Covet

Ex 20:17 ““You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.””

The problem:

often we take this commandment someplace it was never intended to go

“well if I’m not supposed to covet, then maybe that means stuff/material wealth/possessions is bad?”

Or we can’t trust ourselves to NOT covet so we stay away from stuff.

Maybe we think the lack of possessions is holier...

but all of those responses are bad - one is gnosticism, the other is aestheticism, the other a mix of the two.

Prov 3:8-10 “It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”

Thomas Watson - material blessings is the water of the ocean.

everything works great when the ship floats on the water, but when the water starts getting into the ship… we’re in trouble.

Your material blessings are made to float your ministry, your service to God.

When your ship starts taking on the material blessings for itself, the ship starts to sink.

What you have - isn’t yours - it’s the Lord’s and it’s for his kingdom

that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy it.

enjoy it - obey him in rest and leisure and fun with it.

but the posessions don’t control the ship.

But where does covetousness happen?

It’s a disposition of the heart. INTERNAL - not external.

(this also proves that the OT was not a works based religion.

Think of Paul - what did the commandment do?

Romans 7:7-8 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.”

showed him his disposition - something he couldn’t change - and let hime know he needed help outside of himself.

and notice in Jesus’ dealings with the rich young ruler....

Matt 19:16-22 “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”

which one is left out....

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Jesus used the heart oriented commandment to show him his true disposition

So what’s the solution to covetousness?

Gratefulness.

Gratefulness for what you’ve got - sure.

but most of the time we stop here.

what’s the problem with that?

we’re still just looking at ourselves.

but what about gratefulness for what THEY have got as well?

if we’re truly going to rejoice with our brothers and our neighbors -

if we aren’t going to COVET our neighbors possessions - we should be grateful for the way the Lord has blessed THEM

NEXT - We also have to stop JUSTIFYING IT

when we want the other person’s spouse we say things like:

“I need need someone who understands me” or “you get me” or “they could meet my needs”

When we want someone elses house we say things like:

“we want social justice” or “economic justice”

“they just have everyting handed to them”

or “daddy’s money”

look - I want my kids to have daddys money. AND i want them to know how to manage it well.

Lastly - We need to be very careful here,

take this very seriously.

because the WORD OF GOD can be choked out by this sin if it’s left unchecked.

Matt 13:22 “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”