Blue Jean Theology Part 14
Tom Shrader exposes the danger of pursuing earthly riches from James 5, emphasizing that material wealth is temporary and corrupting. He argues that Christians often know heaven is their destination but live as if earth is all there is, building bigger barns for themselves rather than God's kingdom. The key to effective Christian living is being heavenly-minded in order to be any earthly good.
“We've had our destination changed - we're not going to hell anymore, we're going to heaven - but we've never had our lives transformed by that.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Blue Jean Theology (2011)
Recorded: 1996
Duration: 41 min
Themes: wealth, materialism, priorities, stewardship, heaven, earthly, greed, contentment, wealthy believer, struggling with materialism, business owner, successful professional, young adult, middle-aged, financial pressure, retirement planning
Scripture: James 5:1-6, James 1:9-10, James 2, Luke 12, Philippians 3:8-9, John 13-15, Isaiah 6
Theological Themes: eschatology, eternal perspective, worldliness, temporal values, kingdom priorities, sanctification, spiritual maturity, biblical stewardship
Full Transcript
We continue our study in the Book of James. I will confess to you at the very beginning that this is the second or maybe third week in a row that I've had a real level of discomfort in that the lesson doesn't seem to flow. Most guys would make the fatal mistake of trying to con you and let you think they know what they're doing. I know I don't know. This isn't even clear in my head. It's not because I don't understand this material. Something is happening.
I've been working on variations of this stuff for almost ten years. I think the lesson we did last week and some of the stuff that we've been doing on church have all come together to help me understand what I think is part of our collective problem in terms of the body of Christ. So if you'll hang with me, I'll give it the best shot I have. With any luck, it'll make sense.
We're working our way through the book of James. We'll actually finish next week. We could spend a lot longer if we needed to, but I think that'll get us through at least this and on to the next study, which is literally going to be one of the greatest studies we've ever done.
A Personal Interruption
Today, let me just show you the first verse. We're in James chapter 5. I apologize for the typing. Susan was supposed to do this, but we had tremendous pressure at our house in the last week or so. Last Tuesday night was cheerleading tryouts. The stress level was awful. Both girls are trying out for the same team this year for the first time. So one will make it, one won't.
This morning at about 5:30, the phone rang. They said, "We're coming to get the girls for breakfast." So they showed up with all these girls. By the way, this will get no better than this - both girls made the varsity cheer team. So this is a big deal. Clearly, they got my cheerleading gift.
There are lots of smiles around there today. Even Haley, how vintage is this for human nature? On the way out, she said, "What if they made a mistake and I didn't make it?" That's the way we are. So I had to type these because Susan was at tryouts.
The Text and Its Context
What I've done is put the New American Standard as the first regular type you see. The italic is from The Message by Eugene Peterson. I put them up there not because we'll necessarily teach off each one, but there's some choppiness or some phrases that might present problems to you. I think Peterson helps dealing with it.
The first verse of chapter 5 says this: "Come now, you rich." Now, that word "rich" has been a word that we've used consistently in here over the years, but very consistently in the book of James. The problem with the word is this: it is a relative term. When I say rich, your inclination is to think of anyone who has more than you. That's the way we define rich. It's a floating term.
The last time I used this, someone gave me a definition of rich and of poor that I thought was good. I'm paraphrasing: He said, "Rich is anyone who has their needs met. Poor is anyone who doesn't." That definition gets right in your face and helps you understand that all of you are rich.
James's Warning About Riches
James has warned through this book over and over again: watch out for rich. Rich has some trappings to it. I'm going to broaden the term, because I don't have a problem with the word rich, and I know you don't. But in our context in meaning and understanding, because it won't help us communicate, what He's talking about is watch out for stuff, because stuff has some problems.
It has two problems. He addressed them all through the book, beginning in chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. He says this: "Let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like the flowering grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises, and scorching winds wither the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So too, the rich man" - I love this phrase - "in the midst of his pursuit will fade away."
So He's saying two things. It's the message all the way through about riches. Number one, they are uncertain. Number two, they will never produce for you what you think they will. They're uncertain in their nature, and you can strive for them, but they're never going to do for you what you want them to do. They're fading away on one hand, and you'll die in the midst of your pursuits of them, because they're never going to fulfill that deepest desire that you have.
How Riches Distort Our Relationships
Not only that, they confuse our view of one another. In chapter 2, remember the story? He said here's a problem: A rich man comes in, and a poor man comes into your church. The rich man's dressed in fine clothes and lots of rings. Remember, in that day and age, here's what they would do: they would actually rent rings, because rings were a symbol of status. They would rent rings. So you go, "Wow," and renting the rings allowed you to pretend to be something you aren't, kind of like renting your Lexus. I can't afford one, but I'll rent one. It's that kind of pretending to be.
So he said, here's the problem: In comes a rich guy, and you go, "Oh, we're so glad you're here. Come here. Sit right here." But the poor guy comes in, and you say, "Now, you, over there. Stand over there, or sit by my feet." And what that is, men and women, is human
The Power of Celebrity and Wealth
We were at the arena yesterday, and Spurs were doing their shoot-around. Everybody coming to the study stopped just to look. We're down in the bowels of the arena, so you're down on floor level. Every one of these people that came in stood and got as far as they could, up to the security guy going, "Get out of here," to watch David Robinson shoot basketball. That's what they were there for.
If David Robinson would have come into the study, all of a sudden, you would have heard murmuring throughout the crowd. They'd remember David Robinson and point him out. But it could be David Robinson's chauffeur, or the guy that cleans the bathrooms at the arena, and he comes in and sits down, and nobody even notices that they're there. That's what riches do. That is dead wrong, but that is human nature. That is the way you're wired.
Now, I think God will help you overlook that. God's taught me a lot about those kinds of things. Here's the problem with riches: it withers away, it's screwing up your judgment, and you're all out of whack. This is what we looked at last week when He said, "You say we're going to go to the city, engage in profit for so-and-so, and make money." And He said to you, "Idiot, don't you know your life is like a vapor, poof, and then you're gone?" There it is again, this temporariness of life.
The Coming Judgment on the Rich
Let's read through this passage. He says, "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you." Here's Peterson's translation: "Hey, a final word to you, arrogant rich. Take some lessons in lament. You'll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you." These things are moving away.
Here's the deal: "Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and the rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It's in the last days that you have stored up your treasure." Peterson renders this: "Your money is corrupt, and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. You've piled up judgment."
I'm convinced that wrapped up in all of this stuff we've been looking at is the key for your effective Christian life. There's a great phrase right here: "It's in the last days that you stored up your treasure." He doesn't say here, "You stored up treasure for the last days." He doesn't say, "You've been diligent and good planners to save for a rainy day." He says, "It's raining, and you're saving for a rainy day." You're in the last days. Judgment is coming.
The Corruption of Wealth
Look at how the theme continues right through this. He says, "Let me show you how corrupt you've become. For the sake of riches that are rotting away, you're stiffing the guys that did your work. You're not paying the subcontractors." You're so greedy for this stuff that's rusting, and moths are eating it, that now you're stiffing people. The bill comes, and you just say, "Sue me." You're not paying the worker that's doing the very work.
"All the workers you've exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. And the groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar." Here's the problem: not a roar out into space, but into the ears of God. God hears this. God's the great equalizer. God's the one that'll balance the book.
You've heard that: "I don't get mad, I get even." All that does is eat you up and destroy you. God's the one that'll balance it all out with perfect judgment.
Living for Temporary Pleasure
The key is right here, and it can't get away from this. He goes on: "You live luxuriously on earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You fattened your hearts in the day of the slaughter." Here's the way Peterson deals with this, and I think this is really good: "You've looted the earth and lived it up, but all you have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse."
In other words, here's what's going on: You're just sucking everything there is out of life. Now, I'm all for getting all that life has to give, but not in the area of stuff. That's not where the meaning is. It's all in this context of how temporary all of these things are. This is all passing away. He comes back to them over and over and over again, and He says, "You fool, you idiot."
Jesus' Parable of the Rich Fool
It's the same thing that Jesus deals with in Luke chapter 12. Jesus is talking about this very same issue. He's talking to them about not being anxious for any of the material needs. God will take care of them. But He precedes this by telling a parable.
"The land of a certain rich man was very productive, and he began reasoning with himself." Now, right there, you got a problem. This guy's favorite counselor is himself. He's reasoning with himself.
Here's just a practical insight I've observed: People, when they're really hurting and really in trouble, tend to pull away from the church, tend to pull away from their Christian friends, tend to pull away from the people who can give them good insight. They either get by themselves, or they get with a bunch of other pagan heathens. Here's what happens: They begin to down-cycle and take one mistake and compound it with mistake after mistake after mistake, all in the thought process.
See, he starts to reason with himself. This gives you the perfect insight. Remember the phrase He used at the very beginning: "you arrogant rich"? See, that's what He's coupled all the way along. The problem with stuff is it makes you arrogant.
The Sin of Self-Centeredness
Listen to this singular personal pronoun here. He said, "What shall I do since I have no place to store my crops?" And he said, "This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come. Take ease, eat, drink, and be merry."
But God said to him, "You fool, this very night your soul is required of you." And now, here's two things. Now, "Who will own what you've prepared?" In other words, it isn't going to make any difference because it isn't going with you. Number two, "So the man who lays up treasures for himself is not rich toward God."
He said, you've got two things that are wrong here in your thought process. Number one, you're going, I, I, I. I'm going to save, save, save, hoard, hoard, hoard. For me, me, me. And here's the problem: it isn't going to go with you. Number two, far greater than that, is that you've invested and become very wealthy in man's economy, but you're almost void in God's.
The Key to Effective Christian Living
I believe, in my own mind, that this is the key to living an effective Christian life. It's not to pull out of the world. It is to not become a friend of the world. That's the tension, and that's the issue.
See, as long as your focus is on the earthly stuff, you'll never be effective for God, I don't think. When I first became a Christian, I heard that phrase, "Christians are so heavenly-minded, they're no earthly good." And then I said, well, that isn't my experience. My experience is they're so earthly-minded, they're no heavenly good. And here's what I've come to, at least at this point, is that I must be heavenly-minded to be any earthly good.
Aliens in a Foreign Land
Here's the problem: you and I are aliens from another planet. We're ambassadors, and this isn't home. You know what's happened? We've moved in, and we've decorated, and we're pretty comfortable here. We like it here.
About the only time we think of there is when things are going bad here. And then we become very Christian and very spiritual and say, "Oh, that the Lord would come today." Not because I want to be with Him, but because this misery here, I want to escape. Isn't that the way you think? And as long as you're thinking that way, your life is going to... You're not going to do anything. Nothing's going to happen.
Changed Lives Change Lives
I don't even know where I was when I said it. I don't know if I said it to you, if I did. I apologize for repeating myself, but I think it's worth hearing again anyway if it's here. And that is the idea that you are good people. You're serious about this or you wouldn't be here, but you're frustrated.
I did a conference for Prison Fellowship about two weeks ago. And when Collis called, he said, "Can you do a thing at Prison Fellowship?" And I said, "Yeah, maybe, sort of, what is it?" And he told me, and I said, "Okay, what's the theme?" And here was the theme: Changed lives change lives.
It is going to become a theme at church. It's interesting. It's the theme of everything I've been involved in. What is priority living? Priority living is the presentation of the timeless Word of God in a contemporary context. But there's something that goes before that. Remember what it is? To cause biblical life change in men and women by presenting the timeless Word of God in a contemporary context. Biblical life change.
What's the purpose of the church? Well, the purpose of East Valley Bible Church is to teach one another God's Word to live biblically changed life. That's the whole thing. It took me 10 years. It's a little piece here and it's a little piece there, but it's gradually coming together and I'm starting to see it.
Why We're Ineffective
Here's the reason we're ineffective individually and therefore the organizations are totally ineffective. We've never had our lives changed. We've had our destination changed. We're not going to hell anymore. We're going to heaven. But we've never had our lives transformed by that.
We understand that heaven's where we're going, but we're living like earth is all there is. I feel like I'm saying the same thing week after week after week after week and I told Susan that and she said, "That's because you are, you are, you are, you are." And I said, I get it.
We know this is true. We know all this stuff will be moth-eaten. We know it'll rust away. We know this stuff doesn't last, but we don't believe it. We know it, but we haven't started to live like it's true. And here's the ticket: I never will until I have a greater view of something bigger and broader than me.
The Day of the Race
I've always been fascinated by runners, not joggers, runners, people who run. I have a brother who runs. For his 33rd birthday, he ran 33 miles. That's not that big a deal because for my 40th birthday, I was going to drive 40 miles. But I got as far as Olive Garden. I thought, heck, why not just stop here, celebrate. Stopped at every Denny's and ate for free that day. They don't do that anymore.
And I remember talking to him and I've talked to other runners and I've said the same thing. Help me get this. There is not a decoder for that program in my head. I'm never going to get this. And all of them have said the same thing. Runners now, not joggers. They all say the same thing: It's the day of the race.
It's the day of the race. It's all the activity. It's the balloons. It's the hot air balloons. It's the people. It's the music. It's the electricity. And bam, that gun goes. And away I begin to run. And even if I'm 999 out of 1,000, they're there and they're cheering and they're yelling and they're saying, "Go, go, go." And even as I start to grow weary and my body begins to give out, there's somebody there saying, "Here, go, you can do it." It's the day of the race.
Here's what we have never understood.
You and I are living like every day is the day of the race. That every day ought to be cheers. And every day ought to be saying you're the greatest. That happens at the end. That happens when you die. That doesn't happen now.
So there's great tension there. Why is there tension there? And how good is this? He goes from this discussion right into this. Be patient. Hang loose. Don't give up. Be like the farmer.
Learning Patience from the Farmer
Now, the illustration loses a little bit in our modern context because our farmers are in their combines with their TV and their cellular phone getting their plane lined up to go to Vegas. So the farmer in the old days would work real hard. He would get up real early and the whole family was engaged in this process. We were at Sturbridge Village outside of Boston a few years ago for a living museum and it was just a fabulous experience to see the entire family engaged in this. Literally from the beginning of the day to the end of the day.
That's what he's talking about. And they were subject to all sorts of things. Sometimes it would rain. Sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes it would rain too much. And sometimes not enough. But what they did is they hung in there because they understood that this game wasn't over until the crops were harvested and brought in.
There's this idea of patience. And that's what he says. He said, meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master's arrival. See, the farmers do this all the time. Waiting for the valuable crops to mature. Patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Be patient like what? Be patient in the slow, steady way as God works His way through your life. As God matures you. As He cuts you and He shapes you and He molds you. The Master could arrive at any time.
Suffering and Patience
Now he adds to that an interesting element in verse 10 and 11. He adds a word to patience. You see it there? As an example, brother, of suffering and patience. See, this world was never designed to be easy for you and me.
And one of the great, I think, mistakes that the church tries to do is to try to eliminate everybody's suffering and meet everybody's needs. If you come into a church group and you begin to share about how much you're suffering, the first thing they try to do is fix you. Twelve steps for this. Seven ways for this. Eight things for this. Go over here. Stand like this. Do this. Let's get rid of the suffering.
God never gave you suffering for you to get rid of. He gave you suffering to draw close to Him. He didn't give you suffering to get rid of it. If He didn't want you to suffer, you wouldn't suffer. If He wanted you healed, you'd be healed. If He wanted you wealthy, you'd be wealthy. He's got you right where He wants you. And your job is to not get out of there. Your job is to bring Him into there with you. That's the ticket.
The Example of the Prophets
That's what the prophets did. Those are His illustrations. These prophets were men of God. They spoke the truth. They were the holiest men of the land. And they would stand up and say, this is what God says. This is what God says. Live this way. And you would think they'd be the heroes. And His own people would cut Him down. Frequently kill Him. They didn't want to hear that.
He said, just like Job. I mean, I'm not much of a Bible scholar. And when I was a kid, we really didn't spend any time at all on the Word. But I knew Job from the very beginning. Because I'd see somebody and my mom would say, or my grandpa, my grandma, everybody, he's got the patience of Job. I didn't know much about Job. I just knew when I grew up, I didn't want to be Job. I didn't know much else about Him.
Job's Example of Endurance
But I know, well, here's Job. Here's Job. He's living in the midst of this. And Satan comes and says, well, God, who's got all this stuff? By the way, think of the indictment in Satan's words against you. Who couldn't serve you with all this stuff? Who wouldn't love you with all this stuff? He's got to be an idiot to not love you. He's got a car that runs and a place to live. He's got cable TV. He gets to play golf a little while. He gets to go. Who couldn't love you in that?
God says, all right, take everything but not his life. And man, it starts to go. You've got sickness. You've got boils. You've got property gone. You've got livestock. You've got dead kids. You've got problems all around you. Oh, I forgot. I couldn't figure out why the looks. And I remember Job and Scottsdale Bible. I shared with Daryl the other day, the only people I know that suffered longer than Job were those people there at Scottsdale Bible. Not Job. Job. This is a long book, Tom.
But in the midst of this, he says, here's Job. Listen, now look at Job. What's the point of Job? Why do we study this? Why do you look at the Old Testament? Why do you look at these guys? He said, look at Job because you see how God works. Don't get hung up on Job. You don't want to be a Job wannabe. You want to be whoever God made you to aspire to those things.
Jesus' Final Words to the Disciples
Now, I'm going to try to, let me see how much time I've got. I've got almost 15 minutes. Let me try to see if I can bring this all together. In the middle of John 13, 14, and 15, and what's happening is this. It's the end of Christ's public ministry. He's dealing with the disciples now. He's in the middle of this process of telling them, and they're just now getting it that he's leaving.
You remember the discussion? He said, I'm leaving, but don't let your hearts be troubled. They said, wait a minute. How are our hearts not going to be troubled? You're gone. You're the Lord. You're the Master. You're the reason. We walked away from fishing businesses. We walked away from being a tax collector. We gave up everything to follow you, and now you're out of here? We want to go where you're going.
And he said, that's fine. You know the way. And Thomas says, we haven't got a clue what the way is. What do you mean we know the way? We don't know the way. And what did Jesus say? I'm the way. I'm the truth, and I'm the life. So you better
Jesus said to His disciples when they were troubled about His leaving: "Let me give you something else. Let me give you something that's designed to carry you all the way through life and all the way into eternity. Let me give you something that will take all of this world and bring it right into focus. Let me give you something that when you hear this, you'll go, 'Yes, yeah, I get it now.'" And then He said to them, "Where I'm going, I will prepare a place for you."
We've got that so figured out that it's lost its impact on us. He said, "Where I'm going, that's where you're going to be." Life stinks. Life is tough. Life is difficult, and you'll want to throw in the towel. But the thing that makes it palatable is this: You're going to heaven. So while you're here, let's not spend a lot of time building your kingdom, but let's spend a lot of time building mine.
Building the Right Kingdom
In the midst of this process, Jesus says, "Don't spend a lot of time on building stuff that's going to do you a lot of good here. I'll take care of some of that. Here's what I want you to do: I want you to build my kingdom. I want you to invest in the stuff that I have." I believe that Jesus says this in order to see lives transformed.
I have been struggling lately because I haven't found many books worth reading. Last Thursday or Friday, for whatever reason, I picked up this book. I would tell you, I know at Christian Emporium they have copies, and Central Christian downtown has some copies. I would suggest you grab this book. It's called *Eternity* by Joe Stowell. Joe is a guy who's written a ton of stuff and is president of Moody Bible Institute. I've read a lot of his material, and it's good stuff, but this book really caught me.
It's subtitled "Reclaiming a Passion for What Endures." When I looked at this, I thought, "Uh-oh, this is exactly what I've been saying." He talks about Paul when Paul in Philippians 3:8-9 said, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ my Lord, for whose sake I lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith."
The Proper Perspective on Earthly Blessings
Stowell begins to comment. He said this: "This is not to say that when God in His grace enables us to enjoy a measure of gain here, we should be inflicted with guilt about it." This is not a message that says don't dress nice or don't wear nice things. It's to say put those things in their proper perspective and don't be guilt-driven by that. God's given you that. That's a gift. As Paul told Timothy, God richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
Now here's the meat of this: What it does mean is that we hold our gain, we hold our stuff, we hold all the temporal things loosely, ready to give it up. It means that we count all that we have as a temporary blessing. If Christ requires that we surrender it for His glory and for the gain of His kingdom, then we gladly comply. For us, the whole point of our living is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who guarantees us final and fulfilling gain on the other side. That's where the payoff is.
The Freedom of Eternal Focus
Here's how Stowell closes out this chapter: "When we are consumed with the reality of heaven, Christ is free to consume us on earth. When we realize that gain is there and then, we are free to live for Him here and now. When we put gain in its place, we begin to enjoy Christ in His rightful place—the all-consuming center of our lives."
When heaven is the transcendent target of our living, that's where we're headed. That's the target. It transcends here into there and vice versa. Then indeed, we have the best of both worlds: Christ here, gain there. We are assured of Christ's presence and protection here, and ultimately the guarantee of paradise there, where He is the substance of our eternal gain.
That might be why C.S. Lewis profoundly wrote in *Mere Christianity*: "Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." Jesus said it this way: "You want to save your life, you better lose it." That's who's going to save their life—those that give it away.
Reframing Our Perspective on Life and Death
Just some random thoughts to try to get closure on this, out of this book and a few other things. As Paul Azinger was confronted with his cancer, Larry Moody, the chaplain out on the tour, made this observation to him: "We think we're living in the land of the living going to the land of the dying, when in reality we're in the land of the dying going to the land of the living."
See, there's the view. See how that begins to focus things in my life? I think when you come to Christ, at that very beginning, things are really foggy. They make everything look weird and unclear. But then as I go, I start to get it more and more into focus. Sometimes I over-focus and then I get it back. I've been saying a lot of things lately that as I'm walking, I'm going, "Holy cow, is that good? Oh man, I wonder if that's true."
Growing in Godliness Means Growing in Humility
Here's what I said to a guy yesterday: "The godliest I should feel is at the point of conversion. That's when I should feel the godliest." Because from then on, I'm getting a better view of Him. As I get a better view of Him, I get a better view of me, and I don't feel more and more godly—I feel less and less godly. The more I see Him, I don't feel better and better and better; I feel worse and worse and worse.
It's Isaiah 6. We're teaching this Sunday, and Sunday in church is going to be a big Sunday because we're back to Isaiah 6. The holiest man in all of Israel gets a view of God, and when he gets that view, he says, "Woe to me, for I am ruined."
This guy had it all together. Now you know what happened. What's fascinating—there's a couple here from Sunday, so there's the tip on the lesson Sunday. Here's what's fascinating. After he sees that, and after he's cleansed, now he's ready to go and serve.
That's exactly our model. That's what I meant at the beginning. We haven't had our lives changed. That's why we're not ready to serve. See, until I've had that Isaiah, where I see Him, I'm not ready to serve. That's just me doing it for my own pride or my own ego, or for all the wrong reasons.
Living as Though This World Is All We Have
How about this? Life is most disappointing and most despairing when we live as though this world is all we have. And I believe that's the way most Christians live. Let me say it to you again. We know this other stuff is true, but we don't live like that.
Ask yourself, where are you investing your time, energy, effort and money? Whose kingdom do you build? Yours or God's? How much time is really spent in ministering and serving to one another? I don't mean walking away from businesses. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about moving to Zimbabwe or Sydney. I'm talking about serving God right where He's placed you.
Somebody calls you today and they're really hurting. They're really sucking gas. You've got to say, I'm sorry, I don't have time. I'm too busy. Too busy to make a little more money to support a lifestyle that, very honestly, I don't need.
The Search for Happiness Here on Earth
Peggy Noonan—some of you know Peggy Noonan. She was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and so many mistakes that he made. One of them was firing Peggy Noonan. One of the best books I've read in a long time is called What I Saw at the Revolution. It was Peggy Noonan looking at the Reagan years. It's worth the book for one section where she takes the Gettysburg Address and shows what speechwriters and political correctness would do to it. It's a marvelous book.
Noonan offers this observation: We're the first generation of man that is actually expected to find happiness here on earth, and our search has caused us such unhappiness. No other group ever thought—everybody always thought it was a... No, but we think it's got to be here and now.
Jesus Was Preoccupied with Eternity
Here you go. Even a casual reading of the Gospels revealed that Jesus was preoccupied with eternity. This struck me yesterday. All He keeps saying is, I want to go to be with the Father. I'm here to do the Father's work. I'm going to go to be with the Father. I'm here to do the Father's work. Father, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father.
That's your biography right there. I'm going to go to be with the Father. But until then, I'm here to do the Father's work. What's the Father's work? I don't know, but I'll tell you this. Once your life is changed, your passion is to discover what that work is for you. Because it's different. It's different for each one of you.
But what is the work that God has given you to do? What experience has He given you? What has He uniquely gifted you? And then bust your pick to do it.
Aim for Heaven and Get Earth Thrown In
See, as Lewis says, aim for heaven and you get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you're going to get neither. If I have any passion for this thing, and I do, it's because I'm convinced that's the ticket right there.
You look at individual lives, you look at people with more money than we've ever had, more talent, more ability to communicate, more state-of-the-art technology, more opportunities to come together like this, and we're having less and less and less and less effectiveness in the world. It's not because our techniques aren't good. It's not because we need another book or another study. It's for one reason. Our view has never been transformed.
Our destiny has, but our view hasn't. We're living with the assurance that we're going to heaven, but we really are living like hell. All of our efforts and energies are going into this stuff.
Building Bigger Barns
We are building bigger barns, and one day you're going to hear, you idiot, you nut, what the heck are you doing getting more of that? Do you understand that that's going to go to the next generation, all that stuff, and all they're going to do is use it for cocaine? And they're goofy.
Look at those rich, look at those rich inherited people. Look at that second generation. They've all screwed up all that. Are you nuts? You wasted all of the time I gave you to build bigger barns for yourself, and it's all going away. Oh, you're going to heaven. But man, you missed it.
What a delight to say I'm going to heaven, and here are the people that God has used me to touch their lives, and they're going too. Father, make this real to us. We trust You to apply it to our heart and our life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
See you next week.