The 10th Commandment

We've included celebrated names like Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Poulter, Macy, Goodyear. This was the richest people in the world, especially here in the United States, and it was their club. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Jack O'Hara. Somebody, how many of you are going there for the feast this year? I know what Brenda Wheeler is. Jack O' Island is remarkable in that at one time you couldn't get on that club, or on that island, unless you belonged to a very exclusive club, and it cost a lot of money to get out there. There's a drawbridge to get onto that island, and it was a very lush island. It had lots of game. In fact, they brought in, because of hunting, they brought in a game warden that just stalked constantly. Everything from alligators to deer so that you could hunt all the time. The rich would go there. They had golf courses. They had fishing. They had piers. They had boats. They brought their yachts there, and they built cottages. Only these cottages were 20 to 25 rooms. And servants' quarters. And they had the clubhouse. You could still go eat at the clubhouse today. The clubhouse served meals that had up to 10 courses. It would take three hours to eat. This was the most exclusive club in the world, and you could only get there to go there if you belonged to that club. And this was where their cottages were. They only spent a few weeks a year. Vanderbilt would go to different places. You know, the Breakers up in Rhode Island. Of course, they all had homes in New York City. These were their cottages. This is where they went for vacation. Sometimes for a whole month. Sometimes the husband wouldn't be there the whole time, but the wife and children would go there. And they would go to their cottage, and they would take servants with them. They had everything that most people want. The way they dressed, the build bar was interesting. The women would change clothes sometimes three or four times a day, depending upon what they were doing. You know, if they were riding horseback, they would put on certain clothes, and they would put on certain clothes for breakfast, certain clothes for lunch, and the certain clothes for what they were doing in the afternoon, and then dress clothes for the evening. And we noticed that in some of the rooms there weren't mirrors, and that's because the servants told them whether they looked good or not, and made them look the way they wanted to be. So, these people lived a lifestyle that most people would say, Oh, I'd love to live that way. I would love to live that way, where you could just have anything you want. They would bring in a concert pianist just for a private concert. You can order any food that you wanted, fresh strawberries. They could import them. They would go out and shoot the pheasant fresh for you, and serve it in that evening. Anything you wanted, the best beef was brought in and stored there. This was Czech Island. This is what it was. And this is what so many people think, this is what I want in my life, if I just achieve that. Some people sell their whole lives trying to achieve that. You know, the old saying, he who has the most toys in the end wins. My question has always been, wins what? What do you win when you die and you hit the most toys? Because those go to someplace, somebody else, which is exactly what Solomon said at the end of his life.

Today we're going to talk about the last of the Ten Commandments. And I want to use Czech Island as sort of what the vision of so many people have, is the greatest success in life. If you could just have all that wealth, all that money, they had cars, they had bicycles, and nobody could even come on to that island. You could today take tours of some of those cottages, which is nicer than any of our homes, and this was their place. They just boarded up at the end of the season, and it's all, we'll come back in nine months or ten months to visit again, or vacation. And you could take a tour of those places. You could see how they lived. And many people say, oh, if we could just have that, we could just live like they lived.

It isn't wrong for Christians to have wealth. There are some people who think to be a Christian, you have to be poor. The truth is, when you look through the Scripture, there are poor Christians, there are rich Christians, and there are people in between. In the Old Testament, there are people who absolutely live in poverty, and there are people who are very rich. Abraham was very rich.

God doesn't seem to care about that status, how much you own. He does care about your attitude towards what you own.

He cares about our attitude towards things and towards wealth. Exodus 20, which is the last of the Ten Commandments in this series of sermons. Think of this about nine months to go through it. Exodus 20.

This is one of the commandments that we probably think about the least, especially in our lives, especially in an Asia like the United States.

You know, as I went through the Biltmore and I looked at their bathrooms and I thought, wow, we have better plumbing today, right? We have air conditioning. They did not.

My Taurus is a whole lot better than the car they drove. My Ford is better than the cars they drove. All they don't, you know, those are luxurious cars. They look nice, but they were hard to drive. They drank gas. They didn't, they weren't as comfortable as these cars. They didn't have heat. They didn't have air conditioning. They didn't have radios for CD players. So for us, we live, we live better than the great majority of the world.

You and I live better than the great majority of people in the world. We are the rich of the world. You and I in this room are the rich of the world. So we compare ourselves to people like the Vanderbilt's or the Rockefeller's. The rest of the world compares themselves to us. It's like a man came here from one of the elders from, I'm trying to remember, he was either from a part of Asia or part of Africa, and he came here. And he said, now I understand why it's so hard for Americans to be centered on the Millennium and the return of Jesus Christ. You're already living in the Millennium. The way you're living is what we, how they, vision the Millennium with the wealth that we have. Exodus 20 and verse 17, 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. Now, coveting is sort of a private sin. Now, it will produce other overt actions, but you know, we can covet something and no one else even know we're covet. And sometimes because of that, we tend to not zero in on the importance of coveting in our lives and what it does to us spiritually. Coveting has a terrible effect on us spiritually and emotionally. Depression can be caused by coveting. Anger can be caused by coveting. Anxiety can be a result of coveting. And we don't think of those things because we don't think of this sin. Because it's so hard to see. Now, we can see a very greedy person and say, oh, that person covets. But what about in our lives? Jesus said that was really, really important. Look what it says in Mark 7. Mark 7.

Verse 20.

We're breaking the middle of a story here, but this is very important to what it says here. Jesus says, verse 20, what comes out of a man that defiles a man, from what within, out of the heart of a man, proceed evil thoughts. So here's what defiles us. So they were talking about ceremonies, washing their hands before ceremonies, ceremonial washings. And he said, that's not what defiles us, because we don't do the ceremonies. He says, from what, from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders. I mean, this is a list of horrible things. And this happens because of what's happening inside of us. And we manifest these sins. He says, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. So Jesus says here that covetousness defiles us spiritually. It ruins us. It takes us away from God. And he puts it in the same categories, stealing, murder, sexual sins. And he puts it in a category that we would covetous there, because covetousness doesn't hurt anybody else, does it? It just hurts me. The arguments you hear all the time. Well, I'm not hurting anybody. Well, that's wrong. But I'm not hurting anybody.

He says, well, covetousness doesn't hurt anybody.

How bad is it? Look at the category that Jesus puts it in. Look at another scripture here in Ephesians, chapter 5. The Apostle Paul talks about coveting. Now, we're going to have to define coveting because of something he said here. Now, we think, well, we all sort of know what coveting is, but we're going to break down coveting today into the process of coveting. We go through a mental, emotional process of coveting. And then we'll start to see why Jesus puts it in that category, why God puts it in one of the Ten Commandments, and why Paul makes this statement.

Ephesians 5, verse 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, and offering in the sacrifice to God for sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as fitting for saints, either filthiness or foolishness, talking or coarse-gesting, which are not fitting. But rather, give of giving of thanks. For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Now look at this list of things. And Paul says, people who practice these things are so defiled by these things that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now obviously, Christians wrestle with these things. We struggle with these things. He's talking about people who just practice these things, who don't repent of these things. But coveting, he says, is the same as idolatry.

Here he connects the 10th commandment back to the commandment against idolatry. They're connected together. How are they connected together? How is covetousness connected to idolatry? We know what idolatry is, is people worshiping statues, putting things before God. So what is coveting? A simple definition is to covet, is to have a passionate and obsessive desire for something or someone that is not yours to own. Remember to covet is to have a passionate and obsessive desire for something or someone that is not yours to own. Remember, it says you cannot covet your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's ox or your neighbor's house. And the Deuteronomy version of the 10 commandments, it even expands that out even more. Anything that is your neighbor's. Anything that's not yours that you desire with this passionate obsession to have. Now, there's just different ways that we can covet, then. To entertain a passion and obsessive desire for something that is unlawful or immoral. If a man covets a woman, even if she's not married, and he has this passionate and obsessive desire, and she doesn't want to marry him, and he keeps after her, that's coveting. I want you, and you know you can't have me. But I have this obsession with you. Yeah, I know. You're really weird. You can't have me.

It is unlawful, you know, when your neighbor pulls in with that new Mustang. Now, for some of you, that's not a problem. When he pulls in with that new Mustang, can't covet that, it's not yours. Can't have it. I don't covet Mustangs, but I like Mustangs. Never will hold one. It's okay. But I've known people who coveted cars. You know, you can't get it out of their mind. And they look at other people with that car, and, oh, I wish I had that. It's unlawful.

Now, you think about how coveting is the basis of so many sins. It's the basis of adultery. It's the basis of stealing. But I want a new big screen TV, so I can break in the Walmart and get one. I covet it, you see. I wouldn't, but it's not yours. All Walmart has lots of them. It doesn't matter. But you want it. So you're coveting. This sin is very, very important for us to understand. It's so much a part of our lives. Now, there's another way we can covet, and that is to have this obsessive and desire for something that's lawful, but we go after it in a wrong way. So how could you do that? If your children need shoes, and instead you go buy that new fishing rod, you're coveting.

See? I have an obsessive desire for something that isn't wrong for me to have, but our spiritual priorities is to take care of our children. So coveting isn't always just, I want something that's unlawful. It's wanting something that's okay to have, but it's doing it in a wrong way.

And you know what that is. You know what it's like to want something, to want a new couch. It's not wrong to desire a new couch, but to be obsessed with it. That you're actually suffering some kind of anxiety because you want the couch or the new rifle or for hunting or the new house or the new car or the new whatever it is that you get excited about. And you want it, and you're obsessed with it, and you can't stop thinking about it.

Now, I knew a man who used to put pictures of cars up in his cubicle, because he said, that's what I'm working for. And he always had a new car. But it was an obsession with him. He would look at that every day as he got up. He'd look at that car. That's why I'm working today.

That's all you're working for, is a car. I mean, I like cars. I need a car. We want cars. We want nice cars. I've had nice cars, and I've had cars that people used to stop me because they thought I was on fire. So much smoke was all over me. They'd be waving as they went by. And I'd say, I know, I know, I'm on fire. You can see him saying, nah, it's just burning oil. I'd have to put two quarts of oil on every time I got gas. So I got a Ford at the time.

It's not right. I desired a new car. Coveting, though, becomes an obsession. It controls our minds and our emotions. And you can covet anything. And this is why Paul compares it to idolatry, because it becomes more important than God. What you want, whatever it is, becomes the priority of your life, not God. And it begins to replace God, and he becomes an idol. We can make an idol out of anything. We can make an idol out of another person. We can make an idol out of success. We can make an idol out of a job that we want, or a car that we want, new clothes that we want. You can make an idol out of anything. A trinket that you become obsessed with.

And now that obsession makes that person more important than God. And at that point, we're coveting, but we also are committing idolatry. Let me look at some of the symptoms and results of covetousness. Symptoms and results of covetousness. First one, it does lead to overt acts of sin, like stealing, adultery, murder.

One of the prime examples is back in the book of Joshua of Achan. Remember they were told not to take anything from Jericho? And it says he coveted it. He took these things and hid them. He could not even display them. He took clothing he could not wear. Understand that. He could even wear those clothes! Because everybody said, where'd you get those clothes from? He had to bury all the stuff that he got. This is one of the strange things about covetousness. It motivates us to do things that make no sense at all. It didn't make sense. He buried it. And then, when God punished Israel, he wouldn't confess.

And they went through casting of lots throughout the entire nation of Israel until it came down to him. And they said, why have you done this thing? Where is all this stuff? It's buried in my tent. It's buried in my tent. There's something illogical in our actions, and this is what makes covetousness so wrong, so evil. This is why God put it in one of the Ten Commandments. It motivates us to do other overt sins, but it also hurts us in very subtle ways. The second thing it does is it produces obsession, anxiety, and unhappiness. It actually produces anxiety. Covetousness produces unhappiness because we begin to believe that object will make me happy. If I could just have those new clothes, it would make me happy. If I could just have that pair of shoes, it would make me happy. Look at Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21.

Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21. 1-25. The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

There was in the Bible that there were all kinds of stipulations how the poor people were to be taken care of. There are things in the Bible that would seem strange to us today, like when you cut your field, you had to leave the corners of the field for poor people to come get. But they had to come get the food.

If someone was lazy and would not even come get the food, then they died. They start. So God had assistance set up for the poor to be taken care of. But here he says, the desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. He covets greedily all day long, but the righteous gives and does not spare.

Covets I wish I had what other people have, but you have to work to get what other people have. Righteous people give and give and give. Those who covet don't give.

They don't give. All they do is take. Take and take and take. And it produces selfishness, it produces unhappiness, it produces anxiety.

In which, it's just all day long. All day long you look at other people and say, I wish I had that, I wish I had that, I wish I had this.

It's sort of the entitlement mentality that people get into.

It comes from covetousness. The third thing is that it corrupts our character, and in corrupting our character, it destroys our loyalty to God. It is idolatry. Covetousness destroys our loyalty to God. Look at Matthew 19. Matthew 19. Matthew 19.

Let's start in verse 16. This is a well-known passage, but just look at it again. Let's not let it become cliche to us. Now behold, one came and said to him, this came to Jesus Christ, good teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? So he said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said, which ones? There are 613 commandments, so which ones? He said, well, let's start with the ones that were the basis of the covenant. You know, the ones that God said, okay, take these, I'm going to write them on stone, put them into the Ark of the Covenant. This is the basis for all the other laws. Jesus said, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Young man said to him, all these things I have kept for my youth. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have and give it to the poor. And you have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Now, this is very important, what he's telling him. He said, I want you to be my disciple, but the cost of your discipleship is everything that you have. Come be my disciple.

What if Jesus Christ said that to you?

I've thought about that. What if Christ someday says, Gary, it's my disciple, you're going to have to give up everything. Remember one of the prophets that had to go sleep in the street naked? So everybody would recognize him and listen to him when he talked? He had to eat his food cooked over dung and alive. And I stayed in the holiday and express.

One of God's some days says to any of us, okay, you have to give up everything you have, and this is what I want you to do for me. This is what Jesus said to this man. He said, you come be my disciple, you follow me, and you'll have eternal life. The question has to do with eternal life. You will have eternal life if you do that. Verse 22, when the young man heard what that's saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

What possessions do you have that you will say no to God to? Have you ever thought about that?

I have, because I thought about covetousness, and I thought about what God can ask. What is it you would say? You can't have my house, you can't have my farm, you can't have my clothes, you can't have my car, you can't have my whatever. No, you cannot. In his mind. And God says, give it up, come follow me, and you'll have eternal life. Covetousness is so subtle. Now, he doesn't ask all of us to give up everything that we have. But he can't ask that. He asks us to give up part of what we have sometimes, doesn't he? Maybe you lose a job because you obey God? You lose money because you obey God? You pay tithes because you obey God? Why don't we pay tithes at times? People don't pay tithes because they're coveting. We just covet? It's mine. Or I can't do it because I won't, what? Well, I won't have as nice a house if I pay tithes. So we have to be honest about this. Why do we not do things? Because I won't get what I want. That's how we covet. And it corrupts our character. The fourth thing it does, and it's interesting, if you do a study in the Scripture, you'll see that it perverts justice because it leads to bribes. People in power, judges, will take bribes. They'll take bribes because they covet. And so it perverts justice. If you can bribe the person of power, or if you can bribe the judge, you'll get your way. It has nothing to do with right and wrong. It has nothing to do with the law. And there are people who take bribes. Not every person in power takes bribes, but there are those who do. There are judges who take bribes. And so you'll see, especially in the Old Testament, that Israel and Judah are both condemned by God because the people in power take bribes. They do what they do in order to get wealth. Of course, fortunately, you and I don't know anybody that does that.

Right? We've never known of a politician or a judge to pervert justice because they wanted power, they wanted money. The fifth thing that it does, and this is very interesting, it leads to a life of never being satisfied. When we are filled with covetousness, we're never satisfied. It's never enough. It's never enough.

You have to get more, and you have to get more, and you have to get more.

Solomon, of course, experienced that. Solomon experienced what it was like to be probably the richest man in the world at the time. He had everything he could want, the big palaces, the horses, the fine clothing, the wine. The fact that he brought in musicians to play for him. Musicians, nobody else got to hear him. He brought in the best of the world. He had things brought in from all over the Mediterranean by ship so that he could have the best food, the best wine. Because there's nothing under the sun that he did not let himself experience. You know, this is why, in the Jewish world, the book of Ecclesiastes is studied during the Feast of Tabernacles. Mr. Cubic wrote about that recently. Study the book of Ecclesiastes. This is why I waited to give this sermon as we get closer to the Feast of Tabernacles. Because we have, during the Feast of Tabernacles, because of our tithes, and we have an ability to live life a step above what we normally do.

And in that, we can learn what coveting is. We can learn life... This is wonderful. God has given us this blessing. But life is more than this. I've seen people go to the Feast of Tabernacles and come back just all upset. Yeah, we went to this amusement park and it rained all day. What were the sermons like? They were okay, but the kids were upset. And, you know, wait a minute. What were the services like? What were the conversations like that you had with other people? Well, we didn't have much time to do that because we had to get out, get the kids, get them some lunch, and then get off to our afternoon activities.

So, you have to be careful. I'm not saying we shouldn't have afternoon activities. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. I'm saying what is the focus of the Feast?

Here's what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. There are he who loves abundance with increase. This is also vanity or uselessness as it is sometimes translated. Now, he didn't say it was wrong to have silver. He didn't say it was wrong to, you know, increase your wealth. He didn't say that. He said, but if you love it, if you're just obsessed with it, you'll never get enough. You'll never have enough. There'll always be something else more to buy, always something else more to get, something else more... At the Biltmore, there was a fireplace. They'd actually had one room that they put a steel door in front of and had guards in front of during the Second World War. The reason why is they brought in all these paintings from Washington, D.C., to store them there and hide them out from the Smithsonian because they thought they'd maybe get bombed. So here they had all these paintings there. After the war, they took steel doors off and they took them and shipped them back to Washington. And then, when they were restoring the room, it was a weird fireplace. So they find, I think it was in a stable someplace or down in the basement, they find the fireplace that originally went in there. And it was worth... it was almost priceless. Not only was it priceless, but above it was some kind of engraving from the Middle Ages. There was also priceless. They were just stored in the stable someplace. There was never enough. They just bought more and they bought more and they bought more. The priceless stuff... we get to store that someplace and we get more priceless stuff. This is what covenants does. It's never enough. The sixth thing is it creates wrong priorities of life. Once again, this is why it's compared to idolatry. Luke 12. Luke 12.

Verse 13. Then one from the crowd said to him, said to Christ, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Now he has a legitimate... maybe a legitimate issue. But he goes to Jesus and says, look, I want you to correct my brother. I want you to go make him give me the inheritance. Because this is an issue of law. Inheritance was supposed to be split a certain way depending on what birth order you were in. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or an arbiter over you. He said, wait a minute. Why are you coming to me? You take this to the elders. You take this to the court system. And he said to them, take heed. Now he understands the man's real motivation here. Take heed and be aware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist of the abundance of the things he possesses. I like things. I really do.

Now we all have to be careful that our things don't become our priorities. You know, it's like really rich people. You say, why do you keep making money? You ask them. A lot of times it's because it's a game and I like to win. I'm playing a game and I'm winning more and more money in this game. Again, wealth isn't bad. We should all produce and people should be paid for their work. And some work has more value than other work in terms of skill levels and so on. So some things are worth more than others. I mean, it's that way in the scripture. So some people are going to have more than others. You don't see in ancient Israel where everybody got paid the exact same amount. What you see is that every family got started with the same amount of land. Everybody started with the same amount of land and they could do with it what they wanted. He says, be careful that our life at the end isn't what we own. For 16. Then he spoke a parable to them saying, The ground of a certain rich man yielded plundiply. He thought within himself, saying, What shall I do since I have no room to store all my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barn to build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods light up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm planning for retirement. He's not saying don't plan for retirement. In fact, there's proverbs that say we should. One thing, when you start planning for retirement, you realize you're not going to have a lot during retirement. So, that's okay too. That life will change, right? And our life will be the same as it is now.

But he's not saying don't build better barns if you need a better barn. That's not the point. It's the point that the man says, Look what I've done. I'm going to be on an easy street now. I'm going to eat all I want, drink all I want, and have a happy life. Because I finally have all that I want, all the things that I want. I can do more things and more things. Here's the problem, verse 20. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you. Then whose will those things be which you have provided?

So is he who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich towards God. Now, he's not saying God needs our money. Rich towards God. We live our lives dedicated towards God.

We live life the way God wants us to live.

But if we're not careful, what happens with covetousness, our priorities get messed up.

And so what we do is our career becomes more important than our husband or our wife.

Only a boat becomes more important than our children. Spending more time at the office becomes more important than prayer and study and dedication to God. You know, the Bible talks about working. Working is a requirement of life. Work is actually good for us. And having a strong work ethic is an important part of the Christian character. We just read that God, no, not a lot of mercy there for a lazy person. Laziness is a sin. But at the same time, what are our priorities? Are we working for God or are we working for the boat? That's the question. Now, if you can do both, that's great. And some people can. I don't know if anybody here owns a boat or not. If you do, that's great. Although I always thought a boat was more work than it's worth. I never wanted a boat, so I don't feel bad about a boat. But you understand what I'm saying. It's not wrong to have a boat. And last, you covet the boat. And that means that boat has become an idol. And it's more important to you in your time, in your effort, than God.

And then lastly, the seventh thing.

It leads to resentment and bitterness towards others.

You see other people as people who are somehow privileged and you're not. Walking through the Bilk War was amazing. And seeing how those people lived, the thing I thought was most amazing, they had tapestries from the 1500s and 1600s on the walls. That's amazing to have that in your house. I mean, that should be in a museum, right? And they're just beautiful tapestries. It took ten years to make each one, because, of course, tapestries had to be made by hand, you know, in the 1500s and 1600s. And I saw them.

And in the end, I really wouldn't want to live in that house.

It was interesting, but I don't begrudge the Vanderbilts because they had the house.

Okay, they had a nice house. Everybody living in that house is dead.

One day their life was required of them, and they couldn't take the house with them. And I hope they enjoyed the house. I don't begrudge rich people.

Because I realize I'm richer than most of the people in the world.

But what happens is, if we fill with covetousness, all we do is look at other people and say, I should have what you have.

And I don't have it, so I'm unhappy. Which really is what you're saying. You make me unhappy because of what you have. As if you could get what they have. If tomorrow someone said, guess what? We've just given you the Vanderbilt home. Thinking, which one? They're all beautiful, right? Oh, the one on Jekyll Island, which is just a little cottage. You can have that one, with all of its furnishings and everything. You get it. It's yours. Would that make you happy?

No. It would not. Do it, that would make you happy. So we have bitterness towards people because of what they have and what I think I should have. It's a terrible way to live life. So, obviously desiring something is not wrong in itself, right? We talked about that earlier. But you can have a desire for something that's unlawful. But what about a desire for something that's lawful? But the desire is done in the wrong way. Let's talk about the cycle of covetousness. What happens, okay? What happens inside this when we covet? Well, first of all, the sort of steps we go through here is that you noticed the object. Oh, wow, that's nice. I'd like to have that. Wow, that's a nice dress. Whoa, look at that price tag. So you notice it. And you look at the price tag and say, I can't afford that.

So now you go home and you start thinking about it.

And you mention it to your husband and he says, we can't afford that.

But you begin to dwell on how desirable it is. Now, what you haven't seen, you saw an object and you desire it. Now, you could fill in anything there. I just begin to dress arbitrarily. You begin anything, right? I want that. Oh, that's nice to have. Ooh, that would be desirable. But at this point, you have to logically think through, okay, is it lawful for me to have? Well, it's way too short, way too low. No, it's not lawful for me to have. But what if it is lawful? It's a beautiful dress. It's okay. Wow, that is a beautiful dress. I would love to have that dress. You haven't sinned? Can I afford it? No, not really. Would it be something I should have? Should I save for it? Yes. Of course, half the time, when you save for something, halfway there, you think, I don't want it anymore. It's the only thing about confidence. You lose your desire for it after a while. But, okay, I could save for this. Sometimes you don't. You ever save for something and then you feel so good when you get it because you saved for it, right? You didn't have to go in debt for it. I saved five years for the car I have now. I'm so happy because I walked in and paid cash for this used car. Some people say, but does he use car? I don't care. I pay cash.

Now, hey, it's mine.

So, we have to think these things through. Is it really a need? Well, yes, all my other dresses are falling apart. It may be a need. It may be a want. This is all the process we have to go through and think about it. And then sometimes there's sort of a disappointment and you say, no, I can't have it. Sometimes, oh, yes, I can have it. The thing is, we usually skip that whole process, which usually takes a lot of thought and even some discussion with other people. We just jump from, I notice the object, I desire the object to, I've got to have the object. And now it's driven by an emotion. Covertice-ness is an emotion. I've got to have it. Sometimes we say that, oh, I've got to have that. We don't really mean it. But sometimes we do. I've just got to have that. And now we begin to be mostly have a need for the object.

We mostly have a need for the object. This is why, if you've ever seen someone that a person covets another person and he becomes an obsession, and they're actually driving the person away from them. And they're like, well, get this person away from me. Have this person leave me alone. Why are they doing it? Well, they have a need for you now. They have an emotional need for you that's very real. Covertice-ness is an emotion, and we're driven by it.

And I need that. I've got to have it. And so now our happiness depends on having it. I can't be happy until I have that dress. I just can't be happy until I have that dress. I can't be happy until I have that promotion. And old Bob's in front of me, and I've got to get rid of Bob so I can get the promotion.

Now you see what begins to happen. When we have to have it, we start to plan a strategy. That's our third step. I now plan a strategy. At this point, by the way, if you've gone through the process properly, you're not sinning. You've looked at it. It's an object I'd like to have. I desire the object. Okay, I can't afford it, but I have to save some money. And, you know, I have to plan it out a little bit.

Maybe we won't go out to eat for the next month, so I'll have enough money for this object. You haven't sinned! And a month later, you go and you buy it! You have not sinned. You have not coveted, because it was lawful. First of all, you made sure it was lawful. You planned for it, but when you get to the point, I got to have it, I need it, you begin to create a strategy that isn't a logical strategy.

It is an emotional strategy in which other people can get hurt. Or, you're simply going to feed your obsession. You get up every morning, and before long, you're thinking about it. You feel anxiety because you don't have it. You got to get rid of Bob, because he's the guy in front of you. So, you find yourself sort of gossiping about Bob and everybody in the workplace. You turn Bob down all the time. First of all, you find yourself saying, you know, to the boss one day, Bob just doesn't do his job.

I don't know why we keep him around. Pretty soon, you're literally trying to destroy the person who's keeping you, what? From your need, from your emotional need. I need that job. It'll give me more money. It'll give me more status.

It will give me a better shot at another job. And in that need, you can destroy another person in front of me. Because that person's keeping you from what you want, right? That person's keeping me from what I want. That person has something I want, I deserve. At this point, coveting is just part of you. It's just part of who you are now. So now, the fourth thing you do is you start to take actions.

Now, you've got to have it. Now, you may cheat a little bit to get the extra money, or you may spread rumors about somebody. But we'll do little things that chip away at our integrity in order to get what we want so this emotion can be achieved. And then, number five, you have either one or two overwhelming emotional reactions. You either don't get the object, and you're upset, you're angry, and that could go on for a long time. You're unhappy. I didn't get the promotion. You're unhappy. I didn't get the dress. I didn't get the car. And I planned for it so much, and it's all I've thought about for three months, and I didn't get it.

And my emotional need isn't met. And you're just devastated. Or you get it. And you're just happy. You're ecstatic. I got it! What happened to Bob? Oh, I think, fired him. You know, he'll get another job. You got it, finally! You're happy. You're excited. And it lasts for a while. But then that brings us to the sixth thing that happens. And this is the quirky thing about human nature. You begin to experience it in this apartment.

I've wondered if Vanderbilt ever walked through the house and said, You know, I only have seven tapestries from the Middle Ages. I wish I had eight.

Or the engravings they found in the basement or stable, or wherever it was, were priceless from the Middle Ages. They got displaced and people just forgot about them.

Now you spend lots of money to go buy and look at them.

But when we get something through covetousness, you're never really satisfied with it after a while. See, if you get something lawfully, properly, it's nice, it's good, you realize things are going to wear out. See, you buy the dress, and it's like, oh, it's a nice dress. And a couple years later, you say, boy, I wore that dress out. It sure was a nice dress, and I sort of missed that dress because I can't wear it anymore. But you're not devastated. But if you're coveted, it's like, oh, look! At the bottom of the dress, there's a small stain. And your husband says, well, nobody can see that. And you're just upset for days! I'm happy! I'm exaggerating some. Well, not completely.

It's the way we are as human beings, right?

Remember the new car smell. Remember driving a new car. It doesn't matter if it's brand new or not, it's yours, right? And you just love that car. And then the water pump goes.

And you just wish you could take a sledgehammer and beat that car to pieces. But you love the car. People name their cars. They give them names, right? It's not the same anymore. The car broke down. Or you've got a scratch on it.

I had a gold horse. I still have it sitting in my driveway. Maybe because it doesn't run anymore. And my son-in-law is going to take it. I remember buying that car. I was so happy about that car. Bought that car. Didn't care. I had four years of payments to make. It was used, but he has a great car. And the second or third week we went to SAVA services. And the other thing I can figure, there were lots of people with children with baby buggies. And we went out and there was a scratch. Just barely seeing it. All down the one side where I think someone scraped it with it. Probably didn't even know they were doing it. And I looked at that, and I looked at that. And for the longest time, every time I looked at my beautiful car that I got in it, plus seats and that CD player and stereo sound, you know what I can think about? It was the almost invisible scratch that went across the two doors on the driver's side. And then I thought, this is stupid. You know, so there's a little scratch. Big deal. Now I went in and said, how much to fix that? I don't give any hundreds of dollars. I said, I'll leave it. Never mind. Forget it. You know, it was just ridiculous. But that's the funny thing about covetousness, and we're not careful. Once we get it, we're not happy. Now, I didn't covet the car, but I could have become obsessed with it. You see what I mean? We could have obsessed with an object. It doesn't even make sense. I can explain why.

But we do it. This is what coveting is. Which brings us to the last, the seventh point.

The cycle starts all over again. I need a new dress. I need a new car. I need a new tapestry from 1550.

It just depends on the amount of money. It doesn't matter. You can covet a something from the general dollar store. Or dollar general store, okay? You can covet something from that store. Or you can covet something that's worth a million dollars. The amount doesn't matter. The emotion is the issue. I've got to ever see a child obsessed. I just got to have it. I just got to have that pencil. You know, we're going to school, and I've got to have those little pencils from the dollar general store. There's a package of six, and they're all different colors, and they have sparkles on them. I just got to have them, and they're crying because why? Because I didn't get my pencils.

And you can try to explain why that's not that important. But emotionally, they can't work that through. As adults, we're supposed to work that through. Because many of the things we want in life that we get obsessed over is nothing more than a half a dozen sparkly pencils. That's all it is in the course of life. That's what we get obsessed with.

Let me give you just a couple things you can do to combat. And then we'll wrap this up here. The combat covet is this. You have to maintain spiritual priorities. And at the Feast of Tabernacles this year, it's so easy to get caught up in the physical. God tells us to have a good time. We're supposed to physically enjoy the Feast of Tabernacles. Eat, drink, have fun.

But we're also to remember that we live in the physical world. 1 Timothy 6. Paul writes to Timothy here. 1 Timothy 6.

We'll start at verse 6.

Telling this young man how to view life, he says, Now godliness with contentment is great gain. He said, Living a godly life and being happy with what you have. And sometimes you have more and sometimes you have less. Learning to be happy where you are while living a godly life, he said, This is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we shall carry nothing else. And having food and clothing with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich shall fall into temptation and ensnare, and who do many foolish and harmful hurts, 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. He said, There's lots of unhappy people out there who have a lot of money. Now he's not saying we all should take a vow of poverty and go sell all your land and give it to the poor. That's not what he's saying. Because there's other... if you're to talk about taking care of our land and take care of our things, like I said, some of the men and women of the Bible are very wealthy, some weren't. But what he's saying here is this obsession. I'll only be happy with things. I'll only be happy when my income reaches a certain point. You know, if you're struggling with putting food on the table, then you have a legitimate gripe. Now if you're living in a shack where water's coming through the roof and you don't have any food to give your kids, and you say, I'm unhappy because I don't have money, that's legitimate. I don't think too many of us are like that. Not too many of us. So we have to look and say, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He didn't say money, he said the love of it. The obsession with it. And he says, they're pierced with sorrows. They're actually unhappy. What was interesting about Mrs. Vanderbilt there, because this was, the original Vanderbilt who made all the money, this was one of his sons. It was his son or grandson, who's son was it? He, she was well known because they had so many servants. They had over 200 people living on the farm. It was totally self-sufficient. She would go out in the afternoons and go sit with those ladies and talk to them. When they were sick people, she brought soup to them. One of her greatest joys in life was going and sitting with the people who made, everybody wanted to work for them because they paid very good wages. Much higher wages than normal. And they helped take care of people. You know, you've got your own land to grow your vegetables on. And so people just came from all over the world to live there. It was interesting. They literally had people from about half a dozen different countries that came there just to work for these people because of the way they treated them. And her sitting on the stoop, they had pictures of her, sitting on the stoop of people's houses of the people who worked for them was one of her favorite things. And they would talk. And they had to interview with one woman that they had, when she was old, they had actually filmed her. And she said, one of the things when Mrs. Vanderbilt came, everybody knew she loved cake. So when someone would know that she was coming to visit, somebody in the neighborhood made a cake. And every time she came, all the ladies would sit and sit down and eat cake together.

She would leave the big house to go be with people.

Interesting set of priorities. Maintain spiritual priorities. Number two, have faith that when we do our part in serving God, He is going to take care of us.

Have faith when we do our part in serving God, He is going to take care of us. He may not put you in a big house, but He is going to take care of you. Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13.

Verse 5.

Let your conduct be without covetousness. Let your life be without covetousness. Paul says, Be content with such things as you have, for He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, why did He say learn to be content with what you have? Because we have to believe God is going to get us through. God is going to take care of us. And sometimes, I mean, if you are out of a job, and you are losing your house, and some of you have known what it is like to go through those kinds of trauma, that kind of trauma, it is not easy. That is not covetousness, because you have lost your job of losing your house. That is a trial. That is difficulty. We all need the basic human needs that we have. Shelter, water, food, clothing.

But remember, He is not going to forsake us.

Verse 6, so we may boldly say, we can have courage to say this, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is my helper. We have to believe that God is going to help take care of us when we do our part. Now, we still have to do our part.

We are back to what Solomon said. A lazy man, just sits around all day, and looks what other people have and resents them. But, you know, I know people that have worked hard all their lives and never been wealthy. Some of the hardest workers I have known weren't wealthy.

That they worked hard. They were construction plumbers, bricklayers, floor sanders. Hard workers. They weren't wealthy. But they didn't necessarily, you know, I know a lot of them had happy lives too. A lot of them didn't have happy lives. Some of them were covenants, some weren't. Some obeyed God, some didn't.

So we learn to be content with what we have. You know, there's no millionaires living on Jekyll Island today.

They're all gone. We can take tours of some of their houses. Some of the people live in, last time I was in Jekyll, it was years ago, some of those houses were just empty. They're just empty. You can walk up and look through the windows. I remember walking up and looking through the windows.

And there wasn't anything in them. Now, I don't know about now.

I was thinking, how many times, I remember one time when I was a teenager, we were at Jekyll and a friend of mine went and looked in all the windows of these big mansions, and most of them were empty at that time. I think some of them, more of them have tours now, they restored them. What happened is during World War II, they evacuated the island. Because off the coast of North Carolina, you could see at night burning ships all the time, because the Germans were sinking American merchant ships off the coast. And the government realized, if they could come in this close and start sinking hundreds of our ships, they could also land commandos and wipe out all the richest families in the world.

So they evacuated the island. But after the war, the people really weren't interested in going back, and the young people were more interested in going to Europe and other rich places, and Jekyll Island didn't have any appeal to them anymore. Nobody came back. In the mid-1940s, their late 1940s, they sold Jekyll Island with all those mansions for a pittance to the state of Georgia.

They sold it to them. Nobody went back. Here was the most exclusive club for between 50 and 60 years in the world. Mansions, a clubhouse, golf course, fishing, hunting, social events that only you could come to by invitation. Nobody could get on the island, except by invitation. And nobody cared anymore. There were too many more exciting things to do than go to Jekyll Island. And nobody went back. There is something that's there that I don't know if it's still there. I think it is. I tried to look it up on the internet and I found a picture. There is a ruins of a house there. And there's... last time I saw it, there were two stone lions in front of the house. Edwin Gold, who was the son of Jekyll, the famous multimillionaire, had a cottage there. Huge mansion. His cottage was there. And he would go there on the summers with everyone else. And one day his son was hunting on Jekyll Island and got shot in an accident and died. He was so devastated, he simply boarded up the house and left. He had everything. He had all this money. Beautiful. I mean, draperies and carpeting and incredible furniture in there. He had boarded up the house and left. He never came back. Years went by and finally just tore down. He tore down. He could never go. He could not face the loss of his son there. And so he never went back. All his things meant nothing. It didn't mean anything to him. And all that's left now is a ruined mansion, these ruins, and these two big stone lights. That's all that's there.

I think that is an interesting metaphor for covetousness.

We want what they have.

But people who have everything, they're still human. And they still suffer what everybody else suffers.

What better illustration? Next sign, you are driven by covetousness. Think about a ruined mansion and two stone lights.

How much that became worthless to that man. And then you can take heed to Christ's warning. Take heed, beware of covetousness. For a man's life consists not any abundance of the things which he possesses. Next time you find yourself consumed with the race to make money, to own things that have status, envious of people who have it, obsessed with an object, or obsessed with a position, or obsessed with something, whatever it is, so that's driving you and motivating you. Stop and remember what God has given you, the possessor of all things. And take some time to be thankful for what you already have. Look around at what you have and be thankful for that. Because no matter what you have, there are people in this world that are envious of you.

You have running water. There are billions of people that are envious of us because we have running water. And think about the Edwin Golds mansion and how worth it it is today. Reset your priorities. As you go to the Feast of Tabernacles this year, enjoy it. Enjoy the physical things. Enjoy what you eat. Enjoy what you do. But sometime during the Feast, when you're a little obsessed with all the physical things you're doing, I want you to think about a ruined mansion and two stone lions. And think about God's priorities in your life and what it really will be like when Jesus Christ comes for all humanity, not just for a few like us. Just for a few like us.