Where to Keep Things

Introduction

Our society today is centered around the collecting of things, the acquisition of material possessions. I know because I have a number of collections of things. Let’s see, among other things I have a collection of books, I have a collection of musical instruments, I have a collection of tractors, although there are only two (not counting my lawn tractor). I have a collection of Morse code telegraph keys.

I’m not going to name and names, but I know some people who have massive collections of shoes, or hats. Imelda Marcos, former first lady of the Philippines famously had a collection of 3000 pares of shoes. Of course, in due time she and her husband were convicted of graft for stealing over 5 billion dollars from the people of the Philippines. Jay Leno has a collection of 181 cars and 160 motorcycles.

I guess I come by collecting naturally. My grandmother, whose house used to be in the exact location where we are building our house, had a collection of “what nots.” What’s a what not you say. I can’t really tell you, but my grandmothers collection of what nots included porcelain dolls, neon signs, and figurines of all types. Ever flat surface in the house, with the exception of the floor was covered in what nots. Every wall that was not covered in a velvet painting, or one of those decorative rugs, you know, like the ones you used to see of a bunch of horses standing in a field, was covered in shelves that were filled with what nots.

The quest for obtaining more material goods, obtaining more things, really doesn’t depend on your income level. One person may collect sports cars while another person’s passion is the collection of bottle caps.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to say that your collection habit is a sin. It only becomes a sin when our collecting of material goods over shadows our relationship with the Lord. When collecting material goods becomes our idol, our reason for being, then we have a problem.

It’s only natural that we would be drawn into the habit of collecting things. Practically everything we see on television and in magazines, are encouraging us to the collect the latest, biggest, fastest, what not that is available. I like to take pictures, particularly birds and other wildlife, and I have a pretty good camera, although it is a few years old. In magazines and online, I keep seeing these latest new cameras. Cameras that have more buttons, and more capability than mine. I'm so tempted to lay out that considerable amount of cash for the latest camera, because if I don't, I won't be as good a photographer, or so Nikon would like me to believe.

Advertisers would like you to believe if you don’t have the latest hybrid car, you are responsible for wrecking the environment. If you don’t have the most powerful pickup truck, you are somewhat less of a man, If you don’t dress in the latest styles, you will be a social outcast.

Today we will be looking at three points regarding our relationship with our material possessions.

The first is:

The Fever of Getting Them

Hebrews 2:5-8 “For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. (6) It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? (7) You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, (8) putting everything in subjection under his feet.” ...

Quote for Psalms, chapter 8.

Now look carefully at this passage. He put all things where? In man’s hands? No. In man’s pocket? No. He put everything in subjection under his feet. Under his feet, that is where they belong.

You see the sense of the passage is that all these material things are suppose to be thought of as something that is below us, under our feet, in subjection to us. Yet these days, it is the our material possessions that have us under their feet. It is as if our possessions, possess us.

Leo Tolstoi told a story of a man to whom a rich landowner promised as much ground as he could walk over in one day. In the morning the man set off full of vigor, determined to cover as much land as possible before sundown. He tramped all day long without taking s single break, or stopping for a meal. He arrived back as darkness fell to claim what he had won. As he entered the landlord’s presence, however, he dropped dead!

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his day complained that “things had got into the saddle and were riding mankind.” What would he say today? The modern world has gone crazy over things—machines, instruments, gadgets of all kinds. None more so than that little mobile device that you have in your pocket or your purse. It used to be the case that machines were invented to serve us, now it seems that we serve the machines.

Isn’t it frustrating how dependent we have become on computers. Now days in many cases you can't even apply for a job unless you have computer skills. And what it the computer decides not to cooperate? Now the computer is in charge and you can only continue with its permission. Henry Ward Beecher a hundred years ago said “He who makes a machine emancipates me,” I wonder what he would say today.

The second point we will look at after the fever of getting them is:

The Folly of Hording Them

Obtaining the latest popular thing has become such a social imperative that in the past we have seen people camp out for days just to be the first in line for the newest iphone. Because of the pressure to meet some artificial standard, the average American has a credit card debt of almost six thousand dollars, and of course a lot of individuals have much more than that.

Luke 12:15–21 (ESV)

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.” (16) and he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, (17) and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ (18) 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. (19) And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ (20) But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ (21) So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Notice how closely this man is tied to his possessions. In verse 19 he says “and I will say to my Soul.” We often refer to the things dearest to us in these same terms. I feel it deep down in my soul. The person that is closest to you in life is sometimes referred to as a soul mate. This guys soul mate was his grain and his goods.

There is a single verse in 1 John that pretty much sums up the world.

1 John 2:16 ESV

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

The desires of the flesh: the seeking of personal pleasure that leads to alcoholism, drug addiction, gluttony, sexual sin.

The desires of the eyes: Seeking after those glittery things that pass before us.

The Pride of Life: This passage in 1 John is the only place where the pride of life is mentioned, but the first example of the pride of life occurs in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:5-6 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

Eve coveted the fruit in three different ways. First, she saw it as “good for food,” the desire of the flesh. The desire for that which satisfies a physical need. Next the fruit was pleasing to the eye, satisfied the desire of the eye, that which we see to desire, or to own, to possess. And finally she saw it the vain of the pride of life. She saw it as an opportunity to have the wisdom of God. Satan’s lie was that if she tasted of the fruit, she would be on the same level as God.

This is the essence of the pride of life, anything that tends to exalt us above our station and offers the illusion of God like qualities. Eve wanted to be God-like in her qualities and not content to just live in this perfect place that God had prepared for her and Adam.

Satan tried these same three temptations on Christ during his 40 days in the wilderness as was recorded in Matthew, Chapter 4. He tempted Christ with the lust of the flesh, bread for His hunger. Then he tempted Christ with the lust of the eyes, “all the kingdoms of the world with their splendor.” And finally, Satan tempted Christ with the pride of life, daring Him to cast Himself off the roof of the temple to prove He was the Messiah in a bold display of power to the people.

Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.””

Remember all those “what nots” my grandmother had? One day my grandfather was trying to start an old tractor. The tractor was in a wooden shed next to the house. The tractor caught on fire and set the shed on fire, and the shed set the house on fire. All those “what nots” burned and all those years of collecting thing went up in smoke.

The last point I will make in our discussion of the collection of material possessions is:

The Fret of Losing Them

Some people spend considerable time and energy in trying to maintain those things they have collected. Security is big business these days. People spend a great deal of money on alarm systems, and insurance, and cameras, and other security measures in order to try and keep what they have collected.

Once a person has accumulated some wealth, something strange happens to them. Some of the most generous people I have known were people of very limited means, and some of the tightest people I have known were people who had accumulated some wealth. When I was a child I had a relative who used to buy my brother and I some fairly elaborate Christmas presents. As time when on, this particular relative became fairly successful in business, started accumulating some wealth, and subsequently, the Christmas presents got smaller and cheaper until finally they disappeared altogether.

When the accumulating of things becomes our main goal in life, we are shifted down that path of wordly materialism and we lose our sensitivity to the Lord and those people around us.

Proverbs 23:4–5 “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. (5) When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.”

J.H. Jowett, a famous British preacher from a hundred years ago said, “The real measure of our wealth is how much we should be worth if we lost all our money.”