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The Sin of Greed That
Leads to Death
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Bible verse : James 1:15
(NIV)
hen, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
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In Romans 3:23, it is
written, ¡°For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.¡± This means that everyone living in this world
is a sinner.
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What is sin? Sin is 'thinking and
acting according to one's own desires against God's will'. Sin is what God
hates most.
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The first
humans to sin were Adam and Eve. The two disobeyed God's command and ate the forbidden
fruit God had told them not to eat. Sin came into the world because they
disobeyed the Word of God and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.
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Sin separated God from mankind.
Due to sin, human beings have fallen into a miserable state where they can no
longer approach God.
Man's relationship with God has been completely broken because of sin.
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And
as a result of sin, human beings have suffered the terrible punishment of
death. All people born after the first man, Adam, suffered the misfortune of
being born with original sin.
All people born on this earth cannot escape the punishment of death due to
sin.
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People who are born with sin
started committing other sins because they were driven by greed. Adam's first
son, Cain, was angry that God only accepted the sacrifice of his brother
Abel. So his heart was full of hatred for Abel.
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The reason why Cain hated his
younger brother Abel was because he wanted to be recognized more by God.
Cain's greed turned into great hatred.
He ended up killing his brother, making him the first human being to commit
murder.
Cain's little greed started in his heart and killed his younger brother Abel..
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On the other hand, there is one
person who has sinned because of greed for money. The man's name was Balaam.
Balak, king of Moab, offered Balaam, a famous prophet, a large sum of money
if he would come to his place and curse the Israelites.
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God appeared to Balaam
and commanded him not to go to the place where King Balak was and not to
curse the Israelites. However, even though Balaam clearly heard God's will,
he did not obey God's word and went to the place where King Balak was.
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The reason Balaam disobeyed God was because he loved money more
than God. Balaam was later killed by the Israelites because of his greed.
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Saul,
the first king of Israel, was a very humble man at first.
However, after he became king, he became a person who committed a great sin
before God because of his excessive desire to keep his throne.
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He also committed a
great sin of disregarding God's command and offering sacrifices on his own
accord, driven by the desire to be recognized by people.
And because he was jealous of his faithful servant David, he did all sorts of
evil things to kill him all his life. God abandoned King Saul, and he died a
miserable death in the war against the Philistines.
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If we are guided by small greed and act according to our own
will, we will eventually go against God's will. Satan stirs up greed in our hearts
to keep us away from God. He tempts us to commit sins that God hates.
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The Bible clearly states that the result of sin is death.
Everyone who was born on this earth because of Adam and Eve cannot escape
physical death because of sin. However, another death that is not comparable
to the death of the body is the death of the soul, which must live forever in
hell.
The only way to avoid the death of the soul is to turn around and repent and
believe in Jesus.
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Those who believe in the grace Jesus performed on the cross and
are saved must not act as their own greed leads them. A follower of Jesus
must always act according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit when doing
something.
The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us overcome our greed and sin.
The Holy Spirit helps us to overcome the heart of greed that leads to death
in us.
I hope you will always be friends who accompany the Holy Spirit.
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(This
is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the
conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)
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