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Season 3 Ep 6 - Making Art: The 7 Deadly Sins - Greed
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Transcript
Introduction to Root Like Faith
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwenk and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It is our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's Word, transformed by the love of Jesus and moved by His mission and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Exploring the Seven Deadly Sins Series
00:00:16
Speaker
Nothing is more important. But today we are continuing our series called Making Art. It's our Lenten series.
00:00:23
Speaker
all through the season of Lent. So last week we talked about the first of the seven deadly sins, which I know sounds like duh duh duh duh, but it was really good. It was really good. We talked about pride. We talked about pride and humility. If you haven't had a chance, be sure to go back and listen to that episode.
Focus on Greed
00:00:40
Speaker
So today we're on our second deadly sin and we are going to be talking about greed.
00:00:47
Speaker
So as we're continuing this series called Making Art, I love honey what you said last week that virtue or holiness frees us to love. And this is so true in every one of these deadly sins that we will be talking about. I think this one is a real challenge for us in our culture, greed versus generosity. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, we talked about that every deadly sin
00:01:13
Speaker
also has a virtue that goes hand in hand with it. So the vice is greed and the virtue here is generosity this week. But yeah, this can be a real challenge for us because I think we live in such a materialistic culture, we can't get enough, right? We just need more and more and more. And this goes for all of us. I'm not saying everybody listening, it's me too, you know? Well, I grew up going to the mall every Friday night.
00:01:38
Speaker
This one hits us especially close to home. Maybe we should just turn this off. Last week was brutal enough, talking about pride.
Personal Story on Materialism
00:01:48
Speaker
I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and we used to go to Glenbrook Mall. Anybody from Indiana, from Fort Wayne, will be familiar with that. Literally, we'd go to the mall every Friday night. We'd walk around and we'd go to MCL cafeteria, get the Jack Benny chicken with a side of mashed potatoes.
00:02:02
Speaker
and mac and cheese and and then we'd you know we'd go buy something and that's what we did and and so i do i love them all i i know especially in the winter time i just i don't know it's like i yes just walking in the doors i know some people will totally get this and others will be like you guys have lost your minds but
00:02:18
Speaker
There's something about walking into the mall and just it feels the smell and the feel of it. I don't even care if I'm buying anything, but obviously when you go into the mall, you end up buying something. I think it was Rich Mullins who once said that we like to go to the mall because we like to be tempted. Exactly. There's probably something there to be explored.
00:02:36
Speaker
But anyways, it is. I think one of the things that we've been talking about so far in this series, you were calling it making art because this idea of living a virtuous life, living a holy life or righteous life really is a beautiful life. And as you were saying, we want to enter into the Lenten season, not just to give things up or not just to focus on our sin. We're doing all of that so that we might experience the resurrection life that Jesus has for us.
00:02:58
Speaker
And again, as we've said from the beginning of this series, if we don't emerge at Easter looking more like Jesus, then we've missed the purpose of Lent. And looking like Jesus means loving God and loving others. And so these vices that we're talking about, these seven deadly sins, they all rob us from really giving the best of who we are to other people.
Crucifying Greed and Embracing Generosity
00:03:18
Speaker
And so if I'm full of pride or if I'm full of greed, then I can't love God as I should and love others as I should.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so it is, I think, especially difficult as we're talking about this deadly sin of greed living in the culture that we live in because there's just so much around us. You know, the world is constantly telling us how we're empty and how you need something. You're missing something. And so so through the advertising and, you know, going to the mall, I mean, we just live in such a consumeristic culture, a very materialistic culture.
00:03:47
Speaker
And so it's easy to give in to greed. It's easy to focus on material things. God wants us to know how full we are. The world is trying to tell us how empty we are. And so I think that as we talk about greed, like you said, we want to crucify greed so that we might walk in greater generosity. That's the goal.
00:04:07
Speaker
One simple way of maybe understanding greed is just thinking about it in this way. Greed is desiring. It's not only desiring too much stuff, but it's also trusting our stuff too much. There's a couple of biblical examples that I think may be really helpful for our conversation. 1 Timothy 6, verses 9 through 10. Paul writing to young Timothy, who was a pastor in the city of Ephesus, he says this, those who want to get rich fall into temptation in a trap
00:04:34
Speaker
in a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It doesn't say having money is a root of all, but he's saying the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Biblical Insights on Money and Contentment
00:04:49
Speaker
Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
00:04:54
Speaker
And so again, Paul, as he's writing to young Timothy, is saying that it's not wrong to have money. The issue is that when money has us, and so he's really saying that those who want to get rich or have this desire for money, they love money too much. Some of them have actually wandered from their faith. It's actually destroyed their faith.
00:05:14
Speaker
They've shipwrecked their faith and they have been pierced with many griefs. I think of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5 where the writer says, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. He uses that word contentment. Be content with what you have.
00:05:35
Speaker
And again, he first of all talks about, you know, keeping your lives free from the love of money. And then he reminds them that God won't leave you. He won't forsake you. And so it seems that the writer is saying to some of them that the reason why you love money so much is you don't really trust that your father is going to take care of you. And so again, that idea, you know, one simple way of understanding greed is that idea is it's not just desiring too much stuff, but it's also trusting our stuff too much.
00:06:03
Speaker
and not trusting that God is all that we need is everything we need and Another verse that I think of Luke 12 15 where it's you know, just reminding us Well, it's a warning I guess Luke 12 15 says then he said to them watch out be on your guard against all kinds of greed Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. I mean that's really
00:06:26
Speaker
That's like, wow, OK, like life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. And that's what we're doing. You know, when we are driven by greed and we can't get enough and we just keep filling this emptiness with things, we're we're
The Void Filled by Materialism
00:06:42
Speaker
warned against that.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, Jesus is giving us a pretty strong message there in Luke chapter 12, that there's not just one kind of greed, but there's many different kinds of greed. And your life is so much bigger than the sum of your possessions. You just think again about the culture that we live in. As our culture continues to become more and more irreligious, it's becoming more and more secular, then something's gonna fill that place. And what oftentimes fills that place is the accumulation of material things.
00:07:12
Speaker
And so we live in a culture where many people, you know, they're finding their joy, their worth, their satisfaction, their identity in material things and the stuff that they have. If you remove God from the equation, then you're really left with filling it with material things.
00:07:27
Speaker
And I love that reminder, that challenge, not just for those that don't know Christ, but for those of us that do, that there's a real temptation there. And again, God is constantly throughout the Bible trying to remind us of how full we are in Him. And the world is constantly trying to tell us how empty we are and how we just need one more thing or the next thing or the new thing. And that's a real challenge. Contentment is a real, real challenge for us. And so... Yeah. Well, because if we're not full of God, we have to fill ourselves with something else.
00:07:56
Speaker
And I think here, obviously in our culture, we see people who are not following God doing that. But what's interesting is we as Christians have a real struggle with this as well. And so what is it? Why aren't we filling ourselves with God? Why are we so drawn to filling ourselves with other things?
00:08:20
Speaker
And I think it's that we think that our things and our stuff will do some things for us. Like we think we'll be happy. We think our stuff will make us happy,
Myths of Material Possessions
00:08:29
Speaker
right? Yeah, I think one of the things that would be helpful for us is just to talk about maybe three different myths of our stuff, right? And so one of them, yeah, is the myth that our stuff will make us happy. And so we can easily buy into that idea that if I have the new car, the nicer house, or the bigger house,
00:08:46
Speaker
that that will be the thing that finally makes me happy. And in all of us, as we are walking through life and navigating life, we're pursuing a sense of happiness or well-being. And we oftentimes connect that to material things. That if I just made a little bit more money, had a bigger house, we lived in a nicer neighborhood, then I would find my heart would finally be at rest.
00:09:10
Speaker
And I would finally experience that happiness that I'm longing for. Boy, how many stories do we have to hear or read about where people have lots of money and they're incredibly unhappy. And so I think that's one myth that we just need to be aware of as we're thinking about this particular sin of greed is that we can buy into that myth that my stuff will make me happy.
00:09:29
Speaker
And we also can think that our stuff is going to make us more important. That's another myth. I would say that that's a second myth, that oftentimes we attach what we have to who we are. And so we think that our material things, the clothes that we wear, again, the car that we drive,
00:09:47
Speaker
the neighborhood we live in versus that neighborhood, that all of those things say something special about us. And so we oftentimes will try to fill our lives with material things in an effort to make us look a certain way. Right. And that goes into pride, really, like we talked about last week.
00:10:04
Speaker
I think a third one that comes to my mind, we've talked about this already as we looked at that simple definition of greed, is that my stuff will make me more secure. And so again, we oftentimes think of greed as just loving stuff too much, but the reality is greed can be trusting our stuff too much. And so I think that's another myth that as we think about crucifying
00:10:24
Speaker
this particular scent of greed, we just need to be aware that we can fall into that trap or that myth that my stuff will make me more secure. We try to insulate our lives, our future with our material things. And so that's a really, really dangerous thing.
00:10:40
Speaker
that again I think we need to be aware of as it relates to greed. And you know I guess one thing that I think that I'd like to talk about discuss a little bit here and I think as a listener you may be wondering like okay so where you know where's the line here like because we all obviously we'll go get some new clothes or we'll go you know like where how do we walk this line there's going to be obviously this probably this tension our whole life
00:11:06
Speaker
to not let the want of things become greed, you know what I mean? Like how do we know, like what's okay to buy and what's not okay to buy and like, you know what I mean? There's this tension. And I think that's really, really difficult and something I would assume we just continue surrendering to the Lord, making sure our hearts are right. But, because I think we could go too far the other direction too.
00:11:35
Speaker
Um, where we, you know, you don't, you think I can't buy a thing because it's everything that I purchase is because I'm a greedy person. You know, absolutely. Well, I think what you said is really important. I think we need to be prayerful about that and to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and to be open to, um, you know, areas where he might be convicting us. And I think, you know, taking an honest look
00:11:55
Speaker
at what we have and just the condition of our heart. If we're a person that's content, when we buy something, asking ourselves, do we really need it? What am I buying this for? I don't want to ask that question. Just kidding. They're painful questions asked because they're getting to the motivation of our heart.
00:12:17
Speaker
And so when you are, yeah, going shopping, being able to ask yourself or being willing to ask yourself, what is it that's motivating me to get this new shirt or these new pants? Am I just envisioning myself walking into church and everybody turning around and looking like, wow.
00:12:35
Speaker
That's an extreme example. That's an extreme example. But I think what I will say that what I started doing was just trying to take more time to think about a purchase before I actually purchased something. Because otherwise it's not impulsive. And then really being like, do I really, really love this? Do I really, really need this? That type of thing I think just helps put it in right perspective.
Cultivating Generosity to Combat Greed
00:13:02
Speaker
But I think
00:13:03
Speaker
This is where the generosity, where the virtue comes in. Because I think that's what actually helps us with greed. And like we said at the beginning, there's a vice and a virtue. I know I keep saying that, but I feel like it's really helpful for me to think of it this way. So the vice is greed, the virtue is generosity. And so I think as we learn to become more generous people, we struggle with greed less.
00:13:32
Speaker
I think you're exactly right. Again, we need to remember that all of these virtues are a work of God's grace in our life. We're responding to the work of God in us. We're not becoming more generous or becoming more humble because we're working hard or trying hard. This is the work of God in our life.
00:13:50
Speaker
And so we're responding to the grace of God in our life. And I think that the more we find our treasure in God, the more full we become of Him, then the less we really struggle with materialism, because there are certain things that we just, we look at that and we go, boy, I don't really need that. I don't want that.
00:14:09
Speaker
that doesn't really attract me like it used to. And I think that there really is something about growing in Christ-likeness, growing in the virtue of treasuring Christ that really detaches us from material things. And so the more full of God we become, really the less I think material things have an attachment to us, if that makes sense. Have a hold on us, yeah. A hold on us. And so I think the other thing is we're talking about generosity. I think it's really important to remember that with each of these,
00:14:39
Speaker
Virtues, you know, it's not just that I'm becoming humble or that I'm becoming generous. The idea is that that all of these virtues have some kind of relational dynamic to them. Right. And so we become a generous person or we become less greedy because ultimately
00:14:56
Speaker
we want to be able to give more to other people. Again, the idea is that virtue enables us to love God and to love others as I should. And so becoming less greedy isn't about me saving more money. It might include that. But becoming less greedy frees me to live more open-handedly. It allows me to be able to bless others more, to give to others more. And as long as I'm a greedy person, then I'm going to use all of my money, all of my resources, primarily for myself.
00:15:25
Speaker
And so as God does that work in me, then he's freeing me to actually be a blessing to other people, to be generous towards other people. And so with each of these virtues that we're looking at over the next couple of weeks, I think it's a good reminder that this isn't just God cultivating personal holiness or righteousness in us. He's doing that again, ultimately, so that he might turn us outward in greater ways. And I think this is especially true as we're talking about greed and generosity.
00:15:54
Speaker
And that's such an amazing perspective to see that it's, again, it's not about us. This is about loving God and loving others and rightly understanding that. And I think as we grow, that just becomes more evident. So how, let's talk about generosity a little bit as we close up this episode and in just ways that we can become more generous. I love the, I would say one of the first things we had to do is look to the cross. I think about Paul's words.
00:16:22
Speaker
In 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, where he says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty might become rich. And really what Paul is saying is that, listen, Jesus was rich and he became poor for your sake and you and I are poor. You know, we have nothing to offer God. We come to God with empty pockets and he who is rich became poor for us so that we might become rich in Christ.
00:16:50
Speaker
And so I think just that reminder that we're beggars before God and that God who is rich has made us rich through his generosity, that God is a generous God, that he is free with his love in his kindness. And so I think just again, starting there, that reminder that that's the character of God, the nature of God, that he is full of generous love towards us. As we said in the last one, meditating on scripture, I think it's a great way to grow in generosity.
00:17:18
Speaker
Well, I was going to say about the last point as well. I think it just made me think about how greediness isn't always necessarily with our money and generosity, which we didn't even get into all of that because we were talking about the Scriptures that talk about being greedy as far as money.
00:17:38
Speaker
But greediness can come with our time, with our talents, with all, you know, we want to keep that to ourselves or keep it. So when we learn to become more generous and talking about how to become more generous, we're not just talking about financial giving. Of course, that is one way that we are generous, but we're talking about generous with our love, generous with our gifts, generous with our time, just being a generous people.
00:18:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's an excellent point that we want to be a generous people with our time, treasure and talent. You know, we talked about the idea of meditating on scripture. I think another just real practical thing to do is again, just to ask God for His grace to give more. And so I think in all of these, that really is such an important thing to be doing is saying, God, I struggle with material things as I look around my house or I look in my closet.
00:18:31
Speaker
In my office, God, I just have so much stuff. God, would you just give me a generous heart? Make my heart like yours. I want to live with, whether it's my time or my talent or my treasure, I want to live a more generous life. Just asking God to do that work.
00:18:47
Speaker
in our hearts, I think is just a really, really important step. And then I think one other one as we close would be just to begin the habit of giving. And I know that sounds just really, really obvious, but just a really practical way to begin growing in generosity and crucifying greed is just to begin the habit of giving. And maybe that looks like you as a family.
00:19:10
Speaker
looking for somebody in your neighborhood or your church or your community that is in a tough place financially, and you decide you're going to give that person or that family a gift. Whatever it is, I think maybe you've been attending your church for a number of years and you don't give financially. You don't give of your time or your talent. You're not serving anywhere. Just beginning to give where God is leading you to give. Again, whether that's financial,
00:19:38
Speaker
or certain gifts that you have or the time that you have, I think just beginning to practice that virtue is a great way of really seeing God cultivate that virtue in your life. And I think, you know, this this deadly sin of greed, it would be easy. I'm just from personally, from my perspective, thinking of myself, it'd be easy for me to say, oh, I don't think I really struggle with greed. And then I start to think about
00:20:05
Speaker
the areas like I mentioned where oh I don't want to give my time here or you know I don't have time to do this or that just you know that neighbor down the street who needs help oh but then I would have to do this you know and then I start to realize
00:20:20
Speaker
Wow, I guess I do struggle with greed. And so I would just really ask you and I'm going to be doing the same thing to really ask the Lord to examine your heart. And where are those areas where you are being greedy, where greed is a struggle for you and ask God to really help you shift that greed to giving and to generosity.
00:20:44
Speaker
I think that's an excellent, I mean, I think that's going back to kind of where we started with Jesus's warning. He said, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. And you have to watch out or be on your guard for things that maybe are not overly obvious to you. And I think that that, I think greed can be sneaky in that way, that it's not always obvious to us. We might not always say, oh yeah, I struggle.
00:21:05
Speaker
with being greedy with my time or my treasure, my talent. And so I love, again, that reminder from Luke chapter 12, where Jesus is saying, watch out, keep your eyes open for how sneaky greed can really be. And so crucify it, put it to death so that you might live a more generous life. You might be free to love God and to love others as you were created to.
00:21:25
Speaker
Mm-hmm, that's so good. And I'll just end with this scripture. You know, we talked about meditating on scripture as one of the ways to really grow in generosity.
Loving Through Actions and Truth
00:21:33
Speaker
And this is a great scripture to memorize. 1 John 3, 16 through 18 says, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them,
00:21:53
Speaker
how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, and this is, I just wanna memorize, I'm gonna memorize this verse, this is really good. Dear children, let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and in truth. And I think that's a good, yeah, it's just a charge for us and a reminder for us. It's not just with our words or speech, but it's with our actions and it's in truth. I just think about many times in our marriage, I mean, we've been married for, it'll be 24 years in August.
00:22:20
Speaker
When we were in our first couple years of marriage how a and a couple blessed us financially Through their generosity and we had been married. I think for just a couple years was the very first house that we lived in We were hosting a small group at our house leading that small group and I remember we had a gas pipe that broke I think was a gas pipe some kind of pipe it was a thousand dollar we were sharing that it was gonna be a thousand dollars to fix it and
00:22:45
Speaker
which to us at that time might as well have been like a million dollars. We didn't have any money. And we were just sharing, mainly out of just asking the group to pray. And I remember we got done praying and the husband of that couple said, hey, I want to write a check. And he wrote a check for a thousand dollars. And so I'm like, well, I should share prayer requests more often. And so that was just an incredible blessing. And so I just know for us personally,
00:23:11
Speaker
to be on the receiving end of that. I know that there are folks that are listening that are part of our Root Like Faith family who've experienced that. And then we've had on the other end of that to be able to be the ones that have given and to meet a need and just the joy that comes not only from receiving, from being the recipient of somebody's generosity, but the joy that comes from giving, from being a generous person.
00:23:31
Speaker
And you just never know how God is gonna work in your life or how God is gonna work in somebody else's life. But man, what a blessing it is, just to be a part of what God's doing in the world and somebody's life and somebody's family. And so we just wanna continue in this Lenten season to ask God to set us free from the love of stuff.
00:23:49
Speaker
and to just capture our hearts with a love for Him, a greater love for Him, that we might see through these myths of stuff, that our greatest treasure would be Him, and it might really motivate us to live a life of greater
Series Conclusion and Invitation
00:24:01
Speaker
generosity. We might love Him and love those around us in greater ways and in deeper ways.
00:24:06
Speaker
That's so good. Well, friends, we are so grateful you have joined us. I hope you are enjoying this new series, Making Art. If you haven't had a chance, be sure to listen to last week's episode because we would love for you to join us every week through this series. Don't forget, everything we talked about will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast.
00:24:27
Speaker
Again, we welcome you into our family here at Root Lake Faith. Would you do us a big favor and leave us a reviewer rating and share this podcast with your friends? It just takes a second and it's a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about Root Lake Faith. All right, friend. Well, we will chat soon and we hope you have the best week.