WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:24.879 Well, if you haven't been with us, we have been going through the book of Exodus, and what we've been seeing is we've been seeing uh these Hebrew people, uh, this group of people that's been rescued out of Egypt, and we've seen uh really this string of events, if nothing else, uh play out, and now they're in the desert, and while in the desert uh they receive the Ten Commandments. 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:32.880 We've all heard of the Ten Commandments, uh, and what we've been doing the last 10 weeks is we've been going commandment by commandment, looking at each commandment. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:39.119 What we have seen with each commandment, this uh what's called the law of God, uh moral law. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:54.320 We have seen how each commandment it guides us, it guides our behavior, it guides the behavior of our society, it builds a healthy society, but at the same time it crushes us because we don't live up to this. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:01.039 And last week we talked about lying, and we see how much, oh my gosh, I lie so much more than I thought I did. 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.959 I lie to myself, I lie to others, all sorts of different lying. 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:07.519 Um, this week we'll be talking about coveting. 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:12.640 Uh, but we can't just use the law uh as a means for justifying ourselves. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:23.200 Meaning we can't use the law as a means for feeling good about ourselves, for justifying our value, our existence, uh, or our righteousness and our standing before God. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:46.879 And not just this moral law, like the 10 checklist thing, but even a law in the world, like some standard of what is right in our society, maybe some secular law of the standard of what would be good for you, or maybe your own law that you have formed of like, if only I get there, then I'll be valued, then I'll be okay. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:50.719 And in all this way, we see how law fails us. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:56.079 Law might guide us, but it crushes us if we live under it. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:01.040 So it must send us on to God's grace, an outside source of justification for ourselves. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:02.319 And that's what we've been talking about. 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:03.519 So uh coveting. 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:04.560 Covenant is this week. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:06.719 Yesterday we went hiking. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:25.280 Our family, Christy, myself, and our three girls, we were hiking over at Kennesaw Park, and people are out there and they're running, it's beautiful, and they're running, and people are trying to get serenity, and then here we come uh with three little girls, and we're ruining the serenity part, and then we're walking, and uh our girls are jumping and climbing logs and having fun. 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.599 I think we we really covered a lot of ground. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.960 We hiked about a mile, and it took about an hour to hike the mile. 00:02:31.039 --> 00:02:32.879 I mean, we're really getting after it. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:37.360 Um so it's 3,000 acres, by the way, if you're wondering, Kinesaw. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:39.919 Um and here's the interesting thing about it, right? 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.599 Like we're walking through beautiful, it's maintained, right? 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:45.280 It's free pretty much. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:49.039 I guess some of my taxes go toward it, but pretty much it's free. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:50.000 I don't have to maintain it. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:50.879 I don't worry about it. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:52.560 I don't worry about Kennesaw Park. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:58.639 There's never a point in my life where I'm worried about some issue with Kinesaw Park or how the trails are doing. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:02:59.759 I it's free for me. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:01.039 I can just go and enjoy it. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:08.719 And yet, and yet I find myself at some point on that height going, man, I would love to own this. 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:14.240 Like there's just something in me that's like it's just not quite good enough to enjoy it. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.000 Like, I also want to own it. 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.280 Like I like I would love to own land like this. 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:22.319 And I don't know if you ever have that sort of thing. 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:23.599 It is free for me, right? 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:24.879 Like it's free. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:31.120 Uh, but yet it's so easy and just human nature just to want the next thing. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:44.960 Like the always quotable Mark Twain in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, and we can add in woman and girl here, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:49.599 So this week I watched a special on Birkin bags. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:54.240 Okay, so what clear, just raise your hand. 00:03:54.319 --> 00:03:57.199 If you know about Birkin bags, just go ahead and confess. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:01.120 You know can't will anybody just say I own one? 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:05.280 I mean it turns out they're not a bad investment. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:06.319 I was researching. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:14.400 They in the last 30, you don't know about them yet, but in the last 35 years, they have rose in value, risen in value more than the stock market. 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:16.560 They go up 14% a year. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:20.560 All right, these are handbags, by the way, if you don't know, Birkin handbags. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:29.040 They're handbags, they cost between$60,000 and one recently sold for like$240,000. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:36.160 Before you get too judgmental, remember if you invest in the stock market, you would have done better investing in a Birkin handbag, right? 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:40.160 And they've done so well because they're produced on unpredictable schedules. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:44.480 Obviously, they are a complete status symbol of wealth. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:49.519 And and the quantities are unpredictable, and they're always very low quantities. 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:52.079 Uh and uh, right? 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:56.319 I mean, six-year waiting list to get a new one. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:58.480 Six-year waiting list to get a new one. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:04:59.759 Right? 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:01.920 And that's what Mark Twain was saying. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.639 If you want people to covet something and want something, just make it hard to get it. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.240 I mean, that's it, right? 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:12.639 Just make it so we can't have it and we will want it. 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:18.000 It's the lure of any country club you can't get in, it's the lure of any hedge fund you can't get in. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:21.759 I mean, it just make it so we can't have it, and then we want it. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.160 Here's the Exodus 20, verse 17. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:25.600 Here's the the verse. 00:05:25.839 --> 00:05:27.519 You shall not covet. 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:32.480 So that means to crave or yearn for that which is not yours. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:44.079 You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:49.199 Obviously, this is culturally context at the time in terms of the things that they're coveting. 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:52.319 But it's about wanting the next thing. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:55.120 And that we are so hungry for that, right? 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:07.920 We see that in the beginning of Genesis, we see that in the garden, and in the great poetry there at the beginning of creation, and Eve is told, you can eat of any of the trees. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:09.439 Go after it. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:14.800 Like eat as much as you want, but there's one, don't eat of that one. 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:16.879 And what does she want? 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.560 That one. 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:20.480 That's the one she wants. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:32.800 You see, coveting leads us down a path where we actually create more dissatisfaction in our life, and yet, and yet, we're not sure if we went off the path, right? 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:35.839 Like that's how seductive it is. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.480 Richard Rohr, this is in your handout you got there. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:46.959 Richard Rohr, who's a Franciscan priest, uh, he says this the affluent West has made happiness impossible. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:53.839 We've created a pseudo-happiness, a pseudo-success, a pseudo-security that will never satisfy the human heart. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:07:01.360 Most of God's people are forced to learn to find happiness and freedom at a much more simple level. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:06.319 The gospel says that's where happiness is always to be found. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:14.160 That is about as traditional, old-fashioned, conservative a gospel as there is, and it will never change. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:15.600 We have to keep saying it. 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:18.399 There is a tenth commandment. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:23.519 Alright, so three points to sort of guide our thinking about coveting, and I have some research to share. 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:27.199 I got into some research about gratitude and contentment because you can't talk about it. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:32.959 As soon as you start studying coveting, you end up in gratitude and contentment automatically because that's where it leads you. 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:40.000 So I have I've kind of turned into quote man the last few uh sermons or realize that, but I've I've enjoyed it, so I hope you're okay with it. 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:42.319 Uh, a few points I got us, three points to guide us. 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:48.160 Um, the first is this coveting is a mistake of loyal love. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:50.480 Now, here's what I mean by that. 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:55.360 Uh coveting is a concentration of the whole being on something other than God. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:06.720 Something, I don't know, Birken handbag, 3,000 acres, uh, your neighbor's servant, I don't know, what whatever, whatever it is in our culture, a car, a job, a relationship, just the next thing. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:08.639 The greener grass, right? 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:10.879 It creates a false value system. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.519 Uh, it creates illusions that we stare at, like basically little gods. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:19.120 There's what they are, that can never deliver to us. 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:24.160 And this is why Colossians 3.5, it calls coveting idolatry. 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:31.759 And this is how we see it circling all the way back to the first commandment, that we should have no other gods except the true God. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.080 Which we talked about 10 weeks ago. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:39.440 And it's talking about how we should give our supreme loyalty to God. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.919 Because these other idols, they can't deliver us, they can't deliver us. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:44.960 And you know that, right? 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:56.799 As we play the game, we know they can't deliver us, and yet the seductive nature of it is just so easy, but as we bow to those other things, they actually exhaust us more. 00:08:57.039 --> 00:08:58.879 And it's a mistake of loyal love. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:04.960 Our loyal love should be to God, receiving it from Him and responding back to Him. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:15.200 And yet, coveting is when we take that love that should be going back to Him and we turn it toward something that will never and has never loved us. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:16.399 That's point number one. 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:21.360 Number two, coveting blinds us to the greatness of gratitude. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:28.879 So, like I said, as I was studying this week, as soon as you get into coveting, you're headed toward gratitude and contentment. 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:36.559 1 Thessalonians 5.18, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:42.159 So, gratitude is an inner position of appreciation for what you have received. 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:43.200 Right? 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.919 I mean, basically the opposite of coveting. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:10:04.639 All the research shows us, the science research shows us what God has been saying a long time ago that's in the scriptures before scientists were interested in studying gratitude, and that is that thankfulness and gratitude is huge payoffs, huge payoffs. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:18.320 So in 2015, the University of California, they were finding, so many research scientists were finding all these great benefits of gratitude that they started this project called expanding the science and practice of gratitude. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.120 But here's what they were finding with all these scientists. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:43.600 They were finding that people who were grateful and practicing gratitude, that they had stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure, they had higher levels of positive emotions, they had more joy, they had more optimism, they were happier, they acted more generously, they were more compassionate, they felt less lonely and they felt less isolated. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.480 So in one particular study, they took three groups. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:11:01.519 The first group, they took the group and they said, Okay, we want you to journal, we want you to practice this, and we want you to practice gratitude for a period of time and write down things you're grateful for that have occurred. 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:07.200 Things you've received, circumstances going on, and just write it down. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:11.600 And the second group they said, okay, now you write down your daily irritations. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:17.600 Write down everything that's bothering you, the way you're getting shorted, you know, just the way you're getting ripped off. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:20.879 Write down all those things that upset you, write those down, and you do that. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:25.279 And then the third group they said, okay, you just write down events that are neutral. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:28.480 They're not positive, they're not negative, just very neutral. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:36.320 And here's what they found, and this is in a paper highlights from the research project on gratitude and thankfulness, and this is here in your bulletin, I'll read it to you. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:46.320 Um, so those practicing gratitude reported fewer physical issues, they exercised more, and generally felt better about their lives, they're more optimistic than the other two groups. 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:51.360 Those practicing gratitude more likely to make progress toward some sort of goal. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:12:00.320 Uh, those practicing gratitude more likely to be empathetic and help another person with a personal issue, like they loved people because they were grateful. 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:06.480 All right, and so here's the quote within that paper that I thought was so great, and it ties it back to coveting for us. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:12.320 Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:20.480 They are less likely to judge their own and others' success in terms of possessions accumulated. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:29.679 They are less envious of others and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:30.799 Right? 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:32.960 I mean, you hear the freedom in that? 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:34.799 I mean, there's so much freedom in that. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:44.240 Like the fact that we don't judge ourselves and others based on the material goods, that that we're that we place less importance on material goods. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:48.000 So we should make a practice of of being grateful. 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:57.519 Not unto it being a law in and of itself, but like to just to kind of fight the current of coveting, which is so just natural. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:06.480 Like to remember the things you're grateful for and to jot them down every once in a while, and it doesn't have to be like twice a day or even once a day, just whatever is within your practice. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:08.879 I mean, that's a good thing. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:21.519 Okay, so now um I've I have driven some uh some relatively sad cars in my life, and I have driven some nice cars in my life. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:24.559 Uh I had a Ford probe in college. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:27.519 Anybody driven a Ford probe with me? 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:29.200 Anybody in the Ford probe seat? 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:31.919 That's exactly have you driven the Ford probe? 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:32.559 I rode in. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:34.559 You rode in it, that's right. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:35.519 That's right. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:38.720 All right, so do you remember the Ford probe? 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:39.600 They don't make it anymore. 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:40.720 That's always a sign, right? 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:41.759 It's always a sign. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:52.960 All right, the the greatest thing about the Ford probe was is uh in college it could fit underneath the security guardrail and I could park in like parking lots I wasn't supposed to. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.279 It was fantastic up at the business school. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:57.120 I mean, I just parked right behind the buildings. 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:58.159 It was unbelievable. 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:04.080 All right, so uh when I graduated college, and the window leaked, and you know, but it was it was a fine, it was a fine car. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:05.120 What a great car. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:06.000 What a great car. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:07.279 I would never say it was a great car. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:07.840 Fine car. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:17.679 Now, when I graduated college, I got a fully loaded Toyota Forerunner, like my dream vehicle, leather seats, the window, you know, the wind back window rolls down. 00:14:17.840 --> 00:14:19.200 Not sure if you know about that. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.519 It's pretty gray, sunroof. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:23.840 I mean, unbelievable, right? 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:24.879 Unbelievable. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:36.080 Now, I will tell you, I had been coveting that vehicle for a long time, and I'll also tell you, I'm shallow enough to say, it made me really happy. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:44.559 And I will even say, I'm shallow enough to say, it made me really happy, not just like one day, like it kept making me happy. 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:46.879 All right, so I'm realistic about this stuff. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:49.039 I'm gonna be very realistic about this. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:51.039 So I I'm I am that shallow. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:52.240 Some of you aren't that shallow. 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:54.159 Even now you're judging me about that. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:55.360 That's fine. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:56.559 Up to you. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:58.080 But I am that, right? 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.679 It's not breaking news that a forerunner is nicer than Ford Probe. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:02.159 You know that. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.399 If you're driven Ford Pro, you know that, right? 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:07.200 Like we're aware of that, we know, we know this stuff, okay? 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:07.919 That's fine. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:09.120 I'm realistic about that. 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:10.720 So that's not the issue. 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.000 Because it can give you a little hit of happiness. 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:18.639 Like some nice thing that you have wanted, it can give you a hit of happiness. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:22.000 It can even give you that hit many times. 00:15:22.080 --> 00:15:24.000 Like, it's like a sugar rush. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:30.159 But it can't give you long-term happiness. 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:35.200 It can't make you a new man when you feel ashamed. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:37.279 It doesn't have that power. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:43.039 Like, it can't speak to the core of the inner self, like to your soul. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:47.600 That place where you really need God's love to you. 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:56.879 See, with with coveting, um, you just you need that thing to always be that good, or you're gonna need the next thing. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:58.799 And that's how coveting works. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:00.399 And that's what that's why it's a path. 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.679 That's it's a pathway that is never delivers. 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:05.440 Never delivers. 00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:09.679 It's a great sugar rush, but it is not long-term health. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.519 It turns out to be poor man's happiness, is what it is. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:16.559 It's exhausting because you gotta keep it up. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:23.519 Point number three: coveting leads us away from the blessing of contentment. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:34.960 Philippians 4, 10 through 13, I rejoiced, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:38.720 You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:45.519 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.039 I know how to be brought low. 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.200 And I know how to abound. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:59.120 In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, uh, abundance and need. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:03.840 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:14.799 So, this word content, this is this Greek word, it means to be self-sufficient, to be sufficient apart from the circumstance or apart from that thing you think you need. 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:24.319 See, it's the opposite of coveting, because coveting is dependence on everything you want in order to think that you'll become adequate and sufficient. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:29.599 And contentment is the opposite, that you are independent and you are okay without it. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:34.960 So if you're like me, at a certain point in all this, you go, it's all great. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:35.759 That's great. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:37.440 Actually, maybe you even believe that. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:38.960 But you would say, you know what? 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:40.400 I'm just not good at that. 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:49.920 What I am good at is I'm good at buying a lottery ticket on a really long drive and entertaining myself for seven hours of coveting thoughts, right? 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.480 Like I'm really good at that. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.160 Maybe you're with me in that. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:18:01.359 You're going, okay, I understand what you're saying, I believe all that, but actually, I still have a very hard time with that. 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:03.920 Well, this is what Paul is talking about. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:05.599 Paul is talking about this. 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:09.200 He's talking about that, yeah, it that it is difficult. 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:11.359 Okay, so be grateful, right? 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:13.279 Like give thanks in all circumstances. 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:14.160 That's hard. 00:18:14.240 --> 00:18:16.079 How do you make yourself be grateful? 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.559 Well, you can practice it, but at some point it's got to come from a hard position. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:29.440 Paul is saying that he can be free from constantly desiring the next circumstance because, and here it is, he rejoices in the Lord. 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:31.519 Like, there's the solution. 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:35.759 And I know maybe you've heard it a million times, but it's still the solution. 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:43.920 He has a source of joy and freedom and love that is outside of him needing the next thing. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:47.599 And it's not from something that's gonna rust and fade. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:56.720 So several years ago, I bought my first, um, I'm very materialistic. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:58.240 I'll just go ahead and confess it. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:01.119 Uh, first Patagonia vest. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:02.720 It's a big purchase for me. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:03.599 I'm not kidding. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:05.839 When I make a purchase, I'm a researcher. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:08.319 Any re any researchers out there, right? 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:09.599 Researchers, okay? 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:11.039 I'm a researcher. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.640 I'm really evaluating all possible vests. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:20.640 I will narrow them down into the best vests, and then I will eventually make my purchase and my decision. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:22.400 Big purchase, first vest. 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:23.359 I wore this. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:24.319 Oh, I loved it. 00:19:24.799 --> 00:19:27.759 A little hit of happiness every time I put it on, a little sugar rush. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:39.759 Uh, and then one, I was and then I was I was camping uh with some friends, and man, of course, a little spark comes out of the fire, hits me right here, right where this awkward patch is now. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:40.960 Right? 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:49.519 Now this vest is not quite the same because obviously this this patch, if I put it on, it's kind of like right here, like that's not normal. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:58.720 Alright, so I had alright, so the great thing that I had wanted to, oh I I wanna, oh, oh, I got it, oh, I'm wearing it, I love it, I love it, I love it. 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:00.720 But it it can't hold up, right? 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:03.119 So I have to go buy another one, right? 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.279 Like I said, I have to go, let's research again. 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.079 Oh, and they had come, what they had cut, you wouldn't believe it, right? 00:20:08.400 --> 00:20:18.000 I had seen my friend Stuart wear this like this micro vest, and that you wouldn't bel, I mean, you're not gonna believe it when you see it, what they've done is amazing. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:22.720 They made the stitching smaller, right? 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:32.319 And when I saw Stuart wearing it, I mean it was like a year before I bought, but I saw him wearing it, and I was like, oh man, I want that one with the smaller stitching. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:36.880 Like that was that is amazing stitching. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:41.039 I feel like I will walk around feeling so different about myself. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:49.839 And so this this is now the vest I wear, is this one, but you won't, but I've had it for two years, you won't believe what is out now. 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:54.960 Forge gray. 00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:58.640 They make it now in Forge Gray. 00:20:58.720 --> 00:21:04.240 See, when I bought this, you can only get uh blue, like red, and I think maybe they still made the green. 00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:06.079 They didn't make the forge gray. 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:07.680 They do now. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:09.519 And I want it. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:11.119 I want it so bad. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:12.799 I've been thinking about it. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.680 Every once in a while I'll go online and look at it. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:20.400 Oh, it's coming, I know, and it's gonna make me feel so great. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:23.680 It's gonna be amazing, it's gonna change, it's gonna change my life, right? 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:24.960 It's what we do. 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:26.480 This is what we do. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.519 You know what I'm talking about, you do the same thing. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:39.039 Maybe we do it with a car or a house or a relationship, and we think, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:42.720 Then I'll be okay. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:44.319 Then I'll be okay. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:49.119 This is actually what verse 13 is about in that passage uh of Paul's. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:55.519 That's not about like um, you know, Christ is gonna help me score 20 points in this basketball game. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:22:02.640 That's that's not what I remember seeing like a poster when I was in high school, like a guy Dunking and it's like, I can do all things through Christ through strength. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:05.519 It's like it's not really. 00:22:05.839 --> 00:22:07.039 It's about contentment. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:10.559 If you read read the context there, it's about contempt. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.480 Don't let your kids use it for scoring or running fast or something. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:17.839 It's about contentment of like even if you don't score. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.039 It's actually the opposite. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:24.160 They should have the guy like not dunking, like hitting the rim and falling backwards. 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:26.720 That's actually what it's more about. 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:37.839 So the hardest thing, I feel like one of the hardest things to believe and trust the Lord is that you're okay. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.319 That you're just okay right now. 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:42.160 Like you're okay with what you have. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:46.000 You're okay with what he's given you. 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:48.960 And maybe you want the circumstance to change. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:53.680 Maybe something about you you would like for it to change, and you're asking the Lord to change it. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:59.680 But even now, that when he sees you, he sees you through his son. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:01.119 Right? 00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:16.720 Like what the work of Jesus was for you on the cross, that your sin was put upon him, and that he deems you righteous and perfect and whole, and that you can live in what he deems you, and that you're okay, that you don't need. 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:24.640 You don't need the boat or the next house or the 3,000 acres or the Birkin handbag, though it may be a good investment, apparently. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:26.240 Um, but you don't need it. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:28.079 Like if you have them, great. 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.079 Have a blast, invite us over. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:31.759 Um, we'll have fun. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:33.039 Like, that's great. 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:50.720 Nothing wrong with that, but none of that can relieve you of your shame or your exhaustion or your feeling of inadequacy or your feeling of failure, or to try to make yourself feel like you have right standing with God or in front of other people. 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:52.960 None of it can do that. 00:23:53.440 --> 00:23:58.640 That brings us into Romans 7, 7 through 11, the last passage there in your bulletin. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:05.680 Because this is where Paul so eloquently writes about the law and its ability. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:08.079 What then shall we say? 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:09.599 That the law is sin? 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:11.200 By no means. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:14.640 Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:15.839 That's what we've been seeing. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.279 Like each commandment, we read it, and we go, like, oh, we think we're doing okay. 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:23.359 And then like as we get into it, you're like, oh, not as great as I thought I was. 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:27.839 There's some problems going on, and then it sends you on to your need of Jesus. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:35.519 All right, here's what Paul keeps saying for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:42.480 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:46.240 For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:49.039 I was once alive apart from the law. 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:54.079 But when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.920 He's saying, it revealed it all to me. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:01.680 The very commandment that promised life, right? 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:06.240 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:13.920 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:16.960 This is why we say you can't live under law. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:22.799 You can't live up to standards in order to feel righteous or valued or justified. 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:25.519 It will kill you, it will crush you. 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:29.279 And for some of you, like that's why you feel so exhausted. 00:25:29.440 --> 00:25:38.480 Is that you're living under some law, maybe it's a moral law or religious law or some secular law of what you should be or should do or should look like, and it crushes you. 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:42.480 Here's Paul Zahl, who wrote this great book called Grace and Practice. 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:46.480 He's he sort of breaks out these thoughts of Paul's for us, of St. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:46.960 Paul. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:49.039 Paul, the author, commenting on St. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:49.599 Paul. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:56.079 What the law requires is exactly what men and women need in order to be wise, happy, and secure. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:57.359 So we need it. 00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.559 But the law cannot pull this off. 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:03.839 The problem with the law is not its substance. 00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:06.799 The problem with the law is its instrumentality. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:09.440 The law is not up to the task. 00:26:09.519 --> 00:26:10.880 It sets for itself. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:13.039 If the law says jump, I sit. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:14.640 If it says run, I walk. 00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:17.680 If it says honor your father and mother, I move to Portland. 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:22.960 If it says do not covet, I spend all day on the home shopping channel. 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:23.440 Right? 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:25.519 This is what we've been saying every week. 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:31.119 That the law sets before us the guide of who we should be, but it ends up crushing us. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:33.759 It has to send us on. 00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:41.839 It has to send us on past our performance into what God is for us, into what Christ did for us. 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:52.240 Because while we're created by God and we have this incredible beauty in us because we are created in the image of God, while that is true and that is there, there's something wrong. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:54.000 There's something wrong with us. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:57.200 And that is that we're trying to deliver ourselves. 00:26:57.359 --> 00:27:06.720 We're constantly trying to deliver ourselves from our condition, from our sinful condition of being our own deliverers, being our own saviors. 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.839 And here's the good news we're recipients. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:30.400 The way out of it is the rescue which is given to us because God said, This is a big problem, and through the law, I'm revealing it to you, and so now my son will come, and he won't just be an example for you, he'll be your substitute, and on the cross, he's gonna take all of it upon himself. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:39.839 All that coveting that you do and you keep doing and you keep believing, you keep believing it's gonna deliver you. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:46.559 He'll take all of it, and he puts over us his righteousness. 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:50.319 So it's based on his performance and not ours. 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:54.319 This is that's the greatness, that's the greatness of Jesus for us. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:56.079 That's the greatness. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:05.359 It relieves us of needing that birkenbag and 3,000 acres and the boat and the car and the next job and the next relationship. 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:10.559 It relieves us of thinking we need the next thing. 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:21.200 So, my brothers and sisters, may you trust the Lord and rest in his great work and love for you, for who you are today and what you have today. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.400 May you be free from always needing the next thing. 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:28.000 Let's pray together. 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:41.279 God, thank you that you guide us, but thank you that you rescue us while we feel so crushed by what we should be. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:49.920 God, we feel crushed by what we should be when it comes to this issue of coveting because we are really good at coveting. 00:28:50.640 --> 00:29:08.400 And there is so much of our hearts that believe, really believe, that if we only had the next thing, and it has never delivered us, for we still are needing the next thing. 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:19.839 Would you help us trust in you and your goodness and your love for us in a greater way so that we might gain freedom from that illusion? 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:25.680 We thank you for the gift of your son that deems us perfect, though we are not perfect. 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:30.720 And that you see us through the blood of Jesus and his work and not our work. 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:32.559 We pray this in Jesus' name. 00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:33.440 Amen.