A familiar scene for us in scripture came early in Jesus’ ministry when a teacher of the law came to talk with Jesus by night. No one would see. And in that conversation Jesus said this to teacher, this man, you must be born again. There is to be a renewal, a change in each of us. I saw a bumper sticker the other day while headed toward Atlanta that was very telling of the person attitude. It said, “BORN OK, THE FIRST TIME.” Wow!
Today is our last Sunday to examine the 7 deadly sins. Today we talk about a sin I have been holding until the end because this sin of Gluttony is a bothersome one. Gluttony or self-indulgence (excess) is something every thinking Christian would presume ought to be easily done away with. Yet as we examine it today, most of us will see ourselves live here at times.
Gluttony is a very basic sin. Pride was something that tricks a man, after all as a profitable businessman it usually is the normal reaction of anyone who would have experienced prosperity.
Immorality we can even claim was my bravado as a young man or woman. Lust is even attractive. This past week the Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit addition was released. We subscribe at our house. Terri got the mail that day and later in the day said to me, “Do you know what came in the mail today from Sport’s Illustrated?” That leads into the next sin. Anger; well after all, there is a righteous anger Christians even need to have, but Gluttony well it’s almost embarrassing if I am trapped in it.
In Phil.3 Paul said, 17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. “18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
That verse hurts. I don’t know how else to put it, the Bible at times just cuts right into you. ‘Their god is their stomach and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.’
When I was a child I heard numerous times a Bible verse in I Cor. 6. “19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The Church I grew up in quoted that for verse for everything from fleeing sexual immorality to a ban on smoking to not playing games with cards or dice.
Now before I proceed I want to qualify our terms this morning. Gluttony is more than an over active stomach although it can be that. But there are complex chemical factors in a bodies makeup that can contribute to weight gain. For some there is a struggle for many people with their weight that has nothing to do with consuming less food. There are medicines that cause weight gain and numerous other factors as well. Gluttony to us this morning is primarily about ‘self-indulgence’, excess. One source said recently that over 14 million people in America have problems with alcohol. There is probably someone here today that wrestles with Alcohol. I have a niece who has been in and out of rehab for her trouble that started as a young teenager with sniffing the aerosol fumes from spray paint. I don’t drink, but several years ago I had a bad cold and so I eventually got up to taken Night Quil. Wow, I sleep well and felt much better in the morning. I looked at the ingredients and it was 50% alcohol. Wow! Now I not addicted to alcohol, but it does help me relax before I preach.
We as a nation have different expectations today than years past. We have come a long way from President Herbert Hoover’s promise in the early 30’s of a “chicken in every pot”. Remember that from your high school history class. We are not a credit-card society that has virtually put an end to all delayed gratification. We have become a people who claim instant gratification as a civil right.
We are an impatient people.
The speed limit I found on a local Road is 20 miles an hour. The other day I pulled in behind an older women when I was in a hurry and she was obeying the law. (It seemed like it took 10 minutes to get from one end to the other of that short road.) Our impatience, our self indulgence hampers us at best in life and ultimately can destroy a life. ( find Illustration)
Proverbs 23 is the only place in the NIV version of the Bible where the word gluttony is actually use. It says in v.1-3.
1 When you sit to dine with a ruler,
note well what is before you,
2 and put a knife to your throat
if you are given to gluttony.
3 Do not crave his delicacies,
for that food is deceptive.
Later in the same chapter Solomon said,
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
and keep your heart on the right path.
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine
or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
It is not our purpose to dissect the entire passage
but the message in those verses is to not be
deceived by a ruler’s well filled table. The desire for Excess
in food or drink or any self-indulgent vice is trickery by
Satan. Having more of what we desire never satisfies us.
We are always wanting more. Though the prosperous have
Availability for excess, Christian believers are to live
Self-controlled lives.
Proverbs 25:28 says, 28Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” In ancient times city walls provided protection. The man who lacks self-control is susceptible to all sorts of temptation. Temperance is the old term that is the corresponding Christian quality to our sinful temptation to gluttony.
We have a task ahead of us to control our stomachs and we must conquer this sinful nature that can so easily fall into self-indulgence.
I heard about a woman who had tried everything to lose weight-diet, exercise, appetite suppressing pills, hypnosis. Finally she found something that worked, she found a 12’ by 16’ picture a beautiful, thin, shapely woman dressed in a string bikini on a Hawaiian beach and taped it to the refrigerator door. Every time she was tempted to snack she would see that picture and think that’s what I want and it was a strong deterrent to her. During the first month she lost ten pounds-but her husband gained twenty.
I want to give you some Biblical things to help with self-control for that is the only real answer that will help us.
I. BIBLICAL ANSWERS TO A TOUGH PROBLEM.
A. I learned from John Vincent in the last couple of weeks. The battleground is the mind. We are to take captive our thoughts so not to be deceived by Satan’s foolishness. Let’s just walk through some of the things we are going to have to re-think if we shall stall the call to excess in our lives, that comes right from society. Part of the answer is changed thinking, part of the answer is a changed practice in our life. Now I want you to remember some things.
1. FOOD (The object of your excess) IS NOT THE ENEMY OF GOD YOUR OBESSIVE ATTITUDE IS. In the O.T. there were laws for the Jews to observe. They couldn’t eat certain meats, their food had to be kosher. Rather than seeing the spiritual principles behind the teaching, many Jews let their diet become the preoccupying force in their life. In Mark chapter 7 Jesus made all foods clean. He said, “18“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) It the Old Testament certain feasts were even commanded. Large family dinners at Christmas or Easter are not sinful. God meant for us to enjoy his creation. But when food or something else becomes a preoccupation to you there is a loss of spiritual equilibrium that takes place. I know this is going to get touchy here today but if satisfying your fleshly needs or impulses in a priority to you sin in at your doorstep. Food is a common denominator between all of us and we can be demanding that we get what we want when we want it and the bible says when you live at that high pitch you sin. I read from Phil. Earlier, “Their god is there stomach and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.’ Paul continued after that and said, 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
2. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT DELAYED GRATIFICATION IS NECESSARY TO SUCCESFUL LIVING. Hebrews 11 tells of the faith of Moses when it says 24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” When I was a teenager the youth sponsor at the little church in rural Ky. I went to was old Mr. Ferguson, this Marine Sargent type of man who used to quote scripture and I can remember him teaching that it is better to wait like Moses for the ultimate good in life than impulsive choose sin. Me and the other 3 kids in that small class used to think Mr. Ferguson is a dinosaur. I was a child in the 60’s a teen in the 70’s. But now I know Mr. Ferguson was right. If you have to have something and you can’t wait, you will strike a deal that later you regret.
3. PRACTICE MODERATION IN MANY THINGS. Be careful with what scripture you quote here, some have gone astray with the misused of a passage to suggest that God’s counsel is for moderation in all things. 1 Cor. 6 12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Quite frankly some things are prohibited, but other things require moderation on our part so that your higher priorities or loving God and family and serving the church don’t become just a mere addendum to your life.
4. DENY YOUR PHYSICAL SELF AT TIMES. White Castle Restaurant advertises to Satisfy your craving. Yet it is actually healthy and good to deny yourself on occasion. John Wesley used to fast one day a week. He would eat lunch on Thursday then skip supper, Friday breakfast and lunch and not eat until Friday evening every week of his adult life. You may choose to go without some luxury so that you can live more simply or give away more money. Christians must have the capacity to deny every want. If you don’t your life will be tossed back and forth like a wave of the sea. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 13:24 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Earlier this year leading up to Easter many of us spent 40 days sacrificing something to the Lord. DO it again. I want to have a time of fasting. Because we are so attached to this world and the things of this world we need to purposefully draw back so we can see that we are to be lead by the spirit and not the flesh.
5. LEARN TO BE CONTENT WITH SOLITUDE. We are driven today to strongly towards entertainment and recreation. The greatest sin of our society is to allow yourself to be bored. I realize that non-believers need to be handled with a different way to invite them to listen to the gospel, we in fact need to do some things here to enhance our worship so a non-believer can maintain their interest level, but for Christians we must be content in solitude and stillness. Be still and know that I am God the Bible says. (Kevin Federline, Brittany Spears, she is never home at night to watch the kids.)
I have had a good response for many of you with this sermon series of the 7 deadly sins. God can change the heart and we can leave sin behind and bring virtue into our lives. I thank you for your attention and I have received several articles from a number of you over past weeks. I always appreciate it when I get help for my sermons.
One person give me a little story that I want to share with you.
Satan was thinking to himself who he could destroy the world. So he called all of his chief assistants in for advice. First came the demon of anger, who said, let me destroy man. I will set brother against brother and people will kill each other in war. Next came the demon of pride, Satan he said, let me destroys the world for conceit and pride will make man think that he does not need God. Then came Lust I will defile men’s minds. Then Greed came. “Allow me to go and I will instill in men’s hearts the most destructive of all passions. Even the bible says the love of money causes all sorts of evil. Gluttony and Envy and Slothfulness all claimed they to could do the job.
But Satan was not satisfied with any of these plans by themselves. Finally his last assistant entered the meeting. This one said, I shall tell man how fines his own plans are and that he is to be honest, clean and brave, however I shall tell man there is no hurry, he can do all of those things tomorrow. And Satan said You are the one who shall go on earth to destroy man, Procrastination. Just tell man to put it off for a while longer. “
