stuff consumes us

"God's heart breaks when we are consumed with stuff." ~ Matt Massey this past Sunday as we kicked off the Consumed Series.

I'll add, "because His real desire is to free us to 'do the stuff' (ala John Wimber ... Romans 15:4, 2Timothy 3:16-17, Matthew 7:24-27, James 1:22, Acts 2:42)".

The short story ... John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, asked a leader at his church, "When do we get to do the stuff?" The leader was confused, and John went on to explain the stuff like stuff Jesus did--raising people from the dead, healing the blind and the paralyzed. The leader said that they didn't do that anymore; they just sang and listened to sermons. Frustrated, John asked, "For that I gave up drugs?"

Among other things, materialism, and especially materialism to the extent that it leads to financial debt, is one of the detractors from "doin' the stuff".