Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Covetousness Pt.2

We're going to continue in our study, "Beware of Covetousness." In the hour that we're living in, and in this country especially, the spirit that we've been talking about is so dangerous. The Scripture says that in the last days, men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. We know that's always been the case with fallen man. We know that man's self-indulgence, the love of self, that power of pride and over-evaluation of our individualism has been what has really controlled man since the Fall. The focus has been on self because of Satan, the father of self, the father of lies. "I will ascend above the throne of the Most High God." He says, "I will be like the Most High." We've shared many times that "like" is a very interesting word in the Hebrew. Satan in his boast there isn't saying, "I want to be as God." He said, "I want to be instead of God." That's the spirit that we're talking about. That's the force behind covetousness. It's not just wanting to be a little better off. It's wanting to be exalted. It's the need to be lifted up, the demand to be satisfied, recognized, and finally receiving my just. It's the over-evaluation of self, as we look at covetousness. Covetousness says, "I deserve the best!" Does anybody think that? Do any of us here really believe that? Those of us that do, have trouble really admitting it, don't we? We have to come to grips with that pride, that selfishness and the sin that's still dominating, many times, in our members. The spirit is subtle, though, and it manifests itself in a lot of ways. That's why we want to take time to look at this.

In the context of Luke 12, Jesus is speaking of a person that came to him and said, "Master, make my brother divide the inheritance with me properly. I want to make sure I get mine. I want to get my just desserts. What I deserve." Do you know the one thing I've found? I don't want what I deserve. How many of you want what you deserve? You know what you deserve is hell. All you deserve in life is a devil's hell. Everything else is grace. Everything else is the mercy of God and, therefore, to be discontent with what God has given us is to judge God, the character of God and to over-evaluate ourselves.

The theme continues--we've run at it from how many different ways over these last couple of months. If you've noticed, we just can't get off of contentment. We can't get off of that need to be satisfied in the sufficiency of God. Just to say, "God is enough, God is just. I trust in His love for me and I rest in His sovereign purposes." To try and break that spirit of moving beyond God, of wanting to use our own strength and say, look how God's blessed me, of, just frankly, not being satisfied and believing that the blessings of the Lord make rich and add no sorrow. We go on building sorrow after sorrow. We ruin families, friends and enterprises because we're never satisfied. Jesus speaks towards that spirit here in Luke 12, verse 13. Then in the midst of them all, the man came said, "Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. [Jesus responded and said], Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" Well, we know He is the judge, but what does He judge? He judges spiritual things. He judges character, he judges relationship. Do you know what this tells me? The Lord is not really a whole lot taken up with whether we're getting our "rights" materially or not, from the natural perspective. Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying here, because as you read through the rest of this chapter, he goes on and says, "...your Father knoweth ye have need of these things." He will provide for you in the material realm, so God is concerned with material things in our lives. He's promised that He would be involved in meeting all of our necessities. It must mean that God is not concerned with the abundance that we're concerned with, because the parable goes on about this rich man and the whole aspect is abundance.

We get caught up in abundance and we should be concentrating on needs, on being thankful that our needs are being met, instead of the acquisition of more, the need for more. We want to find the spirit behind this, because the need for more is not always the fact that we can partake of it. The real tragedy is that this need for more is where we draw our worth from. This need for more is where we gain our confidence from. We're going to see that we trust or rest in our riches. When we trust in them, they are our security blanket; they're the indicator of our success, our worth, and all of these things that are abundance. We're caught up and driven by all of these things instead of being rich toward God, resting in the presence of God. As we read through this parable, that's the end of this whole thing. So many people get all hung up on barns, bigger barns, brand clothes, the cost of this, the size of the house, the type car they're driving. Jesus isn't speaking toward any of that. He just says, "Fool, you've spent all of your time building barns, tearing them down, building bigger barns, resting in them and you weren't rich toward God." He didn't say there was anything wrong with being naturally rich. He said the problem is you weren't rich toward God, bottom line. That's what that whole teaching is about. In the natural, we always get off on all of the stuff and it's not about the temporal stuff, it's about laying up treasures in heaven. It doesn't matter how much earthly stuff you have if you're rich toward God. Amen? That's what the parable is about.

Let's take a look at it here and break this down and go and look at some other biblical perspectives. Jesus is saying, "Who made me a judge or a divider over you?" His response was probably one that this young man wasn't expecting. He said, "Listen, you've got your nose all out of joint about this." How many of you have ever seen or heard some of the ugliness that happens in families over inheritances? That which was laid up to try to be a blessing to the next generation blows the families apart. It happens; it's an amazing thing! Everybody wants to make sure they get theirs and, dear Lord, almost before the guy is cold, they're in there taking the fillings out of his teeth. What a nasty spirit! It's what's in man. We realize, then, that Jesus is speaking here and He says, verse 15, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: [Now, get this down in our minds.] for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Remember when we talk about abundance here, you have to contrast it with the context of the rest of this chapter. The whole context is seen as Jesus goes on and says in verse 22, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. [He continues down and says, "Don't you trust in the love of your Father?"] ...how much more [verse 28] will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?" We're contrasting the abundance, or the trust in things, with faith. "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things." A man's life is about the faith that appropriated the things that he has, that God is the source of it, that we're not trusting in the abundance, but we're trusting in the source--God. We're not delighting in the abundance, but we're delighting in the source--God.

What about Christmas time, what about some gifts that you have, any of the gifts that your husband has given you, your wife, or your children, whatever? Do you really treasure the item or the source? I can tell by looking at you, some of you are saying, "Item, man. If this source acts up, I'll find me another source!" That's what is in so many people's hearts. The real riches are the relationship and the love behind it. What it was that put that in my hands was the love, the care, the worth being placed on me by someone that I value. What makes something really worth something? The value placed upon, not the item in it of itself--because we're talking about things with intrinsic value, we're talking about the fact that--let me put it this way. Two people can give you the same thing and one has more value then the other. Why? The value that you place upon the giver, the value that you place upon that relationship is what makes this one worth more than that one. It's the identical thing, but I place value on this person, and the fact that they value me makes this more valuable. How thankful are you for what your Father has given you? What value do you put on that relationship? A piece of granite that God gives you can be worth more than a diamond that the flesh gives you. Now the problem with that is that the natural mind doesn't believe that; it doesn't want to hear that kind of stuff, but it's the truth. In this whole twelfth chapter, the contrast is the abundance that you can produce of yourself, the trust in it, contrasted with the faith that, when I come, will I find faith on the earth; the faith in the sovereignty of God and the satisfaction of the relationship and the contrasting of rich in the world and rich toward God. Which realm then, as we look at our lives, are you working to be rich in this morning? Where are you looking to receive your gratification? What do you put worth on? Laying up treasures, the Lord said, in heaven. As we talk about this covetous spirit, this lust, not only the insatiable desire to have more--that's natural to the flesh. The pride, the selfishness that wants the most, the best, that sin in and of itself, pales when you contrast it to the sin of judging God unfaithful, of devaluing the worth of His provision and His presence by having lives that are discontent.

We were just fooling around yesterday, some of the folks here, while we were at an event up at Carlisle. Just all kinds of trinkets and eye candy around. It was a motorcycle show with all of these choppers. We were talking--some of these things were just absolutely gorgeous. These things are beautiful. They're art, they're not practical to ride; they'll actually punish you, but the "cool" value is off the scale! Some of us just like to be cool. Most of you don't qualify, but some of us--there's no end. I saw fifty bikes up there I'd like to have. I'd really like to have--in fact, I need them! If you get them, then you have to build bigger barns and all you can do the Scripture says, is what? Behold them with your eyes. Now, we do it in smaller areas, don't we? I don't know about some of you--we've talked about this before--we have favorites. Some men are worse than others. We have favorites in clothing and different things. I've got clothes that I don't wear. I walk by them every day. I walk in my closet and I say, "Hi, how are you doing?" They're all yelling, "Wear me, wear me!" I say, "No, man, you're not cool." When is it enough? We live in a society where we have more than enough! Stuff we don't use and we want [more], we need [more]! We make special days where people give us stuff! I wonder who ever started giving prizes for birthdays. "Hey, good job, man, you're a year older. Here's a prize." What's that all about? There was a day when we needed stuff. There was a day when stuff mattered.

Ok, can I have fifteen seconds for a pet peeve? You might as well say yes. We've got birthdays. (It is stupid!) I went to a child's birthday; I won't mention any names. They're relatives that live next door. Now, I was partly in on planning the layout of the basement of this home to store stuff and I'm down in this new basement that had to be configured to be sufficient to hold the abundance of stuff and now we have a party. These poor little deprived children had people bringing stuff. It's stacked high, you have to move around stuff and a bunch of little kids there are saying, "Stuff, stuff!" This one wants a kid to see his stuff first and there are fights going on about what stuff's more important, and here's my stuff, and he walks down and he gets my stuff first and "Look at my stuff." They're all there and they're all doing pretty good, but they're kids. So, all of this stuff! What are we teaching our children? Really, that when we come together as family, you've got to bring stuff? Can't we get together without exchanging stuff? Why not just interact, why not have love, why not have relationships? Now, since I'm on pet peeves, don't worry, I'll leave food in there a little bit, okay. I know that's just going over the line, so I won't even address that.

What are we really teaching them, though? Again, we have the baby showers. We all come together with a big--the person's down there having her twelfth child and everybody wants to bring a gift. Here--like you don't have--I mean, that one pacifier should last for twelve kids. Just keep cleaning it up, man. Stick it in there. When they get teeth, take it away so they don't ruin it for the next one. I'm just speaking toward the spirit of our abundance. The vexing that's in our lives that we don't even realize is there, the insanity of heaping more upon ourselves when we have no needs, just because we can. Not only because we can, but because it's expected. We measure our worth by what we possess. We measure our worth by people's recognition of ourselves. It's a spirit that needs to be dealt with in each and every one of our lives--contentment. Loading the kids up, there's got to be some type of logical, practical limit, but I'm not as concerned with that as with the spirit of contentment.

Now, it's a fact that at a certain age, most children (now, yours are probably the exception), but most children up to a certain age play with the box more than the gift. The little ones, why do you bring presents to one- and two-year-olds? Bring them a box! Bring them an empty box! Wrap up an empty box; they'll play all day with it. That's what they do anyway. You buy the gift; they open it up, throw the gift out and play with the box. They don't even know that they've got it. Can I tell you something? Go back in your memory as far as you can. (I'm horrible about this, I really can only remember back to when I was forty. I can't go real far back, you know? Some of us are forty more recently than others; Connie, I won't mention any names.) Greer did get me a good little thing, though, the other day. We were up there the other day and she got me this thing that said, "When you're over the hill, you're picking up speed." Can I tell you something? You've wasted every dime you spent on anybody before they're five. They'll never remember. Just tell them how good the stuff was that you gave them. "When you were three, we had a pony ride for your birthday." They'll say, "Oh, cool, I was loved." They won't remember. What's wrong in this society?

Let me get back to where we were. Okay, that's fifteen seconds at least. "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Now, don't misunderstand the reference to abundance here. It's not talking about quantity alone, it's talking about that which God is not the source of. It's talking about that which you have to have above the necessities that He said He would give you. Abundance is anything that you have to have for worth, self-worth, anything that you have to have to gratify lust, anything that we possess because of selfishness--that's the definition of abundance. It's not the amount, it's the source and it's the spirit. You can see that very clearly when we contrast rich in the natural versus rich toward God. That's what we're doing here. Our life is not measured by the abundance of the things that we possess. We talked to you about the saying, "He that dies with the most toys, wins." Some people really believe that.

Some of the wealthiest men in the world say it's not about the money anymore. Money has almost lost its true meaning, as it would pertain to the way you and I exist. It's beyond our imagination to have so much wealth that anything you want, you can obtain. Some people say that would take the fun out of it because there's no anticipation. I could adjust. When you really stop and think about this, what these people are saying is that now it's just keeping score. It's not about the fact that fifty bucks buys a cup of coffee. It's about "I have more than that guy does." It's now keeping score, who can get the most. Stop and think about that spirit. That's what a lot of our acquisitions are all about. We may not even be in competition with somebody else; it's just that spirit that we talked about the other night of rewarding ourselves. I'm worth this. That's one of the greatest ploys today of many of the businesses, because of the spirit of our society. "You deserve this, you deserve a break today (skip McDonald's). You deserve this vacation. You deserve the spa, pamper yourself." Again, it's about selfishness, the over-valuing of self.

Let's look at this as Jesus goes on--well, let me show you something here. As we were giving you some of the definitions--I think this is an important part of this--then we'll come right back to the teaching. We were giving you the three basic areas of what the word covet means. We talked about the word covet, betsa, in the Hebrew, from Exodus 18, verse 21. It talked about unjust gain or plunder, a spirit that will get it at any cost. Most of us, we said, don't really contend with that. It's not normative. It's pretty extreme that people would do anything to get a little more, but there are those folks out there. The criminals, the drug addicts, and the con men, whatever it is. We also talked about, in Exodus chapter 20, verse 17, and these next two are the spirit that we're going to address most readily in the next couple of sessions. Exodus 20, verse 17, chamod means to delight in or to count precious, to covet, to overvalue something, to become fixed on it, to let something become a treasure to us.

There was one motorcycle that I saw up there. It was really a cool one. It was pretty much the consensus of everybody there that that was me. Bad machine! A hundred twenty-six cubic inches with nitrous, horsepower galore! It's nasty! All I needed was a tattoo. (That was the one thing interesting up there; that was the only place I've been where I really severely felt that if you didn't have a tattoo, you were way in the minority. There were fourteen people out of forty thousand that didn't have tattoos and there were seventeen of us up there.) So Jay asks me, (he's one of the clean guys), "Are you going over to the auction?" I said, "No, I'm not going over to the auction." He said, "You're not?" I said, "No." He said, "How come?" I said, "Because I know me." If your eye offends you, (what?) pluck it out. I have no intention of going up there and, yet, the Lord puts people in your life to bless you. Kimberly and Greer go over and buy a number to bid on this thing. I'm thinking how are they going to pay for it? Because I'm not buying one! There are two people that are going to have to go to work for a long time. Here we are looking at knowing your own tendencies, knowing who you are and setting a course to keep yourself free from covetousness, delighting in, putting a treasure upon. You know there are things that, until we walked up there Friday evening, I didn't know existed and that I had to have it. (I'm overemphasizing my desire for that because I didn't have to, because if I did, I'd probably have it. I'd swap something, trade.) Isn't that what you do when you treasure something? Don't you find some way to get it, or at least, try, or at least, mope around for a couple of days because you didn't? That's what this next word is about.

Deuteronomy 5:21, aweh means to long for, to sigh. "I don't really have to have it. (Heavy sigh.) I could live without it. (Heavier sigh.) "It's not necessary, honey, because you spent all the money on your power tools." (Sighing heavily again)." That longing, sighing, that pain of living without that which I so readily need and deserve. Now these are the spirits behind what we're going to talk about and you can already see the danger then of putting your eyes on things. The way to guard yourself from covetousness is by putting a watch over your eyes. Don't get the Sharper Image magazine. They've got a store down there. There's stuff in there you don't even know exists. You go in there and it's like Brookstone and some of those places. You go there and you say, "Man, I didn't know they had that. That is really cool! How in the world have I lived this long without that?" You never even knew it existed, you saw it, and now you have to have it. Life cannot go on without possessing it.

We were walking through the mall one day and they had this head scratcher. We were out of town somewhere; I think we were out in Tennessee at the basketball tournament. We were walking down there and there's this guy standing there and he said, "Hey, check this out." It's the weirdest looking contraption and I said, "Well, what is it?" He said, "It's a head scratcher. I thought, "Well, that's stupid." He says, "Try this." He puts it on my head. "Oh, that feels good! Oh, yeah!" "Try this and, look, it vibrates!" Then they had these--they look like little hands--they had these pads on them and your hand actually fits on it. It's flexible, plastic and you can rub like this with it and massage with it. Man, it feels good! He said, "Here, try this." He puts it on my back. "Oh, ah, oh!" You've been walking through the mall so now this guy's scratching your head and rubbing your back. He says, "Would you like one?" What are you going to say? I said, "No, I want two!" We have to watch over our heads and whatever else we, in our natural being, have an appetite for and to guard ourselves. To discipline our thoughts, discipline our lives, to truly believe that life does not consist in the abundance of things. It's so important for us.

When we realize what lust is, we can come to grips with the fact. We know this and we say it, but I just want to reiterate; it's such an important factor. Ecclesiastes 5:10, "He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity." Does anybody here believe that? We all know it; it doesn't satisfy. It just absolutely doesn't get it done. "He that loveth abundance [will never be satisfied] with increase." Now, look! It doesn't say, has abundance, it says loves. You can have virtually nothing and still have the most covetous heart and have the most lust of anybody in the group. It's not how much you have; it's how much you have to have it. How much you think and--listen, this is the key to it all--you deserve it. "I may not have it, but I deserve it and I sure don't understand why that clown has it!" Now we're judging God and we're judging them. "You know what? I'll bet you they got it by cheating somebody. You know what? They're not paying their tithe. They're stealing! They don't work as hard as I do. They're lucky!" We begin to judge others, we begin to judge God and our hearts are full of covetousness and hatred.

Colossians, chapter 3, verse 5, says, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" Covetousness is just worship of self. You're not worshiping things, you're not going over and bowing down, "Oh, mighty Ford." (That's not only idolatry, that's insanity.) Covetousness, which is idolatry, is not the object. It's our own hearts. Idolatry is the worship of self. "I will ascend, I am worthy. God has not met or seen my worth and so I'm going to reward myself." Now, there are some really tricky little things in here and I want to address this a little more as we go on tonight. It's not just in the Armani suits; it's not in the diamonds and the furs alone. It's in anything. Some of us here covet a different group of friends, a different social circle. I hear so many of you singles griping all the time that you're single. You want me to tell you something? Your standards are too high. You want me to give you the standard? Christian. After that, you're not all that! You think you deserve--your value of self, your house, the home you have to live in, all of these different things that make you more important. "Mine has to be the best. It can't just be run of the mill. It has to be ultra, one of a kind, custom, whatever." Can you take some time and just look at your own heart and ask, "Why, what is it that makes me think that about myself? Why would I truly think I deserve that?" Now, let me clarify. I'm not talking about desiring it. We would all like to have the best. Ok, there is nothing wrong with that; I understand that completely. I like the best and I think it's in everyone of us, and if you say you don't, you really need help. Something's not right with you. The bread's not done, the elevator hasn't gotten all the way up, there's only one oar in and you're a brick shy--all of the different things. What I'm talking about is not just the fact that I would like to have that. The problem is I deserve that. I truly believe that--and where we get into covetousness and envy is--I deserve that and I sure don't know why they have it, because they don't deserve that. It's that spirit of envy, "Why do they have it and I don't. I want what they have. No, I want theirs and them not to have it. I want to be superior. I want them to be blessed, just not as much as me!" All of that ugliness that Colossians is speaking of here in the third chapter, mortify those deeds, put them to death, come to grips with what's in your heart and ask yourself, "Am I content? Do I know that everything I have is the mercy and blessing of God?" All I deserve is a devil's hell.

As I speak toward different areas, relationships, a job, there are people who say, "I'm not going down there and taking that job for seven dollars an hour! I just had a job making thirty-five dollars an hour. I'm not taking that job for seven dollars an hour. I'm worth more than that!" Are you? What are you really worth? We have to come to grips with some of these things. You mean, you're worth more, your value, your opinion of yourself supercedes and transcends the biblical mandate to provide for your family, to work or you don't eat? "I'm not working for seven bucks an hour! I'm not working if that's all people think I'm worth." What is that spirit? Who are you trusting in? Is faith the source that provides all that we have need of? We're going to identify some of these things as we go a little further into the study, because when we talk about covetousness, we're all just on the surface and we need to look into the motives.

I talked about the relationship thing, and when I said your standards are too high, you've got to understand what I'm talking about here. We get this concept of who we are, what we deserve, and it absolutely over-inflates our worth and devalues so many around us, because we're looking at temporal instead of spiritual treasures. We've talked about it, we've laughed about it, and we've approached it from almost every angle we can think of. With the exception of a few, everybody still has a greater value on their list than they do on God's purpose of two being better than one, of it's not good for man to be alone. Very frankly, there is one spirit behind our pursuit of a relationship and that is covetousness and lust. It's the value I put upon myself, what I deserve, and we need to guard our hearts and beware of covetousness.

Father, we thank You this morning for the Word. As we continue in this study, give us a glimpse of our hearts, the age that we live in, and help us to answer the question this morning. Am I rich toward God, or am I distracted by all of these other things that are robbing me from the treasures in the heavens? There is nothing wrong with abundance, nothing wrong with barns, nothing wrong with bigger barns. The contrast of this whole chapter is: look what I have gained by my own strength as opposed to faith. That rich fool believed he did it with his own strength. He believed that he deserved it, he trusted in it and boasted in it, and was a fool because he was found wanting. He was poor toward God. "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be?" Do you know what's going to happen in the context of what Jesus was saying? You're going to leave it behind and your kids are going to fight over it. Why not lay up treasures that will remain? Why not teach our children to be rich toward God? Why not teach contentment at birthdays and Christmas? With whatever traditions we want to follow, let's emphasize the spiritual, the relational, the contentment, the thankfulness, the fact that we have need of nothing but the presence of God. All that we have need of, He's promised to provide us. Make that our treasure, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. All through America today, the pulpits of those that are even fundamentalist in their proclamation, the spirit is the better life. We're pilgrims here. We believe in prosperity, we believe in God giving us abundantly all things to enjoy, but the key is God giving us. The emphasis is on the creature, the emphasis is on our enjoyment, our security, our worth, and the emphasis needs to be on being rich toward God, right relationship with Father, content, because the Scripture teaches very clearly that riches can take wings and fly away. We're not to trust in uncertain riches, 1 Timothy 6 says, but in the living God, He who gives richly all things to enjoy. You're rich if you relate to Him by faith. If you can rest in His promises, if you can say, "His presence is my treasure." Then we're breaking that spirit of covetousness and walking in the spirit and hopefully, it's going to bring forth fruit that remains and God will be all in all.

As Gary plays for us, take just a moment to look at your own heart this morning. How do you see yourself? What value have you placed on your value system? How does it boast against the biblical principles of contentment, of unity, of preferring others, of living by faith? Let's rejoice in Him as we sing this together. Just thank God for all that He's done. I love You, Lord.

Hallelujah! Lord, we love You because You first loved us. We can't love You unless Your love flows through us. There's no capacity in us to love because You are love. It originates with You. Help us to love You more, that You would be that pearl of great price. Give us another treasure, for that's where our hearts will abide and we'll give You all the praise, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "Beware of covetousness." Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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