Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Today I want to ask you a question

How much is too much?

That is a question you need to ponder on.

How much is too much?

Do you have too much of anything?

The World tells us to keep accumuluating stuff.

We can get into the rat race of trying to keep with the Joneses or look better than them.

But how much is too much.

I don’t know about you but I know I can be guilty of accumulating too much stuff at times

I am sure all of us today - we are guilty of accumulting a lot of stuff

Some of you are probably guilty of accumulating tools

Especially the men who might be listening

I have a friend he always buying tools

He has lots of tools

He may never even use most of the tools he has but his justifcation is yuh never know when it will come in handy.

Some of you ladies listening to me probably have lots of shoes

You probably have a shoe for each outfit

Now I am not telling anyone to sell your shoes or give it away or sell your tools and give it away

But it leads us back to the same question

How much is too much?

For me throughout the year I know I have accumulated a lot of gadgets and tech tools but when I look back - cant remember the last time I ever pick up some of those things or even know where in the house they are located

But throughout the years it all adds how

How much is too much?

For some people it is books - accumulating books and never reading it

The Books are just there to make people think you smart but if you never reading it then it’s best you sell it or give it away......

All of us are guilty of accumulating too much stuff and what does the Bible have to say about that

Hoarders is an American reality television series that debuted on A&E.

The show depicts the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding disorder.

It is now a disorder.

Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is a mental disorder characterised by accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of or difficulty discarding them, regardless of their actual value, leading to clinically significant distress or impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Excessive acquisition is characterized by repetitive urges or behaviours related to amassing or buying items.

Difficulty discarding possessions is characterized by a perceived need to save items and distress associated with discarding them.

Accumulation of possessions results in living spaces becoming cluttered to the point that their use or safety is compromised.

So as you can see this is now a disorder.

There is this show on Netflix - Tidying Up with Marie Kondo - if you watch that you will see how attached people are to their things and wont sell it or thrash it

That’s not my field but I am sure Diandra can speak a lot about that.....

The truth is how much is too much

God is not against us having things but he is against things having us

Many times when we look at society our possessions can indeed possess us

We love money to the point it becomes an idol.

We love cars to the point it become an idol

We love gadgets to the point it becomes an idol....

I am sure that all of us listening here tonight has a lot of junk stuff that you have which isnt really junk but it can be useful to someone else but we just holding on to it

Sometimes it seems we have bought in to the lie that the world says

Whoever has the most toys wins.....

I believe that one of the biggest questions we need to answer is not how much stuff we have but why do we have so much stuff?

Why are we accumulating so much possessions

For a lot of people - we want to be better than everyone else

We want to look good

If that is your reason for accumulating things then your heart is in the wrong place

The rich business man was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat,

“Why aren’t you out fishing?” asked the industrialist.

“Because I have caught enough fish for the day.”

“Why don’t you catch some more?”

“What would I do with them?”

“You could earn more money.

Then you could have a motor fitted to your boat to go into deeper waters and catch more fish.

Then you would have enough money to buy more nylon nets.

These would bring you more fish and more money.

Soon you would have enough money to own two boats…maybe even a fleet of boats.

Then you would be a rich man like me.”

“What would I do then?”

“Then you could sit back and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I am doing right now?”

How much is too much?

FOR THAT Business man nothing is ever enough

He always thinking of making more

Danny was sharing on Elon Musk recently

Man is the richest man in the world but hear is the the thing

For people like them - it is never enough

He have to think of even more ways to make money in order to keep that status of richest man in the World

Because someone may over take him and he can’t have that

In this scripture we are about to read Jesus teaches a Parable for people who may only be concerned about stuff

He speaks to people like the rich Business man who was looking down on the poor fisherman

Scripture

Stop Being Greedy

Picture this Sceneario

Jesus is in the middle of preaching a sermon and giving warnings to his disciples and followers - and then a man will cut him in the middle of his sermon and say Teacher my brother dont want to give me part of the inheritance - please fix that for me......

Not only was this fella greedy but he was also rude....

How would you interrupt Jesus in the middle of his sermon

That’s like on a Sunday - Pastor Sanjay is preaching and then someone just runs up to the pulpit to ask Sanjay to solve their issue about who should get what inheritance

Now someone who is greedy doesnt care how rude they are

All they can think about is gimme, gimme, gimme.

I must admit and it is sad to say but this gimme, gimme, mentality is prevalent today and especially among us who are East Indians

We see it all over facebook

Where brother and sister fighting for the house and someone made a recording of it

People cursing and fighting their own mother and siblings to get what they want

THERE IS A SAYING THAT WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY BUT WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAR I WOULD SAY

Greediness

Fight down

When Jesus speaks of greed here, he is not necessarily talking about people who greedy and want to eat out all the food but he is talking about people who obsessed with possessions and material things

'Cause we are living in a material world

And I am a material girl - Madonna

Jesus is saying we need to be on our guard lest we become greedy

If we are not careful we can find ourselves focusing on minor stuff

Things that have no heavenly value.

You are a very poor person if all you have is earthly wealth.

When it comes to the 10 commandments we hardly ever hear people talk about the sin of coveting.

It is the last commandment and it is one people struggle with a whole lot