Consumerism in the Culdisac

Mark 10:17-25

Mark 10:17–22 (NIV)

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

What was the rich man coming for… Life. He was coming for life.

But what did Jesus say he needed to do to find it? Give.

Matthew 6:19–24 CSB

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Notice again, the issue is not the money. The issue is where we place our hope in.

SEAM: We are in a series about Finding Holy in the Suburbs. How do we find Holiness in the life we live.

Holiness

Now Doctor Al talked about what Hoilness is and looks like last week. It is simply being like Jesus.

The next 2 weeks we are going to be talking about the two obstacles we have to holiness. We are now for a couple weeks going to be talking about the things that keep us from Holiness. Next week, we will talk about idolatry. This week, we are talking about Consumerism.

SEAM:Now real quick…cause I know some of you are already irratated…you are already stopping listening. “O Great, here we go…talking about money...”

THIS IS NOT A MONEY TALK.

This is a talk about a way of living.

SEAM: Now, Consumerism is a big broad term… but we all are influenced it.

What is it?

- In your early 20s you have life figured out. It is the best part of no longer being a teenager. How many of us peaked at 22. I know that was me. I was incredibly intelligent. Wise… I had just retired from acting…where I had achieved so much. Doing what every actor dreams of in local theater and standup comedy that caused people to visibly wince.

I had so much to offer the world. But one thing I lacked. That thing was a relationship. And why did I want a relationship? I was lonely. I wanted to someone to love me. I wanted for And as soon as I told a good friend “ If I could just find her…she could make me happy”.... I found her. Cafe Girl.

She was cute, kind punk rocky…rebellious towards her parents…laughed at my jokes…let me buy her things. It was everything I wanted. I woke up everyday thiniking… how is cafe girl going to make me happy. What was in it for me?

How do you think that relationship went. A year and a half of heartache and pain.

Who was I focused on in that relationship?

What was my goal for the relationship?

That relationship was driven by consumerism… by what I call a desire to aquire.

Really technical Definition.

Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology and Counseling (Consumerism)

A primary characteristic of postmodern society in which individuals excessively attend to acquiring, assimilating, using, experiencing, and creating various objects or simulations of objects.

Simply… it is people with a desire to acquire.

It can be money.

It can be stuff.

It can be experience.

It can be the things we need.

Now notice… what is it focused on… me. Its focused on yourself.

It is about MY Desire to Aquire…for ME

And a desire to aquire for me is going to keep you from Jesus.

SEAM: BUT PATRICK… Consumerism is one of the main characteristics of our market. It is one of the way the world’s work.

Consumerism is what keeps businesses fair. It keeps the focus on the everyday man instead of the business.

Without Consumerism we would have businesses that would discriminate, sell bad products…

And you are right. See…Conumerism in itself is not bad. Consumerism

Good things include

creates a healthy economy.

Creates Jobs

Compitition in the market.

Prevents monopolies and provides lots of different products and services.

But here is the thing. Consumerism is great for the market. It is good for the economy. But it is a terrible way to live life.

A Life driven by a desire to acquire is a terrible way to live.

Not only that… but a desire to aquire will keep you from holiness…it will keep you from knowing Jesus, it will keep you from being like him. If you are driven by a desire to aquire…you will be in opposition to Jesus.

Turn to Matthew 21:13

Matthew 21:12–13 CSB

Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

So what would happen is at the Temple, one of the primary ways of worship was sacrifice. This was how Israel had connected with God…it cleansed them of sin, it payed the price of sin…It is the pre-Jesus way of being able to have a relationship with God because of the brokenness…darkness…sin in our life.

So if you did not have the required animal you could buy one sothta you could have a relationship with God.

And what began happening is people were wanting to not connect people to God…but to get rich...

They had a desire to Aquire… And Jesus is having none of that.

Jesus is literally calling them theives…their desire to aquire had no place in the relationship with God.

Mark 12:41–44 CSB

Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had—all she had to live on.”

Temple treasury was a large box that you would go and drop your tithes and offerings in.

Now see this… the rich people in this passage were giving… at surface level they were giving… But notice 2 things that Jesus says.

First, what they were giving.

They were giving out of the surplus. This was not hurting them. They were not losing anything by giving....what does that reveal.

Second, they still had a desire to aquire…what they were aquire was influence from the people that could see them. The Desire to Aquire is still there.

Now the woman… she gives what she has…she loses something…because she does not have a desire to aquire anything...

Isnt it about the gift? Just that you gave something… doesnt that show you love God.

No.

Luke 16:15 CSB

And he told them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight.

It is not about the money. It is about the heart.

See God knows about our desire to aquire. God sees whats on the inside…our motives.

Paul, while giving instructions to his mentee Timothy says what to do with people that have only a desire to aquire…

2 Timothy 3:2–5 CSB

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.

A Desire to Aquire will keep you from Jesus.

1 Timothy 6:10 CSB

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The Path of Desire to Aquire will lead you away from Jesus…and will lead you to grief.

There is a Law to how the universe works.

What + How = Result.

What you want.

+ How you get it

= your result.

If you want to lose weight and you work out and cut out sugar what is the result?

If you want to get out of debt and you stop using credit cards and spend less than you make… what is the result?

If you want a happy marriage And you spend time with your spouse…sacrificing what you want for what is best for her… what happens.

If you want to have a happy marriage. And you do whats best for you. Whats the result

If you want to be healthy and you never work out…whats the result?

If you want to be like Jesus And you live a life that is all about a desire to aquire… what are you gonna get. probably what you want to aquire.

But

Matthew 6:24 CSB

“No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus is very clear. There is no room for hypotheticals or over exadiration. You cannot love God and Money.

A Desire to Aquire will never get you to Jesus.

Not only does your What +How = your result… but it also determines what you wont get. But alsow what you do not get.

If you want to be healthy +and you work out = you will get healthy…but you wont get sugar. you wont get to sleep in.

Get out of Debt + stop spending money = Wont get to go on that vacation.

Want to make alot of money? Take it to the next level? Gain influence in yoru field? + Put in alot of work… alot of what leadership influencers call grit= You are going to get what you want. When you work real hard…the result is usually money,…influence… Being a big deal.

But you will not get a relationship with your kids. You wont be there to watch them grow up. You wont be a positive figure in your life. You wont have a marriage full of love and affection. The cost of your success will be your family.

We get what we pay for. A Desire to Aquire will get you what you desire…But you will not get other things.

What you are going to have to decide is what you really want.

The world has told you what is important. No matter how much moralizing the culture does…the culture is interested in you being you. It is interested in your happiness. In Stuff. In Influence. Big Lives. Successful Lives.

It is not interested in peace. It is not interested in you being the father or mother that your children need. And it is not interested in you knowing Jesus.

But why do we develop a desire To aquire posture?

Ron and the Child

How many of us are that little child.

How many of us are focused on the desire to aquire…because we do not believe there is anyone there to take care of us.

Matthew 6:31–33 CSB

So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Instead you will need a pour out posture.

Look for ways to give yourself away.

And in a world that is all about you… that is impossible.

But here is the hard part. We have all been trained to believe that it is all about us.

Advertisements 4000-10000 a day.

The advertising of consumerism and the drives of the acquisitive society, like the serpent, seduce into believing there are securities apart from the reality of God.

Walter Brueggemann

Social Media

Relationships

Dating Apps.

Sociologists argue that in contemporary Western society the marketplace has become so dominant that the consumer model increasingly characterizes most relationships that historically were covenantal, including marriage. Today we stay connected to people only as long as they are meeting our particular needs at an acceptable cost to us. When we cease to make a profit—that is, when the relationship appears to require more love and affirmation from us than we are getting back—then we “cut our losses” and drop the relationship. This has also been called “commodification,” a process by which social relationships are reduced to economic exchange relationships, and so the very idea of “covenant” is disappearing in our culture. Covenant is therefore a concept that is increasingly foreign to us, and yet the bible says it is the essence of marriage - Tim Keller

A covenant relationship is exactly the opposite. A consumer relationship says, “You adjust to me, or I’m out of here.” A covenant relationship says, “I will adjust to you, because I’ve made a promise, and the relationship is more important than my needs. My needs are less important in the sustenance of the relationship.”

Timothy Keller

Journalism

Politics

Church.

Consumer Christianity is now normative. The consumer Christian is one who utilizes the grace of God for forgiveness and the services of the church for special occasions, but does not give his or her life and innermost thoughts, feelings, and intentions over to the kingdom of the heavens. Such Christians are not inwardly transformed and not committed to it. - Dallas Willard

The LIFE FROM GOD posture is so appealing because it doesn’t ask us to change. What we desire, what we seek, what we do, and how we live—all shaped by consumerism—are not disrupted. Our values and way of life are simply projected onto God and incorporated into a religious system in which we receive divine assistance to meet our desires.

Skye Jethani

All this reveals that consumerism is more than an economic system—it is a belief system. Consumption has come to define our lives, our government, and even our spirituality.

Skye Jethani

Jesus

If you want Christlikeness you will have to do what Christ did.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 CSB

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.

Jesus’ entire life was not lives with a desire to acquire. He had pour out posture.

You and I need adapt a pour out posture.

We have to lose the deire to aquire.

We need to stop asking the question “Whats in it for me, but instead as “Whats in it for him?” Whats in it for them?”

We need to stop looking at what I want, and find ways of giving up what we have…who we are.

Matthew 20:28 CSB

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus did not come because it sounded fun. He did not come because it would be a good time and he would be able to get something out of it.

Jesus came to Serve.

He came to give himself up.

Our lives need to overflow out onto other people.

Seam: Now there is a tension that we will have to manage. A pour out posture needs to make sure that it has something to pour out.

An empty cup cannot overflow onto the people around us. And the more empty that we become, the less we can love and serve those around us.

Jesus gives us simple instruction of how to make sure that we stay filled, even when pouring out.

John 15:4–5 CSB

Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

In order to keep a pour out posture we need to remain in Jesus. Like the Branch of a vine or a tree… we cannot produce if we do not remain in him.

The primary goal of our discipleship, our relationship with Jesus…of being a Christian…is to remain with Jesus for as much of the day as we possibly can.

Seam: So what does that mean for us? How do I practically do that when I have a job, kids, bills to pay, errands to run… School to do?

I am going to give you two things.

The Long thing to do and the Short thing to do.

The Long thing.

“We are what we choose. And we choose whatever our deepest passion compels us to be and to do. To understand the truth of this simple principle, we must examine choice’s power to shape our character.” - Dan Allender

You and I need to make the intentional choice to live a life of being with Jesus. This means not living a life where you accidently become like Jesus. You dont accidently stumble into him like you would a person friend at the grocery store. You need to slowly develop a lifestyle that helps you remain with Jesus.

Story of other girl.

Did I have a relationship?

The church has a rich history of practical ways to do this that are taught and demonstrated by Jesus.

Scripture. Prayer. Sabbath, Fasting, Solitude. Being in Community. Hospitatlty. Being Generous with our time and Money. Healing of our past. Understanding our identity…Learning to fight The Enemy, the Flesh and the Devil. Doing Justice, Preaching the Gospel…

Our goal should be to slowly build a life that intentionally helps us to remain with Jesus.

Some things I do personally.

Not saying you need to do what I do…start where you are…

Now in the short… this week.

“Because what you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to. That bodes well for those apprentices of Jesus who give the bulk of their attention to him and to all that is good, beautiful, and true in his world. But not for those who give their attention to the 24-7 news cycle of outrage and anxiety and emotion-charged drama or the nonstop feed of celebrity gossip, titillation, and cultural drivel. (As if we “give” it in the first place; much of it is stolen by a clever algorithm out to monetize our precious attention.) But again: we become what we give our attention to, for better or worse.” - John Mark Comer

The contemporary church in the West has been taken captive by our culture. Like the children of Israel in Egypt, our imagination has been shaped, not by the story of God, but a slavery to individualism, consumerism, and nationalism. While most Christians in the West point to secularism, failing morality, and rising decadence as the reason the church is losing ground, the truth is that we have lost our ability to worship only one God.

Tim Suttle; Scot McKnight

T

Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford, in their fine book Hidden Worldviews, mention these worldviews at work in our world, often in ways completely unknown to those who inhabit them: individualism, consumerism, nationalism, moral relativism, scientific naturalism, New Age, postmodern tribalism, and salvation by therapy.

Scot McKnight

The advertising of consumerism and the drives of the acquisitive society, like the serpent, seduce into believing there are securities apart from the reality of God.

Walter Brueggemann

The only solution to this far deeper problem is to die with the Messiah, to put to death the old identity, and to find, in rising with him, a new identity in which those distinctions are no longer relevant.

N. T. Wright