 Amen. Keep your place in Luke chapter 12. It's a long chapter in the Bible. We're going to be looking at the story of the certain rich man in Luke chapter 12. I don't know that I've ever really gone through this story, but it is relevant to the topic that I'm going to be preaching on this morning. The topic that I'm going to be preaching on this morning is the topic of retirement and especially what modern day retirement is and has become. People retire all the time. I'm sure you know retired people. What does the Bible say about retirement? How should the Christian look at the idea of retirement? Are there problems? How should we address those problems? We're going to look at those things this morning. Look down at Luke chapter 12 just to begin this morning. Let's look at the story of this man in the Bible. There's a rich man in this chapter and it's Jesus telling this story and then this parable and then explaining what he's talking about in this parable is a good chunk of Luke chapter 12. So look at verse number 16 this morning. We're talking about the idea of retirement. What does the Bible say? What should we do as far as this idea of retiring? The Bible says in verse 16 of Luke chapter 12 says, and he spake a parable unto them saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself saying, what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater and there I will bestow all my fruits and my goods. So here we have a farmer of some kind that the example that Jesus is using is a farmer that he's got a bumper crop on his hands here. Things are going very well for him. He's got all this grain, all this fruit. I've seen, you can always tell if farmers are doing well when they start building back where I'm from when they start building brand new grain bins. So if you see, it's always the talk of the county, right? When somebody puts up huge grain bins like this guy did, like, oh, that guy must be doing pretty good. You know, all the neighbors are talking about it and everything. But this is what this guy is doing. So he needs bigger barns, bigger grain bins. So he says he's going to build greater. You say, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? He's got all this fruit, all these things. What's he supposed to do? Just let it go to waste. Well, let's keep reading and you'll start to see what's wrong with it. Look at verse 19. And then, so he's going to build these big barns to put all his fruit in, all his crop in. And then in verse 19 is where it kind of all goes bad. It says, 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. He's like, hey, I'm going to retire. Is what he's saying. I'm going to retire now. And what I'm going to do for the rest of my life is I'm just going to be on perpetual vacation for the rest of my life. I'm going to eat, drink, and be merry. Look at verse number 20. God doesn't seem to like this. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at what the problems are with this man, how it applies to what people do today. And then try to not make these same mistakes ourselves. This is why these things are in the Bible. Folks, look at verse 20. But God said unto him, thou fool, this night thou soul shall be required of thee. When those things, when, then, though, whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So God basically saying when he says thy soul is going to be required, he's like, I'm, you're dying tonight is what he's saying. He's like, I'm killing you tonight. And he's like, then who's going to get all your stuff? Is basically what he's saying. All your fruits and your barns and all these things, he's like, when you're dead tomorrow, he's like, who's going to get all your stuff? You don't know. You don't know who's going to get all your things. Turn to Daniel chapter 4. Look, this is kind of the idea that you see with modern day retirement today. Is people just storing up all these goods and they're just going to eat, drink, and be merry for the rest of their lives. But God took this pretty seriously. So we want to look at why God was so angry at this farmer and make sure that we don't make the same mistakes ourselves. Okay, look at Daniel chapter 4. There's another story like this in the Old Testament. Daniel chapter 4 in the Old Testament. There's one more story about King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament that is very similar to this story of this farmer in Luke chapter 12. Look at Daniel chapter 4. Look at verse number 30. So Daniel has just interpreted some dreams for Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is blessed by God with the presence of Daniel amongst other things. And he's just this great king, this great, by great, I mean this powerful king, this powerful emperor of this, of this, you know, the empire of Babylon. And I believe that Nebuchadnezzar at this point is actually saved. So I believe Nebuchadnezzar was a saved man, you know, largely through the influence of Daniel, by the way. Daniel was a great man in the Bible, of course, and through his influence, I believe King Nebuchadnezzar was saved. Look at verse number 30 of Daniel chapter 4. So he's just been blessed by Daniel and God's blessing him, interpreting these dreams for him. But then in verse 30, the king spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to the it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. In that same instant that he said that in verse number 30, the kingdom was taken away from him. I mean, we need to pay attention to what these two men did wrong and make sure that we don't repeat this same mistake. Look at verse 32. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as an ox, and seven times shall pass over thee, times meaning years. I'm talking about seven years this is going to happen to him. And until thou know that the most high ruleeth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whosoever he will. So you notice the my and me and the things that I did in verse number 30. And God says, no. He's like, I'm going to make you lose your mind. You're going to be out crawling around with the cattle. You're going to be, not only is the kingdom taken from you, I'm taking civilization from you. And tell you know where those things came from. And tell you know whose kingdom it is. God's going to teach this man a lesson. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven from men. And he did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws. Look, this is serious. In verse number 12, like the man was killed by God in Luke chapter 12. And in Daniel chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar's mind was taken from him. Look, it's all restored to him after he goes through this chastisement, and he recognizes the error of his ways. At least he wasn't killed. But this is a pretty harsh punishment that his kingdom was taken away from him. And you know he was literally driven to be a madman for seven years. I mean just listen, he's living like an animal you know for a long period of time here. So the sermon this morning I want to talk about are problems with modern day retirement. Problems with modern day retirement. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at do a Bible study and I'm going to show you the problems with modern day retirement. And then you say well you know shouldn't we save pastor and you know should I never be able to stop working and we'll get to how the Bible says retirement you know should go and what that should look like for the Christian. So look at the modern idea of retirement first and the problems with that according to the Bible. Then we'll look at what the Bible says on what we should do all right. But look I've been watching people retire for years. I've been watching people retire you know for basically for 23 years since I've been working I've been watching people retire. And let me tell you something it's changing. It's changing and it's not changing in a good direction. Retirement today is different than it was you know my remember my grandpa retiring it's different today than it was when my grandpa retired. It's changing. So let's look at a few problems with this idea of modern day retirement. Turn to Genesis chapter 3. Turn to Genesis chapter 3. So the philosophy today what is the philosophy today? The philosophy today is I'm going to work hard for 30 years maybe even 40 years. You know you start working when you're 18, 19, you know 20 years old or whatever. You can work 40 years and you're 60 years old and then you know I'm going to work hard for 30 or 40 years and then I'm going to stave up a stockpile of money just like this guy in Luke chapter 12 and then that's going to support me through the end of my life. All right. Is that what the Bible teaches that we should do? Look at Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. The first point I want to make this morning is that idleness is idleness. It doesn't matter how old you are. Idleness is idleness and in the Bible it is never a good thing. Look at Genesis chapter 3 in verse number 19. So the first point and the first problem with modern day this philosophy that I'm going to work for 30 years and save up the stockpile of money and then I'm going to eat, drink and be married. For the next however many years I live on this earth idleness is bad no matter what the Bible says. Look at Genesis chapter 3 in verse 19. The Bible when God is handing out the judgments from the rebellion of Adam and Eve the judgment he gives to Adam is this. He says in the sweat of thy face shout thou eat bread. For how long though? So Adam and Eve existed in the garden and they were able to just walk through the garden and just everything was just grown for them. It was just right there. There was no toiling. There was no working. There was no laboring for their daily sustenance. They just had everything provided to them by God. God just brought forth the herbs of the garden but now God changes it since they rebelled against him. He says in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread until you're 62 years old and then you can just live on your barns and your stockpiles. Look what he says. He says till thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shall return. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. So you'll notice that God says you're to toil by the sweat of your face you're to eat bread till thou return to the ground. He's basically telling Adam that you're going to be working for your food until the day you die is what he tells Adam. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 9. There's a theme here that I want you to just understand in these couple of verses, these two or three verses I'm going to give you. There's just a common theme in the Bible that I want you to capture. In Ecclesiastes chapter 9 in verse number 9 the Bible says this. It says live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest how long all the days of thy life of thy vanity which he had given thee under the sun. Again he says this all the days of thy vanity for that is thy portion in this life and in thy labor which thou has taken under the sun. So yes he's talking about his wife and vanity the things that you do in your life but what is he talking about? Even when he mentions your labor he's talking about all the days of your life. He's saying that the labor applies to all the days of the life just like the wife part in the first part of the verse. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10. He's saying live joyfully all thy days. There's nothing in the Bible that says work yourself to death for 40 years and then do nothing for the rest of your life. There's nothing in the Bible like that. It's always all the days of thy life. Thy labor all the days tell thou return to the ground. The main point the first point I'm trying to make is it was never intended for man to be idle. Ever. Nowhere in the Bible will you find that. And look the Bible is always true whether people believe it or not. Idleness is bad. Idleness will destroy. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse number 18. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 look at verse number 18. The Bible says by much slothfulness the building decayeth and through idleness of the hands the house dropeth through. This idea is flawed on so many levels. And this is just one level. This idea that I'm going to work hard for 30 years and then do nothing for the rest of my life. Look idleness in 1 Timothy chapter 5 it's talking about the young ladies that are idle and what are they doing? They're just getting into trouble. They're going from house to house. They're being busy bodies. They're gossiping. They're causing problems. This idea that I'm going to work for 30 years and then do nothing for the rest of my life which could be another 30 years by the way. I mean up to God however long that is but I mean if you, I mean typical say you retire when you're 62 or 64 I mean you could easily live another 20 years. Another 30 years a lot of people. And the idea that you're just going to do nothing is a recipe for disaster. All right. Store up enough money and just live on that and drink and be merry for 30 years. It's ridiculous actually. When you even think about it it just it makes me cringe thinking about something like that. I mean I see people that are idle. I don't understand. I don't understand how like you see like a man that just doesn't work and I'm just like what do you do all day? I mean that would make me insane. I can't imagine like hey do nothing for 30 years. Right. But the point is that idleness. Idleness is going to lead to sin. Idleness will lead to slothfulness. Idleness is going to lead to bad things and this is what you need to understand just because you were a hard worker and you weren't idle and you did have good work ethic and you did maybe you accomplished things you know in your secular career or whatever it is it doesn't mean that you can't become lazy. It doesn't mean that you can't become someone who's idle and just fall into sin. And look I mean you're not guaranteed to always be right with the Lord even a saved Christian. And idleness will lead nowhere good. That's the first thing. Idleness is always bad in the Bible. When the Bible talks about your labor it's talking about until you return to the ground. It's not talking about you know a certain period of time. All right. The second point is this. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. I have preached on this so I'm not going to cover this in great detail. But here's the other other thing. This guy in Luke chapter 12 what was he going to do? He's going to put up these barns. He's going to fill these barns. And he had such a good year that he could literally live on that for the rest of his life. And he says you know what I'm going to do now? I'm going to eat, drink and be merry forever. That's what I'm going to do. I mean that's a pretty good year. That's a pretty good year. But then God's like no. He's like I'm going to end your life tonight. And I'm going to teach you a lesson. So the second point is this. And this is what people need to realize. A lot of people don't realize this and people that don't believe the Bible probably don't even know this. But Solomon is such a good example of this because he tried this. He tried this. He tried this to a level that no one has ever tried or will ever try again in their lives. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 2 in verse 17. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 goes through this great list of all the things that Solomon provided for himself. Solomon denied himself nothing. He had riches. He had wisdom. And he's like I got me men singers and servants and he married 600 wives and he had concubines. He denied himself nothing. And he ends with this statement. He says therefore I hated life. You're like what? Because the work that is right under the sun is grievous unto me. For all his vanity and vexation of spirit. He's like it just made me miserable. That's my second point. The pursuit of nothing but leisure will lead to misery. The Bible clearly teaches this and the Bible thought it was so important that we know this that they gave us a man's documented life to explain this to us in the book of Ecclesiastes. Turn to 1st Timothy chapter 5. 1st Timothy chapter 5. Talking about widows. The Bible says in 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse number 6. It's talking about widows. It's widows that are younger than 60 should remarry. And it talks about widows that are over 60. It's just talking about a woman that has lost her husband what the Bible says. But it's saying like a young woman that is not going to... The Bible is telling a young woman that doesn't listen and just pursues pleasure. Look at what it says in verse 6. It says, But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. I mean the Bible is saying that, look, vacation is only vacation and it's only enjoyable. This is what the Bible is saying because it's sandwiched in between work and labor. But people think to themselves they're like you know I really enjoy going on vacation so I want to make my whole life vacation. But you'll be miserable because vacation is only enjoyable because it's a break from something. Because it's a break from that labor. I've seen so many people make this mistake. Like personally I've seen this. We're just like hey, I'm just going to... I'm not talking about Solomon and Ecclesiastes too. I'm glad we have that. But I've seen so many people retire and say I'm going to live a life of leisure for the next 30 years. I've got it all planned out and they end up miserable. They end up going into idleness. They end up going into drunkenness. They end up literally... I've seen people actually literally ruin their lives and the lives of their families because of this philosophy. Completely destroyed. Completely destroyed just because I just want to be on vacation for 30 years. It's a false... It's a false and wrong philosophy and we ought to have nothing to do with it. The third point is this. This idea of modern-day retirement. Turn back to Luke chapter 12. Turn back to Luke chapter 12. Turn back to Luke chapter 12. The problem with modern-day... The modern-day philosophy of retirement is idleness is always bad. Is that the pursuit of leisure will lead to misery. The pursuit of nothing but leisure will lead you to misery. And the third one is this. It is just rooted and based in selfishness. And you say, Why was God so upset with this rich man? This is why. Because he was rooted and based in selfishness. That's why. It wasn't that he had a good crop. God doesn't care about that. God wasn't upset that he had a good crop. Look at verse 21 of Luke chapter 12. Let's read verse 20 again. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then who shall those things be? Which thou hast provided. Even Solomon. Even Solomon brings that up. He brings that up all throughout Ecclesiastes. He's like, You're going to save up all this stuff and pile up all this stuff. And Solomon's just like, You can't take it with you. It's just going to go to other people. Many of whom you don't even know. It's what Solomon is trying to get you to understand. That's exactly what God is telling this rich man. He's like, Except you rich man, You're not going to enjoy it for one day. He's like, I'm taking it from you. And it's just going to go to those you don't even know. The problem was he was rooted and based in selfishness. Look at verse 21. It says, So is he. God is explaining now the problem here. He's saying, So is he. He's saying, Anyone that does this is a fool. God says. That do what? That layeth up treasure for himself. And is not rich towards God. That's a logical statement there. That's a logical statement. That doesn't mean God says, Oh, you know, Every rich man is bad. It says, He that lays up things for himself and is not rich towards God. Look, I don't believe that that just means that's just talking about rich money and material things. He's talking about being rich towards God with what? Your life. And I'll prove that to you in the Bible in just a few minutes. Modern day retirement in this philosophy that I'm going to work hard for a few decades and then just pursue leisure for the last, you know, Third of my life is not biblical at all. Nebuchadnezzar had the same problem. He was just what was it in verse number 30? It was just me. Look what I've done. Look what I built just saving piles and building buildings. No purpose, but the pursuit of these things and this kingdom for what from self. That's what upset God so much just admiring those piles. Jacob and I go when we go out camping and fishing every Thursday night or many Thursday nights. If we get done and cleaned up in time, we go to the we go into town and we go to this restaurant. And it's just we're like we walk in there and we're dirty and we smell like fish and it's kind of funny because it's kind of, you know, it's kind of a neat place, but it's just nothing but retired people coming in there and me and Jacob. And I've heard so many different conversations of retired people. They come in usually and in pairs like a couple and then they have a couple, you know, that's their friends. And all of these conversations, it's crazy how similar they all are. It's just these people, they sit down and they just talk about they're just comparing their piles is what they do. They sit there and they compare their piles of, you know, of their their wealth and their riches or many times, you know, you'll find one retired couple who's kind of the kind of have a beta friend retired couple and they just tell them about their piles and the other couple is just like, oh, that's great. I mean, they just compare just like Nebuchadnezzar their cars their houses and all the great things that they've accumulated. It's the whole conversation. I'm just like, it's it's it's mind blowing to me. It's mind blowing to me. So look, it's rooted and based in selfishness and that should not be us. You say, well, pastor, what what what should we do? I mean, just never retire, spend all our money. What's the answer? What's the biblical answer? I agree. This isn't biblical. The stuff that you're talking about Luke chapter 12. God was clearly upset with that. Daniel chapter 4. God clearly judged and chastised Nebuchadnezzar for that. But what's the answer for us is saving bad? Turn to Proverbs chapter 21. Is saving bad? Is saving, you know, money that you make? Is that a bad thing? Look at Proverbs chapter 21. So let's look at what the biblical answer is. For us, Proverbs chapter 21. Look at verse number 20. The Bible says there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise. But now I really want to focus on the last part of this proverb where it says, but a foolish man spendeth it up. The Bible here is saying that it's a foolish thing to just spend everything that you have. That's a fool. So we don't want to be fools. Right? Look at Proverbs chapter 21. Look at verse number 17. Just a couple verses back. It says, he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. So the Bible here is saying that, you know, if you love wine and oil and then if you just combine that with verse number 20, it's like you're just spending it all up on those things. It's like that's a foolish thing to do. So the Bible here is saying don't go and just spend all your money. So note, saving is not bad. Saving is actually very biblical. Saving is a biblical thing to do. You shouldn't spend all your money. Look, this is something that we all need to be teaching our kids because it's a major problem today too, especially in our country. I've taught my kids and you need to teach your kids this from a young age. My kids have heard me say this a billion times. It's like you need to live on 80% of what you make. I tell my kids that all the time. It's very biblical. You need to live on 80%. Why? And look, if you can get to 70%, that's even better. I tell my kids that you say, why are you just making up philosophies? No, this is very biblical today. The Bible says go to Proverbs 22, one chapter over. I always tell the kids you need to live on 80%. 70% is better. And look, why 70%? Why 80%? Because 10% goes to God, 10% goes to the Lord and 10% you save for yourself. And then you live on 80%. If you look, if you're saving 10%, especially if you've got a family with kids, if you're saving 10% of your income, I feel like you're doing pretty well. But you can't live on 100%. Many people live on 120% of what they make. But what I'm really saying, I said to the kids, I've said this phrase, this statement to the kids 100 million times in my life. I said, if you have savings, you have options. If you have no savings, you have no options. And that's biblical. Look at Proverbs 22 and look at verse number seven. Proverbs 22 and verse number seven. You need to teach your kids this because like, I was never taught this as a kid. You know, I had to go through and make some mistakes in my life before, you know, I saw the biblical, you know, philosophy behind this. But what I really mean is this, when I say to the kids, if you have savings, you have options. If you have no savings, you have no options. What I mean is Proverbs 22.7. That's what I'm trying to teach them. The Bible says the rich rule with over the poor. Now, we shouldn't want to be rich. Okay. And we'll get to that in just a minute. But look at the last part of this. It says the borrower is servant to the lender. This is true whether you believe a word of the Bible or not. This is true no matter what point of time, what point of history that you've lived in. You say, you say pastor, you know, slavery is illegal. No, it's not. You go borrow much money. You're a servant. You go and do a bunch of debt. You will be a servant. Look, saving. And that's why saving is biblical because you look at borrowing. Borrowing, the Bible says borrowing will drive you into servitude. It will drive you into servitude. And the Bible here is saying is that the borrower is servant to the lender. That's true no matter what. The Bible here is saying that's why you should save because saving is the opposite of borrowing. Saving is the opposite of borrowing. And that's true whether you believe it or not. Now, the problem with this country is that we live in a debt-based society. The way that our country operates, this is kind of a hard way to operate today in the United States. To save instead of borrow. But look, like unsecured debt should be avoided at all costs. Blanket statement. What do I mean by that? Things that you just have nothing to show for. Like credit cards, all these types of things. Unsecured debt should be avoided at all costs. But you can still become a slave to a house. You can still become a slave to, you know, a car payment or multiple car payments. Saving is the opposite of borrowing, folks. And our society is a, the system is designed against this. We have a government that just does nothing but borrow. They save nothing. All they do is borrow. They borrow so much, they can't even pay the interest on what they borrow. And they just keep making more money and making more money and making more money. But then they offer all this cheap money to everybody so everyone can just take out, you know, cheap loans. So they literally reward debt. And what does that do? That's why our country is a country of servants. They say, no, we're free. Not if you have tons of debt, you're not. That guy driving a $90,000 pickup where he can't afford to go in and, you know, even pay his rent or can't afford to buy a home. Like, he's a slave to that pickup. He's literally a servant to it. But that should not be us. I had a friend like this. I had a friend like this who operated his philosophy. I literally, I used to, I drove to work with this guy. We carpooled almost an hour and a half every single day. Very nice man, very nice guy. And he just was, he was this kind of guy, his life philosophy was, if I can afford the payment, I'm going to have it. And he had the nicest things you'll ever see. He had every possible toy you could possibly even think of wanting. And he's like, hey, you know, he's like, I don't, you know, he kind of told me, he's like, because I asked him one day, I was like, how do you sleep at night? How do you put your head on your pillow when you have all this debt? And he said, he's just like, hey, you know, I don't like going to work. It's kind of a missed philosophy here. He's like, I don't really like my job. He's like, so, you know, as long as I can afford, you know, the payments on things, that's one thing I get from this job. I'm going to have nice stuff. That's basically what his philosophy was. But look, that should not be us. Because the Bible is saying, look, that's just going to drive you into servitude. But look, here's the thing. The Bible is saying, saving operate on 80%. Just like I tell the kids, operate on 80%, 70% is even better. Operate on that much. Don't spend much less than you live on. But that should be a lifestyle. That should be a lifestyle. Not something you do for 20 years, and then stop doing. It should be something that you do all your days. See, this isn't the difference. This is the difference between what the Bible says and what people are teaching today. Saving is something you should do all your days. But guess what? If you live a biblical life in America today anyway, this could be different in different countries. But it's quite possible that if you live a biblical life and live on less and save and give God what is God's and do not steal from God, look, you're eventually going to have assets. You're eventually going to have savings. You're going to have things. That's not what was bad. Nebuchadnezzar had empires. He had an empire. He had houses. He had all these things. The rich man was rich. He had all these fruits and all these things to fill these barns. That wasn't the problem. The problem was he wasn't rich towards God. The problem was Nebuchadnezzar was putting it all on himself that he did these things. He was not giving glory to God. The same problem that the rich man had. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. So there's two problems. So as you get that pile, as you get some savings from living according to what the Bible says, the point is this. The things that we have to be careful about is not letting those savings and not letting those things that God has given us change us in a bad way. And there's two points that we have to be careful about here. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, in verse number 9, we see the first point. The first one is this. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. That means those that want to be rich. If you're living this biblical lifestyle because the Bible says that you should not borrow and that you should save and that you should be responsible so you don't want to be a servant, as the Bible told you. And you start living this so you're going to get some savings but you should never have this desire to be rich. Look, that was me in my 20s. I'll confess my faults to you right here. That was me in my 20s. I thought success in life meant financial. That's what I thought it meant. That's what I measured. That's what I measured success in life. You know, I thought if I could get that, get so far in my career and get so far, you know, with my assets and all these things. And look, this is how people live today. This was my philosophy when I was in my 20s. I thank God that's not my philosophy anymore. But the Bible says you should not have a desire to be rich. If you end up, first of all, rich is a relative term. Rich is a relative term. Nobody can even define what rich is. You know, everybody in this room is more rich than 90% of the world in this country. But we should not desire to just have these piles. If they end up there, they are blessings from God, you know, for obeying what he tells us to do and praise God. But the second point is this, we better be rich towards God. We better be rich towards God. That was the problem with the rich man. He laid up treasure for himself. He wasn't rich towards God, which leads to my last point. So savings, or my next point, I'm sorry, savings is a good thing, okay? That was the first point of what the Bible says. Savings is a good thing. The Bible tells you, save. The Bible warns against borrowing. I don't think anybody wants to be a servant. So the Bible gives us that warming. The second point is this, what the Bible says. The Bible says you should labor all your days. The Bible says labor all your days. Look, you can become a bad person, folks. You can become a lazy person, a self-centered person. I don't care how good you were at your job. You can become a greedy person. You can become someone who just follows biblical principles in your life. You work hard. You support your family. Pretty soon, you start getting this accumulation over here, and pretty soon, all you do is you just focus on this accumulation. And look, you just become a greedy person. That's the whole point that started the parable in Luke chapter 12, was warning against covetousness. Meaning, the desire to be rich, the desire to want to be that thing. So you're saying, what, really, Pastor? The Bible is saying that I can never retire from my job, that I have to labor my whole life? Like, what? No, that's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying. But what you understand, and the reason I had saving as the first point, because what is saving going to do for you? Saving and not borrowing, the opposite of saving, is going to free you. It's going to make you a literally free person. And from there, your labor, your labor should transition from what you have to do to what you have a desire to do, which, for the Christian, should be desiring to labor for the Lord. You must never stop having a reason to get up every morning. I will never stop working. As long as God, look, as long as God allows my legs to still work and my feet to still work, I am going to be soul-winning. As long as God allows my brain to still function, to be able to give the gospel to somebody, I am going to do that. This is another mistake that people make. They do nothing, and they destroy themselves, including their body, by the way. Ships and men rust in port, which leads to my last point. Turn to Matthew chapter 9. Or actually, it's in Luke 12, but just go ahead and go to Matthew chapter 9. You must have a purpose all your days. You should save all your days. You should labor all your days. But as you save and get more free, that labor should be what you want to do. And hopefully, if you're a Christian that's right with the Lord, that is going to be laboring for the Lord. You should have purpose all your days is my third point. Notice how all the biblical points are all your days. Notice how the Bible doesn't say, for this part, do this, and then this. No, the Bible is like, all your days do these things. And this is really for the saved. But here's the thing you need to understand, folks. You need to have a purpose now. I've even seen Christians who are like, you know what? I just need to focus. I've seen Christians do this. I need to focus on my career. And I need to focus on making money just for these next few years. And then after that, I'm going to serve the Lord. It never works out that way. Never. Then, then I can do great things. Go to Matthew chapter 9. Go to Matthew chapter 9. Look at verse 37. See, the Lord doesn't need money. The Lord needs bodies. That's what the Lord needs. Yeah, you know, you're supposed to tithe and you're supposed to give 10%. But the Lord needs labor. The Lord needs labor and He needs it now. Look at Matthew chapter 9. Look at verse number 37. Verse number 37. The Bible says, Then He saith unto His disciples, The harvest is truly plenious. But the what? The laborers are few. He's saying the people that go out and do the work is few. He's not saying like the money is not there. He's saying the laborers are not there. We need, we need man hours is what the Bible is saying. Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth what? Laborers into His harvest. He needs laborers now. That's why in Ephesians chapter 6 when it talks about the gospel, it says your feet are shod with the gospel. He needs people to actually go with the gospel to do, look, to do the work folks. And look, that should be all your days that you can do it. I mean, you say, well, you know, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm that young anymore. You know, that's relative too, by the way. Moses didn't get started till he was 80. So, you know, but this is why for the unsaved, retirement is such a disaster so many times. For the unsaved, retirement, especially the modern philosophy of retirement can just be a complete train wreck that literally just ruins people because they don't have this purpose. You see? They don't have this purpose. See, for the unsaved secular person who's just not saved, when they were working and they had a career, at least they had some purpose. You know, they're supporting a family, they're, you know, they're working at some career and they're accomplishing something and that, you know, for the man that's worked for however long, you know, he's had some career that was some sort of purpose and then retirement into nothing. It's a disaster. This is why, because you're always supposed to have purpose. And if you're not saved and you're not a Christian that knows ultimately, I mean, what's the meaning of life? If you don't know that, you know, you could go from, you know, some secular purpose of a career to this nothing burger that ruins your life. Seen it again and again and again. I actually knew a guy like 15 years ago. The guy was like 62, 63, 64. He was at retirement age and the company came and they presented a big buyout to anybody that's from like 60 years old and up. They're going to give you like three times your yearly salary. All the guys who were getting ready to retire were like, yes. And most of the guys that were over, you know, in that window that the company allowed them to get that payout to leave. Companies do this all the time. Most of the people left but this one guy, I asked him one day, we're out in the plants and I asked him, I was like, you know, I heard you weren't taking the nut that it's in my business but I heard you were going to stay. And he said, yeah, you know, he's like, I know it's the good money and all this and he's like, I just don't know what I would do. And you know, I thought to myself, that's a reason. He recognized, he recognized that this is his only purpose. And he just didn't know what he'd do. So he just stayed there. Kind of like, you know, you ever heard of the prisoner that just spends his whole life in prison? I don't know if this is just a cliche or if it's actually ever happened. This prisoner that spent his whole life in prison and they're actually afraid they don't want to be released after 40 years. He's like, I don't know what I would do. But this guy recognized that. This guy recognized it like, hey, I wouldn't have a purpose when I leave this place. So I'm just going to stay. He's probably, maybe he's still there. I don't know. But it's better to do that than to just leave and just have no purpose and just rot away or just get into just change and just become a wicked human being, which I've seen that as well. But you know what, folks? Really, that's the beauty of the Christian life. That's the beauty of being saved that's the beauty of the Christian life because I did mention that, hey, you know, if you do things the way the Bible says and you save and you don't spend all your money and you're smart and you work hard, you know, in this current environment in this country, you're going to make it. You know, you're going to be able to support a family. You're going to have a couple of nickels to rub together at some point. But hey, I'll be taken away. Things could change tomorrow and you lose everything. But the beauty of the Christian life, the beauty of the Christian life is this. No matter what happens to your bank account, no matter what happens to your retirement account, whatever happens to your balance sheet, whatever that means. And look, folks, there's going to be good years and there's going to be bad years with your balance sheet. Whatever happens, the Christian life doesn't change. Our purpose doesn't change. Matthew 633, the Bible says it also says this in Luke 12, summarizing the story. It says, you know, no matter what happens to your balance sheet, it doesn't change your purpose on this earth as a Christian, as a saved believer. The Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Oh, what things? Everything. Everything you're going to wear, where you're going to live, all these things. It's just, that just comes with it. God says, just don't worry about those things. We'll add those things. But then you don't go focus on those things and chase those things. But all we have to do is just keep seeking the kingdom of God. That's it. Keep soul winning. Keep serving the Lord. No matter how long we live. And it's never too late. It's never too late. It's this serve myself now and the Lord later is complete folly for the Christian. But actually that's what retirement is today for many. It's just, for the rich man, for Nebuchadnezzar, it's just serve myself forever is what it turns into. And look, God doesn't respond well to that. So for the Christian, what's the difference? The Christian is to be doing it all now. It's to be doing it all the days of your life, living responsibly all the days of your life. You know, laboring for the Lord all the days of your life. And as you get more and more free, you can labor more and more for the Lord. But as long as I can speak, as long as I can think, as long as I can walk, I'm going to be laboring for the Lord in my life. That's what God wants. And you know what, if it ends up where next year I don't have a penny or some disaster hits to me, you know what, I can still be rich towards God. I can still be rich towards God. With what? With my labor. With my labor and with my love. Because look, we're saved. We're saved and we're going to talk about this tonight. And since we have that, that's a wealth that no one can ever take from us in our lives. So this is the difference between modern-day retirement and what we're supposed to do as Christians. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.