All the way through there we go. What up crossing family.
I want to welcome all of our different campuses, those of you
watching online and those of you who are part of the crossing
inside. I am so thankful to be with you
all today and I want to give you guys another heads up.
On the weekend of July 10th and 13th, we're going to be starting
a new series called At the Movies, and this series is
specifically designed to give you a great reason to invite the
people that are close to you but far from God.
We're going to be taking a look at the greatest movie saga of
all time and seeing the spiritual truths and spiritual
implications buried a long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away.
And because of the nature of the series, we are not going to be
able to broadcast the sermon online.
So if you're a part of our online squad, we hope that you
will join us in person. And if you can't, we'll be
giving you a collection of the best sermons over the past year
for you to watch online. But if you want to go on the
journey with us, you need to be at one of our physical
locations. That being said, we are in a
sermon series called 3 Lies and a bunch of Gospel Truth and the
three lies are lies that either we tell ourselves or that Satan
tells us. And remember Jesus says that
Satan is a liar and is the father of all lies in John
chapter 8. And last week we looked at this
life from Satan. Satan likes to tell us that we
are not rich, but in reality, the truth is we are.
And the reason why this should matter to us if we're rich
people, is that Jesus says that it's easier for a camel, a big
old animal, to go through the eye of a needle, a really small
opening, than it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of
heaven. Why is that?
Because the more wealth you have, the more your wealth ends
up having you. And it's really hard to take
hold of Jesus when we are gripping so tightly to our
things. Now quick reminder, Jesus does
not have a problem with you having wealth.
His problem is when your wealth has you.
Because your wealth will get in the way of what Jesus has for
you. Today we're going to look at
another lie that Satan tells us, and he is so good at it that
almost nobody thinks they struggle with it.
See if you can find it. Ephesians chapter 5.
Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children, and
walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself
up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual
morality or any kind of impurity or of greed, because these are
improper for God's holy people. If you're a Christian, this kind
of behavior is improper for you. Nor should there be obscenity,
foolish talk, course, joking, which are out of place, but
rather Thanksgiving for of this you can be sure you can take
this to the bank. No immoral, impure or greedy
persons, because such a person is an idolater.
If you're an idolater, you're worshipping something other than
Jesus has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Did you catch it? We better find out what one it
was, because notice what it says at the end.
People with this issue, and he gives a whole bunch of them have
no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Let's look at another one, see if you guys can find it.
We're going to go to 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9.
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the
Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the
sexually immoral or idolaters, nor adulterers, nor many who
have sex with men, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards,
nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.
That is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Many of us, we read these verses and we like to zoom in on the
sin that we don't struggle with. Like boy, I hope so.
And so is listening. And we miss the thing that Jesus
is trying to talk to us about. Now, we're going to dig into
this a whole lot more in the fall when we're going to do an
entire book study on 1st Corinthians.
So I hope you guys will be around.
But did you notice that the past tense used in those verses,
That's what some of you were. It's saying that when you become
a follower of Jesus Christ and you're obedient in the area of
baptism and you're filled with the Holy Spirit, these things no
longer define you. But did you also notice that
Jesus moved on our behalf when we were still defined by all of
those sins? Jesus came and he washed us and
he sanctified us and He justified us and he made us
right. Maybe you've noticed the lie
from Satan, but if you haven't, let's take one more look.
This is Jesus talking Luke chapter 12, verse 13.
Someone in the crowd said to him, that's Jesus teacher, tell
my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Jesus replied, man, who appointed me a judge or an
arbiter between you. Then he said to them, watch out.
Be on your guard against all kinds of there you go, I
highlighted it so you didn't miss it.
Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Let's pause for just a little bit.
Satan's lie to us is that we are not greedy people and the truth
is we are. Now I'm putting myself in that
category here. In all my years of ministry, of
all the people that have called me up, said Clayton, I got to
talk to you. I'm struggling with something.
Guess how many times someone has come and sat across the table
from me? I said, man, Pastor Clayton, I'm
greedy and I need some help. Zero times I have had zero
people self identify as a greedy person.
But I say we are greedy people because I struggle too.
When the Bible talks about a greed, you're reading it in your
English Bible, which is super good because that's how you
should read it. And but the way they got the
word greed was from the Greek text and the Greek text.
This is how this word shows up in the Greek.
It is playonexia. Now This is why it's super cool.
Ready. This is how this word is
actually broken up into three parts.
Playonexia play on means more X means have EA means Ness.
Greed is have more Ness. We're not have less people.
We're have more Ness and like this effects every single one of
us. It's what drives our economy.
We are never satisfied with what we have.
We always want more. And again, I struggle too.
Can I give you some stories? So I am a dreamer and a planner,
which means when I have a dream for something, I pull out my
notepad and I bullet point my way to get there.
I had a dream one time of owning a Huffy 12 speed bike and I got
it. I paid for it and $1.00 bills I
had earned for my parents. I look like a male stripper at
Shopko. Buying, buying.
It's like, boy, it took him a long time.
I mean there's not a lot of fat strippers out there.
Then they came out with an 18 speed bike and then a 21 speed
bike. Then they came out with one with
disc brakes. I couldn't handle it and I
bought it and it hangs in my garage unused.
It's in mint condition. I wanted a hot tub and so I
found one, saved up, found it, it was used, it was great, put
it at the house. But then we moved to Quincy.
I was like, we're not bringing it down there.
You want to know why? Because after like the first
four weeks of owning it, I spent all my time putting chemicals in
it than actually using it. I wanted a four Wheeler since I
was in 6th grade and eventually I had enough money to get it.
And as soon as I got one, other people got 1.
You know, the problem was they got bigger ones and faster ones.
All of a sudden I look like I was riding a big wheel.
Well all my friends were riding really because I mean I can make
a big four Wheeler look small. And I went from absolutely
loving my four Wheeler to be like man I wish I had a
different one. Oh 12 years later my dad.
This is weird because he bought it for me.
Like this past Thanksgiving bought me the baddest 4 Wheeler
that is made. They don't make them badder than
the four Wheeler that I have. It is a can am 1000 turbo R.
It is like been my dream four Wheeler my whole life.
He gave it to me on Thanksgiving.
Guess how many times I have driven this thing since
Thanksgiving? 0 times I would have spent money
to buy it at some point only for it to sit in my garage.
There was a time when I wanted a flip phone.
I know that doesn't make sense to you guys.
Moto Razor. Then I just got it and they came
out with the BlackBerry. And I thought to myself, if I
just had the BlackBerry and I got it, and as soon as I'd saved
up and got it, that came out with the iPhone.
And I thought to myself, once I get the iPhone, I'll never need
another phone. Right now I'm rocking a 12.
And as I was writing this sermon, I was thinking to
myself, how much longer can I hold off because I'm greedy?
I had a 2001 Toyota Avalon. I wanted a vehicle that had
leather interior and I bought it when it was 7 years old, drove
it for 12. It was missing the gas cap on
the side, like the little flappy thing.
I don't know what that's called because the caps the IT had the
twisty thing. It didn't have the Chevy thing
and while I was driving it around I was like I cannot wait
until I have a suburban. My parents I was like I just
can't wait till I own a suburban and I found one.
It was about 8 years old when I bought it and I was so happy for
it until the 1st long drive and I realized I didn't fit and my
kids wouldn't sit behind me. They sat in the way, way, way
back and I was like, well, we got to get something different
that's comfortable. And I was like, you know, I just
want to be comfortable. I just want one vehicle that my
big old body can get in and be super comfortable.
And I found a used pickup truck and it has the best interior
ever and it has the most legroom and I love it except for the
fact that Dodge has a Ram is like addicted to a cheap Chrome
and I cannot stand the way it looks.
And so sometimes I'm a greedy person.
I'm just being transparent. I, I look online to find, do
they make a blacked out version? Do you know the dumbest part
about this? When I'm driving my vehicle, do
you know how much of my Chrome I can see?
0%, but just knowing it's there makes me think if I if I just
had something different then I'd be happy.
Now, based off of everything I've told you, what do you think
would happen if I had a blacked out Ram pickup truck?
I would want something else. I have a disease.
It's called Have Moreness. One time JD Rockefeller, the
richest man in the United States at the time, was asked what was
the best million he ever made. Some of you are like any.
Any million would be my would be the one.
Same here. You would think he would say his
first million. He didn't.
You would say his last million, he didn't.
You would think it was his 10th million or his 100th million.
His answer surprised everybody, he said The next one.
We keep thinking that the next thing will fill us up, that the
next thing will truly satisfy, but it doesn't.
However, that does not keep us from pursuing the next thing.
Why is greed so dangerous? One, it's tied to coveting,
which if you're a person who grew up in church, you know that
coveting is the one of the commands that shows up in the 10
commandments. Remember Exodus chapter 20,
verse 17. You shall not covet your
neighbor's house. You shall not covet your
neighbor's wife or his male or female servant, his ox or his
donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
And there are some of your like, finally a verse I can get
behind. I have never once coveted my
neighbor's donkey. Not once have I ever seen my
neighbor's donkey and said to myself, man, I wish that was
mine. But you guys forget.
We have campuses in Iowa and they go to a thing called old
threshers and they show up at old threshers and they're like,
but Clayton, they had a plateau donkey.
Turn to your neighbor and say plot two.
Oh, yeah, I looked it up. This is a plot 2 donkey and it's
one of the largest donkey breeds.
And look at how cute it is. You didn't think you had
coveting problems of your neighbor's donkey, but what if
your neighbor showed up with the plot 2 donkey?
It is the golden doodle of the donkey world and you were fine
there with your regular old donkey till your neighbor shows
up with a trailer full of plateau donkeys and there you
are. Greedy, have mourness.
God, if only I had the plateau donkey, I'd finally be happy.
You see, when you covet, when you're greedy, it ruins your
relationships. Because when you are greedy,
when you covet, you are no longer able to rejoice in the
success or the blessings of other people because you wish
you had it. When you covet, when you're
greedy, you can no longer be satisfied with your own
successes and your own blessings because you're measuring them
against others. And both of those things lead to
depression and isolation because you don't want to be around to
other people anymore because you're just reminded of what God
has done for them and you're frustrated with what he hasn't
done for you. I know three people personally
that their depression started because they were mad at God
that they did not have the life that other people had.
Third reason why greed is so dangerous, it keeps us from
godliness. So how do we fight against this?
How do you and I go, OK, greedy people don't make it into
heaven. Greedy people have a hard time
building their trust in God. How do we combat this so that we
become ungreedy people? Well, one of the gifts that God
gives us is the tithe because tithing wages war against greed.
How? Because tithing recognizes that
everything we have belongs to God.
It forces us out of the primary position into the third
position. If the first position is God,
the second position is others. The third position becomes
ourselves. Some of you may have grown up
and heard people talk about how do you have joy in your life?
You have joy in your life when you put Jesus first, others 2nd,
and yourself 3rd. Tithing does that.
It puts the needs of God and others above yourself.
Lots of us when it comes to giving, we kind of operate in a
in a weird world because the Bible talks about tithing.
Now tithing is 10 and it's not just any of the 10s, it's the
first ten. It's the first fruit, so this is
$10100 bills. The tithe would be the first.
Don't want to RIP these because we want to take them back to the
bank, OK? This is the first ten, the first
10. This is what makes it the tithe.
It is the first fruit and when you tithe you are honoring God
with your first. But if you don't honor God with
your first, what you end up doing is you end up tipping.
You end up giving God what is left.
That's what we do when we tip people.
When the bellhop takes the clothes or the takes all the
bags to the room, we give him money for services rendered.
Thanks for moving the bags. When the meal is done, that is
when we give them the tip and the size of the tip is
determined by two things. How good was the service and how
much do we have left. Back when we kind of lived more
in a cash economy, when you got finished with the meal, you
might have a meal that ran up. A 75 or $76 meal and if you had
100 in your wallet, you would say keep the change.
You would give what was left. Tipping shows appreciation,
thanks. Tithing shows allegiance.
Tipping says it all belongs to me and you can have whatever's
leftover after I'm done. Tithing says everything I have
belongs to you. So when it comes to your
relationship with God, are you a tither or a tipper?
And if you're going to say you're a tipper, you're saying
thanks for services rendered and how good has his service to you
been? It's weird.
We get hit up to tip everywhere. I was in an airport when they
had just first put in the kiosks that don't have anybody working,
and they hadn't got all the software bugs worked out.
So I went, got my own Coke, got my own.
I don't even know how to say this, so please forgive me.
I can't put too many French words in one sermon.
Guard Gar ghettos, gardettos, whatever those are.
I got those and then I got the gummy clusters.
Have you had gummy clusters? You will get addicted.
OK. And I went up to the thing.
There was nobody in there working.
And I rang it all up and it get told me how much it was and said
would you like to what? Tip myself What, who, who, who
we giving this to? But in a weird like there's a
part of us that when we see that moment, we don't want to be the
person who's stingy. But when it comes to our
relationship with God, most of us don't ever get around to even
tipping. Tithing says I pledge allegiance
to you. It's saying God, you own all of
it. It all belongs to you.
Greed says the next thing will be enough.
Giving says God, is enough. Tithing loosens the grip that we
have on our things so we can fully take hold of the things
that God offers us, the good things that God offers us.
Why does this matter? It's because you and I will
either be held by our possessions or we can grab hold
of God. And I know that right now there
are some of you who are going tithing.
Seems absolutely crazy. Just hang with me here for a
second. Did you know that 28% of tithers
are completely debt free? Something like that sounds
fantastic. 80% of tithers have zero credit card debt. 74% of
tithers own their car outright. Why do you think that is?
And don't you kind of want that for yourself?
Don't you want to be the person who's like completely debt free,
no credit card balance, no car payment?
It's because tithing breaks the curse of have moreness.
It helps you start to realize that your fulfillment and
satisfaction is never going to be in the things.
Tithing breaks the greed cycle. It teaches you how to break the
curse of greed and the relentless pursuit of have
moreness. Now I read to you out of Luke
chapter 12 about the story of Jesus, but I never finished it,
so I should probably finish this story for you.
Watch what happens. And then Jesus told them this
parable. That's a story.
The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.
He thought to himself, what shall I do?
I have no place to store my crops.
Then he said, this is what I'll do.
I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I
will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, I have
plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy, Eat, drink and be merry.
But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will
be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have
prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with
whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich
toward God. This rich man had plenty of
money and Jesus goes, but you can't take it with you.
It will eventually all go to someone else.
However, those who are rich towards God, Jesus followers,
Jesus followers go. It all belongs to you and so
they are rich towards God. And you might be going all
right, Clayton, but what will happen to me if I actually start
being rich towards God? Look what Jesus says in the very
next verse. That's as if God knows exactly
what's running through our minds.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you,
do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your
body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and
the body more than clothes. Consider the Ravens.
They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn.
Yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are
they than the are you, than the birds?
Who of you by worrying, can add a single hour to your life?
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry
about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers
grow. They do not labor or spend.
Yet I tell you, not even Solomon and all of his splendor was
dressed like one of these. If that is how God closed the
grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow's thrown into
the fire, how much more will He clothe you, you of little faith?
And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink.
Do not worry about it, for the Pagan world runs after such
things, and your Father, this is God knows that you need them,
but seek His Kingdom, and these things will be given to you as
well. Do not be afraid, little flock,
for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom.
Sell your possessions, give to the poor, provide purses for
yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that
will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Jesus looks at people and says Trust me.
And when you put your trust in me, you don't have to worry
about what you'll wear. You don't have to worry about
what you will eat. You don't have to worry because
all we have belongs to Him and life is more than stuff.
And when we seek Him first, He promises to take care of us.
When we are honest with God and open handed with God, we are
putting ourselves under His care and under His provision.
But the scariest part of what Jesus says is the last line.
Because where your treasure is, is where your heart is.
Our treasure determines the direction of our heart.
It reveals what really matters to us.
It exposes us. Greed says there is never
enough. Jesus says I'm enough.
Greed says worry about what's next.
Jesus says life is more than the things.
Greed says do the Kingdom things, just do them later.
Jesus says do Kingdom things first and I'll take care of the
rest. Satan says your treasure is all
that matters. Jesus says where you put your
treasure is what matters because you can't put your treasure in
one place and your heart in another.
I want you to think about that while we're moving to a time of
decision. To those of you who are here and
you've never really started a relationship with Jesus Christ,
God is not here to take from you, nor are we.
God wants to invite you into a relationship with Him, and that
relationship requires faith. This is what it says in
Ephesians. Pay attention to this Ephesians
chapter 1 verses 3:00 and 8:00. If you want to go home and
highlight this, this is a keeper verse.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual
blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before
the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
In love. He predestined us for adoption
to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure
and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He has
freely given us in the one He loves, Jesus.
In Him, Jesus, we have redemption through His blood,
forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of
God's grace that He has lavished on us.
God has not been greedy or stingy with us.
He has lavished us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
And hear me, it was his pleasure to do so.
I don't know if you guys ever made a mess of your clothes and
you asked your mom like, hey, mom, I need you to get these
stains out. And your mom's like it was not
her pleasure to do so. And so sometimes that's what
people think because of how they've messed up, because of
all the things that they've done bad, they get this thought in
their head that God doesn't love them.
But Ephesians says this It was his pleasure to give you every
spiritual blessing in Christ. Did he give these blessings in
Christ to people who deserved it?
No. Who earned it?
No. He dumped out a truckload of
spiritual blessings in in Christ because it was his pleasure to
do so on undeserving people. And to those of you who are here
today, and those of you who are watching online who have never
started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
hear me. You can experience all of those
blessings in Christ today. You can be made holy and
blameless before God, adopted as his children, receive the riches
of His grace, be redeemed through the blood of Jesus
Christ, forgiven of your sins, receive wisdom and insight, and
become the residents of the Holy Spirit.
Why on earth would you put that off?
So just a few moments, the people around you are going to
stand and sing, and there's going to be people who are going
to come up to the steps and pray.
And I want to encourage you to walk right over there underneath
that screen next to that baptistry, and talk to somebody
about how to start a relationship with Jesus.
That changes everything. To the rest of you, to those of
you who do have a relationship with Jesus Christ, what is
standing in the way of you trusting God with all of you?
Name it. What is standing in the way of
you experiencing the true and abundant life that God is
inviting you into? Because trusting God with your
finances is one of the single greatest faith builders you will
ever have. I hate for you to miss out on
it. Would you guys stand with me?
Heavenly Father, I'm asking you to do a work and God I.
I don't say that as if you haven't already been working.
God, you've been doing way more than we could have asked or
imagined as a church. But God, I know there's a lot of
people here going through a lot of different things.
And so God, I'm asking the right now, you would just help each
and every single one of us to take a step to move in your
direction, to trust you more than we've trusted you in the
past, to be transformed by you in ways that we didn't ever
think possible. In your name I pray.
Amen.