Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Covetousness Pt.6

Let's turn to Luke 12; we'll continue in the study. "But God said unto him [the rich man] Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." And we were contrasting that covetousness is laying up treasure for yourself, but not that solely--and not being rich toward God. It's interesting that the Lord didn't just stop with laying up treasure for yourself. That's what most of us think covetousness is, but we've talked about the fact that it goes beyond the material. It has to do with our pursuit of God. The greatest treasure of all is godliness, "For godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Timothy 6:6). It's the Lord that makes rich, the Scripture says, and He adds no sorrow with it. You'll see in the context that that's talking about material things. God wants to bless us for His own sovereign purposes and through His own wisdom. He doesn't expect us to go out trying to make ourselves rich. If He wants you rich He'll make you rich. Do you believe that tonight? Is that something that we really believe? Now when I say that, I don't mean that you'll hit the lottery tomorrow. God is not going to use the lottery to make you rich. Besides, you don't qualify. You don't have a green card. You're not eligible. So we need to understand that when it's the Lord that makes us rich we're talking about the fact that He orders our steps. It's not going to be something that falls out of Heaven, but He gives us wisdom, He gives us strength. We all know that success--the race is not to the swift the wise man tells us. It just doesn't always turn out that the guy that "should" win wins. God is ordering your steps.

To everything there is a season, there's a time to sow and a time to reap. We call it luck. "Man, that guy is lucky. He was in the right place at the right time." Have you ever known anybody that seems to end up in the right place at the right time? Who is ordering those steps? Now I know, I've felt about my life most of the time, and a lot of us feel that way--I've been blessed since I've known the Lord, but prior to knowing the Lord I was just always a day late and a dollar short and trying to work things in my own strength. Then you cast the care over on the Lord believing that He cares for you. When God becomes the source of what we have it adds no sorrow. You haven't sinned against anybody, you haven't dishonored God and you haven't obtained it in your own strength. It's by faith that God has orchestrated it and He's the one that gets all of the glory. Now, most of us would like to think that's where we're living, but let's go over to Deuteronomy for just a moment and let's talk about the power of this spirit of self-sufficiency, of self-trust, self-reliance, which is the source of us obtaining those things that we covet, and then those of us who are religious want to put it off on God and say it was the blessing of the Lord.

We go obtain it in our own strength, we lust for it, we obtain it, and then we want to put it off on God because it just wouldn't be acceptable unless we included God in it; but let's see what He Himself is the source of and how we can know whether or not God is the one that really brought it to us.

Deuteronomy, chapter 8, a passage that most of us are familiar with, and in this chapter He gives us some great understanding. Have you noticed how many times in our study this word "beware" has come up? And here again in the eighth chapter we see in verse 11, "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments..." Now what is it that could cause us to forget the commandments of God? If you remember, we were looking this morning at the parable of Jesus and His teaching on the sower sowing the seed. He said, "We need to be careful because the thorny ground is the life, the heart that allows covetousness to remain in our members" (Matthew 13:3-9). It's not purged out; it's not destroyed. So the Scripture says, "The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things enter in and begin to choke the word of God out of our lives" (Matthew 13:22).

The deceitfulness of riches, and we emphasize that a lot, but how much time have we spent in these last couple of sessions talking about the cares of the world, even the necessities? We talk about covetousness, and so often we think we're talking just about avarice, those that are living some type of an opulent lifestyle. But you can have a covetous heart and be living in bare necessity, and either boasting in the fact that you've made it on your own, or boasting in the fact that you are satisfied with what you have. It's not trust or faith; it's pride talking. The cares of this world have to do with the fear of lack. The cares of this world have to do with the necessities and thinking [Listen!] that somehow we're responsible to provide that and then God will take care of the abundance. And He contrasts the world's spirit with the walk in faith saying, "The pagans are the ones that worry about those things, don't you worry about it. Your Father knows what you have need of, consider the fowls of the air, consider the lilies of the valley" (Matthew 6:26-28). So I want to address these three areas for just a moment this evening as we're going to close this study.

Are you worried about the necessities? And you say, "Well no, I'm not really that concerned because I have enough laid up, or I make enough to..." Well, then where is your trust? Let me give you a little bit of advice. If you're trusting in yourself you ought to be worried. "But take no care [the Master said] for what you are going to eat or what you are going to drink for your Father knows that you have need of these things. And if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all of these things will be added unto you" (Matthew 6:31-33).

Now, most of us are fairly comfortable because we're not doing without necessities at this time. There could be a day when that comes. I want to tell you something. There could be a day in America when again you will have to pray this prayer in faith, "Give us this day our daily bread." I trust, beloved, that in this abundance when you bow your head and give thanks it's not just a habit, but you are truly thankful and you truly recognize God as your source. Or do you really think your paycheck did it? Was it God or Wonder Bread? You say, "Well, God uses Wonder Bread." Yes, but who are you trusting in? That is what Deuteronomy is all about. Look at this; it's a powerful statement. If we're not careful we're going to miss out on what the spirit of God is trying to say to us. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things. He said, "[Be careful] when thou hast eaten and art full, [verse 10 of the eighth chapter] then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee." When you pray over that food are you truly blessing God? You see, the covetous spirit is not just wanting more, it's also not being thankful for what you have. It's the despising of the Author, the Source, in the trusting of ourselves. Oh, even an appreciation, but a lack of awareness that God is the one that deserves the glory.

He goes on and he says this very clearly. He said in verse 12, "Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied..." Some of us are saying, "Yeah, go for it Lord, praise God! You know the Lord adding to us in one thing but now we're talking multiplied, praise God. This is my kind of language here." Look at the danger [verse 14] Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God..." Is God your source, really, tonight?

Stop and think for just a moment. Examine your own heart. Is God your source? Are you thankful or has your heart been lifted up? Do you really believe your hard work--"I'm diligent, I've been going to the job for twenty years. By the sweat of my brow I've earned this where I am, my reputation. I went to school, I paid my dues." Are you the source? "Look what my hands have obtained. I may not have been as lucky as that guy over there that has that bigger house, but I want to tell you something, bless God, I earned this by the sweat of my brow." What an abomination to God when we forget who it is that has truly blessed us.

Listen to what 1 Chronicles 29 says, and if you look over at verse 12, it says, "Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all." And so in that twenty-ninth chapter of Chronicles we need to realize that God is the source behind all of this. What I'm trying to help you to see tonight is if you have got that power of covetousness working in you and you think, "I've got to have that, I've got to..." God is the source of it, beloved. Anything that He does not author will bring sorrow and death. Anything that you obtain in your own strength, if you're not careful to honor God and realize that He's the source, you are going to begin to take credit for it. "Look what I've done." You see, that's what the rich man was saying that He called the foolish. The man said, "Look what I've done, look what I've earned. What shall I do? I'll tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and say, take ease." And it's about self and we've laid up treasure for self. Can I help you understand that passage in a way that might put its finger on this spirit that we're trying to address a little more clearly? We emphasize treasure, treasure. "And he layeth up treasure, and he layeth up treasure, and he layeth up treasure." We're so hung up on stuff. The emphasis is not on treasure, it's on self. It doesn't matter how big or how small. If it's about self, its sin. You see, you can be covetous and have very little and be proud of it. "That guy got his stuff because he's lucky. I earned mine." This is the spirit that we need to constantly battle with and realize that God is the source. "Riches and honor come of thee," Chronicles 29.

Now, if it comes from the Lord why don't you just relax a little bit? I don't mean just lay back; I mean just stop seeing yourself as the source. Stop with this personal ambition and be ambitious for God, and seek the Kingdom first, and let the blessings of God overtake you, supernaturally provide the abundance that will honor Him and not destroy you. We are talking about a force here that is dangerous. He said it would cause you to what? Forget the Lord. Jesus said in His parable, "These things will enter in and choke the Word of God out of our lives." Can you imagine, forget the Lord?

I was witnessing to a guy yesterday and he was talking about how God has blessed him and now he's blessed so much it appears that he can't ever be at church. Because, I mean, when God has blessed you with a beach house somebody needs to go there, and with a boat somebody needs to use that, and with the airplane, and with the villa. These are the blessings of God, and they cause you to what? Forget the Lord. Is there any problem with this stuff? Let's say it again since we're going to try to conclude this tonight. Are there any problems with the abundance? Jesus never spoke against the abundance in the parable, in Luke 12, of the rich man. He contrasted treasure for self versus rich toward God. It's not about the stuff. It's about no longer being rich toward God. The moment you begin to do less for God because of the stuff, it's sin. And so we need to see that we can get caught up and all of these things can begin to rob our heart. They enter in and they choke the Word of God out. We now have houses, and lands, and wells and we forget the Lord. We need to guard our heart against it.

Psalm 62, verse 10 says very clearly to us, "Listen. If your riches increase, set not your heart upon them." You notice it didn't say, "Whatever you do, if the stuff starts increasing give it all away." We're going to talk about the passages where Jesus told people to give everything away, but that's not His normal advice to us. It's very rare that He would tell you to give away everything that you have, but listen to the wisdom of God. If it increases--what does the Spirit of God say to us? Don't set your heart upon it.

Well, what do we do then? I mean, what's the good of having all this stuff? Have you ever thought about sharing? Did that ever enter your mind? Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:18 to the rich man, "Charge those that are rich among you to be ready to distribute, and ready to communicate." God has blessed you to be a blessing, to be able to bless others, to share. Now with whom do you share? Let me tell you who you don't share with. That line, see that line right over here? The moment I said the rich man is supposed to share, a bunch of people just got in line. "I'll take it." Those are probably the ones you are not going to share with because they're covetous. God does not expect the blessings He gave you to be given to a covetous person. He's going to give it to people who are walking by faith, praise God. The people that aren't asking, the people who don't expect it, the people that don't believe they're worthy. And God will supernaturally order your steps into blessing those who are believing God. What a privilege that is to be able to give as it has been given unto you. But I'm going to guarantee you there will be a line, and that will make it very clear who you don't give to. As stuff begins to increase, as your riches increase, don't set your heart upon it. It's not for you, it's for the glory of God, and it's how you use it that can glorify God. And even as you do partake, because we will see in the Scriptures in just a moment that God does also, those that He blesses, He expects you to be blessed and to partake. It's very clear that those are part of the blessings that God has intended upon us.

Look at Ecclesiastes 5:19. Let me show you as He speaks towards that. "Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, [and then it says] and hath given him power to eat thereof..." What a bummer to have it and not be able to partake of it. How would you like to be like the richest guy in the world and be hooked up to life support? This stuff is dripping in your arm and you can't eat filet mignon anymore. You can't run up to Cold Stone and get your stuff. That's a good place. We almost rode by it yesterday when we were out on our motorcycle cruising. If lust had not overtaken Jimmy we would have made it. Stephanie kept trying to tell him, "No, don't do it, Jim," and he just made the turn. So we followed him up there to protect him. I was concerned that he was going to eat too much so I asked them for everything. If you go up there get a small. "And he gives you power to eat thereof." What good is it to have it if you can't use it and enjoy it? See, some people can't enjoy it. So we need to realize, then, that you don't set your affections upon it. You don't allow it to become an obsession to you, but these are things that God wants you to be blessed with. And when He does bless you, use it, praise God. The power to eat and to take his portion--not all of it, because some of it you are going to be sharing. That's one of the great things about being blessed of the Lord. It is more blessed [what?] to give than to receive. It's great to be able to bless people that are trusting God. I just flat out won't give to anybody that thinks they deserve it or wants it; but I try to be sensitive to people that are trusting God, that have been faithful. And to be able to give and bless as God has blessed. What a privilege that is because it's God's. It's not yours; you're just trying to be steward of it. It's not mine to give, I don't possess it, but trying to be a steward and let God be exalted and let His people be honored as God is being honored.

So look what it says. "For this is the gift of God." Father wants to bless you. To what degree, I don't know. Riches doesn't have to do with the abundance of things, riches has to do with the source. If God gave it to you you're rich, praise God. It may not be a Mercedes. It may be a Ford, but you're rich, praise God. Yeah, God gives Fords. Don't say, "Get behind me Satan," if it's a Ford.

So we realize that as Father honors and moves in our lives, it's the gift of God and we need to enjoy that and be careful that as He does bless us we don't set our affections or our heart upon these things. If you are wanting to be rich, if you think, "This is something that I really would like to accomplish, and I really think I can handle it," you can't. The ones that can handle it are the ones that don't think they can. The ones that have to believe God, "I didn't earn this, don't deserve it, and don't have a clue how to use it or protect myself from it." If you're not living by and walking by faith you're going to end up in sin. The minute you think you've got it together and know how to do it, you're in trouble. You are now trusting in yourself, you're walking in the flesh, and it is death. The Word of God says it so clearly. The passage that most of us are familiar with, 1 Timothy, chapter 6; and as you look over at chapter 6, verse 9, it says, "Those that desire, or will to be rich, will fall into temptation." That covetous spirit. If we're wanting--and let's define rich again. Rich is just having abundance, more than you need. So every person in this room is rich. We're just rich to different degrees. And as it pertains to the world, as we said this morning, we're filthy rich. The majority of us in here have some kind of discretionary money, money that is not obligated to the company store.

I've shared with you my history. I'm the son of a sharecropper. My folks were dirt poor. The poor folks called us poor. We were sharecroppers. Sharecroppers are basically white slaves, that's all you are. And between sharecroppers and working for the company store, my uncle Ikey [I've told you about Uncle Ikey, so I won't bother there]. I asked my mom the other day, I said, "When was it that Ikey died?" She said, "He's still alive." I have to go see him again. I've only seen Ikey one time in my life. He's my great uncle, actually, my dad's uncle. And this guy is a mess. But he was talking one time--he's the one that won the gun for being the ugliest guy in the county. He was so proud of that thing. He was, he just loved that thing. It broke his heart--he said one day he was walking down the street and saw this guy and he said, "Here, this is yours." I don't know if that story is true, but this one is. I've always heard it as true, but knowing them it does not surprise me at all. And he is ugly; I'm telling you. The one tooth he has looks pretty decent, though. I mean he has kept that one in shape. The others, who knows what happened to them. He was so proud. I don't remember the exact figures, so don't quote me on the figure but it's somewhere in there. He said, "You know, I've had a good life." I heard him say this. We were talking to him in Georgia down at the family reunion. He said, "You know, I've had a good life." Talking to him is interesting. Everybody in the family grew up playing baseball. I told you I slept in a bat bag. My mother was the fast pitch woman's softball champion for the State of California, and my dad's teams and stuff. That's all we ever knew. So we came back from his side of the family also and they were all really good ball players. I'd never seen Ikey before. I walked up to him and he said, "Ah, you're a Pitman, huh?" That's my Grandma's maiden name. And I said, "No, I'm a Scott." He said, "Same thing." First thing he said. I had just introduced myself and he said, "You ever heard of Ty Cobb?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "Second best ball player to ever come out of Georgia." Ty Cobb as you know, is one of the greatest ball players of all time, the greatest hitters. I said, "Well, who's the best?" He said, "You're looking at him." I said, "Now I know where I get that."

My dad had just taken me down to the mill where he worked as a little boy. He talked about how he just couldn't keep up and his mom would do her job and part of his. He was working down there. In addition to the farm, the sharecropping, they did some millwork. He said he get so tired he just couldn't even move anymore as a little boy. I can't remember how old he was, I think he was like seven, and his mom would pick up the slack. Ikey worked at the mill his whole life and this is what he was telling me. He said, "You know, I've had a good life. Worked at the mill for [I can't remember how many years] and he said, "Just retired not too long ago." That could have been like forty years, I don't know, but he said, "When I retired I only owed the company store $146.00." Can you imagine working your whole life and being $146.00 in debt? That's basically what the company store was all about. How many of you remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." It doesn't matter how much you have, what's the source? What are you trusting in? Do you think you have to have more to be content? You're rich. If you have discretionary money you're rich.

Now let me see if I can get back here on track. "But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Timothy 6:9).

As we wind down for this evening I just want to encourage, not just our young people. Many of you young adults and there are many of you that are ambitious and you're working hard out there, and you're succeeding. Thank God. Let the Lord be the source of it. Don't get caught up in this spirit of having to have more. Don't set any goals of what you're going to obtain to where you can just say to your soul, "Now we can rest." Don't make your goal to be rich, make your goal to be content in your godliness and you will be rich; but if you will to be rich, if that is what you are seeking, the enemy will give you ways to obtain that and you will begin to trust, subtly, but you will begin to trust and you will think that you have obtained these things. Don't lie against the Holy Ghost. He said, "If you are desiring to be rich you are creating temptation for yourself and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts will come and drown you in destruction and perdition." We need to realize that is a law that cannot be broken. Proverbs 28:20 says, "A faithful man shall abound with blessings; but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." Young people, he that is in a hurry to be rich--"By thirty I'm going to be a millionaire, I'm going to..." You're going to what? You've lost something there. If you're saying, "I'm going to," you've lost a very important phrase that should be in the mouth and heart of a believer. What is that? "If the Lord wills."

So this contentment with the blessings of the Lord--He wants you to be rich with no sorrow. And all these subtle things that draw us into the spirit of covetousness, trusting in our own ability, setting goals that we want to obtain without saying, "If the Lord wills." Don't misunderstand when I say this, but thinking that somehow the compulsion to get the certain education. The race isn't to the swift. You can get the best education there is and there is no guarantee of success, because to everything there is a season, there's a time. The Lord, as we saw in Chronicles, is the author of riches and honor. So as we end tonight, let me encourage you with this: be rich toward God and He will give you riches that add no sorrow.

Father, we thank You for Your word tonight. As we conclude some of these thoughts that we have looked at over these last sessions, living here in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah, unlike Lot we didn't choose this place. You have placed us here. We are the children of Abraham, the children of faith. And as Abraham told Lot, "You pick and I'll just go the opposite direction." And Lot chose the lush, productive Garden of Eden and Abraham walked forth by faith into the arid wastelands and prospered. As he lived by faith he prospered. And as Lot lived in ease and comfort in an environment he did not obtain by life, he was destroyed because riches obtained without faith will kill you. Don't set your affections upon them. "He that loveth silver will never be satisfied with silver." And so we conclude the greatest riches are those that you speak of in the book of Revelation. The Laodiceans boasted in their riches saying they had need of nothing but were blind, and wretched, and miserable. But You said, "Here's the counsel I have for you: buy gold tried in the fire that you may be rich, and pure raiment to cover your nakedness, for godliness with contentment is great gain." Make it real to us we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us we will take just a moment. Just guard your hearts in this hour that we're in and realize that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust the eyes and the pride of life. That's all they can offer. Lust, lust, lust, covetousness. And as we saw in the study, covetousness is idolatry, and remember, it is not the idol that you think. You would think, man, I'm lusting after, I'm coveting that car, that job. That's not the idol. You're the idol because you think you deserve it. You're the idol because you will do anything to obtain it. You're the idol because you refuse to be content without it. And you sigh, and you indict God. Covetousness is idolatry; it's the worship of self; it's the exaltation of self. Faith seeks the kingdom first and the glory of God and rejoices in the blessings of the Lord that make rich and add no sorrow. Are you free to be rich toward God or are you a slave to laying up treasures for yourself?

Let's sing it together. "Oh Lord, You have been good." Hallelujah! Hallelujah! How rich we are to take Your words in our mouth and share what we have so freely received. How rich we are to be called sons of God, heirs and joint heirs in Christ Jesus. How rich we are to be servants of all. How free to have laid our lives down and no longer be our own, and the only worth we see in ourselves is that which caused us to accept You, the gift of grace and faith that embraced You in return. For in us dwells no good thing, and yet we stand in awe how You treasure us and have called us Your inheritance, and then drop our heads in shame that we can't see You as the pearl of great price. Open our eyes, give us the faith and the grace to believe, and let us be rich toward God, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "His blessings add no sorrow." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print