Series: Big 10
“SATISFIED”
EXODUS 20:17
OPEN
It was the middle of the night. Keith Richards, guitarist for the Rolling Stones, had a musical riff playing in his head. He woke up, grabbed his guitar and a tape recorder, recorded the tune and then went back to sleep.
Their front man, Mick Jagger, wrote lyrics to go with the tune. Three weeks later, the Stones recorded that song and it became their first number one hit, both in Britain and in the US. It was the launching pad for their fame.
What was the song? (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction. Jagger said that when he penned the lyrics, it simply expressed his frustration with the consumerism and commercialism they found in the US.
That song was released in 1965. Almost 50 years later, nothing has changed. You could almost say that this song the national anthem of our nation.
Why is it that most of us, no matter how much we have can't seem to get no satisfaction? There are people living on Madison Avenue in New York City, who make six figures a year, trying to figure out how they can make us want more and more and more. The problem comes in one word that is seldom used, but much abused and it is the word: covetousness.
Ex. 20:17 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
The first and tenth commandments are closely related. Rick Atchley says, “While the principle of putting God first supplies the motivation for obeying all the others, the tenth principle supplies the explanation for why we disobey all the others.”
The greatest biblical example of that statement is found in the story about David and Bathsheba. David ignored 7 of God’s 10 rules for living because he violated number 10 in the first place.
When David became involved with Bathsheba, he ignored the 10th commandment when his desire turned to another man’s wife. He ignored the 8th commandment when stole her from her husband. He ignored the 7th commandment when he committed adultery with her. He ignored the 9th when he lied about the affair. He ignored the 6th when he tried to have her husband killed. He ignored the 3rd commandment because God’s man took God’s name in vain by behaving in an inappropriate manner. And he violated the 1st commandment because God didn’t have first place in his life.
Covetousness is one of the most deceptive sins people commit. It’s been called the “stealth sin.” This is a sin that flies under the radar. It doesn't' leave any fingerprints. It doesn't trigger any alarms. It doesn't set off any warnings. It is a sin that can be eating you up and you don't even realize it.
Before we get into the meat of the message, we need to deal with two questions. The first question is: What does it mean to covet? The Hebrew word for covet means “to have a deep desire for” or “to pant after.” Covet means that you want something in an unhealthy way that you don’t already have.
Coveting is not ambition. God is not prohibiting us from wanting to possess things and have success. He is not forbidding hard work and the desire to achieve and obtain things. In Rom. 7:8 the apostle Paul stated, “It is my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ is not known.” A healthy ambition is praiseworthy.
In fact in Matthew 25, Jesus commended a man with ambition when he invested an amount of money and it produced a yield. Ambition was a positive quality in Jesus’ eyes. But in that same passage Jesus condemned a man who did nothing with the money he had been given. Jesus called the man who lacked ambition, “wicked and lazy.” Coveting is really ambition out of control.
The second question is: Who is my neighbor? Out of 157 times the term “neighbor” appears in scripture, only five times does it describe someone who is close by. The other 152 times its used to describe someone who is a fellow countryman or anyone who is in need of something from us
The better question: who isn’t my neighbor? It’s an all-inclusive term. Everyone one of us is in need to something.
Why is God so concerned with covetousness? Covetousness brings a world of hurt. #1, it hurts God. We’re not supposed to put anything or anyone in front of him. We’re told in Prov. 3:5-6 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
#2, it hurts others. James 4:1-3 – What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so 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.
#3, it hurts us. Marty Seligman is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. A few years ago, he conducted a study of depression in America. He found that there has been a sharp increase in depression since World War II. People born after 1945 are 10 times more likely to suffer depression than people born before 1945..
That’s strange since we today we have so many more possessions and life is more comfortable. Seligman said that on the whole you do not find much depression as we know it in non-Westernized cultures before they were modernized. Most primitive cultures do not show many cases of depression. A 1948 study of a primitive tribe in New Guinea found little evidence of depression. Another pre-industrialized society – the Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania – showed depression occurring at roughly one fifth the rate it occurred among the people of Baltimore, Maryland.
In an attempt to explain why depression is so much more common today, Seligman acknowledged that people today are caught up in the middle of almost complete self-centeredness. They are so focused on getting what they want that it leads to unhappiness and un-fulfillment. The more we have the more we want, and the more unhappy we become!
How do we deal with the problem of covetousness? It involves three simple principles. The principles are simple. Putting them into practice can be difficult.
BE GLAD FOR WHAT OTHERS HAVE
Rom. 12:15 – Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Mourning with someone who is mourning is not usually difficult. Someone loses a family member or a job, someone comes down with a debilitating disease and our hearts go out to them.
But rejoicing with those who rejoice can sometimes be difficult. Our sports team loses to their biggest rival. Do we celebrate with the other team or are we upset that they won and we didn’t? A co-worker gets a promotion we were hoping to get. Do we rejoice with them or despise them for their good fortune?
When you look at what other people have you can respond in one of two ways. You can either be jealous of what they have or be joyous for what they have.
Normally when we covet what someone else has, it is because we think for some reason, in some way, they are richer than we are and that is where the problem lies. 1 Tim. 6:9 – Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
Understand something. There is nothing wrong with being rich, but there is something wrong with desiring to be rich. The word “want” there literally means “covet.” It is wrong to covet to be rich and therefore it is wrong to covet what rich people have. That is why we go on to read in verse 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.
Let me tell you the problem with covetousness. If you are a coveter, it means you love things, but you don't love people. You cannot covet what someone else has and love them at the same time. If you love them you would be glad for what they have.
If you love other people the way you should and you love God the way you should, you ought to live in celebration of God's grace and God's goodness to other people. One of the things we ought to be teaching our children is that somebody else's blessing is not our loss. Rather than wanting what someone else has or wanting more than someone else has, we ought to be thankful for what other people have knowing that God gave it to them.
BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU HAVE
It is impossible for a covetous person to ever be totally contented. Jesus says in Lk. 2:15 – “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Jesus is telling us: “The quantity of life has nothing to do with the quality of life.”
When you covet what other people have you fail to understand two things. The first misunderstanding is that things which are material can never fully and finally satisfy the physical.
John D. Rockefeller was the single richest man in the entire world during his day. Nobody had more money and more assets than he did. He was so wealthy that at the height of his wealth and power, he had no idea how much he was actually worth.
Someone asked him, “Mr. Rockefeller, how much money is enough?” He famously replied, “Just a little bit more.”
The second thing a covetous person doesn’t understand is that things which are material can never fully and finally satisfy the spiritual. You would think that ministers would be exempt from this problem. But the struggle for many of us is that we’re jealous of other ministers’ successes. Their congregations are growing and ours isn’t. They get asked to speak at the big conferences and we don’t. .
Let me tell you what covetousness really is. Covetousness is simply the evidence of an ungrateful heart.
Instead of coveting after someone else's house, be grateful for your house. Instead of coveting after another person’s spouse, be grateful for your spouse. Instead of coveting after another person's car, be grateful for the car you have to drive. When you covet what someone else has, you are really telling God that you are displeased with what He has given you.
What we all need to learn to do is this. We need to learn to admire without having to acquire. We don't have to own everything to enjoy it. If the only things we ever enjoy are the things we own we are going to be miserable, because we can't own everything.
Think about it. God gives us daily bread and we complain because we don't have daily steak. We have bread and we covet another man's steak when much of the world today doesn't' have any bread. It is like one man who said, “I cried because I had no shoes until I saw another man who had no feet.”
I want to go further. Don't just be grateful for what you have. Be satisfied with what you have. Think about this. If you have God what else should you want? When you covet what you are really saying is "God you are not enough. You really don't satisfy me."
The Apostle Paul made an amazing statement. Phil. 4:11 – I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
Do you know why he was content in every circumstance? He had God and he knew that God was really all that he needed. He continues in vs. 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.
How do we avoid covetousness? It’s actually an easy answer – learn to be content. The hard part is learning to be content. Contentment isn’t coming to grips with what we don’t have. It’s being satisfied with what we do have.
I read an amazing story this week about a man named Danny Simpson. In 1990, twenty-four year old Danny robbed a bank in Ottawa, Canada of $6,000. After getting caught and going to trial, he received a six year prison sentence for his crime.
What fascinated me about this wasn't the crime. Robberies by small time crooks like Danny Simpson happen every day all around the world. What is fascinating about the crime is that to rob the bank, Simpson used a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol made by the Ross Rifle Company in Quebec, Canada in 1918. That gun, an antique, was worth at the time $100,000, over 16 times more than what Simpson stole when he used it.
Think about it. If this man had just paid attention to what he already had, he would never have wanted what belonged to somebody else. When you realize you have God and you understand that God is all you need, you won't have any problem with coveting what someone else has. I think we would all agree that when we are really satisfied, we won't want what others have.
BE GRACIOUS TO OTHERS WHO DON’T HAVE
Prov. 11:25 – A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. This verse tells us the greatest antidote for the disease of covetousness and the way to be satisfied is to give. Let's be honest, the bottom line, the reason why most people don't give to the church, don't give to charity and don't give to others is because of covetousness.
God has blessed every one of us, but here is where a lot of us miss the boat on blessings. God doesn't bless us for our benefit; He blesses us for the benefit of others.
1 Tim. 6:17-19 – Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
You may be sitting there saying, "He is talking to rich people." I've got news for you. If you are an American you are rich. When we compare ourselves to the rest of the world, the people in this room are in the top 2% of income of everybody on this planet.
Most of the world suffers from a lack of necessities. Our problem isn’t finding a coat to wear; it’s deciding which coat to wear. We don’t worry whether we’ll eat tonight, but rather what kind of food we’ll choose. And rather than being concerned about having a place to sleep, we’re consumed with worry that our home is as nice as those with whom we associate.
Think about two words: “get” and “give.” The root problem of covetousness is found in the word “get.” The opposite of getting is “giving.” Covetousness is about getting. Graciousness is about giving.
You see every time I give to somebody else, give a tithe of my income, every time I give an offering, every time I give to someone in need, I am breaking the grip of covetousness in my life. I am saying to that particular dollar bill, “I can get along without this. Somebody else needs it more than I do and I don't have to have it.”
CLOSE
The entire problem that vexes our very existence came about because of discontentment and dissatisfaction. God told Adam and Eve that they could eat the fruit of every tree in the Garden except one – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
What is it that the devil convinced them they couldn’t live without? The fruit of that one tree. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and because of their discontentment, we continue to feel pain from sin, disease, suffering, and death.
God’s answer to our discontentment? His son, Jesus Christ. In Phil. 4, we’ve already heard Paul talk about the secret to contentment. He then reveals the secret in vs. 13 – I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Do you know how to be satisfied? I want what God wants for me rather than what I want for me. When you truly become satisfied with God, then you can not only praise Him for what He has given you, you can rejoice in what He has given others. Jesus, Matt. 6:33 – But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
