"Why Do Children Want More?"

Henry Ford once asked one of his workers about his life goals. The man replied that his goal was to make a million dollars. A few days later Ford gave the man a pair of glasses made out of two silver dollars. He told the man to put them on and asked what he could see. "Nothing," the man said. "The dollars are in the way." Ford told him that he wanted to teach him a lesson: if his only goal was dollars, he would miss a lot of great chances. Everyone should try to serve others, not simply just try to make money.

That's a great secret of life that far too few people discover. Money is important; no question about that. But it’s only money, and there are more important things in life than money, like service to others and obedience to God. The rich man, about whom Taylor read, had put his trust in things. Now he was leaving these things behind. (King Duncan, www.esermons.com, Collected Sermons)

Our passage today is about wanting more; that is called greed. Why do children want more? Because they have learned that from adults. Not being happy with what we have and always wanting something else is a problem which many adults teach their children. It is a problem which many children have learned. Because it is something that we do, we know that the children have been taught to do so. Adults don’t have lesson plans or instructions to be greedy; it is taught by how we live. Children want more toys and bigger toys, because they have seen their parents and other adults continue to want more things and bigger things. We have so many clothes in our dressers, our chest-of-drawers, and our closets that we cannot wear them all. And then we buy more. Continuing to want more than what we need becomes a problem. Adults have taught children to be greedy, because most adults are greedy.

We have a hard time saying, "that’s enough." We want another day at the amusement park, another day of vacation, another meal at a nice restaurant. Maybe we are simply bored with what we have. Perhaps that is why too much television is being watched, too much time is being spent playing video games, or too much time is being consumed staring at a computer screen surfing the internet. Perhaps we are trying to fill up our lives with stuff, like the man in Jesus’ story who wanted to build bigger barns to hold more stuff. Having a bigger barn did not bring him happiness or make him a better person. Seeking ways to make us happy will not make us happy or content. Trying to entertain ourselves with more fun things doesn’t last very long. We will continue to want more.

Think of a glove. By itself, the glove is limp and lifeless; it can't pick up anything. But slide your hand into it, and it has the power to do all kinds of things. Money is like a glove which by itself is neither good nor bad, but put it into the hands of a person, and it becomes a personality. Money in somebody's hand can create a grasping hand or a giving hand. (Herb Miller. Money Isn't Everything: What Jesus Said About the Spiritual Power of Money. Nashville: Discipleship Resources. 1994. p. 6.)

Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ring-tailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this alert little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. But he can’t do it, because now his fist is larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him. (This bibliographic reference is uncertain: Charles Swindoll. Living above the Level of Mediocrity. W. Publishing Group. 1987 p.150ff)

Greed is a trap which can snag us; it is like a grasping hand. Wanting more things is a problem, but not wanting to let go of our possessions can be a problem too. The ring-tail monkey does not let go of the seeds and gets in trouble. Some people who don’t want to let go of things are called misers or hoarders. The miser saves things and doesn’t throw things away or doesn’t give things away, because they are worried that sometime they might not have enough.

And that is what Jesus was trying to teach in the Bible verses Taylor read earlier. One brother felt cheated and wanted Jesus to tell his brother to give him more things. In those days, the older brother got more things than the younger brothers. But Jesus knew that the younger brother wanted more stuff, and he warned that man and others that wanting more stuff than we need is not the most important thing in life.

We all know that we have to have certain things to live. We have to have food to eat and clothes to wear. But when we want more and more and more, then we have lost our focus on what is truly important.

When a house catches fire, what is so important that people will risk their lives to save from the flames? Their nice plates? No. Their Play Station, Game-cube, or Nintendo Wii? No. What people really seek to save in a house fire are the family pictures of the children, parents, grandparents, and other family members; after a house fire, people miss most those things of the heart which cannot be replaced.

So what do we do with the things that we do have? Almost all of us have much more than what we need. There is a difference between what we need and what we want. We need to eat everyday. That doesn’t mean that we need to go out to eat everyday. We need to have clothes; that doesn’t mean that we need to have lots of clothes or the most expensive clothes. But some of us do have lots more than we need. What then?

Let’s think back to the story Jesus told. The farmer was good at what he did. He was able to grow lots of food, but he couldn’t eat it all, even if he had bigger barns. But what he could’ve done was give some food away. The man was greedy instead of being generous.

We can also give away our extra stuff. That is when we have giving hands. There are many people in our world who don’t have enough to eat every day, and we can give extra money to help give them food. This weekend, eighteen youth and chaperones participated in a 30-Hour Famine. This idea was started in 1992 by World Vision, a Christian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision partners with many religious groups, including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in helping poor people all around the world. Fourteen of our youth raised more than $2,100 this weekend for world hunger. We have our World Hunger Dinner this Wednesday night, and we will be giving everyone a chance to give money to help others. So we are to be generous with what we have; we are to give to help people. That is when we have giving hands.

But we are also to understand what is important in life. The brother and the farmer in the earlier Bible verses thought that money and things were most important. But that is simply not true. I don’t want to be like that dude.

In my hand I have some sales papers from Best Buy and Dell, and I bet there are many electronic things like computers and video games that most of the children here today would like to have. I also have some newspaper ads which have many great vehicles that many people would like to have. I have a couple of clothes catalogs which have some nice clothes that many people here would like to have. Do our children already have toys? Do most of the adults already have vehicles and clothes? Sure. Why would we need another toy, car, or shirt? Well, let me ask you another question. Would you rather have another video game that will break or run down, or a car which will eventually wear out or stop running, or clothes that will one day not fit or get a hole in them, OR would you rather have a friend who, with a little special care, can play with you, stick by you, and have fun with you for a long time? I would rather have a friend, wouldn't you? Having friends to share your toys with is really the best fun. It's so good to have friends and to be a friend. Last week in my sermon I said that people are more important than rules, but people are also more important than things. Things wear out, but, as Samuel read from the Psalm, God’s steadfast love endures forever. If people are more important than rules or things, then we need to have giving hands rather than grasping hands.

Herb Miller tells the story of an elderly couple who owned a beautiful 75-acre island in British Columbia, which is in Canada. My family went to that area two years ago, and I have never seen a prettier part of the world. The older couple needed to sell the island and move to the city. It was a gorgeous island with the natural beauty of large trees, meadows, deep coves. This island would be ideal for yachts and multi-million dollar homes located on hillsides with panoramic views. In fact, this couple was offered thirteen million dollars by a developer for the island. But can you believe it, they said no. They wanted to make the island into a natural preserve. They asked the Canadian government what it would pay for the island. The government said it would pay three million dollars. That meant a loss of ten million dollars. But this couple wanted to leave behind something for everyone to enjoy; they wanted to leave a heritage. As it happened, the Canadian government didn't have the money to buy the island, but this couple kept trying and found a group to buy it for three million dollars, preserving its natural beauty as an undeveloped public park.

What would you have done in their place? Would you have gone for the thirteen million dollars, land development, and luxury homes, or would you have settled for three million dollars and a nature park? An interesting question, isn't it? Imagine what you could do with ten million extra dollars. But could you live without it and live on only three million dollars? Indeed, everyone could say, "Hey, sure, I could live on three million dollars." Could you live on one million dollars, if it meant you could leave a heritage to your children and others? How about half a million, or could you live on 100,000 or even 20,000 dollars if you could leave behind a heritage to your children and others? I hope that you are thinking, "What do you mean? Of course I could. I do it everyday." (Herb Miller. Money Isn't Everything: What Jesus Said About the Spiritual Power of Money. Nashville: Discipleship Resources. 1994. p. 2)

Leaving a heritage to our children, such as leaving them with an understanding of what is important in life, is far more significant than having to have a certain extravagant amount of money on which to live.

My question then again is "Why do children want more?" Children and adults will continue to want more if grasping hands are used more than giving hands. If more adults valued giving hands rather than grasping hands, then we would be sending different messages to our children. We would prove to them that God’s steadfast love endures forever. We would give them a heritage that will affect generations to follow us. If Jesus taught over and over again that people are more important than things, then that is a message that we should teach by example to everyone, but especially to our children. If we don’t, greed rather than generosity will continue to be the codeword for the future.