Sermons
Re-Thinking Abundance
Series: The Way Of SalvationRE-THINKING ABUNDANCE
Sermon By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / January 12, 2020
Last week we spoke about the need to do some weeding.
Discipleship, which is learning to walk in the same manner as Jesus walked (1Jn.2:6), requires the
CULTIVATION of the fruit of the Spirit, but it also demands the REMOVAL of the works of the flesh.
The way of salvation involves both ADDITION and SUBTRACTION.
Both are sometimes difficult assignments.
For someone who has been engulfed in an environment where foul language is common and ordinary,
re-training oneself to cease speaking crudely and with coarseness may be a very difficult challenge.
That person might spend months and years learning to re-train his tongue by eliminating ugly words.
But then, if they reach their goal, they are met once again with what may be an
even greater undertaking: that is, to replace ugly words with sweet verbiage.
The apostle Paul gives instruction on this very principle in Eph.5:29 - -
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for
edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
When it comes to growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2Pet.3:18),
the choice is not whether to do addition OR subtraction, but rather, we must engage in BOTH.
This is what Paul, in Col.3:8 & 12, describes as a process of “putting aside/off” “and putting on”.
We have focused on many of the virtues that we are called to put on, and now for a few
weeks we want to give our attention to works of the flesh that need to be put off.
Open your Bibles to Col.3:5-9a and follow along as we read these sacred writings.
Our topic today is found in the latter portion of Col.3:5 - - Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and GREED, which amounts to idolatry.
Some of your translations may have the word COVETOUSNESS rather than GREED.
Preaching about greed is not easy. Almost everyone agrees thay GREED is BAD!
So they sit back and say, “Amen! We're against it. Preach it, brother!” Many are quick to judge greed in others:
“Did you see that expensive new car so-and-so was driving? How can they justify such with all the
needy and hurting people around us? Yet, few of us are willing to admit, “I have a problem with greed”.
We tend to shrug off greed by comparing ourselves with those who are richer than we are
and thinking that greed is their problem. “When I get really rich, then I'll worry about it.”
But we are reading from a text written to ordinary Christians in a church not too different from our own.
We have no indications that the church in Colosse was comprised of the super rich.
Actually, this admonition from Paul's was not unique to the Christians in Colosse.
Listen to what he wrote to those in Ephesus (Eph.5:5) - - For this you know for certainty, that no immoral
or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
This sin called GREED or covetousness is no small matter. Paul states that it amount to IDOLATRY.
It is such because in a subtle & sneaky kind of way, greed works to displace God by making Mammon front and center.
In the context of laying up treasures on earth (Mt.6:19f), Jesus declares, You cannot serve God and Mammon (vs.24).
Mammon is a word that encompasses not just money, but all of the things that money can buy.
Perhaps no single verse (half-verse) of Scripture has been more mis-used and misinterpreted that Jn.10:10 - -
Jesus said, “...I have come they (you) may have life, and might have it abundantly.”
This phrase “the abundant life” has become so twisted in an effort to justify lifestyles might be best
described as lavish and self-centered. In many ways this text has been used to condone a way of life
that is filled with covetousness & greed and hoarding & personal gratification and indulgence & excess.
The word “dissipation”- - a word that has become somewhat archaic word and foreign to our vocabularies - -
speaks of “a wasteful consumption or expenditure”. A more modern word would be EXTRAVAGANCE.
One cannot fairly and honestly comprehend the life and teachings of Jesus
and rightly come away with this distorted view of ABUNDANCE.
Lk.12:15ff records a very stern warning from our Lord Jesus:
'Be on guard against every form of greed;
for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.'
And (Jesus) told them a parable, saying, 'The land of a rich man was very productive.
And he began reasoning to himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops.'
And he said, 'This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I
will store all my grain and my goods.' And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have many
goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.'
But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you;
and now who will own what you have prepared?
So is the man who lays up treasure for himself, and is NOT RICH TOWARD GOD.
The Old Testament wisdom literature addresses these ongoing struggles among mankind.
Eccl.5:10 / He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This is vanity.
Prov.11:15 / The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.
The only way to conquer greed is to focus more on GIVING than we GIVING and to let go of more than we keep.
Prov.21:26b states, “the righteous (man) gives and does not hold back”.
The grip of greed is so strong that we must not put off waiting to grapple with it.
Some have labeled greed as a DEADLY SIN, and I think they are correct.
The best thing we can do is meet it head on, early on in life and determine to not let it ever take hold.
Listen to the words of Paul in his letter to Timothy (who labored in teaching and preaching in Ephesus).
1Tim.6:6-10 / Godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment.
For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.
And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires
which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil,
and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.
When we think of greed, many think of it as a stop-at-nothing-to-get-more approach to life.
That is greediness to be sure. Perhaps that is a greed in its ugliest extension.
But there is another form of greed, less extreme but more insidious (not so easily recognized).
This definition of greed especially speaks to those of us who have a high and holy calling (Philp.3:14 and 2Tim.1:9):
we are to be stewards (things are but a means to and end) - - this greed is an excessive desire for more than we need.
Have you seen the movie, Schindler's List?
It's not new, it been around for about 25 years - - it was directed by Steven Spielberg, and starred Liam Nesson.
It is a story that is both gut-wrenching and heart-warming. Watch it will a box of tissues.
While it's not for children, if ought to be required Christian “viewing” for every conscientious Christian.
It is about one man's effort in saving some 1,200 Jews during WWII.
Oskar Schindler was a slovac businessman who started out making porcelain mess kits for the war.
Initially, he seemed to be capitalizing on the events of WW II as a means of making lots of money.
Some would argue that Schindler was no saint - - that he was a self-serving playboy who was Nazi sympathizer.
But when the Nazis began rounding up the Jews and carting them off in trains, something changed for Schindler.
When Polish Jews were placed in the ghetto, Schindler bent over backwards to start a new business
making military ammunition in Krakow (using bribes when necessary). He hired as many Jews as
he could and also made certain that the ammo his factory produced was always defective.
When the war draws to a close Schindler finds himself bankrupt and accused of being a war criminal.
He urges his Nazi overseers to return home as men, not murders.
He further exhorts his Jewish workers to flee and try to find their families.
He packs his belongings with his wife and is preparing to leave when he is met by his Jewish workers.
In expressing a very a sad goodbye, he breaks down and weeps, saying, “I could have done more.”
They try to console him, but he points to his nice car and says, “I could have sold it and saved a few more lives.”
He pulls out an expensive fountain pen and watch and says, “These could have been sold to save another life.”
Are we holding onto “things” too tightly?
Are we allowing our possessions to possess us?
Are we seeking security from temporal mammon, when it can only be found in things eternal?
Are we laying up more treasures in heaven than we are on earth?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to grow to have an earnest desire to give more than we get.
Let's us come to know first hand that it is truly more blessed to give that to receive.
Grant us candor that we might peer deeply into our lives
to spot degrees of greediness that need to be exorcised and cut out.
We pledge ourselves to be vigilant, so as to not allow covetousness to take root in our lives.
Bear with us as we seek daily to learn the value of contentment.
Give us the courage to say “No!” to a life of dissipation and extravagance.
May our character as your children become free from the love of money.
Shake us up in reminding us that it is deadly to try to serve two masters.
Let us come to see that our true treasure - - the really abundant life - -
is only found in a life lived in unselfish service to You and others.
Through Christ Jesus, our mentor, our model, our Messiah, we pray. Amen.
