Sermon Tone Analysis
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ME: Intro - Scrooge’s Greed
In his play, A Christmas Carol,
Charles Dickens tells the story of a wealthy banker named Ebenezer Scrooge,
Who did not celebrate Christmas because of how much it cost him.
I am certain most all of you are familiar with one of the many renditions that have been made over the years.
Scrooge pushed away all who loved him over his pursuit for money,
He refused to give any money to others,
And he begrudgingly gave his only employee Christmas day off.
The story is really a parable on greed.
Scrooge’s greed was slowly and unknowingly destroying his life,
Just like it did his partner, Marley’s life.
Marley visits Scrooge from the afterlife,
Carrying the chains he acquired for his greed,
Warning Scrooge of three visitors who would come to reveal to Scrooge the consequences of his greed.
By the end of his visitors,
Scrooge discovered the all-too-common outcome of greed is his own destruction.
This story is one of many examples of this reality.
Greed fools you to death.
And sadly,
We in the western part of the world,
Are living in a culture of greed.
Many are ruined by the pursuit happiness,
Believing happiness is money or stuff.
I heard one comedian joke,
“They say money can’t by happiness, but I have never seen someone frowning on a jet ski.”
I had 98.1 hawk on not too long ago,
And the song, Buy Me a Boat, came on.
The chorus sang;
“I know everybody says money can’t buy happiness,
But it could buy me a boat,
It could buy me a truck to pull it...
Yeah, and I know they say, money can’t buy everything.
Well, maybe so,
But it could buy me a boat.”
You see,
Our culture makes light of the destructiveness of greed.
The problem is that we think this is a problem for the people who have more than us.
That is a rich person problem,
And I ain’t rich!
We all see ourselves as the standard of acceptable.
Our pursuit for money and things is normal and healthy.
And that is because we are blind to our own greed.
Greed, like we see with Scrooge,
Is a subtle and sneaky assassin.
We are all susceptible to being destroyed by the desire to accumulate more.
I have never had anyone reach out to me and say,
“Josh, my greed for money or stuff is destroying my life.”
It is not until the consequences of greed cause the destruction that we become aware of our greed problem.
Because Greed fools us to death,
We are too foolish to see the trap that we set for ourselves because of our greed.
This morning we come to Prov.
1:8-19,
Where Solomon warns his son of sinners enticing him toward greedy gain.
The words of Proverbs are Words to Live By,
But the words of these sinners are Words to Die By.
So, our outline this morning begins with...
The Pronouncement (vs.
8-9)
The Parable (vs.
10-16)
The Prey (vs.
17-19)
Greed fools you to death.
We ended last week with the key to wisdom in Prov.
1:7, which says,
These are the two paths of Proverbs,
The path of knowledge or wisdom,
And the path of folly.
WE: The Pronouncement (vs.
8-9)
The path of wisdom does not have the flashy appeal the path of folly does.
The path of wisdom does not offer material prizes,
But it does offer hard-earned beauty and goodness.
While the path of folly entices with glamour,
But ends with a painful sting.
Immediately after the prologue and the key to wisdom in vs. 7,
The first thing Solomon addresses is a warning against the enticement of greed.
This warning begins in vs. 8-9 with The pronouncement.
Ancient Near Eastern instruction would begin with a pronouncement for attention.
That is the way Solomon begins his instruction in our text this morning.
Hear, my son, he says.
He wants our attention.
He wants to make sure we focus and comprehend what he is about to say.
He is telling us to listen to the instruction of your father,
And to not reject the teaching of your mother.
Do not neglect the teaching of your parents, he says.
This command is repeated throughout Proverbs.
This teaching is the Hebrew word, torah.
Solomon is saying that wisdom’s instruction is different from the law,
But it is no less authoritative than the law.
As a parent teaching a son,
Solomon is implying an authoritative relationship,
Where the person in authority is passing down moral guidelines.
It is something that both parents participate in.
Not only that,
It is something both parents are responsible for,
Teaching their children to have a knowledge of good and evil,
Instructing them in the way the world works according to God’s design.
Parents, you can not contract out this responsibility to teachers, coaches, or children’s ministry workers.
This is your job,
To teach your children God’s Word.
In order to teach them how life works according to God’s design,
You must learn God’s Word for yourself.
Why is it so important for parents to teach and children to listen?
Because the instruction from parents are garland and pendants.
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