WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.919 Okay, this evening we're going to look at the last commandment from Exodus, the last 00:00:07.919 --> 00:00:11.120 word. 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:18.080 And I think sometimes when we come to the Bible, one of our greatest challenges is actually 00:00:18.080 --> 00:00:28.539 taking the Bible seriously, taking God's word when He speaks to us and blunting it, not allowing 00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:36.560 it to be its own sharp self, not allowing it to pierce into our hearts and our souls. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.159 Now as things go on, we talk about transition. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:45.120 I'm going to slowly morph into Kori as I fade into the background and I'm going to quote 00:00:45.120 --> 00:00:47.560 Lord of the Rings. 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:52.359 From the film, one of the Lord of the Rings, I think it's the first one when Gandalf has 00:00:52.359 --> 00:01:00.920 been chased by the big monster Balrog and he says at one point, you shall not pass. 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:05.480 It's a great scene. 00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:11.599 And I think that sometimes that's what we do with God's word, which is said, you shall 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.120 not pass. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.000 You're not going to come into my heart. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:16.599 You're not going to apply to my soul. 00:01:16.599 --> 00:01:26.439 It's just going to let it flow over and not touch, penetrate, convict or comfort. 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:29.319 But I think it's important we allow it to do that. 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:34.319 And tonight is a very private sermon. 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:37.599 There's a great temptation when we listen to sermons and that's a great temptation for 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:43.959 preachers as well as to say, well, that's a great sermon for someone else. 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:47.559 That was a great sermon for them. 00:01:47.559 --> 00:01:50.519 Or you're listening to sermons and you say, I could have preached that a lot better than 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:51.519 that guy. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:54.519 And well, yeah, that sermon is really going to nail him. 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:55.519 Nail her. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.519 It's perfect for them. 00:01:56.519 --> 00:02:01.879 Or that sermon, it's simply going to stretch my intellect. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:04.280 It wasn't enough. 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:07.599 And it certainly won't be tonight. 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:14.879 But tonight, the theme of this sermon is all about your internal desires and mine, your 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:19.159 thoughts, the stuff that nobody can see. 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:20.479 You all look beautiful tonight. 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.359 You're all dressed fine. 00:02:22.359 --> 00:02:25.959 You're all looking tremendous. 00:02:25.959 --> 00:02:32.280 But it's all the stuff that nobody can see is what this sermon is about this evening. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:37.400 Specifically, specifically, it's about what you think about other people. 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:43.960 And that's significant, isn't it, in a corporate gathering, in a church, a church family, because 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:45.960 we're always thinking about other people. 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:50.480 And in the workplace, and in the neighborhood, and in the family, we're always thinking about 00:02:50.480 --> 00:02:52.360 other people. 00:02:52.360 --> 00:03:00.080 And maybe we're being challenged about the thinking that never reaches the surface directly 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:02.560 about other people. 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:07.520 That maybe will sometimes present itself in general unhappiness, or a dull, critical 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.400 spirit towards others. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:16.400 And foundationally, what it comes from is a lack of contentment with God and a lot that 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:18.240 He has given you in your life. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.240 You're discontented with where He's placed you. 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:26.280 You're discontented with who you are, and you wish you were someone else. 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:33.159 And that is at the very root of this commandment, this tenth word that we have here. 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:37.080 Remember that they're called words in this section. 00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:39.120 Only later are they called commands. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:46.840 So in this tenth word, it's clearly the last one, but it's definitely not the least one. 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.080 Because this tenth commandment, it almost subsumes them all. 00:03:51.080 --> 00:03:58.520 It almost embraces and sucks all the other commandments into its own particular message. 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:06.360 Because what we have here is the negative to all the grace and love that the other commands 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:11.439 can be summarized as loving God and loving your neighbor. 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:17.439 And it's almost a negative element of that as we see it. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:23.120 And it's the only word, it's the only commandment of the Ten Commandments that explicitly moves 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:28.399 from the outward behavior to the internal motive. 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:34.279 All the others can be looked at in terms of, I know that they've got an internal element 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:35.279 to them. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.639 Love is the foundation for all of them. 00:04:37.639 --> 00:04:43.000 But they're all externally outworked until we come to this one. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.920 So right at the heart of the Old Testament, there's this recognition that obedience to 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:54.000 the commands is not simply an outward thing, but it's about our internal desires, about 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:02.360 what we are thinking, what we are inside, what nobody sees, apart from God. 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:03.560 You shall not covet. 00:05:03.560 --> 00:05:07.959 Now I'm sure none of you covet your neighbor's donkey. 00:05:07.959 --> 00:05:14.719 But you'll find that there's many things that will apply to your own heart as they apply 00:05:14.719 --> 00:05:15.959 to mine. 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:23.319 To covet is to desire or to want something that rightfully belongs to somebody else and 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:25.679 that's not intended for you. 00:05:25.679 --> 00:05:28.159 That's primarily what coveting means. 00:05:28.159 --> 00:05:35.799 We see it right at the very beginning, time in the fall, where Eve, Adam and Eve are first 00:05:35.800 --> 00:05:39.680 parents, they coveted what belonged to God. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:42.600 It wasn't a shiny apple that they coveted. 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:44.480 It was what it stood for. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:47.439 It's what it represented. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:51.960 It was attractive because they could be like God, but they weren't supposed to be like 00:05:51.960 --> 00:05:52.960 God. 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:59.000 They were created, they were made in God's image, and they coveted what wasn't intended 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:01.840 for them that rightfully belonged to God alone. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:09.199 I think coveting for us exposes two attitudes particularly. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:15.759 The first is selfishness, I want and I must have. 00:06:15.759 --> 00:06:23.919 And there's a general application of this command which can be focused on a general 00:06:23.919 --> 00:06:27.639 materialistic attitude. 00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:33.120 Possessing things and needing good circumstances to live in. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.680 My situation, my comfort, my well-being. 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:43.879 And looking for satisfaction and contentment in possessing things or having relationships 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:48.399 that we think we need or that we think more importantly we deserve. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:54.439 Selfishness, that's a general application of this command. 00:06:54.439 --> 00:07:04.920 So there's a more specific focus which is on envy, coveting as envy. 00:07:04.920 --> 00:07:10.560 So I'm not going to particularly look at the whole element of materialism tonight. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:19.040 A lot of the commentators spend a lot of time on this command speaking about materialism. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:26.000 But I think envy is much more significant here because it's focused specifically on 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.280 our attitude to people, other people. 00:07:29.280 --> 00:07:32.480 Three times, it's a short sentence, it's a short command. 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.600 Three times the neighbor is mentioned. 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:42.320 Don't covet your neighbor's house, your neighbor's wife, or anything that's your neighbor's. 00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:48.120 It's very focused, it's not just on general materialism and general coveting of better 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:54.319 life, it's particularly focused about our attitude to other people and what they possess 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:56.040 and what they have. 00:07:56.040 --> 00:08:01.720 It's getting at the expense of other people is really what God is getting at here. 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:08.079 It's seeing their gifts, their circumstances, their promotion, their exam results, their 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:14.480 comfort, their relationships, their marriage, their popularity, their attention, the attention 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:20.720 that other people give them, their looks, lusting in some ways. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:28.480 But it's coveting your neighbor's wife's, it's not primarily about lusting. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:34.680 It's more about having something that you don't have, coveting their youth, their health, 00:08:34.680 --> 00:08:38.920 anything about them, wishing, longing for that yourself. 00:08:38.920 --> 00:08:43.560 Now it might never go as far as stealing from them or committing adultery or lying in order 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:51.559 to get, but inside it's this internal attitude that you're discontented, you're unhappy with 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:57.679 God and you're jealous of other people because of what they have and what you don't have. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:08:59.679 And it will always isolate you. 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:06.479 It will always separate and embitter and bring you to the place of blaming God because it's 00:09:06.479 --> 00:09:09.959 ultimately loveless. 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:15.600 When Jesus expounds, as He does in the Sermon and the Mount, He expounds further these commands 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:20.960 and really the passage we read in Matthew chapter 6 highlights what He's saying about 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.639 where your heart is there, what treasure will be also. 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:29.879 It's that whole idea of where our hearts are, what we're thinking about, particularly in 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:31.440 relation to other people. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:36.160 And it's very solemn because we can hide our hearts from anyone. 00:09:36.160 --> 00:09:39.840 You can hide your heart from anyone here this evening. 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.759 Except from God. 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:48.879 And Luther speaks about this command and says, you know, of all the commands, this command 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:50.680 convinces us that we're sinners. 00:09:50.680 --> 00:09:54.160 If none of the others do, this one certainly does. 00:09:54.160 --> 00:09:56.240 And that is for sure. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:57.920 And James speaks about that. 00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:02.600 And James 4, one of the two, he says, whatever causes fights and quarrels among you, among 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:07.639 you in the fellowship, don't they come from your desires that battle within you. 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:09.440 You desire but you do not have. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:13.040 So you kill, you covet but you cannot get what you want. 00:10:13.040 --> 00:10:16.320 So you quarrel and fight, you do not have because you do not ask God. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:20.120 There's this whole internal focus that is highlighted here. 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:26.440 Now, I'm going to just move on quickly and speak about Jesus. 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:28.880 We talk about Jesus being in every part of the Bible. 00:10:28.880 --> 00:10:34.840 I'm being very blunt about that and going straight to Jesus this evening. 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:41.920 Because I want you to think about Jesus because he obeyed this command. 00:10:41.920 --> 00:10:47.800 He became the word of this tenth word and he lived it. 00:10:47.800 --> 00:10:54.560 Now, all the other ones we can maybe think, okay, but Jesus Christ absolutely fulfilled 00:10:54.560 --> 00:10:58.200 this internal command and the desires behind it. 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:07.480 The only human being who ever lived who never had any wrong desires, wrong thoughts, wrong 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:12.560 attitudes towards other people, none of that in Jesus Christ. 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:16.759 His father said, this is my beloved son and who I'm well pleased. 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:19.080 Jesus Christ lived life to the full. 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:26.000 He worked, he labored, he had enough to eat and drink, he had family, he enjoyed company, 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:32.399 he feasted, he celebrated, he wept, he suffered, he encouraged the good desires that are there 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:38.759 in others and in life. 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:44.840 But his intentional thoughts, his subconscious thoughts were always focused on a deep love 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:48.799 for God and a love for other people. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:55.980 He was deeply and perfectly content with his father and the relationship with his father, 00:11:55.980 --> 00:11:57.720 run through crisis. 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:01.800 I say, but he was God, right? 00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:03.800 That's easy. 00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:06.200 But he was also human. 00:12:06.200 --> 00:12:10.600 He was the second Adam and he didn't covet. 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:12.200 How did he not covet? 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:15.960 How could Jesus learn not to covet? 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:23.039 Well, Luke 2.52 tells us that Jesus grew in stature and wisdom in stature and favour with 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:24.039 God and men. 00:12:24.039 --> 00:12:28.519 And I think it's very important because we think sometimes I think that Jesus, boom, 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:32.240 he was God and everything was easy for him because he was God. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:38.399 But maybe he took on a human flesh and we know he learned obedience. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:43.319 So it was a process in Jesus and from the beginning he understood the outworking of 00:12:43.319 --> 00:12:46.319 divine love in God and people. 00:12:46.319 --> 00:12:48.480 So how did he not covet? 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:53.799 He didn't covet because when he was intimate with his father, that's why he didn't covet. 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:59.799 How often did Jesus go to a quiet place to pray where he found peace and wholeness and 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:03.759 incredible comfort and love in the presence of his father? 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:09.000 That's why he didn't covet because they had this incredible relationship of desire and 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.879 of contentment with his living God. 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:17.799 But secondly, he didn't covet because he understood temptation. 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:25.000 You know, the devil offered him bread and people and glory, all these things that he 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:30.039 could have without the cross in disobedience. 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:36.199 He could covet these things, Jesus, avoiding the cross, shortcut to contentment. 00:13:36.199 --> 00:13:43.319 But he understood temptation and he understood the way to respond to temptation and that 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:49.200 temptation would have been catastrophic for him. 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:54.720 That going this way, coveting these things would never satisfy the demands of perfect 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:59.440 love and that selfishness never does, it's always destructive. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:06.240 So he had intimacy with his father, he understood temptation and he lived with a future hope 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:11.720 that kept him from coveting and wanting what was not right for him to have. 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:16.279 Hebrews 12, 2, let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our house 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:22.440 and Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, for the joy set before him, he endured the 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:26.800 cross, scorning at shame, sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:33.040 So he lived with this future hope that meant he didn't need to covet what wasn't his and 00:14:33.040 --> 00:14:36.360 to covet what was destructive. 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:44.879 Pleasant for him wasn't discontentment because he knew it was temporary, he had learned obedience. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:48.600 Not for a moment for Jesus was it painless or easy. 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:56.919 He sweated drops of blood, if this cup can be taken from me, yet not my will but yours 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:01.639 be done. 00:15:01.639 --> 00:15:08.080 Jesus Christ lived with this future hope as he was taking the guilt for all our brutal 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:15.600 and selfish and speakably wrong desires on our behalf. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:21.199 So we see that Jesus obeyed this command perfectly. 00:15:21.199 --> 00:15:31.000 Therefore we can, through him and in his strength and by his grace, as grace receivers, as Christians, 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:36.200 how do we live as grace givers and not be covetous in our lives? 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:47.440 Because coveting is a very destructive and embittering desire in our hearts. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.600 Well like Jesus, I think we can grow in wisdom. 00:15:50.600 --> 00:15:53.559 It's tremendously important. 00:15:53.559 --> 00:16:00.240 The more intimacy we have with God, our Father, our prayer life, where we wrestle with our 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:07.399 hearts and don't just bring lists to him of our requests and requirements, but we wrestle 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:18.200 with our hearts and we gain a right perspective in our lives and we begin to nail our own 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:24.279 thought life and recognize what James speaks about again, James 1, we reach, person is tempted 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:27.799 when they're dragged away by their own desire and enticed. 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:31.839 And if their desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it's full grown 00:16:31.839 --> 00:16:33.559 give birth to death. 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:39.799 So it's that wrestling with and beginning to understand our hearts and confessing our 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:45.719 sins and being thankful like I was saying to the kids earlier on, to know and understand 00:16:45.719 --> 00:16:52.479 the good desires he gives us and to accept them with thanksgiving because he gives us 00:16:52.479 --> 00:16:55.919 all good things to enjoy. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:59.079 And those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant, put their hope in wealth 00:16:59.079 --> 00:17:04.359 which is so uncertain, but put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:07.480 for our enjoyment. 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:15.319 And we recognize that being aware of the disorder of sin and the idolatries of sin, but desiring 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:17.480 the good things that he promises to give us. 00:17:17.480 --> 00:17:22.599 So it's about growing in wisdom and you can only do that as you become intimate with the 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:26.879 Father, I can barely do it for myself. 00:17:26.879 --> 00:17:29.240 We can't do it in church. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:40.119 It's about an intimate personal growing relationship with the Father, wrestling in your heart, 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:45.919 wrestling with your heart and being honest before God about the envy and the covetousness 00:17:45.919 --> 00:17:49.719 that may be there. 00:17:49.720 --> 00:17:55.000 Growing in wisdom, learning contentment, it's tremendously important I think that we learn 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:56.000 contentment. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:00.640 We read that section from Paul's letter to the church in Philippi where he said, I've 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:06.960 learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.240 living in plenty or living in want. 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.600 So contentment is the positive, you know, we've looked all the way through the commands 00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:17.360 that the negative and the positive of these commands, the negatives we shall not cover. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:24.039 The positive is a call to contentment and that's not easy for us in our lives. 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:27.919 There's no magic formula, there's no instant peace. 00:18:27.919 --> 00:18:33.119 You can't just become content by throwing the odd text out at yourself or other people. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:36.279 There's no simplistic theological answers. 00:18:36.279 --> 00:18:43.639 Contentment is hard wrought, usually through suffering and sweating blood. 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:53.280 But we learn contentment primarily as we see ourselves as children of God, as we recognize 00:18:53.280 --> 00:18:57.000 who He is and what He's done for us, the depth of what He's done. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:02.880 One of the things I mentioned about coveting was a coveting the attention of others. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:08.440 The other people seem to get much more attention than we do and that we seem to be, as Andy 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:11.480 was saying, unseen, unnoticed, nobody takes. 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:13.320 And we covet that attention. 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:18.439 We covet being attractive to other people or being noticed by other people or being 00:19:18.439 --> 00:19:20.439 significant. 00:19:20.439 --> 00:19:26.599 We can't be more significant than the attention that has been poured out on us by Jesus Christ 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:27.599 Himself. 00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:34.359 That long before we were even born, Christ Jesus had committed to living the life that 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:39.599 we couldn't live and dying on the cross for our sins. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:47.359 How deep and how focused is that incredible attention on each of us as believers? 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:53.199 To consider that and consider His commitment, His promises, the company that He gives to 00:19:53.199 --> 00:20:02.759 us and recognize even in the dark times, the temporary suffering that there's joy ahead. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.599 It doesn't mean we're, contentment doesn't mean I don't think in any way that we're 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:09.759 complacent or lazy and we mustn't be. 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:17.799 But whatever we face, whatever darkness, whatever sadness, whatever circumstance that 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:21.559 other people don't have, but we seem to have and we covet their peace and we covet their 00:20:21.559 --> 00:20:27.599 ease or we covet their health or we covet their youth, whatever it is, whatever we face, we 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:37.599 take these burdens and battles to Him and we run to Him with Him, not from Him. 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:39.959 That's where we find contentment. 00:20:39.959 --> 00:20:44.199 That's where we find and recognize that He's sufficient even in the difficult and the 00:20:44.199 --> 00:20:46.480 bad times that we face. 00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:53.839 So growing in wisdom, learning, contentment and lastly, choosing a practical kind of outworking 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:59.559 of this command is choosing to love others rather than wanting to be others. 00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:05.839 So it's an intentional choice that in our lives that you wrestle with and I wrestle 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:12.480 with is that we choose to love others rather than want either to be others or want to have 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:14.679 what they have. 00:21:14.679 --> 00:21:18.919 And that comes in our thoughts first. 00:21:18.919 --> 00:21:21.439 Ask what it is that you envy. 00:21:21.439 --> 00:21:23.639 What gifts in other peoples are you coveting? 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:28.759 What circumstances, what wealth, what health, what happiness, what attention? 00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:41.680 And pray to be aware of that, aware of that particular focus of your heart. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.360 And that will reflect in the way we speak about others I think also in public. 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:50.160 This is about the heart, but I think it outworks itself sometimes in the way we speak about 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.520 others. 00:21:52.519 --> 00:22:00.519 And so we just learn to be content and to love others rather than wanting to be others. 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:05.960 And just as I finish, the last thing I want to say and it's just the opposite of that 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:13.680 is we love others who maybe have more than we have or a better life than we have or who 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:16.039 are more gifted than we have or more attention. 00:22:16.039 --> 00:22:26.240 I think there's another side to that is that we're to love others also have less than us. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:31.440 Maybe we're the people that other people are coveting. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:38.480 Maybe we have a lot of gifts or a lot of wealth or good circumstances. 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:45.200 But we're called to love others who have less than us, less attention, less popularity, 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:50.880 less wealth, who are in worse circumstances, worse health. 00:22:50.880 --> 00:22:56.200 And we can only do that when we recognize who we are before the living God and that 00:22:56.200 --> 00:23:02.120 every single gift that we've been given has been given from God to us in an undeserved 00:23:02.120 --> 00:23:08.279 way and that we're called to share what we are and share what we have and never think 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:16.440 that our blessings, our life, our privileges are merited because of who we are. 00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:23.839 And that humble reality will I think help us to view other people in a better light, 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:30.599 those who have less than us, those who have more than us and not to covet a life or a 00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:36.720 body or a relationship that God hasn't given to us and that wasn't meant for us. 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:42.480 I hope and pray that there's a challenge in that for all of us as we ask for the living 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:47.000 God to shine His light into the darkness sometimes of our hearts. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:56.000 Father God, we pray that You would help us not to covet, not to covet particularly other 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:04.319 people and what they have or what they are or what they enjoy and question why God has 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:11.519 made us the way we are and not made us like other people and envy that and ultimately 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:18.639 question You and question why You have done this and why You have made us the way we are. 00:24:18.639 --> 00:24:26.919 But Lord, as believers You've just lavished Your attention and Your love on us and You've 00:24:26.919 --> 00:24:32.119 redeemed us and given us unsearchable riches. 00:24:32.119 --> 00:24:36.799 Sometimes we don't see them now but we know that in Christ there will be a day when it 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:45.599 all becomes clear and when the provision You've made for us, which at the moment is beyond 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:52.039 our understanding, beyond our imagination, will be our experience and there will be no 00:24:52.039 --> 00:24:57.959 place for coveting and no need for coveting and no temptation to covet because we will 00:24:57.959 --> 00:25:01.239 have everything that You have promised to give us. 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:07.200 So Lord, we pray that You would help us, we confess our wrong attitudes and our heart's 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:12.319 desires being in the wrong place so often and we ask for Your forgiveness and thank 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:15.120 You that Your forgiveness is guaranteed. 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:32.159 In Jesus' name, amen.