sunday sermon snippet nov 30
“All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. “You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.” — Exodus 20:18-19
This week’s posting of the Sunday Sermon Snippet comes from this past Sunday’s sermon on Exodus 20:15-21, entitled, “Love God? Now, Love Your Neighbor” (part two).
In our series on The Ten, we’ve now made it to the eighth, ninth, and tenth commandments. Critical to understanding this portion of The Ten is to understand that the decisions we make in our lives do not merely shape our own journey, but those on the same path around us. We live in interconnected webs of relationships and humanity. Further, as we’ll see from Israel’s example (20:18-21), we’re confronted with the question, “How now shall we live?”
See the sermon snippet below where I we explore what God is on about when he commands us, “Do not covet.”
And if you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
Do Not Covet
Many rabbis and scholars throughout the ages have called the tenth commandment a summary commandment of the rest — that there is a sense we’ve ended where we began, for desiring things and people and benefits wrongly is to make those things idols in our lives. And so, once again, in his great love for us and kindness to us, our Father provides a principle and protection for us, so that we might be good neighbors.
Ex 20:17 Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
An interesting thing about this command: it’s not about an action or behavior, as so many commands and laws are. Rather, it is prohibiting a desire (or love or affection), something which cannot be seen, and therefore cannot be legislated (all crimes are sin, but not all sins are crimes).
Even more fascinating, it’s prohibiting desire that can only be understood in context. You see, the desire being spoken of here, this affection or love, can be aimed in a proper and good sense. Even God is said to covet the mountains in which he may reign (Ps68:16). But what Yahweh is prohibiting here is wrongly directed desires, affections, and loves. And this makes perfect sense, because Yahweh has already made clear — and Jesus has interpreted for us — that he claims our complete and utter love and devotion. And thus “any wrongly directed desires, affections, or loves put those things or people in the place only God should be.” (C. Wright)
Desire is a powerful thing, isn't it? If we’re honest, I think we’d all admit that once we get our minds, our hearts, our desires set on something, it can be hard to break such a consuming hold. In our weakness and fallenness, we can chafe against what God has uniquely planned and ordered for our lives: the family we’re a part of, the wealth we’ve acquired (or not), the possessions we own, the circle of friends in our lives, and the reputation and influence we wield. We may look at those around us and get caught in the deadly dangerous trap of comparison, and desire what others have that we don’t — a comparison put on steroids in our age of social media (ironic title that, since it doesn’t build up society, but rather tears it down) where people curate an image of their lives for all to see.
And this is hard. I mean, how do you get rid of a desire? It’s pretty rare you can just will it away. It doesn’t help for someone to tell you, “Stop that.”
One of my favorite sermons of all time was written in 1819 by Thomas Chalmers, entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” Chalmers argued that the human heart cannot remain empty; you cannot simply remove a sinful desire (create a vacuum) and expect it to stay that way. Instead, a sinful affection can only be “expelled” by the introduction of a more powerful, superior affection. He passionately preached: “The only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one.”
And so, the question is — under the broader and most superior affection of that for Jesus — what is the powerful affection that may expel covetousness?
I’ll give you a hint: it also starts with the letter “c.”
I’ll give you another: Paul wrote, “I have learned to be ______…”
Yes, contentment. Covetousness and contentment are like oil and water — they simply do not mix. One expels the other, for good or ill. And here’s the good news, brothers and sisters, friends — contentment can be learned. The Holy-Spirit-inspired-and-empowered-Apostle Paul says so:
“I’ve learned to be content with what I have. I know how to do without, and I know how to cope with plenty. In every possible situation I’ve learned the hidden secret of being full and hungry, of having plenty and going without, and it’s this: I have strength for everything in the One who gives me power.”
Including the power to be content.
Once again, the answer is always Jesus. It is in coming into his presence, filled with awe, humbled by his majesty, with the empty hands of faith, in utter and complete dependence, with a full understanding and admission of our need, knowing we can do nothing apart from him, but everything through him. He was a poor, homeless, single, itinerant preacher and teacher who served and lived almost all his life in a country the size of New Jersey, and while he lived, had the most impact on only 11 people, along with a wider group of just a few hundred. And he was the most content person who has ever lived.
Do not covet, brothers and sisters, but “be content with what you have. He himself has said, after all, ‘I will never, ever, leave you or forsake you.’” (Heb13:5)
And while you may think it cliche, dear friend, if we have Jesus, don’t we have enough?
If you’d like to check out the whole sermon, just click here.
