these things down and I’m gonna build a bigger barn and I’m going to put all my stuff up and I’m gonna put my feet up and I’ve made it. I’ve arrived. I’ve gotten there. Man, all my dreams have been answered, all my goals have been met. I’m set for the rest of my life. I don’t have to do another thing but put my feet up. But then God said, I got other plans for you. Tonight your soul is required.
We may think we have all the time in the world. We take a whole lot for granted. If you asked us we’d call this man arrogant to think and assume that he controlled anything, because this was what was in his mind. He said I got this. I’m in control. I’m going to build me bigger barns. I’m going to put my feet up. I’m good. He said, I will say to my soul, soul, thou hath much goods laid up for many years. Take thine leave. Eat, drink and be merry. He thought he was in control of his soul and his situation.
Jesus was talking to a multitude of people. And it all started off because someone came to him and said, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. Putting some background on that situation. The Jewish law said that if you had some sons, the eldest son got a double portion of the inheritance. So if I had two sons, the inheritance would not be split 50/50. The elder son would actually get his 50% and then 25% of the other son’s, totaling 75%. The other son would get 25%. But in this particular case, he didn’t want to give any. So they got into a dispute and went to Jesus to settle it. We may get surprised by Jesus’ answer, because in our mind, we may have it all figured out and set up how things should be. Because before he went to Jesus, he pretty much knew…he had his argument and case ready. And then Jesus said I’ve got nothing to do with that, figure that out. I have more important things to think about. You know, we pray for all kinds of things. We pray for who’s going to win the football game. We pray for that brother over there…he got this car, but I want a bigger car. I want a bigger house. Lord, if you just let me get a bigger house. It’s OK to pray and ask God for things, but what Jesus is putting into perspective in this particular situation is that that’s not what I’m here for.
We live for God and God blesses us. But sometimes we get it mixed up and treat God like Santa Claus, someone we go to to get stuff. I want this so we start praying to God. So God was like I have nothing to do with this. You go handle it. There are judges for that. There are magistrates for that. That is the laws of the land. He said, who made me a judge over you? And then Jesus took the opportunity to teach, as he so often did. He said the’ve been coming to me because they’re bickering over this stuff. He then took the opportunity to teach about stuff…wanting and always pursuing stuff. We’re pretty tough on the man with the barns. We don’t give him much of a break, do we? Man, what’s wrong with him? Who does he think he is? But look at how we’re living. We run and run and rip and run and have seemingly legitimate reasons. Listen, who can argue with the man. He did well. There’s nothing wrong with setting your stuff in order. Just the other day it was time to renew my benefits for work. I had to select a medical plan, a life insurance plan, and allocate who was going to be the beneficiary, all the stuff that’s necessary. Min. Odom conducted a great seminar on Estate planning and how you plan for your stuff, and you’re supposed to do that. However, it’s not about the stuff. If you read further into the 12th chapter…it’s a great chapter…it tells you how to live and talks about your attitude and talks about your mindset. It talks about the sparrow and how the sparrow doesn’t have to worry about anything. We know all about that story…His eyes is on the sparrow.
We talk about how God will take care of us, but do we live how we talk? We’re on this man’s case because he’s put all his time and effort in building his barns and he thought he was okay. Hopefully, we don’t think that just because we get that good job that it’s all good. It is not enough to send my kids to school to get a good education and tell them to do well if I didn’t bring them to church and teach them about God and put things in perspective that it is not about the stuff, it’s about your soul. It’s about your master. It’s about recognizing your place in this whole earth and how things are set up and that God is the one that’s in charge and you don’t have the power to put your feet up and say I’m okay.
The problem with this man is that he thought small, believe it or not. In today’s world, he was a big thing. He was a Bill Gates. He was successful? He did well. He was in agriculture. He planted. He planted so much he had enough barns to fill out. He was successful by the world’s standards. But he only thought as far as his mind could take him. And when you are a Christian, this world can’t hold us. This world can’t hold how far we think, because our thoughts are supposed to be controlled by a being that’s not part of this world…that’s outside of this world…that’s outside of time. When I talk about the time is now, we think of time as this finite thing. If I don’t get this done now, Oh God what am I going to do? I have to pay this on the 20th and if I don’t get this by the 20th, what’s going to happen? But we forget who runs time, who controls time. Who’s our master? Who controls us? See, this guy thought that his stuff in his barns was the end all and be all, so much that he thought he didn’t have to do anything else…just put his feet up. We operate that way sometimes, don’t we? Don’t let us get some money in the bank, get some change in our pocket, shake it around a little bit, take out a roll and start peeling off. Take care of all our bills and stuff. You want to talk about some smiles and put your feet up and think everything is alright. Because if we are truly honest with ourselves, because we get caught up in the minutiae of the world, our mindset is we gotta get this, we gotta get money, I want a nice car. All that’s fine. But is that really what we should be striving for? Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all these things shall be added. But I want to talk about this guy’s mindset. His mindset was that I have all the time in the world. We love to procrastinate. I can talk to the kids about procrastination all day long. Did you do your homework yet? Oh, I’m gonna get to it. It’s only six o’clock. 10:00 o’clock comes…why are you still doing homework? I had a lot of homework to do. Well, why didn’t you start it? I thought I had enough time. How often have we just got caught out there because we thought we had enough time.
I was conversating with one of the deacons in the church and he talked about a religious program on TV where someone said we spend our time striving to be happy. We say, when I get retired, I’m gonna be the happiest person in the world. If I can just reach retirement, I don’t have to work anymore. I can put my feet up and I’ll be alright. If I could just get this car, I don’t have to get on the subway or the bus. I’ll be the happiest person in the world. If I can just pay this mortgage off, I’ll be the happiest person. We set these goals here, that’s going to make us happy, and the rest of the time we’re just going and going and going and going because I want to be happy as opposed to just being happy where you are, being happy because God has blessed us and he said I’m going to be there with you and whatever you need I got you. But we’re still saying, if I can do this I’ll be happy. And then retirement comes and you’re 55 or 60 or 70 and then you say man I made it. 70 years done went by. Why didn’t you live happy then? Now you got what 10 years left in your life. Now you’re going to be happy. It is a real twisted way to think. I knew a man who was busy in finance and was running all the time. He loved to read and would talk about books and all that. And used to say, when I retire and move to Florida all I’m going to do is sit and read. I’m going to buy all the books in the world. He did retire and moved to Florida. Low and behold, when he got to Florida his eyesight went. He could barely see and can’t read books like he wants to. He should have just taken the time in the midst of the stuff to do what he had to do so he can read his books and be happy while he had the chance.
We all have this thing of what we want to do…if we can just get here then we can do this. How about put the happiness before that? Don’t make your happiness depend on stuff or this earthly goal. If we could just be happy in Jesus. We sing the song “I’m Happy with Jesus Alone.” If we could just learn to listen to the stuff we tell ourselves and the stuff we sing and the stuff we tell God. What does that mean? I’m happy in Jesus alone. I’m happy because I can be. People may ask why are you smiling all the time? They know your situation. People at work know the boss just yelled at you and gave you a hard time. People around the neighborhood know something broke on the house and, you know, the day-to-day stuff going on. They’re miserable. Your life ain’t no better than mine. What are you happy about? Jesus. Why? Simple, easy. I got Jesus. Now there’s a whole lot that goes behind that that they don’t understand, but we’re supposed to understand what that means. I have Jesus. I’m happy. I’m happy because I have turned my life over to someone that has the whole world in his hands. What does that mean? That means I depend on somebody that can see around the corner. When I said that he lives outside of time, we’re fine. I’m walking down the street. I can’t see around the corner. I can’t see that there’s someone there waiting to hit me in the head, but because I have put my trust in Jesus and he can see the world in one shot. He can see all the time at one time. In one moment he sees all of eternity. He sees that. So, because I put my trust in him and he tells me don’t go left this time. Go across the street and go right. Sometimes we get a thought in our head and we don’t know why. Instead of going the usual route, we take a different route..half the time we don’t even know…but if we would have made that left we would have got hit in the head. But because God sees everything and we don’t…that’s a simple principle, putting our whole existence and life within that principle saved us a whole lot of time.
So this rich man took all of his stuff, put it in the barn, and said put my feet up and everything is gonna be alright. And God said, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Fool is a strong word, translated as nabal in the bible, and means without reason, senseless, foolish, stupid, without reflection or intelligence, acting irrationally, fool. God used that strong of a word. We can’t take that lightly because you know how sometimes the pastor says you gotta put yourself in the place of the people and patriarchs we read about In the bible because they’re regular people. We can’t think we’re so above him because we are on the outside looking in since we have the book. But our life could just as easily fall into the same trap that this man’s did. He evidently spent his life pursuing stuff and he got it and he succeeded. And then he thought it was alright. Then before you know it that night his soul was required.
Well, I think we have to think of our time. And stop thinking when I do this and if I do this and if I can get this. Just make it happen. Now is the time. There is no other time. You know what the old folk used to say, tomorrow never comes. Well, it doesn’t and it’s a simple concept. When I say I’m going to do it tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, it’s today. It never got here. We can say I’m going to do it tomorrow every day. On Monday, tomorrow is Tuesday, but on Tuesday, tomorrow is Wednesday. When Wednesday comes, tomorrow is Thursday. And that’s how we live our life too? Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. So the time is now to get it done. Don’t try to fill up the barns. Go about and live your life and try to live a wholesome, happy life. When you do that in Jesus and put your hands in Jesus’ hand and make the foundation Jesus and not the stuff, that stuff will come. But guess what, we’ll be happy whether it comes or not. The time is now.
