Love Crucifies Greed

At the top of the list of the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is love. But as simple and cliché as it sounds, love is one of the most difficult fruits to embody. And what most often prevents us from loving others well is greed. One of the seven deadly sins, and one of the most difficult sins to free ourselves from, greed prevents us from loving others and serving God sacrificially. We express our greed either by hoarding our resources, ignoring those in need, or controlling what we get in return for our generosity. To combat the greed that naturally grows inside of our hearts, we must learn to submit ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit. By acknowledging our weakness, and by pursuing self-sacrifice, we allow God to grow the fruit of love within us.

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 Everything changed when our church Found its villain.

If you’re new to our story, our church clarified its vision in late 2022. Who was there, I’d love for you to raise your hand, when our vision statement was, we are passionately pursuing the life and lifestyle of Christ in Queen Creek. Yes, my wife was certainly there. I see a few hands in the room. You could tell that, I guess, supposedly didn’t really work.

We simplified our vision. I realized, maybe let’s just make it into six. Words and so we spent 10 weeks talking about what does it mean if we just become formed by Jesus together For others and we did this in preparation for moving into this space and so in the early of 2023 We kind of showed you along with that vision series a road map of where our church would go for the next three years We said we’re going to embody nine practices of Jesus that counter what the world So we said to be formed by Jesus in 2023, we’re going to practice Sabbath scripture and simplicity.

Then we said, okay, great. Now let’s make friends and love other people. Let’s do this together thing in 2024. And so we focused on hospitality, peacemaking, and generosity. And this year, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but now we’re entering into the zone of being for others. Of really sacrificing for the sake of the mission.

And our three practices this year so far are fasting, praying, and witnessing. And so at the end of 2023 though, it felt like we were truly on the verge of momentum, but I sensed that something was missing. See, a compelling vision needs a clear villain. And so to start 2024, we didn’t make a major announcement, we just subtly added the villain to our vision.

Instead of just saying, formed by Jesus together for others, we complicated it a little bit, but I think for the better. We said, no, our passion is to make not attenders, but disciples who reorient their lives to be formed by Jesus together for others. And that was a subtle shift. We didn’t announce this.

We didn’t say, Hey, we’re adding to our vision. We just kind of slowly put it up on our banners. We put it up on our website and people started asking questions. And this subtle shift though, really seemed to help deepen our understanding of what we’re after. And truly what a disciple actually is, because attenders, they show up, disciples grow up attenders, praise God for them, but they tend to perform for Jesus.

Disciples are formed by Jesus. Attenders, when we come to the scriptures, they come just for reassurance, but disciples, they come for redirection. To be clear, if you are an attender in this room, you are certainly not a villain that we’re seeking to chase off. However, naming the suburban temptation of taming the gospel is what our church needed to see what was truly threatening our vision of becoming disciples.

And that’s just staying as an attender. On a much larger scale, our society is aching and groaning and grieving because we aren’t willing to name the real villain. If you look around, we’ve tried to make ignorance the villain and education the hero, as if knowledge alone can fix the human condition.

We’ve tried making mental health struggles the villain and therapy the solution, forgetting that healing without God only leaves us searching for more. Now, let me be clear, these are good gifts, of which I am grateful for both, but they are not the ultimate answer because it’s not the ultimate diagnosis.

I believe we will keep beating our heads against the wall as a society if we don’t have the courage to name the actual villain among us, and that’s sin. Sin done by us, sin done to us, and sin done all around us. In the words of, uh, theologian Christopher Watkin, he said, put at its simplest, making more of sin is actually good for our society.

Why? Because if we don’t name sin, we will keep applying surface level solutions that never actually heal the soul nor our society. And that’s exactly what Lent is about. Starting last Wednesday, and I hope you joined us. If not, it’s not too late. Our church is stepping into a season of fasting, which we have said fasting is abstaining from food specifically.

There’s a lot of freedom within that. Or, Lent can also be a season of abstaining where you’re choosing to not engage in certain practices or in media for the sake of clarity. What we’re doing as a church for 40 days is allowing God to expose what’s really going on inside of us. To actually reveal the sins that we need to confess.

Not to condemn us, but to heal us. And I’m terrified to ask who has lent it so far, so I will not ask that, but I hope you begin with us if you haven’t already. And so our teachings for the next several weeks is going to be focused on Lent. And it’s going to mean, uh, be around two main ideas, the vision and the villain.

The vision, the vision is to become a person who embodies the fruit of the spirit. These nine aspects of the Christian life. We want to be people that actually embody it. Down to our bones. Lent, actually, I’m such a Protestant, Christian, Baptist, Evangelical. I didn’t even know what Lent meant until like three weeks ago when I said, okay, we’re actually doing this thing.

Lent literally means it’s a season where you’re going from winter to spring, which the irony is huge because right when it hit Lent, like, we saw snow for the first time in Arizona, but everything’s fine. It’s a long, slow process. And Lent is supposed to remind us, as we look at the seasons, that death will slowly come to life.

And so we believe it’s genuinely possible to become the type of person, hear me, who automatically reacts with love, joy. And peace and let me be clear. I am still so far from this, uh, just this week. I was just having one of those days where nothing was working. Anybody else where it’s just like, come on.

So by the time we picked up the kids, we’re still a one car, a family. So we all had to go to Costco together, which that alone requires so much prayer and patience and the fruit of the spirit. My goodness, Costco of all places too, because like it’s a madhouse and I know because you’re all, you’re all there all the time.

And that’s actually the point of the story because I was going in and we walk and we’re just about, and parking’s never great, right? I mean, you’ve got to walk a half marathon just to get into Costco. And so we get finally, you know, our trek, we’re done finally getting to Costco. And my wife goes, Oh, do you have your card?

I don’t have my card. Do you have your card? Oh, I forgot the card. What are we going to do? I said, it’s fine. I have an app. So I open up the app. It forgets my login. And I don’t know about you. I don’t know any of my passwords. I completely rely on Apple. The Touch ID, that wasn’t working. So literally, as I’m looking at my phone, I’ve already sent Jordan away to see if the card is in the car.

I said, this is ridiculous. Like I was frustrated with my app. And then Michelle from our church says, hi, VanCams, in the middle of me saying this is ridiculous. Hi, Michelle. How you doing? What a day filled with love, joy, and peace. Wow. Praise the Lord. In that moment, I realized the Holy Spirit really convicted me and saying, you, my friend, have a long way to go.

You better believe the rest of the time at Costco, I was just walking around because I saw three more of you. And so that is. It’s one thing to remember as we grow, the chances increase of you seeing me out in the wild. So that’s the vision, that we become people where automatic responses love, joy, and peace.

But the villain is the world, the devil, and the flesh. Or as Paul says in Galatians five, the passions and desires that wage war against our soul. It has this power. There is this enemy that is seeking to distort the vision. Some of us have even given up on this idea that you and I could actually embody the fruit of the spirit.

Or maybe you like me think maybe when I’m 88, I can finally embody the fruit. And so our goal is to remind you this is possible in the here and now. But let’s look at the list of the flesh again in verse 19 of Galatians chapter 5. These are, uh, what Paul calls the works of the flesh. These are sins of the flesh that likely you and I embody at times.

Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, Okay, that’s kind of like a grouping, a triad, then he moves on, idolatry, which covers honestly every sin already, sorcery, which is very common back then, it’s actually even becoming common again today. But then it goes to stuff that you and I are so used to, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger at the Costco app, right?

Selfish ambitions, dissensions. Factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. You see this list, uh, a lot of commentators were actually pointing out that Paul could have honestly summarized, this is so many different aspects of sin. He could have said two or three that covered all of them, but I think Paul is here trying to make a point.

He’s trying to show that sin has many faces and it can corrupt us in many ways. And historically. The church identified its many faces by labeling them specifically during the season of Lent the seven deadly sins. Anybody ever heard of the seven deadly sins before? Perfect. You have something to learn today.

These seven deadly sins, they can be traced throughout the Bible. So we’re going to be doing that over the course of these next eight weeks. Yes, I know there’s only seven. We added one for good measure, but they were developed by Evagoras Ponticus and the three hundreds and used in the church throughout history until recent days.

In fact, I find this fascinating. A pastor friend of mine sent me this chart. Go ahead and look at the next slide. This chart is called an N gram. Have you heard of the N gram before? Not the Enneagram, okay?   📍 The N gram, it’s where you Google, Hey, what, uh, this word, so I Googled sin, sins, how often does this appear in literature, in everyday vernacular?

 You’ll see in the 1800s, this was a very common phrase to use. But in recent days, you’ll see it’s taken a nosedive. Sin or sins is not something you talk about. In fact, it’s actually weird. It’s really It’s really kind of normal to come to a Christian church and leave without ever even hearing the word sin.

And I think that’s honestly one of the biggest weaknesses, and I say this in all humility, the biggest weakness I see in the evangelical tradition of which we are grateful to be a part of. I think we do a great job talking about sin in general. It separates us from God. It’s doing the wrong things. I think we do a good job at that, but we are hard pressed to talk about sin.

In particular, sin like pride, greed, sloth, envy, gluttony, anger, and lust. So the first deadly sin that we’re going to talk about today is the deadly sin of greed. Greed isn’t just about wanting more, which it certainly is that. We learned even in our August practice of generosity, we’re going to pick up on that a little bit again today, we learned it’s actually a condition of the heart that Jesus strongly warns us against.

And we learned again, and I’ll mention it again, greed is this invisible poison. That puts you in this impossible position to love, to love God and to love others. If you remember, go with Luke 11, uh, quickly. If you’re a Bible churning champ, if not, it’ll be on the screen. We’re gonna be in a lot of scriptures today.

Honestly, a little bit more than normal. We studied this a few months ago. Don’t feel bad if you weren’t here. I’m only saying this for those who were here to remind you. But Luke 11 and verse 39. Jesus says the following, But the Lord said to him, this Pharisee, Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil.

Jesus here is using a word picture. I wonder if any of you ever kind of like, anybody may, especially during Lent season, let’s be real, if you’re fasting, like, you make, uh, you know, like a smoothie, but then you forget about it, and it’s in that cup, and like, one month later, you open it up, and just the devil comes out and slaps your face because it’s just so nasty.

Just my family. Cool. Okay? So, that’s what this picture is. It’s ceramic, it’s a beautiful cup, but the moment you open it up, it just shows how wretched it is. And that’s what’s really terrifying about greed. You can be an extremely greedy person, and yet everyone actually thinks you’re generous. You can be filled with greed and evil, and yet to the outside world appear righteous.

So we should read these words from Jesus with extreme humility and caution and ask ourselves So, how do we know if greed is poisoning our own soul? Because after all, it seems to be invisible to the naked eye. And so to do this, Jesus loved to expose greed during his earthly ministry because it was invisible.

And the chief way I noticed that Jesus did this was he loved to share stories. So I want to share with you three stories in the Gospels that show the three categories of greed. In fact, you’ll find all three of these categories in all of the deadly sins. Maybe you’ve heard this in a theological Classes, or maybe if you were one of those guys who loves to look up stuff on YouTube.

Here are the three categories of sin. One is commission. Two is omission. And three is imperfection. A quick definition. The sin of commission is doing what you aren’t supposed to do. This is what most of us think of. When we think of sin in general, you did the bad thing. But also, just to make sure you’re guilty this morning, there’s also this thing called sin of omission.

So it’s not just the bad things you did, it’s the good things you didn’t do. Right? It’s the good deed that you left undone because you were being lazy or whatever. Sin of omission all of a sudden really stacks your sin to the sky. But the good news is Jesus came to forgive you and he paid for all of it.

But also, remember, we are guilty without God. The third thing, though, is sin of imperfection. All this means is you’re doing the right thing with the wrong motives. These are the Pharisees to the T. They were tithing and giving and doing all these amazing things, but they always had an ulterior motive.

Let’s look at a few of those examples. So first, let’s look at a story about greed as a sin of commission. This is likely what you and I think of when we hear about greed. The tricky part is we’re pretty good at spotting it when people out there are greedy. And we typically label them as just really rich people.

But let me tell you, some of the greediest people I have ever met are some of the poorest people you’ll ever meet because it’s a condition of the heart. But even harder, I find it very rare for someone to come up to me and say, my problem is greed. Because we think of this person, greed of commission, and we kind of say that’s someone that is not us.

But let’s look at what Jesus has to say. Luke chapter 12, so if you’re in Luke 11, just flip over one page. Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 15. One of my favorite parables of Jesus, he then told them, watch out and be on guard against all greed. Notice the double caution, not just watch out, but also be on guard, which means whatever he’s about to say is pretty terrifying and easy to get consumed by.

And that is of course, greed, because one’s life, here’s his purpose statement. One’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions. If this was true then, it is certainly true today. We are so tempted to believe the opposite. That we are happy as long as we have more. In fact, that’s a great way to sometimes summarize the American dream.

Verse 16, Then he told them a parable. A rich man’s land was very productive. He thought to himself, what should I do since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? If you actually read this in the Greek, it’s kind of funny. Jesus is kind of using some humor here. He says, I, I, I, me, me, me, my, my, my, all the time.

This is such normal vernacular for us today. We don’t see the problem. Then they’d have been like, this guy is selfish. He is arrogant. He says his land was productive. No, God was the one. So notice all of this that’s happening. He’s being an ignorant fool. Verse 18, I will do this. He said, I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones.

Notice the wasteful spending and store all my grain and my goods there. Then I’ll say to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But, God said to him, you fool, this very night your life is demanded of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

As they say, you can’t take any of this with you. Verse 21, that’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. See this is a foolish man. And it’s because of his greed. He thought greed would protect him from the storms and pains of life. which is totally irresponsible and not trusting in the one who can actually save and heal.

See, this kind of greed I call hoarding. Now, we don’t call it hoarding, we just call it being responsible, right? We just call it being nostalgic. I know for me, my wife, about twice to three times a year, we try to clean out our closet for simple living. And there’s like four shirts I will not get rid of, but they did not fit me since like 2009.

But like, these mean so much to me. It’s like, one of them, I’m like, babe, this is when I asked you out, like with this shirt, like how romantic. She’s like, get rid of it. Like, this Hollister, that’s so yesterday, you know? Not even yet. That’s decades ago, right? You know, it wasn’t even cool when you wore it in 2009, right?

And so I just have a, I even see within my own life, when I’m kind of separated, it’s helpful to do this. It’s not just like lots and lots of money, but all sorts of things. How do I hoard? Honestly, here’s how I can tell you if we’re really good friends. If I give you some of my gum, like, that’s a big deal.

Like, I’m a hoarder, like, I make sure you don’t know I have gum, because if I pull it out, I know I have to give it to you. I survive off of gum. I know it’s not good. Pray for me. Anyways, hoarding is a thing, right? But we just call it being responsible. But here, this man, he thought he was being smart. He had this appearance of being smart, and specifically an appearance of feeling safe, but it was only an illusion.

What greed does is it hurts others. He could have used this to bless the poor and the hungry among him. But not only that, it hurts us. It trains us to depend on the uncertainty of wealth rather than God himself. That’s one category. Most of us assume that is the topic. And honestly, during Lent, I want you to ask yourself, Do I have the greed of commission?

Is this how I’m living and how can I change my life? But next, we have greed as a sin of omission. This is a lot harder to find. Uh, it’s one thing to actively hoard. It’s another to just like, you know, forget to give to others. But this, Jesus has pretty stark warnings against. Matthew, chapter 25. If you can flip there quickly again, if not, it’ll be on the screen.

We actually read this just a few weeks ago, and I was reminded of it as I was thinking about different ways we forget how easy it is to be greedy. Jesus shares this parable. Let’s jump in the middle of it in verse 41. Then he will also say to those on the left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in. I was naked, and you didn’t clothe me. Sick and in prison, and you didn’t take care of me. Then they too will answer, Lord! When did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?

Then he will answer them, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Notice how much Jesus identifies with the poor. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. See, this kind of greed, it’s not so much hoarding, but it’s ignoring.

We have a tendency to ignore the needs of those around us. We don’t call this ignoring, we just call it being busy. Especially here in the East Valley, we can feel like we have an appearance of compassion, but it’s only an illusion. And that’s why we wanted to join Church History and the saints of the past to participate in Lent.

What Lent does, it gives us eyes to see the poor. It helps us identify with the suffering among us. And what we have to remember, look at Jesus words. They’re pretty stark. If you are the type of person who is greedy and ignores the poor, be careful! Jesus says to a group of them, Depart from me, I actually never knew you.

Notice we’re rubbing up something against here. When the Holy Spirit comes in us, we begin to have those eyes to see. These people never were saved, but they thought they were. But one, one way to show they really weren’t is they consistently ignored those around them. So greed can be a sin of commission, greed can be a sin of omission, but lastly, and this one’s really hard, greed as a sin of imperfection.

Again, imperfection means you did the right thing, giving’s incredible, but you can really do it for the wrong reasons. Last year, for example, we looked at Acts chapter 6, right, Ananias and Sapphira gave a lot of money, but they lied about how much, and you know what, how they wound up? They died. Right?

Here’s another example, though. Matthew chapter 6. We’re still in the Gospels here because I wanted to show the words of Jesus, uh, to really help make these points. God really cares about the motives of the heart. If not, we are being greedy. Verse 1. Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.

Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. So, whenever you give to the poor, notice he assumes we’ll do this, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly, I tell you, they have their reward. And that’s, I think, is fun.

Like, hey, it’s rewarding to be clapped for, but that’s it. That’s all you’re gonna get. Verse 3, But, When you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Notice, this man, it looks like he’s giving to take care of the poor, he’s actually giving to take credit.

Or another way to put this, he looks like he’s taking care, but really he’s taking control. This kind of greed is controlling. We don’t call it controlling. We call it being wise. We call it needing to be appreciated. This kind of greed is if I give this, I must get that. And it looks like love, but it’s only leverage.

It has the appearance of taking care, but it’s only taking control. And that’s why Jesus actually gives us this practice, give in secret. The secret giving is one of the best ways to make sure your heart isn’t given into greed. That’s like if you go to a restaurant, you see a family, you bless them by paying for their meal, but not telling them, Hey, you know, I have a friend anytime I see him at a restaurant, he said, water’s on me.

And I think it’s just a great, that’s amazing. Water’s on me, man, I got you. Water’s free, guys, that’s the fun part. Alright, but anyways, being, uh, make sure you don’t have greed. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is to give and make sure they don’t ever find out it was you. That’s one way to fight it.

So, if greed, so far, hopefully I’ve made the case, is clearly a villain, then what is the alternative? What is the compelling vision God is calling us to? Well, what’s the opposite of hoarding? Ignoring and controlling. You can pick a lot from this fruit, and I want to make sure there’s a point because all these fruit really do go together.

But chief among them, I’d argue today, is love. When we die to ourselves and reorient our lives to be formed by Jesus, we will slowly but surely see that love has the power to crucify greed. And this just isn’t any love, it’s agape love, or God’s love. Agape love is commonly defined as, quote, to will the good of another ahead of your own.

Dr. Gary Breshears describes agape love the following way,   📍 love is loyalty and commitment to serve a person so that they become more like Jesus, even if it means I give up my own rights and privileges, as Jesus did, for that one.   Christopher J. H. Wright, a wonderful commentary on the fruit of the spirit, says the following,   📍 Paul is talking about not just sentimental feelings of being nice, but real practical proof that we love and accept one another in down to earth caring, providing, helping, encouraging, and supporting one another, even when it costs a lot or hurts a lot to do so.

Love in action, in other words,   📍 love that dissolves division, love that brings together people who would otherwise hate, hurt, and even kill one another.  That is the fruit of the Spirit. But notice this definition of God’s love is not so much about you loving God, but about you loving your neighbor. Now, let me be clear.

You don’t have any fruit if you don’t love God. You don’t have any fruit if you don’t receive God’s love for you. So let’s establish that. But the fruit, notice how outward facing it is. When we think about the fruit, it’s not an introvert checklist of like, love, I’m loving towards God. Joy, I feel joy towards God.

No, it’s literally, are you loving to the people who bother you? Are you joyful around those who try to destroy your life? It’s about others. I think this is a good time to teach this quickly. I might reference this several times. There’s three things to note about the fruit of the Spirit. We might say this over and over throughout the series.

Number one, it’s of the Holy Spirit, not your human spirit. We really set up our groups this week and it was so fun to do this because Pastor Caleb was like, Hey, which one are you kind of good at? And which one are you bad at? And then I brought in and was like, guess what? None of that matters because look, we should not look at this fruit and go, okay, I’m naturally good at love and joy, but goodness gracious, who’s good at patience?

Anybody? And I didn’t think so. So then we say, that’s fine though, because at least we have love. We don’t have self control, but God’s working on me. What’s helpful for us to get honest, remember in our fasting practice, confession is a huge part. It’s for us to get honest and see, okay, which fruit, here’s the, even nonbelievers can display some of this fruit and a good day.

We have to get honest and go, okay, how has the Holy Spirit shown his fruit? Because that leads to point number two, the fruit is singular. Paul does not say, and the fruits of the spirit are, he says the fruit. Of the spirit is honestly, imagine it as one fruit with many different dimensions, but it’s one fruit, which means you are only as mature and dependent on God as your weakest fruit.

Which one are you the worst at? Many of us as patients, right? That’s actually a loving sign to show you, you have not given up control. You have not surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit. But when we do this in community together, you will begin to embody that sort of patience. That’s not because of you, because of the Holy Spirit in you.

That leads to number three, the fruit. I love that he says fruit. He doesn’t use another metaphor. We are so detached from farming, but fruit, guess what? It grows gradually. And it grows communally, gradually. It’s a very slow process. Requires a lot of tending to, a lot of waiting. Right? It’s not a microwave type situation.

And it’s done in community. Fruit often, it can’t just grow alone. It has to have a community around them. In the same way, the way we grow our fruit is by growing it together. Also, love, this week in the group, somebody noted, notice the works of the flesh that Paul mentions in Galatians chapter 5. They’re all bent inward.

You can do a lot of them isolated. Fruit of the Spirit, all outward. You can’t do it without community. So what is Paul doing here? Paul is saying, you can tell, you can actually tell you’re walking by the Spirit if you are exhibiting fruit that one, is not natural to your human spirit. You can say, man, patience is not my thing, so praise the Lord, God, you’re working.

And two, it’s being worked out with those you prefer to not be around. I love to love my wife. That’s easy, most days, right? But loving those who are not so lovable, I certainly need the Holy Spirit. Jesus said this often, what is Jesus pagans love those who love them. But can you love those who persecute you?

Can you love those who mock you or even just talk bad about you behind your back? All the time, I counsel folks who are in the middle of a hard season, and it’s one of my deepest joys as a pastor. And usually though, it’s due to some relational conflict, it’s something in the past that’s really difficult to move beyond.

And my favorite part is when they finally throw up their hands and say, Trey, we can’t do this. Forgiving that person, you don’t know what they did to me. This is literally Impossible. And I have learned to just smile when they say that, and they’re thinking, did you not hear what I just told you? But I love to say, yes, exactly.

Now we can get somewhere. You think you can do this in your own spirit? No, no, no, no, no. The Holy Spirit’s the only way you’re going to forgive them. The Spirit of Jesus who forgave those who were literally crucifying Him on the cross. It’s that Spirit that is within us, that if we surrender to it, you’re gonna have power, not just to forgive them, but there’s even a possibility to reconcile.

This is because of the Holy Spirit. Not our human spirit. And this is a major, if not the major theme in the letter of 1st John. This is the last series of scriptures I want us to read together. Go ahead and flip to 1st John. Again, it’ll also be on the screen. Without the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, You and I are just stuck in the flesh.

John does a great job describing what that looks like. Verse 15, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world. And notice his three categories. The lust of the flesh. The lust of the eyes and the pride in one’s possessions, do you see greed, can be a good way to summarize that, is not from the Father but is from the world.

See, we so love the world that we crave. We are greedy. We want more, more, more. It’s never enough. In fact, we do eventually get to the point where we are willing to hurt people in order to get what we desire. But then, just flip over one page in 1 John 3, 16, which should be just as famous as John 3, 16. John says, once you are saved by the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, the way you interact and love the world changes.

Look at verse 16. This is how we have come to know agape love. He being Jesus laid down his life for us, pointing to the cross. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has this world’s goods, a rich person, something of means, and sees a fellow believer, this isn’t even just talking about non believer here, a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him, how does God’s love reside in him?

If you have the love of God, it will crucify your need for greed. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you want God to work in your life? You put off greed, you confess it, and you ask the Holy Spirit to put on sacrificial love. John, like Paul, is showing us the difference between works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

See, in our own power, we so love the world that we crave. But God so loved the world that He gave. And because of the power of the Gospel, when you and I walk by the Spirit, we too can become like God. In a world that craves for more, we just simply give more. And again, I think the biggest mistake that I can make is to end this message by saying stop being greedy, start loving the needy.

It rhymes. So there’s something there. But the reality is he wants you to do that. But the good news is that you can’t do it on your own power. Galatians 5, 16. Just one more time. Look how this is only possible. I say then walk by the spirit. And you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

This is only possible when you and I walk by the Spirit. If you look at our calendar for our church, all the way up through August, we are focusing on the Holy Spirit. There’s a lot that you and I can learn from Him. He is, He is God. He’s a third person of the Trinity. He’s a, He’s a He, not an it. There’s a lot we’re going to study together.

But what I want us to understand, even just these next couple months, is what it means to walk by the Spirit. You guys know in our benediction how we have you stand and then we have you put out your palms, right? And we say this is just a message with our bodies to God, we’re here to receive his word. I think that’s a great illustration of what walking by the Spirit is.

It’s kind of like, metaphorically of course, walking around with your palms open to the sky, eyes to heaven, and ears listening for the Spirit’s gentle whisper. That’s how you and I walk by the Spirit. And I don’t know about you, but I am fed up trying to do what’s possible within my own flesh. I want the Holy Spirit to do His greatest work in me and through me, His greatest work in and through this church, and His greatest work in and through you.

We actually believe we’re in a time of urgency. It’s the fourth quarter. And it’s so time for us to become the fourth soil. But here’s the invitation and the warning. We block the Holy Spirit when we walk in a greedy spirit. There are passages in Scripture that speak of quenching the Holy Spirit, or grieving the Holy Spirit.

Doesn’t mean we’re no longer saved, that’s not what we believe here theologically. But, it does mean we’re not walking in the fullness of what is ours.

What is it that God wants to do in our community, and yet it’s our greed that’s keeping us from it? And so that’s our invitation to you this week as we practice Lent. We hope you’re abstaining from something or fasting from food, full transparency. I’m fasting until dinner every day except on Sundays. I cannot wait to go to lunch with you guys if you want to hang out.

So pumped. But the invitation is as we’re fasting, as we just learned about last month, is to keep asking the question, am I blocking the Holy Spirit? And this week, my encouragement to you is to ask that really hard question. Am I blocking the Holy Spirit by walking in a greedy spirit? So in fact, I want us to begin that practice today.

So if you’d stand with me, I’d love for us to repent together. With our hands open to the sky and eyes to the heavens. We believe in the power of silence here because it allows us to listen to the gentle whisper of God.

I want you, this is with you and God, to open your heart to Him and ask the simple question, God, where is greed hiding in my heart?

Is it in hoarding?

God, would you reveal to us if it’s hoarding, would you show us that we are trying to trust in what we can keep rather than entrusting your provision?

God, do we need to confess our greed because we’ve been ignoring the needs around us?

God, we confess the times that we’ve pretended to care about others, but never actually practiced sacrificial generosity.

Maybe, God, we need to confess that we’re giving, but we’re doing so to be controlling. Either of others around us, or of you, God, thinking we can manipulate your plan.

Forgive us, God. And may we give freely.

I don’t typically do this, but I wrote out my prayer, because I, I just got to be honest, I don’t, I think all of us struggle with greed, and I think all of us have a beautiful invitation to just step into his love. So let me pray this over us. Heavenly Father,

we come before you with open hands and open hearts. Acknowledging that too often we have clung tightly to what we have instead of trusting in your provision.

We confess that greed has crept into our lives in ways that we have ignored, excused, or justified. Forgive us, Lord, for the times we’ve hoarded our resources out of fear rather than giving freely in love. Forgive us, God, for when we have ignored the needs of others while chasing after our own comfort and security.

Forgive us, God, for when we have given, not out of love, but out of a desire to control or to be recognized. God, we repent of our selfish desires, our misplaced trust, and our restless striving. Lord, we surrender our greed at the foot of the cross. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we may walk in the way of Jesus, open handed, open hearted, and always ready to love.

In the name of Jesus, who gave everything for us, I ask you Jesus, that this would be our reality. In Jesus name, Amen.