Peter Barnes | Exodus 20:17
SERMON NOTES
You Shall Not Covet (Ex.20:17)
Ecclesiastes 5:8-17; 1 Tim. 6:3-20
Augustine: ‘to desire more than enough’. Buddhism is against all desire – not so Christianity.
1. Sin begins in our hearts.
– David in 2 Sam.11; Ahab in 1 Kings 21; Paul in Rom.7:7-8
– James 1:13-15; Matt.15:19
2. When we are covetous, we are never content.
– Eccles.5:10; Wilfrid Hyde White: ‘I’ve owned 12 horses, seven Rolls Royces, and I’ve have mistresses in Paris, London and New York – but it never made me happy.’
– Captain Cook thought covetousness made the world go round.
– Gen.3:5; James 4:1-2; Thomas Watson: ‘A covetous man is like a bee that gets into a barrel of honey, and there drowns itself.’
3. We need to be cleansed from the inside out.
– Matt.23:25-26; Ps.27:4; Col.3:1-4
– Prov.15:16-17; Matt.6:33
– I all on earth forsake (Thomas Olivers)