The Myth Of More Series

This week I learned something brand-new. Most ads for non-digital watches have the time set to 10:10 to make us think of a smiling face. We’re more likely to buy something that looks happy.

Capitalizing on our inherent dissatisfaction, the worldwide marketing machine spends approximately $250 billion annually to make us unhappy with who we are, with what we have, with how we look, and with what we do. At its core, most advertising is designed to make us feel ungrateful about what we have and to feed our greed for what we don’t have.

In the 1970s, the average person viewed between 500-1,600 ads per day. In 2007, an individual was exposed to approximately 5,000 ads daily. With the explosion of the internet and social media, studies now estimate up to 10,000 ads bombard us each day!

We’re being sold stuff all the time…and it’s not all that difficult to do because most of us are already dissatisfied due to our default setting of discontentment.

One researcher summarized his findings: “Consumers encounter countless advertising images during the course of everyday life. Many of these images are idealized, representing life more as it is imagined than as it actually exists… repeated exposure to idealized images raises consumers’ expectations and influences their perceptions of how their lives ought to be, particularly in terms of their material possessions. The result of both these processes, for some consumers, is discontent and an increased desire for more.”

In other words, advertising simply capitalizes on our coveting hearts.

In a post called, “How to Motivate Your Prospects,” I learned about what ads are designed to do: “As an advertiser, it is your job to create discontentment inside the psyche of your prospects and make them desire the change that you’re offering.” One commentator offers this insight while admitting a disregard for the tenth commandment: “Because producers covet consumers’ money, they need to get consumers to covet their goods.”

While some advertising is altruistic, it’s fair to say most advertising strives to influence us to spend money we do not have on things we do not need.

I’m reminded of something Will Rogers often said: We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.

In contrast to our culture of coveting, the tenth commandment dispels the myth of more.

Here’s our main idea: The key to not coveting what others have is to be content with what you already have.

Let’s review the summary statements we’ve been using to help us remember the 10 Commandments.

1. One God

2. No idols

3. Revere His Name

4. Remember to Rest

5. Honor Parents

6. No murder

7. No adultery

8. No stealing

9. No lying

10. No coveting

We’ll finish our Written in Stone series next weekend with a message entitled, “Christ and the Commandments.”

Let’s read Exodus 20:17 together: “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 Hebrew word “covet” is used both positively and negatively. The positive meaning is a “strong desire or delight.” The negative use refers to, “An excessively strong desire to have something that belongs to someone else.” In addition, it means to “grasp for more; an inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire so strong that it compels someone to violate another person’s property.”

One pastor conveys coveting this way: “An overt dissatisfaction and discontent with what God has provided and a longing desire for what He has forbidden.”

Whether a desire is good or not depends on the object of the desire.

• Good desires. The positive use of the word “covet” is used in Genesis 2:9 to describe the trees in Eden as delightful or “pleasant to the sight.” Psalm 19:10 says God’s Word is “more to be desired…than gold.” Some of us use the word “covet” in this good sense when we’re struggling with something and we say to a fellow believer, “I covet your prayers.”

• Bad desires. The negative use of this word is found in Genesis 3:6 when Eve found the tree “to be desired” and coveted what she was not supposed to have. Proverbs 21:25-26 says: “The desire of the sluggard kills him…all day long he craves and craves…”

In Joshua 7:21, Achan craved what he wasn’t supposed to have and when he got it, he hid it from others: “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.” Sadly, because he coveted, he brought defeat to a nation and death to himself and his family.

Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard and ended up murdering him so he could take his vineyard. David coveted Bathsheba, which led to the sins of adultery and murder. Judas had a covetous heart and later betrayed Christ.