EP38 Stay Ready: Luke 12 and the Seeds We Plant

Luke 12 reminds us to live ready for the Master’s return, to guard against greed, and to trust God with our lives. In this episode, we walk through Jesus’ powerful words, hear a personal story about a friend, and see how God works in unseen ways to draw hearts to Himself.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
The wooden cricket. Welcome, welcome.
Welcome back to the Whittick Cricket Podcast.
I'm your host, Lawrence. I'm so glad you're here today.
Today is a little bit different.It might sound windy.
You might hear some banging stuff in the background.
I'm in northern Ontario's camping music festival thing,

(00:28):
and I really want to make sure Igot this out.
So I tried to find a place to charge my phone and my battery
pack, and I got that all done. So now here I am, people are
tearing this this place down. It's beautiful.
It's beautiful, everybody, God'sjust beauty, nature.
It's it's incredible. So today is a little bit
different. I hope it all works out.
If it doesn't workout, I'll try and put some back after and

(00:51):
maybe we'll just have two on Monday.
But I really hope this this, this gets out today.
So we're going to go over Luke chapter 12.
It's a powerful call from Jesus to live watchful and to trust
God and to let nothing in this world pull us away from Him.
These aren't just ancient words on a page.

(01:11):
They're urgent living truths forus right now.
And today as we walk through this chapter, I'm going to share
a personal story about my best friend just just happened.
And it actually made me want to change the ending of the podcast
today. And and it's really just how God

(01:32):
reminded me that he's always working even when we don't see
it. That's incredible.
Anyways, so we're again Luke chapter 12 of the NLT Bible, and
I'm going to try and do this away from this highway over
here. Yeah, alright, verse one.

(01:57):
Meanwhile the crowds grew until thousands were milling about and
stepping on each other. Jesus turned first to his
disciples and warned them. Beware of the yeast of the
Pharisees, their hypocrisy. The time is coming when
everything that is covered up will be revealed and all that is

(02:18):
secret will be being known to all.
Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light.
What you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted
from the housetops for all to hear.
Jesus is beginning here with a warning, not to the crowds, for
to his disciples. Hypocrisy spreads quietly but
changes everything it touches. The life of faith is not about

(02:41):
looking wholly on the outside while hiding sin on the inside.
One day every hidden thing will be brought to light.
Verse four with your friends. Don't be afraid of those who
want to kill your body. They cannot do anymore to you
after that. But I'll tell you whom to fear.

(03:03):
Fear God, who has the power to kill you, then to throw you into
hell? Yes, He's the one to fear.
What is the price of five sparrows?
2 copper coins it God does not forget a single one of them and
the very hairs on your head, They're all numbered, so don't

(03:23):
be afraid. You're more valuable to God than
a whole flock of sparrows. This isn't terror.
This is holy reverence. The same God who has the
authority over life and death also values you deeply, Values
me deeply. Each and every one of us He
values deeply. He knows the number of hairs on
your head. You matter to Him.

(03:44):
He knows everything about you. Verse 8 I tell you the truth,
everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son
of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God's angels.
But anyone who denies me here onearth will be denied before
God's angels. Anyone who speaks against the

(04:06):
Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy
Spirit will not be forgiven. And when you were brought to
trial in the synagogues and before rulers and authorities,
don't worry about how to defend yourself or what to say, for the
Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what needs to be said.

(04:30):
Following Jesus is not meant to be hidden friends.
When we stand for Him, even whenit costs us something, He
promises to stand for us and with us.
Verse 13 Then someone called from the crowd.
Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our Father's state
with me. Jesus replied, Friend, who made

(04:54):
me a judge over you to decide such things as that.
Then he said beware, guard against every kind of greed.
Life is not measured by how muchyou own.
Then he told them a story. A rich man had a fertile farm
that produced fine crops. He said to himself, What should

(05:15):
I do? I don't have room for all my
crops. Then he said, I know I'll tear
down my barns and build bigger ones.
Then I'll have room enough to store all my wheat and other
goods. And I'll sit back and say to
myself, my friend, you have enough stored away for years to
come. Now take it easy, eat, drink and

(05:37):
be merry. But God said to him, You fool,
you will die this very night. Then who will get everything you
work for? Yes, a person is a fool to store
up earthly wealth but not have arich relationship with God.
Wealth isn't wrong, but making our treasure is dangerous,

(06:02):
right? The question is, are we building
our own Kingdom or are we building towards God's Kingdom,
right? Verse 22 then turning to his
disciples, Jesus said that is why I tell you not to worry
about everyday life, whether youhave enough food to eat enough
clothes to wear for life is morethan food and your body more

(06:25):
than clothing. Look at the Ravens.
They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God
feeds them and you're far more valuable to Him than any birds
can. All your worries at a single
moment to your life. And if we can accomplish a
little thing like that, what's the use of worrying over big
things? Look at the lilies and how they

(06:48):
grow. They don't work or make their
clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory was
not dressed as beautifully as they are.
And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today
and thrown in the fire tomorrow,He will certainly care for you.
Why do you have so little faith?And don't be concerned about

(07:09):
what to eat and what to drink. Don't worry about such things.
These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over
the world. But your Father already knows
your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above
all else, and He will give you everything you need.
So don't be afraid, little flock, for it gives your Father

(07:34):
great happiness to give you the Kingdom.
Sell your possessions and give to those in need.
This will store up treasure for you in heaven, and the purses of
heaven never get old or develop holes.
Your treasures will be safe. No thief can steal it and no
moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is,

(07:56):
there's desires of your heart will also be when God is our
treasure, our hearts are anchored in eternity.
When we focus first on God, on Jesus, you know, that makes all
of the, the wealth and nonsense and cool little gadgets and
things that you can have, you know, become very insignificant.

(08:18):
I mean, I've experienced that personally in my own life.
Moving on, verse 35, be dressed for service and keep your lamps
burning as though you were waiting for your master to
return from the wedding feast. Then you'll be ready to open the
door and let him in. The moment he arrives and
knocks, the servants who are ready and waiting for his return
will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, He himself

(08:42):
will seek them, put on an apron and serve them as they sit and
eat. He may come in the middle of the
night or just before dawn, but whenever he comes, he will
reward the servants who are ready.
Understand this, if a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was
coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into.

(09:03):
You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will
come when you least expected. You know this passage about
readiness? It really hits me in a personal
way. One of my best friends, his name
is Kelly, and he's more like a brother, really.
He's married to him, to an amazing woman named Kayla.

(09:24):
They have three incredible kids,Alia, Antonio, and my godson
Theo, and Kelly's a paramedic. He's seeing things that most of
us will never ever see in our lives.
And I think those experiences maybe a help shape how we see
his life and what comes after it.
Anyway, he told me once about a man who is working on power

(09:46):
lines and got hit with a bunch of electricity and he died.
Like he was really bad. Electricity blew out the bottom
of his feet. Um, they were really able to
revive him with the paddles or whatever they did, you know,
thank goodness. And, you know, afterwards, after

(10:07):
the guys brought back, Kelly hadan opportunity to ask him what
he saw in those moments that they would have had him
clinically dead. And the man said nothing, just
nothing, blackness, until he woke up, until the paramedics,
you know, saved him. When I heard that story, I
thought, you know, personally. Wow, Jesus stepping in in real

(10:30):
time and saving that man's life.But Kelly saw it completely
different. He's like, boom, there's proof
that there's nothing after death.
And he, I think, believed there's a very real conversation
and broke my heart. And you know, I pray for lots of
people as we're supposed to, andpray for him for sure, and his
family. And not just that they be

(10:52):
religious or go to church, but that they developed a
relationship with Jesus that I know is important, that I know
is attainable, that I know is there for everybody.
And then, you know, today it's just something very small
happened. I mean, huge, big to me.
But I think, you know, maybe Kelly would think it's small or

(11:14):
maybe not think too much of it. But I saw that he'd shared a
bunch of the wooden cricket stuff online, bunch of posts,
and he made it real personal andused my name and he's like
really just shared at the time. And it was awesome.
And I thought, you know, we wereeach other pretty good.

(11:35):
And I thought, oh great, he's making fun of me.
And I messaged him to thank him anyway because that's what you
should do. His reply was amazing.
It was. I had no idea that was you
buddy. You're sharing an amazing
message. Keep doing what you're doing.
I'm gonna share this everyday type thing.

(11:58):
And I laughed and then I cried and she tried to not do that
again right now and I can't explain it.
Something I've been praying about for a long time is that,
you know, I just never physically like feel something,
you know? And I've been praying about that

(12:19):
for a long time. And when I saw that he shared it
and I saw that he thinks it's a good message and then it's a
good thing. And I think I saw that for what
it really is. I think that's a seed, you know,
it's tiny real seed in him. And yeah, maybe a small, maybe

(12:41):
it's just a star or maybe, just maybe, you know, Jesus is
already working in my friend's heart.
And that's why we keep praying. You know, why we keep loving.
And that's why we keep shining the light of Christ, because we
never know when these seeds are going to take root and who
they're going to take root in. And it's just, it's, it's, it's
amazing to see verse 41, Peter asked, Lord, is that

(13:03):
illustration just for us or for everyone?
And the Lord replied, A faithful, sensible servant is 1
to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his
other household servants and feeding them.
If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good
job, there will be a reward. I tell you the truth, the master

(13:24):
will put the servant in charge of all he owns.
But what if the servant thinks my master won't be back for a
while and he begins beating the other servants, partying and
getting drunk? The master will return
unannounced an unexpected and hewill cut the sermon in pieces
and banish him with the unfaithful.

(13:47):
And the servant who knows what the master wants but isn't
prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions will be
severely punished. But someone who does not know
and then does something wrong will be punished only lightly.
When someone has been given much, much will be required to
return. And when someone has been
entrusted with much, and more will be required.

(14:10):
I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already
burning. I have a terrible baptism of
suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is
accomplished. Do you think I have come to
bring peace to the earth? No, I've come to divide people
against each other. From now on, families will be

(14:32):
split apart. Three in favor of me and two
against were two in favor and three against father will be
divided against son and son against father, mother against
daughter, and daughter against mother and mother-in-law against
daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against
mother-in-law. Then Jesus turned to the crowd

(14:53):
and said, When you see clouds beginning to form in the West,
you say, here comes a shower andyou are right.
When the South wind blows, you say today will be a scorcher.
And it is, you fools. You know how to interpret the
weather signs of earth and sky, but you don't know how to

(15:13):
interpret the present times. Why can't you decide for
yourselves what is right? When you are on the way to court
with your accuser, try to settlethe matter before you get there.
Otherwise, your accuser may dragyou before the judge will hand
you over to an officer who will throw you into prison.
And if that happens, you won't be free again until you have

(15:33):
paid the very last penny. Luke 12 is a wake up call
really. Hypocrisy, greed, anxiety, all
of them can distract us from what matters most.
And that's just knowing Jesus and being ready for his return
at every moment. But this chapter also reminds us
that God values us deeply, that He is our provider, and that He

(15:55):
is coming again. So let's live ready, not in
fear, but in faith. Let's stay awake to what God is
doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us.
Let's never stop planting seeds,trusting that His timing they
will grow. Thank you for spending this time
with me today. If this episode spoke to you,

(16:16):
share with someone. Remember, stay watchful, keep
your lamp burning, keep your eyes on Jesus because our Master
is coming and His reward is withHim.
I'll see you all next time on the Wooden Creek Podcast.
Until then, this has been Lawrence, and I'm saying who's?