FBC Morning Light – November 2, 2022

Well a good Wednesday morning to you. So have you experienced this reality that is recorded for us in Proverbs chapter 28 verse 25?

The ESV translates it this way, a greedy man stirs up strife. A greedy man stirs up strife.

Have you been caught up in some strife because of someone's greed?

Usually when we think of somebody who wants wealth and money, but that shouldn't be our limitation in our thinking.

People can be greedy for all kinds of things. They can be greedy for some kind of experience.

They can be greedy for a position of power or authority.

They can be greedy for the opportunity influence. There's all kinds of ways that greed can be expressed.

What people lust after for themselves. It's basically what greed is all about. Have you experienced that?

The strife that is generated by the greedy person? Certainly that kind of thing occurs in the corporate world, in the business world, boardrooms and businesses and so forth in our world, and in the workplace.

Maybe that's where you've experienced it, somebody being greedy for something in the workplace, and it caused all kinds of strife among your co -workers.

But the unfortunate thing is that it can also happen in churches. People can become greedy of stuff in the church.

I've been in the ministry since 1980, so that's a long time, and there have been too many occasions where people have risen to the forefront because of their greed, what they wanted.

They wanted to have their way regarding some particular matter, and it can be pretty trivial.

I mean, this specific thing hasn't happened in many of the churches I served in, but there have been churches that have ended up splitting over things like the color of the carpet.

We've got to have the color of carpet that I want. You want red, I want blue. Just that kind of utter nonsense.

How do we get to that point where we're so greedy for our way to hold sway that we're willing to separate and distance ourselves from somebody who just simply likes a different color of carpet?

I mean, it's insane. It's ridiculous. But usually it's more serious kind of stuff than that.

Greedy people want positions of power, and they will manipulate their way to try to get people to be behind them, to be supportive of them.

A lot of times they'll raise an issue that's not an issue. They'll raise a false issue to try to undermine somebody that has a position that they don't want them to have, a position maybe that they want for themselves.

Greedy staff members in a church can create disharmony. Greedy men lusting for power can cause disharmony.

It can happen at the church. It can happen in the home too, where we become greedy for our way or what we want, and then we end up causing strife in the home.

There's that stereotypical thing about the husband sportsman who wants another gun, another hunting rifle or something like that.

He wants it so bad, and he doesn't want to tell his wife, and so he just kind of goes ahead and gets it because he wants it.

He's greedy for that gun. What happens in that kind of a scenario? Well, you know the answer to that.

If you're married, you know the answer to that. It isn't going to go over real well when that $800 - $900 rifle shows up on the doorstep, and he comes lugging it in, and she's, whoa, what's that?

Where'd you get that? Oh, you know, yeah, and the next thing you know, you've got that going on.

It can happen on the other side too, right? Wife gets greedy for a new wardrobe, and so she just goes out shopping and racks up a couple thousand dollars of debt on the credit card without telling her husband.

Comes home with all these bags of stuff, and next thing you know, you've got

World War III in the home. It can happen in a relationship between children and their parents.

Young people get to a particular age, and they want this. They want this. They're greedy for this.

It can be the latest game box, or it can be the latest fad in terms of piercings or something of that nature, and they create all kinds of strife because they want what they want, and they want it now.

So yes, this is a very accurate assessment, isn't it? A greedy man stirs up strife.

That's not the way to go. The second half of the verse exhorts you in the way to go.

The one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. You entrust your desires to the

Lord. Let him give you the desires of your heart. Let him shape those desires, and then let him fulfill them.

Our Father and our God deliver us from this terrible sin of greed that not only distorts our own hearts and our mind, but causes strife in our relationships.

Deliver us from this, we pray, in Jesus' name. Alright, have a good rest of your day.