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God and Greed

Deuteronomy 6:1-19

1 Timothy 6:3-19

Do you wish you had more money?
What does God think of greed?
How should we seek to live as his people in our society?

What is Greed?
… the DESIRE for more wealth.
Greed is a heart problem.

So is it only excessive Greed that is bad for us?

Greed and God
Luke 12:15, “watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man’s life does
not consist in the abundance of his possessions”
Mark 7:20-22 … greed makes us unclean and cuts us off from God.
1 Tim 6 … “love of money as the root of all kinds of evil”.
Col 3:5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
“I want to give my love, my trust, my source of security, to another and I will seek
pleasure in something else besides God”.
Deut 6:10-12 “be careful that you do not forget the Lord who bought you out of the
land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery”.
Proverbs 30:7-9, “Two things I ask of you, O Lord. Do not refuse me before I die; Keep
falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my
daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, “Who is the Lord”,
or I may become poor and steal and so dishonour the name of my God”
Mat 6:19-24. “You cannot serve both God and money.”

How should we combat our own tendencies to greed?

Firstly – CONTENTMENT
1 Tim 6:6, “Godliness with contentment is of great gain”

… exercise our trust in God
1 Tim 6:17, “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment”.

Secondly – BE GENEROUS.
1 Tim 6:18, a command to be generous and willing to share

Challenge 1 – Practice contentment
… give to gospel hearted Christ centred mission like Barnabas Fund.

Challenge 2– Increase generosity.

– Our struggle not to covet – http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2002/01/this-presentage-
our-struggle-not-to-covet/

– The Christian practice of Becoming poorer –
http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2000/03/not-keeping-up-with-the-joneses-thechristian-
practice-of-becoming-poorer/

– The Christian and money – http://matthiasmedia.com/briefing/2000/03/the-christianand-
money/