Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA

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Coveting Vanity!

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Psalm 119:35-37 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

The unmentioned sin in the American church is probably the sin of coveting. We know that it is wrong to fornicate, lie, murder, steal, etc. but we seem perfectly content to continue coveting.

God’s word tells us to hate covetousness Exodus 18:21

We are commanded not to covet Exodus 20:17, Deuteronomy 5:21

Covetousness got Achan and all of his family executed and was one of the worse days in Israel’s history Joshua 7:21

The Lord hates the covetous Psalm 10:3

Coveting is what the slothful man does Proverbs 21:26

Hating covetousness will give you a longer life Proverbs 28:16

Covetousness is a heart problem Mark 7:22

Man’s life does not consist of the abundance of things that he possesses so coveting doesn’t really gain you anything Luke 12:15

Coveting is listed with the most heinous of sins

Romans 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Covetousness is called idolatry Colossians 3:5

We are to live without covetousness Hebrews 13:5

What have we gotten ourselves into? We desire things. We look for things of no value. We sacrifice our children, our family, even our health to get things. We walk away from God because things are more important.

Things are vanity. They are empty. They have no real lasting value.

It is time to call the sin what it is. It is time to realize that much of the American dream is built on wanting and desiring what you do not have and learning to feel very discontent because someone else has something we do not have.

Charles Spurgeon said that in the years that he pastored no one ever confessed this sin. It is the respectable sin, is it not?

Everyone understands this one. No condemnation yet the Bible has spoke pretty strongly.

Why don’t you tell me what you think. I would love to hear your comments.

  • Scott newton

    Wow, you’re right, we really don’t see it as idolatry, we just assume that it is natural and not a big deal… It is natural, but I guess that’s the real problem isn’t it?

  • Jennifer Armstrong

    This is one that most people in our area struggles with. It’s so easy to get caught up all the beautiful stuff here, or the high-tech stuff. I know for us it has been a problem more than once.

    I am constantly trying to remind myself that I don’t need what other people have and that Jesus is all I really need. But is so much easier said that done.