Rich Man

TEXT: Luke 12:16-31      

JESUS was God’s Son and also a Teacher. He did not have any room in a school or a church as your teacher has today. Boys and girls came from all around the country to hear Jesus. Big people came with them.

Sometimes Jesus would teach the people how to pray. Sometimes He would just tell them a story. You have story books. Mother or daddy can read to you from them.

One time Jesus was telling the people a story about a farmer. He had a big, big farm. Every springtime he would plant lots of seeds. These seeds would grow and grow and grow until the farmer had so many things growing he would put some of them away and use them in the winter when the bad weather came.

The farmer had some barns on his farm. Now the barns were all full and still the man had food left over. He had so much money. He had more than anyone else. He had all these barns full.

This rich farmer could have given away some of the things he grew to people who were hungry and whose gardens did not grow very well. He would never need all he had. Did he do that? Did he have a kind heart? No, he did not.

The rich farmer thought: “I know what I will do. I will pull down all my barns and I will make bigger ones. Then I can keep all of this good food for myself. When all the food is in the barns I will not have to work for a long, long time. I will just have a good time and not work. I will eat and eat. I will drink. I will be happy. I will have a good time for myself.” He did not think what God would say about that.

Just then a Voice said something to him. It was the Voice of God coming out of Heaven. God was watching him all the time. God had made those seeds grow into the good food.

The Voice of God spoke to him and told him how foolish he was.

This rich man had thought only about his food and all the things he had for himself. He had forgotten all about God. He forgot about his neighbors who needed food, too.

He should have prayed and asked Jesus to give him a clean heart. But now it was too late. That night the rich man died. He could not use all those things now. They were no good to him.

In Heaven there is a place just for each one who has a clean heart. It does not matter how old or how little you are. God wants you to do kind little things down here to help others and He writes what you do in His Book in Heaven.

This rich farmer had not done anything that God could write in His Book in Heaven. He did not love God. He was not even going to have a place up there with God.

That was the story that Jesus told, and He wants us to be careful and not be so selfish that we think only about what we have down here. It is what we have in Heaven that counts. The kind thoughts and the kind things we do are pleasing to God.

Jesus said that we should not worry about what we have here. God takes care of the wild flowers on the hills and the little birds. He will take care of us, too.

Our treasure, our best thing we have in Heaven, is our heart full of love for God, our love for the Bible Book. We can ask other boys and girls to come to Sunday school with us. We can pray for the ones who are sick. We might even share some of our clothes with other children if we have many, and they do not have very good ones. We can share our toys, too. Maybe some children are not able to run outside and play like you can. Maybe they do not have any toys to play with when they have to stay in the house.

All these things are seen by God in Heaven. Jesus told the people that story about the foolish rich farmer so that we would be sure not to act like that.