Parable of the Rich Fool

AIM:    To enforce the Christian virtue of sharing in children, to remind them that wealth and accumulation of goods is not the ultimate goal but to live a life pleasing to God.

Luke 12: 13-21

Once upon a time there was a rich man who had a very big farm.

He grew lots of crops in his farm.

One year, he had a very good harvest,and his workers gathered lots of grain.

The Rich Man was very happy and thought to himself -"How blessed I am! I am Rich!"

But what shall I do? The harvest was so great that I have no room to store it in my barns.

"Oh, no!! I may have to give some away!" That thought made him pretty sad. He wanted to sell all his crop and get a lot of money .

" I know what I'll do!", thought the Rich man

-I will pull down my old barns...

-...and I will build bigger barns!

I will say to my soul,

"Soul, you have many riches stored up for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry!"

But God said to him, "You fool!Tonight you are going to die!What will you do then, with all the things that you stored ?" 

That night he died in his sleep and he had to leave it all behind.

He could not take all those riches with him.

He was foolish – because he made so many plans but God had different plans for him.

Does that sound like us sometimes? How many of us cry and put up a small tantrum for our parents to deal  with , when we don't get things we asked for?  

Do we fight  and complain when I don't get that new toy? or that chocolate with a  toy inside? 

Do I think of how hard my parents work for me? 

We always want more. More toys, More candy, More clothes, more stuff. 

We don’t have to be like this rich man.

There are many people in the world who have very little of the many things we take for granted. 

God loves them too- If God gave me something extra – He wants me to share some of it.

Jesus told us this parable  as a warning not to be greedy.

In the Story if we see the way the man talks he keeps saying, “My Crops, My barns, My Soul” – its all about Me! Me! Me!

Did the farmer get to keep all the extra food he saved up for himself? No.

And that’s why God doesn’t want us to keep too many things for ourselves. He doesn’t want us to be greedy and keep things just for us. He wants us to keep only what we need and then give our extras away so that we can help other people. If we give our extra things or our extra money away to help other people, God will be happy with us.

For example, if I have an extra chocolate – God will not like it – if I hide it and eat all by myself. God will really like it if I shared it with a friend. Particularly, if that friend does not have one.

Likewise, God likes me to share certain things with my friends such as my talents etc.

If I am good in studies, God wants me to use that talent and help my classmate or friend who finds it hard to study!

Jesus is our everything. When we have Jesus, we don’t have to worry about anything.Even if it seems to be less, God will return us back everything so many times more!!

We don't worry about "little things" . Because when we have Jesus, we have everything!

When we have Jesus, we can give what we have generously to others because we know we will never ever have less.. When we have Jesus, He provides all we need. And no one can take Him away from us forever. (Luke 4:33)