Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Covetousness Pt.1

Some good reports from Africa, let me just share this one with you. My computer ate up some of the other ones. I don't know where they are, in cyberspace somewhere. I asked Richard why that happens, he said, "I have only one explanation, it's your computer." But anyway, we have a good report here from Charles. It says,

"Dear Pastor Tony,

Greetings in the Lord. I've just been browsing through and going over your recent e-mails. My heart is challenged and stirred to pursue God even more heartily. I trust that you got my last e-mail in which I gave you updates. Today I was seeking God a good part of the morning, meditating on the early church in Acts 4 and 12, especially their prayer life. I've been exhorting the flock to pray, especially for our Apostle, and overseers, and for the brethren in the one church in 11 locations, and also for me, the deacons, and all the leaders of our fellowship.

From listening to the Apostle's teachings on waiting on God, the Lord is igniting in me the spirit of prayer and also in the flock. In our midweek service today I shared from Acts 12 and the Lord visited us in an unusual and powerful way. After the message the whole flock remained in deep prayer, many, I believe, being filled with the Holy Spirit, praying in other tongues, and this went on for almost an hour following the service. The presence and glory of God filled this temple. I sensed many being delivered from apathy and fear. This is a new experience for us. I believe the Lord is doing a new thing in my life and in the flock. Glory to Jesus!"

So a lot of good things; re going on. An exciting thing that just also happened in the Kwa Njenga church, we finally reached the century mark there; had over 100 in attendance in Kwa Njenga, so a lot of things are going on there.

Let's go ahead and look to the Word of God. I want to deal with--we've been talking about the preparation for the coming of the Lord and that our hearts would be aware of this hour that we're in. I want to talk about the spirit of the age that each of us is having to contend with and the vexation that's affecting everyone of us on a daily basis to different degrees. But, one thing we can count on, we are being vexed. One of the things that's vexing us as much as any is the supernatural spirit of covetousness in this area that we live in. Whether or not that's what's in you--and it is in your flesh, so I guess I should say it probably better this way to qualify it--whether or not that's dominating you or causing you warfare on a daily basis, it is in there, it is being ignited in your members. The evils that every one of us face come from within; out of the heart proceedeth, amen? Out of the heart proceedeth, so it's not an external thing, it's an internal problem. But we're being seduced; we're being in every way affected and fed externally, to ignite through seduction internally, the lust of our flesh, every one of us. To a greater degree whether it's through TV commercials, whether it's on the internet, whether it's magazines, whatever it is, whether it's the programs that you watch, you stroll down the malls--all the mall is is acres of seduction! I mean at every little shop you are being seduced and told that you must have what they are promoting or you're nobody.

Let's take a look over here at Luke's gospel, and I want to start off with the vexation aspect, and we're going to roll into the covetousness part of this. The Lord spoke to us very clearly in Luke chapter 12, verse 15, and He said, "...beware of covetousness..." This is going to be the passage that we use here for a number of sessions, so get it down as the text, the starting point for this study. "...beware of covetousness [look at the next phrase]: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." A man's life is not about what he possesses; you're not better if you have more. I was wearing that shirt last week, in fact, last Saturday: "He who dies with the most toys, still dies." We brought nothing in, and we're taking nothing out, amen? So everything we have here is temporal, it's meaningless; it's going to burn up one of these days. There are those who truly believe and live that he that dies with the most toys wins, like there's something that can be satisfied within man through the accumulation of things.

He that loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. So it's very important for us to realize that. If you're discontent, if things can't satisfy you, it's because you love things. We can be satisfied with, and overjoyed, and content with what someone calls the least of things, because we don't love things and so that satisfies me. I'm gratified, I'm thankful for what I have, that strikes in my heart the note of thankfulness to God because of His love for me and His care and that my Heavenly Father knows the necessities and the things that I have need of and He provides them for me, and I'm content: Godliness with contentment is great gain.

See, if there is no contentment, there is no godliness; we are being driven by lust. The spirit of covetousness is dominating our lives, and we want to talk about that a little bit. Because of that spirit of covetousness, and it's actually being promoted in every individual's life today that is successful. They promote the false doctrine that gain is godliness, if you please, or that gain places some type of value upon our person. You know we all deal with that to one degree or another. Some of us take pleasure; people take pleasure in the address at which they live. If you drive through Beverly Hills out in California--some people will do anything to get a Beverly Hills return address, Beverly Hills. They might be living in the mower shed somewhere. Twenty-four people renting a 1970 dilapidated rental, and they take pride in that address. What are you taking pride in? What is it that gives you worth from a material perspective? You say, "It's not an address." Well, it can be the way we look. It can be the people that are bound up with their hair, their makeup, their physique. Those of us that might be able to come up with a little bit of money say, "Working out, sweating..." If all you've got is your body, then you'll work on that, but if you've got a few bucks, then you can get something cool to ride around in and hide your body.

My dad used to say--Every time you'd see somebody riding around in a new Cadillac, he'd say, "I'll bet you the guy doesn't have any pants." But whatever it is to be seen and we gain worth in. Because that's what's happening when we need "stuff" we're trying to reward ourselves, we're trying to promote ourselves, we're trying to gratify ourselves, if the spirit of covetousness is what's behind it. So how do we know whether our acquisition, our pursuit, is motivated by covetousness, by lust, or by God-given natural industry? Because we are told that we are going to live by the sweat of our brow and that there is going to be the acquisition of and the necessity of things. But what about abundance; when is enough, enough? When do we say, "I'm going to tear down my barns and build bigger barns"? When that becomes a compulsion and that becomes where our worth is, then we've got a problem. Nothing wrong with bigger barns; it's the compulsion, it's the worth, it's the gratification, satisfaction, and misapplication of worth on things instead of the Lord. So we want to talk about some of those things. We threw out a lot of things here, let's look at it.

Turn over, if you would, to Luke's gospel, chapter 17, and in the process here of Luke 17, couple of statements made here that are interesting that will kick us off into this study: "...as it was in the days of Lot; [verse 28] they did eat [nothing wrong with eating], they drank [depends on what you're drinking], they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." The day that we're living in. As it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in this hour of the coming of the Son of Man. This is the day we're living in. Now we're preparing our hearts for the coming of the Lord. We're looking up because our redemption's drawing nigh. We're cleansing ourselves; every man that has this hope purifies himself even as He is pure, this is the process. But, what's opposing us? What is the spirit of the age that's trying to hold us down when God's preparing to take us up, what are we dealing with? "In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house...," I can't get there. George Carlin, crude, nasty comedian, don't listen to him, had one of the funniest little pieces that he did on "stuff" that I ever heard, hilarious. He was talking about a guy's stuff, how the guy went on vacation and he didn't like to be away from his stuff, but he went on vacation, he was very concerned about it. He was talking about how his supply line was getting stretched out. [like, "Do I have enough underwear when I leave home?" You want enough underwear, that's all there is to it. I always have twice as much underwear as I need. Why? Because I'm the generation where your mother taught you, if you get in an accident, you want clean underwear on, so you never know when an accident's going to occur. So, anyway, he talks about how the supply line's getting stretched out. It's funny, I can't go into all of it right now, but it's funny. He talks about this vacation, and he goes to the Hawaiian Islands and he's really upset because now there's a whole Pacific Ocean between him and his stuff, he's talking about his stuff. Then somebody comes up with the bright idea to leave Oahu and go to Maui, and now they left some of the stuff in the hotel in Oahu, and now his stuff's getting stretched out, his supply line, because now he's in Maui.] The point that he's making is that we're all looking for some type of peace in our stuff, a rest. We're accumulating stuff.

But anyway, stuff, it's a very biblical term, we see it right here. "...and his stuff in the house," don't come down for your stuff; don't put too much value on your stuff. "...and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back [for your stuff]." Verse 32, one of the great admonitions in all of the Scripture, "Remember Lot's wife." We all know what cost Lot's wife the blessings of God, the Promised Land, the land that flowed with milk and honey, the life of the supernatural, the partaking of the things that are God's grace to us, drinking from wells we didn't dig, living in houses we didn't build. But here was a woman who was an earth-dweller, here was a woman who had to look back, who was bound by her stuff; its obvious where her treasure was. Where is yours, are you lying to yourself? For where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Do you work harder to acquire stuff than to prepare for the coming of the Lord? Are you more excited about the acquisition of new stuff than you are about the imminent return of the Lord? The expectancy--is there an anticipation for the presence of the Lord to the same degree that there is an anticipation of that new acquisition, the sale that's coming, the excitement of that being made available?

So we realize Jesus speaking here says, "Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life [his stuff, to feed his own selfness] shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life [die to self, seek the Kingdom first] shall preserve it." Now, we know the story of Lot's wife, and yet we forget so many times that it was about stuff. Jesus makes it real here. Because we all remember how Lot happened to get there, right? When he lifted up his eyes and he looked, this was an area that was beautiful. The natural eye was attracted to the abundance. It was an oasis, it was the prime real estate, it was the natural response, it was the wise response, it was a good business deal, but he was trusting in the natural and not in God. Abraham made a different choice. He said, "You go ahead and choose." He said, "I'll choose the good stuff." Abraham said, "I'll just take God. I'll trust the Lord. You take whatever you want; I'll take the leftovers with God." Do you really believe tonight? Many of us would answer in the affirmative, "I believe that God is better; the presence of God is better." But let's take it a step further; do you really believe that God wants to bless you? It's not just about God and having nothing. It's about not trying to acquire things in our own strength, not putting the value on it that the world does. Let God put the value on it. What makes it valuable is God supplied it--amen?--Because it's the blessings of the Lord that make rich and add no sorrow. You see, you can have all kinds of stuff and it will be sorrowful because you got it in your own strength. You got it by your own means; your motivation was lust, covetousness; your means were natural, so there's no one to boast in but yourself. Oh, you make worthless statements like, "Well, the Lord's blessed me." God didn't bless you, you took it yourself! You took it on yourself, you lusted and coveted for this thing, and you finally acquired it and you want to justify it by saying God gave it to you. That's where natural man is.

So how do we identify covetousness and the acquisition by the strength of our own arm and for the purpose of self, and clearly make the distinction between the blessings of the Lord that make rich? You see, there's nothing wrong with stuff; how did you get it? There's nothing wrong with stuff; do you need it, what value do you place upon it? That's why we've asked that question just recently, what value do you place upon fashion? Fashion doesn't have to do with worth because you have high fashion, and you have knock-off fashion. There's a certain look, right? There's the Armani, and there's the..., (I shouldn't, I better not use any brand names or places, I can get in trouble.) You all know what I'm talking about. The material is kind of like unrefined burlap. You walk around like [uncomfortable to look at]. "But, see, it's the same style, so I'm cool, 'cause see, I'm in style," whatever the style is. So we're getting our worth from style. You see you're in just as bad a shape having to get your worth from the style as you are paying for the $6,000 suit. See, many of us would think covetousness has to do with the fact that this suit cost six grand. No, covetousness has to do with what I'm trying to accomplish in self-worth, in self-gratification through acceptance through the style. It's not the dollar tag alone, unless the fashion isn't enough, it has to be whatever the custom designer is; it's an attitude of the heart.

Covetousness is a very, very powerful, powerful spirit, and it really has to do in so many ways that gratification of self-worth, the over-evaluation of self. That's why the Scripture says this, and turn with me if you would, we'll go ahead and take a look at a couple of these things. Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17, the passage that most of us here would know as it pertains to covetousness, "Thou shalt not covet..." Have you ever heard that? "Thou shalt not covet..." Covetousness spoken of here is the over-evaluation of yourself thinking that I should have what somebody else has. I deserve what everybody else has. And covetousness even goes one step further many times; it has to do with that spirit of envy, because these two things travel together as the dynamic duo, this dynamic duo of covetousness and envy. What we're looking at is not only, "Do I want it? I don't want you to have it. I don't want you to be on the same level as I am. I don't mind you having the burlap, you can have the knock-off, you can have the same style as me, but not the same quality. Because this whole thing is about my worth, and I'm just frankly more important than everybody else, and I deserve this." That's why, have you ever seen or heard of people who go out and reward themselves? "I've had a tough day; I'm going to reward myself." With what? "Well, a Bloomin' Onion." [Is that what that thing's called, a Bloomin' Onion? If you eat that thing, you're a Bloomin' Idiot.] But anyway, I'm going to reward myself with Bloomin' Onion, so I go to reward myself. And then, you know, the flesh is never satisfied, lust is never satisfied, this spirit, and so then we have to reward--and that was good, so now I need the sampler, and the steak, and the whatever else, and dessert, because I had a tough day, and so I need to reward myself. Then we need to reward ourselves and then we go to the mall and we charge up $7,000 worth of things we don't need, and then buy a snack on the way out. Just a typical day in the life of the flesh.

What is this thing of rewarding ourselves? "I deserve this. I've had a tough day; I've had a rough life." Well maybe you have, but you sure don't want a rough eternity! So make eternal decisions. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." Now, you notice it didn't just say don't covet an ox? Why didn't it just say don't covet oxen, don't look for a herd? ["You can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd"--just one of those great songs of all time.] It's not about the stuff. Don't covet your neighbor's. That's your neighbor's; you're not better than they are. Why do you think you have to be equal with or superior to? The spirit behind this is the exaltation of self, the preeminence. When we begin to see that--and that it's not just about dollar signs, acquisition for the purpose of enjoyment, but it's a spiritual void in our lives that's trying to be filled,--it will help us understand a little bit of what's going on here.

Luke 12:15, the text we started with, look at it. "...beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Let's talk about abundance for just a moment. The bigger barn mentality; we've seen that, we've meditated upon it; there've been numerous times we've taught toward some of these things. Let's start off at verse 15, abundance, abundance! Now verse 16 says, "...The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns [plural], and build greater [bigger barns]; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease [take your gratification, place your worth in], eat, drink, and be merry [because this is what life is all about]. [Verse 20] ...Thou fool." It's not about the acquisition of things, that's not where the worth is. Jesus, when He spoke to the rich young ruler, he said, "What must I do"? And He said, "Just stop putting all of your confidence, your faith, your trust in these riches. Give it all away, come, and follow Me." It says he couldn't do it, he hung his head, and he walked away sorrowfully for he was rich. The Scripture says this: It is very difficult for a rich man to enter into heaven. The Scripture says trust not in uncertain riches. The Scripture says those that are rich among you be ready to communicate and ready to distribute.

I have a certain way I conduct myself. We were in need of a piece the other day; I think I might have even shared this, I don't know. We needed a distributor cap at the race. People share a lot of stuff. It's a close, very small community; people will share and help out one another, it's an interesting environment. Saw it the other day actually on television one of the national races, you saw the same thing where if your car breaks and I'm getting to race you next, I don't say, "Aw man, he's broken, I win"! I'll give him the parts. I'll come down, help him fix his car to race me, and sometimes they'll beat you; but it's about racing, it's about the competition. There's this community and that's kind of the code you live by in that realm. Well, people are willing to share and help out; and to make a long story short, we needed this thing so I went to this one guy and I borrowed it. The guy's a pretty wealthy dude, and I said, "Well how much is it"? He said, "I don't know, let me just have this part number so I can order another one." I said, "I'll find out what it is and pay you back." "No, just keep it, it's no big deal, just take it." Well I'm not going to. I bought another one, I have it, we're putting it in the trailer. The next time I see him I can give him his distributor cap. Why? Because I don't take things from rich people, because they think everybody's out to take something from them. I'm only interested in their souls. I'm not going to have this guy wondering why I'm around. It's not to get stuff from him. This is the guy that's been in every chapel service we've held. Right after chapel service I go over to his pit and he's standing there drinking a beer. I don't jump up on the trailer and yell, "REPENT!" The guy needs to know the Lord.

Rich people are interesting, I've know some. This guy's not like really wealthy, he's probably only a multi-millionaire. I've known some real rich people, and they're very suspect of everybody, and you can't blame them, really. It's amazing when you get rich how many relatives you have that you didn't know existed. And he went away sorrowfully because he trusted.... Do you think the trust was just in the confidence, "Well, next week I'll be eating when nobody else is?" That's part of it, but there's a gratification, there's a power, there's an image, there's a worth. Now, some of you may not, but do any of you ever when you're around somebody, do you ever kind of check out their stuff? Wonder how this guy's doing? I like to do it in different areas of people that are trying to sell you stuff and tell you, they're trying to promote or sell themselves in many ways and they're wanting to come and show you, tell you how to be a success. I usually kind of try to check it out. I don't want to hear that from a guy with a burlap suit unless he can convince me he's really trying to be humble. Now, I know you can't judge people by the way they look, because some of the wealthiest people I know don't look wealthy at all. It's kind of the wannabes, and all of the knock-off stuff, and the need-to. I realized, oh a number of years back, the first time we were going to Africa, I saw a flaw in my character back then that I had to do something about. I didn't even realize it was there. But, we were getting ready to go to Africa and as we were getting ready to leave I take my jewelry and I'm going to put it in the safe. I put on my new $14 watch and some of the different stuff, and I really missed my jewelry! I didn't miss the beauty of it; I missed the observers seeing that I had it. I didn't realize it was something that I delighted in. People--because not all men have three-carat solitaire diamonds that they are walking around with; you know drug dealers, pimps. Now if I had one in each ear I'd probably be an NBA star or a YoYo guy. (Yoyo used to be something we kind of did this with (using hand motions to show a yoyo), but things change.) Anyway, but I took pleasure in the fact that people would say, "Man, wonder, that dude's arrived, he's made it!" "Want to know what time it is?" You walk through the airport; you don't wait for people to ask, "Want to know what time it is, anyone want to know what time it is?" (Tom Hanks, he's always in the airport, right? Any of you seen that movie? Tom Hanks hung out in the airport for weeks.)

Now, see I know none of you have trouble with that, but this was something that I had to deal with. I thought, "I didn't even know that was there." I thought, "Well, maybe, maybe what I need to do is get rid of this stuff." Then I began to meditate a little bit and I thought back a little further; you know like way back to when it was my Chuck Taylor's in High School? Now, in California--it may have been a little different here, because guys on the East Coast were weird, but us guys on the left coast were cool, man. When I was in school, being cool was black Chuck Taylor low tops, pegged pants, you know the pants were like that [pulling his pants tightly to his leg and raising the hem], and up, they were high. So I realized it wasn't a Rolex problem. It was a heart problem. Because the same thing was there with my Chuck Taylor's; it was all about image, it was all about being perceived, it was all about having to be "the man." That's the spirit of covetousness. Many people that don't have anything are some of the most covetous people around, because it's not about the abundance of things, as we're going to see here, it's the trust that's put in them. Now, abundance is part of it, and I want to talk about that and address it as we go on. But, now, I want to deal with a couple of definitions for you that will help you understand as we go through this study and speak this word "covetousness," because it's throughout the Scriptures. It's very important for us to really understand the spirit of covetousness, it's not just greed, it's not just lust. See, many of us think covetousness is just greed, it's not just greed; it's not just lust. It has to do with, again, putting too much value upon self; the exaltation and worth of ourselves above others, and what we will do, and what we will do to acquire it, not just the stuff, listen; the gratification, the satisfaction, the trust in. Here's the spirit of covetousness.

Look over in Exodus, chapter 18, for just a second; I want to give you a couple of definitions I think will be helpful for us all. Exodus 18, verse 21. There's a contrast with men who are walking in the spirit, men of character, and he identifies something in these leaders that needs to be in every one of us, and the Holy Spirit puts His finger on the character flaws. Look at verse 21, "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth..." now look at this next phrase, this is interesting, of all the requirements for spiritual leaders of men that are going to be judges among us, because that's part of what this is making reference to, people that are going to make value judgments, people that are going to bring justice to us as a community. He said these need to be men who fear God, men who love the truth, and men that [what?] hate covetousness. Huh? What's that all about, hating covetousness? Because that's the spirit that causes most of the conflicts among the people, this is what's going to cause conflict in our midst, the jealousy, the pride, the vying for position and power and exalting ourselves instead of humbling ourselves and becoming servants. He said, "You need to find some people who hate covetousness."

Very interesting word. Now, there are three Hebrew words for covetousness, and they all have distinct meanings, and it gives us a good insight into what this word really means. We have the one English word, we look at it, sometimes we lose a little bit in the limited language that we have, our English language. In Exodus 18 here, there's an interesting word, the Hebrew word "betsa," it's a word that's talking about unjust plunder; unjust plunder, immoral, illegal means of acquiring. You see, some things are legal that are immoral. "Well, there's no law against it." Yes, there is, there's a moral law against it. If it's not in the Ten Commandments, there are laws against it from the New Testament perspective that speak against the elevation of self, the promoting of self. But this particular word speaks primarily of an unjust plunder. In other words, I'm using my position, my power, in the instance of these judges, for my personal gain. This is very common in Africa. People get into positions and they begin to use their position, their power, for personal gain. We can talk here about selling drugs. Most of us go "Okay" we're feeling pretty safe now, "I'm not an individual who is selling drugs." How about taking advantage of a brother in a business transaction for my own personal gain? Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Business is about business, isn't it? We deal, and even as brothers and sisters, when you deal with a brother or sister Christian, you're not supposed to give them stuff all the time. God may move on your heart to bless somebody; you're not obligated to do something for another Christian for nothing. If you're in business, you sell it to them, you might want to give them a discount, but don't charge them more. "Hey brother, I've got a deal for you," because you know he's an idiot and he's one of our brothers. "I can sell this guy anything, watch this." You see the spirit of covetousness, or because I'm a brother he trusts me, therefore, I can take advantage of him. Now, that's obvious, most of us here wouldn't do that. What about purposely undercutting others in the body? I come to Tom, Tom's wanting to buy something, Tom's coming up and he's going to buy my Rolex; so I give him a good deal, hundred bucks. Now the reason I'm selling this for a hundred bucks is because I need the money. You just had an Uncle die and he left you a Rolex and you need some money and I need some money. I already struck a deal with my brother, we've agreed, and you come and offer it to him for 80 bucks. "Well I'm just blessing my brother." And Tom's going, "Yeah, saving 20 bucks!" We'd already agreed. What's the motive behind this? It doesn't just have to be evil, it has to be unjust. That's not just when we've already agreed and you would come--now we're talking about brothers--for your own personal gain at this moment. You could possibly find somebody else to sell it to, it's just that now because of the awareness of our community, you know that need is there and it's easy prey. This is probably a bad example, but I want you to catch the spirit of it. It's all, again, about selfishness; it's about me.

The unjust, the obvious... there are people that get saved... I've had people over the years, I had a guy come up one time and.... Trying to remember the specifics of this, but the guy was involved in illegal activities and he just got saved, and he was wanting to know whether he should stay in the business or not. Well, for most of us here that's a no-brainer. But, we're talking, again, about a person that was untaught, that didn't know, who was so used to living and feeding the flesh; the dominance of that flesh had not been broken yet in his life. All he could see was what he possessed, the comfort, the standard of living that he was used to, etc., etc. What about the individual that gets born again who's never paid his income tax? He's not a drug dealer, but he was cheating on his income tax and he was making some pretty good dough. Now, how many of you know what we're talking about here? We're talking about an instantaneous 40 percent cut in income, aren't we?

The spirit that's not willing to allow God to set the standard for us by the Lord making rich, but we've set the standard of our worth, what we desire, what I want, what I should possess, and we'll do whatever it takes to acquire it; that's unjust plunder. What makes it unjust? God's not the source of it. What makes it unjust? You put the value on it, not God, and as it pertains to you and me as believers, that's what we have to begin to seek.

Let's end with this one, Exodus, chapter 20, verse 17; we'll end with this one for this evening. This is one that all of us can identify with if you couldn't identify with the unjust plunder. Some of us are going "Whew, got by with that one!" You're not going to get by with this one. Exodus, chapter 20, we've already referred to it, verse 17, "Thou shalt not covet...," and it goes on and gives us the details. Very interesting word here, "chamad," we're talking about delighting in, perceiving everything that I don't have as more valuable than what I do have; get a hold of that. Discontentment, discontentment, a delighting in, the grass is always greener, that will make me happy. Are you ever tempted with that? "If I could have that, I would be happy. That will really make me happy, that will really cheer me up. That will really establish my position, my worth. That will show that I am a success, if I can go to work in that suit, if I can go to work in that car." Whatever it is, that's a spirit of covetousness. Anytime, anytime we gain worth from something external instead of who we are and what we are, and our worth is in what we possess, then we are moving in a spirit of covetousness. Let me give you an example, "Man, I'm nobody. All my friends have $700 tennis shoes, and mine are only $300. I'm nobody. All my friends have motorcycles; I have a two-wheel trike. We begin to devalue ourselves and value ourselves based upon what we possess, and we assume others are better, or others are more blessed, or "I'm getting a raw deal in life because of..." that's the spirit of covetousness. The need to have to have what everybody else has to be on the same plane is covetousness, because godliness with contentment is great gain. You see the unjust plunder, "I'm going to go hold up a bank so I can go buy this new yacht." We can all deal with that part of covetousness and go, "Yeah, that's bad, and praise God, I don't have that problem too much." But this; it gets back to contentment; it gets back to trusting God. You see, what we're doing is we're judging God unrighteous. "God is a respecter of persons. God is not just. Why has God forsaken me?" When he said you have everything that's necessary for life, that pertains to life and godliness in the spiritual realm, and He said He'd give us everything that we have need of in the natural realm, the material realm.

You see, covetousness is an indictment against God, God's love, God's justice; we need to look at it a little deeper than thinking it's just a problem of wanting nicer things. It's a problem of not knowing God, and that's what we want to talk about in our next session.

Father, we thank You for the Word, and we just ask that as we search our own hearts that we would see the ugliness. We live in a society when it's just the norm, it's just natural, everybody wants bigger, better, more. "I mean, it's just natural." Yes it is, but we're supernatural in our lives. Is God the source? I don't have time right now; I won't go into some of the major acquisitions that I have. Everything that I have of any major intrinsic value has a supernatural story behind it. Nothing that I just went out and said, "I've got to have that!" and leveraged and did whatever I could. Everything has a supernatural story, it's really kind of cool to live and to be in that way. From this diamond to the Ferrari, you name it, it's just amazing. I felt led the other day that I put the Ferrari up for sale. I don't even know why the Lord told me to do it; I just felt that that's something we're supposed to do. By doing it now I probably won't make as much money as I would have normally, but in 18 months to two years we'll probably turn a $25,000 profit in it. When God does it you profit. When lust is behind it you always lose, you end up upside down in stuff. You can wheel and deal and make a profit in your own strength, that's not what I'm talking about; I'm just talking about stuff that I never looked for, it just came to me. That's how we're all to live at whatever level it doesn't have to be Ferraris, for crying out loud, dear Lord, how many people can get a Ferrari? I look at that sometime, there's times I walk in the garage and I just laugh, "Look at that, there's a Ferrari in here! How'd that thing get in here? I'm just a Chevy guy." The blessings of the Lord make rich and they add no sorrow. I'm not shedding one tear by selling that thing, doesn't bother me a lick. I didn't look for it, don't mind giving it away. (Giving is just a term I'm using, liquidating it.) It's good to be free, praise God, to let God Himself be all in all, to be your treasure, to be the true pearl of great price. I don't know why I'm selling that thing; maybe it's the exact price that guy wants for that land in Eldoret. Wouldn't it be exciting if he came back with a price that was the exact price that thing sells for? How cool would that be. To have heard the voice of God, been obedient, and watch Him be honored in it. That's where Father wants us to live.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. Beware of covetousness, and remember Lot's wife. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Remember Lot's wife." Amen, go in peace, God's love go with you.

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