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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Song number 427, let's sing it out on the first. We three kings of Orient are Bearing gifts we traverse afar Field and fountain, moor and mountain Following yonder star Star of wonder, star of night Star with royal beauty bright Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Alright, let's sing it out on the second and let's sing it like you don't think Christmas is pagan. Let's sing it out on the second. Born a king on Bethlehem's plain Gold I bring to crown him again King forever ceasing never Over us all to reign Oh, star of wonder, star of night Star with royal beauty bright Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Frankincense to offer have I Incense owns a deity nigh Oh, star of wonder, star of night Star with royal beauty bright Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Mur is mine, it's bitter perfume Breathe the life of gathering gloom Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying Sealed in the stone cold tomb Oh, star of wonder, star of night Star with royal beauty bright Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Glorious now, behold them arise King and God and sacrifice Hallelujah, hallelujah Heals through the earth and skies Oh, star of wonder, star of night Star with royal beauty bright Westward leading, still proceeding Guide us to thy perfect light Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Song number 264, let's sing it out in the first. O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel O come, thou rod of Jesse free Thine own from Satan's tyranny From depths of hell thy people say And give them victory o'er the grave Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel O come, thou key of David come And open wide our heavenly home Make safe the way that leads on high And show the path that bringeth nigh Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel Amen. Good morning. Welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through them real quick. And it'd be helpful if I had a bulletin. Actually, I do have one. Never mind. Thank you. Okay. If you need a bulletin, would you lift up your hand? One of our ushers will bring you a bulletin. On our front cover, we have our verse of the week. It says, the crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 24. And our service times, Sunday morning service is 1030 a.m. Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m. We'll be in Genesis chapter 34 tonight. Thursday evening Bible studies at 6.30 p.m. We're starting a brand new book this week, and it's 2 Corinthians, excuse me, the book of 2 Corinthians. And we just finished 1 Corinthians last Thursday night. Our soul winning times are listed below. We have soul winning today at 1 o'clock. If you're planning on going soul winning, please let brother Brandon know so he can make sure that you know what team you're on and make sure you have a map. And we do go soul winning through the WhatsApp group. So if you're a visitor today and you're wanting to go soul winning, just make sure that you get with Brandon. Brandon, will you raise up your hand so everybody knows who you are? And just get with Brandon, and he'll make sure to pair you up with a partner and get you a map. So all the other times are listed below for our soul winning. We have multiple times to choose from, and we do have a regional soul winning in different areas of the Northwest. And so you can see the leaders respectfully below there. If you need or would like to go soul winning in one of those areas that are regional, just see me after the service, and I'll make sure that you can meet up with the right person. If you look down, you can see our praise report, our celebrations, baptisms, and attendance for last week, and our events that are coming up. Today we have, after the evening service, we have a kids' choir practice that's immediately after the evening service. So we'll try to do that as fast as possible. And also we are trying to get a men's group started. So who's leading that posse? Brother Robert. Okay, so where are you doing the practice for the kids? It's probably out here, or is it in the mother baby room? Anybody know? It's out here with instruments. Out here with instruments. So men, why don't you guys meet up in the dad baby room, or in that, over there is probably going to be, yeah, okay. Yeah, that's fine. So meet up in the fellowship hall. That would be great. So if you're interested in singing in the men's group, we'll be singing on Christmas Day. Right now I think we have seven volunteers. So if you want to do that, he'll just be singing on Christmas morning. And I think that they got, you guys are going to get some songs picked out. And no doo-wop is allowed, just so you know. It's not the Four Seasons or anything like that. Anyway, so that will be good to have the men sing some special songs on Sunday the 19th, which is coming up here pretty soon. December 11th, we have the Lady's Cookie Exchange, white elephant game at 1 p.m. at the Bender home. That will be this coming Saturday. So if you're a lady and you're coming, please bring three dozen cookies or treats and a container for the goodies. And I think that they're having breakfast burritos, too. So it sounds like a good time. And so if you're interested in going, see Miss Julene or Rylan Bender. Miss Julene, is she in the building right now? No? Okay, she skipped church. Oh, hey, Julene. Hey, how you doing? I thought she was in the band or something. Anyway, okay, so see Miss Julene. She's right there or Rylan about that. So December 16th, we have the Kids Cookie and Ornament decorating here at the building at 2 p.m. Is that on a Tuesday? No? Thursday? Okay, Thursday. So I guess that's a good day because we have church later on that day. So that will be here at the building. If you're interested, see Miss Rachel Woods. She's in the back there. And also the 19th is our Christmas service. And so we'll have the children's choir and the men's group singing. And then we'll have a prime rib dinner after the morning service. So it's something we've done every year that we've been to church. So that's a good time to invite a guest. I'm sure prime rib dinners aren't just usually given out for free. So we do everything for free here at this church. So that's always a good time. So I'm going to be asking for people to... I know I've already asked people to cook the prime rib. I think I just need to make sure to solidify that. And I'm not sure how many we're going to get this year. Maybe one. I don't know. I'm just kidding. That one won't feed us all. So anyway, it's nice to have different recipes and different tastes. So I'll be asking people probably next week to solidify that. I'll go to Costco and get the meat and all that stuff. So we only get the best meat. Costco has the best meat. Everybody knows that, right? Unless it's like grain fed and raised on a farm or something like that. I don't know. Or grass fed. Excuse me. Not grain. But anyway, let's see. So that'll be the 19th. That's when we're celebrating our... We'll have our Christmas service. December 23rd is going to be a candlelight service. That is on Thursday, a regular scheduled church service day. And December 31st, we'll pray the new year in. We'll have a game night, ping pong tournament, foosball tournament. And we'll pray the new year at 9 o'clock at night, the East Coast time. And that'll be a good time. We always have a good time on New Year's Eve. And then the day after, we'll have the New Testament challenge starting. And that begins January 1st. And it's nine chapters a day for 30 days. So if you're interested in challenging yourself this year and saying, hey, this is going to be the year that I read the New Testament in 30 days, this is for you. And if you don't think you can do that, well, just at least read the Bible. I mean, if you're one of God's people and you don't read the Bible, it's just like you're going into battle without a sword. Who would do that? It's like, hey, you're just running at the enemy with a nice thing in your hands. It doesn't make sense. So the Bible is important to read. And maybe you've never read the Bible cover to cover. Well, this is maybe the year that you do it. Amen. So we're also a family integrated church. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. We have available for your family a mother-baby room located back there and then a dad-baby room located in the corner over there. And you can take your children in there if they're distracting or disruptive, overly disruptive. And the service, or if you just need to use those rooms for anything, we have a comfortable seating in there and you can listen to the sermon still in that room. So also, reserve the back rows for families with young children. Rockers are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only. Please know men allowed in the mother-baby room and vice versa. No unattended children in any area of the building, please. And no food in the assembly area. Please silence your cell phones if you would. And if you need to escort to your vehicle, if you're a lady and you're by yourself here, or if it's just you with your kids, please get one of the ushers or the guys with the pins on it that say usher on their coats and they'd be happy to help you. And if you need anything, just go to one of the ushers and they'd be willing to help you. Just hail them or tap them on the shoulder or something. And if you want to give, there's other options besides just giving in service. You can give on our website or through texting. And you can see the tithes and offerings that have come in so far, well, that came in for November. And then we have birthdays to celebrate this month. Zoe turns five. Do you have all your teeth? Smile. You want your front teeth for Christmas too? No? Okay. Just for your birthday? No? You don't care? Can you whistle really good now? I figured you could. Cool. All right. Well, Zoe's birthday is going to be tomorrow. So we're going to sing for her today. And then Brandon's birthday is the day after tomorrow. And then we have Elias, Colin, he's not here. He's down in Arizona right now, but they'll be back. Happy birthday to all these youngsters. Oh, what? Hold on a second. Brother CJ. Rylan, you're fired. CJ's not in there. CJ, what's your birthday? All right. Let me write that down. Fire Rylan. CJ's birthday. Okay. And don't celebrate his. Okay. Got it. All right. We'll sing happy birthday to all the birthday people. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. All right. So CJ's the oldest. Are you 40 yet? How old are you? Dang. Getting old. Brandon, how old are you going to be? Brando? 23. Oh, man. I'd love to be 23 again. Anyway, if you're a first-time visitor, we're very happy that you're here today. And we do have some gift bags that we give out in the foyer before you leave. Grab one of those bags, those red bags over there. And they just have some things that we like to give out for being a first-time guest. We have the film, Being Baptist. We also have a Christmas CD in there and some other items. And we just want to thank you for being a first-time guest. So please grab one of those on your way out. And we appreciate you being here. We know you can be at other churches right now, if they're open anyway. And we appreciate you being here. And so with that, let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering. Hold on real quick. You can stay right there. This is Cali Sue Karen King. Got baptized last Sunday night. So I just wanted to give her a certificate. All right, turn your Bibles to Psalms 81. Psalm 81, your King James Bible. Well, know if you don't have a King James Bible, start singing something wrong. Psalms 81, let's start off on the first. Sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. For this was a statue for Israel and the law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. Thou caused in trouble and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Say, La, hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, there shall no strange God be in thee. Neither shalt thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' loves, and they walked in their own counsels. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted, should have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also, with the finest of the wheat and with honey. Out of the rock should I have satisfied thee, out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. Amen. Good scene. Brother Ramon, could you bless the offering for us? Father, thank you so much for this great church, Lord. We pray that you would bless this offering, bless all that we do here in your house today. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus 20. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, and one of the ushers will bring you one. Exodus 20. Exodus 20, the Bible reads, And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, for God has come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. And altar of the earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen, and all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou will make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Brother Robert, will you pray for us? Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is Thou Shalt Not Covet. Thou Shalt Not Covet. Let's look at Exodus chapter 20, verse number 17. The Bible says, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. So God gives us this commandment, and then he kind of explains what coveting is in the fact that if you have your own house, you shouldn't be coveting or wanting or desiring your neighbor's house. You're not supposed to covet or desire your neighbor's wife. You're not supposed to covet his manservant or maidservant or his ox. Now, modern day, that might be his tractor or his hemidodge ram super-powered diesel charger, whatever you want to call it, or anything that is thy neighbor's. Be content with the things that we have, with the things that God has provided for us, and what does covet actually mean? It means to yearn or to desire or possess or have something. Now, if you want to possess or have something, and actually, you know, it's not just that. It's actually in a sinful context, it's desiring or wanting something that does not belong to you or it belongs to somebody else. So to covet the best gifts, there's nothing wrong with coveting something that's good that's like a gift from God, like the Bible says in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians. It says to earnestly covet the best gifts. So coveting, you know, it is a sinful thing, but when it's talking about coveting in the New Testament the best things, the best gifts, it's not wrong to want to desire the gifts of God or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, right? But it is wrong to covet something that's not yours or it belongs to somebody else. Now, this is the time of the year when coveting probably is at its utmost highest, right? This is the time of year when magazines are being shipped to your house. You didn't ask for them. You know, you're getting all these ads, all these papers in the mailers because nobody really reads the newspaper anymore, so now they just send like all the stuff from the stores, all the sales and ads, and you have Black Friday. You know, maybe I should have preached it before Black Friday. I don't know if you all went shopping on Black Friday, but I've kind of abstained from that for quite a long time. It just makes me sick when the Thanksgiving holiday gets ruined over people. It's like people are thankful, and then the next thing they do is just covet after a bunch of stuff, a bunch of Chinese electronics that you don't need. I mean, do you already have earbuds? Do you already have a cell phone? Do you already have a laptop? I mean, do you have to have the biggest, best thing every single year? I mean, some people do. But, you know, and it's not wrong to buy things, obviously, but like this, you know, they spend billions of dollars trying to get you to buy the junk that you don't need. And I'm not saying don't give presents, but some people get ridiculous with it. They go into debt up to their eyeballs in credit card debt so that they can buy something that they don't need or buy something for a bunch of people that don't even appreciate it, you know? And so it's like kids, when they open up their presents, what are they looking for? They're looking for the toys, right? Like, oh, yeah, I want to play with the toys. And then they get something, you know, it's a new outfit, and they're just like, you know, just throw it out of their hands real quick. But I wanted to preach this sermon because we can get out of control with this kind of stuff. We can get out of control with coveting, and Christmas is the time of the year when people just lose it because you're just being bombarded by all these ads. You know, your cell phone listens to what you're saying, and it knows what you want because you're scrolling through Facebook, and all of a sudden the thing that you were just talking about is right there in your face. Do you think that's accidental? It's not accidental. They're targeting you with ads. It's like you already talked about wanting it, and now they're shoving it in your face every time you open up your smartphone. And so they want you to spend money. They want you to covet after their stuff, and they want you to buy it. So, you know, you get radio, you got TV, you got social media, and, you know, all these people are just targeting you right now. So, but the Bible says it's wrong to covet. That's wrong to want something that doesn't belong to you. It's wrong to desire something that somebody else has. And so people will say, hey, well, that person got, you know, the newest laptop or whatever, the new Apple phone, 13 million or whatever it is. I don't know. I don't do Apple products necessarily, but, you know, if you do, that's okay. You get right with God at your own. I'm just joking. Samsung, no, I'm just kidding. But it's easy for me to say that because I've never had an Apple phone. But anyway, I heard they're just dumb. Samsung has the best phone and the best stuff. I do all my work on my phone. I mean, they are good to a certain extent, but like I said, we can get out of control with the coveting and wanting the newest, best things in our lives. You know, if you're using it for good, then that's fine. But like, just to go on these crazy spending rampages, like at the end of the day, you're just stuck being a servant to the lender. You borrowed a bunch of money for a bunch of stuff that you don't care about. It's like when people go into debt up to their eyeballs with anything, with houses and cars and trucks. Some people spend half their paycheck every month on mortgage, and then the other half is on both of their brand new vehicles. And then you're like, I don't know, how am I gonna make it? Well, maybe don't borrow something that you don't have. You know, the borrower's servant to the lender. That's what the Bible says. So point number one this morning, let's turn over to Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 21. This is like called the second law. And basically the 10 commandments are restated here in Deuteronomy chapter five, verse 21. But make no mistake about it, Exodus chapter 20 is the chapter where God gives the 10 commandments. And so to be a covetous person is breaking one of God's 10 commandments. So if it's in the top 10, there's a lot of top 10 countdowns, isn't there? You'll see the top 10 this, top 10 this, and that. Well, the top 10 sins are located in Exodus chapter number 20. And coveting is one of them. Let me just tell you this. Coveting is one of the most common sins that we probably commit. Isn't it? And because you don't even, sometimes you don't even realize you're doing it. Because like I said, as a Christian living in this day and age, you're bombarded with everything. It probably wasn't, I mean, there's no new thing under the sun, but I'm sure it wasn't as bad as it is now. I mean, they didn't have smartphones 2000 years ago. You know, maybe they had like stone newspapers or something. I don't know. No, they had parchment and all that. They had news. They had people that would sell things in the marketplaces and stuff like that. I get it. But right now we are being bombarded every single day and we will until Christmas comes. Hurry up, free shipping. Hey, buy it now because you got free shipping. Oh, it's free shipping. Oh, I got to buy it. You know, it's just like, people just go, I just want to help you this morning and just help you with, if you're kind of got the bug of buying a bunch of stuff, a bunch of products you don't need and worry about buying something for every single person in your family, every single person in their family, all their cousins something, all your neighbors something. It's like, what are you doing all that for? You know, why are you going into debt over something that people don't really care about that much? And you're just making yourself a slave. You're enslaving yourself to buy a bunch of stuff that you don't need. Now look at Deuteronomy chapter five verse 21. It says, Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife. Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his manservant, or his mainservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's. So you see how it says, neither shalt thou desire. So it's basically, it's desire is coveting. When you're desiring something to the point where you have to have it, the next step is sin. The next step is more sin. When you want somebody else's wife and you're married, you know, and they're married, then you're wanting something that's off limits to you. And so when you covet that thing, you covet that person, you think about that person, you desire that person, the next step is adultery, which is another which you're compiling and compacting sin on top of each other. When you want something so bad that you're willing to steal it, you covet that thing, you steal that thing, and then you're compacting and adding to the sin that you've already committed. You know, coveting is like the gateway sin to other bad sins as well. Coveting always leads to worse sins, theft, envy, hatred, fornication, adultery, these are wicked sins. Turn to Colossians chapter three, verse number five, Colossians chapter three, verse number five. And God equates covetousness to idolatry. So it's basically, it's such a bad sin that you're desiring something, you're putting that in the place of God. That's how bad coveting is because you're actually committing idolatry. You're actually desiring these things so much that you're throwing God aside, you're casting God aside for the thing that you want and it becomes your God. It becomes in the place of God. And you're like, well, I don't agree with that. Well, let's look at the verse. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is, what's it say? Idolatry. And what is idolatry? It's bowing down and literally worshiping a statue that you made with your own hands. You're bowing down and worshiping something. So God is basically saying here that covetousness is idolatry. You're putting that thing, that whatever thing was made that you want so bad in the place of God. And it's wicked. So look, it says in verse six, for which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience in which he also walked some time when you lived in them. So God's saying, hey, before you were saved, it wasn't a big deal to you that you did these things. You walked in them. You lived in these things. And it says, But now you also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. So when you get saved, you're supposed to kill that old man, that old sinner that you used to be. And obviously you're never gonna escape all the sin in your life. But you're supposed to try to put that off. Every day is a new day. You're supposed to take up your cross daily and follow after Christ. And you're supposed to put off that old man, that old wicked person that you used to be and try to suppress that in your life. It says and have put on the new man, which is the new creation. When you get saved, your spirit gets renewed. You get what's called the new man. And that's the person that God wants you to be. That's the perfect person that can't sin. You cannot commit sin in the new man. But the old man still, you live in that old man. That old man is your flesh. That old man is the things that you used to be and now you become a new creature in Christ Jesus. And so he's saying put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So we're supposed to be different as Christians. We're not supposed to be like we used to be. And God wants us to, in times past we had this covetous nature. But now we're supposed to put on that new man. And that is the key to not coveting is to walk in the spirit. And I'll get to that later. But people will say, well, my sin that I commit doesn't hurt anyone else or affect anyone else. Now, that's not true. Because you can covet without committing the extra sins. You can do that. It can be something in your mind that you do. And that's why I said it's a real easy sin to commit. It's still a sin, though. To desire something, someone else's wife, to desire someone else's car. And really it leads to envy. And envy is when you see someone's life is going good and you hate them for it. You're like, well, I can't believe that they got the promotion. And you hate that person because they got the promotion that you really wanted. And you begin to wish things on their life that you shouldn't be wanting to wish on them. You begin to, you know, you see somebody else's marriage and you think it's perfect and you begin to hate your spouse and envy that person's marriage over your marriage. And you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. They put on their best face here at church or out in public or when you're out hanging out with them. You don't know what kind of problems they have. So you shouldn't begin to have this imagination in your mind where somebody else has something better than you got and then to start to hate them for it. Envy is a wicked sin and it's cousins with covetousness. But coveting, you know, people say, well, coveting doesn't hurt anybody. It's something in your mind. It's something that you feel. It's a desire. But let's see if that's true. Turn to Joshua chapter seven. Joshua chapter number seven. And this is kind of a lengthy little passage but this illustrates to you how coveting can not only ruin your life but it can ruin the lives of those around you. And it does affect other people. Your sin does affect other people. The sin that gets committed in this congregation affects the rest of the congregation and that's why it's up to the pastor to make sure that if someone's committing some kind of offense or they would need to be removed from the congregation that that needs to happen. But unfortunately in a lot of churches you only get thrown out for liking, you know, Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez. You know, it's like you can believe whatever you want about salvation. You can believe whatever you want about any other myriad of topics that's all heresy. But hey, if you think that soul wanting is a good thing and hard preaching, well, you better just get out right now. That's a weird thing that goes on in Baptist churches today but that's not what I'm preaching about this morning. I'm preaching about covetousness. Now look at Joshua chapter seven. Now AI was one of the cities that the children of Israel were supposed to destroy and the children of Israel got beat by like a ragtag group of, it wasn't even like one of the biggest fortified cities but you know what? When God's not pleased with the congregation he's gonna make us to run away from our enemies instead of our enemies running away from us. So look what happens. Let's pick it up in Joshua 7 10. It says, And the Lord said unto Joshua, get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? So this battle's already happened. Some of the children of Israel have already been killed. And they've been killed. People have been killed because of what I'm about to read to you here. Excuse me. Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and disassembled also and they have put it even among their own stuff. Now if you know the story of Achan, was it one person that did this? Yes, why is he saying they have done this, them, they have taken of the accursed thing, they have transgressed my covenant because a little leavened, leavened at the whole lump and God is holding the whole nation responsible for what one person did. Oh, but your sin doesn't hurt anybody else. Look at, therefore, verse 12, 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 you destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against the morrow for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. Excuse me, in the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. So, they're trying to discover who this person is that has taken the accursed thing and he says, well, we'll just do it by tribes, we'll do it by households, we'll do it by individuals and so God's like, they're like casting lots or whatever. And it says, and it shall be that he that is taken of the accursed thing shall be, what does it say? Burnt with fire, he and all that he hath. Sounds like it's affecting more than just him, isn't it? It's affecting everything that he has because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. So, Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken and he brought the family of Judah and he took the family of the Zarehites and 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, or Carmi, was the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah and the tribe of Judah was taken and Joshua said unto Achan, my son give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus and thus have I done. Now, this is really important because this is how covetousness works. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver and a wedge of gold and 50 shekels weight 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. So notice, coveting begins with seeing something, doesn't it? He saw this goodly Babylonish garment. It was a nice outfit. It was an Armani suit or something, I don't know. It was something that he, that really caught his eyes that he wanted. So notice, it's just an outfit. But here's the problem. God said that they weren't supposed to take anything and that all that was his. Now, in the future, they were allowed to take the spoils and take things but God said this stuff was his. They were supposed to burn it all with fire and it was kind of like, you know, the first fruits offering to the Lord. They were not to touch it and so anybody that touched any of that stuff, anybody that took any of that stuff was accursed of God and so, but he couldn't help himself. He saw this. He's like, well, that's such a waste for this nice suit to be burned in a fire or gotten rid of, you know, and then he saw all this silver and gold and he looked at it. He's like, hey, I want this stuff and that's what coveting is. You want something but who did it belong to? It belonged to God and it says, I coveted them and took them. So that means he stole them because if it belonged to God, then it was his, not Achan the son of Carmi. It says, so Joshua sent messengers and they ran into the tent and behold, it was hid in the tent and the silver under it and they took them out of the midst of the tent and brought them unto Joshua and all the children of Israel and laid them out before the Lord. 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, his sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them unto the valley of Achor and Joshua said, why has 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. So tell me how his sin didn't affect anybody else. First of all, it affected the whole nation of Israel because their armies were defeated, men were killed in the battle because of it that didn't need to get killed and then his whole family was burnt with fire and stoned with stones and everything that he had so just coveting after something that doesn't belong to you, God just said, hey, you know what? Let's just take everything from him and so he lost his life. If you said, well, it doesn't affect everybody else, it did affect other people, didn't it though? Coveting affected other people. Coveting affected the whole nation of Israel. Now, the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, it was a congregation. This is a congregation. So when people in this church do the same thing, then it does affect the rest of the people. We might not know why. Maybe everybody's getting sick at the same time. I'm not saying that's why it is, okay? Germs pass from people to people, I get that. But you know what? If our congregation isn't getting blessed for some reason, it could be that there's sin in the camp and so we don't want to be a church and specifically tying this to covetousness. Look, if our people are covetous, then it's gonna affect the rest of our church and we should be thankful for the things we have. Turn to James chapter one, verse 12. Now, we're tempted. Every day of our lives, we're tempted to do evil. We're tempted to do wickedness. We're tempted to sin. But God does have ways to help us. There's ways for us to be able to help from being caught up and wrapped up into sin and to get this kind of covetous lifestyle about us. And really, if you think about it, the children of Israel, why did God always smoke them in the Old Testament? Because they were lusting after things. They were desiring things that they shouldn't have been desiring or they were not thankful for the things that they were getting. You know, if they would have just asked God for meat in the wilderness, don't you think He would have just gave it to them? He would have been saying, Lord, hey, we remember the leaks in the garlic. Can you provide some leaks in garlic? You know, we'd be really appreciative of that. But what do they do? They're ready to stone the leaders. They're ready to kill Moses and Aaron over anything that they get upset about. And they're just not thankful people. And they just want and desire and lust after all these things. Now, James chapter one, verse 12 says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So when you're tempted to sin, when you're tempted to do evil, when you're tempted to do wickedness, is God doing it to you? No, He's not. God is not doing it to you. He might be allowing it to be done to you, but He's not doing it Himself. He's not gonna tempt you to sin. Look what the Bible says. And verse 14 says, But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Our own lust, our own flesh desires to have things and it lusts after things. It's enticed to do things. And it's a battle that we have to live in in our lives constantly. But it says, Then when lust hath conceived, it's kind of bringing it to the thing of a pregnancy, like thinking about it as someone that's pregnant with a child says, When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. So when you have this lust in your heart for something, when you have this covetous attitude in your life, it says, When it hath conceived, it bring forth sin. Isn't that what happened to Achan? He looked at it, he saw it, and said, I coveted after it, and then I took it. This is how sin works. And coveting is like, like I said, it's a gateway to all these extra wicked sins. It says, It bringeth forth sin, and sin when it's finished, bringeth forth death. What happened to Achan the son of Carmine? Well, it brought forth death, didn't it? Now just because you covet one time doesn't mean God's gonna, you know, kill you without the camp or whatever. These are examples to us to show just how extremely angry God is with this kind of sin. It's not just something he thinks is no big deal. But God doesn't smoke us for everything that we do wrong. He, you know, he, just like you don't spank your children for everything that they do wrong. You give them chances, you give them grace, you're like, okay, well, you know, maybe just time out or something. That speaker's tweaking or something. What's going on here? Roshan? Somebody? Thank you. All right, it was annoying me. Anyway, so, so when, I forgot what I was talking about. But anyway, it says, when lusts have conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. So, like I said, God doesn't just smoke us for everything we do, but these things in the Bible are an example to us. So, if you have coveted something, you've stolen something, you're still here, so God didn't just smoke you for everything you do, but these things in the Bible are an example to us. So, if you have coveted something, here so God didn't kill you. He didn't stone you and your whole family and burn you with fire. But he said that, you know, it says that the Lord turned from the fierceness of his wrath. And so when we do these kinds of sins, God is angry. The Bible says God's angry with the wicked every day. So when you, you can still sin in your flesh, can't you? Obviously we don't wanna do that. As Christians we want to resist evil, we wanna resist these types of sin, and it's hard. It's hard to live this life in the flesh with all these things bombarding us every single day. So point number two, coveting is a sin that can get you booted from church. It's so serious that you could actually get kicked out of church for it. Now obviously I said that it's a very common sin that people commit, but some people are just covetous to the point where all they talk about is money. All they talk about is the things that they have. That's a person that I would say is covetous. That person that just, you know, everybody else is talking about the Bible, but this person's talking about how we can make all this money, how we can start this business, and how we can make all this money, and that's all that they're focused on. So if you're focused on money all the time, or the things that you have, and I've seen people quit, you know, quit coming to church just because they wanted to work more overtime so they could afford the stupid things that they bought. It's just like, so do you see how that's idolatry? You put the thing that you bought over the place of going to church and serving God. You see how that's idolatry? It's totally idolatry. Anything you buy that takes you out of the service of the Lord, and you put more time and effort into that thing than to actually serving the Lord and going to church, you're in error. And you need to fix that issue. Because if your covetousness is taking you away from God, then I would be worried about God smoking you. Smoking your life. And what do I mean by that? Like blowing it up, causing havoc in your life? You're like, I don't understand why all this has happened. Quit coveting then! Quit living your life as a covetous person and rein it in. Because, like I said, if you're putting something right before God, he's a jealous God, isn't he? And jealousy is not a bad thing. See, people, they think that jealousy is envy. They're two different things. Jealousy is something, you know, if you're saved, who do you belong to? You belong to God if you're saved, right? And so if you start to worship another God, or you start to worship your stuff, or your job, or whatever it is that you put in place of God, he's gonna be a jealous God, and he's not going to just pardon that forever. You gotta get it under control. You gotta get it under wraps, and some people just don't see it. They don't see as they're getting themselves taken out of church. They don't see, look, your kids can be an idol to you. You can covet, you know, the things that you want for your kids so bad that you just say, oh well, we just need a play day or whatever. And you know, there's six days, or there's seven days, six days a week, there's seven days in a week, right? You can't take your kids to do something on a different day than the day you're supposed to go to church? Well, I only have Sundays off. Well, take a vacation day, do something. But you know, I'd warn you against just making your children an idol and a high place in your life, you know, and let me just say this, God can take away, God will strip the idols away from your life. So if your idols are your children, think about that for a second. That's a scary thing to think about because, you know, he's a jealous God. So that's scary. But anyway, coveting is a sin that can get you booted from church, look at 1 Corinthians chapter five. Now we all know these verses pretty well, gets preached about on a fairly regular basis. But coveting is one of those things. You're like, well, how would we know? Well, it's easy to tell when people are covetous. And I actually have never kicked anybody out for being covetous because it is probably one that's harder to pinpoint. It's not like I'm at your houses all the time just like seeing what you do and seeing how you're coveting and all this other stuff. But if I, you know, just think about this, if you're here to just make money off of God's people, wouldn't that be covetous? You're coveting other people's stuff so that you can get rich. I mean, it's covetous. Look at 1 Corinthians 5, six, it says, your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven, leaven at the whole lump. Purge out there for the old leaven, that you may be a new lump as your unleaven for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So, you know, these people in the church at Corinth, there was a guy that was fornicating and it was a it was egregious sin and they weren't kicking him out. And the apostle Paul said, you need to get this guy out of here. You know, a little leaven is leavening the whole lump. Because if you just allow fornication to take place in your church, and you don't kick them out or give them an ultimatum, then, you know, because obviously, if someone was doing that here and they just didn't know any better, we'd say, well, hey, you should just get married then. You know, that's where shotgun weddings came into play, right? And the Bible teaches shotgun weddings. I'll talk about that tonight. But maybe not back then there were sword shotguns or something, I don't know. Anyway, but, but yeah, I mean, you're causing leaven in a church. And so basically, what I would do is I'd give someone like, you know, a couple of weeks to get it right, or you need to get out. Because if other people see that you're just not doing anything about the fornication, and it's just people know about it, it's like an elephant in the room. And then the pastor doesn't do anything about it. Well, that just encourages other people to do the same thing. You see, it spreads like a disease. It spreads like leaven would spread. And we can't have that. And it's the same thing with covetousness. If someone is a covetous person, whether it be for money or whatever it is, that person's covetousness, if it's not dealt with, can be spread to the other people in the congregation. Then all of a sudden you got a bunch of people in the church that all they care about is coveting after other things. And so that's why it's a dangerous sin to allow to run rampant in your church. So look at verse eight, it says, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to accompany with fornicators, yet not altogether the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, see how, covetous or extortioners or with idolaters, for then must ye needs go out of the world. So you see how covetous is one of those lists of things that would get you kicked out of church. It says, but now I've 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 a one know not to eat. We're not even supposed to eat with them, right? Is that what it says? Don't even eat with them. Someone that's a drunkard, someone that's an idolater, someone that's covetous, a fornicator, we're not supposed to eat with them. It says, for what have I to do to judge them that are without, do not you judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, what does it say? Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. The Bible's calling someone that's covetous a wicked person. And it says, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to get that wicked person out of the church so the church can be healthy again. You get that, it's like having a parasite or disease in your church and it's infecting everybody else. Well, what would you do? You would isolate that disease and get it out. That's what you have to, that's what God's saying because it can spread to other people. If you just let someone be a drunkard in your church, well, everybody else is gonna say, well, that guy's a drunkard, the pastor's not doing anything about it. Well, what's the big deal if I drink too? You see, it spreads. It spreads like a disease, it spreads like a virus. So that's one of the things that you could get kicked out of church for. So don't have a covetous attitude here. And if you're a covetous person, well, get that under control, get that under wraps because you don't wanna be kicked out for that. And like I said, it's something I haven't had to kick anybody out for, but do you think that anybody in this church has ever coveted before? Yeah, absolutely we have. But what it's basically talking about is someone that's just like out of control with it. So now number three this morning, how can we get this covetousness under control? And I don't wanna just give you what God said and what the punishment is for it and not give you a solution of how to fix it. Maybe you've been coveting, maybe you've had an issue. Maybe Christmas has just gotten to you to the point where you're just like, okay, I need to buy something for everybody. I need to buy this for myself. And you got this attitude of covetousness. God has solutions to help you with the sin problems that you have. Number one, you're saved and that's a good thing. But we need to put off that old man and we need to put on the new man. But let's turn to 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. And if you got a sin problem, join the club. Everybody has a sin problem, which is not to make an excuse for sin, but it is just the truth. And it's something that everybody has a problem with. We all have our besetting sins. Maybe your problem isn't one sin, but it's a different one. Not everybody has the proclivity to the same sins. But look what the Bible says. It says in verse 13, 1 Corinthians 10, it says, there hath no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. So temptation with anybody, it's a common sin, isn't it? Isn't that what it says? It's common to man, but God is faithful. Doesn't say we are, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So when you're tempted to sin, when you're tempted to do wrong, God says that's a common problem. We all have this, we're all men and women in here, right? It's a common problem to have temptation taking place in your lives. Every day we're tempted to sin, but it says God is faithful. If you're tempted to do some kind of sin, he won't suffer you to be tempted above that you're able. So what does that tell you? That means every time that you do, you had a choice. You had a choice in the matter, and when you're tempted with the temptation, God gives you a way to escape that temptation. So know this, that every time you're tempted to sin and you give in to that sin, that God gave you a way to escape that thing, and God gave you a way to get out of that situation, and maybe getting out of that situation causes you to take a stand that causes you damage. That happens. But you know what? God does still give you an out every time you're tempted, and he's not gonna tempt you above what you're able. So what's it say? You are able. You're able to resist that. You're able to walk away from that. You're able to make an escape out of that temptation. A lot of times we put ourselves in our own situations. You put yourself in a situation you shouldn't be at. You put yourself around someone you shouldn't be with. You looking at something you shouldn't be looking at. These things are temptations. If you know that when you're alone, you're gonna look at something you shouldn't be looking at, don't be alone. Make a covenant with yourself. Make a purpose in your heart, and say, you know what? I don't wanna be tempted above what I'm able. I'm gonna try to get out of this situation. Put up boundaries in your life. Put up hedges around you. Put up fail safes, so that you're not tempted to do those things. You know what, and God will allow you to be able to escape it, and you'll be able to bear that temptation. So that's one way, is that we know that the Bible says that God will get, he'll allow us to get away with, or not get away with it, get away from it. He'll allow us to escape that temptation. So anytime you're tempted, and it's like everybody is, you get the temptation button. You know, your flesh is telling you, I want this. I desire this. Isn't that what coveting is? It's desiring, it's lusting after something, and that is our biggest pitfall, is desiring and lusting after things. And so if we know whatever that sin that nobody else knows about, or whatever it is that you're doing, that only God knows about in you, well, you know, God is also going to allow you to escape that situation. But you need to purpose in your heart, to say, hey, you know what, I'm gonna take that out. I'm gonna take the out that God gave me, and I'm gonna walk away from this situation. I'm gonna put up boundaries in my life so that I'm not caught in this situation again. Look at Colossians chapter five, verse 16. Colossians chapter five, verse 16. Maybe you need to walk in the Spirit more. Maybe you need to walk in the Spirit more, and that will give you, you know, a better foothold on walking the path of righteousness. David says in the Psalms a lot, you know, you make my feet not to slip. You know, we're on a path, we're on a path of God, and you know, when we're reading our Bible, when we're praying, when we're going to church on a regular basis, when we're out soul-winding, you know, those are things that will walk you in the Spirit. When you're singing the Psalms, when you're singing to God, when you're thankful to Him, those are the things that will help you to walk in the Spirit. But when you're not walking in the Spirit, you're walking in the flesh, aren't you? But we're on a path, and we don't want our feet to slip, but our feet slip sometimes, don't they? We need to minimize that stuff, because look, if you're just living a life filled with sin, then you're also being pummeled all the time by God, because He's just not gonna just keep allowing it. He's gonna give you grace if you're newly saved. He's not ready to just, you know, swing the cricket mallet and smash you in the face every time. He wants to give you grace. He wants to give you opportunity to fix the things in your life, and He helps you with that. He sanctifies you. He sets you apart. The moment you're saved, you're set apart, but you know, why would He say to take up your cross daily and fall after Him if it's not a daily thing that you need to do? It's not just, oh, I took up my cross in 1983, but ever since then, I've never taken it up. Well, then you're failing. You're failing. There is a part where we have to desire to do the right thing. There is a part where we have to desire to stop being caught in the same sin traps that we're set in, and those things are lust and desiring the things that we shouldn't want. It's a constant battle. Look what it says in Galatians 5 16. It says, this I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. See, the lust of the flesh is coveting, isn't it? You walk in the Spirit. Well, you're like, well, that's easy to say, Pastor Thompson, but is it easy to do? It's not easy to do. The Christian life is hard. Getting saved is easy. Living the Christian life hard. And, you know, but God calls us to do some hard things sometimes, doesn't He? And you know what's even harder? To live a sin-ridden life where you're just always in trouble, you're always doing something. I mean, would you rather live a life on this earth where God is blessing you and He's pleased with you, or would you rather live a life where, you know, He's smashing you over the face and over the head because you just can't quit sinning? You gotta make a decision. Are you gonna walk in the Spirit, or are you gonna walk in the flesh? And I'll just say this, that we all walk in the flesh at some point. None of us is filled with the Spirit without measure at every time and every day. None of us are. Jesus was filled with the Spirit without measure, but we're not. That's why we're commanded to be filled with the Spirit, because there's times when we're not. But when you're not being spiritual, you're just on the wrong track, you're on the way to sin, you're on the way to lusting and committing greater sins than you wanna commit, you know? And you're gonna pay a price that you don't wanna pay. It's for a moment of pleasure, you're paying a price that you don't wanna have to pay. Because when it comes around, you're like, man, I wish I'd have never done that. I know what this punishment's for. I wish I'd never wanted that or desired that or sinned because I did. But then it's too late. It's too late, and you get punished. And sometimes the punishment is more than we wanna bear. Look what it says. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. So your body wants to fight against all the things that God has for you. It fights against the Spirit of God. We are in-dwell with the Holy Spirit once we're saved, and your flesh is constantly just wanting to reject that and get away from it because our bodies are not redeemable until the Lord Jesus Christ comes and does that and redeems our body at the rapture. But it says, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. So it's an inner turmoil, and you always wonder, well, why is things so hard in our life? Because we have a turmoil that other people don't have. The unsaved, they don't even think about that kind of stuff. They don't have an inner turmoil like that. They're just giving into it. You know, eventually, and they might know things are wrong, but it's not a big deal to them. But when you have the Spirit of God in you and you're like, man, why do I keep falling into the same trap every single time? Because the flesh lust is against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. It's a battle. It's like, you know, two people that can't get along. Look what it says. The Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other. It's contrary. They're on opposing sides. They are battling for the will of what happens in your life so that you cannot do the things that you would. I want to do this. I want to serve God. I want to stop sinning. But you know what your flesh is like, uh-uh. I like that too much. I want that too much. So which one are you gonna give in to though? And a lot of times we do give in to our sin. But we ought not. Because God gives us a way to escape, doesn't He? Isn't that what the Bible said? We have a way to escape, but we just don't want to sometimes. We give in to the flesh. And if you're already walking in the flesh, look, I guarantee you it's gonna be way harder to make that decision to do right than it is to make the, you know, it's gonna be hard to make that decision to do right. Because you're already on a wrong path. When you're on the right path, the decisions you make about sin are a lot easier. I always noticed when I was at like church camp, I'd go to church camp for the men, the men's camp. You know, a bunch of men get together, powerful singing is going on, preaching that you wouldn't normally hear, and it's all targeted towards the men. And you're getting beat up and you like it. It's weird. It's like, why do I feel miserable and wrong? But you know, I love it. You know why? Because it helps you. Hard preaching helps you. Helps you to get better. And when you come back, you're like, yes, I'm a mighty man of God. And you're all just powerful and spirit-filled. It's because you're in a situation where everybody's spirit-filled, everybody's talking about spiritual things, the preaching is spiritual, the music is spiritual. That's why it's easy to be spiritual while you're at church. A bunch of spirit-filled people, you know, striving together for the faith of the gospel together. But then when you leave, that's when the temptations come in. And that's when the problems happen, because the spirit and the flesh are battling against each other. So it says, skip down to verse 24. It says, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. You see how envying is like the cousin there? Provoking one another. Why would you provoke one another? Because you're envious? Because they're blessed and you're not? Or you perceive that they're blessed and you're not? Their family's got it more together than your family? That's a wicked, I mean, why would Paul say this if it wasn't a problem that we had? You know, he's like, walk, if you're gonna live in the spirit, you need to walk in it also. So live in the spirit, walk in it, walk, you know, we're supposed to exercise our faith. We're supposed to show forth, you know, it's one thing to say, you know what I believe? But then to show your belief. You say you're in the spirit, we'll walk in the spirit also. Do things that are spiritual. There's two different paths we can go on, there's two different natures within us. One, and they're fighting against each other, which one's gonna win? Well, the choice is up to yours because God already told us that all we had to do is walk in the spirit. But you're like, well, try to do that all the time, pastor, or just I fail. Well, then pick yourself back up again and try again. Because once we stop, once we just give into that, and we just fully allow ourselves to be immersed in something that we know is wicked, that's when you're gonna have the problems. That's when God's gonna come after you, and that's when God is gonna make your life miserable. Because what did he do to the children of Israel? Just take an example of what he did to the children of Israel. Every time that they'd get to where they're just falling into idolatry and doing all this wickedness, what did God do? He gave them chance after chance after chance after chance. He sent prophets, he sent preachers. You know, he tried to straighten them out, but they wouldn't get straightened out. And then what did he have to do? Smoke them. Wipe them like you would wipe a dish when you're putting it away. It just completely destroyed Jerusalem, completely destroyed the temple. And they didn't get to go to church for 70 years after that. It's a long time. So just think about that. God can smoke your life, and he can smoke, he can smoke our church. Our church could cease to exist because if we let all this stuff get out of control, that's what God's gonna do. He's not gonna just keep putting up with it. You know, the church is in revelation. He said, I got a problem with you people. You know, you're doing good in this area, this area, this area, but here's where my problem is. And so every church I'm sure God has a problem with in some way, shape, or form. But the better we get individually, the better our church is gonna be as a congregation. Does that make sense? Turn to Luke chapter 12. I only got two places left to go, and we're done. So being a covetous person is a wicked sin. It's so wicked that God says we need to remove those people out of our congregations. And Achan had a choice, didn't he? Did he have a choice? He didn't have to do that. You know, when he coveted it, you know, when you covet and you stop it there and you're like, hey, this is wrong. I shouldn't be thinking about this. I shouldn't be wanting this. And then, you know, what would have happened? He would have saved his whole family's life and his own and all of his animals and whatever else he had. We gotta make those choices. We gotta make the hard choice because if you fall into sin, it's gonna be trouble. Luke chapter 12 verse 13, it says, and one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, this shows that Jesus was hip, man, who made me a judge or divider over you? Who made me a judge or divider, you know? He's like, hey Jesus, work out our family problems with our inheritances and all this other stuff. You know, what does he have to do with that? And you know what, people, families fight over inheritances a lot. You know, they start getting all petty about jewelry and all these different things and it's like, well mom said that was going to me and all this, I don't care. I can't take any of that stuff with me. Going to me and all this, I don't care. I can't take any of that stuff with me. Is it really that important to fight over it? Now obviously there's a lot of greedy people in this world and if it comes down to inheritance and you're saved and the other people aren't, just expect that they're gonna fight for every single thing and try to take the most advantage and all that. But in the end, what does it really matter? You can't take it with you. And you know what, if they want to be greedy and covetous and take everything, well, you know, God's gonna work it out for you. I mean, what can you really do about it? I don't know, my grandma took care of my great-grandma for many years, lived like two houses away from her. My great-aunt and uncle, you know, they were like, I mean, they had all kinds of money. But then when it came down to selling the house, for a long time they were like, we know that you took care of her for all this time, we don't care, we don't need anything. Then when it came down to it, they were fighting and wanted half the house. It's because people were covetous. What do rich people want? What did Henry Ford say when he made his first million dollars? I want to make another million. That's the way covetous people are, but we shouldn't be that way. Why are you fighting for an inheritance? Anyway, look what it says. And he said unto a man who made me a judge and a divider over you, 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. Let me read that for you again. He said to them, take heed, pay attention to what I'm saying to you here, and beware of covetousness, it's something that you should be warned about, right? That's what he's saying, right? For a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. They're just things. It's just stuff. It's not that big of a deal. Why are you focused on that? Why would you let God just chasten you over things that are, it's just things. This Christmas, you're gonna get some things. But is it more important than your relationship with God? And I'm not saying don't get things, don't accept, I'm not saying that. Let's just not get out of control with it. Don't make that video game you get for Christmas your God. Take, you know, if you're playing video games seven days a week, and you don't give any time to God, what is that? It's idolatry. Anything can become an idol in your life. Your wife can become an idol in your life, your husband. If you love them more than you love God, ultimately he's gonna get jealous, and he's gonna cause some damage in your life. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13 verse five. This will be the last verse I have you turn to. Hebrews chapter 13 verse five. Now in the Bible, the word conversation is not usually talking about a conversation that people have. That's the way we kinda use that word nowadays, but when the King James Bible was translated, conversation meant the way you live your life or your lifestyle. The life that you live on this earth. What people see, what your family sees, how you live your life, right? Look at Hebrews 13 verse five. It says let your conversation, your lifestyle, the way you, the manner you live your life be, what's it say? Without covetousness, without it. And be content with such things as you have. Be content with it. Maybe you don't get anything for Christmas this year. Are you gonna be content with the things you already have? Because you should be. With food and raiment, therewith be content. Would that be content enough for you? If you had food and clothing and you didn't have a house to live in, would you be content with that? I might move to California, but I mean, other than that. But look, that's what God's saying. But is everybody content with that? Most people aren't. Just be honest. If you're homeless but you had food and clothing, you probably wouldn't necessarily feel content with that. But the Bible, what's the Bible say? Be content with such things as you have. Now I'm not saying desire to be homeless or something. I'm just saying that, you know, hey, if he's taking care of your needs, be content with that. Maybe you didn't get the new Apple 13 megaphone or whatever, what do they call it, the XL or something? I don't know. I really wanted that. Careful. Is your iPhone 6 still working? Just barely? I know that they throttle everything down and stuff and they try to make you buy the new phone, I get that. I still have a Samsung 9. Is that old? Anybody have a Samsung 9? It's a 9 Plus. It means it's like more heavy duty or something. But I want to get rid of it. I'd like to get a new phone. And maybe I will. Because I can't update it anymore. But anyway, that's a different problem. But I'm just saying, hey, is your life without covetousness? Well if it's not, then that's not a goal that you should work towards. And being content with the things you have is something that God desires for your life. And so covetousness is a gateway, it is a sin in itself, it's one of the Ten Commandments. But it's also a gateway into worse sin. And that's why it's so dangerous. That's why Jesus said to be aware of it. That's why Jesus said to take heed. And a man's life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. But he also said in the scripture right here, for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Maybe you don't have anything. But you know what, Jesus won't leave you. He won't forsake you. He's never gonna do that. He promises that. Doesn't mean he's not gonna punish you for your sin though. So we gotta have the right attitude, we gotta, you know, and living a sinless life isn't going to make you saved or not saved. You're saved by faith. You're saved by grace through faith. And that and out of yourselves. But Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And his commandments are not grievous to us. If you're having a problem with covetousness, hey, this is the time of the season to get it under control. Because everything's just, they're launching the missiles at you right now. The ads, everything, I mean, now the ads go right to your phone. There's nothing you can do to stop it, I don't think. Is there anything you can do to stop it? I don't know, I'm not super techy whatever with the phones. But I just know that if you start talking about something, and I swear sometimes, I've thought about something and it comes up on my phone. It's like, do you know what I'm thinking? What's going on here? But maybe I did, maybe I mumbled at my sleep, I don't know. But anyway, that's another sermon for another time. But anyway, number one, to covet is a wicked sin. But it's very common sin that's easy to commit. And we need to fight against it. We need to fight and resist. The Bible says resist the devil and he will flee from you. Coveting is a sin that can get you booted from church, number two, and number three, how can we get covetousness under control? Well, we resist and we take the opportunity to escape when God gives us that escape route. He's gonna give you a way to escape and to walk in the Spirit. And those are the keys to getting covetousness under control because if you don't, then bad things are gonna happen. You're gonna commit worse sins. And I just wanted to help you with that. And like I said, the time of the year right now is the time to preach a sermon like that. In season, out of season, but it's in season, all right? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great church and for all the people that have come to hear your word this morning, Lord. Pray that you just bless each and every person. Lord, help us to not have a covetous heart. Lord, help us to walk in the Spirit. Lord, help us to take the path that you want us to take. Lord, I pray that you'd help us and help our feet to not slip as we go on that path. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, grab your green hymnals and turn to Psalm number 264. Or no, 424? Yeah, 423. Joy to the World. Song number 423, Joy to the World. Let's sing it out on the first. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders, wonders of His love. Amen. Good seeing you, Brother Bill. Could you close the door of prayer?