The Price Tag Moment : Is it worth your Soul? - Sermon 24th March 2019

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And possibly shopping at the greatest level that,

Hornsby Westfields. And you walk through all the stores and you're browsing

at stuff and then something that you really like just catches your eye and you're

excited about it and you want it and you kind of think to yourself, well,

yeah, that's exactly what I've been looking for.

And there's only one hurdle that remains, isn't there? The price.

So you reach down for that little postage stamp tag and you're dangling from

the item that you wanted to buy and you have that price tag moment,

the numbers come into focus. Is it that much?

50% more than you guessed, 100% more than you can afford, 200% more than you

would ever spend on that kind of thing.

But you still stand there making the decision whether I'm going to buy it or not.

And you ask the question, is it worth it?

Is the item worth that price?

Because we live in a consumer world, we're faced with all sorts of price tag

moments in our everyday life, and we're constantly doing a cost-benefit analysis,

always asking the question, is it worth it?

The advertisers certainly tell us it's worth it. It's worth buying it for sure.

Buy this, buy that. They tell us over and over again, don't bother about weighing up the values.

Just listen to what we say. the choice is made up for you. It's right. You buy it.

But we have one price tag moment after the other.

And into our life, through the Bible, we have the warnings of Jesus as we look at the price tag.

Into this consumer world, Jesus asks his own price tag question,

is it worth the price for me?

For what good is it for someone to go in the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

A recent survey asked people what they'd do for $10 million.

25% they would abandon their families. 23% said they'd prostitute for one week.

16% said that they'd leave their spouse.

3% said they'd put their kids up for adoption. And here's a scary one.

7% said they would think about killing you if the price was right.

Think about it. 1,000 people, 70 people would nail you one.

Thank goodness it was an American survey, not an Australian one.

I'm not quite sure what our numbers would be.

But I hope no one is traveling to America these holidays and this kind of survey

wouldn't worry you whatsoever.

And I pray that you're not thinking about putting your kids up for adoption to get the $10 million.

Those surveyed had their eyes on money. had their eyes on the price tag moment.

They did the math. They said, yep, it'd be worth it.

But into this greedy world comes the voice of Jesus.

And he calls his people to take a closer look at the price tags that we see

on the various items of our life and work out what's really valuable and what's not valuable.

And in doing so, challenge the upside down priorities that our world presents before us.

So he warns us. He says, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Life doesn't consist of an abundance of possessions.

Greed affects all of us one way or another, for sure.

Not only greed for money, but greed for our time and our pleasure and our possessions.

Greed for relationships, the status and our position in our world.

Greed's a huge blind spot for Australian people. In fact, the whole of the Western

world is a huge blind spot.

And because of it, most of society actually accepts that as an acceptable sin,

an acceptable part of our culture is that we have greed in our culture.

In fact, it's even idolized in some places.

I don't know, it's an old movie now, but Wall Street had that great line that

says greed is good. It clarifies, it solidifies, it cuts through all the rubbish

in life and gives us purposefully.

Wow, I know it's just a movie, but you probably could read that into a lot of

our culture, a lot of our society.

That could well be the motto of our society and culture.

Australian entrepreneur Rene Ripken put it this way, he who dies with the most toys wins.

I don't know when he died in 2005, whether he won or not, but I know that's

exactly how a lot of people think in our world.

And yet here comes the voice of Jesus again, right into that man's life.

And he talks about in Luke, as you look up Luke, and you might want to turn

to that as we look it up, there's many, we're going to go kind of spin through

some of the major topics, major stories that happened from that.

Talks about a man building bigger barns.

Talks about a guy in Luke 12, 20, about a guy that was kind of read out for

us, a man who was building bigger barns, the one who had the most toys.

He had plenty of barns. He had, in fact, more than enough to feed the whole of that area.

And yet he decided in his mind that he wanted more toys. He wanted more possessions.

He wanted more grain. So he built more barns.

And what did Jesus say to him? He said, you fool.

This very night, your soul will be required of you. See, that's the warning of Jesus, isn't it?

That everything is temporal. It all goes back in the box.

So John Orkberg says in his book, it's a great book. If you'd ever like to read

it, very easy read. You can get it on Kindle. I'm listening to it again this week.

I listened to half of it while Susan was at Dog Park and I was watching Toby

out there doing his thing during the week.

It's easy to listen to. All goes back in the box.

It's just a different shaped box, isn't it?

Than what we normally would put our possessions in. But it's a box nonetheless.

It's a massive return policy. Whatever you pull out of your box of life eventually will return to it.

We read the price tags all wrong at times. The one who dies with the most toys still dies.

And you and I will stand before the throne of judgment. And he will put zero

value on the material things of this world and great value on you.

What does your sweater say, Anna?

And what's all the stuff that's got written around the choose empathy?

So it's one great value, isn't it?

So the value or the blue dots that you can put on your life is your character,

other people, your families, the things you invest in that has life,

eternal value, the treasures that have eternal value.

It might be an idea either literally or figuratively to walk around your house

with a series of red dots and put a dot on everything that has temporal value.

It could be on nearly everything in your house.

And then put things, you know, like a dot right in the middle of your cheek

of your kids and the people that you know, then in your heart with the character that you have.

They're the things of great eternal value. And yet this guy wanted to build bigger barns.

And God said, you know, Jesus said, Tonight, you're going to lose your life,

and it's all going to be of nothing, and the barns will mean nothing.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We're challenged

about whether that's the way we think, about the price tags on our life.

We've challenged from Jesus about what really has value and what doesn't have value.

Of course, greed affects everyone.

See, a lack of contentment in all sorts of areas brings about a result for a

constant quest for more.

And it's a prime motivator in our life for many, many people.

And I would say at times in my life, myself included, and you, if you're honest.

To gain contentment, to gain a quest for satisfaction in life without listening

to the song, to earn more than we need, to earn more than we can use.

We still ache for more and more and more.

That's the whole premise of consumerism.

You need more. You need different. You need better. You need the latest.

And it's just stuff. In the course of greed, we muck up those price tag moments

where we look at it and we think to ourselves, can we afford it?

But Jesus comes back and says, maybe we need to look at it from his perspective,

the price tag from his perspective, and say, we don't need to exchange what

we have for the created things,

because what we have is the creator.

That's the ultimate sin, isn't it?

We exchange the creator for created things.

And we value the created things more than we do the creator.

It's the swap of eternal things to temporal things, the things that don't last.

And Jesus warns us against that kind of greed. And he couldn't be any stronger

that as we looked at the passage that we've looked at over the past weeks and

was read for us from Matthew 6, Sermon on the Mount, you can't serve two masters.

Luke 16, if you've got the Bible open there, Luke 16, 13.

No one can serve two masters. Either one will hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot serve both God and money.

You cannot put your trust in temporal things, but you can only put your trust in God.

So he goes through. He says, what does he profit? Watch out,

he says. You fool, he rebukes. And then he says, no one can serve both God and money.

He runs through that scenario with us about where we place our treasure and

what our aims are in life.

Money probably, I think, is true. It's the biggest rival God that there is, the God of money.

And you can't sit on the fence, though, we're told by Jesus.

You'll either love one or you'll love the other.

One will be your master or God will be your master.

You can't serve both God and money. And we need to hear it from Jesus in Luke 16, 13.

And now Luke then presents us in chapter 18 about a person who got the price

tag wrong, who looked at the price tag, got it wrong.

We meet this man in chapter 18, verse 18. And you probably know the story because

this bloke comes as a question for Jesus.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

We have this guy and he's the first century yuppie.

He drives the Porsche or the fastest donkey, whatever the one it would be.

He has the latest phone. He wears the Italian suits or whatever they wore back then.

What does this guy want who has everything in life? What does he want?

Well, he wants eternal life.

He's got the fortune. He's got the status.

He knows that it will all end, and he wants eternal life so he can keep on using

the things that he loves so much.

He doesn't want eternal life with God. He wants eternal life with the stuff he has.

Does he really know what he's asking? And Jesus is going to ask him a question

of his own, and you've got to watch out when Jesus does that.

When you come at all questions with Jesus in prayer and he comes back through

his word or through his spirit and asks you his question,

it's always one that's going to make you go, grinds a little bit and ground

against him because he challenges him.

He says, where's your focus in verse 17?

Why are you asking me this? Hasn't God already spoke? And hasn't he already

told you what he wants to do?

You want eternal life. Well, where do you stand with God?

It's kind of what he says. Where do you stand with God? Is God the one you made?

Or is God the God of the universe, the creator?

Who's first in your heart? He asks him that question. He says,

now, remember that Jesus is stringing him along, I think.

He's kind of asking all these questions, getting him to think in his heart what

he really wants and what he really means and what he's really asking for.

And this guy, after this test, because he says, don't you know the commandments?

Have you kept the commandments from birth? And he says, I think I've passed

it. I think I've got there.

I think I'm going to get eternal life. And he breathes his sigh of relief. And he says, you beauty.

I've never killed anyone. I've never committed adultery. I can't remember stealing anything.

I haven't told a lie of any kind since I was a kid. I'm in, verse 21.

Jesus hasn't finished yet. Let's see him string along, answer all the questions.

But he knows his heart he knows this bloke's heart,

so Jesus tells him to answer the answer to his question by putting his finger

right on the real issue of this guy he exposes everything in his heart in verse

22 the test comes says who you walking with who's your God,

That's the test. Jesus put a point blank. A choice was right in front of him.

It's interesting that the first of the Ten Commandments, Jesus leaves out until right at the end.

He says, how do you have any other gods before me? That's what he's asking him.

He hasn't mentioned that yet, but it's been on the agenda of Jesus right from

the very beginning because Jesus knows our heart. He knows this guy's heart.

I don't know what it is about money. It's powerful. Makes you do all sorts of things.

And Jesus put his finger right on this guy's heart. And he said the single most

dominating thing that it did is it took him away from God.

The love of money, not money, the love of money took him away from God.

I know plenty of people who want to test out what God says for themselves. They said, sure.

Jesus says you can't serve both God and money. I'll give it a try anyway.

We'll see whether we can do that or not. Just in case he made a little mistake

at this time, or he didn't really mean it, you might remember there was a series

of ads not long ago about Land Rover ads.

And what happened is the guy took it for a test drive and the salesman standing

there and said, well, he'll be back.

And he just kept on going out the gate and he keeps on going.

He said, well, no, he'll be back when he gets to the bitumen.

And he kept on going for the bitumen and he just keeps on going and going and

going and he never comes back. And that was the ads, I don't know,

promoting you to steal Land Rovers from salesmen.

I'm not quite sure what it was, but it's the great value of that.

And you can say, he or she will be back soon. You might fall into the trap of

having something else in your life, whether it be your time,

whether it be your pleasure, whether it be your money, whatever you have in

your life that can take the place of Jesus.

You might put that first for a while and you might think to yourself, well, you'll be back.

Or you might look at someone else and see them traveling down the road and you'll

be standing there saying,

well, he'll be back or she'll be back when he gets that new job and settles

down or be back soon when the business problems are all sorted out or be back

when those renovations are finished or he'll come back when he got a bit more

spare time or he or she are busy at work. But it won't be forever.

The overtime's there now. oh yeah, sure, sure, we need to work and so we need

to work for that overtime but we'll come back.

He or she will be back soon. One of the devastating things as a youth minister

that I had happened to me was that at Midagong, there was a young girl who was

going through their HSC.

And everyone knows the pressure that there is in New South Wales with the HSC

and trying to gain academic standing to get you into university and whatever

job that you'd like to go to.

And this particular family came, a very wealthy family, They lived up on top of the jib.

If you've been to Middagong area, in between Middagong and Barrow,

there's a big mountain, it's called the jib.

And they lived up there. And the mum come and said to me, this girl,

she won't be coming to church for this year because she's doing her HSC.

And I said to her, she won't come back because you lose the support,

you lose the drive, you lose the connection.

And she didn't. I prayed that she did. I tried to keep in contact all the time.

But it wasn't just stopping at the bitumen. It went beyond that.

Didn't meet with Christians, didn't connect with the connect groups that we

had, didn't go to youth group.

She was a leader in youth group, but pulled out of leadership,

pulled out of everything.

Why? Because of a love for status or love for marks or love whatever it is.

Jesus says, whatever you put as your God, you have incredible danger of never

returning from it because your heart will go there.

Bring your heart and walk with me. That's the ultimate test,

isn't it? Where's your loyalty?

Is it going to be store up treasures on this earth or is it going to store up treasure in heaven?

You don't have to wait long to find out about this man that was before Jesus

because he went away sad because he loved his wealth.

He's reading the price tag wrong.

He gets blinded so he can't even see the great value of what he is turning down.

Clinging to the toys, clinging to the things that this man had and missing out on eternal life.

I don't know whether you know how they catch monkeys or not. I'm not quite sure.

I've never caught a monkey, so I haven't put this into practice,

but apparently they put shiny foil in a jar and the monkey cannot resist the shiny foil.

They'll put their hand in the jar and they'll grab hold of the foil.

And because they've tightened their fist up, they can no longer pull their hand

out of the jar and they just walk up and the monkey will give its life before it lets go of the foil.

This guy, I think, grabbed hold of the shiny things of life,

the things that were most attractive to his eye.

His eye, his focus was on the things that were shiny and glittery and he didn't let go.

He held his fist shut and was caught in the jar.

Talk about Failing that price tag moment and valuing temporal things way too

much and eternal life way too little.

It's no wonder that Jesus has such strong words about money.

It blinds you and I to the love of money.

It blinds you and I to the real value of things.

What's going to make a difference then?

How do we go from greed to generosity?

How do we go from greed to loving God or greed to Christ?

The cross goes on and he talks how hard it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Now.

Realistically, really, it is a gate called the eye of a needle,

and the camel had all these packs on it that was ready to go to the markets,

and it couldn't get through the eye of the needle at the gate.

But it doesn't matter. It's the same illustration as a camel through a real needle.

It has no chance, and it had no chance.

Basically, it's saying, you've got no chance, if you love your wealth,

to get through the eye of a needle.

It needs a miracle. needs a miracle to change sinful, greedy heart.

And the miracle that's happened is Jesus' death.

He tells the disciples about his death. What is impossible for men is possible for God.

And what is impossible for you and I living in a consumer world with sinful

fallen hearts that see the shiny foil out there and want to grab hold of it,

what's impossible for us is possible for him, and he can change your heart.

The transformation can happen from greed to generosity through God. There's the answer.

That's the miracle. That's the miracle that can change the love of money,

that can read the price tag right, the one that understands the death of Jesus,

the one that we know gave himself and considered himself nothing.

He didn't exploit the very nature of himself, which is God.

He didn't exploit God, but made himself nothing.

On the nature of a servant and gave himself for us.

That's what it is, isn't it? It's first and foremost for us to understand the

death that we deserve and the offer that we don't deserve has been given to

us, and that is forgiveness.

It's a chance to let go of the things that don't matter and receive in us the things that do matter.

And we do that through the Holy Spirit and through the death of Christ.

We can get the price tags right.

Can someone really turn? Do you believe that? Really turn from greed to generosity?

Because right after that, we see an example in chapter 19 verses 1 to 10.

We see an example of, yes, a guy that got the price tags right.

Zacchaeus, a wealthy, rich ruler, but we're told something about him.

We're told him that he's different than the rich bloke.

Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector. He definitely didn't need to even bother

asking Zacchaeus if he kept his commandments. He's a tax collector.

And that meant one thing, that he's a sinner in the eyes of everyone.

Doesn't everyone know it? Everyone knows that this guy, the tax collector, is a sinner.

No one's muttering under their breath about, I wonder if this guy's right or not.

He doesn't even bother asking the question, what do I have to do to inherit

eternal life? Because we know what he needs.

He knows he needs forgiveness from his sin.

And he's gone to Jesus, the one who invites sinners to be his guest.

And in the end, Zacchaeus knows the difference between.

Between one person thinking that they're right before God and a person knowing

that they're a sinner before him.

He knows as well as we do that we're sinners.

Zacchaeus knows more than anyone that he needs forgiveness, as you do.

You know you need forgiveness.

And he sees it in a different way than the rich bloke just couldn't see.

He invites Jesus into his home.

He connects with him in relationship.

See, here's the rich man who doesn't walk away from Jesus with sadness,

but welcomes him into his house with gladness.

He's the one who sees his real need for Jesus, and nothing else matters to him.

Jesus paid the price of the tag.

It cost him his life, and he takes up that free offer with open arms.

In other words, the camel went through the eye of the needle.

What is impossible for man is possible for God. And straight through the eye the camel went.

Salvation has come to his household. We see that in verse 10.

Money miracle had happened. Someone had just turned from worshipping stuff to

worshipping God, from worshipping false gods to worshipping the true God.

The rich man turned from death to life.

The greedy man became generous.

And you see, money as his master just become his servant.

He says, I'll give away everything to the poor, and for those who have wronged, I will give back to them.

That's what the difference is, isn't it? Not only is dying to greed and rising

to generosity about you accepting Jesus in your life as Savior,

but it brings about transformation in your life.

You see, Jesus claims that Jesus as Lord of our life and as Master of our life

allows us to place the treasures of our life in a heavenly place,

not on an earthly place. He transforms us.

And that's the message that we have, is that we don't have to be caught in looking

at the price tags wrongly.

We don't have to be stuck in this consumerism world, but rather we can look

to God, look at his sacrifice for us, look at exactly what we have for him and

the things that we are holding back from him.

And the Holy Spirit will make those things clear.

The price tags will be clearly in focus for us.

So that we can make good and wise decisions in our life.

It's not about rules. It's about your heart.

What do you want? Do you want it? No matter what the price is.

Or do you want Christ, his love, his relationship, his values,

no matter what the price is?