Central Christian Church
St Petersburg, Florida
January 16th 2003
“No Coveting” Ex. 20:17
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.”
Covet signifies a desire or longing after, in order to enjoy as your own the person or thing coveted. Anyone breaks this command who by any means endeavors to deprive a man of his house or property; who lusts after someone else’s husband or wife, and endeavors to ingratiate himself into his or her affections, and to lessen the spouse whom they should esteem; coveting is endeavoring to possess for ourselves anything that belongs to another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner.
“DO NOT COVET is a most excellent moral precept, the observance of which will prevent all public crimes; for he who feels the force of the law that prohibits the inordinate desire of any thing that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society by an act of wrong doing to any its members.” Up to this point, in our studies we have been dealing mostly with outward acts, murder, stealing, adultery, etc. Now, we are commanded to control our feelings, our desires, that basic human drive to go to Burger king and have it ______ _____. When the way we want it drives us, then all sorts of evil things happen. First, the Devil becomes our daddy, because when we serve self, by being driven to get it our way;we serve the devil and he is our daddy. Secondly, there are quarrels and divisions among us and we remain immature Christians, because we want what we cannot have.
The Hebrew word for covet has these two meanings: 1. Strongly desiring something. 2 That does not belong to me.
It is a “good thing” to strongly desire traits of another person who imitates Christ. We are taught by Paul to imitate him as he imitated Christ. But it is sin to desire something that truly belongs solely to someone else and use whatever dishonest, dishonorable conniving schemes and plans we have to get it.
Unfortunately, this attitude has driven America for several years that the end justifies the means. Even if the end can be perceived to be good, obtaining it through manipulation, dishonest schemes or any other ungodly way can never make it right or result in God’s best for our lives, simply because the method used to achieve the goal was not God’s way.
The problem with sin is this- no one does it in isolation. A little bit of sinful yeast can and does affect the whole batch.
The Bible teaches that it is our good deeds that should be done secretly. We are not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. If we point out our good deeds so that we may be exalted that will be the only reward we ever receive and our eternal treasures the rewards we would have received someday in heaven will be forfeited.
On the other hand the Bible teaches that those things we do that are sinful need to be brought into the light. We should confess our sins to one another and pray for each other, because the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.
Unfortunately, this is not how we live in the church today, we cover up our sins and transgressions and we tell everybody about how good we are and what we have accomplished.The fact remains that nothing done in deed or secretly in our hearts escapes the mind of God.
Do you remember Ananias and Sapphira? They were two who covered up the truth about the proceeds from a parcel of land they sold. It didn’t work out well for them!
Or let us look at Achan again; the battle of Jericho was a remarkable victory, Ai, which was an Amorite town and the next target would be a snap compared to Jericho. Yet at Ai Joshua’s army was pushed back and defeated. Joshua questioned, “how could this happen?” Well, one of the soldiers (Achan) took what he was forbidden to take, Achan said,” I saw these things and I coveted them."
If we are coveting and hiding it, if we are covering up any sin we put our church and our families in danger of God’s consequences.
If we allow Christian’s to sin, if we turn a blind eye to sinful behavior in our churches if we do not rebuke and correct each other, we actually facilitate sinning and sin whether covet ness’ or anything else will let the Devil in the door, bring defeat and have consequences for the entire congregation.
The point is we never sin in isolation; it has far greater ramifications that just what it does to us. Even though the sin of coveting is usually hidden in the deeper recesses of our spirit, it does not go unnoticed to God.The world says,”Hey if it feels good and nobody knows about it, do it.” “Two consenting adults can do anything they want behind closed doors.” The Greek word for that type of thinking is “baloney.”
Our sins even though they may currently be undetected can damage an entire congregation. In Achan’s case it caused the loss of lives of other soldiers who had families themselves. His entire family was stoned to death because he coveted.
Bob James tells the story of the removal of a fire ant hill from his property. He bought the bait spread it around the hill and sat and watched as the members of the colony came and took the food down the hill to the entire population. But he said “he also saw something interesting when he went back to check on the progress of their demise.” Then he noticed a hole in the circle of poison. Some of the poison was moving in the opposite direction--away from the targeted ant hill. Some smaller, non-stinging ants had found this "food" and were stealing it from their ant neighbors. Thinking they were getting the other ants’ treasure, they unwittingly poisoned themselves. When we see someone with more than we have, we must beware. The hunger to beg, borrow, or steal our way into what is theirs is a type of spiritual poison for us. It might just be the bait of Satan that brings spiritual death to you, your family and the community.
God gave us this command so we could be Holy and overcome our flesh; He knows we all struggle from a very early age with covetousness. Tell the 2 year old “don’t touch”, what does he do?
Paul says this in Romans 7 I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, “do not covet.” The very thing forbidden becomes the thing desired.
The fact is that is how we are built, how we are wired or knit together. This is the condition we are in when we come from our Mother’s wombs. You know what I say is true if you have ever had a child. Did any of you ever have to teach your children to say “mine?”
These instinctive, insatiable desires of ours are the strongest part of our nature. They are a dynamic and powerful force within us.
The ad men from Madison Avenue have certainly figured this out about our human nature and they sell everything from cigarettes, alcohol and cars to politicians based on fulfilling these innate desires that flourish within us like some bacteria living unnoticed but doing its dreadful work silently until the symptoms are fatal.
How then can we take this innate desire to covet, that God gave us and use it for something good? It can only happen when we live Christ centered lives, that our desires for wrong can be channeled into desires for good. While Hitler reigned in the epitome of evil others like Bonhoeffer and Schweitzer lived in the epitome of good. The energy, ambitions and desire we have in the flesh and for the flesh can be re channeled for good when we Have Christ in our lives.
Have we come to a point in our lives where we are content? If we are rich or poor, living without or living in plenty are we content? Can you be as content in your empty cardboard refrigerator box as you are in your home?
My friend Don Hulsey and his wife Aleta are missionaries to Africa. They fascinate many people, because after furlough they sell or give away the majority of their possessions before they return to the field.
They refuse to let those things bind them to a location. Or better yet to this world.
As usual Jesus sums it up best as recorded by Luke 12: 15Then 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.”
There is the fable about the depressed King who believed he could be the happiest man on earth, if he took and wore the shirt owned by the happiest man on earth. But what the search revealed was that the happiest man on earth didn’t own a shirt.
Well, why in the world did this God of ours make us naturally, individuals who want, what we are not allowed to have and then warn us that going for all the gusto, life has to bring can result in our death and death to others.
As complicated and deep as the answer is it is equally as simple. We are called to be holy. When we choose to live the way God has prescribed we become over comers of the world and through His Holy Spirit we are sanctified. When we call ourselves Christians but live like the world sanctification is no more than an elusive idea we will never achieve or understand.
America is in bondage by its debt. Because we have to have, we have to consume therefore, we owe we owe so its off to work we go. We miss the best things in life that are free. When is the last time you and someone you love watched the sunset, took a walk on the beach or sat by the campfire sipping a cup of hot chocolate?
God has called us to simple quiet lives of contentment. We rob ourselves of that when we try to continuously fill in the insatiable desires of our flesh. Our lives become complicated and out of balance with God’s perfect plan.
Let’s pray
Baptize Julianne Rowley
