How Can I Be Free from Materialism?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | The comforts and the wealth of our Western world

00:00:07.140 | can be a blessing,

00:00:08.360 | and they can become a deadly curse to us as well.

00:00:12.320 | So how can we be freed from the clutches

00:00:15.060 | of Western materialism?

00:00:17.220 | It's a question Pastor John took up in a sermon

00:00:19.460 | 27 years ago on Hebrews 10,

00:00:22.740 | a chapter with an incredible text in verse 34,

00:00:26.320 | which says, "You joyfully accepted

00:00:29.540 | "the plundering of your property

00:00:31.100 | "since you knew that you yourselves

00:00:33.140 | "had a better possession and an abiding one."

00:00:36.940 | Amazing text.

00:00:38.140 | Hebrews 10, 34, it's a text with a key lesson

00:00:41.740 | relevant to all of us today

00:00:43.460 | who live in the Disneyland of Western affluence.

00:00:48.060 | Here's Pastor John.

00:00:49.020 | - The Christian church in America suffers

00:00:52.060 | from about 350 years of dominance and prosperity.

00:00:58.760 | What I mean by dominance is that

00:01:01.620 | for almost all of this country's history

00:01:03.500 | from the Puritans on,

00:01:05.860 | the Christian ethos has been the dominant one,

00:01:09.100 | and to be a Christian is to be a person

00:01:11.980 | who's accepted and viewed as normal,

00:01:14.980 | and even one who has some traits

00:01:18.140 | that are beneficial to the country.

00:01:20.980 | What I mean by prosperity is that

00:01:25.780 | being a Christian and fitting in to that ethos

00:01:29.040 | has for a long time resulted in things going well for us.

00:01:34.040 | And so to be a Christian has been a plus.

00:01:38.200 | And what I mean by the church suffering from that,

00:01:42.720 | suffering from this dominance

00:01:44.160 | and suffering from this prosperity,

00:01:47.480 | is that this has resulted in a massively ingrained

00:01:53.760 | and unbiblical mindset.

00:01:56.380 | If you act like a Christian,

00:01:57.700 | you will probably work hard and be thrifty

00:02:01.460 | and probably will succeed in business,

00:02:03.980 | and that's better for you.

00:02:05.940 | If you act like a Christian,

00:02:07.000 | you'll probably be kind and generous,

00:02:08.860 | and at least then a few people will think well of you,

00:02:12.080 | and that'll be better for you.

00:02:13.960 | So we can all say, "Well, what's wrong with that?

00:02:17.380 | "What's wrong with things going better for you?

00:02:19.960 | "Why do you say it's a suffering

00:02:22.820 | "that has come upon the church

00:02:24.240 | "that we have grown to feel that this is the way it is,

00:02:28.800 | "this is the way it should be,

00:02:31.400 | "and we're at home here, things go better with Christ."

00:02:36.160 | The problem is that we have gotten things

00:02:39.460 | so out of proportion that we can't really even imagine

00:02:44.360 | what the New Testament church was like, I think.

00:02:47.520 | The little simple spin-offs out here

00:02:50.000 | at the edge of Christianity,

00:02:52.120 | and we've made them the cherished treasure of the middle,

00:02:56.200 | and we've elevated them to the point where,

00:03:00.280 | well, if things don't go better for us,

00:03:02.200 | then what's the use of being a Christian?

00:03:05.400 | And therefore, it becomes almost impossible for us

00:03:08.040 | to imagine what happened in this text.

00:03:11.240 | What it was like to be a Christian

00:03:12.840 | when there was no Christian America,

00:03:15.440 | no ethos built up over 300 years

00:03:19.120 | of Puritan Protestant work ethic.

00:03:21.800 | This text, Hebrews 10, 32 to 36, fills me.

00:03:26.180 | Every time I go back to it, and it's one of my favorites,

00:03:31.360 | it just fills me with a longing to be set free

00:03:35.200 | from domesticated, comfort-seeking,

00:03:39.560 | entertainment-addicted American Christianity.

00:03:43.400 | I just want to be so free.

00:03:45.480 | And this text, when you read it,

00:03:48.600 | mm, it just makes chills run up and down your back,

00:03:52.400 | saying, "Now that is authenticity.

00:03:54.640 | "If I could be like that, I'd be real."

00:03:57.880 | And everybody wants to be real.

00:04:01.680 | Nobody wants to be phony.

00:04:03.680 | Nobody wants to just have a little glaze of Christianity

00:04:06.640 | over an ordinary secular life,

00:04:08.600 | pursuing the same goals that everybody pursues

00:04:11.040 | who doesn't believe.

00:04:13.040 | Verse 34b, I've said it, let's read it again.

00:04:15.920 | "You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property."

00:04:20.080 | How?

00:04:22.440 | Where did that come from?

00:04:23.600 | Here's the next phrase.

00:04:25.240 | "Knowing that you have for yourselves

00:04:28.320 | "a better possession and an abiding one.

00:04:32.880 | "Therefore, don't throw away your confidence

00:04:36.960 | "or your boldness, which has great reward."

00:04:40.240 | Now right there, I think I see the key, or a key,

00:04:44.560 | to the anemic nature of the American church.

00:04:48.320 | My analysis is that one of the reasons is,

00:04:53.680 | and I think it's one of the main ones,

00:04:55.360 | is that we are at home in Disneyland.

00:04:58.680 | This is Disneyland.

00:04:59.800 | This room is Disneyland.

00:05:01.680 | This suit is Disneyland.

00:05:03.400 | This electronic device here is Disneyland.

00:05:06.680 | The cars you came in are Disneyland.

00:05:09.320 | The meals you will eat and buy today

00:05:12.120 | at who knows what per shot will be Disneyland.

00:05:16.280 | We live in Disneyland compared to where everybody else lives.

00:05:20.440 | Almost everybody.

00:05:24.920 | There are few other Disneylands in Western Europe.

00:05:28.200 | And we're at home.

00:05:30.160 | We're addicted.

00:05:31.440 | We don't even know we live in Disneyland.

00:05:33.920 | We use words like "me," "me,"

00:05:38.800 | for the most ridiculous accessories.

00:05:42.200 | We do.

00:05:43.640 | And I'm not about to tell you

00:05:45.560 | which ones you must get rid of.

00:05:48.080 | (audience laughing)

00:05:51.080 | We've been through this before as a church.

00:05:54.840 | When I wrote the chapter on money and desiring God,

00:05:57.160 | and we talked about the house at the lake.

00:06:00.320 | The lake.

00:06:01.520 | It's that spot in Minnesota where all these houses are.

00:06:04.680 | (audience laughing)

00:06:07.520 | And I didn't say you couldn't have one.

00:06:10.680 | But if you're at home,

00:06:13.120 | if you're at home in this Disneyland,

00:06:15.640 | so that if they burned down that house,

00:06:18.720 | or they smashed your car,

00:06:20.920 | or they took all your heirlooms,

00:06:23.400 | or they fired you from your job,

00:06:25.840 | there would be this rip.

00:06:27.480 | The reason the American church is weak

00:06:29.440 | is because we're at home in this Disneyland.

00:06:32.000 | Now I think it's always gonna be a Disneyland, okay?

00:06:35.040 | 'Til Jesus comes.

00:06:36.520 | But you know why God has created this Disneyland?

00:06:39.800 | For missions.

00:06:41.640 | And for the poor.

00:06:42.760 | Paul said,

00:06:44.720 | we have nothing,

00:06:47.760 | and yet we possess everything.

00:06:51.240 | If you believe that,

00:06:53.800 | that will make you free.

00:06:56.320 | Free.

00:06:58.680 | Free.

00:07:00.200 | - Amen, true freedom.

00:07:01.680 | Indeed, freedom from the enslavement

00:07:03.800 | to the comforts and wealth of this world.

00:07:05.760 | That clip was taken from a 27-year-old sermon

00:07:09.200 | preached on May 9th, 1993.

00:07:11.720 | The sermon is titled,

00:07:12.840 | "You Joyfully Accepted the Plundering of Your Property."

00:07:16.880 | And you can find the entire recording at desiringgod.org.

00:07:20.760 | Thanks for listening.

00:07:21.720 | And speaking of freedom,

00:07:23.880 | we are citizens of our countries.

00:07:25.760 | And this week here in the States,

00:07:27.720 | we celebrate Independence Day.

00:07:30.440 | We want to reject the clutches of material comforts,

00:07:33.760 | and yet we can also voice our patriotism

00:07:36.120 | and our love for our fatherland too.

00:07:38.200 | We can do both of those things.

00:07:40.240 | And with July 4th here in a few days,

00:07:42.160 | we can begin to ask the important question,

00:07:44.640 | how much patriotism is too much patriotism?

00:07:48.320 | That's the question on the table

00:07:49.400 | when we return on Friday with Pastor John.

00:07:51.920 | I'm Tony Reinke.

00:07:52.920 | We'll see you then.

00:07:53.880 | (upbeat music)

00:07:58.880 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Can I Be Free from Materialism?

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