Sep 10 2017 Priorities 3 - The Priority of Simplicity

We are continuing talking about priorities – Back to our foundational verse:

Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

What an encouraging verse – if we take His ways – our yoke will be easy – but in all honesty – in the world that we live in – the way of Jesus does not feel like the easy yoke – but in ways, it feels like the heavy burden. And there are things that others wrote in the Bible that make you think it is the heaviest way – the narrow way – as Scott Peck wrote: The Road Less Traveled.

What Jesus is doing here – is getting us to ask – does that really work in reality? He is going to try to show us how, in comparison to every other yoke and way of life, the way of Jesus is the easy way and the light way.

For example – forgiving someone who has hurt you is hard, isn’t it. It is the hard way, isn’t it? But not forgiving someone who hurt you will destroy you. So what is the easy way and what is the hard way? Living in bitterness over those who have hurt you is the heaviest load to bear. When we look at any other way of doing things – living for self, eat, drink and be merry – appears to be the easiest way – but in the long run, it is not.

Today we are going to look at the area of simplicity and how that ties into our priorities.

Jesus tells about the soils – The good soil, the soil filled with rocks – does not grow fruit – the road – that doesn’t produce fruit– weeds/thorns – that choke it out…

Mark 4:18 Others are the ones sown among thorns: They are those who hear the word, but worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing.

This is the seed of all this other stuff – all this clutter in the lives of these folks – choke out the word. And that seed is unable to produce fruit.

Clutter keeps us from living under the easy yoke and accomplishing what is most important in life. We all have a lot of clutter.

Simplicity is necessary to live a life centered on Jesus. TO live a life with Jesus at the core, we must remove clutter from our lives.

It is not easy to live in simplicity – it is the furthest things from people’s minds. It is more than STUFF. It can come in activities. Our lives can be cluttered with things to do. Good things can choke out God’s word. We can be cluttered in CAUSES. Social media is a great place to be cluttered in CAUSES. We could be cluttered in ministries! Churches can be some of the worst culprits. Entertainment, etc.

Simplicity is NOT escapism. It is not a nostalgic retreat to the past of some better time. It is not driving in Amish Country – and saying – what a simple life, it would be so much easier! I don’t think so! It is not easy! It is fine, it is what they have chosen.

The Benedict Option – our world has gotten so bad that there is no way to change it and we need to pull out like St. Benedict, who pulled out of the church because the church and the world were so tightly knit – the Popes were the political rulers of the world and he had to pull out because the church was destroying Christianity.

I don’t think that is where Jesus wants us. Jesus was incarnational – born into darkness and He calls us to be incarnational.

Simplicity is NOT about being cheap and frugal. You can be both and not live a simple life! There is nothing wrong about being frugal – or a conservationist or environmentally friendly or buying organic – but that is not what we are talking about.

“Simplicity is not a clock that needs to be turned back, but a compass that provides new direction as we move forward.”

Richard Foster: The celebration of the disciplines: Simplicity is an inward reality that results in an outward lifestyle. It is not first about changing the outward lifestyle.

2 Cor. 11:3But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

When Jesus said Mary has chosen the good part in sitting at Jesus’ feet, she was centering her life around being a follower of Jesus – and Paul is saying the same thing.

We cannot do that unless we learn to simplify our lives. We must remove the clutter.

Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth – Richard Foster writes:

“Contemporary culture lacks both the inward reality and the outward lifestyle of simplicity. We must live in the modern world, and we are affected by its fractured and fragmented state… Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.”

“The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time to awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick.

“Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the mammon spirit within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity.”

“The modern hero is the poor boy who purposely becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor.”

That is the ultimate hero, isn’t it? That is Jesus – He was rich and became poor that we through His poverty might become rich.

If there were more people taking that approach – well, it is not about moving out and becoming a hermit, but becoming different for the sake and benefit of others. Living our lives fully for the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional health and benefit of others. That sounds like a lot of work – but it is the only way of living that is not crushing.

Eve was tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil – and it is no different today – these try to draw our intentions and affections away from God. The tree was a good tree – the fruit was beautiful – but often, it is the good things that get us.

Jesus addressed this in

Matthew 6:31 So then, don't worry saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' 32 For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The simple life – living in simplicity – means orienting our lives around God and His kingdom – not stuff.

Jesus says if you orient your life around God and His kingdom, the stuff will take care of itself. That does not mean that you get all the stuff you ever dreamed of We don’t have to think – what can I have or not have to have a simple life? That is not the issue! New car or junker? Not the issue! The issue – are our decisions centered on God and His kingdom.

34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Us being all-concerned about whether North Korea will test another missile or not – yes, there are those who have to pay attention to that, but it prevents YOU from living well now when you focus on such things.

Proverbs 30:8 Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.

He eliminates both extremes and focuses on living a life of trust before God. The simple life allows us to live and walk in trust of God.

I think that simplicity is in a head-on collision with our consumer culture. That is why it is so hard to do today.

Some practical things –

Money - materialism

Hebrews 13:5 Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,"

Money is not the issue; Love of money is.

The key is contentment. Always wanting more will destroy you. It has to – that is what it does. That is its nature, its power, to destroy. That does not mean it is wrong to be rich – we’ll look at what Paul says in Timothy after this series. But he says – if you are rich – don’t trust it – don’t put your hope or your heart there – you cannot serve God and money. Second – be generous and give. If a person is rich, that should be the focus of their life. There are some who can make a LOT of money – God has placed those in His kingdom – but He instructs them to be generous and give.

As a pastor, sometimes I meet with other pastors and I would have library envy! I love books! And over the years, I have accumulated quite a large number of books – and no one can see in that room! It is a mess! There are books everywhere – and now I am the one who causes library envy! BUT – I LOVE lending my books out! I like getting them back too! That often doesn’t happen. For me – when a pastor calls and asks, do you have? Yep, I have that one! I am rich in books – so I am told to be generous.

Activities – we have so many options. There is pressure to do them all. Whether it is at work or church or raising a family. Church may be the worst culprit in this. Cindy is a teacher – and now there is pressure in the educational world to no longer give homework – and it is coming from parents because their kids are in SO MUCH STUFF THAT THERE IS NO TIME FOR 20 minutes of homework each night!

3^rd – Connectivity. Our connectedness – to news, social media, and entertainment – each of these puts so much pressure on our lives – and we need to learn to disconnect. It is okay to watch the news and be on social media – but we must minimize it and disconnect so we can connect to God.

Addiction – we need to guard against and avoid anything you might get addicted to – it destroys the simple life around God.

Never live for status or applause – it will destroy your life being centered on God and the easy yoke. Aggressively eliminate our need for recognition.

Jesus’ metaphor – when you come to dinner – don’t sit in the important seat – don’t be the most important person in the room or conversation – and that is hard. Choose to be the least important – and if you ARE the most important, that will be made known.

DO not boast or exaggerate. That will complicate your life and fill it with clutter. When you do that – you have to back it up.

Learn to enjoy things without owning or possessing them. I gave a message this summer about knowing God in and through creation – that is always free.

Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.

Finally – I think, for our culture, this seems like it doesn’t fit – but I think it might be most important: Learn to love your enemies.

I think that might be the one thing that removes the most stress in our lives. Our fear, anxiety and hatred of those we view as enemies – whatever they are – places the most burden and weight upon us. We all have those we view as enemies – socially, politically – at work – certain groups – certain ideologies – and the hatred of those bears an enormous weight on our souls – love them, bless them, and pray for them – we cannot walk away from that – nothing could be more clear.