"Just A Little More" is Never Enough

All the way through there we go. What up crossing family.

I want to welcome all of our different campuses, those of you

watching online and those of you who are part of the crossing

inside. I am so thankful to be with you

all today and I want to give you guys another heads up.

On the weekend of July 10th and 13th, we're going to be starting

a new series called At the Movies, and this series is

specifically designed to give you a great reason to invite the

people that are close to you but far from God.

We're going to be taking a look at the greatest movie saga of

all time and seeing the spiritual truths and spiritual

implications buried a long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away.

And because of the nature of the series, we are not going to be

able to broadcast the sermon online.

So if you're a part of our online squad, we hope that you

will join us in person. And if you can't, we'll be

giving you a collection of the best sermons over the past year

for you to watch online. But if you want to go on the

journey with us, you need to be at one of our physical

locations. That being said, we are in a

sermon series called 3 Lies and a bunch of Gospel Truth and the

three lies are lies that either we tell ourselves or that Satan

tells us. And remember Jesus says that

Satan is a liar and is the father of all lies in John

John 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. And last week we looked at this

life from Satan. Satan likes to tell us that we

are not rich, but in reality, the truth is we are.

And the reason why this should matter to us if we're rich

people, is that Jesus says that it's easier for a camel, a big

old animal, to go through the eye of a needle, a really small

opening, than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of

heaven. Why is that?

Because the more wealth you have, the more your wealth ends

up having you. And it's really hard to take

hold of Jesus when we are gripping so tightly to our

things. Now quick reminder, Jesus does

not have a problem with you having wealth.

His problem is when your wealth has you.

Because your wealth will get in the way of what Jesus has for

you. Today we're going to look at

another lie that Satan tells us, and he is so good at it that

almost nobody thinks they struggle with it.

See if you can find it. Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and

walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself

up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual

morality or any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are

improper for God's holy people. If you're a Christian, this kind

of behavior is improper for you. Nor should there be obscenity,

foolish talk, course, joking, which are out of place, but

rather Thanksgiving for of this you can be sure you can take

this to the bank. No immoral, impure or greedy

persons, because such a person is an idolater.

If you're an idolater, you're worshipping something other than

Jesus has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Did you catch it? We better find out what one it

was, because notice what it says at the end.

People with this issue, and he gives a whole bunch of them have

no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let's look at another one, see if you guys can find it.

We're going to go to 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9.

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the

sexually immoral or idolaters, nor adulterers, nor many who

have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards,

nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.

That is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were

sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus

Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Many of us, we read these verses and we like to zoom in on the

sin that we don't struggle with. Like boy, I hope so.

And so is listening. And we miss the thing that Jesus

is trying to talk to us about. Now, we're going to dig into

this a whole lot more in the fall when we're going to do an

entire book study on 1st Corinthians.

So I hope you guys will be around.

But did you notice that the past tense used in those verses,

That's what some of you were. It's saying that when you become

a follower of Jesus Christ and you're obedient in the area of

baptism and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, these things no

longer define you. But did you also notice that

Jesus moved on our behalf when we were still defined by all of

those sins? Jesus came and he washed us and

he sanctified us and He justified us and he made us

right. Maybe you've noticed the lie

from Satan, but if you haven't, let's take one more look.

This is Jesus talking Luke chapter 12, verse 13.

Luke 12:13

Someone in the crowd said to him, that's Jesus teacher, tell

my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Jesus replied, man, who appointed me a judge or an

arbiter between you. Then he said to them, watch out.

Be on your guard against all kinds of there you go, I

highlighted it so you didn't miss it.

Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

Let's pause for just a little bit.

Satan's lie to us is that we are not greedy people and the truth

is we are. Now I'm putting myself in that

category here. In all my years of ministry, of

all the people that have called me up, said Clayton, I got to

talk to you. I'm struggling with something.

Guess how many times someone has come and sat across the table

from me? I said, man, Pastor Clayton, I'm

greedy and I need some help. Zero times I have had zero

people self identify as a greedy person.

But I say we are greedy people because I struggle too.

When the Bible talks about a greed, you're reading it in your

English Bible, which is super good because that's how you

should read it. And but the way they got the

word greed was from the Greek text and the Greek text.

This is how this word shows up in the Greek.

It is playonexia. Now This is why it's super cool.

Ready. This is how this word is

actually broken up into three parts.

Playonexia play on means more X means have EA means Ness.

Greed is have more Ness. We're not have less people.

We're have more Ness and like this effects every single one of

us. It's what drives our economy.

We are never satisfied with what we have.

We always want more. And again, I struggle too.

Can I give you some stories? So I am a dreamer and a planner,

which means when I have a dream for something, I pull out my

notepad and I bullet point my way to get there.

I had a dream one time of owning a Huffy 12 speed bike and I got

it. I paid for it and $1.00 bills I

had earned for my parents. I look like a male stripper at

Shopko. Buying, buying.

It's like, boy, it took him a long time.

I mean there's not a lot of fat strippers out there.

Then they came out with an 18 speed bike and then a 21 speed

bike. Then they came out with one with

disc brakes. I couldn't handle it and I

bought it and it hangs in my garage unused.

It's in mint condition. I wanted a hot tub and so I

found one, saved up, found it, it was used, it was great, put

it at the house. But then we moved to Quincy.

I was like, we're not bringing it down there.

You want to know why? Because after like the first

four weeks of owning it, I spent all my time putting chemicals in

it than actually using it. I wanted a four Wheeler since I

was in 6th grade and eventually I had enough money to get it.

And as soon as I got one, other people got 1.

You know, the problem was they got bigger ones and faster ones.

All of a sudden I look like I was riding a big wheel.

Well all my friends were riding really because I mean I can make

a big four Wheeler look small. And I went from absolutely

loving my four Wheeler to be like man I wish I had a

different one. Oh 12 years later my dad.

This is weird because he bought it for me.

Like this past Thanksgiving bought me the baddest 4 Wheeler

that is made. They don't make them badder than

the four Wheeler that I have. It is a can am 1000 turbo R.

It is like been my dream four Wheeler my whole life.

He gave it to me on Thanksgiving.

Guess how many times I have driven this thing since

Thanksgiving? 0 times I would have spent money

to buy it at some point only for it to sit in my garage.

There was a time when I wanted a flip phone.

I know that doesn't make sense to you guys.

Moto Razor. Then I just got it and they came

out with the BlackBerry. And I thought to myself, if I

just had the BlackBerry and I got it, and as soon as I'd saved

up and got it, that came out with the iPhone.

And I thought to myself, once I get the iPhone, I'll never need

another phone. Right now I'm rocking a 12.

And as I was writing this sermon, I was thinking to

myself, how much longer can I hold off because I'm greedy?

I had a 2001 Toyota Avalon. I wanted a vehicle that had

leather interior and I bought it when it was 7 years old, drove

it for 12. It was missing the gas cap on

the side, like the little flappy thing.

I don't know what that's called because the caps the IT had the

twisty thing. It didn't have the Chevy thing

and while I was driving it around I was like I cannot wait

until I have a suburban. My parents I was like I just

can't wait till I own a suburban and I found one.

It was about 8 years old when I bought it and I was so happy for

it until the 1st long drive and I realized I didn't fit and my

kids wouldn't sit behind me. They sat in the way, way, way

back and I was like, well, we got to get something different

that's comfortable. And I was like, you know, I just

want to be comfortable. I just want one vehicle that my

big old body can get in and be super comfortable.

And I found a used pickup truck and it has the best interior

ever and it has the most legroom and I love it except for the

fact that Dodge has a Ram is like addicted to a cheap Chrome

and I cannot stand the way it looks.

And so sometimes I'm a greedy person.

I'm just being transparent. I, I look online to find, do

they make a blacked out version? Do you know the dumbest part

about this? When I'm driving my vehicle, do

you know how much of my Chrome I can see?

0%, but just knowing it's there makes me think if I if I just

had something different then I'd be happy.

Now, based off of everything I've told you, what do you think

would happen if I had a blacked out Ram pickup truck?

I would want something else. I have a disease.

It's called Have Moreness. One time JD Rockefeller, the

richest man in the United States at the time, was asked what was

the best million he ever made. Some of you are like any.

Any million would be my would be the one.

Same here. You would think he would say his

first million. He didn't.

You would say his last million, he didn't.

You would think it was his 10th million or his 100th million.

His answer surprised everybody, he said The next one.

We keep thinking that the next thing will fill us up, that the

next thing will truly satisfy, but it doesn't.

However, that does not keep us from pursuing the next thing.

Why is greed so dangerous? One, it's tied to coveting,

which if you're a person who grew up in church, you know that

coveting is the one of the commands that shows up in the 10

commandments. Remember Exodus chapter 20,

Exodus 20:17

verse 17. You shall not covet your

neighbor's house. You shall not covet your

neighbor's wife or his male or female servant, his ox or his

donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

And there are some of your like, finally a verse I can get

behind. I have never once coveted my

neighbor's donkey. Not once have I ever seen my

neighbor's donkey and said to myself, man, I wish that was

mine. But you guys forget.

We have campuses in Iowa and they go to a thing called old

threshers and they show up at old threshers and they're like,

but Clayton, they had a plateau donkey.

Turn to your neighbor and say plot two.

Oh, yeah, I looked it up. This is a plot 2 donkey and it's

one of the largest donkey breeds.

And look at how cute it is. You didn't think you had

coveting problems of your neighbor's donkey, but what if

your neighbor showed up with the plot 2 donkey?

It is the golden doodle of the donkey world and you were fine

there with your regular old donkey till your neighbor shows

up with a trailer full of plateau donkeys and there you

are. Greedy, have mourness.

God, if only I had the plateau donkey, I'd finally be happy.

You see, when you covet, when you're greedy, it ruins your

relationships. Because when you are greedy,

when you covet, you are no longer able to rejoice in the

success or the blessings of other people because you wish

you had it. When you covet, when you're

greedy, you can no longer be satisfied with your own

successes and your own blessings because you're measuring them

against others. And both of those things lead to

depression and isolation because you don't want to be around to

other people anymore because you're just reminded of what God

has done for them and you're frustrated with what he hasn't

done for you. I know three people personally

that their depression started because they were mad at God

that they did not have the life that other people had.

Third reason why greed is so dangerous, it keeps us from

godliness. So how do we fight against this?

How do you and I go, OK, greedy people don't make it into

heaven. Greedy people have a hard time

building their trust in God. How do we combat this so that we

become ungreedy people? Well, one of the gifts that God

gives us is the tithe because tithing wages war against greed.

How? Because tithing recognizes that

everything we have belongs to God.

It forces us out of the primary position into the third

position. If the first position is God,

the second position is others. The third position becomes

ourselves. Some of you may have grown up

and heard people talk about how do you have joy in your life?

You have joy in your life when you put Jesus first, others 2nd,

and yourself 3rd. Tithing does that.

It puts the needs of God and others above yourself.

Lots of us when it comes to giving, we kind of operate in a

in a weird world because the Bible talks about tithing.

Now tithing is 10 and it's not just any of the 10s, it's the

first ten. It's the first fruit, so this is

$10100 bills. The tithe would be the first.

Don't want to RIP these because we want to take them back to the

bank, OK? This is the first ten, the first

10. This is what makes it the tithe.

It is the first fruit and when you tithe you are honoring God

with your first. But if you don't honor God with

your first, what you end up doing is you end up tipping.

You end up giving God what is left.

That's what we do when we tip people.

When the bellhop takes the clothes or the takes all the

bags to the room, we give him money for services rendered.

Thanks for moving the bags. When the meal is done, that is

when we give them the tip and the size of the tip is

determined by two things. How good was the service and how

much do we have left. Back when we kind of lived more

in a cash economy, when you got finished with the meal, you

might have a meal that ran up. A 75 or $76 meal and if you had

100 in your wallet, you would say keep the change.

You would give what was left. Tipping shows appreciation,

thanks. Tithing shows allegiance.

Tipping says it all belongs to me and you can have whatever's

leftover after I'm done. Tithing says everything I have

belongs to you. So when it comes to your

relationship with God, are you a tither or a tipper?

And if you're going to say you're a tipper, you're saying

thanks for services rendered and how good has his service to you

been? It's weird.

We get hit up to tip everywhere. I was in an airport when they

had just first put in the kiosks that don't have anybody working,

and they hadn't got all the software bugs worked out.

So I went, got my own Coke, got my own.

I don't even know how to say this, so please forgive me.

I can't put too many French words in one sermon.

Guard Gar ghettos, gardettos, whatever those are.

I got those and then I got the gummy clusters.

Have you had gummy clusters? You will get addicted.

OK. And I went up to the thing.

There was nobody in there working.

And I rang it all up and it get told me how much it was and said

would you like to what? Tip myself What, who, who, who

we giving this to? But in a weird like there's a

part of us that when we see that moment, we don't want to be the

person who's stingy. But when it comes to our

relationship with God, most of us don't ever get around to even

tipping. Tithing says I pledge allegiance

to you. It's saying God, you own all of

it. It all belongs to you.

Greed says the next thing will be enough.

Giving says God, is enough. Tithing loosens the grip that we

have on our things so we can fully take hold of the things

that God offers us, the good things that God offers us.

Why does this matter? It's because you and I will

either be held by our possessions or we can grab hold

of God. And I know that right now there

are some of you who are going tithing.

Seems absolutely crazy. Just hang with me here for a

second. Did you know that 28% of tithers

are completely debt free? Something like that sounds

fantastic. 80% of tithers have zero credit card debt. 74% of

tithers own their car outright. Why do you think that is?

And don't you kind of want that for yourself?

Don't you want to be the person who's like completely debt free,

no credit card balance, no car payment?

It's because tithing breaks the curse of have moreness.

It helps you start to realize that your fulfillment and

satisfaction is never going to be in the things.

Tithing breaks the greed cycle. It teaches you how to break the

curse of greed and the relentless pursuit of have

moreness. Now I read to you out of Luke

Luke 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 about the story of Jesus, but I never finished it,

so I should probably finish this story for you.

Watch what happens. And then Jesus told them this

parable. That's a story.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

He thought to himself, what shall I do?

I have no place to store my crops.

Then he said, this is what I'll do.

I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I

will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, I have

plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, Eat, drink and be merry.

But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will

be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have

prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with

whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich

toward God. This rich man had plenty of

money and Jesus goes, but you can't take it with you.

It will eventually all go to someone else.

However, those who are rich towards God, Jesus followers,

Jesus followers go. It all belongs to you and so

they are rich towards God. And you might be going all

right, Clayton, but what will happen to me if I actually start

being rich towards God? Look what Jesus says in the very

next verse. That's as if God knows exactly

what's running through our minds.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you,

do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your

body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and

the body more than clothes. Consider the Ravens.

They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn.

Yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are

they than the are you, than the birds?

Who of you by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry

about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers

grow. They do not labor or spend.

Yet I tell you, not even Solomon and all of his splendor was

dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the

grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow's thrown into

the fire, how much more will He clothe you, you of little faith?

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink.

Do not worry about it, for the Pagan world runs after such

things, and your Father, this is God knows that you need them,

but seek His Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as

well. Do not be afraid, little flock,

for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.

Sell your possessions, give to the poor, provide purses for

yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that

will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

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

Jesus looks at people and says Trust me.

And when you put your trust in me, you don't have to worry

about what you'll wear. You don't have to worry about

what you will eat. You don't have to worry because

all we have belongs to Him and life is more than stuff.

And when we seek Him first, He promises to take care of us.

When we are honest with God and open handed with God, we are

putting ourselves under His care and under His provision.

But the scariest part of what Jesus says is the last line.

Because where your treasure is, is where your heart is.

Our treasure determines the direction of our heart.

It reveals what really matters to us.

It exposes us. Greed says there is never

enough. Jesus says I'm enough.

Greed says worry about what's next.

Jesus says life is more than the things.

Greed says do the Kingdom things, just do them later.

Jesus says do Kingdom things first and I'll take care of the

rest. Satan says your treasure is all

that matters. Jesus says where you put your

treasure is what matters because you can't put your treasure in

one place and your heart in another.

I want you to think about that while we're moving to a time of

decision. To those of you who are here and

you've never really started a relationship with Jesus Christ,

God is not here to take from you, nor are we.

God wants to invite you into a relationship with Him, and that

relationship requires faith. This is what it says in

Ephesians. Pay attention to this Ephesians

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 verses 3:00 and 8:00. If you want to go home and

highlight this, this is a keeper verse.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who

has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual

blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before

the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.

In love. He predestined us for adoption

to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure

and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He has

freely given us in the one He loves, Jesus.

In Him, Jesus, we have redemption through His blood,

forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of

God's grace that He has lavished on us.

God has not been greedy or stingy with us.

He has lavished us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And hear me, it was his pleasure to do so.

I don't know if you guys ever made a mess of your clothes and

you asked your mom like, hey, mom, I need you to get these

stains out. And your mom's like it was not

her pleasure to do so. And so sometimes that's what

people think because of how they've messed up, because of

all the things that they've done bad, they get this thought in

their head that God doesn't love them.

But Ephesians says this It was his pleasure to give you every

spiritual blessing in Christ. Did he give these blessings in

Christ to people who deserved it?

No. Who earned it?

No. He dumped out a truckload of

spiritual blessings in in Christ because it was his pleasure to

do so on undeserving people. And to those of you who are here

today, and those of you who are watching online who have never

started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ,

hear me. You can experience all of those

blessings in Christ today. You can be made holy and

blameless before God, adopted as his children, receive the riches

of His grace, be redeemed through the blood of Jesus

Christ, forgiven of your sins, receive wisdom and insight, and

become the residents of the Holy Spirit.

Why on earth would you put that off?

So just a few moments, the people around you are going to

stand and sing, and there's going to be people who are going

to come up to the steps and pray.

And I want to encourage you to walk right over there underneath

that screen next to that baptistry, and talk to somebody

about how to start a relationship with Jesus.

That changes everything. To the rest of you, to those of

you who do have a relationship with Jesus Christ, what is

standing in the way of you trusting God with all of you?

Name it. What is standing in the way of

you experiencing the true and abundant life that God is

inviting you into? Because trusting God with your

finances is one of the single greatest faith builders you will

ever have. I hate for you to miss out on

it. Would you guys stand with me?

Heavenly Father, I'm asking you to do a work and God I.

I don't say that as if you haven't already been working.

God, you've been doing way more than we could have asked or

imagined as a church. But God, I know there's a lot of

people here going through a lot of different things.

And so God, I'm asking the right now, you would just help each

and every single one of us to take a step to move in your

direction, to trust you more than we've trusted you in the

past, to be transformed by you in ways that we didn't ever

think possible. In your name I pray.

Amen.