Monday, July 6, 2009
How Much Do You Need? The Danger of Coveting, Part 19 of 60
TEXT: "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s" (Exodus 20:17).
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s" (Deuteronomy 5:21).
IDEA: Covetousness destroys any possibility of God’s gifts working in our lives.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that covetousness and God’s blessing will not abide each other in our hearts.
The tenth commandment states that “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Is it possible to be wealthy and still be godly?
I. It is possible to be both wealthy and godly.
Some of God’s outstanding people were wealthy people.
Abraham
Joseph when he was second to Pharaoh in Egypt.
Job was wealthy before his trials and even more wealthy after them.
Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy.
For every verse in the Bible that tells us about the benefit of wealth, five verses warn us about the danger of wealth.
2 Timothy 6:9-10 - “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Proverbs 28:8, 20, 25 - “One who increases his possessions by usury and extortion gathers it for him who will pity the poor . . . A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished . . . He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered.”
II. The Bible doesn’t condemn wealth. It does condemn covetousness which makes wealth the aim of life.
What people really seek in life is what God alone can give them–the gifts of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23–“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Covetousness in our hearts can destroy the gifts of the Spirit in our lives. Look at the list and see what covetousness does to each of these gifts:
Instead of love, we have suspicion and hatred.
Instead of joy, we have sorrow and heartache.
Instead of peace, we have feverish unrest.
Instead of patience, we have impatience.
Instead of kindness, we have cruelty.
Instead of goodness, we have miserliness.
Instead of faithfulness, we have infidelity.
Instead of meekness, we have arrogance.
Instead of self-control, we have self-confidence.
III. What we think will satisfy us does not, and what God says will satisfy us we ignore.
Elvis Presley had 3 jets, 2 Cadillacs, a Rolls Royce, a Lincoln Continental, 2 station wagons, a jeep, a custom touring bus and 3 motorcycles. His Cadillac limo top was covered with pearl-white Naugahyde, and the body was sprayed with 40 coats of special paint containing crushed diamonds. Nearly all the metal trim was plated in 18-carat gold. It was equipped with 2 gold-flake telephones, a gold vanity case containing a gold electric razor and gold hair clippers, an electric shoe buffer, a gold-plated TV, a record player, amplifier, air conditioner and electrical system for operating any kind of household appliance, and a refrigerator capable of making ice in 2 minutes.
When Elvis Presley came to the end of his life, he died a lonely and unhappy man. Why?
