13 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 part of our father’s things.”

14 Jesus said, “It’s not my job to say which one of you is right and which one is wrong, or what part of your father’s things each of you can have.”

15 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 real life from the things you own, even if you are rich.”

16 Then Jesus told them a picture story. He said, “A rich man had a big garden. He planted lots of seeds there, and they grew into very big plants, and then those plants grew lots of seed food on them. 17 The man looked at it all and said to himself, ‘My sheds are not big enough for all this seed food. Where will I put it all?’ 18 He thought about it, and 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. 19 Then I will say, “Ah. I’ve got lots of stuff now. I’ve got enough in those sheds 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.” ’

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

21 That is a picture story to tell you people this. If you keep money and things just for yourself, and if you don’t use them the way God wants you to, you are stupid.”

54 Then Jesus said to all the people, “Sometimes you look at the sky, and you see big clouds coming together, and you say, ‘Here comes some rain.’ And you are right. 55 And sometimes the north wind blows, and you say, ‘Today will be really hot.’ And again, you are right. 56 But really, you are fools. Yes, you know how to look at the earth and the sky, and work out what the weather is doing. But you don’t know how to look at the things that are happening right now, and work out what God is doing.”