Preached at Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rocklin, California on the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost, July 31, 2016, by Pastor Todd Peperkorn. Sermon Text: Luke 12:13-21 Sermon Theme: “Rich Toward God” Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12–14; 2:18–26 Epistle: Colossians 3:1–11 Holy Gospel: Luke 12:13–21 Faith in Christ Is Rich Toward God To live for earthly things “is vanity and a striving after wind,” and work that is driven by such vanity “is an unhappy business” (Eccl. 1:13–14). The man who lives like that has nothing to show for “all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun … all his days are full of sorrow” (Eccl. 2:22–23). So, too, your “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5), makes a god out of that which cannot give you life or happiness. For “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). But “Christ who is your life” (Col. 3:4), in giving you Himself, gives you all the wealth of heaven. Instead of striving to lay up treasures for yourself, be “rich toward God” in Him (Luke 12:21).
