This afternoon we're talking about covetousness still. Talking about covetousness and I think from the book of Daniel I segue into it because Israel or Judah had been taken captive to Babylon. I was telling you about the wisdom that Daniel possessed to live in exile in Babylon because Babylon is the world of the material world. just like Egypt was a type of sin. And we see where Jesus says he was leaving us in the world, but to keep us from the evil that's in the world. One of the greater evils that is in the world would be a desire for material things. It would be lusting after the things of the world or having a warped, inordinate desire for the things of the world, our attitude, our position, our disposition of possessing everything. And I told you that we were shaped in form and iniquity and conceived in sin. So what is happening, we have to have a transforming of mind, a different mindset developed because We have to die to self because that old man, that depraved man that has the Adamic nature, has those vices that come along with being born a son of Adam, and that we must be needs be born again. And one of the things that is evil that's in the world, and God had created the world and everything he's seen in the world, he said was good. But fallen man, when man fail, that's when depravity and the knowledge of good and evil enter into the world because Satan's persuasiveness with Eve, she being carnal, he possessed her, he deceived her in eating a disobeying God and eating from the tree in which she should not have eaten. In and of itself, we say it was an act of deception because Adam and Eve was created in the image and likeness of God, so they hadn't fallen. But since Adam knew and God was the one Adam told, Eve was the one who hadn't heard what God said, the commandment wasn't directly given to Eve, so Satan deceived her with words. And I think that may have a lot to do with teaching and preaching and why we don't want the women in the ministry, or we say the word of God kind of prevents the women from the ministry, usurping authority over the man, because indeed the woman was deceived and we, man, knew better. So there's a thing that possesses man, and God promised a woman a redeemer that would come through the seed of the woman, would be the redeemer. Now, this redeemer that would redeem mankind as a whole wasn't coming through Adam. And sin was in the world. But it wasn't imputed. In other words, it was a consciousness or awareness. And God didn't want mankind to live forever in that state with the knowledge of good and evil. But mankind lived and he progressed. The thoughts of man was only evil continually because he had fallen away from being in the image of God, though he was in the likeness of God. He still had a depraved sin nature. So that meant the thoughts of man was continually evil. So God decided that he was gonna destroy man. He was gonna start all over again. But Noah found grace in the eyesight of God. And that's what we have to find is grace. We're saved by grace. That's the only way anyone could be saved is through the grace of God. He found grace in God's eyesight and God saved Noah, but Noah, through obedience, built the ark to the saving of his family. In other words, he believed what God was saying. In other words, he believed God's word. You know, what God's preached words say God had told him these things. So we develop faith. God grants us grace through faith, and that is through hearing of the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing the word of God. And so, hearing the word of god later on some four hundred some years after the promise to abraham by faith since abraham was the father of faith one that believed god he made promises to abraham but those promises to abraham that was by faith, man continued on until some 400 years later when man got so bad that God decided that he was going to bring man out of sin. He was going to bring man out of Egypt. He was going to redeem man again. He was going to save a chosen people, a set of people. That chosen set of people, after he saved them out of Egypt, he gave them his law. the Ten Commandments. Within that law was a commandment, the Tenth Commandment, thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet. throughout the centuries, man has continued because of his depravity. He couldn't fight this covetousness that was weak. It was weak through the love because of the firmness of our flesh, because what was in us came from Adam. And so flesh and blood, carnal man is enmity against God. God had did that in the curse when he said enmity between the woman and her seed. I mean, Satan and the woman's seed. He had put us at enmity. And so what God was doing in buying man back, he had to make man again in his image, but we have to be born again to overcome this blood disease that we have. We must be covered by the blood of the lamb. We must be transitioned through our mind, our way of thinking, our attitude. When Jesus came along, Luke 12, chapter 15, verse, he says, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesseth. The Amplifier says, he said, watch out and guard yourselves against every form of greed. So we see, covetousness is a form of greed, but it's more than just physical, it's also spiritual, it's also inner, it's an inward thing. Also, because the way he got Satan deceived Eve was through the lust of the flesh. That's the way that enters in, through the pride of life, in the lust of the eyes, and we know the temptations that was there for Eve, and she's seen the fruit. was good and one that desired to make one wine, so it was in power. Wanting something or desiring or lusting after something that's been forbidden, and you have an inordinate desire for that, It's the lust that's within your memories, within your flesh. But this was a deception to the woman whereas to Adam, it was lust, it was desire. He obeyed and he listened to his wife in this transgression against God. the finishing that he says for not even not even when one has an overflowing of abundance does his life consist of knows derived from his possessions. In other words, God says man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Another translation says and he said to them guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness. That is the moderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more. For man's life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance of that which is over and above his needs. So we know, I told you last time that with self-storage bins and everything, we have more than we need and we always ask it. We have an insatiable lust. And if you look at the book of Ezekiel, that's one of the things that why Solomon Gomorrah was destroyed because it was satan. insatiable lust and their lifestyle and that's what we see today eating and drinking just as in the days of Noah. And self-centered, self-pleasure, everything is devoted to self. It's about me. It's those desires, it's craving, it's greed, wanting more, that competitive edge. We see the spirit of this world, and Paul talked about it in 1 Timothy, but here as he's warning about pursuing riches and material things because you cannot serve God and mamma. In other words, material things. Book of Proverbs, he says, labor not to be rich. He talks about wealth. He says, beware of covetousness. Highlighting that the nature and urging listeners to find contentment in what God had provided, whereas Adam and Eve could have eaten from any tree in the garden, but they wanted that which was In other words, that was discouraged from that which was forbidden by God that they possessed. That's why covetousness, what it is, is longing, lusting after your neighbor's wife, lusting after a car, coveting, wanting something, wanting more money, you know, jobs. And we have a lot of strikes and conditions going on because of greedy employers and employees. all of them after it's a spirit of non-contentment that is a spirit of the world, a spirit of the age. Whereas to have the spirit of God, that's a learned behavior, is to learn to be content with such that you have. The verse in Proverbs 23 and four says, labor not to be rich. Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, and they fly away as an eagle toward the sky. those lottery tickets and all of the addictions that we have for more, it's of self-satisfaction. It's self-serving. It's covetousness, it's greed, inordinate desire for something external or something to consume upon your own lust. That's why even in praying, God says, ask him and he knows that we have desires but those desires has to be in line with God's Word or what God wants us for, or the purpose of God. The book of Ecclesiastes, I'll get to it in just a second, is about vanity. And we're supposed to work, we're supposed to labor. All of those things are designed for God, but If we hadn't been born again, all of it, working, living, spending, doing everything you do, is vanity and vexation of spirit, it's all for naught. We would be like animals. We live and then we die. But that's an under the sun perspective that Solomon gave in the book of Ecclesiastes. But there's a purpose. God had put us here for a purpose. There's a reason. And once we pursue God and start asking God for wisdom to serve him while we're here to complete the purpose, to do the good works in which we were created to do, only then can we find contentment in life. So contentment, as I said, is a learned behavior. Covet, something God has to warn us against it. Put that sign up there because we are flush. We're carnal, so that lies within our memories. Paul could see that working in his memories. And in the book of Roman, he said that unless he had known by the law about coveting, the law says do not covet, he wouldn't have known. So the law is there as a warning, it's a precaution against what's in us or what we should be fighting against. The word covet, to covet is to long after another's property to enjoy it as one's own. It is indulging in thoughts that lead to actions named in the other against those things in the other commandments. And it's buttress, the 10 commandments is buttress by the first commandment, thou shall have no other God before thee. He's a jealous God. That's the first commandment. The last commandment is thou shall not covet. And we see that that's a Dollar Tree to have another God before God. If you worship anything or pursue anything other than God, that's a Dollar Tree. It says, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and all these other things, the things within that perimeter will be added unto you. So God comes first. But Butcherson, that 10th commandment, when it says, thou shall not covet, we read and study in the New Testament, we find out that covetousness is idolatry. Idolatry starts the commandment, it ends the commandment. Because covetousness is making yourself God. In other words, this is for me. This is what I want. I should have these things. We read of Satan in the book of Isaiah and Ezekiel where it was about him that he was going to be like God and he was going to sit on the throne of God. That's what covetous does to it's a mindset. It has a lot to do in our mind, in our thought life. And you remember I said, we have to have a transformed mind by the renewing of the mind. We must change because our thoughts are not like his thoughts, and our ways are not like his ways. So we have to develop the mind of Christ. So let that same mind being you that was in Christ Jesus. It is indulging in thoughts that lead to actions. Oh, I went there. It also grasping thoughts leads to grasp grasping these. I was listening somewhere on the news the other day. Well, one of our leaders now wants to buy New Zealand, Iceland or something. He wants to take Canada and Mexico and make it part of us and governed by us, wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. You know, there's always, that's why wars come about. You see, where this war is coming, isn't it from the desires that's in your memories? you lust and have not is desires. And that same leader was talking back about the Gulf War and some of the other things and says we should have went in and took the oil, captured all of the oil wells or whatever. It's always about money, and that's what the world is about, mama, and covetousness. One of the richest men in the world is one of this guy's allies, his leader, and they say he's in charge instead of this guy, because this guy seems to be not knowing very much. So it's a shadow presidency, they say. But what happens is, when we talk and say things that the world is being deceived, it's following after the beast, in other words, the governmental system. Remember, the beast system, that system from man that is about man, 666 is the number of man. And that's what the world system, that's what Babylon is about. That's what Nimrod built Babylon about, is reaching a tower that reached to the sky. They would be secure, they would be sufficient because they had military and monetary superiority and they wasn't gonna be divided. But we see that stone in Daniel, the book of Daniel, that came out, which was carved out without hands, and it smoked the image, the ten toes of that image. It smoked that image, and that image was destroyed, and that stone rose up to consume. That kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom. It would rise up. It was the kingdom of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because the wickedness and the evil of all of the other nations Due to their being driven by covetousness. You remember I told you what drives you what motivates you and If it's not love if it's not God if it's not hope and charity the faith of God is destined for vanity and vexation of spirit that's why I said we must find our purpose and why we were created and So all of our conversation, our meditation should be on the Lord. And that's where Satan came in, in spirituality, and the church has apostatized because what has happened, Satan's menaces has been transforming the menaces of life, and they're preaching a twisted gospel of another Jesus. But see, those that are the children of the true children of God that are born again, they're the dispelling everything that's not like God. Hebrews 13 and 5 says, let your conversation be without covetousness. Let it be without covetousness. And be content with such as you have. For he had said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So it ain't about what we have, about material things. And we have to not talk in covetous ways. That's all that's coming out of your mouth and everything. It doesn't take much of a discernment of a spirit to know that this nation, or those people, or whoever lives as such, is not of God, but is of the seed of discernment, is of Satan, children of Satan. That's why when Jesus said, you of your father, the devil, they had a personification of evil, the characteristics of wickedness, because he said, if you was of God, you wouldn't be going about trying to kill me. Amplified reads, let your character, your moral essence, your inner nature. Be free from the love of money. Shun greed, be financially ethical. And this leader we have, this nation we have, the agenda here, what happened in our city, I don't know what happened. There's a complacency of people not being involved. So we can't be passive, we have to give account for our passivity. Also, we can't just sit down, either you're for God or you're against it. You have to be in the battle. There's a battle going on. You determine a side. You have to choose who you will serve. But faith has works, and if you're a child of God, you necessarily has works, unless you're not a child of God, and then you can have dead faith. But a faith without works is a dead faith. He says, being free from the love of money, shun greed, be financially ethical, being content with what you have. For he has said, I will never under any circumstances desert you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax my hold on you. So during these perilous times, and he warned us, and he told us perilous times shall come. All of the circumstances, wars, and rumors of wars, and the corruption of men would come about. But we have to be steadfast and immovable in the faith. If the foundations are shaken, if the foundations are being destroyed, the just still shall live by their faith. The just shall live by faith. And we have to, as the book of Jude tells us, to contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. Because there's a faith out there that's faith in faith, a faith that's not a faith of Christ, in Christ. See, Christ has to be the object of our faith. That's the object, and that's who had appeared. Troubling time 2nd Timothy 3rd chapter 1st through the 6th verse says but understand this that in the last days dangerous times times of great stress and trouble But you remember in John he says see that you be not trouble. Let not your heart be trouble you believe in God Believe in me He cares for us and the sparrows, so doing these perilous times, we shouldn't stoop to doing as the enemy. We should try to fight fire with fire. We have to fight with the word of God. We're in a battle, but the enemies are not flesh and blood. They're not carnal. It's spiritual warfare that we're in. So we have to learn through God, and the fruits of the Spirit manifest in us, helps us to be overcomers. He says, but in the last days, dangerous times will come, difficult days that will be hard to bear. For people will be lovers of self, that is narcissistic, self-centered, self-focused, lovers of money impaled by greed, Boastful, arrogant, and that's really, really what this nation is about, arrogance, boasting. All of those characteristics is not of the father. See, we have to be washed by the word of God, abiding in the word of God. That's why we ask him for wisdom to conduct ourselves wisely in this world. So as we following God in this wisdom, we learn contentment. God says to take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And in this learning, the fruit that is developed, you develop a mind that's in Christ Jesus. And that mind is not after the world. It's not the love of the world, nor the things of the world. And these days they were revilers, disobedient to parents. ungrateful, unthankful, and profane. They will be unloving, devoid of natural human affection, callous, and inhumane. You should see the oppression they're doing to the poor, to the foreign, to people that are not of the same class, creed, or system of they are. They're looking down. They have a pharisaical attitude. But they're hypocrites, though, or hypocritical people. irreconcilable, malicious gossips. I'm thinking of on the way here, I was listening to a sermon talking about Hurricane Helene coming through Florida and North Carolina and all of those places. And some of the stories that people in government, some of our leaders was perpetrating. This is a time when the leader of one of the largest social media platforms in the world, It's a misinformation and man that gives disinformation. It's perilous times out there. It'll be better as you do as some of these people avoid that media outlet as possible because unless you study to show yourself approved, it's easy to be deceived. to be seduced. There are many of Christians have been seduced, and I say many of Christians, but I didn't say many of the elect because it's impossible to fool the elect. Now, a lot of them may be disconceived for a period of time, but their wake-up awareness guard wakes them up and allows them to know of the mistakes and errors that they have made. It says, devoid of self-control, intemperate, immoral, brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of sensual pleasures rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of outward godliness. That is, they could be religious. They could have mega churches. They could be very religious. They could want to make religion a Christian nationalism. But it's idolatrous, those that you wouldn't want to pray with, those that you wouldn't want to worship with, those that you don't want to have dealings with. That's why the prudence will keep silence because it's an evil and wicked time. He says, although they have denied its power, for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith. And that's what I say, the way they conduct themselves, the way they can carry themselves, their allies. Are you empowered evil? Are you associating and empowers that which is wrong? Are you calling evil good and good evil? Are you fighting against the forces of right? They say, avoid such people and keep far away from them. Avoid them. Keep far away from them. I can read this in a living if you want to hear it. You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it's going to be very difficult to be a Christian. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be proud and boastful, sneering at God, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful to them, and thoroughly bad. They will be hard-headed and never give in to others. They will be constant liars and troublemakers and will think nothing of immorality. They will be rough and cruel and sneer at those who try to be good. They will betray their friends, they will be hot headed, puffed up with pride, and prefer times to worship it, and prefer good times to worship in God. They will go to church, yes, but they won't really believe anything that they hear. Don't be taken in with people like this. They are kind who craftily sneak into other people's homes, making friendships with silly, sin-burdened women and teach them their new doctrines. Women of that kind are forever following new teachers, but they never understand the truth. And these teachers fight truth just as Janice and John Brice fought against Moses. They have dirty, warped minds and twisted. They have turned against the Christian faith. But they won't get away with all this forever. Someday that deceit will be well known to everyone as was the sin of Janice and John Brice. So we must contend with all of these things and understand that the liars and Everything is in our government, the government is corrupted, the religions are corrupted. And we're praying and looking unto Jesus, that stone that's cut out without hands to smite these nations, to bring down this wicked system and deliverance from God. The system is created upon materialism, upon money and the economy. A lot of people say they voted for this leader because he's good for the economy. But God says morality, character comes before these things. These are the weightier matters of law, judgment, mercy, compassion on others, the character of God, being able to turn the other cheek, praying for your enemies and those that despitefully use you, taking into heart the sermon of the Beatitudes, are hungry and thirsting for righteousness, for righteousness sake. Those are poor, brokenhearted of spirit, not going after covetousness of material things. And I told you the second chapter of Solomon of the Ecclesiastes, and I have it written there, that second chapter of Ecclesiastes. in the living Bible, but it's about working, and all of these things are all right, but they're under the sun, laboring under the sun, and we shouldn't get carried away with anything. That includes work. Nothing that comes should take the place of God. We shouldn't labor to be rich. We should try to find our purpose in Jesus Christ. So Solomon launches into it in that second chapter what he had learned about his works of building material things like houses and gardens and seeking even greater wealth. Like I said, we shouldn't seek wealth. Wealth should be added unto us. We see God added wealth onto Solomon. Solomon didn't ask for wealth. Solomon asked for wisdom. That's what we should seek is wisdom from God. We should seek the face of God. And he says, seek ye first, and that is search, look after, study, meditate on it, walk, be a doer of his word. And he says, then these other things, all these other things will be added unto you. So you covered a search after God, Paul says, covered the best of gifts. So we're trying to apprehend God who had apprehended us, because once he births us again, We hunger and thirst for his righteousness because as we taste and see his word, sometime it may be sweet, but it may be bitter to digest. Some of the things we may reject in our flesh, we may have to sacrifice, but that's part of the Christian march. He says you have to be able to deny yourself. and take up your cross and follow out there. In other words, you might have to hate your mother, father, sister, or brother, not necessarily, but if they're not... with God if they're not doers of God's word because Jesus when they say your father your brother and sister are here he said who's my mother brother sister and gestured toward the ones that were in the room where he was teaching that in that house he says this is my mother father sister those that do the will of the father who listened at his word So we are being transformed into the family of God. When we pray, Abba, Father, we have been adopted. He has chosen us and he tells us to come out of Babylon, come out of the world. We don't give off the material things. In Solomon's conclusion, all of the material achievements were nothing but vanity and grasping after the wind. Vanity and vexation of spirit. I don't know how often you read that book of Ecclesiastes But it's all about nothing. That's when Solomon came to the light to the knowledge that life was Pointless unless you were following God Unless you believed in God unless you had found you have to give account for all of the deeds in your body. I So he says he finds no real sustained profit in nothing in the world. There's some time having, if you get a new car, after a while, that new car isn't gonna wear off. You'll want another car, a truck, it's something else that's not gonna satisfy. We finding out, lusting after food or material things, when those things are our passions, when those material things drives us, That's the love of the world and not being as David. David was a man after God's heart. He wanted to please God. Is that your utmost desire, is pleasing God, following after God, being like Christ, imitating Christ? Worshiping him, not being as God. That was Satan's mistake. He was divorced away from God. In other words, he wanted to be as God. He wanted to be equal to God. That's what he told Eve. He said, you will be as God. And God's holding out with you because you could be on an equal footing with God. No, we must worship God and him only and we'll never be on that footing with God. We're children of God, not God. Nothing that truly added to his quality of life, no lasting fulfillment. And just like I say, you read Ecclesiastes and Solomon found life from an under the sun perspective. Whereas Christians see life in an over the sun perspective, not under the sun. Under the sun, a man should eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of his labor because that's nothing else. But with God, the means doesn't, the ends doesn't justify the means. In other words, it's the way you live. It's the way you achieve the things you achieve. Are you depending upon God? Are you content with the situation, circumstances, and things that you allow God to bring you through those things? That's what Job, trial was about. That's what Job losing everything was about. It was Job learning and come to understanding that God is sovereign and he do this thing the way he want to. And that if he puts you through this, you still serve him. Job says, though he slay me, yet will I serve him. It can't be about you. It can't be about God justifying himself to you. So you may lose your children, you may lose everything you have, but you can't have that mindset of Job's wife, curse God and die. Cause Satan even came to God after all of that didn't work. He said, well, skin for skin, a man of do anything for his health. And he says, let me attack his body and see what he curse you to your face. So whether we are paraplegic, whether God has, we lose a limb or lose an eye, he says, it's better to lose that eye. If that eye offends you, it's better to pluck it out instead of the whole body being cast into hell. We must exercise everything out of us that's not like God. We have to submit to God. It says, submit to God, resist the devil. we have to submit to it, that Jesus says, nevertheless, thy will be done. So as David learned as he was older and Abishai, where was Abishai? One of his cousins, Zeruiah's sons says, shall I go over and take Simeon's head off? And he said, that dead dog cursed the king. And David says, God must have beat him to curse me. Let him alone. You start accepting the things that come in life. You'll say, as Job says, shall we receive good at the Lord's hand and not bad? So though you go in through circumstances and situations, you believe and trust in God's word that he'll never leave you or forsake you. But that's learned through suffering. He learned by the things that he suffered. That's how Jesus did. He learned by what he suffered. Suffering proves a whole lot because self don't want to suffer People don't want to go through situations. They don't want to go through poverty They don't want to go but look Paul says I've learned to be a base and I've learned to be a bound That pride in that arrogance. You can't be distressed and stir it out. He says see that you be not word If he takes care of the sparrow in the lily, he'll take care of you He does not, Solomon does not mean that they resulted in no sense of achievement or passing pleasure, but that their fruit never truly fulfills God's purpose for man. And that's what I'm saying. Don't you build houses, don't you build bigger barns and all of this. as we see one of the richest men in the world, seems like a very unhappy individual. He seems very unhappy. He seems inhumane to people suffering, but he wants to accolade, it's conceited. No matter how much wealth he has, it's a moral problem. It seems a moral, an ethical problem with his character. Something's wrong with his character. Now the other man that's very wealthy, if we want to talk about it, Warren Buffett, he seems to be keeping God's word about not spreading his seed or letting it flow out through the streets or whatever. When you see a man of wealth that has a wife of as many years as he has and not a lot of adulterous relationships have popped up and a family, a family structure, and caring that he paid less taxes than his secretary. caring about other individuals. I was reading Bill Gates the other day and Jamie Dimon was saying about the Buffett Rule. If we would enforce the Buffett Rule about the wealthy paying more, we would be able to sustain reducing the national debt. We would be a better business-oriented nation or whatever. But that kind of thinking is yielding to covetousness. That's the, what he's thinking is along the lines on what built America. But the subversion that's the undertow, the undercurrent of that, that's why J. B. Diamond says, I hadn't worked for anybody all of my life, in other words, for man, and I don't wanna begin. In other words, he didn't want to go into the present administration. He said it like that, not saying that the administration is corrupt or whatever, but you want to stay outside of Babylon. You don't want to get tangled in Babylon, but Buffett and Dan. Bill Gates, a lot of what Bill Gates is interested with his wealth and the Melissa Gates Foundation, it's things that God has incented to charity giving, like Mackenzie Scott, or whatever Mackenzie's name is, Jeff Bezos' former wife, of giving and philanthropy, has a more God-centered way of saying, okay, let's look at these people, this may be a better way. In other words, it's not a way of covetousness. Buffett and Gates was talking, and McKenzie was talking about how much of their fortune they wanted to give away before they die. And I was reading something about the 50 richest women in the world the other day, and a good bit of them was philanthropists. In other words, give away billions and millions to charities and care about organizations that other self-centered or covetous people don't ever. Just think of the people that are running the world of this nation now and follow them. They're not known for their philanthropy. Now, the guy that's the richest, he may have given or whatever, but he's not known in such a way. So we have to be creative and be a light unto the world and say, okay, that's someone, follow them as we follow Christ. Not that we follow that individual, but he has, that's where we get to where it says having a form of godliness and denying the power. But there are some people that have a form of godliness and not denying the power. You can see God in there. They may not be purging and acknowledging God, and that's their stepping stone, because a lot of people pervert and use religion as game, as godliness. That's what the televangelists and the people are doing, using religion as a means of game. Now that's a whole different ballgame. Therefore, those things are poor substitutes for a sustained sense of well-being. Solomon said it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. He even said he couldn't find a good woman in a thousand women. He have a thousand wives and he's saying none of the problem is Solomon. The problem is his outlook his perspective He can't see from God's perspective because why he disobeyed God he walked against God God appeared to him in a dream twice and says Solomon Those women that you're marrying and those women you're associated with or draw you away from And as he got older, he built idols, he built temples and things to their gods, to Chemosh, to Esther, to Moloch, to all of these different gods. That's what Solomon did with the well. He empowered that which was weakening with what God had blessed him with. Solomon proceeded to explore wine and entertainment. These are simply another form of materialism, ways of pleasing the flesh. He concludes that they too are folly and a mad pursuit. All, he says, everything. And he had the money to prove that was vanity and vexation of spirit. Mark 4.19 says, the lust of other things entering in. But the worries and cares of the world, that is, the distractions of this age with its worldly pleasures, and the deceitfulness and the false security of glamour, of wealth, of fame, and the passionate desire for all other things creep in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful. That's the seed that's sown in the thorny grass. The word of God's been preached. But as that grew, the cares of this world, they got distracted. The things of this world inched out God's word. It choked it out, the cares and the things of the world. That's what happened to Demas. He forsake Paul for this present world. I don't know if he got out of religion or whatever, but he followed the world. He got on that wide road instead of the narrow road, still staying on the narrow road. So I said, we have to learn contentment. It's a way of life. It's a walking with God. The living says, but all too quickly, the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth and the search for success and the lure of nice things come in and crowd out God's message or his word from their hearts so that no crop is produced. They're not producing good fruit. That's the seed sown in the thorns and thistles, the wayside seed. When we covet carnal activities or material things, We serve them. We sit there and watch television all day, the things of the world. We pursue those things. We grasp at them. We feel unfulfilled if we don't have the latest watch television, microwave, whatever it is new, car, you know, just all of the material things, homes, any things of mamma. If we give our time, energy, and money to them, to the extent that we leave only the barest minimus, those things for God, we are practicing idolatry, because covetousness is idolatry. All of these things are you pursuing, and it says, seek ye first the kingdom of God. So your tithing may be there, but your offerings, not your time for God. The other things of God, see, because they are necessarily judgment, doing good deeds, loving mercy, having mercy. All of those things are characteristics that covetousness drives out. That's why it's under idolatry, because it's self-seeking. And I told you about the thoughts of man, and then that's why he destroyed the world. And Noah's time, he says, the thoughts of man was evil continually. And we have to meditate on God's word day and night, whatever is pure and whatever is lovely. But these people go to bed thinking evil, thinking of craftiness, a way to get ahead, devising and scheming. Deuteronomy 5.21 says, you shall not covet. That is, desire and seek to acquire your neighbor's wife. nor desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, or his female servants, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. You must not burn with desire for another man's wife, nor envy his home, or none of those things. So covet means to desire or to take the light in beyond God's acceptable bounds. It's an inordinate desire. And Paul says all things are lawful, but all things are not expedient. So some thoughts that were lawful in some contexts would be against God because it would violate God's word. That's why we have to know God's word. We have to study God's word. That's why I say, that's how you learn contentment and it roots out, it pushes out covetousness, it pushes out all of these other thoughts because God's word prohibits it. God's word prohibits it. Covet means to desire or take delight in these things beyond God's bounds. And that's why he told Peter, what's bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. What's loose on earth will be loose. But if God's words tells you not, you see examples of Polygamy in the Bible, but you don't see that. That's the excellent way You don't see you see God is monogamous. You see God is having one wife one bride So we have to palette our lives in such a way We see it never turned out good for any man that had more than one wife They had a family of disunity Covetousness indicates too long indicates too long after a property that belongs to another in order to enjoy it as Ahab coveted Nabot's vineyard. He even killed Nabot's vineyard to get it. Jezebel destroyed a whole family to get that. It is covetousness to allow oneself to indulge in thoughts that leads to actions named in the other nine commandments. In those commandments, it's covetousness to desecrate the Sabbath, that fourth commandment. What has happened? You want to work two jobs, you want to work to get ahead, but you're not resting on the Sabbath. You're not honoring the Sabbath. You see what I'm saying? This is from a covetous point. I'm not saying that some people don't have to work on the Sabbath. But if it's covetousness that got you in that position, covetousness gets us in debt. Covetousness gets us, that mindset, that's what I say, that's why we have to have a new mindset. The regeneration of a new mindset. There are grasping thoughts that lead to grasping deeds. There's always more. As I told you, we wanted this country. You want to usurp the whole earth. You want, as Russia goes in to try to get Ukraine, that took Germany and what it is, Crimea, and all of these places. That's why there are wars. What is Netanyahu, the murdering and the pillaging that he's done? Over an incident, he says, be not over much righteous. Over incident of maybe a thousand or two thousand people that were raped and pillaged which was wrong Which should have been punished? but God even set limits when he says I for too high in a two-for-two when David had did something sinful and murdered Uriah and Nathan came to him and told him about the you lamb the man had taken and David said that man should be killed but then with Nathan say you to me and You see, he was going too far. The man should have repaid fourfold for the lamb he sold. You see, sometime we go too so far. Now, the whole Middle East, and you read about the Palestinians and people in Gaza that's freezing and that a whole people going to starvation and disease and everything because of one man's pillage. A lot of people within his own camp, within his own realm have resigned because some thought you could be too brutal. you can go too far. That's what Jehu did. God had ordained Jehu to do a job and to kill Jezebel and Ahab, but not to go to Jezreel and do what he did in Jezreel. We read in Hosea, we read throughout the Bible, where he, Jehu's reign ended in his fourth generation because he was a zealot. He went past where God had told him to go. just like the Syrian leader, Sennacherib. God had told him to go in and capture Israel, to take Israel in the bondage. They went into captivity, but he didn't tell him to go to Judah. That's why he lost all of his people there, 185,000. An angel rose up and slew 185,000 that night. And when he went back to his home, Senator Cherub was destroyed, was killed by his own sons. We have to go forth, God says, and no father. Balaam knew that he says I can only say that which God gives me to say I can't go any further We have to learn to properly follow God's Word Adam and Eve went to fall coveting the tree and as he looked at the tree that Portal that Satan gets in the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is how he entered in we have to put up those bonded we have to fight that war it often begins with a perception of beauty and a thing desirable to possess so she's seen the apple was beautiful and that it was looked at delicious and that's what jesus says the lust of the eye if you look it at another woman to lust it after he didn't say if you look at a beautiful woman a sea of women abraham said that that's why they would destroy him because sarah was a fair woman and people beauty is to be beheld. Queen Vesta was beautiful, but she would lower herself to being a pawn in the king's game, and he dethroned her. So we see where Eve looked at this fruit, the lust of the eye, and she seen that it was desirable. It also arises from a persistent inclination for something more abstract, like a desire for power, the pride of life, that you can be over this. Satan says, if you would bow down and worship me, I'll give all these kingdoms to you. That's what's going on with the presidency of this rich guy's head. It's a power, power play. Everything is about power. Jesus says he had been given all power. That's who we should follow after, the one with all power. In this commandment, we step from the outer world of word and deed into the secret place where all good and evil begins, in the heart. That's where Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and wicked. That's why we have to have a new heart. The circumcision, we cannot be content. We cannot learn these things without this born again experience, without this new heart. So all of that on the outward, he says, with their mouth they honor me, but with their heart. See, that's what defiles a man, what's within that man. What comes out, the thoughts, murders, envy, all of that lodges within. That's why we have to be able to bring every thought into the captivity and obedience of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So let me close this, coming in Timothy here, 1 Timothy 6, three to 10. All who are under the yoke and as bond servants are to regard their own masses in a worthy honor. If anyone teaches different doctrine and does not agree with sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine and teaching which is in agreement with godliness, that is personal and integrity, upright behavior, he is conceited and woefully ignorant, that is understanding nothing. He has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, which produce envy, quarrels, verbal abuse, evil suspicions, and perpetual friction between men who are corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth, who think that godliness is a source of profit, a lucrative money-making business, withdraw from them. But godliness actually is a source of great gain when accompanied by contentment. That contentment which comes from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God. For we have brought nothing into this world, and it's clear we cannot take nothing out of this world. But if we have food and clothing with these, we will be content. But those who are not financially and ethical and crave to be rich, that is, have a compulsive, greedy longing for wealth, fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people from ruin and destruction, leading to personal misery. For the love of money, that is the love of money, not money, but the love of money, that is the greedy and desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically is a root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith. Notice that they wandered away from the faith. They had begun as demons. They had begun good. They were just like Eve, created in a perfect environment, and with perfect rules and regulations around them, and they pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So we have to be careful of what money can do and what allowed to run rampant in our lives, what becomes of us. Proverbs 28, 16 says, a leader who is a great oppressor lacks understanding and common sense. And his wickedness shortens his days, but he who hates unjust gain will be blessed and prolonged. So we must learn to hate covetousness, not things, and be a follower of Jesus Christ and learn of him with his yoke upon us.