-If a fire came to your house, what would be the 1 thing you’d grab?
-It’s no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.
-I try to do incorporate 1 spiritual discipline as part of this series, last year was generosity, this year I want to take that a step further.
READ/PRAY (Matt. 6, pg. 473)
- EVERYTHING is Spiritual
-When I was growing up, I remember a distinct poster in our youth room of a list that had 2 columns on it. It said “If you like THIS secular band, check out THIS Christian alternative.”
-An element to that is helpful because if you put garbage into your mind it will affect you, but another part isn’t. It was as if we could separate the secular from the sacred, and we got to stand in judgment over who was really “in.”
-Because of that divide, there was also a tendency to separate “church stuff” from “normal stuff” There were “church clothes” and “play clothes”, “church words” and “non-church words”, certain topics you could talk about at church, and others that were taboo. We even had “sacred” callings and “secular” callings! And the most sacred/special call you could possibly have was to be a missionary to an unreached people group! I even have friends who had an argument early in their marriage about what counted as “ministry” Do you have to be paid for it, or can you have a ministry in a “secular” job?
-There’s an impulse to that I respect: honor the Lord your God, care for the people’s of the world, don’t be flippant with a call to ministry, but in looking to divide or segment our lives into “God’s” versus “mine” I worry that we’ve missed the way everything we have and everything we do is spiritual.
–1 Cor. 10:31
-Everything we do has spiritual implications, even eating and drinking!
-Think of the Lord’s Supper – there are some that are very impactful, but most of the time it’s just a regular time. Same with eating! There are a handful of meals I could tell you about still to this day, but I can hardly tell you what I ate yesterday! And how often do we neglect to reflect on the spiritual implications of what we’re doing every day?
-Brother Lawrence, monk who lived in Paris, served as a cook: ‘We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God.’
-Is it possible that the making of an omelette can be a spiritual practice that helps you take 1 step closer to Jesus? Yes! If we view it as a way to love and serve, if we remember that it’s God’s provision for us today, and especially as we eat it and nourish our bodies!
-I think there’s been an unfortunate movement in the church for millennia at this point that say the only way to serve God is to abandon the world and everything it offers and withdraw. You see this with monasteries, when I was coming up it was with going into the inner city (Shane Claiborne, “social justice week”), or even with a book with a title like “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream” (I really like the guy who wrote this book, but didn’t love the book)
-What if, because everything we do is spiritual, the call for Jesus in our lives is to live a simple life? Working hard at our jobs, raising kids to the best of our abilities (if God gives us children), finding ways to connect with neighbors and friends and encourage them to take 1 step closer to Jesus, and then trust that God will work in us despite not being radical?
-There’s a quote that’s stuck with me over the past 5 or so years attributed to a Moravian missionary: “preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.” Would we be ok to live an ordinary life? Think of a passage like 1 Thessalonians 4 “we urge you, brothers, to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”
-Since everything is spiritual, that also means that everything we do has spiritual implications. The way we take care of our bodies, the way we spend our money, the way we spend our time, the houses we live in, the hobbies we pursue. All of it has spiritual implications. Let’s look at Matt. 6 again. We’re going to look at these verses backwards, and I think you’ll see why.
-Starting with vs. 24, which is a verse that had honestly confounded me until recently. Jesus says “You cannot serve God and money.” Where does Jesus get the idea that money and God would be on the same level?
-The word in Greek is the word “mammon” and it’s only used here and in Luke 16 where it’s translated as “unrighteous wealth” What is the difference (if there is one) between righteous and unrighteous wealth?
-If everything is spiritual, then so is money. And money has a profound effect on people, doesn’t it? It’s easy to look at someone like Scrooge, a nasty old miser who won’t even give his employees a livable wage, but what about the ways money, or “mammon” has impacted us today? There are many scholars who argue that Jesus is referring to a demon when he uses the word “mammon” Mammon is a far broader idea than just money, it includes possessions, or anything of value that someone has. What I think is fascinating about this is immediately after talking about mammon Jesus goes on to talk about anxiety.
-What if the more we have, the more anxious we become? What if there’s a connection between growth as a follower of Jesus, and a lack of desire for “stuff”?
-Let’s look back at the where Jesus begins this section:
-All of us have treasures, that’s our hearts orientation. We all have something we would make sure we grabbed if a fire broke out in our house (after we got our kids out!) But we need to remember that even the most precious things we have on earth will someday break, get sold, burn up, something will happen to them! If we’re putting all our hopes and desires on our stuff we’re going to be very disappointed! You can see this if you’ve ever bought something new that you’d been wanting for a long time (new phone, new car) you baby it for a bit, but then you revert back to the way you always use things. Or a new model is released and you end up with FOMO.
-There’s a great picture of this in Isaiah 44. What does it look like when we’re putting our treasures in the wrong place? It looks like taking a piece of wood, using half of it to cook dinner and the other half to bow down and worship and ask for it to provide the solution to all the longings of your heart.
-Jesus then goes on to talk about the desires that we have. There was a song I learned in church growing up “oh be careful little eyes what you see” I think Jesus is articulating that we need to be careful what we let into our eyes because it will affect us!
-If we focus our eyes on the things of this world our hearts will be drawn to our “stuff” but if we focus our eyes on Jesus then we’ll be able to keep everything in proper perspective.
- Jesus’ Call to STEWARDSHIP
-The story of the rich young man. This gives us a picture of what it looks like to place your hope in mammon.
-A brief caveat: this is not a command for all people at all time. Jesus isn’t saying EVERYONE should sell all they have and give it to the poor, here Jesus is pointing out the specific idol of this man’s heart. Mammon, stuff, was his god! He’d placed all his hope and confidence in his things.
-People even viewed material possession as blessing from God! And they still do today! But over time it will be revealed where or what you’re putting your ultimate hope in.
-So Jesus answers some of the questions the disciples have as they see this exchange. It is very difficult for a rich person to be saved. Not impossible, but very difficult. Why? Because you become complacent and content in yourself instead of recognizing your need for a Savior.
-This makes the disciples indignant, because they left literally everything to follow after Jesus! And Jesus goes even a step further than just material possessions, he even says they must leave family!
-This was a revolutionary concept in the 1st century. Everything was family centered. The only way anyone survived was because of and through family. Your whole identity was literally centered around the family you were in. But in God’s kingdom, even family has to be put in its’ proper place.
-As I’ve been processing through this concept over the past year, the word that has stood out to me as the way we should engage this issue is stewardship. What is a steward? Someone who cares for someone else’s stuff. It’s not ours (one of my children has become obsessed with this idea recently, so anytime someone else claims that’s theirs we are reminded “It’s the Lords!”) Yes, but….
-This connects all the way back to the garden of Eden (and politics). We’re commissioned by God to have dominion over the creation, to subdue it (extend the borders of the garden until the filled the whole earth).
-God has given us all these good things as gifts to use as opportunities to glorify Him. God didn’t need to make food taste good! God didn’t need to make music such an enjoyable experience! God didn’t need to create color! But He did. There’s joy that comes from living, that’s the way God intended us to operate, but it only comes about by finding our ultimate joy only in Him.
-This is what separates Christians from unbelievers. Unbelievers only have the “stuff,” that’s the best they can hope for! That’s where we need to share with them how much better those things can be when the rest of their life is in the proper order. Think of how great food is, but when food becomes the ultimate, it becomes unhealthy.
- How do we glorify God with our “STUFF”?
-2 books that shaped my thinking this week.
-I think 1 Tim. 6 helps us to understand the goal for all of our lives. First and foremost is godliness.
-I read a book this week that summarized this idea well: “What would Jesus do if he were me? If he had my gender, my career, my income, my relationship status? If he was born the same year as me? Lived in the same city as me?” To take some of the language we use here: what is 1 step I can do today to move in that direction?
-Another way is read the fruit of the spirit “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” In our staff reviews each year, we’re asked “Are these things true of you in increasing measure?”
-The ordering of our lives matters. We first and foremost need to be pursuing godliness in everything, including our stewardship of possessions.
-C.S. Lewis: “A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” Our gaze must be heavenward if we want pursue godliness on earth. And notice why Paul says this: because our status at the end of our lives is the same as the beginning: nothing! When we get to heaven, the only thing that matters is whether you have the riches of Christ or not.
-Second is contentment. Phil. 4 Paul tells us the way to contentment. This is one of the most abused verses in the world today! It’s not talking about scoring at touchdown or winning the national championship, he’s talking about how to be content, truly content, regardless of the circumstances of your life.
-Going back to Timothy, what is your marker of contentment? Paul seems to place the bar pretty low: food and clothing. (could add shelter to this) it almost sounds like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (if you studied that in psychology). What many people today have done is flip this on its’ head and make the foundation self-actualization instead of looking to more basic ideas. Is that the goal of everyone? No! The goal of everyone is to become like Christ!
-Once again, this doesn’t mean that having nice “stuff” is a problem, bad, or wrong! It can become a problem if you start to look to your worth or solutions to problems in your life through your “stuff”
-John Mark Comer “On the one hand, the world and everything in it are “very good” and meant to be enjoyed and shared with those in need. On the other hand, too much wealth is dangerous. It has the potential to turn our hearts away from God.”
-Story of John Stott, Will breaking his toy from Africa. How quickly are you able to remember it’s just “stuff”? You can’t take it with you into eternity, so how much does it matter here?
-Many of you are aware of the statistics of being wealthy – if you make more than $35K a year you’re in the top 1% of the global wealth, which means I’m guessing nearly everyone in here would be considered the 1%. Doesn’t feel that way! But it’s true. Since that is the case, we are the ones who need to heed Paul’s (and Jesus’) warnings in the Bible. So that’s where we’ll end, a couple verses later in 1 Tim. 6.
-Haughty: over-confident in yourself and your abilities. Not looking to God as the source of your wealth.
-Hopes: where are you putting your gaze? Riches come and go. I’ve lived through 2 major recessions (so far!) and I’m sure there will be plenty more to come! The almighty dollar may some day fail me, but I know who won’t! Instead, we’re commanded to:
-do good. Notice that Paul doesn’t say it’s wrong or bad or sinful to be reach, as long as it’s kept in it’s proper place, and we’re reminded that it’s a gift from God. But we can use our wealth to do good to others!
-We should also look to be rich in good works, that’s the marker of a Christian who is rich! Not hording, not continually buying, but looking to do as many good works as we can, which looks like:
-being generous and ready to share. Do you look for opportunities to bless others? Do you live like it’s better to give than to receive? Do you look for ways to pursue good works with your “stuff” or do you just view them as toys and look to get more or keep up with the people who live near you?
-Anything that we do without contemplation becomes exploitation. If we pursue simplicity as a way of life, we’ll find our hearts being changed, our lives being transformed, and our contentment in the simple gospel message growing.