Resisting the Ring | A Generous Life | Trinity Sermons

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of

Trinity Sermons. This week we're continuing our

sermon series, A Generous Life, and we're looking

at the opposite of generosity, which is greed.

And greed can be this kind of power that takes

over us. Just like in the Lord of the Rings,

the ring becomes this powerful symbol for something

that can take hold of certain people. But the

hobbits don't seem to be as bothered by it. They're

happy with their simple life. So how can we learn

to live simply and learn to live contentedly,

more like a hobbit? That's what Rob's going to

talk to us about, so let's listen in. Today's

reading is taken from 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses

1 Timothy 6:6–11

6 to 11, and then 17 to 19. But godliness with

contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing

into the world. We can take nothing out of it.

But if we have food and clothing, we will be

content with that. Those who want to get rich

fall into temptation and a trap and into many

foolish and harmful desires that plunge people

into ruin and destruction. For the love of money

is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager

for money have wandered from the faith. and pierce

themselves with many griefs. But you, man of

God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness,

godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

Command those who are rich in this present world

not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in

wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their

hope in God. who richly provides us with everything

for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to

be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and

willing to share. In this way they will lay up

treasure for themselves as a firm foundation

for the coming age, so that they may take hold

of the life that is truly life. This is the word

of the Lord. To rule them all. One ring to find

them. One ring to bring them all. And in the

darkness, find them. That's right. If you know

anything about the Lord of the Rings, then you

know about this little ring of power. It's beautiful.

It's small. It doesn't look like much. But for

J .R .R. Tolkien, and his whole world of the

Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. This ring symbolizes

power. It symbolizes desire. It symbolizes greed.

And actually, greed is a theme that comes up

again and again in Tolkien's writings. He writes

about dwarves that dig way too deep in search

of treasure. He writes about dragons who sleep

on gigantic piles of gold. He writes about armies

that are willing to go to war just to get their

hands on some of that gold. But of all the symbols

and of all the things, it's the ring itself.

It's the ring which is constantly whispering,

You don't have enough. I can give you more. I

can give you more power. I can give you more

meaning. I can give you great, great things.

But, but the ring lies, doesn't it? The ring

promises one thing but delivers another. And

what it actually ends up doing is twisting and

tormenting and destroying your life. And in fact,

depending on who you are, you react to the ring

a little differently. Of course, there was Gollum.

Gollum, he didn't just own the ring. The ring

owned him. It was his, what did he call it? His

precious, right? It was the thing that he all

was thinking about. His mind was constantly focused

on, and it caused his life to hollow out, and

it ultimately destroyed him. Or there was another

character in the Lord of the Rings. This guy's

name was Boromir. And Boromir was a good man.

And he thought that if he just had the ring,

then he could do good in the world. He could

do good things with it. But he was naive. And

he was foolish. He never could have handled it.

It would have destroyed him too. And in some

ways, it kind of did. And then there was Aragorn.

Aragorn even at one point was offered the ring,

but he refused to take it because he was wise

enough to know that he could not handle it. He

could not wield it. It would destroy him. And

he would do horrible things if he had it. And

then there were hobbits. Now hobbits are very

interesting because they were like the smallest

and the weakest of most of the creatures in Middle

Earth. But they somehow... were able, more than

others, to resist the power of the ring and not

be consumed by the ring. You see, because hobbits

weren't, you know, they weren't greedy. They

didn't want gold. They didn't want power. They

had very pure hearts. They had very simple lives.

They had very pure motives. All the hobbits really

wanted was like a good meal, some music, you

know, some friends, a good drink, some gardens

that they could plant stuff in. And you know

what? That turned out to be their secret power.

Their contentment gave them this ability to resist

the ring's power, at least for a while. So what

we're doing is we're continuing on in our teaching

series this November. This teaching series is

called A Generous Life. And we're talking about

things like money and greed and contentment and

wealth and all those good things. And I want

to just admit that for some of us here today,

we might be kind of like a hobbit, kind of like

Frodo. And money has never been a problem for

us. It's never been a challenge. We've never

felt particularly like destroyed by money or

felt its grip on our lives. Fair enough. There

are others of us here today. Maybe you're more

like Boromir. You don't have a lot of money,

but man, oh man, if you could get your hands

on it, you could do great things with it, right?

And then there's others of us here who maybe

were more like Aragorn. And actually, we know

that if we had money, we would do horrible things.

It would change us. And so we're actually, we

don't want more money. Even though we don't have

a lot, we don't want to get our hands on it.

And then, and then, maybe there are some of us

here today who are more like Gollum. And we have

experienced and we have been through this time

where we have allowed money to warp our hearts

and to damage our lives. So which one are you?

Are you wise like Aragorn when it comes to money?

Are you foolish, naive like Boromir? Are you

greedy like Gollum? Or are you content like Frodo?

You know, Tolkien wrote that if more of us valued

food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it

would be a merrier world. Well, today what we're

going to do is we're going to take a little trip

through Middle Earth, but we're really going

to take a trip through the Bible. And we're going

to look basically at three things. We're going

to look, one, at the power of greed. Second,

at the peace of contentment. And third, at the

practice of simplicity. So the power of greed,

the peace of contentment, and the practice of

simplicity. I've given you guys notes. If you

want to follow along and take some notes as we

go, I would encourage you to do so. But let's

start with this. Let's start with talking about

the power of greed. Now, you got to be really

quiet because you have to listen. Listen. Listen

to what the ring is whispering. If you had just

a little more. You'd finally be secure. You'd

finally have enough. You see, the ring and greed

and wealth whisper these things to us. On the

other hand, the Bible shouts. loud and clear

about the dangers of greed and wealth. Ecclesiastes,

whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever

loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

Greed, it just never ends. It's called the myth

of more. Oh, if I just had a little more, then

I would, then I would, then I would, then I would.

But you never can get enough. Jesus actually

says, watch out. Be on your guard against all

kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the

abundance of possessions. Jesus does not say,

oh, just be advised. He does not say, you know,

try to avoid greed. No, he says, watch out for

it. Why does he say watch out? Because we don't

see it coming. Nobody thinks they're greedy.

It just grows. It's like the ring that makes

you invisible. Greed itself is invisible. I have

never had anyone in my 25 years of ministry come

into my office and confess to me, pastor, I'm

greedy. Nobody thinks they are greedy. It's invisible.

It lives in the shadows. And those who want to

get rich, they fall into temptation. and a trap

and into many foolish desires that plunge people

into ruin and destruction. The love of money

is a root of all kinds of evil. You know, Tolkien

actually wrote about something called dragon

sickness in his writings. And dragon sickness

happens when somebody gets so fixated on wealth,

so fixated on money, that they start isolating

themselves from others. They eventually, they

run away to be by themselves and they slowly

wither away and they end up dying. alone, right?

That's what happens. The desire for riches tempts

us and it traps us and it changes us until we

become like Boromir or Smeagol or Thorin or Smaug

or any of those characters. Now, if you were

thinking this morning, okay, Rob, okay. You know,

enough of the Lord of the Rings. It's a book,

Rob. It's fiction. It's a story. It's not real.

Calm down, right? That's just your wedding ring

on a chain. But listen, the Bible says it's actually

true. And not only does the Bible say this stuff

is actually true, so does research. Let me show

you this. This is a guy named Paul Pith. Now,

that sounds like a great hobbit name right away,

Paul Pith, Mary and Pith, or something like that.

But Paul Pith is a researcher. He's a psychologist

at the University of California. He gave this

TED Talk called, Does Money Make You Mean? And

you really should watch this. It's quite fascinating

because they did all these studies to see how

money actually changes us. They did this one

study with Monopoly where they would give one

player more money, more turns, and more advantage

in a game of Monopoly. And guess what happened?

Guess what happened? The rich players became

loud. They became obnoxious. They became boastful.

Even though they didn't earn any of it, in short,

they just became mean because they were rich.

They did another study where they watched cars

as they approached pedestrian crosswalks. And

do you know that the more expensive the car,

the less likely it was for the driver to stop

for a pedestrian? Money makes you mean. Another

study, they just simply did this. They showed

adults a bowl of candy and they said, this candy

is for children, the children down the hall,

please don't eat it. And the richer you were,

the more likely you were to take some of that

candy. And the less money you had, the less likely

you were to take the candy, right? Which caused

Paul Piff and his team to conclude that as a

person's level of wealth increases, guess what

happens? Their compassion and their empathy go

down and their sense of entitlement and self

-interest go up. In other words, it's dragon

sickness, right? Now this, of course, is not

always the case. It's not always the case. You

can probably, there's lots of people who don't

have money, poor people who are also very mean

too, right? But listen, as a general rule, right?

The more wealth you have, according to research,

the more it will turn your heart away from people.

And the more it will turn your heart away from

God. You know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that

worldly possessions tend to turn the hearts of

disciples away from Jesus. Now I know, listen,

nobody wants this. Nobody wants to live this

way. Nobody wants to be Gollum. So how do we

resist the lure of wealth, our desire for more?

How do we resist the evil of greed? Well, there

is another way. It's the way of the hobbit. is

the way of contentment. You see, hobbits were

not wealthy, but they were content. While greed

drove the dwarves to do all sorts of horrible

things, and while power drove the humans to do

horrible things, hobbits, they just wanted a

warm bed, a nice fire, some food, some cheer,

some songs to sing, just the ordinary joys. of

a shared life. And that contentment gave them

this inner strength to resist the ring and to

resist greed. And whether that is happening on

Middle Earth or whether that's just happening

here on planet Earth, it still holds true. The

Bible talks about this deep peace of contentment

that can save us from this restless hunger for

more and more and more. Contentment, I think,

is one of the most underrated virtues of all

time. Greed is constantly whispering, you don't

have enough yet. You don't have enough. Yet godliness

with contentment is great gain. True wealth is

not having a lot, but it's being happy with what

you do have. To be content. You don't have to

take a vow of poverty or become a monk. You just

simply have to say, I have enough. I actually

have more than enough. And actually, I'm happy

with what I do have. Now, I don't know if you've

ever had that feeling. Maybe you've been sitting

down at a table surrounded by friends or your

family or you're in church and you're singing

or you're praying or whatever. And you just have

this moment, this feeling where you say, you

know what? I'm a rich man. I am rich. That is

contentment. That is true wealth. And Paul goes

on to say, we brought nothing into this world

and we can take absolutely nothing out of it.

In other words, your net worth will not follow

you into eternity. Neither will your house, neither

will your savings, neither will your car, neither

will your clothes. As the old saying goes, you

know, I've never seen a hearse pulling a U -Haul.

Everything you own will one day belong to someone

else. Think about that. Everything you own will

one day belong to someone else. You will lose

every single dollar that you make. Some of it

you will lose it in this life, and the rest you

will lose at the end of this life. So don't build

your life around something that just cannot last.

But if we have food, If we have clothing, we

can be content with that. The Greek word here

for clothing literally means just coverings,

right? The basics, food, clothing, shelter, enough,

right? This is how you live a lighter life, not

chained down by the need for more, not chained

down to your bank balance. Contentment actually

redefines what a successful life is. I don't

actually need one more purchase to be successful.

I don't need one more vacation. I don't need

one more upgrade to be secure. If I have God,

and if I have the basics, then I'm a success.

I have enough. Randy Alcorn has this great quote.

He says, contentment is being satisfied in whose

you are, who you are, and then what you have.

Or Chris Austin said, it's for not to possess

much, but to need little is to be rich indeed.

I mean, don't we often say, you know, if I just

had this one more thing or this one other achievement,

then I would be content. It's a lie. When you

get that one more thing or achieve that one more

thing, you will feel exactly the way you feel

right now. now. But here's the good news. You

can learn contentment. I mean, last week we talked

about how generosity is a practice that teaches

us, and we can learn to be generous, and that

teaches us to lead a joyful life. Well, this

week I want to teach you another practice. It's

a practice that we can employ whenever we hear

the whispers of greed. And it's a practice, actually,

that hobbits clearly have learned. Many people

on earth, many saints have learned this practice.

And Jesus, of course, demonstrates it more than

anyone else. And that is the practice of simplicity.

If contentment is this peace that you feel, then

simplicity is the practice that you live. Say

that again. If contentment is the peace you feel.

then simplicity is the practice that you live.

Well, you say, well, what is simplicity? Well,

again, think about hobbits for a moment. They

had simple lives. They weren't poor. Were hobbits

poor? No, they weren't poor. They weren't sad

either. No, they had great lives, but they had

just made a choice. At some point in their culture,

they had made a choice to live with enough so

that they could focus on other things that actually

mattered way, way more. Justin Whitmill Early

puts it this way. He says, simplicity is a way

of saying yes to what matters by saying no to

what does not. The reason I think we love hobbits

is because they learn to say no to the things

that don't matter so they could actually say

yes to the things that do matter. I want to close

by just sharing with you four lessons from the

Shire about how to live a simple life. First

is this. Simplicity just simply means this, living

with less, less stuff. Hobbits, if you read the

books, they don't crave more stuff or bigger

stuff or better stuff. Look at their houses,

right? Have you ever seen a hobbit hole, right?

It's very simple. It's very practical. It's very

comfortable, but it's not luxurious or lavish

in any way, right? They don't need much to be.

happy hobbits. In fact, one of the things that

Tolkien says about hobbits is they have this

extreme dislike for complicated machines. They

don't like complicated things. Hobbits would

never have a cell phone. It's a way to, a smartphone's

way too complicated. It's way too expensive.

Instead, Tolkien says that hobbits are fond of

peace and quiet and good tilled earth. There

are two ways to get enough, Chesterton says.

One is to accumulate more. The other is to desire

less. There's two ways to get rich. One is to

make more. The other is to want less. Hobbits

chose the second way. You can be rich when you

delight in what you already have and then you

live with less. That's the first lesson. The

second lesson the hobbits teach us about simplicity

is that simplicity means giving away more. right?

Giving away your possessions, giving away your

wealth, giving away your time. In fact, in Hobbit

culture, do you know what you did on your birthday?

Does anyone remember what, right? Yes, you don't

get presents on your birthday if you're a hobbit.

You actually give presents away to people, which

means a birthday is a very expensive thing to

celebrate if you live in the Shire. You've got

to give stuff away. Even the ring itself, though

it was very costly and very valuable, was given

as a gift from Bilbo to Frodo. Hobbits seem to

have no trouble parting with their... possessions.

In fact, Tolkien invented a new word. His word

called them a mathem, M -A -T -H -O -M. A mathem

was anything that you had, anything that you

didn't need, that you could just give away to

someone. So it might be an extra pipe, an extra

hat, you know, might be that you had a teapot

you didn't use anymore, right? And these items

were just given away and they would travel from

house to house and from hand to hand. And sometimes

they would even return back to the original owner,

right? They just had no trouble. giving stuff

away. Saint Basil wrote this. He said, the bread

in your cupboard belongs to the hungry. The coat

hanging unused in your closet belongs to the

one who needs it. The money that you hoard belongs

to the poor. The more we give away, the more

room we have for freedom and peace and contentment

within us. But thirdly, simplicity also means

putting others first. Putting community first.

You see, greed always isolates you from community,

right? Smaug the dragon, he slept alone on his

pile of gold. Gollum lived alone all by himself.

The dwarves, you know, they were always divided,

fighting over treasure. But simplicity allows

you to be with friends and to be with family

and to put them above all the stuff. Look at

the hobbits. They eat together. They celebrate

together. They look after each other. In many

ways, they believe. belong to each other it's

the same way that the early church lived right

all the believers were together and they had

everything in common selling their possessions

and good they shared with anyone who was in need

the first volume of the lord of the rings was

called the fellowship of the ring fellowship

i'm not naive i mean community can be a place

where people get really competitive And they

compare themselves to each other. But community

can also be the place where we treasure each

other. Okay? And finally, simplicity also means

being available for God. Okay, so Bilbo and Frodo

were both able to leave their homes and go on

this great mission at the drop of a hat. And

they weren't held back by their possessions.

They weren't held back by their commitments.

They held those things so loosely. That they

left it all to pursue this greater purpose. Christians

have a greater purpose. We have a greater mission

to seek the kingdom of God. But many people can't

go on that mission. Why? Oh, because I bought

a field. I need to go see it. Please excuse me.

Oh, I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going

to go try them out. Please excuse me, Jesus.

I can't go on that mission. I can't go with you

today. These excuses are all based on the fact

that they had material attachments. But simplicity

of life allows us to focus on the mission before

us and to be available to God to say, yes, Lord,

send me, Lord. Use me, Lord. living with less,

giving away more, putting others first and being

available to God. Guys, what would it be, what

would it look like for us to live like hobbits

here in Streetsville? What would it look like

for you to live with less? Well, it would probably

mean a lifestyle change of some sort. It would

mean that maybe you drive a used car instead

of a new one. It means maybe you hang on to your

clothes a little longer before you replace them.

It means you probably brew your own coffee at

home rather than constantly buying it at Starbucks

each and every day. The point is that somebody,

the world should be able to look at us and say,

oh, there's something different about them. They

don't seem to be caught up in that same rat race

we are. They're choosing a simpler way of life.

What would it look like for us to live like hobbits

and give away more? What kind of mathems do you

have in your house? What could you give away?

Sell it and then give the money away to someone,

right? Just start, maybe even this week, with

one or two things that you just do not need anymore

and give them to someone who does. Many of us,

it's really hard for us to imagine giving things

away because we already spend just about everything

we make right up to the limit, right? But as

we simplify, our lives. And as we create space,

we create this margin in our budgets and this

margin in our schedules that then allows us to

be able to give away to others. What would it

look like for our church to live like hobbits

and to kind of be this community that put others

first? You know, the early church was incredibly

economically diverse, and so is our church, by

the way. Some of us here are living paycheck

to paycheck. Others of us are doing really, really

well. And there's others of us who are kind of

somewhere in the middle. And I don't say that

to shame anyone or to guilt anyone, but just

to say that we cannot let wealth get in the way

of community. And we can't allow money. To somehow

determine how we value each other here at Trinity

Streetsville. Imagine a church that instead of

measuring ourselves against each other and hanging

out with people who are kind of in our same socioeconomic

bracket, that we actually honored one another

by living simply and giving generously and openly.

Imagine what the world would think if they saw

this community that we formed where nobody was

left to carry the fear of financial burdens alone.

If we lived that way, I mean, simplicity, it

wouldn't just be possible. It would actually

be beautiful and so attractive. And finally,

what would it look like for us to live like hobbits?

By making ourselves available to God. To say

yes when God calls. Is there something in your

life that right now that God has been saying,

I want you to go do this. I want you to go give

this. But you're saying, I just can't do that.

But if you were to simplify your life, you could

say yes. If you were to simplify your life, you

could serve. If you were to simplify your life,

you could give. right? If I could simplify, I

could be more generous and you could say yes

and yes and yes to God. Simplicity gives us back

the ability to say yes to God. So listen, the

ring of greed, it whispers to us, it bends us,

it isolates us, destroys us. But the good news

is your story is not Gollum's story, right? There's

another way to live. It's the way of Frodo, the

way of It's the way of the shire. It's the way

of simplicity. It's the way of contentment. But

really, it's the way of Jesus. The ring whispers,

I'll give you more. Greed whispers, you need

more. But Jesus whispers, my grace is sufficient

for you. In me. You already have everything you

need. Thanks be to God. Amen.