Introduction — The Numbers
Americans consume 736 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving alone. 164 million people shop Thanksgiving weekend. Total spend: tens of billions of dollars. One retail CEO called consumers 'the winners.'
Winners. That's the word the culture uses for what we're supposed to be chasing. But winners in what game, exactly? And what does winning actually get you?
Consumerism can be defined as a never-ending desire to possess material goods and achieve personal success — a belief that your worth and value are measured by what you have rather than by who you are. It is buying a lifestyle in order to find your dignity.
The Gospel is a completely different story about where dignity comes from.
I. Jesus on Money (Luke 12:15-21)
'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.' (Luke 12:15)
Then Jesus tells a story about a man whose fields produced abundantly. His response: build bigger barns. Store more. Retire early. 'Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.'
God's response: 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
Jesus does not say the man was wicked. He does not accuse him of fraud or oppression. He simply worked hard and wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labor. That is exactly what the culture tells us to do. And God calls it foolishness.
Why? Because the man's entire accounting system was oriented around what he could accumulate — with no category for God, for others, or for eternity.
II. The Early Church Alternative (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37)
The early church developed a radically counter-cultural economics. Acts 2:44-45: 'All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.'
This is not communism — Acts 5 makes clear that selling was voluntary (Ananias and Sapphira were judged not for keeping their money but for lying about it). But it is a community that had genuinely re-ordered their relationship to possessions.
The context matters: they were under persecution. They needed to provide for one another in ways the empire would not. Their generosity was not naivete — it was theology in action.
The result? 'The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.' Their generosity was evangelism.
III. What the Bible Actually Says About Wealth (1 Timothy 6:17-19; Genesis 12:1-3)
The Bible is not against wealth. Abraham was wealthy. Job was wealthy. The Psalms describe material blessing. 1 Timothy 6:17-19 does not say 'command those who are rich to give everything away.' It says: 'Command them not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God... to be generous and willing to share.'
Genesis 12:1-3: God blessed Abraham so that Abraham could be a blessing to all nations. Wealth is a means to an end, not the end. The end is the flourishing of others and the glory of God.
Consumerism inverts this: it makes accumulation the end. God makes it the means.
IV. Matthew 6:24 — The Ultimatum
Matthew 6:24 — No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
Jesus does not say it is difficult to serve both God and money. He says it is impossible. They make incompatible demands. Money says: secure yourself, store for yourself, display yourself. God says: trust Me, give generously, find your identity in Me.
Appeal
This is not a stewardship sermon designed to increase giving to this church. It is a sermon about what you love. Because Jesus was right: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What would it look like for your relationship with money to be a form of worship? What would it look like to be, like Abraham, blessed in order to be a blessing?