Greed - When Enough Is Enough Series

Virus – Hidden Infections of the Spiritual Life

Greed – When Enough is Enough?

Review: We’ve been looking at the various viruses that infect and destroy our lives along w/ the antidote God supernaturally provides through the Holy Spirit and His Word.

 Laziness – failing to take advantage of God-given opportunities and abilities. It results in poverty, problems, and pain. Not everyone who is poor is lazy, but everyone who is lazy will become poor.

 Lust – an insatiable craving to gratify and satisfy a legitimate God-given desire in an illegitimate way. It destroys your convictions, character, and connections if not contained.

 Anger – an emotion that doesn’t produce the righteous life God desires. It is fruitless, foolish, and forbidden and it must be harnessed.

 Pride – Pride only thinks about me – it is the worship of me, myself, and I. It is a self-righteous, self-sufficient, and self-centered and the only way to overcome it is to get over you and get under God.

 Envy – to have an evil eye for things you want but don’t possess. It rots your reasoning and ruins your relationships. The only way to overcome it is to stop comparing, stop complaining and to learn to stay content.

 Gluttony – to be mastered by your appetites. It’s perfidy against God, poverty to your life, and poison to your body and to overcome it you must learn to EAT properly – Enjoy your blessings – Account to others – Train your bodies.

Trans: Today we’re going to finish our series on the 7 deadly sins by putting the virus of greed under the microscope of God’s Word – what it is and how it works.

Funny: 3 contractors from MO., FL, and NY. are on vacation. The manager of the property is told by the owner of a problem that needs to be fixed. Desperate, the manager approached his guest for help. The contractor from FL pulled out a tape and figured a price of $900 – $400 for supplies, $400 for labor and $100 profit for him. The MO contractor pulled out a tape and said, “I can do it for $700 – $300 for supplies, $300 for labor and $100 profit for me.” W/out measuring NY contractor said, “I can do it for $2700.” The manager said, “How do you know you didn’t measure anything?” The man from NY said, “Its simple - $1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from MO.”

Text: 1 Tm. 6:3-12

I The ROOT of Greed

Note: Greed is not the appreciation of money or the accumulation of things. Its not extravagance, b/c all that is relative. If you have more than one pair of shoes and a coat then you live more extravagantly than most of our world.

Insert: Greed is human desire gone awry. It’s consumption out of control. It is when we allow ourselves to be controlled and devoured by some desire for material things.

Insert: Greed is the reason consumer debt has doubled in the last 10 years and why most Americans go into debt at a rate of $400 per paycheck. It is why credit card debt in US stands at $1.6 trillion and why Citibank commercial now bid us to, “Live rich!”

Funny: Greed is well described by a gravesite in England. One stone read, “She died for the want of things.” Next to her was a 2nd stone reading, “He died trying to give to her!”

Truth: Greed gives permission for possessions to possess us. It’s a cancer to contentment that eats away at its victims fostering an insatiable craving for money and things. Greed is the love of money. It’s the condition where enough is never enough.

Phrase: Love of money – money isn’t the root evil – it’s the love of money. Money is never a problem until you don’t have any or until you fall in love w/ it. But those who fall in love w/ it end up lying for it, lusting for it, killing for it, and going to hell for it.

Verse: Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. Col. 3:5

Note: Col. 3:5 says greed is idolatry. Greed is to love something more than God

Truth: Greed is the idolatrous love of money and what it can buy.

A Greed is COMMON

Note: Greed is everywhere! God knew it would be, so He addressed the issue of money more than any other topic in the Bible except the Kingdom of God. Of the 30 parables Jesus told 16 of them dealt w/ money. To put it into perspective, there are about 500 verses on prayer, 500 verses on faith, but over 2000 on money. Why? B/c greed is a common problem and what people are willing to do for it is crazy.