Sermon Tone Analysis

The Radically Normal Christian

Part III: Possessing Possessions

September 25, 2011

PREP:

~* Clippings from bottom of 173

PRAYER

SCRIPTURE READING: Matt 19:16-26

IS STUFF BAD?

I began our series reading this from David Platt, author of “Radical.”

“You and I have an average of about seventy or eighty years on this earth.

During these years we are bombarded with the temporary.

Make money.

Get stuff.

Be comfortable.

Live well.

Have fun.

In the middle of it all, we get blinded to the eternal.

But it’s there.

You and I stand on the porch of eternity.

Both of us will soon stand before God to give an account for our stewardship of the time, the resources, the gifts, and ultimately the gospel he has entrusted to us.

When that day comes, we are convinced we will not wish we had given more of ourselves to living the American Dream.

We will not wish we had made more money, acquired more stuff, lived more comfortably, taken more vacations, watched more television, pursued greater retirement, or been more successful in the eyes of this world.

Instead we will wish we had given more of ourselves to living for the day when every nation, tribe, people, and language will bow around the throne and sing the praises of the Savior who delights in radical obedience and the God who deserves eternal worship.”1

Q Does this mean that it is WRONG to make MONEY and have STUFF?

Q That every dime I spend beyond the BARE NECESSITIES is a GODLESS WASTE?

I have a deep longing to take my daughters to DISNEYLAND while they are still young enough to experience all of the magic.

Q Is that LESS HOLY?

Q Am I teaching my DAUGHTERS to OVERVALUE this temporary life?

Like some of you, I grew in church and there seemed to be this underlying thought that SPENDING MONEY on YOURSELF was less than HOLY.

If you were really righteous, you’d take a VOW of POVERTY.

PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY

When I first read that piece by Platt, I said that it SOUNDS BIBLICAL, and that most Christians don’t have a broad enough Biblical understanding to refute it.

NOW YOU do.

~* I am teaching you to read the Bible well – I want a HERMENEUTICALLY ASTUTE congregation.

In the first two sermons, I gave more PRINCIPLES than practice, but now we get to use those principles to change how we live.

~* There will be a total of FIVE PRINCIPLES but I will introduce them in the context of applying them.

1. God wants us to be MOSTLY NORMAL and this makes Christianity attractive, as it says in Titus 2:10.

It doesn’t mean we can’t be QUIRKY – it is ironic for me to talk about being normal.

The idea is that that we don’t emphasize looking different for its own sake.

~* This doesn’t mean try to OFFEND anyone, but that we emphasize the common ground.

2. The OT and NT are both EQUALLY the WORD of GOD; the OT emphasize earthly and temporal realities, and NT emphasizes spiritual and eternal realities.

~* If we ignore either one, we will have an UNBALANCED FAITH.

If we take the entire Scriptures seriously, things are a lot MORE COMPLICATED than earthly stuff is temporary and we should care more about eternity.

TRUE, BUT MISLEADING

Back to the TOPIC: To say SELLING ALL your stuff and radically following Jesus is the gold standard sounds true, but does it line up Biblically?

~* Yeah! That’s what JESUS SAID!

Yes, but it is very possible to say something that is TRUE, but MISLEADING out of the bigger context.

For example: DISCIPLINING my DAUGHTERS is an important part of my job as a parent, but what if you took everything time I had to speak harshly to them or punish them, and make a MONTAGE and present that as how I parented?

~* You would miss the entire OVERARCHING THEME of love, compassion, and tenderness.

And if you made a VIDEO of only THOSE times, it would seem to CONTRADICT the first one.

You need to see the whole picture.

We do this will SCRIPTURE all the time:

~* The CATHOLIC CHURCH took two statement about the value of being single for God, but ignored hundreds on MARRIAGE.

~* As I said last week, we take a few Scripture about the 2ND GREAT COMMISSION and ignore the ones about the 1ST COMMISSION.

A BIBLICAL VIEW OF STUFF

And we do the same thing with what the Bible says about possessions and money in the NT:

~* Jesus tells one man to SELL EVERYTHING he has.

~* He tells all of us to sell and GIVE AWAY some of our stuff.

~* Paul warns that the LOVE of MONEY is the root of many evils.

~* JAMES and JESUS CONDEMN the ungodly rich.

But then we IGNORE all that the Bible has to say in the OT about MATERIAL BLESSINGS being a GIFT from God, about enjoying what he gives us, and the rightful place of riches.

The Bible is full of that; just spend a few minutes in Proverbs.

The way I see it, there are TWO POSSIBILITIES:

1) God thought material possessions were a good thing in the OT, but then in between the testaments he CHANGED his MIND.

2) Or, he didn’t change his mind in the NT, but had to WARN about some the DANGERS of POSSESSION, especially in light of an eternal perspective.

I think it is #2.

And it’s incorrect to say the WARNINGS only happen in the NT.

The OT is filled with warnings by example:

~* King SOLOMON is lead astray by wealth.

~* The TEACHER in Ecclesiastes sees the emptiness of wealth.

Nor is wealth seen as SOLELY NEGATIVE in the NT: The first Christian convert in Europe, LYDIA, was a wealth merchant.

And wealthy Christians provided for the work of the Gospel.

~* The rest of the NT also assumes Christians will keep their NORMAL LIFE, though adding to it generosity.

RADICAL, NORMAL, OR RADICALLY NORMAL?

To bring it back to the DISTINCTION between NORMAL and RADICAL:

1.

It is NORMAL to spend all of your energy to ACCUMULATE more and MORE STUFF.

This is in fact how most of the world lives, MATERIAL GIRLS and BOYS in a MATERIAL WORLD.

“Living the AMERICAN Dream,” acquiring more and more, trying to give our kids everything they want, and GIVING the LEFTOVER to a GOOD CAUSE, if there are any leftovers.

~* The idea is that “I BOUGHT a LITTLE and it made am a little HAPPY, therefore buying a lot will make me a lot happy.”

We know it is not true, but yet we keep on PLAYING that GAME.

2. It is RADICAL to live a life of COMPLETE SIMPLICITY, to live on as little as possible to pour all of your resources into PREACHING the GOSPEL and CARING for the POOR.

The HOLIER you are the LESS you will SPEND on TEMPORAL THINGS and the more you will INVEST ETERNALLY.

That is the LOGICAL CONCLUSION of Platt:

Instead we will wish we had given more of ourselves to living for the day when every nation, tribe, people, and language will bow around the throne and sing the praises of the Savior who delights in radical obedience and the God who deserves eternal worship.”

Give more and more and more and more...

WHICH ONE ARE YOU?

Most Christians believe that the RADICAL way is the TRULY GODLY one, but that it is only for SUPER-SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANS, so they live the normal one.

Q Where do YOU FALL IN with all this?

Which one do you think is more correct?

Q Which one better describes your life?

But what is RADICALLY NORMAL?

Taking the ENTIRE SCOPE of Scripture, the POSITIVES and NEGATIVE things it says about possessions, the WARNINGS and the PROMISES:

~* It is radically normal to ENJOY earthly possessions without letting them POSSESS you or DISTRACT from ETERNITY.2

OWNING OR OWNED?

The danger of stuff is that the NATURAL PROGRESSION goes from you owning stuff to stuff owning you.

You went from a cell phone so you can call your family “in case of EMERGENCIES” to a multimedia device that you are locked into with a two-year contract at $80 a month per line.

~* And now instead of using it to CONTACT your family, you are using it to IGNORE them!

And it works that way with everything you buy – a new HOUSE means working on a house.

A CAR means maintenance.

An XBOX means paying for xBox live.