Coveting.... My latest lesson..

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Even his rubber ducky!!)

Chamad

to desire, covet, take pleasure in, delight in

(Qal) to desire

(Niphal) to be desirable

(Piel) to delight greatly, desire greatly n f

desirableness, preciousness

The 10th commandment forbids all wrong desire of having what will gratify ourselves or lead to selfish behavior. Anything that will lead us away from God’s provision. I find it interesting that God in the first commandment establishes his provision as the one and only God, in the 10th he gives us the understanding of what leads us away from his provision.

Not all desire is bad. Desire causes: capitalism, work, eat, drink, social etiquette. Desire to be with your friends, family, and wife. Desire causes us to work hard and dream.

1 Corinthians 9:10

10Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.

It is the desire that leads us outside of God’s provision that is wrong.

Every culture has a proverb of sort about covetousness:
ENGLISH: Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
AESOPE : Man killed the goose that laid the golden egg - "MUCH WANTS MORE AND LOSSES ALL"
SCOTTISH: "Covetous man never has enough until his mouth is filled with mold"
HINDU : "Mention money, even a corpse opens it mouth"
BUSINESS: "Follow the money trail"

What are some things we can covet other than material stuff and why do we Covet?

Time, Relationships, Knowledge, Power…

The effect of covetness on our lives can lead to…

M.G. Blankenship http://www.apostolic.edu/

COVETING IS NORMAL DESIRE GONE WRONG! -- THIS UNBALANCED AREA OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT IS WHAT WE CALL ORIGINAL SIN. Coveting is at the root of the carnal mind - inner principal of sin
Ephesians 2:2-3

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

There are 5 things I came to understand about Coveting...Which I will post in parts later.

Prayer...

If you have time, watch the following 3 sermons from my church this weekend...

Everyone has questions on prayer, and this is about the best explanation I have ever heard...

http://www.southeastchristian.org/sermons/

You may have to scroll down to see the links for the previous week.
Not sure how long they will be up....

God reaches and stretches out for us....

...and we are lazy and nonchalant in reaching out for him.

A reminder...

God loves all his children, from every where to everyone....It is whether they choose to believe in the Saving Grace of his Son that is the question. Even Ghandi had the choice to believe in Christ.

Jesus said to his followers, to go teach and preach to all nations, so that they may hear the good news, and come to know of Gods saving grace. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Christ said it is better to never hear the Good news, than it is to hear and not believe.

He also commanded believers to go and preach to every nation the Good news.

We all know John 3:16... (I don't have the rainbow wig though)

What is not often quoted are the verses following...

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

May not be a standard of Christian denominations to teach this, but it is the truth

God is not a vending machine,

The price to commune with God is not prayer..

The price was hung on a Cross for us, so that we can live and commune with God forever. Prayer is the constant conversation and interaction we have with God.

We can not demand things from God. His will is what will be done, and it is that aspect of Faith in Him that is hard for people with out faith in Him to believe.

Prayer should be
Recognition... Our Father
Worship.. Holy is your name.
Understanding who is in control... Thy will be done, on earth and in heaven.
One of his providing our basic needs ... Give us our dally bread.
One of guidance.... Lead us not unto temptation,
Salvation... Deliver us from evil.
Adoration. For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever.

Use what ever words you want. Beyond how Jesus taught to pray we become demanding of God, and who are we to challenge and demand of him?

It is ok to pray for provision of Rain within God's will, or Financial needs within God's will... God will answer prayer, we just have to be prepared for the answer, because sometime his silence on the matter is an answer.

Demanding of God and not trusting his will, will leave a person disappointed...

God wants people to trust him, to know that he is in control. Sometimes we have to accept a NO from him, and move on, or see the other avenues he may be opening to you.

EXAMPLE: I have been praying for discernment about entering the ministry, basically asking God if it is in his will put the path in front of me if I am to go to Bible College. Now this is something I really want to do. God is not putting the answer in front of me as I would have hoped. He is however opening up other avenues for me to share my Faith and hope of salvation. If I had just closed myself up to his will, and keep on down the path on my own to Bible College, I may not have seen these other avenues open up. Avenues after further examination are just as appealing to meet my desire.

My selfish prayer to fulfill a desire to follow my own path will never be answered by God.

Prayer is effective as long as we are praying for things to be done with-in Gods will, prayer is ineffective if we pray demanding our selfish desires will be fulfilled.

Essence of prayer is a communication with God. This should be a constant thing, so a person knows if they are making the correct decisions, or looking for discernment on a decision. God's will or not he still gives us the freedom to make decisions on our own.

Heb 13:18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

2Th 1:11 To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power;

Pray without ceasing!

I am courious...

So I have got to thinking about this blog, and wonder how many people read it regularly. I personally know of 3 people, other than my wife that read the blog.

I have an Idea to propose for this blog, and want to know if people who read it would be interested.

On Sunday of every week, I would post a scripture reference and some questions about the scripture that I have or just general questions. The people reading the blog could then comment and answer the questions through out the week and on Thursday/Friday, I could post a follow up, combining answers and comments from everyone.

Just a thought to make this more interactive and a learning experience for everyone, including myself.

Let me know...

You shall have...

OK.... So this is an outline of what has consumed my time the past 2 weeks...

Slide 1

My question today is…Does the first commandment have as much weight for Christians, as it did for the Israelites?

I think to answer that question we have to deal with Who is God?

If you understood God would you be freaked out?
Like Flash are you God or think that you make God?
Or like the engineer is it a fantasy concept?

What is your concept of God?

Today we struggle much like the Israelites did with the question, Who is God?
Are we much different than the people coming out of Egypt, doubting God’s power to provide?
Who is this God that protects us loves us, and wants nothing more that to commune with us?

What are some ways that God daily declares who he is to you?

Slide 2
These same questions were being delt with by the Israelites

Look at what life was like in Egypt and Today…

Multiple God’s…. Today Multiple distractions.

Riches beyond imagine…. Today you name it you can buy it.

Even as slaves they did not want for anything… Living in poverty in America you live better than half the population of the world.

Why on earth would they want 1 God, when multiple was better? Why on earth do we today need a God as provider and to worship?

The people didn’t look to God as who rescued them, they saw Moses as there deliverer, and we do not look to God for help with our problems we look to Dr Phil or Oprah.

Slide 3

So we are talking about the Israelites today.

Sitting in this stadium are 100,000 people, according to a Harris poll 7,000 of them do not believe in God. One of the more intriguing findings is that not all people who call themselves Christians believe all the conventional Christian beliefs. For example, one percent of Christians do not believe in God, 8% do not believe in the survival of the soul after death, 7% do not believe in miracles, 5% do not believe in heaven, 7% do not believe in the Virgin birth and 18% do not believe in hell.

Now do the math for Israel. I think there is a chance that some of them did not know who God was. They were looking at Moses as being who freed them from Egypt not God. There were an estimated 600,000 men coming out of Egypt that is a lot of people who did not believe in God. For God 1 was too many.

It is no wonder God says….

Slide 4

Can these people not see what I have done for them. Led them out of Egypt, Sacrificed my Son. God has true and perfect emotion, and his aggravation with Israel and us must be at least an 8 out of 10 at this point.

So God, who created the world, us, everything in it, and watches over it; has to establish who he and what he wants from us in the first commandment first.

Coming out of Egypt, in the mixed up words.

A call to a Monotheism, many gods…to the One God.

God was not just to be the first among many, or put aside while we run off to fulfill a pleasure, he was and is to be the only God, and first in our thoughts.

Jesus taught in Mathew 4 as he echoed the first commandment, 4: 10 Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

Slide 5

When God commands no other Gods he, wants to establish a relationship with his people. He wants them and us to trust in his provision. For so long he provided for them, and rescued them. Now he wanted to open himself to a relationship with his people. The only way for this relationship to develop was for Israel to forget what they knew of their life in Egypt, forget the many gods they worshiped and turn their eyes to the one true God. This required perfect love, reverence, obedience and worship.

Much the same way when we are born again into Christ we are to turn away from the ways of this world… Romans 2: 2 do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world.

Slide 6

But often we do not do this..

The problem …we hide from God we want to separate ourselves from God. Or as R.C. Sproul puts it we try to cover up who God is. We want to stay in the ways of Egypt and minimize who God is in our lives. In the 1st commandment God demands we put nothing in front of worshiping him.

And Paul says in Eph 4: 4-6, 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

What and why do we hide?

Slide 7

The possession of God in us.. To HAVE him….

James 2:19

19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder's

HAVE!!!!!!!!!! All the things God wants from us is in the word have…..

Slide 8

Hayah

5. to become 1a ---- TRANSFORMED

1. to become 1a

2. to become like 1a

3. to be instituted, be established

4. to be 1a

2 Corinthians 3:18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

6. to exist, be in existence 1a --- Live With

2 Corinthians 6:16
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

7. to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time) 1a --- OBEY ALWAYS

1 John 2:3
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

8. to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality) 1a --- TO BE CONTENT

Job 36:11
If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.

9. to accompany, be with --- TO BE A Companion or Friend

James 2:23

23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[a] and he was called God's friend.

Slide 9

God wants to reveal himself to us.

Kyle - Perfect being, with a plan for life, that presides over all, and has the emotions to care as he presides.