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Pastor Tab Cosgrove
Text: Luke 12:13-21
July 31, 2016
Title: The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste—Covetousness
1. Today we start a 2 part series entitled; The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste. Because for the next
two weeks we are going to examine two particular mindsets that Jesus speaks of in our Gospel
lessons that can distract us and keep our minds preoccupied. It’s a preoccupation that can be centered
on objects and/or feelings that we think can satisfy our inner needs and wants. Or as we will learn
next week, it can be a worrisome consumption with events or circumstances that are happening to us
or around us. In either case our minds can become so fixated on those things, so much so, that we
miss the faith events that are happening near or around us. And so Jesus is encouraging us to pay
attention to our “mind drifts” so to speak; focusing more on Him and His presence in our lives rather
than putting so much wasted attention on the things that are, well, merely short-lived at best,
especially in the scheme of the eternal kingdom.
2. Now before we begin I want to set this series on a very interesting concept that could serve as a
foundation by which we consider how to avoid wasting too much thought and energy on the
influences of this world. How many of you have ever been on or owned a sailboat? Did you ever hear
of the bulb keel? I hadn’t because I’m not a sailing enthusiast. Most people, whether sailors or not,
know of the components that are above the waterline of the sailboat—the deck, the rigging, the sails,
the mast, etc., but I had never heard of the bulb keel. The bulb keel is probably one of the most
important components of a sailboat other than the sails themselves. The keel is a weighted devise that
hangs below the surface of the water and its purpose is to keep the sailboat upright in the water, even
when the winds are heavy on the sails causing the boat to tilt. The keel counter weights the boat and
keeps it from tipping over when the winds hit the sails. It’s usually proportionately weighted to the
size of the sailboat and the weights are generally very heavy! The bottom line is that if there is no
keel under the boat, the boat will most assuredly tip over as the sails are moved by the winds.
3. Earlier I said that this concept could be our foundation as we explore these two different mindsets
because like a sailboat, if we aren’t weighted properly below the surface of our minds and hearts, if
there is nothing under us counter weighting the tilts and leans of our souls as the different winds of
life hit us, then we are susceptible to tipping over and ultimately becoming “kingdomly” ineffective
because our minds are focused on that one thing which can hinder the proper perspective that could
give us balance. We absolutely need the weighted bulb keel of faith in Christ Jesus our Lord to keep
us upright. To keep us from falling too far over to one temporal, short-lived side or the other. And as
I thought about this, I think this is precisely what Jesus is getting at in this parable that He tells of the
rich man.
4. There is a man in the crowd whom is following Jesus and he gets into a supposed argument with his
brother about their inheritance that is due them and complains to Jesus and asks Him to get
involved—to do something about it. It’s almost like they are tilting about ready to fall over, because
the man’s sole focus and concern is on a temporal earthly matter. Jesus offers the man a counter
weight, a shift in his perspective that can right his mind so that he doesn’t need to waste too much
time thinking on this non-kingdom thing. (Read verse 15). You know, it’s so easy to get caught up in
the desires of the moment. And this is especially true when it comes to the stuff that we put a high
value on. Whether it’s desiring more for ourselves or looking in want at what other people have. It is
a wind that can tilt our boat very fast and I know for me, I have to be very careful to not let my mind
get too consumed with it because it will take over my thinking if I’m not careful. Erich Fromm has a
great quote, “Greed is a bottomless pit, which exhausts a person in an endless effort to satisfy the
need without ever reaching satisfaction.” Because desires and wants of the things this world offers is
a part of our DNA, we have to work hard to avoid succumbing to it. To avoid letting it become a full
focus of our heart because it will become a bottomless pit. Jesus speaks a very real truth to us here—
there is more to life than being absorbed with accumulating stuff or being enamored about the lack
thereof.
5. And so He encourages us to have a different mindset—one that isn’t solely fixated on the temporal
but one that finds balance through faith in Him and leads to kingdom purpose beyond self. To get this
man He is speaking to and us to think differently, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who had a
banner crop which provided him with plenty. Not knowing what to do with the abundance, the man
decides to build bigger barns and store the abundance so he would be taken care of in the long term.
But God labels this man a fool! Now the question I have is what made this rich man a fool? Was it
the fact that he built bigger barns to store his windfall harvest? Or was it because he thought that his
abundance would allow for his long-term care? I contend to you that it was neither of those! I mean
after all aren’t we urged to follow the example of the ant in storing up the harvest? Proverbs 6:6-8 Go
to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or
ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. You see, building
bigger barns and storing up for his long-term care was not the culprit that made the rich man a fool.
It’s ok to do those things. In fact, it’s prudent and recommended throughout Scripture to do those
things. So what made his boat tip over? What made him to be a fool?
6. He had no bulb keel to balance him. He left God out of the picture. He was called a fool because he
failed to realize that what he had was God’s gift to him. There was plenty to go around and in being
generous he still would have had enough for himself to live on comfortably. You see when we lack
the foundation by which to keep all of life in faith perspective we tend to think only of ourselves.
And if we tend to think only of ourselves how is the kingdom benefitted? How does the kingdom
grow? How does the world around us see Christ if we are always tipping over because we have no
balance? I love what Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep to gain what
he cannot lose.” How true that is and how spot on it matches what Jesus is trying to say in this text.
You see, the balance a faith keel can give us is simply looking at life differently with a kingdom
based mindset rather than a self-centered one.
7. Jesus was trying to get that person and us to understand that the joy of life is not going to come
through the short-lived, fleeting, self-satisfying desires and wants of this life; but through a
connection to Him. He is the keel under our sailboats. He is our provider and protector. He is our
forgiveness and hope. By keeping Him in the center of our lives we will have the balance we need
from tipping completely over in life. It’s only in and through Christ Jesus our Lord and our
relationship with Him that we can have the strength to keep life in perspective and not waste a lot of
our thinking time on the temporal, which is often have one day and gone the next. Jesus endured all
of the temptation and strife this world had to offer, so that we would have a strong weighted keel
under us to keep us balanced when the winds of enticement and temptation come into our lives. May
that be our mindset the next time those winds blow against our sails. In Jesus Name. Amen.