Overlooking Our Own
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Today we are looking at the 10th Commandment.
We will be in Exodus 20 this morning
Next Week Pastor Matt will start a Brand New Series on the book of Revelation.
This series will examine 10 Themes that the Apostle John talks about through out the book of Revelation.
You aren’t going to want to miss any of these 10 messages!
Today, we are finishing our series of the Ten Commandments so I think its appropriate for us to look back at the other 9 we’ve already talked about:
SHOW HILLBILLY TEN COMMANDMENTS SLIDE
Hillbilly Ten Commandments
Ain’t but One God.
Ain’t nothin’ come before the Lord.
Quit yer foul mouthin’.
Git yer hide to Sunday meetin’.
Honor yer Ma and Pa.
No killin’ ‘cept fer critters.
No foolin’ with another fellers gal.
No swipin’ yer kin folks stuff.
No tellin’ tales or gossipin’.
Don’t be hankerin’ for yer kin folks stuff neither!
I thought those were hilarious when Pastor Matt shared them with me, but it does get to the heart of the matter but now
Let’s read the ones in Exodus 20:
1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
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.”
So today we are looking at Coveting
One commentator had a definition I thought was helpful:
Definition: To covet is to crave, to yearn for, to hanker after something that belongs to someone else.
Definition: To covet is to crave, to yearn for, to hanker after something that belongs to someone else.
There a lot of healthy desires:
We desire food so we remember to eat
We thirst so we remember to drink water
We want companionship so we make friends
We desire deeper intimacy so we get married
Coveting is not desiring something
1: Coveting is desiring someone else’s something.
1: Coveting is desiring someone else’s something.
Hold your place in Exodus but turn over to Genesis 2
In Genesis 2, God has just formed the man Adam, let’s pick it up in verse 8
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The original Hebrew word behind “pleasant” is the same root as the word covet - the idea is it’s desirable, pleasing to the eye
God made trees that were desirable to the eye and good for food
Turn the page to Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The word desired is the same word here as covet in Exodus.
Interestingly Eve’s desire has shifted from the appearance of the fruit to its ability to make one wise.
Eve had a garden full of fruit to eat.
God had given all of it for her and Adam to enjoy.
This fruit, the serpent told Eve, had something that only God had, the knowledge of good and evil. She coveted the knowledge God had.
Before Eve took the fruit she coveted it,
then after Adam ate, they lied about it, they bore false witness.
Coveting is desiring someone else’s something.
As we saw with Adam and Eve the sin of coveting led to bearing false witness.
This lead us to the next point:
2. Coveting leads to other sins.
2. Coveting leads to other sins.
Consider some of these people:
Achan and Jericho Spoil
Achan and Jericho Spoil
In Joshua 6:19, God said all the Gold and Silver were only to go to the Lord
19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”
Achan heard this but we see in the next chapter he desired them:
20 And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did:
21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
Achan coveted then he stole a cloak, silver, and gold, then he hid it in his tent and lied about it.
Joshua 7:25 records the chilling end of this story:
25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
David and Bathsheba
David and Bathsheba
Most of you probably know this story, but if you don’t look at is in 2 Samuel 11.
David, the man after God’s own heart, is suppose to be with his troops in battle, but he stays home instead.
The text doesn’t use the word covet but it’s clear David sees Bathsheba and lusts after her, then he finds out this is Uriah the Hittite’s wife.
At this point he covets Uriah’s wife.
This coveting leads to adultery, bearing false witness, and eventually murder.
The half brother of Jesus, James says this in James 1:14-15
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Both Achan’s and David’s stories lead to death.
I want to look at one more story where we can see the deadly effects of coveting
Turn with me to the next book in 1 Kings 21
Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth’s vineyard
Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth’s vineyard
1 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
2 And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.”
3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”
4 And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.
Ahab had made himself sick for this field. He wants it so bad he is unable to be happy without it.
The Queen Jezebel comes in to find out why he won’t eat and he tells her that Naboth won’t sell or trade for his field.
Jezebel scoffs at Ahab’s sadness and tells him to get up and eat she will get the field.
So she sends letters sent letters to the Elders and leader who live close to Naboth telling them to get a couple worthless men to bear false witness that Naboth cursed God and the king.
They do and Naboth is stoned to death and Ahab steals the field from the dead man.
Let’s look at the Lord’s response in 1 Kings 21:17
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession.
19 And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.” ’ ”
Ahab’s coveting led to false witnesses, murder, theft, and evetually to his and Jezebel’s own death.
You can read of Ahab’s demise in 1 Kings 22:38 and Jezebel’s demise in 2 Kings 9:30-37.
Both died horrific deaths and both of their blood was licked up by dogs just as the Lord had spoken through Elijah.
Coveting leads to other sins like fights and quarrels.
Look at James 4:1-3
1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Coveting teaches us that not all sins are on the outside.
Martin Luther: “This last commandment, then, is addressed not to those whom the world considers wicked rogues, but precisely to the most upright—to people who wish to be commended as honest and virtuous because they have not offended against the preceeding commandments.
Look at how the Apostle Paul talks about his own struggle with coveting:
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
7 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.”
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
There is still a more sinister aspect to coveting.
Coveting reveals our mistrust of God.
We must not covet because God alone satisfies.
Look at this verse in Psalms 16:11:
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
There is something greater for us to covet than someone else’s something.
This kind of coveting only lead to more sin, no we should covet the Law of the Lord. His rule in our lives is where our greatest pleasure comes.
Look at Psalms 19:7-10
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
The word desire in verse 10 is the same word as Exodus 20:17.
We shouldn’t covet someone else’s something.
God has given us all we need.
Danny Simpson, twenty-four, robbed a bank in Ottawa, Canada, of $6,000 in 1990. He was caught and sentenced to six years in prison. He used a.45 caliber Colt semiautomatic in the robbery, which turned out to be an antique made by the Ross Rifle Company, Quebec City, in 1918.
SHOW COLT .45 SLIDE
It was worth up to $100,000—much more than Simpson stole. If he had just known what he carried in his hand, he wouldn’t have robbed the bank.
In other words, Danny already had what he needed.
This idea leads to the last point:
3. The cure for coveting is contentment.
3. The cure for coveting is contentment.
I want to look at two passages where the Apostle Paul talks about contentment.
First, lets look at 1 Timothy 6:6-10
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain,
7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Some people gather stuff in this life like they can take it with them.
SHOW HEARSE U-HAUL SLIDE
Notice the love of money is the problem. There is a lack of contentment when money becomes the thing we covet.
Our lack of contentment is one reason we need to discipline ourselves to give regularly to the church through tithes and offerings.
Giving to the Lord helps us remember that He is the One who supplies our needs.
The Apostle Paul knew contentment in all situations look at his word to the church in Philipi in Philippians 4:11-13:
11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
We can be content because of Christ. It is He, Who provides our need, and it is He Who strengthens us.
Unlike the other 9 commandments, coveting is one that happens in our heart. It is easy to Overlook Our Own, the blessing God gives us.
Jesus speaks of our heart and coveting this way:
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
The bottom line: Whatever we set our minds on, this is where we’ll walk in our lives.
I exhort you this morning with Colossians 3:2-4
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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