Gluttony

Welcome

Well, good morning Lifepoint! If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan and I serve here as the teaching pastor for our Worthington campus.

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Introduction

Alright - today, we are finishing up a series we’ve called Vice and Virtue where over the last 6 weeks, we’ve been looking at what have historically been called The Seven Capital Vice - or Seven Deadly Sins.

Envy, Lust, Vainglory, Wrath, Greed, Sloth and Gluttony.

And I know we’ve been in the deep end of the pool here - it’s been a heavy couple of weeks for us talking about this kinds of things.

But like I’ve shared each week, taking a close look at the Vices, as heavy as it’s been, is actually profoundly important for us as followers of Jesus. We’ve been using this medical analogy all along the way, comparing this series to a medical diagnostic process. The idea being, when you go to the doctor, your doc is gonna take some time talk about your presenting symptoms - not just to remind you that you’re sick…but so that they can start to uncover the underlying condition…the thing that is producing those symptoms.

The same thing is true for us spiritually…if we take an honest look at our lives, we’ll all find presenting symptoms. These are what we normally think of in the church world as sin…those things on or just beneath the surface of our lives! Things we know are problematic…lying to your spouse or boss to cover your tracks…[expand].

And I’m not trying to downplay symptoms…they can be incredibly painful in and of themselves!

But, if you go to your doctor, however bad your symptoms might be…they are not the real problem! Something is producing them…there is some underlying condition.

The goal of the diagnostic process is to find and treat the underlying condition - not just manage your symptoms.

So, yes, we’ve been swimming in the deep end of the pool - but I can honestly say this last season of study and prep for this season, has been one of if not the most spiritually formative seasons of my life! I’ve shared with you a number of times where I’ve just been floored with how some of these vices show up in my life in ways I have never recognized before!

More importantly, it’s given me, and hope you too, a framework to say, “Hey, I want to do more than just manage the sin/symptoms in my life! I want get after the vice…and treat the underlying condition.”

Because that’s where there’s real healing! That’s where we begin to discover the life Jesus intends for us in following him!

Alright, let’s get started with the final vice we’re looking at in this series…Gluttony.

I’ll pray and then we’ll get going.

Pray

Gluttony

We’re going to break the pattern a bit today from how we’ve done every other message in this series. Typically we’ve taken a story from the scriptures — and that’s served as a case study for each one of these vices.

Today’s is a little bit more tricky than because there’s not really one story that really encapsulates or give s full picture of what Gluttony is an how it works.

So we’re going to be bouncing around to look at different sections of the build that, put together, give us a much more vivid picture Gluttony.

What is Gluttony?

But, we do need to start with the basic question, “What is Gluttony?”

I think it’s safe to say that most of us have something that comes to mind when we hear that word…we might connect pretty quickly that it has something to do with food - or maybe over eating.

And while that’s partially true…just like with all the vices we’ve looked at, we’re gonna see it’s a lot more complicated than that.

The 13th Century Philosopher and Theologian, Thomas Aquinas, who is the person who’s done the most work in defining the vices says it this way,

“Gluttony is the disordered desire for the pleasure of food and drink.”

Keep up slide for a bit.

And I know this sounds pretty vanilla, right? And at first glance, it’s like, “This cannot possibly be that big a deal!” right?

But hang in there with me for a sec because there’s some intriguing features in his definition that subtly let us know, there’s a bit more going on than we might realize.

First of all, he doesn’t talk directly about eating.

It is the “disordered desire for the pleasure of food and drink.”

That might play out in eating or over eating…which usually what we think of with Gluttony. But over eating is not the underlying condition…a person’s weight is not the issue!

Honestly, for all we know today about bodily function and disfunction, you can’t look at someone, and by virtue of their appearance come to the conclusion that they’re a glutton…because gluttony is not about the act of eating….it’s about the desire! It’s about what you want from eating…the pleasure you derive from eating, drinking, and the sum total affect on your body!

One author said it this way:

“A glutton is one who raids the icebox for a cure for spiritual malnutrician.”

In other words, with Gluttony, we are look for something powerful in our eating habits.

Where do we see Gluttony in the Bible?

I think the next question is, where do we see gluttony in the bible?

And this is one way today’s message is a bit different from what we normally do on a Sunday morning…normally we want to take a passage from the bible and have that be the foundation we keep coming back to.

But every now and then, there are those kinds of topics that are biblical…that show up all over the scriptures, but it’s a bit more scattered rather than super concentrated in one spot.

The word Glutton or Gluttony shows up 6 times between the Old and New Testament. Take a look with me at Proverbs 23:21 as an example.

Proverbs 23:21 ESV

21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

But the concept of gluttony shows up quite a bit more. These are the places that don’t use the world gluttony, but are still talking about.

Let me give you a few examples from Paul’s letters. Remember, Paul was one of the earliest Christian leaders and pastors, and it’s his letters back to the church communities he was involved with that make up about half the New Testament.

Philippians 3:18–19 ESV

18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

In other words, the way their opposition to Jesus plays out is that their god is their belly…and they serve their god!

Here’s another example, Romans 16:17-18

Romans 16:17–18 ESV

17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. 18 For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

I think what shows up in both of these passages is that there is something going on with the characteristics of those who are opposed to life and message of Jesus - they have a reputation for giving themselves over to their own desires. In a lot of ways, gluttony is a mark of being anti-gospel! The New Testament talks about it as the antithesis to the life and way of Jesus…and so, quickly, from the very beginning of the church, Gluttony become an indicator of where your true allegiance lay - is it with Christ, or is it with yourself?

Why is Gluttony a problem?

Which I know sounds so dramatic and over top! So I think the next question - really the question, is why is gluttony that kind of problem?

Clearly, the New Testament sees it as a big deal. Church History sees it as a big deal, after all Gluttony is not just a vice…it’s one of the big SEVEN! It’s a CAPITAL vice…meaning, we’re saying it’s an UNDERLYING CONDITION that produces a whole bunch of other symptoms!

The question we have is, why?

Like why are my eating habits any of your concern…it’s my body! [EXPAND] And if we really start to think about it, this feels like just one more way that religion is trying to worm its way into our personal lives.

PAUSE

But what if the question is not coming from an over bearing, outdated, hyper-concerned view of food…what if our questions the seriousness of gluttony are actually coming from the fact that we haven’t thought enough about our own relationship to food?

PAUSE

You know when you start to think about it…there is something very basic about food, isn’t there?

It’s one of the few things that you literally cannot live without…it is foundational to life as we know it. It’s part of the way God has created the world and humanity function. We need to be sustained - you feel it when you don’t eat…when you don’t drink…there is a hunger and thirst that you cannot help but feel because that’s been hard-wired into you as a part of being human!

And so, interestingly, food as a basic need for life is really similar to how God has designed sex to function, right? You don’t have human life continuing without it - only food is even more foundational because it’s not just that people in general need to eat…it’s that you specifically need it or you specifically will not survive. It is an even more basic need!

You might remember this from week two, when we looked at the vice of Lust - saying that lust disordered desire for the pleasure sexual activity…Lust takes a good thing God has created and turns that thing into a god to be worshiped!

Gluttony does this same thing with food and drink. Only, has it’s hand on even more powerful lever because of how foundational food is for every single person who has ever lived!

And when we think about it that way, I think we can start to see why the Bible takes gluttony so seriously…why it talks about it as antithetical to the Gospel…because gluttony, the disordered desire for the pleasure of food will look at a good and necessary thing for everyone and say, “mine.”

How might that disordered desire play out?

How about in our spending habits?

Over and over again, one of the chief markers of followers of Jesus is supposed to be our care, concern, and provision for those whom Jesus calls the least of these.

What’s the connection?

If did an audit of my budget…just looking at what I spend regularly on eating…how would that correlate to the money I’m using to engage with the least of these?

And I get it…this is not a guilt trip…but let’s think about this for moment…because there are some deeper heart issues around gluttony that feel innocent and we treat them as innocent…but they may reveal way more about us than we’d like.

Let’s talk about me again…

I wouldn’t say I’m a coffee snob. I don’t have one of these crazy chemistry set coffee makers. But I like a decent cup of coffee…more than that, I like a decent pot coffee…and if you put it in front of me, I’ll drink the whole thing, no problem! But I’m also buying the coffee for that…to keep up with the amount not that I need…but just the amount that I want. And that’s just coffee I drink at home!

And I know this is such a “thin slice of the pie” but how might this seemingly small “guilty pleasure” to pay for and consume at this pace play out not just over one sluggish afternoon…but years and years and years…the small choice to say, “I need more of something just because I want it.”

Sure, you can place a monetary value to that…but more importantly, you can place a formative value on it. Because played over time, the choice to say “I choose me” a thousand times even over something as simple as a cup of coffee will absolutely form and shape me into the kind of person who will regularly and eventually, without question or thought choose me over you.

And friends, this is what’s so dangerous about gluttony. It’s that it takes hold of some of the most basic and natural impulses in our lives - and over and over again says, “I choose me.” And without us even realizing, as Gluttony plays the long game, we are slowly formed into people who find a deeper and stronger allegiance to ourselves?

This is what Paul was talking about in the Romans 16 passage we looked at - that in gluttony, we find ourselves not serving Jesus, but our own bellies - ourselves. Gluttony will place us, like so many of the vices, at the very center, with an ever increasing disregard for those around us!

Treatment - Feasting, Fasting, and the Lord’s Supper

So what do we do about it? How do we pursue treatment from Gluttony?

Well, I think there are three things we can talk about.

Feasting

7 Feasts. Feats are communal - they are when we gather together to celebrate God’s work and favor.

Feasting is when we engage in the work of hospitality with one another, engaged in meaningful relationship that’s not just about me and me needs but about us! What would it look like if we got real granular with our mission statement at Lifepoint and said, “Imagine an church where no-one eats alone!”

Fasting

Isaiah 58:6–8 ESV

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

We are giving up so that we can give out. We are retraining ourselves to say, “I choose you.”

The Lord’s Supper

How profound is it that the way that Jesus calls us to regularly rehearse the story of the gospel is through the same kind of practice that is so basic and necessary to our lives - a meal?

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

See, in the Gospel, I am liberated from gluttony…empowered to say, I choose you, because this how God has first loved us in Christ.

PRAY