The Clever Covetous Heart | Exodus 20:1-17 | Sidney Bowie

This morning, we have already concluded our series in 1 Timothy.

We are continuing into a new series.

It's going to be a series of standalone messages.

We're going to have a number of guests this summer.

Pastor Dave and I will do one or two messages, but we have guests coming in.

We're calling it Summer in the Scriptures, and we're excited about it.

This morning, I have my friend Sidney Bowie from City of Relief.

I'm going to invite him to come on stage now.

If you don't know Sidney, he is the donor and mobilization officer with City of Relief.

He started with the organization four years ago.

as an outreach leader, where he connected with, he served, he walked alongside individuals experiencing homelessness.

He became a witness to the transformation that can happen as a result of compassionate outreach that acknowledges the dignity of every image-bearing individual.

In his current role, he is grateful for the opportunity to connect with churches to the mission of City Relief, hoping to inspire dedication to Jesus and his example of leading a life where we intentionally care for the least of these.

So I think you'll be blessed by Sidney's message this morning.

He's going to be bringing God's Word.

Would you welcome him with me today?

Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Bob.

Thank you for the invite.

Thank you, Millington, for having me.

It's always awesome to be here.

There are so many people here.

Okay, cool.

Yeah, always good to be here.

I made this comment in the first service as well.

When I saw ahead of time the video, the VBS video that was going to be shared, I was like, man, it's so awesome to see what God is doing through the youth and the kids here.

And I'm sure that after watching them have all of that fun and excitement and being very lively, that everyone here is like, man, you know what I really, really want right now?

A message about covetousness.

That would be...

That would be great.

So yeah.

And Johnny, I'm well aware, like one of the worst places to stand is between a group of people and lunch.

So I will probably condense this a little bit from what I did this morning.

But we are going to be in Exodus chapter 20, and we will be touching on covetousness.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And essentially, I am inviting you all into the loving beatdown that I've been getting from the Lord as I've been going through this word.

But before we get into it, let me just pray real quick.

Father, thank you so much for this time that we get to worship you, to connect with you, and prayerfully to hear from you.

Thank you for all the amazing things that you're doing through this church, Lord.

Thank you for all the ways people are getting involved in serving you and serving others, God.

And Lord, I pray that this message would just be one that would help to encourage more people to continue to do the same.

So speak whatever it is you want to speak, Lord.

You know what each and every one of us need individually, and you can somehow beautifully use one message to touch every single person where they are.

So have your way.

We thank you and we love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

So, Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

I was thinking about just skipping to the end of the Ten Commandments, but I feel like sometimes it's good to just kind of go through all ten.

I haven't done that with a group in a long time.

So we're going to start in Exodus chapter 20, verse 1.

Exodus 20:1

Then God spoke all these words...

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You should not make yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

You should not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me and showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

You should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

that your days may be prolonged in the earth which the Lord your God gives you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

And the last one.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Now, as we go through these commandments, there are essentially seven that focus on you shall not.

whatever it is, right?

And most of them are directly connected to an action.

You shall not do this thing, right?

So from the first one, you shall not make an idol.

Don't get gold and silver and wood and craft this thing to worship.

You shall not take the Lord's name in vain.

You will not say his name in connection to things that aren't actually connected to him.

Not working on the Sabbath, not committing murder, not committing adultery.

These are all very clear actions.

Don't do this thing.

And then we get to 10.

You shall not covet.

And that isn't about an action.

That's about the state of your heart.

Covet, the root word used for that in the scripture here, is used in a few different places throughout the scriptures.

And it can be used to talk about something that's pleasing.

It can be used to talk about something that's delightful.

It can also be used to talk about something that someone desires, right?

And so one of the easiest ways to define, I think, covetousness from a biblical perspective is having a strong desire for something that belongs to someone else.

Or put another way, that doesn't belong to you.

So I don't know of, I feel like I don't hear a lot about covetousness, you know, in Christian circles a lot.

I don't know if I've ever heard like a sermon or extended message on it.

But it's incredibly important that we're aware of it and when it creeps up in our hearts because it is wildly deceptive and incredibly damaging.

And If I had no other evidence to support that statement, I think this fact is enough that covetousness is the means by which sin entered into mankind.

Like that's how it got started.

Again, that word that's used for covet in the Hebrew is used in a few different places to mean a few different things.

And the first place it's ever used is Genesis chapter two, verse nine, which says out of the ground, And so the word pleasing there is that same word that is used to speak to covetousness.

The second place that it's used is chapter 3 in Genesis, verse 6.

Isaiah 3 · chapter mention

which says, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.

And so that word desirable that's used, again, the same root word that's used for covetousness.

And so there is this element of covetousness that is there in the very first sin in mankind.

And what covetousness does, I believe, is give us a twisted approach to the good provision of God.

Every tree in the garden, every single one is desirable and pleasing.

All of them are.

And Adam and Eve have access to all of them, including like the tree.

I remember reading this at one point and looking like they actually had access to the tree of life.

Like they could have eaten from that, but they didn't.

They wanted the one thing that God said was off limits.

And so again, covetousness will present this and will create this twisted approach to the good provision of God.

It will put us in a place where we feel like the good things that he's given us and surrounded us with, for whatever reason, actually aren't enough.

And he hasn't done enough.

And like we're actually lacking something.

but it will also have us focusing on some of the things we perceive as good that he hasn't provided and feel like, well, I should have that.

Like I deserve to have that.

I should want those things.

And so I think it's helpful to notice that what Eve actually wanted, when it talks about why she wanted to eat the fruit, none of it was actually bad.

Like the tree itself, when God made all the trees, day three.

And so everything that he made, he called good.

He made the tree.

So the tree itself was good.

The desire to be wise, like wisdom is a good thing.

There's plenty of scripture about how we should be wise.

So wisdom is faith value, is good.

And even like the idea of wanting to be or become like God, as Christians, our entire lives are given over to wanting to be more and more like Jesus.

Like that is our goal.

And so again, just on face value, like the idea of becoming like and more like God.

It actually could be a good thing, should be a good thing.

And so the tree was good, wisdom's good, being more like God is good.

What wasn't good was reaching out for anything in a way that God has not said is for you.

And so just the fact that the things were good were not enough to make it okay for the methods that they choose to reach out for them.

And so I think it's important to notice that because Not everything that is good or every method that appears good is for you, right?

It's just not.

And we can sometimes have this opinion that, well, if God has done good things for me in other places, well, surely he wants me to have this good thing so I can just desire it and long for it and go after it.

And not everything that's good is necessarily inherently for you.

There's this perspective that sometimes people have that even the world, like everything that's been created, the world itself and creation was created for mankind because the conditions are so perfect and God's been all this time getting the world perfect for us and then brought us here.

But the world and everything in it was made for him.

He's the starting point.

Colossians 1.6 says that everything was made by him, through him, and for him.

And so nothing is inherently ours.

Nothing is inherently just for me.

It's all for him.

The reason that's important is because the thought that anything is inherently mine.

is the soil where the seeds of covetousness can start to grow.

Because it's this short jump from, okay, well, I have things that are mine, that inherently belong to me, that are inherently for me.

And so then if I see something else that's similar to some of those things, I'm like, well, it makes sense that those things could or even should be mine as well.

And so you have Eve, who is surrounded by all of these trees that are good for food and pleasing to the sight.

She sees She's another one.

And scripture says, why did she eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Because it was good.

She saw it was good for food.

It was pleasing to the sight.

But it had this little extra component of being able to make one wise.

And so because it matched what she was used to saying is mine, she reaches out for this thing.

And so...

The desire to have good things is obviously good and makes sense.

And we should long after the things, the good things that God has said are for us.

But covetousness will slide in and kind of present itself differently so that when we are actually longing after something that somebody else has that God hasn't said is for us, we don't necessarily view it as bad.

And so there are a couple of masks that covetousness can wear.

I think one of them is admiration.

And so I can be in a place where I'm like, well, I don't covet that thing.

I don't have this strong desire for that thing that somebody has.

I just admire it.

I don't covet my neighbor's house or my neighbor's car or whatever.

I just admire it.

But there is this line that can be crossed when we step from admiration into covetousness.

If I go to a museum, And I go walk through and enjoy the art and all the paintings and sculptures and things.

It's something me and my wife have done a lot in the past.

I enjoy it.

I enjoy going to see everything and admiring what's there.

And then when I leave, I leave.

I'm like, good.

I don't have a desire to have those things for myself or possess those things for myself.

Personally, if I go to Foot Locker...

There's a line that the admiration crosses when I'm like, oh yeah, I'm just going to see what's there.

I'm just going to see what's new.

And then I'm leaving the store and my wife is like, why do you have a bag in your hand?

And so there's this line that goes from, oh, I'm just admiring what's there to...

I'm starting to have really a desire to possess this thing for myself.

And I was speaking to someone after the first service, and he was basically like, you know, everybody has their footlocker.

Like, whatever that thing is for you, like, and we have to know it really takes...

Honesty with ourselves before the Lord.

Okay, what's that line between this thing is just something I admire, it's just a hobby, it's just whatever, and going to, no, this is becoming something that is really stirring my heart to long for something that actually isn't mine or feel like I need some additional thing added, right?

Like I...

Yeah, Foot Locker's my thing.

My wife has a list of, I don't know, 120 things on Amazon that is just like, she's just admiring, but it's like, cool.

But every other week, there's a new box here.

But again, it's that reality of like, what's that line for you?

What's that line for us, right?

Because we don't want to be in this place of not being able to...

Again, if covetousness twists our approach to the good provision of God, right?

I don't want to be in this place where I am feeling like everything that he's given me already isn't adequate or like he himself isn't adequate, right?

And so I need some new thing to add on to it.

So, but again, covetousness will come under the kind of the guise of admiration sometimes.

The other thing that I think sometimes it'll mask itself is inspiration, right?

So I'm not coveting what I see.

I don't covet something I see my neighbor have.

I don't covet something that I'm seeing on social media.

I don't covet what successful people have, but I'm inspired to kind of go after those things myself.

And again, There's this deceptive thing about it because you think, okay, well, if you covet what someone has, that means you want that specific thing.

I want to take that.

I want that for myself.

But there are a couple of places in Scripture where coveting is not necessarily associated with removing something from somebody else.

It really has to do with what's in your heart.

With Eve herself, right, when she covets the– or she has this desire to be wise and this desire to be more like God, eating the fruit, even though God does actually say, like, they have what come like us.

It didn't make God any less wise and it didn't make God any less God, right?

So it didn't actually take anything from him.

There's a situation in Joshua chapter seven when the Israelites have conquered Jericho and God's like, everything that's there, all the gold, silver, everything that was left, destroy it.

Don't take any of it.

And there's someone, Achan, and the scripture literally says in chapter seven, verse 21, that he coveted.

And so he took gold he wasn't supposed to take, took silver he wasn't supposed to take, took this robe he wasn't supposed to take, Because he coveted it.

Again, he didn't remove it from any, it wasn't going to anybody.

Everything was, it was going to be destroyed.

But again, it wasn't about just, oh, this is coming from your neighbor or coming from somebody else.

It's about what is actually going on in your heart.

And so just because I'm inspired to go get something for myself doesn't mean that that might not be coming from a place of coveting.

And so the questions that we can ask ourself Because there is a theme between Adam and Eve and Achan and Joshua that the thing that they were coveting, they wanted it for themselves.

They wanted to be wise.

They wanted to be like God.

Achan wanted to have the gold.

It was about them.

And so one of the questions we can ask ourselves is, okay, if I'm inspired to go after something because of something I've seen around me, why am I inspired to do it?

What is the end result of me achieving and getting whatever that thing is?

Is it about me and possibly my little circle around me or is it actually about other people?

Is this actually going to be a benefit to someone who Is it going to benefit somebody else in a way that actually has nothing to do with me?

Is that the reason I'm inspired to go after this?

Or is that inspiration coming from this place of, yeah, I really want what I've seen this person have or that person have or what I feel like I'm missing out on?

And so we have to ask ourselves, I think, that question.

Is it about me?

And things being about us is really...

what keeps covetousness going self-centeredness is the battery that keeps covetousness running, if we are constantly thinking about our own desires and our own needs and how do I get what I need to get?

How do I satisfy what I'm looking for?

How do I achieve what I'm trying to achieve?

If we're constantly looking at that, it becomes very easy to see the world around us through that lens.

It's easy to see whatever is around me as how can that help satisfy the desires and the needs that I feel like I have.

And what can make that worse, honestly, is when we just have the ability to get it.

Where we don't actually have to ask the question.

Like some people might be in a place, and covetousness can affect anybody, right?

But some people are in a place where like, man, I really, really desire that thing.

I can't get it though.

Like I could go buy those shoes and then I can't pay rent or whatever.

Like, you know, I can't do it.

And so you still need to deal with what's in your heart.

But it gets a little...

more difficult when like I actually can just get whatever the thing is that I'm longing after with no difficulty whatsoever because I don't often we won't spend time thinking about should I why do I want this it's just hey I want it I can get it I'll go get it and we never actually all you know address the issue of where is this coming from And so the question isn't that we should be asking, we shouldn't be necessarily, will having this or getting this affect me in some negative way?

The question is, why do I long after this thing?

Why am I longing to have something that isn't mine, that belongs to someone else?

It's interesting that the Ten Commandments start with, you shall have no other gods, right?

And then end with, you shall not covet.

because they seem to be connected, actually.

Colossians chapter three, verse five says, therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

The word that's used for greed here, again, this is in the Greek, but the word that's used for greed there is also used for covetousness.

In fact, depending on what translation you're reading, Colossians 3.5, that's what it will actually say.

It will say covetousness amounts to idolatry.

And here is the thing about idols.

They don't have to take up that much space in your life.

There is a account in Genesis when Jacob is taking his family and they're leaving and Rachel steals the household gods from her father's house.

And they're small enough for her to put in the saddlebag that's on the camel.

And when her father comes to look for them, he can't even find them.

And so the fact that they were small didn't make it any less of an idol.

The things that we covet are The things that we long after that someone else has that doesn't belong to us, they can easily become idols.

And again, it doesn't matter if it takes up a lot of space in your life or a small amount of space in your life.

An idol is still an idol.

And so is there things that we have that we ought to say, Lord, I've been longing after this thing, or accumulating this thing, or going after this thing, and maybe my whole life isn't surrounded around that, but it's something I keep getting drawn back to, keep being made to feel like I don't have enough with what you've already given me, keep being made to feel like I don't have enough just in you.

Is that thing actually an idol?

I'm gonna confess, I have too many shoes.

I do, and it's funny, but honestly, As I went through this and prepared this, I'm like, dang, I really got to deal with this now.

Because it doesn't take up a whole lot of space in our house.

Like, I got my spots where I keep them.

But why is it that when I am stressed out about something or bored or whatever, like, I'm just, oh, let me see what's new.

Let me see what's not.

Because idols become the thing that we run to instead of God.

We go after what we think will make us feel good and take care.

And so...

So, yeah, this is my open confession.

I'm going to have to get rid of some shoes, man.

Dang.

Dang.

I got to deal with that.

Anyway, sorry.

Have a little moment.

But, yeah, so these things can become idols.

And it's almost like the Ten Commandments begin with, like, don't have any other gods.

And then the first commandment after that is do not make any other idols.

Don't fashion any idols.

Don't physically make any.

But it's almost like it ends with, here's the last step.

Also, don't have any idols in your heart.

Don't let anything abide here that puts you in a place of seeing what other people have and wanting that for yourself more than the good provision that God's already given you.

And so the question becomes, how do I deal with what's going on in my heart, right?

And I think we gotta be honest and go before the Lord and let him expose that covetousness and that idolatry that can be in us But then I think the practical response to it that we can take is to be outward focused.

Because if covetousness is empowered by how focused on my own desires and needs I can be, then the exact opposite of that is being more focused on the needs and desires of other people.

And saying, how do I now put that as something that's more important for me to focus on on a regular basis than just me fulfilling the desires of myself in my own flesh?

If most of us created a ratio and looked at even our last week and said, okay, how much time, money, and thought did I put towards fulfilling my own needs and desires?

versus how much of that I put towards somebody else.

Again, not even necessarily in my immediate circle, but even outside of my immediate circle.

How much time, energy, money have I put towards somebody else experiencing the good provision of God and having their needs and desires met?

I would imagine that for most of us, that ratio is heavily skewed in the direction of focusing on us.

And so adjusting that ratio matters, right?

And to be clear, honestly, it's not just the financial piece.

That part is needed.

Like what we do with our treasure matters.

Where we put that matters, right?

And God's gonna call us to sow seeds and put in different places and it's awesome.

All the different things you guys have going on here where you are clearly supporting with your finances.

But often we can sometimes get to a place where we just kind of like write a check or make a donation and it doesn't take that much thought and it doesn't take that much effort.

And so we kind of use that as the justification to go on back to our covetous ways.

Like, okay, well, I did my part.

I supplied the finances.

Now I can go back and get whatever it is I want for myself and just focus on me again.

And so actually incorporating time and energy and effort into helping someone outside of ourselves experience the good provision of God and receive the needs and desires they have is an important part of the equation.

When we actually say, hey, I'm going to make my life, I'm going to carve out time regularly, like I want this to be a thing that I do on a regular basis to take, to give myself over to helping somebody else have what they need.

That is gonna be one of the most practical ways that we can deal with the covetousness that abides in our hearts.

And it actually leads us to achieving what Eve and Adam were trying to achieve when they ate the fruit, right?

This idea of becoming like God.

One of the things that is most like God is looking outside of yourself and saying, how do I go provide for the needs of those around me?

And I mean, Jesus is the epitome of that in leaving where he was and going to where he was needed, right?

And so how do we say, I'm gonna follow that example?

The lemonade stand that we're doing is one of the ways you guys can even start to do that.

Obviously, again, we'd love for you to be able to donate here, but especially if you've got kids, you've got families, like, think about actually doing it by your house.

Think about doing it, you know, in your neighborhood.

It's an amazing way to even just to begin to instill into children, like, we are not going to be a people, as we serve God, we're not going to be people who are just focused on our own needs and our own desires and the things we're longing after, but we are going to set ourselves aside to really trying to provide for those who are on the margins.

And so, you know, That's one way you can do it, but there's so many ways, even so many ways that are happening here in the church.

And so even with that, I would just really encourage you, if you're seeing different ways to volunteer and get involved, step outside of the comfort zone that you're in and put yourself in a position where you are helping to show people the good provision that God has for them.

And it's a reminder when we do that, when we actually will walk in that selflessness you realize how limited the impact of some of those things that we're coveting actually, how limited the impact it can have on your satisfaction.

I have a bunch of shoes because the last shoes I got didn't, I said it was the last one.

I have said it was the last one so many times.

This has really become just me confessing about my shoes.

But really, it's like, again, I go after these things to try to meet some kind of thing in myself, and it never satisfies, really.

But if we are willing to let God take our focus off of ourselves and what we think is going to satisfy us and let us allow him to bring us to walk alongside him in doing real kingdom work, we are going to be much less prone to what is genuinely idolatry and much more impactful and effective for his kingdom.

So that's all I have.

I'm not gonna keep y'all for much, too much longer.

I'm gonna just pray.

And yeah, and the worship team can come.

Lord, thank you for your word.

Lord, thank you that you are, you are enough, God.

Lord, so often there are ways that the enemy will speak and things that will happen in this world or times our eyes get so focused on other stuff that we forget that you actually are enough.

And God, I pray that that wouldn't be something that's just cliche that we would say, but that our hearts would truly live in that space.

And so, God, whatever it might be for any individual in here, God, whether we've been calling covetousness admiration or calling it inspiration or motivation, whatever it might be, God, I pray that you would show us the things that are in our hearts that don't please you.

Lord, take us beyond just the actions because, again, even in those Ten Commandments, you made it clear it's not just the action, it's the state of your heart.

And you promised in your word that you would give us new hearts.

And so, Lord, we ask you to do that in every area that it needs to happen, Lord.

And we pray that you would lead us to focus outside of ourselves to those who are in need, to those who are on the margins, Lord.

I thank you for all that you've been doing through Millington, Lord.

I thank you for what you've been doing through City Relief, Lord.

I thank you for all the ways that people have to get involved to be mindful of those who are on the margins that have been pushed aside by society, Lord.

I pray that we would be open vessels.

For you to come in and steer us in the places that we need to go.

So that we could be examples to other people that there is a God who has good provision for them.

Lord, we need you to do it in us.

And we thank you that your word says that you will.

So have your way in our hearts, God.

And truly be our one desire.

We love you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.