The One Sin You Probably Don’t Struggle With

All right, well, today I want to talk to you about what is, without a doubt, the one sin you probably don't struggle with, the one sin. You're like, why would I want to hear a whole sermon about a sin I probably don't struggle with? Now, we're in a series of messages where we are using a tool that for 1,500-plus years, the Church of Jesus Christ has used as a diagnostic aid to help us in our discipleship, to scan through our life and find out if there's anything weak, if there's anything holding us back. Just like in your car, you have these little detection systems that can trip a little alert, trip a little thing, say, hey, there's a problem here. There's a need for maintenance here. Literally, from within a few hundred years of Jesus ascending to heaven, the Church has realized there's a diagnostic aid that we can use to tell us how are things going when it comes to our following God, following Jesus. And it's known as the seven deadly sins. And it's no mistake that we're doing this on the march towards Easter. Because in the season of Lent, we think back to Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days of, by the way, prayer and fasting. Jesus did. That's how he got ready for his ministry. We always get ready by seeking God, going into something new. Every Bible character you love, Moses, Elijah, Esther,

they had this in common. They all spent time praying and fasting. And a lot of us want to do what they did without doing what they did, right? And so this whole time of prayer and fasting, it's also a time of purification. It's time of cleansing. We're sort of doing our spiritual spring cleaning, just like the Jewish people did, sweeping out their house to get ready for Passover. We're sort of wanting to look into our lives to see where these seven, and here's the list of seven deadly sins as they've kind of been put before us for Jesus' people, literally almost from the very beginning as they combed through scripture. What are the things that tend to trip God's people up, that tend to hold us back? And as you look at this list, what I want you to do today is I would like, please don't share it with anybody, this is just for you. I would like for you to think about what would be your top three today. What would be the three that, man, they're sticky wickets for you, you know what I mean? Like, what I'm trying to say is, what three are your go-tos? What do you have the hardest time not giving in to? And don't share that with anybody. Just think, what are your top three? And of course, it's going to change from one season to another.

Now, I don't want you to raise your hands, but if you're honest, did anybody here pick greed? Did anybody put greed down? You don't have to answer. I didn't need to ask you to raise your hands. You want to know why I know you didn't put greed down? Because I've been doing this for 23 years, and I have heard so many people confess sin, not just at church. Being a pastor is weird. People will confess stuff to me in the aisle at Home Depot. You know, I have heard, though, I'm like, there's this coming verbal vomit on me, some horrible thing. I'm like, OK, what's your name? That's terrible, but what's your name? I've had people confess so many sins to me, but I have never, I sat down for an hour trying to just, can I think of one exception? I could not think of one time where someone said, pastor, pray for me. I'm greedy. Pray for me. I'm just, I'm so greedy. I could just, I could, I'm so greedy. I've had people confess lust to me, probably more than any other sin. Pray for me. I'm struggling with lust. Pray for me. I cheated on my wife. Pray for me.

I can't stop looking at why. I've had people confess anger to me. I've had people confess envy. I'm jealous of so-and-so. I've had people confess, I could literally think of a time where just about every single one, pray for me with my appetites. Oh, plenty of times, I can't stick to my diet, right? Now it's like a fell knee. You're like, if I had announced the seven, I could tell you which would be the high attendance markers. Oh, I need help with that. And I could tell you that if I had announced them, this would be the lowest attendance, and not just because of Daylight Savings Sunday. I'm just, this would be because today we're going to talk about greed. And I have never had someone come to me with just a hat in their hands, just wringing their hands over or their greed in their lives. And yet, let me ask you this question. Do you know any greedy people? You're like, yes, I do, actually. Can I tell you about it? If I were to pass paper and pencils out and have you make lists of all the greedy people you know, you would not run out of material. I'd have to interrupt you. Stop. You're like, no, I need to use.

both sides of the paper. I know so many greedy, because greed is sneaky like that. Easier to see when it's in other people's lives. You know what's interesting about this book? Jesus, out of all the seven deadly sins, warns us more about greed than any other. More warnings by far on the subject of greed that we should be wary of. Watch out. Watch out. Jesus warns us about greed more than any other sin. And yet, in our own lives, as we look down, why is it one of the least common ones for us to see and think that we're struggling with? There are only two possibilities. Possibility number one, Jesus was wasting his time warning us about things that we don't have a problem with. It's option two, OK? Option two would be, it is possible to have a problem with it and to not know about it, which is what makes greed so deceitful. Didn't Jesus, in the parable of the sower, talk about the deceitfulness of riches? It is the nature of deceitful things to trick us into thinking there's not a problem when there is. And one of the unique singular characteristics of greed is that you can do it and not even realize you're doing it at the exact same time. Adultery is not that way.

You know, halfway through, you're like, you're not my wife. Wait, what? You're like, no. Right? You know you're doing it when you tell a lie. You know you're doing it when you steal. Not so with greed. It can feel like a virtue. It can feel like you're just industrious. You're just a hard worker. Greed can feel like some good, strong ambition and actually prudence. One theologian said that greed is the most socially accepted, even to be praised, of all of the seven deadly sins. It's the easiest to justify. It's the easiest to fail to realize when it's flowing through you, which is why, of all of these sins that are killing you softly, the one sin that you probably don't struggle with is greed. Why? Because to struggle with something indicates you realize it's happening. Thus, you're fighting against it. And for many of us, there's no struggle when it comes to greed. We just go along willingly and have no idea it's happening. And yet, scripture says struggle is exactly what we need to do. We need to fight against greed, scripture says, and we need to flee from greed when we see it in our life. Why?

Because an isolated incident of greed is not the devil's agenda. He wouldn't waste his time just trying to get you to be a little greedy. The purpose of the seven deadly sins is that it's going to help us to get better at dealing with all sin. Why? Because these seven uniquely have a way of multiplying other sinful activities in our lives once the gateway drug is opened up. They function as captains that can then command soldiers. It's the difference between an isolated hornet or wasp or bee and then discovering the whole nest, right? So the seven deadly sins have been noted as having the capacity to put a nest into your life once they're there. The devil doesn't just get the greed there for the greed. He gets the greed there because once it's there, the enemy can spawn other sinful things. It can populate other sinful. It makes it harder for you to say no to what's next. We think the devil's playing checkers, but he's actually playing chess. And so we go, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a pun. Yeah, he's just setting you up for checkmate down the road. Do you understand? This is why this framework can be such a helpful diagnostic tool.

Now, out of all the seven, Billy Graham said greed is probably the parent of more evil than all the other sins. So what is greed? What is greed? And what's, more to the point, behind greed? The answer, might surprise you, is love. Greed is just what you can see. And what you can see is always, there's always something under it you can't see. And this is going to be what we're going to be going through with all the seven sins. as we move our way towards Easter. What's behind greed is love, more to the point, the excessive love of money, the excessive love of money. Greed is when we love money in a way that only God should be loved. Therefore, we replace our devotion to Him with allegiance or devotion to possessions, with money or the things that money can buy. So greed doesn't just involve wanting money. It's worshiping money and putting money or the things that money can buy or the way money can make us feel on the place in our lives that only God should occupy. In the Hebrew Old Testament, the word that is translated covet, which would be a synonym for greed, is a Hebrew word that literally could be used to describe the panting of a dog, the panting of a dog. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

That's what it feels like to be greedy. That's what it feels like to want something. Ha, ha, ha. Almost like you're salivating over the taste of what it's going to be like to get that thing. We all know that feeling. We all know that sensation. Oh, to have that, to want that, to get that, that's greed. It's that love. It's not just, oh, it would be nice to have that. No, no. No, it's ha, ha. It's something that makes almost like your heart like, oh, if I had that, then it would be eaten again. You see what I'm saying? If I had that, then it would fill this hole up. I'm empty now, but if I had that, ha, ha, ha, covet. The Greek word speaks of grasping something, of reaching out with your hand, of straining to get something. So if we put these two together, this is what we should be doing towards God. I pant for you, David said, like the deer pants for the streams of living water. Does not the Bible talk about straining to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of you? So the only thing we should be panting for is God. The only thing we should be reaching for with all of our focus, and allegiance, and all of our thoughts, and all of our highest,

that that should be God. Your God is whatever the master passion or controlling interest of your life is. Don't believe the lies. It's fake news. There's no such thing as an atheist. Everybody has something or someone that matters most to them. It's what you think about first thing in the morning. It's the last thought before you fall asleep. It's what gives you anxiousness. It's what makes you need to reach for the tums, right? Makes you sick over, you're straining for, you're grasping for. It's what makes your heart think it could sing. It's a disordered love. Greed is love that's been tarnished, love that's been tampered. Now listen, the devil can't create anything. Only God can. So what the devil does is he always tries to pervert or to change the good things that God has made. So he takes love and gets us to disorder it and gets us to love something that's a created thing like we should be loving the creator God. And Jesus put it exactly that way in Luke chapter 16 when he said, no servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

There's only room for one number one. And if you ain't first, you're last, Ricky Bobby. That's what he's saying. There's only room for one number one. So God's not going to share his throne with money. Only one can be that which you pant after. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. Listen, the worst thing you could ever be in this world in this culture is normal. What's normal in this world is detestable in God's sight. And what's highly valued in God's sight is what at the end of our lives we're going to be most proud of having fought for, of focused on. Jesus is telling us that money is a terrific servant and a terrible master. A terrific servant and a terrible master. Now, a little behind the scenes work would be helpful. Money, contrary to popular Christian understanding, is not evil. Money is not the root of all kinds of evil. The Bible says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Money is actually amoral. We can prove that conclusively because money or gold predates sin.

If you read the book of Genesis. What is God bestowing upon everything? Blessing, blessing, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, this is good, I made a good world, this is good. And the Bible says, and there was gold in that land, and the gold of the land was good. So before there was sin, there was gold. It was the sin that was added to the equation of failing to obey God. And by the way, what was the first sin? It was being given a perfect world with only one no, but the heart panted after the one thing they were told they couldn't possess. What does that sound like? And having seen it, and having known this could open my eyes, and this could be better, and God's trying to hold out on me, I'm living in a perfect world, access to God, but they grasped after the one thing they were told to not touch. If I had this, then I could actually be like God. I want to smack them around and go, guys, you can't be any more like God than you are right now. Well, you were created in His image. You get to walk with Him in the cool of the day. You get to name things. You get to participate in ruling this perfect world. But they panted after and grasped for, thus disordering their loves, putting something else above God.

So money is meant to be used as a tool or a servant to worship God, not as something to take His place, not something to be worshiped as God. I like to think about money like a brick. You go, is that brick good or bad? I go, what'd you do with it? I don't know. I got together with a bunch of other people who had bricks and built a children's hospital. And I'd go, well, that's good. And you go, what'd you do with your brick? And I go, well, I threw mine through a window. That's bad, you know? So it's not the brick's fault. It's your choice. What you do with something, right? Because you have the capacity to choose right, choose wrong. Money is the same way. We can kind of vilify money, especially if we don't have it, when the problem is the human heart and it's always been that way. And living in this world, it's really easy for your devotion for God, even if you have the best intentions to follow Him, to be replaced by a devotion to your possessions, to the money that you have, or to things that you can buy with it, to the way it can make you feel, to make your yearnings be linked to your earnings. But our yearning is always supposed to be after God. We're to yearn for God. Our heart's for Him, right? But when your yearning is disordered,

it's pointed towards your earnings and not towards your creator. And here's why it's so easy to do that. Ready, ready? Here's really simple why it's so easy to do that. Because God's invisible and stuff's not. None of you are writing that down. I don't see any notes being taken. And yet it explains so much of our problem living in this world. God's invisible and stuff is not. So it's easy to yearn for what we can see and to ignore what we can't see. But it's a trap. Greed's a trap. Five things, John, I'm going to number one. There are lots of ways to be greedy. You need to know this. We single out one caricature of greed. It's Ebenezer Scrooge. One caricature of greed is Scrooge McDuck. OK, great. But we forget about all the different ways that greed can strike. The devil's not stupid. Luke 12, 15, Jesus said to them, watch out. Does that sound important? Watch out. Be on your what? Guard.

Struggle against. Fight back. Why? Against all kinds of what? Lots of different ways to pant. Lots of ways to grasp. Guard against all kinds of greed, not just one certain kind of greed. We single out just materialism, straight and narrow, right? And we're repulsed by that, forgetting that the big issue is identity. Look at this. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. He's saying you can make your identity about your upward mobility, but also remaining fixed in the place you're at. You can make your identity about what you can afford, what you cannot afford, what you have, what you don't have. So there's lots of different ways to approach being greedy. And behind whatever you would choose to put your identity on, there are a myriad of different things that can explain those different things. Like what? You can be looking for the status that would come from having those certain things, or for security, for safety, to feel like, I know what's going to happen. I can control the outcome. You can be trying to deal with childhood wounds,

either emulating or rejecting what was modeled to you. The pressure to please. ease, the pressure to fit in, to conform. You don't necessarily feel a calling or a conviction about this certain school, but your kid's got to go into it. Because why? Everybody does, who's anybody, right? This is how it's done. This is how it's done in my family. I've got to play that game. The problem is what you're setting your heart on. Psalm 62 10 says, when riches increase in your life, just don't set your heart on them. We vilify riches then, especially, like I said, when we don't have them, because we think it's just as simple as, well, if you have or if you don't have, and if you have, you can be greedy. Therefore, I'm not greedy because I don't have anything. Do you know you can be greedy without having anything? You can set your heart on what you don't have because you wish you did, right? And similarly, on the flip side of that, you can have a whole lot that God's entrusted to you, and you can use it to push forward God's kingdom and have a lot, but not have a lot that you have. Have you. The issue is, what are you setting your heart on? And there's lots of different ways to be greedy. Simplicity, which should be a goal for all of us

to not get entangled, to not have a lot weighing us down, not have a lot slowing us down in the race of faith, can weirdly become almost like this inverse obsession and a different kind of idolatry. And in this day, I would say there's almost like this holy grail of asceticism, of almost like simplicity and minimalism. And just like the person who's just chronically purchasing to one up, one up, one up, one up, one up, and keep up with the Jones, so it can be the opposite. Oh, I only have three shirts, and I wear a uniform, and I Marie Kondo'd everything, right? I only have stuff which brings me joy. I live in my, it's almost like you're now weirdly arrogant because, but again, your identity is still being based on your possessions or the lack thereof, you see what I'm saying? So we're not talking about asceticism. We're not talking about materialism, because you're just shifting one idol off the seat and putting a new idol up there. The key is bowing down to the Lord Jesus Christ and then honoring Him and worshiping Him with the resources in your hand and not trading one idol for it. There's lots of different ways to be greedy. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God. He just said, seek first the kingdom of God. So He doesn't want to be second or third or 55th, right? So there's so many different, the point is there's so many different numbers that would love to take that primary place.

Lots of different ways to be greedy. And the devil, of course, loves it when you put a caricature on any sin. So then you can comfort yourself. The greed looks like somebody else. It's not me. It's somebody else, because that picture, you never draw yourself when you draw the picture, is the point. It's a trap. Greed's a trap. Number two, more will never be enough. Take this down. Greed always says more. No one pants over what they have. They pant over what they don't have. The moment we open the package and get the dopamine hit from it, that's not exciting anymore. But the thought of another package coming, well, that's highly exciting. More, though, will never be enough. One theologian said, our addiction to more is like trying to fill up the Grand Canyon with marbles. It will never be enough. In fact, Thomas Aquinas described greed as the desire for profit which knows no limit. It knows no limit. There are two sources of unhappiness in this world. The first is not getting what you want. The second, getting it.

And these things that we hope can make us whole can never deliver. See also the entire book of Ecclesiastes, where the richest man who ever lived looked to wine, and women, and work, and wealth, and wisdom. And he said, I've tried it all. I've done it all. I've slept with 1,000 people. Nothing, nothing fills up my Grand Canyon, no matter how many marbles I throw in. So more. Let me fast forward you 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40, more years of leveling up, of side quests, of getting to that final end boss. You're going to get there, and you're going to find out it was just a false top, and there's a whole other level you didn't even know about. And so now, even right now, you're kind of confused because you're making the amount of money that at a previous point in your life, you said, if you had that, you'd be good. You could stop. You could relax. You could relax. You could chill. You could actually. But it just moves, doesn't it? It just jumps up. You didn't realize there was a whole new level to actually aspire to.

You will never reach the end of more. It's a trap. And then number. Three, you can't take it with you. You can't take it with you. So right now, everything seems so important because we can see it. But listen, the moment you die, everything that you're ignoring becomes visible to you. Heaven, hell, God, angels, demons, and you will look back on your life differently. Because what we're living for in the here and now, it's like Monopoly. It feels great to win a Monopoly, but then it's all over and it's short-lived because everything goes back in the box at the end of the game. And so it is in this world. Only the things you get don't go in the box, you go in the box. And the things that you got, all your prizes and shiny stuff, they get fought over or dropped off at goodwill. Think about it. That's true for the 107 articles of clothing the average American has in their closet. Someone's going to go, can you believe they ever thought this was cool? They'll go, oh, I always wanted that. Actually, it is cool. Or it gets dropped off at the Salvation Army. Everything that you live for now, need now, all the important stuff, it doesn't go with you.

The pharaohs tried it. The Egyptians tried it. They were like, bury me with all my toys. And then 1,000 years goes by, and the British archaeologists pop into King Tut's tomb. Homie hadn't been playing with nothing. It was all just because where he went, he could bring nothing. That's what the Bible says, 1 Timothy chapter 6. Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world. And we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. I was there for the birth of all five of my children. And none of them, not a single one of them, had a wallet or a purse. They did not bring anything. They didn't go, dad, let's go Dutch on the birth. Well, I'll cover half of this. No, they had nothing. And I have been present at the death as a pastor in hospital rooms lots of different times, my own family, watched people die, and nothing goes with them. My father, you know what he left? It all. My daughter, you know what she left? It all. You don't get to take anything with you,

just what you send on ahead with wisdom into God's hands in heaven. And the greatest, most foolish mistake you can make in this world is to die rich on earth, but poor towards God. Number four, it's a trap. You'll miss out on the best parts of life. Living a greedy life will cause you to miss out on what actually is the best part of life. I know we get warned a lot about doom scrolling, right? We're warned enough about dream scrolling. Doom scrolling, oh, look how bad politics in the war in this opinion is. Oh, man, it's just going down this toxic black hole of horrible things that are happening, right? But how about dream scrolling on Zillow every time you take a trip? You're like, oh, I wonder if we get a second place here. I wonder if we get a third place. What does real estate cost here? You're just lying in bed just fantasizing about the house you want? Or on Howes, dream decorations and more stuff, more things. Oh, if I had this, if I had, or, you know, I know we talk a lot about porn, rightly. How about shoe porn? How about purse porn? How about rifle porn or ski porn? How about boat porn, right? How about this?

We did the dream scrolling. What are we doing? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. If I could have that, if I could have that. What are we doing? What are we doing while we're dream scrolling? We're missing out on the best parts of life, which are not things, ladies and gentlemen. They are people. They are relationships. They are right there in front of you right now while you work so hard and are never present to get a better life for the people whose life is passing by in front of you. And you're missing it. Because you and I are so focused on the next thing, on the next thing, on the next thing. The deceitfulness of riches can help us to desecrate the imago dei, the image of God, which is put inside of only people. Not any other created thing has been trusted with God's actual image and likeness, but only in man. So while we ignore the image of God in the people in our lives, the people that are around us for the things, we're doing what Romans 1 says we're doing. We're ignoring God, and we're not thankful, and we end up turning created things into things that can take his place. And then it opens us up to all these other sins.

Read Romans 1. It opens up all these other sins once we're not acknowledging God as our creator and then his image in the people around us. Not one person in 1,000 interviewed at the end of their life when asked, what would I do differently if I could go back and get my 40s back, go back and get my 30s back, go back and get my life back, not one of them is going to say, I wish I could go back and get more money. Not one person in 1,000 on their deathbed looking, auditing their regrets is going to go, gosh, I just wish I could just go buy something. If I could get out of this hospital bed and move my legs and take off this diaper, would I go and buy? Would I go and take an expensive trip and post a selfie in a five-star hotel eating room service in a robe? Not one person in 1,000 is going to say, if I could move my body, what I would I? You know what they would do? They would go hug. They would go apologize. They would go laugh. This is why Proverbs says, it's better to eat a ramen noodle. I'm paraphrasing. With your family in a shack than to have filet mignon in an empty mansion where there's nothing but strife and hatred. And what a tragedy for, and I'm guilty of this,

because ministry can do the exact same thing, to be so focused on doing, doing, doing, and forget about the being. And you're saying, well, my family needs more. My family needs more. Your family actually needs more of you, not just more and more. And so what good is it all you did for them, but you weren't there for them? You weren't there with them? You will miss out, through greed, on the best parts of life. And then number five, the more you love it, the more it will mess you up. Money is like a narcotic. And as you love it, you get some high out of it or you wouldn't do it. Like, if a slot machine never paid off, you would stop. But every once in a while, you just never know. You know, when is it going to feel good again? Money's like that. And the more you give to it, the more it requires from you, like a drug. And it's sucking your very life. The Bible says envy and greed, they're like rottenness inside your bones. It's killing you, and not even softly. This is what 1 Timothy 6 says. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Again, the issue is not what you possess. Hear me. It's what possesses you. It's what has an inordinate hold on you. Because you can have resource in your hand. The problem is when they get into your heart. The problem is when they are you. If I don't have this, I'm nothing. This is why after 2008 and 1929, when the stock market both crashed in the Great Recession, there was a raft of suicides, of people who losing it all caused them to lose it all. But anything in your life that losing it loses who you are, you put your identity on it. And Jesus said, a man's possessions does not constitute who he is. So don't let anything into your heart except for Jesus. Don't let anything be your life except for God. And so an acid test is to take a little mental inventory of anything in your life and go, hey, what if God required this of me? No, he may not. He only one time ever in the entire Bible told someone, tell all you have, give it to me and come follow me. Zacchaeus only had to give half. Zacchaeus apparently only had a wee little God on the wee little God of his heart. That's a funny Bible joke. But the rich young ruler, Jesus knew he could not ever have Jesus being sought first,

because he had such an agreed addiction. And so Jesus said, walk away, follow me. Come on, let's go eternal life. Let's go reach the world together. He could have been one of the guys. You see what I'm saying? And the Bible says he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. His attachment was too fierce. And as you make a mental list of what if God called that? What if God says surrender that? And you go, ooh, the attachment, that would be too hard. That's God. It's not a possession anymore that you have. It's something that now possesses you. It's a demon named Mammon, and that's got a hold on you. You can't serve God and Mammon at the same time. I felt God so strong at 4.30, 5 o'clock this morning that we were going after what, for many of us, is a God we don't even know is there in our lives, holding us with his claws. And Jesus wants us free. So what resistance would there be if God said to surrender this? Tim Keller said, because Jesus loves you, he'll try and set you free from whatever is trying to destroy you. Schmeigel's descent into Golem came because he was holding tightly to his precious. And anything in your life that you're holding on

that God wants you to open up your hand to is something that's destroying you slowly. All right, so what do we do? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? Now that we know, we're greedy people. Now that we know, we are. We're like, dang it. It's going top three for sure for me. Now that I know, we practice for the end. And every time you give an offering to God, it's a dress rehearsal for your death. Every single time you get paid, and your first check is to Jesus, not to JP Morgan, not to your mortgage, not to Verizon. You're saying, I honor you as first. I'm honoring you as highest. What am I doing? I am, check this out, I am breaking the grip of materialism in my life. Because once my hands are open, my hands are open. Once my hands aren't holding on so tight, now I actually have, I've broken the rigor mortis of it. And I can actually walk in generosity, and of surrender, and of letting myself go, and of reminding myself, I'm not the owner, I'm just the steward. It's a dress rehearsal for death to make it a little easier when you eventually get there, when you do it every two weeks in the wisdom of God.

How much do I give? Because the tithing is just the beginning. Randy Alcorn said the tithe, the first 10%, it's just the training wheels of giving. Now, the average Christian in America gives 2.3% charity. So we're not even at 10%, most of you don't have training wheels on. But beyond the tithe, there's offerings above and beyond that, and then the extravagant things that God can do in your heart and life as he chooses to move you to do so. And you would say, well, when I get there, how much do I give? C.S. Lewis said, I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we would like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them. This is how we fight and run from greed. We do things to a point that they actually cause resistance in the other direction, that it actually becomes, like David said, a sacrifice to God that costs me something. And so that's why we want to excel in the grace of giving because it practices for the end. And then secondly, we need to foster contentment through gratitude. You can't be unintentionally greedy while you

are actively being grateful. So gratitude becomes something we can foster that will help us to tap into the contentment that God commands from us. In fact, Ecclesiastes 6.9 puts it this way. Look at this. Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't. What do we overlook while we pant for the next thing, what's currently in our life today that could be an occasion for gratitude? What in your house, what in the trunk of your car, what things could you actually dust off and enjoy that you presently have today? One pastor used the example of a swimming pool. You work so hard to get it, and then do you ever swim in it? What have you bought, the golf clubs that don't get used or the snowboard you haven't been out on this season? What could you, God, I'm thankful for this. I'm not going to focus on what I don't have. I got a pair of running shoes. I can lace them up and go out. I'm going to enjoy what I do have. I'm going to foster contentment today. And if it no longer can bring me joy, man, there's someone in this world who could find some joy from it. I'm going to get out of that storage unit that I pay $39.99 a month for for all the crap that I can't fit in my garage. I'm actually going to put my car in the little home

I paid for it to have so I can live in the home that I also pay for for myself to have. And I'm going to get some stuff out to some people who could actually enjoy some of those things that I'm sitting on. I can only be in one place at one time. I can only be doing one thing. And all these little things just pulling my mind and my focus, and I'm worried about. And I got the ring alert and the water cop detector from this other place. I'm focused. I'm just pulled in 1,000 directions. But I can only be in one place at one time. How much is too much? How much should, at a certain point, the question actually becomes, what am I called to keep? And then the rest, Lord, whatever you bless me with, I'm going to use for your kingdom enterprise. What am I called to keep? And the rest of it, God, we're going to put it to work towards the passion projects you're going to put in my heart. I'm going to foster contentment. I'm going to embrace restraint. I'm going to use the power of this. No. No. Get thee behind me, upgrade cycle. Get thee behind me, planned obsolescence.

I don't need another $900 phone just because someone in Cupertino decided it was time for me to give another grand to some company. You see what I mean? The fashion cycle is just everything having to change so that it's intentionally out of date. And if you don't have this, you're not anybody. And you're not current. We can say no, and we got to get good at it. In fact, the Hebrews were told, one out of seven, say no. One out of seven, say no. What do you mean? Sabbath was resistance against greed. Do you know how much more money Chick-fil-A could make if they stayed open on Sunday? They're saying, no, we're going to restrain. We're going to say, just because I can, doesn't mean I have to. I don't have to say yes automatically because there's an opportunity. I don't have to go to every time someone requests me to come in and speak. I don't have to say yes every time someone asks me to write a book. I can say no. I don't have to upgrade. I don't have to do it. I can, Rick Warren put it this way, I can admire but not acquire. We feel like, once I admire it, well, I got to give it.

You got one. I got to give it. I need to get one also. I got to get one too. Wait, we just immediately think, because one-click settings is from the pit of hell. I'm just at one-click, bye. It's already there. Hear that? That little chime, app, oh, I already got it. Weird, already done. I admired it. No, I acquired it. No, no. What if we could admire something and then walk away and not acquire it? There's the embracing of restraint. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. And then lastly, we close here, fight fear with focus on eternal things. This is how we're going to overcome greed. We're going to fight and flee. We're going to fight fear with focus on eternal things. Jesus linked fear and finances in Luke 12. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Provide for yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It's ironic that money is the one thing that we print with the words, in God we trust, on it. Maybe it's kind of eerily prophetic and accurate. But you cannot trust in both God and money. You cannot trust in money as God, but then not be afraid when the volatility of the market and ebbs and flows, and even the fears of, even if I set it up just right, who knows if my son's son's son will be a moron and squander it all, right? This worshiping of money, it's uncertain riches. Do not set your hope on uncertain riches. And if I'm honest, so much of my anxiety when it comes to money comes down to fear. And I'm afraid, and rightly so, if what I'm elevating and exalting is my ability to control and work hard. And so what do we need to do? Jesus' advice is so weird. As always, it tends to be, but then it's right. It's exactly like, it's like, not on my bingo card, but what I needed. So when we're all worried about money, he's like, do you guys notice those birds over there? I'm like, come on, hippie. Jesus, get out of here. What are you doing? I'm worried about the market. I'm worried about this.

He's like, yeah, but do you notice those birds? Oh, man, look at them chirping. I always laugh about that verse in the Bible because my wife, Jenny, when she was in high school, she was failing econ, and her teacher pulled her to the side and said, you're not meant for this class. You should drop out. And so she took bird study instead and graduated with that as the credit instead of econ. So she's not much for talking about Roth IRA and 401K, but she'll tell you it's a magpie from like a mile away. She just immediately knows. And yet, didn't Jesus say, life is more than food. The body is more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They don't sow. They don't reap. They have no storeroom or barn, but God feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than birds? So babe, I guess you are on to something because some of the best financial advice we can do when we're feeling fear, when we're feeling that control, is to see how good of a job God is doing running this universe. He did it real good before you got here. He's going to do it real good after you're gone. But only the treasure we trust to Him, the lives we give to Him, are going to lead to a future that we're going to look at and be proud of, where we don't die rich on Earth, but poor towards God.

And yet, God, we realize as we close in prayer now that we know we need your help for this to happen. We don't fight against flesh and blood, but spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. And we realize, God, we cannot uproot the idol of man and on our own. We need your help. And some of you, even right now, you feel so much resistance. You feel so much hopelessness almost. That's the enemy. Jesus speaks a better word. If you're here and you would say, I need to open my hands up, even right now, just open your hands up and say, God, I believe. God, I trust you. Jesus, I invite you into how I think about money. Jesus, I invite you to take the place of preeminence in my heart and in my life. Come on, right now, just tell him he's worthy. Tell him there's no one like him. Tell him he's the most. Tell him he's the best. Tell him he's holy. Tell him he's worthy. Jesus, we love you. We trust you. God, we plead your blood over our hearts. We plead your blood over our lives. We don't want to waste this life you've given to us. So we repent, God.

We turn from sin. We turn to you again in faith. Help us, God. If you're the Lord of our lives, you need to be the Lord of our finances, too. So we come against the spirit of the age, the spirit of greed, in the mighty name of Jesus. You are our life in the length of our days. If you're here and you've never trusted Jesus for salvation, to be your Lord, to be your Savior, I invite you to make the most important decision of your entire life, trusting Him, inviting Him into your heart. You don't have to die and hear God say, you fool. You can choose wisely to invite Jesus to save you. I'm going to pray a prayer. I want you to pray it out loud after me if you're turning from your sins today. Church, pray it with us. Say, dear God, I know I'm a sinner and I can't fix myself, but I believe you can because of Jesus, because of His cross and resurrection. Come into my heart. Make it your home. Thank you for new life. I give you mine. In Jesus' name.