LIVING WITHOUT
EXCESS
DR. JIM DIXON
LUKE 12:15
NOVEMBER 8, 2009
One of my favorite stories concerns Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon was probably, certainly, one of the greatest preachers in the history of the Christian world. Some would say he was the greatest preacher the Christian world has ever known. He was born in Essex, England, in the year 1834. After a brief rebellion during his teenage years, he accepted Christ at a little Methodist church in Colchester, England. At Cambridge, he received his call to the gospel ministry, and the Christian world would never be the same.
He went to London, England as the pastor of the new Park Street Church, and that church began to grow. It grew so greatly that they had to build this massive worship center. It fit ten thousand people in that sanctuary. This was during the 1800s. If you think that the so-called “megachurch movement,” the large church movement, is just something that is part of today, you’ve got to take a look at history. So, Charles Spurgeon pastored the new Park Street Church in London, England, in the 1800s and they built that worship center that held 10,000 people. But here’s the deal: It was always filled, so much so that thousands of people were turned away every Sunday. So, Spurgeon asked all the members of the church to not come. He asked all the members of the church to come only one Sunday of the month. Wouldn’t you like that? He wanted all the members of the church to come only one Sunday of the month so that visitors could come and there would be seats so that he could reach the unreached for Christ.
They had a worship center three times the size of this worship center. Charles Spurgeon certainly was 30 times the preacher that I am, but it doesn’t matter because it’s not about talent, it’s not about greatness in the eyes of men. It’s about faithfulness. Charles Spurgeon was faithful. He was faithful in his hour, faithful in his time, faithful to his call. And yet he was criticized, and I think to some extent all pastors get criticism whether they are faithful or not. Charles Spurgeon received many letters from people angry at him, many critical letters, and some of them were filled with hate. And he tried to handle it with maturity. I think most of the time he did. But one day he received a letter and he opened it up and it just said, “Fool!” On this large piece of paper, they just wrote “f-o-o-l,” and it covered the whole paper. He couldn’t help but smile to himself because he had an idea. He went to church that next Sunday in front of the 10,000 and he held the paper up and he said, “Many is the time I’ve received a letter from somebody and they neglected to sign it. This is the first time that somebody signed the letter and didn’t write the message.”
But who’s the fool? Who is the fool in the sight of God? Jesus tells us to call no one a fool, and we see that in the Sermon on the Mount. We’re to call no one “raca.” We’re to call no one “moros.” We’re not to call somebody an intellectual fool. We’re not even supposed to call anyone a moral fool. We’re not to use this word to label people. But in the sight of God, who is a fool? In the sight of Jesus, who is a fool? Well, it’s a person who lives with excess. That person is a fool. We need to understand what this means. It doesn’t mean that you are relatively rich. Many of the people of God throughout history have been relatively rich. This certainly was true of the Old Testament saints, and the patriarchs were indeed very rich and yet beloved of God. In the New Testament, some of the followers of Jesus Christ were also relatively rich. So, what does it mean to live in excess?
We see it from this parable, and I have three teachings. And the first teaching is this: We live in excess when we confuse our stuff with our self. Now, look at the words of Jesus as he’s introducing this parable. He says, “Take heed, beware of all covetousness for a person’s life does not consist in the sum of their possessions. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.” So, you cannot confuse your worth, your life, yourself with your stuff. If you do that, you are a fool. Yet we live in a world where many people do.
We live in a consumer-driven culture in a very materialistic society and nation, and I think there are many people, millions of people right here in the United States of America who, at least to some extent, derive their worth from their stuff. And you might think this is not true of you. I might think this is not true of me. But I think this kind of problem with stuff and self is a little bit everywhere. It influences all of us. Think for a second about if you, for instance, decided to sell your car and buy something more humble. I’m not saying God is asking you to do that. That’s between you and God, and God sometimes requires different things from each of us. But say you were to sell your car and buy something more humble, would that affect the way you feel about yourself? As you get into that more humble car that’s less expensive now, and you start driving around in that, would you feel different about yourself? As you see your friends and as you see people here and there, would you feel different about yourself in that more humble car?
Or say that you decided to buy cheaper clothes—clothes that were clean, clothes that were whole, but cheaper, less expensive, more humble. How would that make you feel about yourself? Would you feel different about yourself as you went around in clothes that were less expensive? Or maybe you’ve felt led to sell your home and buy a house that is less expensive, more affordable, more humble. How would that make you feel about your self-worth? About your sense of success? How would that make you feel about yourself and the way that you value yourself? I think all of us are influenced by stuff in this culture that is so driven by materialism.
Some time ago a man named Steven Berglas wrote a book called The Success Syndrome. It is a controversial book. In that book Steven Berglas talks about a number of people who are very successful in our society, people who have made mega millions, people who have had success after success after success. He tells the story of one such person named Rick Cholet. Rick Cholet was a man who was a mega millionaire. He had built successful businesses here and there. He had taken them from humble beginnings and he built these businesses to greatness. He was a corporate executive and very successful. So, he had success after success after success, and the millions just kept on coming in. But one day, March 18, 1991, Rick Cholet went into the garage of his beautiful New Hampshire home and he made sure all the doors were closed. He got into his BMW, and he started the engine and he took his life through carbon monoxide poisoning. He asphyxiated himself. He killed himself and he left a suicide note in which he said, “Please forgive me, but I can’t take the pain of living anymore.”
Now, in Steven Berglas’ book The Success Syndrome, he argues that what was wrong with Rick Cholet was something he called “encore anxiety,” that sometimes people who are very successful get encore anxiety where they had success after success after success after success, and they don’t know what to do for an encore. They don’t know what to do next and they just feel the pressure of it and it’s just too much for them to take
Personally, I don’t buy that theory. I don’t think that Rick Cholet in all likelihood killed himself because of encore anxiety. I believe he had core anxiety—not encore anxiety, but core anxiety. I think core anxiety is rampant, pandemic in our culture and in our time. Core anxiety is where at the core of yourself, at the very essence, at the heart of who you are, there is an emptiness. And that’s what happens in a materialistic world. When we build our lives around stuff, where we value ourselves and give ourselves worth on the basis of our stuff and the sum of our possessions and our accomplishments, it’s the stuff that ultimately proves vacuous and there is core anxiety. So, we have this warning from Jesus: “Take heed. Beware of all covetousness. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance or the sum of their possessions.”
Well secondly, Jesus says we live in excess when we don’t understand the relationship between purse and purpose. Stuff and self. Purse and purpose. So, you look at this parable of the rich man and his barns, and his fields are vast and he has many barns, but they are not sufficient. So, he tears them down and builds new barns to store his massive wealth. And he says to himself, “Take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.” And God said to him, “Fool, this night your soul is required of you. And that stuff that you have accumulated, whose shall it be?” Jesus said, “So it is with he who is rich to himself, who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich towards God.” So, the problem was the way he used his purse with regard to purpose. He was not rich towards God. He was rich towards himself. He had treasures for self. He was not rich towards God. And so, here’s the question: Do we use our purse for his purposes? If we don’t, we’re a fool. If we don’t, we’re living in excess. If we’re just rich towards ourselves, we’re not rich towards God. We’re fools.
In 1 Timothy 6, the Apostle Paul writes Timothy and he talks to Timothy about money and wealth and about the rich of the world. So Paul says this to Timothy: “There is great gain in godliness with contentment. We brought nothing into the world. We can take nothing out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. For those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that have plunged men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil. It is through this craving that many have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pains.” And then Paul said to Timothy, “But as for the rich of this world, as for the rich in your churches, charge them…” Now, before I move on, I want to ask this question: Are you rich? Am I rich? I think the answer is undeniably, yes. We are the rich of this world.
A United Nations task force report has concluded that, on the earth today, there are 3 billion people making less than $2 a day. One half of this world’s population, 3 billion people, are making less than $2 a day. And of those 3 billion people, 1.5 billion are making less than $1 a day. If your family, if your household makes $250,000 a year, you’re making about a thousand dollars a day. But if your household or your family only makes $25,000, which is far less than the national average and far, far less than Douglass County, still, you’re making about a hundred a day. A hundred dollars a day! When 3 billion people on the earth make less than $2 a day.
You’re thinking, “Well, maybe in other places the dollar goes father.” And maybe so, but not that much further. You see, there are billions of people on this earth who are living without safe water, without fresh, running water. There are people living without plumbing, people living without sewer systems, people living without medical care, people living without education, people living with no transportation. They don’t even have bicycles. We are the rich of the world. We just take for granted stuff that other people on this earth could never dream of having. We think we are entitled. We are the rich of the world. There can be no denying that. Obviously, in a room like this, wealth is relative. Some have more than others, but we are, collectively, the rich of the world.
“So, as for the rich of the world, charge them not to be haughty.” Now, this word in the Greek is powerful. It’s the opposite word “tapeinophroneo,” the Greek word for humility. It means lowly minded. If you have this characteristic of tapeinophroneo, you view yourself with humility and you do not think yourself better than anyone else. But you see, the rich tend to think themselves better than others. So here’s the word that Paul uses “hypselophroneo,” which means that you view yourself as better than others. “As for the rich of the world, charge them not to think of themselves as better than others.”
So, if you think of people living in the colonias down in Mexico, if you think you’re better than them, you’re a fool. Many of us have gone down to Mexico. We’ve gone to Juarez, we’ve gone to the three colonias where thousands of people live. Many of them are just lean-tos, empty cardboard boxes, some of them in garbage areas. Some of them are living on piles of garbage, and if you think you are better than them, you’re a fool. And in fact, all over Mexico, outside of every city, there are colonias where people live. You go to Mexican resorts. You go to Cancun. You go to Mazatlán. You go to Puerta Vallarta. You go to a nice resort hotel, but you don’t have to go very far and you’ll reach colonias. And if you got here and you look at their existence and you think somehow you’re better than them, Jesus says you’re a fool. Of course, the poor are all over the world, and you will never treat them properly if you think we’re better than them.
“As for the rich of the world, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy.” So, what do we trust in? Well, most people trust in money. Of course, on our money we have those words “In God We Trust,” but it’s a lie. We don’t trust in God. We have those words printed on the paper, but it’s the paper we trust in. That’s why we won’t give it away. That’s why we won’t give money away, because we trust in it. We don’t trust in God, and again, we are fools.
“As for the rich of the world, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. Let them do good.” The Greek word is “agathos,” which refers to that which is beneficial in its effect. So, let them use their wealth to do good, to do that which is beneficial in its effect. “Let them be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous,” Paul writes. The word liberal is “metadidomi.” Metadidomi means to give a portion or a share, and you might think, “I can do that. I’ll find a portion or a share that I feel comfortable with, and I can give that.” But it’s not as simple as that. You’ve got to be liberal and generous. And so you have this other word that means magnanimous. Let them be liberal and generous, let them give a share, a magnanimous share, because they are the rich of the world. This is the call of God upon us. We live in a time where God expects much, and this message is not easy.
I’m sure many of you have heard of R.G. Letourneau. R. G. Letourneau was an incredibly successful man, by the world’s standards. He built an earth-moving machinery company. It was Letourneau’s earth-moving equipment that built the Alaskan highway. It was Letourneau’s earth-moving equipment that stormed the beaches at Normandy. It was Letourneau’s earth-moving equipment that removed 5,000 acres of swampland to build the Kennedy International Airport. And you can imagine that Letourneau was very, very rich. And he loved Jesus Christ, so he knew he had to tie his purse to his purpose. He couldn’t just be rich towards himself; he had to be rich towards God. He knew it. So he lived his life in a very special way as he began to give it all away. When he was a young man, he tithed and he gave 10%, but then he went 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%. He wasn’t done. He went 60, 70, 80, 90. And yes, the last years of his life he took his annual income and gave 100% away for the purposes of God, for church and kingdom. And I know most of you are not moved by this because he was R.G. Letourneau and he was far wealthier than you. I know that.
But you see, we’re fools because the message is for us. The message is for us, and you might think, “Well, I don’t want to give a magnanimous share to the church.” And I would disagree with you, but I would say this: “You’ve got to give it to Christ. Somewhere, somehow, to the cause of the kingdom you’ve got to give it. So if you’re not going to give it to the church, give it to Christian education. Give it to Valor. Give it to Colorado Christian University. Give it to parachurch ministries. Give it to Young Life, Youth for Christ, InterVarsity Christian fellowship, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Athletes in Action. Give it to World Vision. We had Steve share with us last week that powerful ministry. Use your purse for the purposes of God. You can’t get away from it. It’s the call of God upon his people and if we don’t do it, we’re fools. We’re fools.
There’s one other thing that Jesus tells us about living in excess. If we live in excess, we confuse our stuff with ourselves. If we live in excess, we don’t understand the relationship between purse and purpose. But finally, if we live in excess, we don’t value eternity. We don’t understand the greatness and importance of eternity. That was the problem with this fool. That was the problem of this rich man, “Soul, take your ease. Eat, drink, and be merry.” And God said to him, “Fool, fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the stuff you’ve accumulated, whose will it be this night?” Eternity comes, judgment comes, and it’s going to happen for all of us. You’re a fool if you don’t understand eternity and the values of eternity.
This last Friday I came home from Memphis. I was at Memphis for a denominational meeting of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. I co-chair the committee on women in leadership. So, I was coming home and I arrived at DIA Friday and as I was walking through DIA, I came head-to-head, face-to-face, with Ward Churchill, the former CU professor, bigger than life. I didn’t stop and say hello. I don’t know him. He does not know me. But I could not help, when I saw him, but think of 9/11. I could not help but think of the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center, and the tragedy of that day. Because it was Ward Churchill who allegedly said that those people who died that day were not innocent victims. He said they were not innocent victims; they were guilty capitalists who were fueling the global tyranny of America. I think most of you know that’s not true. Most of you know those people who died that day were victims of incomprehensible hatred. They were victims of incomprehensible hatred that exists in radical, fundamentalist Islam. They were victims of the incomprehensible hatred that exists in the hearts of Al-Qaeda operands. Victims. But it all came down, and how can you forget the day? Barb and I that day were in Oban, Scotland, and as we came into our hotel, the receptionist said, “Are you Americans?” We said yes. The receptionist said, “You’ve got to go to your room immediately. Tum on your TV. Something horrible is happening in America.” We ran up to our room and turned on the TV in time to see the Twin Towers fall, one after the other. I know for days we just were in shock. Just in shock.
Of course, it all came down and many lives were lost. In those buildings were many businesses. One was a business called Komack Metals Trading, part of the New York Mercantile Exchange. They had 12 tons of gold right there in the World Trade Center. It all came crashing down. It was all buried beneath the rubble. So when the firemen and the police and all those who came to help clear out the rubble and to search in the midst of it, suddenly everything had different value. They weren’t looking for the gold. They didn’t even care about the gold. They were looking for human lives, someone they could save, and even dead bodies, because even a human dead body is more valuable than gold. Everything had a new perspective. We saw things more clearly. We understood value in a clear way. And I hope as you live your life and as I live my life, we understand relative value. I hope we understand what’s really important and what really counts. We’ve seen before what Jesus tells us. What really counts is the kingdom of God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
Have you heard of the Pearl of Asia? The Pearl of Asia is judged to be perhaps the greatest pearl ever found by man. It was found in the year 1628 in the Persian Gulf by a diver from India. He found the Pearl of Asia and just a few years later, in 1647, the Pearl of Asia was purchased by Shah Jahan. You know who Shah Jahan was? He was the fifth emperor of Mughal Empire. But it was Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. He built the Taj Mahal for his wife, as a gift to his wife. But it was also Shah Jahan who purchased the Pearl of Asia, and that also was for his wife, as a gift for his wife.
But after the death of Shah Jahan, the Pearl of Asia just disappeared. It just disappeared and now, for centuries, it’s appeared here and there and then it disappears, and it’s gone again. From what I understand, no one knows where it is today. It reminds me of something Jesus said in Matthew 13 where Jesus was talking about the value of the kingdom of heaven. He said it’s like a pearl of great price. “The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of greatest price, which a man found and in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
So how much is the kingdom of heaven worth? It’s worth all that you have. It’s worth all that I have. In that same chapter, Matthew 13, Jesus talked about the kingdom of heaven as a treasure hidden in a field, which again a man finds and covers up and, in his joy, goes and sells all that he has and buys the field. Because again the kingdom of heaven is worth everything we have. It’s worth everything. So we need to look at everything from the perspective of eternity. We need to serve the cause of heaven in this age of the world, and while we draw breath on this earth. It is the will of Christ for us.
1939 was a big year in Hollywood. Did you know that in Hollywood, their biggest year was 1939? At least that’s what the experts say. In 1939 Hollywood produced the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a Frank Capra classic starring Jimmy Stewart. That same year, 1939, Hollywood produced a movie called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland played the part of Dorothy and she walked the yellow brick road; a movie classic. That same year, 1939, Hollywood produced Stage Coach, a John Ford classic western, which many deemed the greatest western ever made, starring John Wayne.
But that same year, 1939, Hollywood made the movie Gone With the Wind. Gone With the Wind was nominated for 13 Academy Awards. It received 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Starring Clark Gable, it was the most beloved movie in Hollywood history, and some would say the greatest movie of all time. All in 1939.
It wasn’t just a great year for movies. It was a great year for books. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1939. The next year he received the Pulitzer Prize and the next year Hollywood made that into a movie starring Henry Fonda, which again won many awards.
What do you think of when you think of 1939? I know when I think of 1939 (and l don’t think of it often) I want to think about a song. I think should be about a song written by George Beverly Shay, George Beverly Shay of Billy Graham fame. It was 1939 when George Beverly Shay wrote the music to that wonderful song I’d Rather Have Jesus. I’d Rather Have Jesus. See, he’d just received a lucrative contract for a national radio audience. He had fame and he could have wealth, but he wrote that song. In 1939, he wrote I’d Rather Have Jesus. “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I’d rather be his than have riches untold. I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land, I’d rather be led by his nail-pierced hands than to be a king of a vast domain, or to be held in sin’s dread sway. I’d rather have Jesus than anything the world affords today.”
For 70 years now, the body of Christ has sung that song. For 70 years we’ve sung I’d Rather Have Jesus. While we hold on to our stuff, we sing I’d Rather Have Jesus. While we live in excess, we sing I’d Rather Have Jesus. When we live for ourselves and we’re rich towards ourselves, I wonder how Jesus feels. I know this: I know that the call of Christ is radical, too radical for this materialistic culture to understand. His call is so radical, and he wants our souls and he demands our lives.
So, we need to make some changes and maybe they need to be gradual. If you look honestly at your portfolio, maybe you’re giving 2% of what you make to the purposes of heaven. Maybe you’re just giving 2% and I’d like to say, “Well, do something radical. Just obey and make the big jump.” But maybe just something incremental. Maybe you’ll leave here today saying, “I’m going to start giving 3- 4% and I’m going to do better.” Maybe incrementally you can begin to live without excess and not confuse yourself with your stuff. Open your purse to the purposes of heaven and live for eternal reasons, maybe starting today. What a day this could be in your life. Have you ever thought of just giving something away? Selling something? Sometimes you’re richer for it. So, pray about this. Ask God what he wants you to do; that’s what Barb and I are going to do. So, God bless you. Let’s close with a word of prayer.