Sermon Tone Analysis

Understanding Gluttony

The Biblical Call to Moderation

BY BROTHER MICHEL LANKFORD

AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER:

The desire and passion of my life is that God with His Son Jesus Christ and by the working of His Holy Spirit would transform me from my most inward part to my most outward and visible part until my every desire, passion, thought, attitude, motive, word and action is completely transformed with His Love and Righteousness until I am a total delight to God's heart and a glorious representation of His Son.

I long to authentically abide in God , Jesus Christ, and His word.

I long to authentically know the Truth, and for the Truth to set me free.

I long to be set free from everything that could hinder the statements above from becoming the living reality in me.

I long to authentically walk in the more abundant life that Jesus Christ came to give us.

If that is your goal, then join me in studying in applying God's word together.

If that is not your goal, chances are you'll find things in this Bible study hard or impossible to swallow.

I approach Bible study with the following axioms as my guides, and I invite you to do the same.

• I believe that Almighty God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them by speaking His Word (Genesis 1:1-3, 31).

Therefore, I believe that God said what He meant and means what He says.

I believe that all Scripture (Old Testament and New Testament) is God breathed, anointed and appointed by God.

• I believe that it is all completely sufficient for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the people of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (see 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

• I believe that it is the refusal to rightly divide and obey God's word that is at the root cause of every human ill and character defect we will ever encounter.

• I believe that when it is rightly divided and obediently applied in the context of being in right relationship with God and Jesus Christ, His Word is completely sufficient to give us true wisdom in every situation, guidance and comfort through every hardship, and victory in every battle.

• If you too believe these things, then you are ready to study.

What is Gluttony?

Let's see if this scenario looks or sounds familiar.

You get up after dinner from a family gathering and take an extra swig of some carbonated beverage, just hoping you can belch to relieve some of the pressure.

We've all seen and done it.

We all know what the big events are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, a family reunion or church social.

Most if not all of America's major social events revolve around food.

If you ask most people about a definition of gluttony, almost all the responses you get will pertain to the overeating of food.

While that is certainly true, and moderating our food intake is a great place to start, you may find it interesting that according to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), gluttony is more properly defined as the greedy or excessive indulgence in anything.

[1] What’s even more interesting is that Scripture would find that definition to be bang on target.

In a very real sense, over indulging in food, drink, sleep, entertainment, spending money or pleasure of any kind could correctly be characterized as gluttony.

Overeating certainly would qualify because, by the time one reaches the point of overeating they are no longer hungry, they are eating for comfort or pleasure seeking.

An Overview of the Problem

Over Indulging in Food

Approximately 66% of Americans are overweight or obese

A recent study suggests that 9.1% of all US health expenditures spent annually is related to weight issues.

In real dollars that’s a total of approximately $117 billion annually.

Of that $61 billion can be directly attributed to obesity issues, $56 billion is indirect.

Our Indulging in Resources

According to the United Nations human development report of 1998, “Globally, the 20% of the world’s people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditures — the poorest 20% a minuscule 1.3%.

[2]” Think about it.

That means that at any given point, 86% of all available resources are being spent to house, feed, clothe, transport, medically treat or entertain 20% of the population!

That leaves 80% of the population forced to divide the 15% of resources that remain.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the biggest fan of globalization or the UN, but I’ve heard and seen these statistics other places.

So it makes you stop and think.

In spite of the fact that we consume so much (since America would have to qualify as one of the wealthier industrialized nations), we don’t seem to be satisfied with what we have.

According to an article by Kim Khan of MSN, more than 43% of American families spend more each year than they earn.

In fact on average every family spends $1.23 for every single dollar they earn.

The average American family carries $8,000 of revolving credit card debts.

These are debts not including those essentials such as mortgage, car payments and student loans [3].

All things considered, I believe that it is safe to say we are definitely a nation of people who typically live excessively, even if we may not believe that we live excessively.

The numbers simply don’t lie.

Is Gluttony a Sin?

I believe that to properly answer that question one must look at several factors:

 What is sin as God defines it?

 What effect does gluttony or overindulging in food, drink, sleep, entertainment, spending money or pleasures of any kind typically have on our lives?

We live in an age and culture where almost every human problem is defined as a disease.

Alcoholism, drug abuse, sexual addiction, gambling addiction, Road rage and the list is virtually endless.

Can everything that goes wrong in the lives of human beings be attributed to a “disease?”

In one sense yes, in another sense, no.

I believe that all human ills can be traced back to one disease.

The disease is called sin, and it is terminal!

That’s right, terminal.

When we treat all these excesses in human behavior as disease, we really are only treating the symptoms, not the true disease.

[4]One of the reasons that we fail to recognize sin is pride.

We don’t want to admit that we are really suffering from the disease of sin.

Part of us wants to think that we’re doing better than we really are.

The other reason why we do not face our sin is that we have a real and legitimate fear of the consequences.

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23 a).

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

(1 John 1:8 NASB).

Failing to recognize our sin is extremely dangerous.

That's because unresolved sin will bring about destruction.

It is written: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

(Romans 6:23 NASB) The death that sin causes literally refers to eternal darkness and separation from God and His love.

It is further written: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but it's end is the way of death."

(See Proverbs 12:15,14:12,16:25).

Okay, we know that sin is destructive.

So how and why do we fail to recognize our sin?

We don't recognize our sin partly because the very nature of sin is deceitful.

Our sinful nature lies to us and tells us we're okay even if we're not (see Hebrews 3:13)

Part of the reason we don't recognize our sin is because it does seem pleasurable for a while (see Hebrews 11:25).

We don't see our sin in part because we don't recognize it as being sin even when it is sin.

That's partly because we compare ourselves to each other and our culture rather than God and Christ's standards.

In other words we lower the bar so much, we think things we do and think are okay with God, when in reality they are not right at all (2 Corinthians 10:12).

Sometimes we don't see our sin because we refuse to see it or deal with it.

It's like being in a house with dirty cat litter.

You have two options.

You can recognize and admit that the house stinks and the cat litter needs to be changed.

You can then act wisely and change the litter.

The result will be that the House will smell cleaner and be fresher, the cat will be happier, and your friends and neighbors won't be offended.

Or, you could do the selfish, lazy, unwise, and stupid thing and just ignore the filthy kitty litter.

If you live with its filthy state long enough, you will in fact eventually reach the point where you don't notice the stench.

However, the consequences of the stench will still impact your life despite the fact that you've grown so accustomed to it that you don't notice it.

Your home will still be unhealthy, the cats will be unhappy, the Board of Health will eventually fine you, the landlord will evict you, and your friends and neighbors won't want to be around you.

Unresolved sin works much the same way.

With God's help we can learn to recognize the stench of sin.

We can choose to confess it as sin and turn away from it.

With God's help we can learn new ways of living and have a more abundant life, or we can be stupid, and ignore the stench of our sin until it brings about the wages of death.

One of the things that causes people to incorrectly say they have no sin is that they fail to understand what sin is.

The word in the Greek New Testament is Gk Strong's #266.

It's transliterated "hamartia."