Greed: The Heart Revealed Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Greed says, I want more. Greed, it's the first of the seven snares of the enemy that Erwin Lutzer is exposing. It lies like a serpent within our souls. And to learn how to break the power of greed in your life, stay with us.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, an entire sector of our economy is based on greed and that's the stock market. It's tough to combat what's essentially a national way of living.

Well, Dave, you've raised a very interesting point. The question is capitalism. Yes, plenty of greed. Does that greed go away under socialism?

I don't think so. You know, recently our economy has gone through a great transformation as the government has made trillions of dollars in response to the COVID crisis. This money was created digitally.

What does that mean for our future and what are the expectations going forward? These are the kinds of questions I answer in a lecture entitled COVID-19, the economy and our future. It comes either as a DVD or a CD and for a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let's listen to this message on greed and ask ourselves, does that exist in our hearts? Is it our motivation? The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed in all of its forms, greed for life, money, love and knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. So said Michael Douglas in a movie video clip that some of us saw this past week. Now listen to a different perspective. No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men but God knows your hearts.

What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. So who's right? Michael Douglas or Jesus? Let me tell you the story of a young couple whom I shall call Paul and Judy. They married in their 20s and from all accounts as Christians were destined for a happy relationship. They lived in an apartment for about two years and then afterwards they decided to get some equity into a home and so based on a loan taken from Paul's father they bought a house. But because their house was far from where they worked they needed another car and rather than buy an old clunker which might have served their purposes they decided to get a pretty good one because Paul was expected to receive a salary increase.

The problem is that their new house also needed furniture and rather than look at the ads where they could have bought something cheap they decided to buy something more expensive because the store from which they purchased it said that no payments are needed until next year. But when Julie's job terminated they began to get into some financial arguments because they could not meet their bills and when she became pregnant by then they were already putting their groceries on a credit card and unknown to Julie Paul was secretly getting some loans to keep her from the weight and the burden of their financial squeeze. What she didn't know is that in addition to getting some secret loans he also began to do some gambling particularly in the realm of sports hoping that he would be able to get back some of the money that he desperately needed to pay all of the bills that were coming in. When all this came to the surface and was exposed they had many, many arguments and Julie wondered whether she could ever trust her husband again. What went wrong?

Why is it that a marriage that was destined for happiness almost came to the end so tragically? Well first of all Julie and Paul bless them. They decided that they would not depend upon God to meet their needs but rather they would borrow money for what they wanted rather than simply for what they needed and so they said to themselves we're going to borrow money rather than trust God's provision. Years ago before credit was invented and I don't know at whose feet we should leave that particular invention but years ago people actually had to trust God and they would say to themselves we're going to save money and we're going to pay for whatever it is that we have and if we do not have enough money to buy it we will simply assume that God does not want us to have it and the will of God was often found by either the funds that were available or the funds that were not available.

All those days of course are gone. Few people pray about these things anymore because all that you need to do is to have a credit card and you don't have to ask God. You can have it today and pay for it tomorrow. In fact all kinds of companies are glad to give you cards like that. Now of course I think it is okay to borrow money for items that appreciate in value such as a home. If some of us didn't borrow money we never would live in a home but when you borrow money for those depreciating items oftentimes those bills at high rates of interest begin to come in so quickly and almost always we underestimate our ability to pay them back.

My wife and I especially when we were first married we discovered that there is such a thing as a wise loan that's paid off in a timely fashion and an unwise loan. There are those other kinds that all of us at times have taken. You know what some of you need to do? Remember as children you always wanted to play doctor. I recommend that some of you do that. Maybe it's getting in touch with your inner child but play doctor. Take those credit cards and perform plastic surgery. Try it you'll like it.

Cut them up into as many bits as those scissors allow. The curse of debt. The devil, debt, and dirt are all kissing cousins. That's the first mistake they made. The second mistake they made is that their greed led to other sins.

Now as we'll explain in a few moments this always happens. Greed is never unchaperoned. It always comes with other sins.

It comes in clusters. In this case it came with dishonesty because Paul began to say some things that were not true in answer to questions that his wife was asking because he had all these hidden loans that were going on and he began to gamble to make the matters worse. That also was what went wrong. Thirdly, they boxed themselves in in such a way that they could not give anymore to the Lord's work. There was no money.

One day they came home and the lights were actually turned off. So there's no money to the church. How do you give to missionaries? How do you give to God's work when you need every single dime with those creditors that are at your door nipping at your heels?

And your big question is how do I make it until the next month? That's the question. You say, well, Pastor Luther, were Paul and Judy greedy or were they just foolish? I'd like to suggest that they were both greedy and foolish. Greed and foolishness are also cousins.

They come together. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 27, a greedy man brings trouble to his family. If Paul and Judy had had that hanging above their kitchen table, they might have been spared some of the grief that came through their awesome debt. We are raising a generation in which greed is at the heart of consumerism. Someone has said huge shopping malls have become the cathedrals of our society for millions of worshipping shopaholics. And as the bumper sticker says, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Now, of course, greed can express itself in other ways too, can't it? Greed expresses itself in the miser who keeps all of his money in the man who will not give his wife money to spend even though they have it.

They're keeping it for some day that may never come and they decide that they are going to pinch every single penny. You've met people like that too, haven't you? Some of you live with people like that. God help you.

God help you. Greed is a feeling of possessiveness and ownership, a sense of saying I need money and I need things and I need more money and I need more things. And then if you're in America today, there are people who will tell you that life owes you all of those things. I told you that greed never comes unchaperoned.

It's always got some cousins that it brings to the picnic. Let me name two. One is covetousness. Covetousness.

Now, the Bible is very explicit that covetousness is idolatry. Here is a verse. No immoral or impure or greedy person, I might say that it begins with the words of Paul, for of this you can be sure.

How many things can you be sure of in life? Well, here's one of them. No immoral, impure or greedy person, such man is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. But notice this, a greedy person is an idolater.

Oh, very important. If you wonder why the sin of greed is so great, in a few moments I'll be explaining to you why it is a slap in God's face. But notice it says he's an idolater. Now, the last commandment is thou shalt not covet. The first commandment is thou shalt have no other gods before me.

And Paul is saying something very interesting. He's saying that the two commandments are identical. That if you covet, you are breaking the first commandment, you become an idolater. Covetousness, that desire to have what other people have. Eve coveted being like God and ate the forbidden fruit. Lot's wife coveted Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt. David coveted his neighbor's wife and destroyed his family. Covetousness is part of that mix all the time.

Then there's another cousin that shows up at the picnic. It's envy. Envy is that sense of ill will that we feel toward people who are doing better than we are. Envy is that feeling that we despise those people who are better looking than we are.

And for some of us that's a bunch. Envy is that feeling that we despise those who have more money or those who are stronger or those who are more successful in the very thing that we are doing. That's envy. Because of envy, remember Cain killed Abel and Saul tried to kill David and Jesus was crucified. Pilate, your member, says it was because of envy that they delivered him. Jewish folklore has a very interesting story about an angel who came to a man and said, I want you to know that you can have anything that you want, but your rival over here whom you envy, no matter what you have, your rival will receive double.

And without hesitation, the man said, make me blind in one eye. Envy says, I will be blind in one eye if he can be blind in two. Envy. Do you realize my friends that we are born greedy? We're born greedy. I was born greedy.

You were born greedy. We have this monster that crouches as it were in the depths of our soul and it will take over and it will control and it will mislead and it will grow strong unless we do something with it very, very drastic. And at the end of this message, we'll be told exactly what we need to do with it. As you know, this is a series of messages entitled Seven Secret Snares. I begin with greed.

Next time we will talk about gambling, which many people say is one of the worst possible things that is happening in society, even worse than alcoholism, the experts are telling us. But I want you to take your Bibles for a moment and turn to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12, where Jesus discusses the sin of greed head on. Luke chapter 12, Christ is speaking to a crowd and someone interrupts him. And I suppose in those days interrupting a speaker was considered to be acceptable if it was done while he was at least having a pause in his discussion, in his sermon.

I'd prefer it not to happen today. But in verse 13 of Luke 12, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Now in those days, if you had a problem like that within the family, it was very natural to go to a rabbi and have him resolve it.

And you get some wisdom. And here you have a family dispute. The parents have died and the kids are squabbling over the inheritance.

Things haven't changed too much, have they? Some of us know an undertaker here in the city. And we've had funerals at his place.

He's a Christian man. He told me that on one occasion he was actually in the cemetery right after the coffin had been put into the ground and already then guns were being drawn over the inheritance. Now you come from a family that's more sophisticated than that.

You don't draw guns. You just don't talk to one another after what happened. And you know that it's unjust and it's not right. Apparently this man was not getting one third of the inheritance, which the younger man, I'm guessing now, but it's probably right, the older man, those firstborns with all of their strength and with all of their choleric personalities was taken the whole thing. So he comes to Jesus and says, tell my brother to do what is right to divide the inheritance.

Very interesting. Jesus doesn't get involved in this. He could have. He could have said, bring the guy here and we'll have a discussion over it and I'll make an adjudication. But Jesus replies, man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? And then Jesus says, I don't want to solve your legal problem.

I want to solve a problem that's much deeper than that and that is the problem of the heart. He said, how often do you think Jesus said these words? Not often. Watch out. Watch out. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. He was saying that in the back of your question, which may have been quite right and quite proper in a certain context, I detect here that you are covetous and there's some greed going on there and you're beginning to think that your life consists in the abundance of things that you possess. Watch out.

That's a mistake. And then in order to get his point across, Jesus tells a story. By the way, have you ever known what it is like to have money waved in your face, the possibility of big money? You know that there are Christians who do all kinds of things you'd never think that they would do simply because there are hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake or maybe even millions at stake and suddenly they throw all caution to the winds. Many years ago that new era scheme, which was a fraud, you remember people, Christian organizations even gave money to new era and then new era doubled it and they doubled the money based on the new people who were funneling new money into the scheme and of course eventually the tent had to come unglued and it all collapsed, but the Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article about these because it says that people were warning others, don't get involved in this, it looks suspicious, but those voices were drowned out by those who pointed to the indisputable fact that new era had never failed to double the participants' money. That was at the beginning of the scheme and someone who urged his board to not get involved said his urging did not help because he said they could just taste the money, the weakness around the mouth, the desire in the eyes. I've always heard the expression that you can see greed written, but now I've seen it in reality, nothing mattered, give us the money.

Jesus tells a story, it's a parable. The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop and he thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.

Then he said, ah, he's having a little news conference with himself here, this is what I'm going to do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to myself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, you fool.

This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? And then Jesus adds, this is how it will be for anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. You know, my friends, this is Pastor Lutzer. During this COVID crisis, one of the challenges we face is this, are we going to continue to be generous or are we going to be like this rich man who stores up more than he needs to keep it for himself? That's a great lesson. And what does it mean to trust God during the COVID crisis? Does that mean that we'll get our job back and everything's going to turn out well? I don't think so. These are the kinds of issues I discuss in a CD or DVD entitled COVID-19, The Economy and Our Future. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Ask for COVID-19, The Economy and Our Future, five economic effects that will continue, 1-888-218-9337. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. The titles ascribed to Jesus are many and Kyle has a question about one of them. He writes, why does the Bible refer to Jesus as the Son of Man?

Good thinking on your part there, Kyle, to ask that question. In fact, Jesus liked to refer to himself as the Son of Man. Now, in order to understand that, you have to go back to Daniel chapter seven in the Old Testament, because there you see the Son of Man as the ancient of days coming with his kingdom with dominion and glory and power. It's a reference to deity. So that when Jesus used the expression in the New Testament as he did in Matthew chapter 26, there he is, he's before the Sanhedrin and they are asking him and he makes this remarkable statement. But I tell you that from now on you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven. Those around him understood that that meant that Jesus was claiming deity. And that's why the text goes on to say that the high priest tore his clothes because he thought he had heard blasphemy.

But you know, isn't it interesting? Jesus was both man and God. So that even though the expression Son of Man refers to his deity, it is a reminder that indeed he was man. And that's the uniqueness of Christ. Both God, both man joined together, both natures joined together in one person forever.

Son of Man, Son of God. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Most of us have too much stuff. Still, in our greed, we look at our neighbors, note their stuff and say, I need the stuff they have. Greed is insidious.

Unless it's put to death, it will choke the life out of a Christian. Conquering greed takes some proactive steps on our part. And next time, Erwin Lutzer will detail more of the ways we can slay this enemy for good. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.