Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Weekend Speaker:  Ben Sigman

Theme:  Not Afraid - Fear of Not Having Enough

Read: Matthew 6:25-33

Think: Piles, stacks, and mounds. Closets full and over flowing. Boxes, baskets, and bassinets. Files, receipts and college midterms. Stuffed, packed and crammed into nooks and crannies that barely leave a path to walk. This describes the houses presented on the show, “Hoarders.” We, the audience get a good look at all the stuff the hoarders have accumulated, and how all the stuff is destroying their home and their lives.  We watch the show thinking, “How could they have gotten this bad? All that stuff is ruining their life, why don’t they just get rid of it all?”

Have you ever thought that God may be watching this country the same way we watch the folks on “Hoarders?” Just think about it. The middle class in this country is considered in the top 2% of wage earners of the world, and we certainly are the biggest consumers of the world. But I wonder if instead of seeing jam-packed houses in disarray, he sees our enslaved hearts stuffed to the roofs with materialism.

Let’s make some comparisons:

• Pathological Hoarding is compulsively storing stuff that no longer is of use to us: i.e., papers, magazines, moldy food, and clothes.
• Spiritual Hoarding is compulsively storing stuff that no longer is of use to the Kingdom: i.e., selfish ambition, wasted talents, insecurities and fear.

• Pathological Hoarding is living with severe cluttering so that functioning in the home is no longer viable.
• Spiritual Hoarding is prioritizing “materialistic accumulation” to the point of heart malfunction.

• Pathological Hoarding is marked by the distress or impairment of marriage, parenting, work or social life.
• Spiritual Hoarding is marked by the distress and impairment of significant relationships and responsibilities.

What if God were looking in on our lives right now, as if we were displayed on His heavenly HD Plasma flat screen? Would He see us

….struggling with our priorities,
…holding on to things that don’t matter anymore
…compulsively buying things we don’t need
…obsessing on how to pay for the stuff we collect
…enslaved in the prison of possessions
All with no way to free ourselves, neglecting the passions and people and calling He has given us?

The thing about hoarding is that the stuff we collect eventually traps us. You’ll see on the show that giving the all stuff away is the only way to get out from underneath it.

Jesus says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.” Being the hoarders that we are, we have a hard time giving it all up. It’s scary! We think if we surrender our stuff, something bad will happen. But just the opposite is true. God knows exactly what we need, and what will enable us to experience the most freedom, the most eternal influence and impact, and the most significance here on earth and heaven too. He knows that it’s hard to let go, but He knows that we’ll never experience freedom until we do.

Could we be so bold as to ask God, “What kind of spiritual freedom would I experience, if I sought Your kingdom first? If I gave away the physical things I so desperately cling to, what kind of spiritual freedoms would I encounter?”

Do: Determine today to ask God a way to be more generous with the abundance He’s given you. Exercise your generosity muscle.

Pray: God, you know things that keep me from the best You have for me. You want so much more for me than the silly things I buy, collect, hoard and save. All the material possessions I have mean nothing in the light of eternity, and in the love of the relationship I have with You and the people You’ve given me. Help me to be generous, to surrender to you daily, and to prioritize things the way You prioritize them. Amen!

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.