Stuff, Stuff, and More Stuff!

 

Last weekend my family and I felt the need to start purging some things in the house.  We started the piles of: “Things we are keeping”, “Things we are selling”, “and Things that are getting thrown out”.  Dan took on the role of helping the kids while I started listing things on Craigslist.  It’s amazing when you go through your home once in a while the piles of stuff you find.  It’s amazing all the little doodad’s and trinkets that once seemed so valuable suddenly don’t. 

Sometimes we can so worry about gaining all the stuff:  Like are these the right color for my couch, or did I get it on sale and could have gotten more off, or what if I give so and so another Christmas present they don’t like.  We get so caught up in collecting our Stuff that we forget; we can’t take this stuff into eternity with us.  One day on this earth all that will be left of us on the earth is the stuff of our lives.  I’m not about to say having stuff is wrong.  God doesn’t want us to go live naked on a deserted island.  But what I am saying is that many start to let their stuff become mini idols to them.  Some of you need to go purge a few closets and get rid of some stuff.  All this stuff in boxes can’t be the sum total on your life.  It will all pass away eventually.  What kind of legacy are you leaving behind?

Matthew 6:19-34 (ESV)

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[e] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.<sup>[f]

25</sup> “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^{[g] 28} And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Remember God has awesome plans for your life.  Get excited.