Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:07 Well, good morning village church Easter.
Speaker 1 00:00:09 See you again. My name is crate Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church East. And it is my privilege to welcome you this morning to the time when we open God's word together. And we learn a little bit more about the 10 commandments. This is our last Sunday talking about the 10 commandments. I hope it's been as much of a challenge and blessing to you as it has been to me. I actually have really enjoyed doing this series with you. It's interesting to see. Usually when we talk to somebody, we say, what are your top 10 favorite things? What's your top 10 movies, which are top 10 restaurants. And so for this, it's like, what is God's top 10 commandments that he would give to us? And so he gives us his greatest top 10 lists, and it's been fun going through it and seeing how applicable it is to our lives.
Speaker 1 00:00:53 If you're with us online, welcome to all of you folks online. It is great to know that you're there and you're listening and worshiping with us as we lift our voices and praise God's name and hear from his word, God has been answering a lot of prayers that we have been praying here at village church East lately. And I don't know if you know this, you may not, you may not have been a recipient of some of the things that, uh, some of the news that we've been getting regarding the way that God has answered prayers, but even looking around here this morning, I see Darren's with us this morning, and that's just such an answer to prayer. And Sherry is here with us this morning and has had a very difficult week. I know with the family, but blessings to know we can rest in the promise that when our loved ones leave here, they wake up straight thing face to face with their savior, just blessings that we have been given in to know that we did a baptism.
Speaker 1 00:01:44 That was awesome a couple of weeks ago, if you missed that, that was one that I can almost guarantee you've never experienced a baptism like that before, but a powerful, powerful morning. And, and one that has now spurred us on to do another here coming up in Easter. So it's really interesting to see the way that God has been moving in our church. And I just want to say that I'm grateful to him and to you for all of your prayers. Uh, I know even that baptism that we did a couple of weeks ago represented the prayers of a faithful mom and wife for so many years, and God just continues to answer prayer. So let me encourage you. If you have a prayer request for us, you can fill that out on the side of the page online, or for those of you in house, you can jump online and fill out a prayer request.
Speaker 1 00:02:26 We also have a prayer booth over here, uh, at the end of the service. And if you would like to leave with just us praying over you before you go face another week, that's what we love to do as well. People will be over there to pray with you. Uh, we believe in the power of prayer. And so I want to just to cover that this morning, before we jumped in this one, are you ready? You ready to do the last of the 10 commandments? Now keep in mind, this is a nation that is not quite a nation yet. They don't have laws. They're not used to living together as a people. They don't have a flag. They don't, they don't rally around a common point. Other than God himself. They'd been slaves in Egypt. People with no names, no reputations, no futures, no families, no possessions, no, no thing that belongs to them.
Speaker 1 00:03:13 God has rescued them, brought them to Sinai. And now he gives them these 10 commandments that were to be the basis of their legal system. The basis of the way their nation was meant to function. All of these commandments have to do with what we call the Judeo Christian ethic. Have you heard that term before Judeo-Christian ethic? Well, this is where this all starts. This is the Jewish people receiving the laws of God upon which, by the way, the United States has structured our laws. We've structured them on a Judeo Christian ethic. Uh, people were in this case, uh, and, and this may read true with you. People were free. People could own their own stuff. People could own their own property and sell their own property. People could have a word with the government, have an input with the government. There was no dictating. Like there was an Egypt, there was fair taxation.
Speaker 1 00:04:11 People were taxed in this day. Did you know that they had to give a portion of their income? There? They were in a way they were building a nation very much. Like our nation has been structured here in the United States of America and everyone in the 10 commandments up to this point has understood. If they break the law, there would be legal repercussions for breaking the law of God. For instance, if you were caught stealing something and it were proven in a court of law, you have broken number seven. If you were caught, um, if you were caught killing somebody, murdering somebody, you have broken number six, you could go to a court of law and you could be convicted of breaking this law because it is foundational to a new nation. If you broke the Sabbath, it could be seen. It could be proven. If you've committed adultery, it could be seen.
Speaker 1 00:05:08 It could be proven. All of these things in the 10 commandments could be seen and could be proven. But this last one, this last one is not a sealable crime. This last one is a crime of the heart. It is different from all the rest in that. If you make an idol, other than, you know, God himself, if you create an idol, make an idol out of human hands, you've broken. Number three, if you break the Sabbath, you broken number four. I can see it. You can be penalized for it. But number 10, number 10 is very difficult to see it's a crime of the heart. It is where temptation takes place. And that is why I think God made it. Number 10. Do you know what number 10 is?
Speaker 2 00:05:59 Anyone know? You'll know in a minute, here it comes right here.
Speaker 1 00:06:04 So this 2017, you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife nor his male servant, nor his female servant nor his ox or his donkey or anything else that is yours.
Speaker 2 00:06:20 Neighbors, no coveting.
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Have you ever noticed how wonderful it is to give a gift to somebody? Have you experienced that? Like, it's fun getting gifts, but it's fun giving gifts as well. So I want you to imagine with me that you are planning to give a gift. You have two daughters. One is Sally and one is Sherry. These both have really interesting, uh, qualities, characteristics, and you have personally saved up for a special gift for them. Both. You want to make this really unique
Speaker 2 00:06:54 To them. Now, Sally,
Speaker 1 00:06:57 He has a love for creativity. She loves to color. She loves to paint. And so you have spent a lot of money on a, on a big painting structure for her. Something that she can use to express her creative side, a drawing set that she can dip into. That includes paint, brushes, and paints. And you feel like with this, you'll give her the most joy because she will begin to express herself the most that she can Sherry. On the other hand, Sherry loves music. And so you've decided to give Sherry a brand new set of iPods. I, what are they called? Ear pods, ear pods, sorry,
Speaker 2 00:07:32 Ear pods. All right. So,
Speaker 1 00:07:35 So you've saved up. You've planned ahead. This is going to be a big, you can tell I don't have AirPods, right? Yeah. This is going to be a big gift. And so the big day comes and you put the gifts in front of the two little girls and you say little girls, Sherry,
Speaker 2 00:07:51 Sally. I love you.
Speaker 1 00:07:53 And I wanted you to know how much I love you. I have spent my own money my own time. I have searched for what I think you will love the most. And now this is my way of expressing how much I love
Speaker 2 00:08:04 You. So Sherry,
Speaker 1 00:08:07 Why don't you go first? So Sherry opens her gift and it's a drawing set. It's got the paints, it's got the pallet. She can, she can draw these beautiful pictures and hang them around the house she flips and she screams. She's so
Speaker 2 00:08:19 Happy. Oh, was that Sally? Sorry, Sally. Sally so happy.
Speaker 1 00:08:28 And then Sherry opens her gifts and Sherry opens the ear pods and they're beautiful. And she's so happy. And Sally's face dry.
Speaker 2 00:08:38 Sally looks at, goes what?
Speaker 1 00:08:41 She gets ear pods. And I get this crummy drawing set and she throws it across the room and she thinks to herself, that's not fair. That's not fair that you get the more expensive gift you get. The more fun you get the funner gift. And I, this crummy drawing set. And the whole time you who have enjoyed these two children who have looked forward to this time, your heart drops. Why? Because you feel you didn't get them. What they really wanted. And they are not appreciative of what they've received. Sally has no idea how she's breaking your heart. This was much more than just a gift to you. This was a way that you would express your love to these two beautiful little girls. And now it is breaking your heart church to the great offense in the 10th commandment is that it calls into doubt what we think of God's generous heart. Let me say one more time. The great offense and the 10th commandment that it calls into doubt what we think of God's generous heart.
Speaker 1 00:09:49 Do you wonder why these commandments are structured? Like they are like, why does number 10 come last? Why does it where it comes? Why does number eight? Come where it comes? Why does only one God come first and then, and no coveting comes last. And I think it's intentional. Coveting is when we compare our lives that God, this one only God has given us to our neighbors life who that one and only God has given to them. Coveting is when we take that one and only God's gifts in our lives. And we look at our neighbors and we say, my gifts aren't as nice as their gifts. I want theirs. And I think when we do that, we break the heart of it. Generous, loving God. And the truth does, if you're not satisfied with God, you will end up kicking it out on your neighbor.
Speaker 1 00:10:39 At some point, Jesus used these two commandments, like a tea, like a piece of bread. If you look at the way that Jesus talked about the commandments, when he was asked about what is the command like, that's what we are. Okay. I know your top 10 list, but what's your, what's your favorite restaurant? These are your top 10 restaurants, but what's your favorite, right? Jesus was asked. What's your favorite commandment in Matthew? 22 verse 36 teacher. What is the greatest commandment in the law he's asked? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, how much church, if you're using all of those things. Like not much, right? That's all, all is all right. This is the great, and first commandment and verse 39. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commands, hang or depend all the law and the prophets.
Speaker 1 00:11:34 You know what Jesus did here. He summarized the first four and he summarized the last six. And he said, listen, here's the deal. Love God, love your neighbor. This is how the 10 commandments break down because all the hangs on loving God and loving your neighbor, like two pieces of bread, God puts together the sandwich so people can understand, this is how it's structured. This is how the law is structured. The first piece of the sandwich, the first piece of the bread is the loving God bit. And the bottom piece of bread is loving other bit. And the stuff in between is all the rest of the law. I always think in terms of food, because it just really applies so well. Don't you think what better illustration than a sandwich to show you what the law is like, love God love others and everything in between. We'll prove whether or not that's actually happening. You see, because if we love, God will keep his commandments. Jesus said that. And if we love our neighbors, we will not
Speaker 2 00:12:43 Covet.
Speaker 1 00:12:45 You will appreciate not just what God gives us, but we will appreciate what God gives to them. The last thing we would do is want what belongs to somebody else.
Speaker 2 00:12:56 This
Speaker 1 00:12:56 Is the hard one to cover because it deals not with breaking something in visual
Speaker 2 00:13:01 View. Usually
Speaker 1 00:13:04 This deals with what's beginning
Speaker 2 00:13:07 Several, several
Speaker 1 00:13:09 But years ago. I remember I went to the store and I got this green pepper. It was a beautiful green pepper. I brought it home and I wish I always liked to get the right green peppers because you got to slice them. And they got to, they got to have the, just that little crispy crack crack when you open them. Right? And you don't want the soggy little things. And this one was just an, and it, how all the fake chemicals on the outside. So it glistened in the light. It was perfect. And I took it home and I couldn't wait to do a little stir fry to go along with my steak. And I cut into it. And the inside of this green pepper let out this horrific smell. It had rotted on the inside, but the outside looked phenomenal sometimes in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:13:51 This is what happens with our hearts. Coveting is a very difficult one to gauge because it happens in here. It's hard to see out here. It's hard to know whether or not we are actually coveting because it's an insidious sin that begins so deep inside each one of us, Jesus knew it was insidious. And that's why he said in Luke 12 verse 15, take care, be on guard against covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. One's life. Doesn't consist in the abundance of ear. Pods, take care guard against covetousness. Jesus knew this was a dangerous one.
Speaker 2 00:14:36 Now you may be thinking of yourself, Craig, Craig, Craig, Craig, you're making too much of this. This is
Speaker 1 00:14:41 Isn't like this. Isn't like the biggies like this. Isn't like the sexual sins. This isn't like the big ones. Ha I beg to differ.
Speaker 2 00:14:52 If he's in his five, three is going to blow you away. It says sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. It is not proper for the saints. How seriously do you think this is? When Jesus says guard against it? When the new Testament says, this is on the same list as sexual impurity, don't even let that stuff be named among you. I got to think it's pretty important when you, why is this one so bad?
Speaker 1 00:15:31 Because it lays down the soil of doubt in our lives that God is not as good to us as he really
Speaker 2 00:15:37 Should be.
Speaker 1 00:15:40 This is where we start tilling the soil of doubt in our lives. When we begin to think to ourselves, why is God so good?
Speaker 2 00:15:47 Um, and not as good to me. I mean, look at me. I deserve it. I need it. They don't even appreciate it. And we till the soil of covetousness, unknowingly, doubting the goodness of God, what is coveting proper?
Speaker 1 00:16:10 The definition of coveting is to long for to last after or my
Speaker 2 00:16:15 Favorite to pant after I love that one
Speaker 1 00:16:20 Is to pant after something, it means an intense yearning for what God has not yet.
Speaker 2 00:16:26 It's given to me. It's the burn of the yearn.
Speaker 1 00:16:30 It's what drives my inner being to compare what others have to, what I have.
Speaker 2 00:16:36 And to want more. Now you might say,
Speaker 1 00:16:40 Craig, I don't know if I really struggle here. I mean, look at the verse. It says don't covet your neighbor's donkey. I haven't really ever coveted a donkey before. Well join the club. Neither have I. In fact, no donkey for me is better than any donkey at all. So you may be thinking, well, Craig, look at this verse. I don't cover my, I don't covet my neighbor's donkey. And I don't believe in female or male servants. And I don't need an oxic Sept. If I want a steak, I don't really need those things.
Speaker 2 00:17:08 Yes. Well you have to look at it like the time period that these guys are in and let me translate this so that we all understand the list because I think maybe it does apply more than we think the first thing is you shall not covet your neighbor's house, which means everything inside his house. Have you ever coveted your neighbors possessions as never happened to you?
Speaker 1 00:17:39 Your neighbor's house means possessions. Anything that they, how about your neighbors?
Speaker 2 00:17:46 How about,
Speaker 1 00:17:47 How about a spouse that is married somebody else and you're thinking to yourself. Hmm. Yeah, that that'd be good for me. Coveting your neighbor's spouse. How about a standard of living his male servant or his female servant? And in these days you could translate servant as employees. They were treated very well. Not like slavery that were talked about today. There were rules for having slaves in the Jewish system and no Jews actually were allowed to be slaves because they had been rescued from that.
Speaker 0 00:18:22 This speaks
Speaker 1 00:18:23 About a standard of living. If you had male slaves or male, female slaves, you obviously were able to have a workforce. You were able to have people that plowed your land for you that worked your animals for you, that worked your farm for you. So what this means is this as a standard of living, have you ever coveted somebody's standard of living? How about wealth, his ox or his donkey speaks of people that could own these animals that could work the soil because you could be out there all by yourself, work in the soil, or you could get, save up a little bit and buy an ox or a donkey and do it better. You see it's like having a tractor or it's like having, it's like having wealth, you able to spend money so that you could do more. And then the last thing or anything that is your neighbors kind of covers it all in case I missed anything. Anything else your neighbor has? Don't covet that.
Speaker 1 00:19:18 In fact, if you look at it in this way, we might actually break this one more than any of the others. Listen, we live in a world where the marketplace says, you need this to keep up with your neighbors. That's how I, Sonia stuff, right? You need this. If you're going to keep up with everything, this is my regular conversation with one of our elders who shall go nameless. When I sit down with him and I say, dude, I almost said his name, but I'm not going to say his name. I said, you gotta keep up with technology, dude. You got to keep up with it. He knows who he is.
Speaker 0 00:19:56 This
Speaker 1 00:19:56 Is, this is the idea that, uh, that, that the world tries to sell us. You can't live unless you have the latest, the greatest, the best, the shiniest, whatever it is. Our main question is not, what does God want for me? Our main question becomes, why do they have it? And I don't.
Speaker 1 00:20:20 I saw this interview on CNN. This happens even in the church, a very popular preacher was being interviewed by Larry King. So it tells you as a while ago, Larry King interviewed this man. He was a preacher, very popular one that shall go on named. And he said, in this interview, he said, Larry Allah, because like I said to him, that Larry said, well, what does God want from us? And Larry said, God wants your kids to go to college. God wants you to have a nice house. God wants you to have a nice car going to want you to be and be healthy. Listen, I would go to his church when you, and there's, there's a, you can get an ear full of covetous preaching. Every single day,
Speaker 2 00:20:59 Churches are full of people who wanted their ears, their itching, ears, scrapped
Speaker 1 00:21:05 With this kind of stuff. They'd have a real problem with Jesus. Don't you think when Jesus said, if you want to follow me, you gotta be willing to die.
Speaker 2 00:21:13 It's a little different message. Don't you think
Speaker 1 00:21:17 Covetousness builds on self-interest rather than the interest of God or his covenant community.
Speaker 2 00:21:25 Israel
Speaker 1 00:21:25 Was about to enter a land. That's flowing with milk and honey. Now that again doesn't mean much to us because we can't picture land flowing with milk and honey. But in this day, what that meant was it is full of, of riches, agricultural prosperous areas. It's full of minerals. It's full of, I mean, do you, you do know that Israel is the most fought over land on the planet. This, this is an amazing chunk of land, especially in this day because they didn't of course know the rest of the world. But in this day it was the place where you remember when the, when, when the spies went in and they saw grapes and they would say the grapes are as big as cantaloupes.
Speaker 2 00:22:08 These
Speaker 1 00:22:08 Canaanites who lived in this land, lived in a land that had everything. And these Canaanites ruthless, Canaanites had everything. They stole all their stuff that they had. They lived in a land that wouldn't quit. These Canaanites had everything that they wanted. And when they built idols, it showed cause they would build these idols and they would cover them in pure gold. These idols were worth hundreds and thousands of dollars and they would prop them up all over the place. And you could go to these idols and you can worship these idols. The land was full of riches. These Canaanites lived there and the Israelites were supposed to come in and make it their own. And the temptation of Israel when they did that would be the envy, the lives of the rich and famous. And instead of taking the land for God, they would be tempted to take that land and all those riches for themselves.
Speaker 1 00:23:01 And God knew this. So he told them to do something with the idols. You are not going to believe. He said, when you come into the land and you see all the riches of these Canaanites and you see the way that they live in and all of these prosperous things, all of these things you can take by what, when you come across these idols that were the pinnacle of their expletives, about their wealth, it was the exclamation point of their wealth. When you see those idols covered with gold worth, hundreds of thousands of dollars, God said, I want you to destroy them, completely grind them to dust. And don't ever bring that gold into your home. And for goodness sakes, don't ever bring it into the house of God.
Speaker 2 00:23:46 In Deuteronomy
Speaker 1 00:23:46 Seven 25, it says the carved images of their gods. You shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is in them, or take it for yourselves less. You be ensnared by it for it is an abomination to the Lord. Your God, as soon as
Speaker 2 00:23:59 They found it, they were destroy. It never use that. Gold never used that silver burn at
Speaker 1 00:24:05 All. Why? Because it will begin to birth
Speaker 2 00:24:08 A twisted heart of envy within them. When you empty the lives of the wicked, you will abandon the best things God has given to you.
Speaker 1 00:24:19 When you end me the lives of the wicked, you will abandon the best things of God has given to you. They won't seem as nice,
Speaker 2 00:24:25 Nice as pods. Here's some
Speaker 1 00:24:30 Dangers of coveting. Number one, coveting is very hard to gauge. It's very hard to gauge. We don't even know we're coveting. Sometimes when we actually covet. I remember this wizard of ed. You ever, you ever see the wizard of ed comics that I saw this one, great wizard of ID concept. And I look for it so I can put it up here, but I couldn't find it. But there was a monk putting up a sign on a bulletin board in front of his church while another monk watches from behind him and the sign reads what they're going to be talking about that Sunday, it reads thou shalt, not covet. And the monk behind him says, boy, I sure wish we had a sign board like that at our church. We don't even know where coveting when we actually are coveting. The heart is where the battle rages in it. And it goes back as old as the garden of Eden, when Eve was in the garden of Eden, God made all of those fruit, all of that vegetation, all of that land. Can you imagine an unpolluted world where like you could drop a seed and Puente there's something there the next day. It's it's like, it was, it was just
Speaker 2 00:25:29 Sure. Prosperity at her fingertips.
Speaker 1 00:25:34 And by the time she arrived, there's fruit everywhere, but there was one tree that she wasn't allowed to eat from. Do you remember this story?
Speaker 2 00:25:43 She could
Speaker 1 00:25:44 Have lived happily in the garden. She could add everything. She couldn't she'd needed nothing, but then St he showed up and convinced her.
Speaker 2 00:25:52 She was missing one thing.
Speaker 1 00:25:55 It's the one thing, God didn't give her. It's a one thing. God wouldn't let her have. And Satan convinced her. The grass was greener in the other side, or the Apple was redder than the other trees. However you want to say it. And in Genesis three, verse six, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was get this a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired, to make one
Speaker 2 00:26:21 Wise, she took of its fruit and ate and gave to some, to her husband who was with her. And he ate. And that plunged humanity into deprivation, rebel, living, sinful desires,
Speaker 1 00:26:38 Just this lays down the soil of our doubt in our lives. That God is not as good as he claims to
Speaker 0 00:26:44 Be.
Speaker 1 00:26:47 We begin to believe the lie. My life would be better if only danger. Number two, coveting blinds us to what we already have. Psalm 84 11 says the Lord is God. The Lord, God is a sun and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing. Does he withhold from those who walk? Uprightly I love that verse covering makes us call into question how good God really is. It makes us shake a fist at God and say, God needs to be better to me because he's better to them. Matthew six 30, if God, so clothes, the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven. Jesus says, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. Most of us get our idea for what we need, not based on what we need, but what based on what somebody else is selling. Do you know, do you want to take a guess at how much the average ad costs during the super bowl? 2021 anyone know
Speaker 0 00:27:54 0.6?
Speaker 1 00:27:57 Nope. The average is $5.6 million for 30 seconds. Do you know why people pay that? Because they think they can convince you what you need. Coveting blinds us to what we already have, because it drives us to compare to somebody else. Wives, think they need a husband that their friend has, who cooks dinner for them. Men want a wife that understands them like the movies, portray kids want an allowance that compares with the allowance that their friends get and on and on and on a ghost. Listen, this is the task of every politician. You know this right? The task of every politician is to scratch your itch of covetousness. Their goal is to simply one phrase. They don't even have to come up with any cool phrases anymore. All they need to say is, look, what blank has. Don't you think you deserve that too? And they got your vote and deep down, you know, they're lying. You know, it's not true, but it might be. And their goal is to get your vote and they'll tell you anything. But the quickest way to get your vote is to get you to be covetousness. Covetous of your neighbor, look at what your neighbor has. Don't you deserve that too. If you vote for me, I'll get it for you.
Speaker 1 00:29:27 We let ourselves believe a lie because it appeals to our covetous heart. And listen, you can not promote justice in a society by encouraging people to indulge in such a vice as envy. You just can't do it. That society will
Speaker 0 00:29:42 Quickly.
Speaker 1 00:29:43 I saw a gangster movie once. I can't remember the name, but this guy, this gangster was selling his soul for money, fame, power. He was ripping his neighbors off. He was killing his neighbors. He was stealing stealing money. He had a partner who finally had an enough, enough of the carnage enough of the crime. And his partner came to him and they had a really heart to heart conversation. As partner says, I've had it. I can't do all this murdering. I can't do all the stealing anymore. I can't keep up with this. I, I I'm trying to convince you. Let's get out. Let's let's we've got enough. Let's let's get out. And the other guy said, no, I'm not getting out. I'm staying right here. I, I like what I'm doing. And the conversation goes on to the point that I'll never forget, although I do it and forget the name of the movie, but I'll never forget the conversation because the guy looks at his partner and he simply says this. When is it going to be enough?
Speaker 0 00:30:34 What are you
Speaker 1 00:30:35 Hoping to achieve with all this bloodshed? What do you want? And the guy answered him one word
Speaker 0 00:30:41 More, more,
Speaker 1 00:30:48 And moves our priorities from glorifying God to getting
Speaker 0 00:30:52 More.
Speaker 1 00:30:58 Let me ask you a question. What do you really need? What do you not, not. What do you want now? What do you hope for?
Speaker 0 00:31:06 But what do you really need?
Speaker 1 00:31:08 How do you need a couple of pieces of paper for this? Like if you were to write it down, if you were just to write it down right now at home, what if you were to write it down? Like, would you need like a, a whole legal pad? Would you just need one sheet? Would you just need one phrase? What are you really just need?
Speaker 1 00:31:26 We're going to finish a song, the service with a song I love because it reminds me of what we need, but it's not just in the song. It comes straight out of God's word. First Timothy six, six says this godliness with contentment is great gain church. Would you say that phrase with me? Because it's a, it's a keeper. All right, here we go. Godliness with contentment is great game. Let me finish it for, we brought nothing into the world and here's some news guys. We take nothing with us, but if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. Listen, church. If you get anything from God, it's only because he is generous, But he blinds us to this truth. We just want more and be careful because the more you want, the more of your soul, you're willing to sell danger. Number three, coveting blinds us from having the correct view toward others.
Speaker 1 00:32:37 Coveting puts us in competition with our neighbor. We no longer look at our neighbor and love them as ourselves. Do you remember that? Like Jesus said that all the time. We no longer look at our neighbor and love him as ourselves. No, no, no, no. Remember that's the second greatest commandment. Remember that? Jesus summarizes it. I love your neighbors yourself. We see our neighbor as our nemesis. He's our obstacle. He's the one that we're jealous about. You remember the song? Jessie's girl. Jessie's girl. It's quintessential song about coveting. Jesse is a friend. Yeah, I know he's been a good friend of mine, but lately something's changed and it ain't hard to define. Jesse's got himself, a girl and I want to make her mind. And I'm looking in the mirror all the time. Wondering what she don't see in me. Really good language. Really good English. I've been funny. I've been cool with the lines. Ain't that what Love's supposed to be? I, you know, I wish I had Jessie's girl. I wished that I had Jessie's girl. Why can't I find a woman like that? This is the first time you've ever heard somebody. Quote Jessie's girl in church. Isn't it. And when we said
Speaker 1 00:33:47 We can, we can laugh at that. But
Speaker 0 00:33:49 Someone wrote those lyrics. Someone actually sat down and wrote those lyrics. This is the heart cry
Speaker 1 00:33:59 Of an individual. And I don't know who it is. I was tempted to look at, but I'd have to pray for him. The rest of my life.
Speaker 0 00:34:06 This is
Speaker 1 00:34:07 Somebody who wants something that belongs to somebody else. We don't see our neighbor. As God sees them. We aren't happy for them. To a certain extent. They become hard our enemy because they stand in the way of us getting what we want. It reminds me of an old Russian parable, a poor peasants neighbor just bought a cow. The poor peasant could not afford the luxury of a cow. And he is eaten up by the fact that his neighbor had a cow he could not have. So he cries out to God in distress. He prays to God and God finally asked him after constant badgering, God finally asked him, what do you want me to do? And the answer was kill. My neighbor's cow
Speaker 1 00:34:54 Is he coveting turns our neighbor into our nemesis. We don't necessarily want what our neighbor has. We want more than they have. We doubt why they should have it. We call their character into question. Then we question God as to why he's not fair to us. Envy literally means, do you know what I mean? Li literally means it means evil eye. When you are envious towards your neighbor, you have an evil eye toward them. It's pretty hard to love your neighbor or even work beside them. When you regard his games as your loss, our covetous hearts turn our neighbors into our nemesis. Listen, you want a solution to this? Your solution is one
Speaker 2 00:35:38 Word, contentment,
Speaker 1 00:35:43 Contempt. Say it with me. It's really, it rolls off the tongue just said,
Speaker 2 00:35:47 Contentment,
Speaker 1 00:35:49 Timothy six, six to 12 says this godliness with contentment is great gain. We already talked about this. We brought nothing into the world. We're taking nothing out of the world, but if we have food and clothing with this, we will be content. Don't forget how you started the journey with nothing. You're going to end the same way
Speaker 2 00:36:06 With nothing verse nine. But
Speaker 1 00:36:12 Those who desire to be rich, fall into what church temptation into a white church.
Speaker 2 00:36:19 Snare. This is not looking good
Speaker 1 00:36:23 Desire to be rich, fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. Why? Because covetousness is inside the green
Speaker 2 00:36:37 And it eats away from the inside out
Speaker 1 00:36:40 Left unchecked. It could ruin you. It might just tempt you to abandon your faith.
Speaker 2 00:36:47 That's how serious this is. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:36:49 That's why most of you know, the next verse for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the what church
Speaker 2 00:37:01 You
Speaker 1 00:37:01 Ever known. People that have abandoned the faith because of covetousness.
Speaker 2 00:37:06 I do.
Speaker 1 00:37:08 And the list unfortunately, is continuing to grow
Speaker 2 00:37:13 Is true.
Speaker 1 00:37:13 This craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves through with many pains, listen church in our natural state, we are covetous people. So we must be vigilant because that's what happens in verse 11 as for you, Oh man of God flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love steadfastness. Gentleness sounds like the fruit of the spirit is doesn't it fight the good fight of faith. Use your faith to combat this
Speaker 2 00:37:44 Decrepit con pull toward taking away your guns,
Speaker 1 00:37:50 10 tenement and putting in covetousness. Use your faith to combat your spirit of envy. Because godliness with contentment is great gain. God wants to change our covetous hearts into contented hearts like that. God wants to change covetous hearts into contented heart.
Speaker 2 00:38:11 So what he can do it, the power of God
Speaker 1 00:38:14 Can change a covetous heart into a contended heart. Life is not about stuff. It's about God's glory. God
Speaker 2 00:38:22 It's fame, God's reputation. Our priorities just have to change.
Speaker 1 00:38:29 I'm reminded of this verse from Matthew six, which we kind of touched on before, but a good friend of mine, almost always this to me these days, Matthew six verse 19 says don't lay up for yourselves, treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break in and steal
Speaker 2 00:38:50 For where your treasure is. There is your heart. Also, in other words,
Speaker 1 00:38:56 <inaudible> put your stuff into action for God's glory. Notice that it says, would you put that verse up there one more time? Just the last part of it. It says where your heart
Speaker 2 00:39:05 Is, is where your treasure is true or false, false, where your treasure is. That is where your heart is. Don't you think it should be the other way around where your heart is.
Speaker 1 00:39:18 This is where your treasure is. It's not because God knows our hearts are pulled to our covetousness. So he says,
Speaker 2 00:39:24 Do an active thing, put your treasure where your heart is. In other words, put the action where you say, be it be a person of your word.
Speaker 1 00:39:36 If you say you love God, show me
Speaker 2 00:39:38 By where your treasure is. Put your treasure where your heart is because where your treasure is, is where you will find your heart. Your heart always follows. Whatever you treasure. Number two,
Speaker 1 00:39:51 God's promise God promises to provide you with everything you need. For a reason, God promises to provide everything we need for a reason, but it has nothing to do with what we can buy. It has to do
Speaker 2 00:40:02 With where our hearts are.
Speaker 1 00:40:05 Freedom from a covetous hearts is found by releasing
Speaker 2 00:40:09 A thankful heart.
Speaker 1 00:40:12 God gives you things for a reason and it's not. So you can want more things. God gives us things for a reason it's so that we can enjoy life and enjoy him. Did you know then look at this verse in Hebrews 13 five, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So apparently God is all I need. There's no other penetrating desire in my life. Other than for him. It's like, he's the only satisfaction guaranteed put on any box that actually follows through nothing else will give me lasting satisfaction other than Jesus Christ. And if you don't believe that, let me
Speaker 2 00:40:51 You on your death bed because you don't get to take your house with you or your car with you.
Speaker 1 00:40:57 You don't get to take whatever you value most in life.
Speaker 2 00:41:02 You got to take your relationship with God with you. That's it.
Speaker 1 00:41:08 Why does God give me some things in my life? And why does he give my neighbor? Other things? See if you can find the reason the first Timothy six, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be Hottie, not nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy, they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share thus, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that, which is eternal life. God gives us all good things so that we can enjoy this life. So if you're an enjoying life with what God has given to you, that's good. He loves that. Just like if you give gifts to Sherry and Sally and they were to open them and actually appreciate the gifts, your heart would be full of joy. God gives you the things so that you can enjoy them because when you enjoy them, you fill his heart with joy. When you use them, improperly, you fill his heart with sadness. AirPods are not meant to be run over by a car in the driveway. If Sally did that with her ear pods, my guess is you would have your heartbroken.
Speaker 2 00:42:16 That's not what
Speaker 1 00:42:17 They're for the, for enjoying life properly. And the other thing that gets me is not just are we giving things to enjoy life, but we are given things so that we can be ready.
Speaker 2 00:42:27 The two share,
Speaker 1 00:42:31 God loves a generous heart. There's one guy in a church that we served at for awhile.
Speaker 2 00:42:39 He was a car
Speaker 1 00:42:40 Guy. He knew everything about cars
Speaker 2 00:42:43 And I don't, and he knew it. And I knew it. And I'm man enough to admit it.
Speaker 1 00:42:49 And so he said, Craig, as long as I'm here and you're here,
Speaker 2 00:42:53 We'll take care of your cars.
Speaker 1 00:42:56 Every time I had this problem with my car, he, in fact he would come in before I even had probably he would say, did you get your oil change? I've gone. Ah, it's been six months now. I've kinda missed the, missed the deadline. He would say six months, come on, just give you the case. He would change my all. He would fix my cars.
Speaker 2 00:43:13 He was ready to share. Do you know what that meant to me and my family?
Speaker 1 00:43:20 Have you ever had somebody take care of you like that? Maybe not with your car, but with another situation, this is somebody who realizes that their gifts are given to them. And they're given to them for a reason, not only so that they can enjoy them, but so that they can use them to share with them.
Speaker 2 00:43:35 Love those people. Grateful for those in my life.
Speaker 1 00:43:38 Ready to share some of you won't let me pay for my own breakfast. I'm grateful,
Speaker 2 00:43:43 But I'm ready to the minute that you know, I'll still offer, I'll still go. Last thing it's not wrong to want better.
Speaker 1 00:43:52 This needs to be said when we're talking about covetousness, because you might think to yourself, well, Craig, shouldn't, we want better. Can we aim for more? And the answer to the question is absolutely you can, don't get me wrong. You can be content and you can still grow a business. You can still pray for a spouse. You don't have, you can still want to make more money. You can still increase the fleet of your business. You can still hire more employees. You can dream about your five and 10 year plan. There's nothing wrong.
Speaker 2 00:44:24 Aiming for more. God has wired us to work hard to move up. But when God says
Speaker 1 00:44:32 Enough, no,
Speaker 2 00:44:33 Or how do you do, how do you function? What's your response. It's a dangerous path to walk with our heart,
Speaker 1 00:44:46 Leading the way we need to walk with our faith. Leading the way I want to finish with this one. Parable that Jesus gave in scripture because it's so good. Luke, 12 verse 15, Jesus said to them, take care of, be on your guard against all what church, all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. We read this previously, but there's a parable right after this, that needs to be shared. Jesus told them a parable and said the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? I have nowhere left to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. Like he's talking to himself, like not in a bad way. This is a good way. He said to himself, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger barns. And there I will store all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, and be married. Have you heard this phrase before? Eat, drink and be Merry. But God said to him, fool, this night, your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?
Speaker 2 00:45:55 Now
Speaker 1 00:45:58 The one Jesus says who lays up for himself, treasures, but is not rich
Speaker 2 00:46:03 Toward God.
Speaker 1 00:46:06 Laying up treasure for yourself is not a sin laying up treasure for yourself at the expense of your relationship with God. That's a sure sign. You have a covenant
Speaker 2 00:46:16 Heart, one that has never satisfied and sure.
Speaker 1 00:46:22 Only God alone promises to PR to satisfy the cravings of our heart. Can you live with that?
Speaker 2 00:46:30 That's
Speaker 1 00:46:30 The final question. Can you live with what God has given you? And can you live with what God has given your neighbor? No kill the cow. Coveting is the last in God's top 10 list because you know what it summarizes the rest. Do you know why you want your neighbor's wife? Why you would commit it
Speaker 2 00:46:52 Because you covered. Do you know why
Speaker 1 00:46:54 You would murder somebody and take their life from them? Because
Speaker 2 00:46:57 You covet. Do
Speaker 1 00:46:59 You know why you would steal something that somebody else has because you covet? Do you know why you would say something that's false against somebody else so that you can get ahead or they can get behind you because you covered covetousness. Number 10, summarizes all the rest.
Speaker 2 00:47:18 It's insidious, it's subtle. And it will
Speaker 1 00:47:22 Take a follower of Jesus down faster than just about any other thing, because it is so
Speaker 2 00:47:26 Silent. It describes how we move from a heart that loves God to a heart. That loves stuff. That is why loving God more is the key to envying others less. I'll say that one more time. Cause it's, that's really good. The key to loving God. The key is loving God more is the key to envying others less. The first commandment, there is only one God and the last commandment be content with what God gives you. Jesus summarizes so well. Doesn't he love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. And the second is like, it love your neighbor as yourself. Other, we come to the end of this top 10 list and the covetous heart that we have to deal with and admit to ourselves. We struggle with way too often. We live in a world that constantly picks at our covetous hearts.
Speaker 2 00:48:33 And it's hard for us to realize sometimes that we're being covetous. When we envy the things that our neighbor has to the point where we can't even talk to them because we should have that too. I think about all of the Facebook posts that we read often and think to ourselves deep down inside, that should be me. Forgive us for our covetous hearts, help us to live in a world that picks at it constantly. How was the decipher truth and help us to follow you, realizing that contentment and godliness the greatest gains for this life. So teach us to be content and desperately in love with you so that we can love our neighbor as ourselves. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 2 00:49:31 Jesus came to this earth and fulfilled all 10 commandments perfectly. He's the only one who did every one of us drops the ball constantly. We try and make ourselves look better by comparing ourselves to the worst examples while I've never killed anybody. I'm basically a good person because I've never killed anybody. Well, good for you. Keep that up. If the standard is not what what's the worst you've done, the standard is have you been as perfect as Jesus? And the answer to that, if you're going to be honest is Nope, not even close. That's the standard that we go by. And that's why we're given these 10 commandments. They express the heart of a Holy God. This is the nature of God. This is precisely why Jesus had to come and die for us because we cannot live by the law. The Bible says,
Speaker 1 00:50:31 If we try to live by the law, we will definitely
Speaker 2 00:50:33 Be judged by the law. So if you think
Speaker 1 00:50:37 You're going to get to heaven someday, and there's going to be a scale and all your good works is over here. All our bad works is over here. Hopefully your goods away, your bad works. How does that work like this? You go to always the bad words.
Speaker 2 00:50:49 You don't want to be judged like that because you will be
Speaker 1 00:50:52 Not judged by the worst you've done. You will be judged
Speaker 2 00:50:55 By God's most perfect example. Jesus Christ. God will look at you and I'll say it doesn't really matter how much good or bad you've done. Are you as perfect as Jesus? And if the answer is no, you're sunk. You see, that's why Jesus came. Jesus died on the cross because we are sunk. The Bible calls us dead in sin. We're dead. We have no hope. Jesus came and he gave his life. He lived a perfect life so that he could shed perfect blood, completely untainted by sins. So then
Speaker 1 00:51:37 Those of us who live in sin, struggle with sin, hide our sin. Pretend we don't have any sin, whatever it is. All of us who are just plagued with sin, like Calvin says from the crown of our head to the sole of our foot, we can ride to heaven on earth.
Speaker 2 00:51:51 Action of Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross and gave his life so that we could be set free from the sin that ensnares us, his perfect life was enough to buy and pay for your sinful debt. That's why we do communion every Sunday, almost every Sunday. When we take the juice, it's a representation of the blood that we
Speaker 1 00:52:22 Shed for us. And when we eat the Cracker or whatever, you're eating at home, whatever, whatever we're eating,
Speaker 2 00:52:27 Awful tasting wafer, things that we have here, whatever you eat,
Speaker 1 00:52:32 There's nothing magic about the elements themselves. The magic is what it represents. It represents that we are free because of what Jesus has done because of his sacrifice. We are free because of his sacrifice. We are accepted in the beloved because of his sacrifice. I'm going to stand before God, someday. And he's going to say to me, all right, prove to me. I should let you in. I'm going to go.
Speaker 2 00:52:52 I got nothing. I got nothing. All I got is Jesus Christ. I believe that he died to pay for my sins. That's all I got. And God will say, that's the right answer we drink. And we eat because we together claim that to be true
Speaker 1 00:53:11 For those of us that know crisis or savior, we know that's our
Speaker 2 00:53:13 Only hope. And so when we eat and we drink at the end of our service, we proclaim the gospel truth. That Christ blood is enough to cover our sins. And he's still accepting applications.
Speaker 1 00:53:26 If you don't know Christ as your savior, you should really make that right today. You should not spend one more day on this planet without making sure your heart's right with
Speaker 2 00:53:34 God. Most
Speaker 1 00:53:36 People will try and get a vote. They'll lie to you to get it. They'll they'll, they'll have pretenses. Their motives are hidden. Listen, you need to know my motive upfront. My motive is that Jesus Christ is the only hope
Speaker 2 00:53:46 For your heart. Only hope for your death. Only hope for life after death. He's it.
Speaker 1 00:53:54 And I'll tell you right from the beginning of right from the end that's,
Speaker 2 00:53:57 That's what we come to give that's who we proclaim and that's who we worship. And you need that. You need that. If you're at home,
Speaker 1 00:54:12 Grab some juice or crackers, whatever you can at home, go do that real quick. Bring them back. This is a moment we want to do together. The reason we do it together is because we're all in the same boat. Me included. None of us in here are more Holy than the other. It doesn't work that way. All of us are in the same leaky boat and we go in down, we need Jesus Christ to rescue us. And so when we eat and we drink, we do it together. So when you get your, your juice and your crackers at home, just hang on to them. We're going to do the same here. You can come up front. Those of you in house and grab, um, one of those little juice cups, take it back, hang onto it. Don't drink it right away. Just hang onto it. I'll come back up. I'll read a passage of scripture and we do it together. We do it together because we're all claiming
Speaker 2 00:54:54 The same truth. Jesus Christ is our only hope, which is why I loved we've restarted the service today. With, with that song
Speaker 1 00:55:02 Before we do any of this, maybe God has spoken to your heart. I want to give you a chance to respond to him in the quiet of your heart. That may be moldy or maybe okay. Only, you know, and God
Speaker 2 00:55:11 Knows. Maybe you
Speaker 1 00:55:13 Need to spend a little time with him this morning. This is your
Speaker 2 00:55:16 Moment between you and him
Speaker 1 00:55:18 In the silence of your mind, hears every word, spend some time. Thank him,
Speaker 2 00:55:25 Ask him for forgiveness.
Speaker 1 00:55:27 Remind him how much you need him, what you need to do with God right now do that. And then we'll proclaim it.
Speaker 2 00:55:33 Freedom and Christ together. When we take the juice and the bread together, would you take a moment before we do anything else this morning, spend some time with the Lord.
