Looking for life in all the wrong places

What is the good life?

Imagine you find yourself parking in a large parking lot, preparing to enter a building that many others are wanting to enter as well.

As you walk up you see large pillars and a bright sign that welcomes you into the space.

Many come here as a place to gather with friends, others come here trying to find something that can satisfy their needs.

As you walk you see symbols on the walls of well-known figures telling you that here you will find things that will make you the person you want to be. So you gather information and you talk with others hoping to pick the right formula for you to have the good life you are seeking.

-The picture I am drawing for you is of a mall. But if you notice, there are many similarities to a church. Because both are places of worship, places where people come seeking something that can satisfy their desires.

-Each of us has desires, things that we want, things that will bring us joy. But often what we desire will not satisfy our soul, they won’t bring us the good life that we seek.

Who supplies for our needs?

What is stealing? Stealing is taking away what is the possession of another. It is take what is not rightfully yours.

Leviticus 6:2–5 LEB

“When a person displays infidelity against Yahweh and he deceives his fellow citizen regarding something entrusted or a pledge or stealing or he exploits his fellow citizen, or he finds lost property and lies about it and swears falsely in regard to any one of these things by which a person might commit sin, and when he sins and is guilty, then he shall bring back the things he had stolen or what he had extorted or something with which he had been entrusted or the lost property that he had found, or regarding anything about which he has sworn falsely, then he shall repay it according to its value and shall add one-fifth of its value to it—he must give it to whom it belongs on the day of his guilt offering.

-Leviticus 6:2-5 tells us that theft isn’t just about stealing out of someone’s hand. But it is also taking what is not rightfully yours. If someone let’s your borrow something, it is your duty to give it back. If you are entrusted with the possessions of another, you are to return it once it is asked. If you find something that is lost and with indication of where you can find the owner, then it is not yours to keep.

Leviticus 19:13 LEB

“ ‘You shall not exploit your neighbor, and you shall not rob him; a hired worker’s wage you shall not withhold overnight until morning.

-Leviticus 19:13 tells us that it is wrong to exploit the labor of another by not paying them or withholding pay. Therefore, we are called to pay a fair wage to our employees, and we are not to keep from someone what they deserve because we are angry. If we have come to an agreement we are not to go back on our word because we feel as if they did not “deserve” it.

As we have talked about, these commands refer to loving your neighbor. How you can care about your neighbor more than yourself. Stealing is actively seeking to harm your neighbor, to threaten their livelihood and to cause emotional pain and often physical as well. Because we can steal their wallet, taking away their ability to purchase food, we can take their car, keeping them from getting to the job they need to get paid, we can take their phone or laptop, taking away the tools necessary to perform their job.

So what leads us to steal?

-There are two allures: I believe. The allure of receiving something for nothing, and the allure of feeling like you can take something without consequence. Because let’s be honest, most of us have found ourselves asking the question “how would I try and pull off a bank robbery?” Why? Because our sin nature likes to tell us that if we can get away with it than we don’t deserve to be punished.

-But none of us, at least that I know of, have committed armed robbery, or burglarized a home, or sent emails to people saying they are a prince from Nigeria. We think of stealing as something that would land us in prison or cause us to lose our jobs.

But what we must see is the heart of the command, that we are doing something that helps us personally at the expense of the community.

As I read in one book “stealing prays, ‘my kingdom come, my will be done.’ and demands of my neighbor ‘give me this day my daily bread’”

There are many instances of us believing that we are committing a victimless crime or that another “won’t miss it”.

-When we sit at our desk playing solitaire during the time our employer is paying us to do our jobs.

-By taking sick leave when we aren’t sick

-By taking items from a hotel like a towel, or stealing a roll of toilet paper in the public restroom.

-If you have ever been to the restaurant Chipotle you have probably noticed that they have bottles of hot sauce that you can grab, take to your seat, and put on your food for you to take back when you are done applying the hot sauce.

-My wife and I have a friend who believes that they have a right to take this bottle with them as they walk out the door. Their belief is that you could poor out all of that hot sauce into your bowl anyways than shouldn’t you be able to take it as well. I would highly advice you to not take bottles of hot sauce…or ketchup…or utensils!

-If you work for a company or been to a conference, there is also the temptation to steal from your employer.

There was an article written about theft in the workplace.

-It found from 2002 to 2018 that fraud in the workplace jumped from 10.6% to 21%. The main areas of theft were noncash fraud, taking of workplace supplies, equipment, food, or proprietary information.

-It found that it took place in every part of the company from entry-level employees to high end executives.

-The found the reason people did this is because they thought of themselves as “basically good” and found a way to justify the crime that preserved their self-image.”

-They also thought of the company as a “faceless entity that won’t be hurt by the crime” and also considered life circumstances when justifying the crime.

-The article ended with this. “A high percentage of people will engage in petty theft and small-scale cheating when there is little chance of being caught.”

But the thing is, that no matter how small or insignificant we believe the item we stole is, now matter how devoid of consequences. God always knows. As I read in one commentary. “The God who sees our hearts most certainly sees our hands.”

-To think that God doesn’t care because it is too small is to believe that our God is disinterested or even blind to small things being stolen.

-It also matters to God because of what Luke 16:10-12 tells us. If we take something like stealing hot sauce from Chipotle, then we will have no problem being dishonest with much more. If we can’t be entrusted with small items by our employers, then why would we be entrusted with more?

The issue we need to deal with in our hearts is the question, who supplies our needs? Do we supply our needs? Our employer? The one we steal from? But if God is sufficient, if God has truly supplied for our needs. Then we have no reason to steal because we know we do not need it.

Ephesians 4:28 tells us we are to work with our own hands and make our own wage. So that rather than taking what is the possession of another, we take from our own possessions and give freely to those in need.

-Philippians 2:4 tells us something very similar. We should not work for our own interest, but for the interest of others.

Why our we to live this way? Because our possessions are not our own, we have not earned them, we are merely being stewards of what God has given us. He has given us an abundance out of His grace, far more than we deserve. If this is true, than we have no reason to hold on to our possessions and our money. This is why we are called to tithe as believers, why we are called to give our offerings before God. This is why God calls us to trust our church to use this money to His glory. It isn’t for us to track where our tithes go, or to make ourselves feel good. It is because we know that God is deserving of every penny that we give him.

-I know many discuss, “do we need to give 10%, why 10%? Am I sinning if I am giving 8% rather than 10%?”

-But remember what we have talked about throughout these commands. Under the new covenant we are called to greater faithfulness, not less. The law says do not commit adultery, Jesus says looking at a woman with lust is adultery, the law saws do not murder, Jesus says hatred in your heart is murder, the law says give 10%, so what do you think the law says about giving?

-We give because God will give us our daily bread, so why not the catalyst for another to receive their daily bread?

Whose life do we want to live?

What is the tenth commandment actually calling us to? What is coveting. Well, coveting is just one way this word can be translated. The way we should understand this command is to not desire, take pleasure in, or idolize that which is the possession of another. It has the idea of a lustful desire or a desire towards an idolatrous heart.

-This command goes into specific details of the things that we should not desire from our neighbor. The point being that from the largest thing (a house) to the smallest thing (anything that belongs), almost as if we are taking a look at every piece that they own and reminding ourselves that we should not desire those things.

-The command is not stating that to find the possessions of your neighbor as something of greater value than your own is a sin. But rather when that recognition becomes a desire for more than what God has given us, to desire what our neighbor has.

-I love seeing cool sports cars. On occasion I have seen a Lamborghini or a Ferrari and you can bet I took a picture of these cars. Because they are sleek, with effortless curves, and luxury features. But usually I am not thinking to myself “if I had this car I would be happy”, or “I wish I was rich enough to be able to buy a car like that”…usually lol.

-Rather I enjoy the craftsmanship, the beauty, the elegance of the car and enjoy this creation for what it is. Like stopping in a museum to see a piece of history.

-But if we are not careful this coveting can become a desire for that which is not rightfully ours to take. Because this is the desire that leads to stealing and adultery. To want more than what has been given to us and to believe that we deserve what is in the possession of another.

-This word is used in Isaiah 53:2, speaking of Jesus on the cross when it says that there was “no beauty in him, that we should DESIRE Him.” Speaking to the fact that in the bruising and beating he did not look like one whom we would worship or praise.

-Because often the shiny objects, often those things that look expensive, are not the things we should be aiming towards.

-In fact the things that look most desirous for us are dangerous and lead to death.

-Imagine you are a fish, just swimming in the ocean. But where you swim are the darker waters, you swim where visibility is difficult. You scrounge for food, you hope to not bump into anything. But as you are swimming along you see a light. A bright shining light amidst the darkness. You are naturally fascinated with this light, towards something that seems better than the darkness you live in. So you draw closer and closer, hoping to learn more about this object, hoping to take possession of this light in the darkness. Little do you know that what you have stumbled upon is an angler fish, a terrifying creature, one with sharp, fang like teeth that protrude from the mouth, white eyes. See, this light is attached to this anglerfish. And even as pleasant as this light seemed, it was a false hope, it was a desire that lead to death rather than life.

-We are also drawn towards the fancy and the shiny things because we think that they are better, that it will improve our life, that they are more enjoyable.

-Several years ago a study was done with the top wine tasters in the world.

-These are people whose job it is to take a taste and tell you what notes are in the wine, what company made the wine, and what it should pair well with. These know more about wine than anyone.

-They took these experts and put in front of them a cheap wines and expensive wines but took off the labels so they didn’t know which was which. Wine that went as low as 5$ and wine that went as high as $1000.

-These experts were not able to find a difference between the cheap and the expensive wines. As hard as they tried, they weren’t able to predict which was which.

-We are drawn towards the fancy cars, the big house, the nice shoes, the new tv, and even the family of another person. We see their life and we believe that what they have is better than what we have. But this is the false hope that the world gives us. That if only we had the ONE more thing, that we would be content. But the secret is that there will always be one more thing, the new toy, the next update. We will never be satisfied with things.

James 1 tells us that each is dragged away by his own desires and desire brings forth sin and sin brings forth death.

-Therefore if we are not able to be content in our relationships, with the possessions God has given us, and the circumstances that we are in, then we will find ourselves breeding sin and death as we continue to seek that which can never satisfy our souls.

-It is not wrong to have expectations, but it is wrong to have unrealistic expectations, to keep up with the Joneses.

-To have a kitchen like their kitchen, a marriage like their marriage, a vacation like the one they went on, to have children as smart and athletic as their kids, to have the flexible work hours or the benefits of their job.

So the question we must ask is where do we find contentment?

Where do we find contentment?

The irony is that as many things as we can buy and enjoy, they won’t bring happiness. That the person you are jealous of may be looking across the isle saying, “I wish my life was more like theirs” because the grass is always greener on the other side.

-If you are single you may look at the person who is married, and has kids, and a house and think “they have a perfect life”. But you don’t know about the strife in their marriage, or the sleep deprivation from crying babies, or the mortgage payment that is a continual stress on their finances.

-If you are married you may look at the single person who has little responsibility, and no mortgage payment, and seem to enjoy lots of fun activities. But you don’t know the loneliness they feel when they get home, that they fill their life with activities to hide their pain, that they have been looking for a good job but have been unable to up to this point.

-When you are working you say, “I can’t wait till retirement!” But when you are retired you think “I want to go back to work!”.

The Bible gives us story after story of those who were not content, and often have difficulty with contentment within their families. We looked at the woman of faith in the Bible earlier, woman that have incredible stories, lives that we wish we could have had. But in each of their stories we see discontentment play a role. For Sarah, God told her that he would give her a son. Yet she was discontent God had not given her a child yet, so she sought Abraham to have a child with her servant Hagar and bore Ishmael. But once God gave her Isaac she felt jealous of Ishmael and asked for Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael.

-For Rebekah, God told her that Jacob would be the son whom He would bless. Yet when Isaac loved Esau more she became discontent and deceived her husband to make sure that Jacob received the blessing.

-In the story of Leah and Rachael, Leah was discontent because she was not as pretty and not as loved as her sister Rachael. While Rachael was discontent because her sister was able to have numerous sons while she was left barren for many years.

-We could continue on, but what we see is that in each of these stories is that God had already given them a promise and yet they were still discontent, in circumstances that seemed ideal! With abundant blessings!

-I know for woman who are unmarried it is easy to feel like there is something wrong with you, that God doesn’t love you as much as wife and mother who has everything you desire.

-For the wife, who has been unable to have kids, to wonder why God hasn’t blessed you with the good desire that you have to raise children to know Him.

-For the mother with children who have strayed away from the path yet feels like you have done everything the right way to lead your children to God.

Where we do we find contentment?

Philippians 4:10–20 LEB

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have renewed your concern for me, for whom also you were thinking, but you had no opportunity to express it. Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how both to make do with little and I know how to have an abundance. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to have an abundance and to go without. I am able to do all things by the one who strengthens me. Nevertheless you have done well by sharing with me in my affliction. Now you also know, Philippians, that at the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone, because even in Thessalonica on more than one occasion you sent for my need. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek for the profit that increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am well supplied because I received from Epaphroditus what you had sent, a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will fulfill your every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

-Our riches are in Christ Jesus and in His glory.

-We are able to be content with little and with much because we know that God will fulfill every one of our needs.