My son, Evan, plays for the 10year old North Royalton travel team. The other day, the players received their uniforms. They are beautiful – very nice. And the hats! They are purple with a gold NR embroidered on the front. And they are fitted. Evan even has his number embroidered on the back of the hat. Wow! I never had anything like that even when I played pro ball!
Yesterday, we were supposed to play Hudson in a game. But it rained. So, we went to the cages for batting practice. After practice, the coach wanted to give me a little something for helping teach hitting. It was a hat. The same purple with gold NR on the front. I was so excited! Then I turned the hat around to look at the back. Not fitted, but adjustable. I felt my heart sink a little. I want a fitted hat, too, with something embroidered on the back! On the outside, I was happy. On the inside, I wanted what my son had!
Suddenly, it hit me. I was to teach the tenth commandment on Sunday and on Saturday God was showing me that I had a covetous heart!
Most of us can identify with these words: “I don’t have enough money. I have to stretch to pay my bills; I’m in debt; I struggle to buy the things I need. I want to get my family some nice things, but I can’t afford them. I don’t have enough money.” Sound familiar?
But a lack of money is not the problem. The problem is the difference between what we have and what we want; the problem is the gap between our resources and our requirements. Our demand exceeds our supply.
Now, that may sound like I’m just playing with words, but I’m not. This is absolutely critical. Your definition of the problem affects how you try to solve the problem.
If we think the problem is money, we’ll try to solve it by getting more money. That may help in the short run. But in the long run, it never works. We cannot successfully close the gap between what we have and what we want by getting more money. Why?
Because without a change of heart, our demand will always increase to exceed the supply. We will always want more; we will always feel like we need more. No matter what we have, it will never be enough. We will never be content.
Contentment doesn’t come from our circumstances. It comes from the heart. And that’s where the root of the problem really lies. Not in our wallets, but in our hearts.
Building a bigger heart
Series: God’s Top Ten
Do you know the 10 commandments? If someone in the mall approached you, could you quote them? For review, let’s read all ten of the commandments together.
1: You shall have no other gods before Me.
2: You shall not make for yourself and idol.
3: You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain.
4: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
5: Honor your father and your mother.
6: You shall not murder.
7: You shall not commit adultery.
8: You shall not steal.
9: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10:You shall not covet.
Memorize this list. Use it weekly as a way to be aware of sin that you need to confess. Today, we are focusing on this tenth command. Open your Bible to Exodus 20:17, p. 56. Building a bigger heart…
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 belongs to your neighbor.
Exodus 20:17
Why is God so concerned about our desires? He knows that a coveting heart often leads to the breaking of the other nine commandments. Follow this tenth command, and you’ll be better able to follow the other 9. Disobey this one, and it may lead to breaking the others. Just a few examples:
Command #1 says: You shall have no other gods before Me. Coveting says, “I want this or that.” And whatever I want more than God is my God. So my coveting has led me to break the very first command.
Command # 4 says: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Coveting says, “I want more and I’ll work extra for it – even on the Lord’s day.” The Sabbath day becomes unholy to me. So my coveting has led me to break the fourth command.
Command #7 says: You shall not commit adultery. Coveting says, “I want that man or that woman.” And you cross a line that brings untold, long-term misery to your family and friends. My coveting has led you to break the seventh command.
Command #9 says: You shall not bear false witness. Coveting says, “I want a better reputation than him/her.” So, we speak badly about another person and ruin their reputation. My coveting has led me to break the ninth command.
Why is God so concerned about our desires? He knows that a coveting heart often leads to the breaking of the other nine commandments. He also knows that this command exposes what’s in our hearts. It shows us the heart of the problem.
This command is designed to show us our hearts. You can be seen by others when you break the other nine commands. But no one need ever know that you’ve broken this one. The first nine will show up in our outer, public life. This one shows up in our inner, private life. The first nine will show up in our deeds. This one shows up in our desires. The first nine will show up in our actions. This one shows up in our attitudes. Only a policeman in our hearts can identify the breaking of this command. “The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.”
We don’t really use this word too much. So, we better spend some time understanding what it means. To covet –
to desire, to delight in something belonging to another with a desire to possess. In the Bible, “covet” can really be a neutral term.
To “covet” can be right when we delight in and desire the things that are in God’s will for us. In I Corinthians 12:31 we are told to “covet” (KJV) the best gifts, particularly love! Growing up, I heard people say, “I covet your prayers.” So, “to covet” can be good.
But “to covet” is wrong when we delight in and desire things that are not within God’s will for us. That, of course, is the idea in this 10th commandment. The coveting that God forbids here is
an inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire. Coveting is
a dissatisfied and discontented longing, wishing, reaching, grabbing, and grasping. Augustine said, “To covet is to desire more than enough.”
The things listed in v. 17 – houses, wives, servants, animals – are not to be seen as an exhaustive list. Those were things likely to be coveted in Moses’ day. The last phrase gives this command broad application. “You shall not covet anything…”
Coveting is not just limited to possessions – like money, cars, clothes, or houses. We can covet someone’s…
… influence
… success
… popularity
… health
… appearance,
… ability…
Just like any sin, this one costs us. What’s the cost?
When I covet, it costs me…
1. … spiritual vitality.
One thing I learned from having Dr. Blackaby here was to develop a greater sense of expectancy. We should have been thinking all throughout last year, “God is going to give me something in 2002 that I will need for 2003. My QT in 2002 is the preparation, the classroom. God’s exam is the challenge of living in 2003.” Dr. Blackaby encouraged is to ask ourselves, “Did I take notes when God spoke to me in 2002 so I’d be ready for 2003?”
This is what Sundays are all about. God is here. He is speaking to us. He is going to give you something today that you will need to face a challenge this week or to help someone else this week. Will you write down what God says?
This is what your time with God in His word every day is all about. He is wanting to prepare you for what lies ahead that day. So, get up and spend time in the Bible and in prayer and will you write down what He says?
Now, a person who lives this way has a spirit of expectancy – a spirit of vitality. You’re living your life with God. There’s an authenticity, a joy, and electricity about living life this way.
But a coveting heart, blocks this. Listen to what Jesus says…
And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Matthew 13:22
God is seeking to speak to us. But when we have a spirit of dissatisfaction in our lives, we’re so concerned about that day’s sales presentation – we’re so focused on buying this or that – we’re so intent on getting this guy or girl – that we can’t hear God speak. Some of us open our Bibles and get nothing out of it. Others of us never open it at all.
Is it any wonder then that we don’t do our day with God? We miss those eternal, spiritual opportunities that He puts in front of us every day.
When I covet, it costs me spiritual vitality.
2. … personal victory.
In Joshua 7, God’s people just experienced a major victory. They defeated a fortified city, Jericho, as they sought to move into the Promised Land. Now, they were ready to take on a small village. No problem. They even sent a small army to fight this little village. But the people in the village defeated God’s people. Why?
In the previous city, someone named Achan had taken items for himself that were banned by God. his covetous heart had caused the defeat. He was found out. Listen to what he says…
Truly, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw… two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them… and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day.”
Joshua 7:20, 21b, 25
Question: Could your covetous heart have caused trouble for God’s people and trouble for you? Could it be that you have not experienced the kind of victory you could have experienced because you have taken some things that God says you shouldn’t take?
When I covet, it costs me personal victory.
3. … eternal security.
I’m not suggesting that once a person enters into a relationship with Christ – becomes a Christ-follower and experiences salvation – that he or she could ever lose that salvation. I believe in eternal security. I John 5:11-13 teaches us that we can know that we have eternal life.
What the Bible says, though, is that a person who never gets a handle on coveting – who lives a lifestyle that’s always wanting more, who doesn’t have a measure of the God-given grace of contentment in the heart – that person never had eternal security in the first place.
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Ephesians 5:5
When Jesus comes into our hearts, He brings with Him certain characteristics. Although no one will ever be totally free from a coveting heart until heaven, over time a true follower of Christ will see growth in overcoming this sin. It’s part of our sanctification – being made holy. If there’s not sanctification, there’s no salvation!
Most of us think that coveting is not a big deal. After all, our economy is built on it. Advertisers are appealing to our covetous hearts. Every time we turn on the TV or drive down the highway or look a newspaper, the ads are there to tempt our covetous hearts. We get used to it. We don’t even fight it.
But look at the verse! “Know with certainty, that no… covetous man… has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ…” We’d better ask God for grace to forgive us and to help us obey this command! Our eternal destiny depends on a faith in Christ that has actually resulted in a changed life – a little, covetous heart becoming a big, generous heart.
When I covet, it costs me eternal security.
* * *
So what’s the antidote for coveting? One big idea: Contentment. Contentment and coveting are mutually exclusive. Contentment teaches us to radically redefine what we think we need to have in order to be happy and fulfilled.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
I Timothy 6:6-7
Even the testimonies in our evangelical world run counter to the idea of contentment. They feed a desire for more. “I was a QB who threw three touchdown passes before I was a Christian. Last year, I threw 22!” I was failing in business before Christ. Now, I’m making six figures.”
That may happen. But the implicit message is diametrically opposed to what Jesus said, “If you want to come after Me, you must deny yourself and take up a cross.”
Are you content? Am I? Contentment has a big-time upside. Let’s think about it…
When I’m content, it brings me…
1. … warmer friendships.
Coveting puts a barrier between me and my neighbor. Notice how God links a covetous heart with a lack of love.
For this, "You… shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Romans 13:9
Coveting puts a barrier between me and my neighbor. Contentment knocks it down.
One of the reasons you may not be getting along with that person at school is because you want their looks or their clothes or their smarts. You won’t let yourself like them. One of the reasons you may not be building a friendship with the guy at work is because you secretly think you ought to have his job, work in his office, and drive his car. He doesn’t deserve it, you do! One of the reasons that you may be missing out on the blessing of meeting that other mom at your kids’ school is because she’s prettier and thinner and richer than you. “What she has makes me feel bad about what I don’t have so I just don’t want to know her.”
Coveting puts a barrier between me and my neighbor. Contentment knocks it down.
I was in a room with Dr. Blackaby and some pastor friends the other day. Our 707 pastor, Dan Burgoyne was there meeting some of these pastors for the first time. I passed out some of the 707 brochures. I could be wrong, but I noticed a subtle spirit of envy. “Boy, we never had a brochure like this!” Ana as Dan talked about his excitement about the launch of 707, he got a half-hearted “That’s great!” But I don’t recall questions asked like, “Where are you from? Where’d you go to school? Are you married? Do you have kids?” Not much interest in him as a person. Why? Maybe I’m wrong. But I know that pastors can be guilty of coveting, too. The desire to have the resources of 707 – ads, facility, a worship pastor – may have caused some people to miss an opportunity to build a friendship with Dan.
We must love! And it’s hard to love someone who I think already has what I think I need in order to be happy. A covetous spirit causes me to envy when my neighbor gets a new car or new furniture or a raise at work. A covetous spirit causes me to secretly rejoice when that new car that he just bought gets banged up. It puts within me a spirit of competition instead of cooperation. But a contented spirit allows me to be glad when someone else has a Hummer when I’m still driving a Plymouth Acclaim.
About three weeks ago, I was privileged to participate in a meeting with 18 spiritual leaders from NE Ohio. I sat beside Joe Coffee, pastor of Hudson Community Chapel. Now, I’d been to that church before on a Sunday when I wasn’t teaching here. Their building cost about 2 ½ times as much as this one. When I was there, I found myself thinking, “I wish we had that. I wish we had this.” Discontent was stirred in my soul. You start thinking things like, “They must not really be teaching the truth if all those rich Hudson people are coming and giving. They must be watering things down over there.” A covetous heart makes us have ugly thoughts.
But when I sat beside Joe, I found him to be genuine, caring, and passionate about reaching people in NE Ohio. In fact, we have a lot in common. We’re both pastor’s kids. We both grew up in a family with three boys. We both played sports in high school and college. We both love to be hands on with foreign missions. Our philosophy of ministry is remarkably similar. We’ve set up a time to meet for breakfast after Easter. Joe has shared with me some ideas on how I can do better at doing ministry at a more sustainable pace. We’re talking about him coming here to do some teaching sometime. Now I wonder, “Has a lack of contentment kept me from having a good friend in ministry for several years?”
I wonder whom God wants you to know – to love – but a lack of contentment has kept you from developing warmer friendships?
When I’m content, it brings me warmer friendships.
2. … wider impact.
Listen to what I wrote in my journal on Thursday: “One reason some of God’s people aren’t in fulltime vocational ministry right now is because of covetousness. It might be the family’s or the person’s.” You see, you can’t effectively serve Christ with a coveting heart.
An overseer must be… free from the love of money.
I Timothy 3:2a, 3b
My dad was a successful businessman in the Cincinnati area when I was a little boy. A wife. A house. Three boys to feed, clothe, educate. Doing just fine. But, then, he felt called to the ministry. I’m sure he had all the typical struggles. “I’m too old. I have good job. I have a family to support. I’m not trained.” But when he was 39, he quit his job, sold the house, and moved to Chattanooga to go to seminary to study to be pastor.
We lived in an upstairs apartment in an old part of town. I thought it was OK then, but I’ve since gone back to look at the house and thought, “Boy, that was rough.” Mom tells the story of crying because there was no milk for me one day. She went to the mailbox and there was letter from someone in the Ohio church with a dollar in it – milk money. I can remember my dad going to speak in a series of meetings somewhere and coming home with the love offerings in jar. They dumped that money out on the bed and started counting the money. I remember thinking, “We’re rich!” I look back on that now and see that we were barely making ends meet. Every penny was precious.
He gave up a good job to follow God’s call on his life.
I wonder, “What if my dad hadn’t gone into the ministry because he wanted the things of this world more than he wanted to follow God’s call?” I think about… the four churches he pastored…the two church buildings his churches built… all the people he baptized… all the people he trained to share their faith… and the very real fact that had a covetous heart kept him from being a pastor, I would probably have never felt God’s call and this church wouldn’t be in existence.
Because my dad and mom conquered covetousness and developed a spirit of contentment, their impact continues to this very day.
I wonder, “How wide could your impact be if you were more content? How much more money could you invest in building God’s kingdom if your were content – if you drove an older car or shopped at second-hand stores for clothes or said ‘no’ to more of your wants? And how many of you are here today and ought to be in the ministry somewhere but your desire for a comfortable lifestyle has held you back?”
When I’m content, it brings me wider impact.
So far, we’ve seen that the downside of coveting is awful. And we’ve seen that the upside of not coveting is awesome. That means that we have to be curious about a cure. What’s the cure for a coveting heart? Three things…
To cure a coveting heart, I will…
1. … think about what lasts.
Coveting clouds our minds. It deceives us into thinking that real life is about what we have and what we can get here on earth. It pulls our vision downward, instead of upward; it takes our primary focus away from God and the things that are eternal, and puts our focus on things that are only temporary. It warps our values and our priorities.
Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”
Luke 12:15
I’ve said this many times here. Do you want to know how rich you are? Add up what you have that money cannot buy and death cannot take away. That’s how rich you really are. Colossians echoes Jesus’ words…
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:2, 3
It takes discipline to set our minds on the things above. I have a friend who sent an email to me this past week and it illustrates the point: “Whenever I receive an advertising magazine in the mail, I call their toll free number and ask them to take me off their mailing list. I then throw the unopened magazine in the trash. The advertisers and I know if I start looking through their magazine, it will be only a matter of time before I covet, and then purchase one of their items. First one sees, and then one covets.” He’s right!
What lasts? A long time ago I learned the answer to that question. What lasts? The word of God and the souls of men and women and boys and girls. One day, we’ll give it all up. Will we have invested in what really counts?
To cure a coveting heart, I will think about what lasts.
2. … thank God for what I have.
A coveting spirit comes from a lack of satisfaction with what God has given us and a dissatisfaction over the way God hands out His blessings. We figure that God is under obligation to hand out His blessings equally to those who follow Him.
But it’s time for us to learn that God is God and we are not. We aren’t to tell God how to run His universe – not even as it relates to our own little corner of it. We are not the judge of the way God works. God gives us what we need and what we are ready for at each individual moment.
Not only are we not satisfied with what God has given us, but we are not thankful for what He has given us. The Bible tells us to give thanks in all things – for what He’s given as well as for what He’s not given.
He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.
Psalm 50:23
Question: Why should God give us more if we are not thankful for what He has given us up to this point?
I love the old hymn. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
To cure a coveting heart, I will thank God for what I have.
3. … give as a sign of repentance.
8 "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance… 10 And the crowds were questioning him, saying, "Then what shall we do?" 11 And he would answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise." 12 And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than what you have been ordered to." 14 Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, "And what about us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages."
Luke 3:8a, 10-14
Someone gave to me a tape from Moody Founder’s week. Andy Stanely, a pastor in Atlanta, was teaching. He said, “Do you want to know how to defeat greed in your heart? Write a big check!”
* * *
How big is your heart?
Psalm 73:25 is a prayer to the LORD, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on the earth.”
I want that to describe me. And I think you do, too. That’s what a big heart looks like.
It requires a look at Christ – at the cross – at His kingdom. If I have Jesus – and if I know Him as He really is – than I have enough. You can keep the world’s stuff. Just give me Jesus!
