Seven Deadly Sins: Greed

Teaching text

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 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.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Sermon recap

This Sunday, Pastor Jon Tyson kicked off our Lent series focused on the Seven Deadly Sins, starting with greed. Scripture addresses greed with striking frequency, and Jesus warns us to watch out for the ways greed will destroy our spiritual lives. Greed is ultimately the opposite of Godly contentment: it’s centered around possession, hoarding, covetousness, and comparison.

Greed, as it’s portrayed in Luke 12, is foolish, as it fails to account for Biblical reality. The greedy heart has no concern for others, is blind to the brevity of life, and does not keep God as a reference point from whom blessings flow. Jesus reminds us that life does not exist in accumulating an abundance of possessions. We must order things rightly, govern them well, and be rich toward God instead.

Greed is difficult to root out of our hearts for multiple reasons: entitlement; poverty; status; and even its multi-generational nature. Greed is a lack of trust in God and our attempt at constructing our own safety nets. When we participate in this lifestyle of greed, we have an impoverished vision of the Kingdom of God. In Scripture, the Kingdom is compared to a pearl of great price, hidden treasure, and the bottle of expensive oil broken by Mary of Bethany. True wealth consists of these treasures stored up in Heaven.

To overcome greed, we must approach with warfare to fight it and medicine to treat it. Like Zacchaeus in Luke 19, we must have some measure of financial repentance, and go to war against whatever accumulated our greed. Then, we must have financial transparency, sharing with someone trusted how much we make and how much we give. We also must freely give and share what we have, remembering that the Kingdom of Heaven is communal and bent toward serving others. Lastly, the medicine to treat greed includes gratitude, savoring (or being fully present), and contentment.

As we allow the Lord to search us for the condition of greed, we remember that Jesus warns us against greed so strongly because He desires our freedom. True freedom — to love, give, serve, and seek the Kingdom first — is true wealth.

Discussion questions

Connect

1. What is something that contributed to your spiritual well being this week? What made you feel more alive, more whole, more loved?

Character

Ask someone to read Luke 19:1-10 aloud. Then, ask the following questions:

1. What words, phrases, or specific parts of the story stand out to you?

2. What do you notice about Jesus’ character in this passage?

3. What do you think about Zacchaeus’ act of financial repentance? Have you ever done or been convicted to do something similar? What might repentance of greed look like in your life?

Consider

1. In the sermon, Pastor Jon said, “Money is central and not incidental to your spiritual formation.” What ways do you think money is forming you, whether consciously or unconsciously?

2. Did any defensiveness rise up in you during Pastor Jon’s talk? Why do you think talking about greed and possessions can cause so much discomfort?

3. Is there someone in your life with whom you share financial accountability, where you are transparently sharing how much you make and how much you give, in order to increase in generosity? Why or why not? Is this something you could implement in your life?

4. Pastor Jon talked about the medicine for greed and the source of true freedom being gratitude, savoring, and contentment. How can you practically apply one of these medicines in your life this week?

Cover

Make room and ask the Lord to search your hearts individually. Ask the Holy Spirit: Do I have the condition of greed? In what way has New York gotten to me? Break into groups of two or three, confess, and pray for the Lord to help you walk in true freedom.