Seduction of Success – Part 1
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Seduction of Success”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
How do you define success? What does it look like? What does it feel like? How do you know when you have achieved it?
Success can be as simple as fixing a flat tire for the first time. Success can be getting an A on your first test of the year. Success can be simply getting out of bed. Success comes at the expense of some energy and effort.
Success isn’t a bad thing.
However, what can make a good thing, like success, become an ultimate thing that becomes a counterfeit god?
Perhaps at some point in your life you have seen a celebrity on TV, a professional athlete, or a prominent business leader and wished out loud or silently, “I wish I had their success.” Our inner desire to be successful leads us to wish for the outcome of success – money, fame, followers.
Yet, we don’t always know the backstory.
In this week’s message I shared a video clip of professional gymnast, Shawn Johnson. After competing in the 2004 Olympics, she was favored to win four golds at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. As she reflects on her years of practice, countless competitions and pursuit of Olympic gold, she share that pursuit of this success meant tremendous sacrifice and a realization that perhaps the cost of success was not worth it.
Three themes came out of this reflection that are indicators that tell us if the good thing of success is becoming an ultimate thing in our life. Take some time to reflect on each of these. If any or all are true for you and your pursuit of life’s goals and dreams, you may be falling to the seduction of success.
Here’s the three:
- Success seduces me to endure pressure and lose my peace.
If what I am pursuing is causing me to lose peace in my heart and carry anxiousness, worry, and tension, I may be being seduced by success. Sure some level of pressure comes when we are striving and working hard, but if I am never finding peace as I working hard on a goal, my heart is being pulled in the wrong direction.
- Success seduces me to please others before pleasing God.
Am I always worried about what other people will think or say? Do I notice my relationships are based on how well I am performing? Do I friendships that come when I succeed and flit away when I fail? Am I constantly finding myself asking, “What will __________ think?” Perhaps I am falling to the seduction of success that leads to please others before God.
- Success seduces me to be someone I’m not instead of who God made me to be.
Success can drive us to act in a way that leads us to move away from our integrity, break our morals, and act in a way that is not loving or honest. If you begin to hear people comment, “I don’t know who you are anymore. You just aren’t the same as you were before you were successful. “ Perhaps the truth is success is seducing you to think, act and be as someone you aren’t. Success should come not at the expense of giving up who you are, but being all God has made you to be.
Jesus’ words are for you (all of us): (Luke 9:25)
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?“
What good is it? None.
Journey with these devotions this week to see how one can keep God at the center of our hearts and lives AND still be successful!
Apply: Take some time today to reflect on these seductions of success. Is Satan using one or all of them to lure your heart away from God to pursue success at all costs?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, grant us honesty of perspective to repent of our empty pursuit of success and reorient our hearts to pursue success in the way you define it. AMEN.
When Love of God is Greater than Love of Money…Part 5
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Bankruptcy of Wealth”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Let’s play Jeopardy. What question do these answers answer?
“I won’t have enough.”
“They didn’t appreciate it.”
“They don’t deserve it.”
The question? “What prevents people from being generous?” This question was posed on quora.com and this reflects some of the answers. (You can read the whole thing here: https://www.quora.com/What-keeps-one-from-being-more-generous)
Here’s what those answers say to me about generosity.
“I can be generous when I have enough for myself.” This is generosity motivated by sufficiency.
“I can be generous only when people appreciate my generosity.” This is generosity motivated by reciprocity.
“I can be generous only to people that I believe deserve my generosity.” This is generosity motivated by superficiality.
The list could go on for reasons why we choose not to be generous. Perhaps the bottom line is my heart is being challenged by a love of wealth over a love of God. Generosity is an attitude and action that flows directly from a heart filled with grace.
The only way we can live a life of generosity is to have a heart filled with the generosity of Christ.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
When I realize the generosity I have been given, I realize Jesus was generous with me, even though he had to give up what was his, even though I don’t always appreciate it, even though I don’t deserve it. When I struggle to be generous, I need to go back to the cross and once again experience the generosity that Jesus has shown to me.
When that fills my heart, I can given generously even when it seems like I won’t have enough, even when someone doesn’t appreciate it, even when I don’t think they deserve it. Look at the Corinthian Christians:
2 Corinthians 8:2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.
Generosity comes when we give ourselves FIRST to the LORD…because generosity is a heart issue. Remember what happens when my heart is changed from love of money to love of God.
- I remember everything I have is the LORD’s.
- I realize that I need to ask, “God want do you want me to do with your money?”
- He teaches me to give first 10% back to him.
- He leads me to trust he will provide.
- Which leads me to live a life of generosity.
“Better to give than to receive.” I pray you experience all the blessings God gives as you live a life of open-handed generosity. Remember the LOVE of wealth will always leave you bankrupt. Let the LOVE of God fill your heart and let the LOVE of God lead you into a life of grace and generosity!
Apply: Be generous today. Buy someone’s meal. Send an extra gift to your church. Send a “back to school card and gift to a college student you know.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for being generous with us so that we might generous on all occasions! AMEN.
When Love of God Is Greater than Love of Money…Part 4
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Bankruptcy of Wealth”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
It was Martin Luther who said, “There are three conversions a person needs to experience: The conversion of the head, the conversion of the heart, and the conversion of the pocketbook.”
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church once said, ‘The last part of a man to be converted is his wallet.’
To believe that everything is the Lord’s…including my finances…To truly seek to understand, “God what do you want me to do with your money?”…To first give back to God 10% of all he allows me to earn…takes a change of heart.
It takes trust.
It takes trust in God.
Our sinful nature loves to hold on to money as a substance whereby we can control our life’s circumstances. We believe that we must provide for ourselves first, lest we not have enough. We find security in having money at our disposal.
All of these challenge our relationship with God.
Satan loves to deceive us to think, “If I have enough money, I will control my life.” The truth is God is in control and can “give and take away” as he determines.
Satan loves us to think that if we give back to God, we won’t have enough for ourselves. The truth is this
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
Satan loves to think that having money provides us security in life. The truth is the one who is present and provides help in times of trouble is the Lord.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
So, we either believe and trust the lies of our sinful nature or we believe and trust the truth and promises of our loving, gracious Savior.
Here’s more amazing promises:
2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Finances God’s way doesn’t always make sense financially, but it makes sense spiritually. We may not always understand how it works, but we pray that our heart fully trusts the Lord for our salvation AND for our earthly well-being.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Apply: Pray for God’s Spirit to lead your heart to trust and your heart to be content.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the wonderful promises you give me by which I can ALWAYS trust in you…even in the area of my finances. Forgive me when my heart doubts. Give me an extra measure of your Spirit to fully and always trust you with the wealth you have given to me. AMEN.
When Love of God Is Greater than Love of Money…Part 3
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Bankruptcy of Wealth”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
There’s no easy way to put this. So let me be blunt with two things:
- Stop robbing God.
- Stop robbing yourself.
What am I talking about? How do we rob God? Rob ourselves?
You reader would not be the first that needed to hear this message. Because, remember, if everything I have is the Lord’s and I start asking, “God how do YOU want me to manage your stuff?” we need to be open to God’s response.
The truth is, it is easy to do what I want with money, but God convicts us and challenges us to do it his way. God sent the prophet Malachi 400 years before Christ to convict God’s people of robbery and share God’s promise. Honestly we still need the conviction and encouragement today.
Here’s how we rob God. (Malachi 3:8-10)
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
People were robbing God by NOT managing his wealth the way HE desired. They were not giving ten percent as he directed and they were not giving special gifts and offerings. Their hearts loved money more than God and as a result they were keeping too much for themselves. Could the same be said of you?
The tithe is the first 10% of one’s income. God directed this to be given to his “house.” For some that was the temple, for most their local synagogue. The local church today is the recipient of our tithes to manage for the benefit of God’s kingdom work. Do you give 10%? Figure it out. What percentage of your weekly/monthly income do you give to the Lord? For many its far short of 10%. I’m sure most make more than $200 a week (a weekly gift of $20). God made it easy. Take your paycheck and drop the last number. Move the decimal one place to the left and that is your gift. Make $1235.45 a week? Your weekly offering is $123.54. It’s that simple…mathematically. It’s tough spiritually. But that’s the challenge.
Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty,
Our financial giving is a test of our hearts. Do we TRUST that God will provide for us on 90% of what we make? Do we TRUST that we can give 10% even when it seems like finances are tight?
Here’s why we CAN trust! Listen to God’s promise…
“and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
By robbing God of the tithe and offering, we are robbing ourselves of the blessings that God promises. God promises that as we trust him in our financial giving, he WILL bless us. It may not be a new house or new car, but it may be a car that doesn’t need repair. It may be health that doesn’t need doctor expenses. It could just be peace of mind and heart as my heart unwinds its anxious grip from finances and allows God’s peace to rule in our hearts.
There are MANY stories of people who took God up on his promise and realized the blessing that comes when they honor the LORD with their tithe, giving to him first. The most recent I heard was a couple that called the Ramsey Show and indicated debt of about $30,000. They made a plan to pay it off in 7 months, without giving any offering. God’s Spirit convicted their heart and led them to trust God, even when their plan said it would take longer. Instead of 7 months it took not 10 months…it took FOUR. They tithed AND paid off their debt three months sooner than they originally planned.
This is just one example of God blessing those who love him more than they love their money.
So stop robbing God. Stop robbing yourself.
In Jesus you are forgiven. With his grace and the power he gives, now bring in the whole tithe…and see how God chooses to bless your soul and your life!
Apply: Try giving a FULL tithe of your income for the next three months, no matter what your financial condition. Allow God to turn your heart fully from love of money to love of him. Journal the journey and note God’s faithfulness to his promise to bless you!
Prayer: Lord, grant me trust to give you FIRST my heart to love you above my material wealth. Then lead me to trust everything I have is yours and then follow gladly your direction to give the full first ten percent back to you. AMEN.
When Love of God is greater than Love of Money…Part 2
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Heartbreak of Love”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
It’s a problem when a financial advisor mismanages the money that is entrusted to them.
In fact, some money managers have spent time in jail for misappropriating the funds of the investors.
Why is this a big deal?
Because it’s not their money! Their job is to manage the financial investments of people in a way that they have been directed. No matter if they feel differently, they cannot just buy or sell investments the way they want to or feel like it. They have to get the permission of the investor to buy, sell or move money out of one investment into another.
When it’s not yours, you can’t do what YOU want with it…you have to do what the OWNER wants with it.
That’s why yesterday’s point is so important for us to really let sink in: The wealth you have is GOD’S, not YOURS! So the fact that it is not yours means you have to ask a different question. Instead of asking, “What am I going to do with MY money?”, I have to ask, “God what do you want me to do with YOUR money?”
There is a big difference when you see yourself as a MANAGER instead of the OWNER.
But that’s what happens when the Spirit of God shifts my heart away from love of money to love of God. My heart begins to detach from the material things of this world as MY possessions to see and use them as God’s possessions. It’s like the parable that Jesus told in Matthew 25.
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
All three servants knew it was not their own money, but the two faithful ones USED it in the way that the master intended…investing it for the benefit of the master (more on that tomorrow…). For today, let God’s Spirit work these two truths in your heart: 1) Everything you have belongs to God. Because it belongs to God, 2) ask, “God what do YOU want me to do with it?”
Apply: Look at the things around you – home, cash, car, job, etc. Ask, “God how do you want me to use ____________?” What does he say?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for generously giving me all that I have. Help me to see it as yours and manage it in such a way that would honor you. AMEN.