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Amen. Okay, so that was Joshua chapter seven. I'd like you to keep a finger there and go to 1st Corinthians chapter five. So keep a finger in Joshua seven, we'll be coming back there. But go to 1st Corinthians chapter five. We're doing our Sunday evening series, which is sins that get you kicked out of church. And we had a look obviously last week at 1st Corinthians chapter five. I just want you to look at verse eleven again. So 1st Corinthians five eleven, which reads, But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such and one know not to eat. And last week we looked at fornication, this week we're going to look at covetousness, covetousness. So the title of my sermon tonight, sins that get you kicked out of church, covetousness. Let's go to the Lord and a word of prayer before we continue. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the great lessons you give us in the Bible, the great truths that you give us in the Bible. Please help me to preach this particular truth, this particular lesson, this particular church discipline issue, loudly, clearly, boldly, accurately, help those here to just have a tent of yourself to keep the distractions to a minimum, help people to just be able to hear and to be able to stay alert and to not get dozy after a long, long, warm day. And just help me to preach, preach clearly now, Lord, and in Jesus' name I'm proud of this. Amen. OK, so what is covetousness? Well, Webster's 1828 dictionary says, A strong or inordinate, which is irregular, disorderly, excessive or immoderate, desire of obtaining and possessing some supposed good, usually in a bad sense, and applied to an inordinate desire of wealth or avarice, which is greediness or insatiable desire of gain. So basically a strong, excessive desire of money or goods. Covetous itself, so rather than covetousness, covetous in this sense that we're looking at is inordinately desirous, excessively eager to obtain and possess, directed to money or goods and also avaricious, which is greedy of gain. So in scripture, the sin, the sin of covetousness or being covetous is often associated with things that aren't yours to have. OK, often it's things that aren't yours to have. Keep your finger in Joshua 7. Like I said, don't worry about 1 Corinthians 5, but turn to Exodus 20, Exodus chapter 20. Well, I read 1 Corinthians 12, 31, which talking of spiritual gifts says, But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet shall I unto you a more excellent way. So coveting the things of God to benefit the church and the unsaved is OK. Right. He said in Chapter 14 to covet to preach, to prophesy, to preach. And in case you want to covet in cold, hard cash so that you can tithe some of it to the church isn't OK. All right. If you want to covet wealth or whatever because you think the church can use it, maybe, maybe not for yourself to hand over. Right. OK, that's nonsense. But obviously no one here is going to be into that. But it's not just about money. So Exodus chapter 20 and verse 17 says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's. So these are possessions of someone else, aren't they? Coveting what they have because, look, we do often just associate money with covetousness. Now, it often and usually will include money because a lot of the time nowadays to covet those things, you're going to covet the money to buy those things. Right. But there is it. There are people that just covets things that are other people's. They just want that because someone else has got it. OK, that is covetousness. And Deuteronomy, you don't have to turn there. Stay in Exodus 2017. Deuteronomy 5 21, when relaying this commandment says, Neither shalt thou desire, desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbour's. So desiring someone's spouse is coveting. OK, that's coveting. That's used in Deuteronomy. It says desire. In Exodus 20 verse 17, where you are, it says thou shalt not covet. OK, and it includes thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. Right. So desiring someone's wife, desiring someone's husband, you can look at it both ways, is covetousness. And basically adulterer is a covetous, aren't they? Adulterer is a covetous. And you'll notice as you get to know people and see people and you start to get that sense that they're maybe that type, and if you've ever known people that are like that, a lot of the time it goes hand in hand with covetousness as well, as we know it in the sense of money and wealth and things like that as well. Because it's all very similar stuff. It's desiring things that aren't yours to have, desiring things that aren't yours that are out of bounds to you, et cetera. But is this necessarily talking about an act here? Like I said, it's setting your desire on things that aren't yours to have. Now look at the examples here in Exodus 20 verse 17 where you are. A house, yeah? We've got a house, a wife, and when it says a house, you know, there are people, aren't there, that will just look at a house and, you know, maybe it's their neighbours, maybe in terms of someone they know, maybe it's someone they don't know, and they just can't get out of their head how much they want that type of house, maybe, or they just so want those extra bedrooms. And again, look, if it's not yours to have, if you can't, look, if you can afford it, you decide, oh, I quite want that, and it's in your bounds and everything else, it's not necessarily covetousness unless you start lifting it up to the point where you're obsessing over it, okay? But there are people that just see something someone else has got and then they can't get it out of their mind, okay? That's covetousness. Their wife, like we said, that's covetousness, yeah? And the same the other way around with a husband. Here it says, thou shall not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shall not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant. So that you could say employee, couldn't you? Okay? And in some you could add to that. So someone would go, well, how many people do we know that's got a good employee? You could add maybe, I don't know, maybe someone's child to that, couldn't you? Yeah, children could be pretty handy around a house and everything else. Well, I just wish my kid was more like someone, so I just wish I had that child. There are people like that. Did you know that? There are people like that. Look at what other people have because everything's always greener because they're covetous. How about here we saw their ox. Now, how would we apply that? I don't think many people here have oxen. I don't know. I won't ask for a raise of hands. But you could look at maybe their job, maybe their qualifications. Now, Deuteronomy 5.21 included field into it, and again, you could look at their job, their workplace. I just wish I had the job that that person had. I just wish I was qualified like they are in that. And then you start to covet that. You start to dwell on that. You start to want that. And it's not yours to have. The ass here, the ass being a donkey. Again, you could look at maybe cars, bikes, scooters for kids maybe. You know, just coveting what's not yours, what's not yours to have. But it's not just those things because it then says, nor any thing that is thy neighbours. Yeah? Anything. Anything that you're setting your sights on and you're saying, I just really, I just so want that because they've got it. I so want something that's not mine, that's not in my realm to have. That's covetousness. Now, it's not just your neighbours' possession. So turn to Luke 12, where Jesus gives an example of a covetous man in the parable in Luke 12. Luke chapter 12 and verse 13. Luke 12, 13 says, And one of the company said unto him, this is Luke 12, 13, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, this is Jesus Christ, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? So is that what Jesus was there for? To solve money squabbles? No. He goes on verse 15, and he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. So desiring, coveting things, goods, wealth, right? And he spake a parable unto them, saying, So he's just said, Beware of covetousness. Now he speaks this parable. OK, it clearly is following on. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. OK, so this guy is already rich. Yeah, let's just pause there for a second. He's described as a certain rich man. Agreed? Not a man that was becoming rich. He is a certain rich man. He's already got a lot, but nowhere to put his plentiful fruits, his harvest. It's a bumper crop here, yeah? What could he do? Well, he could at least give the first fruits to the temple, you could say, couldn't you? Maybe he could give more. Maybe he could, you know, maybe he could, you could say he could just sell excess in bulk for cheaper, couldn't he? Because storing it up is to sell it in smaller amounts, isn't it? Storing it up is to be able to make more money per each thing. He could have just gone, right, bumper crop, sell it all at a reduced price and get rid of it, yeah? But this is a guy that wants to make the absolute maximum money he could out of it, so he just wants to hoard it all. Look at verse 18, and he said, This will I do, I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits, notice this bit, and my goods, and my goods. So he's focusing on becoming richer, notice that addition and my goods, so he's now pulling down his barns to store that stuff and the extra stuff that he's got as well, the extra things, all his things, his possessions, his riches. Now, is this something out of bounds? It's not, is it? It's not someone else's possessions. You could argue, well, he should have, maybe he did give the first fruits, we don't know whether he gave the first 10% to God. Okay, and you could look at the next verse maybe and think, well, he just wants early retirement. Is this so bad? Look at verse 19. Now, the reason I say in the future, because many of these covetous types, that's what they claim, don't they? They claim it's for the future. They claim they just want to be comfortable. They claim once they've got this enough, then they'll be happy. Once they've saved up this enough, once they've got that amount of wealth, then it'll be enough. But it's never enough, is it? It's never enough, because once you start setting your sights on riches, you start setting your sights on wealth, it will never be enough for you. I don't know, anyone ever met a rich person that just says, I'm content, I'm happy, I've got enough, I'm just relaxing now. They never do. A lot of these guys go into late retirement, even if they go into early retirement, a lot of them are trading and other things anyway. There's always something, they're always trying to earn more, the ones that set their sights on that, that is. Ecclesiastes 5.10, you don't have to turn there, says, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. It will never be enough. You set your sights on riches and wealth, it will never be enough. Doesn't matter what you decide is enough. This guy decided that that much will be enough once I've built the bigger storeroom, then I'm going to be OK, then I'm going to take my E's, eat, drink and be merry. I've never met anyone that's done that who really seeks after wealth. And like I've said before, I work for somebody who's particularly wealthy, and look, they're still working well into retirement age, ridiculous, still have problems because they don't see each other as much as maybe as a husband or wife that she would like, still just flying here and there, still doing all these meetings when they're in London and all this, because it's never enough. It's never enough. They always want more. If it's not a better car, it's a yacht. If it's not the yacht, it's a private jet. It's never enough. Then it's the island. I don't know. It just keeps going and keeps going. Verse 20 says, But God said unto him, Thou fool, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. What a fool. What a fool. And look, where does it all go? And here's the next argument. Oh, well, I want to leave money for the kids. You heard this one before from the people. Oh, well, as long as I set my kids up with enough, how often do the kids make any use of that, of any worthwhile? How many rich kids do you know that have been just given money and they're just complete brats, if not worse? Just scum, most of them, aren't they? Does it really make people happier and better when they left large amounts of money? No, it just ruins their lives, doesn't it? And they're not used to it. A lot of the time they just squander it all anyway, don't they? Squander it all and often get into debt. So, look, there's always an excuse, but the truth is, anyway, those people that say that, it's for themselves, really. They try and act all pious. Well, we should be leaving an inheritance to our children, blah, blah, blah. And really, what's the truth of these people? A lot of the time it's just because they want to get richer. They want to have more money. They want to have more cash. And they want to hoard it as well, hoard it, hoard it. Just watch that bank balance go up and up and up. And then what happens eventually, just it goes. It will burn up in the end as well, won't it? So, now, this is a key point to define covetousness here. Where's your focus? That's the point, isn't it? Because it's not always something out of bounds. Look, there are people, well, I can earn that. I can be diligent in work and I can earn more and more and more money. Is that so wrong? Yeah, the Bible tells us to be diligent. Yeah, the Bible doesn't say you have to live in absolute squalor to somehow prove that you're not covetous. But what's your focus? Are you lifting up wealth or things as more important than God? That's the point, isn't it? Are you focusing on the wealth of riches or are you focusing on God? As a Christian, that is. And as a non-Christian, you could just say, where's their focus? Is their focus on just, you know, on living a nice life, whatever they decide, their focus is on their family, or is their focus on the money? Where's the money in your list of importance? And that's a good way of basically working out whether or not you're covetous. And that's when it comes to money. When it comes to other people's things and possessions, are you thinking about that stuff all the time? Did you pop round someone's house and just start thinking about how much you want that sort of house? Because I would say that you're going into the realm of covetousness there. Now turn to Colossians 3, because real covetousness is making an idol of that thing, whether it's money, goods, things, someone else's, possessions. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5 says, Colossians 3.5, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, this is Colossians 3.5, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry. It's venerating, raising up whatever it is that you're coveting to a God-like status. It's inordinate desire. Unusual, irregular desire. Now, with that in mind, go back to Joshua 7, which is an example of a covetous person. Now, I'll just make something clear quickly here, and I'll probably remind you again in a bit. If you've had a moment in your life where you're covetous or moment, that doesn't make you a covetous person. A covetous person is someone who's defined to some degree by covetousness. So it's not like, oh, man, do I need to get kicked out of church, because I really coveted that ice cream the other day. I'm joking a little bit. No, that's not what it's about. It's about being a covetous person, someone who you're around, and you start to see that covetousness clearly in their behaviour, not because behind closed doors you've had a moment of covetousness. Here it's talking about if any brother be a fornicator or covetous, not if any brother has been covetous at some point in their life, just to make that clear. Okay, where are we? So Joshua 7. So the children of Israel here have just won a mighty victory, and that kind of in a way goes with this morning's sermon a little bit as well. They've destroyed the city of Jericho, but then they get embarrassed by the men of Ai. Look, that can often happen. You can have a mighty victory in your Christian life or as a church as well. You can have a mighty victory, and then suddenly, before you know it, you're at the hands of defeat as well, and suddenly you just slip, and here they got lifted up as well when you look at the story. We're not going to go into that, but they look at it and they think, we can deal with the men of Ai, with just a few thousand of us. Look, we just did Jericho. We just basically spoke down, shouted down the walls of Jericho. What could stop us? And obviously, pride does come sometimes after a victory, and we all have to watch out for that, but they get embarrassed here by the men of Ai. Now, the difference is that they don't have the Lord with them. That's the difference here, because this guy Achan has stolen some things from Jericho. So look at verse 21, where he's admitting to what he's done. So you're in Joshua 7. It's verse 21. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them, and behold, there hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. So weren't these just the spoils of war, though? They've just defeated Jericho. They've just taken the spoils of war. Well, go back to chapter 6, and we're going to look from verse 16, where they're about to destroy the city of Jericho. So this is Joshua 6, 16. It says, And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priest blew with the trumpets. Joshua said unto the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. But he continues, And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein. Okay, the city and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messages that we sent. So it's all doomed, cursed to be destroyed. Now look at verse 18, And ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing. Okay, that's basically anything that's in there, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it. Right, so don't touch any of this, basically. Now look at verse 19, But all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So all of the wealth is to be put into the treasury. Right, now with that in mind, now go back to chapter 7 of verse 21, where this is what Achan said, When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, that's the accursed thing, isn't it? and two hundred shekels of silver, these things were meant to be for the Lord, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight for the Lord. Then I coveted them and took them, and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Now the Babylonish garment, you know, in our day and age, I don't know, the Omani suit or something, was accursed, it was out of bounds, wasn't it? Yeah, clearly they were told not to touch that, not to touch anything else in there. The only things that were to be taken were basically the things of wealth, you know, the precious metals which were to be taken for the treasury of the Lord. So the silver and gold was to be put in the treasury, wasn't it? So he's stolen that, he coveted it, this is someone who's covetous, aren't they? This is someone who's covetous. So what is covetousness? It's a desire for wealth or possessions that results in a focus on them, and is strong enough to override them being out of bounds. Okay, that's kind of my summary, when you look into the Bible, what's covetousness? It's a desire for wealth or possessions that results in a focus on them, and is strong enough to override them being out of bounds. So if you want to buy a new car, that's not covetousness, okay? If you can't stop thinking about that new car, that's covetousness, you're coveting the new car. If you can't actually afford that car, that's covetousness. So we were talking about, like, on the way here, so just to make this clear, we were talking about things on finance, and look, if you can afford those repayments, you think that's the way you want to do things, that's sensible, that's not covetousness. If you can't afford that, and it becomes, again, it's either something you focus on, or you're just seeking something that you can't even afford to have that's out of bounds for you, that is covetousness. If it's your neighbour's car, that's covetousness, okay? So if you're looking at your neighbour's car going, right, you know, that's what, you know, I just so want that car, so because, again, because it's someone else, it's not yours, it's out of bounds, again, that's covetousness. Okay, so that, for me, covetousness, desire for wealth and possession that results to focus on them, and is strong enough to override them being out of bounds. How bad is covetousness? How bad is covetousness? Well, turn to Psalm 10, because it's bad, okay? It's a bad sin. And like with all of these church disqualifying sins, it's openly encouraged in our wicked world, and I was thinking about this just as I was looking at this and thinking, yeah, that's the same with fornication. Yeah, actually, that's the same with some versions of extortion, as we'll see. Yeah, that's actually the same with rainy. Yeah, that's actually the same with drunkenness as well. Yeah, that's actually the same with idolatry. In fact, the ones that we've just looked at in 1 Corinthians 5, they are all positively encouraged by our wicked world. And what a surprise, they're all things that get you kicked out of a church. And why? Well, one of the reasons is because God hates it. Look at Psalm 10 and verse 3. The Bible says, For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and you see that in the world, don't you? Boasting of their covetousness, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. The Lord abhors, abhors, however you want to say it, covetousness, he hates the covetous people. Someone known as covetous, the covetous, the Lord hates them, detests the covetous. Like I said, unlike our wicked world that lifts them up, yeah? Lifts them up and encourages. And they do get lifted up. There are people that, you know, look how they made their first million and all these stories and reports on people and how rich they are, how wealthy they are, how amazing that is. And the sin itself is just encouraged everywhere you go. Advertising is ultimately, most of the time, it's encouraging covetousness, isn't it? Just coveting things that you possibly wouldn't have even thought about. A lot of advertising, the goal is to make you think about that more and more and more, isn't it? It's to make it be etched on your mind. It's to make you not stop thinking about it. That's the goal. What about, you know, we talked about, you know, finance. And again, there are different views on this, but credit everywhere you look. Yeah, credit that you can't afford things. Don't worry, credit, credit, credit, credit you can't afford to even repay. Credit with all sorts of, you just, you want it, you'll get it. We'll find a way of getting it. I remember when I turned 18 and I was just getting through the post, just credit cards, basically. I'm trying to remember if they weren't the actual cards as well. They're at least just sending me, you've been pre-selected, you've been pre-, just to have some money. We'll give you, we'll give you five grand, we'll give you ten grand. I mean, imagine that. An 18-year-old kid, it's like, that's a temptation, isn't it? I don't know if they still do that nowadays. But what about gambling? Like, gambling, I preached on this a while back. That is, this is a, that's big in our culture, big in our society. And what is gambling really, why do people gamble its covetousness? They're just coveting cash. Because most of those games aren't really very fun, are they? Otherwise you might as well play them without the money. Because the chances are you're going to lose, okay? Because the house always wins, so you're going to lose. So what's the point in the gambling? Well, it's just to try and get more money. It's just coveting quick, easy cash. And it's not just, it's not just money and cash and possessions. Half of advertising, it seems nowadays, is scantily clad women, because that's something that can be a temptation for men. And again, it's coveting women that aren't yours, that are out of bounds. It's covet, and ultimately not just adult, you could say fornication is covetousness really as well, isn't it? Because it's things which should be, by the word of God, completely out of bounds, okay? And it's trying to, constantly trying to encourage people to covet, covet, covet. Okay, now of course, on top of that, it's a common characteristic of the worst types of people. Yep, it's a bad sin. Now you don't have to turn there, Romans 1.29 talking of the reprobate, the God hater says, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers. Now obviously there's a long list there as well. 2 Peter 3.2 says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boast as proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful and holy. Now look again at chapter 7 where you are in verse 21 then, back to Joshua chapter 7. With that in mind, it says in verse 21, When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them, and behold they hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. The covetousness resulted in aching openly disobeying God with the clothing, stealing from God, and then hiding it all. And it all started with what? With covetousness. Because the covetous will eventually start disobeying God. Now that could be in many ways, and I hit this briefly I think when we look here, maybe it was Matthew chapter 6 or 7, whether it's skipping church. Yeah, there are people that will skip church and really the real reason is the covetousness. It's really because they want to earn extra money, because they want to do those extra shifts. It's not because they need it to afford to live necessarily. Sometimes it's just covetousness, isn't it? It's extra and putting those things above God, they're disobeying God. Skipping church, I talked about as well not parenting their children. There are mums out there that because of covetousness, not because of necessity, and look, there are mums that because of necessity have to, but there are ones that because of covetousness will basically go out to work, will work those long hours, will work those jobs, where they then don't look after their children, because ultimately it's covetousness to get more money, to be able to have more cash, more things, more stuff, whatever it is, a bigger home. And there are people, I talked about this as well, there are people that will get into the mortgage, and to get into the mortgage they both work, they've got kids, but they get into, the wife will go to work instead, because ultimately they're coveting the house. They're coveting the owning of the house, so what do they do to do that? They neglect the children, both go into a job, and again, what's the real reason for that? It's covetousness because God's very clear about wives looking after their children at home, right? Swerving Bible reading, there are those that do that. They won't look at the Bible every day, because if they get to work early, they'll get that extra bit of money, maybe they'll get that extra shift, maybe if they don't do their, they have their Bible reading at night, but it's time to do overtime, they've been offered overtime, it's more money, more cash, yeah? Do they have to do that? But it can also lead to worse, it can lead to stealing, can't it? Okay, covetousness does lead to stealing. You show me someone that's stealing, that's thieving, and I'll show you a covetous person, right? Because how often is it the honourable thief just stealing to just earn a crust because they can't quite afford it? It's not, they're just coveting, they're seeing things, they're stealing. And there's another form of stealing that people do, and that's stealing from the government, from the tax man. Yes, and don't get me wrong, I understand that there's a lot of ridiculous things that our taxes are spent on, okay? But the Bible's pretty clear that we should give honour to whom honour is due, yeah? The Bible's pretty clear that we should pay our taxes, yeah? That we should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, right? Okay, we should pay taxes, we're stealing when we don't. If you don't like it, go to another country, and if you don't like what your taxes are spent on, it's just the way it is. Write some complaints, you know, write some letters to your local MP, but don't just refuse to pay it. And there are people that steal by not paying tax. Some people will ring up a lot of debt that they should have paid by not paying tax. It's theft. And ultimately, most of the time it comes down to covetousness, because they try, oh, well I just, it's honourable, I don't want to pay money towards whatever, you name it, is the issue. No, it's covetousness. From God, people steal from God, don't they? And I'm not going to go into the ins and outs. Like I said, I was looking at something recently. You know, there's a lot of opposition to what I consider to be biblical tithing. What is the reason for that? And there are some people that, hey, I got an email from a guy, I don't know if he's watching this, interesting if he is, I got an email from a guy that said, can you tell me if this guy's a false prophet or not? It was some like sea of Eve evangelist. But I thought, I won't just say yes, he's a false prophet. So I went on to literally just typed in, he's got some website, ministry, what we believe, sure enough, repent of your sins, and the gift of tongues and everything else. Yes, clearly he's a false prophet, I replied, screenshot, you know, it took five seconds. Yeah, I thought so as well when I saw him teaching about tithing, was his response, yeah. So this guy, it was like, forget that. And then he starts going in this rant about the disgustingness of trying to force, you know, force people to tithe in his flock. It's like, forget the repent of your sins, yeah. Forget all the tongue babbling and all that crazy stuff, forget all that. This guy actually preaches tithing. And there are people, this is like their cross to bear. Sorry, not their cross to bear. This is their mount to die on, their hill to die on. It's like, how dare they. But how do you expect a New Testament church to run? And I tell you what, if you want to go, well, there's nothing in the New, well, I don't agree, you know, in the New Testament. Well, it's pretty good principle really, isn't it? Yeah. And we like to, all of us here believe that we're spiritual Israel, don't we? Yeah. And look, Israel tithed, and I don't see a problem with that because that's probably a good principle, isn't it? Yeah, we pay back to God. And anyone here who does, are you all like just, I can't afford to live or anything else? No, it works out, doesn't it? God blesses you for it. And if you decide what the tithing's got, people go, I would say that's probably a good round figure to go, yeah, that's not a bad way of supporting God's work and everything else, right? Now, the problem is, is that you've got wicked people, wicked churches, a wicked pastor, people that are just pocketing the cash, ripping their flock off and everything else, mega churches, et cetera. But that doesn't mean that the tithe isn't biblical, does it? But what does it come down to ultimately? You show me someone who's got a massive problem with it, and I'll show you someone that's covetous. They just hate parting with their cash. That's what it comes down to. Every time I've ever met anyone who starts kind of questioning and arguing and trying to find like some issue and, you know, Abraham, Levi was in his loins, and it's like, what are you talking about? Well, he wasn't paying every time. It was like off the one time. Well, you show me where the temple was to pay every time. But I tell you what, when Melchizedek came, he paid him, right? Okay, look, anyway, I'll do another sermon on that another day. I don't think, you know, here I think most people understand that, but look, it comes down to covetousness ultimately because you're stealing from God, and that's what Aiken did here. He stole from God things from church. You know, there are people that steal things from churches. Can you believe that? There are people that will just steal, that will just take. We were laughing about how now it seems that the flyers seem to kind of go a hell of a lot further because, and again, it's not because they were stealing flyers, just no respect for anything that the church of, you know, the church of God is spending its money on. You know, I'm like, right, we'll pay for this, and then people are like taking huge stacks and just, and then it's like we move churches. I got some for the bin. Big stack of flyers put in a bin. And every, I used to always, every month, where have they all gone? Because we can't have knocked that many doors, yeah? It's just because they just, like, literally not even any respect for the things of God, no respect for those. And it was amazing as well because if you were getting, like, ten salvations every time you went out, it's just amazing how many flyers you seem to go through. You know, it's just weird stuff like this. Again, you know, it's just people having no respect or even worse, it's the covetousness that goes with that. Things from church. And that can be as well, and we have to watch for that. That can be, that can be when it comes to the offering. That's why we have two people. If anyone wonders why we do it like we do, we have two people do the offering because they're witnesses to each other. We have a third person witness what they've counted. We make sure everything, there's no chance there. Because I've been at churches where someone goes round, does the offering, and it just gets given to some guy at the front, and that's the end of it. The pastor takes it, puts it in his pocket, you know, and just, whoa, let's hope that all works out, you know. And look, at the end of the day, there's so much covetousness in this world that we have to at least have some safeguard against it. But because what does it result in? It results in disobeying God. It results in stealing. It results in then hiding that. How do we see that hidden a lot of the time in churches like ours? We're the holier than thou exterior. That's the hiding of the covetousness. It's the holier than thou exterior. It's the lifting themselves up in all these other areas and trying to be this big holy person. Really deep down there, just some stinking covetous wronging. Well, how about his covetousness? It results in aching, disobeying, and stealing from God. And what does that result in? Him getting stoned to death alongside his family. Stoned to death. Now, turn to 1 Timothy 6. Because coveting is usually of the money required to buy all of this stuff that people covet, right? So 1 Timothy 6 and verse 8. 1 Timothy 6, 8 says, 1 Timothy 6, 8. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. We should be content with just the simple things in life. But they that will be rich, not that they that are rich, they that will be rich, the people that their goal is riches, fall into temptation and a snare, into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. So the result is foolish and hurtful lusts and perdition is entire loss or ruin. For the love of money, not money, like some of these communist bands like to sing. No, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Now, if you think about it, it's a love of money which facilitates the evil we see all around us, isn't it? It's the love of money. Without the love of money, the system that we see in our world wouldn't exist, would it? You know, Satan showed Jesus, you know, after saying to all the kings of the world and the glory of them, in Matthew 4.9, he said, and said unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Okay, and that's how our world works. People fall down and worship Satan. Why? For money, for stuff, for things. Yeah, for the things that money buys you, for the things that money gets you. It all ultimately comes down to the love of money, doesn't it? And that's the root of all the evil that we see in our world. So, where are we? Okay, so, yeah, we're in 1 Timothy 6, aren't we? Now, for the believer, coveting after it results in erring from the faith like we saw there, piercing ourselves through with many sorrows. Verse 11 says, But thou, O man of God, flee these things. Okay, that's another one. Like fornication, flee these things. Run the other way and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. So, there'd be nothing wrong with coveting righteousness, would there? Godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Nothing wrong with desiring those things. That's what we should be following after. Okay, it's what you're coveting is the issue, right? So, go back to Joshua 7. What is covetousness? It's a desire for wealth or possessions that results in a focus on them and strong enough to override them being out of bounds. How bad is covetousness? God abhors it and it results in more wickedness, destruction, perdition and many sorrows. Why is it a sin that gets you kicked out of a church? Why is it a sin? Why is it a sin? Why is being covetous, okay? Not I was once covetous. Why is being covetous a sin that gets you kicked out of a church? Because it affects the whole church in various ways, okay? It affects the whole church. Here in Joshua 7, Achan's covetousness resulted in the children of Israel losing their next battle. Okay, why? Because God often views us as a collective. Did you know that? God views his church often as a collective as well. And like he did with the children of Israel. Look at verse 1 where you are in Joshua 7. Joshua 7, 1 says, But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, okay, so no, it's not, oh, well, he didn't know who it was. No, he knows it's Achan, but it's the children of Israel that committed a trespass. For Achan the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger that the Lord was kindled against Achan? No, against the children of Israel. Why the whole lot of them? Well, in a way, they're all responsible. Okay, they are all responsible. Did no one notice him leaving Jericho with 200 shekels of silver and 50 shekels worth of gold in the clothing? This seems to be over two kilograms of silver, by the way. That's quite a bit of weight there. And over half a kilogram of gold, and let alone the goodly Babylonish garment. Yeah, I don't think, maybe I'm wrong, but maybe when they went to war they didn't have sort of backpacks and everything to stash everything else off in. No, probably not, with all that armor and everything else that they probably had on. Did no one notice him digging a hole under his tent to bury it, do you think? No one even just wondered why Achan's just digging holes in the middle of his tent. And by the way, his family, I'm sure, did notice that. And if he somehow managed to do all of this under the radar, did no one notice his covetousness before that? Do you think this was just the first sign of any of it? He was covetous enough to disobey God, a clear command from God, to steal that, to steal gold and silver from God. And even if it's a no to all of that, the collective mentality should then help prevent that from happening in the future, shouldn't it? So people with that, knowing that God looks at us a lot of the time as a collective, like I've talked about in this church here, we all have a responsibility. No, we don't need to be sort of trying to catch people out and following them around, you know, thinking that we're the latest, greatest inspector or something else on things. But what we should do is we should have our eyes open. We should be vigilant to, especially things that are important enough for God to say, put away from among yourself that wicked person. And look, that is, like I said, the same with the church. God expects us all to behave as a church here, right? And some covetous thief in here affects us all, okay? A covetous thief, just a covetous person in general, affects a whole church. This is the house of God, isn't it? Okay, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, it should be a holy place, shouldn't it? It should be a holy place. No, I don't mean a holier than thou place, okay? It shouldn't be a holier than thou and trying to, it shouldn't be somewhere where we're trying to be holy to other people to see how, no, it should just be a holy place though, shouldn't it? It should be a place where people come, where they respect the fact that they're in the house of God, they respect everything that goes on here, they respect the fact that where two or three are gathered together in my name, they are mine in the midst of them, the Lord Jesus Christ amongst us. We should respect that, shouldn't we? Okay, and coming in here with covetous ways, it's horrible, isn't it? Yeah, it's just a complete disrespect for the Lord. Verse 11, he said here, look at verse 11. Israel have sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also, that's basically hidden, you know, sneakily, and they have put it even among their own stuff. There's a definite collective blame here, right? Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore except ye destroy the accursed from among you. And by the way, he's not just talking about Joshua there, is he? He's talking to the collective, ye, plural. So clearly God sees that as a collective responsibility and he punishes them as a collective there. And here we've seen the result of covetousness, disobeying God's feeling and hiding it. Now think about the similar results in a church. So I just talked about a few that were off the top of my head when I made these notes, skipping church, doing less of the things of God, parenting compromises, theft, dodgy financial dealings, tithing and offering, and, sorry, tithing, sorry, and offerings, full stock tree, ye? So there are people that, you know, just all these different things. But what comes from that? It affects the church, doesn't it? When you're around people like that, and look, at first it might not affect you that much. 18 months later, and when you're going to every barbecue and every sleepover and everything else, it starts to affect you because that starts to become a normal, doesn't it? It's already normal in the world. Now it starts to become normal when people are just talking about money, talking about cash, talking about their side deals, telling you about their dodginess, telling you about their cash-in-hand work, telling you about the way they don't pay their taxes, all this sort of stuff. It affects the church, doesn't it? Because everyone else starts to think, well, that's all right then. Well, that's okay because look how holy they are. You've got 20 salvations the other day in five minutes. I mean, it's unbelievable. And people start to get into that, don't they? Or at least they start to think, well, that's okay, that's normal. And then the bar, the holiness bar, comes down to here, doesn't it? And that affects the whole church. Turn to Luke chapter 16. Because it's not just the obvious exterior signs either. It's not just the trading in church. And we had someone here trading in church. We had someone here trying to get people involved in his breeding businesses, in trying to talk about his stupid ways of making money in church, yeah? Coming to the house of God and trying to make money off the people of God here. Okay, that's wicked, isn't it? Absolutely. And that should have been told to me a long time before and we would have got rid of him a lot earlier. It's not just the constantly talking about money. And the people that we kicked out of church were constantly talking about money. Okay, that's what people have come to after it's gone. Okay, now in hindsight they just kept talking about money, kept talking about ways of getting richer, kept talking about cash. The boasting about perceived riches. Yeah, because we had that, didn't we? One particular, or in fact a couple would just constantly be boasting about their cash, trying to show their wedges of cash. The offering would always be... You know, it was ridiculous, wasn't it? Okay, again, signs of covetousness, yeah? But look at Luke 16 and verse 13. It says, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. The covetous who serve mammon, or riches basically, or the god of riches, end up hating God. That's what happens. They end up hating God. But they will excuse it. They'll excuse it. It's the man of God that they hate. It's not God, it's just the man of God, because he keeps preaching about, you know, you should just kind of be content with what you've got. It's the church. It's the church. It's the people in the church. It's going to church. You know, whatever it is, it's the people. It's the King James Bible, you name it, yeah? Whatever it is, people will find something and rarely will they admit that really they hate God. They hate the true God. It might be that they hate, you know, the version of God. They'll claim it's a version of God, but really they love the real God or whatever else. But they start to hate. And I love the irony here, because look at verse 14. Because it says, so bear in mind it's Jesus Christ that's just said that, And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things and they derided him. So they end up deriding God, having just said that you'll love the one and hate the other, you cannot serve God and mammon, they're covetous, and they end up deriding him. He's just said you'll end up hating God. They deride him, which is basically laughing in contempt, mocking, ridiculing. Which leads me on to another point as to why the covetous get kicked out of church. Obviously it's very contagious, covetousness. It normalises something which is already normalised a lot in the world. Obviously other things come from it. Other sins come from covetousness. And that stuff again is pushed upon the church and it becomes a norm in the church. But as with the examples of the Christ mocking Pharisees, and as was already mentioned earlier, covetousness is one of the many traits of reprobates. Covetousness is kind of a classic trait of a reprobate. Now just to make it clear, not everyone that's known as covetous, a covetous person, is a reprobate, but you'll see this go hand in hand with many, if not you could say most, reprobates. Now turn to 2 Peter 2. Obviously they're going to have a list of wicked behaviour. But the covetousness often affects the church directly, like I said. And here we see one way that works. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, 2 Peter 2.1 says, But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring indomitable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways, which is destructive ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And I often think about that, that last part of the verse. It always springs to mind with these people, because the way of truth is often evil spoken of because of these people. They're such a bad testimony. They're such just a bad example of Christianity to all around, aren't they? They always love to make this big show of the fact that their Bible believe in Christians and the way of truth is evil spoken of because of them. Because the wickedness, the way they behave is just a disgrace, isn't it? And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now have a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. They make merchandise of you. Now, whether it's for financial gain, like we just talked about, you know, people in our church just trying to get people into their enterprises, or it's to build up a following, they treat the believers as merchandise. So it can be that they're coveting you as just one of their followers to then give credibility to their own sort of group, or their own whatever you want to call it, their own clique, so they get power and strength in a church, but that you're still just merchandise, okay? You're just, if I could try and whisper, I could try and con you enough, I could try then you, and they're coveting whatever it is, coveting a position of leadership, coveting their own version of church or whatever else, right? But it's not just that, look at verse 14 in 2 Peter 2. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls and heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. Now, adultery is a form of covetousness, like I said, because it's out of bounds, isn't it? And those types of people, then again, the reports started coming through about just weird perverted type behaviour, touchy feely stuff, borderline coming on to women at least, just stuff that no one else is behaving like here, right? Yeah, no one else does that stuff, but it's just so, let alone some of the worst stuff as well that obviously we, you know, that I went through as well with one of the members here, just wicked stuff, right? Wicked stuff. So, and again on that, we had covetous people here, we're clearly covetous, now in hindsight people are going, yeah, they're clearly, and I don't want you to stop, you know, kind of, you know, someone called it reflecting on it, which was a good word for it, I don't want you to stop that, because it's not that I'm trying to just, it's not that I'm moaning at everyone, but the lesson again, we could learn here, all of those people could have been kicked out. Every single one of them could have been kicked out, at least the males, for covetousness. Whether it was scamming people in the church for money, for handouts, and just taking cash off kind people in the church, and we're going to cover that more with extortion, whether it was the just blatant, just open flagrant, just avoiding taxes, just the money, cash, wedges of cash, and just acting like they were, you know, like with one of our members, like another one where it was the trading and any other way, you could get people into your covetous practices, trading in church and everything else, another one who just didn't stop talking about cash and money and jobs and how he can make this and how he can make that money. Look, really, I'm sure there was more that could have come out from that, and I'm sure with at least some of them, we probably could have kicked them out for covetousness, and that would have saved the church a whole lot of just poison, a whole lot of just at least encouragement into other wickedness, yeah, but they didn't, okay, they didn't, and obviously we're all now stronger for that and learned from that, but the thing with these people is something you've got to realize, yeah. Think about Judas Iscariot. What was Judas Iscariot's downable heresy, anyone? What was Judas Iscariot's reprobate behavior, anyone? And you can put your hand up because there is an answer to this. What was Judas Iscariot's, what was the behavior that would have had him kicked out of our church? Probably the mounting weight of that woman who did the fighting. Guiding, but what was his reason for that? He was covetous. He was covetous, he was a thief, okay. It was his covetousness which was the thing that, would you want, let's put it this way, would you want Judas Iscariot in our church? What would be our reason though for kicking him out? Because if he walked in, I can't just kick someone out that walks in, what would be our reason for kicking him out eventually? Covetousness. Covetousness. It would have been covetousness. Because Judas Iscariot was a covetous thief. He had the bag, he stole from the bag, he wanted the money, but that was the only clear one, obviously, other than him betraying the Lord Jesus Christ at the end, right? But that would have been a good enough reason to kick him out, right? Okay, we would have kicked him out for covetousness, so we would have been a better one for that, really. Now obviously he was used for God's purpose, right? Okay, Jesus Christ obviously knew everything, he knew what was going on, he used it for God's purpose. But point being that, look, it's not that, oh well, they're going to preach, we've just got to wait for them to preach repent of your sins. Clearly with two witnesses. We've just got to wait for them to preach some oneness heresy with two witnesses. We just, no. We've just got to wait for them to do some filthy acts of sodomy to prove it. No. No, because with these types of people, there's other things on the list which are a reason to kick someone out of church. But as a church, we're all responsible, right? Like in Joshua 7 here, like Children of Israel, they were responsible for the acts here of Achan. I don't know whether Achan was a reprobate or not, but what I do know is that these things on the list are behaviours of reprobates, okay, and they're a reason to kick someone out of a church. And sometimes you're just waiting for that reason. You know what someone is. You know, you're seeing all the signs, there's a thousand red flags in all of them, but you're waiting for that. And that comes down to the church. Okay, that comes down. Look, it's not that we've got to whisper about everyone, because look, most people here, no one's sitting here going, well, what if they said, look, because we're just normal regular people, yeah? Avoid the clear things on the list that I'm going to be preaching over the next however many Sundays. Get right with God. Yeah, come to church. Be a blessing. It's easy. No one's sitting here whispering about you and going, if only we could catch them out, okay? But these people were wicked, weren't they? Absolutely. I mean, it was just ridiculous. And the more stuff coming out, I'm just like, what on earth? Yeah, and it was going on behind the scenes. And they could have been gone a long time ago. Okay, so, and lastly, with all of these sins, you have to think about 1 Corinthians 5, 6. Your glory is not good. No, you not let a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And even if we didn't have the signs of the covetousness, like the results of, if we had none of that, and it was just literally covetousness. It was just the fact that they just seemed to be just money, money, goods, goods, cash, you know, whatever it is that's out of bounds. That will leaven the whole lump. People will, look, that's what we do. We were laughing earlier. I was saying, I'm the sort of person, I was saying that if I went to Australia, within, I reckon, about two weeks, I'd have a full Australian accent. I'd be going, g'day, champ. I'd really go into it. Wouldn't it just be like a subtle one? I'd be like a redneck Australian, yeah, from the outback. I'd just be full on. If I go, if I could just go up north, yeah, I'm already speaking like a northerner within, on the way there. When we went up to Brother Hoonah's wedding, I'm speaking a northern accent on the way up there. Just the excitement of going there. Okay? But we, it rubs, look, things around us do rub off on us, don't they? Yeah? And I just loved it. When I spoke to like someone with a Sheffield, I was like, this is great, yeah? So much, so much material here, yeah? But, look, joking aside, things rub off. Behaviour rubs off, doesn't it? And it's not just a cool accent. Well, maybe not a cool accent. Sometimes it's other things as well. In fact, it is other things. It's behaviours. It's a way people do it. And we, look, because we are ultimately, we're, look, we're sheep, aren't we? And we are made for the flock. And we do bounce off each other. That's the way it is. That's why it's so important to be in a church who preaches the word of God, isn't it? That's why it's so important to be around God's people. That's why it's so important to get that leaven out of the church because that little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Okay, now, this negatively affected all of the children of Israel to some degree, okay? And those closest so were most affected here. So look at verse 14. Verse 14, it said, In the morning, therefore, ye shall be brought according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takers shall come according to the families thereof, and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by household, and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man, and it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. Now, notice that it said his household and the household in verse 14. And verse 15 says, And all that he hath. God's command is to get rid of the whole household. And let's be honest, when you see one covetous person, usually those closest to them are the same, aren't they? Okay, along with my point there. Usually those closest are the same, covetous wives, covetous children, with money-making scams already, right? Again, we saw an example of that. You know, young children already trying to, like, build up their empire. How do I get more cash and, you know, send the kid out to more car-washing businesses and everything else? They wouldn't even need it for. But you see that, because it rubs off, doesn't it, as well, and because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, and if you're not close to that leaven, you're going to get leavened a lot quicker, right? Verse 16 says, So Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and a tribe of Judah was taken, and he brought the family of Judah, and he took the family of the Zarehites, and he brought the family of the Zarehites man by man, and Zabdi was taken, and he brought his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray, the glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it, but not for me. So he goes and says what he does, like we saw. So Joshua sent messages, verse 22, So Joshua sent messages, and they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took him out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. Okay. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. Did they then go, right, off you go guys, you know, hopefully you've learned your lesson. No. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day, and all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day, so the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger, wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor unto this day. And if anyone's feeling sorry for the family here, I won't ask for a show of hands, if they were saved, or too young, then they went straight to heaven, yeah? And avoided a life of drowning in the destruction and perdition of covetousness, right? If they weren't saved, then the chances are that they were on their way to a worse life, yeah? And more punishment for eternity. So, really, either way, they probably got off alright there. Truthfully, you know, I'm not just joking about that, because if they weren't saved, well, I'm guessing that there's probably a big issue there in terms of probably a reprobate family there, and what would have happened? They would have just had a wicked life, a depressing life, and they would have ended up getting more burning and suffering and health return to you anyway. And if they were unsaved, and they were too young to get saved, well, ultimately, they were saved theoretically, because, you know, they're not old enough, so off to heaven, and if they were saved, great, they went to heaven. So, look, at the end of the day, you can look at that and go, oh, my goodness, stone of, well, no, look, God knows best anyway there, okay? And, look, either way, it's not God's fault, is it? Is that God's fault? Well, Proverbs 15, 27 says, he that is greedy have gained troubleth his own house, but he that hateth gifts shall live. And, look, when it comes to church life, let's put this into church life, because we're not going to start getting the stones out here. We don't have any stones here, unfortunately. No, but we're not called to be stoning people to death. And, look, we are long-suffering here. So, in case you're sitting here going, oh, this is about sins that get you kicked out of church, look, we are long-suffering, okay? We were long-suffering with these people that eventually got kicked out of this church. For a long time, we were just praying, my wife and I were regularly praying that, look, they'll get right, that they'll sort themselves, that maybe it's just said just so fleshly, so carnal, even though there's so many red flags, and we just kept praying, kept just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, kept, just we'll preach it, and hopefully they'll respond, okay? Look, we are long-suffering. We're patient with people. But when it comes to blatant church disqualifying sin, God commands us to deal with it, us as a church, okay? It's not, oh, well, you know, we'll leave it, you know, see if Brother Ian clocks it. Look, God commands us as a church to deal with it, okay? What is covetousness? It's a desire for wealth or possessions that result in a focus on them and strong enough to override them being out of bounds. How bad is covetousness? God abhors it, and it results in more wickedness, destruction, perdition, and many sorrows, yeah? But it's a bad thing to get into. Just, look, just on this, okay, if you're sitting here and you're thinking, look, I don't know, I sometimes worry that I might be a covetous person, okay? What do I do? Because, look, the solution is get right, you know, get out, yeah? But if you are, and maybe, look, you're not quite at that point, people aren't going, oh, Brother so-and-so, Sister so-and-so, whoever it is, or maybe you're a kid here thinking, I feel like I'm going that way. Look, what do you do? Well, you get right with God, get on your knees, yeah? Pray to God, you get on your knees, yeah? Every good and perfect gift coming from above, yeah? Like, you get on your knees and you pray sincerely, I don't want to be like this, God. You do the things of God, you do the obvious, clear things. You read your Bible, you make sure you're in church, you listen to preaching, you get the sin out of your life, you focus on God, focus on the things of God. Then, look, God wants you right, yeah? If you're saved and you're sitting here and you feel that temptation because it's not just for reprobates, okay? Look, then get right with God, yeah? Get right with God, pray to Him, get the help with it. And what is He saying? Follow after righteousness, yeah? Follow after righteousness, peace, you know, goodness, follow after all the things that God wants you following after, right? And you do that and, you know, for me, it's not something that is, well, just, that's just the way I am. No, look, God will help you with that, yeah? Why is it a sin that gets you kicked out of church? Because it affects the whole church, it results in other wicked sins, it can be linked to wicked people and it's contagious, okay? It's contagious, we don't want it in our church, it's bad enough dealing with it out of the church, this should be a sanctuary, this should be somewhere we can come and get away from all that wickedness or at least as much as we possibly can in here. I'm going to finish there and we're going to go to the Lord in prayer to finish up. Father, thank you for your clear teachings and lessons about the wicked sins that get you kicked out of church and today we're looking at covetousness and being known as a covetous person. Lord, help none of us here to be recognised as that, to be known as that. Help everyone here to just make sure they put their focus on you, they put their focus on the things of God, not the things of this world. Help everyone here to not only be strong, you know, against the temptations and the pushing and promoting of the sin but also to be strong when it comes to recognising this problem in the church, knowing that, look, you know, we want to get people right, we want people to be in church, we don't want the sheep to be out of church but also we need to be vigilant and we need to protect the sheep from sins which affect all of us and, Lord, today we've looked at covetousness, please help everyone to just, you know, learn from this, to apply this to not only their church life but their life outside of church as well. Help everyone to get home safely, please, Lord, and return safely on Wednesday or next week on Sunday for another day in your house. In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen.