Avarice: Possession and Mastery
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Announcements
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The Chosen, episode 3, Nov 7
Baptism class on Nov 14
Introduction
Introduction
The house we bought in Springfield was 120 years old and had tiny closets…
It’s safe to say that we live in a country that is drowning in prosperity and materialism. According to WorldVision, 9.2% of the world, 689 million people, live in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 per day. The poverty line in the U.S. is $35.28 per day (18.5 X the global poverty line). Last year, more than 256 million Americans spent hundreds of billions of dollars shopping online, buying more stuff while others go without.
Today we’re going to talk about avarice, more commonly known as greed.
What is avarice?
What’s wrong with avarice?
How do we correct avarice?
What is avarice?
What is avarice?
Avarice goes deeper than greed. Greed is the excessive desire for material wealth (think Uncle Scrooge).
Avarice is the disordered desire to possess and master.
Avarice is the desire to own, and in a very real sense to be god over what you own.
Avarice is not just wanting more but wanting mine.
Avarice tells us, “Whatever you own, you master.”
Illustration: When I was in college I used to enjoy playing video games like SimCity and Civilization…
What’s wrong with avarice?
What’s wrong with avarice?
Avarice is a lie
Avarice tells us that we can own and control the world, but it’s not true. We weren’t created to possess and master. We aren’t the owners of anything—God is. We were created to be caretakers of God’s world in his name, on his terms, according to his plan, for his glory and for the common good of all (Gen 1:27-28 ESV).
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Avarice takes a good thing that God created for us—to exercise dominion over the world—and twists it by saying, “Yes, but it’s not yours. Why settle for managing someone else’s world when you could be the master of your own?”
This is the same lie Satan whispered to Adam and Eve in the garden...
Owning stuff makes us feel important and in control of our lives, but it’s a lie. We’re not in control of this world. And the thing that makes us important is not how much stuff we own, but the fact that we are loved by God.
Avarice leads to slavery
More stuff = more stress
Do I possess my possessions or do they possess me? Am I the consumer or the one being consumed?
Avarice creates indifference to injustice
“The money for your expensive coffee this morning belonged to the child who came to school with no breakfast. The new winter coat hanging in your closet next to four other coats (now out of style) belongs to the homeless person you passed on your way downtown last weekend. And the money you have saved for retirement would make the difference between subsistence and starvation for the sweatshop workers who made your favorite hiking boots (worn only twice). It is the hungry one’s bread that you hoard, the naked one’s cloak that you retain, the needy one’s money that you withhold.” ~ Rebecca DeYoung
Most deadly: Avarice replaces God with self
“Material wealth gives us the illusion that we are self-sufficient and therefore serves as a powerful incentive to deny our need for God.” ~ Thomas Aquinas
How do we correct avarice?
How do we correct avarice?
Luke 12:13-21 (NIV) — The Parable of the Rich Fool
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Desire true wealth (Luke 12:15)
“Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” — Do we actually believe that?
“We will never be able to satisfy our deep human need for an eternal, perfect good with any amount of temporary, imperfect goods.” ~ Augustine
The corrective to avarice is not to eliminate your desire but to point your desire in the right direction. Like the song we sang earlier:
Give me the real thing, not just religion
Stir up my passion with more of conviction
I want it all, not just a portion
Give me Your presence, not just some feeling
Just give me Jesus
Just give me Jesus
Just give me Jesus
I just want You
Live simple—not like the farmer in the parable (Luke 12:16-20)
Once you start down the path of avarice, it’s really hard to stop.
There is an old story in which a monk had a disciple and was so pleased with the man’s spiritual progress that he left him on his own. the man lived in a little mud hut. He lived simply, begging for his food. Each morning, after his devotions, the disciple washed his loincloth and hung it out to dry. One day, he came back to discover the loincloth torn and eaten by rats. He begged the villagers for another, and they gave it to him. But the rats ate that one, too. So he got himself a cat. That took care of the rats, but now when he begged for his food, he had to beg for milk for the cat as well. “This won’t do,” he thought, “I’ll get a cow.” So he got a cow and found he had to beg for fodder. So he decided to till and plant the ground around his hut. But soon he found he had no time for contemplation, so he hired servants to tend his farm. But overseeing the labors became a chore, so he married to have a wife to help him with the work. After time, the disciple became the wealthiest man in the village.
The monk was traveling by there and stopped in. He was shocked to see that where once stood a simple mud hut there now loomed a palace surrounded by a vast estate, worked by many servants.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked his disciple.
“You won’t believe this, sir,” the man replied, “But there was no other way I could keep my loincloth.”
Often we cannot say yes to God because we cannot say no to self.
Practice generosity—be rich toward God instead of storing up for yourself (Luke 12:21)
The point of owning stuff is to use it to serve others.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Challenge for this week: Give something that requires you to sacrifice.
Corporate Prayer
All that I own does not own me. All that I own is not my own. I will consistently give a portion of what I own to the establishment of God’s Kingdom through the Church. I will be joyfully sacrificial and extravagant in my giving as the Holy Spirit leads me.