Consumerism 2023

Holiness in the Suburbs

Driving Story

We are all trying to get somewhere…

Mark 10:17–23 CSB

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not defraud; honor your father and mother.” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.” Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving, because he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The Kingdom of God, or following Jesus…Jesus says that it is incredibly difficult. Even though this man wanted to follow Jesus, he was not able to walk the right direction towards him.

Now, lets be honest, some of you are tightening up as I talk. Please, dont. This is not a money talk. Now if we are even more honest, we look at this teaching and say...”This guy is rich” , or “this was just a teaching for this guy. We rationalize away what the passage is trying to teach us.

And we have the same problem. Alot of us believe that we are walking towards Jesus, but there is something in our way. Consumerism.

Fire

Consuming.

In the right space it is safe.

As a life style it is not good. Because it is going one way. It is about feeding you your desires.

Mark 10:24–25 CSB

The disciples were astonished at his words. Again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

There is a way it follow Jesus

Culture Critique

There is a great market for inspiring spiritual experiences today that promise quick and easy solutions for complex human struggles. This relentless lusting after inspirational usually leads towards the deadly pitfalls of consumer religion. This craving quickly turns you and me into religious consumers who go shopping on a weekly basis to find where we can get our inspirational fix. - Trevor Hudson

Come for an inspirational concert to make me feel better and then a how to ted talk for how to be happier and better at my life.

Venue to come to instead of a community to be apart of.

entertaining inspirational band for an audience…instead of asking how do we walk into God’s presence together in love and gratitude.

And lament…70 percent of the music in the bible was lament.

How to make your life better and happier talks to help you live your personal life better… instead of the Gospel.

The Gospel.

Hope Church has had that problem.

Why… we think religion is about doing. We dont know what Jesus is offering

1 John 4:4–21 CSB

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

How To

Mark 8:34–38 CSB

Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? What can anyone give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”