Recession Proof // John Isemann

I want to give you a window this morning into the Eismann home on a normal weekday. Every morning, Joan and I get up, depending on the day. Most days we get up around the same time, it depends on the day. We make our coffee, I make my coffee, Joan makes her tea, I take my prescription medication cocktail of statins and blood pressure medications, Joan, because she's in perfect health, looks at me.

And we sit down and we watch one of the morning TV shows, kind of the news shows, one of the news shows that you all probably watch in the morning too. Want to hear the headlines, what's going on in the world? We do this for the first half hour, those shows are usually on. And then, inevitably, my son, John, told me recently, said, you say the same thing every day.

I can't take it anymore. And it's because around 7.30, I always go, let's go see what's going to happen in the old stock market today. And I say it, apparently five times a week. And so John was ranting about how he could write a book of my terrible sayings.

So there's one of them, let's go see what's going on in the old stock market today. Now, why do I want to see every morning what's going to happen in the old stock market today? Recently, I haven't wanted to see what's going to happen in the old stock market today. And the reason I want to see it's twofold.

One is I have a 401K plan just like you do. So I'm kind of interested in what's happening. Second is, it's just by nature a little interesting to me. Some of you know that before I was a pastor, I had a career in finance.

I have an economics degree, an undergraduate economics degree, I'm a charter for natural analyst. I spent 20 years in banking and finance and investing. So that world has an interest for me. It's a little bit almost like going home when I flip on CNBC in the morning.

It's like, oh, yeah, I used to do this a lot. Here's what I've noticed now. Because I'm sharing the story for a reason. In putting those two morning news shows together, over the last couple of months, the first is, and it doesn't matter what morning show you watch, they're all the same.

The first is that they are always. And I mean always. And this is another guy I say every morning. So John probably knows what's coming.

Every morning, John and I now, it's like a game for us. They're always, and once I tell you this, it's going to open your eyes to it. You'll start doing it too. They're always trying to get you to be frightened about something.

Every morning, it's just start watching for it. What should I be scared about today? It's always something, right? It's usually some kind of shortage.

It's a pilot shortage or a lifeguard shortage this summer. Those were out there. My brother-in-law is in the produce industry. There was a tomato shortage this summer.

Did anybody go wanting for a tomato this summer? But I'm telling you, if you watch the Today Show, you would have thought you'd never see a tomato again, right? But it goes on Halloween, fear stories. They crop up every year.

When I was a kid, my mother always told me, don't take an apple. I have a razor blade in it. How many razor blades do you think were passed out in apples over time, right? But that was the big story in the 90s when I was growing up.

Not to take an apple because there might be a razor blade. In fact, it's so funny. Now we move to trick or trunk. And I was reading in Chester, I think somewhere in Chester.

One of the neighborhoods was just going to put all of its candy in one corner of the neighborhood so the kids could just go to that spot and pick up their candy. What has happened? Like fear, fear, fear. It's everywhere.

Last year, do you remember the great tanks, giving day Turkey shortage? There was supposed to be a little bit of Turkey anywhere on Thanksgiving last year. Sure enough, I was out at the store on Thanksgiving Eve, completely true story. I looked over at the turkey bin on the night before Thanksgiving packed with turkeys.

But they would have had you scared to death, right? Well, if you've been watching these TV shows, these news, finance shows over the last few months, you know now other than the elections, which of course they tried to scare the crud out of you about the elections too, right? America helix in the balance. This is the most important election of your lifetime.

One congressman actually said this. He went on to deny that he said they had the tape of them. He said if this election went the wrong way, it would be the end of the world. Literally, that's what a US representative said.

Unless you vote my way, this will be the end of the world. Anyway, once you get past all of the election fear, now that's kind of dropping into the background, they need to give you something more. And I don't know why we do this. We do it for ratings.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist person. It's done because you tune in for fear. There's an old newspaper saying if it bleeds, it leads, right? And so you tune in for this.

I do too. They get a hook into us. And so what's the new thing that we all need to be terrified of? It's the R word, recession.

Raise your head if you've heard there's a recession coming. Are you aware? Come on, participate. Everybody now has heard there's a recession coming.

I don't need to tell you that. And why? Well, inflation's at a four-year high. Again, something I don't need to tell you.

If you bought some eggs recently, you're aware of this. And so to curb it, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates because they have to slow down the economy to camp down inflation. But raising interest rates is a pretty blunt tool, right? It's not really precise.

The only thing you can do is raise them. And hopefully it'll cause spending to decrease, right? Because interest rates go up. Credit becomes more expensive.

Your mortgage costs more. Your car won't cost more. People spend less. When people spend less, businesses make less.

When businesses make less, their profits drop down. They go down. The bottom line shrinks. When the bottom line shrinks, layoffs increase.

It's such a blunt tool, though, that ultimately, and this is very strange if you're not into business, it makes no sense to you, right? Ultimately, what economists are looking for right now is for unemployment to rise. If you were to turn on the news tomorrow and unemployment went up 3%, the stock market right now would go nuts. They would celebrate tens of thousands of people losing their jobs.

Why would that be good economic news? Because it means that the Fed did a good job. And they slowed the economy down. Right now, that's what we're waiting for.

We're just waiting for people to lose their jobs. And everything will be good, right? And so because that is scary, right? People start beating the fear drum for recession.

The economy is going to contract. What should I do? The economy is going to contract. Somebody quick, get some toilet paper.

Oh, that was the last fear cycle. I forgot, right? But we've got to go run out and do whatever it is that we have to do to make ourselves feel like we're ready for whatever it is that's going to come. But I have to tell you that the fear, the fear that's induced now in the 24-hour seven-day week news cycle, when it comes to recession, take a breath.

And hopefully this will age well, OK? Hopefully we're not going to have a depression. But did you know going back to 1857, do you know how often that's a big time sample, OK? You know how often we have a recession?

And a recession of your non-economist, it just means America's gross domestic product, the size of the economy, does an increase, which it usually does, it shrinks a little bit for two consecutive quarters. That's all it means. Do you know how many recessions we've had, or how often we've had one since 1857, about every three years? But every time, we were, oh my gosh, a recession, quick somebody, right?

Let me tell you what I'm going to do, because this massive problem is coming our way. You would think Armageddon is at the door. And so I'm just getting tired of all of these fear stories. And so what I want to do over the next couple weeks, in light of all the worry and all the fear, is look at what Jesus had to say about money and fear.

And here's what's surprising. You might sit there and go, well, can't be too much there. It's shocking how much Jesus has to say about money and fear. He taught a lot about it.

Many of you know, one of Jesus's most, I think, the most often said saying of Jesus is, why are you so afraid? And I will answer it for many of us, because there's a recession coming. And it's going to impact my money. And when my money gets impacted, I get scared.

Now, if you've been part of our church for any amount of time, you probably have figured out, I hope, that I don't like to talk very much about money. I've been on staff of this church for almost 20 years. I've been the primary teacher on this platform for over a decade. And in all of that time, I have done one series of talks on money.

That's it, one. In 20 years on staff, 10 years as the primary teacher. 500 plus sermons in the last 10 years, maybe three on money in right in the row. Why?

Why do I talk so little about it? Well, I'll tell you why, because there are 96,976 people who live within one town of this church who don't have any kind of personal relationship with Jesus. And I'm just going to be honest with you. My fear is that somebody looking for that kind of hope of Jesus, or maybe they invite their friend to church, which my friend Jeff did today, and they invite their friend to church, and they're like, oh, John, not money.

Or they come in and they're hoping to find some hope and the pastor's up there talking about money. And there's so much baggage between the church and money. And a lot of that has to do with what you see on TV or different denominations, how they've handled money. And somebody walks in hoping to find some kind of eternal hope.

And they hear me talking about money. And they just got to go, well, they dismiss it. They dismiss Jesus. They dismiss our community of faith, hopefully of hope and love here.

And they walk out because they're just a church asking for people's money. I understand that. I really get it. That's why I don't talk about it that much.

I'm super sensitive to it. In fact, I'm encouraged to talk more about money. And I push back because there's 96,976 people who are looking for Christ within one town of our church. And I don't want money to be a stumbling block.

Here's what's interesting. You know who wasn't super sensitive about this topic at all? Jesus, which is really weird if you're trying to build a movement. Jesus talked about money relentlessly all the time.

Now, many of you know that Jesus did most of his teaching through what are called parables, stories. And depending on how you count those parables, there are some would say 38, some would say 39, maybe upwards of 40 parables that Jesus spoke in, right? Well, here's what's interesting. If you look at those parables, 30% of those parables have to do with money and finances.

Jesus, if you've been around the church, you've heard this before. I know it's a common saying, although sometimes it gets abused. Jesus spoke more about money than he did, heaven and hell combined. In the scriptures, there are 500 or so verses on prayer and faith.

There are over 2,000 on money, right? Jesus doesn't shy away from the topic. It was a constant. It was like a regular drum beat.

If you were following Jesus, you were like, money again, really? Now, here's what's interesting, OK? While he talked about it more than probably other than the Kingdom of God, he talked about money more than any other topic. And I would tell you oftentimes when he talked about money, he was relating it to the Kingdom of God.

Here's what's interesting. In all of this teaching on money, constant money, money, Jesus never, not once, did he ask for anybody's money? I want you to think about that for a second. All he didn't.

Well, that's an approach to exaggeration. A predominant amount of his teaching had to do with money. But he never asked for a dime. Super interesting, right?

He had no interest in trying to get it from anybody. And so for the next couple of weeks, I want to follow Jesus's lead, which is a good thing for pastors to do, right? I want to talk about what Jesus said about money and how it relates to fear. But I want to assure you, I'm not trying to get your money.

Which, by the way, if you've heard that before, you should hold onto your wallet, right? But I'm here to tell you that is not my motivation. And even if you're unsure this morning that Jesus actually is who he said he is, right? Even if you're not sure he is the way the truth in the life that nobody comes to him except through Christ, that's who he said he is.

But even if you're uncertain of that, most folks would say, well, look, he was a brilliant teacher. Jesus is a world transforming figure. Even if you're not sure he's a messiah or that he's divine, almost everybody should have some interest in what this man, why would he spend so much time talking about money in a world where there were real and significant problems? And what could you and I, even if you're a person unsure of Christianity, what could you learn about Jesus and your money?

What would he say to you? Even if you don't believe who he is who he says he is. So I want to jump in and take a look in a sense about what Jesus has to say about recessions, about money and fear. Luke is a first century.

You've heard me say this before, Greek physician. He's likely a brilliant man. And he's heard story after story about Jesus and his teaching. And he decides he's going to become what historians would tell you.

He becomes a first rate historian. And he looks into all of the accounts of Jesus. He meticulously documents his teaching. And so, by the way, does Matthew, who is actually an eyewitness to what Luke is writing, Matthew would go on to write the same thing.

Now, before I tell you what Jesus said in this parable, I want to give you the setting for it, OK? Because the setting is always what's so key to these parables. You have to understand why Jesus is saying what he's saying. Don't just pull it out and apply it to what you want to apply it to, OK?

Here's what's going on. I'm going to read it right from Luke chapter 12 verse, starting at verse 1. I don't even have it in the back because I just want you to hear it, OK? Meanwhile, Luke writes, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered.

Remember, Jesus is not embarrassed to talk about money. When a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so big was the crowd that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples. Here's what he said to them. He goes, be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. I want you to think, OK? What is Jesus trying to teach them? OK?

There's nothing concealed that's not going to be disclosed or hidden. That's not going to be made. No. What you've said in the dark is going to be heard in the daylight.

And what you whisper in the ear in the inner rooms is going to be proclaimed from the roofs. I tell you, my friends, don't be afraid of those who could kill the body. And after that, do no more. But I'll show you whom you should fear.

Fear him, whoever your body's been killed, has the authority to throw you in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Or not five sparrows sold for two pennies, yet not one of them's forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs on your head are all numbered.

Don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. I'm telling you, whoever publicly acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will also acknowledge but for the angels. But whoever disowns me, before others, will be disowned before the angels of God.

And everybody who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven. But anybody who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When you're brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, don't worry about how you're going to defend yourself for what you're going to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.

That's what's going on. Thousands of people, they're tripping over one another. This is what Jesus gets up and talks about. And look, it's pretty heavy stuff, right?

I mean, I could be up here for weeks talking about this stuff. You're teaching us on judgment and forgiveness, heaven and hell, hidden things being revealed. That's all the setting, right? Now, you respect this guy and you're sitting there and listening to it.

And this has got to conjure up some questions, right? That's the setting. Now, here's what happens. Luger chords, what happens next.

I mean, the crowd said to him, teacher, what would you think he's going to ask based on the setting, right? I mean, is he going to follow up on one of these profound points of life, about life and death? Is he going to ask about heaven or hell? Is he going to ask about the eternal or the temporal?

How to live right now in light of then? You might think he's going to go, oh my gosh, I should ask him about eternal life. I should ask him about how to avoid hell. I should ask for him, how would I stand up for Christ in this world and not be afraid?

That's all the stuff that my mind would be thinking, right? This is risky. I got to ask you a question, Jesus. But that's not what he yells out in front of the thousands.

What he yells out is, hey, teacher. That sounds like a Pink Floyd song for some reason. Anyway, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. What?

I almost, Jesus almost has that reaction. What? Teacher, Rabbi, help me settle this dispute I'm having with my older brother, likely, right, who is taking all of my father's inheritance and he's not splitting up. Which I have to tell you, right?

And I think Jesus, I'm sure Jesus understands it. It's slightly revealing about the man's concerns. Now it wouldn't be unusual for a man to ask a rabbi that, right? If you were part of Israel, if you were a citizen in Jerusalem at that time, if you had a dispute with your brother about an inheritance, right, you would go to your rabbi, he would look at the Torah which described, prescribed what you do with inheritance and he would make a ruling.

So that wouldn't be unusual. And look, this guy's heard Jesus talk about money and generosity over and over and over again, right? And so he's probably just like, we are. When he hears a sermon, you know how you're always thinking, thinking, oh man, I just wish my husband were here to hear this.

He's gone off. My brother was only around to hear this. So he's going, Jesus, tell me, what could I, can you get involved? My brother, the inheritance, the question actually made sense, but it didn't make sense in the light of the context of what Jesus was talking about.

And so Luke says that Jesus responds, man, who appoint, I like that, man. That's how I text you from saying it. Who appoint, right? Like what else would he say?

Man, man, who? I don't know, that's my Jesus shock voice. Who appointed me, a judge or an arbor between you? Interesting, right?

There are other places in the scripture where Jesus is very clear that he has been appointed to various offices. The writer of the Hebrew said that he's appointed as our high priest. Jesus himself, at another point in the scripture, says he is appointed to be our judge, but he was appointed to be a judge of our attorneys, us in an eternal sense, not in the way that this man wanted him to judge. You know what this guy was doing?

And we read this story where we're like, oh, what a rub. What this guy was doing, he was attempting to use Jesus' position and authority as a means to his own end. I mean, nobody would ever do something like that, right? What he wanted to do is he wanted to use Jesus' kingdom that Jesus was establishing to advance his own.

And I know, I gotta be honest with you, I never read it this way before, because usually when I read it, I'm like, this guy, what a dope, how stupid and insensitive and foolish could you possibly be? But isn't the truth that we all do this? Like all the time, right? Now I'm not gonna ask how many of you bought a powerball ticket this last week.

I know once it gets over a billion all rules are off, right? But if you want to avoid yourself with a powerball ticket this week, wasn't there just a little something in your soul that said, dear God, please, please, please make the numbers come up right for me? Lord, right? Lord, make the numbers come up right for me.

We do it at work. Lord, tell my boss to notice my efforts, to reward my efforts. We do it in relationships. Jesus, I'll be a Christian, but could you make that man like me?

Could you make her like me? We do it all the time. It's natural first. I do it every morning when I flip on CNBC.

Jesus, make the market go up, right? This is what we do. It's our story. You know who this guy in the crowd is?

You know who this room is? You? He's doing the same thing you and I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all good and well.

I got an issue over here with my brother and some money. And Jesus, what he wants to do is he wants to make a point and what he wants to use to make the point is, well, you and me. Then he said to him, okay, this is good. Here's my Jesus voice again.

Right now it goes from man to watch out. Notice the exclamation point. Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Life does not consist in abundance of possessions. Do you hear the urgency in Jesus' voice? I didn't make the exclamation point up, right? Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, which is interesting, right?

Because the guy in the crowd, I think he's like us. I think he'd go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Greed. Why am I greedy?

In fact, I'm poor. I'm not the greedy guy. My brother's the greedy guy. He's got all the money.

I'm just trying to get my fair share. I'm just trying to get what I deserve. I'm just trying to get what I'm owed. That's Jesus' point to him and to us.

No, no. Watch out. Be on your guard because here's something about greed. Everybody needs to understand.

I'm telling you, I'm wrestling with this one, okay? Because I'm greedy. He says you've got to really watch this because greed, unlike any other issue, greed hives. Now here's what I know about you because you're a human being and I know it.

It's true of me and so maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm overlaying it on you. But based on over a decade of counseling folks, I've never had one person show up in my office and go, pastor, help me. I'm so greedy. If I ask you to tell me, tell me what you need some help with.

Tell me where you need the Holy Spirit to help you overcome something. Give me some of your issues. Write them down so I can address them in church. For some of us, it would be anger.

This is a common one with guys. Guys struggle with anger a lot. For others, it's gossip. It's loss.

It could be our relationships. Some of us have a very hard time forgiving, right? Mike's working on that with the youth right now. There are the classic vice issues and all of us struggle with different ones and different levels, right?

We get ourselves entangled with alcohol and drugs and sex and gambling. If I did an anonymous survey this week and I asked you to let me know the sin you're struggling with, I know these are the ones I would get back. Here's what I can almost guarantee I would not hear from anyone. Man, I am a greedy.

You know what? Nobody thinks that of themselves. That's why Jesus is going. It hides.

Greed is like any other issue. Greed hides. It hides behind things that sound good. I'm not greedy, man.

I'm just frugal. I'm not greedy. I'm just careful with how I spend my money. Heck, we turn greed into a virtue.

It hides in virtues. I'm not greedy. I'm just a sound financial planner. I'm saving for my financial future.

And those things sound wonderful. And to an extent, they're even good. But Jesus goes watch out because greed lurks there. Another time he said I've come so that you may have life and you may have it in abundance.

You might have it to the fullest. But here he goes, be careful because life is not found in the abundance of possessions. I've come to be your life but you seem more interested. This gives you a hint into why he expresses himself the way he does to this man.

I've come to be your life, to give you life, and you think it's found over here. And time to that home, here's what he says. He begins to tell one of those 30 to 40 parables. He goes, the ground of certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.

And so he thought to himself, what shall I do? I don't have any place to store my crops. And then he said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down my barns and I'm going to build bigger ones.

And there, I'll store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many of years. Take life, easy, eat, drink, and be married. This is known in other places by another name, the American Dream.

Right? This is the American Dream. What is my goal? My goal is to have enough money so that I don't need to worry.

And then what are you going to do? Nothing. My goal is to have enough money to not worry so I can do nothing. Right?

He's talking to you, Johnny Boy. You are this man. So am I. But God said to him, don't take this personally, John.

You fool. Notice the exclamation point again. I don't know too many places in the scriptures where you see God this blunt with someone. And I think the point is this.

Money can make you think and act like a fool. Again, here's the story from the point from which it's told. Jesus isn't looking for anybody's money. When the story is over, there is no collection taken.

Okay? This is not that. This is very nice. He says to the man, your life will be demanded from you.

Then who's going to get what you prepared for yourself? And we don't know the answer to that question. The answer is someone else. And this is how it's going to be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God.

What does that mean? This is how it will be. How will it be? It will be a total loss.

Total loss. Nothing left. There will be nothing for you. There will be inheritance in the kingdom to come.

Since you literally built nothing there, you didn't invest anything there. Guess what? It doesn't say you won't get there. But guess what will be waiting for you in that kingdom to come?

Nothing. There's nothing for you to look forward. Okay. There is the presence of God, right?

And that's more than enough. Don't get me wrong. But when you get there, you've built nothing up over there. And whose fault will that be?

I mean, when you're driving by Mother Teresa's palace, right? And you're going, I don't understand. I'm going to 72 Volkswagen Chival. I don't think it's too mixed.

But you know, you get the point. The answer is it's not going to be God's fault. And our complaint can't be what it usually is. Well, that's not fair.

Really? It's completely fair. Now, before he was speaking to the crowd, but now in front of the crowd, he actually turns to those that were, had committed themselves to his way of teaching, to who he was. They believed that he was who he said he was.

And so the first point was for this man and everybody who heard him cry out. But now he refocuses on the disciples. And he said that he goes, look, I'm telling you, I'm telling you guys. So this is for those of you in the room that would say, well, I am a follower of Jesus.

Well, then you should listen to this because this is for you. I'm telling you, do not worry about your life, what you're going to eat, about your body, what you're going to wear. You're going to eat more than food and the body is more than clothes. Consider the ravens.

They don't sew a reap. They have no storeroom or barn and yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than the birds? In fact, you just said that, right?

Who, who, who, who, who have you by worry can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot, you can't control that. Since you cannot do this very little thing, you can't control that. Why do you worry about the rest?

Jesus begins to talk about, here it is, money and worry. Oh, no, a recession. Get the toilet paper. Jesus is like, I don't know.

Look at the ravens. There's a new R word for you this morning, right? For you go home for your week of news, you get blasted with more fear. Every time in the next few weeks when somebody tries to scare you with the R word, replace the fear with the facts.

Replace the recession with raven. No, no, no, I'm going to consider the raven. He goes on. And this one's even more interesting in my mind.

I'll explain it in a second. He goes, how about this? Consider, reflect on the wildflowers and how they grow. They don't labor or spin.

But I'll tell you, not even solemnly, they know all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. And if that is how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more is he going to clothe you? You have little faith. And you'll see in a second, he's actually talking much more than about just clothes here.

Do not set your heart on what you're going to eat or drink. Don't worry about it. You're sensing the relationship. Money, worry, worry, worry.

This is how they get the ratings. They get on TV. Do not set your heart on what you're going to eat or drink. Don't worry about it.

For the pagan world runs after all such things. That's why they get the ratings they do. And your father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom.

And these things will be given to you as well. Don't be afraid, little flock. Your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions.

Give them to the poor. Provide persons for yourselves that aren't going to wear out a treasure in heaven that will never fail. Where no thief comes near and no moth destroys for where your treasure is, there's where your heart's going to be also. Jesus says, watch out beyond a guard against all kinds of greed.

It's going to screw with your life. But here's what's interesting. He doesn't say what greed is. He doesn't define what it is.

So if you're going to watch for it, if it can really screw your life up, what is it? Like if I were going to ask each of you to define what it means to be greedy, we would start with, well, I'm not it. But I can point to you someone in this room. That is.

Right? What do you mean? How do we be on a lookout? He never gives a definition.

Interestingly, the parable lays out signs of it though. It's like a sickness, right? I can't really define what the sickness is, but I can tell you exactly what the signs of it are because you can't cure it unless you see the signs of it in your life, unless you're aware you have it, right? Tim Keller, in all sighted teaching, references six signs in this parable and he aligns them.

I like how he aligns them. He aligns them under three categories. And again, this teaching I think is for all of us. None of us thinks we're greedy, but Jesus goes, really, let me give you a couple of signs, right?

So I walked myself through this little grid this week to try to figure out if I'm greedy. Here we go. Six signs of greed, sickness. Two situational, two psychological, two practical.

First sign, situational sign is this, right? I gloat over money. Then he said, quote, this is what I'll do. I'm going to tear down my barns and I'm going to build bigger barns.

This is the easy one, okay? This is the one where everybody would go, I don't know what greedy is and I know I'm not it, but I can tell you who is. Look at them. This is like the conspicuous consumption.

What does the ritual say? I've got plenty. I need bigger barns. I need bigger homes.

I need more stuff, more cars. I need more kitchen. A nicer cell phone. And who does he announce it to?

Later on, he says he says something to himself. But here it seems like he's trying to announce it to everybody. It doesn't say it to himself. He says it to others.

Look at me. Look what I've got. So that one's easy, okay? In some sense.

This is the situation. When you have a lot of money, if you want to sense where you're greed is, how much do I feel like I have to make sure everybody knows? But what I have. But then there's another one that's on the other side of the situation.

When you don't have it, this is for everybody here, well that's a rich people, of course. But me, okay, well then this is for all the rest of us that we would say, well this is me. Where money's not in excess. The second situational sign is I worry over money.

You do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. The drum beat of the morning news. Be afraid.

Be very afraid. And the funny part is this is being propagated on the richest people in the richest nation in the history of the world. I heard a stat in the other day. I want to get it wrong.

But it was something like they pulled people that were making a few years ago now. People were making six figures and they asked them, do you have enough money to meet your needs? And I think only a third of the people said they had enough to meet their needs. Right?

I could get that wrong. It could have been the other way. The third still didn't think. But anyway, you cut it.

It's a misunderstanding of the situation. Why does this teaching on worry come right after the power of the rich fool? It's obviously greedy. Because Jesus is saying if you worry about money, if you worry about your standard of living, you have set your heart on material things in no different way than the greedy person has.

When you have money, be careful because you might gloat. But he says if you don't have money, be careful because it's possible to have no money and still have the same sickness. To worry is to set your heart on money. It's a sign.

Two situational signs, right? When you prospering, right? When you're poor. Two different situations.

But then he gives two psychological signs. Remember, he said, watch out for all kinds of greed? It comes in different forms. We're not really good at seeing the one form we have.

We're really good at seeing the other form other people have. So here's how Jesus lays out to him. For one, he says, here's one. When money provides security, you might have a greed issue.

Consider the ravens, right? The ravens are secure and they have no money. They have no savings. Their security is purely God.

One kind of greed occurs when you set your heart on money. Your security. When you look at it to make you secure. To keep you safe.

I do this, right? By the way, I check all these boxes. So this is just me preaching to me and you can listen in. I see it in verse 19 when the fool says to himself, I will say to myself, he has to convince himself.

I will say to myself, relax, feel secure now. You have money. You're in control. You're like God.

Nothing can touch you because you have money. Which is the point of the whole story? That's why Jesus gets you full. It's a mirage.

Don't get duped by it. Money has the ability to make us lie to ourselves. Money can't protect you from all of the horrible things in life. You know that.

It lies to you. Money has never prevented a tragedy and sickness, death, broken relationships, death, broken relationships. Money can't give you control over any of those things. In fact, I think you could probably argue statistically.

Money can hurt some of those things, right? When you pile up money, when you hoard it, thinking it's going to provide control of your life, right? And that is what you're looking for. You're going to get duped.

And you know what you're going to miss out on? Life. Life. Found in Christ.

Life. Abund it. And so one psychological sign of greed sickness is money providing for your security. Here's the other.

That money provides for you your significance. Consider the wildflowers. On the other hand, Jesus says, look at the flowers. Money makes them beautiful.

God makes them stand out. God gives them their beauty and their radiance and their charm and their significance. What greed tells you is that money is what makes you attractive and beautiful and significant. Money is what makes me feel successful and desirable and wanted and loved and appreciated.

But guys, some of you that have a lot of money know this, okay? The irony is that when you live this way, when you use money for those things, you actually will never know who likes you for you. You actually will never get what it is you were looking for. Because most people are just going to use you for your money.

And it leads to loneliness and isolation and despair. All the relational success that it promises you it just vanishes into wondering if anybody even knows you. When you use money for security, it leads to saving sickness. When you use it for significance, it turns into a spending sickness.

But in both cases, you're using something for money, for something that only God can give you. It's a sickness. You won't find life there. Finally, check yourself on this.

So far as I was going through it, I'm going, oh, right? Nobody checks their 401k balance more than me. Okay? I put a little money away for my, a little, like a little, for my granddaughter, for a college education the other day.

And the market did really well this week. So she's up like tens of dollars. I took a picture of it and set the court and he goes, look at what a financial wizard your father is. We're up 40 bucks.

We built from here. So let me go on about my sickness. Anyway, right? Two practical signs.

All right? Here's practical. This is, you'd feel them in life. Number one, I run after money.

Jesus says the pagan world runs after all such thing. What does it mean to run after money? It means you're driven to get more. You've got to get more.

You'll do anything to get more. One sign of money sickness is you're just exhausted by chasing after it. Constantly overworking, constantly thinking about it, doing anything, taking crazy chances. Bitcoin anyone?

Right? How? Hey, if it looked good at 65,000, wait a minute, wait a minute. It's 130.

We do it all the time. We chase money. Well, that'll make you do really stupid things. Here's what Paul told Timothy.

He goes, look, the love of money. By the way, the love of money. Jesus said to love the Lord your God, this is the greatest man. To love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor yourself.

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs. One practical sign of greed sickness is that you're chasing after money, but the other is this, I hoard it like crazy. Everything that I get that's extra is for me.

This is how it will be whoever stores up things, the key word here is for themselves. The constant piling up of extra for yourself and yourself only. Andy Stanley has a nice rhyme for everything. He calls it the consumption assumption.

Every time I have extra, and look, most of us have extra. I mean, if you went on a vacation this year, you had some extra. If you took a car that was driving fine and you brought it in and you walked out with another car, a newer car, a nicer car, you have some extra. If you pulled out some cabinets and a countertop this year and replaced them with a different cabinet and a different countertop, you have a little extra.

Most of it, if you bought a cell phone that was working fine and you walked out with a new cell phone that works exactly the same as the old one. You have a little extra, but this consumption assumption is that it's all for me, right? That anything that's extra, any time I get a little increase in my salary or my portfolio goes up a little bit, it's stored up by me for me. So one way you might want to look and go, do I have some green sicknesses?

Every time you run into a little extra, what did I do with it? What did I do with it? Did I say, oh, look, I don't have to change my lifestyle and I could do this with that, or did you go, oh, look, I don't know why I could change my lifestyle, right? This is how it's going to be.

I hoard extra money. If I went to Guatemala and I'd been there 20 or 30 times and I asked them if they thought you and I had any little extra that we could spare to help a child in Guatemala garbage dump, do you think I would go over and go, I can't do it. I'm real things are tight at home. They're going to look at me and go, really?

All right, just closing. Three things, we'll pick these up next week that highlight the cure to this greed, right? How do you get it? Better?

Number one, you count your days, all right. Money will lie to you. Money tells you, don't think about eternity, just think about now. Just look at your 401K balance, everything will be okay.

Just pile it up, then you can have security, right? Life exists for way longer. Eternal life, your life in the kingdom will come, will go on and on and on. But money blinds us to the propensity of eternity.

The scriptures teach over and over. Don't invest here. It's temporal. Invest there.

Your life, your money, your thoughts, your time, your energy in that kingdom. I'll just give you this one. This is a great story. Diagnetious was written a letter about the early Christians.

Somebody was trying to describe the early Christians. Here's what he said. He goes, they have a common table, but not a common bed. Super interesting, right?

In other words, they shared their stuff with everybody, but their beds, they only shared with one or none. And that's what you do when you have an understanding. Here's another check for you. You have an understanding of eternity.

If the world is all there is, right? Well, then, you know, the fool said it, eat, drink, marry and have as much as you can. If anybody asks you to have sex, just have sex with it. It has no meaning other than pleasure.

But if somebody asks you for money, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, there, bub. Money in this world matters because it provides significance to security. Sex is physical.