Well, good evening, and I guess early Happy Thanksgiving. It’s in the air, right? We’re all excited about Thanksgiving and hopefully having a few days off of work. If you get to do that, spend time with family and friends. So this evening, I felt led to do something different. We’ve been, obviously, in Revelation for the last few months, but I want to preach to you from the book of Exodus. If you have your Bibles and want to turn to Exodus, Exodus 20, verse 17.

And what we read in Exodus chapter 20, verse 17 is, you shall not covet. You shall not covet. And that’s probably a word that you don’t hear much or we don’t use too much. But just because you don’t hear it very much doesn’t mean you’re not guilty of doing it. I guess we started early watching some of the old Christmas movies at our house this past week. And Darcy and Dawson and I were watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. And there’s the part in the beginning where Charlie Brown’s sister can’t write yet. So she says, brother, I need you to write a letter to Santa. And so she starts listing off exactly what she wants. Make sure, Santa, you get the right size, the right color of these gifts. And if you can’t get all this down, then… Just send money in tens and twenties. And, of course, Charlie Brown’s exasperated by his little sister. And she replies, I’m just getting my fair share. I’m getting what I’m owed. And I want you to think about that. Is it possible for you in this life to be thankful if you don’t get what you think you’re owed? What you think you deserve? Because entitlement is really something that I think, unfortunately, hangs over our society. People think they’re owed things.

And at every turn, someone’s been wronged for something. And there is injustice in the world. And people do wrong others. But I think if we have a biblical understanding of thanksgiving, we’ll understand thanksgiving is really the antithesis of covetousness. And if you can have a biblically thankful heart in all things, you’ll find that in life there is… a contentment that comes along with it. That the world can’t give. The world can’t take away. That outward factors can’t change. So as you come into the week of thanksgiving, what does that mean? And do you have a biblically rooted thanksgiving? I want to ask us this evening, do we have a heart that covets? Do you have a heart that covets?

When we look at Exodus chapter 3, we see that God is giving His people the law, right? And that’s the Torah. So it starts with the Ten Commandments, but it goes on for chapters, and it goes on longer and longer, and there’s all these rules. But God thought it was necessary in Exodus here to tell the people, don’t covet. Don’t covet. Don’t want something. Don’t desire something. Don’t desire something that doesn’t belong to you. You deeply long for something you don’t have, or a way of life you wish you had. Something’s not right in your life, and you want things to be different. God says, don’t do that. Why would He say that to them? Because if we go back to Exodus chapter 3, verse 20, when God goes to Moses and tells Moses He’s going to save them out of Egypt, here’s what He says. He says, I will stretch out My hand, and I will strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it. After that, He will let you go, and I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, so you shall plunder the Egyptians. So the Israelites are not leaving slavery poor. They’re leaving filthiness. They’re leaving filthy rich. And where does God say He’s going to take them to?

A land flowing with milk and honey. So their lot in life has just gotten really, really good. They have got gold and silver hanging around their necks and jewelry, and they’re making haste out of Egypt, running out of town. And God says, you’re going to a place that will provide everything you could ever need. Still, He says to them, don’t covet. Why would they covet?

God’s perfectly provided for them.

Well, here’s the reason why, when we go back to Genesis 3, verse 6,

in the garden. Now, what could be better than the garden? We know that God perfectly provided for Adam and Eve in the garden. Anything that anyone could ever want would have been in the garden. There wasn’t a need or a want that Adam and Eve didn’t have. In other words, Adam and Eve’s outwardly, outward external provision was perfect. Their situation was perfect. But see what happens.

The woman saw that the tree was good for fruit, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. And she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. See what happens? It didn’t matter that her situation was good. It didn’t matter that she already had all that she needed, and Adam had everything. What did she do? But she cast a sinful gaze. She saw, she delighted, she desired, and she took. It sounds just like James 1, verse 15. Desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it’s fully grown, brings forth death.

So friends, you and I covet, regardless of how well we think life is going, or how much stuff we have, because you and I don’t just have an external problem.

Covetousness is an inward heart problem. It’s a problem of the heart. You and I, by nature, are not satisfied with who God is, and what God is, and what God gives us. And it runs in our blood, because it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Francis Schaeffer has a book called True Spirituality, and in that book he says this, Coveting is the negative side of the positive commands, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love is internal, not external. There can be external manifestations, but love itself will always be the internal factor. Coveting is always internal. The external manifestation is the result. We must see that to love God with the heart, the mind, the soul, is not to covet against God. And to love man is to love our neighbor as ourself, is not to covet against him. When I do not love the Lord as I should, I’m coveting against the Lord. And when I do not love my neighbor as I should, I’m coveting against him. So it doesn’t matter, where you come from. It doesn’t matter what you have. It doesn’t matter, friends, what your ideal life is. The Bible’s clear. We’re all stuck with this sin problem, and so we covet.

Think about King David.

Remember King David? He’s the greatest king in Israel’s history. David had every victory. He had all wealth. He shouldn’t have. But he had many, many wives. But it wasn’t enough, was it? Just one more. Just one more. And you and I say, oh, just one more. All the time in our heart about things. Just a little bit better. Ooh, if only I had.

And David’s wicked inward desire gave birth to outward sin. That being what? Adultery. So, friends, it’s universal. We all have that heart.

And it’s fatal. It’s fatal because it doesn’t matter how good you think you can hide that you covet. The Scriptures are clear that what? God sees your heart. God sees my heart. And the Christian life is not about firstly, outwardly doing right, is it? No. The Christian life is firstly, chiefly about being right. Right before God. So Paul can write this in Ephesians 5. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Why did Paul have to put that little bitty sin of coveting in there with those bigger sins? Because I’m not doing the bigger sins. I mean, is it so bad if in my heart I covet? Do I covet sometimes?

Yeah. Because Paul said you won’t inherit the kingdom. So we need to elevate our thinking on what covetousness is, what thanksgiving is in the eyes of God. And perhaps not explicitly, but we tell ourselves all the time, don’t we? If I had just a little bit more money, things would be good. If I had just a few more square feet in this house, you know, if I could get that job, if I could this, if I could that, and you’re constantly longing for something you don’t have. And that’s how we think is unspiritual creatures. But the Bible gives us the remedy to it. And what is it? It’s first, I want you to see contentment. If you don’t want a heart that covets, friends, we must have a heart that’s content. It’s content.

In Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse seven, the wisdom writer says, again, I saw a vanity under the sun. One person who has no other, either a son or a brother, yet there’s no end to all his toil. And his eyes are never satisfied with riches so that he never asks, for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and unhappy business. So is all desire bad? If I’m hungry, I’m like, oh, I’m hungry. I need to eat. Oh, that’s a sin because I desired something. No, desire is not bad. You may desire, you know, to work so you can make money, right? Why? Because you need to eat, you need to clothe yourself, and then you have a good desire to maybe have a family. Well, guess what? Families cost money because they need to eat and they need clothing. And uh-oh, they need a roof over their head. And uh-oh, there’s doctor visits to go to. So there’s all kinds of reasons to have good desire in life. You know, you have a desire to go to work. You have a desire to go to school to get an education and better yourself. That’s not wrong. So God’s ideal, a Christian, is not someone who’s wearing like a burlap sack. I’m in a cave. I got nothing. All right, God, I hope you’re happy. I don’t have anything. That’s not the idea. What we see in the Ecclesiastes man is a delusion that God wants us to stay away from. The delusion is stuff satisfies.

Accomplishments satisfy.

A certain way of life that I think I should have. If only, if only, then I could be satisfied. But the wisdom writer says it’s an unhappy business. It’s a funny phrase to say. It’s an unhappy business. In other words, you’re miserable because you can never reach that thing that you want to reach. And even when you get that thing, you realize it doesn’t make you happy. So you’re miserable. You work hard to be miserable is what the writer says we’re doing. So a covetousness, and it’s a disordering of desires whereby we elevate the created world as God’s mean to make me happy. And guess what? God never made one thing to make you happy. God gave you himself to make you happy. And when God is our happiness and our satisfaction, he gives us good gifts. To remind us of who he is and to bless his name. God never intends for us to find happiness, contentment, satisfaction in people, in stuff, in money, at all. In their proper place, stuff makes me go, thank you God for a good wife and children. I see your goodness in giving those things to me. Thank you Lord for this paycheck. I can take care of my needs. Thank you Lord for the roof over my head. Thank you Lord for, for these things. I see your kindnesses and goodness to me. So I’m going to bless your name. So, so when I am using stuff and I’m operating in God’s world correctly, it always goes back to praise and glory to God who is my ultimate contentment. Because when God’s on the throne of my heart and he always has to be on the throne of my heart, even though I constantly take him down and put stuff up there, right? Or some idea of a better life up there. God stops getting the glory he deserves. But when Jesus is on the throne of my heart, I go, hold on a second. A hundred more dollars of paychecks is not going to make me happy. Hold on a second. Spending money on that expensive toy, getting that car, getting that thing, that’s not going to make me happy. That’s a selfish desire that I’m trying to find satisfaction in. You remember in the Old Testament, aching, aching for some bacon. Everybody always says that. But you remember, aching, aching is following Joshua’s lead. They’re kind of on the campaign to end up in the promised land. God says, you know, defeat these people and don’t take anything. And what does aching do? Oh, he takes some things, doesn’t he? He takes some things.

Joshua said to aching, my son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel. Give praise to him. Tell me what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And aching answered Joshua, I’ve sinned against the Lord God of Israel. This is what I did when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak of shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. Then I coveted them and I took them and see they’re hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.

It wasn’t a small thing that aching did. It wasn’t a small thing. God was leading them to a better place. And in that place, God would be their satisfaction. It totally inverts and perverts the whole deal of being saved out of slavery if God’s people find their satisfaction and all the stuff the pagan nations find their satisfaction in. Stuff.

So what happens to aching? It’s really, really brutal and serious, but it reminds us of God’s seriousness about him being our treasure. Aching and his wife and all of his stuff and his children, everything that belongs to aching is piled up and stoned to death. Right there. Friends, the Bible screams to us, God and God alone can be our satisfaction. And it’s no small thing to let covetousness kind of live in your heart. Oh, you know, what if I could? Oh, you know, I could probably afford that. Oh, you know, I could probably afford that. Oh, you know, if I had that much money, I’d be happy if I could get just maybe a few more acres of land. Friends, we come up with so many ways to use God’s created world to make us happy. And we’ve got to say, no, nothing’s going to make me happy the way God can make me happy. It reminds me of John Owen, what he says. You ought to be killing sin or what’s going to happen? Sin’s going to be killing you. So you’ve got to be on the lookout for those little impulses in your heart. And surely this is not going to happen. This is a word for those of us who live in one of the wealthiest, if not the most wealthiest society to ever exist. You and I live in one of the, you know, most technologically advanced, I think, cities in America. We live in a very wealthy city, don’t we? And technology constantly creates new toys. You know, maybe not you, but I’m at Lowe’s and they’ve got that remote control, you know, lawnmower. I’m like, I need that. I could sit on my front porch and you don’t even have to do it. You just program it and it does it for you. Like, that would make me so happy. I could do that. Like, that would be great. Like, there’s so many things that say, buy me. You would be happy. And then we have this thing called the Internet. And you can constantly check into what everybody else is doing and what everybody else says your life should look like and what you should be wearing and, you know, all the things that you should be spending your money on. And you don’t even have to go to the bank. And actually, it’s signed papers that get, you know, a loan for this stuff. You’ve got this little plastic square and you just and you just get it. You just get it. And so we have to be really careful in this advanced society that comes up with new toys to make you happy and say, hold on, slow down, turn the Internet off. Maybe get rid of it. Maybe get rid of your smartphone. I’m not scrolling, you know, Amazon 2 o’clock in the morning about something I don’t even need. Like, Jesus, you make me happy. Jesus, you make me happy. I remember when I’d grown up, if I could have got a Jeep Wrangler for my first car, I would have been the happiest person alive. That is the only thing I wanted car-wise growing up. It was the ideal vehicle. And when I was a senior in high school, graduated, my dad bought me 1997 Jeep Wrangler, straight six, four-wheel drive, army green, gray, top, and it was awesome. It was great. But in the words of a friend of mine, if you have a Jeep Wrangler, they’re loud. They get horrible gas. You don’t have any room for people to sit in there. You don’t have any room to store your stuff. You’re freezing in the winter. You’re burning up in the summer. When it rains, you’re soaking wet. But you have a great time doing it. And it’s absolutely true. I had a Jeep. And guess what? It was what I wanted it to be for a while. And then it’s like, I’m tired of having to vacuum three inches of water out of my floorboard every time. And I’m tired of not having space. And I’m tired of it being noisy on the highway. And I’m tired of this. It’s not the thing I thought it was going to be. Maybe you can relate to something like that in your life.

Friends, this is an ancient problem. It’s not a modern problem. It’s an ancient problem. Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy and says,

godliness with contentment is great gain. Oh! You just get a hold of that. Godliness with contentment is great gain. You brought nothing in the world. You can’t take anything out. If you’ve got food and clothing, you’d be content. Is that true? Those are really big words. I think even for us as American Christians, because we like to have just as much stuff as everybody else. And I think that verse is very condemning. Am I content in Jesus? And you know, coming up on the Christmas season, I was talking to some friends about this recently. I have this inward struggle. Am I teaching my kids to be materialist by wanting to buy them a ton of stuff for Christmas? But then it’s like, okay, well, I’m their dad. I want to get them good gifts too. So it’s a weird space we live when this day on the 25th of December we’re overloaded. We’re our children with stuff. And I think I’m wiring my kids to think stuff makes you happy. And so I’ve got to be really careful about what that is and how we do that and what’s worth buying and not buying. But we have to think through those things. Otherwise, we’re going to teach a generation of young people to think stuff makes me happy.

Friends, Jesus makes us happy. And we need to disbelieve that lie that Satan’s been telling us from the beginning of time. What did he effectively do? What did he effectively say to Eve in the garden?

Ooh, yeah, I see what you got here. But think about if you had that. And she went for it. And we go for it.

The second thing I want you to see about resisting a heart that covets is contentment with what you have. But secondly, thankfulness. Thankfulness.

I guess when we think about Thanksgiving, I pop up a picture of Indians and these pilgrims with those belt buckle shoes and they’re sitting at a table and it’s like 100 feet long and there’s corn and all these different things and a giant turkey in the middle. And that’s kind of inaccurate, I think, if you go historically. But there is a lot there for us to be thankful for as Americans. Because it was a hard time. It was a harrowing journey for those English Christians, those Puritans to leave Holland, come to America. Half of them died the first winter. It was extremely dangerous for them. They barely did survive because of Indians helping them. And you and I have a rich heritage of solid biblical theology because I think it’s rooted in Puritanism and their commitment to the Word. So that is something to be grateful for and bless the name of the Lord for that we have that heritage. Not everyone has that heritage as we’re praying for Sue to go to India. There aren’t people across the globe just exposed to Jesus from the time they are born. Like we are, a lot of folks are in America.

But it raises the question,

what am I owed though? When I think about Thanksgiving, what am I owed? What do I deserve?

Do I deserve three square meals a day? Do I deserve to have health in my bones always? Do I deserve to have as much money as the next guy? The lifestyle, the exotic vacations I want, am I not owed these?

And we have to constantly go back to the garden because in the garden, so much is realized. So much is realized. So much is realized. So much is realized. Adam and Eve broke an agreement with God in the garden. That agreement was obedience, holiness, and that equals provision and happiness for them. But the moment that Adam and Eve coveted and said we want something else outside of this, it’s not that God stopped caring about humanity or for people. It’s just that the effects of sin are ravaging, are destructive. And so sin, sin has done a work to wreck your daily life, my daily life, the daily lives of people across the planet in so many ways. So we’ll call those common graces, like the food on your table, rain falling so food can grow, a roof over your head, just the enjoyment of having a family, the taste of food, whatever hobbies you have, just the good things in life that even a non-believer could experience. Those common graces from sickness to war, war, just all kinds of destitution, whatever it is, they’re constantly wracked and ruined because we live in a sinful world. Everything was perfect in the garden, but sin brought a hundred kinds of brokenness on us.

And so I think when we don’t have that biblical framework about why things are broken, we start to have voices like this in our head or just in culture. You know, how come I wasn’t born into a wealthy family? You ever looked at somebody really wealthy? Like that kid that always had like really nice stuff? Oh, that’s not fair.

Maybe I got cheated, you know, out of that job promotion. How come he got that job promotion? I work just as hard as he does. How come my bank account’s empty? I’ve been working harder than anybody my whole life and that happened and that happened and that happened and all my money’s gone. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. And then you end up thinking, God’s not fair. Life’s not fair. And you’re a victim with all of your disadvantages. And now it’s true. Bad things happen in life. People do bad things to other people and we shouldn’t ignore those things. But at the end of the day, when that’s our frame of mind, what we’re not living in is the reality that we’re sinners in a sinful world and we’re constantly contributing to that. It’s like somebody gives you a brand new car for Christmas. Let’s say that happens to you on Christmas. I’m not making any promises. Let’s say someone gives you a brand new truck and you’re driving down that road in that truck and you’re texting and driving and you swerve off the road and you total that truck and so you call Ford Motor Company and you’re like, this is your fault. My truck is wrecked. Look what happened to my truck. This is your fault. And they would say, no, there’s nothing wrong with the truck. You broke it.

And friends, that’s the plight, the plight of humanity is that we broke it.

So if we’re going to talk about what you and I deserve, what you and I are owed, let’s talk about that. The Bible tells us what you and I deserve, what you and I are owed, is death. What you and I deserve, what we’re owed is misery for our sins against God. That’s what you and I deserve.

So any common grace that you could experience, the poorest man with the poorest lot in life has a lot to be thankful for because he deserved none of it.

Any ungrateful attitude fails to see the kindness of God to sinners in that he didn’t the moment that Adam and Eve sinned, said, alright, we’re done, gone.

From that moment when we deserved death, God had in mind life.

And not just to restore the common graces of waking up, you know, and there’s no busted pipes in my house and I still got a job to go to and I’m not sick, my family’s not sick and I love the taste of my favorite food and these common graces. That’s not the only thing God had in mind to restore. God had so much more in mind to restore and that’s the special grace of salvation.

I certainly don’t deserve common graces. You better believe you and I don’t deserve the special grace of eternal life. Yet, what did God intend for us the moment we coveted for something besides Him? Man, His Son, Jesus.

Jesus, who would be the sacrificial Lamb to pay for your coveting and my coveting, your ingratitude, my ingratitude, your sins against God, my sins against God, so that by receiving Christ, you and I could be given more than, in common graces. But the fullness of life in knowing the Father and being called children of God, of being called co-heirs with Christ, Paul can write, we are inheritors of all the treasures in the heavenly places. And we’ll get to it in Revelation way down the line, but the Bible tells us that God will wipe away every tear from our eye and all things will be made new. Friends, you have every reason, every day, regardless of your lot and circumstance, to praise God. Praise God and give Him everything. For He has given you His Son, Jesus, and He’s promised to make all things new.

It’s a small thing to want to live for a cushy life.

Retirement in order, make enough money, be able to go on, you know, one or two vacations a year, and I’m thankful.

Friends, have a bigger vision and picture of what God is doing for you. Of what true thankfulness is. And it looks like two pieces of wood nailed together with the Son of God hanging on it. There’s your thankfulness. So Lord, awaken me to what You have done for me by giving me Your Son, Jesus. In Him, we are restored spiritually. In Jesus, when He returns, all things will be renewed and restored. Thank You for the gift of faith to see that. And the Spirit to believe it. So I want to say to you, you have every reason to be content. You have every reason to be thankful. You have every reason to be satisfied. Because God loves you. And He knows you. And He’s given you Himself. He’s given you His very Son. And I think also, just thinking about this, when you have a biblical framework for contentment and thanksgiving, it deals with regret, which we all have. Like, ah, maybe I should have taken that pathway years ago. Or maybe I shouldn’t have taken this job. Or what if I didn’t have done this? Or what if I did do that? There’s the reminder in this that God is able, because He’s provident, and He’s in control of everything. He can take everything and He can work it for our good. So it doesn’t even matter what I’ve done or if I’ve taken a wrong turn. God’s good to take that and to remake that for His own glory. So I’m left saying, thank you God, even though I’m constantly, constantly running to make things bad, you’re constantly running to make things good. And whatever life I think I should have had or whatever paycheck I want or however I want my life to be, I have you and that’s enough. And your promise is that things will be good and will be new in the future. And so my perfect idea of life will never achieve what you have intended for me and your goodness to me in all things.

Friends, the only cure the only cure the only cure for a heart that covets is a heart that’s Christ-filled. I want to say that to you this Thanksgiving week. The only thing that can cure the covetous heart is the Christ-filled heart. Because when you and I have Jesus, we can be content with our lot. Because whatever good we have, it doesn’t satisfy anyways. Jesus satisfies and I have Him. And I can be so thankful even when things are bad because I’m promised. I’m promised a new life. And I know that this is not the end. In Christ alone, we are graciously given and promised all things to be truly satisfied.

You don’t need a new car.

You don’t need that Christmas present you hope you’re getting. You don’t need a raise. You don’t need accolades. You don’t need to have accomplishments. You don’t need to be healthy bodily. That’s good and you’re looking forward to it. The thing you need to be truly satisfied, you already have in Jesus. In Jesus. So let’s offer up that kind of thanksgiving as only we can uniquely do as God’s people this Thanksgiving week. Let’s treasure Christ and offer up many thanksgivings to God. And when we’re content and thankful, in a way the world can’t be, because we’re content and thankful with something the hand can’t hold,

the Scriptures say the world takes notice of that. And so our contentment and thankfulness for Christ, it works to preach the Gospel of Christ and the uniqueness of His love and salvation for sinners. Amen. Let’s pray.

Father, so often we get our hearts, our minds locked on trinkets. We get so hung up on the way we want life to be, the things we think we want,

frustrations with the past.

Father, You have already given us Jesus and in knowing Jesus, we can be sure that all things will be made right.

All peace, all joy, all contentment, all thanksgiving, it’s already ours because we have Jesus. And in Jesus alone is life. In Jesus alone is truth.

Father, we just pray that our hearts and minds would not just run amok the way the world does to seek this and that and try to build an empire that will only find us. We don’t want to fall or go to someone else when we perish, but let us be thankful for the things of eternity, the cross, for holiness, for righteousness, the fullness of Jesus, Lord. I pray that over every heart and mind.

Give us a Gospel-centered view of this short, temporary life and help us, O Lord, to use it for Your glory and Your glory alone.

So for it all, for Jesus, we say, thank You. Would you stand and sing with us?