The Treasure of One Another
Luke 12:15 / Exodus 20:17 "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."
DO
NOT COVET, The
last of the 10 commandments!
In Bill Gates’ new book Business @ The Speed
of Thought, he lays out 11 rules students
don’t learn in high school or college, but should. He argues, our feel-good,
politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept
of reality who are set up for failure in the real world.
#1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.
#2-The world won’t care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you to
#3-You won’t make $40,000.00 a yr out of high
school. You won’t be vice- president with a car phone, until you earn both a high school and college
degree.
#4-If you think teachers are tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure
#5- Flipping
burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.
#6-If you mess up, it’s not your parents’
fault, don’t whine about your mistakes,
#7-Before you were born, your parents
weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills; cleaning your clothes and listening to
you talk about how cool you are.
#8-Your school may have done away with winners
and losers, but life has not. some schools have abolished
failing grades; just try until you get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
#9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off & very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
#10 - Television
is NOT real life. Real life people actually leave
the coffee shop.
#11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up
working for one.
A
desire to pursue things that do not belong to you,
An
excessive craving for things simply because someone has it.
It’s
greed and envy.
I. Beware of Covetousness.
Luke 12:15
A. Life doesn’t amount to the things we have. vs. 16-21
1.
The world teaches us that WANTING more for ME is OK, it’s good.
2.
It doesn’t mean we cannot desire anything - we have ambitions... we
can have goals…
B. Do not worry
about life. vs. 22-31
1.
what to eat,
2.
how you look.
3.
what to wear In Ecclesiastes Solomon tells us all is vanity.
C. Be like men
waiting for their master. vs. 36-38
Watching
for the time that Jesus comes back to get us.
1Th 2:4-5
But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with
the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.
5 For neither at any
time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for
II. Set your HEART on things above.
A. It helps to remind ourselves that this world is not our home.
1Jo 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything
in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting
of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The
world & its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives
forever.
B. Don’t
Focus on things WE WANT, focus on things TO SEND...
1.
Focus on what you want to send ahead of us into eternity -
What
have you been sending back home?
Matt 6:19-21 "store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy, & where thieves break in & steal. 20 But store up for
yourselves
treasures
in heaven, where moth & rust do not destroy, & where thieves do not
break in & steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
C. Jesus says
"greed" is something to guard against,
Luke 12:15-21 "15Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s
life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
(Esp. when we are bombarded with
persuasive advertising everyday.)
The
parable of the man spending so much time & energy storing up grain &
goods. bigger barns! before he can enjoy life, God took him.
ENJOY
THE LIFE GOD HAS GIVEN YOU
A rich businessman finds a fisherman sitting lazily by his
boat.
"Why aren’t you out there fishing?" he asked.
"Because I’ve caught enough fish for today."
"Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?" the rich man asked.
"What would I do with them?" said the fisherman.
"You could sell them for more money" came the impatient reply.
"You could buy a bigger and better boat, go into deeper water, catch even
more fish and make lots of money. Soon you could have a fleet of fishing boats
and be rich like me."
The fisherman asked, "Then what would I do?"
"You could sit down and enjoy life," said the businessman.
The fisherman looked at him and said, "What do you think I’m doing
now?"
God wants
us to enjoy the life He has given... and not only that, but to
introduce
others to this new life we have in Christ.
III. Be CONTENT with what you have.
A. The opposite of "Do not covet..."? Be content
We covet
because we want to measure our success or worth by the things we possess... in
relation with others. It comes from a spirit of:
·Competition
- I want
to better than them. Kiasu syndrome.
·Comparison
-
children say, "My friends have this, can I have that?
"Covetousness is simply craving more of
what you have enough of already."
B. Some get angry when others are better off than they are.
If
everyone has a car, I want to have a car, whether or not I need it.
C. PAUL’S ADVICE
1Tim 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we
brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we
have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
If
you measure your worth by material possessions you’ll feel resentful towards
those who have more & frustrated w/God because you’ve got less.
NOTHING IN THIS WORLD CAN REALLY SATISFY YOU
A man walked
into a mental institution one day and was taken on a tour. The tour saw one cell
where the man was beating his head against the padded walls. He kept saying,
"Linda, how could you do it? Linda, how could you do it?" The guide
explained that the man was in love with Linda, and when Linda jilted him, he
drifted off into the ozone. He couldn’t handle it.
They went to the next cell, and there was a man saying, "Linda, Linda, how
could this happen? Linda, Linda."
The visitor said, "Who’s he?"
The guide said, "He’s the man who married Linda."
You see, there is only one person who can
really quench your thirst in life - Jesus Christ.
He said to a woman who at a well (John 4:13-14): "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst
again; but whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never
thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water
springing up into eternal life."
Heb 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and
be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you; never
will I forsake you."
IV. Give PREFERENCE to one another.
Rom 12:10
Be
kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving
preference to one another;
A. GREET ONE ANOTHER—welcome
B. RECEIVE ONE ANOTHER—hospitality
C. CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER—thoughtful
D. ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER—give
confidence
E. EDIFY ONE ANOTHER—building up
F. COMFORT ONE ANOTHER—calm, sooth, ease
G. ADMONISH ONE ANOTHER—give a warning too
H. PREFER ONE ANOTHER—favor
I. SERVE ONE ANOTHER— provide for
J. FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER—hold no account
K. LOVE ONE ANOTHER—Treasure….
· SET YOUR HEART ON THINGS ABOVE
See everything on earth lightly. It will pass away, probably sooner than you
thought. Handle everything God gives us with open hands.
· BE CONTENT WITH WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU
Having God on our side is enough.
Invitation
Hymn #317 “Only Trust Him”