SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Text: Exodus 20:1,2, & 17
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
This morning is our last message in our series on the Ten Commandments. I think I just heard a sigh of relief from someone.
Personally I have been challenged several times by this series. Today will be no different. As a matter of fact I had a computer snaffoo’ (while visiting with family in Nashville) and lost my first draft of this message. God wants to make sure I understand this commandment.
Like many of you, I struggle with this last commandment. “Thou shalt not covet..”
I recently heard the story of the small town preacher and his wife who went to the big city and saw one of the many beautiful churches. They were amazed. In front of one of the churches was an enormous church sign. It was very high tech. It had one of those really cool digital read outs that would give you the date, the time, the temperature, and then a passage of scripture. The small town preacher was really impressed.
The scripture (on the digital sign that day) was actually our text. It said very plainly:
“Thou shalt not covet…”
The preacher looked at his wife and said, “Oh honey I’ve got to have a sign just like that one!”
You need to pray for this preacher.
And then there is the story of "Dennis the Menace" looking through the Sears toy catalog at Christmas time. When with excitement Dennis looked up and said, "Gee wilickers, Mr. Wilson! This catalog’s got a lot of toys I didn’t even know I wanted."
Now I know there is a kid in all of us that wants everything including the things we don’t even know about. But seriously, the Bible makes it very clear that we are to be content with everything God gives us.
We often find our selves coveting things we do not have without realizing it.
When this happens, we find ourselves not thankful for all that we do have.
Do you find yourself doing this? It really shouldn’t surprise us, because many people struggle with being covetous.
I would call this a “common everyday garden variety sin.” Even the Apostle Paul had problems in this area.
Text: Romans 7:7 & 8(a)
What Paul is warning us is important.
He is saying that as a result of not being obedient to this last commandment, we will find ourselves struggling with all kinds of evil desires.
After realizing this, I looked closer at the Greek meaning behind the word “covet”.
The Greek word is “thumos”, which means to have passion or to “pant after”.
My friend if you are not sure whether or not you “covet” something in particular, ask yourself these simple questions:
1. Am I passionate about getting something that I don’t own?
2. Do I “pant after” getting something just for myself?
Perhaps the phrase “pant after” is a little dramatic for some of us. It kind of reminds me of our dog, Sonny. He really enjoys watching us cookout on our grill.
He stands there panting and licking his chops just hoping we might drop a piece of meat on the patio. Nothing else will distract him from staring at us as we eat.
The Bible warns us that we get like this sometimes. Something will suddenly show up in our lives and get our full and undivided attention. We can easily become obsessed with the idea of having it.
I’ve been there, have you?
And what is interesting is that this sin is not just something that happens to rich people, or just poor people.
It happens to everyone almost everyday.
Where does this come from?
Television, radio, highway billboards, the internet (just to name a few)…
We can experience an intense desire for something that will not leave us alone.
As a result, we can become discontent with what God has given us and our relationship with the Lord is disrupted.
Some may be thinking that –
q Being covetous may not be that big of a threat.
q There are other sins that are much worse than wanting something you don’ have.
What many do not realize about the Tenth Commandment is that if we choose to ignore this particular sin, these feelings can last much longer than just a moment, or a day, or a month.
There are those who will spend an entire lifetime wanting something they never will have. The result is they will never find peace and contentment in their life.
Only frustration that leads to disappointment, that leads to regrets that lead to remorse and bitterness. This is not the plan of God for anyone’s life.
Not only will coveting interfere with our relationship with the Lord, but as well, our relationship with loved ones. Marriages are probably the most susceptible.
Charles Spurgeon put it this way:
Covetous men must be the sport of Satan... They are held by their own greed as surely as beasts with cords, or fish with nets, or men with chains.
When we covet what we do not have, we will (somehow) find a way to satisfy this sudden desire. Any satisfaction found (in getting what we think we must have) will be short lived & never worth the grief.
Let me try to simplify the sin of coveting with a short story with you from Genesis 13. It involves Abraham and Lot.
- vs. 5-6 Abraham and Lot were traveling together. They had so many possessions and so many animals that there wasn’t enough space or food and water to support them both. The problem was that he had TOO MANY goods! How many of you have ever complained about not having enough closet or storage space?
- vs. 7 Everyone was fighting with each other over how to feed and water all of their livestock. There was a real problem over limited resources. Kind of like how a big family might fight over who gets the bathroom in the morning before school.
- vs. 8-9 Abraham, was not going to allow himself to become selfish and he approached Lot with a plan to solve this. Abraham gave Lot the option of picking what portion of the land that he would want for himself. He wasn’t going to let food & water come between he and Lot.
- vs. 10 Rather than just arbitrarily picking an area or doing a coin toss, Lot did a little land survey. This verse says that Lot “lifted his eyes and saw”. The area that he surveyed was the flatland around the Jordan river. It was well-watered. In his own mind, Lot considered that land to be so nice that he compared it to the two most fertile pieces of land that he could think of -
· The Garden of Eden
· The land right around the Nile River in Egypt.
Lot already knew the land was going to require less work to farm. Truly, if there was ever time that the grass was actually greener on the other side of the fence, this was that time.
- vs. 11 So Lot decided to take the land in the valley for himself. What he had was simply not enough. He wanted more, and he wanted to work as little as possible in order to achieve it.
- Vs. 12 When Lot got down into the valley, he discovered that the land and the grass, were not the only things that were more desirable about the area. There were two cities there – Sodom and Gomorrah. There would now be more people, more business, more money to be made, and even more entertainment.
So for all of those reasons, the Bible says that Lot “pitched his tent” toward Sodom. He set up his tent in such a way that every morning when he woke up and walked out of his tent, the city of Sodom would be the first thing he saw. He set his heart on Sodom – things of this earth – rather than setting his heart on God.
- vs. 13 Lot’s coveting of material things caused him to compromise.
He knew when he went down into the valley what kind of people lived in the city. They were not godly people.
They were involved in all kinds of sins.
But Lot was willing to put up with the sin and evil in order to get what he wanted. Soon those compromises Lot made became a way of life for he & his family.
As time passed by, Lot’s dreams for wealth and prestige seem to have come true. He decides (one morning) to move on into in the city of Sodom. Just one problem – the sin in the city of Sodom had become much worse and God was getting ready to judge and destroy it.
Fortunately for Lot, Abraham began to plead with God for Lot and his family. God sent His angels down into the city to rescue Lot and his family out of there before it was destroyed.
A few chapters later (in chapter 19) the story continues beginning with verse 15.
- vs. 15-16 Lot and his family were to leave Sodom, but he hesitated. Why?
I don’t think it was because he doubted what the angels told him. Lot had seen enough sin in the city to know that God’s judgment was going to happen any day.
But it was Lot’s desire to hold onto all of the things and friends that he had accumulated. Lot and his family had to be dragged away from all of the treasures of Sodom so that he could be taken to a place of safety.
Question:
1. Do you find yourself hesitating when God speaks to you? The place that God has for you is the only place of safety from sin and evil.
2. Are you holding onto something so tightly that you can’t seem to let go, and someone will have to drag you away from your sins?
- vs. 17, 23-26 Once the angel had gotten them successfully out of the city, he told them not to look back but to run as fast as they could to get away from the destruction that God was sending.
When the sun had risen over the land, God rained down fire on the cities and destroyed everything. He destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Everything that lived in the city, and all that vegetation – that wonderful green grass that once looked so good to Lot – Everything that had one time drawn Lot to that valley was burned up. The thing that he had coveted for himself cost him more than he could ever realize and was now consumed in fire.
You see Lot lost a lot more than grass in God’s judgment. Lot’s wife just couldn’t let go of all that she had in the city – the finery, the clothes and the prestige. In her longing to hang onto it, she turned around to look at Sodom once more.
She didn’t turn around out of curiosity over what was going on much like a young child would. She turned around because she wanted the pleasures of Sodom more than she wanted the rescue that God had provided.
In response to her rebellion, God turned her into a pillar of salt. She had her heart set on earthly things, so God literally made her a part of the earth.
- vs. 30-36 Lot lost even more. He lost the respect and love of his daughters. And then he lost his self-respect when his daughters defiled him.
Lot illustrates for us many things. But for sure, Lot set his heart on things of this world rather than on things of heaven. He wanted things that he thought could bring him satisfaction and pleasure, but all that they brought him was pain and suffering and loss.
Lot’s coveting destroyed he & his family.
He lost all of his wealth, he lost his wife, and he lost the love and respect of his daughters. Except for the rescue made by God’s messengers, Lot would have lost his life too.
Close:
Coveting destroys all who give themselves over to it.
The covetous person –
q Is a calloused person that only cares about what they want.
q Not considerate of others.
What can we do?
Meditate on Philippians 4:4 thru 6
1. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4)
Be thankful for everything you do have.
2. “Be anxious for nothing…” (vs. 6)
Our culture we live in tells us that we must have the latest and the greatest.
We are made to believe that –
q What we have is never good enough.
q We must have more and more.
q We should replace the good old things with the newest and the best.
We are told these things often enough and long enough that we find ourselves dissatisfied with what God has given us.
Prosperity is oftentimes confused with greed. We often fell that we simply must have what we don’t really need. Whether we can afford it really is not a consideration.
This morning - We must decide for ourselves what can give us lasting satisfaction in this life.
Paul has the answer for us in Phil. 4:11 & 12 (Message Bible):
“Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little…”
Paul went on to say (in verse 13) that as long as he had Jesus Christ he had all he would ever need. He said,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Then Paul summed it all up by saying in verse 19,
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
God has the only -
GUARANTEED SAISFACTION
