Some time ago, in the Reader’s Digest¸ Bob Newhart talked about his days as an accountant in downtown Chicago, when he went by his given name, “George.” He was a basic 9-to-5 bookkeeper, whose duties included managing the petty cash. Salesmen would come in from the road and turn in their receipts. George would give them cash and put the receipts in the petty-cash drawer. At the end of the day, he'd have to reconcile what was in the drawer with the receipts. It was always close, but it never balanced. At five o'clock, when everybody else was leaving the office, George would be tearing his hair out because petty cash was short by $1.48. Around 8 p.m., he'd find the discrepancy.
George followed this routine for a couple weeks. Finally, one day, he pulled the amount he was short from his pocket – $1.67 – put it in the drawer, and called it a day. Not long after, the petty cash drawer was over by $2.11. So he took $2.11 out of petty cash and pocketed that. Bob Newhart says, “I was hardly stealing. Inevitably, in the next couple of days, I would be under, and back the money would go.”
After several weeks of this, Mr. Hutchinson, head of accounting, discovered Bob Newhart’s shortcut to balancing petty cash. Using Bob’s given name, he said, “George, these are not sound accounting principles.”
George replied, “You know, Mr. Hutchinson, I just don't think I'm cut out for accounting. Why would you pay me $6 an hour to spend four hours finding $1.40?” (Bob Newhart, “Finding My Funny Bone,” Reader's Digest, September 2006, p. 93-94)
That’s a great question maybe not so much in the accounting office as it is in life. Is what I am pursuing worth the price? Or am I paying way too much for what I’m really getting out of life? Tell me: What are you pursuing, and is it worth the cost?
There was once a man who lived the difficult life of a nomad. He lived in a tent in the desert and pursued a God-given dream with his uncle that would produce huge benefits, but not in their lifetimes. Their descendants, generations later, would realize those benefits, but this man and his uncle would probably live out their days in the desert.
Then one day, this man decided it wasn’t worth it. Pursuing a dream for his descendants was not worth living in the desert, so he decided to pursue a different dream – something with more immediate results. He decided to move to the city where he could enjoy all of its pleasures, find a comfortable house, and become a respected citizen. He wanted to become a man of the world, but there was a cost. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 19, Genesis 19, where we see what it cost this man to pursue more immediate, earthly pleasures.
Genesis 19:1-3 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. (ESV)
Lot had arrived. He had achieved his dream. He had a house in the city, and he was sitting in the city gate. That meant he was a leader in the city, because that’s where the leaders sat. They sat in the gateway of the city to conduct business and to settle disputes. Lot was no longer a nameless nomad living in the obscurity of the desert. He now had a comfortable home, and people in the city looked to him for guidance.
Lot had arrived, but what did it cost him? The Lord was not there. Only the two angels came to visit Lot, and they didn’t even want to go to his home. The Lord Himself was lingering with Abraham, but Lot had to practically force the angels to come home with him. Then he served them a quick meal. He “baked unleavened bread,” vs.3 says. In other words, he didn’t even take the time to let the bread dough rise.
In the previous chapter, Abraham prepared and kneaded 20 quarts of flour for bread, roasted a tender calf, brought milk and cheese out for these same guests, and lingered near while they ate. Lot just threw a little bit of flour and oil in a pan, fried it for a couple of minutes and called it good.
Lot had gained the world, to be sure, but he lost any real intimacy with the Lord. He had no time for close communion with his heavenly visitors. My dear friends, please don’t do what Lot did. Please…
DON’T PURSUE THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD AND LOSE YOUR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
Don’t give up your intimacy with the Lord by going after wealth or fame or comfort. Don’t move away from God by chasing after the pleasures of this world.
1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It’s not that God stops loving us; we just stop loving Him. You see, we cannot love money and God at the same time.
At the great market in Mexico City, an old native named Pota-lamo had twenty strings of onions hanging for sale. An American tourist asked him, “How much for a string of onions?”
“Ten cents,” said Pota-lamo.
“How much for two strings?”
“Twenty cents.”
“How much for all twenty strings?” asked the American.
“I would not sell you my twenty strings,” replied Pota-lamo.
“Why not? Aren't you here to sell your onions?”
“No,” replied the old merchant. “I am here to live my life. I love this marketplace. I love the crowds and the red serapes. I love the sunlight and the wavering palmettos. I love to have friends come by and say buenos dias and talk about the babies and the crops. That is my life. For that I sit here all day and sell my twenty strings of onions. But if I sell all my onions to one customer, then my day is ended. I have lost the life I love—and that I will not do.” (Mark Moody, “In Search of Renewal,” Strategic Adult Ministry Journal, Issue 139)
What are YOU here for, to live your life or to sell your onions? Those who pursue this world’s wealth lose the life they love. They lose time with friends; but most tragically, they lose time with God. So please don’t do it! Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fellowship with God. More than that…
DON’T PURSUE THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD AND LOSE YOUR FOLLOWING.
Don’t give up any influence you might have for good by going after wealth or fame or comfort. Don’t trade respect for riches. That’s what Lot did.
Genesis 19:4-5 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” (ESV)
They wanted to do disgraceful things to Lot’s guests. So…
Genesis 19:6-8 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” (ESV)
You see, the conventions of hospitality in Lot’s day dictated that he protect his guests at all costs. But this was going too far. He offered his teenaged daughters to be gang raped to appease the men of the city, but they had no respect for him.
Genesis 19:9-11 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door. (ESV)
God’s angels had to intervene, because the men of the city had lost all respect for Lot. He lost any influence he had with his neighbors, and he lost any influence he had with his family, as well.
Genesis 19:12-14 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. (ESV)
They didn’t take him seriously. They couldn’t believe him. Lot had lost all respect, but that’s what happens when we pursue the world. We lose respect. We lose any influence we might have had for good. Comedian, Lily Tomlin, had it right when she said, “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat.” (Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2)
Jonah Lehr has done some interesting research, which he published in The Wall Street Journal several years ago in an article called “The Power Trap.” He discovered that as people are climbing the social ladder, they are nicer. But once they get closer to the top, they start acting like a “beast.” He writes:
As one business professor concluded, “It's an incredibly consistent effect. When you give people power, they basically start acting like fools. They flirt inappropriately, tease in a hostile fashion, and become totally impulsive.” Some have even compared the feeling of power to brain damage, noting that people with lots of authority tend to behave like neurological patients with a damaged [frontal lobe], a brain area that's crucial for empathy and decision-making.
Lehrer noted a study in which psychologists asked members of a “high-power group” about speeding. The group concluded that it was okay for them to speed, but that it was important for others to follow the posted limit. Their rationale was that powerful people are important and had a good reason for speeding. Lehrer concludes, “Even the most virtuous people can be undone by the corner office.” (Jonah Lehrer, “The Power Trap,” The Wall Street Journal, 8-14-10; www.PreachingToday.com)
The pursuit of material success is a trap. It can turn even the best of people into beasts, who are no longer respected by those around them.
I think of the inventor of the Pet Rock, who died just last year (2015). In the mid-'70s, he was an unknown editor named Gary Dahl. Then he found himself in a conversation with his friends, who were complaining about all the work involved in taking care of pets – feeding them, walking them, cleaning up after them. Dahl kidded that he had a pet that never caused him any trouble – a pet rock.
Well, one thing led to another, and Dahl recruited two colleagues as investors. He visited a building-supply store and bought a load of smooth Mexican beach stones at about a penny each. The Pet Rock hit the marketplace in time for Christmas 1975. In a matter of months, some 1.5 million rocks were sold. It was a craze to rival the Hula-Hoop. For a mere three dollars and 95 cents, a consumer could buy … a rock—a plain, ordinary, egg-shaped rock of the kind one could dig up in almost any backyard.
For a few frenzied months in 1975, more than a million consumers did, becoming the proud owners of Pet Rocks, the fad that Newsweek later called “one of the most ridiculously successful marketing schemes ever.” When Dahl died in March 2015, his New York Times obituary claimed “the concept of a 'pet' that required no actual work and no real commitment resonated with the self-indulgent '70s, and before long a cultural phenomenon was born.”
Pet Rocks made Dahl a millionaire practically overnight. However, Dahl came to regret his success. The Pet Rock craze went the way of all fads – it died out and was replaced by the next fad. After his sudden wealth, he went through three marriages, a law suit, and failed attempts to match his previous success. At one point he said, “Sometimes I look back and wonder if my life wouldn't have been simpler if I hadn't done it.” (Margalit Fox, “Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78,” The New York Times, 3-31-15; www.PreachingToday.com)
His few months of fame was not worth the failed relationships that came from it. Please, don’t be tempted by the siren song of wealth, fame, or comfort. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fellowship with God. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your following, your influence for good. And #3…
DON’T PURSUE THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD AND LOSE YOUR FORTUNE.
Don’t go after things that will only be burned up in the end. Don’t chase after material wealth that will eventually come to nothing. That’s what happened to Lot.
Genesis 19:15-16 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. (ESV)
Lot had stopped pursuing the Lord, but the Lord did not stop pursuing him. God in his mercy and grace saved Lot, “but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:15). You see, God never abandons His own. Lot was a believer in the Lord, pursuing his own interests, but God still loved him, and God still saved him, though he lost everything in the fire that fell.
Genesis 19:17-20 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” (ESV)
Lot has a hard time leaving it all, since he has become so attached to this world.
Genesis 19:21-22 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar [which means “small”]. (ESV)
Genesis 19:23-26 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. (ESV)
Lot lost his wife. Lot lost him home. Lot lost everything he ever owned. He escaped only with the clothes on his back and his two teenage daughters.
Genesis 19:27-29 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. (ESV)
In answer to Abraham’s prayer, God spared Lot’s life, but Lot lost everything else. And that’s what happens when we pursue the things of this world. We eventually lose it all! 1 John 2:17 says, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” That is not to say that we lose our salvation. Like Lot, God in His mercy saves all who trust Him, but believers who pursue the world end up losing everything else.
Many years ago, when the kings of Siam wanted to ruin a man, they would present him with a big, beautiful, white elephant. The unfortunate man couldn’t get rid of the elephant, for it was “sacred” in their culture, and it was a gift from the king! He was stuck with it, and soon the expense of keeping the useless thing put him in the poor house (Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, #7533).
When people pursue the world, they are pursuing white elephants, which will ruin them in the end. Please, don’t do it. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fellowship with God. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your following, your influence for good. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fortune. And finally…
DON’T PURSUE THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD AND LOSE YOUR FAMILY.
Don’t give up your children by going after wealth, fame or comfort. Don’t trade those you love the most for the love of money.
Lot did. He had already lost his wife. She had turned into a pillar of salt. Now, he’s going to lose his two teenage daughters to incest.
Genesis 19:30-38 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab [which means “from the father”]. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi [which means “son of my people”]. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. (ESV)
The Moabites and the Ammonites became two of the worst nations on the face of the earth. They worshipped Baal and Moloch, sacrificing their own children to these gods. It was difficult to get Lot out of Sodom, but it was impossible to get Sodom out of his family. By pursuing the world, Lot paid the price in his family for generations!
Please, don’t do that to your family. Pursue things that matter, not things that don’t matter. Set the example for your family that can also last for generations to come.
Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fellowship with God. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your following, your influence for good. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your fortune. Don’t pursue the things of this world and lose your family.
It’s just not worth it! Jesus put it well when he said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Please, whatever you do, don’t lose your life for the world. Instead, give your life to the Lord. Then you’ll have no regrets.
In 1904, William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school. As heir to the Borden Dairy estate, he was already a millionaire. For his high school graduation present, his parents gave him a trip around the world. As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the world's hurting people. Finally, Borden wrote home to say, “I'm going to give my life to prepare for the mission field.” At the same time, he wrote two words in the back of his Bible: “NO RESERVES.”
Indeed, Borden held nothing back. During his college years at Yale University, he became a pillar in the Christian community. One entry in his personal journal that defined the source of his spiritual strength simply said: “Say no to self and yes to Jesus every time.”
During his first semester at Yale, Borden started a small prayer group that would transform campus life. This little group gave birth to a movement that spread across the campus. By the end of his first year, 150 freshmen were meeting for weekly Bible study and prayer. By the time Bill Borden was a senior, 1,000 of Yale's 1,300 students were meeting in such groups.
Borden also strategized with his fellow Christians to make sure every student on campus heard the gospel, and he was often seen ministering to the downtrodden in the streets of New Haven. But his real passion was missions. Once he narrowed his missionary call to the Kansu people in China, Borden never wavered.
Upon graduation from Yale, Borden wrote two more words in the back of his Bible: “NO RETREATS.” In keeping with that commitment, Borden turned down several high-paying job offers, enrolling in seminary instead. After graduating, he immediately went to Egypt to learn Arabic because of his intent to work with Muslims in China. While in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.
But prior to his death, Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words “No reserves” and “No retreats,” he had written: “NO REGRETS.” (The Daily Bread, 12-31-1988; The Yale Standard, Fall 1970; Mrs. Howard Taylor, Borden of Yale, Bethany House, 1988; www.PreachingToday.com)
Lot had every regret in life, because he pursued the world and lost it all. He pursued things that didn’t really matter. Borden had no regrets, because he pursued the Lord without reserve and without retreat, and God filled his short life with things of eternal significance.
Another missionary once said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.” (New Tribes Missionary, Eternal Perspectives Newsletter, Fall 2003, p.15)
What are you pursuing today? Are you pursuing things that really matter? Or are you pursing the things of this world, which will all go up in smoke someday?
