Good morning and welcome in. Today we are going to talk about a passage of scripture from 1st Timothy but before we do that I wanted to tell you a story.
In the summer up here in our quiet Koochiching County Andrew and I can usually find a lot of worms up on the road after a good rain. In fact there are many times that we’ve seen them laying all over the highway. We like finding lots of worms because we enjoy fishing all the time in order to subsidize our income.
There’s somebody else on our property that enjoys worms almost more than the fish that live in our little lake, its our chickens. When it comes to worms I don’t think there’s a better meal for them. When you think about it, most birds love worms from the robins to chickadees who deliver them back to their hungry families waiting in their nests.
The interesting thing is that the chickens are so greedy and covetous that when one chicken runs off with a worm all the others will chase after them and jump on them in a attempt to take it away from the other who found it.
Covetousness is one of the attributes of our chickens. It means to be inordinately or wrongly desirous of wealth and possessions. It means to be greedy. Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food, or : a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (such as money) than is needed. Selfish is to love yourself and your possessions more than others.
1 Tim 6:10 – For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Love for money and possessions is a sign of covetousness. People will completely ignore their poor neighbor because they don’t truly love the poor, and many times they try to justify it by telling the poor to go out and get a job or to find fault with them for living the way they do. Remember it’s the poor of this world who are rich in faith. There are severe warnings for those who are trying to be rich in this world who are trying to keep up with the Joneses. As I’ve said before, the one stipulation for me to marry my wife was that we would never have very much money, which she agreed to completely. I told her we would have our basic needs, food, clothes and a roof over our head. She agreed to this and we got married shortly after. Our house has never been a castle, but it’s what I could biblically afford. I never spend money on a $50,000 pickup but focused on the simple things in life, including more time with my family to hand down my faith to them in CHRIST, which to me is the greatest possession I could ever have.
Covetousness is idolatry, kind of like a horse that chases after a carrot on a stick. It’s something that you want and desire so bad that it possesses your entire mind. Its something that causes you not to think of your poor neighbor at all, but a selfish desire to increase your own financial standing in this world. In the church God wants us to mortify which means to completely deaden off the desire to seek after earthly gain, in order to seek Him. Think about how many prophets chose to live a life of poverty and lived in caves in order to serve and seek Christ without any worldly influences.
Colossians 3:5 – Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Ephesians 5:5 – For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Hebrews 13:5 – Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Luke 16:13-15
13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 12:13-21
13 And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
14 And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
Let’s think about those things for today and Lord willing we’ll talk to you some more tomorrow till then, bye bye everybody.❤
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