Pastor Sean Palmer offers a convicting challenge, inviting us to wrestle with our relationship to the particular sin of avarice; the attachment to money and things which leaves us with a desire that is never satisfied. When we always want more, we are never content with enough, and hold all the more tightly to what we have in ways that isolate us from community and participation in God’s Kingdom.
Text
Luke 12: 15-20
Ecclesiastes 4: 6-8
Reflection & Practice
Pastor Sean proposed the following to question and consider…
Cut Off the Root - What are the behaviors in your life that tend to result in unnecessary compulsivity and consumption, and how can those rhythms be interrupted?
Get Accountable - Who in your life can/will you entrust to help police the ways you spend/consume so that those rhythms are in line with your claimed priorities?
Take a Sabbath from Consumerism - What might a fast from unnecessary spending look like in your life?
Tithe - Tithing is a call that helps to relinquish an unhealthy holding and hoarding of the resources with which we have been blessed. If that is not currently a part of your rhythms in life, why is that? How might it change?
Worship - We will inevitably worship something, either God or our idols. This leads to the consideration of the three questions that Sean invites us to answer.
Three Questions Worth AskingHow much time do I spend thinking about money?
If I had more money whose life would that make better?
What excuses am I making about my desire for money, my spending, my consumerism, and my consumption?
Worship Set (w/ Latifah Alattas)
New Doxology
Be Still My Soul
Nothing But The Blood
Your Labor Is Not In Vain
We Labor Unto Glory
New