Your Stuff Reveals Your Priorities

From David Powlison

The relevance of massive chunks of Scripture hangs on our understanding of idolatry. But let me focus the question through a particular verse in the New Testament which long troubled me. The last line 1 John woos, then commands us: “Beloved children, keep yourselves from idols” (v. 21). In a 105 - verse treatise on living in vital fellowship with Jesus, the Son of God, how on earth does that unexpected command merit being the final word?

John’s las line properly leaves us with the most basic question which God continually poses to each human heart.

Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear, and delight? it is a question bearing on the immediate motivation for one’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings…

Here in lies the question for us this morning.

Who or what “rules” my behavior, the Lord or a substitute? - David Powlison (pg. 244 Take Heart)

Who rules your heart? What brings you the most joy?

There are many things other than God that can bring us a measure of joy.

Not full joy but a slight facsimile of the joy only God can offer.

Sex, abuse of drugs and alcohol, power, control, any number of things.

But today, we are going to focus our time on the idol of money.

Money is amazing! Life gets a lot easier when you have money to pay for what you need or even want.

And because money is so powerful, it is the most sought after commodity there is.

Some people will do almost anything to get more money.

Work countless hours!

Play the lottery

Investing all their money in the stock market with the hopes of early retirement.

Steal money from family, friends, or even financial institutions.

There are many, many ways we can bow down to money and possessions.

And this leads us to the main idea this morning…

Main Idea: Real Riches Are Not In What We Possess, But In Being Rich Toward God!

Jesus is an amazing story teller. And the stories he tells are called parables. Now parables are stories with one main point. And I think you will agree that Jesus does a masterful job helping the crowd to understand where their priorities should be.

1. The Warning Against Greed (Luke 12:13-15)

Luke 12:13–15 (ESV)

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

As you might imagine, an inheritance in that time would have been a significant desire for the children of deceased parents.

In a culture that was often hand to mouth, a lump sum of money would be a real benefit.

Hence the question from this man.

He apparently has a brother who refuses to divide the inheritance with him. This may be because his brother was the first-born and not obligated to do so?

The text does not tell us the back story, but the one thing we can understand is Jesus’ response. And, as always, Jesus goes for the heart.

“Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” In other words, Jesus says, I am not going to get involved in your family disputes!

But this exchange did give Jesus the opportunity for a teaching point.

Apparently, Jesus understood the heart of this man and it wasn’t a heart of righteousness.

Again, look at what the Lord says, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

I mean boom!

Jesus puts His finger right on the pulse of this man’s problem.

It’s not about a proper or fair distribution of wealth, it is about greed.

And by the way, the rich and the poor can be guilty of greed and covetousness.

What is the opposite of greed? Contentment.

Are you content? If not, greed will destroy you. It will shrivel your soul and make you useless for God’s kingdom work.

Did you know that the richer you are the less generous you become? At least, that is what the research says…

Research shows that as wealth increases, generosity often decreases relative to income. Studies, such as those by the Chronicle of Philanthropy and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, reveal that wealthier individuals donate a smaller percentage of their income compared to those with lower earnings, despite giving more in absolute terms.

The study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that households earning $50,000 to $75,000 annually donate an average of 7.6% of their discretionary income to charity. In contrast, those earning $200,000 or more donate only 4.2% of their discretionary income.

Psychological research, including studies from Psychological Science and UC Berkeley, indicates that wealth can reduce empathy and compassion, leading to less pro-social behavior. Additionally, surveys by Gallup suggest that wealthier individuals may experience less social connection, which can further diminish their inclination to give generously. This trend suggests that wealth can insulate individuals from the needs of others, reducing their overall generosity. - (A.I. Research)

Certainly Christians do better in their giving habits. Right?

Research by Barna Group found that approximately 5% of U.S. Christians tithe, with the majority giving significantly less than 10% of their income. (A.I. Research)

According to Lifeway Research, the average Christian gives around 2.5% of their income to church and charity. This figure has remained relatively stable for several decades, despite increases in overall income levels. (A.I. Research)

Church, we must do better in this area. Why? Because it’s God’s will.

It was God’s will in the Old Testament for His children to give a tenth of their income.

Malachi 3:8–10 (ESV)

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

This certainly was a command for the children of Israel. But is it for us?

I believe this is the starting point for the church. We start with 10% of our gross income and give on top of it.

This is not a legalistic standard. We are not saved by how much we give.

But if the OT calls for 10% then the church, who comes after the Old Testament should start with this and give more on top of it. This is Paul’s point in…

2 Corinthians 9:7 (ESV)

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

“Tithing isn’t the ceiling of giving; it’s the floor. It’s not the finish line of giving; it’s the starting blocks. Tithes can launch us into the mind-set, skills, and habits of grace giving.” ― Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle

By the way, giving is the antidote for the sin of greed. This is in part why God desires His people to give. So they remember how much they have been given.

The worship of our STUFF will always lead us into deeper idolatry of self.

“Jesus explained that greed - the inordinate desire for ‘more’ - is pointless because life does not consist of an abundance of possessions. That is, life is to be about more than the ‘stuff’ accumulated in this temporal existence. There is another, transcendent existence that the ‘stuff’ of this life is to serve. The ‘stuff’ of this life must never become and end in itself.” (TMBC pg. 1577)

What we are given, the stuff God has entrusted to us, is to be used to do the will of God not for our selfish desires.

“A steward manages assets for the owner’s benefit. The steward carries no sense of entitlement to the assets he manages. It’s his job to find out what the owner wants done with his assets, then carry out his will.” ― Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle

Fellow Christians, be very careful that you do not look to your stuff as your messiah.

It is not and it cannot be so for you.

If you travel down that road you will become the epitome of greed and covetousness.

“The world says: ‘You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.’ This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.” ― Fyodor Dos-toy-ev-sky, The Brothers Kara-mazov

What is your attitude toward your money and your possessions?

Do these things give you joy when you have more and steal your joy when you have less?

If this is the case, you are in danger of not understanding the way of our God.

He is the giver of all good things. He is the one who is our provider of daily bread. He is the one who is our sustainer.

We look to Him for our satisfaction, not to the things He gives.

There is no greater offense to God than when we worship the created (His good gifts) rather than the created.

Review - Real Riches Are Not In What We Possess, But In Being Rich Toward God!

The Warning Against Greed

2. The Story of A Greedy Man (Luke 12:16-20)

To cement the understanding of the foolishness of greed, Jesus tells a powerful story.

Luke 12:16–20 (ESV)

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

Now remember, what is the point of a parable? It is to give one main point.

What is the main point of this story?

In an agrarian culture, one was dependent on many things to ensure one is profitable.

Notice it wasn’t the rich man that produced plentifully, it was his land. God blessed his land so that this man would produce much and become wealthy.

And then, he questioned himself. “I have so much, what will I do with it all?”

This is a critical juncture in his story. This rich man has a choice to make.

He could have said, “I know what I will do, I will open up my existing barns and I will feed those people who are in need and be used of God to be a blessing to all.”

But, of course, this is not where the story goes.

Instead this man thinks to himself, “My existing barns are no longer sufficient and so I must build bigger barns to accommodate my crops. After all, more crops means more wealth. More wealth means more security. More security means more confidence and power. And more power means I can rest and relax and not worry about tomorrow! My retirement is set! I can spend all of it on myself! After all, I deserve it. I’ve worked hard.”

Now I want you to understand that we are not to worry about tomorrow, but it is not because we have a fat retirement plan. No, it’s because we have a faithful God!

Listen to the words of Jesus…

Matthew 6:25–34 (ESV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The rich man’s faith was in his wealth.

Your faith should be in Jesus and His promised care for you and your wealth should be used for Kingdom work.

So many of us in West Michigan…

God set this man up to help others and instead he was only concerned about helping himself.

Plot twist - God called this man a fool. Why? Look again at the text…

Luke 12:20 (ESV)

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

You foolish dead man! All that stuff is going somewhere else.

This is exactly what the writer of Ecclesiastes warned about.

Ecclesiastes 2:18 (ESV)

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,

God called this rich man, whom Had favor on, a fool! Obviously this man was a hard worker. Obviously this man had good business sense. Obviously this man was a “good steward” of his stuff from a human perspective.

But from God’s point of view, this man was a fool!

Why? Because he looked at life from a temporary vantage point and not an eternal one.

And friends, we do the same thing. We get so wrapped up in this world and how this world works that we forget we don’t belong to this world. We are just passing through.

Actually, we are not JUST passing through.

God has left us here to live for Him in front of a world that needs to see Him and His ways.

God left us here to be “little Christs” and to exhibit His attitude and Spirit.

God has left us here to do His will, not our own.

Our Lord uttered the words as He faced the cross of Calvary, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

He gave everything so we could have life and have it abundantly and we have the audacity to spend all that He entrusts to us to make this a comfortable heaven on earth for ourselves while others who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ drift off into a Christ-less eternity.

Do you honestly think this is how God would have us spend His resources?

This brings great conviction on me.

I hope it does for you as well.

I’m not here to be your friend.

I’m here to be your pastor.

And the last thing I want for you is for God to look you square in the face and call you a FOOL!

“Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But God has given us His Word so that we don’t have to wait to die to find out. And He’s given us His Spirit to empower us to live that way now.” ― Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle

Frankly I think there are many of us here this morning that need to repent.

We lavish ourselves with every good and perfect gift that comes from the Father Himself and we don’t give a second thought to the millions of people who could benefit spiritually from the money God has entrusted to us.

Or we are buck chippers who, when we feel bad we chip a buck in here or chip a buck in there.

What if this church, who has already proved that she can build a magnificent building, collectively put our hearts and wills together and raised the monies necessary to reach this community and this world for Jesus Christ?

Do you think that’s why God gave you the resources he has?

Or does he just want you to build bigger barns to hold all the stuff you don’t really need?

Remember the words of Jim Elliot…

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” - Jim Elliot

Are you a fool from the world’s perspective or God’s?

Review - Real Riches Are Not In What We Possess, But In Being Rich Toward God!

The Warning Against Greed

The Parable of A Greedy Man

3. The Benefit of Being Rich Toward God (Luke 12:21)

Luke 12:21 (ESV)

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

We have already laid out the question, “Am I a fool” from God’s perspective.

The one who is rich towards himself or herself is the fool.

But today, let’s flip the script. Let’s purpose to be a church that is rich towards God.

What does this mean and how will we raise the money?

1. What does being rich towards God mean?

There are many ways we can be rich towards God, but for our purposes and for our church, we are focusing on missions.

God desires to use the monies He has entrusted to us to further the global mission of the world.

He wants ABC to be a big player in His desire to reach the nations.

So God needs our money?

No, God needs nothing. But He desires to do three things by using your money (which is really His anyway).

By you giving to missions, He will free you from the idolatrous grip of greed and covetousness.

God loves you enough to give you the command to give to missions so your soul will not shrivel up and waste away to foolishness.

By you giving to mission, He will increase your faith when you see what He will do with the money you give back to Him.

By you giving to missions, He will spark an evangelistic fire in your soul that will not be easily quenched.

2. How will we raise the money?

In a previous sermon on the Widows Pennies, I mentioned a powerful way we can start raising what I hope to be a significant amount of money to not only help our current missionaries, but to do special projects, empower and enable you to take short term missions trips, and even bring on other missionaries.

Here is the how - What I want you and your family to start doing today is start praying about how much “extra” money God will filter through your hands in the year 2025.

What do I mean by extra money?

Maybe its a tax return?

Maybe it is a mandatory distribution from your retirement fund?

Maybe its returning pop bottles and cans?

Maybe it is giving up your Friday night pizza and putting that money towards saving souls?

You and your family have the discussion and come up with the number that you anticipate God entrusting to you for 2025.

Maybe that number will be $100? or $500? or $50,000? This is between you and the Lord.

I’ve put a category in my YNAB and I’m starting already to save up money for this - I am so pumped!

Come this October, you share that number with ABC during our Missions Conference. We will compile those numbers and then we will see what projects we can accomplish for the Lord in Missions.

Pastor Larry and GMT have a list of three goals and projects they have run by the elders…

Tier 1- So by doubling our current missions giving 5 x $250 monthly and taking on one more $500 monthly-

Total - $21,000

Tier 2 - Incubator Training

Utah Mission trip PLANT CAMP

PHILIPPINES

Internship Training

Total- $19000

Tier 3 - Mission Projects

MP 1 $2000 ea x 5 - $10000

MP 2. New Miss $5000

MP 3. Major Project. $20000

Total- $35000

Grand Total- $75,000

Folks, ABC is about to become a Missional Force to be reckoned with.

By the way, Satan does not like this and He plans to make life difficult for you and for this church. But do you know what I read from the Bible?

1 John 4:4 (ESV)

Little children…he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Are you up for the challenge?

Are you ready to move this Church to the next level?

Are you excited to see God move in a way He has not moved in this church yet?

Folks, 4.5% of our current budget goes toward missions. The Lord is about to change that through this challenge and through you.

Followers of Christ, my goal is not to discourage you but to inspire you to look beyond the American Dream and start to see the impact you can make for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God wants to use you and this body!

Listen to the powerful words of Pastor John Piper regarding wasting our lives.

I tell you what a tragedy is. I’ll read to you from Reader’s Digest what a tragedy is. “Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Fla., where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.”

That’s a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don’t buy it. With all my heart I plead with you: don’t buy that dream. The American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells as the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe to give an account of what you did: “Here it is Lord — my shell collection! And I’ve got a nice swing, and look at my boat!”

Don’t waste your life; don’t waste it.

Will you join Angie and me as we, by faith make a promise to the Lord for 2025. That the extra money He entrusts to us will be used, not for our appetites, but for accomplishing His will in reaching the Nations for Jesus Christ?

I hope and pray that you will.

Review - Real Riches Are Not In What We Possess, But In Being Rich Toward God!

The Warning Against Greed

The Parable of A Greedy Man

The Benefit of Being Rich Toward God

Conclusion

Let me remind you that whatever you entrust to God, will never be lost. Whatever you entrust to God will go before you into eternity.

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. MARTIN LUTHER”

Do you trust the Lord with your money?

or maybe a better question to leave you with is this.

Can the Lord trust you with His money?