(upbeat music) - Megan, one of our podcast listeners, writes in to ask this. "Pastor John, I have a confession. "I love stuff and I am very materialistic. "I buy things online and get a thrill in buying, "as well as getting things in the mail. "I know I need to stop this and I wanna stop this, "but how do I?

"And why do I do this in the first place?" What would you say to Megan? - I have tasted enough of what Megan is talking about that I think I can speak with some sense of empathy. Even though for me, the temptation is almost entirely restricted to books. As you can imagine.

I love to look at Amazon. I mean, I love to click immediately on some new, like Doug Sweeney, Jonathan Edwards, the ex-Sajit, oh, hasten the day, right? - Yes, absolutely. - And I just love to click, one click, be here in two days, 'cause I'm an Amazon Prime guy.

And when the doorbell rings and the FedEx guy is walking down the sidewalk, there rises up in me a kind of euphoria that I'm gonna get to open a box and in it's gonna be a book. I mean, I think I know what she's talking about. I mean, for her, it may be clothing.

I don't know what it is for her, but she likes stuff and books are stuff. They're more than stuff, but they're stuff. And so I feel the issue here. And we are swimming in treacherous waters. Why is it that we get this kind of pleasure from ordering things, things that we can hold in our hands?

And why is it that our pleasure rises when those things come in the mail? And as I've tried to analyze my own heart, as well as read about the experience of others and look in the Bible and look at the way people market things to us, it seems to me that the pleasure rises mainly from the elusive sense that buying and receiving things is life-giving.

It feels life-giving, or it feels like I get a sense of empowerment here. When this book arrives, for example, there's a kind of this amorphous, euphoric sense that life is gonna be better for me now. My knowledge is gonna be larger. My influence is gonna be greater. Some of my weaknesses and limitations of ignorance and looking foolish 'cause I've never heard of this book are gonna be overcome.

In other words, there's a sense that somehow my life will go better and I will be stronger, more capable person. And of course, for someone else, it may not be books. It may be clothing or tools or gadgets or the newest device. And in their case, the life-giving empowerment wouldn't be necessarily like mine.

It might be you're gonna look better, you're gonna be more productive, you're gonna be more cool with your latest data device and so on. And we should admit, I suppose, in passing here, that to some degree, there's truth in that. Maybe, maybe. We may indeed be enhanced in some way to be more productive or fruitful in a good way, not just a bad way.

But if we're honest, and it seems to me that Megan is really being honest, the pleasures that we feel are not often totally noble. They're not coming primarily from the fact that we are being equipped as better servants of Christ because we just clicked and got it in two days and could open the box.

So we need to hear the words of Jesus. Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. It seems to me that strikes right at the heart of the matter. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

That feeling, that arrival of the package in the mail, that feeling is an illusion. The euphoria is short-lived, it's shallow. It keeps us from deeper pleasures that we were made for. And another reason why I think we're so hungry for this kind of elusive, life-giving, empowering pleasure is because there's a void in our hearts, some measure of emptiness that Jesus intends to satisfy by himself, his fellowship, his ministry.

Paul says in Philippians 4 that he learned the secret of contentment so that he could have little and stay contentment. No doorbell ringing this week, no packages showing up, totally content, door ringing three, four times, totally content. And the reason he gave is chapter three, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was such an overwhelming value and a precious treasure for Paul that the ups and downs of having much or having little, doorbell ringing, doorbell not ringing, clicking or not clicking, did not destroy his contentment. His craving heart was satisfied on Jesus. So Megan and I need to devote ourselves to feeding our hearts on Christ and his word, but not just his word and his fellowship are satisfying.

I think, I'm thinking now of Acts 20, verse 30 that says, Jesus is quoted, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." The fact that Megan or I would get more pleasure out of receiving than giving shows that something's gone wrong in our hearts. We were designed as followers of Christ to experience even greater euphoria in giving than in the doorbell ringing and a new package coming.

And perhaps this pleasure has fallen into disuse for Megan maybe, and she needs to recover it. And that very pleasure of giving would, I think, dampen the pleasures of material possession. I would mention perhaps just two other things real quick. One is that Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, he didn't want to be enslaved or mastered by anything.

We're free in Jesus. Megan, as a Christian, is free in Jesus. And she and I should be on the lookout for anything that has an enslaving force in our lives. And when we spot it, we should wave the flag of Christian liberty in front of it and say, "You will not enslave me.

I'm a free woman or I'm a free man. You material thing will not control me and renounce it in the name of our freedom." And maybe just one more, the best thing I could say, because it's so breathtaking, it's so influential and powerful when it grips us, is this.

1 Corinthians 3, 21. Megan, listen carefully. "Let no one boast in men," or I would say in things, "for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All things are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God." Megan, if you are a Christian, you already possess all material things.

You really do. Your Father created and owns everything, everything in the universe. And as His child, you will inherit it and it will be at your disposal in the age to come on the new earth, in the new heavens, and you will be able to do with it as you please.

This is why Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but in heaven." In heaven, we will have them forever. We won't lose them, no rust, no thief. And we will be able for the very first time to use them with joy, without any greed, without any covetousness, without any idolatry.

So in a sense, abundance of material things can wait. We have more important things to do right now. Love God, love people, and find the greatest pleasure in giving. Yeah, amen. Thank you, Pastor John. And with that, the week comes to an end. If you missed any of the episodes from the week, you can catch up with the daily Ask Pastor John podcast apps, and you can go online to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

And you can keep up with all of the episodes there as well. On Monday, we tackle that age old question of how do I know what God is calling me to do? Who or what should we follow as we seek to follow God's plan for our lives? I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

We'll see you back here on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)