IDEA: Covetousness lies behind stealing. TEXT: "You shall not steal. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's" (Exodus 20:15, 17).

PURPOSE: To help listeners understand how covetousness, which is unseen, motivates stealing which is seen.

If I asked you why Americans tend to be overweight or obese, what would you say?

I saw a program on television devoted to the question, "Why are a significant number of Americans obese?" The program lasted half an hour. When they were through, the answer was "They eat too much of the wrong food and they don't exercise." What amazed me about the program is that it could go on for 30 minutes and come up with that answer. It's a keen insight into the obvious. We're talking about how covetousness is behind all of the commandments.

I. How is covetousness related to stealing?

II. When you think about stealing, or people stealing, what comes to your mind?

Perhaps shoplifting or someone robbing a liquor store.

Show me the relationship between covetousness and stealing in those situations.

We tend not to think about stealing when it comes to executives of great corporations taking money that they are supposed to be controlling for shareholders instead of for themselves. Do you think that kind of thievery is motivated by covetousness?

III. Covetousness is not only an affliction of the poor that may cause them to steal. It's also an affliction of the wealthy.

You may covet your neighbor's house or wife or servants or animals, not because you do not have any, but simply because you want more. Covetousness stands behind kings stealing from their subjects, and executives stealing from their employees, and behind emperors stealing land from other countries. It lurks in every heart.