When is Enough, Enough?

17 “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, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Over the last few weeks God has been leading me to teach on the Ten Commandments …

We taught on Exodus 20:13, You Shall Not Kill (How Precious is Life)

Then we taught on Exodus 20:15, You Shall Not Steal, (What’s Mine is God’s )

And a message from August 2020, we taught on Exodus 20:16, You Shall Not Bear false witness (Truth the American Way)

As I was preparing this message the Holy Spirit reminded me of something from my teenage years. A friend of mine’s mother had a portable AM/FM Police Band radio.

And I wanted it. Now it wasn’t that I couldn’t afford to buy one just like it, because I could, as a teen, I worked and always had a stash of cash. But I wanted that radio. I had to have that radio.

So over the next few weeks, I planned on how to get my hands on that radio. I stole my friend door key and waited until I knew that no one would be home and I waited. I was it think a month or so when I finally got my chance. I knew the entire family would be attending a funeral that day, so in I went and the radio was mine.

Never did get to enjoy that thing, my conscience wouldn’t let me, so I returned it one night, a week later. Need I reminded you this was a long time before camera’s were everywhere.

Today, I want to talk to you about covetousness.

Our Title for today is When Is Enough, Enough?

Let’s review The Commandments as they were written by God in Exodus 20:1-17

Our Scripture for today is taken for

Exodus 20:17 and it reads:

Exodus 20:17 NKJV

The story of David and Bathsheba 2 Samuel 11:1-27

How many of the commandments did they break?

· Covetousness

o David should have been out with his troops not on his roof top. Then his attention would not have been drawn to Bathsheba

· Adultery

o Bathsheba was married to Uriah. She should have kept her vows, even if it was the king trying to spend some special moments with her.

· Lying

o David lied to Uriah as to why he should go home and spend the night with his wife, and when that failed he got him drunk in an attempt to get him to go home to his wife, but that failed also. Uriah was a true warrior and didn’t not want special treatment.

· Murder

o David then sent word to the front lines of the war instruction the leaders to place Uriah on the front lines of the ferrous battle so that he would surely die, and he was killed.

And it cost David dearly

Then there is ...

The Sins of Achan

Joshua 7:10-26

Joshua 6:16 ----

16 And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city! 17 Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. 18 And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

Joshua 7:1 Achan took the accursed things, which angered the Lord

Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

7:3-5 The children of Israel were defeat by the army of King Ai because of the Lord’s anger

7:13-26 Joshua questions the entire camp of the Children of Israel until, he reaches Achan, he admits to his greed, to his Covetousness and Joshua then ordered that he and his family be put to death by stoning because he angered the Lord when he removed the forbidden items from Jericho.

I’ve just given you the highlight, might I suggest that you go read the entire story.

· Covetousness

· Greed

· Disobedience

Grapes of Wrath

1 Kings 21

That reminds me of the tragic story of Ahab in 1 Kings 21. Ahab saw Naboth’s vineyard and decided he wanted it. When Naboth refused to give or sell it to Ahab, Ahab went home pouting to his wife, Jezebel.

Jezebel hatched a plan to get it, resulting in Naboth’s death. Finally, Ahab had what he wanted, but the joy of it was short-lived, because Elijah showed up to pour cold water on his party.

When you dig deep into the story, you see how covetousness led to the violation of almost all of the Ten Commandments.

• Ahab put the land ahead of God (first commandment).

• Ahab worshipped the land (second commandment).

• Jezebel misused the name of the Lord by proclaiming a fast (third commandment).

• Ahab dishonored Naboth’s family by taking the family inheritance (fifth commandment).

• Jezebel murdered Naboth (sixth commandment).

• Ahab stole the vineyard (eighth commandment).

• Jezebel arranged false testimony (ninth commandment).

• All because Ahab coveted (tenth commandment).

A Daily Tragic Story

What a tragic story! But no more tragic than what goes on every day in our own country and in most of our lives. It is called coveting, and it is the desire to have something or someone that belongs to another person. It is life in twenty-first-century America.

“Man is always wanting things that do not belong to him, that makes him a covetous man. He wants things he can’t have.”

My point here is that this sentence of pure spiritual truth:

“We covet what we see every day.

Let mem remind you that coveting is the original sin. The first couple coveted the forbidden fruit and sinned against God.

God Speaks

Once again God speaks to our covetous society in Exodus 20:17. The commandments were given by God at the time of Israel’s founding.

God was giving the Israelites their constitution. He did it personally from Mount Sinai. It was the ten commandments, written by His own hand and delivered by His servant Moses to His people.

The truth is that No society can thrive when it is eaten up with covetousness. Just look around you!

Here are a few ……

Biblical Truths

• Covetousness is never satisfied (Eccl. 5:10–12).

• Covetousness engrosses the heart (Ezek. 33:31; 2 Pet. 2:14) and even comes from the heart (Mark 7:22, 23).

• What we covet becomes an idol (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5).

• Covetousness leads to:

• injustice and oppression (Mic. 2:2)

• murder (Prov. 1:18, 19; Ezek. 22:12)

• great temptations (1 Tim. 6:9)

• harmful desires (1 Tim. 6:9)

• ruin and destruction (1 Tim. 6:9)

• departure from the faith (1 Tim. 6:10)

• Covetousness ruins homes and marriages (Prov. 15:27).

• Covetousness is the cause of wars and conflicts (James 4:1–4).

• Covetousness results in God’s judgment upon a nation .

Micah 2:1-3 says

Micah 2:1–3 NKJV

1 Woe to those who devise iniquity, And work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, Because it is in the power of their hand. 2 They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. 3 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time.

So if we look at covetousness as an addiction or illness, which by the way it is. What is the antidote?

The Antidote to Covetousness

Or is The Question, How can we fight covetousness?

The Answer is, Desire the right things the right way. I state this one first because we need to know that all desire is not wrong. God created us to desire.

A person without desire is no longer a person.

With that being said, ……

How do we keep desires in check?

First ….. By desiring the right things—God (Ps. 42:1, 2; Phil. 3:7–14),

a. His kingdom (Matt. 6:33),

b. His approval (Matt. 25:21, 23),

c. and others’ good (1 Cor. 13:4–7).

Second … By desiring the right way, God’s way, by avoiding excess and rejecting illegitimate, exploitative, or selfish desires.

The third way is by Love our neighbor (Matt. 22:39).

The fourth way to keep our desires in check is by cultivating a grateful heart (Ps. 100:4; Col. 2:7; 1 Thes. 5:18).

And finally by choosing an attitude of contentment (Phil. 4:10–19; Heb. 13:5).

Listen to this short story

A man was tired of his friends owning nicer homes than his, so he went to see a realtor and put his home on the market and began to search for a new one.

One day, as he was reading the paper, he came across a listing for a home that was just what he was looking for. He called his realtor. The realtor replied “Sir, that is your house. That is the house we are trying to sell for you.”

Conclusion:

I want to close with …. A Tale of Two Lives

The story of Howard Hughes, who lived between 1905 and 1976, is tragic. There was only one thing he wanted in life—more. He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a filmmaker and star.

He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every hedonistic urge. He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world. He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. presidents became his pawns.

All he ever wanted was more.

And yet Howard Hughes ended his life emaciated, colorless, with a sunken chest. His fingernails resembled grotesque, inches-long corkscrews.

His teeth were black and rotten, and innumerable needle marks covered his body from his drug addiction. Howard Hughes walked around nearly naked most of the time, with his beard and hair to his waist. He lived in darkness, wore rubber gloves, and sterilized everything in his junk-filled room.

He spent most of his time watching old movies and drinking soup. He talked on the phone for ten to fifteen hours a day, because he was so lonely. He died weighing ninety-five pounds.

The only way the Treasury Department could identify him was by his fingerprints.

Now contrast that to the apostle Paul, who lost everything but needed nothing (Phil. 3:7–14).

If you truly believe all that is written in the Scriptures, then you must believe these word penned by David, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

Let me put it in simple terms.

Enough is enough when God is enough!

Related Media

Related Sermons