Evil's Diabolical "Soul-Killers"; Luke 12:13-21

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 11/19/2023. In the midst of a serious discussion of human responsibility to the Triune God, and the eternal consequences of blaspheming the Holy Spirit; a man abruptly interrupts Jesus with a rude request that He arbitrate a trivial temporal matter. After refusing to do so, Jesus tells a parable of a rich fool who put his trust in worldly goods and failed to be "rich towards God". We will analyze this parable and the wisdom sayings that go with it in the light of Luke's context of spiritual warfare. We will recognize this as another diabolical countermeasure whereby satan attempts to thwart the Gospel. We will also realize that this warning of covetousness parallels Jesus' earlier warning against false religions. We will recognize both of these sins as "soul-killers" that satan uses as weapons to blind people of the very culpability to the Triune God Jesus has just described. Ultimately, we will realize yet a third, implicit "soul-killer" that evil appeals to in tandem with these two-- the all-consuming god of "self".