A Generous Life: The Competition Pastor John Authenreith 08-16-26

Morning.

Good to see you here.

Glad you're watching at home wherever you may happen to be.

That last song just speaks to me a lot, I'll tell you, because I've just seen the faithfulness of God throughout my life.

Some of you know my story, and I've come a long way to be standing up here and to be preaching and to be uh uh you know the pastor of this church all my life.

God has been faithful.

Amen.

I bet you a lot of you can say that same thing, right?

So glad we could sing that.

Glad, glad uh that you're joining us this morning.

There's a guy named Chuck Feeney, and he was a businessman who made billions of dollars as the co-founder of Duty Free.

You may have seen those duty-free uh shoppers, shops in uh airports, they have them all over everywhere.

But if you had met him walking through an airport, you probably wouldn't have guessed that he was a billionaire.

He flew economy class wherever he went, he didn't dress the part, he carried his papers in a plastic bag.

He he get he uh lived modestly, and for years nobody knew what he did with his money.

It's like, what are you?

You're a billionaire, what are you doing with all your money?

And in 1982, he created a foundation called the Atlantic Philanthropies.

And his philosophy was simple: giving while living.

I love that.

Giving while living.

Most people, right?

The the wealthy, they use their money while they're alive, and then when they pass away, they give it all they give it away to charities or whatever it is, or pass it on down to their families.

No, his was giving while living.

And instead of accumulating his wealth and leaving it behind after he died, he wanted to use it while he was alive to make a difference.

And he didn't just give away a little bit of money.

Over the course of his lifetime, Phoenix Philanthropy ultimately distributed more than eight billion dollars to causes around the world.

He supported education, healthcare, human rights, scientific research, communities in need, and much of it was given anonymously.

He didn't want his name on buildings, there was no buildings named after him.

He didn't want a plaque somewhere, he didn't want anybody to know, he didn't seem interested in getting credit.

He was just that kind of guy.

His goal was to simply see the money, accomplish something good.

And eventually he did something almost unheard of for someone who had accumulated that kind of wealth.

He gave virtually all of it away.

All of it.

And when asked about his philosophy, Feeney explained that he saw little reason to wait to give when he had so much good, when he had so much, and so much good could be accomplished by giving now.

And he even said, it's a lot more fun to give while you live than when you're dead.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

A lot more fun to give while you live than when you're dead.

Think about that.

Think about Feeney's story, Chuck Feeney's story, as we begin our series today, A Generous Life.

Take out your Bible if you would and turn with me to Matthew, first book of the New Testament.

We're gonna be in chapter six today, starting in verse 19.

A new series called A Generous Life.

Let me pray for the Word of God because we've got a lot to cover today.

Lord, this is your word.

Your word is active and alive, your word is truth.

I pray that you open our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears to receive what you would have us receive from this.

Thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Matthew was one of Jesus' uh original disciples.

He wrote this book to a Jewish audience uh that Jesus of Nazareth was certainly the long-awaited Messiah who fulfilled Old Testament prophecies.

It's one of the gospels, like I said, the first four books of the New Testament, dedicated to the life of Jesus, and they are like biographies.

So when we get to chapter six, right, look at this.

Jesus is teaching on what's called the Sermon of the Mount, and here's what he's telling his audience.

Chapter 6, verse 19.

Get this.

We're going to read this section, and then we're going to look at parts of it.

Okay, so look at this story right here.

Jesus is teaching, he says, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The eye is the lamp of the body.

If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?

No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Therefore I tell you, because of all that, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air.

They do not sow or reap or store away, store store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they?

Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow?

They do not labor or spin, yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of those.

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For the pagans run after these things, and you and your heavenly father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Some of you are familiar with that passage.

Talked about it on more than one occasion.

It's a very important part of the Sermon on the Mount.

And the bottom line of the passage is this then it says, do not worry.

Really, it's do not worry.

God provides, He takes care of everything.

Don't spend all your time worrying about the material things in life.

Does that mean you don't need clothes and you don't need food?

No, it doesn't.

But do you need a Gucci purse or whatever, right?

That that's kind of the bottom line here.

Do you need the this up here, as opposed to just what you what you need to uh to get by, is what he's talking about, really.

It's also about priorities.

Don't spend all your time worrying about the material things in your life, and it's also about priorities.

And Jesus ends this section with a promise.

Look at Matthew 6, 33.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I want you to say that with me, will you?

Everybody together.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

One more time.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

That's a promise from Jesus Himself.

Disciples are to seek as their first priority, not the things they would like to have or even the things they're sure they need, but God's kingdom and his righteousness.

Seek God above all else, his kingdom, which means living under his rule on this earth.

And live righteousness, his righteousness, that's morally right, living as God has called us to live, with Jesus as our model.

And he'll give you everything you need, it says here.

So as we talk the next few weeks about living a generous life, we have to understand that it starts here.

Let's make that our first point and also keep it as our point of reference.

The point, make God first in my life, number one.

Bottom line.

Everything else hinges on this.

Everything.

God first.

You're thinking, oh, sure.

That's easy, John.

God first.

Easy for you to say.

I don't know.

I find it hard to continually put God first in all things, right?

I mean, what's that even mean?

That's hard, isn't it?

It's hard.

And do you find it a struggle or is it just me?

I don't know, right?

It's and it's even hard to define putting God first.

What's that mean?

It's hard to even define.

And I started with that passage from Matthew because that's the thing we need to understand at the very beginning of the series on the generous life.

Really, in its simplest, like I said, that's our bottom line for today.

Keeping God first in our life is where a generous life starts.

Maybe it sounds easy enough for you, and putting God first, you do pretty good at that.

Maybe you're a pretty solid believer and you're in the Word of God all the time and you pray continuously and you're involved in church and you're in a life group.

Maybe that's you, maybe you do a pretty good job of that.

Or maybe it's really hard for you to do any of those things, and you're struggling and you're not even sure, you can't figure out how it's even done.

Or maybe you're in the middle somewhere.

Let's see then if we think about that, if we can figure this out.

Look at verse 19 again.

Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal.

Then there's 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I don't think that takes a lot, a whole lot of theological explanation there.

That's pretty straightforward what Jesus is talking about here, isn't it?

It's pretty straightforward.

But he tells his listeners what the problem is.

If your treasure, what's he mean by treasure?

What is important to you is in your garage, let's say, or if your treasure is in the opportunity to share your faith at Kaffino, it's like ouch, right?

Or just share your faith at Kaffino, that's where your heart is.

Again, it goes back to priorities, doesn't it?

He basically says, You get to keep nothing in this world.

Yet your heart is loyal to all this temporary stuff.

Look at verse 21 again.

Look at this.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Other translations say, where your treasure is, so is the desires of your heart.

See, Jesus points out that the place we choose for our treasures, he doesn't define that what's important to you says something about us.

But what he he doesn't say, he doesn't describe treasure, like I said, but he clearly means that which one prizes, that which one values above other things.

The place where we choose to store up what we value most shows what our values are deep down in here.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also.

That's the problem.

We put lots of things before God.

It's human nature.

It just is.

It started with Adam and Eve, and God's not against stuff.

That's not the point at all.

He's not against stuff.

You see, the point is to make God first in our life, right?

But there's a problem, and the problem, we just discussed it.

The problem is this, number two, God has competition.

Man, does God have competition?

Do I do my devotion at night before I go to bed, or do I scroll, doom scroll?

Do I pick up my phone?

Exodus 23 says this.

You heard that before?

I'm sure you've heard that one before, right?

Wherever your treasure is, that's the problem with our ability to put God first.

He has competition.

There's no room for God to be first when he's vying for first place against the odds.

And like it or not, we we don't want to say this, but but God's competition is usually idols.

And I know you're thinking, God doesn't have any competition, John.

I don't have any idols.

Now, I I know maybe you don't have a Buddha that sits on a shelf in your living room and you rub its belly every time you walk by for good luck.

Maybe you don't.

Does anybody remember the little rabbit's feet?

The dyed rabbit's feet?

When we were kids, we used to keep them in our pocket for good luck.

A dyed rabbit's foot.

They'd be blue and green and red.

Anybody remember that?

Yeah, I see some hands going up.

You're right.

How about the magic eight ball?

Will I win a million dollars?

I'm not sure.

You know, there's the magic eight ball.

They still make those?

Magic eight ball?

Do they?

I guess they do.

Yeah, I need to get one.

No, I'm just kidding.

I need to get one.

But I do still keep a rabbit foot.

No, I don't do that either.

I don't know if they make those anymore.

I wonder how many rabbits died for uh losing their feet for good luck.

Right.

Oh my gosh.

And maybe you don't do that.

I don't know.

But but all of us are confronted with and and have idols in our life.

I I have uh an obsession with my treadmill.

All right, I get on my treadmill every morning and and I get on my treadmill every night at 8 o'clock.

I don't care what's on TV, I don't care what movie we're watching, I don't care if somebody got run over by a car in front of my house.

I'm getting on my treadmill at 8 o'clock.

What do you mean somebody just got run over for the car by a car?

It's eight o'clock, getting on my treadmill, right?

That's an obsession.

Is that an idol?

I don't know.

Maybe, maybe it's an idol, but it's certainly an obsession.

It's a good thing, but still, it's an obsession.

Let's define idol.

Any object of extreme devotion.

An object of extreme devotion.

That's simple enough.

That's simple enough.

Here's what's important to know.

We all have them.

Check this out.

Let me name some potential idols and see if any of these resonate with you.

Your job.

Yeah, a lot of times, you know, we we're workaholics, or jobs number one.

I gotta go to work.

I can't do that, I gotta go to work.

Right?

Because we need the money.

Money's coming up.

We need the money.

You value your work hours.

You think your paycheck can take care of you better than your devotion to God?

I don't know.

And we don't want to hear this stuff.

But how about your children?

Do you ever think of your children as idols?

Yes.

For some people they are.

I knew somebody that actually did their children's homework.

Literally did their homework for them so that they wouldn't look like a bad parent if their kid got a bad grade in school.

That's I'm not making that up.

You can't make that up.

You compromise your standards for their comfort.

You spend excessively on them.

Some parents spend up to$10,000 a year on sport stuff, right?

And Time Magazine said says that kids' sports are$15 billion a year industry.

Now man, there's nothing wrong with wanting the best for our kids, that's for sure.

Of course we do.

But sometimes our kids become idols.

How about number three, your possessions, your hobbies?

There we go.

This could be number one, right?

Our desire for things drives us to believe that we need certain stuff.

What are your hobbies?

What do you collect?

What do you have a lot of?

What do you have covered up in your garage?

Your 1968 Cutlass Supreme, right?

You have covered up in your garage or your uh Corvette.

I don't know, whatever it is.

What is what are your possessions or your hobbies that take a lot of your time and a lot of your money?

Do you ever consider putting that up?

That some of that stuff is an idol.

I would never part with that, right?

Remember when I was a kid, I was trying to think about that.

I had an obsession with Hot Wheels.

I've shared that with you before.

That was my thing.

I collected Hot Wheels.

And one time they came out with a Hot Wheel called the Splitting Image.

I have a picture of it right here.

The splitting image, that right there.

I had to have that.

I was thinking, you know why I like that?

Because the wife sits by herself on that other side and the husband sits on the.

I think that's why I like that.

I don't know, but uh I had to have that and I searched high and low.

Did they have Kreski's stores around here?

Anybody remember Kreski's?

Came, of course, came Martin they had, but I I searched high and low for that, and I saved my money.

That baby was 69 cents back in 1968, which is$7.

I looked it up.

$7 in today's money.

That's a lot of money for a little kid, right?

So, man, that was my obsession.

That was my idol.

I I love that thing.

And you guess what?

I got that picture from eBay.

$50.

It's$50, and I gave it away.

I gave them all away.

What was I thinking?

My Hot Wheels collection is worth millions and millions today, right?

And I gave them all away.

But your possessions, your collections, your toys, your cars, your guns, your guitars, your four-wheelers, your side-by-sides, your motorcycles, your pets, a bigger house, a bigger camper, a bigger vacation, and on and on and on to feel happy and content.

But there's always something better.

Always.

And with the internet, shopping, there's no end to the things we can buy instantly and have it delivered right to our house.

Right?

I told you the story before about a guy over at the church I worked at in Ohio.

He was an audio engineer.

He was our sound guy.

And he was really valuable.

We needed him there.

And he would work, you know, a couple of Sundays a month, but he lived far away.

So he came to me one Sunday and said, Hey, I just can't afford to drive here anymore.

He said, between Wednesday night rehearsal and Sunday morning, it's cost a lot of money and gas.

And this was probably 2008 when the economy was terrible.

He said, I just can't do this anymore, so I have to step down.

And I'm like, oh man, we're gonna hate to lose you.

You know, we were really important around here.

He said, Hey, you know, I just spent$400 to fill up my boat.

Think about that.

And so I've I had I was stunned there for a second.

Fill up your boat.

$400 to fill up his boat.

How about number four?

Our phones.

Social media.

Yikes.

Did you know that studies show we pick up our phones every 30 seconds?

Mm-hmm.

Facebook has over 3 billion users, Instagram has over 3 billion users, Snapchat about 950 million active users.

People average two hours and 22 minutes per day on social media with those under 24 averaging about 4.8 hours per day.

And there's not one person in this room or watching at home who's surprised by any of that.

Are you surprised by that?

No.

If you have an iPhone and go to your settings, you can scroll down, and there's a thing there that says screen time.

You could wait, let me take a picture for Instagram.

No, just kidding.

Goes down screen time.

And and and look, how about this one?

Finally, our money.

It's really this is the big one, isn't it?

We're scared of this one.

This this one is really number one.

Money has a grip on all of us in some way or another, and we need it for everything.

We can go back through the other four and see that money drives them all.

Do you take your quarterback from the uh shopping cart at Aldi's?

Don't shake your head, don't do you take your quarterback.

Just just asking.

Just asking for a friend.

Or do you leave it there for the next person?

Remember, some of you are feeling guilty now, right?

I take my quarterback every time and keep it in my car.

Now, our passage today said that we can't serve both God and money, yet we cling tighter to our wallets than we do our Bibles.

I know that.

We know that.

Did you know, for instance, only about 5% of Christians tithe.

Tithing is a command in the Bible.

I don't know if you knew that or not.

Tithing, I mean, the math really works out.

If you have a hundred bucks, you give God$10, you get to keep 90.

I mean, the math is in your favor, isn't it?

That's what tithing is.

If you have$1,000, you give God$100, you get to keep 900.

The odds are in our favor.

It's estimated that if all Christians tithed, there would be$165 billion extra dollars to be used for the work of the Lord on this earth.

And I'll be honest with you, and I'll tell you this, and I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, but in our congregation, the odds are not, the percentages are not that much different.

Not that much different.

Only a small percent of our 500 and some people are actual tithers.

Many of you give.

But when it comes to tithing, we're a little low in the percentage, that's for sure.

We're gonna be talking about that, right?

It's crazy stuff.

What's an idol again?

What's an idol?

An object of extreme devotion.

The challenge is that we don't consider the things that I mentioned to you, plus a million other things I didn't mention as idols.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans is talking about how far away people have gotten from God, and he says this, look at this Romans 1.25.

He said, They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who was forever praised.

Amen.

And that's the problem.

We give precedence to all these created, manufactured, time-consuming, expensive things in our life before the Creator.

It's human nature for us to struggle with this, guys.

But it's also a sin to put anything before God.

It's also a sin.

You see, putting God first, keeping Him as our Lord, as the Lord of our life, has lots of competition.

But how do we do that?

How do we put Him first?

There's different ways, but I just wanted to start with this.

Number three, the solution is identify first of all, pray about, identify and eliminate what the competitions might be.

That's keeping you from putting God first.

And that starts with praying about that, doesn't it?

This is where we start.

Doesn't mean we get rid of everything that we own, that's not it, but we put it in our proper its proper place.

And it takes a lot of personal introspection and self-honesty to identify our idols.

We not only don't want to admit that we have idols, we don't want to get rid of them because we're addicted to them.

It's impossible to stop picking up our phone.

It's impossible not to work overtime.

It's impossible for me not to get on my treadmill.

I don't know if it's an idol or not.

I don't know, but that's an illustration.

Step one is to identify.

Identify what's in the way, what could be standing in the way between my full devotion to God?

We identify that through prayer and through introspection.

And step two is elimination.

We take an honest look at our current priorities.

We ask ourselves, what do I spend too much time?

On what do I spend too much money?

What or who gets most of my attention?

Do I get a certain satisfaction when I buy something?

Is Amazon Prime my lifeline?

Do I hoard my money or let it flow through freely?

Easy for me to say, let it flow freely through my fingers.

And my tithing, giving, and serving.

Because when we begin to identify what we put before our relationship with God, our spiritual growth, what we put before our spiritual growth, when we pray for God to reveal it to us, we can begin, listen, the emulation, elimination process and pursue the generous life.

Who doesn't want that?

Who doesn't want to pursue the generous life?

What do you say, Matthew 6, 33?

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and he'll take care of everything else.

We can do this.

We can put God first by identifying our idols, by eliminating the competition.

What's the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

You personally?

We can start by establishing daily habits of worship and prayer and regular, consistent time spent in His Word, regular church attendance, serving, tithing, giving, all that.

It doesn't happen on its own, and it doesn't happen overnight.

Putting God first in all things leads to an abundant, gracious, generous, God-centered, God-blessed life.

Now, most of us don't have eight billion dollars to give away like Chuck Feeney.

But a generous life isn't ultimately measured by the size of the check.

It's measured by the size of the heart.

The question isn't how much do I have?

The question is, what has God given me that I can use to bless someone else?

Is it all about me?

Or is my life about others?

And of course, putting God first begins with our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I say it every week.

If Jesus is not your savior, it starts there.

It starts there.

He came that we may have life and have it abundantly, have it to the full.

He came for the forgiveness of sins.

And if he is not yet your savior, I pray that today is the day that you understand your need.

Maybe you're hearing this message and you're saying, You're right, I can't do all of this stuff, John.

Because I haven't put God first.

I don't have Jesus as my savior.

Let me pray.

Dear Lord, we come before you and we thank you for your word.

Thank you, Jesus, for what we're learning today, what we're talking about is amazing.

Thank you for your words that you shared with your audience all those years ago that we get to look at today and talk about today because they still matter.

They're still relevant and they're still important.

Lord, I pray that each one of us, myself included, really take a look at our idols, at anything in our life that's taken too much away from you.

Lord, help us to identify the competition.

Help us to eliminate the competition.

Lord, lead us to an abundant life in serving you and living as fully devoted followers because that's what you want.

You want us more than anything.

May we want you more than anything.

Lord, break our hearts for what breaks yours.

Be first, Lord.

Be first.

Help us to seek you above all else.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Before we go, I have to share something else with you here.

Sometimes the most generous thing that we can give isn't money.

It might be our time, for instance, or maybe it uh is uh time in a life group.