Trust That Shapes The Heart
This sermon was first given at Sherwood Community Friends Church on Sunday, January 11th during our Generosity Practice series and is part 2 in our series.
Watch it here.
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I used to run obstacle course races, probably at least one a month for several years. You know the kind out on dirt mountain or forest trails, rain or shine.
Once I was running with a few friends. It had just rained. Trails were soaked. Mud was everywhere. The kind of experience where you’re not really clean again until you get home and shower.
When we finished, we were standing around outside, rinsing off our shoes with a hose—laughing about how trashed they were—and somehow the conversation drifted to shoes. Not running or hiking shoes. Middle school shoes.
If you know anything about middle school, you know this: shoes are never just shoes.
They’re status.
They’re identity.
They’re belonging—or the lack of it.
Someone brought up Air Jordans. And instantly, we were all back there—remembering how badly we wanted a pair when we were kids. They were about a hundred bucks, which at the time might as well have been a million dollars. None of us had them. We laughed about it, sprayed the mud off our trail running shoes, and moved on with our day.
…Or so we thought.
Later that afternoon, one of the guys texted our group a screenshot from his phone. An ad had popped up—Nike Air Jordans. On sale. For $99.
Then another friend—who doesn’t even use social media—opened a browser on his laptop. First ad he sees? Air Jordans.
That’s the world we live in.
Experts say the average person sees thousands of advertisements a day—not aimed at our logic, but at our longings. Advertising doesn’t appeal to our rational brain. Consumerism isn’t rational at all. It goes after our fears. Our insecurities. Our sense of lack. Our quiet hope that maybe this thing will finally do it.
Shoshana Zuboff, in her landmark book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, names this system for what it is—“surveillance capitalism”: an economy built on watching us, studying us, and turning our attention, habits, and desires into profit.
Billions of dollars are poured into advertising every year. And companies wouldn’t spend that kind of money if it didn’t work.
But here’s the thing:
long before targeted ads and smartphones that listen, the human heart was already vulnerable.
We’ve always been prone to believe the same lie:
If I just had a little more, then I’d be happy.
That’s not a modern problem. That’s an ancient one.
The writer of Ecclesiastes put it plainly:
Ecclesiastes 5:10 NLT
“Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!”
As a general rule, the more we get, the more we want.
John D. Rockefeller was once asked, “How much money is enough?”
His answer was simple:
Just a little bit more.
Scriptural Warnings on Greed
It shouldn’t surprise us that when Jesus talks about money, so much of what he says sounds like a warning.
He’s not vague about it.
He’s not subtle.
He’s direct—because he loves us.
Listen to his words written in the Gospel of Luke:
Luke 12:15a CSB
“Watch out and be on guard against all greed…”
That opening line alone should slow us down.
Watch out.
Be on your guard.
Greed isn’t just a bad habit. It’s a threat.
Greed is like lust—but for things. It’s that insatiable desire for more than we have and more than we actually need. And Jesus is clear: there isn’t just one kind of greed. There are all kinds.
There’s the obvious, loud version—bigger house, bigger TV, bigger car, bigger paycheck.
But there’s also a quieter, more respectable version. The kind that shows up as curated travel, experiences, boutique brands, the right gear, the right lifestyle. It doesn’t look excessive. It just looks… “normal”.
The truth is, every one of us is vulnerable to some version of it.
Which is why Jesus says, “Watch out.”
Why is greed so dangerous?
Jesus tells us:
Luke 12:15b CSB
“…because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”
That’s not where the good life is found.
And then Jesus goes even further.
In Mark chapter 4, he explains why God’s Word doesn’t always bear fruit in a person’s life. Listen to how he describes it:
Mark 4:18b–19 CSB
“The worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
Notice what Jesus says—and what he doesn’t say.
He doesn’t say wealth is evil.
He says it’s deceitful.
That’s an important distinction.
Wealth promises what it cannot deliver—happiness, contentment, identity, security, a sense of safety. And we fall for that ruse again and again.
What’s so tragic is that the very thing we think will give us the good life is often the thing keeping us from it.
Jesus says it plainly in Matthew 19:
Matthew 19:23–24 NLT
“I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
Notice—Jesus had to say it twice. That’s how shocking it is.
Here, wealth isn’t the pathway into the kingdom. It’s an obstacle.
Yes, it’s possible to follow Jesus and carry wealth with you—but Jesus says it’s very hard to do. And if we’re honest, most of us quietly assume we’ll be the exception.
Sure, maybe that’s true for most people… but not me.
And yet Jesus’ warning lingers:
Financial success can lead to spiritual failure.
I didn’t say will, I said can.
That’s not something our culture ever tells us, but it’s deeply Biblical.
Which helps explain why the weight of Jesus’ teaching on money isn’t instruction—it’s caution.
Almost none of us actually think we’re greedy.
We’ll confess the obvious sins in church—addiction, infidelity, anger—and even the so-called respectable sins of gossip, unforgiveness, and sarcasm that wounds. But greed? We almost never hear anyone say, ‘I’m struggling with greed.’
Why?
Because greed is often invisible to the person caught in it. We absorb the spending habits and expectations of the culture around us, which is one of the most affluent, materialistic cultures in human history.
We’re like the frog in the water—it heats up slowly. We don’t notice what it’s doing to our soul.
So the question becomes unavoidable:
Is there a way—an actual practice from the Way of Jesus—that can set our hearts free from greed and form us into people who are deeply happy and at peace with what we have?
Jesus’ answer is simple yet challenging.
Yes. Yes there is something we could do.
It’s the practice of generosity.
Greed, Contentment, and the Way Out
Jesus doesn’t just warn us about greed—he actually names it.
In Luke 11, Jesus is speaking to the religious elites, and he says something startling:
Luke 11:39 CSB
“You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil.”
Notice something important here.
Jesus could have named a lot of sins.
But the one he calls out by name is greed.
“Evil” is broad.
But greed is specific.
And then Jesus says something even more surprising:
Luke 11:41 NLT
“So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.”
In other words, if there’s a sure thing for overcoming greed, Jesus says it’s generosity.
Yes, it’s true—the more we get, the more we tend to want. But the inverse is also true: the more we give, the more free, joyful, and at peace we become.
The Bible has a word for this inner state.
It’s called contentment.
And contentment may be one of the most undervalued virtues in our entire culture.
If greed is being restless, dissatisfied, and driven by the desire for more, then contentment is its opposite. Contentment is being deeply grateful for what you already have. It’s freedom from the inner compulsion to accumulate—physically, digitally, whatever.
To bring all of this together, let’s turn to one of the clearest passages in the New Testament on contentment.
Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6.
Here, the Apostle Paul echoes Jesus’ warnings about wealth, but he also gives us a vision of what real gain looks like.
He begins like this:
1 Timothy 6:6 CSB
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
That line redefines wealth.
True wealth isn’t having a lot.
It’s being happy in God and content with what you have.
I once had a friend tell me, “My dad never made a lot of money, but looking at his family around him, he says all the time, ‘I’m a rich man.’”
That’s what Paul is talking about.
Then he continues:
Timothy 6:7 CSB
“For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.”
All wealth is temporary. Either we lose it when we die, or we lose it long before that.
Paul presses further:
1 Timothy 6:8 CSB
“If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.”
The word translated clothing literally means covering.
The idea is simple: if we have the basics of life—food, shelter, something to wear—and we have God and one another, that’s enough.
Then comes Paul’s pastoral warning to Timothy to be given to the church he led:
1 Timothy 6:9 CSB
“But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
Notice Paul’s language.
He doesn’t say those who are rich.
He says those who want to be rich—those who set their hearts on it.
And then the line that’s often misquoted:
1 Timothy 6:10a CSB
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
Not the root of all evil.
But a root of all kinds of evil.
Meaning: greed sits underneath so much of the brokenness in our souls and in our world.
Money itself isn’t evil. It can do tremendous good. I think about generosity in the church and God’s Kingdom. I think about businesses using it well. I think about creativity, innovation, and provision.
But, as I talked about last week, money isn’t neutral either.
It’s powerful—almost like nuclear energy. It can bring life or destruction, and it’s incredibly difficult to steward well.
Paul continues to complete his statement:
1 Timothy 6:10b CSB
“By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
That’s vivid language.
Chasing wealth doesn’t just leave us unsatisfied—it wounds us. It fractures our life. It pulls us away from trust in God.
And many of us have seen this play out in real time.
Not only does money fail to make people happy— it often becomes the very thing that steals joy, peace, and faith along the way.
Contentment: Paul’s Way Out
So if greed is the problem, what’s Paul’s solution?
Contentment.
Randy Alcorn defines contentment this way:
“Being satisfied in whose you are, who you are, and what you have. Those who love and serve Jesus can be truly content. Those who love and serve money can never be.”
Contentment isn’t resignation.
It’s not settling for something.
It’s realizing you already have enough—and more than that, it’s being genuinely happy with what you have in the depth of your heart.
And here’s where many of us get tripped up.
We tell ourselves, I’ll be content when…
When I get the raise.
When I buy the house.
When this season finally passes.
But that’s not how contentment works.
Contentment is not something waiting for us in the future. As Paul said, the secret to contentment is doing all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).
This is something we practice here and now.
And Jesus gives us a way into it—through generosity.
Generosity, as it turns out, has two sides.
The first side is obvious: we give.
We give our resources away in the form of our time, our talent, and our treasure.
What we “have” was never truly ours to begin with—it’s all been entrusted to us by God.
“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord.” Psalms 24:1 CSB
So we hold it loosely. We share freely. And he wants us to partner with him to steward what he gave.
Giving is God’s antidote to greed.
The more we give away, the less control money has over our hearts.
But there’s a second side to generosity, and it’s just as important.
It’s simplicity.
To live generously, we also simplify—to edit our lives down to what actually matters.
Both sides are essential.
G.K. Chesterton once said, “There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”
Lloyd Lee Wilson, reflecting the Quaker testimony of simplicity, said this:
“Simplicity is the name we give to our effort to free ourselves to give full attention to God’s still, small voice: the sum of our efforts to subtract from our lives everything that competes with God for our attention and clear hearing.”
This disciplined pursuit of less has often been called simplicity, or simple living, and it’s a traditional Quaker practice. Today you might hear it called minimalism. But whatever language we use, this is not about aesthetics, Marie Kondo’s methods, or trends.
Simplicity is not poverty.
It’s not having nothing.
It’s choosing to live with less.
And be content living that way.
At its core, simplicity is rooted in Jesus’ words:
“Seek first the kingdom.” (Matthew 6:33)
Richard Foster defines simplicity this way:
“An inward reality of single-hearted focus upon God and his kingdom, which results in an outward lifestyle of modesty, openness, and unpretentiousness.”
I’d say it like this:
Simplicity is limiting the number of our possessions, expenses, activities, and obligations to a level where we’re actually free—to live joyfully, generously, and attentively with Jesus and his people.
Simplicity flips the question from:
What else can I get?
to:
What can I do without?
How might I live with what I already have?
And those questions only make sense inside Jesus’ vision of reality—where life does not consist in an abundance of possessions, and where there really is more joy in giving than receiving.
At some point in this generosity practice, all of us will have to wrestle honestly with the question: How much should I give?
But here’s the reason that question often makes us tense, defensive, or tired: most of us don’t feel like we can give much at all or more than we already do.
Not because we’re selfish.
Not because we don’t care.
But because there’s no margin.
Our lives are already full. Our finances already stretched. Our calendars already packed.
So when the topic of generosity comes up, it doesn’t feel inspiring—it feels threatening. And for those who’ve never given toward God’s Kingdom through a church, it can feel confusing, even disorienting.
And that’s why the question “How much should I give?” doesn’t land as a simple number. It lands as a mirror. It reveals what kind of life we’re actually living—and whether there’s any room left for freedom, trust, or joy.
Which is why Jesus doesn’t give us numbers to start from. He gives with freedom.
To live generously, we need margin in our finances for room in the budget to share.
Margin in our schedules to give us space for interruptions, people, rest, and delight.
Margin in our relationships for room to show up when someone needs us.
But most of us live over our capacity, not under it.
And nowhere is this more evident than with money.
If you imagine a line representing your income, our culture trains us to live at the line or above it—often in debt.
The Way of Jesus invites us to live below the line—which gives us freedom.
Above the line is anxiety and pressure.
Below the line is contentment and generosity.
That’s deeply countercultural isn’t it?
Living below the line means we sometimes choose not to buy things we could afford or add things to our calendars that would bring us anxiety or stress.
For some families, that looks like working out at home instead of a gym membership.
Eating out less and making better meals at home for more intimacy together and spending less money.
Driving older cars that still work perfectly fine.
Living with fewer subscriptions and upgrades.
Saying “no” to certain extra-curricular activities to say “yes” to having white space on your calendar for margin or doing something more life-giving than the other thing.
To make the decision that you and your family will practice Sabbath, somehow, every week.
This is nothing extreme in God’s Kingdom, but it is different. Different from the cultural norm of the world’s more empire.
And yes—there are moments when it’s uncomfortable. When desire flares up and we feel the pull to spend or do—especially at different times of year, which too is culturally based.
But I’ve found that if I stay with the cultural discomfort—if I don’t immediately satisfy the desire—it often fades. And I’m okay. More than okay.
I used to have an Amazon addiction. I think I kept them in business between 2010 to 2021. They were at my house pretty much every day, multiple times a day, dropping something off. God has freed me from that addiction and my practice now is I put something I may want to buy in the cart and save it for later. If I still want it after a month then it must be something I need and then I consider purchasing it then. I don't want to purchase anything based on emotion and that's how I practice today. I also no longer have the convenient Amazon app on my phone or iPad.
This kind of life requires intention.
Paul says, “We will be content.”
The word he uses implies a settled resolve—a decision of the heart.
There are moments when we have to draw a line in the sand and say: This is enough. I have enough.
The Jewish people associate one of God’s names as El Shaddai and describe it as “The God who knows when to say ‘enough.’” I think this captures a powerful truth about our God in that He sets boundaries.
When we put limits on ourselves and practice self-control, we are reflecting God himself.
Every generous person I know lives with some form of self-imposed limit. Limits that pull them away from greed and toward God’s freedom.
And this will look different for all of us—depending on income, season of life, and real needs. Some of us are simply trying to get by.
But Jesus’ warnings about greed aren’t only for the wealthy. His invitation into contentment is for every one of us no matter our financial status.
True Freedom
To close, I want to leave us with one of the most beautiful and grounding verses on contentment in the New Testament.
Hebrews 13:5 CSB says,
“Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, ‘I will never leave you or abandon you.’”
Notice the language.
Keep your heart free.
When people talk about “financial freedom” today, they usually mean early retirement or having enough money to stop working.
But you can make more money than you’ll ever need or could spend—and still be anything but free. You can be enslaved to greed, anxiety, and fear.
The whole point is the goal in life is not riches or poverty, but freedom, contentment, and generosity.
Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 tells us why this is even possible.
“Because God has said, ‘I will never leave you or abandon you.’”
That’s the foundation.
Ultimately, what we are searching for in money and things can only be found in God.
Peace.
Security.
Happiness.
A settled heart.
Contentment.
Generosity.
Let’s stop practicing what the world tells us to tell ourselves, “If I can just get a little more, then I’ll be content.” No.
What we’re searching for can only be found in God.
The good news—the Gospel—is that in Jesus, we already have everything we need.
We have access to the Kingdom of God and his love.
We have a Father who provides for all his sons and daughters. And he will never leave us or forsake us.
Right here.
Right now.
You already have enough to live a deeply joyful life in God. To access it— practice generosity.
To take your next step today to attach yourself to Jesus and follow in his footsteps, let’s pray the following prayer together.
Prayer for Generosity and Contentment
God our Father,
guard our hearts against all kinds of greed,
for our life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions (Luke 12:15).
Teach us to be content in every circumstance—
in plenty and in need—
for we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:11–13).
Remind us that we brought nothing into this world
and we can take nothing out of it;
and if we have food and covering,
help us to be content with these (1 Timothy 6:7–8).
Keep our lives free from the love of money,
and help us be satisfied with what we have,
because you have promised,
“I will never leave you or abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Form us into a generous people,
trusting that our God will supply all our needs
according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
We choose contentment.
We practice generosity.
We place our trust in you alone.
In the Name of Jesus,
Amen.
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