Welcome to this space where I seek to interpret the Scripture and Christian faith accurately through the lens of history—and just maybe uncover some real-world applications even in this modern era!
The video below is a sermon delivered live in worship on Sunday, August 3rd, 2025. It reflects on Luke 12:13–34, exploring themes of anxiety, wealth, trust, and the kingdom of God through both Scripture and some real-life experiences—namely, oral surgery.
You’re invited to watch the full message in the embedded video below. If you prefer to read along or would like to reference something later, the complete, cleaned-up transcript of the sermon is included in full beneath the video.
When Worry Gets in the Way: Faith, Finances, and a Tooth Extraction
So I had a tooth pulled this week.
And I gotta tell you, it was a little bit like pulling teeth.
This whole week has been…
Well, it’s been quite a week. And it’s not just this one tooth either, actually. This was the second to last, hopefully, appointment in what has become a literal month of dentistry. I think I’m up to five fillings at this point. It’s long overdue. I knew it was coming. Somehow that does not make it better.
And now this tooth getting yanked out of my skull with what is essentially just a more expensive set of pliers…
So, let’s just say that my July 2025 has turned out to be a whole month of repeating this mantra:
Calm down, trust the process, and don’t worry.
The Logic of Worry—and the Fear Behind It
Certain people in my life might attest that I haven’t necessarily been great at that. I mean, there was a minute just this morning when I was certain I saw a dry socket in the gross healing hole where my molar used to be. I’m pretty sure it was just a piece of food… but…
Calm down, trust the process, and don’t worry.
At various points this month, I’ve convinced myself that I have nerve damage, damage to my jawbone, some kind of infection, that I’ll be in chronic pain for the rest of my life, that I’ll have to have another tooth pulled, that I’ll never be able to chew again, that I’ll be medicated forever… that the bone graft they put in that gaping hole is just going to fall out and… honestly I don’t even know what happens then…
The really annoying thing, though, about all of these worries that have plagued my July is that they’re not actually all that far-fetched.
These are all indeed things that could happen. They are complications to the procedures. I mean, these were large, deep fillings. These are complications to the procedures that I’ve had done. And they are not outside the realm of possibility. They are not just products of my admittedly overactive imagination.
You know, just like worrying about having enough in your life to eat or to drink, having shelter, having clothing—it’s not actually paranoid to worry about these things. Just like hoarding away an unexpectedly large harvest rather than selling it or trading it or investing it or even giving it away to those in need, there is a certain logic to hoarding it away for yourself for a rainy day.
By a certain logic, that’s just good estate planning.
The Rich Fool and the Bigger Barns
So, away from my dental issues for a moment, and on we go to our reading from Luke.
“And [the rich farmer] thought to himself, ‘What will I do, since I don’t have room to store all of my crops? … I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have goods laid up for many years; take you ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you… [in other words, tonight, you will die, so what does it matter?]…’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16–21, summarized).
And in contrast, Jesus says to his disciples: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear… But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:22–31 summarized).
The Danger Isn’t Wealth—It’s Worry
So the first thing I want to highlight this morning in this probably familiar passage here is that this farmer is described as a rich man before the exceptional harvest comes in. Or in other words, his farm is already probably doing well. This is not a poor person who suddenly wins the lottery or otherwise strikes it rich. He is already well-off, probably financially secure. His family is probably taken care of.
And I think this is important, particularly to combat any notion out there—and it does exist—that Christians are called to, let’s say, live paycheck to paycheck or anything like that. Financial insecurity can sometimes, in our world, be mistaken as holiness, devout, trusting God. It’s really not any of these things.
And there are certain religious orders out there and certain missionary groups—religious orders that are called to a vow of poverty, and certain mission fields that do run on a donor-to-donor or paycheck-to-paycheck type lifestyle. But I think in all of these cases, there’s always something else behind that. The poverty or the financial instability is not the point in itself. It’s a lifestyle or a mission that just requires certain things. And those things are, by definition, exceptions to the rule. These people’s lives are exceptional.
And the rule, I think, is that financial insecurity is not a holy thing. Nor would I say that financial security is a holy thing. I think these are just states of existence that we all find ourselves in from time to time in life. Sometimes because of the choices that we have made—in which case we should, I think, be encouraged to fix what needs to be fixed and continue what needs to be continued—but also sometimes for reasons that are just beyond our control. Some people are just rich. Some people are just poor. This is the way the world works.
Which is the point in this passage from Luke. We don’t control these things. So STOP WORRYING!
Stop worrying – for instance – that all your teeth are going to fall out because there’s a hole in your mouth.
Hoarding and the Illusion of Control
This is a story about a well-off person making decisions about what to do with the excess in his life. And setting the stage that way is, I think, significant.
Because this is a story not about spending or even having wealth. But about hording it.
what do we do—or what are we called to do—with the excess in our lives? Do we sell the excess in our lives? Do we reinvest it in our community? Do we donate it to those who are more in need? Or do we hoard it away, worrying that we will lose what we have? That one day we will not have clothes or food or lodging, and we’ll therefore need the excess in the future?
I think this parable reminds us that we don’t control the future. That hoarded money can be pillaged, it can be plundered, it can just lose its value for one reason or another. We don’t have any standard behind our currency today. It’s kind of freaky. Any number of things can happen before we’ve even been able to touch what we hoarded away.
So it is really much better, more responsible—holier, perhaps—to use what we have when we do have it. Because we don’t know if we will have it tomorrow.
But again, notice the emphasis in this story, where the problem in the farmer’s thinking actually lies. It’s not in having the wealth. It’s in hoarding it away. It’s in, I would think, the worry. The reason this parable is paired here in Luke with this teaching that appears in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew about not worrying (Matthew 6:25–34).
But it’s this worry that even though I have all that I need right now, in the future, perhaps I won’t. Therefore, I will shut it up in a barn, and then I will feel safe. Until I remember all the ways the barn can be broken into or burned or destroyed by a freak tornado.
Wealth does not equal a safe or anxiety-free life. In many cases, it’s the opposite.
There are such things as financially responsible behaviors—things that are likely to lead to more positive outcomes in the future—and that behavior should be encouraged for numerous reasons. But there is still no guarantee of safety to be found in this world.
And Jesus’s response to this sobering reality is: don’t worry.
The Prosperity Gospel and a Biblical Middle Ground
Now I think one of the places we do get ourselves into trouble with passages like this, where we miss perhaps the full spectrum of their meaning, is that in the last century or so there has been this wholly justified reaction against something that is called the prosperity gospel. You’ve heard that term.
The prosperity gospel essentially teaches that if you really trust in God, if you really believe in God, if you’re a good Christian, if you follow God’s teachings, God will reward you—particularly, reward you financially.
And to be clear, I am not preaching or advocating the prosperity gospel.
However, I am compelled to point out that the critics of the prosperity gospel do have a certain problem in that the underlying themes beneath it are actually very biblical.
By which I mean, they’re repeated throughout the Old Testament over and over again. We are to follow God, keep the commandments, and God will reward you.
Follow God, and God will take care of you.
Which is exactly the message of this passage, too.
You know, Jesus is not telling his disciples, “Learn to go without clothing. Learn to go without food, without shelter, because poverty is somehow innately holy and wealth is innately good… or innately evil.”
Jesus is telling his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God, and all these other things—food, shelter, clothing—will be given to you as well.
In other words, follow God, worry about that, and God will take care of you.
The Real Problem with Prosperity Preaching
Now, to be fair, at a certain point in history, the prosperity gospel preachers weren’t actually preaching the biblical principle that whatever happens in your life, God is there with you and will help you through it.
What they started teaching was: donate all of your money to my church, and that counts as seeking the kingdom of God, and God will treat that donation as an investment fund that offers you like a thousand percent returns every year. Every year that you continue to donate all of your money to my church specifically.
Oh, and don’t worry if it doesn’t work for the first few years. God might need to see a few donations to be sure you’re really committed.
There’s quite a large difference between the biblical foundation—seek the kingdom of God and let other things take care of themselves in your life—and what certain get-rich-quick schemers masquerading as pastors were, and unfortunately still are, preaching.
But now, we have the inevitable pendulum effect. The whole subject of money in the church has become this taboo thing. The very suggestion that financial security might be a blessing from God that is given to certain people as a tool to be used for good—just entertaining that idea automatically tends to get labeled “prosperity gospel” and dismissed.
We’ve moved into this blanket demonization of wealth and the assumption that anyone who is well-off cannot possibly have the best interests of the less well-off in mind.
And this isn’t just a church problem. It is a societal one. We see it, I think, literally every day in our political discourse right now.
But I do wish—at least in the church—we could get back to a more balanced place. Where we recognize that the farmer’s existence as a rich man isn’t the problem in and of itself in the parable. That it is “the love of money,” not the having of money, that “is the root of all evil,” (1 Timothy 6:10).
That the issue is one of priorities.
Where do we put our efforts?
Where do we put our hopes?
To whom do we ultimately trust our security?
What Are We Doing With What We Have?
What do we do with this excess stuff in our lives? If we have wealth, do we use that wealth as a tool to seek God’s Kingdom for ourselves and for others? Or do we hoard it away, afraid to lose what we have?
And if we do not have wealth—which might be my case—but anyway, if we do not have wealth, do we use that reality as the evidence of God’s day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck provision in our lives?
I think what we are ultimately supposed to take from this parable, and especially the way it is paired here in the Gospel of Luke with the teaching about “do not worry,” “do not be anxious” (Luke 12:22–34), is that whatever tools you do have at your disposal—whether your worries in life are financial or, for example, maybe dental—the basic command is the same: to use what you have to seek and to serve God, unafraid of losing it, before all else.
And to just not worry about those things you cannot control. Which is much easier said than done. I am a definite work in progress in this area of life.
But the fact is, my teeth are going to come out the way they come out. If I need to get another one pulled, I need to get another one pulled. Worrying cannot change these things.
And so, not worrying about these things that we cannot control, trusting God with what we do have, and just moving forward—it is something I’m going to try very hard to do in the coming weeks, as all the dental work settles in.
I will leave you with that this morning, along with this just last disclaimer: that if anyone ever tells you, “Donate a thousand dollars to me/my church/my cause and God will reward you with infinite wealth”—it’s a scam. And do not do it, okay?
I would love to hear from you—leave a comment below with your thoughts, reflections, or questions.
Be sure to come back next week for a new message rooted in Scripture, shaped by history, and grounded in grace. And if you’d like to explore more, you can read the rest of my sermons here.
