“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” Matthew 6:21
1Timothy 6:17-19 Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and willing and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.
Greed is the insatiable desire to have more.
When we commit or practice this sin, we are saying in essence to God, “Your provision for me is inadequate and I want more than you are willing to provide me with.”
To conquer this sin, we must evaluate wrong motives in us and be willing to eliminate any desire that does not line up with God’s provision and will for our lives.
Being content is not easy but it is possible. Coveting what others have, or things that we don’t have and want will always draw us away from God.
Greed is such an easy sin to commit because it is one of those behaviors that we learn in our early childhood and master it as we are older. It is simply the concept of "having more."
Greed has driven many people to do wrong things. It drove Judas to betray Jesus as he ask the chief priest in Matthew 26:15 “what will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?”
His love for personal profit and his love for money was much stronger than his love for Christ. Judas was a fan of Christ for what he had hoped he could get, but he was not a true follower.
In Acts 5, the church in Jerusalem was growing and experiencing great acts of Christian fellowship amongst their believers. They were eager to share with each other out of their material resources and possessions.
Out of wrong motives two of it's members, Ananias and Sapphira sold some property and made a gift to the ministry there. They pretended to give the entire amount on the sale of the property.
Their act of greed resulted in God’s strong hand of discipline.
You see the adversary was very successful in seducing them into drinking the toxic poison of greed that would end up costing them both their lives.
Their greed led them to lying, by allowing their fleshly pride to overshadow the goodness and blessing that could have come out of what they wanted to do. But, by desiring unworthy recognition within their church and getting caught up in their lies, before they knew it, their sin had overtaken them.
While their intentions to give a gift like that of Barnabas may have started off with a sincere intent, it quickly gave way to greed which kept them from giving a sincere offering.
Jesus summed up the whole word of God by saying, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself” Luke 10:27. If we are loving God in this way, He will be the treasure of our hearts and our hearts will be in the right place.
He was not saying to us that we can only have one car and it has to be a humble jalopy. He was not saying that it is a sin to have a four bedroom home with a pool in the back yard, but He was saying that those things must not take priority over our love and obedience to Him.
The key issue and point that Christ made all through His ministry and runs through every page of the Bible is simple to make sure that you are putting God before everything else.
There is nothing wrong with having wealth, God is the one that gives that as well, but if we have 4 coats and our neighbor needs a coat, then give it with the right heart attitude and not a haughty spirit, knowing that if it were not but by the grace of God it would be you that needed the coat.
We are to set our affections on heavenly things, especially since that is where the end result of everything really counts.
For Ananias and Sapphira, their hearts or should I say treasure, was on earthly things by the attention and recognition that they desired to have by what they did.
We would do good to consider our every action or thought as to how it will affect us in eternity and not the momentarily pay off.
Hold Fast,
-Bren
Brenda Parson is a longtime contributor to your Tate Record Church Page.
