Exodus 20:17 17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Mark 7: He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

Mark 7: For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come–sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

Mark 7: All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

1. The command hits close to home. We don’t often covet things far from us but it’s the things close to us that are so enticing. 2. The command is forceful. We are told twice not to covet. It’s the only command like that.

3. Unique. As far as I know there is no similar command in other codes or civilizations. 4. Coveting is an invisible sin. It deals with the internal not the external. 5. Coveting is probably the most often broken command.

7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind... (Romans 7:7-8 )

6. Most of us don’t take coveting all that seriously. We could call it “the sin nobody will admit”. 7. It’s the root of many other sins. At the bottom of every other sin is the belief that God hasn’t given us everything we need.

 The Hebrew is used positively & negatively. ◦ “Strong desire” or “to delight.” ◦ “An excessively strong desire to have something that belongs to someone else.” ◦ “An overt dissatisfaction and discontent with what God has provided and a longing for what He has forbidden to us.”

Proverbs 21: The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work; 26 All day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back. Joshua 7:21 When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it."

I have three walnuts and each one wants two.

What is your default setting?

To Make You Unhappy With: ◦ Who you are ◦ What you have ◦ How you look ◦ What you do At its core most advertising is designed to make us ungrateful and feed on our greed.

“How To Motivate Your Prospects”

Philippians 4: But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned [before], but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted; the freedom and the respect. I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted; to be mature and sophisticated. I was middle-aged, but it was 20 I wanted; the youth and the free spirit. I was retired, but it was middle-age I wanted; the presence of mind without limitation. My life was over; but I never got what I wanted.