How Can I Be Free from Materialism?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2020

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For many Western Christians, materialism has transformed our wants into needs and distorted our view of biblical Christianity. How can we be free?

Transcript

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0:00.0	The comforts and the wealth of our Western world can be a blessing, and they can become
0:09.5	a deadly curse to us as well.
0:12.4	So how can we be freed from the clutches of Western materialism?
0:17.2	The question Pastor John took up in a sermon 27 years ago on Hebrews 10, a chapter with
0:23.6	an incredible text in verse 34, which says, quote, you joyfully accepted the plundering
0:30.2	of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding
0:36.1	one.
0:37.1	Amazing text.
0:38.1	Hebrews 10, 34, is a text with a key lesson relevant to all of us today who live in
0:44.2	the Disneyland of Western affluence.
0:48.0	Here's Pastor John.
0:50.0	The Christian Church in America suffers from about 350 years of dominance and prosperity.
0:58.7	What I mean by dominance is that we're almost all of this country's history from the Puritans
1:04.4	on.
1:05.8	The Christian ethos has been the dominant one, and to be a Christian is to be a person
1:11.9	who's accepted and viewed as normal, and even one who has some traits that are beneficial
1:19.9	to the country.
1:21.9	What I mean by prosperity is that being a Christian and fitting into that ethos has for a long
1:30.6	time resulted in things going well for us, and so to be a Christian has been a plus.
1:39.3	What I mean by the Church suffering from that, suffering from this dominance, and suffering
1:45.1	from this prosperity is that this has resulted in a massively ingrained and unbiblical mindset.
1:56.4	If you act like a Christian, you will probably work hard and be thrifty, and probably
	...

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