When a relationship becomes the center of your identity, it can feel like everything rises and falls with it. This story shows what happens when that place is given back to God—and how true freedom begins.

It seems in this fast changing world, that laziness couldn't possibly be a problem anymore. But certain people are truly prone to this sin. But they are and that's why it is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly today.

We all have patches in life where we need to take our foot off the pedal, just a bit. That's natural, we can't keep running at a million miles an hour, otherwise we'd burn out. Then we're no good to ourselves or anyone else for that matter.

So yes, we all need to take a breather and make sure that we have plenty of rest and recreation. But sometimes, sometimes that kind of slips over the line and too much R and R, well we have a name for that. It's called laziness. Sloth in the old fashioned language. I like the sound of that word, 'sloth'. It's pretty confronting.

And as we're going to see on the program today, some people are more prone to laziness than others. And laziness, well it's like a disease or a cancer. Laziness turns us into couch potatoes. Instead of cooking, we watch TV shows about cooking. Instead of travelling, we watch shows about travelling. Instead of gardening, we watch other people doing gardening.

Instead of having a life, we watch other people having a life and kind of kid ourselves that we have a life too. But here's the paradox; laziness doesn't revive us like rest should. Laziness robs us. It drains us. It drains the life out of us. Whether in yesteryear when we called it sloth or today we call it laziness, doesn't matter what we call it, it robs us of life and it's deadly.

Berni: Well Keith, welcome to the program again today. Tell us about this "sloth" thing, didn't you love that word?

Keith: Yes.

Berni: They used to call it sloth, laziness.

Keith: That's right. Well we're all lazy up to a point. As you said, we have to rest. But laziness, in this term doesn't just mean lying on the couch watching the TV, eating chocolates, right. You can be very busy but you can be lazy.

Berni: Explain that.

Keith: Well, laziness in this term is more talking about putting off what you should do. You could be something else right, I should go and mow the lawn but I won't, I'll actually do something else. You know, there's priorities in life, there's big things that we should do and laziness is more talking about putting those things off 'til tomorrow.

Berni: So you never get around to it?

Keith: Yeah and tomorrow comes and you might put it off until the next day.

Berni: Okay. So why, why are some people more prone to that than others?

Keith: In personality, the one that Romans 12 calls "a teacher" is the one most prone to laziness because their priority is really to relate to people. They're the real relationship people. That's why they're called teachers. It doesn't mean they have to teach or they're the best teachers. But they really relate to spending time with people.

Therefore, if they have a priority of having to go to work or having to wash the car or do something and somebody calls up and says, "Lets go for a drink or a cup of tea", they're more likely to take the cup of tea option rather than what they should do.

Berni: So it's kind of like they're lazy about the mundane things in life that aren't the relationship orientated things which they enjoy.

Keith: Exactly. They're called the "procrastinators" and that's a really good description of them.

Berni: Oh, procrastinators drive me nuts (Both laugh)

Keith: You're the action person, the leader.

Berni: All you procrastinators out there watch out. (Said with humour)

Keith: But the funny part about it, you come from will Berni, the leader but they also come from will. Well ... they're wills first. But their will is to get along with people.

Berni: Yep.

Keith: So they will put off other things and not do what they should do. Now

Achieving lasting change in your life ain't easy. You want to ditch some bad habit and replace it with a good one, but what a struggle that can be. Yep, producing lasting fruit in your life - good fruit - is quite the challenge!

Fruit's a great way to understand the good things we want to cultivate in our lives. Because we know, inherently, that fruit is good. I mean, strawberries, raspberries, and figs are wonderful, aren't they – beautiful, sweet, bursting with promise.

And yet, their beauty is short-lived. Strawberries begin to spoil within a day, raspberries collapse into mould almost overnight, and figs last scarcely longer. Their sweetness fades as quickly as it appears.

It's the same with the joy we so long for - fleeting, fragile, gone before you know it. But here, the Apostle Paul speaks of a different kind of fruit … the sort that lasts.

Galatians 5:22-23 … the fruit that the Spirit produces in a person's life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That's quite the list, and prominent amongst it is the fruit of joy, because frankly, unless you're enjoying them, new habits are impossible to sustain, wouldn't you agree?

Like strawberries, raspberries and figs, every item on that list is inherently good. But would you please notice with me that the fruit Paul speaks of isn't fruit that we grow out of our own strength, but the fruit that the Spirit produces in our lives.

And right up there, amidst all the good fruit that God wants to cultivate in your life … is joy. Complete, abundant, eternal joy.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Why do people who do wrong seem to succeed while you’re trying to do what’s right? Psalm 73 speaks directly to that struggle.

What are the things, the experiences, the possessions, the aspirations, that you value most? Come on, what are they? Now, let me ask you - and please be brutally honest with yourself here - do they actually fulfil you? Are they delivering what you'd hoped they would … or not?

Francis of Assisi was born into incredible wealth and privilege - luxury, fine clothes, banquets, influence. But after being wounded in battle, during his long recovery, he began questioning the emptiness of luxury and privilege. He found himself drawn instead to prayer, solitude and, of all things, serving lepers — people his old life would have despised.

Following a profound encounter with Christ, he renounced his inheritance and instead chose a life of radical poverty, preaching, and service to the poor.

As much as we may aspire to wealth, comfort, and influence … deep down we know that no matter how pleasurable they appear, they can never satisfy the deepest longings of our soul. Writes the Apostle Paul to the church in Rome:

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

That was about some disputes in the early church, but it also carries with it this universal truth: that life was never about the things of this world. They're impostors at best, cruel plunders at worst.

Francis exchanged the fleeting pleasures of this world for the deeper reality of God's kingdom — righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit.

God's kingdom - His reign in our lives when we willingly give ourselves over to Him - isn't that of a despotic dictator. No, the kingdom of God is a kingdom of joy.

Joy, pure joy, is the defining mark of life under God's reign

That's His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

Greed these days, at least in some circles, is almost a virtue, not a sin. And yet greed is such a destructive force in this world. That's why greed is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly.

One of the most fascinating creatures alive on this earth is the stock market because it's a place where people trade shares in companies and it behaves so irrationally.

During the so called "dot com" boom, a few years back, people were paying exorbitant amounts of money for shares in companies that were losing money, hand over fist. It was all about getting a stake in the new economy, it was all about greed.

And then, during the huge boom that followed, people behaved as though there's no tomorrow. Eat, drink, be merry, they couldn't imagine another recession. But as surely as God made little green apples, it came. And billions, no trillions of dollars were wiped off the stock markets of the world in a matter of days.

Now, don't get me wrong, I believe very much in hard work and free enterprise. But if there were ever a beast that was like a massive neon sign advertising humanity's greed, it would have to be the stock market.

Fortunes made and lost. It seems that in the good times, greed isn't a sin or a vice, it's almost, well we applaud it. But when the bad times come, as surely they do, what we discover is this; greed is a sin and it's still deadly today.

Berni: Keith Henry, what do you think about greed?

Keith: Greed is one of those things that is very little understood because what you just described there could also be gluttony, where you want more money at the stock market. Greed, in this context, in terms of our personality, is not so much about wanting more; it's more about hoarding what you have.

It's being greedy and not sharing it because you don't think you'll have enough, right. So greed actually, is not gluttony, it's the opposite, it's actually hoarding. The problem here is, greed brings about fear or it's related to fear and with this greed, you hoard it so that you don't give it away, that you'll be able to survive.

Berni: Okay, not sharing nicely with the other children.

Keith: That's right.

Berni: Interesting, some proverbs, Proverb 15:27 says:

A greedy man brings trouble to his family but he who hates bribes will live.

And Proverbs 28:25:

A greedy man stirs up dissention but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

So it's interesting, it's what you're saying, it's this hoarding mentality that "I won't share and I won't give away" because God does call us to give a lot of what we get away.

Keith: That's right and that's where we hold onto it, I know I'll only give ten dollars in the plate today instead of a hundred because I might need the rest, I'll go for lunch, right, I need it for that. So it's not gluttony, greed is something, is based on fear, it's a fear that I won't have enough. It's a fear that actually, in the Bible, says, "if you doubt and have fear, you just won't prosper."

Berni: Fear's a destructive thing.

Keith: Totally destructive, one of the most destructive things and this is what greed's referring to, the destruction of fear and doubt.

Berni: So who, what sort of personality type, because over the last few days, what you've been telling us is, each of these particular 7 deadly sins is kind of hooked to one of the particular personality types. Some people are more prone to this than others. Who's the person who's most prone to greed?

Keith: The server.

Berni: Now that surprises me. (Keith laughs) Why the server?

Keith: Well the server is, comes from thinking, right. First of all they think a lot, more than any other type of personality and when you think, it's very easy to have fear because you think of what could go wrong. It's also, the server's not

When God’s ways feel confusing, you’re invited to trust something deeper than your understanding.

Joy - deep, abiding joy - is simply the most wondrous thing. Not happiness. Happiness ebbs and flows depending on your circumstances. Joy, on the other hand, sticks with you through all your ups and downs.

With all my heart, I know that God wants you to live in His deep, abiding joy … for every minute of every day for the rest of your life. And that joy isn't something you conjure up on your own; it's transferred into the deepest recesses of your being by Jesus Himself.

If you've ever enjoyed cool air from an air conditioner on a sweltering hot day, you've benefited from the physics of heat exchange. Hot and cool fluids run through separate channels; heat passes through a thin wall so the hot side is cooled, and the cool side becomes refreshingly cold.

That's how Jesus describes His joy transfer to His fearful followers on the night before His crucifixion:

John 15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. (NRSV)

He doesn't merely cheer us on from a distance — He transfers His own joy into us. His joy flows into our weary hearts, filling us with what He Himself carries, so that our joy too may be complete.

Do you see the transfer, the exchange that He's describing?

… my joy … in you … so that your joy … may be complete.

But like a heat exchange, the joy exchange depends on proximity, on being close to Jesus, on abiding in Him, on listening to Him, on obeying Him. That's how the joy exchange happens - through closeness and intimacy.

May Jesus' joy in you … be complete.

That's God's Word. Fresh … for you … today.

We rarely think of overeating – gluttony – as being one of the seven deadly sins. But it is. People are eating themselves to death. I know – I used to be one of them. Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly.

There's a certain brand of chocolate biscuits that you can buy in Australia, where I live. They're called Tim Tams. Now it's two biscuit wafers with a chocolate layer in between and the whole things wrapped in a casing of chocolate. And if I were to point to any food that I have an addiction to, Tim Tams would be it. Just as I talk about them I can picture them, smell them and feel the taste as they crunch around in my mouth.

Now of course, there's nothing wrong with the odd Tim Tam or any other food for that matter. In fact, without food we'd die of starvation and one of the amazing things that God's done, is that He's given us such an amazing variety of food.

Cereals, meats, vegetables, herbs, spices in an endless array, I mean incredible. One of the things I love to do is to try and cook a nice meal for my family, on weekends and to be creative. I love Thai food and Hungarian Goulash, fabulous.

But, and there is a "but", in western society today, we're eating ourselves to death. Obesity is rocketing and whilst people are living longer, on the whole, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, they're all on the increase.

Gluttony is not word we like to use, so old fashioned it seems, so judgemental. But gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins and whether we like it today or not, even in modern society, it's still deadly.

Berni: Well Keith, welcome to the program.

Keith: Thanks Berni.

Berni: We're talking about gluttony today. Tell us about gluttony, what's gluttony all about? Why, why do we over eat? What's motivating us to do that?

Keith: We want more and more and more basically and gluttony is basically about seeking what's pleasurable for you.

Berni: Okay,

Keith: You become a pleasure seeker so that you want more pleasure and less responsibility.

Berni: Well that fits pretty well with the sort of thinking of our times, doesn't it? You watch the ads on TV and it's all about 'you' isn't it?

Keith: It is, that's right; what you can get, what you can have. These are the consumers that use gluttony, they want to consume and use everything that they can.

Berni: Okay, so are you saying it's more than just food?

Keith: Yes it is. If we look at the 'encourager', their 7 deadly sin, the one that they major in, is gluttony because they want to consume as much as they can, they want to have as many ideas as they can. They want to keep moving, they don't want to stop moving because they have to think about what they're doing.

Berni: Hang on, let me just stop and think about that for a moment. The "encourager", tell me a bit about the "encourager", 'cause encouragers sound good.

Keith: Well they are, though they're happy people, the entertainers, the people at school when you went to school, they were always the stars. They could do anything, they never had to try, they're just good at school, good at sport, friends with everyone.

The trouble is, because they don't have to work hard at things, they're usually quite talented people; they want to now enjoy life. They're the "Peter Pans" of this world, never grow up.

Berni: Ah, okay, so it's kind of, isn't it funny how the personality type has this particular virtue and when you say to someone, "do you like encouragers?" Our answer is, "absolutely, we do!" I mean who doesn't like to be around an encourager?

Keith: That's right.

Berni: If I was going to be shipwrecked on a desert island, I think I'd pick an encourager instead of a leader to be around because they're nice to be around and yet, somehow, I just want you to help me make this linkage here between the encourager and this, this sin

We all have a sense of what’s fair. But what happens when someone asks more than they should? Jesus invites us to respond in a way that can change how we see others.