Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of
Trinity Sermons. This week we're continuing our
sermon series, A Generous Life, and we're looking
at the opposite of generosity, which is greed.
And greed can be this kind of power that takes
over us. Just like in the Lord of the Rings,
the ring becomes this powerful symbol for something
that can take hold of certain people. But the
hobbits don't seem to be as bothered by it. They're
happy with their simple life. So how can we learn
to live simply and learn to live contentedly,
more like a hobbit? That's what Rob's going to
talk to us about, so let's listen in. Today's
reading is taken from 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses
6 to 11, and then 17 to 19. But godliness with
contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
into the world. We can take nothing out of it.
But if we have food and clothing, we will be
content with that. Those who want to get rich
fall into temptation and a trap and into many
foolish and harmful desires that plunge people
into ruin and destruction. For the love of money
is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager
for money have wandered from the faith. and pierce
themselves with many griefs. But you, man of
God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Command those who are rich in this present world
not to be arrogant, nor to put their hope in
wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their
hope in God. who richly provides us with everything
for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to
be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and
willing to share. In this way they will lay up
treasure for themselves as a firm foundation
for the coming age, so that they may take hold
of the life that is truly life. This is the word
of the Lord. To rule them all. One ring to find
them. One ring to bring them all. And in the
darkness, find them. That's right. If you know
anything about the Lord of the Rings, then you
know about this little ring of power. It's beautiful.
It's small. It doesn't look like much. But for
J .R .R. Tolkien, and his whole world of the
Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. This ring symbolizes
power. It symbolizes desire. It symbolizes greed.
And actually, greed is a theme that comes up
again and again in Tolkien's writings. He writes
about dwarves that dig way too deep in search
of treasure. He writes about dragons who sleep
on gigantic piles of gold. He writes about armies
that are willing to go to war just to get their
hands on some of that gold. But of all the symbols
and of all the things, it's the ring itself.
It's the ring which is constantly whispering,
You don't have enough. I can give you more. I
can give you more power. I can give you more
meaning. I can give you great, great things.
But, but the ring lies, doesn't it? The ring
promises one thing but delivers another. And
what it actually ends up doing is twisting and
tormenting and destroying your life. And in fact,
depending on who you are, you react to the ring
a little differently. Of course, there was Gollum.
Gollum, he didn't just own the ring. The ring
owned him. It was his, what did he call it? His
precious, right? It was the thing that he all
was thinking about. His mind was constantly focused
on, and it caused his life to hollow out, and
it ultimately destroyed him. Or there was another
character in the Lord of the Rings. This guy's
name was Boromir. And Boromir was a good man.
And he thought that if he just had the ring,
then he could do good in the world. He could
do good things with it. But he was naive. And
he was foolish. He never could have handled it.
It would have destroyed him too. And in some
ways, it kind of did. And then there was Aragorn.
Aragorn even at one point was offered the ring,
but he refused to take it because he was wise
enough to know that he could not handle it. He
could not wield it. It would destroy him. And
he would do horrible things if he had it. And
then there were hobbits. Now hobbits are very
interesting because they were like the smallest
and the weakest of most of the creatures in Middle
Earth. But they somehow... were able, more than
others, to resist the power of the ring and not
be consumed by the ring. You see, because hobbits
weren't, you know, they weren't greedy. They
didn't want gold. They didn't want power. They
had very pure hearts. They had very simple lives.
They had very pure motives. All the hobbits really
wanted was like a good meal, some music, you
know, some friends, a good drink, some gardens
that they could plant stuff in. And you know
what? That turned out to be their secret power.
Their contentment gave them this ability to resist
the ring's power, at least for a while. So what
we're doing is we're continuing on in our teaching
series this November. This teaching series is
called A Generous Life. And we're talking about
things like money and greed and contentment and
wealth and all those good things. And I want
to just admit that for some of us here today,
we might be kind of like a hobbit, kind of like
Frodo. And money has never been a problem for
us. It's never been a challenge. We've never
felt particularly like destroyed by money or
felt its grip on our lives. Fair enough. There
are others of us here today. Maybe you're more
like Boromir. You don't have a lot of money,
but man, oh man, if you could get your hands
on it, you could do great things with it, right?
And then there's others of us here who maybe
were more like Aragorn. And actually, we know
that if we had money, we would do horrible things.
It would change us. And so we're actually, we
don't want more money. Even though we don't have
a lot, we don't want to get our hands on it.
And then, and then, maybe there are some of us
here today who are more like Gollum. And we have
experienced and we have been through this time
where we have allowed money to warp our hearts
and to damage our lives. So which one are you?
Are you wise like Aragorn when it comes to money?
Are you foolish, naive like Boromir? Are you
greedy like Gollum? Or are you content like Frodo?
You know, Tolkien wrote that if more of us valued
food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it
would be a merrier world. Well, today what we're
going to do is we're going to take a little trip
through Middle Earth, but we're really going
to take a trip through the Bible. And we're going
to look basically at three things. We're going
to look, one, at the power of greed. Second,
at the peace of contentment. And third, at the
practice of simplicity. So the power of greed,
the peace of contentment, and the practice of
simplicity. I've given you guys notes. If you
want to follow along and take some notes as we
go, I would encourage you to do so. But let's
start with this. Let's start with talking about
the power of greed. Now, you got to be really
quiet because you have to listen. Listen. Listen
to what the ring is whispering. If you had just
a little more. You'd finally be secure. You'd
finally have enough. You see, the ring and greed
and wealth whisper these things to us. On the
other hand, the Bible shouts. loud and clear
about the dangers of greed and wealth. Ecclesiastes,
whoever loves money never has enough. Whoever
loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
Greed, it just never ends. It's called the myth
of more. Oh, if I just had a little more, then
I would, then I would, then I would, then I would.
But you never can get enough. Jesus actually
says, watch out. Be on your guard against all
kinds of greed. Life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions. Jesus does not say,
oh, just be advised. He does not say, you know,
try to avoid greed. No, he says, watch out for
it. Why does he say watch out? Because we don't
see it coming. Nobody thinks they're greedy.
It just grows. It's like the ring that makes
you invisible. Greed itself is invisible. I have
never had anyone in my 25 years of ministry come
into my office and confess to me, pastor, I'm
greedy. Nobody thinks they are greedy. It's invisible.
It lives in the shadows. And those who want to
get rich, they fall into temptation. and a trap
and into many foolish desires that plunge people
into ruin and destruction. The love of money
is a root of all kinds of evil. You know, Tolkien
actually wrote about something called dragon
sickness in his writings. And dragon sickness
happens when somebody gets so fixated on wealth,
so fixated on money, that they start isolating
themselves from others. They eventually, they
run away to be by themselves and they slowly
wither away and they end up dying. alone, right?
That's what happens. The desire for riches tempts
us and it traps us and it changes us until we
become like Boromir or Smeagol or Thorin or Smaug
or any of those characters. Now, if you were
thinking this morning, okay, Rob, okay. You know,
enough of the Lord of the Rings. It's a book,
Rob. It's fiction. It's a story. It's not real.
Calm down, right? That's just your wedding ring
on a chain. But listen, the Bible says it's actually
true. And not only does the Bible say this stuff
is actually true, so does research. Let me show
you this. This is a guy named Paul Pith. Now,
that sounds like a great hobbit name right away,
Paul Pith, Mary and Pith, or something like that.
But Paul Pith is a researcher. He's a psychologist
at the University of California. He gave this
TED Talk called, Does Money Make You Mean? And
you really should watch this. It's quite fascinating
because they did all these studies to see how
money actually changes us. They did this one
study with Monopoly where they would give one
player more money, more turns, and more advantage
in a game of Monopoly. And guess what happened?
Guess what happened? The rich players became
loud. They became obnoxious. They became boastful.
Even though they didn't earn any of it, in short,
they just became mean because they were rich.
They did another study where they watched cars
as they approached pedestrian crosswalks. And
do you know that the more expensive the car,
the less likely it was for the driver to stop
for a pedestrian? Money makes you mean. Another
study, they just simply did this. They showed
adults a bowl of candy and they said, this candy
is for children, the children down the hall,
please don't eat it. And the richer you were,
the more likely you were to take some of that
candy. And the less money you had, the less likely
you were to take the candy, right? Which caused
Paul Piff and his team to conclude that as a
person's level of wealth increases, guess what
happens? Their compassion and their empathy go
down and their sense of entitlement and self
-interest go up. In other words, it's dragon
sickness, right? Now this, of course, is not
always the case. It's not always the case. You
can probably, there's lots of people who don't
have money, poor people who are also very mean
too, right? But listen, as a general rule, right?
The more wealth you have, according to research,
the more it will turn your heart away from people.
And the more it will turn your heart away from
God. You know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that
worldly possessions tend to turn the hearts of
disciples away from Jesus. Now I know, listen,
nobody wants this. Nobody wants to live this
way. Nobody wants to be Gollum. So how do we
resist the lure of wealth, our desire for more?
How do we resist the evil of greed? Well, there
is another way. It's the way of the hobbit. is
the way of contentment. You see, hobbits were
not wealthy, but they were content. While greed
drove the dwarves to do all sorts of horrible
things, and while power drove the humans to do
horrible things, hobbits, they just wanted a
warm bed, a nice fire, some food, some cheer,
some songs to sing, just the ordinary joys. of
a shared life. And that contentment gave them
this inner strength to resist the ring and to
resist greed. And whether that is happening on
Middle Earth or whether that's just happening
here on planet Earth, it still holds true. The
Bible talks about this deep peace of contentment
that can save us from this restless hunger for
more and more and more. Contentment, I think,
is one of the most underrated virtues of all
time. Greed is constantly whispering, you don't
have enough yet. You don't have enough. Yet godliness
with contentment is great gain. True wealth is
not having a lot, but it's being happy with what
you do have. To be content. You don't have to
take a vow of poverty or become a monk. You just
simply have to say, I have enough. I actually
have more than enough. And actually, I'm happy
with what I do have. Now, I don't know if you've
ever had that feeling. Maybe you've been sitting
down at a table surrounded by friends or your
family or you're in church and you're singing
or you're praying or whatever. And you just have
this moment, this feeling where you say, you
know what? I'm a rich man. I am rich. That is
contentment. That is true wealth. And Paul goes
on to say, we brought nothing into this world
and we can take absolutely nothing out of it.
In other words, your net worth will not follow
you into eternity. Neither will your house, neither
will your savings, neither will your car, neither
will your clothes. As the old saying goes, you
know, I've never seen a hearse pulling a U -Haul.
Everything you own will one day belong to someone
else. Think about that. Everything you own will
one day belong to someone else. You will lose
every single dollar that you make. Some of it
you will lose it in this life, and the rest you
will lose at the end of this life. So don't build
your life around something that just cannot last.
But if we have food, If we have clothing, we
can be content with that. The Greek word here
for clothing literally means just coverings,
right? The basics, food, clothing, shelter, enough,
right? This is how you live a lighter life, not
chained down by the need for more, not chained
down to your bank balance. Contentment actually
redefines what a successful life is. I don't
actually need one more purchase to be successful.
I don't need one more vacation. I don't need
one more upgrade to be secure. If I have God,
and if I have the basics, then I'm a success.
I have enough. Randy Alcorn has this great quote.
He says, contentment is being satisfied in whose
you are, who you are, and then what you have.
Or Chris Austin said, it's for not to possess
much, but to need little is to be rich indeed.
I mean, don't we often say, you know, if I just
had this one more thing or this one other achievement,
then I would be content. It's a lie. When you
get that one more thing or achieve that one more
thing, you will feel exactly the way you feel
right now. now. But here's the good news. You
can learn contentment. I mean, last week we talked
about how generosity is a practice that teaches
us, and we can learn to be generous, and that
teaches us to lead a joyful life. Well, this
week I want to teach you another practice. It's
a practice that we can employ whenever we hear
the whispers of greed. And it's a practice, actually,
that hobbits clearly have learned. Many people
on earth, many saints have learned this practice.
And Jesus, of course, demonstrates it more than
anyone else. And that is the practice of simplicity.
If contentment is this peace that you feel, then
simplicity is the practice that you live. Say
that again. If contentment is the peace you feel.
then simplicity is the practice that you live.
Well, you say, well, what is simplicity? Well,
again, think about hobbits for a moment. They
had simple lives. They weren't poor. Were hobbits
poor? No, they weren't poor. They weren't sad
either. No, they had great lives, but they had
just made a choice. At some point in their culture,
they had made a choice to live with enough so
that they could focus on other things that actually
mattered way, way more. Justin Whitmill Early
puts it this way. He says, simplicity is a way
of saying yes to what matters by saying no to
what does not. The reason I think we love hobbits
is because they learn to say no to the things
that don't matter so they could actually say
yes to the things that do matter. I want to close
by just sharing with you four lessons from the
Shire about how to live a simple life. First
is this. Simplicity just simply means this, living
with less, less stuff. Hobbits, if you read the
books, they don't crave more stuff or bigger
stuff or better stuff. Look at their houses,
right? Have you ever seen a hobbit hole, right?
It's very simple. It's very practical. It's very
comfortable, but it's not luxurious or lavish
in any way, right? They don't need much to be.
happy hobbits. In fact, one of the things that
Tolkien says about hobbits is they have this
extreme dislike for complicated machines. They
don't like complicated things. Hobbits would
never have a cell phone. It's a way to, a smartphone's
way too complicated. It's way too expensive.
Instead, Tolkien says that hobbits are fond of
peace and quiet and good tilled earth. There
are two ways to get enough, Chesterton says.
One is to accumulate more. The other is to desire
less. There's two ways to get rich. One is to
make more. The other is to want less. Hobbits
chose the second way. You can be rich when you
delight in what you already have and then you
live with less. That's the first lesson. The
second lesson the hobbits teach us about simplicity
is that simplicity means giving away more. right?
Giving away your possessions, giving away your
wealth, giving away your time. In fact, in Hobbit
culture, do you know what you did on your birthday?
Does anyone remember what, right? Yes, you don't
get presents on your birthday if you're a hobbit.
You actually give presents away to people, which
means a birthday is a very expensive thing to
celebrate if you live in the Shire. You've got
to give stuff away. Even the ring itself, though
it was very costly and very valuable, was given
as a gift from Bilbo to Frodo. Hobbits seem to
have no trouble parting with their... possessions.
In fact, Tolkien invented a new word. His word
called them a mathem, M -A -T -H -O -M. A mathem
was anything that you had, anything that you
didn't need, that you could just give away to
someone. So it might be an extra pipe, an extra
hat, you know, might be that you had a teapot
you didn't use anymore, right? And these items
were just given away and they would travel from
house to house and from hand to hand. And sometimes
they would even return back to the original owner,
right? They just had no trouble. giving stuff
away. Saint Basil wrote this. He said, the bread
in your cupboard belongs to the hungry. The coat
hanging unused in your closet belongs to the
one who needs it. The money that you hoard belongs
to the poor. The more we give away, the more
room we have for freedom and peace and contentment
within us. But thirdly, simplicity also means
putting others first. Putting community first.
You see, greed always isolates you from community,
right? Smaug the dragon, he slept alone on his
pile of gold. Gollum lived alone all by himself.
The dwarves, you know, they were always divided,
fighting over treasure. But simplicity allows
you to be with friends and to be with family
and to put them above all the stuff. Look at
the hobbits. They eat together. They celebrate
together. They look after each other. In many
ways, they believe. belong to each other it's
the same way that the early church lived right
all the believers were together and they had
everything in common selling their possessions
and good they shared with anyone who was in need
the first volume of the lord of the rings was
called the fellowship of the ring fellowship
i'm not naive i mean community can be a place
where people get really competitive And they
compare themselves to each other. But community
can also be the place where we treasure each
other. Okay? And finally, simplicity also means
being available for God. Okay, so Bilbo and Frodo
were both able to leave their homes and go on
this great mission at the drop of a hat. And
they weren't held back by their possessions.
They weren't held back by their commitments.
They held those things so loosely. That they
left it all to pursue this greater purpose. Christians
have a greater purpose. We have a greater mission
to seek the kingdom of God. But many people can't
go on that mission. Why? Oh, because I bought
a field. I need to go see it. Please excuse me.
Oh, I bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going
to go try them out. Please excuse me, Jesus.
I can't go on that mission. I can't go with you
today. These excuses are all based on the fact
that they had material attachments. But simplicity
of life allows us to focus on the mission before
us and to be available to God to say, yes, Lord,
send me, Lord. Use me, Lord. living with less,
giving away more, putting others first and being
available to God. Guys, what would it be, what
would it look like for us to live like hobbits
here in Streetsville? What would it look like
for you to live with less? Well, it would probably
mean a lifestyle change of some sort. It would
mean that maybe you drive a used car instead
of a new one. It means maybe you hang on to your
clothes a little longer before you replace them.
It means you probably brew your own coffee at
home rather than constantly buying it at Starbucks
each and every day. The point is that somebody,
the world should be able to look at us and say,
oh, there's something different about them. They
don't seem to be caught up in that same rat race
we are. They're choosing a simpler way of life.
What would it look like for us to live like hobbits
and give away more? What kind of mathems do you
have in your house? What could you give away?
Sell it and then give the money away to someone,
right? Just start, maybe even this week, with
one or two things that you just do not need anymore
and give them to someone who does. Many of us,
it's really hard for us to imagine giving things
away because we already spend just about everything
we make right up to the limit, right? But as
we simplify, our lives. And as we create space,
we create this margin in our budgets and this
margin in our schedules that then allows us to
be able to give away to others. What would it
look like for our church to live like hobbits
and to kind of be this community that put others
first? You know, the early church was incredibly
economically diverse, and so is our church, by
the way. Some of us here are living paycheck
to paycheck. Others of us are doing really, really
well. And there's others of us who are kind of
somewhere in the middle. And I don't say that
to shame anyone or to guilt anyone, but just
to say that we cannot let wealth get in the way
of community. And we can't allow money. To somehow
determine how we value each other here at Trinity
Streetsville. Imagine a church that instead of
measuring ourselves against each other and hanging
out with people who are kind of in our same socioeconomic
bracket, that we actually honored one another
by living simply and giving generously and openly.
Imagine what the world would think if they saw
this community that we formed where nobody was
left to carry the fear of financial burdens alone.
If we lived that way, I mean, simplicity, it
wouldn't just be possible. It would actually
be beautiful and so attractive. And finally,
what would it look like for us to live like hobbits?
By making ourselves available to God. To say
yes when God calls. Is there something in your
life that right now that God has been saying,
I want you to go do this. I want you to go give
this. But you're saying, I just can't do that.
But if you were to simplify your life, you could
say yes. If you were to simplify your life, you
could serve. If you were to simplify your life,
you could give. right? If I could simplify, I
could be more generous and you could say yes
and yes and yes to God. Simplicity gives us back
the ability to say yes to God. So listen, the
ring of greed, it whispers to us, it bends us,
it isolates us, destroys us. But the good news
is your story is not Gollum's story, right? There's
another way to live. It's the way of Frodo, the
way of It's the way of the shire. It's the way
of simplicity. It's the way of contentment. But
really, it's the way of Jesus. The ring whispers,
I'll give you more. Greed whispers, you need
more. But Jesus whispers, my grace is sufficient
for you. In me. You already have everything you
need. Thanks be to God. Amen.