Jesus' warning against greed

Luke 12:15 (NIV)

Then He said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

Greed seems to be a buzz word in our society, but always has been in this world.  Recent examples of extreme greed---

·  People who commit murder to collect insurance money

·  AIG----Arrogance, Incompetence, Greed. 

·  Victims of Bernard Madoff—greedy. 

·  Corporate banking and Wall Street executives who made reckless decisions about risky investments---driven by greed. 

·  Athletes who reject multimillion dollar contracts—greed drives them to want more.

·  What’s the motive behind gambling?—greed.

·  In The Wilding of America, Charles Derber targets an "epidemic" of self-centeredness, competitiveness, and greed, in corporate boardrooms and Congress, and on urban and suburban streets.

Greed is one of those words, those behaviors, those attitudes that clearly points out whether a person is a follower of Christ or a follower of the world.  When John wrote “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world (I John 2:15-16) he must have been thinking mostly of greed.  Greed is a terribly bad quality to have and once you have it, like any addictive sin, it is very, very difficult to eradicate. 

That’s why Jesus said to beware of greed, all kinds of greed.  Greed takes many forms and can be deceiving.  You might be thinking to yourself, “I’m not rich enough to be greedy” or “I’m not greedy like others are”.  Ah, be careful, Jesus said that there are all kinds of greed.  You might show restraint in some aspects of materialism, but not others.  How many TVs do you own?  How many pairs of shoes?  To another you might be a hoarder, keeping things that you don’t need.  When is the last time you cleaned out your closet? To another you might be someone who does not buy gifts for others and don’t share anything with others.  To another you might be someone who has to have certain possessions and a lot of them (e.g. books, CDs, “toys”, decorative things, whatever), even if they are not that expensive.  Greed is subtle sometimes and you must take seriously what Jesus is warning you about here—watch out, be on guard, there are all kinds of greed. 

This warning from our Lord relates to covetousness, the tenth commandment, yet most people in this society seem to have little regard for breaking this commandment and most people admire those who are rich and have many things.  John Steinbeck wrote these words, “It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men—kindness, generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling-- are the concomitants of failure in our system.  And those traits we detest-- sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest--are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the product of the second.”

And Mahatma Gandhi once said  “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”.

Examine yourself, your habits, your life and see if there is any form of greed.  If so, pray and act to remove the greed.  If not, always be on guard against this common and everyday sin that the Lord condemns.

Model prayer of Jabez, but motives must be to honor God

I Chronicles 4:9-10 (NLT)

There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.

In this obscure 4^th chapter of I Chronicles that lists the lineage of Judah, one of 12 sons of Jacob, are these two verses that most people except the most diligent Bible readers never knew existed. Bruce Wilkinson greatly raised awareness of this passage in his 2000 best-selling book “The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Though to the Blessed Life”.  This man, Jabez (we only know of him through these two verses, he is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible), prayed several requests of God and God granted him what he requested.  Wow, what a wonderful truth and indeed Wilkinson wrote: “ I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that, I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for the next thirty days. By the end of that time, you'll be noticing significant changes in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured, lifelong habit.”

However, some people have criticized Wilkinson’s book because they believe that he is using this prayer of Jabez to advocate what is called the “prosperity gospel”.  Prosperity gospel is the teaching that God will make you prosperous—wealthy with lots of possessions-- if you ask and believe that He will do this.  It refutes or ignores the teachings about sacrificing things for Christ, suffering persecution for being a Christian witness and suggests that those who are poor do not have sufficient faith and are not praying for the right things.  To the extreme the prosperity gospel teaches that God will do what man wants Him to do rather than man following the will of God.  Plus, the question arises, is repeating the kind of prayer Jabez prayed everyday showing “vain repetition” that Jesus condemned in Matthew 6:7-9?

Yet, this is a biblical prayer so why can’t you expect that by praying a prayer like this that God will bless you like He did Jabez?  Well, certainly you should pray as Jabez did and ask God for whatever you wish, but you should not expect that God will answer your prayers the way He did with Jabez.  This passage does not teach or claim that God will answer your prayers if you pray like Jabez prayed.  You must realize that God does not always answer your prayers the way you hope.  He answers according to His will, not yours.  God is sovereign and chose to answer Jabez’ prayer the way He did, but did He answer other biblical heroes prayers like this?  For example, did God keep the apostle Paul from being free from all trouble and pain?  Even Jesus prayed that God would keep Him from suffering (Luke 22:42), but further added that this be God’s will, not His will.  That should be the way you pray, asking God for whatever you wish to ask, but be humble in trusting Him to answer as He sees fit.

God answers the prayers of the righteous person (James 5:16), but by definition a righteous person is someone who is “right” with God and prays according to God’s will.  God will not always answer prayer especially if the person praying has not confessed sin (Psalm 66:18), or is not a giver (Prov 21:13), or is a husband who mistreats his wife (I Peter 3:7) or is like the person described in James 4:3.  Indeed, if you pray the prayer of Jabez for yourself, you must examine your motives.  Why are you asking God to expand your territory (expand your influence)?  Why are you asked Him to be with you in all you do?  Why are you asking Him to be free from all trouble and pain?  If your motives are selfish, if you are thinking of self-centered things and not thinking about others and about honoring God with your life, then your motives are wrong and God will not grant your requests.  We don’t know why He granted Jabez these requests, but Jabez must have been a righteous man (he was described as a man “more honorable than anyone else”) whose motives for asking these requests were honorable in the sight of God. 

It is perfectly acceptable to pray like Jabez’ prayed and to make specific requests like he did and we know, according to the truth of Scripture, that God granted his requests.  Yet always pray with the mindset that you are asking for things that will bring honor to God, not yourself. 

Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger

James 1:19 (NIV)

My dear brothers, take note of this:  Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

The late Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN, was a powerful preacher who had a great gift in organizing his sermons using clever alliteration.  His sermon on this verse was entitled: “Tune In, Tone Down, Sweeten Up”. 

You tune in by truly listening to others.  Recall that Jesus often used the statement after telling a story—“He who has ears, let him hear”?  The word “hear” is “akouo” that means “to understand”.  You may hear others, but do you listen sufficiently to understand?  Have you ever thought about the fact that God gave you two ears and only one mouth?  You must listen before you speak.  We all know that we could do a better job of listening.  How can you do a better job of listening to your spouse……your children/grandchildren……..your friends and neighbors…….your co-workers……..and, yes, indeed……..your customers (we all have customers even if you are not in the service business).  Those with the gift/ability of teaching especially have to work on being better listeners as it is our tendency to talk too much! 

How can you a better job of listening to God?  Three ways that we listen to God—reading the Scriptures (Romans 10:17), listening to sermons and other teaching (Romans 10:14) and listening to the Spirit (Psalm 62:5 and 46:10) via your quiet time.

You tone down by thinking before you speak.  Listen to what Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 LB says: “…keep your ears open and your mouth shut….let your words be few….being a fool makes you a blabbermouth….your mouth is making you sin…there is ruin in a flood of empty words.”  James 3:2 states “The tongue is such a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do”.  Amen to that!  Someone once said “How many homes have been broken, churches split, reputations ruined, hearts broken, and souls lost because people did not apply this principle (i.e. be slow to speak)”? 

You sweeten up by controlling what you hear and what you say.  Ecclesiastes 7:9 says “Do not be eager in your heart to be angry for anger resides in the bosom of fools”.  Anger is proof that the Jesus is not the Lord of your life.  Anger opens the door to many sins.  Proverbs 29:22 says that “An angry man stirs up strife and a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression”.  Anger and temper advertises who you truly are within.  Has any marriage survived or flourished from frequent anger and out-of-control temper? 

Did you know that James also related anger to high blood pressure?  James 3:6 talks about the angry tongue that will defile the whole body and set the body on fire of hell.  What’s a body that is “on fire of hell”?  It is a body that has high blood pressure caused by anger that releases catecholamines (e.g. adrenalin) that constricts the blood vessels producing the “flight or fight” syndrome.  God indeed put this syndrome as part of our anatomy, but like so many of God’s creations, they can be misused or abused to produce results that God did not intend. 

What causes anger?  Main causes are being hurt, feeling frustrated, and/or having fear.  Think about what causes you to be angry.  Think about driving your car and what causes anger--- the tailgater, the excessive speeder, the person not paying attention (especially when talking on the cell phone), the person driving below the speed limit in the passing lane, and so forth………all can cause anger.  Why?  Hurting feelings?  No.  Fear?  Well, except for the dangerous driver, no.  Frustration?  Well, perhaps, but is this enough to cause real anger?  You know what all these emotions boil down to?  Pride.  I’m not getting my way, I’m not driving exactly the speed or leisure that I like, or something else that bothers ME!  It’s always “ME, ME, ME, ME……..” that is the cause of anger. 

No one can completely control his anger, his tongue, his thoughts and his listening habits without Jesus and His Spirit at the realm of his life.  Evaluate yourself, your life, your habits, and soberly ask yourself, who is in control of your life---you or the Lord?  

Stephen

Acts 6:5,8,10 (NLT)

Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit)………Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.

My only brother is named Stephen so when I first learned about Stephen in Acts, I was partial to the story because of love for my brother.

All we know about Stephen is found in Acts chapters 6 and 7.  Acts 6 describes his character and Acts 7 describes his testimony and death.  We learned as children in Sunday School classes that Stephen is the first Christian to be murdered (martyred) for his faith.

These three verses from Acts 6 describe the character of Stephen

·  A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit

·  A man full of God’s grace and power

·  A man who spoke with wisdom and the Spirit   

Stephen, in my view, is like Joseph or Ruth or Daniel where the Bible does not say anything negative about him.  He must have had flaws like any other human, but they are not recorded.  Stephen was an exceptional man having all these spiritual qualities.  He was so exceptional that he was given special powers by God to perform miracles.  Essentially, Stephen was given the same powers as were the disciples.   

Like Jesus, Stephen died an innocent man.  The Jews, with one of their leaders being led by Saul, bribed others to testify falsely about Stephen committing blasphemy so that they could execute him.  In Acts 7 Stephen didn’t really defend himself; he presented a sermon about the history of his faith via a survey of the Old Testament.  The apostle Paul must have heard Stephen’s sermon when Paul was still Saul.  Stephen’s words and actions most certainly must have positively affected Paul during his ministry and during his own persecution. 

Stephen was not the only biblical example of stoning.  The prophet Zechariah was stoned to death (II Chron 24:20-22).  Paul was stoned almost to death (Acts 14:19-20).  Jews sought to stone Jesus, but He escaped (John 10:22-39).  Like Jesus, as he was dying, Stephen asked the Lord to forgive those who were killing him (Acts 7:59-60).

Stephen serves as a role model for Christians today, not only for his character qualities described in these Acts 6 verses, but also the courageous and respectful manner he showed in Acts 7 in depending and explaining his faith.  What qualities about Stephen inspire you to ask the Lord for His help to develop and improve in you today?