Skip to content Walk Your Talk: Material Blindness Dec 3 · 52 min ...more
Walk Your Talk: Material Blindness
December 3, 2023 · 52 min
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church December 3, 2023 · 52 min · BRAVE Church
Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory and all the honor and all the praise that is so due to your name. You and you alone deserve our highest praise. We thank you Lord that we get together as a group0:12 of people to hear your living and active word, believing that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak. And so our prayer as a body this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to0:23 hear. And so now for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear Jesus speak directly to you, who will believe what he says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very0:34 loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. A number of years ago, I saw a television program that was entitled something like how the lottery changed my life.0:46 And I remember watching this show, and it was really about people who had won the lottery and how the income they had had changed their life. And they had a couple different episodes, and some had won just over 10000000:57 dollars. But there was 1 I remember that won upwards, like, or 800000000 dollars. And they were following this couple around showing how their life had changed. And I remember while I was watching the1:09 television program, I wasn't thinking about the television program. I was doing calculations on my phone. What if I won about 800000000 dollars? How would that be amateurized out? Would I take it in 1 lump sum or would I1:21 take it in payments? And what would I be making each month? And then I began to get excited, and I started to think, and I began to visualize as to what I would do. Just so you know, I had a home in Hawaii. I also had 11:31
1:41 haven't thought about Jesus once in the last 20 minutes. All I have thought about was the accumulation of stuff that would benefit me. And then I began to laugh like, no wonder I'll never win the
1:53 lottery. Not that I play, but I'm just saying that's not a good thing necessarily. And there's been studies done that have shown that people who win the lottery and people who in the very same year become
2:05 paraplegics or quadriplegics that after a period of 3 years, those who became paraplegics and quadriplegics can actually demonstrate that they're happier than people who have won the lottery. And I know what you're
2:16 thinking. Not me. Give me a try. And that's why we're gonna have this message today. Because 1 of the reasons and 1 of the ways that we need to walk our talk is in how we steward the resources that God's given to us and
2:27 how we make the most of those things because without them, we're trapped. As a matter of fact, I think in preaching this message, I think it's it would be like a a fish teaching other fish, let me tell you about the
2:38 problems of being wet. We swim in materialism so much we don't even realize how much what the bible spells out about materialism actually
2:49 affects us. And this is an important teaching for those of us who would say, I wanna walk my talk. I wanna be the fullness of everything Jesus wants me to be, then I believe that God has a word for you. So I wanna
3:01 encourage you this morning. Open your bibles to James chapter 5. James chapter 5. We're gonna read through the first 6 verses together, and then we'll unpack this. And we'll take a look at 4 challenges with
3:13 materialism and how it blinds us to what God actually wants for us in our lives. Listen to what he says. Come now you rich weep and
3:24 howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you and
3:36 will consume your flesh like fire. It is in these last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by
3:48 you cries out against you and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and
4:00 led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you.
4:12 This is 1 of the more challenging teachings in the entire new testament. It's it's a scathing rebuke of those who don't use their resources to the glory of God. So much so is this true that many
4:24 commentators will say, James isn't even talking to church people. James is talking to people that are out there, you know, that because Christians would never act like this. But in the same way that James has encouraged
4:35 us in all different areas of life, he wants us to be aware of the dangers of materialism as well. And the Holy Spirit found it fit to pin these words through the apostle James to do this. So before we take a look at
4:46 these 4 challenges to material blindness and how materialism blinds us, I wanna set a framework for us because when it comes to talking about money, many of us don't have a framework for what that looks
4:58 like. And And I just wanna tell you this, to preach on this, just so you know, we we go through sections of the bible. This has been planned for a long time. So most people, the first week of December start talking about
5:08 Jesus is coming. We're talking about materialism. I love preaching at Brave Church because Brave allows me to teach the truths of Jesus and what better time to teach about
5:20 materialism than in this season. Amen? Amen. But I wanna talk about wealth because really the way the bible spells out wealth is with 2 different groups of people, rich and poor people and righteous and unrighteous
5:31 people. And so what I've done is I just created a little chart for you. You can see up on the screen. And really when it comes to that those groups of people, there's really 4 different groups of people. Now if you're
5:41 righteous and you're wealthy, here's what you are. You're a blessing. Because if you're really depending upon the Lord and you really realize that everything you have is for the Lord and you really wanna steward all that
5:52 you have for him, then guess what you get to be? You get to be a blessing for every single person that you come into contact with. And the Bible doesn't say it's wrong to have wealth. The Bible says it's wrong for wealth
6:03 to have you. It's not how much you have. It's how much does it have you. And by the way, it's not about how much it is because we can set our own levels. Right? Just so you
6:15 know, I'm talking to the rich today. If you have babysitting money and you make 200 dollars or 50 dollars you're rich. Many people in the world live in
6:27 single bedroom houses for their 10 family members and they don't make that much in a month. So just so you know, when I'm talking to the rich, I'm talking to you and if you'll steward what you have to the glory of God,
6:39 you can be a blessing as well. But then there's a group of people that the Bible calls as the righteous poor and they are also a blessing. The righteous poor are blessing. I've been all over the world. I've been in the 1
6:49 of the worst slums in India. I remember traveling through stuffing over raw sewage to get into a room that was all cement to have 50 kids in there that love Jesus, that are the joy of the Lord all over their
7:01 face, and they didn't have 1 toy to their name. Not 1 stuffed animal, not 1 toy, not 1 anything, and they were so content and satisfied in the love of Jesus. And guess what? All Christians
7:13 are a blessing. Do you know why? Because all Christians are depending upon the Lord and all Christians see their life as to be a blessing to others. So it doesn't matter how much you have, it matters who you're depending
7:24 on for what you have and how you can be a blessing to others. Even the widow that put in 2 small copper coins worth less than a penny in the new testament that was really extorted by the wealthy. When she put in her 2
7:34 small copper coins, Jesus stood up and said, that's what I'm talking about. I see what she's done. She put in more than all the others combined because she out of her poverty gave everything she had to live on. Right?
7:46 Whether you're poor or whether you're rich, if you're righteous, you are used of the Lord. Right? And then there's another category. There's the unrighteous. There's unrighteous rich and unrighteous poor. If
7:58 you're unrighteous and you're rich, you know what you are? You're wicked. According to the bible, you're wicked and here's why. Because you're gonna use your resources for who? You. And you're gonna do everything for
8:09 who? You. And everything is about who? You. So however you have resources and what whatever you have are gonna be spent on you, which makes you wicked, which means no matter how much you
8:21 have, it doesn't matter to anybody else around you because your life is centered on who? You. You're wicked. And the bible says, for wicked, there is a day of judgment coming because their God has been the God of this
8:33 age and they're living for themselves. And then there's the unrighteous poor. And the unrighteous poor are this. They're a victim because they're not depending
8:44 upon the Lord and because they don't understand that the Lord is the 1 who provides and they view the world as the haves and the have nots because I don't have, then guess what? You owe me. And anybody that walks
8:56 around as the unrighteous poor is a victim that always feels that somebody else needs to take care of them. That's the unrighteous poor. And I met a lot of poor people that don't need more money. I've met a lot of poor
9:06 people that need Jesus. I've met a lot of rich people that need Jesus. It doesn't matter who you are, but what James is addressing is the unrighteous rich and the unrighteous poor. And if you think about
9:18 this, if you think about our society and you listen to the people that are crying out or trying to make laws or do all this, what category are they in? They're in the wicked victim category. Wicked people making
9:30 wicked laws for victims because that's what the unrighteous do. Right? And this is what the holy spirit is telling us can never be because if Jesus Christ is really the center of our life and we've
9:42 repented of our sins and trusted in him, it doesn't matter what the lot of our life is in terms of the abundance of our accumulation. It matters that we're depending upon the Lord and we see ourselves as a steward of
9:53 everything that he's given to us. And those are the categories of wealth. So it's not wrong to have. It's wrong to let something have you and you can have a lot and it doesn't have control of you and you can have a
10:05 little and it controls every part of you. So it's not how much you have. It's how much does it have you? And with that as a framework, want get into the text today and talk about 4 challenges to material blindness, 4
10:16 challenges to material blindness. And the first challenge is this, material blindness takes no account for the future. Material blindness takes no account for the future. Material blindness if you're living with the sin
10:27 of materialism, you're not thinking about the future. You're very shortsighted. Notice what the text says. Come now. I mean, we just got done preaching about the problem of self centeredness. I I found it humorous last
10:38 week. Several of you told me that was such a timely message for me. I'm like, yeah. Preached on self centeredness. It's a timely message every week. Right? It's a timely message for me. This is the application of self
10:48 centeredness, how it affects your wealth, how it affects how you steward what you do, and people that are materialistic are blind to the fact that they're not taking account for the future. They're forgetting that
10:59 they're just a manager who will 1 day give an account to God. He says, come now. Let's think about this. You rich. Here's what he tells the rich. Weep and howl. Weep means to
11:11 sob like you would be sobbing at a funeral. Right? Howl means to shirk or screech or to cry out because of the pain. Come now, you rich. Weep and
11:23 howl for your miseries, which are coming upon you. Here's what God wants us to understand. You're not the owner of anything that you have.
11:35 You're simply a manager of it. You are a steward of it. And by the way, 1 day you will give an accounting to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything that he's ever brought through your hands, Whether it be
11:47 money or material goods or anything, anything that's passed through you, you will give an accounting to God. And here's his warning. His warning is to those who have clung onto that, who have made that their God, who
11:59 have said, I need more stuff and I gotta have this and woe to you because if materialism is your God, there's eternal consequences to that. You should weep and howl. You should lament and mourn
12:10 if your whole life is centered on this. That's why even Jesus, when he taught, says, does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Like, if you're only living for this world, you've missed out on
12:22 everything. If your only way you're living in this world is to live comfortably here, you've missed out on everything. The world is perishing. If you're trying to get comfortable here, do you not
12:33 realize that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? He says, wake up. You're blind to the fact that you're gonna give an accounting to God for everything that he's ever brought through your life.
12:45 This is not a time to nudge your neighbor and say, are you listening? We gotta go get Joe. He's gotta hear this message. This is you. Right? This is what's come through your life. How are you accountable for the very
12:56 things that God's given to you? Are you gonna let him know that when you brought me this, here's what I did with it, to bring you the greatest honor and to serve the most amount of people? In the greatest sermon that's
13:07 ever been preached, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 in verse 24, he says, no 1 no 1, that would be me and you and all the disciples that were living in the first century, no 1, it's not possible. No
13:19 1 can serve 2 masters. For either he will hate the 1 and love the other or he'll be devoted to 1 and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Who can't?
13:31 You can't. Who can't? I can't. Who can't? People out there can't. You can't serve both. You can't give your time, effort, attention to the accumulation of wealth while at the same time giving your focus to Jesus. You
13:43 can't serve both. Eventually, one's gonna win. Which one's gonna win? You can't serve God and money. That's Jesus's words. He gave us a stern warning about that. He gave us a stern warning about
13:54 that. And we don't have time to go through this today, but if you wanna write down Matthew chapter 25, Matthew 25 14 to 30, it's the parable of the talents where God has given a measure of grace to everyone.
14:06 And certainly it's not just money, it's gifting, but everything God's run through your hands or every way that he's given you, you're gonna give an accounting for your life. And if all you've taken is buried it and so
14:18 this is mine. This is what I'm depending on. You're gonna give an accounting for that someday. Make no mistake about it. What we are preparing for and what we're hearing the Lord teach us this morning about is our
14:29 eternity, not just our life here and now. It's not just how to live comfortably here and now. It's not just how to get through this life in a way that is great for you. It's how do you set yourself up for when you
14:41 meet Jesus face to face that you can hear the words well done, good and faithful servant because God, the things that you brought into my life, I recognized I'm not the owner. I was just the manager. Here's what it
14:52 means. You own a car? You really don't. You're just the manager of that car. You own a house? You don't own a house. You're just the manager of that house. Right? Everything that your clothing, the books you
15:04 have, anything in your house, can say, you're not the owner of anything cause you're not taking it with you. It'll be here after you pass. You're just a manager of all those things
15:16 and God wants us for anything we do have to manage them well for him. Well, I have some things I don't think God would be pleased with. Then you may not want to hold on to them any longer. Right? That's what James is
15:28 trying to tell us. He's trying to warn us of this danger of materialism and it's all over us. I mean, especially at the holidays. Just just just look around. I mean, every
15:39 commercial that you will see from now through the holidays and even after is all about what you need and when you need it and how it's so much better than what you have and how you should be dissatisfied until you get
15:51 this. More what? Stuff. Stuff takes no account for the future. And here's what you need to realize. You may not wanna be as wealthy as you think you
16:03 wanna be because the more you have, the more you're accountable for. That's what you need to be aware of. The more you have, the more you're accountable for. And that's what Jesus is trying to teach. Material blindness
16:13 takes no account of the future. This was so prevalent that even in the first century, Jesus wrote a letter to the church in Laodicea. We can read about it in Revelation chapter 3 in verse 17 to a church that
16:25 was resting on its rich laurels. And he said this, because you say I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor
16:36 and blind and naked. You think you're rich, you think you have it all, but I'm here to tell you you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Materialism has a way of blinding us to the things of God and thinking
16:48 that we're satisfied when we're actually missing out on the deepest satisfaction, which is the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dependence upon Him is where you're going to be satisfied. That's why materialism is
16:59 insatiable. There's there's not a limit to it. The more you have, the more you want. The more you have, the more you think you need. Right? I it was gonna be quiet in here this morning. I told my wife and daughters they
17:09 should go shopping yesterday because they wouldn't want to today. Material blindness takes no account of the future. Takes no account of the future. We don't think about it like that. I'm just spending, I'm just doing,
17:21 I'm just getting, I'm just Right? But here's what he said. No. Everything coming through your hands, you're gonna give an accounting to the Lord Jesus Christ for. Number 2 is this, material blindness also cherishes the
17:32 temporary pleasures of accumulation. Material blindness, if you're into materialism, it cherishes or champions the temporal pleasures of accumulation. What's accumulation? Just
17:44 getting stuff. There's there's pleasure in getting stuff. I just gotta go shopping. I gotta get stuff. I gotta get on Amazon. I gotta get I need more stuff. Notice what the Lord says. He says, your
17:55 riches have rotted and your garments have become moth eaten. Your riches have rotted. Your garments have become moth eaten.
18:07 What's he saying? When you accumulate stuff, it tarnishes. It doesn't last very well. Even the things that you think are permanent, gold and silver, they're going to get corroded. They're going to tarnish. And what about
18:18 these garments? In the first century, most people had 1 garment. That's why when Jesus said, if somebody asks you for your tunic, give them your cloak as well. What do you mean? That's all I have. He's like, yeah, give
18:29 them everything. That's what his point was. Only the rich had more than 1 garment and he was saying, when you have garments and all you do is accumulate garments and they stay in the closet, they get eaten by
18:40 moths. So what good is it just to accumulate garments? What's the point? And for us, we know that styles change and everything else. I mean, you have great garments from the
18:52 1980s, you probably don't wear them much anymore because everything changes. Right? And he's like, why are you accumulating all this stuff? I mean, just think about it. Think about Christmas, what we get
19:04 stressed about. What do we get stressed about? Money and buying stuff. Well, I love you so much. I love you so much. I'm really, really stressed because I got to buy you more stuff that you don't need, that you won't
19:15 use, but I gotta do it because it's the right thing to do because you need more stuff. I mean, is anybody else like us that when you got married, you didn't have any anything at all? You had no stuff? My in
19:27 laws gave us a piece of furniture so we'd have a bed. Somebody else gave us a couch. That's all we had. And now we look around like, did all this stuff come from? It just it just accumulates. Even if you don't want it to
19:38 accumulate, it accumulates. People give you stuff. You buy stuff. You purchase stuff, and you don't realize your life is just filled with stuff. And when your life is filled with stuff, you miss out on the mission of
19:48 Jesus. You're now you're no longer focused on him because sometimes when you get more stuff or you get more valuable stuff, then you gotta earn money so that you can protect all that stuff, and you gotta get places to
19:59 put all that stuff, and you gotta get insurance for all that stuff so that if something happens to your stuff, you have money to get more stuff. And if materialism is your thing and you're blind to
20:11 that, your whole life is centered around stuff. You got a job so you can get stuff. You work so you can get stuff. And anytime it's about the temporary pleasures of accumulation, you miss out on the eternal joy of
20:23 serving the Lord Jesus Christ with incredible purpose. You miss out on his mission. Jesus did not say, go into all the world and collect stuff.
20:35 He didn't say give people more money so they can go into all the world and collect more stuff. Here's here's your heart. I mean, think about this for a moment. When you see somebody in need, what's your knee jerk that
20:46 they need? That will tell you who your God is. Is it they need prayer? Is it they need the gospel? Is they need encouragement or is it they need some more money? What's your God?
20:58 I mean, it's pretty telling when you see somebody like what do they need? Need Sometimes poor people don't need more money. Sometimes poor people are poor because they've made horrible choices and that's why they're poor
21:08 and giving them more money is not going to help them. It's only going to exacerbate the problem. Sometimes what poor people need is more of Jesus. Sometimes rich people, what they need is more of
21:20 Jesus to center on him. Right? And this is why Jesus says so clearly to us in the sermon on the mount, greatest sermon ever preached. He says this just before what I read you.
21:32 In Matthew chapter 6 19, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust
21:43 destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What you treasure is what you worship. And if you're worshiping the accumulation of stuff and that's your
21:55 treasure, then that is your worship. Right? That's what he's saying. That's Jesus's word. That's what he's talking to us. Don't store it up. Don't store it up. I mean, there's that parable in Luke chapter 12
22:07 about the guy that was accumulating all this stuff. So he's like, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna build more barns cause I got all this stuff. I got to put them in barns. And Jesus is like, you fool. Your life is
22:16 going to be demanded of you this very evening. Why did you spend your whole life gaining stuff to store it up in barns? And you know what it's like for those of you that had relatives or whatever that are older that have
22:26 passed and you have to go through their house and go through all their stuff. And you're like, why do they keep any of this stuff? Like I realized the things that are valuable to me, my kids are gonna look at it for 3
22:35 seconds and say, why didn't dad throw this stuff away? Doesn't mean anything to us. Right? But that's where, that's where we get and we tend to be the kind of people that think there's something better out there if we
22:47 just store up and accumulate things. It reminds me of the story that I heard about a fisherman in a third world country and every day he would wake up about the time the sun came up. He would go fishing at about 7 in the
22:58 morning and fish by himself for 3 hours. He really loved that. He'd catch a few fish. About 10 o'clock, he'd come into the market. He would sell his fish. He would get enough money where he could go and buy lunch and
23:07 bring and dinner and he would bring the lunch home for his family. He'd have lunch with his wife and then he'd take a siesta in the afternoon and his kids would come home in the evening, they'd eat dinner together,
23:16 they'd hang out all night and just talk. And then he would go to bed and he would get up and do the same thing every day. And 1 day there was this Harvard MBA that was watching what was going on. He's like, this is
23:25 crazy. I can help this guy. And so he told the fishermen, he's like, listen, you know what? You should take somebody else fishing with you. And he said, well, why is that? He goes, because you could catch twice as many
23:34 fish. He said, well, what good would that do? He goes, well, then you could sell more fish and you could make more money. He said, well, what good would that do? He's like, well, over time, you could buy a bigger boat
23:43 and you could take more fishermen out there with you. And then over time, you might even be able get a few boats and have a fleet. He goes, well, what good would that do? He goes, well, you'd make so much more money. He
23:54 goes, well, what good would that do? He goes, well, 1 day if you have enough money, then you could retire. He goes, well, then what would I do? He goes, well, then you could get up in the morning anytime you want. You go
24:04 fishing by yourself. You could come home and have lunch with your wife, take a siesta, and then in the evening hang out with your family and have good meaningful time. And the fisherman
24:15 scratching his head like, what? What do you mean? I'm doing that right now. That's the lie of materialism. The lie of materialism is there's something better out there if I accumulate stuff that I gotta keep working for
24:26 and we miss out on the most important things God has. That's what he's saying. Don't be about the temporary pleasures of accumulation. Be about being in the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ and serve him with
24:37 great purpose. That's what he wants us to do. Don't cherish the temporary and don't substitute the eternal joy of living on mission for Jesus. There's great joy. Here's the way I hear it in church sometimes. I'll hear
24:49 men say something like this. I know God's calling me to do this and 1 day when I get enough money then. Or I hear young people say, I know God wants me to do this and as soon as I get enough money, then I'll do that. As
24:58 soon as I finish school, I'll do it. As soon as I as soon as I soon Now there's nothing wrong with preparing yourself for the mission God has for you. I get that. But sometimes what people are saying is, I've designed my
25:08 life this way and as soon as my life looks like this and I have all this extra time, then I'll go do that for God. And I'll tell you this on the authority of God's word, you'll always be saying that until the day you
25:17 meet Jesus. Because what you're really saying is, I'm responsible for my material wealth. I'm responsible for getting done what I need rather than what the Bible says. God will supply all of your needs according to his
25:28 glorious riches in Christ Jesus. If you're about his mission, he'll always supply what you need. He may not supply everything you want. He may not supply it in the way that you want or how you want it, but he'll give you
25:37 everything that you need in order to accomplish his mission and live on purpose with him. That's what he wants from every single Christian. So don't get hindered by material blindness. Don't get hindered by the
25:48 things that say, I need more pleasure. I need more pleasure. And isn't it true? I mean, you remember as a little kid. I remember as a little kid. Prior to the days of the Internet, we'd have the JCPenney catalog or the
25:58 Sears catalog. I sit down there and go through every page page number and write down my Christmas list. Walter Payton jersey, you know, all this kind of stuff. My Christmas list was like 4 pages, and I would go over it
26:08 with my parents so they knew everything I wanted. And if they would have bought everything for me, which they didn't, it still wouldn't have been enough because I would have wanted more than next year and more the next
26:17 year. And no matter what we get that we think is going to be satisfying, there's always something more. There's always the next thing. That's why we call it a starter house because there's always another house.
26:29 Right? That's why we it's, you know, a small car because then we get a bigger car. Mean, this has more bells and whistles so we can get this computer, but this 1 has this, this and this and we gotta have more. We gotta
26:38 have more. We gotta have more. We gotta have That's cherishing the temporary pleasures of this world and the accumulation of goods rather than living with the eternal joy of serving Jesus Christ. Materialism
26:50 blinds us to that. It takes no account for the future. It cherishes the temporary pleasures of accumulation. Number 3, it does this. It heightens an appetite for greed. Material blindness heightens an appetite for
27:02 greed. Notice what he goes on to say. He says, your gold and your silver have rusted and the rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like
27:14 fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Now what are the last days? Been very clear from this pulpit. The last days are after Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection when he rose from the
27:24 dead. The last days begun. He's ascended into heaven. He's coming back. We are in the last days. I believe we are closer to the end of the last days and we're certainly closer to the end of time than we were
27:36 yesterday. And we don't know exactly when that's gonna be, but Jesus said when it is. He said it's gonna be soon. And he said, in these last days, when you have an opportunity to go out and make disciples, you've decided
27:45 to accumulate riches for yourself. You you've decided to be greedy. You've said just a little more. I think it was John D. Rockefeller when asked the question 1 time, how much is enough? He said just a little more. I
27:57 mean, no matter how much you have, you always think, though, I if I just add a little more. They did a study a number of years ago from people that made between 30150 thousand dollars a year. How much more would it take
28:07 for them to really be satisfied? And whether they made 30 or 40 or 50 or whatever, all the way up to 150, the general consensus was if they made just 11000 dollars more a year, they'd be totally fine for the rest of
28:17 their lives. I think about it like this. In a 12 months calendar year, if somebody said to you, hey, I'll give you an extra month's bonus. Yeah, that'd feel really good. I mean that probably all I need.
28:29 Why? Cause it's just a little more. Whatever it is, I just need a little more. Cause no matter how much I have, I need just a little more. And the more I get, the more I realize I can do. And the more I realize I can do,
28:39 the more I need to go do the things that, right? And that's the danger of materialism. It blinds us to the fact that without even knowing it, we're going after things rather than pursuing
28:50 Jesus and depending upon him. He goes on to say it like this. He says, they're going to be a witness against you. Your accumulation of stuff is a witness against
29:01 you. Think about all the stuff you have that you don't even know that you have or all the stuff that you have that you don't take any account for. That's going to be your witness when you get to see Jesus of, yeah, I've
29:12 just accumulated stuff. He's like, what good did it serve me? How did it bring me glory? How did it advance my kingdom? I don't know, but it was stuff and it felt really good to have that stuff. That's what it's talking
29:21 about. It's going to bear witness against you. Notice what he says. Verse 4, think about how greed works. Behold the pay of the laborers who mowed your field and which has been withheld by you cries out against you and
29:32 the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath. What's he saying? He's like, when you're greedy, you will do whatever it takes to get what you need. Whether it's extorting your
29:44 workers or not taking care of people or here's the way it points out. You'll use other people to get what you want. If you're unrighteous, if you're materialistic, you will use others to get
29:56 what you want. You won't see your job as a place of serving as unto the Lord. You'll see your job as a place of getting what I need so I can do what I want. If you're a boss, you will see others not as employees that
30:08 God's entrusted you that you're supposed to serve. You'll see them as a means to help you get what you want. If you're to yourself, you won't see your neighbors as people that you can serve to be a witness of the gospel
30:19 of Jesus Christ. You'll see your neighbors as people who you might be able to get something from so they can help you in your service. Like that's what material blindness does. Materialism blinds us to the fact that
30:29 we're really greedy and we're really about ourselves. And unlike the eighties movie wall street and Gordon Gekko, greed is not good. Greed's insidious. It captivates every single 1 of our
30:41 hearts. Every message that we see in the world is all about us and how we can get and gain and accomplish more for ourselves. And while I'm here, let me just say this since you're letting me meddle at Christmas time,
30:52 I'll meddle some more. Credit card debt. Credit card debt is a sign that materialism is your God. I'm not talking about using a credit card and paying it off at the end of the month because you have the
31:04 resources to do that. I'm talking about mounting credit card debt because when you're mounting credit card debt, then here's what your life centers around. Your life centers around waking up in the morning so that you
31:14 can go serve your God to pay off your God, the owner at American Express and Visa and Mastercard. Because I have to pay them because that's my God and I gotta pay them off and I need this stuff
31:26 that I can't afford so that I can go work to serve them. That's credit card debt. I think there's good debt. This is not a message on everything there is to know about money, but I think there's good things. If you have
31:37 mortgage on a home that can gain in value, there's there's some different ways to use money and leverage it and grow. That's fine. But I'm talking about where you're waking up every month and you got school debt and you
31:46 got card debt and you got house debt and you bought all this furniture you can't afford and you got that's not a blessing. That's a curse. You're not free to be everything you need to be for Jesus because you can't be
31:58 because there's no way you could be because your life is gonna be centered around paying off your debt. Just didn't put you on this world to pay off your debt. Jesus Christ came and paid our debt
32:10 so that you could be free to live for him. Amen. That's the gospel. Now I know in a church of our side, their size, there's several of you that are in debt and like, oh, what do I do? What do I do? Go find a
32:21 financial planner that can help you get out of debt. And getting out of debt is living righteously and making good decisions and not spending more than you make and downsizing and getting this debt rolling and paid
32:33 off and doing all because you can be free. Mean, take a look at the debt that you pay every single month and what if somebody's just gonna write you a check for that amount? That's what it's like to be free from debt.
32:42 Right? Material blindness says, well, credit cards. Okay. That's okay. I mean every commercial says it's okay. Teenagers, I need a credit card. Don't give your teenagers a credit card. Stupid.
32:53 Right? Pay cash. Pay for what you can do. Don't buy more than you can. Spend less than you make. It's simple concepts of spiritual disciplines so I can stay focused
33:05 on the things of Jesus. It's interesting to me the number of people that feel called to the mission field that are in debt or called to ministry that are in debt. And then the first thing they want when they get into
33:17 ministry is I need you to pay for my ministry. You're disqualified from serving the Lord if you're in debt. Period. You should. You should go get a job and pay off your debt. Right? Okay. Enough said
33:28 there. All right. Material blindness heightens an appetite for greed where we say, you know, how much is enough? And we're constantly saying, just a little more, just a little more. Well, as I had a little more, then I'm
33:39 fine. And then this fourth 1, this fourth 1, material blindness creates an insensitivity to injustice, insensitivity to injustice. Verse 5 says, you've
33:50 lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasures. You know, there's certain places that will teach that, you know, God wants you to be rich. God wants you to have everything you
34:02 want to have. God wants you to enjoy your life to the full. God wants, God wants, God wants. God did not put you on this earth so that you can enjoy yourself. God put you on this earth so you could depend upon him to
34:12 serve others. And whether God fills your bank account bigger or fills your account small, whatever he chooses, he's gonna give you enough to accomplish what God wants you to accomplish. And you're depending upon him and
34:22 you're seeing your resources as a way to be a blessing to others. But when you live a life of want and pleasure and luxury, what you're saying is, no. No. No. No. You don't understand. My Christianity is about me. I
34:32 believe Jesus died and now he can stay over there until I die because I'll go to heaven someday, but everything I get is about me and I wanna live this way and I wanna have this house and I wanna have this life and I
34:41 wanna that's called prosperity gospel, which is really no gospel at all. It's damning. The gospel of Jesus Christ is that he paid for all of our sins and rose from the dead and it's repenting of our sins and coming to
34:52 Christ so that we can truly live for him. And whatever God brings our way, we see it as a blessing and we honor him with that and we serve others with it. But when you live a life of luxury and want and pleasure, you
35:04 have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. When you live materialistically in this life, you are setting yourself up for judgment in the next. Again, let me be clear. There's nothing wrong with making
35:16 money. There's nothing wrong with having lots of it. The question is how much does it have of you? Right? And if it has you and it will have you if you don't have some things in place, which we'll talk about here at the
35:27 end, had, it's dangerous. We're talking about danger here. I mean, your pastor, I would tell you if you're married, don't hang out with a person of the opposite sex. It's not your spouse cause there's danger lights that
35:38 will go off. Right? I would tell you if you're, as your pastor, if you struggle with addictions or alcohol, don't go to the bars and clubs and hang out with people like that. It's dangerous. I would tell you as your
35:48 pastor who lives in America, materialisms dangerous. Like, don't flirt with it. Don't play around with it. Don't say, well, it won't affect me. It totally will affect you. And just so I can say this because I talk to a
36:00 lot of young guys and young guys will say stuff like this. Like I used to say, I just want to make a lot of money because 1 day I want to bless the Lord. I want to be a millionaire so I can just give the Lord a lot of
36:09 money. Okay. Let me tell you a couple of things. Number 1, the Lord doesn't need your money and number 2, if that's really your calling, then be generous to him now. I don't have that much now. That's why you gotta be
36:21 generous because if you're faithful with little, you'll be faithful with much. If you're not faithful with little, you won't be faithful with much. I mean, start being generous now. Generosity is an act of the heart. If
36:30 you're generous with a little and then more comes, you'll still be more generous and don't wait until you get to a place where you start being generous. You can't. It's harder and harder the more you go on if you don't
36:40 start habits when you're young. And by the way, young people, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you who work part time jobs. I'm talking to you who do babysitting. I'm talking to you who, you know, make 50 dollars 500
36:51 dollars, hundred dollars, whatever. If you get into a place where you're like, okay, God gets paid first. I'm gonna steward my resources towards them. I'm gonna be content in what I have. I don't need to go out and buyShow more
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