Prater - Rev19

Message Nineteen:

The Myth of More

Matthew 6:19-24

“All he ever really wanted in life was more.” So begins an article in Leadership magazine. “He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a film maker and star. He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. Presidents became his pawns. All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction. Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. He concluded his life emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; and innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction. Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more. He died a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards.”

As we continue to study the Lord’s revolutionary Sermon on the Mount, with His help, I want to preach to you on The Myth of More.

By way of introduction, let me share three myths with you about having more.

1. Having more will make me happier. Solomon, the richest man who ever lived, debunked that myth when he said, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?”

Solomon built a beautiful palace that became one of the seven wonders of the world. He surrounded himself with beautiful water gardens, cascading waterfalls, the fragrance of the flowers, the lush vegetation, hallways lined with silver and gold. He had all the maids and servants he could ever need. He had a stable of 40,000 horses, a throne of solid ivory overlaid with pure gold. His yearly income in today’s money would be in the neighborhood of five to ten billion dollars. He literally swam in an ocean of opulence and affluence. His residence made Disney World look like a dump. But in the end, he discovered that it was all “. . . vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”

2. Having more will make me more important. That’s not what Jesus said. Jesus said that, “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” In other words, your value is not determined by your valuables. Your net-worth doesn’t determine your self-worth. The person you are has nothing to do with the possessions you own. And though these things are true, people still spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like, and in some cases, don’t even know.

3. Having more will make me secure. The real truth is that in most cases having more things makes a person more insecure. It takes more money to maintain them, more insurance to insure them against loss, and more energy to continue to be sure that they are not taken from us.

In our text, Jesus Issues a Command, Makes a Comparison, and Draws a Conclusion concerning the menace of materialism.

2. Generally speaking, when we speak of “treasure,” we tend to limit the term to money. But the Lord’s use of the word is intended to mean anything that is of value to man and that is perishable or can be lost in one way or the other.

3. In Jesus’ day, treasure would have referred to food, clothes, money, grain, gold, silver. In our day, treasure can be money, houses, lands, clothes, stocks, bonds, savings accounts, retirement programs, cars, boats, motorcycles, stereo systems, gadgets, toys, etc.

4. The Lord is clearly condemning some things in His words here, but before we give consideration to what is condemned, I want to make clear what He is not condemning.

a. He is not condemning hard work which results in man’s provision for both himself and his family.

b. He is not condemning the possession of material things, provided they are acquired honestly (which includes not robbing God of tithes and our offerings) and used rightly.

(1) When the Lord speaks of laying up treasures for ourselves on earth, He is addressing the sin of excessively pursuing worldly wealth and material possessions.

(2) Many today are possessed with an insatiable appetite for “treasure” that drives them to many types of excessive behavior.

(3) Paul warns against that in 1 Timothy 6:8-10, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

(1) Colossians 3:5, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

(2) Covetousness is the sin of always wanting more, whether it be more things or more pleasures. The covetous person is never satisfied with what he has, and he is usually envious of what other people have.

(3) Covetousness is considered idolatry because it puts things in the place of God.

(1) What Jesus is condemning here is selfishly laying up treasure for ourselves without any intention of using the same for the good of man or the glory of God.

(2) In Luke 12, Jesus shared a parable with the people one day about a very selfish man who only thought of himself. His selfishness had brought him much gain. As a matter of fact, he had accumulated so much stuff that he needed to build bigger and better places to store it all. This guy was going to spend the rest of his life eating, and drinking, and being merry.

(3) Listen to what God had to say. He said, “. . . Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

2. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? By using all that we have for the glory of God and the good of man.

3. We lay up treasures in heaven, rewards if you will, by investing our time, talent, and treasure in the work of the Lord.

2. Jesus cuts to the chase here and simply says, “Show me where your affection is, show me where your attention is, show where your attraction is, and I’ll tell you where your heart is.”

3. We might say, “Show me where you invest the greatest part of your time, talent, and treasure and I’ll tell you where your heart is.”

4. The truth is, our whole life will drift relentlessly toward the spot where our treasures are stored because our hearts will take us there.

5. A. W. Tozer suggests that we can know where our treasure is, and thus know where our heart is, by how we answer the following questions:

c. What do our main thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think of what we will?

I read about a woman who went to see her doctor. Looking very worried she said, “Doctor, when I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and my hair was all wiry and frazzled, my skin was all wrinkled, my eyes had bags under them, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What’s wrong with me!?” The doctor looked her over for a couple of minutes, and then said: “Well, I can tell you for sure that there’s nothing wrong with your eyesight.”

In these verses, Jesus is not talking about our physical sight, but our spiritual sight. First of all, He speaks of . . .

1. The word “light,” when used in the Bible, generally speaks of that which is good — that which is godly and righteous. As it is used here, it speaks of our attitude and behavior when it comes to our “treasure.”

2. The word “single” is used to mean singleness of purpose. To have a single eye is to have an undivided devotion and oneness of purpose. It is to have a right perspective when it comes to material things.

3. When our eye is single, when our focus is on God and the things of God, the purpose of our life is to serve God, the priority of our life is to glorify God, and the passion of our life is to please God.

4. For the whole body to be full of light is the Lord’s way of saying that our Christian life, as a whole, is pleasing to Him.

1. An “evil” eye is one that is not clearly focused on one single purpose. It is representative of a heart that is divided in its loyalty.

2. When we try to focus on the spiritual things of God and the material things of the world at the same time, our whole life is going to be messed up.

3. That person who thinks he or she can pursue the things of this world and the things of heaven with an equal amount of passion is only fooling themselves.

The conclusion of the whole matter is this, “No man can serve two masters.”

As we consider these words, we are immediately confronted with the truth that . . .

1. We need to ask ourselves a question. Is my purpose, priority, and passion in life to pursue, love, and serve God, or is it to pursue, love, and serve the material things of this world?

2. We can pursue eternal things and still have earthly things, but we cannot pursue earthly things and have eternal things.

2. Should we choose to pursue the eternal things of God, chances are, we will have less than what we could have of the things of the world because we will be called upon to make sacrifices in terms of temporal pleasures and possessions.

3. Should we choose to pursue the temporal things of the world, we will have less of what we could have had of that which is eternal.

4. What we have to determine is which is the greater loss. Is it the temporal things of earth or the eternal things of heaven?

CLOSING: When all is said and done, there are basically four groups of people when it comes to this world’s goods.

These folks have little or nothing of this world’s goods, nor do they have anything of Jesus.

The Bible speaks of people like Abraham and Barnabas and Lydia who had a great deal of this world’s wealth but who also had a rich, full relationship with God.

I have known and do know now, people just like this. And to be real honest, it has been their selfless sacrifice down through the years that has enabled this ministry to be as strong as it is today.

These dear people have little of this world’s wealth, but they have a boat load of Jesus.

When I think of these folks I think of the Lord’s words in Matthew 16:26, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? . . .”

Luke describes a man, a king as a matter of fact, who was rich and wore fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. He was truly rich without. Yet when he died, because he was poor within, the Bible says, “And in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments . . .” Again I ask, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? . . .”

Where are you in this list? Poor without and poor within? Rich without and rich within? Poor without yet rich within? Or rich without and poor within?