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Heavenly Father, may each one of us meet with the Lord Jesus as you help us to understand what the Bible means by your Spirit. Amen.

How Not To Waste Your Life - that’s my title this evening, and my first question for you is this: What do you want from life? My second question is: What’s blocking you from getting it? And my third question for you this is evening is this: Who’s your favourite American baseball player? It’s just possible you don’t have one – but I do. Admittedly I’ve only heard of two. The other one is Babe Ruth. But my favourite is the legendary Yogi Berra. It’s a terrific name, and apparently the cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after him. His playing career was even more terrific – but he was almost as famous for his sayings, known as Yogisms. For instance:

Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.It’s just déjà vu all over again.

Why do I tell you these Yogisms? Mainly because I love them. But there is a tenuous link in my favourite of all his sayings, which is this:

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

I wonder if you feel as if your life is at a fork in the road. If so, who are you going to listen to as you decide which road to take? Who are you going to follow? The fork you take will decide whether you waste your life. Our prayer for you is that you’ll decide to follow Jesus but whether you do or not really depends on what is your deepest desire. So let me come back to that question: What do you want from life? That was the issue at stake when Jesus had a sharp exchange with a man in the crowd that was listening to him. What happened between this man and Jesus? Well, we heard it read earlier. It’s from Luke 12.13-21. The account is in the Bibles that are spread around the pews on p871. This short incident raises questions for all of us. And you may never have a better opportunity than you’ve got this evening, to get sorted on what your life is about. Anyway, here’s question one. So:

1. What’s frustrating you?

This guy was all chewed up about something. What was it? Luke 12.13:

Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Do you know what it is to be frustrated with a brother? This man did. But this wasn’t just the niggling irritation of a brother who always finds a way not to help with the washing up. This brother was a blight on this man’s life. Why? Because in one way or another this man’s brother was blocking him from getting his hands on his rightful inheritance.

“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

This was the big thing in his life. He wanted the money. And his brother was in his way. You can practically feel the anger and hear his teeth grinding. If only his brother would get out of his way, then his life would be good. So what about you? What’s frustrating you? What do you think is preventing your life from being all you want it to be? It could be any number of things: a family member who makes your life a misery; depression; a lack of money; girlfriend or boyfriend trouble; no job; the wrong job; a serious illness; your looks; the prospect of getting exam results that are not good enough; maybe a burden of responsibility that weighs you down.

What’s the big frustration creator in your life? Identify it in your own mind. And note this: the man here in this incident got a lot wrong – but this he got right: he took his worry to Jesus. Somehow he’d got the idea that Jesus was the one to go to get his life sorted out. And he was right. Bring what’s frustrating you to Jesus. Almost certainly he won’t deal with it in the way that you most want him to. And he’ll do it on his terms not yours – as happened here with this man demanding his money. But in this, at least, follow his example: bring your deepest frustrations and fears to Jesus. You can’t do that, of course, without facing up to the next question that this incident raises:

2. What’s Jesus to you?

How does Jesus react to the demand he’s faced with? Luke 12.14:

Jesus replied, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

Why does he say that? Jesus is not denying that he has the right to judge. But he’s challenging this man to face up to the question of who he really thinks Jesus is. Because this man’s view of Jesus is utterly inadequate. He just wants Jesus to solve his problem and then go away again. But Jesus isn’t having that. The truth is that Jesus is this man’s creator and judge and saviour and ruler. Nothing less than completely trusting his whole life to Jesus is an adequate response. But what’s this man’s view? He calls Jesus teacher, and by implication, he thinks of him as nothing more than a teacher. But the truth is that Jesus is nothing less than God in human flesh, the judge of all men, and the saviour of those who put their trust in him. This man regards Jesus as having some authority. But he wants Jesus really to be at his beck and call; he wants Jesus to exercise authority over his brother in order to serve his purposes. He’s almost treating Jesus as if he has authority over Jesus and can make demands on Jesus to meet his needs.

I can remember three times that I’ve been in a court of law in my life. The first was at a murder trial, as an observer. The second time I acted as a witness. The third time I sat on a panel that decided whether a man’s career would be ended because of gross misconduct. Only in that last case did what I thought really count. Why? Because I had authority to judge. The authority of Jesus goes much further than this man thinks. In fact Jesus is the judge not just of his brother’s blocking of the inheritance. He is the judge of the whole of this man’s life, and of yours, and of mine.

What’s Jesus to you? Maybe that’s a relatively new question for you, and you don’t feel you’ve given it enough serious consideration to come to a proper conclusion yet. If that’s you, then please keep coming along here, so you can find out more. But Jesus doesn’t just challenge this man about what he thinks of him. He exposes the rotten heart of this man’s life. And that brings us to the next question:

3. What does your life consist of?

Jesus challenges this guy by telling a short story. And it’s not very complimentary. Take a look again at the passage, from Luke 12.15-19:

And [Jesus] said to them [in other words he wants the crowd to listen in to his reply to the man, even as we are this evening],“Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of one's possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”

Take care! A person’s life does not consist in the amount of stuff he has. Implication: that’s what this man’s life consists of. He’s frustrated by his brother, because his brother is stopping him from getting his hands on his money. And money is what his life revolves around. And that’s just one kind of covetousness and greed. We need to be on our guard against all covetousness, says Jesus. Now what we all need to ask ourselves is this: In my heart of hearts, what does my life consist of? What matters more than anything to you? For the rich man in Jesus’ story, it was some combination of wealth, success, pleasure and leisure. And he’s not alone in that is he? He wanted to relax, eat, drink and be merry. What does your life consist of? Identify your priorities. Put them under the spotlight. Do they stand up to scrutiny? In particular, do they stand up to the scrutiny of Jesus? That’s the next question:

4. What does God think of your life?

This is how Jesus ends his parable (Luke 12.20):

But God said to him [the rich man who wanted to relax, eat, drink and be merry], ‘‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

So here’s the verdict on the life of this man. It’s not from a mere observer. Nor is it from one who is no more than a witness. This is the verdict of the one who will judge every one of our lives. We’re accountable to God for every part of our lives – not just Sundays or our so-called spiritual side. God made us. He sent his one and only Son to die for us on the cross so that we could be forgiven and set free from the consequences of our lifelong rebellion against him. We belong to him. He is our judge. And the day will come for every one of us when we will stand before God to give account, and God will give his verdict on our lives. And the verdict on this man’s life here is short, to the point, painful, and just one word: Fool. You’ve blown it. You were given a life, and you’ve blown it. How? By living as if the temporary is eternal. By living as if some combination of wealth, success, pleasure and leisure for yourself was the only thing worth pursuing. And by forgetting God. Forgetting that our relationship with God is the heart of what life is for. Forget that, and what’s the verdict on our lives? Fool.

So what do you think God thinks of your life? I remember an occasion when I was a teenager, with my mother in the kitchen at home. She was to help with something, and I was giving some excuse for why I couldn’t possibly do that. I had more important things to do with my time, like enjoy myself. And she quietly said to me: ‘You’re very selfish, you know Jonathan.’ My mother got to me that day. It was as if she wasn’t commenting just on my one lack of consideration that day – she was giving her verdict on my life so far. This was the woman who gave me birth, who had loved me and served me and provided for me year in, year out all my life. And here was the verdict. ‘You fool. You selfish fool.’ Each of us has to reckon with God. We need to put our priorities through Jesus’ fool test. Put yourself in the parable. What’s the verdict on your life? What does God think of your life? So to our final question:

5. Who are you going to live for?

Which fork in the road are you going to take? Here is how Jesus wraps up this incident (it’s in Luke 12.21). He says:

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God.

It might not be cash in the bank that we store up – it might be memories of exciting experiences. But if it’s all for me, me, me, then the verdict from God will be ‘Fool!’ and we’ll lose it all, for ever. But the whole point of this parable is that Jesus is offering an alternative. He’s warning us, certainly. But it’s a warning we’re supposed to take notice of. While we live, it’s never too late. What’s the alternative to a self-centred life? It is to be rich towards God says Jesus. What does that mean? The big surprise is that being rich towards God does not mean that God needs us to give him stuff. After all, getting your dad a birthday present is a rather tricky task. But trying to out-give God is infinitely more difficult. What do you give the God who’s got everything – literally? It all belongs to him anyway.

No, being rich towards God is all about realising that he wants to be rich towards us. Even though we rebel against him, he doesn’t want to send us packing for ever – that’s the last thing he wants to do. That’s why he sent his Son to die for our sins. What God wants from us is the two R’s: Return and Receive. He wants us to return. He wants us to realise that without God we’re going to get to the end of our lives and find that we’ve blown it big time. He wants us to recognise that God is the only one who can turn the situation around and get us back on track. And he calls us to turn back to him. Return. And he wants us to receive. Jesus came to give, not to take. To give what? To give forgiveness. To give hope. To give wisdom so we can make sense of life. To give power for living really rich lives – lives that are rich towards God. To give eternal life.

How do we receive forgiveness, hope, wisdom and power and eternal life? By asking Jesus, by putting our trust in him. For life. Don’t be a fool. Put Christ first. Return; and receive. Be rich towards God. Who are we going to live for? For ourselves? Or for Christ? We all need to answer that afresh. So which fork in the road will you take? Will you follow Jesus? Around the church are copies of this very helpful booklet called Why Jesus? It could have been called, “Why follow Jesus?” If you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, we’d like to give you a copy. So please take one before you go. It’s bright red, so you can’t miss it. At the back of it you’ll find a prayer that you can pray as a simple first step in turning away from your old life to follow Jesus. Maybe you’ve come to the point where you’re ready to pray that prayer now. There’s no need to wait any longer. Today is always the best day to start following Jesus. Start now. You can join with me in praying this prayer in the silence of your own heart. Let me read it first so that you know what it says – then we’ll pray it. It’s a prayer summed up in four very simple but profound words: sorry; thank you; please. Here it is:

Lord Jesus Christ,I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Spirit. I now receive that gift.Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me forever.Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

So if you’re ready to start following Jesus and to pray that, then make these words your own in the quiet of your own heart, as I repeat them. Let’s pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.Thank you that you died on the cross for me so that I could be forgiven and set free.Thank you that you offer me forgiveness and the gift of your Spirit. I now receive that gift.Please come into my life by your Holy Spirit to be with me forever.Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

If you’ve prayed that prayer for the first time, know that you’re not alone. God is with you by his Holy Spirit, to help you. And fellow followers of Jesus are beside you too. So keep coming. And talk to one of us. Tell someone that you don’t want to waste your life. Instead, you’re setting out to follow Jesus. And be sure to take home a copy of Why Jesus? as a reminder of what you’ve prayed.