Greed and the American Part 1

The message that we heard this morning by our pastor, Scott Coghill, was taken from 1 Timothy 6:6-12 and was about greed.

1 Timothy 6:6-12
6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. Fight the Good Fight of Faith11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith.Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

It is so easy to fall into the sin of greed. Eve (Gen 3), Achan (Joshua 6-7), King David (2 Samuel 11), King Solomon (1 Kings 11), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), and many other people in the Bible fell into greed. We need to work extra hard to protect ourselves from that SIN. We use the phrase "Living the American Dream" to excuse our lust for money. This morning we learned 2 ways to overcome greed in our lives. Next Sunday morning we will learn 3 more ways to overcome greed in our lives.

The first way to overcome greed in our lives is to recognize that we came into this world with nothing and we will leave this world the same way. A good example of someone who really understood this principle is Job. After losing his children and possesions this was Jobs response:

Job 1:20-22
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

The second way to overcome greed is that we must learn to be thankful and content with what God has given to us. As Americans we are such a blessed people, we live in a country that gives us so much freedom. However, place is not our home and we must realize that. Our happiness cannot be tied to our job, or our house, or even our family.

Proverbs 14:30
30 A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

Greed and Envy are sins and we need to focus our eyes on what God has given us, because really he haas blessed us much more than we deserve. What we really do deserve is hell and eternal damnation.