Satisfried.
Hi, My name is Rick and I’m addicted to money.
[This is where you say, “Hi Rick” thus acknowledging that you are part of the same American consumer culture that I am.]
We live in a world that is designed by people who want you and me to spend money in the vain attempt to find satisfaction. They do their very best to convince me that my only hope for validation as a person, vindication for existence, and for ultimate satisfaction in life is to make sure that I have the right stuff, take the right vacations, drive the right vehicles, and live in the right house on the right side of town. According to all of these people who surround me with their messages of hope my satisfaction in life depends on how much I have and how well I spend my money.
Recently Burger King has advanced this goal another step by introducing a new product – Satisfries!
With 40% less fat and 30% less calories than McDonalds fries, Burger King is enticing me to believe and to buy their new fries. According to the BK people if I eat their new fries my weight will drop, my skin will clear up, my driving abilities will be enhanced, my marriage will sparkle, I’ll preach better sermons and I will be satisfried!
NOT… It is all an empty promise… Just like all the other advertising, consumer oriented deceptions that you and I are bombarded with every day and all day long.
Most of these promises are focused, in one way or another, on money. Burger King has cooked crinkle cut potatoes in hot fat that they want to sell to us for money. GM has engineered and built a people moving machine called a Cadillac so they can sell it to you for money. Walmart, Meijers, Best Buy, and Kohl’s have built huge cathedrals of merchandise to get you to come and spend money to get things which they do their very best to convince you that you need and will satisfy you.
This is a powerful promise. It is powerful because in the end, after our lives have been completed, more than anything else we all want to be satisfied. All of us have a deep desire to know that our lives have been purposeful and meaningful. We want to know that, even though there have been tough times and hard work, it has been worth it all. We want to know that as we look towards eternity that we have done well with what we have been given.
At the end of the day we want to be satisfied and most of have been convinced that somehow money is the answer.
Today I will expose three lies that sound true and three truths that sound false. The three lies are about money. Two of the truths are about God. The last truth is about you.
Are you ready? Here we go…
Lie #1: Money Satisfies
The idea that money can satisfy your soul and bring you comfort to your heart is a lie that sounds true. On top of that lie is another… If you aren’t comfortable and satisfied in life then you just need more money.
Solomon, who just happened to be one of the wealthiest men in all of history – including modern times – has something to say from a position of knowledge about this lie. Here is the word of Solomon concerning money:
10 He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?
Ecc 5:10-11
Solomon calls it vanity. The Hebrew word literally means “breath.” Breath is something that has no definite substance and is elusive. It’s here… and then it’s gone.
It’s a little like what happens when you toss boiling water into the air on a “below zero” day. Have you seen this done? The pan of boiling liquid is flies up and then… poof… it’s gone in cloud of cold vapor.
The love of money doesn’t satisfy your soul because money has a way of simply going poof and disappearing. Money simply doesn’t have the ability to sustain your soul.
In fact, according to Solomon, when you have money two things happen. First, your expenses increase and second, so do the number of people who come to eat from your table.
When goods increase those who consume them increase as well and you get to watch your stuff get eaten up by others.
In the end having a lot of money just makes you want to make more. It’s like drinking saltwater. It doesn’t quench your thirst. It just makes the craving stonger.
You will never, ever, ever, have enough stuff to make you happy and satisfied.
In 1996, the Chicago Tribune ran a story on Buddy Post, a lottery winner who is “living proof that money can’t buy happiness.” In 1988, he won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery.
Since then, businesses he set up with siblings failed, he has been convicted “of assault, his sixth wife left him, his brother was convicted of trying to kill him, the mansion he bought lies in ruins, and his landlady successfully sued him for one-third of the jackpot.”
In 1996 (8 years later) Post had to auction off seventeen future payments, valued at nearly $5 million, to pay off taxes, legal fees, and a number of failed business ventures.
Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999), 169-170.
The garage owner who now lets Buddy sleep in an outbuilding in return for odd jobs observed that, "Winning the lottery is like sprinkling Miracle Gro on all your character defects."
http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2010/jul/03/lucky-lottery-winners
There is another lie…
Lie #2: It’s My Money
Have you ever heard anyone say, “It’s My Money and I can do what I want with it?” Or maybe you’ve heard someone say, “You say it doesn’t satisfy… Well it’s my money and I’m going to try!” Maybe you’ve said this… or at least thought it. I know I have.
Well, that’s another lie. It’s not your money. It never was and never will be. Everything you possess belongs to the creator. It all belongs to God. If you believe that it is your money you are believing a lie.
The truth of this is seen in the final disposition of all things. Someday you will leave this world and all that you possess in it will be left to someone else.
Jesus made this point when he told a parable about a certain rich man.
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
Luke 12:16-20
The pyramids, before they were stripped by grave robbers, were filled with gold, jewels, boats, and baskets of grain. Even servants were killed so they could accompany the pharaoh to other side of death along with all of their treasures.
But the pyramids are not gateways that allowed these ancient rich rulers to take their stuff to another life after this one. They are tombs for ambitious men who wanted to take it with them… but couldn’t.
It is no different today. There are no U-haul trailers hitched to the back of funeral hearses. There are no bank branches in heaven.
But this leads us to the third lie.
Lie #3: Money is Proof of Success
21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Job 1:21
We came into this world naked and with nothing. We shall all leave exactly the same way. No exceptions. Period. End of sentence.
Yet, money has everything to do with God and life.
Money describes and defines our relationship with God because money is a measurement of life. Money is a test; a trial and a proof that reveals truth and character.
Having money does is NOT a proof of success in life. How we use money IS proof of success… or failure.
Money is important because money is a way we measure, transfer, and use life – ours and others. Let me say it again another way. Money is the commodity with which we buy, sell, trade, save, invest, gamble, and spend life.
We work to get it. We exchange our knowledge, time, and skill (life) to gain money and then we spend it to get things from others.
This leads us to two truths about God.
Truth #1: God is the Source
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth...
Deuteronomy 8:17-18
God is the source of your money and of your life.
It’s not your money because it’s not your life. It all belongs to God. God is the one who determines your income and who creates the wealth. It does not come from you.
Are you an artist? Your creativity comes from God. Are you skilled with numbers and logic? Do you have the ability to write computer code? It comes from God. Are you able to lead others and organize them to accomplish great tasks? It comes from God. Are you a teacher? It comes from God. Are you mechanically inclined? Can you take an engine apart, put it back together, and then get it to run? That skill and knack for taking things apart comes from God.
Your life and the money you gain with your skills, knowledge, and time, come from God. Even the timing of events that allow you to be in the right place at the right time to make a bundle of money selling stuff to others is within God’s sovereignty.
When it comes to life there is no such thing as luck or fate. That’s not to say that we are without freewill. God has given us the freedom to make our own decisions and he allows the consequences of those decisions to happen according the laws of the universe he created.
That means that the winner of the Superbowl is not going to be chosen by God. Each of the teams will be exercise their own freewill, using their talents and skills to complete their plays and one team will do better than another.
That God allows us to do what we will does not mean that God is not sovereign. God is creator and he is over all things. Ultimately everything comes from HIM. If that is true… and it is… then…
Truth #2: God Determines Your Wealth
12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
1 Chronicles 29:12
It is hubris to think that you have gained great wealth because you are somehow better, smarter, faster, quicker, or more gifted than the other guy.
The fact is that God gives some people great wealth (BTW if you live in America even the poor are wealthy) and some have very little – but this has nothing to do with having a rich, full and satisfying life.
God has given us what we need to live rich, full, and satisfied lives no matter how much or how little we possess. It all comes from God – including our success – when we look to God for the answers.
Consider the great king named Nebuchadnezzar who lived in Babylon many years ago…
Narrative of Nebuchadnezzar’s life – [Dim light on Rick and light up stage over baptistery where Chuck is staged as a modern day (we don’t need costumes) Nebuchadnezzar]
This leads to a final and incredibly powerful truth. This is the greatest truth of ALL. Are you ready? It’s not what you expect.
Truth #3: Giving is the Only Way to a Satisfied Life
You can’t spend your way to a satisfied life
You can’t work your way to a satisfied life.
You can’t save your way to a satisfied life.
You can’t borrow your way to a satisfied life
You can’t cheat, steal, beg or gamble your way to a satisfied life.
The only way to find that satisfied life you are looking for and longing to experience is to give your life away.
Paul says it this way:
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:7-8
Don’t believe the lies.
Money is not the answer.
Money is the test.
It’s the tool to build a satisfied life by using it according to God’s good purposes. God want you to learn to be a giver. Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Giving Steps
Give Your Life to Jesus
Watch for the Lies in our Consumer Culture
Enroll in the Samaritan Program Study Group
Pray and Prepare for the Generosity Offering
