IDEA: The symptoms of covetousness are revealed when our desires have gotten out of control.

TEXT: "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s" (Exodus 20:17).

"You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s" (Deuteronomy 5:21).

PURPOSE: To help listeners diagnose covetousness in their lives.

Do you like chocolate?

Do you think chocolate is good or bad?

What do you think about someone who likes chocolate so much that he or she buys a two-pound box of candy and eats it in an evening?

Is chocolate good or bad?

Obviously an appetite has gotten out of control.

Covetousness can be like an obsession with chocolate. It’s hard to know when we are covetous because on one level it is simply a desire that has gone amuck.

What are the symptoms of the disease of covetousness?

I. We want more and more of what we have enough of already.

The rich farmer in Luke 12 was already wealthy. But he wanted more and more of what he already had. Instead of sharing his abundance with others, he hoarded it.

When we move out of genuine need and accumulate surpluses of clothes, of cars, etc., we are in danger of the disease of covetousness.

People consumed with greed are so focused on acquiring what they don’t really need that they live impoverished lives.

II. We desire what we do not have a legitimate right to possess.

When we plan to acquire what we want and our plans violate what we know God wants, we are covetous.

Both Achan (Joshua 7) and David (2 Samuel 11) desired what was out of bounds for them.

David despised what God had given him and craved what God had kept from him (2 Samuel 12:7-10)