Sermon Cloud

Greed: The Killer of Authentic Worship Hebrews 13:5-6 Grace Fellowship Church March 8, 2009 Series 3 Sermon 73 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Introduction We have been taught that the American dream may be dead. The news reporters have said that my generation will not live with as much prosperity as the previous generation has and does. The American dream started out with the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but has slowly evolved into the pursuit of greater and greater wealth. We are bombarded by advertisements on the highways, on radio, on television, and even when we check our email to get bigger, better, more expensive things. In our culture for the most part, everything that is done is typically done to gain wealth. That is the push. We are told we need an education in order to get a better job that pays more money. We need more money so that we can afford a better car, nicer clothes, and a bigger house. I did a little experiment this week and looked at the advertisements on the side of my email inbox. The first one I looked at wanted me to upgrade my cell phone to one of the newer high tech versions. The next one wanted me to look for great deals on Ebay so I could have more stuff. The next ad wanted me to find out what my credit score is so that I know whether or not I can get that bigger house or better car or the credit card with more status. The next ad was for a car rental company and I could get $20 off for the week if I would just click. One wanted me to have DVDs shipped right to my door and as many as I could watch in a month they would send me for the same price. A food company even had an ad trying to sell me chicken tenders. It started out, “Hungry? Try these chicken tenders.” The point of saying all that is that we as Americans are literally assaulted on every side by companies peddling their wares. Advertisements are everywhere. Remember when college bowl season would roll around and you had the Sugar Bowl or the Orange Bowl or some other bowl game. You had TV commercials of course that are selling something that paid for the air time. Now we have the Nokia Sugar Bowl and the FedEx Orange Bowl. Companies pay huge sums of money to stick their name in front of the bowl game so that those of us who watch will notice them and hopefully buy their products. My favorite is the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl which reminds me of chips and salsa. Companies want us to buy their goods so they can stay in business and become wealthy. That is the point of all that advertisement and the reason it works is because it plays right into the hearts of sinful people who are just overgrown two year olds screaming, “Mine.” At our house we call it a bad case of the “gimmies.” Give me this or that or I want this or that. It really boils down to one of the ugliest sins known to man and that is selfishness and self centeredness. And we are all selfish and self centered by nature. We waltz into the world and want everyone to know that everything that is happening in the world is about me and for my benefit. We always want things to go our way and for everything to work out just like our minds have planned it out and when it does not we seldom show we believe in the providence and sovereignty of God to teach us lessons like how to deny ourselves. So we pitch a fit and complain. We do this because sin has so affected us and our affections that we are the center of our universe rather than who is supposed to be the center of our universe and that is God. Let me ask you this morning who is the center of your universe? Well some people would say that their children are. But if we really boil it down to the truth you will soon find out that their children who they are investing all their time in are mere reflections of them. That is why parents yell and scream at referees and umpires at Little League games. That is why parents dress their little girls up and put them in beauty pageants. The reason is not so the child will necessarily have advantages but because the parent wants to gloat about how wonderful and beautiful and talented their offspring are. Others would say that their careers are the center of their universe. But careers are a reflection upon us. Think about how much respect a doctor gets in our society and how little respect the man who picks up your garbage does. You automatically assume that the doctor is smarter than the garbage man without talking to either one. We could go on and on here but let’s cut to the quick. If God through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is not the center and focus of your life then it is all about you. And if it is all about you then it is selfishness and self centeredness and that is idolatry. It is the shattering of the Law of God by placing yourself above God in all things and situations. It is self worship. Self worship leads to all kind of other sins. Specifically in the context of Hebrews 13 selfishness will lead to greed which is what many of the advertisers work off of. Greed will lead to a neglect of those in need when Scripture commands that we show hospitality to strangers. Greed will turn a blind eye to those in need. Greed will ignore our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering. Greed will not find the time or resources to minister to the hurting brother or sister. Selfishness and greediness will negate brotherly love in the context of the church and lead to schisms over trivial matters. Selfishness will lead to marital infidelity because a person who is not satisfied with the spouse that the Lord has given them will always have someone to blame for their misery. Selfishness will lead to impurity because the wandering eye and mind is only focused on their needs and desires and not the desires of God and the needs of their spouse. And in verse 5 today it is very clear that selfishness and self centeredness will lead to the love of money or things and a consistent attitude of discontent. Here is the problem that we sinful humans bring into the equation of God’s created order. He has created us to need relationships. It was not good for Adam to be alone so God gave Him Eve. It was not good for those two people to be by themselves so God told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Everyone who is born has needs. We need to love and be loved. We need material things. These are basic human needs. The Lord did not give us fur so we need clothing to keep warm and to keep the sun from scorching us. I present myself as evidence this morning after three hours of soccer games yesterday. We need shelter from the weather when it is cold or windy or raining. We need food. We need companionship. But sin has turned those basic needs upside down and caused us to be focused on ourselves rather than the God who supplies those needs. One of the most telling stories in all of Scripture is the story of the rich young ruler. He was the quintessential man among men. He was young. He had power. And he was rich. But he was self centered and although he had a form of religion he was lost. He was not willing to part with his youth, his power, and his wealth in order to follow Christ and thus he was under the wrath and judgment of God. Over and over in the Epistle to the Hebrews the writer has been exhorting us to have a proper perspective of things. In Hebrews 9 the writer gave us a proper perspective on the Old Covenant and showed us that as Christians in the New Covenant what we have in Christ is far better than anything we could have ever experienced in the Old Covenant. In Hebrews 11 the writer taught us to have a proper perspective of what real faith is in a real world. In Hebrews 12 he urged us to have a proper perspective of affliction and in those verses we learned that affliction sent by God to His children is for our sanctification and for our good and His glory. Now in Hebrews 13, in the context of worshipping with our whole lives, the writer has been exhorting us to put our lives in proper perspective and our desires in the proper perspective. In verses 1-3 we are called to deny ourselves in the care and love of the brethren. In verse 4 we are called to deny our sinful desires and to place marriage in high honor and live lives of purity and holiness in a world that does not. So when we get to verse 5 and verse 6 this morning the writer turns his attention to our desire and our need for money and material possessions. Money and possessions or as the King James Version calls it, mammon, can literally be the dividing wall that will keep you from the Kingdom of God and be the agent by which you will be plunged into an eternal hell? Folks, our understanding of money and possessions need to be brought into proper perspective. If they are not then we will have this warped view that has permeated many in Christian circles for a long time. At one time there was some that named the name of Christ that saw poverty and lack as the key mark of righteousness. If one could learn to live on the smallest amount of material possessions one could be more holy than the rest. So vows of poverty were taken. Then today you have the opposite of that which is really the fruit of Americanized Christianity that teaches that faith in God will lead to abundant wealth and prosperity and if you are not wealthy then it is a lack of faith on your part. The problem with both of these views is that neither one are biblical. What we must learn about money and possessions should come straight from the Bible. We have to be careful also not to read our 21st century American viewpoint into the text as well. These days we are hearing a lot about money and possessions. The stock market is falling and people are losing their jobs. The tell us that we are experiencing some of the toughest economic times in our nation’s history. So what can we learn from our text this morning? What are we going to take away from Hebrews 13:5-6 that will help us relate properly to our economic condition no matter if we have an abundance or if we are in poverty? What we must remember is that these verses are in the context of worshipping with your whole life. Let me remind you of the context. Look back at Hebrews 12:28-29. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Now notice Hebrews 13:12-15. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. PNP So in the context of worship in Hebrews 13:5-6 we have two commands that deal specifically with how we are to relate to money and material possessions. 1. We should keep our lives free from the love of money. 2. We should keep our lives free from covetousness. Purpose The reason I am preaching this passage is because we are so inclined to desire material wealth in our society that we soon can find ourselves shunning the Lord and His will for what we have twisted into a knew god. The god Mammon is a brutal and cruel taskmaster who will destroy all joy and happiness in what the true God has provided for us if we do not pay particular attention to these verses. RPNP So let’s look at these two commands that deal specifically with how we are to relate to money and material possessions. 1. We should keep our lives free from the love of money. Notice the first part of verse 5. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, Depending on which translation you have, verse 5 may say to keep your character or conversation, or conduct free from the love of money. The word in my translation for life and in your translation for one of the other words is “tropos.” This word can mean all those things. The idea that the writer is getting across to us is to keep the whole of our lives free from something. This has to do with every aspect of our being right down to our hearts. We simply do not make decisions based on the money. Money can definitely be a factor but money can never be the deciding factor. The phrase “free from love of money” is quite interesting as well. The translators of the ESV did something very interesting here. They did not supply the definite article or the word “the” in the translation. There is a reason for that. The reason I think is because the phrase “free from love of money” in English is one word in Greek. Literally it means without love of silver. So how important is it for us to keep our lives free from loving money? In 1 Timothy 3:3 we find that the qualifications for an elder includes having a life free from loving money. Listen as I read verses 1-3. 1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. A man that loves money is not fit for the office of elder. Likewise a person who loves money is not fit for the Kingdom of God. Remember the rich young ruler? He had the wealth and power and the Lord told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and come follow Him. What did the rich young ruler do? He went away condemned because he saw his temporal wealth more important and fulfilling than eternal life with Christ. And this is really what this boils down to. If you cut through the excuses that we can come up with in our pursuit of wealth what you will find is that when we love money we have taken God out of the equation. Thus we are now in opposition to God. What we should be pursuing is God and out of that pursuit of God He has promised to take care of us. Listen to Matthew 6:24. 24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth . So how do you know if you are a money lover? How do you know if your life is free from the love of money? We can all be self deceived and think that we are loving the Lord and not money when in fact that may not be true. The reality of whether or not we love money is really easy to spot. Our second point is a mirror of what we truly love. 2. We should keep our lives free from covetousness. Notice the next part of verse 5. and be content with what you have, To be content means to be satisfied. And particularly satisfied with what you have. It is not the attitude that says, “When I get this I will be satisfied.” Being content means that whatever you have you are satisfied with that because you know that God has provided it for you. Ultimately being content means that you are satisfied in God. And that is what the writer of Hebrews wrote to the first readers of this letter and to us. Remember that the people who were reading this letter were a persecuted people. If you go back over to Hebrews 10:34 you will find that these folks had their property stolen from them and they lived with the prospect of it happening again. So we are not dealing with people who live nearly as affluently as we do. And the call that they had was to be content with what they had left over after their property had been plundered. A lack of contentment will lead to all kinds of sin. Specifically in our context it will lead to coveting. Coveting is breaking the tenth commandment of God. Coveting is in essence looking around at everyone else, especially those who you think have it better than you, and wondering why God has not given you the same things He has given someone else. Folks, this is sin. This is sin because we are called as Christians to be satisfied in our relationship with God through Christ and everything else will fall into its proper place. It is God who has given us everything. Isn’t it interesting that the person who is discontent never looks toward the person who has less than them. It is always to the person who has more. Lets put some flesh on this sin of being discontent or coveting. Discontent looks at their neighbors spouse and wonders why their spouse doesn’t look like, act like, talk like, walk like their neighbors. They look at their neighbor’s car and wonder why they don’t have a car like that. They look at their neighbor’s house and then desire to have the things that they have. The list can go on and on. It could be someone’s lifestyle that you covet. But the tell tale sign of not being content is a consistent attitude of not being satisfied with what the Lord has given to you. After all, everything that we have is a gift. Our health, our families, our material possessions all come from the Lord. Our talents and our abilities are from the Lord as well that allow us to get these material possessions. And to be greedy or to not be content with what God has given us is to say to God that what He has provided for us is not good enough for us. When that is your attitude then you have now placed God as your servant and you have placed yourself on the throne of God and that is idolatry. I said earlier that we all have need for money and material possessions. We are simply not to love those things that are passing away. We are to be content with what God has given us. But let’s be honest with one another. It is easy for us to love money. It is easy for us to know that there is money in the bank just in case we lose our jobs. It is easy for us to start trusting in our ability to make wealth and forget that God has provided those things. It is easy for us to become discontent with what the Lord has given us. We really need some help on this one. Our natural tendency is to want more and better. So what are we called to do that will help us worship the Lord acceptably rather than live a life of greed and discontent? I want you to look at the rest of verse 5. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Our satisfaction in this life should come from the truth of verse 5 when the Lord has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Money will leave us. Material possessions will fail us. Thieves can steal them. Rust will deteriorate them. Rot will take them over. Age will render them useless. Time will scar them. And one hundred years from now what is not in a landfill will probably be in someone’s antique store. We have to look at our lives through the right lens or perspective. What we have materially will not matter in eternity. No one will ask you in Heaven or in Hell for that matter what type of car you drove, how big of a house you lived in, or what brand of clothing you wore. They will not ask you how much money you had in the bank and will not ask to see your financial statement. So no matter your financial condition now whether you have all that you need and more or if you are struggling to get by, the promise of the Lord should keep you from breaking these two commands of not loving money and being content with what you have. If the promise of the Lord is to never leave us or forsake us then even if he takes us through the depths of poverty we are still to be satisfied in Him. Even if he takes us through tremendous abundance we are still not to be satisfied in our wealth. Because the truth is wealth will never satisfy. It will always leave us wanting more. Only God satisfies the longing of the human soul because God has created us for Himself. Remember how the writer has written chapter 13? There is a command and a reason for the command. Last week we saw that we are to be pure because God will judge the impure. Two weeks ago we saw that we were to be hospitable to strangers because some had entertained angels unaware. Today we are to not love money and be content with what we have because of our greater and more abiding possession and that is God Himself. Look at verse 5 again. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I want you to notice the words never and nor at the end of verse 5. In Greek there are basically two words for our English word “not.” There is the word “may” and the word “ou” which can be strengthened in the form of “ouday.” Never is the English translation of both Greek words which is a way to strengthen what is being said. “I will never ever leave you.” Then for the word “nor” it really gets interesting. Nor is the translation of “ouday ou may.” The writer uses all three to show the strength of this promise. We can keep money and possessions in the right perspective as Christians because our Lord has promised to never ever leave us and never ever ever to forsake us. So if He allows our health to fail where we can not work or if He allows the stock market to tank and we lose all our investments and if the banks all close down with all of our money trapped inside in the midst of that chaos He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. If our property is plundered as a result of persecution and we live in the understanding that it can happen again anytime we know that He will never leave us or forsake us. If our neighbor is filthy rich and we are dirt poor we can be content with what we have been given by the Lord because He will never leave us nor forsake us. And I think this is the point the writer is making in these two verses because he also quotes Psalm 118:6 in Hebrews 13:6. Look at verse 6 with me. 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” As we embark on these tough economic times we must remember this. We must be able to say confidently that not only will the Lord never leave us or forsake us He is our helper so we have nothing to fear. What can man do to us? Man can squander our investments. Man can plunder our material wealth. Man can cause us poverty. But in the eternal perspective the Lord has promised to take care of us and so we need not fear what man says or what man can do because man can only do what God allows. And God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”