John Piper Sermons Should Rich Christians Downgrade Their Lifestyle?
This new teaching by Pastor John Piper titled “Should Rich Christians Downgrade Their Lifestyle?” is what we are bringing to you to listen to and meditate on.
Pastor John started the message by saying something controversial: Not only does Paul not seem too concerned with calling the wealthy to purposefully downgrade their own living conditions, but neither does he seem too concerned with calling slave owners to account for holding slaves. So there you go. That ought to get everybody feeling defensive.
So then, how does the New Testament address the issue of luxury and opulence and lavishness and riches? pastor John tell us in this message the four reason why wealth is dangerous
1.Wealth tends to choke faith: Jesus warns in the parable of the soils in Luke 8:14 that people are “choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life.” These are not neutral; they have a tendency to choke the vitality of radical Christian living.
2.Wealth hinders us from radical obedience: Jesus said in Luke 14:33, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” It means they are radically free from the control of possessions and always ready to do the most life-threatening acts of obedience. But the more accustomed we become to the lap of luxury, the more difficult this is and the less it looks to outsiders as if we are in fact that free from things, and that ought to matter to us.
3.Wealth confuses our true treasure: In Philippians 1:20, Paul said that his goal in life was that Christ would be magnified in his body, “whether by life or by death.” In other words, he wanted to live and die in a way that would appear to the world that Christ was magnificent to him — more satisfying than possessions or life. In other words, we don’t magnify Christ just by being honest in our business dealings. We magnify Christ by living in such a way that communicates to the world that Christ is more valuable to us than houses and cars and lands and life itself.
4.Wealth distorts pure motives: This fourth point is the reason the bible said why it’s hard for the rich to enter heaven — namely, whether the motives for pursuing symbols of wealth (whether we think of them that way or not, they are) are pure. It is difficult to keep them pure — very difficult.
In summary and answer to the question, Pastor John tells us that “My position is this: without specifying what measure of wealth is destructive to the soul or to our witness, the New Testament relentlessly pushes us toward simplicity and economy for the sake of the gospel and away from luxury and affluence.”
Watch and learn from one of the sermons by Pastor John Piper for the year titled “Should Rich Christians Downgrade Their Lifestyle?” as we bring the latest sermons from pastors around the world to you daily.
Credit: John Piper YouTube/https://www.desiringgod.org