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John Mark Comer TeachingsFor the Sake of the Poor (ft. Tyler Staton) | For the Sake of Others E3
John Mark Comer TeachingsFor the Sake of the Poor (ft. Tyler Staton) | For the Sake of Others E3
For the Sake of the Poor (ft. Tyler Staton) | For the Sake of Others E3
Update: 2025-03-24
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"Wealth quickly becomes destructive for those who don't respect its power."
Tyler Staton, Lead Pastor of Bridgetown Church, examines Jesus' teaching that "you cannot serve God and Mammon." He shows us how wealth promises what it can't deliver, and encourages us to defy the deformative power of money by serving the poor, practicing generosity, and dying to our false selves.
Key Scripture Passage: Matthew 6v19-24
This podcast and its episodes are paid for by The Circle, our community of monthly givers. Special thanks for this episode goes to: Deborah from Abingdon, UK; Sydney from Bothell, Washington; Elizabeth from Grapevine, Texas; Brittany from Houston, Texas; and Tim from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Thank you all so much!
If you’d like to pay it forward and contribute toward future resources, you can learn more at practicingtheway.org/give.
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Transcript
00:00:00
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:03
Hello, and welcome to the John Markoma Teachings podcast.
00:00:06
My name is Yinka Dawson, and I'm your host.
00:00:09
Each week, we feature teachings by John Mark or other voices in the formation space.
00:00:16
Today, we hear again from Tyler Staten, lead pastor Bridgetown Church, in our series, "For the sake of others."
00:00:24
And this teaching Tyler talks about the importance of generosity and living in proximity to the pool.
00:00:30
It's a powerful challenge and a culture that's so focused on status and material well-being.
00:00:37
Here's that episode.
00:00:38
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:41
Do not stir up for yourself treasures on earth.
00:00:45
We're moth and vermin destroy.
00:00:47
And we're thieves break in and steal.
00:00:49
But stir up for yourself treasures in heaven.
00:00:52
Where moths and vermin do not destroy.
00:00:55
And we're thieves do not break in and steal.
00:00:57
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
00:01:01
The eye is the lamp of the body.
00:01:03
If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
00:01:06
But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.
00:01:11
If then, the light within you is darkness.
00:01:13
How great is that darkness?
00:01:15
No one can serve two masters.
00:01:18
Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other.
00:01:23
You cannot serve both God and money.
00:01:25
This is the word of the Lord.
00:01:27
Thanks be to God.
00:01:28
This week I was catching up with Mike.
00:01:38
He's another dad from my kid's school.
00:01:41
Our son's hit it off back in kindergarten, Hank, and Frank.
00:01:44
It was meant to be.
00:01:47
And since he's grown into one of my closest friends, lots of family dinners together, a couple weekend escapes and family trips.
00:01:55
We currently coach a little league team together.
00:01:59
And so Mike and I were sipping coffee catching up, commiserating about our equally busy fall schedules with more than usual work travel.
00:02:07
And Mike's brother, Jeff, is intellectually disabled.
00:02:11
And Jeff facetimes Mike every evening, every single evening, just to talk.
00:02:19
And to miss his wild work schedule and travel and family obligations and kids activities, Mike picks up pretty much every single evening.
00:02:28
Jeff, hey, man, what's up?
00:02:30
What did you do today?
00:02:33
Mike makes time to love Jeff.
00:02:35
He makes time even when he doesn't have time.
00:02:38
Steps out of work dinners or excuses himself from meetings or just brings Jeff into wherever he happens to be.
00:02:45
He's made himself interruptible to his brother who lives for that simple ritual of connection.
00:02:51
And recently, following a week when both Mike and I were out of town and had texted one another about how much we were looking forward to just a slow Saturday, with some quality time with our kids,
00:03:03
that Saturday rolled around and Hank, Simon, Amos, and myself.
00:03:07
We all rode bikes to the baseball field to play a little bit of catch.
00:03:11
And as soon as we rode into the field, I immediately recognized the only car in the parking lot.
00:03:18
It was Mike's van.
00:03:19
And he was loading his stuff into the back.
00:03:21
And the kids were piling in the side door.
00:03:23
It was Frank.
00:03:25
And three others that I recognized.
00:03:27
Three boys from that little league team that we coached together.
00:03:31
The three boys on the team who are growing up without a father in the home for various reasons.
00:03:38
And that's how I discovered that Mike had made a humble hidden commitment to live in proximity to these three fatherless boys.
00:03:45
He had seen a need of vacancy in their lives.
00:03:49
And he simply offered himself to fill it.
00:03:51
And it wasn't some kind of savior complex.
00:03:53
He wasn't in his ends trying to become the father to them that he can never become.
00:03:58
He's not trying to live out some imagined Disney script or something like that.
00:04:02
He'd just done with them exactly what he'd practiced doing with Jeff for years, made himself available, interruptible, present, in the midst of a life that had plenty of just cause for turning in on himself and guarding and protecting his time and seeing nothing.
00:04:16
But the last week's agenda, next week's obligations and the need to hoard the Saturday's rest in order to recharge Mike is discovering for himself.
00:04:25
And he is showing me by his example the upside down principle that Jesus said so plainly centuries ago.
00:04:32
The true rest is not found in hoarding my time or orchestrating next Saturday into a parade of choice experiences.
00:04:40
True rest for my soul is found in giving my life away for the sake of others.
00:04:47
For the sake of others, that is our current teaching series in practice.
00:04:50
It's a summary phrase that we borrowed from Dr.
00:04:52
Robert Mulholland.
00:04:54
It's a point out that all true spiritual formation in the way of Jesus finds its end not in a more balanced life or more centered emotional equilibrium or even more noble characters and into itself.
00:05:05
All that happens, but it's the collateral.
00:05:08
The tip of the spear is becoming a gift of love for the sake of others.
00:05:13
In other words, the aim of all of our praying, scripturing, fasting, and solitude is to become love, a gift of other centered love, freely and humbly offered to the other people that happened to be in front of me today.
00:05:25
And the way God heals the woundedness that's in me, the way God welcomes the wanderer back home and bends the arc of the entire universe toward justice as through spiritual formation that works its way into my inner world until it is overflowing into my outer world.
00:05:41
That's the big idea.
00:05:44
And last Sunday, Bethany talked brilliantly on living for the sake of the family, the brothers and sisters who are around you right now.
00:05:51
And up for tonight, we're gonna turn our attention beyond our walls to living for the sake of the poor.
00:05:57
But we gotta get there the way Jesus does by starting internally, unwinding and untangling our secret attachments to the freedom of outward fruitfulness,
00:06:07
the grip of man, the freedom of contentment, and the imperative of proximity.
00:06:14
That's a map for where we're headed.
00:06:16
Here we go.
00:06:18
The grip of man, Jesus has a lot to say about money.
00:06:23
In the four gospels, Jesus talks about money more than any topic except for the kingdom of God.
00:06:31
Jesus talked about money three times more than love and seven times more than prayer.
00:06:34
He talked about money more than heaven or hell or eternity.
00:06:38
17 of Jesus's estimated 40 or so parables are directly about money.
00:06:43
The scholarly estimate is that about 25% of Jesus' teaching is about money.
00:06:49
And that made me curious.
00:06:50
And so this week I did a little bit of personal research and discovered that in my life as a Christian pastor, to this point, I've preached approximately 800 unique sermons.
00:07:01
And I've preached exactly seven sermons about money, how we're formed or deformed by our relationship to wealth and possessions,
00:07:11
which means that Jesus comes in at 25% of his teaching.
00:07:15
And to date, at least I've come in at just under 1% of my own, which is based entirely on the teachings of Jesus.
00:07:23
Revealing at least.
00:07:25
Number one, that I've done some dancing around this topic in the text.
00:07:29
And number two, if it's your first time here.
00:07:34
(audience laughing)
00:07:37
And a Christian pastor wearing a pop star's microphone and immediately talking about money makes you more suspicious than it does compelled.
00:07:46
I just want to ask you to give me a little bit of grace and to push past your initial reaction to curiosity about why it is that Jesus so freely talked about what in our time and culture has become so private and sensitive.
00:08:00
Because statistics show that America's among the world, the least transparent countries in terms of money, like publicizing salaries and that sort of thing.
00:08:08
Financial privacy is a really big deal in our culture.
00:08:11
Where some of the world's wealthiest people, and we also don't want anyone knowing the specifics, you don't talk about money, you just don't.
00:08:18
It's not polite.
00:08:20
Well, I should say, you don't talk about your money, but other people's money, especially those who seem to have more of it than you song, is they're not around right in front of you, critiquing their spending habits.
00:08:29
That's fair game, but my money?
00:08:32
My spending habits don't touch that.
00:08:35
You don't get it.
00:08:36
But if we're gonna take Jesus seriously, we can't sidestep this topic.
00:08:40
If we're gonna talk about the way of Jesus, at some point, we're gonna have to address the elephant in the room, the socially private uncomfortable topic that Jesus addressed very publicly and comfortably,
00:08:50
your wealth and possessions, your stuff, what you do with it, and more importantly, what it's doing to you.
00:08:59
So, return with me to Matthew, chapter six.
00:09:01
Look at the Bible that hopefully is still open in your lap.
00:09:04
I wanna read once more from verse 24.
00:09:08
No one can serve two masters.
00:09:11
Either you hate the one and love the other, or you'd be devoted to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve both God and money.
00:09:19
Now, your Bible almost certainly says money, most English translations do, but Jesus actually didn't say money.
00:09:26
Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and Maman."
00:09:29
Maman is an Aramaic word, but the New Testament is written in Greek.
00:09:34
Maman is one of only two Aramaic words that the gospel writers universally decided could not be translated from Aramaic into Greek.
00:09:44
Abba and Maman, those are the two Aramaic words that you will find in all four Gospels.
00:09:49
The revolutionary name that Jesus used to refer to God, Father, it was a scandal of intimacy, untranslatable, and Maman, the loaded name that Jesus used to refer to money,
00:10:01
a scandal of deceptive power, untranslatable.
00:10:05
All the way back in the first century, the teachers and bishops of the early church concluded that we couldn't translate Maman to money or wealth because those are neutral terms for economic currency,
00:10:17
but what Jesus has in mind here isn't just neutral, but it's a material concept that has become charged with demonic power.
00:10:27
That's what Maman is.
00:10:29
It is material wealth charged with demonic power to deceive.
00:10:34
I know.
00:10:36
I know.
00:10:38
You're a post-enlightenment Westerner who doesn't believe in all that Hocus Pocus.
00:10:42
Sure, just hang in there, follow Jesus's train of thought before you pass judgment on it.
00:10:49
Modern anthropology indicates that money is more than just economic organization.
00:10:55
It has unique power over human behavior.
00:10:59
For instance, researcher Franz DeWall of the psychology department of Emory University conducted this really interesting experiment where he trained monkeys to use pebbles as a form of currency by trading them cucumber slices in exchange for a certain number of the pebbles.
00:11:16
All the monkeys caught on and were very happy with this arrangement until DeWall started to give some monkeys grapes and others cucumbers in exchange for the same payment.
00:11:28
Then the cucumber monkey started losing their tempers, throwing the cucumber slices back at the trainers, somewhere rattling their cages and screaming at the injustice.
00:11:38
So money works just fine until there was an imbalance, until it seemed that some had more and others had less than there were scales of plenty and poverty to be grappled with.
00:11:49
That's when money started to dictate the behavior of these primates.
00:11:54
Jesus says something like that applies to people too, but he also goes a step further than that.
00:11:59
According to Jesus, Maman is a force that could master a person every bit as completely as God.
00:12:07
So Maman is more than money.
00:12:09
It is an anti-god that finds its power in money and seeks to deceive, warp, and ultimately master its devoted worshippers.
00:12:17
And this idea, demonic deceptive power, forcefully occupying a person or a system or a material object, may seem foreign or even primitive to you,
00:12:28
but it's actually quite common in Jesus' teaching and in the biblical imagination.
00:12:34
Take, for example, Luke chapter 10.
00:12:36
There's this really well-known moment where Jesus sends out his 72 closest followers to by two to the towns ahead of him where he's going to go teach.
00:12:43
They're going to Canvas before he gets there.
00:12:45
This is just good leadership.
00:12:47
It's savvy political strategy.
00:12:49
And then they come back all hyped about how well it went, even the demons submit to us in your name.
00:12:56
And Jesus says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
00:13:00
Do not rejoice that the spirit submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
00:13:06
At first glance, it's really comforting.
00:13:08
Don't get excited about God's power poured through you.
00:13:11
Get excited about God's love given to you.
00:13:14
That's the sentiment.
00:13:15
That's what Jesus is saying, right?
00:13:18
And he is saying that, but that's not all that Jesus is saying.
00:13:23
Check this out.
00:13:25
Jesus, when he said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
00:13:28
He was directly quoting Isaiah chapter 14 to a group of people that grew up memorizing Isaiah's prophecies, like you grew up memorizing multiplication tables.
00:13:36
Only in Isaiah, this is not about the fall of Satan.
00:13:39
It's about the fall of Babylon.
00:13:41
A nation that was actively and systemically oppressing Israel forcefully assimilating them to new cultural norms in an intelligent attempt to wipe away Yahweh's unique care for Israel from their collective memory.
00:13:55
So here in Luke 10, when Jesus quotes Isaiah 14, is he talking about Satan or Babylon?
00:14:04
Is he talking about an actual nation that is inflicting ethnic oppression, or is he talking about a demonic enemy that's inflicting spiritual oppression?
00:14:13
Is he talking about a dark spiritual power or a human socioeconomic power?
00:14:17
Say it again.
00:14:19
Yes.
00:14:20
Yes.
00:14:21
He's talking about an earthly system that's become charged with demonic power to master its devoted worshipers.
00:14:27
And that's what Maman is.
00:14:29
It's money.
00:14:30
Only money doesn't do it justice.
00:14:32
Maman, it would seem, is the great, culturally worshiped anti-god of Jesus' day and ours.
00:14:41
Psalm 115 says, our God is in heaven.
00:14:44
He does whatever pleases him.
00:14:46
But their idols are made with silver and gold by human hands.
00:14:50
They have mouths, but cannot speak eyes, but cannot see.
00:14:53
They have ears, but cannot hear noses, but cannot smell.
00:14:56
They've got hands, but cannot feel feet, but cannot walk.
00:14:59
Nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
00:15:01
Those who make them will become like them.
00:15:05
So will all who trust in them.
00:15:08
See, this is an ancient prayer that claims, God is free.
00:15:12
But there are things here on this earth-- material things of our own making-- that master those who are devoted to them.
00:15:19
And when they do, they recreate people in their inhuman image, meaning they rob you of the divine immogoday and printed on your soul at first and take away your freedom.
00:15:30
Jesus says, that's what manliness.
00:15:32
It's money, but it's a whole lot more than just money.
00:15:35
Because we just can't help ourselves.
00:15:37
Over the course of cultures and generations, we have worshipped money in such a way that it has gained power to master you and God.
00:15:47
They say a true friend is someone that will help you move.
00:15:51
And by that metric, I guess Kaiser's the best friend I've ever had, because he's helped me move on three separate occasions.
00:15:59
Never once was it fun, but I will never forget the first time.
00:16:03
The first apartment that Christian and I moved into after getting married was a 450-square-foot apartment and a super-CD building on a very sketchy block in Lower Manhattan.
00:16:14
And we found this comfy plush leather couch that we were so excited about, only there was one problem.
00:16:20
The couches dimensions were exactly one inch more narrow than the stairwell leading up to the third floor apartment that we were moving into, and there was no elevator in the building.
00:16:31
And so Kaiser and I turned this couch exactly vertically and wedged it up step by step, adding quite a lot of character to the leather as we made our way to our apartment door.
00:16:45
Kaiser then helped me squeeze that couch back down a couple of years later.
00:16:49
Two years after that, we carried the couch again from another you all up a different flat of stairs.
00:16:54
This time it was in Brooklyn.
00:16:55
And when Kay and I moved out of that place, we were slightly more financially established.
00:17:00
And for the first time in our lives, we hired a moving company.
00:17:05
And do you know what I remember about that move?
00:17:08
Nothing.
00:17:10
No sweating, no swearing, no u-halls, and memories, and smash fingers, and aching backs.
00:17:15
And thank you so much.
00:17:16
I can't believe you'd helped me.
00:17:17
I'm so sorry to ask again.
00:17:19
Instead, I just handed over the money, went out to breakfast, and then showed up later when there were boxes to unpack.
00:17:27
What had previously required group texts and planning and requests that I was aware would inconvenience my friends now just cost me a few hundred bucks in a bacon egg and cheese bagel.
00:17:38
And that's what money affords us, the ability to get what we want without entanglement of relationship.
00:17:48
All the way back in Genesis, the first problem noted in God's very good creation in the garden is it is not good for the human to be alone.
00:17:57
That's straight from the mouth of God, and it's in paradise before sin.
00:18:03
So life in community, dependent on other people, is a feature of God's full flourishing life, not a bug.
00:18:14
The second problem noted in the garden was the intrusion of a lie from the mouth, not of God, but of a cunning deceiver.
00:18:20
Does anyone remember that lie?
00:18:23
You will be like God.
00:18:26
You will become greater.
00:18:27
You'll become more.
00:18:27
You'll become independent.
00:18:29
You'll be without want or need, without reliance on God or others.
00:18:33
You can be your own provider.
00:18:35
A lie is so deceptive that it mastered all of creation.
00:18:39
Andy Krauch who writes brilliantly on this in his latest book says, "The distinctive thing that money allows us, its most seductive promise, is abundance without dependence.
00:18:51
It's getting what I want by my own means, living without lack, apart from entangling myself in relationship to God or community or anybody else.
00:19:01
Maman makes a promise to us that it can't keep.
00:19:04
Abundance without dependence.
00:19:06
Hang on.
00:19:08
What was the lie that infected all of creation again?
00:19:11
You will be like God, like God, as in you will be abundant without dependence.
00:19:19
And those who believe this lie find themselves in the most ancient of tragic cycles I reach for the promise and I suddenly find myself naked and ashamed.
00:19:27
No amount of reaching, no amount of accumulating will make me feel clothed, secure, satisfied enough.
00:19:33
A promise to make me more just keeps on making me less.
00:19:37
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, David famously prayed.
00:19:43
But if Maman is my shepherd, then I reach for what God wants to give me without entangling myself in relationship to God and find that with every taste, the one I'm trying to satisfy only grows stronger.
00:19:55
And that's what Jesus is getting at.
00:19:57
It's why Maman is a whole lot more than just economic organization, but it's material things become infected by the serpent's lie.
00:20:05
Because money can be-- it doesn't have to be, but it can be a means of reaching for the forbidden fruit over and over again, reaching and grasping in concert with the serpent's lie rather than God's blessing.
00:20:20
Money, according to Jesus, is not just a thing or an economic organization system.
00:20:26
It's something more like a will at work in history.
00:20:31
And what it wants above everything else is to separate abundance from dependence, people from the very relationship to one another that God blessed and said,
00:20:41
this is the fruitful full kind of life.
00:20:43
It's the illusion of getting me what I want without entangling me in relationship to anybody else.
00:20:50
Andy Crouch concludes, God wishes to put all things into the service of persons and ultimately to bring forth flourishing of creation through the flourishing of persons.
00:21:00
Maman wants to put all persons into the service of things and ultimately to bring about the exploitation of all creation.
00:21:09
In the early 12th century, two monastic orders grew up in Spain right alongside the local church, the Franciscans and the Dominicans named for their founders, Francis and Dominic.
00:21:20
Interestingly, both of these orders included some form of a vow to poverty, which was an entirely new concept in church history.
00:21:30
So why now, 1,200 years into the way of Jesus, would a couple of priests start inventing new spiritual practices?
00:21:39
What was going on in the world that would call for an addition to the ancient way?
00:21:45
Well, one historian knows that these two orders emerged at the precise moment in history when the surrounding culture was making a widespread shift from a trade economy to a money economy.
00:21:57
Meaning instead of, hey, I'll trade you my goat for some of your wheat harvest, it was all the sudden everything has a price tag and it's possible to save and to build up wealth,
00:22:07
which produced a ton of good in the world and which also made building bigger barns to store up a little bit of extra for me and mine a deception that Jesus directly warned us against,
00:22:18
not just possible for the uber well-off, but common among the majority of society.
00:22:24
And it was then that those who took the formation of their souls seriously said, felt identification with the poor in a way that touches my bank account and dilutes the power of money is absolutely essential for me to keep and step with the spirit and a cultural landscape like this one.
00:22:41
And if bigger barns was common then, what is it now?
00:22:46
I mean, if the grip of Maman was tightening around the church of Francis and Dominic's time, it is suffocating the church of the 21st century West.
00:22:58
Just a single generation ago, the Theologian Francis Schaefer predicted the two idols were going to creep in and corrupt the church during the time that you and I are currently living in and they would be affluence and personal peace.
00:23:11
No, if there's nothing wrong with possessions, there's certainly nothing wrong with an internal sense of personal peace unless you devote yourself to them.
00:23:22
When they become a way for you to grasp for abundance without dependence then they both can deform you.
00:23:29
What does that look like?
00:23:30
It looks like this, personal peace.
00:23:32
The world around me is crazy.
00:23:34
What's going on in our city?
00:23:36
Our policies are entirely out of whack.
00:23:38
The economy is unstable.
00:23:40
I mean, how long until this inflation turns into recession and the recession could turn into depression.
00:23:46
Our political system is a total reality show.
00:23:49
The world outside of me is out of control.
00:23:51
So I'll control the little world inside of me.
00:23:55
I'll have the perfect weekly rhythm and an untouchable, uninterruptible ritual of weekend rest.
00:24:01
I'll have a stable center that I achieve not by supernatural peace given to me through the spirit and the midst of the chaos, but rather by personal peace that I give myself through control and retreating from the chaos or affluence.
00:24:16
Hey, I've got enough for me and a rainy day.
00:24:19
I've stored up more than enough.
00:24:21
So if something happens to me, I don't need you.
00:24:25
I've got abundance without dependence.
00:24:28
No, there's nothing wrong with affluence.
00:24:30
There's nothing wrong with peace.
00:24:33
But when those who claim to be following the narrow way of Jesus and an honest assessment of their relationship to Maman, find themselves walking more or less in the same direction at the same pace as everybody else,
00:24:48
a warning light should be blinking.
00:24:52
And so it's worth honestly asking yourself, when I think about the core practices for following Jesus, the formation and deformation of my soul, how seriously do I take my habits of wanting,
00:25:04
seeking, and acquiring material goods?
00:25:08
Do I think of these things which are so common in the American way of thinking, as charged with demonic power to deform my soul unparalleled by any other force in our world,
00:25:21
masquerading as neutral?
00:25:23
Because if Jesus is your rabbi, his very direct teaching is the acquisition of wealth and possessions is not wrong.
00:25:30
But it is fire that you're playing with there.
00:25:38
And as my children make very clear, every time we roast s'mores, fire quickly becomes destructive for those who don't respect its power.
00:25:47
There's nothing evil about money.
00:25:53
There's nothing inherently shameful or noble with having a lot of it or a little of it.
00:25:57
But Maman does have a unique pull toward devotion, and all who use money to try to master their world are in the enmastered by it.
00:26:04
Those who make them become like them, lifeless, breathless, the image of God breathes into you at first strangled out of you by the tightening grip of Maman.
00:26:14
So what if instead of seeking the abundance I want through Maman's lie, I were to trace that desire to its root and point it instead of the God who put it in me first,
00:26:24
who loves me, and who delights to see me flourish?
00:26:27
What would it mean for me to trace that desire, that my desire for protection or provision or significance, my desire for safety or satisfaction or freedom or rest, to trace it to its root and to ask God to provide for me through dependence,
00:26:43
the very abundance that I feel tempted to seek through independence?
00:26:49
I've learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.
00:26:53
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.
00:26:56
I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
00:27:03
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
00:27:08
My fourth grade public school classroom had a poster with bugs bunny dunking a basketball, and it said this next to it, I can do all things through him who gives me strength,
00:27:20
which is actually the Apostle Paul's conclusion to a letter about joy written from the confinement of a prison cell, and it had nothing to do with achievement.
00:27:33
It's about contentment.
00:27:35
It's about a freedom from materialism.
00:27:37
The content or those whose joy does not rise and fall based on the acquisition, but instead they have trained themselves to point their wanting to the source of living water who will finally and fully quench their thirst.
00:27:51
And contentment is the base from which I can freely love others.
00:27:55
What do I mean?
00:27:57
I mean, the contentment means that Friday night's dinner can actually be about the company across the dinner table from because I'm not itching to order another round because I don't need this indulgence to escape from the week that I just had.
00:28:09
Contentment means that a friend's essence to a bigger office or a bigger home or a bigger reputation doesn't threaten me, but the lights mean because I don't have to stand an inch taller than you to feel like I'm enough.
00:28:20
Contentment means a day that unfolds perfectly according to plan is actually not objectively superior to a day fraught with disruption because I've learned to let go of control and become present and attentive.
00:28:33
And this takes us from the grip of manman to the freedom of contentment.
00:28:38
I got in your jacket this past week.
00:28:42
Well, sort of.
00:28:44
It was Monday morning.
00:28:45
I was racing to get out the door on time.
00:28:47
So I just reached into the closet and I grabbed the hanger that was in the back and hanging on it was a jacket that I've not worn in so long.
00:28:55
I forgot that I even owned it.
00:28:57
Does that ever happen to you?
00:28:58
And then later, mid-morning, I happened to walk into the restroom and I glimpsed myself in the mirror and I couldn't help but notice I was looking particularly fresh.
00:29:08
Like new jacket in the early autumn fresh.
00:29:14
And in that ordinary moment, the newness of something old, I thought about how much of my life, how much of my mental energy, is spent in wanting, seeking, and acquiring?
00:29:25
Wanting, seeking, and acquiring.
00:29:26
That's a three-part summary to the artificial sense of discontent that ma'man deceptively lulls us into.
00:29:33
Wanting is just the temperature of the water in a consumerist culture like ours.
00:29:37
We have been trained by the modern economy to want so much that we don't need.
00:29:43
Seeking is the rush of the hunt.
00:29:46
It's the Google search for what I want.
00:29:49
A new brewery to visit next weekend, a new device, new car, new wardrobe, new home, newly remodel kitchen, new jacket for the suddenly crisp autumn evenings.
00:29:58
Not because I need any of it, but because the dopamine rush of wanting has sent me on the thrill of seeking.
00:30:05
Acquiring is both the best part and the worst part.
00:30:09
Taring open the package, trying it on, the first drive, first bite, first sip, first day of vacation, the satisfaction that passes like a thief in the night.
00:30:20
I finally got what I was seeking, but the rush of the chase lasted a whole lot longer than the satisfaction of the acquisition.
00:30:27
And that's when the cycle starts all over again.
00:30:30
First Timothy 6 on the contrary makes this startling claim, but godliness with contentment is great gain.
00:30:39
For the love of money, read the devotion to man man is a root of all kinds of evil.
00:30:44
Some people eager for money have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs.
00:30:50
In other words, true riches are not found in the acquisition, or in less acquisition, but rather freedom from wanting the first place.
00:30:59
This vicious cycle of being culturally discipled and it wounds us.
00:31:02
It causes us many griefs and to die many deaths over the course of our lives.
00:31:07
If you have an abundance of possessions, and if you're a 21st century American living in the greater Portland area, there's an overwhelmingly strong chance that you do globally speaking.
00:31:19
If you have an abundance of wealth and possessions, have you ever considered the possibility that the material discontent you're living with at present might just be the spirit's greatest invitation for the formation of your soul?
00:31:35
Have you considered the possibility that learning to live content without acquiring what I want might be the pathway to my actual satisfaction?
00:31:46
The god has in mind to give me a greater gift than the one I want to give myself through acquisition.
00:31:55
I'm talking to you about the house that you live in right now that's too small or in the wrong part of town or the wrong school district.
00:32:01
Might that be the spirit's invitation to great gain?
00:32:06
Or the position of the company with no status in a modest salary?
00:32:11
Could that be the spirit's invitation to great gain?
00:32:15
The old car that you can't stand driving, the wardrobe that you're tired of wearing, the grocery budget that's got you pinching to the last penny, the old computer that won't sink with your new device or just the thing you want that you're choosing not to get or not to get right now?
00:32:29
Might that be the spirit's invitation to great gain?
00:32:34
Now hear me again, there is nothing evil about money in and of itself.
00:32:40
There is nothing inherently shameful or noble with having a lot or a little of it, but Maman does have a unique fall toward devotion and those who use money to try to master their world are inevitably in the enmastered by it.
00:32:53
All spiritual practice is about freeing me to contentment because contentment is the foundation from which I can love others and the conditions that God uses to free me to that include training in contentment by the wants that I have but willfully choose not to gratify or not to gratify right now and training in contentment through intentional relationship to people whose need happens to intersect with my resources.
00:33:25
Contentment is why proximity to the poor is an irreplaceable essential in the spiritual formation of every disciple because in meshing oneself into relationship with the poor is a direct attack on the grip of Maman.
00:33:38
The poor is the one from whom I've got nothing to gain.
00:33:43
Nothing to gain, relationally, monetarily, productively.
00:33:47
They're the one who is a complete waste of my time and energy if life is all about me.
00:33:54
Therefore it is the poor who can awaken me to the great freedom that life is in fact a grand drama with Jesus at the center, not me.
00:34:05
And that's why people often begin service to the poor, thinking, oh man, I signed up for this in a moment of inspiration and now that it's actually coming up, I don't have the time for this, I should cancel, it's going to look awful if I cancel and then,
00:34:17
and then they leave that very service opportunity feeling more free in a life than they felt in months.
00:34:23
Why is that?
00:34:24
Because Maman's losing its grip on you.
00:34:26
The disciple of Jesus needs to live proximate to the poor.
00:34:31
We must never lose the perspective of life through the eyes of the needy because of course, all of us are them.
00:34:38
We are all without abundance apart from dependence.
00:34:46
And so we remain close to the poor.
00:34:47
Not first of all for their sex before our own, because apart from the obligation of time and energy spent on loving others that does not directly or indirectly come back around to benefit me,
00:34:58
I cannot learn the potent secret of freeing contentment.
00:35:03
And so finally family, we're going to land with the imperative of proximity.
00:35:09
I've been really challenged by Mike this fall.
00:35:14
Challenged in a good way.
00:35:16
Just by nearness to his life, I can feel this longing for holiness pulled to the surface of mine.
00:35:23
Because both of us have way too much going on.
00:35:26
Work and travel and obligations and coaching little league.
00:35:29
But in the midst of all that, Mike is finding ways to remain interruptible to his neediest family member and to remain proximate to those few boys whose needs happen to intersect with his resources.
00:35:41
Is he contentment is something that's experienced personally, but it's cultivated relationally.
00:35:46
The ultimate issue with Maman is that it gets in the way of love.
00:35:51
The way of Jesus is completely rooted in God, but it is not exclusively oriented toward God.
00:35:58
Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, absolutely, and a second command is just like it.
00:36:04
Love your neighbor as yourself.
00:36:06
Meaning one of the ways that I practice devotion to God is by freely loving others.
00:36:10
Meaning one of the ways that I give love to God is not by giving it back to him, but by paying forward the extravagant love I receive from him to the other people around me.
00:36:21
In fact, Jesus' primary critique of the Pharisees, the priest of his day, was that their spiritual formation boiled down to a lack of proximity to the poor.
00:36:31
These priests had invented a way of religious devotion that did not include proximity to those from whom they had nothing to gain and everything to give, which made them the very people for whom they had nothing to give and everything to gain.
00:36:45
Luke is the one other gospel writer that records Jesus' teaching that we read from Matthew as our teaching text tonight, and Luke's version sounds like this.
00:36:54
No one can serve two masters either you hate the one and love the other, you'd be devoted to the one and despise the other, you cannot serve both God and money.
00:37:01
That's just not familiar.
00:37:03
The very next verse, the Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.
00:37:13
They've invented a false version of spiritual piety that includes robust spiritual praxis for a disciple of Jesus.
00:37:20
They're reading scripture, they're praying, they're practicing Sabbath, they're fasting, while also wanting, seeking and acquiring just like any other disciple of Maman.
00:37:29
In short, they're trying to serve two masters, which Jesus says is a fundamental impossibility.
00:37:35
Jesus' teaching on Maman flows from the context of proximity to the poor.
00:37:40
This whole two masters teaching that we're reading, it's a part of a larger block of Jesus' teaching, and if you want to see the context that he drops this little nugget in, just look back down to your Bible and trace up to the top of chapter six,
00:37:55
which says, "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do and the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by others.
00:38:03
Truly I tell you, they have received the reward and full.
00:38:06
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be done in secret.
00:38:13
Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
00:38:18
So Jesus just assumes that you and I are going to be stewarding our resources on behalf of the needs of other people around us.
00:38:25
When you give, he says it twice, never if you give.
00:38:29
And Jesus drops this dime about the unique danger that Maman poses to your soul in a larger block of teaching where he's schooling us on serving the poor.
00:38:38
Then your father, who sees what's done in secret, will reward you.
00:38:42
Is this manipulation by God?
00:38:45
Like is this some sort of divine reward system where he's saying, hey, if you help out some of my less fortunate children, then I'll make sure that you get yours too.
00:38:53
No, this is fruitfulness.
00:38:56
It's the natural outworking of a life that is well fully and sacrificially planted, proximate to the needs of others.
00:39:04
Psalm 112 says the same thing.
00:39:06
Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.
00:39:12
What kind of good?
00:39:14
Surely the righteous will never be shaken.
00:39:16
They'll be remembered forever.
00:39:18
They will have no fear of bad news.
00:39:21
Their hearts are steadfast trusting in the Lord.
00:39:24
So here's the fruit that buds on the branches of those who rub shoulders with the poor, who freely give away, all that they freely received.
00:39:31
They'll be unshaken by changing circumstances in their lives.
00:39:35
They'll be provided for in each change of season.
00:39:38
They'll be remembered without even actually trying to make a name for themselves.
00:39:42
And they will have no fear of bad news.
00:39:45
They will be a non-anxious presence in an anxious culture.
00:39:48
Do you know what that sounds like to me?
00:39:51
It sounds a whole lot like affluence in personal peace.
00:39:55
It sounds like the very things that we desire deepest are found not in devoting myself to a false pursuit, but rather in reckless devotion to the God who is my master.
00:40:07
Like that which Maman promises but cannot deliver is freely given to me by Abba.
00:40:13
God is not telling us what he's willing to give us if we do something for him.
00:40:17
He is telling us the fruit that grows on the branches of a life that is devoted for the sake of others.
00:40:23
Jesus is diagnosis of the grip of Maman is stinging.
00:40:28
But equally clear, Jesus is pathway to the freedom of contentment.
00:40:31
It goes something like this.
00:40:33
Self-denial meaning internal resistance to the vicious cycle of my wants.
00:40:39
And proximity to the poor, external engagement with those whose needs happened intersect with my resources together, train me in the freedom of contentment.
00:40:50
And the practice of self-denial when it comes to wealth and possessions is called generosity.
00:40:56
With Jesus, the generous stewardship of wealth and possessions for the sake of others comes with freedom and not with prescription, meaning that you really do have God-given agency when it comes to whom and what you give of your income.
00:41:11
And you've also been given the Holy Spirit as your guide for that.
00:41:14
And with Jesus, the generous stewardship of all of my wealth and possessions is unapologetically radical.
00:41:21
In the broader context of the sermon on the Mount, which we are reading from tonight, Jesus is using a pattern in his teaching.
00:41:29
He's referring back to Old Testament laws and then he's raising the bar every single time.
00:41:33
He's giving you freedom and calling you to more radical obedience, both at the same time.
00:41:39
And so it certainly seems like here when it comes to generosity that Jesus is suggesting that tithing, which is freely giving away 10% of each paycheck, with particular attention to the local church and the poor,
00:41:52
is the training wheels for how we grow in his apprentices, how that were meant to mature beyond.
00:41:58
It's not the max that we're supposed to one day hit.
00:42:02
And so personally, I've been really helped by Ron Sider's suggestion of the practice of a graduated tithe.
00:42:08
He suggests, set a standard of living that you think is reasonable, based on your life stage obligations, opportunities, all that stuff, like budget all your expenses, your necessities,
00:42:18
your rainy day, your savings, included 10% tithe in there and live frugally based on that budget.
00:42:24
Then, whatever you've got leftover after that, give away a 10% chunk of that leftover amount too.
00:42:32
It's what he calls a graduated tithe.
00:42:34
And it is one way to begin practicing moving beyond tithing to the radical invitation of generosity in the way of Jesus.
00:42:44
Acts chapter four, when documenting the common practice of the early church, concludes that very regularly, people in different life scenarios would take and steward what they have,
00:42:56
freely giving it to others within the community to meet their needs.
00:43:01
Have you ever considered the possibility that the only reason God allowed the plenty that you find yourself possessing tonight to fall into your hands was that you might find freedom and joy by sharing it with others,
00:43:17
by giving it away.
00:43:19
And look, I am fully aware that the church's ancient and recent history is far from unstained when it comes to financial corruption.
00:43:30
Again, I'm aware that for some, when a pastor wearing a pop stars microphone starts talking about money, you narrow your eyes and suspicion rather than your soul swelling with a compelling invitation.
00:43:45
And I am unapologetically talking about this as an essential for the freedom of your soul, because Jesus is my rabbi.
00:43:54
And he unapologetically talks about this as an essential for the freedom of your soul in mind.
00:44:00
So if giving to this church trips you up, no problem.
00:44:04
Find a different local church or an organization meeting the needs of the neighbors that are around you right now and start giving to them.
00:44:11
But don't miss out on the freedom of contentment because of suspicion about the recipient.
00:44:16
Find someone somewhere that you trust and begin to practice generosity.
00:44:21
And then secondly, proximity to the poor as a regular and committed practice is typically called service.
00:44:27
And with Jesus' service is always relational.
00:44:29
It's never transactional.
00:44:31
Many the end goal of service is not service provider has now met a tangible need for service recipient.
00:44:38
Rather, it is the elimination of the categories of service provider and service recipient.
00:44:43
And the restored categories of brother and sister will we find ourselves as one in the new family of Jesus.
00:44:49
The end goal is kinship.
00:44:51
And we're going to get more into that in the weeks to come.
00:44:53
So for tonight, let me just say this much.
00:44:56
If you're not serving somewhere regularly, you are in danger of the grip of a man.
00:45:02
So find a people to serve where you are resources.
00:45:06
I'm talking about your time, your energy, your finances, your skill set, your resources, match the needs of others, show up, and then keep showing up.
00:45:16
Our website is full of justice partners and service opportunities that can help you with that if you're looking for help with it.
00:45:23
And if you're already serving, then show up relationally and prayerfully.
00:45:27
Learn some names, become curious, seek to get beyond a compartmentalized block of time and energy and into authentic relationship.
00:45:36
So often, we mistake service as something that's waiting on margin.
00:45:41
I'm going to be able to fit this into my life as soon as I get through this particularly hectic season.
00:45:45
When the truth is, that service produces freedom right in the midst of the particularly hectic season I'm living in today.
00:45:53
So if you're in a Bridgestion community, you're already practicing service monthly.
00:45:57
If you're not in a Bridgestion community, the way in is through basics.
00:45:59
It's a two session course.
00:46:01
It started this afternoon.
00:46:02
It happened like right before this.
00:46:04
But I've made a habit of showing up late to everything all the time for my whole life up to this point.
00:46:08
So it's probably going to work out if you just show up next week.
00:46:11
And if you're not ready to commit to a Bridgestion community, then you should check out our four session practicing the way courses on Wednesday nights.
00:46:18
We started one just this past Wednesday on, wait for it, generosity.
00:46:25
And you can still sign up online and join in.
00:46:30
So in a land where we started back to that Saturday afternoon, I was riding my bike with my kids up to the baseball field.
00:46:39
And there was one van in the parking lot.
00:46:41
It was mics.
00:46:44
And there was four boys piling into the side door.
00:46:46
That picture, it's just frozen in my mind.
00:46:53
It's a compelling picture.
00:46:54
It is the compelling picture that I need at this moment in my life precisely because it's so ordinary, so hidden, so small.
00:47:05
It's less like walking through a vineyard during harvest season and gazing and all the lush fruit on every fine.
00:47:13
And it's more like gazing at a little seed that I'm holding in the palm of my hand, just wondering, huh, this is it.
00:47:23
This is really what it looks like.
00:47:26
A seed dies.
00:47:30
A person dies to themselves.
00:47:32
Dies to their want.
00:47:34
Dies to the lie.
00:47:36
And then the craziest thing happens.
00:47:39
That seed produces a whole lot more by dying than it ever did by living.
00:47:43
It shoots up from the soil.
00:47:45
Like a healthy plant scattering many more seeds with the potential of life all over a corrupted creation.
00:47:52
That van on that Saturday, it's a seed that I'm still holding, looking in the palm of my hand.
00:47:59
This is it, isn't it, God?
00:48:06
This is what it looks like.
00:48:08
This is how you want to heal my soul.
00:48:11
This is how you want to set me free.
00:48:15
And this is how you want to renew the whole world.
00:48:17
I love how Tyler ends this teaching with this deep, kingdom,
00:48:28
truth that we see nowhere more clearly than the cross and resurrection.
00:48:32
Their life comes through death.
00:48:35
This death to self, the denial of our wants, desires, and even needs is unavoidable for the disciple of Jesus.
00:48:43
And it's especially important for an area like money.
00:48:47
But one thing that's helpful when confronted with this message of self-denial is to remember that surrender is both a decision and a process.
00:48:55
It's a decision because we can choose right here and now to surrender.
00:49:00
But it's also a process since it's by deciding over and over again that makes space for God to change our hearts into those whom surrender is a joy.
00:49:11
So if you're feeling daunted by Tyler's invitation to self-denial, I just want to make space for a moment of surrender for you, particularly if you feel like generosity is a growth area or upstream.
00:49:23
So if you'd like, take a deep breath with me.
00:49:27
In the end of offering a question here, I just want to make space for you to share your heart with God and decide for him to surrender in you.
00:49:37
Whatever that looks like for you, I'll leave half a minute for that and close with amen.
00:49:43
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:49:46
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:49:49
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:49:52
Amen.
00:49:53
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:49:56
Amen.
00:50:15
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:50:18
Thanks for listening.
00:50:27
This podcast is from Practice in the Way.
00:50:29
We develop resources to help churches and small groups apprentice in the way of Jesus.
00:50:35
If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a rating or review and help others find us.
00:50:40
We're a crowd-funded non-profits so everything we make is completely free, because it's already been paid for by the circle, our community of monthly givers.
00:50:50
Special thanks today goes to Deborah from Abundin, UK.
00:50:54
Sydney U from Buffalo, Washington.
00:50:56
Elizabeth from grapevine, Texas.
00:50:59
Brittany from Houston, Texas.
00:51:01
And Tim from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
00:51:04
Thank you all very much.
00:51:06
To join these friends in the circle, or learn more of our resources, visit practiceintheway.org.
00:51:13
Until next time, we go in peace to love and serve the word.
00:51:19
(upbeat music)
00:51:21
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