4.11.38 8.14.2022 Exodus 20.17 Honoring your Neighbor's Stuff

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Exodus 20:17 ESV

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.”

Entice: This is not how we commonly talk in the 21st century. The opposite sentiment is everywhere. The evolution of the advertising industry is largely the refinement of slyly violating this commandment. Others have. We want. Social-Media is the outright weaponization of covetousness, the highest achievement in the history of envy. Bigger, faster, stronger, prettier, richer, more famous, more desirable, more visible.

More, more, more!

Engage:

It's not the stuff.

Your "neighbor" is not flaunting it in front of you to "make you jealous". The impetus is internal. The command is directed, as are all the others, to me.

Expand: Covetousness, envy, craving, greedy desire. The terms are ugly. We are to be content. If any people, anywhere, at any time should find it easy to keep this commandment it should be us. We have more than enough. The only reason we might possibly look at our neighbor as an object to exploit is because we have allowed the evil one to pervert our desires.

Excite: Instead of seeming outdated or old-fashioned this command is perpetually relevant.

Explore:

In an age of affluence and media-driven desire perhaps this is the most relevant command of all.

Explain: Several risks of the wandering eye of greed.

Body of Sermon:

1. Threatens Community

James 4:1–3 ESV

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.

Comparison.

Competition.

Conflict

2.Creates Anxiety.

Matthew 6:31–34 ESV

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The coveting eye…

Distracts us from God and focuses on stuff.

the covetous spirit

Depends on self rather than God.

3. Feeds Vanity.

James 1:14–15 (ESV)

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.

Confuses us regarding our own Desires

1 John 2:16–17 ESV

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Confuses worldly and Godly desires

Shut Down:

10 Words, 2 Tablets, 1 God, 1 People. The letter of the law was nailed to the cross. The spirit remains. We are no more capable of keeping the law perfectly than was Israel in the wilderness. Jesus did keep the law perfectly and when we respond to Him in faith He includes us in His own obedience.

The Commandments articulate basic principles of loving God and neighbor which we seek to live out as we follow Jesus in obedient discipleship. This last commandment, as old-fashioned as it seems is the perfect place to end our journey, not just because it is the last of the 10 but because of the way our culture revolves and thrives on undermining it.

We must take care to build, not undermine community by a wayward desire for what others have. Anxiety over stuff leads to a variety of other spiritual compromises. And vanity feeds vanity to the point where we don't own stuff, it owns us.

Seek Him. Seek His Kingdom. Your needs will be met, and your spirit filled. TIGWFUT.