Learning To Be Content 1

Hello Everyone,

In Exodus 20:17 is the last of the “Ten Commandments” read with me:
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

A recent survey of female teenagers discovered that 93% of female teenagers said that their number one favorite pastime was shopping. That beat out dating as the number one activity.

I heard about one fellow who said: "If my wife doesn't go shopping at least three times a week, I send her a get well card."

This week we're going to wrap up the last in this series on the Ten Commandments. The Tenth Commandment says "You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor."

In the next 60 days you are going to be bombarded with Christmas catalogues and you will not hear the word covet used very often but you will see plenty of examples of it.

This is the season of coveting that we are coming into. I don't know a more appropriate message to end this series as we begin the Christmas season than a message on coveting.

What is coveting? Covet: the uncontrolled desire to acquire.

The desire to acquire in itself is not bad. God put it in you. God made squirrels and He gave them the desire to acquire nuts. And He made birds and He gave them the desire to acquire straw to build nests.

And He filled the world with all kinds of exciting, wonderful, good; desirable things and He's give you the desire to acquire them, that in and of it self is not bad. But anything uncontrolled is a problem.

God says there are some things that are off limits.

They are not yours to want. They will harm you. So it must be controlled.
It is hard, in our culture, to want to be content with what you have.

Today I want us to look at:
THE EFFECT OF ALWAYS WANTING MORE

The Bible says there are some very specific effects when I don't control this drive to acquire, this coveting.

One effect is Fatigue.

In our push to get more (and never in history have we been so pushed to get so much so quickly) we overwork and take on second jobs. Everybody in the family works. It's the material rat-race and everybody's tired.

Proverbs 23:4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.

It's dumb to wear yourself out just trying to get more.

Another effect is Debt.
Eccl. 5:11 "As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?

Coveting destroys budgets. We think the problem is I just don't make enough money. No, it's not that you don't make enough money you want too much.

A lot of things we think are needs are really greeds. The average American puts $1300 on credit for every $1000 he makes.

That's caused deficit spending and the only people who can get away with that is the government. And they won't get away with it forever. It doesn't work that way.

So because we want more we get further and further in debt. It always costs more to have more. “If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence you can bet the water bill is higher too”.

All For Jesus
Phil