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Monopoly
1 Timothy 6:6-10
In 1923, nine of the worlds most successful financiers met at Chicago’s
Edgewater Beach Hotel. Financially they held the world by the tail.
Anything that money could buy was in their grasp. They were by all
definitions rich. The members of this group were:
Charles Schwab, The president of the worlds largest steel company.
Samuel Insull, President of the Worlds largest electric Company.
Howard Hopson, President of the worlds largest Gas company.
Arthur Cutten, The great Wheat Speculator.
Richard Witney, President of the New York Stock Exchange.
Albert Fall, Secretary of the Interior in President Harding’s Cabinet.
Jesse Livermore, The greatest “Bear” on Wall Street.
Ivar Kreuger, Head of the world’s greatest Monopoly.
Leon Fraser, President of the bank of international settlements.
Financially this was the most impressive group of men ever gathered in
one place. These men had it all. Fine homes, Fine cars, the best of
everything. Everything they saw and desired belonged to them. With the
exception of one thing. You see in 1948, 25 years later the picture was
quite different.
Mr. Schwab was forced into bankruptcy and died penniless
Mr. Insull died a fugitive from justice, penniless.
Mr. Hopson died in an asylum penniless.
Mr. Whitney had just been released from prison, penniless.
The rest of the group had all committed Suicide, Penniless.
The one thing these men didn’t have and could not buy was peace with
themselves and with God.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6:6-10 and lets see the Game we are discussing
tonight.
READ TEXT
Monopoly is the most played board game in the world. In the game players
compete to acquire wealth through the purchase, rental and trading of
real estate using play money. But it is not just the most played Board
game in the world, It the most played game that people play.
Tonight we’re talking about what the Bible has to say about the
accumulation of things. And at its root what we’re really wanting to
know is how can we discover contentment in our lives. Now unfortunately
we are not trained by our culture to be very content? Everything around
us teaches us to believe in an accumulation of things.
A typical Grocery Story in the United States in 1976 stocked 9,000
items; today that same store carries 30,000 different items. And why is
that? Because we have an obsessive compulsion to possess more and more
things, thinking they will bring satisfaction in our lives.
As we look at Monopoly we want to look at why is God concerned with our
drive to accumulate more and more?
One reason is because it damages our priorities.
When we want something more than we want anything else, including God
that is a problem. Our priorities are out of whack and when our
priorities get rearranged we fall into many traps. We run after the
wrong things and stop pursuing God. Stuff becomes the most important
things in our lives. Our priorities get rearranged.
God is also concerned because that drive for more damages our
relationships.
In 1 Kings 21 we read of a king named Ahab who wanted a piece of land
adjoining his property. Here he had this huge palace but he wanted this
little garden plot that belonged to his neighbor Naboth. Ahab offered to
buy the land but Naboth refused and 1 Kings 21:4 says that Ahab became
sullen and angry.
His wife Jezebel saw him like this and arranged for Naboth to be put to
death. Once Naboth was dead, Ahab took the land he wanted.
And that’s an extreme, but the drive for more and more stuff can damage
our relationships. It’s the preoccupation with other people’s things
that is at the root of much of the crime in our society. A preoccupation
with things, a coveting of what others have that drives so many in crime
or just in life. And so it damages our priorities and our relationships.
And God is also concerned with this unhealthy drive for more because it
damages our finances.
We buy more than we can afford because we want more than we need. I know
people making $20,000-$30,000 a year who enjoy their lives and pay all
their bills. I also know people whose income exceeds six figures and yet
they are miserable and near bankrupt, because they can’t control their
wants.
And you combine the philosophy that things can bring happiness with our
society’s easy access to credit and you will devastate a family budget.
Someone once said that Credit cards let you start at the bottom and then
dig yourself a hole.
How many got a credit card offer this week? The average American adult
receives 32 credit card offers per year, regardless of their credit
history.
Average American has four major credit cards with an average total
credit card debt of $9,000.00.
Now, add to that those that a sucked into the minimum payment plan
scheme and you have a recipe for financial disaster. Did you know that
if you have a balance of $3,900 and you pay the 3% minimum it will take
you nearly 42 years to pay off the debt, and those monthly payments
would total $14,530.44?
And a lot of people are in a hole because they are consumed with things.
This unhealthy drive for more devastates finances and in doing so,
devastates families.
It also damages personal happiness.
When Ahab coveted Naboth’s land he was sullen and frustrated. A constant
desire for more left him unfulfilled and depressed.
Did you know that there has been a sharp increase in depression since
World War II. People born after 1945 are 10 times more likely to suffer
depression than people born earlier. That’s strange since we today we
have so many more possessions and life is more comfortable.
People today are caught up in the middle of almost complete
self-centeredness. They are so focused on getting what they want that it
leads to unhappiness and un-fulfillment. The more we have the more we
want, and the more unhappy we become! 1 Timothy 6 tells us that the
pursuit of things at all costs, causes much grief.
Well that leads us to another question, and it’s the question of why?
Why do we have this unhealthy drive for more.
And one reason is advertising.
We are constantly bombarded with ploys to get more stuff. You turn on
the television and there are commercials. You log on to the internet and
its full of ads. You drive down the highway nothing but billboards. You
open the mail and it’s a catalog. You answer the phone and it’s a
telemarketer. Constant advertising.
The average American is exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day that
promise happiness. “If you just had that new exercise machine, you’d be
ripped like the guy in the commercial. If you just had those new clubs,
you’d hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods. If you just had the right tan or
the right makeup or the right clothes.” And slowly but surely we’re
eaten by the monster of more.
Next we are also susceptible to a lack of contentment because our self
esteem is so closely tied to the accumulation of possessions.
We determine a person’s worth by what they own. If someone says, “How
much is he worth?” we immediately reduce the answer to dollars and
cents. Our culture and its warped values have told us that we are less
of a person if we don’t accumulate lots of things.
And we buy into it. We have to have this car or these clothes because
everybody else does and everybody else must be happy because they have
those things…well guess what, they may have those things, but it doesn’t
mean their happy and content. And certainly doesn’t mean they worth more
or of more basic value.
Well what’s the cure? How do we become content people and put an end to
this obsession for more? Or at least make an attempt to curb it. And I
want to point you in three directions.
And first and foremost we need to Open Our Eyes.
We need to realize that stuff is not going to fulfill us. How many of us
have acknowledged that in our mind but made no attempt to change our
lifestyle or our drive for more. Happiness is not found in the
accumulation of things. Of bigger house, bigger cars, better stuff. In
our souls, we know that things can’t bring happiness so how come we
still look for fulfillment in those areas?
If we are caught up in coveting, in driving for the accumulation of
things, at some point we have to ask ourselves the question, WHY? Why
are we trying to get it all? What do we think it will bring us? Why do
we work 12 hour days, all to accumulate things?
And Mark 8:36 says "What good is it, to gain the whole world, and
forfeit your soul and what can a man give in exchange for his soul."
And we need to wake up to that. Wake up and realize that nothing in this
world is going to fulfill our desires.
Sometimes when Trista and I get the opportunity to take the boys out to
eat we ask their opinion. And since they are 5 and 2 we spend a lot of
time at "the shrine of the golden arches." I really believe sometimes
that the boys have a McDonald’s-shaped vacuum in their souls.
And when we go they always want the same thing. And if you have little
kids or Grandkids you know what it is, it’s the same thing every kid
under 12 wants, And it’s not the food, it’s the little cheap toy that
comes with the food. Somewhere behind a big mahogany desk a marketing
genius at McDonald’s gave it a particular name. They call it the Happy
Meal.
It is "the meal of great joy." You aren’t just buying chicken McNuggets
and a tiny plastic man. You’re buying happiness.
Now Trista and I try every time to buy them something else or go
somewhere else and I have even offered them a dollar so that they can
buy a better toy but they always chant, “I want a Happy Meal, I want a
Happy Meal!”
So we go to McDonalds and they get the Happy Meal. And it makes them
happy for about a minute and a half. The problem is that the happy wears
off. Happy Meals were introduced when I was a young boy and I have eaten
my share of them, but I have never gone to my parents and said “Dad,
remember that Happy Meal you gave me? That’s where I found lasting
contentment and lifelong joy. I knew if I could just have that Happy
Meal, I would be content for a lifetime, and I am. Thank you. There’ll
be no need for therapy for this boy. ”
In fact, the only one that Happy Meals bring real happiness to is
McDonald’s. You ever wonder why Ronald has that silly grin on his face?
Twenty billion Happy Meals a year, that’s why.
Now, you would think, kids being fairly bright these days, that sooner
or later they would catch on to this deal and say, "You know, I keep
getting these Happy Meals and they don’t give me lasting happiness, so
I’m not going to set myself up for disappointment any more." But it
never happens. They keep buying Happy Meals and they keep not working.
Now here’s the question, only a child would be so foolish. Right? Only a
kid would be so naive as to think that contentment could be acquired
through some kind of external acquisition. Right?
But the truth about human beings is that as we grow up, we don’t get any
smarter; our Happy Meals just keep getting more expensive. And the world
around us tells us that happiness is always just one more Happy Meal
away.
And not only do we need to open our eyes, but we need to Share with
others.
We are attached to our stuff and the best way to wean us away from stuff
is to let go of some of it. When that rich young ruler came to Jesus,
you know what Jesus told him to do, he told him to sell his possessions
and give to the poor. Jesus’ advice the rich young ruler was very
practical.
If we want contentment we need to learn to let go of the world’s goods.
Do you know, one of the by-products of giving some of it away? It
teaches us that we can get by on less. It teaches us that we don’t need
those things to be happy. By letting go of our money and some of our
conveniences we find that we don’t need all that junk to be happy. We
can get by on less.
I think that is why Paul told Timothy “Command those who are rich to be
generous and willing to share their money. In this way they will lay up
treasure for themselves as a firm foundation and they may take hold of
the life that is truly life.” 1 Timothy 6:17
Paul says if people want to find true life, they must learn let go of
some their stuff. Contentment comes when you are willing to give.
Finally, we need to Prioritize.
If you want to be content you need to start in the right place. You
don’t have a material shaped hole on the inside, you have a God shaped
hole that only he can fill.
The Apostle Paul tells us the secret to true contentment in Philippians
4:11. He writes, “I have learned to be content whatever the
circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to
have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in
want. I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.”
The Bible says the secret to contentment is to focus on Christ and to
seek first the Kingdom of God, and everything else will take care of
itself.
But I’ve got to tell you, that don’t happen without a decision. If you
just drift along, there is enough pressure and influence from society,
advertising, inner greed, that things will soon occupy our focus. We
need to make a decision that I’m not buying into it anymore. I don’t
need those things to make me happy, because they aren’t going to anyway.
I will not serve things, I will serve the Lord. I will focus on that
which is most important. And I will rearrange my activities to match
that new priority.
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