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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.

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)