The Lure and Deception of Materialism

“I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.”   Acts 20:33

I have been chasing materialism my entire life.  There is no hiding it, especially from my wife.  I love stuff and more stuff because it makes me feel better; special, happy, important, significant in other’s eyes, powerful, sexy, handsome, healthy, slimmer, etc.  I have succumbed to the lure and deception of materialism and replaced my spiritual identity with stuff.  I have worshipped that 1963 Jaguar MK II right hand drive in British racing green with a beautiful walnut dash over the one who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  Matthew 20: 28

God owns everything

I remember how hurt I was when the homeless couple that was living in our cabin left with my father’s 12 gauge Browning shotgun.  It was the only thing I had left from my father who had been dead for 53 years.  It hurt not because of what it cost but by what it represented. 

John Wesley acted quite differently when he received the news that fire had destroyed his house.  He simply said, “The Lord’s house burned down.  One less responsibility for me.”  Wesley, totally unattached from things or property!  And as Charles Spurgeon once said, “ I probably will not see John Wesley in heaven because he will be so close to the Throne of Grace and I will be so far away.”

The Roots and Fruits of Materialism

Compartmentalization – a defense mechanism in which people mentally separate conflicting thoughts, emotions, or experiences to avoid the discomfort of contradiction

I am often amazed and confused at how we humans have the ability to compartmentalize the sin we love, especially materialism and the love of money from the Truth that Jesus spoke.  And he made some incredibly outrageous statements concerning riches and money.  Just to name a few:

• Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth…….Matthew 6: 1

• Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions …………Luke 12: 15

• …..Fool!  This night your soul is required of you …….. so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God……….Luke 12: 20-21

• Sell your possessions, and give to the needy……For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also……….Luke 12: 33-34

• So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple………Luke 14: 33

• No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money……….. Luke 16: 13

• …. We must help the weak (poor) and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”…… Acts 20: 35

• The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field………. Matthew 13: 44

• Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it…………Matthew 13: 45-46

• How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!!!!!!!!! Mark 10:23

• For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, allshe had to live on………Mark 12: 44

But, please tell me, who do you know who lives like this?  Anyone even close?  Ok, I know one brother who served in Thailand for over 50 years and I read about George Mueller and Hudson Taylor but that’s about it.  So wouldn’t it make sense for anyone to separate this lifestyle from reality.  I mean, Jesus could not be speaking of humans in these passages because humans could not possibly live like this!  And I believe that’s what we do every day of our lives.  We are removed and protected from real poverty and suffering both physically and mentally and program our minds not to dwell on it.  It’s depressing!  It’s pitiful and smelly and inconvenient.  And after all, what can I do?  It’s too big and overwhelming.  I cannot make a difference.

Justification makes me feel better………………

But just because we compartmentalize our thoughts from reality, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  We still live in great wealth with people who look like us, smell like us, talk like us and act like us.  We try not to think about why we live like only one half of one half of one half of one half of one percent of the world’s population!  Especially right after we purchased that new $70,000 SUV or added that $150,000 room to the house or returned from that $30,000 vacation on the Colorado river.  We refuse to think about it because we know we can never justify spending this money.  Not before a God who lives like this:

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”                                                                                                                                   Matthew 8: 20

How do we justify the renovation of a $50,000 kitchen in our mansion after experiencing (touch, smell, sight, hearing, tasting) the poverty of a poor tribe outside of Yangon?  What would this $50,000 do for this tribe for the next 30 years?  Life changing!  As Jesus followers, we commit these acts of selfish materialism by “compartmentalizing” our experiences and separating them into different realities.   

There is the “Mission Field” reality and then there is the “USA country club” reality or our local community reality or our local church reality or our local neighborhood reality.

I always get a laugh from folks who insist on vetting every penny that goes to the mission field including medical service to the poor but have never vetted their need for that $19,000 Viking 6 Burner Gas Stove  and  double ovens surrounded by $35,000 of cabinets in a 500 square foot state of the art kitchen.  They compartmentalize their wants of luxury from the needs of the poor and they do it often without recognizing it.  I have never seen a $17,000 Sub-Zero Refrigerator give God any glory but I have witnessed a $600 worn out plow prepare a rice field for planting to feed hundreds of poor Burmese.  To the Glory of God, I might add!!

Where are we placing our priorities in this life?  Why are we lured and seduced by perishable stuff while ignoring the real needs of the poor?  Why do we ignore the poor and compartmentalize their needs from our wants?  Paul and Jesus refused when they said in Acts 20:35,

“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak (poor) and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

But how do we give?  I answer that question with a question.  What do you value the most?  Cash or your time?  That normally comes down to what you have the least of.  My experience is that most people will value cash more than anything because they fear being poor and money is their security.  So they will talk and do a few works but giving cash sacrificially until it hurts is not on the agenda.  Digging into that 401k or savings account is too scary and is not being a good steward.  Cash is my security and my savior and will prevent my suffering.  The Macedonian giver is rare!  So what’s the answer?

How do We Defeat Materialism?

• Create an Inventory of Needs vs. Wants; prioritize wants with a value of 1 -10

• Any want below 5, eliminate it from your life by not buying or selling or donating it; give the savings to the Kingdom

• Measure and analyze the Value of the remaining Wants for the Kingdom of God

• Be Honest before God with your love of money and materialism; don’t justify

• Don’t conform to your neighborhood or this world but be transformed in your sacrificial giving for the Glory of God

So there’s your challenge.  Dare to be different from your friends and your church and your neighbors and your co-workers and more like the one “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…………”  Philippians 2: 6-7

This servant valued people more than posessions or status.  Our Lord was born in a borrowed crib in a borrowed stable and was buried in a borrowed tomb. 

Those were choices made by Jesus, the God-Man. 

How do you choose to live?