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He Who Dies with the Most Toys Still Dies
The Treasure Principle (4 of 6):
God’s Wisdom for Living in a Material World
Pastor Dan Sarkipato
Luke 16:1-15 |
In Loving Memory of
Pete
You were unfairly taken from us on March 30, 2001. I tried to get to you before the end but failed. I wish I had those last days to do over again but I don't and I can't and I'm sorry. I always marveled at how you conducted your life. You were always on the edge. Always trying to get the most fun out of life. I told you to slow down and give some thought to planning for your later years. Thankfully, you ignored my advice. You always said "He who dies with the most toys wins". YOU WON!!! Love ya Bro
Your "much" younger brother. |
Is this true?
Come on a ride with me… to a landfill…Junkyard, landfill: “The final resting place for the things in our lives. Sooner or later, everything we own ends up here. Christmas and birthday presents. Cars, boats, and hot tubs. Clothes, and stereos, and barbeques. The treasures that children quarreled about, friendships were lost over, honesty was sacrificed for, and marriages broke up over—all end up here.” p. 47
When we die, we don’t “win” if we have accumulated a lot of stuff.
We move into eternity, but our toys stay behind.
Our present life is like a dot. It begins. It ends. It is brief. But, from that dot comes a line that extends forever. That line represents eternity, where believers will spend their time in heaven [and, the renewed earth].
We are in the dot right now.
But the line extends before us—eternity.
What will those years be like?
This morning we want to focus on this:
How you live now matters for all eternity.
Most people don’t think much about eternity; …
Most people live for today.
We are going to read a story Jesus told in order to force us to look ahead and think about eternity. A story about a guy about to get fired for embezzlement and mismanagement.
Jesus speaks through the story of a business man:
I think he worked for a Jewish company called Enron…
He tells this story for a very specific reason…
Read Luke 16:1-15…
Story begins:
He was in trouble. He is accused of mismanagement; and apparently there is a basis for the accusation, because he starts to take some action based upon the assumption of verse 4, “when I lose my job”; not IF I lose my job, but when.
When you are about to lose your job, your means of support, your livelihood, it gets your attention! Your whole life and lifestyle are up for grabs. You don’t know what is going to happen. Fear, maybe even panic set in. Can’t sleep at night. Stomach starts to bother you.
We’ve been through more than our share of that in our area in recent years; some going through it right now.
We know what it’s like to be in the position of being let go, losing a job.
This guy had the further problem that he is being fired for mismanagement.
Who would hire him?
What does he do?
He considered his options. He doesn’t have many:
He is not cut out for manual labor like digging wells.
He is too prideful to resort to begging.
The options look pretty bleak.
Still he has to look ahead. And here is were things get interesting.
He planned for his future.
He did not waste a whole lot of energy on what he could not do. He moved on. And he made a plan. An interesting plan.
Because in this plan…
He cheated his boss.
There is some difference of interpretation about this. Some interpreters think that he was not actually cheating the boss, because he had been overcharging the vendors…
QUESTION—WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THIS GUY’S BUSINESS? Some sort of broker/middle man??
But the best interpretation seems to be this:
While he still had time, before the firing happened, he used his position, he used the influence he still had, to plan for his future. He cut deals with those who were in debt to the boss, 50% in one case, 20% in another. He had the power to do this. And he did it completely for self-interest.
Because these people would be very grateful to him. And they would owe him.
He could call in the favor, and expect some help from these guys, as a kickback for what he had done for them.
Seems like a strange story for Jesus to use, but he does.
And basically Jesus says: this guy is bright; he is smart. He is…
He is on the ball.
8“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.”
Even the boss had to admit that the guy was bright. He used his position and influence while he still had it, to provide for himself when he was fired.
Jesus makes an interesting comment here: points out something that almost seems puzzling to him; says:
“The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.”
In other words—people who are living for themselves, and have no thoughts of God, in some ways they are smarter than people who know God. At least they “get it” that you should use your current influence to provide for your future.
LEARN FROM THIS says Jesus.
Do you get the lesson here?
There is a vital principle for the kingdom of God that is imbedded in this story.
The point is not “cheat your boss” or “get ahead while you can” before the hammer falls.
Here it is:
Use your possessions and your money to prepare for forever.
IF a dishonest manager is smart enough to use what he has to provide for the future, HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD YOU BE DOING THIS says Jesus.
LIVE WITH ETERNITY IN MIND.
Eternity is coming upon you. As surely as this manager was going to lose his job, you and I are going to enter eternity. And if it was a good idea for him to act while he could to prepare for what was about to come, HOW MUCH MORE IMPORTANT FOR US TO ACT WHILE WE CAN TO PREPARE FOR WHAT IS ABOUT TO COME!
WE must do more than just live for today.
The point of life is not to accumulate as much as you can for yourself; to have the most toys; to have a secure retirement. That is not the point at all. “Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
Use whatever is available to you to prepare for eternity! Use your money, your possessions, your assets, to influence people for eternity! Use everything you have in such a way that when you leave this world, you will be eternally glad for how you used what God entrusted to you.
Help the poor. Reach the lost. Fight injustice; combat evil; If our focus is anything else other than this, well, Jesus has a word to describe us:
Jesus calls the person who lives for himself and for today a fool.
Luke 12:16-21
16And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.
17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
If you live for self, for things, if your thought process is basically how to accumulate more, then Jesus Christ of Nazareth calls you a fool. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want Jesus to call me a fool, or to think that I’ve been a fool.
This materialistic culture we live in is making fools of us all. Every time we buy the lie that new stuff, more stuff, different stuff, is going to make us happy, is going to satisfy our souls, we are living like fools. More stuff is not going to make you happy.
Honoring God, bringing glory to God, using what you have for God, to reach people for God, to help people in God’s name, THIS IS what will make us happy.
Missionary Jim Elliot died as a martyr. He was murdered by some natives in Ecuador along with several other men. But God used his life, and his death for Good.
Listen to the words of Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
I wish I had a t-shirt to give every one of you to wear out of here today, with two words on it:
NO FOOL.
We’ll take over from No Fear.
NO FOOL.
You are NO FOOL if you give to others, give to God, use your worldly wealth and position and power to reach people for Jesus Christ, and to serve people in the name of Christ.
You live like that, and I don’t care what your net worth is, you are no fool; you are a wise person. But if you buy the lie of this culture that a different hair color, nicer nails, new shoes, fancier makeup, the an IPod nano, a hot car, ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU HAPPY AND FULFILL YOUR SOUL, then Jesus Christ says, you fool. You fool.
You bought the lie.
If you think getting is the path to happiness, you are a fool. A stinking idiot. You have been deceived by the VERY FIRST LIE; -- getting something, having something, IS GOING TO FULFILL YOU!
Picture A DOT… and a line… eternity
Dot/Line
“The person who lives for the dot lives for treasures on earth that end up in junkyards. The person who lives for the line lives for treasures in heaven that will never end.
Giving is living for the line.”
How to “Live for the Line” (live with eternity in mind):
Give to God, to the poor, to others
Go and be among the poor and the suffering
Glean from others who have lived for the line
How—one way, read missionary bios.
Jim Elliott
William Borden
C T Studd
Others…
Peace Child…
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Verse to Ponder and Memorize:
“I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “ Luke 16:9
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#4 He Who Dies With the Most Toys Still Dies
I should live not for the dot, but for the line
From the dot—our present life on earth—extends a line that goes on forever, which is eternity in heaven. (BETTER “ETERNITY WITH GOD”)
2 Cor 8:3—they gave far more than they could “afford”
The better job I do of living my life with eternity in view, the more I will use my earthly resources to “invest” in what will last for eternity.
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Luke 16:9
Worship Planning notes…
drama of some “addicts” (who look like meth heads…) but who are “addicted” to consumerism; it kills and destroys…
“I Need More”
Notes from Alcorn
“Right now we are living in the dot; but what are we living for?”
The shortsighted person lives for the dot; the person with perspective lives for the line.
We are ALL going to part with our money. The Only issue is WHEN.
NOTE—one way to cultivate a “live for the line” mentality..
Read missionary biographies.
Read Jim Elliot. Read of Wm Borden. Read of CT Studd.
GIVE. Give to God. Give stuff away.
GO. and be among the poor; among the suffering.
GLEAN from others who lived for the line
to gather information or material bit by bit
Jim Elliot “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose”
When it comes to money and things, START WITH THE END IN MIND. What outcome do you want to have?
For past 4 years, a group of us have started in Dec. or Jan saying, here is the “end” we have in mind… we want to complete a marathon without dying!
That’s the goal, the result we hope for.
How to get there?
Plan backward from then to now. Because you can only get there in increments. Small steps.
This message is about living with God’s ‘Big Picture’ in mind.
So many of us spend our time focusing on Right Now.
Things are tight; there are things we want; bills that are pressing in on us.
FOCUS ON THE END RESULT!
Contentment
Kingdom Impact
Capitalism - He who dies with the most toys wins.
Hare Krishna - He who plays with the most toys wins.
Catholicism - He who denies himself the most toys wins.
Anglican - They were our toys first.
Greek Orthodox - No, they were OURS first.
Polytheism - There are many toy makers.
Evolutionism - The toys made themselves.
Baptist - Once played, always played.
Church of Christ Scientist - We are the toys.
Communism - Everyone gets the same number of toys and you go straight to hell if we catch you selling yours.
Bahai - All toys are just fine with us.
Amish - Toys with batteries are surely a sin.
Taoism - The doll is as important as the dump truck.
Hedonism - To heck with the rulebook. Let’s play!
Hinduism - He who plays with bags of plastic farm animals loses.
7th Day Adventist - He who plays with his toys on Saturday loses.
Church of Christ - He whose toys make music loses.
Calvinist - Once played, always played.
Jehovah’s Witnesses - He who sells the most toys door-to-door wins.
Pentecostalism - He whose toys can talk wins.
Existentialism - Toys are a figment of your imagination.
Confucianism - Once a toy is dipped in the water it is no longer dry.
Non-denominationalism - We don’t care where the toys came from, let’s just play with them.
Atheism - There is no toy maker.
Agnosticism - It is not possible to know whether toys make a bit of difference.
Branch Davidians - He who dies playing with the biggest toys wins.
Mormonism - Every boy can have as many toys as he wants.
Voodoo - Let me borrow that doll for a second.
Apathy - Toys? Why do I need toys?
Judaism – I’m selling toys. You buying?
Church of Scientology - Toys R Us.
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (415) 723-2558
'Social isolation' may be major predictor of cardiac disease
STANFORD -- How intimately people are linked with their fellow human beings in some cases may be a better predictor of heart disease survival than diet, high cholesterol and blood pressure levels, or Type A behavior, says Carl Thoresen, director of the Stanford University School of Education's master's degree program in health psychology education.
"Type A may not be a problem by itself - rather, it's how the human drive for power and control combines with the need for intimacy," said Thoresen, a professor of education.
"In all cultures of the world, this is a basic issue that can be difficult to resolve: getting ahead versus getting along. In our culture, we're lopsided on the power end - that is, 'getting ahead' - and lightweight in our concern for sustaining intimacy and affiliation - that is, 'getting along.' Yet success in living requires a balance of the two universal needs.
"Much of life is a struggle, but when it goes on 24 hours a day, week after week, decade after decade - then it is a slow form of suicide."
Thoresen spoke June 25 to a group of counselors, educators and others in the "helping professions" at the H.B. McDaniel Conference, held annually to honor McDaniel, a Stanford professor and counselor educator who died in 1972.
Thoresen recently completed a 10-year study examining the effect of group counseling on long-term heart disease survival. With colleague Dr. Meyer Friedman of San Francisco's Mt. Zion Hospital, he is one of the leading national researchers on "Type A" behavior, which is marked by competitiveness, time urgency and hostility. Thoresen is currently writing a book on how the conflict between power and intimacy affects health and well- being.
Chronic, incessant struggle
Noting that heart disease was "still the No. 1 cause of death in this country," Thoresen said he now believes that "it may starts with an excessive and strong perceived need to control - what some call 'power motivation.' This can lead to a chronic and incessant struggle, activating a fantastic cascade of neurohormonal changes in the body, including massive changes in the cardiovascular system, as well as in the immune system."
He explained how recent research has shown that, among the various Type A characteristics, "hostility," as assessed during interviews, appears to be a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease, including mortality.
"Hostility - that is, frequent and pervasive thoughts and feelings of distrust, suspicion and hypercriticalness, often linked to easily aroused anger - is probably the lead actor in the Type A script," said Thoresen. "We play that role at a tremendous cost to ourselves and others."
Thoresen noted that a major, seven-year National Institutes of Health study of more than 12,000 men at risk for heart disease - most of them smokers with high blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels - found that those rated during interviews as more hostile suffered 50 percent more cardiac deaths than the others, especially when they were men younger than 47 years old.
Similarly, a 20-year study done at SRI International reported in 1990 that men with "high hostility," also rated from interviews, suffered 40 percent more deaths of all kinds (including 42 percent more cardiac deaths and 50 percent more cancer deaths) than those who did not.
Thoresen also noted the "provocative" results in another study, conducted in Sweden, that examined the relationship of Type A behavior and social connections in over 200 coronary patients. Those rated as "socially isolated" from a self-reported questionnaire died at much higher rates than those rated as "socially connected" - 68.9 percent versus 17.3 percent.
Studies with primates may parallel human studies to some extent, Thoresen said. He described the data on olive baboons in the Serengeti gathered by Stanford biological sciences Professor Robert Sapolsky. Sapolsky's research suggests that dominance and power may not always prove the most adaptive behaviors.
His ongoing study of a troop of male and female baboons reveals that intimate, cooperative behavior by lower-status males may pay off in many ways. When these males "hung out with females," acting in a friendly and caring way, they appeared to experience less physiological stress than other, more dominant males.
Other researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that dominant, powerful macaque monkey males show less coronary artery disease under low-stress conditions. However, when subjected to major social stress - for example, being put into a new group of unknown macaques - these dominant, power-oriented males struggling to establish status suffered considerably higher levels of coronary artery disease.
America: A self-absorbed people?
Thoresen, who returned last year from a year-long sabbatical in Europe, noted that the question he was asked most frequently about his homeland while he was abroad was, "Why are Americans so individualistic? Why are you so caught up in yourselves?"
"It's not that they weren't interested in success, either," Thoresen said.
Thoresen noted the widely read 1985 study by Robert Bellah and others, Habits of the Heart, which discussed American attitudes toward success, justice and community.
"Bellah [and his colleagues] described contemporary Americans as 'autonomous consumers,' concerned far more with personal issues than social or community-focused problems," Thoresen said.
"Alexis de Tocqueville [in Democracy in America] was concerned about how America would survive - it was so individualistic, self-centered and narcissistic. That was 1837."
If the description of Americans in Habits of the Heart is valid, Thoresen said, "that is, if we've become a nation committed to the individual right to consume and lacking any responsibility for the common good, then we may have reached in the 1990s the first real test of our democracy."
"How can we recapture a much greater sense of shared beliefs - a sense of community and a tempered concern with personal gain?" he said. How can we foster a much greater genuine mutual respect for those with divergent interests and experiences?"
Thoresen referred to his own 10-year study on heart attack survival, which "showed that group counseling actually saves lives - above and beyond surgery and medication." He reflected on his own work as a counselor working with heart attack survivors, and on what he called their "inner tyrannies of inhuman expectations."
He said that, for many of the men he has known, "the human 'being' aspect of their lives is gone - there is only a human 'doing.' No time to be present, to be here now. They are always processing the past or planning the future. They have little access to their personal feelings, to the present situation, especially how others may be feeling.
"This is not an obscure disorder, or an exotic problem - many Americans live this way," Thoresen said.
"It's an interesting experience being a group leader. Working with them for four years, once a week, I really got to experience some of their anger and mistrust. Some of the gentlemen I was working with died. That really brings home the fragility of life to group members and how important living life in the present may be."
Thoresen recalled a man in his group presenting Thoresen with a gift and telling him, "Carl, let me tell you what life is all about." He handed Thoresen a "big, fancy box from Gumps, filled with tissue paper."
"I remember digging down through the layers of tissue. Inside was a brass license-plate holder with the legend, 'He who dies with the most toys, wins!'
"Six months later, that man died from sudden cardiac arrest.
"He took his attitude to the grave with him."
JIM ELLIOT: missionary, martyr (1927-1956)
As posted on BSTUDY-L%HUMBER.BITNET@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
Back to the Missionary Biographies Page.
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." (an entry in Jim Elliot's journal)
Jim Elliot, a modern martyr, gained international recognition when he died with four others at the hands of Auca Indians. His story and memoirs have become a source of missionary inspiration through the writing and speaking of his wife, Elisabeth.
Born of Scottish ancestry in Portland, Oregon to a farmer-evangelist family, Jim became a Christian at the tender age of six after a church meeting one night. Faith afterwards became an integral part of his everyday life.
After high school he enrolled in Wheaton College in 1945, five years junior to Billy Graham. He first met his future wife there, much like Mr. Graham did Ruth Bell. Those were formative years for Jim, not just academically but also spiritually. He was most inspired by the writings and life story of Amy Carmichael, with whom he felt a kindred spirit.
Graduating from Wheaton, he quickly discovered a vocation in the missionary life. The field he chose was the unexplored frontiers of Ecuador in Latin America. Not content with bringing the Gospel to the civilized people of the country, he and his four companions flew their MAF Piper plane over the lands of the savage Auca tribe. Their first landing meant a tragic massacre, but out of that seemingly senseless tragedy comes a powerful testimony of the call of God on one man's life.
He was survived by his wife and his daughter Valerie who was only a baby at the time. Elisabeth Elliot went on to write such moving chronicles of her husband's life as "Shadow of the Almighty" and "Strange Ashes." These have inspired and challenged numerous people along the years for a closer walk in service to the LORD.
Instead of a prayer today, I'd like to quote a song by Scott Wesley Brown, a musicianary (musician missionary) who wrote this after reading "Shadow of the Almighty" (Elisabeth Elliot) and "Lords of the Earth" (Don Richardson). May we be challenged to higher levels of devotion to our God.
HE IS NO FOOL
I've lost track of all the Sundays
The offering plates gone by
And as I gave my hard earned dollars
I felt free to keep my life
I talk about commitment
And the need to count the cost
But the words of a martyr show me
I don't really know His cross
Chorus:
For he is no fool
Who gives what he cannot keep
To gain what he cannot lose
Yes, he is no fool
Who lays his own life down
I must make this the path I choose
Obedience and servanthood
Are traits I've rarely shown
And the fellowship of His sufferings
Is a joy I've barely known
There are riches in surrendering
That can't be gained for free
God will share all heaven's wonders
But the price He asks is me.
"God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, LORD Jesus."
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