Generosity Must Resist Greed

Amen.

What a great time of worship.

And I don't know about you, but I I need that for my soul.

I know that you do.

Um, I've had several conversations with people this week that are going through some difficulty.

People are dealing with family with uh different diagnoses, different sicknesses, different illnesses, different situations, a lot of heavy things going on, and so we we need we need the the Lord to work, and and sometimes that worship um uh it fuels us, it gives us that hope, it gives us a bit of a glimpse into the fact that God is in control, he's sovereign, he is good, and that's what matters the most.

So my name is Russ.

If I hadn't met you, it's so good to have you with us this morning.

Maybe this is your first time, it's your second time, and we're excited to have you with us.

And uh we continue in our series uh called Beautiful Resistance, and so glad to have you guys that are watching online this morning.

Um excited for this little section as we as we dive in.

Um you know, there we live in a world where there are competing, um, competing forces that that are competing over your soul, competing over your attention, competing over your affection, competing over um your very life.

And so uh one one is the kingdom of God.

Uh God wants your heart.

He wants uh you know how much he loves you, he wants um to for you to walk and live in the purpose for which he created you.

And then there's the kingdom of darkness, and we we see um the kingdom of darkness trying to pull us away from God, trying to tempt us, trying to enslave us, trying to keep us in bondage.

And so you you don't see this probably any more evident than what we see in the world of money and economy that are competing values.

There's the kingdom of darkness that wants to enslave you to debt, that wants to enslave you to materialism, that wants to enslave you to greed, and the kingdom of God wants to set you free, where you can live in the goodness of God, where you can um uh learn what it means to be generous, like God is generous, and becoming like him, becoming like Jesus.

And so and so you see this these competing values um for our lives, for our very being.

Richard Foster said it this way.

He said, Um, talking about greed and materialism, he said the good life is found in accumulation.

The more is better.

Indeed, we often accept this notion without question, with the result that the lust for affluence in the contemporary society has become psychotic and has completely lost touch with reality.

And so we we hear this, we talk about this, we hear politicians run on uh their whole uh value system is about hoping to give us a good economy.

And I don't I would never want to say that I want a bad economy, but but we need to understand sometimes a good economy thrives on the idea of greed.

If people think that that more stuff will make them happy, then they will buy more stuff, which will create a need for much more stuff to be built or made, which will require more people to work, which means people will make more money, which will allow them to buy more stuff.

And the vicious cycle goes around and around and around.

And many of us, some of you are probably my age or maybe older, you might remember the movie Wall Street, the character Gordon Gecko, and he said, quote, greed is good.

That's what he said.

And for many of us in our culture, especially in the Western world, especially in America, um, that is the ideology that we've all bought into.

Happiness is found when you can get more.

Happiness is found when we accumulate more stuff.

And what's interesting is that people used to live in a completely agricultural society.

So back in the day, so to speak, people um they their diet consisted of fresh foods that were always in season.

They had limited options, but people tended to be healthier.

Their waistlines were thinner, their blood pressure was lower, their cholesterol was lower.

But but now we we walk into the massive grocery stores, these massive stores, and we can buy anything we want and we can buy it in bulk.

And no wonder we have an obesity problem in our culture.

And this is something I learned this week for the first time, and it just broke my heart that it wasn't even until the 17th century that lunch was created.

Lunch didn't even exist.

The people didn't have three meals a day.

They basically had two meals a day.

They ate in the morning and they ate in the evening.

They did not eat lunch, they worked.

And so lunch didn't even exist until the 1600s.

I'm like, all the poor people for hundreds of years that didn't get lunch.

And lunch was created primarily in the academic community where um business colleges and upper class people and upper class society could get together to discuss their jobs and their business.

And so we live in a world where we accumulate stuff and everything needs to be bigger and better.

In 1960, a little bit before my time, barely, the average floor area for a new single-family home was 1,289 square feet.

The average per person for a home, 387 square feet per person.

In 2014, the average floor area for a new single family home is 2,650 square feet.

Per person, it's gone up to 1,046 square feet per person.

That's 170% increase in 50 years.

And let me say this I'm not, I don't think God's purpose, and certainly it's not my purpose, for you to feel guilty over a nice home, a big home.

That's not the purpose of what I'm what I'm talking about.

What I want you to get is just how slow and how easy and how quickly things can grow and things can can can go out of control in the world of wealth and greed.

We think that more is gonna make us happy.

Joshua Becker, who's written about minimalism and and and living on West, he says this quote, materialism holds people captive in many ways, like communism does.

The communism I grew up with, he says, he's talking about himself, the communism I grew up with sought to destroy our personal identities by force.

That's what we're seeing on the other side of the world.

Materialism does the same thing, but materialism destroys the personal identity by choice.

And so we think if we just make a little bit more money, we can just, you know, just have a little bit more.

Happiness is just over the ridge, and studies have shown us, this is very interesting, that that money is equated to happiness in some cases, but it plateaus at around$75,000 a year.

Above that, happiness begins to decrease.

Listen, I've been in ministry for close to 28 years.

I've been in ministry, and so people will come to talk to me and they will confess temptation or sin.

And when I say that, they don't, I'm not talking, we don't believe in in the in the sacrament of confession where you have to come to a priest.

So I don't mean in a Catholic type sense, but sometimes people just need counsel.

They need they need to get some things off uh their chest, they need to get a little bit of a load off.

And then sometimes, so people come and they talk, they, they, they confess the temptation or for for lust or sex or or or they confess the sin of adultery, they confess the sin of um of addiction with alcohol and drugs.

They they uh confess that the Lord is convicting them about all types of things.

But I will tell you this: I've never had anybody schedule an appointment with me to sit down and tell me, Pastor, I need to confess the sin of greed.

Never had anybody come to me and say, I'm I need to confess the sin of greed.

And so, you know why?

Because greed is a sneaky sin.

Greed is a sneaky sin.

Listen, most of us sitting in this room, you're thinking, man, I'm so glad Russ is giving this sermon because so-and-so needs to hear this so badly.

That's what you're thinking.

Because we don't see greed in the mirror.

We don't.

Especially for us believers who do give.

If we give, if we tithe, if we give a regular percentage, we we we sometimes greed is sneaky, it's hard to recognize, and those of us that have patterns and habits and practices, it's almost impossible not to be affected by materialism in the pool of greed at some point and on some level.

Which makes it interesting that the Bible has about 500 verses on prayer.

It has about 500 verses that speak on the specific topic of faith.

There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible that speak to the issue of money.

Of Jesus' teachings, about one-fourth of his teachings, either directly or indirectly, involved the issue of money and how we deal with greed.

And Jesus wanted us to get a handle on this issue with our lives because he knew how sneaky greed could be, and he knew how it could infect our souls, and he knew how the enemy would draw us into this false belief that material prosperity is the answer to your problems.

To the point that we have a whole culture in Christianity called the prosperity gospel that says if you give, God's gonna give back to you.

And when and when a pastor preaches that, he means you give your money, and the next week you'll be driving Mercedes-Benz.

And you listen, you hear it.

And I will tell you, there is a there is an economy.

There is a kingdom economy, and there's a fine line sometime between the prosperity gospel and the true gospel.

Because there is a kingdom economy.

God does want to bless you, and there is a connection between your being blessed and how you handle your money.

And it's this beautiful resistance.

It's not it's not to guilt you, it's not to to um, it's not to coerce you, it's not to teach you a false gospel, it's not to pull you into this health and wealth prosperity teaching.

It's this beautiful resistance that follows the way of Jesus.

It's the way of Jesus.

It's it's it's repentance to the world's values, and it's following the goodness of Jesus, it's following the way he lived, it's following the way that he always slowed down.

He was never in a hurry, and he always was willing to give his time.

He Jesus didn't have material blessings, he never owned a home.

But he always lived generously, and he wants us to live generously.

He wants us to choose the way of loving and embracing and ministering to the broken needs of a broken world, the broken people that live around us, and to lead them into redemption and healing and reconciliation with their Heavenly Father.

And so today we're talking about this beautiful resistance toward greed, and it's generosity.

Generosity must resist greed.

And let me tell you, the only thing that can break greed, the only thing that can break the bondage of greed in your life is giving.

It's giving.

And so Jesus addresses this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 through 24.

Matthew 6:19–24

Let me just read through the whole section and we'll break it up a little bit.

He says, um, in verse 19, don't store up treasures here on earth where moths eat them and rust destroys them, where thieves break in and steal.

Store your treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

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

He says, Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light, but when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.

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

You will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

So, what do we learn from Jesus?

And how to beautifully resist greed and materialism.

I think there's three ways we resist greed.

The first one is we resist greed through contentment.

We resist greed through contentment.

Listen what he says.

He says, He basically gives you an option.

We can store treasures on earth or we can store store treasures in heaven.

And he says, don't store treasure here on earth.

In things that will rot, where they can be ruined, where time and age and elements or thieves can take them away.

He says, Don't.

Jesus is he's leading us to a place where he wants us to store treasure, but he says, Don't do it here on this earth.

You got a spending problem?

Stop.

Stop it.

You need some counsel?

I'm gonna give you some counsel.

Stop.

Stop spending your money on stuff that has no eternal value.

Just stop it! That's what he says.

Don't accumulate stuff for the sake of having stuff.

Don't try to keep up with the Joneses.

They're going nowhere.

Don't give it to consumerism.

We all struggle with it.

I have a nice car.

I mean, it's it's not real old, but but it's it's it's in pretty good shape.

But I'm I'm reminded regularly of the new one that I should have.

And it's so much nicer.

It it had everything has new technology on this new car.

And when I'm watching something or scrolling on the internet, they're telling me I need it.

And I do.

There's cars that will they have seat warmers.

They will warm your bottom when it's cold.

You didn't even know you needed it.

But the world tells you you need it.

This this pull.

You scroll on Instagram or Facebook or whatever your the social media, uh, whatever app it is, or whatever it is, it you find out that you want stuff that you didn't even know existed.

It happens all the time, doesn't it?

So, how do we fight against materialism and consumerism?

Stop! Listen, we sang, we worshiped, we sang in the presence of God.

He is our provision, he does provide for us, he provides honey in the rock in the wilderness.

He provides good things for you.

He can be trusted, he will provide for you.

Don't give in to what the devil wants to pull you into.

He wants to enslave you to debt, he wants to enslave you to materialism, he wants to keep you from being content.

What is the idea of being content?

It's knowing that you have enough.

You have enough.

It's this, I was trying to think what is what is the picture, what is it that I think of when I think of being content?

And it reminds me of when I would be at my grandmother's house as a child or a teenager, and we we had gathered with all of our family, and we had had this wonderful meal, plenty to eat, more than enough for everybody.

And then we just sat around.

As kids, we played, as adults, we conversed and enjoyed the fellowship, and we we just we were just satisfied.

It was enough.

We were content.

God provides, it is good.

Paul writes to his his understudy, his apprentice, Timothy, and he's talking about God's people.

You know, Paul planted churches and he's teaching Timothy how to pastor and how to how to pastor people, and he says, These people, verse 5, 1 Timothy 6, 5, these people always cause trouble.

Their minds are corrupt and they have turned their backs on the truth.

To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.

Yet true godliness with, let's say it together, contentment is itself great wealth.

After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into this world, and we can't take anything with us when we leave it.

So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.

But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

Content.

It's enough.

Listen, I this is true.

Some of us walked into our closets.

We walked into a closet that by itself would probably be big enough for you to live in.

And you stood there and you thought, What am I gonna wear?

Because there was so much to choose from.

Or you got your closet's full, and you think in your mind, you think, you thought this, I don't have anything to wear.

That's what we think.

And you used to, you would say, Well, I've got to go to JCPenney.

Well, you don't have to go to JCPenney anymore.

You just go to go to something online and click, and it'll show up at your house a couple days later.

And so we've got to learn how to be content.

God is provides for us.

We live in a culture that fights so hard against us being content and resting in what God provides.

So we resist greed through contentment, but we also resist greed through trusting in God's provision.

Trusting His provision.

Look at verses 22 and 23.

Strange verses right in the middle of this passage.

He says, Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body.

When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness.

And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is.

In this in this passage about treasure and money and materialism and fighting against greed.

But here's here's what here's what he's teaching us.

Your eyes are the gateway that pull you into greed.

Your eyes are the gateway to pull you into materialism.

Materialism and greed is an inordinate desire.

Or dependence on money and material things.

And so materialism has this peculiar effect of blinding you spiritually, distorting the way you see things, and limiting you to physical, to how to function in the physical world, and blinding you to the spiritual world, to this other world that runs parallel to our world, where God is real, demons are real, and there is a battle over your soul.

And the enemy wants to distort everything, and it has a power over the way that you see everything.

What do I mean by that?

Materialism has the power to blind you to materialism.

Before you know it, you're consumed with having things beyond what you need.

Not trying to guilt you.

There is no guilt.

Asking for the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

Most of this happens through the context of what you see and what you fix your eyes on.

And the world's pull and the use of the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

And the lust of the eyes, before you know it, your ambition leads you to grow wealth, not for the sake of the kingdom of God, but for your own pleasure.

And sometimes it will lead you into debt.

And so God will use circumstances sometimes to bring us back to healthy trust in his provision.

Luke 12, Jesus says, beware, guard against every kind of greed.

Life is not measured by how much you own.

Verse 29, Luke 12, he says, and don't be concerned about what to eat and what to drink.

Don't worry about such things.

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers all over the world.

But your father already knows your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need.

So don't be afraid, little flock, for it gives your father great happiness to give you the kingdom.

Sell your possessions and give to those in need.

This will store up treasure for you in heaven, and the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes.

Your treasure will be safe.

No thief can steal it, no moth can destroy it.

Verse 21, he says, Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God.

And listen.

And she she gets this, has always gotten this.

And she has helped keep us anchored in this.

And so we have been so blessed as a couple and as a family, always having more than we need.

So here, let me let me confess, and this this this is sound, this is gonna sound a little bit like a pity party, but it I don't mean it to be a pity party.

I want to just share something real brief that shows how God is good.

And so we've got three children.

We have a have a 24-year-old son who graduates on May 7th from Lee University.

Can we just praise God?

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And he he called me this weekend, and and we talked for an hour.

And I'm gonna be honest with you.

I'm gonna be honest with you.

When they want to talk, they usually call mom.

Mom, you know, mom's the counselor, mom's the, you know, when they want money, they call me.

And I'm a sap.

I am.

I'm a sap.

Abigail.

Abigail never asks for a lot, but I mean, when she she knows if she asks me for something, I'm it's chances are good.

So she'll come to me and try to get a quick response before mom finds out that we've had a conversation.

But that's whole, so Josiah and I talk for an hour, and he he tells me about this job that it looks like he's got when he graduates.

That's praise God, right?

And Abigail graduates in December.

So two kids in private college.

We have been college poor for the last few years.

And then you throw in this thing called a pandemic, it hasn't affected the church, but it affected my wife's business, which was the primary uh provider for our kids going to college.

Now we haven't had anything, we haven't, we've always had plenty of food, had had plenty, plenty of our need.

God has been so good.

And so we we Josiah came home at Christmas, and the clutch on his, and Josiah works hard.

He came home, works for um Bobby, our nephew-in-law, and uh, and he works hard, hard, hard.

And he, but his clutch on his car broke.

I mean, it's just kind of heartbreaking.

You know, he's he doesn't have money.

We're tight on money, you know, go paying for college and all this stuff.

And so his clutch breaks.

And so Jill says, All right, you take the Camry and go to work.

So the next morning, he's driving to work in the dark and he calls us.

He says, You're not gonna believe this.

A deer hit the Camry.

I mean, and and and didn't, you know, a lot of times the deer will bump your front fender.

He he dented the whole side of the car.

I mean, he just kind of it's like he hit the front bumper and just rolled down the side of the car.

I don't know what happened to the deer, but the car, the whole side is all dented in and took one of the hubcaps off.

And I mean, I'm like, honey, wherever you park, park away from a building.

That's embarrassing.

It looks awful.

And so, and then my truck, my nice truck that I like, it's not as technology savvy as I want it to be, but it gets me around.

It my transmission had a big issue, and so so we're we're paying for Jeff Sai's clutch, and we've got a broken Camry, and then my truck is in the shop with a transmission, and I go to the mailbox to get the mail, and somebody has sent five sent us$500.

I'm not gonna tell you who it is because I don't have permission.

Five hundred dollars, and I I think they overheard either me or Jill just, and we're not, you know, we're not, we're not announcing, hey, you know, we've got cars broken and we've got these needs or whatever.

Somebody was sensitive to listening, and the Holy Spirit led them to just give us just enough to get our vehicles back to where our kids could get to where they needed to be, and we could get to where we needed to be.

God's provision.

God provides, and so we resist greed through trusting in God's provision.

And then finally, we would resist greed through giving and a lifestyle of generosity.

Giving and a lifestyle of generosity.

Matthew 6, 20 and 21 says, store your treasures in heaven.

So Jesus is saying, don't store them on earth.

Store them in heaven.

Moth and rust cannot destroy.

Thieves do not break any steel.

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

And as I already read, no one can serve two masters, verse 24, for you will hate one and love the other.

You will be devoted to one, despise the other.

You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

The only way to break the bondage of greed is through giving.

The only way you can break it.

Now, greed is a sneaky sin.

It is a sneaky devil.

And this is why we need to preach on this on occasion.

We need to come back to this on occasion.

You need to read this.

You need to be in God's presence on a weekly basis.

You need to be in the word on a weekly basis.

Because if you're not and you're out of fellowship with the family of God, you will gravitate away from Him through materialism, back into greed, back into thinking what the world wants you to think.

And the only way to break the bondage of greed is through giving.

It's through giving.

Let me tell you this.

I want the Holy Spirit to work in my life.

I think most of you would say, if you're believers and you're with me, we want the Holy Spirit to work.

We want revival to work.

We want to see God pour out his blessings.

And a lot of us think, well, if God will move in my heart, I'll become more generous.

If God would provide more, I would become more generous.

Here's what he says: he says, give.

Give.

Then I will break the bondage of greed.

You give.

Jesus says, store up treasure in heaven, give toward kingdom work, give towards ministry, give toward people in need.

Be ready.

Be ready.

Always be ready, whether it's having a little extra cash or be ready to give when people in need.

Be listening like this person that ministered to us.

Listen how the Holy Spirit might want to give.

You know why we give?

Because God shows us how generosity flows to us through Him.

John 3 16.

God so loved the world that He.

Let's say it.

Let's say it with some passion.

God so loved the world that He gave.

He gave what?

He gave His one and only Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

God gave.

He loved and He gave.

He loved and He gave.

He loved us so much that He would give His Son.

Give His Son to become born as a human being.

Give His Son to grow up with a sinless life.

To give His Son to be a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God to bring reconciliation between us, broken humanity, who have rebelled against God and to bring us into right relationship with the Father.

He gave, He gave Adam and Eve the blessing.

He gave them the whole garden.

Go to Genesis 3.

He gave them everything, he gave them heaven, he gave them perfection, he gave them harmony.

But it wasn't enough.

They said, that's not, this isn't enough.

And so they walk over here and take from the very thing God says you are not allowed to take from.

That's our human story, that's the humanity story.

But even in that, even in our rebellion, God loved us so much that He gave.

The gospel is God giving to us.

The gospel is God's generosity to us.

We don't deserve it.

The Bible says outside of Christ, we are enemies to God.

We are children of wrath who deserve nothing but hell and separation eternally from Heavenly Father.

But even in that, God loved us so much that He gave.

He gave.

And so greed, greed has become the cultural norm.

And God says it's time for a beautiful resistance.

It's time for us to resist.

It's time for us to maybe look back at how the early church gathered together.

In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And what happens right after the Holy Spirit is poured out?

They gathered daily and they spent time in the Word.

They spent time in prayer.

They spent time in fellowship.

And it says they came and brought their material wealth to make sure that no one in need went without what they needed.

It's beautiful resistance.

And the early church practiced that.

The Roman Emperor Julian had an interesting complaint about early Christians.

He says these impious Galileans support not only their poor, but ours as well.

Everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.

That's what the president, the emperor, the leader of the Roman Empire is talking about this new fledgling, brand new church.

And he says, everybody can see they're taking care of not only their people, but our people as well.

Tertullian, an early church leader, he said, it is our care of the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents.

And so Christianity, the followers of Jesus, we are the ones.

The church is what established hospitals, networks of famine relief, development to help start starving people, to be the first ones to rush into disasters, to be the ones that would receive refugees.

That's the early church.

And so generosity is a rebellious act against our culture, and we need to be more rebellious in this beautiful resistance.

So I'm going to ask you to pray with me.

Don't bow yet.

Don't bow yet.

But in our prayer, here's what I'm asking.

Let me do it.

Let me think about two categories.

Let me speak to those of you.

Maybe you don't give a percentage of your income to the work of God.

And maybe it's fear.

Maybe it's fear.

Maybe it's maybe it's somebody that's that's that's been in your ear, maybe a parent or somebody that says, all the church wants is your money.

I don't know what whatever the reason is.

Maybe, maybe you're tight, things are tight.

I want to encourage you to step out in faith and consider giving a percentage of your income on a regular basis, and I want you to watch how God shows up in your life.

Okay.

And I'm gonna speak to those of you that are believers, and you give on a regular basis.

Here's what happens to us, because it happens to me.

Is we give 10%, we might give more.

But we get so accustomed to living on that 90 or that 85% and doing whatever we want to with it, that we lose the heart of God and generosity.

So you can be a regular giver and and giving 10% or tithing or even a little bit more, but you have become cold and hard-hearted to the needs around you, and you've bought into the greed and materialism, you just learned how to do it based on the 90% or the 88% or the 85%.

Here's the truth: God owns all of it, and he wants us to handle all of it with hearts of generosity.

And the tithe and the percentage giving is just that regular reminder that God owns all of it, but God still wants you to use the rest for his glory and for his goodness.

Do you hear me?

And so here's our prayer is Holy Spirit, would you speak?

Holy Spirit, would you would you give us direction?

Holy Spirit, would you work in our hearts and lead us to not just generous living, but radical generosity?

God, would you move in the hearts of our people in such a way that we can be a church that is known for our generosity?

We'd be known for a church that invests in the next generation, be known as a church that invests in our community, that we could be known as a church that is even beyond radical generosity.

And it's through that that we would see a world awaken to the goodness of God's grace and to the gospel.

And they would see a heavenly father that gives his son so they can have eternal life.

So, Holy Spirit, would you work and lead us and guide us?

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

And everybody said together.

Amen.

Amen.