[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: As you can see, the topic is Christians and consumerism.
So I don't know if you know what your first thought is when you think about consumerism, but I did want to kind of separate it a little bit from greed because one of the classes is going to be greed on greed. And the way I'm going to be approaching consumerism is this, is.
This is spending beyond our needs for some purpose.
Okay. And we'll talk more about that purpose and kind of. And I know that's going to be a fuzzy area. You know, it's fuzzy for all of us, where greed is going to be more about other people. Right. It's me pulling into me at the expense of others. This is doing, you know, consumerism for my purposes, whatever those purposes are, but it's in an excessive way. I hope that'll become a little more clear as we kind of move through this.
So the first thing I thought of is all those Amazon boxes that I know our house has on the front porch.
And I thought about. I was trying to think through what's. What's in those boxes, what's in all those boxes. We've got so many of those boxes still around the house.
Me and the grandkids get down in the basement and we build Minecraft creatures out of all the squares and the boxes, and then they dive into them and knock them down. But it's a lot of boxes. We can make a lot of creatures down there. Some of those things we need, right? Chewies, you need your pet food.
A lot of those things are beyond the concept of needs.
One of the first things I also thought of when I thought of teaching this and looking at my own self is during the pandemic in 2021. Right.
This is, to me, a good example of what we're talking about is toilet paper.
In 2021. Right.
So, you know, everything's fine when you're confident that there's going to be toilet paper on the shelves, but then when there's just a hint of it, no real news announcement that it's not going to be there.
A lot of people went and bought a whole lot of toilet paper, myself included.
And I, five years later, still had some of that toilet paper because it wasn't for use. Right. It was for protection against the next pandemic.
So to me, that's excessive. Right.
And that's doing it for some reason other than the fact that I needed toilet paper at that point in time. So that's a pretty good example. It's kind of simple. But I want you thinking about those boxes that you may or may not be getting and what's in them and the why behind those.
But a few things about consumerism. You're not alone. I'm not alone.
It is a growing thing in, in America, of course, and really across many, many areas, hard to see. But the green is per capita disposable income. So the green is money kind of available that is beyond your house payment, your taxes, you know, gas in your car, food on your table, things like that. So it's really that disposable income that they. They speak of that, you know, may, may or may not be a mystery.
But that's the green. The red is actual spending. And this is from 2016 to 2026, so 10 years. And you can see the spending, the pandemic effect to the spending. And then just in the last couple of years, the spending, household spending per capita for annual has, you know, crossed the line over disposable spending that's available. What closes the gap on those two up at the top?
How, how can you spend more than you, than you got available?
Yeah. Credit cards, credit in some form.
Spending down your savings. Right. If you've got savings or something like that, or home equity loan, you know, whatever it is, obviously it's, it's, it's representative of something. And of course, if we're talking needs, there's, you know, there's, there's times when you got to kind of figure out how to make credit work for you. Right. To make a loan of some sort work for you. But if we're talking about what we're talking about tonight, which is spending for another reason, then that can be a problem. We're going to talk about it. So it's growing. It's also seductive.
It is something that has addictive aspects to it. There's been studies out there about there about the dopamine surges that even in the anticipation phase is. Is, you know, a big part of it. It's like plate. You get a little hit every time you do any step of the way, right? I think, oh, I need one of those happy time. I go find it on Amazon or wherever and happy time. I push that buy now happy time, you know, and then it's getting noticed that it's on its way and then it's out there on the front porch. All those are the things that we often, you know, that kind of creates this behavior and kind of drives it over and over.
People do it for emotional regulation aspects, you know, for. They have rituals around it. Those are all the kind of things that can lead to addictive behavior. There's even the idea of tolerance and withdrawal. The fact that when we do it more often, we spend more.
It takes more spin to get the same emotional high or more boxes to kind of get the same emotional high. And we can have withdrawals when we don't do it. One study said that 1 in 20 people experience compulsive buying behavior at some point in their lives. And then 20, 21, and it all became digital, right? And it just fueled the fire of all that there was already shopping, you know, shopping addiction, so to speak. And then, you know, being able to do everything online just kind of fueled the fire. So I won't ask for a raise of hand, but consider yourself right, and think, could there be a possibility that I'm caught up in something that's a bit out of court control.
It is.
Consumerism feeds an appetite.
So if you think about what an appetite is, it's something that has to be satiated, right? It can't be satiated. I don't like that word because I can't say it very well. But it is something that we have to do repetitively, right? You can eat the largest breakfast you have ever ate in your life and you're still going to get hungry again. It might not be lunchtime, but you're going to get hungry again. It's not something that goes away. It's something that has to be, you know, it's within our control of how we meet that appetite. We have many, many appetites in our lives.
And I believe that there's an aspect to an appetite involved in consumerism.
What do you guys think that might be? Or those might be excessive spending beyond need. Why would we do that? What appetite are we feeding there?
Emotional. Yeah.
One of My improvements from last week that I have for myself was less confession, but I always got a confession to make. I mean, that rings true with me, right? That you know, sometimes when things aren't going well, that's when you look to spend, you know, and it might actually be work that it's not going well or you don't get that raise. I'm gonna go spend that money I don't have. Feel better? Yes, sir.
Envious?
Yeah.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: You see someone else have whatever it is and it's nice and whatnot, you want to go get it or make yourself feel like you have the equipment, what they have.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And where do you see that stuff usually? Where do you see that? You said you see other people's social media. Yeah, yeah. A little bit of. In the parking lot maybe, but I think it's a lot of. It's contrived, right. I mean, social media, you're only seeing one aspect of somebody's life. You know, advertisements. You know, part of, part of my New Year's resolution this year, we'll talk a little bit more about that was to not do this.
And I cannot believe the advertisements, you know, kind of seeing them through different eyes. It's like, are you kidding me? Are you telling me that I can't be happy unless I, you know, have a massive, no offense to anyone that has this.
I've got my own problems, but, you know, that has this great, fantastic four wheel drive vehicle that I would never actually desire to even take off road because I wouldn't want to scratch the paint on it. Right.
So I'm like. But it's like they're telling me that I can't live without that.
I didn't buy it, by the way, but it's out there. That's a good thought and a good question. So you got emotional regulation.
What about the toilet paper example? What appetite was being fed there?
Fear. Fear. Fear. I think fear is a big part of it, which is really. Fear of what?
Fear of what? And don't, don't get too explicit on what fear might be there for the toilet paper.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is a. What is it? What is one of words to say that what. That is the fear of not having something that you want or that you need. Yeah. What is that? What are you looking for?
Security.
Safety.
Security.
I think those kind of words we've kind of hit on them are the appetite that's being fed here. We have a desire for safety. Safety. Right. For ourselves, security. And for our kids, for those around about us.
And you Know, it's deep. It's in us, and it's deep.
But we're different, right? We're to be different. We're not to be just like the thing, the world that's around us.
If you got your Bibles, let's go to Matthew, chapter 19.
I'll give you a couple of verses while you're getting there.
Jesus in John 17 is praying for his disciples as he sends them out. This is kind of where we get that saying, we're in the world, but not of the world. We do have to be in the world. We're in the world, but we don't have to be just like the world or of the world. And then, of course, Romans 12 speaks of us not being conformed to this world. So as Christians, we're not driven. We're not to be driven by those appetites that can tend to drive us.
So Christians are not of the world. So that kind of begs the question, how do we live?
And how does God want us as Christians to live when it comes to seeking whatever it is, whatever appetite is, we're feeding through our excessive consumption. And I think Matthew 19 is one of the places we have to go. And that is the. The rich young ruler.
What do y'. All. What do y' all know about the rich young ruler? It's going to be verses 16 through 24.
If you look in there, he was doing all the other things, right? Except for how he. He built his wealth, his money. Okay, Is that what Jesus said to him? Pretty close, yeah. What did he ask Jesus? He said, teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? What good deed must I do to have eternal life? And what was Jesus's answer?
Well, what was his first answer?
Keep the commandments, Right?
So he answered the way we would answer, right? If somebody came to us and said, you know, you know, how do I pursue the things of God? We would say, go to his word, right?
Go to his commandments. Well, how did he respond to that?
I've done all that from my youth, sincerely, you know, from everything I read, he is that guy, you know, he was that kind of person that would have been known to have been one who kept the commandments. And Jesus even specifically listed them. He doesn't list covetousness, you know, which might be the one that he's addressing. So. So I will give that as a possibility of how it's happening. But he says, I've done all those things. So then why is he asking Jesus this question?
Why did he ask Jesus what do I have to do if he's been doing all those things?
Well, if he is this person who stores up and he's got all these things, even though he's doing those other things, he still has that drive.
What more do I need to do? What else can I do? How else can I. You know, you were talking about the happy time. Happy time. Like he. Yeah, not empty, but like it's. Something's missing.
Okay.
You know, God knows what our one thing is that we're not giving to him. And it's like we would almost do anything else. I will do a million of these other things. Scared of this thing. And yeah, something in him is like, striving towards, but is misguided because he's willing to do anything. But the one thing I wonder.
I agree with both of you.
I'm not implying at all that he's a consumer, right? That he's wanting to be a consumer of this. But if you came to me and said, what do I need to do to follow God? And I said, obey God's word. Go to God's word. And you said, well, I've done that. I do that. I've done that my whole life, then wouldn't it be kind of odd that you're. You're still asking?
So in a way it's that. That you said, or one of y' all said something was missing, Right? So he was there. He had done these things. But yet maybe consciously or subconsciously, he knew something was missing. Chris, did you have something?
[00:15:11] Speaker C: For me, it's my question. He says, what could be. I was trying to single it out.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:17] Speaker C: Yeah, in a sense, too. For me, it's like he was only the easy way. He doesn't want to do everything.
One thing I need to focus on the most.
But also, like, always view stuff as, like, they're always trying to catch Jesus in a sense. So, like, is he also trying to catch Jesus and have him point out which of the commandments is the most to follow? Or something like that, like sever. Just that one too similar.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Could be. Could be. I'm going to give him the credit that he is a good man who has done those things and is seeking to know. And I agree with the shortcut, kind of ask it, you know, maybe he's saying, you know, what's left for me to do?
So. And then Jesus said, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor. And then to me, when I think of it that way, it changes that sentence where it says, he went away grieving, right? He went away heartbroken.
It makes me realize or think that he was heartbroken because he really did want an answer from Jesus, and he wanted to do the thing, whatever it was, that Jesus was going to answer his question, but yet he realized, I can't do that one thing. I can't do that. I'm not, you know, I'm not that guy, so to speak. How heartbreaking is that?
So what was Jesus really saying then? That I want from you? I want you to obey the Ten Commandments or five of the Ten Commandments.
Yeah. Which. That makes the other thing a what?
There you go. There you go. That's what. That's old school, right? That's what we call. That's what the Bible calls it. Right. An idol.
That money for him was an idol.
And it's one of the most tempting idols for all of us. So before we give him a lot of grief about his idol, I got to look in the mirror at myself. And Jesus went on to tell his disciples that he spoke. And this is where he says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom.
So he is speaking in part about money, but he's really. He's talking about that rich person, right? Someone who's got a lot of security, a lot of safety, and, you know, ability within himself.
So that, to me, is kind of the answer of what God wants from us, Right? He wants us to look inside, ask the question, just like the rich young ruler did. Ask the question, hear the answer, and respond to the answer.
Hopefully not through grieving, because we can't accept it. You guys know about Ecclesiastes. Y' all can study this more on your own, but Ecclesiastes, you know, Solomon went out there and did all the things that people want to do. He even says, you know, I had. I. Whatever my heart desired, I brought it to me. I got whatever my heart desires. He would have. He would have ordered everything in the Amazon catalog, you know, that kind of. That kind of thing, and had it. If you thought it was worth having, he had already had it.
And he says, what does he say?
Meaningless, vanity, advantage. It did not serve me in any way. It did not serve the purpose. It didn't meet the need that I needed in my heart. So I think that's what God is asking of us. What does the very last verse of Ecclesiastes say?
That the whole of man is to fear God and keep his commandments. Fear God keep his commandments for this is the whole of man. Right? Yeah, Very good. So his point was make your life about God. Make your life about God and not about all these things because they're not going to last. And I've thought a lot. I think a lot. I'm much older than I used to be and I think about, you know, my kids when I'm not here, my grandkids, you guys and your kids. All the people that I love so much, you know, when I'm not around. What could I do now that could help their lives? And it's not set aside a great big trust fund, you know, that gives them money so that they can love money for the rest of their lives or they can not worry about having to have toilet paper the next.
Next time something comes around. No, that's not. It feels like that would be a great idea and it feels like it's what I want to do. But what I could really give them is a understanding of my heart for God and help them to pursue their heart for God. Their happiness is not going to come from all that money. Bible says it over and over and over that money is not going to bring happiness. Things are not going to bring happiness. So we won't look at all those verses, but they're there. What is it Jesus said?
What is it? Where does he say it?
I've got it on here somewhere. But I don't know the but he talks about life is not of the possessions.
I'll take note of that for improvement next time. Get that one down pat.
So here, here are some of the scriptures and I'll just go over these really quickly because I'd like to talk about kind of how. Get more practical about how we. How we do this. But you know, this is the parable of the sower and he talked about the seed falling on ground that gets choked out by the cares of this world. Right? That's somebody.
Excessive consumption. It's somebody so you know, that's given their heart to money or given them heart they can't find saf safety and comforting God. They find it in things.
The opposite of that sort of as he speaks in the same telling is the. You know, the seed that falls on the good soil and they. And they bear fruit and yield.
It talks about. It describes people as the children of this world.
And then he that in the same place Jesus says you cannot love God and money or mammon. You'll see if you. If you're looking your King James, which is really a concept that's bigger than just coins and dollars and money.
It's really that whole investment of a life in consumption and possessions in this world.
The one that really broke my heart, and I thought of it early was when Paul in 2 Timothy spoke about Demas, right? Who had been a helper, but deserted him in a time of need or deserted him at any time.
Why? Because he's in love with this present world.
That's what God wants from us, is to not be in love with this present world and all its makings. Which one of which is Amazon? I'm not. You know, Amazon is of this world. And in this world, right? And I'm not making. I'm not saying they're evil. I'm just saying those are the things that we gotta. We are to be different than caught up in something like this. Psalm 31. My times are in your hand. And when you look at kind of the Hebrew or the language behind that times, it's every aspect of a life from the day you're born to the day you die. Time, as well as all the things that happen to you and can happen to you.
Those are all to be wrapped up in God's hand there. You guys can look at some of those on your own, outside of the class. So I'd like to talk a little bit about maybe getting a little more practical in the next 10 minutes or so.
This kind of. There's so many places. If you look in the scripture, you'll see it, you know, what does he want from us? Set your mind on those things above.
Colossians 3. Do not love the world. The things in the world.
If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. And then it speaks about those.
But, you know, it's not about all those things of the world. The lust of the world, it's the one who does the will of God lives forever.
All right? So he wants us to choose him over things.
God wants us to choose him over things. Now, I've confessed a lot, and I could confess even more. This is not easy, especially in our world, especially in America, and especially in an affluent area. You know, you. If you don't have a lot of money in an affluent area, then you see all the affluence. You know, if you have a lot of money, you see greater affluence. You know, it's. It is a. I think you would agree with me that it is a challenge. So let's. Let's get practical. What do you guys think? What are some ways we can live that would choose God over things, particularly in the context of excessive consumption.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: The rich young ruler, the example was to give. Right. He had all of this wealth and
[00:24:14] Speaker B: told him to sell it and go and give to the poor. Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Did he mean sell it all?
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Maybe.
[00:24:19] Speaker C: Right. Like. But to give of his excess to help those of need.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: This class is technically named. I changed the name to Christians and Consumption or Consumerism or Consumerism and Christians, whichever way it was.
But it's technically named consumerism versus contribution.
And it's not contribution in the sense of putting money in the plate versus spending at Amazon. It is. I got to quit saying Amazon.
It's much bigger than Amazon.
It's not that kind of contribution. We're talking about. We're talking about doing something with the money, doing something with yourself that pursues the things of God as, you know, being a contributor in this world instead of a excessive consumer. So that's good. And that was what he told the rich young ruler to go do. Question.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: And not to take us too far off base, but are you, Are you contrasting this with materialism? Or would you say they're one in the same?
[00:25:29] Speaker B: I did, I did consider that while I was studying for the class.
If it, you know, if what I'm really talking about is materialism. I mean, it's there, right? I, I'm a little bit narrow at. And you'll see in the practical things. It's, it's. I'm narrow on excessive consumption, which is probably a part of materialism, but not the whole. That makes sense. You agree with that.
One of the things that are in my Amazon boxes are books.
And that was what on my New year's resolution was, I'm not going to buy a bunch of books this year because I looked around on my audible device and in my unlibrary. Y' all know what an unlibrary is, right? It's all the books you bought but you haven't read. It's your unlibrary. I looked at my unlibrary and I looked at my audible and I had like, you know, just guessing. I had a thousand hours worth of books that I hadn't read, you know, that'll get me through a year, you know, So I said, okay, I'm not going to buy books this year. And then I read a book or I heard about a book and I promise I have done much better, even though they've really advertised me bad on books.
Yeah. You agree?
[00:26:43] Speaker C: They agree. You know what's interesting that I, I moved I moved close to 1000 books from China to new to medicine. Ah.
So my wife said, oh, I mean, it's more than your. It's more than your whole life.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: You know, I had a. I had heard a great quote about that. That unlibrary. It's just the potential, right?
And, you know, part of me wants to say books are good. Nothing bad about books, but I definitely had a problem with books.
Odd thing is, part of this class, I saw this book and I said, you know, that I was reading it for work, and then I went and bought it without even really thinking about it. And then I show up in class with it. I got it now, and I was teaching last week and I showed them. I said, this is a book. And it was this brand new book. And I'd already been talking about how I had, you know, I made my New Year's resolution not to buy books.
That was another confession.
All right, so let's talk a little bit of some of the things. So, number one, recognize your weakness.
Our weakness, right? This is a thing with us, you know, as humans. And in fact, it goes all the way back to the garden.
This idea of idolatry, the idea of being tricked, that there are tricks out there that we have to be on watch against. You remember in the garden, right, the serpent told lies and caused, didn't cause, but gave them the opportunity to have a reason for doing the things that they did. If you go there, look at the verbs that occurred in Eve and then in Adam, right? They looked, saw that it was good.
Saw, look, looked, and saw that it was.
What does it say? A desire of the heart took, ate, gave all those verbs, all those things that are actions that they did that were working right down a path of doing the very thing that God had told them not to do. Right?
So it goes all the way back. Ephesians talks about the craftiness of the world when it comes to religious thought, even, you know, of the things of the world.
But certainly there's a lot of craftiness out there, and we have to be on guard against that for ourselves. The book I was talking about that I read, brand new, it's called Influence.
This is the new and revised edition. This guy's.
It's a really good book. He doesn't come at it from a. He's not religious at all, but he is a psychologist. But he went out and he has done all these jobs. He's been a car salesman, and he's done all these things and he's learned all these tricks and he's put them in the context of human psychology of how and why they work. And I really feel like it would be a decent read for you if you're. If you're in the consumerism, you know, excessive consumerism. And to think about what your kids are facing. You know, we talked about. Where do you see that affluence? Well, you know, the people selling things have definitely got a vested interest in you seeing their thing and you seeing it in a certain light.
And they. He talks about these in the context of kind of having buttons that get pushed and you. You almost automatically do something. Have y' all ever found yourself in that situation? I know I have, right? It's like this lady called me about this thing they had related to something, and the next thing I know, you know, we're trying to book a cruise, you know, and I've already put $200 down. We don't even want to go on the cruise. We ended up not going. But it's like, why did I do that? You ever had that? Why did I do that? You know, why didn't I just do that? That's what he talks about in that. But there's some really, really good thought in there. So I kind of put that under the context of open your eyes to the world's tricks there. You know, you can be courageous. You can.
One of the tricks that I think works really well, and he has lots of examples about it, is reciprocity. When they give you a little something and then ask for a lot back. We have this sense, God gave it to us, right? Of we want to help people, you know, people that help us. It clicks a button that, hey, there's somebody that helped me. But they know that, and they're asking for a lot more back than what they gave you. Right?
Have the courage to say, no, thanks. Do you want your sucker back? I'm not going to buy your car. You know, just be the person who kind of pushes back on that and realize that you're being not scammed. I mean, they're. They're just in business doing their thing. But a little bit of a trick.
Seek contentment. Philippians, chapter 4.
Paul speaks of the fact that, you know, he's found in whatever situation he's in that he can be content.
Content is a choice.
Content is a choice, right. Where it's not about where you're located. I've been in a hammock many times and been discontented while I was in a hammock. You know, it's not about the situation that you're in or all the things that you can have. Contentment is a choice, and it can be had in the direst of situations. I mean, that's what I believe. That's what I hear Paul saying. I see he spent a lot of time in what I would consider dire situations, and yet he says, I've been able to be content whether I abound or I'm abased. Right? Whether I'm down or whether I'm up.
Consentment is a choice. Seek it, figure it out. Listen to God's word, what he has to say about it. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5 is a good place to start. I love this.
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have. For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. That seems like a simple verse. But notice, why did he put that at the end that he said that God said, I won't forsake you. I won't forsake you. He's answering the question of why we want, why we do what we do is for our own safety. And he's saying, find that in God. And then here was the end of Ecclesiastes. We already talked about. That was my New Year's resolution. One word. Enough. I looked around, saw all the junk, and we recently had a death in our family, my wife's mother.
And you know, when you pass on, it just becomes somebody else's burden, all that stuff.
So think about this. Think about this, and think about how unimportant it really is in those relationships. Whatever it is, it's not the thing. It is not the thing. It's the.
It's the deception, right? It's the thing that looks like the thing, but it's not the thing. Wow.
All right. Practice discipline. Discipline is also a choice, right? The Bible says so much about discipline. Second to Timothy 1:7. God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, of timidity, but of love. These are three things. He put together love and power in the context of his spirit. Those are huge. And what was the third one?
Self control.
Self control, discipline. Think about it. Those three things are grouped together in one verse. The context of God's spirit that he's given us. Self control is doable.
The little things. Y' all read the book? Maybe. Atomic Habits.
Very popular. But just when you do little, when you do it a little, it builds, it grows, you know, you reap fruit. You see the reward. You see the goodness. Of it.
Every yes that you say to something is a no to something else that goes back to contribution, right? I could be doing something else with this instead of saying yes to just buying some more stuff to put over in the corner. Joshua 24:15 of course, choose you this day whom you'll serve. But as for me and my family, we'll serve the Lord.
This is replace excessive consumption with contribution. We've talked about that. But this would be a good prayer, right? As when you're about to push buy now, you know, just say, I'm going to take 24 hours before I push that button.
Spend your time thinking about what else you could do with that spend. Think about what safety you're pursuing that you're not getting out of that stuff.
Be humble. Stay in the fight. We talked about Hebrews 5, 135 that he will not desert you and exercise your faith. Do it in faith. Don't do it just to increase your savings account. Don't say, I'm not going to spend on these things because I want to get more money in my pocket. Do it based on faith. I believe that I can have safety in God that He will provide, not for me. And in fact, that's the prayer that Jesus prayed that he led us to pray, right? Daily bread. That idea of daily bread, that's not worrying about it tomorrow. And he goes on in the Sermon on the Mount continues that thought as well.
So daily bread from God. So there you go. Those are some that I thought were kind of practical ways to help with this.
Well, I appreciate y' all and reach out if you have thoughts or questions.
