Pick One: God or Stuff
Notes
Transcript
I’d be happy(ier) if I had...
I’d be happy(ier) if I had...
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
Don’t be a hoarder. Involved with two hoarders in my church work so far.
Pathological. Easy for an outsider to spot.
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
In spite of Jesus’ warning, many of us think a bit more than what we have will be good for us. More please.
All of us are bower birds, hoarders, trapped in a delusion.
Two weeks on God and Stuff.
This week: facing the lie that stuff satisfies
Next week: fears, worries
3 pictures: stockpiling stuff, your inner life floodlit, slavery
2 opposite paths.
Begins and ends with stuff:
Matthew 6:19 (NIV)
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, [..]
Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
24 “[..] You cannot serve both God and money.
The middle is a picture of how that focus affects your life, and the antidote.
Love and desire - Buddhism either eradicating it, or a chant to weaken it -
Made to desire - but more than passing things
Pick a heart-home: heaven or earth?
Pick a heart-home: heaven or earth?
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The hoarding, stockpiling that is pathological can be spotted. We agree that’s not good.
But if my heart can only be in one place.
My scheming, wanting, seeking planning, dreaming, passion for:
Stuff
Family/relationship
Experience
To make me happy. What did we answer:
A house, retirement, surplus,
a wife, a boyfriend, children
a trip, the next cruise,
health, peace...
to give yourself to seeking these things:
a bucket list of experiences, or bucket of stuff...
Are all things that fade, that decay, can be lost (including memories, experiences)
Only time I’ll say this here: - not denying God made things good.
1 Timothy 4:3–4 (NIV)
3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
But nothing created by God is God. And enjoying it is meant to be done in God’s company, and thankfulness.
But I don’t think monasticism and self-denial are mostly our problem here in Australian christianity.
The risk of stuff:
Deuteronomy 8:12–14 (NIV)
12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
One place for your heart.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
A place in God’s family cannot be taken away. The presence of God cannot be taken away. Forgiveness of sins doesn’t fade away. Life forever in the new creation won’t decay.
Why would you trade that for stuff?
Avoiding an unhealthy eye - From heart transplant to eye surgery.
Cataracts - when the part of your eye which focuses light - vision loss, darkness
My grandma could suddenly see colour, and detail - didn’t even realise what she’d lost...
// Where you turn your eyes is darkness
Generosity is good for you
Generosity is good for you
a - stuff vs God, c - stuff vs God -
What about step b - the healthy and unhealthy eye?
Matthew 6:22–23 (NIV)
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
A body/life full of light - or full of darkness.
Depending on what the eye brings into it.
Depending on where the focus of the eye is (linking with the heart)
A healthy eye, or an unhealthy eye?
The word plays on healthy and unhealthy eye
First: healthy:
2 Corinthians 8:2 (NIV)
2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity [lit. health/sincerity].
That’s the word link here for healthy. Sincere, single minded. Connected here with money it implies generosity.
An unhealthy eye:
Deuteronomy 15:9 (NIV)
9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will [lit. have unhealthy eyes] toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
An unhealthy eye - literally in OT, an ‘evil’ eye. Connected with money/resources - it means stingy.
Sirach 14:10 (LES)
10 The evil eye [lit. unhealthy eye] is envious for bread, and it is lacking on his table.
Again here, in the books whcih didn’t make it to the Bible, but are written in the same kind of Greek: linked with resources, connected with stinginess. Doesn’t give bread to his visitors cos it’s HIS.
A healthy eye is sincere (generous)
An unhealthy eye is divided, stingy, wicked.
Matthew 6:21–22 (NIV)
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
How can we escape the heart on earth trap? - be generous.
1 Timothy 6:17–19 (NIV)
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Jesus doesn’t tell us to give up the idea o fhaving something good. He wants us to have something good that lasts. It’s not killjoy - but better joy.
Be generous with your focus on God’s kingdom. Even here, how you’re generous will be healthy or unhealthy. The things God loves.
[Meeting need. And especially gospel need.]
// Kids games with two leaders - chaos...
// Orchestra with two conductors - discordant, cacophony
//
Only one ruler: God or stuff?
Only one ruler: God or stuff?
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
You can’t dip your toe in chasing stuff.
Recap: it doesn’t last, it’s unhealthy, it leads to darkness.
You are hating God.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James take Jesus’ image and changes it to being married and chasing another person sexually.
It’s one or the other.
Stuff will chew you up, spit you out - and even if you can’t see that for yourself, even if you’re temporarily enjoying your hoarding - you are the loser. Your life ends in emptiness, darkness, cut off from God.
Luke 18:29–30 (NIV)
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.