Preacher: Pastor Tim Redfield
Date: August 1/4, 2019
Text: Exodus 20:15
I can’t say for sure, but it seems like we are at one of the wealthiest points in our country’s history. Just think about the blessings that you have at home compared to a generation or two ago. It is easy to see that we have lots of stuff. We have lots of possessions. We have lots of options for entertainment. Almost everyone has some level of disposable income. The very fact that we can call it disposable income says something about the amount of wealth that we have. This makes it easy to be tempted toward greed. We’ll think about that today as we think about these ideas. We want to respect our neighbor’s money and property. We are able to do that better when we understand that God is the one who blesses us with this money and property.
Part 1: Sins against the commandment
As we think about possessions, we want to start with the positive. God has blessed us in many ways. He has given us an abundance of possessions. James 1:17 reminds us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” All of our material possessions and all of our wealth comes from God. He wants us to remember this. He encourages this in Deuteronomy 8:17-18, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”
He gives us our possessions in a variety of ways. Usually it comes from our ability to work. He wants us to use our abilities but to remember that he ultimately has blessed us with those abilities. We didn’t produce our wealth on our own, God has helped us to do that. He can also bless us with possessions through things like a gift or an inheritance.
God wants us to be responsible with our blessings. He wants us to provide for our families and to provide for those who are in need. When we see people who can’t work because of disability or illness, it is proper for us to think of ways to help them. God also wants us to use our wealth to pay our government what is due to them with taxes and we are to give back to the Lord as a thank you for what he has done. Some of the Jews tried to trap Jesus with a question about wealth. They asked him about paying taxes to Caesar because so many Jews detested Caesar. Jesus replied, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17).
When we give thanks to God by giving back to him, God is more focused on our heart. He encourages in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” We should give from the joy in our hearts. This doesn’t mean that we can refuse to give on days that we are not feeling joyful. If that is the case we are probably being tempted by greed and we need to evaluate our hearts. Our giving to the Lord is good and proper.
Jesus gives examples of sinfulness related to the 7th Commandment in several of his parables. Think about the parable of the Lost Son. The younger son showed his greediness by demanding his inheritance. Then he went away and wasted the money. God doesn’t want us to squander our wealth on foolish things. We can use some of our wealth for things we enjoy but our responsibilities come first.
The parable of the Good Samaritan gives us a sinful example that is so obvious we might rush past it. It is a sin against the commandment that not many of us commit. The robbers at the beginning of the parable steal from the man. They beat him up and leave him for dead. The 5th commandment sin seems greater since they physically attacked him but there is also the fact that they stole from him. There are not many people who fall into a sin like that. The 7th Commandment sins that are more likely to tempt us involve our greed.
Greed is an easy temptation in our materialistic society. We are tempted every day to want all the great possessions that we see others enjoying. There is that desire inside of us to want more and more. Luke 12:15 encourages us, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” People are tempted to make their possessions equal to their value. Rather than finding importance because of faith in Christ, people feel important because of their big house filled with all their stuff. We have to watch out and find balance in our lives. It is ok to have possessions but we don’t want those possessions to become more important than God.
Another temptation is seen in our gospel lesson today. The third servant wasn’t faithful with what was entrusted to him. When God has blessed us he wants us to be faithful. If he has blessed us with an ability to work, he wants us to use that ability. Think about temptations we might have to be lazy at our jobs. Perhaps it is as simple as goofing around when we should be working. We are being paid to do a certain job. If I am being paid to work for an hour but then sleep for that hour, we can identify that as sinful. I am getting paid for doing nothing. It is a sin of not working faithfully. This too can be a sin against this commandment.
Part 2: Gospel motivated obedience
We are thankful that Jesus obeyed these commandments in our place. When you look at his life, you see that he was not materialistic. He really only used what he needed for the essentials. He also gave us all kinds of teachings about the proper use of wealth. You see these in the gospels and some of the parables I already mentioned.
Paul talks about this idea in 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Jesus set aside the riches of the glory of heaven so that he could be our poor human brother. He did this so that he could live under the law and obey all the commandments in our place. Our wealth is not an earthly wealth. Our wealth is the blessings of forgiveness and eternal life.
In the parables I mentioned we see good examples. In the parable of the lost son we see repentance from the son after her realizes his sin. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the Samaritan not only helped the man’s physical needs, he gave a financial gift to help the man. He made sure that the man’s bills were paid at the hotel so that he had plenty of time to recover. In the parable from our gospel lesson, the first two servants were faithful in carrying out the work that the master wanted them to carry out.
Our lesson from Ephesians reminds us of our motivation to carry out God-pleasing obedience. Verse 24 said, “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Our new self of faith is motivated by the forgiveness of Christ. We put on his righteousness and holiness. We see our value in Christ rather than looking for value in earthly possessions.
The concept of biblical contentment is found in 1 Timothy 6:6-8. It says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.” We can be happy with what we have in this life but we always need to remember that possessions are for this life. We are not taking them with us to heaven. This can help us prioritize our use of our wealth.
It is good to think about gospel ministry. How can we use our wealth to help spread the gospel? There are certainly many ways to do that.
Conclusion
I think it is easy to overlook our temptations toward greed and materialism in our world today. It can be easy to overlook because many of us don’t own huge mansions filled with everything our heart can desire. However, when you look at your possessions, you understand that you have many more possessions than you might realize. We need to watch out for greed. We find our ultimate value in Christ and what he has done to save us from our sins. Motivated by his forgiveness, we can live in Godly contentment.