The Ten Commandments - # 10
Honor Contentment
Exodus 20:17
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.
I. What Did This Mean to Them?
A. Meaning of the word.
1. Covet in the Old Testament (חָמַד) = to delight in or take pleasure in, to crave.
2. Covet in the New Testament (ἐπιθυμέω) = to lust after, set your heart upon, long for.
B. Used as an example of sin. Rom 7:7-8 - What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
C. Called idolatry. Col 3.5 - Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
1. Why? ILL: Woman in London “My life was in that box!”
2. The Lord says Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. - Lk 12:15.
D. Examples of coveting.
1. ILL: The sin of Aachen (Josh 7:21).
2. ILL: Gehazi, Elisha’s servant (II Kgs 5:20-27).
3. ILL: Judas’s betrayal (Matt 26:14-15).
4. The world’s goal - accumulate things & the prestige that goes along with them (Ps 10:3).
5. God’s goal for you - accumulate peace, contentment & a victorious relationship with Him
(I Tim 6:9-11).
II. What Should This Mean to You?
A. Become aware of God’s plan for your life.
1. What does God promise?
a. God supplies everything you need to survive in life! Heb 13:5 - Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
b. God only promises to provide food & clothes (I Tim 6:8).
c. Everything else you possess is gravy!
2. Why doesn’t God make all of His children rich beyond imagination as some preachers claim? Because then you would never be content!
B. Learn contentment.
1. Definitions:
a. It is the art of being happy with what God is providing you at the time.
b. It is freedom from anxiety & worry.
2. John the Baptist’s reply to soldiers who asked him what they should do.
a. Lk 3:14 - Be content with your pay. Be content (ἀρκέω) = has the idea of independence, self sufficiency.
b. So - trust God for what you need & then be happy with what He provides!
c. When you give a gift to someone but they are not satisfied, how does that make you feel?
3. The apostles learned it this way: 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. - Phil 4:11-13.
Your attitude needs to be the same as the writer of Proverbs -
Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown You and say, “Who is the LORD?” Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor Your Name.
Proverbs 30:8-9