Coveting And Contentment

Coveting rarely announces itself as sin. It usually shows up as a reasonable goal, a harmless comparison, or the quiet belief that we’ll finally feel whole once we get what someone else has. We sit down after the sermon to talk through the Tenth Commandment and why God doesn’t stop at our visible actions, he goes straight after our hidden desires and the attitudes driving them. 

We unpack the difference between godly desire and greedy desire, then use the rich young ruler to ask a question that still stings: what would we do if Jesus put his finger on the one thing we refuse to release? From student ministry pressure to adult pursuits of comfort and security, we talk about practical ways to recognize triggers, respond to conviction with hope, and build habits that form contentment. One story in particular makes it concrete: generosity is not just a nice idea, it’s a training ground that pushes covetousness out of the heart. 

Then we widen the lens to America’s 250th birthday. We connect contentment versus coveting to how a culture flourishes or declines, and we reflect on faith, history, and the ongoing debate about Scripture’s influence on the founding era. You’ll hear about George Washington’s own words, the Great Awakening, and why we believe a hunger for truth is rising again, especially in the next generation. 

If you want a deeper, honest conversation about Christian discipleship, contentment, generosity, and praying for our nation, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: what’s one change you’re going to live out this week?

Transcript

Welcome And Georgia Heat Talk

SPEAKER_02 0:04

This is the Kennesaw First Podcast. Life built on truth.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

We are back for another episode of The Truth Aside behind the sermon. How are we doing, guys? It's been a few weeks. Doing great, man. How are you?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

We are living it up out here in the hot, hot Georgia heat.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Heat dome.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

2026.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

When you wake up in the morning and you check the temperature outside and it's 85, you live in hotlan. That's exactly what with a real feel of 112 today.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I don't even know what 112 feels like, so I couldn't even tell you if it if this is a 4th of July.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

I mean, honestly, this real field temperature idea throws me for a loop because isn't the temperature supposed to tell us what it feels like outside? So what do you mean real field? Either it is this hot or it is not this hot. But I feel like it's that hot, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04 1:07

It's a slight exaggeration.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

That's all it is. You know, everybody likes a little drama. So we can say it's worse than it is. Church numbers. We're gonna have 10,000 on campus this weekend for uh the July 3rd celebration, and but it's really gonna be closer to like a thousand. So there's there's like there's thousands. Plural. Uh so you get a special episode today. We're gonna kind of merge two sermons, right, and two conversations uh into one uh discussion, uh looking at the last of the ten commandments and coveting or covetousness, as Pastor Perry used the word, and I was so impressed with during his sermon that Sunday. Uh, but then also uh we're celebrating America's 250th uh birthday, um, which is big, it's big, right? Uh and so we get to spend some time talking about that.

Fourth Of July Memories

SPEAKER_03 2:02

As we're jumping off and jumping in, do y'all have any favorite Fourth of July memories?

SPEAKER_04 2:09

We went one year my parents took me to the National Mall. We watched fireworks from the National Mall on July the 4th. That's pretty cool. It's it was it was off the chain. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

I think the only place cooler might be like at the Liberty Bell or something like that, like our Independence Hall, like where they actually and I they probably don't shoot fireworks from there. That'd be crazy, but also it'd be cool.

SPEAKER_04 2:33

The second time I got to experience that was at the Pentagon. My brother-in-law is military, and there's a special place in the Pentagon that's outside that only military families were invited to. And we sat out there and from perched up high, watched the Washington, D.C. fire fireworks. So y'all top those two. That's pretty cool. Yeah, it was pretty cool. It really was. And uh, you know, stuff that I would never forget, but it was awesome. Love the United States, it's awesome. God bless America.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

We never really did much on July 4th. Um, just because it was summer, it was uh, you know, we had church camps, we had uh baseball camps, we had all this. We never really did much. But one thing that um I really enjoyed has been kind of the past few years. Uh, you know, after I met Caitlin, we would go over to a neighboring town. They had this big park, and they had the same group that did the fireworks for the Astros games come in and set up the fireworks in the park. And there was this huge fireworks show. And so we would sit out there, there was a band, it was around this, you know, this kind of small pond. And so kids would run around. It was, you know, super Americana. We loved it. Um, but I think one of my one of my biggest um kind of impactful memories uh really regarding our country was actually during Memorial Day weekend, uh, I went on a trip with our school to Washington, D.C. And we happened to be in Washington, D.C. on Memorial Day weekend, and it was the day before Memorial Day, and we went to the tomb of the unknown soldier, and we got to witness the changing of the guards the day before Memorial Day. They did a special wreath laying on it, and it was one of the most, I think, just profound moments about just the the amount of sacrifice that has been made for our country. And uh it was it, it's one of those that has just really stayed with me. And uh, as a young trumpet player, I got to witness them playing taps up on that big hill, and it just echoed and it stops you in your tracks, and uh, so huge, really, really cool moment for me.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

That's wonderful, that's cool. So, real as a trumpet player as well, right? Yeah, there's nothing like taps, like it is the most one of the most beautiful little things, but also you can feel the weight of what it's honoring uh when you hear it played.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

Yeah, I love we we have a cemetery, uh military national cemetery over in Canton. And I do funerals over there, and uh they always say funny thing about that is they say you have a seven minutes pastor. You know, it's always that you're on a clock, yeah. It is military timing there, but and I I always take about five at the most. And one of the reasons why is because that is so significant, and I I've seen them do the gun salutes and then play taps. Yeah. And holy cow, it's just it's it's it's amazing. I'm really grateful for our military, grateful for um so many that have given up so much for our freedoms. And uh we we probably don't appreciate that to the level that we should.

SPEAKER_06 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

And so I'm grateful for holidays like this where we can stop. You know, my my brother-in-law was a lieutenant colonel in the army and um led a tank division into Iraq twice. And so um knowing him, and you know, those guys are usually very silent about their experience. They they come back and they're very, very silent. And God only knows the stories of heroism that probably should be told, uh, that have given us what we experience every single day, which is freedom to be able to enjoy and worship and and do the things that we do and take for granted every every day. We're grateful. We're grateful. Our nation's pretty young. 250 years, not really that old if you think about it. And God has truly blessed America for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Trey, what do you guys do for 4th of July? Eat. Grill. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

We get on the grill, man. Uh, go to the pool, just have some family time, just kind of relax, uh, watch all kind of kinds of movies. Uh, my favorite movie is Independence Day.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

The original, rather the original. Yeah, not the new one. No, we don't do that. But yeah, we just like to get together and celebrate as a family, get on the grill and just kind of kick it.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Good.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

So we've kind of been on hiatus with BBS, with being out of town, with vacations, with church camps, upcoming mission

The Tenth Commandment On Coveting

SPEAKER_00 7:50

trips. Uh, so we're gonna kind of take a moment today to look at a couple of the sermons. So the first one was really wrapping up the the Ten Commandments and getting to the final commandment, which is um you shouldn't covet other people's things. And uh so uh we should we we looked at you know two really big points that we should want the right things and we should recognize our wrong attitudes about things. So, Pastor Perry, why don't you give us your insights on that?

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Yeah, I think my favorite part of the sermon was just talking about there are some points in the Bible where it says to covet things, like covet spiritual gifts, and then there was the thou shalt not covet. Uh when you when you read this, you go back to you know 13 to 15 BCE and you get a list, and you're like, okay, what are we not supposed to covet? Well, I'm not supposed to covet my neighbor's ox. I'm not supposed to covet covet and and there's a couple things. You're not supposed to covet your neighbor's house or their wife. Uh, you're not in it kind of concludes by saying, or anything else, more or less with your neighbor's name on it, if it belongs to them. But I love the fact that God says, hey, if you're gonna covet, covet the right things, covet the the greater things, go after the the spiritual gifts and ask God, hey, how can I be more utilized for your kingdom work because there is a greater kingdom involved? And this kind of dovetails a little bit with God and country, but you know, this is a temporary country, uh, but God's kingdom is one that is forever. And so he's saying, you know, get get your attitude. And this is this particular uh this particular uh commandment is different than the other ones because it doesn't relate to things that are as abstract per se, but more of an attitude about those abstract things. And so how do I feel about these things? Are these things priority to my life? Are they is, you know, am I gonna go down to Stuff Martin that's where I'm gonna find my life, or am I gonna find it really in a greater kingdom, a greater thing that's available for us in this world, which is to seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness. And he says, and then all these things can be added into you. So if you want to be a blessed, truly blessed, that's where it's at. It's having your heart and your attitude in the right place. And coveting is one of those, those particular sins that it's harder to find. It's kind of a little bit more under the radar. Uh, we don't usually notice and recognize that we're coveting things and we have to have this in order to be happy. Um, but it really is an attitude check. This whole, this whole commandment, God finishes up all the commandments with this one thing to say, let me give you an attitude check.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Good feedback, man. Um, so you made a sharp distinction between godly coveting and greedy coveting. How do you tell the difference in your own heart? Yeah, someone want to jump in on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah, I mean, um really just evaluating what you're pursuing, um, you know, and evaluating whether or not there is fruit in your life from pursuing godly things. Um, you know, to to covet is to have strong desire for something. And so really I think what we're getting at is what are you what are you strongly desiring? Is it other people's things? Is it more progress? Is it more money? Is it more of what you don't have? Or are you really desiring things that are after God's own heart? Are you desiring to be godly? Are you desiring to see the fruit of the spirit really active in your life? And uh so asking ourselves those questions, evaluating what fruit am I really seeing in my life? And then um, you know, asking God to reveal, hey, where where where what attitudes am I displaying right now? What attitudes do I truly have? And I think the Holy Spirit will will show us what is really active in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, so Perry, you point out that all of the other commandments deal with visible actions, but this one targets something that's invisible, desire itself. So why do you think that God included a commandment that polices the heart and not just your behavior?

Why God Targets Hidden Desire

SPEAKER_04 12:47

Because it's so easily undetected. You have people like, for example, I brought up the rich young rooter. He thought he was knocking, he he thought he was about in a thousand spiritually. He um came, he put himself in a position, I think he was really looking for affirmation. I think there was this the self-doubt, probably, maybe, I don't know, and this is just my take on it, but maybe this self-doubt of, okay, I just want to, I want to get the seal put on the on the on the paper that I already feel like I've got, which says, I mean, heaven is mine, I'm batting a thousand, I'm going to go in with the perfect shot. And um I'm a slam dunk for heaven. And Jesus really just resets him. And he says, okay, take everything you got, go sell it to poor and come follow me. And really, it wasn't about selling stuff as much as it was him selling out to Jesus. The question was, where was his heart? And his heart revealed something that he didn't even recognize himself, which was, I can't give up those things. If if if I had if I have to give up those things, I'm gonna go. The Bible says he went away sadly. So he uh what he was sad about, it appears to me, is he was sad because he recognized, uh, I'm I'm not the the spiritual star that I thought I was. Uh I've got a I've got something here that what must I do to attain eternal life? He went from thinking he was like had the right seat with uh you know next to God to going, I'm not even sure I'm getting in the gate. And which he wasn't. And Jesus, Jesus helped him detect it because I think there are a lot, I mean, Satan works to deceive us, and he truly wants to give false confidence sometimes where it doesn't, it really isn't, shouldn't be confidence. And so, you know, I think this is kind of like what David said search for my heart, know me, see if there be any wicked way in me. And that's what Jesus was doing for him. And I, you know, I don't know how bold we are to actually ask God that today. Um, say, God, you know what? I may be off, I may be off center here. I may be missing something. This guy at least had the boldness to go out. The Pharisees, Sadducees, all these people are gonna be critical of him for doing this, and for instead of going to them, who were the quote unquote religious leaders, instead they're he's going to Jesus. And Jesus, Jesus is not trying to be mean to him. Jesus just gave to him what he was asking for, which was tell me the truth. And he gave him the truth. Listen, um, this is where you're at. You're this is your problem. You have coveted these things, and you've missed this commandment. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yeah, and it it's so important. We like to have we like to have control. Um but in that interaction with the rich young ruler, even I mean, Jesus exposes, like, even when you're in control of your spiritual output, per se, um where you dwell and where your heart dwells is what actually produces fruit. Because even at the end of that interaction, he leaves disappointed, right? And he leaves discouraged. He had done all of the right things for so long. And then Jesus says, Hey, go sell all this stuff, like you're missing the point. So it's just such a heart challenge, this this commandment of making sure that we're in line with who God is and what he wants for us, not what we think we need or what we think we want.

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Jesus was doing spiritual surgery on his heart.

SPEAKER_06 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

And the first thing he had to do is he had to expose the problem. Yeah. And he had, you know, that that infectious disease of his coveting was there and it was it was undetected. Yeah. He thought he was in perfect spiritual health and he wasn't. And so Jesus opens up his heart, puts it out before him, says, This is what I found when I searched your heart. And man, I I don't know if we have that boldness to ask. I mean, it's I would what what if God did reveal to us, hey, you're you've got to have these things for you to be happy. If all these things were missing, if you were a Job and I took everything away, would I still be enough? That's what was happening here. And wow. It's um that's not easy, especially back to where we're at. We're in America, when we I often look at what what God said to Moses and and and Joshua and Caleb and all these people when he talked about, listen, when you finally get into the promised land, which Moses never went, but um when you finally get there and you live in good houses, and when you have all these things, you know, you have everything you desired back in Egypt, but you have even more, you finally have entered the promised land. Will you forget me? And that's of course a question that we have to ask ourselves as Americans today, too.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Yeah, I I think it hits us square in the face, especially in the South, especially in the Bible Belt, if you will, of where we can kind of create that um we can create that spiritual presentation pretty easily. Um a guy named Dean and Sierra wrote a book called Co uh called uh what what was it called? I'm blanking on it now. I just read it. It's all about the uh the unsaved Christian is what it's called. Yeah, yeah. It's all about cultural Christianity. And I was like, I was about to say cultural Christianity was the name of the book, and that's not it. It's about cultural Christianity. It's called the Unsaved Christian. Um, but that that's the exact premise it talks about is man, we can we can be really good at saying the right things and at knowing the correct answers, but never having a a moment with Jesus where we recognize my sin really does separate me from a holy God and the design he created for me to live with him. Uh and and my sin really really made it necessary for Jesus to go to the cross. Um and you know, I think your sermon, Pastor Perry, did a great job of connecting that back to that covetousness idea. Like, we want the best of both worlds, but this ain't Hannah Montana, right? Like we Jesus has to be enough. And so we need to be willing to have that bold question, that bold alone time with God. And that's part of why our time with the Lord is so important, uh, of not just being a okay, I read my I read my five-minute devotional on the Bible app this morning, the little box is gonna check and I'm good. But where we can actually sit down, like you said, like David, Lord, search me. Show me. We did communion this past Sunday. Um, and you know, that's one of the things that I always try and take time to do uh prior to taking this Lord, you know, reveal to me my sins, show me where I'm at, and help me to repent of the things that I need to repent of. Um and so just such a just such a good challenge for me personally to just ask the question, you know, Lord, where where am I falling short? Where am I seeking the world and satisfaction there as opposed to from you?

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Well, and what this what this final commandment really gets at is something that we have kind of all been saying the same thing, just in different words, is um is really that attitude because at the end of the day, the Lord just doesn't just want you to get into heaven, he wants to have a relationship with his people. And so what he's saying is don't just be focused on the things that I can give you or that you can get, but focus on the one who's giving it, you know, focus on the Lord and having a right relationship with you. He just doesn't, he doesn't want you to just walk in righteousness for righteousness' sake. He wants you to walk in righteousness so that he can have a righteous relationship with you. And so don't see these as, you know, especially in like the rich and young ruler, this cultural Christianity, don't view this as a checklist, view it as disciplines that help us reach a proper and deep intimate relationship with the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Yeah, when when we become a Christian, it's like a verb. We don't become something, just only. We continue to be something, which what that means is we become followers of Christ. You can't have a relationship with Christ and not follow him. It's just the way it is. I mean, when you are walking, Jesus is saying, Come follow me, and I'll make you a fisherman. Come follow me. Jesus' favorite thing to say is he didn't offer a public invitation that can tell in scripture like what we do every Sunday. You know what he just did? He said, Come. That was what he said. That was his endless invitation, come with me. And that's what it really means to be a disciple. That's really what it means to be a Christian. That's really what it means to be truly born again, which is to know I've accepted this grace from Jesus. And based upon his invitation, I'm following. So uh that's where you get into that unsaved Christian thing. And I I love that you brought that up today.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

It's really good.

Shepherding People Through Coveting

SPEAKER_01 22:41

So I think myself and a lot of our listeners would love to know, as pastors, how do you shepherd individuals who struggle with knowing that they're dealing with covetedness? How do you guys shepherd that? How do you shepherd them?

SPEAKER_03 22:59

So this looks like a lot of things in student ministry, and it's it's really a fun conversation to get to have with them because usually it's it's when I get to have this conversation, it's from the right heart, right? Students will look and realize, man, I'm putting football before Jesus. Right. Or they'll look and realize, man, I I really like being on stage on Sunday, but it's not as much about worshiping Jesus as it is about people being proud of me. Um, you know, they they covet the the praise of others, or they covet the security um that comes with athletic achievement. Um, you know, they they covet money for financial security and all the things, right? And they come and they're like, you know, Pastor and I, okay, I'm recognizing this now. What do I do? And one of my favorite things to get to tell them is like, hey, this is step one and this is awesome, right? So like when you recognize these things in your heart, don't don't beat yourself over the head over conviction, rejoice that the Holy Spirit revealed this to you, right? Like that's that's his job. His job is to make us look more like Jesus. So that's step one, that's great, right? But then two, you have you've got to ask yourself the question, how willing am I to open my hands of this? Right. Um, you know, I tell all of our kids, like, it's not wrong to play football, right? It's not wrong to be musically gifted, it's not wrong to strive for academic success. I want you to do all of those things and I want you to be the best at it. I'd nothing would make me happier than for any of our students to get to go and do any of the things that they want to get to go and do. Um, but if it comes at the cost of following Jesus, absolutely we say, hey, hold up. And so we reckon we get them to recognize. Uh, once they recognize and they come, we we celebrate that moment of conviction and we say, Hey, all right, now what does this look like for you recognizing that it's taking you somewhere that you don't want to go spiritually? And what are some checks we can put in place for that, right? For some people, it might mean just removing yourself from that environment for a little bit, right? Um, I tell people a lot of times growing up was was always I was always at the top of the class musically, right? It just came natural. Um, honestly, I did not practice the way I should have because I didn't have to um in a lot of ways. Um, but uh what that does to me now is like this past Sunday, Pastor Chasen was out and I had the opportunity to lead worship. That took more spiritual prep on my end to make sure that I was not making it about me and not making it an academic performance, right? Where I was gonna sit down and be like, okay, uh fix your mouth shape, do this, do this. This nothing wrong with wanting to be good. But when it's about me, it is wrong, right? And so we we kind of help them develop those recognizing those triggers and those patterns. That's what we try to do.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Pastorally, it's it's tough to even get to a point of dealing with that because as you brought up, it's we may not even know that they are dealing with that until they voice that. Now, you as a as a pastor may be able to see some things and you know, see like, hey, maybe their attitude is displaying itself through their actions, that maybe their actions are communicating to me that their attitude isn't in the right spot. And then I'll go and say, hey, you know, I'm I'm viewing some things, you know, I'm thinking, you know, your attitude maybe isn't quite there. How can I help you out? And then we'll find out that maybe they are wanting, you know, coveting something else, and that's leading to these actions. Um, but nine times out of 10, we may not know that they're dealing with this until they're coming to us and saying, hey, I'm feeling extremely convicted about how I've been viewing this. Um, and really, it's it's kind of our jobs to just pray and and really ask the Holy Spirit to continue to do work in all of these people's lives in the same way that that he's working in our life. And he's he's guiding us to help and deal with these conversations and have these conversations. So, really, really, there is no playbook um other than following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And then when people do come to, you know, I'm sure you have uh you, Ryan, have um more opportunity just because of the the nature of that ministry. Um, but when people do come to us, just man, just treat them with grace. Because we like that's that's the reality, is that we're all sinners saved by grace. And if Jesus never showed us grace, we wouldn't have the opportunity to show grace to others. And uh so really that's that's kind of how I treat situations like

Generosity As A Repellent To Greed

SPEAKER_00 28:11

that.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

I think one more quick thing as a lead by example, be generous, live out a lifestyle of generosity. And uh, of course, for me personally, I mean, living that out first and foremost comes with my uh choice to tithe and to give to give to God a minimum of 10%. That's what I do. I love to do that. Um I talk about it publicly. It's not something that's braggadocious, it really is trying to be by an example and saying, you know, I'm gonna try to be generous, um, and I'm gonna live out that that life. And they're also not just with that though, but just with individuals um who come and say, hey, you know, uh I'm I'm struggling. I need some groceries and uh and finding means and ways to be able to be of assistance to them. It can be, it doesn't have to be big.

SPEAKER_06 29:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

It it really doesn't have to be big.

SPEAKER_06 29:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

But um, but keeping ourselves in check by living a life of generosity, I think is probably one of the most powerful things, as opposed to saying, well, I got this deal or how can I get this discount from a church member because you know, um, because I happen to know them. And, you know, it instead of instead of mooching for free stuff, as I often say, say, how can I be a blessing to you? Yep. And how can I, you know, you I don't know, this is something that happened last week. I I pulled up to Kennesaw Tire and I had a nail in my tire and I knew it, and they were trying to close, and I was there like one minute before. And I said the guy said, Man, we're closed. And I said, dude, I have a I have a nail in my tire. Yeah. And I said, Is, you know, is there any way you can help me out? And he said reluctantly, he said, Yeah. And so he was back there for 15 minutes, came back, says that's 30 bucks. And I said, Here's 40.

SPEAKER_06 30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Thank you for taking time. You know, whether the guy knew me or not, it's not the point. The whole point is that that helped me. Yeah. That helped me instead of saying, Man, you know, let me figure out a way so I can you know put it to the man. Yeah, yeah. Um, or even sometimes just do the minimum. Yeah. How can I live out that kind of life of just doing a little extra in my life to be able to help somebody out? I think it's I think generosity goes a long way. And I think that that is a repellent for covetness covetousness. Yeah. So if we just live out that lifestyle, I think it's a natural example and it's a message all by itself.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

Yeah. Just to brag on our pastor for a second, uh, that's super real for him. Like I'm sure that Trey and Chaston have seen in his life regularly that he's every bit as generous uh and more so than than what you may think. Um so Perry, I think you embody that really well. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Yeah, you don't. I didn't expect that. Thank you for encouraging me. And and if you've if it's noticed, that's what I that's more important. But I think when we just make that just what we do, yeah. Um, and I I think that's that I I I've golly, I can tell y'all this really cool story. We went to the Virgin Islands. I have to tell this, but we went to the Virgin Islands a few weeks ago. I mean, that's a nice trip. It really is a nice trip. And flew over there and and went there. So it's not like I don't have anything, and I'm not gonna pretend that I don't have anything. You know, I'm not super wealthy or anything. But we were checking out, there was this little, there was this little um uh this little market, and a lot of people there are really poor. And we're checking out, and dude, we were buying like $500 worth of groceries. I'm just telling you, because I mean I had a son, my daughter, we were it was like they knew that you were generous.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

That's why they invited on vacation. Mary and Joe know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

But but while we're doing that, we're checking out, and this lady comes up behind me and she has one carton of eggs. Carton of eggs were six dollars and thirty-nine cents there. Oh yeah. And I'm standing there and I'm and I promise you this happened. The Holy Spirit said to me, She only has money for eggs. And and I'm like, okay, God, what do you want me to do about that? And he's like, buy her eggs. Yeah, I'm not sure she spoke English hardly. I mean, a lot of people speak Spanish, and I I looked back at her. I said, Give me your eggs. And you get this big six foot two guy just saying, Give me your eggs. He looked a little mortified, and I but she gave them to me, and it's like, maybe you'll pull a gun. I don't know what he thought. But I said, Give me your eggs, and I hand them to the lady. I said, scan it. And she scanned it, put it in a bag, gave it to her.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

I said, Poor ladies walking back to the back of the store to get more budget, have a great day.

SPEAKER_04 33:12

And it was really a lot of it was because it was taking forever. Yeah, it was taking forever for us to get through $500 worth of groceries first and six dollars worth of eggs. Five hundred dollars worth of groceries, by the way, obviously wasn't as much as you think. Sure, yeah. But but the coolest thing happened because I knew that was the Spirit of God that spoke to me. And I thought, okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_06 33:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:37

Uh and anyway, at the end, I promise you, you and ask Jan. At the end of it, there was we had two cartons of eggs, and she scanned my eggs, six dollars and thirty nine cents, and it came up like two bucks. And the lady stopped and looked at it and was like the sticker said six dollars and something, it was scanning as two dollars and something. And and the lady set it down and she scanned the next one, it scanned as two dollars and something. And I said, and she goes, I don't know what's going on here. I promise this happened. And I said, I do. God just told you that he can show up when somebody else obeys God, and God told me to buy her eggs. And and I said, So go ahead and charge me the extra for the eggs. I said, that was just God saying something to me, and maybe to you, I don't know. She goes, that's what it scanned at. I paid $2 or something for the eggs. But I'm like, but you can't outgive God. That's the whole point of it all. And you know, when we say I'm gonna hold on to it with a clenched hand, it it really, you know, you think of it, there's a reason why when we worship we have open hands. And it's so that we will learn that God is like miraculously gonna show up. I know you might think, okay, there was some sort of goof on. I promise, when she scanned her eggs, it was six dollars and thirty-nine cents. Yeah, same ticket. Yeah, I I should have kept the ticket. I'm not kidding that happened. Oh, that's awesome. It was it was it was the coolest thing. And I'm like, Jan, Jan's used to it, so she just laughed. Yeah, and we just kept going. Yeah. But it's, I'm telling you, try it on for size, see what happens. Yeah. Dollars show up in weird ways.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Hey. So

Contentment And The Soul Of A Nation

SPEAKER_01 35:33

contentment and coveting are personal heart level issues, but they also shape the character of a whole culture. As we shift today to talk about our nation's 250th birthday, how do you see the contentment versus covetedness theme connecting to how a nation flourishes or declines? What a big question.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

Um we kind of hit on some of that talking about this this idea of cultural Christianity and and kind of letting religion be uh a part of what we do instead of a part of of who we are. Um, but to connect the the idea of covetedness or or contentment to the flourishing of a nation, I I would just challenge all of us to zoom out and look at the society we live in as a whole uh and see where this it's all about you, you do, you mentality has gotten us, honestly. Um people are are pushed to only consider themselves, not to buy the lady behind them's eggs, uh, but to say, hey, uh like I hope you have a job, like get your own eggs, you know. Uh I've got to get my eggs. Not saying people shouldn't work and that kind of thing, but we we very much live in a world that is you do you and everybody else should make you comfortable. Um, and the unfortunate reality is that just it twists uh the truth of so many things so quickly when we expect everyone else to bow to our needs, you know, to our desires. Umes that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Yeah, yeah. I think you you've hit the nail on the head. Um, I mean, if you look at if you look at history, we began um as a united front. I mean, the United States. We began as a united front, and now I mean I think we should go through a rename. We should become the individual states. And um, you know, we're it's it's every person is their own, it's kind of their own country. Yeah. And every person kind of lives in their own bubble. You know, I feel like I'm getting a little, you know, um I don't know right now, but uh every person kind of lives under their own rules and like this, yes, you do you, your truth is your truth, and there is no objective truth, and we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But um, you know, the Bible calls us to something completely different, you know, um, you know, to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed. Um, and so, you know, it's it we're living in a very interesting moment in our country. Um, you know, like for my generation, I see a lot of people who are finding it hard to celebrate. Yeah. Um, we're finding kind of this mental conundrum of of, okay, yes, we're celebrating the 250th year of our country, but at the same time, like groceries are vastly more expensive than they were a couple years ago. Um, or we see this going on, we see this going on. And so uh it's it's kind of a weird moment to live in. But I think I think I say all that to say this is that when we come together and when we acknowledge God as who he is, we acknowledge him in his sovereignty, just like this verse says, blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord God, whose God is Yahweh, the covenant God who has declared from the beginning of time that you will be my people. Um, and so I I think that that really hits the nail on the head is that you know, God is in control of all of these things, and God is sitting on his throne right now, he's ruling, he's holding us up, he established us for a reason, and and I think that reason is to bring him more glory even through these moments in history.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

Well, and as you even just you know, this idea of contentment versus um covetousness when we are content in what God has given us and we're not coveting everything else around us, the grass isn't always greener. We're able to look with a little bit clearer eyes at the reality that's around us, right? We're able to see all the ways that he has blessed us because we understand that he really is good, he really is God, and and things could be a whole lot different and a whole lot worse. Uh, Pastor Perry mentioned earlier, I don't remember if we were recording at the time or not, but that 250 years old for a country is not that old. Right. I remember watching D2, the Mighty Ducks. Okay, and uh this has a point, I promise. And uh and the the little teacher who's supposed to be teaching team USA hockey, junior hockey or whatever, while they're supposed to be at this competition. Um she's talking about the first Olympics and how uh they did all these games, and one of the kids is like, Well, did the USA win them all then too? And she was like, No, the USA is pretty young, right? Like, we're like a teenager compared to other countries. Uh, it's really easy to look at all the problems that we have, be like, man, we're a messed up place. But when you stop and think about it, like has the U.S. had a bunch of things that we shouldn't be proud of? Sure. Yeah, have we also made progress through most of through a lot of those things in ways that it has taken other countries literally a thousand years to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so uh do we have a long way to go? Absolutely, right? Is there always gonna be ways we can love our neighbors better and respect each other better? Absolutely. Um, but man, God has God has been good in what he has given us here. And so when we can can take a step back and say, Lord, I'm gonna be content in what you've given me, I can't wait to see what's next.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

Yeah, he's he's blessed the democracy. Right. And where there's a there's a check and balance to democracy that says, okay, for example, slavery. But democracy, it says, mm-mm. Right. Not right. Even to the point where people were willing to lay down their life over it. And and that was one of the things that was a struggle for Abraham Lincoln because he said, We're both the North and South are reading the same Bible. How is it that we're coming up with two different theological viewpoints that relate to our social life in America? Right. And he was he struggled big time with that. That was one of his, but it was a religious, yeah, a spiritual reason why he struggled, because he said, This is wrong. Right. And um, you know, truth overcomes falsehood. You know, and and that has changed America, you know, the very nature, and we live in a Civil War area, and but when you think about the people that said, I'm gonna give my life for truth, and that happens in a democracy. Yeah, that's why we need to fight against socialism for sure. And we need to say, you know, we we're not a perfect nation, but I'll tell you what, what we do, we do together. And, you know, and and and that's where the value of the church and believers, you know, 34% of the things that were spoken in our early American history came directly out of the Bible.

SPEAKER_06 43:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:20

I mean, so so this nation, the very nature of how would checks and balances work, it was based even on the on the idea of the Trinity. When you look at the Trinity, how does God work? And putting in all the different ways that we legislate and so forth, that plays itself back to they were looking at the template of scripture and say, how do we apply that to American life? No wonder God's blessed America. And so that's um something we always need to remember that we need to preserve that, appreciate that, and appreciate what we are, which we're independent, we're a democracy. It's a good thing.

Founders And Scripture In Early America

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Your sermon cites research from the University of Houston, uh, showing that roughly a third of the founder's writings were rooted directly in scripture. Does that surprise people today? What's the reaction you get when you share a stat like that?

SPEAKER_04 44:19

We'll find out, huh? Well, it's just the amazing thing about it is that that's not argued. If if you bring it up and you you go back to the Library of Congress and you go back to the to, I mean, it's not that long ago, 250 years, and we have we we can go back to the original documentation and we can read it. It's there. And so for people who really seek out and say, I really want to know the truth, how was this nation founded? It was not founded as a religious nation. It was founded as a Christian nation. And matter of fact, George Washington, some people say he was a deist. He was not a deist. If anybody tells you he's a deist, it's not true. And the reason why is, is because I can I can prove it to you by what he said. Uh he had a purpose statement for America. And what he he said was in this purpose statement, he sat down in his own handwriting, folks. He sat down, and what he wrote is he said, Bless the Lord, oh the O Lord, the whole race of mankind. Kind, let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son, Jesus Christ. So his whole focus was on Jesus Christ to the point where what we know what he did was is he commanded his very first presidential order. Some of some of you have heard this. I've I've talked about this many times. It's actually in a reel now out there. I think Josh Howerton's got it, and it's like, okay, this is all brand new. And I'm like, well, I've heard this for years. But you know, that's fine. I'm glad they're doing it. But uh this is what he wrote. The commander-in-chief directs that the divine service of church services be performed every Sunday at 11 o'clock in the brigades where there are chaplains and those who have none to attend places of work, just places of worship nearest. In other words, we want you. He demanded that his Continental Army go to church at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning and then said it was expected all the officers of all ranks that by their attendance set an example while we are all performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers. We certainly ought not to be inattentive, listen to this, to the higher duties of religion, to the distinguish the character of a patriot. It should be the highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian. A Christian. That's what he said. So, so um, one thing that I know about George Washington was he really believed in the individual calling on people's lives. And then he transferred that to the individual calling that he felt like our nation had. And that was to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and to build a Christian nation. That was where he was. So if he was a deist, I'm not seeing it. I'm sure somebody out there has put on argue and send me an email. But um, you know, I fire back with his own words. His own words were simply he wanted the whole world to be filled with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so what a blessing it is to have that kind of legacy that we're building on after 250 years, and to have a man that really at first, I've been reading a whole lot about George Washington lately, and uh, he really at first didn't really want the job. And he probably could have been King George, y'all. I mean, I know that's kind of a controversial, but he could have probably been King George and he said no. He would not push that envelope. He believed in democracy, and he believed in the call of a country to do this thing together. It wasn't one person, it was one nation under God, is what he was seeking after. So that's who we are as Americans.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

So speaking of George Washington, uh, his own handwritten purpose statement for the nation wasn't about prosperity or power. It was about the world knowing Jesus Christ. And if that really was his heart, what would he think has been gained or lost in America since then?

Revival History And The Great Awakening

SPEAKER_04 48:38

I think there's a I think there's a movement. I I'm an optimist on this, but I think there is a movement in America right now, a revival movement. We've seen, uh, you know, I I cite at the end of the sermon the second great awakening, and uh before that and prior to that, uh, we probably don't really realize how bad America was in the post-revolutionary area and time. What we know is this was what was this is what was said. Uh there were five million people in population at that time in America, and 300,000 were caught up in alcoholism. They weren't working, they were struggling. Uh, and also it was the first time since the colonial age that women were afraid to go out at night. They were afraid they'd be raped. Jeez. And so things were things were tough and churches were in decline. At that time, denominationalism was a big deal, and every denomination was saying, oh man, things are declining to the point where Harvard, which was uh established, we heard of Harvard Divinity School and all that. Harvard, uh, they said there was not one believer in the whole student body. Um, Princeton said they only had two Christians in the student body. Education was even anti-Christian. And what we know is that there were there were actually in some of our schools were anti-Christian plays going on at that time. This is 1791, okay? And there was a Scottish pastor who wrote a letter and wrote a kind of a treatise about the importance of return of globally people coming back to God and a cry out for revival. And what ended up happening is this got into the hands of a lot of believers. And in the second Great Awakening, what happened is Kentucky, Illinois, um, Indiana, some of those areas um in Tennessee, suddenly, uh in in southern Ohio, suddenly there was a revival that broke out. And just people got hungry for God. And matter of fact, uh, one pastor, his name was Rupert Vermont, he wrote this. He says, When that happened, there were no emotions. A lot of times when we think about revival, we think about people, you know, getting down and getting excited and people doing Jericho runs around churches. That's not what happened. What happened is they said there was no emotions. This is his quote, there were no emotions more violent than the shedding of tears. No appearance of wildness or disorder occurred, just a fixed silence. And so another man said that in the streets of his city, what happened is this is that there was no commotion, but a stillness in our very streets. And he says, and it all said to us one thing, God is in this place. So that's um that's that's American history. So people really don't, um, they they really don't doubt these things because they're so well documented in our nation that our nation was established. I think one thing is we don't teach that in public school because we have a movement against that. Um and um and as a matter of fact, uh we we have this big thing where people talk about separation of church and state. And you've probably heard um D. James Kennedy said that's not really found in our constitution, it's found in the USSR Constitution. That's one to go look up. That'll give you something to think about. But um, the whole idea of exempting our nation and our politics and our our leadership from God and from specifically the God that we know through Jesus Christ, it's not in American history. Matter of fact, 34% of everything that's written in American history relates to scripture straight up.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

I think George Washington would be disappointed about some things. I mean, as anyone really would. But I think it would be really um encouraged by uh the ability for us to continue to worship freely for pretty much our entire country's history. And um we can choose to go to church every single day, every single Sunday. Uh we have the ability, we have the option, we have the freedom to really express our faith. Um and I think what's happening right now is this new wave of revival is that people are just tired. People are just tired of bowing down to the mob and saying, you know, I'm scared of really offending people. No, we're gonna offend people for the sake of the gospel. And if the gospel offends you, that's conviction. If the gospel offends you, that's your sin rearing its head against you in your sinful ways. And we're calling you to repentance. And so this gets into this last point that you make is like we should seek God for our nation. We should we should double down on it and not be scared of sharing our faith and sharing what we actually think and what the Bible says. We should speak out against things that are wrong and and we shouldn't be scared of it. So what people say some things bad about you on a Facebook comment, okay, whatever. And I I think we should we should kind of live with just a little bit more boldness. We should be odd for God. We should, we should really, really want to just platform Jesus, platform God as much as we can, and not really care about what other people are gonna say. And, you know, I think George Washington would be proud of that.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

I think so. I think he'd be proud of the movement of our younger generation. Uh, while there is a vast amount of secularism that we see, you know, when evil comes in like a flood, the Bible says God will raise a standard against it. I'm watching that standard regrow in America. And it's so encouraging. We we uh sometimes want to harp on the lad to see a thing. In the last days will fall away. Yeah, there's gonna be a great falling away, but that does not mean anytime persecution, anytime uh that somebody tries to squelch the truth, truth just rises up like a monster.

SPEAKER_06 55:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 55:27

And it it rises up and it's rising up in a lot of our young people today. And I think that's why we as a church are so passionate about not just being about, you know, just worship itself. We're like chastening, you're seeking to disciple in worship. It's one of the greatest things, and one of the reasons why I'm like, this has got to be our guy to come and serve with us because of your passion for discipleship and raising up the next generation and making sure they're biblically sound, making sure they have theology in their life. You know, when you preached a couple of weeks ago when you're talking about the gospel, I mean, that's I know some people scratch their head and say, what exactly is that? That's sad that we don't even know what that is. You know, it's like, okay, we need to contend for the gospel. What's that mean? There's so many people that listen and go, that is over my head. They're gonna be at the very grassroots of what we what we're about. And so, and what we know about. And so uh I think that movement really is an existence, and there is a desire to kind of move away from hey, we we want to get the likes on Facebook or we we want to, you know, we want to get the likes on Instagram or whatever. And hey, I'm just gonna be, I'm gonna be Jesus. I'm gonna let Him and His Holy Spirit live through me, speak through me. Sometimes that might bring offense, sometimes that might bring, you know, uh a sense of man, something's different about them. It'll it's gonna create all kinds of experiences and uh addressing of people in our life, but that's why we build life on truth. That's that's our core theme of who we are and what our purpose statement is at Kinsal First.

SPEAKER_03 57:16

Yeah, I think uh one of the most exciting things about this next generation is their hunger for truth.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:25

Because we can trust that God is true and that he will reveal himself uh when they when they seek him out, right? You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with your whole heart. This generation is willing to seek truth. They're not the generation that's just gonna blindly accept whatever is given to them. Now that does challenge some of us, right, to to dig deeper in our own faith, to to deepen our understanding of who God is, so that when they come with questions, we can answer them. Um, but they are willing to come and ask questions. And because they're willing to come and ask questions, we know that God is faithful to reveal his truth to them. Um, you know, going back to to old George, uh I think that's one of the things that he would probably appreciate, right? Is just a desire for truth. I obviously I think he'd be discouraged by the um desire for centralization of power, right? Um, we we could go down a lit a laundry list of things a mile long of things that he would probably be like, that's that's not what I wanted to happen here. That's not what that meant. Um, but uh, but what is what I do think would be encouraging to him is that we are free. Yeah, right. We are free to worship, we are free to choose, we are free, uh, not even just to worship, but where we worship, right? The the the original colonizers were fleeing a system where they uh were being told you gotta be a part of Church of England, yeah, you know, or or you gotta be a part of uh of this church or that church is like no, that was why we were built. And so uh to see that that still stands true is awesome because it also means that we get we talk about it all the time that the nations have come to us, right? So we have an opportunity to see the gospel go out uh uh across the world because of the people who are able to come here for the same reasons that people came here 250 years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:13

French and French and Indian War. Um George Washington was targeted. And uh, matter of fact, um later he found out through an Indian chief in Ohio in the Ohio Valley that he would target it in that his their sharpshooters more or less targeted him and shot at him 17 times until finally they said leave him alone. He's the particular favorite of heaven. And it's like God's done this because there's nobody else that could sustain this. I mean, he he had he he had a literally was they shot a hat off his head and also shot the horse out from under him.

SPEAKER_06 59:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:51

And he he lived and he was sustained, and God kept him alive for such a time as he was called. Yeah, you know, so I would I would say God, you know, while America uh has you look at America and you look back and say, okay, part of our history, uh, you know, this is not biblical history, this is American history, but I can see the God of the Bible in American history all the time. It's there. Yeah. Especially in him. I mean, God sustained him in not a perfect man, but neither was Abraham, y'all, by the way. So, and he's the father of our faith. We got a father of our faith and a father of our country that wasn't perfect, but we have a heavenly father that is, so I'm gonna stop preaching, you know? So uh, but I that'll preach right there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

So normally at this part of the segment, I would come up with a poem or some type of encouragement. Uh but today we're gonna do something different.

What To Do Differently This Week

SPEAKER_01 1:00:52

I want to end off on our final question. And this is for all three of you guys. As we celebrate 250 years, what's one thing you hope this congregation and the listening audience actually does differently this week because of the message and not just about their feelings?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:14

Real easy for me to get on our knees like our forefathers did, about to like be a real patriot and get on our knees and let's present ourselves to God and let's pray for our country. Um God has blessed America. People say, Well, God's blessed America, when will America bless God? I believe we are blessing God. And you know how people bless God? They start one person at a time. And I pray this congregation will be one that looks at our two and our 50th uh birthday and says, first off, I'm gonna bless God for this. Thank God I'm born and raised in the best country in the world. We have been blessed over and over. God has sustained us. Our history shows it, our current state shows it, let's appreciate it. And number two, let's get on our knees and let's ask God to uh continue to work in our nation, that we wouldn't we wouldn't move away from his hand, but we would grab hold of his hand and see what he can do. And uh I think if the same God with his own voice spoke the world into order, he can by his hand really bless us individually as a church to really impact our community and world. And uh that's what I see happening here at Kennesaw First.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:39

I think my challenge would be uh this phrase is what came to mind, be the one, right? Be be the one in your circle that is willing to be to be praying for our country, be the one who's willing to uh praise the Lord for our country, right? To be proud of where we're at, um, and thankful, like like Pastor Perry just said, of um of all the ways the Lord has provided for us, but also to be the one to stand on truth, right? To to be the one that's humble, to recognize where we're wrong, to recognize where we have room to go, uh, but to also recognize all the ways that God's worked. Um, so that that's what I would say is be be the one.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

I would say um amen to both of those, and then to add on is have a heart for those who don't know Christ. If you think our nation is a quote unquote lost nation or a godless nation, what are you doing about it? What are you doing about it? What are you how when when are you sharing the gospel with people and trying to to help the nation find Christ if if we have been lost? I I think our our nation is a lot more um Christian than we than we may think. Um but um really really press into evangelism, really, really press into sharing the gospel because as we have said, as you said, there's a generation out there that is looking for the truth. You could be the one to give it to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

Happy 250th birthday to the greatest nation ever created, gentlemen. See you next week. Peace. Peace.

Closing And How To Stay Connected

SPEAKER_02 1:04:36

We're glad you joined us for today's segment. We believe a life built on truth is a life that transforms everything. To stay connected, share this message, subscribe, or visit us online at Kinnesoft First.church. We'll see you next time. Keep building your life on truth.