• Exodus 20:3-17 (NIV)
[3] You shall have no other gods before me.
[4] You shall not make for yourself an idol. . .
[7] You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. . .
[8] Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. . .
[12] Honor your father and your mother. . .
[13] You shall not murder.
[14] You shall not commit adultery.
[15] You shall not steal.
[16] You shall not give false testimony . . .
[17] You shall not covet.
INTRODUCTION:
All of us are probably familiar with America’s favorite five year old, “Dennis the Menace.” You can learn a lot about yourself from watching kids, and Dennis is no exception. On one particular day Dennis is found looking at the new department store catalog that had just arrived at the Mitchell house. Dennis looks up from the catalog at his mom and dad and says, “Wow! This catalog has lots of toys and things I never even knew I wanted!”
One more chuckle: A pastor arrived at the local ministerial meeting early. The pastor of the church where the meeting was being held was out front changing the message on the church sign. The sign read: “God saved the best for last—You shall not covet.” The first pastor said to the other, “I sure wish we had a message board like that at our church.”
God really has saved the best for last. This morning we conclude our series on the Ten Commandments as we look at THE HEART OF THE MATTER; “you shall not covet.”
I. The 10th commandment gets to the heart of the matter. It is the inside out commandment.
1. The other nine commandments deal primarily with how we live. They focus on what we say and do on the outside; that is on what people can see and hear.
a) The first commandment says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Will we live our lives to acknowledge God’s presence and His authority in our daily lives, or will we deny Him as God in what we say and do? Whenever we deny God we make something else less than God to be our god in his place.
b) The second commandment says, “You shall not make for yourself and idol.” Will we worship god in spirit and in truth or will we be careless in how we worship? Have we established a priority of worship in all that we say and do? Have we taken the worship that belongs rightfully to God and given it to other gods that are no gods at all?
c) The third commandment says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord.” What comes out of our mouths—blessing or curses? Are we careless with the name of Jesus as to blaspheme His name and make it common or worse a curse word? Do we pray frivolous and repetitions prayers with little or no thought to Whom we are speaking?
d) The fourth commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Will we live our lives just like everybody else always on the go and caught up in the rat race of life, or will we set aside a day to honor God? Do we find our rest in Jesus, or do we try to escape the pressure of life through entertainment, sports or other activities? Jesus has promised to be with us and can never leave us, but some of us barely give god that time of day throughout our busy week, and come to church tired and weary. It’s just part of our routine and nothing more.
e) The fifth commandment says, “Honor your father and your mother.” As parents will we live our lives with integrity worthy of the honor of our children? As children will we honor our parents through obedience as well as in the words that we speak about them and to them?
f) The sixth commandment says, “You shall not murder.” Will we be careful to and not speak with uncontrolled anger bitterness and resentment towards our family and neighbors? Or will we be guilty of murder with our tongue through the words we say?
g) The seventh commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” Will we choose to follow god’s plan for our marriages and families, or will we play by our own rules? Will we give into our passions and desires or will we live self controlled and holy lives not only by what we do but also in what we think?
h) The eighth commandment says, “You shall not steal.” Are we guilty of taking what does not belong to us? Do we rob from our employers?
i) The ninth commandment says, “You shall not bear false witness.” Will we tell blatant lies? Will we exaggerate? Will we speak with slander and libel as we lie and put down and destroy the character of others?
ILLUSTRATION: Each of us this morning can JOIN THE POLICE FORCE and be sworn in to enforce and uphold these first nine commandments. We can be authorized to stop someone in their tracks when we see them breaking one of these laws. Do any of us deserve to be given a ticket or a summons to appear in court based upon how we’ve lived our lives in disobedience to these commandments? Would the people around us be quick to point out our guilt?
2. The 10th commandment is a matter of the heart! It’s the inside out commandment
• Exodus 20:17 NIV
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
a) When we covet our desires have been misplaced. When we covet our neighbor’s house, or you covet your neighbor’s manservant, maidservant, his ox, donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor you are trying to keep up with the Jones (or whatever their name might be). What you are doing is longing for the wealth, recourses and strength of your neighbor. You’re neighbor may not have an ox or a donkey, but what would God point out in your life to show how easily your desires have been misplaced?
b) When you covet your neighbor’s wife you are lusting within your heart which Jesus said is the same as adultery; that’s why coveting is the inside out commandment. It exposes the matters of our heart as being the root of sin long before we ever do or say anything to break any of the other commandments.
c) Coveting is the matters of the heart that lead to the outward expression of all our sin in what we say and do.
• Matthew 15:19 NIV
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
• James 2:10 NIV
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
d) Coveting is the root of all sin. Think about King David. His downward spiral of sin began when he coveted his neighbor’s wife. David’s desires were misplaced which led to adultery. Bathsheba’s pregnancy caused David to try to manufacture a lie to cover up his sin. When that didn’t work David had Uriah murdered so he could take Bathsheba as his wife.
• Romans 7:7-8 NIV
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.
e) God will not only judge us for the obvious external sins that we commit by what we say and do, but God will also judge the sins of coveting—the inside out matters of the heart that lead to all our other sin.
f) God knows our hearts. The Lord knows the condition of our hearts better than we do. It’s a lot easier to confess the sins we commit in what we say and do than it is to confess the sins of our heart. When was the last time you or I specifically asked the Lord to forgive us for the sin of coveting? Lord you have judged the matters of my heart; you know how easily I can misplace my desires and want what is not mine. Forgive me Lord for my sin of coveting.
II. The Consequences of a Covetous Heart.
1. CORUPTION—As we have already said coveting on the inside within our hearts will lead to all other sin expressed on the outside in what we say and do.
a) Whatever moral standard we may think we have, no matter how good of a person we think we are will quickly deteriorate if the covetous nature of our hearts is not changed.
• 1 Timothy 6:9-10 NIV
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
b) Paul lays it out plain and simple for us. If as believers we continue to have a heart that covets the things of this world and the pleasures that money can buy, then it is only a matter of time before we wander from the faith. Like the child who wanders away from his parents in a department store to look at the toys he/she wants to have, we are soon lost and separated from God.
2. CALLOUSED—A coveting heart hardens your heart towards the love of God and others.
a) Those who covet only really care about getting what they want. For some their hearts grow so hard that they are willing to do anything to satisfy their desires. Only when they finally get what they want they are left empty because they just want more. Such people can be completely indifferent to the feelings of other people because their thoughts are filled with their lust for pleasure and things.
• Romans 13:9 NIV
The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
b) When our hearts are full of covetous desire our hearts are hardened to others and it is impossible to keep the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
3. CONDEMNED ETERNALLY—The greatest consequence of coveting is the fires of hell and eternal separation from God.
a) God calls the man or woman whose hearts are full of covetous desires of wealth and prosperity a FOOL.
• Luke 12:16-21 NIV
16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ’What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18 "Then he said, ’This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ’
20 "But God said to him, ’You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
b) Notice what Jesus says about this man.
– He was a successful farmer with an abundant harvest.
– Jesus said nothing to indicate that this man was dishonest or evil. What this man had he worked for. He was not a thief. Nothing is said to indicate that he didn’t treat his servants righteously.
– This man was a wise investor, a shrewd business man. He was not frivolous or wasteful. He saved his wealth and prepared for a rainy day.
– He would enjoy the fruit of his labor, it was time to retire and celebrate a good life.
c) By the standards of this world this man was a great success. He was someone to be admired and respected by others.
d) But God called this man a fool! Why? The matters of his heart were all wrong. His desires were only directed toward the wealth of this world. This man looked for security in the things of the world and not in a relationship with God.
• Luke 12:15 NIV
Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
• Ephesians 5:5 NIV
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
e) The consequences of a coveting heart are greater than the corruption and callous nature of the heart. A covetous heart is condemned and will have no part in the kingdom of God.
III. A change of heart – overcoming the inside out sin of coveting.
1. We have to get to the root of the problem. Coveting began in the heart of Satan!
a) Satan desired to ascend to the throne of God. He wanted for himself what rightly belonged to God. Satan wanted to take for himself the worship and praise that was God alones.
b) We were made in the image of God, but Satan has succeeded in distorting God’s image by placing his image within us. A covetous heart is the image of Satan. Eve looked at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil and saw that it was good for food. Desire filled her heart to have what God had told them not to take for themselves. Sin pressed Satan’s covetous image into our hearts.
c) By nature we are self-centered and selfish. We want what is not ours. We are powerless to cure our hearts in our own strength.
2. Only Jesus can transform our covetous hearts and restore the image of God within us.
• James 4:2-10 NIV
2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
a) When we humble ourselves and come near to God through Jesus our hearts will be transformed from the inside out.
b) Paul describes the process by which we can overcome covetousness. Let’s take a closer look at what Paul says and discover seven steps from coveting to contentment.
• Philippians 4:6-13 NIV
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
c) Seven steps from coveting to contentment:
1. Stop worrying! A covetous heart is never satisfied.
2. Start praying! Turn your worry into prayer and bring your requests to God.
3. Be thankful! We need to learn to be thankful even for the little things. Everything we have is a gift from God, so be grateful at all times.
4. Think differently! Let God renew your mind by His Spirit and don’t let yourselves think the way you used to. Shake down your thoughts—examine them and throw away anything that is not acceptable before God.
5. Develop a God consciousness. Have an awareness of God’s presence that is with you always. He is the God of peace—the God of contentment.
6. Be generous. Open your heart to share with others. God so loved the world that He gave. You are most like God when you give.
7. Be content! Live daily in the strength and provision of the Lord. No good thing will God withhold from you! God gives me everything I need and I lack nothing! This is the secret of contentment.
