One of the movies topping the box office this Thanksgiving is "National Treasure". According to the promotion, Benjamin Franklin Gates, who is played by Nicolas Cage, has been searching for a treasure that no one believed existed. This is a treasure that has been amassed through the ages and moved across continents to become the greatest treasure the world has ever known. Hidden by our founding fathers, they left clues to the treasure's location right before our eyes, ranging from our nation's birthplace, to the nation's capitol, to clues buried within the symbols on the dollar bill. In a race against time Gates must elude the FBI, stay one step ahead of his ruthless adversary, decipher the remaining clues, and unlock the two thousand year-old mystery behind our greatest national treasure.
The timing of this movie's release at Thanksgiving is quite ironic. Before the Butterball turkey is even stuffed and placed in the oven, before we've even had a chance to sit down and give thanks, we're teased with the notion that our nation's greatest treasure is material, consisting of gold, silver, gems, and priceless artifacts. And that if only we could get our hands on more treasure, more money, more possessions, more things, and more stuff, our lives would be infinitely better!
Indeed, the day after Thanksgiving will mark the beginning of the shopping season. Retailers will incessantly remind us how much better our lives would be if only we owned the latest gadget or gizmo or upgrade or article of clothing. Millions of people will ritualistically crowd streets, parking lots, and stores to begin filling their shopping carts and lives with more clutter. Credit card debt will soar from over nine thousand dollars per household to record levels. Rubbermaid will sell another hundred million storage containers by year end. One million Americans will declare bankruptcy.
Why is it that of all the nations of earth, the nation with the greatest material wealth and prosperity chooses to see itself in terms of what it lacks? Consumerism is more than the acquisition of material goods. It is a mindset that can hold tremendous sway over the way a person lives his or her life. It can cause us to be discontented in every circumstance, to envy others, to worry, to confuse needs with wants, and to believe that our life purpose is that we were born to shop, to consume, and to amass more stuff.
A few years ago, there was a story about a man living in the Bronx in a tiny ten foot by ten foot one room apartment. He compulsively saved newspapers, magazines, junk mail, books, and catalogs. He saved anything he could get his hands on. One day, everything he had stockpiled came crashing down on him in an avalanche. For two days he literally stood, trapped in junk, before neighbors heard his muffled cries for help. Neighbors and firefighters hauled out fifty bags of trash for a full hour before they could even reach the guy. Ever feel like that guy?
A more damaging effect of consumerism is that it crowds God out of our lives. Consider what Paul says in Ephesians 5:5 (NIV) which says, "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person-- such a man is an idolater-- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
We don't often equate consumerism with greed, but greed is the essence of consumerism. And greed, whether for money or for things, is idolatry. Idolatry is anything that steals our heart, our devotion, our admiration, or our worship away from God. To better understand how consumerism is a form of idolatry, we can turn to Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV) where Jesus warns us about materialism. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For (and this is the clincher) where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Never mind the fact that today's treasures will be tomorrow's trash. Consumerism can steal our hearts as we obsess about owning a particular product. All day long we dream and we strategize about how to get that thing we want most. As God's word is preached, our mind is off shopping at Best Buy or at the mall. Then once we possess that thing, it becomes an obsession. Our latest possessions, our homes, our cars, our tools, and our collections become a makeshift altar of worship. We wash them, clean them, buff them, polish them, protect them, insure them, worry about them, love them, and cherish them.
Consider Matthew 6:22-23 (NIV) where Jesus says, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
These verses are sandwiched between two passages related to materialism. It's hard to see God when our eyes are continually held captive by store windows, billboards, commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, internet, e-mail and popups, and the like. Have you ever heard the expression, "Out of sight, out of mind?" In our day everything is being commercialized. Everything has a slogan or product logo pasted to it. In a highly commercialized material world, it is incredibly important that we retreat to let our eyes rest upon the living God. Only then can we be filled with light.
In Matthew 6:24 (NIV) Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
In his book The Treasure Principle Randy Alcorn writes, "Every item we buy is one more thing to think about, talk about, clean, repair, rearrange, fret over, and replace when it goes bad. Let's say I get a television for free. Now what? I hook up the antenna or subscribe to a cable service. I buy a new VCR or DVD player. I rent movies. I get surround-sound speakers. I buy a recliner so I can watch my programs in comfort. This all costs money. But it also takes large amounts of time, energy, and attention. The time I devote to my TV and its accessories means less time for communicating with my family, reading the word, praying, opening our home, or ministering to the needy. So what's the true cost of the free television?"
It is impossible to serve both God and money, both God and things. So as Paul signals in Ephesians 5:5 greed, in whatever form it takes, is idolatry. "For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person-- such a man is an idolater-- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
Consumerism orients your entire life away from God and toward the material world. It exalts things to idolatrous proportions. It conditions us to put our trust in this world instead of in God. It divides your heart, erodes your strength, and distracts your mind from full devotion to God. It puts your soul on some rather shaky ground.
It is interesting to read Jesus' and Paul's words. The truth is that nothing has fundamentally changed about human nature or culture for thousands of years. When we talk about consumerism or materialism, we are really just giving a new label to an old problem. The remedies prescribed two thousand years ago are just as relevant to the problems we are facing today as they were way back then.
Two Competing Mindsets
What we find in Ephesians is two competing mindsets. There is the mindset oriented toward the physical, the material, or the earthly realm. But then there is the mindset oriented toward the heavenly, spiritual realm. There is the mindset that obsesses over things that have little, if any, lasting value. But then there is the mindset that focuses on eternal things of immeasurable value. There is the mindset that lives in the moment, gratifying the cravings of the sinful nature, following after its desires and thoughts, and living for self. But then there is the mindset that seeks to understand the Lord's will, imitate God, and generally be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
There is the mindset that lives in scarcity, in constant lack, always in need, always wanting, always empty, never satisfied, never content, always envying, always grabbing and grasping and hoarding and stealing. But then there is the mindset that lives in constant abundance, overwhelmed by the grace of God, always being filled by God's Spirit, continually giving thanks to God for everything, daily counting its blessings, and discovering its eternal riches in Christ. What is the difference between these mindsets? One has Jesus Christ. The other one does not.
It is hard for us to envision life apart from consumerism. But we should try anyway. At the same time Paul was writing to the church at Ephesus, he was writing to the Christians at Philippi about their struggles. He has much the same message. In Philippians 4:12-13 (NIV) he writes, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
As with the Philippians, so it is with the Ephesians. Paul is seeking to demonstrate that Jesus Christ will fill us in a way that nothing else is filling us. The answer to our lack isn't embracing consumerism with greater intensity. It isn't going out and filling our lives with more stuff. It is finding and crowning Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, as Lord and Savior of our life.
Ephesians 1:3 (NIV) says, "Praise be to the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."
Ephesians 1:7-8 (NIV) says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."
In Ephesians 1:18 (NIV) Paul prays, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints..."
In Ephesians 5:18-19 (NIV) Paul says, "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
I wonder if like Paul, you have found riches and untold wealth in Jesus Christ, unlike anything else this world has to offer. Again, in his book The Treasure Principle Randy Alcorn retells a familiar story. "A first-century Hebrew walks alone on a hot afternoon..."
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This story is captured by Jesus in a single verse in Matthew 13:44 (NIV). "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field."
No doubt, this will be a very hurried week for many of you. You will be cooking, traveling, entertaining, eating, shopping, sleeping, eating, and eating, and eationg. As the Butterball turkey is being cooked, let this be a week when you pause and give thanks to God for the treasure that transcends all other treasure. This is the treasure that satisfies in a way more money, more possessions, more things, and more stuff simply cannot.