Why Do Ads Make Me Feel Like I Need More Stuff?

Speaker A00:00:00

Let's be really honest with ourselves. How many times during a day does our phone buzz? How many times a day does our screen light up? It's another ad, another must have thing.That little whispering that you hear in your ear. You're just not enough unless you buy this. So today's show is all about why do ads make me feel like I need more stuff? And here's the answer.What if you could silence the noise and reclaim both contentment and cash? That's exactly what I'm going to cover on today's show.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Welcome back to Financially Confident Christian. I'm Ralph. I'm so happy that you've chosen to give me just a little bit of your time today.Yesterday we talked about stepping off the Keeping up with the Jones as a treadmill. If you missed yesterday's show, I'm encourage you to check it out.You can find all of our shows at financiallyconfidentchristian.com because, hey, this is the show where every day we try to become a more financially confident Christian. And today we're going to get into the constant pressure of advertising.As I was planning for today's show, I'm thinking about how often during the day am I interrupted with advertisements. I open up my email, there's a bunch of them there. I look at social media, it's ad after ad after ad. They're everywhere.We see them on television, we see them on our phones, we see them in our email, any of our social feeds. Hey, we get in a car and drive down the road. We see them on billboards, they're just all around us.And here's the big problem, here's the most sinister part of this. A lot of people say, well, we're out there just selling stuff, they're just selling products. But that's not really what they're selling.See, when we open the hood of this, we peel back the outside of that. What they're really selling us feelings, they're selling us emotions, they're selling us status, they're selling us a lifestyle.And the bad part of that is they're selling us a discontentment with our lives. They want us to be discontented. Why? So we buy more stuff. That's the truth.And somebody sent me an email the other day, they said, ralph, why do I always feel like I have isn't enough? You might be feeling that right now. I know I felt that many times.Maybe you're sitting there, you're listening right now, or you're watching this and you're going, ralph, man, I'm right there. I do always feel like what I have isn't enough. And see, that's the problem. See, these ads are designed to keep us in this feeling of lack.This feeling of we don't have enough. Because those ads always designed to sell us a fix. Oh, here's your solution. I've got this product, I've got this service.It's going to fix your problem. You're not going to feel that lack anymore. But this shows all about tying faith and finance.And see, God warns us against conforming to this world's pool, this constant pool of more stuff. So I want to get right into the word of God right now. Let's go back to the book of Romans, my favorite book of the Bible.If you listen to the show, I know I talk about Romans all the time. I love the book of Romans. This is from the book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 2. And it gets right to the point of today's show.This is what it says, Romans 12, 2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And I love this verse because what is it saying to us?Don't be conformed to the pattern. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like I'm on this conveyor belt and I'm just taking all in what the world is feeding me.But the Bible's telling me to do something completely different. It's time to be transformed. How am I transformed? Not by buying stuff, not by getting more experiences. I'm transformed by renewing my mind.I'll tell you about how to do that in just a few minutes, but let's get to one more book of the Bible. This is from First John, chapter 2, verse 16.For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father, but from the world. Wow, that's strong, isn't it?The lust of the flesh, the things that we got to have, those things we want to reach out and grab, we got to have those comparison traps that we talked about yesterday. The lust of the eyes, everything we see around us talked yesterday about coveting the neighbors, the stuff the neighbor's ox and a donkey.We talked about all those things and the pride of life. And what's the Bible telling us? That's not coming from God. It's coming from the world. And we got to be constantly fighting against that.Because here's the truth today. The ads that we see all around us. You might say Ralph's getting a little bit crazy today. Well, I'm going to get a little crazy today.But the ads all around us prey on these things. They prey on lust. They play on flesh. They pray on what our eyes see. They prey on pride. But that's not where true contentment is found.It's going to tell you that. That's where true contentment is found. Go buy that Corvette I talked about yesterday. Go buy that purse. Go buy that fancy watch. I've done that, too.Listen, I've made all these mistakes. You come listening to me. You know one thing about me, I'm like, swish. T's. I'm covered with holes. I've made all these mistakes.But that's what ads are preying on. They're preying on the lust of the flesh. They're playing on the lust of the eyes, and they're preying on that pride of life.But that's not what God wants from us. Our liberation is to learn that we can have all things in Christ.And maybe you found yourself buying something because an ad made you feel like it's the missing piece. I know so many times as a kid growing up, we would watch TV and we'd go running up the stairs. Mom, hey, Mom. Mom, we gotta have this.Everybody else is getting this. Mom. This toy or this whatever that is at the time. And my mom used to comfortly say this. And now listen, I'll be honest with you.If you listen to the show, you know, I talk about my mom all the time, my big role model in my life, and I miss her dearly. She's been gone for almost two and a half years now. I was thinking about that the other day.But if you're a mom or you're a dad, and you're sitting there right now and your kids are running up to you, and maybe you're feeling this comparison things yourself. My mom always said that. She said, we already have enough. And see, that's where true contentment really resides.Because here's the thing, and this is the big takeaway from today. And I want you to hear this loud and clear. If you got to write this down, write it down. Contentment isn't bought.So many people think you can go buy contentment. I can go buy happiness. I can go buy love. I can go by this feeling of euphoria. I'm so happy, Ralph. But that's not true contentment.True contentment is practiced. It's a daily decision to understand the grace that you've been given to appreciate what God has given you.See now maybe saying, Ralph, how do I get to this point? I get it, man. I'm stuck on this cultural treadmill as well. I'm on that escalator of just the world is coming at me from all sides.Things I'm going to encourage you to do right now is to create some ad free zones for yourself. Hey, listen, it's all around you. The only way to get out of it is to stop getting involved in it. Reduce your exposure.It's all about reducing that temptation and, and start to replace those ads with gratitude. So here's your one action step for today to really help you break that down. Identify those top ad zones in your life.We kind of talked about this yesterday when we talked about that comparison trap. Today's the same idea. Identify those top ad zones. Is it social media? Hey, if it's social media, limit your exposure to it. Don't become. Listen.If you're just going to put yourself in this constant state of temptation, you're just asking for it because listen, as a person, as flesh, what does the Bible say? You're going to have lust in your heart, you're going to have lust in your eyes. Well, why put yourself in that position?If it's your email, then start to filter your email. Here's one of the biggest things, and I'm guilty of this myself. I was talking about this on yesterday's show.I get these emails constantly, all day long. You got to buy this. Well, why am I getting them? Because I signed up for that nonsense. So start to unsubscribe from those things.It's really that simple. But we want to stay involved in that because here's a sinister truth. We don't want to miss out. We got that fear of missing out.And if stores do it to you, stay out of those stores. Don't go to those stores and maybe put some filters in place. Like I said, unsubscribe, mute those things, avoid them all together.Replace that scroll time so many of us waste. I've been really focusing on this the last week I, I really sat there and thought about how much time do I spend scrolling.I scroll Instagram or I scroll Facebook or I'm getting addicted to this TikTok stuff all the time now, these short little videos. But when we really study is what is it doing? It's all about ads. It's all about comparison. Because guess what?Those things exist to sell advertisement to advertisers because they know you're going to sit there and watch them and buy the stuff. You're going to buy the stuff because you feel less than. So replace that scroll time with gratitude time.Instead of scrolling, just drop to your knees. Say, lord, hey, listen, I know I've already got enough, and help me to understand that.And then as you stop trying to spend money on everything, start redirecting some of that money you save to that debt service. Maybe as I talked about the other day, you need to work on building that emergency fund so you've got that buffer.You're not constantly in that state of financial anxiety. And I know today's been a little rough. But listen, don't continue to put yourself in that temptation playground because you're going to get burned.Why about we pray together right now, Lord? We just thank you right now for the provision you've already given us, Lord.And we have to confess to you right now that these ads, they tug at our hearts, Lord, because they show us the world. They show us the flesh of our hearts.And you warned us in scripture about this, the lust of our eyes, Lord, we just ask that you would right now accept our confession of that and accept our forgiveness for that, Lord. And help us to be discerning, Lord. Help us to have the strength to resist this constant pressure all around us.Help us to limit our exposure to those things, Lord, and help us to really find true contentment in you. We just pray right now for contentment. And we pray for a stronger relationship with you, Christ, in all of our lives.And we ask this with complete confidence in the only name that matters, in the name of Jesus himself. Amen. Blocking ads isn't just about saving money. That's a big part of it, but it's about guarding your heart.That's what really the big takeaway from today is. You've got to guard your heart. So take that one step today to quiet the noise. Just stop putting yourself into that constant state of temptation.And maybe you're thinking of somebody as you're listening right now. Oh, you know what, Ralph? I know somebody that needs to hear this message.So many of what things we cover on the show are things that other people can benefit from. So again today, I want to ask you to share the show with somebody that can be impacted by this.Send them an email, send them a text and say, hey, listen. Listen to this guy, Ralph. And man, he nailed it today. You're constantly telling me that you need this, you need that. Well, go listen to his show.Just send them to financiallyconfidentchristian.com because, hey, this can have an impact on them. And while they're there, tell them, hey, you know what else? They get a free copy of my book, becoming a financially confident Christian.You, your friends, whoever wants to get it, they can go right to the website, get a free download of that, no strings attached, no questions asked. Just go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming and get a copy of your book. Now, tomorrow we're going to change the subject a little bit.We're going to talk about family time and we're going to talk about why money talks with family can be so awkward. So many people don't want to do this. I hear about this all the time when I'm working with people.But I'm going to tell you tomorrow how to turn them into strength instead of stress. That's going to be an episode you don't want to miss. And as I close today, I just want to remind you, you can do this.You can battle back against these ads that are constantly bombarding your mind. I believe in you. Have some confidence in yourself because I truly have confidence in you. I just want to thank you again for joining me.And I want you to right now go live as a financially confident Christian. God bless you. And you have a great day today.