The Danger of Getting Everything You Want (Luke 6:24-26)

In a world that equates blessing with wealth, comfort, popularity, and success, Jesus offers a radically different perspective.

In this powerful message from Luke 6, we continue exploring Jesus’ upside-down kingdom as He warns against the dangers of trusting in the very things our culture celebrates. While the world says, “Get more, enjoy more, be admired by more people,” Jesus reveals how comfort, self-sufficiency, endless consumption, shallow entertainment, and the pursuit of approval can slowly pull our hearts away from God.

Jesus isn’t condemning money, joy, or success. He’s exposing the danger of allowing temporary things to become ultimate things. The greatest threat to your faith may not be hardship—it may be comfort without dependence on God.

In this sermon, we’ll examine:
• Why wealth can become a false messiah
• How a full life can still leave your soul empty
• Why temporary pleasures can never solve eternal problems
• The danger of seeking the approval of people more than the approval of God

If you've ever wondered whether comfort is strengthening or weakening your faith, this message will challenge you to look beyond temporary blessings and rediscover your need for Christ.

Join us as we ask some important questions:
What have I been depending on more than God lately?
Has comfort made me spiritually complacent?
Am I living for God’s approval or everyone else’s?

This message will encourage you to trade self-reliance for dependence on Jesus and find the lasting joy that only He can provide.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. As you pass the baskets this morning, uh, I wanted to do something. Uh so some of you know this, some of you don't, uh, but we are opening up another campus of Hope Church this morning. In fact, it opens up in 30 minutes. They have a 1030 service, yes. All the way, all the way in Meridian, Texas. If you don't know where Meridian is, get on 174, head towards Royal Vista, uh, and you can't miss it. In fact, Hope Church is right as you come into town. Uh, Andrew and Brittany Hoffma are down there uh leading the charge. Uh, and so before they have service, y'all mind lifting up and praying for them? Amen. And y'all can keep passing the baskets as we pray, okay? So you can you can pray with one eye open if you haven't had the basket yet, okay? The Lord can still hear our prayers, okay? Would you join with me? Lord, we just lift up Hope Church meridian to you this morning. Lord, I just pray for Andrew and Brittany, Lord, as they lead the charge. Lord, we just pray that you would just move in a mighty way down there. Lord, we just pray that you would just send the light of Hope Church, the light of you, uh, down to Boski County. And Lord, we're just praising you for what you're going to do down there, Lord. And we're just so thankful that we get an opportunity to expand the kingdom of God. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. We're excited about that. Uh, there's more to come, so just stay tuned. Uh, so I grew up, I grew up in a different era of parenting, okay? So I was taught as a child that kids were to be silent, seen and not what. Okay, so some of y'all know. Okay. Uh, but what I've found is I go to a lot of restaurants, especially restaurants, and I find that parents are friends with their children. That's what I find. Uh, my mom used to say, if I'd act up in a restaurant, which my parents never took me to a restaurant much, uh, much as a child, calm down, mom. We go to Golden Corral after church, um, because you know, that's where the Baptists go, the buffet after church. Uh but when we would go out, uh, I would be threatened from an inch of my life uh if if I did something. But but parenting is a little different these days. And I think the parent, the reason parenting's a little different these days is we give our kids everything they want. Why is it bad? And don't say this out loud, okay? This is a rhetorical question. Why is it bad to give our kids everything that they want? Because they become what? Spoiled, right? I tell my kids, I don't mind spoiling you from time to time, but I don't like when you act spoiled. When you act spoiled, then I go, I need to dial it back, maybe a hair. But we live in a culture that defines blessings by comfort. If you got money in the bank, food on the table, a DoorDash gift card, people are happy with you, people are liking all of your posts. Everything feels easy. We call that success. We call that blessed. But Jesus steps into the scene in Luke chapter 6 and completely flips the scorecard for us. Just before this passage, and if you were here last week, you heard me talk about blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the grieving, blessed are the persecuted. If you missed that, I would encourage you to go back to your church center app and listen to it. But now he turns the coin the other way and says, Woe to the rich, woe to the fool, woe to the laughing, woe to those that we applaud. Now, here's this section is categorized by a bunch of woes. And I read through my notes this morning while the worship team was preparing, and I have a feeling that you're gonna go, woe a lot. Now, listen, Jesus is not condemning money. In fact, he's not saying that Christians should never enjoy life, he's not glorifying. I think sometimes we as Christians glorify suffering and misery and having nothing. I don't think Jesus is saying that here. He's exposing what happens when temporary things become the ultimate thing. Because the greatest danger in your life may not be suffering, it may be that comfort makes you forget that you need God. And let me tell you, and this is where the woe starts to come in. We are one of the most comfortable generations there ever has been. I heard some of you had to get ready with no power this morning. I know tough. I am praying for you, but there's a lot of people that got up this morning that didn't have running water. There's a lot of people that got up this morning and didn't have things that we consider. We don't wonder what we'll eat for lunch. The biggest struggle of what we're going to eat for lunch is what to pick. When your biggest struggle is what to eat, not if you will eat, you live in comfort. So this morning, if you're taking notes, the title of my message is The Danger of Getting Everything That You Want. The danger of getting everything that you want. If you have your Bibles, grab them. Go to Luke chapter 6. We're going to start in verse 24 this morning. If you don't have your Bible, don't worry about it. As Crystal said, you could tap uh the tag on the chair in front of you, pull up the church center app, uh, hit sermon notes, you can follow along, fill in the blank, and praise the Lord, they'll even save for you now. Let's get into it. I got a lot to do. Luke chapter 6, starting in verse 24. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Whoo, think about that for a minute. Woe to you who have a lot. That's probably you're all you're ever going to receive. Point number one: wealth is a false messiah. Wealth is a false messiah. Now, listen, the issue is not having wealth, the issue is trusting wealth. Jesus says, You've already received your comfort. In other words, if money is your God, this life is as close to heaven as you're ever going to get. That's terrifying to me. I don't want heaven here, I want heaven there. Because money has a way of convincing us that we're secure with what we have. We're secure spiritually. But here's the thing: when we're secure physically, spiritually, we're starving. The scary thing about wealth is that it can create an illusion that we don't need God. It's like sitting in a Mercedes-Benz with no engine. You got all the leather seats. Anyone love the smell of leather? Anytime, anytime we go into a bootstore, my wife's like, I love the smell of leather. Like, if they could make a cologne that I could put on that smells like leather, she would never leave me alone. Or gasoline, either one. She loves the smell of both. Could I do leather on one side and gasoline on the other? And then never mind. It's like a luxury vehicle with no engine. You got the leather seats, you got the Apple CarPlay, you got the air conditioning. Some of you bougie people, you don't have to turn your key when you start your car. You just have a button. For us peasants in the house, I still have to turn the key. I don't have a button. But here's the problem with a luxury vehicle with no engine. It may look nice, but it ain't going anywhere. There's people whose lives look successful eternally, externally, but spiritually, there's no movement towards God. They're like a luxury vehicle without an engine. They look fancy, but they're going straight to hell. You look fancy and still go to hell at the same time. Ask yourself this. Has financial comfort made you prayerless? Has success made you self-reliant? Do I trust God less now that I have more? Some of the moments I've depended on God is there is seasons where we did not have enough. Sometimes blessing is a danger because comfort can slowly replace the desperation for God. As some of you know, Hope Church is a church plant. The reason we're planting a church in Meridian is because we are a church plant and we believe in planting church. We believe the greatest thing that a community can have is a life-giving church. But here's the problem: we once were a young, scrappy church that would do very innovative things because we had to do crazy things because nobody wanted to come to church. Because we were a crazy church. Now we have a nice building. Now we don't have to park on the grass anymore. Anybody remember the days when you had to park on the grass at Hope Church? Now we have paved parking. And sometimes, sometimes, when we have these nice things, we forget that we still have to remain hungry and go after God like we're still parking on the grass. Because the greatest threat to your faith may not be hardship, it may be comfort without dependence on God. The problem in America is we don't pray hard for God because we can go to the doctor. We don't pray hard for the healing of God because we can just go to the doctor. We don't have to pray hard for more money, we just go to work more and skip church. And we wonder why our lives are falling apart. Because wealth is a false messiah. What does it mean to be a false messiah? Wealth can make you secure, wealth can make you think I'm good to go. When actually you have nothing. Because one of the tough parts of my job as a pastor is one day when you pass away, I'll be there as your family picks through all your belongings. Because you don't get to take any of that with you to heaven. One day, all that junk that you just have to have, your family will go. Should we throw this away? So I'm saying this because my parents are in the room, throw it away. We don't want it. Throw it away. Before I get in trouble, let's keep going. Verse 25. A. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Here's the problem in America. Number two, we're full, but we're empty of God. We're full of something, but we're empty of God. Jesus is talking more than just food here. He's talking about satisfaction. We live in a world that's addicted to consumption. We want more entertainment. We want more comfort. We want more experiences. We want more stuff. A drive-thru was not enough. We have to have an app to where you don't have to order by a real person. And I'm just speaking from the person behind you. Use your app. We're tired of waiting on you to order. Gen Z's got me in the room. Walk up and give them the code. I don't want to sit there and go, can you take off the pickles and the onion? Do it on your app. Good grief. Some of us have things to do. Some of us aren't paid by the hour. We have things that we need to do. But you can be physically full and spiritually malnourished. You ever let your kids snack on junk all afternoon?

unknown 14:04

No.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Everybody said, nope. Why is the answer no? Because when it's time for dinner, what are they gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I'm not hungry.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Last night we came home. We were at Crystal's dad house in Abilene. Uh, and and first, we had some first world problems. We stopped at one restaurant and it had on the window, we only are taking cash. I'm like, well, back in the car. Uh we went to the next restaurant, and it was New York Hill restaurant. Great restaurant. You've never been to it on I-20. I suggested New York Hills, great. It's got great food. Took my kids there, got them some, you look like homemade chicken strips because my kids on live on chicken strips and Jesus. Um and we got 30 minutes down the road, and what did they say?

SPEAKER_01 14:54

I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Let me tell you, I have to remind myself, you got to preach in the morning. Don't say bad words, okay? You don't let your kids feed on junk all day because when it's time to eat real food, they're not hungry because they're filled with junk. Spiritually, the problem is we do the same thing. We consume endless noise, social media, sports, politics. Some of you need to turn off Fox News or CNN, I'll offend both of you. Um Netflix. If Netflix is gone, are you still watching? Maybe it's time to do something else. We have endless distractions, and then we wonder why we have no hunger for scripture or prayer. Maybe the issue isn't that God stops speaking, maybe your soul is too full of junk that you don't have any room left to hear him. But here's the problem: we don't drift overnight. You don't drift like that. You drift one distraction at a time. And here's the problem: this world is really good at giving you one more distraction. You ever open your bank account and go, I didn't know I had that subscription? Because we just have one distraction after another. Some of us don't need more entertainment, we need our spiritual appetite restored. Some of us don't need more to do, we need to prioritize what's most important. Here's the problem. COVID, we organized our priorities. The problem is, after COVID, we reorganized our priorities with the wrong things. You're like, Pastor, what are you talking about? And if you're new here at Hope Church, I'm not always this mean. I'm just kidding, I am. Uh told Stephen this morning, I went over my notes, I was like, I must have been mad when I was writing this because it's rough. Uh but then I looked at the scripture and goes, oh, Jesus was mad. Uh but after COVID, we reorganized our life. But the problem is we cut out Jesus. The problem is we think all of our kids are gonna be professional athletes. Listen, I've been to the fields. They're not. They're not. Some of us think our kids are gonna be rock stars. Listen, I've been to their recitals. They're not. But you know what your kids will do? You know what I guarantee your kids will do? One day they will stand before Jesus. They may not be in the World Cup, they may not be America's next top model, they may not be on American Idol, but they won, will they will one day stand before their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And he'll say, What did you do with the life that I gave you? Some of our kids say, But Lord, I was gonna make the MLB. Lord, I was gonna do this. Lord, I was gonna be a rock star. He's gonna say, But did you live for me? Because listen, when your soul feeds on the world all week, don't be surprised when you lose your hunger for God. When all you do is eat in the world all week, don't be surprised when your hunger for God is diminished. Luke 25. The second part. B woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. Notice the stark contrast. Woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. Number three, temporary pleasures lead to eternal issues. I could preach a whole message on this point. We live for temporary pleasure, but we got some major eternal issues. Now listen, Jesus isn't condemning joy. God created joy. In fact, we have a song, the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is my strength, right? This is about shallow laughter that ignores deeper spirituality. It's possible to laugh, you're straight, it's possible to laugh yourself straight into destruction. But we live in a culture that medicates pain with amusement. If we stay entertained enough, distracted enough, busy enough, we never have to deal with what's really happening inside our hearts. But eventually, reality catches up with you. It's like the Titanic orchestra. The ship was sinking, but the music kept playing. That's how many people, that's how many of you are living spiritually. Everything around you is collapsing, but the music is playing loud. As long as I can hear great music, it doesn't matter that I'm gonna die. Because you don't want to have to think about one day you're gonna have to stand before Jesus and give an account for the life that you've lived for him. Now, listen, there's nothing wrong with enjoying life. In fact, I think God wants you to be happy. But if happiness depends entirely on your circumstances, eventually it will collapse. You ever you ever just stop and your kids go, I'm bored. I I feel like my father in those moments, right? You feel you ever feel like your parents come out of you? I'll show you what bored is. Back in my day, we'd clip through four channels, and if we didn't like what we had, how's that? Like I figured out when we go to hotels, my kids don't know what commercials are. They're like, Dad, can you fast forward the ad? Like, it's a commercial, it will be over eventually. But how many of that is us? We have all the entertainment we could ever want. But we're bored. Because entertainment can distract you from your pain. But only Jesus can heal what's broken in your soul. And guys, let me tell you back to my illustration. Eventually the Titanic is going to sink. And no amount of music is going to keep distracting you from what eventually is going to happen. But the problem is that music distracts you from what you need to do, which is get in the lifeboat and save yourself. Jesus is holding out his hand to you today saying, Come on. Stop letting the devil distract you with all this mess. Come on. Because we as Americans are so comfortable. But we're going to be so comfortable that it's going to lead us straight to hell. And many of us, I heard a good illustration from a preacher. This isn't mine. I don't know where I got it from. So if you're like, hey, he's plagiarizing. I don't remember where I got it. I got it from somewhere. Preachers, the first time we say it, we say I got it from somewhere. The next time it's me. So there's going to be two sets of people there: the ones that weep. The ones that go, why didn't nobody ever tell me about Jesus? But I think most Americans are going to be the gnashing of teeth. What's gnashing of teeth?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

They're going to be saying, I was good enough for Jesus, I shouldn't be here. I went to church every Sunday, read my Bible every day, I shouldn't be here.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

If we don't get our life on track. But here's the thing: you can't blame me because I told you. Now you may go home mad with me and just be like, man, that preacher was on something today. I don't want you to be there. I don't want you to be the gnashing teeth. I want you to be in heaven with me. Verse 26. Don't be mad at me, it's Jesus. Jesus is mad. He says woe six times. Five, actually. Woe to you. When all the people speak well of you. For so their fathers did to the false prophets. Number four. Popular opinions pull you from the truth. This only hits hard because Jesus said you should be careful with when everybody approves of you. Listen, guys, if you want to have a group of people tell you that the way you're living is right, you can find it. In fact, now more than ever before, your algorithm is designed to tell you that you're a good person. But false prophets were loved because they told the people what they wanted to hear. Real prophets were rejected because they told people what they needed to hear. And if you live full for Jesus, there will be moments when the culture will not applaud you. I was woken up Friday morning. My daughter was distraught. She sent me four screenshots from my YouTube. And she said, Dad, all these people are being mean to you. And I said, Baby. Daddy's doing his job when people don't like him. Everybody loves the preacher who says, You're fine, don't change, don't repent. God loves you. God wants you to be happy. Those messages get applause. But Jesus never wanted me to water down the truth to gain a crowd. In fact, the closer he got to the cross, the smaller his crowd became. So let me tell you, stop measuring faithfulness by applause. Social media likes are not proof of obedience. In fact, a hate-filled comment section is proof of obedience. Just speaking from the roof, go on my TikTok. There's one on there that is still lighting them up to this day. You could be celebrated by the world and completely out of alignment with God. Now, listen, you don't have to be obnoxious for living for Jesus. Now, I struggled on whether or not I should bring this illustration to you. And so if you're offended by it, I struggled on whether to say this or not. Okay? I love you. But I want you to be in heaven. This is a month in which the world celebrates something that is very far from God. It's called Pride Month. The Bible speaks very directly against pride. And our world celebrates something that God says, hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, chill. But I saw someone that stood up for their faith in a very loud way but never said a word. We can do that. We don't have to be obnoxious. The LA Dodgers the other night wore their pride hats to the game. Now, if you don't know what that is, they have the LA and then they have the pride flag within the LA LA hat. But there was one pitcher, probably should have looked up his name. I didn't because I decided I didn't know if I was going to say this or not. There was one pitcher that wore his regular hat. He refused to wear the pride hat. And he went to the mound and pitched with his regular hat on. He made a bold statement without saying a word. He didn't write an obnoxious Bible verse on it. He just wore his hat. And Crystal asked me, she goes, You think he's gonna get fined for that? No, he's not gonna get fined to that because the freedom of religion lawyers would love that. Because we still live in a world that you can speak for religion. But listen, guys, we have to decide whether or not we're gonna let the culture tell us what we want to do, or we're gonna allow the Bible tell us what to do. Do we want approval from the culture or do we want approval from Christ? Because eventually those two paths will separate. And this month, more than any other month I've noticed, these paths separate. Now, listen, if you are in the homosexual community, I love you. I care for you. You are welcome to worship Jesus in this place. God loves you. But I can't support that lifestyle because God tells me not to. But there's other lifestyles I can't support. If you're living with your girlfriend, I can't support that either. Because the Bible tells you not to do that. If you're hitting your wife at home, I can't support that because the Bible tells you not to do that. If you're a drunkard at the bar, at the bar, I can't support that because the Bible tells me not to. The problem is we like to single out one sin. We're really good at seeing everybody else's sin. And sitting back and go, I am right with the Lord. Well, let me tell you this: if you never offend the world, you may not be living boldly enough for Jesus. And here's the thing: you don't have to ever say a word without and offend the world. I am offensive by just being a white male that loves his wife and stays with one wife and loves his family, and is a strong leader of a man. That is offensive in our culture. But that's what the Bible tells me to do. And so let me tell you, the values that we stand up for here will be very offensive to our world. Would you rather be offended here or Jesus tell you, depart from me, I never knew you. Now listen, I've condemned a lot of things this morning, but I want you to know this. Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood for everything I talked about. And there is no sin that is so great that the cross can't cover. So don't leave this place feeling condemned. Leave this place transformed by what you hear. So what are our transformational moments? I've got a worship team that's wanting to get up here and do altar. Number one. What have I depended on, been depending on more than God lately? Ask yourself, what have you been depending on more lately than God? I think sometimes we depend on that paycheck. Sometimes we depend on that comfort. Sometimes we depend on the affirmation of our spouse when God says, depend on me. Number two, has comfort and success made you spiritually complacent? Have comfort and success. Chasing the Almighty Doll made you spiritually complacent. Listen, if it has, you're in good company. America is full of a bunch of Christians that are fat, happy, and sassy. Y'all heard y'all seen that meme too?

SPEAKER_01 33:21

I just won't be fat and sassy.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

That's most of us Christians. We have all the word, but we put none of it to action. We have all the best preaching, but we don't love our neighbor. We have the greatest worship on the planet, but we don't love God. Number three, am I living for God's approval or everyone else's approval? Now listen, with this message, I kind of feel like, especially since we're live streaming on social media, kind of I feel like I'm sticking my neck out for it to get chopped off. But listen, I'm not scared of them. I'm scared of him. Because I don't, I don't want to get up here and tickle your ears and you be in hell. I want to get up here and offend you so one day you can be in heaven with me. So let's stand. The worship team is back and they want to lead us in some worship. The altars are going to be open. But I want you to do some work with God today. I'm going to ask everybody to bow their head and close their eyes all over this room this morning. Before we get there, I talked about a lot of things, but I said the cross can cover them all. I mean it. If you're here this morning and you're far from God and you don't have a relationship with Him, God is seeking after you this morning. God is saying, I want you. And so if you've never given your life over to Jesus, I'm about to prayer prayer. And listen, there's nothing special about this prayer. This is just the first step in the rest of your life. But the Bible says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. If that's you this morning, I want you to repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need your love in my life. Forgive me where I failed you. I give my heart to you today. Take my life. Use it for your purpose. In Jesus' name. Amen.