Beware of the Real Estate Robbers

Our text is once again in the Gospel of Luke. But before turning to the text for the morning, we need to read a couple of verses from the Book of Revelation, chapter 2. So will you please turn to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation 2, reading at verse 26:

And he who overcomes and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels, as I also have received from My Father.

And now we turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. Luke 12, beginning to read at verse 29:

And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

In the Gospel of Matthew we read,

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

On November the 15th, 1985, sixty-six-year-old Oscar Loric of Cochran, Georgia, had probably reached the low point of his life. He could easily have said, “This is the pits,” because that’s what it was. You see, Oscar and his fifty-nine-year-old wife, Virginia, were about to be evicted from their seventy-nine acre farm, a farm which had been in their family ever since the Civil War. Unfortunately, Loric owed one hundred twelve thousand dollars to a bank in the city of Cochran, and he didn’t have the money to pay. His farm machinery had already been sold off at auction. But Loric said that he would rather die than be evicted from his farm.

So on eviction day, November the 15th, Loric was joined on his farm by some armed supporters. Some of them wearing camouflage uniforms, some of them carrying military assault rifles. Sheriff Edward Day visited the farm unarmed, and he simply talked with Loric. And the bank agreed to postpone the eviction. Needless to say, this incident attracted nationwide publicity. And one of the people who heard about it was a woman named Linda Dixon who lived in Miami, Florida. Linda had lived in Cochran, Georgia, till she was five years of age. And she thought that she remembered Loric, and she thought that she remembered him as a very kind man who never turned down anybody. Linda’s mother confirmed that they had in fact known Loric in Cochran, Georgia, and that Loric had helped their family as well as helped many other people.

So Linda Dixon stepped in. Guess what she did? She and her businessman husband in Miami purchased the farm for seventy-five thousand dollars. And then they agreed to lease it back to Loric for the remainder of his life for the grand sum of one dollar per month. Now that’s not the end of the story. As a result of the nationwide publicity, contributions had come in to Loric from all over the country. And he had even had a couple of movie offers. And it looked like that he might personally acquire enough money to buy back the farm in his own name.

And here’s a postscript. The NAACP was suing the bank company for failing to follow proper eviction procedures and for failing to credit to Loric’s accounts some payments that he had made. How’s that for a comeback? How’s that for snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat? But let’s face it, not everyone who deals with real estate is nearly that successful. And that’s what I’d like to talk to you about this morning, folks: real estate.

I’ve never preached a message on real estate before. But that’s what I’m talking about this morning. And if you are a Christian, and by that I mean if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the free gift of everlasting life, if you are saved and you are sure that you are going to heaven, let me tell you that you are a potential real estate owner. A potential real estate owner. And the real estate that I’m talking about this morning is so immensely valuable that it can be described as prime real estate. The prime real estate of human history.

But I need to give you a warning. And the warning that I have for you this morning is also the title of my message today. And the warning is this: Beware of the real estate robbers. That’s my title for my message today: Beware of the real estate robbers.

Now I don’t want anybody to look down at your Bibles for a minute or two, okay? If I see you trying to sneak a peek, I may embarrass you by calling out your name, and you wouldn’t want that, I’m sure. I want to give you a quiz on what we just read. The quiz relates to whether Jesus said this.

Question number one: Did Jesus say, “Do not fear, little flock. It is the Father’s good pleasure to let you into the kingdom”? Answer that in your mind, okay?

Question number two: Did Jesus say, “Do not fear, little flock. It is the Father’s good pleasure to allow you to enjoy the kingdom”? Did he say that?

Question number three: In all of my tests there was a throwaway question. This is it. Did Jesus say, “Do not fear, little flock. It is the Father’s good pleasure to rent you the kingdom”?

Well, the answer to that question and the two preceding it, of course, was none of the above. I told you my tests were easy. You have only one more choice, folks. Did Jesus say, “Fear not, little flock. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”? The answer should be yes.

You see, there is a difference between entering the kingdom and being given the kingdom. Anyone can get into the kingdom by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, by receiving from him the free gift of everlasting life. And we can get into the kingdom and enjoy the kingdom that way. But that’s not what the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about here. Jesus is saying it is the Father’s good pleasure to give, give, give you the kingdom.

Say, folks, that’s prime real estate. Because you see, the kingdom is going to cover the entire planet someday. A songwriter has said, “Jesus shall reign wherever the sun does its successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more.” That’s a lot of real estate.

And do you realize that there is a small company of people, a little flock of Jesus’ sheep, to whom God can say, “It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you, give you the kingdom”?

Now I have to confess to you this morning that your speaker is in some respects the black sheep of the Hodges family. My parents met in Washington, D.C., and they lived all the rest of their lives and are still living their lives out on the east coast. And my brother lived his entire life on the east coast. And I’m what you might describe as the prodigal Hodges. I put all my stuff together and I arose and departed into a far country called Texas.

But that’s not the only respect in which I’m unique in the family. I am also the only member of the immediate Hodges family never to own real estate. My parents own their home on Greenwood Hills Bible Conference ground in Pennsylvania. And even my brother Dave owns some property. And my mother tells this very amusing story. Years ago David got hold of one of these promotionals that invites you to come and listen to a sales pitch for a piece of property and guarantees that you will be given a prize. So my brother said to my parents, “This man’s a crook. He won’t give me a prize.” And to prove his point he drove all the way to Fairfield, Pennsylvania, went out to a development area called Shangri-La, and listened to a sales pitch from the developer who said that the lots on this development property could be sold. And then later cabins would be built. It would be a lovely place to come back to your own cabin for a week’s vacation or a few days getaway or a weekend or what have you.

And you know what? My brother not only got his prize, he forked over three thousand dollars for a lot, much to the amusement of my parents. Now the story gets worse. The developer of Shangri-La went bankrupt, and nothing was ever built on Shangri-La. And there sat my brother’s piece of property, good for nothing except to pay taxes on it every year. And when my brother passed away, the property passed into the hands of my parents who did not admire his investment shrewdness at that point. And on the advice of a real estate agent they sold it for whatever they could get for it, which happened to be fifteen hundred dollars. And if you count inflation, that’s much, much less than half of what he originally paid for it. But at least they don’t have to pay taxes on it. And I’m grateful too, because if they had kept it, it would have eventually come to me. And what am I going to do with a lot at Shangri-La except pay taxes on it myself?

So I’ve never, never, never owned property. And my brother’s one venture into real estate was not extremely successful. I don’t want to leave the wrong impression about Dave. He usually was good with his money. And from his estate we actually started Redeemer Viva. But this was one time that he squandered some money on real estate.

And you, I have to wonder how you and I are using our real estate money. Are we investing it wisely or are we squandering it on things that are worthless? Listen to the words that Jesus spoke, beginning the passage that we read a few minutes ago. He says, “And do not seek what you shall eat and what you shall drink. And do not have an anxious mind. For after all these things the nations of the world are seeking. And your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.”

Isn’t it obvious, my friends, that Jesus is talking to us in terms of our priorities? We all have a tendency to pursue our material necessities first and to give those things our basic priority. But if we do that, we’re no different than the unsaved world around us. We’re no different than the nations that are scattered throughout the globe, because they seek these things first. And we should be different, because our Father in heaven knows already that we need these things. So, says Jesus, put your priorities elsewhere. Seek the kingdom of God, and all these material needs will be added to you.

Now it’s odd that I should be talking to you this particular weekend about this particular passage. This was the next passage as I work through the Gospel of Luke. And before I say anything else, I want you to understand that what I’m about to say is not a fundraising appeal. And if any of you are tempted after you hear what I’m going to say to give me money, please do not, because it will embarrass me to have to turn it back to you politely and gratefully. So this is not a fundraising appeal. This is an illustration of the point that we’re discussing.

Tuesday is my payday, as probably Tuesday is payday for a lot of you in the audience this morning. And Tuesday is also the day that my support organization, Krugman Incorporated, is supposed to make a payment to the IRS, a 941 tax payment that comes due every fifteenth. Well, at the end of business on Friday, Krugman did not have enough money to do either of those things. And if we were to draw in five hundred dollars over the weekend, which doesn’t seem too likely, we will be able barely to pay the tax payment.

Now before you get all upset, let me tell you that if Krugman does not pay on Tuesday, it will not be the first time this year that Krugman hasn’t paid. But when I drew my check on or around the first of the month, I was aware of the possibility that there might not be enough money in the account to draw a second check. Now under those circumstances, folks, it can be a little tempting to say, “Well, maybe I won’t write my tithe check just yet. Maybe the money that I normally give to the Lord’s work, I’ll just kind of hold it back to see if things are better at the fifteenth.”

Now for me, and I’m talking only of myself, for me that would have been wrong. That’s contrary to my basic principle. It seems to me that that would suggest that I have my priorities wrong. That I am more concerned to provide for my material necessities than I am to use my real estate money wisely and to invest it in the work of the Lord. And I might add that Victor Street as well as Grace are really the very top of my list when it comes to giving to the Lord. So I believe that my personal practice should be to write my tithe check right up front along with the other checks that I have to write.

Now am I going to be left holding the bag? I don’t think so. Because you see Jesus says, “Seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.” And it’s been a tough year financially. But the Lord has provided. And if you will look up closely in this direction, you will notice that I do not have a resemblance to anyone who is starving to death. In fact, as a matter of fact, when I look in the mirror each day, I wish I had a lot more of the starvation look than I actually have.

But the question is priority. What really comes first in our handling of money? Do we seek the kingdom of God? Do we invest in the kingdom of God first of all or last of all when our needs are met?

Let me introduce you to the very first real estate robber. His initials are W. P., and his name is Wrong Priorities. Wrong priorities. By wrong priorities we can be robbed of infinitely valuable eternal investment in God’s coming glorious kingdom.

Now why seek the kingdom? Well the answer is simple and yet it’s very profound. And we’ve already touched on it already. But please notice that after Jesus says, “Seek the kingdom of God,” he adds this: “Do not fear, little flock. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Why seek for the kingdom of God? Very simple. Because God wants to give it to us. God wants us to have it. Not simply to enter it, which all saved people will do, but to possess it in much the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ will possess it.

But how can we qualify for that? Who is qualified to possess the kingdom of God? Well the next words of Jesus are very suggestive. Notice these words. Jesus says, “Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and where moth does not corrupt.”

You want to possess the kingdom of God? Invest in it. Invest in it by giving.

Now I want to point out to you that the story of Ananias and Sapphira, which you’re probably familiar with, is reported to us in Acts chapter 5. And they lived during a period of the church’s history when Christians were doing literally and exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ specifies here. The Christians of the early church in Jerusalem were selling their property. They were bringing the money that they gained from the sale of their property, and they were giving it to the apostles. And then the apostles were overseeing the distribution of that money to needy people, to the poor.

And you remember the story. Ananias and Sapphira had a piece of property, but apparently they were not too anxious to sell it. But with everybody else in the church selling their property, they felt under pressure to do it, no doubt. And so they did. But then instead of bringing the full sum of the money they had obtained for the property to the apostles, they held part of it back. You know, kind of a reserve against a rainy day. And then Ananias came to Peter and told him that the money that he was presenting to him was the full price of the property.

You know the story. Ananias was struck dead. Three hours later his wife Sapphira came in, and she repeated the lie, and she also was struck dead. Why were they struck dead? Well Peter’s words to them in the exchange he has with both Ananias and Sapphira show they were not struck dead because they didn’t want to sell their property. Peter made it plain that as long as the property was theirs they were under no requirement to sell it. He also made plain to them that after they sold it they could have brought any portion of the proceeds to the apostles that they wanted to.

What was wrong with Ananias and Sapphira was that they played the role of hypocrites. They not only lied to the church but they lied to the Holy Spirit who was working in the church.

Now I say to you that this is the only time in the New Testament that we see the words of Jesus in Luke 12 being worked out in a literal way. And when the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world, there is no evidence that the apostles taught the Christians to sell everything that they have and give to the poor.

So let me be very clear here. Can I? You are not under a requirement to sell all your goods and give the proceeds to the poor. This is not a law that Jesus is laying down. This is wise investment counseling. This is wise investment counseling. And you see the kingdom of God is really designed to be possessed by disciples of Jesus Christ who are generous and unselfish and self-sacrificing.

Some years ago when salaries were a lot lower than they are now, the Russell Sage Foundation did a survey to see where the money came that was going, came from that was going into charities. You know what they found? It’s surprising. They found that sixty percent of the money donated to charity at that time came from families whose income was three thousand or less. And they found that eighty-two percent of the money that was donated to charities came from families whose income was five thousand or less. That included of course the first group. And they found that families with incomes of ten thousand and twenty thousand dollars a year, a lot of money in those days, folks, a lot of money, but families with incomes of ten thousand and twenty thousand a year donated only one point nine percent of all the money given to charity.

You know what happens very frequently? As our income goes up, as our lifestyle goes up, we give less and less. We may give more in terms of total sum, but it is a smaller percentage of what we have than what we were giving before. And I’m afraid that if you were to examine the life of well-off Christians, you might be surprised that percentage-wise they don’t give as generously by a long shot as people who have much smaller incomes than they.

There was a musical concert one time that had concluded, and the musical group was receiving encores. And there were two ushers that were clapping very, very heartily and loudly. And the people that were sitting next to them looked at them with admiration, these two ushers who obviously were music lovers. But then one of the ushers stopped, and the other usher looked at him and said, “Keep clapping, you dope. One more encore and we’re on overtime.”

And you know there are some Christians who are already on overtime. If you talk to them they applaud their lifestyle, but they earn a whole lot more money than they really need to live on. And if you were to examine their portfolio for the future, there’s hardly any portfolio. If you were to look at their money pouches, their spiritual money pouches, they’re small little things that are almost empty. If you were to check out their records in the Bank of Heaven, you would find that their treasure in heaven is meager indeed.

So let me introduce you to the second of the real estate robbers. May I? His initials are G. S., greedy selfishness. Greedy selfishness.

Have you ever seriously considered selling something that you now own to give to those who are needy or to give to the Lord’s work? Maybe it would be worth considering. It might turn out to be one of the very best investments that you’ve ever made.

Well we’re not finished with our rogues’ gallery, are we? We’ve only seen two mug shots. Mug shot number one was W. P., Wrong Priorities. He’s an ugly critter, don’t you agree? And mug shot number two is G. S., Greedy Selfishness. He’s even uglier if that’s possible. But this is a trio of bandits, folks. They work as a team. And even though the third bandit has a kind of a poetic name, he’s the ugliest of them all. His name is called the Thief of Hearts. The thief of hearts.

Did you notice the words that Jesus ended our passage with this morning? He says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And don’t you see that if our lives, financially speaking, are ruled by wrong priorities, by greedy selfishness, our heart has been stolen. And our heart is tied down to the things of the earth instead of set free for the things of heaven and for the things of Jesus Christ.

And I want to tell you that if the real estate robbers had been plundering your financial life, I have a grave question as to whether you will ever be a possessor of the kingdom of God. You see to possess the kingdom of God is to possess it with Jesus Christ. It is to rule and co-rule with Jesus Christ over his kingdom. And that requires obedience and that requires endurance.

And that’s why we read the passage earlier in the hour where Jesus says,

And he who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, to him I will give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and they shall be dashed in pieces like a potter’s vessel, even as I received from My Father.

That’s what it means to be given the kingdom. It means to share the royal power of Jesus Christ. And if you are not a generous, unselfish, self-sacrificing believer, I don’t think you’re going to make it to the end of the race. You’ll get into the kingdom. Your salvation is secure. But this kind of thing requires endurance. And therefore the Apostle Paul said to us, “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.”

In June of 1988 there was a remarkable auction that was held in New York City. It was conducted by a famous auction firm called Sotheby’s. And what was auctioned off were memorabilia connected with some of the famous rock musicians. Would you like to hear some of the things that were purchased? Well somebody bought a bunch of personal effects belonging to Elvis Presley, including a morning wear, a pair of morning wear underwear and a couple of black socks. And they paid sixty-five dollars for that. But that was chicken feed. A Jimi Hendrix Fender Stratocaster electric guitar was sold, and the purchaser paid fifteen thousand four hundred dollars. Someone bought Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics of his song “I Want You,” and for that they paid eight thousand eight hundred dollars. And an ordinary gray wool suit that had belonged to John Lennon went for three thousand three hundred dollars.

What do all those purchases have in common? They have this in common: they are investments in the past and in famous people of the past. And here we are this morning as Christians with an opportunity to invest in the future, in that prime real estate which we call the kingdom of God, and to invest in the future glory of the future hero of the world, Jesus Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.

What am I bid? What do I hear out there? One thousand dollars over a whole lifetime? Or come off it, folks. You got to be kidding. We’re talking the kingdom of God here. Let’s get real. One hundred ten thousand dollars over a whole lifetime? Twenty thousand dollars over a whole lifetime?

You see, my friends, when it comes to the kingdom of God, the really smart bidders always start high.

Shall we pray? Father, help us to take seriously your challenge to lay up treasures in heaven. May we scorn the opportunity to be rich on earth that we might be rich with you. We ask this in Christ’s name, amen.