Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Luke 18:18-27, Philippians 4:11-13

With only a few shopping days left until Christmas, how are you doing at staying within your Christmas budget?  If you are like we are in our house, it is tough.This fall we had a family meeting to talk about our current finances. We reviewed where we were with a couple of credit cards run up pretty high. The interest alone on them was ridiculous. Our monthly expenditures had been higher than our monthly income for too many months. This holiday season we agreed to tighten the belt and live within a shopping budget Then we go shopping. Kate and I agree as we climb in the car that all we are getting this trip is a toy for our grandson Jack. Walking toward the toy department, I stop and pull out a cute little holiday dress. Oh look, Katie will look so precious in this! So much for the holiday budget.

For most of us, the tenth commandment—You shall not covet—is the toughest one to keep.We could blame it on the holiday season or our consumer society where we are inundated with advertisements that encourage us to buy products we don't need.

This commandment identifies the sin that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The devil tempted Eve by suggesting that God was withholding something from her. Let’s think about the subtle, pervasive sin of covetousness.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Phillipians 4:11-13

A visitor to a church turned to a member and complimented the preacher. “I like your preacher better than ours,” the visitor remarked. The member was pleased and inquired why. The visitor explained. “Your preacher says, ‘in conclusion,’ and then concludes. Our preacher says, ‘lastly’ and then lasts.”

This week we are skipping ahead to the last commandment of the Ten Commandments. “You shall not covet.” This commandment identifies an area that is very subtle and hard to recognize. Coveting is not as obvious as stealing, cheating, or lying. This is a sin of the heart. It is so mysterious and subtle that it often hides behind and causes the other sins. When we discover stealing, the heart is usually infected with coveting. When we see cheating, coveting is often the cause.

We might picture it this way. Imagine a line of sins waiting to cause trouble and come into your life. You open the door and they are lined up trying to push their way inside. Stealing is ahead of lying, who is standing in front of cheating. At the very back of the line, hidden and almost forgotten is coveting. Suddenly we notice the whole line surging forward into the entrance. Where did this sudden surge come from? Look closely and we discover it is coveting at the back that is pushing the others forward.

Joshua 7 tells about Joshua needing to find out who had committed sin, resulting in a terrible defeat of the Israelite army. All went well in the first battle. Jericho fell and was then burned as a sacrifice to God. But the second battle went sour. Israelites were killed and the army had to flee in defeat. What happened?

In response to Joshua’s prayer, God revealed that someone had sinned after the battle of Jericho. Instead of giving up all the plunder as a sacrifice to God, the way God commanded, someone had stolen from God. Through a lottery system, the thief was identified. When Joshua confronted Achan and asked for a confession, Achan admitted the truth. However, this is the part of the story that might catch many of us off guard.

Since Achan had stolen some silver and gold and a robe, we would expect him to confess to the sin of stealing and the breaking of the eighth commandment. Achan, however, confessed to coveting. Coveting was the root and stealing was the fruit. It looked like stealing on the surface, but it was actually coveting, that pushed him to steal.

Years later, King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed. Clearly, King David was guilty of breaking the sixth and seventh commandments, murder and adultery.

God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David’s sin. Nathan used a story to convict David’s heart. He told about a wealthy man who coveted the neighbor’s lamb. According to the story, the wealthy neighbor refused to sacrifice one of his own animals to feed a guest. Instead, he stole the little lamb from the poor neighbor. When King David showed righteous indignation at such an act, then Nathan pointed his finger. “You are the man!” The sin behind the adultery or the murder was the sin of the heart, coveting.

Years ago, a comedy movie, “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” created a zany farce about the effect of coveting among an aboriginal African tribal people. A pilot flying overhead tosses a coke bottle out his window with no idea that the tribal people where the bottle lands would think the bottle was a gift from the gods.

The tribal people begin to explore the uses of this gift from the gods. Blowing on the empty bottle, some men discover it can be used as an instrument. The bottle becomes part of the traditional campfire time as men take turns making music. The women of the tribe discover that it is hard enough to crush grain. They find it useful in their food preparation. Perhaps this is why the gods gave it. Children discover that it is fun to play with as a toy.

Soon, however, they become jealous and quarrel over this gift. Men grab it from each other to make music. Women grab it away from the men in order to cook. Children begin to fight over who gets to play with it. A tribe that formerly counted their blessings now becomes contentious. Finally, the elders select one of their men to return it to the gods. The bottle has awakened the sin of coveting.

Coveting involves wanting more. In modern America, we connect it with materialism. If we could just get another car, a nicer house, a bigger boat, we’ll be happy. Sometimes it takes the perspective of a child to help us remember that none of these things truly brings happiness.

One of our fire survivors described to me his experience sifting through the ashes of what had been their home the week after the fires. He was stunned that it seemed to have impacted their adult children and grandchildren harder than they would have expected. John then commented on one of the wisest things he had heard in the midst of the loss. While his grandson was standing there with his grandpa looking at the ashes, the boy commented, “Grandpa, you’ve lost all your toys!” The grandpa reflected to me, “From a child’s perspective the worst loss was the toys they used to play with at our house. But Bruce, our grandson put things in perspective. What we lost were only our toys. God spared our lives.”

The tenth commandment identifies a deep sin of the heart—distrust in God’s goodness. We worry that God might be withholding something from us. This easily turns into jealousy of what our neighbor’s have. While we may covet our neighbor’s things, we are actually showing our lack of trust in God. Instead of being pleased with God and appreciating God’s gifts to us, counting our blessings as we did at Thanksgiving, we grasp for more.

Paul comments in his letter to the Philippians that he had learned to be content in all circumstances. He had learned to enjoy having much and also having little. God could give and God could take away, but either way, Paul was content. The key word in Paul’s description of himself is the word learned. How do we learn this virtue of trusting God’s goodness?

I love John Ortberg’s story about playing Monopoly with his competitive grandmother. This woman was amazing at the game of Monopoly. The youngster learned pretty early that he did not stand a chance against Grandma when it came to Monopoly. She beat him every time.

One summer, John made up his mind to study the game and beat his grandmother. He played as often as he could that summer. He refined his skills. He figured out the best properties to buy. He analyzed where to put his first houses and hotels. He mastered strategy. Then, at the end of that summer, he played his grandmother again. This time he won! He was elated. What an accomplishment.

As soon as the game was over, however, his grandmother put it all in perspective. She reminded him that it was time to clean up the game. He recalls her words; “Now, everything goes back in the box.”

Okay, before we leave this subject, let’s wade into some deeper waters. I agree that many of us don’t covet our neighbor’s things—cars, boats, houses—we covet our neighbor’s relationships. Why do their children turn out so perfect while mine are struggling? Why does her husband bring her roses, while mine forgets my birthday? Why does his wife…? You see where this is going. When it feels like others have better families and friendships than we do, our worst coveting shows up as coveting other people’s relationships. It feels like they are more loved than we are.

I came across a helpful insight in a devotional book. The author commented that what we often do to our own family and friends is expect them to do for us what only God can do. A husband can make a good husband, but he can never replace God. A wife can make a good partner, but she was never intended by God to be her husband’s only friend. When we place unrealistic expectations on our loved ones and friends, wanting them to do for us what only God can do, we set ourselves up to covet.

This week we lit another Advent candle. I am thinking of a candle I recently bought for a friend. “Bruce, next time you are up at that store that sells candles in Idyllwild, would you pick up a candle for us. It’s fragrance is ‘campfire’ scent.” Campfire scent? They make a candle with campfire scent? I asked the shop owner about it and he said it is one of their best selling candles. Why? The owner said that the campfire smell brings back the warm fuzzy feelings of childhood when families went camping together.

I’ve been thinking about that. Here is the truth. Most of us don’t covet our neighbor’s candle. We covet our neighbor’s loving family.

Does our granddaughter really want another dress… or grandparents that love her?