Greed: The Sin of Always Wanting More (EP 201)

What's going on guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver Podcast. I'm Bryce and today we are going to be talking about greed, what it is biblically, what the Bible says and how we can overcome it. But before we get into it, we have to define what greed is. And I'm going to define greed by asking you this question. Do you have an excessive attachment to material items, money or power, status? If the answer is yes, then that might be a sign that you struggle with greed. Now in order to overcome any of these sins, especially when it comes to like the Seven Deadly Sins, according to Proverbs chapter 6, the first thing we got to do is be honest about ourselves. If you want it, transparency is what leads to transformation. And so if you want freedom and you listen to this episode and you hear about this freedom and you want something that you don't have, then sometimes you got to do something you've never done. And maybe that's get honest. But greed, definitionally, is having an excessive attachment and want for material items, wealth, power or status. And really what greed is at the core, is it's a lack of trust and a lack of contentment in God. And you see, I think sometimes we can oftentimes in America and particularly American culture, we can amask greed with the term financial security, right? And there's a difference between stewardship and anxiety and depression that comes along with quote unquote financial security. Now we can get into the greed thing in a minute. Let's talk about money, okay? Money, when we read the Bible, when it refers to it as maman, money is amoral, okay? It has no feelings, thoughts or emotions. So is money inherently sinful? No. Every time the Bible is talking about greed, it is talking about the excessive love of money. So in Matthew chapter 6, when Jesus addresses that no one can serve to master, to either love the one and hate the other, you despise the one and are devoted to the other, no one can serve God and money. It's down to the heart. Now, isn't it interesting that in that analogy, Jesus uses money and God. Why didn't Jesus use something else? Why did he particularly use money? Well, because money has a deception and can have the appearance of giving you things temporarily of what God can satisfy and fulfillment. People say that you can buy happiness, you can buy sex, you can buy a ton of different things with money, substances, you can buy feeling from dopamine and drugs or alcohol, you can buy experiences, but God is the only one that can bring ultimate contentment. Because if you search for God and everything else but in Him, then you will be left hopeless, desperate, depressed, anxious, all of the above. And so what we can mask as financial security really is greed at the heart if you have an excessive attachment to money, power, wealth, status, whatever it may be. So when Jesus is talking about, you can't serve both God and money, He's talking about the heart. Does your heart love your money more than it loves God? Do you love your money more than you have got because you lack trusting God to provide for you? What else did Jesus say in Matthew 6? Well, if God feeds the birds of the air and clothes, the lilies of the field and beauty and they're not made in the image of God and human beings are of greater moral value because they are made in His image, then how much more is He going to take care of you? If He feeds the birds and they're not made in His image and they're of lesser moral value than you and I because according to the scriptures, the Bible says that God takes care of His children. You see greed always gives you what you want. God doesn't always give you what you want, but He gives you what you need or let me rephrase it as to greed wants to give you what you always want, but God doesn't always give you what you want. He gives you what you need and that's the importance because God doesn't want to crush you with things that you think is best for your life. God actually wants to bless you with the absence of things if that means that that absence is filled with more of Him. And so when we're looking at greed, what else does Jesus say? Well, we look in Luke 12, Jesus says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of His possessions. Just because you enjoy something or have something doesn't make it sinful. But if you put all of your hope, all of your security and your physical possessions and your money, you may have a great problem because the reality is, is there were people that didn't wake up this morning? There were people all over the globe that went to bed last night, closed their eyes and breathed their last breath and did not wake up this morning. And do you think their savings account gave them security? Do you think how many cars and their car collection gave them security? How many followers that they had on social media gave them security? No. Because they're standing before an Almighty God where all of their actions, thoughts and emotions will testify against themselves and the only thing that will give us, you, them, security on judgment day is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. George Mueller and a famous Christian from the 1800s, I believe, he once said, if you weren't content with the amount of money in your bank account now, you'll never be content with double the amount of money in your bank account. Because greed is like, it's like a hamster on a hamster wheel. You know, it's like, why are you running? Where are you chasing? Where are you going to get? You're not going to get the thing. As we said, look, don't put all your hope and trust in the things. You know, it's, it's crazy because in, earlier in the gospel of Luke, Jesus sends out the disciples. He says, take no knapsack, take no tunic, sell all your belongings, take one pair of shoes, take one tunic, you know, don't bring an extra pair of anything. Why did Jesus do that? A lot of people take that scripture out of context and say, oh, well, you can't have money. You can't have this. You can't have that. Well, Jesus, at the end of the gospel says, hey, do you remember that one time I sent you guys out and I told you not to bring an app sack, not to bring a tunic, not to bring an extra pair of shoes? Okay. So now that I'm leaving you in a sitting in the heaven, use common sense, use wisdom, use stewardship and bring an extra pair of things because Jesus, when he was here on earth with them, was teaching them to trust on him. So greed creates a lack of trust in God's provision. And so honestly, the number one thing that you can do, if you were struggling with greed, is give it away. Hey, real quick, before we keep going, I have an announcement I've been really excited to make. I'm officially announcing our ministry's biggest live event ever, open heaven. This is happening Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 7 30 p.m. at the pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas. This is going to be a night centered around worship, faith, and genuine community. All of us together in one room encountering God in person. There's going to be live worship and really special moments throughout the night. Take us our on sale right now. Head to briskrawford.org/tour or click the link in the description below to grab yours. And please only buy through my official site or that link to not buy from random resellers online. A lot of them are scams. I'm going to believe this is going to be a night people carry with them for a long time. I would love to see you there. All right, back to the episode. Whatever has captured your heart of greed and covetousness, the best thing you can do is give it away. Because it is a physical and emotional representation that that thing has no hold over you. And for a lot of people, it's money. Jesus calls people to be radically generous. You know, that's why in the gospel, Jesus says, "Hey, there's the Pharisees and they're looking down the aisle, the synagogue with five bands in their hand." And they're like, "Yo, check out all of this bread that I'm about to give to the Lord. Like, look, I'm giving up so much money. Got so pleased." And they drop five bands in the bucket. And then you have a widow. All she has is a quarter, but she gives all that she has out of the abundance of her heart. And Jesus says, "I'm more pleased with her radical generosity there than the Pharisees flaunting because what they received, they already received their reward. They got eyeballs. People being impressed by them." And the lady gave out of what she lacked physically, but gave out of the abundance of her heart because she trusted the Lord. Now, we have to be careful, okay, because the Bible talks about testing God with money. But just because you test God with money does not mean he's going to give you money back. That doesn't mean God's going to give you money back. We have to get over the slide that, oh, if I give God 500, God's going to give me a thousand. No, no, no. Where do we see that in scripture? Not at all. In fact, the blessing of the Lord for your obedience with money probably isn't financial status, but you know what it could be. Brotherhood and sisterhood and friends in the Lord, it actually challenge you and grow you spiritually. You know what it could be? Contentment with the Lord. The absence of distractions and the sharpness to focus on Jesus. So we have to be cautious with money because greed will overtake your heart. You know, we need to combat greed by finding God as supremely valuable than anything else on this planet. You know what another symbol or sign could be that if you struggle with greed, again, we said having things isn't wrong. But what does your lifestyle look like? If people looked at your life, would people think his treasures in heaven or on earth? Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that there's a greed issue right off that. But that could be an outward symbol of maybe I do have a secret struggle with greed. Maybe I am having a hard time with having his excessive want for material things and money and wealth because what greed does, it tries to hold on to money, wealth, power and status as if it's ours. What generosity does is it leaves it open-handed and says, "What the God gives." gives me, I thank him for what God asked me to give him way is even more of a joy than when I received it, because what is ours is God's. Your money isn't yours. You didn't make your money. God gave you that money, and it is our job to honor God with our money, with our power, with whatever it may be. You give it, I mean, when I say power, with your influence, with your money, with your material possessions, whatever it may be. Our job is to honor God and to give back to God when he has already given us. Our greed says, no, I have to protect myself so I can't give. And greed says, no, I need more, because I'm not satisfied. And it is deceptive. What does Luke chapter 18 tell us? The rich, young ruler, and we'll close with this passage. He says, a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? This rich man, he's kind of like flexed in a little bit. He's like, yeah, Jesus, tell me something. What do I need to do to get enter the kingdom of heaven and Jesus is like, why do you call me good? You would accept God alone, referring to like, you acknowledge me as Lord. You do not, you know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear faults. Witness honor your father and mother. So Jesus, listen to the commandments, the guy said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, tell me something I don't know. Like yeah, I already do those things. And Jesus is like, all right, we'll sell all your belongings and follow, follow me. And it says, the man got very sad. And Jesus says what seems, and actually the man walks away, because he loved his money more than he loved God. And what Jesus says is what seems impossible for man is possible with God. Maybe the reason that you're having such a hard time conquering greed is because you're trying to do it out of your own strength. Let me tell you something. You will never overcome greed, pride, lust, sloth, wrath, anger, whatever it may be in your own strength. You need to lean on the Holy Spirit to give you strength to overcome the things that you struggle with. Jesus says what seems impossible for man to give up is possible with God. You get another example in the book of Acts, and an Ison Sapphira had agreed problem. So when they sold their stuff to fall the Lord, they lied about how much money they gave. And what did God do? God killed them because he was trying to purify the birth of the early church, but he struck them down for the greed because they lied. And you know what's so fascinating about this Luke chapter 18 story is when you read the gospel mark, the gospel of Mark is the only gospel that is described at the end when Jesus is being arrested. There's like a there's a naked man running through the forest. He's a striker. There's a naked striker run it through the forest at the end of the gospel mark. And everyone's kind of like, yo, what the heck is this guy because the rich young ruler story and a little bit more detail is represented in the gospel mark and theologians, you know, for hundreds of years up until about 200 years ago, always associated the rich young ruler as being Mark. Because Mark's description of the rich young ruler is so detailed, people always thought it was him because after Jesus, like, yes, everything you haven't followed me and the rich young ruler gets sad, he walks away before Jesus says what seems impossible for man as possible with God. And then there's a man that appears naked running through the forest as Jesus is being arrested. And that's the only time we see that out of all the gospel is recorded and theologian throughout history often associated the rich young ruler's mark. And then instance, the rich young ruler, aka Mark shrieking in the forest, was symbolism that Mark was able to sell everything he had to follow Jesus. You know, we can talk about greed as like Gen Z, like, I'm 22, you know, and young people or maybe you're someone like this 14, 15, 16, maybe you're in college, you don't have a job. Maybe you're might be like, how can I struggle with debt? I mean, how can I struggle with greed if I'm in college debt? How can I struggle with greed if I'm 14, I don't have a job, but I don't have to think about things. No, no, no. Maybe greed doesn't come from financial thing, but maybe you think, oh, well, my heart will be satisfied if I get the new iPad or the new iPhone or I need to keep doing these things or I need to live this luxurious lifestyle. I'm going to tell you a horrifying story that I've seen so many people fall into out here in LA. When I first moved to LA, we had a Bible study that we ran where we let people come and oftentimes it was people on social media or people that did some sort of social media. We gave them a safe space. It was like a no-phone thing and stuff like that. And oftentimes we would meet these people who would come to this Bible study who started on social media and they were in their career, their social media career and their financial career. And we were on social media and then they moved to only fans because of money. And what they would say is, and some people left and some people didn't, I watched people fall, agreed, and I watched some people not, I watched countless people surrender their life to the Lord and leave money behind, the love, the excessive love for money power and what behind. Then I've also seen people say that they want to and fall to it. And what would happen is these people a couple of years ago, they were making a bunch of money on social media so it was like, I'm making a little money so my lifestyle increases, right? And then there came a point where they stopped making as much money but they were too ashamed to decrease their lifestyle because their finances decrease. So in order to keep this image of success, wealth, power and status, which is greed, they shifted to only fans so they could keep increasing their finances and increasing their lifestyle because they were too embarrassed to say, I need to downsize in apartment, I need to stop spending money on this. Greed captures our heart in magnificent ways and oftentimes when we don't see it. So I want to pray against greed in your life and I want you to pray against greed in your life today, yesterday and moving forward because money isn't going to go to the grave with you. Money isn't going to defend you on judgment day. It's only the work and blood of Jesus. That will, Lord Jesus, we thank you for your day, God, we love you, we're so grateful for you. God, we just ask for you to root out any greed in our heart, our want for everything else but you, Lord Jesus, will you help us find contentment in you, satisfaction, significance and security? Lord Jesus, you are our 401K. Lord we thank you for who you are, we thank you for the cross. God allows to be content with you and in you, every day, Jesus name, amen.