Covetousness

In Acts 12, verses 1-4, we find a situation that occurred very early in the New Testament Church. You might remember Herod the King stretched out his hand against the church to harass the church. He killed James, the brother of John. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, the Bible says he seized Peter. And verse 4, so when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. So Peter is arrested, he's put in prison, and to make sure that he didn't escape, they had four squads of soldiers to watch him.

The word keep here means to guard or to watch or to look out for. And they are told here that they were to keep him or to look out for him. Now, the same word is used by Luke in a warning that Jesus Christ gave to us. Let's go back to Luke 12. Luke 12. You ought to be able to remember Acts 12, Luke 12. In Luke 12, verse 13, let's notice. Jesus then, one from the crowd, said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide his inheritance with me.

But he said to him, Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you. And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. So he said that we need to beware. The word beware is the same one as to keep. In the book of Acts, it means to guard against or watch out for. So we are told to guard against or watch out for being covetous.

Now, we need to closely look at our minds, our thoughts, and our actions to avoid being a covetous person. I would dare say that for the average one of even us, the concept of being covetous rarely comes to our mind. It's not one of the Ten Commandments that you're always thinking about. You don't sit down at the end of the week and say, Have I coveted this week? It's not that type of thing.

We don't think of it that often. And yet it's a struggle that we go through all of our lives. It's something that we have to contend with all of our lives. It needs our conscious control, rule over, focus, attention. As Christ said, Be on guard. Watch out. Look. Covetousness is often hidden from view. It's easy to see it in somebody else, isn't it? It's easy to say, Well, somebody is greedy, because that's another term.

They're greedy, but we don't see many times how we're greedy. We know if we steal, commit adultery, murder, lie, that we're breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Yet coveting is not as obvious to most people. So let's take a look at what God has to say about this particular topic and what we need to be doing. Let's go back to Jeremiah chapter 8. Jeremiah the eighth chapter in verse 10.

Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 10. God here pegs Judah in the inhabitants of Judah for this particular sin as well as others, and actually it applies to all humanity. Let's notice. Beginning here in verse 10. Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will inherit them, because from the least even to the greatest, everyone is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest.

So he begins to enumerate various categories of people, but even he says the religious element. Everyone deals falsely, for they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. So God has a complaint against society, and he says here that everyone in society is given to covetousness. When was the last time you actually really thought about this topic, dwelled on it, cogitated over it, reflected on it? You had to roll around the back of your mind and ask yourself, well, am I guilty of that?

We think of a lot of things, don't we? We think of love, we think of the fruits of God's Spirit, we think of faith, we think of sex, we think of money, we think of friends, we think of relationship, we think of our job, we think of all kinds of things. But when it comes to covetousness, a lot of times we don't. Let's take a look at some background on this topic. First of all, let's go over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6, and we'll begin to read in verse 4.

1 Timothy 6, 4. Well, back up to verse 3, because you don't get the context here. He's talking about those who want to set themselves up as teachers. He says, if anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ into the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy and strife and reviling and evil suspicious.

And then, useless wrangling of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is gain, or is a means of gain from such withdrawal yourself. And then, he says, now godliness with contentment is great gain. So, for godly, for doing what God says, we're obeying his laws, keeping his commandments, striving to obey him, repent when we fall, then we can have, as it says here, contentment, godliness with contentment. Now, let's notice, King James' version talks about something that there's gain in godliness. Now, obviously, if we are obeying God, God can bless us, and we know that.

But there are those who believe in what is called today the wealth, and you obey in wealth gospel. They believe if you obey, then God's automatically going to give you everything that your heart could desire, and it doesn't really work that way. The NIV translates, verse 5, in constant friction between people of corrupt mind who have been robbed of the truth, who think that godlessness is a means to financial gain, that their objective is to have financial gain.

There's nothing wrong with improving yourself, but that's a form of action, isn't it? Get a better education, perhaps a second job, develop your skills and your talents, and then, if you want something, maybe you can afford it. Let's notice in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5. Hebrews 13 and verse 5. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. Remember the Apostle Paul said he knew how to be a base and he knew how to abound. There were times when Paul had very little. There were times when he was blessed with a lot.

So he says, Be content with such as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So God has said that he will never leave us. He'll be with us. He will take care of us. So if we're striving to do what is right, our conduct is right, we're obeying God, our heart is right with God, then God knows that and he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He will provide for us. Now, in Mark chapter 7, we find where this problem originates having a covetous approach. Mark 7 verse 20. You might remember the example here.

The disciples had eaten without washing their hands. Pharisees jumped all over them. You're defiling yourself by so doing. So Christ then explains that this is not what spiritually being defiled really means. Verse 20. He says, What comes out of a man that defiles a man? For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blaspheme, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. So to eat with unwashed hands is not what defiles us. It comes from the heart. You and I can become spiritually unclean, or polluted, or defiled. It's what the word defile is talking about. By what comes out of our hearts?

You see that all of these things, covetousness, can come out of our heart, out of our mind, out of our thinking. In Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 1, we're told here to 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 a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication, all uncleanness, our covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints.

So he said this is something that shouldn't even be named among us. You never want to have the reputation of somebody who is greedy, someone who is filled with avarice, or is a covetous person.

Turn over just a few pages. Colossians 3 and verse 5.

Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5. He's talking about overcoming the old man, the old way of life. He says, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

I want you to notice covetousness is idolatry. Why is it idolatry?

We'll address that later on. We'll come back to this.

But let's question. In Exodus chapter 18, you might remember Moses was being burdened down with all the cares of the people. They were coming to him. Exodus 18 verse 21.

It was proposed to Moses that he should select other men to assist and to help him in judging the people. Now notice the qualifications of these men. Moreover, you shall select from all the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousand, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, rulers of ten, and let them judge the people at all times. So this is something that when somebody is selected to be a judge, a political position, they're over other people that they should not be. Look at politicians today.

How many of them use their office, use their influence to gain wealth, power, prestige, position? You can have somebody elected to the Senate or the House. They come in, they're worth maybe a few hundred thousand, and four, five, six years later, they're worth millions. Where did they come from? Where did they obtain all of that? Of course, that's not true of everybody, but too often it is true. Now, in chapter 20, verse 17, we find chapter 20 delineates the 10 commandments. The 10th commandment is mentioned here in verse 17. Let's notice it. Because God does something with this commandment, He gives examples, He gives illustrations, He explains what He's talking about. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. So your neighbor's got a big, beautiful house, and you drive by it every day. You're not supposed to covet that house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. See, that leads to adultery, doesn't it? Covet your neighbor's wife, and then you take action. Nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey. His donkey could be his Mercedes today, or his Jaguar, or Cadillac, or Rolls-Royce, whatever it might be. You don't drive down the road and say, he's got a better donkey than I do.

You know, that's what he's talking about. Nor anything that is your neighbor.

You don't covet anything that is your neighbor. See, this happens in our heart, this happens in our mind, and our desires. Coveting is one of the Big Ten, is one of the Ten Commandments, and God says, don't do it. The word covet, according to Strongs, is a desire to have more, especially in a bad sense, a greedy desire to have more, to be covetous, to be avarice.

Now, L'Onita has this to say specifically about the passage, a strong desire to acquire more and more material possessions, or to possess more things than other people have, are irrespective of need, greed, just look up the word greed, avarice, and covetousness, and it says it leads to idolatry. Webster says it's to want ardently, especially something that another person has. You got it? I want it? I'll take it. You know, that seems to be part of the philosophy that we see operating in society today. It can cause a vain accumulation of goods, it can cause hoarding, and it can lead us into many wrong approaches. Let's go back to Luke 12 again, and this time verse 15. Luke 12, 15. He said to them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses.

Then he spoke a parable to them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crop? I've got more crop here. I don't know where to store it here. He said, So, he said, I'll do this. I'll pull down my barns, build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul will be required of you. This night, your life.

Then whose will these things be which you have provided? I don't know if you've read the book of Ecclesiastes recently. I read it this past week, and I was just struck where Solomon, going through the book of Ecclesiastes, talks about what happens to the Fool, what happens to the wise, what happens to the king, what happens to the poor man. It doesn't matter who you are.

That we all die. We don't take it with us. He said, You leave it. You hoard it. And you don't know what the person after you is going to do with it, how they will do what you have or with what you have. So he talks here about the fact that we need to put God first, as verse 21 says, So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. You don't see this rich man saying, Well, I've been blessed this year. I think I'll give some to the poor.

I think I'll give a little more to God this year. Then I'll save the rest up, and I'll have plenty, and I'll be able to help anyone who has need. Notice what Christ then, he changes and he goes to his disciples. He said to his disciples, Therefore, whenever you see therefore, it ties what he's about to say back with what he just said. Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Then he talks about how God feeds the ravens, the birds, how he clothes the lilies of the field, and the grass. And then we drop down to let's see, verse 29. He says, Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. He doesn't mean that we shouldn't be concerned about having food, clothing, and shelter, but not what we would use the term today. Worry war. We're not to be a worry war. We're not to be overly anxious. That that becomes our whole focus of life.

It says, For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you have need of these things, but seek the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6, 33 says, Seek you first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added. So we're to put God's kingdom first. That's to be our focus. We seek God's kingdom, to be a part of his family, to do what he tells us. And certainly we do our part. The book of Proverbs is full of Proverbs about not being lazy, working hard, being industrious, improving yourself so that there are things that we can do.

Rather than there are cycles that covetousness goes through, there are symptoms to this sin.

And when we understand it, we can be aware of it. Now, if you were sick and went into a doctor, and you said, God, I'm sick. And you know, you're, he says, what's wrong? You say, well, my nose is running, my eyes are red. I've got these splotches all over me. I just feel terrible. I got a high fever.

And you go on, you describe the symptoms to him. He looks at you and says, I think you've got chickenpox. Or you, I think you have whatever it might be.

You got the fungus among us. You know, he will, he'll look at you and you'll try to diagnose by the symptoms. So you and I can look at the symptoms of being covetous. And maybe we can see or discern that possibly this is a problem with us. Maybe we have been bitten by the bug.

So let's look at some of the symptoms very quickly. Number one, living beyond your means.

You and I can live beyond our means. An example would be, I need a car. So what can I afford?

Well, it's not a matter of what I can afford. I want a Mercedes. So if I want a Mercedes, I'm going to go out and spend $50,000. And I'm going to have a payment of $750 a month on this Mercedes. And I will be the envy of everybody in the neighborhood as I drive around in my Mercedes. And they will say, he's arrived. He's got it made. What if you can only afford $50 a month? Or, you know, $100 a month and you're spending $750? What's wrong with a $2,000 Chevy?

You know, that you might go buy a used car. Over the years, the work has provided you know, especially back in worldwide, would provide a lease car for the ministry. But when it came to your own personal cars, my wife and I have paid $200 for a car. When I was in Cincinnati, one of our home office staff was going to give a car away. It was going to junk it. I said, can I drive it? I drove that car for three years, back and forth to work.

And didn't have an air conditioner, didn't have a heater. But it would go 15 miles and back, and that's all I needed. So, you know, you can do what you need to do. But if a person goes head over heels and dead and lives beyond their means, then maybe they begin to struggle. They don't have enough money to tithe, don't have enough money to take care of the food, clothing, and shelter. I know of a man years ago who purchased a beautiful home. He lived down in the West Virginia area. He was rising. He was made a regional manager of a company, moved up to New Jersey in order to keep up with the Joneses. He bought this beautiful house. He didn't have any furniture in the house. He had a bed, and I think they had a stove and a place to eat in the kitchen. And that was about it. People could drive by and they could see the beautiful home, but they couldn't furnish the home. Finally, they lost the house. I think that was one thing that finally led to his conversion. He wasn't in the church at the time. Later on, he became converted and was ordained as an elder. You never know how God will get through to people.

So, that can happen. Too often, we live on the razor edge because of greed. We've got to have it.

How many are head over heels in debt? Do any of you listen to the Dave Ramsey program?

Anybody know who Dave Ramsey is? Well, I think most of you probably do.

I enjoy occasionally catching his program. Last Sunday, when I drove up to Cincinnati, I picked up his program. On his program, he has a plan for getting out of debt.

And when somebody eliminates their debt, they call in. They tell him how they did it, how long it happened, and then they had this big shout. And everybody shouts. Well, one of the first callers called in and said that they had been over $100,000 in debt. In about three to four years, they'd wipe that debt out. He asked them how they had done it. Well, I think they had three cars. They sold two of them. Knocked that payment out, took the money, put it on their credit cards, and began to knock one after another after another credit cards. They stopped going out and eating. And all of their friends thought that they were loony. Why won't you go out? But they saved their money. They cooked everything at home. Finally, they eliminated all of their debts except for their house. And they said, now we're going to pay our house off. And they had a four or five year plan to pay the house off.

All of their neighbors, their friends, are struggling. They're up to here trying to keep up with the Joneses. They're out of debt. They've got all kinds of free money now that they're going to take and put it on the principal and pay their house loan down. So, you know, who is the oddball?

Well, they said they, you know, they felt so free. Well, you had several other callers call in who had $35,000 in debt and they had wiped it out in a year and on and on and on. It was interesting just listening to these individuals. The symptoms of living beyond your means can lead to huge debts and eventually bankruptcy for many people. Another symptom of covetousness is discontent.

Let's go back again to 1st Timothy chapter 6 and verse 6. 1st Timothy 6 verse 6. 2nd Timothy 6. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Godliness with contentment. Rather than we should be thankful for what we have, not unhappy over what we don't have. And we can all be unhappy. I don't have Mercedes.

I don't have this huge beautiful house. I don't have a thousand dollar suit.

I don't have, you know, you can put whatever it is, you can say I don't have. And you can make yourself so miserable because you want it. What about what the Bible says? Be thankful for what you do have. I do have a house for a few days. I do have a car to drive. I do have a suit that I wear.

We do have food to eat. I mean, we need to be thankful for what God has given to us. But modern advertising is predicated on exposing people to more. You know, with television and printed word and all of this, everybody can look and see the good life. Everybody else is doing it. Young couples get married and immediately want everything that their parents worked years to have.

Now, if I went around this room asking some of you who are older how you started off when you got married, you'd hear some tales. My wife and I got married. We got an apartment. Thankfully, it was a refrigerator and it wasn't a stove. We had somebody gave us a two-burner hot plate that we used to cook on. And we had two orange crates and sat at each end of the table. And we had a bed that her parents had given us. That's about it. That's how we got started. We had a bowl and a plate and a spoon and a fork, those type of things. And it was until later on that we were able to purchase something else. Well, you don't always start out with everything. Today, it seems like everybody has to have all the gadgets. I've got to have an iPad. Then I've got to have a Kindle.

And now I've got to have this fancy phone. And I've got to have whatever it might be.

And so every gadget, especially electronic that you can think of, people have. Many of you, even though you could afford it, still don't have a lot of the gadgets.

You call it sometimes time passes as to buy. And you don't see a need for it. What about the occupied Wall Street crowd? Now, isn't it sort of a contradiction in terms? Here they are out there and they are railing against corporate greed. They say, we're the 1% or the 99%. You're the 1%.

But what are they wanting? They want the 1% to share what they have with them.

Well, that's called greed, too. And so they're coveting after what they have. You have it. You should share it with me. It's unfair if you don't share it with me.

And you should pay higher taxes. Give it to me and the government will take care of me.

Well, if you want some of these things, work for it. Get a second job. Do something of that nature. One of the things I remember all my life about my dad is most of the time that I knew my dad, he worked two jobs. He worked the farm six to eight hours a day, then he'd go to work.

He'd go to the railroad and work eight hours and come back and do it all over again. And he did that for 15, 20 years. So, you know, he took care of his family in that way.

So, one of the symptoms is living beyond your means. Another would be discontent.

Another would be what 2 Corinthians 10 and 12 tells us not to do. Let's go over to 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 12.

It says, We dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. So, we can compare ourselves to others, can't we? And we can feel so lacking. Well, they have it. I need it. Sometimes we feel we deserve it.

You know, boy, I deserve that. And isn't this what the commercials tell you?

You deserve that. So, go buy it. The American Dream. Everybody can have it.

Everybody can have whatever they want. It doesn't work that way.

Not everybody is going to hit the jackpot, or you'll have that much money.

The Bible talks about hard work, developing your mind, your skills, your talents, working, saving up for a rainy day, put up in the summer for the winter. You follow some of these principles.

Now, there are all kinds of possessions sometimes that we don't need.

We can buy things that we think that we want, and we can neglect food, clothing, and shelter, your wife, your children. I know men who say, I don't have enough money. But they can always buy a new fishing rod.

They can always get a new gun. They can always get a bow and arrow. I remember for years, wanting to buy a gun. Never have. Well, I think I paid $30 for a gun once, for my shotgun. But I had a little .243, or I have a little .243, which is the only rifle that I have. And the reason I got that, there was a man that I knew who had over 100 weapons.

But he had run out of money, couldn't buy ammunition. He said, if you'll buy me some ammunition, I'll give you this gun. I said, I'll never get another one that cheap. So I bought him two or three boxes of ammunition for another gun, and I ended up with the .243.

Well, you know, there are a lot of times when you're going through life special and you have children that certain things come first, like food, clothing, and shelter.

And, you know, these are things that we have to be thinking of. So these are some of the symptoms. Now we could go on. There are many other symptoms that we could quote. But, you know, there's a cycle that coveting goes through. And when you know what the cycle is, then you can break that cycle. You can stop it. Number one is what I would call the awareness stage. You become aware of something that you want or you think you need. We notice something. No, that's not a sin.

It's not a sin to notice a nice car and say, well, it'd be nice to have that.

You could have a tug or a desire to want to do something of that nature. The key is, what is our response to it? How do we respond to that? Okay, you want the new car. You say, okay, I tell you what, I'm going to get a second job this year. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to put all that money in the bank and I'll be able to have big down payment or I'll be able to get a second job or I'll be able to bring the price down to where I can afford it or I can pay for it.

Another thing you have to do with that is you have to consider priorities first. What are our priorities? And so you have to list your priorities. Where does this come on the priority list? If it's way down here and there are other things that come before it, you've got to do the priorities first and then you get down to that. Consider if it's a want or need. I want it or do I need it? If it's a need, then that's different. So the awareness stage, then you have the justification stage. I need this new toy. I can think of many reasons why. So you begin to justify it.

Yeah, I need this new toy. I can imagine all the benefits. Guess what it will do? It will help me. You can rationalize and think of so many of the Hollywood stars. It's not only them, but how many of them rationalize that some other woman can make me happy. The woman I'm presently married to, she doesn't make me happy. I'm coveting somebody else's wife. She can make me happy. And so they divorce their wife and they go and they pluck somebody else's. And then after a little while, they fall out of lust for that person and then they want somebody else. And so the cycle keeps repeating. So you can justify, I'm miserable, I'm unhappy, this person doesn't please me, therefore I think. And you can justify it. Then you scheme. That's another part of the cycle. The Awareness, Justification, and Scheming. Remember back in Genesis 27, Rebecca and Jacob, chapter 27 of the book of Genesis, Isaac apparently had lost his eyesight. He asked Esau to go out, kill some game, fix it, fix him a savory meal, come in after he ate, he would bless him.

Okay, Rebecca hears it. She tells Jacob they go out and kill the lamb. She fixes it. He puts skins on his hands. He goes in and he appears before his father. Notice verse 23 says, he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him and he said, are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. So he lies, he's deceitful, they're scheming this, then he blesses him. And so you find that God would have given him the blessing. He didn't have to go about obtaining it in a deceitful manner. How important is an item to you? Do you become obsessed with it? The coveting cycle can engulf an individual.

Let me show you how this works. Quoting an example here that I found in a book, it says, on the night of November the 16th, 1930, a few years ago, Mrs. Henrietta Garrett, a lonely 81-year-old widow, died in her home in Philadelphia and unwittingly started the most fantastic case of inheritance litigation in history. She had failed to leave a will, or no will was found, to her 17 million dollar estate. Now 17 million dollars in 1930 was real money. You know, I mean, it was worth something. She had expertly handled her financial affairs since her death of her husband in 1895. Therefore, she must have realized without a will her fortune would become involved in many legal battles. Although Mrs. Garrett had, at the time of her death, only one known relative, a second cousin, and less than a dozen friends, attempts to prove relationship to her and to claim a part of her estate, have since been made by more than 26,000 people. 26,000 people from 47 states, 29 foreign countries, represented by more than 3,000 lawyers. So look at all the people who wanted that money. In their frantic efforts, these alleged relatives have committed perjury, fake family records, changed their own names, altered data in church bibles, concocted absurd tales of illegitimacy. As a result, 12 have been fined, 10 have received jail sentences, two committed suicide, three were murdered. The estate has, in the meantime, increased to 30 million and is not expected to be settled for some time.

So I guess the part of the conclusion to that is have a will, otherwise you're going to be in trouble.

So I mean this is something we can laugh at, but it's a classic example to show the greed that people can have. So you have a cycle of awareness, justification, scheming, then you take action. You go out and do it, whatever it is that you wanted to do, you wanted to buy, you wanted to purchase, you wanted to get, you wanted to take, you go out. It's almost like committing a crime. There's an excitement, there's pleasure associated with it, what you coveted, you might feel a little guilty, but you push that aside and you go get it. And then the next part of the cycle is what is called the enjoyment part. You enjoy what you had. You take pleasure in the object or the person. If you buy a car or a house, you can look at it every day. But then the reality sits in, you got to pay for it. And so where am I going to get the money? And all at once you're confronted with paying for it. Then you have the consequence stage. You've got to pay the consequence. There is a penalty to pay. If you're greedy of gain, you will pay a penalty. Let's notice Proverbs chapter 1. If you remember the example here, the instructions to a young man.

Proverbs chapter 1 beginning in verse 10, it says, My son, absenters entice you, do not consent.

If they say, Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. Let us swallow them up like sheol and whole like those who go down to the pit. We shall find all kinds of precious possessions. They got it, we'll take it, we'll steal it from them. And you shall fill our houses with spoil, casting your lot among us. Let us have one purse. It says, My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from the path. For their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed blood, surely in vain. The net is spread in the sight of a bird. But they lie in wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lies.

So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain.

Everyone who is greedy of gain. It takes away the life of its owners. So it takes away your life. There is a penalty to be paid. What is the consequence of credit card debt? So you can pop out the plastic. Why do recruiters, when college starts, in your registry, why is there a big table over here with all the credit card companies sitting there, and they're willing to sign you up, sight unseen, give you a credit card, give you an account?

Many young people never had a credit card until they went to college. It's so easy, you get it, and then you can begin to spend it. Well, spend what? Well, you, it's supposedly money, but it's a credit card, and you've got to pay for it. What is the consequence of credit card debt? Well, after a while, you've got to pay it back. It's like John Wetzley once told the story of a man that he had very little respect for, because he considered this man to be a miser and covetous. One day, when the person contributed only a small gift to a worthy charity, Wetzley criticized him openly, you know, and talked about how miserly he was. After the incident, the man came up to him and told him that he'd been living on parsnips and water for several weeks.

He explained that before his conversion, he had run up many bills. Now, by skimping on everything and buying nothing for himself, he was paying off his creditors one by one. Or we could say today, paying off your credit cards one by one.

Christ made me an honest man, he said, and so with all these debts to pay, I give only a few offerings above my ties. I must settle up with my worldly neighbors and show them what can happen when a person was truly converted. Obviously, John Wetzley had to apologize, because he did not know, it was like Paul Harvey, the rest of the story. He didn't know the rest of the story here.

Remember the Bible says, what you sow you reap, but you sow you will reap. Sin has kickbacks.

So, we need to realize that. What is wrong with coveting? What's wrong with it?

Well, we read in Ephesians 5, verse 5, that coveting is idolatry. Now, why? Why is it idolatry?

Well, our spiritual priorities are wrong. Our wants, our desires, are misdirected.

When you put something before God and it becomes more important to you than God, then it becomes an idol. You can make an idol out of it. You can harbor an inordinate desire and put it before God. The word inordinate means a wrong desire. That's the definition of lust.

Lust, coveting, you can lust after something. Or, as the Bible even says, that Israel lusted a lust.

You can lust and go after the wrong thing. See, a temptation is not covetousness of itself.

As soon as we harbor, we dwell on, we think about it, we've got to have it, place it high, then we begin to covet. So, it can become an idol before God. It's something that we put before God.

It can cause wrong acts. It can cause us to sin or do things that are wrong. Notice back here in the book of Joshua, Joshua 7. Remember, the Israelites had come into the Promised Land, and God had given them Jericho. Walls came tumbling down. And there are a couple of important lessons that you can learn from this. Joshua was in constant contact with God. He sought God's advice with Jericho. God told him what to do. You march around the city every day, the seventh day, march around seven times, and the walls will fall down. And it happened. Now they were going to attack a little city called Ai. God told them not to take any of the spoil. And so, you find that they only sent a few soldiers over there. It was a small city, and 36 of them were killed, and they ran from the men of Ai. Now, Joshua had not really consulted with God on this either, so that was one problem. So, when he complained to God, God said, stop complaining. You have sinned.

As a result, you were not blessed. So, you'll notice here, the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For ancient, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zira, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. And you'll find that one person's sins or mistakes can actually have an effect upon others. And here it had an effect upon all of Israel. So, in order to find out who it was, they had to do a process of elimination. So, they eliminated which one of the tribes, God said Judah, which family, they picked the family out, which individual, and Achan is selected. Notice in verse 20, Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them. I wanted them. I desired them. I took them. And there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. And they went and they found exactly as he had said. So, he said, and as a result, there was a penalty to be paid.

Brethren, our sins, like covetousness, can lead to wrongful actions.

There are people who will shoplift because they can't afford it. They take it. People still will manipulate. It leads to lying. It leads to deception. It leads to stealing. So, it can lead to all kinds of wrong behavior, wrongful acts. It can also cause a person to become corrupt in their approach, in their attitude. In Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 21, Isaiah 1, 21, God talking about our people even today, talking about the leaders of Israel. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 21, says, How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of justice and righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers, your silvers become dross and your wine mixed with water, your princes are rebellious in companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after reward. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them. So, this is taking money under the table. And people can, as I mentioned, go to Washington politicians, and they can be in office, and they can begin to take bribes, or a judge can take bribes or money under the table to influence their decisions. Remember Exodus 18, verse 21, that they were to select men who could not be bought as judges. Can we be bought? Have we been bought and paid for? Well, you and I have been bought and paid for by Christ's sacrifice, and we don't want to be bought and paid for by our own lust, Satan's world, and his influence.

Also, coveting can produce anxiety and grief in a person. When I say anxiety and grief, a person can become unhappy, miserable, I don't have it, I wish I had it, I need it, and we can desire things to the point that they make us miserable. Again, instead of being thankful, coveting can become addictive. Also, addictions are wrong desires that are carried to an extreme. People can become addictive to drugs, to alcohol, to pornography, whatever it might be. It starts out and somebody might want something. It's a lust, it's a wrong desire, and they keep wanting it and wanting it, and after a while it becomes addictive, and it's something that they have to have.

Coveting can also cause a person to crave or renew pleasures, not satisfied. There are people who are not satisfied. They get married, and all at once they begin to look at kinky things, or they get involved in things that are not right. So the first thing you know, just being normal doesn't satisfy them. They've got to do something that's a little more perverted or twisted or kinky, and then that doesn't satisfy them. Then they've got to go into something a little further, and it can lead down a path where this individual never has true happiness.

So how do we overcome this problem? What do we need to do to overcome it? Well, there are a number of things that we can do. Just like you go to the doctor, the doctor says, well you've got this. You say, what can I do? He says, well I'll give you a shot, take this pill, get this prescription, stop eating such and such, exercise more, you know, you need to bring your blood pressure down, whatever it might be. He'll tell you what you need to be doing. So what do we need to be doing? How do we deal with this? Well, let's notice very quickly.

Number one, accept what is obvious. Life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things that we possess. It's not who dies with the most toys wins, because you don't take the toys with you, you're just dead. If we accept that mentally and emotionally, we will go a long way to overcoming.

So just realize that you may not always have everything. We need to also differentiate between pleasure and happiness and joy. Happiness is a state of mind that comes from living a certain way. It's living God's way, according to his laws. You and I can have happiness. Joy is a fruit of God's spirit. It is a peace of mind that God can give to us.

Pleasure is a physical feeling that results from physical stimulation. We can have pleasure.

You're playing basketball. The game is in the last couple of seconds. It's tied.

You go up for a jump shot. You make the jump shot, and you're happy. But guess what? You've got to play another ball game. It's the last second. You're tied. You go up for a jump shot. You miss it. Now you're unhappy. That's the way human beings can be. But we can get pleasure.

People want to be happy. They commit adultery. That's pleasure, not happiness. Remember in chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, it talks about how Moses did not want to participate in the pleasures of sin. And so he left Egypt. Well, there can be pleasures in sin, but they're temporary. Temporary pleasures. Somebody's committing adultery can have pleasure from the physical act, but that's temporary. There are going to be penalties that will be paid also.

Person can be miserable and still have fun and enjoy certain things, but you and I want to have a state of mind of happiness and joy. Another thing that you and I can do is to make sure that we adopt the true values. And what are true values? Well, the true values are love, joy, peace, service, loyalty, work, dedication, commitment. All of these things are things that we can do that will help us achieve our goals. We also need to grow in humility. That's another aspect of what we can do. We can grow in humility. What is humility? Humility has to do with our relationship with God, doesn't it? Humility means you recognize your humanness and how great and mighty God is. It is comparing ourselves to God.

Makeness has to do with how you deal with others, other human beings. Humility has to do with our relationship between us and God, so we need to grow in humility. Children can grow up all their lives expecting to have things, can be given things. I was reading an article this morning, I almost cut it out and quoted it off the internet about how when we come to the Christmas season, how there are people who will literally spend thousands of dollars, anything and everything their children want, they make sure that they get. Because, quote-unquote, they want them to be happy, as if that's what is going to bring true happiness to them. Those things break, they don't last, and then you want something else, and then that costs more money.

Humility helps us to be content. Thankfulness is another quality that helps us to overcome covetousness. It distinguishes covetousness. It destroys that frame of mind. We rejoice.

Again, we're like Paul. We know how to abound, how to be abased. We need to pray, and thank God always for the blessings that we have. You know, the model prayer, our Father, which art in heaven, how will be your name? And we thank God for what He has done for us.

And then we need to engage in God's cycle for acquiring goods. God's cycle goes something like this. Galatians 6-7, which we've already referred to. What you sow, you reap. So we need to sow good things. Matthew 6-33, seek you first, the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added. What things? Food, clothing, shelter is what he was talking about. It's not wrong to desire something. If you have a plan for it, can afford it. Don't put it before God. Consider the overall pictures. Consider the needs of others. So, brethren, as we started out, we need to realize that as children of God, we need to be on guard. We need to watch out for this problem. It's an area of our life that we don't always focus on. I'm not saying you have to get up every morning and say, am I covetous? But we need to be aware of how it works and what some of the symptoms are and what we need to do to be able to overcome it. Ask God to help us to be aware through his Spirit and to overcome this sin because it is one of the Big Ten.