Gluttony is Godless

Sermon Transcript

If you’re a covenant member of Citylight Church, then you know that your pastors prize something called expository, or expositional preaching. Expositional preaching derives the main point and shape of the sermon from the main point and shape of a passage of Scripture, rather than the main point of the sermon coming from the main point that the preacher wants to get across. Expositional preaching exposes what’s in God’s word, which is different from having an interesting idea and then trying to impose that idea on the Bible and grab verses out of context to support it. So, expositional preaching is preaching in service of the word of God. God cooked it up and now we deliver it like obedient waiters.

Since expositional preaching takes its main point from the main point of a passage of Scripture, each Sunday I like to tell you what the big idea of the sermon is. With Proverbs, discerning the big idea is tricky. Our method for preaching Proverbs chapters 10-31, which is not at all original to Citylight Church, is to collect up all the various Proverbs on a topic so that we can learn the big idea of Proverbs on work, wealth, parenting, and so forth.

The reason why I tell you all this is because I found it difficult to discern the main thing that Proverbs teaches on the topic of gluttony. I read through the Proverbs on gluttony, I categorized them carefully, I read commentaries, and the best I could come up with is that the main thing Proverbs teaches on gluttony is that it has some awful results. But as I read more about gluttony in general and then went back to the Proverbs on gluttony it hit me that there is something, or I should say someone, missing from every single Proverb on gluttony: God! God is missing from all the proverbs on gluttony because gluttony occurs when we divorce the gift of food and drink from the Divine Giver. As theologian Joe Rigney writes, “Idolatry is insane precisely because it ruins the enjoyment of the gift that we’ve turned into a god.” It makes all the sense in the world that not one proverb on gluttony mentions God. God is absent where gluttony is present. And that brings us to what I have come to believe is the big idea of Proverbs on gluttony: Gluttony is godless. Gluttony is godless. Now, to get to the heart of gluttony so that we can root out its godlessness from our lives, we are going to allow Proverbs to answer three questions about gluttony: 1. What is gluttony? 2. What are its results? 3. How do we overcome it?

WHAT IS GLUTTONY?

Gluttony is not the same as feasting. Our Lord performed his first miracle at a wedding feast when he turned water into the best wine. Gluttony is not even enjoying food and drink too much. 1 Timothy 4:1-5 tells us to receive food and drink with thanksgiving to God because they are exquisite gifts. The more our love for God grows the more we enjoy his gifts, like food and drink, because they’re no longer competing with God. Gluttony is not feasting and it’s not even over-enjoying. Gluttony is over-indulging. Proverbs 25:16 says, “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.” Gluttony, at least on the surface, is when you eat or drink beyond your fill, beyond the point where you can rightly receive it with thanksgiving to God.

On the surface gluttony is eating or drinking beyond your fill; overindulging food and drink. However, the heart of gluttony goes far deeper. If gluttony was merely overindulging in food and drink, the cure would be a diet. But since we have all committed the sin of gluttony, we all know it goes far deeper than that. At the heart of gluttony are two things: discontentment and disordered love.

Discontentment. Proverbs 27:20 – Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man. Gluttony is what happens when we are not thoroughly satisfied in God and we seek to fill the void with food and drink, but neither can ever satisfy man. At the heart of gluttony is not enjoying rich food and a cold beer. Rather, at the heart of gluttony is a discontented heart. When our hearts are discontented, we will seek to fill the void and food and drink are convenient, delicious God-substitutes. At the heart of gluttony is discontentment. Similarly, gluttony is what happens when our loves are disordered. Proverbs 21:17 – Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Gluttony is when our love for the gift supersedes and is divorced from our love for the giver. Gluttony is when God fades as your all-satisfying first love and, since something has to fill the void, the love of food and drink takes His rightful place. Taking these two things together – discontentment and disordered loves – we are ready to answer the question: What is gluttony? I think John Piper’s definition of gluttony is highly faithful to Proverbs. He writes that gluttony is when “the enjoyment of food [and drink] that has become untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life.” When the enjoyment of food is untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life, then food and drink lose their taste and so we eat and drink more to try to grasp the taste that is lost. That’s gluttony.

Now, I want to pause and put a brief parenthesis here because I think there is something important we need to note. In a fallen world like ours, gluttony is not the only negative result of untethering enjoyment of food from contentment in God as the governing love of our life. Another result when food becomes untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life can be an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge-eating. If you’re suffering under the weight of an eating disorder, please don’t turn God’s word on gluttony into an occasion for shame, instead please reach out to a pastor here at Citylight, we’ll help you get the biblical counseling and medical attention that will help. Close parenthesis and let’s return to gluttony.

Gluttony is when “the enjoyment of food [and drink] that has become untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life.” In the same article where John Piper offers his definition of gluttony, he also offers four wise warning signs that it’s happening. Let’s all humbly consider them.

We become indifferent to the harmful effects that the food is having on the temple of the Holy Spirit, our body.
We become indifferent to the way we are stewarding our money as we spend unwisely on wrong foods.
We start using food as an escape from our problems and a medication for our sadness or our misery or our discomfort.
We stop enjoying food as a way of enjoying God. We stop tasting the goodness of God in the goodness of the food, and we start replacing the goodness of God with the goodness of the food. Personally, I think that one of the best tests for whether that next helping is a godly feast or godless gluttony is: can you honestly thank God for the gift of it without blushing a bit? Do you see any of the warning signs?

WHAT ARE ITS RESULTS?

Now that we’ve learned that gluttony is a matter of the heart before a habit of the stomach and that it’s the enjoyment of food untethered from contentment in God as our first love, we are ready to see the devastating effects of godless gluttony. There are two reasons we need to spend time here. First, because Solomon spilt most of his ink on the devastating results of gluttony. Second, because gluttony is a very difficult sin to slay and seeing the devastating effects that gluttony can have on our lives helps motivate us to turn to Christ to receive grace to help us drive a fresh nail through the sin of gluttony every day. So, what are the devestating results of godless gluttony?

Gluttony leaves you vulnerable to danger

Proverbs 25:28 – A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Without walls and Holy Spirit empowered self-control, we are vulnerable to danger. Mindlessly eating is dangerous. Over-eating is dangerous. Under-eating is dangerous. Godless gluttony is devastating.

Gluttony compromises your health and, therefore, your capacity to glorify God and enjoy Him.

Proverbs 25:16 – If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it. The short-term effects of gluttony are the food that you think you’re enjoying makes you feel sick, makes you unnecessarily tired, and makes it harder to get out of bed with ample energy the next morning. Long-term, gluttony may lead to obesity, chronic illness and early death. It’s a deadly sin. Gluttony is poor stewardship of the bodies that God has given us to use for his glory and our joy in Him. Godless gluttony is devastating.

Gluttony can cost you your respectability

Proverbs 23:1-3 – When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. 3 Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. Commenting on this verse, OT scholars Bruce Waltke and Ivan Da Silva write, “It appears the official is treating you to a sumptuous dinner, in which case desiring the joyous cuisine would be appropriate. But in truth, the official is testing your character: whether you are able to restrain your appetite when tempted.” Gluttony can cost you respectability in the eyes of people whose respect is very important. Respectability is a big deal. In fact, included in the character qualifications for elders or pastors 1 Timothy 3 is that they be respectable and well thought of by outsiders. Gluttony can cost you that. It’s devastating.

Gluttony can cost you money that could be stewarded for God’s glory and your true enjoyment.

Proverbs 21:17 – Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. It’s a wonderful thing to occasionally treat yourself to rich food and good drink. However, when treating yourself becomes normative and everyday is a cheat day, then nothing is really a treat and God’s resources are squandered. I know that many of you would like to purchase a home, get out of credit card debt, or increase your giving by a percent or two this year. That’s awesome. That’s wise stewardship. Pro tip for one way to get there fast: Drink alcohol only once a month and go out to eat only once a quarter. Make it special; it’s good stewardship.

Gluttony will lead to bad character and may get you a beating

Proverbs 20:1 – Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. Gluttony in the area of alcohol can cause you to act in ways that are very foolish. Beer muscles can quickly get you beaten up by someone who has real muscles.

Godless gluttony is devastating. It’s poor stewardship of you God-given body, reputation, and resources. Seeing the devastating effects of gluttony is not meant to discourage us, but to drive us to Christ who can help us overcome it. We are ready for our final question.

HOW DO WE OVERCOME IT?

Well, let’s remember what Proverbs has helped us see that gluttony is. Gluttony is the enjoyment of food and drink that has become untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life. Therefore, We overcome gluttony by retethering our enjoyment of food and drink to contentment in God as the governing love of our life. Ok – now we are ready to pan out from Proverbs and learn four steps to retethering our enjoyment of food and drink to contentment in God as the governing love of our life.

First, become a genuinely converted Christian. Christian conversion is the creation of a new worshiper. Listen to the way 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 describes Christian conversion: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, [10] and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. The first and most fundamental way to retether your enjoyment of food and drink to contentment in God is to be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Sin separates us from God. Apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ that we receive by faith, food and drink will be another way we fill the void, either through over-indulging or controlling and restricting. And since gluttony is a sin against God and an abuse of his good gift of food and drink, we can only be saved from the sin of gluttony and free from its power by true faith in Jesus Christ who lived, died, and rose for our sins. To retether food and drink to God as the all-governing love of your life, you need to first be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Are you converted? Repent of your sin and put your trust in Jesus Christ to forgive you and reconcile you to God as the all-controlling love of your life.

Second, receive your food with thanksgiving to God for His gift. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 – For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, [5] for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. Receiving your food with thanksgiving is about far more than saying a perfunctory, obligatory, fast paced prayer before you eat. Instead, for a few sacred moments genuinely thank God for faithfully providing you with a meal to enjoy and nourish your body. It’s a gift and we enjoy gifts most when we thank the Giver. And then as you eat, slow down enough to not just consume, but to delight in the gift, the human giver (the chef) and the divine giver (your Heavenly Father). Receiving your food with thanksgiving can sound like saying throughout the meal, “How good of God to give me taste buds and putting glorious favors into food and the ability to cook ingredients into a meal.” Eat slow enough to trace the sunbeams back to the sun. In her book Broken Bread Tilly Dillehay writes, “The true answer to gluttony has much more in common with feasting than with dieting. . . . It is becoming more and more a child who receives, and less and less a parent who withholds (from ourselves and those around us). It is sitting quietly and with full presence of mind, glorying in tastes that were created by a good God, instead of fearing and distrusting tastes that were made too good by a good God. The answer to gluttony is knowing when enough is enough, learning the feel of a wave passing, and growing in the wisdom that looks to the next wave from God with satisfaction, contentment, and readiness. When you eat before the face of God, then you know when God is clearly indicating that you’ve had enough. When you receive your food with thanksgiving, then you can begin to find freedom from restricting. Food is not god or gross, but a gift.

Third, feast on God by fasting. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ begins a sentence by saying, “When you fast…” The Lord Jesus Christ assumes that his disciples will be fasting. Fasting is not about restricting food in order to look great and feel better. Fasting is about learning to feast on Jesus Christ as the governing first-love of your life. And fasting frees up time to spend more time reading the word of Christ, praying in the name of Christ, and enjoying the peace and presence of Christ. Providentially, the Citylight staff already planned to fast this Wednesday in order to devote extra time to prayer over the challenges we are facing on the construction project on the building on Main Stree that will be our long-term home. Would you consider fasting from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday so that you can feast on Jesus and pray for the construction project on our new building.

Finally, participate in the Lord’s Supper regularly. The Lord’s Supper, the bread symbolizing Christ’s body broken for us and the cup symbolizing his blood shed for us, remind us that we need Christ far more than food. About the Lord’s Supper, the Protestant Reformer John Calvin wrote, “Now Christ is the only food of our soul, and therefore our Heavenly Father invites us to Christ, that, refreshed by partaking of him, we may repeatedly gather strength until we shall have reached heavenly immortality.” The Lord’s Supper reminds us that Christ is our true food and drink and that the true feast is yet to come. When the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper he said that he would drink of the fruit of the vine again with his disciples in His eternal Kingdom. The Supper reminds us that there is an eternal feast to come with our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, we do not have to use or avoid food to fill the void. So, let’s celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.