0:03

Hello and welcome to the John Mark

0:05

Comer Teachings Podcast. I'm Strawn

0:07

Coleman, your host and part of the

0:09

teaching team here at Practising Away. Each

0:12

week on this podcast we share a

0:14

teaching from John Mark or other trusted

0:16

voices in the formation space, and

0:19

it's great to have you with us. Today

0:23

John Mark continues his series on

0:25

generosity by exploring a famous yet

0:27

often misquoted passage, the love of

0:29

money is the root of all

0:32

kinds of evil. In

0:34

the teaching John Mark uncovers a little

0:36

of what a heart of greed actually

0:39

looks like and offers us some really

0:41

helpful frameworks to liberate us from its

0:43

hold. As

0:45

you listen along you may like to

0:47

ask yourself the question, am I always

0:49

living and working for just a little

0:52

more? Here's John Mark.

0:57

Thanks Dave, what a great story.

0:59

Good morning everyone. Anybody

1:02

else like really feeling a churro right now?

1:05

Holy cow I know what I'm doing this afternoon. Great

1:09

to see you, please turn in your Bibles

1:11

to 1 Timothy chapter 6. And

1:15

once you arrive there's a Bible in the

1:17

seat in front of you, once you are

1:19

there in 1 Timothy chapter 6 I

1:21

invite you to stand with me for the reading of

1:23

scripture. Our

1:34

text for today is chapter 6 verse

1:36

6 to verse 10, but

1:39

before we read let me just give you a

1:41

moment to quiet your

1:43

heart and settle

1:46

into your body, into the moment and

1:50

as much as you are willing or

1:52

able to just open your heart to

1:56

receive whatever the Spirit of God

1:59

would give to you. You

6:01

will know this, consumerism is not

6:03

rational at all. The average American,

6:05

for example, has 19 pairs

6:08

of shoes. And that's average, that's

6:10

not Santa Monica people. That's like America

6:12

people, all right? 19

6:15

pairs of shoes, like, just very obvious, you don't

6:17

need 19 pairs of shoes.

6:19

You need, I don't know, two or three.

6:21

It's not rational, it's not designed to appeal

6:23

to that part of your brain. It's

6:26

designed to appeal to your subconscious.

6:28

You know the history of advertising,

6:31

it's all based on Freud and

6:33

actually early propaganda from the Nazis.

6:35

It's all designed to appeal to

6:37

primal energies of fear and

6:40

desire. And now all

6:42

of that advertising is amplified

6:44

by algorithms, which are designed

6:46

to data mine for our

6:48

raws, anxieties, and insecurities, and

6:50

questions, and hopes, and dreams,

6:52

and fears, by watching everything

6:54

we do and listening to

6:56

everything we say from our

6:58

front right pocket or our

7:00

purse. The Harvard

7:02

professor Shoshana Zuboff calls this

7:05

new economic model surveillance capitalism.

7:08

The Silicon Valley insider Jaron Lanier

7:11

said, what might once

7:13

have been called advertising must

7:15

now be understood as continuous

7:18

behavior modification at a titanic

7:20

scale. And billions

7:22

of dollars are spent on algo

7:24

design advertising every year. And executives

7:26

as a general rule are highly

7:29

intelligent. They would not spend that

7:31

money if it did not work.

7:34

But even before our era

7:36

of surveillance capitalism and advertisements

7:38

for Air Jordans on our

7:40

Instagram feed, the human

7:42

heart has long

7:45

been prone to believe the

7:47

myth of more. The

7:49

lie that is so deep in

7:51

our psyche we often don't even

7:54

realize it's there. If

7:56

I just had a little

7:59

bit more. war, then

8:01

I would be happy. But

8:04

we all know a truth that

8:06

cuts across the spectrum of the

8:08

human experience. No matter how much

8:10

we get, it's never enough. The

8:13

writer of Ecclesiastes, whoever loves

8:15

money never has enough. Whoever

8:17

loves wealth is never satisfied

8:20

with their income. Or

8:22

as a more recent poet put it,

8:24

I can't get no satisfaction. In

8:28

fact, as a general rule, the more we

8:30

get, the more we what? Want.

8:32

We quoted Rockefeller last week because

8:35

he's just so famous. That line,

8:37

how much money is enough? Just

8:39

a little bit more. Psychologists call

8:41

this the hedonic treadmill because the

8:44

way hedonism works, dopamine in the

8:46

brain, desire begets more desire. So

8:48

it's like a treadmill. You're always

8:50

walking and you're never arriving. No

8:52

matter how much pleasure or dopamine

8:55

hits you get, no matter how

8:57

much stuff you amass, it never

8:59

feels like enough. But even worse,

9:01

the more we get, often, the

9:04

more neurotic we become. This

9:06

is the counterintuitive insight of Jesus. We

9:08

think that money will make us happy.

9:10

And often, at some level, once you

9:12

get kind of beyond, once you get

9:14

up to basically a middle class way

9:16

of life, it absolutely does correlate with

9:19

happiness. But often, once we

9:21

get to that and beyond that, not

9:23

only does it not make us happy,

9:25

it often makes us less happy. It

9:28

makes us more anxious, more distracted,

9:30

more discontent, more lonely, more suspicious

9:33

of other people. Rockefeller's

9:35

contemporary Andrew Carnegie, these

9:38

are basically the two founders of philanthropy in the West,

9:40

said, pity the poor millionaire.

9:43

You have no idea the strain I

9:45

have been under. Millionaires who

9:47

laugh are rare, very rare indeed. And

9:52

we're all like, yeah, pity the poor

9:55

millionaire. Like, what a burden. That was

9:57

100 years ago, so think billionaire today.

9:59

or whatever, but what

10:01

if that's just because we still

10:03

believe the lie of more? We

10:06

still believe that if we just

10:09

had more, more money, more

10:12

possessions, more square feet, more

10:14

opportunity, more businesses, more whatever,

10:16

then we would be satisfied.

10:21

But we live in the most affluent

10:23

generation in human history.

10:27

And yet, so many of us are

10:30

wracked by fear, and

10:32

worry, and uncertainty,

10:34

and greed, and unsatisfied

10:37

desire. It

10:39

comes as no surprise that the

10:41

majority of Jesus' teachings on money

10:43

are warnings about the

10:45

danger of it. He says

10:47

more about the danger of wealth than he

10:49

does about the joy of generosity. I'm

10:53

just the messenger. I

10:55

wish it was the other way around, but that's

10:57

it. Let's look at a few examples. And this

10:59

is the most difficult teaching in this series, by

11:02

the way. So just, you came on the wrong

11:04

Sunday. Welcome. Let's look at a few.

11:06

As much as you can take, here's Luke 12. Watch

11:09

out. Notice his language. Exclamation

11:11

point in the English translation.

11:13

Watch out. Be on your

11:15

guard. Against what? Against all

11:17

kinds of greed. Greed

11:20

is like lust, but it's for

11:22

things. It's the objectification of another

11:24

person or thing for your own

11:26

personal pleasure. And it's

11:29

this insatiable desire for more

11:31

than we already have

11:33

and more than we need. And

11:36

Jesus is right. There are all

11:38

kinds of greed. There's

11:40

a crass materialism kind of

11:42

greed, bigger house, bigger TV,

11:44

bigger car, bigger bling, whatever.

11:47

Then there's a more bespoke millennial kind of greed.

11:49

That's more about, I would never do that. I

11:51

would never drive that. But I was in Italy

11:54

last week. And I just ate at this restaurant.

11:56

I ate at this restaurant. Do you like my

11:58

new jeans? It's like. that, it's like a little

12:00

bit more cool. But

12:03

we're all vulnerable to some

12:05

version of greed. Hence

12:08

Jesus' line, watch out. Why?

12:11

Why is greed so dangerous? Because

12:13

next line, life does

12:16

not consist in

12:18

an abundance of possessions. That's

12:22

just not where the good life is

12:24

to be found, according to Jesus. Not

12:27

only is wealth dangerous, but look at this, Mark 4. Some

12:30

people, like seed sown among thorns, hear the

12:32

word. And in context, the word is the

12:34

message about life in the kingdom of God

12:37

with Jesus, the invitation to it.

12:40

Hear the word, but the worries of

12:42

this life, the deceitfulness

12:44

of wealth, and the desires

12:46

for other things come in

12:48

and choke the word, making

12:50

it unfruitful. Jesus names

12:52

three things that will sabotage your

12:54

spiritual growth and keep you outside

12:57

of the kingdom of God. All

12:59

three have to do with money at some level. And

13:02

notice his line about wealth,

13:04

the deceitfulness of wealth. He

13:07

does not say that wealth is evil.

13:09

That wealth can be a blessing from

13:12

God. He

13:14

says that wealth is deceitful.

13:17

Why? Because it promises

13:19

what it simply cannot give. Promises

13:22

you happiness, it promises you satisfaction,

13:24

it promises you contentment, it promises

13:26

you identity, it

13:29

promises you safety and security and

13:31

respect and honor and on and

13:33

on and on. And we fall

13:35

for the lie over and over

13:37

again. And yet wealth

13:40

is often what is keeping us from

13:42

the good life, according to Jesus. Here's

13:44

Matthew 19, last one. Truly

13:46

I tell you, and Jesus would buffer

13:48

a really important teaching with that line.

13:51

Truly I tell you, it's

13:53

hard for someone who is rich to enter

13:55

the kingdom of heaven. Again

13:59

I tell you. Notice he has to say

14:01

it twice because we all read that line and we're

14:03

like, that can't be the right translation. Surely

14:05

there's some Bible teacher thing where it's like, it

14:07

doesn't really mean what it sounds like it means.

14:11

Again, I tell you, it is easier for

14:13

a camel to go through the eye of

14:15

a needle than for someone who

14:18

is rich to enter the kingdom of God. That's like

14:20

first century Jewish rabbi humor, by the way. You're welcome

14:22

to laugh at that. You're like,

14:24

that's not funny at all. Here,

14:27

all I want you to notice is

14:29

that wealth is an obstacle to the

14:31

good life, not the path. Jesus

14:34

seems to be saying that it is

14:36

theoretically possible to follow Jesus into the

14:38

kingdom of God as a

14:41

wealthy person, but it is

14:43

incredibly hard to do and

14:45

rare. Now, of

14:47

course, all of us want to believe

14:49

that, yeah, sure, that's true, Jesus, but I

14:51

am the exception to the rule. I

14:54

could do it. I know most people could not

14:56

do that, but I could do that. I

14:58

feel that way. But Jesus'

15:01

warning is haunting. Financial

15:03

success will often result

15:06

in spiritual failure. That

15:10

is an idea that we rarely hear in

15:12

our culture or even in the church, but

15:15

it is profoundly biblical, which

15:18

is likely why the weight of Jesus'

15:20

teachings on money are a warning against

15:22

greed. Now, here's the weird thing about

15:24

greed. Very few of

15:26

us think of ourselves as greedy.

15:30

As a pastor, it has been my

15:32

honor to have people

15:35

in a very tender and vulnerable

15:37

moment confess to me all sorts

15:39

of sin over the years, from

15:42

domestic violence to adultery

15:44

to abuse, I

15:47

mean, all sorts of stuff. Do

15:49

you know, I cannot recall one time

15:52

in 20-plus years of

15:54

pastoring where anyone ever confessed

15:56

greed to me. I

16:01

don't have, I could not tell you a single story

16:04

where somebody said, you know what, I went out and

16:06

I bought this car last week, and

16:08

it was just a huge mistake. Like I did not

16:10

need it, and I could have used those monies for

16:13

dot, dot, dot, and will you please

16:15

help me repent before God and figure out what to

16:17

do? Yep, that

16:19

story, don't have that story. Never

16:22

had anyone even say that they are greedy,

16:24

never had anyone say, hey, will you pray

16:27

for me? I'm just like never satisfied, and

16:29

I have way too many shoes or whatever

16:32

it may be. Now again, that's not to shame

16:34

anyone here. I don't think I've ever done that.

16:36

I clearly don't have a problem. I am the

16:38

exception to the rule. A

16:41

huge part of this is

16:43

we tend to unconsciously adopt

16:45

the spending norms of our

16:47

culture. And we live in

16:49

LA in 2024. We

16:52

live in one of the most

16:54

greedy materialistic cultures in human history.

16:58

And we are like the proverbial frog

17:00

in water. We don't realize that it

17:02

is killing us. Is

17:05

there a practice from the way

17:07

of Jesus to set our heart

17:10

free from greed, and

17:12

to form us into people

17:14

who are deeply happy and

17:17

at peace with whatever it is we

17:19

have? Of course, the answer is yes.

17:21

It is the practice of generosity. In

17:25

Luke 11, Jesus says to the

17:27

Pharisees, you Pharisees clean the outside

17:29

of the cup and dish, which

17:31

is a poetic way of

17:33

saying, you make yourself look like

17:35

really good on the outside. But

17:38

inside, in the heart in

17:40

Jesus' language, you are full

17:42

of two things, greed and

17:45

wickedness. Now wickedness is

17:47

a generic term. It's like junk drawer

17:49

for just sin in general. Greed

17:51

though is specific. Notice

17:54

the one sin that Jesus

17:56

calls out by name. It's

17:58

not lust. It's not doubt,

18:00

it's greed. But

18:03

then he says this, "'But now, as

18:06

for what is inside you,'" meaning for

18:08

those of you thinking, sheesh, this is

18:10

in my heart, this greed, I

18:12

want more, this objectification of things,

18:14

this pursuit of wealth, it's in

18:17

my heart. What do I do

18:19

with it? "'As for what is

18:21

inside you, be generous to the

18:24

poor, and everything will be clean

18:26

for you. God will clean

18:28

out your heart and set you free.'" Meaning

18:30

if there's a silver bullet, that's not really

18:32

a silver bullet for anything in life, but

18:34

if there was, for greed,

18:36

it is the practice of

18:39

generosity. It's like God's antidote

18:41

to this poison in our

18:43

heart. Yes, it is true

18:45

that the more we get, the more we want, but

18:48

the inverse is also true.

18:51

The more we give, the

18:54

more happy and at peace

18:56

and satisfied we become.

18:59

Now the word used by the biblical

19:01

authors for this inner

19:03

sense of happiness, gratitude,

19:06

joy, peace, satisfaction

19:11

is contentment. And

19:13

it has gotta be one of the most

19:16

underrated virtues in the world. If

19:19

greed is being unsatisfied and racked

19:21

by the desire for more, contentment

19:23

is the opposite. It's being deeply

19:25

happy with and grateful for what

19:27

you do or do not have,

19:29

and it's just being free of

19:32

the desire itself for

19:34

more. Now let's look again

19:36

here at 1 Timothy six, because this is one

19:38

of the hallmark passages in the New Testament on

19:41

contentment. There's quite a few. We'll

19:43

look at this one and then we'll end with another. I

19:45

wanna look at this to bring it all together, because

19:48

here Paul has not just an echo

19:50

of Jesus' warnings about wealth, but also

19:52

an alternative pathway to happiness.

19:55

And if you only hear one, this

19:57

is gonna sound like bad news to

19:59

you. particular as a modern American.

20:01

And you have to hold the two in

20:03

tension. Look at verse six again. He

20:06

writes, godliness, or we

20:08

could say spiritual maturity, with

20:11

contentment is great

20:13

gain. Meaning

20:15

true wealth, true riches

20:18

is not having a lot,

20:21

but being happy in God and

20:23

content with what you have. Just

20:26

chatting to another buddy of mine recently, one

20:29

of six kids grew up, not a lot of money.

20:31

And he said, you know, my dad was never rich.

20:34

He was never well off, but he used

20:36

to regularly look around at the family table

20:38

and say, I am a rich man. That's

20:41

it, that's true wealth. I am

20:43

a rich man. Four

20:45

verse seven, we brought nothing into the

20:47

world and we can take nothing out

20:50

of it. As the saying goes,

20:52

you can't take it with you. Or what's the

20:54

cheesy preacher analogy? I've never seen a Hearst carrying

20:56

a U-Haul trailer or whatever, it's true. I've not

20:59

actually seen that. All wealth

21:01

is temporary. Either you

21:03

will lose it all every penny

21:05

the day that you die or

21:08

you will lose all of it or some

21:11

of it long before that. But

21:13

verse eight, if we have food

21:15

and clothing, we will

21:17

be content with that. The

21:20

Greek word translated clothing literally means covering.

21:22

So the idea here is if you

21:24

have the basic necessities of life, food,

21:27

clothing, shelter, as

21:29

long as you have God and each

21:31

other, the community of God, we, if

21:33

you have our family of God and

21:35

life together, that's enough. Those

21:38

who want to get rich, verse

21:40

nine, or that can be translated

21:42

those who long to be rich

21:44

or those who set their hearts

21:47

on being wealthy, fall

21:49

into temptation that comes with all

21:51

a labyrinth of temptation and a

21:53

trap, all sorts of tripwires on

21:55

that path and into many foolish.

21:57

And harmful desires, right, the more

21:59

you get, the more desire just

22:01

explodes in your heart because the

22:03

world begins to open itself to

22:05

you and you want all of

22:07

these things that before were not

22:09

even on your radar. Foolish

22:12

and harmful desires that

22:15

plunge people into ruin

22:17

and destruction. I mean, this is strong

22:19

language. Four, the love

22:22

of money is a root of

22:24

all kinds of evil. This

22:27

line is often misquoted as, the love

22:29

of money is the root of all

22:31

evil. It's not, that's not what the

22:33

text says. The NIV's translation is excellent.

22:35

The love of money is a root

22:37

of all kinds of evil. Meaning

22:40

it is the evil underneath so many

22:42

of the evils in our soul and

22:45

our society. Money itself is not evil.

22:47

It can do great evil or it

22:49

can do great good. I

22:52

think of the power not only of

22:54

generosity, but of business to make the

22:56

world a better place or of

22:58

generosity and philanthropy. But

23:00

as we said last week, neither is money neutral.

23:04

It is powerful. Like

23:06

nuclear energy, it can bring life or

23:08

death and it is very hard to

23:10

steward well. We laugh

23:13

when we read Pity the Poor Millionaire,

23:15

but I know some extremely wealthy Christians

23:18

and if you can get them to open

23:20

up vulnerability and it's hard because they feel

23:22

embarrassed to say it, they talk about how

23:24

hard it is to steward that. Even

23:26

if they're trying to give almost all of

23:28

it away, it is hard to do. I

23:31

think of Frodo's like Ring and Tolkien's

23:33

classic. Only the purest

23:36

of heart stand a chance

23:38

at not being corrupted by

23:40

its power. And even then,

23:42

only if it's with friendship

23:45

and sacrifice and a

23:47

purpose far greater than yourself. My

23:50

point is money love is far

23:53

more dangerous than most

23:55

of us care to admit. Hence

23:58

the next line, verse 10. 10,

24:01

some people, not all people, not

24:03

all rich people, just some people, eager

24:06

for money, have wandered

24:09

from the faith and

24:11

pierced themselves with many griefs.

24:14

This is dramatic language. Can

24:16

be translated pierced themselves with

24:18

many pangs or

24:20

wounded themselves with many

24:22

sorrows or cause themselves

24:25

untold agonies of mine.

24:28

As I watch people gain wealth

24:31

in my pastoral kind of experience,

24:33

the warnings of Jesus are

24:35

incredibly pre-issued. Not

24:38

only does money not make people happy,

24:41

it often, not always, but it often

24:43

is the root of all kinds of

24:45

evil. Now, take a deep breath.

24:48

Gar is coming back soon. Funny

24:51

stories. Apparently, there was a fondue one I missed

24:53

a few weeks ago that

24:55

my wife said was horrible but funny. So

24:58

whatever, he's coming back, all right? Now,

25:01

this negative view of wealth is

25:04

really hard for us to believe in

25:06

our culture, where we are

25:09

indoctrinated from a young age in the

25:11

worship of mammon. I

25:13

remember one of the first kind of

25:15

wealthy Christians I became friends

25:17

with, very wealthy, made a ton

25:20

of money early on, and then spent most

25:22

of his time with the family foundation, giving

25:24

that money away to the kingdom of God.

25:26

And we sat down for dinner, and we're getting to know

25:29

each other. And he made a passing comment. He said, well,

25:31

you know, Jesus never really

25:33

says a single positive thing about

25:35

wealth. And

25:37

I was not a very wealthy person. And

25:39

I was like, wait, wait, what? It upset

25:42

me in my inner core, because I'm

25:44

still believing this is the pathway to

25:46

a happy life. But he's right. If

25:49

you just read through Jesus' teachings, you

25:51

are hard pressed to find him say

25:53

a lot of

25:55

positive things, if anything, about wealth.

25:58

Why is that? Is he not aware of the

26:00

past? power of philanthropy? Does he not know the

26:02

power of business for the common good? Does he

26:04

not know how our society is structured? I

26:07

think he's pretty aware. Is

26:09

it because he's anti-happiness or anti-pleasure?

26:12

No, it's because he's pro-happiness,

26:14

and ultimately, he's pro-love. The

26:17

stereotype of people becoming more narcissistic as

26:19

they gain wealth, and this is difficult

26:21

to say in public because there are

26:24

wealthy people, I'm sure, in this room,

26:26

but it is mostly true. Dr.

26:28

Paul Piff of the University of California

26:31

is a social psychologist who studies the

26:33

impact of wealth acquisition on human behavior.

26:35

You can watch his TED Talk, Does Money Make

26:37

You Mean? His answer, based

26:40

on lots of research, is, as

26:42

a general rule, yes. Quote,

26:44

what we've been finding is that

26:46

as a person's level of wealth

26:48

increases, their feelings of compassion and

26:51

empathy go down, and

26:53

their feelings of entitlement,

26:55

of deservingness, and their

26:57

ideology of self-interest increase.

27:00

The New Testament's negative view of wealth

27:03

seems to be because,

27:05

as a general rule, certain

27:07

ungodly attitudes and actions tend

27:10

to characterize rich people. We're

27:12

dealing in stereotypes here, but

27:15

statistical stereotypes. Attitudes

27:17

and actions such as

27:19

pride, entitlement, vanity, egotism,

27:21

indifference to the needy,

27:24

independence from God, and

27:26

more. Now, you can

27:29

be poor and still have all

27:31

of these negative characteristics in your life, and

27:34

you can be really rich and

27:37

have none of them. This

27:39

is not a surface level judgment or

27:41

shame moment. But

27:43

as a general rule,

27:46

wealth will turn your heart away

27:48

from other people. And

27:51

unless if you steward it according to Jesus'

27:53

wisdom, it will turn your heart away from

27:55

God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

27:58

in his commentary on Jesus warning on

28:00

wealth said quote, worldly possessions, and he

28:02

came from money by the way, worldly

28:05

possessions tend to turn the

28:07

hearts of disciples away

28:09

from Jesus. Again, you have

28:11

to use language like this, tends to

28:13

as a general rule statistically. But you

28:15

know statistics are like real,

28:18

just so you know they're a thing. So

28:21

what is Paul's solution to the

28:23

problem? Contentment, that's his call,

28:25

that's his invitation. It's not like

28:27

to become a medieval monk and

28:29

like whip yourself and sleep naked

28:31

on plywood in the cold, all

28:33

right? And you can do that. That's

28:36

actually our practice for this week, sleeping on plywood. OK,

28:39

no, not at all. It's contentment.

28:41

Randy Alcorn defines contentment, and he's

28:44

written really well on this subject.

28:46

Being satisfied in whose you are,

28:49

who you are, and then

28:52

what you have. Notice how

28:54

it's grounded for him. Those

28:56

who love and serve Jesus can be

28:58

truly content, he writes, those who love

29:00

and serve money can never be. To

29:03

be content is to realize you

29:05

have enough. Even more, it's

29:08

to be happy with what you have.

29:11

The Irish novelist, Niall Williams, in his book

29:13

This is Happiness, which came out recently, beautiful,

29:15

one of my favorite reads last year. He

29:18

has this character, Christie, who's this

29:20

poor kind of Irish peasant and

29:22

just gregarious character. He has little

29:24

to nothing. He's made a number

29:26

of career mistakes in his life.

29:29

And there's this moment where he's just sitting

29:31

around the table with this other family, just

29:33

farmer family, barely making it. And he's just

29:36

full of joy. And he looks at the

29:38

table, and he looks at the family, and

29:40

he just says this. This

29:42

is happiness. That's

29:45

contentment. Just in

29:48

God's beautiful world, with

29:51

a family of God, deeply grateful

29:53

for the gift of breath in

29:55

your lungs and happy

29:58

at your core. This

30:00

is happiness. It's a beautiful picture of

30:02

contentment. And godliness with

30:04

contentment, because you can be

30:07

content and not godly. You

30:09

can be just like a modern day stoat podcast kind

30:11

of person. I was watching

30:14

Ryan Holiday. He's written some wonderful stuff. And you

30:16

had this Instagram thing. He's like, my

30:18

book came out today. I made the New York

30:20

Times list. Working on the next one right now.

30:22

Onto the next thing. I'm like, bro, just open

30:24

a bottle of wine or something. Have

30:26

a moment. And

30:28

you can be content and not godly. And

30:30

you can be godly and not content. But

30:33

godliness with contentment, man, that's true wealth. In

30:36

a sermon on this passage, the fourth

30:38

century St. John Christophthom said, for not

30:41

to possess much, but to need little,

30:43

is to be rich indeed. Now,

30:46

here's my problem. You may relate to it. I

30:50

think, yeah, this sounds great. Contentment

30:52

sounds awesome. I'll be content,

30:54

Jesus, as soon as I get

30:57

this thing, or I finally buy a

30:59

house, or I upgrade my car, or

31:01

I get through this season

31:03

of life, or work, or whatever. Then

31:05

I'll be content. I want that. That

31:07

sounds great. But the

31:10

truth is, that's not how contentment

31:12

works. You won't feel any

31:14

different then than you feel now. And

31:17

you can be happy right

31:20

here and right now. How?

31:23

Well, again, no silver bullet. But if there

31:25

was, through the practice of

31:27

generosity. Now, this is very important.

31:30

There are two facets to this practice or

31:32

discipline of generosity that are kind of like

31:34

two sides of a coin. The

31:37

first is the most obvious one. It's

31:39

what we'll spend most of our time

31:41

on. We give our resources away, which

31:43

as we will work on next week,

31:45

aren't really our resources in the first

31:47

place but God's. So we freely share.

31:49

And the more we give away, the

31:51

less control money has over our heart,

31:53

the more free we become. The

31:56

other side of this coin of

31:58

generosity is to educate. simplify our

32:00

life, to edit it down to

32:02

the essentials of what really matters.

32:05

And both sides are crucial. The

32:07

Catholic intellectual G.K. Chesterton famously said, there are

32:10

two ways to get enough. One

32:12

is to accumulate more and more. The other

32:14

is to desire less. Put

32:17

another way, there are two ways to be

32:19

rich, earn more or want less. The second

32:21

option, though, is much cheaper. This

32:25

discipline pursuit of less

32:27

has come to be called simplicity

32:30

in the Christian tradition. It's also

32:32

called simple living. The monks called it frugality,

32:34

which used to actually be a positive word

32:36

related to the word fruit, but now it's

32:38

kind of a negative word, so we don't

32:40

use it anymore. In more

32:42

secular nomenclature, it's called minimalism. And

32:45

so much could be said about this discipline

32:48

of simplicity. First

32:51

off, simplicity is not the same thing as poverty. It's

32:53

not about having nothing. It's not a plywood bed or

32:55

what have you. Some of you are like, I'm a

32:57

new Christian. What are you talking about? There

32:59

are some weird Christians that came before us. All right.

33:02

There's actually a lot of weird Christians around us right now. You're

33:04

like, I'm listening to one right now. Yes, you are. It's

33:08

not about having nothing. It's about living with

33:10

less. It's not

33:12

like a Scandinavian kind of style decor

33:14

where you decorate your apartment like your

33:16

coffee shop or whatever. It's

33:18

not like just a Christianized version of tidying

33:21

up, though I love me some Marie Kondo.

33:24

It is all based on

33:26

Jesus' line, seek first

33:28

the kingdom of God. Richard

33:32

Foster in his really lovely

33:34

book, Freedom of Simplicity, defines

33:37

it as an inward reality

33:39

of single-hearted focus upon God

33:41

and his kingdom, which

33:43

results in, and this is where people go wrong,

33:46

when people say that money's all about the heart,

33:48

I simply say that to me this morning, Jesus

33:50

doesn't care about my lifestyle. I was like, bro,

33:52

I don't know what Jesus you're reading, but I

33:55

didn't say it. I thought it. I was like, wow,

33:58

you are really wrong. I

34:00

had a great conversation about some other things, which

34:05

results in an outward

34:08

lifestyle of modesty,

34:11

openness, and unpretentiousness, what

34:13

a great word, and

34:16

which disciplines our hunger

34:18

for status, glamor, and

34:21

luxury. The Christian

34:23

minimalist writer Joshua Becker defines it

34:25

as the intentional promotion of the

34:28

things we most value and the

34:30

removal of anything that distracts us

34:32

from them. I

34:35

would define it as limiting the number

34:37

of our possessions, expenses, activities.

34:39

I think we should throw in

34:41

apps on our phone, and

34:43

social obligations to a level where

34:46

we are free to live joyfully

34:48

and generously in the kingdom with

34:50

Jesus. It's flipping the

34:52

question from what else can I get, to

34:55

I wonder what I could live without. And

34:58

again, this question only makes sense

35:00

inside a worldview like that of

35:03

Jesus, where, quote, there is more

35:05

joy in giving than in receiving,

35:07

and where, as we just read,

35:09

life does not consist in an

35:11

abundance of possessions. At

35:14

some point in this practice, and we'll get into

35:16

this a bit in the week, next week and

35:18

the week after, you have to ask yourself the

35:20

question, how much do I

35:22

give? But the reality

35:24

is most people, at least

35:26

in our country, have so

35:29

little margin in their life, they

35:32

can't, in their current

35:34

circumstances, give much, if anything,

35:36

at all. To

35:39

live a generous life, you need margin

35:41

in your finances. You need a budget

35:43

with room in it to share. You

35:45

need margin in your schedule with room

35:48

for interruptions and people to welcome to

35:50

your table. You need margin in your

35:52

physical and emotional life for Sabbath and

35:55

rest. So you have some emotional energy

35:57

to actually give yourself to the world.

36:00

But most of us live far

36:02

over our capacity, not under it.

36:05

And nowhere is this more true than in our finances.

36:08

The general rule, and again, this is all

36:10

so tricky to talk about, so please just

36:12

go easy on me. But the

36:14

general rule for followers of Jesus is that

36:17

people should look at how we spend our

36:19

money, should look at

36:21

the car we drive, clothes

36:23

we wear, where we live, how often we

36:25

eat out, where we eat out, whatever, somebody

36:27

were to kind of know you pretty well.

36:30

And they should then assume that

36:33

we make less money than we

36:35

actually do. Like

36:37

if they had to guess, I think this

36:39

person makes about this, the

36:42

idea would be that their guess would be pretty

36:44

off, that we would make more than

36:46

they think. That's where it gets

36:48

really tricky, not remotely for the performative

36:50

spirituality. That's why when I come to

36:53

church, I like put on

36:55

all my not nice clothes when I come. Or

36:58

whatever, no. Not

37:01

to look a certain way, meaning

37:04

our lifestyle should be such that

37:07

wherever we are on this really wide,

37:09

in particular in a city like LA

37:11

socioeconomic spectrum, and I'm so aware of

37:13

that breath, even in this room and

37:15

in this moment right now, wherever we

37:18

are, we should be people who

37:20

live, at least once we have the basic necessities

37:22

of life, food,

37:24

clothing, shelter. We

37:26

should live below the line. Now

37:29

this of course is exactly the

37:31

opposite of our culture. If

37:34

you imagine a line for your income, most

37:36

people live at, right at

37:38

the line or over the line in debt, right?

37:41

Our desire is to live under it. Over

37:44

the line is anxiety and

37:46

misery, unsatisfied desire, all

37:50

sorts of temptation and a trap which

37:52

plunge people into ruin and destruction. Under

37:56

that line is contentment,

37:58

gratitude, generosity. Joy,

38:00

we still think the best life is

38:02

found on the other side. It's not.

38:05

This is the opposite, of course, of so

38:07

much of our culture. Here in LA

38:10

and Southern California in general, and

38:12

I think I can say this in love, that I've been here for about

38:14

a year now, people are so

38:18

image obsessed. We all know that's

38:20

the stereotype. And guess what? So

38:22

stereotypes are statistically accurate. That people

38:24

are so image obsessed

38:27

that it is normal here for

38:30

people to drive luxury cars, live

38:33

in huge homes and nice neighborhoods,

38:35

belong to country clubs, and be

38:37

living paycheck to paycheck. The

38:40

way of Jesus is the exact opposite.

38:44

And this sounds really nice, but

38:47

what it translates into is

38:49

we have to regularly discipline ourselves to

38:51

not buy things that we can afford.

38:54

Now, this is going to look different for every one

38:57

of us. And again, this is so tricky to talk

38:59

about. But for me, it means things like I work

39:01

out at home, not at a gym. It

39:03

means we don't eat out very often as a

39:05

family. It means we drive used

39:07

cars and don't have a car payment, never have.

39:10

Nothing radical and embarrassing to even say

39:12

that, because some of you would kill

39:14

for whatever. But

39:17

it's not how most people in our

39:20

income bracket would live. And

39:22

there are times when it's hard to not

39:24

spend money that we have in

39:27

order to live simply and generously. But

39:29

what I find is that if I

39:31

just stay with that light pane of

39:33

unsatisfied desire, eventually,

39:35

kind of like beautiful

39:37

marine layer, it will just kind of

39:40

burn off unless if it's June. And then

39:42

it's just there for a while. So

39:45

like right now, this is all so embarrassing to talk

39:47

about this stuff, but like I really

39:49

want a motorcycle. We

39:53

live up in the mountains and some

39:55

of the best motorcycle roads in the

39:57

country. And I used to ride. and

40:00

I stop because I have children and I shouldn't

40:02

quite die yet. And no,

40:05

that's why I stopped. And so, and it's

40:08

not too much money, but I want one

40:10

so bad. I just

40:12

wanna, just a used BMW scrambler

40:14

with the extra

40:17

tires and the cafe racer handlebars,

40:20

just like a couple modifications that would be

40:22

a little bit more, just that. That's enough,

40:24

I'm content. And I want it so bad.

40:27

And, but I know I

40:30

shouldn't get one yet. I'm way too busy. Other

40:32

things happening in my life right now. And my

40:34

children need about three more years and then I'm

40:37

dieable, all right? But

40:39

until then, this is not the right time.

40:41

But I know that if I

40:43

just sit with that desire, and it's like

40:45

such a, this is so embarrassing. It's such

40:47

a light pain. But if

40:49

I just sit with that desire and

40:52

I use that money for something else that's

40:56

more meaningful in the kingdom of God,

40:58

I know that that desire will go away until

41:01

one passes me on the road and then it comes right back.

41:04

And then I just sit with it for a little

41:06

bit longer. But my point is, it takes commitment

41:09

to live a simple life. And it's hard

41:11

to do in a place like LA. And

41:15

you know, I think what

41:17

you're picking up, if you seem kind of anxious,

41:19

this is really hard to talk about in

41:22

a group where there is a wide

41:24

socioeconomic range. I'm so aware

41:27

that some of you here don't have

41:29

money to buy groceries this week.

41:32

And others of you here just sold your company for

41:34

$300 million. And

41:37

we are so happy that all

41:39

of you are here. And

41:42

please don't read into this some kind

41:44

of political polemic or agenda. I'm

41:47

coming to you as a fellow follower

41:49

of Jesus. But what happens

41:51

is, I think pastors are so reluctant

41:53

to ever touch on this stuff. Because

41:56

lifestyle is very outward, it's easy to

41:58

judge. It's easy to feel shame. We

42:01

often don't have context for people. Why

42:03

are you living in that neighborhood? And

42:06

it's like really prone to abuse

42:08

from ourselves or from others. So

42:11

what people like myself do is they just

42:13

don't talk about it at all, or they

42:15

talk about it in vague generalities. And

42:18

you know what happens? We never think

42:20

critically. We never self-reflect, and we

42:23

unconsciously adopt the spending habits of our class

42:25

and our culture. We just live like our

42:27

neighbors. And whatever our line is,

42:29

we live as close to that line as we can. And

42:34

I just want to say that's not doing any of us

42:36

a service. So please interpret what

42:38

I'm saying graciously. I'm sure I'm stepping on toes

42:40

right or left. My point is I just

42:42

want to clarify, understanding that many people

42:45

in this room are struggling

42:47

to make ends meet. You do

42:49

understand that this neighborhood's one of the wealthiest neighborhoods

42:51

in the country, surrounded

42:55

by some of the other wealthiest neighborhoods

42:57

in the country, that

42:59

the poverty line in this city is

43:02

significantly over upper middle class in

43:04

most of America and

43:06

way over most of the world. And

43:08

that is I have no shame that I'm trying

43:10

to carry into your heart with that statement. It's

43:13

reality that I'm trying to just lovingly

43:15

set before you. We

43:18

do not have to live how all the people

43:20

around us live, even if we can.

43:23

You do not have to live like your neighbors. You

43:26

do not have to keep up with the Joneses.

43:28

You do not need to get that promotion, we

43:30

have to work another 20 hours a week, to

43:32

be happy. You do not

43:34

need external markers of success to live

43:36

joyfully and freely in the kingdom of

43:39

God. You do not have to

43:41

keep all of your money for yourself. You

43:43

do not have to chase more and

43:46

more and more and more and never

43:48

feel satisfied. You

43:50

can be free of all

43:53

of that, but it

43:55

will cost you, literally,

43:58

and you will have to live. of

46:00

us. So that said, as

46:02

we look at the week ahead, what we

46:04

want to do is take Jesus teachings and

46:06

put them into practice. And again, to sound

46:08

like a record on repeat, hearing this teaching

46:10

will do very little, if anything, to change

46:12

you. If you want to get

46:14

free, you can't just like read a beautiful passage

46:16

about contentment and try to be more content this

46:18

week. That's not going

46:20

to work or it's highly unlikely that it

46:22

will have any effect on you. You have

46:25

to take this and you have to do

46:27

something with your body. You have to get

46:29

it into, you have to open

46:31

up the muscle memory of your life to

46:34

the Spirit and the truth of God. Jesus

46:36

said, sell your possessions and give to

46:38

the poor. Now in context, that can

46:40

sound dramatic. He doesn't seem to

46:43

be saying that you need to go sell

46:45

everything. He's saying, be the

46:47

kinds of people, it's what his disciples

46:49

are like, be the kinds of people

46:51

who regularly simplify their lives by selling

46:54

their possessions and

46:56

giving that money away to the poor.

46:58

So our plan for this coming week

47:00

is to do exactly that. Our exercise

47:02

is simply to identify something you own

47:04

that you do not need and either

47:06

give it away or sell

47:08

it and give the money to someone

47:10

in need. Very simple. We

47:12

are not asking you to

47:15

sell everything just to sell

47:17

something. Maybe it's a record

47:19

collection that's collecting dust that you put up

47:21

on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace

47:23

or a surfboard or a bike you

47:25

don't really ride any much or far

47:27

too many pairs of shoes or jackets.

47:29

Just to clarify, you live in LA,

47:31

you know how many jackets you need?

47:33

Yeah, you know how many jackets you

47:35

need. Or maybe there's an item

47:38

you love and you use it all the

47:40

time. But as you pray, just

47:42

for some reason, you just feel a gentle

47:44

pull in your heart from the Spirit to

47:46

give it away. Maybe a person comes to

47:48

mind, it may have something to do with

47:50

them, it may have something to do with

47:52

you. Who knows? Just one

47:55

of the things you learn following Jesus is never

47:57

quelch that inner voice. Listen

47:59

to that story. stirring of the Spirit of

48:01

God will always lead you toward greater joy

48:03

and freedom. Our reach exercise

48:05

for this week is to simplify. And this is

48:07

just for any of you that wanna do even

48:09

more than that, you don't need to at all.

48:11

This is all invitational. And

48:13

it's basically to pick an area of your life.

48:15

It could be your closet or your bedroom or

48:17

your living room. I would avoid the garage if

48:20

you have one, that's just too much. Go

48:23

through it thoughtfully and peacefully and

48:26

declutter it of every extra thing. And you can

48:28

give that extra stuff with a

48:30

way to the poor, with the Salvation Army or local ministry like that.

48:33

Or give directly to someone you

48:35

know in need. To

48:37

simplify your life is a multi-month

48:39

process that involves a lot of

48:41

inner work as well as just

48:43

practical outer work and cleaning out

48:45

closets and such. It can have a dramatic

48:47

effect on your discipleship. It's outside the parameters

48:49

of this practice. So I will just kinda set

48:52

that with you for you to think about.

48:54

And there's a QR code in your

48:56

guide that I think will email out

48:58

as well that has a guide we

49:00

created for kind of a pathway to

49:02

simplifying your life. But again, this is

49:04

all invitational. To

49:07

end, one of the most

49:09

beautiful verses in all of the New Testament

49:11

on contentment is Hebrews 13. Just

49:13

look at this with me as we wind down.

49:16

Keep your lives free

49:20

from the love of money and

49:23

be content with

49:25

what you'll have. Keep

49:28

your heart free. You

49:30

know when people speak of financial freedom today,

49:32

what do they mean? Normally

49:35

they mean you make so much money earlier

49:38

than normal that you don't have to work a

49:40

job for the rest of your days. And

49:43

that's great, but you can make so much money

49:46

that you never need to work again and be

49:48

anything but free. You

49:50

can be enslaved by fear

49:53

and greed. True financial

49:55

freedom is not X number of dollars

49:57

in the bank, it's

49:59

what Richard. Foster called a

50:02

joyful unconcerned possessions. Wherever

50:04

you are on the economic spectrum, whatever you

50:06

have, however much God has put into your

50:09

life to steward and you have worked hard

50:11

for, whatever it is, it's

50:13

just a joyful unconcerned.

50:15

Like, yeah? OK. A

50:18

detachment, a healthy sense of

50:21

detachment. That's what you

50:23

see in the life of Jesus, and that is

50:25

the goal. Not riches and not poverty, but

50:28

freedom and generosity. And

50:31

that is only possible in God because,

50:33

what does Hebrew say next? Because

50:36

God has said, never will I

50:38

leave you, never

50:41

will I forsake you. Did you see that? Did

50:43

you see that logical next step? Ultimately,

50:46

what we are searching for in money,

50:48

and it sounds trite, but it can

50:51

only be found in God. And

50:54

I don't mean to spiritualize real

50:56

problems of injustice and socioeconomic challenge

50:58

and generational poverty. I'm not trying

51:00

to at all erase any of

51:03

that. But often

51:05

what we are searching for in money, whether

51:07

it is peace or happiness or identity or

51:09

safety and security or a sense of respect

51:12

or our dad thinking we finally made it

51:14

or whatever it is, we

51:16

think if we can just get a

51:18

little bit more, then we'll be content.

51:22

But what we are searching for in money

51:24

can only be found in God. And the

51:26

good news, the gospel of

51:28

Jesus is that

51:31

Jesus has made everything we

51:33

need to live a happy,

51:35

peaceful, beautiful life

51:38

in God available for

51:40

free, opening through

51:42

the generosity of his own life, breaking

51:45

the bread of his body, pouring out

51:47

the wine of his blood to give

51:49

you and I access to life in

51:52

the kingdom with the Father and the

51:54

Son and the Holy Spirit. We

51:57

can live in the kingdom of God with

51:59

Jesus. whether we are

52:01

rich or poor or solidly

52:03

in between, whatever trajectory

52:05

our life is on right here,

52:08

right now, we can

52:10

be happy in God. Let's

52:13

stand together and pray. I

52:22

really appreciated the way John Mark kind of

52:24

landed us with some really practical

52:26

ways to begin pushing back

52:29

against greed and consumerism

52:31

in our time. And

52:33

so I thought it would be great before

52:36

we finish and go off into our days

52:38

to actually take a moment to ask God

52:40

to help us practically

52:42

step into this in our

52:44

day to day. So

52:46

I'm going to leave about a minute space

52:48

here to just reflect on

52:50

two questions and I'll prompt each and leave silence

52:52

after them, but the first one is this,

52:56

what is one thing I can

52:58

sell or give away this week

53:01

as an act of generosity and

53:03

contentment? And

53:05

the second question is

53:08

what is one other day to day practice

53:10

or limitation I can begin to help

53:12

me live in that way too? So

53:15

we're going to take one minute here, I'll

53:19

prompt you with a question and you

53:22

can be in that space with God and

53:24

then I'll close with Amen. So

53:27

as always take a few deep breaths,

53:32

slowly becoming

53:35

aware of God's presence, allowing

53:42

him to fill your being with

53:44

love and peace and

53:52

that prayerful space, just

53:54

ask him to bring

53:56

to mind one thing that you can sell

53:58

or give away this this week in

54:02

an act of generosity and containment. And

54:35

then staying in that prayerful posture, ask

54:40

God to bring to mind one other

54:42

day-to-day limitation or practice, you

54:44

can begin to help live more simply, generously

54:48

and content. I

55:00

mean... This

55:34

podcast is from Practicing the Way. We

55:37

develop resources to help churches and small

55:39

groups apprentice in the way of Jesus.

55:42

And all we make is completely free because

55:44

it's already been paid for by The Circle,

55:47

a community of monthly givers who partner

55:49

with us to see spiritual formation integrated

55:52

into the church at large. Special

55:55

thanks for today's episode goes to

55:57

Kyle from Fountain Valley, California, Ian

55:59

F from Melbourne, Florida, Clay from

56:02

Randleman, North Carolina, Ellen

56:04

from Sacramento, California, and

56:06

Karen from Chicago, Illinois. Thank

56:09

you all very much. To

56:12

join the circle or to learn

56:14

more about running a practice in

56:16

your church or community, visit practicingtheway.org.

56:19

Until next time, may the grace of

56:21

the Lord Jesus Christ and the

56:23

love of God and the fellowship of

56:25

the Holy Spirit be with

56:27

you all.