July 21, 2025 • 31 mins
What does it mean to truly trust God’s provision—and what happens when our hearts crave more?
In this first message from our Summer in the Scriptures series, guest speaker Sidney Bowie of City Relief takes us deep into the Tenth Commandment: “You shall not covet.” With passion, humility, and rich biblical insight, Sidney unpacks the hidden power of covetousness, not just as a behavioral issue, but as a heart condition that subtly erodes our contentment and warps our worship.
Drawing from Exodus 20, Genesis, and Colossians 3, Sidney reveals how covetousness isn’t simply about wanting more—it’s often masked as admiration or inspiration, yet quietly displaces our trust in God and fuels self-centered living. He challenges us to examine the motivations behind our desires and consider whether what we pursue is truly for God’s glory, or our own gain.
This message is both convicting and freeing. It calls believers to root out the idols that quietly grow in our hearts and to rediscover the joy of selfless, outward-focused living, serving the marginalized, embracing gratitude, and finding satisfaction in Christ alone.
If you’ve ever wrestled with comparison, envy, or discontentment—or simply want to live more intentionally in a world that constantly says, “you need more, ”this sermon will reorient your heart toward the God who is enough.
July 20, 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Pastor Bob (00:00):
This morning, we have already concluded our
series in 1 Timothy.
We are continuing into a newseries.
It's going to be a series ofstandalone messages.
We're going to have a number ofguests this summer.
Pastor Dave and I will do oneor two messages, but we have
guests coming in.
We're calling it Summer in theScriptures, and we're excited
about it.
This morning, I have my friendSidney Bowie from City of
(00:20):
Relief.
I'm going to invite him to comeon stage now.
If you don't know Sidney, he isthe donor and mobilization
officer with City of Relief.
He started with theorganization four years ago.
as an outreach leader, where heconnected with, he served, he
walked alongside individualsexperiencing homelessness.
He became a witness to thetransformation that can happen
(00:40):
as a result of compassionateoutreach that acknowledges the
dignity of every image-bearingindividual.
In his current role, he isgrateful for the opportunity to
connect with churches to themission of City Relief, hoping
to inspire dedication to Jesusand his example of leading a
life where we intentionally carefor the least of these.
So I think you'll be blessed bySidney's message this morning.
(01:02):
He's going to be bringing God'sWord.
Would you welcome him with metoday?
Sidney Bowie (01:12):
Thank you.
Thank you, Pastor Bob.
Thank you for the invite.
Thank you, Millington, forhaving 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 thefirst service as well.
When I saw ahead of time thevideo, the VBS video that was
going to be shared, I was like,man, it's so awesome to see what
(01:36):
God is doing through the youthand the kids here.
And I'm sure that afterwatching them have all of that
fun and excitement and beingvery lively, that everyone here
is like, man, you know what Ireally, 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
(01:56):
stand is between a group ofpeople and lunch.
So I will probably condensethis a little bit from what I
did this morning.
But we are going to be inExodus chapter 20, and we will
be touching on covetousness.
And essentially, I am invitingyou all into the loving beatdown
(02:18):
that I've been getting from theLord as I've been going through
this word.
But before we get into it, letme just pray real quick.
Father, thank you so much forthis time that we get to worship
you, to connect with you, andprayerfully to hear from you.
Thank you for all the amazingthings that you're doing through
this church, Lord.
Thank you for all the wayspeople are getting involved in
(02:39):
serving you and serving others,God.
And Lord, I pray that thismessage would just be one that
would help to encourage morepeople to continue to do the
same.
So speak whatever it is youwant to speak, Lord.
You know what each and everyone of us need individually, and
you can somehow beautifully useone 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.
(03:00):
Amen.
So, Exodus chapter 20.
I was thinking about justskipping to the end of the Ten
Commandments, but I feel likesometimes it's good to just kind
of go through all ten.
I haven't done that with agroup in a long time.
So we're going to start inExodus chapter 20, verse 1.
Then God spoke all thesewords...
(03:21):
I am the Lord your God whobrought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house ofslavery.
You shall have no other godsbefore me.
You should not make yourself anidol or any likeness of what is
in heaven above or on the earthbeneath or in the water under
the earth.
You should not worship them orserve them for I the Lord your
God am a jealous God.
Visiting the iniquity of thefathers on the children on the
(03:43):
third and fourth generations ofthose who hate me and showing
loving kindness to thousands tothose who love me and keep my
commandments.
You should not take the name ofthe Lord your God in vain for
the Lord will not leave himunpunished who takes his name in
vain.
Remember the Sabbath day tokeep it holy.
that your days may be prolongedin the earth which the Lord
(04:30):
your God gives you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear falsewitness against your neighbor.
And the last one.
You shall not covet yourneighbor's house.
You shall not covet yourneighbor's wife or his male
servant or his female servant orhis ox or his donkey or
anything that belongs to yourneighbor.
(04:51):
Now, as we go through thesecommandments, there are
essentially seven that focus onyou shall not.
whatever it is, right?
And most of them are directlyconnected to an action.
You shall not do this thing,right?
So from the first one, youshall not make an idol.
Don't get gold and silver andwood and craft this thing to
(05:13):
worship.
You shall not take the Lord'sname in vain.
You will not say his name inconnection to things that aren't
actually connected to him.
Not working on the Sabbath, notcommitting murder, not
committing adultery.
These are all very clearactions.
Don't do this thing.
And then we get to 10.
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You shall not covet.
And that isn't about an action.
That's about the state of yourheart.
Covet, the root word used forthat in the scripture here, is
used in a few different placesthroughout the scriptures.
And it can be used to talkabout something that's pleasing.
(05:54):
It can be used to talk aboutsomething that's delightful.
It can also be used to talkabout something that someone
desires, right?
And so one of the easiest waysto define, I think, covetousness
from a biblical perspective ishaving a strong desire for
something that belongs tosomeone else.
Or put another way, thatdoesn't belong to you.
(06:15):
So I don't know of, I feel likeI don't hear a lot about
covetousness, you know, inChristian circles a lot.
I don't know if I've ever heardlike a sermon or extended
message on it.
But it's incredibly importantthat we're aware of it and when
it creeps up in our heartsbecause it is wildly deceptive
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and incredibly damaging.
And If I had no other evidenceto support that statement, I
think this fact is enough thatcovetousness is the means by
which sin entered into mankind.
Like that's how it got started.
Again, that word that's usedfor covet in the Hebrew is used
in a few different places tomean a few different things.
(06:58):
And the first place it's everused is Genesis chapter two,
verse nine, which says out ofthe ground, And so the word
pleasing there is that same wordthat is used to speak to
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covetousness.
The second place that it's usedis chapter 3 in Genesis, verse
6.
which says, when the woman sawthat the tree was good for food
and that it was a delight to theeyes and that the tree was
desirable to make one wise, shetook from its fruit and ate and
she gave also to her husbandwith her and he ate.
(07:42):
And so that word desirablethat's used, again, the same
root word that's used forcovetousness.
And so there is this element ofcovetousness that is there in
the very first sin in mankind.
And what covetousness does, Ibelieve, is give us a twisted
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approach to the good provisionof God.
Every tree in the garden, everysingle one is desirable and
pleasing.
All of them are.
And Adam and Eve have access toall of them, including like the
tree.
I remember reading this at onepoint and looking like they
actually had access to the treeof life.
Like they could have eaten fromthat, but they didn't.
(08:25):
They wanted the one thing thatGod said was off limits.
And so again, covetousness willpresent this and will create
this twisted approach to thegood provision of God.
It will put us in a place wherewe feel like the good things
that he's given us andsurrounded us with, for whatever
reason, actually aren't enough.
And he hasn't done enough.
(08:45):
And like we're actually lackingsomething.
but it will also have usfocusing on some of the things
we perceive as good that hehasn'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 tonotice that what Eve actually
(09:09):
wanted, when it talks about whyshe wanted to eat the fruit,
none of it was actually bad.
Like the tree itself, when Godmade all the trees, day three.
And so everything that he made,he called good.
He made the tree.
So the tree itself was good.
(09:29):
The desire to be wise, likewisdom is a good thing.
There's plenty of scriptureabout how we should be wise.
So wisdom is faith value, isgood.
And even like the idea ofwanting to be or become like
God, as Christians, our entirelives are given over to wanting
to be more and more like Jesus.
(09:50):
Like that is our goal.
And so again, just on facevalue, like the idea of becoming
like and more like God.
It actually could be a goodthing, 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 reachingout for anything in a way that
God has not said is for you.
And so just the fact that thethings were good were not enough
(10:14):
to make it okay for the methodsthat they choose to reach out
for them.
And so I think it's importantto notice that because Not
everything that is good or everymethod that appears good is for
you, right?
It's just not.
And we can sometimes have thisopinion that, well, if God has
done good things for me in otherplaces, well, surely he wants
(10:37):
me to have this good thing so Ican just desire it and long for
it and go after it.
And not everything that's goodis necessarily inherently for
you.
There's this perspective thatsometimes people have that even
the world, like everythingthat's been created, the world
itself and creation was createdfor mankind because the
conditions are so perfect andGod's been all this time getting
the world perfect for us andthen brought us here.
(10:58):
But the world and everything init was made for him.
He's the starting point.
Colossians 1.6 says thateverything was made by him,
through him, and for him.
And so nothing is inherentlyours.
Nothing is inherently just forme.
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It's all for him.
The reason that's important isbecause the thought that
anything is inherently mine.
is the soil where the seeds ofcovetousness can start to grow.
Because it's this short jumpfrom, okay, well, I have things
that are mine, that inherentlybelong to me, that are
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inherently for me.
And so then if I see somethingelse that's similar to some of
those things, I'm like, well, itmakes sense that those things
could or even should be mine aswell.
And so you have Eve, who issurrounded by all of these trees
that are good for food andpleasing to the sight.
She sees She's another one.
And scripture says, why did sheeat from the tree of the
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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 extracomponent of being able to make
one wise.
And so because it matched whatshe was used to saying is mine,
she reaches out for this thing.
And so...
The desire to have good thingsis obviously good and makes
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sense.
And we should long after thethings, the good things that God
has said are for us.
But covetousness will slide inand kind of present itself
differently so that when we areactually longing after something
that somebody else has that Godhasn't said is for us, we don't
necessarily view it as bad.
And so there are a couple ofmasks that covetousness can
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wear.
I think one of them isadmiration.
And so I can be in a placewhere I'm like, well, I don't
covet that thing.
I don't have this strong desirefor that thing that somebody
has.
I just admire it.
I don't covet my neighbor'shouse or my neighbor's car or
whatever.
I just admire it.
But there is this line that canbe crossed when we step from
admiration into covetousness.
(13:12):
If I go to a museum, And I gowalk through and enjoy the art
and all the paintings andsculptures and things.
It's something me and my wifehave done a lot in the past.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy going to see everythingand admiring what's there.
And then when I leave, I leave.
I'm like, good.
I don't have a desire to havethose things for myself or
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possess those things for myself.
Personally, if I go to FootLocker...
There's a line that theadmiration crosses when I'm
like, oh yeah, I'm just going tosee what's there.
I'm just going to see what'snew.
And then I'm leaving the storeand my wife is like, why do you
(13:54):
have a bag in your hand?
And so there's this line thatgoes from, oh, I'm just admiring
what's there to...
I'm starting to have really adesire to possess this thing for
myself.
And I was speaking to someoneafter the first service, and he
was basically like, you know,everybody has their footlocker.
Like, whatever that thing isfor you, like, and we have to
(14:15):
know it really takes...
Honesty with ourselves beforethe Lord.
Okay, what's that line betweenthis thing is just something I
admire, it's just a hobby, it'sjust whatever, and going to, no,
this is becoming something thatis really stirring my heart to
long for something that actuallyisn't mine or feel like I need
some additional thing added,right?
Like I...
Yeah, Foot Locker's my thing.
(14:37):
My wife has a list of, I don'tknow, 120 things on Amazon that
is just like, she's justadmiring, but it's like, cool.
But every other week, there's anew box here.
But again, it's that reality oflike, what's that line for you?
What's that line for us, right?
Because we don't want to be inthis place of not being able
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to...
Again, if covetousness twistsour approach to the good
provision of God, right?
I don't want to be in thisplace where I am feeling like
everything that he's given mealready isn't adequate or like
he himself isn't adequate,right?
And so I need some new thing toadd on to it.
So, but again, covetousnesswill come under the kind of the
(15:22):
guise of admiration sometimes.
The other thing that I thinksometimes it'll mask itself is
inspiration, right?
So I'm not coveting what I see.
I don't covet something I seemy neighbor have.
I don't covet something thatI'm seeing on social media.
I don't covet what successfulpeople have, but I'm inspired to
kind of go after those thingsmyself.
(15:42):
And again, There's thisdeceptive thing about it because
you think, okay, well, if youcovet what someone has, that
means you want that specificthing.
I want to take that.
I want that for myself.
But there are a couple ofplaces in Scripture where
coveting is not necessarilyassociated with removing
something from somebody else.
It really has to do with what'sin your heart.
With Eve herself, right, whenshe covets the– or she has this
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desire to be wise and thisdesire to be more like God,
eating the fruit, even thoughGod does actually say, like,
they have what come like us.
It didn't make God any lesswise and it didn't make God any
less God, right?
So it didn't actually takeanything from him.
There's a situation in Joshuachapter seven when the
Israelites have conqueredJericho and God's like,
(16:28):
everything that's there, all thegold, silver, everything that
was left, destroy it.
Don't take any of it.
And there's someone, Achan, andthe scripture literally says in
chapter seven, verse 21, thathe coveted.
And so he took gold he wasn'tsupposed to take, took silver he
wasn't supposed to take, tookthis robe he wasn't supposed to
take, Because he coveted it.
Again, he didn't remove it fromany, it wasn't going to
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anybody.
Everything was, it was going tobe destroyed.
But again, it wasn't aboutjust, oh, this is coming from
your neighbor or coming fromsomebody else.
It's about what is actuallygoing on in your heart.
And so just because I'minspired to go get something for
myself doesn't mean that thatmight not be coming from a place
of coveting.
And so the questions that wecan ask ourself Because there is
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a theme between Adam and Eveand 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 wecan ask ourselves is, okay, if
I'm inspired to go aftersomething because of something
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I've seen around me, why am Iinspired to do it?
What is the end result of meachieving and getting whatever
that thing is?
Is it about me and possibly mylittle circle around me or is it
actually about other people?
Is this actually going to be abenefit to someone who Is it
going to benefit somebody elsein a way that actually has
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nothing to do with me?
Is that the reason I'm inspiredto go after this?
Or is that inspiration comingfrom this place of, yeah, I
really want what I've seen thisperson have or that person have
or what I feel like I'm missingout on?
And so we have to askourselves, I think, that
question.
Is it about me?
And things being about us isreally...
(18:20):
what keeps covetousness goingself-centeredness is the battery
that keeps covetousnessrunning, if we are constantly
thinking about our own desiresand our own needs and how do I
get what I need to get?
How do I satisfy what I'mlooking for?
How do I achieve what I'mtrying to achieve?
(18:41):
If we're constantly looking atthat, it becomes very easy to
see the world around us throughthat lens.
It's easy to see whatever isaround me as how can that help
satisfy the desires and theneeds that I feel like I have.
And what can make that worse,honestly, is when we just have
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the ability to get it.
Where we don't actually have toask the question.
Like some people might be in aplace, and covetousness can
affect anybody, right?
But some people are in a placewhere like, man, I really,
really desire that thing.
I can't get it though.
Like I could go buy those shoesand then I can't pay rent or
whatever.
Like, you know, I can't do it.
And so you still need to dealwith what's in your heart.
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But it gets a little...
more difficult when like Iactually can just get whatever
the thing is that I'm longingafter with no difficulty
whatsoever because I don't oftenwe won't spend time thinking
about should I why do I wantthis it's just hey I want it I
can get it I'll go get it and wenever actually all you know
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address the issue of where isthis coming from And so the
question isn't that we should beasking, we shouldn't be
necessarily, will having this orgetting this affect me in some
negative way?
The question is, why do I longafter this thing?
Why am I longing to havesomething that isn't mine, that
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belongs to someone else?
It's interesting that the TenCommandments start with, you
shall have no other gods, right?
And then end with, you shallnot covet.
because they seem to beconnected, actually.
Colossians chapter three, versefive says, therefore, consider
the members of your earthly bodyas dead to immorality,
(20:32):
impurity, passion, evil desire,and greed, which amounts to
idolatry.
The word that's used for greedhere, again, this is in the
Greek, but the word that's usedfor greed there is also used for
covetousness.
In fact, depending on whattranslation you're reading,
Colossians 3.5, that's what itwill actually say.
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It will say covetousnessamounts to idolatry.
And here is the thing aboutidols.
They don't have to take up thatmuch space in your life.
There is a account in Genesiswhen Jacob is taking his family
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and they're leaving and Rachelsteals the household gods from
her father's house.
And they're small enough forher to put in the saddlebag
that's on the camel.
And when her father comes tolook for them, he can't even
find them.
And so the fact that they weresmall didn't make it any less of
an idol.
The things that we covet areThe things that we long after
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that someone else has thatdoesn't belong to us, they can
easily become idols.
And again, it doesn't matter ifit takes up a lot of space in
your life or a small amount ofspace in your life.
An idol is still an idol.
And so is there things that wehave that we ought to say, Lord,
I've been longing after thisthing, or accumulating this
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thing, or going after thisthing, and maybe my whole life
isn't surrounded around that,but it's something I keep
getting drawn back to, keepbeing made to feel like I don't
have enough with what you'vealready given me, keep being
made to feel like I don't haveenough just in you.
Is that thing actually an idol?
I'm gonna confess, I have toomany shoes.
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I do, and it's funny, buthonestly, 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 awhole lot of space in our house.
Like, I got my spots where Ikeep them.
But why is it that when I amstressed out about something or
bored or whatever, like, I'mjust, oh, let me see what's new.
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Let me see what's not.
Because idols become the thingthat we run to instead of God.
We go after what we think willmake us feel good and take care.
And so...
So, yeah, this is my openconfession.
I'm going to have to get rid ofsome shoes, man.
Dang.
Dang.
I got to deal with that.
Anyway, sorry.
Have a little moment.
But, yeah, so these things canbecome idols.
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And it's almost like the TenCommandments begin with, like,
don't have any other gods.
And then the first commandmentafter that is do not make any
other idols.
Don't fashion any idols.
Don't physically make any.
But it's almost like it endswith, here's the last step.
Also, don't have any idols inyour heart.
Don't let anything abide herethat puts you in a place of
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seeing what other people haveand wanting that for yourself
more than the good provisionthat 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 honestand go before the Lord and let
him expose that covetousness andthat idolatry that can be in us
But then I think the practicalresponse to it that we can take
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is to be outward focused.
Because if covetousness isempowered by how focused on my
own desires and needs I can be,then the exact opposite of that
is being more focused on theneeds and desires of other
people.
And saying, how do I now putthat as something that's more
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important for me to focus on ona regular basis than just me
fulfilling the desires of myselfin my own flesh?
If most of us created a ratioand looked at even our last week
and said, okay, how much time,money, and thought did I put
towards fulfilling my own needsand desires?
versus how much of that I puttowards somebody else.
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Again, not even necessarily inmy immediate circle, but even
outside of my immediate circle.
How much time, energy, moneyhave I put towards somebody else
experiencing the good provisionof God and having their needs
and desires met?
I would imagine that for mostof us, that ratio is heavily
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skewed in the direction offocusing on us.
And so adjusting that ratiomatters, right?
And to be clear, honestly, it'snot just the financial piece.
That part is needed.
Like what we do with ourtreasure matters.
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Where we put that matters,right?
And God's gonna call us to sowseeds and put in different
places and it's awesome.
All the different things youguys have going on here where
you are clearly supporting withyour finances.
But often we can sometimes getto a place where we just kind of
like write a check or make adonation and it doesn't take
that much thought and it doesn'ttake that much effort.
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And so we kind of use that asthe justification to go on back
to our covetous ways.
Like, okay, well, I did mypart.
I supplied the finances.
Now I can go back and getwhatever it is I want for myself
and just focus on me again.
And so actually incorporatingtime and energy and effort into
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helping someone outside ofourselves experience the good
provision of God and receive theneeds and desires they have is
an important part of theequation.
When we actually say, hey, I'mgoing 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 totake, to give myself over to
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helping somebody else have whatthey need.
That is gonna be one of themost practical ways that we can
deal with the covetousness thatabides in our hearts.
And it actually leads us toachieving what Eve and Adam were
trying to achieve when they atethe fruit, right?
This idea of becoming like God.
One of the things that is mostlike God is looking outside of
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yourself and saying, how do I goprovide for the needs of those
around me?
And I mean, Jesus is theepitome of that in leaving where
he was and going to where hewas needed, right?
And so how do we say, I'm gonnafollow that example?
The lemonade stand that we'redoing is one of the ways you
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guys can even start to do that.
Obviously, again, we'd love foryou to be able to donate here,
but especially if you've gotkids, you've got families, like,
think about actually doing itby your house.
Think about doing it, you know,in your neighborhood.
It's an amazing way to evenjust to begin to instill into
children, like, we are not goingto be a people, as we serve
God, we're not going to bepeople who are just focused on
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our own needs and our owndesires and the things we're
longing after, but we are goingto set ourselves aside to really
trying to provide for those whoare on the margins.
And so, you know, That's oneway you can do it, but there's
so many ways, even so many waysthat are happening here in the
church.
And so even with that, I wouldjust really encourage you, if
you're seeing different ways tovolunteer and get involved, step
(27:57):
outside of the comfort zonethat you're in and put yourself
in a position where you arehelping to show people the good
provision that God has for them.
And it's a reminder when we dothat, when we actually will walk
in that selflessness yourealize how limited the impact
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of some of those things thatwe're coveting actually, how
limited the impact it can haveon your satisfaction.
I have a bunch of shoes becausethe last shoes I got didn't, I
said it was the last one.
I have said it was the last oneso many times.
This has really become just meconfessing about my shoes.
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But really, it's like, again, Igo after these things to try to
meet some kind of thing inmyself, and it never satisfies,
really.
But if we are willing to letGod take our focus off of
ourselves and what we think isgoing to satisfy us and let us
allow him to bring us to walkalongside him in doing real
(29:04):
kingdom work, we are going to bemuch less prone to what is
genuinely idolatry and much moreimpactful and effective for his
kingdom.
So that's all I have.
I'm not gonna keep y'all formuch, too much longer.
I'm gonna just pray.
And yeah, and the worship teamcan come.
Lord, thank you for your word.
(29:29):
Lord, thank you that you are,you are enough, God.
Lord, so often there are waysthat the enemy will speak and
things that will happen in thisworld or times our eyes get so
focused on other stuff that weforget that you actually are
(29:51):
enough.
And God, I pray that thatwouldn'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 mightbe for any individual in here,
God, whether we've been callingcovetousness admiration or
calling it inspiration ormotivation, whatever it might
(30:13):
be, God, I pray that you wouldshow us the things that are in
our hearts that don't pleaseyou.
Lord, take us beyond just theactions because, again, even in
those Ten Commandments, you madeit clear it's not just the
action, it's the state of yourheart.
And you promised in your wordthat you would give us new
hearts.
And so, Lord, we ask you to dothat in every area that it needs
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to happen, Lord.
And we pray that you would leadus to focus outside of
ourselves to those who are inneed, to those who are on the
margins, Lord.
I thank you for all that you'vebeen doing through Millington,
Lord.
I thank you for what you'vebeen doing through City Relief,
Lord.
I thank you for all the waysthat people have to get involved
to be mindful of those who areon the margins that have been
pushed aside by society, Lord.
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I pray that we would be openvessels.
For you to come in and steer usin the places that we need to
go.
So that we could be examples toother people that there is a
God who has good provision forthem.
Lord, we need you to do it inus.
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And we thank you that your wordsays 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.
This morning, we have already concluded our
series in 1 Timothy.
We are continuing into a newseries.
It's going to be a series ofstandalone messages.
We're going to have a number ofguests this summer.
Pastor Dave and I will do oneor two messages, but we have
guests coming in.
We're calling it Summer in theScriptures, and we're excited
about it.
This morning, I have my friendSidney Bowie from City of
(00:20):
Relief.
I'm going to invite him to comeon stage now.
If you don't know Sidney, he isthe donor and mobilization
officer with City of Relief.
He started with theorganization four years ago.
as an outreach leader, where heconnected with, he served, he
walked alongside individualsexperiencing homelessness.
He became a witness to thetransformation that can happen
(00:40):
as a result of compassionateoutreach that acknowledges the
dignity of every image-bearingindividual.
In his current role, he isgrateful for the opportunity to
connect with churches to themission of City Relief, hoping
to inspire dedication to Jesusand his example of leading a
life where we intentionally carefor the least of these.
So I think you'll be blessed bySidney's message this morning.
(01:02):
He's going to be bringing God'sWord.
Would you welcome him with metoday?
Sidney Bowie (01:12):
Thank you.
Thank you, Pastor Bob.
Thank you for the invite.
Thank you, Millington, forhaving 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 thefirst service as well.
When I saw ahead of time thevideo, the VBS video that was
going to be shared, I was like,man, it's so awesome to see what
(01:36):
God is doing through the youthand the kids here.
And I'm sure that afterwatching them have all of that
fun and excitement and beingvery lively, that everyone here
is like, man, you know what Ireally, 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
(01:56):
stand is between a group ofpeople and lunch.
So I will probably condensethis a little bit from what I
did this morning.
But we are going to be inExodus chapter 20, and we will
be touching on covetousness.
And essentially, I am invitingyou all into the loving beatdown
(02:18):
that I've been getting from theLord as I've been going through
this word.
But before we get into it, letme just pray real quick.
Father, thank you so much forthis time that we get to worship
you, to connect with you, andprayerfully to hear from you.
Thank you for all the amazingthings that you're doing through
this church, Lord.
Thank you for all the wayspeople are getting involved in
(02:39):
serving you and serving others,God.
And Lord, I pray that thismessage would just be one that
would help to encourage morepeople to continue to do the
same.
So speak whatever it is youwant to speak, Lord.
You know what each and everyone of us need individually, and
you can somehow beautifully useone 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.
(03:00):
Amen.
So, Exodus chapter 20.
I was thinking about justskipping to the end of the Ten
Commandments, but I feel likesometimes it's good to just kind
of go through all ten.
I haven't done that with agroup in a long time.
So we're going to start inExodus chapter 20, verse 1.
Then God spoke all thesewords...
(03:21):
I am the Lord your God whobrought you out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house ofslavery.
You shall have no other godsbefore me.
You should not make yourself anidol or any likeness of what is
in heaven above or on the earthbeneath or in the water under
the earth.
You should not worship them orserve them for I the Lord your
God am a jealous God.
Visiting the iniquity of thefathers on the children on the
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third and fourth generations ofthose who hate me and showing
loving kindness to thousands tothose who love me and keep my
commandments.
You should not take the name ofthe Lord your God in vain for
the Lord will not leave himunpunished who takes his name in
vain.
Remember the Sabbath day tokeep it holy.
that your days may be prolongedin the earth which the Lord
(04:30):
your God gives you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear falsewitness against your neighbor.
And the last one.
You shall not covet yourneighbor's house.
You shall not covet yourneighbor's wife or his male
servant or his female servant orhis ox or his donkey or
anything that belongs to yourneighbor.
(04:51):
Now, as we go through thesecommandments, there are
essentially seven that focus onyou shall not.
whatever it is, right?
And most of them are directlyconnected to an action.
You shall not do this thing,right?
So from the first one, youshall not make an idol.
Don't get gold and silver andwood and craft this thing to
(05:13):
worship.
You shall not take the Lord'sname in vain.
You will not say his name inconnection to things that aren't
actually connected to him.
Not working on the Sabbath, notcommitting murder, not
committing adultery.
These are all very clearactions.
Don't do this thing.
And then we get to 10.
(05:33):
You shall not covet.
And that isn't about an action.
That's about the state of yourheart.
Covet, the root word used forthat in the scripture here, is
used in a few different placesthroughout the scriptures.
And it can be used to talkabout something that's pleasing.
(05:54):
It can be used to talk aboutsomething that's delightful.
It can also be used to talkabout something that someone
desires, right?
And so one of the easiest waysto define, I think, covetousness
from a biblical perspective ishaving a strong desire for
something that belongs tosomeone else.
Or put another way, thatdoesn't belong to you.
(06:15):
So I don't know of, I feel likeI don't hear a lot about
covetousness, you know, inChristian circles a lot.
I don't know if I've ever heardlike a sermon or extended
message on it.
But it's incredibly importantthat we're aware of it and when
it creeps up in our heartsbecause it is wildly deceptive
(06:35):
and incredibly damaging.
And If I had no other evidenceto support that statement, I
think this fact is enough thatcovetousness is the means by
which sin entered into mankind.
Like that's how it got started.
Again, that word that's usedfor covet in the Hebrew is used
in a few different places tomean a few different things.
(06:58):
And the first place it's everused is Genesis chapter two,
verse nine, which says out ofthe ground, And so the word
pleasing there is that same wordthat is used to speak to
(07:20):
covetousness.
The second place that it's usedis chapter 3 in Genesis, verse
6.
which says, when the woman sawthat the tree was good for food
and that it was a delight to theeyes and that the tree was
desirable to make one wise, shetook from its fruit and ate and
she gave also to her husbandwith her and he ate.
(07:42):
And so that word desirablethat's used, again, the same
root word that's used forcovetousness.
And so there is this element ofcovetousness that is there in
the very first sin in mankind.
And what covetousness does, Ibelieve, is give us a twisted
(08:03):
approach to the good provisionof God.
Every tree in the garden, everysingle one is desirable and
pleasing.
All of them are.
And Adam and Eve have access toall of them, including like the
tree.
I remember reading this at onepoint and looking like they
actually had access to the treeof life.
Like they could have eaten fromthat, but they didn't.
(08:25):
They wanted the one thing thatGod said was off limits.
And so again, covetousness willpresent this and will create
this twisted approach to thegood provision of God.
It will put us in a place wherewe feel like the good things
that he's given us andsurrounded us with, for whatever
reason, actually aren't enough.
And he hasn't done enough.
(08:45):
And like we're actually lackingsomething.
but it will also have usfocusing on some of the things
we perceive as good that hehasn'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 tonotice that what Eve actually
(09:09):
wanted, when it talks about whyshe wanted to eat the fruit,
none of it was actually bad.
Like the tree itself, when Godmade all the trees, day three.
And so everything that he made,he called good.
He made the tree.
So the tree itself was good.
(09:29):
The desire to be wise, likewisdom is a good thing.
There's plenty of scriptureabout how we should be wise.
So wisdom is faith value, isgood.
And even like the idea ofwanting to be or become like
God, as Christians, our entirelives are given over to wanting
to be more and more like Jesus.
(09:50):
Like that is our goal.
And so again, just on facevalue, like the idea of becoming
like and more like God.
It actually could be a goodthing, 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 reachingout for anything in a way that
God has not said is for you.
And so just the fact that thethings were good were not enough
(10:14):
to make it okay for the methodsthat they choose to reach out
for them.
And so I think it's importantto notice that because Not
everything that is good or everymethod that appears good is for
you, right?
It's just not.
And we can sometimes have thisopinion that, well, if God has
done good things for me in otherplaces, well, surely he wants
(10:37):
me to have this good thing so Ican just desire it and long for
it and go after it.
And not everything that's goodis necessarily inherently for
you.
There's this perspective thatsometimes people have that even
the world, like everythingthat's been created, the world
itself and creation was createdfor mankind because the
conditions are so perfect andGod's been all this time getting
the world perfect for us andthen brought us here.
(10:58):
But the world and everything init was made for him.
He's the starting point.
Colossians 1.6 says thateverything was made by him,
through him, and for him.
And so nothing is inherentlyours.
Nothing is inherently just forme.
(11:19):
It's all for him.
The reason that's important isbecause the thought that
anything is inherently mine.
is the soil where the seeds ofcovetousness can start to grow.
Because it's this short jumpfrom, okay, well, I have things
that are mine, that inherentlybelong to me, that are
(11:39):
inherently for me.
And so then if I see somethingelse that's similar to some of
those things, I'm like, well, itmakes sense that those things
could or even should be mine aswell.
And so you have Eve, who issurrounded by all of these trees
that are good for food andpleasing to the sight.
She sees She's another one.
And scripture says, why did sheeat from the tree of the
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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 extracomponent of being able to make
one wise.
And so because it matched whatshe was used to saying is mine,
she reaches out for this thing.
And so...
The desire to have good thingsis obviously good and makes
(12:26):
sense.
And we should long after thethings, the good things that God
has said are for us.
But covetousness will slide inand kind of present itself
differently so that when we areactually longing after something
that somebody else has that Godhasn't said is for us, we don't
necessarily view it as bad.
And so there are a couple ofmasks that covetousness can
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wear.
I think one of them isadmiration.
And so I can be in a placewhere I'm like, well, I don't
covet that thing.
I don't have this strong desirefor that thing that somebody
has.
I just admire it.
I don't covet my neighbor'shouse or my neighbor's car or
whatever.
I just admire it.
But there is this line that canbe crossed when we step from
admiration into covetousness.
(13:12):
If I go to a museum, And I gowalk through and enjoy the art
and all the paintings andsculptures and things.
It's something me and my wifehave done a lot in the past.
I enjoy it.
I enjoy going to see everythingand admiring what's there.
And then when I leave, I leave.
I'm like, good.
I don't have a desire to havethose things for myself or
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possess those things for myself.
Personally, if I go to FootLocker...
There's a line that theadmiration crosses when I'm
like, oh yeah, I'm just going tosee what's there.
I'm just going to see what'snew.
And then I'm leaving the storeand my wife is like, why do you
(13:54):
have a bag in your hand?
And so there's this line thatgoes from, oh, I'm just admiring
what's there to...
I'm starting to have really adesire to possess this thing for
myself.
And I was speaking to someoneafter the first service, and he
was basically like, you know,everybody has their footlocker.
Like, whatever that thing isfor you, like, and we have to
(14:15):
know it really takes...
Honesty with ourselves beforethe Lord.
Okay, what's that line betweenthis thing is just something I
admire, it's just a hobby, it'sjust whatever, and going to, no,
this is becoming something thatis really stirring my heart to
long for something that actuallyisn't mine or feel like I need
some additional thing added,right?
Like I...
Yeah, Foot Locker's my thing.
(14:37):
My wife has a list of, I don'tknow, 120 things on Amazon that
is just like, she's justadmiring, but it's like, cool.
But every other week, there's anew box here.
But again, it's that reality oflike, what's that line for you?
What's that line for us, right?
Because we don't want to be inthis place of not being able
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to...
Again, if covetousness twistsour approach to the good
provision of God, right?
I don't want to be in thisplace where I am feeling like
everything that he's given mealready isn't adequate or like
he himself isn't adequate,right?
And so I need some new thing toadd on to it.
So, but again, covetousnesswill come under the kind of the
(15:22):
guise of admiration sometimes.
The other thing that I thinksometimes it'll mask itself is
inspiration, right?
So I'm not coveting what I see.
I don't covet something I seemy neighbor have.
I don't covet something thatI'm seeing on social media.
I don't covet what successfulpeople have, but I'm inspired to
kind of go after those thingsmyself.
(15:42):
And again, There's thisdeceptive thing about it because
you think, okay, well, if youcovet what someone has, that
means you want that specificthing.
I want to take that.
I want that for myself.
But there are a couple ofplaces in Scripture where
coveting is not necessarilyassociated with removing
something from somebody else.
It really has to do with what'sin your heart.
With Eve herself, right, whenshe covets the– or she has this
(16:06):
desire to be wise and thisdesire to be more like God,
eating the fruit, even thoughGod does actually say, like,
they have what come like us.
It didn't make God any lesswise and it didn't make God any
less God, right?
So it didn't actually takeanything from him.
There's a situation in Joshuachapter seven when the
Israelites have conqueredJericho and God's like,
(16:28):
everything that's there, all thegold, silver, everything that
was left, destroy it.
Don't take any of it.
And there's someone, Achan, andthe scripture literally says in
chapter seven, verse 21, thathe coveted.
And so he took gold he wasn'tsupposed to take, took silver he
wasn't supposed to take, tookthis robe he wasn't supposed to
take, Because he coveted it.
Again, he didn't remove it fromany, it wasn't going to
(16:49):
anybody.
Everything was, it was going tobe destroyed.
But again, it wasn't aboutjust, oh, this is coming from
your neighbor or coming fromsomebody else.
It's about what is actuallygoing on in your heart.
And so just because I'minspired to go get something for
myself doesn't mean that thatmight not be coming from a place
of coveting.
And so the questions that wecan ask ourself Because there is
(17:14):
a theme between Adam and Eveand 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 wecan ask ourselves is, okay, if
I'm inspired to go aftersomething because of something
(17:35):
I've seen around me, why am Iinspired to do it?
What is the end result of meachieving and getting whatever
that thing is?
Is it about me and possibly mylittle circle around me or is it
actually about other people?
Is this actually going to be abenefit to someone who Is it
going to benefit somebody elsein a way that actually has
(17:57):
nothing to do with me?
Is that the reason I'm inspiredto go after this?
Or is that inspiration comingfrom this place of, yeah, I
really want what I've seen thisperson have or that person have
or what I feel like I'm missingout on?
And so we have to askourselves, I think, that
question.
Is it about me?
And things being about us isreally...
(18:20):
what keeps covetousness goingself-centeredness is the battery
that keeps covetousnessrunning, if we are constantly
thinking about our own desiresand our own needs and how do I
get what I need to get?
How do I satisfy what I'mlooking for?
How do I achieve what I'mtrying to achieve?
(18:41):
If we're constantly looking atthat, it becomes very easy to
see the world around us throughthat lens.
It's easy to see whatever isaround me as how can that help
satisfy the desires and theneeds that I feel like I have.
And what can make that worse,honestly, is when we just have
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the ability to get it.
Where we don't actually have toask the question.
Like some people might be in aplace, and covetousness can
affect anybody, right?
But some people are in a placewhere like, man, I really,
really desire that thing.
I can't get it though.
Like I could go buy those shoesand then I can't pay rent or
whatever.
Like, you know, I can't do it.
And so you still need to dealwith what's in your heart.
(19:26):
But it gets a little...
more difficult when like Iactually can just get whatever
the thing is that I'm longingafter with no difficulty
whatsoever because I don't oftenwe won't spend time thinking
about should I why do I wantthis it's just hey I want it I
can get it I'll go get it and wenever actually all you know
(19:47):
address the issue of where isthis coming from And so the
question isn't that we should beasking, we shouldn't be
necessarily, will having this orgetting this affect me in some
negative way?
The question is, why do I longafter this thing?
Why am I longing to havesomething that isn't mine, that
(20:08):
belongs to someone else?
It's interesting that the TenCommandments start with, you
shall have no other gods, right?
And then end with, you shallnot covet.
because they seem to beconnected, actually.
Colossians chapter three, versefive says, therefore, consider
the members of your earthly bodyas dead to immorality,
(20:32):
impurity, passion, evil desire,and greed, which amounts to
idolatry.
The word that's used for greedhere, again, this is in the
Greek, but the word that's usedfor greed there is also used for
covetousness.
In fact, depending on whattranslation you're reading,
Colossians 3.5, that's what itwill actually say.
(20:53):
It will say covetousnessamounts to idolatry.
And here is the thing aboutidols.
They don't have to take up thatmuch space in your life.
There is a account in Genesiswhen Jacob is taking his family
(21:15):
and they're leaving and Rachelsteals the household gods from
her father's house.
And they're small enough forher to put in the saddlebag
that's on the camel.
And when her father comes tolook for them, he can't even
find them.
And so the fact that they weresmall didn't make it any less of
an idol.
The things that we covet areThe things that we long after
(21:36):
that someone else has thatdoesn't belong to us, they can
easily become idols.
And again, it doesn't matter ifit takes up a lot of space in
your life or a small amount ofspace in your life.
An idol is still an idol.
And so is there things that wehave that we ought to say, Lord,
I've been longing after thisthing, or accumulating this
(21:58):
thing, or going after thisthing, and maybe my whole life
isn't surrounded around that,but it's something I keep
getting drawn back to, keepbeing made to feel like I don't
have enough with what you'vealready given me, keep being
made to feel like I don't haveenough just in you.
Is that thing actually an idol?
I'm gonna confess, I have toomany shoes.
(22:20):
I do, and it's funny, buthonestly, 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 awhole lot of space in our house.
Like, I got my spots where Ikeep them.
But why is it that when I amstressed out about something or
bored or whatever, like, I'mjust, oh, let me see what's new.
(22:42):
Let me see what's not.
Because idols become the thingthat we run to instead of God.
We go after what we think willmake us feel good and take care.
And so...
So, yeah, this is my openconfession.
I'm going to have to get rid ofsome shoes, man.
Dang.
Dang.
I got to deal with that.
Anyway, sorry.
Have a little moment.
But, yeah, so these things canbecome idols.
(23:06):
And it's almost like the TenCommandments begin with, like,
don't have any other gods.
And then the first commandmentafter that is do not make any
other idols.
Don't fashion any idols.
Don't physically make any.
But it's almost like it endswith, here's the last step.
Also, don't have any idols inyour heart.
Don't let anything abide herethat puts you in a place of
(23:31):
seeing what other people haveand wanting that for yourself
more than the good provisionthat 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 honestand go before the Lord and let
him expose that covetousness andthat idolatry that can be in us
But then I think the practicalresponse to it that we can take
(23:56):
is to be outward focused.
Because if covetousness isempowered by how focused on my
own desires and needs I can be,then the exact opposite of that
is being more focused on theneeds and desires of other
people.
And saying, how do I now putthat as something that's more
(24:19):
important for me to focus on ona regular basis than just me
fulfilling the desires of myselfin my own flesh?
If most of us created a ratioand looked at even our last week
and said, okay, how much time,money, and thought did I put
towards fulfilling my own needsand desires?
versus how much of that I puttowards somebody else.
(24:43):
Again, not even necessarily inmy immediate circle, but even
outside of my immediate circle.
How much time, energy, moneyhave I put towards somebody else
experiencing the good provisionof God and having their needs
and desires met?
I would imagine that for mostof us, that ratio is heavily
(25:05):
skewed in the direction offocusing on us.
And so adjusting that ratiomatters, right?
And to be clear, honestly, it'snot just the financial piece.
That part is needed.
Like what we do with ourtreasure matters.
(25:25):
Where we put that matters,right?
And God's gonna call us to sowseeds and put in different
places and it's awesome.
All the different things youguys have going on here where
you are clearly supporting withyour finances.
But often we can sometimes getto a place where we just kind of
like write a check or make adonation and it doesn't take
that much thought and it doesn'ttake that much effort.
(25:46):
And so we kind of use that asthe justification to go on back
to our covetous ways.
Like, okay, well, I did mypart.
I supplied the finances.
Now I can go back and getwhatever it is I want for myself
and just focus on me again.
And so actually incorporatingtime and energy and effort into
(26:07):
helping someone outside ofourselves experience the good
provision of God and receive theneeds and desires they have is
an important part of theequation.
When we actually say, hey, I'mgoing 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 totake, to give myself over to
(26:29):
helping somebody else have whatthey need.
That is gonna be one of themost practical ways that we can
deal with the covetousness thatabides in our hearts.
And it actually leads us toachieving what Eve and Adam were
trying to achieve when they atethe fruit, right?
This idea of becoming like God.
One of the things that is mostlike God is looking outside of
(26:53):
yourself and saying, how do I goprovide for the needs of those
around me?
And I mean, Jesus is theepitome of that in leaving where
he was and going to where hewas needed, right?
And so how do we say, I'm gonnafollow that example?
The lemonade stand that we'redoing is one of the ways you
(27:14):
guys can even start to do that.
Obviously, again, we'd love foryou to be able to donate here,
but especially if you've gotkids, you've got families, like,
think about actually doing itby your house.
Think about doing it, you know,in your neighborhood.
It's an amazing way to evenjust to begin to instill into
children, like, we are not goingto be a people, as we serve
God, we're not going to bepeople who are just focused on
(27:36):
our own needs and our owndesires and the things we're
longing after, but we are goingto set ourselves aside to really
trying to provide for those whoare on the margins.
And so, you know, That's oneway you can do it, but there's
so many ways, even so many waysthat are happening here in the
church.
And so even with that, I wouldjust really encourage you, if
you're seeing different ways tovolunteer and get involved, step
(27:57):
outside of the comfort zonethat you're in and put yourself
in a position where you arehelping to show people the good
provision that God has for them.
And it's a reminder when we dothat, when we actually will walk
in that selflessness yourealize how limited the impact
(28:21):
of some of those things thatwe're coveting actually, how
limited the impact it can haveon your satisfaction.
I have a bunch of shoes becausethe last shoes I got didn't, I
said it was the last one.
I have said it was the last oneso many times.
This has really become just meconfessing about my shoes.
(28:42):
But really, it's like, again, Igo after these things to try to
meet some kind of thing inmyself, and it never satisfies,
really.
But if we are willing to letGod take our focus off of
ourselves and what we think isgoing to satisfy us and let us
allow him to bring us to walkalongside him in doing real
(29:04):
kingdom work, we are going to bemuch less prone to what is
genuinely idolatry and much moreimpactful and effective for his
kingdom.
So that's all I have.
I'm not gonna keep y'all formuch, too much longer.
I'm gonna just pray.
And yeah, and the worship teamcan come.
Lord, thank you for your word.
(29:29):
Lord, thank you that you are,you are enough, God.
Lord, so often there are waysthat the enemy will speak and
things that will happen in thisworld or times our eyes get so
focused on other stuff that weforget that you actually are
(29:51):
enough.
And God, I pray that thatwouldn'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 mightbe for any individual in here,
God, whether we've been callingcovetousness admiration or
calling it inspiration ormotivation, whatever it might
(30:13):
be, God, I pray that you wouldshow us the things that are in
our hearts that don't pleaseyou.
Lord, take us beyond just theactions because, again, even in
those Ten Commandments, you madeit clear it's not just the
action, it's the state of yourheart.
And you promised in your wordthat you would give us new
hearts.
And so, Lord, we ask you to dothat in every area that it needs
(30:41):
to happen, Lord.
And we pray that you would leadus to focus outside of
ourselves to those who are inneed, to those who are on the
margins, Lord.
I thank you for all that you'vebeen doing through Millington,
Lord.
I thank you for what you'vebeen doing through City Relief,
Lord.
I thank you for all the waysthat people have to get involved
to be mindful of those who areon the margins that have been
pushed aside by society, Lord.
(31:01):
I pray that we would be openvessels.
For you to come in and steer usin the places that we need to
go.
So that we could be examples toother people that there is a
God who has good provision forthem.
Lord, we need you to do it inus.
(31:22):
And we thank you that your wordsays 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.
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