Transcript
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Welcome to Gospel and Life. This month on the podcast, we're featuring a series on the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of teachings where Jesus outlines what it really means to live the Christian life. In the series, Tim Keller explores a striking idea that Christianity is not just different from the world, it's also radically different from religion.
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Take a look. In your bulletin, we have a passage on which teachings based we're going through the Sermon on the Mount and we come to what Jesus has to say about money and possessions. And he has plenty to say, more than we can cover. But let's read it Matthew 6 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food? And is not the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. And are you, are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They don't labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. It's God's Word. Now, the Sermon on the Mount talks about how if we actually take the Gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, if we actually take the gospel and we live it out, what will it look like? And that's what the Sermon on the Mount's about. And now we get to the area of money and possessions. Money and possessions. And Jesus tells us three things that we can draw out here. He tells us how money has a how money controls us, you know, how it has a power over us, how it exercises power. So first of all, how money exercises power over us. And then secondly, why money exercises power over us. And then thirdly, how we can break the power. Okay, how it exercises power, why it exercises power, and then how we break it. Now, first of all, how money exercises the power over us. And one of the curious things for interpreters or anybody who's reading and trying to understand the passage is this illustration, this little saying about the eye. It says, the eye is the lamp of the body, and if your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. Now, what that means is very simple. We're in this room, and there's light in this room. And if your eye works, it means if it takes the light in, you will, by the light be able to move your body through the room. You know, you'll see where the aisle is, and you'll move that way. And you know, you won't stumble and you won't fall. And all this saying is basically pointing out is if your eye isn't working, even though there's a lot of light all around the rest of your body, your whole body is, in a sense, is in the darkness. If your eye's not working, there's a sense in which there's no other part of your body that can see or take light in and see. So if your eye is not working, your whole body's in darkness, whether or not the whole room's flooded with light. See? So you say, and you know, when you're reading this, you say, what's that got to do with anything? In fact, if you look, you say, okay, verses 19 to 21 is all about money. And then verses 24 and following is about money. What's the saying doing in here? It's a little easier to understand his point if you go to Luke 11:12. In Luke 11:12, Jesus uses the same discussion, this illustration. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is dark, your whole body is dark. And he also talks about money. Again, it's connected. And when you get into Luke 12, you see, after he talks about the eye and the lamp, he says, so watch out for greed. That's in Luke chapter 12. He says, Watch out for greed. Watch out for all kinds of greed. Now, what is he saying? Very interesting. He's saying that greed and materialism. Materialism is an inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things. An inordinate desire or dependence on money and material things. The materialism has the peculiar effect of blinding you spiritually, of distorting the way you see things. It has a power over the way you see everything. Now, what do I mean by that? All right, well, let me give you some examples. First of all, for example, materialism has the power to blind you to materialism. So what Jesus is saying is very interesting. Let me cast it in this slide, Kathy. Some years ago, my wife Kathy noticed that I was doing a series of monthly morning breakfasts. I was speaking in a men's breakfast once a month on the seven deadly sins. And you know, the seven deadly sins have lust and they have pride and they have envy and they have anger and so forth. And of course, one of the seven deadly sins is greed. And Kathy says, now, are they advertising these things? I mean, are they saying, here's the subject. And then people are bringing their friends. I said, yeah, right. They're advertising. He says, so they'll know when greed. The month that you're speaking on greed. I said, right. She says, watch. The attendance is going to drop. It's just going to go down. They're not going to come out to hear about greed. And she was right. She was right. It was the worst attendant of all of them. And I thought about that. Why? Why? I'll tell you why. It's not that they were hostile. It's not that people said, oh, that's a terrible idea. I don't want to talk about greed. I want to hear about greed. Oh, no. Everybody was just so absolutely sure it's not true of them. In other words, see, this is different than the other sins. This is why Jesus says, this is an eye sin. This darkens your eye spiritually. You don't have to say to somebody. Jesus did not say to anybody, watch out, you might be committing adultery. I mean, if you're committing adultery, you know, you're committing adultery. You don't say, oh, you're not my wife. I mean, it doesn't happen, you know. But Jesus has to say, watch out, you might be greedy. You See, because greed hides itself. It blinds you in a way that adultery doesn't really. I mean, you know, if you're committing adultery. Over the years as a pastor, I've had people come in to talk to me about sins, to confess sins, to come in and say, I want to talk to you about a real problem I'm having, something wrong. I haven't confessed as other people, but you're hear pastor, priest, rabbi type, and I'll tell you about it. And they do. They come and they'll talk about anger, and they'll talk about bitterness, and they'll talk about lust, and they'll talk about pride, and they'll talk about everything. But I don't think I ever remember anybody coming to me ever to confess the sin of greed. I don't think anybody came in and said, pastor, I'm materialistic, never done it, because it has a. Now I know what this means is Jesus is saying, you don't ask. You don't consider the possibility that you're greedy. You just don't think you are you just. Me greedy. You think of rich, rich people. You think of people that spend tons of. The trouble is, you've all got friends. In fact, most of you even have a relative who's much more kind of extravagant with money than you are. And that's all it takes. All you got to do is know somebody who's really greedy. And you don't even think that you're greedy. You don't even. You wouldn't even consider the possibility that you're materialistic. You don't even. That's the reason why they didn't come. Not they were bored. They're bored. They figured this isn't. This doesn't apply to me. Now, you see this. If you're there tonight and you say, well, this is not a problem of mine. That's a very bad sign. This is one of the sins that has the sign. A symptom is that I'm sure it's just not true of me. And therefore Jesus is saying, watch out, this is a sin of the eye. It darkens your eye. Let me give you some examples of how it can darken your eye. For example, sometimes you choose a job. Materialism has the power to get you to choose a job. Not one that you love, not one that you're good at, not one that helps people, but one that just makes you money. You do it because it'll get you to a certain status in life. And you choose the job on the basis of that. You know, for five to 10 years, the adrenaline can keep you going. And then after a while, you just find yourself empty inside. Why did you choose the job? Your eye was dark. I'm not saying everybody does this, but so many people do. Or let me give you another example. In the conduct of your job, not only can materialism blind you as you choose your job, in the conduct of your job, for example, many, many, many, many companies, many, many companies are making money. But we all know this. They're hurting neighborhoods, they're hurting towns, they're hurting people. We know this. Now there's all sorts of people in the company. And what are they doing? Are they saying, ha ha, in order to make money? I am ruining the environment of that little town. Ha ha. No, you're not doing that. What are you doing? You're not asking. You don't want to go there. You don't ask questions. You don't want to know. You don't want to think out. You don't want to ask hard questions about is, are the deals that my company is making, Are the things that my company is doing? Is this really helping people or is it hurting people? Is it helping the town or is it hurting the town? Is it helping the neighborhood? Is it hurting. You don't want to know. You don't want to go. That's the blindness. That's what Jesus is talking about. Greed doesn't go, ha, ha. I am, you know, gouging the poor. No, but are you asking whether your company is. You need to ask that if you're not even asking that. That means the blind eye, the dark eye. Do you see that? Or just one more? Materialism keeps you from asking hard questions about your lifestyle. Now you see one of the problems with being professionals. So many of you are professionals. Now if you go to the bowling alley with the other kind of working class people, by and large, everybody there is making the same amount of money, by and large. However, if you're a professional, one of the problems is the kinds of people you come into contact with. Many, many, many times. Sometimes your friends are making the money you are or people you go to parties with or circles that you get into. And there's always somebody once you're. Once you've, you know, got that little, you know, you know, that little ticket into the professional world you're constantly rubbing, you know, the people you work with, you know, you might have a pretty good job, but here's a person who's three levels above and that person's making 10 times, 50 times what you're making, and therefore you're sure this is the reason why. Don't forget the person who is making that. You think that person's rich. That person's making seven figures. They're hanging out with people who make 10 times more than they do every year. And therefore nobody ever feels rich. You know, there's probably one or two people that know they're rich, but everybody else makes them feel okay. They probably say, I'm rich, you know, but hardly anybody else does. And you don't ask these questions. Do I really need to spend this much money on this? Do I need to be putting this much money into my apartment? Do I need to be spending this much money for my apartment? Do I, you know, do I need to be spending this much money on clothes? And you say, because you compare immediately you think of other people who do much more. And therefore, you don't ask the question. You don't go there. You don't ask. You don't say, wait a minute. Isn't there ways in which I could be giving more of my money to the church, to the poor, to my friends, to the neighbors? Isn't there ways in which I could be much more radically generous if I made this and that and that change? You don't want to ask. You don't want to think. In 1635, a guy named Robert Kane. 1635, now, was a member of the First Congregational Church of Boston. And I think back then there probably only was one Congregational church in Boston. I don't know, I would think. And he was doing pretty well as a businessman. But in 1635, his elders disciplined him for the sin of greed. They. I don't think they excommunicated. I think they, you know, suspended him from the Lord's supper. They admonished him. So his elders disciplined him for the sin of greed. Now, how do they do that? Is because he was selling his product at a 6% profit. And the church had decided three or four years before that Christians were only allowed to sell their wares at a 4% profit. So when they found out he was doing 6%, they disciplined him for the sin of greed. Now, some of you are out there saying, where is this illustration going? I'll tell you where it's going. They realized now this is not as stupid as it sounds. My wife certainly thought it sounded stupid when I first read it to her, but I'll tell you why it's not. And I convinced her it wasn't. You know, she said, where does it say in the Bible, 4%. What are you talking about? Well, here, now listen. They knew something, and that is that when you're committing adultery, you know you're committing adultery. But when you're being greedy, you never know. And so they sat down as Christians and they said, now look, according to the Bible, Jesus talks about money all the time. He's constantly saying, watch out for greed. He's always saying, give your money away. He's always saying, don't spend all your money on yourself. I mean, especially in the book of Luke. But all the way through the Gospels, it is frightening. I mean, I can't preach on money as often as Jesus preached on money. I wouldn't have a church. I mean, you know, everybody gets so quiet. I mean, nobody walks out singing, you know. And yet Jesus talked about money all the time. So this Congregational church got together and said, we got a problem here. Some business practices must be greedy. Some lifestyles have to be greedy. But how are we going to know there have to be some? We can't just say, well, you know, there have to be some. And so they said, all right, as a Christian community, let's sit down and let's just say at our time, in our place, in this spot, we can't talk about everything else, but let us decide what is a greedy lifestyle, what are greedy business practices? And so they got together and by consensus, they decided on some. And they said, now let us hold each other accountable. So it was mutual. It was consensual, you know, very modern consensual. Everything is okay, but it's consensual. And they got together and they made this decision. And of course he knew about it. And he. But he tried to move past it. And therefore he was right. They were right. Now, I am not saying by any means that today in our economy, you could possibly come up. When you consider how different every field is, you could never come up with a nice, simple. I mean, that was a whole different world in so many ways. You couldn't come up with a nice, simple rule of thumb. Even if you all got together and said, look, we're just going to do this for ourselves, you couldn't do that. But here's the point. Who are you accountable to? What Christians have gotten together with you and mutually, you say, let's talk about how we're spending our money on each other, on ourselves, how much we're giving away, how much we're keeping, what we're doing. Who have you authorized? What Christians have you authorized to do that? And then you're of course, authorized to do it with them. You have to talk about with somebody. You've got to have some standards. And you can't trust yourself. That's the principle. You cannot trust yourself to decide this. And I know what your answer. I know what you're thinking. I know what I'm thinking, and that is I don't want to even think about that. I don't even want to think myself about it. When I spend on money, I don't even want to sit down myself and think, gee, did I really have to do that? Not only do I want to talk to other people about it, I don't even want to talk to myself about it. I just want to do it. And that's Jesus whole point about greed. Money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend your money and how you make your money. Money has the power to keep you from asking questions about how you spend it, how you make it. The hard questions now, why. Why does money have that power if that's how it has? It has. I mean, that's the power of greed. The power of greed is to not ask. The power of greed is to not think. The power of greed is to say, well, it's not true of me. We live in the most wealthy society in the history of the world. Especially in the last five to ten years. There's never been. Right now at least 70% of the wealth in the whole world is essentially in the hands of about 5% of the people, which is pretty much America, and we're professionals. And if you're a professional in this room, that means you're in the top 20% of that 5%. There's never been a group of people as wealthy as we are. And here. Do we dare? Is there anybody in this room that dares to say, I really am doing just fine when it comes to material things? I couldn't give any more away. I couldn't live any more simply. I couldn't be any more generous with my money. I'm pretty generous. The rest of the world knows better. The rest of the world looks at us and says to Americans, there's so many things you could be doing in this world if you just didn't think you had to have that gadget. There are so many things. The rest of the world sees it. It's astounding that we live in the place we live in the time we live. And we won't even think about the possibility that we're greedy. That shows the power of greed. It shows The Power of Money.