Luke 12

1 A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, my brother is cheating me. Our father died, and he left his things for my brother and me. But my brother took all those things, and he is keeping them for himself. Please tell my brother to be fair to me and give me my share of our father’s things.”⋮

2 Jesus said, “It’s not my job to say which of you is right or wrong, or what each of you can have.”⋮

3 Then he said to the people, “Think carefully about this. Don’t be greedy. Don’t try to get more things than you need. You can’t get a long happy life from the things you own, even if you are rich.”⋮

4 Then Jesus told them this picture story, he said, “A rich man had a garden. He planted some seeds there, and they grew into very big plants, and then those plants got lots of seed tucker on them.⋮

5 The man looked at it all and said to himself, ‘My shed is not big enough for all this seed tucker. Where will I put it all?’⋮

6 He thought about it, then he said, ‘I know what to do. I will pull down my little sheds and build big sheds, and I will keep it all in those big sheds. And I will keep all my other things in those big sheds, too.⋮

7 Then I will say, “Ah. I’ve got lots of stuff now. I’ve got enough in that shed to last me for a long time. I don’t have to do any work. I can just sit down and eat, and drink, and be happy.” ’⋮

8 But God said to him, ‘You are stupid. You are going to die tonight. Then what will happen to all this stuff in your shed? Who will get it? Not you.’⋮

9 That is a picture story to tell you people this. If you only think about keeping things for yourself, and if you don’t think about getting friendly with God, you are stupid.”⋮

10 Then Jesus said to all the people, “Sometimes you look toward the west, and you see big clouds coming together, and you say, ‘Here comes some rain.’ And you are right.⋮

11 And sometimes the south wind blows, and you say, ‘Today will be really hot.’ And again, you are right.⋮

12 But you are fools. You look at the earth and the sky, and you know how to work out what the weather is doing, but whenever you look at the things that are happening right now, you don’t know how to work out what God is doing.”⋮