Gods at War - Gods of Success, Part 2

Water is absolutely necessary for life. You'd only last a few days without it. But on the flip side, did you know it's possible to die from drinking too much water?

Well stay with me as we discover too much of a good thing can actually be dangerous to your well-being. Thanks for being with us as we pick up where we left off last time in our new series, Gods at War, taught by our guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman. In this program, Kyle continues teaching through the story of the rich young ruler from Luke chapter 18, and explains how money, success, and achievements can sabotage our relationship with God. Now before we get started, let me encourage you to use our message notes while you listen. They include Kyle's brief outline, and all the supporting scripture he references. To download these message notes, just go to the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap fill in notes. Well here now is part two of Kyle's message, Gods of Success. So this man has great confidence in his spiritual success.

I've kept all these since I was a boy. Verse 22, Jesus takes aim at the God, the primary God that sits on the throne of this man's heart. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, you still lack one thing, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me. When he heard this, the man became very sad because he was a man of great wealth. Now the adjective that's used here to describe this man's wealth would have put him above pretty much everyone else at that time and in that geographical area.

He was towards the very top. And as you read the story, here's what often is done, and this is how we often read the story, is we see this as a story about money. This is not a story about money.

This is a story about idolatry. The problem with this man is not that he had a lot of money. The problem is that the money had him. The Bible does not say that money is the root of all kinds of evil. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And you may be rich or you may be poor.

That's really not the issue. It's not about whether or not you have money. It's whether or not money has you. He's turned it into a false god, and the reason Jesus talks so much about money in scripture is because money has for us the most potential, I think of any false god, to become a god substitute. And so Jesus talked more about money than he talked about heaven and hell, than he talked about sin and judgment.

He talked more about money than he talked about prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount, he mentions idolatry only briefly. But when he speaks of idolatry, the only application he gives is that of money. Listen to what he says in Matthew 6, 24. Jesus says, No one can serve two masters.

Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. And so money in the Bible is consistently portrayed as God's chief competition.

Now here's why, and this was very helpful to me personally when I understood this. The things in our life that have the most ability, the most potential to become a false god are the things that promise to do for us what only God can do. The things that have the most potential to become a false god are the things that carry with them a false promise that they can do for us what only God can do.

A woman by the name of Simone Wheel, she says this was the issue for her in her life. One has only the choice between God and idolatry. It's your only choice. If one denies God, one is worshipping some things of this world in the belief that one sees them only as such. You're worshipping these things thinking these are just things. I'm worshipping the things of this world thinking they're just the things of this world, but in fact, she says, though unknown to oneself, though you don't even realize it, you are in fact imagining the attributes of divinity in them. You're imagining the attributes of divinity in them.

You are ascribing to them things that are only true of God. Now think how we do this when it comes to money. What do we say about money? Well, one thing we say is that money will satisfy me. We give money this divine attribute that it has the power to satisfy our souls, and in doing so, we make it a god in our lives. If you ask most people what is the definition of success for you, the word happiness would show up. Aristotle called happiness the chief good. It is the ultimate purpose, he would say, for existence is to be happy. And when you talk to people about, well, what's it going to take to be happy for you, it doesn't take long for them to start speaking in terms of dollars and cents. Eventually, money becomes the symbol for our happiness, and so when we see money as something that has the ability to satisfy us, we're giving it a divine attribute.

And yet, we've seen over and over again, the evidence says otherwise. Forbes magazine, when they put out their 75th anniversary issue, was 570 pages long, and the majority of it went to unpacking this theme. Why do we in America feel so bad if we have it so good? They asked 11 of their best writers to probe this question.

Well, you can read through the whole thing. It really comes down to a very simple equation. Money does not equal happiness. And yet, we want to believe that it would satisfy. Satisfaction is not something that you can take off the rack, order off the internet, or drive off a lot. We think we can do that. We think if I could drive this car, I would be satisfied. And every time we see someone else driving that car, we think if only I could drive that car.

We go through the Homerama homes, and we think if only I lived in this home, then I would be satisfied. But what are we doing? We're giving money and wealth and possessions a divine attribute. We're saying that it has the power to do for us what only God can do. Another thing we say about money is that money can make me significant. And when we talk about people's worth, we almost always talk about their net worth. We start to determine someone's value by their valuables, and when we do that, we are ascribing to money a divine attribute. See, God wants to be the person who gives us significance.

He wants to be the person to give us worth, but when we look to money to do that, which we often do, we are making that a God in our life. I mean, I don't know if you're like me, but I can do that. If I'm driving and I've driven a number of rundown trashy cars in my life, and when I'm driving one of those cars, you know how I feel about myself? I don't feel very good.

I put the mirror flap down, and I put the seat back, and I try not to be seen. Why? Because we start to determine our value by our valuables. And when we do that, we're making it a God. Another thing we say about money is that money will bring us security.

That's a belief that we have. God wants to be our security, and when we look to money for security, we're making that our God. We're giving it a divine attribute, saying, oh, you can make me secure. And whatever you put your security in is ultimately your God. Most of us have come to believe that comfort and security is something that has a price tag. That with enough money, we can be comfortable.

We can find security. If I just had enough money, then I could have health insurance, and it wouldn't really matter if I got sick that my hospital bills would be paid for. If I had enough money, life insurance and my family would be taken care of. If I could just save enough, they would have that nest egg. If I have enough money, then I, and all of a sudden, God doesn't become who we are dependent on for provision in our life.

You see how this works? Where we ascribe to money these divine attributes, we make it God, and God is jealous. Because we're looking to money for security, for significance, and God says, I want to do that. I want to be your source of satisfaction. I want to be your source of significance.

I want to be your source of security. When I started this message, preparing for it, I wouldn't have said that money is a false God in my life. Certainly it's a war within me, but I wouldn't have said it sat on the throne. And I started asking myself these difficult questions, and I began to be convicted in other ways. Question number one, what do you complain the most about?

Remember that question. What do you complain the most about? Do you complain about your financial status, the car you drive, the house you live in?

That reveals a false God. What do you sacrifice your time for? Are you mostly giving your time to making money? What do you worry about? Are most of your worries and fears revolving around finances, gas prices, the retirement fund, house payments? What do you dream of? What brings you the most joy? For many people, when they dream of things, it's things that can be bought. And what about this question? What controls you?

What controls you? I know of some people in the church who have told me that they really feel called by God to leave their job in the secular workplace and to be involved in full-time Christian service in some way. They feel like that's what God wants them to do. They haven't done it because money says it doesn't make sense.

Money says you can't afford it. So if God is saying this is what you should do and money is saying you can't do it, what you decide to do reveals your God. I've talked to moms who really feel called by God to quit their jobs, to stay at home with their kids. They feel like this is what God wants them to do, but they have to downsize and they don't see how the numbers can work. And so they have God saying this is what you should do.

This is what I want you to do. And money saying you can't do it. What they decide to do determines who their God is. And I understand that different situations are not so cut and dry and sometimes it can be more difficult to determine exactly what God wants.

But at the end of the day, what is it that controls you? See, God wants the throne of your heart to himself. He will not share your love seat of your heart with money.

He just won't do it. And if you're putting your work or your success or your money ahead of God, then you are either experiencing God's active wrath or you're experiencing his passive wrath. You're experiencing his passive wrath and that perhaps he's just turned you over to these things and has said fine, if that's what you want to worship, you go ahead and worship it. And one day you'll realize it was a waste.

Or you're experiencing God's active wrath where he's taking some of these things away from you in an effort to turn you back towards him. Some very good friends gave me permission to share a story of what happened early on in their marriage. This was more than 10 years ago, first year of marriage. And Pam was the primary breadwinner in the family. And she was doing well for herself and she was finding identity in her money, like many of us, worshipping the gods of our father's wealth. And so she's finding her identity in this, and this is the purpose for life. And she's holding it over her husband's head, holding it over Kyle's head, and it's taking the toll on their marriage.

And things are not good at home. And then one day, she's trading some stocks and she buys 2,000 shares of an IPO stock. With an IPO stock, you don't know how much it costs until after you buy it, came out to about $180,000 worth of stock for her. This was all of the money they had, plus some. By the end of the day, her $180,000 worth of stock was worth $25,000 worth of stock. And so, she had lost everything. The family would have to take out a loan just to pay off the debt and she was devastated. Lost over $150,000, she calls her husband Kyle and tells him what's happened. And here's what Kyle says. He says, it's just money.

We still have each other. And God began to teach her some things. He began to teach her about what's most important. He began to teach her about what you can truly put your trust in.

He began to teach her what true love really is. And if you talk to her today about it, you get the impression that the day she lost $150,000 is one of the best days of her life. You see, if that wouldn't have happened, she's not sure that she would have realized how much her husband loved her and maybe, maybe their marriage would have ended in divorce. If that wouldn't have happened, then perhaps she would have continued to pursue this path of career and money and find her identity in those things instead of being a committed, stay-at-home mom with her three beautiful kids. If that wouldn't have happened, then maybe she wouldn't have put her complete dependence in God.

Maybe she wouldn't have put her complete trust in Him. May you be so blessed that God prides your false God out of your white-knuckled hands rather than spend your life sacrificing and giving yourself to what is not real. You see, the problem with idolatry is that ultimately we are putting our trust in something other than Jesus. We're looking to something other than Jesus for our salvation.

For many of us it's money. Maybe you're lonely though and you're looking to a relationship for salvation. Maybe you're empty, and you're looking to possessions for salvation. Or you're depressed and you're looking to food for salvation. Or you feel rejected, and you're looking to pornography for salvation. Maybe you're angry and you look to alcohol for salvation. Maybe you feel no purpose in life, and you look to work for salvation.

Maybe you're worried and anxious, and so you're looking to money for salvation. And so you've made these things your savior. You've said, this is where I'm going to look for salvation in my life.

But in the end, there is nothing there. And this is what we read in Psalm 106. It reflects back on the Israelites worshiping a golden image while Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments. And here's what it says. It says, they, the people of God, made a calf at Mount Horeb, and they exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull, which eats grass.

This is not a good trade. And yet, this is what we've done. We look at this and we think, how ridiculous that they would trade their glorious God for an image of a golden calf.

Well, at least it's gold. I mean, some of us have traded our glorious God for a car that can handle the corners really well. Or we traded our glorious God for a job that He hasn't even called us to, but it pays pretty good. We've traded our glorious God for a house that has a lot of upgrades. We've traded our glorious God for a more impressive portfolio. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not against these things.

They are not wrong in and of themselves. But when good things become God things, we are guilty of idolatry. And for many of us, these are the things that have become too important in our lives. And so I'm wondering if for some of you, your business has become your religion. The Wall Street Journal has become your Bible. You pay closer attention to economic growth than you do your own spiritual growth.

These are not good trades. I was reading the story this last week of Millard Fuller and his wife Linda. Millard tells about becoming a millionaire by the age of 29. And he says at age 29, he had bought everything for his wife that she could possibly want. But one day he came home from work to find a note announcing that she had left him. He went after her. He catches up to her on a Saturday night in a hotel in New York City.

And the two of them stay up talking into the wee hours of the morning. And she just expresses to him that the things that they have given their lives to, the things that our society says are so satisfying had left her cold. And so her heart was empty. Her spirit was burned down.

She said she felt dead inside and wanted to live again. And so the two of them in that hotel room knelt beside their bed. And Millard and Linda decided to sell everything they had.

And commit the rest of their lives to serving poor people. The next day was Sunday. They found the nearest Baptist church and went there to worship and thank God for their new beginning. They shared with the minister their decision. And the minister told them that such a radical decision wasn't necessary.

Millard writes these words. He says, The minister told us it was not necessary to give up everything. He just didn't understand. We weren't giving up money and the things that money could buy. We were giving up. We were giving up.

And Millard and Linda started an organization you may be familiar with, Habitat for Humanity. It is tempting in teaching a passage like the one we're studying from Luke 18 to say about Jesus. When he speaks to the rich young ruler and says, Sell everything you have. It's tempting to say he didn't really mean it.

He's just speaking metaphorically. Jesus meant it. I wonder about this man. Did the rich young ruler just become a richer older ruler?

Or did he at some point realize what he should truly give his life to? One of the strangest verses you'll read in the Bible is in verse 22, 23. It says, He became very sad because he was a man of great wealth. It just doesn't make any sense.

It's strange to read a sentence like that. He was sad because he wanted both God and money. He did not want to have to choose. And yet, that was the only invitation Jesus offered.

It's all or nothing. I am either Lord of all or not at all. That was his invitation.

And so the man walked away sad. And the invitation has not changed. It is still the invitation. Will you make God the Lord of your life? Not just parts of it, but of your entire life and let him have that throne on the seat of your heart.

How you walk away today is up to you. But Jesus has patiently waited for that position of glory in your life. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the message you just heard is from our new series, God's at War, taught by our guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman.

Chip will be in studio shortly to share his application for this message. When you hear the word idol, you probably picture those big stone figures that people worshipped centuries ago. But did you know that while most people don't bow down to man-made statues anymore, we all worship something? In this series, our guest teacher, Kyle Eidelman, reveals the subtle nature of idolatry and just how rampant it is in our lives, oftentimes without us even realizing it. He unpacks the ways we've put money, pleasure, achievements, careers, even our families, in place of God. And how we've allowed those false gods to satisfy, control, and define us. Well stay with us as Kyle exposes the idols we're holding onto and challenges us to take radical steps to get back to worshipping the one true God.

To learn more about this series, God's at War, Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap special offers. Well I'm joined now by our host, Chip Ingram. And Chip, I really think Kyle's message today will resonate with our listeners because we're all guilty of over-prioritizing money and success in our lives. But a very clear remedy for this issue, as we've heard today, is generosity.

So Chip, if you would, take a minute and talk about the opportunity our listeners have to practice generosity by partnering with Living on the Edge. Well first of all, ministry is always an issue of the heart. And Jesus says that wherever our treasure is, that is where our heart will be. The Bible also commands us to be generous and open and free. And everything that I have, everyone listening to my voice right now, everything they have, God has entrusted that to them. The second is the Bible is really clear not only that we should be generous but aware we should be generous.

I personally believe that your first commitment is to your local church. But then there's that opportunity to give over and above that first portion and to express love because God says wherever you're spiritually ministered unto. In fact, the apostle Paul would say to a group of Christians, I ministered spiritually to you. And he actually went so far to say is you have a financial obligation to minister back to me.

And in his situation, it wasn't like for airtime, I guess it was maybe donkey time or, you know, I need some new parchments or I need your financial resources to get on that ship to go from Corinth to Ephesus. And it's just the same here. You know, if you get ministered unto, one of the ways that you not only say thank you but then you generously pass it on to others is to support that ministry that's ministering to you. So that's kind of what biblically why we do it. And, you know, there's just the reality of need and it's a partnership and a team and so and people are generous.

I mean, I'm thrilled. I'm very excited about how they do give. And so I want to say if you haven't, you can get in on this.

And if you have, thank you very much. Well, if you're benefiting from the work of this ministry, now would be a great time for you to join us. Your gift will help others receive the same encouragement you're enjoying. To send a gift or become a monthly partner, go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app or call 888-333-6003.

That's 888-333-6003. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Well, now here's Chip with his application. As we close today's broadcast, I want to ask you a simple question. Who are you listening to? Are you listening to the lies for money that you need more of it, that you will find security in it, that it's the source of your joy, that all your dreams will be fulfilled by it? When we believe and follow these lies, as Kyle put it, ascribing attributes to money that only God can fulfill, then we're in deep trouble.

We've believed a lie. We're actually asking money to deliver, to save us, to give us what only God can. I love this line, money may be whispering in your ear, but Jesus is shouting at you.

Christ wants to provide all that you need with no strings attached. You know, money is not a bad thing. Money is a great tool. I remember talking to a very, very wealthy man who went broke two or three different times. He told me, he said, you know, I ask money to deliver what it never had the power to. So no matter how much I had, I just kept taking bigger and bigger and bigger risks, and then I went broke. I'm pretty gifted at making money, so I made a fortune again, and I did the same thing, and then I went broke. Then God showed me that my problem wasn't money.

My problem was what the Bible calls philogoria. It was the love of money. It was an idol in my life. I remember going to a conference with that man. It was a turning point in his life. It was a conference on generous giving. It was a conference where you go to and no one asks you for any money.

It's a conference where they teach what does the Bible say about generosity, and then different people tell their stories of the joy and the fulfillment of increasing levels of generosity. He turned to me and he said, you know something? I've got a new mission. Then he kind of smiled. I said, what's that? He goes, I'm going to make a lot of money. He said it sort of like that, and then he paused. He said, so I can give a lot of money away. That was the beginning. He committed that he wanted to give at least a million dollars away every year, beginning back then.

That was a number of years ago. I've watched how God has put his hand upon his life and the joy that he has, and how he's now sort of become an evangelist for generosity. He did some radical, radical things to begin to dethrone money because it had a hold on him. The seeds of money start very early in our life.

Let me just tell you straight up, money will destroy your life if it's an idol. Let me encourage you, be as radical as you need to be. Take a radical step. Stop justifying, rationalizing, and playing games. Money is the other God. This is a test that God has brought into your life today, but it's a test for you to win.

It's a test where you can say yes to life and no to death. Take that step. You know, a great way to get plugged in with our resources here at Living on the Edge is through the Chip Ingram app. There you can listen to past series, sign up for daily discipleship, and much more. Let us help you experience God in a new personal way, starting today with the Chip Ingram app. Well, until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.