Seven Deadly Sins
Delivered on March 1, 2006
Ash Wednesday
By
The Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh
Senior Pastor
Mpittendreigh@goodshepherdpc.org
Daniel 9:3-5
So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. (NIV)
John 15:1-6
(Jesus said) "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (NIV)
The ashes we use this evening were once Palm branches. We used them on a Paul Sunday.
Palm Sunday – beautiful service.
I have some experience with Palm trees having lived for a few years in Florida. I had several palm trees in my yard.
You have to work to take care of palm trees. The old palm branches die and turn dry and brown, and they just hang there. They don’t go away – not for a long time. Sometimes it takes a good hurricane to come and blow those old branches away.
Instead, you have to work at keeping a palm tree attractive. You have to climb a ladder, take some pretty good size clippers or a hand saw and cut away old branches.
The first year I lived in Florida, I found a flyer in my mailbox. Someone had a small business and offered to trim my trees for -- $50 per tree. Forget that!
Well, after I did one tree, and then another and then another, I realized. $50 per tree is reasonable!
It takes a lot of work to trim the dead stuff from a palm tree.
But that is our lifestyle.
As we grow we have things in our lives that are not spiritually alive, that are no longer productive or healthy. We have sins in our lives. But they rarely fall out of our lives on their own.
They cling to us. They hang on.
It takes WORK to remove the sins of our lives, from our lies.
That is what Ash Wednesday and Lent is all about. Cleaning our lives. Trimming them of all the spiritual deadness so our lives become truly alive.
What is in your life that needs to be trimmed? What needs to be cut away? Lent is a good time to do this sort of trimming.
What is your sin that needs to be trimmed from your soul?
1. Pride
Is it Pride – Do you have pride? I’m not talking about the healthy pride one has in the accomplishments of one’s children. I’m talking about that excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God.
Why is pride a sin?
It’s a sin because it means that we forget who we are – and that we are dependent on God.
The Enhancement Campaign is reaching out to folks and encouraging us to contribute to the fund that will help enhance our facilities here at Good Shepherd. Their key Bible verse comes from Deuteronomy, chapter 6 (10-12).
10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you-- a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant-- then when you eat and are satisfied,
12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
(NIV)
You see, if we forget the Lord gave us these things, we fall into the trap of thinking, I did this. I dug these wells. I planted these vineyards. I worked hard and built the home I live in. I worked my way up the corporate ladder of success. I did it all on my own.
And thinking that, we forget the Lord, who brought us to our present place in life.
Proverbs teaches us that “Pride goes before the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)
Is Pride your sin you need to trim from your soul?
Or what about envy?
2. Envy
Envy is the desire for what other people have. We should rejoice when others are successful. We should rejoice when others enjoy some great fortune.
However, how many read about those 8 working Joes in the ham packing plant that won several million dollars in the power ball lottery. Was your first impression, ‘good for them,’ or was your first thought, “How come I don’t come into easy money like that?”
Your best friend goes on a cruise – and your thought is, “I could sure use that cruise – he doesn’t need a vacation like that.”
In Proverbs, we read (Proverbs 14:30), “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
Is envy the sin that needs to be trimmed from your life?
It takes WORK to remove envy from our lives – but this is what Lent is for.
Or maybe it is Anger?
3. Anger
Is it my imagination, or is our world unusually angry these days?
We have road rage and impatience on the high way. I don’t remember traffic behavior like that years ago.
We have terrorists all over the world – not only do they attack us, they attack each other and destroy their own Islamic holy places.
Politically, our nation is so divided between blue state and red state – we are so angry.
The world needs to prune that sin from our global soul – maybe it is time for us to trim it from our own lives.
In James we read (James 1:19-20) “Everyone should slow to become angry, for one’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
It takes WORK to remove anger from our lives – but this is what Lent is for.
Is anger what you need to trim from your souls? Or is it sloth?
4. Sloth
Among the so-called seven deadly sins, there is often one that is listed by the term “sloth.”
The seven deadly sins are not found in the Bible. Church tradition made that list up long ago and someone decided that one of these seven deadly sins was sloth.
I love that term. Sloth sounds so nasty and dirty – and any good sin ought to sound nasty and dirty.
Sloth is another way of saying “laziness.” Now that does not sound so bad. I think of lazy and I think of relaxing on my hammock in my backyard on a sunny, summer day.
What’s wrong with that? After all, God told us to do all our work and to rest every seventh day.
In fact, we are a world of workaholics. We fill up every minute of our time. We work, work, work.
Sloth isn’t our sin – it seems to be something we need in our lives.
But ask busy people if they have time for their family? No – too busy.
Ask people if they have time for prayer. No – too busy.
Ask people if they have time to volunteer for mission work in the community or the world. No – too busy.
The sin is not that we are lazy. It’s that we are lazy in our work for God. We work for ourselves. We over work for ourselves. But we do not have time for family or neighbors.
Is that your sin? Is that what you need trimmed from your soul?
Or is it greed?
5. Greed
I hate the Mexican restaurant down the road. The one near Publix on Five Forks. The first thing they do is put out baskets of chips and bowls of salsa. I can’t stop myself. I start dipping and eating and it’s like I haven’t eaten in days. I can’t get satisfied. I love that stuff. It’s not allowed in my home. If it was, I would not be the skinny trim handsome devil I am today.
But that’s greed. We’ve already got more than we need, but we crave more and more and more. We can’t stop. We have a car, we have to have a nicer one. We have to have the biggest home. We have to have the best suit. We have to make more money.
We are the richest nation in the world, and yet we are craving more and more.
We read in Proverbs, (Proverbs 28:25) “A greedy man stirs up trouble, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.”
It takes WORK to remove greed from our lives – but this is what Lent is for.
6. Gluttony
Then there is the sin of gluttony.
Did I tell you why I hate Mexican restaurants?
OK, this could get a bit personal here! I know my skinny days are long gone.
Proverbs teaches us (Proverbs 25:28) “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”
Gluttony is a lack of self-control. And that kind of sin is dangerous to your own health. Your body loses its defenses. It becomes subject to illness – or like Proverbs put it, it is like a city with no defensive walls.
It takes work to remove gluttony. Believe me, I know. Perhaps you are like me in that this is your sin that needs trimmed from your life.
Or perhaps it is lust?
7. Lust
God created sex as a wonderful gift. In the Song of Solomon, we read a poem about two lovers that is very explicit.
Song 7:7-11
7 Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
8 I said, "I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit." May your breasts be like the clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples,
9 and your mouth like the best wine. May the wine go straight to my lover, flowing gently over lips and teeth.
10 I belong to my lover.
11 Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages.
(NIV)
But like any gift God gives us, we can turn it into evil.
Lust is a craving for the pleasures of the body in a way that leads to sex outside of the marriage relationships.
We read in I Thessalonians, (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5) “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God.”
It takes WORK to remove lust from our lives – but this is what Lent is for.
Conclusion
So what is it in your life that needs to be trimmed from your soul?
This is the season of Lent. It is traditional to give up something for Lent. You frequently hear of people giving up chocolate, fried foods, or if you are like me you might be thinking of giving up broccoli for Lent. Some people give up smoking for Lent – or try to.
Why not give something up a sin for Lent?
You can’t give them all up at one time. That’s too much.
Your sins are too important to you. You enjoy them. Or you are addicted to them. They are hard to let go of all at once.
But can you think of one? Just one. One sin to concentrate on for 40 days?
One thing that needs to be trimmed from your soul?
What would that one sin be?
Copyright 2006, The Rev. Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh
All rights reserved.
Sermons are available online and can be found by visiting www.Pittendreigh.com
