The Abundance of Possessions
Transcript
Well, good morning. It's our first week of our Give Series. Grab your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 12. What we do in our Give Series is we take just a little time to focus our attention on God's generosity towards us and how we might in turn be generous, how we ought to think about our finances, how we ought to think about our possessions and our money. And so we just every year around this time, we try to just kind of push back on the cultural current of consumption and try to intentionally put our eyes on generosity and living in a way that makes sense financially. And so what we're going to do for the next couple of weeks is just spend some time looking at money and how to think about money and how to handle money.
And today we're looking at Jesus teaching on the concept of possessions. And we're going to pray and then we will begin looking at this passage together. God, I pray that as we enter this room, as people who have been blessed with possessions, and maybe a little bit different from the person sitting next to us, but as far as history goes, very blessed. And so I pray that you would help us to rightly look at this and to listen to what you have to say to us through your word, that we might repent where we need to repent, that we might grow in generosity where we need to grow in generosity, and that we might not be tricked by owning the things that we own.
And so God, we love you and we ask for your help this morning through the empowerment of your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Luke chapter 12, we're going to read from verses 13 to verse 34, and we're really going to just kind of hone in on three verses. So we're going to read a lot of the text, and then we're going to spend most of our time talking about three verses and trying to dig as much out of them as we can. So let's pick up in verse 13.
Jesus is teaching a crowd at this point, and then he's interrupted, and that's kind of where we pick up this story. So someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, so first he says to him, he responds to the guy who just interrupted him, and then he says to them, the rest of the crowd. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The word covetousness there means to desire something that's not yours or to yearn to possess or have something.
So he's referring both to, I think at this point he's responding to both the brothers. He's responding to the brother who does not have the inheritance and wants it, and he's responding to the brother who does have the inheritance and also wants it and does not want to share it to the point that it's become an argument. And when a traveling prophet and teacher comes through the town, this guy interrupts him and tries to get some of the inheritance. He's like, hey, you don't know me, you don't know my brother, but could you real quick, because you're a prophet and you speak on behalf of God, tell him to give me some of this money.
And Jesus is like, slow down. I have nothing to do with that. And then he just turns and immediately starts teaching on this. He's like, but while you brought up the subject and while you're here, let's talk about the issue that's going on in your heart and your brother's heart. And I think that guy thought, you know, I probably shouldn't do that again. Next time I'll wait until it's not a crowd, and maybe I'll just slip him a note or something.
Anyway, he turns and he starts teaching. So he says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. Then he said, I will do this.
I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.
And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. Jesus tells this story, and in his mind, he's demonstrating something that most people believe, that people at this time definitely believe, and that we as Christians believe, which is that at some point this life will end, and when it does, we will be accountable to God. And I know this is a Christmas series, and so I hate to bring up the fact that the mortality rate in this room is 100%. That at some point we will die, and in that moment we will be accountable to God.
We will stand before God and enter into an eternity. And what Jesus is saying is that all that we see here and all that we handle here does not just terminate here, but it actually rolls up into an eternity that matters. But I want us to look at what he says at the very beginning of this in verse 15. Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. That's the first verse we're going to focus in on. He starts off by saying take care, be on your guard.
When do we say that? When would you look at someone and say watch out, be careful? We say that when there's a danger, when there's something to watch out for, when there's something to be afraid of, when there's something that is around us that could harm us. And so Jesus is saying, I'm about to tell you about something that could harm you. I got to thinking about this. What he says is, he says, watch out that you don't believe that life is found in your possessions.
And I got to thinking about what are the things that I'm on guard against. I used to didn't think about this stuff very often. I got married to my wife and immediately when I got married, I felt this weight of responsibility of if anything bad happens, I'm supposed to like protect her. Now, some of you, maybe your wife is a black belt. Mine is not. She weighs about 90 pounds.
She does not think about this at all. And one of the other things that she's given me a complex is she watches all these like forensic files and Dateline and all of these like any kind of creepy murder thing. And then she just is like, she's just, she can immediately just fall asleep. And it's just amping up this like fear intensity. Like I'm on guard. So one of the things that happens now is if I come home and realize that we left our back door open or I see the little stick out, I will walk through our entire house and check all the closets and stuff.
Because I've seen on those shows someone hid in a closet for five hours. And I know that I'd be like, oh, it's not that big a deal. And I'd lay in bed and it'd be about 10 o'clock and I'd be like, I wonder if there's someone in our closet. So I'm just skipping that step. I don't get ready for bed first. I have to fight someone in my underwear.
I walk around the house and I check all the closets. But what Jesus is saying is I'm on guard against that. What he's saying is that I've never once come and opened my closet and looked at my possessions and been like, what you playing at, shirts? Why do I need 45 flannel shirts? I've never looked and been like, why do I have five pairs of boots that look about the same, but I only got two feet? Like what?
I've never, I've never just been really concerned that my possessions were out to get me. I've never been on guard against my stuff. My radar is not up there. But what Jesus says is be watchful. Be on your guard against, and it's not just your stuff, it's this idea that's attached to your stuff. Be on your guard against the belief that life is found in your possessions.
Now, what does he mean by that? What does he mean that we would begin to believe that our life is found in our possessions, in the abundance of possessions? Because most of us would not say that our life is actually connected to it to the point that if you took my stuff, I would fall over dead. But he gives an example when he tells this story. What does the man say to himself? He says he's already rich, and then his land produces plentifully, and he says, I'll tear down my barns, I'll build larger ones.
And then I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. What the temptation is with possessions is that we would somehow convince ourselves that the good life is found in them, that true comfort, that you'll say to yourself, you know, if I could just have this much money, then I'll finally be able to relax. Yeah, yeah, I'm tense now, and yeah, I've got stress now, and I'm on my grind now, but if I could just get to this place, if I could just get this promotion, if I could just get this job, then I'll relax. Then I'll finally be able to quiet my soul.
Or that you'll look and say, if I could just have that, then I'd be happy. That's why he says, eat, drink, be merry. That really what I need is, the reason I'm so frustrated, the reason that life is so difficult, the reason that I don't have any joy is that I'm stuck in this spot, and if I could just get this, or have this, or this vacation, or this amount of money, or this much in the bank, then finally I could be happy. That we've begun to believe that the abundance, the accumulation of possessions will give us joy. And this is a danger both for the brother that has the inheritance and the brother that doesn't.
So even as we begin this, don't sit and think, oh, that doesn't affect me because I don't have anything. It absolutely does. We can still begin to believe that the good life is found in possessions. One of the ways to help you think about this is when do you say in your head, or out loud, must be nice, must be nice. Like I have seen people pull up in beautiful trucks. Now you might not describe a truck as beautiful, and you would be wrong.
There are some trucks that are beautiful. I've seen them ride up, and I thought, oh, it must be nice. You ever just open the door to a brand new vehicle? Like if a friend of mine gets a new vehicle, I'm just like, hey, can I go sit in it? Like I just want to, just to see, just pretend, like what would this be like? Like I, just there's something new, there's something about like a big truck, but you have to actually like use a ladder to climb in, and you can ride around traffic and spit on other people's cars.
Like I, there's just something, and I've thought, man, it must be nice. I've never once had a friend show up to something, I was waiting on in the parking lot, and you can hear their vehicle coming, like from around the other side of the building. Like it announces that they're on their way, and I've never, and they pull around, and they've got one door that's a different color from the rest of their car, and I've never once thought, man, it must be nice to be free from this longing for possessions to define you. I've never been like, I'm so proud of you. You know what I've assumed? Oh, bro, you just only got the money to get a car that all the doors match.
Like I just, I didn't think you've taken a vow of poverty, I just thought, that's all you can handle right now. That's cool, I'm not judging you, but I didn't think, man, you must be, you must be so free from the love of possessions. I've never thought that. I've never been in someone's house that was just, you know, small and okay, and wanted to take pictures. I've been in rich people's houses and pulled my phone out because I know what type of person I am. I take pictures real quick and I'll show my wife, like, did you see this kitchen?
I think you could bowl in here. And what I'm saying, what I'm betraying in my heart every time I do that is this is the goal and this is where you'll finally reach. Like if I had this house, if I had this car, then, then I could say to my soul, soul, be happy. Soul, be at rest. You've done it. Hey soul, up top.
High five. We made it. That's what I'm saying. That's what we're betraying in our hearts. I don't know for you what it is. I don't know where you set your sights.
I don't know if you see somebody. There's a new eBay commercial that is, it is just covetousness, which by the way, that's what commercials are. This is a commercial about covetousness. It's like layers deep, like inception. It's like five. We're going in pretty deep.
It's an eBay commercial and what it is is it's like they see somebody walking and they see their boots and they're like, they immediately get their phone out and what it's telling you is when you see something you want, don't even wait. Get it right now. Which I don't know why I licked my finger. That's not how you use phones, you guys. If you're doing that, gross. But you don't even have to wait.
You can do it right now. Let's see somebody with a shirt and they immediately pull out and just, and that, honestly, I was watching that and I thought, no, that's us. How many products have you bought because you saw it at someone else's house or you saw someone else wearing it and you said, hey, where'd you get that? Where do you have that? That's covetousness and that's growing in our souls. That's, Pinterest is great in so many helpful ways and it's also covetousness, which is saying, if I could just have my house look like that, if it could just be like this, HGTV is covetousness.
It helps breed it in our souls. I'm not saying it's immediately evil. I'm not saying go home and get rid of HGTV, maybe, but I'm just saying that we have our whole economic system built around this and this time of year is that the goal of our economy is to whip us into a frenzy to buy things that we don't actually have to have, to accumulate an abundance of possessions with the belief that life will somehow be added to and made better and Jesus says, watch out. Watch out. I'm willing to bet many of us had a pretty good Christmas last year. I'm also willing to bet that most of us didn't roll into this Christmas and go, oh no, I did it last year.
I'm good. I got the thing. Life is complete. No, we're always consistently setting our sights a little higher and beginning to believe a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more would finally fix me, would finally make me happy. It doesn't matter where you are on the scale. If this is the poorest American and that's the richest American and all of us are lined up with this belief that possessions and vacations and corner offices that somehow fix us would somehow finally make us okay, if we're all on that scale, what happens to most of us if we stand right here and say, this isn't a problem for me, look at how far away I am from the top.
And it's a little bit like Jesus walked over to a cow and said, you're in line for the slaughterhouse. And they went, yeah, but I'm like 20th in line. I'm really far away. It's like the line still gets you slaughtered. It's a bad line to be in. And so for us, what happens is that there's this chance there's this possibility that we slowly over time begin to believe the lie that possessions will finally make us comfortable, will finally let us rest, will finally give us joy, and we keep kicking it further and further down the road.
I thought it was this amount of money, but it's actually not. It's got to be that amount of money. I thought it was this type of car, but it's actually not. It's got to be that type of car. And so what I'd like for us to do as we move into what else Jesus says here is to at least admit that this is a temptation and that this is a problem and that this is something that we should be concerned about, that we can actually begin to believe that life, that joy and fullness and satisfaction are found in our stuff. You see, as we desire possessions, pursue possessions, gain and accumulate possessions, we can begin to believe the lie that they offer us the good life.
All right, now we're going to keep reading from 22 on down to 32. And he said to his disciples, therefore, so therefore meaning because I said all this stuff about money and not being rich towards God and because I told you that your possessions can't give you life, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?
And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you were not able to do such a small thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O you of little faith. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. All right, we're going to spend just a minute in verse 32. So he tells this whole big thing, and he's saying, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious about what you're going to eat. Don't be anxious about what you're going to wear.
Don't have your life and your anxiety wrapped up in finances. Don't have your life and your anxiety wrapped up in, how am I going to make it? He then says, fear not, little flock. That's graciously, lovingly, condescending to us. Calm down, little flock. Fear not.
He looks at us like we're a bunch of sheep that he's the shepherd over because we're a bunch of sheep that he's the shepherd over. And he says, fear not, calm down, quiet your soul a little bit. You see, when it comes to money, we actually do have a lot of fear. There's a lot of them. I'm going to quickly tell you four. I think there's more.
I just want to share four that I think we have wrapped up when it comes to money. I think one of the first and main fears is that we just have a fear of pain, suffering, difficulty. That our fear is placed on this idea that money would fix that. That's what he's talking about here. He's talking about eating and drinking and having your clothes. Like he's just, there's something about like I'm, we're not going to be able to make it if we don't have money.
When he's talking about, he says you'll eat, you'll wear clothes. Like that's bare minimum for existence. He says, calm down, you're going to be okay. But we have this fear of I won't make it if I can't, if I don't have stuff, if I don't have possessions, if I can't, I won't eat. I won't be okay. I think that when it comes to money, there's a fear of failure.
It's often hard to quantify how we're doing and money and possessions just makes it easy. I'm doing good. I'm doing this much, this amount, good. How am I doing? This amount in the bank, good. It's a quantifiable number that tells us we're okay, that tells us life is good.
People can actually look around and look around at their house and their possessions and go, okay, we're doing all right. Like I can see, I can see it and there's this idea that if I don't have that, then who am I and am I okay? And so there's this fear of if we don't have finances, we don't have possessions, how do we know, how do we know how we're doing? I think there's a fear of the future and uncertainty. All right, look, CrossFit's great.
Essential oils are fine. Drinking tea is good. From what I understand, if you do all three of those, you become immortal. If you read the stuff people say on Facebook. But there's no better way to prepare for the future than being really, really rich.
That's what we tell ourselves. Sure, being in shape's fine. But having a lot of money will fix that problem. Drinking tea is great, sure. But having money, like there's just this, nothing can get to me if I have a pad of money around me.
And so there's this amount of, I have to have this to be okay. And the last one, and I think this may be particular to us, I don't know. Maybe it's exacerbated in us, but there's a fear of missing out. My dad growing up would always say, he's like, money isn't that great, but the stuff it can get for you is. Like money itself isn't great, but it can buy you a boat. Like he just kind of has that, like that's good.
And I realize I just quoted the country song and you're welcome. But there's like, this idea that, like if I don't have money, if I don't work real hard, if I don't save my possessions, if I just give my money away, like everybody else gets to go to Disney World, I gotta go to Dollywood. Or tweets he railroaded. Like, there's this idea that like, I'll miss out. Everybody else is gonna have these good experiences. Everybody else will get to, like have you ever said to yourself, like I wonder if my whole life I'll never own a new car.
I wonder if my whole life I'll just always rent a house. You ever said that? Because what you're communicating to yourself is I'm going to forever miss out. I'm going to forever miss out on the thing that would fix me, that would make me okay, that would make life better. But I want to tell you why I think Jesus says it's dangerous.
Why we ought to be on our guard against it. Verse 32, some of this will be on the screen to help us see it. Fear not, little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You see what he did there? What he did there, I want to show this to you before we move into why it's dangerous. Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
He just swapped it out on us. He doesn't say, fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you a bunch of possessions. No, he said he's going to give you something better. That the reason why possessions and the belief that they give us life is dangerous, we should be on our guard against it, is because he has something better to offer. And here's what we actually miss out on. You know when someone tells you you should wear a helmet when you ride a motorcycle?
Or that if you've got little kids, you should watch out for them when you're out places. Do you know why we have to be on guard for things? It's because we have something of value that we might lose. I don't care how fast you're going, you can still flip a motorcycle over a curb and hit a tree. We have something valuable that we might lose. And so we're told to be on guard and to be watchful and to be mindful of the situations that we're in.
And so here's what he's saying that's valuable that we might lose if we believe the lie that possessions give us life. Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. Let's highlight that.
Where no thief approaches, no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Here's the danger when it comes to believing that possessions give us life. First, we'll miss out on true treasure. What he does not say is money bags are bad. He just says your money bags will wear out. Get ones that don't.
He does not say treasure is bad. He says you're chasing fool's gold. There's a better treasure. See, if we believe the lie that our possessions here will give us life, we will miss life and we will never actually get true treasure. Secondly, the danger is that they can lead our heart astray. For most of us in this room, we love Jesus.
We want to follow Jesus. We want our life to mean something for Him. We want to be devoted to Him. And what he's saying is that your possessions pull at your heart. That if we're, as Christians, supposed to look beyond the horizon into an eternity where souls hang in the balance, where people will either spend eternity with Jesus in worship and in rescue because He died for their sins or an eternity separated from Him paying the penalty of their sin. And if we're supposed to believe that and know that and our value system is supposed to be different and we're supposed to look beyond the horizon, that possessions clutter up the view.
And rather than helping us look upward, they force us to look down and they can begin to lead our hearts astray. That's what's at stake when it comes to believing the lie that our possessions will fill us up and give us hope. They trick us. They trick us into believing to changing our value system and they lead our hearts astray. But Jesus came to wreck our value system and to steal our hearts.
Jesus comes from heaven, which is really nice. He leaves heaven and comes here and is born in a stable. We sang about that earlier, that He left the riches of heaven and was born in a stable and that He intentionally lived His life on purpose so that He could die in our place for our sin. And when He did this, He did this to wreck our value system so that if you belong to Jesus, what you value does not look like what your neighbor values. that He's changed our understanding of eternity and He's changed our understanding of what has value and what doesn't. And He came and when He died for us, He did this also to steal our hearts and He is not okay with us sharing our hearts.
They belong wholly to Him and they are not to be spent on loving and believing in our possessions. Jesus came to wreck our value system and steal our hearts. Paul talks about the same idea in Timothy and I want us to look at this real quick because I think it's clarifying. As for the rich in this present age, charge them, that means aggressively tell them, give them a rule, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
So what He says is to the rich in this present age, tell them not to strut around and be all excited about being rich. Tell them not to place their hope in their riches. So what He's basically saying is tell them, set their hopes on God. Not on the uncertainty of riches but on God. So He's saying, tell them to set their hopes on God.
So let me point out a few things that I think are helpful from this passage. Paul does not say, tell all the rich people, you terrible, terrible person, don't be rich. He does not say, tell all the rich people to give everything they have away. No, He says, tell them not to hope in it. Tell them to realize where it comes from. Tell them to be generous and ready to share.
One of our general reactions to this when we start talking about this and we see how blatantly and bluntly Jesus says things is to go, oh, so I can't own a hot tub, I can't enjoy life, I can't, Disney World's wrong, I went to Disney World last year, it was alright. I've been to Tweezy Railroad too, it was alright too. Like, like to have this like, but what's He say? who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Oh God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. That we actually can enjoy the things we're given. That we can, that it's okay, but that we can't, can't, place our trust in them.
That we can't let them begin to lie to us and tell us that they'll give us life. I'm going to tell you a situation that'll play out in a community group if you're in one long enough. You'll see something, something like this will happen. There'll be someone in the community group who will pull money out of their savings account or their retirement account, pay extra penalties on it, and use it to buy a hot tub. And they'll say things like, yeah, but I'm not going to retire for like 20 years and I can own this hot tub for 20 years. And there's someone else in your group who's like, I'm going to punch you in the face.
Because not only did you have to pay taxes on that, but now you paid extra penalties and taxes and also, that hot tub didn't going to last 20 years. And in the middle of that argument, you know what might, might be happening? You might have two people who both believe that possessions give them life, they just have a difference about going, a different way to go about it. You might have one that believes that possessing money in the bank helps you have security and hope that you can look at your soul and say, relax. And you might have someone else who's more going to say eat, drink, and be merry, but they both believe the same lie.
That possessions give us life and they're both confused. Now, that may be happening. The guy who bought a hot tub probably, wisdom-wise, is making a worse decision, but they both still have an issue. Could be. Could be that when we get in arguments with your spouse, my wife recently was saying, when we were coming up for Christmas and we were talking about my parents were saying, hey, what should we give Archer? And she was like, I wonder if they'd give money to his so that we can open a mutual fund for him.
Because she's been saving up and she wants a little bit more so we can open a mutual fund. And I was like, you're ruining Christmas. That sounds terrible. But the truth is, maybe in the middle of that argument, I'm saying the good life comes from eating, drinking, and being merry. And she's saying the good life comes from security. And I think that has a lot to do with how she and I argue about money.
But neither of us have looked beyond the horizon to an eternity where things actually matter more. Where we can give some stuff away and have treasure that doesn't fail. So let me ask, has it worked? Has it ever worked for you? Have you ever gotten to the point where you said, I did it, I reached the amount that I had set out to reach and now I'm fulfilled and now life is here and now everything's good? Let's imagine that you had a friend who told you every year, I save up $2,500.
I have a set amount that I set out of every single paycheck. And every year, I save up $2,500. And then, in October, when the state fair comes, I take a week off of work, I rent a hotel, and I go to the fair from open to close every single day. Now, even if you love the fair, you're saying, dude, that is the worst vacation I have ever heard of. Like, you can only eat so many elephant ears, you can only watch so many pig races, you can only spin counterclockwise and clockwise so many times. I don't care how many times you ride a camel, like, at some point, you are placing way too much weight, way too much pressure on the state fair to accomplish something for you that something else would do a better Job at.
How do we know that? We've seen the something else. We've seen the state fair. Jesus looks at us and says, if you believe and if you buy into, this is all we'll get, so I might as well get as much as I can. You're placing too much weight here and it will not accomplish what you want it to accomplish. Why?
Because he's seen this and he's seen the money bags in heaven. He's seen this and he's seen eternity. And he's saying, I've got a better deal for you. Can we enjoy the things we have here? Yes. Is it wrong to own a hot tub?
No. Not in and of itself. Maybe for you, yes. Is it wrong to save for retirement? No. It's actually a good idea.
But maybe for you, it's drifted into a place where you've begun to believe the lie that this will somehow fix you and this will somehow give you hope and this will somehow allow you to relax and yes. You've made a bad choice. You've made a bad switch. Jesus has seen both and he says, don't do it. So how do we fight it?
Jesus gives a very simple command on what to do to fix this in our souls. Verse 32, fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. That that's actually how you provide yourself with money bags that do not grow old with the treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no thief approaches, no moth destroys for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. What he says is sell your possessions, get rid of the things in your house, give to the needy. Sell your possessions, give to the needy.
That provides for you money bags in heaven. Now, does that mean you cannot own a thing? I don't think so. Does that mean you have to sell all your possessions? I don't think so. I think there's actually some wisdom to having an income, having a home, having some things set up where you can consistently forever give to the needy.
But I will tell you this, I think as Americans, we try to talk ourselves out of this way too much. And we try to lower the bar way too much. And we even try to talk others out of it. Now, you should give some, but no, not like that. No, no, no, no. Like, I wouldn't make that decision.
Like, it's okay to, like, we try to talk each other into having extra things. And I honestly think Jesus would stand alongside us and nod us along on everything we decided to give away and everything we decided to pass along and to give to the needy. There's a missionary named Jim Elliott who eventually died for going and being a missionary. And one of the things he wrote in his journal was, he is no fool who gives away that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. The truth is, all the things you own, you won't keep. Everything you give away, you won't lose.
You'll keep forever. But I do think that this is a pattern of life more than it is a one-time thing. There's a pattern of life that we are on our guard against our possessions, that we fight our possessions and their ability to claim our hearts, that we sell them, that we give them away, and that we consistently let our money walk out the door. So sometimes when we do stuff like this or when we're called to give or when we're looking at it, we honestly just say, I don't have the income to do this. Like I'm strapped as far as income and so that's why Jesus says, sell your possessions. Some of us need a lower car payment.
Maybe some of us as we pray about this are going to be called to sell our beautiful truck, pay cash for one that's not as beautiful and every day when we crank it up and it cranks on the second try, we remember that eternity exists and that we've got better money bags and we've made a good investment. That this is to be a pattern of life, that maybe some groups are going to have some yard sales, but the way that we fight this is that we begin to give our money away. That if your possessions have begun to claim your heart, the way to move your heart is to begin to give them away. So here's our give project this year.
As we actively as a church fight our desire to spend all of our vacation time at the fair, that's what we're doing. We're actively as a church fighting our desire to put all of our eggs here and to believe that everything here and all of our possessions and having a hot tub and having a nicer house and finally getting that new iPhone X because it's a thousand dollars and apparently someone reviewed it and it's better than the Samsung. Like, ooh, like fight the desire to think that'll fix us so that'll make us happy as we fight that. One of the ways that we're going to begin is our give series.
But I do think this needs to be a pattern of life for all of us. So here's what we're going to do this year. Midtown Two Notch is a church plant in inner city Columbia off of Two Notch and Schoolhouse Road. They have a building that they lease over there. I was out there one time for a, I know Aunt Frederick was one of the pastors there. We actually kind of launched that at the same time.
I was out there for a pastor's like lunch thing and they had ordered pizza and so we're all sitting around, pastors are all sitting around waiting for pizza and they get a, they come back in and go, sorry guys, we're going to have to send someone to get it because when we told them the address, they said they don't deliver pizza here. And I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing. But they got a spot in Columbia that's marked off that they're not sending a truck. They're not sending someone to drive in there and deliver pizza because it has gone so poorly for them. Aunt Frederick felt called to plant in this area.
Let me explain to you about church planting. It is difficult. Financially, it is hard. They planted a church where there's no way to financially succeed. If he's going to be full time, if they're going to do the things they need to do to minister to these people, the average household income in that city, in that part of the city is $18,000 household. The average for the state is $56,000.
The average household income in that part of the city is $18,000. One of the issues with inner city church planting is that guys like Aunt will go to a place, try to plant a church. They consistently have to be raising support because they are missionaries where they are. They're running out of money and then a nice church in the suburbs that has a lot of money and is trying to grow in diversity goes to Aunt Frederick and says, hey, we'll pay you X amount of dollars to come be on staff here. And we, collectively, with the Grassroots Church Planting Network, never want that to sound like a good option and so we intentionally try to support this church plan.
And so we called them as we went in this next year and we just said, hey man, I think for our gift project we just want to love y'all. We want to bless y'all. We appreciate what you're doing. We want to help. And so there's three ways we're going to partner. We started talking to them about how we could bless that part of our city and how we could not just bless that part of our city.
See, it'd be cool if we just picked and said this is an area in our city that needs blessing. We're going to go bless. What we've actually said is this is an area in our city that needs blessing but they also need to be blessed by the local church and so we're going to partner with a church that's right there so that they can continue to walk with all the people that are blessed to see them grow in their love for Jesus and have their lives changed. So we, the first way that we're going to do this, Midtown Fellowship Two Notch, our first part of our give project is this. New toys, new and gently used children's clothing and shoes.
New toys, new and gently used children's clothing and shoes. So here's, here's why that we're doing this. They said, they have some people that work in social services and they said one of the biggest issues in that part of the city at Christmas, a couple things happen. People feel like they have to celebrate Christmas. They're going to and so they make poor financial decisions to do so because they don't really have the means to do it but they want to be able to give their kids something. They want to be able to have some kind of a Christmas.
A lot of them do not celebrate Christmas, wait and give their kids Christmas gifts at tax time when their tax return comes. And one of the things that they noticed was that for people who at times when they're given a gift, people do show up and make sure the kids have gifts, that organization gives them. And what they said they'd like to do is help parents be able to come and actually set up a toy shop at their building that they lease and let parents come pick out gifts and then they'll help so that the parents at Christmas can give the gift to their child and take all the credit for it. So that it empowers what they're doing and makes them feel like they were able to do it and the kids don't feel like somebody else had to come in and do this.
And so what the plan is is that we would get to be elves for three weeks, $15, $20 or less. We don't need to have some really big things stuck in there. We need to have a pile of things that parents can go in and pick out a few things for boys and girls. And so we're just looking at all new, $15, $20 or less on toys. Clothing, I don't know how much that's going to cost but just kind of find some things. But we're going to try to have new toys, new and used, gently used clothing and shoes.
And we're going to fill up a room. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to fill up that room. The second thing we're going to do is have a Christmas party where we're going to go volunteer to man all the stations so that the people of Midtown Two Notch can interact with everybody so that we're going to be the ones making sure everything's tended to so that they can be having all the conversations, loving and serving them. They want a Santa Claus. So if you feel like, I get Santa Claus, let's talk.
They want a Santa Claus. They want us to do s'mores and any other fun things that we can come up with so that the families can come, we can watch the children so the parents can go pick out what they're going to get. They won't take it with them right then. They're going to get to come back and pick it up later, but it gives a time for a whole big party. Kids get to talk to Santa Claus. Parents get to go pick out toys.
We get to be a loving, beautiful diversion. We're going to get to love and trick children and it's going to be awesome because I think that's what Christmas is about. So that's the second part. We want you to sign up. We're going to need people to show up early and set things up. We're going to need people there during the party.
We're going to need people to tear things down. You'll actually be able to sign up online tomorrow. So that's the second part of our Give Christmas project. We're going to help them bless these families with a Christmas as we sell our possessions and give our money away to the needy, intentionally setting our sights beyond the horizon. The third thing we're going to do, and if I'm honest, I'm a little more excited about the third thing, but we've got to do one and two first. We're going to actually give financial support to Aunt Frederick for his salary.
He has to raise support every year. We want to make that easier for him. This is his family. He has a young daughter now that's just been born, but I couldn't find a picture of all of them on Facebook. I guess I could have asked him to send me one, but I didn't. Those are his two boys, Colby and Malachi.
Malachi is the one on the right. He has venous vascular malformation in his face, head, and neck. We asked Aunt, hey, would you be willing to come and just kind of talk to us during the gift series? He said, no, I'm heading to Boston for surgeries number 19 and 20. What happens with Malachi's face is that the blood vessels don't close off properly, so his face just kind of fills up with blood. They go in, they open him up, they cauterize a few of the blood vessels, and they immediately have to close him up because his whole face is going to swell.
Then they wait until it goes back down and do it again. He's on surgeries number 19 and 20. So that this pastor who's in a difficult part of the city, actively having to raise support, he's also having to fly on a regular basis to Boston. There have been weeks where he said he spent 40 hours on the phone with insurance companies just having to get him to commit to do the next surgery. And that's a regular thing. He said he's getting pretty good at it, but he has to do it a lot.
And so one of the things I'd love for us to do is for us to collectively as a church start buying toys, you can bring them by the office during the week which is right down the hall, you can bring them on Sunday and we'll just pile them up here to start bringing used clothes and shoes and buying new clothes and shoes to sign up to serve on the party we're going to help throw.