Discover The Word

IDEA: The symptoms of covetousness are revealed when our desires have gotten out of control.

TEXT: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17).

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Deuteronomy 5:21).

PURPOSE: To help listeners diagnose covetousness in their lives.

When do you decide to go to a physician rather than treat yourself?

Do you think you’re always able to diagnose your own diseases?

It may be very difficult for us to see covetousness at work in our own lives. Someone else may need to point it out to us. What are the symptoms of covetousness lurking in our lives?

I. We have said that there are two factors that we need to look at.

The first symptom is that we want more and more of what we already have enough of.

We focus on acquiring what we really don’t need.

The second symptom is that we desire what we don’t have a legitimate right to possess.

We’re out of bounds and covetous when we go after things that violate God’s will for us.

II. There is a third symptom that we should note: we are willing to exploit others to get what we want.

Corporations will pollute the environment and destroy rivers in order to make a profit. Their covetousness creates health hazards for thousands of people around them.

In politics people can so covet an office that they lie and they will create bad laws for good contributors.

In religion covetous people will preach lies for the sake of profit. “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber” (2 Peter 2:3).

There are false preachers and false teachers about.

Acts 20:33 is Paul’s defense of his ministry without covetousness: “I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel.