Bling: Blingthink

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Bling Week Two

Bling Week Two

Blingthink

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

August 3/5, 2007

Good morning and welcome to our new series, Bling. I know I am glad to be here. I had a great time away, at the beginning vacation and sailing and for the last couple of weeks study break…it was awesome…but I actually cut it off earlier than planned, because I was ready to get back. I can’t wait for this next year…do you realize what is happening around here? What God is doing? Can you believe he chose people like you and me to do his work here in this area? This is going to be a great year. I also was so honored to pray for you, those who gave me prayer requests. My guess is that there were about 1600 prayer requests, but I walked away so encouraged by them…because what you wanted me to pray for was great stuff…struggles at times…but I was so impressed with your perspective, what you really want from God, and I trust that he will give it.

Let’s get to Bling, a series about stuff. Again, this is not a series designed to get something from you, but to give something to you. Jesus talked more about money than any other subject, but he never asked for it. He just knew that money is so central in our lives and is one of the biggest practical and spiritual issues we face. How we think about and handle money and stuff is perhaps the biggest indicator of where our heart is as related to God.

Today we are going to talk about a big problem that most of us in this room have with money and stuff, and that is what to do with more than we need, with extra. Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Extra? You kidding. I don’t have extra, I need more! I don’t have enough! Do you know how much financial pressure I feel right now?” I know a lot of us feel pressure in this culture, even though we make more money than any other part of the world. If you live on more than 2 dollars a day, you are in the top half of the world’s wealthy. I understand because of our lifestyle choices we have a lot of imposed pressure, but almost everyone in here has more than they absolutely need to survive. We live in a culture of extra, where most people have more than they need.

When I was in college, some of my friends picked up a foreign student from the airport. I went to a Christian college, and this was a guy from Burundi if I am remembering right, who had never been outside of his little, rural, poverty-oriented African village. Some missionaries talked the college into accepting him and he got a scholarship. His name was Kabachia Minyuri, and he was a really great guy. So, they pick him and his wife up from the airport, and on the way home they stop at a grocery store to get them some groceries for their apartment. Now, he had never been in the US before, and therefore never been in one of our grocery stores. When he walked in the store, he was absolutely overwhelmed with all the stuff…he literally fell back and sat on the floor just totally overwhelmed. He couldn’t move for a while. He said, “I just never imagined this…all this food and all these things in one place.”

We live in a culture of plenty, of lots of stuff…a culture of abundance, where we have more than we absolutely need. And that gives us very unique challenges and very unique opportunities. Since most of us in this room have more stuff and more stuff available to us than in any other culture in any other time of history, the question we are looking at today is, “What do I do with extra? What does Jesus think about stuff? How can this be a really great thing in my life, instead of something that produces pressure, guilt, anxiety, and discontent. How can I experience joy and peace and contentment in a world of extra?

Today we are going to look at a story that Jesus told to answer the question, “What do I do with extra?” In a culture like ours, it is a question we need to be asking ourselves all the time. Why does God give extra to us? How are we to think about it? Jesus tells this story about a man with that problem, and this man had some perspectives completely contrary to God’s perspectives that kept him from experience peace and joy…in fact, in the end this guy experienced complete and total ruin…all because of his mis-perspectives about money and stuff. As we look at this story, I want to uncover some of those myths, those mis-perspectives, to learn God’s perspective on extra, on stuff…because I believe most of us in the room tend to think more like this man in the story than we think like God when it comes to stuff, and no wonder money issues get so consuming and pressure-producing. What we think, our perspective, determines how we act, the choices we make. Therefore, it is so important to get our thinking solid about stuff. Let’s read the story, and uncover the myths:

Slide: ___________) Luke 12:15-21

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

 

Jesus gives us a warning about stuff, and the guy in the story has a real problem. He has extra, more than he needs. Notice that he is already “rich,” and in the Bible rich is someone who has more than he needs. Relative to Bible times, you and I are rich like this man. So, he has more than he needs, and he gets a windfall because of a good crop. He has worked hard for this, it just didn’t drop into his lap, but now he has a problem, a good problem, but a problem. “What do I do with my extra?” He is going to answer that question based on some presuppositions about the extra, about his stuff. This story is called the story of the rich fool. He wasn’t a fool because he was rich. He worked hard to get rich. He was a fool though because he didn’t think well about his riches, about his stuff, and he made all the wrong decisions. So, let’s think back through the story and uncover the foolishness, because the same myths that ruled his thinking tend to rule ours in this culture of extra.

Slide: ___________ Mis-assumption One: My money is my money.

The first myth is that his stuff was his stuff, and you can see why he thought that way because, after all, he worked hard for it. So, when he gets extra, he naturally asks the question, “What do I do with my extra money?” The way Jesus tells the story really accentuates this. He doesn’t look to God, but thinks to himself. He says,

Slide: ___________) “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,  and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Eat, drink, and be merry!’

Count the personal pronouns, and what number do you get? 12! In three sentences, he uses 12 personal pronouns, I and my. Actually in the Greek text, there are 13, because when he says, “I will say to myself…” in the Greek, it adds another self, so it literally reads, “I will say to myself, self… This guy is even talking to himself. His basic fallacy is, “My extra belongs to me, so therefore it is mine to consume.” Extra is for my consumption.

Now that basic lie is what fuels our whole culture today. My extra is mine, and therefore mine to consume. When we believe this, our only question is, “How do I want to spend my money?” But this is a lie. The Bible makes it very clear that we are not owners of our money and stuff but stewards of our money and stuff…meaning that all that we have belongs to God, and he gives extra to us so that we can use it for him and not just spend it on us. It is his money. We are his money managers, and therefore we have to ask him how to spend his money when we have extra.

But that is not how we are taught growing up, and certainly not the flow of our culture. We are taught consumption, not generosity. So, when we get extra our instinct is to ask, “How should I spend this? What am I going to buy?” That is the consumption lie…that I have more so that I can spend more, consume more…so the more I have, the more I spend and the higher my lifestyle ratchets up. We just assume this in our culture…the more I have, the more I spend.

When Christy and I bought our first home here in the Dallas area, that was exciting. It was in relative terms to North Dallas a small home, somewhere between 1400 and 1500 square feet. It was a cool little house, great floor plan, and we were pumped. Yet, when we were buying it our realtor said, “Oh, this is such a cute little starter home. You will always remember this home as you move up.” I was offended! Starter home! What do you mean? This is a great house! Why would we move from here? Shame on you! Starter home, no way! I was sticking up for our house. But then guess what. We had our second baby, and 1400 square feet started feeling really small, and after all, this is just a starter home…so we knew we had to move because we weren’t starting any more. Our income was a little bigger, and we could afford to move up…so we did, and then we did one more time to the house we are in now. Now, is it wrong that we moved? No, I don’t think so. I really don’t. But we better be careful, because the whole mentality that can rule our financial decisions is the consumption lie…the more I have the more I spend…it is my extra to do what I want to do with it.

The rich fool bought into the consumption lie, but it doesn’t work out very well for him. He assumed that having too much meant he needed bigger barns so he could consume more…but Jesus has a very different perspective. Since it is God’s money, then we better ask the question, “God, what do you want me to do with extra?” And he has already told us in his word the answer that question. 1 Timothy tells us to enjoy extra, which means that we can spend more than we need…but it also commands us to be generous with the extra, to give…the biblical value is this,

Slide: ___________) “God gives me more than I need so that I can give to those truly in need and fund God’s kingdom work in the world.”

The biblical value with extra is not so much about consumption but about generosity. Christianity is a value system with generosity at its core when it comes to money and extra. There is no way around that. Christianity is a life fueled not by consumption but generosity, where was ask the question, “How can I be generous with this?” before we ask the question, “What more can I buy for me with this?” It asks the question with the stuff we already have, “How can I share this? Why has God given this to me? How can I use this?”

On my study break, I used two people’s lake houses, both of whom are very generous people with what they have, not just their money but also their stuff. One of the families asked me early in the summer, “When do you want to use our lake house for your family or for study, because we want to run the calendar around your schedule.” What? It isn’t my lake house. I should work into their schedule…but they have a different perspective. For them, it is God’s lake house, and they are asking the question, “How can we best use God’s lake house for his glory?”

Jesus is letting us know: Your extra does not belong to you, but to God…it is his stuff and his money. So, what are you going to do with it? A wise person thinks through the lens of generosity first, not consumption first…says, “Cool. We have extra! How can we use this to give to those in need or fund God’s work in the world?” A very different way to think and live, that keeps us from being over-consumptive and under-generous.

Slide: ___________) Mis-assumption Two: The more I have the more content I will be.

In the story, the man is already rich, and then gets richer. He gets significantly more, so much more that he decides to build bigger barns, and then he thinks he will have plenty for years to come, that he will have plenty, that he will be set. But that too is a lie…once he got more, guess what he would want next? More! Because human nature is that the more we have the more we want.

Think about it. Why is it that in the world today, the countries like us who have the most are also the most discontent? Isn’t that strange? You’d think it would be different. That’s the amazing thing about traveling to 3rd world countries, like our trips to Mexico or Cuba or now our involvement in Ethiopia. When we go into those cultures and we see how little they have, we think, “How can they seem so happy and content with so little? They have nothing. It doesn’t make sense.” Because we buy into the lie that the more I have the more content I will be.

That’s why we gave you potato chips today. Go ahead and open them. Now, eat one. Just one. You can’t have more than one, but we’ll give you one. Hard to do, isn’t it! Hard to eat just one. The more you have, the more you want.

Have you ever thought, “If I just got this house or this car or this thing, then I’ll be fine, I’ll never want anything else again.” Last year, I bought a wedge for my set of golf clubs, and I remember thinking, “Okay, I’m done. That’s all the clubs I will ever need, unless some wear out. I’ve now got all the golf clubs I will ever need. These are good clubs.” Then, however, the other people I play golf with started getting newer clubs, and they looked pretty cool. They seemed to be hitting it a little farther. Some would ask me, “Have you tried one of those new drivers, the square ones, with a higher MOI? Man, do they go straight and far!” Up to that point, I didn’t even know what MOI was…it means moment of inertia, and the square clubs have a higher moment of inertia…I still don’t know what that means, but I know it means that my driver is inferior to the new ones because the MOI is lower and that must be really bad. Now, I’m thirsty for a new driver, one with a higher MOI. When Christy asks me why I think I need a new driver, I can say, “It’s all about the MOI, Christy, technical…I’d explain it to you, but you wouldn’t understand. Golf, technical stuff.”

Here’s the deal. The more you have the more you want, and you and I will never stop that cycle through spending…we won’t stop that cycle by buying the next thing, thinking we will be set. Spending doesn’t break the cycle of greed, of our thirst for more. The only thing that will break the cycle is doing what Jesus commands us to do…is to be generous. In the very next verses after this story he tells his disciples, “Be thirsty for my kingdom…don’t worry about all this stuff…let me worry about that. If you put my kingdom first and live your life for my purposes, I’ll provide for you. You give your lives away.” The only way you and I can live higher is by focusing on giving and serving, not consuming.

Now, I know some of you are new in church or maybe checking out church or coming back to church…you may be kicking the tires related to Christianity, and you hear me as a pastor talk about generosity and giving, and you are thinking, “Yep. I knew it. That’s all they care about, is getting my money.” I want you to hear me. This is not about getting something from you, but giving something to you. If you are not a believer or not a regular part of this church, don’t give here. Be generous elsewhere. The principle is the same whether you know Jesus or not…generosity is a higher, more free way of life, than consumption is. Give to whomever you want. For us Christians, we understand the role of the church in God’s kingdom and are delighted to give to churches like this. I know I am, but this isn’t a message about giving to our church. It is a message designed to break the financial cycles in our lives that spiral down to an unhealthy, meaningless place.

The lie is this, “The more I have, the more content I will be,” but contentment doesn’t come through consumption but through generosity. The next myth is also highly, highly significant.

Slide: ___________) Mis-assumption Three: My money is my own business. It is not a spiritual issue.

A lot of people really do get nervous and even offended when people talk about money in church, because we want to compartmentalize that part of our life out of the spiritual picture. “I’ve got my money and finances over here, and my spirituality over here. I come to church to hear about spiritual things, and this goober is doing a series about finances and material possessions…he needs to mind his own business and get onto spiritual things.” What we see though in this story and in the New Testament is that money and possessions are a supremely spiritual issue. Hear again what is said about this rich fool in the story, in the end Jesus says,

Slide: ___________) Luke 12:20-21

“You fool, This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

God cares about what we do with our money. In fact, he cares a lot. As I said earlier, Jesus talks more about money than any other topic, heaven, hell, salvation, what God is like, relationships…you name it. 16 out of this 38 parables are about money. The New Testament spends five times the amount of time talking about money than prayer. There are 500 verses about faith in the New Testament, clearly a spiritual thing, faith…and 2000 verses about money and possessions. Why? Because money and possessions are a spiritual issue in two very big ways.

Slide: ___________) Money is a test of our devotion to God.

 

Money is a test of our faithfulness for God. Let’s talk about the test of devotion first. Later in the same book, the book of Luke, Jesus said very matter of factly,

Slide: ___________) Luke 16:13

 

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Lk 16:13). Listen to what Jesus is saying here, because it is big. He says that there are two masters that we tend to serve, and you have to pick…God or money. What that means is this: the biggest competitor to your complete devotion to God is money. Think of that. Jesus could have chosen anything. You can’t serve both God and immorality, both God and power, God and sex…but he puts at the top of the list money. The #1 competitor with Jesus for our heart, our devotion, is money…and that is why money is such a big deal to God.

It’s like this. God gives us extra, and then he sits back and watches what we do. And what we do demonstrates our true heart. We can say we love God all we want, but what we do with what he gives us is what he looks to in order to test our true devotion. This whole generosity thing is not about God wanting your money. He doesn’t need your money. This whole thing is all about choosing to give God your heart, to give him everything. That’s why we can’t just carve out the financial area of our lives and say, “that’s not spiritual stuff, it’s just my money.” No, it is spiritual stuff. You are demonstrating what you really value with what you do with your money.

Slide: ___________) Money is a test of our faithfulness.

God gives us his money and has asked us to be faithful stewards, or money managers of it…that passage in Luke 16 we read is a story about how we are God’s money managers. It is his money, and he one day will call on his account and hold us accountable for what we do. When we get to heaven, one of the key things God will look at to base our reward for all eternity in heaven on is what we do with his money here.

That’s sobering. We can say we are being faithful, but God doesn’t care so much about what we say. What he does is this: he gives us extra, a little or a lot more than we need, and then he watches to see what we do. If we are faithful with what extra he gives to us in this life, then he will reward us for all eternity. If we are not, we get no reward, because we proved not to be faithful. Think about that the next time you have financial choices. If we are wise, we think through the lens of generosity before the lens of consumption and ask, “How can I best use this money, this extra, to extend God’s kingdom, to invest for eternity?”

The man in the story was a fool because he didn’t think that far ahead. He stored it up so that he could enjoy it in this life. He had a financial plan, but it was not an eternal financial plan. And that’s the sad part of the story. When he dies, he has nothing to show for all that he had. He left it behind, and now is going into eternity with nothing to show for it. His life was a total loss. That’s why Jesus says, “You fool...” but he says the same thing to anyone who “stored up things for themselves but are not rich toward God.” How do we become rich toward God? By converting earthly wealth, earthly stuff, into eternal wealth…when we have more than we need we choose to give to those in need and to extend God’s work in the world.

On the vacation part of my vacation and study break, I had a great moment with Collin driving down from a hockey tournament in Michigan. We stopped in Georgetown, KY, where my granddad was a pastor for ___ years. My granddad retired and moved from there ___ years ago, but it was cool because his legacy is still very strong. We stopped by the old church building, where I preached my first sermon at 12 years old. The church has relocated, but another church is there, and they took us on a tour. The ladies who took me on the tour talked about their memories of my granddad…about how he had marked their lives. One of the ladies didn’t go to the church then, but said, “I was a child, and I remember my 4 year old brother getting sick and my parents were very scared. Rev. Roebuck came by the hospital every morning and evening and prayed with him. Every night my brother would ask, “Is Rev. Robot coming back to pray with me?” Collin got a haircut in a barbershop, and the barber recognized me…he was very close to my granddad and my granddad was the one who led him to know Christ. He talked about Granddad’s imprint on his life. Another guy stopped in the barbershop, and I asked him if he happened to have known my granddad. He said, “You never forget the person who introduced you to Jesus. Of course I remember your granddad, I’m going to heaven because of him.” As I drove away, it made me think about my own life and legacy. How cool to have a bunch of people in a town say, “I’m going to heaven because of him.” No one said, “I remember his car…it was nice.” Nobody remembers that stuff.

One day we who believe in Christ will go to heaven, and I do believe people will come up to us who served, and who gave, and who shared, and say, “Thank you. I’m here in part because of your life…because of your serving…because of your giving.” I thought about that when I came back to Dallas and was touring through our building, specifically the youth building. I’m so excited about the potential of reaching young people for Christ there, and I know that a lot of people will be introduced to Jesus there. On the same day, I was rearranging some financial details so that I can complete my Imagine pledge in January…and I thought, “I’m so proud to be able to give to this, to help see a lot of people come to know Jesus.” I am sure in heaven, for all who are sacrificially giving, there will be people who will be reached for Christ in this building and say, “thank you for sharing, for giving.” To the youth workers and greeters and people serving our kids both here and the youth building, people saying, “I’m here because of you. Thanks!”

That trip to Georgetown and coming back here was a huge encouragement to me as I ask myself, “Why has God given me extra, more than I need?” We are taught in this culture to answer that with the consumption answer. I have more so that I can spend more. But God offers us a bigger and higher answer that honors him, leaves a lasting legacy, goes with us into eternity, and gives us greater joy—the generosity answer, the kingdom answer. We are taught to think that consumption makes us happy, but it doesn’t—at least not for very long…but talk to older people who have been generous through life, and they will talk about the joy of living a more godly way with money and stuff. I’ve talked to a number of people about money, and I have yet to meet anyone who got off the consumption-driven approach and switched to a generosity-driven approached who ever went back or regretted anything they did. That might exist. I just haven’t met them. And I guarantee you everyone in heaven, with God’s perspective and an eternal view, would be shouting down a big amen.

God gives us extra, and he allows us to make decisions. Extra is a test of devotion and faithfulness…an opportunity. Imagine how things would be different if we really believed that and then changed our approach to money and stuff. Think of how the last few years might have been different, and then how they next few years from now could be. With that in mind, I invite you to come to the next two weeks of Bling with an open heart to God. What to do with extra is probably the biggest spiritual issue we face in this culture. Let’s come open to God, to consider how we can get a handle on this…for our money and stuff to lead us not to anxiety and pressure and discontent…but instead a spirit of peace, contentment, and joy.

Let’s pray and commit ourselves and this area of our life to God.

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

August 3/5, 2007

Good morning and welcome to our new series, Bling. I know I am glad to be here. I had a great time away, at the beginning vacation and sailing and for the last couple of weeks study break…it was awesome…but I actually cut it off earlier than planned, because I was ready to get back. I can’t wait for this next year…do you realize what is happening around here? What God is doing? Can you believe he chose people like you and me to do his work here in this area? This is going to be a great year. I also was so honored to pray for you, those who gave me prayer requests. My guess is that there were about 1600 prayer requests, but I walked away so encouraged by them…because what you wanted me to pray for was great stuff…struggles at times…but I was so impressed with your perspective, what you really want from God, and I trust that he will give it.

Let’s get to Bling, a series about stuff. Again, this is not a series designed to get something from you, but to give something to you. Jesus talked more about money than any other subject, but he never asked for it. He just knew that money is so central in our lives and is one of the biggest practical and spiritual issues we face. How we think about and handle money and stuff is perhaps the biggest indicator of where our heart is as related to God.

Today we are going to talk about a big problem that most of us in this room have with money and stuff, and that is what to do with more than we need, with extra. Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Extra? You kidding. I don’t have extra, I need more! I don’t have enough! Do you know how much financial pressure I feel right now?” I know a lot of us feel pressure in this culture, even though we make more money than any other part of the world. If you live on more than 2 dollars a day, you are in the top half of the world’s wealthy. I understand because of our lifestyle choices we have a lot of imposed pressure, but almost everyone in here has more than they absolutely need to survive. We live in a culture of extra, where most people have more than they need.

When I was in college, some of my friends picked up a foreign student from the airport. I went to a Christian college, and this was a guy from Burundi if I am remembering right, who had never been outside of his little, rural, poverty-oriented African village. Some missionaries talked the college into accepting him and he got a scholarship. His name was Kabachia Minyuri, and he was a really great guy. So, they pick him and his wife up from the airport, and on the way home they stop at a grocery store to get them some groceries for their apartment. Now, he had never been in the US before, and therefore never been in one of our grocery stores. When he walked in the store, he was absolutely overwhelmed with all the stuff…he literally fell back and sat on the floor just totally overwhelmed. He couldn’t move for a while. He said, “I just never imagined this…all this food and all these things in one place.”

We live in a culture of plenty, of lots of stuff…a culture of abundance, where we have more than we absolutely need. And that gives us very unique challenges and very unique opportunities. Since most of us in this room have more stuff and more stuff available to us than in any other culture in any other time of history, the question we are looking at today is, “What do I do with extra? What does Jesus think about stuff? How can this be a really great thing in my life, instead of something that produces pressure, guilt, anxiety, and discontent. How can I experience joy and peace and contentment in a world of extra?

Today we are going to look at a story that Jesus told to answer the question, “What do I do with extra?” In a culture like ours, it is a question we need to be asking ourselves all the time. Why does God give extra to us? How are we to think about it? Jesus tells this story about a man with that problem, and this man had some perspectives completely contrary to God’s perspectives that kept him from experience peace and joy…in fact, in the end this guy experienced complete and total ruin…all because of his mis-perspectives about money and stuff. As we look at this story, I want to uncover some of those myths, those mis-perspectives, to learn God’s perspective on extra, on stuff…because I believe most of us in the room tend to think more like this man in the story than we think like God when it comes to stuff, and no wonder money issues get so consuming and pressure-producing. What we think, our perspective, determines how we act, the choices we make. Therefore, it is so important to get our thinking solid about stuff. Let’s read the story, and uncover the myths:

Slide: ___________) Luke 12:15-21

15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

 

Jesus gives us a warning about stuff, and the guy in the story has a real problem. He has extra, more than he needs. Notice that he is already “rich,” and in the Bible rich is someone who has more than he needs. Relative to Bible times, you and I are rich like this man. So, he has more than he needs, and he gets a windfall because of a good crop. He has worked hard for this, it just didn’t drop into his lap, but now he has a problem, a good problem, but a problem. “What do I do with my extra?” He is going to answer that question based on some presuppositions about the extra, about his stuff. This story is called the story of the rich fool. He wasn’t a fool because he was rich. He worked hard to get rich. He was a fool though because he didn’t think well about his riches, about his stuff, and he made all the wrong decisions. So, let’s think back through the story and uncover the foolishness, because the same myths that ruled his thinking tend to rule ours in this culture of extra.

Slide: ___________ Mis-assumption One: My money is my money.

The first myth is that his stuff was his stuff, and you can see why he thought that way because, after all, he worked hard for it. So, when he gets extra, he naturally asks the question, “What do I do with my extra money?” The way Jesus tells the story really accentuates this. He doesn’t look to God, but thinks to himself. He says,

Slide: ___________) “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,  and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Eat, drink, and be merry!’

Count the personal pronouns, and what number do you get? 12! In three sentences, he uses 12 personal pronouns, I and my. Actually in the Greek text, there are 13, because when he says, “I will say to myself…” in the Greek, it adds another self, so it literally reads, “I will say to myself, self… This guy is even talking to himself. His basic fallacy is, “My extra belongs to me, so therefore it is mine to consume.” Extra is for my consumption.

Now that basic lie is what fuels our whole culture today. My extra is mine, and therefore mine to consume. When we believe this, our only question is, “How do I want to spend my money?” But this is a lie. The Bible makes it very clear that we are not owners of our money and stuff but stewards of our money and stuff…meaning that all that we have belongs to God, and he gives extra to us so that we can use it for him and not just spend it on us. It is his money. We are his money managers, and therefore we have to ask him how to spend his money when we have extra.

But that is not how we are taught growing up, and certainly not the flow of our culture. We are taught consumption, not generosity. So, when we get extra our instinct is to ask, “How should I spend this? What am I going to buy?” That is the consumption lie…that I have more so that I can spend more, consume more…so the more I have, the more I spend and the higher my lifestyle ratchets up. We just assume this in our culture…the more I have, the more I spend.

When Christy and I bought our first home here in the Dallas area, that was exciting. It was in relative terms to North Dallas a small home, somewhere between 1400 and 1500 square feet. It was a cool little house, great floor plan, and we were pumped. Yet, when we were buying it our realtor said, “Oh, this is such a cute little starter home. You will always remember this home as you move up.” I was offended! Starter home! What do you mean? This is a great house! Why would we move from here? Shame on you! Starter home, no way! I was sticking up for our house. But then guess what. We had our second baby, and 1400 square feet started feeling really small, and after all, this is just a starter home…so we knew we had to move because we weren’t starting any more. Our income was a little bigger, and we could afford to move up…so we did, and then we did one more time to the house we are in now. Now, is it wrong that we moved? No, I don’t think so. I really don’t. But we better be careful, because the whole mentality that can rule our financial decisions is the consumption lie…the more I have the more I spend…it is my extra to do what I want to do with it.

The rich fool bought into the consumption lie, but it doesn’t work out very well for him. He assumed that having too much meant he needed bigger barns so he could consume more…but Jesus has a very different perspective. Since it is God’s money, then we better ask the question, “God, what do you want me to do with extra?” And he has already told us in his word the answer that question. 1 Timothy tells us to enjoy extra, which means that we can spend more than we need…but it also commands us to be generous with the extra, to give…the biblical value is this,

Slide: ___________) “God gives me more than I need so that I can give to those truly in need and fund God’s kingdom work in the world.”

The biblical value with extra is not so much about consumption but about generosity. Christianity is a value system with generosity at its core when it comes to money and extra. There is no way around that. Christianity is a life fueled not by consumption but generosity, where was ask the question, “How can I be generous with this?” before we ask the question, “What more can I buy for me with this?” It asks the question with the stuff we already have, “How can I share this? Why has God given this to me? How can I use this?”

On my study break, I used two people’s lake houses, both of whom are very generous people with what they have, not just their money but also their stuff. One of the families asked me early in the summer, “When do you want to use our lake house for your family or for study, because we want to run the calendar around your schedule.” What? It isn’t my lake house. I should work into their schedule…but they have a different perspective. For them, it is God’s lake house, and they are asking the question, “How can we best use God’s lake house for his glory?”

Jesus is letting us know: Your extra does not belong to you, but to God…it is his stuff and his money. So, what are you going to do with it? A wise person thinks through the lens of generosity first, not consumption first…says, “Cool. We have extra! How can we use this to give to those in need or fund God’s work in the world?” A very different way to think and live, that keeps us from being over-consumptive and under-generous.

Slide: ___________) Mis-assumption Two: The more I have the more content I will be.

In the story, the man is already rich, and then gets richer. He gets significantly more, so much more that he decides to build bigger barns, and then he thinks he will have plenty for years to come, that he will have plenty, that he will be set. But that too is a lie…once he got more, guess what he would want next? More! Because human nature is that the more we have the more we want.

Think about it. Why is it that in the world today, the countries like us who have the most are also the most discontent? Isn’t that strange? You’d think it would be different. That’s the amazing thing about traveling to 3rd world countries, like our trips to Mexico or Cuba or now our involvement in Ethiopia. When we go into those cultures and we see how little they have, we think, “How can they seem so happy and content with so little? They have nothing. It doesn’t make sense.” Because we buy into the lie that the more I have the more content I will be.

That’s why we gave you potato chips today. Go ahead and open them. Now, eat one. Just one. You can’t have more than one, but we’ll give you one. Hard to do, isn’t it! Hard to eat just one. The more you have, the more you want.

Have you ever thought, “If I just got this house or this car or this thing, then I’ll be fine, I’ll never want anything else again.” Last year, I bought a wedge for my set of golf clubs, and I remember thinking, “Okay, I’m done. That’s all the clubs I will ever need, unless some wear out. I’ve now got all the golf clubs I will ever need. These are good clubs.” Then, however, the other people I play golf with started getting newer clubs, and they looked pretty cool. They seemed to be hitting it a little farther. Some would ask me, “Have you tried one of those new drivers, the square ones, with a higher MOI? Man, do they go straight and far!” Up to that point, I didn’t even know what MOI was…it means moment of inertia, and the square clubs have a higher moment of inertia…I still don’t know what that means, but I know it means that my driver is inferior to the new ones because the MOI is lower and that must be really bad. Now, I’m thirsty for a new driver, one with a higher MOI. When Christy asks me why I think I need a new driver, I can say, “It’s all about the MOI, Christy, technical…I’d explain it to you, but you wouldn’t understand. Golf, technical stuff.”

Here’s the deal. The more you have the more you want, and you and I will never stop that cycle through spending…we won’t stop that cycle by buying the next thing, thinking we will be set. Spending doesn’t break the cycle of greed, of our thirst for more. The only thing that will break the cycle is doing what Jesus commands us to do…is to be generous. In the very next verses after this story he tells his disciples, “Be thirsty for my kingdom…don’t worry about all this stuff…let me worry about that. If you put my kingdom first and live your life for my purposes, I’ll provide for you. You give your lives away.” The only way you and I can live higher is by focusing on giving and serving, not consuming.

Now, I know some of you are new in church or maybe checking out church or coming back to church…you may be kicking the tires related to Christianity, and you hear me as a pastor talk about generosity and giving, and you are thinking, “Yep. I knew it. That’s all they care about, is getting my money.” I want you to hear me. This is not about getting something from you, but giving something to you. If you are not a believer or not a regular part of this church, don’t give here. Be generous elsewhere. The principle is the same whether you know Jesus or not…generosity is a higher, more free way of life, than consumption is. Give to whomever you want. For us Christians, we understand the role of the church in God’s kingdom and are delighted to give to churches like this. I know I am, but this isn’t a message about giving to our church. It is a message designed to break the financial cycles in our lives that spiral down to an unhealthy, meaningless place.

The lie is this, “The more I have, the more content I will be,” but contentment doesn’t come through consumption but through generosity. The next myth is also highly, highly significant.

Slide: ___________) Mis-assumption Three: My money is my own business. It is not a spiritual issue.

A lot of people really do get nervous and even offended when people talk about money in church, because we want to compartmentalize that part of our life out of the spiritual picture. “I’ve got my money and finances over here, and my spirituality over here. I come to church to hear about spiritual things, and this goober is doing a series about finances and material possessions…he needs to mind his own business and get onto spiritual things.” What we see though in this story and in the New Testament is that money and possessions are a supremely spiritual issue. Hear again what is said about this rich fool in the story, in the end Jesus says,

Slide: ___________) Luke 12:20-21

“You fool, This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

God cares about what we do with our money. In fact, he cares a lot. As I said earlier, Jesus talks more about money than any other topic, heaven, hell, salvation, what God is like, relationships…you name it. 16 out of this 38 parables are about money. The New Testament spends five times the amount of time talking about money than prayer. There are 500 verses about faith in the New Testament, clearly a spiritual thing, faith…and 2000 verses about money and possessions. Why? Because money and possessions are a spiritual issue in two very big ways.

Slide: ___________) Money is a test of our devotion to God.

 

Money is a test of our faithfulness for God. Let’s talk about the test of devotion first. Later in the same book, the book of Luke, Jesus said very matter of factly,

Slide: ___________) Luke 16:13

 

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Lk 16:13). Listen to what Jesus is saying here, because it is big. He says that there are two masters that we tend to serve, and you have to pick…God or money. What that means is this: the biggest competitor to your complete devotion to God is money. Think of that. Jesus could have chosen anything. You can’t serve both God and immorality, both God and power, God and sex…but he puts at the top of the list money. The #1 competitor with Jesus for our heart, our devotion, is money…and that is why money is such a big deal to God.

It’s like this. God gives us extra, and then he sits back and watches what we do. And what we do demonstrates our true heart. We can say we love God all we want, but what we do with what he gives us is what he looks to in order to test our true devotion. This whole generosity thing is not about God wanting your money. He doesn’t need your money. This whole thing is all about choosing to give God your heart, to give him everything. That’s why we can’t just carve out the financial area of our lives and say, “that’s not spiritual stuff, it’s just my money.” No, it is spiritual stuff. You are demonstrating what you really value with what you do with your money.

Slide: ___________) Money is a test of our faithfulness.

God gives us his money and has asked us to be faithful stewards, or money managers of it…that passage in Luke 16 we read is a story about how we are God’s money managers. It is his money, and he one day will call on his account and hold us accountable for what we do. When we get to heaven, one of the key things God will look at to base our reward for all eternity in heaven on is what we do with his money here.

That’s sobering. We can say we are being faithful, but God doesn’t care so much about what we say. What he does is this: he gives us extra, a little or a lot more than we need, and then he watches to see what we do. If we are faithful with what extra he gives to us in this life, then he will reward us for all eternity. If we are not, we get no reward, because we proved not to be faithful. Think about that the next time you have financial choices. If we are wise, we think through the lens of generosity before the lens of consumption and ask, “How can I best use this money, this extra, to extend God’s kingdom, to invest for eternity?”

The man in the story was a fool because he didn’t think that far ahead. He stored it up so that he could enjoy it in this life. He had a financial plan, but it was not an eternal financial plan. And that’s the sad part of the story. When he dies, he has nothing to show for all that he had. He left it behind, and now is going into eternity with nothing to show for it. His life was a total loss. That’s why Jesus says, “You fool...” but he says the same thing to anyone who “stored up things for themselves but are not rich toward God.” How do we become rich toward God? By converting earthly wealth, earthly stuff, into eternal wealth…when we have more than we need we choose to give to those in need and to extend God’s work in the world.

On the vacation part of my vacation and study break, I had a great moment with Collin driving down from a hockey tournament in Michigan. We stopped in Georgetown, KY, where my granddad was a pastor for ___ years. My granddad retired and moved from there ___ years ago, but it was cool because his legacy is still very strong. We stopped by the old church building, where I preached my first sermon at 12 years old. The church has relocated, but another church is there, and they took us on a tour. The ladies who took me on the tour talked about their memories of my granddad…about how he had marked their lives. One of the ladies didn’t go to the church then, but said, “I was a child, and I remember my 4 year old brother getting sick and my parents were very scared. Rev. Roebuck came by the hospital every morning and evening and prayed with him. Every night my brother would ask, “Is Rev. Robot coming back to pray with me?” Collin got a haircut in a barbershop, and the barber recognized me…he was very close to my granddad and my granddad was the one who led him to know Christ. He talked about Granddad’s imprint on his life. Another guy stopped in the barbershop, and I asked him if he happened to have known my granddad. He said, “You never forget the person who introduced you to Jesus. Of course I remember your granddad, I’m going to heaven because of him.” As I drove away, it made me think about my own life and legacy. How cool to have a bunch of people in a town say, “I’m going to heaven because of him.” No one said, “I remember his car…it was nice.” Nobody remembers that stuff.

One day we who believe in Christ will go to heaven, and I do believe people will come up to us who served, and who gave, and who shared, and say, “Thank you. I’m here in part because of your life…because of your serving…because of your giving.” I thought about that when I came back to Dallas and was touring through our building, specifically the youth building. I’m so excited about the potential of reaching young people for Christ there, and I know that a lot of people will be introduced to Jesus there. On the same day, I was rearranging some financial details so that I can complete my Imagine pledge in January…and I thought, “I’m so proud to be able to give to this, to help see a lot of people come to know Jesus.” I am sure in heaven, for all who are sacrificially giving, there will be people who will be reached for Christ in this building and say, “thank you for sharing, for giving.” To the youth workers and greeters and people serving our kids both here and the youth building, people saying, “I’m here because of you. Thanks!”

That trip to Georgetown and coming back here was a huge encouragement to me as I ask myself, “Why has God given me extra, more than I need?” We are taught in this culture to answer that with the consumption answer. I have more so that I can spend more. But God offers us a bigger and higher answer that honors him, leaves a lasting legacy, goes with us into eternity, and gives us greater joy—the generosity answer, the kingdom answer. We are taught to think that consumption makes us happy, but it doesn’t—at least not for very long…but talk to older people who have been generous through life, and they will talk about the joy of living a more godly way with money and stuff. I’ve talked to a number of people about money, and I have yet to meet anyone who got off the consumption-driven approach and switched to a generosity-driven approached who ever went back or regretted anything they did. That might exist. I just haven’t met them. And I guarantee you everyone in heaven, with God’s perspective and an eternal view, would be shouting down a big amen.

God gives us extra, and he allows us to make decisions. Extra is a test of devotion and faithfulness…an opportunity. Imagine how things would be different if we really believed that and then changed our approach to money and stuff. Think of how the last few years might have been different, and then how they next few years from now could be. With that in mind, I invite you to come to the next two weeks of Bling with an open heart to God. What to do with extra is probably the biggest spiritual issue we face in this culture. Let’s come open to God, to consider how we can get a handle on this…for our money and stuff to lead us not to anxiety and pressure and discontent…but instead a spirit of peace, contentment, and joy.

Let’s pray and commit ourselves and this area of our life to God.

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