How to Enjoy God with the Treasures He Gives Me

How to Enjoy God with the Treasures He Gives Me

How to Enjoy God with the Treasures He Gives Me is a sermonfrom Luke 12:13-21 on the way to enjoy God with material wealth.

The story is told of a prosperous, young investment banker who was driving a new BMW sedan on a mountain road during a snowstorm. As he veered around one sharp turn, he lost control and began sliding off the road toward a deep precipice. At the last moment he unbuckled his seat belt, flung open his door, and leaped from the car, which then tumbled down the ravine and burst into a ball of flames.
Though he had escaped with his life, the man suffered a ghastly injury. Somehow his arm had been caught near the hinge of the door as he jumped and had been torn off at the shoulder.
A trucker saw the accident in his rearview mirror. He pulled his rig to a halt and ran to see if he could help. He found the banker standing at the roadside, looking down at the BMW burning in the ravine below.“My BMW! My new BMW!!” the banker moaned, oblivious to his injury.
The trucker pointed at the banker’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got bigger problems than that car. We’ve got to find your arm. Maybe the surgeons can sew it back on!”
The banker looked where his arm had been, paused a moment, and groaned, “Oh no! My Rolex! My new Rolex!!”

God gives us material possessions so we will enjoy them, not so we will worship them.1

Over the next three weeks, we are going to look at money management. Today we are going to look at the first important idea which is to derive my enjoyment from God instead of from the things He gives me. This is part of stewardship. We will look at the idea that God gives me possessions so that I can manage them for His glory and enjoy Him. Next week, we will look at what the Bible says about getting out of debt and budgeting. Finally, we will look at what the Bible says about generosity. One idea to underscore during this entire series is this idea: the financial affects the spiritual. How I handle my finances speaks about what I think about God.

PROBLEM: There is always a potential for greed

Here is a definition of greed: An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.2 Greed is mentioned in the Ten Commandments. There, it is called “coveting.” To covet is to have what you don’t have.

“Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17, HCSB)

I think covetousness or greed is the heart of the question going on in the family dispute. The point was that the brother had the inheritance that his father gave him. The brother did not share the inheritance. It appears that the person in the crowd was concerned about the money that he should receive from his family. It pointed to the motive of the person which was covetousness. In other words, the guy was greedy. He wanted his inheritance now so that he could spend it.

“Someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”” (Luke 12:13, HCSB)

““Friend,” He said to him, “who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over (both of) you?”” (Luke 12:14, HCSB)

Jesus refused to get involved. Why? As Warren Wiersbe notes, it is because He knew that no answer He gave would solve the real problem, which was covetousness in the hearts of the two brothers. (The “you” in Luke 12:14 is plural.)

“As long as both men were greedy, no settlement would be satisfactory. Their greatest need was to have their hearts changed. Like too many people today, they wanted Jesus to serve them but not to save them.”3

You’ve seen the bumper sticker: “The person with the most toys wins.” Wins what? The person with the most toys takes out of this life exactly what everyone else does. A billion years or so into eternity, how many toys we accumulated during our seventy years in this life will not seem too terribly important. Yet in a materialistic culture, it is horrifying to begin to recognize just how endemic greed is, how it seeps into all kinds of priorities and relationships. 4
I think Jesus really didn’t want to get involved in a family dispute. Yet, He used it as an opportunity to teach something about what God wants us to know about the value of handling things which God gives us.

“He then told them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”” (Luke 12:15, HCSB)

The same condition that caused this man to ask Jesus to settle the dispute with his brother about an inheritance is the same condition almost all Americans have.
The writer of the book Embracing Obscurity, called this condition affluenza: “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”  This anonymous author retells Jesus’ parable in this way:

There was once a man who had a job that paid him more than he truly needed. The man said to himself, “What should I do? I’ve already bought a house and filled it with nice furnishings. I have plenty of food, a closet full of clothes, two cars, and a boat.” Then he said, “I know! I’ll fill up my 401k and IRA accounts to ensure that I’ll be able to live like this for years to come. Then I’ll be able to sit back and say to myself, ‘By jove, good man, you’re set for life. Now you can relax, play as much golf as you’d like, and take your wife to the Riviera.’” But God said, “You idiot! You’re going to die tonight, and then who will get everything you’ve worked so hard for?” (Luke 12:16–20, author’s paraphrase)

The author goes on to say that “we have a tendency to ignore the root of our own personal version of greed. Plasma TVs, iPhones, and hobby equipment seem more of a necessity nowadays than a luxury, and so we miss Jesus’ point.”
Affluenza infects many Christians as potently as it does the rest of mankind. This should not be! How can the Holy Spirit work in and through us when we’ve buried Him chest-deep in the trinkets and souvenirs we’ve collected in this life? The antibiotic for affluenza is a serum of one part simplicity, one part humility, and one hundred parts Christlikeness. Christ is our pattern in all things, including our view of earthly paraphernalia.5

PRINCIPLE: Life is not about the accumulation of things.

Jesus was striking out against one of the most common misconceptions, that life equals possessions. The more possessions a man or woman has, the better life will be.
But it’s a lie. Our lives are not defined by what we have. We brought nothing into this world, and we take nothing with us when we leave. Furthermore, how much of what we own would we be willing to give up to save our lives if the need arose? In most cases, everything. Why? Because at the core of our being we know that life does not consist of the abundance of our possessions; there is much more to it than that. But we forget God. And when we forget, we become greedy.6
I am surprised about how many people pay for storage for things. I can understand when you do that temporarily before you move. However, there are many who have too much stuff. It is an indication in our society that we want more than we have. We haven’t really learned how to live on what we have.

“Then He told them a parable: “A rich man’s land was very productive.” (Luke 12:16, HCSB)

I know that some people think that this guy was a hoarder. After all, he had so much that he had to build new buildings to keep the stuff. The reality is that he was productive. He made so much from his seed that he produced many corps. He needed more room.

“He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there.’ ” (Luke 12:18, HCSB)

Notice that in (12:17-18) the rich man questions where he is going to put “his” stuff. Note the repetition: my crops, my barns, my grain, and my goods. He never considers the source of his good fortune. This is the flaw of people who stop thinking that God gives them everything.

“Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’” (Luke 12:19, HCSB)

This verse (12:19) sounds like the way most people approach their life. They work for many years and then they store up what they have as their own reward. Then they take what they have and decide to go into “retirement.” They decide to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves because of their accomplishments. Yet, the very next verse warns us against this type of behavior. It really doesn’t matter if you have stored up lots of wealth, because you can’t take them with you.

““But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’” (Luke 12:20, HCSB)

So what we accumulate in life must be weighed against how we manage that for God’s kingdom. In other words, the life I live is under God’s management. He gives me everything I need. He even says that later in the chapter:

“Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.” (Luke 12:22–23, HCSB)

So collecting material possessions is not everything in life. Having wealth is not everything in life. Collecting stuff is not everything in life. I have to be responsible with what God has given me. In other words, the principle is this:

PRINCIPLE: God expects me to enjoy Him more than material things.

““That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”” (Luke 12:21, HCSB)

““Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19–20, HCSB)

Many people enjoy collecting – everything from fine art to old bottle caps. Our challenge is to control the amount of time and money we invest in stuff we’ll only have to leave behind someday. If loving and enjoying God is our first priority, we’ll be storing up things that will bring him glory and ensure our future rewards. We add to our eternal collection every time we perform an act of kindness in his name, encourage a fellow believer, share the gospel with someone, or invest our time and money in God’s work. In the long run, what really matters is not how much we’ve accumulated down here but what we’ve stored in heaven.7
Really, Jesus isn’t talking about money or even “things” in this text. Jesus isn’t talking about what you have—He is talking about what you treasure. There is a difference. A man that owns nothing can be materialistic and treasure things, while a man that owns much can treasure heavenly things. The question isn’t how much do you own. It is what (or who) owns you?8

Being rich toward God therefore is the heart being drawn toward God as our riches. “Rich toward God” means moving toward God as our riches. “Rich toward God” means counting God greater riches than anything on the earth. “Rich toward God” means using earthly riches to show how much you value God. This is what the prosperous farmer failed to do. And the result was that he was a fool and lost his soul. That is what I meant when I said, Jesus considered money hazardous. It lures us out of love for God. It lures us away from treasuring God.The issue is not that the man’s fields prospered. The issue was: What did he do with it?9 The question is not that you make money, but did you do with it for God’s glory?

Footnotes

1 Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 340.

2 “Greed,” http://www.thefreedictionary.com/greed, accessed on 2 August 2013.

3 Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), Lk 12:13.

4 D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: a Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word. Volume 1 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998).

5 Anonymous, Embracing Obscurity (Nashville: B&H, 2012).

6 Charles F. Stanley, The Glorious Journey (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers, 1996).

7 Dianne Neal Matthews, Drawing Closer to God: 365 Daily Meditations on Questions from Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2010).

8 Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Sermons (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).

9 John Piper, http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/lets-be-rich-toward-god, accessed on 3 August 2013.