# Thou Shalt Not Covet

Category: Integrity & Godly Character
Key Passage: Exodus 20:17
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

I want you to notice that he puts that in the very end there, “nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

Anything. That’s pretty broad there. Coveting: desiring to have something bad as another’s.

This commandment and really the first commandment are commandments that deal with the heart. The first more. But these are two of the root. Really, if you have a chain that connects together, a necklace if you will, it’s the two ends that kind of connect all ten together. If you can get this last commandment, in many ways you’ve gotten them all. It deals with the heart.

So many of the commandments deal with actions. “Thou shalt not kill,” “thou shalt not steal.” If you take care of the heart, the coveting, you’re not going to be stealing. Good chance you won’t be committing adultery. Good thing, probably good chance you won’t be killing and so on and so on.

And the root commandment, it’s so vital. By the way, if you get this one right, there’s a good chance you’ll be obeying even the first command. It’s such an important one. God gives these two key ones: the very first one, “Don’t put anything before the Lord,” and now there’s “no coveting.” They’re like bookends on the end of a shelf full of books. And this last commandment is just a key commandment: “Thou shalt not covet.”

If we can get this root one here, it kind of reminds me that over there in the New Testament, the Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” That’s what the Bible says. I’ve heard Bible preachers or Bible teachers trying to explain that away. But what do you think of what God says? The root of all evil.

And so many key things go back to this thing of coveting. If I can get this heart issue inside of me, if God can change me and grow me in that, then so many other things, I’ll be able to keep those. See, this is the root before the tree or the plant, whatever is manifested. The fruit manifests. This is dealing with the root issue here.

Can I say this? If we don’t get this commandment right about coveting, you will not be happy. See anybody out there? You say, “I like to be a happy camper.” Anybody out there like that? I like to be. But, friend, you will not be happy unless you get this commandment right. By the way, the Bible does talk about being happy. “Who so trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” Remember that over there in Proverbs 16? Yeah, the Bible lets us talk about that. But you’re not going to be happy, listen to me, not going to be happy unless you get this thing right about coveting, right?

Coveting—it’s not a matter necessarily what you have in your pocket, per se; it’s what you have in your heart, right? This morning, the same. Coveting—I like to really just focus on a little bit different than many of these that preached on it: how to keep this thing. How can I keep this commandment? Since it’s such an important one, it’s a matter of my heart, sometimes those are heart issues to keep right.

So how can I, how can I not covet, right? Let’s look at two keys to keeping this thing of not coveting, all right? If you look at God’s word in the Bible, over to the book of Joshua, just a couple books over, the book of Joshua, chapter number seven, Joshua chapter number seven. I’m going to look at this very key thing if you want to be a person that’s not coveting. How can I keep this commandment? I’m not coveting. You go a world of a great distance if you learn this key here. Joshua chapter 7.

And once you find that, would you stand? I don’t know if you found it yet or not. You just say amen. I don’t know. You got it now, amen? You had it already. Some of you say, I got to give you a hard time either way.

But Joshua 7. This is where the Bible gives us this story of a man named Achan, a very sad story in the Bible. And the children of Israel are going to battle, and this little city called Ai. And the Bible says God’s people, they went out to battle and they lost. I mean, they got the tar beat out of them, as we call it. I mean, the snot was beat out of them. Everything was beat out. They got—in fact, men died in this battle. Children of Israel men died. They lost. They were running from the enemies of God. All because this man Achan.

It’s very interesting. The Bible says, “Israel hath sinned.” That’s what the Bible says. And that’s true because Achan was a portion of Israel. Okay? If it went on, you’d read the whole story, you’d find out actually at the end that God points out who was the man in sin. He did not confess and get right until after it’s pointed out who it was. That’s the sad part. He had to confess up in the beginning, confess, tried to get it right, God would have forgiven him. But he didn’t do that. It was after God pointed out per tribe and per family, and finally, “That’s the guy right there.” Then he owned up to it. A little late then. A lot of people, at the great white throne judgment, will beg for mercy, I believe it, one day. It’ll be too late then.

But this Achan—actually, after this, Achan was executed. Actually, his family was executed. And actually, the crime, he had put the crime, the things he had stolen, he had put it in his tent, so probably his family knew about it. You all with me on this thing? In such a sad story, the end of this man’s life was death. He destroyed his family tree. What a sad story this is. Where did this thing start? Anything like this?

Now, let me tell you what he did. I haven’t even actually told you that part. A battle before they had taken this city of Jericho. It was the first city. God always likes the first fruits. And God said, “This first city, Jericho, I don’t want you to take anything of the cursed thing.” Very interesting. If you tie that all in with tithing, how the Bible says there’s a curse, a blessing there. We’re not preaching on that this morning. But very interesting, you study that out. This is the first fruits, Jericho.

And Achan took. He went in there and he saw—man, he saw all these. Here’s the thing about it: he saw these clothes and he saw some gold and all this—thousands of dollars if you were able. And just, you ever think about it? Achan stole it. Then he hid it in his tent, under his tent there. What can he really do with it? You ever think about that? I mean, if he walks around wearing this garment he got from Jericho, the children of Israel are going to say, “Man, where’d you get that from? That was in Jericho. What are you doing? What are you doing?” What can you do with it? If he went to spend the gold, good chance they had or know where it came from. “Where’d you get that money from? Where’d you get those thousands of dollars?” Isn’t that foolish how we fall into sin, friends? You hearing me in this morning?

Now, thank you for me. Now, I want you to see how did this tragedy happen, right? Where did it all start from that Achan ended up killing himself basically and his family? How did we get to this point? I want you to see it. Joshua 7, look in verse number 21. Joshua 7, verse number 21. Let’s find out how this tragedy happened. Joshua 7:21. You’re there? Amen? Good. Let’s read it.

“And I”—this is Achan confessing here—“And I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, and 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, 50 shekels weight.” They didn’t know where that thing he wore. They didn’t know where it came from.

Then I—what’s the next word? Oh, that’s what we’re at? Yeah. He broke the 10th commandment. He coveted it. That’s a root sin. That’s a heart issue. Now notice what happens after that. After the heart’s not right, then the actions begin to get wronged. See, what’s the next name? “And I coveted them.” And what’s the next word? “And I stole.” Now he’s committed another one of the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not…” Yeah, yeah. “And behold, they are hid.” And I should do it. He was hiding. He was lying. You got into that? Was that you? No, no, no. God had to point out who it was. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against that name.” He’s lying now. “And they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under.”

We’re not going to keep reading. Here’s what I want you to notice: How did it all start? “And I saw.” Friend, if you want to overcome this sin of coveting, it starts right here with these two things in your head called your eyeballs. It all starts there. If I am going to be a person that does not covet, I must guard my eyes. I must watch my eyes. The song: “Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. Oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. For your Father up above is looking down in love.”

You’re not going to overcome this sin of the heart of coveting if you don’t keep your eyes right. What? Jeremiah is over there underneath the Spirit of God in the book of Lamentations: “Mine eye affecteth my heart.” He said this is the sin of the heart. Where does it start? Your eyes, mine eyes. Jeremiah was looking out over the city that was in just shambles, and it was a sad thing. And he starts crying. And somebody says, “You big wimp, you’re crying like a girl over there,” you know. And he says, “My eye affecteth my heart.” That’s a great principle taught in the Bible. And, friend, if you are not going to covet, you’ve got to watch those two eyes. It’s going to affect your heart what you’re looking at.

Now, men, especially a couple of you men, put your seatbelt on, okay? We’re going to pick on you for a second here. Be honest. Now, be honest, when you first started golfing, John just confessed. You hear that? Amen right to you?

See with me here. The first time you’re in golfing, you golfed with golf clubs you got from a yard sale or the Goodwill, or you borrowed up, right? Come on. That’s how you start out. You didn’t care a thing in the world. They’re clubs. Man, let’s go golfing. And you’re satisfied with those Craigslist golf clubs. I mean, you know, hey.

What happened? You went golfing. Come on now, man. Come on now. I’m not trying to come out. You’re just a good illustration. I wouldn’t shoot down my brother, as a Quaker said. You’re just standing where I’m about to shoot. That’s all. But honest, it’s just such a good illustration. I can’t pass it up. All right, fellas, okay now. My—now, look, you were all right. You were satisfied with those golf clubs until you went golfing with another guy. You said, “Hey, can I hit with your clubs?” Oh, man.

You saw his clubs. You ought not have looked at him. I mean, just leave him alone. And now you use his clubs. Or nowadays they have it. They have it. Come on to the store, and we have it set up where you can hit the ball in this simulator, you know. Use whatever club you want to. Just look at them, take a good look at it, and use those clubs. They know what they’re doing.

Some of you are saying, “Yeah, they got me,” you know. “I know I’ve been here for eight hours, but I still haven’t picked my right club out.” That’s fine. Just take your time. You’ve ever checked those $1,200 clubs out, you know? You ever saw these? You saw—you were all right with what you had.

Okay, all right, men. Let me get off the men for a second. Ladies, all right over there? Ladies, you thought—ladies, I’ve seen ladies over there elbow on their husband. Come on now, yeah, that’s right. You loved your house. Man, you had it decorated just perfect. It just looked beautiful. All the decorations, the walls that colored in. Until you went—yep, yep. Oh, this is going to be so—preacher being mean this morning—until you went to Pinterest.

Can you believe preacher mentioned that word there, you know? Let’s go get some paint, decorations, Hobby Lobby, amen. Hobby Lobby must be underwriting Pinterest. I don’t know, you know. I guarantee they get more business from Pinterest than anything else. And that’s the way we all are. And we’re pretty happy. You know, they say this, and it’s a little bit becoming outdated because of the Internet and everything we have, how one world we’re becoming.

But they used to say it was a cardinal mistake for ambition that would go over maybe to a third-world country. They didn’t have much. And he reaches a good native there, persons there, and he becomes a preacher, or he already is, and he’s a great preacher, and he wants to maybe build an orphanage or something like that, and he needs some funds. They used to say it’s a cardinal mistake: never bring that native preacher to the United States.

They learned that the hard way. Because so often they would bring that man out of a third-world country, he was happy with what he had until he came to the United States and saw what we have. More native missionaries, if you will, have been ruined by that in the past, and so many things. Why? Because they came and they saw, and if they’re not spiritually able to handle it, and many of them weren’t, it ruined. Many never even end up back on the mission field. That’s a little different nowadays with the Internet and all we have. But, friend, I’m saying, if I’m not going to covet…

I thought about my sister. I kind of feel bad for her. It’d be hard because she’s a real estate agent. Think with me now, you know. I have been so content with my house. I love my house until I see another house. I mean, Bruce and Tina, they made me sin one time when I went to a birthday party at their house, and I saw their house. I loved my house, but I went to theirs, and theirs is a little bit bigger, and it’s beautiful. And ours is beautiful too, but theirs is a little bigger. And I went back, mine seemed so small. Y’all wave out there? I’m just like you are.

And look what I’m saying: it’s your eyes. And by the way, the advertising world knows that. They’re trying to really just bring out this coveting in you. I mean, my truck never looked so good until I’ve seen that commercial of another truck. Y’all wait out there. Now, friend, you’re on—“My eye affecteth my heart.”

If I’m going to keep my heart right, I must, I must watch my eyes. Where are you looking? What are you looking at? What are you allowing to be brought right in front of your face to see all the time? They will bring it right in front of your face. What are you allowing to be brought there? Achan, he saw it, and the next thing, he what? He coveted. Your eyes.

It’s such a key thing. Can I say this? Keep your eyes on the Lord and what He has given you.

Look over in the book of Ecclesiastes. I use this verse recently. It’s just a wonderful verse. I think the Lord’s kind of putting it on our heart and our mind. We used it recently, we’re going to use it again. Ecclesiastes is a wonderful book. The theme of the book is “under the sun” 29 times in 12 chapters. And God uses this phrase, “under the sun.”

So this guy, Solomon, he was backslid at the time when God used to pen it. And Solomon had everything down here. But under the sun—take God out of the picture, just under the sun—he said it’s all vanity. And really, that’s the theme of it. And God teaching you, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, what you have, how many relationships you have, how many people look up to you, whatever. You take God out of the picture, it’s just going to be vexation of spirit. You’re just going to drain yourself. You’re like, “What’s it all worth?” That doesn’t mean anything.

But it’s a very important truth. God just really points out in Ecclesiastes 2, in verse number 24. Would you look over there? Ecclesiastes 2, in verse number 24. God’s word. Please ask these two.

Look in verse number 24 right there. Notice what he says. He says, “There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink.” I like it already, folks. If you study that, that means cracker barrels, what that means right there. Is that good preacher or what? Come on now. Woo! That’s in the Bible right there. Man, I got a wheat right now. Man, let’s pray and be dismissed. Amen, you know.

“There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor.”

I talked to people yesterday. One of our ladies that needs something done—they need to do around church. And she said, “My husband took the day off work.” Maybe it was Friday. And she said, “Just home, we’re just kind of chillaxing.” And I was so happy for them. They’re just trying to enjoy. I like that. We get caught in this rat race where we’ll never enjoy. Come on now. That’s what you’re saying.

He said that you make your soul enjoy good in his labor. But watch here, watch the very last part of it. This also I saw that it was from—what’s the next three words? “The gift of God.” Only God can make you enjoy your labor.

Kind of reminds you of “godliness with contentment is great gain.” Friend, you know, honestly, we don’t seek the Lord like we should. And if I just keep my eyes on the Lord, do you hear that? On the Lord and what He has given me, He’s the one that gives me the ability to enjoy what I have.

People spend thousands of dollars on vacation, and they’re miserable. God’s the one that gives you the ability to enjoy what you have. If I want to not covet, I must, as Hebrews says, I must keep my eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

While those are those two ends of the first and the last commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” but “thou shalt not covet”—they go hand in hand and they connect together. Because if I get my eyes in the right place, and all this when everybody else has, and I get my eyes on Jesus, as the Bible tells me to, and what He has given me… You see, because when I’m always coveting everybody else’s what all they have, I’m saying, “God, I am not happy with what You’ve given me.” And it goes back to that First Commandment.

Friend, you get your eyes on Jesus. The honest, simple truth is, the more spiritual I am—and that goes up and down, I mean when I’m on my high—the honest, simple truth is in my heart I say, “Hey, Jesus, You’re all I need.” But when I’m in my low point, I’m always looking at what everybody else has and not happy with what I have, and I want what everybody else has. Come on now.

Friend, my goodness, if you have the presence of God, you live in a cardboard shack, I can be thrilled with life. You can be in a prison cell and say, “I’ve learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.” It’s just a matter of having your eyes off what everybody else has and your eyes on Jesus Christ, letting Him direct your heart. Oh, yeah.

The key drives. Several years ago, I was riding on a plane. I don’t know where I was coming back from, flying back to Tennessee, I believe. And a fellow sat beside me from India. Very nice fellow, and I was trying to get at the point of witnessing to him, and sure enough, we started talking about the Lord, and he was saved. He said, in fact, he was born in India, lived here now, has some gas stations, and he’s trying to take on a gas station, whatnot.

He said, “I grew up in India,” and he said, “I was saved through a missionary’s effort in India.” Wonderful. And I said, “Well, sir, you’re a born and a young Christian, you grew up in a…” And I was—we were coming to a mission conference or something. I said, “I’ve been praying and questioning, can you—what do you think about missions, how it should be done and whatnot?” And he said, “I don’t like missions for the most part how they’re done today.” Wow.

“Tell me why don’t you like it?” And he said, “Well, now today this is what they do.” Only as a person from the Indian—his little, you know, slang—he said, “They show up a video of a little boy taking a bath at a river. And they come back to the United States, and that’s what they show. And they show up, ‘We’ve got to get this boy a restroom with a shower in it.’”

And he said, “Honestly, when I was a boy,” he said, “that was me. I took baths in the river.” And he said, “I loved it. We were as happy as a day is long.” He didn’t say exactly that, amen. But he said something to that fact.

And he said, “We didn’t know any different, and we were happy. He said, ‘I’m not for this whether go over there and change your whole lifestyle as far as money.’ He said, ‘I’m very much for somebody going over there and giving them the gospel. But so many times it’s all about them having a better way of life, and sometimes that ruins them.’”

He was saying, “Give us Jesus, and we’re thrilled to take a bath at God’s river He gave us. We’re happy to eat whatever we got because we got Jesus in our heart.” Hey, if I’m going to keep this thing and not coveting, he’s basically saying, “Don’t show them all this other stuff. Let them enjoy where they’re at and give them Jesus where they’re at.”

Now let’s go on. We said two keys, two keys to not coveting. First key is what? Our eyes. Good, good, good, good. Let’s go to the next key real quickly here. Real quickly here. We got to hurry along. Jim Shank kept me so long with that one subject. It’s all his fault. If you have a problem with it, he said, “I’ll meet you after church behind here.” Y’all go ahead and start without me, amen. I’m teasing, of course. Let’s just get this second one real quickly here.

Number one, your eyes. Number two, enjoy what you have. Enjoy what God’s giving you.

I’ve read this story many of times. If you’ve been around here for a while, this is story number 48. Here it is. Let me read it for those who have not been around here a long time. A hard-driving corporate attorney saw a fisherman one afternoon, legs dangling off the pier as he helped his two young sons catch crabs. The attorney, the lawyer, he said, “Why aren’t you out there fishing?”

“Because I caught enough fish for today.”

“Well, why don’t you catch more fish than you need?”

“What would I do with them?” asked the fisherman.

“You can earn more money and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. Then you could buy a fleet of boats. Soon you’d be rich like me.”

“What would I do then?”

“Well, you could sit down and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” Y’all with me?

So often, we’re so caught up with the sin of coveting, and we’re in the rat race to get more, more, more, that we’re not enjoying what we have, have, have. And somewhere along the line, we’ve got to stop all that and just be happy and want what you have and enjoy what you have.

Can I say this? More money and more things is not the answer. Godliness with contentment is the answer. The more you have, if you’ve not solved that problem of contentment, the more you have, the more you will want. And somewhere along the line, you just got to stop it all and say, “I’m going to enjoy what I have.”

It doesn’t matter what you have, coveting will—can I come in?—it always will. It doesn’t matter how, what house, what car, what clothes, how you look, how popular you are, it doesn’t matter all that, what boyfriend, girlfriend—it doesn’t matter what, it’s going to come.

I used to drive that red Dodge Dakota. How many remember that? Yeah. It had about 457,000 miles on it. Oh, not quite that many. It was a little bit older, and I put the engine in there myself. And you know what happened every once in a while? “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bigger, better truck?” I’d say, “Quit it, Paul. Quit looking at everybody else’s truck and be happy with your truck.” And sometimes I lost, sometimes I won. For the old spot, I like that old truck.

You know the crazy thing is? Right, Lord, God’s given me such a nice truck. He really has. I mean, it’s a nice truck. I was with a family yesterday afternoon, and somebody said, “That’s a nice truck.” And I said, “God, I’m spoiled rotten, got so much.” And I love it. But here’s the crazy thing. So the other day, I’m riding down Old Nashville Highway, and my… 2009 GM Sierra, 5.9. I mean, air condition. I mean, I even have hands-free, where it’s built in, you know, where I don’t have to touch my phone. I can push a button and say, “Call,” you know, and I call my wife, “Nurse baby.” And I say, “Hey, call Nurse baby,” and it just dials the number. Man, I’m like, I’m trying to say I’m keeping the law or at least trying to be hands-free in Tennessee, you know. And a—I mean, fancy truck now, you know.

And I’m riding along in my nice new truck. It’s crazy. Listen, I’m just being honest here. And I’m riding down Old Nashville Highway, and I see a red Dodge Dakota truck come the other way. And for a moment or two, I said, “Man, I kind of like that Dodge Dakota. Kind of miss that thing. Gas mileage is a little better on that thing.” And before I know it, coveting what I used to battle to be contemporary. Are y’all like me or not?

I thought, “Paul, man, you got a nice, best, nicest vehicle I’ve ever had in all my life.” I was coveting. I said, “Man, I just—I just enjoyed my truck.”

Hey, just enjoy what you have. Fellas, you are not going to enjoy your marriage. Now, listen, I’m being honest. You’re not going to enjoy your marriage like you ought to if you have your eyes on other women all the time, guarantee it. You think somebody else does it? They’re lying to you. It’s a myth from Satan. It doesn’t happen. I’m being honest.

Enjoy your family. Stop looking at everybody else’s kids. They’re so well-mannered, and get your eyes on what God’s given you. Enjoy your family, your house, whatever it may be. Just enjoy what you have. Hey, 10 million plus people around the world would like to be in your shoes, and you’re wanting to be in somebody else’s shoes. Come on.

If you need to go look at somebody in a nursing home somewhere or go to some poor neighborhood, you need to go look at that to get your heart right to enjoy what you have, then go look at that. But be happy and content and enjoy what you have.

Hey, young people, listen to me, young people, real quick. We’ve got to hurry along here. You’re going to do this—Satan’s going to come along and says, “Well, if you lived in so-and-so’s home, if I lived over there, if so-and-so is my mom and so-and-so is my daddy…” It comes to everybody. Everyone’s fine. Friend, you don’t know what all so-and-so has over there. You’d be miserable over there if you’re not.

If you’re not happy where you are, just quit and say, “I’m happy where God has me.” God has me where I’m at for a reason. Just be happy there. Enjoy what you have. Everybody that’s always coveting, they’re never happy. Coveting people are never happy people. Just enjoy what you got. Somewhere along the line, you just got to say…

It’s the craziest thing. When I’m up and down, just like you, but sometime when I’m up, you know, I kind of like having three fingers on my right hand. It’s just unique, you know. Feel different, you know. The only problem every once in a while I think, “I could never rob a positive identification right there. That’s the guy right there,” you know. Before wearing clothes, it’d flop around. It wouldn’t work, you know. Somebody robs a bank, you can mark me, I wasn’t passed. Somebody else, okay? Sometimes, I just don’t like this for a reason. I’m just going to do my best to enjoy it.

I mean, who else can act like the kids that they put their fingers so far in their ear? I don’t know what it is for you. If you want to win over this thing, get covered and keep your eyes right, get your eyes on Jesus and enjoy what God gave you.

Here’s amazing: people will die and go to hell and burn forever and ever when God Almighty has had His Son die for their salvation, and He’s got it right in front of them. I mean, He’s not willing that any should perish. Who have all men to be saved, the Bible says. I mean, and they have salvation right in front of them. Yet they got their eyes elsewhere, and they’ll never enjoy what they, if you will, have it’s available for, and end up burning in hell forever. Hey, get your eyes off what everybody else has. Get your eyes on Jesus and enjoy what He’s given to you.

Original File: Thou Shalt not Covet - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 81119