There is a current song that says, “Who says you can’t have it all?” As System Breakers, we need to understand the “System” that we are really trying to “break.” In America specifically, and the western world as a whole, we have become a culture addicted to our STUFF. The stuff itself is not bad. What becomes bad is when our stuff defines who we are, whether or not we can be happy and how we deal with life when we are without the stuff or the stuff is taken away.

Paul stated in Corinthians, “I have learned in whatever state I am in to be CONTENT.” “I have learn to abound and I have learned how to do without.” Most of us can be happy “abounding”. But let us start down the road to deprivation, and you will find what lack of contentment is all about.

It is probably very interesting to note that the words Scripture uses to describe “the lust of the eye” or the “lust of the flesh” does not always have to do with sex. Many times it does, but quite often, the desire to “have it all” and the frustration and dissatisfaction when we don’t have it can be a greater lust than the sexual one.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and sincerely wanted what Jesus wanted him to have (Luke 18:18-25). But when Jesus told him to sell all that he had and follow Him, he went away sad (“Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful”). Remember that this young ruler was asking about inheriting eternal life. Most of us do not measure our STUFF in context of comparison with having eternal life. This young man did. And how amazing that when given a fairly straight forward and understandable instruction about how to “inherit” it, he resigned himself to keeping his STUFF instead.

I have always had a problem with those who wanted to raise funds for a missionary or a charity cause who use the example of requesting the contributor to just give up something simple like a soda every day. The principle is Scripturally sound....Jesus knew that selling everything he owned and giving it to the poor would not help the young man to inherit eternal life. He did know that those things were more important to him than even eternal life. How cheap he had made what he thought was critically important....eternal life! Giving up a soda every day and giving the equivalent to a “good cause” kind of cheapens the lesson Jesus was teaching here.

How would we respond if Jesus actually asked us to give up our car so a missionary could have one to win souls in Indonesia? Maybe a Big Mac, but not a car. Now imagine having the Lord ask you to sell everything you have and move to Indonesia with no definitive plan for when you will move back home? Don’t even ask me to give up my favorite sitcom, or the massive amounts of time I spend playing my favorite online game to reach out to those who live around me. Will we know when we get to heaven those who missed heaven because we were too busy?

Sex is indeed a huge issue in whether or not we are living yielded lives. Within the bounds of marriage, it can be one of the most awesome, God-given gifts of life. But our culture builds a “religion” around sex. Hollywood floods us with it. Every commercial sells the product with it. We cannot help but see it on the computer, no matter how benign what we are trying to look at is. If we give ourselves to it, it will ultimately result in addictions beyond our control and not only sexual behavior beyond the bounds of God’s limits, but even to the extent of what God calls abominable. Our culture so demands that we accept these “different” lifestyles, that they call us full of hate when we demand standards that God demands.

Equally, apart from sexual aspirations, we always gravitate to our passions. And our passions can rule our lives....it generally isn’t because we let them but rather because we want them to. Accumulation of riches can take so much control of our lives that we might even turn down eternal life for it (the rich young ruler). We can love our dogs/pets and devote so much time to them that they can easily replace attending to the need for weekly worship. Parenting our children (a very worthy cause) and all their activities (soccer, sports, social activities, clubs) can take such a central, dominating position in our lives that we easily, quickly find we have left no time for church. ANY seemingly important aspiration in our lives can easily become so important to us that we devote all of our time and attention to it and completely leave God out of our lives. This should never be so. If we honestly examine our lives and see if this is true and find out it is, how easily might we find ourselves walking away from Jesus “sorrowful” because what He might ask us to give up is just too much to give up!

Luke 6:24 says, “Woe unto you that are rich! For ye have received your consolation.” How sad if Jesus would ever get to the point where, being satisfied with our STUFF, He would say to us, “that’s it! You have received your consolation! You wanted eternal life, but your riches is it for you!” How tragic.

Proverbs 13: 7 “There is he that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing; there is he that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.”

Prov 21:17 “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.”

Pro 28:20 “A faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”

And lastly:

1 Tim 6:17-19 “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

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